Hello!
Welcome to the Academy of Inquiry Based Learning website! Here you can find more information on what Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) is about and connect with other professionals who also utilize IBL in their own classrooms.
What is Inquiry Based Learning?
Inquiry Based Learning, or IBL for short, is a broad range of empirically validated teaching methods which emphasize the following four pillars (a) deeply engaging students and (b) providing students with opportunities to collaborate with their peers (c) instructor focus on student thinking, and (d) instructor focus on equity.
Statement on Equity and Black Lives Matter: AIBL is an organization that works toward equity, inclusion, and dismantling systemic racism in education. AIBL strives to dismantle systemic racism via modernizing teaching via the 4 pillars of IBL. AIBL believes fundamentally in equity, inclusion, and promoting women and people of color in the Mathematical Sciences. We believe black lives matter, and we commit to specifically support the black community in Mathematics. While we acknowledge that some modern day teaching methods are rooted in the teaching methods of R.L. Moore, AIBL explicitly states that the Moore Method is not IBL. We explicitly make this distinction due to Moore’s well-documented racism.
What is AIBL?
The Academy of Inquiry Based Learning (AIBL) is a community of college math instructors, math teachers, and supporters of inquiry-based learning funded by the National Science Foundation project, PRODUCT. Our philosophy is "big tent IBL." What this means is that we define IBL broadly, and support the use of a wide range of empirically-validated teaching methods in mathematics courses to better the state of mathematics education.
One of the goals of AIBL is to improve undergraduate math education via increasing the use of IBL methods across a wide range of courses and institutional environments. We accomplish this by hosting workshops and a supportive AIBL community committed to helping instructors adapt IBL methods to suit the specific local needs of their students and institution.
IBL Video Series
AIBL is creating a series of videos to help college math instructors learn about IBL via a virtual workshop. Check it out HERE.
Summer 2020 IBL Workshops
Please join us at one of four opportunities in summer 2020 for a summer intensive IBL Workshop. These are about a week long and are math instructor centered professional development workshops. Join a community of IBL practitioners, work together, and learn how to use the Big Tent IBL framework in a way that works for your specific courses and institutional environment.
Check out the General 2020 Workshop Info page HERE. IBL Workshops are for college math instructors teaching at institutions located in North America.
Student Testimonials
“It was really encouraging to hear that we were going to have a bigger role within the learning, in that we were going to be working together in groups, and that we were also going to be able to ask [the professor] questions about different things within the text.”
This interview of two CSU Monterey Bay students was filmed in April 2014 at CSU Monterey Bay. Filmed and edited by Kaylene Wakeman, AIBL.
Nora Ortega, a 5th year math major at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, reflects on her experiences in inquiry-based learning mathematics classes. Nora intends to become a math teacher.
“One of the things I’ve learned from taking the IBL course is discovering things on your own...I really witnessed the beauty of...discovering it on your own, but also being forced to share that with somebody else. ”
Head over to the AIBL YouTube channel to view more videos with instructors and students about their experiences with IBL.