Questionnaire 2 (1 September 2011)

My thoughts and feelings about my topic

There are so many definitions of inquiry-based learning and information literacy. I think it is important for teachers to have a clear understanding of what these terms mean to them, when they are planning for learning and assessment. The definitions need to be simple and enactable within the learning context. For the pre-primary learning contexts, I think the that the inquiry-based learning involves children in formulating questions about topics that interest them, and answering them by participating in language and literacy activities (Owens, Hester & Teale, 2002). And similiarly, for information literacy for pre-primary learners involves knowing when information is needed and being able to identify, locate and effectively use information for learning and problem solving (Kinder, 2004).

The Queensland early years curriculum has a solid foundation in the work of constructivists, reconceptualists and brain researchers. The Early Years Curriculum Guidelines (EYCG) consider knowledge to be “the understandings, capabilities and dispositions that children construct before and after they come to school”. Teachers are seen as facilitators who guide children to deeper knowledge by helping them to make connections between their experiences at school and outside school. The EYCG state that teachers should create contexts for learning that involve play, real-life situations, investigations, routines and transitions and focussed learning and teaching and critical reflection. “Throughout the early phase of schooling, children learn more effectively in an environment that encourages movement, investigation, discussion, outdoor learning and flexible learning contexts” (Early Years Curriculum Guidelines, p.7) The EYCG advocate the child’s role in making decisions about their learning, particularly by identifying questions and problems for investigation and possible ways for learning about topics that interest them. Their participation in decision making gives children ownership of their learning and opportunities to voice their ideas (EYCG, 2009).

However, in reality, this emphasis on negotiated curriculum is often paid lip-service. In practice, at our school the model of learning used most closely resembles a form or project-based learning where students identify an area of interest, become immersed in the topic and then present an outcome of their learning in the form of an event, performance, publication or presentation. Most of the activities are excursions, teacher directed or play-based. However, students have little input into the types of learning activities. Negotiated curriculum needs to be more than letting the students pick the topic. I believe that negotiated curriculum can occur, even when students don’t pick the topic. It’s more a way of working than a starting point.

I believe that negotiated curriculum is strongly linked to inquiry-based learning. Given more time, it would have been interesting to explore the Interrogative Model (I-Model) of Inquiry described by Lonka, Hakkarainen & Sintonen (2000) in which knowledge acquisition is viewed as a process of formulating successive questions in order to find increasingly in-depth or more relevant answers.

Information literacy is integral to learning. Successful inquiry-based learning is dependent upon students being able to access information in a range of formats from a variety of sources. The challenge for pre-primary teachers is guiding students to sources that are accessible with at their early levels of literacy. Some researchers are beginning to study how well pre-primary students can access web-based sources of information (Spink, 2010).

There is so much to learn, that I feel that everything is too rushed to do the topic justice.

My interest level for this topic

Not at all ☐      not much ☐    quite a bit R    a great deal ☐

I think it would be very interesting to try a range of inquiry approaches with preparatory year students to determine how they might be used to promote the development of metacognition and information literacy. I’m particularly interested in how ICTs can be used to enhance young children’s access to information.

My knowledge level about this topic

Nothing ☐        not much R    quite a bit ☐    a great deal ☐

The more I learn about this topic, the more I realise how little I know.

Things I find easy when researching

Not much has changed in this area.  Though I do find it easy to get side tracked.

-          Thinking of keywords for searches

-          Google and Google Scholar searches

-          Talking to colleagues

-          Finding Queensland and national curriculum materials and policy documents online

Things I find difficult when researching

-          Tracking my search processes and organising my sources.

-          Finding longer periods of time to work on research, instead of trying to fit it in around other commitments.
-          Finding time for reflecting on what I have found and writing reflectively

-          Systematically formulating further questions to inform productive searches.

-          Conducting academic searches using uni databases (they drive me crazy!!!)

-          Evaluating reliability of sources (How do you know which universities are well-respected by academics?)

-          Analysing and synthesising information

-          Recording my thoughts when I am in the car, in bed and in the shower.

