Kate Wall
@katewall.bsky.social
Professor of Education
Strathclyde Institute of Education
Professional learning, primary/EY, democratic ed, voice, visual methods & pedagogies for thinking. #StrathSTL #StrathEdD #StrathEduPGR
Education
58%
Psychology
18%
Enquiry is a powerful leadership stance whereby we recognise ourselves as learners alongside colleagues and students. Sometimes that learning goes smoothly, sometimes not so much, that is OK. By signing up to enquiry we are committing to try and improve and role model process/7
We need to show strategies for working out and how we ensure enquiry is not taking over our lives. How do we fit enquiry into 9-5 and what compromises are made as a result. How do we connect different elements of role through enquiry and make sure that the outcomes are useful?/6
Genuine enquiry when we don't know answer is hard and often doesn't go way we expect. Supporting this level of challenge in prof learning is important. Leaders need to show they don't always get a perfect outcome and get stuck. That learning from failure is just as relevent/5
Leaders create spaces for enquiry dialogue. Sharing process and outcome is essential for individual sense making as well as community capacity building. We set tone of these spaces in regard support of tentative thinking, of exploration, and response to potential disagreement/4
Leading a practitioner enquiry community means facilitating teacher autonomy - their question, approach to finding out, decisions about appropriate evidence, timescales, and approaches to sharing. Refrain from telling people what to do, ask questions of the thinking behind: why/3
I am one of those leaders and with 20+ years supporting enquiry, I see 2 aspects to this: how we lead communities of enquirers in ways that are supportive, connected and realistic; and how we carry out our own enquiries admitting we still don't know and are striving to find out/2
Practitioner Enquiry Tip of the Week: Leading for and through enquiry. School leaders can make or break enquiry communities in regard the support and space offered to enquirers they work with, and in regard how model our own processes of finding out/1🧵
#PractitionerEnquiryTotW
#PractitionerEnquiryTotW
And the sun sets on another #StrathEdD MELS day. Lots of interesting chat about being active in the reading and writing process and input into what makes good systematic review questions. Lovely to see some of last year’s cohort sharing their experiences 👏👏 @strath-ioe.bsky.social
Key to manageability is ensuring neither becomes separate from the classroom and learners within it. It always should be useful questions that relate to your practice. What becomes a project is up to you, but there are strategies to keep it connected and stop it being extra/9
Project is not better than stance. A good teacher does both. Enquiry as stance musings turn into enquiry projects; enquiry projects will be reflected on after they are complete (stance). Both are about questioning what we do and why, which makes us better professionals/8
Enquiry projects are great for being a bit more robust and rigorous. Research process gives a bit more credibility; commitment to share helps codify with literature and wider prof community. But it should still be embedded in practice: useful questions related to learner need/7
Enquiry projects are the exception; we may do 1 or 2 a session. Its the more research-y side of the enquiry spectrum where explicit questions are asked with strategic selection and analysis of evidence is prioritised. These are the types of enquiry we most often hear shared/6
Enquiry as stance is complemented by enquiry as project when the volume is turned up on a particularly pertinent issue or stubborn problem that you genuinely are not sure about. We turn the volume up in regard the kind of evidence that we collect and the way it is shared/5
Enquiry as stance is ongoing. It be part of teaching and is about good practice: being able to talk about what we do for our learners in our classroom and why. We can still use evidence and we can still share, but it is light touch and should be a part of normal practice/4
Thinking through your day: the successes, the not so successful and questions that result is all about being a good professional. The enquiry process helps us to think it through and to consider the why - why was it successful (or not), why might that be useful to do next?/3
Its useful to emphasise at this point that the constant reflecting on what happened (or not), what you could do to address that need or support learner progression, are constant for teachers. This is enquiry as stance. It is the reflective and strategic practitioner in action/2
Practitioner Enquiry Tip of the Week: back to it! Holidays might be a distant memory, but back to the classroom means back to thinking about enquiry. They should go hand in hand. The new term will bring new questions but stubborn ones will remain/1🧵
#PractitionerEnquiryTotW
#PractitionerEnquiryTotW
This regular post feels flippant. But this is really important. Enjoy your holiday. Take time with family and loved ones. Rest and recuperate. The rest can wait. See you next week when the calm will be a distant memory /3
Holidays are important. A professional learning model that requires ‘work’ during the holidays is unsustainable and not healthy. Teachers and practitioners have much more important things to do during their break from the classroom /2
Practitioner Enquiry Tip of the Week: holidays are for holidaying not practitioner enquiry. It’s the school holidays and I’m away. Now is not the time to be doing practitioner enquiry. It can wait. /1 🧵
#PractitionerEnquiryTotW
#PractitionerEnquiryTotW
Wording of your research questions is important. However thinking about your sample, the kind of evidence you want to collect and what that evidence is about will help you to refine and define. This will help ensure your cycle has a clear line of enquiry that others can follow/9
If you say you're interested in kid's perspectives of outdoor learning make sure you collect evidence of their thinking in an appropriate way they comprehend. Are you explicit about kind of learning you want them to think about as outdoor learning is a big category of practice?/8
Then make sure you follow those clues through - if you say you are focusing on that group of regular non-attenders then don't suddenly, on a whim, include another group of children with different characteristics (save them for the next cycle). Keep to the plan /7
So, be conscious of the clues you are giving in your question in regard the line of enquiry you are going to take. Be wary of words that are difficult to decipher - effective, supportive, impact - in what regard? for whom? Make sure that you are as precise as possible /6
One more, what are benefits of 1:1 learning conversations? This is a big question and could focus on children, teachers or both, or the behaviours within the process of learning conversations. Benefits implies a positive lens, but still Q is quite open so could become unwieldy /5
Another example, will group work help Turkish language speakers intergrate into the class? This feels like a case study of a specific group with group work being the intervention. The evidence needs to target integration, but what does this mean and how to can it be evidenced? /4
Or, how does retrieval practice support exam classes in biology? This means targeting older kids in the school (exam classes), and an intervention of retrieval practice. Some lack of clarity around what 'support' means, in what way? Revision, subject knowledge, confidence? /3
For example, how do P1 students understand problem solving? The question indicates the project is not going to involve talking to teachers, the focus is children. Also a specific aspect of the maths curriculum is being targeted, so evidence will focus on this learning/2
Practitioner Enquiry Tip of the Week: line of enquiry. The questioning you've been pondering is important as it is the hook on which the line of your enquiry hangs. It will give clues of sample, the method etc. it will also indicate where the gaps are/1🧵
#PractitionerEnquiryTotW
#EducationalResearch
#PractitionerEnquiryTotW
#EducationalResearch
Kate Wall
@katewall.bsky.social
· Oct 8
As your enquiry develops don't be trapped by assumptions about what is better or worse. Focus on what you want to know about the learners in front of you, and ensure quality in a clear line of enquiry from question to evidence to analysis (next week's #PractitionerEnquiryTotW)/7