Teacher Inquiry: Part 1

Note: The following blog is the first of a three-part series on teacher inquiry.

It might sound cliché but you’ve likely heard the phrase that a teacher should be a life-long learner. Ayres (1989) wrote that “teaching involves a search for meaning in the world. Teaching is a life-long project, a calling, a vocation that is an organizing center for all other activities.” Whatever your philosophy, it’s hard to argue that engaging in teacher inquiry provides many benefits.

Dana and Yendol-Hoppey (2009) define teacher inquiry as a systematic intentional study of one’s own professional practice. The process involves forming questions or “wonderings,” collecting data based on those questions, analyzing the data, and sharing one’s findings. As a teacher-inquirer you take charge of your own learning, "you become part of a larger struggle to better understand, inform, shape, reshape, and reform standard school practice," (Dana and Yendol-Hoppey, 2009, p.7).

Among the benefits of inquiry, teachers learn to better differentiate to meet the needs of individual learners in the classroom, to make data-based decisions to drive instruction and improve student learning, and to take ownership of professional development. Dinkleman (2003) notes that teachers who self-reflect (an important aspect of inquiry) gain useful knowledge from experience, which in turn, can be applied to future experiences, which produce more knowledge and insight. In other words, you perpetuate a positive cycle of growth and learning through inquiry.  

Wonderments

Teacher inquiry begins with what Dana and Yendol-Hoppey (2009) call “wonderments” or questions that drive your research. This could be one or more questions that you want to pursue to gain more insight. When creating wonderments, you must consider a number of factors, including student needs, the curriculum and content, as well as your own interests. Ideally, you want to find the “sweet spot” where your passions and the needs of your particular students intersect. Dana and Yendol-Hoppey (2009) recommended various activities to help brainstorm wonderments; for instance, you can list all your students in the classroom and jot down some notes about what makes each child unique. Then, write a question next to each child’s name that would help you explore what would help you meet his or her individual learning needs.

I’d like to take you through a wonderment process I recently used for a self-study I conducted regarding my instruction of pre-service teachers. As I began teaching them a course on classroom management at the university, I began to wonder (there it is—let your curiosity drive you) about their definition of the term “critical thinking” and how they might teach the concept to their students. I also wanted to know how I could best share critical-thinking strategies with them to use in their own classrooms. My wonderments began to shape up like this:

1. How do the pre-service teachers in my course perceive critical thinking?
2. How do they currently teach critical-thinking skills to their students?
3. What strategies can I share to help them teach critical thinking to their students?

These questions were driven by my personal interests—my passionate belief that critical thinking should play a dominant role in education. Considering the practical teaching strategies the pre-service teachers might need helped tie my wonderments to their needs in the classroom. However, if I were to conduct this inquiry again, I might first consider the pre-service teacher’s present needs then align it with what I was passionate about. For instance, they might tell me they are very concerned with classroom management practices, rather than critical-thinking skills, at their current stage of development; I could then better align my own interests with their present level of needs. Again, you really need to find the happy medium between what interests you and what your students truly need.

In next week’s blog, I will elaborate on how I collected data for my inquiry and provide you with examples on how to do this in your own inquiry. Till then, take care and consider drafting up some of your own wonderments.