Reflective Practice: So here we are...

Week 32 - Applied Practice in Context: Reflective Practice - Putting it all together

So here we are, at the end of the Mind Lab certificate course in applied technologies and collaborative learning and I’m a wee bit sad.

I think about how I shut myself into a bedroom for a weekend to complete the very first assignment for Digital and Collaborative Learning in Practice and the disappointment when my mark was not indicative of the work I felt I’d put into the submission.  Part of the problem was not having a routine to study, one that I now feel I’ve managed and mastered.

There was surprise that we had to write essays and frustration on two accounts: the word limit and the lack of feed forward.  While I agree that being succinct is a necessary skill (let’s face it, we all ended up skimming and settling on the summary in our literature review research, right?) I’ve been reflecting on an assessment system that has to fit in with the requirements of a traditional tertiary qualification system.

There was total brain preoccupation with the topic of my literature review for weeks, maybe months. And the pile of books that stayed on the dining room table like a semi-permanent monument to the pain of having it hang over me.  

But, there was the satisfaction of actually getting into those tomes and finding out about an area of pedagogy that had worried me for ages: how can we make students self regulating learners as they need to be if we are going to engage them in a new iteration of school? How will we ensure they are making the best of their interests and skills to cope in the world of wicked problems they are going to move into?

I loved the collaborative learning in our workshops and that we weren’t given the solutions.  “He who does the work does the learning,” kept popping into my head (a quote attributed to Doyle, but I think, much older). Yes, clever.  No one rescued us.  

I love the online community; I’ve embraced online discussion for a number of years.  As I said in a comment on Stephanie Thompson’s blog,

- comment, June 24, 2016.

This Applied Practice in Context paper has been my favourite. I’ve relished the bites of different topics I’ve digested each week: reading the class notes at the start, reading the set and other references, and finally writing when I’m sure I can do it in one sitting,  because my thoughts have been chewed over for long enough.

This blog has been the vessel of my reflection for a while.  I label each post against the Practising Teacher Criteria.  I can match my learning over this course to most of these criteria, but I will reflect here on two:

Criteria 9: Respond effectively to the diverse and cultural experiences and the varied strengths, interests, and needs of individuals and groups of ākonga.  This has been my drive since I first became aware of the term modern learning environments, which have morphed into innovative learning environments.  How has learning practice innovated? Do we need to scaffold self regulated learning? Can we and should we if we are still in a tradition single cell classroom? Is this the answer to engagement and student achievement? Will greater awareness of individual learning needs ensure that schools are culturally responsive?  I plan to follow through with my inquiry plan on this topic and it preoccupies my thoughts about our own school’s pedagogy.

Criteria 5: Show leadership that contributes to effective teaching and learning.  We have two main professional development foci at my school in literacy and numeracy.  Interestingly it’s difficult getting some teachers to embrace reflective practice. Dawson (2012) reminds me that reflective practice and self regulated learning is the same thing.  Here’s a quandary: the senior leadership team have recognised through our data that writing and mathematics have a large number of under achievers.  So have the teachers.  We need to look at and change what we do.  We recognise that teaching as inquiry is the most effective method of changing our practice, and for teachers to own the change.  But the big issue is workload.  We need to look at how we support our teachers to ensure they can complete rigorous, evidence based change.  The Professional Learning and Development Advisory Group’s 2014 report acknowledges this lack of time as one of the issues (p.11).  

We tried an “in school” approach: groups of teachers released and allowed to determine their own discussion topic for this time; we predetermined that that was how it should be run. Feedback was that it was worthwhile, but also that some did not think they had time to be out of the classroom.

Self regulated learning and teacher development are my ongoing goals.  I’ve completed one paper towards my Masters in Educational Leadership and now this Post Graduate Certificate in Applied Learning.  I want to keep studying and my next decision is which pathway will I follow.  I am a self regulated learner and love that digital technologies and collaborative learning have enabled that to happen.

References

Davis, M. (2003). Barriers to reflective practice: the changing nature of higher education. Active Learning in Higher Education, 4(3), 243-255. doi: 10.1177/14697874030043004

Dawson, P. (2012) Reflective practice. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1aYWbLj0U8

Doyle, T. (2008). Helping students learn in a learner centered environment: A guide to  teaching in higher education. Sterling, VA: Stylus.

