T determiners

 

Week 32: Reflect on your learning journey

Teaching as Inquiry has been an integral part of my teaching since I graduated in 2011. The problem is that I started to see this process as another thing to do on top of everything else I need to do as a classroom teacher. At my school, we are required to inquire into accelerating our target students for Reading, Writing and Maths and also conduct another inquiry to achieve a personal teaching goal. My argument has been that teachers are naturally reflective and having to constantly write everything down is time-consuming and mostly pointless. I think the main thing underpinning this attitude was the misconception that an inquiry must produce positive results quickly every time. Also, I thought admitting that I was struggling with an aspect of teaching could be seen as incompetence (Ostermann & Kottkamp, 2015). 

So the main change for me has been the freedom to conduct an inquiry without fear of failure. In the Spiral Playbook, the authors discuss the importance of being able to reflect and try again without fear of judgement (Kaser & Halbert, 2017). I know that the spiral of inquiry is about my learning as well as positive outcomes for students. The teaching standard for Professional Learning requires us to continually inquire into our practice and reflect on its effectiveness (Ministry of Education, 2017).

Before writing my Action Plan, I used the four key questions from the Spiral Playbook to survey my students about their te reo Māori learning. This showed me that they could not identify or explain why learning te reo Māori was important. This gave me a problem to solve for my inquiry and I will use these questions before undertaking future inquiries so I know what is really going on for my learners.

The ability to genuinely reflect on my practice rather than just trying to achieve a result has reignited my passion and drive to be honest and keep students at the centre of my inquiries. I am prepared to try new things, using research to guide my thinking. I would not have normally chosen the inquiry that I did for this course as I was not confident it would be successful. The positive outcomes from my inquiry have given me confidence. I now think that focussing on reflection and learning rather than just trying to show success eliminates some of the stress and makes me a more honest teacher. I am more willing to take risks and try new teaching strategies. I recognise the importance of including whanau and seeking student voice throughout the process.

Kaser, L. & J. Halbert. (2017). The Spiral Playbook: Leading with an inquiring mindset in school systems and schools. C21 Canada. Retrieved from http://c21canada.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Spiral-Playbook.pdf

Ministry of Education (2017). Our code, our standards. Retrieved from
https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/our-code-our-standards

Osterman, K. F., & Kottkamp, R. B. (2015). Reflective practice for educators : professional development to improve student learning.(2nd ed.) New York: Skyhorse Publishing.

Week 31: Evaluate your impact

The actual impact of my inquiry has been an increase of vocabulary knowledge in my classroom. I was surprised at the result when I retested them. They now recognise 14 of the 24 words in the vocabulary assessment. At the beginning of the inquiry they only recognised 3! I must admit that this was engineered a little as I focused on those words during our reo sessions. There has also been a slight increase in self-efficacy. Survey results showed an increase from 48% to 56% of students who feel confident about speaking te reo Māori exclusively for 15 minutes.

Impacts not supported by data are things I have noticed in class. Students are showing a greater awareness and acknowledging the use of te reo Māori by others. This awareness has increased their use of the language, but there is still a high level of consciousness, it is not a natural flow. They are proud of their learning and keen to share it in the classroom.

My anticipated impact was that te reo Māori would become a natural way of communicating in class, so students move easily between languages. This has happened on a word level but not on a sentence level i.e. they will substitute te reo Māori for some English words in sentences but they are not using complete sentences. This is mostly because we are still developing our sentence structure so there is a limited number of sentences they can use.

As the inquiry progressed I made changes to my original plan. I soon realised that we needed more structure, rather than free conversation. Once I started using shared books to begin our sessions we had a framework for our discussion. We could then use sentences from the book, changing some words to make it relevant to the class.

The other main difference was that I realised I needed some expert help. It was surprisingly difficult to quickly find phrases that I needed to use in class online. I was also determined to use the local Ngapuhi dialect at all times so I relied on experts at school to make sure I was on the right path.

The main change I would make for my next inquiry would be to involve whanau more. A dialogic relationship allows students, teachers and whanau to share their expertise (Charteris & Trafford, 2010). I would start the inquiry with a letter home outlining what we are trying to achieve and inviting them to participate either at home or by coming in to class. I would also keep them informed of any progress we are making and share resources we are using with them via my class blog.

Charteris, J., & Trafford, R. (2010). Speaking Plainly: Student Led Reporting in Relation to the New Zealand Curriculum Standards. New Zealand Journal of Teachers’ Work, 7(1), 38–46. Retrieved from https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=54312933&site=ehost-live

Week 30: Reflect on your evidence

In my action plan I planned to use both qualitative and quantitative data in my inquiry. My qualitative data was to be collected through observations and I had a simple questionnaire and assessment sheet to collect some quantitative data. So far, my data collection has been a little ad hoc. For the 4 weeks of my inquiry so far I have been in class for 15 days and out of class for 5, with a 2 week school holiday in the middle. This has made it difficult to establish a routine.

