Getting personal with teacher inquiry: one school's approach.

Over many years of working with inquiry-based approaches in schools, I have relished the opportunity to explore ways to extend the approach to the teachers themselves. When I became particularly interested in personal inquiry for children around a decade ago, I gradually widened my focus to explore the potential of personalised, professional inquiry for staff.  I continue to see this as a really valuable way not only to build teacher capacity but to strengthen everyone’s understanding of what it means to bring an inquiry stance to our work.

Professional, personal inquiries are ultimately not only about discovering but about transforming both the teacher and the learners in their care.  This concept is not new. The idea of teacher inquiry is, for example, strongly embedded in school throughout NZ where it connects to the cycle of action research.  Other ‘situated professional learning’ approaches have been around throughout my teaching career and well before that. There is an enormous body of research on teacher inquiry - this blog post (already too long!) is not the place to explore it. I will simply share one more recent voice from the field whose work I have been reading lately. UK based researcher and head teacher Dr Kulvarn Atwal writes:

“My research found that teacher engagement (in their own learning) is dependent on how well the activities are personalised to their own and their children’s needs…when teachers engage in professional learning they don’t see as relevant to their needs, they rarely persevere...The informal aspect of this teacher choice is that we develop practitioners who are self-motivated, independent learners… They are not engaged in professional learning that is done ‘to’ them they are driving their own learning, eager to continually improve.”  (2019: 32-34)

 I have been fortunate to have partnered with Bonython School in Canberra for several years now. It has been wonderful to watch the careful and thoughtful way the leadership team and the staff as a whole have worked on growing a culture of Inquiry from the ground up.  As is the case for several schools I work with, one feature of their work is the expectation that educators will engage in their own inquiry journeys throughout the year.  I invited deputies Marc Warwick and Amanda Hawkins to chat to me about their approach, late last year and share some key moments from our conversation including some teacher reflections here.

Kath (K)  So, what exactly ARE ‘educator inquiries’ at Bonython Primary School ?

We have both come from other settings that introduced us to the idea of professional learning through engaging teachers as inquirers.  At Bonython, we expanded this idea to include all educators  - including all of our support staff so we are careful to describe these ‘educator inquiries’ rather than just the teachers.   Basically, it means that each adult in our learning community commits to an investigation of their choice, exploring a professional interest, passion or area of need. They are usually linked to the work they are currently doing with students but not necessarily . They select a focus early in the year and work on it across the year with a celebration and sharing at the end. 

 What were some of the questions your educators explored through the year? 

 There was such a range!  But some examples are: 

•  How can learning in the outdoors grow students capacity to think creatively to come up with new ideas and solve problems?

•  How can I get to know how autism presents in the students I teach, and how can I get to know them as individuals to find out how they learn best?

•  As an Inquiry School, to what extent is our approach to using split-screen teaching achieving what we want with our student learners?

• How can I develop my understanding of the Inquiry process through play? 

• What is anxiety, what does it look/feel like and how can I best support someone experiencing it? How can we create a safe, supportive and positive environment for our rainbow community?

K. Why have you taken this approach at Bonython?  

The most important aspect of this is that the process allows our educators to develop their inquiry mindset by explicitly practising what it means to be an inquirer.  And we want a strong inquiry mindset throughout our community.  We really want to position the ‘grown ups’ as inquirers which means they can relate to and empathise with the experiences of our younger learners across the school as they engage in this kind of learning.    We feel that everything we do with our teaching team should mirror what we are asking them to do with our students.  We are trying to build that cultural marker you have written about: that ‘professional learning itself should be inquiry based’. 

K.This is quite an undertaking for staff. How have you managed to get ‘buy in?’

When we first started,  some people were reluctant and fearful. Especially the support staff who are not ordinarily asked to work  in this way.  But they are actually our real success story. In their enterprise agreement there is an expectation that they will do some professional learning. So we have said, ‘well, the way we do this is through inquiry’. Some of them had not had great experience in their own schooling and many were worried about having to ‘present.’  We really had to give a lot of support. We had to say ‘We are going to do this, but we hear you are uncomfortable, we hear your concerns  and we will accommodate them.  

 When we had our celebration at the end of the year one of the people who had been reluctant came and gave us a hug and said that we had ‘kept our word’ – that the experience was great and she was eager for her next inquiry. She was the first person to take the new LSA’s under her wing this year and say ‘this is great. Now the experiences LSA’s are supporting the new ones.  We  also brought people in from our previous school (Macquarie PS) to share their stories.  One of those teachers  asked: “What would you do if you weren’t afraid’ . That really resonated with people. 

 K. I would say another reason why you have people on board is that you had already built a strong inquiry culture prior to introducing the professional inquiries. My impression is that people felt excited about the direction you were heading in, they trusted the leadership, liked each other and liked working at the school.  ALL that helps with people’s willingness to go with something new. 

 That’s true. Marc and Greg (principal) had been working on building that culture two years before I (Amanda) came here so it was a great foundation to build on. We started with building the capacity of our young learners to inquire and then moved to strengthening our educators identity as inquirers as well.

K.    So, you say educators choose something to investigate that they are interested in. Are there any criteria? Does it, for example, have to connect with your strategic plan or school vision? 

Not really - We give people full choice. We want them to feel empowered. It is interesting when you do that - key themes emerge that actually connect to a lot of our priorities anyway.  Themes like wellbeing, trauma, Aboriginal perspectives , play and literacy. 

One thing we do is that once everyone has chosen their focus we invite them to consider the relationship between these and your 10 pedagogical practices.   Then they form what we call CICs – ‘Connected Inquiry Communities’   - the practices help link people’s interests. The interests have to come first. The teachers have to have agency in all this.

 K.As a vehicle for professional learning, this is entirely driven by and within the school itself. And it requires a commitment to time.  How have you managed that?

We dedicate regular staff sessions to this.  The bare minimum is 2 staff meetings per term where they all reflect on what they are doing and what they are noticing and work with their CIC group.  Because it is personal, people will also negotiate times to attend seminars or workshops elsewhere that might connects with their inquiry. We also provide time and  encourage them to visit other school so teachers are talking to other teachers with similar interests or expertise in the area they are interested in.  We really want to broaden this and have more teachers talking to other teachers in other schools as a way of supporting the inquiry process. 

