Knowledge enables Success

Having settled into my new classroom and gained an understanding of my children I have noticed that there are two large areas of need that require focus.  These are their maths knowledge and their writing - a large number of students are working below and well below the standard.  I have been thinking carefully about how I can address both of these and which one of these is most pressing to address.  

I have completed a mini inquiry around developing maths knowledge during the time when we are doing statistics.  In order to develop my own professional knowledge around this I have read the following research amongst others: 

Using music to increase maths retention

Maths Teaching Knowledge

Making it count - strategies for improving mathematics

As a result of this mini inquiry my knowledge sessions are now varied for the students and include a range of interactive websites that offer explanations, teaching hot spots around certain knowledge areas, interactive games for students, games that students are able to share in with a partner, the development of sheets that allow students to see where their knowledge gaps are and to choose how these can be filled using a variety of different texts and materials and the opportunity for students to use songs and music to help them retain their knowledge.  This seems to have worked so far and is proving successful.  Within the last week of term I will retest these students using summative assessments and be able to use evidence to confirm my observations and formative assessments.

The inquiry that I have decided needs to be largest focus is around writing and develop within these students knowledge around where they are at and knowledge around what tools that they can use to help them progress and achieve their ultimate end goal of working at/above the standard by the end of the year so that they are ready for high school.  Within my class I have students working from between a 2a level and a 4b level with the majority of them sitting around a 3b level.  I have decided to focus this inquiry on these students that are classed as sitting well below as they need to make hugely accelerated progress in order to be where they need to be by the end of the year.

Key findings that I have noticed so far from the students who are working well below:

 - Students are not planning their work

 - Students are not confident editing their work

 - Students are not comfortable knowing when to use basic or complex punctuation

 - Students are still developing the ability to recognise grammatical errors

 - Students do not know what they do not know, and therefore are unsure how to improve.

The one that stands out to me the most is that these children do not know what they do not know - they are not aware of how they can improve and they are not aware of what their errors are.  In order to help students with this, they have been provided with requirements that have them working towards the national standard at each sub-level of the curriculum. They have now identified within their sub-levels the goals that they wish to work on and we have co-constructed success criteria for these goals.  The other findings will be discussed and explicitly taught over the next term across a range of contexts so that they can be understood and applied within a range of contexts - however through having developed goals, students are already far more motivated and are already noticing areas in which they can improve and are wanting to learn.

The challenges around student centered learning - and overcoming them

Inquiry, curriculum integration, thematic units - these words were tossed around interchangeably when I first took up my new role at this school nearly nine weeks ago - however throughout this term we have begun to make changes around what our school curriculum looks like and how it is played out in action.  This was due in part, to the leaving of both the previous principal and deputy principal within a short time period.  As a result of this, lots of questioning is happening regarding the terminology that is used and what it actually represents.  Through discussions and readings around inquiry and curriculum integration we have decided that as a school what we are currently doing is a thematic approach to learning, rather than true curriculum integration - and that true inquiry where it is led by the students is something quite rare within our classrooms and something that has not traditionally happened.  This has aligned with the minimal focus that has been placed around student voice and student led learning that is future orientated due to other huge factors that have influenced the staff at the school.  The students that I am working with came to me with quite a fixed mindset about what they could and could not achieve and it has taken eight weeks for them to begin to be at a stage where they are able to talk about their individual goals and their progressions towards these.

As year 7 and year 8 students, I think it is highly important that these students are introduced to, and confident working within, an inquiry style of learning both within the "core"/national standards subjects and all other subjects that make up the New Zealand Curriculum.

In order for me to provide my students with this opportunity I have done research over a wide variety of areas - regarding what inquiry is, best practice for student centered learning in areas such as maths, reading and writing and the benefits and challenges of true student centered learning.  A lot of this has overlapped with reading that I did last year around the POGIL styled programme that I was teaching and so this has been most helpful to make comparisons with.

