COLLABORATION MINDMAP
COLLABORATIVE INQUIRY is a self-directed learning experience that promotes professional growth and development. Its intention is to address a burning question or concern that is held by two or more people.
Relevant and meaningful to participants
Requires collaboration and cooperation amongst the participants
designed to advance or promote the change of an outcome or a practice
Respects and values diversity
Respect judgments and opinions
Is adaptive to the participants needs & the process
Uses formative assessment and data to drive decision making
Demonstrates a growth mindset
is self-regulated learning
is forward thinking
is cyclical
Collaborative Inquiry Questions:
• How can we facilitate the growth of rapport between participants?
• How will we know if we have made a big enough difference?
Collaborative Inquiry: A Facilitator's Guide - 4 Stage process
1. Problem Framing: determine a shared vision; develop an inquiry that links ProD with student achievement; and formulate a theory of action.
Determine a meaningful focus
Determine a shared vision
Narrow your focus using the Sphere of Concern vs the Sphere of Influence
Write your Purpose Statement
Develop your Inquiry Question
Formulate your Theory of Action
Identify your underlying assumptions
2. Collecting Evidence: determine what types of data to collect; how, where, and when to collect the data.
Identify the types of data you want to collect/ consider
Decide on what, where, when, and why you are collecting your data; and by whom.
3. Analyzing Evidence: analyze data for meaningful patterns and themes with the goal of formulating conclusions.
Organize your data
Read the data
Describe your data
Classify your data; consider creating a coding system to identify common information
Interpret your data and think about how it impacts your instruction
4. Celebrating and Sharing: inquiry teams come together to share their new understandings and celebrate their work
Write a report outlining your findings
Learning Forward Ontario. (2011). Collaborative inquiry: A Facilitator’s Guide. Learning Forward Ontario: MISA London Reg. London, (pp. 1-37).
Example of COLLABORATIVE INQUIRY: Administrators and teachers gain a better understanding of the reading challenges experienced by emerging students at their school.
Schon's constructivist theory of human perception and thought processes: through the execution of 'move-testing experiments' (involving action and reflection), a designer is actively constructing a view of the world based on his/her experiences" (Valkenburg & Dorst, 1998, p. 251). Applied to CI Think: naming your concerns; framing the problem/ stage of inquiry; moving to investigate, collect, and interpret data; and reflecting consistently throughout the process.
“Developing a shared understanding of the goals and values for the inquiry takes time and is challenging because CI learning may require participants to adopt values and practices that move them out of their comfort zone and create tensions amongst group members” (Given et al. 2010; as cited in DeLuca, et al., 2017, p. 653; as cited by Sherry, PME 801 Coggle Map).
COLLABORATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING is a professional initiative where participants work together to deepen their understandings, find solutions to a given problem, and/or to change an outcome.
Jonassen (2000) writes that a problem consists of two critical attributes (p. 65).
1. A problem is an unknown entity and there is a difference between a ‘goal state’ and an ‘initial or current state.’
2. The findings for the current unknown state are worthwhile to solve and they must have some social, cultural, or intellectual value.
PROBLEM SOLVING VARIES IN 3 WAYS:
1. Problem Type
2. Problem Representation
3. Individual Differences (p. 72)
based on an identified need or concern
is authentic
relevant to the participants work and worth their investment in time and energy
is based on a shared vision
addresses an issue that the participants have the power to implement change
is manageable, which promotes buy-in and commitment
(A Facilitator’s Guide document, 2011, p. 1)
Collaborative Problem-Solving Questions:
• What elements of interactive read alouds increases student comprehension and vocabulary skills?
• How does individual student conferencing improve engagement during independent reading time?
