Week 28 - APC - Indigenous knowledge & Cultural responsiveness

https://www.huntsbury-preschool.org.nz/curriculum/

Learning Activities:

Professor Bishop discusses providing a 'context' that is appropriate for the learners and ensure that there are positive relationships with students before learning can happen. Students need to feel comfortable in their learning environment and because we only teach our students for a couple of hours each week we provide activities that develop relationships within the 'team'.

 'Circle time' is used at the beginning and at the end of the session and provides students with opportunities to share their ideas about their learning. This also provides the teacher feedback which can be used to shape further sessions and learning. Students are offered choices within the programmes and activities, which provides them with ownership of their learning and intrinsic motivation. 

Students are encouraged to support each other and work together as a 'team'. This gives students opportunities to support each other in their learning and gain skills in communication, collaboration and problem solving. 

Professor Bishop also discussed the importance of having high expectations of students. I believe this is important for students to reach their full potential and students need to be able to 'believe in themselves'. Often low achieving students have low self esteem and providing them with learning success gives them a great boost and opens the door to more learning opportunities. It sometimes a matter of moving their 'mind set' and providing encouragement to do this. 

Planning and assessment: 

Savagea, Hindleb, Meyerc, Hyndsa, Penetitob, & Sleeterd, (2011) state "As teachers invest in learning through relationships with their students, they might then take responsibility for learning to shift their pedagogy in ways that benefit students academically as well as socially and emotionally."

The above statement relates, as I feel we have been developing relationships with students, however further development to encourage student achievement is the next step. 

From the implementation of Huakina Mai in 2015. We have focused on developing positive relationships with the students and their families. We are now moving forward to improving pedagogy to increase student achievement.  We are collaborating with our teaching and our planning to develop ideas around how to provide success for students. Student feedback and opportunities for them to co-construct their learning to provide more student ownership. We differentiate sessions to support low achieving students and this is often discussed in our meetings to share our knowledge and gain ideas. 

We have sought advice and professional development on assessment methods to support student achievement and to provide purposeful feedback during programmes to students. We are developing assessment that provides regular  feedback and is easily accessed by students. 

Students will have opportunities to increase their level of achievement and understand clearly what they will need to do to achieve this. Students that require more support will then be  identified and provided alternative learning methods to increase their level of achievement. 

Circle time activities link for teens:
http://www.kidspeakconsulting.com/blog/circletimeforbigkidsteambuildingwithteensin5easysteps

References:

Savagea,C, Hindleb, R., Meyerc,L., Hyndsa,A., Penetitob, W. & Sleeterd, C.(2011). Culturally responsive pedagogies in the classroom: indigenous student experiences across the curriculum .Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 39(3), 183–198: (Available to download from Unitec Library) This is a report evaluates Maori student experiences in the NZ classroom whose teachers underwent Te Kotahitanga trainings. The authors discuss the implications for teachers to when implementing the Te Kotahitanga to address the culturally responsiveness in their practice.

Gutschlag, A.(2007). Some implications of the Te Kotahitanga model of teacher positioning. New Zealand Journal of Teachers’ Work, 4(1), 3-10. Retrieved from http://www.teacherswork.ac.nz/journal/volume4_issue1/gutschlag.pdf. In this paper, the author critiques the implications of Te Kotahitanga’s ‘teacher positioning model’ and suggests an alternative power relationship between teachers and Maori students.

Professor Russell Bishop talks about culturally responsive pedagogySource: Edtalks.(2012, September 23). A culturally responsive pedagogy of relations. [video file].Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/49992994