I know that as these students do not have a student centered learning background it is important for me to give them appropriate tools so that they are able to understand and talk about their learning in order to be able to have more guidance over the direction of it.  An interesting reading that I stumbled across today The Benefits and Challenges of Student-Designed Learning talks about true inquiry learning (within a high school context) and letting students have complete control about the direction that they take with their learning and how they present their learning.  It emphasises that from a student point of view, whilst it was exciting to have control over their learning at first it became difficult when they did not have any guidelines.  It also discusses the importance of students having goals when directing their own learning and how this was helpful to them.

This has helped me to have confidence that I am on the right track with these students and developing them to be students who can work within an inquiry style of learning.  At the moment there is both clear guidelines about what skills and knowledge they need to be developing, they are presented with a range of ways to do this which is helping to allow them freedom over the style of learning that works best for them and they are consistently setting and achieving mini goals whilst working towards their bigger goal which is allowing them to achieve success along the way.

Future Oriented Learning - POGIL - What do they mean for me?

I decided that the long weekend was the perfect time to do a reading (as well as go to the beach and see friends) and so I did some research to find readings that weren't POGIL related but focussed on similar themes!  I came across a report by the NZCER titled 'Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching – A New Zealand perspective' and thought that that sounded interesting.  The following notes are insights that I gained from this reading that also connected with principles behind the POGIL style of teaching and the writing in italics is how this can, or already does, apply to my classroom.

Knowledge

• ·      Need to adopt a much more complex view of knowledge that incorporates knowing, doing and being
• ·      Knowledge – currently our views are underpinned by two different epistemologies of what counts as knowledge.  These are: knowledge as content, concepts and skills from the selected disciplines – and – knowledge as creating and using new knowledge to solve problems and find solutions to challenges as they arise on a “just-in-time” basis
• ·      A new view of knowledge and the implications for schooling – We can no longer predict exactly what content specific knowledge students will need as they move through life in the
• 21^st century.  But we do know that they need: opportunities to build their sense of self, challenges that will develop them into becoming self-reliant, critical and creative thinkers, the ability to use their initiative, the ability to become team players and the drive to engage in ongoing learning throughout their lives
• ·      In order for students to remain engaged in the long term they must be able to actively interact with knowledge rather than just reproduce it – they must be provided with the opportunities and skills to understand, critique, manipulate, create and transform it.
• ·     21^st century learning literature argues that today’s students need to engage in knowledge-generating activities in authentic contexts – we need to move away from formal contemporary learning to the messiness of real world situations in which the answers and outcomes are not known, or predetermined by the teacher, but rather where teacher and student work alongside each other on a learning journey.

In my classroom - knowledge is shifting from knowing to incorporating doing - I have not yet discovered how to get to the being stage with my students yet.  I have found that with the students using POGIL styled activities they are working with activities that are much more engaging, hands on, and higher level thinking.  With the two different epistemologies I think it is important that both play a place within my classroom - and this is evident through the way that I teach - students both understand knowledge in regards to content and skills and create their own knowledge in order to problem solve in a range of situations.  Hugely within my reading and maths sessions students are provided with opportunities to understand, critique, manipulate, create and transform knowledge thanks to the POGIL style of learning.  Within reading at the moment students are completing challenges that at first made me uncomfortable largely due to the fact that they are higher order Blooms creative styled challenges - these children are going to be creating work where their answers cannot be predetermined because what they are doing is authentic knowledge building.

Learning

• ·      Requires that all of those involved in education are involved in continuous learning
• ·      Focus in future oriented learning needs to be on equipping people to do things with knowledge
• ·      What we know about learning:

o   Learning involves thinking

o   Experiences are critical to learning

o   Learners need to be encouraged not to search solely for the right answer but also for the right approach to solving a problem

o   To learn, people need to be actively engaged.  They need to be doing something, thinking something and or saying something that requires them to actively process, interpret, and adapt an experience to a new context or use.

o   Learners have to want to learn the material – both in the short term and in the longer term they need to see a purpose to learning it.

o   Learning has to be personalized – they need to feel that they know what they are doing, and that they can control the pace of their learning

o   Learning often needs some kind of structure

o   Learning involves interaction – testing out and trying ideas with others.

