What?
If Flinders University (n.d.) is correct that, "Teachers are responsible and accountable for designing and delivering a high quality of learning and teaching practice." (para 5), then how can a community of practice help me to achieve this? A Community of Practice is defined as, 'Groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.' (Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner, 2015).
If I had been questioned during the first 12 years of my practice, I would've said that I was a reflective practitioner, often thinking about my teaching and how individual lessons went. I was also consistently looking for ways to improve my lessons, going to courses to be given ways in which I could improve in specific areas, such as art. However, if I'm honest, these 'reflections' and the courses sat at Zeichner and Liston’s (cited in Finlay, 2008, p.4) 'rapid reflection', where I was regularly just thinking about how the lesson had gone. The depth wasn't there.
Over the last five to eight years, my reflection has gained more depth. Although I still rapidly reflect, I also constantly look at what has happened, what has caused this, where I want myself and/or my students to move to and what other people are doing. This type of reflection is called 'repair' and 'review' reflections, also from Zeichner and Liston. I was pleased with this increased level of reflection. Then, over the past seven months, I have boosted my level of reflection further, moving to the highest levels of 'Research' and 'retheorizing and reformulating.'
Why have I changed?
The change in my levels of reflection and teaching practices are definitely connected to the enlarging of my Communities of Practice and realising the benefit these can have on my practice. My community of practice is now broad, (see Figure 1)
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| Fig 1: My Communities of Learning |
Today, I have a large group of colleagues whom I regularly discuss both my own and their practice. I am observed regularly, setting new goals and researching to improve my practice. I also use social media platforms, such as Twitter to keep abreast of new research and ideas in teaching.
So What?
Domains
As I discussed, my communities of practice have enlarged significantly over the past five years, but that is meaningless if I don't use these different communities to address key areas of practice (Knox,2009).
Team Tainui
My class makes up a quarter of Tainui, my teaching team. As teachers in this team, we share ideas of our units plans and reflect on them. The area where this becomes a growth domain is in our monitoring meetings. In these meetings, one of us introduces a student we believe we can help, often in writing, and we nut out a plan. Six days later, we provide an update/feedback/make a new plan and someone else introduces a new student. These meetings allow us to draw on our collective experience, as well as doing any research that is needed to allow us to meet the student's needs. This is the document we work through:
Now What?
The impact on my teaching and personal development have been immense - I am now less reactive, more proactive. I have become more humble, realising that there is so much more to learn and that it is not a sign of weakness to admit that others know more and that I can learn from them. On the flipside, I now know my areas of strength and enjoy supporting and mentoring others in these areas. I am now a member of the Aotearoa teaching community, and through Twitter, across the world. And it feels great.
The challenge for me is going to be keeping this proactive approach alive when I'm busy and I've finished my Mindlab studies. It is easy to default to the insular life inside my classroom. But I don't want to.
References
Finlay, L. (2009). Reflecting on reflective practice. PBPL. Retrieved from
http://www.open.ac.uk/opencetl/sites/www.open.ac.uk.opencetl/files/files/ecms/web-content/Finlay-(2008)-Reflecting
Flinders University. (n.d.). Retrieved May 19, 2017, from http://www.flinders.edu.au/teaching/quality/evaluation/good-teaching-practice.cfm
Introduction to communities of practice. (n.d.). Retrieved May 19, 2017, from http://wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/
Knox, B. (2009, December 4).Cultivating Communities of Practice: Making Them Grow. [video file].
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhMPRZnRFkk
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