Inquiry goals - leveraging engagement

This year I have decided to keep my teaching inquiry relatively simple and streamlined with one goal relating to face to face learners and one goal relating to learners in the online class that I teach.

I have 2 goals

1. To use 'assessment for learning' to leverage engagement in junior and middle school classes
2. To use a knowledge building approach to engage online learners

With the first goal, my hunch or motivation relates to many learners coming into art with a 'fixed mindset'. They feel that it is not something they are good at and that it is not for them. I really want to shift the focus from this to a mindset where students are continually reflecting on 'how am I doing' and 'how am I improving'. My theory is that I need to look at ways of making the progress more visible to students and creating opportunities for those reflective conversations to happen.

I am trialing a 'digital visual diary' in the form of a Google Slide. I am trying to keep this as simple and user-friendly as possible. The idea is that students will update their slides at the end of a lesson with their work in progress. In terms of learning design, I am trying to center the classroom talk around progress. This is taking deliberate planning though. I am needing to carve out pockets of time for students to write goals, reflections and recording their work.

My hope is that students will develop more of a growth mindset about their learning in art and through feedback and feedforward from their teacher gradually take more and more ownership of their learning.

With the second goal, my hunch is based on prior experience of using a communal inquiry-based approach. Students who might have struggled with a traditional transactional approach coupled with the potential isolation of being an online student thrived with the knowledge building approach. They reported feeling connected to the class and a part of a community. I still remember one student who identified as not being an exam student. They went on to pass their exams and even get an endorsement! They told me later that being able to collaborate creatively with other students really helped them.

I am looking to get more deliberate and reflective with the knowledge building pedagogy. My experience and instinct tell me that it is powerful, but I want to explore 'how' and 'why' gathering evidence from my class. I want to improve my practice as a teacher and build on what works.

I am quite excited about a newly formed community of practice for knowledge building teachers in NZ, where hopefully we will be able to share our problems of practice and our expertise.