Andrew Wikaira Teaching Thoughts: 2015

Monday, 5 October 2015

Professional Connection Map

My Professional Connections

Moving around my Professional Connections

Wegner-Trayner (2015) states 'a growing number of people and organisations in various sectors are now focusing on communities of practice as a key to improving their performance.' (p1)

'Communities of Practice can be seen as being 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,' (Wegner-Trayner, 2015, p1)

Wegner-Trayner (2015) suggests that 'communities of practice are made up of 3 crucial characteristics:

The Domain - It has an identity defined by a shared domain of interest, a commitment to the domain and a shared competence that distinguishes members from other people. They value their collective competence and learn from each other. (Wegner-Trayner, 2015)

The Community - Members engage in joint activities and discussions, help each other and share information. They care about their standing with each other and the members interact and learn together. The members do not need to work together daily to be a community of practice. (Wegner-Trayner, 2015)

The Practice - Members of the community of practice are practitioners who develop a shared repertoire of resources: experiences, stories, tools, ways of addressing reoccurring problems in a shared practice. (Wegner-Trayner, 2015)

Through this discussion I will outline how I work within and between these groups in an endeavour to better my practice, share ideas, experiences and / or improve my knowledge.

New Windsor School

The school is made up of many groups. These groups form the Community of Practice and I will some examples of these through each group.

Students

The Domain - School Council

The Community - Gather information from Student body of needs and wants.

The Practice - Looks for possible solutions to needs and wants

Parents

The Domain - School Board

The Community - Identifying the needs of the school - administratively, meeting Department of Education requirements, buildings, grounds, learning tools

The Practice - Use of personal and professional experiences to overcome, address or discuss problems or issues identified

Teachers

The Domain - Teaching the curriculum, specialising in curriculum areas, maintaining current practice requirements, exploring new methods of practice, working in Quality Professional groups to discuss professional development

The Community - Sharing ideas, experiences, resources and working collaboratively with others, and providing time to listen and support for each other during challenging times.

The Practice - Day to day teaching, meetings between group members, general discussions between colleagues.

Personal Goal: Over the next 2 years I will consolidate my practice in leading the PE team before looking at taking my skills to a new school to learn different systems and processes.

Teaching Council

The Domain - Each registered teacher needs to meet certain criteria of practice to remain on the register

The Community - Sharing ideas, experiences, resources and working collaboratively with others, and providing time to listen and support for each other during challenging times.

The Practice - Teachers engage in joint activities and discussions, they help each other and share information.

NZEI

The Domain - Members learn their rights and responsibilities to their employer.

The Community - Sharing ideas, experiences, resources and working collaboratively with others, and providing time to listen and support for each other during challenging times.

The Practice - Teachers engage in joint activities and discussions, they help each other and share information.

Education Ministry

The Domain - Teachers need to keep an eye on any Ministry directive to ensure that the directive is in the best interest of the students and their learning.

The Community - Teachers and Principal of the New Windsor School

The Practice - Teachers engage in joint activities and discussions, they help each other and share information.

Sport Waitakere

The Domain - Organising inter school events (i.e. Athletics Day, Swimming Carnivals etc) between schools. Providing Professional development for teachers and organising identified sport for the students.

The Community - The students and teachers of New Windsor School

The Practice - Teachers up-skill themselves through participating in professional development and in participation when their class is being taken by the Sport facilitator.

Whau Cluster of Schools

The Domain - Organisation of Sport between and with schools in the Cluster

The Community - Come together to discuss and organise up coming inter school events

The Practice - Principals, Teachers or Sports co-ordinators work together in organising sporting events.

SPARC

The Domain - Organising physical education for all students. Getting students active. Focus will be on physical education for all and less focus on targeting sport.

The Community - A working group to organise how the 'Sport Activator' will work between the participating schools. The group will include those interested from the existing 'Whau Cluster of Schools' and must also included interested Intermediate Schools and local Secondary School.

The Practice - Invited Principals and school representatives to be part of a working initiative alongside existing the programme(s).

Unitec and Auckland University

The Domain - Taking Courses to improve practice

The Community - Teachers and Principal's

The Practice - Teachers trying to up skill, share experiences and ideas, and learn any techniques or processes to improve learning

Alumni: Same as above as Teachers are exposed to other practitioners whom they wouldn't usually work with, teachers create opportunities to share experiences and ideas.

