A Change in My Practice Towards Future-oriented Learning and Teaching

Mindlab Activity 2
Theme 4: "Changing the script": Rethinking learners' and teachers' roles

• Why did I make this change?

I have always been intrigued by the thought of children ‘driving’ their own learning. I wanted students to be able to take ownership of their learning and thus creating students that are engaged and motivated about learning because they choose the path their learning is taking. I wanted to empower students to be able to learning goals for themselves, and use the reflections of those to guide future learning. In my year 2/3 class, it has been very minimal, but already I can see that my students are setting goals based on their own needs. Often, they seek feedback from peers and collaboratively work out a next step/goal.  This requires students develop self-regulatory skills. According to ITL Research (2012), “Today’s complex world demands self-regulated thinkers and learners who can take responsibility for their lives, their work, and their ongoing learning. It requires individuals to monitor their own work and to incorporate feedback to develop and improve their work products” (p.31)

• How was this change triggered during my learning journey at The Mind Lab?

Focusing on the 21st century learning skills has supported my decision for this change. I have previously heard about self-regulation or students agency, however didn’t understand the impact it could have on my students and my teaching. By developing my first assignment, I have had the opportunity to further grow my understanding of student agency and how it would benefit my students, not only now, but also into the future.

• What have I learned from implementing this change?

I have learnt that teaching self-regulation take times. It needs to be model explicitly to students. Students need to be given the time to practise this skill, to fail and try again. They need to be able to do this in an environment where failures are celebrated. By my students being able to set their own goals for writing, they no longer needed to be directed about what to focus on in writing. Instead of them coming to me, asking what needs fixing, they can now come to me and say, “I have used the same sentence starters for each of my sentences. I’m not sure how I can change some of these, I just can’t make them make sense”. I like the students will tell me what they need help with, rather than asking what needs improving. This allows students to think critically about their own writing and can apply to future situations where students are applying for jobs, going for interviews, etc.

At the start of next year, developing students agency is going to be my big focus. I would like to see my students leading their own learning in other curriculum areas such as reading, maths and topic studies. This could further be developed in students talking about their own learning and changing the focus of our parents - teacher interviews. Although we currently have three way conferences, the students are a little less prepared to discuss their learning with whanau as I would like.

ITL Research. (2012). 21CLD Learning Activity Rubrics. Retrieved from https://education.microsoft.com/GetTrained/ITL-Research