Evolution of my Causal Chains

 For quite a few years now, part of being in the Manaiakalani CoL has meant coming up with a Causal Chain to describe the cause and effect of your chosen inquiry. 

I have been looking over all my Causal Chains, looking at how they  have evolved. Over time, I started to think about the teacher actions that had to happen before the student outcomes could happen. I also started  looking at it as a series of cause and effect. IF ..... THEN statements. 

This has been a great way to clarify in my own head what my plan is and how I am going to do it. It lists for me what changes I need to make for myself before I can make any changes for the students.

Putting it all out like this has made me realise that I kept the bright colours for 7 years!! 

2018 - link to document

2019 - link to document

2020 - link to document

2021 - link to document

2022 - link to document

2023 - link to document

2024 - link to document

Causal Chain 2024

 Part of what we have to do within our inquiry is to think about the chain of events that will cause the desired outcome to happen.

"A causal chain is when a cause leads to an effect and that effect becomes the cause of another effect - A leads to B. B leads to C. C leads to D...start from D and work backwards Any intervention you design will (consciously or not) be based on a causal chain you have in mind - this is your theory of action.... To really understand deeply how teaching (as a cause) leads to a valued student outcome (effect), we need to know about more than just the first cause in the chain and the final - we need to know about each link." 

Dr Aaron Wilson

Link to Google Drawing

Inquiry 2023 - Causal Chain Update

Link to original Google Drawing

This diagram shows the journey from the first thoughts of what the problem is this year, through researching and trialling and then onto trying interventions with my inquiry group.

I feel that this is a good start for me in my journey to support student reading in DVC. There have been improvements in the students confidence when they have to read for research which is great. What I need to do is start this right at the beginning next year, so this support is not just focused on one project area like this year. (research reading for materials)

Inquiry 2023 - Where are we up to?

 As part of the Manaiakalani CoL, we are asked every year to think about a "Causal Chain". Previous year's causal chains can be seen on this link

I have decided to keep revisiting this year's causal chain and use it to check in where we are up to and also use it to log the evidence as we go. I have been including links to specific blog posts along with each step of the chain so I can see how it went this year when I am analysing it. 

Link to original document

Inquiry 2023 - Causal Chain 2023

 "A causal chain is when a cause leads to an effect and that effect becomes the cause of another effect

A leads to B. B leads to C. C leads to D.
Any intervention you design will (consciously or not) be based on a causal chain you have in mind - this is your theory of action."

Link to original drawing

Inquiry - Causal chain

"A causal chain is when a cause leads to an effect and that effect becomes the cause of another effect
A leads to B. B leads to C. C leads to D.
Any intervention you design will (consciously or not) be based on a causal chain you have in mind - this is your theory of action."

Link to original drawing

Inquiry Question 6 - Causal Chain

 Restate your inquiry question and your theory of action/chain of events (so you keep your eyes on the prize)

Link to Google Drawing

Inquiry Question 1 - An Inquiry Stocktake

Question 1

Use the ‘inquiry stocktake’ doc to reflect on and write about what you aim to learn about inquiry this year.

My main takeouts from doing this activity are :-

• What worked well - using the in-school and in cluster expertise.
• Challenges - finding relevant literature about what I was trying to do
• Additional support - more working together as CoL teachers, giving feedback about what each other is doing

If you want to read the full document, it is listed here below.

An inquiry stocktake

Aspects of inquiry	What worked well	Challenges	Additional support that would be helpful
Identifying valued learning outcomes (VLOs) to focus on	Having subject specific data going back years to see where the gaps are. Getting student voice from previous years. Looking at NZQA exemplars to see where gaps are in what I am preparing for the students.	Aligning want I want to do with the overall goals of the cluster, the school and the department.	Having CoL sessions where we focus on goals and how to approach them.
Profiling students’ learning in those VLOs	Using school data to see where the students are in relation to their achievement so far.  Getting support from “specialists” in order to understand the data coming out of the asTTle and PAT tests.	Not knowing more personal knowledge about students that may be affecting them. (i'm not talking about breaking any privacy here, but just knowing that there are issues that are affecting them would be very helpful)	Health centre, dean and tutor teacher support. Talking to the other teachers of the students.
Generating hypotheses (especially teaching)	Talking to other teachers - especially “experts” in their area. Talking to the students.	Not sure if what you are thinking about is going to make a difference.	More time during CoL PLG to discuss with each other what we are thinking about.
Testing hypotheses (investigating own teaching)	Trying new things and being honest about if they have “worked”	Not being sure if what I am trying is not working just for these students but it might still be a viable idea to try with others.	Have someone else looking over what I have done and giving input on what they think. Is it the idea, the situation, the teaching or the students?
Using research literature and other sources to identify more effective approaches	Reading online and downloaded books and pdf’s.	Finding literature that is relevant - a lot of time is spent searching. Access to academic literature.	A central “bank” that we could all add to so we can see a breadth of reading being done and dip in Access given to academic literature.
Implementing new approaches	The school being very open about trying anything new. I don’t have any worries about changing any part of what I am doing with my teaching.	Worrying about wasting valuable NCEA time on an “idea” that might not work.	Being able to talk over ideas with someone before trying them.
Monitoring (and tweaking) new approaches	The Causal Chain flow charts were really useful to see cause and effect - to look back on to see what the plan was and where changes to the plan happened along the way.	Ideas for changes to make. Ideas for monitoring what is happening and seeing if there is change that aren’t easily measurable.	Having another set of eyes - to coin a phrase from the class of Robyn anderson - a “critical friend”
Evaluate shifts in own teaching	Honesty. I am not shy about admitting something I am doing is not working.		I want to go back to videoing myself again as I did in Class OnAir as it gave me a really good insight.
Evaluate shifts in student learning	Honesty. I am not shy about admitting something I am doing is not working.	I need to do more student voice without boring the pants off them. Trying to get the truth in student voice. They put what they think you want to hear sometimes.	Ideas in different ways to get student voice would be really helpful so I am not shoving Google Forms at them all the time.
Keep a clear and detailed record of all stages of inquiry	Keeping an ongoing record on my blog, and not just at the prescribed points but during lots of other planning and activities. Getting support from Wolf Fisher (Aaron) about how to collect evidence that was not numerical data.	Getting honest feedback as I go from other teachers as to what they think is working or not. Getting any feedback at all sometimes is an issue.	Feedback from other CoL teachers on our blogs, as they are going through the same process as me and understand the challenges and what we are trying to do.

Causal Chain

In our last CoL meeting, we talked about causal chain of events.
What do we need to happen in our student outcomes? What do we need to change in our practice in order for that to happen? What chain of events needs to be put in place for things to happen in the right order?

Link to original drawing