TEACHING AS INQUIRY
WHAT DO YOU UNDERSTAND BY:
Teaching as Inquiry
Inquiry Learning
Teaching as Inquiry
 Where teachers inquire into
their own practice and use
evidence to make decisions
about ways to change that
practice for the benefit of
the students
 Brings about effective
teaching and learning
 Is a continuous, reflective,
iterative and cyclical process
 Is evidence based pedagogy
 The model (pg35)NZC
Inquiry learning
 A process where students
co-construct their learning
in an authentic context
 Is an integrated process for
examining issues, ideas and
themes
 May be used in a particular
context for a clearly defined
outcome
 Could be part of teaching as
inquiry process
Teaching Inquiry
Teaching
Learning
Focusing Inquiry
“Since any teaching
strategy works differently
in different contexts for
different students,
effective pedagogy
requires that teachers
inquire into the impact of
their teaching on their
students” NZC
Is there something I need to change?
What are the next steps for learning?
Learning Inquiry
Teaching Inquiry
Teaching
Learning
Focusing Inquiry
The focussing inquiry establishes a
baseline and a direction.
The teacher uses all the available
information to determine what their
students have already learned and what
they need to earn next.
What is important(and
therefore worth spending time on),
given where my students are at?
“Since any teaching
strategy works differently
in different contexts for
different students,
effective pedagogy
requires that teachers
inquire into the impact of
their teaching on their
students” NZC
Is there something I need to change?
What are the next steps for learning?
Learning Inquiry
Teaching Inquiry The
Teaching
teacher uses evidence from
research and their own past
experience and that of
colleagues to plan teaching and
learning opportunities aimed at
achieving the outcomes
prioritised in the focussing
inquiry.
What strategies
(evidence based) are most likely
to help my students learn this?
Focusing Inquiry
The focussing inquiry establishes a
baseline and a direction.
The teacher uses all the available
information to determine what their
students have already learned and what
they need to earn next.
What is important(and
therefore worth spending time on),
given where my students are at?
Learning
“Since any teaching
strategy works differently
in different contexts for
different students,
effective pedagogy
requires that teachers
inquire into the impact of
their teaching on their
students” NZC
Is there something I need to change?
What are the next steps for learning?
Learning Inquiry
Teaching Inquiry
Teaching
The teacher uses evidence from
research and their own past experience
and that of colleagues to plan teaching
and learning opportunities aimed at
achieving the outcomes prioritised in
the focussing inquiry.
What strategies (evidence
based) are most likely to help my
students learn this?
Focusing Inquiry
The focussing inquiry establishes a
baseline and a direction.
The teacher uses all the available
information to determine what their
students have already learned and what
they need to learn next.
What is important(and
therefore worth spending time on),
given where my students are at?
Learning
“Since any teaching
strategy works differently
in different contexts for
different students,
effective pedagogy
requires that teachers
inquire into the impact of
their teaching on their
students” NZC
Is there something I need to change?
Learning Inquiry
Key question: What happened as a result of
the learning and what are the implications for
future teaching?
The T investigates the success of the
Teaching in terms of the prioritised outcomes
using a range of assessment approaches.
They do this both while the learning is in
progress and also in longer term sequences
of work come to an end. They then analyse
and interpret the information to consider
what to do next.
What are the next steps for learning?
http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculumstories/Case-studies/Teachers-as-learnersInquiry
SCALE OF YOUR INQUIRY
 Yearly
 Term
 Unit
 Lesson
WHAT MAKES AN EFFECTIVE TEACHER?
“The inquiring teacher: Clarifying the concept of teaching effectiveness”
Dr Graeme Aitken
There are three views of teaching effectiveness:
The ‘style’ view
 A common view of teaching effectiveness which focuses on how teachers
teach.
It is not what the teacher does that matters it is
what is happening for the students
The ‘outcomes’ approach
 A common view of teaching effectiveness which focuses on student
results.
“While the assessment of teaching effectiveness must attend to
student outcomes and a teacher’s role in developing these,
outcomes do not determine effectiveness.”
The ‘inquiry’ approach
 An alternative view of teaching effectiveness that incorporates style and
outcomes within an inquiry based framework
Effective teachers inquire into the relationship between what they do
(style) and what happens for students (outcomes). But effective teachers do
more than simply inquire (or reflect) – they take action (in relation to what
they are doing in the classroom) to improve the outcomes for students and
continue to inquire into the value of these interventions.
Thus effective teaching is more than style and it is more than outcomes – it
is the continual interrogation of the relationship between these two
dimensions with the aim of enhancing student achievement.
Such a model implies particular attitudes or dispositions (open-mindedness,
fallibility) and particular actions (questioning students about what they are
understanding) but it does not prescribe or checklist such qualities.
It simply prescribes inquiry, action and the search for improvement
“Leading Inquiry at a Teacher level
Its all about mentorship”
Mike Fowler
BEFORE WE DO AN INQUIRY
 Know the learner
- what does this mean?
WHAT CAN AN INQUIRY BE BASED ON?
DATA
Literacy
Curriculum
SOME EXAMPLES
JIM’S INQUIRY
How to solve a problem.
SOME FINAL THOUGHTS
 Research tells us it is the best way to go (BES research)
 It is part of Teacher Registration requirements. (TRC)
 ERO are looking for evidence that is is happening in schools.
“There are clear benefits for students and teachers
when inquiry happens well.”
FRAME AN INQUIRY • TAKE 5
 Buddy up and frame an inquiry using the handout.
 Your inquiry
 One student, one concern, one intervention and report in next
workshop what happened.
 This is something you can do with your teachers.