Inquiry“History and the cheeseburger”
It is all about perspectives and interpretations
http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/08/20/mcdonald-paypal-join-forces-for-mobile-payment-test/
A nutritionist studying a cheeseburgerMight be concerned with calories, animal
fats, processed cheese and then investigate these.
http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/08/20/mcdonald-paypal-join-forces-for-mobile-payment-test/
An economist studying a cheeseburgerCould be investigating pricing, supply &
demand, jobs.
http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/08/20/mcdonald-paypal-join-forces-for-mobile-payment-test/
An advertiser studying a cheeseburgerIs likely to care about investigating colours,
shapes, slogans, impacts on target audience.
http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/08/20/mcdonald-paypal-join-forces-for-mobile-payment-test/
History of AmericanisationConcerned with tracing the history of
Americanisation and inquiring why/ how it impacts on Australia.
Could then extend to an investigation of the global history of trade, a springboard for a discussion of European colonialism.
http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/08/20/mcdonald-paypal-join-forces-for-mobile-payment-test/
History of ideologiesConcerned with investigating the
cheeseburger as a symbol of capitalism (still banned in some countries around the world!).
http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/08/20/mcdonald-paypal-join-forces-for-mobile-payment-test/
History of human developmentCheese: the combination of milk and rennet, was a
prehistoric creation in the Middle East approximately 9000years ago. Originally it was made using goat or sheep milk that was stored inside a dead animal’s stomach.
Pickles (vinegar and cucumber): are originally Indian but were first pickled in Mesopotamia (the Middle East) around 4500yrs ago. Vinegar (to make the pickles) is the result of fermenting grapes and other fruits. Vinegar began as a byproduct of ancient wine production. It has been around for approximately 7000yrs and possibly originated in China.
http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/08/20/mcdonald-paypal-join-forces-for-mobile-payment-test/
History fact – trivia and trivialA McDonald’s cheeseburger dates from 1940, with the first restaurant opened by siblings Dick and Mac McDonald in San Bernardino, California, USA
Nice to know but who cares?
http://einsteinsdesk.wordpress.com/2011/06/
http://momsla.com/2012/07/from-connecticut-to-california-a-muslim-moms-cross-country-move/
The point?Inquiry, history and learning is more than the facts. History is an inquiry into the past that develops
students' curiosity and imagination. Awareness of history is an essential characteristic of
any society, and historical knowledge is fundamental to understanding ourselves and others.
It promotes the understanding of societies, events, movements and developments that have shaped humanity from earliest times. It helps students appreciate how the world and its people have changed, as well as the significant continuities that exist to the present day.
Edmund Barton Not ‘History’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Barton
The ‘Edmund Barton Syndrome’History is more than facts.
Yet many people are only interested teaching in the facts.
We often find arguments around what students “ought to know” which are narrowly based on facts that are ‘important’ to one group of people.
This is known as the ‘Edmund Barton Syndrome’
This is not ‘History’
History is contestedMost people familiar with the story of the D-day beach
landings in 1944 can describe the overall progress and impact of these landings, but are they familiar with this comment from a US veteran? Each one of us had our own little battlefield. It was maybe forty-five yards wide. You might talk to a guy who pulled up right beside of me, within fifty feet of me, and he got an entirely different picture of D-day.
On D-day, every surviving soldier from the five divisions of Allied forces which landed on five different beaches would each have had a different story to tell.
To help explain what happened before, during and after the landings, author Stephen Ambrose interviewed 1,400 veterans of the landings and used secondary texts. He then compressed those interviews into one account. (Taylor & Young, 2003, p2)
The Australian Curriculum: History aims to ensure that students develop:interest in, and enjoyment of, historical study for
lifelong learning and work, including their capacity and willingness to be informed and active citizens
knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the past and the forces that shape societies, including Australian society
understanding and use of historical concepts, such as evidence, continuity and change, cause and effect, perspectives, empathy, significance and contestability
capacity to undertake historical inquiry, including skills in the analysis and use of sources, and in explanation and communication.
