Communication Literacy and Learning Through Play - a happy marriage

Two new beliefs:-

Retaining every child's self-belief as a learner is infinitely more important than teaching them to read at 5.  

A learning through play environment better prepares learners for their future in the 21st Century.

2019 was my first year of immersion in a learning through play environment. I have always used project based learning, experiential learning and language experience approaches with young children. I have always valued learning experiences outside the classroom over those within the four walls.

Working collaboratively with a team on creating a learning environment which can support all our different ākonga with all their different backgrounds, needs and interests has been an absolute pleasure for me. Never have I worked in a school which is so adaptive to individual and group needs. Our teachers take so much notice of what is happening for our students, and our approach to collaboration allows us to be really responsive and adaptable.

The way that schools are traditionally organised - where one teacher works most of the time in one place with the same group of students (a class) - is simply not able to match a collaborative team in it's ability to cater for more diversity, more skills and more interests. 

Again and again I return to the thought that handing over agency for learning to the student is the most powerful action we can take as teachers and leaders in schools. Let the children steer their own course. Accept them as they are, support them, help them to understand themselves, and to communicate with others. Believe in them and work hard to support them in their learning.

Which brings me to reading - the 'holy grail' of teaching (but not of learning). When we teach reading too early, we rob children of their agency and power. If they are good at reading, they come to depend on this method of gathering information, which in reality slows many learners down.

If the child does not enjoy, does not take to, does not 'get' reading straight away; well, there are murmurings. Children understand these murmurings. They are subtle messages telling them that they are not quite as clever as they thought they were, not quite as good at communicating. That they can't be that intelligent because they are not quick to decode text.

What a strange belief for a group of educators.

What I notice is that more and more, our children are gathering information from visual sources and auditory sources. Sources which deliver the information far faster than written text can be deciphered.

I can think of loads of examples of children for whom too much of a teacher led focus on reading and writing has been detrimental to their self-belief and enthusiasm for learning.

Last year I watched and waited for children to show an interest in written literacy. Some did and some didn't. I'm no longer worried about that.  I have no doubt that waiting is the right thing to do. It is obvious to me that children flourish when they are allowed to develop at their own pace in a supportive and creative learning environment.

Encouraging true student agency is a guaranteed path to real engagement with learning - the kind of engagement with learning that will mean that our children maintain their self-belief; keep their enthusiasm for learning as well as their interest in their own self-improvement. The kind of engagement with learning that will sustain learners over time as they grow to be the fulfilled 'life long learners' that we are aiming to grow.

Modern Learners - Assessment

Friday August 17

Spent the day participating in a workshop run by Will Richardson and Bruce Dixon from Modern Learners. This was very exciting for me because I have followed these guys for a couple of years now.

The day focussed on aligning our assessment practices with our beliefs about learning. We began by unpacking our beliefs about learning. Then we listed our current assessment practices and discussed how well they did/didn't fit with our beliefs. It turns out that most school assessment practices are linked to the need to collect data for school reporting purposes.

Thankfully, we don't spend a lot of time on standardised assessment practices at Haeata. I question the value of those that we do use and am thinking now that we might need to move completely to using teacher observations and OTJs which are based on ākonga self-assessment, rubrics and work samples. Even using a small part of the Junior Assessment of Maths (JAM) seems a bit pointless to me now. 

I really like our focus on individual conferences as a means of collecting information from ākonga about their learning. How empowering is it for ākonga to be listened to, believed and supported to make their next steps?

I like what Pasi Sahlberg has to say about data collection:-

Learning analytics, algorithms and big data are knocking on the doors of
many schools promising fast improvements and new solutions to wicked
problems facing schools today. In the midst of datafication educators need
to remember the power of small data: tiny clues through personal
observations, collective human judgment, and raw instinct that can lead to
big change in schools. Leading with small data requires collaboration,
trust and professionalism as key features of educational change.

If the decisions we make about program delivery are based on what the ākonga themselves share with us, we will be headed in the right direction for sure. 

The last part of our day was spent unpacking what kind of ākonga, kaiako and whanau we need who will implement and support useful assessment practices. It would be interesting to discuss what kind of leadership, BOT and MoE we need in order to change some of the commonly held beliefs about assessment in NZ schools.  

Mindset Quote

"Our results show that the academic benefits of these interventions have been largely overstated." (Michigan State University, 2018)

Michigan State University. (2018, May 22). Study finds popular 'growth mindset' educational interventions aren't very effective. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 21, 2018 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180522114523.htm

The Poetry of Programming

The Poetry of Programming

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jRREn6ifEQ 

Should we/could we ‘teach kids to code’? Why or why not? What is the relationship between Computational Thinking and coding? What is the role of storytelling in teaching coding?

Lots of food for thought for me here. Firstly, Liukas makes the point that it is the parents who are scared of technology. Children are curious about technology and expect to be successful with it. I feel like I'm getting on now, and while I have an interest in how technology can enhance learning, I don't know if I have the confidence to use it well - one of the reasons for my attendance at this Mindlab course.

New learning for me was the realisation of how closely connected patterning and code are. This gives me lots of ideas for encouraging ākonga to develop patterning skills. I think we should offer ākonga the opportunity to learn to code because it will probably be quite easy for many, and could lead to them being able to use technology creatively.

