The QuestionQuadrant: A stimulus for a negotiatedcurriculum

ROSIE SCHOLL IS COMPLETING A PHD PROJECT ENTITLED‘TRANSFORMING PEDAGOGYTHROUGH PHILOSOPHY FORCHILDREN’, THROUGH THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AT THEUNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND. THIS THESIS EXPLORES THE IMPACT THAT TRAINING ANDIMPLEMENTATION OF PHILOSOPHYHAS ON THE PEDAGOGY OFPRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS. HER SUPERVISORS ARE DR KIMNICHOLS AND DR GILBERT BURGH.

Rosie has taught in primary schools across Queensland since 1993. She is apractising teacher at an inner-city school in Brisbane and a keen practitionerof philosophy for children. She also has a level two teacher educator certificatein philosophy and has worked with teachers in both face-to-face and onlinemodes to deliver in-service programs on the teaching of philosophy in theclassroom. She has completed a Masters in Education at The University ofQueensland focusing on children’s questions with regard to philosophy,metacognition and reading comprehension. Her other professional interestsinclude literacy, adult education and school reform.

Rosie is a co-author of the book Philosophy with Young Children:A classroom handbook which was written with professional stafffrom Buranda State School and Philip Cam from the University ofNew South Wales. (Editor’s note: See References for full details.This book is available from www.acsa.edu.au).

This approach would also answermany of the demands of theProductive Pedagogies (Lingard etal., 2001) and current assessmentpractices, and engage students inpursuit of their learning interests.

The important thing is not to stop questioning.Curiosity has its own reason for existing.

Albert Einstein

IntroductionQuestioning is an important skill in learning generally. Inphilosophy lessons, questions lead us to wonder, to inquire, to challenge ideas and to reflect.Philosophical inquiry (Burgh, Field & Freakly, 2006; Cam, 1995;Cam, et al., 2007; Lipman, Sharp &Oscanyan, 1980) involves learnersin communal dialogue which seeksanswers to their questions and to question their answers. Thisprocess melds critical, creative and caring thinking throughcollaborative dialogue, and assists individual and communalreflection. Communal dialogue onphilosophical ideas challenges ourassumptions about the world andourselves. It requires us to suspendjudgement, knowing that theremay be no single right answer.

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ARTICLE ONE

AbstractQuestions can be, in and ofthemselves, a form of higher orderthinking. Students’ questions canassist in the design of curriculumand assessment where teachersbelieve in students and are willingto share power with them, in orderto negotiate curriculum andassessment. This pedagogicalapproach mirrors the idea of‘meddler in the middle’(McWilliam, 2008) and cansupport a trans-disciplinaryapproach to learning. This paper shares practical ideas about negotiating curriculum withstudents, through teaching themto question and use their questionsin purposeful ways. It draws onclassroom experience in using theQuestion Quadrant (Cam, 2006).Whilst the Question Quadrant is a useful tool for developingphilosophical questions withstudents, this paper makes links to current theorising about curriculum, pedagogy and assessment, showing how the Question Quadrant can be used as the central integratingdevice for negotiating curriculumand assessment with students.

Hence, community building andthe role of the teacher are integralto the success of a responsive,dialogic pedagogy. In the Bohmiansense “dialogue is something more of a common participation in which we are not playing agame against each other but witheach other” (Bohm, 1996, p. 7). In this environment, the learningcommunity is able to use studentquestions, philosophical orotherwise, to negotiate curriculum and assessment.

Where this negotiation happens,teachers take on the role of‘meddler in the middle‘(McWilliam, 2008). They facilitate,guide, suggest, adapt, incorporateand offer structure and scaffolding(Bruner, 1961) to learning. Teachersand students alike help each othermove across zones of proximaldevelopment (Vygotsky, 1978).Teachers may not be able to controleach aspect of the dialogue andnegotiation. They bring, however,an in-depth knowledge of thecurriculum and of assessmentstrategies, and school andcommunity resources. Teachersbring experiential understanding,maturity and professionalismwhich assist them in facilitatingdialogue, engaging and includingstudents’ equally valuable thoughts,knowledge and experience. Lessquantity in terms of experience, in comparison with adults, does not equate with less value.Being genuinely and authenticallyengaged in helping students learn and grow in self-directed,intrinsically motivated ways, means valuing and using theirexperience (Dewey, 1938). In order to negotiate curriculum andassessment with students (Boomer,1992; Hyde, 1992), students’ ideasmust lead learning, where possible.

When they follow their students’leads, teachers are obligated to use and share their curriculum and assessment knowledge andprocesses, to help children weigh up possibilities, given time, resource and contextualconstraints. Critical to this type of learning and negotiation are the students’ questions (Scholl,2004) and the teacher’s subsequentskill in meddling, modelling andmoulding these questions toachieve a blend of students’ desired learning outcomes andthose stipulated by statutorycurriculum authorities.

