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Inquiry Based Learning as a method for researching change: students and tutors as co researchers Dr Margaret Page, Senior Lecturer; Dr Hugo Gaggiotti, Senior Lecturer; Daniel Staley and Liza McCann, University of the West of England. ESCalate Student Conference 2009
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Inquiry Based Learning as a method for researching change: students andtutors as co researchers Dr Margaret Page, Senior Lecturer; Dr Hugo Gaggiotti, Senior Lecturer; Daniel Staley and Liza McCann, University of the West of England ESCalate Student Conference 2009 The Lakeside Centre, Aston University, Birmingham
This presentation offers student and tutor reflections on their experiences of inquiry-based approaches to learning and teaching (IBL) Students and tutors will present material illustrating their experience of inquiry based learning and teaching. Our aim is to invite discussion and debate.
The context is a final year undergraduate module: Managing Change (an elective attracting some 85 students in 2008/09) in Bristol Business School. Our presentation builds on research from two student cohorts : 2007-8; 2008-9. • Presentation at LTEA (Learning Through Enquiry Alliance, Inquiry in a Networked World’) national conference, Sheffield, June 2008 - resourced by BMAF, the ESCALATE subject centre and BBS credits http://www.shef.ac.uk/cilass/ltea2008.html (2007-8 cohort) • Research on ‘the bridge’ for SCOS conference, in preparation (current cohort- 2008/9).
Inquiry Based Learning – tutor aspirations • Tutor engagement with student curiosity, inquiry as a starting point for teaching and learning (inquiry questions); • Multiple resources for inquiry: life and work based practical experience; emotional and cognitive knowing; visual and cognitive representations (storyboards; photographs of the Bridge; free associative reflection and cognitive analysis); • Dialogic, quality of student/ staff engagement as teachers, learners and co researchers; • Learning and teaching as co research - sense making and sense giving; • Learning and teaching as embodied, situated process, learning from difference.
Before starting this module, my academic learning has been focused around memorising models, frameworks, etc, applying them to specific situations and making recommendations based on these findings. DS, Managing Change student, 2009. The story of the beginnings…
The story of the beginnings…(cont.) Whenever I have been taught an aspect of academic theory in any field I instinctively try and understand it by mentally applying it to a situation I am familiar with. For example anything new I learnt in Business Studies I would immediately attempt to apply it to my Father's business... BH, Managing Change student, 2009.
The story of the beginnings…(cont.) For me the very first tutorial on the module was an inspiring introduction to change. It was my first ‘trip’ since studying at university, and despite being completely unsure how an exhibition on Immigration could relate to Managing Change in organisations, I was excited and willing to interact and find out. … LM, Managing Change student, 2008.
For me, the teaching and learning methodology introduced to us in 'Managing Change' liberated the learning experience… DS, Managing Change student, 2009. The story of the living experience
My perception of Managing Change is that instead of studying run of the mill change management theory we are looking at more...obscure...aspects that perhaps don't immediately come to mind… BH, Managing Change student, 2009. The story of the living experience (cont.)
What was interesting was the discussion that followed the visit, this highlighted the diversity in perception and introduced the complexity of change in terms of how different people engaged. Some people were engaged by the visual aspects, some the emotional, some the sounds and even the different smells. For me this was the start of self reflection, I felt confident having different perceptions, but at the same time I felt as if these were thoroughly considered and critiqued (by myself) - using the views of others. … LM, Managing Change student, 2008. The story of the living experience (cont.)
Now, instead of reading this literature as though I am going to have to regurgitate it at a later date, I feel more like Martin Luther who said, "I wrestled with [the author] until he submitted". . . DS, Managing Change student, 2009. The story of the future
What became clear on the module thereafter was that the lecturers (who jointly taught us) were not there to give us answers, however reward was to be given for the use of our own inquiry into our own interest/intrigue. . . LM, Managing Change student, 2008. The story of the future (cont.)
Unfortunately I have not been able to draw a link specifically to IBL or the student/lecture collaboration which the presentation is to focus on. However, it may be my cynical mind focusing on the value of the ends and not the means?. . . BH, Managing Change student, 2009. The story of the future (cont.)
Activities of Inquiry Based Learning - some examples of student coursework
Sharing the questions with others: presentation of a storyboard
Visiting the Clifton suspension bridge- as a way of exploring the meaning of ‘change’
I took many photographs but found none of them to give my any inspiration, it was after all a pretty dull day with poor light. I feel that any of the above points would require a photograph that encompassed the entire bridge, which a camera couldn’t capture while being on the bridge itself. However, one photo I did take shows the joining between two links of the chain. While staring at this photo I thought it reflected synergy, with many small parts working together to achieve great strength, creating a masterpiece of engineering. In any change situation I imagine attention to detail is important; every individual of an organisation has a role to play, and therefore I should ask myself; does this change account for this individual? B, student, Managing Change, 2008
R, student, Managing Change, 2008 OL, student, Managing Change, 2008
Bridging suggests a journey through space, an idea and experience of learning as travelling between two points – perhaps from ‘not knowing’ to ‘knowing’, through acquiring knowledge. Bridging may also suggest a meeting between two points, a process of engagement between tutors and students, who may bring different modalities of knowing, and through encounter develop new knowing, a synthesis of some kind, through which each may be transformed (Levy, 2008). But our idea of the bridge is also one of a crossing – a dangerous and risky place, suspended in the middle of nothing, over a chasm. Stepping onto such a bridge requires confidence in the technology, and willingness to trust something someone else has built. To engage in inquiry based learning, tutors and students must each play a part in building the bridge. Each must take risks, overcome fears and anxieties, and trust that the technology will help them to cross – yet hold in mind the chasm that is the river gorge below (Case and Selvester, 2002). Every year we build the bridge anew and “open” the construction of the metaphor, trying not “bureaucratize” students and our metaphorical imagination (Burke 1968), a frequent practice in organization theory (Case, P. Gaggiotti, H. 2008).
