Inquiry Group Research Articles

Collaborative teacher inquiry as a tool for building theory on the development and use of rich mathematical tasks

This article describes the collaborative inquiry activity of a group of high school mathematics teachers interested in increasing student engagement and problem solving in the classroom. Specific findings related to the nature of the teacher interactions and subsequent impacts on practice are discussed. The findings focus on (a) the nature of the interactions within the teacher group and their impact on instructional decision-making and theory-building, (b) the role of student work in their collaborative inquiry, and (c) the role and impact of the inquiry group’s facilitation processes. A description of the professional development provides context for the results. The teachers in this study were able to build individual and collective theories on learners and instruction. The limitations of their inquiry context and their own conversational norms allowed for deeper reflections on classroom practice than on learners and learning. Specific connections between the inquiry work and classroom practice are found.

Change Within a Teacher Education Program and Laboratory: A Reflective Commentary

Intentional, systemic philosophical change on an educational program level and on an individual level is often a slow and cyclic process. In this article, we reflect on the journey of philosophical change and growth from a traditional philosophy to an inquiry-based, Reggio-inspired one that occurred on both levels in an early childhood teacher education program and laboratory school over a period of 7 years. As an inquiry group, we reflected on the change we experienced in our own teaching methods, our interactions with staff members and each other, and our perceptions of change in interaction with our students. After carefully and systematically reviewing our reflections, five trends in change were identified. They were (a) recasting the image of the teacher and reevaluating the process of teaching and learning, (b) valuing dialogue, (c) cultivating a reflective mindset, (d) valuing outside perspectives, and (e) building meaningful relationships. The process of reflecting on and documenting our journey has improved our ability to articulate the change we made and to see our growth. Further it has illuminated future teaching and learning directions and aims that we intend to pursue. Finally, we hope that sharing this process will encourage others to examine what, how, and why of their teaching and learning in order to enhance their own professional development journey.

Who is responsible for educating English language learners? Discursive construction of roles and responsibilities in an inquiry community

In many English as a Second Language (ESL) programs across the United States classroom teachers, ESL specialists, and bilingual paraprofessional share responsibility for teaching English language learners. Expectations of ‘shared responsibility’ are constructed and negotiated through local discourses. This study explores how the roles and responsibilities of classroom teachers, the ESL department, and students are constructed and reproduced in a site-based inquiry group's conversation. The inquiry team's goal of improving instructional practices for English language learners is constructed through and constrained by local discourses. Through discourse analysis (Edley 2001) I explore the available subject positions and ideological assumptions within local discourses. The three dominant, local discourses normalize particular roles and responsibilities with significant consequences for the education of English language learners. I propose that professional development can engage and manipulate the ideological tensions between existing discourses to promote instructional and cultural changes, making available new expectations of shared responsibility.

Getting what you pay for: divergent conceptions of knowledge in practitioner inquiry

In this paper, I report on the work of a practitioner inquiry group that went awry when the sponsor refused to publish and disseminate the participants' final reports, stating that they were of poor quality and did not contribute to the knowledge base. I, the facilitator of the group, disagreed strongly with her. I suggest that the difference between her evaluation and mine may have seemed to be about different views of what counts as quality, but were likely indicators of deeper differences with regard to our views on knowledge. I conclude by stating that examinations of knowledge conceptions are key to practitioner inquiry stakeholders finding consensus on appropriate outcomes, or at least making spaces for alternatives, and the potential value of the work that practitioners do in inquiry groups.

Opening and closing communicative space with teachers investigating race and racism in their own practice

This article explores the very practical challenges that the author experienced as she and a racially mixed elementary school teaching staff negotiated communicative space within a critical inquiry group exploring race and racism in their teaching context. Specifically, the author explores her role of critical friend as crucial to forming communicative space; the ways that communicative space was contested and challenged within the critical inquiry group; and the new communicative spaces that arose from the original group. This article offers implications for action researchers attempting to create communicative spaces around difficult issues such as race and racism.

