Inquiry-based learning with young learners: a Peirce-based model employed to critique a unit of inquiry on maps and mapping

Abstract

Inquiry-based learning (IBL) has become a common theme in both school and higher education in recent years. It suggests a model of curriculum development and practice that moves educational debate beyond teacher or student-based approaches towards a model of teaching and learning in which the endeavour is shared. This paper discusses an investigation into the practice of IBL among primary schoolchildren in the setting of the Primary Years Programme of the International Baccalaureate. Three ideas from the work of the philosopher C.S. Peirce are used to provide an epistemological base for analysing the pedagogical practice of IBL: semiotics, reasoning and community of inquiry. Findings are presented under these three headings to illustrate the potency of Peirce's conceptualisation of learning. Drawing in particular on findings from a unit of inquiry on maps and mapping, it suggests an empirical frame for IBL for the use of teachers in the development and assessment of IBL.

Keywords:

• inquiry-based learning
• pedagogical practice
• C.S. Peirce
• classroom discourse
• community of inquiry
• semiotics

Notes on contributors

Karin Bacon is a Teacher Educator at Marino Institute of Education and former head of the International School of Dublin. Her research interests lie in fields of inquiry-based learning and international education.

Philip Matthews is a retired member of the School of Education, Trinity College Dublin. He was Senior Lecturer in science education with an expertise in quantitative research methods and was the Irish Principal Investigator on the international ROSE (relevance of science education) project.