Going Further... Five Protocol Questions and The Inquiry Process

Following are five major "protocol questions" for teachers, developed by Dave Master and Workforce LA. The questions can provide a means for teachers to use in selecting, doing, and reflecting on projects and PBL that will really enhance student learning. These are interwoven with five parallel aspects of the inquiry process, which is at the foundation of how new knowledge is created:

1. "What's the Big Idea?"
   What are you teaching? Why have you made those curricular choices? What learning strategy are you utilizing? Why have you chosen this methodology?

   Hypothesis: What is your focus of investigation? What are your intentions? How do you plan to address it?

2. "Where's the Beef?"
   What do you think your students are learning? Does your lesson plan include a way to collect evidence of student performance that will show what they have learned?

   Evidence Gathering: Have you gathered evidence of learning/performance? Of the learning process and interventions?

3. "Gimme 5!"
   What did you learn from the feedback? Can you distill the main points and share them with your peers?

   Distillation and Explanation: Can you distill your tacit findings into an explicit summary presentation?

4. "Who Sez?"
   Have you exhibited your evidence of student performance to stakeholders and related professionals in the field?

   Social Validation: What do the "community" and "stakeholders" think? What do the experts [in both the field and the domain] think?

5. "What's Next?"
   What changes do you plan to make? What is your basis for those changes?

   Revision in Light of New Evidence/Experience: What do you plan to do differently as a result of your experience, the evidence you uncover, and public feedback?

For some excellent articles by Dr Rosenfeld on teacher development in project-based learning, check out the following web site: http://www.designworlds.com/techscape/Sherm_ArticleLinks.html.