Fundamentals of AI in Education

I’m so excited to have completed the Fundamentals of AI in Education (Micro-credential) course with Craig Hansen and to be one of the first certified AI educators in New Zealand! 

The course was an inspiring experience, packed with practical strategies and real-world ideas for using AI in the classroom and beyond. I learned so much about integrating AI into lesson planning, assessment, personalising learning for students and addressing the ethical questions that come with these tools. I’m already putting this knowledge to work by using AI to boost student engagement, provide targeted feedback, analyse data and choose the best approaches for specific learning needs. 

The possibilities and practical applications are endless! 

Thinking of my TAI 2024: Focusing on Mathematics!

I will continue to improve my teaching practice and support other teachers in enhancing their teaching of mathematics. While participating in the pilot MPI, my main inquiry focus will remain on developing teacher pedagogical and content knowledge to ensure the effectiveness of their maths programmes. Additionally, I aim to promote critical thinking in both students and educators to achieve the best outcomes.

Here is the Causal Chain that I developed last year and am continuing to implement this year. It helps keep me on track and has received positive feedback from my COL colleagues and leaders.

Causal Chain - Improving Teacher Practice and Student Outcomes in Mathematics

I've thought through my Causal Chain to identify the specifics of my inquiry and gain a deeper understanding of how I've been supporting teachers and improving student achievement. 

I'm very excited to be part of the Manaiakalani Maths design group. It's been amazing to experience the team's passionate commitment, deep knowledge and inspiring energy. I eagerly anticipate our continued collaboration and the transformation of our ideas into a practical PLD led by the research team - the PLD  that will truly make a difference for our teachers and learners. 

Literature review #2 - Transfer of Learning by R. Haskell

 Haskell, Robert. Transfer of Learning.

One of my hunches regarding the poor PAT results of our students was that we may not necessarily teach what is being tested. I shared my thoughts on the difference between "teaching to the test" versus teaching the specific math areas that students will be assessed on. I searched the web for any relevant research but couldn't find anything particularly useful until I came across "Transfer of Learning" by Robert Haskell.

Dr. Robert E. Haskell was a Professor of psychology at the University of New England (passes away in 2010), whose work in the area of learning transfer spans a range of disciplines, including math, science, education, business, and psychology.

Haskell's insightful book, 'Transfer of Learning: Cognition, Instruction, and Reasoning,' explores the interesting topic of how we can effectively apply our knowledge in diverse contexts. By exploring the historical roots of transfer and underscoring the importance of building a solid knowledge foundation, Haskell convincingly argues for the significance of explicit teaching and practice. emphasizes the importance of understanding key concepts, strategies, and declarative knowledge in facilitating successful knowledge transfer. The book provides valuable insights on fostering critical thinking and problem-solving skills in students, empowering them to apply their learning to real-world situations.

Just in case, I'd like to explain that declarative knowledge in math involves knowing and understanding the key ideas and concepts that form the foundation of mathematical thinking and problem-solving. It is like the building blocks of learning, providing a solid foundation for further learning, deeper understanding and the ability to apply what you know.

In conclusion, Haskell's work aligns with my belief about the importance of teaching before testing. By emphasizing the need for a strong knowledge base and providing students with explicit instruction, educators can empower students to transfer their learning effectively. Teaching before testing ensures that students have the necessary understanding and skills to approach assessments with confidence. By incorporating Haskell's insights into our teaching practices, we can create a solid foundation for students' academic success and foster their ability to apply their knowledge in real-world contexts.

Literature review #1 - Visible Learning by J. Hattie

John Hattie is a Professor of Education and Director of the Visible Learning Labs, University of Auckland, New Zealand and we all know his famous work "Visible Learning. A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement" first published in 2009. 

I decided to reread his book, especially some parts that I found important for my teaching inquiry this year. According to J Hattie, "The effect size of 0.40 sets a level where the effects of innovation enhance achievement in such a way that we can notice real-world differences, and this should be a benchmark of such real-world change." 

