Good principals and assistant principals are central to the success of this work but they cannot do it alone. Organizing a campus into teams, identifying and training teacher-leaders, and working to support these leaders through a careful balance of support and pressure, helps make possible the otherwise daunting task of sustaining a long-term teacher inquiry effort (Goldenberg, 2004; Saunders & Goldenberg, 2005, in Emerling, 2010).

Problem Solving

Ill-Structured

Need to teach

21st Century Jobs

Well-Structured

Commonly taught

Collaboration

Frame Problem based on Inquiry Question

Evidence Based

Reflect on Evidence

Implement Solution(s)

Repeat Cycle

Self-Regulated

Proactive

Goal Directed

Strengths

Feedback

Next Steps

Repeat Cycle

Self-Monitored

Inquiry

Free Choice

Risk

Reward

Questions

Solve Problem

Improve Learning

Motivation - balanced extrinsic & intrinsic

Self-Efficacy

What steps can you take to create an environment where educators engage in a cycle of collaborative inquiry?

Ermeling, B. A. (2010). Tracing the effects of teacher inquiry on classroom practice. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(3), 377-388. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2009.02.019

Inquiry Focused Protocol

Job-alike Teams

Distributed Leadership

Facilitators

Stable Settings

Spiro, R. J., & DeSchryver, M. (2009). Constructivism: When It’s the Wrong Idea and When It’s the Only Idea. (Eds.) Signmund Tobias & Thomas M. Duffy Constructivist Instruction: Success or Failure. New York: Routledge. (Chapter p. 106-123)

Jonassen, D. H. (2000). Toward a Design Theory of Problem Solving. Educational Technology Research and Development, 48(4), 63-85.

Learning Forward Ontario: Collaborative Inquiry A Facilitator's Guide , from http://misalondon.ca/PDF/collabpdfs/Collaborative_Inquiry_Guide_2011.pdf

"Inquiry cannot take place without stable settings, but stable
settings will not result in joint productive activity without carefully
arranged job-alike teams, a distributed leadership model that
provides ongoing support and pressure, and well-articulated
protocols for conducting the study of teaching and learning." (Ermeling, 2010)

"The central point of education is to teach people to think, to use their rational powers, to become better problem solvers" (Gagne, 1980, in Jonassen, 2000)