planting my search with Google
To grow my understanding of what inquiry learning can look like within an English teaching and literature context, I will start my search process with Google and Google Scholar. Both search engines are intensely popular and provide easy to find, up to date websites. Refering to the questions I posed in my initial post I want to know how inquiry learning can be used to engage students to read for pleasure and to read books assigned in class. I want to know how literature can be made more interactive and personal to students through inquiry learning. I want to understanding how an inquiry based approach allows teachers to add rigour to the curriculum in a way that students find interesting.
My main question comes down to...
How can high school English teachers use an inquiry learning
approach to engage students and add rigour to the curriculum and
to enhance students' desire to read for pleasure?
In order to provide order for my search, I created a mind map to guide me:
Created by author at Coggle.it
Using Boolean Operators to make my searches more successful, I created many search strings with varying results. Here is a sample of what I was able to find, highlighting various resources that I found interesting or helpful in answering my questions. I found that while I intitally created lots of search words when making my mind map, only a few key words and phrases remained suitable throughout the search process.
Search String Results Comments
Literature "inquiry learning" secondary
99,100
By taking out the word 'English' and introducing the words 'secondary,' and 'literature' I was given much more academic websites, but they were less subject specific. I learned I need to keep the word 'English' instead of 'literature' because in academic work, 'literature' can mean any published work on any subject, not just 'English literature.'
By using more academic language I was able to get more information from University scholars like this article by Dr. Sharon Friesen about inquiry learning.
("English" "inquiry learning") "high school" "student engagement" OR rigor -pinterest
41,500
I began to add parenthesis to my searches to prioritise the things I found to be most helpful in previous searches. I was also having problems with lots of Pinterest pages coming up, so adding '–pinterest' helped get rid of those pages. This search proved helpful, giving me a good AITSL source and an inquiry learning website by an English teacher.
By adding the word 'OR' I was able to both increase my search results, and find more useful websites. The searches were finally starting to relate to my questions! One article by Ian Quillen from KQED included some helpful information on student engagement.
("inquiry based learning" "english language arts") engagement OR rigour OR "reading for pleasure"
71,900
This search created my best results yet! By using 'intext:' in front of the search term I ensured that the term would be specifically used in the body of the text. This was revolutionary for giving me great websites. I was finally able to find specific sites catering to English teaching and motivating students using inquiry learning. I found an awesome inquiry-based video for teaching English literature.
71,800
("inquiry based learning" "english language arts") engagement OR rigour OR "reading for pleasure" intext:inquiry intext:English
More great results! Adding the phrase “reading for pleasure” brought up more library websites rather than specific English teaching ones, and narrowed my search a lot, yet was still very helpful. This publication from the Oregon Library Association on student engagement in English using inquiry learning was great.
("inquiry based learning") ("english language arts" OR "english") intext:engagement intext:rigor "reading for pleasure"
3,890
propogating my questions
After my Google searching I realised that my question is too broad and needs some refining. I found out that inquiry-based learning is used in English lessons, but need more information on how it is used. My questions have changed focus from using inquiry learning in the subject English, to what types of inquiry learning can be used in English to stimulate students.
My question has evolved to...
What inquiry learning activities can high school English teachers use to
engage students, add rigour and enhance students' desire to read for pleasure?
sowing seeds with Google Scholar
While Google proved a good place to start looking for answers, my top suggestions in even my first search linked me to Google:
Clicking these links brought me to Google Scholar
I have linked Google Scholar to my QUT Library
I can search according to year and inclue citations to track the flow of ideas
As my Google searches using Boolean Operators showed me which search strings work best, it was easy to continue in Google Scholar using the same types of search strings that were catered to my new question. I found Google Scholar great for finding information on general inquiry learning. I found it fell flat when finding articles related to English activities or how inquiry-based learning is used in English classrooms.
Search String Results Comments
("inquiry based learning" OR "enquiry based learning" OR "inquiry learning" OR "enquiry learning") (english OR "english language arts") engagement OR rigor OR "reading for pleasure" -science
1,070
This is an example of how I started my searches on Google Scholar. Because my Google strings had been so helpful, I thought using the same key words and Boolean Operators would help here too. Every complex search I tried gave me general results about inquiry learning that had very little to do with my question.
("inquiry learning") english activities -science
990
By eliminating some search terms and removing "OR" I was able to slim down my results and get some subject specific results. I found many of my results related to problem-based learning like this one. Some, like this article focus on a theoretical approach to inquiry learning in the classroom and don't really help me find practical English inquiry techniques. I continued adding '-science' as I found excluding it generated mostly science articles.
("inquiry learning") "secondary english" activities -science
14
This was my most successful search yet, as all the links look great! I was disappointed in the small amount of articles, but clicking on 'related articles' proved to help me find more information.
Clicking ‘related articles’ for “It Makes it More Real” gave me results relating to multimodal literacies
Clicking 'related articles' for "A Poet's Journey" showed articles about poetic inquiry
("inquiry learning" or "inquiry based learning") "secondary english" assessment OR assignment
34
Although the words 'assessment' and 'assignment' were not in my question, I thought perhaps adding those words would include more practical activities and tasks and eliminate theoretical articles. The result was more academic articles on making assessments or assignments inquiry-based and collaborative, but not necessarily just specific to English.
final thoughts
Google and Google Scholar were great places for me to start finding answers to my questions. Both have good things and bad, and I learned to refine my use of Boolean Operators as I searched for answers.
Google Scholar
Pros
Google was easy to use as an inquiry newby, provided a vast array of sources and allowed me to access both published academic (through linking to Google Scholar) and amateur sources.
I was also able to answer and narrow my question quickly.
Cons
Google provides all resources in a search string, meaning I had to evaluate each website for credibility.
It also took practice to use the Boolean Operators correctly and to my advantage.
Pros
All articles are published and academic, meaning they are most-likely credible.
Linking to the QUT Library was very helpful as I could go directly from Google to the QUT databases.
The smaller amount of results meant I could actually look at most of the articles.
Using the 'citations' and 'related articles' links proved useful for finding subject related articles.
Cons
The successful search strings I used in Google did not provide useful information so I had to start from scratch in Google Scholar.
My question, being more subject specific and practical instead of theoretical, had fewer results than I had originally predicted.
Some articles were not accessible through my QUT Library or through general access meaning one has to pay to see them or read about the article from the abstract.
Created by author
Created by author
Created by author
To start I used only a string of words, assuming that Google would add the word ‘AND’ between each word. This proved successful, but gave me too many results that were very general. My first result was for Google Scholar. I did get one useful article by Alison Colwell, a professor at PennState College of Education.
To narrow my search I decided to add the words ‘high school’ to my search and to include quotes, which creates search phrases instead of individual words. This narrowed my search significantly and included morer subject specific results (like this one on 21st century learning in an English class at KQED, a northern Californian public broadcasting website in affiliation with PBS) though there were still many general websites on inquiry learning.
English teaching inquiry learning
English “inquiry learning” “high school”
163,000
3,000,000