Key change in Reflective Practice

Having completed the last 32 weeks I feel like a huge lightbulb has gone on in my head. Coming from a very different career I did not begin teaching until four years ago as a far too “mature” student, having completed the graduate diploma. A relatively quick and intense course of study. For me, this course came at a perfect time after my first years in the classroom. This may sound shocking, particularly to whanau of those I teach, but I feel much more confident I have a clearer picture of what I am doing.

I feel I now understand the true benefit of inquiry and how to go about it despite sitting in numerous meetings discussing it. 

My focus in most of my assignment work related to:

Design for learning - Design learning based on curriculum and pedagogical knowledge, assessment information and an understanding of each learner’s strengths, interests, needs, identities, languages and cultures (MOE 2017). 

Writing and experimenting with the ideas I researched in this course has provided rich learning. My students have been honest and a valuable source of critique, particularly as they came up with issues I had not thought of in my theoretical based world of assignment writing.

I have previously had plenty of ideas around how I could go about teaching a particular topic but had not been confident in being able to then find and use the right data or information to know if it was a good idea. Previously I would follow my own perceptions and feelings but now feel confident to use evidence and research. I was relieved to find I am not alone in making assumptions after reading Osterman and Kottkamp (2015).

So to the what next? I am very guilty of attending professional development, filing my notes and never referring to them again, however I will use my learning from this course. I have learned so much about myself and my practice and now intend to continue reflecting and using my blog - now I have overcome my irrational fear of blogging.

I want to develop my practice using application based models and get over my own prejudices about using social media to make the classroom a relevant place for my students. 

It feels like I am left with far more questions than answers and a whole lot more reading to do despite promising myself some more entertaining bedtime reading after this was all over. The main difference is I’m confident I can work through those questions using the tools I have learned to create learning experiences that are valuable to my students.

References:

Ministry of Education (2017). Our code, our standards. Retrieved from

https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/our-code-our-standards

Osterman, K. F., & Kottkamp, R. B. (2015). Reflective practice for educators: professional development to improve student learning.(2nd ed.) New York: Skyhorse Publishing.

Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Responsiveness

My understanding of indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness is based on developing strong relationships with students so that I get to know and understand them. I am particularly conscious of not acting in a way that could be interpreted as tokenism and offensive. My approach is to try to provide opportunities for students to bring their own knowledge and talents to the classroom. After all, for any of us, we feel better about ourselves and more confident if we feel valued. I began teaching when my own children were in their teens and have previously employed a range of people who bought much needed differences to the workplace and with whom I worked and learned from. I am also fortunate to work in an environment where difference is celebrated and the school culture actively encourages and provides a range of opportunities for students to shine and demonstrate their individual skills and talents.

So this definition resonates for me:

Gay (2010) defines culturally responsive pedagogy as teaching ‘to and through [students’] personal and cultural strengths, their intellectual capabilities, and their prior accomplishments’ (p. 26) and as premised on ‘close interactions among ethnic identity, cultural background, and student achievement’ (p.27).

While I put effort into planning learning activities to ensure students can bring their identity and strengths into the classroom and create opportunities for ako, I then fall back on traditional, “One Size Fits All” methods of assessment. 

This puts my practice in the purple zone of Milne’s action continuum until the issue of assessment is addressed however from the perspective of the Mauri Model I am in the state of being of Mauri Oho - awoken and engaged but yet to be at the forefront and showing leadership (Pohatu 2011).

 This section from the paper, Culturally responsive pedagogy and assessment in primary science classrooms, suggests multiple opportunities to give feedback:

Culturally responsive pedagogy thrives when teachers ensure that students have multiple and diverse opportunities to develop, express, and receive feedback on their understanding of science. Ideally, these opportunities accumulate and enable students to elaborate their science ideas by bringing different experiences and knowledge into dialogue (Cowie, Otrel-Cass, Glynn & Kara et al 2011).

I am aware of providing contextually relevant learning activities and am comfortable with becoming the learner in the relationship between myself and the student (ako) but I am not providing multiple and diverse opportunities for feedback. I need to do some research and consult with students to take the next step and rethink assessment. The effective teacher model (Bishop & Berryman 2009) would be a good place to start and my next step. Part two of Te Kotahitanga - Effective Teaching Profile describes the actions of effective teachers from the perspectives of students I need to consider. 

