My Inquiry Findings 2015

Inquiry Reflections - My Findings - 2015

The Inquiry process. This year for my Leadership Inquiry I trialed using the Spiral of Inquiry model. I felt that this model of inquiry might be suitable as it began with a very in depth analysis of what is happening and leads into encouraging hunches about why things are the way they are. It involved a lot of thinking about my own practice and the teaching practice across the school. My initial thoughts of this process were positive. However, after working with it this year I have decided that the model is too big for a teacher/leadership inquiry. I felt that the model was more suited to an institutional inquiry rather than a smaller one. As I continue my leadership/teacher inquiries running for next year I will use the model that we have developed as a school as I feel that this is more manageable.

During the inquiry process I also changed my question from: Does a personalised approach to learning help student achievement, and can this be enhanced through the practice of team teaching and digital collaboration between students? to What is learner agency and how could I develop this at my school? The reasons for this change were that once I started to delve into the question I found that it was far to big and not specific enough. There were lots of interesting parts to the inquiry - personalised learning, student achievement, team teaching and digital technology, but there was no way that I could do any of those areas justice within the space of a year. So on reflection and after the initial work with Janine and the staff I decided that everything within my first inquiry question fitted in to learner agency and that by adding the part about developing this at East Taieri it lead more towards a leadership focus. I was a lot happier with the new question and could easily see how there were 2 parts to focus on: leading learner agency with the staff and developing learner agency in my class.

Findings - 2015: My inquiry question is: What is learner agency and how could I develop this at my school?

Throughout the year the focus has been on developing an understanding of what learner agency is and why it is important for us, how this could developed in our classes/school and what this would look like in our classes and for our students.

Developing Learner Agency with the Staff

During the course of the year, Janine and I have worked with the staff to develop learner agency at East Taieri school. At first we had to develop our own understandings of what this looked like so that we were able to help guide the staff. As a staff we began to develop the WHY of our school - why are we here and what is our purpose. After lots of discussion we found that at the heart of everything was that learner agency was the why - everything that we did fed back to the children being in control of and understanding their learning. From this Janine and I have been working with the staff to develop a deeper understanding of what learner agency is and how we might go about weaving it into our school. This is a big process and moving the staff has been challenging as you can see on our reflections after staff meetings and also on my coaching/survey forms above. As a management team we have given this priority and will continue to develop learner agency next year.

The main findings from this part of the inquiry were that:

• We are all in agreement that learner agency is at the heart of what we do
• The we are developing an understanding of what learner agency is and what this could look like for us
• We can see the importance of learner agency for our children and believe that it will benefit them now and into the future
• Teachers are beginning to develop learner agency in their classroom - through learning journals, learning pathways, goal setting and workshops
• That the development of learner agency at East Taieri will take longer than a year and will need constant attention and focus
• We have developed an initial statement for us about what we believe that learner agency is

Our statement (draft):

At East Taieri School learner agency is about using pedagogical approaches that enable students to take charge of their own learning. A positive and structured environment is created to enable students to develop the skills and attitudes to become active learners. Through choice, reflection, goal setting and assessments, learners will be empowered to take ownership of their learning.

So What? Sustainability: To continue developing learner agency at East Taieri, Janine and I intend to:

• Link the How’s and the What’s of learner agency
• Ask staff to share examples of learner agency occurring in their classes
• Develop the scaffolding of learner in classes and continuing its development for 2016
• Look at our Blue and Green folders and how better to use these - these will contain the pathways children will use to guide and manage their learning
• Encourage children to take ownership of their blue learning journals
• Investigate blogging by the children - to see if this is another way for them to share their learning with family and the community and to manage their learning

___________________________________________________________________

Developing Learner Agency with my Class/Team

There has been a lot of learning for both the children and teachers with this part of my inquiry. Sarah and I decided right from the beginning of the year that we would look at how we could start collaborative teaching and combining the 2, Year 3 and 4 classes. We had a vision of where we wanted to head, and started to plan back from this. We took things very slowly in the beginning and didn’t want to rush into it. We decided that reading and maths would be the 2 curriculum areas that we would attempt collaborative teaching in.

