Learning and Teaching for Independent Enquiry Study (IES)

IES is an integral component in the curriculum of Liberal Studies (see Section 2.8 on p. 55).

It is designed to provide a self-directed learning experience which requires students to shoulder the major responsibility of learning and demonstrate self-management skills in pursuing an investigative study on a self-chosen topic, with teachers and other peer students as partners in learning. It is suggested that 82 hours of lesson time be allotted to conduct learning and teaching activities for IES, in addition to this students will also work on their IES outside school hours.

The discussion following this paragraph focuses on some key concerns in the implementation of IES. For detailed advice and more examples, please refer to the References section on p. 185 and the Web-based Resource Platform for Liberal Studies (http://ls.edb.hkedcity.net). The latter also includes a list of ―Friends of Liberal Studies‖, which are organisations that can provide advice and resources for the learning and teaching of the subject, including IES.

4.6.1 Building on prior experiences

Senior secondary students in Hong Kong will not be novices in the conduct of an IES.

Project learning has already been implemented in the basic education curriculum as a

―powerful learning and teaching strategy that helps students to develop their generic skills, integrate and apply their knowledge within and across key learning areas‖ (see Project Learning, Booklet 3C in Basic Education Curriculum Guide Series, CDC, 2002). Students in their primary or junior secondary education have already gained experience in doing individual or group projects. Most of them may have acquired skills in selecting a project title, searching for information, data collection, data analysis, oral presentation and

compiling the final report or product. They may also have experienced the different modes of project learning (e.g. subject-based projects and interdisciplinary projects). Teachers need to find out about students‘ prior project learning experiences and their strengths in self-directed learning. Although the project skills practised in the junior forms may be elementary, they lay a good foundation for doing IES in the senior forms.

More advice and references on implementing project learning in the school curriculum can be found at the Curriculum Development Institute website (http://cd1.edb.hkedcity.net/cd/projectlearning/index.html).

4.6.2 Deciding on the title and the scope

In conducting IES, students are allowed a high degree of freedom and a wide range of choices for the topic and scope of study. They may choose a title connected to the three Areas of Study as long as that title extends to new contexts and themes of a contemporary nature and which is not directly covered in the six modules. This openness enables students to choose title which suit their abilities and interests, while it also poses a challenge to students in that they must select something manageable and are to steer their IES into a meaningful self-directed learning experience, amidst the seemingly infinite possibilities.

The Themes of Enquiry for IES as suggested in this document provide options which may be feasible when students first start deliberating on their individual titles (please refer to Appendix 1 on p.145).

Another direction of developing ideas for IES topics is to draw reference to students‘ prior learning experiences in the past. At junior secondary level, students should have studied various subjects in the Key Learning Areas of Personal, Social and Humanities Education, Science Education and Technology Education. Based on their interests and ability, they could then formulate the topics from what they have learnt. For example, topics like the inheritance of Chinese culture and customs, the development of science and technology, and the impact of changes in climate or the natural environment on daily lives, are meaningful.

These topics are in line with and complementary to the learning in the different modules of Senior Secondary Liberal Studies.

a few years ago, the teachers gave students a total free hand to select their own project titles. Many students chose titles they found interesting, but had not considered the practicality and feasibility. Topics concerning spirits, fortune-telling and horoscopes were very popular among students. However, once they really started working on such topics, they found problems in validating the data and examining the issues. As a result, many of them had difficulties in finishing the projects.

After a few years, the teachers decided to set broad areas for enquiry for them which related to their lives and to the community. Within these broad areas, students were free to choose for themselves a manageable project topic. Because the topics chosen were familiar to them the students felt greater ownership. They were more confident in their explorations. The teachers observed that, with these themes, students are very committed to doing project and they are eager to try out a variety of ways to understand and explore issues that interest them.

Before committing to a specific IES topic, students are advised to broaden their horizons on the chosen theme through different means, e.g. visiting relevant institutions, attending talks or cultural activities, reading extensively. Increased exposure to the theme will give more insights for choosing an appropriate title. Students may also actively bring in their life experiences as important elements of their IES. For example, a student who actively participates in the school athletics team might consider doing an IES within the theme of Sports, and relate the study to his or her experience as an athlete in various ways.

Teachers may also encourage students to start deliberating their IES with an unfamiliar theme, and help them to develop a sense of ownership of their project through exploring the theme. Teachers may use different strategies to arouse students‘ concern and enhance their understanding of the theme, and then encourage students to discuss actively and guide them to formulate feasible and yet challenging questions.

Making use of past students’ work

Some experienced teachers advise that looking at the past work of former students may help students to choose a topic, decide on the scope of their IES and choose an appropriate method and presentation mode. Teachers might keep good IES work from past students and place this in the archive set up in the school library for Liberal Studies.

