This Article surfaced in an exploration of A+ Education and is interesting in its link with possible inhibitors of learning efficacy. It explains that diversity of cultures and social groupings, which are evident many Queensland schools, may negatively literacy teaching practice. The text is seven years old and digital learning tools have increased dramatically in availability since then. It would be interesting to explore if this author still rated the same concerns, or if they felt that inquiry learning elements such as student self determination and increased social interaction overcame these issues.
Found through a Proquest search using the controlled vocabulary string of "fostering teacher learning through collaborative inquiry", this journal article documented a collaboration between a high school and university to deliver an inquiry learning project. Implications from the work determined that the provision of release time to facilitate the implementation of a program is necessary. It also found that collaborative work is an effective technique to equip and `foster adult learning in educational research, toward better inquiry learning practices.
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Found using double quotes in Proquest, this article considers collaborative inquiry for an American University evolving its professional practice and grappling with increasing numbers of students. The issues reported from the process appear to be outweighed by the benefits of staff who were `affirmed and confident about their individual practice'. The consultation and reflection elements of the process refined the faculty's goals and directed future practice. Participants came to believe in the power of the collaborative process and saw it as a galvanizing approach. Difficulties included individuals who worked alone and tried to patch together, ownership and authorship was challenged and time was considered a major constraint. Trust and sharing across committees was at times problematic, but improved as the hierarchical structure was supplanted by a more generally empowering paradigm. The unpredictable nature of collaborative inquiry increased professionalism and clarified ideals.
Article may be found here
In slight contrast to the previous article which considered a university faculty grappling with inquiry learning processes to inform their processes, this article explores high school principals, dealing with poverty and cultural issues. They found that participants gained knowledge from each other, offered knowledge from others, constructed knowledge together as a group, and developed deeper understandings of their own perspectives' which is a recurrent theme in this quasi inductive research. Additionally, they reported difficulties translating discussions into accurate text, which adds a new dimension to potential issues arising from the inquiry process. They extended this concept to describe dialogue as a process of making meaning - and therefore implicit in face to face collaborative processes, but also, anontological means of clarifying'.
Article may be found at this link
This dissertation is only available through Proquest, although is has two citation listings on Google Scholar. It is a fascinating study with many messages for selling inquiry learning to potential teaching practitioners. Benefits found through the meta-analysis included that the more open, student focussed and student centred classrooms were, the higher student attendance rates, investment in the school and achievement levels (p. 144). It also highlighted the social-constructivist changes that some teachers fear in role amendments, outlining how important direct instruction of specific skills are, to enable students to undertake effective inquiry research. Rather than being less important, it reminds facilitators that they are still important. It is also a thorough model of how to conduct, analyse and interpret data for subject areas other than science, during its 175 pages.
Located through Google Scholar, this article is quite old, but supports proponents of guided inquiry practice, suggesting that gradual release will support students and maintain higher levels of confidence. One key concern is that of the high demands inquiry can place on working memory and this text is a timely reminder to ensure proposed activities are appropriately scaffolded. A previous listing in this library (Saunders-Stewart) considered the essential skills that teachers need to provide students and this article supports that notion. What would be an interesting direction of questioning, would be to see the extent that brain plasticity might be changing cognitive theory since 2006 when this article was first published.
Available through university library subscriptions for shared journal articles, this item has 5 critical challenges of inquiry based learning i.e. motivation, accessibility of investigation techniques (what other writings have called specific research skills), background (content) knowledge, management of extended activities (organization and management) and practical constraints in the learning context (timetabling for example) p. 398-400. Written nearly 16 years ago, a whole generation of teachers and learners have refined the processes so many elements of the challenges are being addressed, and it is particularly interesting that one of the prime aspects of pedagogy is not the gaining of knowledge, as much as the understanding of how to gain it. Rote learning for example is no longer widely utilized in middle and senior classes at least.
Poetic at times, this article encourages teachers to engage with inquiry learning for themselves, and others, as transformative agents of change. Assessment, modelling, scaffolding and evaluation, were integral to the process within multicultural and inclusive settings. The research was conducted in a manner that mirrors much of the LCN616 course from QUT.
Using a science setting, this article provides a solution to the problem of differentiating inquiry learning for learners of different abilities by scaffolding activities in a `tiered framework'. Essentially, three sets of instructions are listed in a table with varying ranges of independence and requirement of thinking skills. The lower tiers require the location and simple interpretation of data, while higher tiers elicit meta-cognitive responses. This article was selected because it addresses the issue that arose from Edelsen, Douglas and Roy's work and provides strategies to support differentiated ability levels.
Sourced through Google Scholar and Proquest, this Hong Kong based article utilizes inquiry based, qualitative research, combined with empirical analysis to determine practicing teacher resistance and issues with undertaking inquiry learning. Time and lack of control have been common themes throughout most of these research papers, however, this one also considered inaccuracies in perception. It was surprising that teachers felt they had to know everything that students might want to research, suggesting that there might be many who could struggle with the paradigm shift from transference of knowledge. Respondents in this review found that inquiry learning was too risky in terms of uncertain outcomes and that students would raise too many questions, which provides fuel for thought.
[article may be found at this link if you have library journal access. http://http://tinyurl.com/pzu79ae)
