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Early childhood programs ought to be incubators of

inquiry. Children, teachers, families, and program

administrators, collectively and individually engaged in

systematic investigation, searching and researching,

asking questions, mulling over hypotheses, debating,

trying on new perspectives: this is the culture of

inquiry in which we all deserve to participate.

To grow a culture of inquiry, we need professional

development rooted in inquiry, aimed at fostering the

values and growing the dispositions and skills of

researchers: curiosity; willingness to linger with

questions; commitment to constructing knowledge

with others through dialogue, disagreement, and

challenge; and, attentive observation. When we put

inquiry at the heart of our programs, we organize our

curriculum for children and for teachers around

observation, study, and responsive planning.

In a curriculum built around inquiry, teachers pay

close attention to children’s play and work, taking

notes and photographs, capturing what they see and

hear — researchers collecting data. Teachers study

their notes and photos and other traces of children’s

work to unearth the meaning in the children’s play —

researchers making meaning of their observations:

What theories are the children exploring through their

play? What questions are they asking? What relation-

ships are they building? From their observation and

study, teachers plan ways for the children to test their

theories, expand their questions, and strengthen their

relationships — researchers taking action. And, then,

teachers observe and listen some more, as the

children engage with the materials and activities

that teachers offer as a result of their planning; they

make notes about their observations and start

another round of study and planning. Throughout this

cycle of observation, study, and planning, teachers

make their observation and thinking visible to the

children, to families, and to each other with written

documentation and display.

This process becomes a spiral that carries teachers,

children, and families more and more deeply into

investigation, collaboration, and relationship. Like life,

it unfolds moment by moment, one step at a time,

with surprises and detours and new questions to take

up. And, like life, it is anchored in everyday, ordinary

moments in our classrooms.

At Hilltop Children’s Center, the full-day, year-round

child care program where I am the mentor teacher,

we’ve experimented with several professional

development practices centered on observation, as

we’ve aimed to grow the dispositions and skills

needed for this cycle of inquiry: center-wide research

questions, supported observation and meaning-

making, and collaborative study of observations.

Center-wide research questions

Inspired by the study questions used by the staff at

Chicago Commons, we develop a research question

each year to give us a shared focus for observation

and study.

Our research question is linked to our year-long

professional development focus. Several years ago, for

example, our year-long focus centered on the inter-

sections between anti-bias curriculum and the Reggio-

inspired practice of pedagogical documentation.

During our monthly staff meetings, quarterly in-service

days, and our annual staff retreat, we explored this

intersection from a range of perspectives, with the

intention of strengthening our anti-bias work with

children, families, and each other. Our research

question at the beginning of that year was: “How do

children explore and express their cultural identities in

their drama play?” Later in the year, we added a

second question: “When do children call attention to

difference and when do they ignore it? How do they

use difference in their relationships with each other?”

50 Exchange November/December 2006

Ann Pelo is the

mentor teacher at

Hilltop Children’s

Center in Seattle,

where she has been a

teacher and learner

since 1991. The

teachers at Hilltop

have taught Ann as

much about

professional

development as she’s

taught them; this

article is dedicated to

them.

Growing a Culture of Inquiry: Observation as Professional Development by Ann Pelo

Beginnings Workshop

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Single copy reprint permission from Exchange, The Early Leaders' Magazine Since 1978 PO Box 3249, Redmond, WA 98073 • (800) 221-2864 • www.ChildCareExchange.com

Multiple use copy agreement available for educators by request.

We establish our research question in September;

I bring some big ideas that I think hold potential for

our shared study, and, as a full staff, we tease out a

specific question for our research. Our research

question launches us into a cycle of observation and

study.

Teachers bring their research question observations to

our monthly meetings of the full staff, where we study

them together. During these full-staff meetings,

teachers from different classroom teaching teams

work together; as they share their observations, they

bump into new and unexpected ways of thinking about

children’s learning — and even unexpected ways of

thinking about the research question itself. Our work

with the research question during staff meetings

invites teachers to try on new perspectives, to see the

delicate dance between “just-the-facts” observation

and the subtle interpretation that shapes observation

notes.

During our staff meeting work with the research

question, we typically plan some collective next steps

that we’ll take to grow curriculum — steps we’ll take in

light of our research observations to make more room

for children’s cultural expressions, for example, or to

support children’s ability to engage with differences.

This planning inevitably carries us to conversations

about our shared values and goals for children, and

about our collective teaching practices — conversa-

tions which deepen our sense of purpose and vision

as a program.

Our research question not only gives us a way to

practice the cycle of observation, study, and planning;

it also leads us to specific new understandings about

children’s learning and development. Through our

research question observations over the last few

years, we’ve deepened our knowledge of

children’s drama play, of the way they use

blocks, of their social strategies for inclusion

and exclusion. Through our observation and

study, we join in dialogue with educational

theorists like Piaget, Dewey, and

Paley.

Supported observation and meaning-making in

the classroom

The research question provides a shared framework

for observation that lets us practice the cycle of

observation, meaning-making, and planning as a

whole staff. The parallel practices of supported

observation and meaning-making with individual

teachers and with classroom teaching teams grounds

teachers’ inquiry in their particular contexts.

When I’m in a classroom, as mentor teacher, I partner

with a teacher to observe children’s play and listen to

their conversations. We tuck ourselves into a non-

intrusive space where we can take notes and photos

about what we’re seeing and hearing. We talk quietly

together about the play we see, sharing our questions

and musings as we seek to understand what’s

important about the play for the children. We consider

what we might offer the children right there and then

to deepen their exploration and to sustain their play.

