Musings on Inquiry in the Classroom

In one classroom neat even rows of student desks are observed. A teacher is addressing the entire class from the front – reading and explaining from the textbook. Students listen actively, asking questions for clarification and compile notes from the ongoing dialogue. In another classroom the desks are set up so that students can see the entirety of the room and can engage in conversation with each other. In fact, that is what the teacher directs them to do. The students begin conversations focused on their particular subject while the teacher floats throughout providing poignant interruptions to help focus the activity and to delve further into student understanding.

Both of these examples represent different facets of inquiry learning. In many cases, observers may equate the second example with inquiry learning and promote it as an example of good teaching in general. It is important that educators move beyond the simple ‘first-look’ perception of a given classroom and examine the underpinning motivation and consciousness of the teacher in planning and delivering the lessons. Thus the rationality and intentionality of the activity is necessary to ensure that inquiry is occurring and that growth of the students is progressing. The process cannot be summated in one defined “method” that will be able to address learning styles of each and every student that we encounter. Instead, it is a culmination of a variety of methods while engaging in a shift towards the students driving the need for the learning to occur.

In Alberta there is a very defined Program of Studies (PoS) that shapes the curriculum in the classroom each day. Historically, the curriculum has been very well developed, focussed on what students needed to know, and gave guidance on the skills and attitudes that may be developed during the course of the program. In most cases the PoS was developed compartmentally in Elementary, Junior High, and Senior High components. Thus the teacher needed to construct the connecting links from year to year and from division to division. If the teacher was not fully aware of the entire curriculum from K – 12, many teaching opportunities could be missed. The teachers in Alberta wanted to see a change in the program and, through the joint efforts of the teachers and the department of education, a new program was introduced. Currently, the new program is being implemented in phases – Grades K – 4 and 7 have already started with the program with Grades 5, 8, and 10 implementing the program this year. The new program has required the teachers in Alberta to shift to teaching within a culture of inquiry as opposed to more traditional lecture and listen styles.

What then is inquiry? The term itself can be very vague and hard to quantify for teachers, administrators, students, and parents. The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines inquiry as “…an examination into facts or principles” (2007). The dictionary definition of inquiry is quite vague but opens some interesting possibilities. When we expand the definition we come to understand that:

Inquiry is a dynamic process of being open to wonder and puzzlement and coming to know and understand the world. As such, it is a stance that pervades all aspects of life and is essential to the way in which knowledge is created. Inquiry is based on the belief that understanding is constructed in the process of people working and conversing together as they pose and solve the problems, make discoveries and rigorously testing the discoveries that arise in the course of shared activity. (Galileo Educational Network, 2007)

Inquiry and constructivism have a common thread in how new knowledge becomes integrated into the students’ current frame of reference. It is the process of inquiry that allows knowledge to be created – the creation process brings value and durability to learning in general. By taking a personal role in constructing linkages amongst discreet bits of trivia the student becomes a much more rounded individual. While this may have been an unintentional side effect of teaching under the old curriculum, with the new program in place, it becomes an intentional act of teaching.

Making connections

It is of paramount importance that teachers connect with their students. This must happen in the classroom and beyond if we are to truly create an environment where learning can occur. Our days should not be filled with the dispensation and consumption of discrete facts, but instead should be focused on forging strong relationships. As theses relationships develop, our students learn to interact not only with each other but with the disciplines they are engaged in. In turn this will allow our students to develop relationships with their learning!

Don’t get me wrong, we do need facts and discrete pieces of knowledge to move learning forward, yet creating the relationship between the learner and the knowledge is what will enable both the learner and the knowledge to grow.  Uncovering the relationships then allows students to explore different pathways to understand and represent what they know, thus fostering creativity that we need in order to solve the problems in our world.

The (un)Changing Face of Students

The media and popular culture want us to view our youth as changed from the youth of the past.  We hear all the time about the digital generation, the plugged in generation, the lost generation, net-genners, iGeneration and a variety of other terms to describe the different social community that our youth now reside.  While I agree that technology has changed for the world and in particular for our youth, I am concerned that the focus is too much on the technology and not enough on the positive development of youth.  Absolutely there is an unprecedented access to information from anywhere about anything.  It is true that information grows at an exponential rate each day.  Yet this is more about storage than it is about our youth.