In this paper, practical ideas about negotiating curriculum and assessment with students areelaborated on, through teachingstudents to ask meaningful andpurposeful questions. The QuestionQuadrant (Cam, 2006) is a practicaltool which teachers and studentscan use to begin the process ofnegotiating trans-disciplinarycurriculum and assessment. The Question Quadrant tool will be explained in detail, andexamples of student questions and subsequent possibilities for negotiated curriculum andassessment will be suggested, withreference to a series of activitiesfrom a Year 4/5 classroom. In usingthe Question Quadrant this way,the teacher and students engenderpedagogical processes which wouldanswer many of the demands of the Productive Pedagogies(Lingard et al., 2001). Additionally,assessment can be addressed in atransparent manner clearly alignedwith curriculum, and designed with students. Through theseactivities students are engaged both individually and as part of alearning community, in pursuingtheir questions, which validatecurriculum goals and stoke theirfires of curiosity and motivation for lifelong learning. First, it isnecessary to explain the QuestionQuadrant.

Questioning, by both students and the teacher, is central to aresponsive dialogic pedagogicalapproach (Biesta, 2006). Thisrepresents a way of working found in the philosophy lessonspecifically, but applicable acrossthe curriculum generally, andsupported through a synergy ofideas from across the disciplines of education (Buber, 1958;Burbules, 1993; Freire, 1970;Renshaw, 2004), psychology(Vygotsky, 1978), linguistics(Bahtkin, 1981), philosophy(Gadamer, 1979), social theory(Habermas, 1984), science (Bohm,1996) and organisational learning(Senge, 1990). Dialogue positionsboth students and teachers as learners and teachers: it is an approach that prioritises and highly values listening,understanding and respect.

Dialogue in this paper is alignedwith two perspectives: the politicaland the interpersonal. Firstly, Freire (1970, p. 70) notes that:

Dialogue is the encounterbetween men, mediated bythe world, in order to namethe world. Hence, dialoguecannot occur between thosewho want to name the worldand those who do not wishthis naming — between thosewho deny others the right tospeak their word and thosewhose right to speak hasbeen denied them… Dialoguecannot exist, …in the absenceof a profound love for theworld and for people.

Thus, in dialogue, teachers mustshare power with students and not deny them ‘the right to speaktheir word’. This necessitates ashift in the way many teachersconceptualise and practise teachingand learning, the way theyphysically arrange classrooms, therelationships they build and theroles they allow students to play.

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The nursery rhyme Jack and Jill is the stimulus for the followingquestions. The first step is tomodel open and closed questions(see Figure 2), either side of thevertical axis, which relate to thetext. Four such questions relatingto the nursery rhyme are:

1. Why did Jack and Jill go up the hill? (Closed)

2. Did Jill hurt herself? If so how and where? (Open)

3. How do you make a well?(Closed)

4. Are accidents always waiting to happen? (Open)

Closed questions are ones forwhich settled answer/s exist. Theanswer will be in the text, or mightrequire a little research, but therewill be a correct answer. Closedquestions can have more than one correct answer. For example,“What plants do you grow in your garden?” may have a limitednumber of correct answers. Withopen questions correct answersdon’t exist, although some answersare more appropriate or morereasonable than others. Openquestions invite speculation.

The Question QuadrantThe Question Quadrant was first devised by Philip Cam (2006)while working with students andteachers in order to hone, sort andcategorise students’ questions forphilosophical dialogue. It is a toolwhich assists teachers to explicitlyteach question types with theintention of using students’questions to guide learning,particularly philosophical inquiry.The horizontal axis represents thecontinuum between closed andopen questions, and the verticalaxis represents the continuumbetween textual questions andquestions about life. The fourquadrants categorise questions asReading Comprehension, LiterarySpeculation, Factual Knowledgeand Inquiry (see Figure 1).

The Question Quadrant is built up at a suitable pace for thestudents, through explaining thedistinctions on either side of eachaxis and modelling the differentquestion types. Sitting students in a circle around the QuestionQuadrant as it is built on the floor enables clear communication.Students can clearly see each other and the Question Quadrant,and manipulate the questions asrequired. The Question Quadrantcan then be constructed usingribbon and cardboard labels for the axis and quadrants.

When first teaching the QuestionQuadrant, use a well known text: a nursery rhyme, fable or fairytale.Revise the text with students, then model the different questiontypes explaining why questions fit into the different quadrants,thus justifying your placementsand modelling this justification forstudents. Students then sort teacherdeveloped questions into the fourquadrants, before developing theirown questions for each quadrant.Questions may sit on a line or fit into more than one quadrant.Reasons must be given for thechosen placement of questions.

