Collaborative Enquiry in Networked Learning Communities Jane McGregor, Darren Homes, Julie Temperley BERA School Improvement Symposium 2004

Collaborative enquiry interacts with three fields of knowledge The knowledge that we bring to the table Publicly available knowledge from theory and research New knowledge created by collaborative practice

Collaborative Enquiry in NLCs Collaborative enquiry is designed to involve a group of school or network members, collaborating and investigating together in order to learn more about an aspect of the school/community/network environment in order to enhance the learning and experience of young people. It is intended to move beyond the people undertaking the enquiry to involve the wider community within and between schools. Collaborative enquiry contributes to adult learning in context. (Jackson et al., Forthcoming)

Characteristics of collaborative enquiry taking the current school context as the starting point problematising the day to day work ( not making assumptions about what is going on, but questioning what is taken for granted) building out from what has gone before and what is already known engaging in a process of investigation that is rigorous and disciplined in relation to purpose ensuring that data gathering and analysis are understood by all involved to be an essential part of the process the process of knowledge creation representing findings in such a way that they can be accessed by other teachers.

Typical enquiry activities Percentage of networks Typical activities 43% Leaders  Teachers leading and coordinating enquiry projects (for example, creating expertise diaries)  Lead learners using enquiry as a tool for school improvement  Classroom observation and feedback 36% Teachers  Engaged in training in enquiry process or foci (e.g. thinking skills)  Sharing learning in cross-school groups enquiry groups – e.g. providing feedback on enquiry, giving presentations or peer review.  Collaborative enquiry groups including paired research, groups studying enquiry data.  Classroom observation and coaching 13% Headteacher s  Creating conditions for enquiry  Planning and evaluation  Mostly involved at the network level. (Kubiak et al., In preparation)

Pupil Involvement in NLC enquiry pupil perception questionnaires and surveys feedback on teaching and learning pupil intervisitations and ‘learning walks’ pupils as co-researchers Students as Researchers

Some future possibilities for ‘networked’ enquiry. Iterative research between groups of researchers within a network Enhanced capacity for long term development of enquiry in schools Moving from projects to a culture of enquiry A national network of practitioners able to support enquiry