Using Enquiry-Based Learning (EBL) to prepare students for group work: Lessons from successive implementations

This paper reports on three successive implementations of a second-year Enquiry-Based Learning (EBL) activity, run in the first semester, designed to prepare students for a group project in the second semester. EBL is a student-centred, collaborative approach to learning, which allows the student to investigate discipline knowledge, whilst developing personal, professional and other transferable skills. It has been applied successfully in many contexts; there are many examples in the University of Manchester and this School. However, this example of EBL has received very mixed reactions from the students and staff, ranging from very enthusiastic to extremely negative. As a response to these reactions the EBL activity has been adapted in each of the three years of its delivery. This paper describes the cycles of implementation, feedback and subsequent reimplementation, to understand the specific structural challenges to this particular example and also draw out some broader lessons concerning the development of EBL activities. It draws on a variety of sources of information including direct observation, student evaluation through questionnaires and focus groups, and discussions with members of staff. An action research methodology is used, focusing and reflecting on students' perceptions of the activity gathered through critical incidents. What emerges is the importance of: the students' perceptions of the activity; engaging and maintaining the students' motivation; and how embedded the activity is in the curriculum.