A perspective on students' autonomy in learning and engaging in a freshman inquiry-based learning environment

Abstract

Present day workforce requires graduates to be self-starters, independent and willing to experiment, as genuine lifelong learners. One way to enable students with such skills is through an inquiry-based environment. Inquiry-based courses are designed for students to explore and learn being aware of their own style and pace [1]. Such courses are designed for students to ask questions, think and reflect in the space of the classroom and beyond [2]. The nature of freedom and openness in the inquiry classes, often requires students to rethink their approach to classes. Many students are tuned to change, and adapt this style when needed. Meanwhile some others fail to adjust due to prior notions or just due to their busy schedules and at times lack of flexibility. Through this work, we hope to explore how students perceive freedom in inquiry-based environments. Some questions we attempt to address are: Does the freedom help them study better?, Does it inspire them to think out of the box? or Does it deter them from trying to do better? The nature of the inquiry-based courses at our program is such that students can have the freedom to decide and modify their own learning path [3]. Students are given some basic background and are then encouraged to pursue their interests. Students can then start at a difficulty level of their choice and create stories of their own learning. While some students are at ease with the freedom, many are worried about grades and want to make sure that they are doing a sufficient amount of work. We support both groups of students, and while we follow our basic curriculum, students can have the freedom to adjust their path. Our study shows that overall, the lack of forced course deadlines and questions helps the students be more creative in their thoughts and actions. They are more willing to learn, communicate with other students and take risks. Such observations are hard to make when students are in a rush with packed courses and have hardly any avenues to reflect and think about their work. A student's autonomy is sometimes challenging for instructors. They need to patiently wait for students to learn at their own pace and not prompt them with ready made solutions. This is commonplace when students don't want to learn and are studying for the grade. Such students struggle with the open-endedness of the course. In our class we have ways to handle that, and in some cases we need to provide a direct path to few students before they can see the value of autonomy. This work will provide a student's perspective on the autonomy they experience in inquiry based courses, their challenges and successes.