Hobbs, V. (2007). Faking it or hating it: can reflective practice be forced? Reflective Practice, 8(3), 405-417. doi: 10.1080/14623940701425063

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

Ministry of Education. (August,2014). Report of the professional Learning and development advisory group. Retrieved from http://www.education.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Ministry/Initiatives/PLDAdvisoryGroupReport.pdf

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/RefPract/Osterman_Kottkamp_extract.pdf

Current issues in my professional context

My second post for the Mind Lab paper: "Applied Practice in Context":

"Stoll (1998) defines school culture as three dimensions, the relationship among its members; the organisational structure including the physical environment and management system; and the learning nature." - Mind Lab Class Notes, Week 26.

"Culture describes how things are and acts as a screen or lens through which the world is viewed." - Stoll, 1998

 “the way we do things around here” - Deal & Kennedy, 1983

“a real school is what I attended when I was a child” - Metz, 1991

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Yoda 

“The force is strong in this one…”

Our school is typical of many schools in New Zealand and probably the Western world.  Built in the 1970’s, it was open plan, with four classrooms, sans doors, which opened out onto a central space with a work area, art supplies, benches, storage and sinks - an early “maker space”.  

When I got there at the start of the millennium as a trainee primary teacher, it was still like this, but teachers stayed in their cells and there was a lot of self consciousness and irritation when the neighbour’s noise and activity intruded on others. Once a gimme that all contributing schools contributed to the annual intake, this decade was one when a lot of students headed into town to the Catholic College; a “grass is greener” syndrome, which I have to say, I was part of.

Roll on August 2010 and I returned to the school, this time as Deputy Principal Curriculum. There was a different principal, and an interesting dichotomy: staff who had been with the school for a while, several since its inception, and another group which had been there for only six months. They, like me, were still trying to find out “how we do things around here.” And change was difficult to bring about. There was one change that stood out: doors on the classrooms and transformation of the central space away from the shared work station to an open common room.

I’d already learned in my first assistant principal position, that the folk who populate a community of practice don’t necessarily appreciate the breath of fresh air you bring when you open the door to new ideas. Stoll (1998) talks about the importance of understanding the school’s culture, and the important roles of history, socioeconomic status, location and national education policies. “The way we do things here,” is a very strong force.  I pinned a poster to the notice board above my desk:

“God gives you the people you want, not the people you need, to make you into the person you need to be.” (Unknown)

There were some divisions on the staff. National Standards had not been taken on board (some would say that was a good thing). The assessment system lacked robustness. Teaching was more about the teachers than the learners. Too many students were driving into town to school away from one of our local schools.  

There were some strong and noble traditions: a belief that intermediate education is an important area; that sport and fitness is intrinsic to the well being, physical and academic, of the emerging adolescent. That students need to be exposed to a range of subjects before they get to high school. That independence, fortitude, leadership a teamwork are important qualities and are to the fore in the week long camp in Term 4, where students are under canvas, and in Term 4 when the students opted for an alternative education activity. The school was also renowned for its kapa haka success.

I saw my place as strengthening the academic side of things; well, it was what my title said I did. We have made a lot of progress on improving teacher knowledge and pedagogy; we still have a way to go. I learned that even a small step is still a small step forward. 

This year has seen another large turn over of staff; some have retired, some moved on to their own greener pastures. A principal who takes over a school inherits teachers and “the way things are done around here.” It takes time to build a shared set of values in incumbent staff; it’s easier when you get to choose the staff who will carry forward the vision you have for your community of practice. 

The local community has returned to the school as has regard for the quality of our education.

A shared vision is the key: it becomes the internal driver from “the way we’ve always done it,” or “this is how we do it here,” to “this is what we want and need for deep learning to take place” and that strong force for change. 

Innovative learning environments and practices are the topic du jour in the educational world. Digital technology is no longer a novelty. These are our next challenges. There is an old saying now, that while the world has changed technologically, should Rumplestiltskin awake after a hundred years, he’d still feel at home in a school.

As an early adopter, I’ve had to learn patience. And it’s not just with my colleagues’ rate of uptake of new technologies. It’s about how difficult it is to ensure there is equity for all students, especially when our catchment includes each end of the decile system.

