Online Participation - for Assignment 2

Saturday 2 Nov

Sunday 3 Nov

Reflect on how you have changed your practice during my postgraduate DCL journey

Week 32

Ehara taku toa, he takitahi, he toa takitini!

My success should not be bestowed onto me alone, as it was not individual success but success of a collective.  This proverb sums up my learning journey that I have been on throughout the year.

To reflect on my year, I will be using the Reflective Practice Model of Osterman and Kottkamp, (2015, p70).

Problem identification:

I decided to enrol in the Mindlab course together with my colleagues (2 others).  My primary objective in enrolling was to further my knowledge around the new digital curriculum being implemented in 2020 and to also further my learning around leadership as this was an area which I wanted to enhance in my teaching career.

Stage 2:  Observation and Analysis:

During the second half of the year, we were involved with developing our own inquiry based around digital technologies.  I was excited as this was an area for further pedagogical learning.

I observed and made assumptions half way through the year that my students were becoming less motivated and engaged with their learning.  I expected them to be using their devices more to collaborate and problem solve.  Osterman & Kottkamp, (2015, p76), state that we need to observe and gather detailed information before we make judgements or rushed actions.  Using this stage, improved my inquiry process.  I took some time to gather data and find some indicators for the lack of motivation and engagement.  One area that I realised needed to change was the fact that my class were using devices for substitution rather than augmentation. This could have been a factor in these behaviours.  Slowing down this process and thinking carefully on what solutions I could come up with was important as I wanted to bring about change.

Stage 3:  Abstract Reconceptualisation:

Taking the time to reflect and consider how I was going to improve motivation, collaboration and engagement was the next stage. Being a reflective teacher I was then able to start looking for ideas and innovations that increase motivation and engagement in the classroom.  This lead me to research the concept of gamification.  Ironically, my motivation and engagement increased as I was looking for new ideas and strategies to implement.  Not having any experience with gaming, research proved invaluable to the successful implementation.  This new concept in mind, came with challenges which I had to overcome.  I had to research all the benefits and disadvantages so that I was able to make a considered judgement on whether I wanted to try this with my students. 

In carrying out this reflective practice, I have demonstrated a commitment to the teaching profession (Our code, Our standards). "Professional Learning:  engage in professional learning and adaptively apply this learning in practice".  Also  "Be informed by research and innovations." (p.18).

Stage 4:  Active Experimentation:

Through my inquiry I was able to make a change in my practice and try something new to the benefit of my learners. As Kaser and Halbert (2017) say, "the purpose of your inquiry is to make a difference in outcomes that matter for learners" (p.35). 

Kaser and Halbert (2017), also state that we have to "celebrate what you have learned, acknowledge the gains, the loses, and the uncertainties" (p.35).  I concur with these statements as with any inquiry process what you action might not necessarily have the actual impacts you first thought.  However, you are still taking on new learning and willing to make new changes to improve your teaching practice.

This journey has not ended, but merely started.  With new technologies always evolving, gamification will be further enhanced and developed.  I look forward to seeing where this will take me and how children use it effectively in the classroom to enhance their learning.

Kia Kaha! Mindlab!!

(Words 626)

PS.  Thanks Karen for your awesome first half year weekly sessions.  

References:

Kaser, L. & J. Halbert. (2017). The Spiral Playbook: Leading with an inquiring mindset in school systems and schools. C21 Canada. Retrieved from http://c21canada.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Spiral-Playbook.pdf

Maori Proverbs retrieved from: https://www.maori.cl/Proverbs.htm

Osterman, K. F., & Kottkamp, R. B. (2015). Reflective practice for educators : professional development to improve student learning.(2nd ed.) New York: Skyhorse Publishing.

Evaluate how your inquiry impacts on future inquiry/practice

Week 31: Evaluate how your Inquiry impacts on future Inquiry/practice

My inquiry question: "To what extent does gamification increase motivation, engagement and student achievement?"

Anticipated Impact One:  Students will become more engaged and motivated with learning.
From the time I introduced gamification into the classroom up until now, there has been are remarkable shift in motivation and engagement.  Classcraft has made the learning more fun for the students and has closed the gap between my priority students and the rest of the class with their learning attitudes.   They are now more willing to give things a go where as before they often gave up.  With a points system and all students belonging to a team, everyone is more engaged to gain more points and benefits for their team through each learning task.  From the evidence I gathered at the start, I knew that children would be excited to see some sort of gamification, however I was a little sceptical about its actual impact.  I was pleasantly surprised to see the actual impact to be very positive for my learners.