The knowledge bit
“knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the past and the forces that shape societies, including Australian society”
Within the aims of the National Curriculum knowledge is mentioned just once - what are the implications of this?
http://www.slideshare.net/mbrownz/the-return-of-king-kong-a-journey-to-scull-island-and-beyond
Uzanne, 1894: “With the coming of the new media the need for print on paper will rapidly diminish. The day will soon arrive when the world's literature will be available from The Automatic Library at the mere pressing of a button”
Most educational technology initiatives reinforce traditional outcomes. The dump and pump model of digital learning still dominates
The old transmissional mode of education dominates
http://www.slideshare.net/mbrownz/the-return-of-king-kong-a-journey-to-scull-island-and-beyond
How online learning is usually used – replication of offline dump and pump model
http://www.slideshare.net/NetSpot/moot-au13masterclassdrex
http://www.mud.com/gag/ive-made-a-huge-mistake
http://www.slideshare.net/NetSpot/moot-au13masterclassdrex
Change who does the work.
http://www.slideshare.net/NetSpot/moot-au13masterclassdrex
Students need to be creators.
http://www.slideshare.net/NetSpot/moot-au13masterclassdrex
Historical InquiryThe process of historical inquiry
develops transferable skills, such as:the ability to ask relevant questionscritically analyse and interpret sourcesconsider context; respect and explain
different perspectivesdevelop and substantiate
interpretationsand communicate effectively.
InquiryTaylor and Young (2003) point out that the challenge in
teaching history is to have students “do” history rather than to passively have the subject done to them.
There is a need to actively engage students in deep learning.The inquiry approach can be based upon a number of models
with similar characteristics. (See Marsh and Hart, 2011, p.144)… it’s a “robust network of skills”…Generally, the approach involves:Planned activities based upon student questioning and gathering
of information.The development of skills in which students unlock and organise
new information.Provision for students to demonstrate what they have learnt
(including skills)The application of knowledge, skills and values to new problems
and contexts.
Beyond Testing: Using Inquiry Skills to Enhance Education: Russ Fisher-Ives at TEDxABQEDhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr63RDHI
-DM
Significance of the process• Research has identified a need for variety in teaching and
learning activities (Gilbert and Hoepper, 2011 p.201). The inquiry process can integrate and make meaningful this variety. Some considerations:
• Purpose / aims / objectives of your lesson.• Variety of student learning styles (such as Howard Gardner 1983 - and
others).• Promote interest, keep focus / prevent boredom, motivation.
• “Authentic learning in history is a disciplinary-based approach to understanding the past that challenges students to ‘do’ and ‘make’ history in a manner that resembles the historians craft… (This pedagogy includes) representing history as a form of inquiry built around sources, evidence and conflicting” perspectives or accounts. (Taylor and Young, 2003, p.8)
• This has implications for the design of units of work, learning activities, ways of teaching and resources.
Phases In The Inquiry Process - Model
1.Engaging, Challenging, Framing
focus questions
2. Locating, organising, interpreti
ng and analysing evidence
and information
3. Evaluatin
g, synthesisi
ng, making
decisions and choices
4. Communica
ting findings,
reporting back, contributing to
debate (and taking action?)
5. Reflecting
, reconsiderin
g and connecting
Consider Bloom’s taxonomy of levels of thinking /
questioning(Cognitive domain only shown here. Also affective and
psycho-motor domains)
Asking
Reflecting
Discussing
and Connecting the topic to
the learner
Investigating
Student centred
A Simple Model of An Inquiry Process
Think like a year 8…Write down 5 questions that come to mind from examining this source.
ASKING
An Australian poster from 1915.
What do you see in this image that you know or that you can research?
What should we find out next? Where can we find it out? Has the image
been altered / modified / manipulated?
INVESTIGATING
How are ANZACs perceived in the community today? Is this source an
accurate representation of how ANZACs were viewed in the
community at the time? Did other nations share this view? Why / why not? How has this ANZAC images transformed into a sense of being Australian? What are the strengths
and weaknesses of this image? Who has been excluded from this construct
of Australian identity? Why?INVESTIGATING
Oral, written, electronic? Paragraphs,
essays? Assessment
items?Criteria in syllabi
to be demonstrated?DISCUSSING
Feedback, new
understandings, spiralling curriculum,
new questions:
The nature of Australian identity?
