Mindlab - Action reflections

Wednesday 31 October 2018

Teaching as Inquiry spiral



Using the Spiral TAI Model

Scan
What is going on for our learners?
We know that often our boys come to school and find it hard to learn and maintain concentration.
What do boys need to learn? (Girls need emotional connections with their teachers)
How can we engage boys in their learning using robotics?

Focus
What will have the biggest impact?
Literacy/writing - especially the recording of written work. Reading topics are sometimes problematic - too narrow. Boys being more engaged? Or boys being able to record their ideas more easily?

Develop a hunch
Robotics or AI can engage boy learners. We are missing opportunities to engage our boys using AI and robotics.

Learn
What do we need to learn?
How will we learn this?
Unitec Library and Google Scholar - since girls are emotionally attached - what is the boy equivalent.
Using robotics to engage boy learners.
SF/Interpersonal 63%
Motivated by interacting with others, providing practical service, and using resources to be helpful
Form beliefs early about their ability to succeed in education

Take Action
Opportunities to succeed
Use AI/robotics - what can boys create and do with these that are there be used and celebrated in class.

Check
How do we know we have made a difference
Student Voice
Boys Engagement


Leadership Week 15

Inquiry
Inquiry has been described as “the organised pursuit of curiosity.” (Stenhouse, 1981)
Teacher Inquiry into Student Learning
This week, in this course we are covering Teacher Inquiry into Student Learning, and in the digital and collaborative course we are covering inquiry learning. Team Solutions (2009) make the distinction between them as follows:
Inquiry Learning (DIGITAL)Teacher Inquiry (LEADERSHIP)
A process where students co-construct their learning in an authentic contextWhere teachers inquire into their own practice and use evidence to make decisions about ways to change that practice for the benefit of the student

2. Professional Learning
In the Standards for the Teaching Profession (Education Council, 2017), the professional learning standard explicitly refers to inquiry: "Use inquiry, collaborative problem solving and professional learning to improve professional capability to impact on the learning and achievement of all learners." (p.18)
Three of the elaborations of this standard provide further explicit links to teacher inquiry:
  • Inquire into and reflect on the effectiveness of practice in an ongoing way, using evidence from a range of sources
  • Engage in professional learning and adaptively apply this learning in practice.
  • Be informed by research and innovations related to: content disciplines; pedagogy; teaching for diverse learners, including learners with disabilities and learning support needs; and wider education matters.
Teaching as Inquiry
The NZ Ministry of Education provides a series of web pages explaining what they define as Teaching as Inquiry there are several diagrammatic versions of the model proved, but all are similar to this one.
The Spiral of Inquiry
This is described on the MoE's TKI website as “a fresh rethink on the structure of teaching as inquiry.” (Ministry of Education, 2015). It emphasises involvement of learners, their families and communities and developing learner agency. It states that engaging in inquiry is a process of developing collective professional agency either within a school or across a cluster of schools. The approach is described in Timperley, Kaser and Halbert (2014). They emphasise agency and collaboration: "Engaging in inquiry is a process of developing collective professional agency either within a school or across a cluster of schools”, and “Nor can leaders decide what the focus of their inquiry should be. It is the collaborative inquiry process that matters”
The Spiral Playbook (Kaser & Halbert, 2017) provides an accessible overview of how to use the Spiral of Inquiry. It is included in this week's media and we will be using it in the face to face sessions. 
Which Inquiry Models are teachers using?
For the flipped preparation we asked you till fill in a form to say which teacher inquiry model(s) you are using. The form can he found at tinyurl.com/TMLteacherinquiry and we will share the results in class. Previous intakes have indicated that about half of teachers have used the Teaching as Inquiry model, while the other half used the Spiral of Inquiry, along with a handful of other models.
The online part of the programme will centre around your teacher inquiry.
Your inquiry can relate to any of the topics we’ve studied during the first 16 weeks, and you’ll still have access to those weeks’ content in the portal while studying online.
During the 16 weeks you will design an action plan informed by community needs and insights from research. You will then carry out the initial cycle of a Spiral of Inquiry while writing a series of reflections on different aspects of your inquiry.
References
Education Council. (2017). Our Code Our Standards: Code of Professional Responsibility and Standards for the Teaching Profession. Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/files/Our%20Code%20Our%20Standards%20web%20booklet%20FINAL.pdf
Hubbard, R. & Power, B. (2003). The Art of Classroom Inquiry: A Handbook for Teacher-Researchers (Revised Ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Kaser, L. & Halbert, J. (2017). The Spiral Playbook: Leading with an inquiring mindset in school systems and schools. C21 Canada. Retrieved from http://c21canada.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Spiral-Playbook.pdf
Ministry of Education. (2015). Before You Start. Retrieved from http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Teaching-as-inquiry/Before-you-start
Team Solutions. (2009). Thinking about Inquiry. Retrieved from http://teamsolutions.wikispaces.com/Teaching+as+Inquiry
Timperley, H., Kaser, L. & Halbert, J. (2014). A framework for transforming learning in schools: Innovation and the spiral of inquiry. Centre for Strategic Education. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/content/download/74475/611763/file/Spiral%20of%20Inquiry%20Paper%20-%20Timperley%20Kaser%20Halbert.pdf