Our new teachers have made an interesting change to the scales. They’ve come from communities of practice where cloud based learning is the norm. Suddenly, it’s “how we do it around here,” and the force for change has swapped directions.

The next step will be to see what happens to those classroom doors as teachers begin to collaborate more. One of our electives is a makerspace. It’s time to return to looking at that vision and deciding how we want to write the next chapters in the reflective journal of our community of practice. 

- Stoll and Fink (cited in Stoll, 1998) identified 10 influencing cultural norms of school improvement including:

“1. Shared goals - “we know where we’re going”

2. Responsibility for success - “we must succeed”

3. Collegiality - “we’re working on this together”

4. Continuous improvement - “we can get better”

5. Lifelong learning - “learning is for everyone”

6. Risk taking - “we learn by trying something new”

7. Support - “there’s always someone there to help”

8. Mutual respect - “everyone has something to offer”

9. Openness - “we can discuss our differences”

10. Celebration and humour - “we feel good about ourselves”” (p.10)

References

Hongboontri, C., & Keawkhong, N. (2014). School Culture: Teachers' Beliefs, Behaviors, and Instructional Practices. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 39(5), 66-88. Retrieved from http://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2332&context=ajte

Lave, J. (1991). Situating learning in communities of practice. In L. Resnick, J. Levine, and S. Teasley (Eds.). Perspectives on socially shared cognition. [E-reader version](pp. 63-82). Retrieved from http://www.ecologyofdesigninhumansystems.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Lave-Situating-learning-in-communities-of-practice.pdf

Stoll (1998). School Culture. School Improvement Network’s Bulletin 9. Institute of Education, University of London. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Culture/Understanding-school-cultures/School-Culture

Something Wicked This Way Comes

My third post for the Mind Lab paper: "Applied Practice in Context":

Week 27: Contemporary issues or trends in New Zealand or internationally

“Shut the door please...we’re not trying to heat the world!” I call, as yet another student rushes from the hall without making sure that the door closes.  The heaters are on; the first day of winter has hit with a vengeance. “Global warming,” another teacher jokes.

And I think about how teaching has changed.  We’re not just sweating the small stuff like teaching kids to shut doors, we've now got to think about them as the lifesavers that we are throwing out to our future selves. Global warming is now one of the wicked problems that our children are facing.
Wicked problems are shaping education in New Zealand and internationally.  Documents like Future State 2030 highlight issues that will change the world of work and mean that our children will need to create solutions to issues that we have not experienced ourselves: demographics, the rise of the individual, the rise of technology, economic interconnectedness, public debt, economic power shift, climate change, resource stress and urbanisation.

The educational model, often referred to as the factory model, which we and our parents “survived” can not prepare our youth for a future career that no longer conforms to a narrow classification of job descriptions; we can’t promise them that effort and a university degree will lead to a secure future. Ken Robinson elaborates on this paradigm shift in his Ted talk.

I'm tasked, in this blog post, to identify and evaluate two contemporary issues or trends that are shaping education nationally and globally, but I'm finding that tricky; they all blend into the cauldron of wicked problems that require the current model of school to change: what teachers are and what they do and what learning and the student’s role in the learning process needs to look like.

I remember when all I was tasked to do as a teacher was make sure the content of the end of year exam was presented and absorbed. I remember debating with my HOD in 1990 about knowledge versus skill.  She firmly believed her role was to teach them material as their heads were empty. Over the last three decades professional development on the science of teaching has transformed to the art of learning. Digital technologies and the world wide web started to transform the possibilities open to us in the last two decades of the twentieth century.

In the nineteen nineties, organisations like UNESCO and the OECD, started to look at how we needed to change education to deal with the issues that were predicted to feature in the twenty first century.

The result was to move from a content based curriculum to a competency based curriculum; our own key competencies are based on the four pillars of the UNESCO Delors Report of 1993: learning to be, learning to know, learning to do and learning to live together; and the four competencies of the OECD 2005 report, which look much like what we now have: thinking, relating to others, understanding language, symbols and text, managing self and participating and contributing.

In their highly readable text, Key Competencies for the Future, Hipkins et al show how important these are for a future beset with wicked problems and show how “good” teachers scaffold learning opportunities where students are encouraged to involve themselves more deeply in critical and creative problem solving.

