Week 32 - Reflect on Your Learning Journey

Week 32 - Reflect on Your Learning Journey
9 March 2019

Problem identification

1. What drives you to make the change? I am driven to make changes largely based on the needs of my students.  As the Head of the English Faculty at my school, I am also driven by wanting to see an improvement in the level of engagement of our students and their results.  Personally, I want to know that every day I am impacting my students learning in the most positive way and that they are growing their skills and confidences as scholars of English.  Of course, my embraces growth and change constantly challenges us as staff to seek new and better ways for our students.  This suits me personally as it drives me to be innovative and creative in my practice for the sake of my boys.  It is good for me too as I don't ever feel bored in my job and I generally leave work feeling like I have done something good that day. I enjoy the collaboration that comes from introducing new things.  It encourages different combinations of people working together and learning from each other which is generally good for our school (everyone included).  Change is important so that we don't stand still.  If this course has taught me anything, it's that!  The power of a growth mindset is paramount to successful change.  Although it can be very scary and challenging, it is always very exciting!

Observation and analysis

1. What kind of data you have gathered?  Through my Inquiry, I have gathered both quantitative and qualitative data.  It has made me aware of how much data is out there every day for the taking and how powerful it is to reflect on what we do, hear and observe (in every respect).
2. What insights have you gained about the problem that drives the change?  One of the things I have noticed about change is that not everyone enjoys it or is open to it.  In fact, many actively resist it.  This has, in turn, made me realize that people are not being unnecessarily difficult when they say they don't want to do something new.  It is more likely that they are very afraid of trying something new (stuck in a fixed mindset).  It may highlight areas of 'weakness' and make them feel exposed and vulnerable.  Sometimes, when change is suggested we immediately ask, "Why? Have I been doing something wrong?"  and they make it personal.  I have also realized that it is paramount to identify those who are keen to try new things (early adopters) and to get them to promote the change initiative as they are generally positive, not too concerned about the risks, don't have much to lose (as opposed to the early initiator) and therefore are good at making others feel at ease about the change.  I have realized that if a problem that drives the change is personal, then we have more to lose.  What I mean is that we are more inclined to want to be successful if our problem is personal.   

Abstract reconceptualization

The area of my practice that has been most impacted by this journey is the fact that at all costs, I want to be actively seeking new learning opportunities for my students to keep them engaged and enjoying the subject of English.  It is through engagement that the best learning takes place.  This relates most to principles of Whakaman - "empowering all learners to reach their highest potential by providing high-quality teaching and leadership" and Manakitanga - "creating a welcoming, caring and creative learning environment that treats everyone with respect and dignity".  To not shy away from professional learning to "use inquiry, collaborative problem-solving and professional learning to improve professional capability to impact on the learning and achievement of all learners". 


Active experimentation

1. What new strategies or ideas you have tried to implement in your practice?  Although this is not something new to my practice per se, I have become far more interested in what students think and feel about their learning and will continue to place great importance on generating and reflecting on student voice to guide my practice.  I have tried to involve my students more in the design of our courses - giving them agency and a reason to learn.  Constructivism has been something that has been inspiring to me and something I want to empower my learners with.  I want them to be agents of their own lives and learning.  I want them to actively question what we are learning and why? I also want them to think about the best way to learn something.  I want them to have ownership of their learning journey.
2. What you have learned from the change/ experience?  I am left thinking about all the components that effect change and learning.  I am left thinking that it is very easy to assume because one makes a change to one area of one's practice, that is the thing responsible for the impacts observed.  I am left thinking that perhaps I have underestimated the fragile microcosm that is the classroom and how it is a delicate balance between a multitude of variable factors and that in actual fact it is very difficult to pinpoint the one thing that has the most impact sometimes.  I am left in awe of those who carry out research regularly and how much thought they have to put in their process to ensure that most accurate and unbiased impacts that help to influence the rest of us and our practice, and I am grateful to them for sharing their work.  Next time, I would narrow my inquiry to only focus on one thing at a time. I would then use those findings to help support the next inquiry.

References:

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 (2017). Our code, our standards. Retrieved from

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

Week 31 - Evaluate your Impacts

Week 31 - Evaluate your Impacts
4 March 2019

What is the observed impact after the ‘Take Action’ phase?
Now that I have gathered my data, processed and cleaned it into reliable evidence, I am left with evidence that shows the before and after effects of my Inquiry on students' writing and engagement.  From my evidence, I am able to identify that my students' writing improved.  I am also able to conclude through student voice, attendance to class, teacher observations of active engagement in class and completion of class activities that my students' enjoyed the Creative Writing Unit.  What I am still unclear on, however, is the direct impact of flipped learning on the overall effectiveness of the unit of learning.  While students' grades indicated an improvement in writing skills, their writing improved generally rather than specifically to the skills emphasised in the online videos and tutorials.  While they were generally more engaged in this unit than in previous years, student voice suggested that while my boys enjoyed the videos as they looked forward to seeing what the next day was going to be about and that it gave them an increased sense of confidence in the class, they also liked that the lessons were "different for a change".  Something I had not considered when I set out on this spiral of inquiry, was the cohort of students, who were different to last years.  School reporting suggests that this year's group of students are decidedly more academically capable than last years.  Therefore this alone could have been the major contributing factor to the outcome of their learning, rather than flipped learning per se! 


