Support of the collaborative inquiry learning process: influence of support on task and team regulation

Regulation of the learning process is an important condition for efficient and effective learning. In collaborative learning, students have to regulate their collaborative activities (team regulation) next to the regulation of their own learning process focused on the task at hand (task regulation). In this study, we investigate how support of collaborative inquiry learning can influence the use of regulative activities of students. Furthermore, we explore the possible relations between task regulation, team regulation and learning results. This study involves tenth-grade students who worked in pairs in a collaborative inquiry learning environment that was based on a computer simulation, Collisions, developed in the program SimQuest. Students of the same team worked on two different computers and communicated through chat. Chat logs of students from three different conditions are compared. Students in the first condition did not receive any support at all (Control condition). In the second condition, students received an instruction in effective communication, the RIDE rules (RIDE condition). In the third condition, students were, in addition to receiving the RIDE rules instruction, supported by the Collaborative Hypothesis Tool (CHT), which helped the students with formulating hypotheses together (CHT condition). The results show that students overall used more team regulation than task regulation. In the RIDE condition and the CHT condition, students regulated their team activities most often. Moreover, in the CHT condition the regulation of team activities was positively related to the learning results. We can conclude that different measures of support can enhance the use of team regulative activities, which in turn can lead to better learning results

School Perspectives on Collaborative Inquiry: Lessons Learned From New York City, 2009-2010

The New York City Department of Education has supported collaborative inquiry as a potentially powerful process for helping administrators and teachers use student data to improve instruction and raise student achievement. Beginning with a pilot project in 2006, teams of teachers have learned to work together to diagnose the needs of students who have not been successful in their classrooms and to develop strategies to improve their learning. Collaborative inquiry sits at the heart of the Department\u27s larger Children First initiative and aims to help educators close the achievement gap in their schools. Each year New York City schools have engaged higher proportions of faculty in the inquiry work. The goal is at least 90% participation in collaborative inquiry. The purpose of this research report is to share lessons learned about the conditions, structures, relationships, and leadership practice that support teacher participation in inquiry. The report also presents perceived benefits of collaborative inquiry as reported by school leaders and teachers. Data come from site visits to 13 schools actively engaged in collaborative inquiry. The research team conducted 213 interviews with principals, assistant principals, instructional support staffs, and teachers participating in inquiry and 37 observations of inquiry team meetings

Supporting authentic science in the classroom using collaborative Web-based software

This thesis presents aWeb-based Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) called the Education through Virtual Experience (EVE) Portal which supports e-Science learning for schoolchildren. The VLE guides students and teachers in the production of collaborative research papers to summarize their inquiry-based activities. This thesis details the formative evaluations carried out on the VLE and provides empirical evidence to support the hypothesis that the initial version of the VLE successfully supported inquiry-based science investigations. The VLE evaluations also provided an opportunity to assess the eectiveness of each of the VLE components toward our educational objectives. This thesis describes the shortfalls identied in the original version of the VLE, which has lead to the encapsulation of team management, collaborative writing and image-based data collection into the VLE. This thesis also details the initial trials of the collaborative components of the VLE and provides evidence to support the contention that collaboration has been successfully introduced into the VLE. Finally, this thesis provides a technical description of the underlying architecture of the EVE Portal and describes the implementation details of the EVE imaging component. This thesis makes contributions to e-Learning by providing empirical evidence that an amalgamation of software tools can support an inquiry-based scientic process with schoolchildren and teachers. The encapsulation of team allocation and team-based writing presents an innovative method for supporting inquiry-based learning within schools. The requirements elicitation and customized development of the EVE imaging component highlights many of the difficulties associated with the creation of Web-based software to support constructivist learning at pre-tertiary level. Finally, the EVE Portal provides an innovative way for teachers to capitalize on time spent carrying out inquiry activities through the codication of structure into a software supported process

Investigating Collaborative Inquiry: A Case Study of a Professional Learning Community at Lennox Charter High School