K. Of course, the success of any professional learning should ultimately be gauged according to the impact on the children’s learning. Have you explored this? 

 Several of the inquiries involve the children directly – teachers (and kids) are gathering data and the whole thing is very transparent and immediate.  In some classrooms, the teachers make their own inquiries really visible to the kids and gather and reflect on the data through the year. One of our educators last year was inquiring into the relationship between our school values and her use of picture books in the classroom to increase students understanding of them. She really involved the children in this exploration – they were aware of what she was investigating.   Another one of our early career educators was working on an inquiry into the teaching of writing. The kids knew this and she was asking them about what they were noticing about whether they were improving as writers. The way those children could talk about themselves as writers really showed the impact of her research into this field.  Other inquiries are less directly involving of the learners – rather more an investigation into something that then becomes the basis for new approaches or refinements to practices later on.

K. Judy Halbert and Linda Kaser, Canadian colleagues with whom I have had the delight of connecting in recent times, are champions of teacher inquiry. There work has a slightly different location/purpose but is still broadly connected to this idea of teachers as inquirers. Their ‘Spirals of Inquiry’ model, developed with NZ’s Helen Timperly is well worth exploring and I think would add a lovely layer to the work you have begun here  - perhaps by bumping up the interesting question of impact? Their pivotal questions might be of value to your work too:  What is going on for our learners? How do we know? Why does it matter? (from Halbert and Kaser 2017 The Spiral of Inquiry Playbook)  

 Anyway…,  I was so delighted (and jealous) to see the photos of your celebration of professional learning  at the end of the year (2020).  You took the staff to Birrigai (In Tidbinbilla). Tell me more about that. 

 We believe that getting off site is really important. It helps us get away from our ‘to do’ list, gives us fresh perspective and gets us focussed. Last year we started at Art centre and finished at the Art centre – this year it was Birrigai.  Birrigai is a really special place for us as a school. We know when we are there something special happens. The name Birrigai means ‘the place of laughter’  I tell you, when you are there you feel that. We have taken all the kids there this year. This also connects to our Cultural Integrity work which focusses so much on connection to place AND the other thing we have often spoken about with you – the way the environment nurtures curiosity and is such a natural home for inquiry.  We try to get outside – even for staff meetings and it just changes the whole atmosphere. 

To conclude the Educator Inquiry Journeys in 2020, we asked the staff to bring artefacts to Birrigai that would help tell the story of their inquiry.   They each spent some time alone in this to curate a small ‘exhibit’ in this amazing outdoor space. The staff then spent time quietly walking around this exhibition and learning from each other.  It was so creative!  One of our LSA’s had inquired into anxiety and she created an exhibit in a thistlebush – prickly and challenging.   This whole idea of curation is, we believe, really important to the mindset.   The experience was about connecting, curating and contemplating. We walked amongst the artefacts of people’s learning and made connections then walked down the hill to a final celebration. The experience was also connected to the work we have been doing on cultural Integrity -which focusses so much on connection to place AND the other thing we have often spoken about with you – the way the environment nurtures curiosity and is such a natural home for inquiry.  We try to get outside, even for staff meetings, and it just changes the whole atmosphere. '

 It sounds really beautiful – and such a powerful way to promote reflection. I love that you have used that word ‘contemplation’… we have SO little time to contemplate in schools and surely the work we do would benefit from more of it! 

 Thinking ahead – what’s in store for 2021? What have you learned this year that you would tweak or change for 2021?  

I think we have created a rod for our own backs! We have created beautiful experiences for the last 2 years so, now, how do we sustain that?! How do we keep it fresh? The core won’t change. Each educator will have a question, go through a cycle of inquiry and conclude with some form of sharing – none of that will change. We have started to dabble with the focus on the Future of Education which the department here is talking about and that might help anchor our questions.   We are not sure…

One thing that we think could be extended is the opportunity for teachers to share their work with a wider audience.  We already have a relationship with the University of Canberra and there would be some teachers who could take their work to a conference or write for a journal which would be a wonderful way to take it further.   We have played with the idea of inviting other schools to hear our stories but that would be a second share time. It’s so valuable to have that safe, vulnerable space to share as a staff first. It would be interesting to see how that would impact on them.   The staff have also suggested we could make the final sharing something that happened over a longer time frame – a week of sharing perhaps. 

K:  Like a festival of personal inquiry -you could have kids sharing some of their inquiries too? And maybe even have the kids see the teachers’ artefacts?  (at this point we all get a little excited about this idea…)  So, If a school wanted to explore this idea – what would be your most important piece of advice? 

 If you are already using an inquiry-based approach with your students then dive in!  Just DO it. And remind people that this is what we have said is good for learning in our classrooms – and it’s good for OUR learning too.  And know your people. We have worked really hard on culture building by establishing strong relationships with individuals.  We try to take the time to inquire into our people and build those relationships. We try to really listen to them and modify what we do in response.  I also think sometimes this kind of work can be overcooked, over complicated and made more complex than it needs to be.  When I talk to other schools about their approaches, It can just seem too much. I think this is about learning, as leaders,  to release, keep it simple , trust your staff and personalise it for each staff member. 

Some teacher reflections:

The challenges that I/we have faced through our inquiries have required us to become more flexible and demonstrate increased levels of grit. This is something we encourage students to do each day and as they delve into inquiries, but don't necessarily experience ourselves.

We need to tap into students passions and provide them with opportunities to explore them, following a range of different pathways.

 I feel that Educator Inquiry continues to develop my empathy of how kids feel each and every day and the strategies and supports I can put in place to help support them as they work through the inquiry cycle, particularly in things like iTime.

I like the agency we are offered, to choose professional learning that is right for us. This is particularly helpful as a new educator as the things I would like to learn are not the same as those further along in their career. 

What will we build? An inquiry into culture building inspired by Oliver Jeffers.

AS I write, teachers around my home country of Australia are preparing to begin the school year. Others are returning after their winter break or perhaps after a prolonged period of remote learning. Regardless of the reason, returning to school is an opportunity to ‘reboot’ and refresh - to ask ourselves and our students important questions about the kind of learners we want to be and the kind of learning community we want to build. 

