Reflective Teacher

reflecting on teaching and 21st century learning

Reflective Teacher

Introduction

Posted by  on Sunday, October 3rd 2010     

Hi,

My name is Cheryl Harvey. I work as en education adviser at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. My present work is in supporting provisionally registered teachers ie those that have finished a degree and training and are now following a 2 year induction and mentoring programme  as a classroom teacher before receiving their full registration as a teacher. I also support their mentors through email groups, cluster meetings, workshops and in-school support. A large part of the induction mentoring programme is the keeping of a reflective journal which provides evidence of meeting the Registered Teacher Criteria. The Registered Teacher Criteria are new criteria to be used in all schools from next year for both PRTs and experienced teachers renewing their registration. You will find the registered teacher criteria here  http://www.teacherscouncil.govt.nz/rtc/rtc.stm and can link to a page on registration on my wiki here http://prtteamsolutions.wikispaces.com/Teacher+Registration

Please click on a post to leave a comment.

category: Provisionally Registered Teachers, Uncategorized
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Classroom observation

Posted by  on Sunday, November 20th 2011     

I have been working on a  case study as a piece of action research using the teaching as inquiry model. It is based in a school classroom with the facilitator and teacher working together to co-construct what constitutes effective practice for the students of this particular class which can then be generalised out to other classes in the school. The multicultural Year 9 class is made up of Maori (17), Tongan (6), Cook Island Maori (3) European (2), Samoan (1), Fijian (1). The gender breakdown is Male (19), Female (11). The asTTle reading range is <2B – 4P, median 3P.

It was noticeable in this observation at the beginning of Term 4 that the class climate and class dynamic had changed markedly. There was an aura of repect and calmness, the students were more motivated, got quickly down to work and took ownership of the learning.

The teacher used the strategy of student prior knowledge to engage students and to find out where they were at and what they knew. The teacher has the class for 2 x 1 hour periods and so in period 1 had focussed on oral language around the questions “Where did fireworks originate and who invented them? Why do we celebrate Guy Fawkes in New Zealand. So the students were able to learn some history of the event as well as contributing their own personal experiences of the day – a mixture of ancient and modern.

In period 2, the teacher turned to another topic and another venue (the Library) to give students an opportunity to stretch their legs, to work in different surroundings and an opportunity to think about something different.

The teacher had a go at co-constructing a learning intention around writing an essay about uniform. This was too big a leap for the students and would have been better if the teacher had created the learning intention and the students then  co-constructed the success criteria. The students would then have a frame on which to hang the success criteria ie what skills and knowledge will you need to be able to meet this learning intention? Is there anything that you would need help with before you begin the task?

The teacher provided the learning intention (with a little help by a few students). WALT – We are learning to provide good arguments both for and against wearing a school uniform. In groups of 3 the students brainstormed arguments for and against and then these were brainstormed onto the board ie the teacher at the front and each group contributing one idea for and one idea against (without repeating what anybody else had said). As expected, the behaviour problems began at this stage.

Sone other methods the teacher could have used:

  • getting one student from each group to write their group’s ideas on the whiteboard
  • placing their ideas onto strips of paper, one idea per strip, sifting out the doubleups, then photocopying onto A3 sheets to pin up around the room or one for each group
  • Each group contibuting to a google doc
  • walk and gawk – each group writes their ideas onto a sheet. Then others walk around the room looking at these and adding new ideas that they can use in their own writing.

One has to keep in mind that the purpose of this activity is to generate ideas so that the students don’t stare at a blank page wondering what to write about. Some students don’t need this scaffolding and can happily write on their own, but when you look at the asTTle scores for the class, it is obvious that many students still need to be scaffolded.

Behaviour problems can be minimised by watching the patterns of behaviour in the class ie does it always happen if the teacher talks for too long, when whole class teaching begins, when groups report back, when some students are bored etc? Then provide for these in advance by differentiating the learning, providing source material, providing exemplars, providing further teaching for some groups, ensuring there is a match between level of task and level at which students are working and giving feedback and feedforward on the task.

