Friday 2 February 2018

Structure of Inquiry

Labels for blog posts ...

LEvidence, LScan, LTrend, LHypothesise, LResearch, LReflect,
CPlan, CTry, CInnovate, CImplement, CReflect,
SPublish, SCoteach, SModel, SFback, SReflect

Learn
Focusing Inquiry - “What is important (and therefore worth spending time on) given where my students are at?”
Gather evidence
Student achievement data eg. standardised tests, OTJs, internals and externals
Anecdotal evidence eg. observations, formative assessment tasks, student voice,  parent voice, previous teachers, surveys,  learning walks and reciprocal visits
Scan
Wider perspective on learning not just aspects that are easily measured eg considering perspectives of our young people and their whānau. How engaged are they with learning? Can they describe what they are learning and why it is important?
Identify Trends
Looking at all the evidence, thinking hard about its “shape”. Noticing where there are cohort trends that extend out beyond the class, to the team or department, maybe even for this school across schools in the CoL
Clearly identifying the common learning challenges or problems.
Looking for and identifying strategies that are known to have the greatest impact on on this/these challenges
Hypothesise
Analysis and interpretation often take place in the mind of the teacher, who then uses the insights gained to shape their actions as they continue to work with their students. These theories for improvement should connect with the inquiries related to the Achievement Challenge of the Department/Team, the School and the CoL.
Research
“This involves asking questions about how well current strategies are working and whether others might be more successful. Teachers search their own and their colleagues’ past practice for strategies that may be more effective, and they also look in the research literature to see what has worked in other contexts.”

Reflect
“Inquiry into the teaching–learning relationship goes hand in hand with formative assessment, in the cyclical evaluation process that goes on moment by moment, day by day, and over the longer term.” Assessment-in-the-classroom/Teaching-as-inquiry
Create
Teaching Inquiry - “What strategies (evidence-based) are most likely to help my students learn?”




Make a plan
What can I already do and  what do I need help with?
Who are the learners? Group/class
What are the goals for my practice and student achievement?
Set up processes for capturing evidence about whether the strategies are working for my students.
Try new things
It is a constant state of action, monitoring, reflection, and adjustment - and then more action.
Failure may occur.
Feedback from learners - how will I engage them with new learning? Do they know we’re trying something new?  
Innovate
Are we capitalising on the affordances of the technology to support the Five Affordances of Learn Create Share (Engagement, Teaching Conversations, Visibility, Cognitive Challenge, Scaffolding) identified by the WFRC
Implement
Just do it!

Reflect
“Inquiry into the teaching–learning relationship goes hand in hand with formative assessment, in the cyclical evaluation process that goes on moment by moment, day by day, and over the longer term.” Assessment-in-the-classroom/Teaching-as-inquiry
Share
Learning Inquiry - “What has happened as a result of the changes in teaching, and what are the implications for future teaching? ...We need people to provide us with different perspectives and to share their ideas, knowledge, and experiences.”
Publish  
What happened as a result of the changes? Share evidence (artefacts of student learning, DLOs) and effective strategies.
Co-teach
What if my plans didn’t work? Are there different approaches?Who can help me? Peer observations, video analysis of my practice.
Model / Guide
How can my findings and experiences support my peers? How is this shared?
Feedback / Feedforward
What are my next steps? How will I sustain effective practice? Learner feedback? New goals?

Reflect
“Inquiry into the teaching–learning relationship goes hand in hand with formative assessment, in the cyclical evaluation process that goes on moment by moment, day by day, and over the longer term.” Assessment-in-the-classroom/Teaching-as-inquiry

2 comments:

  1. Welcome back Nicola! I didn't realise you were home, but look forward to catching up. As always, appreciate reading your blogs and following your teaching achievements during the year :)

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    Replies
    1. Hi Naomi! Yes I'm back :) I need to sit down and talk to someone about the specifics of my inquiry with Year 9 (the Y10 one is set up and is just a quick measure at the end of the year, and a longer term thing about if the changes help senior achievement/subject enrollment) but now I need to work out how I can help my Year 9's "drip with language" - and improve their "explaining" abilities but also how I can record valid and reliable data of their progress from any interventions.. It's hard because they're only with me 200 minutes a week - a lot of things could impact on them!

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