Inquiry Based Learning- foundation of every educational system

As part of my inquiry on information Search process, I decided to begin my research  on Science based learning. The link between the science projects and inquiry learning  becomes a part and parcel of current educational system as it deals with the science literacy , technological advancements and global collaboration. When I tried inquiry based learning AND science, I came across  around 1,600,000 hits. In order to refine my search, I simply typed "inquiry based learning" AND science including quotes which resulted in 451,000 hits  and showed some valuable websites. Some of the sources clearly described the relationship between science education and inquiry process where I developed some  useful ideas.The topics which attracted me include:

• Addressing the Challenges of Inquiry-Based Learning through Technology and Curriculum Design , Edelson, Gordin, & Pea
  

This article reveals how the inquiry based learning influence science based experiments. The information search through different processes including finding answers to questions, exploration through various information sources and analysis  has a great impact on scientific learning.This inquiry learning gives opportunity for students in developing inquiry skills, scientific investigation skills and their knowledge in the use of computer technology.  This article mainly stresses the challenges in the construction of learning context and curriculum according to the modern science based inquiry. 

When the search for  inquiry AND science education in Google opened up more information gates related to inquiry on science.Some of  the interesting topics through which I learn t more about inquiry process include: 

Scientific inquiry and nature of science: implications for teaching ... By Lawrence Blaine Flick, Norman G. Lederman

 This resource provides a clear explanation of the role of scientific  inquiry process in producing scientific literate people. It also describes the nature of science and scientific inquiry.The authors tries to dig out the idea that discovering  "scientific explanations"are core to the scientific inquiry.

Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards: a guide for teaching ..

Committee on Development of an Addendum to the National Science Education Standards on Scientific Inquiry

 Through this book, the author describes  the bi-products of scientific inquiry and relates to the vision of science education to the National science education standards. The evidence based learning is the important step in science inquiry.
 

 

Teaching Science through Inquiry. ERIC/CSMEE Digest… Haury(1993)

The article describes how the inquiry learning on science construct students to learn the use of scientific instruments and modern technologies which promote a hands on experience to them. As inquiry in science teaching" effective in fostering scientific literacy and understanding of science processes (Lindberg, 1990), the author tries to advocate the use of inquiry based instructions in science education.

I tried to direct my inquiry in another way and I was wondering how much effective my search would be. The search intended to get more results on information search process. I typed guided inquiry AND inquiry models which showed the relevance of Kuhlathau's information search process in the 21st century learning and the need of developing high levels of literacy skills in students to meet the standards of workplace.  "The challenge for the 21st century school is to educate children for living and working in an information-rich technological environment"(Kuhlathau,c,2007).

Another search for inquiry AND science learning led me to find out the following information.

Some interesting resources I came through include:

Chapter 6: Integrated Learning through Inquiry: A Guided Planning Model


This article documents the ways of planning an inquiry based instruction.In a Guided Planning Model, the inquiry process initiates the self directed student learning in three stages, Activating, Acquiring and Applying where students plan, explore and gather information to satisfy their quest.

Engaging Students through the Guided-Inquiry Cycle Model: Andrea De Palma


This document introduces a guided inquiry model Andrea displayed and examines the stages through which students engage in the learning process.

I had a chance to glimpse through http://ictnz.com/infolitmodels.htm which introduced different information literacy models including Kuhlthau's ISP model.

Different Models of information literacy








References

Andrea De Palma(2005),Engaging Students through the Guided-Inquiry Cycle Model

Lawrence Blaine Flick, Norman G. Lederman (2004 ) ,Scientific inquiry and nature of science: implications for teaching

Edelson, Gordin, & Pea (1996), Addressing the Challenges of Inquiry-Based Learning through Technology and Curriculum Design

CC Kuhlthau, AK Caspari( 2007), Guided inquiry: Learning in the 21st century,


DL Haury(1993) Teaching Science through Inquiry. ERIC/CSMEE Digest

Second Reflection

1. Take some time to think about your topic. Now write down what you know about it.
More research and reading made me to think differently than before when I went through my second reflection about Information inquiry. The nature of Information inquiry depends on the complexity of the task, cognitive needs and the educational contexts. It also introduced a broader concept of information seeking process where it defines information Literacy as the ability to familiarize “complex contextualized practices, processes and interactions that enable access to social, physical and textual sites of knowledge” (Lloyd, 2006). The inquiry also outlined how effective was the present system of information inquiry than the past system.


