FEATURE Studies published in Neuron demonstrated the number INQUIRY LEARNING: of questions asked by a child BEYOND THE SCHOOL WALLS steadily declines as they grow. At the age of four children By Catherine Barnes ask 300 questions per day, dropping to less than 100 by BIOGRAPHY the time the child is nine.

Teacher Librarian: Endeavour College, Mawson Lakes, This can be linked not only to the gradual NECESSARY PREREQUISITES FOR TEACHERS Lecturer: Master of Information Management, University of South Australia achievement of knowledge by the child as they The inquiry learning process is student-focused; mature, but also a decline in the number of however, often teacher-led. Lutheran Education A librarian for 18 years, the teacher part in teacher librarian came eight new encounters in their day (Gruber, Gelman & (n.d.) defines the necessary years ago. In the middle there came a Master of Information Management Ranganath 2014). This is why it is so important prerequisites for teachers to include: and a passion for not only organising information, and providing access to offer new ‘encounters’ outside the classroom to information, but also educating others in the power of information. context, where students can construct their A culture of curiosity and respectful own understandings through experiences and dialogue; As a Lecturer in Information Technologies, Metadata, Library Management research. and Cataloguing in the Master of Information Management at the University of South Australia, Organisational management; a desire to educate the next generation of information professionals is played out. Learning takes place in a social context, so it A deep knowledge of subject matter; is important to learn from and with others, and within and outside the classroom. The best INTRODUCTION place to learn social norms and practices is Strategies for scaffolding and guiding Inquiry learning has been a popular pedagogical approach, which has been supported by classroom in an environment where you are socialising student thinking, planning and working, teachers, librarians and educational leaders for many years. Whilst the concept of handing ownership with people of different ages, experiences and giving responsibility and decision making of learning over to the students was groundbreaking in its inception, during the past decade there backgrounds. Through the actions enacted on increasingly over to students. have been a number of innovations in education and society which can be implemented to enrich in an inquiry learning process, there needs to be the model. These innovations, design thinking, student agency and metacognition represent a space for further questions and learning, leading My question is, do teachers really need deep focus on real-world learning and action. to further innovation and entrepreneurship. This knowledge of subject matter? Aren’t there others leads to one of the more recent innovations in in our community, within and outside the school WHAT IS INQUIRY LEARNING? education: design thinking. The Department of who can provide this? For example, in schools I Lutheran Education Queensland (n.d.) defines the characteristics of inquiry learning as: Education and Training, , defines the have been involved in I have worked with former design thinking process as applying empathy lawyers, professional sports people, chefs, to understand another’s needs, brainstorming archaeologists, nurses, professional clowns, Genuine curiosity, wonderment and questioning; creative ideas, developing a prototype, testing and others who have a deep knowledge of the prototype and then acting on feedback to subject matter due to interest and experiences. Students actively involved in constructing understandings through hands-on experiences, modify and refine it until a viable solution is That is just in our school; in our community we research, processing and communicating their understandings in various ways; reached (Victoria State Government 2017). In my have scientists, social workers, refuse collection school we refer to this as ‘Purposeful Learning’, managers, and business people, all of whom but sometimes through the requirement for hold that deep subject matter in context due to Learning takes place in a social context, whereby students learn from and together with assessment of learning, the student is halted others; and their work. at the prototype stage. A true inquiry project should seek feedback the student can act upon, Handing the responsibility for decisions over Learning leads to action which, in turn, involves informing and sharing with others. developing the social practice of reflecting and Through this change can be implemented and advocacy can be enacted. to students is an important aspect of inquiry acting upon constructive criticism. The reflection learning and builds on the application of should not only be on the product, but also the Inquiry learning is defined by the inherent curiosity of our students. Curiosity is a human quality student agency in our schools. Paganelli (2017, learning process, with students able to develop that drives exploration, investigation and the search for deeper understanding. p. 6) defines student agency as motivation, metacognition skills through reflection on the engagement, and voice, all important aspects of learning experience. the process. While motivation and engagement

