how does inquiry based learning affect students?

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How does Inquiry Based Learning affect students’ capabilities? Graham Jones School of Health and Related Research [email protected]

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A presentation delivered by Graham Jones from ScHaRR: The School of Health and Related Research at the University of Sheffield that discussed the theory of 'capabilities' and how this relates to Inquiry-based learning.

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Page 1: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

How does Inquiry Based Learning affect

students’ capabilities?

Graham Jones

School of Health and Related Research

[email protected]

Page 2: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

Structure

Acknowledgments What are capabilities? Capabilities in practice : Nussbaum, Alkire (How) are they relevant to (higher) education and

pedagogy (Walker and her categorisations)? This case study: IBL and capabilities Methods Findings Conclusions

Page 3: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

Acknowledgements

Dave Phillips Sarah Barnes Jenny Owen Sabine Little CILASS MPH students

Page 4: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

What are capabilities? - Sen

Nobel laureate, Amartya Sen first used the word ‘capability’ in its present meaning in 1979 to refer to an approach to well-being in terms of freedoms: to choose among various alternatives including: ‘being happy; achieving self-respect; taking part in the life of the community’.

Capabilities are to do with the freedom to pursue valuable ‘doings’ and ‘beings’ in order to flourish as a human being. Central to this approach is the notion of a capability set which refers to the alternative combinations of things a person is able to do or be.

Page 5: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

Capabilities: some aspects Central to Human development approach and provides

philosophical and theoretical underpinnings to United Nation Human Development reports, and Human development Index

Both a (the?) goal of “Development”, and the means of achieving it (Sen, 1999)

Provides a broad enough evaluative space for understanding and investigating “all” human development

Inherently inter-disciplinary with potential applications in political philosophy, welfare economics, development studies, health, education etc etc

Distinguishes between capability (opportunity) and functioning (achievement, or realisation)

Page 6: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

So what are capabilities? - Nussbuam

Sen never says: It’s the freedom to choose between them that’s

important Important to leave room for reasoned public debate

Nussbaum proposes a defined list of capabilities as the basis for fundamental political principles (“such as might be embodied in a nation’s constitution)” (Nussbaum, 2004) The “moral entitlement of every human being” Abstract but capable of local translation and

deliberation Derived from a (her) conception of the dignity of the

human being, and of a life that is worthy of that dignity

Page 7: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

Nussbaum’s list - 1 Life: being able to live to the end of a normal human

life. Bodily health: being able to have good health,

including reproductive health. Bodily integrity: being able to move freely, secure

against assault; having opportunities for sexual satisfaction and choice in reproduction.

Senses, imagination and thought: freedom of use and expression of all three.

Emotions: not to be blighted by fear, anxiety, abuse or neglect.

Page 8: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

Nussbaum’s list - 2 Practical reason: being able to engage in critical

reflection – including the use of conscience. Affiliation: to be able to interact, show compassion

etc. to have friendships. Other species: concern for animals, plants and the

world of nature. Play: being able to laugh and enjoy recreation. Control over one’s environment: political and

material Freedom of assembly and speech. Being able to live one’s life: choice over

childbearing, sexuality, speech and employment

Page 9: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

Alkire

Nussbaum is inherently philosophical, but you can identify “dimensions” of human development (the primary colours of values)

Desire to operationalise capabilities in social realities of poor people Rose growing versus literacy versus goat herding in

rural Pakistan Uses a participatory practical reasoning approach, that

covers all the dimensions Puts the focus on how you arrive at capabilities

(“facilitators wore simple clothing”)

Page 10: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

So why are they interesting?

Education as extension of human capabilities Go beyond instrumental views of education – “get that job”

Focus on what people are actually able to be and to do (not abstract rights)

Rooted in Aristotelian notions of human flourishing - virtue

Inherently inter-disciplinary Connects the world of education to the “real world” –

the same evaluative space

Page 11: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

Walker’s use of capabilities Uses the notion of ‘functional capabilities’ to capture

the importance in education of both capability (opportunity) and functioning (achievement)

In depth interviews and focus groups with students, 3rd year undergraduate South African history, and “Protection of the environment” modules

Analysed using Alkire’s methods for identifying and measuring valued opportunities and achievements

Output: Vague and thick (discipline specific?)

Page 12: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

Walker’s functional capabilities(thin version) Knowledge Social relations Critical thinking Imagination and empathy Recognition and respect Active and experiential learning Autonomy Confidence Active citizenship Deliberative dialogue Having economic opportunity

Page 13: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

Some issues with Walker

Are they “complete”? Are they “orthogonal”? What are the contexts or domains (the

educational world, the “real” world)? How exactly did she arrive at her list? How do they relate to other lists?

