Project management and inquiry learning

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIES
Project management
& inquiry learning
The missing link?
LYN HAY
Lecturer in Teacher Librarianship

Impact of Web 2.0 technologies on school libraries – shift from
Library 1.0 to Library 2.0
Need for TL profession to value greater emphasis on their
teaching role in Australian schools
Inquiry learning in the curriculum as TL’s primary focus, not the
teaching of an information literacy program
Building local evidence to document school library impact – Lee
Fitzgerald, Jenny Scheffers & Alinda Sheerman as TL leaders
Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries
(CISSL)’s School Library Impact Measure (SLIM) survey toolkit
(Todd, Kuhlthau & Heinström, 2005)
Guided inquiry as an instructional framework to support inquiry
learning tasks in schools (Kuhlthau, Caspari & Maniotes, 2007)
Background

students often have difficulty choosing their own
inquiry question (Kuhlthau, 1993; Fitzgerald, 2007)
need to invest considerable time in building
background knowledge before committing to a topic
focus and require considerable scaffolding to
articulate this as a inquiry or research question (Kuhlthau,
1993, 2004; Gordon, 1999)
students often resort to a “false focus” when
undertaking open-ended assignments due to time
pressures (Tanni & Sormunen, 2008)
time management is a critical factor in students’
inquiry experiences (Kuhlthau, 2004; Zach, 2005; Savolainen, 2006
Managing inquiry: The
research

students find formal instruction on strategies using
library resources and systems, project organisation,
and time management very useful when undertaking
inquiry (Gordon, 1999)
students often find the amount of time given to
inquiry project work during school hours is not
sufficient (Gordon, 1999)
students’ authentic learning experiences can be
shaped by people other than the teaching team,
particularly when opportunities to complete inquiry
projects in school time is limited (Tallman, 1998; Gordon, 1999)
research

a student’s fear of failure and poor time management
skills can influence their information retrieval behaviour
(Ford, Miller, & Moss, 2003)
lack of time can lead to students copying and pasting
large slabs of text (McGregor, & Streitenberger, 1998; Todd, 1998; Klein,
2011; Williamson, & McGregor, 2011)
student blogs a useful tool in monitoring students’
abilities to critically evaluate print and web resources
when much of students’ inquiry work occurred outside
class time (Francke, Sundin & Limberg, 2011)
within the context of inquiry learning & information
seeking research, little mention of project management
as part of the student experience (Hay, 2012)
research

Learning &
innovation skills
Information,
media &
technology
skills
Life and career
skills
www.21stcenturyskills.org

Life & career skills
Flexibility & adaptability
adapt to varied roles/job responsibilities/schedules/ contexts,
understand, negotiate, balance diverse views/beliefs, find
workable solutions
Initiative & self-direction
manage goals/time, work independently, be self-directed
learners, go beyond basic mastery, reflect critically on past
experiences to inform future progress
Social & cross-cultural interaction
know when to listen/when to speak, be respectful interacting with
others, work effectively in diverse teams, be open-minded to
different ideas/values, leverage social/cultural difference to create
new ideas, innovate& improve quality of own/groups’ work
(Trilling & Fadel ,2009)

Productivity & accountability
manage projects, set/meet goals, deal with
obstacles/pressures, prioritise/plan/manage to achieve
intended result, produce results through multitasking, managing
time effectively, respect/appreciate team diversity
Leadership & responsibility
project-based, studio model of work more prevalent now, guide
& lead others, use interpersonal/problem-solving skills to
influence/guide others towards a goal, inspire other to
accomplish, lead by example, selflessness, acting responsibly
with interests of larger community in mind
Life & career skills
(Trilling & Fadel ,2009)

School libraries’ use of
Web 2.0 technologies
to support inquiry learning
What does this look like?

View learning as a process of personal construction, in
two ways:
as a personal, individual construction of one’s reality
Kelly’s personal construct theory (1963); Kuhlthau’s (1993)
information seeking behaviour
as a social, shared construction of knowing and
understanding (reality) as a result of individuals working
together
Berger & Luckman’s (1967) social construction theory;
Vygotsky’s (1978) zone of proximal development;
Kuhlthau’s (1993) zone of intervention
Interpretivist-constructivist
framework

Mixed methods approach
employing ethnographic techniques
provides ways of describing what actually happens in
a social context or within a specific phenomenon, esp.
new or emerging
useful when a context or phenomenon has not been
formally or fully explored in empirical research
helps describe or capture what happens in the field:
how the people involved view and interpret their own
actions and experiences, along with the actions of
those with whom they interact
provides vehicle for documenting student ‘stories’
which allows the representation of ‘student voice’

