Developing a whole school inquiry research process model

When our Director of Professional Learning was appointed, she was keen to establish a common language or framework to distinguish between the stages involved in the inquiry process.
(Marzano & Kendall, 2007)

• forming and describing the inquiry activity
• finding valid and reliable evidence for the inquiry activity
• analysing and interpreting the evidence selected
• evaluating the conclusions, process or claims

This framework uses reflection as the connection between, and driver of, all the stages. The Library had already developed a Research Process model which had been in place for a number of years but it was not being widely utilised across the different departments, so a small working committee was formed by the Director of Professional Learning, involving myself as the Curriculum Leader: Library & Information Services and one of the Senior Humanities teachers.

A wide consultation process followed, and over the course of a semester we met with key stakeholders including all the Curriculum Leaders, until a new MSM Inquiry Research Process model was formulated and approved. The process is not linear and the inquirer/student can come in at any point along the continuum depending on the task requirements.

If you feel inspired to implement something similar at your school please acknowledge the sources above and give attribution to Mt St Michael's College, Ashgrove.