Teacher Inquiry and the end of the First Half of the Mindlab Course

Sixteen weeks have just flown by. Sixteen sessions with the team. Three and a half assignments complete (currently halfway through one right now).  And now, we're about to start the next part of the course online. This course has been challenging and inspiring, and I've really appreciated the deeper understanding I am developing as a teacher and a collaborator of educational outcomes. I'm looking forward to this next stage.

Last week for session 15 we looked at Inquiry; both teacher inquiry and student inquiry - the parallels between the two are so similar. For this blog though, I want to focus in on teacher inquiry. Why? Because it is something I have really struggled with. Teacher inquiry, to me, has felt arbitrary and another thing to load on top of already busy teachers. Not the best attitude I grant you but that is/was my honest feelings.

I am naturally am a learner. I like to find things out; think I'm quite a curious person, like to get the positive results out of my students and do the very best I can.  I  naturally inquire into things from my observations of my class and students and work from there. Isn't that what teaching is about? The thing that didn't quite connect to me was the whole paper trail of proof (wasn't that in the results, the student voice, the formative feedback, assessment and student work?) and the top-down approach I would feel during this process. Cynical yes, but write it down, tick it off, let's look at it again next year and go from there.
But to be honest, often I would blank out when it came to that time of year and really not know what I wanted to 'commit' to as an area of focus. There are so many needs. Fear of failing and not meeting the 'right' target or showing enough growth always paralysed me.

Luckily, I have an amazing appraiser who has been able to see through my cynicism and 'teaching baggage' to help me do what I need to do, while still encouraging and challenging me in my practice. So when I saw we were going to do Teacher Inquiry as part of the course I wasn't too sure where this was going to go and whether I would be interested. I was pleasantly surprised though and have had some big shifts in my thinking.

The Spiral of Inquiry.

Timperley, H., Kaser, L. & Halbert, J. (2014).

Our school's current teacher inquiry model that we use is also a spiral based model but for some reason, it didn't connect with me. Maybe I didn't understand it properly or was a bit too close minded to appreciate it.  BUT after reading and learning about the Spiral of Inquiry by Timperly, Kaser & Halbert (2014) I feel like I've had a bit of an epiphany. Not only am I seeing the possibility of using this model in my own practice but I am feeling like I'm getting the bigger picture of the whole Teacher Inquiry thing! 😇

Using the spiral of inquiry:

•  Actively investigating in a teacher-led inquiry: "This requires a shift from student voice to developing learner agency, as the students help to identify and address issues in their learning environments. In the past it has often been adults who have decided what is right or wrong with learners, and what is good for them, without involving them in either identifying issues or developing solutions. Deciding what is going on for learners without their input lacks respect and is unlikely to be productive." Timperley, Kaser & Halbert, (2014.)

For this teacher-led inquiry to work, teachers must come at their inquiry with a mindset of curiosity. It allows teachers to suspend judgement and make changes based on evidence. What is happening and why? I love this!

• Scanning: open yourself/school up to honest judgement. Terrifying but I'm getting to grips with this not as an element of criticism but of opportunity for growth. Okay, I am a still a huge bit terrified.

I like this spiral of inquiry more because of the deep connected, human element to it. The learner's at centre, the teacher as a learner, depth over surface. 

The guiding questions and boxes in the article (referenced below) are Excellent! 

Two key questions posed that stuck in my mind were: Is it acceptable for some learners to be pursuing important questions in depth while others are restricted to ‘covering’ the curriculum? Is it all right for some learners to experience challenging and engaging learning in one class while learners in the room next door are not? WOW !!Food for thought. Those are hard, challenging questions.

I haven't gone through the rest of the model but these are some of the things that have stuck and resonated with me. I'm looking forward to exploring my own teacher inquiry and general teacher inquiry through the second half of the Mindlab course in more depth over the next sixteen weeks or so.

References: 
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

Catch Up Time: Again! Lessons about Staying On-task through Design Thinking

Last week's Mindlab Session found us partnered up to delve into the how we were going to be able to keep focused and on task after the course changes from face to face learning to more online learning. Woah, okay - something big and looming and isolating... or does it have to be?