 ‘Building’, ‘constructing’, ‘growing’, ‘creating’ … these are all words that align beautifully with the ethos of inquiry.   As inquirers, we value the process as much as the content or product we might be working towards. As inquiry teachers we see learning as a process of construction, building on prior learning through investigation, analysis and reflection  And we relish that building process in collaboration with our students.  

 So, as we begin the new school year or return after a break, we might ask ourselves and our students ‘What will we build together?’ 

 When I came across Oliver Jeffer’s new book ”What We’ll Build” late last year, I was immediately captivated by it as an allegory for the collaborative journeys of inquiry we take with our students.  It is a book about parenting – a loving letter to Jeffer’s daughter and has all of his wonderful hallmarks – gentle prose, symbolism, glorious illustrations, humour and big ideas.  

As a full-time classroom teacher, I ALWAYS made sure that on our first day together, we connected through at least one really sensational book.  I know of no better way than to commune with children than through powerful literature. If I were starting the year now, I think this is the book I would choose.  Revisiting it yesterday, I imagined the questions it might prompt me to ask myself, my team and my kids. I imagined how it might help us “make plans for our future together”. I imagined , perhaps returning to the book each day. Page by page, question by question. 

 Because that is the way classroom culture is built. Word by word, action by action, minute by minute , day by day.  As teachers, we are culture builders. And this culture determines the way our children come to see themselves as learners and how they see learning itself. If we truly want to build a culture that nurtures curiosity, agency, courage and compassion – we have some important questions to explore from day one. And this beautiful book might help you get the ball rolling. Here are the questions I played with, in response to the text… 

What shall we build, you and I? 

 Take time to ask your learners what they hope and indeed IMAGINE their classroom community will look and feel like. How might the physical space be arranged? What kind of space will support learning? What kind of relationships do students hope to have with each other? With their teachers? What is your vision for your team?  How will you build a wonderful, collaborative team this year? 

Let’s gather all our tools for a start

 What skills and disposition will help us learn together?  What is already in our toolkit as learners? Do we have the tools to manage ourselves, communicate, collaborate, think and be awesome researchers?  What do effective learners DO? What dispositions or attitudes can we cultivate? Do we have the language to talk about these tools for learning? 

 For putting together – and taking apart

How will we help ourselves stay resilient and strong?  How will we view mistakes and failures?  Are we willing to take things apart and start again?  What might we want to ‘take apart’ from the past and put back together in new ways? What might we let go of this year? What needs to change? 

Let’s build a door where there was none

We’ll build a house to be our home

 How might we create a safe and supportive community where we ALL feel we belong?  This is more than a classroom or a school – this is a community. How can we make this a truly inclusive place where each person feels seen? 

I’ll build your future and you will build mine

 What can we offer each other? What are your goals as learners? What are my goals as a teacher? What gifts can we give each other? How can we help each other grow? 

We’ll build a watch to keep our time

 What might our days look like? How can we co construct a routine or timetable to allow for flexibility as well as predictability and routine?  How will we document our journey together? 

We’ll build some love to set aside 

And build a hole where we can hide

 And what about those times when we need to be alone? Is there a space in our classroom that we can go to when we need time with ourselves? What might that look like?  How can we ensure we all get that time out when we need it? 

A fortress to keep our enemies out

And higher walls for when they shout

But you don’t always lose and you don’t always win

So we’ll build a gate to late them in

We’ll build a table to drink our tea and say

“I’m sorry,” “me two”, “me three”

 Conflict is an inevitable part of living and learning with others. We need to be OK with our differences and we know that will help us learn and grow. How might we manage conflict? What do we consider to be our rights and our responsibilities in this learning space? What agreements can we draft to help us learn together? How might this extend to our teaching teams? We need vigorous debate and different perspectives? How will we both ensure and manage that? How can we stay open to new ideas?  Different voices? 

We’ll build a tower to watch the sky

And other worlds to pass us by

 How will we stay connected with what is going on in the world? How can we connect with people and ;places beyond our school? Can we make more use of the outdoors this year?  How will we record and share our wonderings and be relentlessly curious about the world? Let’s make this a place where curiosity is welcome!

Let’s build a tunnel to anywhere

Let’s build a road up to the moon

Let’s imagine where we want to be at the end of this week, this term, this year. What are our goals? How might we help ourselves get there?  How will we stretch and challenge ourselves as learners? 

Let’s build a comfy place to rest

For we’ll be tired soon.

 Rushed, frantic classrooms do not make good learning environments. How will we help ourselves slow down and take more time to notice ourselves and our learning? How will we pay more attention to what’s going on and be more present in our day? What routines will we create to ensure we regularly reflect on what we are learning, doing and feeling? 

Let’s build a boat that can’t be broken

That will not sink, or be cracked open?

 What do we really believe about learning? What do we understand about how we learn?  What are the foundations of this classroom community? What are the things we can all agree are important? What do we value? 

A place to stay when all is lost

To keep the things we love the most

We’ll put these favourite things beside

The earlier love we set aside

 How will we ensure that school is a place where our true passions (as teachers and learners)  and interests are nurtured?  How will we introduce new possibilities and ensure we widen our horizons? What do we want to learn more about? What do we want to learn to make, do and be? 

I think that we might want them later 

When times are hard and needs are greater

 And will the learning that happens this year be the kind of learning that travels with us for life?  What do our students think is important for them to learn? How can we close the gap between school and the world beyond school? 

But first things first, let’s build a fire

For we’ve planned a lot and now we’re tired

It’ll keep us warm like when we’re born

Then we’ll say good night , as all’s all right

 Where will our ‘campfire’ be? Do we have a gathering place? Would rituals and routines might we develop as a class to bring a gentle, connecting rhythm to our days? 

These are the things we will build, you and I

What does it mean to be in true partnership with each other, with learners and with families? 

What will we build? 

Beyond the power of this text to stimulate thinking about building classroom community, this text is about hope and about agency. The agency we all have to  onsciously and thoughtfully build our future together. 

“What We’ll Build” is available here

A trailer for the story is here

You can find out more about the inspiration for this book here

 So….

 What (and how) will YOU build with your students as you create a culture of and for inquiry?

Just wondering…

When the Machine Starts Up Again, will you remember?