2. How interested are you in this topic? Circle the answer that best matches your interest.

Not at all             Not much               Quite a bit                A lot



3. How much do you know about this topic? Circle the answer that best matches how much you know.

Nothing         Not much          Quite a bit             A lot



4. When you find out information about a topic, what do you generally find easy to do? Please list as many things as you like.

• I was able  to find out more search engines other than Google. 
I also find it easy to find more information by using links.


5. When you find out information about a topic, what do you generally find hard to do? Please list as many things as you like.

.
• I find it hard to select appropriate information from  search results.
I find it hard to construct search terms to a greater extend. 

• I find it hard to match relevant sources of information and information technology with appropriate academic writing paragraphs.

• At some stages, I experienced confusion and stress because of the limited time and this resulted in a complex feeling that I missed something that is important

My search on inquiry based learning resulted in finding out a video that describe the implications of inquiry based learning        

Third Reflection

1. Take some time to think about your topic. Now write down what you know about it.

According to National Committee on Science Education Standards and Assessment (1992), one goal of science education is "to prepare students who understand the modes of reasoning of scientific inquiry and can use them”. I know that the inquiry based learning is the most effective method of learning where the educators develop many strategies and techniques that promote critical thinking and logical skills in students. The inquiry based instructions by the educators facilitate student engagement in pedagogical perspective. “Inquiry-related teaching effective in fostering scientific literacy and understanding of science processes (Lindberg, 1990), vocabulary knowledge and conceptual understanding (Lloyd & Contreras, 1985, 1987), critical thinking (Narode et al., 1987), positive attitudes toward science (Kyle et al., 1985; Rakow, 1986), higher achievement on tests of procedural knowledge (Glasson, 1989), and construction of logico-mathematical knowledge (Staver, 1986)”.

As the scientific inquiry is a combination of activities and skills, engaging students in a curriculum which introduces lots of innovative resources, practices skills and learning activities are important. In order to facilitate learning inquiry in a productive way, the knowledge in how students engage in an inquiry based learning and different information search process models including ISP model of Kuhlthau, help the educator to be a sharp researcher and guide where they can direct them to find out the possible ways of information on their related inquiry and advocate the ethical use of technology and web tools.

2. How interested are you in this topic? Circle the answer that best matches your interest.

Not at all     Not much      Quite a bit    A lot

3. How much do you know about this topic? Circle the answer that best matches how much you know.

Nothing            Not much           Quite a bit            A lot

4. When you find out information about a topic, what do you generally find easy to do? Please list as many things as you like.
· I find it easy to set up blog and adding text

· I find it easy to use link to attach more information.

· I find it easy to search items using Boolean Operators such as AND , OR , NOT

· I find it easy to get results when use search terms such as inquiry

5. When you find out information about a topic, what do you generally find hard to do? Please list as many things as you like.


· I find it hard to organise information in a sequence which made it difficult to synthesise and co-relate selected information to present into a complete formatted Project.
· It was also complicated to control the flow of information after the reading the course materials and researched materials. As a result, it was hard to limit ideas into paragraphs.
· I find it hard to choose effective search terms as some of them showed no results which made me disappointed

6. What did you learn in doing this project? Please list as many things as you like.
This Project was an inspiring force for dealing with the research tools and developing a deep understanding of the scope of information inquiry. As I know that time limits my inquiry on the topic, I experienced what Kuhlthau’s ISP process is . Because of the limited time, I had to limit my research which resulted in confusion and uncertainty.

· It made me to think about various quick ways of finding relevant information and critically evaluate the information to check the reliability and accessibility.

· It guided me to walk through the steps of Information Search Process where I could reflect by comparing student responses on learning activities and identify my own strengths and weaknesses.

· It provided a basic idea of creating a blog, embedding video and images.

· It enabled to improve my search skills and technical skills.

· The readings and other course materials widen my professional qualities such as my improvement in vocabulary and academic writing skills . It also intensified my potential to form strong information literacy perceptions.

References

National Committee on Science Education Standards and Assessment. (1992). National science education standards: A sampler. Washington, DC: National Research Council.
DL Haury.( 1993) , Teaching Science through Inquiry.
Lindberg, D. H. (1990, Winter). What goes 'round comes 'round doing science. Childhood Education, 67(2), 79-81.

