INQUIRY UNPACKED An Introduction to Inquiry-Based Learning By Barbara A. Jansen

"Inquire, think critically, and gain knowledge." "Plan strategies to guide inquiry."

As our national educational organizations' standards evolve from students mastering discrete skills to demonstrating broad learning behaviors, often referred to as 21st century learning skills, pedagogy is slowly shifting from teacher- and textbook-centered dissemination of facts and information to student-centered construction of learning and knowledge. In this environment, students use a wide range of resources to collaborate with others to solve authentic problems by thinking critically, actively create content, and communicate with a wide audience. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills succinctly categorizes these participatory skills into the four Cs: "critical thinking and problem solving, collaboration, communication, and creativity and innovation" (P21 mission statement). Both the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) and the International Society for Technology in Education's (ISTE)

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"The inquiry process is not linear but occurs as a cyclical series of actions or events."

National Educational Technology Standards for Students 2007 call for students to use an inquiry approach when engaged in the research process. The AASL standards refer to inquiry seven times, including having students "inquire, think critically, gain knowledge, " and to "follow an inquiry- based process in seeking knowledge in curricular subjects, . . ." and "continue an inquiry-based research process by applying critical-thinking skills . . ." in addition to "conclud[ing] an inquiry-based research process . . ." (AASL). ISTE standards call tor students to "plan strategies to guide inquiry" ("NETS for Students").

But what does it look like for a student to be engaged in inquiry? What is inquiry-based research, commonly referred to as inquiry-based

learning or "guided inquiry" (Kuhlthau, Maniotcs, and Caspari)? A recent post on the AASL email forum underscores the confusion that school librarians and educators in general have about inquiry. A librarian questioned the use of the term

"inquiry-based project" in the standards in lieu of "research project" and considered whether she should teach her students the meaning of inquiry. A search for "inquiry-based research" on Google results in 102,000 links. "Inquiry-based learning" returns over 151,000 links. A search for "inquiry- based learning" offers 101 titles on Amazon.com, over 8,400 results on Google Books, over 9,760 results on Google Scholar, and over 52,000,000 results on Bing.

March/April 2011

NOT TO BE MISSED READING AND VIEWING FOR SCHOOL LIBRARIANS

Kuhlthau, Carol C, Leslie K. Maniotes,

and Ann K. Caspari. Guided Inquiry:

Learning in the 21st Century. Libraries

Unlimited, 2007.

Rheingold, Howard. "Librarian 2.0: Buffy J. Hamilton." Digital LM Central. MacArthur Foundation, 3 May 2010. Web. 10 Oct. 2010. bttp://dmlcentraL net/blog/howard-rheingold/librarian- 20-buffy-j-hamilton.

Stripling, Barbara. "Teaching Students to

Think in the Digital Environment: Digital

Literacy and Digital Inquiry." School

Library Monthly 26.8 (2010): 16-18.

EBSCOhost Professional Development

Collection. Web. 16 Sept. 2010.

INQUIRY DEFINED w h a t is inquiry? What does it look like? What are

its components?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines inquiry a.s

"the action ot seeking, . . . for truth, knowledge,

or information concerning something; search,

research, investigation, examination; a course of

inquiry, an investigation; and the action of asking

or questioning. '

Educational organizations explain inquiry as it

relates to learning. In Standards for the English

Language Arts, the National Council of Teachers of

English (NGTE) describes inquiry as "the learners

desire to look deeply into a question or idea that

interests him or her' (27). AASL's explanation in

Standards for the 21st-century Learner oiFers inquiry

as a "stance toward learning in which the learners

themselves are engaged in asking questions and

finding answers, not simply accumulating facts

(presented by someone else) that have no relation

to previous learning or new understanding" (17).

Inquiry-based research—or learning—consists of

a "process of learning that is driven by questioning,

investigating, making sense of information, and

developing new understandings, it is a process

of active learning, [and] it is cyclical, not linear "

("Chapter 3: Inquiry in Action") and is deterpiined

"by one's own curiosity, wonder, interest or passion

to understand an observation or solve a problem"

("A Description of Inquiry").

Traditionally, the teacher tells students what to "look

up"' during the research phase of a given projea,

which may typically occur after the teaching of the

content as enrichment or a follow-up activity. Inquiry-

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"Inquiry-based research allows the student to ask questions in which he or she is interested and use all available resources to investigate the problenn."

based research allows the student to ask questions

in which he or she is interested and use all available

resources to investigate the problem. Key components

ot inquiry-based research include "tíaming school

study around questions developed and shaped by

kids," "handing the brainwork of learning back to

the kids," and focusing on the "development of kids'

thinking first, foremost, and always" (Harvey and

Daniels 56-57). And, inquiry occurs not at the end

but at the beginning of the study, allowing students

to construct the content knowledge necessary to

understand concepts and make connections.