The next step is to sort those four questions into a further two categories across thehorizontal axis; questions aboutthe text (with reference tocharacter/s, event/s or setting/s)and questions about how we liveour lives (with abstract links to the text). The complete model is shown in Figure 3 with someadaptations from Cam’s (2006)labels; for example FACTUALKNOWLEDGE becomes RESEARCHand the labels on the vertical axisare expanded to Textual QuestionsBased in the Story and IntellectualQuestions Based in Life. Once thequestions are sorted into theirappropriate places the labels for those quadrants can bedetermined with students. P

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FIGURE 1: THE QUESTION QUADRANT

(Cam, 2006, p. 34)

OpenQuestions

READING LITERARY COMPREHENSION SPECULATION

FACTUAL INQUIRYKNOWLEDGE

Intellectual Questions

Textual Questions

ClosedQuestions

FIGURE 2: SORTING OPEN AND CLOSED QUESTIONS

OpenQuestions

Why did Jack and Did Jill hurt herself? Jill go up the hill? If so how and where?

How do you make Are accidents always a well? waiting to happen?

ClosedQuestions

Students can then discuss givenquestions in pairs (see suggestionsin Table 1) and sort them into the four quadrants. Students have thus had explicit teaching of each question type, modelledand guided teaching, and finally,independent practice wherestudent thinking and justificationis foregrounded.

TABLE 1: JACK AND JILL QUESTIONS

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FIGURE 3: SORTING QUESTIONS INTO THE FOUR QUADRANTS

OpenQuestions

READING LITERARY COMPREHENSION SPECULATION

Why did Jack and Did Jill hurt herself? Jill go up the hill?

RESEARCH INQUIRYHow do you make Are accidents always

a well? waiting to happen?

Intellectual QuestionsBased in life

Textual Questions Based in the story

ClosedQuestions

Questions for sorting on theQuestion Quadrant: Jack and Jill

1. Why did Jack and Jill go up the hill?

2. Did Jack fall down the hill?3. Why did Jill come tumbling

after?4. Why do people have

accidents?5. Are accidents always waiting

to happen?6. Jack and Jill fetched water.

What is water made of?7. How do you make a well?8. Should Jack and Jill stay

friends?9. How do we know who to be

friends with?10. Should we remain friends with

people who cause us to haveaccidents?

11. Will brown paper and vinegarreally make Jack’s head better?

12. What will make Jack’s headbetter?

13. Did Jill hurt herself? If so howand where?

14. What does it mean to be hurt?15. Did Jill care about Jack?

Importantly, students must be ableto justify why they place questionswhere they do, remembering thatquestions might fit in more thanone quadrant, depending on the question and the student’sreason/s. Hence, the notion ofcorrect placements is not alwaysappropriate and dialogue aboutquestion placement is vital inunderstanding question types.Students begin to develop ametacognitive understanding by forming, understanding andanswering questions. Insistingstudents use the word ‘because’ to articulate their reason/s is useful to begin dialogue about questionsand their purposes. Once studentscan confidently sort and justifyplacement of given questions,encourage them to develop theirown question for each quadrant.

Students may need to practisedeveloping questions. Onceconfident with the QuestionQuadrant as a tool to help themformulate, sort and categorisequestions, students and teacherscan use the Question Quadrant tonegotiate learning. The pedagogicalcontent knowledge (Shulman,1986) of the teacher is imperativein differentiating the curriculumand assessment, into that whichcan and cannot be negotiated.

Negotiating Learning Metcalfe and Game (2006) in theirbook, Teachers Who Change Lives,explain just such a situation. Indescribing good teachers they say:

Good teachers, then, do notsimply ignore institutionaldemands. They must knowthe set curriculum outcomes,but suspend desire for theseduring class discussions. In this way they allow theoutcomes to be rediscoveredthrough an enquiry based on a love of learning. (p. 54)

So I just went, Uh oh, right. So I’ve since spoken to ourteacher librarian and thehigh school science teacherand we’ve started planningall sorts of stuff we can do together. I’m really excited about that because I figure I’m still covering thecurriculum but I’m workingwith my kids and it’s aboutwhat they want to do.

(Metcalfe & Game, 2006,p. 55)

The following example ofnegotiated curriculum mirrorsVicki Yannakouros’ experience. The activities described in thispaper are situated in a Year 4/5cooperative teaching space, in a Queensland state school.

Essential Learnings

1. Ways of ■ Pose and refine questions for investigationsWorking ■ Apply strategies to influence decisions or behaviours

and to contribute to groups■ Reflect on and identify personal actions and those of

others to clarify values associated with social justice,the democratic process, sustainability and peace

■ Reflect on learning to identify new understandings and future applications.

(QSA, 2007, p. 2)

2. Knowledge and ■ British colonisation of Australia is connected understanding with particular events and changes, including

European exploration, the landing of the First Fleet,proclamation of terra nullius, establishment of penaland free settlements, contact with the Indigenouspopulation and the development of industries.

■ Events can be viewed differently according to a rangeof cultural, gender and socioeconomic viewpoints e.g. arrival of Europeans seen from Indigenousviewpoints and from European viewpoints.