Group-Metacognitive Support for Online Inquiry in Mathematics with Differential Self-Questioning

This exploratory study investigated 100 Israeli 9th graders who used two different group-metacognitive support methods in online mathematical inquiry—group feedback guidance (GFG) and self-explanation guidance (SEG)—compared to a control group (CONT). The study evaluated each method's effects on students': (a) mathematical inquiry ability: problem solving, explanations, mathematical feedback in online forum discussions, and transfer ability; and (b) self-regulated learning (SRL) measures (self-report questionnaires and metacognitive feedback in online forum discussions). Metacognitive support methods, based on IMPROVE self-questioning strategies, appeared in pop-up screens and provided the two experimental groups with differential cues for problem-solving processes. Mixed quantitative and qualitative analyses showed that GFG students outperformed SEG students in most mathematical and SRL measures and the CONT students in all measures. In addition, SEG students outperformed the CONT students in mathematical problem-solving but not on mathematical transfer ability or SRL.

Raising Critical Consciousness in Family Therapy Supervision

Although family therapy literature reflects an increased consideration of cultural and contextual issues, there is little guidance on how to address intersecting forms of oppression and privilege within the supervisory system. In this article, we show the importance of critical consciousness in addressing these issues. Additionally, we provide concrete suggestions and tools for developing critical consciousness through supervision. The practices and tools we provide resulted from ongoing and deliberate discussions of an inquiry group that consisted of supervisor candidates and supervisors of supervision. Our goal in writing this article is to describe the strategies that we have found to be crucial in becoming more competent supervisors and therapists.

Engaging Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge: Adopting a Nine-Step Problem-Based Learning Model

Engaging primary and elementary students in meaningful, relevant science learning is challenging. PBL is an instructional approach that provides a means to foster meaningful science learning while enhancing teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). This paper reports on the experiences of a teacher inquiry group consisting of five teachers (K-5) and a university researcher as they adopted a nine-step problem design model to develop PBL experiences. The objectives of the study were to examine how various facets of teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge are engaged as they design PBL modules; describe how teachers engage with a nine-step problem design model; and document teachers’ perceptions of the strengths and limitations of the nine-step problem design model.

Profiles and Perspectives: Learning about Literacies through Descriptive Inquiry at the Cypress Hills Community School

In this article, we present how work through a collaborative descriptive inquiry group broadened our understanding of bilingual children’s literacy as well as the literacy practices we fashion in order to support their development.

Critical Friends Groups: The Possibilities and Limitations Embedded in Teacher Professional Communities Aimed at Instructional Improvement and School Reform

Background/Context This study builds upon research on teacher professional communities and high school restructuring reforms. It employs a conceptual framework that draws upon theories of “community of practice” and “community of learners.” Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This study analyzes how teachers’ professional inquiry communities at the high school level constitute a resource for school reform and instructional improvement. Setting This research focused on a reforming, comprehensive urban public high school with site-based management. Population/Participants/Subjects This study investigates the practices of six school-based oral inquiry groups known as Critical Friends Groups (CFGs), which were selected as cases of mature professional communities. Twenty-five teachers and administrators participated as informants. Research Design This research involved a video-based, qualitative case study. Data Collection and Analysis Data included observations of CFG meetings, interviews with teachers and administrators, and document collection. Analysis entailed coding with qualitative software, development of analytic cross-CFG meta-matrices, discourse analytic techniques, and joint viewing of video records with informants. Findings/Results The author explores four particular design features of CFGs—their diverse menu of activities, their decentralized structure, their interdisciplinary membership, and their reliance on structured conversation tools called “protocols”—showing how these features carry within them endemic tensions that compel these professional communities to negotiate a complicated set of professional development choices. Conclusions/Recommendations The findings demonstrate how the enactment of design choices holds particular consequences for the nature and quality of teacher learning and school improvement. Although CFGs enhanced teachers’ collegial relationships, their awareness of research-based practices and reforms, their schoolwide knowledge, and their capacity to undertake instructional improvement, these professional communities offered an inevitably partial combination of supports for teacher professional development. In particular, CFGs exerted minimal influence on teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge. CFGs would benefit from regular and systematic metacognitive and process-oriented reflections to identify how their collaborative practices might optimally advance their “bottom line” goal of improving teacher practice to increase student achievement. Additionally, high schools might pursue multiple and complementary CFG-like professional development opportunities in subject matter departments and interdisciplinary grade-level academy teams. Mid-afternoon sunlight pours into Principal Alec Gordon's living room on this early release day.1 Lounging on chairs and the carpeted floor, 11 members of Revere High School's staff—among them teachers, the principal, an instructional aide, and a counselor—are in the midst of a structured conversation about a collection of student pinhole photographs brought by Lars, an art teacher. As the group talks, some members hold and peruse the black and white matted images. One member muses aloud, “Not that Lars can answer this now, but I wonder what was the purpose of this assignment? Will doing pinhole photographs make students better photographers or is this just a fun exercise?” As required by the protocol structure, Lars sits silently listening to his colleagues’ attempt to make sense of his students’ products, as well as the instructional context that generated them. Prompted by a timekeeper, the facilitator eventually shifts the conversation. “Oh, it's time? It's time. OK, next in this protocol, we reflect on the process as a group. Share what you learned about the student, about your colleagues, about yourself. Use questions from the previous page.” As the group concludes this conversation, their 3-hour monthly meeting comes to a close. They carry cups and plates to the kitchen and gather up the papers that have accumulated in their laps and on the coffee table. Several photocopies of student essays on violence prevention, as well as copies of a Michelle Fine article, get stowed away into briefcases and knapsacks. Lars collects his students’ work, putting pinhole cameras in a bag and rolling up a poster-sized enlargement of a playground shot. Some members assemble on the deck over the water chatting; their laughter floats into the living room. Others congregate by the fireplace to share lingering ideas with Shelby, the health teacher who brought the violence prevention essays. In the dining room, a veteran math teacher approaches a first-year chemistry teacher and asks how his year is going. Meanwhile, some members scurry off, thanking their host and bidding farewell to the group.

