Week 31 - Activity 7

Activity 7  Week 31

What is the observed impact after the ‘Take Action’ phase?

At the beginning of the inquiry, I was a little overwhelmed by the length of the Spiral of Inquiry process, as we had carried them out at school before but not as in depth as I did this time in the past they often lost momentum.  I found by sticking with the process and going through each step thoroughly, it has really paid off.

This inquiry has impacted on my classroom in a very positive way. We now have parents engaging with the learning and sharing their ideas and thoughts with us on a regular basis. The students love having their parents more involved with what they are up to at school and like having discussions at home with their parents about their latest results and goals that they have set in class. The impact on my teaching has been really positive as well as I have found that my students are motivated and and eager to complete work to a really high standard so that we can share it with whanau, this has meant that I have been able to extend my students in many areas of their learning. I really appreciate the feedback I receive from parents now and have learnt so much more about my learners, this has strengthened the relationships I have with my learners and parents.

How is the observed impact different from or similar to the anticipated one?

When I started this inquiry I thought the results would show that parents didn’t feel comfortable coming into school and working with the teaching staff. I thought we would be having to come up with ways to improve our relationships with them before we could expect parents to engage with their child's learning. However, that has not been the case at all and my thinking was tipped on its head. We do have parents who want to collaborate and be involved with their child’s learning, but they simply just don’t have the time to come into school. So this led to the inquiry shifting to using digital platforms to engage with parents and have them collaborate with us.

“Unfortunately, our lens on the world is often clouded or

distorted. Not all of us have access to the same data, and we

interpret those data that we do share differently. As a result,

the assumptions we draw may not be accurate, and the

decisions we make may be flawed.” (Osterman & Kottkamp, 2015)

What is the impact on future inquiry/practice?

This inquiry has opened my mind to the fact that we shouldn’t assume why something happens, especially when it involves our parents and students. We need to communicate with them and seek their voice. As a school we have started carrying out inquiries before but we haven’t really taken it all the way and truly analysed each step fully. By having this experience through my Mindlab journey, I now see the importance of inquiry and ensuring that it is carried out correctly. This inquiry won’t stop with just my class as I plan on taking it school wide, that will open it up to another cycle with looking at how using digital platforms works in other classes in our school. As an Associate Principal it will be my job to ensure that colleagues are carrying out their own inquiries within their own class. It has also made me think that of other areas in our school that need improvement and I now have the knowledge and confidence to get stuck in and create an inquiry to fix the other issues we have. As educators we need to be open to change because what used to work for our learners will not remain the same as society is constantly evolving.

“ We know that education systems designed in the last century no longer met the needs of our learners or our societies. We know that schools must be transformed to engage today's young people. We need a sea change in learning settings for young people. Accepting this view is relatively easy. The trickier questions involve knowing what the transformation will look like and how we can achieve it”. (H.Timperley, L.Kaser, J.Habert, 2014)

As you may know, Google will shut down G+ community on April 2. Since quite a few of you have used this platform to interact with your fellow students and capture the posts as evidence of onl

Osterman, K. F., & Kottkamp, R. B. (2015). Reflective practice for educators : professional development to improve student learning.(2nd ed.) New York: Skyhorse Publishing.

Timperley, H, Kaser, L, & Halbert, J. (2014). A Framework for transforming learning in schools: innovation and the spiral of inquiry. Melbourne: Mercer House.