It has taken a full term to get these students to be motivated and engaged in the lesson and working independently. The next steps are to differentiate the learning so that those students working at curriculum Level 4 can be extended by working at a faster pace, working together to extend each other rather than always in a tuakana teina model and thus lift their literacy levels.

category: culturally responsive pedagogy, teaching and learning
tags: , , , ,

Effective Teaching Profile

Posted by  on Monday, October 3rd 2011     

 

 

 

Browsing through “Scaling Up Education Reform” (2010: Bishop, O’Sullivan, Berryman) I am reminded of the Effective Teaching Profile used in the Te Kotahitanga project http://tekotahitanga.tki.org.nz/and how it links to the registered teacher criteria http://www.teacherscouncil.govt.nz/rtc/index.stm.

Effective Teaching Profile Registered Teacher Criteria
Teachers care for students as culturally located individuals RTC1, RTC2, RTC3, RTC7, RTC8, RTC9, RTC10
have high expectations for students’ learning RTC2, RTC3, RTC6, RTC8, RTC9, RTC10, RTC11, RTC12
are able to manage classrooms so as to promote learning RTC1, RTC2, RTC3, RTC4, RTC6, RTC8, RTC9, RTC10, RTC11, RTC12
are able to engage in a range of discursive learning interactions with students or facilitate students to engage with others in these ways RTC6, RTC7, RTC8,RTC9, RTC10, RTC12
know a range of strategies that can facilitate learning interactions RTC6, RTC7, RTC8
collaboratively promote, monitor and reflect on students’ learning outcomes in order to modify their instructional practices in ways that will lead to improvement in Maori student achievement RTC11, RTC12
share this knowledge with their students RTC6, RTC7, RTC8, RTC11
Power is shared -learners can initiate interactions, and a learner’s right to self-determination over learning styles and sense-making processes are regarded as fundamental to power-sharing relationships, and collaborative, critical reflection is part of an ongoing critiques of power relationships RTC1,RTC2, RTC3, RTC5,RTC6, RTC7, RTC8, RTC9, RTC10, RTC11
Culture counts – Classrooms are places where learners can bring “who they are” to the learning interactions in complete safety, and where their knowledge is acceptable and legitimate. RTC1, RTC2, RTC3, RTC7, RTC8, RTC9. RTC10
Learning is interactive and dialogic – Learners are able to be co-inquirers (raisers of questions and evaluators of questions and answers); learning is active and problem-based, integrated and holistic;; learning positioning is reciprocal (ako); knowledge is co-created; and classroom’s are places where young peoples’ sense-making processes and knowledge are validated and developed in collaboration with others. RTC2, RTC7, RTC8, RTC9
Connectedness is fundamental to relations- Teachers are committed to and inextricably connected to the students and their community; and school and home/parental aspirations are complementary.There is a common vision – There is an agenda for excellence for Māori in education. RTC1, RTC2, RTC3RTC1, RTC3, RTC5, RTC6, RTC8, RTC10
category: culturally responsive pedagogy, Provisionally Registered Teachers, teaching and learning
tags: , ,

Henrietta Lacks

Posted by  on Thursday, September 29th 2011     

Have just finished reading “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot – a gripping read. It covers medical science in the 1950s, injustice, racism but most of all is a very readable personal family story that seems incredible in this day and age. Colleagues loved it, students would love it. Published 2010.

The book is co-constructed between the journalist, Rebecca Skloot, and Deborah, the daughter of Henrietta Lacks. It gave an insight into the life of people made powerless through race, poverty and lack of education. It also made one acutely aware of what constitutes ethical behaviour. One is given an in-depth, personal experience of the questions, fears and utter helplessness of those not included in the dominant group in America of the 1950s. It certainly makes you wonder how much of this still goes on today.

 

category: ethics
tags: , ,

How do we engage students into a state of flow?

Posted by  on Thursday, September 8th 2011     

Flow theory.wmv

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

As a teacher, I was always aware of the flow of my lesson and sensitive to student engagement and disengagement in relation to boredom and challenge. Mihaly Csikszentmihayi spent many years researching the notion of “flow”. In his book “Flow”  Csikszentmihalyi defines flow as ‘the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.’  http://www.teachingexpertise.com/articles/mihaly-csikszentmihalyis-theory-of-flow-1674.

