and breathe…

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” Lao Tzu

I will look back on my MindLab journey with fondness. The kind of fondness that a mother looks back at the life of their child, forgetting the months of agony and the anguish and pain of childbirth. At times the journey has been joyful, invigorating and has reignited my desire to become the best I can be, there too have been times of anguish and frustration, but even these have allowed me to reflect on the kind of things I routinely ask my pupils to do and question the validity of those approaches.

As I look back on my journey one of the clear developments in my practice has been in relation to Criteria 5 of the New Zealand Practising Teacher Criteria.

Criteria 5: Show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning. Professional knowledge in practice

Taking the time to study aspects of leadership and to begin to identify yourself as a leader (as obvious as this sounds) has been one of the biggest eye-openers for me. The work of Kotter (1996) has had a transformative effect on the way I go about leading change and has enabled me to effectively lead change at my school.

Towards the end of last year, using the concept of a guiding coalition and understanding the need for a sense of urgency (Kotter, 1996) I set about pushing forward the move for our school to make BYOD a compulsory requirement, this is now a reality at our school. The experience of Mindlab, undoubtedly gave me the tools and the structure I needed to facilitate this change, despite not having any real say in the major decisions made at the school (I am not a member of the Senior Management Team). Without the Mindlab experience, I might have allowed myself to allow the process to drag on for another three years, this would have had a negative impact on both my day-to-day enjoyment of teaching but more importantly would have held back the opportunity to prepare my pupils for the world ahead.

Criteria 12: Use critical inquiry and problem-solving effectively in their professional practice. (p.1)

Probably the second greatest change has been how I use critical inquiry and problem in my practice. Our school has a fantastic set-up in terms of encouraging staff to reflect on their journey as a teacher; we use the Appraisal Connector system and all staff are expected to regularly reflect and observe other teachers. Nevertheless, despite this brilliant system, when I look back, the quality of my reflections was often very historical rather than forward looking and certainly lacking of real data in many areas. The MindLab experience has made me stop and think, and question more empirically.

I have always collected data and consider myself a reflective practitioner. For me, one of the joys of teaching is the constant source of challenge and opportunities for refinement that are presented to you on an almost daily basis. In the past, I would have dealt with these opportunities on more of an ad hoc basis in far more of a single-loop mentality (Osterman, K. & Kottkamp, R.1993) whereas I now find myself standing back and focussing in on making a real difference in one or two areas as opposed to trying to fix them all. I think this approach will be far more beneficial long-term and I only have the MindLab experience to thank for that.

Next Dream

As far as a next dream, I will certainly look forward to getting my Saturday mornings back, although a part of me will miss the time spent with passionate educators dreaming about how the future could look (corny, I know).

In the short-term, I aim to use the idea of double loop learning (Osterman, K. & Kottkamp, R., 1993) to make my reflective practice more effective. I have also just been appointed as one of two lead teachers across the senior areas of the school, tasked with challenging and developing pedagogy.  This is something I am really happy to get started with and something I may not have done without the re-evaluation of my professional practice that the MindLab allowed me to do.

References:

Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading change. Harvard Business Press.

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

Osterman, K. & Kottkamp, R.(1993). Reflective Practice for Educators.California:Cornwin Press, Inc. Retrieved on 7th May, 2015 from http://www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk/files.

Quote retrieved from

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/movingwords/shortlist/laotzu.shtml

and breathe…

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” Lao Tzu

I will look back on my MindLab journey with fondness. The kind of fondness that a mother looks back at the life of their child, forgetting the months of agony and the anguish and pain of childbirth. At times the journey has been joyful, invigorating and has reignited my desire to become the best I can be, there too have been times of anguish and frustration, but even these have allowed me to reflect on the kind of things I routinely ask my pupils to do and question the validity of those approaches.

As I look back on my journey one of the clear developments in my practice has been in relation to Criteria 5 of the New Zealand Practising Teacher Criteria.

Criteria 5: Show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning. Professional knowledge in practice

Taking the time to study aspects of leadership and to begin to identify yourself as a leader (as obvious as this sounds) has been one of the biggest eye-openers for me. The work of Kotter (1996) has had a transformative effect on the way I go about leading change and has enabled me to effectively lead change at my school.

