What is Going on For Our Learners?
- Scanning
What’s going on for learners? More emphasis is placed on teacher observations of students, in all circumstances. There are some difficult questions to ask, such as: Is it all right for some learners to experience challenging and engaging learning in one classroom while in the room next door the students are not? Scanning is not done overnight, can last two months, and may turn up surprises.
My new inquiry big question is: What is learner agency and how could I develop this at my school?
My leadership responsibilities (from Leading from the Middle - MOE - pg12) are:
My leadership responsibilities (from Leading from the Middle - MOE - pg12) are:
- Improve outcomes for all students - with a particular focus on priority learners
- Create the conditions for effective teaching, learning and curriculum delivery
- Explore and promote the use of ICT and e-learning to open up new ways of connecting, sharing and learning
- Develop schools as learning communities
- Build networks within and beyond their schools to enhance learning and achievement
- Develop others as leaders
The Scanning Phase of my Inquiry.
To help me begin my journey of inquiry and to help focus my thoughts I decided to narrow down the scope of what I was investigating in my schools context. I already had my big question and my main interests: Does collaborative teaching work? How will we know? Does it make a difference to student achievement? Does it make a difference to teacher quality? Is it sustainable? Does collaboration between children make a difference? Does the use of devices make a difference in classrooms? and How am I as a leader able to implement this change? In the introduction part of my blog I discussed where this big question came from and the thinking that went into it. This phase of 'scanning' will be looking at depth into this change of thinking and teaching.
Reading more about the Spiral of Inquiry I came across a series of quite thought provoking questions that I thought would be perfect for me to start asking myself about my school, teachers, children and community. I have listed all of the questions below, I will answer each of them, and I will provide a narrative that positions our schools recent history around personalised learning for students. The 'scanning' I am doing for this inquiry is not a true scan as described in the paper written by Helen Timperley, Linda Kaser and Judy Halbert. My focus and intent in this 'scan' is to provide background information for my own thinking and to clarify my position before beginning my inquiry. Many things have lead me to have selected my inquiry (applying for NAPP last year, developing a project that my principal agrees with and is supported by our school charter and strategic plan), but I think by reflecting on our path to this moment will make a major difference in my understanding of the topic.
________________________________________________________
For a long time as a school we have been interested in how children articulate their learning and also providing personalised learning for students. This came about when we joined our ICT cluster 10 years ago. When we first started thinking about children articulating their learning/personalised learning, it was very heavily based around WALTs. We were happy when the children were able to recite their WALTs and many classes had lots and lots of amazing WALTs on the walls that children could point to and say 'there's our WALT.' Schools even had 'mascots' that represented their WALTs and often it was themed within their school based on their model of Inquiry. We were one of these. And for that time and at that stage of our thinking that was perfectly fine. We had made the move from not even entertaining the idea of children talking about or self directing their own learning.
But as we began to think more critically about how children articulate their learning or personalise their learning, we began to realise that the children were merely parroting the WALTs and many (if not most) of them didn't have a real understanding of their learning. They weren't able to articulate where they were with their learning, what their assessment showed, how they were going against their peers, what their next steps were and how they would be able to achieve them. So upon reflection, we were no closer to the children being able to truly have ownership over their learning.
Questions that guided my scanning, thinking and reflecting:
Do learners, regardless of their age, have the chance to teach someone else and to make a contribution to the community as a whole?
Yes and no. In some classes the children work in mixed ability groups where they can help others with their learning, or be helped by others. In our inquiry topics we aim to have a 'So What' component that works towards the children making a difference with their learning. Not all inquiry topics lend themselves towards this, but when they do the children really enjoy sharing their knowledge and skills with their peers, parents or members of the community.
We run Discovery Time for the Middle and Senior children each Friday. Children are encouraged to run workshops where they teach children a skill, craft or sport they are interested in. We have found that this works very well and the children love teaching others. The components that I think would work well in terms of collaborative learning are: the workshops are run by children based on their interests, talents or skills; they are quick; they are help in meaningful contexts and involve 'real world' situations; and they help others to learn something new. We focus on the key competencies during discovery time. Again the Key Competencies are a major part of being an effective learner and also to be a collaborative learner. This is another area to focus on in my inquiry.....
Can learners answer the question, “Where are you going with your learning?”
Some of the children could answers yes to this. Last year we introduced 'Learning Journals' to the children in Years 3-6. This was in response to the children being able to articulate their learning and to know what they need to do ext to achieve. Many teachers still felt that we shouldn't give us the control of the assessment and were very reluctant for children to have the copy of their assessment. The folders work well in most instances, but are still not child driven or owned. The teacher still needs to ensure that information is put into them and not many of the children use them without prompting or to truly make their learning better.
