Final reflections on Inquiry Learning @ QUT

Looking back to my initial post for LCN616 Inquiry Learning I believe I have grown immeasurably throughout this subject. My conceptions of both inquiry and information literacy have developed over the last four months (actually it's hard to believe that only four months have passed as the amount of information I've digested is immense) to a point where I am now confident to engage in discussions with my colleagues about their curriculum and the scope for furthering the inquiries within their lessons.

I've particularly engaged with Kuhlthau's Information Search Process (ISP) and find it nearly impossible not to analyse what part of the ISP 'journey' myself and others are at within many contexts. Recently I delivered a presentation at a college staff meeting about the importance of website design and "the user journey" for our students. This was to help staff move forward with their online curriculum sites they are building with Google Sites. Before starting the presentation I displayed Kuhlthau's ISP (the fancy version I re-imaged in an earlier post) and congratulated the staff on moving through this process with their own learning around the Google Apps for Education suite. Whilst many are still grappling with the new platform they are finally moving out of the 'vague loop' (as I've call it) and are becoming focused. I feel that as teachers we often get overlooked when it comes to receiving praise for the acquisition of new skills, while we are constantly building up our students' efforts. 

Although this marks the end of my own inquiry learning journey in the Master of Ed. I am committed to continuing to push every learning activity as far as I can through the Transformative (GeSTE) window and to the peak of Bloom's Pyramid (create) towards a sense of accomplishment and increased self-awareness (Kuhlthau's ISP) for myself, my colleagues and my students. So until my next pedagogical or bibliographical musings dear reader... I bid you adieu.

Designing an Inquiry Learning Activity - I.T. Boot Camp

After analysing the Year 7 History unit taught within my college in the previous post I now have a better understanding of the skills required by the Year 7 cohort and the level of inquiry they are expected to work at in a curriculum area other than my own. The Inquiry Learning Activity I have designed in response to these considerations is a small part of a large modular course aimed at introducing the college's IT systems' protocols and abilities to new students. The first section of the course, the Essential Modules, will be explicitly taught over 10 sessions to all year 7 students in term 1 starting next year. The remainder of the modules are specifically aligned to either the Library or Technology areas and can be taught ad hoc* over the remaining terms when time is available or an explicit skill is required for a subject.

*It is worth mentioning that IT skills have not been explicitly taught in the college at the junior levels for many years. And the level of digital instruction for those years has solely come down to the teacher and therefore the "luck of the draw" for students. This is especially troubling as we are a 1-to-1 school. So the allowance for even the 10 sessions in term 1 is at least a small victory for myself and other advocates of 21st Century skills within the school, though we still have a long way to go. The adoption of Google Apps for Education across the school this year is a step in the right direction for embedded digital technologies in the classroom but is a steep learning curve for many teachers.

I.T. Boot Camp, currently in its infancy, is an indefinite series of modular lessons which I plan to build over time. It is broken into three categories of modules/units that explicitly tackle different areas of digital and information literacies required by students to move comfortably through high school. Although it is being taught at year 7 level I have removed all mention of year levels from the curriculum site (a google based website where the modules are accessed) in order to be able to set the modules for new students across all year levels and our high numbers of international students sitting in cross age groups. Keeping inline with the schools new focus on observable skills, I will be using the Australian Curriculum ICT Capability Learning Continuum to inform the development of an ICT continuum of observable skills needed to progress towards the demands of the senior elective classroom (the VCE here in Victoria).

This whole task is mammoth and I would be naive to think that I can complete it in due time for this particular university assignment, but the design and learning sequences are becoming focused in my mind and I will share what is the starting point of a long developmental process. Being involved in the mentoring of teachers in the use of Google Apps for Education and the construction of Google Sites to deliver the school's common curriculum means that the site and learning experience that I produce for this unit needs to be the epitome of best practise.

The breakdown of I.T. Boot Camp into 3 major modules and subsequent elements of
the Essential Modules - screenshot by author

I.T. Boot Camp is delivered via the Google Site pictured to the left. The 'Essential Modules' learning sequence (please note this is a working document and will change and update over time) is designed to take roughly 7-8 x 50 minute sessions. If the sequence has finished within that timeframe then teachers can choose modules from either the Technology or Library streams to go on with for the remaining time (depending on the specific teacher's area of expertise). Currently the new Australian Curriculum subject Digital Technologies is awaiting final endorsement although it is ready to roll out for state and territory use. In order to prepare for this new subject I am designing the modules to fit as well as possible within my limited timeframe and specific objectives. 

Students create artefacts to embed in their ePortfolio
throughout their specific Apps modules

As students progress through the Essential Modules they accumulate digital artefacts that summarise their progress through each element of the digital platforms we are indoctrinating them into (G.A.F.E., Compass & Windows). These artefacts are then reused to facilitate understanding of the Google Sites app in the ultimate production of a digital portfolio* (ePortfolio) that will follow the students through high school and act as a display of formal formative and summative tasks undertaken by the student.