Thinking of how to measure change has been quite a difficult concept. I didn’t think data results would be a true indication of measuring the success or failure of what we have been working on. I was looking for shifts in attitudes towards learning and a sense of agency over their learning.

To help gauge how the children have found the new programmes and initiatives that we implemented I asked them to complete 2 tasks:

1. A PMI with me recording their thoughts for Maths
2. A PMI with me recording their thoughts for Reading (Fab4)

The PMI comments were very interesting. Some of the comments were very insightful and some of them have lead us to start thinking about how we might change things for next year. Below are all the comments made by the children. After this I will draw out a few comments to highlight some interesting points.

Student PMI - Maths Pathways and Workshops - Term 4 2015

Positives What have you enjoyed about Rooms 7 & 8 working together? What have you enjoyed about the workshops? What have you enjoyed about using the devices and pathways? How has this helped your learning?	Minuses What have you NOT enjoyed about Rooms 7 & 8 working together? What have you found difficult about the workshops? What have you found difficult about using the devices and pathways? How has this stopped your learning?	Interesting Thoughts What are some interesting thoughts you have about maths with Room 8? What would you like to do differently next time? Anything else to share?
I liked using e-ako for my maths this year. Already did xtra maths last year. E-ako has helped my learning through all the different ways to learn - Sophie We get to share with the other children. We can use the devices to help our learning with maths. - Reon Learning new things. Using e-ako and xtra maths to help with my learning. Pathways have helped me to learn new maths activities - Max We get to choose our own activities to do. We get to do pathways and activities that we want, not what everyone else has to do. - Charlotte The workshops help our learning because it helps me with my learning . - Lewis We can choose to do either pathways or devices. Get to do what I want to do during maths. - Aidan I have enjoyed doing maths with Room 8 because we get to explore what we don’t know and learn new things. - Madison We get to pick our workshops, we get to do anyone we want. - Micah A I like using the devices as they help me with my learning. The maths are apps are pretty cool. - Klae I like how we can be in control of our learning and we could look at all of the workshops and decide which ones we don’t know and choose that one. - Rosie I like workshops because at the start we get to do some basic facts quizzes, and they are different at each workshop. - Ella W I like working with Room 8 because it gives us a chance to be with some of our other friends. This helps with collaboration because we can help each other’s learning. - Micah S We can change rooms so we can do different activities each time. - Reon I like the workshops and pathways because they have taught me lots of things like division. - Riley I like the workshops because we don’t have to do the same one each time. We can choose a different one. They are not too hard and not too easy (just right) - Pippa I like pathways because we get to choose which sheet/activity we want to do. If you want to challenge yourself you can pick a challenging one. - Ollie I like challenging myself because it makes me better at maths. - Izzy	Some of the activities were limited and needed changing more often. More knowledge workshops. - Rosie and Finn I didn’t like how sometimes children distracted my learning. - Emily I found it a little had to focus at some stages because the Room 8 children got a little fidgety. - Edelle Too many children in the enrichment room. - whole class I didn’t like how sometimes children were not focused on the pathways and were watching other children using devices. - Aria I didn’t like the children making a whole lot of noise. - Klae People were sometimes distracting my learning when I was trying to focus on my learning. - Max Too many people so I was distracted. Lots of people rushed to the devices so they couldn’t be shared around. - Reon I didn’t always like the workshops because sometimes people distracted you in them. Sometimes people only went to a workshop because their friends went to it. - Jess Some children were not managing themselves well and were distracting others. - Pippa More challenging pathways and more variety. - Finn Sometimes I missed out on the workshop I wanted to go to because it was too full. Maybe make the limit a bit larger. - Rosie I didn’t like how 1 room got the devices for a whole day and not split up. - Micah S	Room 8 to have their own pathways box/activities. - Charlotte We both get to do devices and pathways each day. - Max More devices. - Samuel A bigger range of pathways. - Reon More maths games. - Samuel Maybe move enrichment into the hub instead of being in Room 7. - Edelle Keep looking at all the different areas of maths e.g. division. - Sophie Finding a new easy way without fighting to give out the devices. - Lewis More time for maths. - Pippa Do the same workshop twice in a row. - Charlotte Little office spaces to do work without being distracted. - Rosie

