Developing an Action Plan for Whānau Engagement in Learning Design

How can kaiako interactions with whānau influence the quantity and quality of whānau interactions with the school Learning Management System?

Communities

The focus group for my research project is the whānau of students who are in my Puna Ako (tutor group). I decided to use this group as I will spend the most consistent time with these ākonga and I do not need to get extra permission to conduct this research as communicating and developing a relationship with whānau is part of my job description. 

When I started this assignment I did not know how this year's Puna Ako groups would be sorted and organised but I decided what ever ākonga I have I will engage with their whānau. At the beginning of this assignment the exact number and identity of ākonga was another unknown but I know they will probably include year 7 - 13.  For research purposes it may be good to get a mix of gender, age and ethnicity.  However due to the short timeframe it would also be beneficial to limit the group size to a manageable number of participants.  As of a few days ago I received a list of 25 students. I decided that I would look into their gender, age/year level, ethnicity and any other factors that might impact the findings of this research grouping. 

The research essay we wrote together highlighted the need to ensure that whānau has access to digital technology. Ākonga usually have access to technology at school but this may also be a factor in the level of engagement e.g. ākonga lacks self confidence or self management to share their learning with the whānau. One of the background factors I choose to look into is parent email. This is a quick indicator to see whether parents have access to Linc-ed (our Student Management System).  This group is a priority group as they haven't been able to connect to our learning design through using this digital tool.

I will be working with two other kaiako who are responsible for these ākonga. Perhaps my co-teachers would be willing to be part of this research. I could survey other kaiako to gather their perspective on using the school LMS with whānau. I could also use Linc-ed to track the usage of kaiako to communicate with whānau and vice versa. I might have an opportunity to work with a few leaders: a kaiārahi (head teacher) and Pou leaders, to focus on whānau engagement so we can increase ākonga and whānau understanding of learning at Haeata.

Key Terms

• Learning design - define this for myself and others in the community. 
• Purpose - how does our learning design encourage ākonga to develop their purpose. What does whānau know about purpose? How do get whānau to see the purpose of learning design and meaningfully contribute??  This is related to VISION
• Self Awareness as a learner - how do our ākonga develop their sense of self as a learner
• Mindsets - growth versus fixed mindsets and taking risks, and being resilience
• Skills - 21st century skills, Key Competencies and transdisciplinary Curriculum. What skills are valued by each member of the community? How are these similar? How are these different?
• Dispositions and Values - how well do ākonga and their whānau know our specific dispositions & values used at Haeata? What do they think about them?
• Vision -  takes time to develop as achieving a shared vision involves collaboration and partnership.
• Connection - to ideas, people and resources
• Exploration & Experimentation  - using experiences and trying new things to develop purpose

Explain the research topic and how the topic addresses the needs of your community.

At Haeata Community Campus we have 2 main priorities for teaching Tuakana (year 7 -13)

ākonga in 2019, Transdisciplinary learning (Kaupapa Ako) and Hauora/Interpersonal learning
(Puna Ako).
Improving our Transdisciplinary Learning involves making projects widespread, integrating Te Ao Māori and Communication Fluency within projects, strengthening goal setting and learning narratives
Hauora and Intrapersonal Learning (Puna Ako) involves "embedding Social emotional learning and positive education into all aspects of our learning", integrating Te Ao Māori and communication fluency within Puna Ako and supporting the building towards self directed learners

This directly relates to our learning design at Haeata Community Campus and it connects to my research question. Whānau engagement is another priority area, along with Behaviour, Diverse Learners and Operations.
Source: https://sites.google.com/haeata.school.nz/staffhandbook/2019-teams-priorities/tuakana-2019?authuser=0

Specific actions & Timeframe

Kaupapa Māori framework is good for research as it is "stated as necessary for working with whānau collectives as it  normalises  Māori  worldviews  and  practices." (Kennedy & Cram, 2010, p. 3)  Issues to be aware of, research about Māori to be done by Māori, collaboration and equal levels of power, "using the right words and asking the right questions". Māori whānau members are diverse and still retain their unique individuality. "Māori cannot  be  viewed  in  isolation,  just  as  whānau ora (wellness) for an individual is not created in isolation. Māori must be viewed as inclusive of their whānau, and of their surroundings, including their communities." Here's a table created using research about Cultural values from Smith (1999) and Researcher guidelines by Cram (2001).  

Tino Rangatiratanga is the self determined principle which includes "the right to make decisions about all aspects of their lives". For this research project this is significant in how I am gathering  multiple perspectives as well as empowering whānau to be able to be come part of a partnerships and potentially collaborate with learning design. Our learning design also means that ākonga are increasingly self determined learners and by gaining their perspective they may feel empowered. 

