My Inquiry Stance and The Value of Classroom Research

Although I'm still a little fuzzy on the true meaning of an "inquiry stance," I am beginning to understand it as synonymous to a "critical eye" in the classroom.  In other words, complimenting what we read for the first chapter of Teachers Doing Research, teachers must teach with an active and reflective mind, constantly shifting between self-awareness and the critical awareness of others.  Now, to be honest, when putting these ideas into practice, and or considering if I do practice these ideas already, the whole concept becomes a bit more challenging.

 

For one, I think I absolutely bring a critical eye into the classroom; I am constantly wondering if something sounded exactly the way I wanted it to when speaking to students through my tone, wording, and body language.  However, I also think I might do much more than just this without realizing it, and I also believe I can do much more.  I feel like in order to have a fully developed "inquiry stance," I must have some sort of greater vision driving why I am being critical of myself and my students in the first place.  I am hoping that this journaling process will help me to realize, or maybe review and recreate, my vision for my professional role as an educator.

 

Classroom research is valuable because it originates within the "front line" of education.  In other words, classrooms are where theories are tested out, new ideas are developed, and things either work or they do not work.  Without classroom research, the most valuable pieces of evidence about effective education are lost.  I think that the trickiest part of classroom research is convincing others of the importance of the information that is acquired and produced in the classroom.  Many people have trouble viewing teaching as a profession, much less valuing the specific results that are found and the research that teachers gain.  In many ways, professionals outside of education have conditioned me to believe that "I am just a teacher."  With this sort of shameful attitude, despite my sincere joy and pride in my work, it will be very difficult for me to produce meaningful research.  Even though I do think classroom research is valuable, I need to work hard to train myself to understand what this research is and how it can have a large impact on my professional field.

Here are some of the ideas I gathered from the chapter about how to find and use classroom research:

• Create a lesson plan, follow through with it, change something, then use it again on a different group.  Compare results.
• Notes from student and parent conferences or conversations.
• Student reflections about a course or lesson plan.
• Teacher anecdotes of a particular day or moment in the classroom.
• Journals!

As I was teaching after reading this chapter, I thought to myself after class, "What was my inquiry stance?  How self-aware was I during that class?"  It's difficult, because like I mentioned before, I think we probably do more than we realize as teachers.  So much of our day is built on split-second decisions, things that we may subtly change that will have great impacts, such as choosing to have the students get up and write something on the board instead of sitting and listening to me talk for twenty minutes.  I do worry, though, that sometimes I'm not thinking enough about the impact of my each and every movement.  Again, I hope that this journal will help me to do so.