gms | German Medical Science

Inquiry-based learning has long been a prominent topic within higher education. Current research often focuses on the didactical principles of inquiry-based learning and discusses students’ learning mechanisms as well as beneficial learning settings. Even though these debates are fruitful, they tend to neglect the influence of lecturers and the university on how inquiry-based learning is conducted. Although lecturers are typically fairly independent in their teaching, they are still embedded in organisational structures. This regulatory framework may affect their understanding of inquiry-based learning and promote or hinder courses, which aim at learning by research. In our presentation, we therefore try to complement existing debates by highlighting lecturers’ perceptions and practices of inquiry-based learning in order to understand the realization, effects and institutionalization of such teaching concepts within universities.

Our findings are based on ongoing work within the research project FLOAT (Forschendes Lernen aus Perspektive von Organisation und Akteuren/Inquiry-based learning: lecturers’ and universities’ perspectives, financed by InStudies/BMBF). We present preliminary results of 20 semi-structured interviews with lecturers and organizational representatives involved in inquiry-based learning at Ruhr-University Bochum, a university that explicitly promotes such learning formats. Within our presentation, we will (a) highlight key motivational aspects of lecturers to participate in inquiry-based learning, (b) elaborate their perceptions and practices of inquiry-based learning and (c) derive the organizational influences on inquiry-based learning.