The purpose of this study was to investigate teacher perceptions of Collaborative Inquiry embedded in a Professional Learning Community during departmental collaboration time and to explore the elements deemed most important to creating and/or maintaining this collaboration model at Lennox Charter High School. Teachers at Lennox Charter High School participated in this study. This mixed-methods case study triangulated survey, focus group, interview, and observation data to examine departmental collaboration and to define the elements most important to maintaining and improving Collaborative Inquiry at Lennox Charter High School. These elements were explored through the lens of research on Professional Learning Communities and Collaborative Inquiry. Specifically, data were examined with respect to the five themes of PLC work. These themes included context, challenge, capacity, commitments, and balancing content and process. A close examination of the data with respect to these themes revealed key take-aways for Lennox Charter High School; namely, that the school needed to bolster the data analysis aspect of Collaborative Inquiry, limit the scope of collaborative work, and endeavor to retain effective teachers so that teams had continuity and could more effectively engage veteran teachers in collaborative work. Using these recommendations would allow Lennox Charter High School to improve professional collaboration, engender meaningful teacher learning, and support equitable student achievement

Coaching teachers: Professional Learning Leaders exploration of practice and identity through collaborative inquiry.

This research is a study of the development of coaching practice and sense of identity of three middle leaders in a primary school who are responsible for leading professional learning. It is of interest because significant responsibility for leading teacher professional learning has been handed to middle leaders since the devolution of management to schools. However little is known about how this leadership of learning is implemented and how leaders might develop for this responsibility. Collaborative inquiry is explored as an approach where middle leaders have space to learn theoretical frameworks, practise coaching skills in an authentic situation and examine the impact. The purpose is to stimulate reflection and guide systematic inquiry into coaching practice for action and change. The ethnographic methodology was deliberately used to allow the research participants to make sense of their world in which they act as coaches. Through linking action and research, ideas about coaching teachers to be skilled critical inquirers were tried as a means of knowledge creation (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2003). The use of participatory action research ensured that the Professional Learning Leaders (PLLs) could work collaboratively to understand the situation supported by myself as a participant researcher. Within five convergent group interviews the PLLs engaged in dialogue and reflection about their practice and the observed impacts of coaching three teachers in a group to be skilled critical inquirers of their classroom practice. Professional literature was used to support their inquiry. The findings confirm that facilitation of reflective dialogue is difficult because it involves challenging the beliefs of others while maintaining an environment of trust. The view that the most effective professional development is collaborative, situated and participatory is also confirmed. Although confirmations are not new information, the learning and involvement in the process through a supported collaborative inquiry approach was a new and transformational experience for the participants where knowledge was created and people changed. The findings reveal that improved coaching practice and identity learning occurred interdependently. Being a coach in the dual position of middle leader and teacher was discovered to cause conflicts. Collaborative inquiry into the causes and impacts of these conflicts helped to clarify the role and responsibility of coaching. The findings suggest that the roles and practice of senior and middle leaders in relation to enhancing teaching and learning in the school must be examined closely. School leaders need to consider how they can structure and support collaborative inquiry for professional learning and building leadership capacity. Drawing on the discoveries and understandings of coaching practice and collaborative inquiry, this research presents a diagram that illustrates the significance of collaboration in the process of improving coaching practice and identity learning

Exploring teaching practice to support young children's prosocial behaviour : "What would we tell Pig and Frog to do?" : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education (Early Years) at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand

