Until recently, I divided my Social Media platforms into two groups, my personal networks and my professional networks. Facebook has connected me with friends and Twitter has connected me with fellow educators. However, the lines are blurring and I'm not sure that I like it. Facebook was once my downtime - but it too has become a forum for professional connections, even the official platform for a postgraduate course. Given the potential to glean professional learning from Facebook and Twitter, it is with interest I continue my quest by searching Social Media.
Pre-Search
Before I started any re-search, I established my prior knowledge about Social Media platforms. With teenage children, I thought I was quite in tune. I could easily name six different platforms that I have used personally (a few just to keep track of my children!)
Search Tip
Using the Google Search engine, the search term define followed by a key word or phrase will produce a definition in the search results.
Social Media: "The collective of online communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration.(WhatIs.com) Several of the key words in the definition of Social Media resonate with my growing understanding of inquiry learning, most obviously collaboration. Rather quickly, my initial six forms of Social Media seemed paltry and were dwarfed by the ever expanding Social Media beast, as depicted in 'The Conversation Prism' pictured below. For the purposes of manageable re-searching using Social Media, I will be selective in the platforms I use. YouTube
YouTube is a video sharing website, created in 2005. What did we ever do before YouTube? I hadn't considered YouTube as Social Media, but it is an online communication channel that allows content sharing and interaction. Many people have their own YouTube channel, even me! YouTube is frequently used as a source of information, where tutorials can be found on just about anything.
My re-search focus was How can broad themes and big ideas be incorporated in the design of inquiry learning? I included the search term "concept based learning" because of my own professional context at an International Baccalaureate school, where big ideas are framed through a conceptual lens.
"Facebook is a popular free social networking website that allows registered users to create profiles, upload photos and video, send messages and keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues." (WhatIs.com)
I "liked" one of the Facebook pages (so far) and I look forward to posts from the Inquiry Based Learning and Teaching page appearing on my Facebook newsfeed.
Storify - curating Social Media
Storify is a social network service that allows people to create stories by curating posts from social media such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. I have used Storify to collect a sample of tweets about inquiry learning.
Twitter Storify Tips
Within Storify there are options to search many different Social Media feeds to select content for a Storify story. I decided to focus on Twitter. Given my prior knowledge about how hashtags work in Twitter, to group tweets, I presumed using a # would provide me with results pertaining to inquiry learning. I attempted the search #inquirylearning and compared it to the search inquiry learning. I gained a similar quantity but differing results. Many of the results did not inform my understanding of inquiry learning, as they were things such as photographs of people presenting about inquiry learning. The most useful tweets often contained links to websites. I then discovered an option to refine the Storify search according to type of tweet (all, tweets with link, tweets with media). I selected 'tweets with link' and this produced a wealth of tweets that directed me all over the web, uncovering many different, mostly relevant resources. Results can be viewed using this link to the Story produced using Storify, or they are displayed below.