Originally, I decided to complete an observation sheet as I thought making a video would be too distracting for the students. However, the 15 minute conversations each morning have been heavily dependent on my input, making it difficult to record observations at the same time. My school is implementing Iris Connect, PLD software where teachers record themselves teaching as a way to reflect on their practice. As a result, I will start recording next week rather than completing the written observations.

Some of the things I have noticed so far:

• Most students are engaged.
• We all need to increase our vocabulary.
• One of my students is an expert who models risk-taking and keeps the conversation active. When this student is absent the session is much more arduous.

One surprising result is that when there is a fluent adult speaker in the room the students revert back to english more often. However, having the support of a fluent adult in the room to help with sentence structure and pronunciation is a huge benefit for me.

Babione (2014) describes coding as an interpretive technique to sort data into categories as an aid to finding patterns. I did not have any predetermined codes for analysing data when I developed my plan but the emerging categories I have identified so far are:

• The impact of a student who is able to lead the session.
• The impact of a fluent adult speaker.
• Scaffolding the conversation with a shared book at the start of the session.

As I follow these patterns I need to develop a holistic understanding rather than getting lost in details (Efron & Ravid, 2013). It is important to keep referring back to my inquiry focus.

I was able to chart my survey results. The pie chart shows the students’ vocabulary knowledge at the beginning of the inquiry. 8 of my 25 students were absent for the survey so their results are not shown.

Words known in te reo Māori:



I then created a bar graph to show the students’ ability to create simple sentences. 4 of the 17 students present chose not to respond.


For my final survey question, 11 of 25 students (48%) felt confident that we could speak te reo Māori exclusively for 15 minutes.

The evidence I have collected so far has provided some baseline data which I can use to compare with data I will collect at the end of the inquiry period. This will show whether my students’ knowledge of te reo Māori has increased. As my inquiry is into the use of conversational te reo Māori, can it only really be answered through qualitative data in the form of observation. In the future I will record our “korero anake te reo Māori” sessions and fill in the observation sheet from the video as this will give a more accurate representation of what is happening in class.

References:

Babione, C. (2014). Practitioner teacher inquiry and research. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Efron, S. E., & Ravid, R. (2014). Action research in education : a practical guide. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Week 29: Consider Ethical Issues

When I was making my Action plan for this teacher inquiry I had to consider ethical implications and explain how I would address them when I collected data. The ethical issue I identified from the New Zealand Association for Research in Education (NZARE) Ethical Guidelines was the principle relating to harmful effects and unintended consequences for  research participants.

I was concerned that the inquiry may cause anxiety for my students who have limited knowledge of conversational te reo Māori. From the beginning I was careful to ensure my students knew that this would be challenging for all of us and I was learning alongside them. Although we are speaking 15 minutes of te reo Māori each day with no English, there is no expectation that students will have a conversation during this time. Other than responding to greetings and simple questions, which they have been doing all year, they have the option to just listen. As my inquiry continues, I am hoping my students will understand it is safe to take risks. The learning focused culture standard in the Standards for the Teaching Profession requires me to develop a culture characterised by respect, empathy and safety (Education Council, 2017). This is something I strive to achieve each day.

At the moment, about 30% of the class are attempting to communicate using the vocabulary they have. The others are passive during this time, but I am hoping that just hearing the language being spoken will build their knowledge and confidence and, eventually, they will begin to participate.

Bigdeli and Bai (2009) discuss the negative impact anxiety can have on teaching and learning. They argue that learning environments are often saturated with anxiety. Cabrera-Solano, Gonzalez-Torres, Solano, Castillo-Cuesta & Jiménez (2019) found that anxiety can be reduced by designing activities based on group work, pair work and games. I have already decided to add more structure to my 15 minutes each day, using a shared book as a model, and incorporating more sharing in small groups or pairs.

As I reflect on the way I implemented my inquiry I can see ways to improve in the future. Next time, I will spend longer explaining what we were trying to achieve and why it is important. Since we started, a couple of students have expressed some negativity which has given me the opportunity to talk about the importance of preserving te reo Māori. They were more invested once I compared the language to the endemic species of New Zealand (a topic we have been studying in class). They began to understand that we need to preserve the language as no other country in the world is going to do it for us.

Another way I would improve the implementation is to make more of an attempt to engage whanau by sending home some information about what we are doing, and inviting them in so they can participate and contribute.


References:

Cabrera-Solano, P., Gonzalez-Torres, P., Solano, L., Castillo-Cuesta, L., & Jiménez, J. (2019). Perceptions on the Internal Factors Influencing EFL Learning: A Case of Ecuadorian Children. International Journal of Instruction, 12(4), 365–380. https://doi.org/10.29333/iji.2019.12424a

Bigdeli, S., & Heesoon Bai. (2009). The Triunal Model of Anxiety and its Application to Anxiety Reduction in Learning and Teaching Environments. TESL Canada Journal, 27(1), 103–114. https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v27i1.1029

New Zealand Association for Research in Education (NZARE). (2010). NZARE Ethical Guidelines. Retrieved from http://www.nzare.org.nz/portals/306/images/Files/NZARE%20EthicalGuidelines2010.pdf

Week 28: Reflect on your inquiry so far

I have chosen Rolfe’s model of reflection to reflect on my inquiry this week.



