Guest Blog: Guiding the Transition to Inquiry-Based Learning

Sarah Pavey, PhD, FCLIP, FRSA

We welcome Sarah Pavey, PhD, as she joins us to write about the evolving school librarian role in international schools. In this post, she shares expert strategies for scaffolding research skills and utilising your library management system (LMS) to help students navigate the difficult transition to inquiry-based learning, specifically regarding the IB extended essay and academic integrity.

We’ve all seen “that” student. You know the one. They’ve just arrived from a very much teacher-directed school system. Entrenched in a behaviourist model mindset where success meant memorising the right answer and feeding it back in a test. Now, they’re sitting in your school library, staring at a blank screen, tasked with an International Baccalaureate personal project or an extended essay, and they look absolutely terrified.

In an international school, we librarians are often the first line of defence for these students. When you’re running a library that balances IGCSEs, A-Levels, the International Baccalaureate, or even Common Core, you become a curriculum translator and a cultural bridge-builder. One of our most vital and often most overlooked roles is helping these students navigate the massive culture shock of moving into an inquiry-driven, constructivist environment where the right answer doesn’t even exist yet.

In this article, we will explore how we can move from being simple resource curators to becoming the quiet architects of academic coherence, ensuring that no student feels left behind in the shift to independent learning.

Addressing the Ambiguity

For a student used to being told exactly what to read and what to write, the freedom of inquiry can feel less like a gift and more like a threat. When a teacher says, “Choose a topic that interests you,” the student doesn’t hear “opportunity” but “danger.” This ambiguity can be genuinely overwhelming. As school librarians, our first job is to normalise the uncertainty. We need to explicitly teach the why of inquiry. Personally, I like to have face-to-face discussions with these students where we talk about how independent research isn’t just a hurdle for a grade. I explain it’s about university readiness and developing the critical thinking skills they’ll need for the rest of their lives. When they understand that the messy approach of research (where they feel lost and confused) is actually a sign that they are learning, the pressure starts to lift.

Building the Scaffolding and the Confidence

We want students to be independent, but you can’t just drop someone in the middle of a forest and expect them to find their way home without a compass. This is where scaffolding becomes your best friend.

Practical suggestions for your school library include:

• Research Planners: Create physical or digital planners that break a massive project into bite-sized, manageable steps.
• Question Frameworks: Instead of asking them to “find a topic,” give them frameworks to help them narrow down a broad interest into a researchable question.
• The Safe Space Policy: Make it clear that the school library is a safe space for intellectual risk-taking. Encourage them to come to you when they are struggling. Showing them that questions evolve is one of the most powerful modelling techniques we have.

Turning Your LMS into a Life Raft

Your LMS shouldn’t just be a place to see if a book is overdue. In a multi-curriculum school, it needs to be a working map of the academic landscape. If a student is struggling with the transition to inquiry-based learning, the last thing they need is a generic search bar that returns 5,000 irrelevant results. You can use your LMS to level the playing field by taking some innovative steps.

• Curated Starter Collections: Build specific, high-quality lists of resources for common inquiry themes (like the Cold War or genetics) and embed them on the LMS, e.g. through a dashboard for the year group or using a feature such as Visual Search on Accessit. This gives transitioning students a low-pressure entry point so they aren’t starting from scratch and wasting valuable time staring at a blank screen.
• Curriculum-Specific Subject and Keyword Tags: Use custom fields and tags so that a search for “History” can be filtered by “IB History HL” or “IGCSE Maths.” When the catalogue mirrors their specific curriculum, it feels much more navigable, familiar, and purposeful.
• Embed Citation Tools: Don’t make them hunt for how to cite. Use APA or MLA advice directly in the records and search results, maybe adding linked PDF guides. Show them how to use the citation tools in the LMS. This reinforces academic integrity gently and consistently, rather than as a separate, scary set of rules.

The Power of Face-to-Face Personal Consultation

If there’s one thing to emphasise, it’s that one-to-one research consultations are often the turning point for a struggling student. In these sessions, you aren’t just finding books. You are acting as a pastoral and academic mentor. Use this time to model the research process by using a database and to show them how you would search for their topic. Then they can follow your example.

Many students from behaviourist curriculum backgrounds find the reflective writing parts of inquiry (such as the IB extended essay) very difficult. Unlike inquiry-based curricula that favour process, the behaviourist approach rewards only the end product. Help them see that their thoughts and failures during the research and write-up process are just as valuable as the final essay. Develop asynchronous support for these students so they can access video tutorials and curated resource lists through the LMS at 11pm or later, when panic usually sets in, you are tucked up for the night, and the physical library is closed!

