Dancing in the Light

TRANSGRESSIONS: CULTURAL STUDIES AND EDUCATION Volume 83 Series Editor:Series Editor:Series Editor:Series Editor:

Shirley Shirley Shirley Shirley R. R. R. R. SteinbergSteinbergSteinbergSteinberg, University of Calgary, Canada Founding Editor:Founding Editor:Founding Editor:Founding Editor:

Joe L. Kincheloe (1950Joe L. Kincheloe (1950Joe L. Kincheloe (1950Joe L. Kincheloe (1950––––2008) 2008) 2008) 2008) The Paulo and Nita Freire InternationalThe Paulo and Nita Freire InternationalThe Paulo and Nita Freire InternationalThe Paulo and Nita Freire International Project for Critical PedagogyProject for Critical PedagogyProject for Critical PedagogyProject for Critical Pedagogy

Editorial BoardEditorial BoardEditorial BoardEditorial Board

Jon Austin, Jon Austin, Jon Austin, Jon Austin, University of Southern Queensland, Australia Norman Denzin,Norman Denzin,Norman Denzin,Norman Denzin, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, USA Rhonda HammerRhonda HammerRhonda HammerRhonda Hammer, University of California Los Angeles, USA Nikos Metallinos, Nikos Metallinos, Nikos Metallinos, Nikos Metallinos, Concordia University, Canada Christine QuailChristine QuailChristine QuailChristine Quail, McMaster University, Canada Ki Wan SungKi Wan SungKi Wan SungKi Wan Sung, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea

This book series is dedicated to the radical love and actions of Paulo Freire, Jesus “Pato” Gomez, and Joe L. Kincheloe.

TRANSGRESSIONS: CULTURAL STUDIES AND EDUCATION

Cultural studies provides an analytical toolbox for both making sense of educational practice and extending the insights of educational professionals into their labors. In this context Transgressions: Cultural Studies and Education provides a collection of books in the domain that specify this assertion. Crafted for an audience of teachers, teacher educators, scholars and students of cultural studies and others interested in cultural studies and pedagogy, the series documents both the possibilities of and the controversies surrounding the intersection of cultural studies and education. The editors and the authors of this series do not assume that the interaction of cultural studies and education devalues other types of knowledge and analytical forms. Rather the intersection of these knowledge disciplines offers a rejuvenating, optimistic, and positive perspective on education and educational institutions. Some might describe its contribution as democratic, emancipatory, and transformative. The editors and authors maintain that cultural studies helps free educators from sterile, monolithic analyses that have for too long undermined efforts to think of educational practices by providing other words, new languages, and fresh metaphors. Operating in an interdisciplinary cosmos, Transgressions: Cultural Studies and Education is dedicated to exploring the ways cultural studies enhances the study and practice of education. With this in mind the series focuses in a non-exclusive way on popular culture as well as other dimensions of cultural studies including social theory, social justice and positionality, cultural dimensions of technological innovation, new media and media literacy, new forms of oppression emerging in an electronic hyperreality, and postcolonial global concerns. With these concerns in mind cultural studies scholars often argue that the realm of popular culture is the most powerful educational force in contemporary culture. Indeed, in the twenty-first century this pedagogical dynamic is sweeping through the entire world. Educators, they believe, must understand these emerging realities in order to gain an important voice in the pedagogical conversation.

Without an understanding of cultural pedagogy's (education that takes place outside of formal schooling) role in the shaping of individual identity--youth identity in particular--the role educators play in the lives of their students will continue to fade. Why do so many of our students feel that life is incomprehensible and devoid of meaning? What does it mean, teachers wonder, when young people are unable to describe their moods, their affective affiliation to the society around them. Meanings provided young people by mainstream institutions often do little to help them deal with their affective complexity, their difficulty negotiating the rift between meaning and affect. School knowledge and educational expectations seem as anachronistic as a ditto machine, not that learning ways of rational thought and making sense of the world are unimportant.

But school knowledge and educational expectations often have little to offer students about making sense of the way they feel, the way their affective lives are shaped. In no way do we argue that analysis of the production of youth in an electronic mediated world demands some "touchy-feely" educational superficiality. What is needed in this context is a rigorous analysis of the interrelationship between pedagogy, popular culture, meaning making, and youth subjectivity. In an era marked by youth depression, violence, and suicide such insights become extremely important, even life saving. Pessimism about the future is the common sense of many contemporary youth with its concomitant feeling that no one can make a difference.

If affective production can be shaped to reflect these perspectives, then it can be reshaped to lay the groundwork for optimism, passionate commitment, and transformative educational and political activity. In these ways cultural studies adds a dimension to the work of education unfilled by any other sub-discipline. This is what Transgressions: Cultural Studies and Education seeks to produce—literature on these issues that makes a difference. It seeks to publish studies that help those who work with young people, those individuals involved in the disciplines that study children and youth, and young people themselves improve their lives in these bizarre times.

Dancing in the Light Essential Elements for an Inquiry Classroom Marcia Behrenbruch

Melbourne Graduate School of Education, Australia

SENSE PUBLISHERS ROTTERDAM/BOSTON/TAIPEI

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TABLE OF CONTENTSTABLE OF CONTENTSTABLE OF CONTENTSTABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgement.........................................................................................................vii Foreword..........................................................................................................................ix Introduction: Why Inquiry Learning? Why now? .....................................................xiii 1. Looking at Inquiry ..................................................................................................1 2. Dancing Spirals ~ Sustainable Education ~ Curriculum Theory..........................15 3. Inquiry in Practice: Research from the Outside....................................................25 4. What’s Essential? Students’ Perspectives on Inquiry...........................................55 5. What’s Essential? Teachers’ Perspectives on Inquiry..........................................81 6. The Essentials ....................................................................................................111

7. Reflection ~ Action ...........................................................................................133

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To the Cornish Community: Making a Difference

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FOREWORDFOREWORDFOREWORDFOREWORD

The timing of this book could not be better. I would argue that we have reached an impasse in our preparedness for transformative and progressive curriculum work. Curriculum reform is always highly contested – and this book written by an experienced international educator furthers the debate on curriculum decision making in the 21st century. The author of this book, Marcia Behrenbruch, a colleague whose practice and research I worked alongside for six years, has succeeded in breaking apart the older and well worn factory models of curriculum design and implementation through her key questions: Why inquiry learning? Why now?

Teachers’ working knowledge of how school subjects interface with cross-curriculum design are not well understood. Historically, subject-based and cross-disciplinary curriculum designs, have been seen as an either/or divide, resulting in tensions and conflict among teachers. The International Baccalaureate (IB) has created a much needed impetus for thoughtful curriculum change and the rethinking of our knowledge of both disciplinarity – (disciplinary knowledge) and cross-disciplinary approaches to curriculum design. The argument made in this book is that “teachers and students are best placed to describe and define any ‘essentials, that is in this case, the six essentials of inquiry learning proposed by Behrenbruch. This statement and the design of the proposed essentials will challenge many academic sensibilities. But what is written in the book is a testimony to why this statement needs to be problematised, researched and reflected upon. This book is not a ‘how to do inquiry’ book. There are no lesson plans or steps to follow.

John Dewy in the 1930s argued for a more cohesive conceptualisation of learning rather than discrete subjects, and during the 1970s there was a distinct shift from discipline-based curriculum to a thematic approach, largely in response to Jerome Bruner’s theorising of how aspects of curriculum can be successfully connected or integrated. By the mid 1980s teachers were refining their view of curriculum and concepts were used to make purposeful connections across school subjects. The International Baccalaureate community have furthered this understanding, mirroring what reconceptualist curriculum theorists have long argued, that disciplinary knowledge and its contestation are crucial to understanding curriculum and schooling. Hence the ways in which teachers design curriculum across our changing fields of knowledge become critical to curriculum understanding and improving student learning in the 21st century.

The school at the centre of book is located in Victoria, Australia. Nestled in an inspiring uniquely Australian landscape, the school environment and building have received numerous awards for being a sustainable school. In the book Marcia Behrenbruch sets out to explain how an Australian school committed to the philosophy of the International Baccalaureate, over time transformed their curriculum practices, and in particular, visibly changed the

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secondary school curriculum and teachers’ pedagogy. Over the last decade, hundreds of visiting teachers have attended professional learning days and participated in dialogue and renewed their understanding and conceptions of inquiry and how this dispositional orientation to curriculum works within this unique setting.

It is well know that there is a noticeable lack of substantive research that explicitly identifies the impact of cross-curriculum design (sometimes referred to as cross-disciplinary or integrated curriculum) and inquiry processes on student learning and how this might differ from a discipline-based curriculum. The popular bumper sticker words ‘I teach students not subjects’ hint at the curriculum divide within the teaching community and point to the prevailing understandings and misconceptions related to issues of disciplinarity, cross-curriculum design and the enactment of inquiry in schools. Can inquiry learning improve teaching and learning? Does inquiry provide greater purchase on what knowledge is of most worth in the 21st century? Can the close up study of one school identify how other schools can formulate approaches to curriculum design during major curriculum reform?

The book offers a new contribution to curriculum inquiry and conveys a fine-grained analysis of both teachers’ and students’ knowledge of inquiry learning. Further, the book adds to our understanding of the conduct of research in schools as significant whole school change is being implemented. It is an example of a systematic curriculum inquiry that used innovative insider classroom research enhanced by the researcher’s digital still photography and imagery so that we able to be and feel close up to the process. We also learn the importance of listening carefully to the voices of both teachers and students.

Practically and ethically, agendas of curriculum critique and reconceptualisation place enormous demands on the participants. When we add a researcher who is also the leader of the change process there are additional complexities. Inquiry learning has at its heart disciplinary knowledge and key questions of knowledge such as ‘How do we know?’ and ‘How do we collaborate?’ The book also details how collaboration was enacted during the research process and the challenges experienced. But also it is affirmed that curriculum can change and a school can over time more confidently accommodate and address the complexities of our rapidly globalizing world.

There are many questions that hover over the success or not of any school or system that claims they have made a significant change to teacher knowledge and student learning. In this book we are close up to the work of one school community. The book reflects the work of a single researcher, who at the time was also a key figure in leading change. First hand, I know that this was a highly collaborative and ethical process. This book will inspire and remind us that there are educators and communities who do denounce the status quo, can foreground their key values and be mindful of how their practices are forming. When a deliberative community is created, curriculum change can shift the reality of the classroom experience for teachers and every student. Understanding critical and sustainable sensibilities are imperatives for our life

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in the 21st century. This book will encourage others to consider inquiry as the turn for renewing pedagogy and curriculum. Julianne Moss Deakin University

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INTRODUCTIONINTRODUCTIONINTRODUCTIONINTRODUCTION

Why Inquiry Learning? Why now?

In a world defined by ceaseless change, we are less in need of fixed principles than we are in need of flexible habits of inquiry and a taste for imaginative approaches to social intelligence that will increase our capacity to perceive the consequences of our actions.1

The idea of researching inquiry learning and writing this book started after a group of teachers touring my school asked in rather exasperated fashion, “What is the most important element for inquiry learning to be successful?” and “Where do you start?” A group of year 8 students who overheard this comment asked me later, “What’s the problem? It’s like.... basic!”

‘Basic’ doesn’t mean ‘easy’. Definitions of inquiry from education literature included: It is how children learn naturally; it is active; it is experiential; it is something students do, not something done to them; it has many stages; it is an active mental process that demands active participation by the learner; it is a form of assessment that blurs the boundary between assessment and teaching. Trying to answer the ‘what’ of inquiry learning is perhaps not a fruitful path. We kind of ‘get it’. We accept that it is how we naturally learn. The more pressing questions are the ‘why’ and ‘how’. Why should we teach and learn this way? How does it really work in practice? How does inquiry learning meet the accountabilities of governments? These are the more significant questions explored through this book.

I spent 10 years as a teacher and administrator in a small school - 320 students from the 3 year olds in the Early Learning Center (ELC) to 16 year olds in Year 10. We offered the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP) with its inquiry learning focus for students from the ages of 3 to 12 (ELC to Year 6) and a staff developed inquiry program for the secondary school (Years 7 to 10). Most of us who taught here had come from large schools of 1000 to 1500 students. We came to believe that it was not just the small size that helped change our teaching and learning particularly in the secondary school. More important was our close proximity to early years teachers experienced in the Reggio Emilia approach and our day to day association with primary school teachers who had been exploring how ‘Reggio’ could look in their classes and its connections to the constructivist approach of the PYP. In a

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small school with a shared primary and secondary staff room, we couldn’t avoid hearing their discussions.

The school had also attracted significant attention since winning a national ‘sustainable schools’ award. As a consequence, we hosted on-site professional development on sustainability and inquiry learning for teachers from all Australian states as well as New Zealand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka. It was the question from one of these groups of visitors, “What’s essential?” that led to this research.

I wondered what students would identify as essential in an inquiry classroom. I wondered if students could identify long term effects of inquiry on their learning. I wondered if teachers would identify the same set of essential elements as their students. I wondered if some of these essential elements were more difficult to implement in classrooms than others and if this could help direct the professional development of teachers.

There are books and journal articles in academia about inquiry cycles, the connections to constructivist learning theory, inquiry in practice and examples of students’ work produced in an inquiry learning environment. There is little information that actually connects theory to practice and there is little research into how students and teachers, particularly in secondary school, perceive and understand inquiry. My argument is that teachers and students are best placed to describe and define any ‘essentials’.

Why my interest in inquiry learning? Many authors on the future of education agree that information-based education structures do not completely meet the needs of a globalised society. Thinking that is measured by standardised testing is no longer sufficient. Daniel Pink,2 a journalist with interesting views on the future believes that ‘artistry, empathy, taking the long view, pursuing the transcendent will increasingly determine who soars and who stumbles.’

These sentiments echo the education model proposed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) stressing the importance of students learning to know, to do, to live together and to ‘be’; that is to make skilled judgments and take personal responsibility. UNESCO’s 1996 report3 argued for changes to schooling that included relevant, holistic curriculum, problem solving, using the potential of information technology, an emphasis on formative assessment and engaging students in constructing their own learning, all of which are supported through inquiry.

Major studies in the 1990s alerted educators to the decline in student engagement starting in the upper primary years and continuing to senior secondary school. Lack of engagement affects not only students’ learning progress and attrition rates, but many other aspects of young people’s lives. Researchers and educators responded by recommending strategies for these middle years such as student involvement in decisions about what was taught and assessed, learning that was relevant to personal and social concerns, active learning experiences, engagement in complex, higher order and critical thinking to develop deep learning within and between disciplines, and learning with

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peers as well as independent learning. Inquiry learning addresses all of these components.

Education policy documents in Australia, some states in the USA (for example, Colorado), Canada, Singapore and the UK have moved to feature inquiry as a significant pedagogy in their curricula. The trend towards inquiry learning is also evident in the growing number of schools taking on the International Baccalaureate Programmes – the Primary Years Programme (PYP), Middle Years Programme (MYP), as well as the Diploma. Inquiry by all teachers in all areas of learning is embedded in IB standards and practices and ‘inquirer’ is one of the attributes of the learner profile central to those programmes; indeed, it is the first on the list.

Despite researchers and educators support for inquiry there are other groups that continue to call for a ‘back to basics’ education and increases in standardised testing, particularly in numeracy and literacy. These ‘basics’ do not include the arts and narrow the range of the humanities. This movement is not as benign and neutral as it would like parents and teachers to think. Since governments continue to fund science and mathematics over humanities and the arts, the ‘back to basics’ movement continues to encourage an education system for the powerful sections in society that are also predominately ‘numbers’ based – banking, technology, trade and commerce – the marketplace. Schooling is seen as supplying this marketplace, valuing technical knowledge over aesthetic knowledge. Back to basics keeps us in the factory model of education.4

The question is also, ‘whose basics?’ Who determines what is important to learn? Paulo Freire,5 the great Brazilian educator of the 1970s believed in educating people to identify problems rather than just solve those presented to them. Freire realised that education, like science and politics is not value free. He believed that this critical kind of education is built on continual dialogue between teachers, students and parents and that content learning without relevance is meaningless. Teachers who use inquiry in their classrooms know that sound literacy and numeracy skills are essential, but they also know that enjoyment of school and empowering young people through relevant and significant ideas can enhance these testable knowledge and skills.

‘Back to basics’ is no longer adequate for a complex, global society grappling with the meaning of global citizenship and international mindedness. Children require a broader and richer description of events, and sensitivity for the ideas and meanings of individuals. Inquiry teachers model this by accepting that students bring understandings and experiences with them and that new knowledge is created when these understandings intersect in an active and critical way. The ‘back to basics’ movement fails society by ignoring the silences in education, for example, the absence of women’s and indigenous’ voices in historical texts and too often, the absence of environmental considerations in science and economics. Inquiry constructs meaning, finds hidden meanings, and develops understanding.

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My final reason for researching inquiry is the increasing data coming from neuroscience research. Investigations involving MRI, (magnetic resonance imaging) PET, (positron emission tomography) and other scanning devises have led to an explosion in understanding how brain structures change over time and in response to stimuli. Educators and scientists who have studied this information suggest that compatible classroom activities include students asking and answering their own questions, reflecting on their learning, using simulations, linking music and the arts to specific learning tasks, using visuals to challenge thinking, physical challenges, collaborative learning and an integrated curriculum; all characteristics of an inquiry based, constructivist classroom.

Even where teachers and administrators agree on the importance of inquiry, implementing it is not straightforward. I am interested in identifying those elements of inquiry learning that teachers may need assistance in developing. In my reading, I came across the idea of threshold concepts.6 These are ideas that lead to new ways of thinking. They may be initially troublesome, but once understood, transform practice and are unlikely to be forgotten. What are these threshold concepts for teaching and learning through inquiry, particularly in a middle school environment?

Why should teachers initiate this research? Should it be left solely to universities and institutes? An important agenda of teachers’ research is to extend the vision of what is possible and to encourage other teachers to try new ideas and adapt them to their own teaching situation. A written account, rather than just a friendly discussion or a presentation at a conference is powerful for teacher professional learning if it includes rich stories that provide windows into classrooms; if the researcher is honest about what was and was not achieved; if the insights encourage adaptation, not just replication and if the research encourages teachers to explore change at their own level of understanding and risk.7

Thousands of years ago, Plato described the lives of prisoners in a cave. They had spent years chained facing the stone walls in front them. Behind them, fires provided light and warmth but their understanding of the outside world came only from the silhouettes and the shadows of objects from the road beyond the fire. The word ‘phenomena’ refers to these shadows on the walls that partly hide and partly revealed reality. As an educator with over 20 years experience I would say that I have moved through several caves. I learned how to manage a classroom and ‘deliver’ a curriculum. When I understood that cave wall, I turned and found that some education and governmental policies and processes didn’t match the needs of a significant number of students. After looking at a new ‘differentiation’ wall for many years and finally understanding its bumps and crevices, I turned and found that the theory that explained these shadows was far more complex and emotive than I had imagined. Beyond these shadows were issues around the environment and sustainability and internationally minded education. I had to grope through a final, very convoluted cave wall on

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the connection between practice and theory before finally feeling able to turn outside and talk about changing 21st century education.

Phenomenology is a rigorous qualitative research method that looks past shadows. It is a return to the Greek concept of searching for wisdom rather than exact measurements. Searching for wisdom is a complex and time consuming affair. I had to ensure that I recognized and understood my own shadows – my own history and perceptions of inquiry learning. Some philosophers describe this as ‘bracketing’, but I prefer the gentler, respectful description of ‘bridling’. Bridling requires researchers to describe their perceptions and beliefs so that readers can determine if biases or misunderstandings have adversely affected the analysis and conclusions.

That data that I collected consisted of formal semi-structured interviews with 68 students from years 8 and 10 and 5 of their teachers. This represented over 80% of the students in each of those years. The teachers were those that had the highest number of contact hours with those students. Gender balance was approximately equal for both groups of students: overall 36 girls and 32 boys were interviewed. Three of the teachers were female and two male. I was interested in year 8 and year 10 students because these marked milestones in the school. Year 8 was considered the end of the ‘middle years’. Through year 7 and 8, these students had worked closely with a small team of teachers in a highly integrated program culminating in an exhibition at the end of year 8. Half of this particular group of students had also been the first cohort of our primary students to compete a year 6 exhibition as part of the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP). Years 9 and 10 were organised with a more explicit discipline focus to prepare students for the subject choices they would be required to make for their final two years of secondary schooling. Half of this group had also been students in the PYP. The focus for years 9 and 10 was still on students as inquirers, using sustainability as an overarching concept and culminating with an extended essay and a presentation based on ‘Drivers of Change in the 21st Century’.

The validity and reliability of this research is centred in my position as researcher within a community of practice.8 Communities of practice share common characteristics including a common cultural and historical heritage, and strong connections and interests that survive the departure of old members and readily assimilate the new. Communities of practice are reflective. As a teaching team, we shared classroom experiences, planning and assessment, taught together particularly when trying new ideas, and evaluated our professional performance. Our team meetings started with a review of current problems and issues. Future directions were suggested and discussed. We walked into each other’s classroom to observe students and colleagues at work and welcomed team members as co-teachers.

This community of practice also extended to our students. They were very involved in classroom planning, organisation and assessment. A strong student leadership programme at the school involved them in many aspects of school

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decision making. In interviewing students, this reduced my concern about power differential, with students possibly only saying what they thought I wanted to hear. They were used to working with us and offering their opinions. Throughout these interviews, students digressed to discuss relationship problems with peers, and concerns about their futures in the senior year and beyond school. This out-of-category information in almost every interview indicated that students were not feeling intimidated. Students chose the interview place and time, and interviews were with self-selected groups of two or three students. They were completely aware of the purpose of the research. They had the opportunity to look at transcripts and make changes.

This is not a book on ‘how to do inquiry’. There are no lesson plans or steps to follow. The first chapter describes my experience with inquiry classrooms. It offers images of what inquiry looks like, feels like and sounds like so that the elements essential for its success, uncovered through research, can be placed in a context. The next two chapters review what ‘outside’ experts say about the theory and practice of inquiry respectively. Inquiry teachers take confidence from being able to articulate the research of theorists and philosophers to justify their classroom practices particularly in conversation with administrators and parents. Chapters 4 and 5 examine inquiry from the perspective of secondary students and their teachers who are actively implementing it. This offers insight into the tensions and resolutions they experienced. The final chapters reconcile the theory with the descriptions of practice. Although this is a single site setting, the findings could offer some inspiration to schools contemplating a similar pathway.

The decision to interview middle and secondary teachers and students was quite deliberate. The primary school had sound guidance and support through the PYP documents, IB professional development and strong networks of like minded schools. Most of what the secondary staff learned about inquiry came from our primary colleagues through their critical observations and their generosity in sharing practice. Primary school teacher undergraduate education tends to establish a better theoretical basis of how children learn as compared to secondary undergraduate education which can have a stronger discipline and classroom management focus. I hope primary teachers read this and are affirmed that many of their practices are also powerful for older students. Hopefully some of the theoretical basis and descriptions of practice support secondary teachers in changing classrooms to better meet the needs of adolescents without compromising quality of education.

The title of this book, ‘Dancing in the Light’ was inspired by Steve Seidel from Harvard University. At the point in my research when I wondered why I had ever started and if I would ever finish, I attended a Project Zero workshop. There, Seidel used choreography as a metaphor for a different relationship between what to learn, who learns and who teaches. It resonated with everything that I believe about teaching and learning through inquiry. This is a paraphrase based on the notes that I scribbled during his presentation:

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‘I think teachers are like choreographers. They look for interesting, provocative and important ideas to explore that excite and challenge the dancers. They plan the steps and organise the rehearsals. They recognise when a performance is finally ready – when the dancers understand the message and can communicate it fluently. But choreographers don’t exist without the dancers. Dancers bring unique talents, interests and ideas. They change and improvise the steps. They challenge the choreographers’ own understandings and skills. As they rehearse together the dance becomes different and richer than the choreographer imagined. But in the end, at that culminating performance, the choreographer stands behind the curtain in darkness, watching the dancing in the light.’

NOTES

1 Dewey, J. (1930). The Quest for Certainty: A Study of the Relation of Knowledge and Action (p. 23). London: George Allen & Unwin.

2 Pink, D. H. (2006). A Whole New Mind. London: Penguin Books. 3 Delors, J. L. (1996). Learning, the Treasure Within: Report to UNESCO of the International

Commission for the Twenty-first Century. Paris: UNESCO Pub. Retrieved October 11, 2006, from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-003-x/81-003-x1999001-eng.pdf

4 Apple, M. W. (2001). Educating the “Right” Way: Markets, Standards, God, and Inequality. New York: Routledge Falmer. Apple, M. W. (2007). Ideological success, education failure? Journal of Teacher Education, 58(2), 108–116.

5 Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed (30th anniversary edition 2000). London: Continuum International Publishing Group. Freire, P. (1985). The Politics of Education: Culture, Power, and Liberation. South Hadley, MA: Bergin & Garvey. Freire, P. (1992). Pedagogy of Hope. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.

6 Meyer, J. H. F., & Land, R. (2005). Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge (2): Epistemological considerations and a conceptual framework for teaching and learning. Higher Education, 49(3), 373–388.

7 Mitchell, I. (2003). Why do teacher research? Perspectives from four stakeholders. In A. Clarke & G. Erickson (Eds.), Teacher Inquiry: Living the Research in Everyday Practice (pp. 199–208). London: Routledge Falmer.

8 Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. New York: Cambridge University Press. AND Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. (1999). Relationship of knowledge and practice: Teacher learning in communities. In A. Iran-Nejad & C. D. Pearson (Eds.), Review of Research in Education (Vol. 24, pp. 249–306). Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.

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MARCIA BEHRENBRUCH

CHAPTER 1CHAPTER 1CHAPTER 1CHAPTER 1

Looking at Inquiry

For 15 years, I was a conservative, subject oriented, exam focussed secondary school teacher. Text books and test banks were great. Parents liked me for discipline, organisation and good exam results. Administrators liked me because marks were always recorded on time and students fit the standardised curve with perhaps a slight skew to the right. Lessons were planned carefully and I tried to make them interesting, but whether students liked me or not was really irrelevant as long as they behaved and ‘learnt’; that is passed the exams well! I was a ‘modern’ teacher of science and mathematics and very seldom did the two meet unless experimental data needed to be plotted or analysed. Science would solve the problems of the world if we would just do what the scientists told us. There was a disquieting moment when my own children were young with the realisation that I knew little or nothing about how children learned to read and write. This was an interesting challenge and I returned to university to study this some more.

After some years, I found myself in South East Asia with my youngest child; the other children staying behind in boarding school. There was only an English speaking primary school in our area, so my son, who had just finished year 6, was destined for home schooling with his mother. I contacted the little international primary school just to let the principal know that if he needed an emergency teacher or a ‘volunteer mum’, I was available. Two days later, he phoned back. “We know of lots of high school kids being home schooled here. We can’t start a secondary school because we don’t have a mathematics or science teacher. But, if you are willing to come back to work, we could start one and then your boy could come too.”

Needless to say, my typical pre-teen son was overjoyed at the idea of not having to spend all day with his mother. The decision was made. However, there were a few details the principal hadn’t volunteered! When I arrived for my first day I walked into a class so far out of my comfort zone that I would have backed out immediately if not for my son’s enthusiasm. It consisted of 22 students from years 5 to 10 (10 to 16 years old). They represented 16 nationalities and over half spoke little English. We had no textbooks, no labs, no classrooms and I had no idea where to start.

We sat around a table; all of us, students, myself as the mathematics and science teacher, a part time Humanities teacher and an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher. We were all in unfamiliar territory. The kids weren’t

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convinced that we were real teachers (no books, no lesson plans yet) but we were all wise enough to realise that the parents and the principal expected us to look like a school quickly. I asked a fateful question for the first time, “What are we going to do?” A common point of interest in a very diverse classroom came unexpectedly quickly, “Bicycles!”

For the next few weeks we studied bicycles around the big idea that ‘bicycles can represent human creativity’. We explored the history of bicycles, their cost and importance in each child’s country of origin, experimented with the materials in bicycles, gear ratios, velocity and acceleration, sine and cosine values from turning wheels. Students wrote procedures about how to ride a bicycle and held practical lessons for those who never had. Finally someone said, “We know bicycles. What are we going to do now?” ... and the ideas just kept coming.

Until our text books arrived from overseas, every child brought in their books intended for home schooling. From English, Korean, Chinese and Thai mathematics books, we constructed a course that would meet this diverse range of age and background knowledge and skills. Although on one level I had always accepted mathematics as a ‘universal language’, this was the first time I had ever used number, equations and geometric drawings as the main source of communication.

For the first time I understood joyous learning, interacting with students and colleagues in a new way. Older students helped younger ones. Younger ones with better English interpreted for older ones who were just starting to learn it. My first personal lesson was on how much I had underestimated what children could learn. While working with a small group of year 10 students on an introduction to calculus, three year 5 and 6 students joined the group. ‘What are you doing here? Well, m’am, what you’re doing with them looks more interesting than what you left us to do!’ There was a relief in not having to be in control of every aspect of learning in the class. Negotiating, collaborating and cooperating replaced just offering choices. Classes were shared with teachers from other disciplines and ESL support teachers and we worked closely to build connections between our learning areas and our students’ interests. I didn’t have a name for this way of teaching. I had never heard of inquiry learning even in my undergraduate education courses.

After two years, I returned to conventional Australian schools and became just a science teacher again but it no longer felt right. I wasn’t allowed or expected to make rich connections between science, mathematics, history, literature and ethics. The barriers between disciplines seemed insurmountable and I could no longer hear the voice of students in the curriculum. I read, returned to university and changed workplaces to this school that has become the focus of my research and my stories.

. . . Ten years later, as I came into my year 8 class, someone called out, “Hi, Mrs

B. you’re late again.” We had a running joke about my timetable mix ups – not true this time. I was coming in to work with students on an inquiry they were developing around the impact of microbes on history, but my partner teacher

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Coming around the corner to the classrooms there was another art project; large images that students had designed and painted to represent decades in the 20th century. Charlie Chaplin, Warhol’s canned soups, Rosa Parks and anti war posters captured the historical events that had caught their imagination. The walls were covered with students’ work, including their writing, photographs that students and teachers took regularly of their activities as well as posters and articles from current newspapers and magazines. The teachers’ planning documents were also there so that everyone could see what ‘might’ happen and what knowledge and skills we were aiming to develop in that particular term. Very few common textbooks were used, but fiction and non-fiction books were available in every classroom to encourage reading at any opportunity. Besides a wide range of library books, computer and internet access were important. Although this changed later, at the time of this research, the school was not a 1:1 computer school. Computers were shared on a 3:1 ratio.

Figure 2. The year 8 area

Eight years previously, we had found ourselves with a very challenging group of year 7 students. They included a group of boys who soon developed a reputation as alienated and disengaged. They hated school, hated teachers, weren’t interested in science, history or geography, damaged school property and bullied each other. Unless something changed we would start to lose good students and girls – crucial to our gender balance policy.

As deputy head of the campus, I was very impressed that the staff response to the problem was not, “They need more discipline: Let’s put in a stronger detention system.” Staff agreed that giving detentions to students had never improved their relationship with them and clearly, we needed to improve relationships with these young people. We asked some hard questions. Why were these boys so unhappy? Were there underlying learning problems? Could we work more effectively with their parents? Were we meeting their needs? The last question was answered with a resounding “No”.

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At this point in time, our middle years’ team leader was also the atelierista – the artist – for the three and four year old children in the ELC. He kept insisting that I needed to spend more time with them. “The answer is there: they’ve got it right. They know what they’re doing.” In the ELC, I had an immediate sense of connection to my overseas ‘bicycle’ experience. The children were engaged in asking questions and exploring with the adults ways to find their own answers.

This was my first exposure to the Reggio Emilia approach to teaching and learning. First thing in the morning, the 3 and 4 year old children and their teachers met together to plan the day. Some wanted to explore ant trails around the veranda. Others made a giant spider out of Hessian and yarn. Another group was experimenting with combining paints to get the exact colour in a vase of irises. The children’s voices were as important in the decision making process as the educators. The rooms were beautiful – interesting objects to pick up, light tables and mirrors to play with and explore.

What immediately struck me in my conversations with the ELC teachers was that they saw each child as rich, powerful and situated in a community of learners connected to adults and other children. Every time they spoke about the ‘image of the child’ I could replace that with the ‘image of adolescent’. I could see that we needed to develop the same relationships with our older students.

As a staff, we read and attended professional learning about education in the middle years, considering not only what to teach, but how to restructure timetables and improve the school environment. We soon realised that this change would be quite challenging for teachers and parents, so we extended our learning to address change management and the establishment of professional learning communities. Teachers moved from a faculty structure to multidisciplinary teams working over two year levels, with all teachers responsible for pastoral care.

At this time, TV was inundated with crime shows and our students were huge fans so we decided to use ‘truth and evidence’ as our conceptual focus. Initially, we were thinking only in terms of our separate disciplines: What is truth and evidence in history, science, mathematics, art or literature? However, we soon realised that there was a more powerful way to use truth and evidence. Our students wanted to know about many issues that crossed our disciplines; current events that caught their attention, sex, how to solve conflicts and how to build relationships. They had a strong sense of justice and this led to a broader inquiry into ‘who we are’. Who are we as humans? Who are we as citizens from a local, national and global perspective? Teachers and students started to refer to the year 7 curriculum as TBQ – The Big Question. We worked together across our discipline boundaries, collecting evidence and deciding on ‘truths’ or often, that there was no single ‘truth’. Things improved. The boys settled down, we didn’t lose any more student and parents stopped complaining. By the end of the year we realised we had to be careful how we started year 8 the next year to avoid the problems surfacing again.

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The research into middle schooling and inquiry advocated longer class times. The timetabling to meet constraints including keeping teachers’ employment allotments, shorter but more frequent time with additional languages teachers and regular physical education classes took hours of planning. The time table was finally organised to allow for 80 minute classes rather than the previous 40 minute duration. As most teachers taught two disciplines to the same class, there were often ‘back to back’ classes – 160 minutes for a teacher to work with the same group of students. Because we were wasting less time in moving between classes, we found we could increased the time for home economics and materials technology and include more physical education.

However changing a timetable is more than just a scheduling issue. Teachers were worried. “What can we do for 80 minutes? Kids will never concentrate for that long. They can’t sit and listen for 80 minutes.” This rescheduling would require a huge change in classroom dynamics. Before agreeing to the longer class times we decided to try it for a week. After several months of planning, normal scheduling was suspended and the whole school worked in cross age groups of primary and secondary students in 100 minute blocks. This gave secondary teachers a chance to work with primary teachers who were quite used to longer class times and were able to model the range of classroom activities and differentiation techniques that they used on a regular basis.

At the end of the week several observations emerged. Secondary teachers were amazed how much they could accomplish in longer time periods. They felt that they accomplished more in a single 100 minute class than they normally would in three 40 minute classes periods spread over a week. Primary teachers became more comfortable working with older students and secondary teachers realised they could contribute to primary classes. New partnerships developed between primary and secondary colleagues and even after that week, they continued to explore ways they could work together.

The week opened classroom doors. Teachers became more comfortable with team teaching and found they actually enjoyed it. They started to identify its potential to decrease workloads through shared planning and assessing. The secondary staff agreed to implement the 80 minute timetable change for the following year. During the last week of that difficult year, I was with a year 7 class, reviewing percentages, decimals and fractions in context of an inquiry into how we became human. One group calculated that there had been 900 lifetimes of Homo Sapiens of which 660 lifetimes had been spent in caves and only 3 directly experienced motors and electricity as daily commodities. This was an astounding calculation and led to a wonderful discussion about history and how change occurred. One student remarked, “Isn’t it a shame this is the last week of school and we can’t inquiry into this.” In one of my rare moments of insight, I responded, “Well, let’s start with that next year!” and 2WL was born. 2WL stands for ‘What Lifetime? What Learning?’ A team of teachers from the disciplines of Science, English, Mathematics, Humanities and the Arts started to plan how this could form the basis of an integrated curriculum. We developed

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an essential understanding, ‘Learning from the past still connects to the present.’ Two additional questions emerged that would serve as a provocation throughout the year, ‘What change? What contributions?’ We wanted our students to realise that change was the norm throughout human history and that in turbulent times often ordinary people made extraordinary contributions. From discussions with students and reading their work, we realised that they were often pessimistic and fearful about everything from nuclear war and pandemics to environmental catastrophes. We wanted this year to convey a message of hope.

