The plunge begins!

During this research project I will be taking three questionnaires as a way of recording my personal search process and measuring my learning, using the inquiry approach. These questionnaires are taken from SLIM - Student Learning through Inquiry Measure by Ross Todd, Carol Kuhlthau, and Jannica Heinstrom (2005). The response to the first of these is the subject of today's post, the next one will be reflected upon half way through the project and the last one will be undertaken at the end.

Image by Marcus Rudder

Questionnaire 1

1.     Take some time to think about your topic. 

Topic is: 


               Information Literacy and inquiry based learning for a Year three class   researching the history of their local area

Now write down what you know about it.       

• Inquiry based learning is a model/pedagogy that best supports information literacy for students in the 21^st century
• Information Literacy and inquiry based learning is a means for students to learn beyond just acquiring facts and being able to regurgitate information. It will enable them to construct their own knowledge and learn more meaningfully.
• Information Literacy and inquiry based learning is a way of learning that encourages and supports problem solving, thinking creatively and knowledge sharing    

2. How interested are you in this topic?    Quite a bit

3. How much do you know about this topic?   Not much

4. When you do research, what do you generally find easy to do? Please list as many things as you like.

•       Draw information together at the end
•       Read information; Take notes; Identify and select important/relevant parts;
•       Searching information in texts is easier to do than in databases and in the on-line environment for me as I haven’t had as much experience with that.

5.  When you do research, what do you generally find difficult to do? Please list as many things as you like.

•       Get started, finding and deciding the direction I want to take. Getting a focus.
•       Find the information/articles from the sea of information out there. Decide what’s useful and what’s not.
•       Deciding what information I will use and what I won’t
•       Using proper search strategies
•       Find it difficult not to get bogged down. Seem to waste/take a lot of time in completing a task.