Sample & context
Year 10 Global Studies class – 12 students, 1 classroom
teacher and 1 TL – large independent school in Sydney
school library staff consisted of a team of TLs assigned to
work with teaching teams of specific KLA/grade levels
Global Studies (Yr 9-10 elective) – students undergo interview
process for subject selection due ‘independent learning’
demands of the curriculum
TL introduced students to using a wiki to support Term 2 group
project
Term 3 Personal Interest Project (PIP) unit was redesigned to
trial a guided inquiry approach; students were required to
explore an international issue of their choice; students could
use a wiki, blog and del.icio.us to support their project

Data collected
Student questionnaire – demographic data and approaches to
studying (Entwistle & Tait, 1997; Heinström, 2006)
Semi-structured interviews : teacher and TL at commencement and
completion of student project; students at completion of PIP
Observation: activity on blog, wiki and social bookmarking spaces
(online); activity in face-to-face class time; students’ final oral
presentations
Fieldnotes for both online and face-to-face observation of student,
teacher and TL activities and communication
Review of documentation including assignment guidelines and
handouts, students’ learning logs and Web 2.0 spaces, final project
reports and artefacts
Collection of questions/responses emailed between student-teacher-
TL

FINDINGS
Time issues &
impacts
http://ufostart.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/real-time-management.html

Estimated time to complete
school assignments
In Class time
In school
library
At
home
Out of Class
time
student01 20 5 75 80
student02 20 10 70 80
student03 30 10 60 70
student04 25 5 70 75
student05 20 5 75 80
*student06 25 10 65 75
student07 30 0 70 70
*student08 15 65 20 85
*student09 40 20 40 60
student10 30 0 70 70
student011 15 5 80 85
student012 # # # #

Time invested across study
locations
up to 60-85% of the time students were
working on assignments occurred without
face-to-face teacher supervision or
instructional intervention
with only 5-20% of assignment time occurring
in the school library even smaller margin of
opportunity for TL to provide face-to-face
instructional support for these students’
assignment work

Problems & frustrations
Problem/frustration No. of students
Time 7
Finding information 5
Motivation 4
Assignment design 4
Topic selection 3

Time-related issues
being able to manage one’s time throughout
an assignment - “how to manage my time”, “leaving it
the end”, “leaving everything to the last week or so”, “My
lack of enthusiasm when time-managing or planning to do
work”
frustration with time in terms of the due dates,
requiring more time than allowed
the amount of time it takes to work on an
assignment - “they waste time”, “they can take a while
to get a good topic and get started”

Learning style approaches
(Entwistle, 2005)

L
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Criteria determining
technology use
Accessibility
Ease of use
Familiarity
Return on
investment (ROI)
“Convenience” (combination of some or all of the above)
Utility
Time
Experience
Previous
Successful
Regular

Time impacts on technology
use
time pressures used as a reason for using, or
not using, a particular technology
lack of time to invest in exploring how to use a
new technology while coping with other
demands of the inquiry project
“I knew how to use it. … When we did the wiki
before we had to spend a fair amount of time just
learning how to use it. And so I didn’t really want
to do that again with the blog.”

Time impacts on technology
use
some students viewed the wiki as a time-
saving technology – efficiencies gained when
used as a central repository, readily accessible
at school/at home
“I had trouble defining my topic ... I wanted to
research more… So by copying and pasting it
into the wiki it was always there and I could
get it from home too. Like, I didn’t have to
look the site up again, you know.”

Time influences what students
value in terms of ROI
the productivity and rewards components
regarding a technology’s utility were highly
valued by students
a desire to gain a ‘return’ on their ‘investment’ of
time, energy and cognitive load , esp. ‘time-
pressured students’
“I didn’t want to have to spend … a lesson going
through setting it up, and trying to make
myself familiar with it.”

Managing inquiry projects
Majority of students reflected they “weren’t very
good at managing their project”
10 students specifically referred to time
management issues as being problematic or of
concern to them as inquirers
“I’m not an organised person”
“I’ve got distracted and lost track of what I’m meant
to be doing”
“I could have been a lot better”
“I’m the most ludicrously disorganised person ever”

Blaming it on time
I think I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out
what I wanted to do. If I had known what I
was doing from the start, then I would have
been good.
I have really dodgy time management skills. This
has taught me, I really need to sort of work on
that.
I found that I was falling behind, because like,
creating my question, I spent too much time
with that. That put me behind a lot.

