SEARCHING GOOGLE - AGAIN

commons.wikimedia.org

What a journey it has been.  You may think I have not been cruising amongst the bloggy waters since my last post.  No I have been working behind the scenes mainly treading water but I have learnt a lot.

Now onwards..... this is an Instagrok mindmap of Inquiry Learning and below I have a link to the interactive model of it.

http://bit.ly/1ovksl3

Mind Map of Inquiry Learning  (interactive model)

It may appear I am going backwards as I have decided to do a further search in Google.  The reason for this is the brick wall I hit whilst searching in Google Scholar.  I believe the content rich Australian Curriculum has a large impact on classroom time management and flexibility, or lack of it. This has led to the term the ‘overcrowded curriculum’.  For this reason I decided to pursue searching for Australian Curriculum in terms of its heavy content and links to inquiry learning based models. 

   

Google Web Search (screencast)

Google Search Title	Hits	Noteworthy	Uses
Inquiry Learning Model	25,000,000 hits	www.kathmurdoch.com.au/index.php?id=3	Great website with currency and links to other sites
		http://21stcenturyhsie.weebly.com/inquiry-pedagogy.html	Not relevant to debate of Inquiry Learning and Australian Curriculum. Great images though
inquiry learning and the Australian curriculum	7,420,000 hits	http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/GeneralCapabilities/critical-and-creative-thinking/introduction/background	Background to critical and creative thinking of Aust Curr.
		Many Science and a few Georgraphy links
		Many links to works by Mandy Lupton
inquiry learning and the overcrowded curriculum	125,000	http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/schools/planning/inquiry.html	Led to several other sites that are relevant
		http://www.minnisjournals.com.au/educationtoday/article/For-students-of-the-national-curriculum-435	Very relevant
“inquiry learning and the overcrowded curriculum”	3 hits	ilvon.blogspot.com/	My blog!!!!!

Google Revisited (screencast)

SEARCHING GOOGLE SCHOLAR

http://bit.ly/1qvKwlv

Above is a screenshot of:  http://scholar.google.com.au/scholar? hl=en&q=inquiry+learning+model&btnG=&as_sdt=1%2C5&as_sdtp= 

GOOGLE SCHOLAR
Initial Search Term	No. of Hits	Further Search Term	No. of Hits	Subsequent Search Term	No. of Hits
Inquiry Learning model	1,710,000	Inquiry Learning and  the Australian Curriculum	89,600	Inquiry Learning and the overcrowded curriculum	0
Search Terms added		"Inquiry Learning and the overcrowded curriculum" in quotation marks	0
					NOTE:  Results included C Kuhlthau and M Lupton
On Neil Stephenson's website titled ' Introduction to Inquiry Based Learning', he states, "The power of an inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning is its potential to increase intellectual engagement and foster deep understanding ............. striving to provide opportunities for both teachers and students to collaboratively build, test and reflect on their learning." http://www.teachinquiry.com/ The word deep is mentioned in this quote also and reference is made to collaboration, building and reflection.  Question then:  Is the overcrowded curriculum, as it is referred to, a genuine block to Inquiry Learning in our classrooms as time constraints do not allow for the meandering of inquiring minds? I first searched for ‘Inquiry Learning model’ with no quotation marks and received a much smaller amount of hits than I did on my initial search on Google.  The hits were however of a far more scholarly nature, as you would expect.  The above screen shot shows also that the website allows you to use certain search parameters to narrow the field.  Most of the results related to the science field and needed a membership to login or the report to be purchased. My next search “Inquiry Learning and Australian Curriculum” with no quotation marks gave me 89,600 hits.  These searches led me to believe that this search engine is aimed at academics who are studying at doctorate or PhD level.  The hits are mainly of University studies and journals and generally require purchasing.  I found very little that was relevant to my search topic. I went on to search for Inquiry Learning and the Australian curriculum both with and without quotation marks and was unable to get any hits with either term.

Google Scholar Web Search

http://www.teachinquiry.com/

SEARCHING GOOGLE

https://openclipart.org

EXPERT SEARCHING POSTS.....




                         

GOOGLE
Initial Search Term	No. of Hits	Further Search Term	No. of Hits	Subsequent Search Term	No. of Hits
Inquiry Learning	78,300,000	Inquiry Learning in early childhood	75,700,000
Search Terms added
in early childhood		Inquiry Learning and early childhood	6,910,000
Search Strings Used
and				“success of inquiry learning within early childhood education”	2,690,000
Relevancy to Search Needs				Was easier to find greater relevancy here.	http://bit.ly/1vWC0QV
·         After a Google search I found the Early Childhood of Australia website citing its publication 'Every Child' magazine, VOL. 18 NO. 2 2012, states that Inquiry Learning is 'deep learning'.  The article describes learning environment in which a child implements his own learning and is able to develop a deeper learning by taking ownership of the direction the learning will take. ·         Question then:   is Inquiry Learning more realistically managed and more successful in an early childhood environment where the time constraints of the curriculum or program may not be as intense? ·         Search for IL in early childhood netted less results but not markedly. ·         Search for IL and early childhood returned significantly less results so it was easier to find material that was more relevant to the topic. ·         When I searched for “success of inquiry learning within early childhood education” using quotation marks, the results were significantly narrowed and included links to childcare courses, the Early Childhood Association and the Early Years Learning Framework. ·         One website spoke about inquiry modes and the fact that they open up investigations into questioning strategies used by teachers to promote inquiry skills.  It believed research showed that most teachers knew where they wanted the questioning to lead.  This is very relevant to the research I am doing.

