Key change in my professional practice

Mindlab Activity 8: Key change in my professional practice

Step 1 (What): Identify one key change in your professional practice

Two key changes that I have made in my professional practice has been developing my ‘Professional learning’ which is to use inquiry, collaborative problem-solving and professional learning to improve professional capability to impact on the learning and achievement of all learners and ‘Teaching’ which is to teach and respond to learners in a knowledgeable and adaptive way to progress their learning at an appropriate depth and pace (Ministry of Education, nd). By inquiring into my own teaching, I have been able to identify areas that are needing development.

Step 2 (Now what): Evaluate the identified change

Stage 1: Problem identification

The problem that I have identified was the slow shifts I was seeing in my students Mathematics development. My students weren’t progressing at the same level other students in our school has been progressing, and I wanted to know what I could do to turn this around. What approaches are others using that is successful?

Stage 2: Observation and analysis

I have found that at times my explanations weren’t clear, and what seemed straightforward to me, was utterly confusing for my students. Also, I tended to keep my maths groups progressing at relatively the same speed, therefore students that grasps a certain concept quickly, maintained with the group and wasn’t pushed to excel further. This was to keep my teaching neat and tidy, but was of no benefit to my students.

Stage 3: Abstract re conceptualization

At this stage, I have considered using flipped learning in my classroom. This would allow all explanations to be carried out effectively from well sourced materials, but at the same time, allow students to work at a pace suited to their needs. This gives my students that need an extra push, time to work through at their own pace, as well as boosting those students that are raising ahead.

Stage 4: Active experimentation

I believe that flipped learning is not a means to an end, but will support my teaching. I have to further inquire as to how this may look in my classroom and how to get the most out of this strategy. As I like to know what each student is doing, where they are at, flipped learning creates some challenges for me. This is future learning for myself to consider.

Step 3 (What next) Share your next plan(s) regarding your future professional development or your future practice.

I want to continue exploring flipped learning and how I can best utilize this strategy and how to best manage students using flipped learning. What other areas of my teaching could benefit from flipped learning?

References

Ministry of Education (nd). Our code, our standards. Retrieved from https://educationcouncil.org.nz/content/our-code-our-standards