Week 25

REFLECTIVE PRACTICE

What is reflective practice?Reflecting on practice is an active learning process whereby practice is analysed in its applied context. This is the point where theory and practice meet and are refined and developed. This reflective practice is underpinned by the notion of reflection-on-action, and continual learning for improved outcomes.

Why do you need to know about this?Finlay (2008) called attention to the “bland, mechanical, unthinking ways” (p.1) of reflective practice, especially for time-constrained professionals. Without critical reflection, superficial thinking might simply reinforce existing assumptions. Therefore, it is important that reflective practice be cultivated and fostered to become effective. It can then be a “powerful tool to examine and transform practice” (Finlay, 2008, p.10).

Developing critical reflection in your practiceYou should start by examining your current reflective practice. Fill in this evaluate your reflective practice survey ( you can see how others have responded by clicking on “see previous responses” after completing the survey).

The first question in the survey is intended to test your understanding of what critical reflection is. If you consider critical reflection as criticising your own practice or your colleagues', then you should reconsider.

According to Fook and Askeland (cited in Finlay, 2008), critical reflection looks at individual concerns within a wider perspective, “connecting individual identity and social context”. It should be done in a systematic manner, be challenged by differing angles and be informed with reliable sources.

The second question of the survey is adapted from Zeichner and Liston’s (cited in Finlay, 2008, p.4) five levels of reflection:

1. "Rapid reflection - immediate, ongoing and automatic action by the teacher.
2. Repair – in which a thoughtful teacher makes decisions to alter their behaviour in response to students’ cues.
3. Review – when a teacher thinks about, discusses or writes about some element of their teaching.
4. Research – when a teacher engages in more systematic and sustained thinking over time, perhaps by collecting data or reading research.
5. Retheorizing and reformulating – the process by which a teacher critically examines their own practice and theories in the light of academic theories.”

It may be, for example, that your current reflective practice sits at the lower levels of the spectrum due to time constraints or the priority you place on reflection. If so, what could you do to help you reach a higher level of reflection?

In pages 7-10 of this week's reading Reflecting on reflective practice, Finlay introduces and critiques some reflective models. Adopting a suitable model of reflection could enhance the quality of your reflective practice. For example, Gibb’s six basic stages of the cycle of reflection (Finlay, 2008, p.8) has some similarities with the Teaching-as-Inquiry model from the Ministry of Education (2009). Alternatively, the more elaborate typology of reflection developed by Jay and Johnson (Finlay, 2008, p.8) could guide you to scrutinise your practice through a more critical lens. Is there any model that you find suitable for your own reflective practice?

Question three of the above survey explores the ways you reflect on your practice. You may prefer having solitary reflection or informal conversations with colleagues other than written reflection.

However, Larrivee (2000) recommends that keeping a reflective journal is a way to ensure time is set aside for deep and regular reflection. A reflective journal enables you to integrate knowledge and learning and analyse the significance and implications for your professional practice. Electronic journals are able to be shared with others, so there are opportunities for you to share and create networks, whānau of interest, and professional communities of practice. A reflective journal is an important evaluative learning tool for you as a learner and as a professional. Sharing aspects of your journal and working collaboratively in shared e-reflective journal spaces is part of the reflective process. The feedback you give and receive can be critical for further investigation, reflection, and change.

In this course, you are required to create weekly reflective journal entries preferably in the form of blog posts in which you critically reflect on different aspects of your practice.

Note: (Important)

Before you create a professional personal blog you need to consider the moral, ethical and legal responsibilities you have to your organisation with respect to the content you will create, post and share. Most employment contracts set out your obligations around the use of social media which must be considered when you are creating or sharing views on open online platforms.

You can find some helpful information on blogging such as the platforms to choose, the privacy concerns, the copyright license, the length and structure of a blog in The Mind Lab’s blog post “How Should I Blog”.

Once you have created your blog, you can share the address with your fellow students by filling in this “Share your blog’s address” form. Even if your blog is private, you can always grant the permission to view later. You can find your fellow students' blog address from here.

Again, remember to move beyond description and be more critical in your reflective journal. View this required Reflective Writing video for an idea of how to write reflectively and effectively.

COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE

What is your community of practice?Your teaching practice is based on a particular context within the community that you serve. Wenger first coined the concept of “communities of practice”, which are defined as “groups of people who share a concern or a passion or about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interaction on an ongoing basis” (Wenger, McDermott & Snyder, 2002, p.4). A community of practice differs from other group types in terms of learning and knowledge and practice sharing rather than management objectives. In the school context, this occurs through informal learning via daily conversations, lesson reflections and other exchanges (Jurasaite-Harbison & Rex, 2010). A community of practice is defined by three distinct elements: joint enterprise, mutual engagement and shared repertoire (Wenger, 2000).

• Joint enterprise: is a shared domain which is the “collectively developed understanding of what the community is about”.
• Mutual engagement: within the community, the members engage through interactions, building mutual trust in the relationships.
• Shared repertoire: is “the communal resources” that the community of practice produce (Wenger, 2000, p.229)

On the Wenger-Trayner website, the three elements have been termed as domain, community and practice, respectively.

In order for a community of practice to thrive, its members have to ensure that they are collectively working on all three elements. Regardless of the community size, it is important that the members understand the community of practice’s shared purpose and strongly feel they belong to the community. They also have to commit to regular interactions to keep the dynamics of the community of practice. These interactions either onsite or online would lead to the accumulation of the community of practice’s shared resources which in turn becomes valuable assets that the members can turn to when they seek assistance.

In the Edpuzzle "Cultivating communities of practice: Making them grow", the author has discussed an interesting analogue of the community of practice, making the concept easier to understand.

Why do you need to know about this?In this knowledge age, community of practice serves as a model to facilitate and enhance learning and knowledge management in a shared context among practitioners. Cambridge, Kaplan, and Suter (2005) suggest that communities of practice provide an environment for people to connect, interact, build and extend the shared resources within shared learning goals. A community of practice that is cultivated and effectively operates can result in improved practice.

THIS WEEK’S ASSESSMENT ACTIVITY

Activity 1: My practice within the community

Create a post where you critically define your practice with reference to Wenger’s (2000) concept of community of practice. Following these 3 steps may help with your assessment:

Step 1: Identify your community of practice. When doing so, you may realise that you belong to a variety of communities of practice which are sometimes overlapping. However, you need to be careful that the identified one is a community of practice not a community only. Being able to articulate the three elements of the community of practice that you have identified will clarify the criteria.

Step 2: Explain the three elements of your community of practice using the the following questions to guide your thoughts:

• What is the joint-enterprise or the shared domain of interest that you identify with your community of practice?
• What are some examples of the activities or events that the members in your community of practice engage? How often do the activities or events take place?
• What kind of shared repertoire does your community of practice produce?

Step 3: Define your practice within the community of practice using the the following questions to guide your thoughts:

• What sense of connectedness or belonging do you have within your community of practice?
• How would you describe your role within the community of practice? For example, a leader? A facilitator? An active member? A newcomer?
• At what extent you are contributing towards your community of practice?

* Please note that all of the above questions serve as a guide to your reflection. When writing your reflective journal, you don’t have to answer each and every question.

References

Cambridge, D., Kaplan, S. & Suter, V. (2005). Community of practice design guide: A Step-by-Step Guide for Designing & Cultivating. Retrieved from https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/NLI0531.pd...

Finlay, L. (2009). Reflecting on reflective practice. PBPL. Retrieved from http://www.open.ac.uk/opencetl/files/opencetl/file…

Jurasaite-Harbison, E., & Rex, L. (2010). School Cultures as Contexts for Informal Teacher Learning. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(2), 267-277.

Knox, B.(2009, December 4). Cultivating Communities of Practice: Making Them Grow.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhMPRZnRFkk

Larrivee, B. (2000).Transforming teaching practice: becoming the critically reflective teacher. Reflective Practice, 1(3), 293-307.

Ministry of Education.(2009). Teaching as Inquiry. Retrieved from http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-stories/Case-studies/Teachers-as-learners-Inquiry/Teaching-as-inquiry

Wenger, E.(2000). Communities of practice and social learning systems. Organization,7(2), 225-246.

Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Week 24

Research Ethics'

All social research (whether using surveys, documents, interviews, observation, or computer-mediated communication) gives rise to a range of ethical issues around privacy, informed consent, anonymity, secrecy, being truthful and the desirability of the research. It is important, therefore, that you are aware of these issues and how you might respond to them’ (Blaxter, Hughes & Tight, 2006 p.158).

