Approaches to student inquiry projects
I think all teachers who are guided by inquiry have come to accept the reality that student inquiry projects are messier than teacher-directed learning but that the benefits and depth of understanding that makes its way out of the mess is far greater than what they learn from me presenting all the information. Inquiry, after all is at the heart of real learning. It is driven by questions and speaks directly to the latent detective in all of us.
Elizabeth Chin's ethnographic study of African American consumer culture offers great advice on helping students as young as elementary school to create surveys and do ethnographic work guided by larger questions. In Appendix B of her book, Purchasing Power: Black Kids and American Consumer Culture, she writes about her work with the "Children's Oral History Project" and states: "the children did a better job conducting this research than I ever could have. Their point of view and insight as children and as members of the community we were researching gave them countless advantages over me–as an outsider..." 22 (p. 214) Chin had students collaborate with adults in the creation, implementation, and analysis of surveys. They created their own graphs from the data they collected and analyzed the data in text as well as reflecting on the whole process.
It is useful to also look at prior local history projects by students to get ideas for how to organize and scaffold student learning and for samples of student products. Some of the best sources can be found on the History Matters website, the Local History Project from the iLearn Collaborative Centre, and University of Massachusetts' Local History Online. 23
Comments: