Change in my practice towards Future-oriented learning and teaching.

Change in my practice towards
Future-oriented learning and teaching.
Does education need to change? 

Yes! We all need to be more Dog !


Personalised learning.
I have chosen to reflect on views around Personalised learning.

WHY DID I MAKE THIS CHANGE?
My school has been on a journey around personalised learning for nearly 3 years now. We looked at this concept as a whole school inquiry topic where we all read a mentor text “Making Learning Personal. The what, who, WOW, where and why By Barbara Bray and Kathleen Mc Claskey. As a school, we would meet after reading each section and discuss that section with a focus on our school and practice. We also had tasks to trial after each section as well. The second year we applied the practice completely into our classrooms. This year my inquiry was based around including personalised learning with lifting writing achievement. I then paired up with the teacher of literacy, who was completing here degree and joined forces and designed a series of lessons to see if collaboration through the planning stage of writing lift student’s achievement.  We taught the students that different types of collaboration and how to use these during the different stages of writing. The results were very good and we looked at things that we could do to further accelerate progress. When I did my presentation to the board I found that inquiry was at a much deeper level and very focused compared to the others. Mine was very different and this made me think that maybe I needed to look deeper into the research and practices to back up my own views. So when the Mind Lab flyer came out to schools I thought that this might have been what I was looking for, so I applied.

HOW WAS THIS CHANGE TRIGGERED DURING MY LEARNING JOURNEY AT THE MINDLAB?
During the face to face sessions and also through the readings I found the research to support my own beliefs. I was also able to talk to others that were likeminded.  Through writing the assignments, I looked deeper into my own practice and found research to back up my thoughts and claims. My marks also showed that I was on the right track with my own views.

ARE THERE ANY THEORIES OR LITERATURE THAT SUPPORT MY CHANGE?
There is so many different text out there I find it very difficult to navigate through, so when searching I broke it down into smaller parts like Motivation and PL or Classroom layout and PL
This text is a very good stating place
“Making Learning Personal. The what, who, WOW, where and why By Barbara Bray and Kathleen Mc Claskey.
This text is USA based but it has a lot of relevant quotes and links to current practice and research.
“Without motivation, there is no push to learn,
Without engagement, there is no way to learn.
Without voice, there is no authenticity in the learning.”
Dr. Eric Toshalis and Dr. Michael Nakkaula (2013)
•        http://pllc.fi.ncsu.edu/2015/12/14/a-perspective-on-the-samr-model-erase-the-line-and-swim-laps/
•        http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Teaching/Future-focused-learning
•         Bray, Barbara, and Kathleen McClaskey. “Make Learning Personal” (2015) Sage publication Ltd,     
•        Watkins, C (2006).Personalised classroom learning. INSI Research Matters, 29. www.academia.edu/7185028/Personalised_Classroom_learning.
The list of research is very wide as personalised learning envelops a wide range of skills from researching, goal setting, communication and collaborating, the key competencies and the 21st-century skill that also vary depending on what source you have taken them from.
“The most fruitful experience in a child’s education is her collaboration with more experienced or skilled partners.” Lev Vygotsky


WHAT HAVE I LEARNED FROM IMPLEMENTING THIS CHANGE?
That giving the children voice and choice lifts engagement. Through introducing personalised learning and having a focus on manageable sections we as a school have lifted children’s achievement. We have lifted engagement but individual motivation still seems to be lacking. Our next step is to collaborate as a staff and come up with solutions as to why some children are progressing at the expected rate and why even though they are engaged they may not be motivated as an individual.