(QSA, 2007, p. 2)

3. Place and space ■ Sustainability of local natural, social and builtenvironments can be influenced by positive andnegative attitudes and behaviours e.g. positiveresponses to water management can influence thequality of river systems; negative responses to townplanning principles can lead to traffic problems.

(QSA, 2007, p. 3)

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The teachers of these classes had participated in two daysphilosophy training as well as two philosophy mentoring sessionswhere they received feedback ontheir teaching of philosophy andsuggestions for future lessons. Both were proficient teachers with a depth of experience and knowledge, and learnersthemselves.

The teachers and their students were inquiring into the Year 5 Studies of Society andEnvironment (SOSE) curriculum(Queensland Studies Authority,2007). The Essential Learningsrelated to British colonisation of Australia, various cultural and historical perspectives of thisevent, and its impact on humansand the natural environment. The relevant Year 5 SOSE EssentialLearnings, are outlined in Table 2.

TABLE 2: YEAR 5 SOSE QUEENSLAND 2007

One teacher they interviewed,Vicki Yannakouros, describesnegotiating curriculum with youngstudents through implementingphilosophy for children.

Discussion and questioning is just intrinsic, and listeningto children question. Ouroutcome for this term is livingthings, and the other day we had a class on differencesbetween living and non-livingthings. I thought OK I’m goingto try some ideas I heard in apresentation about philosophyfor children. I put the wordsLiving and Non-living up on the board and I said I’mnot going to tell you whatthey mean. So then I put thechildren into groups to justtalk and it was interestingbecause I heard these snippets of conversations and I thought Oh my God!What are they talking about?And they came back and Iasked them to tell me whatthey talked about so they just brainstormed. And wewrote down all this stuffand… can I show you? It’s just fascinating.

(Metcalfe & Game, 2006,p. 54)

She goes on to say…

And then the questions gotreally good. I want to learnabout the people who were first alive or the time beforepeople were alive. Why are thedinosaurs dead or extinct? Howdid one person start off man,because there are millions andmillions of people around, sowas there one person first? How did the first person cometo earth? How did monkeys turn into people? What do bugs’bones look like? How did thecaveman get alive? [and so on]

Examples from a Year 4/5 classroomThe students in this classunderstood the difference betweenopen and closed questions but hadnot been introduced to the wholeQuestion Quadrant. The QuestionQuadrant was made on the floor,as previously described. Questionsabout Humpty Dumpty were usedto model the distinction betweenthe four quadrants. The studentswere then asked to sort theremaining Humpty questions onto the quadrant.

The story ‘The Rabbits’ by JohnMarsden and Shaun Tan (2000),was then read to the students. Thisstory can be seen metaphorically to describe the circumstances ofBritish colonisation of Australia.Students were asked to identify the main ideas in the story. Theideas students suggested were:improvement, progress, introduce,change, ownership, environment,sustain, destroy, invasion, conflict,settlement, pollution and homes.These words were written on stripsof paper and placed around theedges of the quadrant. Working in small groups, the students thenchose one of the suggested themesand formulated a question for eachquadrant about that theme.

The students’ questions weresorted into the categories on theQuestion Quadrant (see Figure 4).Understanding that questions mayfit into more than one quadrant,allows students to alter andmanipulate questions for different purposes as theynegotiate learning. For example inthe Inquiry quadrant the questionwas asked: What is a home? Thisquestion can be both a usefulstimulus to philosophical dialogueor lead students into researchinghomes around the world, makingmodel homes, or becominginvolved in a building project.

Clear links between the students’questions, the SOSE EssentialLearnings and other EssentialLearnings, including Science andEnglish are apparent. The students’questions demonstrate that theQuestion Quadrant is a useful tool for engaging students inquestioning and negotiating trans-disciplinary curriculum: in this case philosophy, SOSE,English and Science.

Essential Learnings

4. Culture and ■ Groups in Australian communities contribute to identity cultural diversity by celebrating differences and

commonalities e.g. Queenslanders participate in a range of celebrations such as NAIDOC Week,Chinese New Year, Greek and Italian festivals, Mabo Day and Queensland Day.

■ Australian society has responded to different culturesin positive and negative ways e.g. positive — anti-discrimination laws of the late 20th century,participation in the walk for reconciliation; negative — restriction on citizenship status for some groups,segregation of public facilities.

■ Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander peoplehave distinctive social organisation, languages and lifestyles e.g. importance of elders; over 250 languages linked to specific groups and places;distinctive foods and medicines.

(QSA, 2007, p. 3)

5. Political and ■ Australia’s government systems are based on economic principles of democracy, including elected systems representation, free speech and civic participation,

that have their origins in ancient Greece, Britain and the United States e.g. democracy in Athens;parliamentary system from Britain; writtenconstitution from the United States.

