My Inquiry Learning Journey

As I have learned, an important part of the inquiry learning process is reflection. This can be done throughout and/or at the end of the process.

When starting my inquiry learning journey, I was unsure what I would find. Some doubt about whether music and inquiry learning had been researched came through initially – especially during my initial searches.  Using Carol Kuhlthau’s six stage model of experience through the Information Search Process (ISP), I found that my journey of inquiry mirrored these stages at times.
Initiation was evident through my blog post The Beginning where I posed 3 questions of possible investigation.  I was definitely unsure and uneasy about whether I would be able to find the information related to the questions.  My first few searches (without advanced search strategies) assisted in this uncertainty.
Through selecting the key question of inquiry, I was excited to get started and search to find out How can the process of inquiry learning be used in a high school music classroom? Once the expert searching commenced, there were many irrelevant results being returned and I was unsure whether finding the answer to my question was even going to be possible.  Was the task I had set myself too much and too hard?
Through this Exploration phase I definitely experienced the feelings outlined by Kuhlthau.

Employing the advanced searches was beneficial with useful results finally being returned. My understanding was formulated; I could indeed find the information and answers I was seeking!
Through creating the curated collection of resources, I was able to collate the findings relevant to the inquiry question and highlight the resources I found assisted in my overall understanding.

Presenting the findings in my blog through the infographic allowed me to engage in the results in a fun and inviting way.

I have learned a lot through the investigation of my inquiry question. I have learned that it is quite easy to imbed inquiry learning into the music classroom and I am looking forward to giving it a go!

Being a teacher can bring some of the best days which make it all worthwhile.  But occasionally there are the days or lessons which allow me to reflect and review on how I can improve.  I am still pretty early in my teaching career, only in my 7^th year of teaching – I’m glad I got past the 5 year hurdle!  I am also lucky to be teaching in an area I am passionate about – music and seeing the joy this brings to students is very rewarding.

I teach in a high school and recently moved from a regional school in Queensland to an inner-city Brisbane school both with very different contexts and challenges. At my current school I had to quickly develop a whole new skill set in my teaching in order to cater for the student’s learning needs. This learning curve has allowed me to rethink and review how I teach and what is best for my students.

Queensland high schools have recently seen the introduction of a new senior syllabus, bringing another set of challenges to teachers. The change in syllabus brought inquiry questions to the foreground as unit topics – something very new to the subject of music.  This sparked my curiosity in inquiry learning and how I can use it in my teaching to support my students to succeed.

Through this inquiry learning journey and investigation I am wanting to understand how to best use inquiry learning in my teaching of music and how to get the students to engage with inquiry learning.

Initially I am posing three questions around what I would like to know and learn more about.  These may be refined and develop as my learning and understanding in this field develops.

Q1 – How can the process of inquiry learning be used in a high school music classroom?
Q2 – How can high school students effectively engage in inquiry learning?
Q3 – What are the benefits of inquiry learning in high school music classrooms?

Let’s see where this journey takes us!

Reflecting

Peer Feedback

The Beginning