Creating a Shared Language

One of the biggest hurdles for students learning the inquiry process is getting mixed messages from different teachers. One department might emphasise process, while another is more concerned with preparation for the final exam. The transition to inquiry-based learning affects not just students; teachers, too, may be struggling with a new approach to curriculum delivery. As the school librarian, you are the only professional who sees the whole picture. You have the superpower of moving between departments and facilitating conversations that wouldn’t happen otherwise.

A starting point is to try to map the transferable research skills across the whole school, from Year 7 to Year 13. If we use a shared language for things like “evaluating sources” or “synthesising information,” in line with the curriculum followed, the student doesn’t have to relearn how to be a student every time they walk into a different classroom. This creates a sense of coherence rather than fragmentation.

Cultural and Linguistic Sensitivity

We can’t talk about international schools without talking about diversity. Many of our students are working in a second or third language or come from cultures with very different views on academic integrity. To support them in their research journey, we need to be explicit. Multilingual guides, visual research pathways, and clearly signposted expectations are not extras. They are essential tools for equity. A well-structured LMS that incorporates features to make the journey easier becomes a democratising tool, ensuring every student has an equal shot at success, regardless of their background.

Being the Systems Thinker

At the end of the day, helping a student transition to inquiry-based learning isn’t just about heroic effort on your part. We need to invest in thoughtful system design. By using your LMS to bridge gaps, building scaffolding into your instruction, and speaking the language of every curriculum, you create a school library that is a stabilising and purposeful force. You are the one who connects the dots. You are the one who turns a confusing, multi-curricular environment into a coherent, intentional academic hub. It’s a big job, but when you see that lost student finally has their “Aha!” moment, it’s also the best job in the school.

Come learn more about this leadership concept in Singapore or Malaysia this May 2026. I will be facilitating courses on Leading Your International School, and together we will explore many aspects of international school library leadership. Full details and sign up here

5 Graphic Novels Based on Literary Classics

Paul Register
Educational speaker and librarian of 25 years
Linkedin

Last week, my daughters went to the cinema to see the new adaptation of Wuthering Heights. You know the one. It stars those two Australian actors who are too old (allegedly) to be playing Cathy and Heathcliff, can’t do the Yorkshire accents well (allegedly), and where the director has taken the deliberate choice to use quotation marks in the film’s title so people know it’s not actually a strict adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic novel but just an adaptation of the filmmaker’s reaction to it when she first read it as a teenager. Anyway, both my daughters said it was rubbish (that’s just their opinion, though, and if you’ve seen the movie and enjoyed it, that’s fine too – your opinion is just as valid as theirs). BUT…do not despair of adaptations of literary classics!

The world of graphic novels publishing has been successfully adapting the classics of English literature (and other cultures) for decades. See below for five of my top picks that will enhance your school library collections.

Wuthering Heights by Sean M. Wilson & John M. Burns
(Classical Comics) ISBN 978-1906332877

Let’s start with the obvious choice! The original Emily Brontë novel is a favourite book of mine, and this adaptation does a wonderful job of staying true to the plot, to the historical setting, and to the general feel of the original. It also looks incredible as every page is beautifully hand painted by John M. Burns, a British artist who died a few years ago but was much loved and respected in the UK comics scene. The ISBN above is for the Original Text version, but Classical Comics also produce a Quick Text version for people who want to experience the story without necessarily wanting Brontë’s 19th-century Yorkshire dialogue. The artwork remains the same in both versions.

King Lear by Richard Appignanesi & ILYA
(SelfMadeHero) ISBN 978-0955816970

Part of SelfMadeHero’s much-loved and enduring Manga Shakespeare line (that was first published between 2007 and 2009, has been reprinted several times, and can still be found in prominent bookshops across the UK today, and even in the gift shops of the Royal Shakespeare Company), King Lear remains my personal favourite.

This might well be down to the bold choices taken in its adaptation by artist ILYA. As discussed above, some adaptations of classics need to make a lot of effort to stay true to the source material. The interpretation of Shakespeare’s plays, however, has had a lot more leeway for many years now. As such, this manga version of King Lear relocates the story and the historical setting into the colonial frontiers of 18th-century America. Lear still has his three daughters, still decides to separate his land/kingdom between them, but is a Native American chieftain here. The tragic themes remain the same despite the lack of the traditional medieval monarchy backdrop. The Manga Shakespeare series also includes the plays that are more often studied in secondary schools, such as Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Macbeth. Check out the SelfMadeHero website.

(It should also be noted that, as these manga books were created and published in the UK, the traditional European/Western reading style of left-to-right applies).