■ Citizenship involves people sharing values, andworking together in communities to influencedecision making, resolve conflicts and achieveconsensus between diverse views of individuals and groups e.g. a local land-care group working tosolve local environmental problems; a local groupparticipating in reconciliation initiatives.

(QSA, 2007, p. 4)

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TABLE 2: YEAR 5 SOSE QUEENSLAND 2007 (CONTINUED)

Textual QuestionsBased in the story

READING COMPREHENSIONWhat was introduced in the story?What invaded? Lachlan and SebHow did the rabbits invade? Sophie LeeWhat settled?

Do the rabbits pollute the air?How did the rabbits pollute? Billie and RubyWhat did the rabbits pollute? Keely

How did the rabbits come? Jack

What changes did the rabbits make?

LITERARY SPECULATIONWhy did the rabbits invade Australia?Why did they invade? JonahWere the rabbits going to Australia?Why did they come to our country? HannahWhere did they invade?Why did the rabbits invade our town? SebWhy are the rabbits doing this?

Why did they cut the homes down?

What did the rabbits bring? AidanHow did the rabbits settle so fast?

Why didn’t the rabbits let them be?

Did the rabbits kill other species?

What could the rabbits be? Curtis

Which country did they come from? SianneWhere is the rabbits’ home?

Why do they pollute? Jarrod

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RESEARCHWho owns the land?How could we settle?What do you do to make a settlement?Why do we settle?How did the settlement start?

Why do we need homes?

Are all introduced species bad?Do introduced species endangered other species?

What chemicals are dangerous for the environment? Mrs M.What damage does pollution do? ZoeHow does pollution form?What does pollution do?Why do we cause pollution and how?

What are some places that have been invaded?Josh and Mr B.

NB: Students’ names should be recorded with their questions.

INQUIRYWhat is a home?

What could people get from invading?Why do we invade? ZoeShould we ever invade? ChrisDo we need to invade to settle?

Should everyone settle down?

Who owns the land?How do we decide who owns what?

Should we ever pollute?Why do we pollute? SavannahShould people pollute?

Do we really value our environment?

Why are we so greedy? Nathaniel

Intellectual QuestionsBased in life

FIGURE 4: YEAR 4/5 STUDENT QUESTIONS FROM ‘THE RABBITS’ BY SHAUN TAN AND JOHN MARSDEN

‘Text’ alludes to a range of events,stories and media. Combiningreading comprehension questionswith at least one question fromanother quadrant extends theactivity. For example, studentscould develop comprehensioncards with a set number of ReadingComprehension questions and at least one Literary Speculationquestion, to engage others inimagining and speculating about the text.

Literary SpeculationLiterary speculation involvesstudents in thinking about the text in a manner which takes them beyond the text. Thesequestions invite students tohypothesise, assume, speculate,imagine and invent. This is a direct lead into creative writing oran intervention within the text.For example a Literary Speculationquestion from ‘The Rabbits’(Marsden & Tan, 2000) might be:

How could the story have beendifferent if the rabbits talked to the first people? Anotherpossibility would be to rewrite the text from the perspective of the rabbits. Students’ responses tosuch questions could be in fictionor non-fiction genres using multi-literacies: stories, poems, cartoons,role play, diary entries, newspaperreports, historical accounts,PowerPoint presentations orpodcasts. Examples of LiterarySpeculation questions suggested by these students included:

■ Why did they [the rabbits]invade? Jonah

■ What did the rabbits bring?Aidan

■ Why do they [the rabbits]pollute? Jarrod

These questions also invitehypothetical reasoning about thetext. Table 3 provides a simplisticstructure for explicitly teachinghypothetical reasoning.

Following this the teacher shouldreflect on the students’ questions inlight of curriculum and assessmentrequirements, to locate EssentialLearnings and assessment taskswhich will add structure to thestudents’ learning journeys.Negotiating possibilities forlearning and assessment inresponse to student questions is feasible.

Students questions, developedusing the Question Quadrant,become the stimulus fornegotiating trans-disciplinarycurriculum and assessment tasks.These learning activities can becompleted in various ways,including:

■ whole class, small group orindividual activity

■ rotated around groups sostudents can develop questionsfor other students in the samegroup or across groups

■ part of a peer tutoring activityacross classes and/or year levels.

The following activities have beenorganised to respond to questionsin each of the four quadrants and are explained under thoseheadings: Reading Comprehension,Literary Speculation, Research andInquiry.

Reading Comprehension When students ask reasonablecomprehension questions relatedto the text it is fairly safe toassume they have comprehendedthe text. Uses for these questionsinclude quick quizzes and clues for ‘find–a–words’ or crosswords.More importantly, questioning thetext is a key feature in approachesto teaching reading and criticalliteracy, including reciprocalteaching (Palincsar & Brown, 1984)and the four resources model (Luke& Freebody, 1999) respectively.

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Antecedent Statement Possible Consequences

If the rabbits didn’t come then... 1.2.3.