If the past studies were available in digital format, the archive could be set up in the

school intranet so that students could access them at any time. A teacher also mentioned that he had supplemented the archive with relevant internet links as references to give further information on the related topic. To maintain a useful archive, new studies can be added to the collection every year, and outdated work can be removed. The reference links also need to be constantly updated.

In choosing an IES topic, students should be concerned about the significance of the study.

In other words, students should justify the choice of title by evaluating the expected findings. For example, a study on ―My Favourite Sports‖ has little chance of turning into a meaningful work. The topic is too personal and trivial to have worth for others‘ reference. It is also not likely that it can connect the Areas of Study. A better alternative would be

―Sports and the development of self-image of teenagers in Hong Kong‖. This title opens up the possibility of exploring views of different groups in society, perspectives from different disciplines, phenomena and trends in different contexts and times, etc. It has better potential in generating significant findings and insights on a broader concern. Students should aim at generating new knowledge and insights for themselves, rather than merely supplying new data and information to validate existing claims and views. Teachers should also guide students to focus their IES on a contemporary issue in an authentic context so as to match the aims of Liberal Studies curriculum.

The second factor in considering an IES topic is the availability of sources of reliable information. For some topics, it is difficult for an average Hong Kong secondary school student to get information, especially first-hand data. For example, if a student wanted to do a study on ―The Life of a Chinese Astronaut‖ but could not get an interview with one, the study would inevitably have to rely on secondary sources alone. Teachers should therefore highlight the importance of getting access to an appropriate range of information before a title is finalised for an IES

Groundwork for project learning

A teacher from SKH All Saints‘ Middle School suggests some ways to help students to clarify their understanding of the chosen project title for ASL Liberal Studies. He asks

This provides the teacher with an idea of the students‘ initial understandings of the titles.

The teacher also requires students to submit a reference list of at least 10 items on the chosen topic. This ensures that students have secured at least some available resources for conducting the project. The list provides the basis for the subsequent literature review.

The third factor to consider is the manageability of the study. Students need to consider their own resources in terms of ability, money and time with respect to the scope and demand of the project. For example, ―Economic Development in the Pearl River Delta‖

may be too broad a title. It would be impossible to find the time and money to visit all the major cities in the Pearl River Delta for an in-depth and meaningful investigation on the topic. Students interested in development in this region had better undertake a more focused study by narrowing the scope down to one locality within one city, or to fewer social or economic phenomena, or to a smaller group of people.

Beyond a title

To assist students to review the feasibility of their project titles, a teacher of SKH Bishop Mok Sau Tseng Secondary School designs a form to help students formulate the title and an outline of the project. Students submit this form when the deadline for deciding the title is due.

In completing the form, students have to set out the project title (research question), sub-questions, research target group(s), research methods and types of data to be collected. The teacher comments on these on the form and helps students refine their design. Sometimes, with the teacher‘s help, students may be aware that the project title is too narrow to accommodate a range of perspectives, and few sub-questions and concepts can be derived. At other times, they may be aware that the types of data to be collected are not accessible using the proposed research methods. The form in fact guides students to assess their project title in a systematic way and to formulate a feasible study plan.

As a core subject for all students in the three-year senior secondary curriculum, Liberal Studies needs to be able to cater for learner diversity, and particularly in the IES component. The following is a discussion of some common problems that students may have in the stage of deciding the title and some suggested ways of tackling them.

Some students may provide a cluster of words to represent the concepts related to their project title but are unable to tell the relevant from the irrelevant. They may write up a list of sub-questions which point to confusion in directions and blur the focus of the study. In this case, they need guidance from the teachers to articulate their actual research interest.

Through questioning, teachers guide students to narrow down their choices and select the sub-questions relevant to the project title. Then, teachers may help students to identify the relevant key concepts of their project from the irrelevant ones.

Sometimes the project titles proposed by the students are too narrow. The teacher may help by prompting students to suggest alternatives. Students lacking prior knowledge of the chosen theme will have difficulties thinking of alternatives. Teacher can, in this case, offer some options for them to choose from. Students at this point can usually see the inadequacies of their previous design and come up with a better project title and outline.

4.6.3 Developing project skills in the context of learning the modules

Development of any skill takes place in a context. The skills used in conducting a self-directed study, like most generic skills, are however transferable across contexts. To enhance learning effectiveness and time efficiency, students‘ project skills in IES are best developed in the context of the learning and teaching of the modules in the three Areas of Study. The 82 hours of lesson time allocated for IES do not necessarily have to be separate from the lesson time allocated for the modules.