The Hobbit by Charles Dixon & David Wenzel
(Harper Collins) ISBN 978-0008694401

This abridged graphic novel version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s prelude to The Lord of the Rings was originally published in 1990 and has been a bestseller ever since. This ISBN is for the recently Revised and Expanded edition that was released in September last year. The Hobbit graphic novel is considerably more book-accurate than the spread-too-thin trilogy of blockbuster movies that came out in 2012, 2013, and 2014. And, as with the Wuthering Heights graphic novel, every page is lovingly hand painted to create a work that cares about Tolkien and cares about its readership.

Lord of the Flies by Aimée de Jongh
(Faber & Faber) ISBN 978-0571374250

The outright winner of the 2025 Excelsior Award. What does this mean? It means that it was chosen by the schoolchildren of the UK (and beyond) as the best book on the short lists last year and was more popular than graphic novels featuring Superman, Spider-Man, Deadpool, and the Avengers. Not a bad accomplishment for an (admittedly extremely beautiful and well-presented hardback) adaptation of a novel of survival, forgotten civilisation, and fear of the unknown written in 1954! This will be £20 very well spent.

When the Sky Falls by Phil Earle & Fred Fordham
(Andersen Press) ISBN 978-1839135620

Speaking of the Excelsior Award, When the Sky Falls currently sits on the shortlist of this year’s Excelsior Award Blue (aimed at students aged 11 to 14) and, at the time of writing, is out there and being read by teenagers up and down the nation. I have no idea yet if it will prove to be one of the winning books or not, as I am frequently and often pleasantly surprised by the results of the Excelsior Award Rating Forms that come back to me every springtime. The original novel was only published in 2021, which means we should really wait another twenty or so years before technically calling it “a classic.” It has already won several book awards in the UK, though, and I know it, and the author, Phil Earle, are big favourites in the school librarian community. And with good reason! When the Sky Falls is a fabulous book, and this adaptation is incredibly gripping and un-put-downable.

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So there you have it! Five recommendations of classics adapted into graphic novels or manga. Obviously, this is just the tip of the iceberg, but I hope this blog has inspired you to explore a little more and maybe even discover a new publisher or two.

Dashboards for International Baccalaureate Schools

At Accessit, we know that supporting students through the International Baccalaureate (IB) isn’t just about finding resources, it’s about helping them build the skills and independence they need to thrive.

That’s why we’re excited to share some new additions to our collection of ready-made dashboards, designed specifically to support the IB Diploma Programme.

In conjunction with a number of IB librarians around the world, we have developed four free dashboards focused on the Diploma Programme, supporting students across the programme’s core areas, as well as the wider research and study skills needed for success across all subjects.

Take a sneak peek at the dashboards below:

Theory of Knowledge (TOK)

TOK invites students to reflect on the nature of knowledge and explore how we know what we claim to know.

This dashboard features:

• TOK guides and supporting materials
• Podcasts and resources that challenge viewpoints
• Activities exploring fact vs opinion, and belief vs knowledge

This dashboard helps students build the critical thinking and reflection skills at the heart of the programme.

Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS)

CAS is a core part of the IB Diploma Programme, where students engage in meaningful experiences across three strands: Creativity, Activity, and Service.

CAS encourages students to plan, take on personal challenges, reflect on outcomes, and demonstrate real learning through their experiences.

This dashboard features:

• Guides to CAS and how to meet expectations
• Ideas for volunteering and community involvement
• Inspiration for projects and activities with real impact

It’s designed to help students move from “What can I do?” to “How can I make a difference?”

Extended Essay (EE)

The Extended Essay is an independent, self-directed research project culminating in a 4,000-word paper, a major milestone for any IB student.

This dashboard features:

• Open-access directories for academic research
• Guides to researching, structuring, and writing the EE
• A range of search engines and discovery tools
• A strong emphasis on digital literacy and source quality

This dashboard supports students through every stage of the process, from early topic exploration to final writing and referencing.

Research and Study Skills

This bonus dashboard supports students with the general tools they need for every part of IB study, including TOK, CAS, EE, and the six IB subject groups.

This dashboard features:

• Effective search strategies and resources
• Guidance on critical evaluation
• Instructions on citing and referencing

These are truly skills for life, and they remain valuable well beyond the IB context.

As with all our readymade dashboards, these are completely customisable, allowing you to add any specific details for your library, or any subscription databases you might have.

Just as the Diploma Programme is designed to prepare students to excel, Accesit’s dashboards are here to support that journey, giving students quick access to high-quality, relevant resources when they need them most. Plus, they’ll save you time to focus on your library!

Romantasy Books for Teens: 9 Romantic Fantasy Recomendations

Bev Humphrey
Literacy & Digital Media Consultant
www.bevhumphrey.com
Social media – https://linktr.ee/BevHumphrey

Romantasy or romantic fantasy fiction has become phenomenally popular with teenage readers, with A Court of Thorns and Roses being one example of this. If you browse TikTok’s BookTok community you could almost be forgiven for thinking that books from this sub genre are the only books that exist!

