LibGuides: Teaching Approaches: A Community of Inquiry

Community of Inquiry

The University of Buffalo, Office of Curriculum, Assessment, and Teaching Transformation defines a community of inquiry as one that recognizes the importance of interactions between the teaching, social, and cognitive presences in building positive and collaborative learning communities.

"Meaningful collaboration occurs through the interaction of three equally important elements: social, cognitive and teaching presences. The founders of the model, Garrison, Anderson & Archer (2000, 2001), offer the follow definitions of the three presences:

Social Presence: The ability to interact with others in a meaningful way.
Cognitive Presence: The extent to which the participants can construct and confirm meaning through sustained communication.
Teaching Presence: The design, facilitation and direction of cognitive and social processes for meaningful learning."

Useful Websites

The Community of Inquiry
An educational community of inquiry is a group of individuals who collaboratively engage in purposeful critical discourse and reflection to construct personal meaning and confirm mutual understanding.
How to Make Your Teaching More Inclusive
Traditional teaching methods do not serve all students well. This guide is for any faculty member who believes, as we do, that education can be an equalizer. We share tips here that any instructor can use to minimize inequities and help more students succeed. We’re not suggesting a complete redesign of your courses, but more of an overlay to your current teaching practices.
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Sathy, V. & Hogan, K.A. (n.d.). How to Make Your Teaching More Inclusive. The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Selected Articles

Applying the Principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in the College Classroom
Through instructional and assessment strategies that address the "why", how", and "what" of learning, the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) approach ensures that all students can learn.
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Boothe, K. A., Lohmann, M. J., Donnell, K. A., & Hall, D. D. (2018). Journal of Special Education Apprenticeship, (7)3, 1-13.
Higher education students’ learning perception in the blended learning community of inquiry
Scholars have asserted that the community of inquiry framework is a robust framework in which teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence integrate to attain successful learning experiences. Therefore, researchers have shown a growing interest in extending it by adding learning presence to reflect students’ self-regulation practices in online and blended learning environments, which is important in such learning environments.
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ElSayad, G. (2003). Higher education students’ learning perception in the blended learning community of inquiry. Journal of Computers in Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40692-023-00290-y
Increasing Accessibility and Diversity by Using a UDL Framework in an Infographics Assignment
Higher education classes are more diverse than ever, comprising students of different ages, cultural backgrounds, and life experiences. One approach to enhancing inclusivity of diverse groups is by using the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL).
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Dyjur, P., Ferreira, C., & Clancy, T. (2021, January). Increasing Accessibility and Diversity by Using a UDL Framework in an Infographics Assignment. Currents in Teaching and Learning. 12(1), 71-83.
Universal Design for Learning in Teaching Large Lecture Classes
To augment traditional lecture with instructional tools that provide options for content representation, learner engagement, and learning expression, we followed the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles to design and implement a learning environment for teaching and learning in large lecture classes. To this end, we incorporated four carefully selected instructional tools (PowerPoint, lecture notes, clickers, and MindTap) in the proposed UDL environment for an introductory marketing class of over 600 students.
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Dean, T., Lee-Post, A., & Hapke, H. (2017). Universal Design for Learning in Teaching Large Lecture Classes. Journal of Marketing Education, 39(1), 5-16.