Inquiry seems to be the most important aspect to teaching as a professional practice. This is the common point that our group took out of the readings and I think that it is essential to our practice. Researching also seemed to be important and I think that researching into ones self is the base of inquiry. We must research into our positionality, our learning strategies, our teaching strategies as well as new developments.
Teacher inquiry is a constant development of questions and ideas; this became more evident as we worked in groups on sorting questions. The questions were difficult to put in smaller categories and we struggled narrowing them down. We also picked out questions we thought would make good inquiry questions but they ended up being too broad. After taking one question and dissecting it we realized that indeed it was too broad and needed to be narrowed down. My partner and I started out with ‘What are meaningful ways of incorporating technology into the primary classroom?’ and after looking into the question came up with ‘What are meaningful ways of incorporating the use of iPads into math lessons in primary classrooms?’. I found this process to be very helpful in understanding how to create an inquiry question.
As of right now I have two ideas for inquiry questions. First off, ‘How does SEL support children with anxiety?’. Secondly I wonder if I can pose a question around children growing up with the notion of wanting to be happy when their older and not getting caught up in what they want to be and how much money they plan to make and the materialistic part of life that is becoming more prevalent in society. I don’t know how to make a question out of this idea though but I think that it is worth looking into.
Both questions are good ones Darci. Whichever you choose may need refining but it is terrific that you are wondering about these very important issues.