This is a great reminder to all of us that our inquiry into improving our teaching practice, commitment to numerous PLDs, and our aim to develop student agency are vital components in fostering positive student outcomes in mathematics. By focusing on refining the curriculum and our instructional skills as teachers, and prioritizing student engagement and empowerment, we have the potential to make a profound impact on students' mathematical understanding and achievement. 

This research also provides valuable insights into instructional strategies that yield positive results for student learning. When it comes to teaching math, a well-structured program and direct teacher instruction have been found highly effective factors (Hiebert & Grouws, 2007).  Explicit teaching, clear explanations, and demonstrations have a significant impact on student understanding and achievement.

Manipulatives play a crucial role in the early years of mathematics education and show a great effect when working with low-achieving middle school students. They provide concrete experiences that help students build a solid foundation and develop a deep understanding of mathematical concepts (Mitchell, 1987). By engaging students in hands-on activities, manipulatives foster conceptual understanding and lay the groundwork for later abstract thinking.

When it comes to effective teaching strategies, certain approaches have shown particularly promising outcomes. Strategy-based methods, guided practice, peer tutoring, teacher modeling, specific forms of feedback, mastery criteria, sequencing examples, and instruction responsive to feedback have demonstrated high effect sizes (Hattie, 2009). These strategies actively engage students, provide guidance, and create opportunities for practice and feedback, leading to significant improvements in mathematics achievement.

On the other hand, research suggests that peer group strategies and independent practice with technology have relatively lower effect sizes (Hattie, 2009). While they still have some value, working within a peer group and relying heavily on technology for independent practice may not yield as substantial improvements in mathematics learning compared to other approaches.  (I have personally observed similar situations where students collaborate on their independent activities, and despite my reminders that they should only help by explaining rather than telling, it can be challenging to monitor.)

Reading "Visible Learning" by J. Hattie confirmed my hunch and hypotheses about the most important and effective components of teaching mathematics:

• Structured mathematics programs: Comprehensive and organized curricula that provide a framework for effective instruction and learning in mathematics.
• Direct Teacher instruction and modelling: Engaging students through clear explanations, demonstrations, and guidance from the teacher to deepen their understanding of mathematical concepts.
• Strategy-based methods: Teaching students specific problem-solving strategies and approaches to empower them in tackling mathematical tasks effectively.
• Guided practice and feedback: Providing students with opportunities to apply their knowledge through practice activities while receiving targeted feedback to enhance their learning and mastery of mathematical skills.

Citations:

Hiebert, J., & Grouws, D. A. (2007). The effects of classroom mathematics teaching on students' learning. In F. K. Lester Jr. (Ed.), Second Handbook of Research on Mathematics Teaching and Learning (Vol. 2, pp. 371-404). Information Age Publishing.

Mitchell, M. M. (1987). The effects of manipulative materials in mathematics instruction. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 18(6), 449-457.

Hattie, J. (2009). Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement. Routledge.

Formulating my Hypothesis to improve teaching of Maths

Based on my previous TAI steps, I identified the following most important hunches for my inquiry:

I believe that 

- updating the maths programme to include all the effective elements of the maths programme (research based) 

- sharing and unpacking Term 1 testing results with our learners, 

- employing student agency - teaching students how to use self-assessment (matrices) to support their own learning, and

- collaborating with other teachers and sharing best practices 

will improve students' learning outcomes and enhance their learning experiences.

Reevaluating and adjusting my, my team's maths programme  to include all the effective elements of the maths programme (research based): number talk, targeted teaching sessions, teacher designed consolidation activities, independent activities and opportunities to apply their knowledge and create in maths (rich tasks and investigations).

By unpacking the term 1 results with students, educators can help them understand their strengths and weaknesses and take ownership of their learning. 

Taking a more data-driven approach by consistently using formative (and summative) assessment tools to inform our teaching.

Training students to self-assess using Maths Matrices to help them identify areas where they need additional support and extra practice. By providing students with the tools they need to support their own learning, educators can help to foster a sense of agency and responsibility in their students.

