All Children Have Gifts But No, Not All Children Are Gifted

This post from the Day 10 prompt of the giftEDnz Blog Challenge has definitely been one of the most difficult and challenging to write to date.  I've chosen to reflect deeply and confront my beliefs and assumptions over the years and share why I changed from initially quite firmly believing the quote that inspired today's post.  The image is below and you, like me, will have seen it and heard similar expressions many, many times over the years.

I'm really not sure where this originated and it sounds fantastic in principle.  But it's wrong.  Yes, all children absolutely are gifts and they have unique skills and possibly talents, but not all children are truly gifted.  Gifted students have unique social, emotional and learning needs. 

I began my teaching career in 1999 and we had little experience or sessions in gifted education and gifted students and how to meet these unique needs.  In fact, I can remember that we were often told information that wasn't a hundred miles away from the above quote.  Our learning suggested that we were quite capable of meeting the needs of all our students in our classes because we would personalise and individualise the learning.  This is absolutely correct with one important condition...it was crucial that some of our learning covered the growing area of students with special and particular learning needs.  Looking back, our programme was informative and challenging but it didn't provide enough, or in some cases, any information on gifted students. Did they not exist? Would their needs be the same as any other student?  Surely, we were told, if we were teaching to the individual needs of each student and developing personalised learning programmes which, in the main I always did, then those needs would be met no matter what.

While it is true that most individual learning needs are met if we have differentiated and individualised learning programmes that meet the student where they are currently and help them move to the next step, what happens when it doesn't work like this?


During the first few years of my career, I was relatively confident in my ability to be able to meet the learning needs of my students. They had individualised learning programmes and each student was achieving - most were experiencing accelerated progress which as we know continues to be the great focus in our schools to this day (more on how problematic 'accelerated learning' can be in a later post).  I believed I could - and was - meeting all their needs in my learning programme. Wasn't I now an experienced teacher whose students always achieved?

I was mistaken and quite wrong in some areas.

I did not fully understand the unique social and emotional learning needs of my gifted students - and I did have these students over the years. It was very obvious to me who these students were in so many different areas of the curriculum.  I've never been one for hanging my hat on academic achievement as a way of identifying giftedness.  For me, it's often the ones who are flying below the radar, the ones who come up with the most amazing ideas or have incredibly interesting and insightful conversations, among other indicators, or the ones who are seen as having 'behaviour issues'.  I'm always concerned when I hear teachers say that they don't have gifted and talented students.  You do and you will have, but it can be a lack of professional learning and development and perhaps a school environment that has too narrow a definition of giftedness and hasn't developed policies and procedures to be able to identify these learners.

I was a bit stuck and I'd reached a crossroads.  Did I really believe that saying - that 'all children are gifted, they just unwrap their gifts at different times'?  Deep down I knew I didn't.  As my experience grew, so did the understanding grow that I had students who had different needs and they weren't really being met through mixed ability grouping and personalised learning.  Only some of their needs were and these were largely academic.  I was using innovative practice and was a very early adopter of digital technologies to support and extend learning as far back as when I began teaching in 1999.  My students were connected locally and globally. Wasn't that enough? In a word, no.

So what do you do?

The questioning of my beliefs and practice has always been a part of who I am as a teacher but became more of a drive to learn more when I moved schools in 2003.  There didn't seem to be a great deal of professional learning available so I started reading everything I could get my hands on and also talking with two colleagues who ran the gifted and talented programme at my new school.  A few years later I enrolled in courses at Massey University (which still offers some of the best and most sustainable professional learning around).  Unfortunately, I had to withdraw very early from the programme as I was promoted and was being stretched too thin.  I did, however, read every article in the study guides and used these to continue to improve my knowledge and understanding of this group of students and how I should be - not could be - meeting their needs more effectively.  The key understandings I was missing were around the social and emotional needs.

Gifted students have unique social and emotional needs (along with learning needs)

Below is an excellent summary of the social and emotional needs of gifted students as summarised by Ian Byrd from Byrdseed (I recommend that you follow him on all of his platforms. His website has fantastic resources).

Summarised, these unique needs are:

"1. Be aware that strengths and potential problems can be flip sides of the same coin.
 2. Gifted students’ physical, emotional, social and intellectual growth is often uneven.
 3. Gifted students may doubt that they are actually gifted.
 4. Gifted students may face social challenges not just from peers, but parents           
      and teachers as well.
 5. As they get older, gifted students may take fewer risks. 6. Gifted students can have surprisingly heightened emotional sensitivity.  7.  Gifted students are often shy, know they’re shy, and know that shyness is often looked  
      down upon. 8.  Gifted students’ abstract intuition may conflict with teachers’ desire for concrete thinking. 9.  Gifted students needs cannot be met by one style of learning.
10. Gifted adults wish they were better informed about giftedness as children."  Ian Byrd

I changed my practice to make sure that these needs were being met, that students had opportunities to learn with like-minds (a key to supporting the social and emotional needs of gifted students).  I had always worked with mixed-ability groups since I began teaching but there is so much evidence for this to be balanced by making sure that there are opportunities for gifted students to learn and interact with like-minds that it can't be ignored.  (This is a reflection for another post).

No, not all children are gifted and until we are able to understand and acknowledge that this is a fact supported by evidence, then we will continue to have a group of students who are missing out and that is not an equitable situation. 

The Power and Passion of True Differentiation - One Teacher's Experiences

Day 8 of the giftEDnz October Blog Challenge and it's all about differentiation...

From the Edweek article by Peter DeWitt

There's Something Missing From This Chart

For me, differentiation is not just about content, process and product, it's about relationships and connections.  It's about people.  I think you have to really know your students well - not just academically but most importantly as people.  What makes them tick?  What are their passions? What concerns them? Where do they feel their strengths are at the moment? What do they know they need to work on in their learning at this point in time? How do they like to learn?  If you have this knowledge then you can truly work alongside them to differentiate their needs - socially, emotionally and academically.

So where do you start with this?

Get to Know Your Students as People

At the beginning of every year, I always got my students and their parents/whānau to complete information fact sheets.  For the students, the questions included items such as "What I need you to know about me - as a person, as a learner," "Ways I currently learn best," etc.  There was always room for growth - we would revisit these during the year and there were always questions about their passions, usually framed with a question like "If you could spend a whole day learning about anything, what would it be?" The parents' information was similar with regard to items such as "What I need you to know about my child," "Their passions are," etc.

