Capacity 2 Going Critical

What does it mean to be a critically reflective teacher? To reflect on-action?

One of my biggest learning is that I don't have to have an answer. I am a fixer, a solver of problems by nature. If something doesn't go right in my lesson, or a student doesn't engage in the activity - I must understand why so that I can fix it for next time. I have tried to go from this to the bigger picture in my reflections. Why do I what I do? What assumptions and life experiences influence my teaching and my reactions to situations? How do my students perceive events? How does this all interact together to influence the learning environment of my classroom? What is technologies role?

"Reflection becomes critical when it has two distinctive purposes. The first is to understand how consideration of power undergird, frame and distort educational processes and interactions. The second is to question assumptions and practices that seem to make our teaching lives easier but actually work against our best long term interests." (Brooksfield, What it means to be a critically reflective teacher)

Through out this program I have uncovered more and more of my assumptions around education, technology, learning in the 21st century and knowledge. It has been eye opening. I feel like I am assembling a bit of a jigsaw puzzle that is continually changing shape. One moment I think I have a corner and then it morphs into something else. The idea of what knowledge is started out as something concrete in my mind and has changed into something that is constructed together because we each look at it through our own experiences and ideals.

Critical reflection is essential in my continuing growth as an educator. Let me end with a quote from The Reflective Educator's Guide to Classroom Research.

"You understand that engaging in inquiry is not about solving every educational problem that exists, it is about finding new and better problems to study, and in doing, leading a continuous cycle of self and school improvement . . . truly, becoming the best that you can be."

Capacity 1 Looking Back

"A community of practice is a 'group' of people that share the same interest and build relationships that enable them to learn from one another." (Wenger, Communities of Practice).

Even before I started the LTT program I was involved in a community of practice, though i didn't call it that. In my work place I intentionally seek out my colleagues to discuss what we are doing in the classroom, difficulties, strategies and lessons that we have tried that worked or didn't work. Bouncing ideas off of each other - to continually try to improve our practice. I have also been part of the a larger community of practice in the district. Participating in the WIT (Whatever It Takes) initiative, being challenged to look at my practice differently and strive to differentiate my instruction.

LTT has challenged me to take my community of practice to the 'virtual' level. Joining communities on line. I have gone from reading articles and blogs to responding to posts and posting my own blogs to joining a variety of Professional Learning Communities. I have discovered what works for me in these PLNs and what doesn't. I have found that though Twitter can be used in a professional way and not just for updating people about your activities - it isn't the first place I go to when searching for educational sites, or information.

Servage's article Making Space for Critical Reflection in Professional Learning Communities has stuck with me for the whole two years of this program. It challenged me to include 'critical reflection into my PLC and move from 'debriefing' to asking deeper questions about education. One of my colleagues has questioned me on more than one occasion regarding my use of the Smartboard and technology in general. Does it add to the lesson and the students learning, how does it differ from an overhead or the plain old whiteboard? This questioning forced me to take a closer look at the lessons I am doing on the Smartboard.

From my introduction to the term Professional Learning Communities back in August 2009 to now I have had to shift my thinking. It now has to include giving back - not just listening to others, reading others responses, etc., but also fully participating in the community - putting ideas and questions 'out there.'

What I am still learning is to balance time - for me at least it takes less time and energy to have a face-to-face conversation compared to the online one. But both are extremely valuable.

The 21st Century Learner

What is the 21st Century Learner? According to video by Nantz it is someone who uses a variety of media to learn - computer and paper. Someone who learns through communicating with others. Someone who learns by doing. Is this so much of a change or shift from when I went to school? 'Back in the day' we might not have had access to computers yet (my brother had an Atari), but I still learned more by doing and engaging in discussion. Today we add that the discussion can be virtual and the research can be done on line.

Digital media has entered into the equation and opened up more to the 21st Century Learner. The world is at our finger tips. Many articles emphasis that it is up to the education system to prepare students for a future in the 'real world' where technology is at the core. That the skills they will need to compete in the 'real world' are problem solving, collaboration, and analysis, skills with word processing, hyper-text, social networking software, etc.

Is the education system as it is now up to this challenge? My short answer - No. Without some changes to our curriculum, I don't think we can achieve this goal. Jenkins in his article on Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media education for the 21st Century states "Media change is affecting every aspect of our contemporary experience, and as a consequence, every school discipline needs to take responsibility for helping students to master the skills and knowledge they need to function in a hypermediated environment." The current curriculum and its focus does not yet take this into account and of course there is the 'teacher' factor and how comfortable that teacher is with technology.

I don't want to end on a down note. Whether the education system is yet ready to teach the 21st Century Learner or not, we are doing it and we are preparing students for the 'real world'. We are teaching them to problem solve, collaborate and analyze. We just need to add the 21 Century literacy into the system on a larger scale.

The benefits of research

Over the past two years I have come to see the benefits of research, of taking time to read peer reviewed articles on education and technology. When I started the Learning and Teaching with Technology (LTT) program I grudgingly read the articles assigned to us, and balked at having to find articles to inform my field study. What a shift - as I was preparing my final Field Study Proposal I was spending a lot of time researching and reading articles to help me decide where I wanted to go this term. As I looked into student collaboration, differentiated instruction, peer-feedback and now teacher collaboration I find that my philosophy around education has shifted and is still shifting.

Before LTT Collaboration equaled partner work or group work
After Collaboration means working together to come up with an answer to a problem, exploring a topic and constructing the new knowledge together

Before LTT Differentiate Instruction equaled adapting to different levels - may be giving the students different numbers of questions to do.
After Differentiated Instruction became giving students different opportunities in exploring a topic, from the basic knowledge questions to the open-ended questions; also giving students more ways to represent their learning.

Before LTT Peer-feedback was editing for grammar, spelling, capitals, etc.
After Peer-feedback means asking the students to answer specific questions when reading their classmates writing.