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..said no true inquiry teacher ever….
After years of publishing books and articles – you would think that the relatively simple act of “blogging” would come naturally. Strangely, like using twitter and facebook for professional...
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Teaching to learn: lessons from a day of observation and collaboration.
I have just spent the day teaching through inquiry with students at the International School of Prague. After “work-shopping” with teachers and spending focused time collaboratively planning,...
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How healthy is your team planning?
Over the last few weeks I have spent a lot of time ‘at the planning table’ with teams in several schools. I always relish the opportunity to be part of a healthy collaborative planning session – I love...
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Minding our language: teaching in the inquiry classroom
I’ve been re-reading some of John Hattie’s work – coincidentally during a period when I have been spending a great deal of time teaching in various classrooms and working with teachers on our day to...
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Walking the world with questions in our heads…
“There are never complete answers. Or rather, if there is an answer, it is to remind myself that there is uncertainty in everything.”” — Amy Tan Over the last few years, a small but significant shift...
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Inquiry is an approach, not a ‘subject’.
In my last post, I described the importance of walking the world with questions in our head. Well….there has been one question in my head all year and, quite frankly, it has really been bugging me. A...
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First impressions and the inquiry classroom…
Plato once said “The beginning is the most important part of the work”. For teachers in Australia and New Zealand, the school year is now into its third week – or thereabouts. Over the last three...
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Busting some myths about ‘the inquiry cycle’….
I once read an interview with a hero of my early teaching days – Donald Graves. He was asked about the way people had misinterpreted his ‘process writing’ model and replied that sometimes he wished...
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Inquiring into the ‘how’….
One of the key principles of inquiry based learning is that HOW the learner learns is as important as WHAT they are learning about. Inquiry teachers talk a lot about process and the importance of...
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Teacher talk in inquiry classrooms
I’m sitting in a café at an airport in New Zealand – scanning through emails while I wait for my flight. My attention is drawn to a young woman’s voice at the window behind me, “ Wow – isn’t it...
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Moving on from the KWL chart : student questions and inquiry
Lately I have found myself questioning questions. They are indeed the heart and soul of inquiry. Questions give voice to our passions and our curiosity. When we bravely release a question into the...
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What would it be like to be a student in your classroom? Walking in the...
A question I often encourage teachers to ask themselves is: ‘what would it be like to be a student in your classroom?’ Empathy (simply defined as ‘understanding and sharing the feelings of others’)...
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The question of learning intentions
One of the most significant changes in our practice as teachers in recent years has been a move towards greater transparency in relation to our objectives. Once, what we wanted students to learn was...
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Reflections on ‘i-time’
One of the most interesting projects I have been involved in this year, is the introduction of personal inquiry routines into several of my partner schools. We’ve been keen to look at ways to open up...
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Sometimes we DO have to reinvent the wheel…
My work takes me into all kinds of schools with all kinds of curriculum frameworks designed to support inquiry learning. Some frameworks allow teachers a great deal of latitude when it comes to...
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Being the subject of your own inquiry: learning to inquire within
For many years, the context of my inquiry work with students has been, broadly speaking, the disciplines of science, the humanities, technologies and the physical aspects of health and wellbeing....
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Do you know me well enough to teach me?*
A friend of mine called me recently, having returned, rather despondent, from grueling evening of secondary parent-teacher interviews for her eldest son in year 9 (you know the type – 5 minutes with...
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The Inquiry Diary – the power of collaborative documentation
Over the many years I have been involved in the field of inquiry based learning, there are a few ‘tried and true’ strategies that have stood the test of time. I’m not sure where the idea of a class...
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And the word is?….
I have just finished a delightful week of inquiring with the elementary teachers at Zurich International school. The work we were doing was very focused on ways in which we can elevate the ‘status’...
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How do inquiry teachers….teach?
When I first became fascinated in inquiry-based approaches (too many years ago to say!), the focus for many of my conversations and indeed, my early research, was on how to plan. Back then, learning...
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