Enquiry-based learning: Perspectives on practice

The present study was undertaken as an integral part of an EBL capacity building project which was funded and supported by the Learning and Teaching Support Network Generic Centre (now HE Academy). It involved a total of approximately 50 staff from eight higher education institutions, drawn from a wide range of subject areas. Each project participant belonged to a small project group, led by a facilitator. A development program for the project participants involved five days of training on EBL, with sessions covering areas such as student research, PBL, fostering creativity, departmental strategies to support EBL, and the scholarship of teaching. The participating staff used the training to engage students with EBL in their respective institutions. The students’ learning included PBL, small-scale fieldwork investigations and case studies adapted to various disciplinary contexts, projects and research activities. These activities were employed at a range of scales, from a single element of a module to a strand across an entire program.