-          Collecting data from prepartory year students

References

Kinder, D. (2004). “Information Literacy: A Key to Success in the 21st Century” in The Greet Exchange, Spring 2004. Ryerson University. Retrieved September 3, 2011 from http://www.ryerson.ca/lt/publications/GREETSpr04V03Apr5.pdf

Lonka, K., Hakkarainen, K. & Sintonen, M. (2000). Progressive inquiry learning for children — Experiences, possibilities, limitations. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 8:1, 7-23. Retrieved September 4, 2011 from Taylor and Francis Online. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13502930085208461

Owens, R.F., Hester, J.L. & Teals, W.H. (2002). Where do you want to go today? Inquiry-based learning and technology integration. The Reading Teacher; Apr 2002; 55(7), pg. 616. Retrieved August 27, 2011 from ProQuest.

Queensland Studies Authority. (2009). Early Years Curriculum Guidelines. Brisbane: Queensland Government. Retrieved August 29, 2011 from  http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/981.html

Spink, Amanda H. and Danby, Susan J. and Mallan, Kerry M. and Butler, Carly. (2010). Exploring Young Children's Web Searching and Technoliteracy. Journal of Documentation, 66(2), 191–206. Retrieved August 6, 2011, from QUT eprints http://eprints.qut.edu.au/31386/

What does inquiry-based learning look like in Prep?

In his article, Simplifying Inquiry Instruction, Bell (2005) writes specifically about using inquiry learning in science. Bell (2005) explains that different levels of inquiry are based on a) the amount of information provided by the teacher; b) the complexity of the task in terms of openness and cognitive demand. His descriptions of the levels are:  A  Level 1 or ‘confirmation’ inquiry-based learning activity uses a teacher-provided question and process to verify expected results. In a Level 2 or ‘structured’ inquiry the teacher presents a question and prescribes a procedure for investigating it. A Level 3 or ‘guided’ inquiry, students  determine the investigative method and solution for a teacher-presented question. While a Level 4 or open inquiry requires students to pose the question and plan and conduct data collection and analysis independently.

According to Bell (2005), inquiry is a learning process in which student collect and analyse data in order to answer questions. So an inquiry learning process requires skills such as identifying needs or problems, planning and conducting investigations, choosing appropriate tools and techniques for data collection; anyalsing relationships through critical and logical thinking; formulating explanations and communicating arguments (Bell, 2005). Bell (2005) stresses that for students to gain the confidence and competence in these skills that is necessary for conducting independent open inquiries, they generally require significant amounts of scaffolding. This means that the four broad levels of inquiry (confirmation, structured, guided and open) are all necessary to students’ development of effective inquiry practice.

From Bell’s description, it becomes apparent that inquiry-based learning will ‘look’ different during different stages of students development. While all inquiry-based learning should start with a problem to be solved or a question to be answered, the amount and type of teacher scaffolding will vary from context to context, task to task and student to student.

A work in progress

In a Preparatory year setting, teachers would need to think about how to scaffold the development of the following.

	Skill set	Literacy and numercy demands
Identify needs or problems	asking questions stating problems	Understanding the meanings of words like ‘know’, ‘learn’, ‘ask’, ‘question’, ‘statement’. Distinguishing between questions and statements
Plan and conduct investigations	Identifying sources of information	Understanding the meanings of words like ‘know’, ‘ask’, ‘learn’, ‘information’, ‘facts’ and terms used to describe different sources of information that are accessible to 5-6 year old pre-readers (e.g. photos, pictures, illustrations, books, posters, television, radio, computers, iphones)
Collect and select  appropriate data and information	tools techniques	Number names, conservation, one-to-correspondence, colour names, interpreting tables and graphs
Anyalse relationships through critical and logical thinking	Identifying similarities and differences Sorting and comparing data Identifying relationships amongst sets of data (empty, independent, intersecting sets and subsets) Identifying patterns data	language to describe colour, shape and size comparative language such as ‘same’, ‘similar’, ‘different’, ‘a lot’, ‘not many’, ‘all’, ‘none’, ‘more’, ‘less’, ‘most’, ‘least’.
Formulate and communicate findings, explanations and arguments	Inferring Conclude Explaining Predicting

My attempts to plot the literacy and numeracy demands of inquiry-based learning only highlight gaps in my understanding of how preparatory year students might identify problems and questions, plan and conduct investigations, collect data and information, analyse relationships amongst data and information, and formulate conclusions, explanations and arguments.

References

Bell, R; Smetana, L & Binns, I. (2005). Simplyfying inquiry instruction The Science Teacher, 72 (7), 30-‐33.