For active inquiries within an outside of the classroom, an instructor would benefit from:

1. Cultivating sound habits of mind such as open-mindedness

2. Appreciating the importance of perspective

3. Adopting an empowering methodology that doesn't really have to teach students to think but encourages them to think about how they think (metacognition), and the ways in which they can deepen, refine and solidify that.

4. Having and engendering the ability to locate loopholes in reasoning and argumentation; identifying fallacies

5. Facilitating opportunities for students to apply the skills they learn, in a relevant and meaningful way

Daniel,

From my experience, abilities to support a classroom atmosphere of excitement about learning about the world, creativeness, inquisitiveness, risk taking, and uncertainty are primary attributes of the successful inquiry-based instructor. These categories encompass multitudes of skills, attributes, and dispositions.

At the same time as partnering with students and/or guiding students through their inquiries, teachers should also experience the excitement of conducting their own inquiries, most frquently designed to assess the impact of their own instructional approaches on student performance.

You might wish to check out scientific-practices.com and anovascience.com. Both feature the Research Investigation Process (RIP) that was developed to implement scientific inquiry-based instructional and learning skills into the Grades K-12 classroom. The RIP model has been designated exemplary science education program" and was just designated "exemplary STEM program" by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). [See press release http://www.einpresswire.com/article/202281791/nsta-designates-anova-science-education-s-rip-ing-through-stem-exemplary.

In addition to Robert Landsman's contribution, there must be a good philosophical understanding of behaviorism, cognitivism and constructivism in teaching and learning. This will help in positioning active base inquiry in it right perspective and context. The teachers must also have knowledge in design base research and participatory action research which are very well known in educational research. The teacher's knowledge of these research methods will be very useful.

I would recommend two sources:

The Teaching for Understanding (TfU) framework, from Project Zero, Harvard University. Authors: David Perkins, Howard Gardner, Stone-Wiske, Veronica Boix-Mansilla.

The "Community of Inquiry" (CoI), used mainly in online learning, but also applicable to any teaching and learning modality. Authors: Garrison, Anderson, Archer.

Both as a researcher and as a teacher trainer I am involved in teacher practitioner research in their own classrooms. One of the things teachers need to be able to deal with as a researcher is uncertainty, furthermore an open mind is important and the willingness to question your own practice. Just some ideas...

For active inquiries within an outside of the classroom, an instructor would benefit from:

1. Cultivating sound habits of mind such as open-mindedness

2. Appreciating the importance of perspective

3. Adopting an empowering methodology that doesn't really have to teach students to think but encourages them to think about how they think (metacognition), and the ways in which they can deepen, refine and solidify that.

4. Having and engendering the ability to locate loopholes in reasoning and argumentation; identifying fallacies

5. Facilitating opportunities for students to apply the skills they learn, in a relevant and meaningful way

Hi Daniel,

A new article we just published highlights some of the key mindsets and dispositions required for engaging in Japanese lesson study--a rigorous form of teacher inquiry we experienced while teaching for seven years in Japan.

The five elements we emphasize are: fashioning a coherent lesson storyline, articulating and testing working hypotheses, relying on evidence to guide planning and reflection, embracing collective ownership of improvement, and persisting with problems over time.

The full article is open-access and available for download at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262568082_Learning_to_learn_from_teaching_A_first-hand_account_of_lesson_study_in_Japan

Article Learning to learn from teaching: A first-hand account of les...

One must learn to really listen. Not to assume, not to project, not to pontificate, but to listen.

For many teachers it is the fear of loss of control that may happens if the activities are not well designed. Confidence is key

confident, competent and humble (the ability to say I do not know ---let's find out together)---an understanding that a good scientist/researcher/practitioner is not about having the right answer it is about having the right question, they should be highly energetic and effective in the use of time on task, they should be self-actualized--- which allows one to move beyond biases and be open to new experiences, new challenges, new possibilities and finally they should be able to engage in divergent thinking and facilitate that ability in others

Teacher should also be open and accept the reality that they can "learn while they teach others"......teacher needs to be well informed with the content of delivery... many a times teachers are over confident and miss to update with the latest information...

It might depend on what kind of classroom-based active inquiry you might want to establish. Inquiry Based Learning seems to be used several forms: confirmatory -structured -guided -open inquiry (Bianchi & Bell, 2008). More closed forms of inquiry such as confirmatory and structured inquiry might induce more traditional teaching, while guided and especially open inquiry require teachers to take an open stance- which is quite accurately described by the replies here above. In the most open form of inquiry, the one in which students formulate and investigate their own questions, we have found that teachers not only need an open stance, but also sufficient pedagogical content knowledge to activate prior knowledge and pre-concepts and to evoke a cognitive conflict that leads to student questioning. Teachers should be able to offer structured freedom: Freedom in allowing new perspectives emerging interests and so on, but also the structure to make sense of new findings and building collective knowledge. The greatest challenge however might be to realize this in classroom settings

Qualities that practitioners of action research must possess. These include;

i) a deep understanding of the system of education,

ii) an in-depth vision and insight into the school and classroom based activities and practices,

iii) quest for new knowledge, through seeking solution to existing concerns,

iv) a desire for improved performance in schools and classrooms,

v) self-reflective activity, that include self-criticism and self-analysis, and

vi) willingness to effect changes through constant identificationof issues that require strengthening.

These are the basic qualities of practitioner of action research and simultaneously have the capacity to offer other colleagues a better understanding of what happens within our schools. These qualities of an action researcher help to set up a decisionmaking cluster that guides the various levels of school planning exercises, keeping the school context in mind. This approach then helps to have in place meaningful and effective school improvement plan that accelerates the school improvement efforts.

Research skills according to the need and requirement of the subjects and curriculum.

The objective which is required to be achieve.

The goals to which the institution want to reach.

This is a continuous activity not a static or for a time being

If the focus is on teachers who can engage students in active inquiry then it would seem sensible for teachers to model this through their curiosity, risk-taking, synthesisng, problem-finding, problem solving dispositions. Critical curiosity would seem to be very important.

This line of thinking is somethign we explored in a report exploring the implications for pedagogy:

Technical Report Pedagogic Leadership: creating cultures and practices for ou...

The desire to learn, analyze, investigate, deduce, higher-order thinking skills.

Good Contribution Bill Lucas.

Thank You Irshad Ullah.