Our students, perhaps everywhere but at school, have a constant stream of information available for them to peruse, mix, discover, or just plain ignore.  Psychologists and educators have posited that this shift in technological access has changed the way in which students learn and that schools are lagging behind this techno-frontier.  To a certain extent this is true as the sheer monetary cost (not to mention training) is astronomical for most school divisions to attempt to conquer.  But is technological access and education truly the only way to ensure that our students gain the skills that they need for a productive future?

In the end, the true learning that our students need is only enhanced by technology not replaced by it.  Critical thought and evaluative skills are needed on a much greater level if our students are to survive this inundation of information.  Students also need to learn relationship skills that many of them lack.  While social networking, texting, and other forms of electronic communication are used abundantly (and quite well) by our students, this has led to a deficit when it comes to dealing with people in a regular social setting.  Thus we need to ensure that students learn to be a part of a community with each other and learn to value people as important components of a wide and successful world.  They need to understand the value of difference as it leads to greater understanding and allows each person to work to their strengths.

Leading and Learning

All too often, teachers view themselves as the teacher only, while forgetting about the other role that they play as leaders.  As people who engage in daily contact with youth, we are more than just teaching them, we are also demonstrating leadership.  All too often, this leadership is termed “classroom management,” a misnomer that limits the true effect that teachers have on the students through their leadership style.  I am not dismissing the importance of management, I just see that our classes should not just be managed, but lead to new heights.

By taking this view, our role in the classroom makes significant changes as move away from a command and control structure to one in which the students are valued members of a leaning community.  This requires teachers to do what great leaders (and great teachers) have done for centuries – inspire, motivate, mobilize, invigorate, and hasten change.  By using our position in the live of young people to foster their development in a positive light, we can help our world become the best place for our children.

When we inspire and motivate, the impetus for learning becomes internalized as a method to strive for something greater, rather than an imposition made mandatory by the government.  This change then encourages the teachers to work to create a vivid and enriching learning experience since the students are committed to learning.  As a result, this makes the system better for everyone.  Within this revitalized rigorous system, testing can be incorporated as long as it serves to inform the teaching and learning process.

Strange occurences…

Please note:  This narrative is really a reflection of conversations over my teaching career and is not indicative of any one school or teacher, rather it is an amalgam of experience.

The other day I was discussing the notes and feedback that we give students with a colleague.  They had indicated to me that they find themselves constantly noting negative feedback to the students, both in written and verbal form.  When I probed a little further about why they thought this happened, they replied, “Well, I just do not see anything positive that the students are doing.”  Wow, what a statement.

As I pondered this, I was deeply troubled.  Yes, we need to give corrective or negative feedback if we are to help our students overcome the areas that they encounter difficulty in.  What troubled me was the fact that the teacher believed they had nothing positive to say about the students they had been teaching.  This made me wonder – what have you been teaching then?  Has nothing been learned and internalized by the students?

I do not think that the teacher really believed that the students had not learned within the classroom, rather it was a case of being blinded by the current material studied.  As teachers we need to remain aware of the continuum of learning that has occurred in our classrooms.  Our job is to express this to students as they often lack the vision to examine the pathway to learning that they have been on.  We need to provide the feedback that affirms that they have learned while at the same time providing the impetus to continue to grow in their learning.

Bees, Honey and Other Folk Wisdom

My grandmother was a teacher and a fairly memorable one based on what her former students have told me.  In class she was sometimes strict, sometimes caring, and sometimes just “regular folk.”  As I was growing up, I did not pay much attention to the wisdom that she shared and like all good grandmothers, this did not stop her from sharing it.  One of the nuggets of folk wisdom that she passed on to me was simply “you catch more bees with honey than with vinegar.”  As a young man, I thought this was a rather strange comment and discarded it – after all, I am allergic to bees, so why would I want to catch them anyway?

Now that I reflect on it, the message is obvious – kindness will win people over whereas a sour attitude will only serve to push them away.  Putting this into practice is a tremendous challenge though, particularly when working in a Junior High setting. It is precisely at this age, as these adolescents test boundaries and begin trying to find their own identity, that they need to encounter positive adults with forgiving attitudes.  As each of these youngsters seeks their place in our world, they need to know that the adults around them are there to support them no matter what happens.

Kindness and forgiveness does not mean that teachers need to be permissive. Indeed, a kind teacher is one that establishes norms for the classroom group but also realizes that not all students are just normal.  The rules must be there to provide a flexible framework for exploration of likes and dislikes while allowing the students to make errors in a forgiving context.  As teachers our job is to teach, this means giving the students an opportunity to make mistakes and providing them with the positive feedback that will allow them to make the changes necessary to improve.