An inquiry process for teaching
Effective media studies teachers plan strategically, teach, and then modify their teaching in order to better achieve the desired learning.They need to be constantly asking themselves:
- where their students are in their learning
- how they can help them progress
- how their teaching impacts on their students’ learning.
They use this information to decide:
- what is it important to be teaching (focusing inquiry)
- what strategies are most likely to help their students learn (teaching inquiry)
- what worked and for whom, and what are the implications for their teaching (learning inquiry).
This cycle of inquiry can help ensure we don’t continue to do what is no longer working for particular students or groups of students.
Teaching as inquiry diagram from NZC.
The New Zealand Curriculum offers a brief summary of pedagogical approaches that are applicable to all teaching, including teaching in media studies. For a much more comprehensive but very user-friendly guide, see
Effective Pedagogy in Social Sciences/Tikanga ā Iwi Best Evidence Synthesis Iteration (BES). The authors of this synthesis identify four ‘mechanisms’ that are at the heart of effective teaching and learning.
Four mechanisms that facilitate learning in the social sciences
Last updated September 12, 2017
TOP