Teaching with inquiry means honoring a teacher’s expertise and individual craft while at the same time understanding that changing practice requires a collective effort. As teachers shift their instructional approaches to inquiry, they need support from colleagues and administrators. In this film, we feature one urban Kentucky district tackling inquiry by creating an inquiry culture that fits their unique context. The film, How Do You Build An Inquiry Culture?, is intended to be a mirror for educators who want to strengthen collaborative conversations when growing inquiry in schools.
Digital Driver’s License – How Do You Build An Inquiry Culture?
The Digital Driver’s License (idrivedigital.com) is a free online platform that enables teachers and students to earn badges or licenses for various topics. As part of the MIP work, professional learning modules were created within the DDL to help districts and schools use the films in their professional learning efforts. If you would like to access these materials for your district, just send an email to gerry.swan@uky.edu to get your district, school, or PLC added to the system and the MIP license activated.
Growing Inquiry
Teachers in this film inspired our most recent book, Blueprinting an Inquiry-Based Curriculum. They taught us that the language of inquiry is most powerful when we can speak with colleagues within and across grade levels.
Check out this chapter from the book where we introduce the idea of moving from blueprinting a single inquiry to blueprinting an entire inquiry-based curriculum.
Coaching with Questions,
Tasks & Sources
Inquiry has become the clear signal in social studies. We introduced the Questions-Tasks-Sources (QTS) Observation Protocol that we have deployed in Spring 2020.
The QTS Observation Protocol has four parts: 1) Use of Questions; 2) Use of Performance Tasks; 3) Use of Disciplinary Sources; and, 4) Creates and Maintains Learning Environment. Each part of the instrument includes a set of indicators that describes both discrete and intersecting aspects of the overarching idea.
Research is underway for coaching in-service teachers using the protocol as well as in pre-service teaching programs. Read about the protocol that aims to support an inquiry culture for social studies.
Growing Inquiry
Teaching with inquiry is not a one-size fits all instructional approach. Elements of inquiry are uniquely and creatively expressed by teachers who bring inquiry to life in their classrooms. If inquiry varies from classroom to classroom, it is not surprising that inquiry initiatives can look very different from district to district. In these two extended interviews, we talk to instructional leaders who are championing inquiry in two very different districts in Kentucky — one rural and one urban — and how each is building a healthy inquiry culture for social studies.
How Does Inquiry Grow in a Small District?
How Does Inquiry Grow in a Large District?
For more information on the
Making Inquiry Possible Project, please contact us.