Reflection On Teacher Inquiry

Practitioner inquiry advances student learning by improving teaching practice. Improving teaching practice is crucial, as the quality of teaching is “the most significant within-school factor influencing pupil performance” (Darling-Hammond et al., 2005, Hattie, 2009, McKinsey & Co., 2007, all cited in Menter, Elliot, Hulme, Lewin & Lowden 2011, p.14). Without disciplined examination, lessons from teaching experiences can pass by unnoticed (Shulman, 2005, cited in Menter et al, 2011, p.19). Inquiry helps teachers improve the quality of their teaching by focussing reflections on specific questions, giving teachers an opportunity to understand their practice better, evaluate its effectiveness and identify alternatives or improvements (McLaughin, Hawkins, McIntyre, 2004, cited by General Teaching Council for Scotland, 2016). Inquiry encourages the sort of reflective practice that may lead to a more formalised and systemic inquiry based around research questions (Menter et al, 2011). As such, practitioner inquiry allows teachers to drive their own processional learning.

Facilitating a foundation in academic or philosophical pedagogy can help form a path for the educator, a path to better understanding teaching, education, learning and learners. Often, most of the programs designed for learners and the curriculum is often derived from theories. Understanding theories can help guide a teacher through their education journey. Sometimes, teachers may struggle with classroom organisation or implementing the curriculum in a considerate, all-encompassing and engaging way, especially if you are a CRT or Graduate Teacher - and often these concepts can help inspire and encourage teachers. To be an empowered teacher means your classroom and students will be empowered learners, and that is the best type of learning. There are many theories that have contributed to education as a body and has many of these theories help educational departments plan curriculums to benefit not only teachers but also all students. What makes for a great teacher is considering the characteristics of the local community as well involving students’ families’ in the school body. Influences that help shape a teacher’s identity can include…

During the week 6 panel discussion, four educators shared their experience of engaging with educational inquiry and embarking their educational research to inform, improve and shape their practice. As an early childhood teacher, I found that I resonated with Amanda Niland’s action research the most.

Teacher education is enhanced by using teachers as researchers. Teachers, who do research, can provide information on student interaction and classroom environments, and have a broad sampling field due to the amount of time spent in scholastic settings. This kind of action research allows a teacher to share with others what she/he has learned. It also offers to them, foundations for decisions regarding appropriate interventions and outcomes for improving students’ education or literacy within their classroom or school. When a teacher/researcher collects data for the purpose of research, they will mostly likely use a qualitative method (Johnson, 2008). Within this research, data is collected through observations and the answering of questions that relate to the data. Using this method, questions are more open ended and less defined, so there is more room for researchers to collect a variety of data. There are many ways that data can be collected for research purposes such as, the use of rubrics, student profiles, logs, and observation records that may consist of anecdotal records, checklists, reflections, conferences, interviews, and surveys. During my CIRG 621 my action research was based around Math. Although these courses are geared toward Reading Language arts I wanted to improve my student’s math scores and my ability to

This assignment will critically reflect and analyse a microteaching session I presented to my peers in a clinical placement regarding Nursing management of chest drains. I will define reflection; teaching, learning and the rationale for choosing this topic will be clearly outlined in this paper. The preparation, planning, implementation and evaluation will also be incorporated. This assignment will be structured using Gibbs (1988) reflective model cited in Modular Training Course, 2003 because of its simplicity. Analysis will permeate through each stage of the Gibbs reflective model. Finally I will conclude by reflecting on my role as a joint practitioner outlining areas of personal, professional growth, identifying my strength, weakness

Following my professional enquiry, I have felt that it was important to make further improvements in my teaching pedagogy in order to move forward. Therefore, I have put the next steps into place. Through the professional enquiry, I have gained a further understanding into which areas of my practice need further development.

Passion, knowledge of our duties, responsibility, and preparation are the key factors on which teachers should focus their teaching; these are the essential components that will permit teachers be ready for any situation and run a successful classroom. It is key to engage systematic reflection on our own teaching. Research has shown how deliberate and critical reflection on teaching practices contributes to excellence in our role as teachers, and improved educational outcomes for all children. Teachers are encouraged to regularly evaluate

Teaching research was directed toward authentic pedagogy, engaged teaching, empowering teachers and administrators, assessment models, accountability, and teaching for

