Among school and district leadership, the national education conversation focuses on the future demands that will be placed on students. Most educators are aware that today's students will be faced with jobs that require highly developed attributes and soft skills. Consider Pew Research's 2017 report, "The Future of Jobs and Job Training," which determines that, "tough-to-teach intangibles...such as emotional intelligence, curiosity, creativity, adaptability, and critical thinking will be most highly valued." Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) in Virginia took a division-wide approach to providing meaningful learning experiences for students that result in the skills and attributes described by Pew and endorsed by educational organizations such as EdLeader21 (http://www.edleader21.com/), among others. When school leadership considers how to develop these skills in students, their librarian should come to mind as a critical partner in this work. To align with the district priority, FCPS Library Information Services determined that Guided Inquiry Design® (GID) provided the greatest potential for success for students. This article examines the rationale, implementation, and reflections on this effort to infuse GID into an aligned, thoughtful approach to instruction and learning.

Guided Inquiry Design® in Context

GID is "a way of thinking, learning, and teaching that changes the culture of the school into a collaborative inquiry community." The process includes eight phases "based in the model of thoughts, feelings, and actions in Kuhlthau's studies of the information search process (ISP) of students" (Kuhlthau, Maniotes, and Caspari, 2012, xiii). For the past three years, a shift to GID as the core research and learning framework has resulted in greater opportunities for student engagement and achievement. It has also built capacity for librarian instructional leadership and raised exposure at the school and division levels for the library program as a whole.

GID moves quickly from an educator-led process to a student-led one. The Open, Immerse, and Explore stages invite students to become curious, gain or activate foundational knowledge, and take time to explore ideas that generate rich questions. In FCPS, just incorporating these three stages has elevated the student experience, promoting intrinsic motivation, and sparking engagement in their problem- or project-based learning work. Students are empowered to bring their own perspectives and interests in a topic to the forefront quickly. This approach also provides a differentiated experience. Each student finds their way through exploration, and having multiple paths to gain understanding leads to every student learning in a way that is meaningful to them.

The Identify and Gather stages are grounded in core information literacy skills. Here students narrow their focus and determine their information needs, then investigate—which may lead to further questions. The Create, Share, and Evaluate stages might seem familiar, but one nuance with GID is an emphasis on going beyond the facts of research in order to communicate a new understanding. This requires students to blend their thinking with the research to draw a meaningful conclusion and share what the learning means to them. Communicating their learning and the personal meaning is a key distinction. Students must reflect throughout the process, but the Evaluate stage encourages reflection on process and outcome that builds students' metacognitive abilities. Mark Twain Middle School librarian Emily Godfrey has seen this reflection increase her students' resilience:

I was not in the market for a quick new strategy, but instead was looking for a new way to work through the research process with my students so they could come full circle and reflect on what worked for them and what did not. I wanted them to learn how to identify their frustrations while researching and start practicing to work through those frustrations independently (personal communication).

To learn more about the Guided Inquiry Design® framework, see Carol C. Kuhlthau, Leslie K. Maniotes, and Ann K. Caspari's Guided Inquiry Design®: A Framework for Inquiry in Your School (Libraries Unlimited, 2012).

Why Guided Inquiry Design®?

Library Information Services examined GID and found it was a match for the district's 244 librarians for several reasons:

• Students learning through GID would have authentic opportunities to develop and apply real-world skills for success.
• Project-based learning (PBL) has become more widely practiced in our district. GID fits perfectly within the PBL construct—providing the path to sustained inquiry or the "how to" that PBL doesn't explicitly articulate.
• GID is an effective framework for personalized learning in a technology-rich environment. It's flexible enough to incorporate blended learning strategies and is learner-driven so that with appropriate scaffolding, it meets the needs of all students.
• GID aligns with FCPS library program core values. It enables meaningful application of information literacy skills and empowers students to foster curiosity, innovation, and life-long learning. Ultimately, GID develops and engages students as independent problem solvers, which supports the mission of FCPS school libraries.

