Week 26: Reflection 2

Week 26 Reflection: Apply a reflective model to discuss something that has happened during your Inquiry so far and how it impacts on taking action

In this post I will be using Rolfe’s Model of Reflection (Otago University, n.d.) which is a three step process for analysing one’s practice. I will break up the post into the three sections. What, So what and Now what.

What: Describe something that is significant and has happened during your Inquiry so far:

It is the end of week 2 of my action plan. I am still on track. I have sent out a reminder email to my students from last year. It is pleasing to note that I have had a good number of responses. They are all giving useful information too, perhaps this is because a lot are no longer involved in the subject and feel they can speak honestly. I have also spent time in classes getting students signed up to Google Classroom and Quizlet, and introducing my new look site for French. There are still a few issues with Y9 classes and accessing the wifi but these should be resolved next week. The most significant aspect of the inquiry so far is the building and introduction of the new website and it is on this that I will focus my reflection this week.

So what: Evaluate the most interesting/important/useful aspects of this event:

I wrote last week about the reaction of my colleagues when I presented my new site at a department meeting and spoke about servant leadership or empowering others and about the five dimensions that impact on student performance (Robinson, Hohepa and Lloyd 2009) and that greatest impact on performance is promoting and participating in teacher learning and development. My presentation has clearly had a powerful impact, as two of my colleagues have started working on developing their own sites for German and Spanish. This not only means that we will have similar sites across the European languages, but that my own inquiry and action is already having an impact on students, with whom I am not directly involved. This can only be a positive for the language community at my school. It also has meant me giving time to others, which I am more than happy to do. I realise that in the longer term they will develop knowledge about building Google sites. Our collective knowledge will eventually be greater than mine and I will be able to tap into that resource.

The other aspect of the new site to which I had not perhaps given enough consideration, was the reaction of my students. Whilst it has been overwhelmingly positive, they have offered suggestions and ideas to the layout and usability of the site, which I need to take on board. A simple example is the use of buttons, which I have learned are far easier than drop down boxes on a tablet. Here is ako in action. I am not the expert in website design and my students can and need to play an important part in the role, as they will be the eventual users. I can learn and be led by them.

Now what: Analyse the implications from this event to the rest of your Inquiry:

How is this event going to impact on the rest of the inquiry? Firstly, the positive response so far from my students makes me think that we are heading in the right direction. The impact of the new site will not necessarily lead to me discovering whether gamification has a positive effect on student engagement. However, as the majority of activities on the new site are gamified activities, this positive response could already show an effect on engagement with the course. It is of course too early to say with any certainty, but it again matches my initial thoughts and hunch. Will the data that I collect over the next few weeks substantiate this hunch? As I stated in my action plan “without evidence to back them up, hunches remain subjective” (Ministry of Education, n.d.)

References:

Ministry of Education.(n.d.). Data analysis. Retrieved from http://elearning.tki.org.nz/Teaching/Teaching-as-inquiry/Data-analysis#js-tabcontainer-1-tab-2

Otago Polytechnic. (n.d.). Reflective Writing. Retrieved from https://www.op.ac.nz/assets/LearningAdvice/Reflective-writing.pdf

Robinson, V., Hohepa, M. & Lloyd, C. (2009). School Leadership and Student Outcomes: Identifying What Works and Why Best Evidence Synthesis Iteration (Executive Summary.) Retrieved from https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/60182/Chapter-1-Executive-Summary-redacted-2015.pdf