Stoll and Temperely, (2015), state that one of the biggest pressing issues facing schools today is narrowing the gaps.  Through the implementation of gamification  I have addressed this issue with all students engaged and motivated.  

Anticipated Impact Two: Students will collaborate more in the classroom.
Another one of my anticipated impacts was that students would collaborate more.  Classcraft did in fact bring the students together on a daily basis.  With the teams now established, children used their strengths and weaknesses of the game to try and level up.  They had to rely on each other more as they shared different powers which all needed to be used in order to collect vital health and gold pieces.  Children were now helping eachother complete the quests (leaning tasks).  From my observations, this actual impact was very rewarding to witness.  My more able students were now helping my less able students with completing their tasks.  An unexpected impact was how much they got involved with the game.  When one of my students lost some health, straight away one of their team members offered to transfer some of their health in order for the team to level up.  A big shift in empathy took place in the classroom as they often got together with their devices to talk about each of their avatars and where they were positioned in the game.

Anticipated Impact Three:  Children might become too competitive causing pressure and anxiety.
This was one area which I was potentially going to have to address.  Children were grouped into five teams.  I anticipated that there would be a high level of competitiveness within the class as each day they would be able to see the leaderboard.  The actual impact was fairly minor.  Children were more focused on their team and trying to level up than really focusing on the other teams.  My priority students did come under some pressure to complete their tasks, but due to the collaboration factor, they started to  accept other members of their team helping them along to finish.  

What is the impact on future inquiry/practice?
The use of this inquiry cycle has been an exciting journey to follow and complete.  Halbert, Kaser, & Keohn (2011), argue that it is never easy for an experienced teacher to change their teaching repertoire.  I agree with this statement as I would never have implemented gamification in my classroom, due to the fact that I thought it was simply playing games!  Through this inquiry structure, it has allowed me to dig deeper into my teaching pedagogy and realise that with sound research and a growth mindset, gamification brought my class closer together with more engagement and motivation.  
 If I was to repeat the process, I would invite my colleagues to work alongside me, trying different game based learning, to investigate which games would be more effective.  In that way we could have some challenging conversations that would test our pedagogies.

(Words 657)

References:

Halbert, J., Kaser, L., & Koehn, D. (2011). Spirals of Inquiry: Building Professional Inquiry to Foster Student Learning. Paper presented at 24th International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement. Limassol, Cyprus. Retrieved from https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U1JA3_sx_eN5IXNtyDED1dwtlG4l7cA2/view?usp=sharing

Stoll, L., and Temperley, J. (2015). Narrowing the Gap with Spirals of Enquiry: Evaluation of Whole Education’s Pilot. Whole Education, UK. Retrieved from http://thesendhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/narrowing-the-gap-with-spirals-of-enquiry.pdf


   

Describe the data you have collected so far and how you are analysing it

Week 30 - Reflect on your Evidence

Step 1: Describe the data you have collected so far

In my action plan, I created surveys (quantitative) and interviews/questionnaires (qualitative) so that I could start with some baseline data to analyse.

The survey contained questions around devices, wifi, time spent gaming at home and how often they play these games.  All students completed these questions during class time.  Responses were gathered into a spreadsheet.

Interview questions were around more in depth questions around what attracts children to gaming and how it might help in the classroom.  These questions were asked to my priority children.  Each interview lasted for 10 minutes and children felt comfortable sharing their thoughts.

Quantitative coding: 

This survey was designed to gather data on their background knowledge or experience with gaming and how often they played at home.  Coding categories were set up inductively Babione, C. (2015).  As all children completed the survey, Google created pie graphs to show the results.  Some interesting findings were discovered.  96% of students have a device at home.
80% said that creating own avatars engages them more into the game.

All students are playing games at home.  Surprisingly, half the class are playing games (Minecraft, Fortnite) every day!
Two thirds of children communicate online while playing games.  
Nearly three quarters of parents are not supportive of their children playing games online.  However, 50% of students say they play every day.  Do the parents know their children are gaming??

A majority of the students said that with gamification, collaboration would definitely occur in the classroom!
Most students said that if they had some sort of reward system, their work would get completed.






Qualitative coding (Babione, (2015,) and anaylsis: (Efron, S. E., & Ravid, R. (2013)

The interview questions were designed for my target students.  I wanted them to tell me how they were liking the online platform and whether it was helping with their learning and engagement.  The following patterns from Babione, (2015, p142-143) were evident.

