Inquiry for Deep Learning
Course
Mental Models of Inquiry [7:27]
When our students think about doing research or doing an inquiry project, what do they think they're going to do?How can we help change their faulty mental model to be more like what we were hoping they thought they were going to be doing?
Scientific models help us understand something, think of the model of the brain, or a model of the heart, or a model of the planetary system. So, what mental model do our students have when they think about inquiry? My observation would say some students think of it as a transfer process: "I transfer the information from this source to my product." I've seen students who seem to think of the inquiry process as an assembly process: Gather some information together, attach a beginning at the top, stick a conclusion on at the bottom and now I have assembled my inquiry project. And, of course, many students think of it as reporting or giving the teacher a summary of what they found out, but not really discovering.
So, let's think about a school. Let's say the students were assigned to write a paper about marine biology. In your school which of these students would you be likely to see? Student one: picks a marine biology topic: sharks. She goes to the World Book online, finds an article about sharks, gleans some information, and composes her report. Or student two: gets the assignment, is curious about stories he's heard about people swimming in the ocean and being stung by jellyfish, wonders how often this really occurs, is it more common than it used to be? Are jellyfish stings dangerous or are they just painful? What stimulus causes jellyfish to sting? Are there different types of jellyfish? Are some more likely to be stingers? He begins to search for answers to those questions ultimately to provide guidance for ocean swimmers.
If we like that second student's approach we can use stepwise lessons to help students understand the stages of the inquiry process and teach skills important for each stage. However, keep in mind that one-time major research projects somewhere in their K-12 experience is not enough. We need to teach this process over and over if we expect students to internalize a true authentic inquiry model. They need to see, hear, and use that model over and over across grade levels. So let's look at a popular model of the inquiry process. In the Learning Support, for example, you'll see Barbara Stripling's inquiry process model. In it she describes various stages or steps in an inquiry process.
Let's begin—let's jump into that model in other words—at Connect. Connect asks students to gather some background knowledge of their topic by reading and browsing, so they can make connections with things they know, some additional things they found out, and have enough background to go forward in true inquiry. Next, they'll do some wondering, pose some questions that came out of that background knowledge, questions that caused them to wonder further. Next, they will investigate, in other words they're going to need to gather some information and we're going to need to help them learn how to do that well. So, gathering information comes at the investigate stage.
They will then construct or organize their information to make sense of it and then express it, that is share their findings and ideas, and perhaps most important of all, if this is going to be a learning experience, they will reflect, they'll step back and say "How did I do? How would I do this differently next time?" For students to adopt a new mental model, one that doesn't involve merely assembly but really engages them in a true process of inquiry, that model needs to be shared with teachers. There needs to be consistent language about inquiry use in the library and in the classroom. It benefits, in fact, from graphics being posted around the school: in the library, in the classroom, wherever students might need to be reminded of what inquiry really looks like, and of course it needs to be referenced in lessons in both the library and the classroom.
We can emphasize the model by staging inquiry projects along the research process, so that students are held accountable for each stage. Following the Stripling model students might submit assignments at each stage of the research process. So, at Connect, as an example, students might complete the K of a KWL chart to show what they know already, and the W column to record questions they might have. At the Wonder stage they might engage in searching for information and/or answers in the L. Then these students can look at their completed KWL chart and pose a new question that takes them beyond what they've recorded, takes them into a deeper level of inquiry now that they've really built and are cognizant of their background knowledge.
And at the investigating stage we might ask students to keep a graphic organizer that we provide for note taking and citations, and have them turn it in or show it to the librarian in a conferencing situation so that we know that they've really taken account of the information they've gathered and they thought about how it fits together in a systematic way. Of course, at the express stage, students will create a project to share their new learning; this is the one place where we often hold them accountable. And finally, we might ask students at the reflect stage to write a reflection or a response, maybe to a prompt like "Next time I do a project like this I'm going to remember to…" and ask them to complete that prompt. Too often, again as I mentioned earlier, we skip the stage of reflection but that's where they can be aware of what they've really learned through this inquiry experience and be ready to apply that learning next time around.
In short, we hold them accountable for following an inquiry process, not just for submitting that product at the express stage. To help students develop a mental model of inquiry is a process that is characterized by curiosity, builds on their background knowledge, and aims to arrive at discoveries or new ideas. A school does well to adopt a model, use it throughout the school, consistently refer to it, and use its language so that students also become articulate about inquiry as a process.
This lesson offers the useful example of a student's fact-based, topical report on a marine animal as compared to an inquiry stimulated by curiosity about how often jellyfish sting. The basic animal/country/state report is familiar to librarians and teachers, and it's a good foundation to talk about why curiosity matters. When practiced along with the stages of an inquiry model, the dispositions of inquiry—including curiosity—can become part and parcel of how students envision research tasks. For consistency in language and thinking processes, Donham recommends school-wide adoption of an inquiry process such as the Stripling Model of Inquiry or the Kuhlthau Guided Inquiry Model.
As Donham describes in Lesson 1, "if [students] think of inquiry or research as simply transferring information from source to their product then their mental model of inquiry is flawed." As illustrated here in Lesson 3, using a model of inquiry over and over demonstrates in real ways the stages of the cycle and helps create for students a better mental model. Here, we look more closely at the inquiry cycle.
View the two diagrams of inquiry models in the Resources below. Select one of these articles to read more about the application of one of the inquiry models described in this lesson.
Stripling Model of Inquiry:
Stripling, Barbara K. and Violet H. Harada. "Designing Learning Experiences for Deeper Understanding." School Library Monthly 29, no. 3 (December 2012): 5-12.
Kuhlthau Guided Inquiry Model:
Cooper, Janice. "Guided Inquiry by Design: The Story of Student Learning." School Library Monthly 30, no. 4 (January 2014): 18-20.
Reflect either mentally or in writing on the article that you read, incorporating what you have learned thus far in this workshop. Thinking about the dispositions of inquiry as you are experiencing them now, what information makes you curious? Are you feeling open-minded? Why, or why not, thinking about our thinking as a metacognitive exercise here. What ideas make you skeptical? If you had to construct an inquiry question to investigate in your own learning at this stage, what would it be? What might next steps be to follow your question?
Stripling Model of Inquiry
Kuhlthau Guided Inquiry Model
MLA Citation
Morris, Rebecca J. "Inquiry for Deep Learning: Inquiry Cycles Applied in Student Learning." School Library Connection, November 2024, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2001847?learningModuleId=2001843&topicCenterId=2247903.
Entry ID: 2122830
Additional Resources
About the Author
Jean Donham, PhD, has taught in the area of school librarianship at both the University of Iowa School of Library & Information Science and at the University of Northern Iowa in the School Library Studies program. Earlier, she worked in the Iowa City Community School District where she coordinated the school library program for thirteen years. She also served for eight years as library director at Cornell College, a selective liberal arts college. Dr. Donham holds an master's in library science from the University of Maryland and a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Iowa. She has authored numerous articles, book chapters, and books, including her most recent book, Enhancing Teaching and Learning: A Leadership Guide for School Librarians.
MLA Citation
Donham, Jean. "Inquiry for Deep Learning. Mental Models of Inquiry [7:27]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, February 2016, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2001847?learningModuleId=2001843&topicCenterId=2247903.
https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2001847?learningModuleId=2001843&topicCenterId=2247903
Entry ID: 2001847