Reflection 3 - Done and Dusted

Bernie's personal cycle of Information Inquiry


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

I have not actually strayed very far from my initial, survey one statement about this topic area. I still see information literacy as a set of skills, attitudes and aptitudes that allow users to make sense of a wide range of texts and inquiry learning as a style of teaching and learning that puts the onus on the students to explore, discover and create knowledge and understanding in a range of curriculum areas. Additionally, I now know that I have a well researched, theoretical basis for my belief that inquiry learning is extremely difficult for students with poor information literacy skills. Kuhlthau et al. (2007, P.22) and Callison (2006, p.6) acknowledge the need for any form of inquiry learning to be a joint process of scaffolded inquiry learning with instruction and practice in information literacy built in.

What I have learnt, and that I find extremely alarming, is that students are making it as far as achieving entry to university and still having poor information literacy skills. It is hardly surprising then that so many university students drop out in the first year. To suddenly move from the highly supported and structured environment of school to the self directed environment of university must be nearly impossible without high level information literacy. Unfortunately, studies by Rowlands (in Gordon, 2010, p.4) and Barnard et al. (2005, pp.505-507) have found that while modern university students are almost all highly skilled users of computers they are often not very information literate. They consider that while some faculties in universities are adjusting their course planning to include inquiry learning as a pedagogy most are not including an information literacy component.

In short, what all this means is that primary and secondary schools need to place an enormous focus on information literacy skills and try to plan more genuine inquiry units: not information retrieval units that are labelled inquiry just because the students are seeking out information. This is not an easy ask of schools that are under increasing pressure to cover large amounts of curriculum content. Inquiry learning does not cover large amounts of fact gathering, to fit in with the demands of standardized testing, and takes considerably more time than direct instruction. However, inquiry learning has been shown to improve student learning outcomes and is therefore worth pursuing (Friedman et al., 2009, pp.768-780; Todd, 2001, p.8; Callison, 2006, p.9). A study by Blanchard et al. (2010, p.577) showed that inquiry learning actually improved standardized testing results in the domain of Science. However, similar studies need to be undertaken in the social science areas before any real claims can be made about the relationship between an inquiry learning pedagogy and results on tests such as NAPLAN. This may well have already occurred and I just haven’t found them in my searching. This is something I wish to follow up on after I finish my Masters so that I can make informed planning decisions in the future. That would be Callison (2006) again: every answer raises more questions and keep me turning in a circle of inquiry.

2. How interested are you in this topic?
Not at all not much quite a bit a great deal

3. How much do you know about this topic?
Nothing not much quite a bit a great deal 

4. Thinking back on your research project, what did you find easiest to do? Please list as many things as you like.

I found the literature review the easiest to do because I enjoy research, the expectations of the task were very clear and the topic was extremely interesting. I started out quite confused by how to approach the tertiary context but as I researched, read and wrote I found it really interesting and enjoyable.

5. Thinking back on your research project, what did you find most difficult to do? Please list as many things as you like.

Time management is definitely what I have found the hardest. I am trying to complete my Masters full time but health issues with my family have made things very difficult. I still don’t know if I will be able to get everything done and complete the course. I am really struggling to understand what to do in a couple of subjects and assistance is minimal, at best. This has put a lot of pressure on my other subjects, including this one. Apart from the stress of getting things done I have enjoyed the research project.

6. What did you learn in doing this research project? Please list as many things as you like.

• That there is a standardised pattern of behaviours and emotions that are common to all research endeavours. This has helped me to panic less when I am going through the overwhelmed stage. Kuhlthau et al. (2006) have helped with the sense of isolation that self directed inquiry and the remote delivery nature of this course create in me. Knowing others feel the same has helped keep me focussed.
• That the Google Generation may be more ICT savvy than me but that they quite possibly have significant more problems with information literacy than I do. I have always assumed that I am well behind the eight ball because of my age and how late I started using ICTS, but this does not appear to be the case.
• That even though I have always focussed heavily on a range of forms of literacy in my teaching I need to put even more into information literacy.
• That I need to revisit my ‘inquiry’ units and make sure that they are not just little more than ill disguised searches for information.


References

Barnard, A. Nash, R. & O'Brien, M. (2005). Information Literacy: Developing Lifelong Skills Through Nursing Education. In Journal of Nursing Education, 44(11), 505-10. Retrieved August 9, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals.

Blanchard, M., Southerland, S., Osborne, J., Sampson, V., Annetta, L., & Granger, E. (2010). Is inquiry possible in light of accountability? A quantitative comparison of the relative effectiveness of guided inquiry and verification laboratory instruction. In Science Education, 94(4), 577. Retrieved August 16, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals

Callison, D. (2006). Chapter 1: Information Inquiry: concepts and elements. [Electronic format] In D. Callison & L Preddy (Ed.), The blue book on information age inquiry, instruction and literacy. Westport: Libraries Unlimited. Retrieved August 9, 2010 from Queensland University of Technology Course Materials Database.

Friedman, D., Crews, T., Caicedo, J. Besley, J. Weinberg, J. & Freeman, M. (2009). An exploration into inquiry-based learning by a multidisciplinary group of higher education faculty. In Higher Education, 59 (6), 765-783. Retrieved August 9, 2010 from ProQuest Education journals.

Gordon, C. (2010). Inquiry in the School Library: A 21st Century Solution? In School Libraries Worldwide, 16(1), 1-8. Retrieved August 17, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals.

Kuhlthau, C. Maniotes, L. & Caspari, A. (2007). Guided inquiry: learning in the 21st century. Westport, Conn: Libraries Unlimited.

Todd, R. (2001). From Information to Knowledge: the journey begins. In synergy 5 (2), 8-9. Retrieved August 17, 2010 from Education A+ database.