week 20

Issues this week:
Am finding the information re the lit review less than helpful
Course marks - frustrating - having difficulty with lack of feedback - what did I do well - what do I need to improve on? No annotation on assignments, no feedback in either area.  Is work being marked to rubric. Never had marks like this  - very very despondant.

Course Material:

Video
 what is it
Major works on the narrow topic:  published peer reviewed papers on the topic
Reviewed:major points, outcomes, themes - not a detailed write up of the source - a snap shot of it = relationship betwen snapshots extracting just the major elements and then the relationship among those elements 

Purpose
improve your understanding - build background and expertise,
demonstrate - knowledge and expertise
reader update - bringing reader up to date
Filling in the key elements and whats going on now

Writing process
Chronological - time period of different information and discoveries
Advancements - advancements in  breakthourhg or capabiltiy
Questions - what are the major questions relating to this topic through the years - number and then address each question

Collect sources - academic peer reviewed sources
Analyze sourcers - what is worth the time and energy - skim, scan, what catches your eye - then extend to what is relevent to topic, and you are going to use
Arrange  find patterns, themes or questions, make an outline,  list major sources that have a pattern,
Summarize sources and providing trasitional connections between each source as you move

Common errors when conducting a lit review - video

Michael Quinn Patton, PhD   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiDHOr3NHRA
 Draw on the knowledge and contributions of other people, to determine where our our knowledge and contribution sits.
Purpose is to understnad your intellectual heritage/geneology ; we are building on the knowmledge of others, we need to know what that knowledge is; what work has come before us, what concepts we have inherited, methods and measures we have inherited, some we have adopted some we have parted from - we need to know what we have done, which ones and why: at the end we are going to expected to locate your work within a tradition; need to be able to identify the people who formed the basic distinctions that you are drawing on.
Common mistakes

1. Doing an internet search to get loads of sources.- the quality is what is important and your engagement with these - so you can identify what is useful and relevant and position yourself out of traditions that others have engaged in - goal is not to be different or original
2. Trying to say this research is unique and nothing elase has been written about it  - you stand on the shoulders of the giants who have rsearched this topic - narrowly and braodly before you. There are original burning questions that have defined all fields/ areas that you can call on - and that go back to the original notion of any subject area. You need to know who the classic people where who were asking those questions, who were their disciples, who and where were the breakaways/ splits when groups went in different directions - up to recent work that has just been done and even work that hasn't get been published - can you get in touch with people doing research in the area you are looking at. find out what is being researched and funded now. Then you can say these are the people on who's shoulders i stand,these are the intellectual traditions, this is my intellectual DNA, this is what I have drawn on, here are the palces where I am departing from others , and here is wher I am going to make my contribution. Thats the purpose of a lit review - you are positioning yourself in a stream or flow of knowledge
3. Only citing/reading 2nd or 3rd hand accounts of the classics: the classics are classics because the thinking in them is profound - the findings may be datd - however youa re learnning how scientists, scholars and researchers think. look for the methods, how did particular findings come form methods - mthod - finding linkage, how did methods develop over time - how did the classic thinkers/writers think about things and enquire into things.  What knowledge/understnading can you gain from their inquiry, observations, conclusions, and findings. exquistic detailed research. Dedication to careful case notes and recordings.Understnad the methodogical greats, their foundation of knowledge. the teoretical stream - findings adn constructs. Methodogical stream - recording etc - rich inheritance as scholar practitioners. - know what intellectual heritage is

Week 19

Lit review notes:
From Video Lit review

Use synthesis Matrix for information ; Made and shared

The literature review is a critical evaluation of the research that has been done in a particular area. A literature review should:

• Provide an overview of the research that has been conducted in a particular topic
• Describe and summarise the findings of previous research
• Make connections and compare and contrast research findings
• Evaluate and analyse the research findings and organise information into coherent themes.

7-8 texts for joint review:

Spent 15 minutes looking for the annotated literature review - couldn't find it - gave up.

Plan

Read through and evaluate the texts each of us have

Highlight information relevant to our topics.

Fill out synthesis matrix as we go

SUNDAY  put together and start draft

Week 18

Redefine  topic area and question:

How to read a scientific article
Clarify  question
why we are looking at this topic  - reason
what other studies have been done
what other people have done and found

What is a literature review
overview of main pieces of work on a topic
Analysed and  discused by them, reader see bigger theme
Identifying gaps that exist in current research - why your work is needed and how it will build on research already been done ( next assignment)
How previous researchers have appraoched a problem
How work is connected
reveals themes and controverseys in this area of research
Strengths and weaknesses of previuos reseacrh
Identifies gaps  in research
why your research is valuble in context of wider body of knowledge


start early and give heaps of time
Take note of where you searched and key words used


identify patterns and group literature by themes

Contain major piees of information on a theme

Writing up

Group ideas into sections and make links between different pieces of literature
Point of themes, gaps
Show relationship wih own research

How to read a scholarly article
 have a clear topic question in mind
 read abstract - help decide if it is relevant
Make note of key term the writers are using
If it looks useful = have a look
Read intro, scan - loook for key ideas - highlight or underlineCan look up cited articles later on.

Discussion/ conclusion - what they found out. highlight interesting bits. - go back to read results to find anyting that was interesting.
Method, what type of mehod was used and how it was done
References section - allow you to read on topic in more detail if you wish.