Rolfe’s Model of Reflection (Otago Polytechnic, n.d. )

This model is simple to follow and could easily be used by my students to reflect on their own learning. I like the fact that there are three main questions with supplementary questions to guide my thinking.

What?

I introduced the 15 minutes of speaking te reo Māori only to my class in Week 1 after completing a whole class survey and oral assessment. I have been timetabling this from 9.15 - 9.30am each day to coincide with our morning mihi.

So what?

Although my class are not confident speakers most of them have embraced the challenge of attempting to communicate in te reo Māori for 15 minutes each day. The most relevant aspect of the inquiry so far is that students are interacting almost exclusively with me and not amongst themselves. Since the idea was to encourage everyday conversation I need students to be actively communicating with each other. Much of the research cited in Enhancing Student Interaction in the Language Classroom shows findings that peer interaction is integral to language learning (Adams, 2018). One of the benefits discussed in the article is that students are less anxious when communicating with each other, they can be more playful and relaxed without the pressure of being assessed.

In my class, I don’t think anxiety is the issue. As I am also learning the language and making plenty of mistakes I am modelling to my students that it is safe to take risks. I think the situation has come about because I have directed students to talk without a clear agenda. It would probably have been more successful if I had asked them to pair up and provided a topic for discussion. This could be based on what we are currently learning in our scheduled te reo Māori lesson e.g. descriptions of people. Ernst and Richard (1994) recommend books as a way to provide a shared experience, basic words and phrases, and the opportunity to hear and process language. Repeated readings of the book will increase competence and the desire to communicate. Fortunately, my school is well resourced for big shared books in te reo Māori so I can choose one each week and incorporate it in my shared reading programme.

Now What?

When I started this inquiry I was unsure about my own abilities to use te reo Māori exclusively in class. Starting in an unstructured way has given me confidence and allowed me to identify the experts in my class and the vocabulary we need for our morning routine. Although I have not made any real progress towards achieving my goal yet I have no regrets about starting the way I did.
When we return to school for Term 4 I will use a more structured approach by reading a shared book to the class and then pairing students up to talk about the book together, using vocabulary and sentence structures modelled in the text. This will move the conversation away from me and I will be able to take on the role of facilitator. As the students’ vocabulary increases they will be able to converse about a range of topics.


References: Ernst, G., & Richard, K. J. (1994). Reading and writing pathways in the ESL classroom. Reading Teacher, 48(4), 320. Retrieved from https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=9412222461&site=ehost-live

Week 27: Examine your Cultural Context (Take Action)

Blog 3: Examine your Cultural Context (Take Action)

In my class of 25 students, 22 students identify as New Zealand Māori, 1 as Cook Island Māori and 2 as New Zealand European. 23 students list Ngāpuhi as their iwi affiliation on the enrolment form. There is a strong cultural identity across the school with tikanga Māori at the forefront.

The aim of my teaching inquiry is to normalise the use of te reo Māori as a conversational language in class and out in the playground. Currently, te reo is predominantly spoken during our morning mihi and for simple commands or questions during class time. My inquiry is strongly linked to cultural responsiveness as language is a keystone of culture (Wang, 2011).

Indigenous knowledge is the unique knowledge belonging to a culture or society (Senanayake, 2006).  At the heart of Māori culture is te Ao Māori, the Māori world view (Education Review Office, 2016). It is important that te Ao Māori is acknowledged in the classroom as this will enable students to achieve as Māori. Russell Bishop supports this view when he talks about the importance of allowing Māori students to bring their experiences to learning conversations (Edtalks, 2012). According to Bishop, agentic teachers are the key to  raising achievement. An agentic teacher has a positive, non-deficit view of their students. They also need support from the school to be effective. At my school we are supported by the Māori Achievement Collaborative.

I would place myself between the blue and green boxes in this action continuum (Milne, 2017).

Our class routines are strongly based on tikanga Māori. We always start the day with himene, karakia, mihi and waiata tautoko. Karakia mō te kai is recited before all meals including our fruit at morning tea. Te reo Māori is used for classroom management throughout the day. As a school, our report to parents includes self-assessment and teacher assessment of the key competencies. Being grounded in Te Reo me ngā tikanga o Ngāpuhi is valued at school. However, many of our assessment tools still support a colonial view of success. For my inquiry, assessment will be based on observations, surveys and an oral assessment.

To move to the red box I need to develop my own knowledge and become more confident in my use of te reo Māori. Part of my inquiry includes 15 minutes of every day when the whole class communicate exclusively in te reo. This has given me an insight into the gaps in my vocabulary and sentence construction. I am learning alongside my students using the concept of ako, where the educator is also learning from the student (Ka Hikitia, 2013). Learning alongside my students, and giving them the opportunity to be the experts will acknowledge the skills and experience they bring to the classroom.