Reading Comprehension Improvement with Individualized Cognitive Profiles and Metacognition

This study models improving classroom reading instruction through valid assessment and individualized metacomprehension. Individualized cognitive profiles of Woodcock-Johnson III cognitive abilities correlated with reading comprehension were used during classroom independent reading for judgments of learning, feedback, self-reflection, and comprehension questions. This systematic metacognitive inquiry treatment was based on findings in cognition, metacomprehension, and effective reading instruction. The research was conducted with 196 intermediate elementary students in 10 classrooms. Each classroom had three experimental levels: cognitive assessment only (control group), cognitive assessment + profile awareness (profile awareness group), and cognitive assessment + profile awareness + metacognitive systematic inquiry (metacognitive systematic inquiry group). The treatment yielded significantly higher comprehension on a valid state standardized reading test, but not on an informal reading inventory.

Reflections on the training of counsellors in motivational interviewing for programmes for the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa

AbstractIntroduction: Within the Southern African prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) programmes, counsellors talk with pregnant mothers about a number of interrelated decisions and behaviour changes. Current counselling has been characterised as ineffective in eliciting behaviour change and as adopting a predominantly informational and directive approach. Motivational interviewing (MI) was chosen as a more appropriate approach to guide mothers in these difficult decisions, as it is designed for conversations about behaviour change. MI has not previously been attempted in this context. This paper reflects on how MI can be incorporated successfully into PMTCT counselling and what lessons can be learnt regarding how to conduct training with counsellors.Methods: Thirty-eight lay and nurse counsellors at four sites in Southern Africa were trained in MI. After the initial training, they participated in a five-month inquiry group at each site, where an action researcher (AR) facilitated ongoing l...

Middle‐School Science Through Design‐Based Learning versus Scripted Inquiry: Better Overall Science Concept Learning and Equity Gap Reduction

AbstractThis paper contrasts performances overall and by gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (SES) for middle school students learning science through traditional scripted inquiry versus a design‐based, systems approach. Students designed and built electrical alarm systems to learn electricity concepts over a four‐week period using authentic engineering design methods. The contrast study took place in the eighth grade of an urban, public school district, with the systems approach implemented in 26 science classes (10 teachers and 587 students) and the scripted inquiry approach implemented in inquiry groups of 20 science classes (five teachers and 466 students). The results suggest that a systems design approach for teaching science concepts has superior performance in terms of knowledge gain achievements in core science concepts, engagement, and retention when compared to a scripted inquiry approach. The systems design approach was most helpful to low‐achieving African American students.

