Enquiry based learning: Plasticity, metamorphosis and transformation

Abstract

Learning is a transformative event or it has the potential to be. It can be life changing and some of the powerful ideas about learning, in particular enquiry based learning (EBL) are discussed within this paper. EBL can be transformative in that it is predicated on shifting the nature of learning from an instructionist approach to one that demands learner discovery, problem solving and creativity; characteristics that are commensurate with meaningful learning. EBL is 'different' it opens up a detour, another path that is unexpected and unpredictable. It challenges the way we think about learning, its episteme and ontology. It has the potential to create the conditions for transforming the raw materials of the learner through two competing types of plasticity; destructive plasticity which throws the learning out of their being and unties their identity, and positive plasticity that enables the learner to give and receive form. Both illustrate the experiential dimensions of EBL's ontology and the gains and losses in 'becoming' through metamorphosis. These transformative powers are not always visible, rather they are held in some sort of ontological reserve without the status of 'being there' but they have the potential to become integrated into the history of the learner.