It took me a while to think of two teacher inquiry topics, reading other’s blog comments and the shared padlet really helped me streamline my ideas. My two inquiry topics are: Teacher inquiry topic 1 - Which design thinking model best fosters creative confidence within children so they can connect their knowledge to real world learning. Teacher inquiry topic 2 - How can the benefits of makerspace learning promote student engagement and achievement across the rest of the curriculum? These two topics I believe are closely linked in the way that tackle the issue around nurturing critical thinking and innovation. Critical thinking or knowledge construction as discussed in the 21st Century Learning Design rubric (2012), requires children to do more than just reproduce what they have learnt. They should be encouraged to go beyond this to generate ideas and understandings that are new to them. Through this Mindlab course, I have had the opportunity to critically reflect on my teaching practise and whether or not I am developing the 21st Century Learning effectively in my day to day classroom program. What I have come to realise is that I have only really scratched the surface and that all to0 often I knowingly revert back to children merely regurgitating what they have learnt, rather than them creating something new from it. As discussed in the Ministry of Education (2012) knowledge should not been seen as the end result, but something that allows children to “do” something. Wenger et. al. (2002) define a CoP as ‘a group of individuals participating in communal activity, and experiencing/continuously creating their shared identity through engaging in and contributing to the practices of their communities’. He believes that learning requires social participation and that it is central to our human identity. It is a group of people who share a passion for something and want to learn how to do it better by interacting with each other regularly. Which I believe happens naturally in an effective school where there is high trust and strong communication. However not every community is a community of practice, as E & B Wenger-Trayner (2015) discusses, there are three characteristics that determine a CoP. Firstly the domain, which is the shared common interest of the group, the learning that connects everyone together. The community, where members engage in activities and discussions, help each other, and share information in order to develop the domain. Lastly the practise, which relates to building a shared repertoire of resources: experiences, stories, tools, ways of improving the domain. Over the course of this last reflective blog entry, I have been thinking which CoP’s do I associate with? Firstly the colleges I work with, my team I lead as well as other teachers who share my interests in developing critical thinking skills. I am lucky that at my school I don’t have to go too far to find like minded educators who share my “domain” and we have already started to connect and share resources. This community is definitely something I want to engage with more next year, as I believe I have a lot to learn from them. I also know that the Senior Leadership Team would fully support and contribute to any new learning around developing creative confidence in our learners. Being an ADE, I have a strong online CoP that I need to tap into more regularly, I tend to watch and follow rather than actively contribute. I do also get inspiration from Pinterest and Twitter but again, I am reluctant to share my own practises. This is something I would like to improve on next year as I feel I lack confidence to put myself out there with online communities. References Ministry of Education.(2012). Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching: A New Zealand perspective. Retrieved from https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/schooling/109306 Wenger-Trayner, E. & B. (2015). Introduction to communities of Practice: A brief overview of the concept and its uses. Retrieved from http://wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/
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