Just a reminder my friends, this new series will take an intense dive into the book, “Getting Personal with Inquiry Learning” by Kath Murdoch. This episode will focus on sections 1.4 - 1.6 of the book, so stay tuned to be inspired by Kath! The ‘why not’: Lessons from dissenting voicesThere will always be a group of educators who resist best practice out of fear, uncertainty, and frustration. I totally understand their uncertainty about inquiry, because it requires a mindshift in how we look at our learner, our curriculum, and our end goal. Kath reminds us, “an inquiry stance means being intentionally open-minded. It means listening to alternative voices and avoiding the temptation to dwell inside one’s own echo chamber. It means being willing to listen to a range of perspectives and being prepared to acknowledge the pitfalls as well as the successes.” With this notion in mind, Kath addresses the most common arguments against inquiry-based learning. Here are some that resonated with me. Argument: “Inquiry is great in principle, but the reality is that it can’t possibly work with one educator and a large class of learners. It is just not practical.” Kath’s response: “Joyful as the experience can be, this is a sophisticated and demanding pedagogy that requires a strong repertoire of strategies and, ideally, a team and wider school culture to support it.” Having served in at-risk communities for the past few years. I often heard a similar argument that the PYP is only successful in affluent schools where there are additional resources, less teaching gaps, and more parental support. Although these elements do benefit children, it’s more about the mindset of the school community. If the community believes the program will thrive, then it will happen. If they decide the learners are “less”, they will be treated as such. Argument: “Following learners’ interests makes it too hard to meet curriculum standards.” Kath’s response: “Not only do I consider curricula quite compatible with inquiry, but I would also argue that educators do a far better job of inquiry teaching when they choose to really get to know their curriculum - to know it so well that they can let it go and see the opportunities for connection as they arise.” This reminds me of Kath’s video, “What it means to be an inquiry teacher.” She speaks about the misconceptions of the teacher being laissez-faire and quite hands-off. In fact, the opposite is quite true of an inquiry teacher. They know their curriculum so well that they are able to wield it, so learning is within the context of the learning, which leads to learning transfer. Pictures of practice: Approaches to personal inquiryThis section really made me pause and reflect on how I lead personal inquiry with learners. There are several strategies that I have employed over time that may have not been at the highest level. In our book club, it was stated, “You only know what you know.” We can’t feel bad about the past, but move forward by refining our practice. This quote stayed with me for quite some time, “If you leave it till grade 5 /6, and you haven’t developed the skills and the voice - if you haven’t actually done the groundwork with them, then it's very difficult for them to switch that on when they’ve been reliant on the teacher to do all the architecture and thinking around learning. All of a sudden the spotlight is on them. We need to give time to the development of student voice and the skills associated with personal inquiry throughout school. We can’t assume that because they are young it’s something that they can’t do, because that’s just not true in my experience.” Nadine Crane So, what is the best way to begin personal inquiry in our practice? Kath states, “the questions should be What might be the best way to incorporate this into our school? What might work best for our learners?” The remaining portion of this section reviews different types of personal inquiry models and their limitations, such as extended personal projects (passion projects), innovation days, genius hour, and discovery time and explorations. These all have finite times where inquiry is honored. Instead, the suggestion is to follow the iTime or studio time model, where learners are given 1.5-2 hours per week to explore their personal inquiries. For more information, be sure to read page 35 on how iTime is structured and its benefits. Also, be sure to check out the flow of personal inquiry on page 38. It really clarified how personal inquiry might look and feel from pre-kindergarten to upper primary/elementary level. The when and where: organizing time and making spaceThere will never be a perfect time to engage within inquiry. We have to make space for it to happen naturally and within the context of the learning. Argument: “Why was there such a gap between the way we would prefer to use our time and the way we do use our time?” Kath’s Response: “We have a curriculum we are required to attend to and so many educators felt that offering choice meant that the curriculum expectations would not be met.” “We need to reconsider our relationship with time as something we control rather than something that controls us…It is the educators who know their curriculum best that have the most confidence to let it go, knowing they will see the opportunities to connect with it as they observe and listen to their learners.” Book Club Role: The SummarizerThis week I focused on being The Summarizer as part of my book club role alongside my friend Ragini. It was a challenge to take on this role to succinctly summarize so many wonderful ideas.
We determined that people resist inquiry due to fear. This is common in schools where the culture is not defined. Some teachers dive into inquiry, others will dip their toes, while the remainder hide under their umbrella. All we can do is move closer to our goals and be a positive example of inquiry in action. We don’t know what we don’t know. Our inquiry journey is not the same year to year. In the beginning, we may have relied on scaffolded systems like Genius Hour, which is okay. If you are still using the system with your learners, it’s okay. Our goal is to free up the personal inquiry, so the learners are exploring regularly, instead of on Fun Fridays. We manage the time, not the other way around. We can maximize the experiences within our classrooms by knowing our curriculum well, so we can leverage it as a tool for deeper learning.
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