Inquiry "History and the Cheeseburger" by Simon Corvan, All Hallows' School

Inquiry“History and the cheeseburger”

It is all about perspectives and interpretations

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/08/20/mcdonald-paypal-join-forces-for-mobile-payment-test/

A nutritionist studying a cheeseburgerMight be concerned with calories, animal

fats, processed cheese and then investigate these.

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/08/20/mcdonald-paypal-join-forces-for-mobile-payment-test/

An economist studying a cheeseburgerCould be investigating pricing, supply &

demand, jobs.

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/08/20/mcdonald-paypal-join-forces-for-mobile-payment-test/

An advertiser studying a cheeseburgerIs likely to care about investigating colours,

shapes, slogans, impacts on target audience.

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/08/20/mcdonald-paypal-join-forces-for-mobile-payment-test/

History of AmericanisationConcerned with tracing the history of

Americanisation and inquiring why/ how it impacts on Australia.

Could then extend to an investigation of the global history of trade, a springboard for a discussion of European colonialism.

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/08/20/mcdonald-paypal-join-forces-for-mobile-payment-test/

History of ideologiesConcerned with investigating the

cheeseburger as a symbol of capitalism (still banned in some countries around the world!).

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/08/20/mcdonald-paypal-join-forces-for-mobile-payment-test/

History of human developmentCheese: the combination of milk and rennet, was a

prehistoric creation in the Middle East approximately 9000years ago. Originally it was made using goat or sheep milk that was stored inside a dead animal’s stomach.

Pickles (vinegar and cucumber): are originally Indian but were first pickled in Mesopotamia (the Middle East) around 4500yrs ago. Vinegar (to make the pickles) is the result of fermenting grapes and other fruits. Vinegar began as a byproduct of ancient wine production. It has been around for approximately 7000yrs and possibly originated in China.

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/08/20/mcdonald-paypal-join-forces-for-mobile-payment-test/

History fact – trivia and trivialA McDonald’s cheeseburger dates from 1940, with the first restaurant opened by siblings Dick and Mac McDonald in San Bernardino, California, USA

Nice to know but who cares?

http://einsteinsdesk.wordpress.com/2011/06/

http://momsla.com/2012/07/from-connecticut-to-california-a-muslim-moms-cross-country-move/

The point?Inquiry, history and learning is more than the facts. History is an inquiry into the past that develops

students' curiosity and imagination. Awareness of history is an essential characteristic of

any society, and historical knowledge is fundamental to understanding ourselves and others.

It promotes the understanding of societies, events, movements and developments that have shaped humanity from earliest times. It helps students appreciate how the world and its people have changed, as well as the significant continuities that exist to the present day.

Edmund Barton Not ‘History’

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Barton

The ‘Edmund Barton Syndrome’History is more than facts.

Yet many people are only interested teaching in the facts.

We often find arguments around what students “ought to know” which are narrowly based on facts that are ‘important’ to one group of people.

This is known as the ‘Edmund Barton Syndrome’

This is not ‘History’

History is contestedMost people familiar with the story of the D-day beach

landings in 1944 can describe the overall progress and impact of these landings, but are they familiar with this comment from a US veteran? Each one of us had our own little battlefield. It was maybe forty-five yards wide. You might talk to a guy who pulled up right beside of me, within fifty feet of me, and he got an entirely different picture of D-day.

On D-day, every surviving soldier from the five divisions of Allied forces which landed on five different beaches would each have had a different story to tell.

To help explain what happened before, during and after the landings, author Stephen Ambrose interviewed 1,400 veterans of the landings and used secondary texts. He then compressed those interviews into one account. (Taylor & Young, 2003, p2)

The Australian Curriculum: History aims to ensure that students develop:interest in, and enjoyment of, historical study for

lifelong learning and work, including their capacity and willingness to be informed and active citizens

knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the past and the forces that shape societies, including Australian society

understanding and use of historical concepts, such as evidence, continuity and change, cause and effect, perspectives, empathy, significance and contestability

capacity to undertake historical inquiry, including skills in the analysis and use of sources, and in explanation and communication.