After exploring the ethics of researching with whānau I believe it is important to consider the diverse cultural values of whānau members and create guidelines to ensure best practice. 

Resource: https://app.themindlab.com/media/3307/view

Ethics  Ethical Implications Table

Interviews and questionaries involving opinions and beliefs will be vital for this research. I will need to gain an understanding of what the parents of ākonga already know about the learning design as well as their own perception of it. Quantitive data such as whether parents have used Linc Ed to view and/or comment assessment information and/or learning narratives can be done by survey, in person as well as by accessing the Linc-ed programme.
The goal for this research is to observe a change in whānau behaviour for this I will collect pre and post intervention data. This means that I will use the same questionnaires and surveys asked at the beginning and at the end of the collection period. Using the same words, structure and format ensures that there is consistency. Using more than one source of data also means that the results will be more reliable. Providing a range of ways to contribute to the survey/questionnaire will help elevate the disparity between those who prefer to fill out forms, by hand, electronically, verbally and also meet kānohi ki kānohi
Other ethical considerations include confidentiality, the surveys will use a code to ensure that the data is not able to identify individuals. 

Potential impact of the findings

• What are the possible benefits (and disadvantages of the inquiry)?

Whānau and ākonga who may have not understood learning design at Haeata will have the opportunity to learn more about it and ask questions.

Whānau may feel pressured to communicate with kaiako they do not know. If they have reasons to avoid attention to their personal or family situation they might react in a negative way.  - issues around sense of privacy issues

• How might it impact on your communities or your practice?

Whānau and ākonga will have the opportunity to have equitable access to learning opportunities and some barriers to access could be removed. Establish a better alternative to communicate with whānau.

• How will the outcomes contribute to the topic area you are investigating (after you implement your Action Plan)?

Whānau engagement is one area of teaching that is difficult to achieve consistently. The topic of increasing whānau engagement has some research in regards to learning design but this is limited as Modern Learning Environments are relatively new. Our learning design is very unique and has evolved over the last two years since the school opened.

• How will the outcomes from the Action Plan impact on your practice and/or members of your community?

Increased number of comments on ākonga learning narratives with supportive or constructive statements from whānau. 

Whānau could increase their understanding of their ākonga learning and this could increase collaboration and/or partnership with whānau

Ākonga may feel more focussed and/or valued if their whānau show support and/or an interest in ākonga learning at Haeata Community Campus. 

This research will also increase my engagement with whānau and I believe it has the opportunity to build positive relationships with ākonga and their whānau.

Motivated and confident kaiako are able to motivate others and can tell others about learning

Ākonga are better to identify learning

• How will the outcomes from the Action Plan impact on the perception of members of your community about the topic area?

This action plan about whānau engagement is directly related to changing perceptions, especially for whānau. Ākonga will be influenced by their whānau and also be more activ in designing their own learning. Other kaiako also potentially could be influenced by the action plan either directly or indirectly.  I predict that the participants will have an improved understanding and potentially view the learning design at Haeata in a positive way.  Kaiako may also develop an appreciation for ways to focus on sharing learning design with whānau of their ākonga.

 The Action Plan

References:
Kennedy, V. & Cram, F. (2010). Ethics of Researching with Whānau Collectives. http://review.mai.ac.nz

Kaupapa Māori & Our Research Topic

Kaupapa Māori & Our Research Topic

To gain a deep understanding of what's happening with our ākonga our research topic will take a focus on whānau engagement. For individual ākonga their whānau is an integral part of their identity and if we are being culturally responsive then both ākonga and whānau will be involved in the school learning design.
I think it would be helpful to define what learning design means as it is a relatively new concept for me.
I plan to collect evidence of ākonga not understanding learning design or questioning what we do here. 
Judy Helbert discusses truly understanding what's going on rather than just using our opinions. These are the learning principals from the OECD: 

• What’s the experience of kids? 
• Do they get the kind of feedback on a daily basis that helps them own their own learning?
• Do they feel connected to this school? 
• Can they answer the question, “Can you name two adults who believe you’ll be a success in life?”
• Do they have the opportunities to see the links across subject areas and to the community so that they can understand the relevance of what they’re learning, or do they see it as a set of discreet tasks?
• Do they have the opportunity for tuakana/teina? 

From this article I formulated a survey for ākonga: How is your learning at school going?

Tino Rangatiratanga - the self-determination principle 

Tino rangatiratanga in this context is related to mana motuhake, this means sovereignty and self-determination. 

Tino rangatiratanga is about having meaningful control over one’s own life and cultural well-being. 

This principle is embedded in the Treaty of Waitangi and both partners to Te Tiriti o Waitangi have the rights to protection, participation and power. The Māori version guaranteed ‘tino rangatiratanga’ (full authority) over ‘taonga’ (treasures, which may be intangible). 

