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Students are at the heart of the spiral of inquiry approach. ©Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock

We recently shared the story of a Queensland school that has implemented individual development plans for teachers What is the spiral of inquiry? And, how can this approach to professional learning be used to support the complex work of leaders and teachers, and improve student learning? after a series of professional learning workshops on the spiral of inquiry with Dr Helen Timperley. What is the spiral of inquiry and, typically, who is involved?
Teacher spoke to Timperley (Professor Emeritus of Education at the University of Auckland) and colleagues Dr Fiona Ell (Associate Dean and Head of Teacher Education), Dr Deidre Le Fevre (Head of Graduate Programs in Educational Leadership), and Dr Kaye Twyford (Lecturer in Educational Leadership) to find out more.

The spiral of inquiry is a systematic process for investigating and improving learner outcomes; academic, social and wellbeing. There are many calls for teachers to use inquiry as part of their practice because of its associations with improved outcomes for marginalised learners. It has potential for challenging the sometimes invisible assumptions that keep ineffective practices going despite professional learning initiatives or the reading of books or provision of resources to teachers. Sometimes these calls for improvement come with cycles for inquiry, outlining the steps teachers and leaders should take to make inquiry happen.

The spiral of inquiry provides a framework for teachers and leaders to use, but it makes it clear that it is an ongoing process rather than a one-off cycle that is engaged with and then put aside until 'next time'. The spiral of inquiry is a tool for changing mindsets and fundamental approaches to what it is to teach and lead in schools.
Can you take readers through each of the six stages?
Because of its intention to make these fundamental shifts, it works when everyone is involved, starting with the learners. This starting point is imperative. The experience of using the spiral to improve learner outcomes is a collaborative one, where leaders, teachers and learners work together throughout the process. For many schools it works best when everyone, from the teachers of the youngest learners to the teachers of the oldest learners, work together with a shared student focus.

The stages: are scanning; focusing; developing hunches; learning; taking action; and, checking. Each has an important part to play in the success of the spiral.

The spiral always begins with students. Scanning is about gathering information about students' experiences and looking at it together, asking questions, seeking patterns and deepening understanding based on evidence from learners. The evidence might be about academic outcomes, using tools such as PAT (Progressive Achievement Tests) or NAPLAN (the National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy), or diagnostic tests of mathematics or reading comprehension. Or it might be about engagement, emotional safety, feelings of belonging, wellbeing, friendships or relationships within the school. Ideally, it is about both because they are so closely related. In the scanning phase teachers and leaders are seeking to understand 'what is happening for our learners?'.

In the focusing phase, the teachers and leaders choose a focus from their scanning activities. Many things may have emerged from scanning - now the task is to select one focus for the in-depth inquiry process. It is really important that the focus is clear, and tight. Having scanned a lot of information, finding a tight focus can be challenging - it seems like there are lots of important things to do - but one of the key principles of the spiral is using a tight focus to make change, and then the new learning from that focus spreads to other areas of practice. Without a tight focus, motivation and energy dissipates and little changes.

The third phase of the spiral involves developing hunches about how we as teachers and leaders may be contributing to the current situation. Many people who have used the spiral report that this phase is key to the spiral's success. Leaders and teachers brainstorm all the reasons why they think the situation is as it is. How are we contributing to our learners not progressing past addition in mathematics? Is it the way we are teaching reading that leads our students to struggle to understand what they read? Why are we experiencing difficult behaviours during play-based learning sessions? Is it something to do with the way we are setting them up? The aim here is to get all the assumptions we make out on the table - some of these involve long-held beliefs, so the conversation can be challenging, but this phase is critical to moving forward.

In the learning phase, the teachers and leaders identify what they will need to learn in order to do things differently with respect to the focus. For example, if the focus is reading comprehension, investigating hunches may uncover that teachers are not confident in how to teach reading comprehension. In the learning phase expertise from within the school, or external expertise, can be used to help teachers and leaders build their skills and knowledge.

The taking action phase is when the teachers and leaders begin using their new knowledge to change practice and improve learner outcomes - and the checking phase is where they gather information about the impact of their changed practice and examine it to see if it is working for the learners.
From your own extensive work with schools, what are some of the common challenges leaders and teachers face when progressing through these stages?
These last three phases - learning, taking action, checking - often form a mini spiral as the work progresses, with teachers and leaders returning to learning, trying something, checking its impacts and then learning some more. It is important that the checking occurs as the work proceeds, not at the 'end', when it is too late to act if the change has been ineffective. This is where an evaluative mindset needs to come in: through using the spiral, teachers and leaders come to question their impact, seek evidence, be open to further learning and remain intensely curious about what is happening for learners all the time.