As an adviser, observing other teachers’ lessons, I notice that some have some notion of flow in the sense of pace and linking from one activity to the other and others have a deep sense of flow as per Csikszentmihayi. I became aware of this in my own teaching practice when I was teaching both secondary English and Drama. The drama students easily moved into “flow” and would be so absorbed in the task that extraneous things like bells went unnoticed (unlike in some classrooms where students were lined up at the door waiting for the bell to ring). Our secondary schools mitigate against flow in that the days are divided into 1 hour chunks and when the bell goes you must move quickly to get to the next class on time no matter whether you are totally absorbed in what you are doing or finished.

Csikszentmihayi notes that “in the first few years of life children are like little machines processing knowledge and devouring knowledge with an exuberant interest in learning”. But at secondary school it has been traditional for the information “to be processed for them, they are not in control of the process which is done to them and so their enthusiasm is damped down”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwngIuplE5g. This tradition is changing in NZ education with a student – centred curriculum http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-documents/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum and with many schools engaged in the Te Kotahitanga project which uses the constructivist model of students and teachers co-constructing knowledge together http://tekotahitanga.tki.org.nz/About/The-Development-of-Te-Kotahitanga/Effective-Teaching-Profile

But getting back to the everyday teacher and the everyday lesson. How can teachers achieve the optimal notion of flow in their classrooms. Csikszentmihayi gives these pointers:

  1. There must be a clear goal that is not too difficult or too easy but is well matched to the students’ skills. Too difficult an activity will produce anxiety and too easy an activity will produce boredom. (Teachers will know where the student is at from the data they have used to plan the lesson)
  2. Immediate feedback should be provided so that the student knows in a step by step way how they are going in relation to the goal (or Learning Intention and Success Criteria)
  3. The “flow” experience begins with concentration that becomes more and more focused until the student steps out of their everyday reality, loses self-consciousness and consciousness of time. (the NZ curriculum, Effective Pedagogy, p34 talks about “creating a supportive learning environment” and  Registered Teacher Criteria 2 (RTC2) talks of providing a teaching and learning environment that is physically, socially and culturally safe”. http://www.teacherscouncil.govt.nz/rtc/rtchandbook-english.pdf ).
  4. The student has a sense of control, choice or awareness of the type of challenges that s/he can take on ie self awareness of one’s strengths and weaknesses. (The NZ Curriculum, Key Competencies p12, Managing Self – This competency is associated with self-motivation, a“can-do” attitude, and with students seeing themselves as capable learners. It is integral to self-assessment).
  5. The teacher needs to read the shifting needs of learners and to ensure there is a balance between challenge and skills. This would include giving feedback and feedforward to students to guide them to the next steps.(RTC7 – demonstrate effective management of the learning setting which incorporates successful strategies to engage and motivate akonga (learners))
  6. The teacher would need to know a lot about the student to know what the correct balance of challenge and skill is. (RTC1 – establish relationships, RTC8 – demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of how akonga learn, RTC11 – analyse assessment information to identify progress and ongoing learning needs of akonga.

 

category: creativity, teaching and learning
tags: , ,

How do I get my students thinking at a deeper cognitive level?

Posted by  on Wednesday, August 10th 2011     

Today I was running a workshop for PRTs around getting students to think and respond at a deeper cognitive level. To begin with we brainstormed the thinking key competency (NZC) and shared ways of using creative thinking, critical thinking and reflective thinking in the classroom.

The frustration in teaching comes when you pitch the teaching at a high cognitive level with the expectation that the students will respond in kind but instead, they respond at a low or surface  level which requires little thinking.

To remediate this, we need to look at our approach in the classroom. Do we employ a questioning or an answering pedagogy in our classrooms? If we employ an answering pedagogy, the teacher will do most of the talking, the teacher will ask most of the questions and the students will be expected to answer what is asked of them. A questioning pedagogy encourages students to ask questions, to be curious and to inquire. The teacher may get the students to produce a question log alongside the topic being studied to check what they still need to learn.(Yoram & Lefstein 2000).

The NZC requires teaching and learning to be student-centred, the Registered Teachers Criteria expect us to be using “ako” (we are all learning from each other). Therefore we need to be using a questioning pedagogy or an inquiry learning approach in which we train students to ask quality questions.Thinking is also one of the key competencies of the the NZC.

Bloom’s Taxonomy is an old favourite and can be useful as a taxonomy to check that we are asking questions and setting tasks at a deeper level so that students are pushed to engage their brains “until they hurt”. Krathwohl designed a taxonomy of the affective domain which fits with the values of the NZC and complements Blooms taxonomy. I favour Krathwohl because I know from experience, that if you engage students at the emotional level they will learn at a deeper level. We looked at how we might use this taxonomy for designing tasks and differentiating classrooms.

