Descriptive
Inquiry 1 –
Flipped Learning
How do I
implement digital tools and collaborative practices to promote and emphasise a
flipped learning environment for my Year 4 class.
Communities
of Practice:
Within my
Year 4 class, that has a range of digital savvy children, their families encouraging
the use of Google classroom to achieve a flipped environment where the learning
is happening inside and outside the physical classroom. Also within my school,
there are a few teachers, one of whom is a certified Google facilitator, who
can help me to flip the learning in my class.
Inquiry 2:-
Seesaw
How can I use
digital tools and collaborative practices to improve the learning network for
the teachers within my team and encourage them to build relationships with
their families and whanau.
Communities
of Practice:
The Year 4
syndicate is made up of 4 teachers, myself and another experienced teacher, a 2nd year PR
Teacher and a 1st year PR Teacher. There are varying levels of talent and
expertise, although there seems to be some level of reluctance. This year, the
school has set up an online portfolio system to showcase the learning that is
happening inside the classroom. A percentage of the teachers who use Seesaw regularly
now have developed positive
relationships with their stakeholders.
Comparative
Views of
others in Flipped Learning CoP
Google
classroom has been away to establish flipped learning within the class. I have
one parent upload photographs for his daughter to write stories on but all in
all there has been some reluctance from the children and parents alike to add
to the site, they see it as my domain. Although when I have drawn their
attention to others comments, they seem willing at the time to add but at a
later period. The children do visit the classroom quite regularly to revisit
the learning and use it like modelling book.
Learning
Theories Related to Flipped Learning CoP
In 2008,
Bergmann and Aaron Sams began to embrace what they call the Flipped-Mastery
model. This is mastery learning that used technology to time-shift the
individual instruction. They created videos for each learning objective and
posted these online so that as students moved through the content; they were
able to move at their own pace. Technology freed up the teachers to
individualize the learning for each student. (Bergmann, Sams 2012).
Views of
others in Seesaw CoP
The views of
my team can only be described as ‘the laggards’ (Robinson 2009) when using the
school’s new initiative (Seesaw) as their data reflects this. They have avoided
participation as they believe it has only added to their workload. There are teachers
within the school who have acknowledged the benefits of using Seesaw and make
valuable contributions to the wider community with little or no extra effort to
their usual workload.
Learning
Theories Related to Seesaw CoP
The theory of connectivism
provides insight into learning skills and tasks needed for learners to flourish
in a digital era (Siemens, 2004) which could be useful. Aspects of
Seely-Brown’s situated cognition learning theory could also contribute to this
topic as learning while interacting with others through shared activities and
language could occur for teachers (Olson, 2015).
Critical Reflection
By applying the
Spirals of Inquiry model to my thinking I can see that there are benefits to
persevering with using a flipped classroom approach especially now that I
nearly have ono-to-one devices in my class (22 devices for 28 children). I need
to encourage the children to work with their parents and whanau at home to
showcase the learning more, and to make it more challenging so that they seek
help from each other.
With my Team,
I need to work with them so that they can reflect on the purpose of using
Seesaw to display the learning, not just a ’peek hole’ approach but to knock
down whole walls so that parents and whanau can actually ‘see’ what is
happening in the class. I can do this by ‘buddying them up with the early
adopters to see how they are using the online portfolio and work with the
leadership team to come up with ways that teachers can give specific feedback
that will encourage and accelerate learning for our students.
Bergmann, J., & Sams,
A. (2014). Flipped learning: Maximizing face time. Training & Development ,68(2),
28-31.
Nichols, D. (2012,
September 18). Flip Classroom Instruction: How to Guide Part 1 -- Educational
Technology Tips.
Olson, M. H. (2015). An
introduction to theories of learning. Psychology Press.
Robinson, L. (2009). A
summary of Diffusion of Innovations. Changeology. Retrieved
from http://www.enablingchange.com.au