Taonga tuku iho - the cultural aspirations principle 

Kaupapa Māori theory asserts a position that to be Māori is normal and taken for granted. 

Te reo Māori (language), matauranga Māori (knowledge), tikanga Māori (custom) and ahuatanga Māori (characteristics) are actively legitimated and validated. 

This principle acknowledges the strong emotional and spiritual factor in Kaupapa Māori. Kaupapa Māori knowledge has its origins in a metaphysical base that is distinctly Māori. Understanding this principle helps us understand the influences on the way Māori people may think, understand, interact and interpret the world.

• What relevance does the topic of interest have to our Māori students?

Our inquiry topic means that Māori ākonga and their whānau will have the knowledge and understanding to able to participate, feel ownership and connection to the learning design at Haeata.

• Have we taken into account the ways our ākonga think, understand, interact and interpret the topic of interest? How would you know?

The main rationale for the inquiry topic is to gather information on how ākonga think, interact and interpret learning design. We know this by directly asking them and taking note of what they say and do.

References:

Kaupapa Māori Research: Retrieved from http://www.katoa.net.nz/kaupapa-maori

Disengaged Students

Encouraging engagement in students

The topic of disengaged students has been a focus for my assignments since the very beginning of Mindlab. What is engagement? What motivates ākonga to be engaged? 

Engagement is complex and it is a cognitive process. When we think of ākonga we need to consider 1) how invested are they in their own learning and 2) their personal learning strategies, Hattie (2009).

Once we define engagement it can be measured. 
It has multiple layers:
1. behaviour
2. emotional 
3. cognitive

According to Hattie (2009) what we need are practical strategies to encourage positive outcomes and promote engagement.

Engagement = connected with learning 

Cognitive:  Engagement depends on a student's psychological investment in their own learning

"When cognitively engaged, students concentrate, focus on achieving goals, are flexible in their work and cope with failure" (Hattie, 2009, p. 2)

Behaviour: Engagement looks like students' participating in learning and classroom activities. Behavioural engagement is the easiest to measure. This means that students who able to control and regulate themselves look like they are "physically ready and willing to learn". 

Emotional: We can develop emotional engagement through relationships between students and their teachers, classmates and school. This has also been called 'identification' with school and learning practices.  Students are engaged when they feel included in the school and feel an emotional bond with the school, its teachers and their peers.

Ākonga need to be connected to their learning in a holistic way. They need to believe in what they are doing, feel safe and respected and be psychologically ready to learn.


The challenge is to measure all of these types of engagement (p. 5)

Hattie (2009) also goes on to explain different types of student and teacher questioning.

• Active answering – students voluntarily answer questions 
• Passive answering – students answer questions when requested by teachers 
• Question raising – students voluntarily ask the teacher questions

Do teachers identify engagement?  (p. 6)

More attention is needed for the "quietly" disengaged. 

"teachers are observed, and observe other teachers, with the aim of improving teaching and student learning outcomes." but what is the focus of this appraisal?

• learning outcomes of students 
• teachers’ verbal attention to students’ work (encouraging and recognising positive performance; continually asking questions and instructing students) 
• teachers’ non-verbal attention to students (eye contact, body language) 
• teachers’ individual instruction to students (provides personal instructions to students when they are involved in activities) 
• students’ involvement (answering questions, raising questions, engaging in activities)

These are important as they recognise the role that teachers can play in stimulating the engagement of students.

Dimensions of student engagement:

• participation in activities (behavioural engagement)
• asking questions (cognitive) and
• responding to teachers’ feedback (emotional).

Ultimately too, these positive learning behaviours recognise the impact that they should have on the learning outcomes of students.

What are the consequences of disengagement?  (p. 7)

learning outcomes?  achievement?

How to promote engagement?

Some studies have shown that engagement is increased through flexible, individualised teaching in a supportive learning environment. 

Project-based learning, for example, allows students to own their own task. 
Strong student-teacher relationships create a classroom where students feel safe and engaged. 
Student monitoring is a key step for teachers to assess whether they are having an impact on students.

Project-based learning  (p. 8)

Many disengaged students feel that school is not relevant to them. Engaging teaching is personalised and motivating for students.

Student-teacher relationships

Hattie (2009) finds that strong classroom management and student-teacher relationships have a significant impact on engagement and achievement

This means providing students with a safe environment: physically safe, and a place where students feel able to make mistakes.

Motivation is a fundamental part of engagement that is difficult to encourage where students are cautious about contributing and dispirited when corrected. 

Mutual respect drives high expectations. 

This leads to self-regulated learning where a student is able to shape their own goals.

Effective and engaging teachers ensure they are implementing approaches that will work for their students.