Teacher collaboration and data sharing are essential in Maths education. By working together and sharing data, educators can identify areas for improvement, set goals, create and share resources, and adjust their teaching practices to improve student outcomes.

Food for Thought or Just One PAT Question Analysed

After publishing my post about PATs areas that we test on without teaching, I recalled and decided to share a story about my last year Y4 student who scored Stanine 9 in PAT but struggled with one particular question - "Visualise which shape a net will fold to make." 

At that time, I was placing an order to buy more maths resources for our school including a set of 3D folding shapes, which we used with our Year 3-4 classes. I wanted to provide our students with a hands-on way to explore and visualize 3D shapes and their nets. Little did I know that this tool would have a significant impact on their learning, even a year after using it. Surely, you can fold 3D shapes using paper, but we had an opportunity to purchase this maths equipment and students loved it!

Out of curiosity, I looked at random Y4 and Y5 classes to find out their answers to this particular PAT question for the past 3 years.

2020 - Term 4

2021 - Term 4

2022 - Term 1

2022 - Term 4 -  our Team excelled in the PAT "visualise a shape" question that had previously stumped many of Year 4 and 5 students.

2023 Term 1 (after the summer break, mostly the same students with some new intakes)

"Visualize which shape a net will fold to make." This question could be challenging for some students because of a specific skill we often do not cover in our maths programme. 

As seen from the examples above, after using the folding shapes in our team, students were able to visualize the 3D shapes and their nets with ease. They were able to apply their knowledge to the PAT assessment and, in Term 4 2022 for the first time in three years, most of Team Kea's students answered the question correctly. Furthermore, the majority of learners retained their knowledge after a summer break (this is not clean data as we have a number of new students from other schools and teams).

This set of data highlights the importance of analyzing assessment data to identify areas where our students need explicit teaching or additional support. 

Monitoring the Effects of Teacher Collaboration in my Team on Learner Outcomes

Identify informal and formal ways you are monitoring the effects of your changed practices/intervention on learner outcomes. Explain the reflections and tweaks you are making along the way.

My Inquiry: Will Teacher Collaboration improve student engagement and raise their achievement?

In my team, we reflected on our collaboration and mid-year results. Have we managed to lift our students' engagement and achievement due to the change we've implemented in our planning? The short answer is yes; however, we also developed a shared understanding of our next steps: bring student agency on board and refine our planning.

Since the beginning of my inquiry, we have developed a habit of ongoing reflections on our practice. It now happens naturally, almost every day when we share what worked well and what needs to be improved. We act faster and are not afraid to give feedback about each others' work. I believe that our professionalism helped us develop a healthy collaborative partnership in our team.

Some tweaks that we did since the beginning of my TAI:

- introduced and unpacked maths matrixes with our learners. This allowed them to take ownership of their independent learning choices. 

- our next step was to provide our students with choices to support their independent meaningful learning. As a result, we designed our maths and literacy choice boards that our students love to use.

- redesigning our planning template to make it easy to use by all stakeholders: team members and our learners. We all now know what to do and when. 

Monitoring the effect: 

- Many of our students developed self-motivation. Many ask for maths homework as they want to improve their results. 

- I let students choose to join different groups to deepen their understanding of current topics (maths) and many of them love having more freedom in their learning. 

- Students across all 3 classes are getting the same consistent programme and are less dependent on individual teachers' knowledge of maths.

- My team appreciates our collaborative approach as it helped them improve their own knowledge of the curriculum. We also bounce ideas from each other, taking and implementing the best of them.

- mid-year Data showed progress and some acceleration in our students' achievements across the syndicate. 

Causal Chain TAI 2022

As identified during my Teacher profiling phase, I decided to focus on improving student achievement and engagement through teacher collaboration.

My own practice - continue to refine my practice (For example, in maths - daily number talk, the use of visualisation and materials, developing fluency and confidence in maths as opposed to memorisation, and practical application of their knowledge.

