Week 1: Teacher Inquiry

While reading this week, I was struck by one particular sentence. It read, “Given today’s political context, where much of the decision making and discussion regarding teachers occur outside the walls of the classroom, the time seems ripe to create a movement where teachers are armed with the tools of inquiry and committed to educational change.” (Dana, p. 5) I see teachers losing control of their own classrooms more and more each year. By this I don’t mean control in a behavior management way, but control as to what and how they will teach. Everyone is constantly saying something is not working in our schools, our schools need change, and that we are not matching to other countries standards. When I am in a classroom though, it is hard to imagine anything being able to change. Teachers can hardly alter things when they are handed rigid guidelines on how to do things and given so much to fit in, that it is hard to do anything extra. The coolest part about teacher inquiry to me is that it is something that a teacher can do and fit into their classroom schedule and can be something to begin moving towards that change.

            When I completed my inquiry last semester, I saw something not working in the class, and thought of a way to change it. It did not take me too much extra time to collect my research with the students, so I know it is doable. But I collected the research and data on the students to ultimately come up with a conclusion to my wonderings by implementing something and seeing if it helped to fix the problem or was a different solution necessary.

            Inquiry can make the teacher the “expert” in the classroom and allow the person who knows their best teaching styles and how their students learn best, to be the one to research and change, instead of and outside “expert” creating the professional development.  “Those dissatisfied with the traditional model of professional development suggest a need for new approaches that enhance professional growth and lead to real change.” (Dana. P. 7) The teacher themselves being that expert and creating their own professional development could be a major factor in the change in classrooms really becoming effective.

            In the readings it spoke about data-driven decision making and progress monitoring and I believe things like the FAIR tests are one way that teachers can include this in the teacher research they complete and could help to improve and change their classroom learning. This past week I got to view our classes FAIR test data and see where they all fall. The test is given 3 separate times throughout the year, kind of like a built in progress monitoring. The test also breaks the results down into specific areas of need for students. That kind of data could help teachers to plan different lessons to allow extra practice on certain areas for students to build their skills where they need to. But I wonder if teachers actually do this?

            I find inquiry so interesting. Last semester I constantly heard the word inquiry from our teachers or in our readings, but I never really knew what it was and how it was done, until I completed one myself. I believe that teacher inquiry can be one the best ways to really get the change that so many are pushing for in classrooms.

Using FAIR data to change lessons and activities to focus on the areas of need, could students’ scores improve more?