Week 19 / Contribution of Teacher Inquiry Topics to my Communities of Practice

Descriptive

The teacher inquiry topics I am interested in researching are as follows:

Inquiry Topic 1: How can I raise student achievement levels in writing by moving them from a fixed to growth mindset?
Inquiry Topic 2: How can I engage reluctant writers using digital tools such as Coggle and blended learning approaches?

I have two communities of practice which include my fellow junior syndicate colleagues and the Kaitaia Mindlab study group I am apart of. These two CoPs are made up of like minded colleagues both of which encompous the dimentions required in a CoP: Enterprise, Mutuality and Repertoire (Wenger, 2000).

Our junior syndicate is a very effective CoP for myself as a lot of ideas and observations of lessons are shared and analysed together. Our school's overarching inquiry for this year is raising student's achievement in writing which is why both of my chosen inquiry topics are focused around writing. My fellow colleagues in this CoP are all heavily involved in using digital technologies to enhance learning with a few of our classes being 1:1 iPads and others gaining access to this next year.  We are also a pilot school for the Manaiakalani Te Hiku cluster. 

The Kaitaia Mindlab study group we have formed involves a number of schools around our Far North district and is a safe and supportive space to share ideas and give and receive feedback/forward. I feel the colleagues within this online CoP are already proving to be beneficial to my own professional practice and I have enjoyed building trusted professional relationships with these people. As noted by Wenger (2000), participating in communities of practice is essential to our learning.

Comparative

Inquiry topic 1, I am hoping will benefit not only our junior syndicate but also our school. This is because the Growth Mindset theory is already valued and taught within the school. All classes have posters displaying growth mindset sayings and I have had a few discussions with fellow colleagues about the importance of our students (and ourselves) having a growth mindset. I am however unsure of how deeply understood this notion is within the school and I am interested in finding out more about this in the hopes that I can share this knowledge with others within our CoP. I know for myself that the notion of a 'False Growth Mindset' is a very real possibility in my own classroom and that it is not enough to only use positive affirmations and language to make a growth mindset a reality (Dweck, 2016).  

Inquiry topic 2,  is of interest to my fellow colleagues in both CoPs I am participating in. One fellow colleague in our junior syndicate is inquiring into student engagement in writing but without the digital aspect due to lack of devices in her classroom. Therefore I feel the outcome of my inquiry could be of use to her for next year when she acquires more devices. We have also discussed the use of 'front loading' target students with lesson content in preparation for a future lesson that maybe taught whole class at a later date - I feel this can be achieved with the idea of the flipped classroom using short video clips, quizzes and collaborative discussions (Bergmann & Sams, 2012). 
I also know the Kaitaia Mindlab CoP are interested in the blended learning aspect and how this can enhance student engagement in their classrooms. We have discussed the use of different apps in our Mindlab face to face classes and shared success and failure stories as well as the barriers we face. 

Critical Reflection

Overall I feel the inquiry topics I have mentioned are very relevant to both of the CoPs I am apart of. I look forward to sharing my findings and discussing different approaches others have used in relation to growth mindset and blended learning. I have a much better understanding of what Communities of Practice are and can see the relevance these have in regard to working together to achieve a common goal and sharing differing knowledge and perspectives in order to improve our professional practice. 

I have used Jay and Johnson's (2002) reflective model for this weeks reflection.

References:

Bergmann, J. & Sams, A. (2012). Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day. Washington, DC: International Society for Technology in Education. https://books.google.co.nz/books?isbn=1564844684

Dweck, C. (2016, January 11). Recognizing and Overcoming False Growth Mindset. Retrieved July 26, 2016, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/recognizing-overcoming-false-growth-mindset-carol-dweck

Jay, J.K. and Johnson, K.L. (2002) Capturing complexity: a typology of reflective practice for teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18, 73-85.

Wenger, E.(2000). Communities of practice and social learning systems. Organization,7(2), 225-246.