Teaching as Inquiry - Graeme Aitken

Today as part of our Leaders PLG we had the honour of listening one of NZ's godfather of Teaching as Inquiry - Graeme Aitken! I was blown away by his passion and knowledge. Here are just a few of my notes from this session:

Collaborative Inquiry - An approach to teaching

Often teaching is only about adjusting the learners rather than adjusting my teaching.

Goals as a teacher:

Creating interest, creating confidence, creating achievement

• Bigger evidence of raising achievement
• Less focus on creating interest and joy

To do this we need to:

1. Take stock: add to the data we have of achievement

• Current state
• Student experience 
• Data story: tools to help with this

How to do this:

• Scan
• Can you describe what you are learning and why?
• Where are you going with your learning?
• Name two adults in this school who believe that you can achieve
• NZCER me and my class
• ERO well being survey

2. Focus on the solution

• Defining the problem
• Create focus

• Add the correct next steps to help solve the problem - create the write strategy to solve the problem
• Could be measuring the wrong thing??
• Our best guesses about a fix, then test it. What do we need to learn to aid our best guess?

3. Take action

• Test hunches
• Share successes, failures and improvements
• Discuss whether or not we have made enough of a difference
• This can only happen with trust…
• Got to think about incremental improvements
• It's ok, to make mistakes but not ok to keep on making mistakes

4. Maintain momentum

• How do we spread these ideas
• How do we get other teachers/classes to do the same?

2017 Inquiry: Broadening Extension Maths Learners

How do you effectively broaden the understanding of an extension maths student, particularly number knowledge and the application of this, in a way that is engaging and effective.

In 2017 for my inquiry I have selected the following Manaiakalani Community of Learning achievement challenge:
#4. Increase the achievement of Years 1-10 learners, with a focus on Years 7-10,  in reading, writing and maths, as measured against National Standards and agreed targets.


The teaching as inquiry framework I will be using in 2017 has been specifically co-constructed for Manaiakalani schools using our familiar Learn Create Share structure.
The elements in this framework share close similarities with other models New Zealand teachers use.

I will be labelling my posts as I update my inquiry throughout the year to make the content easy to access.

Label Key:

LEvidence	Learn - Gather Evidence	CPlan	Create - Make a plan	SPublish	Share - Publish
LScan	Learn - Scan	CTry	Create - Try new things	SCoteach	Share - Co-teach
LTrend	Learn - Identify Trends	CInnovate	Create - Innovate	SModel	Share - Model
LHypothesise	Learn - Hypothesise	CImplement	Create - Implement	SGuide	Share - Guide
LResearch	Learn - Research	CReflect	Create - Reflect	SFback	Share - Feedback
LReflect	Learn - Reflect			SReflect	Share - Reflect

Teaching as Inquiry - Focus for 2017

Photo Attribution

In 2017 Pt England school’s inquiry focus is Mathematics.  This is in response to the analysis of our own teacher gathered data as well as official data from the Woolf Fisher Research Centre.

My inquiry is going to consist of two different paths. The first of these is helping, supporting and mentoring others to lead their own inquiries as the head of ‘Teaching as Inquiry’ for 2017. This is a huge challenge to undertake, which I am really looking forward to.

The second path is the leading of my own inquiry. Maths for me is something that I really enjoy teaching, so I’m excited about having the opportunity to inquiry into the following idea: How do you effectively broaden the understanding of an extension student while still giving them enough challenge and speed in delivery to keep them engaged?

Whenever I have had to opportunity to teach extension maths children I have always found it hard to keep them excited and engaged. They are mostly looking for the next big challenge…”Teach me something I don’t know yet...Come on hurry up!” When I have done what they have asked, in the name of keeping them engaged, or because of time pressures, I have found that we have moved too fast. Yes they are able to complete most tasks using multiple strategies which are well advanced for their age and stage but they don’t truly have the full understanding or mathematical knowledge of someone at late stage 7, early 8 should have. So this is my challenge!

Keep checking back here as I hope to share some new findings, tips and loads of evidence of better gains in knowledge acquisition and understanding! :)