Week 32 - Reflective Practice
The last mission to wrap up my personal 32 week journey is to reflect and critically evaluate one key change in my own professional practice and share my plans and dreams for my future professional development or practice. I will use the reflective model from Rolfe et al. (2001). Sorry but I also found it hard to stick to the 400-600 word limit on this one.
Step 1 - What? One key change in my professional practice.
One key change in my practice has been the mission to more effectively implement personalised learning in the hope that this would encourage students to be more authentically engaged in deep learning.
Personalised learning is one of the 13 key future education concepts identified by the Hack Education project. This theme also fits well with the teaching code of standards value whanaungatanga. Which is defined as engaging in positive and collaborative relationships with our learners, their families and whanau, our colleagues and the wider community, Ministry of Education (2017).
Step 2 - Now what? Evaluate the identified change.
I will use Osterman and Kottkamp’s (2015, p.70) reflective model to evaluate the change to more effectively personalise learning.
Stage 1 - Identify the problem. In this case the problem I’ve found is that my students often seemed to be engaged with their learning at quite a surface level and are often not very able to articulate their learning and next steps. So I wonder how I could support them more effectively develop their learner agency and understanding of what and how they learn. I thought that exploring personalised learning might be a good strategy to help me achieve this goal.
Stage 2 - Observation and Analysis using data and insights to drive the change.
I conducted an investigation into personalised learning and have found that despite a lack of research done in this area personalised learning is an approach which through its implementation provides learners opportunities to develop their self-regulation, and maturity to drive their own learning thus teachers can empower learners to develop the skills required to develop their own learner agency and reach their potential and learning goals, Hargreaves, D. H. (2006).
From a Māori world view I found that the notion of Māori determining their own futures also fits well within the definition of personalised learning. Tino Rangatiratanga, the self-determination principle encompasses learner agency and engagement through meaningful control over one’s own life and cultural well-being which is also embedded in our Treaty of Waitangi, Katoa Ltd, (n.d.).
Stage 3 - Abstract re conceptualisation. What new learning, research or perspectives are relevant to consider for implementing change?
France, P. E. (2018) argues that sometimes our interpretation and and understanding of personalised learning falls short by putting student in front of devices to work at their own pace, but, this is actually depersonalising the learning. He also argues that gamification measures and encourages the results we want to see even if students are not really learning. One study was mentioned that found this kind of approach only had about 3% gains in math and none in reading. Hattie was also quoted with minimal gains from individualisation (0.23 effect size) and web based learning (0.18 effect size).
Stage 4 - Active Experimentation. We have to be careful that we are not using technology to isolate our children by over individualising their learning. We must make sure we are giving students time to collaborate and connect with one another. France presents 4 key questions we must ask ourselves as teachers when personalising learning through the use of technology:
- Does the technology help to minimize complexity?
- Does the technology help to maximize the individual power and potential of all learners in the room?
- Will the technology help us to do something previously unimaginable?
- Will the technology preserve or enhance human connection in the classroom?
Step 3 - What Next? My future plans for future professional development and practice.
I’ve learnt and gained so much from this Mindlab experience both professionally and personally. I have pushed myself outside my comfort zone on so many levels. I have reflected and taken action in many areas of my leadership and teaching roles, and enjoyed sharing this journey with colleagues. I have also truly valued the support and collaboration with other teachers on the course.
There are so many areas I could now dive into such as being more culturally responsive and looking further into how we can more effectively create and sustain learner centred pedagogy. I started a personal blog and I have also started to blog on behalf of my school to educate and connect with our community about digital citizenship. I hope to continue to build on this blogging and include our students and school practices more, in order to build and strengthen this partnership with our whanau and wider community.
Although it is the end of the Mindlab postgrad journey for me for now, it is just the beginning of many more opportunities for professional and personal development. I have found this process challenging and through this I have developed confidence and become more skilled and knowledgeable in making changes to enhance my teaching practice. I feel I am now much better equipped to undertake my current roles as a leader and teacher and have improved my practice considerably and am keen to continue. Thanks to the Mindlab team and my awesome colleagues -couldn't have done it without you all!
Mai i te Kōpae ki te Urupa, tātou ako tonu ai.
From the cradle to the grave we are forever learning.
References
France, P. E. (2018). Retrieved from Why Are We Still Personalizing Learning If It’s Not Personal? https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-07-02-why-are-we-still-personalizing-learning-if-it-s-not-personal?utm_content=buffer55e24&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=EdSurgeBuffer
Hargreaves, D. H. (2006). A new shape for schooling. London: Specialist Schools and Academies Trust.
Ministry of Education (2017). Our code, our standards. Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/our-code-our-standards
Osterman, K. & Kottkamp, R.(1993). Reflective Practice for Educators.California.Corwin Press, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.itslifejimbutn otasweknowit.org.uk/files
Rolfe et al. (2001). Reflective Model. Retrieved from https://my.cumbria.ac.uk/media/MyCumbria/Documents/ReflectiveModelRolfe.pdf
The Mind Lab by Unitec. Hack Education. Retrieved from https://hackeducation.co.nz/
I am glad that you are mentioning the use of technology and the fact that teachers also need to be remined that technology alone cannot replace the collboration; only that it enhances it. I have always kept myself updated on the innovative learning environment and have been doing readings on the reserach. I have visited schools as well. I do not beleive in opening tha walls to create a 'cage-like' situtaion when the same effect of collaboration can take place digitally as well. This belied lies in the fact when there are no purpose-built buildings. We have also tried collbaoration between classes. These classes are single cell but collboartion is magic in the digital world. For students who are not so confident with face-to-face discussions, this owrks perfectly. In saying that we have made sure that the two classes do get time to meet and do subjects like PE, specail religious education and other discussions to enhance their social skills as well. If I were to answer all of the questions:
ReplyDeleteDoes the technology help to minimize complexity?
Does the technology help to maximize the individual power and potential of all learners in the room?
Will the technology help us to do something previously unimaginable?
Will the technology preserve or enhance human connection in the classroom?
I would say yes, because way back in 2017-2108 I have tried that out. When ILE had not started in our school, students had the opportunity to collaborate on OneDrive documents. It was a time when students in primarys school did not even have individual accounts. They were using the same public 'student' account. In those years, we have had only one major case of misuse of woking together whereby one student wrote something bad on another student's account. There have been very less cases of students deleting each other's work. This may have even happened by mistake since they were very new to using word online.