Inquiry focused professional learning

Effective professional learning is collaborative, inquiry focused and aligned with immediate priority areas of the school. Over the course of this term, teachers at St Luke’s Catholic College have framed their professional learning in response to a driving question.

Initially,  a set of Draft Inquiry Questions were developed. They were:

• • What patterns of data emerge from 2019 TTFM reports?
  • How can Immersive Technologies (VR/AI/AR) support quality learning?
  • How can Pivot support teacher professional development?
  • What are the various options for a whole school (K-9) timetable in 2020?
  • How can 100 minutes of literacy work across 300 minutes in the day?
  • How can we develop Independence Progressions for each child?
  • Using Professor McGaw’s heat mapping exercise, how can we more precisely align learning outcomes with capabilities?
  • How can critical thinking be taught and assessed? As a beginning point:
    • Greg Whitby’s blog and the article.

After a ‘Knows’ and ‘Need to Knows’ exercise, complemented by more reflection and discussion, a final set of five questions were developed. They were:

• How can we better use data (from parents, teachers and students) to support student learning?
• How do different timetable options impact on student learning?
• What are immersive technologies and how can teachers best use them to support learning?
• How do we develop a shared understanding of how critical thinking is taught and assessed?
• How can heat mapping capabilities assist our development of the St Luke’s 6 Pillars of Learning?

Once developed, as a professional learning community, we engaged in the inquiry by referencing aspects of… 

After scanning in Week 5, reflecting in Week 6, focusing in Week 7 & 8, in week 9 teams planned their presentation in week 10. Groups paired up and presented to another group using the the following scaffold:

• What was your question?
• How do you go about investigating that questions?
• What were your learnings?
• What are your recommendations?

The outcome? No real answers but definitely more ways forward. For example,

• as a result of the inquiry question about timetable conducted throughout our Community PLMs in weeks 4-10 of this term, our next step will be to explore a little more of ‘what might be’. As such, in Term 4 we will implement our own action research. In weeks 1-4 of term 4, all teachers will ‘build in’ 5-10 minute play/brain breaks for K-6 in one hundred minute learning sessions after morning tea and after lunch. In week 5 we will review our project. We may then amend, adjust, or simply not do it for the remainder of the term. Whatever we do, and through our own experience, we will be more informed when making decisions about timetable for next year.
• In this same spirit of action research, teachers will work with senior leaders to consider how music and movement can complement the KLAs of English, Mathematics and Religion from Kindergarten to Year 4. 
• A number of teachers will use VR Headsets, AR Makr and Augmented Reality to deepen learning in classrooms.
• Furthermore, a small team of teachers are developing assessment rubrics which integrate ACARA General Capabilities progressions with assessment of learning outcomes across KLAs.

I look forward to the ongoing process of inquiry deepening our understanding of how we enable student learning.

Regards

Greg