Finally, it's happening to me...

In my quest to synthesize the information I have gathered, and formulate 'new' information for me as a teacher librarian and teaching team member, I feel I have moved from uncertainty and doubt towards clarity (Kuhlthau 2007). To follow Branch and Olberg's (2004) recommendations, I realise the need for scaffolding. A successful inquiry is largely dependent on questions (McKenzie 2000) and in future I hope to use a combination of McKenzie's questioning.org site, the Alberta Model and Brunner as important references and resources to scaffold our students learning.

If the following YouTube video, entitled Iles Elementary IB Unit of Inquiry is an example of what young students can accomplish using Inquiry as an essential pedagogy, then enough said!

Moving right along...

As I am about to go back and revise my draft, thanks to the wonderful peer feedback I have received from members of the Awesome Foursome and Marvellous Mandy, I feel very apprehensive. This makes me think I haven't come along very far along the inquiry process. So far, I have only managed to research and reproduce some different models, and I need to compare and contrast them to really move further in the inquiry process to produce new meaning.

So far, I am what McKensie describes as an information gatherer, rather than a producer. In the terms of my favourite model, "Focus on Inquiry" by Branch and Olberg (2004), I need to now go and process, create and share!

Step by Step

Well I can certainly see the meaning of inquiry as described by Branch and Olberg (2004)... Inquiry is a process where students are involved in their learning, formulate questions, investigate widely and then build new understandings, meanings and knowledge.

I started out on this journey knowing very little about the inquiry process. Searching for different inquiry models and theory behind inquiry based learning has definitely seen me formulating questions as I tried to define what it was I wanted and needed to know and understand. Investigating further has revealed that there certainly a lot of opinions and theory about IBL. Whilst I now feel more informed, I acknowledge there is still a lot more to investigate thoroughly. Developing worthwhile IBL activities with students is still something I am not sure about how to go about. If the National Curriculum is placing an emphasis on IBL, then I think it is something I need to really work on, as does our school in general.
If anything, I think I am still floundering around in Kuhlthau's exploration stage as I try and make sense of it all. I am certainly feeling a lot of confusion and doubt! Hopefully it will become clearer once I get more into writing my draft and formulate my ideas more.

Forever young

Youthlearn.org- Callison lead me to check out this website more thoroughly, and there is some great stuff on it as to how to really plan for a successful inquiry approach. I also really like the reference to brunner's inquiry process which I think is suitable for the younger students...

Supermodels

Today I thought I would try and find some sort of summary 'out there' that would contrast and compare the different models of Inquiry. Being a very visual learner, I am interested in diagrams and picture that some bright spark may have designed to illustrate the main components of the different models out there. I also waned to get rid of the specific science inquiry info I have been getting...
* Google Scholar: Search terms- (inquiry based learning OR guided inquiry OR model) NOT science
826 000 hits, 5 of the first 10 relating to science??? Try again-

* Google Scholar: Search terms- inquiry based learning models OR primary OR elementary
815 000 hits. Wanted to keep a primary focus hence the inclusion of primary and elementary. Interestingly, few mention science! Not much here for me. Might try a data base search next

* A+ Education: Search terms- inquiry based learning AND information literacy
4 hitsBINGO!!! Well sort of. No lovely visual summary of what is out there, but...
Found the paper "Inquiry Based Learning- Developing Opportunities by Branch and Solomon in Synergy 2004. This is very close to what I was looking for in my last documented search when I was looking for information on how to foster an inquiry based process in younger learners. It suggests how teacher librarians can design activities that will build skills needed in inquiry, and gives examples of activities for each stage... yay! It talks about the updated Alberta Inquiry Model (AIM) which I think really suits the younger students (8-10year olds) and my needs for our ILA.

Here is a pic of the AIM from the downnloadable "Focus on Inquiry" by Alberta Learning.
I love this document!
Oh, and I also noticed it was co-written by our friend from Learning Hubs, Dianne Oberg and draws from research by Ken Haycock!

Theoretically Speaking

Thought it was time to put to the test some of the interesting information I have been reading in our readings, specifically Henninger... Still trying to get my head around Inquiry Learning in the younger years. I was interested to read in Kuhlthau et al (2007) that children under the age of 12 (interestingly most of Primary) can be involved in inquiry, but it is not until older than this that they can use abstract thought, generalize and form a hypothesis. Kuhlthau talks about involving the younger children in activities that will 'set the stage' for inquiry learning.
So, I thought I'd have a go at searching for information to help me understand what type of experiences I can involve younger students in that will enable them to develop their inquiry skills.

Couldn't resist using Google first, if for no other reason than to convince me not to next time!!!
1. Search terms "inquiry learning" AND "early years".
146 results.
Not really what I am looking for as it mainly found specific lessons that claim to use inquiry. I want more about general activities that I can adapt.

