Activity 8: Key change in my professional practice

Using Rolfe's model: 

Step 1 (What): Identify one key change in your professional practice:

Reflecting back to how I was before Mindlab I am amazed at my journey and how much I have learnt from reflection on my practice, by trialling new ideas and discussing current educational policy. It has been a terrific experience working with my colleagues and sharing ideas with them. We have adopted play based learning in our Junior area which I lead with other people. Our goal was to encourage conversation and interest between the parent and their child by using Seesaw. “Technology provides a variety of ways for families, educators and schools to share information with one another and keep in touch. ” (Monell, 2016).

(Now what): Evaluate the identified change.

“You need to care for students, but you also need to help them get better in the one thing that can serve them for life—their day-to-day learning,” (Sharratt & Fullan, 2011). We quickly realised that it was not a child problem but a lack of confidence by teachers. The problem was the lack of expertise in digital technology. The students quickly overcame this in some cases and showed “student agency and self determination over learning contexts which relate to their interests, is initiated by students and holds relevance for them, (Gibson & Makisi 2011).

Step 3 (What next) Share your next plan(s) regarding your future professional development or your future practice.

It took a lot longer than expected because we had a lot of learning to do. We intended to change by actually changing our teaching style. At the end of last year I changed team from Year 2 leader to Year 1. My new class were used to having their work shared on Seesaw and taking photos and videos of their work. The change was in Play based learning and Seesaw was just a tool to share what was happening with parents.

Reflective practice: An Experiential Learning Cycle (Osterman & Kottkamp, 2015)

Stage 1: Problem identification

The teacher was definitely affected by lack of confidence, knowledge and expertise but was striving to overcome the lack. Parents who did not have smart phones or devices were similarly affected by lack of hardware and sometimes by lack of knowledge.

Stage 2: Observation and analysis

Gibson & Makisi “Students contribute to the information / knowledge that contributes to learning, alongside what is taught. From shared experience students and teachers help each other to know more about what they are interested in.” (2011). The students and I were in a reciprocal learning situation, helping each other learn.

Stage 3: Abstract re conceptualisation

Our problem was overcome because Seesaw was quickly a familiar tool for sharing so that learning was completed. The next was for me to work on how to engage the children and build relationships. This was less about Seesaw and more about Play based learning. My inquiry changed from learning to use a tool to rethinking my whole system of beliefs about my role as a teacher and how best to facilitate learning with my students.

Stage 4: Active experimentation

According to Alan Sears (2003, p.2), Lean production is a set of management strategies to eliminate the waste in work processes by increasing flexibility, reducing the core workforce to an absolute minimum by driving up productivity and contracting-out significant chunks of work. 

Now we have completed the first stage of play based learning by trialling it in our classes. Our next step is to combine all of the classes to use the time for outdoor play if that is what the students choose as well as indoor activities. Seesaw, which was such a big hurdle for us to overcome when we started our journey last year, no longer poses a problem for us to use. Our challenge now is to use it to record the learning journey for children as they play and work with others and develop the lifelong skills for the uncertain future.

References

Bolstad, R. & MacDonald,J.(2016). An analysis of participant blogs supplemented by teacher interviews. Wellington:New Zealand Council for Educational Research.

Gibron,R. & Makisi, G. (2011).  7 Keys to Culturally Responsive Pedagogy From presentations to principals and teachers: LiPP / ALL, 2011 / 2012.

Monell, N.R. (2016) CAE, executive director of National PTA.retrieved from: https://learningfirst.org/blog/schools-should-use-technology-engage-parents

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

Osterman, K. F., & Kottkamp, R. B. (2015). Reflective practice for educators : professional development to improve student learning.(2nd ed.) New York: Skyhorse Publishing.

Ministry of Education (nd). Our code, our standards. Retrieved from

https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/our-code-our-standards

Sears, A. (2003). Retooling the Mind Factory: Education in a Lean State. Canada: University of Toronto Press.

Sharratt, L. & Fullan, M. (2012). Putting FACES on the data: What great leaders do! Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.For Journal of Staff Development (JSD) by Lyn Sharratt & Michael Fullan, December, 2011