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Implementing POGIL 

The teacher's role in a POGIL classroom is as a facilitator and a coach, observing and periodically addressing individual and classroom-wide needs. 

The Approach to Implementing POGIL

As a POGIL practitioner, you work with students to create an effective team learning environment and guide students in the process of learning, developing skills, and developing their own understanding—all critically important for a successful POGIL learning experience for teacher and student, and often a new paradigm for a classroom teacher. 

There is no single way to implement POGIL in the classroom and every implementation has unique characteristics that can influence how and whether particular goals are achieved. However, there are 4 core characteristics that must be present in order for a classroom environment to be considered a POGIL implementation:

  • Students are expected to work collaboratively, generally in groups of 3 or 4.
  • The activities that the students use are POGIL activities, specifically designed for POGIL implementation.
  • The students work on the activity during class time with a facilitator present.
  • The dominant mode of instruction is not lecture or instructor-centered; the instructor serves predominantly as a facilitator of student learning.

In addition, there are two common attributes of many POGIL classroom implementations and facilitation strategies that, when combined with the required characteristics above, have been shown to be very important to effective POGIL implementation:

  • Students have assigned roles within their groups.
  • The activity is designed to be the first introduction to the topic or specific content.
Become a POGIL Practitioner
Learn how to transition from lecturing to facilitating a student-centered guided inquiry classroom by attending a 1-day workshop or one of our annual 3-day summer workshops.
Become a POGIL Practitioner
Advanced POGIL Practitioners
For those practitioners who have extensive experience, The POGIL Project offers a variety of options to expand your skills, including attending our annual 3-day summer workshops, our biennial National Conference for Advanced Practitioners, our Writers' Retreat or the annual POGIL National Meeting.
Advanced POGIL Practitioners
Additional Resources
The POGIL Project has created several materials for classroom use and to help you get started as a POGIL practitioner. Click the button for some additional resources.
Resources for Educators
Activity Collections
For a list of classroom activities at both the secondary and post-secondary levels, click the box below.
Activity Collections
Become a POGIL Project Facilitator
Practitioners who want to share the POGIL pedagogy with others can become POGIL Project facilitators by attending our Facilitator Training Workshop. Check with us for the next time that this will be offered.
POGIL Networks
The POGIL Project's network coordinators work with the National Office to help plan meetings in their area and also to connect practitioners in a particular region with each other.
POGIL Networks