Many of the comments really support learner agency, personalised learning and collaboration in our classes:

We get to share with the other children. We can use the devices to help our learning with maths. - Reon

We get to choose our own activities to do. We get to do pathways and activities that we want, not what everyone else has to do. - Charlotte

We can choose to do either pathways or devices. Get to do what I want to do during maths. - Aidan

I like working with Room 8 because it gives us a chance to be with some of our other friends. This helps with collaboration because we can help each other’s learning. - Micah S

I like how we can be in control of our learning and we could look at all of the workshops and decide which ones we don’t know and choose that one. - Rosie

I like pathways because we get to choose which sheet/activity we want to do. If you want to challenge yourself you can pick a challenging one. - Ollie

Learning new things. Using e-ako and xtra maths to help with my learning. Pathways have helped me to learn new maths activities - Max

These comments were all very interesting as it showed us that the children have enjoyed the changes we have made to maths this year. They have enjoyed the learning pathways and also the use of devices. A big hit has also been children picking which workshop they would like to come to - this has encouraged greater collaboration between the children and has moved past simply structuring groups based on stages or ability.

The Minuses were also very enlightening. After reading through these, Sarah and I have thought about how we can make improvements to our maths collaborative programme for next year. The following comments sum up the main themes:

Some of the activities were limited and needed changing more often. More knowledge workshops. - Rosie and Finn

I didn’t like how sometimes children distracted my learning. - Emily

I found it a little hard to focus at some stages because the Room 8 children got a little fidgety. - Edelle

Too many children in the enrichment room. - whole class

Sometimes I missed out on the workshop I wanted to go to because it was too full. Maybe make the limit a bit larger. - Rosie

These minuses also lead into the Interesting things that the children commented on, and also suggestions they had for us to make improvements:

More devices. - Samuel

A bigger range of pathways. - Reon

More maths games. - Samuel

More time for maths. - Pippa

Do the same workshop twice in a row. - Charlotte

Little office spaces to do work without being distracted. - Rosie

From all of this Sarah and I have decided that some changes we would like to make for next year are:

• Extend the length of the maths session by 10 minutes
• Add a 10 minute focus on basic facts as this was an area that we felt had slipped with this change in maths programme
• Look at how many children are able to attend a workshop
• Have a greater variety of workshop activities (more knowledge) and vary them more often
• Look at having 1 extra maths session per week
• Create office spaces for the children to use
• Move the enrichment room from Room 7 to the Hub as there is greater space
• Purchase a TV to be used in the Hub to share workshop information
• Consider BYOD for use during maths time
• Create a Google Site to house knowledge pathway visual help desk clips - these can be accessed by the children on any device at anytime and will explain how a knowledge component is solved
• Look at bringing in maths games as well as using the devices for e-ako and xtra maths
• Spend more time at the start of the year developing managing self in terms of managing learning and ensuring that learners do not distract other learners