References:

Bishop, R., Berryman, M., Cavanagh, T., & Teddy, L. (2007). Te Kotahitanga Phase 3 Whänaungatanga: Establishing a culturally responsive pedagogy of relations in mainstream secondary school classrooms: Report to the Ministry of Education. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

Bishop, R. & Berryman, M. (2009) The Te Kotahitanga Effective Teaching Profile.

Cowie, B., Otrel-Cass, K., Glynn, T., & Kara, H., et al.(2011).Culturally responsive pedagogy and assessment in primary science classrooms: Whakamana tamariki. Wellington: Teaching Learning Research Initiative. Retrieved from http://www.tlri.org.nz/sites/default/files/projects/9268_cowie-summaryreport.pdf

Gay, G. (2010). Culturally responsive teaching (2nd ed.). New York: Teachers College Press.

Potahu, T. W. (2011). Mauri - Rethinki ng Human Wellbeing. MAI Review, 3, 1-12. 

Trends Influencing NZ Practice

I found it difficult to separate several of the trends and issues described from the evidence I see and experience in my practice. I believe school is such a different place from the environment students live and will work in for several reasons: 

1. Are the learning experiences we provide giving students the opportunity to develop the skills identified as 21st Century skills?
2. Are students able to use digital technologies as part of their learning experiences to the degree they will be required to outside school?
3. Are we acknowledging how easy it is to access knowledge and altering our practices. Across all OECD countries average percentage of Internet users as a share of national populations increased from 61% 2006 to 79% 2013 (OECD 2016). We now have the means to get an immediate answer to any online question (OECD 2016).

Dagget (2014) sums up these issues by saying that for students, “The traditional classroom is, for many of them, an anachronistic model that’s different from the world in which they live”. 

The trend I see as working towards solving all these issues is application based learning such as Project Based Learning.

There are challenges to providing relevant and application based experiences. The biggest being that our current and traditional system does not always lend itself to this style.

This is recognised by the Ministry Of Education:

New Zealand research shows that teachers and students can experience significant learning benefits by changing their roles and working in more knowledge-building ways. However, long-term, system-wide change is extremely difficult. It requires a culture shift in which the majority of teachers think in new ways, develop new skills, and embrace new understandings of themselves as professionals (MOE 2012).

The frightening part for many of us I suspect is that when we allow students to lead learning experiences they begin to use technology we are unfamiliar with and feel totally inadequate. I have experienced this myself with year 8 students and have very quickly become the learner. There is a valuable role for us, however, in guiding students to critically approach the massive availability of information and technological tools.

I teach mathematics and am consistently searching for contextually relevant ways to  teach mathematical skills and knowledge. It frustrates me when I have students quoting adults comments such as “I’ve never used algebra since school”, and yet are probably using simple algebra daily.

Project Based and application based models have been used and written about extensively World Wide. We are fortunate to have others learning to use. Our students are also a valuable resource of ideas and knowledge for us to extend. For me I am starting small, in my mathematics classes, developing contextually relevant tasks and learning from my students as they come up with tech savvy ways to carry out these tasks.

References:

Daggett, B. (2014). Addressing Current and Future Challenges in Education. Retrieved from http://www.leadered.com/pdf/2014 MSC_AddressingCurrentandFutureChallenges.pdf

OECD (2016), Trends Shaping Education 2016, OECD Publishing, Paris. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/trends_edu-2016-en

https://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-resources/NZC-Updates/Issue-26-October-2012

Professional Online Social Networking

My current use of social media is probably best described as a “lurker” who doesn’t contribute a whole lot due to my own fears and discomfort of sharing with such a large and possibly uncontrolled audience. To be fair I believe there is far more written about the dangers of social media than how to use it well.

I use facebook as a member of a teaching group who share hundreds of ideas and comments, but because I don’t look at it daily the massive amount of content puts me off searching for anything that may be of use. This group does get used as a soap box also and I can disagree with comments so quickly scroll past discussions. I use Twitter, but don’t put in the time to search for valuable groups or individuals to follow and Pinterest is like entering a massive over stimulating department store for me. 

