As we hurtle towards the end of the year, I now find myself regularly working with teams of teachers to do the important work of thinking ahead about the year that is to come.
Taking time out to have reflective conversations is a vital part of our work in inquiry schools. In my partner schools, teachers gather feedback and suggestions from learners through conversations, interviews, focus groups and written responses and then use that data to inform conversations about possible journeys for the following year.
Gone are the days when we would simply pull out the ‘scope and sequence’ of topics that were repeated each year. When I look back to the way we used to “plan” and compare it to what we do now, I recognise an enormous shift in our understanding of the purposes of the inquiries in which learners participate each year. We have come a long way.
One key shift in our thinking is evident in the language we use. Lately, I have been encouraging teachers to consider the work they do as they meet to map learning experiences for students as being more a ‘design’ process rather than a ‘planning’ one.
Planning brings with it connotations of programming activities often for several weeks in advance. Designing suggests a process that is more considered, emergent and responsive, taking into account the needs and interests of the learners. Contemporary thinking about design
emphasises the importance of empathy in the process. When we really consider the inquiry journey from the view point of the learner, we avoid falling into the trap of programming too far ahead.
We allow the inquiry to unfold with the learner. This is often nuanced and sophisticated work. It requires a willingness to ‘let go’ and a belief in the centrality of learner agency in all that we do.
In my partner schools, we are learning to work this way not only as we are thinking about the ‘big picture’ design year by year but indeed throughout the year. When we consider ourselves as ‘learning designers’ (a phrase championed by the wonderful Guy Claxton) our conversations change. There is less emphasis on the what (‘What activity will we do?’ ‘What outcome will we cover?’) and more emphasis on the why and the how. The key to these conversations is for us, as teachers, to be inquirers ourselves. In short, we design for inquiry through
inquiry.
Questions are at the heart of inquiry. The best journeys of inquiry are the result of learning to ask the right questions of ourselves, each other and our students, as we design. My role is often to facilitate these conversations. My intention is to try to build teachers’ ‘agentive identity’
by asking, rather than telling. Then, just as in the classroom situation, I try to do any explaining strategically. This means giving teachers ample opportunities to create and design for themselves, reserving my suggestions and explanations for when they might be useful. As a facilitator, this means my role is flipped in much the same way as it is in the classroom.
Here are some questions I often find myself asking when we are designing a new journey of inquiry with and for learners. I don’t ask them all each time. What is really interesting for me is that the process is really about framing and clarifying intent. Our work is NOT about generating activities, although we will often identify some routines or strategies that might help implement our initial intentions with thinking routines being key.
The following questions are those we generally use when designing shared inquiries where a big question is being explored by the group. Within this, many individual questions naturally emerge.
These questions are unlikely to be asked in one meeting. The key to designing for inquiry is to create opportunities to meet regularly (ideally on a weekly basis) to take stock, review and think ahead. The days of ‘doing the unit plan’ before the inquiry has even begun are well and
truly over. Documentation grows with the inquiry. I hope some of these questions resonate with you, particularly if you have a facilitation role in your team.
Reflecting and Evaluating
• Looking back over our last inquiry, what might we need to address in THIS one?
• What did we notice about the learners’ skills as inquirers?
• Are there some areas we need to offer more support in?
• Is there a way we can address these needs in the next context for inquiry?
• Have we sought feedback from our learners about the impact of the inquiries we are ‘concluding’ in the coming weeks?
• Should we invite some kids to come and chat to us about this now?
• Revisiting the WHY
• We put this inquiry on the map last year, some time ago. Let’s remind ourselves WHY we included this in our design for the year.
• Why is this an inquiry worth pursuing in terms of the curriculum AND the children’s interests and needs?
• Why this question? Why now?
• What’s the purpose?
Student Voice
Many of us have already canvassed possibilities for this inquiry with our students prior to this meeting. Some of us have invited kids to share their “first thinking” in response to the question. Let’s share that data now:
• What are they telling us?
• What does this reveal?
• How might we respond?
• How might this initial information help shape this inquiry?
• What if we invited a few kids in right now, to talk with us about their views of this inquiry and what they envision for their learning?
The Big Picture: Framing Up
• What conceptual understandings drive this inquiry?
• What are the big ideas framing this?
• Is there anything we feel belongs on a ‘need to know’ list?
• Can we list the knowledge items as distinct from the understanding goals?
• How does this inquiry allow us to connect to the curriculum? Let’s take a look ACROSS the curriculum and see we can integrate several learning areas as we explore this big idea.
• What learning assets and key competencies do we think this inquiry might strengthen?
• Can we identify specific skills and dispositions within those that will be particularly relevant as the inquiry unfolds? This is a question we need to keep coming back to as the design of the inquiry takes shape.
• What compelling question might help drive this inquiry?
• If there was one, essential question to frame this, what would it be?
• Is this a question that matters beyond school?
• Is this a question that would resonate with the community?
Considering our Own Understandings
• How would WE respond to this question?
• What views do WE bring to this as adult learners?
• How might this affect the way we interact with kids in this journey?
• What biases do we have?
• How confident are we with the field being explored?
• Do we need to do some further inquiry ourselves?
• Where is the expertise in the school and wider community that we could all tap into?
The Real Deal
• How authentic is the purpose and context of this inquiry?
• Is there a way we can move it from being an ‘engaging exploration’ to an engaging exploration with a high stakes, real purpose?
• What issues/problems/contexts in the school or community might we be able to harness?
• Is there a real audience for this learning?
• How can we ensure that our learners see a real purpose for this journey?
Provocation
• How might we provoke real curiosity, interest and a desire to want to find out more?
• Do we need to design a provocation or is the need and interest already there?
• What might that provocation look like?
Tuning In
• Given the goals we have drafted, how might we get a better insight into where our kids are at now, so they can track their growth?
• Given our kids are becoming familiar with the SOLO taxonomy, could we invite them to plot their own position on that scale?
• How might we further tune into our students’ initial thinking?
• How might we capture that in some way, so they can reflect on and monitor the way their thinking changes?
• How might we make this initial thinking visible?
Questions
• When and how will we invite questions?
• Are we already hearing some?
• Do we need to deliberately target this or is it likely to emerge?
• How will we document and use those wonderings?
Finding Out
• What resources are we aware of that might assist learners to gather new information in a range of ways?
• If this is a historical inquiry, how might we help them harness the ‘mantle of expertise’ as historians?
• Scientists? Geographers? Artists?, etc.
• What people, places and texts might help them explore?
Making Connections
• How might this inquiry allow us to make authentic connections across the curriculum?
• Are there texts we can use more intensively as readers, writers and viewers?
• What mathematical inquiry might this journey involve?
• How might we think big picture and see what natural links can be harnessed?
Releasing Responsibility
• How might we involve our students in designing for their own learning?
• If we have a field trip in mind, how might we engage students in designing the experience?
• How do we ensure we are amplifying agency in this process?
Knowing what questions to ask is the key. You might consider displaying some of these questions in meeting spaces as a way to be more mindful of the kinds of conversations we have as we design for inquiry learning.