Petite Inquiry - Pounamu Atawhai's next step, based on 'Life in the Fast Lane'

Chapter 2-4

Build students' motivation and self-efficacy so that they become active, optimistic participants in class.

Does their level of motivation contribute to their behaviour?

Strategies to increase student motivation fall into two categories:

a) creating tasks that engage students interesting and relevant incorporate choice and social interaction

b) creating a safe learning environment, communicate that students control their own academic destinies, provide positive feedback establish short term goals elicit feedback from students

Chapter 6 Reflection:

Are students being active participants in their learning?

Chapter 7 Reflection:

Can a tweak in the classroom environment or task construction increase the level of student motivation in your classroom?

1. Short synopsis of what you set out to achieve

Build students' motivation and self-efficacy so that they become active, optimistic participants in class. Closely monitor the social and emotional well being of individuals across the 3 spaces offered in Pounamu Atawhai. The questions we wanted to find out were primarily around the engagement levels of individuals across the three spaces. When they chose an area of passion, was there a significant change to their motivation and engagement levels? How did this compare between the different spaces offered in Pounamu Atawhai? What does the data show between boys and girls in different spaces?

2. What did you try (the one important) or what practice did you change

• Changed from 2 spaces and 2 teachers to 3 spaces offering areas for different purposes and learning opportunities with 4 teachers.
• 4 teachers = a range of expertise and passions - increased opportunities, motivation and engagement for students.

• Inquiry space - Paikea (2 weeks of the term)

10 different Inquiry topics to choose from.  Students had the opportunity to inquire into two areas they were interested in, and hopefully be more engaged.

• Creative space - Tutaeporoporo (3 weeks of the term)

Provided 10 creative areas spread across the curriculum. Robotics, animation, movie making, construction, sphero, programming, art, music, Minecraft, 3d printing.

This was a continuation of what we have previously done in our creative space. We got student voice on what types of things they would like to see in the space.

The teacher role in this space has changed over the term - trying 1 teacher for the whole week then try 3 teachers in each block, then finally 1 lead teacher (first block and last block and planning) and 1 support teacher (middle block) = give students access to different expertise from the teachers. We also introduced a phenomenon (theme) in the last 3 weeks to see how that influenced learning in this space.

Core learning space - Te Wheke - (5 weeks of the term)

• Two teachers share the learning role in this space. Design was splitting the workload so a teacher leads a certain area eg Writing, Maths, Literacy
• With changes in Tutaeporoporo, a teacher would cross over in the middle block to take lead in passion areas, thus releasing planning etc from a core area. (Reduce workload/streamline)

Our Next Steps in Te Wheke

3. What was your moment of clarity or your WOW moment (outcomes)?

• Paikea - Passion choice area: 182 responses - 96% of students rated a 4-5 out of 5.
• Tutaeporoporo - Creativity Space: 248 responses - 78% of students rated 4-5 out of 5
• Te Wheke - Core Learning: response 475 responses - 66% of students rated 4-5 out of 5

Our next steps in Tutaeporoporo

Based on Are students being active participants in their learning?

• Self-Directed approach where Tutaeporoporo (creative space) is more organic.  More planning and research in Te Wheke made as a proposal.  If planning and thinking are evident, then they can book themselves into Tutaepororo - a space where they won’t necessarily be using one tool - but they may use a range of tools to explore solutions.