Past Experiences With Differentiation...

... and what's possible (a few examples)

Collaborative Planning - With Students
When I began teaching we were still using the separate curriculum documents.  I had an absolute belief that students needed to own and create their learning with support from me - Vygotsky, Piaget, Dewey, etc strike again and were my early influencers.  I had also been fascinated by A.S. Neill's Summerhill when I was studying to become a teacher and wondered about the possibilities for our own learning environments here in Aotearoa.

7 Year-Olds Can Plan Their Own Learning

Fresh out of university I decided that there was no reason why we couldn't use the documents to plan our own learning while at the same time following the requirements of the school.  So we did - with 7 year-olds.  Did they manage it? With support, of course they did and we created some fantastic learning experiences together, including running workshops for parents.  We were still a bit constrained by the requirements of the school but it was the beginning of learning about differentiation for me.  We still had a long way to go, however, as there was still a long-term plan to be followed and it was frustrating for the students - and for me - if your passions and interests weren't in line with what the school had decided you needed to learn.  I was heavily influenced by Bloom, Multiple Intelligences and Habits of Mind and these also helped form a foundation for differentiating learning.

Year 7 and 8s Are Inspirational

In 2003 I moved to an Intermediate and the environment was less prescriptive.  There is often the belief that differentiation can't happen in this environment which can be true if you don't have the support of the leadership team.  Fortunately, this school was driving toward enabling students to find their passions.  Bliss!! Long story short, my Year 8s brainstormed all their interests and passions and then formed groups - or not (some wanted to learn on their own) and together we created learning plans for them and their own timetables to fit in around the requirements of the main timetable at the school.  This was differentiating the learning, the environment, content, process and product.

During this time, we had learning experiences in so many diverse areas. There was a group who were interested in the work of the SPCA so one part of their learning involved working there for a day and interviewing staff.  When they returned they ran a food drive for the SPCA and presented a learning session for their peers.  Another group contacted Auckland Airport to find out what changes had been made since 9/11 - they were interested in international security.  This caused a little bit of an 'incident' but they ended up communicating with the then Minister of Internal Affairs and had a Customs Officer and his dog come to the school as part of their presentation of their learning.  Yet another group created a scale model of the Colosseum - their passion was ancient history.  Part of this process saw them emailing experts in this field from all over the world.  Another group was interested in design.  They ended up communicating with Trelise Cooper who sent them photos, earlier designs showing the design process and swatches of fabric etc.  There were many more incredible learning experiences.  The learning was so diverse and exciting and it was incredibly heartwarming to see these groups able to follow their passions and interests while still learning what they needed to know across the curriculum.  That's where the teacher fits into the differentiation process.  You are there to scaffold and guide the students, help them learn the skills they need in order to be successful in their learning and teaching.  Yes, it's exhausting at times but the benefits are immeasurable.

Two years later we had an odd number of Year 7 classes when I became Head of Year 7.  What did this mean? It meant that we could run our own timetable! This was incredibly exciting and only supported the differentiated learning even more.

Since Then...

I've continued to work hard to learn more about differentiation and what it looks like for every individual student.  There are many misconceptions out there about what it is...and is not.
After moving back to a Primary School in 2007, I found myself with several gifted and talented students who were attending the local one-day school.  I wanted to be able to constantly connect and value their learning between both environments so I asked them how they thought we should go about this.  Their answer was to connect their blogs from both learning environments and also to run workshops to showcase their learning...across the school.  They were also running workshops that teachers and parents could join in.  This class was the one who created one of my favourite quotes that I stick with even today...

"We are all teachers and we are all learners in our learning environments." 

They particularly wanted the word environments in there as "learning doesn't just happen in the classroom."  Very wise.  These students were Years 5/6.

I've since learned and taught in a school that was largely Pasifika and Māori and had to learn so much more about the particular cultural needs of these groups in terms of being able to differentiate the learning and teaching. This was such an amazing time and we did what I had encouraged in the past but this time through a different lens.  These students taught me so much.

At my last school, I had Year 6-8 and was completing a postgrad certificate through The MindLab where we were learning a lot about Design Thinking.  That got me thinking about how powerful it could be as a catalyst for differentiated learning and teaching.  I always shared my learning with my students so we started talking about what we could do...

They decided we could build our own Makerspace...in an unused classroom...from the ground up.

Well, why not? So we did and it became The Creator Ops STEAM - named by them.

How did differentiation work in this instance?  We learned about Design Thinking and then brainstormed what we needed to do.  From this, the students chose their areas of interest and began to form groups.  A few chose to work on their own which was always accepted in our learning environment.  As we worked through the process, skills were taught including writing reports, measurement (of the room), interview techniques, design skills, planning, budgeting and so much more.

They rebuilt the classroom from the ground up - new kitchen, carpet, paint, huge wall-sized whiteboard for planning and sharing ideas, created a budget and sourced furniture and equipment and so much more.  Everything they did had to be able to meet the needs of the whole school - from the 5 year-olds up.  I could write forever on this but they've already done it through a blog of their journey.  I would really recommend that you read this - and particularly have a look at their PHOTO GALLERY. They inspired me and showed me that you can always differentiate learning and teaching.

Yes, differentiation can be hard but it's essential if we are going to meet the individual learning, social and emotional needs of our students.  Plus...it's incredibly exciting, stimulating and a whole lot of fun!  You get a chance to help students push themselves to the optimal level of learning. You get a chance to really know your students. 

The Power of Student Voice

Day 6 of the giftEDnz October Blog Challenge

Today's prompt comes from Madelaine Willcocks' blog post from Gifted Awareness Week 2018 (for more inspirational blogs, please visit NZCGE (New Zealand Centre for Gifted Education).

Image source: Remind

I've read comments recently during a discussion on gifted education and gifted learners and it was interesting to read some from teachers who believe that there's no such thing as giftedness, that their students are fine and achieving 'where they should be' and are 'happy in the classroom' etc.  That's fantastic.  If they are doing all these things, if their teachers are meeting their needs and challenging them at the level they need to be challenged.