Not every teacher assigned to year 8 the following year was comfortable with the idea of integration to this degree. In the face of this uncertainty, we all agreed to remain open-minded and to evaluate the program together on a regular basis. The initial year 8 professional learning team consisted of four teachers; an English/Humanities teacher, a Mathematics/Science teacher (me), the Art teacher and the Technology teacher. Collectively, we developed a few ground rules. We agreed that the physical environment had to be interesting. We agreed that we would plan around the concepts of change and connection that were embedded in the essential understanding. A unifying point was a time line drawn around the four walls in each year 8 classroom that would serve as a visual documentation of change throughout history. As we discovered interesting things with our students, we would ask them to place iconic pictures or notes on the time line so that it would become a yearlong work in progress. We planned that most learning should be in groups, but that there would be options for students to work alone if they preferred. We developed some common assessment tasks and a culminating performance for the end of the year that would address standards from all of our disciplines. Classroom furnishings were re-considered to allow for this flexibility and differentiation. As old square student desks were due for replacement, round tables were bought that could be arranged and re-arranged in many different configurations depending on the group needs

Figure 3. Inquiry classroom for secondary students

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The daily organiser managed to arrange the timetable so that this team had a collaborative planning time of 40 minutes each week. Although this was never enough, we found that some teachers had time before and some after this ‘official’ time to continue discussions. In addition, most of us had desks in the same work area and soon found that even a few minutes recounting a recent event in the classroom was invaluable in our daily practice. We began to appreciate the power of narrative and stories. If an idea that the teaching team had planned was clearly not interesting to the students or was taking on a life of its own in a different direction we could quickly update our colleagues and partly prepare for it. The after school meeting schedules were also re-organised so that teaching teams could meet for 90 minutes at least two out of every four weeks. This strong emphasis on teams changed the focus of conversation in our staff room – it was almost always about students and teaching and learning.

The importance of documenting students’ learning processes in a variety of ways was another lesson we learned from the ELC. We looked at different types of evidence to use as formative and summative assessment and ways to involve students in the collection and analysis. This meant finding ways for students to reflect on their learning and make it visible to us. The idea of ‘reflection’ was a concept that we grappled with. How do you reflect? What are the different ways? Do different disciplines reflect differently? Initially we were limited in our approaches. One student remarked, “If I have to write one more reflection today, I’ll scream!”

We tried different IT approaches for collecting evidence. They were either too slow once students started uploading images or required too much room on the school’s server. In fairness, we had only a narrow broadband internet connection, so our attempts to use blogs, wikis and other application for reflection were frustrating. The simple and most inexpensive tool that we found for reflection were scrapbooks – the cheap A3 size books of blank pages available at every local newsagent and corner store. We encouraged students to put all of their formative work here from every teacher. The scrapbook would include drafts of essays, project outlines, interesting words, pictures from newspapers, ideas for discussion, ideas from television programmes watched at home, dot points from books read, mind maps, graphic organisers, comments on concepts that were confusing or curious ranging from algorithms in mathematics to provocative headlines. They were messy but served as a remarkable starting point for conversations. Over a year, students would fill up to 6 of these books. At the end of a school year, they served as an exciting record of what had been learned. This collection of formative material reflected their interests and understanding, serving as a valuable source for discussion and planning.

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Figure 4. Students used scrapbooks as a formative assessment tool

Over the first year, we also realised the importance of design technology and art to provide reflection time in a different and often more effective format. The technology teacher addressed his skill requirements as students designed and built working icons of change over time - clocks and windmills. At one point, when many students were interested in medieval history, another technology teacher helped students make bread, yogurt and cheese and talked with them about how that technology – mostly invented by women - had changed during history. The art teacher encouraged students to bring their classroom interests to the art room as inspiration for whatever media skills they were currently developing. As a team we found that through art we could ‘see’ learning in a way that we often missed using the more conventional literacy and numeracy ‘languages’. For example, an art class developing techniques with pastels used their inquiries about the origins of the universe as their inspiration. As a science teacher viewing their gallery display, I could see the depictions of density, energy, strings, quarks, black holes, expansion, star formation, and solar gases; all interests that students had questioned and researched. We also realised that when students were developing their own questions and were actively involved in their own assessment, they were reflecting.

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Figure 5. The beginning of time: Art as reflection on origins of the universe

The importance of providing alternate ways of assessment and involving the students in the decisions of how they would make their learning visible was brought home most vividly through a year 8 student, Cassie. At one point during the year, a group of students wanted to know about terrorism. Why did people do this? For her summative assessment addressing art and humanities’ standards, Cassie chose to paint. In her canvas, she placed herself behind the pilots of the plane just as it would have hit the World Trade Center Tower on 9/11. The images and symbols she incorporated along with her written explanations expressed empathy and outrage and a sound understanding of the history and politics that the class had researched and discussed. Assessment and reflection were again, intimately connected.

Figure 6. Art as reflection and summative assessment: Roots of terrorism

As a teaching team, we learned to be flexible. A slogan originally attributed to John Dewey became our motto. ‘The job of the teacher is to turn impulse into purpose’. The planned and spontaneous, the perspectives of different disciplines

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and using students’ interests as starting points were now characteristics of year 8. Formative assessment was as important as summative assessment. Big conceptual ideas and student questions determined the knowledge and skill development. Tasks were negotiated with students. As a team, teachers developed their understanding of how the local state curriculum could be addressed through inquiry. We mapped our emerging curriculum against these external standards and realised we were ‘covering’ not only the mandated knowledge and skills at that level, but also those from higher levels. More importantly, we heard our students asking complex questions that motivated them to learn.

The following year, teachers of year 9 faced an interesting challenge. They noted that the things they used to do weren’t working anymore. Text books were inadequate. Teachers commented, “These kids have their own questions. They’re not really interested in ours and their good questions are often not supported by textbooks.” So gradually, year 9 and 10 changed to accommodate the way students wanted to learn. Year 10 teachers decided that they really didn’t need separate History, Geography and Business courses. They could work together to explore issues that students felt were driving changes in their lives such as global warming, globalisation and politics. Science and English teachers at year 10 collaborated to explore genetic engineering, nuclear proliferation, the carbon cycle and how all of these big issues were reflected in the work of novelists, poets, playwrights and filmmakers.

As we were navigating these changes to the secondary school’s teaching and learning, the primary school was in the process of becoming authorised to deliver the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP). The elements of the PYP resonated completely with what we were doing; the transdisciplinary nature of the knowledge and skills, the concepts, the attitudes and the call for action as a consequence of inquiry. For various reasons, the school chose not to take on the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (MYP) at the time, but we decided to parallel the language of the PYP and use their planning documents through to Year 10. Instead of the PYP transdisciplinary themes, we used dimensions of sustainability as a transdisciplinary focus. Essential understandings to be developed were mapped across personal sustainability, natural sustainability, socio-cultural sustainability and urban/technological sustainability. We found that we articulated disciplines more as students moved through the secondary school, but were still able to maintain the vision of basing teaching and learning on ideas of significance and relevance to our secondary school students.

This emphasis on sustainability and the environment provided another link to the ELC. We wanted continuity through the school of the concept of environment as a ‘third teacher’. We had worked extensively on the social and emotional ‘environment’, but this was also paralleled by an increasing awareness of the importance of the physical environment.

My favourite images of the school’s physical environment were winter ones – turning into the long driveway in the fog and seeing each tree lining the road

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come into focus through the mist. Over the last tree, school bags and uniforms on hangers were defined black against the soft white background. If we were lucky enough to have rain, the laughter of the early morning running group, the Mudlarks, filtered across the road as students, teachers and even a group of parents competed to see who could collect the most mud along the cross country running track. It had become a tradition to celebrate really wonderful rains with a true Australian ‘crawl’, a free style swim in the puddles. From the car park, I walked through groups of ibis and water hens on the grass areas bordering the wetlands. Towards the spring, there were flocks of pelicans floating on the lake and a migrant swan family with their little army of cygnets. Of the campus’ 45 hectares, 10 had been developed as a wetland. Twenty years previously the school excavated the lowest point of the property to form a lake and the community planted 25,000 trees to form an adjoining woodlands area. At the far end of the wetlands, there was a newly planted organic olive orchard. The students who planted it were inspired by the idea that olive trees could last thousands of years. Beyond the gardens was a small farm with sheep, cattle, a few alpacas, chickens and ducks. Yet, this was not a country school. It was located 35 kilometres from a major city, surrounded by dense housing estates and bordered on one side by a freeway.

The school buildings were cream and green modular structures. Despite the pre-fabricated origins, it seemed to have evolved in a rather random way. Four right turns didn’t seem to return you to your starting point. The individual buildings were connected by wide covered walkways with natural wood decks and perspex roofs designed to bring the outside environment to the door of every classroom. The inside environment offered another insight into the meaning of ‘environment as third teacher’. It was an art gallery of students’ work. Small spaces dotted along the covered decks became ceramic sculpture gardens where mermaids, octopi, tigers and space ships were interspersed with ferns and vines. The plain wire fencing was replaced in many places with wrought iron art work designed by students to match the themes of the enclosed sculptures. Wall murals depicted rainforests, aboriginal themes and Japanese gardens. Handmade fabric umbrellas swayed in high spaces. There was always something to see that provoked or pleased.

In addition to ‘school as nature’ and ‘school as art gallery’, other inside environments reflected ‘school as global community’. An indoor area in the centre of the school became a piazza. A red and black lacquered Japanese book case with costumed dolls and a changing selection of books in many languages were positioned close by. Another Japanese sideboard held a visitors book and journals with photos and written explanations of projects and activities. A Balinese wardrobe stored costumes from around the world for the younger students’ dress-ups and a low Indonesian table surrounded by cushions invited students to gather round for conversations or writing activities. Carpets from Afghanistan and Iraq were scatted over the floor and half a dozen tapestry seats from traditional Arabic tents supplemented the bean bags from the classrooms. Tall wooden Kenyan sculptures of giraffes and elephants intrigued everyone

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who passed by. We wanted this room to contain beautiful things from countries that students often associated with war, terror or poverty. Overhead, students from the primary and secondary classes hung posters describing both local and global issues that were of interest and concern to them. The piazza was almost always full of students, even during class time. Students and teachers liked to work here. They spread out on the floor with math puzzles, held debates, and stretched out on the carpets to read or work on their laptops.

The school community - parents, students, teachers and school council - decided that new teaching areas should model sustainable building practices and support collaborative learning. They wanted learning spaces where students could see that it was possible to do simple things to the built environment that would make significant differences to green house gas emissions. It took three years working with architects to design the first new building. It was passively heated and cooled through the interaction of solar chimneys, water walls and waffle flooring. A windmill and photovoltaic cells fed electricity into the state grid. This building was not computer controlled as we wanted students to have a ‘hands-on’ role. If it was too warm, they could close blinds, turn on the water wall and pull up the ceiling heat deflectors. The open area easily accommodated 100 students and their teachers. Tables were designed for easy storage and re-arrangement into different configurations to suite learning activities. There was storage space for students’ work in progress and large display boards that rolled out from wall cupboards.

Figure 7. Sustainable buildings

Older classrooms in the primary and secondary areas also underwent significant physical changes to support the changes in teaching and learning. Walls were removed in some places so that groups of students and teachers could work in larger spaces. Secondary classrooms, built over 15 years ago were proving too small. The classroom layout worked when students sat in desks and rows and didn’t move. However those spaces no longer provided an

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environment to support the needs of inquiry learning with its inherent movement and flexibility of grouping. Corridors and areas between classrooms were enclosed and weather proofed so that students could spill out of confined spaces.

Bells were used only at the end of recess and lunch breaks to signal to students playing out on the grounds that it was time to return to classes. Our Early Years'Reggio colleagues reminded us that bells in between lessons send a message to students that their learning is subject to an administrative ‘control’ and is not really important. We moved smoothly to new classes with few audible reminders. A little lateness of teachers or students was tolerated with good humour.

. . . The descriptions in this chapter are the shadows on my inquiry cave walls;

my vision and understanding of what inquiry looks like, feels like and sounds like. The students and teachers are ones you will meet again in later chapters as they describe their insights into inquiry learning. What is the relationship between how we were teaching and learning here to curriculum theory and current research into teaching practice? The next two chapters look at some of those issues. The order parallels the problems that unfolded in the process of facilitating the school’s curriculum change so there are still stories to be told along the way.

NOTES

9 Charles Blackman, 1928- . Two significant themes in his work have been the ‘Schoolgirl’ and the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ series which inspired the work pictured here. Deep shadows and a sense of melancholy pervade his work. Blackman was awarded an OBE in 1977 in recognition of his status among contemporary Australian painters.

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joins values or ideas that can alternate or be interchangeable, hence my use of ~ in this chapter heading and throughout the book.

Spirals trace complex steps and connections. They symbolise the dance between two or more intricate ideas. In mystical and religious desgns they often appear in groups of three symbolising land, sea and sky and the physical, mental and spiritual development of life. The second and third spirals are always reactivated by, and

reactivate, the first. Like three interconnected spirals, I needed to answer three connected questions: How can inquiry learning support sustainability? What are the theories behind inquiry learning? What is the research on inquiry in practice? This chapter looks at those first two questions and the next chapter at the third.

The term ‘sustainable development’ was coined by the 1987 United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development, more commonly known as the Brundtland Commission. Their report defined sustainability as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own goals. The 1992 United Nations conference on environment and development (the Rio Earth Summit) addressed the role of education in bringing about sustainable development, referred to as Agenda 21.

Education is crucial for promoting sustainable development and improving the capacity of the people to address environmental and development issues.10

However, the catch words of ‘education for sustainable development’ (ESD) that have emerged since the Brundtland report and Agenda 21 have multiple and often contradictory interpretations. Some authors distinguished between ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ sustainability with the former associated with economic and the later with ecosystem sustainability. A group of British researchers described the components of sustainability as environment, society and economy. Others defined ESD as wholeness, posterity, smallness, community, quality and spiritual fulfilment. The New South Wales Government in Australia contributed to my confusion by defining ESD in terms of overarching and specific issues. Overarching issues included sustainable lifestyles, ecosystem health and bioregional awareness, infrastructure and institutional arrangements and local communities taking action. Specific issues were clean air, clean water and protecting the coast, to name a few from their substantial list. Not even the theorists or researchers seem to be able to reach a common definition. One positive aspect of this frustrating research into ESD was that I became more convinced that increasing the content of environmental education courses was not the answer.

Educators and politicians have long understood that education transforms individuals and societies.11 At no time in history has this responsibility been so significant. Many writers and researchers believed that ESD would be that force, but its progress has been slow since 1992 and Agenda 21. Critics of ESD point out that there cannot be a common view on what makes life worthwhile nor can governments dictate these values. Consequently, environmental education which

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often challenges life style choices can be seen as interfering with the rights of citizens to make their own decisions. Environmental education may not have been effective as it could be, because it sought to change behaviours by imposing ideas rather than opening ideas for inquiry, intense discussion and consensus.12 This resonated with my concerns.

Deconstructivist curriculum theorists offer another perspective on EDS. They ask, ‘What’s missing? What’s not being said?’ For example, Gough analysed the concept of bioregionalism, a solution offered by some ESD thinkers to environmental problems. Bioregionalism proposes that landmasses be delineated into regions based on the location of watersheds. Nations would inhabit areas defined by these boundaries. However, ‘descriptions of the physical world are not prescriptions for social life.’13 The relationship between humans and nature is complex and cannot be pursued simply by looking at environmental studies as applied science in nature. ESD would perhaps be better served by a ‘rhizomic’ view of inquiring into complex and often hidden relationships.14 That ‘inquiring’ word again.

Transformative education requires critically reflective learning which encourages difficult questions, an understanding of different world views, and a search for creative solutions. Stephen Sterling, a prominent British environmental educator, argues that we should not use the term ‘education for sustainability’. He prefers the term ‘sustainable education’ which implies a shift to education that includes humanistic as well as ecological values and accommodates knew knowledge and different perspectives. It is the development of the kind of person who is an active global citizen. Sterling asserts that if more education is to save us, it must be education of a different kind.15 For me, that would have to be education grounded in inquiry with its inclusion of action.

Having now accepted the link between sustainability and inquiry, I moved to the next spiral in my personal dance. Changing classroom practice in the secondary school first required understanding the theories behind inquiry learning in order to convince administrators, parents and other teachers that it could work.

I started spending more time in the ELC listening and looking at the influence of the Reggio Emilia approach. Although the learning I observed in there looked like my understanding of inquiry, that word was seldom used by those teachers. Their phrases were ‘children constructing their learning’ or ‘children’s constructions’. What is the relationship between inquiry learning and constructivism? Is it applicable to learners of any age?

Loris Malaguzzi, the founder of the Reggio Emilia movement, was influenced by the work of the constructivists, Piaget and Vygotsky, and Dewey. Immediately following World War II, Malaguzzi became a teacher of young children working with a community in Reggio Emilia, Italy. The Reggio Emilia community did not want ‘ordinary’ schooling. The parents wanted a place where children could become critical and creative thinkers, skills necessary to rebuild and maintain a democratic society. This context was not unlike the current calls for creative and critical thinkers to work together to rebuild the health of the planet.

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My own recollections of secondary school were of teachers at the front of the class. They asked direct questions, randomly choosing students to reply. I tried not to make eye contact especially when I wasn’t sure of the answer. I had a good memory so always did well on tests. The day after my last year 12 exam I could remember little of what I’d studied. Throughout teacher training I learnt techniques for breaking large topics into small bits that could be taught one at a time with clear learning objectives at each stage. All of my early education was influenced by this behaviourism or objectivism, so called because of its dependence on objective knowledge about the world that exists independently of the learner. Behaviourists believe in the existence of reliable knowledge about the world. As learners, the goal is to gain this knowledge; as educators, to transmit it.

This curriculum perspective is most often associated with Ralph Tyler and referred to as the technical production perspective. Despite almost immediate criticism, Tyler’s ideas still dominate schools as evidenced by the language of standards, benchmarks, outcomes and high stakes testing. However, ‘behaviourism’ existed long before Tyler. The word ‘curriculum’ itself was first found in print on a Ramist chart published in 1576. These charts developed by Peter Ramus (1515 – 1572) not only dictated exactly what needed to be learned but also the exact order it was to be taught. Ramus believed that knowledge transmitted in small steps in a specific sequence could control the thinking and behaviour of young men in his turbulent times. His charts are the template for our idea of textbooks. Ironically, Ramus was beheaded during the chaos and brutality of the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.

‘Curriculum’, as a Latin noun means either a racecourse or a chariot for racing. In the verb form, currere, it means ‘to run the course’. Ramus’ meaning of curriculum merged the noun and verb: The ‘what to teach’ and the ‘how to teach’ became ‘method’. This concept of linearity and structure in education reflected the science and mathematics of Ramus’ time when Galileo and his contemporaries were reducing nature to laws. Hence, ‘control’ has been implicitly imbedded in ‘curriculum’ since its inception. Ramist ideas particularly appealed to the Protestants and the Puritans and consequently ‘curriculum’ migrated to New England with long lasting consequences.16

Control was also important in early 19th century American society exemplified by Frederick Taylor’s scientific management, Henry Ford’s assembly line, Binet’s IQ testing, and Thorndike’s conception of mind as machine. The huge increase in newspapers and journals reporting on these ideas fuelled the public demand for scientific management in schools. Students became raw materials which school transformed into a ‘finished product’.

In the early 1930s, there was a softening of the behaviourist approach coinciding with the Depression’s disillusionment with science and business. However the scientific and technology advances following World War I through to the Cold War again pushed the transmission models forward, this time supported by Tyler’s behavioural objectives. From 1965 to 1975, there was a brief flurry of informal classrooms and open education driven by societal changes in that era (Vietnam war, free love and the ‘hippies’) but this soon

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returned to the ‘back to basics’ movement driven by business and commerce which is still dominant today. The implications from sustainable education suggest that there is a need for change away from this control driven model to one that promotes discussion, consensus and personal responsibility rather than a dependence on technology to solve global problems.

Despite behaviourism’s dominance there are other curriculum visions. Perhaps the most important for educators are the constructivist theories particularly those of Piaget, von Glasersfeld, Vygotsky and Dewey. Piaget, who is credited with first formalizing the theory of constructivism, believed that learners construct knowledge by assimilating experiences from their environment and accommodating them to internal mental structures or schema. Learning occurs in response to conflict, provocations or problems; when something in the environment does not match what we thought we understood. Piaget’s most influential research was on the importance of developmental stages. His critics believe this view of constructivism isolates the child, undervalues the role of adults and underestimates the relationship between cognitive, emotional and moral development.17 This may be unfair to Piaget as he did not specifically study the effect of teaching or other social interactions on development.

Von Glasersfeld’s radical constructivism built on Piaget’s work. Von Glasersfeld believed that nothing exists outside of the individual’s experience and new learning comes from disturbances between old experiences, the physical world and the social world. I struggled with the term ‘radical constructivism’ and the idea that each person sees the world distinctively. Radical constructivism always reminded me of one of Boswell’s stories about Samuel Johnson. After church one Sunday in 1763, they were discussing Bishop Berkeley’s sermon attempting to prove the non-existence of matter. In his irritation, Johnson kicked a rock with such a force that he rebounded from it and declared, ‘I refute it thus!’ Returning to von Glasersfeld and carefully reading his work clarified some misunderstandings. Constructivists who follow his philosophy are ‘radical’ because they take their theory of knowing seriously in contrast to people who used the term ‘constructivism’ fashionably, but with no intention of changing their practice from transmission to transformation – the trivial constructivists.

Radical constructivism suggests that there are multiple realities. How then do societies and cultures function? Vygotsky believed that learning could not be rigidly linked to developmental stages, although like Piaget he also identified several stages of childhood. The difference is that Vygotsky considered that developmental descriptions should reflect the whole child which includes his relationship to a social environment. Vygotsky focused on the significance of the relationship between adult and child. The aim of the adult is to bring the child’s understanding of her physical and social world forward through social interaction. Vygotsky described the zone of proximal development (ZPD) as that small place in time where an adult, whether parent or teacher can pull a student forward in her thinking using artifacts. The adult remains flexible, recognizing and accepting directions that a child’s activity may take.18 Vygotsky called this a zone of proximal development, not a zone of proximal learning.

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The extension of his developmental philosophy to teaching and learning occurred long after his death with the 1978 translation of his work as Mind and Society.

Although Vygotsky focused on spoken and written language as the main artifact acting in the ZPD, he also included symbolic languages such as counting systems, mnemonics, algebra, art, writing, diagrams, maps and all sorts of conventional signs. In resonance with Vygotsky, Malaguzzi supported the importance of the ZPD in children’s learning and that learning requires a range of tools; the ‘hundred languages of children’ referred to by teachers using the Reggio Emilia approach. Those ELC teachers that I observed often used the phrase, ZPD. They looked for those transformative moments through discussion, art, movement and observation of play. They carefully documented those moments to plan future activities with the child.

Dewey, a contemporary of Tyler and Ford, developed a social-constructivist perspective for education. His philosophy was that the child needs to be the instigator of learning but that learning occurs in a social context as we are social beings. Dewey’s philosophy bridges the constructivist theories of von Glasersfeld and Vygotsky. Dewey believed that constructing knowledge starts with the impulse of the student which the teacher turns into purpose through meaningful activity. The impulse and the activities are shaped by the environment in which they occur which includes artifacts from the physical and social world - books, toys, materials for experiments, and other people – not just the teacher. Transformation of the learner is more important than transmission of knowledge and this occurs when meaningful activities are the source of learning.19 In addition to ‘transformation’ Dewey coined the term ‘transaction’ to describe a reciprocal relationship between an individual and the learning environment. The environment affects the individual, but the individual also acts on the environment. Through transaction, teacher and student are both transformed. They both become learners creating a common understanding. Dewey’s additional ‘principle of continuity’ means that every experience creates a new reality and opens up possibilities for further learning. This is the foundation of inquiry cycles, one question, one wonderment leads to another.

Dewey started with the interest of the child and the individual’s personal experience, not the structure of the discipline or the economic needs of an industrial society. Dewey embraced the scientific advances of his time but did not believe the industrial paradigm should be applied to education. Like his contemporary Vygotsky, Dewey believed in the power of science but also the need for citizens to act wisely in the new political and social institutions of the time. In parallel with Ramus, Dewey’s vision also reflected the new discoveries in mathematics and science. Quantum theory, uncertainty principles and chaos theory were replacing Galileo and Newton’s linearity in studying complex systems. The physicist and philosopher, Alfred North Whitehead was developing a new world view based on relationships rather than predictable atoms. Freud was expressing his disillusionment with the ability of knowledge separated from culture and understanding to answer the questions of ‘why war?’20 This new

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order was reflected in the Progressive Schools of the 1930s and 1940s – that ‘softening’ of the scientific transmission approach referred to earlier.

As with behaviourism, constructivism was also not a new idea: Socrates used it to guide his students. As all parents and teachers know, children have always constructed meanings about the world around them, sometimes incorrectly. Dewey acknowledged this problem of building incorrect knowledge by recognizing that there has to be a middle ground between ‘control’ and children as total instigators of their learning. Control is not situated outside the individual nor is it only self-control. Control is centered in communities of learners guiding activities to their natural end.

Critics of constructivism dispute its use in schools, because unlike behaviourism, there is no one set of rules that can guide educational practice. I like Perkins’ description of constructivism as a Swiss Army knife and accept that different situations may require a different constructivist approach.21 Piaget taught educators to be aware of developmental needs and differences in children. Von Glasersfeld’s view reminds teachers not to assume that all students have the same understandings or even that a teacher’s understandings can be shared by all. There is a need to differentiate for each individual. Vygotsky taught educators to use the relationship between teacher and student to look for ways to extend the child’s understanding through a range of ‘languages’. Dewey taught that all learning starts with the interests of the individual and that we learn through activity. Every activity must be meaningful leading naturally on to further exploration and everything in the student’s environment shapes learning.

Certainly there are specific issues around constructivism that I needed to think about carefully. A small number of researchers reported that students in constructivist classrooms lagged behind those in more traditional classrooms in basic skills. Some science educators warn that students in constructivist classrooms discover what is apparent to them not what is apparent to a professional scientist. In group work, the exclusion of minority groups’ voices may favour white, middle class and male priorities. Feminist writers have expressed the concern that constructivism focuses on cognitive knowing without considering how things might be known intuitively or instinctively: it may not consider how emotions are constructed or their role in learning.

In the mid-nineteen seventies William Pinar and Madeleine Grumet22 proposed that educators move beyond a good / bad division between behaviourism and constructivism and transform the whole idea of curriculum to meet new times and situations. Continuing this post-constructivist or re-conceptualist vision, William Doll and Noel Gough described curriculum through 5Cs - currere, complexity, cosmology, conversation and community.23 They returned to the verb ‘currere’ to re-focus the emphasis on how understandings are constructed, the ‘running of the course’ as a personal experience. There is no set starting point, ‘the beginning is in the existential moment and as the experience, with communal help, plunges into a situation, a matrix of connections (rich, recursive, relational, and rigorous) emerge.’24 Complexity accepts chaos and acknowledges that nature is not simple: complexity can be a source of creativity.

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Cosmology demands a universal view focusing on relationships and interdependence rather than brute facts. Conversation or dialogue brings together different perspectives, enhances relationships and develops understanding, not just knowledge. In resonance with Dewey and Vygotsky, experience is constructed socially in a community dedicated to care and critique. Good inquiry includes all of these 5Cs.

Cherryholmes, another reconceptualist, considers that all curriculum theories are ‘under erasure’- they change and blur. Curriculum as ‘what to teach’ can be accepted and rejected simultaneously. Good teachers have always accepted the content that is provided for children to learn while rejecting parts which they consider incomplete or authoritative. Similarly ‘currere’ can be simultaneously accepted or rejected. Good teachers have always known that the initial way students engage in learning can simultaneously be accepted by appealing to their interest and imagination and rejected or changed through offering different experiences and interpretations and encouraging critical thinking.25 This stance helps resolve some of those criticisms of constructivism mentioned previously. Misunderstandings in science can be a starting point to be investigated and rejected. Feminist and minority concerns can be countered through careful conversation and consideration.

Blurring the boundaries between curriculum and currere, the ‘what to teach’ and ‘how to teach’ with ‘who teaches’ is the final rejection of Ramus’ ghost of control. Inquiry learning, although grounded in constructivism, requires one step further. It is not just teachers who help students construct learning. Reconceptualist inquiry returns full circle to support Dewey’s transformation and transaction.

Both student and teacher are called to be artists in the construction of a better life and a better world. Inquiry is also transactional art. The relationship that develops between teacher and the student enables each to grow and change. The teacher sees creatively and imaginatively in the medium, the student, a mixture of the actual and the potential just as the student actualizes the teacher’s potential and limits. 26

This personal journey to understand the theory behind inquiry led me to sympathize with von Glasersfeld. Just asking students questions and having them find answers that are not relevant to them is ‘trivial inquiry.’ It does not allow students to construct their learning. ‘Radical inquiry’ starts with the interests of the student but takes constructivism to another level of complexity that involves the transformation of teacher and student, erasing the difference between them and reinforcing the importance of a community of learners. In the nature of spirals connecting to spirals, this is also crucial to sustainable education and any education that claims to develop internationally or globally minded people.

Dynamic, guided inquiry helps create thoughtful deliberative and wise people. I would suggest that the development and implementation of this form of inquiry in school environments also leads to a more tolerant

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people whose understanding of diversity and the other’s point of view will engender a more caring and responsive society.27

I started this chapter with my image of teaching and learning as a dance. I was quite delighted to find this metaphor used in the reconstructivist curriculum world. ‘Child and curriculum, learner and teacher, self and text, person and culture dance together to form a complex pattern - ever changing, ever stable, ever alive’.28 My Celtic spiral image

connecting sustainable education with inquiry theory and inquiry practice is now replaced with one derived from the mathematics of chaos theory to reflect the dance of complexity and chaos. These spirals, like inquiry, are not rigid, carved in rock; they are dynamic, moving and infinitely entwined. In this chapter, I’ve looked at some of the essential understandings from educational philosophy that support the implementation of inquiry learning and affirm its position as supporting teaching and learning for sustainable education. Understanding and being able to articulate this theory re-assured school stakeholders that inquiry learning was not some new radical idea without theoretical foundations. But understanding the theory was not enough to develop good practice. The next chapter considers the research and thinking on the practical elements that can help build successful inquiring classrooms.

NOTES

10 Agenda 21. (1992). Retrieved July 12, 2006, from http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents /agenda21/english/agenda21toc.htm#pre

11 Apple, M. W. (2001). Educating the “Right” Way: Markets, Standards, God, and Inequality. New York: Routledge Falmer.; Apple, M. W. (2004). Ideology and Curriculum. New York: Routledge Falmer.

12 Bonnett, M. (2002). Education for sustainability as a frame of mind. Environmental Education Research, 8(1), 9–20.

13 Gough, N. (2002). Thinking/acting/locally/globally: Western science and environmental education in a global knowledge economy. International Journal of Science Education, 24(11), 1217–1237.

14 Gough, N. (2007). Changing planes: Rhizosemiotic play in transnational curriculum inquiry. Studies in Philosophical Education, 26(3), 279–294.

15 Sterling, S. R. (2001). Sustainable Education: Revisioning Learning and Change (p. 54). Totnes: Green Books for the Schumacher Society.

16 Doll, W. E., Fleener, M. J., Trueit, D., & St. Julien, J. (2005). Chaos, Complexity, Curriculum and Culture. New York: Peter Lang.

17 Edwards, C., Gandini, L., & Forman, G. (1993). The Hundred Languages of Children. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

18 Glassman, M. (2000). Dynamic aims: The use of long term projects in early childhood classrooms in light of Dewey’s educational philosophy. Early Childhood Research and Practice, 2(1). Retrieved July 8, 2007, from http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v2n1/glassman.html.

19 Dewey, J. (1915). School and Society and The Child and the Curriculum. Replicated 2001, Mineola, NY: Dover Publications.

20 Britzman, D. P. (2002). Death and crisis. In W. Doll & N. Gough (Eds.), Curriculum Visions (pp. 92–101). New York: Peter Lang.

21 Perkins, D. (1999). The many faces of constructivism. Educational Leadership, 57(3), 6–11.

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22 Pinar, W. R., & Grumet, M. R. (1976). Toward a Poor Curriculum. Dubuque, IA: Kendell/Hunt. 23 Doll, W. E., & Gough, N. (2002). Curriculum Visions. New York: Peter Lang. 24 Doll, W. E. (2005). The culture of method. In W. E. Doll, M. J. Fleener, D. Trueit, & J. St. Julien

(Eds.), Chaos, Complexity, Curriculum and Culture. New York: Peter Lang. 25 Cherryholmes, C. H. (2002). Curriculum ghosts and visions – What to do? In W. Doll & N.

Gough (Eds.), Curriculum Visions (pp. 116–126). New York: Peter Lang. 26 Wickersham, E. (2002). Perspective on cherryholmes. In W. Doll & N. Gough (Eds.),

Curriculum Visions (pp. 127–129). New York: Peter Lang. (p.128) 27 Wickersham, E. (2002). Ibid. (p. 129) 28 Doll, W.E. (2005). Ibid. (p.38)

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MARCIA BEHRENBRUCH

CHAPTER 3CHAPTER 3CHAPTER 3CHAPTER 3

Inquiry in Practice: Research from the Outside

Having justifed inquiry learning in context of sustainable education and looked at the theories that support inquiry my next questions were, ‘What does research tell us about inquiry in practice? How does it work in classrooms? How do children learn through inquiry? How do inquiry classrooms meet the accountability requirements of state,

provincial or federal systems?’ Each inquiry is unique. It is a fusion of a teacher’s background, skills and interests with that of her students. What insights and perspectives do experts outside a school offer this unique learning environment? How do the beliefs of these outside experts resonate with my own experiences?

Putting inquiry into practice is not straightforward. It is not the way that most of us were taught. It requires a different relationship with students, colleagues, parents and the greater school community. Inquiry rethinks what we mean by knowledge, the purpose of that knowledge and the sign systems that we use to construct and communicate it. It requires fundamental changes to how we perceive schooling. Inquiry makes many teachers and parents nervous!29

A Google Scholar search on inquiry learning returned tens of thousands of results mainly from primary and secondary school science educators, the tertiary fields of nursing and medicine and less frequently, mathematics and the humanities. These resources generated a wide variety of definitions of inquiry but most of these missed the importance of student and teacher transforming their own learning together or the importance of student voice. ‘Inquiry’ was often linked with ‘methods’ such as discovery learning, problem-based learning (PBL) or project-based learning (the other PBL). The ghost of Ramus reminds us that ‘method’ was introduced into education as a means of control. ‘Method’ is strongly associated with textbooks, curriculum plans, ways of teaching, and ways of teaching teachers how to teach. This combination of ‘inquiry’ with the control implications of the word ‘method’ suggests that there is a great deal of confusion in the education community.

