Week 28 - Influence of Law and Ethics in Practice
With a whole-school focus on development of learner agency, outlined in our 2018 strategic planning, I attempted to ‘Flip’ my Year 5/6 digital classroom at the beginning of this year. Students had 1:1 access to Chromebooks supplied by the school. The aim was to develop Rangatiratanga in our learners; the self-determination required to drive their learning journey (Bishop & Verleger, 2013). I was really excited at the start and spent a considerable amount of time creating and sourcing suitable material to support their learning. However, I noticed very quickly that the enthusiasm from the students began to wane after the first few weeks and there was an increase in the amount of students who seemed reluctant to participate in the in-class learning.
Following much classroom discussion, I unearthed access issues for students at home. I had asked about ease of internet access beforehand but perhaps some learners were reluctant to say in front of peers that they had none. I also made the incorrect assumption that access to a device meant access to the internet which turned out not to be the case. The critical incident arose when a relieving teacher was unable to run my classroom programme due to students not having engaged with the required material the day before. She commented that ‘this technology stuff’ wasn’t really working. As I was trialling this at our school, with the aim of leading others in the same direction, it was important to address this issue immediately.
Fifty percent of my class are from traditional Pasifika backgrounds. Discussions with whānau revealed uncertainty about regular use of Chromebooks in the classroom as it clashed with the teaching methods they were familiar with. I had spent a good deal of time assuaging fears about their tamariki spending learning time on random internet searching and games, and I knew they had placed their trust in me to create a successful learning environment. In terms of Ehrich’s (2011) model of ethical decision-making, I was faced with the societal and community issue of upholding whānau expectations of our school to provide a high level of education. Additionally, creating greater certainty around the integration of digital technology was also in the public interest.
The majority of students I teach fall within the low socio-economic band. Our school equity policy clearly states no child shall be disadvantaged due to financial reasons and, for this reason, we supply digital technology for our tamariki. If, however, my learners are unable to access material because internet access is not a priority for their families, I am inadvertently putting them at a disadvantage.
Our Code, Our Standards is underpinned by the value of Pono; for teachers this means we are legally bound to be fair, ethical and just (Education Council of New Zealand, 2017). In addition, the Standard relating to a learning-focused culture, expects that teachers will “Manage the learning setting to ensure access to learning for all” (Education Council of New Zealand, 2017, p.20).
The resulting decision was a change in approach to the In-class Flip (Barnes & Gonzales, 2015). With this approach, the issue of internet access at home became null and void as learners could acquire the necessary pre-loading during class time. We are still in the early stages of this change of approach, however, my learners appear more engaged and on-task now that the equity of access issue has been resolved; we are tracking this progress together.
References
Barnes, M., & Gonzales, J. (2015). Hacking Education. Cleveland, OH: Times 10
Publications.
Bishop, J. L., & Verleger, M. A. (2013). The Flipped Classroom: A Survey of the
Research.Atlanta: 120th ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition.
Education Council of Aotearoa New Zealand. (2017). Our code our standards: Code
of professional responsibility and standards for the teaching profession: Ngā
tikanga matatika ngā paerewa: Ngā tikanga matatika mō te haepapa ngaiotanga
me ngā paerewa mō te umanga whakaakoranga. Wellington, New Zealand: Author.
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
Hi Yvonne,
ReplyDeleteI'm also trialling flipped learning with my tamariki, however, mine are year 3-4. When completing my literature review, I found that there was a gap in research regarding both flipped learning with primary aged students and for the in-class flip. Accessibility was a major concern of mine as well, which is eventually what prompted me to trial an in-class flip. Perhaps for future situations regarding gathering student information in which they may be shy to disclose the information, you could try using a google form? I have found this a successful way to gather student information such as internet ease of access at home etc.
Hi Michelle,
DeleteInteresting that you also found a gap in the primary sector research in this area. One of the comments on my literature review was it may have been useful to narrow the scope of my research - which is entirely true - it's just that, like you, I thought I would be short of relevant material had I done so. Or, perhaps I just need to get better at searching! Seems like there could be scope for a thesis here. Given the number of NZ schools who are integrating digital technology at an even earlier age, it would be good to further unpack the benefits of each model. Thanks for the idea about the Google forms...will use that next time!
Thank you Yvonne for highlighting the problems we seem to be facing in our setting too. For example; many of our school community don't have access to the internet. We also have the problem of the programme not able to be followed when a relieving teacher is in the digital classes. I agree with both you and Michelle with your findings about flipped learning. This seems to be the key.
ReplyDeleteHi Sally,
DeleteAs part of my role at school, I have a part-time teacher in my room two days per week. Fortunately she is keen to learn and has taken on the challenge. Previously, I was running my digital class for 3 days and the other teacher kept the Chromebooks locked in the cupboard for the other 2. As for relievers, we have some permanent ones who will roll with the digital class planning but we always have to have a back-up plan just in case. The logistics could put you off if you let it! We are still slowly building the numbers of digital classes - currently at 3 x 1:1 (all Mindlab trained) and 4 x 1:2 (all learning by osmosis). How are you going at your school?
Yes, wouldn't it be good to have some data about the impact of digital learning from an early age.. It will be interesting to see the effects of this downstream, especially regarding the effectiveness of flipped classrooms. I find that its an uphill battle trying to get secondary students to use this model.. But I'll keep going at trying, with a view that students will have had increasingly more exposure. Manaiakalani do have some data on their site tracking through to secondary.. This is data relating to their model specifically which seems to centre around blogging, from what I can tell. Perhaps someone from a Manaiakalani school could elaborate..?
ReplyDelete