The process of reflection is one that has immediately conjured up images of tall mountains above deep bodies of water. To me, the mountains in all their beauty are what I have seen at the beginning of this study process, beautiful of themselves, but yet unexplored by me. The body of water and subsequent reflection remind me of the depth of knowledge which has come from the study undertaken in ETL401.
When commencing this subject, I had naively thought that having worked closely with a number of Teacher Librarians (TL) I had an understanding of what the role completely entailed. In my initial blogpost (Marreiros, 2021, March 12) I stated that the role of TL could be seen alongside a previously held role of Preschool teacher in looking through an Inquiry lens. Since then, I have come to believe that, while there are definite similarities, my understanding of Inquiry learning models which cater for up to year 12 and beyond has increased exponentially. My understanding of the role of TL as a potential driver of Inquiry learning has been stretched.
My appreciation of the role of a TL in Inquiry Learning has gone from one where I thought that they were hopefully part of the process to one where I believe it is essential that a trained TL is part of the process. As I discussed in Module 4.1b (Marreiros, 2021, May 1), the expectations of the school culture, Principal and teachers’ mindset all come into play with engaging a school in authentic Inquiry learning and I strongly believe that an enthusiastic, knowledgeable TL can, and should be a driving force in encouraging the school to collaboratively plan for Inquiry Learning. While there can be many challenges along the way, the opportunities which can be had for a TL in looking at Inquiry learning within the Australian Curriculum are great (Lupton, 2012). A TL has an opportunity to focus on the General Capabilities of the Australian Curriculum, looking at life skills essential for the learners of today. For example, while a History teacher has certain content which has to be covered within their teaching, a TL can enhance this learning by being able to specifically focus on the ICT search skills or plagiarism lessons and how to avoid not referencing a source (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, n.d.).
Of course, in looking at Inquiry Learning, it is now impossible to not think of Information Literacy as a key component of why Inquiry learning is so effective. From Module 2 where the TLs role was beginning to be looked at through the lens of Information Specialist (Marreiros, 2021, March 19) my understanding of Information Literacy is still being developed. Even back in March I was reflecting on how the misinformation and information overload could be explicitly taught to children (Marreiros, 2021, March 18), but since then I realise that to be able to having Information Literacy means that you are able to put a filter in your own learning and find the relevant information, while sifting out that which is not needed (Marreiros, 2021, May 13a). While not expressing myself as eloquently as I would have liked, my growing understanding of exactly what Information Literacy is, has led me to begin conversations with my own school’s Principal which will hopefully be the start of my current school looking at how to enhance Information Literacy Skills.
One key way which enhancing Information Literacy is through the use of Inquiry, and I believe to effectively do this using an Inquiry Learning Model is key to doing this successfully. In Module 5, while exploring the use of Inquiry Learning Models it became clearer to me that while there are challenges in starting a new process for guiding inquiry in schools, using a model can make the task less daunting for teaching staff. As I expressed in a previous blog post (Marreiros, 2021, May 13b), while it can take time to set up, Inquiry Learning models allow for the process of the skills and dispositions, not just knowledge acquisition, to form. This is, of course, what is needed to have a life-long learning outlook.
As a life-long learner here, my next question is, where to next with this newfound understanding?
References:
Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. (n.d.). Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Capability. https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/information-and-communication-technology-ict-capability/
Lupton, M. (2012) Inquiry skills in the Australian Curriculum V6. Access, 28(4), 8-29.
