This weekend we shared our presentation on Building a Community of Researchers with the IB Global Conference. We shared our work to develop a continuum of research skills and the steps we’re taking to use this to build a community of researchers.
You can view the presentation here:
Here are the steps we’ve identified:
Step 1: Share the research skills with students

We asked teachers to share the research skills for their phase (across grades) with students and ask them to complete a ‘See, Think, Wonder’ routine to explore the skills they were working towards. Download them here;
Step 2: Identify and put into practice Visible Thinking Routines
We chose to identify 3 routines to support the development of different research skills – this helps teachers bridge the gap from documentation and planning into practice.
Here are the routines we’ve chosen to focus on while working on research skills:
See-Think-Wonder
G-S-C-E (generate, sort, connect, elaborate)
I Used to Think, Now I Think
And you can read more about each one here
Step 3: Be intentional with our language
We address students as researchers to help frame and shape their thinking and to create a community atmosphere (8 Cultural Forces – Ron Ritchart)
You can pick up Ron Ritchart’s book to inspire your language around research by clicking the link below:
Creating Cultures of Thinking: The 8 Forces We Must Master to Truly Transform Our Schools(As an amazon associate I may earn from qualifying purchases)
Step 4: Develop our planning for the ATL Skills
By focusing on Research for this year; this prompts us to consider how we model, teach and support – we wanted teachers to be intentional and thorough but not overwhelmed:
Guiding questions:
•Which skill(s) are you focusing on during this unit?
•Which Visible Thinking Routine have you chosen to support this?
•How will you and/or students know they’ve been successful in developing this skill?
•Which skills will cross over between subjects?
•Facilitated collaborative transdisciplinary meetings
Step 5: Supporting Student Reflection
Using the continuum to track skills and growth helps our students see the path to continuing to progress.
Planned and shared prompts for students and teachers to help them think about which of the Research Skills they’d seen the most growth in.
How was this helping them to become a more effective researcher?
Read more about supporting reflection here.