Towards the end of last year, using the concept of a guiding coalition and understanding the need for a sense of urgency (Kotter, 1996) I set about pushing forward the move for our school to make BYOD a compulsory requirement, this is now a reality at our school. The experience of Mindlab, undoubtedly gave me the tools and the structure I needed to facilitate this change, despite not having any real say in the major decisions made at the school (I am not a member of the Senior Management Team). Without the Mindlab experience, I might have allowed myself to allow the process to drag on for another three years, this would have had a negative impact on both my day-to-day enjoyment of teaching but more importantly would have held back the opportunity to prepare my pupils for the world ahead.

Criteria 12: Use critical inquiry and problem-solving effectively in their professional practice. (p.1)

Probably the second greatest change has been how I use critical inquiry and problem in my practice. Our school has a fantastic set-up in terms of encouraging staff to reflect on their journey as a teacher; we use the Appraisal Connector system and all staff are expected to regularly reflect and observe other teachers. Nevertheless, despite this brilliant system, when I look back, the quality of my reflections was often very historical rather than forward looking and certainly lacking of real data in many areas. The MindLab experience has made me stop and think, and question more empirically.

I have always collected data and consider myself a reflective practitioner. For me, one of the joys of teaching is the constant source of challenge and opportunities for refinement that are presented to you on an almost daily basis. In the past, I would have dealt with these opportunities on more of an ad hoc basis in far more of a single-loop mentality (Osterman, K. & Kottkamp, R.1993) whereas I now find myself standing back and focussing in on making a real difference in one or two areas as opposed to trying to fix them all. I think this approach will be far more beneficial long-term and I only have the MindLab experience to thank for that.

Next Dream

As far as a next dream, I will certainly look forward to getting my Saturday mornings back, although a part of me will miss the time spent with passionate educators dreaming about how the future could look (corny, I know).

In the short-term, I aim to use the idea of double loop learning (Osterman, K. & Kottkamp, R., 1993) to make my reflective practice more effective. I have also just been appointed as one of two lead teachers across the senior areas of the school, tasked with challenging and developing pedagogy.  This is something I am really happy to get started with and something I may not have done without the re-evaluation of my professional practice that the MindLab allowed me to do.

References:

Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading change. Harvard Business Press.

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

Osterman, K. & Kottkamp, R.(1993). Reflective Practice for Educators.California:Cornwin Press, Inc. Retrieved on 7th May, 2015 from http://www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk/files.

Quote retrieved from

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/movingwords/shortlist/laotzu.shtml

Teaching need not be a lonely profession.

Activity 7 – Interdisciplinary connections

 

“Teaching is one of the loneliest jobs you can do”

I vividly remember one of my initial teaching mentors telling me this, I questioned him at the time and scoffed at the notion. How can the job possibly be lonely? You spend your day, hour by hour, surrounded by 20 (if you are lucky) to 30 pupils, each one questioning you and challenging you and you in turn, interact, facilitate, guide and challenge them. This is not anything like my idea of lonely. He went on to explain, that although you are surrounded by children and interact you are largely expected to work in isolation, have limited adult conversations, you are often expected to work long hours, mark and assess in isolation and have your holidays when all your friends are in work.

I mention this because, the teaching landscape he was describing, was not something I identified with even then. In the ten years I have been teaching, the landscape has changed even more dramatically and the opportunities that now present themselves – such as virtual field trips or collaborations with other teachers via social media platforms like Edmodo open the door to increasingly more far-reaching, interdisciplinary collaborations that would have been inconceivable five years ago.

The author Heidi Hayes Jacobs defines interdisciplinary learning (IL) as ‘A knowledge view and curriculum approach that consciously applies methodology and language from more than one discipline to examine a central theme, issue, problem, topic, or experience” (Jacobs, 1989, p14). It is hard to argue with the idea that in the real-world context, no subject exists in isolation. As a science teacher, it is one of the driving forces in my teaching; not to teach pupils about science but to allow them to see the science that is all around them every day. To teach them to reason and think critically about the information they are forced to consume and to apply a critical eye and be the better for it.

