Week 31 notes

Evaluation of the potential impact of the findings that you suggested in the Action Plan

This week, you move into the ‘Check’ phase of the Spiral Inquiry. In this phase, you should find out whether the Inquiry has made enough of a difference and how you know this. You should also set the stage for what comes next.

In week 17, you scanned the current needs of your community(ies). The Research Essay (as explained in the class notes of weeks 19 and 20) also helped you to be more research-informed about how the topic and research question of the Inquiry could help to meet those needs. In week 24, you developed the anticipation of the Inquiry’s impact on the community(ies) you engaged with and their needs. Now, it’s time to go back and evaluate the actual impact the Inquiry could have with the evidence you have reflected on from week 30’s task.

Here are the questions to help you to address the potential impact of your findings that were suggested in the class notes of week 24 when the action plan was finished.

• What are the possible benefits (and disadvantages of the inquiry)?
• How might it impact on your communities or your practice?

Here are some additional questions (optional) that were also suggested in those class notes.

• How will the outcomes contribute to the topic area you are investigating (after you implement your Action Plan)?
• How will the outcomes from the Action Plan impact on your practice and/or members of your community?
• How will the outcomes from the Action Plan impact on the perception of members of your community about the topic area?

The data/feedback you collected during the ‘Take Action’ phase of the Inquiry should be analysed and interpreted by now to provide you with the evidence on which your evaluation should be based.

You should look at the impact you anticipated and the actual impact you have seen, how are they different from each other? How are they similar to each other? Is / are there any unexpected impact(s)? What does the obtained evidence support? What does the evidence not support?

Evaluation of the impact on future Inquiry/practice

From what the evidence shows and the difference between the anticipated and actual impact of the findings, what can you learn from the Inquiry? What would you do differently in the next cycle of the Inquiry or your practice and what would you do similarly? You should also provide support from the evidence for the answers to those questions.

Stoll and Temperley (2015) have summarised the impact of Spiral Inquiry observed at fifteen primary and secondary schools in the UK. The report (required)highlights the impact on students such as improvement in reading and an increase in the ‘love of reading’, more students feeling trusted and believed by teachers, increase in engagement, greater awareness of the way and the reason they learn, improved self-assessment, more willingness to take a challenge. The increased awareness of their children’s learning challenges, active engagement, improved communication and positive feedback are the reported impact on the parents.

The 2015 publication from Stoll and Temperley also indicates the impact for participating staff (enthusiasm, passion, collaboration, and having a shared focus), other staff (active interest in getting involved), and leadership (changes in beliefs and practice; increased engagement, understanding, focus on new thinking and collaborative enquiry). The impact on wider aspects such as professional learning and enquiry processes, school culture/enquiry mindset is also discussed.

Considering what would you do differently in the next cycle of the Inquiry or your practice and what would you do similarly, Table 1 shows the questions for several different groupings, who could involve in the implementation of Spiral Inquiry, to stimulate further conversations (Stoll and Temperley, 2015).

Table 1: Questions for further discussion on Spiral Inquiry (Adapted from Stoll and Temperley (2015)).

Grouping	Questions
Leaders of schools and groups of schools	What have been be the benefits and challenges of this Inquiry in your school/across your schools that you have learned from? How would you alleviate the challenges in the future? How amenable is your school culture to change which challenges current practice?
Teachers	How might the Inquiry help you improve learning for your pupils and advance your practice? Are there other teachers in your school that you could work with on future Inquiry? How would you get others on board?

Examples of impact/outcome of Spiral Inquiry

You can look at the examples of the impact/outcome of Spiral Inquiry in networks of schools in the US and Canada that are discussed in 2011 publication of Judy Halbert, Linda Kaser & Debbie Koehn (Supplementary). Examples of implementation of Spiral Inquiry at New Zealand schools are shown on the web pages of The Ministry of Education, Primary school teachers use maths assessment to increase student agency, Stories from the field. You might learn from these examples for future Inquiry.

THIS WEEK’S ASSESSMENT ACTIVITY

Activity 7: Evaluate how your Inquiry impacts on future Inquiry/practice 

Create a reflective entry to evaluate how your inquiry impacts on the community(ies) you engaged with, their current needs, and your future inquiry/practice. We strongly recommend that your reflection for this activity is based on a reflective model such as Rolfe's model, which we have broken into these three steps below, relevant theories/frameworks are linked to the reflection, and reference sources are included.

Step 1: What is the observed impact after the ‘Take Action’ phase?

What does the evidence from the ‘Take Action’ phase show? What are the observed impacts of the Inquiry that are supported by the evidence? What are the observed impacts of the Inquiry that are not supported by the evidence?

Step 2: How is the observed impact different from or similar to the anticipated one?

How different is the observed impact from the anticipated ones at the end of ‘Learn’ phase? How similar are the observed impact to the anticipated ones? How can the difference(s)/similarity(ies) be explained. Is there any unexpected impact of the Inquiry?

Step 3: What is the impact on future inquiry/practice?

What can you learn from the first two steps above? What would you do differently in the next cycle of the Inquiry or your practice and what would you do similarly? You can also use one or more questions shown in Table 1 or select other wider frameworks or theories for this step of the reflection, or develop your own.

* Please note that the above questions serve as a guide to your reflection. When writing your reflective journal, you do not have to answer each and every question.

References

Halbert, J., Kaser, L., & Koehn, D. (2011). Spirals of Inquiry: Building Professional Inquiry to Foster Student Learning. Paper presented at 24th International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement. Limassol, Cyprus. Retrieved from http://www.icsei.net/icsei2011/Full%20Papers/0053.pdf

Ministry of Education (n.d.). Primary school teachers use maths assessment to increase student agency. Retrieved from http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Teaching/Snapshots-of-Learning/Spirals-of-inquiry-Maths-assessment

Ministry of Education (n.d.). Stories from the field. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Leading-learning/Spiral-of-inquiry-leaders-leading-learning/Stories-from-the-field

Stoll, L., and Temperley, J. (2015). Narrowing the Gap with Spirals of Enquiry: Evaluation of Whole Education’s Pilot. Whole Education, UK. Retrieved from http://www.wholeeducation.org/download,634