Golfing and teaching - the same but different.

To help teachers understand the concept of teaching as inquiry, I use the analogy of golfing. When you start golfing, it takes a while to learn how to hit the ball and send it in the general direction you want it to go. After the first few months you start to get the hang of it and then you start trying to refine and hone your game.

You think about the way you hit the ball. You try different clubs and irons to get the best result. You start taking into account the conditions on the course, wet, dry, long or short grass, wind from what direction? You don't go out on a golf course and hit the ball and say "that is as far as I am ever going to hit that ball, I can't get any better". You go on and try different strategies to stop the ball curving in the direction you don't want, and you seek improvement in any way that you think will work. You practice. You ask you golfing buddies to help you. Sometimes you seek help from a professional, Sometimes you might even become a professional but you never, never, never say, "that is it, I cant do any better." You analyse what happened after you hit the ball. Did it go where you intended? Why or why not? Do you need to try it again?

So when you talk to any teacher, ask them what their inquiry is this year. They will be excited that someone is interested in their role as a professional. Teaching as inquiry starts with looking at the evidence (know your students using student data, and information about their environment) and then deciding where do you want to get your students to. You put together a plan based on your experience and you trial new strategies that you think might work, and if they don't, then you try another strategy. You reflect on the influence your strategies have had on the outcomes for the students. If it does work, you keep practicing and striving to hone your practice. You don't ever, ever, ever, give up!

The difference is, that in golf you can go home happy that you gave it a go, good day or bad. In teaching, the well being and future of the children is at stake. You see - same but different!

Note: - Teachers in New Zealand must be registered. Their principals must attest to the fact they they have satisfied the "registered teacher criteria" every three years for them to remain fully registered. There are twelve of these criteria and they can be found online.

Criterion number twelve is that a registered teacher must 'use critical inquiry and problem-solving effectively in their professional practice.' This means that teachers must strive to improve their practice. They must continually look at ways that they can improve outcomes for their students. This is known as "Teaching As Inquiry" (TAI) in the profession.

So What Are You Afraid Of?

I was a cautious child. As I have grown older, I have taken more risks in my life (not the least of which is flying, my least favourite pastime) and, with every risk I take, come more great spin-offs. Admittedly, they are not the kind of risks like going over Niagara Falls in a barrel but risks in my personal and professional life have had much greater benefits to me than if I had not taken them. With every risk taken, there is an element of letting go control, allowing yourself to be swept along by fortune, and having to give up something that you may find comfortable and comforting. But along with the risk-taking comes a journey of new experience and richness in my life.
As I go into schools, and talk to educators across New Zealand, I become very aware that so many teachers are in that position of fear of taking risks - not wanting to take the plunge into the unknown when it comes to being curious and letting students tell them how to do things. In our past, we were educated in a system where you did as the teacher said and there was no questioning of that at all. If you did you were deemed to be a "cheeky little monkey" as I once heard a teacher tell a classmate of mine who was much more questioning than me. Now, although the concept of Ako (being a learner alongside your students) is relatively well known, it seems to be hard for many teachers to actually step down from their position of power or control to allow the students to take the lead. I have heard many times "I need to learn this so I can show my students how to do it" when I would like to hear "I wonder what the students could do with this if I gave them some time to figure it out?". The natural curiosity of children seems to be suppressed and certainly it is lacking in many of their teachers. The future oriented teaching and learning themes also accentuate the changing roles of teachers and learners, alongside the theme of an educator of being a life-long learner. What is it that makes you think that once you are qualified and trained, you can be content with that for the rest of your life? My question to you educators out there is, what are you afraid of? Is it not meeting the agreed achievement goals? How many of you allow your students to take control what is learned in your classes? How many of you have stepped down from the sage on the stage position to become a guide on the side? I am taking a risk, asking this of you. Lead me down some unimagined pathway of enlightenment.

Confident, connected, lifelong learners.

The very things we are trying to instil in our learners are what we should be continuously culturing in ourselves as teachers.


I have met some wonderful educators over the years. Often late career educators are the best at reaching out and connecting with others, looking for new ways to teach.
What do you think connected means? To me, it means having a sharing relationship with other teachers, offering and receiving ideas and resources.
What does it mean for you?

Location:Taupo, New Zealand

This looks cool - the secret door

The Secret Door is presented by Safestyle UK

Views of Knowledge

I am freshly back from the Virtual Professional Learning and Development (VPLD) conference in Auckland.  It was an awesome hui, a great chance to catch up face to face with my mentees and mentors alike.  Two days of celebrations of  personal journeys in educational contexts and lots of learning for all.                  

As with all meetings,there is a lot to digest and mull over for the next few weeks.  The VPLD is where I grew my "learning with digital technology" wings.  It is a supportive and empowering community and I have enjoyed presenting at each one over the past four years.  This year, I facilitated a short session on Future Focused Learning.  his blog post is about my reflections from that presentation.
I have blogged about these 6 themes of future-oriented teaching and learning before, as they resonate strongly for me about the power of transforming learning with digital technologies.

As part of the session, I asked the group of about 70 educators to reflect on what each of the themes could mean in their classrooms.  I gathered responses via a google form (answers are collated in a spreadsheet) and this give me the opportunity to see how well people understand the concepts.

The theme which was least understood was about using knowledge to build learning capacity. So I thought I would revisit this concept and try to clarify my understandings, and as always, look for further comment and discussion around this theme.

From Curriculum Update 26 comes these words " learning can happen through collaborative knowledge building" and "disciplinary knowledge provides context within which students' learning capacity can be developed".  What I understand from this is that as students grow their knowledge, they should also be growing their capability to learn more.  We need to provide supports and scaffolds to ensure that they learn to understand how they learn and build their knowledge.  This in turn will allow them to become more independent, self directed learners.
Sometimes this just means having a model for learning - like the many inquiry learning models I have used and seen around the country.  These provide students with the framework to reflect on the way they grow their knowledge.
Just by chance, I spotted this poster in social media yesterday, about some attitudes which will support students build their capacity for learning. I am not sure where it came from but it really does reflect the kinds of things I believe we should be teaching our students.  Guy Claxton also  talks about "learning habits".  So as our students widen their knowledge base, we should also be instilling these habits and attitudes, which will enable them to be lifelong learners.
Knowledge is important.  Students should be able to use knowledge to help them build more knowledge.  But knowledge is now growing at such a rapid rate that it is impossible to be able to able to claim that what you know now will be relevant or even true in 10 years time.  (In my day, Pluto was a planet.  It was knowledge that I learned for my exams.)
It makes perfect sense to me now to use knowledge to build learning capacity now..... how do you feel?

It would be great if you could contribute to this answer garden for me.... you should be able to see all the answers, too.


What is the biggest obstacle to learning with digital technology... at AnswerGarden.ch.

Using Google Sites for Registered Teacher Criteria

Here is an introductory video for those New Zealand Teachers wanting to use Google Sites for their eportfolios of evidence against the registered teacher criteria. In the true tradition of flipped learning, it is warts and all.