Stacia M. Stribling, Ph.D. George Mason University

Teacher Inquiry

Teaching involves a search for meaning in the world. Teaching is a life project, a calling, a vocation that is an organizing center of all other activities. Teaching is past and future as well as present, it is background as well as foreground, it is depth as well as surface. Teaching is pain and humor, joy and anger, dreariness and epiphany. Teaching is world building, it is architecture and design, it is purpose and moral enterprise. Teaching is a way of being in the world that breaks through the boundaries of the traditional job and in the process redefines all life and teaching itself.

—William Ayers

Teacher Inquiry as a Habit of Mind

1. How do you know that? (What’s the evidence?)

2. Who said it and why? (Whose viewpoint is it?)

3. What led to it, what else happened?

4. What if, supposing that…? (Hypothesize)

5. Why does it matter? (Who cares and why?)

Teacher

• Asks questions about teaching and learning

• Collects information about students

• Often feels overwhelmed or isolated

Teacher Researcher (Inquirer)

• Asks intentional questions about teaching and learning

• Organizes and collects information• Focuses on a specific area of

inquiry• Engages in reflection• Benefits from ongoing

collaboration and support of critical friends

Goal: Facilitates teaching and learning and maximizes student potential (Adapted from Michelle Crabill and Gail V. Ritchie)

Intentional Questions• A problem from your classroom

• A puzzle or dilemma about the learning of a particular student or group of students

• A question you have about your teaching

• A situation that has arisen in your classroom

• How to develop and support particular learning qualities

Sample Questions…• Dilemma: How am I going to cope with the wide

discrepancy in reading levels in my classroom?

• Focus on teacher action: What can I do to help Johnnie learn to read?

• Consider an hypothesis or strategy to try: What happens when I give Johnnie reading materials appropriate to his reading level and interests?

More Questions…• Dilemma: Why are these kids so noisy and frenzied?

• Focus on teacher action: What can I do about the chaos in my classroom (noise, movement, off-task behavior, lack of attention . . . .)?

• Consider an hypothesis or strategy to try : What happens when I use children’s energy and need to be social as an element of my classroom pedagogy using cooperative learning, literature circles, . . . ?

ASSESS need for a change or action (Data Collection & Analysis)

IMPLEMENT the change or action

(Try out new strategies)

STUDY the results

(Data Collection & Analysis)

RETHINK the need, the change, and

the results(Reflection & Dialogue)

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT THROUGH TEACHER INQUIRY

A

I

SR

AI

SR

A

Goal-to meet the learning

needs of every child

Resources• Mills Teacher Scholars: http://millsscholars.org/ • George Mason University Teacher Research:

http://gse.gmu.edu/research/tr/ • National Writing Project: http://

www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/programs/tic • Networks: An On-Line Journal for Teacher

Research: http://journals.library.wisc.edu/index.php/networks/index