The knowledge bit

“knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the past and the forces that shape societies, including Australian society”

Within the aims of the National Curriculum knowledge is mentioned just once - what are the implications of this?

http://www.slideshare.net/mbrownz/the-return-of-king-kong-a-journey-to-scull-island-and-beyond

Uzanne, 1894: “With the coming of the new media the need for print on paper will rapidly diminish. The day will soon arrive when the world's literature will be available from The Automatic Library at the mere pressing of a button”

Most educational technology initiatives reinforce traditional outcomes. The dump and pump model of digital learning still dominates

The old transmissional mode of education dominates

http://www.slideshare.net/mbrownz/the-return-of-king-kong-a-journey-to-scull-island-and-beyond

How online learning is usually used – replication of offline dump and pump model

http://www.slideshare.net/NetSpot/moot-au13masterclassdrex

http://www.mud.com/gag/ive-made-a-huge-mistake

http://www.slideshare.net/NetSpot/moot-au13masterclassdrex

Change who does the work.

http://www.slideshare.net/NetSpot/moot-au13masterclassdrex

Students need to be creators.

http://www.slideshare.net/NetSpot/moot-au13masterclassdrex

Historical InquiryThe process of historical inquiry

develops transferable skills, such as:the ability to ask relevant questionscritically analyse and interpret sourcesconsider context; respect and explain

different perspectivesdevelop and substantiate

interpretationsand communicate effectively.

InquiryTaylor and Young (2003) point out that the challenge in

teaching history is to have students “do” history rather than to passively have the subject done to them.

There is a need to actively engage students in deep learning.The inquiry approach can be based upon a number of models

with similar characteristics. (See Marsh and Hart, 2011, p.144)… it’s a “robust network of skills”…Generally, the approach involves:Planned activities based upon student questioning and gathering

of information.The development of skills in which students unlock and organise

new information.Provision for students to demonstrate what they have learnt

(including skills)The application of knowledge, skills and values to new problems

and contexts.

Beyond Testing: Using Inquiry Skills to Enhance Education: Russ Fisher-Ives at TEDxABQEDhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr63RDHI

-DM

Significance of the process• Research has identified a need for variety in teaching and

learning activities (Gilbert and Hoepper, 2011 p.201). The inquiry process can integrate and make meaningful this variety. Some considerations:

• Purpose / aims / objectives of your lesson.• Variety of student learning styles (such as Howard Gardner 1983 - and

others).• Promote interest, keep focus / prevent boredom, motivation.

• “Authentic learning in history is a disciplinary-based approach to understanding the past that challenges students to ‘do’ and ‘make’ history in a manner that resembles the historians craft… (This pedagogy includes) representing history as a form of inquiry built around sources, evidence and conflicting” perspectives or accounts. (Taylor and Young, 2003, p.8)

• This has implications for the design of units of work, learning activities, ways of teaching and resources.

Phases In The Inquiry Process - Model

1.Engaging, Challenging, Framing

focus questions

2. Locating, organising, interpreti

ng and analysing evidence

and information

3. Evaluatin

g, synthesisi

ng, making

decisions and choices

4. Communica

ting findings,

reporting back, contributing to

debate (and taking action?)

5. Reflecting

, reconsiderin

g and connecting

Consider Bloom’s taxonomy of levels of thinking /

questioning(Cognitive domain only shown here. Also affective and

psycho-motor domains)

Asking

Reflecting

Discussing

and Connecting the topic to

the learner

Investigating

Student centred

A Simple Model of An Inquiry Process

Think like a year 8…Write down 5 questions that come to mind from examining this source.

ASKING

An Australian poster from 1915.

What do you see in this image that you know or that you can research?

What should we find out next? Where can we find it out? Has the image

been altered / modified / manipulated?

INVESTIGATING

How are ANZACs perceived in the community today? Is this source an

accurate representation of how ANZACs were viewed in the

community at the time? Did other nations share this view? Why / why not? How has this ANZAC images transformed into a sense of being Australian? What are the strengths

and weaknesses of this image? Who has been excluded from this construct

of Australian identity? Why?INVESTIGATING

Oral, written, electronic? Paragraphs,

essays? Assessment

items?Criteria in syllabi

to be demonstrated?DISCUSSING

Feedback, new

understandings, spiralling curriculum,

new questions:

The nature of Australian identity?

