Mindlab - Action reflections

Sunday, 11 November 2018

Assignment - Research 1 notes and Rubric

Research and Community Informed Practice - CISC8001
July 18 Intake
Assessment 1 (RESEARCH 1) - 50%
Title: Develop a reflective portfolio that critically engages with a research topic in your area of practice, with a strong articulation of, and argument for, pursuing specific research questions.

Description:
Part A) Research essay (90%)
Either individually, or in groups of two or three, write a Research Essay (which you may add to your eportfolio) in which you:
  1. Identify a research topic that is relevant to your area of practice and relates to Digital and/or Collaborative Learning, or Leading Digital and Collaborative Learning, and justify how the topic addresses the needs of your community(ies).
  2. Critically engage with a range of literature about the identified research topic by summarising the key ideas and then comparing/contrasting how literature addresses the topic.
  3. Argue how your insights gained from the literature address the needs of your community(ies).
  4. Clearly articulate the inquiry question(s), and explain how the question(s) have been developed after researching the literature, and how the question(s) will guide your Action Plan and its implementation.
  5. Cite a range of relevant sources.
  6. Use an appropriate standard of presentation.

Part B) Online participation (10%)
For this assessment, you need to provide two (2) pieces of evidence of your online participation. This is an individual assessment.
  1. Online Participation: Your response to an existing online conversation, e.g. a comment on fellow students’ posts, or your reply to a comment from fellow students on your first post in the thread of conversation. The first post on G+ to initiate a conversation does not count as evidence of online participation.
  2. Format of Evidence: Screenshot or video capture of your contribution.
  3. Content: Your discussion should be topic-driven and add value to the interaction and specifically relate to your teacher inquiry topic or the class notes/materials from this course (Weeks 17 - 24). Materials used for the previous assessments should not be reused for this assessment.
  4. Platforms: Your discussions should take place on any reputable online forum (for example Google+, comments on blog posts, or Facebook etc.). Because we are looking for engagement in professional social networking, we do not accept email correspondence or online meetings (sessions using Zoom, Google Hangout, etc.) as evidence.
  5. Dates: Your four recorded online conversations must take place between the start of Research and Community Informed Practice (RESEARCH) course and the final deadline for submission of the assignment (from 12th November 2018 to 8th January 2019). Each of the video/screen recordings should clearly state the date of the participation and your name.
  6. Names: If your screen name is different from your registered name, please make a note in the submission.
  7. Submission: When submitting your evidence of online participation to the portal, please identify the URL (web address) clearly in the name or the description section. If possible, include the link to the discussion, even if the online forum is a closed group.

Note that
  • You must submit a Turnitin Originality Report generated from Unitec’s official link (Turnitin link for Research 1). Do not submit reports from other Turnitin sources such as your school. Failure to submit a Turnitin originality report will result in you being required to resubmit.
  • The word count will be taken from the Turnitin originality report and it does include the reference list
  • The length requirement for your work is as following (failure to adhere to length requirements will result in grade penalties in the presentation category). A 10% leeway on the word count is allowed to cater for differences in the way that word counting algorithms work in different systems.
Individual Submission
  • 1,600 - 2,000 word essay.
Group Submission (optional)
  • 2,100 - 2,500 word essay.
  • Assessment Criteria 80% Self + 20% Peer Evaluation (only impacts on grades if contributions are not equal)
  • Fill in the Self and Peer Evaluation Form after you have submitted your assignment

Initial due date: Tuesday, 11th December 2018, 11.59pm
Final due date: Tuesday, 8th January 2019, 11.59pm


Part ATheMindLab_logo copy.jpg
Weigh- ting %
Below
Expectations
(Prestructural)
Meets Minimum Expectations
(Unistructural)
Meets or Exceeds Expectations (Multistructural)
Meets or Exceeds Expectations (Relational)
Exceeds Expectations (Extended Abstract)
1/ Identify a research topic that is relevant to your area of practice and justify how the topic addresses the needs of your community(ies)

