I have been passionate about health and wellness for a long time. The scope of this project began as something small, that I could relate directly to the curriculum, as well as use previous resources. However, collaboration with my peers and a deeper understanding of inquiry allowed it to become something much larger, and more unique than I had expected. What began with a small unit connected to PHE and science curriculum, began a year-long inquiry for both the student and the teacher.
By the end of the project, I think my biggest challenge was biting off more than I could chew. It was difficult to focus on both the inquiry for the student, and the teacher and make them both detailed enough for success of an outsider. If I was to plan this project again, I do think I would focus solely on teacher inquiry to begin with. This may be a project that starts small, with changes to our routines as educators, but becomes something much larger. Ideally, the project would answer the question: How do I design a classroom that supports holistic wellness? The answers to this question would come from the changes to our physical space, to our daily routines in the classroom, to the interactions and relationships with students and colleagues, and of course from student feedback and growth that we see as a result. I was inspired by both Jodi’s suggestion to create this project around that question, as I had previously left out any thought to teachers engaging in inquiry. When teachers engage in their own inquiry, and participate in the design-thinking process, “teachers are beginning to show evidence that this approach creates the conditions where meaningful, authentic learning experiences can occur…” (Bartlett et al., 2017, p.24). I think to understand what a meaningful, authentic learning opportunity means for our students, we must also first experience it ourselves. Bartlett et al. (2017) further explains this idea, suggesting that experiencing the feeling of design-thinking helped them better understand “how they might bring this thirst for learning to their students” (p.24).
When I first started this course, I didn’t see inquiry as something small, or simple to incorporate. I thought if we are going to do this, it needs to be big, it needs to take us through the whole cycle and we MUST get results. I feel like when people talk about inquiry, it is this magical thing, provoked only by amazing teachers, who are able to inspire their kids to suddenly ask deep questions, collaborate, and end up some incredible project or insight. I thought it was reducible to a formula, ignoring its complexity. Deirdre Bailey (n.d.) explains that “failure to acknowledge the inherent complexity of inquiry-based learning outcomes by reducing them instead to isolated segments, rating each independently, and aggregating them to get a final score under some false conception of reliability, validity or efficiency is counter-productive” (p.8). However, the more I learn about inquiry is that it is okay to start small. For me, this was an important realization, and makes inquiry more exciting, less stressful and I feel inspired to begin to include these ideas in my own classroom. Two important concepts related to inquiry that I will carry forward are the use of essential questions, and mindful assessment practices. My questions going into this course were very rigid, for example, how do I assess, and how do I design and inquiry project (assuming there was one way to make it work). However, I see myself shifting from asking the question, “What is inquiry?” to “What is Learning?”
According to Friesen (2009, p.4) learning is the “the human spirit’s desire to know.” We all have natural curiosity, passion and interest in learning, and in working hard. In fact, Clifford and Friesen (2003) believe that, “children like to work hard- if that work is meaningful, engaging and powerful” (p.103). So, how do we as educators foster this natural desire to learn and grow? We almost need to re-train ourselves, and re-define what is meaningful learning. In many cases, it is possible students will need to be re-trained or re-define learning for themselves. I believe assessment comes in to play here. Students need to be involved in the creation of standards that show what meaningful learning is. They need to develop self-reflective capacities, and be given feedback often. According to Galileo website (Friesen et al., 2015), students must know 3 things at all times: where they are at, where they are going, and how to get there. My job as a guide, or partner in students learning is to give feedback often, to push students to be their best, and to continue learning alongside them. I have been inspired by the guiding questions for assessment and feedback on the Galileo website, and hope to incorporate these into my practice come September. They are as follows:
- Where is your learning in relation to the learning goal?
- What have you figured out so far?
- What difficulties or frustrations are you encountering?
- What strategies have you tried already to address these problems?
- What other kinds of strategies might work?
I guess in a way, my journey with inquiry has only begun. I am hoping to start small (meaningful questions, collaboration and assessment!), and engage in my own reflection about what I think learning is, and how I am defining success in my classroom.
“Learning, ultimately should help students see that things can be other than as they seem, other than as they are” (Clifford & Friesen, 2003, p.102)