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REFLECTION


The Inspi rat i on
Teachers perform so many different important tasks as part of our jobs in classrooms. Not
only do we educate students on content, we help develop skills (social, thinking, subject-specific,
etc.), create and plan projects, assess growth, manage behavior, motivate students, collaborate with
other teachers and staff, connect with the community, and reflect and revise practices in our
classrooms. The fact that teaching involves so many different responsibilities means the
opportunities for exploration through research are great. This made it difficult to select just one
focus for my action research project. What could sustain my interest and attention for a year and a
half? What could be important enough that it was worthy of selection over all else? Which area of
focus, if studied, would potentially have the greatest impact on my teaching?

I began with a very long list of areas in which I was interested recalling times throughout my
eight years of teaching in which I was challenged by or became inspired to learn more about each
one. Throughout any given teaching semester, I reflect on various aspects of teaching with
differing amounts of fervor. I go from working hard to create authentic assessments to gauge my
students learning to focusing on student motivation to developing greater student voice within
my projects. It is impossible to give full effort to every area of teaching, but also negligent to
ignore areas altogether. So as a teacher, I play the game of trying to balance developing each part
of my practice without ignoring any one part. For research, I wanted to pursue them all. I needed
to develop better assessments; I wanted to improve collaboration among teachers; I hoped to
better incorporate math into projects all of these were viable options for study. So, how could I
choose?

Stepping back from thinking about my future plan for a project, I was guided toward focusing
more generally on my thoughts around teaching and learning. Journaling freely about education
helped me find where my deepest interests lay. I noticed, the more I wrote about my experiences
in the classroom (as both teacher and student), the less scattered my thoughts were. Themes
emerged. Again, I was faced with how to select just one. I eventually found myself revisiting one
idea over and over again related to what I felt was a main objective of schooling: student thinking.
Its a piece of the education equation that I feel is often neglected or assumed to be part of
learning, and yet students can move through years of schooling without thinking deeply about any
one topic. Inspired partly by my own experience as a student and in part by my observations as a
teacher, I felt compelled to explore critical thinking and the ways in which we foster this (or dont)
and can better encourage this in classrooms. Once I hit on this topic, it seemed a no-brainer. The
topic interested me from a students standpoint as well as from a teachers. I was a successful and
happy student in classrooms over the years, but felt my critical thinking skills were not very strong
as a direct result from never having been explicitly developed. I feared I was doing the same for
my studentsexposing them to lots of new ideas, developing their skills and knowledge bases, but
not encouraging their active exploration of the world and fostering their independent thinking
skills. It seemed logical that school is the place where thinking should be taught, encouraged, and
fostered, but concerned that this wasnt the case for many classrooms, I felt it was urgent to
pursue my own research around thinking. How could I improve my teaching practice to ensure I
was developing thinking skills in my classroom? If I figured out some way to focus on this and
studied the success of my practice, I could potentially influence other educators to do the same.

The Pl anni ng
Once I settled on this idea for my research, I began the journey into learning about ways to
foster deep thinking in the classroom. This was daunting, at first. I felt like there was so much to
skim through to find what pertained to my topic. But, in a sense, it was also exciting to be forced
to spend so much time devoted to researching one area of education. Every time I was interested
in improving something in my classroom in the past, I researched it on the Internet, checked out
an article or two about the topic and if really driven, skimmed through a book I could find at the
library to guide my action. I never felt comfortable devoting more time to this learning because
there were too many other areas to address in my classroom simultaneously. For this project
though, my research had to be more thorough so I took the time to follow the sources mentioned
in initial articles I read and to reach out to living resources to help build my understanding around
the area in which I was interested.

My literature review began with the book Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement,
Understanding, and Independence For All Learners (Ritchhart, Church & Morrison, 2011), which I had
already come across about visible thinking routines. This book had started me thinking about the
possibility that structures in the classroom could actually promote deeper thinking from students.
When I read this book, I had great intentions of implementing some of what I read with my
students. Unfortunately, I ended up forgetting about it and focusing on other things in my
classroom instead. This is part of the reason why I was attracted to pursuing this area for research.
I hoped that by taking the time to develop a project that incorporated a focus on thinking Id be
encouraged and motivated to put visible thinking routines to work and Id stay committed to this
areaan area I believed was important and certainly needed improvement.