But how do they know?  What is their evidence? 

A test score? Observation - which is always subjective as is our nature as people.  The questions that kept circling in my mind were -

Have you asked the students?  Where is the student voice in this discussion?  Where is the focus on the learning as well as the teaching? 

Many of the comments focused on the teaching but not a lot on the learning.

Is it time for some very honest reflection and to increase the use of student voice?

Back in 2007 I read Michael Absolum's book Clarity in the Classroom.  It changed a lot of my practice.  I had always listened to my students - but had I really HEARD them?  I reflected a great deal on this and have ever since.  There is a questionnaire on page 41 (in the image below) which can be confronting but once you're in the habit of deep reflection it can become a starting point for change and one of the most powerful tools you can use.

Over the past few weeks, I've been reading through the student voice responses to another survey on giftedness.  The results were, in the main, heartbreaking in relation to how these students perceive themselves, how they feel about school and how they feel their teachers perceive them.  The survey will be collated and I'm hoping shared widely. 

There are so many ways to give students a voice in learning and teaching and I've blogged about some of these before here.  The list is endless but there's always a way to include student voice - the trick is that it must then be used - reflected on, let it challenge our thinking, confront us in some cases. We just need to be open to and expect it as part of the learning and teaching process.
Some of the ways I've used it in the past include:

• Padlet (formerly Wallwisher)
• Blogs
• Journals 
• Post-it notes
• Postbox in the classroom
• Google Forms
• Google Docs

It's important to find ways that ALL voices can be heard - particularly those of the students who may need ways to share that are private to them and their teacher.

Establishing a Culture of Student Voice

Teachers want their students to achieve and be successful and they want them to be reflective learners.  We need to make sure that we are also being reflective - even if that means we confront some of our own beliefs. 


ReferenceAbsolum, M., (2006). Clarity in the Classroom. Hodder Education: Auckland, New Zealand

Is there a Gap in Our Understanding? Gifted vs High-Achieving Students

Day 3 of the giftEDnz October Blog Challenge.

The Truth About Gifted Versus High-Achieving Students

Gifted students have it easy - right? They're well-organised, popular, are our natural leaders, a dream to learn and teach with, often the go-to person in the classroom and they always get the best marks. Right? No.  They don't.  These are our high-ability students and there IS a difference.  This is such a misconception and it puts our gifted students on the back foot right from the time they enter the classroom.  If they've been identified at some point and then don't meet teacher expectations there can be a break down in relationships, both with their teachers and their peers and the damage done to self-esteem and identity can be hard to rectify.

So what do we need to do as teachers?  I've thought about this a lot over the years.  Some of this thinking is based on research, reflection and my own learning but some thinking is also based on the gut instinct we develop as teachers. Here are my thoughts:

1. Don't assume 

I love this quote from Alan Alda - “Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won’t come in.” ~ Alan Alda, actor

The student that struggles with reading and writing could still be a gifted writer. They just need a different platform to share their ideas.  That student who's 'always in trouble' could also be a gifted student who is showing his or her frustration in a different way.  The autistic student could be the next top computer programmer. Sometimes our assumptions that a student CAN'T do something can cloud our ability to see what they CAN do.

For more on this, please read this powerful post...

Scrubbing Our Assumptions About Our Students

2. Don't read the report comments from the last teacher/school until well into the first term

This might be controversial but it's honest and not meant to offend.
By all means, respect the basic data/professional judgements and anything essential but we all know that personalities come into play in learning and teaching.  That student that "...has not reached his/her potential...' could just need a different teacher with a different perspective. We can't be precious about this. It's just a fact of life and it's normal.  If we see it as any other way then we might just miss that gifted student who just needs a fresh start or that new perspective.

3. Know our students as people first - students second

Who is this awesome person in our room - what makes them tick?  I used to get my students to write to me on the topic of "What I wish my teacher knew about me."  It was one of the most powerful learning activities I've ever done.  It gives you a real insight into who these amazing human beings are.

What I Wish My Teacher Knew About Me

4. Be open to possibilities - be open to the possibility that a student may be gifted.

This links in with not making assumptions.  We need to address our assumptions in terms of gifted students coming from so many different

5. Listen, observe and question

Teachers are great at talking - I am very much guilty as charged in this respect but many years ago I was reading about the power of listening in the classroom and it really changed how I interacted with my students.  It's still very much a work in progress because I can't help myself but it was amazing what I picked up by being quiet and just listening and observing.

Listening Is a Teacher's Most Powerful Tool

6. Surround yourself with as much knowledge as possible.

This is sometimes not as easy as it sounds.  Teachers are under so much pressure to raise achievement levels of students who are below the expected level, deal with a myriad of neurodiverse students and meet all the other administrative requirements of their profession. This is where our gifted students often fall between the cracks if we're not careful.  We can make sure this doesn't happen by learning from others asynchronously through our online professional learning networks (PLN) as well as in more formal learning situations.  There is a myriad of groups and pages where information can be found on learning and teaching with our gifted students.  Just a few are linked below...

Gifted and Talented Teachers (NZ)
giftEDnz - new website coming soon
NZCGE - New Zealand Centre for Gifted Education
NZAGC - New Zealand Association for Gifted Children
REACH - Specialists in Gifted Education
TKI - Gifted and Talented
Hogies' Gifted Education Page
SENG - Social and Emotional Needs of the Gifted

7. Question what you observe.

Always question what you are seeing and hearing.  This is not second-guessing or self-doubt.  It is part of being a reflective and reflexive practitioner. 
Two common models are the Gibbs Reflective Cycle Model (1988) and Kolb's Reflective Practice Model (1984)

Image Source: ELN

Image Source: Nicole Brown - excellent explanation on her page

If you suspect that a student may be gifted utilise your PLN, your colleagues, the student's whānau and other resources to help with identification. Be clear in your own mind that there is a difference between gifted and high-achieving students so that your gifted students aren't missed. It is a question of equity in education that the needs of our gifted students are met. 