Student PMI - Reading (Fab4) - Term 4 2015

Positives What have you enjoyed about Rooms 7 & 8 working together? What have you enjoyed about reading with the different teachers in different groups? What have you enjoyed about the different Fab4 activities? How has this helped your learning?	Minuses What have you NOT enjoyed about Rooms 7 & 8 working together? What have you NOT enjoyed about reading with the different teachers in different groups? What have you NOT enjoyed about the different Fab4 activities? How has this NOT helped your learning?	Interesting Thoughts What are some interesting thoughts you have about Fab4 and reading with Room 8? What would you like to do differently next time? Anything else to share?
I like how you can choose which activity you would like to do. - Aria I enjoyed working with Room 8 when we get to read with each other and hear how well they are reading. - Emily At the start of Fab4 you can pick your own ‘good fit’ books for reading. - Max I think it is good working with Room 8 because we don’t have to always go to the same teacher for reading. - Henry I like working with Mr Powell because if I get stuck on a word, you can go back and fix it up. Mr Powell has helped me with strategies. - Lewis I like how if you forget to bring your books, Mr Powell has spare books. - Micah S I like how in read to someone you don’t have to read to yourself. You get to read with someone else and someone different. It helps my learning because I get to hear other people read and learn off them. - Pippa You can do Work on Research on a device. I find it easier to type using the devices and my hand doesn’t get sore. - Finn I like getting to choose which room/space you get to work in. - Charlotte I like how we always get a choice of Fab4 activities to do and we can write these down on our charts. - Ella W I like work on research because we get to work with a buddy and we find out lots of information together (collaboration). - Sophie I like read to someone because if I don’t know a word, my buddy can help me out. - Riley I like Fab4 because when I make mistakes I can learn from them and get better. - Izzy I like with work on writing as I can share work with people. I collaborate using Google Docs. - Ollie I like read to someone because 1 person reads and page and then the other reads a page. This helps our learning and builds our stamina. - Klae I like listening to reading because I can pick different stories and it builds my stamina. - Lewis I like getting to choose who I read with. I can decide if the person will be sensible. - Max Listening to reading helps so I can listen to punctuation and expression. - Finn	I would like more interesting books to read. - Edelle For work on writing I would like to be able to draw pictures and write about these. - Edelle I don’t think that it’s fair to share the devices and they come into Room 7 more than we go into Room 8. - Sophie I don’t like that Room 7 have to have a Google Docs license and Room 8 don’t. - Ollie Sometimes Room 8 can be a bit noisy and distract my learning. - Max I don’t like for work on research when I work with someone who doesn’t help that much and I have to do most of the work. - Aidan Room 8 use our library books which means that we have less to read. - Jess Sometimes Room 8 children take our books. - Klae Sometimes it would be nice to read outside during Fab4. - Madison Sometimes people are naughty and distract others and the teacher has to growl at them which stops my learning. - Aria Sometimes children are off task and come and distract my learning. - Charlotte Sometimes I miss out on listen to reading because Room 8 children come in here and uses our headphones. - Samuel	More time for each activity and more activities - Pippa I think we should be able to go outside for read to self and read to someone. - Charlotte More little spots and office spaces to work on if I want to work by myself. - Rosie For read to self have my own little spot that I go to all the time. - Max More people to have their own Google Docs licence. - Samuel Read to someone on devices. - Lewis Teachers check the buddies that are selected for work on research to make sure they are sensible. - Emily

Again, many of the comments really support learner agency, personalised learning and collaboration in our classes:

I like getting to choose who I read with. I can decide if the person will be sensible. - Max

I like with work on writing as I can share work with people. I collaborate using Google Docs. - Ollie

You can do Work on Research on a device. I find it easier to type using the devices and my hand doesn’t get sore. - Finn

I like getting to choose which room/space you get to work in. - Charlotte

I like how you can choose which activity you would like to do. - Aria

I enjoyed working with Room 8 when we get to read with each other and hear how well they are reading. - Emily

At the start of Fab4 you can pick your own ‘good fit’ books for reading. - Max

I think it is good working with Room 8 because we don’t have to always go to the same teacher for reading. - Henry

The comments all support the fact that the children are able to choose the activities they wish to engage in and they all help to support and drive their learning. The children struggled a little to explain how these activities could be linked back to certain aspects of their learning, and also didn’t mention goals or next steps. This is something that I would like to talk to Sarah about and address for next year - setting goals and knowing next steps. More work to be done around the children knowing what they need to know to be a successful reader.

The minuses raised some interesting points:

Sometimes Room 8 can be a bit noisy and distract my learning. - Max

I don’t like work on research when I work with someone who doesn’t help that much and I have to do most of the work. - Aidan

Sometimes children are off task and come and distract my learning. - Charlotte

The children seem to like the range of Fab4 activities. The main concerns were around children stopping their learning through noise or off task behaviour. So from this I believe there needs to be a greater focus on teaching and scaffolding what it means to be a successful learner and to respect their own and others learning. This is something that Sarah and I have talked about doing for next year.

The interesting comments raised by the children were:

More time for each activity and more activities - Pippa

I think we should be able to go outside for read to self and read to someone. - Charlotte

More little spots and office spaces to work in if I want to work by myself. - Rosie

For read to self have my own little spot that I go to all the time. - Max

More people to have their own Google Docs licence. - Samuel

These thoughts are centered about the children having more choice about where they work (outside if fine) and also quiet spaces where they can work on their own without being distracted by others. Another concern raised is around the children ‘earning’ Google Doc’s licence vs. children just using the devices. These are all points that Sarah and I will consider and think about how we can achieve for next year.