While as a teacher-researcher (undertaking research in your own classroom or school) you are not required to go through any formal ethics process, it is still critical that you think about the ethical implications of your research.

Ethics In Your Own Research

Miles and Huberman (1994) suggest that to mitigate ethical issues it is not only necessary to follow the ethical guidelines of your particular institution but also to consider why the study is worth doing and how it will contribute in some significant way to the broader domain. Tracy (2010) further advocates ensuring the worthiness of the topic of study and considering the significance of the contribution it will make to the research field or to practice.

Therefore, when planning any inquiry projects in your own practice it is helpful to think carefully about the purpose of your inquiry. Think about what your research might be able to contribute and to whom, and also how you will disseminate and share the findings of your research.

Research ethics are important for:

• Protecting others (particularly the participants in your study) and minimising harm
• Ensuring trust from those we work with
• Promoting integrity of the research
• Reconciling the responsibilities to participants, research and other communities involved

The British Educational Research Association (BERA) states that all education research should be conducted within an ethic of respect for:

• The person
• Knowledge
• Democratic values
• The quality of educational research
• Academic freedom

The key principles of research ethics are:

• Voluntary informed consent. That is, participants have the right to opt in and opt out of the research and may not be forced or coerced into participating. Issues of consent are particularly important when working with children and generally require more rigorous consent procedures (often including a parent or guardian giving consent on behalf of the child).
• Avoid deception. The aims and nature of the research must be clearly and accurately articulated to those involved.
• The right to withdraw. All participants must have the right to withdraw from a study at any stage. If a participant withdraws, none of the data previously collected on them can be included.
• Avoid detriment to participants.
• Respect Privacy. This often includes ensuring anonymity for participants.
• Consider disclosure.
• Aim to debrief participants.

Ethics Advisory Services within the Ministry of Education 

This web page informs you about the Ethics Advisory Services at the Ministry of Education. The service is not a process of ethical approval, but it does provide trans-disciplinary insight into ethical issues and suggests options to resolve potential ethical conflicts.

Ethics in New Zealand Educational Research

This web page provides the notes of a round-table discussion at The Association of Social Science Research on ethical issues/dilemmas in NZ educational research.

Further InformationFor further information on research ethics have a look at the web page What is Ethics? from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). There are a number of other links from this page.

References

Blaxter, L., Hughes, C. & Tight, M. (2006). How to Research (3rd Ed.), Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press.

Miles, M. and Huberman, A. (1994). An Expanded Sourcebook: Qualitative Data Analysis (2nd edn.). Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Tracy, S. (2010). Qualitative Quality: Eight ''Big-Tent'' Criteria for Excellent Qualitative Research. Qualitative Researcher, 16(10) 837–851.

Week 23

Resources about data that would be useful for your Teacher Inquiry plan

The TKI website contains some useful resources to support you in using evidence to inform your teaching practice. There is general overview of the principles of data analysis, and also a page about reading and analysing data.

Gray (2012) wrote a very useful piece for The Guardian newspaper on what data can and cannot do. It is well worth a read in the age of big data analytics (and, indeed, learning analytics.)

Gray (2012) offers the following pieces of advice about data:

• Data is not a force unto itself. It is what individuals (or groups) do with data that brings meaning and power.

• Data is not a perfect reflection of the world. The choices we make about data, including what we choose to collect, how we collect it, how we analyse it and how we interpret our analysis all influence the findings and conclusions we can make.

• Data does not speak for itself. It requires interpretation and analysis (hopefully by knowledgeable individuals). In education especially, it needs to be understood within its particular context. This might be in relation to a particular class, school, community etc.

• Interpreting data is not easy. Really understanding what the data is telling us can be very tricky.

Despite these cautions about data, the evidence you collect as part of your teaching inquiry can be very useful.

Tools for statistical analysis of the data

A calculator on this web page (http://www.surveysystem.com/sscalc.htm) can help you to determine the appropriate sample size for a survey (e.g. how many responses you should collect) to have the result within a certain margin of error (which is also called the Confidence Interval) and for a given population (e.g the total number of students in your school). The web page also provides a calculator to find the margin of error of a particular survey result from a given population. For both calculators, you can choose how sure you would like to be about the result from a statistical perspective (which is called the Confidence Level).

