Promoting Teacher Inquiry: A Study Group Approach (video)

Promoting Teacher Inquiry provides an overview of key strategies to use with study groups supporting teachers as they learn to improve their practice and student learning.

 

SEDL has published several publications about Promoting Instructional Coherence:

• A Flashlight and a Compass: A Collection of Tools to Promote Instructional Coherence
• Annotated Bibliography of Resources for Educational Reform, Coherent Teaching Practice, and Improved Student Learning
• Instructional Coherence: The Changing Role of the Teacher
• Promoting Teacher Inquiry: A Study Group Approach
• Restoring Meaning to Teaching (companion video)
• Using Reflection to Promote Instructional Coherence

Transcript of This Video

Teacher: My attitude has always been that teaching is labor. It's one of the most demanding things that people can do. We need to make spaces to try and find out, "What's going on?"

Melissa Contreras - 5th Grade Teacher: If you look at other professions, what you're finding is normally in other professions you see groups of adults get together. And they have enough time to sit down and have a meeting, and you know, cancel all their telephone calls and put everything else aside to sit down and look at a problem. We put in so much time as teachers for the children that we neglect the adult time and the professionalism, the opportunity to sit down with our colleagues and look at what is going on in our classrooms.

Narrator: To achieve high-quality teaching and learning, it's important for teachers to have sufficient time for professional development and collegial relations. Study groups are one method of inquiry where teachers can address their issues through dialogue and reflection.

Royceann Storey LaFayette - Counselor, Rio Grande Elementary: By providing a place, a group, that teachers can go and talk about issues that are really important, they can then think through them themselves, and take it to a deeper level, and then bring that meaning back into their instruction.

Joyce Zarowski - Principal, Helen Ball Elementary: We're trying to implement some programs, and for many teachers, they knew that they didn't see the connection between the different programs. What the study group has been able to do is give us more coherence and more connections with everything that we're doing, and permission to feel discomfort, at times, and feel frustrated, and being able to express that openly.

Narrator: The study group can provide opportunities for teachers to focus on student learning as they dialogue about their teaching practice. This process helps them develop valuable relationships with their colleagues as they build on one another's knowledge.

Joyce Zarowski: It's through our own study groups that we've been able to understand how we learn and how we share, and how important it is to build that community, and know that we're not alone.

Melissa Contreras: I think what we've managed to do is to establish a real strong network where we can call on one another, because we felt so safe in that study group, and we were able to share a lot of personal feelings and thoughts.

Terri Ortiz - 6th Grade Teacher: This is really an opportunity to, just like in other fields, get some true feedback; to work with other people, instead of just being isolated in your classroom; to get real feedback; to have some role models. We need those role models, you know, those little nuggets of wisdom that you get time to time. I got lots of nuggets of wisdom from the study group. You know, that just keep you going, keep you going.

Narrator: Inspired and encouraged by their colleagues, teachers gain insight about their teaching and student learning, which enables them to make changes in their practice.

Royceann Storey LaFayette: Second semester, I could actually see some results in my classroom. It wasn't just the approach of this isn't going well and this doesn't work and these kids don't know how to do this. Instead, it was like, "OK. What can we do about it?" and we became a lot more solution-oriented.

Melissa Contreras: The whole experience with the study group brought me to change my teaching and look at a different curriculum. The curriculum that I'm using now which allows children to investigate learning and has changed my role. I'm no longer the teacher, and I give the information. Instead, what's happening now in my classroom is children are discovering on their own. They are coming up with strategies of their own. The environment has changed totally.

Terri Ortiz: I think now I provide more freedom for the students to discover and that's important. That's what they love—they love to discover. They have fantastic ideas. They like to learn things, and then after they learn things, instead of just going on—let them enjoy what they've learned for a while. So I try to do that now.

Narrator: The Southwest Educational Development Laboratory has developed training and resources to help educators establish and support study groups in order to promote a community of inquiry. SEDL recommends that while educators build their study groups around their particular issues and goals, they should lay a strong foundation for learning based on three fundamental principals. First, study groups must provide opportunities for teachers to focus on their real work—how learning takes place in their classrooms and what they can do to assist it. This is essential to encourage teachers to improve the practice of teaching and student learning.

Joyce Zarowski: It just opens the lines of communication. It establishes an environment of respect and trust. Everyone doing what's best for the child and making sure that they are learning so that their children are learning, and we really have a true community of learners.

Royceann Storey LaFayette: Participating in a discussion group myself really helped bring some of these issues to the forefront. We really started talking about children at the center of learning and how children learn. And, if what we do in the classroom should be centered around that, or is what we do in the classroom centered around what we think they should learn and where we think they should go, instead of being focused on where they are.

Melissa Contreras: My whole approach to teaching mathematics has changed drastically because of the study group and the research we've done and all of the experiences that I've had with the study group. And so, before, had I not been given the opportunity to participate in the study group, I don't think I would have, on my own, gone out and really looked at how children learn.

Narrator: Next, it is essential that teachers have time to think about their concerns, to talk with others, and to exchange ideas. This time for reflection and dialogue can lead to an enhanced sense of purpose in the classroom and improved practice.

Royceann Storey LaFayette: That's what's so important about this process. It's not just a group of people coming together, given a task, and doing it. It's a group of people finding purposefulness in what they're doing, and figuring out what the issues are that are really important, and then giving them some time to reflect on it. Compared to other things we could be doing, providing the time for us to have dialogue and reflection is probably one of the most beneficial things that I think we can be doing.

Narrator: Finally, in a successful study group, facilitators must create a supportive learning environment. When teachers feel comfortable to inquire about the practice of teaching in a trusting, respectful setting, they can formulate answers to their classroom and campus questions.

Joyce Zarowski: It needs to be very, very inviting, very open, very non-threatening. You also have to set those ground rules in place from the start that whatever is discussed in that group stays within that group.

Royceann Storey LaFayette: We first had to build up the element of trust in each other so that we could get past personalities and conflicts in personalities. Once the rapport was there and we had established trust with each other, we were able to really focus on a lot of different issues.

Narrator: When you base your study groups on these three principles: focus on learning, reflective collegial dialogue, and a supportive environment, you can enable a better understanding of the complexities of teaching and learning. Many activities support a teacher's professional development, but unlike solitary pursuits or in-service training, study groups allow each teacher to contribute experiences, wisdom, and ideas within a collegial community of inquiry. The strength of the inquiry carries teachers forward to meet their goals—as individuals, for their campus, and for their students.

Terri Ortiz: For me, this is one of the most important things that I've done. It helped my teaching, and it helped me personally as well. I made some really good friends. I learned that I need to seek out people to talk with. I learned that I really, really do need that support group. I think that it's just the most important thing in the world. It was a great experience.