When I reflect on my learning in the past few months I can identify the stages of Carol Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process (ISP):
I primarily pursued the first question, and questions that subsequently emerged such as:
The follow up questions stemmed from the original exploration of big ideas and served to refine the direction of the inquiry. The other two questions, about collaboration and the use of ICT in inquiry learning were not addressed in the re-search process because I was focused on finding out about big ideas in inquiry learning. In the initial formulation of my questions, I felt as though I had skipped Kuhlthau’s initiation stage and moved straight to selection. However, I had been lulled into a false sense of security because I hadn’t factored in the concurrent inquiry, which was investigating and applying expert searching strategies, of which I was no expert at the outset! It is this experience that bests exemplifies how my expert search process aligns with Kuhlthau’s ISP. Being aware of the six stages of Kuhlthau’s ISP, I predicted I would progress through each stage over time. However, I soon came to recognise that as I conducted re-search using different platforms, and experimented with new search strings and operators, I experienced the entire process in the production of each blog post. The dip in confidence, with feelings of confusion and doubt were heightened when I was using unfamiliar platforms such as A+ Education and ProQuest, and while they were still present, were not as apparent using Google, Google Scholar or Social Media platforms. There were benefits of repeating the cycle of the ISP, especially the fact that I was able to enact the presentation stage and put my learning to use, specifically applying search strategies, which consolidated and allowed me to extend on the knowledge gained in each cycle. There were other parallels between the action I was taking and what I was learning about. Wiggins and McTighe’s Understanding by Design, resonated with me as I appreciated that I was progressing through a sequence of learning that was designed with a goal of understanding in mind. Every stage of the re-search process was designed to deepen my understanding. As I read about the importance of formulating inquiry questions, I valued the role that the questions I had formulated played in my own inquiry. The pre-search phase of each re-search sequence was important to establish prior knowledge, which informed the search through language selection and I was able to make connections between existing knowledge and learning discoveries. Both of these stages of inquiry feature in many inquiry models. The re-search process, inquiring about inquiry, has increased my metacognitive understanding about the inquiry process, as an inquirer, and importantly as an educator.
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Louise CullenInquirer Archives
September 2015
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