The Vulnerabilities of Being A Teacher

Last Friday's chat on #whatisschool was all about our vulnerabilities as teachers.  The minute I read the questions, I thought they would be a great challenge for me as a reflective teacher (this links to a long-ish post with links to many other posts on reflective practice over the years).  As the chat progressed I was humbled by the depth of sharing and the honesty of individuals whom I value and respect as colleagues around the globe.  That's the power of being involved in weekly Twitter chats such as these - they push your learning and you are able to reflect more deeply because of where the conversations head.  You don't always get these opportunities during one-off professional learning sessions.  I've blogged about this before here and here and my Masters thesis was on the power of online Communities of Practice and their potential to change teacher professional learning and practice.

Back to this week's chat though - and this was one that really made me reflect on my practice and my vulnerabilities as a teacher.  Even the first question was quite tough - we're often not good at identifying our strengths.  If I could choose one strength, then it would have to be empathy - I hope that I will always have empathy for the students and the families I come in contact with.  Personally, I don't believe you can reach your students unless you have this.   I also know that I'm not afraid to fail, to make mistakes and let my students see me doing this.  This is so important if we want to encourage our students to develop a growth mindset and be a learner alongside our students.  I've often been challenged on how much I collaborate in my planning with students but I have no problem with this.  After all, it is THEIR learning.  That was part of the discussion for Question 2.

Question 3 was a tough one - as a teacher, what are my vulnerabilities?  It was tough, not because I don't have any - I have plenty - it was because there are many to work on.  I'm a perfectionist, and I can be very critical of myself and others.  I have high expectations for myself and others but sometimes I need to engage brain before mouth, particularly with adults. This is always something I continue to work on.  I know that I care too much and have trouble switching off which can lead to this frustration.

Question 5 prompted a really interesting discussion around what happens when a colleague notices our vulnerabilities - what would we want them to do.  One of the most powerful experiences of my teaching career happened when I was involved in a very well set-up Critical Friends programme where the feedback was always honest and constructive and delivered through a coaching platform.  I would always want to be told when I'm missing the point, or not communicating effectively or not delivering as I should.  We expect to be able to do this with our students in order for them to become the best they can be.  Shouldn't we also expect this for ourselves as learners too?  Sometimes it's not always easy to hear - and I've been in this situation where it has been some of the most difficult feedback to receive because I'm certainly not perfect, but I hope it's helped me to be a better teacher / leader - and person - and that I've been able to reflect honestly on the feedback for my own benefit and for the benefit of those around me.

Sometimes our vulnerabilities need to be faced.  Sometimes they can be a strength and sometimes they are something that needs to be faced honestly and worked on.  That's what learning and teaching - and growth - is all about.

The following TedTalk by Brené Brown  is all about the Power of Vulnerability.  It's worth watching:

The Power of Sketchnoting

A couple of weeks ago I participated in the weekly #whatisschool Twitter chat which that week was hosted by @sylviaduckworth.  Many of you reading this will know her as the guru of #Sketchnoting - something I've long been a fan of using...with my students.  It has so much potential for helping students organise their thinking and share their learning so, of course, I was going to be a fan.  I had been toying with the idea of using it to help me organise my, at times, wandering mind for my studies but had really dismissed the idea due to a lack of artistic ability but when I saw the topic of the chat, I thought I'd lurk and see what other's had to say...

Isn't it funny how, as teachers, we are our students' biggest cheerleaders when it comes to wanting them to have a growth mindset and give things a go...to not expect to be perfect at something...but when it comes to our own growth mindset that sage advice often goes out the window??!!  What do they say about 'Physician heal thyself'.  A lot can be learned from this.

How many times do we say this...but do we practise it ourselves?

As usual, the conversation on the weekly chat lead to deep reflection about my own beliefs about learning - it's funny how a 140 character Tweet can do that sometimes.  I've always been very vocal about things such as pedagogy before tools in the case of my passion for all things digital and ideas / content before surface features in writing, as just two examples, but here I was, reluctant to give something a 'go' which I knew would be powerful for my own learning just because I might be lacking in the artistic department.  What message would that be sending to my students if they knew about that..?

So...I'm going to be exploring sketchnoting throughout my PhD studies in gifted education as a way to explore my thinking and record my learning. It's something different and I'd be very keen to find out if any other PhD students have explored this.  Watch this space - or the page on this blog I'm going to dedicate to my PhD learning journey.  I'm going to practise what I preach and develop a growth mindset around this - after all - as everyone in the chat kept saying, and I tell my students...it's about the ideas not the art...

Image by Sylvia Duckworth

What about the Sweetness and Light of Teaching?

Friday's chat on #whatisschool was all about the sweetness and light of teaching - appropriate seeing as it was #nationalgumdropday - did you know there was such a thing?? I did not, but I'm very happy that there is.  (You should learn something new every day).

Back to the serious issue at hand.  When was the last time you celebrated the 'sweetness and light' of being a teacher? Of teaching and learning?  Take a moment to think about that one.  I know I did when I saw what the topic was for today's chat.  It wasn't so much the topic - it was the questions that really challenged me and then the chat itself even more so.  That's the power of a PLN (Professional Learning Network).  It doesn't matter whether they're face-to-face or online.  As long as they push you to reflect on your practice, to really get down deep into your thinking and beliefs about what you do, then they're really worth their weight in gold.

I love my online PLNs because they include such a wide range of educators from all sectors and from all parts of New Zealand and the globe.  That's real real power and real challenge if you truly want to be a reflective practitioner.  I've blogged about this many times before, (A few links to previous posts are below).  It's something I'm really passionate about and believe it's essential if we want to be the best we can be - for our students and also for ourselves and our colleagues.

Image source: #whatisschool Twitter chat

It really was the questions - and the discussion - that got me today though... Sweetness and light? 

I love a laugh but teaching and learning is a serious business - isn't it?  I wasn't too sure about this one... Then, as always the chat started and made me really question my own thinking and practice.

Image source: #whatisschool Twitter chat

  Think about this for a moment...

... when, if ever, have you and your colleagues talked about the SWEETNESS AND LIGHT OF TEACHING AND LEARNING? Why? Why not? @Dale_Chu @cossie29 @DennisDill @FoleyKev @cvarsalona @deem_ellen @noasbobs #whatisschool pic.twitter.com/BTLbFRyQBr

— Mark E. Weston Ph.D. (@ShiftParadigm) February 15, 2018

When was the last time we did this?  Have we ever done it?
Have we forgotten how to celebrate the joy of what we do?
What would happen if we stopped to take 10 minutes in each professional learning session or staff meeting to celebrate what we do?  How would that change our environment?  Is this something you already do?  What difference would it make to you? To your teaching and learning? Could it be a way of addressing teacher burnout?