Our intention is to see into these ordinary moments,

to use close observation as a doorway into under-

standing and, then, into offering children challenge

and support.

As teachers become more and more at ease with this

process, they dive into observation themselves, not

waiting for me to partner with them, but gathering

stories themselves. When teachers meet in the

hallway or in the office, they are eager to share their

observations with each other: they talk with engaged

curiosity about what they’ve seen and heard, discuss

possible interpretations of the children’s play, and

share thoughts about next steps they might take. The

air is full of questions, insights, hypotheses; breathing

it in is breathing in inquiry.

Collaborative study of observations

To solidify our practice of inquiry, we’ve established

the expectation that every teacher brings written

November/December 2006 Exchange 51

Beginnings Workshop

The research

question

provides a

shared

framework for

observation

that lets us

practice the

cycle of

observation,

meaning-

making, and

planning as a

whole staff.

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observation notes and/or photos to their classroom

teaching team’s hour-long weekly meeting. Teachers

pull out carefully typed sheets, or bits of scrap paper

— even crumpled paper napkins used to record a

breakfast table conversation that captured a teacher’s

attention. We dive into the stories together, working

with questions like these to help us make meaning of

our observations:

■ What are we curious about as we listened to this

story of children play?

■ What are the children curious about? What are

they trying to figure out?

■ What knowledge are the children drawing on?

What theories are they testing?

■ How are the children building on each other’s

ideas, perspectives, and contributions?

■ Are there any inconsistencies in the children’s

thinking?

■ What do we want to learn more about?

■ What goals and values come up for us in this

situation?

Once we have a sense of what the children’s play is

“about,” we consider how we might extend or

challenge children’s thinking. We plan one or two next

steps, concrete action that we’ll take with the children

to help them deepen their exploration, nudge them to

take new perspectives, and encourage them to

reconsider their theories. Our intention is to

generate a cycle of inquiry for the children — to

create more questions and deeper study, not to

give children information or lead them to “right

answers” or help them acquire facts. In our

planning, we consider questions like:

■ What changes could we make to the class-

room environment to invite children to look

at their pursuit from a new perspective?

■ What materials could we add to the

classroom?

■ How could we participate in the children’s

play?

■ How could we invite the children to use

expressive and representational media to

deepen or extend their thinking?

■ How could we use our notes and photos sketches

to help the children revisit and extend their play?

■ How will we be in dialogue with families, inviting

their reflections and insights as well as letting

them know what we’re thinking and wondering?

As we end a meeting, teachers have a plan about

what they’ll do next to extend and deepen children’s

investigations. A week later, they arrive at the team’s

next meeting with more observations to share about

how children engaged with the next steps that

teachers offered — and we move through the cycle of

meaning-making and planning again.

With each round of the cycle, teachers become more

skillful as researchers; they notice gaps in their

observation notes and work to correct those gaps next

time; they become more astute at looking underneath

the topical concerns of children’s play, digging out the

deeper meanings and questions that children’s play

holds; they experiment with strategies and practices

to deepen children’s thinking, growing a repertoire of

possibilities; they engage in passionate discussion

with each other, relaxing into the challenge of deep

collaboration as they take up meaningful research

with each other. This cycle of observation, meaning-

making, and planning weaves our professional devel-

opment into the fabric of daily teaching.

At the same time, with each round of the cycle, in-

depth, long-term investigations grow. This emergent

52 Exchange November/December 2006

Beginnings Workshop

Our intention

is to see into

these ordinary

moments, to

use close

observation as

a doorway into

understanding

and, then, into

offering children

challenge and

support.

PHOTOGRAPH BY ANN PELO

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curriculum, anchored by observation and study, stays

closely linked to children’s questions and pursuits,

because it unfolds one step at a time. Teachers

carefully observe what happens with each step,

constantly adjusting and refining their planning in

response to what they observe. In this way, children

and teachers construct curriculum together.

Observation as a strategy for transformation

When we put observation at the heart of our

professional development at Hilltop, everything

changed. Teachers who’d typically sat back, arms

crossed, unengaged during staff meetings and

classroom team meetings now lean into our discus-

sions: they have observation stories to share, insights

to offer, questions to ask. Classroom team meetings,

once a tedious listing of housekeeping and logistical

details, have become animated discussions about

teaching and learning; teachers are quick to work

through the dry and mundane details of classroom life

so that they can dive into the stimulating and sustain-

ing work of teacher research. Talk of our core values

and our vision for our work is a regular part of our staff

meetings, as we seek to locate our observations and

planning in our school’s larger purpose. Our curriculum

involves everyone — children, teachers, families — in

long-term investigations, as the cycle of inquiry for

teachers launches cycles of inquiry for children and

families.

This transformation required strong institutional

support; we created my half-time mentor teacher

position to organize and facilitate our professional

development. And it required willingness by teachers

to take risks, to see their work in new ways — to

become researchers, observing closely, making

meaning with each other, anchoring themselves in the

revelations of each moment. A year into our effort to

put observation at the heart of our teaching and

learning, one of the teachers at Hilltop commented

that “This is making me a better teacher, for sure —

but more than that, it’s making me a better person.

This is how I want to live in the world — paying

attention, staying connected to what I see, thinking

about big ideas with other people.”

November/December 2006 Exchange 53

Beginnings Workshop

This emergent

curriculum,

anchored by

observation and

study, stays

closely linked

to children’s

questions and

pursuits,

because it

unfolds one

step