Inquiry does not necessarily follow a logical or neat

process. Models of inquiry-based learning show

a variety of approaches (see additional resources

below) that librarians and teachers can use to

guide students. All emph.isize that the process is

not linear but occurs as a cyclical series of actions

or events. The six-phase Stripling Inquiry Model

makes good sense for school librarians who seek a

structure for collaborating with teachers (Stripling)

to bring inquiry into the learning process. The

model's phases—connect, wonder, investigate,

construct, express, and reflect—allow for nonlinear

thinking as illustrated below:

Ideally, the process begins "when the learner

identifies a problem or notices something that

intrigues, surprises, or stimulates a question—

something that is new, or something that may

not make sense in relationship to the learner's

previous experience or current understanding" ("A

De.scription ot Inquiry").

INOUIRY PRACTICED In reality, other than the occasional self-selected

research paper or science tair topic, state- or

school-mandated curriculum standards leave

little time for students to explore their own

interests. By turning the curriculum into engaging

problems for students to solve, students can

participate in inquiry while practicing many

curriculum-mandated skills (i.e., reading, writing,

listening, research) as they investigate subject-

area content (social studies, science, health, math,

etc.). Instead ot teachers dictating the information

students need to locate, allow them to determine

what they know, want to know, and need to know

to solve the intorniation problem. Encourage

students to use a variety of online and otïline

resources, and allow them to show their results by

creating products that go beyond the traditional

report and PowerPoint presentation. Targeting

specific audiences for students' etTorts raises their

level of concern and provides a focus for their

• Reflect on own learning

• Ask new questions

• Apply understandings to a new context, new situation

• Express new ideas to share learning with others

• Connect to self, previous knowledge

• Gain background and context

1 ^ Connect ^ 1

- Reflect stripling Wonder

À Model of À

* Inquiry T

- Express Investigate

T ^ Construct ^ T

• Construct new understandings connected to previous knowledge

• Draw conclusions about questions and hypotheses

• Develop questions

• Make predictions,

hypothesis

• Find and evaluate information to answer questions, test hypotheses

• Think about information to illuminate new questions and hypotheses

[Used with fjermission.] For more about the Stripling Model, see the additional resources on the next page.

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writing and knowledge sharing. For example, turn the traditional report into

an article synthesizing important concepts for the general consumption of

Time magazine readers or an editorial for the opinion page of a newspaper.

Multimedia texts combine the important skill of writing along with those

involved in visual and audio production. Students can display these texts on

blogs or wikis for public consumption.

Inquiry is not easily nurtured through standalone library instruction that

occurs once a week. Successful inquiry-based learning involves students

engaging in topics originating in their subject-area courses for extended

periods of time on consecutive days, preferably in collaboration with the

school librarian. Kuhlthau, Maniotes, and Caspari suggest that "inquiry

instructional teams" help students develop competencies in research and

subject knowledge while helping to support essential 21st century skills,

and require "careful planning, close supervision, ongoing assessment, and

targeted intervention . . ." (2-3).

Buffy Hamilton, librarian at Creekview High School in Canton, Georgia,

offers useful insights to the inquiry process through a collaboration with a

tenth grade teacher of literature composition. According to Hamilton,

collaboration with the classroom teacher benefits students in

several ways: scaffolding information literacy skills, introducing

new online tools to students or showing them how to use familiar

ones in effective ways, teaching evaluation of multimedia texts, and

establishing a climate that promotes participation, inquiry, and risk

taking in a safe environment. Students see two or more professionals

working together and learning with them (qtd. in Rheingold).

Through self-selected topics within the greater problem of veteran's issues,

students in Hamilton's school engaged in the inquiry process with the

support of these professionals. Students "effectively learn to become their

own information filters, which is the ultimate act of information fluency.

[Using a variety of online resources and presentation tools such as NetVibes]

allows us to privilege multiple forms of literacy and for our students to

engage in transliteracy—the ability to read and write and share information

across a variety of platforms" (Rheingold).

By collaborating with teachers to connect students to subject knowledge,

developing their information fluency, and supporting the vital skills of

collaboration, creation, and communication through inquiry, school librarians

will solidify their place as an essential teaching professional at their schools. *S

WORKS CITED American Association of" School Librarians. Standards far the 21 st-Century Learner. American Library Association, 2007. Web. 30 Aug. 2010. http://www.aia.org/ala/mgrps/ divs/aasl/guidelinesandstandards/learningstandards/AASL_LearningStandards.pdf.

