Thursday, 15 August 2013

TW Sessions 2 and 3 and August Readings


TW Session 3
I really enjoyed the work we covered with Tim - all the pieces are starting to fit together.
For my practice this means identifying gaps and teaching to them -different in that the Inquiry Cycle involves deciding on a strategy, defining a time frame, Implementing the action and evaluating effectiveness. Alongside this is use of experts, research reading, collecting evidence and collegial/peer critique.
·         Sustaining Improvements on Student Achievement
·         Embedded process of inquiry
·         Experts within and outside school
·         Cycle  of Inquiry
·         Effectiveness of practice
·         Need to know what to do and what to stop doing
·         Identifying new challenges and how they will be acted on
·         Examination of data
·         Examine any improvements
·         Minimise other goals to focus on inquiry
·         Identification of specific student learning needs
·         Focus of middle management  to develop a wider pool of leaders to draw on
·         Interschool conferences
http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Leadership-development/Leadership-programmes/First-time-principals-modules/Module-2-Teaching-effectiveness
What it means to teach effectively
Style view –teachers  are assessed against the students achievement
-effective teachers measured against student achievement –teacher action against student achievement
1.Effective teachers display warmth.
2. Effective teachers are enthusiastic.
3. Effective teachers provide an overview at the start of teaching something new.
4. Effective teachers minimize the amount of time they are teaching
the whole class from the front (direct instruction).
5. Effective teachers facilitate the joint construction of knowledge through teacher-student and student-student conversations.
6. Effective teachers use teaching techniques and approaches that research has shown to be effective.
Flaws:

Outcomes approach
Flaws:


 

Inquiry Approach
Not only inquire but take action –collect and analyse data, Identifying possibilities for improvement
Improve outcomes –look at own practice-engagement,


Knowledge skills and attitudes
 Ideas from all sources
Fallibilities:
No absolute truths, hypotheses may fail, beliefs may be wrong.
http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-stories/Case-studies/Teachers-as-learners-Inquiry/Learning-stories/Story-4    Moana’s Story
Evidence from data
Related reading to writing
Focus on one genre only – narrative writing
Explicit and deliberate teaching, students equipped with tools needed.
Recording of student interviews
Portfolio assessments
Observations –video early and late in the intervention to monitor use of instructional strategies.
You’ve got to be able to step back and be less directive – give the students more autonomy. In some ways, I think it’s one of the harder things for experienced teachers to do!'
Sharing the asTTle data and talking about her own learning also helped:
'They knew it was part of our inquiry into our practice and we were learning along the way … The students could see I was creating a learning community.'
Support of Colleagues
'You’ve got to be able to step back and be less directive – give the students more autonomy. In some ways, I think it’s one of the harder things for experienced teachers to do!'

Sharing the asTTle data and talking about her own learning also helped:

'They knew it was part of our inquiry into our practice and we were learning along the way … The students could see I was creating a learning community.'

What questions does this story raise for you and your colleagues about:
·         the relationship between reading and writing?

·         how to transfer knowledge about effective pedagogical practice into your own teaching?
·         the concept of “effective pedagogy for all learners”?

·        the value of collaborative inquiry?
·         the value of sharing assessment data with students?

·         the importance of feedback and “feed forward”?
·         the deliberate use and combination of instructional strategies?

Jan Robertson’s 3R’s  for Coaching:

1. Reciprocity
2. Relationship
3. Reflection-on-reality
·         Communication and interpersonal skills are essential tools for working effectively with others
·         teacher pedagogy or educational leadership
·         effectiveness, to reach the students in the most challenging situations, reciprocal learning for teacher and learner, leader and follower, is essential. Where there is deep trust, there will also be a depth of reflection on the reality of the learning context.
·         listen to their colleagues articulate and justify certain elements of their pedagogy and practice: “What do you do and why do you believe it is important? What impact does it have on students’ achievement in your class or school?

Reflective Questioning
Effective frameworks for asking questions that challenge and enable others to reflect in depth on practice are important. Good coaches are aware of the types of questions they are asking, they are able to analyse their questions, and they ask questions that delve down to the level of philosophies, values and beliefs about the leadership of learning.

Self-assessment
A most important skill of coaching is creating opportunities and designing the conditions for self-assessment. Often in teacher appraisal, as well as in student learning, it is ‘others’ who give feedback and assessment with little involvement of the learner in the self-assessment process. Much of the interaction in education is typified by someone telling another what to do, and how to do it, and then telling them how well (or not) they have done it and what they should do.