In this keynote speech John Hattie talks about not caring about how you teach but rather how your teaching impacts learners and what you think about your teaching.

https://visible-learning.org/2017/08/john-hattie-how-you-teach-video/

References:
Hattie, J. (2009) Visible Learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement, Routledge

Learning to teach technology

Technology is an area of the curriculum I am developing my knowledge of.

 As I was writing a learning narrative about a baking experience I needed to look up the technology curriculum to set goals for an student. I found this site with examples: Teaching Snapshots Technology  This seems like a good resource to explore further when I plan my next creativity & design workshop.

I was feeling a bit stuck as my last few design workshops have not gone to plan. What I expected from the ākonga was different than they either wanted to do or were capable of. I summarised real student issues for ākonga to work with but they still struggled with the concept of design thinking. I need to revise my approach again. I decided to observe another kaiako to see how they introduced a topic and scaffolded ākonga. I asked if I could observe another teacher's problem solving workshop last Thursday and I wrote some notes. 

My main reflection about this was I need to start simple and specific. Most students who come to my workshops are either expecting a free play exploration of hands-on materials or to be given a step by step guide. I am going to implement strategies to support this range of student learning styles and learning preferences. I am currently using a google classroom called Creative Kids where I put lesson pans, resources and links to expected activities. 

I believe the majority of ākonga who are struggling to be engaged in this workshop series are uncomfortable its open-endedness and loose structure. There's too much choice for them and their confidence is not high enough for them to be playful with materials or perhaps they don't see the point.

Online Part of Mindlab

Planning for Essay 1

bibliography

guide to making a video

These are some good suggests for research topics
inspiring teacher inquiry questions

My first initial brain storm about my inquiry topic:

Literature Review Research 1
The next step is using the literature review to inform my action plan.
My action plan Research 2 

Design for Learning

Design for Learning

Following on from a previous blog I thought I would add more thoughts on the design for learning process. After reading this article:  designing learning that offers a reason for being. I was reading a comment and this person discussed Project Wayfinder so I followed this link:   https://www.projectwayfinder.com/

Unfortunately it is an overseas provider and it costs to do the training and buy the toolkits. I really like the concept of a wayfinder and I wonder if we could develop our own Haeata model.

This is what I discovered from their site:

I feel like I have made a start with this by using a few pages from my drawing book. I used these on Wednesday's workshop "Creativity through design". 






Ākonga were able to either use the google form I made (using the questions/activities in the book) or write directly onto a photocopy of the book.  

After the ākonga completed this task I shared their answers and discussed having a growth mindset e.g. it's okay to say you don't know! One of the most powerful things about this was that the kids seemed to find it empowering. I believe they found it engaging which helped them with the next part. 



One of my successes from this workshop was also having 3 students who started with wanting to be outside the classroom and then make their way into the room to use the hot glue guns.

Earlier this week I wanted to stop this series of workshops as I felt the structure was too loose and I felt out of my depth. However doing these tasks first helped provide a direction for solving student problems at Haeata.                                                                      

I think this is where I want to direct my teaching as inquiry. This relates well to my assignments through Mindlab as well as the Mental Health Education book we are reading as part of book club.

I am going to start by reading this chapter: "Wayfinding our Purpose" by Patrick Cook-Deegan. 

It's from: "Purpose rising: A Global Movement of Transformation and Meaning" (2017) Emanuel Kuntzelman (Editor)

WEIRD - learning by design

WEIRD - designing for learning

Will Richardson from Modern Learners discusses design for learning in this article  https://modernlearners.com/designing-for-learning/

In this he first discusses the acronym WEIRD - which means western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic societies. Then Richardson shares Carol Black ideas about western Society and how it is weird. Black states there is "appalling personal lack of freedom" in a democracy and Western education is an outlier. Here's a video of her presentation: Carol Black: "Alternatives to schooling"

Richardson discusses how educators make broad generalisations about kids and seem to ignore the nature of learning. Students are being trained to succeed in artificial environments which aren't connected to the world around them and they might not be able to succeed in the real world. Things that connect people to learning is passion, interest, making and fun. Real learning is learning by doing and emulating others.

Design thinking 

We need to start with the 1st element of design - empathy

To flourish in democracy students should be learning in ways activities that interest them and teachers should design learning around this. Adults are learning from the process of teaching as well.

There shouldn't be a disconnect, we have to think about what's is best for our students.

Ira Socol asks the question, "what do you want our children to be?"  greatest aspirations Ira Socol  it defines everything about what a school is.

We should be designing learning with our greatest aspirations in mind not what's an efficient way to teach and deliver knowledge to students.

We want our students to be creative, collaborative, communicators, make choices, to build their own work or learning environments, curious, kind, learn from the great wide world throughout their lives, have healthy relationships, engage with technology well and live healthy lives etc.

This should be the focus of our designs moving forward.