Applied Practice in Context

Activity 7 : Evaluate how your Inquiry impacts on future Inquiry/practice. I will use Rolf's Model of Reflection,  Finlay (2009),   for this weeks reflective blog post. What is the observed impact after the ‘Take Action’ phase? Now that I have reached the Check Phase of the Inquiry Spiral, I need to consider the impact of my Hybrid Program (see Badenhorst & East, 2015) against my prior expectations. During the Planning phase, I identified the potential impact to my key stakeholders - my Year 9 students - being increased engagement and development of 21st century skills including agency and self management. My evidence gathered overwhelmingly points to a high level of engagement across the class. The differentiated nature of their individualised online program has lead to a sense of accomplishment in most students, as they attain their own learning goals. Students have valued being able to work at their own pace and to have choice over their learning activi...

Activity 6:  Create a reflective entry to describe the data you have collected so far and how you are analysing it. Step 1: Description of my data Right at the beginning of the Take Action phase of the Spiral of Inquiry, I used Microsoft Forms to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. I chose Forms because it is quick and easy to use and provides automatic data analysis of fixed-choice questions. I could also use open questions to gauge my students' perceived engagement in their learning, which is the crux of my inquiry. Despite my inquiry being focused on engagement, I also gathered student grades, task completion rates and accuracy rates from the previous year, which were all available to me through Education Perfect. Although it will be interesting to compare this baseline data to the end of unit results, not all of my Year 9 students were at our school (in the Intermediate school), or completed the Year 8 French programme, so this data has limited use.  This...

Activity 5: Create a reflective entry to discuss how you are addressing the context of different audiences and their perspectives while you are taking action. Step 1: My audiences My inquiry is centred around Hybrid Learning (a Blended Learning Model) with the aim of increasing student engagement. Although my students are at the centre of my teaching practice, there are wider audiences who must also be considered. Today I will reflect on the impact on, and perspectives of: Local Audiences - The teachers in my community of learning (COL) and subject association, the New Zealand Association of French Teachers National Audiences - National education policies International Audiences - International policies and educational trends Bolstad et al. (2012) identify several emerging principles of a 21st century education system. Although many of these principles are relevant to my inquiry, I will focus on the principle of "personalising the learning" in the context of my ...

Activity 4: Discuss how issues of ethics, society and culture are being addressed while you are taking action. Step 1 (What) : Identify an issue of ethics. Ethical dilemmas are unavoidable in the profession of teaching. T hroughout the ages,  research has been conducted on the subject, to create guidelines and codes for ethical practice. I was delighted this week, to stumble across the seven virtues of an ethical life, identified by none other than Saint Thomas Aquinas - after whom our school is named! These include faith, hope, charity, prudence, temperance, courage and justice (Christenbury, 2008, p. 38) and although written in the middle ages, still have great relevance in our Catholic community today. During the Action Phase of my inquiry, my students have been using Microsoft Teams as a digital platform for communication. Despite having clearly outlined my expectations around respectful use of Teams and particularly its "chat" feature, an incident of bullying ar...

Activity 3 :   Examine how indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness are informing the way you are taking action. I will use Rolf's Model of Reflection,  Finlay (2009),   for this weeks reflective blog post. Step 1 (What): What is your understanding of indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness? Culturally responsive pedagogy or Ako is a student-centred approach to teaching, where all students' cultural beliefs and individual strengths are recognised and celebrated (Kaupapa Maori Research, n.d.). According to Bishop in EdTalks (2012), culturally responsive pedagogy is focused on eliminating the disparities between our indigenous, Maori learners and pakeha in post-colonial society. Bishop points out that under Article 3 of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Maori were garanteed opportunities to benefit from being citizens of the "new society", so as educators it is our responsibility to ensure Maori success. Bishop and Berryman (2009) state that "agentic ...

Activity 2:   Create a reflective entry in which you apply a reflective model to discuss something that has happened during your Inquiry so far, and how it impacts on taking  action I have chosen to use Rolf's Model of Reflection,  Finlay (2009),   for this weeks reflective blog post. Step 1 (What): Describe something that is significant and has happened during your Inquiry so far. I am now into the second week of my inquiry on Hybrid Learning in Year 9 French. After getting through the admin and class surveys last week, it was exciting to launch into the Hybrid programme. As my students logged in for their first computer based lesson, something unexpected happened. Joe (as I shall refer to him in this blog) announced that he had already completed the entire task, that was set to last the class 2 to 3 lessons. I had set the task the previous day using Education Perfect, which automatically generates an email to students, letting them know they have ...