Digital Learning Week 15

Inquiry Learning vs. Teacher Inquiry
This week, in this course we are covering inquiry learning, and in the leadership course we are covering teacher inquiry. Team Solutions (2009) make the distinction between them as follows:
Inquiry Learning (DIGITAL)Teacher Inquiry (LEADERSHIP)
A process where students co-construct their learning in an authentic contextWhere teachers inquire into their own practice and use evidence to make decisions about ways to change that practice for the benefit of the students
Healey (2015) underlines the importance of inquiry learning to the contemporary classroom in her blog, stating "A recent popular magazine asked what education will be like for the class of 2025. While the accompanying article mostly rehashed the ongoing debate between content and process, I saw the cover and had a one-word answer: research." She also suggests a couple of processes for inquiry learning.
Which careers are a safe bet?
In 2015 the BBC set up a web page entitled "Will a robot take your job?", which you can find at tinyurl.com/willarobottakeyourjob. A similar page was set up at willrobotstakemyjob.com, based on the same data set  In the session we will ask you to search either of these sites to find out the likelihood that various jobs could be automated within the next two decades. A fuller discussion of the study behind these web sites can be found in Frey and Osborne (2017).


Robotics
The term robot was coined in the English version of Czech writer Karel Čapek's 1920 play R.U.R., translated as “Rossum's Universal Robots”. The word stems from the Czech word robota, meaning ‘forced labour’ (Legacy.com, 2011). There are many definitions of a robot in the present day, view the related media'What is a robot' clip to find out the shared characteristics.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
As with robotics, there are many definitions of artificial intelligence (AI). The following examples come from Russell and Norvig (2014, p22), using secondary references.
  • Thinking Humanly: “The exciting new effort to make computers think ... machines with minds, in the full and literal sense.” (Haugeland, 1985)
  • Acting Humanly: “The study of how to make computers do things at which, at the moment, people are better.” (Rich & Knight, 1991)
  • Thinking Rationally: “The study of the computations that make it possible to perceive, reason, and act.” (Winston, 1992)
  • Acting Rationally: “AI . . . is concerned with intelligent behavior in artifacts.” (Nilsson, 1998)
Teaching is not Immune from Automation
Although the research by Frey and Osborne (2017) suggests that the teaching profession is not at immediate risk of automation, it is likely that robotics and AI will have a significant impact on the roles of educators. For example It is expected that artificial intelligence in U.S. education will grow by 47.5% from 2017-2021 (Marr, 2018). The impact of technology will mean that teachers will be working alongside machines. “By leveraging the best attributes of machines and teachers, the vision for AI in education is one where they work together for the best outcome for students. Since the students of today will need to work in a future where AI is the reality, it’s important that our educational institutions expose students to and use the technology" (Marr, 2018). 
It is also likely that we see an increasing number of tasks traditionally associated with teaching that will be taken over by AI. "The embodied presence of the teacher may not be required to the same extent... As AI based on pedagogical models is combined with ‘onscreen teaching’ to underpin adaptive learning the role of the teacher will change. Some aspects of teaching will be automated that would previously seem the purview of human teachers." (Gulson, Murphie, Taylor & Sellar, 2018).