Maybe we need to sometimes just take a little time out to reflect and celebrate the sweetness and light - the gumdrops of this crazy profession.


If you'd like to read through the gumdrops of wisdom from the chat today, please click this Storify link.


#whatisschool chat can be found on Twitter at 12.00pm NZDT.



LINKS TO PREVIOUS POSTS ON REFLECTIVE PRACTICE and PLNs

Reflecting on Reflective Practice

Connecting to Your PLN for Powerful Reflective Practice

Communities of Practice

On Being A Connected Educator and Why I'm Grateful for the Connections

Social Media as a Learning Tool

Connecting to Your PLN for Powerful Reflective Practice





#whatisschool #reflectivepractice #CommunitiesofPractice

Feedback - What Works?

In 2011 one of my research projects for my Masters looked at feedback and what had the greatest impact on learning and teaching.  My focus was on writing and, in particular, what motivated 'reluctant' writers.  It was really interesting research to complete and I nearly carried on with it for my PhD but have gone down the path of Gifted and Talented for that.

The Slideshare presentation summarises the research but the main points are:

There Are 4 Main Types of Feedback

1. Personal Praise Feedback
2. Summative - 'Right' or 'Wrong' Feedback
3. Self-regulatory Feedback
4. Process Feedback

Two of these are more effective than the other two - do you know which ones and why and how they work?  It's a really fascinating area.  Have a look at the slides for a summary of what each one is and how and why they work.  The slides also detail the 'traps' we can fall into as teachers when giving feedback.

Being able to give effective feedback - and knowing what makes 'effective' feedback (had a great debate with a fellow student over that word), is something that I've had to practice.  It doesn't always come easy and it's so easy to say - 'That's fantastic!'  'Well done!'  These, in themselves, are not bad things to say - they are Feedback Type 1 - as long as they go along with Feedback Type 3 or 4, (more in the slides).  I'd love your feedback on this...

The Slideshare presentation below is a summary of the findings.

Effective Feedback from Justine Hughes / PhD Student/ Teacher

What's A Community of Practice?

Recently I've been having a lot of discussion about Communities of Practice, (CoPs) in connection with my studies.  There's been an assumption that they're the same as the Communities of Learning set up by the previous government in this country but they're not.  While they do have some similarities, they have some very fundamental - and very important differences, both philosophically and pedagogically.  This post is about reflecting on these and trying to break them down into bullet points.

CoPs are a bit of a passion of mine and were a focus for my thesis for my Masters thesis back in 2015.  I developed an online community of practice for TeachThought and, Along with Beth Leidolf in the US, we created a weekly Twitter chat.  Beth then became a big part of running the online community as part of the leadership. CoPs are all about sharing the learning with everyone having an equal say as you'll see in the bullet point summaries below.

The summaries - these won't be perfect and are just my summaries as I see them at this point, (and I'm always willing to be challenged).  These points come from my research in the case of the CoPs and from research and discussion with many teachers involved in the CoLs in the case of the CoLs.


Communities of Learning

• New Zealand government initiative
• Top-down model
• Large groups of schools, small numbers of facilitators and 'expert teachers'
• Lead teachers and professional development providers with expertise lead the learning
• Other teachers learn from the 'experts'
• Knowledge is grown
• Data-driven
• Goal is to improve success for students and raise achievement
• Ownership of the process is largely by the leadership of the CoLs

Communities of Practice

• Groups are created through a common interest/need
• Distributed leadership and ownership model
• All members are seen to have expertise no matter what their 'level', e.g. a beginning teacher's knowledge is as valuable as someone with a PhD.  
• The value is in creating knowledge together
• Knowledge is grown, created 
• Data is valued and guides the community but doesn't become the overall focus
• Goal is to raise success for ALL INVOLVED - students AND teachers
• Everyone involved owns the process and has opportunities to lead

I've blogged about CoPs before and through the years, (see links below), my thinking hasn't changed.  I still believe that they are a way for teachers to be in charge of their own professional learning and for them to create excitement about that learning.  It becomes ongoing, real and relevant - just like we want for our students.  It's not a top-down model controlled by a small group of people and it's always relevant to the individual teacher's own learning needs.  This is how it should be for ALL learners.


Links to Previous Posts on CoPs

Communities of Practice
PLN - aka Powerful Learning Network
Developing a Community of Practice - Improvements and Feedback



Wanting to Develop Your Own Online CoP? 

This presentation may be useful...

Pathways to collaboration from Justine Hughes / PhD Student/ Teacher

Edublogs Club 1: My Blog Story

Hi everyone! I'm based in Auckland, New Zealand and it's supposed to be coming into our beautiful summertime.  Currently, it's grey, drizzling and anything but summertime!  I've been teaching for 18 years and last year left my position as a Deputy (Assistant) Principal to study full time for my Doctor of Education.  I'm still teaching part-time too though - relieving / substituting. I have a couple of regular schools which is great as I get to know the students really well.

Auckland City - from the harbour

One of our beaches

I've been blogging for a long time - since the beginning of 2010 - but I'm not all that consistent! One of my goals this year is to blog at least once a week as part of my reflection on my new learning journey.  In July last year I started my Doctor of Education through the University of Otago.  So far so good - absolutely loving it.  My research focus is on gifted and talented students and how we identify them and meet their learning needs and also support our already stretched classroom teachers who are trying to meet the needs of all learners.

University of Otago

I love reading and commenting on other blogs because it gives me a insight into the thoughts of others and challenges my thinking on a wide range of issues.  I try to make sure that I don't just read education blogs.  The wider the range the better - keeps your mind open to new ideas and possibilities.  I keep up with them by following via email, generally.  Some of my favourite education ones, however are:

Learning with 'e's - Steve Wheeler

Dangerously Irrelevant - Scott McLeod

Cool Cat Teacher - Vicki Davis

The Principal of Change - George Couros

Claire Amos - Learning Leading Change

Four Seasons in One Kiwi - Stephanie Thompson

These are just a few - there are a huge number more from all over the world.  The more the merrier to challenge my thinking!