Page 14: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

Nussbaum vs Walker Life Bodily health Bodily integrity Senses, imagination and

thought Emotions Practical reason Affiliation Other species Play Control over one’s

environment

Knowledge Critical thinking Imagination and empathy Recognition and respect Active and experiential

learning Social relations Autonomy Confidence Active citizenship Deliberative dialogue Having economic

opportunity

Page 15: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

This case study HAR618 International Health Systems and Policy, part of

Masters in Public Health Designed and delivered using IBL approaches Inquiries:

Success or otherwise of Kerala “model” Why are markets so popular in UK health policy How to improve quality of life in rural Gambia What is the impact of Global actors on an individual country

Very diverse student body (34 students from 17 countries), some with considerable life experience

How do you evaluate impact of IBL (a lot of “how to” stuff)

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Some limitations It’s a case study: won’t tell you whether IBL is better than other

methods on whether it delivers different capabilities from more conventional pedagogies

Evaluations have their own discourse, frames of reference Do we really encourage students to think about (and tell us

about) the full impact of the learning experience on their lives? Unspoken assumptions (e.g. life, bodily integrity) Capabilities and Walker’s categories an afterthought (even

though capability theory is used as part of the subject matter of the module)

Snapshot data: doesn’t really capture how people change Haven’t done full data analysis as yet

Page 17: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

Data

Evaluations of each inquiry by 2 side questionnaire with some rating, but open-ended questions

Now had 2 runnings of module, and in middle of third

In depth interviews with 3 students (first running of module)

Page 18: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

Data analysis

All comments coded using Walker’s categories

Those that didn’t fit, analysed further and new categories established

Page 19: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

“Difficult at first but very rewarding”

Page 20: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

Findings: distribution across categories

The popular categories Social relations, Active and experiential

learning, Knowledge, ConfidenceThe less popular categories Autonomy, Critical thinking, recognition and

respect, deliberative dialogueThe least popular/unpopulated categories Imagination and empathy, active

citizenship, economic opportunity

Page 21: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

Findings: the “missing” categories

Information literacy Resources, quality, quantity, accessibility, usability

Constraints Workload, time available, other group members

Difficulty and motivation Taxing, hard, challenging Interesting, motivating, fascinating Overcoming difficulties, pain/pleasure in learning

Skills Making presentations, leading groups

Page 22: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

Some results

IBL fairly well attuned to some elements on the Walker list e.g. active and experiential learning

We’re dominated by preset learning outcome, rather than negotiated capability

There is some exercise of capability in “module choice” and programme choice

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Reflections on findings: power

Very little explicit mention, but some indirect references e.g. views ignored by other group members

Implicit in Social Relations? The category that dare not speak its name? Freirian (Brechtian) pedagogies?

Page 24: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

Reflections on findings Are all capabilities born equal?

What is the relative importance of different capabilities? Do different students value different capabilities?

Students implicitly undertake a difficulty/workload/capability calculus Is this where Valuing of educational capabilities takes place? Can we make this explicit?

Importance of motivation (and trust in educational process?)

How much does education change students views on their valued capabilities (better informed choices?)

Page 25: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

Reflections on findings: Walker

Does her collapse of functioning and capabilities into functional capabilities just muddy the water? Is active and experiential learning really a

capability? Are the categories too imprecise, too inter-

related? Are the capabilities identified designed for

success in the educational world or the real world?

Page 26: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

Reflections on findings: negative capabilities

(“negative” questions: what did you least like?)

Page 27: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

Does IBL increase student capability?

Yes Almost by definition (“active and experiential learning”) IBL involves greater student choice Some positive evidence for changes in capabilities

Students educational capabilities or their life-chance capabilities?

Some evidence that it can change students perceptions of capabilities, and students engage in capability trade-offs

Page 28: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

Does capability offer a good evaluative approach for IBL?

Positives Pedagogies and policies can be in same framework Interdisciplinary, but can be made

context/discipline/sensitive Can be participative and negotiated Can connect educational world and real world

Negatives Difficult to pin down Does it really offer something new?

Page 29: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

Some talking points The indirect affects of capabilities : economic opportunity

has a lot of by-products! Qualification or capability? Social construction of capabilities: interdependence of

learning e.g. lecturers determining group allocation to maximise diversity, and avoid cliques

Do students and lecturers value different capabilities? How much should we/can we negotiate the capabilities? Capturing the dynamism of good learning processes

Page 30: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

Some key references Alkire, S. 2002. Valuing freedoms. Oxford: Oxford University Press Nussbaum, Martha. 2003. Capabilities as fundamental entitlements: Sen and

social justice. Feminist Economics, 9, 33–59. Robeyns, I. 2006 Three models of education: Rights, capabilities and human

capital. Theory and Research in Education, 4 (1) 69-84. Sen, Amartya. 1993. Capability and well-being. In Martha Nussbaum and

Amartya Sen (eds), The Quality of Life. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Sen, Amartya. 1999. Development as Freedom. New York: Knopf. E. Unterhalter and L. Terzi (2005, ongoing), Capability and Thematic Group

Bibliographic Database, http://k1.ioe.ac.uk/schools/efps/elaine/Capability-and-Education.pdf

M. Walker(2005), Higher Education Pedagogies: A Capability Approach (Open University Press)

Walker, M. (2008). A human capabilities framework for evaluating student learning. Teaching in Higher Education, 13 (4), 477-487.

Walker, M. (2008) Human capability, mild perfectionism and thickened educational praxis, Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 16(2),149 — 162

Page 31: How Does Inquiry Based Learning Affect Students?

“In the early morning I pick flowers. When I do this, I feel I have done sawab – holy work. Inner peace comes”

Dadi Taja, rose cultivator