Mindlab

The Domain - Taking Courses to improve practice

The Community - Teachers and Principal's

The Practice - Whilst working through this course I have been able to network a group of practitioners who were looking to advance their knowledge and practice in their everyday practice.

Possible Goal: Should Mindlab introduce a Post Graduate Diploma in Applied Practice (Digital and Collaborative Learning) then I would enrol to work towards obtaining my Masters degree.

References

Wenger-trayner.com. (2015). Introduction to communities of practice | Wenger-Trayner. Retrieved from http://wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/

My Professional Community

My Professional Community

As a frontline teacher I see the following as my Professional Community - with me at the centre.

The most important relationship that I build is the one between me and my class. Each of the remaining groups are supportive of both the class and myself and we work together to ensure the learners are supported.

New Windsor School Students include my class but I also have a relationship with the rest of the student body. So I work on building a relationship with the student body so they know they can approach me for support when they need it.

Theories that underpin my practice.

It is my view that my class sees themselves as a day family. We will have times that are good, interesting, challenging and rewarding. As the class and I spend 6 hours a day together we talked about honesty and integrity and what that looks like. This led to us being able to discuss about how over time we would fall out with each other, make other friendships - at times forgetting about existing ones and how we might be mean to each other. This social construct is very important to me as it is reflective of Vygotsky's Cultural-Historical Theory of cognitive development.

Vygotsky's theory made several assumptions such as; complex mental activities begin as social activities, conversations with adults assist in the child's development, challenging tasks promote cognitive development and play is important.

In my class each and every child is treated as an individual who has their own challenges that the child and I work closely together to identify their learning needs. Once we identify these needs then to go about trying to make sure that these needs are achieved.

To enable me to carry out this challenge I have had to change the way I deliver the curriculum. Mainly due to how my learning has progressed through this year and a want to place the learner at the forefront of my practice.

Schoen (2008) writes, Vygotskyian theory suggests that teachers should organise classroom learning experiences to include both individual activities - to be completed on their own and complex problems that can be worked on in groups. The collective learning attained during working within a group grows the individual skills and knowledge that they may tap into in a similar learning situation when working by themselves. This supports Vygotsky's belief that 'higher mental function occurs in collaboration with other before it exists within the individual.' (Schoen, 2008, p.37)

I have focused this piece on the student as being at the centre of my drive to help the student grow through their learning. I try to provide authentic learning opportunities where the individual can grow through collaboration or through their internal motivation to push out their personal learning boundaries.

References

Schoen, L., T. (2008) Constructing high quality learning environments for twenty first century learners. Teaching and Learning: International Best Practice. [pp. 25-50] Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/173355/Constructing_High_Quality_Learning_Environments_for_Twenty_First_Century_Learners_A_Sociocultural_Constructivist_Perspective

Resposes to Finlay's (2008) Article

Points that Captivate my attention regarding the practice of Reflection

Schon's (1983) work 'The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action.' identified two types of reflection: 'reflection-on-action (after-the-event thinking) and reflection-in-action (thinking-while doing) (Finlay, 2008, p.3) are easy to understand examples that a beginning reflective practitioner can apply when trying to come to terms with this practice.

When one stands in front of the class and delivers a new topic or one where they have little knowledge or expertise then applying Schon's reflection-on-action approach allows the practitioner to review how they delivered the topic, consider what went well, what needs to be improved (were there any gaps) and where to next with the learners. By reflecting on ones work in this manner will help the teacher to evolve their practice.

As your skills grow as a practitioner then you develop your skills in all areas and Schon's second concept reflection-in-action (thinking-while doing) becomes more intuitive. This can be because your knowledge of the topic area, students, confidence and experience, just to mention a few variables, enables you to better read your learner, their needs and the environment.

In Finlay's (2008) work she sites how Greenwood targeted Schon for downplaying the importance of reflection-before action. All teachers prepare through their planning and at the heart of this planning is the learner so reflection-before action is surely a consideration that we teachers should carry out in anticipation to providing a rich learning experience for all.

