When it comes to teaching research in the younger grades, it is easy to turn an opportunity for building vital academic skills into an exercise in regurgitation. Too often in elementary classrooms students are taught that research means finding information and then putting that same information into a slide show, on a poster, or in a report. There is misconception that young children are not capable of developing questions, finding answers and synthesizing information. As a result, when students reach the older grades, they struggle with complex research problems and produce products that resemble Google searches—lists of facts and links to where the facts came from.
In a world overcome by information overload, finding information is never a problem. Even a 1st grader can type the word ‘gorilla’ into a search box and find information. The question is, what can a 1st grader do with that information? If all we ask is for the child to list 5 facts about gorillas, we have missed out on a huge opportunity.
Why did the child first want to look up information about gorillas? What were they hoping to find? If we don’t teach young people to develop a path for their research, then they will easily become lost in the massive amounts of information available (just try typing ‘gorillas’ into a search engine and see what you find). When students have a goal in mind, they are more likely to be able to find meaning in the information they find and use it in ways that require critical thinking and creative applications.
That said, sometimes questions don’t arise until we have sorted through some information, so a little browsing can’t hurt. But if we browse for too long then we lose a sense of what we were looking for in the first place.
Once students have found some answers to their questions (which may have required them to revise their questions along the way), what will they do with the information that they have found?
Read the entire article by clicking here: Research in the Elementary Classroom
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