Tightening the Knot on Inquiry and Research
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Are you a knitter? Have you ever made a friendship bracelet or done macramé or crochet? These arts use knots that bring two (or more) strings together to create a cohesive piece. The knots work together to set colors next to one another, create patterns, edging, and finish off the piece so that it won't unravel. Inquiry and research are like that. The two, when carefully and intentionally knotted, work together to make lasting, meaningful learning for all students.
It seems everyone feels as though they should be doing inquiry, but what are they actually doing? Inquiry is used so frequently in curriculum standards and educational conversations today, and yet educators often lack a clear or common definition of what they mean when talking about it. Oftentimes the words inquiry and research are used interchangeably.
Inquiry-based learning can be as simple as reading aloud a book and being open to children's reactions, questions, and curiosities. Inquiry can be using a "See, Think, Wonder" activity with a primary source, map, or image. These activities, by themselves, get students asking questions. The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) is often used to get students to ask better questions. By opening up to all questions with no judgment at first, students build comfort to wonder. By making the list visible, students can see the many questions that can be asked about one photo, artifact, or article. Another way to get students to ask better questions is to read a thought-provoking picture book aloud and have students ask questions at the end. List all the questions they have as they state them. Once the list is compiled, go through and have them analyze the kinds of questions that are there. There will be ones where the answer can be found in the book and there will be questions that go beyond the book (Kuhlthau, Maniotes, and Caspari 2012). This is a great activity to increase students' awareness to questions and what they can help us to do. These activities get students thinking, asking, and wondering. While some educators feel these activities check off the box of inquiry, librarians know that these are activities alone are not enough to satisfy the information and research needs of our students today.
In my conversations with educators around the country, I repeatedly see that most people are going at "inquiry" alone and without a process or model because it is the suggested or assumed approach to teaching that is expected in the national standards across content areas: science, math, and social studies. These educators find some success but often complain of having difficulties with collaborating, getting lost in the wide array of resources available as they try to design the learning experiences, and getting students to ask questions that are research worthy. Librarians are indispensable partners to teachers along this journey as they are tuned into the wide variety of resources connected to standards available and they are knowledgeable about the research process.
This article untangles the knot of inquiry and research and answers the questions why bother doing inquiry (beyond ticking off the standards) and how does inquiry support deeper student research.
Inquiry that leads to research is the strongest bond for student learning. Content standards and information literacy run through both inquiry and research. These two threads are at the center of an inquiry-based research process. When inquiry and research are combined, students engage in deeper learning. They also engage information literacy skills, locating, evaluating, curating, and using information to create understanding. The inquiry thread weaves around on one side and the research thread weaves around the other side. The knot is tightened by honing our skill in both inquiry and research.
The new AASL standards recognizes the knotty relationship between inquiry and research by using the term "
This four-word description is trying to accomplish a lot in one phrase that is worth unpacking. First, the term indicates a clear connection between inquiry and research. Second, it indicates inquiry-based learning should lead to student research. And third, there is recognition of a process. Perhaps, it implies that through the pairing of the two, inquiry and research are better together. For librarians, the name alone requires a high level of knowledge about and implementation of inquiry and research. So, let's dig in a little deeper into how inquiry and research are deeply connected.
Dr. Carol Kuhlthau has provided a solid foundation for understanding inquiry and research. In her article "Inquiry Inspires Original Research," she describes how "inquiry and research are inextricably intertwined" (2013).
Inquiry and research are practices that can be implemented separately, but are better when used in concert. When used together, students' inquiry flows into their research to inspire interesting discoveries. Kuhlthau states, "The most productive research begins with curiosity that promotes persistence…(that eventually) create deep personal understandings." There are two aspects of inquiry are illuminated in that quote: 1) curiosity and 2) persistence. Both curiosity and persistence arise out of inquiry and work together to drive students to create meaning and build new knowledge through their research.
Curiosity is a natural path for deeper learning. Historians and scientists alike recognize this in their own work (Jahren 2018; Vendeville 2017). Well-designed inquiry learning activates and harnesses students' curiosities prior to research. Inquiry can inspire students to generate research questions that arise out of their own personal and individual interests. In that way, students build deep personal meaning from the pursuit of their own questions. Without curiosity, students' questions are hollow and often students end up doing research to complete an assignment rather than to learn. This mindset results in cutting and pasting information with no real analysis or critical thinking.
