Everyone Teaches, Everyone Learns: Rediscovering Communities of Inquiry

Abstract

The communities of inquiry model (CoI) is widely used internationally to develop, implement and evaluate online discussions. Even with the inclusion of new and innovative technologies, many discussions still fail to achieve the CoI goal of sustaining communication and advancing understanding. It is argued here that one important reason for this failure is that the model itself is misunderstood. In current practice, as in online practice generally, the emphasis is placed on teachers teaching learners. CoI, however, as originally conceived by Garrison, Anderson and Archer, are based on the American philosopher John Dewey’s analysis of practical inquiry in How We Think; and here, as in all of Dewey’s work, equal emphasis is placed on learners teaching teachers. In the CoI model, teachers and learners are identified as “participants,” and participants are said to teach and learn from each other. Furthermore, given that participants are to search for and find “collaborative solutions” to “shared problems,” it is just as important that learners share their solutions with teachers as it is for teachers to share their solutions with learners. Whether learners “teaching the teacher” will be found to prolong communication and advance understanding depends on future research. The theoretical investigation reported here is intended to convince empirical researchers to test the hypothesis that it will have this result.