A basic model of what students could produce
- screenshot by author

*A digital portfolio is a purposeful collection of learnings over time that documents personal, academic and professional development. It is a visual guide that maps where you have been, where you are going and how you plan to get there. In this context, a digital portfolio is a tool to communicate what you know and can do. Portfolios could also be assessed during it’s development as a formative assessment.

The level of inquiry embedded within this unit is not as open as I would ultimately like due to the time restrictions, but over time once the explicit teaching in I.T. Boot Camp is over students will be completely self-guiding this inquiry learning activity. Teaching explicit skills is generally a generic view of Information Literacy according to the GeSTE windows model put forth by Dr. Mandy Lupton. By introducing the production of an ePortfolio and embedding it across all the students subject areas I am hoping that this will contextualise the skills learnt. The ability for the student to design their own journey for the ePortfolio will further open the inquiry process as they will ultimately search for fixes and instructions on how to get the formats they are hoping for. Depending on what the students end up doing with their portfolios in the future (evidence for job interviews or gaining entry to future study) will effect the transformative ability of the (very long) inquiry. The creation and continued evolution of the individual portfolios situates this unit within the highest level of Bloom's Taxonomy - create, incorporating all the levels below. Each task given to the students aims to interrogate the App in question using the provided questioning framework (outlined within the curriculum scope & sequence) governed by a process resembling Lamb's 8Ws of Information Literacy.

As an aside I am also trying to embed the practise of awarding digital badges for achievements across the college which students can display on their digital portfolios. Like a virtual scout uniform covered in representations of skills learned and jobs well done. As I stated earlier this whole endeavour is gargantuan, and only in it's first stages. As with any design it is only when you start to get 'users' using it that you can tweak and refine practises to resemble the outcome you had envisaged. My first year of guinea pigs are only four months away from putting me and my learning design through its paces and I expect to be on my feet refining all aspects of I.T. Boot Camp frequently, but hopefully with a diminishing level of complexity. 

Year 7 History and the Inquiry Learning Journey - part 2

In this post I will attempt to analyse the Year 7 History unit I introduced in my last post against the various theories and concepts I have covered in my course so far. I will then offer recommendations on how to improve the inquiry journey for students studying this unit in the future.

A quick note on the History unit presented. I have chosen to look at this unit as a whole instead of the three individual parts as most might choose to (as shown below). The idea of structuring three depth studies with a varying degree of assistance from the teacher shows the gradual release of responsibility from the teacher to the student, in keeping with the notion of Scaffolding students' learning. Taking each unit as an independent sequence would limit the view of the inquiry learning journey undertaken by the students.

  

Australian Curriculum aligned course
outline from the Year 7 History unit analysed.
Permission for use granted by authors. 

Analysis against Theories & Concepts

The Year 7 History unit has been written to meet the Australian Curriculum focus skills of Historical knowledge & understanding and Historical skills at the Year 7 level and aims to address the Key Inquiry Questions set at this level as:

• How do we know about the ancient past?
• Why and where did the earliest societies develop?
• What emerged as the defining characteristics of ancient societies
• What have been the legacies of ancient societies?

The unit progresses from teacher directed instruction of explicit skills through the lens of Ancient Australia to a guided inquiry into Ancient Egypt before culminating in an open inquiry (students choose an appropriate guiding inquiry question) about either Ancient China or Ancient India. This is an example of a Coupled Inquiry (defined as progression from teacher guided to student guided). 

Intertwined throughout the whole unit are the various progressions of Bloom's Taxonomy.
Students are asked to:

by  nist6dh 

• Write definitions of key words/concepts using the textbook (Remembering)
• Write a short explanation about how the climate affected the everyday life of Ancient Egyptians.. (Understand) 
• Use information contained in a presentation to create a detailed diagram that highlights 'change and continuity' between each [Ancient Egyptian] Kingdom. (Apply) 
• Compare and contrast images/phrases that define the characteristics of an ancient society against the characteristics that define a society today. (Analyse) 
• Examine the different theories of how the Pyramids were constructed and evaluate the different theories. (Evaluate)
• Formulate their own inquiry question about an ancient civilisation (India, or China) then collate and organise information in order to answer the inquiry question. (Create)

The explicit teaching of Historical Inquiry Skills within the initial stages, a Generic approach, followed by the contextualisation of those skills within the Inquiry into Ancient Egyptian life, place this unit within the Situated window of the GeSTE windows framework. Involving students in historical thinking pushes past the Generic window with activities like "Writing an imaginative letter to a friend adopting the persona of a person living in ancient Egypt" and the "Evaluation of theories related to the construction of the pyramids".

