Inquiry I & II Outline & Assessments

“Education doesn’t need to be reformed- it needs to be transformed. The key is not to standardize education, but to personalize it, to build achievement on discovering the individual talents of each child, to put students in an environment where they learn and where they can naturally discover their true passions.” – Ken Robinson

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Inquiry Seminar (I) is designed to engender in teacher candidates:

1. an understanding of teaching as a moral and intellectual activity requiring inquiry, judgement and engagement with multiple others—students, parents, colleagues, scholarly community,
2. an appreciation of the importance of research in understanding curriculum, teaching and learning,
3. a desire to engage in their own educational inquiries—to become students of teaching.

In this course, teacher candidates formalize their engagement in teacher inquiry based on a question/ proposal they individually develop and explore.

Inquiry is understood as a deliberate, sustained and systematic process—beyond the everyday reflection that is required in teaching—where professionals explore what they do and how they do it, and the reasons for both; it involves professionals sharing their inquiries with colleagues. The notion of teacher inquiry connotes classroom teachers, individually and collectively, in a cycle of questioning, reflection, and action. Teachers take a close and critical look at practice, address problems and issues from a variety of perspectives, consider inquiry alternatives, try out new or revised practices, and evaluate the results; then the cycle begins anew based on the outcomes, responses, and possibilities emerging from the inquiry.

Teacher candidates will develop an inquiry question of their choosing based on a theme (e.g., the cohort theme such as “social and emotional learning” or “community”), a disciplinary topic (e.g., sustainability or health education), a particular curriculum emphasis (e.g., textbooks as cultural objects) or an educational issue (e.g., accessing multilingual resources within BC classrooms), propose an inquiry question and exploration plan and undertake preliminary educational research.

Inquiry Overview:

EDUC 450, 451, 452: Inquiry Seminars I, II, III (Secondary)

The inquiry process across the BEd (Secondary) program consists of:

• learning about teacher inquiry (EDUC 450 – Inquiry I)

• preparing to explore an inquiry question (EDUC 450 – Inquiry I)
• developing and sharing one’s inquiry process (EDUC 450-4511 – Inquiry I and II)
• exploring links to practice (EDUC 451 – Inquiry II)
• reflecting on the inquiry process, links to practice, ongoing questions, learning over the year and developing professional learning goals (EDUC 452 – Inquiry III)

Exploration of an inquiry question should demonstrate an emerging ability to:

• engage substantively with a selected topic,
• inform their understanding of the topic through careful reading of the literature (including a wide variety of information sources), grounded in an understanding of significant issues, perspectives, assumptions,
• position oneself in relation to ideas discussed,
• grapple with and integrate as part of their learning reflections on what they are seeing, hearing and trying in the context of educational practice in schools,
• consider educational issues criticall

Course Goals:

The assignments, lessons, discussions and class activities are designed:

• to develop an understanding of key phases of inquiry (planning, retrieving, processing, creating, sharing and evaluating);
• to become familiar with the language of learning and pedagogy;
• to examine some of the principles (i.e., conceptual underpinnings) of common educational emphases, practices, and structures, as well as some of the implications of recent developments in theory and research.
• to have in–depth conversations and dialogue about important educational issues.
• to develop a desire to engage in educational inquiries—to become students of teaching.