How is the observed impact different from or similar to the anticipated one?
The observed impacts of the inquiry are in many respects similar to the anticipated impacts at the end of the Learn Phase of the inquiry, as I had been wondering throughout the process of the inquiry whether the trends in my students' writing were a direct result of flipped learning.  I expressed these thoughts in an earlier assessment.  Interestingly, there were also some differences that emerged.  The one thing that became clear was that whether it was flipped learning, the cohort, a change in the my normal way of teaching, increased excitement from me in my delivery, the writing of my students definitely improved.  This was the intended impact but one I was not entirely sure would be achieved.  Significantly, while I anticipated seeing a correlation between achievement and engagement and metacognitive thinking, engagement was directly observed through high submission of students' work, high attendance to class, between 90 and 100% engagement in class activities most days and a near 100% up-take of the flipped preparation, there was no direct link or evidence of metacognitive thinking.  Although I would still like to believe that flipped learning did illicit deeper thinking, increased student agency in the classroom and greater collaboration between students, my data collection tools failed me in this regard (I overlooked this area).  Therefore, I still only have assumptions about the correlation between flipped learning boosting metacognitive thinking.  


What is the impact on future inquiry/practice?
I find myself wondering now, whether increased student engagement could boost metacognitive thinking skills.  I am left thinking about all the components that effect change and learning.  I am left thinking that it is very easy to assume because one makes a change to one area of one's practice, that is the thing responsible for the impacts observed.  I am left thinking that perhaps I have underestimated the fragile microcosm that is the classroom and how it is a delicate balance between a multitude of variable factors and that in actual fact it is very difficult to pinpoint the one thing that has the most impact sometimes.  I am left in awe of those who carry out research regularly and how much thought they have to put in their process to ensure that most accurate and unbiased impacts that help to influence the rest of us and our practice, and I am grateful to them for sharing their work.  Next time, I would narrow my inquiry to only focus on one thing at a time. I would then use those findings to help support the next inquiry.

References:

Ministry of Education (n.d.). Stories from the field. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Leading-learning/Spiral-of-inquiry-leaders-leading-learning/Stories-from-the-field

Stoll, L., and Temperley, J. (2015). Narrowing the Gap with Spirals of Enquiry: Evaluation of Whole Education’s Pilot. Whole Education, UK. Retrieved from http://www.wholeeducation.org/download,634

Week 30 - Reflect on Evidence (Take Action)

Week 30 - Reflect on Evidence (Take Action)
4 March 2019

Describe the data collected:
The qualitative and quantitative data I collected was through: 
1. A brief survey in the form of a letter home to whanau which was used to determine whether my inquiry would be at all possible or not. It was used to determine access to the internet and related devices at home, as well as whether families valued such methods of learning and would support the experiment. 

2. Student Voice in the form of a Google form to gauge at various points in the spiral of inquiry what my students' feelings and experiences were towards the flipped learning experiment. 

3. Identical pre and post-tests which were designed to test the effectiveness of flipped videos on my students' creative writing.

All of these methods of data collection took place in the Learn and Take Action Phase of the Spiral of Inquiry.  I have been lucky enough to have gathered all the data I set out to gather and have prepared it by collating it into a spreadsheet for reflection.  By doing this I am able to gauge the 'big picture' (data becomes evidence) as all the information is on one sheet and I am able to look for trends rather than only see things, one learner at a time.  I ensured that my data was cleaned before I added it to my spreadsheet for analysis.  

The method I used to clean my data was to get the writing samples moderated by another member of my faculty who did not have any bias towards the students or my inquiry.  I also scoured student voice forms for "proper responses".  If some students clearly were not taking the questions seriously, I discounted their voice before analyzing and interpreting it as evidence. 


Explain how you are analysing your data:
I have analysed my data by creating a spreadsheet to record my findings for each test.  For the writing samples, the way I have coded the samples by applying the AsTTle Writing Rubrics writing strands to my table for reflection.  This Rubric generates a raw score that can be converted to a curriculum level.  It is very valuable as it looks at writing from seven areas of focus and ranging from L1 to L5 of the curriculum.  It provides a very good picture of where each students' strengths are weaknesses lie but most importantly shows a trend in strengths and weaknesses in the class, which could be interpreted due to the effects of the inquiry.

