Through exposing myself to a few different approaches to inquiry and reflecting on how they work with my own values and thought patterns I have determined that the ideas of transformative inquiry fit me best. I appreciate the balanced approach to inquiry that focuses on searching for answers in multiple ways based on the context of the relationships that will surround me as a future educator. Tanaka (2012) specifies four main areas to gather evidence from to pursue an inquiry:
Self-Study: What is your own knowledge about a topic from past experiences and intuition? What is the importance of this topic to you and how does this shape your question?
Academic Literature: What ideas does the academic community have to say on this topic? How do I derive meaning from this context that pertains to my own understanding of the topic?
Classroom Observations: What anecdotal evidence can I gather from my classroom and others that pertain to the topic? What is the history and personal context of these stories and what influence does it have on their application to the topic?
Inquiry Partners: What are the opinions of other teachers, parents, and students on the topic? What is the relationship between their beliefs and yours on the topic? How do you apply their ideas and values to your topic?
By gathering opinions, ideas, and data on a topic from these varied sources that have local and global, anecdotal, and academic sources and critically reflecting on them it is possible to gain a balanced and complete view of the problem at hand. Starting from this point will then allow creative tinkering of my practice and continual re-evaluation based on these four factors as changes are made and new ideas are tested.
My inquiry from block 1 questioned how I could apply the rich learning about education into a classroom setting and how I could create and execute lesson plans that exemplified this learning. Throughout block 2 I have begun to see how this can be accomplished in my courses which developed my thinking about how I can design learning around solid assessment and creative inquiry. The opportunity that led to the most solid progress on my block 1 inquiry was my Education 391 practicum that gave me the chance to practice breaking down ideas and skills into smaller pieces and present them in multiple ways to ensure all students in my class have a good chance of understanding them. I also began to develop my ability to engage with, extract responses, and form meaningful connections with students, and improve my approach to individual students to assess and improve understanding. I also have started to grasp time management, not only to keep students engaged, but to also spend appropriate amounts of time on given skills based on the understanding of students. All these skills are important building blocks towards my block 1 inquiry that I will continue to build into my practice moving forward. After my practicum I feel that I can currently narrow this inquiry down and focus in on enriching student engagement in learning and build this into how I design learning experiences in my classroom.
Aside from this core inquiry I have a few goals for block 3 that arose from reflecting on the experiences of the past four months.
I will work towards solidifying my “teacher persona” to manage the classroom and present myself in a way that feels authentic to self.
I will work on my balance between structure and flexibility in lessons, work and how I handle assessment and extenuating circumstances.
I will work on being better at managing my time while practicing and become more efficient with my lesson planning so that I can deliver better learning experiences while avoiding burnout.
Reference
Tanaka, M., Stranger, N., Tse, V., Farish, M. (2012). Transformative Inquiry. University of Victoria, BC, Canada