WELL-STRUCTURED PROBLEMS
• Often found in schools, universities
• All problem elements presented to learner
• predictive and prescriptive
• All problem states known
• Domain specific
• Direct instruction
• Relies on domain general skills
• Information Processing theory
• Use of Schema Theory
• variables are constrained
• Finite number of concepts, rules, and principles
ILL-STRUCTURED PROBLEMS
• Everyday life; professional life
• Non-domain specific; or may require combination of content domains
• typically emergent in nature
• solutions are not predictable/ convergent
• Infinite; undefined number of solutions
• Problem hard to define
• Shares assumptions with constructivism and situated cognition
• Needs a different set of skills
o Metacognition
o augmentative
o communication patterns
AWARENESS OF PERSONAL / SOURCES OF BIAS
Omission Bias
Vividness Bias
Confirmation Bias
Three Main Processes Involved 1. Dialogical Sharing 2. Taking Action 3. Reflecting
Example of COLLABORATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING: Teachers explore how to increase student self-regulation skills during unstructured play time.
PERCEIVED IMPACT ON TEACHERS (DeLuca & Chan, 2017, pp. 73-74)
POSITIVE IMPACT ON TEACHERS
BENEFITS TO TEACHERS (DeLuca et al., 2015, p. 650)
1. Development of Content & pedagogical knowledge & skills to enhance teaching and student learning. 2. Development of a teacher learning community. 3. Opportunities for teacher leadership
TABLE 5
1. Improved instructional design to engage students. 2. Influenced ability to differentiate. 3. Increased incorporation of student voice, perspectives, and interests. 4. Improved ability to offer descriptive feedback to students. 5. Increased desire to engage in professional development
TABLE 6 - IMPACT ON STUDENTS
1. Working collaboratively with peers on shared task. 2. Increased confidence in learning. 3. Increased understanding of key concepts. 4. Displays greater inquiry skills. 5. Improved ability to make choices.
FACTORS INHIBITING CI
TABLE 3
1. Lack of student willingness to try new things. 2. Collected evidence hard to understand. 3. Lack of being heard by others. 4. Fear of wasting instructional time. 5. Lack of ability in knowing what counts as evidence. 6. Shifts in school focus/direction during CI. 7. Amount of time required to participate in CI - impact on teaching time.
TABLE 4
1. CI work seen as another "add-on" 2. CI seen as teachers having to figure out the process alone "inefficient" 3. CI work lacks relevance for particular teacher context 4. Lack of support (admin; facilitator) 5. Out-of-touch experts
COLLABORATION IS the voluntary coming together of two or more people to explore a given topic or concept.
Self-initiated & motivated
Shows desire to work & communicate on a shared professional endeavour
Creates something new; deepens an understanding
Requires time, patience, generosity, trust & respect
Explores ideas in a new way
Values diversity
Asks team members to be vulnerable
Collaboration Questions:
• How can we inspire the growth of a collaborative environment at our school?
• How much time do we need to set aside to collaborate with others in a meaningful way?
Example of COLLABORATION: Microsoft teams or Zoom conference call planning session
COLLABORATIVE DESIGN starts with participants coming together with shared interests in wanting to deepen, advance, and/or change an outcome.
A meaningful focus/goal
Teachers' must "own" the process
The development of a shared vision
A well-defined inquiry question statement using “How” or “What” (not to be confused with the structure of the problem).
A determination of what data needs to be collected and how
Determination of when and where to meet and how much time will be committed to the process
A description of the steps to take throughout the process/ methodology
Cyclical learning overtime
Considers learning needs overtime
It is important to "apply[] the detailed mechanism of naming, framing, moving and reflecting onto a total design project reveals large-scale strategies" (Valkenburg & Dorst, 1998, p. 266)
Articulates the relationship between current state and goal state.
Plots a course for the professional development activity to increase learning, which translates into a change in practice (Katz, 2014, p. 36)
One example of inquiry is to follow an Inquiry Cycle of Steps found in Katz & Ain Dack’s (2014) Towards a culture of inquiry for data use in schools: Breaking down professional learning barriers through intentional interruptions (p. 38).
1. Develops an inquiry question using “How” or “What” statement
2. Develops a working hypothesis and investigation plan, e.g., what’s the intervention plan? Why?
3. Determines success criteria and evidence to be collected (how, what, why)
4. Implement the plan
5. Analyze the evidence
6. Reflect on the learning
7. Determine the next steps to continue the inquiry cycle
Tools/Resources: What resources will be needed to support the inquiry:
Release time to collaborate
Professional books
Administrators support
Financial aid (if appropriate)
Assessment tools 0 commercial/ teacher made
Alignment of Provincial Curriculum