TL Under Construction

Once I’d decided I’d like to apply McKenzie’s Research cycle to my own assignment, the first thing I realized was that I’d jumped forward to a planning cycle so backed up to  compose my essential questions and brainstorm a map as recommended.

The essential question (or primary question as Loertscher describes it) was harder to formulate than I thought. I thought I knew what I was doing but came up with –

1. Which are the best resources for the electronic pathfinder for the Grade 9 History class and teacher?
2. How do I decide what are the best resources for the electronic pathfinder?
3. Which are the best ways to cover my own assignment requirements for the electronic pathfinder?
4. What are the best resource for the essential questions that Year 9 students will have to come up with in order to meet their assignment?

In the end I decided it was a case of wearing three hats as I work through this assignment in order to do it well.

The map was to explore the ‘dimensions of the essential question” (1999, section 4). It was helpful in clarifying my thoughts about what areas I’d need to cover both as the TL creating this pathfinder and as the TL student. Some areas I’d mapped out are out of the scope of the assignment but I included them in the map anyways. Besides as McKenzie states:

Because students are actively revising and rethinking their research questions and plans throughout the process, they are forced to cycle back repeatedly through the stages … so that the more skill they develop the less linear the process. (1999, section 3)

Yep, sounds like I’ll be revisiting the mind map more than once and perhaps going in circles? Productively speaking of course! It’s really true what they say about ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’ when you start something new.

Recapping the Research Cycle here –

1. Questioning/wondering
2. Planning
3. Gathering
4. Sorting/sifting
5. Synthesising
6. Evaluating
7. Reporting* (after several cycles of the process bring me to INSIGHT)

I realised as I mapped that I’d like to brush up on my knowledge of Information Literacy in relation to VELS standards and just refresh my understanding of it generally. Does it actually involve more than I’ve mapped out?  I guess I’ve arrived at the Planning Stage of the cycle.

I’ll include the map here — still adding to it as I go but it’s certainly helping me to think about the shape this Pathfinder wiki will take.

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McKenzie, J. (1999). The research cycle. FNO: The Educational Technology Journal, 9(4). Retrieved from http://questioning.org/rcycle.html