Students are required to interrogate and evaluate primary & secondary sources using ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘when’, ‘why’ questions set out in their textbook and Generic questions (see inset below) are given to guide students to draw conclusions about a usefulness of sources - that resemble the questions asked in the C.R.A.P. test.

DRAWING CONCLUSIONS ABOUT THE USEFULNESS OF SOURCES A useful source, whether primary or secondary, is one that will add to your understanding of a historical inquiry. The source needs to be relevant to the topic or question asked and must also be reliable.  The following are good questions to ask in order to determine the usefulness of a source:  ☺ Is it a reliable source?  ☺ Is there enough information and sufficient detail to help me answer the inquiry   question?  ☺ Does the information support and reinforce evidence from other sources? ☺ Is it balanced or does it present one point of view (bias)?  ☺ Is it based on fact or opinion?  ☺ Is the information current?

NSW DET Information process

The unit uses the New South Wales Department of Education and Training's (NSW DET) Information Skills Process (ISP), although not named as such within the curriculum documentation. This model guides the students through both their guided and individual inquiries.

Screen shot of the Information Process used within the unit. Permission to use granted by authors.

Assessment as and of learning in this unit come in a variety tasks. The skills are measured against a unique continuum created for the college. Using the Australian Curriculum and research theory coupled with teacher expertise, staff have built continua of the natural progression of skills as seen in their students. Capturing the observable skills and learning the students show at each step of their learning journey. This helps to create realistic snapshots of students and creates a common language between teachers across year levels thus allowing greater tailoring to individual students’ Zone of Proximal Development. Matrices for assessment tasks are informed by the continua and act as concrete tools to assess student progress throughout tasks. This allows all students demonstrate ability regardless of level in all assessment tasks.

Recommendations for enhancing the unit

Year 7 History is such an extensive unit when looked at as a whole. Isolating each depth study would have brought up deficits in different areas. The fact that these units are not mutually exclusive and must be taught in sequence shows that a lot of thought was put into the progression of student abilities across the whole subject area.

In order to push this through into the Transformative window of the GeSTE framework, this unit could have gone on to look at the commonalities between the treatment of people in Ancient Societies and today's society and taken on a moral stance towards an issue effecting the world today. The line of questioning such as "What mistakes have been made in the past?", "What mistakes are we still making now?" and "What can we do to help stop or minimise the impact of these mistakes?" could help students reflect on their learning and push them to an activist role for human rights issues through the lens of the Ancient Societies, however this may be difficult.

Year 7 History and the Inquiry Learning Journey - part 1

For my final assignment in the Queensland University of Technology's Master of Education (Teacher-librarianship) I need to analyse an example curriculum document using a range of theories and concepts as covered in the Inquiry Learning subject I am now completing. In this entry I will endeavour to describe the Inquiry Learning Activity I have chosen and explain its' context, what students are expected to do and its intended learning outcomes and assessment.

The focus of my inquiry into Inquiry Learning Activities present within the curriculum currently being taught at my school is Year 7 History. 

photo credit: Pharoah Khufu's Great Pyramid at 
Giza, Egypt via photopin (license)

Year 7 History is taught over one semester as a unit within the Humanities subject. It begins with a focus on teaching historical skills through Indigenous culture and moves onto an in depth study of the Egyptians before finishing with a focus on Ancient Indian and Chinese cultures. Using the skills acquired through the studies of Indigenous Australian and Egyptian cultures, students set off into an Independent inquiry into the Indian and Chinese cultures, this inquiry constitutes their formative assessment. Oxford Big Ideas History 7 (Saldais, Taylor &Young, 2014) compliments this unit of inquiry providing key inquiry questions, the “big ideas”, and core skills and concepts. 

Due to a recent shake up of curriculum delivery at the college, this unit is presented in an online format (interactive website) where supplementary documents and information are generally embedded directly into the lesson sequences for easy 24/7 access. As these curriculum sites exist on a closed school network and are not available publicly on the web, as yet, I am unable to share much in the way of screenshots of content or links. I will however endeavour to describe these lesson sequences in depth and to the best of my ability.

Condensed view of lesson sequence - Year 7 History Site.
Permission granted for use by author P.Owens, 2015.

Following the model used by the school across all learning areas, each of the lesson sequences listed in the image to the left contain Learning Intentions, Stimulus for learning and Activities. Each sequence can last for several lessons if required and is differentiated with a selection of activities based on Lev Vygotsky's zone of proximal development and Jerome Bruner's subsequent idea of scaffolding.

