Our move to Guernsey and Blanchelande College necessarily turned our attention inward for a while, and I am grateful to my colleagues in the Warwickshire Schools Library Service for giving me this opportunity to share some of the deepening insights into inquiry that I have gained from my weekly meetings with Barbara Stripling, and my new role as Head of Inquiry-Based Learning.

The presentation may be downloaded from here.

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Abstract

Inquiry enables the school library to fulfil its educational and moral purpose.

On the one hand, inquiry is a learning process that is as applicable to learning about any subject in the classroom as it is to learning about any subject in and through the library. Because this learning process is dependent on reading – nonfiction and fiction – inquiry positions the school library/ian as integral to the educational purpose of the school. On the other hand, because inquiry requires, and therefore develops, not only cognitive skills, but also emotional and social skills, inquiry positions the library/ian as integral to the broader educational purpose of the school.

FOSIL – as a highly regarded model of the inquiry learning process and a framework of cognitive, emotional and social skills stretching from Reception to Year 13 – is a powerful tool in fulfilling our educational and moral purpose, and we will consider how we might go about using it to this end.