13 - ‘To demen by interrogaciouns’: Accessing the Christian Context of the Canterbury Tales with Enquiry-Based Learning

Summary

There would appear to be a need for fresh pedagogic initiatives to assist students in accessing Christian context while continuing to enjoy freedom of interpretation and individual response. Can ecclesiastical and sacramental dimensions only be restored to Chaucer's work by the delivery of extensive didactic inputs in traditional lecture form? If so, at what point should these be delivered? To present extensive context to students in advance of their reading the primary texts risks compounding a sense of the alterity of medieval literature and supplies a further barrier to immediate engagement with Chaucer (alongside the linguistic challenges of reading Middle English). Equally, to present religious context retrospectively once students have read the primary texts or even concomitantly with their study of the texts can imply that the process of uncovering Christian allusion is a rather mechanistic process, hardly an organic part of the initial reading experience. What would seem to be required is a supplementary teaching method whereby undergraduate study of Chaucer may include active engagement with Christian context from the outset.

‘To demen by interrogaciouns’

Such a teaching method is available in a pedagogic model that proceeds from a principle of enquiry and discovery. Practised originally in medical disciplines in the 1970s, ‘problem-based learning’ (PBL) or ‘enquiry-based learning’ (EBL) advocates an approach in which students are given an initial impetus to investigate a new field of knowledge by approaching it from an investigative or exploratory aspect. Like Nicholas in Chaucer's Miller's Tale with his astrological investigations, students engaged in an enquiry-based activity proceed by asking questions, to ‘demen by interrogaciouns’ (I 3194). As defined in one of the most influential anthologies on the teaching method,

Problem-based learning is a way of constructing and teaching courses using problems as the stimulus and focus for student activity… . Problem-based courses start with problems rather than with exposition of disciplinary knowledge. They move students towards the acquisition of knowledge through a staged sequence of problems presented in context, together with associated learning materials and support from teachers.

The present essay explores the value of adapting the EBL format to enable students to access Chaucer's religious contexts.