Inquiry teaching in clinical periodontics.

Inquiry teaching is a strategy to develop skills in information retrieval and reasoning. Its framework is a method of systematic questioning by the teacher, who trains the learner's skill in information retrieval and thinking so that future clinical problems may be more readily solved. This paper describes the adaptation of the Inquiry Method to instruction in clinical periodontics. It describes a strategy that structures the interactions between the teacher and student to develop thinking skills related to patient care.