Other new learning was around the idea that we can use technology to realise dreams. I really liked Liukas' example of the bike lamp being turned into a movie projector. This caught my imagination and made me start thinking about possibilities for ICT use in our hapori. 

Telling stories sequentially is another skill we can use to develop coding skills. This links strongly to my interest in visual language. It might be an activity I could develop with ākonga. 

Constructionism and Constructivism

   https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1IJTVi4j9TPzSIzHCnQoKjQ2gMrqDIOOQIOTOodsQrZ0/edit#slide=id.p

Link to slide.

"Top Ten Learning Theories for Digital and Collaborative Learning

It reminded me what I support Learning through Play and made me wonder which theories apply to us. Both Constructivism and Constructionism certainly. So does the Community of Learning theory.

This would be a great slide show to share with our kaiako.

I'm not clear on the difference between constructivism and constructionism.

Learning-focused culture
Develop learning-focused relationships with learners, enabling them to be active participants in the process of learning, sharing ownership and responsibility for learning.

Research Informed Teaching of Adults

Research Informed Teaching of Adults: A worthy alternative to old habits and hearsay? John Benseman

Teachers teach the way they were taught. "If it worked for me it must be ok."

Argues the case for research informed teaching.

"Research informed teaching is based on teachers' systematic use of the inquiry cycle to improve their teaching".

The article discusses how teachers who follow an inquiry cycle can 'shape and reshape' their teaching.

I think this is a process which many teachers follow naturally. Most teachers I know are reflective in their practice and then try new strategies based on their reflections. I think it might be more effective to sometimes follow a formal documented process.

Studies have found that there is often a difference between the pedagogy that a teacher supports, and there actual practice. Typically, teachers themselves succeeded as students in teacher dominated learning environments, and these tend to be the environments that they emulate.

There are many generic teaching practices which are common to most settings, regardless of the subject matter.

The article wonders how to collect information about effective teachers. One strategy is to observe teachers, but this poses problems about success criteria. Another strategy is to use 'learner driven' studies where students offer feedback about teachers. Learner driven studies show us what students value about teachers.

Conditions for Classroom Technology Innovations

 https://app.themindlab.com/media/15232/view

2002

Three conditions required: Innovator, innovation, context

Context refers to the conditions which support successful innovation. These include:-

Technical infrastructure:- a functional school system managed by experts. When the system is functional, we don't notice it; malfunctions bring it to our attention. As far as I am aware, Haeata has a capable technical support team who manage all our hardware, app installation, wifi, security etc etc

Human infrastructure:- the technical people who are available to support the teacher with their innovation; and the technology advisors who know how to use the technology well.

Peer support - other people who are interested in what you are doing and who are motivated to join you. These people and their positive interest will help to keep the innovator motivated to continue with the project.

Professional Learning
Engage in professional learning and adaptively apply this learning in practice.

Problems, Challenges and Frustrations

Problems, Challenges, Frustrations

Using ICT tools in a creative and connected way with ākonga.

Having all kaiako use ICT in creative and connected ways with ākonga.

Sharing information about the daily programme with ākonga in a way that they can understand and use to plan their day. This needs to be in a visual format to cater for all the non-readers in this age group - 5/6 year old tamariki.

21st Century Learning Skills

How do 20 and 21st Century learning skills differ? Do we need both?

Reference:- What 60 schools can tell us about teaching 21st century skills 

Ted X 

Grant Lichtman

I think that 20th Century learning skills were more defined and finite than 21st Century learning skills. 

Our pre-2000 curriculum documents described the content and skills required at each age and stage, for every curriculum subject. Whilst the 2007 Curriculum did this too, it also introduced introduced the 'key competencies' which to me, were the most important part of the document. The key competencies are:-

thinking

understanding language symbols and text'

managing self

relating to others

participating and contributing 

Students who develop these skills can become self-determined learners who continue to adapt and change after they have left school and moved on to other endeavours - be that further education or work place learning. Their learning is not finite, limited to what happens at school, during school hours and with a teacher. These are the skills required by a 21st Century learner.

I've thought this over for a couple of days now, and I think that the students who develop the key competencies will be well placed to learn anything at all; and that therefore, the rest of the curriculum is possibly no longer relevant. 

Teaching

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

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Leadership and The Key Competencies

The NZ Curriculum Key Competencies are:-

thinking
using language, symbols and text
managing self
relating to others
participating and contributing

What are my strengths and weaknesses in relation to my teaching and leadership practice?

Our learning through play environment encourages the use of all 5 key competencies. Our ākonga are active learners who have tons of opportunities to practice these competencies every day. 

My big challenge as a leader this year has been to encourage our kaiako to stand back so that ākonga have more agency and self-direction. In the past, kaiako did most of the thinking and organising in the learning space. They made the decisions about how the day would run, how the resources would be organised, what might be learnt, where it might be learnt and with whom. 

It is a struggle for us to give up this level of control in favour of allowing ākonga to make choices, think problems through, fail frequently and try again. We find it difficult to resist the urge to help too much and talk too much. Allowing ākonga to lead the learning is a new skill that we need to add to our 21st Century learning kete. It's one that some kaiako find difficult to understand and even more difficult to implement.