As some of you might know if we have worked together, I am as passionate about music as I am about teaching.  When I was full time in the classroom, I used music to punctuate the day, signal it was pack up time, bring the mood up or calm it down. I wasn’t great with discipline or ‘classroom management’ so singing was the best way I knew to bring a fractious group together, to move on from a challenging moment, celebrate successes and build a sense of community.  Music remains such an incredibly important part of my life and I have been struck by the way so many musicians have used their art to make sense of the experience of lockdown. There has been some extraordinary work produced in this time. Like all the arts, music is a way to both make and express meaning - and ‘making meaning’ during 2020 has been a challenge and a gift.  

 One song in particular caught my attention recently. Missy Higgins is a well known singer songwriter here in Australia. She recently released a song “When the Machine Starts”. You can listen or watch here.  As my home town of Melbourne emerges from lockdown and months of remote teaching, we join the rest of the country in returning to school albeit in a “covid-normal” way.  Listening to Missy’s song conjured up an image in my mind of the ‘machine’ that can be our schools. It reminded me of the Leunig cartoon below:

Retrieved from: https://www.leunig.com.au/works/recent-cartoons/475-school

For a period of time, some (not all, I know) learners and teachers have felt they have had a reprieve from what Huberman once described as ‘the classroom press’: the machine. 

In her song, Missy pleads, “When the Machine starts will you remind me? I saw the truth once…Please don’t let me forget.”  It got me wondering about those lessons we all felt we had learned during lockdown and remote teaching. What have we done with the gold we mined from our experience of remote learning? What did we promise ourselves we would relinquish, restore and renew on return?   I have had SO many conversations about these things, and they include:

• More choice for learners

• More opportunities for learners to plan aspects of their day

• Smaller, more focussed teaching groups

• Stronger connections with families and home life

• More ongoing reporting through seesaw and other digital platforms

• More team work – genuine collaboration with colleagues

• More trust in our learners. Get out of their way! 

• More use of digital technologies to enhance creative collaboration and sharing of learning

• A slower more thoughtful pace

  Many teachers returned to school exhausted by the remote teaching experience BUT also committed to taking what they had discovered back to the classroom – determined to do things differently.  So now, I am wondering….did we?  Are we? Will we?  What’s changed?  Have we had the courage to resist the inevitable spinning of the wheels, the acceleration of speed, the frenzied, fragmented rush that is the anti-learning pace of so many classrooms?   

  I am not saying that the remote experience was preferable for teaching – far from it. BUT it did offer us some lessons we were determined to remember.  It revealed to many of us some new truths about ourselves, our children, our families – about what it means to teach and what it means to learn.   For some of us it was simply an intense reminder of all that is good and beautiful about meeting with young people face to face on a day to day basis and that we would never take those beautiful faces for granted again! For others it opened new doors to thinking about how we can design for more powerful learning.  Regardless of the lessons we learned, how can we help ourselves remember -  when the machine starts up again?

When the machine starts up again
Will I forget what it’s like to be standing here looking up, drinking in the sky?

When the machine starts
Will you remind me
I saw the truth once
I saw it floating in the air

• Oh, don’t let me forget
  Don’t let me forget
  Don’t let me forget

  When the machine starts up again
  When the machine starts up again
  When the lockdown ends
  And the speed is picking up
  Will you remind me, darling
  What it felt like just to stop

• Lyrics By Missy Higgins, 2020. Missy Higgins - 'When The Machine Starts' Stream / Download: https://MissyHiggins.lnk.to/TheMachineID

The art of inquiry teaching ... from a distance, part #2

Today marks five weeks we have spent in stage 4 lockdown here in Melbourne, Australia. Prior to that, we were in stage 3 for weeks. So time actually IN schools is indeed becoming a distant memory!  I remain incredibly grateful to the many educators who have been willing to continue our work together in the remote context.  As I have said before, this has been the steepest of learning curves and I – like so many others – am still on it.   For years I have banged on about inquiry classrooms being places where teachers and learners learn to live with uncertainty, where we need to expect the unexpected and where we plan in response to what is needed. Never have those features of an inquiry-based environment been more relevant. (Although, to be honest, a little bit of certainty would be more than welcome right now!!)

A month ago, I posed a question on this blog. When working remotely, how can we continue to work in the dynamic, interactive ways of the inquiry teacher?  In the weeks since, it has been fascinating to explore this question with teachers and students alike. It has meant a lot of reflection, experimentation and risk taking. My inquiry muscles have most definitely been getting a work out.  

 In my last post, I explored the way I felt the pedagogy of inquiry’ could transfer to the remote setting by considering five of the 10 inquiry practices I have found useful when working with teachers and learners.  In this post I continue that conversation by examining the remaining five. As always, I am indebted to the teachers with whom I have been working – particularly those in my partner schools who help me think more deeply and creatively about what’s possible.  So, how can we continue to bring an inquiry stance to our work – even when we can’t physically be with our students? 

Keep it real: Inquiry teachers harness real contexts for learning

There is no doubt that when learners are engaged in inquiring into something they care about – something that is real and relevant to their lives, they are more invested and committed to the process.  Time and time again, teachers and kids tell me that the journeys of inquiry that have stayed with them have been the ones where they felt they made a difference. – and where they were connected with real people, real places, real issues.  

On the surface, this is a huge challenge for remote teaching. Gone are those field trips that instantly motivate and engage the learner, gone are the hands-on materials, the guest speakers, the spontaneous walk around the neighborhood….  Well, yes. For some learners this has been the case. Not withstanding the fact there are still some schools and communities that do not have sufficient access to decent wifi/internet, I have been dismayed by the stories I hear from friends about their children being issued with endless worksheets and cute ‘activities’ without ever engaging with teachers through video conferencing (especially when the option to do so exists) or even a simple phone call.  By contrast, I am seeing and hearing many wonderfully authentic inquiries happening while in lockdown. Field trips still happen – albeit virtually and there have been expert guests in abundance!   Students at St Bernadette’s primary School in the western suburbs of Melbourne have forged connections with several designers/makers who have been designing and constructing facemasks. The designers have shared their processes and the children are now using what they have learned to consider a design challenge in their household or neighborhood.   As part of their iTime, students at Mother Teresa Primary school have been investigating a wide range of authentic projects from how to set up a frog enclosure when back at school to investigating coping mechanisms for remote learning across the world.  Journeys of inquiry need purpose and passion.  It is even more imperative that we help our learners see the worth of what they are inquiring into. So, keep it real:

•  Encourage kids to find everyday problems, challenges and issues in their household or neighborhood about which they could inquire.  You may be inspired by some of the suggestions made here. 