And therein lies the rub.  Our international and national education system is slow to change from that old factory model to one which embraces a desiloed curriculum, available technologies, authentic problems and design thinking. Political decision makers are at odds with educationalists about what our students need.  Parents view a good education as the one which they understand and which worked in past decades.

The teaching profession itself needs a shake up. Teacher training institutions are accepting students with literacy and numeracy levels below what they need. Digital technology use and inquiry thinking need to be much better developed. Our children deserve the best and the brightest teachers with growth mindsets who see the importance of creating different models of education.

We need learners who are engaged, motivated and self regulating.  How we create self regulated
 learners is the core pedagogical process needed in innovative learning environments, the current “bright and shiny thing”.  It’s important that we get students engaging in the learning processes they need to work out how to attack those wicked problems.  Research suggests that different contexts need different solutions.  It’s the subject of my literacy review and my inquiry.

What we need to do is keep engaging the naysayers at all levels.  As educators we need to keep asking, how can we do this better? We need to keep our eyes focussed on the future, fuzzy though it may appear.  We need to develop in ourselves those learning dispositions we need in our students.

References

Delors, J. ed. (1993). Learning: the treasure within. Report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century (Highlights). UNESCO Publishing.
Retrieved from http://lllp.iugaza.edu.ps/Files_Uploads/635087182222401677.pdf

Dumont, H., Istance, D., Benavides, F. (ed.) (2010). The nature of learning: using research to inspire practice. Educational Research and Innovation. OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264086487-4-en.

Education Review Office. (2012). Evaluation at a Glance: Priority Learners in New Zealand Schools. Retrieved 18 May 2016, from http://www.ero.govt.nz/About-Us/News-Media-Releases2/The-three-most-pressing-issues-for-N

Hipkins, R., Bolstad, R., Boyd, S., & McDowall, S. (2014). Key competencies for the future. New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) Press.

KPMG International. (2014). Future state 2030: the global megatrends shaping governments”. KPMG International Cooperative: USA. Retrieved from http://www.kpmg.com/Global/en/IssuesAndInsights/ArticlesPublications/future-state-government/Documents/future-state-2030-v3.pdf

Ministry of Education (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media.
Retrieved 10 August 2009 from http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/the_new_zealand_
curriculum/the_school_curriculum_design_and_review

Ministry of Education (2016). Enabling E-Learning: Teaching: Innovative Learning Environments. Retrieved from http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Teaching/Innovative-learning-environments

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

Toffler, A. (1981). The third wave (pp. 32-33). New York: Bantam books.

(Modern) Learning Environments

"She (was) a Mod" - but not today.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/hartman
045/4089843022/

I'll be honest. It's taken me a while to explore this topic, for two reasons:

I took it literally. I was in an existing, older environment, with no power over changing "how we do things here."

The term grates on me. It's another bit of jargon. It's fashionable. It's a trendy term to throw around. Sorry Stephen Heppell, Mark Osborne and others who have been part of this conversation for ages. It wasn't in my "to do" pile.

I fell into the trap. 

Modern Learning Environments are not about the age of the school, the amount of glass, the trendy green, geometric, vinyl ottomans or the orange, corduroy bean bags. It's about how kids want to learn. Actually, about how each of us want to learn, including me.

A light goes on. I start to take notice. The twitter stream starts to ripple with how teachers in traditional schools are recreating their classrooms.

from "Teaching the Teacher"

Anne Keneally uses her efellow year to explore modern learning environments and I send out a challenge in our school for teachers to get their students to redesign the classrooms. Not much changes.

It is not that simple when you have a long tradition of classroom layout in your heads - even for the students. It's about deep and meaningful inquiry into how we like to learn. Without that, we fall into recreating traditional models or being mesmerised by the furniture catalogues and all that lime coloured vinyl - which our budget won't cover. Sigh. But it's not about the trappings. 

The word modern though, does conjure up a particular look. But how long will "modern" be modern?  I've seen a traditional classroom stuffed full of modern furniture that was showcased as a modern learning environment. I've seen an older block with walls punched out to make open spaces and one end furnished with old, donated, comfy sofas. Another modern learning environment.

We really need to delve into how we like to learn. We need that other modern gem, "student agency." We need learner voice and I'm a learner too, so why not start with me?

I liked school. I liked collaborating at school. I didn't think much of any of my classrooms; cold, rattly, grafittied, wooden chairs that ate your tights. 