The Solo taxonomy is an easy one to teach to students. It can be used to ask questions at the 4 different levels but it can also be used to measure the quality of thinking that has gone into the student work through measuring the outcomes they produce as evidence of their learning. I used the SOLO taxonomy with a Year 9 class when I was teaching and found that once trained, they could easily measure the quality of their questions and answers and consequently raise the cognitive level of their responses.SOLO underpins asTTle and links well to the achieved merit and excellence of NCEA. The extended abstract category is a must for scholarship students and those wanting to attain excellence in NCEA.Bloom’s Taxonomy with Krathwohl taxonomyGoing SOLO Jul09

category: teaching and learning
tags: , , , , ,

Culturally Responsive Pedagogy

Posted by  on Tuesday, December 7th 2010     

A group of colleagues including myself decided that instead of going to another conference this year, we would put in a proposal to have an authentic experience of living in another culture in order to fully understand and appreciate the meaning of teaching using a culturally responsive pedagogy of relations. We chose Samoa because we have many Samoan and Pasifika students in NZ and a Pasifika Education Plan for them that suggests that we could be teaching more effectively to ensure that these students succeed.

Breadfruit

Breadfruit

Professional Learning Development in Samoa 2010 Proposal for culturally authentic professional development

Dates: July 1 – 10th, 2010

Who is involved: 4 Team Solutions colleagues – the Pasifika Languages facilitator, a Primary ex Principal, a Secondary ESOL facilitator, a Secondary English / Literacy / Beginning Teachers facilitator and the Director of Team Solutions.

Background

75% of New Zealand’s Pasifika students are in Auckland and Samoan students make up over half of the group. Pasifika students are also disproportionately represented among students who have not yet reached standard educational goals by the time they leave school. The Pasifika Education Plan (2009-2012) sets out the following goals for the Compulsory Education Sector:

http://www.minedu.govt.nz/NZEducation/EducationPolicies/PasifikaEducation/PasifikaEducationPlan.aspx

GOAL 4: Ensure Pasifika children and young people demonstrate improved progress and achievement in literacy and numeracy in relation to the National Standards (years 1-8), and improved achievement in NCEA levels 1, 2 and 3 and University Entrance.

GOAL 5: Increase the quality of teaching and school leadership by increasing responsiveness to Pasifika learners and families.

GOAL 6: Increase effective engagement between Pasifika parents, families and teachers and schools focused on learning.

http://pasifika.tki.org.nz/

fale

fale

Following is the background and proposal that we put forward.

This proposal is based upon the theory that there are “clear links between teaching and learning and/or student – teacher relationships” (pxxxii, Teacher Professional Learning and Development BES, Timperley et al,  2007) http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/series/2515/15341.

This proposal is also based upon the principles of ISTE professional learning.

ISTE learning and practice lead to:

  • improvements in teacher practice and student outcomes
  • are underpinned by inquiry and research evidence
  • developed through collaborative relationships
  • influenced by and responsive to context and culture
  • provide and build leadership in a range of contexts`(Ki Te Aoturoa, MOE, 2008) http://instep.net.nz/

The purpose of the proposed professional learning is focussed on the following  key ideas:

  • Know the learner – who are these Samoan students?
  • An In-depth experience of professional learning for Team Solutions facilitators and for the Samoan teachers and learners with whom they will work.
  • Sustainability through the establishment of ongoing collaborative partnerships in professional learning between schools in Samoa and Team Solutions.
  • Share the educational learning experiences gained with Team Solutions facilitators and FOED staff through presentations, and the writing of a report/blog.
  • Reflect and critique our own way of facilitating teaching and learning in relation to Samoan and other Pasifika learners through the lens of cultural responsiveness and cultural understanding
  • Link with other Team Solutions facilitators who provide support in Samoa.
Paradise bus

Paradise bus

Target schools:

Secondary (2): Nuuausala College (Congregational Christian Church School) & Paul VI (Catholic School).

