Guided Inquiry

Guided Inquiry (GI) brings together the best of Kulthau's Information Search Process (ISP) and the constructivist approach to learning.It emphasises the dynamic role that the Teacher Librarian (TL) must embrace. That of collaborator, resource specialist and information literacy (IL) teacher. Conducted properly, GI provides students with the opportunity to continually develop IL in the context of the curriculum. I think the team which can achieve this would include a TL trained in the implementation of GI, a teacher plus, ideally, a literacy support teacher. All would have a valuable contribution to the planning of a unit of work which reflected the different learning styles of students and the Quality Teaching Framework. The GI unit trialled at Cadies Creek Public Shool was quite inspiring. The use of the Skinny Assessment tool, adapted from the School Impact Library Measure (SLIM) presented the teachers with a wealth of information about how the students were learning and how they were feeling about it. They reflected well the emotions identified by Kuhlthau. I would love to trial GI with a view to it being adopted as best practice at my school. First things first - TL should locate a relevant GI training course to attend! Then initial challenge would be for the TL to convince the principal of the improvement in student outcomes should GI be put into practice. Great changes, plus an increased budget would need to be realised to allow time for TL/teacher collaboration and extra computers for the library. I would use the details of SLIM to help persuade the principal of the feedback regarding staff and students that would result. The obvious advantages would be the increased knowledge students would possess about how they learn, a more efficient use of the TL and the resources of the library. Reliable data about the positive impact the library program had on educational outcomes would be readily available and would assist the TL in determining and obtaining an increased budget. Teachers would be up skilled as a result of collaboration with a TL trained in GI. Possible connections with other schools and the use of Web 2.0 would also ensure students were learning in their preferred mode in the 21st century - by sharing and discussing online. There would be difficulties with the setting up of such a program on a primary school. In my school, and I imagine many primary schools, the entire library timetable and school RFF timetable would have to be collapsed and reworked so that time in the library was no longer RFF but team teaching. Extra RFF would need to be found in other programs. Time off class for teachers to collaborate with the TL would need to be organised and allowed for in the budget.Teams would need to be carefully structured to allow for reluctant teachers to be paired with those more enthusiastic about GI. Information literacy is the core business of TLs. Guided Inquiry would be a great way to enure that this was so.