The Cycle of Inquiry System
The COI System is a set of organizational forms (Broderick and Hong, 2005) developed for teachers to record their planning and implementation of an inquiry curriculum that focuses on problem solving and reasoning skills for maximum achievement, moving beyond ages and stages skill attainment. The COI forms correlate with each step of the Cycle of Inquiry System illustrated below.
The Cycle of Inquiry System consists of the following:
- 5 forms, each focusing on one aspect of the Cycle of Inquiry illustrated above
- The tasks on each form are designed so that teachers revisit the thinking on previous forms to continually revise for:
- developing a clear line of inquiry.
- developing a clear rationale for the plans they develop.
- making their own thinking visible to recognize the significance of the teacher's role as a co-constructor of knowledge in the child's inquiry.
- making their own thinking visible for accountability.
- Among the 5 forms is an inquiry implementation form where tasks teachers are guided to complete link materials, questions, set up and procedure as interconnected with the same degree of significance.
The Cycle of Inquiry Levels of Development Rubric
- Measures the development of teachers and teacher educators in the use of the Cycle of Inquiry System.
- Articulates 4 levels of development: inexperienced, novice, reflective, meta-reflective.
We have been researching the use of the COI System for the past 8 years in early childhood courses at East Tennessee State University and University of Michigan, Dearborn.
Currently we are studying the use of the system in:
- Early childhood classroom settings at Little Bucs Child Care Center, East Tennessee State University and the Lucy Brock Child Care Center, Appalachian State University.
- Mathematics and science courses at the University of Michigan, Dearborn.
Read the comments below to learn how the COI System can:
- help the teacher candidate reflect on her/his planning processes
- help the teacher educator to reflect on the teacher candidate's development with planning
- administrators / directors zero in on the observation and planning notes of teachers, to mentor their processes
- help teams of teachers to see one another's theories in their planning processes
ETSU undergraduate in Creative Development course (sophomore):
The facilitators learned the importance of the materials provided and the set up of the materials. With each session we tweaked the set up of the materials and those small changes made a large impact on the direction of the play. We learned that it does not take big changes in the materials or in the prompting to promote continued learning or to build upon previous play. Making small adjustments in the set up and in the materials we provided, made a big impact on the children's play.
University of Michigan student in the Strategies in Early Childhood Education course (junior):
I often looked back at the documentation to see if there was another idea that I maybe hadn't thought of before, which happened. They had so many big ideas throughout the first documentation! Some of the ideas I noticed right away. When I seemed to be having trouble coming up with ideas, my lead teacher told me to go back through my documentation and focus on a certain part and see what I could come up with. She would lead me to a particular section and once reading it again, I came up with new ideas I hadn't thought of before.
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