http://bit.ly/1vWC0QV

                Manoa.hawaii.edu,. (2014). Exploring Inquiry Learning in Early Childhood Education. Retrieved 17 August 2014,     from http://manoa.hawaii.edu/crdg/year-in-review/year-in-review-2011/exploring-inquiry-learning-in-early-childhood-   education/

MODULE 1 - INITIAL POST

   

BON VOYAGE.........

www.fourseasons.com

   

This blog represents required work for my university unit Inquiry Learning which is part of the Master of Education (Teacher Librarianship) Degree.  The unit covers the topics Information-learningtheories; Information-learning pedagogy; Information environments; and Teaching as inquiry. The purpose of this unit is to gain an understanding of Inquiry Learning and to be able to develop an inquiry learning framework to teach within.  To do this I will  research Inquiry Learning whilst developing research skills and using a variety of research programs.  I will also observe an Inquiry Learning activity or unit being taught and teach one myself.  I will then evaluate and offer a critical reflection based on the relevant learning outcomes.  This blog will reflect and document all of this.  This is also my first attempt at blogging.

 

http://bit.ly/1CknWAj

    KWHLAQ

• What do I know?
• What do I want to know?
• How do I find out?
• What have I learned?
• What action will I take?
• What new questions do I have?   ( Barell 2007 p. 6, Barell 2008 p. 72)

• In regard to Inquiry Learning I know a few things, knowledge that has been accumulated over my teaching career.  For example,Inquiry Learning aims to be student centred and not driven by the teacher to get a desired outcome.  Inquiry Learning usually contains a 'big question' preferably at the beginning of any unit of work.  This is an attempt to produce a teaching unit or process that does not just give information and ask students to regurgitate facts but perhaps think laterally and achieve a greater depth of knowledge on the subject at hand.   To foster a love of learning and students to become lifelong learners if more important than the retention of facts.  As Kuhlthau (2008) states, "Because students cannot possibly learn all of the content that is known, learning how to learn and understanding one's own learning process are more important than ever before,"

• I have also learnt that Inquiry Learning as a pedagogy is elusive and any unit of work can quickly move away from open learning where students are thinking laterally about the topic and become the standard  "research, cut and paste, present ' type of finished product. This is usually due to our overcrowded curriculum and the increasingly difficult time constraints put on educators.

• What do I want to know about Inquiry Learning?  I would like to learn how to make it work better in the classroom.  How to maintain that initial surge of enthusiasm (more the teachers than the students) at the start of a new topic. What is at the heart of Inquiry Learning that sets it apart from another teaching pedagogy?  I also want to learn better research techniques and how to give these techniques to students as I believe good research skills go hand in hand with Inquiry Learning.

• After a Google search I found the Early Childhood of Australia website citing its publication 'Every Child' magazine, VOL. 18 NO. 2 2012, states that Inquiry Learning is 'deep learning'.  The article describes learning environments in which a child implements his own learning and is able to develop a deeper learning by taking ownership of the direction the learning will take.

• Question 1 then:   is Inquiry Learning more realistically managed and more successful in an early childhood environment where the time constraints of the curriculum or program may not be as intense?

• On Neil Stephenson's website titled ' Introduction to Inquiry Based Learning', he states,"The power of an inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning is its potential to increase intellectual engagement and foster deep understanding ............. striving to provide opportunities for both teachers and students to collaboratively build, test and reflect on their learning." (http://www.teachinquiry.com//)

• The word deep is mentioned in this quote also and reference is made to collaboration, building and reflection.  Question 2 then:  Is the 'new' Australian Curriculum, the overcrowded curriculum as it is referred to, a genuine block to Inquiry Learning in our classrooms as time constraints do not allow for the meandering of enquiring minds?

What is Inquiry Based Learning? (hyperlink)  This link will document and explain the diagram below:

• Question:  Does Inquiry Learning lend itself to planning across grades within a school context?

Kuhlthau, C.; Maniotes, L. and Caspari, A, (2012). Chapter 1 : Guided Inquiry Design: The Process, the Learning, and the Team. In Kuhlthau, C.; Maniotes, L. and Caspari, A, Guided inquiry design : a framework for inquiry in your school, (pp.1 – 15). Santa Barbara: Libraries Unlimited.

Early Childhood Australia,. (2014). Inquiry learning is deep learning (free article) - Early Childhood Australia. Retrieved 10 August 2014, from http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/our-publications/every-child-magazine/every-child-index/every-child-vol-18-2-2012/inquiry-learning-deep-learning-free-article/

Teachinquiry.com,. (2014). Introduction. Retrieved 10 August 2014, from http://www.teachinquiry.com/index/Introduction.

Inquirylearn.com,. (2014). What is Inquiry-based Learning?. Retrieved 10 August 2014, from http://www.inquirylearn.com/Inquirydef.htm