Using inquiry approaches to improve practice
If you find the tables in this section helpful, you may like to build up a personal or shared resource by drawing up similar tables for some inquiry approaches that you have used, illustrating each approach with examples from your practice.
The Inquiry and Evidence-based Practice chapter adopts Reid’s (2004) metaphor of an “inquiry tool box” to describe the development of a suite of inquiry approaches, techniques, and skills. By growing their “tool boxes” thoughtfully and systematically over time, educators can draw from a range of approaches to inquire into the specific learning needs of people within a particular context. The fundamental purpose of all these inquiry approaches is to enable educators to evaluate the adequacy of their theories (what they know and believe) and their practice (what they do) in terms of the outcomes they want to achieve.
This section introduces some of the inquiry approaches that an ISTE may take1. The approaches are organised under three headings that indicate key considerations for an inquiry:
- Gathering appropriate data;
- Critically analysing data;
- Selecting a collaborative process and activities to scaffold learning.
After a brief discussion of each of these considerations, the text uses tables to present examples of some useful inquiry approaches. The tables also provide examples of how some of these approaches were used in the learning cases and suggest sources for more information.2
1 As with other chapters in these learning materials, users are not expected to read this section in one sitting; rather it is envisaged that they will refer to relevant approaches while exploring specific questions within their practice.
2 Note that the text does not attempt a comprehensive introduction to all inquiry approaches or to all the approaches used within the learning cases.
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