• Home
• What is Enquiring Minds?
• Why do it?
• Try it
  • Making changes
    • Getting started
    • The role of the teacher
    • Time, space and resources
    • Next steps
  • Our approach
    • Initiating and eliciting
    • Defining and responding
    • Doing and making
    • Communicating, presenting and evaluating
  • Map of progression
  • Activities
    • Initiating and eliciting
    • Defining and responding
    • Doing and making
    • Communicating, presenting and evaluating
  • Digital tools
  • Online workshop
  • Professional development materials
• The guide
• Our research
• About the project

Time, space and resources

Enquiring Minds involves making some practical changes to the way you teach in terms of timetabling, lesson planning, the organisation of your classroom space, and the use of resources.

• The organisation of time. The process of enquiry involves different patterns of time use, with students doing different things simultaneously and some tasks needing more time than others. Are you able to make space in the timetable for a double lesson or a whole afternoon?
• The use of space. The design of a classroom gives out messages about teaching and learning. An arrangement that has groups of students sitting around tables suggests a democratic, participatory way of learning. Rows of desks suggest a more formal, teacher-led approach. Can your classroom be reorganised as a flexible space? Is there wall space not just for presentation of completed products but for the collaborative collection of ideas?
• The use of resources. In an Enquiring Minds approach there will be a wider range of resources available for use in learning, and these will be suggested (and in many cases supplied) by students. We would also expect to find a wider range of people involved in the process of enquiry, as learning may take place beyond the classroom walls.
• The use of ICT. ICT offers students the ability to share knowledge with teachers and with each other, to collaborate, and to carry out research. Often ICT is still used for routine information-handling tasks: used effectively, it can enable a much more democratic way of working.