Learning experiences
What learning experiences did Melanie engage in? How did she address her inquiry question?
Melanie’s ongoing collaborative inquiry with colleagues, teachers, and the researchers attached to the Literacy Professional Development Project had provided her with a range of learning experiences. These included:
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working within their professional learning community to understand recent research and its implications for practice;
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recording and analysing one another’s feedback conversations with teachers;
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monitoring their practice and its impact in order to develop the elements and theory of practice analysis described above.
To address her inquiry question, Melanie decided to try a different approach in her post-observation conversation with Glenda. Having thought about her experience and learning over the previous year, she wanted to structure the conversation in line with the theory of practice analysis she and her colleagues had developed.
“ Later in the day, after school, I met with Glenda. Although I wanted to avoid my past approach of spending most of the conversation unpicking the lesson, I knew that it was still essential to begin by identifying what had happened in it and what the impact of Glenda’s teaching had been.”
“ As we approached the point of identifying what Glenda might do to better meet the needs of all her students, I really wanted to ensure that our discussions were based on a shared theoretical understanding.”
“ So we’d established a common theoretical understanding – about scaffolding and the importance of connecting to students’ strengths and successful experiences. I then suggested we explore what this might look like in general terms in the classroom.”
“ This whole part of the conversation had taken about twenty minutes. We now had a shared understanding about the impact of Glenda’s teaching, the theory of scaffolding, and how Glenda might apply this theory within her overall teaching.
We then moved to the really challenging question of self-regulation. What would Glenda need to keep in mind while teaching? And how would she monitor the impact of her changed practice on her students’ learning?”
“ Finally, we discussed what Glenda’s teaching practice might look like in the next few days and weeks in order to meet specific students’ needs.”
“ I was really pleased with this conversation – how different it felt to what I’d been doing previously and how it appeared to help Glenda a further step along the way towards self-regulatory practice. But the real test would be whether it had made any difference to Glenda’s teaching and the students’ learning!”
Perpectives
What learning experiences do you and those you work with engage in?
Inservice teacher educators recognise how important it is to keep up with current educational research and literature. But how do you ensure this remains a priority in your busy day-to-day life as an ISTE?
To what extent do you work closely with colleagues in order to examine and improve one another’s practice?
How do you monitor the impact of your practice?
Within the learning conversations you hold with others, how do you go about:
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identifying the impact of the practice you have observed?
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establishing a shared theoretical understanding?
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ensuring that learning in relation to the observed practice is applied more broadly across other practice situations?
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assisting others to identify and adopt strategies for self-regulation?
Engaging with the literature
How should we gather evidence? (pages 84-85)
Problem-based methodology: learning conversations (pages 139–140)
Coaching through Feedback: A Close and Critical Analysis by H. Timperley, J. Parr, and N. Hulsbosch (2008)
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