The key challenge of working in schools is finding time. In the case of the spiral, leaders and teachers need to not just find time, but make time - by putting aside some of their other activities in order to deeply enact the spiral. The research is very clear - the more things school try to improve at once, the less improvement is actually achieved. Keeping the 'main thing the main thing' is very challenging in a demanding environment, but it is essential to making real progress. Leaders need to set aside meeting times and make space for the talk and sharing that makes the spiral work. As the process unfolds, not getting distracted is critical.

Sometimes leaders approach the spiral believing they have the answers for their teachers. For example, students are not actively taking responsibility for their learning, so the answer is for teachers to engage in professional development in formative assessment. This stops everyone genuinely inquiring into what is going on for their learners and how they, as professionals, may be contributing to the situation. In reality, a number of issues may be contributing to this situation, including the culture leaders have created throughout the school that is preventing teachers and students from learning deeply what they need to learn. Neither may believe the students are capable of taking such responsibility as a result of unconscious bias.
School leaders and teachers obviously play a key role, but how much involvement should students have and why is this important?
Another common challenge is getting lost in the spiral - as changes in practice are implemented new questions arise, and teams can get confused about what stage they are at and what they are doing. The spiral is flexible and 'mini spirals' can occur, so leaders and teachers need to be using the approach as a mindset, rather than an inflexible, linear path that must be followed in a particular way. The risk in this - and another common challenge - is that leaders and teachers never reach the checking phase. Instead, they begin again pursuing new directions. It is really important to 'close the loop' and check if you've actually made a difference, and sticking to this rather than beginning on a new issue does require discipline!
Can spiral of inquiry be used in other contexts, or is it intended only to be used in relation to professional learning?
Students are at the heart of the spiral. The spiral is grounded in their experiences, exists to improve their lives and learning and is driven by their responses. Students can, and should, be involved in lots of ways. In schools where we have worked, students have worked alongside teachers to discuss data patterns, provided their thoughts and feelings about subjects or the experience of school and have worked with teachers to reflect on the outcomes of the spiral. Student voice is commonly the catalyst for change when schools engage with the spiral - until they hear from the students in their own voices, some teachers remain distant or cynical. The students provide powerful evidence of the need for change. So, gathering and using student voice is essential to the spiral's effectiveness. Involving them in creating change gives them agency and a stake in the improvement process.

We have worked with networks of school leaders who have engaged in a leadership spiral across a number of schools experiencing common challenges. In this situation, the focus of the scanning question, 'What's going on for our learners?' is the teachers. What are their experiences that are leading to a particular situation across the schools that is impacting on the student learners? It is still important to link the experiences of the teachers with those of the students.
Leading change and improvement is a complex task for principals. What are some of the challenges they face in this area?
Some schools are also using the spiral at the student level. They are asked in the scanning phase 'What is going on for me as a learner?', 'Am I taking responsibility for my learning?', 'Am I feeling safe in this learning environment?'. Then they are encouraged to focus on one thing they can do to change things in relation to their achievement, social relationships or wellbeing. At the hunch phase, they ask, 'How am I contributing to what is happening?' with new learning, taking action and checking following.

School leaders have a complex task. In a school there are many directions they might take or problems they need to solve - and they can't do this alone, so a key part of the role is taking others with them. In our book Leading Professional Learning: Practical strategies for impact in schools, we have tried to identify some of the key challenges that we have seen school leaders face, and to provide some examples and ideas about ways to address these challenges. Because school change is complex it comprises interdependent pieces - things are linked together in important ways, so changing one thing will change others - sometimes in unexpected ways. Recognising this is the first challenge. An issue with reading progress in Year 2 has its origins in K-1 reading and has consequences for later years. As well as teacher practice issues, there may be resource and timetable issues, or support issues, unrecognised changes in student needs (for example, more children learning to read in their second language). Seeing problems holistically in this way is the beginning of seeking more enduring solutions - through processes such as the spiral of inquiry.

This isn't easy work, with challenges inevitably part of the process. We have highlighted the key challenges we have noted as the chapters of the book: dealing with complexity; maintaining coherence; building a learning culture; addressing equity and bias; recognising risk and dealing with emotional responses; and using evidence and evaluative thinking. Schools are busy places with multiple agendas. Clearing the decks and making time are critical first steps.

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What is the spiral of inquiry? What happens in each of the six stages? And how can this approach to professional learning be used to support the complex work of leaders?

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These short courses will help you plan and conduct programme evaluation that strengthens your programme(s) and benefits students and teachers.