• Use the house, yard and local streets as the basis for learning. Shameless plug for my resource about  cultivating curiosity in the garden and home available here.

• Virtual field trips can add a wonderful dimension to your inquiries. There are LOADS of these available – and you can go global in ways you never have before. There are a few examples here but a simple search will reveal more.  

• I am a fan of the naturecam!  Checking in on the progress of various animals around the world is in itself a beautiful ongoing inquiry. 

• Be authentic – share your own inquiries – what have you been exploring or teaching yourself while in isolation?  Share your own learning journeys with your students.

Play: Inquiry teachers know the power of play

 When we think of play – we often associate it with something light- and even frivolous. And it certainly can be (nothing wrong with that!).  Throughout the last 6 months I have noticed how much being able to play with possibilities, play with ideas, experiment and tinker has helped me learn. So as you engage students in remote learning:  

• Allow yourself to play with possibilities as you explore the online environment with and for your learners. This means being prepared to fail!  I have had to let go of my tendency to want to get it right before I try something new online and to dive in.  Such important modelling for our learners.

• Play is a powerful community builder.   So playing games together as you meet in the virtual space is hugely connecting. Those of you beginning your year will be acutely aware of this. The morning and end of day meetings can be the perfect opportunity to explore ways to take favorite classroom games and adapt them to the online space.

• Be bold and don’t forget the power of the unexpected, playful moment.  A friend of mine had a sudden ‘glitch’ with technology during a lesson last week. She needed a minute or two to try to fix it. Instead of having her students stare at her on the screen while she did so she said “OK guys, out of your seats, run to your front door run back, run around your chair three times then sit down. First one back wins!  A silly, spontaneous moment that had them all laughing …and gave her a minute to sort her tech issue. 

•  USE MATERIALS.  Just because you are working online does not mean you or your students can’t get your hands on materials.  Invite children to share their thinking by making and creating using household items.  

• Be playful. Humour is one of the most powerful ways we have to diffuse tension, build connections and help learners to relax into a space in which they are ready to learn. 

Collaborate: Inquiry teachers value collaboration between learners and regularly collaborate with other educators. 

 Many schools are ensuring that our precious team meetings remain part of our weekly schedule even when working remotely.  Teachers have reported to me that they feel collaboration has strengthened in response to the situation. So it may go without saying – but stay connected to each other! 

It has been amazing to watch teachers and students forging connections with others in the community albeit within the virtual space.  Perhaps as we become more comfortable with using online meeting tools, we ae realising the ease with which we can, in fact, collaborate with someone on the other side of the world!  

• In an inquiry journey, we can act as ‘brokers’ helping learners connect with experts in the areas they are inquiring into.  Use this opportunity to collaborate with experts online. Authors, historians, biologists, artists, musicians – inviting them to share their passions with your students is only a click away.  

• Collaboration is also about teachers collaborating with learners to co construct agreements, assessment criteria and the design of tasks. This can continue to be the case even when we are physically apart. Remind yourself to ask rather than tell when it comes to learning agreements.

Think Big:  Inquiry teachers design and teach with concepts in mind.  

Teaching remotely brings with it the temptation to parcel learning tasks up into neat, bite sized activities. The abundance of ‘choice grids’ so popular in the 90’s is a case in point.  Of course we want to find ways to allow learners to make choices and manage their time more independently but the down side of activity grids is that they can simply be that – a  bunch of things kids DO rather than a connected flow of tasks that promote deeper learning.   

As we design learning tasks with and for our students, let’s keep concepts in mind and resist the urge to provide what amounts to ‘busy work’.  It makes sense to consider the concepts that are particularly relevant to this time. The context of living in a time of a pandemic can help us explore wellbeing, interdependence, freedom and responsibility, equity, community, empathy, global citizenship, rights and responsibilities, perspective, media influence and ethics just to name a few!   

We are living in a time that necessitates big picture thinking. The very concept of ‘schooling’ itself is being closely examined as our historically ridged institutions are being faced with this massive challenge.   Ask your students what they think are the big ideas they should be exploring right now.

Grow learning assets: Inquiry teachers help learners develop skills and dispositions for life long learning.

If there is one thing that this situation has offered us, it has been the chance to put learning itself in the spotlight.  Whatever language you use to talk about learning with your students – make sure it is amplified when working remotely. For IB/PYP teachers, it will be the profile attributes and the approaches to learning. Others may use Art Costa’s Habits of Mind or Guy Claxton’s Learning Powers.  For me it is what I call the Learning Assets to be more successful as learners. 

• Ask your learners to reflect on the similarities and differences they are experiencing when they experience remote learning vs classroom learning. What skills and dispositions are they finding they need to draw on more?

•  Continue to share intentions for learning using the ‘split screen’ metaphor where we identify not just what we are learning about but HOW the learning us being done – how we are building learning muscle as we learn

•  Notice and name the skills and dispositions your learners are demonstrating in your observations and feedback. This is not simply about completing assigned tasks – this is about growing ourselves as learners.

•  Invite learners to talk about what they are noticing about learning itself  - what challenges are they experiencing in this contexts? Is anything working better for them as learners?  

• And, as always, BE the learner you want to see!  Be open and vulnerable. Talk about the skills and dispositions you are needing to draw on as you teach in this new environment. Share your reflections on yourself as a learner with your students.  

 My heart goes out to all those teachers beginning the year – some in new countries, new roles and with new students and so many without actually being in the same space as their students! Teaching is such a relational profession – and being so disconnected is anathema to the way we love to interact with our kids. But we are all surprising ourselves with what is possible and this experience can help us understand even more deeply that inquiry is not a subject. Inquiry is not just ‘the unit’. More than ever before, inquiry is a stance – a way of being that most definitely helps sustain our positivity, our growth and our learning amidst a sea of uncertainty. have

How are YOU sustaining the art of inquiry teaching as you engage children in remote learning?

Just wondering…

The art of inquiry teaching...from a distance: Part #1

Someone described it to me as the ‘moment when the clouds parted and the sun shone through’. That is what it felt like way back in June (remember June?) when, for a few precious weeks, I was able to go into schools and work with kids and teachers face to face. It was definitely NOT the same experience as the ‘old normal’ … but for a little time there was a sense we were on the way out of this.   It was short lived. 

