Supporting Collaborative Inquiry Groups: What Exactly Does This Entail?
Collaborative inquiry (CI) often prefers using the small group as the main method of investigation serving the twin goals that characterize this type of research—the production of scientific knowledge and the professional development of its participants. The small group offers researchers and practitioners a mutual space for analyzing issues of common interest which arise from the day-to-day experience of the latter. Supporting these groups and their participants can be a major challenge and plays a crucial role in carrying out a CI project. But what exactly do this stance and the work supporting it entail? The authors of this article offer some possible answers to this broad question by drawing on their own experiences in various CI projects and on a systematic approach that they have developed in recent years. Knowledge related to CI— as a methodological approach and as part of the process and goals of experiential learning in particular—made it possible to study support issues, starting with areas of focus that guide researchers and act as reference points in the course of this work.