Fertile Questions
Here are some ideas from Harpaz (2005) on six characteristics of 'fertile' questions that might be used in an inquiry:
  • Open - there are several different or competing answers
  • Undermining - makes the learner question their basic assumptions
  • Rich - cannot be answered without careful and lengthy research, often able to be broken into subsidiary questions
  • Connected - relevant to the learners
  • Charged - has an ethical dimension
  • Practical - is able to be researched given the available resources
Tools That Can Help Manage Inquiry Projects
Some tools we have previously introduced that may be useful for this week's In Class inquiry:
  • Unitec Library Website
    • When using the library website, do not rely just on Articles-Express to find all the resources you need, since it does not cover the whole of the library's holdings. Also search the databases, e-journals etc.
    • Contact Unitec IMS support if your Library login doesn’t work.
  • Google Scholar
    • When using Google Scholar, make sure that you have linked the Unitec library to your searches (Settings -> Library Links -> search for 'Unitec'). Remember that you can also save references to articles you have found in Google Scholar ('Save' -> 'My Library') and generate APA references (the " " symbol).
  • Define your Google search by searching i.e. News or Videos and use the Tools option to define i.e. timeframe!
  • And don’t forget to search the recent Tweets.
Slide Set for the Flipped Preparation Activity
For the before class activity, you should have contributed to the shared slide deck of models used in NZ schools: tinyurl.com/Learningasinquirymodels
Programming the Robots
Edison
  • To program the Edison robot go to the EdBlocks site and login, you can program this robot in a web browser and that address is: EdBlocks: www.edblocksapp.com
  • Other options for higher level programming include EdScratch: www.edscratchapp.com and EdPy: www.edpyapp.com (version 2)
  • If you choose to program the Edison in class, this short video will give some guidance. Tutorials are also available.
  • If you are having trouble getting your Edison to work, there is a very helpful troubleshooting guide that may be of some assistance. A quick tip for the 'clap' response, if the environment is too noisy, you may need to tap on the Edison for it to recognise this command. If you choose to programme the Edison to follow a light, you will need to have a good contrast between the light being shone and the environment of the Edison. You will need to have printed the barcodes and the sumo ring from the website lesson plans, to have Edison's sumo wrestle one another, maybe something for later in your own classes ;-) 
mBot
There are three main ways to program the mBbot. 
  • The first option is to download the latest version of mBlock (available for both Windows and Mac). This short video will be helpful when programming the mBots in class, it looks at how to generate Arduino code in mBlock and then upload the code to the robot mBot. 
  • The flipped preparation was to downloaded for android (Google Play Store) or ios (Apps Store) onto smartphones or tablets, the Makeblock app which allows you to drive, draw and run using a keypad, play music and even try voice control (you may need an American accent ;-)). An alternative app is mBlock Blockly which guides users through coding tutorials.
  • And last but not least, if you have a remote, read the enclosed booklet in the box to discover functions available such as line following, obstacle avoidance etc. You can still achieve these using the first two bullet points if no remote is available.
References
Frey, C. B., & Osborne, M. A. (2017). Frey, C. B., & Osborne, M. A. (2017). The future of employment: how susceptible are jobs to computerisation?.Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 114, 254-280. Retrieved from https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf (this link is an early 2013 pre-print)
Gulson, K., Murphie, A., Taylor, S. & Sellar, S. (2018). Education, work and Australian society in an AI world. Gonski Institute for Education. University of New South Wales. Retrieved from https://education.arts.unsw.edu.au/media/EDUCFile/Gonski_AIEd_Final_Aug2018_Formatted.pdf
Harpaz, N. (2005). Teaching and Learning in a Community of Thinking. Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 20(2), 136-157. Retrieved from http://yoramharpaz.com/pubs/en_learning/teaching-learning.pdf
Healey, L. (2015). A Student-Led, Flipped, Inquiry-Based Learning Classroom Doing Authentic Work. Teachthought. Retrieved from http://teachthought.com/learning/student-led-flipped-inquiry-based-learning-classroom-authentic-work/
Legacy.com. (2011). Karel Capek, Beyond The Robots. Retrieved from http://www.legacy.com/news/explore-history/article/karel-capek-beyond-the-robots
Marr, B. (2018). How Is AI Used In Education -- Real World Examples Of Today And A Peek Into The Future. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/07/25/how-is-ai-used-in-education-real-world-examples-of-today-and-a-peek-into-the-future/#6e853b69586e
Russell, S. & Norvig, P. (2014). Artificial Intelligence: A modern approach (3rd edition). Harlow, Essex: Pearson.
Stenhouse, L. (1981). What counts as research? British Journal of Educational Studies, 29(2), 103-144.
Team Solutions. (2009). Thinking about Inquiry. Retrieved from http://teamsolutions.wikispaces.com/Teaching+as+Inquiry

