Week after week we have gone piece by piece through the practice of facilitating p4cHI inquiries.  One week we focused on one particular aspect and the next week another.  Now, in our final video, it is time to put all of the pieces together and see p4cHI as it truly is; a single, flowing whole.

Imagine that you're leading a p4cHI inquiry, you enthusiastically read out an inquiry question, and then....cricket, cricket....nothing....no one says a word.  You read the question again in a slightly pleading tone of voice as your Principal or Professor, who is sitting in the back of the room observing you, furiously scribbles notes.  One hand goes up and with a sigh of relief you pass that student the ball.  He gives a five second answer, looks around, and...cricket, cricket...not a hand goes up.  What, you wonder, do I do now?

Now we conclude our mini-series on "how to improve listening."  This week we turn to "Reactive Strategies."   Reactive strategies are the things that you can do to correct the situation when a student is not listening to his/her peers.  It's what you do to stop poor listening in its tracks.

An assumption that lies beneath the community of inquiry approach is that there is tremendous power in bringing together a diverse collection of thinkers.  Each on of us has a different background, different experiences, and, so too, different strengths when it comes to thinking.  Oftentimes a team of thinkers -- working together, sharing insights, and checking each others' biases -- can arrive at a greater depth of understanding.

Now we begin a two-part mini-series on how to improve listening.  This week we are going to examine "Proactive Strategies" for improving listening. 

A proactive strategy is a move that you make before the poor listening even happens.  Just like getting a flu shot or taking your car in for an oil change, it is an effort to stop the problem before it even starts.

Wonder: We wonder about the world and wonder at it.  "Wonder," Francis Bacon said long ago, "is the seed of knowledge."  It is what inspires us to ask questions, explore the stars, and discover better ways to live.  It is what takes our breath away and inspires us to rise to unimagined heights.  Wonder is indeed the seed from which much grows.

We have a lot of "Magic Words" in p4cHI.  Most of the Magic Words are acronyms.  POPAAT, for instance, stands for Please One Person At A Time.  NQP is short for Next Question Please.  

SPLAT is the oddball; it isn't short for anything.  It just means that you need to speak louder because the words came too quietly and softly our of your mouth and, so, fell with a "splat" on the floor before they could be heard.  At least that's what I tell the kids.  In truth, legend has it, the origin of the term is a bit more grim.  Imagine, a class was once told, that your friend off in the distance is about to get run over by a bus.  You need to speak with a loud voice or the bus is going to hit your friend and he/she will go SPLAT.  (That story is just between you and me.  It is not recommended that you use it with young children!)

One thing, in all honesty, that I'm not as good at as I might be is explaining how p4cHI fits in with various National and State educational initiatives.  My first instinct is usually to try to make the broader (and not always well-received) case that schools ought to aim higher than simply helping children to meet academic standards.  Ultimately, I am more concerned with empowering children to live the good life.

From the fact that I don't spend a lot of time trying to explain how p4cHI fits in with current educational policy it doesn't follow, however, that p4cHI doesn't fit in with such policy.  Quite to the contrary, p4cHI provides a dynamic way to achieve many highly esteemed educational aims.

To "scratch beneath the surface" of an inquiry topic is to go deeper.  It is to make progress.  It is to arrive at a tentative answer to the inquiry question or, as is more oftentimes the case, to see new connections or even to feel the puzzlement that comes with a deeper understanding of the complexity of the topic.  This week our group will demonstrate strategies that will help you to scratch beneath the surface and guide the community towards intellectual progress.

The Good Thinker's Toolkit is an important element of p4cHI practice and in this video post you'll get some suggestions on how to effectively use it.

One thing that you won't get to see in this course are all of the "Bonus Features" and "Bloopers" that our group filmed.  (You'll have to get your hands on the hopefully someday-existent DVD for that stuff!)  The group loved doing the "Bloopers" (like the famous "How  Not to Behave" video.)  They also enjoyed shooting the bonus features.