Inquiry learning with senior secondary students

Takapuna Grammar School Jill Stotter - Kirsty Gillon Making inquiry learning work in the senior secondary school Diversity Challenge Resilience: School Libraries in Action - The 12th Biennial School Library Association of Queensland, the 39th International Association of School Librarianship Annual Conference, incorporating the 14th International Forum on Research in School Librarianship, Brisbane, QLD Australia, 27 September – 1 October 2010.

Inquiry learning: • Why did we do this? • TL antennae out • Found great teacher to work with • Timing great with new curriculum directions

‘... put students at the centre of teaching and learning...’ NZC p9 • A student-centred curriculum • Subject areas to reduce content • Interactive teaching for inquiry learning

Effective 21st century pedagogy stated NZC p34 • Creating a supportive learning environment • Encouraging reflective thought and action • Enhancing the relevance of new learning • Facilitating shared learning • Making connections to prior learning • Providing sufficient opportunities to learn • Teaching as inquiry

• 21 students - including 2 year 12 boys • Mixed ability • Both believed this would work with senior classes. • Submitted abstract to IASL

National Certificate of Educational Achievement Standards based

• 2 topics • Origins of World War Two • Too prescribed - moderators • Internal assessment – Warsaw Ghetto

• 2011 NZC is to be implemented in year 11 • Many schools are unprepared

The beginning... Learning model

Creating Knowledge from Information Task Brief Scenario Situation Product Problem Information from answers is manipulated to The Information Process form conclusions, generalisations and judgements Defining Brainstorming - what do I know? Question Question Question Questioning - what do I need to find out? 1 2 3 Locating Identifying sources of information Learning the skills and Accessing resources Teaching carrying out the research Using the analysis to Selecting / create the product of Analysing Answer to Answer to Answer to Will this information answer my question 1 question 2 question 3 information question? Sharing created Organising / knowledge literacy Creating Critical thinking to construct new skills knowledge Analysing findings Presenting forming possible generalisations and judgements from answers Evaluation of Sharing created knowledge Process and Product Evaluating What did I do well? What could I do better?

Topic: Black civil rights 1954-1970 The standards: 1.4 Describe the perspectives and related actions of people in an historical setting 1.5 Describe an historical development, in an essay

BLACK CIVIL RIGHTS FQ1 What position did blacks hold in US society in the mid 1950s and why were there moves to bring about change? FQ2 How did blacks attempt to bring about change 1955-1965? FQ3 What new directions were pursued in the 1060s?

Frontloading

students as teachers short time period exam pressure teacher as facilitator

2006 What were key features of different black civil rights groups that were active between 1955 and 1965? What non-violent methods were used by these groups to improve black civil rights during this period? 2007 What were the civil rights problems faced by black Americans during the 1950s and 1960s? How did Martin Luther King respond to these problems? 2008 What challenges did the civil rights movement face in the period 1964–1970? How did different groups and individuals respond to these challenges during this period? 2009 What methods did black civil rights organisations use to bring about change in the United States between 1954 and 1964? How successful were these methods in bringing about change during this period?

• Students randomly selected key events • Brainstormed • Think pair share • Mapping-key concept • Questioning • Presenting planning

Class brainstorm

‘What do I know about the social situation of the blacks in 1954?’

laptops library gmail YouTube teacher as resources interventions –’searching’

The presentations … • Some good • Some average • Some poor • Need rehearsal • Know it all PowerPoint

Fact sheet (all except one handed in) School practice exam November – external exams

reflection action

Student voice ... ‘…I don’t think its fair that we don’t get a choice…’

Student voice … ‘…when the teacher explained about what was going to happen I was nervous. How is what I am going to study be able to be put into NCEA. But the learning from others was kind of cool. You learnt from your peers about the topic. The only thing I am worried about is the end of year exams. What if some of the information was wrong, or skipped out as someone thought it was unimportant and it was in THE EXAM?...’

Student voice … ‘…I wasn’t so sure about inquiry based learning. It seemed a little unfair that if someone didn’t cover everything in their presentation, the whole class got the consequences for their exams…’

Student voice … ‘…we sometimes worked in groups/pairs which was good because we all got to contribute and work as a team and often found information from our peers that we didn’t know about…’

Student voice … ‘…we got given a lot of facts and information and also did a lot of research ourselves (it was a good balance)…’

Student voice … ‘…your partner might find something you missed…’ ‘…I like learning by using different resources like books, internet, movies. I also like independent study and when teachers give us freedom…’

Student voice … ‘…I like working independently in some subjects while working in groups works better in others..’

Student voice … ‘…I like learning by teaching other people…I dislike being taught by other students…’

Student voice … ‘…inquiry learning – we got to teach the class…’

Student voice … ‘…we sat the exam toward the end of all the research and I found that all the work I did leading up to it really helped me in the exam..’

Challenges …for next time • Planning inquiry learning – takes time • No specific inquiry model was used – just an information model • Keep teaching the skills – don’t assume • Some students are not motivated • Group selection • Other teachers … on board? • Need a buddy teacher

Challenges …for next time • Need access to resources • Taking action … can be difficult • Teachers need specific PD • Hard to step back and hand the locus of control over to students • Default…

Student voice …last word.. ‘…it would be cool if we were allowed to do just what we were interested in. If that happened then there would be a lot of people that were happy with their jobs. If everyone was happy in their lives then there wouldn’t be so much crime and issues would go away…’

Thank you...questions???

Inquiry learning with senior secondary students

by International Association of School Librarianship on Oct 15, 2010

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Inquiry learning with senior secondary students — Presentation Transcript