If I reflect honestly, I have done little to embrace the concept of IL and when I look at the potential connections that are available (fig.1.) I must wonder what has held me back? It is easy to say that the constraints of the curriculum have prevented me from taking a more holistic approach or convince myself that other colleagues would not take the risk (and therefore allow it to happen). The truth is that I haven’t tried hard enough, nor reflected on the potential benefits to my pupils.

Watching the videos (and this one) were very inspiring but they left me feeling a little dejected, this type of approach is not something to easily push for if you are not a member of the school’s SMT. I wonder if the richness described (3 week trips to the Soloman Islands etc) in the learning experience translates to everyday life in a school constrained by the demands of a very prescriptive curriculum and more importantly, parents who pay for their children to experience that very same prescriptive structure.

How do I convince all stakeholders to take that leap? (including myself)

Start small. I am setting myself the challenge to make an interdisciplinary connection and provide my students with the opportunity to work across disciplines. I’m honestly not sure how it’s going to look yet. Perhaps a crime scene investigation requiring geometry and map reading skills? or a statistics investigation linking Robotics, Environmental data and Mathematics? All I know is that I owe it to my pupils to make it happen.

Fig.1

References:

Lacoe Edu (2014, Oct 24) Interdisciplinary Learning . Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA564RIlhME

Jacobs, H. H. (1989). Interdisciplinary curriculum: Design and implementation. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1250 N. Pitt Street, Alexandria, VA 22314.

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

Issues of Law, Regulations and Policy in my practice.

“No man’s error becomes his own Law; nor obliges him to persist in it.” Thomas Hobbes

One of the things I have struggled with and pondered over for a long time is the ethical dilemma that arises from getting pupils to perform publicly.

Public performance is a standard fare of most classrooms. I think it is fair to suggest that teachers often ask pupils to ‘work in teams to present an idea’ or ‘share your thoughts on a given topic’ and within the walls of the classroom the likely ramifications of this simple act are relatively easy to fathom; if you understand your pupils and have set the tone for learning – in that each pupil knows and understands the expectations of the environment.

In the digital age however, where each online interaction forms the basis of your digital footprint the control you have over the situation and likely scenario becomes infinitely more difficult to predict or manage.

If I think back to my own school career, mistakes I have made are very unlikely to resurface, they are constrained to history – thankfully. For my pupils working in the digital age this luxury has gone and the likelihood that they will stop to think about the ramifications further down the line is very unlikely. Therefore, does this place the responsibility to consider these things on the teacher?

Two fundamental aspect of the New Zealand Code of Ethics for Teachers suggests ALL teachers:

1. a) Develop and maintain professional relationships with learners based upon the best interests of those learners
2. f) Promote the physical, emotional, social, intellectual and spiritual well-being of learners

I do not think enough thought is given to the effects on a pupil’s well-being further down the track. In trying to prepare pupils for the digital world, we influence their digital identity. How do we ensure this influence is a positive one?

The conflict arises “When we ask our students to tweet, blog, post, share, or co-construct their texts with the rest of the class, we are asking them to perform in public or semi-public arenas” (Henderson, 2014, p3) and if we want our pupils to be using ICT for Learning at the highest standard we need to encourage them to create ICT products that others can use (ITL Research, 2012, p27.).

What happens if they do not get things right? Perhaps they make racial or sexist comments, innocently enough but damning nonetheless. Is it fair that these then form part of their digital identity? Is this in their best interest? If serious enough, might it lead to further disciplinary actions? Moreover, if so, what role does the teacher play as facilitator?

The other side of course is that by restricting them from undertaking these activities is that itself a delegation of duty, in that we are failing to prepare them for life in the real world? Surely this type of activity, if undertaken with due diligence should help to prevent pupils from making this type of error later on in life, serving instead, as an opportunity for informed discussion in a more controlled environment (i.e. the classroom).

