Week 20 - Teacher Inquiry

"Researching our practice presents the opportunity to problem-solve more intelligently, through drawing on existing research findings and by using rigorous methods to collect evidence which helps clarify our thinking. Experiences of participating in an informed way, and acting freshly, offer the teacher for whom teaching has become a routine a sense of freedom, of meaning, of worthiness and consequently increased self-esteem." (Wilson, 2013, p.5)
Teachers conduct inquiry projects into their practice to create knowledge that is applicable and relevant to their teaching context.
The importance of teacher research/inquiryThere are two main themes dominating discussions of why teacher research is important. The first relates to the importance of teacher-created knowledge for improvement in teaching and learning, and in particular student outcomes. The second centres on notions of teacher professionalism.
Two models of Teacher InquiryTeacher inquiry is where teachers inquire into their own practice and use evidence to make decisions about ways to change that practice for the benefit of the student . You may recall the following two models from the Leadership course (week 13).
Teaching as InquiryTeaching as inquiry is a process that involves educators investigating the impact of their decisions and practice on students. The New Zealand Curriculum describes it as a cyclical process in which questions are posed, evidence is gathered and decisions are made. Aitken & Sinnema (2008) describe teaching as inquiry as a systematic process for teachers to use in their classrooms, which draws on successful experience of teachers and research sources.
Teaching as Inquiry goes beyond the reflective practices teachers regularly employ to develop a more systematic approach for investigating and evaluating practice. Figure 1 summarises the Teaching as Inquiry cycle, which consists of three iterative stages. (Ministry of Education, 2009)




The Spiral of Inquiry







This is described on the MoE's TKI website as “a fresh rethink on the structure of teaching as inquiry.” (Ministry of Education, 2015).

- emphasises involvement of learners, their families and communities and developing learner agency.
- It states that engaging in inquiry is a process of developing collective professional agency either within a school or across a cluster of schools.
- By observing students (scanning) and finding an area to change (focusing), teachers can use intuition to consider the reasons for the current situation (developing a hunch), then referring to research (learning) to help determine changes needed (taking action).
- Checking is done during and after any changes have been made: "Have we made enough of a difference?" (Ministry of Education, 2005).






Curiosity fuel Creativity: Christ Wire at TEDxDaytonTo easy to neglect the power of out minds.
Only you have the ability to be creative and be curious.
Don't let google become a necessity. think about how things could or should work first then google.