Planning for Success

The FCPS Library Information Services team worked together to encourage librarians to embrace this change in instructional focus. It was a collaborative process, with an igniting spark provided by participation in the Lilead Fellows Program under the direction of Ann Weeks from the University of Maryland's iSchool. That experience provided insight into the elements of the transformational change process and a cohort of supportive colleagues. The most important strategy for Library Information Services was to reflect, discuss, bring in outside resources, and consider the approach from the librarians' perspective.

Understanding that educators often experience "initiative fatigue," Library Information Services committed to a three-year focus on GID to encourage librarians to deeply explore and experiment. Three elements in the overall implementation plan were instrumental to success.

1. Alignment with Division Goals and Strategic Plan

The first step is to articulate "the why" behind a change effort. The benefits of GID are shown through greater student engagement, independence, and motivated learning. Communicating with school and division leadership as well as central office colleagues was made easier because GID clearly fit with the student success goal in the strategic plan. School librarians had ready evidence to demonstrate the effectiveness of a GID approach to learning. Developing proof-of-concept examples paved the way for greater collaboration with other programs. Library Information Services collaborated to broaden experience with GID through integration into summer learning programs, capstone projects for high school English language learners, the curriculum framework for elementary instruction, and several cohorts for innovative practice.

2. School Librarian as Change Agent

School librarians must have the self-efficacy to embrace their role in transformational change for student learning. Library Information Services developed an outcomes-based plan focused on increasing librarians' knowledge of GID and provided a self-reflecting process as a safe environment to try small changes. Goals began with librarians' examining their own pedagogy, talking about GID with one teacher or team, or establishing a new collaborative opportunity to try even one stage of GID. Through professional development opportunities for librarians to exchange ideas and gradually dive deeper with GID, stories of success quickly rose to the surface. From elementary through high school, Library Information Services began collecting these stories of student engagement, librarian/teacher collaboration, and school team adoption to share.

3. Iterative Cycles of Self-Reflection and Sharing

Continuous opportunities for self-reflection, goal-setting, and conversations with others who are in a similar stage of development allow for growth individually and across a community. Learning together creates a supportive network and makes taking risks less intimidating. Stuart High School librarian Eun Ji appreciates the librarians' role as an experiential learner: "Each stage may look different in different settings, so it is fine to adjust according to your needs or start by honing in on just one of the stages" (personal communication).

Reflections

School librarians may well be the most effective coaches from preschool through high school graduation to prepare students for future success. Information literacy skills are real-world skills that help students navigate and evaluate information, investigate interests and ideas, solve a problem, or develop deeper understandings about the world. As students apply these skills, they also practice communication, collaboration, critical and creative thinking, and show their perseverance in working through a process. These outcomes have never before been more significant.

As with any learning community, after three years, FCPS librarians are on a continuum of understanding and implementation of GID. It's clear, however, that the Guided Inquiry Design® model is transforming FCPS librarians' approach to student learning and their leadership roles, as they facilitate meaningful learning experiences that carry students forward with skills vital to their future success.

Recommended Resource

If administration does not already value the librarian's role in leading and providing rich learning experiences, the first step is to shine a light on the current and potential impact of the library program. One helpful resource is the AASL School Librarians as Learning Leaders infographic and advocacy strategies developed by 2016-17 AASL president Audrey Church and her presidential initiative task force: http://www.ala.org/aasl/advocacy/tools/leaders.

Works Cited

Rainie, Lee, and Janna Anderson. "The Future of Jobs and Job Training." Pew Research Center, May 3, 2017. http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/05/03/the-future-of-jobs-and-jobs-training/

Kuhlthau, Carol C., Leslie K. Maniotes, and Ann K. Caspari. Guided Inquiry Design®: A Framework for Inquiry in Your School. Libraries Unlimited, 2012.