Inquiry-based learning as an adaptive signature pedagogy in international relations

Abstract

Several scholars have described our current political milieu as a time of crisis, disruption, and rapid change that presents various practical and theoretical challenges to the discipline of international relations (IR) and its pedagogical practice. The concept of signature pedagogies is one response that has emerged to respond to the changing needs of the discipline and the increasingly vocational approach to tertiary education. Many approaches identified as signature pedagogies in IR require preparation and lead-up time that make them difficult to apply rapidly to changing events in world politics as they occur. This article identifies inquiry-based learning as a strong model of adaptive and metacognitive learning that provides students with skills that can be readily applied to new problems and contexts. This enables instructors to draw directly on current events in world politics in a meaningful way that assists in providing students with the skills to address unfamiliar challenges in a rapidly changing world.