In my team, we reflected on our collaboration and mid-year results. Have you managed to lift our students' engagement and achievement due to the change we've implemented in our planning? The short answer is yes; however, we developed a shared understanding of our next steps: bring student agency on board and refine our programme. 

School-wide. Support my colleagues to improve their understanding of maths progressions and the effective use of various manipulatives in their classroom programmes by sharing some resources, reviewing school maths matrices, and actively participating and contributing during staff meetings.

Teacher Collaboration will lead to improving Teacher Practice - already visible from our T1-2 work

Collaborative planning - deepens Teachers' subject and pedagogical knowledge - students benefit from consistency/ balanced programme/ content, that in order leads to their increased motivation, engagement and better achievements.

We will employ Student Agency to help students take ownership of their learning: link content to their passions and interests.  When Students set personal goals, the learning becomes theirs. This sense of ownership leads to increased motivation and achievement. We will use the School Matrices with the learners.  ----- Team teachers move from being the deliverer of curriculum to being the co-constructors and experienced learners.

Collaborative teachers reflect on their own practice and are open to colleagues' feedback developing and improving their metacognition and key competencies. At the same time, they model and promote collaboration, metacognition, and personal agency to their learners. 

I believe that this chain will lead to increased teacher and student agency, collaboration, engagement, achievement and success for all syndicate members. 

Plan and conduct a detailed inquiry

Plan and conduct a detailed inquiry into specific aspects of your current teaching that are relevant to the hypotheses you identified in the literature.  

Reality: The latest research is out. In math and reading, students are behind where they would be after a normal year, with the most vulnerable students showing the steepest drops, according to two new reports from the consulting firm McKinsey & Company and the NWEA, a nonprofit organization that provides academic assessments. The students did not just stall early on; the setbacks accumulated over time — and continued even after many students had returned to the classroom this year. Perhaps even more troubling, the students who were most affected by the crisis were already behind their peers before the pandemic, and the added losses have pushed them further back.

What can we do to bring back and retain more students at school and develop (or sometimes ignite) their love of learning? Teachers have to collaborate to address all these needs and use our strengths to engage our tamariki along with accelerating their learning. Covid affected everyone! That's why I believe that teacher collaboration is an extremely powerful approach that can be used to not just benefit our students but support teachers' well-being too.

For teacher collaboration to be effective, we (teachers) should want to participate rather than feel like we must. Like any other skill, collaboration can be improved upon with practice. This is my and, hopefully, my team's experience and reflection on the past two terms of our collaborative work. I look forward to continuing to improve our team's practice to maximise our tamariki successes in all areas of school life and support them to become life-long motivated learners. He waka eke noa!

The focus and plan of my inquiry into teacher and student collaboration to improve learning outcomes and well-being.

• Continue to  develop and refine our shared vision and goals, team culture
• Continue to refine and reflect on our collaborative planning and creation of shared resources
• Create a habit of frequent and consistent team data analysis (formative and summative) to reflect on best practices and plan the next steps.
• Continue to develop trust and positive professional relationships. Like any relationship, collaborative teams take time to build and have the potential to increase in strength and productivity over time. 
• Collaboratively advance our professional knowledge, skills, and beliefs about student learning. 
• Model positive collaborative behaviour to our learners.

Learning about Collaboration from Literature

My hypothesis is that a collaborative approach during group and independent learning activities might increase student engagement and develop a better understanding of topics or concepts and their practical application. 

Research shows that collaborative group work involves students working jointly on the same problem at all times. Within a collaborative group, decisions are shared and the negotiation of roles and relationships constantly evolves. Such a collaborative approach to learning is linked to Vygotskian ideas such as situated cognition, scaffolding, and the zone of proximal development  (Forman & Cazden, 1985).

