The aspect of student learning my inquiry focused on this year was having all of my class working at scholarship level to try and improve the standard of work of the whole class. This then shifted to be how to support them in terms of mindset and feeling like they can complete the work.
I identified this as my focus when I noticed that I would have four of my target Year 13 students who were capable of trying for a scholarship this year. They would still be in the normal Year 13 class so I started to wonder if the quality of work for the whole class would improve if they all worked at this higher level. It would involve a lot of mindset work to underpin this new standard of working. This became especially important after lockdown.
To build a rich picture of my students’ learning I used their previous NCEA results and student voice through a Google Form.
The main patterns of student learning I identified in the profiling phase were that even at Year 13, only a couple of them had any confidence in their work. When we did a mindset profiling activity, quite a few of them were not in a growth mindset at all in the way they thought.
My profiling of my own teaching showed that I have strengths in being open to trying new things and not being precious about how we approach anything.My students would likely make more progress if I developed positive self talk for myself. When my teaching was observed it became clear that I am always being negative about myself and I can’t expect my students to have a positive mindset if I am not modelling that in my own behaviour.
The changes I made in my teaching were getting training sessions right at the start of the year for both me and my students. We all worked to the same high standard throughout the year.I also got my students to monitor my self talk and pull me up on it if they heard me saying anything negative. A few of them were really good about doing that and were very supportive about it.We did mindset activities and games throughout the year with games where you lose a lot and team activities.
The literature that helped me decide what changes to make were books about Mindset - Carol Dweck, Mary Cay Ricci, Daniel Willingham.
Expertise that has helped me has come from PD sessions with Pippa Lawler, a Technology teaching expert. I have had help in house at Tamaki College from the head of PE talking about Mindset and from Mele and Gene helping me to let the students analyse their work in their native languages.
The easiest things for me to change were the structure of the course and work. This is easy for me as I am always open to change and trying to make things better.
The hardest things for me to change were how the students saw themselves and their work. It is really hard to get someone to feel more confident about themselves and it takes more time than just a few months.
Some changes I made along the way was a totally different way of structuring projects and building in time during the week for mindset.
Overall I would rate the changes in student learning as a good start.
The evidence for my rating is that there was a definite change in the quality of the work being produced and if we start earlier, like Year 11, and work like this consistently, there will be a change in outcome at Year 13.
The most important learning I made about getting the whole class to work at the highest level we can was that they really got what we were trying to do and tried hard.
The most important learning I made about inquiry was letting the students know what we were trying to do and why. They really stepped up to the challenge.
Some learnings that would be relevant to other teachers are to aim for high levels for all students and let them know what you are doing and why. Build in time for mindset and support.
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