Blaming it on motivation
I have a short, short attention span for that kind of thing. I’d
prefer to put everything into a project for like a week and
then move on with something else, because I don’t have that
kind of “I’ll do this this lesson and that that lesson.
I am the sort of person who really needs like, the pressure of
time to motivate me to do something, so a really long project
like this was really difficult for me because I sort of left it a
bit to the last minute, because I need to know that like, it’s
due in like tomorrow or something, right I’ve got to do it, and
I only focus when that sort of happens.
I leave it to the end, but I always finish it, but I need that stress
to finish and do my best.

Is it a project management
problem?
some students did not see this persistent behaviour
as something that could be ‘fixed’ or improved on
students were quite fatalistic about the problems
they faced when trying to juggle all the different
aspects of the inquiry project and the time demands
and shortfalls
receiving a ‘good mark’ resulted in lack of motivation
to change the way they “do things”
“I got it done, and it was fine, and it was good, like
what I passed up was quite good quality, so it
doesn’t really matter I guess.”

Problem areas in project
management
too long to decide on a topic and finalising a specific
research question
not having tracked the bibliographic details for sources
getting easily distracted during class time, surfing the
Web on topics not related to their inquiry
missing class due to illness, excursions – no catch up
plan
building in adequate time for data collection & analysis
lack of discipline in ‘closing’ tasks to move onto next
phase of the project
not leaving enough time for the writing up phase

Functionality of Web 2.0
technologies
information collection & ‘repository’ function
communication function
project management function
data collection & analysis function
knowledge construction function
publishing function
self-reflection function
https://www.photospin.com/content/illustrations/full/511_3632971.jpg

Project management 2.0
timestamping feature of Web 2.0 tools helps tracking of
student progress, record of conversation, evidence of
intervention
wiki’s history feature also provides detailed monitoring
of student progress, captures different types of
information and knowledge construction activities
undertaken
wiki as central repository of project artefacts, journal
entries & reflection sheets, progress reports, etc –
students believed the use of the wiki had made them
more efficient and effective in managing their project
Delicious (social bookmarking) useful for collecting,
organising sources & record of bibliographic details

Project management 2.0
being able to access the wiki from a number of
computers was viewed by students as contributing to
the management of their project and being more
efficient while at home, school, on holidays
wiki assisted those ‘task-oriented’, organised students
with managing their tasks and time, timestamping &
history features used to estimate time allocation per
task - helped “manage their projects better”
wiki afforded efficiencies in terms of not having to
manage version control between school and home
PCs while working on wiki page ‘edits’
web calendar plug-in to wiki as time planning, tracking
and reflection tool

Project management
tools
http://www.rememberthemilk.com/

http://www.producteev.com/features.php

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION STUDIEShttp://www.zoomerang.com/
Online survey tools can save heaps of
time!

“Web 2.0 technologies provide a platform for teachers and
TLs to monitor students’ management of the project
process during class and out of class time
No matter what technologies may be available to support a
student’s management of their project, a carefully
planned timeline of phases and tasks needs to be
developed to ensure those aspects that require a
significant investment of time are considered and
planned.
In other words, project management needs to be explicitly
taught as an aspect of the inquiry process to enhance
student success.”
Conclusion
(Hay, 2012)

when inquiry goes digital
OPPORTUNITIES

General capabilities

PM in Technology curriculum
http://www.acara.edu.au/verve/_resources/Draft_Shape_of_the_Australian_Curriculum_Technologies_paper_-_March_2012.pdf

Some links in Technology area
PM & literacy - they learn how to communicate ideas, concepts
and detailed proposals to a variety of audiences; recognising how
language can be used to manipulate meaning; reading and
interpreting detailed written instructions; writing project outlines,
briefs, concept and project management proposals, evaluations,
reports; listening, talking and discussing are critical in design
thinking – in particular, articulating, questioning and evaluating ideas
PM & Personal and social capability - involvement in project
management will provide rich opportunities to develop students’
capacity for self-management; directing their own learning and in
planning and carrying out investigations; enable them to become
independent learners who can apply technologies understanding
and skills to decisions they will have to make in the future; risk
taking and resilience as students work with the uncertainty of
sharing new ideas

Missing link? Missed
opportunities
Elements of inquiry learning – knowledge, skills, process -
are integrated throughout all learning areas in some way
Project management is articulated only in subjects within
the Technology learning area
Links between PM are made to ICT capability and aspects
of some other general capabilities
Ignores the overlaps and potential relationship between
inquiry and PM – needs to be made explicit
This does not encourage application, integration or
transference of PM knowledge & skills across the
curriculum
TLs can play a role in making these links explicit

Project management and inquiry learning

Project management and inquiry learning

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