After reading over 500 articles and books discussing applications of constructivism in primary and secondary school settings, or referring directly to inquiry learning, I had a list of 12 topics or ideas that surfaced time and again (Table 1). These seemed to fall into two themes. The first theme looks at the processes to guide inquiry: planning for learning, identifying concepts,

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assessments, the development of good questions and authentic classroom tasks. These processes have been traditionally considered the role of the teacher but in inquiry they connect the interests of students with the accountability demands of teachers, resulting in a shared responsibility for learning.

The second theme looks at the social skills and dispositions that are required of teachers and students to make this shared responsibility happen. I originally considered ‘action’ and ‘reflection’ as part of this theme. I came to realise that these two terms are inseparable and that they are also crucial to the first theme of guiding inquiry. Reflection ~ action weaves through all facets of teaching and learning. Taking a poststructuralist view that boundaries are often fuzzy, these two main themes still provide a lens to consider inquiry in practice.

Table 1. The twelve initial topics derived from reading a wide range of literature on inquiry in practice and the resulting two themes.

Topics from Meta Analysis of Research

The resulting themes

Planning Assessment Authentic tasks Concepts and conceptual understanding Questions to start and direct inquiry

RE

FL

EC

TIO

N ~ A

CT

ION

Guiding inquiry: sharing the responsibility

Discourse Negotiation Choice Flexibility Accepting uncertainty Thinking

Social skills and learning dispositions: the intangibles of inquiry?

THEME 1. GUIDING INQUIRY: SHARING THE RESPONSIBILITY

Common questions parents and administrators ask teachers in inquiry-based programmes are, “How do you teach with so few or no textbooks? Will students have the knowledge and skills they need for final examinations? How do you know what children are learning? How do you plan?” The challenge for teachers is to keep the flexibility and excitement of inquiry whilst still addressing these concerns. The challenge is to guide inquiry.

Planning for inquiry

Traditionally, planning started with the ‘disciplines’ such as language, literature, mathematics, history or science as organisers of knowledge. Disciplines are by their very nature inquiry based. They include unique techniques for asking and answering questions as well as theory and symbol systems. Yet schools use the word ‘subject’ to describe their curriculum organisation. There is a subtle difference, although teachers and students in this school and in most others use

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them interchangeably. ‘Subjects’ often consist of knowledge and symbols separated from the ways of inquiring, the ways of knowing or the communities of learners that are working to extend that knowledge.30

Subjects tend to be delivered through textbooks that may be more like Ramist charts. They list what is to be learned and in what order. The typical school’s compulsory subject list, similar in most countries of the world, consists of mathematics, science, history, geography, English and foreign languages. This list was developed in 1893 by Charles Eliot’s Committee of Ten from Harvard University. These men were indeed, New England’s historical and philosophical heirs of Peter Ramus.31

Although it has become accepted that schools organise and plan by distinct subjects often with little interface between them, in real life we do not learn that way. We inquire. We pose and solve problems individually and collaboratively using a wide range of knowledge and skills, and call on attitudes and values to make decisions and act. For example, we combine mathematical and science knowledge, use language to communicate findings, and consider the ethical implications of new discoveries and technologies. Historical, cultural, political, scientific or even mathematical ideas become points of provocation for the arts. Real life learning experiences in school would also see students asking questions, investigating issues and creating products that combined a range of discipline (or subject) knowledge and skills. They would be encouraged to gather and analyse information, communicate clearly, make connections between events, solve and pose problems, work as members of learning communities and transfer the acquired knowledge and skills to new situations.

On first glance, to maintain the integrity of disciplines, inquiries could be planned around those with similar problem solving paradigms such as mathematics/science, the arts, and history/philosophy. Alternatively inquiry could be planned around a collection of significant ideas or questions that would, over a school year, focus discipline knowledge and skills in a real context. ‘Inquiry’ in the literature is often linked with adjectives reflecting this more realistic discipline stance such as interdisciplinary inquiry, transdisciplinary inquiry, or multidisciplinary inquiry.

Although these adjectives represent different initial approaches of curriculum designers they are cumbersome and often cause confusion in practice. Even among curriculum designers, there is more commonality than difference in the definitions, for example, these below for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary learning. From a ‘reconstructivist’ world view these approaches could be regarded as an example of an either / or situation that need not exist. Good teachers weave them to create a unique fabric for each inquiry.

Students demonstrate interdisciplinary understanding of a particular topic when they can bring together concepts, methods, or forms of communication from two or more disciplines or established areas of expertise to explain a phenomenon, solve a problem, create a product, or raise a new question in ways that would have been unlikely through a single disciplinary means.32

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The meaning of the prefix “trans” is two-fold [in transdisciplinary]: to convey learning that has relevance across the subject areas and more importantly, learning that transcends the confines of the subject areas to connect to what is real in the world. Transdisciplinary is a focus on issues across learning areas, between them and beyond them, for the emergence of new and broader perspectives and for deeper understanding of the interrelatedness of complex issues.33

There are valid criticisms of any approach to learning that contains the word ‘discipline’. Gardner maintains that real discipline work is not possible in primary or secondary school. It needs to await the mastery of disciplines, in his view a ten year post-secondary process to develop the required knowledge and skills. He prefers the term ‘multiperspectivism’ to support the synthesizing mind, one of his ‘5 minds for the future’.34 A multiperspectivist approach recognises that students can ask pertinent questions, understand and ask the types of answers that might be provided by discipline experts.

A more troubling criticism is that any ‘discipline’ approach to curriculum planning whether called interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, transdisciplinary or multiperspectivism, may maintain an elitist stance. Disciplines reflect academic territories and suggest that a ‘good life’ consists of intellectual activity within a narrow range of knowledge. The discipline approach has resulted in schools reinforcing high status knowledge such as mathematics and science, and devaluing the knowledge of non-dominant cultures by acting as a ‘sort and select’ system. Structuring any curriculum, including one focused on inquiry, through traditional academic disciplines may ignore or devalue learning that occurs outside academia or the emergence of new disciplines.35

Pinar, one of the curriculum reconceptualists introduced in the previous chapter, suggested that social alienation could be a consequence of curriculum closely identified with academic disciplines. Could this be part of the reason for the alienation we see in our students, particularly in the middle years? Are these traditional ‘disciplines’ no longer representative of knowledge networks that students see as defining success in an age of global citizens or global entrepreneurs? Are these traditional disciplines in conflict with indigenous ways of knowing which we are starting to realise have a significant contribution to make towards ecological knowledge and social sustainability?36 Even if inquiry is planned as ‘transdisciplinary’ or ‘interdisciplinary’ around significant ideas or issues, are these ideas or issues relevant to all the learners in a class, or only to adults? Is the voice of the child missing? ‘Integrated’ combined with ‘inquiry’ has a different meaning and could offer an alternate way for teachers to think about planning an inquiry learning environment. Integrated inquiry takes the interests of the students as the starting point for incorporating discipline knowledge and skills; an echo of Dewey, Vygotsky’s and Reggio Emilia’s voice of the child. This approach calls for learning experiences that are transferable to new situations, organised around personal and social issues, and collaboratively planned by teachers and

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students.37 An integrative approach to inquiry is about dissolving boundaries; discipline boundaries and assessment boundaries, and boundaries between the student’s experience and experiences of experts, teachers and peers. The distinction disappears not only between ‘what to teach’ and ‘how to teach’, but between ‘who teaches’ and ‘who assesses’.38

Planning for inquiry is built on ‘frameworks’ rather a ‘syllabus’. Frameworks are a way of planning teaching and learning that supports the construction of a wide range of knowledge and skills that a community may value using starting points that are relevant, significant, challenging and engaging to students. A framework for inquiry can take ‘understandings’ not just issues and problems as a starting point for planning. I like ‘understandings’ because it accepts that wonderment, insight and awe as well issues and problems can be inspirational for inquiry. Learning how to understand must be an important goal in education. In school we can only address a small sample of the worlds’ growing bank of knowledge, but we can equip students to be capable of continuing to learn independently. There are no simple definitions of ‘understanding’. It means being able to decide what knowledge and skills will be required to resolve a puzzling situation and how to transfer what is learned to new settings.39 Dewey defined understanding as:

To grasp the meaning of a thing, an event, or a situation is to see it in its relation to other things: to see how it operates or functions, what consequences follow from it, what causes it, what uses it can be put to.40

There are two interconnected groups of frameworks that support the development of understanding through inquiry. The first group focuses on the teachers’ role in planning, but provides less structure for developing student questions. This is what I refer to as ‘planning for purpose’. The second set of frameworks support the development of student inquiries. This is ‘planning for possibilities’. The first set of frameworks is built around a ‘backwards by design’ approach. A teacher considers conceptual understandings that would resonate with the interests of the children at an age appropriate level. She then considers the knowledge and skills that would be required to support that understanding. In traditional planning, the next stage would be, ‘what activities could we do?’ This is not the case in backwards by design. Before any activities are considered a teacher thinks about how this understanding will be demonstrated at the end of an inquiry? How will she know what students have learned? What is the evidence that will be collected? What will that summative assessment task look like? Only then are activities planned to support the attainment of that final goal. In this context, all class activities become significant as formative assessment.

The most commonly referenced frameworks within this group are Teaching for Understanding (TfU), Understanding by Design (UbD), and Erickson’s concept based curriculum design.41 In Table 2, I have aligned these three frameworks with the ‘backwards by design’ key questions.

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Table 2. Planning for Purpose: Frameworks based on ‘backwards by design’ to support teacher planning.

TfU UbD Erickson 1. What ideas are

significant, relevant challenging and engaging? What knowledge and skills could be developed through this idea?

Generative topics Understanding

Goals

Identify desired results

Establish goals Develop essential

Understandings Develop essential

questions Identify key

knowledge and skills

Decide on a focus for the unit

Identify a conceptual lens

Develop an enduring understanding

Develop essential questions

Identify knowledge andskills

2. How will I know when they have achieved this? (Summative assessment)

Performances of understanding* Ongoing assessment *performances of understanding may be summative or formative

Performance tasks

Design culminating

performances

3. How will they get there? (Formative assessment)

Learning Activities (formative assessment)

Learning Experiences (formative assessment)

Backwards by design on its own does not guarantee that inquiry will occur. It

does not necessarily support the development of student inquiries around that conceptual understanding. The second group of planning frameworks however, are based on inquiry cycles. There are many of these described in the literature on inquiry. I have included only a sample of the more common references in Table 3. Despite some variations, these cycles all originated in Dewey’s five phases or aspects of reflective thought. It is within this planning for possibilities that reflection and action are explicit. Even more significantly, they are inseparable in an inquiry environment: they are reflection ~ action. Between sensing a perplexing situation and its resolution, Dewey proposed five reflective stages for inquiry:

1. A suggestive phase where the mind leaps forward, too quickly, to a possible solution;

2. An intellectualization phase where the difficulty felt is turned into a problem to be solved;

3. A hypothesis forming phase to act as a guide for close observation and data gathering;

4. A reasoning phase where the mind logically examines, thinks; 5. A testing by overt action phase where corroboration, verification,

failure occur. 42 Students are reflecting and acting on their interests. Teachers are reflecting and inquiring about the students’ learning. What are we (or our students) interested in or ‘puzzled’ about? Are we clear about the questions we are asking? What

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knowledge and skills will be required? What data will be collected? Do we see any wider possibilities? What is the next action to take? This is why I prefer the term ‘planning for possibilities’ for frameworks based on inquiry cycles rather than the term ‘unplanned curriculum’. This term does not represent the practice of good inquiry teachers. Planning for possibilities encourages a creative process that is liberating and committed to action on the part of student and teacher. A two dimensional page doesn’t allow for real representation of a complex cyclical process. The last step in each column in Table 3 may trigger a new inquiry, acknowledging Dewey’s principle of continuity. One investigation leads naturally to another. The ordering of these stages is not fixed. Refinement of the original understanding or a new puzzlement at any point in the cycle can trigger a new inquiry. Unfortunately, Dewey’s reflective stages have been rebranded as a scientific ‘method’ and adapted by social sciences and educators in particular as a rigid process. Science as ‘inquiry’ was never meant to be a formal and linear method. This interpretation is the antithesis of science. It constrains creativity and is too crude to be useful.43

Table 3. Planning for possibilities. Frameworks that build on inquiry cycles to support the development of student questions at the classroom activity stage

Inquiry varies in complexity depending on the stage in the inquiry cycle, the

nature of the questions, the starting point of the student and the openness of the teacher. Inquiry can range from a structured form where students are provided with data or information to analyse in the initial stages of their investigation, through guided inquiry where teachers present the initial questions but leave the

Dewey 44 Vygotsky45 Wilson & Wing Jan46

Murdoch47

Short & Harste48

Veermans et al.49

Introductory Performances (Pre-assessment)

Sensing perplexing situations Suggestive phase

Zone of actual performance

Planning for Inquiry

Tuning in

Building from the known

Constructing working theories

Guided Inquiry (Developing student questions and formative assessment

Intellectual Phase Hypothesis forming and data gathering Reasoning phase Testing by action

Zone of proximal development New zone of actual performance

Finding Out, Sorting Out Going Further Reflection and Action

Finding out Sorting Out Going further Making connections Taking action

Taking the time to find questions for inquiry

Gaining new perspectives

Attending to difference

Sharing what was learned

Planning new inquiries

Taking thoughtful new action

Critical evaluation

Search and deepen knowledge

Generating subordinate questions

Developing new workingtheories

Creating the context

Setting up new researchquestions

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methods, solutions and development of further questions for students, to open inquiry where students pose the initial questions and find solutions.

In inquiry, Dewey stressed the importance of ‘perplexing situations’. Does the premise of ‘teaching from the known to the unknown’ require some re-thinking? A behaviourist approach supposes that all learning is logical and systematic when in fact constructivist learning often starts with provocation; the bizarre, the unusual, something never seen before. Starting ‘where the student is’ could be more acceptable if it also acknowledges imagination and the ability to call on previously developed theorising skills, not just content knowledge. This doesn’t mean that every inquiry needs to start with bang, but starting with ideas that demonstrate a limit or an extreme can provoke questions, provide a purpose for exploration, and a reason to develop and apply a wide range of literacies.50

Where do discovery learning, project-based learning and problem-based learning fit in the planning frameworks described in Tables 2 and 3? Discovery learning, like inquiry or integrated learning has a range of meanings in the literature but generally refers to a curriculum where students are exposed to particular questions and experiences in such a way that they ‘discover’ for themselves the underlying knowledge. The term ‘discovery learning’ is most associated with Jerome Bruner51 and Hilda Taba.52 It was developed in the early 1960s at the height of the Cold War and the ‘space race’ between Russia and the USA when the quality of science teaching was being questioned. Discovery learning is a continuum that ranges from teacher controlled procedural science experiments to open inquiry initiated and developed by students (Table 4). Regrettably, the inherent benefits of discovery learning have resulted in criticism, ironically from scientists and science teachers. How can students rediscover expert knowledge without the expert background and skills? Are there gaps and errors in their understanding? Bruner and Taba felt that these criticisms were often the result of simplistic definitions and limited observations of discovery learning and did not do justice to actual practice in the classroom.

Table 4. A continuum for discovery learning in science 53

Traditional Hands-on

Structured Guided Student Directed

Student Research

Teacher Controlled……………………................................................Student Controlled Focus on Teaching …………………………………............................Focus on Learning

Project based learning (PBL) gives students the opportunity to work

relatively autonomously over extended periods of time and culminates in realistic products or presentations. As parents know, often to their dismay, schools have been ‘doing’ projects for years. However the use of projects for didactic teaching needs to be differentiated from the constructivist meaning of PBL as inquiry. Projects as originally advocated by Dewey and Vygotsky, are complex tasks based on challenging questions or problems that involve students in design, problem-solving, decision making and investigative activities. Projects in this case must be central to the curriculum, focus on concepts and principles of a discipline, involve constructive investigation, be student driven

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to a significant degree and realistic.54 PBL proponents suggest that discovery learning failed to reach widespread acceptance because the developers did not consider the complex nature of student motivation required to engage in cognitively difficult work nor did they give sufficient attention to students' points of view.

Supporters of ‘project based learning’ consider ‘problem based learning’ (the other PBL) to be a way of giving students practice in smaller, more structured activities prior to project based learning. Problem based learning combines problem statements, databases and tutorials to develop deductive thinking skills. The method is most often associated with universities and programs in medicine or nursing but has also been reported in other areas such as business, architecture, law and graduate education.

As similar as these may sound to inquiry learning, it is important to make distinctions. Discovery learning, project based learning and problem based learning may not always be inquiry. The emphasis is on the end product rather than the process. In many cases, discovery learning and the PBLs focus on solving problems generated only by the teacher rather than those generated by students, in contrast to inquiry which considers the student voice. The person who poses the problem, the teacher, is the one in control. In addition, problems are not the only basis for inquiry. That can be provoked by curiosity, joy and wonderment. Discovery learning, project based and problem based learning are tools that have a place at many points in the inquiry cycle. The ‘puzzlements’ that may arise through discovery learning could serve as a differentiation point where interests and questions of the students drive the inquiry. The engagement in relevant and challenging inquiry could result in the development of a complex project. Thinking of these two groups of frameworks (Table 2 and Table 3) as connected supports an integrative inquiry approach that is student-centered whilst still able to meet requirements set by state, provincial or national regulatory authorities. Teachers continually oscillate between the two planning frameworks, reflecting on the direction that student inquiries are taking, and acting to guide the development of knowledge and skills that they identified in their ‘planning for purpose’. They may act to include additional knowledge and skills that meet the needs of particular student interests. Sometimes they act to help students refocus an inquiry that is moving too far from the original understanding. This continual assessment and the focus on developing conceptual understandings are the glue or the hinges, between 'planning for purpose' and 'planning for possibilities'.

Assessment and authenticity

Every activity to provide teacher and students with information about the insights, unique emerging questions and the knowledge and skill development required as the inquiry progresses. This is in stark contrast to the traditional education ideas of the 20th century developed around behaviourism and underpinned by external standardised testing. The historical shift described in

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Figure 8 requires a greater emphasis on assessment as helping students learn rather than being used to rank students or to provide statistical data. It is not just assessment of learning or assessment for learning, it is assessment as learning. Constructivism or inquiry learning is referred to as an ‘emergent paradigm’ because the approach is still reconciling various theories and philosophies, particularly as these develop through new investigations into the brain and neuro-system.

Unfortunately, many teachers, parents and policy makers are in the middle; not comfortable with letting go of the old even though the world is changing in their own lives and workplaces. This has led to a re-emergence of the ‘back-to-basics’ movement with its emphasis on didactic teaching or direct instruction and its feet in the behaviourist camp. These critics of inquiry learning misunderstand the role of direct instruction. This may be expedient particularly for specific knowledge or skills required in all stages of inquiry. Direct instruction occurs frequently in inquiry classrooms, but may not always involve the whole class learning the same thing ‘just in case’ the knowledge or skills may be useful somewhere. Direct instruction during inquiries may occur with the whole class, small groups or individuals depending on student needs. It is differentiated and ‘just in time’ teaching and learning.

Figure 8. Historical overview of curriculum change 55

A range of studies concluded that high stakes, skills based tests driven by outcome based standards distort teaching and learning.56 The belief that assessments have to be changed to effect systemic changes in education practice is described as ‘WYTIWYG’. What you test is what you get. My favourite example of this distortion was illustrated in a study of students learning to convert Arabic to Roman numerals. The researchers reported that when the test was reversed, that is when students were asked to change Roman to Arabic notation, they scored very poorly. The researcher, who should remain forever anonymous, concluded that these were two different objectives and should be

Scientific Measurement

Social

Efficiency Curriculum

Heredity Theory of IQ

& Behaviourist

Learning Theories

Constructivist

Curriculum &

Instruction

Traditional Testing - Scientific

Measurement

20th Century Dominant Paradigm

(Circa 1900s – 2000)

Dissolution of Old Paradigm: New Views of Instruction / Old Views of

Testing (Circa 1980s – 2000)

Emergent Paradigm (Circa 1980s – 2000)

Cognition &

Constructivist Learning Theories

Reformed Vision of

Curriculum

Classroom Assessment

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taught and tested separately! Other researchers found poor co-relation between standardised test scores and teachers ratings of students. This may be due to tests having little relation to the wide range of understandings teachers promoted and encouraged students to apply in a real context.

One of the most influential papers on my thinking about assessment was Black and Wiliam’s 57 extensive literature review of 681 research reports on classroom formative assessment. The insights and conclusions are just too numerous to consider here, however there are several that are significant to understanding assessment in inquiry learning.

The first insight was that any classroom innovation designed to improve the feedback to students yielded substantial learning gains. Rigorous formative assessment implemented in a range of innovative programmes resulted in substantial achievement gains in reading, mathematics and science over control groups experiencing traditional classroom environments. Even improvements in student learning reported through ‘mastery’ learning programmes, where students’ progression depended on high achievements on tests, were really attributable to the changes in classroom practice that allowed teachers the opportunity for more regular and systematic feedback to individual students. However, mastery learning appeared to be most successful in raising scores on tests produced by teachers in programmes where the progress is also teacher controlled. Mastery learning was most effective for lower primary students with diminishing results through year levels.

The second insight was into the extensive, pervasive and negative impact of grading. Students who received verbal feedback from their teacher learned more than students who received written comments. These in turn, demonstrated higher acquisition of knowledge and skills than students who received written and graded comments. The lowest achievements were associated with grades only. More importantly, most students who received only grades tended to perform progressively poorer; their learning regressed. Assessment as graded and summative with minimal effective feedback action encouraged superficial rote learning, concentrating on details which students soon forgot.

The third insight forced me to rethink the terminology around ‘performance tasks’. Performance tasks were those described as offering students the chance to show what they knew and obtain a grade. Learning tasks were those described as helping students to learn better. Students focussed on performance tasks tried to complete them with as little effort as possible and tended to be concerned about out-performing others. They sought help less frequently from their teacher and explained this help avoidance in terms of masking their difficulties. Students involved in learning tasks spoke of the importance of learning and the value of effort. They were more likely to seek help from their teacher, but also explained any help avoidance as valuing independent mastery of the material they were working with. I had often used the term ‘performances of understanding’ in accordance with the terminology from some of the backwards by design frameworks. The caution here is that ‘performances of understanding’ designed as formative assessment should be dissociated with ‘grading’ as this diminishes

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its effectiveness. The word ‘performance’ should emphasise the importance of making learning visible so that it can become a learning conversation.

The fourth insight completely shifted my understanding of the central role that students must play in their own assessment. I realise now how often this is overlooked. The power of formative assessment as construction of learning requires two actions. The first action is the perception by the student that there is a gap between what he or she currently knows or can do and a desired state. The second action is taken to close that gap and meet the learning goal. The responsibility for the first action may lie with the student or the teacher through either self-assessment or teacher assessment. But the student can never be the passive recipient of the second. The action to learn must be theirs alone. Assessment tasks that are meaningful, significant and offer a manageable challenge help students identify the gap and establish their own goals. Students who perceived that they were in control of their own learning demonstrated higher levels of achievement. No wonder reflection ~ action is so integral to inquiry.

Self assessment is more than just writing about what was learned or ticking a check list or rubric. Self assessment is reflection ~ action when students also generate their own questions rather than following those of the teacher or the textbook. Black and Wiliam's review found these students demonstrated higher achievement than those who only answered teacher or textbook questions. In addition, students who used peer feedback to discuss and answer their questions demonstrated even greater learning gains. Researchers often found it impossible to differentiate peer assessment from group activities.

It is this intense, collaborative participation of students in their own assessment that changes classroom practice and the role of the teacher. Teachers can choose to generate the task stimulus and direct the classroom activity or they can develop the ability of the student to self-assess, recognise learning gaps, and take responsible action. Black and Wiliam’s review reported that teachers did both. I would argue the two roles support guided inquiry’s planning for purpose and planning for possibilities with reflection ~ action at the interface.

Teachers who cannot find enough time for formative assessment, especially student observations or individual conversations are often not prepared to change classroom practices that diminish their control. In reality, this is still a traditional behaviourist learning place. Where students are self-assessing and acting independently on that assessment, teachers can deploy their efforts more effectively where they are needed. They can work more often with individuals or small groups of students. A shift to this emphasis on formative assessment returns to the Latin root of the word assess: ‘to sit beside’. It is teachers and students constructing learning together.

Authenticity was another somewhat elusive term from the literature on assessment. There were many definitions of authenticity that included relevance, representing the complexity of the real world and engaging to students, but I found Newmann’s definition pertinent, applicable and clear to teachers and students. ‘Authentic’ describes work that requires learners to construct their

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knowledge, demands deep discipline knowledge and skill development and has value beyond school.58 Newmann and his associates looked at the intellectual accomplishments of adults in diverse fields of work. They used the term ‘authentic’ not to imply that school was unimportant nor that basic skills were devalued, but to identify some kinds of intellectual work as more complex and meaningful than others. They believed students should be able to interpret and synthesise information, show relationships, explain why some answers are better than others and solve unfamiliar problems. In criticising the back-to-basics movement, these researchers argued that its limitations would not serve students well in the 21st century.

Authentic assessments in inquiry require students to use what they know in new ways or situations to build understandings. There are an infinite variety of authentic tasks including preparing case studies, portfolios, exhibitions, conducting research and interpreting and solving problems in real contexts. Newmann’s research indicated not surprisingly, that an emphasis on authentic pedagogy resulted in higher achievement on authentic assessments. But authenticity also had a positive correlation with improvements on standardised testing. These results were independent of gender, culture and socioeconomic status. There appeared to be two main reasons for this effect. The first was that standardised tests depended heavily on students’ understandings of the meaning of many words and often complex ideas. In the process of studying a topic in depth through inquiry, students used this vocabulary in many contexts and built connections that help them remember. Secondly, authentic inquiry supported questions that were of personal value and interest. This engagement motivated student action to address that learning gap between what they currently knew and what they needed to know. Authenticity provided the motivation to persist at the hard work that learning demands.

This is not to say that every activity or performance must be authentic or extensive. There are many activities in classrooms that are not authentic but are still important for pre-assessing students, motivating them, exploring the understanding or enabling and equipping them with knowledge and skills to support the inquiry. Examples of relevant tasks, but ones that are not necessarily authentic on their own include learning to use spreadsheets, algorithms for calculations, learning the alphabet, short responses to texts or procedures in science experiments. In the same vein, this does not mean that standardised testing has no value in a constructivist classroom. Meaningful assessment with its feedback component benefits from a full repertoire of approaches.

Traditional standardised assessment follows the child’s cognitive performance to the point of ‘failure’ in independent functioning, whereas dynamic assessment in the Vygotskian tradition leads the child to the point of achievement of success in joint or shared activity. Dynamic assessment begins where standardised testing ends. 59

Although inquiry learning shifts the focus of assessment from summative to formative, summative assessment is still important. Planning good summative assessment tasks is essential to the ‘backwards by design’ process. That task or

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‘culminating performance’ gives students the opportunity to demonstrate their resolution of the ‘puzzlement’ that initiated the inquiry. The summative assessment must be known to students at the beginning of the inquiry. It must be rich enough to give purpose to the development of a wide range of knowledge and skills. A good summative task supports the ‘backwards by design process by keeping the inquiry focussed. It develops higher order thinking by requiring a synthesis of ideas, analysis of data or evaluation of different perspectives, and encourages creative approaches and solutions. It allows for negotiation between teacher and student, acknowledging individual learning styles. A well designed ‘test’ could also be an effective summative task if the criteria to be tested are known to the students at the beginning of the inquiry, if the test includes higher order thinking requirements and if it allows for some choice in the manner of response.

Concepts

In addition to reflection ~ action as formative assessment, concepts are also a glue’ between the two frameworks for inquiry described in Tables 2 and 3. Concepts ‘…underpin student inquiries throughout the planned and unplanned curriculum.’60 They are essential for critical thinking learning environments.61 Concepts consist of only one or two words. They may be overarching and relevant in all areas of learning such as form, function, change, connection or perspective. They may be related concepts that are more discipline specific. For example ‘change’ is related to the concepts of adaptation, growth, cycles, transformation, migration, evolution, and chronology. Key concepts and related concepts focus understandings. They underpin the teacher questions that start and provoke the inquiry process. Concepts help frame the student questions that drive the inquiry cycles.

The IB PYP documents state that concepts presented as questions, liberate the thinking of teachers and students, suggesting a range of further questions, each one leading to productive lines of inquiry. For example, the key concept of ‘change’ is associated with the question, ‘how is it changing’ along with other discipline specific ‘change’ questions depending on the focus of the inquiry. How can materials change state? What do patterns in mathematics tell us about change? How have migration patterns changed? How do we know climate can change?

However ‘concepts’ was perhaps the most complex challenge I faced both as a teacher and learner of inquiry. I had used the word for years but struggled to really define it myself. Erickson defined concepts as ideas that are broad, abstract, timeless, universal and include many possible examples.62 Bruner and his associates distinguished five elements of concepts that are useful to consider in the context of teaching and learning; name, examples, attributes, value and rule. Concepts provide a name to a category or group of experiences. They allow for positive and negative examples in which the concept may be used. Concepts have attributes which learners can describe and consider as essential or non-essential to their current context. These attributes have a value which

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determines an acceptable level of variation that can be used to filter the wide range of possible examples. Concepts have rules that link attributes; a rule is only a provisional working definition that may be elaborated or disproved.63

Other researchers use the term ‘conceptual lens’, orienting habits, or habits of knowing as ideas that apply broadly, discloses fundamental patterns, reveal similarities and contrasts, and fascinate. However, these definitions seemed almost too complete and contained. I often spoke to teachers who could ‘recite’ a concept definition but were unable to explain why concepts were so central to inquiry learning.

Concepts are not limited to the concepts of, which are defined solely by their reference to some external object. Concepts are artistic creations, like sounds in music and colors in painting, or like cinematic images. They are ‘images in thought.’64 Concepts extend thinking beyond what is readily represented through symbols such as language and mathematics, to thinking in terms of relations of qualities. This is the confusion of concepts. There is a weak definition and a strong definition with both necessary. We can define concepts of justice, peace, conflict and punishment through words and examples. This is defining in the weak sense. But only identifying a concept is not the same as ‘having it’ and being able to responsibly act on it. This is defining in the strong sense.

Revisiting my spiral metaphor, the photo in Figure 965 is of an ancient Celtic stone from Cornwall in England. Its carved spirals have been eroded over time, but like all spirals, Celtic and chaotic, there is a hole at the centre. These ancient stones were known as ‘sighting stones, and were thought to possess particular energy. Concepts are like these holes. They are at the heart of inquiry and channel a corner of chaos of possible knowledge and skills by refining a way of thinking. Postmodern philosophers including Deleuze, Guattari, Lyotard and Gough are less concerned with defining concepts then asking how they work, what they do and what action they produce. The great forms of thought as categorised by Deleuze and Guattari, are science, art and philosophy. Each has a unique way of using concepts.

Science freezes a moment of time and space and examines function at that point; art reflects the infinite to a finite moment through sensation; philosophy throws a sieve over chaos with the concepts as holes. 66

Like the constrained images of Degas’ dancers as a visual metaphor for inquiry, holes in stones have limitations for visualising concepts. Concepts are not stable entities. They are created and constructed by each learner. They are a lens to extract an event from time and place and give it a new meaning in a different context. For example, students who have inquired into ‘change’ or ‘conflict’ in one context will build on that past understanding when faced with that concept in a different context at another time. Students who understand the concept of function have skills to theorise, ask questions and learn about function more

Figure 9 - Celtic sighting stone

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function have skills to theorise, ask questions and learn about function more efficiently whether ‘function’ is in context of mathematical algorithms or characteristics of organisms. Concepts have a past and aim for a future.

Conceptual understanding

Inquiry learners not only create the concept, they use it to weave a unique fabric of conceptual understanding; a plane of personal meaning. Each learner’s plane or ‘plan’ is unique. Deleuze refers to this as a plane of immanence or ‘becoming’ and Dewey used a similar description of ‘drawing a ground-plan of human experience’. It is progressive and endless.

Conceptual understanding is one many very similar terms that include throughlines, enduring understandings, essential understandings, big ideas, generalisations and central ideas. The differences between these terms are negligible. Regardless of the label, they are complex statements that build on one or more concepts to focus the inquiry.67 They are the rules that link attributes of the concept to an authentic situation, so may prove to have exceptions over time. If concepts are an invisible mental landscape in our plane of becoming, conceptual understandings are ‘like cities that appear to an airplane flying over dark continents when, after night has fallen, the lights come on.’68

Vygotsky referred to two categories of conceptual understandings, spontaneous and scientific. ‘Spontaneous’ refer to a naive and often incorrect understanding of the world. The sun ‘rises’. A big rock falls faster than a small rock. ‘Scientific’ refers to understanding acquired systematically and consciously. The interface between the two is the zone of proximal development. Becoming conscious and open-minded about the differences between ‘what I believe’ and ‘what I can find out’ turns learners into theorists, not just rote practitioners of learning. Building this new conceptual understanding through cycles of reflection ~ action is inquiry.

Inquiry based on conceptual understandings is integral to socially constructed learning because individual planes of understanding the world will always have points of connection, overlaps and dissonance with those of others. Working with and between these different conceptual understandings, constructs communities and recognition of a shared world. Both Deleuze and Dewey described this through the metaphor of learning to swim. Learning focussed on facts is like practicing the strokes on dry land. Learning focussed on conceptual understandings is like being thrown in the open water. What the swimmer knew about swimming must go further and readjust to the waves. What we think we know about the world changes when we construct conceptual understandings together. This makes concepts and conceptual understandings an essential element for any education system that aspires to be internationally minded.

Responsiveness means that individuals exercise and experience the concepts as they belong in others’ lives to inform their thinking and actions and understandings.69 Dewey viewed responsiveness as the essence of responsible citizenship. We collide with the different understandings of others. To resolve that tension or provocation we ask questions and may have to change our way of

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looking at the world. Dewey defined responsibility as identifying the required modification of character and the selecting a course of action which would make this a reality.70 Responsibility requires reflection ~ action. To be responsible is to inquire.

Visually, Deleuze and Guattari portray learning as rhizomatic. Rhizomes have no point of entry or hierarchy. They are uncentered and characterised by their connections and their random shoots and flowers. They are produced not through any external plan, but through a ‘becoming that carries the problems themselves along with it’.71 Concepts form the ever growing and ever changing connections between nodes of understanding. In contrast, the metaphor of trees has dominated the western image of learning as hierarchical. We have Linnaean taxonomies and Ramus’ diagrams with roots in disciplines and branches of progressive complexity. Inquiry and creativity struggle in this metaphoric environment.

Concepts in practice

However, conceptual understandings are not abstract or hidden: they are something very real that a learner wants to understand. In a ‘fuzzy’ world, rhizomes can support tree like structures and some trees have rhizomic looking

roots. The sensible place to find a new visualisation for learning was with students. I asked a year 8 group of students (14 years old) to draw images of inquiry. In 20 minutes, Alexander drew me this picture (Figure 10) and explained it:

Inquiry is like a plant that starts growing. You have a question in mind and at first, you go off in directions that don’t seem to lead anywhere, but the teachers and your friends keep guiding and pulling you back to the stem again. But the more you start to find out the more complicated it gets. Everything gets connected but you still have to keep coming back or you get tangled. Finally at the end, the idea and the answer just pops up and you know what you have to do.