My goals for the #EdublogsClub are to continue to connect with other educators, both locally and globally and to share ideas and conversations around learning and teaching.  I'd also love to connect with others who are interested in the same area of research that I am.

As far as advice for newbies... just jump in and enjoy.  Don't be afraid to share your ideas. You'll find that everyone is really supportive and encouraging, particularly if they've joined a challenge such as this one.  You'll be surprised by the feedback and conversations and connections that develop.  Don't feel that it has to be an 'academic standard' essay-type exercise.  Think of it more as a conversation with other like minds. :-)

Looking forward to this initiative and encouragement / prod to blog! 

#Edublogs Club 1: My Blog Story

Communities of Practice

What is a Community of Practice?

The concept of Communities of Practice as defined by Etienne Wenger has long been an area of interest for me and I completed my final Masters thesis around these and the power they can have to improve our teaching practice.  The link below is to my final research report.

Communities of Practice and the Potential to Change Teacher Professional Learning Master of Teaching research, 2014/15




The following was a presentation created in 2014 to share what I had learned about how to develop an 'effective' community of practice, (see also Wenger, 1998).

Pathways to collaboration from Justine Hughes / Deputy Principal/ Teacher

MY COMMUNITY

Purpose and Function of my Practice and how it Meets the Needs of the Community

The purpose and function of my practice for the past year or so has been to meet the needs of my Year 6-8 students and the small rural community in which I learn and teach.  My class was mostly made up of an equal number of Intermediate-aged students who have particular needs as they move into adolescence and need to be supported as they prepare for the next stage of their learning journey - College or Secondary School.  There is also a need to support and reassure parents, particularly those for whom this is their first child at this level.  Many I've spoken to are like me and have not had the best experiences at Secondary so they already have a preconceived idea of what school is like in relation to their own experiences; positive or otherwise.

Reassuring parents - and students - is all about providing connections and working in a partnership for each individual child and his/her individual learning needs.  Connections are forged through class and individual blogs, communication with parents: face-to-face or via email, notes home etc or even a quick phone call.  This is not just when there are concerns.  It is important to connect when great things are happening too.  Maybe it's even more important.  It's all about relationships and connections.

The goal is always to help students become confident and connected learners who are not afraid to fail; who see this as a chance for deeper learning and also as an exciting personal challenge rather than as a stumbling block.  It's about finding out what makes each individual student 'tick', what their passions are and working from there - you need to know who they are as people, not just as 'one of the students' - if you are going to connect and engage with them and provide the best learning opportunities for them.

Now that I am no longer at school and moving into studying for my Doctor of Education, the community I serve will change.  My research, at this stage, is around improving writing for our students - finding ways to motivate and engage them and raise achievement levels at the same time. This will be another blog post.

Challenges Faced in my Practice and How a Community of Practice (CoP) can Help Address Them

As I've written extensively about how CoPs can address the needs of teachers in the current environment in my research I won't repeat this in this section but will summarise what I've learned to date (with still a lot of learning to come).

CoPs provide a way to connect with others on a level playing field where everyone can learn with and from each other.  Everyone's level / depth of knowledge is valued and appreciated.  In turn, this sharing of practice and knowledge has the benefit and goal, if you like, of creating new shared knowledge or practice.  It provides a platform for genuine reflection / reflective practice but only if it is set up and organised well from the beginning.  The criteria for an effective CoP is set out in the presentation (Slideshare) above).


Changes in our Profession and How a Community of Practice Can Address the Changes

Currently we are experiencing many changes in the profession with a lot of pressure placed on teachers to 'lift the tail' in terms of our students who are not meeting the National Standards in the core curriculum areas of Reading, Writing and Maths.   My thinking around these will be detailed in a later post.  For the current assignment I will focus on a new initiative which seems, at first glance, to be built around the concept of Communities of Practice (the Communities of Learning initiative).  Delving further into what these Communities of Learning are and the expectations for them possibly raises more questions than answers for me at this stage.


Investigating in Educational Success and Communities of Learning

My first reaction on hearing that these communities were being developed was a very positive one and I'm still keeping an open mind so I've organised my thinking, at this stage into a PMI which looks at the positives to date, any negatives I can see and the interesting questions that have popped up as I've researched and read.
I am looking forward to revisiting this post in the future as the communities develop and grow.  I would also love to read the views of others around the CoLs.


Communities of Learning PMI

References

Hughes, J. (2014) Pathways to collaboration: developing an online community of practice. Retrieved from  http://www.slideshare.net/Justine8/pathways-to-collaboration.

Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning as a social system, Systems Thinker, Retrieved April 2013 from www.co-i-l.com/coil/knowledge-garden/cop/lss.shtml

Reflecting on Reflective Practice

"We are all teachers and we are all learners in our learning environments."  

Myross Bush Year 5/6 students, Room 8, 2011

Robotics for the July 2015 Intake at The MindLab

My class visiting and exploring The MindLab - putting the Key Competencies into practice!

KEY COMPETENCIES and a 24 WEEK LEARNING JOURNEY

The Key Competencies (KCs) in the New Zealand Curriculum include:

• Relating to others
• Managing self
• Participating and Contributing
• Thinking
• Using Languages, Symbols and Texts

Examples of what each of the KCs include / involve can be found on TKI.

The following video is by the authors of The Key Competencies for the Future book (Rosemary Hipkins, Rachel Bolstad,  Sally Boyd, and Sue McDowall).  They state reasons why everyone needs to read their book and, having read it, I completely agree.  I've always felt that the KCs were designed to drive the curriculum and learning with the Essential Learning Areas of English, Maths, Science, Social Sciences, etc providing a context.  In the past few years, however, we seem to be driven by the subject areas with the KCs taking a very definite backseat.  We see this in planning and assessment and we hear it in discussions.

The book can be purchased through the New Zealand Council of Educational Research (NZCER).



In 2011, my students and I also spent considerable time pulling apart the competencies and creating key word summaries of what each of the competencies meant to us.  You can read our thoughts at The Team in Room 8.  I've just gone back to read this through again today and have realised that exploring these needs to happen more often if they are going to be given the importance that was intended when they were developed.