I really enjoyed working with my partner and we found out we had a lot of similarities. Both of us are focused on doing our best as learners but also concerned with how we were going to remain motivated and be successful in a more independent working environment.
We delved deeper into what was really going on and for me my main issues surround:

• being emotionally invested in my learning; choosing a topic that really inspires and challenges me
• continuing the collegial support and challenge I have already received and find stimulating
• remaining focused, on-task and productive, delaying gratification, rewarding completed tasks etc

How to manage these challenges is something that concerns me but now that we have really gone into some depth to explore them I feel I am more ready to work through these productively.

What I loved about last week's session- as well as allowing time to raise and talk about these issues, was the creativity that came with designing a prototype to combat these concerns. I consider myself to be pretty imaginative and creative so designing 'Ye Cup o Success' for my partner was so much fun.




Its a little hard to see but here are our groups' design prototypes (most of them). This was really challenging to create something to address an abstract notion but we managed to do it- with a lot of imagination, symbolism and a requirement for the viewer to stretch their thinking.


For this task, we used the Mindlab's Kite Design Model. It was a very structured and guided approach which I personally really liked. When sharing concerns or ideas, the listener really had to listen and interpret, what the speaker was saying. I think this is such an important skill and something our students (in fact all people) could benefit a LOT from developing more. But knowing how to listen, and having a real purpose for the listening is also important. Using the design model really helped to enable those skills. I will definitely be using something quite similar in my classroom in the future.

Design thinking by TMLU. The Mind Lab by Unitec Design Thinking Process + materials, which uses our 'kite' model: *Empathise *Define *Ideate *Prototype *Test *Reflect 

We were asked to reflect on the following question: 

How can design thinking be used to enhance students real-world problem-solving skills? 

• The thing here for me is that students need to have authentic opportunities for applying real-world problem-solving skills in the first place. So this question arises in my mind- is it better to make up problems or create somewhat tenuous situations for students to solve or not to get students to do it at all? I think at least a contrived situation is better and exposes students to problem-solving situations, but also teachers perhaps need to allow students more opportnities to solve their own problems. Keep them local, keep them real, keep them relelvent. Do we always see those opportunities or do we rush in and solve problems for them before the students even realise they are able to solve them themselves.
• After some authentic problems are identified- then yes ABSOLUTELY design thinking can provide a really structured and supportive framework to help students dig deeper into developing their problem solving ability. I love the empathetic aspect of the Mindlab's Kite design thinking model. The importance of listening to the problem and thinking of different ways to tackle the problem is really stressed in this model. 
• IDEO's Human Centred Design resonates with me as well:
• As you move through the human-centered design process, it doesn’t matter what you make, the materials you use, or how beautiful the result is, the goal is always to convey an idea, share it, and learn how to make it better. 
• The focus is for design to get into the hands of the people who it will serve. Action based
• Learn from failure- not knowing what the outcome will be- risk-taking
• Empathise- put yourself in the shoes of the people you are designing for. Immerse yourself in that culture
• Embrace ambiguity- by not knowing the answers, opening up to creativity and not 'racing' to be the 'first' 
• Optimism- opening up to tackle those big problems. Embracing opportunities and believing that every problem is solvable
• Iterate - do things over and over again to improve, create ideas etc

• I think as human beings we can all develop ourselves through design thinking. Being humble and ready to change for the betterment of the whole world is a noble aspiration. 
• We can and already do apply design thinking in our own teacher inquiries; for isn't this really just design thinking in action??

The Mindlab by Unitech Design. (nd). Unitech Design Thinking Process. Retrieved from: https://app.themindlab.com/course/release/1313-week-14-digital-design-thinking-in-the-classroom 
IDEO.org. (2015). The Field Guide to Human-Centered Design (1st ed.). Canada: IDEO.org. Retrieved from http://d1r3w4d5z5a88i.cloudfront.net/assets/guide/Field%20Guide%20to%20Human-Centered%20Design_IDEOorg_English-ee47a1ed4b91f3252115b83152828d7e.pdf 

Design Thinking in Education and a Student led TV programme

Well, it seems like I'm into fortnightly blogging. I need to try and get back into the habit of blogging each week.
I will get back into blogging each week...
I will!