'We thought we "knew"', so we "did"'

In 2004, YWCA England & Wales began a two-year action research project with young women made possible with a grant from Big Lottery Fund. The research comprised four co-operative inquiry groups of young women in different geographical locations and of different composition. Each group met regularly and inquires, together with two YWCA project workers, about safe expression of sexuality and young women's sexual health. This article gives a practical account of the initial stages of the research; explores the challenges of doing co-operative inquiry and offers recommendations for other researchers who consider using this method. Particular attention is given to the challenges of working collaboratively in a hierarchical organization. It is argued that to establish collaborative relationships within the inquiry groups, similar relationships need to be demonstrated by the organization's staff and established within the organization's structures.

Lessons from a Teacher Inquiry Group about Tracking: Perceived Student Choice in Course-Taking and its Implications for Detracking Reform

Background/Context Given resistance to detracking and the need for strong professional development to support teachers that detracking research documents, it is interesting that little research has focused on teachers’ perspectives in the context of professional development. This study addresses this gap in the literature by closely considering the views of teachers participating in a teacher inquiry group for detracking reform. Purpose of the Study Six teachers at an urban public high school that historically disavowed tracking met monthly to discuss issues of ability, intelligence, and tracking in response to the challenge set forth by Oakes, Wells, Jones and Datnow (1997) to address deeply rooted notions of ability and intelligence for detracking reform. This article presents case studies of three of the six teacher participants, whose conceptions of tracking provide insight into some of the complex notions of tracking operating at the practitioner level in schools. Research Design Data sources for this qualitative case study primarily constituted field-notes from eleven teacher inquiry group meetings and two interviews with each of the six teacher participants. Conclusions/Recommendations The perspectives of teachers about tracking and detracking in the context of professional development reveal that there is disagreement in the practitioner community on how much tracking exists and what it looks like, even among teachers teaching at the same school. While teachers clearly articulated and exposed the constraints on student choice in course-taking, teachers frequently called on choice as a rationale for why tracking no longer existed. The emerging variation in these teachers’ conceptions of tracking parallels discourse over the shifts in the scope and complexity of tracking in the research community, and has important implications for the pursuit of detracking reform. Among the specific recommendations the author presents for researchers and practitioners are the following: 1) Teachers and researchers need to unpack their definitions of tracking, 2) Teachers and researchers need to give student choice in course-taking more attention, 3) Teacher inquiry groups need to examine professional community literature, and 4) Teachers need structural support for this form of professional development.

‘Does class count?’ Social class and counselling

AbstractThis article explores the importance attached to social class by experienced practitioners taking part in a co‐operative inquiry group. A review of the literature from the last thirty years indicates that there is very little research on class in relation to counselling and psychotherapy reported in the UK. Both authors position themselves as coming from working class origins. Nine co‐researchers from both middle and working class origins joined the group. Eight meetings took place over a period of nine months. Extracts from the group's discussions are represented and integrated with ‘presentational knowing’ drawn from contemporary culture, including poetry and popular music. This study suggests that social class is a neglected aspect of diversity in the counselling field. Implications of the study have relevance for the language of counselling and psychotherapy and class based values; social class and its impact on initial education; and ongoing counselling practice and access to therapy for working class people.

Effects of project, inquiry and lecture- demonstration teaching methods on senior secondary students achievement in separation of mixtures practical test

