CRAFTING INQUIRY 2025
SPEAKER AND SESSION INFORMATION
CONFERENCE DESCRIPTION
Trevor MacKenzie and Jessica Vance share their passion for inquiry and the powerful benefits of planning for curiosity in our classrooms. A focus of the morning will be on Trevor’s fourth publication, Inquiry Mindset Questions Edition, wherein he shares ten high-impact Question Routines. Question Routines are designed to help teachers leverage student-generated questions to help plan next steps in learning. These routines call on students to sort, organize, justify, and revise their questions and, in doing so, help them become more competent questioners themselves. Trevor and Jessica will demonstrate strategies to plan for curiosity through the lens of provocations, facilitate learning of the ten high-impact Question Routines, and examine how these routines align with inquiry teaching and learning. A focus for the afternoon will be on Jessica’s second publication, Evidence of Inquiry, and the impact that learning walls have on student learning and how the visual evidence of inquiry supports all students in feeling capable and competent in the classroom.
SPEAKER BIOS
Trevor MacKenzie
Trevor MacKenzie is a part-time high school teacher in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. His research, consultancy, and authorship have reached all parts of the world as he works with schools, districts, organizations, and ministries/departments of education in a variety of contexts. Policy advising, curriculum development, professional development, and systems change are Trevor’s areas of expertise. His four publications are globally recognized as “must reads” in the inquiry-based school of thinking. He is a highly regarded speaker known for his heartfelt storytelling, kind demeanour, and person-first philosophy.
Trevor’s graduate research focused on identifying and removing the barriers to implementing inquiry-based learning in the K-12 setting. He has four publications: Dive into Inquiry; Inquiry Mindset Elementary Edition; Inquiry Mindset Assessment Edition; and Inquiry Mindset Questions Edition all published by Elevate Books Edu. He has vast experience supporting schools across several years in implementation strategies in public schools, international schools, and International Baccalaureate programmes (PYP/MYP/DP).
Jessica Vance
With a professional teaching and leadership background in both the private and public international schools (IB PYP Educator & PYP Coordinator), Jessica Vance, brings a unique perspective to her role as an inquiry leader. Her passion for student centered learning, collaboration, and coaching stems from the students themselves, finding inspiration in their natural curiosity as they authentically engage in learning experiences inside and outside of the classroom. Jessica strongly believes in the power of leading with a lens of inquiry, facilitating innovative professional learning opportunities and coaching sessions that provide the space for educators to collaborate and reflect, while supporting their professional growth as inquiry practitioners.
Her journey and experience as an inquiry educator in IB schools and Place Based Education fuels her passion and global work in coaching both teachers and leaders in their roles, as well as supporting schools in implementing inquiry based learning. Jessica understands the power of curiosity to guide next steps, creating the space we all need as learners as we actively engage in a reflective practice. In her first publication, Leading with a Lens of Inquiry, she outlines the ways in which we, as leaders, need to support and facilitate our teachers in the same ways in which we want our teachers to engage with their students. Her second book, titled Evidence of Inquiry, supports teachers in the evidence and documentation realm of inquiry through the use of learning walls.
