CoL PLG

Today we had our first CoL PLG. Russell opened the PLG with a strong statement "You are the change makers in our community" He explained that we as CoL teachers will act on the evidence that we gather in our inquiries. Teaching is only improved to meet the needs of kids when we use data, are honest and learn what works and what doesn't work by trying things, being prepared to fail, failing and trying something different to find what does work.

Next we discussed the Data from our cluster meeting in week 2. We talked about how the data in writing shows we are doing really well but the picture is not the same in maths and reading. How can we make the same shift in other subject as we do in writing?

The Woolf Fisher team shared with us about Teaching as Inquiry and how we can get the most out of our inquiries as we start on this journey.  The Woolf Fisher team are now doing a Meta Analysis of the CoL inquiries from last year with the aim of understanding the practices that supported student acceleration and what makes an effective inquiry. Last year we wrote reports about all we had done this year they aim to spread this throughout the year as specific blog posts, so stay tuned to see that.

In terms of the inquiry we want to spend more time understanding the problem, learning, researching, diving into the data and really getting to understand the rich picture before we jump into solving the problems. We need to slow down and be really analytical about the student so we can make sure we adjust the teaching to address the problem.  We also need to know what the practice was before the inquiry. What are we changing and why?

We need to make sure we are tapping into rich data, this can come from a range of sources.

Why inquire? The Three view of effective inquiry.
-The View of 'Style'
This is the focus on what the teacher does rather than what is happening to the student. This assume that a 'good' teacher will have a positive impact on all student.
The  view of "Outcome"
This is the focus on the student outcome and assumes that good student outcomes means good teacher practice. We must consider the 'black boxes' Student learning opportunity, Black box (how the student understand this learning), student outcomes.
-Teacher inquiry

“Since any teaching strategy works differently in different contexts for different students, effective pedagogy requires that teachers inquire into the impact of their teaching on their students.” (NZC, p.35)

Effective inquiry should tackle a big problem.