In general I am very happy with how the children have found Fab4 this year. They have a lot of choice about the activities they can do and when they do them. There could be more choice around what types of activities they can do, but this will develop with time as Sarah and I get a better understanding of learner agency and student choice/voice in collaborative teaching.

PMI - Sarah and Garth - Team Teaching, Learning Pathways  - Term 4 2015

Positives	Minuses	Interesting Thoughts
Working collaboratively has worked really well. We have been able to have the children together. We have both enjoyed having ‘all’ the children together during parts of the day. For us having times when we worked together collaboratively and also individually has been beneficial for us. Catered for varying learning styles by tailoring the collaborative teaching in a way that has meant that those children with learning needs still have a sense of belonging to a teacher and don’t feel lost in such a large number children. Feel that the children have much more ownership of their learning and much more self directed. Their articulation of where they are at and their next steps is improving. By focusing on 1 or 2 curriculum areas we feel that we have been able to do these well. The children needed to learn and develop quite a few skills around managing themselves and their learning before we could launch right into it. Very important to scaffold the children before, during and after self directed learning to ensure that they have the skills to succeed. Both have enjoyed the social aspect of collaborative teaching. They get to mix with a greater range of children which leads to richer collaboration. The rooms have felt more spacious by opening up the doors between the rooms and removing some of the furniture. The children no longer have set desks, they are able to sit wherever they like. The children are a lot more confident when using the devices to help their learning, rather than simply playing games. Google Docs has been very successful as it encourages children to collaborate with others and also direct their own learning. Hapara has been an excellent tool to use with Google Docs as it allows us to monitor the children’s folders and email use. Maths has been successful for us because it has meant that we have had to push ourselves by running workshops that may challenge our mathematical thinking. The children have really enjoyed being able to pick their own workshops for maths. They get very cranky when a workshop fills up and they can’t go in it. Because both of us are collaborative teaching it means that we are into a set routine and it means less interruptions for our core curriculum areas. We have developed many good systems to planning, observations and monitoring of children. Used a mix of Google Docs and books for this.	Maths - some of the children are getting lost in the system (to a degree). Tends to be the children who are struggling in maths. Some of the children haven’t been using their knowledge pathways well, and have not been focused during this time or challenging themselves. Need more hands on equipment / game time. The enrichment room can get quite full and noisy. Garth is better with the computer stuff than Sarah and at times finds her children feeling as though they are missing out. Fab4 - sometimes it is a bit rushed. Some of the children are off task and not focused on the Fab4 activities.	Maths - find ways to ensure that the children who are struggling are catered for. Perhaps 1 teacher runs 1 workshop a day to focus on these children. How do we cater for all of the diverse needs and management of self skills - e.g. the children who thrive on directing their own learning through pathways, vs. those children who do not enjoy these tasks, or have no internal drive? Fab 4 - maybe having 2 sessions for some groups (top groups) Spend more time at the beginning of the year focusing on developing the strategies of Fab4.

As you can see from the above PMI, Sarah and I have been very happy with how well this year has gone. There are so many positives about what has happened and we both feel that we will be able to carry this on and develop it next year. We believe that this is the teaching approach that works for us, and we believe that it is something that we would like to see happening in our syndicate. We feel that the children are developing their student voice and choice and have more learner agency. We feel that due to the age of the children there is a lot of scaffolding that needs to be done to ensure that they know what learning is, and knowing how they learn best. Teaching the skills to manage themselves and their learning is vital to ensure the success of any initiative.

From the minuses and interesting thoughts we have started to plan next year. We are looking at ways to improve the range of maths tasks and to ensure that all the children are catered for. We have found that some of the children who are struggling are unable to manage their learning, and can sometimes slip through the cracks. We are thinking of ways to ensure workshops are there to support and encourage them. We are also going to spend the first term of 2016 looking at scaffolding and developing the skills of learning.