10
No relevant research topic identified
A research topic relevant to community needs is identified
A research topic is identified along with relevant aspects of practice and and community needs
A research  topic, relevant aspects of practice and community needs are related together
A research  topic, relevant aspects of practice and community needs are related together and put into wider contexts
0-4
5
6
7-8
9-10
2/ Critically engage with a range of literature about the identified research topic by summarising the key ideas and then comparing / contrasting
30
No key ideas are summarised
A key idea in the literature relating to the topic is summarised
A range of key ideas in the literature relating to the topic are summarised
A range of key ideas in the literature relating to the topic are summarised, then compared / contrasted
A range of key ideas in the literature relating to the topic are summarised, then compared / contrasted within wider contexts
1-14
15-18
19-22
22-26
27-30
3/Argue how your insights gained from the literature address the needs of your community(ies)
15
No insights gained from the literature that address community needs are discussed
An insight gained from the literature that addresses community needs is discussed
A range of insights gained from the literature that addresses community needs are discussed
Argue how a range of insights gained from the literature address the needs of your community
Argue how a range of insights gained from the literature address the needs of your community, comparing with wider contexts
1-7
8-9
10-11
12-13
14-15
4/ Clearly articulate the inquiry question(s), and explain how the question(s) have been developed after researching the literature, and how the question(s) will guide your Action Plan and its implementation
15
Inquiry question(s) are not clearly stated and/or  insufficient explanation of how the question is developed.
Inquiry question(s) are stated and a brief explanation about how the question(s) is developed and/or how the question(s) will guide the Action Plan and its implementation.
Inquiry question(s) are stated. There is an some explanation of how the question(s) are developed and will guide the Action Plan and its implementation.
An articulation of the inquiry question(s) and explanation of how the inquiry question(s) have been developed and will guide the Action Plan and its implementation.
A clear articulation of the inquiry question(s) and explanation of how the inquiry question(s) have been developed, and will guide the Action Plan and its implementation within the wider context.
1-7
8-9
10-11
12-13
14-15
5/  A relevant range of sources are cited.
10
Inadequate referencing, insufficient sources and citation
Adequate referencing, sources identified and cited
Good list of references, cited and discussed
Well integrated and constructed  references, cited and debated
Comprehensive referencing, integrated in a reflective manner
0-4
5
6
7-8
9-10
6/ Appropriate standard of presentation
10
Poorly structured presentation of disconnected information, or length did not meet the required criteria.
Adequate presentation quality (telling / reciting)
Presentation that describes and combines themes, with a narrative structure.
A well argued presentation with a narrative structure that relates themes together.
An original and creative presentation displaying a reflective narrative structure.
0-4
5
6
7-8
9-10

Provide evidence of online participation
Refer to a separate rubric (Part B RUBRIC)
10%

Part B
Checklist 1
Checklist 2


Weighting
%
Online evidence  1

Contribution is topic driven and adds value to the interaction
Contribution is made during the period of the course
5 %


Yes/No

Yes/No

Online evidence  2

Contribution is topic driven and adds value to the interaction

Contribution is made during the period of the course
5 %


Yes/No

Yes/No



Provide evidence of online participation
Refer to a separate rubric (Part B RUBRIC)
10%


