Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Broader professional context

What trend or issue captivates my attention and why?
Design thinking/Teaching as Inquiry process
This trend is relevant to my practice as we are looking at implementing the inquiry process. We as teachers need to engage students in Design Thinking/Inquiry process which means learning more about collaboration and “slowing down to speed up”. It can also help us to empower our learners to be proactive when working with real-world complex problems. Working in a beautiful rural environment where we have 98% Maori students, innovation is not new and that challenging Māori to undertake activities that are inspired by something deep within their own iwi background, culture and experience is something they can connect with, be inspired by and be proud of. 

What the statistical data or resource tell about the identified trend or issue?
Design Thinking is a process that can support us to shift from improvement and reform approaches towards ways that encourage transformation and a “learning revolution” (Robinson, K, 2010).
Gathering evidence about student achievement serves two roles in a teaching inquiry. It helps to identify who the students are, what their learning needs are and which modifications to teaching and learning approaches might work best, against which you can monitor and measure the actual impact on different students, and adjust and adapt practice accordingly. (TKI, nd).

What responsibility do education systems have in teaching students about the potential changes and challenges the trend would bring?
Learning would improve if educators:
Encourage the consideration of existing practices and related issues from multiple perspectives.
Take a problem-based approach and encouraging a strong problem-solving approach.
Use a ground-up approach to reaching a people-focused goal ensuring that all staff have a say in their development needs.
Encourage the creation and testing of many potential ideas for solving problems rather than settling too early on “the right answer”.
Ensure the deep involvement and input of others including learners and their whanau.

Reference:
Robinson, K. (2010). Changing Education Paradigms. You Tube. 

TKI. (nd). Collecting Evidence. Retrieved 8 February 2017 from http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Teaching-as-inquiry/Collecting-evidence.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Helena,
    I really enjoyed reading your blog post. I especially liked when you said that design thinking, "encourages deep involvement and input of other of others including learners and their whanau" because it is taking students learning outside of the context of the school therefore it aims to make learning meaningful for our learners. I also like how you incorporated teaching as inquiry process as I believe it is a vital part to the teaching process as you are constantly developing new strategies and ideas to support learners needs.
    Thanks for the great read!

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  2. Hi Annabelle glad you enjoyed it and yes taking students outside of the context makes learning more meaningful. Staff here make use of our surroundings for our learners. We are even lucky to be doing bees this year and students gaining credits too. A lot of learning can be done in your community and the inquiry process is a great way to start as it relates to their interest and more engagement of both parties will start to evolve. Thanks for contributing.

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