8) Changes in Practice

When I reflect on my own personal learning journey over the last 32 weeks of the Mindlab course, I am satisfied that I have learnt a great deal – in terms of knowledge, but mostly in understanding ways I can improve my practice.

The main ideas that have really resonated with me are:

-the need to teach 21C skills. This is not just another flash-in-the-pan trend in education. Even though we think the way we were taught worked for us (we learnt for sure, was it the best way though?), it is not enough for those entering the today’s world.

- use of technology. This should not just be a more engaging substitute for pen & paper but as a way to transform learning. Yay for the SMAR model! Easy to remember and apply and be challenged by.

- growth mindset. I have read Carol Dweck’s book and a number on on-line resources. I am fascinated about the effect of mindset on learning anything and I keep on seeing examples of fixed or mindsets in myself and others. I am currently introducing these ideas to my Year 9 students and intend to share it with all my learners.

-collaborative practice. I am learning the importance and benefits of this and of the interdisciplinary approach. Teaching this year in a connected learning environment has forced me into some connected learning but I am keen to develop this further.

- reflective practice. I have always been a bit averse to it, mostly because I have thought of it as a way to beat myself up for lessons that haven’t gone well. The Mindlab course has taken me out of my comfort zone and challenged me to understand what it is about and to see the real benefits it can bring. I intend to keep developing reflective practice.

There are two Practising Teacher Criteria¹ that I would like to discuss here.

1. establish and maintain effective professional relationships focused on the learning and well-being of ākonga

i. engage in ethical, respectful, positive and collaborative professional relationships with: ·         ākonga ·         teaching colleagues, support staff and other professionals ·         whānau and other carers of ākonga ·         agencies, groups and individuals in the community

As a teacher I am committed to promoting the learning and well-being of ākonga at our school. It has been valuable to learn practical ways of collaborating through digital means with my school colleagues, but especially through widening my community of practice to include colleagues in other schools and even around the world. No longer do we need to feel isolated as practitioners, there are plenty of fellow teachers out there with the same goals and grappling with the same issues as us. Digital tools enable us to make connections in our community or beyond. We can establish and maintain relationships with many others who are committed to the well-being of ākonga.

12. use critical inquiry and problem-solving effectively in their professional practice

i. systematically and critically engage with evidence and professional literature to reflect on and refine practice ii. respond professionally to feedback from members of their learning community iii. critically examine their own beliefs, including cultural beliefs, and how they impact on their professional practice and the achievement of ākonga

The Mindlab course has taught me, among other things, a great deal about critical inquiry, evidence-based practice and cultural responsiveness. This week’s reading on reflective practice has articulated a lot of muddled ideas I have had about experiential learning, problem-solving approaches and self-reflection. Osterman & Kottkamp (1993)2 present reflective practice as “a means by which practitioners can develop a greater level of self-awareness about the nature and impact of their performance, an awareness that creates opportunities for professional growth and development” (p. 2). From reading this article I see reflective practice as a meaningful and self-directed way to approach & try to solve real, relevant problems through changing our behaviour. The traditional approach to professional development is based on knowledge acquisition and is largely ineffective at producing behavioural change. Reflective practice on the other hand, considers self-awareness (and acceptance that some of our own behaviours need to change), emotional and cultural factors that go along with making changes to behaviour.

So my goal for professional development in the foreseeable future is to embrace reflective practice and use it to problem-solve and enhance areas of my practice. The learning will continue...

REFERENCES:

¹Ministry of Education (nd). Practising teacher Criteria and e-learning . Retrieved from http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Professional-learning/

2Osterman, K. & Kottkamp, R. (1993). Reflective Practice for Educators. California.Cornwin Press, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk/files/RefPract/Osterman_Kottkamp_extract.pdf

7) Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Where I’m at

The concept map above shows that last year at our school we were working in our own silos with minimal connection between learning areas. This year, as we progress towards an ILE for our junior school, we are trying to connect learning for Year 9 students across their core subjects. We are only at the early stages of this connectedness, still grappling with team teaching and organizing 60 students together. A school goal is to connect learning this year and progress to more integrated learning in the future.

My Goal

My goal for this year is to make meaningful connections across all the core curriculum learning areas. In order to do this our community of practice (CoP - the 5 teachers in our ‘hub’) have weekly meetings and frequent 1-on-1 discussions. It is a challenge collaborating with four other teachers but so far it seems to be working pretty well. I believe we have most of the qualifiers (workplace conditions, qualities/attitudes and common goals – see Kugan’s blog¹) to make this interdisciplinary approach work, it is mainly experience we lack, as we are all new to working in this way. We are timetabled to teach in pairs and so far, rather than real team teaching, we are taking turns to lead the learning. As a result we are often not even connecting the learning very well. We have a lot to learn.

Benefits and Challenges

Mathison & Freeman (1997)² explore the reasoning behind using an interdisciplinary approach in the school curriculum. Their synthesis shows that there are sound arguments for such an approach, although more research is required to prove that these methods actually work. Jones³ also concludes that skills of critical thinking, communication, creativity, pedagogy and content knowledge will be advanced through an interdisciplinary approach. This comes with a price: it is time-consuming and demands good collaboration amongst teachers.

Our CoP understand the rationale behind the interdisciplinary approach and can see potential benefits (see my Word Cloud). We are putting in a lot of time to collaborate and plan effectively so that we better prepare our students for their future.

