Friday 17 May 2019

Process for testing the hypotheses

Kāhui Ako Achievement Challenge 5: Improve the achievement of students with additional needs in the learning areas of English/ key competency using symbols, languages and texts.

My Inquiry Problem/ Challenge: Children living in a digital world, where key competencies are essential, require ubiquitous access to cybersmart scaffolds and resources which are not currently available.

Hypotheses:
1. Having mixed ability groups would be effective in teaching cybersmart - provide student to student support where some children are the experts and some are the learners.
2. More explicit teaching is required, particularly in terms of how the children interact with others online. Over half the class could not respond to someone else's blog comment.
3. Superficial areas of cybersmart are important, however children can still learn online without these things. Deeper skills such as interpersonal skills and critical thinking skills which link with the children's wider worlds and which link to the key competencies of the New Zealand curriculum are in fact skills which I now think are more important for the children to understand and be competent in at this stage of their learning. This was evident through analysis of the data.
4. Interpersonal skills (smart relationships) and critical thinking are two areas of cybersmart which could be connected more through teaching to ensure they are effectively addressed in student learning.
5. Connecting interpersonal skills and critical thinking through cybersmart teaching/ learning will support children to better understand the realities of information available online. That is, we need to think about how we can thoughtfully elevate the positive around the negative.
6. All cybersmart learning should use a consistent language based around the Kawa of Care document.


These hypotheses have come about through the analyses of data which was collected from 24 year 5 students in term 1. They hypotheses were further developed through a discussion with Fiona Grant, from the Manaiakalani Innovation Team. 

What I read: 
- Raising the bar with flexible grouping - this supported the first hypothesis by arguing the benefits of flexible grouping.
- This resource from the Victoria State Government states the importance of teachers explicitly teaching children to be cybersmart online. However, this resource suggests a large focus on the 'negative' aspects of the internet. The following hypotheses have a focus on the 'positive.' Hypotheses 2, 4 and 5 all are brought about through themes discussed in this document.
- The use of language is really important for our children. Dr Jannie Van Hees discusses this on her website. Hypothesis 6 stems from the use of lots of language with our children.

Who I talked to:
- Fiona Grant
- Manaiakalani CoL Teachers
- Pt England School inquiry group
- MIT group

Who I still want to talk to:
- Other teachers in my team
- Other teachers in the school (different year levels)

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