Key Competencies Digital Stories are a valuable tool for schools and communities to pull apart what each of the KCs mean to them in their particular learning environment / context.

The Key Competencies and the Past 24 Weeks of The MindLab Learning...

The MindLab by Unitec

Undertaking this postgrad programme and reading the book discussed above, has helped me to focus more on the KCs and how important they are for not only the students' learning but also our own professional learning.  The two KCs I've chosen to reflect on in relation to the postgrad learning over the past 24 weeks are:

• Thinking
• Managing self

Thinking

"Thinking is about using creative, critical, and metacognitive processes to make sense of information, experiences, and ideas. These processes can be applied to purposes such as developing understanding, making decisions, shaping actions, or constructing knowledge. Intellectual curiosity is at the heart of this competency.

Students who are competent thinkers and problem-solvers actively seek, use, and create knowledge. They reflect on their own learning, draw on personal knowledge and intuitions, ask questions, and challenge the basis of assumptions and perceptions."  NZ Curriculum TKI

I've always been fascinated by the way people think about issues and particularly our students who often have far greater insight than many adults.  During the past 24 weeks I've had to use my prior knowledge and experiences and merge these with new knowledge, particularly in programming and robotics, to create new knowledge and understanding and then to apply this to my teaching practice so that I can offer the best and most effective learning experiences for my students and colleagues as I am lead the professional learning at school.

I love learning new things and participating in new experiences and I also love challenging what I know currently.   It's why I'm constantly pushing myself to learn more, experience more and why I chose to learn through the MindLab and to push myself further, hopefully, if accepted into the Doctor of Education programme at the University of Otago.  It's about being a life-long learner and it's an active and collaborative process. It's also about being metacognitive and understanding how you think about something and why - the deeper reflection.  It's what drives our learning and teaching and it's what I've tried to apply over the past 24 weeks, in particular.

Managing Self

"This competency is associated with self-motivation, a “can-do” attitude, and with students seeing themselves as capable learners. It is integral to self-assessment.

Students who manage themselves are enterprising, resourceful, reliable, and resilient. They establish personal goals, make plans, manage projects, and set high standards. They have strategies for meeting challenges. They know when to lead, when to follow, and when and how to act independently."  NZ Curriculum TKI

Source: Facebook: Hunt Cartoons

The cartoon says it all!  This KC is my biggest challenge.  It seems that the busier I get the more I procrastinate which seems completely crazy really as it places a lot of pressure to get things done.  While I do work well under pressure, there's pressure that is good for you and pressure that is not, let alone for those around you.  It's also not a great look when you have to admit to your students that you are more like them than they think in terms of putting off assignments and other tasks.  There is power in sharing that I have found however.  The students keep you honest - especially when they ask if you've completed what you said you were going to complete!!

As I returned to teaching after an 18 month break to recover from serious illness there have been many challenges in this KC.  I not only returned to full-time teaching but to a Deputy Principal's role and also completed my Master of Teaching through Otago in January 2015.  A couple of months later I also signed up for The MindLab postgrad programme and developed a Makerspace with my students.  

I learned that I had to be very organised and focused but it is still a work in progress.  Have I improved? Possibly but there is still a long way to go, and it is something I need to master, particularly as I begin my Doctor of Education in July this year.  In order to be able to do this I will follow the description of what we expect or aim for with our students and will rely on my community of practice to keep me honest and on-task.

Teaching as Inquiry and the Key Competencies

If you're like me and want to delve deeper into the KCs and what they mean for your professional learning then the following would be a good place to start.  It has tools for learning and reflecting and great questions to get you started.  I'm going to be putting this to good use when I begin my Doctor of Education studies in July.  

Teaching as Inquiry and the Key Competencies

REFLECTING ON REFLECTIVE PRACTICE

The final part of this post centres around an article written by Lynda Finlay (2008) Reflecting on reflective practice.

What I Agree With...

I agree with Finlay (2008) and don't focus on one particular model as our reflections need to be flexible and adaptable to a particular situation, time and place.   I have found, however, the following blog which contains questions designed to prompt some very in-depth reflective thinking / authentic reflection.  This would be a great resource to add to your reflective toolbox.

LiteracyNZ

I have always tried to be a reflective practitioner and previous entries on this blog which I started in 2009, I hope, reflect this.  The following links to posts are examples of this.  It's very 'interesting' (read cringe-worthy, forehead slapping) to look back on your old posts and see how / if your thinking has changed.  Also a great tool for reflection!

• Visibility and Purpose of Learning in my Classroom  2015
• My Beliefs About how Students Learn Best  2015
• It's so hard to state our Strengths but we're Experts at Listing our Faults 2014
• PLN - aka Powerful Learning Network  2014
• How Have You Changed as an Educator? 2013
• I'm Wrong!  2011
• Through the Looking Glass - Teacher Self-Study  2011
• I Don't Use A Reflective Journal Anymore  2011
• The First Blog Posts - (Oh, how they've changed!)  February, 2010

For ease of reading, I will post the points from Finlay (2008) as bullet points rather than a long discussion.

Often, even in the discussion of what exactly is reflective practice, there will be a large range.  This has been my experience when discussing this in both face-to-face and online learning environments.

"In general, reflective practice is understood as the process of learning through and from experience towards gaining new insights of self and/or practice' (Boud, Keogh, and Walker, 1985; Boyd and Fales, 1983; Mezirow, 1981; Jarvis, 1992, in Finlay, 2008, p.1).

• Reflective practice can become a 'tick the boxes' exercise if not handled well.
• Individuals need to be taught the models, be given time to reflect and the practice of reflection must be valued by the school / organisation.
• Knowledge of expectations must be clear.
• Support from colleagues is critical.
• It is only successful if it is a social rather than an individual activity.
• Must be flexible and adaptable in terms of the models used.
• There are different models for different purposes.
• No one model fits all situations.
• There are a range of tools, practices and models.
• "The point is to recapture practice experiences and mull them over critically in order to gain new understandings and so improve future practice" (Finlay, 2008, p.1).
• Huge concern over performance-based practice - does this mean only focusing on assessment data to inform practice.  Shouldn't it go far deeper than that?
• Needs to be a balance of reflection-in and reflection-on practice.  Formalised reflection-in-practice (e.g. through a journal or blog, etc.) can be difficult in the middle of teaching.  This is something we do as teachers but it happens as we teach.
• Beware of complacency and simplicity of / in reflection.
• The context of reflection can be seriously undervalued.

