THEThe professor in the chair who explains in front of a dumbfounded audience of students? Outdated and essentially useless in today’s world. Because the transformations are continuous and the knowledge acquired immediately becomes obsolete. What can be done to prepare students to better face the contemporary world? At the University Luiss of Rome have developed the Inquiry Based teaching method, valid for the entire educational offer, both bachelor’s and master’s. An almost unique pedagogical approach in Italy.
A group of students from the Luiss University of Rome.
Simona Romani, vice-rector for teaching, explains it to us. «The key element is the investigative approach“, He says. «He You learn by trying to identify new questions with respect to existing knowledge. And this is new, because until yesterday the programs were based on the search for the moment». Teaching was transmissive, we listened and learned. But now that method because it no longer works, because society changes at a frenetic pace, the knowledge acquired gets old. We therefore need a pedagogy capable of embracing speed and complexity.
«The novelty of the Inquiry Based method is that the contents are the basis provided to the students so that they ask themselves questions and try to get answers. Students somehow become researchers». Professor Romani teaches Consumer Behavior and it is from her experience that she draws a concrete example: «An exercise could concern how to make healthy products attractive on supermarket shelves. There is already research on this but our students, divided into teams, have to make other hypotheses and start new research on the basis of these. Starting from these topics, students become producers of new solutions to open problems». The idea is to question all certaintiesopen up to discussion, know how to learn and understand when to do it.
At Luiss the student is at the centre
Inquiry Based means relying on investigation, asking questions, implement actions to solve the problems. It is important to always maintain a critical approach to existing works, to go further. The student is at the centre, but of course the teacher maintains a role, albeit a different one: «It is up to the teacher to provide the tools and methods of research, teach to recognize reliable sources». The new students begin to use the method by doing exercises on theoretical problems, but after the first semesters “companies and organizations are also involved, which ask students to co-create solutions and solve problems on input from outside”.
For students it is an active and engaging approach, based on group work«also to get them used to the team work that many of them will carry out in the future».
At Luiss they began to offer the method even before Covid, and gradually extended it to the entire educational offer. In a couple of years, the results will begin to be evaluated through a scientific survey. «We will have won the challenge if we have trained dynamic girls and boys able to adapt to changes» concludes Romans.
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