For example, assume your school has 1,000 students. If you ask 200 students a question and 80 of them give the same answer (40%) then a 10% confidence interval means that when you ask the whole school the same question, between 300 (30% of 1000) and 500 students (50% of 1000) would pick that answer.

Confidence Level of 95% means there is a 95% chance that the real number of students picking that answer is between 300 and 500.

Confidence Level of 99% means there is a 99% chance that the real number of students picking that answer is between 300 and 500, i.e. to get more accurate results you need to ask more people

When you use the tool “Determine Sample Size” with the population of 1,000 and Confidence Level of 95%, it will tell you to ask least 88 students the question to obtain the required Confidence Interval of 10%.

The sample (e.g 200 students to be asked the question) should also be randomly chosen.

If the actual number of students giving the same answer is 120, using the second calculator with 95% confidence level, you can say that there is a 95% chance that the margin of error of your result is 8.4%.

Overall, the lower your margin of error, and the higher your confidence level, the more reliable your results will be and the more useful they will be for helping you to make decisions.

Additional resources you may find useful are a blog post by Alber (2011) suggesting 3 Ways Student Data Can Inform Your Teaching (from the classroom, from student records and from standardised tests) and the Data Quality Campaign (DQC) website, which provides resources on the effective use of education data.

References

Gray, J. (2012).What data can and cannot do. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/may/31/data-journalism-focused-critical

Alber, R. (2011).3 Ways Student Data Can Inform Your Teaching. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/using-student-data-inform-teaching-rebecca-alber

Week 22

Evidence and DataThe distinction between evidence and data is one that is very clear in disciplines such as medicine, where information about individuals is data, while data that is aggregated and analysed, is evidence. Evidence, rather than data, is then used as the basis for decisions, since it is data being used to support a conclusion. While less empirical, educational research might also recognise this distinction. One student's grades, or one interview with a colleague, are data. The grades of a whole class, or a group of interviews, are evidence, once suitably analysed.

Collecting Data and EvidenceThe success of your inquiry project relies on your ability to collect data and evidence in order to determine the impact or influence your project is having. Data and evidence can take many forms, however, one of the defining features of collecting evidence in an inquiry project is that data collection is planned and systematic. Earl and Timperley (2015) suggest that "evidence must be fit-for-purpose, of sufficient quality to form an accurate representation of the situation being evaluated and be available when decisions are being made.’ (p. 24).

There are a myriad of methods that can be used to collect data and evidence. Some possible methods include:

• Document analysis (this may include examples of students’ work)
• Surveys
• Focus groups and/or interviews
• Student assessment data (this could include both formative and summative assessment).
• Pre and post test data (this could be used if you are developing an intervention designed specifically to raise student achievement in a particular area, e.g. spelling or mathematics. You could give students a pre test to ascertain their current level and then give them a similar or the same test after the intervention to determine whether there has been improvement)
• Students’ just-in-time responses using digital technologies and postings on social media
• Classroom (or other locations) observations

When deciding on the methods you will use you need to think about the purposes of your inquiry and the constraints and opportunities in your specific context. You also need to think about how many different methods you should employ. By using multiple methods you will get richer data, which may be more reliable (if different methods indicate the same findings you can be more confident in these findings). However, you also need to make sure that you don’t try to do too much. You are a single person/researcher and if you spread yourself too thin you run the risk of not being able to analyse your data as thoroughly as you need to.

Some helpful online resourcesThe Ministry of Education (n.d.) has produced some information on Using data: transforming potential into practice, based on an issue of Ideas into Action (Ministry of Education, n.d.) that focuses on the use of data and its potential to transform teaching, learning, and leadership. It leads to a number of links, including one to the full issue.

Also on the MoE and TKI websites are a number of case studies of how schools around NZ have used evidence and data to inform their teaching and learning.

• Using data to inform teaching and learning at Mairehau Primary School
• Looking behind the data at Queen Charlotte College
• Strategies used at Opotiki Primary School to improve students’ reading and physical fitness

Using self-report measuresIt is likely that at least some of the evidence you collect will be based on self-report measures (that is participants – i.e. students, teachers, whanau – providing their point of view). Easton (2012) provides a brief introduction to self-report methods, and also covers some basic ideas around action research and the value of engaging your own students in research. If you want to get more detail about designing interviews or questionnaires, then take a look at Chapter 6 of Barker, Pistrang and Elliott (2002). Both of these resources appear in this week's media.