Wednesday 24 October 2018

Leadership 14

Nationality Versus Culture
Nationality is not a very meaningful concept. Culture is much more significant. “It is remarkable how fast and how effectively you can construct a nationality with a flag, a few speeches, and a national anthem.” (Taleb, 2008). Nick Taleb, who might be described in these terms as a Lebanese American, is dismissive of nationality, he sees it as a largely meaningless way of defining someone.
School Culture
According to the Ministry of Education (2016), a school's culture consists of the customs, rituals, and stories that are evident and valued throughout the whole school. An effective school culture is one in which the customs and values foster success for all; and where clear boundaries are set, known, and agreed to by everyone. In developing a positive culture, effective principals ensure that educational practices are inclusive. They make certain that students and their families do not feel alienated either from their own culture or from the culture of the school.
New Formations of Whānau
According to Smith (1995), The concept of whānau provides the school with a synergy, enabling students, teachers, family and community members to assume a degree of agency over education, to articulate their aspirations, and to develop their capabilities together. This could provide another perspective on the relationship between school culture and community.
Cultural Literacy and Awareness as 21st Century Skills
Cultural awareness can also be considered part of the 21st century skill set. The following image from the World Economic Forum (2016) includes cultural and civic literacy and social and cultural awareness as 21st century skills.
In class, we'll consider how each of these images might provide analogy of cultural competence and what insight might this give you about how to work and lead effectively across cultures.
International Capabilities
The Ministry of Education (2014) defines international capabilities as the knowledge, skills, attitudes, dispositions, and values that make up the key competencies that enable people to live, work, and learn across national and cultural boundaries. Being internationally capable includes not only the awareness of other cultures, about also the awareness of one’s own culture as particular and specific. It involves the understanding that we all experience our lives through a number of cultural and personal "lenses", and that comprehending and accepting others’ needs and behaviours rests as much on understanding ourselves as it does on understanding them.
Responsive Leadership 
The new Leadership strategy from the Education Council (2018) states that "Educational leaders in Aotearoa New Zealand need to be aware and responsive to the nature of the relationship between Māori and government. They must be culturally knowledgeable and adept to lead successfully in the bicultural landscape of our country".
Curriculum Principles
A 2012 report by the ERO looked at how well the eight principles of the New Zealand Curriculum were represented in classrooms  The eight principles studied were: 
  • Coherence
  • Community engagement
  • Cultural diversity
  • Future focus
  • High expectations
  • Inclusion
  • Learning to learn
  • Treaty of Waitangi
The report found that “Cultural diversity, future focus and Treaty of Waitangi were the least well represented principles in approximately a third of classrooms. These three principles were not evident at all in about a sixth of classrooms.”(Educational Review Office, 2012).
A lot might have hopefully changed since, but we'll ideate in class how could continue to embed Cultural diversity and/or principles of Te Aho Matua or Te Tiriti o Waitangi in our context and what are the implications for leadership.  To do this we'll use these 4 resources to draw ideas from:
  • Educational Leadership Capability Framework (2018b) - particularly the second row on the table on page 8, that explains how leaders can 'Ensure culturally responsive practice and understanding of Aotearoa New Zealand’s cultural heritage, using Te Tiriti o Waitangi as the foundation'
  • Tapasā Cultural competencies framework for teachers of Pacific learners (2018) - particularly the 3 Turu tables that explain what leader can do relating to them 
  • Kei Tua o te Pae (n.d.) - don't open the pdf but scroll down the page instead to find the Early Childhood Exemplars and Frameworks for bicultural education
  • Tū Rangatira (English) Tū Rangatira (Māori) (2010) - Educational Leadership document that brings together shared ideas, experiences and leadership practices from the Māori medium education sector. 