In my view, by taking on these things in the classroom we start the discussion and afford pupils the opportunity to learn about the positive and negative effects of social media –preparing them for life outside of school. However, we need to be mindful of the potential ramifications (both positive and negative) of expecting pupils to perform publically and that the norms associated with this type of activity in the classroom do not necessarily translate to the digital world and are likely to persist for long after the lesson has ended.

 

 

References:

Council, E. (2015). practising teacher criteria. https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/code-of-ethics-certificated-teachers-0

Henderson, M., Auld, G., & Johnson, N. F. (2014, January). Ethics of teaching with social medi

ITL Research. (2012a). 21CLD Learning Activity Rubrics. Retrieved from http://www.itlresearch.com/images/stories/reports/21cld% 20learning%20activity%20rubrics%202012.pdf

 

Social Media Use in Teaching and Learning

 

 

I was recently asked to speak at a school parental information evening, the school I work at had decided to make devices compulsory for Years 7,8 and 10 in 2017 with the remainder of the year levels following suit in the coming years. The SMT wanted a teacher to stand up and explain some of the rationales for making the use of devices compulsory. In thinking about how to communicate this to parents, I decided to start by putting the recent social media and technological advances in the context of my current year level (Year 8 pupils) and it was interesting to hear other educators take the same starting point.

When you consider that, our current year 8 pupils (born 2005) have never lived in a world without Facebook (established 2004) or YouTube (established 2005) and if we challenge ourselves to think about how much these technologies impact on our daily lives (News, current affairs, groups, hobbies, interests). In my opinion, it is foolish to think that we should not be preparing our pupils for a world in which, Social Media pervades every nook and cranny.

This is not to say that using Social Media in the classroom is without its challenges as this video suggests.

So what are the benefits to the pupils?

There are a number of different permutations of Social Media platforms, each with its own benefits and drawbacks. For me, I tend to use Edmodo because it is a good platform for pupils to collaborate and connect. At the same, it allows me to have some degree of control over the interaction I promote outside of the class and allows me to moderate the comments that the pupils make, which is more appropriate for the age-group of my pupils (Year 7 and 8’s). Edmodo also allows me to connect with other educators, both within my own organisation and beyond; providing opportunities to both suggest and acquire new teaching methodologies.

How I use Social Media.

I set the expectations for the Social interaction and encourage pupils to seek help from peers with homework and assignment tasks, I encourage pupils to share relevant media here – perhaps a YouTube video they found to be very helpful or links to other resources that are beneficial (Quizzes, online software packages etc.). Pupils seem to enjoy the social aspect and get a buzz out of finding and sharing things that help others and it gives them an outlet, a place to seek help when they are at home and struggling with something. I am sure this must help to alleviate the stress of having to deal with problems in isolation.

I realise that I am not using the platform to its ‘maximum social potential’ by not opening the collaboration up to the outside world. Other platforms (like Twitter) would encourage more openness I am sure, and I’m also confident of the fact there would be those that argue the lack of openness is perhaps more artificial than the real thing (i.e. adult use of social media platforms like Facebook) and therefore perhaps I am not preparing them for the real world?

The bigger picture

The innovative pedagogy report (Sharples, M, 2016) produced by the Open University suggests that Social Media, when used correctly, “can give learners reliable and interesting content, as well as opportunities to access expert advice, to encounter challenges, to defend their views and to amend their ideas in the face of criticism.” I wholeheartedly agree that the potential benefits are huge, however, just as the report outlines if not done correctly, “sites may present learners with inaccurate information, biased comments and hostile responses.” So as a teacher, perhaps my first instinct is to try and protect my pupils from the ‘dangers’ but in doing so, am I also limiting the potential benefits of this medium? Most probably yes.

Ironically, upon reflection, I can see that my own use of Yammer has had a huge impact on my pedagogy. It has done exactly the things I now recognise as the benefits outlined above; it has given me access to expert opinions and served as a vehicle to vent my frustration and seek solutions to problems I would otherwise need to have solved in isolation. Joining the Microsoft in Education group has put me in touch with educators who have directly influenced my practice and perhaps I need to give the pupils in my class more opportunities to experience this.

