Cat's MindLab (Ghost Hunters) Blog

I will be using Jay and Johnson’s reflective model to reflect on this week.   Description: This weeks reflection is based on 2 topics from the Leadership in Digital and Collaborative Learning course - 1) Innovative learning spaces and 2) Teacher inquiry into student learning. How do these contribute to my Communities of Practice? Firstly I need to understand who my CoP is. Etienne Wenger (1999) states that “Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.” So in keeping with this view I would assume my CoP is initially my team at Northcote school as they is who my research will affect first, then the rest of the school and if successful possibly my cluster of learning (CoL) schools. It could even involve my mindlab group and as I seem to be on the road to sharing thoughts and practice theories with them already so it may well be them before my CoL.   I have begun t

I am using Gibbs model for reflection this time and the Theme I have chosen to reflect on is - Theme 4: “Changing the script”: Rethinking learners’ and teachers’s roles. Description: In the past teachers have always been up the front of the classroom with all the knowledge while the students are sitting at their desks listening to the teacher who are sharing their knowledge with the students. There have been studies of brain activity during the course of a day that shows that this type of learning is the least effective in any circumstance. Students learn better from other students than from a teacher and, they learn by doing and leading their own learning. It’s time to change things about and put the onus on the students to lead their own learning. The teacher then becomes the facilitator to support their learning rather than the dictator with all the answers.   Feelings: This can be a scary concept as teachers learn to lose some control of the learning and be free to