Zach Groshell - Inquiry Based Teaching and Direct Instruction - Seattle

The Leading, Language and Literature Podcast

This week I’m talking to Zach Groshell. Zach is an instructional coach, teacher in the American school system, has a PhD in instructional design and hosts the Progressively Incorrect Podcast.

I have listened and loved Zach’s podcast for a long time now, particularly as the first season deals with the tension of progressive ideas and ideologies around inquiry based teaching as well as direct instruction as a pedagogy. For me, these are two approaches that a teacher delivering the PYP, MYP or DP for IB has to wrestle with on a daily basis as well as any teacher operating in any school where competing pedagogies are prevalent.

We discuss:

- What direct instruction and inquiry based teaching mean in practice

- Whether there’s scope for inquiry to play some part in a unit given that topics such as: the information age, masculinity, travel, ways of life, love of literature can be explored according to students' standing interests, experiences or passions

- How Zach feels about suggestions that relying solely on direct instruction and not “culturally responsive education” is narrowly Western, Eurocentric and racist

- If there's a disconnect in international and state schooling with regard to improving teaching and learning

- If seeking guidance as an international teacher about how to improve teaching, what Zach would suggest teachers start with

- And lastly, when implementing an instructional coaching culture in a school, what are the most important things to consider and prioritize at the outset?

Thanks so much to Zach for weighing in on what I believe is hugely important set of topics for international teachers or teachers of IB curriculum more specifically. His podcast is linked to in the show notes below and is well worth a listen for people working in any walk of education.

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Links:

Zach’s podcast

Zach’s blog

Roshenshine’s Principles of Instruction

THAT Kirschner, Sweller and Clark paper

Zach’s conversation with Gene Tavernetti