32 March 2020 ACCESS March 2020 ACCESS 33 FEATURE HOW DO WE ACCESS THESE EXPERTS? variety of professions and asked them to speak Not everyone has experts available in their to the Year 10 cohort about a few key aspects. school community. There may be some work This assisted many students in choosing their often complement each other, through student have developed skills in a context outside of the required by leadership, teachers, and students subjects for Senior years and a possible pathway voice we are able to see responsibility for action. classroom. This not only expresses their growth to form these connections and relationships. for them. This is where much of the incidental learning as a learner, but also in their metacognition An example of a school leading the way in takes place; where there is responsibility, there skills as they are able to articulate their growth this is . This small Galleries, libraries, archives and museums all is growth. Even the youngest students can learn as a learner. primary school in has a program of offer opportunities for our students to access how to use their failures as an opportunity for ‘Thought Leaders’; experts available when the primary and secondary resources. The staff improvement. need arises. This includes professors, business there are experts in their fields. The Art Gallery people, MPs, futurists who make themselves of South Australia’s vision is even ‘beyond the HOW TO IMPLEMENT INQUIRY WHICH available '… when their experience, skill set classroom’. When enrolling at our school, all ENGAGES DESIGN THINKING, STUDENT and networks can benefit student learning' students are given an application form for the AGENCY AND METACOGNITION SKILLS (Annesley website, 2019). local public library. This is returned with the Each stage of the inquiry process can involve standard enrolment forms and enables students connections with the ‘outside’ world. When In my own school community, a student to access the library for excursions, extending students are gathering information, they initiative has been enacted called ‘Share your their sources and enjoying the programs. This is need to be encouraged to access a range of Career Day’. This was developed by a group of a mutually beneficial relationship as the public sources. Each student’s journey will be different, students who had attended an activity at our library receives more youth members who are the sources may be primary; some students local university. The students were able to meet then able to use their services at times the love interviewing people, whilst others enjoy with staff who were experts in their field, opening school is not open. accessing secondary sources through museums EVERYTHING IS ONLINE NOW? their eyes to a number of careers and stories of and organisations. The learning needs to be With the move to electronic resources, many how the staff came to be in their current career. A number of tertiary institutions allow taken in the context of the real-world, with of which schools cannot afford, it is my belief These students realised they were fortunate to membership for the community, with special the design thinking approach of developing that we need to go back to the source of the have this experience and wanted to provide the consideration given to secondary school empathy and creative solutions to a problem information, primary sources, more than ever. same experience to all Year 10s at our school. students. Many provide this at no cost to the in their community. This purposeful approach For example, our local university library has They made contact with members of the school student or school and offer services beyond needs to be applied to both the content of the fewer hard-copy books than our high school and local community who were engaged in a resource access, such as presentations on inquiry and the process. Students need to be able library; they have taken a digital preferred to develop relationships with persons beyond approach. At university, more students are using their class, utilising experts and resources they data-driven research rather than qualitative or would use in a real-world context. secondary sources, so what does this mean for how we teach? The product of an inquiry project does not always have to be an internal assessment. Dobber, Zwart, Tanis and van Oers (2017, p. Students I have taught have written letters to 210) states that 'Teachers should enculturate a Member of Parliament, worked with a council students to embrace inquiry and encourage to develop a park near their home, changed them to act like academic researchers'. To take the process for dealing with concussion in their this approach means using data and connections sports club and developed products which between the data to make inferences. For they have been able to obtain an income from. example, the media would have us believe The strength of their research was gained by Australia has a growing teen drinking problem, including sources, both primary and secondary, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare beyond their school. Providing sources beyond (AIHW) data shows the proportion of young the classroom improved their case for change. people abstaining from alcohol increased from 72% in 2013 to 82% in 2016 (AIHW 2017). This The success of an inquiry project is in making fact would not be known to the student if they connections between ideas and how they only accessed news media secondary sources. apply to their lives outside school. One of the Through accessing primary sources such as wonderful results of learning is when a student data and experts in the field, our students are writes in their learning reflection that they positioned to make informed judgements. In believe it will help them in their future career, the world of ‘fake news’ and bias, this is one of their current part-time job, or they feel they the best skills we can teach our students.

