Changes in Practice and Future Plans

Key change in my professional practice

Step 1: What?
I have decided to reflect upon the design for learning standard as it encompasses a curriculum that is based on pedagogical knowledge, assessment information and an understanding of each learner’s strengths, interests, needs, identities, languages and cultures. Resulting in… a unique curriculum to each school which has adapted to the needs present. How does this relate to my learning and practice? 

I did not realise the significance and possibility of tailoring your curriculum to the community your school is in and the students present. I can make a difference from the top down! This for me is massive and now I am aware of possible ways to do this, as well as the array of tools provided over this course I feel confident in my understanding, appreciation and ability to make this much needed change! From the top down in order to make significant impact. I believe while national standards have gone, it is prime opportunity for schools to make this change! The leadership module in the beginning really clarified what it means to have clear, strong leadership of a school and the endless possibilities of which direction your school will go into in the future. To sustain progress I believe management must be on board.

Step 2: So what?
The model of the cycle of experiential learning provided by Osterman and Kottkamp (2015) includes 4 stages including problem identification, observation and analysis, abstract reconceptualisation and active experimentation.
I have identified in Step 1 what is driving the change and its importance. Through observation and analysis, I believe the leadership part probably caused the most stir among our mindlabbers as we could all identify areas that needed improvement. I would need to gather some data and perhaps provide information and data from another school that has successfully implemented changes (top down) to improve their curriculum (to include indigenous voice and representation as well as 21st century skills and technology). The problem is no easy fix, as it takes time to educate those who have not been exposed to alternative ways of thinking and successful methods of application. I believe the greatest challenge would be changing mindsets towards future focussed thinking in a globally connected society which our teaching should represent. 
Bishop’s work is a great starting point, in fact we have briefly looked over some of his work in the past few years but no real action has come from it. Our local iwi needs to have significant input and interaction with our school, and I think it should be open to other ethnic minority groups too as they should also be heard. Active experimentation would be the natural next stage as I hope we would have a plan in place that is community informed and contains culturally sustained pedagogy. By using multiple perspectives I hope this would eliminate subjective perspectives by balancing all views on a situation to get a real sense of the problem and way forward. From this we can refine, research, propose, experiment etc. using an inquiry based method, critiquing against co-constructed goals to eventually create a well tuned system in our school that has student, whānau and staff buy in.

Step 3: Now what?
I think throughout this reflection I have mentioned what I would like to see in the future. I hope that our school takes the necessary steps to become purposefully BYOD, with a relevant curriculum to guide our staff. We were fortunate enough to have a few staff members enrol on the Mindlab course which has created two things; an informed group of teachers who wish to push our school into the future and make changes from the knowledge gained and those who have been almost left behind. Therefore the first step before making any significant changes is to either ask those who did not enrol initially to take part on the Mindlab course or the second option which I believe is more likely to happen, is for our own internal PD. Perhaps each Mindlabber could pick an area they felt a strong connection with and share this with the wider staff to help educate them with the research and rationale behind some up coming change and of course to include their voice too during the entire process. Hopefully this would result in all of our staff being actively involved in the process and understanding the direction of our school. 
Our Mindlabbers would be taking a transformational leadership approach leading to a democratic system in how we can identify and implement change. Although I have my feelings about our school curriculum there could already be actions in place so this would open up a forum to discuss ideas in a safe place and everyone to be in the know.
References:

Ministry of Education (2017). Our code, our standards. Retrieved from
Osterman, K. F., & Kottkamp, R. B. (2015). Reflective practice for educators : professional development to improve student learning.(2nd ed.) New York: Skyhorse Publishing.




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