Incorporating research instruments into the learning and teaching of modules A teacher of Sha Tin Methodist College suggests that the teaching of skills in selecting and employing research instruments for use in project work can be embedded in the content of a module. For example, the techniques of setting questionnaires can be taught

issue. The teacher emphasizes that by actually using a research instrument, students can better master the skills involved and be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of such instruments in the collection of different types of data. This may help students to select and use appropriate research instruments for their IES.

4.6.4 Choice of methods and expected level of sophistication

Students should know how to use a number of methods of data collection and analysis to suit different topics and contexts. A general introduction to methods used in both the quantitative (questionnaire survey, statistics, etc.) and qualitative paradigms (interview, observation, etc.) should be introduced to students. However, teachers should help their students to master these methods and tools at a level appropriate to their standard. For example, the statistical knowledge expected of senior secondary students should be defined by what they have learned in the Mathematics curriculum.

The questionnaire survey as a popular research tool

The questionnaire is the most commonly used tool in student projects. It allows students to collect first hand data from a group of respondents. Since the possible responses have been confined to the options offered by the questionnaire setter, collation and analysis of data are comparatively easy.

On the other hand, questionnaires, like all research tools, have their limitations. For example, the sampling method and the sample size of respondents may greatly affect the reliability and validity of the survey. The way questions are written will influence the findings of the survey. The options provided for each question may be biased towards the setter‘s way of seeing things. All these deficiencies are likely to be significantly amplified in the case of a student project. Students may lack the connections and resources to get a good sample of subjects, and they may also lack the analytical power to design a good questionnaire and to analyse the resulting data. This realisation, unfortunately, often only comes at the stage of an IES when the student is up against facing an imminent deadline for the submission of a final report.

Thus, students should be made aware of the limitations of questionnaires and be cautious about the findings generated from them. Students should also be encouraged to

consider alternative methods to suit different situations and to produce different kinds of data on the same topic. This helps students to see things from different perspectives and allows the findings from one method to be checked against the findings from another.

Qualitative methods such as different kinds of interview and field observation may be considered for achieving a more comprehensive research design and obtaining a richer set of data.

4.6.5 Analysing the data

Through their experience with project learning in basic education, students have been equipped with elementary skills in handling various forms of data, such as drawing generalisations from statistical data and summarising views from interviews. They should continue to strengthen these skills and learn to construct knowledge out of the first-hand data they collect themselves.

Digging deeper into the data

Sometimes students succeed in collecting a good pool of data, but get no further than a superficial description of trends or patterns, failing to make the best use of the data. Not wanting to ―waste‖ the data, teachers are often tempted to share their own interpretations of the data. This would defeat the purpose of encouraging students‘

self-directed learning through IES. A more appropriate way would be to guide students to explore alternative frameworks for analysis so that richer meanings can be revealed by the data themselves and become students‘ own findings.

A teacher from SKH St Benedict‘s School shares a case in which a student presented an analysis of a data pool by grouping the data according to the gender dimension. Seeing that the data had much more to reveal than could be discovered through this uni-dimensional analysis, the teacher prompted the student to explore other possible dimensions for analysis, and gave ―age‖ as an example. Through expanding the framework for the data analysis, the student constructed richer meanings from the same set of data.

instead, suggests examples or provides guiding questions to encourage the student to dig deeper into the data and discover insights themselves.

4.6.6 Variety of modes of presentation

Students do not have to rely solely on the textual medium to record and present their IES.

Students can incorporate different presentation formats into their IES reports for clearer communication of ideas. For example, charts and graphs are good tools to help readers visualise trends and patterns in quantitative data. Pictorial representation such as concept maps can help explain the interrelationships among abstract ideas or concrete entities such as people and organisations.

Students can opt for alternative formats to present their findings in lieu of the conventional written research report. Model making is one example of what an IES might generate as an end product. Thanks to the popularisation of digital media and internet technology, nowadays students can easily produce audio-visual clippings and construct web sites.

Allowing a variety of presentation modes to suit the different needs, orientations and abilities of students also allows room for developing their creativity.

Teachers may encourage students to explore a wide range of formats and media by exposing them to different media presentations, or providing suitable training. However, students should be reminded that the choice of format should serve the primary purpose of communicating the content knowledge. Fancy packaging and meaningless audio-visual effects should be discouraged. It is the quality of the study process and its outcomes that will count when assessing IES work.

4.6.7 Fostering learner independence

IES is an opportunity for students to learn to plan and manage their own learning. Yet, as teenagers, their ability to work independently is unlikely to be fully developed. The most capable students are still likely to seek and need advice from teachers; while students at the other end of the ability spectrum tend to need much closer guidance.

Given the classroom contexts in Hong Kong secondary schools, tutoring and monitoring of IES on the basis of individual students is likely to prove rather time-consuming on the part