Photo by Brad Judson on Unsplash

Trevor is a teacher based on inquiry though he didn’t learn through an inquiry stance. During the first ten minutes felt like a yoga session, that there was a very proverbial sense to what he was saying. Starting with a reflection on everything from learning to success and failure. His talk was very introspective as he asked us to identify within ourselves what we found difficult to learn and how we learn, what got in the way etc. All of these questions are very open ended and provocative for getting us into the shoes of the students so that we can look at the ways we might affect students who would feel similar to us. I would imagine this is very much how he would also teach within his classroom and this would lend itself very well to an inquiry based approach. He highlighted that we have implicit bias towards certain ways of learning: our learning and learner narrative shapes how we teach. He challenged us to think if we will teach students in the ways in which we liked, he provided an example of teachers who succeeded at tests and how they would be more likely to test their students because the teacher found success in tests. I am aware of this bias and I can see myself automatically developing tools that “make sense” to me and this would leave out those who aren’t able to learn or think similarly to myself. I was asked to reflect on what success in teaching would look like: for me I find success to be changing students learning and competencies positively. The students that I succeed the most in teaching would be the students who have the largest change in competency and self efficacy, these students will be able to do more and feel like they can do more. Trevor used constructivist terms and value like humanity, tenderness, and compassion. While I agree with these values and the sentiment that these are important and should be a focus of a teacher I’m not sure how useful this is in stating. I view these as universally good things and am unsure of anyone who doesn’t value these things. There is often no practicing virtues. I’m unsure that someone can practice compassion, they might find ways to better articulate their compassion that was always there, that just didn’t reach a student. How do we show humanity in our teaching, teach tenderly, teach compassionately: constructivist values. Trevor exudes an emphasis on safety for learners. Trevor asked us to reflect on our Highschool experience: mine was fun, friend focused, and I was able to learn with quality instruction. I never felt like I didn’t want to come to school and school was easy for me. Guiding questions: what is school like, what do you enjoy, what do you not like, what are you good at and not so good at, what gets in the way? Student agency: ownership over learning. Have students do more work? Am I doing something for my students that they should be doing for themselves? Don’t do things that they should do for themselves. Negotiated learning, what is non-negotiable and what is? Discuss how students can meet the non-negotiable, this is the basis of negotiated learning. There is no age group or developmental group for inquiry based learning. The question I have is does increasingly the negotiability of my teaching mean that it is moving towards a more inquiry based approach. He asked us what are the muscles of learning that we want students to build? These would be competencies. How do we scaffold for student ownership? Making thinking visible. there is too much to comment on and reflect on but all of it was pragmatic and sensible.

Practical strategies from a constructivist educator: such as

Don’t give students a grade if you’re also giving them feedback, keep the grade private until you are sure they’ve understood the feedback.

Turn and talk to each other and ask questions to each other, they might be able to share between themselves but not in front of the whole class. Turn and Talk.

Two stars and a wish, two things you liked and one thing you could have done better, students tend to self-assess accurately and they like to hear it from themselves and not from the teacher.

Become familiar with the competencies: and how can I actively engage my students in understanding them more.

Value relationships with the students: know me before you teach me. This strategy seems to align with a student focused approach. I wonder how we can intentionally do this and what this might look like in different classrooms.

More on Trevor can be found on his website https://www.trevormackenzie.com/dive-into-inquiry

Co-construct rubrics on assessment. 10% + or minus on grade assessment: so 66-86 spread, and all assessment would be accurate.