Kahui Ako Teacher
Teaching as Inquiry PLG
Connected
Communities
An inquiry process
Good inquiry happens in teams
Teams make inquiry stronger by offering:
We want to encourage collegial support in teams through critical engagement in f2f meetings (like today!) and by commenting on colleague’s blog posts
Learn Create Share
Reconnaissance - student inquiry foci
Consider the following in your blog posts
Tips for writing a blog post
1. Write for wider readers - Not only write for teachers who teach the same years, but teachers of other years or in other schools, leaders and researchers. They do not necessarily have the same background knowledge. Provide as much information as possible and explain everything, instead of posting a few pictures without explanations.
2. Provide evidence for every claim - For quantitative evidence, post numbers, figures, etc. For qualitative evidence, tell us what happened in detail (what you saw, felt and did; what students said and did, etc.) and be a storyteller- help your reader visualise your events .
3. Extend your ideas - Whenever you write about reasons for your focus, or findings about students’ strengths and needs, alway provide us with some of your understandings, interpretations or reflections.
4. Be relevant - Always focus on recording the inquiry process in terms of how it relates back to the student focus.
Elements of a blog post
Blog Post Title - reflects the purpose of the post. Recommend writing your title last, use words or a key phrase from your blog post that communicates the purpose of the post
Introduction - briefly outline the purpose of your post. This should communicate what the reader should expect to learn and how reading this post could help them.
Explain what you plan to do differently. Would it be helpful to include a link to your learning site to share what you have planned for learners?
Include links to research or the practice of others that you have used to plan teaching and learning opportunities aimed at achieving the outcomes prioritised in the focusing inquiry.
Include a visual that communicates or demonstrates key information or ideas e.g. graph, table, artefact of learning or screenshot linked to learning site
Be reflective about the relationship between your practice and student outcomes
Include a Label - easy to locate the post e.g. TAI2022
An inquiry process
1. Profiling: understanding the nature of the students’ learning strengths and needs in detail
Talanoa
1. Summarise the challenge of student learning you plan to focus on in this inquiry. Be as clear and specific as you can about the evidence you have about this to date.
2. Describe how and why you have selected this challenge of student learning. Locate your inquiry in the context of patterns of student learning in Manaiakalani overall.
3. Summarise the discussion you had with your school leader(s) about your proposed inquiry focus and their reaction to this
4. Explain why you judge this to be the most important and catalytic issue of learning for this group of learners this year
(In chemistry, a catalytic substance is one which increases the speed of a chemical reaction. Catalysts offer an alternate pathway for a reaction to follow, with a 'lower activation energy.')
Faalogo
Listen for, prompt, and question for clarity in relation to:
Identifying valued learning outcomes (VLOs)
Inquiry should be driven by what outcomes you value as a community, not just by what is easy-to-measure or what data are readily available. VLOs might include
Student evidence
Woolf Fisher Research Centre
The University of Auckland
Considerations...
Click links and wait for slides to load
Some VLOs in reading
What do we need to know about? (Literacy example)
Woolf Fisher Research Centre
The University of Auckland
VLOs for Maths?
Things to remember (cont.)
Other data may / may not support standardised test results, particularly if results are surprising.
e.g. students perform worse under timed test conditions, and need support in learning to work under time pressure
Woolf Fisher Research Centre
The University of Auckland
Hunch example
What evidence about students do we need?
Some issues with my students’ math achievement are related to issues they have with reading instructions and tasks
Data from PATs etc about reading and mathematics in general and their relationship (e.g. do students with higher reading scores tend to have higher math scores?)
Data about students’ ability to read instructions
Knowledge of instructional vocab e.g. calculate, solve, describe etc
Knowledge of specialist math vocab
Knowledge of word problems as a particular genre
Strategies for “translating” word problems e.g. to number problems
Resilience
“I’m in Year 12 this year and no-one has ever asked me about my learning before. You’d think they would wouldn’t you?”
Year 12 NZ student
Student Voice
Target Group?
Ownership?
Purpose?
Method?
Questions?
Results?
Describe the tools/measures/approaches you plan to use to get a more detailed and accurate profile of students’ learning in relation to that challenge. Justify why you chose these approaches and tools.