We are now not only remote learning again…we are in stage 4 lockdown here in Melbourne.  Remote learning is with us at least until the end of term.  As I scroll through twitter, I see more and more of my colleagues overseas returning to school in an unprecedented way – online. And I feel for those in countries where schools are expected to open despite the virus being uncontrolled.  Strange and challenging times indeed.

This is a time that really does test our capacity to manage our thinking and emotions.  We didn’t choose the virus that lead to this lockdown but we CAN choose the way we personally respond to it. For educators, our choice of response carries extra weight.  Our learners are watching us. They are listening to what we say and how we say it.  I am reminded of the quote I often use from Guy Claxton’s work where he reminds us: 

“HOW we teach slowly shapes the way children respond to the unknown – to change, challenge complexity and uncertainty. The culture that a teacher creates acts like a magnetic field that attracts stimulates and rewards certain habits of mind and not others.” Claxton 2019:17

We don’t stop creating culture – for better or worse – when we teach remotely. The HOW of teaching seems to me to be more important than ever before as we now go deeper into the question of what remote learning can look like. While there is definitely a sense of weariness and heavy heartedness for many of us about returning to remote learning, I am trying hard to approach it with as much curiosity , interest and open-mindedness as I can.  And there are some interesting things emerging.

Many teachers are much less challenged by the technology this time (myself included) so we can focus much more on the pedagogy – on our actual teaching.  Teachers are telling me over and over again that their young learners are craving the social connection with their peers. This has meant for many, rethinking the balance between synchronous and asynchronous tasks.  In the schools with which I am working, we are ramping up the live teaching opportunities both to meet the social and emotional needs of our learners, to reduce the strain on parents (it’s OK – we’ve got this, you can go make yourself a cup of tea now!) AND most importantly, to continue to play the critical role that we have in an inquiry classroom. To question, to cultivate curiosity, to notice and respond, to collaborate with our learners, to grow their learning assets….to teach.  Just yesterday, a teacher friend told me that the increase in  her “live” teaching time this time around had been invaluable for her own wellbeing.  “I think last time, we did a great job of designing learning tasks for the kids to do in their own time – and giving them feedback and support but adding a lot more small group live sessions has actually made me feel like I am teaching again…” 

Of course, when my inquiry-based colleagues are talking about ‘teaching’ … they are referring to the role of the teacher as skilled facilitator, learning designer, coach and co-learner. In the remote learning context, there is perhaps even more danger of too much TELLING and endless, tedious, slide show presentations.  That is a waste of precious synchronous time, inevitably putting learners into what my facilitator colleagues Johnnie Moore and Viv McWaters call ‘a teacher trance’ (a ‘zoom trance’ being a similar state!).  

 With weeks and weeks ahead of remote learning, how can we continue to work in the dynamic, interactive ways of the inquiry teacher?  I invited some feedback on this question on twitter recently and had some fabulous responses. I have attempted to weave them into the suggestions below but do check out the thread @kjinquiry for more ideas.   How can we take the ‘Art of Inquiry’ online? And before you read any further, of course I acknowledge that there remain many learners for whom working online is a real challenge either because of poor internet access, unsupportive conditions at home, or lack of access to a device. I know schools working really hard to find ways to support those disadvantaged students but it remains a big challenge. I also want to say that having some asynchronous learning is still  important. When designed well, it allows families to manage their time and resources and offers exciting scope for learner choice and the building of independent, self-management skills. 

So my wondering of late has been about how I can take ‘The Art of Inquiry teaching’ into the remote context? I am going to respond to this question in two parts, referring to each of the ten inquiry teaching practices I have shared previously here.  For Part one, we will look at the following 5 practices: Cultivate Curiosity, Release, Notice, Question and Get Personal and how they can translate to remote teaching. In part #2 I will look at ‘Keep it real, Think Big, Collaborate, Grow Learning Assets and Play

Cultivate curiosity:  Inquiry teachers provoke, model and value curiosity.

• Make use of the MANY amazing sites that are all about nurturing curiosity.  Wonderopolis, Mystery Doug , curiosity.com  and The Kids Should See This are amongst my favorites. These sites can be part of your asynchronous offerings  - something learners can check out in their own time but then discussed and reflected upon in small groups or morning meetings. Watching a short clip together and using a chat function to document wonderings is another way to make the most of these sources. Use visuals, clips, pieces of music, etc. to provoke curiosity and invite learners to do this for each other.

• Most families are able to take a walk at least once a day.  Provide your learners with some prompts to nurture their curiosity as they walk around their neighbourhoods.  Take photos of things that intrigue them and share them with the group. Start a digital wonderwall using apps like padlet.  Be on the look out for images, clips and objects you can share that will give pause for wonder and awe. 

• Remember – one of the keys to nurturing curiosity is BEING curious! Talk to your learners about the things have been noticing and wondering. Share your questions out loud.  

• During our first lockdown, I designed some resources for learners to get curious in their gardens and houses. You can check it out here.

• Bring objects to online meetings. Invite learners to bring something along to a meeting that might prompt others to get curious.  

•  Design inquiries that have relevance and meaning to children – things that will ensure they are ‘hungry’ to find out. I know of a class currently engaged in an inquiry into the design of masks – looking both form, function and cost. It’s real and relevant and they are very curious to learn more.  Find some more ideas for projects that lend themselves to inquiry at home here.

Question: Inquiry teachers ask more than they tell.

•  Asking the right question and encouraging learners to frame questions is a central strategy in the inquiry teacher’s repertoire. When meeting with small groups, we can continue to use questions to frame our learning intentions, to invite learners to share their question with us and to explore the ways questions work.  

• This is not a time for dreary “read/view this and answer the questions” activities.  Questions should contribute energy and alive-ness to learning. The lovely thing about many online platforms is that they allow the learners to share their questions both orally or in written form through the chat function. This can accommodate more learners simultaneously and allow us to get a clearer window into their thinking. 

•  Share your own questions – the things YOU have been wondering. Question aloud as you meet with learners. 

