an be sustained and transferred to other areas of teaching. This induces confidence and provides teachers with genuine control – they can press the delete button if they so wish.
Classrooms are busy places with a ‘here and now’ urgency (Mardle and Walker, 1979). ‘Normalising’ inquiry as a form of regular practice requires a move by teachers towards self-agency i.e. genuine ‘control’ and ‘ownership’ of these processes which focus on practitioners’ concerns and successes (Roberts, 1998). As Dadds (1997) usefully comments: it is about nurturing the expert within rather than dependency on outsider experts. It is also about nurturing professional confidence in teachers to acknowledge that ‘practice is more than knowledge: practice humanises theory’ (Phelps 1991:883). We believe that the LOCIT processes will support professional confidence and learner engagement.
The LOCIT process has evolved though working with teachers over the years. Recent advances in technology, have provided us with an opportunity to create a digital tool to support and aid professional learning, to build a professional community shared space which would provide ‘evidence’ of successful learning validated by the learners themselves.
LOCIT website: http://homepages.abdn.ac.uk/locit/