My inquiry focus: Can culturally responsive teaching and learning shift achievement in a time bound assessment driven classroom?
The aspect of student learning my inquiry focused on this year was …..
Was making sure that my Year 13 seniors social studies students were supported in their learning in the short time frame that we had. More often or not are limited by assessment and this doesn’t always give us a chance to be in-depth with their learning and when coupled with the lack of choice, it was harder for students to be engaged.
I identified this as my focus when I noticed …
That students were engaged when we learning about the content but when left to work on their assessments, they were disinterested and struggled to stay motivated and focused. The contexts and topics got them credits but we could only really touch the surface.
To build a rich picture of my students’ learning I used comprehensive student voice.
Most of my year 12’s have taken Social Studies again this year in year 13 so I used their student voice from the end of last year to identify what suggestions they had in how I as their teacher could help them better.
Two key aspects students had identified with:
- A number of students said they wanted more one on one time.
- More in depth understanding and what we are learning (explain it better) and to make it interesting
Although they enjoy coming to Social studies, enjoyment wasn’t enough to get them credits.
The main patterns of student learning I identified was that they were awesome at getting starting but they weren’t getting enough work done in class and that was evidential when checking their docs and the quality of the work was surface level and superficial.
This then told me I need to provide them with more time outside of normal school hours and to take them outside the classroom learning to get more in-depth knowledge of what we learning about.
My profiling of my own teaching showed that I had strengths in ….
Selling the topic. Students say I have a great lecture style of teaching and that I could teach a topic generally to the whole class at once. I have no problems with engaging students and motivating them when I’m in front of them, but when I shifted gear to individual work, it was a slow burn.
When thinking about my own teaching, I knew I had strengths in connecting with students outside the normal classroom timetable. This was easier in the junior school but finding time in the senior school was a lot harder.
My students would likely make likely more progress if I offered them that opportunity - to do more in depth learning outside of the classroom, they would ask more questions, they would know they would get on the spot feedback and they would have my attention.
Other changes I made in my teaching were ….
Recording small aspects of the work at a time designed to not overwhelm.
Offering really focussed study classes for a few hours and even on a Sunday that allowed for that specific, non intrusive one on one time, unrestricted by bells and timetable.
I also took kids outside of the classroom because I didn’t pretend that I knew everything.
I’ve been guided on this journey by another of key texts:
- The Tapasā: A cultural competencies framework
- 4 strategies to effectively support Pasifika Learners
- The teachings of Dr Rae Si’ilata, whose message supports creating opportunities for students to bring their value knowledge into the classroom.
The Tapasā offered insight into how I could build and test strategies that work for our Pasifika learners:
Tapasa says look at the approach and relationship with the students and being open. Allow whanaungatanga, informal conversations, getting to know them first.
Positive strategy examples: Use the other pacific students to work with you. Make them realise their value as Pasifika. Praise and wanting to learn because they feel valued. Don't just need a teacher but values them for who they are, got their back and cares about things that are going on in their lives outside the classroom. Encourage kids to communicate in a formal environment too.
The easiest thing for me to change this year was...
Making better use of my time in the classroom. For those who did stay on after school they understood that their time was my time.
And hardest things for me to change were…..
My mindset about the pressure of assessment vs the using the time to get in-depth into what was important. I needed to move away from being assessment driven and trust that the kids could use time to their advantage because they decided what their time could look like.
Some changes I made along the way were ….. including the teachers in my department in the planning and process to allow them to see what worked and what didn’t work.
Overall… when the students who attended the extra classes and engaged in more in depth learning shared their work, I could see that their understanding of our contexts allowed them to complete an assessment better. I knew this when I checked their work completion online and saw their attendance to class increase.
The most important learning that I think I’ve made this year was to allow students knowledge to be accessed if given the opportunity and to allow them to create the right pace to share that knowledge. Assessment is important but we make it work for us and not the other way round.
