Mindlab by Unitec: My Postgraduate Learning Journey

07 March 2016 (APC Week 32 - Task 10)

Putting It All Together

It's important for all of us as professional educators to both understand and evaluate our own practise. Osterman & Kottkamp (1993) offer us a useful model that links in well with the practical aspects of developing a pedgogical approach.

Figure 1: Osterman & Kottcamp (1993) - Source Article

My experiences over the course of the past 32 weeks for my Mindlab studies has certainly provided me with a greater understanding of what Teaching As Inquiry looks and feels like 'in action'. I for one now firmly believe that the professional awareness that this approach generates within us can have a positive lasting impact on how I approach my own leading and learning roles in future.

Being able to reflect on my own practise whilst  experiencing new professional experiences has been both eye opening and horizon broadening. Meeting and collaborating with educators from around the country (and even overseas) as part of my studies has been a revelation that has extended my own view of the profession well beyond geographical boundaries and current points of view. 

In a New Zealand educational context, the Ministry of Education has set criteria for practising teacher in e-learning. For the reflective purposes of this blog entry, here's some evidence  from my studies to support a few of the criteria I have met well over the past 32 weeks...

When reviewing how I have used this "Professional knowledge in practice", Criteria 7 leaps to my attention: how I "Promote a collaborative, inclusive, and supportive learning environment". Plenty of evidence of this is freely available on our class blog and learning hub website that I have collaborated on with my colleagues. Many of the posts on this blog also demonstrate how I have been sharing what I have learned with my wider community of practise, too.

Looking at the criteria around "Professional relationships and professional values", two immediately spring to my attention as having been well met over the course of my studies, and within my teaching practise for many years now.

"Criteria 3: Demonstrate commitment to bicultural partnership in Aotearoa / New Zealand." Apart from this being a strong underpinning element in several of my internally submitted essays for my recent studies, my recent blog entry on cultural inclusiveness effectively summarises my own understanding and drive to include this as part of my pedagogical and ethical approach to my leading and learning.

As a useful segue, "Criteria 4: Demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of professional personal practice" also leads me to the final part of this blog entry...

Where to Next?

I've long questioned the established ways of doing things, and my being open to new ways of leading and learning have been a definite asset for this course of study. It seems to me as if the opportunities are only as limited by our own individual and collective vision(s) when it comes how we might move forward from here...

My 'Big Question' for RCIP two months ago - the question now, for me is, do I limit my understanding of a Community of Learning to a geographically bounded area, as a simplistic case study that can be replicated elsewhere - or begin to consider myself a part of a global community of learning...

The academic research and case studies I've viewed fill me with a quiet optomism as to where it all may lead; and the cautionary tales and as yet under-researched areas should likely encourage each of us to look beyond traditional methodologies. There's definitely an opportunity there for me to consider studying at Masters level in future, or to at the very least encourage others to pursue this avenue.

I myself am left with a keen interest in exploring newer, more inclusive pedagogical approaches that will likely make the most of our increasingly global contexts. It's not just about hoping that innovation occurs in a timely manner and going with the proverbial flow anymore:

I firmly and passionately believe that it's vitally important for all of us as whanau  and educators alike to consider how we can  actively partcipate in changing the paradigms that we lead and learn within, as we begin to deliberately coach and mentor our students and colleagues in this new age of digital and collaborative learning...! 
 

References Cited

Osborne, M. J. (2016, 1st February). My RCIP Reflective Portfolio. [Blog Entry] Retrieved from http://postgradteacher.blogspot.co.nz/2016/02/mindlab-by-unitec-my-rcip-project-plan.html on 28th March 2016. 
Osborne, M.J. (2016, 29th February). Cultural Responsiveness within a NZ Context. [Blog Entry] Retrieved from http://postgradteacher.blogspot.co.nz/2016/02/mindlab-by-unitec-evaluating-my-own.html on 28th March 2016
Osterman, K. & Kottkamp, R.(1993) Reflective Practice for Educators. California. Cornwin Press, Inc. Retrieved from http://www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk/files/RefPract/Osterman_Kottkamp_extract.pdf on 28th March 2016.

Ministry of Education (NZ). Practising Teacher Criteria and e-learning. Retrieved from http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Professional-learning/Practising-Teacher-Criteria-and-e-learning on 28th March 2016

Mindlab by Unitec: My Professional Context

01 February 2016 (APC Week 27, Task 5)

My Professional Context 

As part of the process of becoming a “self-aware” teaching professional, it is important to be fully cognizant of the broader contexts in which we learn and lead in the 21st century. 

