The Journey begins

Here starts my journey into the world of Guided-Inquiry Learning. What do I know about Guided-Inquiry Learning you ask??? Very little, but that's about to change...

Guided-Inquiry Learning was born out of the work of the constructivists, who believed the learning was a construction process, where we built new understandings based upon prior learning and life experiences. One of people behind constructivism was John Dewey. (find out more about Dewey @ http://tiger.towson.edu/~hrakow1/portfolio/theory.htm)

What a handsome fellow!

I'm learning about Guided-Inquiry learning, by actually taking part in a university subject that is set up as a Guided Learning episode (the unit in question being CLN650 Information-Learning Nexus). This unit is using the SLIM (School Library Impact Measure) Toolkit to assess  our learning, or at least, as one of the tools used in the over scheme of the subject. The SLIM process revolves around the students filling in three surveys (or as SLIM puts it "Reflection Sheets")- one at the start of the learning episode/unit, one in the middle, and one at the end. These are compared at the end to find out about what the student has learnt.

Here is my first SLIM survey (to find out more about SLIM and the surveys: SLIM Toolkit Website):

SURVEY 1 / AKA: "Reflection Sheet 1" 

1. Take some time to think about your topic. Now write down what you know about it.

I don't actually know much at all about Guided Inquiry teaching and learning. I know that it has to do with getting students to do their own inquiry, and that there is some component of being guided by a teacher/lecturer/educator. Obviously there has to be a component of Information literacy and some use of the Internet Search Process.

2. How interested are you in this topic? Circle the answer that best matches your interest:

Not at all    Not much   Quite a bit   a great deal

3. How much do you know about this topic? Circle the answer that best matches how much you know:

Not at all    Not much   Quite a bit   a great deal

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

I find sourcing appropriate information quite easy, also I find it quite easy to logically structure my ideas to make searching for information easier. I find it easy to use Google, and find appropriate databases for searching for my topic of research.

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

Getting that first idea of how to approach the assignment or task, also, taking that first step on the research journey. Also, trying to organise my research to try and match my ideas. I also find it hard to know when to stop, I usually end up with too much material, a lot of it not really that useful or relevant to my topic of research.