Embracing an Inquiry Stance
Course
Inquiry as a Process and Stance [7:22]
- Learn about the Stripling Model of Inquiry and its phases of inquiry
- Learn how an inquiry stance brings a new level of engagement to your students
- Learn why inquiry-as-a-process and inquiry-as-a-stance strengthen research skills
But the first thing that we need for students to do is to Connect. And it's not only connecting to an overview of the topic or to the ideas or the academic assignment even, it's also connecting to themselves. What does this mean to me? What am I interested in? How can I find my own slant on this? And then certainly wondering, we want students to develop their own questions and even if we provide questions, we want them to develop their own subquestions. What is it about this that interests them?
Investigate is the next phase, and of course, Investigate is embedded and we used to think that's what research meant was investigate. We skipped all the other phases of inquiry. But Investigate is not the normal, find something and slap it over here. It is much more intensive and it involves critical thinking skills, digital skills, digital inquiry and literacy skills. It involves a lot of social and emotional learning. And so it's important to think about how we help students not only find information, but make sense of it. And that's what they start doing during Investigate. Construct is–and this is a joke to anyone who knows me—my favorite phase of inquiry, because that's the point where the information passes through our students brains. That's where they absolutely construct their own ideas, draw their own conclusions, of course, based on the evidence, they're not just coming up with an opinion out of the blue; but this Construct phase, between Investigate and Express is, in my opinion, truly the most important phase for us to teach students that they have a right, they have an obligation, they have a responsibility, and they have a pleasure of drawing their own conclusions, forming their own opinions.
And then Express is the point at which we ask them to share their knowledge. And hopefully it is not just a report that they have copied. We're going to talk about this; how to make it a thinking experience, an authentic experience, for every student, no matter the format that they use to Express.
And finally, Reflect. I do want to say Reflect is embedded throughout inquiry, it is a part of the process. But there's a special reason for having Reflect at the end. And that is because we are asking students to be metacognitive about their own learning, to look at not only the product that they created and how they might improve a product, next inquiry project; , but also at the process. And we know inquiry is difficult and there are times when it's discouraging and when we don't quite do as well as we might do in asking questions or finding diverse sources. Well, we're asking students to reflect on that. How did you do? What were the points that were most difficult for you? And why? And then finally, to what did you learn that excites you to learn something more? What questions do you still have? Which is certainly the result we hope every student has in inquiry. And how does that lead you then to the next inquiry, which could be in classrooms or it could on the students own.
The next thing that I wanted to talk about then is, what do I mean by inquiry stance? And to me, that is sort of an umbrella over an inquiry process. That it's a sense of wonder, it's an attitude toward the world that I want to find out about this world and the questions that I have emerged from who I am as a person and what I am already thinking about. So you can see in my diagram here that for Connect, for example, it is inquiry as a stance when a student who is really into video games says, I want to figure out how to create a video game, I can do that. And he takes the learning that he's interested in, that he's connected to and pushes it into new learning for himself. It's really a sense of wonder that draws on all of the phases of inquiry. But it's a follow up to what the students are reading in the news, what they're hearing from their friends. There's even one, how can I convince my parents to let me go to nature camp? That's certainly a Construct sense, but it's a student using inquiry for his own purposes.
I think you all really appreciate the joy that is included in a stance. And I think what we were trying to do now is to bring that sense of wonder and joy and independence and mindset into academic inquiry, into the process, because that's going to lift your teachers and your students to a whole new level of engagement with the library, with their learning, and open up great new doors for working with your students and collaborating with your teachers.
Inquiry-as-a-process shows students the steps of research, but do students simply use it as a checklist rather than a starting point for their research? An inquiry stance is more of an umbrella over an inquiry process that develops a student's sense of wonder. How are these two things similar? How are they different?
Using the Model of Inquiry and Inquiry Stance handouts found in the Resources above, think about inquiry-as-a-process and inquiry-as-a-stance. How are they similar? How are they different? Are there any ways that they build off of each other? What other thoughts come to mind when looking at these side by side? Use page 2 of the Course Packet (found in the resources above) to develop your ideas about inquiry-as-a-process and inquiry-as-a-stance.
MLA Citation
Stripling, Barbara K. "Embracing an Inquiry Stance: Inquiry-as-a-Process and Inquiry-as-a-Stance." School Library Connection, August 2021, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2266978?learningModuleId=2266980&topicCenterId=0.
Entry ID: 2266984
Implementing inquiry as both a process and a stance in your library helps lift your teachers and students to a whole new level of engagement with the library, their learning, and opens up new doors for working with your students and collaborating with your teachers.
After listening to this lesson and knowing the importance of independence and personal growth of your students, think about how you use inquiry to as a process and a stance to promote those tools? How can you change what you're already doing or what will you do in the future with inquiry? Use the worksheet on page 4 of the Course Packet to complete your thoughts and spark new ideas for implementing inquiry in your library.
MLA Citation
Stripling, Barbara K. "Embracing an Inquiry Stance: Implementing Inquiry." School Library Connection, August 2021, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2266978?learningModuleId=2266980&topicCenterId=0.
Entry ID: 2267453
Additional Resources
MLA Citation
Stripling, Barbara K. "Embracing an Inquiry Stance. Inquiry as a Process and Stance [7:22]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, August 2021, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2266978?learningModuleId=2266980&topicCenterId=0.
https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/2266978?learningModuleId=2266980&topicCenterId=0
Entry ID: 2266978