From Inquiry To Action

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.

"Students learn to be active and responsible citizens by actually seeking to promote change, rather than just being-supposedly-prepared to be leaders in the future." -Steven Zemelman What really matters to your students? The issues in front of them at school and in life. When students inquire into those issues and know that their arguments will be read with a skeptical eye next week by the city council or published in the local newspaper, they're eager to research and find relevant information in nonfiction texts to bolster their claims. They become committed to write, revise, edit, and correct their grammar. They want to think broadly about what reasoning will be effective with their audience. Want that kind of engagement in your classroom? Whether you teach English, social studies, science, or math, From Inquiry to Action will show you how step-by-step. Its projects for civic-engagement help kids become not only college and career ready but citizen ready. And not ready someday, but right now Research, argument, speaking and listening, close reading, writing for real audiences and purposes, and collaboration? It's all here, growing through projects that give students choice, ownership over their learning, incredible motivation, and a sense of voice and power that only comes from focusing on and applying their learning to real-world situations. "It's not enough to just talk about change, or practice in mock legislatures," writes Steve Zemelman. "When students see adults actually listening to them with respect, that is when they begin to realize they have a voice and can make a difference in their world." Read From Inquiry to Action and find practical guidance that leads students to the heights you dream for them. After all, we all want our students to grow as engaged, thoughtful citizens in our communities. Steve blogs frequently about the ideas in From Inquiry to Action and about how educators around the US are applying them at his Civic Action in Schools blog.

Enhance learning with a collaborative, inquiry-based system of leadership! This practical guide presents a systematic, ongoing process for collecting information, making decisions, and taking action in order to improve instruction and raise student achievement. The authors illustrate a collaborative inquiry-action cycle within a real-world context and offer questions and exercises to guide individual reflection and group discussion. Thoroughly grounded in research, this book helps administrators: Identify areas for instructional improvement Determine community-supported solutions and build stakeholder commitment Articulate an action plan based on multiple data sources Take steps that support teacher development Systematically evaluate program results

Describes the process of doing teacher action research and provides examples from teachers themselves. Textbook for pre-service and in-service teacher education courses. Includes suggested activities sections.

oAction inquiryo is a fresh approach to learning leadership in the midst of action. This highly accessible process takes each of us beyond muddling through daily dilemmas to exercising transforming power at key moments and more timely action in general. Bill Torbert and Associates lead you through more and more sophisticated oaction-logicso-strategies for analyzing the world and reacting to it-until you are able to practice action inquiry continually. Speaking to everyone from new managers to CEOs to world leaders, real-life stories of leadership and organizational transformations show how action inquiry increases personal integrity, relational mutuality, company profitability, and long-term organizational and environmental sustainability.

Collaborative Inquiry in Practice is an invitation and guide for people interested in pursuing a more imaginative and holistic approach to human inquiry. The reader is guided step-by-step through the theory and practice of collaborative inquiry: - the key ideas from pragmatism and phenomenological traditions; - the relationship of collaborative inquiry with other action-oriented methods of inquiry; - the conduct of collaborative inquiry, from forming a group to constructing knowledge The authors demonstrate how effective collaborative inquiry demystifies research and makes learning more accessible. The guidance provided is equally relevant to professional and academic settings.

This is the first book about action research devoted to the complex issues faced by children with special needs and their teachers. The authors begin by providing the historical and philosophical underpinnings of action research and then present a framework for conducting action research in special education. In addition, they feature four examples of actual teacher-researcher studies, as well as a “how-to” chapter that outlines the basic principles needed for conducting action research. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in using action research to enhance student achievement and to address issues of social justice faced by children with special needs. Book Features: Details of the origins and practice of action research in special education. Demonstration of how action research is a dedicated component of preservice teacher preparation. Examples of action research performed by students in the field.

"This is exactly what my school needs right now to support colleagues to build on the foundations of our written concept-based curriculum and to take-off our taught curriculum to the next - and highest - levels." Neville Kirton, Deputy Head of Secondary Colegio Anglo Colombiano, Bogota, Colombia "Filled with strategies, illustrations, diagrams, and pictures, this book really gives you the insight you need to help students better understand what they are learning. So many great ideas that can be used in any classroom. A must read for all educators." Amanda McKee, 9th, Algebra/Geometry, Secondary Certified Instructor/Mentor Johnsonville High School, Johnsonville, SC Create a thinking classroom that helps students move from the factual to the conceptual All students deserve the opportunity to think conceptually. But seeing conceptual relationships does not come naturally to every student. How can teachers construct thinking classrooms where students can move from the factual to the conceptual level of thinking? Concept-Based Inquiry in Action has the answers. In this book, the authors marry theory with practice to create a new framework for inquiry that promotes deep understanding: Concept-Based Inquiry. The key is helping students to inquire into concepts and the relationships between them using guiding questions developed by the teacher, the students themselves, or by the teacher and students together. 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. The book and its accompanying website are rich with the resources necessary to facilitate the construction and transfer of conceptual understanding, including Numerous practical teaching strategies, aligned to each phase of Concept-Based Inquiry, that can be modified for diverse populations Visual notes that represent significant ideas discussed within each chapter Videos of instructional strategies and teacher interviews that show Concept-Based Inquiry in action in K–12 classrooms around the world Templates of graphic organizers, sample anchor charts, and blackline masters that support the use of teaching strategies in the classroom Planners that show how the phases of Concept-Based Inquiry come together in a unit In a world filled with complexity, the role of the teacher as a facilitator of conceptual understanding has never been more pressing. Concept-Based Inquiry in Action provides teachers with the tools necessary to organize and focus student learning around concepts and conceptual relationships that support deep understanding.