LDC Notes

Week 16: Starting the Research Conversation

Starting the Research Conversation
Once you've determined your topic or a specific subject area to engage, the next step is to research that conversation more deeply in order to develop and inform your own point of view. Research can be an intimidating process, but also a very rewarding one. It allows you to gain additional knowledge on a topic, assemble outside support and provide credibility for your assertions.
As important as it is to find sources specific to your topic, it is equally vital to correctly assess each source's credibility—that is, to discern how trustworthy, accurate and verifiable your sources are. A scholarly source is a source written by a professional in a given field. In many fields, there exists a number of academic journals or publications that detail the publishing of scholarly articles related to the subject. 
Using an outdated source, even if the source has a solid reputation among other scholars, will likely provide inaccurate information regarding contemporary issues and current controversies. Given the contemporary nature of this qualification it is recommended sources are selected based upon recent views or publications. This is particularly important when talking about specific technologies. Content relating to theories may be cross-generational as many theories are equally credible today as when they were first written.
With any source, you must also be aware of the author's possible bias. Even the most credible sources may exhibit forms of bias, as most authors' past experiences and/or personal ties to special interest groups may affect their writing. Try to evaluate or identify any bias and where it is identified it is important to acknowledge and to provide a object or counter view for balance. 
Student feedback
This feedback is for the first two courses of the Postgraduate Certificate in Applied Practice programme at The Mind Lab by Unitec: Digital & Collaborative Learning in Context and Leadership in Digital & Collaborative Learning.
The questionnaire is divided into four parts - Content, Assessment, Teaching and Learning support.
Please fill in the optional free text feedback questions if you have any specific responses. Your feedback is golden!
Keep in mind that we'll fill the survey in this week in class. Official Student Feedback Survey - Weeks 1-16
After filling out the feedback form you can continue with this problem solving test
Research Questions - Todays Meet Rooms
There are separate rooms for each location so you can engage in the 'What Makes a Good Research Question' discussion.
https://todaysmeet.com/TML_CHC_RQ_THURS (Christchurch, Thursday)
https://todaysmeet.com/TML_CHC_RQ_SAT (Christchurch, Saturday)
Online Plagiarism & APA In-Text Referencing Test 
This online quiz covers some of the basics of APA referencing and how to avoid plagiarising. You can test yourself as many times as you want, and learn as you go!
Community Engagement
As part of the Research and Community Informed Practice (R&C) assignment 2, you need to show at which stages of the teaching as inquiry project you will engage with members of your community and explain what purposes this engagement will serve. 
Some possible stages for engagement (you may want to engage with your community at more than one stage):
  • Assessing the relevance of your project
  • Formulating research questions
  • Refining research questions
  • Identifying potential impacts
  • Designing the methods you will use to collect evidence/data
  • Gathering the data/evidence
  • Interpreting the data/evidence
  • Sharing the data/evidence with relevant parties


Week 15:  Gamification

Although games in education might be a familiar concept to many people, the concept of gamification might well be less familiar. It is a concept which is not exclusive of education. 
Some researchers generically defined it as “the use of game design elements and game mechanics in non-game contexts”, but the broad definition has been further refined to reflect the most common objective of gamification: increase user experience and engagement with a system.
Game Principles in Curriculum Design
The Quest2Learn School in New York was designed by a team of professionals, including teachers, education experts and game designers. The curriculum design was informed by game principles and, at the same time, addresses the core standards applicable to all other government-funded schools in New York. The design of both the curriculum and the school itself are informed by research relating to effective teaching and learning. 
In terms of leadership, games and gamification have implications not only for the design of the individual  lesson but also for the design of the school-wide curriculum - as well as the kind of school that nurtures this kind of learning, both structurally and culturally. 
This week we will consider what such a curriculum and such a school might look like in the New Zealand context. 
Youtube Clips:




Read as much of the following report as you are able to (see resources): 
Jagoda, P., Gilliam, M., McDonald, P., & Russell, C. (2015). Worlding through play: alternate reality games, large-scale learning, and The Source.American Journal of Play,8(1), 74.
Salen, K., Torres, R., Wolozin, L., Rufo-Tepper, R. & Shapiro, A. (2011). Quest to Learn: developing the school for digital kids. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Other suggested readings
Gamification was one of Core Education's top ten trends for 2014, see: core-ed.org

Week 14:  Innovative Learning Spaces

STATION 1 - Reflect & Sketchup / LDC

Goal: Re-design your learner's environment with a future focus in mind.
Reflect: Read these two sources:
Reflect based on those on:
  • How could you as a leader make your main learning spaces (ie. classroom) better from a digital and/or collaborative aspect?
  • How could even slight changes in your environment maybe help you to upskill as a more distributive and collaborative leader?
  • What (even tiny) changes could make the biggest difference to the learning outcomes?