Leadership week 16

The Mind Lab Spiral of Teacher Inquiry
During the online part of the programme your learning will centre around a teacher inquiry, for which you will carry out a small-scaled cycle. This picture gives an overview of the two online courses (RESEARCH and PRACTICE) and their assessments for the next 16 weeks.
There is also a pdf version of this spiral on this weeks related media. 
Online Learning and Learning Support During the 16 Weeks
  • Self-directed and self-paced online learning with the portal help
  • You will continue to receive Weekly emails with a weekly video - read and view them! (If you are not receiving these, contact postgrad@themindlab.com)
  • Webinar (on Zoom) doing some of the weekly tasks together
    • every Tuesday and Wednesday 4-5pm (same content)
  • Live Chat (on G+ Community) online educators will answer questions that you post on the Google+ Community in real time
    • every Thursday 4-5pm
  • Online learning support links and schedules are listed on the above i-page menu. There are also scheduled meeting links that you can click to join a webinar. We’ll rehearse using the Zoom webinar tool later on today. 
Creating the Documents for the RESEARCH course
In class, we will create these 3 documents so that starting online learning next week gets easier: The format of these documents is your choice, but if you prefer you can make a copy of these templates that we provide as an option. If you plan to collaborate on your teacher inquiry - share the access to the same documents. Templates are Google documents, but you can download those and open them in 0365 too.
You can access the course content, aim and outcomes via the briefcase icon on the top navigation bar. 
Eportfolios
Below are some e-portfolio tools suggested by the Ministry of Education. Some of you have already selected one of the tools or a different one that has suited to your preference to create your own e-portfolio.
  • New Google sites: If you are new to setting up a Google Site (new version), view the 'How to Create Your ePortfolio with New Google Sites' video in this week's media  to learn how to create your own Google Site.
  • EdublogsBloggerWordpress: Using these platforms, you are able to create different pages, each of which can be assigned to each of the assessments.
  • Seesaw: If you already have a seesaw account, you can use the existing account and create a new “class” acting as an e-portfolio where you upload documents, videos or links to a website while being able to reflect on or share with other people to receive feedback about your works.
  • MyPortfolio: Currently registration is free for New Zealand Schools.
Eportfolio can be a place to keep the records of, or links to, all of your assessments. The Ministry of Education (n.d.) encourages the use of an e-portfolio as it is a platform to record work, reflect on learning, share learning and receive feedback and feedforward. 
In class, we will ask you to
  1. Create or update your eportfolio - One you already have or create a new one.
  2. Copy the picture of the Mind Lab Inquiry Cycle (above) in your eportfolio
  3. Link the 3 documents you created in you eportfolio
  4. Think about which peers or colleagues you could share those with, to create some collaboration opportunities and peer pressure for the online part
Choosing a Platform for a Blog for your Reflective Entries
We will ask you to plan ahead, consider what platform could you use for blogging on the last 8 weeks. This platform should give options for sharing and commenting - preferably a public blog would be the best choice. We ask you to consider,
  • Do you already have one that you could use for these 8 blog posts, or should you create a new one?
  • Check that you know how to make new posts with your chosen platform (not pages)?
  • Do you know how to save a draft vs. publish your post?
  • Could you link this blog to your eportfolio?
  • Could you help the person sitting next to you with all this?
How should I blog -blog, that relates to this week's flipped preparation, can help you to get started.
Learning to Use Zoom
We will rehearse in class to use the webinar software Zoom, and we ask you to
  1. Go to zoom.us
  2. Click on “JOIN A MEETING”
  3. Enter the Meeting ID provided by your facilitator, click “Join”
  4. You will be prompted to download and run Zoom
  5. A Zoom.us launcher zip file will be download
  6. Click on the file and you can install the launcher
  7. When installation finishes, select “Join a meeting” from the pop-up window
  8. Enter your Full Name in the text box, click “Join”
  9. The Zoom meeting window will appear
  10. Select “Join Audio Conference by Computer” to Join
  11. Wait for the facilitator to prompt discussion about good research questions?
Ideating and Sharing Inspiring and Challenging Teacher Inquiry Questions or Topics
Keep in mind that these need to be relevant to your practice and digital and/or collaborative learning. 
You can find the topics that we have studied during the first 16 weeks by clicking the name of the DIGITAL or LEADERSHIP course from the Briefcase -icon on the top menu. The Topics are listed on the Topics-tabs.
In class, we ask you to share your ideas on the Inspiring Teacher Inquiry Questions / Subtopics under the relating meta topics to tinyurl.com/TeacherInquiryJuly18
  • Maybe sign in so that your name is shown?
  • You can also add helpful comments and feedback/forward to others
    • Suggest subtopics/questions? Help to broaden or narrow the question? Notice assumptions? Is it too open or closed, or meaningless to measure, unmeasurable? Etc.
References
Ministry of Education.(n.d.) E-portfolio. Retrieved from http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Teaching/Assessment/e-Portfolios

