TOD Effective Pedagogy 30/1/2018

Kate Brown: Effective Pedagogy
Important to find out as much as we can about our children and keep trying different things.

Today's agenda:

• NZC Pedagogical Beliefs
• What is Inquiry Learning?
• Examination of models of inquiry
• Creating a Beckenham te Kura o Pūroto learning model
• Deductive (teacher-directed) and Inductive (where children make meaning for themselves) teaching - there's always a place for both, e.g., teaching the recorder does not happen through inquiry!
• Classroom environment to enhance inquiry.

Learning from last year:

• We talked about not having to plan the whole of the first 2 terms, rather, in Term 2 we'll look again at the needs of the children
• We'll be more open to the children driving the learning
• It's fine to be working through the inquiry process and scaffolding the children where necessary
• It's important to make use of real life examples (see the book that Kate shared with us)
• We're supporting our children to learn how to learn
• Note the links between Bobbi's day yesterday and Kate's work today; cross curricular expectations (groupworthy problems; social groupings)

Readings in groups:

• NZC, pg 34, Effective Pedagogy
• Organising our sticky notes into the 7 areas and arranging them according to doing well and could do better.
• Constructivists: assume that all knowledge is constructed from previous knowledge, irrespective of how one is taught.
• Inquiry: an act of asking for information; an official investigation (dictionary)
• Inquiry: any process that has the aim of augmenting knowledge, resolving doubt, or solving a problem (Wikipedia)
• Ref: Learning Together Through Inquiry, Kathy Short, et al, 1996 "When we look at young children we are impressed with them as inquirers. Children live in a constant state of curiosity and learning. For them, inquiry comes from exploring and being interested in the world."
• Ref: Ways to Learn Through Inquiry, Jo Fahey, 2012
• Ref: The Power of Inquiry, Kath Murdoch, 2015 (also Classroom Connections and Take a Moment, full of reflective activities and strategies, 40 frameworks for reflective thinking).

Afternoon:
The following educational theorists are all constructivists.

• Lev Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development: the phase when a student can profit from assistance
• Piaget's theory of intellectual development: 0-2 years sensorimotor; 2-7 years pre-operations; 7-11 years: concrete operations; 11 to adult: formal operations
• John Dewey's Progressive Education theory: human beings need to learn by doing, using a 'hands on' approach.

Inquiry is going from the know to the unknown until it becomes the new known.
Constructivism: building new learning on to existing understandings (inquiry).

We looked at Beckenham School's SWOT analysis in relation to our current programme. We all added our thoughts to each of the 4 areas: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats.

Reflections:

• how might we go ahead to best make all of this work and be of best value for our children who are transitioning to school, and have very diverse and particular emotional, social, behavioural and physical needs?