Reflect on your evidence so far:
Now that I have gathered my data, processed and cleaned it into reliable evidence, I am left with evidence that shows the before and after effects of my Inquiry on students' writing and engagement.  From my evidence, I am able to identify that my students' writing improved.  I am also able to conclude through student voice, attendance to class, teacher observations of active engagement in class and completion of class activities that my students' enjoyed the Creative Writing Unit.  What I am still unclear on, however, is the direct impact of flipped learning on the overall effectiveness of the unit of learning.  While students' grades indicated an improvement in writing skills, their writing improved generally rather than specifically to the skills emphasised in the online videos and tutorials.  While they were generally more engaged in this unit than in previous years, student voice suggested that while my boys enjoyed the videos as they looked forward to seeing what the next day was going to be about and that it gave them an increased sense of confidence in the class, they also liked that the lessons were "different for a change".  Something I had not considered when I set out on this spiral of inquiry, was the cohort of students, who were different to last years.  School reporting suggests that this year's group of students are decidedly more academically capable than last years.  Therefore this alone could have been the major contributing factor to the outcome of their learning, rather than flipped learning per se! Hmmm!

References:

Riel, M. (2014, August 5).T8 Analyzing Data.

Week 29 - Considering your Audience

Week 29 - Considering your Audience
25 February 2019

Step 1: Briefly define your audiences
The audience I will be identifying for the purpose of this reflection is our school representative for the Community of Learning - Literacy.  Her role is to "enhance Literacy and Learning Progressions and Visible Learning.  This role supports the Community of Learning Goal and the staff of RBHS to embed the use of the Reading, Writing and Mathematics Learning Progressions and the Learning Progressions Framework in Year 9 and Year 10, as well as, introducing the use of PaCT. It also includes providing professional development on embedding the principles of Visible Learning into classroom practice." This is a relatively new partnership that bridges the gap between our school and what we do amongst ourselves in faculties and across faculties, and the wider community of teachers in other member schools within our community.  Their intention is to bring the member schools together, with a shared focus working together towards shared goals.  The result is that schools are no longer siloed from their communities - what we do in our school is relevant to all the other schools in our community and should benefit the wider school community.  We are also motivated by what's of interest and concern in the wider community and not only within our own school.  I have chosen this audience for the purpose of my action plan because I am interested in the effect flipped learning has on students' achievement and in particular, their writing.  As writing is the primary focus at the moment for our COL, collaboration would be mutually beneficial I hope.

Step 2: Analyse the audiences’ perspectives
The CoL's attitude towards my inquiry should be positive, as the purpose is to determine whether flipped learning could be a successful tool to enhance students' writing, a literacy skill.  I would imagine that the CoL would be supportive of any initiative to boost Literacy skills, especially if the method used incorporates other key areas of interest within the CoL such as visible learning (flipped videos use visible cues to promote writing skills), Learning with Digital Technology (the learning takes place at home in the form of online videos and tutorials) and Aiming for Excellence, in that the whole rationale behind my inquiry was whether flipped learning would boost achievement by increasing engagement and metacognitive thinking (a higher order learning skill that kicks in when students are given agency in their learning and are encouraged to collaborate in order to learn more).  I suppose, however, that the alternative to such a positive uptake by the CoL would be that they might have their own strategies in mind that they feel would better boost Literacy (the use of Literacy Learning Progressions and the PACT tool) and they might not want to have too many different strategies in the mix, especially early on, while they are still trying to get all members on board.  Some might be of the opinion that using videos to improve writing is unorthodox and would prefer more traditional methods such as reading exemplars of good writing taken from books and students (this would have a wraparound effect for literacy - using reading to promote writing).  Interestingly, if we are to consider future-oriented learning and teaching, then embracing the 21st Century skills mentioned above would be powerful and future-focused.  "Commitment to personalised learning, embracing diversity, re-thinking learners' and teachers' roles, forging new partnerships - all fueled by disciplined innovations and new technologies - are identified as the key dimensions of a re-designed, connected and coherent learning system." according to the New Zealand Council for Education Research.

Step 3: Discuss how you are addressing the context of different audiences (local, national and/or international) and their perspectives while you are taking action.

One of the biggest advantages of partnering with the CoL is the data that they bring with them.  The Progress and Consistency tool is an online tool that supports teaching and learning.  "The capability to track progress and identify achievement challenges across a Kāhui Ako has been added to the Progress and Consistency Tool (PaCT)".  The International Centre for Leadership and Education has identified that "effective and rapidly improving schools use data to make decisions" to "monitor progress and to diagnose the effectiveness of instructional practices in real time".  Therefore, overall I feel that CoL as an audience will be most beneficial to my Action Plan.

References:

Bolstad, R., Gilbert, J., McDowall, S., Bull, A., Boyd, S., & Hipkins, R. (2012). Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching — a New Zealand perspective. Report prepared for the Ministry of Education. Retrieved from https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/schooling/109306

https://curriculumprogresstools.education.govt.nz/

Daggett, B. (2014). Addressing current and future challenges in education. Retrieved from http://www.leadered.com/pdf/2014MSC_AddressingCurrentandFutureChallenges.pdf