Think particularly about how students CAN do the things you value.
Manaiakalani CoL: Teaching as Inquiry Framework: See focussing Inquiry - Possible Actions
April/May Blogging
2. Hypothesis generation and testing: identifying and systematically testing possible explanations for the issue. This includes developing a rich picture of relevant aspects of your current teaching
Where are we to date?
An inquiry process
An inquiry process
An inquiry process
Repeated Measures (something to keep in mind for when you will be implementing your intervention)
So far we have focused on profiling students’ learning. That is, understanding their strengths and needs in order that we can design a bespoke, tailored intervention that improves their learning.
We can also use some of that evidence as a baseline (this includes both Data AND Student voice) By repeating measures before and after our intervention (i.e. pre- and post intervention) we can judge how effective our intervention was.
Be specific about what tool you will use to measure/collect evidence before the intervention. e.g. if you are surveying learners/whānau using the same questions post and pre intervention, Smiley Face Chart from e-asTTle, Something you are already using to assess e.g. Running Record, Doesn’t have to be quantitative, could be descriptions i.e. planning, sites include more opportunities that recognise and empower students.
Hypothesise and Research
The hypotheses you identify provides a framework for looking at your existing practice. Your hypotheses will help you shape the design of your intervention. ie my learners may not be doing xxxx because I am not doing yyyy
What is a hypothesis?
A hypothesis is a tentative answer to your research question that has not yet been tested.
How to formulate?
The simplest way is to use this form: if...then…
“Be courageous and confident about putting your hunches on the table to discuss with others, and challenging well-established routines and structures.
Consider how you might (fairly quickly) test out these hunches”
Developing and testing a Hunch -by Professor Graeme Aitken The Education Hub
"Approach Teaching as Inquiry as we would approach travelling to new places..."
an analogy used by Claire Sinnema while exploring teaching as inquiry
To inquire with a travelling mindset!
Extending notions of what is in our sphere of influence
Learning issue | Reflective questions for teachers |
My students’ reading achievement drops between November and March because they do not read enough over summer. | What can I do as a teacher to ensure there is quality reading instruction right up to the last day of Term 4 and from the first day of Term 1? Are there resources (e.g. texts, libraries, programmes for summer reading) that I could share or promote? E.g. eBooks online How can I productively engage with whānau to promote summer reading? e.g. SLJ , Cybersmart Challenges |
Academic and professional reading for hypothesis generation
Reviewing published research is important for inquiry
Reading for hypothesis generation
What are the resources?
See our Recommended Readings Resources Here
No access?
Submit request Readings using the form - CoL PLG Reading
Naomi is available to source literature that is behind a firewall. The responses sheet also includes reading from previous years.
May Blogging- Hypothesise and Research
Stock take of your inquiry so far
AN EXAMPLE: MANAIAKALANI READING PRACTICE INTENSIVE
3. Intervention design: Using research evidence to design a solution to the problem you have profiled
So far you have:
Next - Developing a rich profile of relevant aspects of your current teaching. This profile will be used formatively to help you design an intervention and summatively as a baseline on which you can judge shifts later.
Has been a challenge in the past for teachers to describe what they did differently that made a difference. Need a rich picture of your teaching prior to making changes
Designing your intervention
Any intervention you design will (consciously or not) be based on a causal chain you have in mind - this is your theory of action.
What is a “causal chain”? - A Chain of events
This will help when it comes to describing what you did differently.
Changes to Teaching described in the Inquiry: examples 72-77
What is a “causal chain”?
A causal chain is when a cause leads to an effect and that effect becomes the cause of another effect
A leads to B. B leads to C. C leads to D.
Any intervention you design will (consciously or not) be based on a causal chain you have in mind - this is your theory of action.
The logic of what you are doing:
THE CHAIN OF EVENTS
Achievement challenge:
General mathematics
Outcome:
Language in mathematics
Specific language outcome:
Justifying and reasoning in mathematics
Intervention:
Teaching that impacts on the specific language outcome
How and why will the specific outcome impact the general achievement challenge?
How and why will the teaching impact the specific outcome?