Sketchup: Model the changes you’d like to make either using a simple Floor planning tool or the more advanced SketchUp that you can do 3D-wonders with!
Before you leave this station: Once your model is ready, screenrecord it as a video or picture (print screen, screen castify or https://screencast-o-matic.com/and publish that to G+community with the hashtag #sketchup)
 

STATION 2 - Discuss & Meme / DCL

Goal: Understand what innovative learning spaces are.
Discuss: Choose a provocation to discuss with the facilitator and your fellow students:
  • We already had open-plan classrooms in the 1970's and got rid of them. Is the current mania for 'modern' or 'innovative' learning environments any different?
  • Where's the research to support the idea that modern learning environments improve student achievement?
  • How do modern learning environments cater for ALL students?
  • How do we future proof the modern learning environment?
  • MLE: Chuck out some desks and add in some beanbags?
  • The learning space isn't what's important, it's the pedagogy?
  • Do you need glass walls (as in Hamilton’s new school) to have those models and flight time?
  • You may like to come up with your own provocation as well?
Meme: After you feel you have discussed enough about that topic for the day, it's time to crystallise your thoughts and learning. Think about a powerful sentence that would sum up your thoughts. Make it into a picture/thought/quote/poster that you can share online.
  • Remember to use your own or open sourced images from the app you use. You can always take one now?
  • Which tools to use? Some make these by using just Paint, but your phone might already have an app that helps you with this? You could also try to use for example https://buffer.com/pablo which is an add-on for Chrome, and http://piktochart.com/ has a poster option too.
Before you leave this station: Share that emerging thought or feeling about the conversations by posting it to a social media site (twitter, instagram, facebook, G+…) with the tags #ILS and #MindLabEd. Never know, you might have just created a meme!

STATION 3 - Analyse & Suggest / LDC

Goal: Consider the environment as the third teacher, from a learner's point of view.

Analyse:
Check that you have done both of your homework, if you haven’t start by doing those. Once you have filled in both of the surveys, look at the data.
Homework: The 3rd Teacher Consider the '79 ways in which you can use design to transform teaching and learning'. Which three ways did you find most surprising? In each case explain why. Use the text boxes below to record your answer. Google Form to fill: in 79 ways and Google Form to fill in: Learning Spaces
View and analyse the data gathered from those forms Learning Spaces Responses and 79 Ways Responses and draw suggestions from it.
Add your analysis into this collaborative slide set, and put your name on the slide you are working so that others know that. Look at what others might have already done, and think what you would like to add.
You can for example
  • create a graphical analysis of interesting parts that could influence how we design a learning space
Suggest: Based on the analysis of the data, suggest on the same collaborative slide set for example:
  1. What are the perceptions of learning spaces from a learner's point of view?
  2. Was there anything in the data that stood out to you as interesting, why?
  3. How could we use this data to inform future decision making?
  4. How might we involve learners in the design of their learning spaces?
  5. What other questions could you include in the survey?
You can use as many slides as you like to present your data analysis (charts/graphs), as well as conclusions and recommendations - you do not need to use all of the data, only the parts that you think are relevant.
These readings may also help guide you and act as a reference:
Remember to claim your work, perhaps use a different colour background slide to distinguish it from the previous person? Also add your name.
Before you leave this station: Make sure you have named the slides you worked with. If you think of an interesting aspect some other student could work with, or how to continue your work, you could add a comment there?

STATION 4 - Design & 3D Model / DCL

Goal: Rehearse a universal design and prototyping mindset.
Design:
Familiarise yourself with the Universal Design Ideas and their guidelines. Then design an ideal classroom object you are missing (table, chair… ie.)
Model: 3D model the classroom object by using https://www.tinkercad.com/. We’ll print one of these 3D models out based on your votes on the G+Community at the end of this session.
Tinkercad is free, easy-to-learn online app anyone can use to create and print 3D models with. You need to sign In or Sign Up. For this we recommend you using a laptop (either your own or one provided by TMLBU).
If you haven't used Tinkercad before, remember to view these these videos first:
Alternatively you can watch these step by step guides made by Coco
Remember to save your 3D model often enough.
Before you leave this station:
When you have finished your design, save it as a (.stl file) and make it public. Then publish a picture of your model in our G+ Community and include the link to your model as a description or comment. Remember to also include a hashtag #tinkercad and one of these based on the session you are on (#tuewha #tueauck #wedwel #wedchch #wedgis #wedrot #thuauck #thuchch #thurot #satauck #satchch).
We need your model to be public to be able to access it (.stl file) for the possible 3D printing, and we'll need those hashtags for finding it from G+. Also sharing your models makes you part of the Maker Community!

STATION 5 - Read & Feedback / LDC

Goal: Witness maker culture and students as makerspace designers.
Read: Read first The 'Open University: Innovating Pedagogy report 2013' article about Maker Culture. Then read through the blog written by Justine Hughes’s students: http://thecreatoropssteam.blogspot.co.nz/. We suggest you start from the oldest post and work your way upwards. This project was part of Justine’s LDC assignment and it was mostly run by her students.
Feedback:You can give feedback for these amazing students by commenting on their blog! Maybe you might even post some questions for them? You can also post your ideas and thoughts to our own G+community by using the #makerspace or #makerculture.
Before you leave this station:
Consider whether you would be interested in starting a similar project? If so, this framework might be interesting to look at Question Driven Pedagogy-Space-Technology Framework for Developing Learning Space
Maybe your LDC 2 assignments change initiative involves changes into the learning spaces? If so, Lee, Tan, and Tout (2011) identified approximately 100 articles, reports, presentations and books that focused on the design and evaluation of learning spaces. These comments they raise in their literature review and the ‘Evaluation Learning Spaces’ Baseline Development Model' they created‘ might help you to get started.

