Becoming Knowledge Makers: Critical Reflections on Enquiry-Based Learning

Abstract

The scholarship of teaching and learning recognises the important interrelationship between teaching and learning, and it values critical dialogues on teaching-learning praxis beyond local contexts. This focus shifts attention from research outputs drawing on student behaviour to a broader focus on teacher-learner mutuality, disciplinary practices, and institutional landscapes. Rapid changes in higher education require the fostering of critical citizenship as a core graduate attribute. The massification of education, however, has emphasised throughput at the expense of nurturing students’ sense of “becoming” as they navigate transformations in selfhood. This represents a stumbling block for meaningful participation in their own learning. Our article explores the incorporation of enquiry-based learning within a flipped blended classroom setting that seeks to engage teachers and learners more reflectively as co-producers of knowledge. We show how this approach can nurture an awareness of the self through the process of “becoming”. We employ a qualitative case-study methodology to interrogate data taken from student writings, interviews, and course evaluations. Our analysis traces the progression of developmental insights present in students’ reflective thinking and writing about their learning. We conclude that the process of “becoming” is possible within an educational context focused on measurable outcomes, where “becoming” is intricately linked to pedagogical imperatives seeking to empower, transform and enrich learning.