Village Primary School: Nofoali’i Primary

What we did

  1. Met with officials such as NZ High Commission, CEO and Treasurer of Congregational Church, Ministry of Education to establish networks and relationships and to gain an understanding of Samoan education to determine future opportunities.
  2. Visited Lolomanu School. This was where the tsunami came in last year. We brought them 30 ukeles donated by Rangitoto College and Team Solutions staff. We noticed evidence of rebuilding of houses and beach fales.
  3. Visited Nofoali’i School (primary). Observed teachers teaching then did some teaching ourselves in Years 1-8 (Literacy and Art). Provided an afternoon workshop for teachers on reflecting, modelling and coaching.
  4. Visited Paul VI Catholic College and Nu’uausala College. Taught Year 11 English and Year 12 Social Studies modelling teaching strategies on engaging students using a discursive style. Leadership conversations about the challenges of change management within a traditional and under-resourced environment.

Initial Observations

  • Large classes (32 – 52 students
  • Little grouping of students for differentiation
  • Exam and competition driven curriculum
  • Rote learning, chanting, copying from the board, little teacher/student interaction
  • Under funded and under resourced

Discipline and dependency

  • Churches have a huge influence on all aspects of life
  • Village curfews – 6.30pm call to prayer, 10.30pm gong for all to go home – punishment if curfew not met
  • International money from Japan, China, NZ, Australia, UN

Implications for us as educators in NZ including implementation of the Pasifika Education Plan

  • Know the learner culturally and academically
  • Identification of NZ born / Samoan born students by classroom teachers
  • Students need to be assessed for literacy and ESOL
  • Strength of the student’s first language
  • Recognition of student’s own experiences and prior knowledge
  • Use of a culturally responsive pedagogy in which students can participate in and contribute to the lesson because content and pedagogy are appropriate and relevant.

ARTEFACTS

  1. Presentation as part of a workshop for PRT Coordinators, Supervising Teachers and Specialist Classroom Teachers 23rd September 2010.   SamoaSchools(smaller)
  2. Transcript of 3 teacher responses to the presentations above.

Response One

Cheryl, I also see similarities with our Pasifika teachers, even our young and new Pasifika teachers coming through. They still have some of the values and attitudes that you have spoken about with regard to their own professional development. That might be the lack of confidence or slight unwillingness to participate verbally in professional development opportunities as well.

Reflection: We sometimes forget about Pasifika teachers when focussing on Pasifika learners. I think that what is being reflected on here is the conflict that Pasifika teachers experience between their own very strong culture and its ways of teaching and learning, and the ways that are being used in NZ based on the NZ Curriculum. The NZ curriculum has a student-centred approach in which students are encouraged to ask questions and challenge the teacher. This is the opposite to the way that students are being taught in Samoan schools where the emphasis is on utmost respect for the teacher and therefore no questions and rote learning.

http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-documents/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum

Response Two

I found your comments about the village values and attitudes really intriguing and I know that in my own school and my own experience, we have to modify what we do with our Pasifika students with regard to expectations after school. We cannot get them to stay after school, whether it be for sports training, detentions, or for reassessment. At the end of the day, they have to be home with their family. That comes well and truly before any educational expectations and we fight that battle on a daily basis. Our school has 45% PI students.

Reflection: Having taught in a South Auckland school myself, I know how difficult it is to get the success for students that they need to achieve and to get the qualifications needed to survive independently in society. Church and family come first, expectations for homework can result in very late nights for students who might be caring for the family while their parents work. But as Russell Bishop points out, this is deficit thinking. We have to ensure that we are teaching using a culturally responsive pedagogy that will engage the students and motivate them to want to be in school and to want to learn. So we must work together with families and students to find a way that will work (see Goals 5 & 6 of the Pasifika Education Plan above)

http://edtalks.org/video/culturally-responsive-pedagogy-

relations Russell Bishop

Response Three

You mentioned the evening routine with bible study and so forth. Where does homework come and what time of night if the kid still wants to do it – what time of night?

Reflection: Teaching is a problem-solving activity and helpful if teachers can see the big picture rather than focussing on habit and routine. When I was HOD in a South Auckland school, we used the lunch hours for reassessment opportunities or extra tutoring. I know that  school has continued this way of working at a whole school level rather than a departmental level. Teachers may lose their lunch times but we were always able to leave school earlier because of the lesser demands for after school activities. Divergent thinking can be a good thing in education.

umu2

Where to next?