Why is thinking about a causal chain important before you design your intervention?
Your theory needs to be as strong as possible before you test it. It needs to be reasonable, plausible, and consistent with what we already know - so that it is most likely to work.
If A leads to D - but doesn’t lead to B and C- that means that your intervention worked, but not for the reasons you theorised!
To really understand deeply how teaching (as a cause) leads to a valued student outcome (effect), we need to know about more than just the first cause in the chain and the final - we need to know about each link.
Discuss
Discuss ideas for conducting detailed inquiry into specific aspects of your current teaching that are relevant to the hypotheses you identified in the literature.
Inquiring into your teaching should give you:
Use multiple tools such as self- or peer-observations, analysis of your class site, student voice.
Causal Chain - Why is thinking about a causal chain important before you design your intervention? The purpose is to tighten up your intervention and to understand more deeply what you did that resulted in a shift in student achievement (this should be shared as a blog post)
Thanks to Karen for sharing examples of a Causal Chain from a previous year's inquiry and from this enquiry
Robyn has also created a Causal Chain to organise her thinking thanks Robyn
Causal Chain
The Create stage of your Teaching Inquiry
“What strategies (evidence-based) are most likely to help my students learn?” NZC 2007
Further Considerations:
If you are confident you are on track, the next steps are to make a plan, try something new and innovate. In other words, implement your intervention.
Blogging
Use multiple tools such as self- or peer-observations, analysis of your class site, student voice.
Stock Take
4. Intervention: implementation & monitoring of new approaches
Identifying and monitoring changes to practice
Main focus of this session is sharing this evidence of what you are planning to do differently in your practice and why… based on evidence of student learning and your teaching, and consider how you will monitor this.
Some of you will have made a start on your intervention either way you do need to have recorded really good evidence based ideas of what you are doing differently and knowing why, what is it you are changing. You have baseline evidence of student learning, this is like having baseline evidence of your teaching.
A key consideration for the Manaiakalani Kāhui Ako is our pedagogy Learn Create Share, including how we are capitalising on the affordances of the technology to turbo charge effective practice.
Have you identified this as a current strength or an area of development in your practice?
Affordances causing accelerated shift
Manaiakalani Research Presentation: Manaiakalani Hui: 26.08.16
- Rebecca Jesson, Aaron Wilson,
Five affordances of Learn Create Share in a digital learning environment...
Turbocharge Effective Practice
Harness the affordances of
technologies to:
From planning to implementing
Talanoa
Student learning: Very briefly restate the specific change you want to bring about in student learning and the evidence used to select that focus
Teaching hypotheses: What changes in your LCS teaching knowledge and practice did you hypothesise would most likely lead to improvements in student learning focus?
Profiling your current teaching: With respect to your student learning focus, what are your current teaching strengths and areas for development? Evidence?
Implementation
At the end of the inquiry cycle, you want to be able to attribute any changes in learner outcomes (in part) to changes in the experiences of learners
To do this you need to be able to demonstrate exactly how the learning experience has changed for learners
Some form of “repeated measure” of teaching over time
This could be a detailed description, with evidence, of what teaching was like prior to the intervention compared to what it was like during or after the intervention
There will likely be variable levels of “implementation fidelity” - that is, the actual intervention will likely not be exactly like the planned intervention. Low levels of implementation fidelity can be a good thing i.e. because you are inquiring and refining what you had planned.
What is important though is that you can clearly show a reader what you did differently so he/she can judge whether or not it is reasonable to think that changed learner outcomes are related to these changed practices
Identify some form of “repeated measure” of teaching over time
What are the micro shifts you would expect to see for learners and how would you build this into your teaching/learning to monitor regularly?
Keep whatever you do as close to the routine of the lesson at the time e.g. Not looking at every aspect of reading comprehension, choose one.
