Thoughts about teachers as knowledge creators

" ... the teacher has to play a key role in modeling knowledge building through being creative and innovative in pedagogical practices. Professional learning and development will best be supported when teachers can share, create, and improve new knowledge on teaching, learning, and assessment as a KBC." (Lai, 2014, p18)

This is a thread of interest that has emerged following a huge amount of reading into constructivist pedagogy. This thought echoes a problem in day to day teaching. We're encouraging our students to follow Learn-Create-Share  in their learning, doing innovative things in our classrooms but we forget to share as teachers. Too often, we're too shy, too busy, too much in our classroom siloes.

As a teacher, I live in a bit of silo. I am the only visual art teacher at my school, the nearest colleague being 35 km up the road. It can be quite isolating.

I have been really lucky to have had the generous support of colleagues as I've explored what knowledge building looks like with my art history class.

I wonder though how we can make the innovations in our practice more visible and accessible to our community?

 

Lai, Kwok-Wing, & Pullar, Ken. (2014). Designing knowledge building communities in secondary schools.

Community and belonging

Having finally completed a literature review into how knowledge building communities might enhance engagement and self-efficacy, I have been wrestling with some emerging questions about the community aspect of knowledge building communities. Establishing a culture of collaboration is fundamental. The problem is, how can trust and connections between community members be developed?

How can an authentic community be developed in the online environment?

I would love to hear from teachers who have been tinkering with knowledge building communities. What makes a difference in establishing a culture of knowledge sharing?

Also in general, NZ teachers what does whanaungatanga look like in your class?

Meeting - Pūtaki Toki

Once again the Pūtaki Toki meeting has left me with fuel in the tank and fresh inspiration for another term of learn-create-share. The nice thing about these meetings is that there is somewhere for everyone to jump in no matter their 'level' or experience with digital immersion. For some staff, they set up an inquiry blog which was a huge learning step for them. For others (who are a bit more experienced with 'share') it was a timely challenge to dive in a little bit deeper and investigate how they could enrich the blogging experience.

For me, it was a reminder about the rich communal resource we have with the Manaiakalani and Toki Pounamu sites and blogs. As educators we don't have to tough it out alone, there are others that have walked before us.

 Nā tō rourou nā taku rourou - ka ora ai te iwi.

Inquiry research

I am wrestling with how to form a really good question for a literature review (part of my Mindlab study this year)

I am planning to focus on my online art history class. We collaborate using Knowledge Forum a lot (Kwok-Wing Lai, 2014), to explore big questions and construct an understanding of art history concepts as a class. 

I am a bit hesitant to box myself in with the term 'knowledge building' in my research question. I guess I want to be able to compare other collaborative models with knowledge building, which will require a more open question.

I am interested in how collaborating in an online setting can affect engagement (lots of barriers in online teaching) and epistemic agency 

I've formed a few possible questions, that you are welcome to critique:

1. How can use of 21st-century technologies and constructivist models enhance student engagement and epistemic agency in the online environment?

2. How can collaborative tools increase epistemic agency in the online environment?

3. How can knowledge building communities enhance student engagement and self-efficacy in the online environment?

Feedback, please! I'm trying to write a really rich question that's neither too broad or too narrow.

Engagement in my classroom

Just a few reflections on engagement and what it looks like in the classroom.

Shifts over time and why we do what we do - Lead Teacher day

Today Madeline asked us as Lead Teachers to reflect on our journey with Toki Pounamu. Where did we start, what kind of shifts have there been, and what kind of a difference is it making for: teachers, students, leaders, whanau, community etc?

Although Westland High is very much in its' infancy with Toki Pounamu, I am constantly blown away by the effort that teachers are putting into adapting their practice and covering a lot of ground very quickly in terms of getting up to speed with it all. This is only highlighted when sharing stories with other lead teachers. You are more amazing than you know.

Lead teachers have been asked to put together 'impact stories' to share (and in a way give back to other clusters that we've been getting such valuable knowledge and resources from).


My challenge to Westland teachers is to share with me a story big or small.

It could be a particular instance or a particular tool, that really helped, a change that you've made in your practice, an anecdote about a class or a learner. I'd love to hear what's on top for you.

Knowledge Building video article

I wanted to share a video article I made for the NetNZ annual report around Knowledge Building.

So a little bit of background. Part of my job is to teach level 3 art history online with NetNZ.
Over the last couple of years, I've been working with a model called Knowledge Building Communities in art history and inquiring into how this can engage and extend a diverse range of learners from a diverse range of schools.

So this is my first attempt at making a blog style video and I have to say it felt a bit vulnerable to put myself out there in such a public forum. That said if you watch it and it sparks some kind of interest, I would welcome any questions or indeed feedback.

NB If you're interested in reading more about Knowledge Building feel free to check out my appraisal website, I based my inquiry around the work I'm doing with Knowledge Building and have heaps of background info about the big ideas and how it works on there.