How do ‘concepts’ and ‘conceptual understandings work in practice? Consider a conceptual understanding, ‘Learning from past cultures and

civilisations still connects to the present’. When year 8 students started their inquiries, they explored the key concept of ‘connection’ as it related to the

Figure 10. Image of Inquiry

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concepts of ‘learning’, ‘culture’ and ‘civilisation’. These concepts provided a lens and a direction to the questions they asked. The students discovered connections in their lives to Roman and Greek architecture, Indian mathematic notation, Arabic algebra, renaissance music, medieval myths and legends, botany and indigenous medicine. They had to explain how the knowledge was used, who valued that knowledge and decide if would continue to be relevant in the future. In the course of their inquiries they read critically, wrote in a variety of genres, presented, debated, used primary and secondary historical sources, referenced atlases and geographic data, designed timelines and looked at changes in scientific thinking and mathematical notation. Teachers from different disciplines looked for knowledge and skills that could be developed in the context of a these students’ interests. This conceptual understanding could be disproved over time. Students found examples of civilisations such as Easter Island that disappeared with no apparent trace or connection to the present. This in itself provoked the interesting question of ‘how did it disappear so completely?’ It extended the ‘plane of becoming’ in a new direction.

Using a different conceptual lens could guide an inquiry in a different direction, supporting the development of a different set of knowledge and skills. The concepts of ‘causation’ and ‘change’ had been used in other years to explore a different conceptual understanding, ‘New knowledge may cause significant change in the course of history’. Students inquired into the impact on society of the contraceptive pill, Newton’s laws, Darwin’s evolution theory, Pasteur’s research into microorganisms, inventions of paper and printing presses, atomic theory, genetics, and the mathematics of networks crucial to communication technologies. This opened many possibilities in literature, history and the arts which called on skills developed in prior units of inquiry.

Essential questions

The conceptual understanding with its embedded concepts leads to essential questions. Other terms used synonymously with ‘essential questions’ include ‘guiding questions’, ‘teacher questions’, or ‘focus questions’. They further sharpen the context for knowledge and skills to be developed. Essential questions as starting points for inquiry connect concepts to content. They provoke discussion, analysis and consideration of evidence. Essential questions connect meaningfully to previous learning and experiences, and naturally recur, thus mediating transfer to new situations. 72

A year 10 unit of inquiry hosted by the art teachers within a multidiscipline team explored the conceptual understanding, ‘Artists reflect, challenge and change societies’. The key concepts were connection (through reflect and challenge) change and function (how artists achieve this). Related concepts were culture, identity, traditions, beliefs, values and the art elements of color, shape, texture and form. Table 5 records a range of essential questions used to guide the unit that were developed using a method described by Wiggins and McTighe. 73 Open questions were intended to engage, provoke or help students work authentically; to think like experts. There were no definitive answers to

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these questions. Guiding questions were intended to help construct meanings and focus knowledge and skill development. Another classification of questions focussed the scope of the inquiry. Did the inquiry address the overarching issues that could cross more than one discipline boundary or transcend boundaries over and time and place? Did the inquiry also address topical issues that were essential to a discipline? Teachers from the Humanities and the Arts shared the overarching questions and developed their own topical ones. Good inquiry requires combinations of these types of questions.

Table 5. Grid used to develop a range of essential questions. Italicised descriptors are from Wiggins & McTighe (2006)

The inquiries based on these questions required students to have long periods

of time to talk and think and compare their thinking about the conceptual understanding; to let their planes of becoming collide. They ‘covered’ not only outcomes from their own level in the state curriculum in history, art and language, but had the opportunity to revisit and revise prior learning and move naturally and seamlessly to more advanced levels. This is true differentiation supporting the interests of the student, but also providing the flexibility to assess and address individual levels of literacy and specific discipline knowledge and skills. Individual needs’ teachers worked alongside classroom colleagues to observe and suggest directions for students who were on individual learning plans including those needing extension.

Intent Scope

Overarching Topical (Arts)

Open: Challenge to think deeper and creatively about important recurring and unsettled issues. No definitive answer expected

What is challenging our society now? Does society have any common beliefs or values? (Connection) Have beliefs and values changed over time? (Change)

How does art connect with your life? How do art elements identify cultures? What does art tell you about a culture? How does art connect or provoke people in our country? Are there global art influences?

Guided: To guide towards a deeper understanding of the big idea. Students construct meaning as they work with the questions.

How have artists successfully challenged and changed history? Are Australian artists challenging beliefs and values now? What perspective(s) are they trying to communicate?

How do artists use colour, shape, texture, form to communicate change?How can you use these elements to identify times and place? How have you used these elements in your own art work?

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Summary of theme 1

Rather than a conventional summary of this first theme, ‘guiding inquiry: sharing responsibility’, I am using postlogographic notation.74 It uses clouds of words that can be read~heard to think towards ideas in a ‘manner resonating with poetry’. This cloud in Figure 11 is formed from top 25 key words by frequency of occurrence in the text of this theme.

Figure 11 – Word Cloud of 25 most common key words from theme1: Guiding inquiry: sharing responsibility. Size of words is proportional to the frequency of

occurrence in this text.

THEME 2. SOCIAL SKILLS ~ LEARNING DISPOSITIONS

A parent once said to me, “This teaching through inquiry takes more time. Why don’t you just tell them what you want them to know? ” The extra time involves the development of other skills, attributes or dispositions that are as important as discipline knowledge and skills. Social skills, and learning or thinking dispositions are sometimes classified as interpersonal and intrapersonal skills respectively. However there is again a blurry boundary as socially constructing knowledge transforms individual learners, hence the inclusions of ~ in this heading as well.

Learning in a social context

Vygotsky believed ‘language’ was essential at the interface between society and the individual. Similarly, Freire described ‘dialogue’ as the essential form of mediation that transforms the relationship between teachers and students, emphasising the importance of collaboration.

Through dialogue, the teacher-of-the-students and the students-of-the-teacher cease to exist and a new term emerges: teacher-student with

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student-teachers. The teacher is no longer merely the one who teaches, but one who is taught in dialogue with the students, who in their turn while being taught also teach. 75

To acknowledge the importance of dialogue as more than just speaking and listening, Gee defined effective dialogue for collaborative learning as ‘Discourse’ (intentionally with the upper case).

Discourse is ways of behaving, interacting, valuing, thinking, believing, speaking, and often reading and writing that are accepted as instantiations of particular roles by specific groups of people. They are always and everywhere social. 76

The word ‘discussion’, often used synonymously as dialogue or discourse, needs clarification. Many studies found that the traditional class ‘discussion’ was really a teacher initiated-student responded-teacher evaluated (IRE) pattern of instruction. This is a transmission model that only confirms the teacher as the center of learning. There is a common concern for teachers, students and parents involved in an inquiry learning environment, “At the end of the day, my childmy childmy childmy child has to have acquired that understanding with its embedded knowledge and skills.” 77 Langer examined the classroom practices of 44 English teachers in 25 American schools that continually ‘beat the odds’ in large scale assessments. These teachers used ‘discussion’ to develop depth and complexity of understanding and explicitly taught strategies required for successful participation in that activity. Students were invited to predict, summarise, make connections between texts, clarify points, substantiate an interpretation of evidence and generate and answer questions. These descriptions of effective ‘discussion’ move closer to ‘discourse’ and sound very much like inquiry processes.78 The success of inquiry lies in the interplay between social learning and individual learning. There are many meanings of social learning, but four are particularly relevant to the consideration of how individuals learn through collaborative inquiry.79 The first meaning is active social mediation of an individual’s learning. This can take many forms. It may be one-on-one with teacher, parent or peer; many-to-one (groups of collaborative learners with individual as a participant) and one-to-many (teacher with a group of learners). The important word here is ‘active’. Studies on the effectiveness of tutors found that good tutors were often more effective than some classroom teachers because they employed active social interactions such as rapid feedback, highly personalized and context situated guidance, encouragement and eliciting responses from the student in the forms of explanations, suggestions, and self assessment rather than just information, error detection or simplistic answers. Collaborative inquiries share these characteristics providing that peers are actively constructing meaning, not just working together to complete a task.

The second meaning of social learning is that the knowledge and understandings that emerge through collaboration become distributed among the group rather than individually owned. These first two meanings of social learning indicate that acquiring skills to socialise effectively are very important.

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This is indeed reflected in many curricula and curriculum frameworks worldwide. The social skills recommended for development include accepting responsibility, respecting others, cooperating, resolving conflicts, group decision making and adopting a variety of group roles. Teaching and constantly practicing social skills supports Dewey’s education for democracy and sustainability advocates’ call for ‘education of a different kind’.

Preparation for democratic citizenship requires more than literacy skills or knowledge about government; it requires providing students from diverse backgrounds the opportunity to learn to live and work together in the world. Joint productive activity around meaningful tasks also develops common understandings and habits of cooperation and mutual respect.80

The third meaning of social mediation of individual’s learning accepts that there are many situations where a learner does not receive direct assistance but learns through artifacts or tools. ‘Tools’ include more than physical implements such as computers, calculators or books. The Reggio Emilia approach encourages a ‘hundred languages of children’ that includes not only the tools of reading and writing, but also sign systems used in music, art, movement and mathematics. Examples of these include algorithms to solve equations, classification systems, scaffolding for genre writing, musical notation and grammatical rules.

There is caution regarding the use of any ‘tools’. They are not neutral. Tools always embed social understandings as assumptions behind their design. A whole class using a single textbook is learning a common perspective valued by the writers of that text. A tool may offer limited historical perspectives or a single approach to understanding functions in mathematics. A tool may promote a western science classification system based on physical characteristics, ignoring indigenous classification systems built on ecosystem connections. Even if working alone with a book or computer, a student is still learning in a social context.

Tools mediate learning in two ways. Tools for for for for learning include books, websites, software for the development of literacy or mathematics skills, dictionaries, spell checkers and the expanded possibilities of learning with others through blogs, emails or other communication applications. The mere presence of these tools, even if they are very sophisticated and improve the acquisition of knowledge or skills, does not necessarily support inquiry.

The more powerful aspect of ‘tools’ is tools as as as as learning. Examples include simulations, research projects, traditional and computer games, and complex performances of understanding such exhibitions, drama and musical performances. Whilst learning to use these tools, learners experience and construct the world in new ways and develop a shared language with other members of the social group or domain. Learners gain resources to prepare for future learning and problem solving within that domain and in related domains. Good tools as as as as learning help students develop flexibility in a range of literacies in addition to the more conventional skills of reading, writing and numeracy. Students have the opportunity to move beyond active learning to critical

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learning where they can contribute to the design and construction of the domain itself. To do this effectively, they attend to, reflect on, critique and manipulate the content, the processes, the attributes of a concept and the rules that have been developed by others. 81

A group of year 4 students inquired into how humans communicate with machines. To work out the computer code to build and make their robot machines move, they had to read and discuss instructions, work out diagrams, argue and decide on turning angles and distances and consider the importance of careful punctuation and grammar in their coding. A group of kindergarten students wanted to re-create Monet’s painting of water lilies. Rather than being presented with a tool of pre-mixed colours, they were encouraged to work together to mix simple primary colours to match those of Monet’s.

A group of year 9 boys used simulation software to build a complex Japanese empire set in feudal times. To learn how to use this tool, they had to decipher Japanese and English signs and symbols, understand the causes of conflicts with their various neighbouring kingdoms and internal political enemies, build fortifications and calculate the strengths of their armies. Two days later, they were restructuring the ancient battle for Troy. A month later, they were analysing the causes and effects of the war in Iraq using sophisticated language and concepts they had developed in that online domain. Through technology, they were building ‘planes of immanence’ and developing conceptual understandings on a scale that would have been unimaginable in Dewey’s time.

Learning to use these tools of computer coding, colour mixing or simulating civilisations changed conceptual understandings. Even if a student chose to work alone, they were still using and adapting the knowledge, skills and rules of a specific domain and social group. Individual planes of understanding were colliding with the planes of others in a different time and place. Learning these tools was inquiry.

Understanding the complexities of social learning offers many implications in an inquiry classroom. A student experiencing difficulty may benefit from a group problem solving situation. The individual receives help from the group and then negotiates a way to proceed to a solution. This may lead to the individual working with a single peer or the teacher or with ‘tools’. The individual then returns to the group to compare notes and to collaborate on more difficult aspects of the problem. Inquiry in the classroom requires teachers and students to see themselves as important and equal participants whose roles change as required.

A fourth meaning of social mediation carries with it perhaps a caveat of caution. A group as a whole learns when it acquires knowledge, skills and a culture that allows it to be more successful. An example is that of a sports team practicing together to optimise the collective skills of individual players. Individuals have developed a specific knowledge or skill and only by working together can they approach a problem or issue as a whole. This form of social mediation described as distributed literacy may result in learners only being able to respond to incidents as they arise rather than being able to initiate new learning. This learning environment, although it may appear dynamic and

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inquiry based, may be a classroom managed around fun activities or powerful personalities rather than around developing conceptual understanding. In some respects, it mimics the factory model of learning. A lovely car, but no one understands the whole construction.

An important difference between negotiation and choice can be understood in context of social learning. Negotiation is discourse between teacher and students, between individual learners and groups and within groups. In guided inquiry students may choose their own questions and the methods by which they will investigate them but this choice is refined or extended through negotiation with the teacher or a group of collaborative learners. Negotiation builds individual and group understanding. It is not bargaining. It is an offering of individual points of view for consideration by all.

Uncertainty, thinking and independent learning

This essential interplay between groups and individuals is inherently uncertain and the learning landscape continually shifts depending on interests and abilities of teachers and students. A flexible disposition that accepts and values this uncertainty is important for any participant in inquiry. The concept of uncertainty in education also traces its modern philosophical roots to Dewey. He analysed early 20th century physics, particularly Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and realised its implications for education. Heisenberg, in his study of the atom realised that nothing could be known absolutely and that the very act of measuring something or trying to investigate it, changed the characteristics that were being studied.

Inquiry combines a stance of uncertainty with a stance of invitation. It is a stance to be willing to ask questions, to create new knowledge and to accept risk. Uncertainty without invitation is paralysing. Uncertainty provides opportunities, not problems – and it is an invitation to explore.82

Uncertainty can be challenging but the invitation is accepted and managed through reflection. Dewey considered reflection as the active, persistent, and careful movement from uncertainty to understanding. It is not reflection as a passive, written afterthought at the end of an inquiry. It is reflection ~ action. Critics of Dewey felt that he did not put enough emphasis on the importance of emotions and feelings to what makes a person reflect and inquire. Later researchers’ rewording of the role of reflection brought the connection between uncertainty, inquiry, reflection and action into even clearer focus.

The practitioner allows himself to experience surprise, puzzlement, or confusion in a situation which he finds uncertain or unique. He reflects on the phenomenon before him, and on the prior understandings which have been implicit in his behaviour. He carries out an experiment which serves to generate both a new understanding of the phenomenon and a change in the situation.83

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Dewey merged uncertainty, reflection ~ action, and thinking. ‘Uncertainty or confusion evokes thinking: The thinking process begins with a dilemma that suggests alternatives’.84 But not every thought is meaningful and leads to understanding. We all experience thousands of random unconnected thoughts every day. Dewey described a thought as a mental picture of something not seen and thinking as a succession of these mental pictures. Reflection ~ action as ‘reflective thinking’ goes beyond this succession of mental pictures to actively find ways to meaningfully connect the images and to resolve the dilemma: To learn through inquiry.

Thinking cannot be taught. It is like breathing. However, it can be developed through social interactions. Return for a moment to discourse (or dialogue or discussion as long as there is a collaborative purpose) as a tool for transforming learners. Vygotsky viewed discourse as having two levels, one an actual physical interaction and the second when the learner internalises and owns the process so that she can use it independently. Vygotsky argued that thinking is this internalisation of discourse. We ‘talk’ to ourselves. So, if we are routinely asked to describe, clarify thinking, elaborate, analyse, reconsider and form a consensus, then these learning habits become internalised as thinking. The disposition or inclination to think a certain way is called on when we are faced with a curiosity or something new to learn. We independently start to describe, clarify, elaborate, analyse, reconsider and form a consensus. This dispositional model of thinking ~ learning emphasises the importance of a tendency that can be developed rather than a fixed ability.

Dewey advocated developing thinking by ‘developing curiosity and the habit of exploring and testing as these will increase questioning and the love of inquiry.’85 The learner identifies a curiosity, puzzlement, an uncertainty and works with other students and the teacher to observe, collect, examine evidence and acquire the knowledge and skills to structure an orderly resolution. Through dialogue which occurs throughout an inquiry cycle, these processes also become internalised as reflective thinking. When faced with a new uncertainty the learners call on this internal mapping to start the inquiry process towards resolution. Again, it is through internalizing an inquiry process that we develop the ability to learn independently. Reflection ~ action as inquiry is inseparable from thinking.

Thinking learners do not need a teacher in control. Developing this ability to think and learn independently and creatively, to continually self assess, is crucial for changing classroom practice so that teachers are able to move away from the front of the class to differentiate effectively for every student. These skills and dispositions could be considered intangible benefits of inquiry because they are not measured directly through tests and examinations. However, they contribute to the development of conceptual understandings, knowledge and skills and the confidence to manage an uncertain situation whether authentically or in an examination situation. When faced with an uncertainty there is always a way forward, an action that can lead to resolution. This builds self confidence and resilience. No wonder Reggio Emilia, with its consistent inquiry approach refers to children as ‘rich and powerful’ learners.

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Considering inquiry cycles as ‘uncertainty ~ reflection ~ action’ could help teachers direct their engagements and activities more effectively. Figure 12 gives an example which refers to a continuum of learning dispositions. At the ‘pre-engagement’ stage, there is no motivation to learn, no sense of uncertainty. Dewey’s critique of schools in the early 1900s is probably still valid in too many secondary schools even today. The role of the teacher at this stage is to provoke and excite.

Schools’ classrooms are set up as monotonous uniformity. The desk chairs are in set position, and the same textbooks are read for long periods. External monotony and internal routines are the enemies of wonder. The surprising and unexpected stimulate wonder.

Figure 12. Continuum of learning dispositions 86

At the “rote and ritual” level, learners’ inclination (I) to learn may be high or low, knowledge and skills (S) may be high or low, but they are only alert (A) to a limited number of further questions or perspectives or applications. At the ‘apprentice level’ learners’ inclination and skills may still be high or low, but learners are developing their alertness to more possible directions. Their unique questions are starting to emerge. At these stages teachers differentiate; provoking interest with some students, developing knowledge and skills and supporting extensions to new ideas with others. The ‘master’ learner demonstrates proficiency in all three. It is within this ‘alertness to wider possibilities’ that action resides. Action may be new questions and new inquiries. It may be a change in attitude or belief. It may be community involvement or service that is directly related to the learning.

At the same time as students are reflecting ~ acting ~ thinking through their own inquiries, teachers are simultaneously inquiring into their own understandings of teaching and learning. Why are my students interested (or not) in this inquiry? How can I guide their knowledge and skill development in that context? How do I support these questions that are emerging? What have I learned about teaching and learning through my observations of these inquiries? What have I learned about students’ developmentally appropriate perceptions of the concepts and conceptual understandings?

A

I S

Pre-engagement

Skills A

Rote or ritual learning

Alertness

Apprentice

Inclination

Skills

Alertness

Master

Inclination

Inclination

Skills

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Valuing uncertainty ~ reflection ~ action is an important difference between ‘traditional’ and ‘inquiry’ ways of learning. Traditional education values self-discipline based on following work started or suggested by others, producing work as planned externally and developing skills with traditional signs, text and symbols. This has the potential to prevent criticism of rules or models and restrict creative initiative. Some children, referred to as ‘gifted’ demonstrate creativity, initiative and critical thinking despite school restrictions. These children think and articulate their goals, motives, methods and means of learning. They view issues from other perspectives and reflect on their strengths and limitations in order to find ways to resolve a challenge. When education encourages all children to follow this reflective pathway, the need for external controls, streaming or acceleration of students mostly disappears. 87

The word cloud derived from the top 25 key words from Theme 2 is included as Figure 13. Reading this cloud and comparing it to the first theme shows that these ideas involve teachers and students almost equally. There is a greater emphasis on groups and social learning over individual learning. Not surprisingly, reflection and thinking are prominent.

Figure 13. Word Cloud for Theme 2: Social skills ~ learning dispositions

This chapter has been a synthesis of what thinkers in philosophy and education say about inquiry; chaotic spirals around guiding inquiry, the role of social skills and learning dispositions with reflection ~ action spirally between them. This process provided me with a better insight into ‘why inquiry?’ and ‘how does it work?’ in context of outsiders’

research. But I wanted to know what the inside experts thought; the students and teachers that implemented inquiry in their school. Chapter 4 focuses on the students, chapter 5 on their teachers.

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NOTES 29 Short, K.G. & Burke, C. (2001). Curriculum as inquiry. In S. Boran & B. Comber (Eds.), Critiquing whole language and classroom inquiry, (pp. 18-41), Urbana, ILL: National Council ofTeachers of English. 30 Beane, J. A. (1997). Curriculum Integration: Designing the Core of Democratic Education. New

York: Teachers College Press. 31 Sizer, T. R. (2004). The Red Pencil. New Haven: Yale University Press. 32 MYP guide to interdisciplinary teaching and learning. International Baccalaureate, 2010. 33 The Primary Years Programme as a model of transdisciplinary learning. International

Baccalaureate, 2010. 34 Gardner, H. (2006). Five Minds for the Future. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. 35 Apple, M. W. (2004, March 2). Ideology and Curriculum. New York: Routledge Falmer.; Keys,

C. W. (1997). Perspectives on Inquiry-oriented Teaching Practice: Conflict and Clarification. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, Oak Brook, IL,

36 Aikenhead, G. S. (2000b). Renegotiating the culture of school science. In R. Millar, J. Leach, & J. Osborne (Eds.), Improving Science Education: The Contribution of Research. Birmingham, UK:Open University Press.

37 Beane, J. A. (1997). Ibid. 38 Drake, S. M. (1993). Planning Integrated Curriculum: The Call to Adventure. Alexandra, VA:

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.; Audet, (2008), ibid. 39 Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2006). Understanding by Design. New Jersey: Pearson Erickson. 40 Dewey, J. (1933). How we think: A restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the

educative process. Boston, MA: Heath. p.137 41 These are the three significant ‘backwards by design models’.

TfU - Blythe, T., et al. (1998). The Teaching for Understanding Guide. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass; Perkins, D., & Blythe, T. (1994). Putting understanding up front. Educational Leadership, 51(5), 4–7. UbD - Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2006). Understanding by Design. New Jersey: Pearson. Erickson, H. L. (2002). Concept Based Curriculum and Instruction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

42 Dewey, J. (1933). Ibid. 43 Feyerabend, P. (1988). Against Method. London: Verso. 44 Dewey, J. (1933). ibid 45 Geist, E. (2001). Children are born mathematicians: Promoting the construction of early

mathematical concepts in children under five. Young Children, 56 (4), 12 - 19 46 Wilson, J., & Wing Jan, L. (2006). Focus on Inquiry: A Practical Approach to Integrated

Curriculum Planning. Carlton, VIC: Curriculum Corporation. 47 Murdoch, K. (1998). Classroom Connections: Strategies for Integrated Learning. Melbourne:

Eleanor Curtain Publishing. 48 Short, K. G., & Harste, J. C. (with Burke, C.) (1996). Creating Classrooms for Authors and

Inquirers (2nd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. 49 Veermans, M., Lallimo, J., & Hakkarainen, K. (2005). Patterns of guidance in inquiry learning.

Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 16(2), 179–194. 50 Eagan, K., & Gajdamaschko, N. (2005). Some cognitive tools of literacy. In A. Kozulin, et al.

(Eds.), Vygotsky’s Educational Theory in Cultural Context (pp. 83–98). New York. Cambridge University Press.

51 Bruner, J. S. (1962). On Knowing: Essays for the Left Hand. Boston: Harvard University Press. 52 Taba, H. (1962). Curriculum: Theory and Practice. New York: Harcourt Brace. 53 Bonnstetter, R. J. (1998). Inquiry: Learning from the past with an eye on the future. Electronic

Journal of Science Education, 3(1) - Guest Editorial.mht 54 Katz, L. G., & Chard, S. (1989). Engaging Children’s Minds: The Project Approach. Norwood,

NJ: Ablex. 55 Shephard, L. A. (2000). The role of assessment in a learning culture. Educational Researcher,

29(7), 4–14. 56 Darling-Hammond, L., & Synder, J. (2000). Authentic assessment of teaching in context.

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60 Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Assessment and classroom learning. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 5(1), 7–74.

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62 Lidz, C. S. (1995). Dynamic assessment and the legacy of L.S. Vygotsky. School Psychology International, 16, 143–153.

63 Making the PYP Happen, International Baccalaureate 2007, (p. 17) 64 Abbott, C., & Wilks, S. (2005). Developing an effective classroom for higher order thinking. In

S. Wilks (Ed.), Designing a Thinking Curriculum (pp. 12–28). South Melbourne: ACER Press. 65 Erickson, ibid 66 Bruner, J., Goodnow, J., & Austin, G. (1956). A Study of Thinking. New York: John Wiley. 67 Semetsky, I. (2003). Deleuze’s new image of thought, or Dewey revisited. Educational

Philosophy and Theory. 35(1), 17–29. (p. 18) 68 Photo used with permission of C. Austin. Downloaded 16/09/2011 from

http://merganser.math.gvsu.edu/myth/english-gal.html 69 Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1994). What is Philosophy? (G. Birchill & H. Tomlinson, 45(1).

Trans.). London: Verso. 70 Wiggins & McTighe (2006) ibid. (p.128) 71 Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1994). What is Philosophy? (G. Burchell & H. Tomlinson, Trans.,

p. 96). London: Verso 72 Laverty, M. (2010). Learning our concepts. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 43(1), 27–49.

(p. 37) 73 Dewey, J. (1932). The moral self (from Ethics). In L. A. Hickman & T. A. Alexander (Eds.), The

Essential Dewey (1998, Vol. 2, p. 351). Bloomington: Indiana University Press 74 Deleuze, G. (1995). Negotiations 1972–1990 (M. Joughin, Trans., p. 149). New York: Columbia

UniversityPress 75 Steinberg, S. R., & Kincheloe, J. L. (1998). Students as Researchers: Creating Classrooms that

Matter (p. 5). London: Falmer Press Wiggins & McTighe (2006) ibid. (p. 10)

76 Gough, N., & Sellers, W. (2004). Re/de/signing the World: Poststructuralism, Deconstruction and ‘Reality’ in Outdoor/Environmental Education Research. Paper presented at the Connections and Disconnections: Examining the reality and rhetoric, International Outdoor Education Research Conference, La Trobe University Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, 6-9 July, 2004.

77 Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed (p. 53). 30th anniversary edition 2000. London. Continuum International Publishing Group

78 Gee, J. P. (1990). Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in Discourses (p. xix). New York. The Falmer Press

79 From discussion with interested parents and teachers during 2004. 80 Langer, J. A. (2001). Beating the odds: Teaching middle and high school students to read and

write well. American Educational Research Journal, 38(4), 837–880. Also Applebee, A., Langer, J., Nystrand, M., & Gamoran, A. (2003). Discussion-based approaches to developing understanding: Classroom instruction and student performance in middle and high school English. American Educational Research Journal, 40(3), 685–730. (p. 693)

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81 Salomon, G., & Perkins, D. (1998). Individual and social aspects of learning. Review of

Research in Education, 23, 1–24. (p. 2) 82 Shephard (2000) ibid. (p. 30) 83 Gee, J. P. (2003). What Video Games have to Reach us about Learning and Literacy. New York.

Palgrave Macmillan. 84 Short (2007) ibid. 85 Schön, (1983). The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action (p. 68). London:

Temple Smith 86 Dewey (1933) ibid (p. 14) 87 Dewey (1933) ibid. (p. 56)

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MARCIA BEHRENBRUCH

CHAPTER 4CHAPTER 4CHAPTER 4CHAPTER 4

What’s Essential? Students’ Perspectives on Inquiry

Anna, a year 10 student, offered this definition of inquiry learning:

I think inquiry learning keeps it very ... like respectful and very understanding about what we as a person want to learn rather than ... They don't look at us just as a whole group they look at all of us individually and that's why it works so well here’ cos everybody can learn at their own sort of rate and with what they are better at and what they're not as good at.

Anna was the first student I interviewed and so this was the first definition of inquiry that I recorded. The complexity was both surprising and humbling. Surprising because I could hear those ghosts of the curriculum theorists I had been reading and thinking about. There was the voice of the child as the start of differentiation. There was a zone of proximal development. There was that one-on-one social mediation of learning. Humbling, because I had not anticipated the depth of students’ understanding of the implications of inquiry learning.

I planned student interviews around a small number of questions. How would you define inquiry learning? What did you learn through inquiry? What have been the long term benefits to you of inquiry learning? Can you give examples of ‘things you have learned’ through inquiry? In response to such insightful statements as Anna’s, other questions soon developed. What advice would you give to a school considering implementing inquiry learning? How do teachers know what you have learned? The interviews were conversations, not question and answer sessions. Initially this worried me. I stopped interviews for several months to rethink my whole understanding of reliability and validity in qualitative research.

But kids wanted to talk! And talk lots! And not stay to my script! It was indeed a wicked problem.88 I came to realise that good qualitative research is more about ‘how accurately the account represents participants’ realities and is credible to them.’89 This type of research is about commitment to justice in representing the participants’ views. It requires a researcher’s prolonged engagement in the field to understand the environment. It requires a researcher to make their own views and assumptions clear. It verifies data by returning transcripts to participants for them to read and change. It looks for dissenting voices and exceptions. It is being trustworthy with analyse through accuracy in

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transcription and having others look at data to see if coding and interpretations are substantiated.

Interviews generated hundreds of pages of transcriptions. 570 sections were coded with key words. These sections ranged in length from a few sentences to several paragraphs of transcribed conversations. For every quote included in this chapter here there are dozens more that could have been added as well. The quotes are verbatim from the transcripts. Pauses where students stopped to consider their thoughts are indicated as a series of dots (...). Table 6 indicates the analyse codes that emerged from the transcripts and their frequency of occurrence. Even a code that occurred through a small percentage of the 570 coded segments could indicate an important insight.

Table 6. Codes generated by interviews with year 8 and year 10 students. Percentages relate to the 570 coded segments.

Year 8Year 8Year 8Year 8 (32(32(32(32 studentsstudentsstudentsstudents)))) % of % of % of % of TotalTotalTotalTotal

Year 10 (36Year 10 (36Year 10 (36Year 10 (36 studentsstudentsstudentsstudents) ) ) ) % of % of % of % of TotalTotalTotalTotal

Teacher 19% Teacher 30% Independence 14% Working together 18%

Working together 13% Skills / knowledge 17%

Choice 13% Relevant 16%

Relevant 12% Independent 15%

Enjoyment 10% Assessment 13%

Skills / knowledge 9% Questions 12% Assessment 8% Choice 11% Individual differences 6% Support or guidance 8%

Connections 5% Time 6%

Support or guidance 5% Peers (friends) 6%

Questions 5% Connections 6%

Control 5% Individual differences 5%

Peers 4% Enjoyment 5%

Stress 3% Discussion 5%

Co learning 3% Co Learning 4%

Discussion 3% Respect 4%

Time 2% Stress 4%

‘Working together’ and ‘teacher’ were the most common coincidental code.

This combination was in turn, most associated with independence, choice, relevance, guidance, co-learning and respect. Anna’s definition of inquiry that started this chapter stayed with me as the essence of what I heard from many students about the value they placed on respectful relationship with their

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teachers. Looking through this respectful relationship lens, I grouped the codes into four categories or themes. The first theme looks at aspects of inquiry that are intrinsic to the students: the voice of the learner. The next two themes look at aspects of inquiry that stand somewhat outside of the student: artifacts of the physical environment, and the role of the teacher. The last theme looks at an aspect of inquiry that teachers and students must share; assessment.

RESPECTFUL RELATIONSHIPS AND THE VOICE OF THE LEARNER

Respect is an abstract quality. How do students interpret respect? Almost all of the students’ definitions of inquiry included the words relevance, choice, independence, or a description of how their specific learning needs and styles were met in the classroom. Choice, relevance and independence were often merged. “You choose what you want to study”. These parameters make respect visible.

I found many examples where respecting students’ voices by allowing them to follow inquiries of interest around big ideas provided the motivation for them to acquire knowledge and skills. Jerome, a year 10 student with a strong interest in science explained that inquiry to him meant being allowed to make personal choices about what to learn.

I wanted to know who was the second man on the moon. Everyone knew who was the first, but no one knew who the second was and I found that out. It was Buzz Aldrin. So I was excited to learn that, at the time. Anyway. I like to learn what's out there and how things relate to down here. We did the project and did pretty well on it because I knew what I was talking about because I wanted to know.

Within this strong voice wanting to find out something relevant to him, but probably few other people (the second man on the moon) there was a sense of another ‘relevant’ with its connection to world issues. “I like to learn what's out there and how things relate to down here.” Jerome’s seemingly small personal question led to an inquiry on lunar exploration. He learned how the obiter was controlled, moon gravity, life support systems, team roles in the moon landing and the political and economic reasons why moon exploration was abandoned. His reference to ‘project’ also supports the importance of project based learning (PBL) when it is used as intended by Dewey and Vygotsky. It is student driven, not didactic. This personal relevance as a starting point supplied the motivation for him to put in the time and effort to read technical and biographical sources, write creatively and critically, analyse mathematical data, graph trajectories, reflect on the personal traits of the men involved in that exploration and the media role in their fame.

Another example of the importance of personal relevance as a motivation to learn came from Patrice. Her family came to Australia as Cambodian refugees, having spent many years in a Thai refugee camp. At the beginning of year 8, in the context of a conceptual understanding exploring the relationship between

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culture, history and identity, she was shocked to learn about the horrors of Pol Pot’s regime that had cost the lives of many of her relatives. In year10 she negotiated with her History, Ethics, and Global Sustainability teachers to continue her research and by the end of the year her knowledge of genocide in general and Cambodia in particular, was extensive. This motivation to learn and communicate her learning required writing, reading and oral presentation skills in addition to the development of historical, political and economic knowledge and skills. She developed an appreciation of the connection between culture and mother tongue as her bilingual parents told their story in Khmer. Again, the inquiry started with a personal puzzlement but was guided to something far more significant. Patrice wanted to understand not only how this had happened and how it had impacted on her family but how and why it had occurred in other times and places.

It was like in year 8 where I started looking into my family timeline. And I knew a bit about it but I didn't really know that much. My mum brought out all these pictures, like because my granddad took heaps of pictures. So I have pictures of my aunts and uncles from the age of five or something and you can tell like the similarities between my grandfather and my uncle that I've never met and sometimes when I look at my uncle who’s still alive you're like ‘Oh my God. You can tell they're brothers.’ And then when I came to year 10 when we did genocide as well … that was more like looking into the actual facts of what happened and that … was when I actually had a serious talk to my Dad about it. And because when I'm older, you know, you can understand a lot more. So my Dad actually went into like what happened with him and my mum and I was just ... I was like taken aback with it ... So I put lots and lots of effort into my assignment with that one. And wasn't hard putting effort into it because I was so passionate about what I was learning.

Respect acknowledges that there is nothing trite about what students consider relevant. They want to choose from a huge array of issues and ideas that they know are important. I wondered at our arrogance as designers of curriculum if we think only adults can decide what is significant to learn. These students were inquiring into causes of war, reasons for poverty, impact of AIDS on world economy, why earthquakes couldn’t be predicted, how the media used images to manipulate ideas, and why governments seemed to have such difficulty making decisions. To resolve these inquiries naturally required knowledge and skill development. As this next comment from a year 8 boy indicates, it was not always the relevance I expected, but it certainly acknowledges the relevance of authentic social skills.

Like here it’s [inquiry] helping you in life …. how to deal with girls.

The implications of ‘relevant’ changed as students moved from year 8 to year 10. Later, there were additional references to ‘relevant’ as preparing for entrance to senior school and the upcoming examinations or to skills they could see they

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would need outside of school. This was particularly apparent in year 10s’ suggestions for improvements. These suggestions were not critical of inquiry. They were reflecting the changing nature of ‘relevance’. Even the first suggestion regarding exam preparation recommended a group effort to ‘plan’ an exam, not passively accept one from an external source.

