Base your teaching on inquiry

The New Zealand Curriculum recognises that teaching is a cyclical process (page 35) in which teachers plan strategically, teach, and then modify their teaching to better achieve the desired learning.

Teachers need to be constantly asking themselves:

• where their students are in their learning
• how they can help them progress
• how their teaching impacts on the students’ learning.

Use this information to decide:

• What should I teach next? (a focusing inquiry)
• How should I teach it? (a teaching inquiry)
• What do I base those decisions on? (a learning inquiry)

The programme needs to have enough flexibility to ensure student interests can be accommodated.

Inquiry as a process – a possible approach

Planning – beginning

• What do I know about each student’s prior knowledge, goals and aspirations, and learning strengths and needs?
• What is important and worth spending time on?
• What concepts, big ideas, and academic vocabulary need to be introduced or reinforced?
• What contexts might help my students discover and explore these big ideas?

Delivery – during

• How can I teach my next lesson most effectively?
• What learning tasks and approaches are most likely to help my students to progress?
• What formative assessment methods can I use to monitor student progress and understanding, for example, quizzes, short answer questions, source interpretation, or word lists?

Is there something I need to change about how I teach?

• Do I engage students with the context or the material effectively?
• Do I maintain dialogue with students and encourage dialogue between students throughout the learning process?
• Do I recognise and accommodate the diverse learning needs of all my students, for example, by incorporating tikanga Māori into my teaching?
• How can I involve families, community, and whānau in my teaching?

Reflection – after

• What happened as a result of the teaching?
• Did my students achieve the specified outcomes?
• What are the implications for future teaching?

Application – next steps

• What are the next steps for my students’ learning?
• What concepts/big ideas need to be reinforced or introduced next?
• What different contexts might my students need to discover and explore these big ideas?
• How can I use student feedback to improve or modify planning, delivery, and outcomes for future learning?

Last updated July 22, 2010

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