STATION 6 - View & Video / DCL

Goal: Plan your own future digital learning environments for the last 16 weeks.
View: View the video where Milla and Dave discuss the characteristics of the line learner. And then read the one-pager about Online learning Milla made for you after filming that video. Something a bit more academic to consider.
Then reflect on these:
  • Do you think you’ll need to set up a study group? How will you do that?
  • How do you make sure you have the grit and perseverance needed for online learning?
  • How do you manage your time and gain knowledge while online?
  • How do you create and maintain an online identity?
  • Now you’ve come to the class each week, how do you remember to go online?
  • What do you want your physical environment to be like? Even if you study online, you are in a physical space of your choice.
Video: Film a video (by yourself or with peers on the same station) to remind you what you need to keep in mind when you start to study fully online. Where, when and how do you plan to study?
You can film yourself talking, screen cast or make another kind of a presentation. Make it inspiring!
Before you leave this station:Please consider sharing the video in the G+community with the tag #DLE. Or at least save it somewhere where you can access it easily, so that you can view it on the first week of the “Research Informed Practice











Week 13:  Teaching as Inquiry

Teaching as Inquiry
Teaching as Inquiry aims to achieve improved outcomes for all students. Equally, the teaching as inquiry cycle provides a framework that teachers can use to help them learn from their practice and build greater knowledge. It includes three inquiry aspects.
The Focusing Inquiry
In the focusing inquiry, teachers identify what they want their students to achieve. What do they need to learn next to reach these goals?
The Teaching Inquiry
In the teaching inquiry, teachers select appropriate teaching strategies, looking at best practice and research literature. They plan to gather evidence of success for their students.
The Learning Inquiry
The learning inquiry takes place both during and after teaching. Teachers monitor and reflect on their students’ progress. They use this information to feed back into their practice.
Collaboration
Although teachers can work  independently, it is better if they support each other, providing different perspectives and sharing ideas, knowledge, and experiences.

Week 12: Design Thinking in Leadership

Image result for teaching as inquiryAs education evolves, education is working hard to keep up fostering teaching that supports an interdisciplinary approach to problem solving.
Design Thinking is a hands-on problem finding and solving session that provides a forum for experiential learning. We apply Design Thinking methods such as posing short explorative questions that launch brainstorms. This builds a platform broad enough to uncover a wide range of solutions. We then learn to shape options that are sufficiently narrow to work through the problems using rapid prototyping techniques.
As a result, we are able to flesh out a number of needs that are both meaningful and actionable. Like designers, we will create simple three-dimensional models to get our ideas across.

Design Thinking in Leadership
Design Thinking argues very convincingly that we would need to provide more time for the discovery, interpretation, ideation, experimentation and evolution of ideas, both for students and for teachers. 
Instead of looking at what assets a company has to create a product, leaders who use design thinking first ask what their clients require and then identify how the organisation can fulfill those needs. Research, interviews and first-person observation identify problems that need solving, which in turn inform the products and services a company develops using creative thinking and diverse perspectives. For learning, design thinking could apply to how programs and learning tasks are developed and delivered. We shouldn't just teach design thinking to our students, but we should use it to create our projects and learning tasks.
This approach is said to help leaders by removing the taboo of creativity. According to Dr Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks, Design Thinking shrinks innovation to something that doesn’t require a massive strategic change in an organization, but can be applied every day; from how might we better communicate within a team to how might we increase our ability to identify new learning potentials and trends.
'How Might We'? 
According to IDEO (http://www.designkit.org/) every problem is an opportunity for design. By framing your challenge as a How Might We question, you’ll set yourself up for an innovative solution.
  • Start by looking at the insight statements that you’ve created. Try rephrasing them as questions by adding “How might we” at the beginning. 
  • The goal is to find opportunities for design, so if your insights suggest several How Might We questions that’s great. 
  • Then take a look at your How Might We question and ask yourself if it allows for a variety of solutions. If it doesn’t, broaden it. Your How Might Weshould generate a number of possible answers and will become a launchpad for your Brainstorms. 
  • Finally, make sure that your How Might We’s aren’t too broad. It’s a tricky process but a good How Might We should give you both a narrow enough frame to let you know where to start your Brainstorm, but also enough breadth to give you room to explore wild ideas.
Four principles to Design Thinking (According to Plattner, Meinel and Leifer)
  1. The human rule – all design activity is ultimately social in nature
  2. The ambiguity rule – design thinkers must preserve ambiguity
  3. The re-design rule – all design is re-design
  4. The tangibility rule – making ideas tangible always facilitates communication
Image result for 4 principles of design thinking
Rogers’ adoption of Innovation Adoption Lifecycle
Like innovations, also adopters have been determined to have traits that affect their likelihood to adopt an innovation. A bevy of individual personality traits have been explored for their impacts on adoption, but with little agreement. Ability and motivation, which vary on situation unlike personality traits, have a large impact on a potential adopter's likelihood to adopt an innovation. Unsurprisingly, potential adopters who are motivated to adopt an innovation are likely to make the adjustments needed to adopt it. 
Rogers outlines several strategies in order to help an innovation reach this stage, including when an innovation adopted by a highly respected individual within a social network and creating an instinctive desire for a specific innovation. Another strategy includes injecting an innovation into a group of individuals who would readily use said technology, as well as providing positive reactions and benefits for early adopters. 
Leading in a Culture of Change
If you haven't yet read Michael Fullan's book "Leading in a Culture of Change", we warmly recommend it. Fullan has written expansively about educational change and how to manage it. Since "Change is a double edged sword... for better of worse, change arouses emotions", it hopefully helps in your LDC2 planning that you are ok with your and others emotions.
He has proposed (2001) that leaders would become more effective with their efforts to lead in a culture of change if they would be constant in their efforts to establish these five components of leadership:
  1. Moral Purpose: A commitment to betterment and improving life
  2. Understanding Change: A culture of change consists of great rapidity and non-linearity on the one hand and equally great potential for creative breakthroughs on the other. The paradox is that transformation would not be possible without accompanying messiness.
  3. Relationships, Relationships and Relationships: How people interact with each other and the trust and loyalty they are able to create is essential to the success or failure of a change.
  4. Knowledge Building: The process of a person taking information in and creating an understanding that is then used in society.
  5. Coherence Building: Accepting that change is inevitable and can be positive, this is helping everyone make sense of the ’messiness’ that comes along with the changes that are being experienced.