REFLECTING
Questioning framework1. Students create their own
questions about the topic2. Students reflect on and improve
their questions3. Students prioritize their questions4. Students and teachers collaborate
on the questions
Frank Hurley’s photo of the Western Front
“THE VCE exam body has apologised and promised no students will be disadvantaged after a doctored image depicting a giant robot assisting socialist revolutionaries in 1917 was accidentally used in a history exam…
The exam, which was sat by almost 6000 students, featured a doctored version of the artwork, in which a large robot - rather like BattleTech Marauder - appeared in the background of the artwork depicting events during the Russian Revolution.
History Teachers Association of Victoria acting executive officer Ingrid Purnell said it was disappointing the image had got through when teachers spent a lot of time making sure students critically examined and evaluated visual sources of evidence”.
Full story
Working with sources – Taylor & Young, 2003
Eight-year-olds can make inferences from sources, determine the likelihood of these inferences, argue a position, engage in historical problem-solving and appreciate the perspectives of people in the past, albeit in a naive manner.
Adolescents can locate and interrogate sources, and assemble evidence to construct explanations and accounts of past events and circumstances. They can thus work effectively with multiple and different types of sources, make inferences about human nature and events and are able to defend their ‘hunches’ with reference to evidence. Adolescents can understand that historical accounts differ because people select and use evidence in different ways for different purposes.
How to get students to think critically about sources?We know students go
online to research first and we know they only click on the first couple of websites.
Studies such as the one from Optify on the right clearly show this lack of discernment. (Goodwin, 2011)
Fox news edited images of politicians.
The real image is on the left.
http://mediamatters.org/research/2008/07/02/fox-news-airs-altered-photos-of-ny-times-report/143921
Should I be careful with Wikipedia?
Killing all of humanity? Hmmm…seems legit.
Yet multiple studies have repeatedly demonstrated the overall reliability of Wikipedia and 60% of UK academics admit going there first when they research.
The nature of ‘facts’All knowledge constructed by humanity and
only passes as ‘fact’ when it has been accepted.
Wikipedia is a brilliant example of constructed knowledge.
YouTube as a repository of human knowledge – it is now the second largest search engine in the world (behind Google). 48 hours worth of content is uploaded every minute.
English Prime Minister Winston Churchill
“History will be kind to me for I intend to write it”
Churchill wrote a history of his life and time as Prime Minister during WWII
“We create reality”
“The journalist said, 'Look, don't you think history warns you that Iraq is going to be a tricky country?'
And this un-named White House official said with supreme confidence, he said, 'You people don't understand. The past doesn't matter. We make history. We create reality.' He said, 'One day you people can write about it.’”
NOTE: This extract comes from historian Margaret MacMillan’s work ‘Dangerous Games’, in it she suggests that this White House official was Karl Rove (former US president George Bush’s political advisor).
Source analysis questionsReliability – can we trust the source? Why?Representativeness – which perspective is given?
How does this affect the source?Accuracy – are the facts true? Can they be
checked? Corroborated?Bias, values and motives of the source – why was
the source created? How is it biased in favour of one side?
Time period and historical context of the source – how does the time and context effect the source?
Background of the author. Biographers sensationalize, poets embellish, historians check their facts. Are they experts on the topic?
Asking the right questionsTwo ways of doing this
1/ Hit the top end of Bloom’s taxonomy. Get students to Evaluate, Compare, Analyse, Justify
2/ Get students to create their own questions for the inquiry
Examples of development of assessment questions2010: To what extent did living conditions
influence daily life in European Medieval society?
Sets up a descriptive response: peasants lived in huts while kings lived in castles.
Led to simplistic responses in which all peasants lived horrible lives and kings lived wonderful lives.
Research is limited to ‘living conditions’Again, there is no ‘issue’ and no meaty
argument to be uncovered/ debated/ discussed and analysed.
Examples of development of assessment questions2011: Compare and contrast religion and feudalism in
European Medieval society - decide which had the greater influence on daily life and justify your answer.
Sets up a decision making response with justification of concept
Forces students not to be narrative/ descriptive. Cannot find the answer on Google (consistent parent
comment at interviews) – consider this an excellent situation!
There are multiple opinions on the topic.Links really well to discussions of power in the modern
world, especially as there are still theocratic governments.
Assessment design verbsJudgeDecideJustifyDebateArgueAnalyseDefend
EvaluateCritiqueExamine CompareContrastInvestigateExplain
http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2011/09/blooms-taxonomy-21st-century-version.html
How to guide students through research?