Throughout the unit students are expected to :

• examine the seven key historical concepts (Evidence, Continuity and Change, Cause and Effect, Contestability, Significance, Perspectives and Empathy) 
• look at the characteristics of society 
• understand the role of groups, beliefs and practises
• examine why societies change
• study past perspectives and interpretations

This is punctuated with formative assessments such as:

• a group presentation of one of the key historical concepts in the form of a poster to be displayed in class.
• a multimedia presentation that introduces the importance of history for future Year 7 Classes
• creation of major events timelines
• writing an imaginative letter to a friend adopting the persona of a person living in ancient Egypt
• biographical recount of the life of a chosen famous Egyptian
• evaluation of theories related to the construction of the pyramids
• explanation of the difference between primary and secondary sources

The focus on Egyptian life ends with the Historical Inquiry question "How did the defining characteristics of Ancient Egypt contribute to its organisation, law and order?" which the students are expected to address via the medium of an informative poster. For this inquiry students are required to follow the STRAP strategy (as set out below) to collate and organise information to help answer the inquiry question. Before beginning the inquiry process students are also asked to write a short hypothesis that aims to answer the question.

The following STRAP statement should inform the style of writing required Subject - Ancient Egyptian society Text type -  Written explanations / descriptions/ illustrations and diagrams. Role - An expert in Ancient Egyptian Society Audience - Readers of an Ancient Egyptian text book Purpose - To inform anyone interested about organisation, law and order during Ancient Egypt

In terms of this unit the above task is still considered formative as students go on to replicate the above strategies on their own in a summative Independent Historical Inquiry where students are required to formulate their own inquiry question about an ancient civilisation (India, or China). After writing an hypothesis, they then collate and organise information in order to answer their inquiry question.

Final Post - A tangled weave woven on the web

This post signifies the last in my re-search into Inquiry. It would be nice to say that this is finished, but as with all inquiries it isn't ever truly over, there's always somewhere else to go and explore. As far as Module 1 of my Inquiry Learning subject is concerned this does mark the end of my documented journey. So... what has been learned? Have the questions posed back on day one been answered?

Talking about my inquiry search process in terms of Kuhlthau's Inquiry Search Process Model (ISP) it is safe to say that I experienced the full gamut of feelings, thoughts and actions defined in the model below*. 

*Being irritably visual as you may have gathered by now, I took it upon myself to re-image Kuhlthau's ISP into a more visually appealing table than the original. I figure every great process needs a suitably engaging visual to go with it (like books and their covers... but that's another post for another time!).

I found my process wasn't as linear as the model suggests. Often, in the early days, I was stuck in the 'vague loop' between uncertainty, optimism, confusion, frustration and doubt during my exploring phase. I spent considerably more time Exploring than Documenting as even when I thought I was through exploring and focused on my presentation I'd invariably find another thread that piqued my interest and led me back to explore different tangents.  Forever the Teacher-librarian at heart I also had my inquiry interwoven with the inquiries of others, I dropped in and out of my process in order to help others with theirs, often with the inquiries inadvertently helping clarify the other. 

 I've likened my own inquiry process to Kuhlthau's ISP and the Spirals of Inquiry in a previous post. I think that the models available are all very similar and can be read in multiple ways. This realisation has led me to come to terms with the fact that there is no single 'brand' of Inquiry suitable for my school, and that to align solely with one would be a detriment as there are a plethora of ideas that are out there and new inquiry pedagogies blooming in educators minds all over the world needing to be considered.  

Re-search Response : Gentle and Effective Inquiry Integration, can it be done?

With my initial post on the subject of Inquiry Learning I posed three guiding questions to lead me on my trawling of the web. I've gained insight into all of those initial musings, but for this post I want to talk about the final question I asked.

How can a Teacher-librarian best support staff to integrate Inquiry Learning into their curriculum in a gentle yet effective way?

I originally asked the question above as it is something I seem to face everyday as I try to reconcile the new skills I am consolidating in my Masters of Education (Teacher-librarianship) with the current practises of the status quo at work. How can I effect change on the engrained practises in my workplace, and how can I do it without creating conflict and feelings of hardship to my colleagues? 

The murmurs of 'oh we did that back in the 70s' in staff meetings when any 'new' pedagogical direction is discussed makes me realise that Pedagogy is the greatest Inquiry journey teachers are on, often finding themselves back at places similar to those they've been before just with an updated cache of jargon and a new wave of technology. It surprises me that at some point many teachers seem to think that their learning has come to an end and they will just teach from then on, as if Pedagogy is a static art. One particular article in my Scoop.it curation Inquiry Learning across the curriculum Neil Hooley's New Structures to Support Democratic Learning featured in the Australian Education Union's Professional Voice magazine spoke introduced me to Seymor Papert's idea of "Mathetics". Papert "noted that the word “pedagogy” is used to indicate the art of teaching, but for children, there is no corresponding word to mean the art of learning... In order to fill this gap, he advocated the use of the word “mathetics”." (Hooley 2008). Mathetics being derived from the same source as mathematics the Greek word máthēma which translates as “knowledge, study, learning.

