Inquiring in the Classroom

Asking the Questions that Matter About Teaching and Learning

Nick Mitchell, Joanne Pearson

• Publisher: Continuum
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781441160478
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Lehrmethoden

Inquiring in the Classroom provides a practical and accessible guide to planning, carrying out and
presenting successful classroom inquiry for teachers working towards a Masters-level qualification in education. The contributors provide a clear and concise roadmap drawing on case studies throughout and bringing educational theory to life by closely linking it to classroom practice. They also provide tried and tested advice on writing and presenting at Masters-level. Topics covered include:
- Teaching, Learning and Assessment
- Subject Knowledge and Curriculum Development
- Children's Development and Behaviour
- Inclusion
- Leadership and Management
- Collaborative Working Through a clear emphasis on the practical implications of educational inquiry, the book brings together key elements of continuing professional development (CPD) and Masters-level learning. The contributors draw on their experience of teaching and supporting Masters-level inquiry to provide practical suggestions for how teachers can support each other in classroom inquiries and develop the skills necessary to transform practice and raise engagement and attainment for all pupils.

Part 1

The Tools of Teacher Inquiry

Reading for Teacher Inquiry

1

Jayne Price

Chapter Outline Introduction When to read? What to read? Criticality Critical reading Voice Active reading Writing about literature in your inquiry Case study: Developing analysis strategies in a literature review Drawing it together References

Introduction

Reading the right literature is one of the most powerful ways to access the thoughts and practices of other teachers and educators. As teachers, we know how valuable it can be to learn from each other but most of us do not habitually access the wealth of accumulated knowledge on teaching that lies in thousands of books, journals and other articles. Look around your staff room and you will be lucky to find any books on ‘teaching’ at all. The only time we, as a profession generally read about our work is when we have to because we are taking a course. I hope in this chapter to play a small part in remedying this situation by showing you something of the potential of reading both as part of an inquiry but also as a professional development activity in its own right.

Reading is an essential component of any teacher inquiry and the quality of your engagement with literature will certainly be a major aspect of the assessment criteria if you are studying at masters level. Neil Denby et al. (2008) argue that the ability to relate your own work to wider professional frameworks is essential for developing ‘mastery’ of your professional practice. Reading what other people have written about your inquiry focus will build your knowledge and understanding of the topic and help you to locate your work within this wider context. Judith Bell suggests that:

In a small scale project, you will not be expected to produce a definitive account of the state of research in your selected topic area, but you will need to provide evidence that you have read a certain amount of literature and that you have some awareness of the current state of knowledge.

Bell (2005, 33)

Reading in the early stages of your study, as you are exploring the focus and refining your inquiry question is important as this will help you to develop a rationale for your work. As your understanding of the prior research and existing knowledge within your focus area grows, you may discover areas of controversy, identify links with your own practice that you want to explore, or uncover aspects that need further explanation. All of these can help shape your own inquiry. You might also identify data collection methods that could prove helpful, or you might refine your ideas about how to classify and present your own data. As we suggest elsewhere in this book, ‘borrowing’ methodology from other authors is a perfectly acceptable practice.

Of course, ongoing reading throughout your study will be just as important. As you are analysing your evidence and reflecting on your own practice, this will spark questions that you will want to explore further in the literature and this in turn will deepen your analysis and help you to make recommendations or identify areas for further development. Developing your ability to synthesize theory and practice in this way is a major part of working at masters level but it’s equally a powerful tool for professional development.

Finally, in this section, some words of motivation. Many students are daunted by the volume of reading that is necessary to produce a good assignment or account of an inquiry. Naturally, much of what you need to read is not the sort of material you would choose yourself: nobody (I hope!) reads this sort of literature for pleasure. All I can say to reassure you is that in my experience you would be an unusual student if you did not look back one day with satisfaction on what you will have read and mastered as a result of writing about your inquiries in the classroom. That is not to forget either the pleasure that comes from thinking about your practice, using your brain again, tackling the questions that really matter to you or being able to counter the arguments of your headteacher or your chair of governors by quoting research back at her!

When to read?

That still leaves you needing to fit this reading into your busy life. The answer depends on how you learn best: some people need to lock themselves away for a weekend to read and make notes, others can spread their work over evenings and lunchtimes. In fact one of the first and most challenging tasks when you start a course can be to reinvent yourself as a student: ‘Just how do I learn best?’

As teachers, we have a great resource which will help us here. As our ‘day job’ we help people learn, so we’re quite good at thinking about how to help others to do pretty much what we are now being asked to do. So think, ‘how would you help a child read?’ Use the same strategies on yourself. Break the task down, so you read a page or two, maybe a section of an article then have a break and allow your mind time to process the information. Reward yourself for completing a difficult article or chapter. Extend yourself when you feel you are sailing through a text by being particularly critical of what you are reading. You know the sort of strategies I mean.

So what I’m really suggesting here is that even if you are an ‘all in one go’ person, you break reading down and do bits at lunchtime, before you go to sleep, at weekends, whatever works for you. You need to let this literature become a part of your life, for a while at least. It will go away again: but by then you’ll be a better practitioner.

What to read?