Monitor enough that when you think there should be some shift you are checking in. Plan how and when you will monitor i.e. don’t leave this to chance as it will not happen regularly
MONITORING
As well as informal monitoring (lesson-by-lesson and minute-by-minute), it is useful to plan more formal checkpoints
Formal checkpoints allow you to check systematically how learners are experiencing the intervention and whether it is beginning to have the impact on learner outcomes
Micro-formative assessments at set intervals can be useful. For example, mini e-asTTle reading tests. Or design your own approaches for making judgements about progressions (e.g. LLP or ELLP). Or you could collect and analyse writing samples of a few “case study” students at set intervals.
Student voice is also vital (after all, we are making changes on their behalf!). For example, quick-fire “exit” questions for all learners in a class, or more extended chats with a few case study students
EXAMPLES OF MONITORING EVIDENCE FROM THE INQUIRY DATA (1)
EXAMPLES OF MONITORING EVIDENCE FROM THE INQUIRY DATA (2)
EXAMPLES OF CHANGES TO TEACHING PRACTICE
CHANGES TO TEACHING PRACTICE FROM THE INQUIRY DATA
What evidence/data could be collected to demonstrate these practice changes had occurred?
Every two months, I assessed my target group using the measuring tool I designed where I recorded my target group during a maths lesson. Then I listened back and noted down every time a child used specific justifying and explaining language.
Through doing this I realised my kids weren’t using the word 'because' which meant they weren’t justifying their mathematical thinking. With this knowledge, I focused my efforts on getting the children used to saying ‘because’ with games and activities prior to our maths problem solving session.
IDENTIFYING CHANGES TO PRACTICE & NEW WAYS OF LEARNING
Frequency of monitoring
Explanation of change to practice (teaching students to use justifying and explaining language) as a result of monitoring
Actions taken with the evidence collected during monitoring
MONITORING
What is the intended change for a learner?
How are they experiencing the intervention?
How will they engage differently? How will you know?
How will you know whether the intended ‘treatment’ (sorry about the language) was the same as the actual treatment.
How will their outcomes begin to shift? How will you know?
LEADERS: How will you support your teachers to monitor changes for learners?
DISCUSS AND BLOG POST
Restate your inquiry question and your theory of action/chain of events (so you keep your eyes on the prize)
Describe how you will collect information about the implementation of your changed practices/intervention (so it is clear what you doing differently)
Identify informal & formal ways you are monitoring the effects of your changed practices/intervention on learner outcomes. Explain the reflections and tweaks you are making along the way (Don’t wait to the end of your inquiry cycle and find it didn’t work)
Describe how you will keep a record of each of the above in a manageable way (‘cos you won’t otherwise remember all your many micro-decisions and why you made them)
Where are we up to?
Last time: We focussed on planning how you would monitor, record and refine your intervention as you went along.
Today: The focus of this session shifts from what you planned to do to what you did: What monitoring, recording and tweaking took place – and what did you find out?
Next time: We will focus on the evaluation of the intervention, on learning outcomes, and changes in practice. Please come prepared to the next session having thought about these three things.
5. Intervention: implementation & monitoring of new approaches
Monitoring, Recording, and Tweaking – What have you found out?
The focus of this session shifts from what you planned to do to what you did: What monitoring, recording and tweaking took place – and what did you find out?
Describe the evidence you have so far about the effects of your changed practices or intervention on desired learner outcomes and how you summarised and recorded these
“You are not writing a narrative, rather a report… can someone replicate what you did based on your post” (Rebecca Jesson)
Examples of ‘Describe’
Describe
Describe the evidence you have so far about the effects of your changed practices or intervention on desired learner outcomes and how you summarised and recorded these
‘Describe’ examples
How data were collected = open-ended questionnaire. [Provide copy of measure]
Who from: Target students. Why not all?
When? Term 3
The changed practice or intervention
What does the info/data tell you?
Next question (answers not here): How will you use these data to 'tweak' your intervention?
"Quote extracts" = Qualitative data
Monitoring, Recording, and Tweaking – What have you found out?
Explain the reflections and tweaks you have made along the way and the reasons why you made these changes. Share your evidence for these decisions.
Monitoring evidence, sharing, and interrogation
Share
Describe
Explain
Monitoring evidence, sharing,
and interrogation
I used to think that students learning was what needed to be changed; that when students did not understand, they had to read a lower level or I had to teach a lower strategy.