Inquiry is a way of learning that supports children in building the curiosity that drives the research process. As educators, it's our job to guide and facilitate that process. Although we have specific standards and curricula to teach, students can find their own interest within that content. Through curating interesting resources around a concept we can spark the interest in all of our students to inquire more deeply into the content we are required to teach (Donham 2017).
Curiosity and personal interest are the engine of perseverance. Kuhlthau stated that persistence is necessary "for seeing through the confusing, uncertain early stages of the research process" (2004).
How do students persevere through the uncertainty of not knowing, of finding information that goes against their own beliefs, or in finding dead ends and perhaps few resources on their question? The motivation for that persistence lies in curiosity. If students really want to know, they need to find out. They will persist through the tough and challenging parts.
"Inquiry is a frame of mind that opens the child to learning through research and leads to deep understandings. Inquiry inspires meaningful original research" (Kuhlthau 2013). Inquiry becomes a way of learning from information. Research is the next step to curiosity. In this way, research is embedded in inquiry.
If inquiry is the context in which meaningful research can occur, we are talking about going way beyond the activity level of inquiry. The activity level or lesson level that I described in the beginning of this article has the goal of getting children to ask and develop good questions. The ultimate goal in using an inquiry-based research process is that students ask great questions so that they can research to learn new things, create meaning, and understand (lifelong learning).
Lifelong learners pay attention to their curiosities, follow their questions, and see where the information leads them. By learning from inquiry and research in school, our students learn to see the value in their own curiosity. We can bring awareness to the power of their curiosity through inquiry learning and help them to recognize it as an opening to potential deeper learning in their lives. We want them to persist, not give up at the first Googled answer. We want them to learn how to dig deeper into the information and see what they find so that they are prepared to act as thoughtful, critical thinkers. When inquiry is paired with research in the instructional design, students experience the joy of learning in this way. It is well worth it to aspire to using an inquiry-based research process with all our students K-12.
Once we have inquiry and research as the end goal, a shift in the way we carry out inquiry occurs. We lean deeper into inquiry. We create a culture where we see inquiry not as a goal in and of itself, but a way of learning where children are given the space to become curious and can act on those curiosities to make sense of their world. Effective inquiry-based learning requires we create those conditions in the classroom or library to facilitate that inquiry-based research process.
Guided Inquiry Design® (GID) is precisely what AASL describes in the Standards: an inquiry-based research process. It is a process that provides a clear pathway so educators can design learning experiences that flow with (not against) how our students create meaning out of their own research. The process is derived from the research on the Information Search Process (Kuhlthau 2004), the most highly cited work in the field of information science. The GID process provides educators with direction for designing inquiry that leads students to personal and meaningful research (Kuhlthau, Maniotes, & Caspari 2012).
By knowing and using the phases of GID, educators work together to create deeper learning experiences using an inquiry approach. Teachers work with librarians in collaborative teams to use GID to design units of study. One teacher from Norman (Oklahoma) Public Schools in an anonymous end of year survey said, "Guided Inquiry has allowed me to co-teach with our teacher-librarian. Designing units of study that are engaging and leading students through the research process has improved my teaching tremendously." Effective design of inquiry learning is critical to the success of your program (Kuhlthau 2004). Units designed using GID accomplish all aspects of inquiry-based research and ensure that the inquiry flexibly flows along the process centered on student interest as well as standards-based content.
True curiosity is the best start to engage the motivation needed to pursue a deep research question. But, there are also strategies we can use to foster perseverance through the process. Students need guidance throughout the inquiry-based research process (Kuhlthau 2004). GID includes embedded tools that, when used, facilitate the process (Kuhlthau, Maniotes, & Caspari 2012). For example, conferencing with students throughout the process sustains students' successful perseverance and focus. Students benefit from structures that encourage reflection and idea sharing to keep them focused on the work. Inquiry journals provide a structure for reflection about their interests, growing knowledge, and the process. Students also benefit from talking to other students about their work as well as working in collaborative groups or Inquiry Circles. Inquiry Circles are a structure in GID for sharing resources and ideas with peers. All these structures happen in the library and extend into the classroom as GID is typically co-taught. But, librarians have a specific and important role in inquiry learning and research.
