Entry 12: Information-Learning Journey Wordle

Entry 11: Final Reflection Questionnaire

Entry 10: Great Inquiry and Information Literacy Glogs

By DC Library

Entry 9: Reflection Reflection Reflection

My experience in this inquiry project has made me realise the importance and centrality of reflection in inquiry learning.  I have found myself engaging in continual reflection at all stages of this task - whether it be reflecting on my prior knowledge at the beginning of the unit, to reflecting on the relevance and reliability of source materials.  I found reflective practice to be particularly important when writing my literature review as it enabled me to develop the complexity of my arguments and improve my lines of reasoning through revising and extending concepts and ideas and drafting, re-drafting and re-working to come up with a polished and comprehensive assignment.

Reflection has been central in enabling me to make complex connections and develop deep knowledge and understanding.  Without reflecting on information, processes and my own learning, I think my knowledge and understanding of the topic would have been more superficial or of surface value.  Reflection enabled me to draw connections and assimilate new meanings and understandings with my prior knowledge - I think it was instrumental in bringing about those ‘a-ha’ moments.  Reflection and metacognition was also vital in ensuring my learning remained ‘on track’ and in this way, it enabled me to experience deeper learning and further extend my knowledge and understanding.

I like the following inquiry model for the way in which it places reflection at the centre of inquiry learning.  It acknowledges that reflection occurs at all stages/phases throughout the inquiry - the planning, retrieving, processing, creating, sharing and evaluating.

(Alberta Learning 2004)
http://jcomfort.typepad.com/dr_charles_best_library/files/focusoninquiry.pdf

Callison’s model also acknowledges the importance of reflection and Callison distinguishes between formative reflection (to assess exploration, assimilation and inference) and summative reflection (of connected decisions across a major assignment or research unit).  The importance that effective reflection plays in fostering independent, lifelong learners is emphasised in this way.

Entry 8: Second Reflection

Entry 7: Inquiry and Empowerment

As I have been reading and writing about inquiry in the visual arts, I have been inspired by the potential for the arts to generate powerful social and cultural change.  This has been encapsulated in Dewey’s vision of art and democracy (in Goldblatt 2006), in Chanda’s (2007) critique of art historical inquiry and in Lupton’s (2010) view of transformative literacy.  It has emphasised, for me, the importance of inquiry in encouraging questioning and critical thinking dispositions and in promoting empowerment.

After reading about Lupton’s (2010) GeST model of information literacy and pondering over the generic, situated and transformative windows, a day of regular supply teaching drove home the importance of embracing the situated and transformative windows and reinforced the value of authentic, contextualised inquiry learning for student engagement.

This realisation occurred as I went to my first supply lesson for the day - an English class - and prescribed the grammar worksheets that had been left for the students to complete.  The lesson consisted more of students’ whining ... “Why do we have to do this?”  “It’s so boring!”  This is just a waste of time!”  It was a battle trying to get them to complete the worksheets and I doubt they learnt anything that was meaningful or relevant.  Though I didn’t admit it to the students, I found that I was just as bored and unmotivated as they were!  This generic learning context was so uninspiring and disconnected!

My next class, senior physics, was the total opposite!  Students were continuing with developing, planning, writing up and safely carrying out their own “experiments”.  This enabled students to choose an area of interest to them and engaged them in questioning, formulating, devising and testing.  It was situated/transformative information literacy at its best and like the students, I was instantly engaged and intrigued in the learning process.

One student was testing the cleaning power/effectiveness of different brands of washing powder, another working on a recipe for an antibacterial hand-rub.  All were engaged and busy at work using a wide variety of resources and sources of information.  When I was questioning them about their work, one of the students commented that they may have to notify “A Current Affair” about some of the false claims made by the products they were testing.  Though all said in good fun, the realisation of the transformative power of their inquiry made their learning so powerful and empowering!


My own inquiry into this topic has had a similar transformational affect on my views and philosophy of learning and education.  While re-igniting my enthusiasm for teaching and my passion for the visual arts, this project has certainly inspired me to embrace inquiry learning wholeheartedly in my own teaching practice!  I do not think this project would have had such an impact on me and my own practice had it not been for the guided inquiry approach.