Interestingly enough, I found proof of my own observations 'that part of the reason students give up on learning is because they find it difficult and think they are alone in their struggle. An important change takes place when students work together and discover that everybody finds some or all of the work difficult. This is a critical moment for students, and one that helps them know that for everyone learning is a process and that obstacles are common.' (LIMITLESS MIND by Jo Boaler)

Jo says that collaboration is vital for learning, brain development, and creating equitable outcomes. I agree with her; however, first of all, it is important to establish interpersonal connections. I noticed that some of my learners are happy working together and they achieve better results than a group that keeps arguing without listening to each other's ideas. Hence, teachers need to spend more time creating positive norms for collaborative groups.

Emily R. Lai (June 2011) in her Pearson Research report states that "Collaborative interactions are characterized by shared goals, symmetry of structure, and a high degree of negotiation, interactivity, and interdependence. Interactions producing elaborated explanations are particularly valuable for improving student learning. Nonresponsive feedback, on the other hand, can be detrimental to student learning in collaborative situations. Collaboration can have powerful effects on student learning, particularly for low-achieving students. However, a number of factors may moderate the impact of collaboration on student learning, including student characteristics, group composition, and task characteristics."

This resonates with me and my own experiences and shows that student collaboration requires a lot of teacher thinking and designing in creating tasks, forming groups and again, setting up class positive norms. Teachers need to carefully consider group composition in terms of gender and ability when using collaborative learning. Simple tasks with one correct solution that can easily be solved by a single, competent group member should not be used in collaborative settings. Even if not all young students will be able to collaborate effectively in their early school years, they will definitely start to develop such important habits required in older classes and in life in general. 

Another important idea I confirmed during my professional reading is that collaboration is not the only powerful approach to learning and/or working together. There are some times when individual and co-operative learning should take place to develop sound knowledge and skills to be able to work collaboratively and achieve better outcomes. 

For example, Nilofer Merchant in her article Eight Dangers of Collaboration (Dec 2011) reveals eight dangers of collaboration. She describes situations when people want to be individually recognised because they are great professionals or situations when collaboration slows down the process and creates conflicts instead of benefiting participants and organisations. Once again, in my opinion, we have to learn to choose the most suitable approach when it comes to a specific situation or task. This relates to students and even more to teachers. 

Thinking of my 2022 Inquiry

This week I have been thinking about the next steps for my teaching inquiry. Last year, I focused on accelerating our students' learning in Maths by implementing the best world education practices and working closely with my colleagues to achieve better results for our students.  The beginning of 2022 brought us a new reality - Hybrid learning. What can we do to make learning accessible to all of our students no matter where they are now. How can we get them connected, include them in our group and class learning and provide timely feedback? 

At this moment nobody knows how long this new covid reality will last, so the first steps will be:

• create a team approach to deliver quality teaching and learning to all of our Year 3-4 tamariki
• collaborate and cross-teach to improve students' learning experiences
• collaborative planning to deepen my team's knowledge of learning progressions in all the NZC areas
• provide opportunities for all the learners' in my team to stay connected with their peers and teachers
• collect and analyse the first set of data to plan for learning
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TAI - cognitive engagement and critical thinking during online learning - #21

It's been a rocky year with a lot of changes in practice due to the lockdown and adapting to prolonged online learning. 

During these times, I tried to continue to run a balanced programme for reading, writing and maths using high leverage practices and the Learn-Create-Share pedagogy. I was pleased with how students responded and participated during online learning.

I designed a number of integrated units using multimodal sites. I believe that this approach helped to differentiate during online learning but also raise students' confidence to participate and contribute. 

I continued with the main part of my TAI 2021 throughout the distance learning times - How will I change my practice to ensure my learners are cognitively engaged and develop their critical thinking skills across the curriculum - and can definitely say that my online learners deepened their critical thinking and stayed cognitively engaged during online learning. I recorded some Class onAir episodes and shared my resources to support these units.

TAI - Integrated learning during lockdown - #20

During remote learning, I continued to strengthen cross-curricular connections by designing a number of integrated learning units and multimodal sites to give my students multiple opportunities to learn-create and share. 