Provide templates that step students through the process of asking questions, of finding and sorting through information
Provide examples of research, of questions, of synthesis. QSA has great examples of this for the senior histories - http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/2055.html#assessment
Physical documents vs E-documents (e.g. OneNote)
Create Communities of PracticeHave and use an online community e.g.
Moodle – create shared courses for all staff and students to work from.
Have and use a shared network for all teachers to access and use.
Emailing and sharing of resources – collaborate, innovate and explore.
Benefits for teaching and learning
Pod and Vodcasting One common approach to supporting
Inquiry learning is to swap or flip where the content delivery takes place – the ‘flipped classroom model’.
This is where the teacher makes the material available outside of classtime for students to access.
Classtime is then devoted to questions, problems, projects, collaboration, discussions and inquiring.
Pod and Vodcasting are tools that allow teachers to shift their content by creating their own e-lessons.
Pod and VodcastingWhy create your own? Personalised, connected, directed, powerful, specific. Students can watch/ rewatch/ skip/ self pace. Absent students are still facilitated.
How to?Lots of free programs that very quickly and easily create these. Podcasts – AudacityVodcasts – Screencast-o-matic, Screenr, Jing or (if you have some cash) go with Camtasia
Need to knowIt takes time - will not save you time
initially
Expect student resistance - many students will have been sitting passively for years and will not want to take ownership.
Plan how you will use the extra class time - you will have lots of extra time for students to inquire!
Library points of supportPathfinders – collections of quality resources that
lead students through an inquiry
How to search effectively? – online, databases, library
How to record research? – help teachers develop templates that prompt thinking and questioning
Issues of trust – which websites and information can I rely on?
Referencing and bibliographies – how do I reference?
Library points of supportConcept mapping – helping students visualise their
thinking
Thesis building – providing frameworks and Socratic questioning techniques to help students reflect and develop their lines of thinking and arguments
Get teachers engaged with the Visible Thinking Project – Harvard’s approach to questioning, reflecting an requestioning.
Vod and Podcasting training for your teachers
Library points of supportCommunicate with your teachers – What
units are they doing? What kinds of resources do they need?
Challenge your teachers – Challenge and support them to create even more engaging/ interesting learning experiences.
Library points of supportFind and how teachers how to use amazing
resources to support/ challenge/ extend their students e.g. Padlet (Wallwisher) http://padlet.com/
Help teachers understand how to curate their digital resources with digital curation tools like: http://www.scoop.it/ https://delicious.com/ https://pinterest.com/
Inquiry based learning resourceshttp://
eduwebinar.com.au/web-tools-to-support-inquiry-based-learning
Western Australian Department of Education
http://det.wa.edu.au/curriculumsupport/schoollibrarysupport/detcms/navigation/supporting-learning/information-literacy/?oid=Category-id-11910393
Be leadershttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8amM
CVAJQ
Bibliography Fisher-Ives, R. (2013, February 2). Beyond Testing: Using Inquiry Skills to
Enhance Education: Russ Fisher-Ives at TEDxABQED. Retrieved March 10, 2013, from TED - Ideas Worth Spreading: http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/Beyond-Testing-Using-Inquiry-Sk
Gilbert, Rob 2011 'Studies of society and environment in the Australian curriculum’ In : Teaching society and environment / edited by Rob Gilbert and Brian Hoepper. 4th ed. South Melbourne, Vic. : Cengage Learning, 2011. Chapter 1, pp. 2-19
Goodwin, D (2011) http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2049695/Top-Google-Result-Gets-36.4-of-Clicks-Study
Marsh, C., & Hart, C. (2011). Teaching the Social Sciences and Humanities in an Australian Curriculum (6 ed.). NSW: Pearson.
Taylor, T., & Young, C. (2003). Making History: A Guide for the Teaching and Learning of History in Australian Schools. Carlton South, Victoria: Curriculum Corporation.
Whiteley, M. (2012). Big Ideas: A Close Look at the Australian History Curriculum From a Primary Teacher's Perspective. Agora, 47(1), 41-45.
Wineburg, S. (2000). ‘Making historical sense’, in Knowing Teaching and Learning History: National and International Perspectives, eds PN Stearns, P Seixas & S Wineburg, New York University Press, p ix.
Simon CorvanContact [email protected](07) 3230 9529http://www.linkedin.com/pub/simon-corvan/75/175/b98