Our School District has launched an Inquiry Method within the Central Okanagan Public Schools using the Spirals of Inquiry. The Spirals of Inquiry method uses six key stages: scanning, focusing, developing a hunch, professional learning, taking action, and checking that a difference has been made. At each stage in the spiral, three questions are asked:
• What is going on for our learners?
• How do we know?
• Why does this matter?
Scanning Phase
Beginning in the spring of 2017, South Rutland embarked on an Inquiry Process on Student Engagement. "What is going on for our learners?" In order to create as large a scan of the learning landscape as possible, staff, students, and parents were involved in the process at various points. initially, staff participated in the scanning phase during the fall and winter of 2017, and were given time during multiple staff meetings, as well as Implementation Day, to discuss with colleagues what they were observing.
The results of our community scan highlighted the need an intentional focus on the following areas: Growth mindset, student metacognition, and students seeing themselves as learners. Our specific scan question were:
- Can you name 2 adults in our school who care about you? How do they show they care? How could they show you they care?
- When you think about all the different things you are learning right now, can you tell me what learning means? What is Learning? How do you know when you've learned something? Can you think of something that was really fun to learn? What is your favorite way of learning?
- What do you do when you are having a difficult time with your learning? What do you think and what do you feel when you are having a hard time?
School Focus
Results of our scans are shared with students, staff and parents at SRE. The results of our scans continue to highlight the need for an intentional focus on the following areas: Growth mindset, student metacognition, and students seeing themselves as learners. In the 2019-2020 school year a new theme evolved around building confidence in our students as learners in particular as it relates to numeracy and literacy.
Developing a Hunch
If we use the OECD's Principles of Learning to create opportunities for our students to learn about the things they are interested in, while using a growth mindset, they will: 1) know themselves as learners 2) grow as learners 3) and be more resilient.
Professional Learning
This year we have partnered extensively with the Collaborative Learning Services Team. This work consisted of "lunch and learns," collaborative planning and teaching, sending teachers out to other schools to observe innovative learning communities, and attending district-wide workshops.
Taking Action
Through our inquiry results the following staff moved forward with the following initiatives: Story boarding, kindness inquiry, and growth mindset language and lessons. With the support of the Collaborative Learning Services team these concepts were made accessible to all students in the school. It became noticeable during the scanning phase that we need to continue to focus on the social-emotional well being of our learners, and to continue to help them develop skills in resiliency. As well, as a staff, with the support of our parents, we have decided to have a focus on improving our students' writing abilities in the coming years. As a staff learning has continued around leveraging the OECD's Seven Principles of Learning make a positive impact on the Pedagogical Core and improve the learning situation for our students.
Checking
As we are learning inquiry continues to evolve in accordance with the needs or our community, we have continued with our scanning process. Early anecdotal results are positive as our students are better identifying themselves as "learners" and growth mindset language is becoming more consistent as students seek ways to add momentum to their learning. In the 2019-2020 school year the notion of developing student confidence has gained our attention.
Reflections/Aspirations on Inquiry Processes – Plans 2020-21
As we reflect on the on the 2019-20 school year and prepare for 2020-21 school year we have the following observations and aspirations for strategies, structures and accelerating factors that will continue to support collaborative inquiry at South Rutland Elementary.
Reflection/Aspirations on strategies that empower inquiry in our school.
Staff recognized that our partnerships with the CLS was instrumental to our continued growth. Through our collaboration with the CLS we were able to take time to understand and target areas of growth for our SRE (Seeing ourselves as Learners, Growth Mindset)
Reflection/Aspirations on structures that empower inquiry in your school.
Response to our current learning structure of lunch and learns, collaborative support, and flexibility have been well received. These structures will be maintained and enhanced by additional supports to utilize technology in our inquiry. We are looking forward to opportunities for increased collaboration as we continue our learning journey around building learning communities for both our students and adults at SRE. We are thankful for the support of School District #23, and in particular the Rutland Family of Schools, for the freedom to authentically explore factors leading to growth at SRE. In terms of staffing, support (financial and instructional) , and flexibility, SRE has tools to support our growth. We recognize that in partnering/collaborating with both within and beyond the walls of SRE we will find tools to accelerate growth. Initial response/results of these partnerships have been encouraging.