PISA Tests
The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a worldwide study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in member and non-member nations of 15-year-old school pupils' scholastic performance in mathematics, science, and reading. 
In class, we'll try out one of these PISA 2015 Science or Financial Literacy tasks (You might need to zoom out in your browser using Ctrl -) If a page hangs when loading, just refresh the browser.
Science from http://www.oecd.org/pisa/test/ (main page)
Financial Literacy 
Changes to PISA since 2015
PISA has provided analysis of the  Excellence and Equity in Education and  Policies and Practices for Successful Schools already for years, but in 2015 they also provided information about the  Students' Financial Literacy and Collaborative Problem Solving
As an example, the Released Field Trial Cognitive Items document (PISA, 2015) includes an assessment unit where the premise is that a group of international students is coming to visit a school. The student must collaborate with 3 agent teammates and a faculty adviser to plan the visit, assign visitors to guides,and respond to an unexpected problem that arises. The assessment involves the following challenges requiring collaborative skills
  • solicit and take into account criteria for assessing the options
  • clarify statements made by teammates
  • correct misinformation and avoid deadlock
  • prompt team members to perform their tasks
  • ensure that the final recommendation meets all specified criteria
The student must collaborate with 3 agent teammates, a faculty adviser and respond to an unexpected problem
Wellbeing
2015 was the first time that PISA looked at also to Students Wellbeing. Three indicators werere chosen to make up the educational well-being dimension.
  1. PISA 2016 country score for education performance, averaged across reading,mathematics and science literacy test scores.
  2. inequality in achievement around these scores using the ratio of the score at the 90th percentile to the 10th percentileaveraged across the three PISA literacy measures.
  3. The proportions of 15-19 year-olds not in education and not in employment or training (NEET).
The PISA assessment placed New Zealand 13th out of 30 countries in terms of educational well-being. In particular, it found high levels of bullying in New Zealand schools (OECD, 2017).
Hauora - Well-being
Hauora is a Māori philosophy of health unique to New Zealand (Ministry of Education, 1999), that could maybe be one of the key concepts on developing more positive school cultures focused around students' wellbeing? The concept is recognised by the World Health Organisation and comprises the following types of well-being:
  • Taha tinana - Physical well-being - the physical body, its growth, development, and ability to move, and ways of caring for it
  • Taha hinengaro - Mental and emotional well-being - coherent thinking processes, acknowledging and expressing thoughts and feelings and responding constructively
  • Taha whanau - Social well-being - family relationships, friendships, and other interpersonal relationships; feelings of belonging, compassion, and caring; and social support
  • Taha wairua - Spiritual well-being - the values and beliefs that determine the way people live, the search for meaning and purpose in life, and personal identity and self-awareness (For some individuals and communities, spiritual well- being is linked to a particular religion; for others, it is not.)
Global Competence
The PISA 2018 added also global competence to be one of the assessed aspects (OECD, 2018), and it has these two components:
  1. A cognitive test about “global understanding”, which assesses knowledge and cognitive skills required to solve problems related to global and intercultural issues
  2. A questionnaire about students’ awareness, skills and attitudes regarding global issues and cultures, along with information from schools and teachers on activities to promote global competence.
Global understanding is assessed in the cognitive test by asking students to complete several test units based on case studies and scenario-based tasks.
Here is an example of part of the global competence questionnaire (OECD, 2018).
In class, we ask you to fill in this quick (Global Competence) appraisal survey of the Mind Lab Staff, which is based on the on in PISA (2018) tinyurl.com/TMLGlobalJuly18
The PISA discussion