Students spoke positively about their experiences so far with the online platform Classcraft.  

Definition of the situation Codes: They shared how the quests and being in a team situation with powers, made them feel important and motivated them to complete the quests as they gained points for their whole team.

Strategy codes:  Children spoke about how they learnt new skills and tactics to help their team members.  It brought them closer to children who they didn't necessarily work with, which was a positive.

Narrative Codes:  Children commented on positive relationships with their team and how team members often helped them with the quests so that the whole team could 'level up'.  They felt that their involvement was valued in a team situation and that they had an important part to play.

Relationship and Social Structure Codes:  The target students explained that they were more motivated to complete tasks because they weren't just grouped in their ability groups but were mixed in with children who had higher abilities then them.  They commented on trying to beat the other groups by earning more points and gold.  This involved more positive collaboration.

Step 3:  Reflect on your evidence so far.

The results from the survey were very positive and insightful. Most children had knowledge of gaming and in fact most gaming at home.  Bringing the gaming element into the classroom has had a positive effect with motivation and engagement increasing.  

Target students felt more included and now have the chance of working with higher ability children, boosting their confidence.

A further qualitative survey might be interesting to carry out with the whole class to confirm that it is not only benefiting the target students, but in fact every learner. 

(words 611)


References:

Babione, C. (2015). Practitioner Teacher Inquiry and Research. USA: John Wiley & Sons.

Efron, S. E., & Ravid, R. (2013). Action research in education: A practical guide. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

Discuss how ethical issues are being addressed

Step 1: Describe an ethical issue that you want to focus on in this entry

Once my inquiry was well underway and children had now immersed themselves with the online platform of Classcraft, I found that the boys in the classroom were taking over and dominating their 'team'.  The girls in the group were reluctantly withdrawing from team decisions and were becoming less likely to involve themselves when completing quests.  also, some of the boys were displaying bullying tactics to some of their groups members in order to get them to give them some of their 'health'.

The ethical dilemma I was facing is based around our code of conduct.  As a teacher, we all have a commitment to all our learners and to have inclusive programmes that benefit individual needs and abilities (Education Council, 2017).

From these observations, I had to think carefully of the action I was going to take.  The dilemmas I was facing:
- do I suddenly stop Classcraft as it was causing gender fractions within the class, increase of bullying tactics and the girls feeling they can't have a voice in the classroom.
-   do I break up the groups and start again, giving choice but in doing so creating competitive groups that might increase the tension with members.
- do I ban certain members of the class as they were creating tension in the classroom and weren't showing kindness or compassion.



Step 2:  Reflection on the actions you have taken to address the ethical issues.

Considering these ethical issues, I have used the Ehrich, L. C., Kimber, M., Millwater, J. & Cranston, N. (2011) ethical decision-making framework.

My priority was to keep this online platform going as I had anecdotal notes on how well children were engaged and motivated to complete tasks.  My target students were showing considerable engagement to their learning, so giving up was not an option.

Firstly, to address the issues I had several 'Circle Time' sessions.  Circle Time is a teaching strategy which allows children to explore and address issues which are of concern.  It provides a structured session/s for solving problems on an equal footing (Children Central, 2018).  In these sessions we discussed group and individual behaviour that was creating tensions within the Classcraft teams.

Secondly, I approached individual children who were in charge of their teams and explained that they needed to involve all members of their team, giving them equal participation.

Finally, I had to involve parents to inform them that their child was not displaying the desired values and expectations of our school.

This course of action was taken promptly.  Lessons and discussions were carried out so that these issues did not escalate and force me to end gamification in my classroom.

Step 3:  Discuss the lesson learnt for future inquiry.

Several lessons were learnt.  Gamification can lead to children being too competitive because they want to enhance their own gratification.  

Before introducing these programmes into the classroom, several lessons need to be taught so that all children have equity, sound social skills to work with others, and team spirit.

For future inquiries, careful consideration needs to be planned for any ethical issues that may arise. Strategies need to be developed to try and mitigate these so that teachers, whanau and their children have successful and positive outcomes.