   By defining our own roles, pedagogical approaches, inter-relationships and the way these are all interwoven, we begin to develop the understanding we need to effectively move within our own community of learning. 
    As we develop our a sense of ako or 'reciprocity', we begin to understand our own context within the educational framework in which we operate as leaders of learning, and this allows us to better develop the relationships, skills and content knowledge we will need within an increasingly global learning environment.
     As part of this change process, the increased use of online sources to facilitate new, innovative learning processes compels educators to increasingly develop an interdisciplinary approach to leading and learning. 
    "Interdisciplinary programs may be founded in order to facilitate the study of subjects which have some coherence, but which cannot be adequately understood from a single disciplinary perspective." (Wikipedia, 2016)

 TEDx Talks (2001, April 6). TEDxBYU - David Wiley - 

An Interdisciplinary Path to Innovation. [video file].

No longer are the school teacher and their physical school sites the proverbial font from which "all necessary academic content" (i.e.: curriculum) pours forth. 

    The exponential growth of information sharing via the internet allows learners to discover their own understanding from a digitised, globalised and publicised network of knowledge available to them.  

    Professional educators now need to venture into the same open access context, and the same freedom to venture forth into innovative approaches to the questions we all may have.

   With a sense of stewardship and global citizenship both, teachers can indeed be the leaders who guide our young people to asking the questions that will lead to the break throughs previously limited by environmental boundaries...

My Professional Connections

For this blog post, I have created a 'professional connection map' to help me to begin to visualise the extent of the connections have made (and could potentially develop further on in future) to help me to begin to visualise the wider context in which I learn and teach. 

     For this 'mind mapping' activity, I have used a digital tool via Coggle. I chose this tool because it allowed me to sign via my Google+ account, which made it very user friendly - thanks Michelle for the inspiration!

"My Professional Connections Map" (click on image to enlarge)

An interesting observation I made when creating this 'professional connection map': the process initially started out in a rather linear or "hierarchical" manner at the outset, much as one might expect at the start of one's career. Yet as I visually mapped the links between the different elements or "stakeholders" in my professional connections in the current day, the more interwoven and web-like the illustration became...

I think this activity was an important reminder professionally of how the advent of digital collaboration and devices are increasingly changing our world view and pedagogical approaches - at the micro as well at the meta level - in the same way... Welcome to "Global Citizenship" in action!

NB: My previous entry for RCIP already covers my professional reflection around several of the various connections noted in my mindmap: which I offer again as my evaluation in regards to how these "stakeholders" can and do impact on my practise and Community of Learning. The Manaiakalani Outreach and the Papakura Kootuitui initiatives as discussed in this previous blog entry particularly relate to our school's move into Digital Learning and Collaboration contexts. 

Further Reading 
(around the concept of interdisciplinarity i.e.: in educational settings.)
Mathison,S. & Freeman, M. (1997). The logic of interdisciplinary studies. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, 1997. [PDF file].

Mindlab by Unitec: Reflecting on My Learning and Practise

18 January 2016 (APC Week 25, Tasks1-3)

My Reflective Journal
Kia ora, my name is Marla Jane, and I am a primary school teacher in South Auckland, New Zealand. 

   I have been teaching at my current kura (school) for nearly eight years now; I have had the good fortune to have taught across the school as a classroom teacher for akonga (students) from Year 2 to Year 6 during my time as a kiako (teacher) there. 

   I've been teaching within the senior syndicate for the past few years, so I get to work with students from Year 4-8 as we move into innovative learning environments and full immersion digital platforms through the Papakura Kootuitui initiative in 2016.

   As part of my role within our community of learning, I have been actively involved in co-developing ICT-related practises, most recently around our class blog and learning hub website.

   To keep up-to-date with the goings on in education in the 21st Century, I also keep a pinterest board and interact with other educators through my own Google+ and Twitter accounts 'in my spare time'. 

   Then, of course, we arrive at this blog, which I've created in the past year to keep track of all my professional learning: from professional learning and development in the workplace, through to educational conferences; and most recently, during the Mindlab By Unitec PGCert course. 

   Beyond my obvious strong interest in "all things ICT", my other passion is for Visual Art - from teaching and learning about it, through to sharing my creations with the wider 'globe'.

My Learning and Practice

   I have created this blog post to reflect on the last 24 weeks of my PCGCert studies at Mindlab by Unitec. To begin, let me start with 'a critical discussion' of two of my own Key Competencies that I believe have been developed the most during my studies the past several months.

