Critical Inquiry in Professional Development
To support AST’s effort in building a teacher-led culture of professional excellence centered on the holistic development of our students, we strive to enhance research literacy and promote critical inquiry among the teaching fraternity.
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Critical Inquiry in Professional Development is a systematic approach that teachers adopt to reflect on and improve their practice. Critical Inquiry involves an area of inquiry in the classroom with the aim to refine classroom practices and enhance student learning. During the critical inquiry process, teachers identify learning needs and gaps, generate questions, develop ideas, examine strategies, gather evidence, and analyse data, to improve their classroom teaching and learning.
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By engaging in Critical Inquiry, we can:
- learn to adopt an intentional approach in generating questions;
- develop a systematic approach in gathering information and analysis;
- engage in reflective practice, which integrates the 3 aspects of teaching – Theory, Research and Practice; and most importantly,
- refine and improve our classroom practices, and enhance your students’ learning!
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We strive to build a culture in which teachers view the critical inquiry of their teaching and learning as an integral part of their professional practice. To nurture such a culture, situating critical inquiry in professional learning communities within schools is a first step.
AST also provides the following support to encourage teachers to embark on their Critical Inquiry journey:
Critical Inquiry Courses
AST designs and organises a series of courses to equip teachers with the knowledge and skills in conducting critical inquiry for their professional development. Sign up for a course of your choice through OPAL2.0.
As reflective practitioners, teachers in professional learning communities can make use of various critical inquiry methods to systematically investigate their instructional practices. This will help them reflect upon and refine their classroom practices collaboratively, to continually improve student learning.