I started this week in Kyoto at the International Geography Olympiad and ended it with 2 days in my new job at Hobsonville Point Secondary School.
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From Kyoto to Hobsonville
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Tag Archives: professional development
NZ Teachers Council Review Submission
The New Zealand Teachers Council is undergoing a review at the moment and the proposals are up for consultation. You can find all the review documents here.
The initial read of the glossy proposals seems nice enough. There is a major catch however. The more you read, the scarier it looks. I thoroughly recommend that you take the time to read the details hidden within the larger cabinet paper as this is where you will find some of the bits that worried me.
Whilst writing my submission I was lucky enough to get the chance to read some other submissions (ranging from 1 page to 11 pages), all of which had great thoughts in them. Even if you only write a short submission, I urge as many of you as possible to make a submission.
In the interests of collaboration, here is my submission in full which was sent in today:
Research Access Success
Two weeks ago, I sent an email to a group of people high up in the Ministry of Education and put it online in this post asking for access to academic journals as a teacher. I have had a range of conversations with people over the past 2 weeks about this and today had a successful outcome to the email.
The obvious message over the last 2 weeks has been that there are lots of teachers out there craving access to research so they can challenge and improve their practice. Everyone I have spoken to has been interested in what the outcome would be. Either because they also want more access to research themselves or because they see the value in it so much they are currently undertaking research or study and want to know where they can read once their study finishes. Continue reading
Academic Journal Access
This post is a copy of an email I sent this week to the Ministry of Education:
Kia ora tatou,
I am in my 11th year teaching in New Zealand secondary schools. For much of this time I have either been involved in various research projects or undertaking further study or research myself towards a Masters in Education degree. This has meant that a majority of my professional development has been informed by the most recent educational research. I have now, however, been out of university for 18 months and am finding it incredibly difficult to access academic research.
Research has shown that teachers who reflect critically on their practice improve learning a lot more than many other initiatives. It is very difficult if teachers don’t have access to academic journal databases to be able to critically reflect on the quality of our teaching as we are not being exposed to the latest research and ideas.
The Education and Science Select Committee Report “Inquiry into 21st Century Learning Environments and Digital Literacy” also highlights the importance of teachers engaging with current research thinking. The importance of evidence-based decision making and upskilling people for 21st century learning in this report supports my argument that teachers require access to academic journals.
The Education Counts website provides a great synthesis of research ideas and the staff are obviously well connected with the research as I have personally received some of the articles in support of the publications when I have enquired further. These ideas, however, need to be accessed on a more regular basis.
Is it possible to gain access to the academic journal databases that the Ministry of Education subscribes to? I feel this would allow me to continue to pursue improvement in my teaching which will result in better outcomes for my students.
I look forward to your response,
Regards,
Steve Mouldey
What do you think? Am I expecting too much? Am I placing too much emphasis on access to research as a form of professional development? Should I be paying for my own access (note here: One journal wanted to charge me $39.95 just for one article this week!)? What chances of anyone from the MoE engaging in conversation with me on this?
UPDATE 25/6: I have heard back from the Ministry and now have access to their library services. This is available to support teachers and principals in our practice, I encourage you all to read this post about what I can now access or just head to the Ministry of Education Library to find out more.
Advice from Paul Ego
For this week’s Staff PD session at school we had Paul Ego come and talk to us. As a comedian who has worked on stage and television he was an inspired choice to talk to teachers. He mentioned early on how teachers are performers with the most judgemental audience.
Steve Mouldey 