Ethics

Reflective practice is not as 'simple' as it seems and can raise many ethical issues and concerns including those of privacy, consent to have stories shared and reflected on and the maintenance of professional relationships to name a few.  It can also be very confrontational emotionally for some people to share their reflections, to put them on paper (or in a blog as the case may be).  These issues need to handled carefully and respectfully.  

Many courses, professional learning environments, university courses require reflection on what has been learned related to our own understandings so what do we do for individuals for whom this practice is very confronting but they need to complete the requirements for a particular purpose?  

If the purpose of true reflective practice is to pull apart and analyse our practice to change or improve it but to do so means confronting our beliefs, etc., then are we getting genuine reflection from participants or just a surface reflection to meet the requirements?

Even the terms used can be confronting for some.  The term 'Critical Friends' can be misunderstood to mean that your professional learning buddy is there to critique you and your practice and find fault with it when the true definition couldn't be further from the truth.  It is vital to pull apart definitions, terms and expectations for this to be the valuable experience it can be.

I think that the heart of any reflective practice in a school or other organisation needs to be a shared and very clear understanding of not only what constitutes reflective practice but also the expectations for individuals within the practice.  We need to be very careful about sharing information, using names, etc in a public forum such as a blog - even if it is a 'private' one.  Indeed, the argument can be that if we make a blog private then are we stopping ourselves from learning from the opinions of others who would read the blog and comment if it wasn't private?  The use of social media to reflect and learn is powerful but it often creates more questions than answers as we learn more about how to use it well - and professionally.

Professional / Cultural Concerns

Reflection is important otherwise how do we change our practice to meet student needs?  How do we challenge our own learning / assumptions / beliefs and practices?  But what about some cultures for whom self-reflection / self-analysis is against their cultural beliefs.  How do we manage this?  Also, how do we ensure that reflection is not used merely to justify current practice, particularly practice that is not as effective as it could be?

There is also the argument that if reflective practice is not shared or made public and is kept to the individual, then it becomes an individual tool / responsibility rather than a collective enterprise at an organisational level.  (Quinn, 1998, 2000 in Finlay, 2008).  This can lead to the status quo being maintained rather than being questioned if it needs to be questioned. 

Education Council New Zealand

We also need to be aware of the requirements / guidelines from the Education Council around social media, particularly when so many of us use social media as part of our reflective practice, for example on Twitter formal chats and conversations with others, Facebook, Google+ etc.  

Teachers and Social Media

Models of Reflection - What I Use... and are There Others I Would Like to Adopt?

My model is centred around a community of practice which I will discuss in a later blog post but which I have also discussed in previous posts and in my Master of Teaching research.  I don't follow any one model but a range of models such as Gibbs Reflective Cycle (1988 in Finlay, 2008), critical incident analyses, case studies, reflective journals / diaries / blogs and Critical Friends, a process of learning through and with others, e.g. colleagues and students, and which has at its heart, reflective practice.   See for example:

• One way I will mentor / support my colleagues this year.

Advantages of models such as those discussed in Finlay (2008) are that they provide a starting point for teachers beginning their reflective practice journey.  The question, however, is can one model suit all situations scenarios and experiences?  I don't believe that it can.  Just as the situations vary, so should the strategies/models we use to analyse them if we are going to be truly reflective practitioners and get the most out of our reflections.

Many models provide a solitary or individual reflective structure whereas social reflection via Critical Friends, for example, can provide a deeper insight into our practice through observation, discussion, analysis, questioning and the views, opinions and insights of others involved in the process, including the students.

"...practitioners gain from working in a dialogical team context that enables them to hear the alternative perspectives so vital for reflective practice" (Finlay, 2008, p.17). 

How successful it is depends on the value placed on it by those involved.  I've experienced both ends of the spectrum where it was used merely to 'tick the boxes' that it had been done and was often part of an appraisal process (a discussion for another time as it shouldn't be part of that if we want open and honest reflection), through to where it was extremely valued as it was a way of informing and improving learning and teaching for ourselves and for our students. 

Reflection-on, reflection-in and reflection-before action are all important parts of reflective practice but the skills must be taught and supported and valued by all involved in the process. 

THE REFLECTIVE TEACHER @ TEACHTHOUGHT

In 2014 I became involved with TeachThought as a Social Reach and Engagement Coordinator which involved creating an online community of practice.  I developed this through the Facebook page, a community wiki and also started the Reflective Teacher@TeachThought weekly Twitter chat.  Shortly after starting this Beth Leidolf, a colleague and now friend from the United States became involved and together we developed and grew the community and the weekly chat.  Unfortunately, due to returning to teaching after a long illness, I have not been involved in the community recently but it continues to grow and thrive under Beth's leadership.  

Our whole purpose and focus for the community was to create a reflective teacher community who were involved in true reflection as discussed in this post.  We created a month-long blog challenge - one of many - which centred around reflective practice.

Reflective Teacher @TeachThought community wiki

Reflective Teacher @TeachThought blog challenge

References:

Education Council New Zealand. (2015).  Practising teacher criteria.  Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/

Education Council New Zealand. (2015).  Teachers and social media.  Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/

Finlay, L. (2008) Reflecting on reflective practice. PBPL.  Retrieved from https://app.themindlab.com/course/release/205-week-25-apc-reflective-practice

Hipkins, R., Bolstad, R., Boyd, S., & McDowall, S. (2014). Key competencies for the future. Wellington: NZCER.

Literacy New Zealand. (2015, June 10). Reflective models. https://literacynz.wordpress.com/2015/06/10/reflective-models/

Ministry of Education. (nd)  Key competencies online.  Retrieved from http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum#key_competencies

Ministry of Education. (2007). New Zealand Curriculum.  Wellington: Learning Media.

Ministry of Education. (nd)  New Zealand Curriculum online.  Retrieved from http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum#key_competencies