In doing the literature review, my question continued to develop. The most enlightening
discovery I made was in reading about thinking dispositions and the notion of developing these
through a culture of thinking in the classroom. Initially I was planning to research teaching thinking
techniques to enhance critical thinking behaviors. But, as I discovered, teaching students
techniques merely develops their ability to think, not their inclination to do so without prompting
and on an ongoing basis. It made sense that I needed to broaden my methods to allow a culture of
thinking to influence my students thinking practice. I thought about the most profound
experiences of learning in my own life and realized they were ones in which culture played a part;
they were never instances in which someone simply taught me a discrete technique through a
lesson. As a Peace Corps Volunteer I lived the most striking example of this concept. The
volunteers were taught about the culture of the country in which I lived, but it was through being
with the people in the country and observing them each day that I picked up the culture and, in
time, adopted many of their practices as my own. It seemed natural to believe that thinking
practices could similarly be embedded into classroom activities such that students developed
understanding and comfort using them and eventually, owned and practiced them capably and
independently. Once I came across literature suggesting and supporting this idea, I was hooked. I
felt confident that I was pursuing an important goal (focusing on thinking) and believed strongly
that the methods of creating a culture of thinking in the classroom would be a useful commitment
of time.

The Prac t i c e
There were a lot of suggestions for how to create a culture of thinking so I merely had to select
what felt right for my classroom. I was excited to see that rather than an add-on to curriculum,
creating a culture of thinking meant only making thinking visible as part of what we were already
doing in the classroom. I didnt have to create separate lessons for this work, but just develop
thinking skills as part of the projects I already planned with my students.

Setting up a classroom culture for fostering this type of thinking was fairly straightforward in
that the existing research had many suggestions for making this type of thinking explicit for
students. Visible thinking routines, modeling, reflecting, and simply providing time and
opportunities for thinking were necessary keys to creating this culture. In actuality, when I began
the action research, I stuck to implementing the visible thinking routines and reflecting because it
was easy to plan these into our schedule. Other activities required more spontaneous action such
as modeling my own thinking or creating visual displays of thinking (as we were thinking) to hang
in the classroom. I was hard on myself in the first month for forgetting these steps frequently, but
realized, as time went on, that the more I talked about the thinking strategy of questioning
through the routine and we reflected on it in discussions and writing, the more frequently I was
naturally prompted to highlight similar thinking at other times.

Happily, I noticed the same response from my students. Throughout the year they were
developing comfort with asking questions or talking about questions and independently doing so
without prompting as though the frequent practice of routines and reflection had also begun to
impact their behaviors outside of these activities. Not only was I less stressed about my research
as this developed, I was more confident about the utility of these structures for developing the
thinking dispositions of my students because I noticed positive change in their thinking behaviors.

Proj ec t Evol ut i on
I naively neglected to anticipate the time that these actions would take out of our school days.
Just because they coincided with current tasks for learning, didnt mean they wouldnt take time of
their own for dedication. As I began the research period, I immediately noticed that the moments
I took for modeling and making thinking visible, of introducing and practicing thinking routines,
and for reflecting on thinking were taking away from the hours in our days. I didnt regret this
choice necessarily since I believed focusing on thinking was time well spent. Still, I had to adjust
my plans in recognition that even focusing on one thinking strategy was time-consuming so
choosing more than this was not feasible.

Focusing on questioning and making connections (as one thinking strategy) was an easy
decision to make because I had been teaching students of the same age-level for eight years and
noticed that this was an area of weakness for many of them. Truthfully, I also recognized that
questioning, specifically asking questions that explored a new topic deeply, had been an area of
weakness for me into my college years. Too frequently, I felt, teachers (including myself) provided
the questions and looked to students for answers, so students never have the chance to improve
their inquiry skills. This is unfortunate since questioning is what truly drives learning, invention
and exploration. I was inspired to help students develop the ability to independently partake in
deep inquiry and to make connections to prior knowledge and experiences without my prompting.

Simplifying the skills I was looking to foster in my classroom helped the project become more
feasible and thereby, more successful. Throughout the duration of the project, I was surprised at
various points to find that I was embedding methods (such as modeling thinking or displaying
visual constructs for thinking) without even planning to do so. Just as I was hoping to make this
part of our classroom culture, it had become part of my teaching routine and I didnt need to
specifically plan for each activity in order to ensure I was fostering thinking.

Juggl i ng Teac her and Researc her
Throughout the process of action research, I definitely feel I was more teacher than researcher.
I was always driven to support my students over producing perfect research data and therefore,
prioritized their learning over my collection of data or strict adherence to methods. In the end, I
am comfortable with how things went. As an action researcher I think it is always the case that we
make decisions based on more than the consequences to the research. At all times, I tried to
remain focused on my goal of developing thinking dispositions in my students, This meant, I was
very reflective as a teacher and researcher on how certain activities were impacting my students
thinking behaviors. I was also a keen observer throughout this time, searching for any possible
signs of improved engagement or thinking above and beyond what I was used to seeing.

As a researcher, I fell short in tapping into individual students experiences with the methods I
used. I wished I had taken time to interview individual students or meet with small focus groups
to better understand how they were experiencing the various methods I used to bring thinking
forth in the classroom. Throughout the project, many of the reflections I administered focused on
student perceptions of thinking and their ability to think rather than their thoughts about my
methods (i.e., modeling, the visual displays of thinking, and the other actions that contributed to a
changed classroom culture). If I had been thinking as a researcher more frequently, I may have
asked students about their experiences with the methods, too.

