Kath Murdoch Teaching and Learning Through Inquiry, Berlin February 2017, Day 1

'To be better educators we must be better learners' Kath Murdoch, BBIS, Berlin, February 4th 2017

Some resources shared during the workshop


Tuning In
It's a foggy Saturday morning in a high school gym near Berlin and Kath Murdoch is encouraging us to think about inquiry. To start she doesn't put up a central idea or focus on research skills, instead she begins with us as learners.

The first question: What can you do or be that will help you get the most out of this learning opportunity? The answers come thick and fast and then she asks us to develop a question that we wanted to keep in mind for the two day workshop. She encourages us to think about whether we offer our students these kind of opportunities to set themselves learning goals or intentions.

Wonder wall of participants questions

Moving on, we think about the difference between a learnER centred classroom and a learnING centred classroom. How do our walls and what we hear as we walk around our classrooms show that they are centred on learning?

Inquiry

After discussing inquiry through a few more visible thinking routines we are asked to take a pipe cleaner and make a representation of the concept of inquiry. We follow up by finding one or two others in the room and making connections between our representations. As the full groups shares back we hear these thoughts: Inquiry is messy but there is a path, there are ups and downs in inquiry, it is confusing. Inquiry is expected but unexpected, it is planned but spontaneous. Inquiry is making connections, going in different directions and freedom. 

Some of our representations of the concept of inquiry

We continue to talk about ourselves as learners and inquiry. Kath comments that "Teachers are inquiring into our students and their learning." She encourages us to ask "What are they revealing to me? What do we need to do next?" 

Checking In
Continuing to think about ourselves as inquirers we talk about our students, how well we know them and how well they know themselves. We talk about self assessment, setting goals and intentions and being able to check in on our learning. 

One idea for getting students to set goals or intentions or 'check in' on themselves 

Who Am I as an Inquiry Teacher?
Other highlights of the first day included a speed teaching (modified jigsaw activity) where we looked at 9 practices that power up inquiry learning and thought about or strengths and weaknesses as inquiry teachers. This might be something to try as a quick starter in a team meeting or a staff meeting. Many people talked about their need to release more and the importance of good questioning to support inquiry. 

Kath Murdoch 2016

Final Thoughts
For me one of the big take aways for day one was... 'Know your curriculum to let go of your curriculum' This idea resonated with me as I feel like as a well established school with an ever growing culture of inquiry, enthusiastic students and knowledgeable, experienced, open minded teachers we are in a great position to take risks and really push ourselves to further. Over the next few weeks and months I'd like to look at the teaching and learning in our school and think about the following Core Principles Guiding the Inquiry Teacher's Practice, which Murdoch outlines in her new book, The Power of Inquiry.
Looking through the lenses of:
Ownership
Interest
Reflection
Purpose
Prior Learning
Transfer
Collaboration
Resilience
Time
Feedback
Environment
Openness
Joy
will hopefully help us to focus, think and question further.

One More Thing
Another good video to help us think... (focussed on science but could easily be substituted with the word inquiry)