I would argue that not only do teachers need to display Pedagogy but also Mathetics in-order to be continually effective and relevant over a long period of time. This marriage between teaching and learning, adapting practise overtime and being reflexive instead of reactionary without advise and new initiatives being seen as a slight against their ability or just 'more work'. My re-search into these matters has only brought up more questions for me and will undoubtedly guide my own 'Spiral of Learning and Teaching' a process I am beginning to imagine as one similar to Judy Halbert & Linda Kaser's model of inquiry but with an added interwoven strands of pedagogy.

References:

Halbert, J., & Kaser, L. (2013). Spirals of Inquiry. Vancouver, BC: BC Principals and Vice   Principals Association.

Hooley, N. (2008) New Structures to Support Democratic learning. Professional voice 5(3), 29 - 33. Retrieved from: http://www.aeuvic.asn.au/pv_vol5_iss3.pdf

Super Scooper - Curation collection using Scoop.it

image from scoop.it

Curation collection is at the heart of the Teacher-librarian, It's the constant voice in the back of my head whispering "Oh I wonder who could use this?". I have curated Inquiry Learning across the curriculum using Scoop.it to showcase high quality resources I have distilled from my expert searching experiments. Scoop.it is a great curation tool which allows you to save and comment on digital content from all over the internet. It will embed pdf documents with a scroll bar so you can read curated articles and papers without leaving Scoop.it's user interface which makes for tidy and quick viewing. 

As mentioned in a previous post I have access to a plethora of high quality digital databases via the QUT library, so some of the content I have curated will be inaccessible to you if you are not a member of a local/state library that offers the service. You will still be able to link to the abstract if the content lies behind a paywall and read my insights on the piece.

Expert Searching with social media

In this post I am trawling through various Social Media platforms looking for content curated and presented by others dealing with Inquiry Learning.

Twitter search journey by author 

Searching with Twitter

I generally use different Social Media platforms for professional and private conversations if I have a choice. Twitter is generally me as a Teacher-librarian or as a cerebral person, not the day-to-day banal musings I save for my Facebook profile. I started my search of twitter with #inquirylearning and found a few interesting things but it didn't appear to be a used tag. I then tried #inquiry-based and noticed a lot of entries coming up tagged simply as #inquiry. I had resisted using #inquiry from the start as I figured it would yield political results about the government inquires being held systematically throughout the country, but I was wrong.  

screenshot of Kath Murdoch's
Twitter profile by author

A name I had seen before, many times in this enquiry, popped up. Kath Murdoch's twitter feed is quite prolific and she has put a lot of work into sharing great inquiry learning tips and articles with the global community, it is a must read for all teachers.

Searching with G+

Like Twitter, I tend to use Google+ for professional networks and learning (stay tuned for Australian School Library Book Chat Community hopefully going live next year which I will be moderating with fellow QUT TL Faith Hage). Searching simply Inquiry on G+ wasn't very fruitful and instead Inquiry Learning produced some interesting communities and individuals. Below are some of the communities I've uncovered using the Inquiry Learning search on G+.

screenshot by author

Searching with Pinterest

As a visual person I really love the ability to curate images, it gets addictive. I keep a variety of work-related and personal Pinterest boards, but I'd never searched with Pinterest before. I really loved that the search function give you the ability to refine you search with pre-determined areas (like a controlled vocabulary), it gives you a heads up that you will find something. My Inquiry Learning board is a curation of interesting pins I have found and re-pinned for future use.

screen shot of Pinterest's search function by author

I'm leaving my Social Media search there as I have an aversion to using Facebook for anything meaningful - even professionals need an unprofessional outlet. YouTube is another great place to find curations on Inquiry Learning although the click-bait is at times overwhelming and you'll find that 'quick search' has turned into hours of video watching fun! I'm using Scoop It! in my next post on content curation, where there are also many Inquiry Learning boards available.  

Follow Dread Pirate Librarian's board Inquiry Learning on Pinterest.

Expert Searching with ProQuest education

Moving on to my last database search in this series of Expert Searching posts I explore ProQuest, an American based International database. Using an advanced command line search in ProQuest's education database I was able to target my search terms to specific fields within the results. While some papers are aptly named, many do not use the terms I am searching in the title. Searching the abstract (AB) specifically allowed me to return results were more targeted and not results where my terms are coincidentally mentioned in the full text.

