Mindlab Activity 2 Reflective Model (week 26)

Applying a reflective model

Apply a reflective model to discuss something that has happened during your Inquiry so far and how it impacts on taking action. In terms of reflecting on the progress I have made so far there are two models that I could use. Gibb's model is useful to use when wondering how effective something was.

1. What happened: I received information from the student survey but some students did not attempt the questions

2. Thinking and Feeling: I felt frustrated that they could not be bothered to do a simple task. I was thought perhaps if I printed the task they would be more likely to do it. Some of the students may just not have been in class that day or arrived late.

3. Evaluate: 25 students did fill out the survey without needing too much encouragement. I did notice that a lot more students needed support to do it than I initially realised.

4. Analysis: I can tell that the students who did eventually fill out something on the paper forms were students who struggled the most with written tasks, had a history of disengagement and were distracted by using their cellphones.

5. Conclude: I have decided these students are part of my priority group. I have been building my relationships with them as well as keeping in contact with their whānau.

6: Next time: I will support these students early on so they can do it online like the rest of the class (or offer paper straight away if they prefer). 

Figure 1: Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle (1988) This reflective model is simple to use for the action research but there is criticism that it doesn't
go in-depth enough to be considered a critical reflective model and it was used to reflect after
the situation rather than during the situation.
Jay and Johnson (2002) developed a reflective model using descriptive, comparative and critical reflection. In the critical reflection stage, it is good to seek alternative perspectives as we can become unintentionally biased. Findlay (2008) discusses the various reflection models and states that models that recognising different levels of reflection have "proved useful when applied to different levels of learner needs", (p. 9). 

Finlay, L. (2008). Reflecting on reflective practice. Practice Based Professional Learning Centre (PBPL) Retrieved from http://www.open.ac.uk/opencetl/files/opencetl/file/ecms/web-content/Finlay-%282008%29-Reflecting-on-reflective-practice-PBPL-paper-52.pdf

Gibbs’

Reflective Cycle (1988)

Mindlab activity 3 Te Ao Māori & Cultural Responsiveness (week 27)

Te Ao Māori & Cultural Responsiveness

Examine how indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness are informing the way you are taking action.

When I created my action plan, Whanaungatanga and Rangatiratanga were 2 important te ao Māori concepts. Rangatiratanga is addressed in this inquiry process as ākonga and their whānau are able to share their voice. Ākonga especially should feel empowered as they are able to build their autonomy over their learning. The survey was targeted at them identifying themselves as an individual but also beginning to see how what they say and do can make a difference to what others think.

Ako is the reciprocality of learning between kaiako and students. In my action plan students are also sharing their learning directly with their whānau.
When I first wrote my Action Plan I decided to deliberately analyse the group of students (in detail) aaccording to a few factors, one of these ethnicity, but because the ākonga kept changing in the first 3 week it was difficult to get a grip on the identity of all of the students in our group. During this Edtalks (2012) video Professor Russell Bishop talks about culturally responsive pedagogy and he mentions that being culturally responsive means that your teaching strategies are relationships based and value the prior experiences of the learner and their whānau. These ideas of culturally responsive practice is also reinforced in the required reading by Cowie, B., Otrel-Cass, K., Glynn, T., & Kara, H., et al. (2011).

In the early stages of the inquiry, I identified 2 potential issues of equity; ethnicity and whānau access to their students learning via their emails. Over the past 5 weeks we been able to add more whānau emails to our systems so more parents should be able to access their child's learning.  The impact of this has not been evaluated yet.

Whānau engagement is an important part of acknowledging the culture of students. As Māori students shouldn't be seen as separate from their whānau. Ways that I would like to strengthen my action plan is be more responsive to students answers, this will be my next step.  

Cowie, B., Otrel-Cass, K., Glynn, T., & Kara, H., et al. (2011). Culturally responsive pedagogy and assessment in primary science classrooms: Whakamana tamariki. Wellington: Teaching Learning Research Initiative. 
Retrieved from http://www.tlri.org.nz/sites/default/files/projects/9268_cowie-summaryreport.pdf

Mindlab Activity 1 Reflective Writing (week 25)

Reflective Writing

What I have done so far to take action?

In week 3 our ākonga group has become more settled. My co-teachers and I are beginning to work together to plan and implement strategies and activities to support ākonga learning in Tuakana 8 (one of the year 7 -13 tutor groups)

So far I have shared the ākonga and whānau survey with a head teacher and we are planning to use both of these next week, starting Monday 18th March. Together we have introduced ourselves and contacted all whānau of ākonga in various ways, email, text, phone calls and in person.

