Fantastic thinking about Inquiry

After asking our fantastic staff to do some pre-meeting readings (as outlined in our action plan), we were all set to investigate inquiry further and develop a common understanding.
The meeting was a huge success with changes of thinking and teaching evident in discussions. everyone was encouraged to challenge their own ideas, we discussed successes and failures to date as far as our inquiry model goes.
We discovered, through guided questioning, that our model is still very focussed on Action Learning. This was intentional on my part, when designing the model, just so our staff can have ownership of changes made and not just wait to be told. As discussed in cluster days, inquiry goes so much better when students own it, so why not apply that to the staff. We have planned another meeting just to discuss and redesign the model, this is great, as the whole staff are on board and now have a better understanding of what inquiry is.

During the meeting, we discussed the following:

“Inquiry implies involvement that leads to understanding. Furthermore, involvement in learning implies possessing skills and attitudes that permit you to seek resolutions to questions and issues while you construct new knowledge.”
· What are the key ideas of this statement?
· What does this mean for the way we teach and the opportunities that we provide?
· What skills are needed from the learner?How do the key competencies fit in here?

"Memorising facts and information is not the most important skill in today’s world. Facts change, and information is readily available – that is needed is an understanding of how to get and make sense of the mass of data"
· How does this impact on the classroom and the skills we teach?

"For educators, inquiry implies emphasis on the development of inquiry skills and the nurturing of inquiring attitudes or habit of mind that will enable individuals to continue the quest for knowledge throughout life.
The knowledge base for disciplines is constantly expanding and changing. No one can ever learn everything, but everyone can better develop their skills and nurture the inquiring attitudes necessary to continue the generation and examination of knowledge throughout their lives."

How does this impact on curriculum?
How do we show students how to better develop their skills? What is their measure – do they know their next step?

We had lengthy discussions, ideas were challenged and we all saw the comparisons to what we are doing currently, which is more information based, and to examples of inquiry taken from our many school visits on cluster days. We applied our vision and understanding of inquiry to our terms topic - this really allowed us to critically evaluate the opprtunities we are providing for the children and how we need to carefully select topics that allow us and the children to take part in true inquiry, rather than information gathering.

We have set another meeting to further discuss inquiry, we are having a 'model tweeking' session aswell and also are planning rubric design meetings to address ideas assessment and feedback to and for the children.

Our staff now own inquiry, the lights have been turned on and now the momentum is really picking up.

Congratulations to our wonderfully dedicated staff for their open minds and commitment to the cause.