Collective Inquiry:

What Do PLC’s Need to Focus on?

Collective Inquiry

“The process of building shared knowledge by clarifying the questions that a group will explore together.”

(Learning by Doing, 2006)

The Work of Collaborative Teams

DuFour believes that the basis for collective inquiry for teams is focused on two important questions:

What is it that we want our students to learn?How will we know when each student has learned it?

Collective Inquiry

Teachers need to address 3 areas in order to clarify the two questions:

Essential learning must match curriculum standards and guides

Essential learning must prepare students for provincial assessments

Assessments must provide students with timely feedback and be specific enough to determine what a student needs help with

Resources That Teams Need

Provincial standards Curriculum guides List of prerequisite skills for students

entering the next course or grade Assessment frameworks Data on past student performance Examples of student work and criteria Research on curriculum design,

assessment, data (Jay McTighe, Grant Wiggins, Robert Marzano)

Work of Collaborative Teams

Teams of teachers need to work together to understand the essential curriculum

Learn together; learn by doing.

Collaborative Study of Essential Learning

Promotes clarity- what will the curriculum standards look like

Promotes consistent learning priorities across the teaching team

Is crucial to the common pacing of teaching and assessments

Can help establish a viable curriculum- what are the most essential parts for students to learn

Creates commitment to and ownership of the curriculum that they are asked to teach

“Keep, Drop, Create” Activity

What is essential learning?

Intended Curriculum

vs.

Implemented Curriculum

“Keep, Drop, Create” Activity

KEEP DROP CREATE

Part of the essential curriculum and taught

Not part of essential curriculum but taught

Part of essential curriculum but not yet taught

Collective Inquiry

Teachers in collaborative teams need to constantly engage in professional dialogue about what is the essential curriculum…

What is it that we want our students to learn?

How will we know when each student has learned it?