Inquiry Based Learning

I am sure I used inquiry based learning as a student often, but cannot remember many examples. However, one of my english teachers in middle school would use an inquiry based learning actvity called KWL charts that we would fill out before and after a new unit. We were asked to answer two questions prior to the start of the unit: what do I know? and what do I want to know? At the end of the unit we were asked to answer the last question, what did I learn? This made us aware of what we already knew as well as gave us the power to decided specific things we wanted to learn. The last part made us aware of what learning had occurred over the course of our participating in the unit and reminded us of the things we had wanted to learn so that we could measure whether or not we satisified our own interests. Since I have yet to be a teacher I have not used inquiry based learning as an educator but I plan to. The concept of inquiry based learning allows for more creativity for educators and students. Teachers may find themselves being led by students in a direction they hadn't thought to take which expands on the learning process. I agree that inquiry based learning allows students to have some control over what they are learning and to experience the process and be aware of it. There is none of this kind of awareness when students are continuously asked to memorize without reason. Memorization does not often ensure that students will come away with lasting knowledge. Even if they do somehow retain information through memorization, I still feel that it is less effective because the process of memorziation does not cultivate understanding. In essence, a student may memorize their times tables and know what four times four is, but not understand what that really means or how the concept of mulitiplication is used in real life situations. Where is the use in that? While inquiry based learning requires more from the teacher in regards to creativity and flexibility, in the long run it makes for a more effective classroom.