Just even a bit towards the end of year 8 get them to sit down and as a whole class sort of plan out an exam.

Yeah, I reckon if this school could incorporate some life skills…kind of a … a ‘subjecty’ thing…like for taxes and … stuff like that … really important things ... that you need to know when you're out of school.

Inquiry learning not only started with student interests but supported their unique processes for understanding. This support depended on one-on-one time with their teacher. Although the zone of proximal development is not a term in common classroom use, the concept was important and understood by students.

It's [inquiry learning] customed for each person so it's more specific (Year 8).

I'm a visual and a kinaesthetic. Like in Japanese I read and I learn, but like in science I need to write it out so I can get all the key points and then I remember them when I write them down (Year 10).

Because teachers seem to … help us one on one more. So if we're trying to find the answers to our own questions, they are … they're not teaching a “class” they're teaching you separately (Year 10).

Besides one-on-one learning with their teacher, students also valued learning experiences that extended to their peer group. The first two comments below reinforce the premise that social mediation of learning depends on students actively constructing their learning, not just completing tasks given to them by the teacher.

It got interesting with the thought that you got to pick the country, arrange the people you worked with, and so it was, you all worked together a lot easier. You weren't in there arguing. And, you're interested in it (Year 10).

Well as a group we decided to look at fair trade around the world and in Australia and see how it all works (Year 10).

And I think it's good that everybody can see what everybody else's strengths and weaknesses are. I think that's why they understand each other better. And yet, because we get along so well everyone, you know … you’re just so open to express your opinion. Or help each other as well (Year 8).

Inquiry is about teachers relinquishing power and control and enabling students to be involved in directing their own learning. Older students used the

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word ‘respect’ explicitly. The younger, year 8 students implied it through their criticisms of control, often as the first statement in their definition of inquiry.

In Year 8, inquiry was really good because we just got to choose whatever we wanted to cover … So we could cover the things we wanted to do instead of the things that they wanted us to learn about, which is really good (Year 8).

I think it's kind of a good strategy [inquiry]to have in a classroom because we get to take on what we think is more interesting rather than just what they wants us to do (Year 8).

The teachers actually talk to you instead of yell at you … and tell you what to do. You've got a lot of options and stuff (Year 8).

Inquiry means you have a choice. You're not told to do anything. You choose what you want to study. You're not forced (Year 10).

Two year 10 boys, Karl and Bryan, had transferred to the school two years previously because of behavioural issues. When asked what advice they would offer to secondary schools planning to move to inquiry based learning, their response was:

If the teachers aren't going to respect the students they can't expect the students to respect them. Just constantly giving out detentions isn't going to do anything ... I'm not going to respect someone who does that to me and so you can't expect them to respect you (Year 10).

The edge in these students’ voices can’t be heard on paper. They felt very strongly that detentions and inquiry just didn’t work together. References to ‘detentions’ came up unexpectedly in several interviews as part of definitions of inquiry. This issue around detentions intrigued me. They are still used as control mechanisms in many schools. Detentions were offered as examples of ‘not inquiry’. This school hadn’t used detentions for many years. Teachers talked. They tried to find the source of the problem. They offered strategies and action plans to improve work or relationships. They used restorative justice practices to negotiate consequences.

You'd need different teachers. You've got to have patient teachers, teachers who aren't just used to do it now or else … Giving out detentions like bodily functions (Year 10).

Instead of a detention teachers here more think ... Why didn’t you do it? ... and try and figure out a way so that you can do it. And so here you kind of do it anyway (Year 8).

Respecting students as independent learners who can choose relevant and important things to learn reduces the need for control mechanisms such as detentions. This is not just about developing self-control which still implies persistence in the face of something unpleasant or uninteresting. It is control

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intrinsic to tasks related to the students’ interests and to their responsibilities as a member of a learning community. Karl and Bryan were successful in this inquiry environment. Their lively and somewhat noisy dispositions were not seen as an impediment. They required humour and guidance from teachers and classmates, but they both completed their secondary schooling and went on to university.

As teachers, we certainly weren’t perfect. Sometimes we slipped back into ‘control’ mode. I had made this mistake with one of my classes. I assigned mathematics homework so that I could ‘tick a box’ beside a state outcome. My students quietly pointed out to me that the work was boring and they didn’t really see the point of doing it. They came up with several suggestions that were much more effective for learning and assessing. Students commented about how they felt when this happened:

Sometimes the teachers just say oh, you know you're learning this and this and this. You kinda just wanna rebel and just like, no I don't wanna do it. But if it's something you wanna know then you get more enjoyment out of it (Year 10).

In summary of this first theme, inquiry requires and builds respectful relationships. Students related ‘respect’ with being given the independence to choose what was relevant to them, to have their voice heard. Relevance was an important motivating factor to sustain the work needed to construct understanding. It contributes to authenticity by building on real life issues with value beyond school. Respect was where differentiation started. The connection between ‘respect’, ‘relevance’ and ‘voice of the learner’ is the essence of Dewey’s belief in inquiry as transformative learning and integral for responsible citizenship. Respect is also essential if teachers are to be working within that Vygotskian ZPD.

Yeah, being able to tell the teacher what you're interested in, in turn gives the teacher an idea of what you're interested in, and they can relate to you through that interest (Year 10).

RESPECTFUL RELATIONSHIPS AND THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT: RESOURCES, SCHOOL SIZE AND TIME

Relationships continue to dominate this second theme, but now the focus moves to factors in the learning environment that support that development of respectful relationships. Students primarily identified the impact of specific resources, the importance of school size and time.

Resources

I started using a code ‘textbooks’ because the first two year 8 students interviewed immediately gave ‘not textbooks’ in their definition of inquiry.

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Not textbooks. Like we get to have a say in how we learn, like not just out of a book but we get to give ideas on how we want to learn (Year 8).

Better than just learning the normal stuff… people just telling you to write stuff out of the book (Year 8).

There was a sense that textbooks were a form of control. They limited choices, impinged on independence and did not allow for different learning styles. Textbooks didn’t usually address their unique questions or provide the knowledge needed to develop their inquiries. The first comment below also indicated that textbooks limited the distribution of new knowledge through the group, thus limiting the effectiveness of socially mediated learning.

With a textbook you can read it like a million times and you know it off by heart and you can assess it on that but if it’s something new that no one's studied before, ... by talking about it other students give you ideas … Everyone then knows about it I guess (Year 10).

It's ‘cause you got your own way how you wanna do it you can do it. You've got lots of options instead of like sitting down copying out of a book (Year 8).

If we want to know more details we can go into it, but with a textbook you can only go as deep as the textbook allows you (Year 10).

Like Mrs … was saying, you learn so much more doing what you wanna do than what any textbook can teach you. And I thought that was a really good sentence. It really summed the whole thing up (Year 8).

So you look into things more if you're into the motives…all that sort of thing. So, instead of just doing text book, ‘this happened that happened’, you go into it. This person did that, because of this, that. It might of happened because of that and … so on, so forth (Year 10).

Trustworthy research looks for other perspectives. Year 10 students were required to sit formal examinations in preparation for transfer to the senior school. In discussing their concerns about formal examinations, two Year 10 students commented that having set textbooks would help them with that preparation. Is this inauthentic resource matching inauthentic assessment?

Sometimes text books would probably be okay for exam revision. Because it's more … like straightforward and set to the things you have to know.

Cause if it was out of a text book you can use the little chapter review, in the text book [for the exams].

Students gave many examples of other tools that supported their inquiries. They referred to the Internet, books, computer software, DVDs and newspapers. In the first quote below, Christos talked about an inquiry he carried out in year 8 on Prohibition in America. This flowed from his interest in crime, law and

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gangsters. Although the Internet was important to him, he also recognised that it wasn’t an easy tool. The ‘vice’ from his point of view (not his teachers) was that he had to access, assess, sort, create and communicate information and ideas. In the process of learning how to use the internet effectively he had to construct his learning. In particular he acquired substantial historical knowledge, and skills in evaluating primary and secondary data sources.

I think it's better [using the Internet] because you get a broader view, but it could be kind of like a vice to you as well. Al Capone and stuff, some people say he's like a hero and some people say he's a villain and stuff. It depends what source. Like if it's a textbook it's from an educational or factual point of view, he's a hero because he brought alcohol back into society when they needed it or whatever. But if you're a straight out line of the law person then he’s not so good (Year 8).

Especially with some of the global sustainability stuff, there's so much information that we need to look up, there's no way we can get it in from a textbook so that's why the computer's good, we've got it all there (Year 8).

Karl appreciated not having a textbook but saw the combination of Internet and library books as important because of his concerns about Internet reliability. He preferred working with ‘books’, but not textbooks. His voice alludes to independence, differentiation and respectful relationships.

If everyone works together and it's just a respect that's between the students and the teachers, and you don't have to get that respect by you know, laying down textbooks and those desks. You can just do it a more modern way, a more interesting way and you engage the students more. When we do it[research], library books help sometimes more than the internet because the internet gives you just crazy … Like I find it better when you're working by yourself with a [library book] than when you're working with a teacher with a textbook because it's sort of, you're working at your own pace. And when [we] worked independently for the global forum you were relying on basically the internet or going to the library as there weren't any textbooks on Israel and stuff like that (Year 10).

Learning to use a wide range of ‘text’ moved students from active to critical learning because they were able, like Christos and Karl, to participate in the construction of a learning domain. Indeed, the ability to use the Internet and other resources effectively was seen as an important and truly transdisciplinary skill. It was identified as a ‘lasting effect’ of inquiry learning by many year 10 students.

You know the internet is really unreliable … so you have to know how to really narrow it down and get rid of the trash.

Like the kind of questions you ask about things and the way that you question resources and what you're reading and whether it has relevance and stuff and who's saying it.

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An authentic tool parallels authentic work in that it enables students to construct their own learning, calls on important knowledge and skills, and enables them to explore ideas with value beyond school. Class textbooks as a sole resource, were not meeting those criteria for students. Some students commented that textbooks were an unsatisfactory alternative for ‘practical’ and ‘hands-on’ work. They identified the importance of science experiments, and using drama as a ‘tool’ for constructing learning.

We used to just copy out of books and stuff but here we get out and do it (Year 8).

It means you do less stuff out of a text book and more, you know, hands on sort of stuff [in science]. This school's different because we do more of that here (Year 10).

In drama we had to make up a character and so you had to like pretend that you were the person rather than just looking at a textbook and saying 'well there is poverty in Indonesia and people don't get food sometimes.' Like it was just different ‘cause you had to think about what it would really happen if you were living in Indonesia and you were in poverty (Year 10).

Small schools and time

Looking at school size as a ‘physical’ component of an inquiry learning environment started with students using the word ‘relaxed’ in their definitions of inquiry. A small sample of these included:

It wasn’t like strict dates or anything. So you could take your time and do work at your own pace. It’s much more relaxed (Year 8).

The teachers are way more relaxed about things in class, you know, they don't harp on about little details. But you like, still do the work … so it's way more relaxed but still everyone learns and stuff (Year 10).

The feel of the school. Just how relaxed it is, community. It's the community you know. The people … positive atmosphere. Yeah, and then you're able to work relaxed. Oh God, we have sheep at school. It feels really relaxed with them because there's no big tall brick buildings and everything. It's really peaceful. I think. Not much tension. No. Relaxed is a bad word to use. … Understanding? (Year 10).

These comments certainly support the importance of respectful relationships but there is something else stirring in their words. The last quote above was a combined dialogue with Ajmera and her classmate, Joseph. They described the physical environment as important to that ‘relaxed’ feeling, but they also struggled for the right word. ‘Relaxed’ was not quite what they wanted. Ajmera’s choice (after a long pause) of the word ‘understanding’ is pertinent. Their juxtaposition of physical environment with ‘understanding’ supports the

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constructivist belief that everything surrounding the student - the environment and the artifacts in it - mediate and influence learning. This principle, which is an integral part of the Reggio Emilia approach, appears to be just as applicable for adolescents as for young children. What other environmental factors accounted for this ‘relaxed’ feeling? Few other students mentioned sheep or buildings. The clue came in returning to sections of the interviews coded as ‘stress’. Although this sounds contradictory, the two feelings were often expressed together with one stated explicitly and one implied.

Teachers help a little bit more instead of just give you a worksheet and then you just have to sit at your desk. Everybody is part of the group and actually talk in class. More conversations while you do your work. Instead of stressed up the work gets done (Year8).

Karl and Bryan reflected on their prior experiences in another school:

There were a lot of students in a lot of classes and you had to get places quickly, and if someone was doing something wrong, or if you didn't …. if you couldn't understand what they were explaining, usually they would like, shove it out of the way because there was just so much going on. They just didn't have enough time (Year 10).

The references to conversations and group work were not surprising, but time was intriguing. I went back and re-read all the interview transcripts for more insights into ‘time’. When asked for their definition of inquiry and for advice to schools thinking of implementing it, students often referred to ‘time’, particularly the importance of one-on-one time with their teacher.

I think [inquiry] has something to do with a small school. Like the teachers can take the time to learn everyone’s name and know a bit about them in each of their classes (Year 10).

Because teachers seem to, at this school … they can help us one on one more, than the big schools ... So I guess there’s more time, to be able to do that (Year 10).

The importance of ‘small school’ was often mentioned, but never ‘small class’. Although the year 10 students in this research worked in small elective classes (8 to 15 students), their home room classes of Mathematics, Science and English were between 23 and 25 students. The year 8 students in this study worked in classes of 25 students all day – certainly an average class size by Australian standards. However, as a consequence of small school timetabling with a limited number of staff, students would work with the same teachers several times over their four years in the secondary school and often with the same teacher for more than one study in any single year. Year 8 students had at most, three teachers covering their core subjects of English, Mathematics, Science History, Geography, Economics and Information Technology. The year 10 students would have the same teacher for at least two courses in any one

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year. In a small school, students spend more time with teachers they already know. Another nuance of ‘time’ referred to longer class times.

It's more independent, [inquiry learning] and it would take up…… it doesn't take up more time, but it needs more time (Year 8).

Yeah but if you've got a smaller amount of time and a large class not everyone's going to be involved. Almost the bigger the group the more time you need for inquiry (Year 10).

I wondered if this ‘more time’ reflected longer class periods, generally 80 minutes at this school, or more individual time with teachers. Were teachers moving away from the front of the class to work with small groups and individuals? In analysing the transcripts, each time students described a role of the teacher, it was coded, ‘teacher role’.

….and the teacher would sort of just walk around just helping people out when they needed it instead of bugging people to do their work (Year 10).

She just sort of came round to groups in the classroom to see how we were all going and make sure we were all doing something (Year 8).

This provision of ‘time’ through more contact with a smaller number of teachers and through longer class periods is something that schools can arrange through their timetabling and administrative policies, but what are teachers really doing as they’re ‘walking around helping’ or ‘sitting and talking’? Although longer periods of time are significant, what teachers do in that time is also important. This second theme looks at the role of the teacher in inquiry learning.

RESPECT AND THE ROLE OF THE TEACHER: SUPPORTER, GUIDE AND CO-LEARNER

The interview sections coded as ‘teacher role’ were also co-coded with the words ‘support’, ‘guide’ when those words were used explicitly, or ‘co-learn’ when students referred to learning something their teachers didn’t know. Year 8 and year 10 students described an important aspect of a teacher’s role as ‘support’. Sometimes this meant ‘supporting’ their choice of inquiry.

Eliza wanted to investigate Barbie Dolls in an inquiry around ‘icons of change’. The year 8 teaching team was not sure about this. We had reservations. Where was this going? She was a very independent young woman and her family and teachers were experiencing some rather difficult behaviours. We felt that this was a direct challenge to see if we were genuine about allowing students to research their interests. Was this just a trivial investigation designed to be provocative? Although this was possibly true at the beginning of the inquiry, her investigation turned out to be fascinating. As well as exploring women’s body images through time, she found that Barbie’s inventor was also

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the inventor of one of the first breast prosthesis for cancer sufferers. In her inquiry Eliza also graphed and analysed the sales statistics over years, researched the properties of plastic and the relationship of Barbie costumes to events in 20th century history. She addressed many state outcomes in mathematics, science, history, economics and English. More importantly, we were able to use this time with her to build that respectful relationship. Eliza referred to this incident in her definition of inquiry.

That was really fun because we did get to choose our own thing and we like had teachers to help us but they supportedsupportedsupportedsupported [her emphasis] our ideas and didn't say, “Oh that's not suitable” or something. It was good. Yes, they never try to go against them or push to you to a different idea (Year 8).

At other times, ‘support’ could also mean help to clarify ideas, to find resources and to just talk about what they were learning. Students valued teachers support as part of the inquiry process, not just in the preparation of a product.

It's not like the teachers aren't there and don't do anything. It's just that you get to go off on your own and when you need the help they're there (Year 10).

We've learned things that we need to talk to the teachers about because if we don't understand it we just talk to them and they'll help us (Year 8).

It's just good that there's somebody there who can understand what you're talking about, or that can tell you, “Oh well I don't know a lot about that subject, maybe you should go ask this person or this person” (Year 10).

Teachers were a resource that could provide significant information so that the flow of the discussion and learning was not interrupted; ‘just-in-time’ didactic teaching rather than ‘just-in-case’ without a relevant context. I loved the first student’s reference below to the ‘teacher thing’. It is an example of Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development from a 16 year old perspective; a small moment in time where a teacher could move a student forward in their thinking. Sometimes, teacher-as-resource meant explicit teaching to a class or group, but the more important role was assisting their learning by ‘sitting beside’ in the true meaning of assessment.

I think we get our best work and put our best ideas when we're actually discussing as a group, you know what I mean? And we have the teacher the teacher the teacher the teacher thingthingthingthing [student emphasis] and they explain to us. Because people don't understand like some political terms and world issue terms and we have discussion on that and it's really kind of useful to know that (Year10).

I prefer it [inquiry learning] much more to the, you know, teacher up at the board telling you what to write. Sometimes we do that because we have to, you can’t help it, but I really like it how the teachers will come and sit with you and talk to you as if you were just another person (Year 10).

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The most common description of the teacher role was as ‘guide’. I was initially confused about the discrepancy between ‘guide’ and the importance students placed on relevance and independence. Listening carefully, I could hear four difference nuances of ‘guidance’. The first was an emphasis on guiding knowledge and skill development. Students referred to assessment criteria and rubrics as the ‘right guiding stuff’, emphasising the importance of formative assessment.

So it's not so much you've got to do this, this and this, but it's more, ‘We want you to learn these skills but how do you want to do that (Year 10)?

Like, I think any student is capable of doing it [inquiry] if they're given the right directions and instruction. You can't just leave it totally up to them because then nothing will ever get done but if you've got them seeing like the right guiding stuff then … Like if you point them in a direction … give them criteria which they have to fulfil, but they've got the option of what they want to fulfil it on (Year 10).

When year 10 students were asked about what they felt was a lasting impact of inquiry learning, they often referred to skills, but seldom to specific content. This was satisfying as the teachers here had always stressed the importance of transdisciplinary skills such as asking good questions, reading for different perspectives, writing well, communicating through mathematics and the arts, developing computer skills, and personal and social learning skills. Students could do more than just list skills they had developed through inquiry. They could explain their importance and applications; that alertness to wider possibilities required for master thinking dispositions.

Inquiry-based learning, it's … sort of taught us to question things. Don't always accept what they say.

Definitely learned to make sure we always ask questions about things and to make sure that we're independent and very organised.

Probably not to believe what I read straight up. You have to read and find different points before you can actually make up your opinion and to make a good opinion. You’ve like learned how to write essays you know. And you've developed your own style of writing.

You know 10 times 20 to the power of 2 or something… But you need to know why so you can apply it to other situations.

Like connections and drawing mind maps and everything. Still do that sometimes.

Yeah, like you sort of learn how to take control of yourself, and like if you don't do something no-one else is going to do it for you.

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I think you actually learnt more different skills from it as well. Like getting along. Like we had a few fights but we kind of sorted it out ... different skills as well.

The second interpretation of ‘guidance’ acknowledged ‘guidelines’. I was surprised and impressed with students’ understanding that teachers have curriculum accountabilities. Students accepted teachers’ authority or ‘guidance’ providing it was balanced with their own interests and still respected their independence. This is guided inquiry.

My understanding of it [inquiry] was that teachers … like they didn't teach you a set thing. They would … well, they would but it would have guidelines that sometimes they kind of let you go off and learn what you want to learn about within ... you know … guides (Year 10).

We research what we're interested in, but if you gave us too much freedom we just wouldn't learn things. Yes, we're researching what we want but with boundaries (Year 8).

It used to be “just do this” and then the difference with inquiry is “do that but then explore yourself”. And that's really the difference between inquiry based learning [and my experience in another school] (Year 10).

The third nuance of ‘guide’ described a teacher’s role as encouraging students to integrate across discipline boundaries. Authentic intellectual work crosses disciplines, so in their role as guide, teachers were building the bridge between students’ interests, and discipline knowledge and skills to develop understanding.

Even though you've got your English, science and your maths using the same thing [central idea] then to do it with art as well adds this other really cool view on it all and it's really good that way (Year 10).

I thought, [when I went to secondary school] there'd be English separate and history separate and geography separate and … it's just all meshed into one and that sciences and art was also included. So you knew what you were learning about what it had to do with everything else. …..I think that's the thing… everything … everything relates to … back to everything else (Year 10).

And this year we connect and I find that I am not bored of either subject because I keep connecting across each subject. Like we had that project where we researched what we wanted to do about bacterial diseases and stuff like that which led on to something else (Year 8).90

I really like how even art and music were incorporated into what we were doing. Like I remember doing the big bang in year 8...Even though you've got your English, science and your maths …. then to do it with art as well adds this view on it all (Year 10).

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I wondered if teachers were guiding through conceptual understandings or just facts organised around ‘topics’? Were concepts just terminology in teacher documentation or were students recognizing them in their own learning? Students implied the concept of ‘connection’ in the quotes above, but were they using other concepts? Like the previous example of Jerome moving beyond the ‘second man on the moon’ to ‘connections to earth’, other students were articulating curriculum built on conceptual understandings.

Here it's not so much about the facts, it's about your overall concept of the topic, who was in that period [in history], what happened? Cause and effect (Year 8).

Just loved the history and the history was wars, cause, effect, repercussion (Year 10).

It [integrating math into inquiry] helps you a lot with your problem solving as well because you're not just looking at it from the one perspective (Year 10).

Like we had to come up with a question related to global sustainability and the power and profit issues stopping our world form becoming globally sustainable (Year 10).

An additional affirmation that teachers’ role as ‘guide’ supports a respectful classroom came from Year 10 students’ comments regarding a global forum. They chose countries and issues and came together as a model United Nations. They had to understand their country intimately – the environmental, historical, geographic, economic, political and social details – and be prepared to defend their stand on the conceptual understanding, ‘power and profit drive globalisation’. Those were the guidelines. In addition, teachers provided weeks of time for preparation and a whole day for the presentation. Preparation for the forum required extensive reading, writing, oral presentations and mathematical analysis. This was a huge event involving every year 9 and 10 student and many students gave this forum as an example of inquiry learning that they were proud of.

The teachers had it all structured really well but then they said, ‘Here you go guys. This is your thing to do.’ And that was a really rewarding thing to do. In the end, have a look at how … how well that we pulled it off. It was great to have the teachers trust you to do it yourself and to know that we're actually… capable … capable of doing something like that.

How do we guide the development of big conceptual ideas and still honour government curriculum responsibilities without stifling choice and independence? How do we guide whilst still respecting individual differences and relevance? As usual, a small comment offered an important insight. Whilst grappling with the concept of effective guidance, teacher accountability, and their connections to respectful relationships, I read Sascha’s definition of inquiry learning:

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Yeah, choosing what they [students] want to learn along guided paths. So not only just finding answers to the questions but developing questions themselves (Year 10).

This is the fourth implication ‘guide’. The key to guided inquiry is not just guiding students to answers, but guiding the development of their own questions. It is guiding them to be reflective thinkers and thus independent learners. Again, the value that students placed on that independence echoed through many quotes.

I really like doing that [inquiry] because I could do it myself and I didn't have like set questions, I had to think of them by myself (Year 8).

Without inquiry, learning would just be ... you'd just hear facts, facts, facts, facts, but here you hear questions and answers and questions and answers. And discussions and hear all sorts of opinions about different issues and everything (Year 10).

Often, students were surprised when I asked for a definition of inquiry learning. They didn’t perceive it as difficult. Students used the words ‘basic learning’ or ‘normal learning’ or ‘straightforward’. Could Dewey have said it any better?

Well, even if [some people think] it's too hard to do ... considered as it’s basically the plain straightforward stuff, it broadens the students’ minds and gives them a real perspective into what you’re actually looking at. It allows them not only to advance in the area but also to like, question different aspects of it and learn from that. So we’re not only just sitting there answering questions but actually creating own questions to be answered (Year 10).

At the beginning of my own development as an inquiry teacher, I struggled with the problem of not knowing the answers to students’ questions. Would this be interpreted as incompetence or a lack of scholarship on my part? Students in this study commented that learning could be more effective when teachers didn’t have the answers.

You might be working on something and you get so into it that you want to know more about it and you ask the teachers and they won't know so you have to go and find it out yourself. So you learn a fair bit 'cause you get really into the work (Year 8).

If you ask a question you won't just get a straight answer. Well it will sometimes frustrate you but then if you actually go off and they give you somewhere where you can actually look for it and then you go on finding out for yourself, you can get some satisfaction out of it rather than just being told (Year 10).

If teachers don’t know the answers, how do they work with students to guide question development in inquiry? Looking back at many interview comments in

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this chapter, the answer is in talking, in discussing, in co-learning with their students. Students see their teachers reflecting, acting and inquiring. My insights into co-learning started with Nya, a Year 10 whose mother was a teacher in the school.

MB (me)….do we have to be experts in everything?

Nya: I don't think so ... because I've seen my mum's side. [Laugh] So, I don't know, she ... She's at home and she's learning it as well. I guess that's kind of good cause then they can both ask the questions together. They can find the answers together.

In my analysis of the students’ interviews, I counted 23 statements that used the word ‘discussion’ explicitly and an additional 90 statements that implied it through words such as ‘talk’, ‘opinion’, ‘tell’ or ‘ask’. Throughout, there was a strong sense of students and teachers contributing to each others’ knowledge and understanding. It was Freire’s ‘dialogue’, Gee’s ‘discourse’, and Vygotsky’s ‘language as social artifact’ bringing about Dewey’s transformation of teacher and student.

Yes, because you get like an adult's perspective and they bring in their information from what they know and we kind of add to it. You learn a lot and tell the teachers a lot and the teachers tell you (Year 8).

No, it's very funny having the teachers down on such a close level, almost like work … it seems if you're in the group … it seems the teacher is part of the group with you (Year 10).

No I don't think anyone has to be a complete expert on anything but it's good 'cause if they don't know you have to find out and then get back to them so you kind of help the teachers as well they're helping you so you all work (Year 8).

Although teachers didn’t have to be experts, students trusted that teachers would have a sound knowledge base and be skilled inquirers themselves if faced with new knowledge.

I think you need to have like a good sort of base and then if you know that your class or someone's going to be investigating something that you don't know a lot about I think it would be good for them to investigate that by themselves so if someone comes up with a question they're not going to go off [in the wrong direction] (Year 10).

Guidance and co-learning were not restricted to teacher/student interactions. They were also important between peer groups. Co-learning among students went beyond sharing knowledge or the right answer. Students worked together, sharing ideas to develop understanding. It was social mediation as knowledge construction.

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You have to go further than just the surface of the topic and … it's pretty good in that sense and also with other people using inquiry based, using your friends who are also doing the same thing so then you get lots of different opinions and that's different information … Yeah. It's really about getting beyond the surface and what you see first up (Year 10).

Some students identified teacher/teacher co-learning as important to inquiry. This was intriguing as most comments involved teachers and students co-learning. Over the past years, teachers at this school had developed an ease in each others’ classes. We had made a point of trying to observe each other’s classes so that we knew what directions student inquiries were taking.

Like I don't see how other schools couldn't introduce inquiry learning because as long as the teachers have a really good relationship they're actually able to get them in together. .. all the teachers are like really close from what we see and they get to have talks and then they interact with each other. And they come into the class and they find out what you're doing in English and then they relate it back to Science (Year 10).

Interestingly, students’ comments focused on their teachers’ discipline knowledge and skills not on their ‘teaching’ skills. And even though inquiry cycles were posted in classrooms, students never mentioned those stages of ‘tuning in’, or ‘finding out’.91 Is modelling inquiry through co-learning how the inquiry process is really taught? Good inquiry teachers are more than just scaffolders or presenters of knowledge and skills. If inquiry is transformation of teacher and student, teachers must also be co-learners. They are not ‘sage on the stage’ or ‘guide on the side’. They are ‘meddlers in the middle.’92

As I listening to students, I questioned the delineation between transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary learning. Inquiry centered on issues of personal and social significance and structured around conceptual understandings is certainly a ‘transdisciplinary’ approach. Students also valued ‘transdisciplinary skills’ such as asking good questions, independent learning, communication and social skills. Yet students were clear that discipline knowledge and skills were important to develop the answers to their inquiries. Does inquiry make those ‘trans’ and ‘inter’ distinctions redundant?

These last two themes looked at elements for successful inquiry that were external to the student. Students perceived that more time with their teachers was a result of a smaller school. They interacted more often with a small number of teachers for longer periods of time. Looking deeper into their comments, another significant reason for increased time with their teachers was the way that inquiry changed the role of the teacher. The teacher was no longer centered at the board, but ‘walking and talking’ and ‘sitting’ with them. Time, school size and the role of the teacher were not independent variables. They were intrinsically linked, placing formative assessment as a shared role.

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RESPECTFUL RELATIONSHIPS AND ASSESSMENT

Although students mentioned assessment, they never referred specifically to the role of the teacher as ‘assessor’. Looking back through the student comments throughout this chapter they were continually self-assessing. They were asking questions and collaborating with peers and teachers. They were reflective, active learners in an environment that defused control mechanisms and encouraged them to develop skills to think and learn independently. More insights into assessment came from asking, ‘How do we know what you have learned through inquiry?’ Just as discussion was the best way to learn, students felt that assessment conversations were also the best way to determine what had been learned.

Well, by talking to them I suppose, because that's when you get the most information out of people rather than saying ‘Oh write an essay so that we know that you know all this stuff (Year 10).

A lot of it is in class discussions, a lot of it will come out, especially with the personal opinions on issues … Like if you've done the work you can discuss it well (Year 8)’.

Students identified class work as another important method of assessment. Class work made learning visible to teachers and parents. The class work examples most often cited were scrapbooks,93 which year 8 students used on a daily basis and exhibitions and forums94 which were an important focus of class work for both years 8 and 10. These are examples of complex tasks requiring significant reading, writing, speaking and listening, visualising and analysing. Although students didn’t use the words ‘formative’, their comments indicated that they recognised assessment as a continual constructive process in partnership with peers and teachers. The quotes below and in fact, many of the quotes throughout this chapter suggest a strong sense of group ownership of assessment. Note their use of ‘we’.

I guess classwork… what we do in class. ‘Cause we do heaps and heaps of stuff in class. We've filled up like half a scrap book already which is A3 pages worth of stuff with mind maps, pictures, research, notes. Yes what we do in class (Year 8).

Just I guess from the work that we do. I guess it's kind of … the presentations, like being on the global sustainability forum … and just the work that we do around the classroom, that we stick up, and the parents come in and view it and stuff like that, and the teachers can see what we've learned (Year 10).

The distinctions between activities and assessment blurred. Discussion and complex class work were ‘assessment as learning’. They were considered the best ways to learn and assess. These activity~assessments were authentic as they offered opportunities for students to construct their learning and develop

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important and relevant knowledge and skills. They were based on ideas that had relevance outside of school life and the learning was demonstrated to an audience beyond school through a range of literacies, written, verbal and visual. Authentic assessment as learning is not passive. It demands action. Students were continually making independent decisions for their learning. They also described the assessment tasks they valued overwhelmingly in terms of action words; talking, discussing, presenting, doing.

Ironically, additional support for the importance of authentic assessment came from Year 10 students’ concerns and criticisms about exams. The senior school required formal exam results for entrance to certain courses in years 11 and 12. The students accepted testing as the easiest, but not the best assessment to provide basic information to the senior school, “I hate to say like tests, but that's probably the easiest.” Although they performed well on standardised tests, most found testing as a summative task stressful and alien to how they best learned.

It comes as quite a shock to you when you're in Year 9 and you're like, well what's expected of me, this is a different type of learning again.

Exams. [long pause] I think the stuff that we're produce in class is a better indicator … I think it's a better indicator and is more indicative of how we're going rather than exams when you're under stress (Year 10).

Margie was vehement that although she realised exams were necessary, she didn’t care about them. She described tests with nouns, ‘set questions’, as opposed to inquiry which she refers to as ‘continuous’. Tests were clearly not considered authentic. Her agitation during this conversation made me wonder how schools and school systems that depend on tests as the main assessment are able to develop the respectful relationships that are essential for inquiry.

Tests I don't think are good for that [showing what you understand] because they're kind of set question and if you haven't [done well on test] you just studied more for something else that you thought was more important. It only stays in my head until the exams finished and then it just all goes out of my head. I don't remember any of it anymore, because I don't have to, because it's not kind of continuous (Year 10).

Returning to Black and Wiliam’s theory of formative assessment, these students saw themselves as having an important role in their own assessment. They were working with their teacher to identify the gaps between what they knew and could do, and a desired learning state which was a product of their interests, teacher interest and external curriculum accountabilities. More importantly, students were taking responsible action themselves for addressing the gap.

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THE DISSENTERS AND OTHER PERSPECTIVES

Good research looks for dissenters’ voices. There were some alternate views and criticisms regarding assessment, timetabling, and specific teachers, but again, these were not in themselves critical of inquiry learning.

Matthew, an only child, was struggling. He admitted that he initially found it hard, ‘Well like not getting tests, not being told to do anything’, but that it had become easier and he was now enjoying year 8. But Matthew’s parents continued to struggle with the way the school operated. Teachers had many meetings with them. They wanted textbooks and regular formal tests – after all, this was secondary school now. They wanted more facts memorized and couldn’t understand how we could give a TV documentary or analysing newspaper articles as homework. He was the only year 8 student that made a comment about exams but I could hear his parents’ voice. ‘Maybe a couple of days a week to get preparation for Year 9, like in Term 4 get to do like mock exams.’ He was removed from the school at the end of the year. Our focus on inquiry and authentic assessment had not met his family’s needs and expectations.

There was another dissenting voice at year 10. Again, Steven’s parents demanded more tests, more textbooks and more discipline. He didn’t like discussions:

I like to sit in the background … I let the other people answer. I had a quote the other day that I saw, ‘The man with the most knowledge says the least.’ That was what I did sitting at the back of the room. There it is. That's why the discussions shit me off.

Discussion was identified as a significant learning and assessment tool for most students but some may require a different approach to inquiry. Perhaps Steven should have been encouraged to write his responses or intentionally called on more often in class discussions rather than waiting for him to volunteer.

I wonder if sharing the research on inquiry and making our teachers’ preparations for teaching and learning more visible would have helped in both cases? For these students, something was missing in the home / school relationships. As another year 10 student commented:

In my opinion the teachers do almost everything right. It's more the student's outlook. If the student comes in with an open mind and is willing to do the work then they'll hit it off great with the teachers and they'll learn what they have to.

In addition to feeling that they needed more formal examination practice, criticism from year 10 students centered around the mathematics program and the concern that there was less time for inquiry in the upper school. The mathematics program at year 9 and 10 was organised over those two years through multi-age classes with students rotating teachers each term. It was a success from the teachers’ perspective as it reduced planning time, but some students found it difficult. They complained that they didn’t like changing

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teachers so often. I understand now that we had not taken into consideration the importance of relationships. We were focussing on mathematics, not on the learner.

