Our badging and certification program recognizes your expertise in the Shared Inquiry™ method of learning and makes it simple to celebrate your achievements with others. All educators who complete the Great Books Shared Inquiry Essentials course earn a Shared Inquiry Leader digital badge that they can place in an email signature, on an LMS profile page, or on social media. Educators can also access a certificate that can be shared with administrators. School administrators can request a secure login to view badges earned by teachers to keep up with the professional development completed. With the newly released Shared Inquiry Essentials On-Demand course, teachers can share their course completion with the badges and certificates easily. Many organizations, associations, and companies use digital badges and microcredentials to record professional development achievements. The Great Books Foundation partners with Accredible to issue customized Shared Inquiry badges and certificates.

It’s Easy to Share Your Credentials

Teachers and schools are encouraged to share earned badges on LinkedIn, email signatures, and Facebook. With the Accredible platform, it is simple to share the badge with a click. You can send the email directly from the platform to your administrators. When a badge is shared, viewers are able to click on it to see what the teacher had to do to earn it. The viewer will see how long the course was and what was taught. Unlike a certificate that hangs on a wall or gets put in a file, a badge contains metadata that helps the viewer see what was learned. In some cases, the assignments and assessments can be linked to the badge metadata showing the demonstrated expertise.

Advanced Badges

After you earn the 100-level Shared Inquiry Leader badge, you can progress to earn badges at the Specialist (200) and Master (300) levels. In addition, administrators and other support personnel are eligible to earn the Shared Inquiry Champion badge.

Participants who take any advanced (200-level) Great Books training course will earn a Specialist badge. Available specializations include:

  • Primary Grades
  • Nonfiction Inquiry
  • Student Questions
  • Online Instruction
  • Coaching/Consultation

Practitioners who earn two or more Specialist badges will be awarded the Shared Inquiry Master badge, our highest level of expertise and achievement.

Administrators, coaches, and other personnel who support teachers using Great Books programs may choose to earn the Shared Inquiry Champion badge. Educators earn this badge by participating in the Shared Inquiry Essentials course and documenting support for a Great Books implementation at a school or district (see details in the chart below).

How to Earn Great Books Professional Development Badges

Badge How to Earn
Shared Inquiry Leader
100 LEVEL		 Complete the Shared Inquiry Essentials training course. This course can be completed online as a webinar, asynchronously through our Learning Center, or in person. Participation in this course will satisfy the 100-level requirement needed to earn additional badges.

Teachers who have completed the Shared Inquiry Essentials course more than three years ago can attend a Shared Inquiry Advanced Review Online training course to satisfy the 100-level requirement needed to earn additional badges. Learners who attend this course will receive a certificate.
Primary Grades Specialist
200 LEVEL
  1. Earn a 100-level badge or certificate.
  2. Complete the Interpretive Thinking for Grades K–1 Online training course.
  3. Submit lesson plans, samples of student work, or other materials demonstrating the use of Junior Great Books® and Shared Inquiry in the primary grades.
Nonfiction Inquiry Specialist
200 LEVEL
  1. Earn a 100-level badge or certificate.
  2. Complete the Implementing Junior Great Books Nonfiction Inquiry Online training course.
  3. Submit lesson plans, samples of student work, or other materials demonstrating the use of Junior Great Books Nonfiction Inquiry in the classroom.
Student Questions Specialist
200 LEVEL
  1. Earn a 100-level badge or certificate.
  2. Complete The Power of Student Questions Online training course.
  3. Submit lesson plans, samples of student work, or other materials demonstrating classroom use of students’ questions in Junior Great Books and Shared Inquiry.
Online Instruction Specialist
200 LEVEL
  1. Earn a 100-level badge or certificate.
  2. Complete The Power of Student Questions Online training course.
  3. Submit lesson plans, samples of student work, or other materials demonstrating the use of Junior Great Books and Shared Inquiry for online learning.
Consultation
200 LEVEL
  1. Earn a 100-level badge or certificate.
  2. Attend a coaching session (in-person or online) with a Great Books training consultant.
Shared Inquiry Champion
300 LEVEL
  1. Earn a 100-level badge or certificate.
  2. Submit evidence to show the completion of the following actions (at minimum two):
    • Support and organize consultations with teachers and Great Books trainers.
    • Organize and host administrative briefings to introduce others to Junior Great Books.
    • Support teachers in multi-year implementations by hosting training and coaching.
    • Design curriculum using Shared Inquiry.
Shared Inquiry Master
300 LEVEL
  1. Earn a 100-level badge or certificate.
  2. Earn two or more Specialist badges.

Get Started Today!

All Great Books professional development helps educators learn, practice, and master the Shared Inquiry method. Teachers gain new ways to teach; they learn to ask better prepared and spontaneous questions and to release responsibility to students as they engage in active inquiry. Our experienced trainers have helped thousands of educators use this method with Junior Great Books materials and other curricula. Contact your Great Books K–12 partnership manager to learn more!