Possible resources (available online via the Unitec library)
Fullan, M. (2001). Leading in a Culture of Change. Wiley & Sons.
Harris, A., Jones, M. & and Baba, S. (2013). Distributed leadership and digital collaborative learning: A synergistic relationship? British Journal of Educational Technology 44(6), 926-939
Kilko, J. (2015). Design thinking comes of age: The approach, once used primarily in product design, is now infusing corporate culture. Harvard Business Review, 93(9), 66.
Nichols, J. (2010). Teachers as Servant Leaders. Rowman & Littlefield.
Papa, R., Mullen, C. & Creighton, T. (2012). Educational Leadership at 2050: Conjectures, Challenges, and Promises. R&L Education.
Plattner, H., Meinel, C., & Leifer, L. (Eds.). (2010). Design thinking: Understand–improve–apply. Springer Science & Business Media.
Robinson, V. (2011). Student-Centered Leadership. Wiley.
Schleicher, A. (2012). Preparing Teachers and Developing School Leaders for the 21st Century: Lessons from around the World. OECD Publishing.
Whitaker, T. (2013). Leading School Change: 9 Strategies To Bring Everybody On Board. Taylor and Francis.

Week 11:  Agile Based Leadership

"It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change." - Charles Darwin
Agility means the capability of rapidly and efficiently adapting to changes. 
Agile leadership It is the art of being flexible under the influence of rapidly changing external conditions. It means being flexible, responsive to change, and willing to learn and adopt new ways, leading to effectively survive and succeed in the complex modern competitive business environment.
Image result for agile leadership
Agile Leadership Style
  • Facilitate
  • Remove obstacles
  • Encourage reflection
  • Be a servant leader
  • Create a safe environment
  • Allow team to self-organise
Beck, K & Andres, C (2004), Extreme Programming Explained (2nd Ed.) Addison-Wesley.
Schwaber, K. & Beedle, M. (2001). Agile Software Development with Scrum. Pearson. 
Image result for servant leadership
Servant Leadership
The originator of the servant leadership concept (though inspired by a Herman Hesse story) was Robert Greenleaf.
Image result for servant leadership
“The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?”
Robert K. Greenleaf, The Servant as Leader (1970)


What is an Agile Leadership?

Week 10:  Entrepreneurialism and Crowdsourcing

Teaching students about business while still at school not only builds knowledge of economics, budgeting and the value of money it also prepares them for life. Students wholearn to brainstorm and bring ideas to life also learn to set goals, budget and develop their individuality while learning to collaborate with others.
In today's world there are many other core benefits for encouraging students to develop business ideas as with job market uncertainty and entire business sectors going through rapid change and disruption, it is even more crucial to teach students about alternative career opportunities, including self employment.
As technology further disrupts education students will increasingly question the value of the education they are receiving and its relevance to the future job market.
Most students show more talent and interest in one area over another. It is important to encourage students to develop their talents and expand their understanding and scope of how business intersects with core subjects.
Image result for business
If the skills students learn are aligned to growth industries and sectors where there is greatest job security, entrepreneurship would become a core subject for all students.
More and more young people are using crowd funding platforms such as pledgeme.co.nz or kickstarter.com to gain public support to seed fund new start ups and early expansion plans for businesses.
Other ideas that students can use to build an understanding of business, entrepreneurship, marketing, target markets, sales, budgeting and economics include:
1. Creating a online shop on a low cost platform such as etsy.com Online shops can allow students tosell items as diverse as art, crafts, digital assets such as Minecraft characters and simple services eg. car grooming, garage sorting, pet minding etc
2. Set up a school-wide or community-based pop-up fair where parents with businesses can sell slow moving or end of line products by hiring a stand where the community can shop.
3. Create a community garden at the school and grow vegetables for sale at farmers markets or to parents. Choose seasonal items that make for great after school snacks (for parents to buy) such as strawberries and carrots.

