# 6 Course conclusion

Throughout this free course, An appreciative approach to inquiry, we have asked you to keep a journal (either paper or electronic) of your writing, images, discussions and stories. Your journal at this point may feel messy, unfinished, or full of interesting small nuggets that you haven’t had time to fully follow through. In many ways, this is the view of inquiry we have been advocating throughout this course, where adopting an appreciative approach to inquiry, whether as a stance or specifically within a project, actively engages with the complex, messy and forever changing contexts within educational settings.

This course has demonstrated why and how taking an appreciative approach in such complex circumstances can act as a powerful generator of practices which are built on firm foundations, arising from what is already in place, what is already thought or considered and what is already known. This is therefore an inquiry emerging from questions and possibilities that already exist, that may create opportunity for making significant positive and generative difference.

To do this we have suggested a range of creative writing and thinking activities designed to help you develop your appreciative conversations, gaze, and storytelling. This isn’t necessarily an easy shift to make, and we would encourage you to continue to think about when and where you can have appreciative and therefore generative conversations in your context. We hope that through these conversations, you begin to see the real potential of appreciative inquiry.

Other free courses on OpenLearn:

Learning to teach: becoming a reflective practitioner

Exploring educational leadership

Becoming an ethical researcher

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in STEM

OpenLearn - An appreciative approach to inquiry
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