There have been HEAPS that we've covered over the past few weeks and I am pleased to say that a lot of what we have been doing in our Mindlab sessions have come in really handy for my own practice and set up for our HTV.
SO over the past month my colleague Holly and I have been trying to make some big changes in our classrooms by applying the innovation we proposed in August for our first digital assignment. The gist of the proposal was to have the students in our classes combine, to organise and produce their own web-based television programme. No this probably not a new innovation in the wider world of education (think newspapers, radio stations, prior versions of student-led TV) but something new for us was the amount of real collaboration, problem-solving and decision-making skills we have handed over to our students. Are we going to be successful? The kids certainly think so... so watch this space! Exciting stuff.

Last week in class we looked at Agile and Lean concepts in the world of education. There are still many concepts I  have to get my head around but there were also many ideas I immediately liked and want to explore further.

Agile and Lean Education
With its foundations in manufacturing and IT industries, agile and lean methodologies can be applied to education. Agile methods change up the traditional command and follow processes that can be found in many sectors of life. Kropp, Meier, Mateescu & Zahn (2014) state, "Such methods emphasize the importance of highly interactive self-organising teams and close collaboration of all stakeholders, as well as values like courage, openness and respect." Linking in the importance of 21st Century skills for learning, agile methods mesh extremely well towards preparing our students for that unknown future.

The Agile Manifesto  ( http://agilemanifesto.org/) highlighted the following:

• Individual and actions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan

We are asked to apply this to education and created

• Learners over prescribed curriculum
• Authentic and contextualised learning over worksheets and textbooks
• Collaborative relationships over didactic transmission
• Teachable moments over lesson plans

There were many really great adaptations of this from our group as well.

Lean 

According to Barney and Kirby (2004), educators can learn from lean production methods the importance of empowering teachers by training them to problem solve and then expect them to be self-reflective and to continuously improve their practice. The thing I liked about both was how easily I can pull in these ideas into my own classroom. we looked at Kanban, also standup meetings and self-organising groups. I immediately used all three of these ideas in my classroom the very next day and have been doing my own research into some of the practices and tools used in Agile schools using Lean methods too.  

Positives and questions I have about Design thinking in Ed:

+  great to see a methodology that focuses on the implementation and use of 21st C skills as well as values. 

+ Educational settings could do with getting rid of Muda- bureaucracy is very high. Limiting systems or streamlining could be great. There are so many competing priorities in Education. 

+ Self-directed and driven students

? We are not pumping out consumer-driven products- or are we? This goes to the heart of the purpose of education.

? What are the downsides or negatives of using this approach. It can't be without a cost perhaps?

? How does this type of self-directed and collaborative approach apply to all our students? Esp ones with learning and behavioural needs?

? What is the research behind this approach in an educational field? Has it been tested? Are the outcomes noticeably different?

Steve Peha

Steve Peha is an American educator and IT manager. I watched a youtube link given to a group of Microsoft exec ( I think) given by Steve Peha in 2011. I found it really interesting and recorded some ideas and notes as follows.

• Agile Manifesto
• Technology has not changed educational outcomes.
• Roland Fryer discovered that educational incentive pay did not have any positive outcomes on student achievement
• "How can we run a school with no method for improvement?"
• Waterfall methodologies have failed- dumping kids off to the next group of teachers/schools etc after 'we' have done with them. Is the right way to think about our students? There's no collective ownership and protection of these students education.
• Applying software methods to help students and schools raise achievement.
• Chester Finn- National Journal of Educational Experts blog
• Agile (Scrum, Kanban, lean)- huge gauge on productivity, -use the humanistic values in this system. - higher quality work. 
• Use the culture of agile to improve
• Right shifting ( not in this video but something else I've picked up).

Barney, H. & Kirby, S.N. (2004). Toyota Production System/Lean Manufacturing. In B. Stecher and S.N. Kirby (Eds.), Organizational Improvement and Accountability Lessons for Education From Other Sectors (pp. 35-50). Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation.

Kropp, M., Meier, A., Mateescu, M., & Zahn, C. (2014). Teaching and learning agile collaboration. In 2014 IEEE 27th Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training, CSEE and T 2014 - Proceedings(pp. 139–148). IEEE Computer Society. https://doi.org/10.1109/CSEET.2014.6816791