Mindlab Reflections

Activity 8: Reflect on how you have changed your practice during your Postgraduate DCL journey Stage 1: Problem identification The nature of the problem came about as I shifted my thinking to a more digital world. I thought that if parents knew more about the Digital Technologies Curriculum, students could do and learn more at home. It was important for me to implement this change and gain parent engagement as this was an issue as the same parents were attending school events, parent interviews, home-school partnerships and the students of these parents were achieving at a satisfactory or accelerated level and I had little to no issues in regards to behaviour, work ethic and homework. Stage 2: Observation and analysis The data that was gathered that helped to support the identified problem was through parent and student interviews, parent engagement surveys and through discussions with colleagues and Senior Management Leaders. The insights that I have ga...

Activity 7: Evaluate how your inquiry impacts on future inquiry/practice Step 1: What is the observed impact after the ‘Take Action’ phase? The evidence from ‘Take Action’ phase shows that parents are willing to engage with their child’s school but just do not have the time. Whanau all want to play a pivotal role in their child’s academic achievement, learning and success but cannot commit to attend sessions within school.   The 2015 publication from Stoll and Temperley indicates “it’s an open process - while there’s a structure to keep people on track, it’s tailored to what conversations with pupils elicit rather than trying to fit their answers into existing plans” (pg. 12). This statement from Stoll and Temperley (2015) sums up how I found the inquiry process, in the beginning I had an approach but through the inquiry process my approach changed, then changed again once I had analysed the surveys, student and parent interviews. In the beginning of this...

Activity 6: Describe the data you have collected so far and how you are analyzing it. Step 1: Describe the data you have collected The data that I collected throughout my inquiry were surveys (quantitative) and interviews of students and parents (qualitative). I thought it was best to send home surveys to eldest and only students as I was unsure whether all parents would have access to the internet if I was to use a programme such as Surveymonkey. The main issues that arose from parents through the surveys and interviews was that parents did want to be involved but did not have time and they wanted to help their child succeed but didn’t know what they could do to help. Step 2: Explain how you are analysing your data Gray (2012) expresses that data can be very powerful, if used in the right way. The data collection occurred during the learn phase (weeks 20-24). There were 108 surveys that were returned out of 385 that were issued to eldest and only stud...

Activity 5: Discuss how you addressing the context of different audiences (local, national and/or international) and their perspectives while you were taking action. Step 1: Defining my Audience The audience that I am addressing are the students and their whanau, with consideration towards fellow colleagues, Senior Management and the Board of Trustees. My primary focus for my inquiry is enhancing parent engagement in order to improve student learning. When I first started my inquiry I had the idea of improving student achievement through the use of the new Digital Technologies Curriculum. I wondered whether parents learning about the curriculum and activities they could do at home, would have an impact on student success in this area as it would be a collaborative learning experience for both parent/s and student. Along the way my inquiry and my thinking changed to ‘how could I use digital technology to enhance parent engagement’ as this was truly evident ...