Creando Comunidades de Indagación (Creating Communities of Inquiry)

A collaboration between Project Zero and Innova Schools Network to develop a culture of inquiry-driven teaching and learning.

IN: Cognition, Thinking & Understanding - Collaboration & Group Learning - Leadership & Organizational Learning - Adult & Lifelong Learning

Overview

High-quality inquiry-based learning can be transformative for students and educators alike. However, it often happens in isolated pockets: in particular classrooms or subject areas, within the practices of certain educators, or at isolated moments across the school day. How might inquiry-based teaching and learning become broadly embedded across entire networks of schools, including those that are highly centralized and have limited resources? What are some specific challenges for these networks and how can they be overcome? And how can individuals within these networks be supported to make necessary shifts in their mindsets about teaching and learning?

These questions, which are relevant to many schools and school systems around the world, are being pursued by the Creando Comunidades de Indagación (Creating Communities of Inquiry) project—a collaborative investigation between Project Zero and the Innova Schools of Peru. For two years, the project explored the structures, processes, and practices that influence and promote a culture of inquiry-driven teaching and learning; the dispositions and shifts in mindset associated with the development of such a culture; and interventions to support educators and administrators in this work. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the project focus pivoted to address the role of inquiry-based teaching and learning in online learning. Project Zero collaborated with Innova’s curriculum design team as Innova sought to introduce new online curricula inspired by project-based learning (PBL). Project Zero is now working intensively with coaches and academic coordinators at Innova to help teachers implement this new PBL-inspired curriculum and develop practices that promote inquiry in their classrooms.

The work will culminate in vignettes of practice, tools, and other writings in Spanish and English that aim to help others learn from Innova’s work. The materials will invite educators to consider opportunities, challenges, and tools related to inquiry-based teaching and learning in their own teaching and learning contexts, both online and in person.