N Stygall- Mindlab 2018 blog

Step 1: What is the observed impact after the ‘Take Action’ phase? As I detailed in last weeks blog post, the result of my pre and post number knowledge testing shows a significant increase in number knowledge when comparing children at the beginning of the year to week 7. However, I think it may be a bit rash to claim that this is entirely down to the application of gamification principles to my class program. I will detail why this is below. In terms of the qualitative interview data I gathered, a number of themes became apparent. Generally, students enjoyed the gamification aspects of the program. One boy stated, "I like the way I can get money for practising my times tables, it makes me want to do it". There did however seem to be a bit of a disconnect between children's mastery of basic number facts, and how readily they use them to solve problems. Step 2: How is the observed impact different from or similar to the anticipated one? As a school, we are having a focus ...

Step 1: Describe the data you have collected I have collected two forms of data for my study, one quantitative and one qualitative. The quantitative data is in the form of two number knowledge tests (see my Research and community informed practice assessment for an example of this test), one given at the start of the intervention and one at the end. By giving the children the same test seven weeks apart, I would easily be able to see how my intervention affected children's maths outcomes. The qualitative data took the form of short interviews with key children conducted before and after the intervention to measure how the intervention affected their engagement in and attitudes towards maths. I had also planned to measure whole class engagement using a tally chart system, but this proved impossible to implement while trying to teach my maths groups. Step 2: Explain how you are analysing your data In the analysis of my qualitative data (student interviews) I have followed the lead of...

Step 1: Briefly define your audiences A local audience for my inquiry is the other teachers at my school. My inquiry focuses around gamification, and how much this improves children's motivation towards and performance in maths. Gamification, and particularly electronic methods of tracking and monitoring it are quite new for a lot of the teachers at my school. In terms of national/international policies or trends, the paper titled “Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching: A New Zealand perspective”(Bolstad, Gilbert, McDowall, Bull, Boyd & Hipkins, 2012) has given me a lot to think about. In particular, the emerging trend they identify "Changing the script: Rethinking learners' and teachers' roles" seems to fit well with my inquiry. The authors state that modern teaching practices need to "think about how learners and teachers would work together in a “knowledge-building” learning environment. A broad aim of my study was to help children take more...

Step 1 (What) : Identify an issue of ethics, or society, or culture, or professional environment that you have  come across as you  implemented your Action Plan. The ethical issue I have chosen to focus upon is the fact that implementing the "gamification" of my maths programme has taken a larger than normal proportion of my classroom time. The establishment of warm, supportive relationships at the start of a school year between children and their peers and teachers is critical to the children's academic success (see Fantozza, Sekino and Cohen (2004) for an overview on the subject). The time frame for my inquiry was quite tight, and I needed to have children start to take part in the maths activities as quickly as possible. The structure of the gamification comprised of points systems, rewards, certificates and peer/teacher monitoring. It was quite a complex system to set up, and as I write this reflection at the end of week 3, I have still not set up all of ...

Step 1 (What): What is your understanding of indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness and what area mentioned above do you want to focus on for discussion? To my mind, indigenous knowledge and cultural responsiveness are separate concepts. While they obviously impact upon each other, it is important to discuss each of them in turn. Cultural responsiveness is a product of how we respond to the different cultures in our classrooms. Culture is the lens through which we view our daily interactions. In a video titled "Teaching Tolerance", Geneva Gay from the University of Washington talks about the difference between tangible and intangible culture. Tangible culture involves clear concrete examples you can easily experience, such as displays, music or art. The more important aspects of culture are the intangibles, aspects such as values, beliefs and feelings. This dichotomy can be seen in Milne's (2017) stages of culturally sustaining practice. Milne imagines ...

Step 1 (What): Describe something that is significant and has happened during your Inquiry so far A significant event that has occurred so far in my inquiry has been the results from some of the interviews that I conducted in week 2. My initial suspicion going into the inquiry was that the children in my class would show quite low engagement in maths. This suspicion was based on my observations of previous year 6 classes I have taught as well as interviews I conducted with a random sample of year 5s at the end of last year. The significant event was that generally speaking, the children I interviewed did not show particularly low engagement in maths. There was quite a large variation in the data produced which I will cover below, but generally speaking, children in the class seem to have more positive attitudes towards maths than in previous years. Step 2 (So What): Evaluate the most interesting/important/useful aspects of this event This finding surprised me. However, after referri...