Week 17 -

2. Professional learning / Akoranga ngaiotanga
Inquire into and reflect on the effectiveness of practice in an ongoing way, using evidence from a range of sources
Me patapatai, ā, ka whakaaro i ia te wā, ki te tōtika o ngā mahi mā te whakamahi i ngā taunakitanga mai i ngā tūmomo mātāpuna.
Whakataukī
Mai i te kōpae ki te urupā, tātou ako tonu ai.
From the cradle to the grave, we are forever learning.
Overview of the Two Online Courses and their Assessments for the Next 16 Weeks
During this 16 weeks of the online part of the programme, your learning will centre around a teacher inquiry, for which you will carry out a small-scaled cycle. Completing each step of an inquiry cycle in such a short timescale is obviously a challenge, so keeping up with the weekly tasks is important.
The Research and Community Informed Practice (RESEARCH) course over the next 8 weeks will, as the course title suggests, help you design a teacher inquiry that is informed by community needs and relevant research. This course will provide you with relevant information and tools to help you decide on your topic of interest, find useful resources and engage with the literature to write up a research essay based on your chosen topic. Then, based on insights gained from your topic investigation, you will plan for the take action phase of your inquiry.
The second 8 weeks of the online programme will cover the Applied Practice in Context (PRACTICE) course, where you will take action (implement your inquiry plan) and write a series of reflections on the different aspects of your inquiry, then use your collected evidence/data to evaluate your inquiry, and finally reflect on your experience of the whole Digital and Collaborative Learning programme.
Throughout these two courses, you are expected to interact online and submit evidence of your online professional conversations as part of your assessments. You’ll find this explained in each of the 4 assessment rubrics in more detail.
Now would be a good time to have a look at the assessment criteria and rubrics for the RESEARCH 1 (Research Essay) and RESEARCH 2 (Action Plan), so that you’ll know how to scope your learning during these first 8 weeks.
How Could You Document and Share Your Teacher Inquiry Journey
We recommend that you create an eportfolio as a place to keep the records of, or links to, all of your assessments. You might realise from last week that the Ministry of Education (n.d.) encourages the use of an e-portfolio as it is a platform to record work, reflect on learning, share learning and receive feedback and feedforward. And as we mentioned on week 16 in class, this might help you to share your process later as part of your appraisal or just keep your community informed.
Making a Copy of the Research Essay and Action Plan Templates
At this point it would be good for you to check that you know where your Research Essay and Action Plan documents are. The easiest way is to copy these Research Essay template (a Google Doc) and Action Plan template (Google Slides) and save hyperlinks to those documents into your eportfolio. If you need help for this, you’ll find it all explained in the Week 16 LEADERSHIP Class notes. You can download the templates and use those with Microsoft products too, or you can choose to use other formats.
Your Spiral of Inquiry
These 16 weeks are structured around one cycle of the Spiral of Inquiry model (Timperley, Kaser & Halbert, 2014). However, please note the Spiral of Inquiry is meant to be a continuing process, the end of this cycle of the spiral may open up a new cycle. Timewise, we try to fit the 2 courses into one cycle of the spiral of inquiry. Therefore, depending on your context, your inquiry should be carefully considered in terms of its scope so that you can carry out the inquiry within the 16-week time frame. It is not practical to do a full inquiry cycle in 16 weeks at the level of detail that you normally would in your practice. We do believe that going through each step of the cycle quickly can be a valuable first step.
If you need to recap on the Spiral of Inquiry, check the materials from week 15 of the LEADERSHIP course. You may also find the Spiral Playbook: Leading with an inquiring mindset in school systems and schools, useful to understand specific parts of the inquiry cycle during these 16 weeks.
Choosing Your Meta Topic(s)
To find a topic that both relates to the Digital and Collaborative Learning programme and your own passion, look at this list of these metatopics you studied during the first 16 weeks, as you already have a general idea of these topics or even have trialled one of the pedagogies in your practice (by metatopic, we mean a broad topic, as opposed to a specific topic that you will focus on in the context of your own inquiry). This time, you will have the chance to dig deeper and be more research informed. If you would like to revisit the content of the first 16 weeks, you can access the DIGITAL and LEADERSHIP course content via the Briefcase icon on the portal.
Your school or CoL might also have provided the scope for your possible inquiry topics for this or next year, so you can use those meta topics too as a starting point.Or remember in week 16, you are asked to ideate and add to the Inspiring Teacher Inquiry Questions / Subtopics padlet, revisit the padlet and consider if you would like to follow through with the topics you have added in or want to change to another direction. It is also good to know if there are other peers who share a similar interest so that you can start connect with them to share ideas, resources later in the following weeks.