The NZ Curriculum - Education for Enterprise
Education for Enterprise is about promoting an approach to learning – one that is real, relevant, and gives students responsibility for their learning.
The Vision of NZ Curriculum (2007) states the challenges for schools in preparing young people who will:
  • be creative, energetic, enterprising, and entrepreneurial
  • contribute to the well-being of New Zealand
  • seize the opportunities offered by new knowledge and technologies to secure a sustainable social, cultural, economic, and environmental future for our country.

Education for Enterprise provides students with opportunities to:
  • become engaged in their learning through school/community partnerships
  • apply their curriculum knowledge and skills to real contexts
  • use initiative and be resourceful
  • gain NCEA credits at the same time as developing the key competencies in senior secondary schooling
  • have a better understanding of the world outside school


Maori aspect on entrepreneurial opportunities
“It was thought that Māori are not encouraged to take the right subjects at school to prepare for entrepreneurial success later on. Furthermore, Māori are not exposed to business when growing up, unlike many non-Māori children whose parents work and own businesses. Therefore, the basics of business and entrepreneurship are not instilled in Māori from an early age. A recommendation from the interviews was to increase Māori awareness and exposure to business activity in order to assist Māori in obtaining the mindset and skills needed to successfully exploit entrepreneurial opportunities.” (Dawson 2012, p.154)
“Entrepreneurship education as early as pre-school, family involvement in the education process, and the encouragement of formal and informal education avenues were suggested in the interviews to enhance the educational attainment of Māori entrepreneurs. These recommendations could be included in changes for future strategies and practices within the education system. The changes could assist Māori to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to develop successful entrepreneurial ventures.” (Dawson 2012, p. 155)
Dawson, B. (2012). Māori entrepreneurship: A Māori perspective (Doctoral dissertation, Auckland University of Technology).
Social enterprise
Social enterprise is an organisation that applies commercial strategies to maximise improvements in human and environmental well-being - this may include maximising social impact rather than profits for external shareholders. 
Image result for lean canvas
Lean canvas as a planning tool
Social Lean canvas is a tool designed to help Social Entrepreneurs understand and build great business models. It is an adaptation of Ash Maurya’s Lean Canvas (leancanvas.com) which he in turn adapted from Alexander Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas (businessmodelgeneration.com) (and is likewise licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License). We've made you a The Mind Lab by Unitec DCL Lean Canvas which is hopefully useful tool for your DCL2 and LDC2 assessments, but using it is optional.
In DCL2 this might help you to explain the innovation in short or critique it, and in the LDC2 it could work as a planning tool. With this you could introduce your idea in a lean way before focusing on your leadership and research related analyses in the essay or video presentation. Remember to keep your Lean canvas lean!

Resources for teachers and students 

Crowd funding in New Zealand

Environmental Crowd funding projects in Australia and around the world
Image result for market share
Market $hare
"I originally designed the Market Share game to help entrepreneurs learn more about business. Particularly those who haven't had much in the way of business training. As the game developed we realised that it offered other benefits and provided learning outcomes for students of colleges and universities. And from very early on in the development of Market Share we realised that our purpose was to
  • grow our economy through business education,
  • help entrepreneurs build better businesses and 
  • increase the financial literacy of our next generation.
There is a new version of this board game coming up in May! If you are interested ordering the game (at teacher-price), you can share your contact details with Nick at: http://tinyurl.com/marketsharegame

Week 9:  Multicultural and International Aspects on Education


The PISA discussion
Academics from around the world express deep concern about the impact of Pisa tests and call for a halt to the next round of testing.
“PISA… has caused a shift of attention to short-term fixes designed to help a country quickly climb the rankings, despite research showing that enduring changes in education practice take decades, not a few years to come to fruition.”
“...by emphasizing a narrow range of measurable aspects of education, PISA takes attention away from the less measurable or immeasurable educational objectives.”
Although PISA tests are developed further all the time and they do assess an unprecedented range of learning outcomes and their contexts, including student performance measures, measures of social and emotional dimensions, student attitudes and motivations, equity issues, and parental support. 
Many have wondered - Does money buy strong performance in PISA? It has been shown that greater national wealth or higher expenditure on education does not guarantee better student performance. Among high-income economies, the amount spent on education is less important than how those resources are used. Successful school systems in high-income economies tend to prioritise the quality of teachers over the size of classes and school systems that perform well in PISA believe that all students can achieve, and give them the opportunity to do so.

Hauora - Well-being - Key to Success? 

Hauora- Hauora is a Māori philosophy of health unique to New Zealand. It comprises taha tinana, taha hinengaro, taha whanau, and taha wairua. Could Hauora be one of the key concepts on defining what well-being and success is? It encompasses the physical, mental and emotional, social, and spiritual dimensions of health. The concept is recognised by the World Health Organisation.
Taha tinana - Physical well-being - the physical body, its growth, development, and ability to move, and ways of caring for it
Taha hinengaro - Mental and emotional well-being - coherent thinking processes, acknowledging and expressing thoughts and feelings and responding constructively
Taha whanau - Social well-being - family relationships, friendships, and other interpersonal relationships; feelings of belonging, compassion, and caring; and social support
Taha wairua - Spiritual well-being - the values and beliefs that determine the way people live, the search for meaning and purpose in life, and personal identity and self-awareness (For some individuals and communities, spiritual well- being is linked to a particular religion; for others, it is not.)
Cultural Intelligence / Competence
Stuart (2004) defines cultural competency as “the ability to understand and constructively relate to the uniqueness of each [individual] in light of the diverse cultures that influence each person’s perspective”. Reich and Reich (2006) have added that individuals must continually strive to become more culturally competent through continually gaining knowledge about particular “experiences and patterns of another culture”. Hence, for a person to become more culturally competent, s/he must gain a significant understanding and appreciation for cultural differences relative to their personal identities, values, and beliefs (Wachtler & Troein, 2003). Inherent in these descriptions is the notion that cultural competency is an evolving, accumulating process; an individual may never achieve complete cultural competency.