It’s sort of a bit challenging 'cause you have to adapt to their teaching style because they're all very different and you sort of go ‘Ok, hang on. This is this teacher now. Yeah all right this is her style’.

I find that I like getting used to one teacher. I kinda got to know the teacher and try for them I suppose.

Year 10 students also commented on time restrictions through years 9 and 10. Previously they had half days and even whole days with the same teacher. As part of preparing for the transition to years 11 and 12, students had a semester of more subject based electives. There were still strong integrated programs through Global Sustainability (a core subject encompassing Humanities, Science, Ethics and English) and integrated Science and English classes but the timetable was more fragmented for them than in previous years.

A couple of opportunities were brought up where we could personally question our own things and we actually dived a little bit into it but not too far, so it was just like wetting our feet in there when we've been previously doing it in all the time (Year 10).

Like in maths we had massive discussions every single time [in the past], but this time we only have it if it's kind of in the plan because we only have a certain number [of classes] we can't really spend that much time doing that stuff (Year 10).

Other student criticisms centered on new and replacement teachers, who often found it hard to adjust to an environment without detentions and a reliance on students’ self-motivation to complete work. Students were used to a stance of inquiry and removing choice, differentiation or co-learning opportunities resulted in less effective relationships and unimpressed students.

Well at the moment we've got to just read this newspaper article and answer questions on it, but I like to do things, like, interactive. How you can talk to people and move around the room and get other people's opinions on things (Year 8).

If you've got a teacher that kind of like tells you more than guides you, it's hard, because that's what I've got, like someone who'll tell me what to do but won't guide me, and I have to do what they say, and that annoys me (Year 10).

These critical student voices still offered important insights into inquiry. It emphases the importance of reflection ~ action, where students ask questions and take responsibility for the action required to answer those questions. They want to be involved in identifying their learning gaps and given the independence to address them. Their criticisms supported the importance of

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respectful relationships and the impact of the teachers’ role in inquiry. They also offer strong evidence that verifies this research as trustworthy. As a member of my learning community, they were not afraid to criticise or offer suggestions.

I felt privileged to be able to speak to students about their learning. Rather than alienation or disengagement, a sense of fun and joy came through many interviews. ‘Enjoyment’ or ‘wellbeing’ could be the summary of the first two themes of respect and supportive environment. If students’ voices are heard, if they are treated respectfully shouldn’t they be happier and enjoy school? Shouldn’t this reduce the alienation that has been so prevalent in the middle years?

Feel like … more happier and stuff. It's a lot better and even my mum and dad have seen it, that like I don't stress at home or anything anymore (Year 8).

You learn so much more because it's actually something you want to learn about on the subject not just what you get put on the board and then have to copy down into your book. And it's much more fun because you get more involved in it (Year 10).

See, Emma told me to go home last week because I was sick, and I don't want to go home because I don't want to miss out on something because school's so fun. And like I've never had a sick day off school apart from … no I haven't. Like you want to come to school (Year 8).

What I didn’t anticipate was that students felt teachers enjoyed inquiry as well. Students wanted us to be happy and to enjoy their company. There is a strong sense of belonging that comes from a community of learners.

I think it makes the teachers jobs easy because Ms ... comes in with no textbooks and she says she loves it … so she won’t stop. I love it (Year 8).

I think teachers probably enjoying teaching at a school like this more than a normal school (Year 10).

Well they're not just evil teachers anymore. They're sort of like your friends. You can talk to them and they understand you and you give points to them and have fun and just research (Year 10).

You feel as if they're [the teachers] more part of the school and not just something that's added on to it. And you feel that you belong there because they belong there. Like all the teachers here have got really relaxed personalities that suit the school. And all get involved… they like what they do and … Yeah, it’s not, Oh God I have to go to work tomorrow and teach those awful kids in that awful subject (Year 10).

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REVISITING THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS

This purpose of this research was to identify the essential elements for inquiry classrooms. I hypothesised that if it was essential, it would have to be expressed by students. I anticipated that I would hear that students valued learning that was relevant to them, but they have led me further. Through their interviews, I learned that ‘relevance’ is an

indicator that their voices were respected as independent learners. They valued time with their teachers and peers to learn together and to build relationships. They understood and expected teachers to demonstrate a range of roles, sometimes guide, sometimes supporter, sometimes co-learner, sometimes expert, but not ‘controller’. All of these roles supported the centrality of formative assessment with students taking an active, not a passive role in the assessment process. Students were astute in their understanding that there were accountability issues that also had to be considered but that these could be addressed through concepts and conceptual understandings and assessed through discussion and complex, meaningful class work. The year 10 students who had experienced from 2 to 10 years of inquiry learning identified the skills to ask good questions, ‘reading’ critically within a broad meaning of text, and learning to work together as enduring impacts of inquiry on their learning. The next chapter looks at inquiry from the perspective of their teachers.

NOTES

88 Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1984). Drawing valid meaning from qualitative data: Toward a shared craft. Educational Researcher, 13(5), 20–30. (p. 20)

89 Creswell, J. W., & Miller, D. L. (2000). Determining validity in qualitative inquiry. Theory into Practice, 39(3), 124–130. (p. 124)

90 This student continued his inquiry into AIDS and African poverty combining Science, Economics, History and Geography as well as reading novels by contemporary African writers.

91 Murdoch, K. (1998). ibid 92 McWilliam, E. L., & Haukka, S. (2008). Educating the creative workforce: New directions for

21st century schooling. British Education Research Journal, 34(5 (Special Issues on Creativity and Performativity)), 651–666.

93 Scrapbooks are describe in Chapter 1 94 Forums included a model United Nations looking at issues of sustainability, and Socratic

seminars held in evening so that parents could observe and participate.

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CHAPTER 5CHAPTER 5CHAPTER 5CHAPTER 5

What’s Essential? Teachers’ Perspectives on Inquiry

After the series of student interviews, I wondered what the teachers would consider as essential for an inquiry environment. I wondered if there would be synergy between their views and those of their students described in the previous chapter.

Because teachers were volunteering a substantial amount of their time (up to two hours), I felt that these interviews needed more structure than the shorter, student interviews. Without a plan it would be too easy, as colleagues, to slip into the day to day conversations. On small square cards I wrote 36 statements synthesised from the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES)92, the Teacher Pedagogical Philosophy Interview (TPPI)95, and the Inquiry Teaching Beliefs Survey (ITB)96. The purpose of the cards was to provoke conversation (Table 7).

Table 7. Statements used during teacher interviews

Statements written on cards for use in the teacher interviewsStatements written on cards for use in the teacher interviewsStatements written on cards for use in the teacher interviewsStatements written on cards for use in the teacher interviews

Students explore concepts first before content is developed” (whole to part).

Teachers explore concepts first before content is developed” (whole to part).

A central idea or essential understanding is often referred to throughout an inquiry.

Students have a clear model to use to direct inquiry.

Teachers have a clear model to use for inquiry.

Teachers have specific tools for monitoring knowledge and skills development.

The learners in this class use and develop deep knowledge.

Boundaries between disciplines often dissolve e.g. inquiry draws on English/math or Science /History.

Learning is integrated through concepts rather than themes.

Students determine their pathway of inquiry through student questions.

The central ideas to be explored often arise from student / teacher collaboration.

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Statements written on cards for use in the teacher interviewsStatements written on cards for use in the teacher interviewsStatements written on cards for use in the teacher interviewsStatements written on cards for use in the teacher interviews

The central ideas to be explored often arise from student / teacher collaboration.

Teacher and student often develop strategies of inquiry together.

Students worked primarily in groups.

Teachers work together as a team to integrate their disciplines.

Tasks can be negotiated in this class (Including Summative).

Real life contexts are at the center of the teaching and learning.

Students often gather information through direct experience and stories.

Students collaborate with people and places outside of the classroom.

Students are often primary researchers.

Students see that the purpose of their learning is to produce something meaningful.

The classroom has many areas of activities for discovery and exploration.

There are many opportunities and many ways to reflect on learning.

Teacher’s place more importance on students’ point of view than the correct answer.

Uncertainty is valued by teachers and students.

Some inquiries are ‘spur of the moment’ – started in response to opportunities.

Important learning often occurs through discussions of different perspectives.

Learning builds on what students already know (pre-assessment is part of the classroom routine).

Learners’ questions are valued.

Ongoing assessment is used to guide knowledge and skill acquisition.

Classes are a mix of the planned and spontaneous.

There is significant time to let questions develop.

Students displaying their processes around class are an important assessment tool.

A wide range of literacies are encouraged.

TEACHERS' PERSPECTIVES ON INQUIRY

I asked each teacher to place an additional card labelled 'my class' on a sheet of A3 paper and as each statement card was drawn out of an envelope, to place it in proximity to this card depending on its importance to inquiry in their classroom practice (see Figure 14). Teachers could choose to comment on a particular statement or not. Their placement of the

cards offered me an opportunity to ask guiding questions. Why did you put that card so far away? Why are those cards placed together? Teachers were also invited to write cards of their own if they felt that something was missing. The card arrangements were photographed at the end of every interview.

I asked each teacher to briefly describe their teaching experience and how they came to be interested in inquiry. I also asked them also to comment on how useful the interview process was for them. These teachers were colleagues in a community of learners, but I wanted to provide assurance to outside readers that firstly, these were experienced teachers of inquiry and secondly, through the openness and humour in their responses that there was no coercion resulting from my role as an administrator in the school. Let me introduce you to the teachers whose voices you will hear in this chapter:

Valerie: A Humanities and English teacher at Year 8 and Year 10.

I taught for about I 0 years, yes about 10 years, then I stopped, and then I've been teaching 8 years, so I had a big break in between. Probably [heard about inquiry] here, although funnily enough intuitively did odd things in previous schools that worked but I never knew why.

It's really good [the card tool] because it makes you think about what you're doing and how well you're doing it and it makes you laugh because you sort of think, yes ... here is the bit that I want to work on.

William: A primary and secondary school trained art specialist who had his own ceramic art gallery in the local area. He was also the atelierista in the Early Learning Center, teacher of art at year 8, the Middle Years team leader, and an expert on extension mathematics for primary and middle years' students.

10 years here, but a long time teaching. And yes, I guess I had dabbled with inquiry learning, which I would now call theme based rather than concept based and found that to be very fulfilling and it was integrated to a

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Figure 14. Photo of card array from one of the teacherinterviews. Dark central card is the ‘class’ card.

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point but now I find what we are doing here is probably the best teaching I have ever done.

I think that's good. [card tool] It brought up a lot of issues. If you'd said to me “Give me 15 issues about inquiry learning”, I think I would have struggled.

XaniXaniXaniXani: : : : A secondary trained mathematics and science teacher who started at the school three years previously directly from university.

This is my 3rd year out. Ideas have changed dramatically from when I was at school compared to what the reality of teaching is. But, I think because I've come to this school, I've been molded to be inquiry based and seen the benefits of inquiry based. Also because I'm new I feel I'm open to trying new things and having a go at new things and this environment gives me to the opportunity to try. Even if you fail it doesn't matter. You’ve got time to work on things.

Oh, very good. And even, like if I could take picture of my cards away now, I would work on my outer circle and then try and incorporate... make sure these things are always incorporated into my planning and what I do in the classroom.

Luke:Luke:Luke:Luke: A mathematics and science teacher at year 8, year 10 and also a team teacher in a Year 10 integrated Global Sustainability course.

I started in 1981, so that's 28 years, 27 years. I mean I think science sort of lends itself to a form of inquiry learning. Our current model, probably started several years ago when we were talking about constructivist inquiry, you know, challenging people to allowing the students a bit more time and space to actually wander and wonder if you like, and investigate things, and allow students to manage that rather than everything being directed from the textbook or teacher.

Well I mean this [card tool] forced me to look at what I'm doing, how I'm doing it and so on. This formalised it more. And you know it's highlighted for me some things on the outside that I'd rather move to the inside, and that'll happen over time.

ZoeZoeZoeZoe: : : : A primary trained teacher with her focus of interest in the middle years, especially year 6. She acted as a mentor for other middle and secondary teachers as they developed their understanding of inquiry.

17 years! [experience teaching] When I did my first workshop four years ago, on inquiry I thought, this is the way I’ve always done it, but I've never had that format, that direction and I was always at a bit of loss as to how to tie it all together and to how to prevent that sort of small branching out in all direction with no focus and bring it back to skills and concepts.

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Yeah, it [card tool] is effective and I think, probably you know if you looked at it and you looked at yourself and “How do I do that?” and “Am I doing that?” You look at … what is important.

DEVELOPING THEMES FROM TEACHER INTERVIEWS

In looking for themes in the teacher interviews, I could not ignore the strong commonalities to the student interviews that were emerging. The three most frequent codes from the teacher interviews were ‘teacher role’, ‘discussion’ and ‘time’. These three terms were represented in over 40% of the 350 coded statements. A fourth code, relationships, was only explicitly used sixteen times yet it occurred in every interview whenever teachers were talking about what they considered essential in their classroom practice.

I already knew from the students’ interviews that these were important ideas and clearly teachers agreed as well. I decided to look for related ideas or concepts to use as a ‘sieve over chaos’ to gain insights into those four codes of teacher role, discussion, time and relationships. Returning to the transcripts and re-listening to the recordings resulted in re-arranging codes into four additional themes to explore: planning for inquiry, the challenges in developing student questions, the importance of teachers working in teams and assessment. These danced and spiralled together with many overlaps, hence my reference to them as theme spirals. Assessment however was the most difficult to isolate and consider separately from planning, students questions or teacher teams. As indicated in Table 8, assessment again flowed through all. The theme spirals and their associated codes are summarised in Table 2.

Table 8. Theme spirals derived from review of literature and the associated codes

Theme spirals Codes connected with theme spiral 1. Planning for inquiry A

SS

ES

SM

EN

T

Reflection, S

umm

ative, Form

ative R

ubrics, Reporting

Planning Concepts Understanding Relevant and real life Knowledge and skills

Integration Disciplines Teacher questions Starting inquiry Individual differences

2. Developing students’ inquiries

Student questions Choice Negotiation Co-learning Group work Primary data Models of inquiry

Uncertainty Spontaneity Resourcing inquiry Knowledge and skills Concepts Understanding Individual differences

3. Working with other teachers

Teams Enjoyment Collaboration

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THEME ~ SPIRAL 1- PLANNING FOR INQUIRY

Well, I need time to think about it. I need lots of time to think, and then sometimes even before I put the unit together I talk to students about what I'd be really interested in exploring, get their opinions, then go back and think some more and then even come back again and it may not be until next term that I turn up with it, but then it's been a lot of thought from both me and the students.

Valerie’s comment above regarding planning for an inquiry with her year 8 class highlighted the importance of teacher role, discussion, time and relationships. They were all in one statement. Teachers identified planning as one of their most important and complex responsibilities. Starting the planning process required more than identifying possible knowledge and skills that could be addressed through the unit of inquiry. It required identifying what was relevant and of interest to students, the voice of the learner. These teachers were re-defining the traditional tenet of ‘teaching from the known to the unknown’ away from a focus that began and ended with assessing only knowledge and skills. Their ‘known’ was additionally assessing the interests of the students leading to ‘unknown’ as the development of conceptual understandings, with discipline knowledge and skill development as a bridge.

If it doesn't connect with the student then what's the point. So not just sort of what they know but where they're at, what their interests are and what their experiences are. I mean the better you know the student the better you can connect with those contexts.

William, an art teacher, found that he didn’t have time in his limited contact hours with students to delve into their background interests. One of the reasons he valued teaching teams was that colleagues kept him informed on the progress of class inquires and any new directions they were taking. When Valerie told him that year 8 students were interested in exploring poverty and its connection to history, this became the context for his art inquiries.

So I've said, OK whatever civilisation or country you have chosen, that then becomes something that you work on in art this term. I want you to develop your art work from that.

Teacher planning to connect student interests with the knowledge and skills required by state and national curriculum added a layer of complexity. Luke expressed a dilemma that secondary school teachers often face. In 2 years, his year 8 students would be starting to make choices about their studies in the final years of secondary schooling. He favoured exposing students to the ‘ideas of disciplines’ but felt that they didn’t have to be taught ‘strictly’. There was an acceptance that the ‘ordering of knowledge’ had changed over time and could respond to different starting points.

We need to get kids, rightly or wrongly, to the point at the end of Year 10 where they understand disciplines and can choose subjects, all the things

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they have to do. But I think, at 7 and 8, they need to start the idea of developing those ideas of disciplines and how ... knowledge is sort of ordered, or has been ordered, but you don't have to teach them strictly in those ways.

Luke continued to reflect on transience of knowledge and skills and how difficult it was to know what is important to learn. He expressed concern that the senior school approach of teaching knowledge as ‘subjects’ without questioning, must not be ‘mapped back’ through the middle and primary years. Does this comment by a very experienced teacher of both middle years and the senior years of school suggest schools really are emphasising ‘subjects’ not ‘disciplines’? Are schools in danger of separating knowledge from ways of knowing?

If you take the VCE/IB97 traditional sort of approach and just map it back through secondary and, heaven forbid, into primary, then students have never been exposed to asking questions, never been exposed to researching questions and so on. They come through with a very organised step-wise controlled learning experience. They're not prompted to ask questions. They're not prompted to inquire. Yeah, it's a very sterile sort of learning environment, and I think having inquiry along the way means that students have developed some skills that they will need later in life when they get to that top end and jump the hurdle of the exams for university.

Teachers agreed that the key to integrating the interests of students with skills and knowledge accountability demands was planning based on concepts and conceptual understandings. They used this term interchangeably with ‘central idea’ as used by their PYP colleagues in the school or ‘essential understanding’ as used in many backwards by design references. The terminology was not as important as the underlying meaning. Concepts were woven with students’ interests to create a central idea that focussed the inquiry. The central idea allowed for issues of relevance to the students - the whole - to be incorporated with skills and knowledge – the detail.

You have to think about it. If you don't know what your concepts are then there's no point even bothering to do inquiry because the concepts form everything.

It's not, go to the state curriculum and pick things out, I mean that comes later. You need to think of the concepts first.

Yeah, I mean I prefer the whole to part thing in my own learning. I mean I need the big picture, the concepts, before I get involved with the detail.

Valerie had challenged her year 8 students to find a ‘provocative picture’, an image than they felt challenged and defined them. This was a way to assess their interests and then explore possible connections to state curriculum. Almost every student brought in a picture of the Twin Towers on 9/11 even though they would have been very young at the time. Valerie combined the students’

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concern about terrorism with the concepts of ‘perspective’ and ‘causation’ to develop a central idea with them: ‘Ethics distinguishes terrorists from heroes.’ She designed ‘teacher questions’ as entry points: ‘Have there been terrorists at other times in history? What’s the difference between terrorists and heroes? What makes a terrorist?’ These served as provocations to generate student questions. Combining a real concern of students with concepts provided a meaningful context to develop knowledge and skills from geography, economics and history, religious studies, language, as well as mathematical applications in graphing and analysing geographic and economic statistics. Student read a range of translated texts from different countries and listened critically to political speeches.

One of the best ones [inquiries at year 8] is about terrorism; depending on who you are as to what your perspective is. And they then start to realise for Anglo Saxons they're terrorists, for other people they're freedom fighters, and after a while they're very good at interpreting from different points of view and it's almost different hats, but it really does make it powerful when you have a discussion along those lines. And then, “What would such and such think? Why have they acted that way?” And then [that inspires them to] look at location and history.

Xani also used concepts to connect student interests (the known) to further knowledge and skills development. She taught in an integrated program with an English teacher, looking for meaningful ways to connect literature and science at year 10. The year 10 students were required to complete a unit of Shakespeare before year 11, but finding a relevant link to science was initially problematic. The key was integrating through a concept, not content. The concept ‘cause and effect’ underlined Romeo and Juliet’s story (and romance is always relevant) and connected to driver education (cause and effect of alcohol, speed and driver distraction) which all students were currently undertaking. Together, the two teachers of Science and English crafted a common central idea, ‘Pride and ignorance lead to tragedy’. The concepts of 'cause and effect' also historically connected Shakespeare with his science contempories who were exploring the laws of physics.

We were talking about physics the other day and my English partner said, “Oh, we can't do scientific texts all the time”. I said, “No that's not what I want.” Then we sat down and talked about Romeo and Juliet and cause and effect and it fitted in really well. And linking cause and effect with driver Ed - that's what they've just been through...the concept first before you get into 'OK we're doing physics.

The concepts and the conceptual understanding through which teachers structured and guided these inquiries connected to relevant and real-life interests, providing a purpose and a provocation for starting student inquiry in the classroom. Their planning was a collaborative, iterative, non linear, spiral process that united students’ interests, concepts and central ideas as a context for

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further knowledge and skill development. This idea of planning as more than just finding a theme and activities to unite skills and knowledge can have a profound professional impact.

My previous role [in another school] was to teach the staff about an integrated curriculum and that was done through a thematic approach. My planning would start with the word 'pirate' in the middle and then it would 'bubble' out and fit into the theme. So that's been a huge, a huge learning experience [to integrate through concepts], but it just makes so much sense and it's just makes me feel I'm doing such a better job as an educator.

Generally, teachers developed the conceptual understanding, but often it was only in draft form and changed as student inquires developed. Zoe viewed students’ ability to develop their own central idea as depending on both teacher’s and students’ experience with the process. The demands on the teacher to be flexible were identified as a joy and a challenge.

And it's also good to say to kids, this is what we're doing, this is the essential idea, or central understanding, central idea, however it might change. Depending on how you go, what you do will often influence what an essential understanding might be. So be prepared that nothing is set in concrete.

Concepts and central idea. They are all difficult for a new person coming into inquiry to do that. You have to have a good understanding of how a central idea's developed and how children think through an inquiry and how the central idea is planned. I think that would be really hard for a new teacher to do that in a class.

I didn't realise how important that was; that central idea or essential understanding. That is, you just keep coming back to that all the time for yourself and with them. And then you start to find that you talk it enough that they talk it too and then they've got a very clear idea about what it is that they're doing. And it also, if you've got a good one, will encourage them then to go off on their own pathway of inquiry, but gee that's hard.

The teachers in this study were also involved in providing professional development for visiting teachers. Discussions with the visitors often centered on the power of concepts as crucial to changing teaching practice.

The visiting teachers tend to be very, from my outside point of view, very activity based and overly concerned about what students have to know. Whereas often I find that if you're not so much worried about that and stick to your concept then what happens is they know it anyway just because it's a more powerful structure, and kids get a better understanding of what it is that they're doing.

This process of planning highlights a common misconception that students’ questions start the inquiry process. The provocation to explore is developed

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through the concepts, central idea, entry point questions and the initial activities these suggest.

My immersion activities [in the past] were always, well “what do you wanna know about this topic? You know, ‘What questions?’ and we ask and the kids would sit there and look at you as if… ‘I don't even know what the words mean!’.... and to realise that they [the student questions] generate through the unit of inquiry.

Teachers planned entry point questions to stir thinking and guide the concepts and the conceptual understanding in a particular direction. There were many examples of these questions from their documentation: What is terrorism? What do the media make us see? Is there a link between poverty and colonization? How have our past times influenced our present? Are humans playing God with evolution? These entry point or ‘teacher’ questions were generally open. There were no definitive answers. Zoe cautioned not to expect ‘teacher questions’ to always be the main focus of the inquiry.

Well, the teacher questions are really to engage the kids and to promote more questions. I don't develop the teacher question to then give them the answers to it all. I develop the teacher questions to get them thinking. And from that, through our discussions, often as we're discussing, I'll be writing things down that kids are asking about it, ‘Let's find out!’ So, they're sort of the springboard, the teacher questions. I mean the teacher questions are important for engaging and tuning the kids in, but they can long forgotten once you get into the inquiry. That's the way I see it.

Planning assessment for inquiry is complex. The teachers interviewed agreed that assessment had to be through meaningful tasks that were motivated by students’ interests, however ‘producing something meaningful’ was not a simple phrase and provoked considerable discussion. The secondary students had a range of summative tasks to complete. These were most often group tasks, with individual accountabilities included. Based on these social learning experiences, students would be expected to write individual essays, participate in Socratic seminars or forums, or submit an analysis of data. These group and individual assessments required discipline and transdisciplinary knowledge and skills to evaluate perspectives, create new products or propose unique solutions to problems. Some of these tasks were focussed on specific disciplines and others planned and assessed by more than one teacher.

In addition, year 8 and year 10 students had culminating assessments that marked the end of middle school and the end of the transition years respectively. Year 8 students spent their last ten week term of the year preparing a ‘Night of Decades’. With a partner, they had to become experts on a time in history that had captured their imagination during the year. They had to know the main historical event and their long term historical impact, the significant thinkers including scientists, mathematicians, philosophers and artists and be prepared to present their findings through a range of genres to the wider community

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including their parents and other year levels. Years 10 students spent a term preparing to demonstrate their understanding of ‘Drivers of Global Change’. This consisted of an extended essay, a presentation to parents and participation in a Socratic seminar. These types of assessments added process and as well as product to the assessment planning agenda.

The thing about art for me is that it is the final product I'm assessing andandandand the steps that they’re actually going through [William’s emphasis]. So their art diary becomes an important tool of assessment because it's supposed to be a diary of how they developed each particular idea and how they developed their designs.

For Night of Decades, [Year 8 Exhibition] every kid had a display space to display the processes including their meetings, their meeting agendas. It was very messy. It just kept building, building, building and I think they encouraged each other by doing it.

A product or summative performance in one part of an integrated inquiry involving a collaborative team of teachers can become a formative assessment in another. Students’ display of their art work in their classroom helped them and other teachers reflect on their developing understanding of the central idea. Words and phrases such as ‘build’, ‘make connections’ and ‘produce something meaningful’ as well as relevance outside a particular discipline’s classroom, indicate that authenticity is a key element in planning assessment.

When you talk end product, you think [that’s] what you're working towards for assessment. In art, that's only partly true. The end product, the value of that is that it becomes a response for what is happening in the other areas. And what I should be doing is a lot more emphasis on displaying their work back in to classrooms in time for it to be of relevance to that particular unit.

Once the summative assessment was designed, all other activities were formative assessment opportunities to support its success. Journals and rubrics were described as important tools which also crossed over the summative / formative divide, involving the students in the assessment process. Teachers and students collaborated in developing and refining rubrics that addressed knowledge, skills and attitudes. These provided opportunities for regular feedback to students and a way to make learning visible to peers, parents, other teachers and administrators. The purpose of assessment shifted from a focus on end products to improving learning. Teachers shared that responsibility for assessment with their students.

And then often, like what I've picked up with their reading journal, just because it's ongoing, I realise there's problems and I've just talked to them about what's wrong too, and that's interesting to hear their feedback.

I do anecdotal notes, make observations and also use the assessment rubrics which I get them to self-evaluate too.

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The rubrics used by teachers at this school were referred to as ‘assessment’ or ‘developmental’ because they assessed what was happening around that ‘zone of proximal development’ (ZPD) where the student is ready to learn.98 These rubrics, based on a continuum of thinking skills, were discussed, understood and often refined by students. The rubrics included descriptions of the tasks that would be used to assess conceptual understanding, reference to the underpinning knowledge and skills identified in state standards, and also descriptions to guide the development and self-assessment of thinking, social, self-management, communication and research skills. Developmental rubrics erased the distinction between planning and assessment, between product and processes and between teacher and student as assessors. Rubrics were also used in three-way interviews with parents, teachers and students as part of the reporting process. Within the context of reporting, rubrics also took on summative role.

I was surprised that portfolios were considered separate from ‘journals’ and seen as problematic in practice by these teachers. One of the issues was that portfolios, used in conjunction with student led conferences, tended to re-enforce a summative rather than a formative assessment purpose. Valerie didn’t like using the term ‘portfolio’ because of this connotation and also felt that ‘journal’ had too limited a connotation to her students. She used the less formal ‘scrapbooks’ instead as she felt that this term placed a greater emphasis on the processes of inquiry and acceptance of a degree of ‘messiness’. Zoe’s concern below about portfolios also echoes that caution about too much emphasis on a final ‘performance’.

I have to say I struggle with the portfolio. I really struggle with the portfolio. Because you know, their learning changes so much as they go through the year and some things they can't put into a portfolio. They can't demonstrate in a piece of writing or in a photo that ‘Ohhhh -that breathless wonder- and you just see it and you want to celebrate. They got it! And you can't capture that in hard copy. It still comes back to that producing something. And how do you show for three weeks development of incredible research skills? But we haven't produced anything, but the skills they've developed are so important to carry them through.

These teachers’ points of view on portfolios point to a deeper issue. Assessment in inquiry goes beyond providing feedback on discipline knowledge and skills or processes and products. It also includes assessing attitudes, dispositions, and students’ understanding and skills with the inquiry process itself. If an assessment tool doesn’t allow for those other unique purposes then I can understand how teachers passionate about inquiry could be frustrated.

I don't know that it's always about producing stuff. I suppose I'm also thinking of stuff you can't measure by production. I don't know whether you learn attitudes but you change attitudes, those sorts of things that … it's just hard to measure.

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It you give them enough time and it’s a really good inquiry then it's through the processes that I think the kids really develop an understanding of what inquiryinquiryinquiryinquiry [teacher emphasis] is all about.

In inquiry learning, teachers are often required to assess against external standards, but whether assessing discipline knowledge and skills, transdisciplinary skills, attitudes or conceptual understandings teachers in this study most frequently referred to ‘talk’ or ‘discussion’ in combination with observation as the most powerful assessment tool.

There's a word…. the integrity of what they're writing about. The intellectual vigour, that's it. Their intellectual vigour and I feel like I'm talking to someone that's had my experiences almost.

When kids make connections. Like even as simple as particle theory. And we were talking: we were outside today and Helen noticed the sagging power lines and said something like, ‘oh, and that means to do with metals and how they expand’ and then she said ‘that’s because of the way particles work.’ Shows that inquiry’s working.

Some of them actually get it, say with Newton's third law, which you know I've taught that at Year 12 and students still don't get it. But in the examples they give or the interpretation they give to the observations they've made, in Year 8 they get it. So in terms of assessment, in terms of the depth of understanding, yeah there's evidence there.

Students new to the school and many parents did not always understand that the main purpose of assessment was not reporting but developing understanding. Assessment tasks were not graded conventionally with percentages or scores but through discussion against the assessment rubrics which included knowledge and skills based on state standards99 as well as evidence on the development of transdisciplinary skills and conceptual understanding. Formal reporting to parents was required by law to be against a five point scale which could be stated as scores and percentages or qualitative statements.100 This school chose the latter. Many parents initially expected ‘final marks’ based on ‘examinations’ and some had difficulty understanding that a high mark on a single test that assessed only specific and often limited discipline knowledge and skills couldn’t adequately address the underlying conceptual understandings. This may have contributed to some teachers’ concerns and dislike of portfolios as they tended to be interpreted by many parents as a way to demonstrate factual knowledge and skills.

I think that it's going to take a while for some of those students to break that [main emphasis on the mark at the end] but I think that also comes from home where that's the system where we're used to; you're assessed according to how much you remember and regurgitate on a test and whether you were dux of the school or not - that’s what parents want.

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Some of them, they're now starting to see the power of the inquiry process and how much their kids are developing. But yes, that is a problem.

The initial activities that teachers planned around their questions corresponded to Dewey’s ‘sensing perplexing situations’. Activities were designed to challenge students to move beyond their current experiences. Teachers described these activities in active terms; displaying their work, finding good Internet sites, bringing things from home, experimenting, setting up and preparing things, mixing chemicals, talking to people, finding primary data, telling stories. This stage of the inquiry provided time for students to develop an understanding of the concepts and the conceptual understanding and identify the important knowledge and skills that would be required. In terms of developing ‘master’ thinkers and inquirers, these initial activities provide the motivation for students to find their own questions; to start the process of alertness to wider possibilities that triggers inquiry.

Reflections on Theme ~ Spiral 1 through the role of teacher, discussion, time, relationships

This theme identified an essential role of teacher as planner to guide inquiry. This was not a linear process and often required revision, but the importance of respecting students’ interests was essential. Building relationships was vital if teachers were to have open discussions to identify interests that were relevant, significant, challenging and engaging; whether terrorism, romantic relationships, or learning to drive. Teachers then developed the concepts, conceptual understanding statement and an initial context for the inquiry based on student interest and guided through teacher questions. They considered knowledge, skills and attitudes that could be addressed through the inquiry. Planning also required thinking about the nature of the summative assessments that would be required. How could students best demonstrate their acquisition of the conceptual understanding and its embedded knowledge and skills? Working backwards, the activities planned were formative assessments to engage students in the conceptual understanding, and identify and motivate knowledge and skill development. This stage corresponds to ‘planning for purpose’ discussed in Chapter 3 and required continual discussion with students and other teacher team members. Planning for purpose required time to talk and time to think.

The next theme spiral looks at what happens once the initial planning for purpose is completed and the inquiry starts to take shape in the classroom. How do teachers recognise and support the development of unique student inquiries around the conceptual understanding?

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THEME ~ SPIRAL 2: DEVELOPING STUDENT INQUIRIES

Once they've done some wandering and wondering, that's when their questions start to come up. And some of these questions then form the basis of their own individual research.

The ‘real life’ issues considered by teachers in the planning for purpose stage are often those of a whole class or year level cohort. In the next stage, inquiry starts to move in many different directions depending on students’ personal interests. This is where real differentiation occurs. Differentiation is more than just adjusting a task or assignment to meet students’ individual needs or talents. It starts with students developing their own questions. The conceptual understanding with its embedded concepts is the focus that keeps inquiries from diverging so far that there is no longer a common point of discussion.

Student questions

In Zoe’s class, students used the concepts of ‘cause and effect’ and ‘responsibility’ to inquiry into the understanding, ‘To sustain life, Earth’s resources must remain balanced.’ Students addressed this in unique ways according to their specific interests.

Developing the student questions and linking that to the key concepts was really powerful for me because … that's what I love is being able to let the kids follow their passion and their focus. I mean, Edward is researching energy produced from cells as an alternative energy source. Now, no one else in the class has any interest in that whatsoever, but his mother says he has been up late at night searching for blogs on the internet and writing to the CSIRO101 and asking questions and she said he's so switched on. Now, he's following the same central idea as everybody else, but just so passionate about this.

Even teachers in this study who were experienced with inquiry acknowledged that it took time for them to develop and fine tune their capacity to just recognise student questions. Every activity was an opportunity to see if questions were starting to surface.

How do you know when they've developed a question? How can you hear that if you don't listen? ... and that's a skill. So that's important. I'm not there yet.

They’re going to end up doing a lot of activities based very much on a set of questions that I've started with. They’ll be writing an essay because there's a literacy component to it, but it's really their questions that I'm interested in, that I hope will show up here.

Besides recognising questions, clarifying and focusing questions were not easy for students or teachers.

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So that was the defining moment for me. Understanding how to get kids to develop their questions that are relevant and relate it to the concepts and central idea. I mean it's a lot of work just wording a question that allows enough breadth of investigation but not so much that they're overwhelmed.

Helping students develop questions moved teachers from the front of the class. Vygotsky considered the ZPD as being between a teacher and student so inquiry’s success depends on students working effectively alone or in groups freeing the teacher to work differently. Teachers in this study found that small groups of students were also effective in helping each other develop questions, supporting again the importance of social interactions in mediating individual and group learning.

I've got to change the dynamic of the classroom to enable me to engage with individuals to get to the bottom of what their inquiry is.

…but to be effective I think inquiry needs to be on that one on one or really reduced ratio … which really if it's a true inquiry can't be done as a big group. It has to be done within that small ratio … there's different needs for each student.