This study assessed and compared the relative effectiveness of three methods for teaching and conducting experiments in separation of mixtures in chemistry. A pre-test, post–test experimental design with a control group was used. Two hundred and thirty three randomly selected Senior Secondary School I (SSS I) chemistry students were drawn from four Local Governments Areas of Osun State, Nigeria. The research instruments developed were a twenty-five item supply/select response questions used for the pre-test and post-test tagged Chemistry Achievement Test (CAT). Students were divided into three experimental and one control groups. Students in the three experimental groups were subjected to treatment using project, inquiry or lecture-demonstration method respectively while students in the control group were taught using the traditional method of teaching. The pre-test was administered to students in all the four groups before teaching commenced and after the teaching and the experiment, a post-test was then administered. The data was analyzed using t-test analysis, one way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Scheffe post–hoc analysis. The results of ANOVA of the difference in the scores of the post-test of the project, inquiry, lecture-demonstration methods and control group showed a significant difference between the groups (Fc= 327.258 > Ft = 2.60 at þ tt = 1.64 at þ tt = 1.64 at þ tt = 1.64 at þ < 0.05, df = 133). The study concluded that the project method enhanced better performance in Chemistry practical better than either inquiry or lecture-demonstration method. Key words: Lecture-demonstration, inquiry, project, chemistry practical, chemistry, chemistry achievement test, separation of mixtures.

Emergence of a Social Inquiry Group: A Story of Fractals and Networks

This article relates the emergence of a group of faculty researchers utilizing complexity science approaches. The narrative emerges from three projects combining research into complexity, communities, and technologies. Details of how the research was initiated, and the nature and quality of the conversational method, are provided. In addition, theoretical concepts that were consciously applied and others that arose through insights from the data as it was collected are discussed. Although this is like most real narratives, a never-ending story, it concludes with a presentation of some of the ideas that separate complexity-informed research from other paradigms.

Challenges to creating primary care teams in a public sector health centre: a co-operative inquiry

Background Effective teamwork between doctors and clinical nurse practitioners (CNP) is essential to the provision of quality primary care in the South African context. The Worcester Community Health Centre (CHC) is situated in a large town and offers primary care to the rural Breede Valley Sub-District of the Western Cape. The management of the CHC decided to create dedicated practice teams offering continuity of care, family-orientated care, and the integration of acute and chronic patients. The teams depended on effective collaboration between the doctors and the CNPs. Methods A co-operative inquiry group, consisting of two facility managers, an administrator, and medical and nursing staff, met over a period of nine months and completed three cycles of planning, action, observation and reflection. The inquiry focused on the question of how more effective teams of doctors and clinical nurse practitioners offering clinical care could be created within a typical CHC. available. Significant changes in the behaviour and roles of staff. Some doctors perceived the nurse as an assistant who could be called on to run errands or perform tasks. Doctors perceived their own role as that of comprehensively managing patients in a consultation, while the CNPs still regarded themselves as nurses who should rotate to other duties and perform a variety of tasks, thus oscillating between the role of practitioner and nurse. The doctors felt responsible for seeing a certain number of patients in the time they were available, while the CNPs felt responsible for getting all the patients through the CHC. The doctors did not create space for mentoring the CNPs, who were often seen as an intrusion and a threat to patient privacy and confidentiality when requesting a consultation. For the CNPs, however, the advantage of practice teams was considered to be greater accessibility to the doctor for joint consultation. The identification of doctors and CNPs with each other as part of a functioning team did not materialise. Effective management of the change process implied the need to ensure sufficient staff were available to allow all teams to function equally throughout the day, to be cognisant of the limitations of the building design, to introduce budgeting that supported semi-autonomous practice teams and to ensure that the staff were provided with ongoing opportunities for dialogue and communication. The implications of change for the whole system should be considered, and not just that for the doctors and nurses. Conclusion Key lessons learnt included the need to engage with a transformational leadership style, to foster dialogical openness in the planning process and to address differences in understanding of roles and responsibilities between the doctors and the CNPs. The unreliable presence of doctors within the practice team, due to their hospital duties, was a critical factor in the breakdown of the teams. The CHC plans to further develop practice teams, to learn from the lessons so far and to continue with the co-operative inquiry.

Examining the practice of beginning teachers’ micropolitical literacy within professional inquiry communities

This paper investigates beginning teachers collaboratively making sense of and responding to the micropolitical environments of their schools. Drawing on a qualitative multi-case study conducted within the context of a university-sponsored, inquiry-based induction program, this research employs a community of practice frame to examine how novice teachers came to practice “micropolitical literacy.” The paper identifies four dimensions of micropolitical discourse that surfaced in the situated setting of the inquiry groups. The analysis further illustrates how beginning teachers, while participating in inquiry groups, coconstructed understandings of the organizational structures and professional cultures of their schools.