L&P1 1b Reflecting on Relationships

If you are looking for a technique to capture ideas that could work well for future ākonga too, you could look into Sketch Notes. Check out this site as a place to start https://www.verbaltovisual.com/what-is-sketchnoting/

You may also have noticed that we give links to many websites/articles. We suggest you start a document to save the ones you might want in the future. I find that rather than just copy and pasting the website into the document, thinking I will remember what it was, I add a wee blub with key words which are then searchable. For example for the sketchnote website:

• Sketchnote, sketchnoting. Why, how to do it and an introduction – https://www.verbaltovisual.com/what-is-sketchnoting/

I usually put them in groups as well. You might have:

• Te tiriti o Waitangi
• Future classroom resources
• Metaphor
• Teaching philosophy
• ….you get the idea

Reflexive Thinking

The process of reflection holds many ideas for people. You might like to imagine a sliding scale where one side is where you feel very comfortable with reflecting and it is something you engage in often and the other end where reflection holds a certain amount of anxiety in what you might find or expose if you dig too deeply.

In addition to examining your thoughts, beliefs and actions, there is another step to reflecting and that is the ability to make changes where necessary and then reflect again. We call this becoming a Reflexive Practitioner.

…move beyond a “mirror reflection” (you know, the one where you look in the mirror and just describe what you see), to being able to uncover the why of those thoughts, actions and beliefs and then acting on that understanding to effect change in thinking (in this course) or teaching practice (in Professional Practice).

Remember, reflexive social action is a constant process of reflection, new action and further reflection.

Smyth Model

“Only when teachers take an active reflective stance are they able to challenge the dominant factory metaphor of the way centers/schools are conceived, organized, and enacted” (Smyth, 1995, p6).

Following are the 6 steps in the Symth model – think of an event/experience that you could use to work through each of these steps as an example.

Describe: What do I do? This is the simple description of an event.

Inform: What does this mean? This is about uncovering the broader principles that are informing your thoughts, beliefs and actions. You could think of this as a ‘why’ question. Why did I do what I did?

Confront: How did I come to be like this? Some guiding question that might help you in this section are:

• What do my practices say about my assumptions, values, and beliefs about teaching?
• Where did these ideas come from?
• What social practices are expressed in these ideas?
• What views of power do they embody?
• Whose interests seem to be served by my practices?
• What is it that acts to constrain my views of what is possible in teaching?

Reconstruct: How might I do things differently? This part is rather self-explanatory – taking into account the previous reflection, what are you going to do differently next time or how have your thoughts or beliefs shifted?

Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle

Stage 1 Experience: Select the experience to reflect upon

Stage 2 Reflect: Reflect on the experience

• What happened?
• What was my role in the experience?

Stage 3 Conceptualise: Interpreting the event making suggestions or a hypothesis about the experience

• This is what I did, why do I do it like this?
• Are there other solutions, maybe better solutions? – New knowledge.

Stage 4 Plan: In this stage, we try the new solutions

• Try out what you have learnt.

Kolb’s cycle provides the opportunity to recognise and reflect on experiences to incorporate new knowledge and ideas and then to try out what you have learnt.

Gibbs’ Six Stages Reflective Cycle

This particular model acknowledges and interrogates the role of emotion in reflection.

Description: What happened?

• Provide a concise description of the experience

Feelings: This is a descriptive account of your thinking and feeling. The recognition of the role emotion can play in a situation.

• How did you feel prior to the experience?
• How did you feel and what were you thinking during the experience?
• How did you react during the experience?
• How did you feel and what did you think after the experience?

Evaluation: This involves making judgements about the experience? Challenging assumptions.

• What went well during the experience?
• What went poorly during the experience?
• How did the experience finish?
• Was there a resolution or was it left incomplete?

Analysis: This part is analytical, trying to explain the causes and consequences, to ask questions like why? So what? Moreover, what if? What sense can you make of the situation? Your theoretical knowledge today.

• Reconsider what went well – why do you think they went well?
• Reconsider what went poorly – what are the consequences of this action?
• Consider how decisive action could have been further improved?
• Think about your contribution to the experience – how useful was it and why?
• Did a previous experience help you?

Conclusion: What have you learnt from the experience?

• What should or could I have done differently?
• What stopped me doing this?
• What did I learn about my current knowledge and practice?

