Week 1 - Why this step in my teaching journey?

Tonight's thinking and discussion was around The Purpose of Education. The synchronicity of this discussion and question aligns at this time with my own place in my teaching journey. As I reach the end of my two years as a beginner teacher I am convinced that my instincts are right and many aspects of my teaching are wrong. I've fallen into the teaching trap of doing what has always been done by teaching with the industrial model as my guide. I've been trying to control my students to 'take' in knowledge passively. Sure the lessons have been disguised with some 21st Century language but it has been tokenism.

On reflection the times within my classroom that have been dynamic, engaging and inquiring are the times when I've dabbled with some of those 21st century notions of creativity, problem solving, collaboration. However because these times were also messy, noisy, seemingly directionless I deemed them to be a failure on my part.

Thankfully my school has been on a Professional journey of discovery with Student Agency at the heart of our inquiry. The workshops, discussions, subsequent research have reconfirmed my conviction and belief that is the vision for our learners within the New Zealand Curriculum.

• Confident
• Connected
• Actively Involved
• Life Long Learners

My contribution to our group collaboration on our take on 'What is the Purpose of Education?" was

                                                                     FREEDOM

Leadership in Digital And Collaborative Learning

Epistemology - What??? 

Having this word presented to us tonight along with Ontology, Axiology was overwhelming to say the least. Initially it confirmed my internal thinking and feeling that I'm not ready for this step in my teaching. It is too soon, I'm only 2 years into my teaching and feel I'm just coming to grips with the most basic aspects of effective teaching. However I took a deep breath and slowly worked through the classroom notes and videos.

As with all aspects of learning I find for myself that breaking it down one step at a time works. Therefore Professor Ken Lofgren's you tube presentation was of value to me. He broke down the word"

• Episteme = knowledge, understanding
• Logia = science, study

So Epistemology is the study of knowledge and Epistemologists try to identify the essential, defining components of knowledge. 

What stood out for me were these two form of espistemology:

Genetic epistemology is used to study the cognitive development among children and how children understand, learn, and acquire new knowledge and Social epistemology is about the social context for creating new knowledge.Social epistemology is studied in academic fields such as sociology, psychology and education.

Teaching years 0,1 and 2 students I've come to the realisation the the age of my students and their ability to interact with their peers plays a vital role in their ability to learn from the curriculum.

We were also asked the question around Thought Leadership Are you ready to be the “go to” leader in your school or community? Do you want to have influence for positive change, have an impact in arenas that matter to you, and leave a legacy of consequence? Then you’re probably eager to get started on your journey towards thought leadership. 

If I'm being reflective and honest signing up for this paper I was more focused on the digital and collaboration skills I could gain to take back to my students. I certainly don't think of myself as a leader especially after 2 years of teaching. Of course we were asked to think of ourselves as leaders in the classroom to our students which of course means I want to say "Yes, of course I want to influence positive change or have an impact in areas that matter to me and my students.

I certainly think I will need to have a shift in my mindset around seeing myself as an educational leader in order to work towards the first assessment of the Leadership paper.