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Guidance for programme development planning for evaluation

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Creating dynamic programme development plans | IB Community Blog

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Programme development is the intentional and focused development of a school’s IB programme(s). Schools are always working to develop and improve their programmes and devoting time and resources to make their IB programmes more effective. Programme development planning aims to support schools in th…

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Tania Mansfield on LinkedIn: Developing a Programme Development Plan

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Developing a Programme Development Plan for a review of our Maths curriculum

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Schools are learning communities that are on a journey of continuous improvement, valuing the concept of life-long learning and reflection, and working to improve our pedagogical practices as both individuals and as whole learning communities for the betterment of our learners and their learning growth.

Through accreditation processes such as Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), Council of International Schools (CIS) and International Baccalaureate (IB), schools have developed strategic plans that may span five -10 years, and action plans or short to medium term goals that support the success of these strategic plans.

For us as a school, KIS International School - part of our strategic plan is a focus on Student Programs and Approaches to Learning and Teaching and under this area of focus is one of the short-term goals for us as a PYP Primary school which is to review our mathematics curriculum.

Part of the IB new process for evaluation is the presentation of a Programme Development Plan (PDP). As stated in the document Organizing Programme Development in your school, the Programme development is the "intentional and focused development of the school's IB program(s). Schools engage in a continuous cycle of inquiry, action, and reflection that reflects the school's context and strategic goals. Schools are likely to have multiple program development plans between program evaluations."

As with most schools, we have a number of PDPs that are ongoing. Below are the curriculum-based ones for KIS International school that we are currently focused on:
Whole School:

Global Citizenship

One-School: Building a continuum across the three (soon to be four programs)

Secondary School (MYP & DP):

Approaches to Learning

Feedback to Feedforward

Primary School (PYP)

Math Curriculum Review

Learning Environments

In practice, each of these PDPs should follow an intentional planned process, and although the IB has provided a template for presentation of the PDP, schools do have choice as to how they plan, document, and provide evidence for their PDPs. We as a school have used the template to guide us through our process as we plan forward.
PDP Template provided by IBO
Below I have articulated how we at KIS International School, Bangkok have begun to develop, our PDP for our Primary School focus on Math Curriculum. (Please note this is not IB sanctioned, just an example of how our learning community has begun to plan for our PDP.)

As an International Baccalaureate Educator Network (IBEN) and Evaluation Leader, I also have the benefit and privilege of supporting other schools in the Asia Pacific region as they have gone through their journey and I have been able to learn from these schools, their own process, and been able to bring this back to my school community to support us in our journey. This is one of the elements I have always loved about being part of the PYP and our networks, and how we, as learning communities, continue to learn from each other and sharing best practices so that we can all find success in our journey.

This is one of the documents my IBEN partner ( Richel Langit-Dursin) and I developed to help guide us as we were supporting a school through their Evaluation process.
FIRST STEPS
My Math Coordinator and I first sat down and mapped out what we hoped to achieve over the next 18 months. (Extended due to COVID Closures) Through previous experiences, we were aware that a review of a curriculum area often leads to a review of the written curriculum alone and we wanted to ensure that our year of review also included developing a shared understanding of teaching mathematical concepts and thinking skills in the classroom and ensuring a balanced approach to assessment of math throughout the school.

Always keeping our final goals in mind, we articulated what we hoped to achieve by June 2023 ....

And then took our brainstorm and scribble of ideas (or visible thinking) and developed a timeline and articulation of the different focuses as we review our math curriculum (The How, The Who, and The When). Once we had our thinking articulated and scoped out we then turned to the IB documents provided, and those Richel and I created to guide us during Evaluation visits, and co-constructed slides to map out the Standards and Practices (S&P) and guide us as we aligned our thinking to the IB PDP template and process:

We ensured that our rationale for program development was aligned to our Strategic Plan, our IB PYP Action Plan, and from feedback from our Council of International Schools accreditation processes.

We then spent time reflecting back on the big picture and organize our initial thinking re: the S&P around the questions asked through the IB template:

What conditions that would be required for success?

Who would be responsible?

How our goals in our PDP would be achieved and evidenced?

And the intended outcomes for this PDP - and Why? What impact would this have on student learning?

We reviewed the IB PSP 2020 and highlighted all the Standards and the guidelines in the Organizing Programme Development and considered all those that may support our PDP.

From this we then worked to align both our big picture articulation with the specific Standards and Practices that we had selected/ highlighted S&P under these questions.... (Slides 15-19)

1. Who will be responsible?

2. How will it be achieved? Evidence?

3. What is the intended outcome? Why?

As we go back into Term Two of the 2021 - 2022 year, we are planning for a full back to campus model after 18 months of either Hybrid or Remote learning.

