Activity 3: Contribution of Teacher Inquiry Topics to my Communities of Practice

Hi there

Very late reflection entry for the course - apologies for that.

Community of Practise (CoP) isn't rocket science is it! All of us that choose to be involved in a learning opportunity, be it short or longer term, do so because we want to receive some benefit or value from it. This might be an immediate gain in knowledge, a clarification or further understanding. For people to properly commit to a long term group there has to be clear shared goals and to receive
valuable participation from the group there needs to be a common belief that as individuals we will gain something and that the group will become stronger and more valuable as time progresses.

I like the growing the garden analogy as a simple explanation and the true realisation that no matter how accepting the group might be to each other and their contributions there will be a variance in the types of participation from the individuals and that facilitators of PD in particular need to expect, allow and accept this.

I have two quite different topics that I have become interested and concerned about from the commencement of the Mindlab course and how they might influence my teaching practice.

1) How could "gamification" of course content be a motivating factor in Secondary Student Achievement. Could Gamification be an effect and accurate assessment tool?

  • I'm not against games as a tool in a students learning journey, I'm not against competition either. However, I do feel that games are often thrown at students for a reward, or a time filler without much investigation into the validity, relevance or appropriateness. "Go and find a games in that maths website", "You're finished, that's great, you can have some free time playing that puzzle logic game Jeremy found last week"
  • What if a specific course of work could be played and mastered inside of a compelling, story driven game experience and the outcome when you complete the game is your grade. What if you only pass the topic IF you can complete the game because to complete the game means you've learnt something. What if you get stuck at a certain point in your "game" - you go online to find the answers - either from others who have completed that section of the game and you learn from their experience or you find solutions yourself from other sources. This excites me a lot. As a game player myself I replay certain sections "learning" patterns, directions, strategies to complete a section. How can I use this idea to enable a learner to move their understanding further. 


2) What does a 21st Century Teacher look like in a 21st Century classroom?

  • I thought I knew what a teacher did in their classroom when I walked out of teachers college 25 years ago and I wonder what today's graduates expect to be doing during their day with their students. The face of learning is rapidly changing and what does this mean for the Teaching Practitioner? What is the job, role, workload? What do stakeholders expect from a 21st Century teacher. The answers from BOT, SLT, Colleagues and Parents would I imagine not be close to how Mindlab participants would respond. 
I'm not sure I fully understand Wegners Model. The terms Domain, Community, Practice talk about connecting, making relationships, Sharing an Inquiry, belonging to a common group interested in similar things and looking into a wider body of knowledge with mutual engagement.

I guess that's where I move to next in my understanding of the research Inquiry. How do I find people with similar questions as me and where now do we/I start finding information about my inquiry questions?

I know it's late but if anyone out there does happen to read this and is interested or has comments to advance me ahead then please jump right in.

Cheers
Alister Gray
Invercargill 


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