I am reading Curriculum Connections through the Library. The first couple of chapters advocate for the school curriculum to be inquiry based learning. The authors state that inquiry base learning puts the learner in the center of the curriculum. The learner is actively engaged in creating ideas through guidance. This type of learning starts with the students asking questions and reaching new understandings. The teacher's role is to facilitate the learning. It is impossible for teachers to fill students' with all the information that there is. Therefore, inquiry based learning makes sense. Why then do we not see this happening across the nation?
One reason may be that we are in the age of accountability. There are standards testing that impede many educators from adopting inquiry based learning. Although some studies show that this type of learning will produce higher order thinking, it is time and experience with inquiry based learning that is needed in order to implement this successfully. This book gives some suggestions on how to get started.
One of the simple things that Harada states is to start by practicing question formation. It is important that students learn how to formulate questions in order to think critically. This is an area that school librarians can assist. My question as I continue reading and practice inquiry based learning is given the time constraints and testing pressure that classroom teachers face how do I, the school librarian, assit them in seeing the benefits ofinquiry based learning?
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I think your point about testing is a good one. Your question is valid. How do we make other teaching professionals and the students see the value in this style? I think it will be a bit of an up hill battle. The students are used to the format that they have been working with for years. When you send the open ended questions back to them and put the ownership of the information back on them they are going to look at you like you are growing a third eyeball out of your forehead. I think the answer is to start small. Find one or two teachers you can work with on small projects and have small successes with the process then let the teacher be some of your best press. Perhaps we can have success with individual students that come in with individual questions. If we make these small successes work, teachers will see value in giving up their class time for more in-depth collaboration. I think if we try and look at it as a movement to change our schools in one year it won't work. It is going to have to be a series of really small steps and successes that add up to a philosophical shift in how we as a faculty do the business of educating students.
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