Being selective about what you read will be necessary in order to keep within the time constraints of your study. There are a wide variety of sources available: ‘literature’ can be anything from an article in an academic journal to a comment on a website and part of adopting a critical approach is recognizing that some sources have more credibility than others.

Journals

An article in an academic journal is considered to be the most credible source of information as the process of peer review ensures that only the best articles are selected for publication. These often report on the author’s research and the claims made will have been scrutinized before publication by other experts in the field. Don’t be surprised or disheartened if you find reading journal articles like this difficult at first. The ideas in them may be difficult or unfamiliar and they are often written in what might seem like an unnecessarily opaque style. You will find reading these articles easier with practice and if you follow the advice on active reading below.

Articles in professional journals (like, for example, The Teacher: www.teachers.org.uk; and Teaching Today: www.nasuwt.org.uk) may also be peer reviewed but are judged more on their usefulness for practice rather than their ‘academic’ quality. These often contain strong opinions and political comment which may help you to substantiate a critique of current policy. Both academic and professional journal articles are likely to be more ‘current’ than books which can take up to two years to get from proposal to publication.

Books

Authored books and single chapters in edited books allow for extended discussion about a topic and reading these will develop your knowledge and understanding of the inquiry focus. You will be able to identify recurring themes or aspects that form the basis of current knowledge in the field and reading widely will enable you to compare and contrast different authors’ views. Be wary of citing evidence in your assignment from textbooks, which may be very useful in providing an initial overview of a topic, but generally contain an interpretation of other authors’ work which may or may not be an accurate summary. Always try to go back to the original source to help you develop a more informed argument.

Websites

Websites are potentially the most problematic sources of information. The claims made are not subject to any review process and they can contain misleading or unsubstantiated opinion. When you do find useful information, it can be difficult to attribute it and an assignment full of web references is unlikely to be well received by your tutor. However, many sites offer access to electronic versions of published material, also the vast majority of educational policy literature is published online: accessing this will help you understand the full context of your area of study. The subject associations (e.g., National Association for the Teaching of English: www.nate.org.uk; the Mathematical Association: www.m-a.org.uk) and other sites such as charities (e.g., the Sutton Trust: www.suttontrust.com) and think tanks (e.g., DEMOS: www.demos.co.uk) can also be rich sources of ideas.

Louise Poulson and Mike Wallace (2004) identify three different types of knowledge expressed in the literature described above – theoretical knowledge, research knowledge and practice knowledge. Theoretical knowledge is generated through reflection on an aspect of the social world; the author develops a set of concepts to explain a particular phenomenon. Research knowledge is based on empirical investigation; the claims made are supported by evidence and analysis. Practice knowledge is derived from the interpretation and evaluation of classroom practice.

There are strong links between these types of knowledge and Poulson and Wallace (2004) acknowledge that many texts reflect more than one. For example, theory is often derived from the empirical testing of a hypothesis; practice knowledge is often supported by empirical inquiry. All three types of knowledge are generally concerned with the development and improvement of practice. But Poulson and Wallace suggest that identifying the type of knowledge underpinning the writing helps us to critically reflect on the potential limitations of the author’s claims, such as considering the potential flaws in the methodology used to develop research based knowledge; questioning the generalizability of claims in practice-based knowledge or potentially identifying a lack of evidence to support a developed theory.

It is this recognition that the written word might not always be a ‘true’ reflection of reality; that explanations of the social world are never definitive and always open to question or competing interpretation that forms the basis of demonstrating the ability to be ‘critical’ in your assignment.

Criticality

Being ‘critical’ is essential for successful masters level study and indeed, for pursuing any inquiry rigorously and you need to develop an understanding of what this means, and practise reading, thinking and writing critically in order to get better at it. Being critical is about adopting a sceptical stance when reading: your aim should be to think objectively about a topic, to consider the points raised and the evidence presented, to evaluate it and compare it with your own experience and essentially to develop your own opinion. Your ability to do this is demonstrated in the way you write about both previous research and your own data in your assignment.

Jennifer Moon (2008) considers various definitions of criticality collected during her research with higher education tutors: one that sums up my thoughts about critical thinking in this context particularly well is:

Critical thinking is the ability to consider a range of information derived from many different sources, to process this information in a creative and logical manner, challenging it, analysing it and arriving at considered conclusions which can be defended and justified.

Moon (2008, 30)

The following processes will help you to develop a critical approach to your study and also incidentally help direct you towards questioning the things that really matter:

• Consider the context: this might mean the local, national, cultural contexts or how the work sits within a broader argument or within a theoretical framework.
• Question meanings and the definitions of the terms you see used, look for and acknowledge underlying assumptions. As an example of this, you can read a discussion around the term ‘inclusion’ in Chapter 7 of this book.
• Evaluate evidence, be sceptical and recognize possible limitations in terms of generalizability: in other words how might what you are reading be applied to other contexts such as the one you’re investigating?
• C...

Table of contents

• Cover-Page
• Half-Title
• Series-Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Contributors
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Why Should Teachers Inquire and What Questions Should They Ask?
• Part 1 The Tools of Teacher Inquiry
• Part 2 Inquiring Into The Mechanics of Teaching And Learning
• Part 3 Sharing Your Findings
• Index