Inquiry-based instruction implementation: a district's learning experience through teacher input

Abstract

Inquiry-based Instruction is a format of instruction that is reported to provide students opportunities to develop their higher-order thinking skills (analysis, synthesis, and evaluation) as well as experience and training in problem solving situations. The IBI problem solving approach requires students locate and evaluate all sources of information and then produce and present their solution to others. Eleven teachers from a small, rural Missouri school received extensive professional development in the use of IBI. One year after training, the teachers were interviewed about their experiences and observed in their classrooms using what they had learned. This qualitative study reports the findings on IBI though the experiences and perspectives of the teachers involved. Areas of interest reported by teachers include; teacher perceptions about professional development practices, the impact IBI had on their teaching, benefits of IBI for students, and roles school leaders play in such implementation processes. The findings of this study may serve to aid school administrators in the implementation process of new instructional practices, provide teachers new knowledge from experiences of other educators in similar situations of organization change, and assist teachers and administrators as they make decisions about new instructional methods such as inquiry-based instruction.