We have defined the four equiry skills as shown below.
Creating Opportunities to Practice these Skills
Use the following key to work out the level of challenge of any activity you are planning to do. Simply answer yes or no to the first question. If the answer is yes then progress to the next question.
Think of a time when your teaching group researched questions and found answers.
Q – Did most pupils have the freedom to explore something (e.g. question or object or idea) in the way they wanted to and reach their own conclusions?
If No then stop here, your activity is level 0. If YES then carry on to the next question
Q – Were most pupils helped to think logically before starting their enquiry? E.g. collect other people’s ideas or make the question a bit more general.
If No then stop here, your activity is level 1. If YES then carry on to the next question
Q – Did most pupils make up their own question to explore…. AND …. Did they explore at least two different answers or two different views?
If No then stop here, your activity is level 2. If YES then carry on to the next question
Q – Did pupils do their research fairly? For example if there are different opinions they spend the same time on each one or if there is lots of information they give reasons for only using some of it. Or if it is Scientific they manage to explore one item fairly at a time.
If No then stop here, your activity is level 3. If YES then carry on to the next question
Q – Did most pupils decide their own questions, predict what they think the answers may be and then find evidence for AND against this so that they can be sure their final answers were accurate and fair? Were some given the chance to ‘prove’ what they found out to the group?
If No then stop here, your activity is level 4. If YES then carry on to the next question
Q – Did most pupils do an extended project requiring critical thinking about messy sources that were biased and/ or inaccurate which they used to pull out balanced conclusions and spot patterns?
If No then stop here, your activity is level 5. If YES then carry on to the next question
Q – Did most pupils have the chance to do lots of complex investigations and bring together all of their answers to reach conclusions and see patterns? AND did they have to find all the information themselves and decide what was opinion and what was fact?
If No then stop here, your activity is level 6. If YES then carry on to the next question
Q – Did most pupils have a clear ‘contract’ to research a theory which limited the time and set demands and deadlines on them. This may be specific research for a company for example. AND did the theory require research from lots of view points and sources to be brought together.
If No then stop here, your activity is level 7. If YES then carry on to the next question
Q – Did most pupils achieve a level 9 in their peer assessment or peer review using the criteria in the ladders?
If No then stop here, your activity is level 8. If YES then your activity is a level 9
Learning By Ladders 