One of the units was "Mapping Our World'. My focus was on unpacking and front-loading math vocab and concepts and the use of digital tools to foster my students’ mathematical and spatial thinking. The students learnt how to understand and communicate directions, locations, proportional relationships and the connections between objects. During this unit, the students learnt to create their own simple maps (floor plans, local maps, Google MyMaps) and to use appropriate units and devices to measure length and distances.

This unit brought many learning areas under 'one big umbrella' and provided a real purpose for learning. To add fun and to test their map knowledge, we created a Kahoot quiz and played it at the end of the week. I believe that the entire unit was a success due to the authentic learning opportunities. We even enjoyed wider whanau engagement as some families worked together to create their whanau maps.

The "Mapping Our World" multimodal site, extended planning and reflection are available on the Class OnAir site - Elena Terekhina, episode 12.

TAI - Critical Thinking and Mixed-ability grouping in Reading - #19

Class on Air - Episode 9: Critical thinking and mixed-ability

The Learning Intention for this lesson was to think critically about the text and the topic; actively participate in a sense-making conversation by discussing different points of view, supporting our thinking by evidence from the text, other sources of information and our prior knowledge.

I often work with mixed-ability groups as I believe that holding high expectations for my learners and creating an equitable learning environment empower them to be successful. The way I structured the lesson encouraged a lot of discussions, but also argumentation and provocations.

Forming my Hypothesis - High Leverage Practices and Mathematical Discourse - #11

The review of the evidence-based research literature (please refer to my previous posts) made me reflect on my own teaching practice and think about what can I do to improve my learners' outcomes across the curriculum with a closer focus on Maths.

My hypothesis is that the high leverage practices and mathematical discourse can improve students' critical, cognitive and metacognitive thinking, develop their key competencies, maths knowledge and skills, and contribute to their better achievements across the curriculum.

 

Literature Review: Quality Teaching for Diverse Students - #8

I've been looking for a good read about quality teaching and the best evidence-based and proven practices in New Zealand and came across the following report:

Quality Teaching for Diverse Students in Schooling: Best Evidence Synthesis 

by Adrienne Alton-Lee (2003)

(‘This report is one of a series of best evidence syntheses commissioned by the Ministry of Education. It is part of a commitment to strengthen the evidence base that informs education policy and practice in New Zealand. It aims to contribute to an ongoing evidence-based discourse amongst policymakers, educators and researchers.’)

It was an interesting read as it confirmed my thinking in a way that ‘quality teaching can optimise outcomes for diverse learners across the curriculum, and throughout Schooling.’ 

The research identified some practical areas of how to improve the quality of teaching that can be summarised and aligned with the High-Leverage Practices that Manaiakalani schools have been focusing on.

I decided to benchmark my teaching practice against some of the research-based characteristics of quality teaching to reflect on and identify areas for improvement.

Quality teaching promotes learning orientations and student self-regulation

- I use student voice to allow my student to take ownership of their learning and create student-driven content.

Teaching promotes metacognitive strategy use (e.g. mental strategies in numeracy) by all students.

- I use Number talk, choral counting and problem-solving in maths that require a lot of thinking, and Integrated learning that allows my students to apply their new knowledge in real-life situations.

Teaching scaffolds reciprocal or alternating tuakana teina roles in student groups, or interactive work.

- I use mixed ability groups and drama to provide opportunities for tuakana teina learning.

Teaching promotes sustained thoughtfulness (e.g. through questioning approaches, wait-time, and the provision of opportunities for application and invention).

- I use Talk Moves across the curriculum.

Teaching promotes critical thinking.

- My programme includes a lot of questioning, information analysis, compare and contrast tasks, and Learn-Create-Share projects.

Teaching makes transparent to students the links between strategic effort and accomplishment. - Just a recent example. My students worked on a play. I recorded their first attempt, then we watched it and discussed how we could improve their performance. The students came up with great ideas and continued to work on their play. Finally, we recorded it again and evaluated it. My students were very proud of their effort and the result.

