Activity 4 - Evaluation the community of your professional context.

Create a blog post where you define and evaluate the community of your professional context. Provide answers to any three of the following provocations which are most relevant to you. Support your answers with links to research or other external sources.

1. What are the current issues in your community? How would you or your community address them?
2. What is the purpose and function of your practice? In what ways do you cater for the community of your practice?
3. What changes are occurring in the context of your profession? How would you address them?

The current issues

The current issues in our community include changing the way we teach, from a more traditional way where students have a timetable and know when they will be having mathematics, language and inquiry, into a more dynamic system where students have independence over their learning. They choose when they do core activities.  

Feedback from the parent community has highlighted how some have a perception of this being a new “Fad” in teaching.  Others have been positive about the change as they have noticed a change in their children, beginning to show an awareness of time management and consequences of not getting work done. Meyer et al (2008) showed the benefits of Independent Learning to include:

·      Improved academic performance;

·      Increased motivation and confidence;

·      Enabling teachers to provide differentiated tasks for students; and

·      Greater student awareness of their limitations and their ability to mange them.

There has been a lot of information passed on to the community via emails and personal discussions with parents relating to the change in classroom practice.

The potential problem is accountability, how to ensure that students are covering all areas of the curriculum that should be covered. This is an ongoing challenge trying to find a way to ensure coverage of the curriculum. Emenyeonu (2012) highlights another area of concern when students choose to become “social loafers” allowing others to do the work. Ensuring all students are active in all activities is a challenge.

What is the purpose and function of your practice? In what ways do you cater for the community of your practice?

The purpose and function of my practice is to uphold the current Registered Teaching Criteria. At Kilbirnie School we also have a graduate profile developed by students, staff and parents along with NZC Updates (Oct. 2012), Bolstad (2011) and Microsoft Partners in Learning (2011). It states that we would like students graduating at the end of year 6 to be:

•       Happy at school with a strong sense of inclusion and belonging.

•       Confident, resilient and willing to take risks

•       Respectful of others and aware of tikanga maori.

•       Independent self-managers who set goals, self assess and reflect. 

•       Literate, numerate and keen participants in physical activity.

•       Skilled users of technologies and discerning consumers of information.

•       Curious and engaged participants, contributors and leaders. 

•       Creative, innovative and critical thinkers who communicate effectively. 

•       Aware of the environment and eager to protect it.

The profile has been developed over a number of years, but has only just been implemented in classrooms. The strength of the profile lies in the work behind it by NZC and Bolstad (2011). It aims to personalise learning by creating independent self managers who can set goals, self assess and reflect on their learning.

What changes are occurring in the context of your profession at this time? How would you address them?

Education is changing in New Zealand. We have a curriculum that allows us to view students as individuals with different areas of expertise who can excel in a much wider range of areas. We should be promoting thinking, through critical and reflective processes, and allowing students to develop new innovative ideas. Children should be able to recognize their own thinking and reflect on this within constructivist environments of our schools. Schools can be forums where learning evolves from open-ended questions. Information is easily available and students are supported in understanding information by making connections to their own experiences. Egan (2008) and Gilbert (2005) have argued for a number of years that current schooling approaches are not sufficient to address and support 21^st century learning needs.

One vital quality I have to bring to the role is my desire to continue my learning as an educator and leader. I consider the process of learning to be a fascinating science that continues to develop and evolve. Thinking and talking about educational theory and working toward approaches to the application of these in the classroom and across the school is something I enjoy. I believe modelling enthusiasm for best practice is important. Reflecting and investigating ways of making improvements to best meet the need of students is essential. This is an on-going process and I overtly acknowledge my personal position as someone with much to learn.

My next steps in development include reflecting on processes that promote development of some of the pedagogical ideas mentioned earlier so they become accepted as powerful and meaningful structures within our school. I am interested in discussing ideas around shared vision with staff and the school community in terms of what we believe is important for our students now and in the future.

References

Bolstad, R. (2011). New Zealand Annual Review of Education, Principles for a future-oriented education system., 21:77–95.

Meyer, B., Haywood, N., & Darshan, S., & Faraday, S,. (2008). What is independent learning and what are the benefits for students? Retrieved from http://www.curee.co.uk/files/publication/%5Bsite-timestamp%5D/Whatisindependentlearningandwhatarethebenefits.pdf

Egan, K. (2008). The future of schooling: Reimagining our schools from the ground up. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Emenyeonu, O.C. (2012). Student-Centered Learning in Oman: Challenges and Pitfalls. International Journal of Learning and Development. 2(5), pp.Pages 243-254.

Gilbert, J. (2005). Catching the knowledge wave?  The knowledge society and the

future of education. Wellington: NZCER Press.

The New Zealand Curriculum Update Issue 26. (October 2012). Future Oriented Teaching and Learning. 

Microsoft Partners in Learning. (2011). ITL 21st century learning design: 21CLD learning activity rubrics. Retrieved from http://www.itlresearch.com/itl-leap21