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The Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry (OURI), along with the QEP Committee
of the Faculty, is pleased to request proposals from departments and faculty to develop or
redesign courses within the majors to align with the inquiry-based experiential education
focus of the OURI. These courses will ensure “students will be introduced to the tools and
technologies of their disciplines” through “enhanced discipline-based courses” (QEP p 17).
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Inquiry-based discipline-specific courses can include a variety of skills including qualitative
and quantitative literacy, framing of questions or problems, exploring questions or
problems through appropriate discipline-specific processes and methods, and drawing a
variety of conclusions based upon acquired skills within a theoretical framework. In the
sciences this will likely include hypothesis generation and testing, while in the arts this will
likely include conceptualizing and creating a product (a work of art: a painting, a sculpture,
a poem, a music score) or performance (a recital, play, or other creation). In inquiry-based
courses students are given the direction to examine alternatives within the discipline and
draw conclusions through individually guided explorations.
Departments and professors will play a vital role in creating courses that will scaffold
students through the inquiry process at a level commensurate with students’ knowledge
and abilities. When using inquiry-based lessons, professors.are responsible for:.starting the
inquiry process; promoting student dialog; transitioning between small groups and
classroom discussions; intervening to clear misconceptions or develop students'
understanding of content material; modeling scientific or artistic procedures and attitudes;
and, utilizing student experiences to create new content knowledge. (Llewellyn, 2002)
“At the discipline-based skills course level, students will learn about:
• Their faculty member’s area of research and current topics of interest;
• Application of practices and methods (including tools and technology) within a
discipline, done in a scaffolded approach, in a lab, studio, field or office setting;
• Intermediate level hypothesis and problem-framing processes related to higher
level skills related to research and inquiry;
• Performance of an authentic inquiry-based project using acquired skills in response
to a hypothesis or inquiry-based problem;
• Communication skills such as report writing;
• Application of work in the four SLO areas” (QEP, p 19-20)
When incorporating inquiry-based methods into the classroom, departments and
professors should engage students in a variety of activities ensure that students have the
opportunity to successfully move through the inquiry cycle not just at the course level, but
as they move through their major program. This six-stage inquiry cycle (identified by
Llewellyn, 2002, p. 13-14) and potential courses activities and objectives, as referenced in
