Information+Literacy

=How can we get students to find out for themselves?=

At the heart of every enquiry is the idea that students discover answers for themselves. This requires students to be able to locate, process and utilise lots of information to arrive at answers for complex questions. The role of the teacher as facilitator and guide can be strained at times unless students become well versed and practised in how to find out for themselves.

How do students learn these skills?

 * 1) Give them tasks to practise and demonstrate enquiry skills.
 * 2) Make them explicity part of the learning objectives: How are we learning?
 * 3) Observe students making choices and "doing" their learning. Write these down and debrief the class on what you heard and saw.
 * 4) Review successes and failures
 * 5) Give specific feedback on the process of enquiry.
 * 6) Use, refer to and build models of enquiry.

What is research and how do we do it?
Here is an example of 10 steps to completing research. It comes from an American middle school. I think it gives some helpful guidance to the overall big picture of how research fits into creating a body of work, but would clearly need to be broken down for many students. One of the difficulties students face in the process of an enquiry is making best use of their research

10 Steps of Research 1. Select a topic, consider what you already know about it. 2. PLAN: Write a hypothesis or write out questions to focus upon. 3. LOCATE possible sources. Use web and LRC. 4. MAKE bibliography to record sources as you research. 5. READ and take notes. Link these back to your hypothesis or questions. 6. THINK: when reading think about

· **Does it fit with what I know? ** · **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Does it represent a different perspective? ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">· **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Do I agree? ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">· **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">What is important about this passage or source? ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">· **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Is this information reliable? **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">7. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">ORGANISE notes. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">8. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">WRITE the first draft. Include your references and citations. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">9. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">PROOFREAD, revise, and write the final draft. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">10. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> ADD title page and Bibliography.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">What are the problems for students associated with doing "research"?
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10.8pt;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Process Resources - Outcome B Direction Links Evidence Metacognition