Metacognitive reflection on learning and practice

This post is a reflection on the last 24 weeks of my postgraduate studies which comprises of a critical discussion of:

• two of the key competencies that have developed the most
• two key changes in my own practice

Key Competencies

My understanding and importance of the key competencies over the duration of this course have developed exponentially. From being something that I had vague knowledge about, I have now realised their critical importance to both myself as a learner and to that of my students in their day to day learning in the classroom.
Without doubt, the two key competencies I have developed the most during this period are Managing Self and Thinking.

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. (Ministry of Education, 1997)

I would first like to highlight the fact that all definitions of the key competencies on the aforementioned site relate to the ‘students’, and it is important here that I differentiate myself as the student in this post, not the students that I teach, although the impact of my new knowledge of the competencies is impacting on the wider community of both my students and fellow teachers within Glenfield Primary School.

In order to simultaneously attend this course, carry out a full time job and make significant positive ICT changes within the school over the last 6 months has come down to my resilient, self-motivating can do attitude. I am learner. I learn from my peers and I learn from my students and I have involved them in this course, modelling this competency as clearly and competently as I can.
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With the aid of my peers I have helped to develop a program whereby my students have a more personalised learning program hinged on their ability to determine what learning areas need strengthening and then being self motivated to act upon them. This has involved the development of newly created reading, writing and maths progressions throughout the school and empowering the students to read, understand and refer to them regularly so that they can recognise what they need to be taught. This they do by requesting lessons from me through Gmail/Google Docs and by me sitting down with individual students to help them pinpoint what these areas are. This enables me (and them) to collect real time data on where they are at and then setting high standards to meet these goals. Together with my students, (and professional development discussions with my peers) we then look at and implement strategies to help accomplish these goals.

Thinking

Thinking is about using creative, critical, and metacognitive processes to make sense of information, experiences, and ideas. (Ministry of Education, 1997)

I have become rather more non-compliant resulting in a change to my way of thinking regarding what is ‘the norm’ when it comes to teaching. I am now more empowered to challenge the way we teach and I am no longer willingly to accept what has been standard practice as we move into the 21st Century. This has involved a process of deep reflection on my part, researching in more detail the way children learn, challenging why we use certain tests to determine the ‘intelligence’ of students and adapting my teaching in order to teach a diverse range of cultures, age levels and abilities to the best of my own ability. For example, we are no longer using E-Asttle writing tests to determine a child's ability to write on a subject they have no interest in and then comparing it to a set of exemplars they seem inconsistent at best. Now we are allowing the students to write about a topic that interests them and marking it together with the student, using our writing progressions.

We are no longer using E-Asttle to mark a reading test due to the ridiculous scores that are spat out which in no way reflect that child’s ability to comprehend, and what reading strategies they require, and thus not giving us the valuable information required to inform their next learning goals. Now we use our new reading progressions, again with the children.

The new ways of testing, the empowerment to ask challenging questions, the curiosious and inquiring mind that I have to allow me to try new things are all small examples of the way this competency has changed me as a teacher and learner and of course then modelling and imparting these skills onto my students so that they may also change their perception of what traditionally a student and teacher is and their relationship.

Two Key Changes to my practice

Student Voice

The use of student voice and its importance to inform my practice has been one of the key changes that I have developed over the course of this study. As with the competencies, I was aware of student voice and had used it in what I can only describe as being in a superficial way (if I am being particularly critical of myself), but now it has become a critical part of my everyday practice. I now instill into my students the importance of their voice to inform me of what I am doing well and what I need to work at. A somewhat resilient attitude needs to be adopted here, as children do not mince their words but it is important that I take on board what they say and then try to act on their thoughts and suggestions. This is done either orally or through digital technologies. For example, I have recently set up a Google Form called ‘Knowing Your Learner’ whereby the children fill in a series of questions that allow me to better understand their families, their background, their culture and their interests. Another example is where we have introduced a new basic facts test. At the end of the test we had a Q&A session on their experience. From this (and with subsequent talks with my peers) we will modify the test (using the same questions) but changing the order in which they were asked. This was due to many of the children panicking at the beginning of the test with these perceived harder questions, which then disrupted their momentum as they worked through the rest of it. It is important to note that these are just snapshots of the changes I have made to this change in my practice.

Leadership

I came into this course not really ever having perceived myself as a leader - within the eyes of my students or within the eyes of my peers. Sure, I was the ‘ICT leader’ and a teacher but to me, the leaders were ‘the leadership team’ and my principal. This perception has now changed, together with the complexities of what leadership actually means at both a personal and organizational level.

Through the course of the ‘Leadership in Digital and Collaborative Learning’ module I came to understand how our school is based on the ‘distributive’ model and how us as teachers are seen as vital components of the decision making process of the school and that this also extends to the ‘input of decision making being extended to the students and listening to their voice.’ (Harris, 2008).

As I further investigated and reflected upon this I was able to see that yes, I was a leader of both my peers and students and that I was (mainly) demonstrating the styles of distributive, autocratic and transformational leadership. I came to realise that all of these styles have a place in the school system and classroom but need to be used with much care and at the right time. I am still learning here and will always do so.

One example was where I was demonstrating the autocratic leadership style without realising it, and in a bad way. This was in my role as ICT leader whereby ‘I’ was making the majority of the decisions because ‘I’ knew best, and I was also demonstrating this in the classroom. A detailed account of the classroom example can be found in assignment LDC2 on this website (and which closely relates to student voice). Regarding my autocratic approach as the ICT Leader, I have now grown my ICT team to include a range of teachers who work with different year levels and who have varying degrees of ICT expertise. I now facilitate the discussions and issues that need to be addressed but as a team we make the decisions together before giving the rest of the staff their voice. This I feel has made the staff more empowered and involved in the ICT decision making progress - but I have yet to gain their voice on whether or not this is the case!

References
Ministry of Education. (2007). Key Competencies. Wellington, New Zealand
Harris, A. (2008). Distributed school leadership : developing tomorrow's leaders. London New York: Routledge.