34 March 2020 ACCESS March 2020 ACCESS 35 FEATURE sound like basic tasks for a fully grown adult but these students, who were all highly able, struggled with the communication processes information literacy, academic honesty involved. Talking to adults, negotiating prices, and orientation to university life. It is worth discussing contracts and plans and then applying investigating for your school, even if a link to to our principal for the money were all tasks a tertiary institution is your only consideration. which stretched them beyond their comfort zone. Unlike many of the other ‘connections One of the research tips I provide to students beyond the classroom’, this interaction was REFERENCES is when using a secondary source to not only not altruistic; these organisations treated it as Annesley Junior School, 2019 ‘Annesley Am- assess the reliability of the author, but if the a business transaction. This project was not just bassadors’, Annesley Junior School, viewed 5 author is a possible primary source for them. a demonstration of the inquiry learning process, January 2020, https://www.annesley.sa.edu. Many articles have the email address of the but design thinking, entrepreneurship, student au/community/annesley-ambassadors/ author at their institution or organisation listed. agency with a strong focus on metacognition. Many university websites have databases of The students thrived and are much better for Australian Institute of Health and Welfare ‘research experts’. With carefully crafted emails the experience. (AIHW) 2017, National Drug Strategy and questions, my students have had many Household Survey (NDSHS) 2016 — key valuable responses. BEYOND THE SCHOOL WALLS FOR ALL OF US findings, viewed 25 January 2020, https:// With the focus on inquiry learning in schools, www.aihw.gov.au/reports/illicit-use-of-drugs/ A couple of years ago, one of my students was there is also a strong growth in universities. ndshs-2016-key-findings/contents/summary investigating the environmental sustainability of Many courses require students to undertake hiking the Kokoda Track. She had hiked the track projects involving relationships with industry Dobber, M, Zwart, R, Tanis, M & van Oers, herself as part of a youth leadership program and the community. Even in our own staff B 2017, ‘Literature review: The role of and happened to have some water purification professional development, one of the first the teacher in inquiry-based education’, tablets left. She emailed the company that activities undertaken when exploring change in Educational Research Review, vol. 22, pp. produced the tablets with questions related to a school is a study tour of other like, or different, 194–214. ingredients and their own studies on the effects communities. Consultants to government and on the environment. The response was detailed, businesses are essentially external sources of Gruber, M, Gelman, B & Ranganath, C 2014, informative and valuable to her investigation. knowledge and skills to assist organisations ‘States of Curiosity Modulate Hippocampus- Whilst acknowledging bias, she was able to with their own inquiries. Dependent Learning via the Dopaminergic achieve her aim of considering an aspect of Circuit’, Neuron, vol. 84, no. 2, pp. 486–496. something small in the scheme of the greater OUR ROLE AS TEACHER LIBRARIANS topic. There have been many different titles given to Lutheran Education Queensland n.d., teacher librarians over the last 20 years, some Approaches to Learning: Inquiry Based For the past four years, I have worked with a positive, others not so. In actuality the teacher Learning, Australian Curriculum, Assessment small group of students who sought to assist librarian is often at the coalface of implementing and Reporting Authority, viewed 15 January new students to the school in their transition. innovations in education, such as design 2020, https://www.australiancurriculum. Their idea was to create a product that could thinking, student agency and metacognition, edu.au/media/1360/lutheran-education- be used to orientate students to the school. It all in how we run our inquiry learning program. queensland-inquiry-based-learning.pdf was decided to create a 360 tour of the school How about we don’t worry about what we (similar to Google Maps). Each had strong are called and focus on our core business of Paganelli, A 2017, ‘Power to the pupil: school technology skills but the challenge and area creating connections for students, be it with libraries and student agency.’, Knowledge of learning was the requirement to work with books, online resources, humans or otherwise. Quest, vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 6–7. external organisations to make their product a reality. Meetings were held with our local Victoria State Government 2017, What is university who were testing beta software Design Thinking? Department of Education which could achieve the project aim, followed and Training, viewed 23 January 2020, https:// by discussion with the company developing the www.education.vic.gov.au/about/news/ software. The students were also required to Pages/stories/2017/storiesdesignthinking. investigate, request quotes and purchase a 360 aspx camera from a local camera store. Through the use of the Design and Technology facilities at school, they built a stand for the camera. These

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