COMMUNITY OF INQUIRY: RULES, WHAT IT IS FOR, AND STEPS - PHILOSOPHY - 2024

A community of inquiry is a concept created by the pragmatic philosophers CS Peirce and John Dewey, who were studying the best way to acquire new knowledge. It consists of a group of individuals who collaborate to learn more about a problem or topic using empirical research.

This concept was applied at first only to the process of acquiring scientific knowledge, but later it was expanded to other areas such as education. The idea of ​​the community of inquiry was very revolutionary for its time, since until then the emphasis had been placed on individual research.

The main revolution brought about by the concept of the knowledge community is that, from then on, knowledge began to be understood as something dependent on the social context in which it was formed. Therefore, for a new discovery to be considered valid, there must be an agreement between several different researchers.

Rules of a community of inquiry

In the field of education, a community of inquiry is a pedagogical model whose intention is for teachers and students to collaborate in generating new knowledge.

The way to achieve this is by creating an adequate space in which ideas can be discussed and debated openly, so that students can contrast their own points of view with those of others.

To achieve the objective set by the community of inquiry and truly generate new knowledge in students, it is necessary to follow a series of rules:

- Listen to the opinions of others.

- Respect ideas that are different.

- Give arguments about your own ideas and those of others.

- Encourage and practice reflection on what is said.

Listen to the opinions of others

At the core of what is intended to be achieved with a community of inquiry is the exchange of different ideas and opinions. To achieve relevant learning by collaborating with others, it is essential to find people who do not share our points of view and discover what we can learn from them.

Therefore, the first thing that must be achieved in order to create a community of inquiry is to reach a state of active listening to others; in other words, they are not paid attention just to refute them, but with an open attitude and a desire to learn more about what they think.

Respect ideas that are different

It is not enough to be able to listen to ideas contrary to ours; we also have to be able to respect them. In order to generate a true community of inquiry, it is necessary for all its participants to be able to listen to each other and to create a safe space in which all ideas can be heard.

However, respecting ideas different from ours does not mean not being able to refute them. Rather, it is based on being able to argue against them using logic and rational arguments instead of emotions.

Give arguments about your own ideas and those of others

Another requirement for creating a true community of inquiry is that all participants acquire the ability to argue effectively.

This skill, which is not always worked in traditional educational contexts, is one of the pillars of this type of collaborative teaching.

To do this, the best exercise is to think about why we hold a belief. What experiences have led us to think like this? Why do we believe that the ideas of the other are not valid?

Encourage and practice reflection on what is said

The last pillar of a community of inquiry has to do with the ability to recognize when someone else's ideas make more sense than our own. This is something extremely difficult at first, but it is essential if you want to generate good collaborative knowledge.

For this, the skills of reflection and active listening acquired in the previous points will be a fundamental piece; In order to recognize our mistakes, we will have to be able to detect them first by listening to the rest of the members of the community of inquiry.

What is the community of inquiry good for?

In the educational context, the community of inquiry serves several objectives:

- Allows students to discover the weaknesses of their own ideas and enrich them thanks to the help of others.

- It generates debates and discussions that motivate students in a much more direct way than a master class, in which the teacher communicates a series of ideas and the students only listen to them.

- Teaches community participants to listen, to rationally debate and to reflect on their own ideas.

- Allows students to acquire more knowledge than if they tried to do it on their own. This ties in with the concept of 'zone of proximal development', which is the extra knowledge that a person can acquire when helped by others.

Steps to build a community of inquiry

Although there are several ways of approaching the creation of a community of inquiry, there are usually five fundamental steps in the process:

Previous attitude

Students are told about what a community of inquiry is, its benefits, and how it works. On the other hand, they will also be explained the way in which they have to act to get the most out of this group learning experience.

Presentation of the idea to be debated

Each session of a community of inquiry has to be centered around an idea. The educator / facilitator will provide different materials related to the chosen topic, so that all students can put it in context and learn more about it.

Reconstruction of the idea

Once all the materials related to the topic have been presented, the students have to express what they have understood and their point of view. It is at this point that differences of opinion are detected.

Debate on the idea

When the different points of view that the students hold on the chosen topic have been detected, there is a round of debate in which rational arguments, active listening and a deep reflection on their own and contrary ideas must be used.

Summary of what was discussed

Once an agreement or a certain conclusion has been reached on the topic, students should be able to reflect on what has happened in the debate and what they have learned from it.

At this point the participation of the students will also be valued, so that each of them can improve for the next session.

References

1. "Community of inquiry" in: Wikipedia. Retrieved on: March 20, 2018 from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org.
2. "What is community of inquiry" in: IGI Global. Retrieved on: March 20, 2018 from IGI Global: igi-global.com.
3. "Community of inquiry model" in: Edutech. Retrieved on: March 20, 2018 from Edutech: edutech.unige.ch.
4. "Community of inquiry" in: Glossaries Alicante. Retrieved on: March 20, 2018 from Glossaries Alicante: glosarios.servidor-alicante.com.
5. "Methodology of the community of inquiry in the IPC" in: Community and inquiry. Retrieved on: March 20, 2018 from Community and inquiry: grupo24comunicacionsociedad.wordpress.com.