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Having a positive impact on children’s learning |
Using one of the effective pedagogies in the New Zealand Curriculum, Teaching as Inquiry model, Massey’s College of Education has offered its contemporary and innovative Classroom Inquiry paper for the first time.
2011 students in the Graduate Diploma Teaching (Primary) and fourth year Bachelor of Education (Teaching) Primary students completed a research-informed, supervised classroom inquiry.
Learning outcomes for the new paper are directly linked to the New Zealand Teachers Council’s Graduating Teacher Standards. Demonstrating their diagnostic, teaching and assessment skills, the students determined the learning needs of a specific group of children and found an evidence-based intervention to address these needs using rich classroom activities.
Paper developers, Dr Alison Sewell and Professor of Teacher Education John O’Neill, have been greatly impressed with the rigour of students’ inquiries and interventions and the depth of the individual and group reflections by students. The Classroom Inquiry paper was five years in the making, starting with a major review of our teacher education programmes and benchmarking against international best practice. Stanford University’s Linda Darling-Hammond found successful teacher education characteristics include case study methodology, teacher research, performance based assessments, and portfolio evaluations. All of which enables student teachers to apply their learning in real practice settings. Using UNESCO pillars of learning: learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together and learning to be; Classroom Inquiry adds a fifth pillar - learning to change – to meet the needs of those who the ordinary pedagogy does not fit.
“What is fundamental about teaching now is that it is a collaborative professional activity; teachers aren’t isolated in classrooms like they once were” says Professor O’Neill. “Teachers need to work together as groups, and the classroom inquiry provides opportunities for communities of learning”.
In these communities, it is not only the students and children’s learning that is recognised, Principals and classroom teachers share their expertise on how classroom inquiry would work in their classroom settings.
One classroom inquiry into reading comprehension, completed by a group of students, provided evidence that effective classroom reading sometimes wasn’t happening, and even for the children who were reading, there was little comprehension.
Amy de Burgh, Cameron McKinnon, Kerri Satherley, Jen Weir and Catherine Baxter designed their evidence-based intervention around the question ‘How do we build lifelong readers?’ By using five separate building blocks, such as ‘word breaking strategies to improve decoding’, ‘increasing recognition of common word endings’ and ‘book match strategies’, the group were able to identify key areas for new teaching approaches, put them into practice, and evaluate them using a diverse range of assessment genres.
Using reciprocal reading to encourage active learners, with emphasis on active student participation for reluctant readers, Jen moved children away from a more traditional teacher directed learning. “It feels weird because mainly teachers teach you and ask all the questions, we don’t have to be the leader” said one Year 6 child.
While Cameron found using reciprocal reading to improve understanding, the comprehension rates increased for all five of his students, and by at least one reading age group. Feedback showed significant increased enthusiasm for reading. “Looking over this process the most obvious learning for me is that teaching as inquiry must be a part of my teaching life. It is so powerfully oriented toward improving learning outcomes,” says Cameron.
Catherine found students weren’t engaged until she listened and valued students’ ideas and use them to influence how they worked together. Using the building block of incorporating student voice in task creation to increase engagement showed the biggest results in change were in students work habits.
Students summarise the inquiry cycle as a powerful tool that supports teachers’ personal and professional development through critically reflecting on their classroom practice in meeting the needs of children. Reflection has been key, combined with being flexible, open to change and having the ability to adapt or refine the intervention to match the children’s progress and needs.
Central Normal Principal, Shona Oliver, congratulates Massey on their initiative; having wonderful conversations throughout its development she says it’s exciting to see the amazing end results. “To see classroom inquiry as part of Massey’s student teacher education we commend you. Some of us have been in teaching forever and are in awe of the young people that are coming into our teaching profession”.
“We are incredibly proud of the growth of the students’ understanding about what an effective teacher is and what an effective teacher does,” says Dr Sewell. “This includes their insights made of teaching and growth of confidence and new disposition to question their beliefs about teaching. They are thinking about practice but also theorising and looking at evidence in both research and in the classroom”.