REFLECTING

Questioning framework1. Students create their own

questions about the topic2. Students reflect on and improve

their questions3. Students prioritize their questions4. Students and teachers collaborate

on the questions

Frank Hurley’s photo of the Western Front

“THE VCE exam body has apologised and promised no students will be disadvantaged after a doctored image depicting a giant robot assisting socialist revolutionaries in 1917 was accidentally used in a history exam…

The exam, which was sat by almost 6000 students, featured a doctored version of the artwork, in which a large robot - rather like BattleTech Marauder - appeared in the background of the artwork depicting events during the Russian Revolution.

History Teachers Association of Victoria acting executive officer Ingrid Purnell said it was disappointing the image had got through when teachers spent a lot of time making sure students critically examined and evaluated visual sources of evidence”.

Full story

Working with sources – Taylor & Young, 2003

Eight-year-olds can make inferences from sources, determine the likelihood of these inferences, argue a position, engage in historical problem-solving and appreciate the perspectives of people in the past, albeit in a naive manner.

Adolescents can locate and interrogate sources, and assemble evidence to construct explanations and accounts of past events and circumstances. They can thus work effectively with multiple and different types of sources, make inferences about human nature and events and are able to defend their ‘hunches’ with reference to evidence. Adolescents can understand that historical accounts differ because people select and use evidence in different ways for different purposes.

How to get students to think critically about sources?We know students go

online to research first and we know they only click on the first couple of websites.

Studies such as the one from Optify on the right clearly show this lack of discernment. (Goodwin, 2011)

Fox news edited images of politicians.

The real image is on the left.

http://mediamatters.org/research/2008/07/02/fox-news-airs-altered-photos-of-ny-times-report/143921

Should I be careful with Wikipedia?

Killing all of humanity? Hmmm…seems legit.

Yet multiple studies have repeatedly demonstrated the overall reliability of Wikipedia and 60% of UK academics admit going there first when they research.

The nature of ‘facts’All knowledge constructed by humanity and

only passes as ‘fact’ when it has been accepted.

Wikipedia is a brilliant example of constructed knowledge.

YouTube as a repository of human knowledge – it is now the second largest search engine in the world (behind Google). 48 hours worth of content is uploaded every minute.

English Prime Minister Winston Churchill

“History will be kind to me for I intend to write it”

Churchill wrote a history of his life and time as Prime Minister during WWII

“We create reality”

“The journalist said, 'Look, don't you think history warns you that Iraq is going to be a tricky country?'

And this un-named White House official said with supreme confidence, he said, 'You people don't understand. The past doesn't matter. We make history. We create reality.' He said, 'One day you people can write about it.’”

NOTE: This extract comes from historian Margaret MacMillan’s work ‘Dangerous Games’, in it she suggests that this White House official was Karl Rove (former US president George Bush’s political advisor).

Source analysis questionsReliability – can we trust the source? Why?Representativeness – which perspective is given?

How does this affect the source?Accuracy – are the facts true? Can they be

checked? Corroborated?Bias, values and motives of the source – why was

the source created? How is it biased in favour of one side?

Time period and historical context of the source – how does the time and context effect the source?

Background of the author. Biographers sensationalize, poets embellish, historians check their facts. Are they experts on the topic?

Asking the right questionsTwo ways of doing this

1/ Hit the top end of Bloom’s taxonomy. Get students to Evaluate, Compare, Analyse, Justify

2/ Get students to create their own questions for the inquiry

Examples of development of assessment questions2010: To what extent did living conditions

influence daily life in European Medieval society?

Sets up a descriptive response: peasants lived in huts while kings lived in castles.

Led to simplistic responses in which all peasants lived horrible lives and kings lived wonderful lives.

Research is limited to ‘living conditions’Again, there is no ‘issue’ and no meaty

argument to be uncovered/ debated/ discussed and analysed.

Examples of development of assessment questions2011: Compare and contrast religion and feudalism in

European Medieval society - decide which had the greater influence on daily life and justify your answer.

Sets up a decision making response with justification of concept

Forces students not to be narrative/ descriptive. Cannot find the answer on Google (consistent parent

comment at interviews) – consider this an excellent situation!

There are multiple opinions on the topic.Links really well to discussions of power in the modern

world, especially as there are still theocratic governments.

Assessment design verbsJudgeDecideJustifyDebateArgueAnalyseDefend

EvaluateCritiqueExamine CompareContrastInvestigateExplain

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2011/09/blooms-taxonomy-21st-century-version.html

How to guide students through research?

