Week 18 / Reflecting on changes in my future oriented teaching practice

Week 18 / Reflecting on changes in my future oriented teaching practice 


 Description 
 For this week's reflection, I will be using Gibbs reflective cycle. I read the theme extracts 1: personalising learning, 2: new views of equity, diversity and inclusivity, and 4: changing the script - rethinking learner's and teacher's roles (Bolstad, Gilbert, McDowall, Bull, Boyd & Hipkins, 2012) 
In my role as an RTLB I took on a case of supporting teachers with students who struggle to write. With the changing technology I myself needed to change how I can see writing. Writing or communicating ideas can be done in various ways not in the traditional way. It was challenging for a lot of teachers, a comment I have had is “Can't they just write one sentence on paper and the rest on the computer.” My goal was to support teachers to implement technology into a literacy programme. I had developed new knowledge around assistive technology. Then the next goal was to see Literacy not as a stand alone subject but as a way for all students to communicate all their ideas and also be equitable for all. My teaching practise was challenged by reading “changing the Script as I thought how am going to approach this with other teachers. I had made the shift with technology and felt that I wanted to work with other teachers on this. Bolstad, Gilbert, McDowall, Bull, Boyd & Hipkins, 2012, says that the challenge is moving passed seeing the learning terms as student centered or teacher driven, and starting to think about teachers and learners working together in a 'knowledge-building" learning environment. I felt that the teachers and learners in this were myself and the teachers. 

 Feelings

  • I stopped thinking of literacy as words on paper, my inquiry began into different ways to communicate ideas. 
  • I had a lot of resources to draw from in my new role and through the Mind lab course. 
  • The children that we were focused on thought that they were not good writers therefore were not good at learning. 
  • When given a tool to be able to communicate their ideas and that they thought the teacher valued their ideas even though they were not on the traditional format of “paper the student improved in their learning. 
  • The confidence these children gained made me want to investigate other ways we could get children to communicate their learning and encourage teachers to use assisted technology across all areas. 


 Evaluation 

  • The teachers became more confident with using technology 
  • They understand more about equity versus equality just because one child uses a computer to write not everyone needs to. As Bolstad et al (2012) state However, a future-oriented approach suggests that we need to develop new ways of thinking about equity and diversity. 
  • I realized that it's one small step at a time. Some schools don’t have access to technology yet and I found that a struggle. 


 Analysis 

  • As Bolstad et al (2012) state The challenge is to move past seeing learning in terms of being "student-centred" or "teacher-driven", and instead to think about how learners and teachers would work together in a "knowledge-building" learning environment.
  • I felt with this statement that the teachers and myself were to move to more knowledge building learning environment. 
  • Giving the students more opportunity to work in a collaborative learning environment with their teachers. 


 Conclusion 

  • Changed my teaching practice around writing and students being able to share their ideas.
  • Encouraging teachers to use assistive technology is tricky when the access to technology is still difficult. 
  •  Moving from equality to equity can sometimes be a struggle for some teachers. Bolstad et al (2012)state The idea of "personalising learning" calls for reversing the "logic" of education systems so that the system is built around the learner, rather than the learner being required to fit with the system. 


 Action plan 

  • To implement assistive technology with other class teachers. 
  • Offer different assistive technology options. 
  • Help teachers access more technology tools. 


 References:
 Bolstad, R., Gilbert, J., McDowall, S., Bull, A., Boyd, S., & Hipkins, R. (2012). Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching — a New Zealand perspective. Report prepared for the Ministry of Education. Retrieved from https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/schooling/109306 

 Finlay, L. (2009). Reflecting on reflective practice. PBPL. Retrieved from http://www.open.ac.uk/opencetl/sites/www.open.ac.uk.opencetl/files/files/ecms/web-content/Finlay-(2008)-Reflecting-on-reflective-practice-PBPL-paper-52.pdf

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