• ·      In order for captivating learning to occur there is the idea that the learner ought to be transformed in some way through their learning and the idea that the world can be transformed by the learner – that what they are learning can impact their world almost immediately.

I like the idea that all of those involved in education are involved in continuous learning.  I know that through my own professional and personal learning I develop as teacher every day and that if I was the same person that I was at the start of the year even, and if I taught in the exact same way then the learning of my students would not be enhanced.  Future oriented learning does indeed need to be focussed on equipping people to do things with knowledge.  With knowledge being so easily accessibly through the internet these days it does not become so much the content of the knowledge that will drive the future of our students so much as what they do with this knowledge - how they manipulate it and use it to enhance the lives of people around them.  Within my current reading programme at the moment students are experiencing a variety of experiences that involve them relating what they are reading about directly to the world that they live in - with this, the activities that they are doing do not have a single right answer, but rather a variety of correct answers and what matters is the way that they get there - I would like to further incorporate this idea within my maths programme also.

Key Competencies

• ·      Learning that is future oriented is closely linked and connected with the Key Competencies.  This article states that ‘deep learning’ involves self managing, being creative and critical thinkers and learning with others.
• ·      The Key Competencies are so important to how we teach – when we have developed the understanding and application of these effectively in students is when students are able to transfer the knowledge and skills that they are learning about to whatever context they find themselves in.

Whilst my WALTs may not match directly with the key competencies the students are required to fill out an evaluation at the end of each task that is directly related to their key competencies - there is a focus on each of the key competencies but these are written in student speak.  When the students arrive to teacher time with me we discuss what they need to work on next time and through this discussion we focus on what is important for allowing them to learn and grow effectively.  It would possibly be effective for me to discuss these evaluations in the terminology of the Key Competencies and this is something I may explore doing.

Diversity/Authentic Learning

• ·      Diversity is key for learning that supports children in the world that they will be a part of tomorrow – this calls for greater engagement of learners in co-shaping their education to address their needs, strengths, interests and aspirations
• ·      Diversity encapsulates the current focus on developing strategies to ensure learners from all backgrounds can achieve success in ways that are meaningful to them.
• ·      The goal with education today is not simply to find better ways to raise every person’s achievement to an identical view or standard – which is a tricky concept with national standards saying the opposite – but rather to support each individual to reach their full potential.
• ·      Deep expressions of the practice of personalizing learning occur as listed below:

o   Learners have genuine input into shaping what happens in their learning, not only how they learn but also what sorts of learning activities occur within their class.

o   Learners (not just their teachers) believe that students have input into how things happen in their classroom or school.

o   Learners can link their schooling to other aspects of their lives, or see connections with their goals or aspirations for their lives beyond school

• ·      In regards to authentic learning opportunities – it is not enough for the learning to seem as though it is relevant, engaging and connected to student interests. Rather, we as educators, need to provide opportunities and strategies that support students themselves to feel engaged with, connected to and invested in the work that they are doing.

I believe that developing authentic learning within a classroom is an ongoing thing that changes continually with what you are teaching and how you are teaching it.  Developing an attitude and practice that allows students to engage quickly with authentic learning is a different thing.  This is something that I am working on in both my reading and maths programmes at the moment.  In writing we have set genres that we have to cover at certain times, however students get input into what they write about.  In reading - on a Friday afternoon, students are provided with journals that have articles in them that may capture their interest about the current topic of study.  Each group usually has about three or four choices each week.  From here, the students are able to decide what they want to learn about within this topic and choose a verb from the three higher levels of BLOOMs taxonomy that relate to what they are wanting to learn.  Within Maths the students sit a eAsttle test that provides them with next steps within their current subtopic and from their they direct where they want their learning to go based on both needs and interests.