  • NZ schools need to strengthen the links between church and families
  • Consider the implications of the Pasifika Education Plan through various school “lenses” and take appropriate action to improve Pasifika student engagement and success
  • School leaders need to encourage and practise a school wide culturally responsive pedagogy
  • Conclusion – By living in a village, sleeping in a fale, eating Samoan food in the Samoan way, observing the traditional village life, going to church, watching an umu being prepared, teaching in schools and interacting with the locals, we gained a deeper understanding of fa’a Samoa and the Samoan way of life. The Samoans may be poor in capitalist terms but they are rich in the beautiful country that they have, the subsistence style of living using village plantations, the communal way of living in villages and the traditions which are kept alive. It made us see our way of life from another perspective and to question accepted norms of existence. The professional development led to deep learning which challenged our values and beliefs.
category: culturally responsive pedagogy, teaching and learning
tags: 

The pedagogy of “The Daily Shoot”

Posted by  on Wednesday, November 3rd 2010     

Picture 5

Since the beginning of this year, I have been participating in The Daily Shoot”. The reason that I began this  daily photo routine was that my camera skills were lying latent and wanting and I needed an external driver to motivate me. The main philosophy of Daily Shoot is here:

http://dailyshoot.com/

Photography is an art and a craft. Getting better at both requires practice—lots of practice. The Daily Shoot is a simple daily routine to motivate and inspire you to practice your photography, and share your results! It’s not a contest and there are no prizes. It’s simply about encouraging you to pick up your camera and make photographs.

Photographers from all over the world take part. An assigment is tweeted to every person who has joined at the same time every day. A photograph is taken, processed, uploaded to somewhere like Flickr where it receives a url, then tweeted back to Daily Shoot. It then goes on display, on The Daily Shoot website along with everyone else’s interpretation of the assignment. When the photo is clicked  on The Daily Shoot site, it takes the viewer back to the place of origin (Flickr) which records how many people have viewed the image and any comments people have made. It is addictive and always exciting to see what the next assignment will be, which photos other people will like, and what comments are added. The process forces one to take different types of photos and by looking at the photos of others, one is inspired to try different ways of seeing.

Picture 7As I continued to practise and develop my photography skills, I began to see parallels  between this way of working and the way we try to make learning interesting for students.

When students are learning new skills, they need to be encouraged to practise them regularly and so strengthen the talent that they have. What this strategy has, which is so seductive is:

  • external inspiration
  • input of ideas
  • exemplars of good practice
  • sharing with peers
  • feedback
  • regular assignments
  • authentic learning
  • publication to a world-wide audience
  • element of competition (to be on the front page)
  • challenge – to be original
  • challenge to keep up with the tasks
  • motivation from the contacts that you make on Flickr

Roland Barthes in his book “Camera Lucida, Reflections on Photography” writes a short chapter on “Photography as Adventure”.      IMG_2697

He says “The principle of adventure allows me to make Photography exist”.

“In this glum desert, suddenly a specific photograph reaches me; it animates me and I animate it….. The photograph itself is in no way animated but it animates me: this is what creates every adventure” (Roland Barthes, 1981).

We always hope that our students will see learning as a lifelong adventure and it is our duty to communicate that excitement for learning in a way that will inspire them.


category: creativity, teaching and learning
tags: , ,

Where is creativity?

Posted by  on Thursday, October 21st 2010     

Tane MahutaThis week I am working up in Northland, beginning in the Far North which is about 400km North of Auckland. I always feel as if I am on holiday as I leave the hustle bustle and rush of Auckland and head for the serenity of Northland. On the way to Opononi, where I shall be staying for 2 days, I pass through the edge of the Waipoua Forest. Nothing could be further from the commercial rat race of Auckland. I stop off to see Tane Mahuta, the giant kauri tree which is thought to be 2000 years old and is 51.4 metres high. It is awe-inspiring and transports one immediately into the world of nature.