Provide templates that step students through the process of asking questions, of finding and sorting through information

Provide examples of research, of questions, of synthesis. QSA has great examples of this for the senior histories - http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/2055.html#assessment

Physical documents vs E-documents (e.g. OneNote)

Create Communities of PracticeHave and use an online community e.g.

Moodle – create shared courses for all staff and students to work from.

Have and use a shared network for all teachers to access and use.

Emailing and sharing of resources – collaborate, innovate and explore.

Benefits for teaching and learning

Pod and Vodcasting One common approach to supporting

Inquiry learning is to swap or flip where the content delivery takes place – the ‘flipped classroom model’.

This is where the teacher makes the material available outside of classtime for students to access.

Classtime is then devoted to questions, problems, projects, collaboration, discussions and inquiring.

Pod and Vodcasting are tools that allow teachers to shift their content by creating their own e-lessons.

Pod and VodcastingWhy create your own? Personalised, connected, directed, powerful, specific. Students can watch/ rewatch/ skip/ self pace. Absent students are still facilitated.

How to?Lots of free programs that very quickly and easily create these. Podcasts – AudacityVodcasts – Screencast-o-matic, Screenr, Jing or (if you have some cash) go with Camtasia

Need to knowIt takes time - will not save you time

initially

Expect student resistance - many students will have been sitting passively for years and will not want to take ownership.

Plan how you will use the extra class time - you will have lots of extra time for students to inquire!

Library points of supportPathfinders – collections of quality resources that

lead students through an inquiry

How to search effectively? – online, databases, library

How to record research? – help teachers develop templates that prompt thinking and questioning

Issues of trust – which websites and information can I rely on?

Referencing and bibliographies – how do I reference?

Library points of supportConcept mapping – helping students visualise their

thinking

Thesis building – providing frameworks and Socratic questioning techniques to help students reflect and develop their lines of thinking and arguments

Get teachers engaged with the Visible Thinking Project – Harvard’s approach to questioning, reflecting an requestioning.

Vod and Podcasting training for your teachers

Library points of supportCommunicate with your teachers – What

units are they doing? What kinds of resources do they need?

Challenge your teachers – Challenge and support them to create even more engaging/ interesting learning experiences.

Library points of supportFind and how teachers how to use amazing

resources to support/ challenge/ extend their students e.g. Padlet (Wallwisher) http://padlet.com/

Help teachers understand how to curate their digital resources with digital curation tools like: http://www.scoop.it/ https://delicious.com/ https://pinterest.com/

Inquiry based learning resourceshttp://

eduwebinar.com.au/web-tools-to-support-inquiry-based-learning

Western Australian Department of Education

http://det.wa.edu.au/curriculumsupport/schoollibrarysupport/detcms/navigation/supporting-learning/information-literacy/?oid=Category-id-11910393

Be leadershttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8amM

CVAJQ

Bibliography Fisher-Ives, R. (2013, February 2). Beyond Testing: Using Inquiry Skills to

Enhance Education: Russ Fisher-Ives at TEDxABQED. Retrieved March 10, 2013, from TED - Ideas Worth Spreading: http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/Beyond-Testing-Using-Inquiry-Sk

Gilbert, Rob 2011 'Studies of society and environment in the Australian curriculum’ In : Teaching society and environment / edited by Rob Gilbert and Brian Hoepper. 4th ed. South Melbourne, Vic. : Cengage Learning, 2011. Chapter 1, pp. 2-19

Goodwin, D (2011) http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2049695/Top-Google-Result-Gets-36.4-of-Clicks-Study

Marsh, C., & Hart, C. (2011). Teaching the Social Sciences and Humanities in an Australian Curriculum (6 ed.). NSW: Pearson.

Taylor, T., & Young, C. (2003). Making History: A Guide for the Teaching and Learning of History in Australian Schools. Carlton South, Victoria: Curriculum Corporation.

Whiteley, M. (2012). Big Ideas: A Close Look at the Australian History Curriculum From a Primary Teacher's Perspective. Agora, 47(1), 41-45.

Wineburg, S. (2000). ‘Making historical sense’, in Knowing Teaching and Learning History: National and International Perspectives, eds PN Stearns, P Seixas & S Wineburg, New York University Press, p ix.

Simon CorvanContact [email protected](07) 3230 9529http://www.linkedin.com/pub/simon-corvan/75/175/b98