Growing Inquiry

reflections on growing

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When I began this unit I knew that inquiry learning was student-led and question driven.  I assumed that all inquiry learning was research based and that the result of inquiry learning was almost always a research paper.  I had taught units that I believed were inquiry-based in my history classes and I had never considered using the approach in my other subject area, English.  Because I wanted to stretch myself, I began with the following questions:

How can high school teachers use inquiry learning to engage students in reading and English?  
How can inquiry learning be used to teach literature and reading for pleasure?
In what ways does an inquiry approach to teaching English and literature improve student engagement and rigour?

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I believed that these questions would be easy to find answers to; however, they proved to be quite difficult.  Through all my search engines and databases, I rarely found words like ‘engage’ or ‘reading for pleasure’ linked with inquiry learning.  I also had trouble using the word ‘literature’ and ‘rigour,’ as these ideas are implied in the subject area of English and in teaching inquiry skills.  I found through many stages of searching, my questions needed to be simplified and changed to what I actually wanted to know.

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In what practical ways can inquiry learning be implemented into the high school English classroom to engage students and add rigour to the curriculum?

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This fancy question, I know now, should have been worded, “How can I teach inquiry-based learning in my English class?”  I basically wanted to know how on Earth to teach inquiry in my classes.  And I found out.

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My conception of inquiry learning has changed drastically over the course of my own inquiry process.  I learned that inquiry can take many forms, especially in English classrooms.  I learned that it is not common to use purely inquiry-based strategies in English, and that Australian Curriculum (n.d.) does not even mention its importance in English curriculum.  What I did learn is that some teachers are actively using inquiry-based learning to enrich their classrooms.  They are using it to add rigour and engage students.  Listed below are some strategies I learned through research and critiquing a unit and creating my own.

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• Have students research a novel or a context using inquiry questions and source analysis (Colwell, n.d.).
   

• Take social action in some way to allow others to engage in students’ learning as well (Barseghian & Wright, 2011).
   

• Scaffold inquiry units so that students do not feel overwhelmed—this does not hinder open inquiry, but gives students the tools to succeed (Colwell, n.d.).
   

• Inquiry learning doesn’t have to be research based, it can also be challenging and questioning thoughts and ideas, discussion and peer editing (Schwartz, 2015).  Literature circles or discussion groups give students a forum for discussing questions and talking about concepts.  Continuous circles of questioning and answering, discussing and challenging allows students to stretch their thinking and hear others’ thoughts (Boas, 2012).
   

• Students need a process to model their inquiry process upon, or they will get bogged down in the mess of research without knowing where to go.  There are also normal feelings of frustration and doubt when inquiring that students should be made aware of (Kuhlthau, 2010).  There are many strategies to use, but my favourite is the Points of Inquiry model which directs students to reflect on their learnings and continue to ask questions (British Columbia Teacher-Librarian’s Association, 2011).
   

• There are many levels of inquiry and it is important to lead students through them so that they become accustomed to inquiry and don’t feel lost (Bell, Smetana & Binns, 2005).  Asking students to engage in an inquiry discussion circle without having scaffolded it first may be disastrous, but teaching students to discuss and question gradually will lead students to feel confident and eventually engage in inquiry-based discussions easily.
   

• Basing inquiry learning tasks upon the GeSTE windows allows students to extend their learning into higher levels of thinking and become socially and creatively active (Lupton, 2016; Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy, n.d.).
   

• Teach students how to create good inquiry questions.  One I love is the Question Formulation Technique (Rothstein & Santana, 2011).

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At the end of my last reflection I asked questions about reluctant learners, about behaviour management and standardised testing.  I learned through my inquiry process that reluctant learners can be engaged if they feel successful, which can be done through scaffolding and guided inquiry (Bell et al., 2005).  Behaviour management is also less of a problem if students are given a process to work through and feel supported by the teacher.  With those questions answered, I still have the question of standardised testing.  With student directed learning, how does a teacher ensure that all required curriculum is learned at a deep level?  I also have other questions:

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Does requiring students to create work that enters the transformative and expressive GeSTE windows take too much time?

Does inquiry-based learning work for teaching things like grammar rules and essay construction?  Does it work for all areas of English skills?

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Looks like I have more inquiring to do!

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References

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Australian Curriculum. (n.d.). Curriculum Filter. Retrieved October 30, 2016, from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Browse?a=E&a=M&a=S&a=H&a=G&a=ENB&a=CNC&a=da&a=dr&a=ma&a=mu&a=va&a=DI&a=DE&a=HPE&y=9#page=2

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Barseghian, T., & Wright, S. (2011, December 21). Life in a 21st-century English class. Retrieved September 11, 2016, from https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2011/12/21/life-in-a-21st-century-english-class/

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Bell, R. L., Smetana, L., & Binns, I. (2005). SIMPLIFYING inquiry INSTRUCTION. The Science Teacher, 72(7), 30-33. Retrieved from http://gateway.library.qut.edu.au/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/docview/214615319?accountid=13380

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Boas, E. (2012). Using literature circles yo inquire into the big themes: Exploring the refugee experience. English in Australia (47)3, 25-28. Retrieved from http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=100657866751672;res=IELAPA

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British Columbia Teacher-Librarian’s Association. (2011). Points of Inquiry: A Framework For Information Literacy and The 21st Century Learner. BCTLA Info Lit Task Force. Retrieved from https://inquiryblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/pointsofinquiry.pdf

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Colwell, A. (n.d.). An exploration of inquiry in the English classroom. Retrieved from http://ed.psu.edu/englishpds/inquiry/projects/Colwell.pdf

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Kuhlthau, C. C. (2010). Guided inquiry: School libraries in the 21st century. School Libraries Worldwide, 16(1), 1-12. Retrieved from http://gateway.library.qut.edu.au/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/217762150?accountid=13380

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Lupton, M. (2016). Inquiry learning. A pedagogical and curriculum framework for information literacy. (preprint) in Sales, Dora & Pinto, Maria (Eds.) Pathways into Information Literacy and Communities of Practice: Teaching Approaches and Case Studies. Chandos Publishing. (In Press) pp. 6-11

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Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy. (n.d.) Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy (RBT) employs the use of 25 verbs that create collegial understanding of student behavior and learning outcome. Retrieved from http://www.utar.edu.my/fegt/file/Revised_Blooms_Info.pdf

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Rothstein, D. & Santana, L. (2011). Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions. Harvard Education Letter, 27(5), 1-2. Retrieved from http://hepg.org/hel-home/issues/27_5/helarticle/teaching-students-to-ask-their-own-questions_507#home

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Schwartz, K. (2015). How Inquiry Can Enable Students to Become Modern Day de Tocquevilles. Retrieved from http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/02/10/how-inquiry-can-enable-students-to-become-modern-day-de-tocquevilles/

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