This Programme Development Plan and timeline will be presented to our PYP Primary staff in January, and we will be looking for interest from staff to be part of a committee of five (including the PYP Coordinator and Math Coordinator) that will start to formally review the written curriculum. We will also be seeking interest from members of grade level teams to start thinking about the ways they are using manipulatives in the math classroom and begin to document the use of these across the math strands.

Our other focus from February - June 2021, will be registering our staff for the You Cubed PD sessions which will support a shared understanding on building the foundation of mathematical thinking in our classrooms.

We are at the beginning of this PDP, and have taken time to plan, share, discuss and document to ensure its success over the next 18 months. We will continue to use the IB Documents and reflection document as we make progress, refer to the data collected and adjust, when necessary our plans moving forward.

This is our PDP plan as it stands at the moment - We are at the beginning of this process of continuous improvement. This is ONE way we have found to support our thinking and also ensure the alignment with the IB S&P 2020 and the guidelines provided by the IB for developing a PDP. I do want to thank the PYP schools that have taken those first bold steps and shared and helped us find our way - so far - through this process.

We will be, as a school, moving towards both our CIS and three IB Programme Evaluation in March 2023 and will be presenting to the IB, a PDP as is now the requirement. However, we have agreed to present a whole school plan to the IB and thus will be presenting our PDP on Global Citizenship so that we can ensure members from across our whole school can have the opportunity to be part of this process.

Please do share how your school are planning your PDP and your school have approached this in a different manner so that we can all continue to learn from each other. We look forward to the continuous improvement for the benefit of our learning community and our learners.

Originally Published: Learning to Wear the Big Shoes
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Tania is currently the PYP Coordinator at KIS International School, Bangkok. Tania is a PYP practitioner and leader and has worked in IB schools throughout the Asia Pacific region for 20 years.

Tania's blog: Learning to Wear the Big Shoes https://learningtowearthebigshoes.wordpress.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/hktans

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tania-mansfield-8b424534/

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Developing a Programme Development Plan | The International Educator (TIE Online)

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The new IB process for evaluation is the presentation of a Programme Development Plan (PDP). Schools engage in a continuous cycle of inquiry, action, and reflec

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The International Baccalaureate Organization evaluation process has been enhanced by the 2020 Programme Standards and Practices. This video explains how to use the sample document provided for this process. This is ONE way, not the way to use this document with stakeholders. There is a Part 2 of this video that demonstrates how I used this document with grade level and single-subject teams for the Primary Years Programme.

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How to  Use the IB Programme Development Planning Document

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2020 programme evaluation frequently asked questions (FAQs)

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2020 programme evaluation frequently asked questions (FAQs)

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질문이 있으면 올려주세요.

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Sample agenda for remote evaluation visits

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Sample agenda for remote evaluation visits

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Sample agenda for remote single-programme evaluation viist

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Sample agenda for on-site programme evaluation visit

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Sample agenda for on-site programme evaluation visit

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Sample agenda for on-site single-programme evaluation visits

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IBWS Multi-programme SET evaluation report 2021

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Self-study questionnaire-for use during programme evaluation

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Programme development plan template (doc)

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Programme development plan template (doc)

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Programme development plan template (pdf)

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Programme development plan template (pdf)

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Learning stories—Breaking the language barrier by creating pathways of learning for English language learners

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Organizations grow when their employees are learning. If you want a high growth organization, you need to create a learning ecosystem to support high growth individuals - to expose them to new and challenging opportunities before their roles become stale.

Companies need to see that a high growth employee who loves to learn is a very valuable asset. Redeploying them on a new learning curve within the organization keeps their expertise in-house and allows them to share and build on it-a potentially exponential gain. Job swapping is one strategy to put employees on new learning curves; others include ongoing training and educational opportunities, job sharing, mentoring and outreach programs.

Erik Bursch was good at his job and his team was delivering, but he was ready to learn something new. He was running a cloud platform within the Technology division of Gannett and he believed that if he could put himself in a new environment, the organization could learn and grow along with him.

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Your Organization Needs a Learning Ecosystem

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Organizations grow when their employees are learning. If you want a high growth organization, you need to create a learning ecosystem to support high growth individuals - to expose them to new and challenging opportunities before their roles become stale. Companies need to see that a high growth employee who loves to learn is a very valuable asset.

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Planning for programme evaluation IBWS Case study

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Planning for programme evaluation IBWS Case study

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Planning for programme evaluation - IBWS case studies

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Review of the IB Programme Standards & Practices-Summary of research

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Programme standards and practices_ Helping schools grow