Comments

  1. Mrs FergussonNovember 29, 2017 at 11:27 PM

    Hi Colleen,
    Thank you for sharing “Be More Dog” video, we can all make changes. It’s great to read that by personalising learning and linking it to your writing programme has had positive outcomes for your students achievement. I agree that it has been helpful to have theories and literature that the Mind Lab have provided to support changes in our practice. I have definitely had to think more deeply about my practice. I’m interested to know what you used for the different types of collaboration to help personalise learning? Thank you for sharing “Making Learning Personal. The what, who, WOW, where and why,” By Barbara Bray and Kathleen Mc Claskey. This will be added to my reading list. I also like the following quote…
    “Without motivation, there is no push to learn, Without engagement, there is no way to learn. Without voice, there is no authenticity in the learning.” Dr. Eric Toshalis and Dr. Michael Nakkaula (2013). And your quote by Lev Vygotsky, “The most fruitful experience in a child’s education is her collaboration with more experienced or skilled partners.” This is relevant to the ‘role of collaborative practice’ which is the sub-theme I chose to reflect about. I think collaborating with staff (create a community of practice) will help you find solutions. As you have discovered, personalised learning has improved engagement. I have discovered with a more collaborative approach, my Learners are also more engaged in their learning tasks. I’ve also discovered by implementing more agency (choice), students are more motivated in the learning process. Personalising learning challenges us (as cited in ‘Future-Oriented Learning and Teaching’, p3) to deploy the resources for learning (teachers, time, spaces, technology) more flexibly to meet Learners’ needs. How might you use the new technology resources in your practice to make learning more collaborative and personalised? I like the example of the Networked Campground (as cited in ‘Future-Oriented Learning and Teaching’, p23). It creates an environment for personalised learning and collaborative knowledge building. Learning is self-paced, where students can identify and work with their own strengths and interest, and apply this to learning tasks that are more meaningful to them. (As cited in ‘Future-Oriented Learning and Teaching’, p42 ) The role of the teacher changes to a guide/facilitator/mentor. I’ve found this in my practice when learners are discussing an issue, solving a problem or creating a product together, my role changes to a guide on the side.
    Reference;
    Ministry of Education.(2012). Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching: A New Zealand perspective. Retrieved from https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/schooling/109306

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mrs FergussonNovember 29, 2017 at 11:28 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teaching and Learning Inquiry.

Image
Without evidence, you are just another person with an opinion. (Andreas Schleicher, OECD) The main purpose of a teaching and learning inquiry, as described in the NZ curriculum, is to bring about improved outcomes for students through a cyclical process that is guided by 3 key questions. What should students achieve? Where are our students in relation to these goals and priorities? What do students need to learn next? (focusing inquiry) Which strategies, interventions or programmes will support students to achieve these outcomes? (teaching inquiry) What learning happened for students as a result of these strategies, interventions or programmes, and what will teachers do next to ensure that students continue to progress? (learning inquiry) ERO found that inquiry typically took two forms - teaching and learning inquiry, [ 4 ]  and professional learning inquiry.  The following model is found on the MOE site and also the ERO site The following link has a se...
Read more

Influences of Law and Ethics in Practice.

Image
what is ethics? It  is  the   rules   of   conduct   recognized   in   respect   to a   particular   class   of   human   actions or   a   particular   group,   culture,   etc.:  medical   ethics;   Christian   ethics. It is the  moral   principles,   as   of   an   individual:  http://www.dictionary.com/ It is here tha t the   conundrum   starts. Our code and standards clearly state" We have agreed to uphold high standards of ethical behaviour.... If one of us breaches the code, it can affect us all, changing how others see us and how the profession is valued. (2005) I am going to use Elrich, Kimber, Millwater & Cranston model(211, p.178) To analyze my ethical dilemma.  The critical incident: One morning it was brought to my attention that one of the girls i...
Read more

Writing a literature review.

Image
On our last face to face session, we were told about our literature review. The word then went around how difficult this would be, and how much time it would take. Our school is right into Personalised learning and we were all going to set up a learning hub within the senior cluster of the school. So this was an easy subject to do my review around, or so I thought. I started with Personalised Learning and then changed to modern learning environments, innovative classrooms, 21st-century learning, and so the list goes on all have got the same underlining principles but the variety of terms used and acronyms MLE, PL, ILI would make your head spin. So after reading all the fellow Mindlab students posting on Google communities that they had their question sorted I felt envious so I thought I should go to the Ministry of Education because surely they should have the term sorted. But no ”. “the term personalized learning has been used perhaps too broadly to cover a whole host of strat...
Read more