If the rabbits brought a willingness to learn about the others then... 1.

2.3.

If the rabbits didn’t pollute then… 1.2.3.

TABLE 3: SUGGESTIONS FOR HYPOTHETICAL REASONING

In addition, this particular textlends itself to the exploration of simile, metaphor and analogy.Writing metaphorical texts basedon this or other historical eventsbecomes a possibility:

■ How did the rabbits settle so fast?

■ What else could have settledfast? Write and present a storyabout them.

■ What animal settles slowlycompared to rabbits? Write and present a settlement orinvasion story about them.

This work blends fiction andnonfiction, and invites furtherresearch.

Research In the case of ‘The Rabbits’ the students’ research questionsopen up some interesting ideas forscientific and social research, andrelated products and presentationsfor assessment. This is not hands-free teaching. There is much‘scaffolding’ (Bruner, 1961)required from the teacher: toencourage, question, prompt,guide, suggest, and model.Assessment tasks can be based onstudents’ questions. Products andpresentations of the research willbe “the outward and visible sign ofstudent engagement” (Departmentof Education & Training, 2009a).

Products and presentations were a key feature of the Rich Taskswithin the New Basics Project(Department of Education &Training, 2009b) and the Rich Task Blueprints (Department ofEducation & Training, 2009c)which serve as assessment ideas for teachers to use or models to mimic when negotiatingassessment with students. In thecase of these questions, inspired by ‘The Rabbits’, environmentalresearch is required:

■ Are all introduced species bad?

■ Do introduced species endangerother species?

Rich Tasks in the Years 1–4 Suite of tasks titled 2a MultimediaPresentation of an Endangered Plantor Animal and 2b MultimediaPresentation of an Introduced Plant or Animal (Department ofEducation & Training, 2009d)would respond aptly to suchquestions. Alternatively, there are the Rich Task Blueprints,including Damage and Danger to the Natural World (Department of Education, Training & the Arts, 2007) for lower primary and Science Under a Microscope(Department of Education &Training, 2009e) for upper primary.

These Blueprints could be used to negotiate curriculum andassessment arising from studentquestions about pollution:

■ What chemicals are dangerousfor the environment? Mrs M.

■ What damage does pollutiondo? Zoe

■ How does pollution form?

■ Why do we cause pollution and how?

If using or adapting givenassessment tasks is not viable,students’ questions can be thecreative inspiration for a task.Together the teacher and studentscan create an aspirational responsefor the task they design, whichitself becomes a modelled teachingactivity and opportunity for jointconstruction of the task. Themodelled (aspirational) responsecan be used as the stimulus fordeveloping students’ questionswhich could then be used indeveloping rubrics or checklists to assess the task.

Finally, if surveys or questionnairesare needed to complete research,the students can develop questionswithin them. These students’research questions are summarisedin Table 4 and built on to showscope for further research. The depth of knowledge,understanding and insight students develop about concepts in their research can be enhancedthrough philosophical inquiry.

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Inquiry The Question Quadrant wasdesigned by Philip Cam (2006) to assist teachers and students inrecognising and formulating openinquiry questions about life, “thereally meaty inquiry questions”,(Cam, 2006, p. 32) to stimulatedeep philosophical dialogue withina community of inquiry (Burgh,Field & Freakly, 2006; Cam, 1995;Cam et al., 2007; Lipman, Sharp & Oscanyan, 1980). Philosophylessons are generally described in a linear fashion:

■ Prepare the lesson

■ Share the stimulus or text

■ Gather the students’ questionsfrom the text

■ Sort categories of questions andconnect themes

■ Sit the students in a circle andfacilitate the dialogue about the students’ questions

■ Address concept and skilldevelopment as the need arises

■ Review, reflect and evaluate.

With experience, the teacherbegins to see the cyclical nature of the process and the centralimportance of reflection andevaluation to progress within andof the dialogue (as in Figure 5).Preparation is essential, includingpreparation of concept or skilldevelopment and reasoningactivities which challenge studentsand assist them to deepen theirunderstanding of the concept.Many texts have been written to assist teachers with teachingphilosophy (see Cam, 1993; 1994;1995; 1997; 2006; Cam et. al.,2007; Golding, 2002; Lipman,1974; Sprod, 1993).

Concept and skill developmentactivities can be implementedusing graphic organisers including Y–charts for conceptualexploration, Venn diagrams formaking distinctions, T–charts for developing examples andcounterexamples, a target (Cam, 2006, pp. 54–57) to honeconceptual meaning, and conceptmapping to explore connections.

Ownership and Pollution Invasion / Introduced / Settlement War History Endangered Species

Who owns the land? What damage does What are some places that Are all introduced How could we settle? pollution do? Zoe have been invaded? Josh species bad?What do you do to How does pollution form? Do introduced species make a settlement? Why do we cause endanger other species? Why do we settle? pollution and how? How did the What chemicals are settlement start? dangerous for the Why do we need homes? environment?