Entry 6: Reflecting on the Inquiry Models

Callison's Five Elements of Information Inquiry

I have found that my information searching and use has definitely reflected Callison's Five Elements of Information Inquiry.

Callison's Five Elements of Information Inquiry

Throughout the research process I moved from preliminary browsing (by exploring broad information related to general inquiry) to more focused search and use (critical thinking and information literacy in the visual arts).
Through assimilation and inference (and continual questioning and reflection), I built on my understanding of the topic by critically considering a range of information and viewpoints.  This promoted higher order thinking and deep knowledge and understanding.  As I made deeper connections, I was also able to narrow and refine my argument.  This focus enabled me to engage with and target the more specific research/resources that I needed to round off my literature review.

Callison's model acknowledges that the five elements continually interact throughout the learning experience.

McKenzie's Research Cycle

I think my researching experience is also reflected well through McKenzie’s Research Cycle (below), where questioning, exploring, gathering, understanding, sorting, synthesising and evaluating occurs as a repetitive and continuous cycle, culminating in the reporting phase.

McKenzie, J.  Research Cycle. http://www.fno.org/dec99/rcycle.html

McKenzie’s Research Cycle and Callison’s 5 Elements of Information Inquiry, capture the dynamic process of inquiry.  The models point out that inquiry is not just a static and linear process, but that deep knowledge and understanding occurs through a sustained and continual cycle of information discovery and use.


Kuhlthau's ISP Model

This has made me more critical of Khulthau’s ISP model, as it does not really capture the rich, continuous, interconnected nature of inquiry.  The model is represented to be more static and linear and does not adequately account for the complex, evolving and metacognitive processes that should (I think) be characteristic of inquiry learning.

Kuhlthau, C.  Model of the Information Search Process

While I certainly related to the feelings, thoughts and actions documented in the initiation, selection and exploration stages of Khulthau’s ISP (see Blog Entry 1 and Blog Entry 2), I do not think my experiences in this inquiry project have been accurately reflected throughout the last stages of the model.  I acknowledge that my thoughts and actions did become more focused as I progressed, however, I still felt mixed emotions throughout the collection and (working towards) the presentation phase as I was continually analysing, synthesising and re-working concepts and ideas in an effort to further refine and improve my literature review.  In this way, I did not experience complete clarity, as the ISP model appears to suggest.


As previously mentioned, I find Callison’s interconnected elements of questioning, exploration, assimilation, inference and reflection much more valuable.  I think the assimilation and inference elements, in particular, account for the lack of clarity I sometimes felt during the collection and presentation stages as I tried to create more complex links between information and ideas.  Callison’s 5 elements acknowledge the progressive acceptance, rejection or altering of knowledge in the learning process.


This experience has, however, made me realise the importance of acknowledging the emotions that students experience in learning and it has reinforced the value that guidance and what Khulthau (2007) refers to as the ‘zone of intervention’ (p.26-27) plays in effective inquiry.  As I have been identifying and working through my own frustrations and doubts, I have come to more deeply consider the need to intervene at those ‘critical’ moments in the classroom and to guide students through those points in the learning process where they need assistance and advice.  The consideration given to learners’ feelings and emotions is one of the strengths of the ISP model.


References:


Callison, D.  (2006).  Chapter 1: Information Inquiry: Concepts and Elements.  In Callison, D. and Preddy, L. The blue book on information age inquiry, instruction and literacy.  Westport, Conn: Libraries Unlimited, pp.3-16.


Kuhlthau et al. (2007).  Guided Inquiry: Learning in the 21st Century. CT: Libraries Unlimited.


McKenzie, J. (1999).  The Research Cycle.  In From Now On: The Educational Technology Journal; 9 (4).  Available at:  http://www.fno.org/dec99/rcycle.html.

Entry 5: Writing the Review

Having consumed a LOT of literature, I have decided that the focus or angle I am going to take for my literature review will revolve around the power that visual arts inquiry can have on the development of students’ critical and creative thinking and lifelong learning skills.


Some of the concepts/aspects central to inquiry that I have been inspired by and that I will include in my literature review include:

Questioning:  inquiry encourages students to question and critically interrogate information and the world around them.  It fosters inquisitiveness and engages students as active thinkers and investigators.  Does not promote passivity or idleness.  Meaning becomes problematic.

