Discussion for February 2021 - What is Inquiry-based Learning?

@Ruth Maloney I am really excited to hear that you have these three projects planned. Can you tell us how you got your school interested FOSIL in the first place? Who did you approach first?

I'm very fortunate to work in a school with a very open and supportive management team. I joined when there had been no Librarian before me so I have been able to shape the role. This included shaping our approach to teaching research and inquiry skills. I've had two line managers since I arrived, both part of our senior team and both very supportive. My current line manager is also closely involved with the IB program and therefore, perhaps, more open to inquiry based learning. In order to move forward with this we will have to work with the MYP (middle years program - year 7-9) coordinators in each department to build a good structure for the school which we can then use to advocate to the senior team and from there the rest of the staff. I'm watching Darryl's work on the FOSIL / IB cross over closely. He's doing really key with in this area.

I have worked alongside several teachers over the years. I want to talk about my Inspirational Leaders inquiry topic with year 6. I was invited to support this topic to see if we could increase quality research by the end of the topic.

I shared this on The FOSIL Group website and it can be found here... https://fosil.org.uk/forums/topic/inspirational-leaders-yr-6/

As a former IB Primary Years Programme (PYP) teacher of many, many years who transitioned to librarian 2 years ago, I feel that the librarian is key in developing the core skills students need for inquiry. Teachers send students to the library with "burning questions" on an ad hoc basis or as part of Open Inquiry/Genius Hour initiatives. I also plan collaboratively on a regular basis with classroom and specialist teachers on how best to integrate explicitly taught information literacy skills, as well as research skills into their inquiries. I would say that this consititutes the largest portion of my role as good quality collaboration takes time. In my school we use models by Kath Murdoch and Kathy Short to underpin our inquiries, which fit very nicely with the FOSIL model.

@Jillian Priestley Is it interesting to hear that the largest part of your role is teaching information literacy. That is not common these days in school libraries. Did you have to encourage your school to make this happen or was it always part of the process? I have not heard of Kath Murdoch and Kathy Short models. I will have to look them up. Thanks for sharing this.

@Stephanie Agreed! Knowing both will help the conversation with teachers but sticking to one would make it easier for the students to understand and remember.

I think perhaps sometimes labelling the inquiry stages isn't always helpful and can alter what is an organic process into something more restrictive in terms of 'shoe horning' into boxes? Clearly from a planning /procedural/teaching point of view it is vital to realise the stages that students need to go through but for teenagers not so much?

@Helen Precious I personally think that it is vitally important for teenagers to be aware of where they are in the cycle. It gives them focus and an understanding of what is required of them next. Without a framework would they not revert back to finding everything they could on a subject? Which tends to be a problem when they don't have guidance. I find that students find the visual element of the inquiry stages supportive as well as useful in reminding them what they need to do next. It becomes organic through the process which is why I find something like FOSIL works.

@Ruth Maloney l wonder if the problem is that this was created in 2017. Would it have been topical enough to get the point across 4 years ago? I wonder what a better analogy for today would be?

I suspect this particular video creator was looking to establish extreme end points and has deliberately chosen his examples for that reason; he does describe a sliding scale elsewhere in the video. There are plenty of 'midway' examples from the same series of books with various professors first providing context and the guiding questions, but then allowing students to have a go themselves. Analogies do not have to be perfect to nonetheless make you think about what message is trying to be conveyed.

In this case, I feel that the message was about the importance to inquiry based learning of students being able to learn by doing things for themselves. He does describe Harry as guiding the other students so there is still that sense of there being a process involved.

I'm unsure as to how helpful the Harry Potter analogy is. It certainly simplifies the idea that by finding out for yourselves you discover exactly what you personally require to solve a problem; answer a question; conquer the Dark Lord... However, the dismissing of rote learning is, as others have mentioned, not conducive to encouraging teachers to engage with inquiry based learning. Again the target audience is key here - I think if i showed this clip to my Sixth Form students there would be much eyerolling and an almost instant tune out. What is useful and is partially conveyed is the idea that in inquiry based learning there is no 'right formula' you learn and adapt as necessary to achieve your aim. However, the lack of guidance or any kind can be dangerous, some kind of scaffolding is necessary to motivate and stay on track.