Strengthening Inquiry and Student Engagement at Cranbrook Senior School

At Cranbrook’s recent Staff Development Day, we continued to build on our commitment to embedding Positive Behavioural Interventions and Supports (PBIS), with a particular focus on using inquiry-based teaching to enhance student engagement, especially during the crucial middle phase of lessons.

The session, led by Erin Munn, explored how teaching that is focused on inquiry (a core IB Approach to Teaching) fosters deep cognitive, emotional and behavioural engagement. 

Erin emphasised that inquiry empowers students to ask questions, investigate problems and construct their own understanding, making learning active and meaningful. She reminded us that true engagement is not just about participation, but about students feeling connected to their learning, which strengthens positive behaviour in the classroom.

Building on this, Mackenzie Pedersen shared findings from her Teacher Inquiry Group action research project, which investigated the nature of student questioning at Cranbrook.
Her research revealed important insights:

• Many student questions were closed and primarily sought validation rather than exploration.
• Students often struggled to identify gaps in their knowledge, limiting deeper inquiry.
• Fear of peer judgement was a significant barrier to asking questions, despite students recognising the importance of questioning for learning.

Encouragingly, Mackenzie’s research also showed that targeted intervention made a real difference:

• Explicitly teaching questioning techniques improved the quality of student inquiry.
• Small-group interventions built confidence in asking questions
• Positive teacher-student and peer relationships helped create safe classroom environments where students felt comfortable to be curious and take intellectual risks.

In the second half of the session, teachers participated in cross-departmental workshops, where facilitators modelled three strategies for sustaining engagement through inquiry:
1. See Think Wonder –  encouraging careful observation, reflection and curiosity

2. Question Formulation Technique –  guiding students to generate, refine and prioritise their own questions

3. The Socratic Method – promoting deeper understanding through critical discussion and student-led dialogue

After exploring these strategies, teachers selected one approach and embedded it into the planning of a lesson they will teach this term, ensuring the immediate application of the day’s learning.

This practical, collaborative work directly supports our broader PBIS goal of strengthening student engagement in the middle of lessons, helping to sustain attention, effort and positive behaviours when it matters most.

Thank you to Erin, Mackenzie, our workshop facilitators Caroline Usasz, Nick Hanrahan, Josie Johnson, Eva Zhang, Katherine Young, Adrian Harrison, Rhys Briscoe-Hough and all teachers for their thoughtful contributions to a rich and energising professional learning experience.

Hannah Thomas
Director of Professional Learning