•  When meeting learners on line, you might find there is more silence, more ‘wait time’ between questions and responses. That’s a good thing! Don’t feel tempted to fill it.  This space can be really powerful for deep thinking.  

•  Sometimes asking a question during a virtual meeting can feel confronting as we all stare at each other thinking about our response. Try this. Pose your question and then have learners turn their cameras OFF and have some quiet thinking/jotting time. Turn cameras on again, then you can invite individuals to share their thinking. If you are able to work with break out rooms even better – you can do think, pair share this way. 

•  Where appropriate, share the intentions for your  synchronous sessions as questions. 

•  Invite your learners to share their questions at the end of your sessions (use the chat function, virtual whiteboard or other shared documentation tool) – its an easy exit ticket and allows to think about ‘where to next’ to help respond to the question

• Keep the groups you are meeting with small. Just like the classroom, the quality of our questioning seems to diminish as the group size increases. Small groups allow more time, space and depth. The whole class meetings have a different purpose - they are more about building community, sharing and connecting.

Release: Inquiry teachers expect the unexpected and let learners to do the ‘heavy lifting’

• For many teachers, remote learning has accelerated their willingness to release responsibility more often and more easily. The remote context is perfect for the ‘upside down’ lesson – or the rapid rather than gradual release of responsibility.  Instead of I do, we do then you do…we flip it.  Sharing a clip, provocation, posing a question or problem that learners can engage in in their own time THEN inviting them to a live, small group session where they share their thinking allows you to hold off the ‘direct instruction’ until it is needed. If it is needed. 

• There is something about the online context that seems to make us talk more.  Mute yourself! Try turning off your camera to encourage learners to talk with each other rather than through you. 

• Just as you would in the classroom, invite learners to head off for a while to write/draw/make/explore/practice then return at a given time.  Having everyone in the meeting staying at the screen for a whole lesson is a bit like having them sitting on the floor listening to you for a whole lesson – not OK. 

• Let’s continue to give our learners the freedom to plan their day albeit with an increased opportunity to attend workshops and group meetings. Some learners may need more support from us in figuring out how to structure their days but for the majority, this is something  we can let go of and trust. 

• If you are able to use break out rooms – this is wonderful for release. And don’t think you need to visit them all! Trust that this is a time to allow learners to talk with each other without the constant presence of an adult. 

• Keep inviting learners to help you construct the best learning opportunities you can for them. Ask: what’s working? What isn’t? How might I do this differently? In a remote and online environment  - many of our young learners have more technical expertise than we do. Have them run mini workshops for each other. Release responsibility to them to support their peers. 

Notice: Inquiry teachers observe, notice, reflect and respond.

•  There is a lot we can notice when learners share their learning via email, seesaw posts, flip-grid posts and other digital sharing platforms. However, nothing beats the noticing that can happen as we listen and observe the learning happening in real time.  Supporting learners to talk with each other (rather than through us) online allows us to listen.   

• Formative assessment is the key to quality noticing. Let’s continue to tune in to learner’s thinking. Gathering evidence of their theories, prior knowledge and ideas to inform our planning does not need to stop because we are working remotely. I loved this example from the team at Natural Curiosity where Carol invites her young learners to share their thinking about “What’s Underneath” with her which she then uses to frame the next teaching moment. This is inquiry based , remote teaching in action and this is a teacher tasking time to notice! 

•  We also want to encourage our learners to notice. So keep inviting them to reflect on their learning, notice not just the what but the HOW of their learning.  Self-assessment, reflection and the activation of the meta language  of learning can add such depth to our conversations with learners whether online or off. 

• Use thinking routines to continue to encourage learners to share their thinking with you and each other. Check out Ron Ritchhart’s blog here for the routines that work particularly well in distance learning. 

• For younger learners, we might ask parents to film short snippets of their child at play and share it with us. This allows us to do some ‘noticing’ as we would in the classroom – and to respond with ideas for the way we might support the child through materials and questions 

Get Personal: Inquiry teachers know their learners – as people as well as learners and help them find and pursue their passions.

• Interestingly, many of the teachers I spoke with during the first round of remote learning said that they felt the experience actually strengthened their connection with individuals and helped them get to know their children as people as well as learners.  Relationships with parents strengthened and we generally related to each other on a more personal level.   Of course, the remote learning experience can go either way. I have seen examples where, for a range of reasons, children have simply been issued with tasks to complete and have had very little one – one contact with teachers other than an email. A phone call at the very least would seem to me to be one way of maintaining the relationship if a virtual meeting is not an option.   

• For teachers beginning the school year online, the opportunity for 1-1 meetings with each learner may well be even more powerful than the traditional whole class first day.  I would suggest that before there is an expectation of a whole class, virtual meeting, time can be used to meet parents and children in a more personal way and to really find out more about each of  their interests, strengths and goals,

• In inquiry classrooms, we get personal by offering choices about what, how, when, where and with whom learning happens. There is no reason why this can’t continue in a remote context. This is a perfect opportunity to invite learners to dive into their passions, teach themselves a new skill, create and make something for an audience and work on a project of their choice. 

• Combining both asynchronous time to work on personal inquiries with conferences to share and give feedback to small groups show our learners we value their interests and potentially enriches the entire class as we share with each other.  Make sure you share the inquiries YOU are engaged in too!  

These are just some of the ways that the art of inquiry can be sustained and indeed enriched through remote learning. I received many wonderful suggestions via twitter … here are a few to whet your appetite. Check out the thread for more:

Stay tuned for post #2 as we explore this further…

So, how are YOU ensuring the ‘Art of Inquiry Teaching’ continues in a remote context?

Just wondering…

Staying awake to the world: taking time to inquire into and build our own "background knowledge"

We’ve just passed the winter solstice here in my part of the world. In Victoria, teachers are in their final week of what feels like the longest term in history. Many colleagues  are visibly exhausted from months of remote teaching and adjusting to new ways of working back at school. My overseas colleagues are also now counting the days down until the school year comes to an end in the northern hemisphere.  This past weekend was the first one for almost four months in which I had not worked in some capacity – either delivering online workshops, writing or planning.  We are all, undoubtedly in need of some time out.  Immersing ourselves in things that take us away from the world of teaching is vital for rejuvenation: for our physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. This past week, I have also been reminded of how important our engagement with the world beyond teaching is for, ironically, nurturing the quality of our teaching.

