Thought Six

Define inquiry, kidwatching, and responsive teaching? How are they related to one another? 

Adding to our list of educational jargon, this week, I am going to define, explore, and compare and contrast three concepts: inquiry, kidwatching, and responsive teaching. Inquiry is a word one will see scattered throughout the educational world. From inquiry-based learning to inquiry education, inquiry seems to be crucial to education. Yet, what is inquiry? In short, inquiry is the process of asking or posing questions about something. To better understand inquiry, it is easiest to look at some of the terms I mentioned before: inquiry-based learning and inquiry education. Inquiry-based learning is a type of active learning that is meant to make students pose questions, problems, and scenarios. This type of learning contrasts this traditional education. In traditional education, teachers present the facts to the students. Yet, in inquiry-based learning, students are learning through engaging with content and materials, asking questions, and sharing their thoughts and ideas with their peers and teacher. In the same respect, inquiry learning is also a very student-centered way of teaching, were the focus is also on asking questions to further and prosper learning. Inquiry emphasizes the students' role in their learning process.

Another very student-centered educational practice we are looking at is kid watching. Kidwatching is an educational technique of observing students purposefully and intentionally. One of the main goals of this practice is to learn more about students as individuals and learners. Kidwatching is meant for teachers to identify and gain insight into student interest and behavior, as well as, their learning styles and strengths. This practice is not a formal assessment, rather a series of anecdotes of student development that can be shared with parents and administrators. Kidwatching is essential making a observational scrapbook of how and when students engage in learning. In her article, "It's All About Looking Closely and Listening Carefully", Ms. Heidi Mills defines the stance of kidwatching as a, "seek-to-understand stance by attempting to look at life, literacy, and learning through the children's eyes" (Mills, 2005). In relation to inquiry, we can look at kidwatching as its own form of inquiry for educators; How are my students learning? What techniques are engaging them the most? By asking themselves these questions, and observing students to answer them, educators can utilize inquiry in their kidwatching. Kidwatching, like inquiry, also has a. strong emphasis on student engagement in learning. Inquiry immerses students into learning, while kidwatching informs teachers on how to immerse students into learning.

Last, but certainly not least, we look at the term, responsive teaching. Responsive teaching is the process of educators stepping in and out of a learning activity to support student's individual needs and growing independence. Responsive teaching's main goal is for learning trends to be discovered and acted upon in a timely manner. An easy way to think of responsive teaching is to think of a trade school, students watch someone who has mastered something do it and, in turn, students are able to learn through watching and responded to instruction. Just as a student in a literature classroom could learn from hearing a author, or "master of literature", read. Like the previous two terms we have looked at, responsive teaching is also very student-centered. Responsive teaching allows students to have a hold of and role in their own education, just as inquiry does. If a teacher was to successfully incorporate all three of these terms into instruction, students would be in for a world of education and practice molded to their specific needs, thoughts, and opinions.

What kind of “naturally occurring data” can I collect in my field experience/workplace?