Since my time at Sparks Elementary I have only been able to observe two routines that my mentor teacher has done with the other 3rd grade teacher’s. To start off the morning, Mr.Locklear meets his class in the cafeteria to greet them before the day get’s started. The teachers then instruct the student’s to set their backpack’s in their designated area and take the materials needed for their first rotation of class. When the student’s have set there belonging’s down, the teacher’s line up the students in the middle of the common area, where the student’s will be lead to their special’s classes like Music, P.E and Art. While the student’s part take in special’s, Mr. Locklear takes care of any last minute assignment’s or note’s he need’s before he start’s teaching his first class. He also take’s part in a weekly meeting the 3rd grade teacher’s conduct to go over any announcement’s or strategies. Once the student’s come back from special’s, Mr.Locklear starts off his math lesson with Mrs. Sanchez classroom. As soon as the student’s enter the class, they are instructed to take out their journal’s and engage with what the teacher is teaching for the first 10 minutes of class. In those first few minutes of class Mr. Locklear introduces the topic or objective that the students will be learning and engages them to participate in the examples he places on the permithian board. He then has the student’s break up into group’s to do their daily math station’s. While some student’s do

My theory of action was if I help teachers build instructional capacity by developing and improving their backwards planning or curriculum mapping (identifying essential standards) and enhance their data analysis approach, will they make a shift from following a script to making effective instructional decisions based on the specific needs of students. My strategic actions were to plan and design professional development opportunities that would enhance the teachers’ instructional practices and differentiate my support for them through professional learning communities, informal walkthroughs, and formal evaluation processes.

Throughout the semester in the Examining Self as Teacher class I have learned many things. I have learn a lot about the diversity of students and their parents and how to work with them in ways that will benefit them both. When I started this class back in August I did not realize that was going to be so much diversity in a classroom. The thing that I learned that I found the most interesting is the way special need students are taught.

As educators, we regularly take an action and considering the impact of the action. Then we analysing the results of the action by reflecting upon it and critically evaluate our professional knowledge and the effectiveness of our teaching. Further, we are altering and revising conceptions and planning following reflection. Finally, we are implementing these plans in further actions. In this process, teachers work collaboratively with other members of the profession and engage in discussion of contemporary issues and research to improve professional practice. Many educators are involved with praxis but it often isn’t part of their vocabulary. Without knowing the concept (inquiry as praxis),

There is a usual but important cliché for a teacher´s career: a teacher has to be a life-long learner to be an effective teacher. Research on effective teaching over the past two decades has proved that effective practice is related to questioning, reflection and continuous professional development. Reflective practice can be a satisfying experience for a teacher evolution. It covers self-analysis, questioning one owns methods, assumptions about learning, theories as well as one´s attitudes and behaviour as a facilitator and communicator, in short making a deep analysis of the actions. Reflecting on teaching includes the teacher´s thoughts on the successfulness of the lesson planning and the implementation used to teach. Within the time progression the teacher´s reflection should be more precise and he or she could

Once we entered the classroom the students all split into small groups. We then found a group, found some chairs, and then had a seat. We asked the students what their names were and then we introduced ourselves. We asked them if they knew what multiplication and division was. They all said yes. I then explained to them that I have a couple of different problems that we are going to solve. But before we did I wanted to make sure that the students understood the slash sign for division. So I showed them a sample problem that used a slash and they all seemed to know that it was a division sign. As a result, I then held up the first one. The students started to blurt out answers but we told them that they are to raise their hands when they know the answer. All of the students knew the answer was twenty five. I asked them how did they know that the answer was twenty five. Three out of the four said they just knew it. One student said that it was because they just added five, five times. The next problem we presented the students did raise their hands. They instantly knew the answer was two. We asked them how they were able to know that the answer was two. They all said that they just knew the answer. I told them that they were to smart for us. For the third problem, the students pointed out that it is opposite of the first problem. I asked them how did they know that. One student said that it was because 5x5=25 so 25/5=5. Basically, the numbers

This reflection paper addresses as a student and counseling professional how I feel as though I have been readily prepared to teach in higher education and areas, concepts, strategies, and thoughts on how I have evolved through this course. This course has made me think more into how the most powerful, durable, and effective agents of educational change are not the policy makers, the curriculum developers or even the education authorities themselves; they are the teachers. It further contends that the quality of the educational changes that teachers have the skills and opportunities to effect will only be as reliable and proficient as the teachers’ individual capacities for reflective practice and the development of self-knowledge (Stepien, 1999). These aspects of teacher development have, historically, been largely overlooked in the preparation and promotion of effective teachers. The emphasis has been more explicitly focused on the development and demonstration of teachers’ understanding of content knowledge and the associated pedagogies and in their capacities to understand their students as individual constructors of knowledge in diverse social contexts (Bosworth, 1999).