 One of the most profoundly important elements in designing for inquiry learning is the dialogue we have around the ‘planning table’ about the concepts and big ideas that lie at the heart of any inquiry journey. If the journey is exploring the ‘way living things adapt to changing environments’ it is not enough simply to find a few resources and develop some activities – we need to interrogate our own thinking about this big idea.  What do we really understand about adaptation? What background  knowledge do we bring to this?  If our inquiry is into the ‘role that the arts can play in changing the world’, we must ask ourselves how we feel about this statement? What lived experience do we have of this phenomenon? What examples have we heard about? Read about?  If we are supporting children to inquire into the ‘relationship between sustainability and materials’, what decisions have we made recently about choices of materials in our own lives? What do we really understand about the science of materials? If we are designing a journey of inquiry to examine the concept of exploration, how far have we come since our own impoverished education about our history? How many of us might have made the same mistake as our Australian Prime Minister did recently when he claimed we 'did not have slavery in Australia?  

When we engage learners in a process of inquiry, we most often begin by spending time tuning in to their prior knowledge. We identify their ‘first thinking’, theories and ways of seeing the ideas they are inquiring into.  But do we do this sufficiently for ourselves?  How often do we give ourselves time, as a team, to discuss our own experiences, positions, perspectives and understandings of the very things we are inviting our learners to inquire into?    And how often do we take the time to inform ourselves when we feel less secure in our understandings of the issues that sit at the core of the conceptual understandings we have designed for learners?   In my experience, the stronger inquiry teachers – the ones who question with most dexterity and bring a more intentional disposition to their observations, are the teachers who have the better grasp of both the concepts and the ‘content’ the learners are exploring.   I have always been wary of the glib phrase: “Inquiry teachers can learn alongside the children”.  While there is certainly truth in that (I have learned SO much simply being part of an inquiry journey with groups and individuals) it doesn’t mean we are ‘off the hook’.  Our ignorance can prevent us from asking better questions, helping learners make connections or pointing the way to critical information that can help struggling learners make meaning.  In fact I have often observed in my own teaching that the deeper my understanding of something is, the better I am at listening, waiting, questioning and holding back to support the learner.   Even when we might be assisting learners in a personal inquiry that goes well beyond our own field of interest and expertise, we need to know enough about how to connect to and locate others with the expertise … and that, in itself, requires us to stay awake to the world around us. 

 At the very least, taking time to inquire into our own understanding and experience of the conceptual landscape into which we are taking our children can help fuel our own curiosity. True inquiry teachers have what Susan Engel (2015) so beautifully calls “hungry minds’. They become fascinated by the questions children are raising, they are curious about their own ways of thinking about and seeing the material they are sharing with the class. They are voracious learners with open minds and open hearts Spending time connecting with our own experiences and understanding of and questions about the field our learners are inquiring into is time well spent.  It doesn’t mean we need to be experts on every discipline. Primary classroom teachers are generalists by nature. But that doesn’t excuse us from being informed.   So what might this look like? How can we stay more awake in the world and keep our minds hungry?

 Some ideas…

• Prior to a planning meeting, ask each person in the team to locate a clip and/or reading to share with others. These might not be resources you use with students but may fuel your own thinking about the issues.

•  If you design inquiries under a compelling question (broad/open ended/conceptual and non-googleable) go round the table sharing each of YOUR initial responses to the question.  How have your individual life experiences shaped your view of this big idea? How might that impact on your dialogue with learners? 

•  Consider having staff book/movie clubs using texts that are not directly about teaching. Imagine a whole staff here in Australia reading and discussing Bruce Pascoe’s “Dark Emu” or collectively viewing the documentary “The Australian Dream” about Adam Goodes.  What a fantastic way to bring the spirit of inquiry and powerful dialogue into the staffroom! 

• Share your favourite podcasts with each other - the ones that help you really grow your brain. Watch some Ted talks together.

•  If as a team, you are feeling less confident in your background knowledge, invite someone with expertise to come and spend time with you or ‘zoom them in’ to your planning meeting. Be inquirers. Most people with expertise in an area are delighted to have an opportunity to share their passion. 

• If there are places you might take your students as part of the inquiry (gallery/zoo/museum/parkland/historical site) why not have your team meeting at the site after school or on the weekend? 

• Read. Or watch some clips. Or listen to some podcasts.  Or talk to people that have passion and expertise in this area. Come to your planning meeting ready to share some case studies or examples of the big ideas that will drive the inquiry.

•  When planning, as yourselves: What is it that we hope our students will come to understand as a result of this inquiry?  And commit to documenting these as full statements (students will understand ….) not dot points/questions/phrases.  It is easy to generate questions like “What is sustainability?” or “How do people express their culture through the arts?” or “What does it mean to be healthy” and never actually discuss the conceptual understandings that might be developed through those questions.  

• Most importantly, give this work time.  I would argue that these conversations are just as important as the design of learning tasks.  They help us connect to the why. They help us get clarity about our own thinking. They help reveal our biases, our blind spots and our confusions which can pave the way for poor questioning and missed opportunities when we are engaging with children. 

While there is a strong emphasis on learning processes in inquiry, it remains the case that powerful inquiry is fuelled by content of significance.  We can’t get to those conceptual understandings without exploring case studies and examples that gradually help us see patterns and make connections.  As inquiry teachers, we need to remain awake to the world around us. We need to have hungry minds that stay relentlessly curious about the way the world works and the way we understand the world. We need to keep pushing ourselves out of our “comfortable knowledge bubbles” and be prepared to be the geographers, historians, scientists, authors, mathematicians and artists we hope our students will be. And when we don’t know, we need to experience the thrill of the hunt – to yearn to know more. 

So my wish for you – as so many of you take a much deserved break, is that you can spend time revelling in the joy of your own learning about things that go beyond teaching.  So go find those podcasts, visit that museum (even if online), talk to your engineering/landscape gardener/pharmacist/builder friend about their job, listen to some music you have never listened to before, go look at some art, read some long form articles, take a walk in the forest and ask yourself what you know about the ecosystem around you, catch up on some documentaries…and enjoy cultivating your own curiosity.   You’ll be a better inquiry teacher for it. 

How do you ‘stay awake to the world’ amidst your busy life as a teacher? 

 Just wondering