Home › Forums › The nature of inquiry and information literacy › What is FOSIL?
Basically, FOSIL is a model of the inquiry process and an evolving framework of specific and measurable skills that enable each of the stages in the inquiry process.
The power of FOSIL lies in the simple and logical way that the stages combine to guide students through the inquiry process:
More fully, FOSIL is a way of enabling students to learn by finding out for themselves.
However, the fullest understanding of what FOSIL is will only emerge out of a discussion of what FOSIL makes possible, so please share your thoughts and experiences.
“A map is not the territory” (Korzybski, 1994, p. 58). FOSIL is a map of the inquiry process. Like all maps, it is an abstraction, a simplification of reality. It shows the stages inquirers go through, allowing the map reader to anticipate areas that might – to extend the metaphor a little further than perhaps it deserves – be a bit boggy or steep. However, the FOSIL framework should not be mistaken for the inquiry process itself.
Thanks, Chris, very interesting – in due course I’ll start a Topic on curriculum mapping, which may feed into this view of FOSIL.
Please post the APA reference to the Bibliography.
The discussion about FOSIL in a primary school context has been moved to FOSIL in Primary School.