In terms of my own learning, it is interesting to read Karen Melhuish’s thesis (Melhuish, 2013) for I have long pondered and grappled with the fact that although I use these social networks, the amount I contribute is seemingly negligible. Nevertheless, I know I have gained a huge amount of knowledge and the interactions continue to influence my practice. In her thesis, Karen highlights the fact that it would be a mistake to dismiss this “lurking” as non-learning and this is certainly the case for me. This offers me some comfort to think that, although the interactions in the forums I have set up in class are dominated by the few pupils who routinely contribute, there is a likelihood that learning is taking place beyond the pupils who actively contribute.

In summary, I feel I am right at the start of my journey with Social Media, a journey that with the right guidance could lead to a whole new world of opportunity for my students.

 

References:

Sharples, 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. Retrieved from http://proxima.iet.open.ac.uk/public/innovating_pedagogy_2016.pdf

Melhuish, K.(2013). Online social networking and its impact on New Zealand educators’ professional learning. Master Thesis. The University of Waikato. Retrived on 05 May, 2015 from http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/han…

Seaman, J., & Tinti-Kane, H. (2013). Social media for teaching and learning. Babson Survey Research Group. Retrieved from http://www.onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/social-media-for-teaching-and-learning-2013-report.pdf

Silius, K., Miilumäki, T.,Huhtamäki, J.,Tebest, T., Meriläinen, J., & Pohjolainen, S.(2010) ‘Students’ motivations for social media enhanced studying and learning.’ Knowledge Management & E-Learning: An International Journal, 2, (1). Retrieved on 7th May,2015 from http://www.kmel-journal.org/ojs/index.php/online-p.

SocialMediaForKids (2014, Aug 15) Social Media For Kids® The Social Media Education Experts.. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2rOekhi20E

Issues of Law, Regulations and Policy in my practice.

“No man’s error becomes his own Law; nor obliges him to persist in it.” Thomas Hobbes

One of the things I have struggled with and pondered over for a long time is the ethical dilemma that arises from getting pupils to perform publicly.

Public performance is a standard fare of most classrooms. I think it is fair to suggest that teachers often ask pupils to ‘work in teams to present an idea’ or ‘share your thoughts on a given topic’ and within the walls of the classroom the likely ramifications of this simple act are relatively easy to fathom; if you understand your pupils and have set the tone for learning – in that each pupil knows and understands the expectations of the environment.

In the digital age however, where each online interaction forms the basis of your digital footprint the control you have over the situation and likely scenario becomes infinitely more difficult to predict or manage.

If I think back to my own school career, mistakes I have made are very unlikely to resurface, they are constrained to history – thankfully. For my pupils working in the digital age this luxury has gone and the likelihood that they will stop to think about the ramifications further down the line is very unlikely. Therefore, does this place the responsibility to consider these things on the teacher?

Two fundamental aspect of the New Zealand Code of Ethics for Teachers suggests ALL teachers:

1. a) Develop and maintain professional relationships with learners based upon the best interests of those learners
2. f) Promote the physical, emotional, social, intellectual and spiritual well-being of learners

I do not think enough thought is given to the effects on a pupil’s well-being further down the track. In trying to prepare pupils for the digital world, we influence their digital identity. How do we ensure this influence is a positive one?

The conflict arises “When we ask our students to tweet, blog, post, share, or co-construct their texts with the rest of the class, we are asking them to perform in public or semi-public arenas” (Henderson, 2014, p3) and if we want our pupils to be using ICT for Learning at the highest standard we need to encourage them to create ICT products that others can use (ITL Research, 2012, p27.).

What happens if they do not get things right? Perhaps they make racial or sexist comments, innocently enough but damning nonetheless. Is it fair that these then form part of their digital identity? Is this in their best interest? If serious enough, might it lead to further disciplinary actions? Moreover, if so, what role does the teacher play as facilitator?

The other side of course is that by restricting them from undertaking these activities is that itself a delegation of duty, in that we are failing to prepare them for life in the real world? Surely this type of activity, if undertaken with due diligence should help to prevent pupils from making this type of error later on in life, serving instead, as an opportunity for informed discussion in a more controlled environment (i.e. the classroom).

