Evaluation of the Early Primary Collaborative Inquiry (EPCI)

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General Information

The Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat (LNS) promotes collaborative inquiry in the daily work of teachers and administrators; specifically, in the following three initiatives – Collaborative Inqury for Learning and Mathematics (CIL-M), the Student Work Study Teacher Initiative (SWST), and the Early Primary Collaborative Inquiry Initiative (EPCI).

The EPCI and the SWST are two smaller than the CIL-M initiative and were implemented two years ago. Both initiatives have garnered promising feedback related to professional learning and student outcomes.

This evaluation will focus on the EPCI initiative with potential links to the CIL-M and SWST initiatives.

Background Information – Early Primary Collaborative Inquiry (EPCI) Initiative

The EPCI initiative has three core purposes:

  1. Provide a renewed focus on the evidence-informed teaching and learning practices that support young learners;
  2. Build connections between kindergarten to grade two programming decisions and explore the common context between these years to ensure a solid foundation of learning for our youngest learners; and
  3. Provide capacity building for inquiry skills which will support teachers and boards to inquire about their teaching and learning practice.

Teams from 70 English- and French-language district school boards participated in a collaborative inquiry about teaching and learning within the context of early primary. In 2009-2010, every board was invited to select a representative team of five educators to engage in a collaborative inquiry into the teaching and learning of kindergarten and grade one students. The recommended team was to include a kindergarten teacher, a grade one teacher, a principal, an early years’ curriculum leader or consultant, and a supervisory officer. The composition of each team was endorsed by the LNS such that the inquiry would be embedded within regular classroom practice, build connections amongst kindergarten and grade one teachers, be supported by an internal ‘expert’, as well as be backed by the relevant district leadership to champion this initiative and enable scaling up.

In 2010-2011, the inquiry expanded to include grade two teachers, and boards were asked to spread their inquiry beyond the previous year to include more classrooms and schools. There were 46 Full day Early Learning Kindergarten sites that participated in the inquiry. More than 1000 teachers and over 80 early childhood educators were involved in the inquiry work.

Evaluation Questions

The evaluation will focus primarily on the following questions:

  1. Impact of EPCI
    2.
    1. What is the impact of EPCI as a framework for professional learning?
    2. What is the impact of EPCI on teacher efficacy, voice, engagement, and changes in practice?
    3. What is the impact of EPCI on student efficacy, voice, engagement and achievement?
    4. What is the impact of EPCI on leaders as co-learners, planners and decision makers?
  2. Implementations of EPCI
    3.
    1. What are the underlying characteristics and/or conditions that support effective implementation of EPCI?
    2. How widely spread are changes in practice as a result of EPCI?
  3. Spread, sustainability and fidelity of EPCI
    4.
    1. What conditions support the spread and fidelity of the EPCI initiative?
    2. With the spread of EPCI, is fidelity to the foundations of collaborative inquiry sustained?
    3. What connections between and among K to 1 (in 2009-2010) and K to 2 (2010-2011) been developed as a result of EPCI in participating schools and boards?
  4. Links to other LNS collaborative inquiry initiatives
    1. What links are there between the EPCI initiative and the Student Work Study Teachers (SWST) initiative?
    2. What links are there between the EPCI initiative and the Collaborative Inquiry for Learning – Mathematics (CIL-M) initiative?

Evaluation Team

A bilingual research team of evaluators, investigators and research assistants has been assembled from the Faculty of Education of the University of Ottawa. The team is led by Dr. Ruth Kane as the Project Leader, Principal Evaluator/Investigator with Dr. Linda Radford as the Project Manager. Dr. Marie Josée Berger, Dr. Cheryll Duquette, Dr. Nectaria Karagiozis are Team Evaluators/Investigators, and Dr. David Trumpower is the project's Statistician/Data Expert. Shari Order (Doctoral candidate) and Saba Alvi (Ph.D. candidate) are the Research Assistants, and Antonios Fragkioudakis is the Computer Assistant and Web Developer. The evaluation timeline runs from October 3, 2011 until December 14, 2012.

For more details about the evaluation activity, please contact the EPCI Evaluation Office by email or by phone 613.562.5800 x5207.