Roles of teacher and student

• ·      The idea of personalizing learning call for reversing the logic of education systems so that the system is built around the learner rather than the learner being required to fit in with the system
• ·      We need to rethink the role of the teacher and students – as it is no longer the teacher’s job simply to transmit knowledge and the student no longer has the main purpose of absorbing and storing up knowledge to use in the future.  We need to consider about how we are structuring roles and relationships in way that draw on the knowledge and strengths of both teacher and student in order to best support learning.
• ·      Classrooms need to not be labeled as student centered or teacher driven whilst these terms are still being loosely thrown around but rather should involve teachers and students working together in a knowledge building environment,
• ·      Students are most engaged with, and get the most out of, learning that allows them a degree of choice, flexibility, motivation and self direction in their learning.

Rekindling my passion for Research

Whilst at university I was the type of student who loved reading, and loved reading about teaching.  I think having an Aunty who was a teacher, and that I have always looked up to, inspired this love of literature - discussions with her whilst she was doing her Masters during my first year of university allowed me the opportunity to realise both the breadth and depth of knowledge that other people have and how easy it is to pick up a book and help others to help you.

Over the past couple of terms I have been getting my head around teaching full time but now I am looking forward to re-establishing a reading routine.  I have searched for and read two articles tonight that have captivated me and will share my learning from them below.

 

Article One

Smith, P. (2002). A reflection on reflection. Primary Voices K - 6, 10(4), 31 - 34.

• Learning communities boost reflection - By getting together and sharing ideas openly and honestly and being able to trust that idealistic aspirations will be treated seriously, we are more open to share our positives and our negatives, and therefore receive a range of opinions and support about how to make changes that will benefit our students.
• Questioning practice leads to growth - This is something that I strive to do as openly and as honestly as I can and I am lucky to have a supportive tutor teacher who helps me answer my questions I have about my practice but also questions me about a range of other aspects of my practice.
• Increasing the frequency of reflection increases the accuracy - When we take the time to sit down and write reflections that identify the positives, negatives and any queries we may have we are forced to reconsider our practices in a constructive light.  By doing this frequently we are afforded the opportunity to recognise patterns in our practice and either reinforce or change these patterns to best meet the needs of our students.
• To engage in critical reflection it is absolutely vital that we take on the role of learner once again - In order to grow as teachers we need to allow ourselves to be learners and recognise that we are always learning and that every colleague has something to teach us.  By recognising that we are always learning it is easier to be more critical about ourselves and to accept constructive criticism from others as instead of failure it becomes an opportunity to grow as a learner and increase future successes.

Article Two

Macfarlane, A. (2000). Listening to culture. Maori principles and practices applied to support classroom management. SET: Research Information for Teachers, 2, 23 - 28.

Behaviour is often defined and understood within a cultural context and yet many Maori students live in cultural and community contexts that differ from those of the school they attend.  As a result of this it is very important that students and teachers work together to make a clearly defined culture within their classroom that belongs to all students and that all students feel comfortable operating within. 

Macfarlane suggests the following ways to do this:

• Huakina Mai (Opening Doorways) - The teacher needs to know the students and the students need to know the teachers expectations and feel that they know the teacher. Rules need to be put in place to protect the rights of the whole group.
• Kotahitanga (Unity) - In relation to behaviour management it is of importance that students, teachers and whanau members together negotiate rules and behaviour management strategies.
• Awhinatia (The helping process - Interventions) - The way that Maori (and all) students feel about themselves affects their ability to engage in social interaction with their teachers and peers.  It is important that feedback is culturally responsive and incorporates both aspects of Maori language and references to the cultural framework that Maori culture is based around.  Comments such as "Whakatikanga tou waka (steady your canoe) can be more appropriate and more effective in changing inappropriate behaviours than feedback that does not acknowledge students cultural identity.