In my view, by taking on these things in the classroom we start the discussion and afford pupils the opportunity to learn about the positive and negative effects of social media –preparing them for life outside of school. However, we need to be mindful of the potential ramifications (both positive and negative) of expecting pupils to perform publically and that the norms associated with this type of activity in the classroom do not necessarily translate to the digital world and are likely to persist for long after the lesson has ended.

 

 

References:

Council, E. (2015). practising teacher criteria. https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/code-of-ethics-certificated-teachers-0

Henderson, M., Auld, G., & Johnson, N. F. (2014, January). Ethics of teaching with social medi

ITL Research. (2012a). 21CLD Learning Activity Rubrics. Retrieved from http://www.itlresearch.com/images/stories/reports/21cld% 20learning%20activity%20rubrics%202012.pdf

 

Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Responsiveness

Cultural responsiveness in my practice

In trying to consider my own personal view of cultural responsiveness my first instinct was to try to build up a picture of the ethnicity of the school I work in.

Gay (2002) defined Cultural Responsiveness as “using the cultural characteristics, experiences and perspectives as conduits for effective teaching”. Using this definition, I do not feel the data we collect as a school helps very much. Therefore, should the school be collecting different data?

Relationships are at the heart of teaching and as the three teachers (video) in the clip help to point out – Falling into the trap of placing a pupil into any given category based solely on the basis of ethnicity is clearly missing the bigger picture; the idea of each pupil as an individual.

In my experience, there is value in learning some of the nuances and expectations of different cultures. I really identify with the notion of how a pupil perceives the world through his or her own cultural lens – the idea that they receive what we send through a set of cultural filters. Reflecting on my own practice, I am unsure where I would place myself along the continuum of cultural responsiveness, especially with regard to each pupil as an individual. Perhaps I could spend more time getting to know each pupils cultural norms?

Having done extensive volunteering work through Europe in my youth and having taken the step to move my family across to the other side of the world I feel I have a sense of openness to other cultures as well as an intrinsic interest in the way in which other cultures live. I certainly agree that students are not “cultural blank states” (EDtalks, 2012) and have seen first-hand the influence that students cultural backgrounds have on their interaction and achievement in class.

Missing the opportunity to response to a pupil’s culture is missing an opportunity to connect in my view.

However, connection without language is very difficult and overcoming the language barrier both with parents and with pupils is something I routinely find difficult in my practice. Our school has a Director of International Students who acts as a liaison and a translator (if need be) but this is far from the ideal scenario and does little to foster connectedness.

This is perhaps where technology has made some of the greatest inroads. There really is no excuse to not know something about the pupils in your class. Whether it is using Google translate to communicate with pupils struggling with the demands of a new language or using the internet to help facilitate how pupils share aspects of their culture with you – both tangible and intangible aspects of cultural identity are now at our fingertips.

In summary, cultural responsiveness should be something all teachers engage in. It should be a central feature of what every teacher should be aiming to achieve – and is critical when trying to teach each pupil as an individual. Nobody is a cultural blank slate, we all interpret the world through our own cultural lenses and as such, we have a duty as teachers to ensure that the message we transmit is received and decoded correctly. Having an understanding of cultural differences allows us to see the world through the eyes of a pupil and gets us closer to achieving this aim.

Reference:

Teaching Tolerance.( 2010, Jun 17).Introduction to Culturally Relevant Pedagogy.. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGTVjJuRaZ8

Edtalks.(2012, September 23). A culturally responsive pedagogy of relations. .Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49992994

Gay,G. (2002). Preparing for culturally responsive teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 53(2),106-116.

Current trend that influences my practice: The lack of a scientific understanding at Year 7 and 8

Having only just moved to New Zealand in 2012, one of the first things to really strike me was the notion that a pupil could get to Year 9 having never had any real experience of science; shocked, I often just put this down to other people perhaps becoming confused – surely, this could not be the case?

I had (admittedly, very briefly) read through a number of documents pertaining to the New Zealand Curriculum and had thought that it was a specific requirement until Year 10 (a strange time to stop if you ask me, but hey?).