Even if there are many positive affects in this sort of skills comparison it also provokes strong debate from educators the world over. When it was developed, it was created as a diagnostic tool to bring together education policymakers together to discuss and track education and education improvement. However, in recent years, it has become widely criticised as a league table that is used as a indicator of a country's education health. Sir Ken Robinson criticised PISA for “squeezing out” other more creative subjects and creating an anxiety around education that was “grotesque”. Academics from around the world expressed deep concern in the 'PISA letter' (The Guardian, 2014) about the impact of Pisa tests and call for a halt to the next round of testing.
However, as you have now seen, PISA tests are developed further all the time and they do assess an unprecedented range of learning outcomes and their contexts, including student performance measures, measures of social and emotional dimensions, student attitudes and motivations, equity issues, and parental support. Pearson has been chosen to develop the PISA 2018 Student Assessment 21st Century Framework (Pearson, 2014).
Does money buy strong performance in PISA? 
It has been shown that greater national wealth or higher expenditure on education does not guarantee better student performance. Among high-income economies, the amount spent on education is less important than how those resources are used. Successful school systems in high-income economies tend to prioritise the quality of teachers over the size of classes and school systems that perform well in PISA believe that all students can achieve, and give them the opportunity to do so.
References
Education Review Office. (2012). The New Zealand Curriculum Principles: Foundations for Curriculum Decision-Making. Retrieved from http://www.ero.govt.nz/publications/the-new-zealan...
Education Council. (2018b). Educational Leadership Capability Framework. Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/files/Leadership_Capability_Framework.pdf
Education Council. (2018a). The Leadership Strategy for the teaching profession of Aotearoa New Zealand, Retrieved from https://www.educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/...
Ministry of Education. (1999). Health and Physical Education in the New Zealand Curriculum. Retrieved from  http://health.tki.org.nz/Teaching-in-HPE/Health-and-PE-in-the-NZC/Health-and-PE-in-the-NZC-1999
Ministry of Education. (2014). International capabilities. Retrieved from: http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-resources/International-capabilities
Ministry of Education. (2016). Areas of Practice. Retrieved from http://www.educationalleaders.govt.nz/Leadership-d...
Ministry of Education. (2018). Tapasā: Cultural competencies framework for teachers of Pacific learners. Retrieved from http://pasifika.tki.org.nz/content/download/2539/19100/file/Tapasa%CC%84-%20Cultural%20Competencies%20Framework%20for%20Teachers%20of%20Pacific%20Learners.pdf
Ministry of Education. (n.d). Frameworks for bicultural education. Retrieved from https://education.govt.nz/early-childhood/teaching...
OECD. (2017). PISA 2015 Results: Students' well-being. Retrieved from http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/pisa-2015-results-volume-iii_9789264273856-en
OECD. (2018). Preparing our youth for an inclusive and sustainable world: The OECD PISA global competence framework. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/pisa/aboutpisa/Global-competency-for-an-inclusive-world.pdf
Pearson. (2014, December 10). Pearson to develop PISA 2018 Student Assessment 21st Century Frameworks for OECD. Retrieved from https://www.pearson.com/news/announcements/2014/december/pearson-to-develop-pisa-2018-student-assessment-21st-century-fra.html
PISA. (2015). Released Field Trial Cognitive Items. Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/PISA2015-Released-FT-Cognitive-Items.pdf
Smith, G. (1995). Whakaoho Whānau: New Formations of Whānau as an Innovative Intervention into Māori Cultural and Educational Crises. He Pukenga Korero, 1(1), 18–36.
Taleb, N. (2008). The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. Random House.
The Guardian. (2014, May 6). OECD and Pisa tests are damaging education worldwide - academics. The Guardian, Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/may/06/oecd-pisa-tests-damaging-education-academics
World Economic Forum. (2016). New Vision for Education: Fostering Social and Emotional Learning through Technology. Retrieved from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_New_Vision_for_Education.pdf