(550 words)

References:

Children Central, (2018).  What is Circle Time and how it benefits your children.  Retrieved from:

https://childrencentral.net/what-is-circle-time-and-how-it-benefits-your-children/

Education Council, (2017).  Our Code Our Standards.  Retrieved from:

https://childrencentral.net/what-is-circle-time-and-how-it-benefits-your-children/

Ehrich, L. C. , Kimber M., Millwater, J. & Cranston, N. (2011). Ethical dilemmas: a model to understand teacher practice, Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice, 17:2, 173-185, DOI: 10.1080/13540602.2011.539794

Online Participation - MeWe

Week 28: Apply a reflective model to discuss something that has happened during my inquiry so far, and how it impacts on taking action

Reflecting on our teaching practice is essential to further our pedagogies and to also ensure that we are continually trying to improve.  Findlay, (2008) states that "this often involves examining assumptions of everyday practice." (p.1)

For this reflection entry, I have decided to use Rolfe's Model of Reflection (Otago Polytechnic n.d., 2001).  

These three questions may seem simplistic, however they invite you to really reflect more in depth than I first thought.


Step 1:  (What - Description):  Describe something that has happened during your Inquiry so far.

My inquiry is to what extent does gamification increase motivation, engagement and student achievement within a classroom setting.  

I decided on using the Classcraft online platform.  This platform has a game element to it which involves children working together to gain powers, points and quests.  I decided to establish groups that were a mix of abilities, gender and not necessarily 'friendships'.  I wanted to see if Classcraft would build new relationships and get children to collaborate more.  Once the groups had been set up, children  had to decide on which members should take on particular powers and which members would be in charge of the group.

Straight away I came to the realisation that this platform was going to be very exciting and a popular platform.  Children were excited to choose their avatars and who should have the particular powers.  Positive collaboration was instant!  All children were involved and once the groups were up and running, points were highly sought after for on task behaviours, completion of work and collaborating positively with each other.  An interesting observation was when I had to take away some health (points) off a person, other members in the group quickly said they would give their character some health so that they wouldn't die.  

One challenge I faced was that I needed to always be on this platform to give students points or to decrease their health.  This challenge has been both time consuming, but also exciting to watch how students deal with these situations.

Step 2:  (So what - Theory and Knowledge):  Analyse its impacts on taking actions in relation to supporting literature.

Within the first few weeks I noticed a definite shift in their motivation and engagement to complete tasks/quests and the positive relationships that had now become established.  Whanaungatanga definitely improved through this game.   (Asil, 2017).  This tells me that having this platform has definitely made a difference in the classroom with children getting along with each other and collaborating together to complete a task.  

As we got more involved with the platform, children were more engaged and asking to do more 'quests'.  This word had replaced 'tasks'.  Children became more excited and motivated to complete class tasks in order for their groups to level up and gain more points.  This impact was heart warming for my target students who often struggled to complete work.  I observed the rest of their group now wanting to help them (Tuakana teina) (Asil, 2017), making them more engaged and motivated.

One challenge was due to its popularity, students wanted me to purchase and upgrade the platform to release more features.  This was part of my action plan (Integrating Kaupapa Maori Principles) of Kia piki aki i nga raruraru o te kainga where I would provide equal access and opportunities.  I was unable to upgrade due to the personal cost of me providing the funding.  This made some students disappointed that they couldn't gain extra features and therefore they lost some engagement in the programme.

Student agency also increased in the classroom (Edtalks, 2012).  Children took more of a collaborative role in completing the quests with more problem solving, operating and using the strengths of their group.

Step 3:  (Now what - Action):  How can it contribute to your future practice?


With Classcraft now embedded into my daily teaching practice, I need to continually add in quests for the children to complete.  This is becoming a little challenging as the time factor on top of planning is becoming restrained.  To continue its positive effect on my students I will probably need to upgrade to unlock further benefits of the programme.  I can not see this as a problem for 2020 as I have met with my Team Leader and he has said it could come out of the classroom budget.

I will need to ensure that all children have access to a school device if they haven't purchased their own as this will mean all students have access when ever they desire.  It has been a challenge to have all students with their own devices this term.  

I have certainly noticed that motivation and engagement has increased in the classroom, which has been wonderful to observe.  

For myself, I still need to further my learning with 'gaming' and gamification.  Being a 'non-gamer' has meant I have had to get my head around the 'gaming' language, how online gaming works and how children work together online to complete various quests.  I need to continue to develop exciting quests for children and work towards having a classroom environment whereby all students look forward to using gamification to enhance their learning.




References:

Asil, M. (2017).  A School-Based Measure of Culturally Responsive Practices.  Frontiers in Education 2(17), 1-7. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2017.00017

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

Finlay, Lynda Jan 10, 2008 - Reflecting on 'Reflective practice. PBPL paper 52. 

Otago Polytechnic. (n.d.). Reflective Writing. Retrieved from https://www.op.ac.nz/assets/LearningAdvice/Reflective-writing.pdf