Lloyd, C. V., & Contreras, N. J. (1985, December). The role of experiences in learning science vocabulary. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Reading Conference, San Diego, CA. ED 281 189

Lloyd, C. V., & Contreras, N. J. (1987, October). What research says: Science inside-out. Science and Children, 25(2), 30-31.
Narode, R., et al. (1987). Teaching thinking skills: Science. Washington, DC: National Education Association. ED 320 755

Kyle, W. C., Jr., et al. (1985, October). What research says: Science through discovery: students love it. Science and Children, 23(2), 39-41.

Rakow, S. J. (1986). Teaching science as inquiry. Fastback 246. Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation. ED 275 506

Glasson, G. E. (1989, February). The effects of hands-on and teacher demonstration laboratory methods on science achievement in relation to reasoning ability and prior knowledge. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 26(2), 121-31.

Staver, J. R. (1986, September). The constructivist epistemology of Jean Piaget: Its philosophical roots and relevance to science teaching and learning. Paper presented at the United States-Japan Seminar on Science Education, Honolulu, HI. ED 278 563

My experiments with different databases

Today, I am thinking of having a try on different databases to learn more about inquiry based learning. My search on Google scholar by using the terms   inquiry AND science education  resulted in grasping various aspects of inquiry in science education. Some articles that made particular  attention include:
 
Co-Constructing Inquiry-Based Science with Teachers: Essential Research for Lasting Reform (CW Keys, LA Bryan, 2001)
This article provides only the abstracts and I tried to get the full version with no result. This article points out the need of research on educators' personal beliefs , knowledge and   practices which is recommended to enhance student participation in science learning. The more  knowledge of different methods  of inquiry instruction,lead  the more results in student participation.

Another article analyses the role of science inquiry based instruction to get better student learning impressed me which I found useful for my query on inquiry based learning. It clearly outlines the creation of science education and inquiry based learning by saying  that "Preparing student teachers to effectively utilize structured inquiry in their classrooms is a goal of science teacher education"(C J Eick, 2002)

What makes an inquiry-oriented science teacher? the influence of learning histories on student teacher role identity and practice(C J Eick,2002)

This article discusses a research on  how a teacher's  understanding about inquiry based science education can modify student learning.The knowledge and research  on  science  inquiry elements such as   identifying and posing questions, designing and conducting investigations, analyzing data and evidence, using models and explanations, and communicating findings will  guide the educators to plan and implement  the innovative curriculum that provides clear inquiry-based instruction . "inquiry-based instruction will be a powerful vehicle for students to learn scientific content"(Keys, Carolyn, Bryan,Lynn, 2001).

Inquiry Based Science supported by Technology: Achievement among Urban Middle School students (J Krajcik, R Marx, P Blumenfeld, E Soloway,2000)

Attempts to browze through A+ education resulted in  getting relevant information regarding inquiry on science based experiences. A greater number of hits were there when I tried to type inquiry AND science AND primary. One of the searches ended up in  finding out another ISP model , that is Bybee's inquiry model(1997) which describes 5E's that involve in  Primary connections teaching and Learning model.Through this model , Bybee(1997)  identifies that "There are number of science-specific  as well as general literacies required  by children to effectively engage with science phenomena, construct science understandings and develop science processes, and to represent and communicate ideas and information about science (Gee, 2004; Lemke, 1998; Norris & Phillips, 2003; Unsworth, 2001)


  

In the article, Primary Connections: A new approach to primary science and to teacher professional learning , Mark W. Hackling  advocates for inquiry based learning in Science."To develop an understanding of the nature of science (Lederman & Lederman, 2004), an understanding of scientific evidence (Gott & Duggan, 1996) and to become scientifically literate, students need to be engaged in an inquiry-oriented and an investigative approach to learning  science." 

I tried to involve the same search terms in A+education that  I used in Google  and I found that the resources through A+ education clarified  a lot of views on my search on information literacy and the inquiry process. My query on guided inquiry and inquiry models resulted in displaying various research materials and study finding regarding inquiry process.some of the documents such as  Engaging secondary school students in lifelong learning: Jennifer Bryce and Graeme Withers gives an insight into the educational practices that lead to create lifelong learners.

My search on  inquiry AND science AND primary OR elementary resulted in finding out  more related information on the topic and it revealed that science inquiry is an evidence based inquiry. Some of the articles documented the need of providing enough curriculum resources to the teachers to activate inquiry based instructions in science teaching. "We want to provide curriculum materials that enhance science teaching and student learning"(Bybee,1997) . The educators must be able to provide these curriculum resources in a way that they should  be able to include clear inquiry - oriented instructions. This is possible only when they are aware of different inquiry based learning methods and inquiry models.