Librarians stand out as the education professionals in schools who understand the complex link between inquiry and research. Teachers rarely learn about the research on information seeking. Therefore, it is the secret you hold that can open many doors for teachers.
Librarians jump into action in the design and planning phases by curating resources that match the learning goals and standards-based content for teachers. This can many forms from centers in the library with stations of books, maps, computer stations, and so on. Students are given time in the Explore phase to browse content. They learn the information literacy strategy of browsing in this first phase . The curated set can also be created using a hyperdoc in Google, LibGuides, or a Symbaloo, and many librarians work with their classroom teachers to embed the curated set into the Google Classroom.
Librarians guide students to their question through the Identify phase by providing structures for students to think about what interests them. They confer with students to draw out their personal line of research that moves their curiosity into a focused question for research.
Librarians offer virtual and real spaces for the Gather phase where students actively search for information to learn about their question. They help students with search terms and finding resources that they may not find on their own. This is typically when teachers bring students to the library, but if they know about Guided Inquiry the students will be better prepared for this phase, as the inquiry process supports their idea development and gives them time to muck about with the content before landing on one idea.
Libraries are the natural place for creation (in the Create phase) through making and the sharing of ideas. GID units end with a celebration of learning that often occurs in the library where the students learn from one another.
In this article, the knot of inquiry and research is untangled and reknitted again. Inquiry and research should be used hand in hand to create deeper learning experiences for all students. Don't stop at the point of doing inquiry as an activity to get kids asking more questions. I hope you'll keep going, to create a library program that uses inquiry to give rise to deeper research for your students. Dig in there with a teacher collaborator or two and start learning about the process and tying those knots together to make your program even stronger.
Jahren, Hope "Why Asking Childlike Questions Is so Important to Science." Big Think YouTube (July 17, 2018). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ3_USOBKrg.
Donham, Jean. "Employing a Conceptual Lens when Designing Guided Inquiry" Guided Inquiry Design in Action: High School. Edited by Leslie K. Maniotes Libraries Unlimited, 2017: 13-21.
"Guided Inquiry Design" BLV Consulting, 2019. https://guidedinquirydesign.com
Kuhlthau, Carol. Seeking Meaning: A Process Approach to Library and Information Services. 2nd ed. Libraries Unlimited, 2004.
Kuhlthau, Carol. "Inquiry Inspires Original Research." School Library Monthly 10, no. 2 (2013): 5-10.
Kuhlthau, Carol, Leslie Maniotes, and Ann Caspari. Guided Inquiry Design: A Framework for Inquiry in Your School. Libraries Unlimited, 2012.
"See Think Wonder Routine"Visible Thinking, Harvard Project Zero. http://www.visiblethinkingpz.org/VisibleThinking_html_files/03_ThinkingRoutines/03c_Core_routines/SeeThinkWonder/SeeThinkWonder_Routine.html. Accessed December 2019.
Vendeville, Geoffrey. "Natalie Zemon Davis on the Importance of Curiosity in Humanities Research." UofT News(December 20, 2017). https://www.utoronto.ca/news/natalie-zemon-davis-importance-curiosity-humanities-research
"What Is the QFT" Right Question Institute. https://rightquestion.org/what-is-the-qft/. Accessed December 2019.
About the Author
As the trainer for Guided Inquiry Design®, Maniotes leads professional development institutes building capacity in collaborative teams of librarians and teachers. In the institute, teams learn about best practice in inquiry as they design units of study together. She also works with district leaders to implement systems of support that wrap around inquiry learning for greater impact. Author of Guided Inquiry and Guided Inquiry Design® with Carol Kuhlthau and Ann Caspari and Guided Inquiry Design® in Action: Middle School with LaDawna Harrington and Patrice Lambusta (Libraries Unlimited). You can reach her on twitter at @lesliemaniotes or lesliekm67@gmail.com
MLA Citation
Maniotes, Leslie K. "Tightening the Knot on Inquiry and Research." School Library Connection, March 2020, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Article/2212471.
https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Article/2212471?topicCenterId=0
Entry ID: 2212471
