The Problem
By the time many pupils enter secondary school they have become accustomed to following a linear course of action when tackling independent learning projects: after they have been briefed on the task, they collect information and from this pool of material they construct their research product, be it an essay, report, presentation, etc. Complications arise, however, when, in the upper year groups, the document to be produced is lengthy and it is expected that a multiplicity of sources will be consulted.
As is recognised by Kuhlthau—one of the world’s leading experts on pupil research—the ability to combine information obtained from a range of materials and use it in the creation of a cohesive outcome requires abstract thinking.1 This is an area where young people tend to struggle. Ideally, we might hope that learners will assemble ideas from different sources within the same paragraph of their document in order to provide illumination on the matter in question from various perspectives, whereas all too often they tend to present material from separate sources in discrete paragraphs and there is no real integration of content. The difficulty is greatest when the learner must distinguish between many related and intricate arguments and then incorporate their comparisons into their document—forming a narrative from facts obtained from different sources may well prove much easier.
It is not surprising that pupils find it demanding to unite, in a single document, material from an assortment of sources. Essentially, they are being asked to synthesise—a skill that Krathwohl, in his revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, ranks above all others in terms of complexity.2 Renaming this area ‘creating’, he defines it as ‘putting elements together to form a novel, coherent whole or make an original product’—tasks that are critical to the effective use of source material in the highest levels of learning at school.
The Information/Writing Interaction Model (IWIM)
In recent months I have developed a strategy for helping candidates studying for the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) to overcome the demands of abstract thinking that many find overwhelming. The course requires that candidates undertake an independent learning project on a topic of their own choice. They document their research processes in a diary known as a logbook, write a 5,000-word essay and deliver an oral presentation. In the words of the appropriate specification, success in a key area of the EPQ—that of ‘developing and realising’—means that candidates are adept at ‘synthesising information from a variety of sources and present them within a logical and coherent structure which addresses closely the nature of the task’.3
In the long term, I ask the pupils to work towards the use of at least twelve different sources. I know from past experience that there are even sixth-formers who find work that requires them to interact with so many items from the outset to be too challenging. Thus, I begin by inviting the youngsters to read sufficient sources to enable them to construct a preliminary assignment framework that may be regarded as a rudimentary essay plan. This should indicate the main issues, their relationships and the sources the pupil intends to use in addressing them. I always advise that some of the initial sources should be of an introductory nature, but the number of items to be consulted at this point is best left to the individual, since what is deemed to be ‘manageable’ will vary from one learner to another. Still, if too few sources are examined, the framework will be insufficiently wide ranging to accommodate all the relevant aspects of and perspectives on the topic involved, and errors in the source material will probably go unchallenged because the person’s reading lacks the width necessary to expose the mistakes. Failure to broaden the search later will result in a document whose scope is too narrow and one that merely repeats existing inaccuracies.