My query on information AND inquiry OR search AND science  resulted in so many science teaching  related articles that demonstrated  the changing role of science educators. 

Inquiry-based science, EL Chiappetta (1964) describes two different approaches  of inquiry learning where it says posing questions is important in inquiry learning." they are the hearts of inquiry".

 
The search through Pro quest Education for information AND inquiry NOT secondary disappointed me as I could not find any relevant information. So I tried guided AND inquiry AND primary science- no result. Then I decided to find information on inquiry AND instruction AND Science which gave me 16 results.I could find only some information from one of the topics such as What is Scientific Literacy, and why does it matter?(Carolyn Scearce,2007). Even though I failed to find out more information on the topic through this search engine, I decided to do more research using different search terms on inquiry process which made some relief.
When I searched for science AND inquiry AND primary , the hits were 24, most of them were not related to my query.

References:

Lederman, N. G., & Lederman, J. S. (2004). Nature of science and scientific inquiry. In G. Venville & V. Dawson (Eds.), The art of science teaching in Australian schools. Melbourne: Allen and Unwin.


Bybee, R. W. (1997). Enhancing science teaching and student learning: A BSCS perspective

Science, 87, 224–240.

Norris, S. P., & Phillips, L. M. (2003). How literacy in its fundamental sense is central to scientific literacy Education

Bybee, R. W. (1997). Crossing borders in literacy and science instruction: Perspectives in theory and practice (pp. 13–32).

Gee, J. P. (2004). Language in the science classroom: Academic social languages as the heart of schoolbased literacy. In E. W. Saul (Ed.) ,Newark, DE: International Reading Association/National Science Teachers Association.
Gott, R., & Duggan, S. (1996). Practical work: Its role in the understanding of evidence in science.
Keys, Carolyn, Bryan,Lynn, 2001. Co-constructing inquiry-based science with teachers: Essential research for lasting reform

W. Hackling, Mark (2006 ). Primary Connections: A new approach to primary science and to teacher professional learning
CJ Eick, 2002 . What makes an inquiry-oriented science teacher? The influence of learning histories on student teacher role identity and practice
J Krajcik, R Marx, P Blumenfeld, E Soloway, 2000. Inquiry Based Science Supported by Technology: Achievement among Urban Middle School Students.

How things work?

Every learning and teaching is done as part of an information seeking process which constructs meaning to the successful search to new knowledge.I was bit concerned about the learning process that happens  and how that modifies a student's knolwedge. SoI wanted to know more about information search process and different ISP models and  the search for information AND Search AND process lead me to extract details of Kuhlthau's ISP model and her observations on inquiry process. The ISP model illustrates "common experiences in the process of information seeking for a complex task that has a discrete beginning and ending and that requires considerable construction and learning to be accomplished"( Kuhlthau,2007).When I went through the observations of Kuhlthau, I found that the understanding of different stages described in her ISP model closely reated to the experiences I got through the learning process. So I think the knowledge about  different ISP models help the educator's to apply different pedagogical  approaches in the process of constructing knowledge."Students' experience within the process must be clearly understood in order for teachers and media specialists to design library assignments and plan instruction that encourage rather than impede learning."(AASL,1989) . I also found the nature of uncertainity in learnig process . ISP model stresses the idea that uncertainty is natural and essential for constructing knowledge in information seeking process.(Kuhlthau, 2004, p.  82).

Further searches led me to open up a world where I could clarify the process of information which described defining,locating,selecting,organising, presenting and assessing as steps of information search process. It also introduced me a lot of search engine websites such as "NoodleTooles" and  web2.0 tools.

My search process on information  seeking process ended up in finding valuable interpretation of the process.Based on the studies on Kuhlthau's work in Seeking Meaning: A Process Approach to Library & Information Services, 2004,  Elizebeth Dolinger( 2010) created a webpage on ISP  which gave me a clear understanding about the ISP process which was demonstrated as below:

References

Kuhlthau,C.C,2007, Information Search Process

AASL, (1989), Information Search Process: A Summary of Research and Implications for School Library Media Programs

An information Search process -Research and support,(2010),  retrieved from http://sites.google.com/site/elizdolinger/information-search-process