2. Google Scholar, same search terms "inquiry learning" AND "early primary"
mmm, 25 hits, none what I need. Next I might ditch the 'early' part

3. Google Scholar, same search terms "inquiry learning" AND "primary"
5 040 hits. Couple look interesting.
Learning-for-use: A framework for the design of technology-supported inquiry activities

Teacher questioning in an open-inquiry learning environment: Interactions of context, content, and student responses

Both looked good, but all I got was...
3. Still in Google Scholar, but time to try a hint from my esteemed colleagues Kuhlthau and Lupton and try a synonym and add in 'elementary'.
Search terms: "inquiry learning" AND "primary" OR "elementary"
This sounds ideal The development of cognitive skills to support inquiry learning but after reading still doesn't deal with young enough (7-10 yrs).

4. Brainwave! Going to add in 'guided inquiry', however, thanks to Kuhlthau, knowing that Boolean terms are treated in a certain order (who would have thought?) I will add brackets...
Search terms: ("guided inquiry" OR "inquiry learning") AND "primary" OR "elementary"
... 8 520 hits but so far no joy!

5. Last chance this session. Time to try some databases...
Search terms: ("guided inquiry" OR "inquiry learning") AND "primary" OR "elementary"
... nope!

I'm so excited!!!

I don't think we are supposed to include reflective comments in our blog but just needed to share this somewhere!!!
Had the best experience today. Worked with the Year 4 class on sorting through the myriad of questions they came up with using twiddla for their research task on animals. I had created a word document with the structure of an information report on it, asking the 6 major questions (what type of animal is it? where does it live? what does it look like? etc). Then in created each twiddla question in a text box, and they had to move the twiddla questions into the relevant section of the info report. They then looked at the questions and deleted the unnecessary/repeated/inappropriate questions. What we are left with is a terrific note taking resource!

I promise from now on my posts will be more scholarly!

Twiddla

Found an online interactive whiteboard website called twiddla. Thought I would use it with the class to brainstorm questions for our research task. It went well once all got over the over the top excitement! The children had to write down any question they thought could be part of our research project about animals. We then grouped the questions together according to likeness eg where the animal lives, what it looks like, what it eats etc.

Kids loved it!

And the Search continues...

Thought I'd try and get some hints as to how to begin an inquiry approach. Found this site after completing a search using- "how to start inquiry based learning"

thirteen edonline

BCE TL Big Day Out

Went to the BCE TL Big Day out today. It was excellent as usual. Came away with lots of info and ideas. Loved the session from BCE Resource Link. They highlighted a resource wiki they have developed devoted to successful searching. I've yet to look closely, but wanted to blog it before I forgot it!

Kidcyber

Had a look at Kidcyber (http://www.kidcyber.com.au) and it has a great list of animals, and age appropriate info- Yay!

starting up

Thought I'd try to find some info about how to begin an inquiry based unit.
Searched for 'starting inquiry based learning' and cgot 527 000 hits (blah). Liked the first one- YouthLearn http://www.youthlearn.org/learning/planning/lesson-planning/how-inquiry/how-inquiry. Will have a closer look at this.

Obviously ned to think about more effective search terms too to narrow down the 527 000 hits!

And the search begins

Due to the age of the students, the CT and I agreed that we would provide the students with various types of information- online, texts, fact sheets, pictures.
I started the search today to find appropriate online information. I have found in the past that it is quite difficult to find age appropriate info, plus this group of children have very little research experience, and no experience with inquiry.
Search #1
Terms used- research middle primary
Result- not good. Got heaps of sites about research about middle primary, which, in hindsight, makes sense really!
Search #2- information for kids
Result- better. checked out yahooligans first. I used to use this a lot years ago. It has been considerably revamped since then. Looks much groovier, but still lots of links to get through to get to the info. Once I found it, it was worth it. I'll use this- http://kids.yahoo.com/animals
Search #3- information for kids au
Result- added au on the end in the hope that I would get some Australian sites devoted to 8 and 9 year olds, didn't work. Got lots of sites with info about Australia... aaagghhh!!!

...to be continued

Questionnaire reponses

Click on the Questionnaire Tab to read my answers to the first questionnaire.
Leave your comments here!

In the beginning

As part of their Life and Living Science unit the Year 3 and 4 classes are researching an animal. The classroom teachers were keen to give the students a choice of 5 preselected animals to research. As well as the usual information about habitat, description and behaviour, the teachers wanted the children to identify where the animal fits in to a food chain.

After talking to the year 4 teacher, we both decided to give the students a wider choice of animals to research. We will use the Australia Zoo website to choose an animal as they will be going on an excursion there at the end of the term.

I also spoke to the Classroom Teacher (CT) about discussing and negotiating with the students about what questions they would research. I was really pleased when she agreed and was really interested in letting the chn come up with their own set of questions to research.

It should be interesting working with this group of children as they have had very little experience with inquiry based learning, and while this task will be very limited as far as true inquiry goes, I'm hoping it may lead to more complex tasks in the future.