My Original Reflection - cut and pasted from our Google Form made in August 2015.

   Reflecting on my initial comments in August 2015, one of the most striking contrasts for me over the past several months has been how my pre-existing 'Participating and Contributing' competency has proven to be a real asset when undertaking both e-Learning and professional networking.   

   My locus of interest has greatly expanded over recent months - from discussions with my fellow post grad students, through to my relatively new use of Twitter as a way to foster networks and source innovative ideas in ever-changing professional leading and learning contexts. 

   Along with this post graduate course itself, experiencing ULearn'15 allowed me to confidently approach educators from a wide variety of professional settings. 

    Another noticable change has been in how my 'Thinking' key competency has been opened up even further by this discourse and sharing of such a broad, expansive and increasingly globalised view of education as it is now occuring in the present tense.
 
   Other key changes that I have noticed within my own pedagogical practise since starting this course include how my use of online networking and cloud-based tools and resources have all effectively become an intrinsic part of how I gather, learn, create, share and reflect on my teaching and learning.

My Response to Finlay’s (2008) article 
In Lynda Finlay's (2008) article "Reflecting on Reflective Practise", she paraphrases Zeichner and Liston (1996) as saying that the reflective practise can effectively occur at five different levels:

1. rapid reflection - responding to the immediate contexts within the learning setting;
2. repair - adjusting teacher responses and behaviours in light of different student cues;
3. review - thinking, verbalising or writing about aspects of one's teaching;
4. research - engaging in a longitudinal view of one's pedagogy through a process of traingulation of assessment data, professional readings and other professional sources of information;
5. retheorising and reformulating - adjusting one's professional thinking and pedagogy in response to all of the above.

This particular hierarchy of reflective thought aligns well with my own learning experiences around the professional reflections at this juncture. Within my own professional teaching and learning, the model that we endeavour to use is identifed as Teaching As Inquiry.

   This process aligns with my professional obligations in regards to meeting my own goals within my teaching practise, and the model itself essentially provides me with a clear picture of "where I am, what has worked, what didn't work, and what my nexts steps would be". The process of review is complimented by my being able to discuss these different steps within my syndicate and as part of my professional appraisal cycle. 

Source: Teaching As Inquiry (TKI website image)

Teaching As Inquiry effectively gives me a clear, definable platform on which to best develop the professional skills and reflective approach needed in an ever changing world of learning and leading.

   Looking at Finlay's discussion around the concepts of reflexivity and critical reflection also align well with how the practise often necessarily occurs within learning environments where 'value-added' appraoches are explicit in the pedaogogical setting in which teaching occurs.

   "Reflexive practitioners engage in critical self-reflection: reflecting critically on the impact of their own background, assumptions, positioning, feelings, behaviour while also attending to the impact of the wider organisational, discursive, ideological and political context." (Finlay, 2008)

   It is necessary that we understand the contexts in which we teach, and the wider influences on both ourselves and our learning community of learning - from our immediate students who need both our informed empathy and guidance, through to the over-arching educational bodies that govern our practise.

   As we seek to provide our learners and our colleagues with the tools they need to live and learn within a globalised educational context, it is important that each of us is able to confidently approach and then master the skills we all need to be 'digital citizens' of the new millenium.

References Cited
(not directly cited unless undelined as above - citations include suggested readings for creating your own reflective learning journal.)

Dawson, F. (2012, October 10). Reflective practice. [video file].

Finlay, L. (2009) Reflecting on reflective practice. PBPL. [PDF file]
Galanis, M (2014, November 4). Blogging in Education. [video file]
Godin, S. (2015). The tribes we lead. Ted.com. [Web blog post].
Goins, J.(2015). How to Write Scannable Content for Your Blog. [Web blog post]
Gunelius, S. (2015). The Secrets of Blog Post Length. About.com Tech. [Web blog post]
Gunelius, S. (2015). Legal Issues Bloggers Must Understand. About.com Tech. [Web blog post]
Gunelius, S. (2015). 3 Expert Tips for Better Blogging. About.com Tech. [Web blog post]
LSU Center for Academic Success (2013, March 26). Think about Thinking - It’s Metacognition!. [video file].
Trinity,A. ( 2010, April 19,). Reflection Models. [video file].
Walker, J. (2012, February 17). Brief Intro to Metacoginition. [video file].
Zeichner, K. M., & Liston, D. P. (1996). "Reflective teaching. An introduction. Reflective teaching and the social conditions of schooling".