Skip to Main Content

Teaching Approaches

This guide is intended to help faculty find articles, books, and websites on various teaching approaches.

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."

computer image by Pixabay

Useful Websites

Selected Articles