For individual work, I preferred to wait till I got home. One of my favourite places was spread out on the floor with books all around me. I wanted space and I wanted it on my own. When I was reading I stayed in my small bedroom or tucked myself into a sunny corner of our sun porch, another private, enclosed space.

Hmmm. 

My own kids begged me to be allowed to come home to study, especially in their senior years, nearing exam time. The school was too rigid in its timetable, the teachers were boring, they were reviewing stuff they already knew, other kids were mucking around...it all sounded very familiar. I have to say I was torn between meeting their needs and being a school leader who couldn't condone truancy! 

So let's look at that middle word: "learning". That's the key. Where do we learn best, as opposed to "do school"? Where you learn might not be where I learn. Whether extrovert or introvert we have different needs and at different times. And how do we learn?

I love to discuss things to clarify my own thinking; I read and I write to reflect. I like listening to other experts in their fields - but I want to choose to listen to them and I can't be under stress to take it in. I need to be well fed and watered, warm but not too warm and be able to at least, for a time, shut out any worries in my life. I like to be in an ordered environment; my room has to be tidy wherever I am. Sometimes I want background noise and sometimes I need silence. I want time to consider.

And does "environment" mean a building? I've talked about the spaces I like. But how else do I learn? 

I love my digital devices. I love that they allow me to connect, converse, collaborate anywhere I want to: on the sofa, in my car, in the doctor's waiting room...I love that I can talk with someone in Singapore or Orlando. I love that the only barrier about time is that I need to sleep sometimes when people are working elsewhere in the world. I love that I can replay or rewind that learning if I can't be there. I love that I can learn anywhere anytime. I love the word ubiquitous. It rolls off the tongue.

So now I'm watching how you want to learn. If you choose to play Minecraft, could that be a learning environment for you? Why am I spoiling it if I call it a learning environment? Is learning only a school activity that has been prescribed in a curriculum document or examination prerequisite? Of course not! 

Gone are the days when a school leader told me that it was unsuitable to call a game at school a game. It needed to be called a "learning activity". Oh dear. That sort of says that fun is not allowed.

We know better. We acknowledge that learning happens through play: life lessons like collaboration, creative thinking, problem solving, give and take, communication, disappointment, resilience, all take place in the sandpit. Hang on - these are pretty important tools that a citizen needs in their kete. 

And what of the teacher? How does that role fit in to a real learning environment?

I think of the teachers who have had the biggest influence on me:

• My form 2 teacher who allowed a small group,of us to write our plays. We were fully immersed and presented them to real parent audiences.
• The junior high teacher who let us explore the imaginary back worlds of novels like "The Sword in the Stone" about Merlin and Arthur.
• My mother who always supported learning by attending every interview; who filled a chest of drawers with cuttings and project material.
• My friend Sara who showed me that every four year old's "why" question was important and who could discuss why clouds were pink at sunset and why the sky was blue. Our kids were allowed to paint their faces and dig huge mud holes in her backyard.

The adults were there for the children: making sure they were safe, picking up the pieces, refereeing disagreements, scaffolding understanding, modelling good practice, making sure there were available resources, watching that the children ate and dressed warmly.

So if we learn through play, by being in comfortable, flexible spaces, or even uncomfortable outdoor risk-taking environments, face to face or virtually, in the real world or in worlds we have created online, let's get on with it. We are individuals and don't go out into the world known as boxed sets: "class of 2014."

It's time for real conversations about learning and the learning environments that have always worked. Forget the modern. Learning is not schooling. And modern becomes "how we do it around here" too quickly. And that's the point.

Acknowledgements

• Anne Keneally and her edtalks
• Stephanie Thompson and her blog Teaching the Teacher - especially this post: http://traintheteacher.wordpress.com/2012/08/22/how-ditching-the-desks-turned-my-classroom-into-a-21st-century-learning-space/
• http://edtalks.org/channel/modern-learning-environments and Mark Osborne
• Inviting your school community onto the modern learning practice (MLP) waka
• Neil Fraser and Karla Hull from Ngatea School
• Karyn Gray from Te Karaka Area School
• Marnel Van der Spuy for her thoughts as an efellow looking at MLE for juniors

Other Links:

7 Learning Zones http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2015/03/do-you-know-about-these-7-learning.html