PROCEEDINGS OF THE 19TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2016
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Inquiry-based learning in mathematics: Negotiating the definition of a pedagogy
Page: 821
Inquiry-based learning is one of the pedagogies that has emerged in mathematics as an alternative to traditional lecturing in the last two decades. There is a growing body of research and scholarship on inquiry-based learning in STEM courses, as well as a growing community of practitioners of IBL in mathematics. However, despite the growth of IBL research and practice in mathematics, wide uptake of IBL remains hamstrung in part by the lack of a sophisticated discussion of its definition. Using a diffusion and framing analytical framework, this qualitative research paper offers a first step toward addressing this problem by describing how a group of IBL practitioners define IBL and how they adopt IBL to fit their specific teaching needs. We argue that early diffusion of IBL, for the group we studied, was constrained by the initial framing of the pedagogy and ongoing conflict over the proper definition and application of it in the classroom. Over time, however, the conflict proved to be beneficial to the community and a general consensus is developing among practitioners of IBL focusing on two core beliefs: 1) that it is only IBL if the student takes ownership of course material on a regular basis, and, increasingly, 2) that students collaborate as a class or in small groups to produce the mathematics.