Connecting Inquiry And Professional Learning In Education

How might inquiry enhance the professional practice of student and practising teachers, teacher educators and other practitioners? What effect might this have on the learning of young people in and outside of the classroom? Based on the findings of an international colloquium and drawing upon a range of practices from the UK, USA, Canada, Europe and Australia, this book is designed to make explicit the connections between Practitioner Inquiry and Teacher Professional Learning in Initial Teacher Education and Ongoing Teacher Professional Development. Considering issues such as the relationship between practitioner inquiry and pedagogical content knowledge whether it is possible to scale up from small local and intensive innovations to more broadly-based inquiry inquiry’s role in professional identity, both individual and communal prevailing socio-political contexts and consequences for social policy formation. It brings together writers who work in designing teacher education courses, and those who are practice-based researchers and policy makers. Crucially, many of these writers inhabit both spheres, and their accounts of how they successfully combine their multiple roles will prove vital reading for all those involved in examining and improving practice leading to enhanced teacher professional learning.

Susan Groundwater-Smith is one of the most influential voices in the world of educational practitioner inquiry. The convener in Australia of the Coalition of Knowledge Building Schools, she is a staunch advocate of innovative methods of practitioner inquiry with a particular emphasis upon student voice and the use of images in capturing young people’s perspectives on their learning experience. So it is more than fitting that this unique text on practitioner inquiry and teacher professional learning is dedicated to her. Rethinking Education Practice Through Reflexive Inquiry is a compilation of essays that explore contemporary issues in practitioner inquiry and action research from the perspective of both university-based and school-based authors. The essays discuss the practical, political and theoretical dimensions of practitioner inquiry, advancing the argument that the adoption of an inquiring approach to practice is both an integral dimension of teachers’ work in the modern school as well as critical to effective and authentic professional learning. And the essays draw on the work of Groundwater-Smith to demonstrate the benefits brought to bear on schools, teachers and learners when the complex nature of the relationship between inquiry and practice is understood and acted upon in pursuit of democratic knowledge interests.

Networked learning communities: A powerful school improvement strategy for school leaders! Drawing on their work with schools in North America and England, the authors demonstrate how linking professional learning communities across school or district boundaries creates networked learning communities (NLCs) that can share professional knowledge. Through a sample school narrative, the book illustrates how NLCs can significantly improve instruction, increase student performance, and promote deep and sustained change. This resource examines: Collaborative inquiry as a process that challenges teachers’ thinking, generates new learning, and fosters trusting relationships Formal and informal leadership roles in NLCs How NLCs support systematic data analysis and accountability

​This book examines the implementation of inquiry-based approaches in science teaching and learning. It explores the ways that those approaches could be promoted across various contexts in Europe through initial teacher preparation, induction programmes and professional development activities. It illustrates connections between scientific knowledge deriving from the science education research community, teaching practices deriving from the science teachers’ community, and educational innovation. Inquiry-Based Science Teaching and Learning (IBST/L) has been promoted as a policy response to pressing educational challenges, including disengagement from science learning and the need for citizens to be in a position to evaluate evidence on pressing socio-scientific issues. Effective IBST/L requires well-prepared and skilful teachers, who can act as facilitators of student learning and who are able to adapt inquiry-based activity sequences to their everyday teaching practice. Teachers also need to engage creatively with the process of nurturing student abilities and to acquire new assessment competences. The task of preparing teachers for IBST/L is a challenging one. This book is a resource for the implementation of inquiry-oriented approaches in science education and illustrates ways of promoting IBST/L through initial teacher preparation, induction and professional development programmes.

Through a narrative inquiry approach, this book examines the personal professional journeys of teacher educators who have undertaken self studies, and/or researched the professional development of teacher educators. The theme of the book is how change, through professional transitions and transformations and notably, through self study research, has shaped the professional identities and practices of these teacher educators. Each chapter is an exploration of how the author/s ‘became’ teacher educators in relation to personal and/or professional transitions, such as transitioning from teacher to teacher educator; moving between different institutional and geographic contexts; or from changes in philosophical, policy and/or pedagogical understandings over time. Each narrative draws on the author’s self study experience, and develops their knowledge further by presenting the wisdom they have gained over their career as teacher educators. The book concludes with a discussion of the connections between the diverse experiences of the authors, and what can be learned from their accumulated wisdom about what is means to become a teacher educator in a dynamic and ever-changing educational landscape.

This book critically explores the use of nine recognized methodologies for the mediation of professional learning in the context of teacher education: The story, the visual text, the case, the video, the simulation, the portfolio, lesson study, action research, and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Drawing on theories of mediation and professional learning, the book establishes connections between theoretical, empirical and practical-based aspects of each of these methodologies. It consolidates a body of knowledge that offers a holistic portrayal of these methodologies in terms of their purposes (what for), processes (how), and outcomes (what), both distinctively and inclusively. Each chapter offers four perspectives on each methodology (1) theoretical groundings of the genre (2) research-based evidence on methodologies-as-pedagogies for mediating teacher learning (3) mediation tasks for teacher education as reported in studies and (4) a synthesis of recurrent themes identified from selected books and articles, including a comprehensive list of publications organized by decades. The last chapter presents an integrative framework that conceptualizes connections and weak links across the different methodologies of mediation.

Create a thinking classroom that helps students move from the factual to the conceptual Concept-Based Inquiry is a framework for inquiry that promotes deep understanding. The key is using guiding questions to help students inquire into concepts and the relationships between them. Concept-Based Inquiry in Action provides teachers with the tools and resources necessary to organize and focus student learning around concepts and conceptual relationships that support the transfer of understanding. Step by step, the authors lead both new and experienced educators to implement teaching strategies that support the realization of inquiry-based learning for understanding in any K–12 classroom.

In this book, Raider-Roth offers an innovative approach to teacher professional development that builds on the intellectual strength and practical wisdom of practitioners. Focusing on nurturing relationships between and among participants, facilitators, subject matter, texts, and the school environment, this book helps educators create a repertoire of teaching approaches founded on sustained, deep, democratic, local, and active learning. The author demonstrates that, within the context of trustworthy relationships, teachers can better connect with all that they know about teaching, learning, and their own identities. This, in turn, enables them to act on what they know in the best interest of their students and leads to the kinds of lasting change and commitment that can move the teaching profession beyond training for a particular skill set. Book Features: Examples showing how the work of relational learning communities can improve teachers’ practice.A focus on the cultural dimension in professional development for teachers.A view of teaching and learning as deeply relational and transformative. Strategies to help facilitators and participants create processes to best support a fertile learning environment. “An effective and powerful antidote to the usual models of PD, Professional Development in Relational Learning Communities is a thoughtful and engaging text that takes seriously the intellectual work of teachers and the importance of relationships in teacher learning.” —Curt Dudley-Marling, professor emeritus, Boston College