As the Scientific Method is basically the epitome of inquiry and is, at my school, practised heavily across the 7-12 Science curriculum I have decided to remove science from my search string to allow other disciplines to show up. Choosing to limit the publication date to within this century (2001 - present) will also bring me more usable results as use I.T. and Web 2.0 technologies feature heavily within my school and any viable framework will need to take these into account.

screenshot of ProQuest search by author

The 14 results retrieved from the search above (listed here in pdf format using ProQuest's handy export function) were helpful as they made me take stock of what I was actually looking for. My searches have been rather broad, as are my guiding questions. I am still trying to find an angle to approach Inquiry Learning from. My aim in this searching has evolved to locate resources that will help me approach teachers during curriculum development as say... 

'Hey have you heard about this? I've just read an awesome paper about a Inquiry project that I can see working in your class on [insert topic here]. Would you like to read it? If you're interested I could help you run something similar.'  

So with my mind a little clearer I chose to dive back into the inquiry cycle and re-trace previous clicks back through Google Scholar. Using my new search string (basically just omitting Science) and gather some useful information to help me help others in my school going forward with Inquiry units.

screenshot by author

Check out my Scoop.it curation board on "Inquiry across the curriculum" to see some of the great resources I've found so far. Below is one such example, a nice model called the Spiral of Inquiry (Timperley, Kaser & Halbert. 2014) which nicely illustrates my travels thus far, what has felt like being on a metaphorical möbius strip. 

Spiral of Inquiry (Timperley, Kaser & Halbert. 2014)

I have felt that I have spent a lot of time back and forward between the scanning, developing a hunch and learning phases... on second thoughts my journey is probably better represented by my fancy spiral hair tie - like a loop of telephone cord or DNA... lots of mini repeating cycles which can easily get tangled up along the way! 

My fancy spiral hair tie/ Inquiry Journey (E. Crampton, 2015)

Join me next time in my last post on Expert Searching post looking at Social Media.

Expert Searching with A+ Education database

Powering on with my search to identify models of Inquiry Learning and the 'ultimate' model for my school context (if one even even exists) I find myself at the trust-worthy Queensland University of Technology Library catalogue*. 

*Don't worry if you don't have access to a well resourced university library database collection, many local libraries will have access to these for members. The State Library of Victoria allows Victorians to sign-up for membership online giving them access to a range of databases and other digital content, check out your own state library for a similar deal. 

One such database is A+ Education, an Australian online collection of full text articles from more than 130 Australasian journals dealing with education specific topics. Picking up where we left google scholar in my last foray into searching I re-cycle some of my search terms (replacing "secondary school" with "secondary education") and take into account A+ Education's search tips. 

screenshot of A+ Education database via informit by author

The search string above is basic ("inquiry learning" AND secondary education AND framework") and yielded only 12 results which is a highly manageable number. The quality of the returned results and my broad inquiry (being non specific to a particular discipline) meant that I didn't need to get more creative with my search technique. 

Further steps for this search could have incorporated the use of truncation in the term inquiry (as *nquiry) to pull up results containing enquiry; wildcard terms such as educat? to search variants of education such as educator, educate or educating; or the proximity operator % between inquiry and learning (inquiry % learning) to indicate that the terms need to be adjacent but in no particular order.

This search has left me with interesting resources to read, adding to my overall understanding of Inquiry Learning... a pastiche of ideas that I now need to reconcile into a coherent thought process. These resources will come together in a later post outlining content curation for your reading pleasure. The term "democratic learning" is featured within one of my results, Hooley's New structures to support democratic learning, and is a term I'd never heard before. Defaulting back to Google search I plugged in the search string "democratic learning" AND inquiry and came across a nice overview of the democratic learning process and an interesting article: Child-centred inquiry learning: How mathematics understanding emerges  by Calder & Brough, featured in the International Journal for Mathematics Teaching and Learning (2013). 

The following quotes stuck out for me in this paper as I feel it wholly reflects why Inquiry Learning frameworks and tasks may not be utilised to their full potential within schools.

"Authentic tasks reflect the nature of real problems because they are complex, ill structured, contain multiple perspectives and offer multiple pathways or solutions" (Young, 1993). In addition, the nature of inquiries involves many skills that are not measurable through standardised tests such as the ability to negotiate, create knowledge, think creatively and critically, and work together for the common good." (Calder & Brough,  2013)

Further questions arising from this search:

• What is democratic learning?
• Is Inquiry Learning democratic at its' heart?

Expert Searching with Google and Google Scholar

The first port of call (and often last) in most web searching journeys is the famed Google. In the school library where I occasionally work I often see, to my dismay, students typing their whole research question in the ever obliging Google search bar. In order to really see the benefit of applying expert searching techniques to Google (we’ll look at Google scholar later on in the post) I thought I’d start at the same point as so many of my students (and unfortunately some colleagues) by asking Google a question as if it were a sentient being.

