Teaching as Inquiry Cycle

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Things to think about

Look closely at the inquiry cycle on page 20 of Te Aho Arataki (the Māori language curriculum guidelines) and think about/discuss with peers the following questions:

• What do I know about my students (their knowledge; goals and aspirations; needs)?
• What do I need to prioritise for my students' learning?
• What can I do to make my teaching more culturally-responsive?
• How might I gather data on what students are actually learning, that is, outcomes?
• In what ways can I use the data to determine my next teaching steps?

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Transcript

Dee Reid - Te Reo Māori Advisor, School Support Services, University of Waikato:
Teachers need to consider or think of ways they can find out about establishing their students' prior knowledge or their prior learning experiences. And their goals and aspirations.

Now, that whole process that we just did with you, is how we did it for you in terms of your goals and aspirations. It may be something that you take back to your school and use with other colleagues with regard to establishing school goals and aspirations. But, I really wanted to ... if I could shout that it’s important that you also consider the goals and aspirations of your students and of their whānau.

So, you’re just one part in the equation. It’s one way of doing it and then applying into a context is important as well.

So, the inquiry cycle, we’ve only touched on very small elements of it, but it’s at the very centre, okay. At the centre of teaching of learning, at the centre of inquiry learning is the student.

[On screen]

Key message

Consider the goals and aspirations of the school, community, whānau and students, (pages 20-21 in the reo Māori curriculum guidelines).

Rewa Paewai - National Coordinator, Te Reo Māori Professional Development:
I also love the teaching as inquiry cycle. We’ve, you know, taken the New Zealand curriculum model and we’ve adapted it for te reo Māori, we’ve made it our own. And the teachers that we’ve worked with, you know, that we’ve stepped them through that cycle, can see a process for themselves to inquire into their own practice. And I think that for me that’s really exciting.

If I was a teacher in the classroom, that’s one of the things I’d be excited about ... is that opportunity to inquire into my own teaching and what’s happening for my students. Because sometimes as a teacher, your perspective ... there’s a certain bias to your perspective ,but through that process, you get to really focus on what’s happening for the students in your class. And you get to take .... you really have the opportunity to focus on them in terms of your teaching.

If I try this, what happens? Do I get ... are my students more engaged when I try this? Or if it didn’t work, what is going to work for these particular students?

 So I like that, I like our teaching as inquiry cycle. For me that’s really exciting too.