Some key data gathering methods
Interviews:
Interviews can take a variety of forms. They can be structured, meaning they follow a set of pre-determined questions and do not deviate from these. They can be unstructured, which means that you do not establish any questions before the interview. The final form of interviews is semi-structured, where you create an interview schedule but you can deviate from it to follow up any interesting points that the interviewee might raise.

Something to think about when creating an interview schedule (the questions you will be asking) is whether you ask open or closed questions. Open questions are going to provide you with potentially much deeper and more detailed information.

Surveys:There are several things to consider when designing a survey. The first is the form that the questions will take. Do you want to use short answer questions, long answer questions, yes/no questions or a Likert scale (where participants rank their responses on a scale, for example from 1 to 5). Each type of question will provide different types of data.

You also need to think about the length of your survey. You don’t want it to be too long, as participants will lose focus. However, at the same time you want to make sure that you collect all the information that you will need. Try to think about what information you are trying to gain from your survey and what questions you need to ask in order to get this information.

Also think about your mode of surveying. Do you want to use an online survey builder or do you want people to complete the survey by hand? The benefit of an online survey is that the programme will collate the data for you. However, the online format may make it harder for some participants to access it.

Observations: 
You might want to conduct observations of your students (or possibly other staff members or community groups) as part of your data collection. Before you start your observation it can often help if you think of some questions or topic areas that will help to structure or guide you and remind you of things to focus on or think about. You also need to think about how you will record your observations. Do you want to be taking notes or videoing students while you are observing them? Or do you want to do the observations and then write up your thoughts afterwards? Do you need to collect any artefacts (for example students’ work) as part of your observation?

ReferencesBarker, L., Pistrang, N., & Elliott, R. (2002). Research Methods in Clinical Psychology An Introduction for Students and Practitioners. Chapter 6, Self-Report Methods (pp.94-118). West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons. Retrieved from ftp://212.50.246.74/Download/ISTT/Amozesh/r%26d/Bo...

Earl, L. & H. Timperley. (2015). Evaluative thinking for successful educational innovation. OECD Education Working Papers, No. 122, OECD Publishing, Paris. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/5jrxtk1jtdwf-en

Easton, C. (2012, April). Data for self-evaluation. SecEd. NFER. Retrieved from http://www.nfer.ac.uk/schools/data-for-self-evaluation-seced.pdf

Ministry of Education. (2015). Using data, transforming potential into practice. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Pedagogy-and-assessment/Evidence-based-leadership/Using-data-transforming-potential-into-practice

Week 21

Preparing for your second assessment (Teacher Inquiry project plan)
For your second assessment you will be designing your own teacher inquiry project. The assessment itself will focus primarily on the design of your project, rather than on you actually implementing your plan in your school context. However, it is hoped that you might later implement the plan in your practice.

Last week’s content focused on the teacher inquiry process, developing your understanding of what teacher inquiry is, why it is important and how it actually looks in practice. This week is focused on outlining the steps and stages you will need to go through when developing your own inquiry project.

A key element of your assignment is deciding how you will involve your community (this could be students, other teachers in your school, whanau etc.) in the planning and implementation of your project. Community involvement will include informing your community about your project, seeking feedback about your project during the planning stages as well as throughout its implementation, and sharing the findings of your project with them.

Steps and stages for developing your inquiry project

Topic area

The first thing you need to do is to clearly establish your topic area. This would ideally be the topic, or asubset of the topic, that you focused on in your literature review.

You will need to create the research question(s) that will guide your inquiry project. Think about what it is that you want to find out about. Try to be as specific as you can.

You need to assess the relevance of your project and justify your decision for focusing on this topic. This should include:

• How the literature on your topic supports your area of focus
• Why your topic is particularly relevant to your school setting
• How your topic will support your community

Culturally responsive projectsIt is important that you think about how you can ensure that your inquiry project will be culturally responsive to all learners. The Ministry of Education (2009) has created a resource on Improving Outcomes for Maori and Pasifika Students through Inquiry that may be helpful. The document is available on the portal as well as from the Ministry website, which also provides other useful information.