Dear Google,

There were some pretty impressive results from the search above, however if I had solely relied on this method though I would have 142 000 000 results to sift through - take note that in my experience many students stop here, usually after the top three or four results. That is equivalent to 0.000003% of what is available! In a bid to refine these numbers decided to target the key words of my question to make a search string.

With the help of Google’s Search operators and the Youtube video Search smarter, Search faster on The University of Sydney’s YouTube channel (shout out to the ever so generous Tony Szymkowski, a fellow QUT TL student, for sharing this) I was inspired to make full use of Boolean operators AND and OR. 

So looking at my question, "What are the various models of Inquiry Learning and how do they differ?”, I decided to isolate the key words and assign alternate words to use the OR operator with.

Question terms	Inquiry	Learning	Models	Differ
Search Term	inquiry	learning	model	difference
Synonyms/ alternate words	project-based	education	framework	comparison

Take two. 

 ("inquiry Learning" OR "project-based") AND (model OR framework) AND (comparison OR difference) 

A lot less results this time but by including “Project-based” I gathered a whole lot of information examining it’s difference to Problem-based learning - obviously a question which gets asked and answered a lot on the web. But this doesn’t seem to suit the direction of my intended search. So I try again omitting "Project-based".

Take three.

At each step so far using Google I have been able to refine my results. Google also seemed to recognise that I am keen to find quality information and automatically offered Google Scholar articles when I started using the Boolean operators. To be sure this was the case I tried searching 'Inquiry Leaning Models' and '“Inquiry Learning” AND models’, and sure enough Scholar turned up second time around. So, taking the bait, at this point I abandoned asking Google any further questions and switched its more academic sibling Google Scholar. Google Scholar searches scholarly articles and literature in the same way Google searches everything else.

Scholar has delivered me a lot of articles, but significantly less that Google produced. I’m happy with this number, I am not going to refine further using words however I did remove citations later (reducing the hits to 12 700) and tightened the date range to the last 5 years (further reducing hits to 7 950). As I am across the curriculum I don’t have a subject area to further reduce results by, my search is still broad in that aspect. Lastly I add AND ("secondary school" OR "High school”) to my search and retrieve 4 810 results, and I’m spent. I’ll go through this list, until I find some specific models to compare. 

During my first Google Scholar search as I was Scrolling through the list of results I stumbled upon a citation in the results. As searching is rarely linear, I started following breadcrumbs (links) that led me off the path I had set myself on. 

I was intrigued by this listing as it wasn’t a live link… a challenge! I searched for this book on QUT’s Library database, and sadly confirmed my fear that it was indeed a real life “book” and being based in Melbourne I couldn’t just stroll up to the Queensland University of Technology to peruse its pages. Instead of searching local libraries for the book I continued to scroll my database results list - I mean I am interested to see what it says, but the path of least resistance is just re-searching the resources digitally available. And further down the list I found an interesting sounding ebook listed in all it's digital glory - Collaborative models for librarian and teacher partnerships. Why am I bothering to tell you all this? Well reading through the chapter titles in this book I came across this Chapter 11 “Need to Know”: Partnerships in Project-Based Learning by Rhonda Huisman. And it’s the abstract for this chapter that got me excited, indulge me please. 

“ABSTRACT - This chapter outlines, defines, and illustrates examples of project-based learning, while focusing on how librarians can offer support to teachers when creating and leading project-based learning programs. Various disciplines and grade level (K-12 and higher education) examples of projects are discussed, pointing to strategic methods of intervention from school librarians, as well as ideas on how to collaborate and build relationships through project-based learning opportunities.” (Huisman, 2014) 

If you’ll recall my last inquiry question from my initial post "How can a Teacher-librarian best support staff to integrate Inquiry Learning into their curriculum in a gentle yet effective way?”… A-Ha! Although I’ve still not answered my first two questions, this 'search tangent’ I’ve gotten myself onto has brought me closer to my inquiry goals.

Join me in my next posts when I get to searching the academic databases A+ Education and ProQuest Education looking for examples of the various models of Inquiry Learning available and hopefully find the best fit for my inner- west Melbourne secondary college.

All the images within this post are screenshots, taken by me, of Google and Google Scholar search interfaces.

Inquiry Learning and the Teacher-librarian (Initial Post for LCN616)

Thinking about the term Inquiry Learning has brought me unstuck. I know what the words mean independently. Inquiry, also known as enquiry, is "a request for information about somebody/something; a question about somebody/something; the act of asking questions or collecting information about somebody/something” and Learning is defined as "The acquisition of knowledge or skills through study, experience, or being taught:”. So logic would suggest that Inquiry Learning is basically acquiring knowledge through questioning and collecting information. A simple enough notion, but what does it look like?