When I get to the hotel I find there is no internet available – technical problems, so instead I spend an hour and a half walking and taking photos. Some of the photos are the most creative I have taken for a while. At home I am generally working under pressure. There is always something to be done. But the busyness leaves no space for creativity. Creativity requires time to think, to reflect, to imagine, to see possibilities, to try something out, to reflect on it, to try again. The pressure of time kills this process. It is what Professor Csikszentmihalyi called being in a state of “flow” . How often do our students in schools get the opportunity to be in a state of flow?

sunset trees Omapere

See also Sir Ken Robinson on “Do Schools Kill Creativity?”

category: creativity, teaching and learning
tags: 

Teaching as Inquiry

Posted by  on Thursday, October 14th 2010     

Teaching-as-InquiryI was working with a group of Year 1 and Year 2 teachers + some teacher trainees yesterday on “Teaching as Inquiry”. It is a topic that comes up frequently because the provisionally registered teachers are required to keep a reflective log or journal of their  learning journey towards full registration. I use this diagram from The NZ curriculum which is a straightforward model that helps the teachers analyse what has happened in the lesson and what they might need to change or do differently to enhance student outcomes.

It also stops the teachers from deficit theorising ie blaming factors outside their control and empowers them to become agentic and operate as agents of change. In their first 2 years of teaching, they receive support in the way of time and also through an induction and mentoring programme. This enables them to develop those skills of reflective practice which will be embedded by the time they become fully registered.

In the session, we worked through practical examples from recent lessons that the teachers were willing to share. Generally they were lessons which had not been as successful as the teachers would have liked and for which they were wanting some solutions. “What should I have done? Am I doing the right thing?” Their story often began with a rush of what happened, what went wrong etc but by concentrating on the Focusing Inquiry first – “ What was the purpose of the lesson? What was your intention? What were the needs of the students? What outcome did you want to achieve?” – it helped to focus the discussion.

The teachers then briefly described the teaching and learning processes before  moving on to  the Learning Inquiry – what happened, using the questions “What is happening for the students in my classroom?” and “Why might this be happening?” The teachers were  able to answer the questions themselves and then move  to the Teaching Inquiry – “What strategies are most likely to help my students learn this?” For this they needed support from the rest of the group in the form of suggestions. Of course, as the diagram shows, it is an iterative process and doesn’t necessarily follow a set pattern.

The model results in an action research type of analysis for which the teachers need to bring evidence and data to the process. It is a model that works well and will hopefully become embedded into the reflective process of each teacher so that in time it becomes automatic. This model has been taken from the NZ Curriculum p.35 which was modelled on the  ”Social Sciences / Tikanga a Iwi Best Evidence Synthesis Iteration” (2008) Graeme Aitken and Claire Sinnema, University of Auckland http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/series/2515/32879/35263

 http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-documents/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum

category: Provisionally Registered Teachers, teaching and learning
tags: , ,

Digital Immigrant

Posted by  on Tuesday, October 12th 2010     

camerasold and newThis is my entry into the world of blogging “proper”. I have a photo blog which records my Daily Shoot assignments over a year and I have a wiki which has some structure but otherwise is a conglomeration of good ideas and strategies to use in the classroom – some of them factual and some of them inspirational. Setting up this blog in WordPress was a steep learning curve for me as I am a digital immigrant. The elearning environment doesn’t come naturally to me and so I have to work and think until my brain hurts to work out the processes and structures required.

Marc Prensky’s article “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants (2001) provided much food for thought and still continues to be both quoted and refuted. His paper looked at the difference between digital natives and digital immigrants “today’s students think and process information differently and are native speakers of the digital language of computers, video games and the net”. “Digital immigrants adapt to their environment but retain their accent or foot in the past”.

As an educator, I don’t see that as a disadvantage. To have a sense of history, of how things were done before and how new knowledge builds on old has always been a feature of educational research and practice. I am a photographer in my spare time so I have also struggled with Photoshop and other digital processes. But I know that having  an old-fashioned darkroom has helped me understand where these digital techniques have originated from and so how they fit into the artistic concepts of photography.

Maori have a word “ako” which means teacher as learner and learner as teacher. Our new Registered Teacher Criteria refer to learners as “akonga” ie we are all teachers and we are all learners. So the teaching and learning that we engage in is reliant on a rich reciprocal relationship between different sets of prior and current knowledge. It is the bringing together of these different knowledge sets that enriches and deeepens learning for all parties, teachers included. Unless  teachers are prepared to be on a steep learning curve themselves, they will have no understanding of how difficult new learning can be.

“We may never become digital natives but we can and must assimilate to their culture and way of thinking”. (Rupert Murdoch, 2005)

category: teaching and learning
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