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 the required components. The complexity of the system meant that I spent a number of lessons early on in the year teaching children how our maths programme would function. In previous years I would have spent more time building children's group and social communication skills through programmes such as circle time (see Bliss and Tetley, 1993).
Step 2 (So What): Use an ethical decision-making framework such as Ehrich (2011) to analyse the issue identified in Step 1 and identify potential outcomes/solution(s).
According to Ehrich (2011), after identifying the critical incident (me not spending as much time as I would normally helping children to build social and group relationships), one must examine competing forces and individuals values beliefs and attributes, and how these impact the possible choices.
In terms of organisational and institutional forces with regard to my inquiry, the timeframe laid out in my proposal was very clear. In order for the inquiry to demonstrate that gamification can have a positive effect on engagement and/or academic outcomes, the children need to take part in the gamification of maths activities for the term of the study at the very least. The 4 weeks of activities I specified in my action plan were the bare minimum required, and if I waited any longer before starting the children on the activities, I risked not giving the intervention long enough to work.
However, from the perspective of professional ethics and society and community, it is clear that I also have a responsibility to help children foster the relationships I outlined above. The Code of Professional Responsibility and Standards for the Teaching Profession (Education Council, 2017) states that one of the values that underpin the entire code is manaakitanga, the value of creating a welcoming, caring and creative learning environment that treats everyone with respect and dignity. It is clear from this that I have a commitment to establish supportive relationships between the children and myself as quickly as possible at the start of a new year. It is the tension between these 2 priorities that form the basis of my ethical dilemma.
Step 3 (Now What): Discuss how you selected a solution to address the issue, from the options identified in Step 2.
In his work on how to approach ethical problems in schools, Hall (2001) asks the question "which stakeholders should be given priority? Why?" If I consider the various subjects I teach as stakeholders, it is clear that at the start of the school year, two 'stakeholders' should be given priority, maths and the establishment of supportive and warm relationships, for the reasons outlined above. As I only have so many hours in a day to teach, it, therefore, follows that if these two 'stakeholders' are given priority, then something else must be de-prioritised. In this case, a solution would be to de-prioritise another curriculum area for the 6 weeks I will undertake my inquiry. However, Hall (2001) also asks the question "what restrictions are there to your actions?". As a teacher, I am legally bound by the dictates of the NZ National curriculum, and I must balance my teaching of all curriculum areas. If, as part of my solution, I de-prioritise some areas of the curriculum for the length of this my inquiry, I must make sure I re-prioritise them afterwards to balance my programme.
References
Bliss, T., & Tetley, J. (1993). Circle time: a resource book for infant, junior and secondary schools. SAGE.
Education Council. (2017). Our Code Our Standards.Retrieved from: https://educationcouncil.org.nz/sites/default/files/Our%20Code%20Our%20Standards%20web%20booklet%20FINAL.pdf
Ehrich, L. C. , Kimber M., Millwater, J. & Cranston, N. (2011). Ethical dilemmas: a model to understand teacher practice, Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice, 17:2, 173-185, DOI: 10.1080/13540602.2011.539794
Fantuzzo, J., Sekino, Y., & Cohen, H. L. (2004). An examination of the contributions of interactive peer play to salient classroom competencies for urban head start children. Psychology in the Schools, 41(3), 323-336.
Hall, A. (2001). What ought I to do, all things considered? An approach to the exploration of ethical problems by teachers. In IIPE Conference, Brisbane. Retrieved from
Hi Nick, I too have a similar ethical dilemma - that of prioritising developing relationships with students and whanau against baseline testing of maths concepts and teaching of enough maths to get an inquiry result that I can use to reflect upon during assignment reflections. You are right to return to the Teachers Code which reminds us to 'focused on the learning and wellbeing of each learner.' Your school charter will also contain valuable information regarding 'doing no harm' to students ie ensuring that all subject areas are covered and students are not 'missing out' on learning because we as teachers are focusing too much on any one area. I think you are right to acknowledge that you will need to address the balance later in the term. In future years you could begin with the Scan phase of the Spiral of Inquiry in term 1 to allow development of relationships and introduction of class routines before the Taking Action phase begins. Good luck with the rest of your inquiry.
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