The series of vertically-grouped Inquiry Days held in the first month or so of Term 1 led to some amazing learning opportunities across the School. For me the most significant insights gained were in the area of pedagogical practice. Some people really engaged with the challenge and some great learning emanated from these days.
After the first month, when we retired the Inquiry Days to reflect upon our learning I was aware of a “connect” between the experience of the Inquiry days and the research findings from our research in 2012-13 based on the TEfL Framework.
From the data, Chris Goldspink and Incept Labs identified three Teacher Wordviews:
- Content and Control
- Evolving Pedagogy
- Relationship and Rescue
Chris also found there was a disparity between what we say about learning and what we actually do about learning
I saw those Worldviews in action on these Inquiry Days.
My sense of our experience with Inquiry Days is that it was due to issues emanating from the Teacher World Views together with different perspectives about “re-imagining childhood” that prompted us to pause the program of Inquiry.
Interestingly, I did not discern that the “drivers” of enabling children to be agents of their learning were shown to be invalid. Rather, it was probably an issue of the adults engaging with the “drivers”
- Negotiating learning with students
- Students constructing new authentic knowledge
- Teachers engaging in professional enquiry
- Engaging parents and carers in learning
- Leaders designing of change
I shall report on this with some deeper observations once I have the opportunity to listen to the teachers about what they thought was happening. I am immensely proud of our steps forward. It certainly has caused lots of soul –searching.