It was a good exercise as this will help me continue to refine my own practice and support my team in their teaching journey.

How to Raise Student Achievement? Q+A episode

I really enjoyed watching last Sunday’s Q + A, from TVNZ on Demand, https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/q-and-a/episodes/s2021-e11  as earlier this year I posed the same question for my own inquiry. Although I focus on developing critical thinking and cognitive engagement across the curriculum, my biggest focus this year is on Maths.

It was very interesting to listen to different points of view and confirm my own understanding of current problems in maths teaching in NZ. I think I am lucky enough because I have insight into different international educational systems as I came from the European part of Russia, and I'm also familiar with other European educational systems.

I truly believe that some NZ teachers don't have enough content knowledge in maths. Some of my colleagues don't feel comfortable teaching maths as they are not 'fluent' in it.  Some classes don't have a structured programme because teachers don't really understand maths progressions and pedagogy. I observed lessons when students were asked to solve equations and they struggled to do so simply because the numbers were abstract to them, those students had to use material instead. 

I agree with Prof Bobby Hunter who emphasised the importance of a balanced programme (direct instructions, practice and problem-solving (=create part). A few years ago, we went through a maths PLD that promoted problem-solving. It was very confusing as the kids had to solve problems using various strategies and we were supposed to discuss those strategies in a group. The explicit teaching and scaffolding were missing and I questioned that. However, that PLD introduced the Talk Moves that I implement in all subject areas.

Since that moment, I reflected on my previous international and NZ teaching and learning experiences, and decided to take the best parts that proved to be working well across all the subject areas: 

• direct teaching of new concepts, 
• practice - application of new learning
• use of materials, hands-on
• learning conversations (strategies, creativity in maths)
• problem-solving 
• acceleration vs filling gaps
• integrated learning - purpose!!!

My hypothesis is that designing a well-balanced purposeful classroom programme based on the above High-Leveraged practices will help develop my students' critical thinking and cognitive engagement and improve their outcomes in maths and other learning areas.

What, Why and How of my TAI 2021 - #4

WHAT aspect of my professional practice do I want to grow my capability in?

• Balance of DATs, 
• Talk Moves and Positive Norms for learning  - Class Treaty that is used throughout the year, not just a beginning of the year activity), 
• Integrated curriculum - LCS projects as multiple opportunities to develop students' critical thinking skills and boost cognitive engagement.

WHY is this important to me and my School or Centre?

• Targets set up in our School Charter
• A strong need to accelerate our learners and improve student achievements
• Student engagement to foster their love of learning

WHAT do I want to achieve for my learners? 

Create a learning environment where all learners are engaged in purposeful learning,  use their critical thinking skills, achieve well in all curriculum areas with a big focus on Maths and enjoy learning

How will I achieve my goals? 

• Implement Talk Moves, Number Talk and Problem solving
• Explicitly focus on developing a Growth mindset and changing their negative beliefs about 'being bad in maths'
• Participate in COL and ALIM networks to improve our student engagement, critical thinking and achievement across the curriculum.
• Continue to differentiate and plan for learning/ teaching using school Matrixes, WALTs and the NZC
• Collaborate with my colleagues by presenting during the TOD and publishing my Class OnAir episodes to share and reflect on my practice and to seek feedback to improve it.

Teaching Inquiry 2021 - #2

As the beginning of 2021 was interrupted by a couple of lockdowns, I haven't got a complete assessment set of data yet. However, I didn't want to waste our precious learning time and started with what was available: I analysed the last EYO data, did selective Running records and formative assessments to help identify my new targets.

This year I plan to focus on the implementation of High Leverage Practices across the curriculum with a spotlight on critical thinking and cognitive engagement. As the majority of my current class are operating below and well below the expected levels, I believe that they require a lot of explicit instructional teaching along with engaging authentic learning experiences. 

Finding the right balance of teaching approaches,  engaging tools and the effective use of formative assessments to accelerate my students’ learning and develop them as enthusiastic learners and critical thinkers should become a focus of my TAI 2021.