Formulating a focus

Kuhlthau (2007) states that the fourth stage in the Information Search Process Model is "Formulating a FocusFeelings: optimism, confidence in ability to complete task". I have found this process a little discombobulating! It has been difficult to focus on my search in a logical way - my approach has been at best haphazard and disjointed.... so.... not quite at stage 4 yet, it would seem.

I was reading a most useful text I recently bought Focus On Inquiry: A practical approach to curriculum planning [2009] by Jeni Wilson and Lesley Wing Jan, in which the authors wrote of the different types of inquiry - shared, personal (negotiated) and integrated. I know that the information learning activity that my students are engaged in is a shared inquiry. I find that in my role as TL, I don't have the time available to engage the students in negotiated inquiry - or more to the point, I don't have the confidence in my ability to effectively engage them with the constraints on my time. I have been using the 8Ws model for inquiry with them and have found it beneficial, but have not been utilising the model for my own research...

Kuhlthau states that "in an ideal situation, students begin to search for information because they want to know more about something that is interesting or troubling." I find that I am having great difficulty raising my interest level for this task. I am feeling swamped, unfocussed and reluctant to put my energies into it when I have other calls on my time that seem to be more urgent....procrastination?

Boolean Searching...

When I did a Google Scholar search for "history inquiry learning"+"primary school", using Boolean tools of " " and +, I got 633 hits, which I thought was pretty good, until I saw that most of them were NOT about history at all. mmm...
My second search for "history inquiry"+"primary school" got 19 results. The fourth site Teaching history in the middle school: building knowledge through skills was an article written by Mallihai Tambyah, Faculty of Education, QUT. In it, Tambyah made reference to ACARA's statement on historical inquiry. Whilst this was interesting, it was something I was already familiar with.

Here goes...

The information learning activity I am undertaking is a History inquiry with a Year 7 class. To this end, I will be searching the terms: inquiry, history inquiry, primary education, upper primary education. I will be using these search engines: ProQuest, Eric, A+ Education Data Base, Google Scholar and Google and I will also be accessing information from the Brisbane Catholic Education (BCE)website.

Brisbane Catholic Education (BCE)

One source of information I have found useful from BCE is the following document: Resourcing an Inquiry Based Curriculum. It has some interesting insights into not only what inquiry based learning looks like, but also suggests some models, including Kuhlthau's, and states what an inquiry is not. This handout points out that 'memorizing facts and information is not the most important skill in today's world. Facts change, and information is readily available -- what's needed is an understanding of how to get and make sense of the mass of data'. Whilst the students in my research group will be studying an ancient archaeological site, they will be making assumptions and forming opinions about history from what has been learnt from the excavation of this site. I have to ask myself, 'Is this an effective inquiry?' I'm still not sure...

What am I doing?

One of the most intersting things I have seen that looks at the need to move from the industrial model of education into a 21st Century pedagogical approach, which incorporates the use of inquiry based learning, is this video by Sir Ken Robinson - Changing Education Paradigms. This video points out the necessity to educate children so that they can become effective life-long learners for the 21st century and beyond. In order to do this , we can no longer simply fill their heads with information we deem important, but empower them to seek answers and solutions to learnings that are relavent to their own lives and their place in modern society. This does not mean to say we drop everything and allow students to disregard the learnings of the past. We need to find a way to make existing knowledge relavent to our students and inspire them to use the prior learning to seek new answers and indeed, new questions.
I realise as I write this, that I am demonstrating Kuhlthau's third stage of the inquiry process - exploration. At this stage, I don't know if what I'm researching is germane to this task, but I will continue to persevere.

What to do...

Kuhlthau (2007) states that "Uncertainty is the beginning of learning. It is an important concept that underlies the inquiry process." I can certainly relate to this. My first foray into ERIC, searching for inquiry based learning gave me over 3000 hits and even as I made my search more refined, I still found it difficult to come up with the information that I deemed relavent to this task. I did find an article, however, Inquiry Unpacked: An Introduction to Inquiry-Based Learning (Jansen, Barbara A., 2011), in which the author stated that there are four participatory skills in the inquiry process - critical thinking and problem solving, collaboration, communication, and creativity and innovation. I have realised that in my endeavours to complete this task, I am employing aspects of these skills. The need to be a critical thinker is vital in staying focussed on the task and being able to discard extraneous information. This is a skill I can see I need to continue to develop. I can tend to get sidetracked by what seems to be interesting information, but which, in the final analysis, does not serve the task. I will continue to persevere.

Inquiry based learning definition/explanation

Questionnaire #1:

1. Take some time to think about the topic. Now write what you know about it.

My topic is information literacy and inquiry based learning.

I beleive that inquiry learning is a method of learning which requires students to ask questions about a topic either prescribed or self-initiated, research and gather relevant information and evaluate, publish and share their learnings with peers and the teacher. As a teacher in BCE primary school, I use the following as a basis for my understanding of inquiry based learning. This explanation has been taken from the KWeb site.

Inquiry based learning is characterised by a pedagogy that allows learning to take place through students asking questions, investigating, developing understandings, making connections, collaborating and reflecting on learnings.

There are different types of inquiry, ranging from very structured, to guided and open inquiries. As both teacher and students become more confident with this pedagogoy, it allows for student initiated inquiries which develop within a framework of gradual release of responsibility.

Based on my previous studies, I believe that information literacy is the ability to access, retrieve, evaluate and then utilise information. The following statement on information literacy is taken from ASLA.

Information literacy is a critical life skill in today’s information-oriented society. It means knowing when a book may be more helpful than a computer. It means knowing how to find, evaluate and use information from a variety of sources. It means knowing what questions to ask. Is the information complete? Accurate? Is someone trying to sell me something? Good decisions depend on quality information.

2. How interested are you in this topic?

Quite a bit.

3. How much do you know about this topic?

Quite a bit.

4. When you do research, what do you find easy to do?

Writing.

5. When you do research, what do you generally find difficult to do?

Getting started.
Finding and selecting relavent information.
Referencing.