"Chapter 3; Inquiry in Action." Supporting Inquiry with Primary Sources. Library of Congress, n.d. Web. 16 Sept. 2010. http://www.ioc.gov/teachers/ professionaldevelopment/selfdirected/inquiry/index.htmi.

"A Description of Inquiry." Institute for Inquiry: Examining the Art of Science Education. Expioratorium, 1998. Web. 16 Sept. 2010. http://www.exploratorium.edu/ ifi/about/inquiry.html.

Harvey, Stephanie and Harvey Daniels. Comprehension and Coltahoration: Inquiry Circles in Action. Heinemann, 2009. Print.

Internationa) Reading Association and National Council of Teachers of English. Standards for the English Language Arts. International Reading Association and the National Council ofTeachers of English, 1996. Web. 3 Sept. 2010. http://www.ncte. org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Books/Sample/StandardsDoc.pdf.

Kuhlthau, Carol C , Leslie K. Maniotes, and Ann K. Caspari. Guided Inquiry: Learning in the 21st Century. Libraries Unlimited, 2007. Print.

"NETS for Students 2007." International Society for Technology in Education, 2007. Web. 17 Sept. 2010. http://www.iste.Org//for-students/student-standards-2007.aspx.

"Our Mission." Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2004. Web. 1 Oct. 2010. http:// www.p21 .org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id= 188&Itemid= 110.

Rheingold, Howard. "Librarian 2.0: BufïyJ. Hamilton." Digital LM Central. MacArthur Foundation, 3 May 2010. Web. 10 Oct. 2010. http://dmlcemral.net/blog/ howard-rheingold/librarian-20-bufiy-j-hamilton.

Standards for the 21st-century Learner in Action. Chicago: American Association of School Librarians, 2009. Print.

Stripling, Barbara. "Teaching Students to Think in the Digital Environment: Digital Literacy and Digital Inquiry." School Library Monthly Id.% (2010): 16-18. EBSCOhost Professional Development Collection. Web. 16 Sept. 2010.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES FOR THE STRIPLING INOUIRY MODEL Supporting inquiry with primary sources (multimedia from the Library of Congress; with Barbara Stripling, primary sources, and 5th graders): http://www.loc.gov/teachers/professionaldevelopment/seifdirected/inquiry/index.html

Supporting inquiry learning from the Library of Congress's Teaching with Primary Sources Quarterly publication: http://www.loc.gov/teachers/tps/quarterly/0907/pdf/TPSQuarterlySummer09.pdf

"Student Inquiry and Web 2.0" by Pam Berger (includes using Stripling Inquiry Model with Web 2.0 tools): http://www.schoollibrarymonthly.com/articles Berger2010-v26n5p 14.html

OTHER MODELS Historical Inquiry (ABC-CLIO):

As a group, brainstorm a variety of Key Quest/ons that help illuminate the value of the primary source.

Use the datat)ase to research the facts, opinions and primary sources related to your Dilemma.

HhtoikjHnquiry PncKS 1 ^

Use the ABC-CLIO databases to find answers to your Key Questions and develop new Key Questions.

Shape your Key Questions and their answers into a broader Dilemma that lacks a single answer

Used with permi.ssion from ABC-CLIO.

Tasks of Inquiry (Anna J. Warner and Brian E. Myers, Department of Agricultural Education and Communication, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida):

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/wcO75

8Ws of Information Inquiry (Annette Lamb):

http://virtualinquiry.com/inquiry/ws.htm

Inquiry-based Learning (Paula Sincero):

http://www.inquirylearn.com/Inquirydefhtm

Inquiry Process (The Inquiry Page, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign):

http://inquiry.illinois.edu/inquiry/process.php3

ASSESSMENT "Enhancing Inquiry through Formative Assessment" by Wynne Harlen (Expioratorium Institute for Inquiry): http://www.exploratorium.edu/IFI/docs/harlen_monograph.pdf

"How can we assess student learning in an inquiry classroom?" (The Inquiry Page, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign): http://inquiry.illinois.edu/php/assessment2.php

B a r b a r a A . J a n s e n is the Depanmem chair of 1-12 Educationai Technoiogy and Library Sen/ices and the

Upper School Librarian at St. Andrew's Episcopal School in Austin, Texas. She is the author ofseverai titles from

Linworth Publishing.

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