Define your community or communitiesYou need to clearly identify the community or communities that you will be engaging with in your inquiry. Communities could include students, other teachers and school staff, and/or whanau. You will need to discuss the nature and scope of this community (i.e. who are the community members) and why you have chosen to engage with them.

For your assessment you need to discuss at which stages of the inquiry project you will be engaging with your community and why. Here are some of the planning stages when you could engage with your community:

• designing the focus of your inquiry
• gaining initial feedback on the design of your inquiry
• the methods you will be using to collect data
• the data collection process
• the analysis of your data
• the presentation of your findings

Data collection methodsYou need to think about what data you will need to collect in order to answer your research questions (next week focuses on data collection in more detail). This data can be either qualitative or quantitative, or a mixture of both.

Here are some things to think about with regard to data collection:

• What baseline data do you need to collect? Baseline data is data collected at the start of an inquiry project that allows you establish the current situation and will enable a point of comparison for data you collect throughout your inquiry.
• What data would you need to collect throughout your inquiry project? Do you need feedback from students? Do you need student achievement data? Think carefully about the best way to collect this data. It might be in the form of tests, surveys, focus groups, interviews, classroom observation, student portfolios of achievement.
• What summative data would you need to collect? This is data collected at the end of your inquiry project that will enable you to see what has worked and what has not worked.

For each data collection method you need to explain why you have chosen it, the data it will provide for you and why this data will be important.

You need to think about how and why you will be including your community in your data collection.

Next week will focus more specifically on the types of data you could collect and collection methods.

Seeking initial feedbackAs part of your assessment you need to get initial feedback on your inquiry plan. This feedback could take a variety of forms. You may want to show your plan to your mentor/principal/HOD etc and ask them to provide feedback on it. You could engage with your community (students/teachers/whanau) and ask for their feedback on what you are proposing. While the way in which you collect this feedback is entirely up to you, for this type of feedback, it often is most helpful if it involves face-to-face discussions.

Responding to feedbackFor your assessment you will need to document the feedback you received as well as discuss how you will respond to the feedback. It might involve the modification of some aspects of your inquiry project, for example slightly modified research questions or a different data collection method. You need to show evidence that you have reflected on the feedback you received.

Impact of findingsYou will need to assess the potential impact of the findings from your inquiry project. While you will not know yet what the findings will show you, you do need to think about some of the ways in which they might impact on you, your community, your school etc.

References

Ministry of Education. (2009). Teachers as learners: Improving outcomes for Māori and Pasifika students through inquiry. Retrieved from http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-stories/Case-studies/Teachers-as-learners-Inquiry

Week 20

Teacher InquiryFor the past three weeks we have been looking at how you can use research in order to develop an evidence-informed practice. For the next five weeks the focus shifts from using research to becoming a researcher in your own classroom or school setting.

In your practice you are constantly deciding what to do and how to act. You will be evaluating and reflecting (either consciously or subconsciously and often both) on your teaching practice and making judgments on what you should do next. Adopting the stance of teacher-researcher formalises these evaluative and reflective processes. As Wilson (2013) explains:

"Researching our practice presents the opportunity to problem-solve more intelligently, through drawing on existing research findings and by using rigorous methods to collect evidence which helps clarify our thinking. Experiences of participating in an informed way, and acting freshly, offer the teacher for whom teaching has become a routine a sense of freedom, of meaning, of worthiness and consequently increased self-esteem." (Wilson, 2013, p.5)

Concept of teacher as researcherThe concept of the teacher as researcher has a long history in the academic literature. Schon (1983) developed the concept of the reflective practitioner, while Stenhouse (1975) popularised the idea of teachers acting as researchers, believing that ‘educational knowledge exists in, and is verified or falsified in, its performance’ (Stenhouse, 1984, p.110).

Lytle and Cochran-Smith (1992) built upon and extended Schon’s (1983) theory of the reflective practitioner to suggest that teachers also learn and create new knowledge by assuming an inquiry stance within their practice. Teachers conduct inquiry projects into their practice to create knowledge that is applicable and relevant to their teaching context.

The importance of teacher research/inquiryThere are two main themes dominating discussions of why teacher research is important. The first relates to the importance of teacher-created knowledge for improvement in teaching and learning, and in particular student outcomes. The second centres on notions of teacher professionalism. 

