Self-Study Materials

Experience the Open Inquiry Toolkit Workshop on-demand!

1. Pre-Reads
2. Part I: Introduction to Virtue Epistemology
3. Part II: Learning Design for Intellectual Virtues
4. Part III: Learning Design Principles
5. Contribute to the Open Inquiry Toolkit Course Materials Repository

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Pre-Reads

• Baehr, J. (2013). Educating for intellectual virtues: From theory to practice. Journal of the Philosophy of Education 47, pp. 248-262. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9752.12023. [Open access version.]
• Open Inquiry Toolkit Explainer.
• Open Inquiry Toolkit Learning Design Guides.
• [Optional] HxLibraries Symposium: “Intellectual Virtues and the Contemporary Information Landscape” with Jason Baehr, PhD (Fall 2023).
• [Optional] Open Inquiry Toolkit Workshop slides.

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Part I: Introduction to Virtue Epistemology

Reviews six cognitive biases and their corresponding intellectual virtues:

• confirmation bias and curiosity
• cognitive dissonance (or motivated reasoning) and open-mindedness
• the Certainty Trap and intellectual humility
• mere exposure effect and intellectual tenacity
• conformity and intellectual autonomy
• in-group bias and epistemic responsibility

along with considerations for teaching with epistemic virtues based on the work of Jason Baehr. 

• Access the video for Part I: Intro to Virtue Epistemology (6 mins.)
• Download the transcript for Part I: Intro to Virtue Epistemology

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Part II: Learning Design for Intellectual Virtues

Presents learning design considerations for teaching with intellectual virtues using an example based on the Certainty Trap and intellectual humility. Introduces examples of learning activities to cultivate intellectual humility based on the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Information Literacy Framework for Higher Education and its alignment with the intellectual virtues and cognitive biases highlighted in the Open Inquiry approach.

• Access the video for Part II: Learning Design for Intellectual Virtues (8 mins.)
• Download the transcript for Part II: Learning Design for Intellectual Virtues

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Part III: Learning Design Principles

Presents six learning design practices to encourage pluralistic thinking, guided meta-cognition, desirable difficulty, and greater self-awareness of students’ own cognitive biases:

1. Through lines
2. Calibrated difficulty
3. Pivot points
4. Pre-research staging
5. Identifying missing voices
6. Gradients of acceptance

• Access the video for Part III: Learning Design Principles (7 mins.)
• Download the transcript for Part III: Learning Design Principles

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Contribute to the Course Materials Repository

Have you developed or redesigned a course, assignment, class discussion, or other learning materials using the open inquiry approach?

Consider making your learning materials available for others to reference, reuse, or adapt by open licensing and depositing them in the Open Inquiry Toolkit Course Materials Repository. Visit the repository page for more information.

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