What advantages, challenges and/or disadvantages do you see for a teacher librarian wishing to implement a GI approach?

When initially reading bout Guided Inquiry (GI) I began to feel that it would possibly lead to students and teachers having the best intentions for an inquiry style learning but with a large possibility of teachers slipping back into old ways of research or being on the receiving end of the dreaded ‘I don’t know what to do’ conversation with students. Though upon further reading the GI model of inquiry learning has really got me thinking about the ease and effectiveness of implementing this style of teaching and learning across many different learning areas and environments.

What really heightened my interested regarding GI was the opportunity of teachers and TLs to engage students in the learning straight away before even presenting the task to them. This appealed as by providing students with engaging information frim the get go you allow them to develop their own opinions and interests in the topic rather than essentially pushing you own or those of the authors of resources.

The other area that really sparked my interest was letting student dip into the topic by doing broad interest before asking them to develop their inquiry questions. Again I see this as very beneficial in sparking students own interest and eagerness in the topic before tasking them with the learning. Allowing students to reflect on their learning at the end of the GI process also lets them think analytically about what they have learnt in this task and how they can take this task further and extend their learning.