This thesis presents the results of a collaborative action research (CAR) study undertaken with a small group of early childhood education (ECE) teachers to explore teaching practices to support children’s prosocial behaviour development. Prosocial behaviour is an essential component of children’s social-emotional development and has been shown to be a critical factor for children’s positive life outcomes. As many children attend early childhood education centres, the ECE teachers in these settings need to have effective strategies to support and enhance children’s development of prosocial behaviour. In this study, the teacher participants wanted to make changes to their existing teaching practices and the CAR inquiry process acted as a form of professional learning and development to support teachers to make these changes. Placed within the theoretical paradigm of social constructivism and pragmatism, qualitative data was gathered using a range of methods. As part of the action research process, the initial research question was refined to form two questions: 1) in what ways did teachers change their teaching practice to support children’s prosocial behaviours, and 2) how did the CAR process support the adoption of changed teaching practice. Data analysis was conducted using a thematic coding approach. Findings from question one showed that teachers adopted an integrated and strategic approach, implementing a scenario-based learning strategy using puppets at the group level and supporting this with prompts to children’s thinking in the natural context of play. Findings from question two revealed that each of the five stages of the CAR process was instrumental in supporting the teachers to achieve the aims of their inquiry. Furthermore, an overarching theme of intentionality and intentional teaching emerged from both research questions. As a result of the CAR process teachers developed shared intentions for children’s prosocial behaviour that shaped their subsequent teaching strategies. Consistent with previous research in professional learning and development, the CAR process of engaging with research and evidence enabled teachers to make shifts in their teaching theories of practice resulting in teachers embracing more intentional teaching strategies

Lichenizing Pedagogy: Art Explorations in More-than-Human Performance and Practice

This project of performative writing and visual inquiry proposes the concept of “lichenizing” as a collaborative methodology for engaging with the lively pedagogy of the more-than-human. Looking to the multispecies mosaic of Lichen as teacher and ally, this arts-based, collectively produced foray considers transcorporeal, intermingled relationships as a pedagogical tool for fostering a radical, ecologically-centered curiosity for learning and making. To support our theorizing, we present two collaborative art projects where tenets of lichenizing were utilized to instruct process and form, and suggest further exploration and research on the practice of “lichenizing.

Co-designing with children a collaborative augmented reality book based on a primary school textbook

Augmented Reality (AR) has been proven to support collaboration when used in different contexts. AR Books have been developed for children in different contexts including entertainment and education. However, the involvement of children in designing AR Books based on the actual school textbooks has not been covered previously. This paper presents co-design process of involving primary school children in the design and evaluation of an AR textbook for collaborative learning experience. Using cooperative inquiry techniques as an appropriate method of co-design with children, this paper proposes the key design features that can be integrated in the school textbook for a collaborative AR textbook

Developing Comprehensive Indigenous Education Programs through Meso Level Leadership to Promote Indigenous Student Success

Abstract Annual reports to the B.C. Ministry of Education on Indigenous student progress in 2019/2020 indicated notable gaps in academic achievement, sense of belonging, and post-secondary transitions between non-Indigenous and Indigenous students. Meso level leaders are responsible for developing new programs and resources to support Indigenous student success. They do not yet have the skills and knowledge to address the gap that exists between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) presents a collaborative inquiry approach to decolonize the K-12 system that promotes interwoven perspectives of Western and Indigenous epistemologies, pedagogies, and methodologies. A collaborative professional learning community (PLC) of meso level leaders provides the space for building relationships and defining common ground to bridge gaps between Indigenous knowledge and tenets of Western education. Adaptive and Indigenous leadership methodologies are identified that support meso level leaders in promoting Indigenous student success. The change implementation plan includes Stroh’s four stages (2015) connected to the First Peoples Principles of Learning (FNESC, 2008) to ensure that all partners are mindful of local traditions, protocols, ceremony, and stories to inspire change. The plan-do-study-act (PDSA) approach provides a monitoring and evaluation process and incorporates four phases of communication (Deszca et al., 2020) including ongoing consultation with local Knowledge Keepers and Elders. This OIP aligns with the organization’s mission to focus on strategies and resources to improve success for Indigenous students, and develop programs to support Indigenous culture, languages, and history (B.C. Ministry of Education, 2021). Keywords: Indigenous, meso level leadership, education, adaptive leadership, decolonize, collaborative inquiry, professional learning communit