It felt good to be able to provide the ākonga survey as an activity and I will be using the writing a letter to whānau to increase communication fluency of ākonga as well as to encourage sharing knowledge of our learning design with whānau and building ākonga knowledge. 

My style of teaching is conflicting with another teacher. I have a relationship focussed philosophy but sometimes I can be too "soft" on students. Several students have begun to monopolise my time and this situation isn't ideal for both of us.

I plan to print and email the whānau survey on Monday 18th February.  I have already had an in-depth discussion with a parent (via phone) about expectations for her daughter, as this student may be leaving the school.

I did expect that contacting whānau would time consuming but it felt rewarding. Something I wonder about is if I could have tried to do this earlier.  However I feel that the first 3 weeks of school have been extremely busy and we are only now getting settled.

What works as expected and what doesn’t? And why?

Over all the student survey was received well by the students. The majority of them filled it in and it gave an insight to how they think. Students who didn't fill the form (via online) or not at are students who were absent and probably the most disengaged. I feel like this should be my target group for further intervention. The whānau survey only had 5 responses (via online) and 3 (via paper)In the  scan phase I chose the issue of whānau engagement because of ākonga disengagement. 

What should be done differently? How would you justify this?

During the focus part of the inquiry I found research with two other kaiako we reviewed 

the literature and found issues around equity especially with to access digital technology and support for whānau to learn how to become digital citizens.  I used our hunch to make a plan for my Puna Ako group. I found it difficult to lead others as I am not as experienced as the Pou leader in my Puna Ako. I feel I demonstrated democratic leadership as I shared the survey with other this was effective as team work is essential to complete this action plan. Transformative leadership means that I change my leadership style based on what is needed. I have been unsettled and not focussed on this. Whanaungatanga is important to me but there have been a few issues that I did not expect. Such as having to focus on developing and maintaining professional relationships with a new teaching team.

 

Mindlab Activity 4 Acting in my Professional Environment (Week 28)

Acting in My Professional Environment

As I implemented my Action Plan I came across an issue involving a few whānau members of my community. This tension impacted the professional environment of my tutor group. 

I analysed the issue and found that there was a clash between what our professional values and responsibilities are and what whānau want for their children or how they view their child's learning at Haeata. When my teaching team discussed the whānau responses (5 digital and 2 on paper) during an after school meeting, (about 2 weeks after the survey was shared) I personally struggled with how to respond to the criticism and negative language used by two of the whānau responses. Especially as one parent was very negative towards their own child.

I had been aware of the possibility of negative comments but because a lot of the students and their whānau were new to me I could not accurately predict the responses I received.  Ehrich, Kimber, Millwater, & Cranston (2011) state that "whatever decisions each of the key players makes, those decisions are likely to create repercussions for them personally, for their colleagues, for the students and parents, and for the school more broadly" (p. 182). As a team we discussed the responses but I personally was unsure of to how to respond. I knew that I needed to be careful with my response. When experiencing an ethical dilemma it was helpful to use a framework such as Figure 1, which shows a model of ethical decision making, (Ehrich et al, 2011, p. 178).

 I could have ignored the responses but instead I decided to share the results as a team and together we were able to share our opinions and learn from each other.  One of our school dispositions is being Collaborative and this relates to the Professional Standards under the heading of Professional Relationships, "Seek and respond to feedback from learners, colleagues and other education professionals, and engage in collaborative problem solving and learning focused collegial discussions" (Education Council, 2017, p. 18). The evidence I collect about my professional learning is based on these dispositions as well as the school essential agreements. The image below is an example of a heading from the site I use to track my own professional learning. 

Ehrich et al (2011) is also state that on-going professional learning is helpful for teachers to work through ethical issues and being in a collaborative team teaching environment is definitely an advantage for this.

I felt the best decision was to wait until the students had been involved in more learning activities or had the opportunity for more support.  One of the strategies discussed by Ehrich et al (2011) is to ask for another colleagues perspective. My teaching team has clarified our vision for our learning design and senior management has dictated the way we are going to share this with whānau. I have decided to send out the questionnaire again as a follow up. We need to contact whānau via phone over this next week and we are meeting them in person in week 8. So I will have an opportunity to ask the questions in these ways as well. My final decision for solving this was to wait and see if the interventions have made a difference extremely negative responses, and the neutral responses as well.

References:

Education Council (2017) Our Code, Our Standards. New Zealand: Wellington

Ehrich, L., Kimber, M., Millwater, J. & Cranston, N. 2011. Ethical dilemmas: a model to understand teacher practice. Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice. 17 (2), 173-185

practice, 17:2, 173-185