A famous inventor, Thomas Edison, never gave up on getting one of his inventions to work. After five months there still were no positive results. During these five months Edison conducted around 9,000 tests. “ Results? Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results! I know several thousand things that won’t work! “ Edison said once after his many experiments. His many failures taught him many things that wouldn’t work but led him to a positive result. He learned from his many mistakes.
People other than Edison learned from mistakes. This especially goes for students. Most students learn in teacher-based classes. These types of classes don’t allow students to work their full potential. In most cases, there are multiple ways to get a solution or answer to a problem. Teachers usually tell students how to get an answer and test them over it. Inquiry-based learning has students work hands-on on many different projects. Working hands on means many things can go wrong. When students make these mistakes they will learn from it and try again until they get a positive result. Just like Edison, students are learning from their mistakes.
Ellen Granger, head of the office of Science Teaching Activities at Florida State University, published a study comparing students that learned through student-based learning and teacher-based learning. Her subjects were fourth and fifth graders but she had also studied other grades. She and her researchers found that were more positively affected by inquiry-based learning. The same results showed when she studied other grades. “ We’re finding the same things…. When you must do the sense-making, you learn better”, she said. Granger means that students that work hands-on to learn a concept, the learning is more effective.
In most situations inquiry-based learning has been more effective. Students learn from their own mistakes and learn from them. Students may fail more or less than Edison but the process they take will stick with them for a while. Inquiry-based learning may also help benefit students in the future because they will be used to not always getting a positive result the first time. Inquiry-based learning is beneficial for students in the future and helps them overall in school.