Critical and creative thinking:  art inquiry teaches students to think in divergent and innovative ways.  It promotes problem solving, higher order thinking and metacognition.  It encourages students to explore different views, values and attitudes and emphasises that there is no one right way of thinking or being in the world.

Collaboration and active learning:  students build on their prior knowledge to construct new understandings for themselves.  Peers and the teacher as facilitator enable co-inquiry to occur and students grapple with and assimilate the views and ideas of others to create new knowledge and understanding.

Information literacy:  students are required to draw on and interpret multiple forms of literacy - in visual, digital, multimedia forms.  They must decode symbols and signs, question, evaluate, interpret, analyse and synthesise information and ideas.

Having compiled notes from the literature and being in the process of composing my review, I have decided that I may benefit from another narrower search that is specifically related to the focus of my paper and the arguments/ideas I wish to develop.

I choose Proquest from the databases listed under ‘Education’ on the library website and conduct an advanced search using the terms: 

art

AND

inquiry

AND

“critical thinking” OR creativity

I find a number of interesting articles, including the following:

Creativity and Imagination: Tools for Teaching Artistic Inquiry

Karen Heid. Art Education. Reston: Jul 2008. Vol. 61, Iss. 4; pg. 40, 7 pgs

Thinking Outside and On the Box: Creativity and Inquiry in Art Practice

Julia Marshall. Art Education. Reston: Mar 2010. Vol. 63, Iss. 2; pg. 16, 8 pgs

Enhancing Critical Thinking with Aesthetic, Critical, and Creative Inquiry

Nancy Lampert. Art Education. Reston: Sep 2006. Vol. 59, Iss. 5; pg. 46, 5 pgs

REFLECTION

While the new sources I have found aid in cementing or confirming the stance I have taken in relation to the topic, the approach and argument I have developed for my literature review changes very little.  This aligns with Kuhlthau's definition of a summary search - a search conducted in the presentation stage to recheck information or to ensure nothing has been overlooked (2007, p.84).  While I am still not entirely happy with the 'flow' of my paper (I still think the linking of ideas and concepts can be improved or extended), I am satisfied that I have 'enough' quality information for the purpose of the task.

Entry 4: Database Search

After my frustrations yesterday and having revisited the project task sheet/criteria and example Project Reports on blackboard, I feel I have a clearer idea of the type of information that I want to source for my literature review - art inquiry models/processes as well as information literacy skills and dispositions fostered through inquiry in the visual arts.  Feeling much more focused, I have decided to do a Database search, beginning with A+ education (since it contains Australian journal content).

In an attempt to save time and to avoid the situation of ‘information overload’ that I found myself in yesterday, I decide to search narrowly first, using very specific search terms and phrases, before broadening my search query.

I use the boolean operators AND and OR, as well as “ ” to search for exact terms as a way of limiting my search results.  I began with the query:

“visual art”

AND

“inquiry learning” OR “inquiry-based learning” OR “guided inquiry”

AND

secondary OR “high school”

This gave me 1 result, which appeared to be a relevant article, but I was unable to access the full text version.  Note to self:  remember to include only results available in full text.

Following this, I tried a number of different search terms.   Given that I had not had much luck finding content-specific visual art resources with exact terms like “inquiry learning” or “inquiry-based learning” in my previous searches, I decided to try ‘inquiry’ with other, more general terms such as ‘education’ ‘learning’ ‘teaching’.  The results of these searches are listed in the table below:

Search query	Results
“visual art” AND “inquiry learning” or “inquiry-based learning” or “guided inquiry”	1
“visual art” AND “inquiry model”	0
“visual art” AND inquiry AND learning or teaching or education or curriculum	6

I was getting very few hits with these search terms (none of which were helpful), so I decided to broaden my search by adding in the word ‘art’.  While the use of ‘art’ opened up thousands upon thousands of irrelevant hits in my Google searches, I figured that the database would offer more limited results and would allow ‘art’ to be picked up in the context of ‘art teacher’ or ‘art student’ or ‘art educator’ and in any instance where the full term “visual art” was not used.

I used the query:

“visual art” or art

AND

inquiry

AND

teaching or learning or education or curriculum

and limited the search to ‘Full Text Records Only’.  This delivered 64 results - a good, manageable number I think.