Usually it takes a while [to develop good questions] but it's just through more discussion. There's often small groups of us, not just me and a kid. Once you start it with one group you'll get kids around, and then it starts to go from there. The students start to really want to find out about something.

William believed that choice was the key to students experiencing success in school. He was a very strong advocate of the Reggio Emilia approach and although he carefully planned his secondary school classes, he identified a dilemma balancing teacher planning and voice of the child.

It’s a bit hard to show you value them when you've already planned your unit of work. So the beauty of giving them a valid choice is you're saying whatever questions you come up with you can run with.

William went on to describe his ‘model’ of inquiry. It consisted of a continuum of Choice, Effort, Quality, Attitude, Labour of Love102 (CEQAULL, pronounced Seek-all) developed by as part of a motivational movement to help students find meaning in their lives.

C stands for choice and if you have any area of choice in your life then E stands for the effort that usually follows if you have choice. If you put effort into something then Q stands for the quality that should come because you put effort into it. And if you've got quality showing then your attitude and the attitude others should change. And then if that happens then the work that you do becomes not a chore, but a labour of love.

Although CEQALL is not a model or scaffolding for inquiry (William and I agreed to disagree) it made me think about the significance of the word ‘choice’.

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After these interviews, members of our teaching team had a fascinating discussion on William’s belief about CEQALL. Valerie believed that it set students up for failure. She pointed out that one could make choices and work very hard but that did not guarantee either a quality result or a change in attitude of others. She felt that CEQALL placed the onus of success and the full burden of failure on the student and ignored the importance of teachers and social interactions. I began to think that we use the ‘choice’ word rather glibly.

Inquiry is more than teachers offering choices for investigation. That is an external control. There is a complex relationship between choice and negotiation. Students find many questions during their inquiries, and ‘choice’ is about deciding which ones to take further, what points of view to take, what resources to use and whether to work individually or in groups. However negotiation is crucial as it provides the social interaction that shares the responsibility for learning and keeps the inquiry focussed. Control is now centered in the community around the inquiry. Choice is a one-way process, but negotiation is transactional and transformational, Dewey’s essentials for inquiry and citizenship.

It's the direction that they want to go so then that comes back to your negotiation and that has to have a direct impact on the central idea.

Teachers’ comments regarding ‘models’ of inquiry were interesting. There were representations of inquiry models in many classrooms. However there was a sense that articulating a specific inquiry cycle was expected of them, but perhaps not needed. For example:

I use the Kath Murdoch stuff on inquiry and I would use that as I'm planning and often in my planner I'll put the 'immersion task' and I'll use those headings, but I don't use it with the kids to model. But I don't like to define the path for the kids centrally. I don't like to come in and ‘Now we're just going to have an immersion in this and then we're going to move on to that’. I'd just like it to be a whole, even flow for the kids. So the clear model for me would be my unit planner and my rubrics as well.

I think that's important, but I don't know that I'veI'veI'veI've got a model of inquiry [teacher emphasis]. Although when we did our work with science I spent a bit of time looking at how we actually construct the inquiry or the investigation, looking at variables and hypotheses and that sort of stuff. So they've got that.

Teachers felt that there was no one correct way to structure inquiry as it flowed naturally out of the conceptual understanding, provocations and the students’ questions developed around concepts. However, it could be valuable to have a way of describing the process that was understood by all participants in the inquiry.

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I think that's really important that we have a common language and decide that this is where we're at in the inquiry and the kids then understand that and they know what to expect.

Uncertainty

Developing student questions and negotiation required an acceptance of uncertainty and spontaneity on the part of students and teachers. Student questions sometimes led to an exploration in a discipline area that was not familiar to the teacher. Explorations also led into areas with many perspectives that varied over time and place.

If everything's certain, then there's no questions to ask.

You, at thirteen now, this is your understanding but it doesn't finish there. Your understanding will change over time as your grow older, you add new things to it.

Luke felt strongly that teachers had an obligation to demonstrate that nothing was certain and unchanging even in science and mathematics. If an aim of education is to increase alertness to wider possibilities and provide active citizens with the means to ask the hard questions of scientists and politicians, then accepting uncertainty is essential.

I think society says to them [students]: Science knowsknowsknowsknows.... Science can get you the answers and maths is absolute. So I think society tells them there's no uncertainty. So I don't know that they even think about the uncertainty of science and maths, but it's only through uncertainty that they're going to start asking questions that are going to push the boundaries. Yeah, and develop the questions to test the uncertainty and to see if things are certain or not. … If you don't ask a question about it you don't find out.

Accepting uncertainty extended to planning as well. Sometimes teachers reached a point in an inquiry where they realised their initial planning may not have been as effective as it could have been. Valuing uncertainty meant not only being open to students’ questions, but being prepared to change concepts or even conceptual understanding statements in response to students’ directions for inquiry.

You suddenly find that the essential understanding sometimes does not cater for what can happen …. because the students lead the way, and you think, well my essential understanding which I thought was nice and big and broad was actually quite limiting, and the students then tell you through [scrapbook] work that you've got a bit more work to do.

Sometimes there was no opportunity to go back and re-plan as an immediate response was required. ‘Spontaneity’ was seen as a personal response to uncertainty. Valuing spontaneity supports the negotiation of a different and

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perhaps unforseen path where something creative happens with teacher and student.

I would put planning ahead, before spontaneous, but I would put spontaneous as the way I can show that I value student learning and student questions and I would always want to be open to being spontaneous.

I mean the other day in mathematic we were reading about patterns in weaving and so I said let's go for a walk and collect some things. That wasn't planned. We just went out looking and spent the whole period looking for patterns and things in the school environment and collecting the leaves and things. And when I came back I had a whole lot of other things to do to consolidate their understanding, still we spent the time weaving. The discussions that came from that were just as valuable if not more than what I had planned, so I suppose that spontaneous things like that are happening all the time.

Uncertainty is not always a comfortable situation for those trained as educators in a system where teachers were in control.

To go into somewhere I don't know, I'm really uncomfortable, because I suppose I believe that as a teacher I should have some knowledge. I think I do have a reasonable knowledge of science areas. But earlier on in my career things were a lot more structured, and probably I’ve had to learn... just letting go of knowing everything.

Luke contrasted his teaching with that of his partner teacher in the humanities. He recognised her acceptance of uncertainty; to ‘not know the answer’ as a positive influence. Particularly at the secondary level, administrative changes to support team teaching in addition to collaborative planning would appear to be a strategy to manage uncertainty.

But [partner teacher] was just happy to go in any direction, go with…well not go with the flow so much, there was still a plan and a direction, but she was just happy to go with where the students were at. And I think that's partly from the nature of the subjects she teaches, but also preparedness to not know the answer and to know there is perhaps not an answer which there isn't in some of the things we were talking about which is a bit of a conflict with the science. So that's been a bit of a challenge, but a good one, being able to let go of some things.

Inquiry teachers allowed themselves to be surprised, puzzled and confused. They looked for meaning in that uncertainty and ways to effect an orderly resolution. That is reflection ~ action. Yet, none used the word ‘reflection’ unless it was response to a prompt or question containing that word. Then it was placed as central and essential to inquiry.

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Reflection is part of their research. It's part of their developing strategies together. It’s part of the central idea. I'll put it here next to ‘central idea’ [the card] because if it's a reflection on the central idea it should be part of the learning environment.

Xani felt she wasn’t very good with reflection and didn’t encourage it often enough in her students. I reminded her that the day before her interview, I had sat in her class and witnessed an amazingly rich discussion on moral aspects of the genetics they had been studying. She hadn’t considered reflection in that context of discussion and forming questions.

Yeah often we rush through it. ... As teachers we need to learn different strategies. Yeah, see I wouldn't think of discussion as reflection but now that you've said it, I'd probably go, yes, actually because it gives the kids the chance not to just question but also comment.

Similarly, Zoe’s tone of voice was strangely apologetic when she admitted that reflection to her was more important during the inquiry than at the end.

Reflecting on their learning is to me is to be able to share it and verbalise it... express it with their peers. They're saying, “I have learned this” and they sort of have this conversation as they're reflecting. But I don’t say explicitly, “its reflection time.” I don't use that word really. That's got to be something I should be more aware of.

These teachers gave many examples of practicing and encouraging reflection ~ action through discussions, journals, rubrics, scrapbooks and developing questions, but only associated the actual word ‘reflection’ with something done at the end of an inquiry. They were describing student self-assessment and taking independent action but not equating it with reflection. The IB PYP key question to guide reflection, ‘How do you know?’ may not offer enough support to make the connections between assessment and action.

Co-learning, resources, primary data

The uncertainty of differentiation through interests, questions and learning styles offers a challenge for classroom management and resourcing inquiry. Teachers felt that the key to managing the complexity of differentiation was to empower every person to be a co-learner so that skills, knowledge and decision making were shared.

Sometimes it's independent, sometimes paired, sometimes groups, sometimes whole class. It is significant because they learn so much from each other. “What are you doing? Look at this web site. This is a great resource, eh?” And they're calling out across the room. So it's independent and individual inquiry, but it's not done in isolation. They learn more from each other than from me.

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It's a bit of work for you to set up the structure but once the structure is working and a bit of manipulation here and there, it's great to hear the buzz as they're talking and working together and like, moving, because they often share information and share how to do things.

Uncertainty places teachers in the position of co-learner or even reverses the roles of teacher and student. It gives teachers the opportunity to model lifelong learning, the enjoyment involved in learning new things, and the wisdom to admit what is not known or understood. The ‘teacher’ may not always be the adult in the class. This again supports the importance of social mediation of individual learning and the flexible roles of participants in inquiry as they share the responsibility for learning.

It takes a while for them to realise that we can both be uncertain but it's an interesting development by the end of year 8. I like it too when they see teachers discussing things in front of them because then they realise that it's an ongoing thing, no matter how old you are.

I think that's one of the good things about the way I teach here. I say I know nothing about the art of the Philippines. I wouldn't have a clue. And Samuel chose the art of tattoos in the Philippines as his starting point.103 I would never that thought of it … that's part of the fun of it.

Explicitly talking about social skills helps students develop their own understanding of how they work best; friendship groups or common interest groups or sometimes, working alone.

We talk about groups, and we also sometimes say that your friendship group is often not the best group to work in. Why is that? What are the pluses and the minuses? We actually talk about groups and what a good structure is.

A balance between group and individual work was something that even experienced teachers grappled with. William wavered between the enjoyment friends experienced from working together with the need to ensure that individuals were also learning. His clear planning with assessment in mind, helped ensure individual learning in a group context.

Ned and Tom were working together and chose to do clay even though they were doing two totally different things. I would say they work better in groups probably, but I say, ‘I need to be able to see how you're developing on this.’ If they do work in groups they have to have a very clearly defined art diary that shows me what their contribution has been in developing the designs and things.

Inquiry as differentiation required a range of different resources, originating both in and outside the classroom.

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…the displays of my work and their work as it's developed. Plus books, plus videos, plus the library, computers. Yes, so that they've got lots of things to look at.

None of the teachers expressed concern about the lack of textbooks when discussing resources for inquiry. In fact ‘textbooks’ were only mentioned by one teacher. Luke made three separate comments about them in reference to their impact on independence, developing understanding and challenging students’ thinking. There was a strong sense that textbooks tied teacher and student to a lower level of thinking and skills practice rather than providing differentiation and challenge through investigation and inquiry. The first comment suggests a link between textbooks and external control which does not support inquiry.

Inquiry is allowing the students a bit more time and space to actually wander and investigate things, and allow students to manage that rather than everything being directed from the textbook or teacher.

My sense is that students [year 8] have a better understanding of kinetics and dynamics … because we've looked at … I've let it go broader than normally I suppose I would if I was following a textbook.

They don't need as much [drill and practice] perhaps as I've done in the past with the textbook, because the textbook's just … off you go to the next exercise. It is easy to do. When you don't have a textbook you can't do that so you've got to provide different challenges for the students.

Zoe expressed a note of caution about the classroom being the sole source of inquiry resources. If students were weren’t suggesting sources and taking action to collect primary data, she questioned if they were they really inquiring.

To me then [without primary data] it's teacher directed if you’re setting up lots of activities. I think it has to go outside the classroom and have to be initiated by the students because they determine what they need to follow their inquiry.

All of the teachers interviewed agreed that primary data was an important resource for inquiry, yet four of the teachers identified it as an area they needed to improve. The secondary mathematics and science teachers were grappling with the sense that primary data from research by students was of less value than ‘formal research’; data collected and analysed by outside experts.

It’s probably something I don't value as much as I could. I mean kids are primary researchers. Anyone is. You ask a question of the kids, you're researching it. I suppose I expect a bit more of the formal type of research and it doesn't have to be. So that's something that I'm not used to yet, accepting that it doesn't have to be formal research, they can actually figure out things, learn things, investigate, research things.

Asking teachers to reflect on their use of primary data initiated a shift in their thinking. They often started by admitting they didn’t really used primary data,

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paused for a while, and then proceeded to give examples of how it had been used in a powerful way that excited their students. During the discussion, their views of primary data changed from formal and difficult to implement, to views that encompassed data collection through videos, hands-on experiments, family surveys and interviews, excursions and experts in the wider community. The second comment below is an example of the place of discovery learning in inquiry.

But even things like listening to Jared Diamond, [scientist talking about the collapse of civilisations due to environmental catastrophes] they went through three videos and wanted more and more and more. I think that's the thing we can do with students is bring things in here as much as possible, like people and videos and places. Well it was place, it was place explored through a variety of means.

Ok, well now you mention that, I'm just thinking back we've just been looking at forces and stuff in science with the Year 8s. I actually got them to develop Newton's second law rather than, “This is it!” So they [students] gathered information about the effect of mass and force and acceleration and I was trying to link it to the maths so we ended up with an equation which ended up being a straight line and then they measured the gradient and found the f=ma relationship and hey presto, there's Newton's second law. So I suppose in that way, ok they were primary researchers to get Newton's second law, and I said, “You’ve just done similar things to what Newton did!

Luke went on to tell a story about his partner teacher who was very astute at finding primary data opportunities in the community. They had taken a class of students on an overnight trip into the city to observe who lived and worked there at night.

We were at the Gardens feeding the possums, and there was this woman there feeding the possums and I had a chat to her and she was one of the activists that just got the rules changed. The local government was trying to get rid of the possums by trapping them and killing them and stuff, and so I had a chat with her and then sort of moved on. And Nancye had a chat with her when we were leaving, she said, ‘Now I've got her details and I'm going to get her to come and talk to the group.’ She’d previously been a teacher and she's been an activist in sort of local government for years, so in terms of Australian political studies which we're moving on to next term, here the kids have seen this woman out in the fields and thenthenthenthen she's in the classroom telling them about the political systems. And I thought, yep, Nancye’s got it! And I had the same opportunity but never made that connection.

Community experts are not only a source of primary data, but also address the uncertainty arising from individual interests that may lie outside teachers’ expertise. Zoe’s offered compelling arguments for co-learning with experts as

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opportunities for students to collect primary data and for teachers to observe actions from the inquiries. In her second example below she described a mathematician who had volunteered to work with her class. Prior to his visit she and I were concerned about his ability to interact with her mathematically unsophisticated students. The impact on her class illustrates the importance of outside experts as co-learners to differentiate for interests and abilities of students and to provide that active and exciting social mediation of learning. Co-learning sent a strong message to students that libraries, books or the Internet were not the only valid source of information.

They’re looking at sustainable products and services compared to other products and services. So, for example using recycled paper instead of paper from growth forests or recycled timbers; things like choosing fish that are from fish farms rather that caught through drift nets. So through that they’re finding a company - a local company that provides the service or resource or product. Write them and ask for information. I'm trying to get them to accessing primary resource now. People say we can't do inquiry because we don't have the resources, and I think it's not about having a good library or computers.

I put him up the other end of the room so I could hear, but I still had a few kids with me. It started off he was sort of talking to his paper and I was thinking, “Oh, a disaster.” By the end, I went down to see how things were going and the kids were saying “We don't have to finish yet do we?” And later Tom [one of the students] came up to the board and he drew up the hexadecimal system and [another student] came up and said, “I did this really complicated calculation! But, oh, you know it was basic!” “He talked about really old computers from the 1980's. Isn't that funny?” They all got something different out of it. They really enjoyed it. They were solving rubric cubes using algorithms they devised and then they were talking about algorithms and algebraic equations. So it went well. It was just to get them talking a language and speaking the language I can't speak.

Reflections on Theme ~ Spiral 2 through the role of teacher, discussion, time, and relationships

Theme ~ spiral 2 looked at how student inquiries develop. Once the student questions started to emerge, the roles of teachers changed to become almost entirely focussed on formative assessment. Now, teachers saw themselves as listening and providing support for individual and small groups of students. They talked to students to help them structure their own questions. They negotiated to ensure that the student inquiries kept the conceptual understanding in focus. Students were self assessing their understanding of the central idea and acting to answer the questions that developed. Teachers were self assessing their understanding of student learning and acting to help them bridge the gaps.

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There were challenges. Teachers needed to develop their own skills in recognising and helping students frame questions, in managing uncertainty and in incorporating knowledge and skills into the context of the inquiry. As each student is unique, teachers developed alertness to the many ways these successes could be achieved. This is teacher living the IB learner profile104 as ‘knowledgeable, thinker, open-minded and inquirer’. This is also Dewey’s principle of transformation with inquiry changing both student and teacher.

Another challenge was sufficient time for inquiry. ‘Time’ had two implications. The first was taking time to listen and let questions develop.

I'm still getting used to that idea, and I don't think that I allow enough time because I want to move on. … It's like you listen for the questions, I haven't quite got, I mean I understand, but I don't do it well yet. And I think that's partly from the way I operate, you know, things have got to be moving along, they've got to be progressing, and if you stop and wait for things then you're not progressing, got to go, got to go, you know?

The second implication of time was institutional. Just before my last teacher interview, I escorted a tour of parents around the school. In Zoe’s classroom, they asked her, “We’ve seen the upside of inquiry learning, what’s the downside?” We talked about this during her interview. She felt that students were often engrossed in their inquiry and resented leaving when timetables dictated a move to another class or specialist area or other disruptions to school routine. Zoe didn’t see a downside to inquiry in terms of learning for her students but, like the other teachers, she identified these school timetable demands as detrimental to inquiry.

I think timetabling is a downside. I don't think there is a downside for the students learning. I think it's more administration downside.

Building relationships started when teachers developed an understanding of their students’ interests, abilities and learning styles during ‘planning for purpose’ phase of inquiry. These relationships were now consolidated through the ‘planning for possibilities’ phase of developing inquiries together through formative assessment, co-learning, identifying possibilities for action, and the provision of a wider range of resources. This suggests that the problem of disengaged students should be addressed through empowering and trusting them to initiate inquiries and work independently, not adding more authoritarian structures. Differentiation and mutual respect changed classroom practices to provide even more opportunities for on-on-one time to learn together.

I think the fact that I respect the kids so much gives me the chance to say, ‘I trust you to come up with your own questions, your own decision on this’. ….Yeah there is a big degree of trust in this process.

Trust, decency, expectation. All the stuff that we really believe. And also they know that we believe them and you've also got to model it as well.

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It’s [inquiry] a truly differentiated program for each child … you know, they're looking at the same central idea and they're developing the same skills and concepts but, ‘My ideas are important and my interests are important and my teacher shows me she is interested in what I want to do.’ And I think that builds self esteem with the kids and I think that makes the connectedness between the teacher and the student.

Student and teacher relationships predominated in these first two theme ~ spirals. In the background there were many inferences to teaching teams. William found out about his students’ interests through team discussions. Xani and her English partner planned together. Luke and his Humanities partner found primary data sources. The final theme ~ spiral examines in more detail this ‘essentialness’ of teacher / teacher relationships.

THEME~SPIRAL 3 – TEACHERS WORKING IN TEAMS

But it all comes from this doesn't it? Teacher's working together (William).

Although inquiry can occur within a discipline, inquiry that values the voice of the student and has value beyond school is most often integrated across disciplines. This requires teachers collaborating; talking about what they are doing in their classrooms, discussing the conceptual understanding, working together to develop the questions that provoke inquiry, and assessing. I knew from many discussions with William that years of working in the ‘closed classroom’ had contributed to a feeling that art teaching had not been valued.

I think that's working much better [teacher teams] in Year 8 than I've ever seen it before, because of our discussions and our meetings once a week or whatever. We understand what each other are doing.

Yes. That is vital. I don't wish to be an art teacher in isolation.

Growing professional confidence came through in many of the teacher interviews. Working as a team was an important source of professional development even it meant losing individual planning time. The majority of teachers’ comments coded with ‘enjoyment’ referred to team work as a source of professional and personal satisfaction.

I would have said probably 10 years ago it would be very much a matter of I never ever had anyone come into my classroom whereas now I don't care and that took a while to break down. There was always that fear that I'd be found wanting. Whereas now I think because we discuss things so often together it's great to have people come in and look at what you're doing, help out, throw in a comment, look at your assessments.

Initially I saw it [team meeting] on the timetable and I thought, oh bugger, there goes a spare, but now I really look forward to it. I really look forward, and a lot of good discussion. Now I just, I love them.

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A significant part of discussion in the team meetings at this school had involved developing a common understanding of the research and theory of inquiry, including the importance of concepts, ways for optimising the timetable, and using flexible groupings. The comments below were a response to the importance of theory building with teaching teams.

I think it [theory] reinforces what we're doing when we work together as a team.

Now maybe that's because we have now such confidence in each other as a team that we are feeling free to try those new things and push the limits of our teaching. I'm now confident with the way kids work and the way other teachers can work with me and use flexible timetabling and flexible grouping, there are things now I can do in an art room that I could never have tried before.

Those comments didn’t surprise me, but the importance of teams as modelling social skills for students was something I hadn’t considered.

The kids need to see us working as a team because again, how can you get kids to work in groups and teams across disciplines if they don't see us modelling the process? I think it’s very important.

Another benefit of teacher teams was the development of a breadth of ‘literacies’ in teachers as well as students. Teachers working in cross discipline teams learned from each other and developed new skills in unfamiliar disciplines.

And it helps me [working with an English teacher] because I'm not confident in English but I now have that backup to go to. I've learned more because I've also got someone to go to for help.

Teamwork facilitated effective integration of disciplines. Xani and Luke felt that mathematics particularly benefited from interdisciplinary inquiries as that provided an authentic context to develop mathematics understanding as well as skills. Connections to other disciplines through ‘measurement’, for example, was easy to address as many inquiries could provide relevant opportunities to apply measurement skills, but they came to realise that graphs, equations and algebra also benefited from integration with other teachers and disciplines. Luke had just finished working on the planning and assessment of an integrated unit with a Humanities teacher that required analysing, graphing and building equations to model economic statistics and global trends in issues of sustainability. He felt previously, that when working alone as a teacher of only mathematics or science he couldn’t easily cross those discipline boundaries.

Well I think integration of disciplines is pretty important because need to be able to draw on a whole lot of different things for proper inquiry in math rather than just looking at graphs. They need to make a connection with what graphs are used for and all that sort of stuff. And what I'm

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hesitating on is the structure of me teaching say maths or science is I can't move into….. You can't move into the other subjects as easily because they're not theretheretherethere (his emphasis).

The greatest challenge for teachers joining or working with a team was time to talk. Additional language teachers were the only ones not involved with the inquiry program as they felt that it wouldn’t work for them. Yet there was a sense among the others that it could be possible if the experiences were shared.

Some staff need more persuading than others to do it. I mean we need to keep being exposed to it and just keeping having the opportunities - time to work through things.

[We’ve got] maths now, English. It would be lovely to work out how to bring in additional language teachers. That's the only thing I'm still not quite sure on. Yes, that would probably help if they were in team meetings because then they'd see what we were talking about and then maybe they could see where they could tap in.

Reflections on Theme ~ Spiral 3 through the role of teacher, discussion, time, and relationships

Teachers required time to develop professional relationships that allowed them to be comfortable working together in each others’ classes. Time was crucial for planning, documenting, assessing and reflecting together. They developed relationship through discussions around planning, theory, concepts, the conceptual understanding and their individual discipline perspectives. The teachers’ role was extended to providing a model of co-learning and cooperation to their students through their work with colleagues.

REVISITING THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS

This chapter started by identifying the role of the teacher, time, discourse and relationships as the most prevailing themes from the teacher interviews – these were clearly elements that the teachers considered essential in an inquiry classroom. However, these were so interwoven – the spirals so tightly connected that I refocussed on the most common

processes that emerged from the interviews – planning and developing student inquiries, assessing and working in teams with other teachers. The next chapter brings together this analysis of the teachers and students with consideration of the wider research literature, to identify the essential elements for inquiry learning.

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NOTES

94 Taylor, P. C., Fraser, B. J., & White, L. R. (1994, April). CLES: An Instrument for Monitoring the Development of Constructivist Learning Environments. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA.

95 Richardson, L., & Simmons, P. (1994). Self-Q Research Method and Analysis, Teacher Pedagogical Philosophy Interview: Theoretical Background and Samples of Data. Athens, GA: Department of Science Education, University of Georgia.

96 Harwood, W., Hansen, J., & Lotter, C. (2006). Measuring teacher beliefs about inquiry: The development of a blended qualitative/ quantitative instrument. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 15(1), 69–79.

97 VCE/IB - Victorian Certificate of Education / International Baccalaureate Diploma. These refer to the two secondary school leaving certifications available at this school. Although both certifications may be taught through constructivist approaches, Luke’s feeling was that tradition and text book teaching often prevailed.

98 Griffin, P. (2007a). The comfort of competence and the uncertainty of assessment. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 33(1), 87–99.

99 Example of a state standard in economics for year 10: At Year 9 and 10, students describe how markets, government policies, enterprise and innovation affect the economy, society and environment in terms of employment, economic growth, the use of resources, exports and imports, and ecological sustainability. They analyse how goods and services are produced and how markets work. They predict how prices will change when there is either a surplus or shortage, and explain how this might influence the behaviour of consumers and producers. They analyse the role and significance of exchange, trade and globalisation in influencing Australia’s standard of living. They discuss and explain what it means to be an ethical consumer and producer and identify examples of ways values can affect the economic decision making of consumers, producers and governments. Students analyse the role that governments and other institutions such as banks, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) play in the economy, and evaluate their performance in achieving appropriate economic outcomes for individuals and for society. They explain the role and significance of savings and investment for individuals and for the economy, and demonstrate the skills required to successfully plan and manage personal finances. Students predict the economic consequences of proposed government policies and make informed choices among alternative public policy proposals. Students explain the impact of macroeconomic and microeconomic policies on themselves and others, including businesses. Students analyse vocational pathways and education and training requirements and identify possible career paths and opportunities. They demonstrate skills required for moving from school to employment or further education.

100 Schools were free to interpret the five point scale in any manner they wished, qualitatively or quantitatively. This school used: A – Student demonstrates understanding significantly above the standard; B – Student demonstrates understanding above the standard; C – Student demonstrates understanding of the standard; D – Student’s understanding is approaching the standard; E – Student is experiencing significant difficulty with this standard.

101 Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation 102 CEQALL – Pronounced ‘seek all’. Developed by Marsh (n.d.)

http://tommarch.com/myplace/ceqall/ 103 The central idea was, ‘Art expresses and challenges cultures’. 104 The IB defines the learner profile as its mission statement in action. An internationally minded

person is inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-takers, balanced, reflective.

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MARCIA BEHRENBRUCH

CHAPTER 6CHAPTER 6CHAPTER 6CHAPTER 6

The Essentials

What are the essential elements that make an inquiry classroom successful? Do these essentials apply to teachers, students or are they shared by both? Chapter 2 and 3 looked for those essentials in the research around education theory and practice. Chapter 4 and 5 reported on what teachers and students thought about inquiry. In the end, I have synthesised six essential elements for an inquiry classroom: (i) discussion with its greater implications of discourse (ii) social mediation of learning (iii) the importance of planning (iv)valuing uncertainty (v) reflection ~ action and (vi) respect.

These six essentials are concepts colliding. There is no hierarchy. They are ‘becoming inquiry’. Each of them is connected, yet separate. Discourse is important for the social mediation of learning, but also has unique implications for inquiry. Planning doesn’t stand on its own; it starts and ends with discourse, respects students’ interests and responds to uncertainty along the way. Valuing uncertainty requires reflective thinking and action (reflection ~ action) often mediated through discourse. Respecting the learner encloses all of them. Teachers’ discipline and pedagogical knowledge and skills aren’t on this list. They are important, but already accepted as necessary for good classroom practice in traditional or constructivist based paradigms.

With perhaps the exception of ‘planning’, these elements require skills and dispositions of teachers and students. In returning to colleagues to discuss these findings, they agreed these elements were essential for shifting teachers’ stance from content to process, from control to co-learning, and from traditional pedagogies to inquiry. The list could serve as points for teacher self-assessment to direct professional development. They could also be used during the process of appointing new teachers to identify those that could thrive in an inquiry environment.

The consideration of each element starts with as succinct a definition as possible in the face of such complexity. There are also comments on connections to education theory that surprised or perplexed me. Alertness to wider possibilities is the basis for action and reflecting ~ acting on these

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essential elements in context of my own experience as a member of a professional learning community led to implications for practice.

The images that accompany some of the essential element are from a folio of spiral photographs created by my art teacher colleague, William. Some of his images reflect inquiry in context of sustainability. Other more whimsical ones expressed the everyday, basic, and pleasurable nature of inquiry.

DISCUSSION AS DISCOURSE

Students and teachers use discussion around a range of text types to develop and assess understanding. As open-ended, authentic and transformative communication, it is Discourse. Discourse asks learners to predict, summarise, make connections, clarify points, substantiate an interpretation of evidence and generate and answer questions. It is the main artifact for inquiry.

In accord with Vygotsky, students felt that the best way to learn and to be

assessed was ‘talking’. Teachers also identified ‘talking’ as crucial at every stage in inquiry. Talking uncovered the interests of the students that provided starting points for inquiry and guided the directions of the inquiry as it developed. Talking could focus around developmental rubrics or on interesting objects or displays of students’ work, including pictures, cartoons, mind maps, scrapbooks, computer resources or other ‘text’.

The meanings of ‘talking’ were complex. Sometimes it was a student with teacher, sometimes teacher with a whole class, sometimes smaller groups with or without a teacher, sometimes teacher to teacher. Students and teachers referred with pride to knowledge and skills ranging from physics to history that had developed through extended, in-depth discussions that occurred throughout their inquiries. This supports a description of inquiry as ‘conversation that is ongoing’, and the findings of researchers on the importance of discussion around open-ended, authentic questions to build understanding.105 The multiple combinations of voices, with the purpose of developing understanding redefines ‘talking’ or ‘discussion’ as ‘discourse’, hence the naming of this essential element. These open ended conversations become internalised as reflective thinking. When faced with new inquiries or problems to solve, a learner can act through this internalised dialogue to guide learning to new solutions.

Discourse is not easily put into practice. The literature contained many studies concluding that a ritualistic format continues to dominate in classrooms. Teachers ask questions, wait a suitable length of time (or not) for student

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answers and respond with another teacher question. In classrooms where this format dominates, it is replicated in the nature of students’ conversations and questioning techniques. It generates closed questions centered on content knowledge.106 This interpretation of discussion does not support inquiry.

The students valued ‘massive discussions’ and bristled at teachers who did not let them talk or limited discussion because of time constraints. Teachers valued time to talk with students and identified learning to listen as a skill they needed to develop. Discourse requires a balance and expertise in speaking and listening. Discourse skills may be best ‘taught’ through teachers modelling discourse through their own discussions with students and with teaching colleagues. Just as discourse in a classroom is essential for student inquiries, discourse with teams of teachers is essential for professional inquiries that support change in education practices and beliefs.

Implications for Practice

1. Discourse as ‘talking’ for the purposes of developing understanding is part of planning and assessing learning in inquiry classrooms.

2. Inquiry classrooms won’t be quiet classrooms. This has classroom organisation implications for providing quiet spaces for those who may need them and spaces for grouping and re-grouping as the discourse changes and evolves. Physical spaces are arranged so that the teacher is not ‘centre stage’.

3. Discourse requires time, reinforcing the need for longer contact time with teachers and peers.

4. Teachers may require professional development through workshops or coaching to avoid the traditional teacher initiated-response-evaluation pattern.

5. Discourse becomes internalised as reflective thinking and self assessment. Modelling good discourse practice may be the most effective way to teach speaking, listening, reflective thinking and self assessment skills.

It could be argued that discourse should be only an artifact for socially mediating learning, the next ‘essential’. As Dewey observed, they are certainly connected:

Inquirers proceed by doing all they can to make clear to themselves and to others the points of view by which their work is carried on. When those who disagree with one another join in a common demand for clarification, their difficulties increase common of the subject. 107

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However, the huge significance of discourse to students and teachers in planning, assessing and reflecting as well as its implications for developing independent learning skills justifies this separate consideration. Socially mediated learning offers additional implications for inquiry classrooms.

SOCIALLY MEDIATED LEARNING

Socially mediated learning is learning with others, through others and about others through a range of artifacts in the environment. Social mediation develops individual and collective understanding.

Students and teachers learn in collaborative teams. An image of the learner as rich and powerful (singular) is extended to rich and powerful teams of learners as essential for inquiry. This makes negotiation more important than choice. Choice is presenting options and possibilities, but may still indicate control on the part of teacher or student. Negotiation shares the responsibility for the learning and transforms all parties.

Considering ‘tools’ in context of social mediation of learning both unnerved and excited me. It unnerved me because I had not considered that the very act of using complex tools embeds social messages. Number systems, music notation or art techniques offer insights into the cultures that developed them and the cultures that value them (or not). What tools are chosen? What are ignored? Are students and teachers questioning this social mediation effect in the context of an internationally minded education?

Considering tools as social mediators of learning also excited me. Learning to use complex tools including solving equations in different ways, creating works of art, planning and conducting science experiments, using the many choices in computer simulations and the opportunities now available to create and publish unique ibooks, offers learners the experience of socially constructing knowledge domains, not just re-producing information and demonstrating skills. Students who find it stressful to work in groups may still learn about others and through others if presented with a wide range of tools to consider and construct.

Effective social mediation requires skills of ‘learning to be a social learner’ and ‘learning social content’.108 The former includes knowing when and how to ask questions or ask for assistance. Learning social content includes knowing how to get along with others, how to maintain reasonable assertiveness and how to collaborate in reaching decisions and taking collective actions. Social skills were identified by teachers in this study as essential for effective inquiries. Year 10 students identified them as important lasting effects of inquiry learning. The importance of learning social skills is articulated in many curricula worldwide but when the teaching and learning is teacher centered and traditional, these skills are often relegated mainly to co-curricular activities such as sport, debating teams, performance groups, or community service in an attempt to

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provide an authentic context. Inquiry classrooms extend that authentic context to all learning.

Social skills are also important for teachers as they are continually co-learning with students and other colleagues. Students noticed the interactions between their teachers. As with ‘discourse’, effective teacher teams modelling social skills may be another authentic way to develop those skills in student teams. This supports the importance of opening classroom doors, combining classes and team teaching. An affirmation that we are all social learners came from the interview segments coded with ‘enjoyment’ and ‘fun’. Students liked learning with their teachers and teachers liked learning with their students.

Social learning presents challenges. Teachers identified assessing individual learning in a group context and planning support for multiple learning groups as areas for improvement. The need for extended planning and discussion time with colleagues was again, also a challenge.

Implications for Practice

6. Social mediation takes many forms: one on one with a teacher or peer, one to many, many to one. Social mediation may occur even when students are learning alone through books, games or Internet. Learning in an inquiry class uses all of those combinations.

7. Artifacts or ‘tools’ are most effective when learning to use the tool requires students to construct learning domains. These are ‘tools-as-learning.’

