Inquiry and Integration in Education (IIE) 2023
Online Course | 2 May – 7 October 2023 | 22 weeks
Applications close on 24 April 2023
Inquiry and Integration in Education (IIE) is a 22-week online course designed to develop
Higher Order Cognitive Capacities (academic intelligence) in learners. This course will help you:
Acquire a deeper understanding of ideas across disciplines;
Think critically beyond your area of specialization;
Develop the ability to figure out answers to questions on your own;
Structure your thoughts and arguments better;
Develop clarity and rigor in thinking, reasoning and communicating.
Who is IIE for?
As the course is entirely in English, you would need sufficient proficiency in reading and writing in the language. However, you don’t have to be a specialist in any discipline to take the course. The level of academic knowledge required of you is no more than what is expected of a student who has finished 9th grade.
The course would benefit:
High schoolers (Grade 9 and above) who want to go beyond their textbooks
Undergraduate students who would like to further develop their Higher Order Cognition
Master’s and PhD students in any field interested in pursuing research*
Parents who wish to support their children’s intellectual growth
School- and College-level educators keen on helping learners develop Higher Order Cognition
Policymakers and administrators working towards meaningful education for the youth in schools and colleges
IIE would NOT help you if:
You are just looking to score higher in exams
You are looking for a certificate to add to your qualifications (we provide none)
You are not interested in, or unable to make time for serious reading
You are not interested in school-level Maths, Physics, Biology, History…
ThinQ also offers a fully self-paced online course called Introduction to Research (ITR), which focuses on developing research abilities. IIE and ITR have much in common, but they focus on different aspects of inquiry and research. Click here to find out more about ITR.
The course is organised around 5 elements:
1. Learning Triggers (LTs): A primary LT is a package made up of readings and videos, designed to develop inquiry and critical thinking abilities. You would receive an LT every alternate weekend.
2. ThinQabouts: A week after the LT is shared, you would receive questions in the form of a ‘ThinQabout’ to enable you to use the inquiry ability being focussed on that week. These ThinQabouts are designed to help you reflect on how much you have learnt, and have your doubts related to the LT clarified.
3. Consolidated Feedback: ThinQ facilitators respond to the questions raised in the ThinQabouts through a Consolidated Feedback, to enable participants to learn further from each other’s questions, and facilitator responses.
4. Discussion Forum: The LTs are interspersed with a Discussion Forum Activity that encourages you to collectively explore questions and ideas with other participants based on what has been learnt so far.
5. Meetings: Regular online meetings with fellow participants and members of the ThinQ team are a part of the course. We might also organise in-person meetings in select cities, if circumstances permit.
If you work through the course diligently, by the end of the course, you will have strengthened your:
capacity to engage in rational inquiry (and become a capable debater),
ability to learn independently,
ability to make well-considered decisions in everyday life,
habits of mind that allow you to be more thoughtful in your professional, public, and personal lives,
understanding of inquiry/research across academic disciplines.
And if you are concerned with meaningfully educating yourself and/or the young, this is an opportunity to enable yourself/them to imbibe and develop the necessary cognitive capacities not found in formal curricula.
Here’s what former IIE participants have to say about the course:
What is expected of you?
To learn from this course, you need
commitment to learning, and
willingness to put in the required time and effort.
To make the most of IIE, you should spend at least three to four hours a week. That said, the more time you spend on the course content, the more likely you are to benefit from it.
We suggest that you read the course materials at least twice, think about them, write down your responses to various tasks in the chapters, and make a note of what you would like to clarify and discuss further. Most importantly, we urge you to engage in collective thinking and learning, by participating actively and articulating your thoughts in the forum discussions.
Course Fee and Requirements
We offer IIE free of charge. But if you think that you have benefitted from this course, and would like others to benefit from it too, you are welcome to make a donation to ThinQ. We would greatly value your generosity as it would enable us to be of service to other learners. Please get in touch with us at any point before, during or after IIE if you wish to contribute to our cause.
Note that admission to the course is not automatic. We make a selection based on the information you provide in your application.
We do not provide any.
The course offers an opportunity to learn something valuable that you are unlikely to find elsewhere.
For any queries related to the course, please write to us at firstname.lastname@example.org.