Week 8:  Leading Change


How might we lead change?
Kotter (1996) suggests that there is an 8 step process for change management:
  1. Create a sense of urgency
  2. Build a guiding team
  3. Develop a vision and strategy
  4. Communicate the vision
  5. Enable action by removing barriers
  6. Celebrate wins
  7. Sustain change by building on gains
  8. Embed the change in culture
Kotter, J.P. (1996). Leading Change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press
Change Management
Change does not happen in a vacuum. It happens in the context of:
  • Multiple stakeholders - Who are they in education?
  • Strategies - What is your school’s strategic vision?
  • Evidence - How do you find evidence to support and monitor change?
Change Management Toolkit
This week one of our main resources comes from the  New Zealand Post Primary Teachers' Association / Te Wehengarua (PPTA). Their Education Change Management Toolkit has been developed to assist schools in implementing effective change for improvement, following identified best practices for educational change.
The toolkit contains general principles for implementing successful education change in schools and a series of questions to answer before, during and after a change is trialled and includes a draft policy which branches can discuss with their boards.
See the following web page for more information:

Week 7:  Leading Online Discussions (Mindlab Notes)


When leading students through new or unfamiliar online learning environments it is important for the teacher to establish a strong social presence so that they feel a similar sense of community and group cohesion. 
When leading a group of students online it is essential that consideration be given to cognitive presence issues that includes; pre-knowledge of the students' knowledge at the point of commencement, preferred delivery methodologies for presenting work, adequate time and skills for self reflection and regular integration of small group discussions (either online or offline).
  • Tweet
  • @ (precedes a Twitter user name you are referring to)
  • Retweet (RT)
  • Modified Tweet (MT)
  • Reply
  • Direct Message (DM)
  • Follower
  • Hashtags or # (precede a topic)
Mind Lab Twitter
  • Handle: #NZMindLab
  • Hashtag: #mindlabED
  • #edChatNZ 
  • Use TweetDeck
  • The power of the hashtag
  • Join the #edchatNZ club
  • Make use of lists
  • Saving tweets for a rainy day
  • Teaching with Twitter
  • Establish the parameters
  • Connect topic material but challenge students to think critically
  • Encourage all learners to participate with incentives
  • Praise learner posts that contribute to a discussion
  • Guide off-topic conversations back to the question at hand
  • Ask students to describe appropriate real world experiences
  • Don’t overly interject - pick your spots judiciously

Week 6:  Diving into the world of Leadership Theories


Which one do I identify with?  Transactional or Transformational?
Well when you are only asking about these two, I believe I best identify myself with being 'Transformational' where I try to met the different learning needs of my students through a variety of tasks requiring different strengths.  I like when my students are learning together by discussing ideas, working through problems, comparing their stories and critiquing each other's work because these are snapshots of how well my students are learning together.

I've made further reflections which can be found on the 'LDC Tasks' page but here are my results from a leadership theory survey I completed:

Your score is: 

Authoritarian 25

Procedural 31

Transformational 37

Participative 46

Laissez Faire 43

My highest scoring leadership theory is 'Participative' which has some nice positive qualities and a few interesting negative qualities.  A quick explanation of each leadership theory follows.

Authoritarian:
Also known as 'Transactional'.  Basically tells the workers what to do, is controlling and directive. The boss will reward according to the worker's work effort and compliance.  Positive use when used in research type activities where the leader must take the lead in directing others according to the over-all focus.

Procedural:
Similar to the authoritarian where the boss is controlling, directive but there are procedures to follow.  Positive use when putting structures into place (eg Health regulations procedures).

Transformational:
Informs others of the main goal, gives the information but allows the workers to find their own best way to accomplishing the goal.  Characteristics of the leader include delegating responsibilities to others, persuading, selling, reasoning, using the strengths and ideas of the team to help achieve the focus.

Participative:
Similar to 'Transformational'.  The leader still makes the final decisions but uses the strengths, skills and knowledge of the team to help form an opinion and contributes to the decision-making process.  The leader looks to include well-skilled workers with good knowledge into their team.  Making an actual decision may take a while if the leader takes time to consider all points of views.

Laissez Faire:
Whole team is involved in the decision-making process and a leader emerges out of necessity and the strengths of their skills and knowledge depending on the task at hand.  Characteristics include consultation, advising, participating, observing and joining in.


Week 5:  Fixed or Growth Mindset

Write a list of comments students say and write a growth mindset alternative

Fixed Mindset
Growth Mindset
I can’t do that.
I can’t do that yet but I’ll try.
That looks too hard.
That looks too hard but I’d like to have a go.
That wasn’t my fault.  You didn’t remind me.
I forgot to do that but I can do it now.  I’ll remember next time!
I already know that.
I know something about that but I could learn more.

