Teacher inquiry and data use for professional development – results of the Agile Edu MOOC

Teachers are not researchers, but they can continue getting better at what they do by doing inquiries in their own classroom. The MOOC started with this message on April 21st and concluded with a peer-reviewed final assignment to create an inquiry plan.

Discussions in the project with experts pointed at teachers and school leaders' difficulty in formulating questions to investigate by collecting data. Research also suggests that teachers can benefit from making professional judgements informed by more sources of data. Therefore, the MOOC aimed to explore teacher data literacy, focusing on the aspect of formulating research (inquiry) questions and adopting a mindset to more systematically collect student data, both qualitative and quantitative.

The MOOC was developed thanks to the knowledge built through multiple project activities: the Expert Validation Workshops, Country Dialogue Labs and the learning stories. Empieza por Educar contributed with the perspective on inclusive education, providing guidelines and reflective questions to teachers. The MOOC also took a critical data literacy approach, offering guidelines for evaluating the impact of data-driven education technologies in the classroom.

The MOOC engaged participants in discussions about data use in schools. The MOOC explored teacher inquiry examples from Finland, Denmark, Greece and Netherlands through interviews. Participants contributed with their own ideas and examples from their own school, such as measuring noise levels in the school building, conducting focus groups to decide how to arrange the schoolyard for outdoor activities, doing a survey to learn about students' opinion on late afternoon schedule or mobile phone policy in school, and many more.

The MOOC was further enriched by two webinars by experts. The first webinar (recording) by Barbara Wasson and Cecilie Hansen focused on teacher inquiry and teacher data literacy. The second webinar (recording) also addressed school leaders, where Kim Schildkamp and Cindy Poortman presented the school data team procedure and the key success factors.

The MOOC can still be explored on the EUN Academy platform.