I was really interested in Karen’s remarks to Paul in the discussion about research models. Karen mentioned Ken’s Haycock’s statement that he “feels teachers often move children into the topic selection and info gathering stages much too quickly and that children often do not have the broad base of general knowledge that is needed to select a clear research topic or query.” This really made me think about my own teaching of the research process with older students. With younger students I model the process and we work through it together as a class before beginning their own topic. However with older students I've felt that students have been through the process in previous years and even if it may not be the exact same process they used in the classroom, it’s probably very similar. My thinking has been, I will address the steps with them and review what needs to done, answer any questions they have before letting the students begin their own inquiry, rather than doing the modeling and guiding I do with younger students.
I been thinking about Haycock’s statement quite a lot over the past weeks and wonder if perhaps this is why I feel I don’t always get the quality product I want from many of the the students. In rethinking the approach I use, I’ve decided that I need to spend at least a lesson modeling how to take a broad topic and narrowing it so they can formulate a question which they find interesting and want to learn about. This lesson would also discuss the importance of finding the major ideas they may choose to investigate as they work through their information sources. I’ve seen students make up their focus areas before they’ve fully explored the topic. Often students are not fully aware of where their topic can lead them until they have started to read a few of their resources. Using a class question we have formulated, modeling this process from topic choice to using key words for their note taking and taking it to presentation form can’t help but give confidence to students who aren’t comfortable with the process. As for the very capable students it can elevate their work to a higher quality product as they have been through a process which has provided them with new skills or knowledge they can apply to their own work.
I know we often are very conscience of time and feel we have to move the students into their projects quickly. However, I know taking the time to front load some of the skills discussed, the modeling and working together on a question a number of times, does help solidify student understanding, becoming a concrete experience they can use competently throughout their lives
I am sometimes disappointed with the quality of the product from intermediate students as well and I am very aware it's because I rush through the process much too quickly. It is helpful if we SLOW down as Haycock suggests... what I find is tricky about that is the amount of time teachers are willing to invest in the project. I find that teachers are very aware of their students' attention spans- I've often had the comment that their project longevity isn't great. So if we slow things down, do we risk losing them? I don't see how we can possibly accommodate the hyper-text nature of our students' minds if our society is so dependent on critical thinking and problem solving!! I worry about how we sometimes bend over backwards to "go with the flow" of the 21st C student... is it to their detriment? To society's detriment? Technology is great but I worry about the permanent alteration of neural pathways it's creating in our children's minds!
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