Saturday, April 7, 2007

The Inquiry Cycle (in a linear post)

After we introduced ourselves, Cindy asked us to think about the inquiry cycle, as inquiry is why we're here. It's really hard to draw a cycle diagram right now, so imagine that each of these steps fits into each other and feeds each other. Sometimes, we change our question, or we re-collect more data, or we report and that changes our question, etc. Hopefully, this little list will help you to remember the cycle and how it works.

  1. What do I want to know? We get fascinated in or curious about a piece of our teaching. That's asking questions.

  2. How will I find out? We start collecting data about that piece of our teaching. That's, um, data collection.

  3. How do I make sense of what I've found? Looking at the data with a critical lens can help us to identify patterns and connections that we didn't seen before. That's data analysis.

  4. How do I share what I've learned? Now that I understand that piece of my teaching better, how do I share what I've learned? That's reporting or sharing your findings.

  5. Now you have new questions. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

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