Building on

How are settlements Where is pollution in When has our own Are there endangered made in different times our local environment? country been at war? species in our local and places? What can we do about it? Did we invade someone environment? Can we How would new Who should we work with or did they invade us? help them? How? settlements be to clean up the pollution? What were the reasons? (See Rich Tasks and made today? (See Rich Tasks Blueprints.) Was the invasion necessary Rich Task Blueprints.)What would we need or worthwhile? Why to consider if we were to and how?settle outside the earth?

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In response to ‘The Rabbits’(Marsden & Tan, 2000),assumptions can be uncoveredthrough role play focusing ondifferent perspectives of characters,Venn diagrams can be used toexplore the distinction betweeninvasion and settlement and themetaphor of the text can be usedas a model for student metaphorsand analogies for settlement andinvasion. The strength of students’analogical reasoning can be testedby searching for counterexamples.

Involving students in explicitlynaming and using thinking,reasoning and reflective skillsassists them in the development of their metacognitive skills. Onceestablished these metacognitiveskills allow students to bepurposeful in the dialogue and in their learning. Metacognition is enriched through reflection on all aspects of the dialogue.

TABLE 4: RESEARCH USING STUDENTS’ QUESTIONS

Students need to be involved in reflection and evaluation oftheir questions to help themdevelop more relevant and ‘meaty questions’. Students need to reflect on each aspect of the dialogue including:

■ substantive knowledge andunderstanding of the issues

■ progress with understandingand using thinking andreasoning skills

■ ability to empathise, cooperateand collaborate to developsynergistic processes within and across the class

■ reflection (content, process and skill) itself.

Explicit structuring of reflection can help both teacher and students.Processes and scaffolds for reflectionand evaluation include Bain,Ballantyne, Packer and Mills’ (1999) Five–point Level ofReflection Scale: Reporting,Responding, Relating, Reasoning,Reconstructing. Questioning of initial reflections can generatetransformative reflection. Graphicorganisers for reflection include the SWOT analysis, KWL, PMI and JoHari Window, which arereadily available on the internet.Structuring and making processes of reflection explicit, enablesproductive thinking, learning and pedagogy.

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Productive Pedagogies The negotiation and activitiesstemming from students’ questionsallow teachers and students tosimultaneously address many of the Productive Pedagogies(Lingard, et al., 2001) shown in Table 5. Students will beintellectually engaged, workingwith curriculum and assessmentwhich is connected to their dailylives and thoughts, supported inand supportive of the learningcommunity, and able to recogniseand embrace the differencesevident in each other’s lives andthoughts. The learning communitywill operate in democratic waysthrough flatter power structures.This is not losing authority, rathera process of students and teacherssharing authority for and inlearning, and demonstratinghumility to enhance each other’slearning.

The RulesWe listen to each other.

We respect each other’s ideas.There may be no single right answer.

Philosophical Dialogue involving:Content — of the dialogue

Processes — conduct of the dialogueThinking, reasoning and

reflective skills — applied to, and within the dialogue

Preparation of the lesson *

Reflection andEvaluation *

Sharing thestimulus **

Concept and/or Skill

DevelopmentActivities **

Gatheringstudents’

questions **

Community of Inquiry — central dialogue *

* Must include in every lesson ** Part of the cycle

FIGURE 5: THE CYCLICAL NATURE OF THECOMMUNITY OF PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY

Productive Pedagogy Question

Higher Order Thinking Are students using higher order thinking operations within a criticalframework?

Deep Knowledge Does the lesson cover operational fields in any depth, detail or level ofspecificity?

Deep Understanding Do the work and responses of the students provide evidence of depth ofunderstanding of concepts or ideas?

Substantive Conversation Does the classroom talk lead to sustained conversational dialogue betweenstudents, and between teachers and students to create or negotiateunderstanding of the subject matter?

Knowledge as Problematic Are students critiquing and second-guessing texts, ideas and knowledge?

Metalanguage Are aspects of language, grammar and technical vocabulary beingforegrounded?

Knowledge Integration Does the lesson integrate a range of subject areas?

Background Knowledge Are links with the students’ background knowledge made explicit?

Connectedness Is the lesson, activity, or task connected to competencies or concerns to the World beyond the classroom?

Problem-Based Is there a focus on identifying and solving intellectual and/or Curriculum real world problems?

Student Direction Do students determine specific activities or outcomes of the lesson?

Social Support Is the classroom characterised by an atmosphere of mutual respect andsupport among teacher and students?

Academic Engagement Are students engaged and on task during the lesson?

Explicit Quality Are the criteria for judging the range of student performance Performance Criteria made explicit?

Self Regulation Is the direction of student behaviour implicit and self-regulatory?

Cultural Knowledges Are non-dominant cultural knowledges valued?