I had a go and couldn’t do it.  I’ll do something else instead.
I had a go but I think I can get it if I keep practising.
I had a go doing it this way and it didn’t work…so I’ll try it this way.
I made a mistake.
Mistakes help me learn to do things better.
I’m never going to be as good as Student A.
I might not be as good as Student A but I can try to get better!
I’m not good enough.
I’m not good enough yet.
I don’t get it.
I don’t get it yet but my friend is showing me


Class Notes:
Growth mindset in a leadership context “comes from a belief that those we lead can be motivated to improve and grow their practices. This choice usually involves including many stakeholders in decision-making, over-communicating the vision, mission, and goals, building shared values, and providing specific, targeted, timely feedback.
A Growth-Minded [Leadership] Choice might result in this:
  • Validates and addresses staffs fears and barriers
  • Communicates the vision explicitly
  • Provides support to those who lack knowledge or skills
  • Creates an opportunity to share research and information
  • Allows everyone access to growth opportunities
  • Shares the work load among all staff”
(Diehl, 2013)
See also:


Week 4:  Leading Teams:  Research vs Teaching Team


Reflect on how leading a research team might be similar to / different from leading a teaching team


I felt leading a Research Team/Teaching Team were very similar except for these differences:

Research:
  • Once research for a specific study is completed, the study is completed unless the research team delve further into the study based on research data found or once funding/support has been exhausted.  One person said that they [research team] will always have their study but this is untrue, study is continued if the support/funding is available
  • The research team are all on-board and focused for collecting reliable data for their study and have their particular roles and once data is collected, roles are changed as then the collating through data commences
  • Research study may take years of gathering information
  • The focus is upon finding out information to answer the 'study' for the purposes of sharing this information with others
  • The team have a desire to discover why specific teaching practices are better than others and present this information to the education profession for others to use

Teaching:
  • The teaching team participants have a knowledge of their chosen field of teaching that is broadened and developed over time dependent upon the teacher's desire to uplift their teaching pedagogy and practices but teachers may choose to leave and work in different levels or fields of practice (ie they do not need to stay at this school or this level)
  • How many teachers strive to uplift their practices and pedagogical knowledge
Both leaders certainly need a range of skills to head a group of people.  Some are:
  • Manager
  • Focused
  • Organised
  • Collaborator
  • Thoughtful listener
  • Tactful
  • Resilient
  • Know their PCK
  • Strives to be better and expects the same of others
  • Critically reflective of self, of practices
  • Team player but knows when lead/guide, take the reins


Week 3:  TPACK and SAMR

TPACK:

Watching this video gave me a quick review of how TPACK can be used, especially alongside the SAMR model.  TPACK gave me better understanding of the different aspects of knowledge and especially 'marrying up' the what, how, why parts and then applying the technological aspect.


The SAMR model - a neat and quick way of assessing how teachers are using or implementing digital technologies into the classroom.  I had some time ago, viewed this article but until recently, I hadn't really understood its potential.  After spending time with a few colleagues and discussing how the SAMR model applies to digital technologies when considering its uses to support student achievement and progress, I find this model quite accessible and very useful.

So how have started to apply these models into my classroom when using digital technologies?

Well...our school newly rolled out ipads into Junior classrooms towards the end of Term 3 and so our class have been exploring apps and finding out what our ipads can do during our 'sandpit' time.  I haven't applied the SAMR/TPACK models until recently but one clear focus I had started using ipads for was to help students talk and review their videos in the hopes, they can become more confident speakers.


Week 2:  Key Competencies - for our Teachers and Students

Reflect: How might teachers’ strengths in developing capabilities in thinking, using language, symbols and texts, managing self, relating to others, and participating and contributing, be recognised and celebrated?



  • Reflect: How might students’ capabilities in thinking, using language, symbols, and texts, managing self, relating to others, and participating and contributing, be recognised and celebrated?
Recognising students using key competencies can stand out especially when working to complete tasks.  We all can point out the student who can:
  • share ideas that are from a different perspective to how others are thinking

  • have strengths in using language, symbols and texts and can support peers in developing these too

  • share ideas easily and confidently during buddy, group or class discussions and justify or reason these!
  • manage self during set tasks, self chosen activities...just manage themselves and can help manage others
  • relate to others confidently and appropriately


In our school, the core value underpinning our behaviour expectations, work ethic and school values all revolve around 'I Care':
  • Caring for Myself, Others, Property and the Environment
  • Achievement - what does this look like?  What are my goals  What can I do to achieve my goals?
  • Respect - for Myself, Others, Property, the Environment, my learning, my behaviour
  • Effort - my attitude affects my altitude!  The effort I put in is what I get out of my learning.  


With thinking of these, I see how the Key Competencies naturally are a part of our 'I Care' philosophy and because we are working towards developing managing self in order to work towards the other aspects of 'I Care'.


Our school is a brain-based school where students learn about factors they can control/they can't control regarding learning - what best helps me to learn?  What can't I control and what can I control?  (eg I can't control the weather but I can control how I can keep cool or warm).


