The exploration and collection of information led by students and guided by teachers and school librarians.
Essential questions are the basis for all inquiry based, or project based learning.
They are broad, but steer the students toward the unit question and eventually leads to the objective. Some examples are in the link.
They are broad, but steer the students toward the unit question and eventually leads to the objective. Some examples are in the link.
Carol Kulthau examined students through traditional research assignments and found that the outcomes were not resulting in in-depth learning, but simply answering questions. Students do not give much thought about the assignment, and sometimes they were just copying information out of a textbook.
The Information Search Process, also referred to as research based learning, is different, because the students choose the questions to answer about a particular topic given by the teachers. The steps to this process are listed below.
1. The first stage of the process is delivered to the students with images or a video about a particular topic. The example topic given in the article, Making the Shift, by Leslie K. Maniotes and Carol C. Kuhthau in the (2014) November/December issue of Knowledge Quest, is Kudzu vines taking over a building. The teachers pique the students' interests by asking them what they think is happening and guiding them to wonder about the implications.
2. Immersing the students in information to build background knowledge is next. They visit a location that has the Kudzu vines growing on a building to observe what is happening. The teachers and school librarian also invite a local expert to talk about that particular species. This expert can come from a local university or the botanical or forestry department of the city.
3. The exploration stage comes after immersing the students in the information. They are taught how to use the resources in the school library as well as the digital collection and other databases to reflect and accumulate ideas, questions, and connections to the topic. At this point in the research process, the students identify their own specific questions to answer and from which to learn.
4. The actual identification of questions are listed at this step. These questions are authentic and are born out of the students' real interest in the topic (Maniotes & Kuhthau, 2014).
5. It is time now for the students to gather the information and learn about the questions they previously created.
6. Creating and sharing a presentation about their findings about the topic are next. The students choose how they want to share and present the information: brochure, PowerPoint, Prezi, magazine, etc. This could be digitally presented or paper and pencil.
7. Last, the students evaluate their research and final product via rubric. The teacher is also responsible for this evaluation.
This type of process can be designed for all ages. The teacher at each developmental level needs to have the appropriate tools and materials at hand to do so, because different ages are triggered by different ways of learning and experiences. The topic exemplified in the article, Making the Shift (Maniotes & Kuhthau, 2014), is geared more toward middle school or high school students. Lower grades, such as Kindergartners, experience the information search process differently. There is a blog post for May 2014 within this site summarizing an article about the early childhood search process.
The Information Search Process, also referred to as research based learning, is different, because the students choose the questions to answer about a particular topic given by the teachers. The steps to this process are listed below.
1. The first stage of the process is delivered to the students with images or a video about a particular topic. The example topic given in the article, Making the Shift, by Leslie K. Maniotes and Carol C. Kuhthau in the (2014) November/December issue of Knowledge Quest, is Kudzu vines taking over a building. The teachers pique the students' interests by asking them what they think is happening and guiding them to wonder about the implications.
2. Immersing the students in information to build background knowledge is next. They visit a location that has the Kudzu vines growing on a building to observe what is happening. The teachers and school librarian also invite a local expert to talk about that particular species. This expert can come from a local university or the botanical or forestry department of the city.
3. The exploration stage comes after immersing the students in the information. They are taught how to use the resources in the school library as well as the digital collection and other databases to reflect and accumulate ideas, questions, and connections to the topic. At this point in the research process, the students identify their own specific questions to answer and from which to learn.
4. The actual identification of questions are listed at this step. These questions are authentic and are born out of the students' real interest in the topic (Maniotes & Kuhthau, 2014).
5. It is time now for the students to gather the information and learn about the questions they previously created.
6. Creating and sharing a presentation about their findings about the topic are next. The students choose how they want to share and present the information: brochure, PowerPoint, Prezi, magazine, etc. This could be digitally presented or paper and pencil.
7. Last, the students evaluate their research and final product via rubric. The teacher is also responsible for this evaluation.
This type of process can be designed for all ages. The teacher at each developmental level needs to have the appropriate tools and materials at hand to do so, because different ages are triggered by different ways of learning and experiences. The topic exemplified in the article, Making the Shift (Maniotes & Kuhthau, 2014), is geared more toward middle school or high school students. Lower grades, such as Kindergartners, experience the information search process differently. There is a blog post for May 2014 within this site summarizing an article about the early childhood search process.