I have recently begun a new unity of inquiry with my Early Years class, Central Idea, ‘A School Community is Organised to Meet the Needs of the Learner’. It has been an inquiry that I have been looking forward to for some time. I have watched with interest as other educators have begun their year with an empty learning space and allowed their students the opportunity to create and develop the space for themselves. I had contemplated the idea at the beginning of the year but considering the age of my students decided against. Maybe it was my own insecurities but I thought that maybe with the age of the children they needed to arrive at a place that was already prepared and could begin to make connections, familiarity, feel settled and develop routine. I held off with my ambitious plan until our second inquiry which presented the perfect opportunity to take risks. I could hear Taryn BondClegg’s rally cry at the end of Summer that ‘This was the year to take risks!’
I believe the ‘Why’ of the new inquiry should be to develop the children’s understanding of themselves as learners within the school community. Developing a sense of how, where and why we learn. Students beginning to recognise themselves as independent and responsible learners who can take ownership of every aspect of their learning experience. Placing themselves at the centre of their learning.
What if instead of pre-planning approaches to learning I allowed student-agency to be the sole driving force of our learning? Reflection of learning has to be at the centre of our practice so throughout our inquiry there will be ample time to reflect on the specific skills used, needed and supported within our activities but they will no longer be the driving force, student-agency will. Surely throughout the course of the inquiry all the skills will be addressed in a more natural way rather than being prepared and planned for at the beginning of the inquiry?
And so with student-agency being the only driving force we have begun our new inquiry. After completing our first week I have been pleasantly surprised with the level of ownership that has already been achieved. From an empty classroom the children have made huge progress in developing their learning space. Communication, thinking and social skills are evidence in abundance. The class conversations and decision making when creating their space has been impressive. To listen as the young learners voice their opinions and explain their thought processes has been a wonderful experience.
The students have also been given ownership on how and when they learn. They had originally been given choice of activities based on a more traditional timetable. After some discussion we came to the conclusion that even this was still restrictive to the children’s learning. We have since created a new approach which will provide greater opportunities and choice for the children to take ownership of their own learning. A central theme within our inquiry is that choices can be made on what we must do, should do or could do. We have then decided on creating a timetable for the day based around these choices. Our next step in our inquiry will be developing the children’s understanding of setting personal goals. There is so much more to go with this inquiry but I was just to excited to share our learning journey so far. It has been amazing to witness the children demonstrating so much ownership even at these early stages of our inquiry. Who knows where it will lead but it will definitely be student-agency that will be leading they way.
InquiryBeing 