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.