Are you someone who is proactive? Are you responsible for maintaining and enhancing your own professional skills? Do you do this to enhance your own pedagogical development? If so you may just be on your way to becoming a very good enquiring practitioner.

An enquiring practitioner goes beyond the norm of personal enquiry and reflection. They have the ability to share and discuss their own knowledge with others and also to listen and retain information that others share with them. From doing this, as a professional, you will then be able to continuously develop on your own learning.

Professor John Hattie stated; “The biggest effects on student learning occur when teachers become learners of their own teaching”.

A teacher who is constantly learning and can be seen as an enquiring practitioner may research topics such as teaching techniques and adapt their own ways of teaching to facilitate the best learning possible for the children within their classroom.

There are numerous benefits that come with practicing to be an enquiring practitioner. Not only does it allow us, as teachers to monitor our own practice it also allows us to critically analysis our practice and challenge ourselves to become better and more professional practitioners.

By being an enquiring practitioner, we allow ourselves to continuously develop and enhance on our own learning and teaching abilities. By doing this, we are in control of setting out the best learning environment we can to teach our children in.

Being an enquiring practitioner also means that we can work together, collaboratively, with not only our colleagues but also the pupils within our classrooms. By working closely with these people, we can see what does and doesn’t work with others practice and also know that there is a safety net if you feel that advice or guidance on specific areas may be needed.

By working together, teachers can make sure that they are all working towards the same standards and guidelines to ensure that they are working towards the Curriculum for Excellence.

Alongside the benefits; we are also faced with numerous challenges when practicing to be an enquiring practitioner. For teachers who may have been in the profession for many years, or teachers who have a lower self-esteem, the thought of changing their ways to become an enquiring practitioner may cause problems due to anxiety’s and or a fear of a change. Due to this, it may be difficult for these teachers to open up and share their own experiences and knowledge with others which then hinders them from becoming the best practitioner they can.

Although there are challenges that face practitioners becoming an enquiring practitioner; the benefits outweigh them. Due to this, every teacher should try their hardest to overcome their fears of becoming an enquiring practitioner as there are so many positive outcomes that can be gained by not only yourself but also your colleagues and your pupils within your class.

As a student teacher, we have a responsibility to also practice as an enquiring practitioner. Whilst on placement as a professional, we will be put in new situations which we may not feel comfortable with but having the ability to adapt our teaching styles and work closely with other staff members we should have the ability to therefore overcome our anxiety’s to these new situations.

Practitioner enquiry impacts on us all both as students and fully qualified teachers. We need to have the ability to have higher expectations of ourselves; have the ability to be able to adapt to new situations and surroundings and be aware of ways to improve our own learning and utilise this within our practice in the classroom.