Activity 3: Contribution of Teacher Inquiry Topics to My Communities of Practice

Wenger et al. (2002) describes a community of practice 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”.  This year one of the most rewarding Communities of Practice that I have been involved is the Hamilton MindLab.  The ability to get together with like minded educators that are passionate, focussed and committed on developing new skills, strategies and understanding of this changing world, has made me be reflective, challenge and engage in my own practice.  Throughout the first 16 weeks of the MindLab course, I have valued the professional dialogue and ranging opinions, thoughts, knowledge and research.   

Wenger, McDermott & Snyder define Communities of Practice as “groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interaction on an ongoing basis” (p. 4, 2002).  For me this is where my first question would come into play - How do we move management, teachers and the Ministry of Education away from assessment, assessment, assessment to more of a creative, collaborative, explorational based curriculum.  I am not saying that reading, writing and mathematics are not of high importance, because they are, however as we have learned through our time at Mindlab, digital and technological computational thinking, growth mindset, collaboration, etc, is now just as important.  Being able to problem solve, work collaboratively on a common task and to be able to think out, in and alongside the box is of high importance.  Just this year “More than 100 New Zealand companies are promising to hire more people with no formal qualifications.  In an open letter, the companies, including Xero, ASB, Noel Leeming, Vector and SkyCity, said they would be more open to hiring those without tertiary qualification to fill vacancies.”  My question would be, what are these top New Zealand companies seeing with the incoming workforce?  Furthermore to this is a very insightful and thought provoking TED Talks from Sir Ken Robinson - Do Schools Kill Creativity?  If you haven’t watch this Ted Talk, please do take the time.  Let me know what you think?

“The New Zealand Curriculum describes teaching as inquiry as a cyclical process in which questions are posed, evidence is gathered, and decisions are made. The primary purpose of teaching as inquiry is to improve outcomes for students through purposeful assessment, planned action, strategic teaching, and focused review” (The New Zealand Curriculum Update, Issue 12, August 2011).  As teachers, we want our students to develop problem solving skills and strategies, work collaboratively on tasks and challenge each in their thinking and understanding of the world.  Why is it then, that so many teachers are completely their teaching inquiry individually?  Is it because there are still a large number of teachers working in single cell classrooms or that teachers fear the chance of judgement over their thinking?  Sweeney (2015, para. 1) states that by “Building Teaching as Inquiry projects collaboratively is becoming more commonplace as teachers shift their learning and teaching practices (Modern Learning Pedagogies) to co-teach or team-teach learners, for whom they are collectively responsible, within changing learning environments (Modern Learning Environments)”.  My question would be, how can my team develop and implement the Teaching as Inquiry system to be more collaborative, meaningful and engaging, while still in single cell teaching environments.

Reference:

Open Letter.  Retrieved From:  https://nztalent.org/

Ted Talks - Do Schools Kill Creativity.  Retreieved From:  https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity#t-27938

The New Zealand Curriculum Update.  Issue 12, August 2011.  Understanding Teacher as Inquiry.

Wenger, E. (2000). Communities of Practice and Social Learning Systems. Organization Articles, 7(2), 225–246.

Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. (2002).  Cultivating Communities of Practice:  A Guide to Managing Knowledge.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.