So What? Who Cares? If students are to understand what they’re learning, they need to make sense of the information for themselves. Bloom’s Taxonomy (Bloom, 1956) challenges educators to support students’ understanding, where students are able to “analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information and situations independently” (Wiggins & McTighe, 2011). More recently the Common Core State Standards Initiative states that students “need to conduct research… is embedded into every aspect of today’s curriculum” (2010). Yet, when students are faced with research, they often get frustrated with the process, distracted by the inordinate amount of information on the internet, and therefore derailed in their own endeavors. When students are guided in their learning, they are supported in the process and are less likely to be overwhelmed (Maniotes & Kuhlthau, 2014). There are many parts of research processes where students can get derailed, but one of the first places is in finding reliable sources to answer their questions. Even when teachers create a list of sources for a unit of study, students look elsewhere, often not finding their own reliable sources (those that have relevant content, are in their reading levels, and are from trustworthy authors). Methodology While leading an inquiry-based class, I want to first know if my students are able to find reliable sources for their middle school research projects. This information will answer my two sub-questions: "Where do reliable sources come from?" and "How do students know once they’ve got them?" There are various reasons for my students struggling to find reliable sources, including their current skill levels, their patience and frustration levels, and whether or not sources are immediately available to them. I don’t have much direct influence over these first two reasons, but I can definitely guide my students to find reliable sources, those with relevant content, in their reading levels, and from trustworthy authors. Secondly, I want to know if the sources I’m guiding my students toward are truly helping them find answers to support their own inquiries. I will focus on the Gather Stage of the Guided Inquiry Design Framework (Kuhlthau, Maniotes, & Caspari, 2012) to narrow the focus of my research. To gather qualitative data, I will use questionnaires at multiple times within my students’ research cycle in which they will indicate which sources they’ve used, which have been most and least helpful, as well as their frustration levels at the different times. I will also write field notes of what I patterns observe during class and follow these notes up with journaling to note the positive and negative impacts of my guidance to reliable sources. The questionnaires, field notes, and journaling will all help with developing my hypotheses and in leading my future action research cycles. References:
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Megan BurtonInnovative Learning Archives
June 2020
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