Topic Area: Blended Learning
“Blended Learning is any time a student learns at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home and at least in part through online delivery with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace.”
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My 'Big' Question:
How do we best develop a culturally responsive teaching approach to Blended Learning within our Community of Learning?
Background
There is an increasing use of Social Enterprise models in providing the resourcing for the rise of Blended Learning over the past decade, particularly within K12 schools (e.g.: in the United States Australia and the UK). In the New Zealand setting, the original Manaiakalani project has gone from one school cluster in East Tamaki created a dozen years ago, to now involve several other school clusters around New Zealand as a Blended Learning outreach .
My recent literary review around the topic of Blended Learning indicated that there was limited longitudinal research-based guidelines around what best teachers looked like and what teachers need in general practise when approaching online learning contexts. (Source: DiPietro et al 2008).
Within the New Zealand educational setting, the increased use of Blended Learning approaches indicate a growing need for formal nationwide training opportunities for teachers around the use of online learning platforms. (Source: Barbour et al 2013)
Examples of this need starting to be addressed by New Zealand tertiary providers have become evident over the past couple of years. In-service teacher training opportunities around the use of digital devices in practical learning contexts now includes Postgraduate Certification for fully registered teachers and the provision of a Digital Teacher Academy for beginner teachers.
The latter has been created in response to the efforts of the Manaiakalani Outreach project, as the process of providing affordable, reliable Blended Learning opportunities for so many schools has necessarily created longitudinal development of teacher training programs as a part of these. As these schools necessarily partake in digital learning platforms and use online mediums in a collaborative context, the process has facilitated the development and provision of training programmes for teachers and learners at an unprecedented scale. By extension, this model may then provide us with a basis for a replicable nationwide model for teaching within Blended Learning environments.
Amongst the several new Manaiakalani Outreach projects now underway around New Zealand, the Papakura Kōtuitui initiative encompasses both my own school cluster and kura (school).Whilst the outreach in the context of the Papakura cluster of schools has a three pronged approach, the educational aspect is predominantly around providing students with the devices and skills they will need to learn and grow within increasingly innovative, “Blended Learning” environments. As such, digital collaboration is the underpinning process by which their learning will be realised.
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| Image modified from Online Source |
When reflecting on those elements that relate to both digital mediums and collaborative learning practises, over the last several years, our own kura (school’s) Community of Learning has explored how we can:
- enhance student engagement through the use of Information Technology (ICT);
- develop the skills and content knowledge required to improve learning outcomes;
- engage our educators, whanau and wider community to improve the learning outcomes for our akonga (students);
- develop learning relationships that best allow Maori to learn as Maori.
Aside from my own kura being a Primary School where three out of every four students identify as Maori, there is a wider need within our educational community to address the needs of our Maori students across the board. The New Zealand Ministry of Education guidelines found in the “Ka hikitia: accelerating success” (2013) document tell us that we must address those factors which are critical to the educational engagement of our Maori students, and by extension, their wider whanau (family groups) and learning communities. The inference is that at all levels, Maori must be active, involved participants in their education - both as students, as parents, and as a wider community. This would better provide Maori with the sense of connectedness to their whanau and tino rangatiratanga (self-determination) in a more holistic manner.
The use of an effective social enterprise model such as the one offered by the Papakura Kōtuitui initiative may also allow our schools to “create productive partnerships with parents, whanau, hapu, iwi, communities and businesses that are focused on educational success” as is explicitly prescribed in the Ka hikitia document (MoE 2013, pp.8)
In our own school, we need to consider practices that will actually utilise models that encourage the discussion of new ideas whilst also building on the prior knowledge that students bring with them, such as those oral traditions that foster a sense of cultural identity and belonging. The concept of whanau underpins so much of what we do and relates so well to our understanding as teachers and leaders of learning.
Relationship building is perhaps the most significant aspect, for Maori and non-Maori learners alike. A sense of mutuality, of ako (reciprocity), and of belonging all contribute to the wellbeing and desire to live and learn for all of us. This is something that the Papakura Kōtuitui approach to the wider wellbeing of our students also intends to address in the coming years.
“In our view, Mana-a-riki is possible by bringing together three things for children, and that is education, it is health, and it is homes. We’re trialling integration of strands of work, health education in homes, we’re trialling the interconnection of schools with one another, we’re trialling the interconnection between community; but the idea is that you do that all together, to get the outcome, which is the wellbeing of children, which is Mana-a-riki." ~ Rangamarie Hunia (Project Manager)
Original video source: Kōtuitui ki Papakura website
Some key discussion points to consider further (when developing our own pedagogy (practical aspects) around teaching within a Blended Learning environment):
- What does 'best practise' look like for teachers within Blended Learning environments?
- How can we be truly inclusive and build meaningful learning relationships with our students and their whanau when utilising digital learning and collaborative approaches?
- What guidelines can we develop around the use of Blended Learning that will meet the needs of all of our learners, and in particular, our Maori students?
- Can more traditional methods of Maori learning / achieving as Maori be adapted to compliment and enhance student's Blended Learning experiences in the current day?
- What benefits can our learners gain from incorporating aspects of Kaupapa Maori to our Blended Learning approaches?
Follow Up Prompt: Looking at the above, where I might go next in regards to a quantifiable / qualitative question / series of questions that might be allow me to observe and reflect on over the next couple of months in my teaching practise?
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| A recent snapshot of our school website. |
REFERENCES CITED
Barbour, M. and Bennett, C. (2013) “The FarNet journey: Effective teaching strategies for engaging Māori students on the Virtual Learning Network” Education Faculty Publications. Paper 69.
DiPietro, M., Ferdig, R.E., Black, E.W., and Preston, M. (2008) “Best practices in teaching K-12 online: Lessons learned from Michigan Virtual School teachers.” Reprinted from Volume 7, Issue 1: Journal of Interactive Online Learning.
Horn, M.B., and Staker. H. (2011) “The Rise of K–12 Blended Learning” Innosight Institute, January 2011.
Ministry of Education (2007) “The New Zealand Curriculum” online, as published by the New Zealand Ministry of Education.
Ministry of Education (2013) “Ka Hikitia: Accelerating Success 2013-2017”, published by the New Zealand Ministry of Education.
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| A snapshot of our school's overall ethnic composition |
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