What's Happening in Education? A look at some of the issues and trends locally and globally

There are many issues and trends in education today and many are not unique to New Zealand.  This post looks at two of the local and global issues that stand out for me at the moment and that have an impact on my practice.

Globally, education is facing some challenges particularly in the areas of the way we teach and how we assess, what we value in the assessment.  With a greater focus on high stakes testing to the detriment of creating a passion for learning, some very prominent educators including Sir Ken Robinson are sounding a warning which we fail to heed at our peril.  His books are highly recommended and valuable reading for everyone.  Sharing his ideas, videos with our school communities is also recommended.

Sir Ken Robinson - How to escape education's death valley






Sir Ken Robinson - Changing Education Paradigms

LOCAL ISSUES IN EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND/AOTEAROA

TV3 - World Class? Inside New Zealand Education: Bryan Bruce

Recently Bryan Bruce presented a documentary on the issues in the New Zealand Education system. He presents some interesting points to ponder:

• Since the advent of Tomorrow's Schools, trust between schools and the Ministry has decreased
• Closures and mergers of schools (restructuring) came about due to a Treasure recommendation based on financial gains rather than educational ones
• Education became a commodity rather than a right
• Unhealthy competition between schools and greater bureaucracy to 'control' the self-managing schools
• Test results are what parents are judging the 'best' schools on so our children aren't going to the local school - the decile system hasn't helped this.  Equity and fairness cannot be achieved through competition
• Our system has become competitive rather than collaborative
• Latest research is showing that small schools can cater better for student learning needs, particularly in low socio-economic areas.  Treasury continues to ignore these facts as does the Minister
• Equity and fairness are huge issues
• Lack of consultation with the profession raises issues of trust
• The system is geared towards compliance rather than creativity
• There are huge dangers in relying on world rankings and the PISA testing
• Standardised tests don't foster critical, creative and innovative thinking
• Inquiry learning is powerful and a fantastic way of shifting the focus to student-centred learning
• National Standards aren't  (They're not national and they're not standard which we've been saying since their inception)
• Social skills must be emphasised from an early age.  We need to support Early Childhood Education, Parents As First Teachers, Paid Parental Leave, etc  Sadly, many of these initiatives are being restructured or their funding cut
• Social skills are key (Sir Peter Gluckman, our Chief Scientist) speaks on this in the report).
• Good things are happening in New Zealand schools in spite of the administration not because of it
• The system needs to be more cooperative and should have a high level of trust and less testing if we want a 'vibrant and creative economy'.

Bryan Bruce, 2016

For me, one of the main issues in education in this country is one of equality for ALL students.  I worry that, in our need to quite rightly raise the achievement of the so-called tail of underachievers, we are watering down our rich education structure that is supported by the New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007).  I'm concerned that our Gifted and Talented students and those who have the potential to achieve so much more but are disengaged from the current system, and who are often seen as 'behaviour problems' are missing out.  I blogged on this recently - Are we failing our gifted and talented learners - and teachers?

On reading the 2012 Education Review Office (ERO) Report regarding the three most important issues for education in this country, it should seem 'simple' to be able to address the needs of ALL learners.  The three priorities or issues are:

• One: shifting the focus to student-centred learning;
• Two: the implementation of a 'responsive and rich' curriculum and;
• Three: Using assessment information to effectively plan learning and teaching.

ERO Report, 2012

The report was written in 2012 and we are now in 2016.  How much has changed and how far are we along the continuum towards best and most effective practice to meet ALL students' learning needs? I'm wondering if, in the need to meet the government's focus on 'the tail of underachievement' and meeting the National Standards, that some of our learners are now missing out.  In my own practice I've always tried to personalise the learning for each individual student and to emphasise learner agency in everything I do.  It's meant incredibly long hours which works some of the time as I don't have young children to consider.  I often wonder how teachers with young families manage to meet the needs of their students as well as they do.  Surely something has to give.  That is another post for another time.

GLOBAL ISSUES AND TRENDS IN EDUCATION

The one I've chosen to focus on for this post is STEAM learning and teaching.  Both locally and globally we are seeing a greater emphasis on the need for in-depth learning in the sciences and mathematics.  The term STEM, or the one I prefer - STEAM, as it includes and values the Arts, is becoming a catch-cry for improvement.  Like anything in education, however, there are issues and concerns.


In my own practice and through discussion with my students, we knew we wanted more of an emphasis on STEAM in our learning so we worked together to learn what the best way of creating this environment would be.  We had an unused classroom in our school so a plan began to hatch.  We focused on the Nature of Science, a current emphasis for our professional learning within the school, and researched a great deal as part of an inquiry which began in 2015.   Our journey and what has been achieved to date is documented in a blog that the students curate.  The writing is largely their own thoughts and ideas and record of what we created together.  Unfortunately, I am not at the school anymore but the knowledge base of the students is strong and they will lead the future development of the space and the thinking behind it.  (Please click the link below to the students' blog - The Creator Ops STEAM).

The Creator Ops STEAM

Nature of Science on TKI

INTERESTING LINKS FOR STEAM EDUCATION

STEAM not STEM

STEM to STEAM: Art in K12 is key to building a strong economy

Schools shift from STEM to STEAM

References

Bramwell, C. (2016, May 20). Funds cut from parents-as-teachers scheme. Retrieved from http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/304311/funds-cut-from-parents-as-teachers-scheme

Bruce, B. (2016, May 24). World class? Inside New Zealand education - a special report.  Retrieved from http://www.3now.co.nz/shows/world-class-inside-new-zealand-education---a-special-report/127248

CORE Education (2016)  Trend 1: Learner agency. Retrieved from http://www.core-ed.org/thought-leadership/ten-trends/ten-trends-2014/learning-agency

Delaney, M. (2014, April 2). Schools shift from STEM to STEAM. Retrieved from http://www.edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2014/04/schools-shift-stem-steam

Education Review Office (2012).The three most pressing issues for New Zealand’s education system, revealed in latest ERO report - Education Review Office. Retrieved 14 June 2016, from http://www.ero.govt.nz/About-Us/News-Media-Release...

