Based on observation, survey responses and interviews, the two successive student cohorts (20) followed the research process illustrated by their peers and agreed that it was an adequate representation of their actions within the context of the inquiry-based history project. The Research ProcessĪ six step research process ( Figure 1) was identified by a design team composed of nine students from the first cohort (2011) and researchers, in keeping with the bonded design approach (Large et al., 2006). The objective of the inquiry-based history project is to have grade 8 students select an historical topic of interest, research the topic, organize the information, develop a thesis statement and prepare and present their findings to their teachers, peers and family members. (Prusak, 1997 Von Zedtwitz, 2002 Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2006). However, due to the fact that the knowledge developed working on an inquiry-based project is personal and context-specific (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2006), this type of knowledge often remains with the individual and does not get transferred beyond the timeframe and context of the project. As the same history project is assigned to students of each new cohort, the researcher asks the following question: can the transfer of experiential knowledge from previous student to new students' working on a similar project improve their research process and their results? BACKGROUND Inquiry-Based LearningĪ growing body of research suggests that both project based learning (Krajcik & Blumenfeld, 1998) and inquiry-based learning (Edelson & Reiser, 2006) foster the development of knowledge. The preliminary results of an ongoing study of successive cohorts of grade eight students working on an inquiry based history project show that students generate knowledge (Cole et al., 2013). A common problem is that when a project is completed, this knowledge is not transferred in order to be reused by others to make future projects more successful (Prusak, 1997 Newell et. When an individual or a team working within an organization completes a project, they generate both substantive knowledge (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2006 Kuhlthau et al., 2007) about the project and knowledge about the processes involved to achieve successful completion (Ayas & Zeniuk, 2001 Newell et.

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