ERO found in its report Science in the New Zealand Curriculum: Years 5 to 8, published in 2012, that there was a disturbing neglect of important aspects of the science learning area. Specifically, there was a tendency for teachers to subsume science into other learning areas, and that typically; students‟ science programmes lacked depth and coherency, and a necessary focus on interactive and experiential learning that leads to deep understanding and engagement.” (ERO, 2012)

Conversations with pupils routinely (but not always) attest to this notion; pupils often speak of never having ‘done science’ or show a complete lack of familiarity with basic scientific equipment. Yet, take a look at international comparative data like the information produced as part of the ongoing PISA (2015) study and you see that New Zealand’s average achievement in science remains above that of the OECD average and indeed above that of the UK. You also find that New Zealand’s standing as compared to other countries has increased since 2012. However, before we get too excited… the study also found that there are larger proportions of students with low performance in science than there were before 2012 and that there is a much wider gap between the top 10 percent and the bottom 10 percent of achievers than you would expect to find in other OECD countries. So are we leaving some learners behind? Moreover, what does this matter anyway?

Although it is not all doom and gloom, not much seems to have been done to try to combat the tendency to subsume science into other learning areas, as a passionate teacher of science, this worries me. The US National intelligence Council’s report (2012) points towards a likely future world which is dominated by global challenges such as the demand for energy, water and food; Am I wrong in thinking that this is exactly the type of world where we need to have leaders with a knowledge of what it means to follow the scientific method? To be able to reason and make evidence-based decisions?

Maybe we are happy to have our top 10 per cent achieve great results in science, maybe we (wrongly in my opinion) think that these are our potential leaders anyway and therefore we are in safe hands… right.

Hang on a minute though…The likelihood is, there will be a global shift towards more diffusion of power (National Intelligence Council, 2012) within the next couple of decades. I would argue that we are seeing this already through the influence of social media sites like Facebook (think Brexit, the US election) and therefore it is not OK that only our best students’ leave school with a solid scientific background. If anything a diffusion of power means, we are even more in need of ensuring our pupils leave school with a real sense of the benefits you get from an education in science.

 

References:

Education Review Office (2012) Science in the New Zealand Curriculum: Years 5 to 8. Wellington: Education Review Office.

http://www.ero.govt.nz/publications/science-in-the-new-zealand-curriculum-years-5-to-8/

Education Review Office. (2012). Evaluation at a Glance: Priority Learners in New Zealand Schools. Retrieved 18 May 2016, from http://www.ero.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/Evaluation-at-a-Glance-Priority-Learners-in-New-Zealand-Schools-August-2012.pdf

National Intelligence Council. (2012). Global trends: Alternative Worlds. National Intelligence Council: US. Retrieved from https://globaltrends2030.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/global-trends-2030-november2012.pdf

https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/series/PISA/pisa-2015/pisa-2015-summary-report

Current issues in my professional context – School culture and Socioeconomic status

School culture and Socioeconomic status

Trying to define my practice in terms of socioeconomic status and organisational culture has been an interesting sojourn from the daily life of teaching science and IT. The New Zealand Government classifies my school as a Decile 10 school.

For example, decile 1 schools are the 10% of schools with the highest proportion of students from low socio-economic communities, whereas decile 10 schools are the 10% of schools with the lowest proportion of these students.

(taken from http://www.education.govt.nz/school/running-a-school/resourcing/operational-funding/school-decile-ratings/)

The school is a Private, Co-Educational School, which is located in park-like grounds on Auckland’s North Shore. Although the school is Decile 10, its size and humble beginnings (it was set-up in 1991 by a group of teachers wanting to do something in a different way), means the culture is very different to the expectations I had of a Private school (having come originally from the UK).

In Louise Stoll’s (Stoll, 1998) article I found it particularly interesting to read that in a ‘new’ school the culture is a driving force and acts as a kind of ‘glue’ holding everyone together and I certainly feel that at our school. We are certainly in a phase dominated by the ideals of our founders and a number of them still work at the school. There is a strong sense of collaboration, which I am sure, is also heavily influenced by the relatively small size of the school (school roll – 728 from Year 1-13) and the fact that the three areas of the school (Primary, Intermediate and Senior College) all share the same site.

