Community of Inquiry as a framework for practice

School Improvement research has demonstrated that the single most important factor in determining the quality of education in our schools is the teacher in the classroom. We also know that teaching is a complex activity and understanding the relationship between teaching and learning is far from straightforward. Much attention has been given to the provision of initial and continuing education that can equip teachers to exercise judgement in the ambiguous, uncertain and immediate contexts of classrooms. However, finding sustainable means of developing such ‘transformative’ teachers (Menter et al., 2010) remains a challenge. The seminar will focus on how metacognitive approaches, increasingly recognised as having the potential to make learning in the classroom ‘visible’ (Hattie and Timperley, 2007), can provide the means of framing practice and support teachers in problem posing and problem solving in a professional learning community. Particular attention will be given to the Community of Inquiry as a framework for practice; we will examine the origins of the idea in the work of the American pragmatists and evaluate its application in social and educational settings.