What is FOSIL?

[Darryl Toerien Keymaster]

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:

• Connect: knowledge builds on knowledge, so pausing to take stock of what you already know reveals more clearly what you do not yet know
• Wonder: gaps in what you know give rise to questions, some more fruitful than others
• Investigate: these questions guide your investigation, which is aimed at sourcing reliable information that you can work with
• Construct: this is the point of learning by finding out for yourself – building knowledge and understanding from information in response to the questions that you have
• Express: once you know what you are talking about, you need to be able to share it appropriately, effectively and ethically
• Reflect: Doug Engelbart said it best when he said that the better we get at getting better, the faster we will get better, and this is desperately needed in a world facing increasingly complex and urgent challenges

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.

[Chris Foster Participant]

“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.

[Darryl Toerien Keymaster]

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.

[Darryl Toerien Keymaster]

The discussion about FOSIL in a primary school context has been moved to FOSIL in Primary School.

[Darryl Toerien Keymaster]

As I wrote in my recent article for ACCESS (link to follow), because insight is the endpoint of a long term, iterative process, rather than the starting point, even what seems most familiar to us is laden with insight-generating potential when (re)thought through. This remains the case with FOSIL, and an invitation a year ago to write an article with Elizabeth Hutchinson for ACCESS provided such an insight-generating opportunity.

Our article – FOSIL: Inquiry as Mind Set, Skill Set, Tool Set and Community – which was first published in Volume 35, Issue 2, June 2021 of ACCESS, is shared here (download as PDF or read below) with the permission of the Editor, Lee FitzGerald.

 

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