Action plan: What actions do you need to take to improve and increase your knowledge? Empowering changes to practice.

• How can I be better prepared for next time?
• How can I further improve the outcome?
• What areas/aspects do I need to develop further?
• What specific steps do I need to take to achieve these improvements?

Brierley, J. (2020). Working with two-year-olds : developing reflective practice (First edition). Routledge.

Donoghue, J., 2008, ‘Antisocial Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) in Britain contextualizing risk and reflexive modernization’, Sociology, 42(2), pp. 337–55.

Foucault, M., & Howard, R. (2001). Madness and civilization : a history of insanity in the Age of Reason. Routledge.

Williams, R. & Grudnoff, L. (2011). Making sense of reflection: a comparison of beginning and experienced teachers’ perceptions of reflection for practice. Reflective Practice, 12(3), 281 — 291 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14623943.2011.571861

Professional Relationships

At its very core teaching is an act of relationship – well, certainly effective teaching is! We are seeking connection with tamariki in order to foster their learning and invite deep engagement. Without relationships we become simple technicists delivering content and curriculum targets, without the capacity to be responsive, adaptive and supportive of each and every learner in our centre or classroom, which is our commitment as kaiako in Aotearoa. Such technicist models ultimately foster a sense of disengagement and disconnection, as ākonga are less likely to engage meaningfully with learning if they do not feel a sense of belonging, connectedness and a genuine sense of care from their kaiako.

 We teach from the heart, from our wairua, our very sense of self; our teacher identity and personal identity are deeply interconnected and are carried into each of our interactions.

Te Whāriki (the ECE curriculum) reminds us that kaiako must be “aware of the concepts of mana and whakapapa and the importance of these concepts in the development and maintenance of relationships (MOE, 2017, p.36). No matter who we are interacting with, if we adopt a position that upholds the mana of the other person, and recognises all that they bring with them to the education setting, then this is the foundation upon which positive, responsive and professional relationships are established and can flourish.

Our Code Our Standards established professional relationships as a key priority for all kaiako. One of the core values that guides the Code and Standards is Whanuangatanga: ko te whai wāhi ki te whanaungatanga whaitake, ki te mahi ngātahi ki ā tātou ākonga, ki ō rātou whānau, ki ō tātou hoa mahi, ā, ki te hapori whānui – engaging in positive and collaborative relationships with our learners, their families and whānau, our colleagues and the wider community

Relationships with Ākonga

The Teaching Council Standards establish that teachers must work in the best interests of learners by engaging in ethical and professional relationships with learners that respect professional boundaries. These standards alert us to the importance of our relationships with kaiako, but also reminds us that there are parameters and safeguards that must be acknowledged in order to both support and protect our learners. There are some significant terms to unpack in this statement including; best interest, ethical, professional, boundaries.

Relationships with Whānau

The Teaching Council Standards also set the expectation that relationships with whānau will be a central part of every teacher’s practice, stating that teachers will respect the vital role learners’ families and whānau play in supporting their children’s learning by engaging in relationships with families and whānau that are professional and respectful and engaging families and whānau in their children’s learning

Yet our relationships with whānau is more than that just a warm greeting at the beginning or end of the day. Though this is an important starting place, meaningfully partnership with whānau is much deeper and more purposeful. We know from research that most parents and whānau have friendly relationships with schools but for relationships to positively impact on learners, they must be ‘educationally powerful’ (ERO, 2015, p3).

Educationally powerful connections are relationships between schools/centres, parents,
whānau and communities that improve education outcomes for students. ERO found that such connections involved two-way collaborative working relationships that reflected the concept of mahi tahi – working together towards the specific goal of supporting a young person’s success. The best examples were learning-centred collaborations between students, their teachers and their parents and whānau that focused on the students’ learning and progress. A whānau-like context was established in which parents, teachers and students all understood their rights and responsibilities, commitments and obligations – whanaungatanga – to help the students succeed. (ERO, 2015, p3-5).

Teachers and leaders who understood this intent of the relationship:

• knew about, valued, and built from one learning experience to the next – they removed the separation between home and classroom learning experiences
• developed a shared language about learning and achievement with students and their parents and whānau
• valued students’ wellbeing and were genuinely interested in them and their families.