Reflective Practice - Key Changes in my Professional Practice Applied Practice Two, Activity Eight

Reflective Practice - Key Changes in my Professional Practice

Applied Practice Two, Activity Eight

In the following blog, I will reflect on my 32 week Mindlab journey and critically evaluate the key changes in my professional practice being the “Teaching” theme from “Our Code, Our Standards”. I will use Rolfe et al’s (2001) Reflective Model and the Cycle of Experiential Learning by Osterman and Kottkamp (2015, p.70)  to guide my reflection.

Step 1 - What?

The key changes I have made as a result of completing the 2018 Midlab programme are around my teaching pedagogy in the classroom. In particular, the following ideas/theories impacted and resonated with me in such a way that it brought about change on how I deliver learning to my year seven and eight class.

·        Theories of Learning - Applying the Constructivist theory (Papert, S. & Harel, I., 1991) of Learning in my classroom.

·        Digital Technologies as a learning tool.

These changes relate to my requirements at a teacher to meet the “Standards in the Teaching Profession” and in particular, standard 6 - Teaching;

·        Use an increasing repertoire of teaching strategies, approaches, learning activities, technologies and assessment for learning strategies and modify these in response to the needs of individuals and groups of learners.

·        Provide opportunities and support for learners to engage with, practise and apply learning to different contexts and make connections with prior learning.

·        Teach in ways that enable learners to learn from one another, to collaborate, to self-regulate and to develop agency over their learning

Step 2 - So What?

Stage 1: Problem identification

What drove me to make these changes was the desire to provide a learning programme for my year seven and eight class that was differentiated from their year five and six experience in relation to student agency and self-management. I believe it was important to make these changes so our students are more engaged, better prepared for the independence of College and have developed some 21st century skills for their future lives.

Stage 2: Observation and analysis

With the assistance of my Principal, a “Student Voice” survey was undertaken with my students in term two. The results were shared with me and while there were many positive comments, there was feedback from some students that my lessons needed to be more interesting and challenging. The insights I have gained from this problem is that I have a group of very academically strong students in my class who are highly motivated and have high education outcome expectations for themselves.

Stage 3: Abstract re conceptualization

The learning theory that I found useful in thinking about and changing my classroom practice is the Constructivist theory proposed by Papert, S. & Harel, I. (1991). In this theory, learning occurs as learners are actively involved in a process of meaning and knowledge construction as opposed to passively receiving information. I gained many other perspectives in relation to this problem during my discussions with my peers at the Mindlab sessions. Their ideas, enthusiasm and experiences helped me immensely in changing my classroom pedagogy.

Stage 4: Active experimentation

The new strategies I have tried in my classroom to overcome the problem are:

·        Theories of Learning - Applying the Constructivist theory Papert, S. & Harel, I. (1991) of Learning in my classroom has developed in my students the attributes of collaboration, problem solving, creativity and persistence. This has meant I have given my students more freedom for learning discovery over more Inquiry based learning experiences.

·        Digital Technologies as a learning tool - with the trialing of many apps and programmes I learnt at Mindlab classes, I have been able to use these in my classroom. Padlet, Screencast, Google Earth, Classroom are examples of these. The impact of these on my students has been increased engagement in learning as well and an increased confidence in using digital technologies.

What I have learnt from this experience is that my students are open and motivated to new ways of learning. They are invested in their own educational outcomes and are keen to utilise their devices to enhance their learning.

Step 3 - (What next)?

The areas I wish to explore further in my journey are;

·        Linking the student goals from our SMS (Linc-ed) with my planning and teaching in the classroom. I would like to go to student led timetabling with students choosing the learning workshops they attend based on their own Linc-ed goals.

·        Real Life Problems- Keeping the context of the students learning real to them.

·        Student Blogs - students documenting their own learning journey developing and evidencing 21st century skills.

I would love to continue studying next year as I have really enjoyed the Mindlab course this year. However, I have struggled to find the time this year to devote to my studies and feel I would like a year without study to expand my new ideas and consolidate the ones I wish to keep in my practice.

Signing off – Kristine Jones

References:

Ministry of Education (2017). Our code, our standards. Retrieved from

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

Osterman, K. & Kottkamp, R.(1993). Reflective Practice for Educators.California.Corwin Press, Inc. Retrieved from hhttp://www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk/files/RefPract/Osterman_Kottkamp_extract.pdf

Papert, S. & Harel, I. (1991).

Constructionism. Ablex Publishing