Virtual Learning Network

What does innovation look like in your school?

Teaching as Inquiry has been the catalyst for change at our school. PLCs are well structured to keep our focus on student achievement for ALL Learners, especially our priority learners: 

Priority learners are groups of students who have been identified as historically not experiencing success in the New Zealand schooling system. These include many Māori and Pacific learners, those from low socio-economic backgrounds, and students with special education needs.

ERO (August 2012)

http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Priority-learners 

Through TAI, teachers develop agency to make the necessary changes to their practice in order to meet the needs of their learners in a collaborative way where expertise knowledge and resources a pooled together. TAI encourages teachers to experiment with new approaches to their work, affirming what works for who and why, think critically about the relationship between teaching-learning and to be open to new ideas. Outside facilitators support our strategic direction by 'adding value' to our collective knowledge and expertise skills.

At our school there has been a significant growth in teachers' mindsets as recorded in PLC minutes and as teacher-talk - display these and have staff refer back to these in further reflective dialogue.

There is emerging evidence our school is evolving into an effective learning space by: 

• Make learning and engagement central
• Ensure that learning is social and often collaborative
• Be highly attuned to learner motivations and emotions
• Be acutely sensitive to individual differences
• Be demanding for each learner but without excessive overload
• Use assessment consistently with learning aims, with a strong emphasis on formative feedback
• Promote horizontal connectedness across the activities and subjects, in and out of school.

https://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/50300814.pdf The Nature of Learning stated how each of these principles should be present in any learning environment in order for learning to be truly effective.