Takapuna Grammar SchoolJill 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 • 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• 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 • Many schools are

unprepared

The beginning...Learning model

Product Information from

answers is

manipulated to

form

conclusions,

generalisations

and judgements

Creating Knowledge from

Information

TaskBrief

Scenario

Situation

Problem

The Information Process

Defining

Brainstorming - what do I know?

Questioning - what do I need to find out?

Locating

Question

1

Question

2Question

3

Answer to

question 2Answer to

question 3

Answer to

question 1

Learning the skills and

carrying out the research

Analysing findings

forming possible

generalisations and

judgements from answers

Using the analysis to

create the product

Locating

Identifying sources of information

Accessing resources

Selecting /Analysing

Will this information answer my

question?

Critical thinking to construct new

knowledge

Presenting

Sharing created knowledge

Evaluating

What did I do well?

What could I do better?

Organising /Creating

Teaching

of

information

literacy

skills

Sharing

created

knowledge

Evaluationof

Process and

Product

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 RIGHTSFQ1 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 teachersshort time periodexam pressureteacher as facilitator

2006What 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?

2007What were the civil rights problems faced by black

Americans during the 1950s and 1960s? How did Martin Luther King respond to these problems?

20082008What 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?

2009What 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• Mapping-key concept

• Questioning

• Presenting planning

Class brainstorm

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

laptops

librarygmailYouTubeteacher as resourcesinterventions –’searching’

The presentations …

• Some good• Some average• Some poor• Need rehearsal• Know it all• Know it allPowerPoint

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 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 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…’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..’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• 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 • 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 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???