I regularly come to the conclusion I just don’t have the time to use social media well, but now suspect it is more about my skill and mindset. It’s not working for me and I am missing a valuable opportunity for my students. As Kathy Cassidy (2013) suggests in her You Tube video, if we do not use social media in school and it is the world our students are living in outside school we are making school a different place for them which could possibly be seen as irrelevant.

I admire and am drawn to the stories of other educators, like Kathy’s, use of social media and feeling inadequate myself. 

The implications for me as a professional and for my professional development are that I need to acquire new skills and confidence to move into the student’s world and be open to opportunities in social media.

The learning this week has completely changed my perspective to move from seeing Social Media as a negative influence in our lives to seeking out ways to embrace and use it constructively. I am focussed on ensuring my teaching is contextually relevant to students and need to step into their world as part of this. The Ministry Of Education, in their Digital technology Guide for schools refers to “safe use” and what better way to influence behaviour than by modelling good practice and use of social media tools.

This reflection leaves more questions than answers for me as I need to read my own school’s policies and research how I could go about incorporating social media constructively and with relevance into my practice. 

References:

Cassidy, K. (2013) “Using Social Media in the Classroom”. From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=52&v=riZStaz8Rno 

Jay, J.K. and Johnson, K.L. (2002). Capturing complexity: a typology of reflective practice for teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18, 73-85.

Ministry of Education. Digital Technology Guide for Schools. From: http://www.education.govt.nz/school/managing-and-supporting-students/student-behaviour-help-and-guidance/searching-and-removing-student-property/digital-technology-guide-for-schools/

My Ethical Dilema

I have children of my own who are the same age as some of the students I teach which has created an ethical dilemma for me at times because I have seen or been told about posts on social media which can contain images and information I may believe are inappropriate.

Using Hall’s (2001) framework for analysis of this dilemma, the stakeholders are obviously the students themselves and whanau, along with the my school in some circumstances.

Hall (2001) suggests that there is a blurring of the socialisation roles of families and schools now that the curriculum includes topics such as human  relationships  education,  sex  education,  health  and  social  education  (including  the  use  of  alcohol  and  drugs),  and  moral  and  religious  education.

The restrictions of my actions are due to the grey area I see as to where the role of mother and teacher begin and end. From a personal perspective I want to keep an open relationship with my own children where they feel free to share issues with me but from a professional perspective, “do I really need to know this stuff?”

Possible courses of action include: suggesting to my own children not to share or discuss issues with me, turning a blind eye to what I know or tell appropriate people at school about issues I know about which may impact school.

According to Our Code Our Standards (Education Council 2017) we should act with Pono -showing integrity by acting in ways that are fair, honest, ethical and just. This suggests to me that I should turn a blind eye to anything I am aware of which is not harmful in order to be fair to the students involved. After all we all made mistakes as we were growing up and should not be judged harshly for small acts or misjudgements. Also I am judging against my own moral beliefs.

The course of action I see as best is to continue the open relationship with my own children because I want them to be able to confide in me but to keep a clear demarcation of when it is appropriate to divulge information or not. The rule I have chosen to use to create this demarcation is to consider if there is any danger to any person involved or will there be an impact within school. As professionals we can be guided by school policies under NAG5 (Ministry of Education). Guidelines for NAG5 states that ; schools are increasingly involved in incidents where the activities of students at home or in their own time have an impact on the life of the school. One example is a student creating inappropriate digital content on their own digital technology, whether at school or not. Schools have the responsibility and the power to act when any such content could reasonably be expected to impact negatively on the school learning environment.

So long as I can keep to the line I have created and ensure I do not become judgemental from the perspective of my personal moral and social justice code, I can avoid the grey and make good, professional decisions. 

References:

Education Council. (2017). Our Code Our Standards. Retrieved from: https://educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/file...Our Standards:

Hall, A. (2001) What ought I to do, all things considered? An approach to the exploration of ethical problems by teachers. Paper presented at the IIPE Conference, Brisbane. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Developing-leaders/What-Ought-I-to-Do-All-Things-Considered-An-Approach-to-the-Exploration-of-Ethical-Problems-by-Teachers

Ministry of Education. From : http://www.education.govt.nz/school/student-support/student-wellbeing/health-and-wellbeing/bullying-prevention-and-response/bullying-prevention-and-response-a-guide-for-schools/section-3/15/