In my opinion anything that encourages young people to read avidly can’t be a bad thing but I do admit to feeling slightly uncomfortable when I see students from years 7/8 reading books that I know include a lot of explicit ‘spice’ and I’m really not sure I would have had these books on my shelves when I was a school librarian, at least not available for loan to younger year groups. However, we do want to capitalise on this wave of interest so here’s some suggestions of great romantasy reads that will spare everyone’s blushes!

Six of Crows & Crooked Kingdom, Leigh Bardugo
Welcome to the grishaverse, a world of charismatic thieves, magic and romance with a light touch. Main protagonist Kaz Brekker has bad boy vibes but is also intelligent and inspires empathy.

Costumes for Time Travellers, A R Capetta
A cosy time travelling LGBTQ+ adventure that I thoroughly enjoyed, a charming and sweet romance with an amazing shop base that serves customers who are travelling to different times and need clothes to blend in.

The Mistborn Trilogy, Brandon Sanderson
This is an epic series that starts with a brilliant heist and then quietly morphs into something much deeper, great for your students that like to continue characters stories over several books.

Of Flame and Fury, Mikayla Bridge
A punchy fantasy that pulls you straight into the action and does not let go. I loved the fact that it is all about phoenixes, a mythical creature that doesn’t often get the spotlight. The romance simmers in the background, messy and intense but never explicit.

Thieves Gambit & Heist Royale, Kayvion Lewis
An enemies to lovers duology about highly skilled young thieves and a competition that they each need to win. Fast paced, cinematic and a fun read.

Powerless trilogy, Lauren Roberts
A BookTok favourite this trilogy is definitely romantic with slow burning tension building between more than one couple. Lots of flirtatious banter that made me smile, the plot’s reminiscent of the Hunger Games but is different enough to not feel derivative.

The Lunar Chronicles series , Marissa Meyer
Each book in this series is based on a different fairytale with the first Cinder , riffing on the Cinderella story and book 2 Scarlet, focussing on Little Red Riding Hood. Every new story builds the world and the friendships while letting the romances grow naturally.

A Language of Dragons, S F Williamson
One of my favourite 2025 reads and I’m very excited to read the next one A War of Wyverns which has just been published. Set in Bletchley Park in 1923 with dragons on almost every page with a slow burn romance, intrigue and adventure.

A Wish So Deadly, Marilize Loxton (publishing March 26)
Talia, the female protagonist in this fast moving, exciting fantasy steals jewels from a powerful Soulreaper and in doing so causes harm to her beloved sister and is forced to enter a deadly tournament to try and win back her life. She is forced to work with Taron, who is definitely not someone who makes friends easily but has a dark allure nonetheless. Ends on a real ‘what the heck’ cliffhanger, a great debut and I’m looking forward to reading what happens next.

For more from Bev Humphrey, sign up for her Lit Link-up webinars or watch the previous session here.

How do Accessit’s new features simplify the ordering process?

The ordering process is getting an upgrade with Accessit – making it more intuitive and better aligned with how you work.

We’ve enhanced the ordering experience to give you comprehensive, at-a-glance information for effective budget tracking and order monitoring, while making it easier than ever to build reading lists from books that are on their way. With new data columns and a streamlined pathway to the associated resource list, Items on Order has evolved from a simple list into a practical, everyday tool for oversight and curation.

Bulk Select Items When Ordering

When ordering a new set of books, you can now bulk-select multiple items within an order and assign both the quantity and budget of each item.

For example, if you’re purchasing a mix of new books for both the tourism and animal care courses, you can select them all in one go and allocate each group to its pre-existing budget – without repetitive data entry. Adding new budgets remains as straightforward as ever, requiring just a few clicks. These improvements save you time and help minimise the risk of data-entry errors, especially when you’re managing orders across multiple departments or spending lines.

Rewarding Engaged Readers

If a student or staff member has requested a specific book, we’ve made it easy to ensure they’re the first to get their hands on it when it arrives. During the ordering process, simply select the item within the order, choose Reserve, click Find Borrower, and enter their details.

Once the order arrives, they’ll be first in line – a great way to reward your star readers!

New ‘Coming Soon’ Label

We’ve also refined what happens next in the workflow. Previously, books on their way appeared to you as ‘In progress’ and were simply marked as unavailable for patrons. Now, any book that is yet to arrive will show as ‘Coming soon’ to both you and your borrowers.

This small but impactful change makes the status of incoming items much clearer, reduces enquiries about books still en route, and helps build anticipation around your newest additions.