Powerful Provocations

Engagement is a word that gets thrown around a lot in the education world. It is said that undesirable behaviors can be prevented by deeper levels of engagement, that learner participation, and cooperation with educators and co-learners are enhanced and that, most importantly, students are more motivated and likely to learn new skills and understandings when engaged. The ways in which we authentically ‘hook’ learners into learning new content and exploring it more deeply is therefore a critical consideration.

The staff at Griffin have been reconsidering the ways in which they provoke interest and interaction with content over the past few years with ‘powerful provocations’ becoming a central pedagogical practice. In order to ‘powerfully provoke’, teachers must first have a deep understanding of content, understandings, and skills. They can then contemplate how they might pique the curiosity of their learners, sparking questions, igniting investigations, and illuminating inquiry pathways.

In utilizing powerful provocations, the role that curiosity plays in learning is deeply valued. We are harnessing the understanding that the curious child will likely be more intrinsically motivated to pursue the wonders that have captured their attention. Like Alice going down the rabbit hole after a curious creature with a waistcoat and a pocket watch, appealing to our learners’ curiosity invites them to go on a learning adventure, following a genuine interest.

For the staff at Griffin, the journey to discovering what might constitute a provocation, and a powerful one at that, began with re-examining how interest in Mathematics content is provoked. Staff began exploring how curating intriguing investigations could help learners be authentic mathematics users. Planning for provocations then flowed into other learning areas and began to have a real influence on 'Tuning In' pedagogy. Utilizing provocations not only gives a greater insight into learner interest and voice but also reveals learners' prior knowledge at deeper levels.

The form a provocation might take is largely unbound, perhaps limited only by safety and age-appropriateness. There’s no set or prescribed list of ways to provoke; the technique encourages educator creativity and imagination. Gathering collective ideas and trialed examples can be powerful ways to spur teacher enthusiasm and experimentation.

As Kath Murdoch describes, “A provocation can take many forms. Anything that intrigues or sparks the interest of learners can be considered a provocation.” Big questions, intriguing images and objects, spontaneous moments in the day, nature, happenings in the world, small sections of text, artifacts, small world play, and school resources set up in provoking ways, are all considered provocations for learning.

Valuing the role curiosity plays in learning engagement is an ongoing mindset shift for the staff at Griffin. As they experiment, fail, and learn, innovative ways to engage and expand their Inquiry-Based Learning pedagogies are uncovered. Provocations are a powerful tool in an educator's pedagogical toolkit.