Teaching as Inquiry to improve student performance for priority learners

1. Teaching as Inquiry to improve student performance for priority learners Click to add text

2. Who are the priority learners? “Priority learners are groups of students who have been identified as historically not experiencing success in the New Zealand schooling system. These include many Maori and Pacific learners, those from low socio-economic backgrounds, and students with special education needs.” ERO (2012). Evaluation at a Glance: Priority Learners in New Zealand Schools. Wellington: Education Review Office p.4

3. Background: Inquiry frameworks The primary purpose of teaching and learning inquiry, as described in The New Zealand Curriculum, is to bring about improved outcomes for students through a cyclical process that is guided by the following questions: • What should students achieve? Where are our students in relation to these goals and priorities? What do students need to learn next? • Which strategies, interventions or programmes will support students to achieve these outcomes? • What learning happened for students as a result of these strategies, interventions or programmes, and what will teachers do next to ensure that students continue to progress?

4. http://www.edtalks.org/video/professional-learning-makes-difference-students#.UO36W67NmJshttp://www.edtalks.org/video/professional-learning-makes-difference-students#.UO36W67NmJs • Helen Timperley

5. Teaching as Inquiry Diagram Taken from: Timperley, H. (2011). Using student assessment for professional learning: focusing on students’ outcomes to identify needs. State of Victoria Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.

6. Dimension 1: finding out about students’ knowledge and skillsThe cycle begins by identifying the knowledge and skills students need to close the gaps between what they know and can do, and what they need to satisfy the requirements of the curriculum, the standards or other outcomes valued by the community in which students live and learn. Key questions: • What do they already know? • What sources of evidence have been used? • What do they need to learn and do? • How do we build on what they know? Possible sources of evidence: • NCEA achievement data • Surveys of student engagement • Student interviews about how they understand their learning • Analysis of student work

7. Collecting Student Data Which data? Data to answer the questions: • Who are our students? • How are our students doing? What data do you have? Which question does it answer?

8. When it comes to improving instruction and learning, it’s not the quantity of the data that counts, but how the information is used. (Hamilton et al., 2009) What does the data tell us about the knowledge and skills our students need? What does the data tell us about the knowledge and skills we (teacher) need? Analysing the data

9. What are some quick ways of checking on students’ learning? Are our present ways of gathering student voice inclusive of all our student groups? Whose voices are we hearing? Are there silent voices? What are some ways that we could improve our gathering and use of student voice? What sorts of question do we ask? Are they questions that the students want to answer? Do we have data about: absences from school and class retention across levels positioning within subjects How do we measure engagement? What does an engaged student look like? Questions to think about...

10. Dimension 2: finding out about teachers’ knowledge and skillsFor teachers to understand the relationship between student profiles and their own teaching practices typically requires challenges to a mix of expectations, knowledge and skills. Key questions: • How have we contributed to existing profiles of student outcomes? • What do we already know that we can use to promote valued outcomes? • What do we need to learn to do to promote valued outcomes? • What sources of evidence/knowledge can we utilise? Possible sources of evidence: • Observations of classroom practice using agreed rubrics • Ratings of hypothetical scenarios of practice • Written feedback to students • Self-ratings on descriptions of progressions from novice to expert.

12. Dimension 3: deepening professional knowledge and refining skillsIn this dimension of the cycle three sources of evidence are brought together: evidence of student learning needs, evidence of teacher learning needs and the research evidence of what is most likely to meet those needs. Possible sources of evidence: • Evidence of student learning needs • Evidence of teacher learning needs • Research evidence about what is most likely to meet those needs. • Another source may be teachers’ understandings of students and how they learn, what counts as valid knowledge and how best to teach it.

13. Dimension 4: Engaging students in new learning experiencesChanges in teachers’ beliefs and knowledge through professional learning and development must result in some kind of change to teaching practices. Possible sources of evidence: • Research evidence on which to base criteria for effective practice • The specifics of practice that would count as evidence of the criteria • The extent to which the specifics are evident in the teacher’s practice • How students respond to new practices.

14. The importance of feedback

15. Dimension 5: assessing impact of changed actionsUnquestionably some practices are more likely to be effective than others but none can guarantee success. If there is a generic principle of practice, it is probably that teaching must be responsive to the specific needs of the students being taught. Possible sources of evidence: • Formal and informal evidence used in the first part of the cycle (student’s knowledge and skills) • Evidence of possible explanations for improvement or lack of it • Evidence of unintended consequences.

17. Embedding Teaching as Inquiry • PMS that included a requirement for teachers to reflect on their professional practice • Reflective journals or portfolios that sat outside the PMS • Professional development programmes that incorporated opportunities to use an inquiry approach • Self review processes such as end of term programme evaluations and department curriculum reviews that informed planning • Groups of teachers analysing student data, setting targets for priority learners and reviewing the outcomes for these students • Regular meetings to talk about students’ achievement and progress and strategies to help priority learners. • Support for the teacher’s capability to respond to the needs of students in their class. ERO (2012). Teaching as Inquiry: Responding to Learners. Wellington: Education Review Office.