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What better place to pursue a quest, now I'm starting to feel like a searching pro than ProQuest? The quest is to find answers to the questions:
Search TipsAs ProQuest Education is an American database, search terms need to reflect American language preferences. For example elementary rather than primary. When using this database, there are many searchable fields to narrow your results. One such proximity operator that I found useful was the indexing tool SUBJECT.exact. The use of quotation marks around search terms negated lemmatization whereby the search engine only looked for exact matches of the search terms. Alternatively, if you want the search engine to look for variables of a key word, such as mouse and mice, do not include quotation marks. The proximity operator NEAR/4 allows for the combination of words within a specified proximity of one another. When examining the search results, it is advisable to look at the suggested related items. When using a database such as ProQuest, another tool available to the searcher is the thesaurus. The thesaurus is valuable as it suggests synonyms for key words. Unfortunately for my search, the suggestions were irrelevant. For example: My second search string which was following up on the relationship between student questions and engagement (see below); the thesaurus suggested related terms for question as interviews, polls & surveys, responses and for engagement I was heading into military air strikes and friendly fire territory. Although this is how the prospect of inquiry teaching may feel at times ... this is not what I was after! Search string and resultsSUBJECT.exact("Inquiry method") AND SUBJECT.exact("Elementary schools") This search string yielded 27 results, including one of particular interest. A dissertation by Diaz (2011) analysed the use of the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH). The SWH is a framework for instruction based on providing multiple opportunities for students to develop conceptual understanding. A key component of the SWH involves student-generated questioning. As my re-search questions pertain to the role of student-generated questions, I followed up on this model. "science writing heuristic" (question NEAR/4 student NEAR/4 engagement) Two results were forthcoming from this search string. One by Chin and Osborne (2008), argued that "To nurture the spirit of inquiry in students and cultivate questioning as a habit of mind, a central role for any teacher, therefore, is to foster a classroom environment where it is intellectually, socially and academically rewarding for students to pose thoughtful questions." Indeed, I do feel like a search pro thanks to the success experienced using ProQuest Education. I have found articles that relate directly to my inquiry questions. ReferenceChin, C., & Osborne, J. (2008). Students' questions: A potential resource for teaching and learning science. Studies in Science Education, 44(1), 1-39. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03057260701828101#abstract
Diaz, J. F. (2011). Examining student-generated questions in an elementary science classroom (Order No. 3461111). Available from ProQuest Education Journals. (879631950). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/879631950?accountid=13380 As I progress with my inquiry about inquiry learning, I can relate to the rollercoaster of emotions described as typical during an inquiry process in Kuhlthau's Information Search Process. During the task initiation phase I was feeling uncertain, my thoughts were vague and lacked direction. I was floundering in a spiral of confusion, frustration and doubt. But, optimism emerged, as I experienced a modicum of success using Boolean operators to frame search string algorithms. Although my emotions have been in a state of flux through the trial and error (!) process of conducting an inquiry, I am moving forward with improved search skills and confidence to experiment with new search strategies, even with growing excitement. My initial re-search was informed to a great extent by the works of Wiggins and McTighe, and has led me to a new inquiry question. What role do questions play in fostering student understanding of big ideas? To expand my knowledge base, I am interested in learning about questioning from sources other than Wiggins and McTighe. To further my re-search and to hone search skills, I will be using the A+ Education database, which provides access to articles from Australian education journals. Of course people from outside of Australia publish in Australian educational journals, so I will have to be strategic in my searching to exclude Wiggins and McTighe. PRE-SEARCHBefore tapping into the A+ Education database, I considered the things I thought I already knew about questions or questioning and recorded them on a mindmap (below). I had a metacognitive revelation during this process when I was wondering how I know what I know. I realised I was making predictions and connecting to my prior knowledge. I recalled a presentation by David Hornsby where he described the relationship between inviting student predictions and an increase in student engagement in a reading task. I presume the same would apply at the commencement of an inquiry. If students ask and speculate about possible answers to questions before the finding out stage, there could be a positive correlation to student engagement in the inquiry. This is a thread I will follow during my A+ Education database search.
FindingsMy confidence deteriorated and frustration levels skyrocketed - that was my first finding! It was very time consuming attempting to thread together an effective search string that produced results for my inquiry question. The need to broaden, then narrow for relevance resulted in cognitive drain and not many results. I felt like a gold miner hitting rock bottom, when I finally struck gold. My final search string provided only six results, but all were relevant and informed my question. One article in particular by Phil Cam (2006) described the importance of teaching students how to ask questions that would lead to inquiry. He has developed the Question Quadrant for this purpose. Student questions are categorised, in collaboration with the students. Over time, Cam found that students increasingly posed questions that were open-ended and addressed big ideas or concepts that required inquiry. Even though I eventually found some relevant sources of information, my initial inquiry question remains largely unanswered. What role do questions play in fostering student understanding of big ideas? The additional question I posed during the brainstorming process of this inquiry phase also remains unanswered. Do student-generated questions influence student engagement in an inquiry? I am wondering if a database that is not restricted to only Australian published journals may yield greater results using the same or similar search threads. To infiniti and beyond... ProQuest Education, here I come. ReferencesCam, Philip. 2006. Introductory Toolkit. In: Cam, Philip. Twenty Thinking Tools. Camberwell, Vic.: ACER Press.
