What are the students’ learning needs?
The fundamental purpose of ISTE professional learning is to promote successful student learning. Therefore, although ISTEs’ practice can be a step or two removed from direct teaching of students, it must always be explicitly linked to desired student outcomes.
At the beginning of an inquiry cycle, ISTEs will generally support teachers/school leaders to identify an area of concern. This concern can arise for many reasons – analysis of student achievement data, information gleaned from discussions with students, new learning initiatives, a challenging conversation, or some professional literature that provoked questions.
Together, the ISTEs and teachers/school leaders gather and interpret quantitative and qualitative data related to the area of concern. As they analyse that data, they begin to shape some overarching questions for the teachers to address. The questions must be both meaningful and manageable. They often begin, “How can we …?” The teachers’/school leaders’ questions will evolve and new questions will emerge as they continue to collect, analyse, and reflect upon data, always maintaining their focus on improving practice so that their students’ learning improves.
Analysis of the initial set of data provides the teachers/school leaders with the information they need to clarify their goals for the students’ learning and to plan how to achieve them. This analysis requires them to integrate, apply, and actively build their knowledge about assessment, curriculum, and the processes of learning. ISTEs can support teachers/school leaders to develop the knowledge and skills they need to make sense of their data and to use it to plan for their students’ learning. At the same time, ISTEs can use this information as baseline data for monitoring the impact of their own practice.
The data analysis should be done with reference to both national and community expectations for student achievement, and it should take account of what students themselves say they value and need. Key resources include The New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007), teacher handbooks, and assessment tools. It is important to maintain the records of student achievement data in such a way that it is easy to monitor and respond to shifts.
At this phase of the inquiry cycle, teachers/school leaders and ISTEs seek answers to the following questions:
- What are the outcomes that are valued for these students?
- How are the students doing in relation to these outcomes? What do they already know? What can they already do?
- What sources of evidence will we use to determine this?
- What do the students need to learn and do?
- How will we build on what the students already know and can do?
- How do the goals for student learning link to the school’s and community’s vision for the students?
- How will we measure improvement?
At each phase of the inquiry and knowledge-building cycle, appropriate inquiry approaches will include the critical analysis2 of one or more of the following sources of evidence:
- related research and literature;
- student achievement data;
- student voice;
- artefacts of student work;
- observations – for example, of student learning and behaviour;
- audio/video recordings – for example, of the practice of teachers;
- transcripts of conversations – for example, between school leaders and ISTEs;
- written reflections and portfolios – for example, from ISTEs;
- data from questionnaires, surveys, or interviews – for example, with parents and families.
2 Note that critical analysis usually involves adopting or developing some sort of theoretical framework to critique what’s being examined (ideas, practice, evidence etc.) and to gauge its effectiveness.
- Previous item
Inquiry cycle for ISTE learning > - Next item
Teachers' learning needs >
