ABSTRACT
This introductory chapter to The International Handbook of Inquiry and Learning provides an overview of the handbook. The authors argue that inquiry involves students working actively (with epistemic agency) in communities as they engage in relatively complex reasoning to figure things out. Then the authors analyze the goals of inquiry-based learning, using the Apt-AIR framework to identify the specific educational goals of inquiry and learning. The authors also discuss the extent to which inquiry is domain specific versus domain general, and they argue for the efficacy of inquiry-based approaches to education (in opposition to more extreme claims of proponents of direct instruction). Finally, the authors provide an overview of the chapters in the volume. These chapters address a variety of key issues in the design of inquiry learning environments (including historical perspectives on curriculum and inquiry, guiding frameworks, design teams, design-based implementation research, scaling up inquiry learning, professional development, and assessment), the components of inquiry learning environments (including motivation, scaffolding, argumentation, collaborative inquiry, promoting equity, and communities of inquiry), and inquiry and learning across disciplines and contexts (literature, history, mathematics, science, engineering, and informal education).
