Wednesday 18 December 2013

A Christmas ICT Teaching as Inquiry Wish



There are a lot of resources out there online for teachers to use. There’s so many that sometimes the time spent looking for exactly what you want isn’t worth (and sometimes as satisfying) as creating something yourself. And it’s not just resources to use in the classroom either. Thanks to ongoing funding from the Ministry there are a heap of great support documents for teacher professional learning, TKI, NZQA, Down the Back of the Chair, the Senior Secondary Teaching and Learning Guides and the NZ Curriculum page just to name a few.

So we’re rather well resourced, resource-wise but there’s another ICT I’d really like for Christmas. A resource that gives me access to the learning and effective practice of other teachers! A store (if you will) of the amazing professional learning of colleagues from all over Aotearoa where I can access the findings of teacher’s Teaching as Inquiry inquiries. Somewhere where I could read about the context that a teacher had found themselves in and the specific needs of the students in front of them. Not just a stab in the dark guess at the picture of student needs but a rigorous process (as rigorous as we can manage given the craziness of teaching) of developing theories or readings of the learning context of students who have the greatest need. A focussing inquiry process that is improved by querying data and the analysis, critique and questioning of multiple colleges and students. Then, after the focussing inquiry, a teaching inquiry that is informed by research, further conversations with colleagues (online or face to face) and students. Then a go at some different teaching and learning from what’s been done in the past followed by a solid analysis of the learning outcomes of the interventions or practice changes the teacher tried.

Imagine a place we could go to read about these rich kinds of professional learning journeys! Where our problematic mental models were challenged and we were able to question the things that aren’t working and make sustained, meaningful changes in practice helped improve outcomes for students! It’s unlikely we would take anything wholesale from a context that is different from our own and our students’ but golly, we’d sure learn a heap about quality teaching and learning. And if we were looking for something specific for our own inquiries, and this fancy ICT came with a useful search function, we might also be able to find useful information and learning and subsequently help improve our students’ learning. Teaching and learning is a super complex process and while this complexity isn’t always obvious to start with, sometimes resources that don’t take into account contextual complexities aren’t always going to help us. Having access to the quality professional learning of others however, might be just what we need.

Well, that’s one thing I could do with for Christmas! Although to be honest it’s pretty unlikely I’d be actually reading it on Christmas day. But for the rest of the year, that’s a massive “yesssssssssss” from me.