The children use these folders during 3-way mid-year interviews. We have found that they are helpful for the children to talk to when sharing their learning with their parents. Some of the parents have also made quite positive comments about them.
BUT, they are not child driven. The children need to be updating their learning on a real time basis and a lot of their learning is not able to be shown on paper. So what are we doing to show their digital learning?
Can they describe in their own words what they are learning - and why this important?
I know that in my class I have got a lot better at talking to the children about what they need to know, what the purpose of what we are doing is and why it is important. I really enjoy listening to the children discussing their learning with each other.
BUT I also know that in quite a few classes this isn't happening. On a superficial level the children would be able to say one or 2 things about their learning, but I don't think they could put it in their own words, or be able to set their next step.
Are learners able to describe what strong work looks like – and how they are ‘going’ with their own learning?
Again, in my class we talk a lot about 'stamina' and working to the best that we can. We also have the rule that learning is the most important thing and no one can ever stop us from learning. The children appreciate hearing this. I do believe that I could also do better with this, and I think that the children need to have a better 'real time' understanding of how they are going with their learning. The blue folders have been a great start, but I think we need to move a more robust and child driven approach.
Do learners receive high quality focused feedback that provides clear directions for improvement?
Yes in most cases they do receive this. I know that we have worked a lot on providing feedback that helps make improvement to children's work, and also makes them proud in what they are producing. In the middle syndicate we have green arrow next step comments in their writing that provide a consistent means for the children to know what they need to work on next. I would like to see the children adding their own next step arrows at the end of the piece of work, or providing next step arrows for another student.
Are learners confident and comfortable in both giving and receiving feedback with their peers based on co-constructed criteria?
Probably not that confident. These are skills that we haven't taught the children enough of yet. We have begun in some areas - like writing, but it is inconsistent across classes and year groups. We talk a lot about criteria and unpacking that criteria, but not many classes consistently co-construct this criteria in all curriculum areas.
Do learners understand themselves as learners? Are they self-regulated?
I would say that only a few of the students would truly understand themselves as learners. There is a great majority of children who engage in learning in a very passive way and wait for the learning to come to them. I know that in my class and syndicate we have discussed a number of ways to combat this, but we haven't always been that successful. Maybe some new considering are required here. Discussions with the children around why this happens may help to shed some light on this.
Do learners see and understand the connections across content areas?
Not all learners would see or understand this. I know that in my class we talk about the connections between reading and writing, but not across the other areas. This is something that would be of great benefit for my children as well as all the children in the school.
Do learners feel their teachers know their individual strengths and interests?
In most classes this would be true. Those teachers have formed excellent relationships with their children and know what their children are good at or interested in. How they use this ti help with articulation of learning or personalised learning is unclear.
Are all learners stretched through demanding, engaging and challenging work?
Probably not across all classes. In classes there will be a number of children who simply 'coast by' because they are not being properly extend or challenged by their teacher. This could be through lack of time (as the children with high priority lower learning needs) can dominate time, or through a lack of skills or understanding by the teacher. This is where children being in control of their learning will ensure that they are being extended or challenged.
Are learners engaged in high quality, well-organized collaborative learning on a regular basis?
No. A lot of the learning that occurs in our school is individual and for each child to complete. Some classes and teachers do more collaborative teaching than others, and some have taught the skills well. Often time can impact on the amount of collaboration that occurs, or the teacher's own understanding, confidence and skills around collaborative learning. This is an area that needs immediate attentions.
What is happening in our classrooms at the moment?
At the moment we have a mix of single cell classrooms and some classes that are more 'collaborative'. But the general feel of the school is individual classes with some mixing for some subjects, events or activities. There is a change in thinking happening and we are beginning to trial the opening up of spaces and classes to be more collaborative with 'team teaching' occurring. So far this is limited to teachers who are interested in this concept or 'other' way of teaching.
Summary of what I have found during my scanning phases:
However, it has become obvious that the learning journals are not kept up-to-date, or show real time learning. They are only accessible to parents when they come into school or when they are taken home. There is also not a lot of feedback provided about the learning journals and it can be quite a 'chore' to get them up to date. The children are not taking ownership of their learning by using their learning journals. So some new format or system needs to be developed that allows for: ease of uploading of digital content; is able to be accessed by parents and family members; can help collaborative work; is meaningful for the children; and ensures they are able to ariticulate their learning and next steps.
In terms of what is happening in classrooms around the concept of Modern Learning Environments, there are a lot of people who are advocating the benefits of this approach to teaching.
MLE's are not something that is wide spread or common in our school. One or 2 'pockets' have attempted the collaborative teaching approach, but these have stopped when staff members have left, the number of children has got too many, or the teacher's have run out of steam or interest. What can we do around sustainability?
No comments:
Post a Comment