...I had a moment and thought... perhaps I need to change how I teach them...perhaps it's my own teacher practice that needs changing. I decided that learning needed to be more engaging. I took into consideration students interests and learner voice about what they would like to see more or learn more about.
Explain
Explain the reflections and tweaks you have made along the way and the reasons why you made these changes. Share your evidence for these decisions.
Evidence for making change
Monitoring evidence, sharing,
and interrogation
...the things I tried worked some days and not others, and we would try them again later or wait for [student] to be ready...
Often the ‘thing’ we were trying out had to be adapted slightly as it wasn’t quite right. Sometimes [it] didn’t work at all, so was scrapped (such as [student's] visual timetable, which he used once and didn’t even follow). It was all part of the learning process.
Explain
Explain the reflections and tweaks you have made along the way and the reasons why you made these changes. Share your evidence for these decisions.
Discussion 1: Evidence about the monitoring of YOUR implementation
What methods have you used to collect information?
Partner prompts: At what time points and dates did you collect or record data/information? What changes/tweaks were made? Why? What’s the research behind that? What are your sources of evidence?
Discussion 2: Evidence about the monitoring of STUDENT learning
2. Describe the evidence you have so far about the effects of your changed practices/intervention on desired learner outcomes and how you summarised and recorded these:
What methods have you used to collect information?
Partner prompts:
What data have you collected that demonstrates the effects on learner outcomes/achievement? Where/when/how was this recorded?
So tell me how that works… What have you done/are you going to do with the data? Why? What’s the research behind that? What are your sources of evidence?
Discussion 3: Evidence about the CHANGES to the intervention
Partner prompts:
What info/data have you collected or recorded about changes during your intervention? What led you to make these changes/tweaks?
What’s the research behind that? What are your sources of evidence?
Blog Posts
Describing and Explaining the changes/tweaks you have made in your practice along the way
Evaluation of the Intervention
Have you used Quantitative data?
Have you used Qualitative Data?
Bursts and Bubbles
Bursts and bubbles: Possible speaking frame
The catalytic aspect of student learning my inquiry focused on this year was …..
I identified this as my focus when I noticed ……
To build a rich picture of my students’ learning I used ……. (sources of evidence and data e.g. PAT reading, my own vocabulary test, student voice)
The main patterns of student learning I identified in the profiling phase were …… (their strengths and needs)
My profiling of my own teaching showed that I had strengths in …. But that my students would likely make more progress if I developed in x and y
The changes I made in my teaching were ….
The literature/expertise that helped me decide what changes to make was…
The easiest and hardest things for me to change were….. Some changes I made along the way were …..
Overall I would rate the changes in student learning as…. The evidence for my rating is that….
The most important learning I made about …. (my focus of student learning) was that ….. The most important learning I made about inquiry was….. Some learnings that would be relevant to other teachers are….
Have you used quantitative data?
Just saying they have made progress because they have a higher test score or jumped xxx levels is not enough.
Need to compare to something more than just pre and post test data.
Are the learners in your target group making progress in comparison to... Norm, Data from last year, other comparative learners in school/cluster?
A numerical way of presenting data (If you have used quantitative data) plus a writing frame to help with your blog post
If you did something different… we can learn just as much from inquiries that don’t work. Example
Importance of comparisons
Even if there are changes between pre- and post- these are not necessarily related to your changed teaching. Other explanations might be maturation - students would have got better anyway just by virtue of getting older and experiencing business as usual teaching.
Some comparisons you might make are:
Evaluating shifts in student achievement (quant)
Pre-intervention data | Post-intervention data | ||||
My class/inquiry group | Norm | Comparison Group | My class | Norm | Comparison Group |
| | | | | |
Evaluating shifts in student achievement (quant): Writing frame
At the beginning of the year my students’ on average had a score of x which was (well above/above/about/below/well below) the norm. At the end of the year my students’ on average had a score of x which was (well above/above/about/below/well below). On average, my inquiry students gained x points whereas students in the norm made x points and students in the comparison group made x points. Overall I conclude that students’ progress was (less than, about the same, more than) expected progress.