Two models of Teacher InquiryTeacher inquiry is where teachers inquire into their own practice and use evidence to make decisions about ways to change that practice for the benefit of the student . You may recall the following two models from the Leadership course (week 13).

Teaching as Inquiry
Teaching as inquiry is a process that involves educators investigating the impact of their decisions and practice on students. The New Zealand Curriculum describes it as a cyclical process in which questions are posed, evidence is gathered and decisions are made. Aitken & Sinnema (2008) describe teaching as inquiry as a systematic process for teachers to use in their classrooms, which draws on successful experience of teachers and research sources.

Teaching as Inquiry goes beyond the reflective practices teachers regularly employ to develop a more systematic approach for investigating and evaluating practice. Figure 1 summarises the Teaching as Inquiry cycle, which consists of three iterative stages. (Ministry of Education, 2009)

Figure 1: The process of teaching as inquiry 

For more information about teaching as inquiry read the background paper by Aitken (n.d.) (Download from this web page).

It is also worth watching a video Graeme Aitken has made on teaching as inquiry. It is worth noting that his interpretation of Teaching as Inquiry is not quite the same as the model outlined above, and on the rest of the TKI website.

The following resources each include some short videos or articles discussing various inquiry projects that teachers have been involved in which may give you some further ideas.

• Albany Senior High School – teaching as inquiry as a model of professional learning
• St Patrick's College, Silverstream – Teaching as inquiry case study
• Teaching as Inquiry - Ask yourself the big questions

The Spiral of Inquiry

Figure 2: Spiral of inquiry (Ministry of Education, 2015)

This is described on the MoE's TKI website as “a fresh rethink on the structure of teaching as inquiry.” (Ministry of Education, 2015).It emphasises involvement of learners, their families and communities and developing learner agency. It states that engaging in inquiry is a process of developing collective professional agency either within a school or across a cluster of schools. The approach is described in Timperley, Kaser & Halbert (2014). Figure 2 shows the stages of spiral of inquiry. "What’s going on for our learners?" and "How do we know?" are key questions that the spiral of inquiry addresses. By observing students (scanning) and finding an area to change (focusing), teachers can use intuition to consider the reasons for the current situation (developing a hunch), then referring to research (learning) to help determine changes needed (taking action). Checking is done during and after any changes have been made: "Have we made enough of a difference?" (Ministry of Education, 2005).

For more information about the spiral of inquiry, read the paper by Timperley, Kaser & Halbert (2014).

ReferencesAitken, G. (n.d.).The inquiring teacher: Clarifying the concept of teaching effectiveness. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Leadership-development/Leadership-programmes/First-time-principals-modules/Module-2-Teaching-effectiveness

Aitken, G. & Sinnema, C. (2008). Effective Pedagogy in Social Sciences: Tikanga ā Iwi: BES. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

Cochran-Smith, M. and Lytle, S. (1999). The Teacher Research Movement: A Decade Later. Educational Researcher, 28, 15-25.

Hattie, J. (2012). Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning. London: Routledge.

Lytle, S. & Cochran-Smith, M. (1992). Teacher Research as a Way of Knowing. Harvard Educational Review, 62, 447-474.

Ministry of Education. (2015). Before You Start. Retrieved from http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Teaching-as-inquiry/Before-you-start

Ministry of Education. (2009). Teaching as inquiry. Retrieved from http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-stories/Case-studies/Teachers-as-learners-Inquiry/Teaching-as-inquiry

Sachs, J. (2003). The activist teaching profession. Buckingham and Philadelphia: Open University Press.

Schon, D. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner: How professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books.

Stenhouse, L. (1984). Artistry and Teaching: the Teachers as Focus of Research and Development. In D. Hopkins and M. Wideen (Eds.), Alternative Perspectives on School Improvement (pp. 67-76). Lewes and Philadelphia: Falmer Press.

Timperley, H., Kaser, L. & Halbert, J. (2014). A framework for transforming learning in schools: Innovation and the spiral of inquiry. Centre for Strategic Education. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/content/download/74475/611763/file/Spiral%20of%20Inquiry%20Paper%20-%20Timperley%20Kaser%20Halbert.pdf

Wilson, E. (2013). School-based Research: A guide for education students. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.