Spiral of Inquiry

10 Centre for Strategic Education Seminar Series Paper No. 234, April 2014FocusingWhere will concentrating our energiesmake the most difference?Thorough scanning provides a shared pictureof what is going on for learners. The focusingphase requires us to ask: Where are we going toconcentrate our energies so that we can changethe experiences and outcomes for our learners?We said earlier that it is important to ‘getstarted’. However, it is also important to avoidthe temptation at this stage to rush into ‘doingsomething’. The ‘let’s just get going’ spiritneeds to be resisted – not forever but for longenough to increase the odds that our actionswill have the impact we desire. We need tohave the courage and patience to slow downand develop a deeper understanding of what isworth spending time on before moving to hastyaction. Focusing well will lead to informedaction.The scan will invariably lead to many newperspectives on the experiences of learners andthe challenge is to determine which area toconcentrate on as a start. We need to considerfocus areas with high leverage in addressingimportant issues and, at the same time, ensurethat the chosen direction is manageable.Making it manageable usually means selectingno more than one or two areas – otherwisewe can become overwhelmed with multiplesometimes artificial separations are createdbetween areas of learning when they couldbe strengthened by being combined.demands and nothing may change. ‘Focusedand deep’ rather than ‘scattered and shallow’ isthe goal. Don’t try to do everything all at oncebecause in reality this will mean less is learnedand changes will be superficial.At the same time, sometimes artificialseparations are created between areas oflearning when they could be strengthened bybeing combined. For example, in one group ofschools in which we worked, the scan showedboth that learners disliked mathematics andtheir achievement was low. The staff askedthemselves, ‘Should we focus on deepeningunderstanding of mathematics or should wefocus on students’ attitudes to mathematics?’ Ifwe return to the learning principles, we can seethat emotion is integral to learning, so attendingto attitudes while deepening understanding wasthe way to go.In another example, the scanning processrevealed that many learners were weak inbringing ‘voice’ to their writing and were alsodisconnected from the elders in the community.The school team decided to focus on bothwriting and community connectedness, andtackle two of the key learning principlessimultaneously.A secondary school scan revealed that a largenumber of their learners were unable to providestrong answers to a key metacognitive question,‘Where are you going with your leaning?’ Alot of learners also expressed dissatisfactionwith the type of assignments they were askedto complete. So the team decided to focus onboth assessment for learning, with a particularemphasis on clarity of intentions, as well asensuring that the assignments they created werechallenging, engaging and without excessiveoverload.At the focusing stage we also need to return tothe central questions of the spiral of inquiry‘What’s going on for our learners?’ and ‘Howdo we know?’ Once a focus is selected, weusually need to collect further evidence to geta deeper understanding of what is going on. Aswell as exploring more deeply the problems andchallenges, we must be careful not to forget thestrengths and positives. In every setting thereare lots of things that are working for somelearners. Surfacing what is working providesimportant information about strengths on