A Wonderi ng
Through class discussions I discovered what I felt was a huge finding: that students were
convinced that teachers valued answers over questions and facts and figures over wonderings or
connections. This was enlightening and drove me to work on dispelling this notion through my
own actions in the classroom. But, now I wonder if there are things they learned in my classroom
that are not necessarily the values I meant to instill. Sure, they seem to recognize that questions are
important, but I wonder if my classroom environment also encouraged other results that will only
be noticed by future teachers of these same students. Perhaps those teachers will find that this
group of students are now missing a value for another type of thinking that we did not emphasize
or which I mistakenly replaced with a deliberate focus on questioning and connecting.

Next St eps
We recently had a set of speakers present to the class about their experiences in different
countries and I noticed my students driving the presentations with their own questions rather than
listening at all to what was presented. My students had interests to pursue and asked questions
around those interests, but frequently missed opportunities to develop new questions based on
what was brought up in the presentations. The speakers were awed by the curiosity and
inquisitiveness displayed by my students, but I was concerned because I noticed the questions
were almost too numerous, as though the students were interested in simply asking lots of
questions rather than really digging deeper with their questions. I had hoped they would ask a
question, listen for an answer, and then be compelled to ask further questions to understand
something more. I cannot assume they werent interested in doing this. Perhaps, the setup of the
classroom hasnt allowed for this. With twenty-six students, more often than not, a student is
given one or two chances to ask a question and then the next student is called on, so deep inquiry
is challenging in a presentation setting. Still, I would like to have seen other students bouncing off
of questions asked and information given to get deeper into a topic rather than only asking
questions that unveil the surface of many areas, but never probe further. I wonder if Ive
inadvertently encouraged this behaviora constant barrage of questionsrather than pushing
students to ask questions that build on previous ones to get into material more deeply.

I wonder if theres a progression of levels with inquiry skills and maybe I needed to start where
I did to get my students comfortable with asking questions and this is just the next stephoning
their questioning skills so that they are capable of exploring deeper. I am eager to have a couple of
more months with my students to work on developing their thinking further in this way. Our
current project lends itself well to inspiring deeper content exploration so this is a perfect
opportunity to pursue fostering this skill.

Going forward, with future classes I would like to begin each year by assessing what students
believe about thinking and then, if necessary repeat the actions I took for developing a new
understanding of thinking in my classroom. I will continue to make my thinking moves visible and
provide opportunities for students to think, capture their thinking outside of their heads, share
this with each other and reflect on thinking together. I also hope to share my experience with
other teachers and encourage them to evaluate what the culture of their classrooms is teaching
their students about thinking.

Real i zat i ons
As I close my research study and reflect on the experience over the past year, I have a couple
of realizations. One is that I recognize that it is possible to pursue research and serious focus on
one area of my practice without ignoring all other areas or even development of other areas along
the way. I was fearful that my research would consume me such that I would neglect to improve
facets of my teaching practice I felt compelled to address this year. Fortunately, I still had the
motivation to work on those areas (in small ways) while keeping the long-term focus on my
research going.

A second realization I have come to is that there is much to be learned from others (when we
hear new ideas or read about possible techniques to incorporate into teaching), but only in trying
something new and committing to sticking to it for a period of time, can it make an impact on my
own teaching. I think I am like many other teachers in that we are constantly in the position of
receiving novel ideas and new practices that, while inspiring, are too numerous to fold into our
teaching all the time. I often have high hopes for trying something new but then something else
comes along and I find myself constantly chasing the next new thing to improve my teaching. My
action research helped me do something different. When I committed to focusing on one area and
really trying to study its impact on my students over a longer term, I had success in making
change. Not every student was hugely changed, but the effort I sunk into this endeavor was
sustained long enough to realize an impact over the school year. I hope, in the future, to again
take the time to select areas for focus in my teaching practice and commit to attempting new
methods to bring about positive results for my students.

One final realization I have had over this research period has been that communication with other
educators is key toward pushing my own work with my students forward. I have spent many years
working in a vacuum, of sortsrelying on my own ideas and those reflected in the many things I
read to inspire me to take various actions in my classroom. Throughout this research, I have taken
time to share my ideas or wonderings related to my project with various colleagues and educators
I have sought out who have experience in the area, and found that with each interaction, I have
gained insight, inspiration, motivation, guidance or support. I think (hope) this will have an impact
on both my professional and personal life going forward. Rather than limiting myself to learning
(as I more comfortably do) through reading, I would like to push myself to communicate more
with othersshare my interests and ask for feedback and thoughtssuch that I can glean insight,
inspiration, motivation, etc. from others continuing on.