Who would have thought that while learning to refine a search engine query I would discover that I was applying 'Boolean logic' that was developed in the 1850s by mathematician and philosopher George Boole? Such an unlikely revelation sparked my interest in Boolean operators, which I have found to be extremely useful tools when combining key words to broaden or narrow search results.
I refined my search results, by experimenting with the logical application of Boolean operators, and the careful selection of key words or phrases in search strings, while finding out about this inquiry question: How can broad themes and big ideas be incorporated in the design of inquiry learning? These are the key words I selected to begin the search: big idea, inquiry learning, primary / elementary, education Choosing key words that are relevant, broad, yet not too broad is important to refine search results. FUN FACT
A website called 'Google Fight' allows you to enter two search terms, to determine which term has the highest visibility, calculated by the number of results returned on Google and also the number of times each query is typed in a month.
Once the key words are chosen, the way the words are combined also matters.
Key Findings
Many results were postings by schools describing how big ideas are used in curriculum design. Additional key words emerged as I read through selected results, highlighting the importance of using synonyms to broaden search results. These included: problem-based, project based, conceptual understanding, central idea, PYP, IB and several names such as Jay McTighe, Grant Wiggins, Lyn Erickson. One result linked to a PDF extract of a chapter from the book 'Taking the PYP Forward' entitled 'Inquiry as a Stance on Curriculum' written by Kathy G Short which provided a rationale as to why big ideas are incorporated in inquiry learning:
FUN FACT
After recognising the benefits of including synonyms in search terms, I explored the website Instagrok, which is a wonderful way to generate an interactive mind map that incorporates synonyms. This could inform the selection of key words for an internet search. Click on the image below to open up a 'Grok' showing stems from 'inquiry learning'. Have a go at sliding the difficulty setting to see the results change.
inquiry learning | Learn about inquiry learning on instaGrok, the research engine:http://www.instagrok.com/results.html?query=inquiry+learning&share_id=_&result_id=JUfVat0ZSECOzGvkBpU5&action=view
GOOGLE SCHOLAR
The Google Search results included a suggestion at the head of the page of scholarly articles using the same search string. I followed this link and was directed to Google Scholar. Isn't Google clever to make such a useful suggestion! I presume the suggestion arose as I had included recognised academics in the search query. The 1860 Google Scholar offerings were starkly different to the 111 000 listed on the Google search results. As the name suggests Google Scholar allows users to find scholarly literature. Restricted access to full transcripts of some results listed on Google Scholar may be an issue for users without access to an academic library database.
Findings
My second search term included the names Wiggins and McTighe because in my initial Google search these names emerged in association with "big ideas". In the initial Google search results were more informal text types such as a blog post written by Wiggins. However on Google Scholar the text types were more formal, including the first Chapter of the Wiggins & McTighe publication 'Understanding by Design'.
Consider an inquiry about extinction (enduring understanding or big idea). Students may learn about extinct species (worth being familiar with), consequences of land clearing / overfishing / pollution (important to know) and research skills (important to be able to do). All of the planned learning in an inquiry is designed to foster an understanding of the big idea of extinction. Without the big idea as the focus, children may become experts on dinosaurs, or dodo birds, or Tasmanian Tigers - all of which are worth being familiar with, but not enduring understandings. However, with the big idea as the focus of an inquiry, learning facts about these extinct animals can lead to an understanding of the concept of extinction.
Further Questions
Wiggins and McTighe have written extensively about the importance of big ideas, but I also noted the mention of essential questions. It seems obvious that questioning is an important component of any inquiry. If it is important, I should know more about it.
To follow up on this initial inquiry, I would like to find out: What role do questions play in fostering student understanding of big ideas? It seems I am on my own quest of Understanding by Design, using the backward design approach. I've realised the starting point is identifying big ideas, now to discover how educators can guide students to construct understanding of a big idea. |
Louise CullenInquirer Archives
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