For me, an enquiring practitioner is a professional who is able to adapt the way they teach or learn based on critical research in to what works and what does not work. It is someone that is capable of reflecting upon their own previous teaching/learning and think critically about how they could better themselves. This evaluative process is intrinsic to being an enquiring practitioner.
The benefits of being an enquiring practitioner are that you are able to develop and improve the curriculum along with other teachers which would stop the curriculum from staying set and rigid and would mean it is constantly being modified to improve upon it therefore providing students with a better education over all. If this is the case for the curriculum then it enables general improvement of the educational institutions themselves and means that every school will not necessarily be teaching the same curriculum. It also provides teachers with a capacity for self-improvement in terms of the way they plan lessons and teach the curriculum. Being an enquiring practitioner would also mean that a teacher would be more likely to take constructive criticism and use it to refine their own lesson plans and style of teaching.
The challenges of being an enquiring practitioner I would imagine would be it would be difficult to align your way of thinking if you were not used to the process of enquiry and evaluation as it is difficult to challenge your own assumptions. Some would also argue that enquiry is fairly limited as it is contextual as even if one approach works in a school somewhere, it does not necessarily mean that the same way would work in a different place. The process of enquiry can also be rather slow as there is no real fixed end point as you can steadily continue to improve yourself for an indefinite period of time. Many classroom practioners who use enquiry can get off topic but the enquiry needs to be connected to teaching or learning.
I believe that if I want to be a successful teacher and continue to improve my teaching style and ability to educate that the process of enquiry and evaluation should be at the core of my planning and practice.
I was interested to read your post as you have highlighted some areas that I had not fully considered such as the ability to take constructive criticism. I also like the way that you can express your opinion in a clear and concise way (a skill that I need to work on!)
Have you considered perhaps adding links to articles/additional reading that you have used, for example where you say that “Some would also argue that enquiry is fairly limited…”
It will be interesting to see collaborative enquiry in action when we go out on placement and hopefully we can reflect and add to these posts as our understanding develops.
I am not really in the same mindset when I am writing an ePortfolio post as when I am writing an essay so I didn’t really think to include a bibliography or anything. I think I just used the articles that were in the PowerPoint for the most part. I am also interested to start the placements as we have done lots of theory so far but we have been unable to put any of it into action.
Interesting post Shaun. You write well with regards to the benefits of Practitioner Enquiry as well as mentioning some of the difficulties, which is good. I also agree with your view on how it can help to be a successful teacher. However, I would perhaps consider incorporating an image or a video clip in your next post. This would be more eye catching.
Overall, great post!
Really insightful piece, Shaun! Having had a couple of school placements under my belt has opened my eyes to how important it is to be an ‘enquiring practitioner’.
Do you think that CPD or other additional types of training can help practitioners who do not employ enquiry within their practice or do you think that it is possible to ‘align their way of thinking?’
I think that if the practitioner in question is open minded to new approaches then CPD or other types of training will indeed help them to better their practice but if they are set in their ways they will not respond well to it. In short, I think it all depends on the practitioner but believe that the training can be useful in some cases. Do you think CPD or other types of training can help non-enquiring practitioners?