Hitting the NCEA wall

The way I see it, integration at the junior high school level is, given time to learn ourselves, quite doable. However we are very limited by the NCEA structure. Once students hit Year 11 they have very subject-specific content they need to know to meet the NCEA Achievement Standards.

I can see limited ways to integrate in the senior school. An example from our school is an AgScience course. This is an interdisciplinary senior course between science (biology & chemistry), agriculture and horticulture. It seems a sensible step that will better meet the needs of a number of students and also fits into the NCEA system as standards are selected from both learning areas. I would be really interested to hear how other schools are taking on the challenge of integrating learning at the senior level while still working within the constraints of NCEA.

Rethink the curriculum?

I was very interested to learn about the Ross Learning system⁴. It provides a highly structured, detailed K-12 curriculum that truly integrates and connects learning areas. Learning is progressively built around integrated narratives which are developed through threads, connected studies, and which serve to grow core values, multiple intelligences, creative & critical thinking skills.

One of the strengths of the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) that it is not prescriptive and allows for a multitude of learning pathways. The Ross Learning Spiral⁵ on the other hand, is a far more structured and rigorous curriculum. While being quite prescriptive it appears to have many opportunities for individual and group exploration. Examples of detailed resources shows how integration can actually work. I love it! A Ross student says in a video⁶ “[My school] has prepared me to think in an interdisciplinary way not just study in that way”.

Surely this is what we are aiming for!

References:

¹The Scholarly Teacher. (2015). Establishing & Maintaining Transdisciplinary Courses. Retrieved from http://scholarlyteacher.com/2015/10/22/establishing-maintaining-transdisciplinary-courses/

²Mathison, S. & Freeman, M. (1997). The logic of interdisciplinary studies. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, 1997. Retrieved from http://www.albany.edu/cela/reports/mathisonlogic12004.pdf

³Jones, C. (2009). Interdisciplinary approach - Advantages, disadvantages, and the future benefits of interdisciplinary studies. ESSAI7 (26), 76-81. Retrieved from http://dc.cod.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1121&context=essai

⁴Ross Institute. (2015). Ross Learning System overview. Retrieved from http://rossinstitute.org/mobile/ross-learning-system/overview/

⁵Ross Institute. (2015). Ross Learning Spiral. Retrieved from http://spiral.rosslearningsystem.org/spiral/#/

⁶Ross Institute. (2015, July 5). Ross Spiral Curriculum: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Science. [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHZhkB0FJik

6) Social Media use in Teaching and Professional Development

As I drive to school I pass many students waiting for the bus. Invariably they have their heads bent down, engrossed in their devices. They are not talking to the peers alongside them. They are not seeing the real world around them. This always saddens me somewhat. They are connected certainly, but not necessarily to the real world around them. It also makes me wonder if they will have neck problems when they are older...

Voice my concerns to my teenage son, and I am immediately accused of being out-of-touch (true) and critical (not necessarily). It is what it is. Social media is here – and it has many benefits. So here are some thoughts about using it (for good) in our teaching practice.

Social Media in the Classroom

I haven’t gone there….. yet. It has been interesting to read some of the very cool ways social media has been used (e.g. the NASA social media sites¹ that provide multiple ways students can interact, including being involved in helping solve problems with crowd sourcing.) Clearly social media used in the right way (well co-ordinated and facilitated by those with enthusiasm & expertise)² can connect students with expertise and resources in a real-world, experiential way – using technology to transform learning. At present I do not feel I have the expertise or time to upskill, but would like in the future to work with other teachers to introduce some transformative learning through social media.

I was also impressed with the simple but effective use of social media by Kathy Cassidy³. I can see that using a blog as a reflective journal of learning has many benefits, not least that it can be easily shared with other students, parents etc. This I could do. As a secondary teacher of science, I could see that encouraging students to join social media groups with others around the world with similar interests in aspects of science, could really encourage inquiry, student-led learning.

Social Media in Professional Development

Having made connections with other teachers through social media (e.g. google+, Twitter, Pinterest) in part due to encouragement from the MindLab course, I can certainly see its benefits. We hear frequent complaints at our school that the PD is often irrelevant or does not help us, or our students, in the classroom. If schools provided more flexibility in PD and encouraged teachers to connect with teachers who were interested in the same thing/solving similar problems through social media, then this could really help. There is a vast resource of teachers doing similar things to us out there and it’s free and accessible. For inspiration watch the Connected Educators video⁴.

So let’s embrace social media and use it. But let’s also stop & take a break – look up, look around (stretch the neck) and see, smell, listen and experience the real world around us.

References:

¹NASA social media homepage https://www.nasa.gov/socialmedia

²Sharples, M., de Roock , R., Ferguson, R., Gaved, M., Herodotou, C., Koh, E., Kukulska-Hulme, A., Looi, C-K, McAndrew, P., Rienties, B., Weller, M., Wong, L. H. (2016). Innovating Pedagogy 2016: Open University Innovation Report 5. Milton Keynes: The Open University. p. 14. Retrieved from http://proxima.iet.open.ac.uk/public/innovating_pedagogy_2016.pdf

³Tvoparents. (2013, May 21). Using Social Media in the Classroom.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riZStaz8Rno

⁴Office of Ed Tech. (2013, Sep 18). Connected Educators. [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=216&v=K4Vd4JP_DB8