Maeda, J. (2012, October 2). STEM to STEAM: Art in K-12 is key to building a strong ecomomy. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/stem-to-steam-strengthens-economy-john-maeda

Ministry of Education. (nd). Ministry funding deciles. Retrieved from http://parents.education.govt.nz/primary-school/schooling-in-nz/ministry-funding-deciles/

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

Ministry of Education. (nd). Science online.  Retrieved from http://scienceonline.tki.org.nz/Nature-of-science

O'Callaghan, J. (2012, December 4). Tomorrow's schools 'lost a decade'.  Retrieved from http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/8030433/Tomorrows-Schools-lost-a-decade

Radio New Zealand. (2016). Government vetoes paid parental leave bill. Retrieved from http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/306549/govt-vetoes-paid-parental-leave-bill

Robins, A. (2015, June 3). National standards aren't. Retrieved from http://thestandard.org.nz/national-standards-arent-2/

Robinson, K. (2013, May 10). How to escape education's death valley.  Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX78iKhInsc

Robinson, K. (2010, October 14).  Changing education paradigms. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

Valentine, K. (nd). Parents as first teachers.  Retrieved from http://www.kiwifamilies.co.nz/articles/parents-as-first-teachers-2/

Connecting to Your PLN for Powerful Reflective Practice

CONNECT FOR POWERFUL REFLECTIVE PRACTICE

I have been interested for many years in the power of connecting with others to improve your practice and this was a strong theme that ran through many of our blog challenges during various Reflective Teacher @TeachThought blog challenges. Reflecting on our connections and the insight they can provide was part of a Thoughtful Thursdays challenge in 2014.  Connecting with others enables you to explore your practice from many different angles and viewpoints.

The following acrostic poem was written in 2011 as we pulled apart what it meant for us to be connected educators.

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

Day 16 of the Attitude of Gratitude Reflective Teacher @TeachThought Blog Challenge...


Why I'm So Very Grateful To Be A...

Connected locally and globally to inspirational teachers and learners
One way to challenge and push your own learning through different viewpoints
New ideas and learning are created through connection and collaboration
Never alone in this fabulous and challenging profession
Energised by conversation, support, humour and collaboration
Constantly supported to be the best you can be
There to support and encourage others
Energising personalities abound!
Developing new understandings about learning and teaching

Experimenting with new thinking and ideas to improve practice
Depending on your connected educators PLN for insight and discussion
Unending learning
Challenged to be reflective about your practice and clear in your thinking
Articulating practice through additional viewpoints and questions
Thankful and grateful for opportunities and connections
Original thinkers and learners inspire and challenge me
Reflective practice is at our core for the sake of our students

I reviewed what I had created as my connections in 2014 and added new ones.

 2014  What Does Connected Education Mean to Me?

2016  My Current Connected Education Connections

The Power of Professional Connections

Choosing only two professional connections to discuss is not easy as they are all so powerful.  The two I've chosen are discussed here because they have been a constant throughout most of my teaching career.

Twitter - PLN and EdChats

I first blogged about Twitter and the power it has a learning platform in 2011 and, on re-reading it, I felt the same excitement I had then.  I'd had an account for a year but never saw the purpose in using it as a learning tool until I was challenged by a colleague to give it a go.  It is honestly the best thing I've ever done.  I had started my Masters and it was a platform in which I could challenge my thinking, share my ideas and be challenged by others' thinking on the questions I was investigating in my research.

From the end of 2013 until the end of 2014 I was not in the classroom as I was recovering from an illness so I had a lot of time I could invest in developing my PLN on Twitter.  Upon returning to the classroom at the beginning of 2015, which was a huge challenge in itself, I found that I didn't seem to have the time I wanted in order to be able to participate in the weekly / monthly Edchats so I had to let that slide and I've really missed the discussions and debates.  Now that I am at home again and beginning my Doctor of Education, I will be fully utilising this platform to test my thinking and gain insight from others.  Twitter is a powerful tool to have as part of a community of practice as you learn from and with others, both locally and globally with a very wide range of experience.

University of Otago - EdD PLN

The majority of my university study has been completed through the University of Otago by distance. In my final year of undergraduate study I completed a paper "Computers in Education" and was completely hooked by the potential of online learning to change how we learn and teach.  Since that time I have been able to see the evolution of a communities of practice style of learning and teaching.

In 2011 I began my Masters where one of the assignments required us to collaborate on a communities of practice project where all the collaboration was online with some face-to-face for those who were in Dunedin.  Three of our group were in Dunedin and I was in Invercargill.  The project environment required us to be clear in our communications and to work in ways we hadn't before.  We weren't always successful and had to work hard on our communication, particularly as one of our group did not have English as his first language.    Our project can be viewed here. 

This year I will once again be learning in a community of practice.  What this will look like is yet to be determined and that is the beauty of a genuine CoP.  It evolves and develops as the community members evolve and develop.  It is about shared practice where all ideas and experiences are valued and help to develop our practice.  We will meet face-to-face for the first time in July so it will be exciting to see who else is in the community and how it will develop from there.


REFERENCES

Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W.M., (2002).  Cultivating communities of practice.  Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

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