Abstract
Lecture, where learning is passive, remains a prevalent instructional method of teaching content. Contextualized approaches like Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) where students are more actively engaged remains less common. For 25 years the literature has supported contextualized approaches. Nevertheless, recent papers have claimed IBL to be an unguided approach that has produced content knowledge deficits. Therefore, we tested whether undergraduate physiology content could be learned using IBL. Four groups of undergraduates (mean ages=23, N=60) took a ten-week physiology course using IBL. A content valid pretest and posttest measured content knowledge. A one-way ANOVA indicated no significant differences within or between groups on the pretest (F=.231) or between the groups on the posttest (F=.119). After collapsing the groups into pre and post, a paired Ttest indicated a significant difference between pretest and posttest scores T (32)= -7.61, P>.0001. The data clearly demonstrated significant content knowledge gains and higher than average student satisfaction.
DOI
10.15760/nwjte.2012.10.1.5
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/25293
Recommended Citation
DePaepe, James and Campion, Tracy
(2012)
"The Efficacy of Inquiry-based Learning in Undergraduate Physiology,"
Northwest Journal of Teacher Education: Vol. 10
:
Iss.
1
, Article 5.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15760/nwjte.2012.10.1.5