I accessed and printed full-text copies of 8-10 articles that I thought were pertinent to inquiry learning in Art.

There were also a couple of full-text articles available externally that I was trying to access, but for some reason the link kept saying that it was broken.  I entered the title of one of these articles into Google Scholar on the off-chance that I might be able to find a PDF copy online.  I was unable to find the article I was looking for, but I came across what appeared to be 2 very valuable resources.  One journal article titled:


Goldblatt, P. (2006).  How John Dewey’s Theories Underpin Art and Art Education.  In Education and Culture; 22 (1); pp. 17-34. 


and another:


Chanda, J.  (2007).  Achieving Social and Cultural Educational Objectives through Art Historical Inquiry Practices.  In Journal of Aesthetic Education; 41 (4).  Fulltext available via QUT.

This unintentional/tangent Google Scholar search had paid off!

Perusing through the documents that I had printed or bookmarked, I noticed that a couple of them were written by Susan Wilks.  It appears that Wilks had conducted some extensive research into Art education in schools so I decided to conduct a final search to see if I can find any other articles/research by Wilks that is related to inquiry learning in art.

I use the query:

“visual art” or art

AND

wilks [specifying ‘wilks’ in the AUTHOR field]

This brings up 7 results.  Two of those (titled Only good for the art class...I don’t think so and The visual arts as a thinking tool) that seem to contain highly relevant information and I print these for reading later.

I am feeling very happy about my searching today.  I have come away with what I feel are some highly valuable resources and I feel that my time has been spent wisely.  My database searches have generated results that were much more relevant to my topic and focus and I think the information that I have sourced today will be very useful for my literature review.

REFLECTION

As Kuhlthau's ISP model suggests, I began experiencing a sense of clarity and direction as my perspective became more focused and I was able to conduct searching with clearer intent.  Through this process, I engaged in the various information literacy concepts for locating, evaluating and using information (Kuhlthau 2007, p.77-91).  

Locating:

• chaining was evident as I followed up different author or full-text leads to access relevant information
• I differentiated between sources by weighing up their quality, currency and relevance to determine which were valuable to pursue

Evaluating:

• I was consistently evaluating the worth and merit of the sources I was finding - evaluating author credibility/expertise was important and enabled me to further source other documents that were of quality and currency
• it was also important to evaluate the 'usefulness' of the research for my topic and focus

Using:

• forming and refining a focus was evident as I questioned the direction I wanted to take and determined the importance and relevance of information and sources in relation to the nature of my topic/task - in this way I was able to manage the inquiry (Kuhlthau 2007, p.89).

While the above list provides an example of the information literacy concepts I engaged in throughout one part of the research process, I did not experience  these as separate or isolated skills, but as interwoven and connected processes.  For example: while locating information, evaluation (of credibility and worth) was important and; while reading and using information (through notetaking, interpreting, trying to find a focus, recording references etc), I was continuously evaluating it (to assess its usefulness for my purpose) and using it to further locate other valuable sources.  This experience has enhanced my understanding of information literacy, not as separate or isolated skill sets, but as connected and contextual...as 'using information to learn' (Bruce 2008).

Entry 3: Exploratory Searching and Information Overload

Having scanned the articles and information I found from my last search, and reflecting on the search terms I used, I was interested to conduct another Google search simply using the terms

inquiry “visual art”

OR

inquiry learning “visual art”

The reason for this was that I thought I may have been limiting my initial search too much by searching for the exact phrases “inquiry learning” “inquiry-based learning” or “guided inquiry”.  I had also noticed in my previous search that relevant sources/information (relating to inquiry learning in Art) used terms such as problem-based learning and constructivism rather than “guided inquiry” or “inquiry learning”.  I was hoping that the singular terms “inquiry” AND “learning” may give me a broader range of relevant sources.

With my second search I was also hoping to retrieve comprehensive information/literature relating to the rationale or educational benefits of using an inquiry approach in the Art classroom.  The Senior Visual Art syllabus is heavily underpinned by an inquiry learning model and creating, appreciating and appraising art work/s involves “inquiry” on various levels and in various forms.  Again, I thought that broadening my search to include “visual art” (as an exact term) alongside inquiry AND learning may give me a larger volume of relevant hits.