Praise is a biggie in my class but I try very hard to be careful of the praise I give.  I do not want my students relying upon my praise but one way we celebrate a student's effort is by making a celebration a class affair (eg Student A has completed their story writing.  Can someone give good feedback on their task?  Usually this might look like, "Student A has remembered to use the word because to help explain their idea more").

Discussing with students why they have completed a task well and ensuring they understand the 'why' and the 'what' is helpful when students can articulate their learning for other tasks and activities.  Students are expected to understand what is the learning and how to relay this to others, especially to other students and to realize students may have different focuses for their learning.


Week 1:  Thought Leadership and Epistemology

Notes from Class - Ontology, Axiology and Epistemology

Ontology, axiology and epistemology are important related concepts in philosophy.
Ontology originally referred to the branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being and reality. In short, ontology refers to our ideas of reality and how it is constituted.
Epistemology, in turn, is interested in how we can acquire knowledge about that reality. The Greek word, ‘episteme’, refers to knowledge. Epistemologists try to identify the essential, defining components of knowledge. Thus, both of these provide a basis for learning and teaching, and they appear in learning theories. Equally, what we understand by learning and teaching leads to ontological and epistemological assumptions.
In addition to ontology and epistemology, there is a third concept of axiology that relates to value theories. It considers the values related to both ontology and epistemology. In its broad sense in the context of ontology, it addresses questions such as what is considered valuable in our world and our existence in it. 
Further, in the context of epistemology, it addresses the question of what is valuable knowledge in that world and what means are valued in order to gain that knowledge. Education is society’s media for manifesting its ideas. The ideas educational systems adopt reflect what society regards as valuable for its success and welfare.
Source: Audi, R. (gen. ed.) (1995), The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cognitive Tools
It is important to understand some of the processes that students will encounter while using cognitive tools. Cognitive tools impact student learning by causing them to think about information instead of reproducing and/or recalling information. Information is shifted through and evaluated for its' validity, reliability, and applicability to research and problem solving activities. These mental processes support the constructivist pedagogy and uphold the use of higher order thinking skills.
To construct a learning activity in which cognitive tools are utilised, the following guidelines should be considered:
  1. Identify learning goals or objectives – Clearly defined goals will enable students to comprehend the purpose of the activity and the desired outcomes.
  2. Select projects for students to achieve goals or objectives. These projects should be authentic tasks that can motivate students to engage in meaningful learning.
  3. Select cognitive tool/s – Cognitive tools should facilitate the attainment of the learning goals and objectives. The tools should be appropriate to the learning environment, and to the learning styles of students. The tools should also be appropriate (technical enough) for students' higher level technological skills, and facilitate the desired outcomes of the objectives. Becoming familiar with new tool/s may be necessary for effective instructional and scaffolding strategies.
  4. Implement the learning experience and cognitive tool/s – Most teachers invest time in planning and assuring learning activities can be executed. Having an alternative plan is essential when relying on technology because the unexpected can happen. Some students may need guidance in their usage of the tool. Collaborative pairs, mini lessons, and one to one assistance can alleviate stress when encountering new technologies.
  5. Evaluate the learning outcomes – The evaluation of tools is challenging; however, checklists and rubrics can help evaluate students' understanding.
    6. Teachers should consider the following when planning the use of a cognitive tool for learning.
    • Cognitive tools function best in constructivist learning environments.
    • They can motivate and engage learners through realistic contextual learning.
    • The tools should help manage the cognitive work, not increase it.
    • A variety of tools can be necessary to support diversified learners and various cognitive processes.
    • The same tool may support various functions.
    • The tools should provide students the ability to actively address meaningful questions and problem solving that are realistic and offer feedback.
    • Scaffolding may be needed in order for the student to effectively use a tool.
    • They allow students to focus on higher order thinking and developing an array of knowledge through thinking and reflection.
    • Tools need to support the students' expression of knowledge.
    • The successfulness of cognitive tools has not been determined therefore many unanswered questions remain about how to facilitate their use and how students actually manipulate them.
    • Assessing the products of cognitive tools can be complex and may require alternative assessments for the use and the impact of the tool upon the learning community.
    • Cognitive tools can require troubleshooting and encompass other technology issues related to users and designers.

    Have you considered yourself as a leader?
    Critically reflect through consciously interrogating your own experiences and preconceptions about leadership. As a social construct leadership is open to reconstruction and reconfiguration, therefore it is essential to keep exploring the meaning of leadership to open up and develop new ways of understanding. 
    Remember to share your perspectives and experiences. Help others to raise their awareness of their own and others leadership of practice and the ways in which this can develop and improve. 
    Recommended reading 
    Clark, Rory McDowall. (2012). "I've Never Thought of Myself as a Leader But": The Early Years Professional and Catalytic Leadership. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal,20(3), 391-401.
    In this research paper the ideas of authority are challenged and a concept of catalytic leadership is proposed, whereby your ability to bring about and inspire change is not dependent on a position of power. It is clear that even if a teacher is not in a position of authority they are in a position of influence, and it is this influence that is crucial to becoming a change agent and leading practice. In this way the teacher can be seen as a catalyst within their setting bringing about internal change to create something new. Change comes about through the recognition of new possibilities rather than being enforced from above.

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