Goal-setting
Goal-setting is an important part of coaching and learning relationships as new learning is about the creation of new knowledge and new ways of being. The coach as learning partner can input into this process with ideas, expertise and suggestions. Important, however, is the timing of input in this process to keep the responsibility and ownership for the learning in the learner’s control. The learner then sets the priorities and establishes a timeframe and commitment to the goals set.

The hardest aspect of teacher development for most educators is being able to give and receive constructive evaluative feedback. This is most often because they have not had the opportunity to learn effective skills. If they follow this process above, and use the coaching skills outlined, they will find partners not only taking responsibility for their own practice but also ownership for the improvement of their work.

Developing a coaching culture– “the way things are done around here”

Coaching, therefore, is not something that you do for one hour twice a year at review and development time or even once a month. Coaching can be the way you enter relationships – teaching, learning, and leadership relationships - and a particular organisational culture can develop when such peer-assisted support and development is prevalent in the learning practices of educators and students.
Inquiry – the learning community is committed to researching their practice and seeking information from each other. Teachers problematising their practice. They ask each other questions about challenges they are facing and encounter in their practice. They problem pose. They proactively search for continual improvement. They ask questions such as
a. What would happen if we tried …”
b. What might we do differently?
c. Does anyone know any research that might guide us?”
d. Which students are not achieving as well as others? Why not?”
e. Has anyone tried anything similar to this with their students?”
f. What is the data/evidence telling us?
Through this process, teachers create and share new knowledge together as part of their daily work.
You would see students supporting each other in their learning in the same ways, and encouraged
by their coaching partners’ reflective questioning techniques to develop critical perspectives about their work.
Risk-taking and challenge – supportive coaching environments are not soft and woolly – far from it! In strong cultures built on networks of relational trust, educators set very high standards and expectations for their own professional behaviour and that of others.
Here members of the learning community try new ideas and share their successes and ideas with each other as part of their learning journey. They are open to new ideas and open to thinking about new ways of working and being. They exhibit risk-taking and experimentation But it will be in a cycle of reflection-on-reality. Their actions are informed by past experiences and decision-making, and the extent to which these new actions achieved the intended outcomes is subject to their own scrutiny and that of their peers. The challenge part of coaching provides the opportunities and structures to move people beyond self, across boundaries, sometimes beyond their comfort zones, to enable different perspectives and methodologies to confront existing ways of knowing. These outside perspectives, the observation of others and new ideas, enables further reflection, examination of one’s own work, and the justification of, or the subsequent change of one’s existing practice in the light of this reflection.
Responsibility and trust -from trustworthy, authentic leadership practice within the learning relationships.
Shared learning -when people enter the learning relationship as partners.
Support
Building capacity -Building capacity – in oneself, others and the organisation. Intellectual capacity building is not enough – and social, cultural, emotional and spiritual capital
Quality -% for all
Innovation and improvement -Students are creative in their approaches to their work – and their coaching partners, (their teachers), value different ways of understanding and achieving results.
Critical reflection, thinking, and awareness -this requires outside perspectives and feedback through coaching relationships. In these relationship-rich communities, time is prioritised for critical reflection focusing on policies, values, beliefs and principles.
Belief – in oneself, in others, and in possibilities. Self-efficacy and self-confidence is one of the most powerful determiners of one’s ability to learn and to feel that one can make a positive difference in his or her work and life.
Coaching partnerships, is much more than a one hour session here and there within an organisation. It can influence the whole learning culture of an organisation.

Tim White Session 2
·         Sustaining Improvements on Student Achievement
·         Embedded process of inquiry
·         Experts within and outside school
·         Cycle  of Inquiry
·         Effectiveness of practice
·         Need to know what to do and what to stop doing
·         Identifying new challenges and how they will be acted on
·         Examination of data
·         Examine any improvements
·         Minimise other goals to focus on inquiry
·         Identification of specific student learning needs
·         Focus of middle management  to develop a wider pool of leaders to draw on
·         Interschool conferences

What it means to teach effectively
Style view –teachers  are assessed against the students achievement
-effective teachers measured against student achievement –teacher action against student achievement
1. Teacher characteristics – warm  etc. 2. Techniques  3. Approaches 4. Minimise time they spend whole class teaching.
Outcomes view
Inquiry framework –most coherent
 

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