Connecting Inquiry and Professional Learning: Creating the Conditions for Authentic, Sustained Learning

Abstract

This chapter will discuss how linking inquiry with teachers’ professional learning can be a powerful motivator for curriculum change and innovation. The voices of teachers in the form of vignettes and stories, gleaned from a variety of recent projects, will illustrate the conditions for successful workplace learning. The starting point will be a return to Judith Warren Little’s 1982 writing on workplace conditions for school success (American Educational Research Journal 19:325–340, 1982). This chapter will draw on several previous publications: Campbell and Kane (School-Based Teacher Education: Telling Tales from a Fictional Primary School. London: David Fulton, 1998), Hustler et al. (Teachers Perceptions of Continuing Professional Development. London: DfES, 2003), Campbell et al. (Practitioner Research and Professional Development in Education. London: Paul Chapman, 2004), Campbell and Groundwater-Smith (An Ethical Approach to Practitioner Research: Dealing with Issues and Dilemmas in Action Research. London: Routledge, 2007. Connecting Inquiry and Professional Learning: International Perspectives and Practical Solutions. London: Routledge, 2009), which span the continuum of initial teacher education and continuing professional learning.