Reflect - Final Reflection​



​

"Collecting at its best is very far from mere acquisitiveness; it may become one of the most humanistic of occupations, seeking to illustrate by the assembling of significant reliques, the march of the human spirit in its quest for beauty."

 

Arthur Davison Ficke

(Quotation source)

​

Upon reflection of my inquiry journey, I have come to the realisation, that as an artist and teacher, I am not only a collector of aesthetic objects and interesting information, I am also a collector of questions (Lupton, 2012).  These questions are what drives my desire to play, experiment, ponder and create and to generate the essential questions that frame the big picture (Wiggins, 2007).  The next two questions, of my collection, are both simple and complex at the same time.

 

What makes me an inquiry learner?  What makes me a teacher of inquiry learning?

 

Murdoch (2018), in her own reflection on inquiry teaching, outlines a number of practices, that teachers engage in, to strengthen inquiry learning.  These practices provide some insight into both of the questions that I have posed. Indeed, what I have learnt, is that to be an effective teacher of inquiry, you must first immerse your own learning through the art of inquiry and model these practices to students (Murdoch, 2018; Smilan, 2012).

 

Provocations and rich stimulus are powerful motivators that cultivate curiosity (Murdoch, 2018; Bathurst-Hunt, 2018).  In my own opening phase, of this inquiry journey, I used artists, exhibitions and regional issues to inspire my learning and motivate me to dig deeper.  Through my explorations, I began to discover old connections, such as my previous Visual Art teacher, Jill Chism, who was engaging in her own inquiry processes and executing powerful, environmental messages through her resolved artworks.   This quite serendipitous discovery, provided a personal, authentic stimulus for myself to connect old knowledge with new discovery and questions and eventually a rich stimulus for the learners in which I was designing the unit of work.

 

Questions are central to inquiry learning and are presented in multiple forms.  When reviewing the unit of work that I had written previously, it was necessary to generate a number of questions to evaluate my own teaching practices.  Asking the right questions, allowed me to explore a whole new way of creating a unit of work, that is itself, rich in multiple questioning techniques and practices.  The greatest challenge is to release that power of questioning to students so that they can drive their own learning and create their own authentic connections (Murdoch, 2018).

 

Finally, I have noticed that through my journey, in both this inquiry unit and in my entire Master of Education studies, that I continually return to my visual arts background for inspiration and grounding in my understanding of new knowledge.  My learning is made real through this connection. Throughout all the challenges of learning new ICT practices and critically evaluating new theories and concepts, I am able to process this new information by connecting it to something that I find great value and reassurance in.  Inquiry learning is just that - building your assets through a continuous cycle of questioning, learning, connecting and reflecting.  Most importantly, it is essential that the questions are thoroughly developed and learners encounter and express information through multiple viewpoints as explored in the GeSTE windows framework (Lupton, 2016).

 

My inquiry journey continues with this question:

 

How can I express the value of inquiry learning to others in my new role as a teacher-librarian?