Being a teacher can bring some of the best days which make it all worthwhile. But occasionally there are the days or lessons which allow me to reflect and review on how I can improve. I am still pretty early in my teaching career, only in my 7th year of teaching – I’m glad I got past the 5 year hurdle! I am also lucky to be teaching in an area I am passionate about – music and seeing the joy this brings to students is very rewarding.
I teach in a high school and recently moved from a regional school in Queensland to an inner-city Brisbane school both with very different contexts and challenges. At my current school I had to quickly develop a whole new skill set in my teaching in order to cater for the student’s learning needs. This learning curve has allowed me to rethink and review how I teach and what is best for my students.
Queensland high schools have recently seen the introduction of a new senior syllabus, bringing another set of challenges to teachers. The change in syllabus brought inquiry questions to the foreground as unit topics – something very new to the subject of music. This sparked my curiosity in inquiry learning and how I can use it in my teaching to support my students to succeed.
Through this inquiry learning journey and investigation I am wanting to understand how to best use inquiry learning in my teaching of music and how to get the students to engage with inquiry learning.
Initially I am posing three questions around what I would like to know and learn more about. These may be refined and develop as my learning and understanding in this field develops.
Q1 – How can the process of inquiry learning be used in a high school music classroom?
Q2 – How can high school students effectively engage in inquiry learning?
Q3 – What are the benefits of inquiry learning in high school music classrooms?
Let’s see where this journey takes us!
My Inquiry Learning Journey 