Model for Reflection

In Dawson's (2012) video presentation he introduces Boud, Keogh and Walker's (1985) triangular model of reflection. It's the simplicity of this model that makes it attractive for use. Furthermore this simplicity lends itself to be adapted especially when one becomes more proficient at the skill of being critically reflective.

Finlay (2008) introduces us to Johns' Model of Structured Reflection (1994) and notes that models like Johns' offers a comprehensive checklist. It is these checklist type questions that can be adapted into the Boud et al model to enrich the reflective information.

Conclusion

A Reflective Practitioner looks to anticipate the needs of their learners through their planning. Initially the teacher will find it easy to reflect on events that they experienced and the important features that need garnering included details about the event, how they felt before during and after delivering the experience and need to be brutally honest in how they delivered the experience trying to identify what worked well, what didn't, and what was learnt. As the teacher becomes more skilled at being reflective then they need to be able to apply this skill whilst they are providing and being a part of an experience.

Reference

Boud, D., Keogh, R. & Walker, D. (1985) Reflection: Turning Experience into Learning. London: Kogan Page

Dawson, F. (2012, October 10). Reflective practice.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1aYWbLj0U8

Finlay, L. (2009) Reflecting on reflective practice. PBPL. Retrieved from http://www.open.ac.uk/opencetl/files/opencetl/file/ecms/web-content/Finlay-%282008%29-Reflecting-on-reflective-practice-PBPL-paper-52.pdf

Reflective Journal - Learning Practice

When I began this Postgraduate course with Mindlab I was in search of Professional Development that challenged me intellectually. I needed to up-skill and get a grasp on current techniques being employed within my profession.

Through this course I have seen a shift in my pedagogy.

Initially I saw metacognition as being the process of thinking about thinking and in Chapman's (2013) conversation with Dr McGuire, Dr McGuire sites Flavel (1979) in supporting this notion about metacognition. Dr Dawson (2012) sites Boud's definition of metacognitive thinking as being affective and intellectual. The point of added value for me is the affective part of Dr Dawson's description of metacognitive thinking. Knowing that the way we are feeling influences the way we critically think.

I found myself discussing my reasons for taking on this course with a colleague and during this conversation I was continually thinking (self-regulating) my answer to their question. Dr McGuire sees this as being one of the process strategies we use in metacognition - teaching / discussing with others. Other process strategies stated in Chapman's (2013) work are; memorisation, annotation, writing things over and over, concept maps and teaching to others.

Secondly through the use of literature I have been able to inform my practice. As such I began to explore the work of Carol Dweck around Growth Mindsets. This work sits well with my philosophy of teaching for learners.

In a 2012 interview Dweck defined fixed and growth mindsets,

In a fixed mindset students believe their basic abilities, their intelligence, their talents, are just fixed traits. They have a certain amount and that's that, and then their goal becomes to look smart all the time and never look dumb.

In a growth mindset students understand that their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, good teaching and persistence. They don't necessarily think everyone's the same or anyone can be Einstein, but they believe everyone can get smarter if they work at it.

(Morehead, 2012)

When we focus on the process, we challenge the learner to develop their skills and strategies to overcome problems then a growth mindset is being encouraged. Teachers and students move ones mindset from fixed to growth depending on the problem or situation being faced.

Finally my intention from the beginning of this course was to try and create an environment where learners have a voice in their learning journey. To assist the learners I will need to change from a top down approach to learning and evolve my teaching practice so that the students have a say in their learning. Upon reflection I realise to achieve ‘student voice’ I need to shift my current practice and begin co-constructing students learning with them. By doing this when we begin a new topic or curriculum area the students’ voice will occur at an earlier stage.

My journey at Mindlab has provided me with a clearer understanding of metacognitive reflection, the ability to critically look at literature to further enhance my teaching philosophy, and then by co-constructing students learning I will provide the students an avenue to voice their needs.

References

Chapman, H. (2013, March 26). Think about Thinking. [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_b44JaBQ-Q#t=12

Dawson, F. (2012, October 10). Reflective practice.[video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1aYWbLj0U8

Morehead, J. (2012). Stanford University's Carol Dweck on the Growth Mindset and Education. OneDublin.org. June, 19.