 Between now and wedneday next week
Read through articles Aimee has found - relevance and usefulness for lit revue.
Shared doc of anything we find that we think is useful add title of research


Discussions participated in
What is a mindset - put up by Aimee L
Put up - how do we evidence this
Facebook discussion

Aimee has emailed tutor re videoing through long discussions and adding to blog

week 17

thoughts from reading
How relevant is the research to actual chalk face?

Our topic is mindsets; Growth mindset - possible research questions

Is mindset nuture or nature?   Parental influence, behaviour, developmental stage?
Media and peer influences of mindsets.
i can't do, I'm dumb mindset - is that developed and perpetuated by teachers?  National standards?
Is it linked to socio econoic standing, lower income lower expectations.
Bad parental school experiences transferred onto their children.
Lit review - looking at how grouping kids into ability groupings affects the kids mindsets and attitude to their ability and learning. Interview kids about how they feel about it, their thoughts and feelings and how we could change it. Parent perspectives about how kids are grouped and the effect this has on their kids.
When did students decide they couldn't do or were back at a specific learning area.




How can kaupapa maori inform research?
Kaupapa Māori in research is concerned with methodology (a process of enquiry that determines the methods used)
 An important feature of kaupapa Māori research is that one must undertake research that will have positive outcomes for Māori (Smith 1999).

make sure that the research will have positive benefits for students of all cultures.

principals we will use from  Kaupapa Maori
The principle of self determination
The principal of extended family structure
Social economic mediation


For our second assignement could we look at a plan of how we change parental and community mindsets around kids mising out on " fundamental and necessary" skills becasue of using digital technology instead of how it used to be e.g pen and paper, practicing handwriting, etc

Week 5 playing and mindset

Interesting playing with Scratch and Makey Makey.
Can see this being a really interesting ancoept of praising a child d fun tool for students.
Would be intersting to see what they could come up with if ggiven really open instructions without " a teacher spin." Would they do what most of the adults did and make a song and something that was familiar - or would they do something completely different and use the animal noises, and sound effects that the programme has?

Mindset
Great for the test to say had an open mindset. What about whne under stress or rushed for time - would his be different.
Two issues I had with praise. I understand the concept of how damaging continual prasie along the lines of you are cleer, or talented can be, and we need to be cautious of this - however some people are actually talented and have an amount of natural disposition to some tthings/areas of interest. Do we ignore that and not comment. I know that we need to mainly praise hard work, committment, adn perserverence. Part of me is wonders if we are micro managing far too much of our kids thinking and rationalising - bubble wrapping their thingking as we do activities that have been considered harmful.

Intelligence is not stagnant. Motivation is a leading attribute of whether or not we learn anything. Fantastic discussion at course, thought provoking, thinking about whether we have to do more to motivate kids, or do kids need to motivate themselves.
Discussed this with the adults at home after course - really intersting that they thought this was completely untrue and learnign is totally around your set intelligence, cause they had been told that their whole lives. So how do we get this mindset away from adults so they don't continue to give it to kids?

Towards recoceptualising leadership Week 3

every school has a wealth of leadership - strong catalyst for change to improve student learning.
Frost and Durant (2002) teacher agency central to student outcomes
teacher leadership different to administrational leadership - needs shared decision making, teamwork and community building

Shift in leadership practice needed. Principas fostering teacher leadership through distributed leadership and collective ownership of visions ( that explains alot of how garry operates.)
KNowledge creation as a social process

Principal and teacher leadership * culturally repsonsive practices adressing different needs of diverse studnets ( especially low achieveing) & invovlement of economically disadvvantaged families in curic construction.

Gilbert (2010) combine 21st century education with new political theory related to individulity. She says = appropriate theory of knowledge and appropriate theory of change.
Intersting - leaders wanting to document curric practices. not thinking about things differently.

There are multiple truths  - perceptions vs reality

Peoples views are coloured by thier exeriences, values and thinking. There will always be areas that fall outside their experiences.
Need to understand (or try to) why people may hold a certain view
Understanding of what trigger our own behaviouror thinking  important as is what our blindspots are

Conditions for classroom technology innovations

Thoughts
Finally get what pedagogival disruption means and the effect this cna have on practie
Of importance
Previous technological advnces of only a few years ago are now obsolete - so what does tis mena for what we are  currently using now?
Check out CUSeeMeto
If the system hooked up to doesn't work - nothing goes well
More successful when teachers are highly relfective about their own practice and goals
Teachers pedagogical approach needs to be consistent with technology they are using
Technology is a tool not a means to an end - or an instant fix.
Need to refelct and co front barriers we hold beofre successful integration can occur
Negotiating scjhool culture important as is social awareness within the school setting
Innovation - distance and dependeance - the distance it is away from normal in the school practie and existing culture - distanace from available tech resources

Distance from existing practice.
Human infrastrucutre - often not helpful: helping with grants, technology ad materials acquisition, maintenace and use of technologues. - tech tramslator important and helpful.

We are very fortunate to have the systems and infrastructures set up that we have in NZ.
As a staff at our school we are super lucky that we have the  support and technical knowledge and support and the number of devices and the free range we have with these.
Also fortunate is the very forward thinkiong of our Principal and DP's. There give it a go attitude seems to be quite rare, as is the importance they place on using technologies effectively and to benefit student and teacher learning