Inquiry-based learning is a pedagogical method that uses questioning to encourage active and engaged learning. Unlike more traditional direct instruction where a teacher delivers information that students are responsible for recording, memorizing, and perhaps later, applying in some way, inquiry-based learning allows for the learner to guide and direct their own exploration of a topic or phenomenon.

In inquiry-based learning, the process starts with a question, posed by the learner or the teacher, that elicits curiosity. Through several guided steps, the learner then dives deeper into the question to answer how, or why, or what is happening.

People have been learning through inquiry for thousands of years. However, inquiry-based learning methodologies didn't find their foothold until the mid-20th century. Despite the significant academic contributions of Ancient Greek and Roman educational philosophies, their focus was more on agricultural and domestic skills for most of the middle class and on oratory skills in among the upper class. As an academic discipline, science did not gain respect until the late 17th and 18th century during the Age of Enlightenment. In its early days, education in the sciences focused primarily on the memorization and organization of scientific data, rather than on understanding scientific phenomena.

It was not until the early 20th century, that science education shifted its focus from memorization to understanding. Following on the work of Joseph Schwab, John Dewey began to criticize science education for its failure to create scientific thinkers. Schwab had been the first to propose that the science classroom should more closely resemble a working science laboratory. Inquiry-based learning in the sciences has since become a broadly accepted instructional approach.

Inquiry-based learning finds its pedagogical origins in the constructivist learning theories of developmental psychology. Such theories propose that learning is "constructed" through experiences in which the learner takes an active role rather than simply through the transmission of information from teacher to student. According to Piaget's theory of cognitive development, children construct their understanding of the world through the experience of discrepancies between what they already know and that which they observe and explore around them. They then adjust their expectations accordingly, thus demonstrating learning has taken place. Vygotsky's theory of social constructivism builds upon Piaget's work, adding the important influence of socio-cultural learning. Socio-cultural learning is where children build their understanding through the assimilation of skills and knowledge observed in more skilled and knowledgeable peers, mentors, and instructors. 

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