Evaluating shifts in teaching
Aspect of teaching | Evidence of teaching before intervention | Evidence of teaching after intervention | Judgement about how much you shifted |
E.g. Teacher questioning | Analysis of the two discussions I recorded and analysed showed that 13% of my questions were authentic questions and 87% were non-authentic | 38% were authentic and 62% were non-authentic | Although I think I could still get better at asking authentic questions, there was a dramatic improvement over the course of the year |
Have you used Qualitative Data?
Instead of numbers, as above, use rich descriptions, quotes and examples
Examples from past evaluations that will be helpful - read the speaker notes on each slide too.
Evaluation and reflection exemplar (please note this is a postgraduate student - more detailed and academic than you necessarily need to be!)
Remember to ask your learners …what made the difference? How will you record their feedback to share?
Considering artefacts of learning that learners have created - may demonstrate increased engagement. How might you show shift rather than just an opinion.
Deductive approach - identifying specific “categories” you are looking for. i.e. I saw 15 counts of this category at the end of the year compared to two at the beginning.
Qualitative evaluation of shifts in teaching & learning
Has the same logic as quantitative data i.e.
Evidence of student learning after (post)
Judgements about shift for students
Evidence about teaching after (post)
Judgements about shift in teaching
But instead of numbers, you use rich descriptions, quotations and examples to show what students/you were doing before the intervention and after the intervention
To what extent was the intervention successful in changing teaching? (1)
The changes in teaching resulted in student progress and improvement. I found my disengaged boys were no longer "disengaged". [There was a] burst of excitement in these boys when came to writing... More requests of "Miss are we doing writing today? Miss are we doing sharing circle?"��[The boys'] passion for writing was the biggest success for me on this intervention. |
What types of evidence could be used to support this claim?
How was progress and engagement measured?
Pre- & post- intervention
To what extent was the intervention successful in changing teaching? (2)
It was successful in impacting on my planning and teaching, with which I shared with my department. Our department has now made steps to adjust our junior school programme to align better with learning contexts that are more relevant to students ... specific writing strategies to be applied earlier in a learning journey rather than later. |
Explain the impact on planning & teaching
Provide examples of the contexts or strategies alluded to here
To what extent was the intervention successful in changing teaching? (3)
…My inquiry was very complex and therefore hard to explain the causal chain. It was not as simple as ‘I did x; therefore y’. Sometimes things worked and sometimes they didn’t. It depended on many things including child readiness, mood, confidence, experience, time/place/context, etc. |
To what extent were the teaching changes effective in changing patterns of student learning? (1)
... I’m not sure that I can claim that the inquiry has led to student achievement in maths... There has been a growth in student dialogic capabilities in maths [and] it does appear to be leading towards a growth in mathematical understanding....[Students] are solving complex problems and learning to do things far beyond the guidance I have given them... The student talk... is helping the acquisition of language ... you can hear them questioning and correcting each other's language... “Wait, you mean tenths, not hundredths” “it's not 5 it's five-tenths” etc. |
Include achievement data showing gains/losses.
Examples of what students said & did pre- intervention
To what extent were the teaching changes effective in changing patterns of student learning? (2)
Goal of gaining 14+ credits in level 2 social students and at least 50% of the boys will gain merits/excellences:��Out of a possible 14 internal credits:
|
Clear goals for student & achievement gains.
What other data/evidence could be included? What else is missing?
To what extent was the intervention successful in changing teaching? (3)
[The intervention] breaks the chain of filling in the gaps and going back to basics. It encourages teachers to challenge themselves [and the] students to set high expectations... I needed to trust my students more and believe …[they could] make a shift equivalent to 3-4 years of learning. |
What else could be added to the evaluation?
(Evidence, data or examples of changes to teaching & learning)
Evaluation (Blog Post/s)
1. Summarise evidence about key changes in teaching and other factors that influence student learning.
2. Summarise evidence about key shifts in the problem of student learning.
3. Write an overall evaluation of your intervention in terms of the causal chain you had theorised. i.e. To what extent was the intervention successful in changing factors such as teaching? To what extent were those changes in teaching effective in changing patterns of student learning?
4. Write a reflection on your own professional learning through this inquiry cycle.