8. Teachers and students need to be mindful of the socially embedded values in any learning ‘tools’. Using a diversity of tools ‘for’ learning and ‘as’ learning provides access to different perspectives, provokes discourse and the social development of conceptual understandings.

9. For students and teachers, learning with peers is a significant and effective part of a learning environment. It makes school a place where we want to be.

10. Social learning skills such as negotiation, communication and conflict resolution are as important as discipline knowledge and skills. Teachers may require professional development to help them and their students identify and scaffold the construction of social skills.

11. Providing sufficient time for teacher team meetings that focus on planning, teaching and learning, and assessment supports teachers in changing and developing their own social learning skills.

12. Teachers working in visible, effective teams are the best way to model good socially mediating learning practices to students.

13. Clear criteria rubrics are important so that individual learning can be assessed in a group context.

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The next four essential elements of planning, valuing uncertainty, reflection ~ action and respect have very fuzzy boundaries. I can’t consider any one without referring to the others. However, they also have unique properties that warrant separate consideration.

PLANNING: PURPOSE AND POSSIBILITIES

There are two types of frameworks in planning for inquiry; planning for purpose and planning for possibilities. The former starts with considering issues of relevance to the students, deciding on concepts and conceptual understandings that could guide the inquiry, identifying associated knowledge and skills, planning authentic assessments and framing

teacher questions to start the inquiry. Planning for possibilities builds on inquiry cycles to provoke students’ questions, providing unique and evolving contexts for knowledge and skill development and for promoting action.

Planning for purpose and planning for possibilities acknowledge the importance of the voice of the student and the complex and changing roles of the teacher. ‘Planning for purpose’ is where the role of teacher in guiding inquiry starts so that accountabilities to curriculum authorities are respected in contexts that are relevant to students. ‘Planning for possibilities’ responds to uncertainty. This planning requires continual teacher alertness to authentic ways to develop knowledge and skills as individual and group inquiries develop. Planning for possibilities acknowledges the additional roles of teacher as supporter and co-learner.

Not surprisingly, students didn’t use the word ‘planning’ but they referred to components of planning. They valued concepts, conceptual understandings, questions and assessment rubrics. They accepted the ‘guidelines’ of external curriculum constraints as long as their voices were respected through choice and negotiation.

All class activities were opportunities for formative assessment including peer and self assessment. The assessment component of planning was viewed as a collaborative process between teachers and student(s) and teacher peers and student peers. It was best accomplished through discourse around artifacts created in class. Although teachers designed the tasks, students could negotiate changes. Students understood how they could self and peer assess, and how teachers were assessing them, through the deconstructing and designing OF rubrics. The most powerful authentic assessments identified by teachers and students were exhibitions, forums, journals and the more informal ‘scrapbooks’.

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This last term was preferred over ‘portfolios’ to emphasis the assessment of processes as well as products.

Tests and examinations were perceived by teachers and students as necessary to please parents, or provide information for school administrators. All agreed that although these forms of assessment didn’t give a complete picture of learning, they were a reality. Students in year 10 felt they needed practice with formal examinations in preparation for their senior years. To re-assure students (and their parents) that inquiry learning adequately prepared them in terms of content and exam processes, all students from years 3 to 10 regardless of their knowledge and skill levels were entered in the Australian English, Writing and Mathematics Competitions. Many schools only offered this competition to their high achieving students. This was a non-selective school with approximately 10% of the students under special needs support with individual learning plans. Yet the school’s ranking was consistently over the state average in language and very comparable in mathematics. These results for the year of the interviews (5 years after the transition to inquiry learning started) are included in Figures 15, 16 and 17.

Figure 15 - School results in the Australian School’s English Competition

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Figure 16 - School results in the Australian School’s Writing Competition

Figure 17 School results in the Australian School’s Mathematics Competition

Due to the expense of this testing, in subsequent years, the Australian government’s National Assessment Process for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests for students in years 3,5, 7 and 9 were used as a point of comparison between this school, with its focus on inquiry and the state averages. The summary data provided by the state government for years 7 and 9 included as Figure 18.

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Figure 18. Results for Year 7 (top) and Year 9 (bottom) on the NAPLAN tests. Red are the school results and yellow are the state average results.

Teachers and administrators at this school used the extensive data provided by the government as more than just an affirmation of the inquiry approach. Carefully analysis offered insights for improvement. Teachers identified knowledge and skills to address in their planning of future units of inquiry. However, the results strongly support the argument that planning responding to students’ interests and guiding inquiries places learning in such authentic and varied contexts that students are self motivated to read, write and apply literacy and numeracy skills. They learn ‘the basics’ and more – they start to understand how to think about complex ideas.

Planning presented challenges. Identifying concepts to be developed and writing a conceptual understanding or central idea statements were identified as a significant professional challenge. Other challenges centered on finding more time to identify student interests and developing skills to manage a number of simultaneous group inquiries. Teachers also agreed on the importance of a common language describing the inquiry process. Learners needed to be able to articulate where they were in the process, but it did not have to be explicit in teachers’ planning documents. Teachers initially viewed planning for opportunities to collect primary data as problematic until they moved away from a quantitative idea of ‘data’ to including more qualitative forms sourced through incursions, excursions, interviews and learning with the wider community. This was still considered to be an area for improvement.

Although inquiry is often described as student-centered, I would argue that it is really learner-centered. Teachers and students are both continually learning. Conceptual understanding emerges from dialogue between teachers and students, with each having rights and responsibilities throughout the planning process. The conceptual understanding that drives the inquiry is significant, relevant, engaging and challenging to students and designed with their interests in mind. The teacher maintains a focus on that understanding but accepts the uncertainty of multiple paths to attain it, supporting different interests and perspectives. Students and teachers co-script the learning and at this point

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inquiry becomes transformative of both. This dual view of planning for purpose and possibilities supports Freire’s view of a respectful partnership ‘developed in love’ with the teacher as directive and authoritative, but never authoritarian.

Implications for Practice

14. Inquiry requires two types of planning frameworks to meet the needs of students as well as professional accountability; planning for purpose and planning for possibilities. Professional development may assist in understanding the ‘backwards by design’ and ‘inquiry’ frameworks.

15. Planning for inquiry starts with student interests framed through conceptual understandings. Teachers then consider how knowledge and skills can be addressed in those contexts. This is planning for purpose.

16. Planning for possibilities accepts that teachers will not be in control in the rigid sense of directing what will be taught and how it will be learned. This uncertainty extends teachers’ roles as guide to include supporter and co-learner, particularly when students inquire into areas that may be outside the expertise of teachers.

17. Successful inquiry classrooms are never ‘unplanned’. The planning is essential and extensive.

18. All tasks and activities have formative or summative assessment implications.

19. Planning includes consideration of primary data collection to support student inquiries and to develop research skills. The data can be quantitative and / or qualitative and may involve parents, community sources or other organisations.

20. Authentic inquiry crosses disciplines so teachers should be planning, teaching and assessing collaboratively in cross-discipline teams.

21. Teachers working and assessing in teams supports the transition from an emphasis on summative assessment to an emphasis on the formative.

22. A consistent planning process and planning format helps develop a common language of inquiry between teachers and students and within teaching teams. This helps the process of inquiry become internalised as reflective thinking, leading to action and independent learning.

23. Standardised testing still has an acceptable place in an inquiry classroom providing it does not become the focus of teaching and learning. It may provide valuable data for identifying knowledge and skills that could be improved in authentic contexts in future units of inquiry. Standardised testing data is useful in re-assuring students, teachers and parents that inquiry learning is addressing state or national standards.

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24. Students approaching their senior secondary years benefit from practice in writing formal examinations to build confidence in managing that process. This is not authentic assessment, and as with standardised testing, does not replace other strategies for developing and assessing conceptual understanding.

25. Communication with parents is important so that there is a shared understanding of the processes of inquiry and the importance of authentic tasks to develop and assess conceptual understanding, not just knowledge and skills.

VALUING UNCERTAINTY

Uncertainty provides the motivation to inquire. It evokes reflective thinking and action to reach a resolution. Valuing uncertainty respects students’ independence to follow inquiries that may not have been considered by their teachers. It acknowledges that no one can be an expert on everything and that knowledge is transient.

Teachers considered valuing uncertainty as being respectful of students’ interests and abilities. Teachers also accepted and managed uncertainty in content, tasks and social relationships. Inquiries often took unanticipated directions into areas outside teacher expertise. The flexibility to consider and accept new directions modelled to students that there were few absolute answers and that a rigid adherence to a plan didn’t always work.

Students didn’t use the word ‘uncertainty’ but valued ‘independence’. Respect for students’ growing capability as independent learners asks that adults in their lives relinquish control and accept uncertainty. This often conflicted with the way teachers had been educated themselves as it required sharing ‘control’ of the learning process with students. Valuing uncertainty, or in Dewey’s words ‘unpredictable novelties’, required flexibility, spontaneity and time. It is about the formation of a different style of teacher in response to ‘independence’ as characterising a different style of student particularly in adolescence.

Valuing uncertainty was essential but acknowledged by teachers as not easy. It required the development of reflection ~ action skills on the part of teachers as well as students. Again, collegial, teaching team support was crucial in helping teachers change attitudes as well as practice.

Implications for Practice

26. There is no inquiry without uncertainty. 27. At the same time as identifying the importance of planning, teachers

stressed the essentialness of valuing uncertainty. They are not mutually

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exclusive. Planning keeps in mind the end goal of developing the conceptual understanding and the possible related knowledge and skills, but accepts that it will look different for each learner.

28. The uncertainty of inquiry is managed through reflective thinking and action. The resulting action for teachers is differentiation for a range of student needs. This requires adequate planning time factored into teachers’ schedules.

29. Just as students are inquiring into areas of interest, teachers are inquiring into their professional practice. They socially construct their understanding with students, and with the guidance and support of professional learning communities.

30. Overplanning or trying to orchestrate every aspect of classroom activities to minimise uncertainty may indicate that inquiry is not happening.

REFLECTION ~ ACTION

Reflection with purposeful action is reflective thinking: It is reflection ~ action and it is how learners manage uncertainty. Reflection ~ action is active questioning. It asks the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of content, processes and social interactions. It is formative assessment. Reflection ~ action identifies gaps in understanding, asks what knowledge, skills and processes are required to resolve the difference, and directs action to do so. Alertness to a wide range of possible solutions or actions inspires creativity and builds independent learners. Reflection ~ action is a disposition that can be developed through discourse and articulation of the inquiry process.

‘Reflection’ was only coded in the teacher interviews yet every teacher placed it as essential to their teaching practice and identified it as an area for improvement. Teachers seemed to think that they weren’t reflecting adequately unless they were recording their thoughts and ideas as evidenced in this quote below.

I'm not saying anecdotal evidence or reflection and observation is, I'm not saying that's not important, but I don't record it, I don't write it down. I mean I reflect on what I have in my head about kids in terms of where we go next and acquiring skills and what they need to do next and those sorts of things but as I say I don't have it written down and that's something I really should do, or do more of.

This is one of the many excellent examples teachers gave of reflection and action as formative assessment without recognising the connection. In the nature of chaotic spirals yet again, this teacher is reflecting ~ acting to manage uncertainty in his planning for possibilities. He is observing, thinking and acting

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on data about students’ knowledge and skills, and the tasks they are engaged with in a changing environment. This is rich, complex and continuous formative assessment. This is a teacher as inquirer demonstrating reflection ~ action as an essential element of inquiry.

From a personal interest perspective, I returned to constructivist survey tools that are often referred to in the literature and used as a basis of data collection on constructivism in practice. 109 None of them referred to reflection or action, only to questions and formative assessment. No wonder teachers are confused about the role of reflection.

Planning templates which include a significant section for teacher ‘reflection’ may contribute to this sense of inadequacy. Just as formative assessment is more significant for learning than summative assessment, reflection ~ action (reflection in action) is more significant than a final ‘reflection’ which is really an evaluation of the unit of inquiry. We could be asking of teachers, ‘What challenges did you face? What knowledge and skills (teaching and learning, or discipline knowledge and skills) did you have to develop? How has this unit developed your understanding of how students can learn more about this central idea or conceptual understanding? What action will you take to improve teaching and learning in the future?’ This turns teachers into active inquirers supporting ‘action research’ as one of the most powerful professional developments tools for changing teaching practice and improving student outcomes.

Although students didn’t use the word reflection they frequently referred to the importance of asking and discovering their own answers to questions. They were self-assessing and self-directing their learning – the ‘action’ essence of reflective practice. They talked to clarify what they wanted to know about a conceptual understanding. They talked to identify the knowledge and skills needed and to explain what they had learned. Students offered many examples where this ‘discourse’ had become internalised as reflective thinking and make visible as independent learning. This ability to direct their own learning was valued as a long term effect of inquiry.

In support of the ‘hundred languages’, the arts in an inquiry program were considered by teachers and students in this research as an authentic and important reflection ~ action for constructing and assessing learning. As Dewey explained, the arts also operate on two levels of thought and ‘visibility’MIRRORING of reflection and action.

I do not mean, of course, that all art work must be correlated in detail to the other work of the school, but simply that a spirit of union gives vitality to the art, and depth and richness to the other work. It is a living union of thought and the instrument of expression.110

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Implications for Practice

31. For teachers and students reflection ~ action is formative assessment, including self and peer assessment. If there is no reflective practice, there is no independent learning. There is no inquiry.

32. Reflection ~ action as formative assessment requires more opportunities for one-on-one time between teacher and student and more time for group work to support peer assessment.

33. Reflection ~ action as a learning disposition can be developed through discussions and questions and by clearly articulating the inquiry process. In the spirit of the ‘hundred languages’ reflective thinking may also be made visible through journals, collections of photos or portfolios with examples of work at different stages in the inquiry.

34. Students manage uncertainty through reflection ~ action by asking questions such as, ‘Why did I want to know this? What knowledge, skills, processes, perspectives or resources did I consider? How did my conceptual understanding change? What wider possibilities or other questions developed from the inquiry?’

35. Teachers manage uncertainty through reflection ~ action by asking questions such as, ‘What did students know about the conceptual understanding at the beginning of the inquiry? What questions did they ask? What knowledge, skills, processes, perspectives or resources were required? What did I learn about how students learn? How did their conceptual understanding change? What actions will I take to be a more effective teacher?

36. Reflection ~ action is ongoing and continuous as inquiries and conceptual understandings develop. It is not about formal writing at the end of the day or the end of an inquiry.

37. Action as a result of inquiry may be observable and may lead to some form of service, but it is first internalised as change in conceptual understanding. The action that arises as learners develop alertness to wider possibilities may be questions that lead to new inquiries.

38. Teachers may require strategies to encourage reflective practices and make them visible. This may include discourse strategies and different ways to describe inquiry process. A teaching team that includes visual and performing arts, and technology teachers offers many opportunities for making reflection ~ action visible.

RESPECT FOR THE LEARNER

Respect is made visible by constructing inquiry around conceptual understandings that are relevant to the student; by the use of a range of sign systems and resources to respect individual learning styles; by accepting students’ independence and

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allowing time for democratic practices. Students described respectful teachers as supporters, guides and co-learners.

Respect is more than just good manners and polite behaviour. Respect underpins inquiry and starts by considering the voices and interests of students. Respect is indispensible to the success of Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development, Dewey’s transaction and transformation, Freire’s critical pedagogy, Malaguzzi’s approach to learning as practiced in Reggio Emilia, and Cherryholmes’ blurring of the distinction between teacher and student. It builds self-esteem, protects and supports the development of independent learners.

Respect is made visible by acknowledging students’ unique learning styles and their ability to make relevant, independent choices in the content and processes of learning. Respect gives students the democratic right to question, criticise and offer solutions. Respect is reflected in schools that encourage many sign systems or ‘texts’ including videos, computer resources, graphic organisers, newspapers and community experts. For this reason, common sets of textbooks which are generally out of context of students’ interests may not only hold little significance but may actually discourage learning. 111

Respect means providing one-on-one time for students and teachers. This was interpreted by students in this study as a relaxed environment for learning, but associated more with small school size, longer class times and a change in the way they worked in classes rather than small class size. “Relaxed’ was even included by some students in their definition of inquiry learning. When ‘time’ appeared so strongly in the interviews, I returned to the constructivist theorists and discovered Dewey’s ‘Time and Individuality’. 112 He described genuine time as: “all one with the existence of individuals as individuals, with the creative, with the occurrence of unpredictable novelties”. Dewey decried a lack of time as also contributing to “totalitarian undemocratic practices”. Students made this connection between lack of time and a loss of their voice when they described rushed teachers falling back on control mechanisms such as detentions which they considered disrespectful.

‘Time’ figured strongly in recommendations on reform in the middle years of schooling; time for planning, co-teaching and evaluation, time to facilitate better access to community resources, time to allow for different grouping of students. However, time as a structural element without an accompanying change in philosophy does not change classroom practice. The teachers in this research talked about the importance of time to ‘wander and wonder’, to develop unique inquiries that respected individual interests.

Students’ criticisms supported the importance of respectful relationships. They disliked a mathematics program that required them to change teachers during the year as there was not enough time to build a new relationship. They connected time restraints with control and disrespect. Teachers considered a

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lack of time for planning collaboratively and team teaching as a significant impediment to implementing inquiry in practice.

Implications for Practice – Respect

39. Respect takes issues or understandings of relevance to students as the starting point for learning.

40. Inquiry uses ‘texts’ or sign systems that respect diverse learning styles and individual needs. Class textbooks should not be used as a main resource as they do not respect a wide enough range of relevant interests or learning styles.

41. Time is an important structural component in a respectful learning environment. One-on-one time with students to build relationships is crucial for inquiry. This can be provided through longer class time but more importantly, requires a change in the way teachers work in class with less emphasis on whole class teaching.

42. Detentions systems should be abolished as students view detentions as authoritarian and detrimental to respectful relationships.

LOOKING FOR THE CONNECTIONS: MOVING TOWARDS I N Q U I R Y

Although at this point, I was satisfied that these elements were not just shadows on the wall but essential to inquiry, I had a strong sense of missing a deeper connection between them. Just as chaotic spirals can have an underlying mathematical algorithm, I felt I had uncovered the categories but was missing an underlying relationship.

I compared these essential elements to the literature suggestions for changes to middle schooling, the criteria for constructivist classrooms and the recommendations for best practices in schooling for all ages. I found that all of these could be cross referenced with at least one of these six essential elements for inquiry (Table 9). The titles and text of these references summarised in Table 9 often used the terms ‘recommendations’ or ‘observations’. I believe that the elements of discourse, social mediation, planning, valuing uncertainty, reflection ~ action and respect go further. They are essential.

I also disagree with some of the observations derived from the literature listed in Table 9. ‘Seek students’ points of view to use in subsequent lessons’ and ‘teachers as manipulating the environment for students’ were considered indicative of a constructivist classroom. The essential element of ‘planning’ insists that students’ points of view be incorporated in all units of inquiry and respects students as capable of manipulating their own environment with teachers or peers as co-learners. Rather than ‘student-centered’, the essential elements of social

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mediation and respect are learner-centered, with teachers and students as co-learners.

Table 9. Comparison of Essential Elements for inquiry with criteria for middle schooling, constructivist classrooms and best-practice classrooms for all ages.

Essential elements for inquiry identified by Behrenbruch 2009, 2010 113

Recommendations on middle schooling (Cumming, 1996) 114

Constructivist classrooms (Brooks & Brooks, 1999) 115

Best practices for all schools (Zemelman et al., 1998) 116

Discourse Student participation

- Teachers generally behave in an interactive manner mediating the environment for students

Expressive

Socially mediated learning - Teacher teaming - Parent and community participation

- Students work primarily in groups

Collaborative

Planning for purpose and planning for possibilities

- Holistic approach - Practical activities - Genuine consultation

- Whole to part with emphasis on concepts - Activities rely heavily on primary sources of data and manipulative materials - Teachers seek the students’ points of view to use in subsequent lessons

- Active - Experiential - Holistic - Authentic - Cognitive - Developmentally challenging

Valuing uncertainty

Reflection ~ action Reflective Respect

- Varied approaches - Time and space - Pastoral care

- Pursuit of student questions is highly valued - Students are viewed as thinkers with emerging theories about the world.

- Student centered - Democratic - Constructivist

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Interestingly, uncertainty, reflection and action were seldom referred to or connected in these references; however flexibility and negotiation were often mentioned in the text. Flexibility and negotiation may mark the beginning of the transition point from a traditional to a constructivist classroom. Valuing uncertainty through reflective practices goes deeper to the heart of the difference between constructivist classrooms and post-constructivist or inquiry classrooms. It is in that moment of uncertainty and its steps to resolution that it is not only the student who constructs learning and whose understanding is transformed, but the teacher as well.

I felt I was getting closer to a finding that elusive underlying structure that connected these essentials for inquiry learning, but it took a chance conversation to throw a ‘sieve over chaos’. One of my colleagues had a student teacher who was finding working in an inquiry classroom difficult. The supervising teacher and I started to discuss strategies for professional learning could be put in place to help this student, using the essential elements to clarify the problem. As the discussion progressed we realised we could provide concrete suggestions to improve her use of discourse in the classroom, offer strategies to help with social mediation and provide planning guides, but respect, valuing uncertainty and reflection ~ action were best improved through mentoring and modelling.

These six elements form two groups. The first three of could be thought of as discrete, with the remaining three spiralling around them as connected~separate entities. I could add the adjective ‘radical’ to each of these three. Radical ‘respect’ is different from trivial politeness. Radical ‘valuing uncertainty’ is different from trivial ‘go with the flow’. Radical ‘reflection’ is different from trivial ‘writing what you know at the end of the lesson’.

As I was grappling with these ideas as words, another researcher, Warren Sellers, was more successful with images (Figure 19).116 His visualisation of curriculum resonated with my idea of chaotic spirals. The bounded area on the left is the structured ‘modern’ curriculum focussed on the ‘what to know’. This merges ~ flows to the postmodern consideration of curriculum with currere; the running of the course, the process of learning, the ‘how to know’. An ecological, sustainable stance to teaching and learning moves beyond curriculum ~ currere towards cura, from the Latin root for ‘care’. The letters in the word cura are intentionally spaced wider to challenge ordinary reading of meaning and ordinary thinking. Sellers describes cura through a range of words: caring, curious, imaginary, more than ideas, less than concepts, fractal-like, play-fully-working-out meanings, continuous ~ various ~ diverse ~ learning experiences that are always already occurring, cloud sculpting. What particularly resonated with me was the reference to caring and curious in the sense of care-full-ness in curiosity; being full of cares for living and learning.

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Figure19. From ‘Musing and Picturing, Negotiating towards cura’

I started to understand that Sellers’ thinking about cura was similar to the way I was thinking about ‘INQUIRY’ (Figure 20). Cura moves beyond curriculum ~ currere in the same way that INQUIRY moves beyond constructivism to support sustainability and international mindedness by encouraging wandering, wondering and problem posing, not just problem solving. Discourse, social mediation and planning erase the first boundary between curriculum and currere. Valuing uncertainty, reflection ~ action and respect move learning through and beyond that semi-bounded constructivist sphere to inquiry. Reframing inquiry as inquiry through those essential elements transfers the abstract idea of cura to classroom practice.

Figure 19. Moving to inquiry

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A final check of the ‘completeness’ of these elements of inquiry required a return to the justifications for researching inquiry learning that started my journey. Inquiry supports the needs of a globalised society through the importance placed on empathy, creating, caring, learning to know, to do, to live together, and to ‘be’. Inquiry supports the best practices recommended to counter the alienation of students, particularly in the middle years by respecting their voice through planning, accepting uncertainties and respecting the importance of social learning. Through thoughtful planning and reflecting together, teachers and students counter the ‘back to basics’ by respectfully acknowledging the concerns of that community, but performing beyond those ‘basics’ in authentic contexts.

Inquiry counters the positivist attitude that believes that science and technology will solve all problems. It places responsibility back on individuals and their communities by valuing the voice of the learner, acknowledging the power of multiple voices to learn together and by insisting that the right to learn conceptually carries with it the responsibility to act. Inquiry also supports construction and ‘deconstruction’ to look critically at new knowledge, placing sustainability and international mindedness, not just economics at the center of education.

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth; Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action - Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. 118

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NOTES

105 Steinberg & Kincheloe ibid, p. 56. Also Langer, J. A. (2001). Beating the odds: Teaching middle and high school students to read and write well. American Educational Research Journal, 38(4), 837–880.; Nystrand, M. (1997). Opening Dialogue: Understanding the Dynamics of Language and Learning in the English Classroom. New York: Teachers College Press.; and Applebee, A., Langer, J., Nystrand, M., & Gamoran, A. (2003). Discussion-based approaches to developing understanding: Classroom instruction and student performance in middle and high school English. American Educational Research Journal, 40(3), 685–730.

106 Interesting research on discussion and discourse: Adler, M., Rougle, E., Kaiser, E., & Caughlan, S. (2003). Closing the gap between concept and practice: Toward more dialogic discussion in language arts classrooms. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 47(4), 312–323.; Applebee et al. 2003, ibid; Black, P., Harrison, C., Lee, C., Marshall, B., & William, D. (2002). Working Inside the Black Box: Assessment for Learning in the Classroom. London: King’s College London School of Education.; Black, P., Harrison, C., Lee, C., Marshall, B., & William, D. (2002). Working Inside the Black Box: Assessment for Learning in the Classroom. London: King’s College London School of Education.; Kennedy, M. M. (2004). Reform ideals and teachers practical intentions. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 12(13). Retrieved April 27, 2005, from http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v12n13/; and Webb, N., Nemer, K., & Ing, M. (2008). Small group reflections: Parallels between teacher discourse and student behavior in peer-directed groups. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 15(1), 63–119.

107 Dewey, J., & Bentley, A. F. (1949). Knowing and The Known (p. 3). Boston: Beacon. 108 These are the other two implications of social mediation referred to in Salomon & Perkins (1998)

ibid. 109 Teachers Pedagogical Philosophy Interview (TPPI), Inquiry Teaching Beliefs (ITB),

Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES). 110 Dewey, J. (1915). School and Society and The Child and The Curriculum (p. 53). Replicated

2001, Mineola, NY: Dover Publications. 111 Textbooks have been described as a … ‘lockstep absurdity… knowledge despite all complexity

reduced to a discreet entity that holds no past or future’ (Steinberg & Kincheloe, 1998, ibid. p.5) 112 Dewey, J. (1940, reprinted1988). Time and Individuality: The Later Works (Vol. 14).

Carbondale and Edwardsville: The Southern Illinois University Press. 113 Behrenbruch, M. (2009). Dancing in the light: Middle school students’ and teachers’ perceptions

and perspectives on inquiry learning. AARE conference, 2008. Available online at http://www.aare.edu.au/08pap/abs08.htm#B

Behrenbruch, M. (2010). Dancing in the Light: Essential Elements for Inquiry Learning in Secondary Schools. Unpublished Thesis, Melbourne Graduate School of Education.

114 Cumming, J. (1996). From alienation to engagement: Opportunities for reform in the middle years of schooling. Canberra: Australian Curriculum Studies Association.

115 Brooks, J.G. & Brooks, M.G. (1999). In search of understanding; The case for constructivist classrooms. Alexandria Virginia: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

116 Zemelman, S., Daniels, H. & Hyde, A.A. (1998). Best practice: New standards for teaching and learning in America’s schools. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann.

117 Sellers, W.W. (2008). Picturing currere towards cura: Rhizo-imaginary for Curriculum. Unpublished PhD Thesis: Deakin University, Melbourne Australia.

118 Sisir Kumar Das, ed. (1994). The English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore, v.1: Poems. Sahitya kademi. p. 53

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CHAPTER 7CHAPTER 7CHAPTER 7CHAPTER 7

Reflection ~ Action

I walk through the long schoolroom questioning; A kind old nun in a white hood replies; The children learn to cipher and to sing, To study reading-books and histories, To cut and sew, be neat in everything In the best modern way - the children's eyes In momentary wonder stare upon A sixty-year-old smiling public man. Labour is blossoming or dancing where The body is not bruised to pleasure soul. Nor beauty born out of its own despair, Nor blear-eyed wisdom out of midnight oil. O chestnut-tree, great-rooted blossomer, Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole? O body swayed to music, O brightening glance, How can we know the dancer from the dance? 119

William Butler Yeats wrote this poem following his inspection of a school implementing a new curriculum. His thoughts revolved around life and love, but at the heart of his poem is an argument for a united view of life using the metaphor of the inseparability of ‘leaf, blossom, or bole, or ‘dancer and dance’. Learning should pleasure born out of relevant, significant, engaging and challenging ideas. Like the ‘dancer and the dance’, learning is cyclical as one inquiry leads to another. The ‘what to know’ merges with the ‘how to learn’ and ‘who teaches’ merges with ‘who assesses’.

At the beginning, I wondered what were the essential elements that made inquiry work in a classroom. I wondered if teachers and students would look at it the same way. I wondered if students could identify long term impacts of inquiry on their learning. I wondered if inquiry was the appropriate methodology of teaching and learning that would support sustainable education.

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I wondered about the connections between Reggio Emilia, constructivism and inquiry. Sometimes I seemed to reach dead ends. At other times, it all became so complex that I had to pull back to the stem, to these original guiding questions. Often students and teacher colleague pulled me back if I went too off course or stopped completely. Those questions have been answered in detail in previous chapters, but now, what are my personal insights and reflection ~ actions?

The first insight developed from understanding the relationship between constructivism as advocated by the Reggio Emilia approach, and inquiry learning. Inquiry moves beyond constructivism to transform teacher and learner. It is not ‘student-centered learning’ or ‘teacher-centered learning’; it is ‘co-learning’. Looking at the power of inquiry with its constructivist roots made me question the call for a different pedagogy for the middle years of schooling. Are the widely recommended changes to middle schooling pedagogy unique? The conclusion would be ‘yes’ if compared to traditional early childhood, primary and secondary school practice, but ‘no’ if compared to inquiry practices. Perhaps that transition between primary and secondary schooling has been made artificially complex. Good practice looks very similar across the whole spectrum of ages.

My second insight is that curriculum theory is often invisible in schools. Curriculum theorists are often just ghosts. Their writing is intense and not always easy, but there are powerful ideas that are the substance of inquiry cycles, thinking dispositions, reflection, uncertainty, action, and education for future generations whether expressed as education for democracy or global citizenship or sustainability. They are an integral part of a community of learners and their thinking should be used to support and provoke classroom practice and school change.

This has a relationship to my third insight – the importance of discourse or as students described it, massive discussions in transaction and transformation. Students in silence, teacher in control, talk and chalk as the main strategies are ineffective. The ghosts of Dewey, Vygotsky and Freire, and their insights into the importance of language for both learning and assessing learning, would surely have welcomed the technologies that now support a wider definition of ‘language’ and ‘text’ than was available in their time. Perhaps these technologies with their social networking capabilities will drive the changes in education that many theorists dreamt about but failed to achieve.

My fourth insight was that planning and valuing uncertainty are not mutually exclusive. Heidi Hayes Jacobs noted in her book on interdisciplinary curriculum design 120 that teachers new to this way of teaching and learning, initially required 164 hours to develop a unit of work. As they gained experience, the planning became less time consuming. They came to realised the philosophy behind interdisciplinary learning made minute to minute planning unnecessary. Taking Jacob’s interpretation of this ‘philosophy’ to be inquiry, this was also the experience at this school. Detailed planning focussing on minute outcomes did

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not value uncertainty and took away students’ opportunity to inquiry and construct their own learning.

Understanding the importance of reflection and its implications for managing uncertainty was the fifth insight as I had also been guilty of considering reflection in a very narrow sense as ‘now write about what you have learned’. Reflection does not have to be quiet and introspective, but purposeful reflection is always linked to action. Reflection ~ action is asking questions, developing knowledge and skills, planning the next inquiry, making new connections, and acting responsibility in the world through this new conceptual understanding. Reflection ~ action analyses an uncertain position, finds and follows a path to some clarity. Developing that disposition is essential for effective formative assessment

Reflection ~ action, has important implications in terms of supporting teacher professional learning through self and peer assessment. ‘Do I understand inquiry and am prepared to implement it? Am I willing to do so, but lacking the skills? Do I have the inclination and some skills, but need experience to see the wider possibilities for differentiation?’ These questions may help to determine an effective course of action: professional reading, observations sessions, visits to other schools, workshops on group or assessment strategies, or mentoring opportunities.

The sixth insight was that inquiry is true differentiation. Somewhere, over the years of developing skills in inquiry practice, our teaching team moved away from discussions of differentiation in terms of ability. We expected an understanding of the central idea from every student, but were prepared to negotiate on the context and on the nature of the performance tasks to accommodate individual interests and needs. It had been years since anyone had been removed from class for either remedial or extension work. Differentiation was no longer seen as a problem or an extra responsibility. It had become part of practice. Teachers became more alert to different possibilities in terms of content knowledge and skills, tasks and social interactions, but always with conceptual understanding for every student as the goal.

Differentiation is not an essential element, but a product of good inquiry. It is supported through all six essential elements described here. Tomlinson and McTighe’s 121 combined book, ‘Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design’ describes their journey over nine years of respecting and reading each others’ expertise in differentiation and backwards by design respectively, yet working diligently in their own separate directions. Working together, they realised that quality classrooms evolve around powerful knowledge that works for each individual. This spirals back to the “Reggio’ call to view students as ‘rich and powerful learners’.

The reality is that the call to differentiate, to inquire, must be met in busy, complex classrooms. Primary and secondary teachers usually do not have the luxury of assistants or even enough parent volunteers. Successful inquiry

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depends on developing positive social relationships so that Vygotsky’s ‘zone of proximal development’ and Dewey’s ‘transformation’ are achieved through effective learning with other students, not just the teacher. Just as inquiry provides real differentiation for students, it is equally as effective for teachers’ learning. Teachers valued learning in ‘teams’ in the same way that students valued ‘co-learning with friends’.

My final insight is that there are lifetimes of continuing research still to do. This project raised more questions that I answered. I wonder now how often teachers use education theory to inform practice. I wonder if there are varying patterns of discourse through an inquiry cycle. I wonder if negotiation is more about content, process or end-product. I wonder about the use of rubrics to improve student learning in inquiry. I wonder how regularly teacher planning documents reflect purpose and possibilities. I wonder how the quality of authentic tasks could be co-related with the quality of student learning. I wonder what types of social learning predominate in classrooms. I wonder about the different models schools use to provide teacher planning time. I wonder how the wider school community is informed about the processes of inquiry. I wonder if improved student wellbeing can be co-related with inquiry classrooms. I wonder if the codes of professional practice being developed in many countries and states support the skills required for inquiry.

Ironically, just as I started writing this last chapter, I read a publication describing barriers to implementing inquiry.122 The barriers were identified as a lack of teacher skills with inquiry, difficulty managing risk and ambiguity, sustaining motivation, curricular pressure, difficulties developing inquiry among students who lack content knowledge, and difficult classroom conditions, particularly inadequate social skills. I would like to think that the essential elements of discourse, social mediation, planning, valuing uncertainty, reflection ~ action and respect offer insights into removing those barriers. These essentials came from teachers and students who worked together to overcome very similar problems. Perhaps they are those threshold concepts that once assimilated into practice are not reversible and change forever a teacher’s perception of what joyous teaching could be.

My personal and professional hope is that enough teachers will have the courage to become inquirers to educate a new generation of responsible, internationally minded citizens that will finally establish a sustainable, thriving planet to call home.

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NOTES

119 Finneran, R.J. (1996). The collected poems of W. B. Yeats. New York: Scribner. 120 Jacobs (1989), ibid 121 Tomlinson, C., & McTighe, J. (2006). Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding

by Design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. 122 Shore, B. M., Aulls, M. W., & Delcourt, M. A. B. (2008). Inquiry in Education: Overcoming

Barriers to Successful Implementation. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.