Scoping the Meta Topic to Digital and/or Collaborative Learning
Since you are running this cycle of Inquiry through during these next 16 weeks, it is crucial that you narrow your topic to the scope of Digital and/or Collaborative Learning, or Leading Digital and/or Collaborative Learning.
Your chosen meta topic could for example be Agency, and the more specific one that meets your students’ needs and fits the scope of the Digital and Collaborative Learning Programme could be “Digital Technologies to give students Agency in their Collaborative Writing”.
As another example, if the meta topic that you are passionate about is Leading Online Discussions your topic could be “Using collaborative tools to lead online discussions with staff relating to the implementation of the Digital Curriculum”.
You should now ideate a few initial topic ideas to your eportfolio.
Scanning the Needs of Your Community(ies)
The first stage of the Spiral of Inquiry is scanning, and it relates to part of criteria 1 of the RESEARCH 1 assessment
For this RESEARCH course, the scanning stage is not only about finding out what is going on with your learners, it is also about trying to understand what relevant community needs are. A community in this context is a group of people having a particular characteristic in common.A community in this context is a group of people having a particular characteristic in common. You may want to learn from one or more communities for example, from community of students/ whanau/colleagues/ leadership/fellow Mindlab students, etc about what their needs are in relation to your inquiry. You may recall from week 8 of the LEADERSHIP course that we talked about education stakeholders comprising “students, families, community members, practitioners, policy-makers, society at large. Therefore, at varying levels, for effective change within the educational system reform efforts must incorporate or build on the beliefs, values, vision, and needs of each of these stakeholders.” (Zion, 2009).
Halbert explains in “the importance of scanning video” (supplementary) on Education Leaders (2018) how teachers often have “opinions” about their students but need to have a deep understanding of what is really going on, by testing out those opinions with evidence.
It is important to keep in mind that scanning is not seeking evidence to reinforce the status quo, or just looking at aspects of academic learning that can be easily measured. It means taking a wider perspective on learning and finding what your stakeholders think and feel about their learning. (Timperley, Kaser & Halbert, 2014)
Timperley, Kaser, and Halbert (2014) also mention that it can take up to 2 months for the scanning phase. However, as the online courses last only 16 weeks, you need to make sure that the scanning process for the inquiry you are working fits within this week.
Later on, we’ll collect and analyse even more data from your community(ies), but this week you should check that your community needs are met by testing those topics with the community(ies). Naturally, online learning makes it possible for you to delay this a bit if needed, but make sure you plan this week how and when to do scanning, as explained in the next section.
How to Scan from the Community(ies) and How to Record the Insights in Your Essay 
In order to understand the needs of your community(ies), we suggest you use either one of the information sources from conversations with the members of the community(ies), observations or surveys of their opinions towards the topics, or a combination of all three if you can, to have richer information. You can also use any other available data that you have already had such as student assessments, teaching reflective notes, student portfolio, etc as long as the data would provide useful information about the needs of your community(ies). 
Please note that week 23 will have more information about data collection tools, but those are used in the checking phase, later in this course, in which you evaluate to what extent you have achieved the outcomes you expect. In this week’s scanning phase, the tools are more need-based exploration. Therefore, in your conversations or surveys, you may ask questions about the community needs that relate to your chosen topics, for example, “how much choice/ownership do you feel you have over your learning?”. Or you can observe how, for example, students use a digital tool when they write.
If you need an example, on pages 24-25 of the (supplementary) Spiral Playbook (Kaser & Halbert, 2017), the authors explain what is involved in the scanning process and provide a case study of play-based learning inquiry.
You can record the feedback from your community(ies) in your eportfolio but you don’t have to include the collected information you gather from scanning the community needs in your Research essay (RESEARCH 1). Rather, in the essay, write down your insights gained from the information about the needs of your community, and where possible, support your ideas with quotes (from conversations with the community).
When you look at what you learn from scanning your community, you might find that you need to modify your original inquiry topic to better meet your stakeholders’ needs.
Is This Really a Good Topic?
Some of you might now wonder if your topic is a good one for the next 16 weeks. In short, we can be confident that it is good enough for now if it:
  • is relevant to your practice and something you are passionate about learning as an educator and 