There is a very strong sense of partnership between parents, pupils and teachers; no doubt a product of the school’s humble beginnings back in 1991. Operating out of portacabins in a park-like space would have needed a deep sense of community and purpose and these ideals are still present today.

The school website outlines what the school is striving for quite nicely:

At our school…

“Values and intelligent behaviour are taught and lived, encouraging high standards of personal integrity, cooperative behaviour, critical thinking and problem solving”. (School Website)

I am hard-pressed to find difficulties associated with the socio-economic status of the school and its culture if I am honest.

Having come from the UK state sector where there is an expectation that groups of school work collaboratively as ‘clusters’ to drive forward performance and improve pedagogy, this is something I have found lacking in the Private domain.

There is little collaboration between schools in the local area, despite there being a number of schools in quite close proximity. There are curriculum differences (we are the only local Cambridge School) and one could argue that there would be little to exchange in terms of curriculum delivery.

Perhaps the competitive nature of the private sector breeds mistrust between organisations looking to secure pupil numbers and roll growth, who knows? This is certainly something not actively fostered amongst teaching staff.

The other difficulty comes from the expectations of parents who are paying extra for their child’s education and quite rightly, expect higher standards. Achieving higher standards is one thing; unreal expectations are something else entirely. Luckily, conflicts like these are very rare at my school.

The open communication channels and active engagement of all stakeholders are key to managing these expectations and most probably, our commitment to a real sense of a community of practice helps to mitigate any potential conflicts of perception.

I can see now that the sense of community, closeness and sense of a shared purpose are factors driven by the culture of the school.

 

References:

Stoll (1998). School Culture. School Improvement Network’s Bulletin 9. Institute of Education, University of London.

Defining my community of Practice

Defining my Community of Practice

In trying to define my community of practice I started with a look at Bruce Knox’s video Making them Grow and will be honest and say I had a very limited idea of what exactly constituted a community of practice at the outset. I had heard the term bandied about and had experienced a number of professional scenarios whereby someone had attempted to insist I “must know about communities of practice”. A little more digging and it seems the term applies in almost any group setting and has been attributed to the workings of street gangs and groups of civil servants.  There are also various analogies in existence that attempt to make the term accessible and applicable including the idea of places of knowing in a landscape of practice; none of which I have to say, resonated with me.

I do however consider myself a professional, I am passionate about teaching and learning, and I am interested to know how I can do my job better and I interact regularly with colleagues to help make the process of learning easier and more enjoyable for my pupils. Which I gather is the real benefit of a Community of Practice.

For me the most useful definition is:

A community of practice is a group of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. (here) and this is something I can identify with.

In terms of defining my community of practice, I have decided to use the idea of the three key areas proposed by Knox (2009).

Domain

The domain is obviously the education of pupils aged between 11-13 years of age. I currently work as an intermediate Science and ICT teacher in an independent co-educational school with a roll of around 800 pupils. The school follows the Cambridge International Educational (CIE) curriculum.

Community

 

Defining my community is far harder, as a Dean I interact regularly with Senior Management in terms of Pastoral care and the systems the school has in place. I currently work alongside one other teacher with shared responsibility for the Year 7 and 8 Science programme and we are in constant dialogue in terms of how the science and ICT programmes run, we in turn liaise across the school to ensure transition and progression. We have a strong Science faculty who regularly contribute to share resources and informed discussion and meet fortnightly.

As a lead teacher in charge of developing ICT for learning across the school, I provide professional development for all teaching staff in both the Junior College and Senior College. This role increasing requires we to stay abreast of developments in this area and I have become a member of a number of online learning communities to help me facilitate these ideals.

Practice

In terms of the practice, an ever-evolving resource base comes out of this interaction. Currently, we are implementing Microsoft Class Notebooks across subject areas and there are resources and training materials that have developed as a direct result of both the in-house discussions and the interactions I have had online; particularly within Yammer and the Microsoft in education group.

Knox, B. (2009, December 4).Cultivating Communities of Practice: Making Them Grow.. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhMPRZnRFkk