Leading professional inquiry to develop students' research skills.

This study describes my leadership of a professional inquiry, with two secondary teachers, to implement a new strategy for teaching student research skills. Our Teacher Learning Team used Mill's (2004) action research process to implement Brown, Klein, and Lapadat's (2009) student research platform with cycles of action, observation, and collaborative reflection to support further action. Secondary students were introduced to the process of gathering information in a carefully controlled way, so that their progress could be monitored and instruction could be differentiated to help them gain independence. I report the challenges and successes that led to teacher and leadership learning. My analysis revealed that persistent use of this strategy enabled these teachers to shift from a product to process orientation that led to enhanced engagement in learning for students. With carefully sequenced skill instruction, problems with plagiarism were no longer evident and students gained a sense of discovery that increased their interest in course content. --P. ii.