  • relates to Digital and/or Collaborative Learning, or Leading Digital and Collaborative Learning and
  • meets the scanned needs of your community
If you are unsure if your chosen topic is narrow and clearly defined enough you can email onlineteachers@themindlab.com - but most importantly it is good to keep in mind that it will anyway change as you research and run through the spiral of inquiry.
As this week’s Whakatauki suggests, “Mai i te kōpae ki te urupā, tātou ako tonu ai. From the cradle to the grave, we are forever learning”, you will be learning through the whole inquiry journey, so now you just have to have the courage to start somewhere.
Next week we ask you to find relevant research, so the more defined your topic ideas are, the easier it is to find research that helps you to move and define it further. There is no right or wrong topic of interest. However, as criteria 1 of the RESEARCH 1 assessment states, you need to “justify how the topic addresses the needs of your community”.
Integrating the Principles of Kaupapa Māori into Your Teacher Inquiry
Now you have narrowed down your topic of interest, it is time to consider a Kaupapa Māori approach in the process. The RESEARCH 2 assessment requires the principles of Kaupapa Māori Research to be integrated into your inquiry. Therefore, we would like to raise your awareness about this right from the beginning.
According to the Katoa Ltd website the potential of Kaupapa Māori is based upon six intervention elements or principles:
  • Tino Rangatiratanga - The Principle of Self-determination (This week’s focus)
  • Taonga Tuku Iho - The Principle of Cultural Aspiration (This week’s focus)
  • Ako - The Principle of Culturally Preferred Pedagogy
  • Kia piki ake i ngā raruraru o te kāinga - The Principle of Socio-Economic Mediation
  • Whānau - The Principle of the Family Structure
  • Kaupapa - The Principle of Collective Philosophy
Your Action plan template (RESEARCH 2) lists these principles and each week on this RESEARCH course, these class notes will look at one (or more) of the principles and provide some relevant questions, as examples that could relate to your own inquiry. You should then write your own notes to your eportfolio to answer these questions so that finalising your Action Plan becomes an easier task at the end.
This week we encourage you to look at the first two, Tino Rangatiratanga - the self-determination principle and Taonga tuku iho - the cultural aspirations principle, using the following questions:
  • What relevance does the topic of interest have to your Māori students?
  • Have you taken into account the ways your students think, understand, interact and interpret the topic of interest? How would you know?
You can, of course, select any other principle and raise your own questions as well. 
Tools for Individual Online Participation and Collaboration with Your Peers
As we reminded on the beginning of these Class Notes, you are expected to interact online and submit evidence of your online professional conversations as part of your assessments. This interaction has to be individual, even though you are able to work in a group with a maximum of 3 members for your Research essay (RESEARCH 1) and Action plan (RESEARCH 2). Whether you choose to work individually or in a team, it is helpful to share ideas and resources and seek feedback from other people.
Even though the main G+ Community or your location specific communities may be your preferred communication channels, some suggested alternatives are below with other tools that you can also use to communicate with each other, or manage and share resources.
Remember that only written conversations on online forums (such as G+ and the alternative communication channels listed on the left above) can be used as evidence of online participation (refer to the RESEARCH 1 and RESEARCH 2 assessment description for more detail). But other tools might also help you keep in contact and provide support to each other when needed.
For a start, how about sharing ideas about your topic of interest on the July 18 Google+ community under the ‘Research Essay’ category? And if you go and give productive feedback/feedforward for someone else’s post that could be your first online participation done? You could remind and provide ideas about the scope and community needs if necessary, since having the courage to narrow your topic of interest is crucial at this point. You can always change and widen it if necessary. But have the courage to ideate and start with narrower and meaningful ones this week.
Checking You’ve Done All That Was Required for This Week
The Tasks-list on the next tab helps you to check you have done all the required activities.
REFERENCES
Kaser, L. & J. Halbert. (2017). The Spiral Playbook: Leading with an inquiring mindsetin school systems and schools. C21 Canada. Retrieved from http://c21canada.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Spiral-Playbook.pdf
Kaupapa Māori Research [Web log post]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.katoa.net.nz/kaupapa-maori
Timperley, H., Kaser, L., and Halbert, J. (2014, April). A framework for transforming learning in schools: Innovation and the spiral of inquiry. Centre for Strategic Education, Seminar Series Paper No. 234. https://educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/files/49.%20Spiral%20of%20Inquiry%20Paper%20-%20Timperley%20Kaser%20Halbert.pdf
Zion, S. D. (2009). 'Systems, stakeholders, and students: Including students in school reform'. Improving schools, 12(2), 131-143.