To begin, I used the following terms in a Google search:

inquiry “visual art”

This gave me 109 000 hits.  A very large number, as I expected.

Among the first few results was the following article - worth following up:


Tudor, RG (2006) Visual art as philosophical inquiry: expanding pedagogic possibilities in the quest for a community of reflective thinkers. In: ACUADS 2006 Conference: Thinking the Future: Art, Design and Creativity, 27-29 September, Melbourne, Victoria.


Also, a study published by Deakin University seemed relevant to the topic:


Shillito, S et al (2008).  The aims of art education:  An analysis of visual art in Tasmania’s Essential Learnings Curriculum.  In Australian Online Journal of  Arts Education.  Deakin University: Victoria.

This broad search also generated a lot of hits that were not relevant to the objectives of my task, including visual art course outlines from different schools.


Next I tried Google Scholar, using the terms


inquiry learning “visual art”


Again, lots of results - 6990 hits.  I scanned the first few pages of titles and descriptions, and found that I was interested in quite a number of articles/sources.  I could access most items of interest through the ‘Get fulltext @ QUT’ - a function that I have come to love in Google Scholar.  I am surprised at some of the publication dates of a number of the sources.  The following articles in particular, which, from the abstracts, sound like ideal sources of information for my literature review, are dated from the 1980s.  I decide to scan/review them for background information on inquiry learning in art.

Stages of Inquiry in Producing Art: Model, Rationale and Application to a Teacher Questioning Strategy Author(s): Carmen L. Armstrong Source: Studies in Art Education, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Autumn, 1986), pp. 37-48

Learning to Look/Looking to Learn: A Proposed Approach to Art Appreciation at the Secondary School Level Author(s): Gene A. Mittler Source: Art Education, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Mar., 1980), pp. 17-21


I also find a number of sources that are more current.  Some discuss ‘critical thinking’ as an outcome of art education and inquiry.  Another focuses on the power of an art education and strategies of pedagogical inquiry to empower students and bring about social justice.  Yet another article looks at the importance that questioning, reflection and a socio-cultural approach plays in creating meaningful experiences in Art.  


The information that I have found all seems to relate to visual art and inquiry in some way, however, at this stage I am feeling a bit overwhelmed at the abundance of information I have and I am a little uncertain of its relevancy to my literature review.  I think I need to revisit the assignment task sheet and criteria so that I can get the task clearer in my head and then determine the use and relevancy of the information I have sourced thus far.  


As I mentioned in my first SLIM reflection questionnaire, I have a tendency to get ‘carried away’ with the curiosity of what I might find next.  This causes me to source LOTS of information rather than a more LIMITED amount of EXCELLENT and HIGHLY USEFUL information and sources.  Grrr...and I haven’t even begun to look at databases yet.

By Dan4thhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/dan4th/2295925353/

Note to self:  

Perhaps I need to also look more specifically at finding information that focuses on appraising/critiquing art work (as my project context is focused on an appraising task NOT a making task).

I am also thinking that I may need to conduct a search that introduces “information literacy” to the Visual Art - inquiry learning conundrum.

Does it matter that not all of my sources are related to senior art or the upper secondary context?

After this long information-searching session, I have felt like I have made little progress.  I am rather annoyed and frustrated at myself because I think I should be searching ‘smarter’.

REFLECTION

I have been quite surprised to find that my thoughts, feelings and actions at this stage clearly align with Kuhlthau’s Model of the Information Search Process.  I am definitely at the third stage - exploration, where I am trying to inform myself and explore the topic while fumbling to find a focus.  I am relieved to see that the next stage is clarity and I look forward to reaching this stage, where apparently my thoughts will be more focused.

Callison (2006) suggests that there are five elements of information inquiry that operate in a continuous cycle.  At this point in my information-searching I am moving between the questioning and exploration stages of Callison’s model.  I am questioning the task and my focus in an effort to gain more clarity as well as questioning the relevancy and currency of the information I have found.  I am also conducting a preliminary exploration of the information available on my topic and  project context.  Hopefully in my next blog I will be moving towards an exploration of my topic and focus at the more informed level.

By SparkCBChttp://www.flickr.com/photos/25031050@N06/3292307605/