Inclusivity Are deliberate attempts made to increase participation of the range of students?

Narrative Is the style of teaching principally narrative or expository?

Group Identity Does the teaching build a sense of community and identity?

Active Citizenship Are attempts made to encourage active citizenship within the classroom?

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TABLE 5: PRODUCTIVE PEDAGOGIES DIMENSIONS, CATEGORIES AND QUESTIONS

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Conclusion Negotiating the curriculum andassessment through use of studentquestions enables sound assessmentpractices advocated by theQueensland Studies Authorityincluding the understanding that“assessment is a key element of theprofessional practice of teachers,and an integral part of the teachingand learning process” (QSA, 2009,p. 1) and that “teachers [andstudents? should] have theopportunity to enhance theirunderstanding of the alignment of curriculum, assessment andreporting” (QSA, 2009, p. 1). Bynegotiating assessment with theirstudents, teachers are beginningwith the end in mind (Covey, 1989)and helping students backward mapin order to align their assessmentand learning activities.

Students are waiting to be allowedinto this process; to be involved inand have shared ownership of theirlearning and assessment. They willembrace these deep and authenticprocesses of sharing power throughresponsive, dialogic teaching. Thecrux of the matter is the teacher’swillingness to conceptualise theircraft differently because teachershold the power in the classroom.Negotiating curriculum andassessment fosters an environmentwhere students and teachers believein the centrality of students’questions, thoughts and ideas tolearning. The Question Quadrantprovides a useful tool for teacherswishing to negotiate and integratecurriculum and assessment withstudents. Examples offered in thispaper have shown students’ abilityto offer meaningful and usefulquestions when presented withcarefully selected stimulus.Situating both students andteachers as teachers and learners,through the use of studentquestions, leads both students andteachers to their desired outcomesin ways where all embody the spiritof lifelong learning. ■

Bain, J.D., Ballantyne, R., Packer, J. &Mills, C. (1999). Using journalwriting to enhance studentteachers’ reflectivity during fieldexperience placements. Teachersand teaching: Theory and practice,vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 51–73.

Bakhtin, M. (1981). The dialogicimagination: Four essays (M.Holquist, ed.) (C. Emerson & M. Holquist, trans.). Austin:University of Texas Press.

Biesta, G. (2006). Beyond learning:Democratic education for a humanfuture. Boulder: ParadigmPublishers.

Bohm, D. (1996). On dialogue(L. Nichol, ed.). New York:Routledge.

Boomer, G. (1992). ‘Negotiating theCurriculum’, in G. Boomer, N.Lester, C. Onore & J. Cook (eds),Negotiating the curriculum:Educating for the 21st century(pp. 4–14). London: Falmer Press.

Bruner, J.S. (1961). The act ofdiscovery. Harvard EducationalReview, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 21–32.

Buber, M. (1958). I and thou (R.G.Smith, trans.) (Second edition).New York: C. Scribner’s Sons.

Burbules, N.C. (1993). Dialogue inteaching: Theory and practice.New York: Teachers College Press.

Burgh, G., Field, T. & Freakly, M.(2006). Ethics and the communityof inquiry: Education for deliberativedemocracy. South Melbourne,Vic.: Thomson Social SciencePress.

Cam, P. (1993). Thinking stories 1teacher resource/activity book.Sydney: Hale & Iremonger.

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Cam, P. (1997). Thinking stories 3:Teacher resource/activity book.Sydney: Hale & Iremonger.

Cam, P. (2006). Twenty thinkingtools: Collaborative inquiry for theclassroom. Camberwell, Vic.:ACER Press.

Cam, P., Fynes-Clinton, L., Harrison,K., Hinton, L., Scholl, R. & Vaseo,S. (2007). Philosophy with youngchildren: A classroom handbook.Deakin, ACT: ACSA.

Covey, S. (1989). The 7 habits ofhighly successful people. New York:Simon & Schuster.

Department of Education &Training. (2009a). The rich tasks.Retrieved 16 September 2009from http://education.qld.gov.au/corporate/newbasics/html/richtasks/richtasks.html

Department of Education &Training. (2009b). The new basicsproject. Retrieved 16 September2009 from http://education.qld.gov.au/corporate/newbasics/

Department of Education &Training. (2009c). Rich task blueprints. Retrieved 16 September 2009 fromhttp://education.qld.gov.au/corporate/newbasics/html/blueprints/blueprints.html

Department of Education &Training. (2009d). The first suite: Years 1–4. Retrieved 16 September 2009 fromhttp://education.qld.gov.au/corporate/newbasics/html/richtasks/year3/year3.html

Department of Education &Training. (2009e). Rich taskblueprint: Science under themicroscope. Retrieved 16 September 2009 fromhttp://education.qld.gov.au/corporate/newbasics/pdfs/science-microscope.pdf

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AUTHOR CONTACT DETAILS

r.scholl@uq.edu.au