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I read this post with interest today after reading a book I found in our Staff Library called Children as Decision Makers in Education by Sue Cox, Caroline Dyer, et al. This led me to this Guidance for Teachers from 2007 https://www.participatorymethods.org/sites/participatorymethods.org/files/Children%20Decide%20UEA%20%202007.pdf. Entitled ‘Children Decide: Power, Participation and Purpose in the Primary Classroom’, the guidance was written after six schools – teachers and the children in their classroom – took part in action research to understand how children are involved in decision making in the classroom and the effects that their work had on the classroom, curriculum and on teaching and learning.
I am thinking a lot about inquiry learning in the context of High Performance Learning (I will start a new thread about this!) and about how to effect the mindset shift needed to embed inquiry in the classroom and the Teacher Guidance linked above is interesting in a couple of different ways. Firstly, that in looking at children’s role in decision making in the classroom, changes were made to the processes of the classroom.
“An emerging conception of the project was that decision making should not be seen as an end in itself, but as a ‘principle of procedure’ for working with children across the whole curriculum. We felt that the project could affect the whole school ethos in this way and had the potential for remodelling and transforming the curriculum. A focus on decision making foregrounded learning ‘how. Similarly, the way in which the project encouraged ‘enquiring minds’ signalled a shift in the curriculum towards processes of learning, rather than emphasising content. There were some changes in the classroom culture as a result of the project. For example, where there was a focus on behaviour, children took more responsibility for themselves, because they were making more of the decisions. Such changes were indicative of the way that children were being empowered to make decisions about their learning.”
This perhaps could be a vehicle for driving a mindset shift?
However. One of the essays in the book is entitled ‘Children as researchers: experiences in a Bexley primary school’ and details their work facilitating children to research their own topics (Why can’t we ride horses to school/why do people steal) and it is interesting to read their report of their work. “‘Children as researchers’ goes beyond an inquiry approach to learning – it enables children to contribute to discussions and understandings of their world in a more equal way as they can back their views with the weight real research offers”. Which shows something of a misapprehension of what inquiry learning is and how it differs – or not – from (action) research and I think points to the problem! I think there is a certain inbuilt irony to the process of creating an action research project to create more inquiry in the classroom – or at least to create the environment which is conducive to facilitating the ‘knowledge to understanding’ journey of both the students and the teacher.
This is the second time I have been reading about Isaac Asimov this week. I am sure you know his quote about libraries, but just in case, and I know not very relevant to the topic discussed in this thread, here it is:
‘This isn’t just a library. It is a space ship that will take you to the farthest reaches of the Universe, a time machine that will take you to the far past and the far future, a teacher who knows more than any human being, a friend that will amuse you and console you… and most of all, a gateway, to a better and happier and more useful life.’
I am now going to see if I can find the TV series you mention!
Hello Clare. I created the grid in Publisher having first found the books amongst our own collection (although some are my own and ones I lend to the teachers). We have a long way to go to get this working in the way that we know it should… I need sixteen hands and twenty four more hours in the day I think! I will reply more fully in due course.
Jenny – I am MORTIFIED that I have just seen this now; I cannot imagine how I missed it! This work has taken very much a back seat over the last few months for one reason and another… The grids were made in Publisher and I added the shadow that way. I will reply more in due course, but apologies for my silence!
Good Morning Jenny
I am very behind on this at the moment, and am now starting to create the Reading Grids for next term and realise how much I have to do! At the moment, those grids don’t go to parents because they were intended as a resources to inspire and infrom teachers at the planning stages of their topic. I do think that they could go home, but perhaps with slightly different text suggestions. It sounds like you are much further ahead with this than I am and I would be really interested to see your research when you’ve finished it.
Mary-Rose
Thank you so much, Darryl. This is really helpful. I will have another go at it and will update this thread!
Good Morning. I have been reading this thread with interest! Firstly, I must report that my enormous display which Darryl posted above is no longer; over the summer there were construction works in the school and the entire thing was destroyed. I can hardly think about it because otherwise I will cry… but we will move on to bigger and better things!
I have been working on some Reading Grids for our half termly topics and wanted to try and link this with FOSIL. I have completed the Year 1 – Flying High grid using books we have in the library. (I should add that not all of these are necessarily Year 1 books – this list is for the teachers to help guide their planning and it is not expected that the pupils will access them all). The final page of the attached document contains the beginnings of the FOSIL planning. I know that it is rather woolly… the end point for this unit is for the children to design and make their own kite to fly on the beach and I am trying to unravel in my head how they will get there.
I worry that trying to work within the NC objectives and the enormous time constraints means that the essence of inquiry is lost and becomes rather tokenistic, however if the stages are made explicit and the pupils understand the process of what they are doing, I hope that we will be off to a good start.
I would be so grateful for any thoughts or feedback – and apologise for this hasty post – if I don’t do it now, I never will!
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Thank you so much Elizabeth for the resources from SWGFL; I had seen them ages ago, but had completely forgotten about them. They will be extremely useful.
Darryl – your example for the A Level History, and is extremely useful and has made me realise that if I display the information correctly, and use a proper website (like LibGuides) to sort and collate it, it will be much easier to demonstrate and teach these skills. Follett Collections doesn’t allow for any sort of criticality or specific organisation, so I know have another reason to invest in LibGuides!
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much for all your replies – they have given me a lot to think about! Jenny, I think you are right about cognitive load, and don’t want to make it harder by introducing another layer of understanding to something that is already quite tricky to grasp for the little ones. There are two things I need: 1. an ability to draw and 2. more knowledge about dual coding…!
I will think on this more, and let you know where we get to and how it comes together.
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