Almost ten years of countless professional development sessions with the department of education here in Victoria have meant that I’ve heard the term Inquiry Learning many times. Memories of the E5 Instructional model come to mind, we had speakers and professional learning teams, we rewrote curriculum into different templates over and over again. Don’t ask me what was done with that learning, all the new knowledge we were delivered. No doubt the next ‘focus’ or trend emerged for the region and we were sent to rewrite our curriculum again to suit the new vogue.

To me, now, Inquiry Learning is a process in which a person (or any animal for that fact) gains knowledge through questioning, searching and experimenting. It is a natural process which happens every day, it is HOW we learn from the moment we are born. We test boundaries, make mistakes and if unsuccessful try a different path in the future.

Entering the search term “Inquiry Learning” into google scholar (being sure to use parenthesis as I didn’t want to search the terms separately) I retrieved "About 399,000 results (0.53 seconds)”. Immediately after the obligatory wikipedia supplied meaning of my term I was happy to find two real hits about Inquiry learning, a PDF document entitled Inquiry Learning - Kath Murdoch and the site www.teachinquiry.com. Re-running the search on Google Scholar utilizing the ability to link the QUT Library database gave me “About 26,900 results (0.03 sec)” while a much narrower field of results it seems the lexical density grows exponentially from the previous search. I consider using “Inquiry Learning for dummies” as a new search, but resist the urge. The basic google search has given me enough fodder for a good nights’ reading to acquaint myself with the specific jargon associated with the area, but what do I really want to know going forward? It is clear that I will need to be precise in my searching terms to whittle down the results to specific models and/or subject areas. So which leaning area do I focus on? The beauty of being a Teacher-librarian is being across the curriculum, helping everyone - so maybe I should be focusing on a general inquiry into the models that might best fit my school. 

"Any fool can know. The point is to understand.” 

- Albert Einstein (maybe) 

The quote above which is often attributed to Einstein, although there is contention on the internet as to if this is true, is guiding me on this journey, this enquiry into Inquiry Learning. Throughout this semester, my final in this immensely transformative degree, I am striving to understand Inquiry Learning not simply know it and move on as I have done in the past. I want to understand the various models/frameworks of Inquiry Learning and find the best fit model/s for my school context. I want understand how I can assist teachers in building inquiry into their classroom/curriculum in a way which does not force them to re-invent the wheel as such, adapting current curriculum not re-writing it.

From my initial google search, be it just a scratch on the surface, I have formulated a few key questions to proceed with.

1. What are the various models of Inquiry Learning and how do they differ?
2. Which model would be the best fit for my school?
3. How can a Teacher-librarian best support staff to integrate Inquiry Learning into their curriculum in a gentle yet effective way?

Join me again soon in my next post where I will be delving deeper into Expert Searching using google and google scholar.

Seven eighths of a degree down...

Second semester 2015, I've made it to my last subject in the Master of Education (Teacher-librarianship) *shakes head in disbelief*. My last subject requires more blogging but this time about Inquiry Learning. 'Huh, what's that?' I hear you ask, well fear not... we will figure that one out together. Buckle up.

Icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com is licensed under CC BY 3.0

Book trailer - "Noggin" by John Corey Whaley

Assignment two of LCN617 – Children’s Literature: Criticism & Practice saw me writing a Critical Rationale for, and book trailer of, John Corey Whaley's second novel Noggin. I won't bore you with the essay, but I am rather proud of the trailer :)... here's a brief summary of the text first, it's a pretty good read.

A brief summary of Noggin

Travis Coates is an average teen boy going through ordinary teenage boy issues and angst via an extraordinary set of circumstances. At the age of 16, Travis was diagnosed with cancer. Desperate for some control in an uncontrollable situation he and his parents agreed to an experimental procedure to have his cancer-free head surgically removed and cryogenically frozen until a time when science had advanced enough to perform a head transplant - attaching his head to another person's healthy, donated body.

A mere five years after his provisional death, Travis is reanimated and reintroduced to a world that has only barely gotten over his departure. Attached to the much stronger (and taller) body of Jeremy Pratt, a boy who had terminal brain cancer at the time of donating his body, Travis emerges from his five-year pause still very much in the body and the mind of a 16-year-old. The peculiar conditions of his resurrection only serve to highlight the uncomfortable and confusing feelings of being a teenager. The world is the same, but different too. Travis’ parents, best friend, and girlfriend are five years older, complete with half a decade of experiences that Travis isn't a part of and can't even begin to fathom at his tender age, especially now that his former girlfriend is engaged to be married. Only one other person in the world, Lawrence, a family man and the one other reanimated human to survive, has experienced what Travis is going through. Lawrence becomes Travis’ confidante and friend helping him through these confusing times. Noggin is a typical coming of age story with an atypical twist.

Reference:

• Whaley, J. C. (2014). Noggin. London : Simon & Schuster.