Blogpost #9 - Monitoring of new approaches continued

My Journey with this Inquiry so far...

This years inquiry was very complex! I struggled to think of what else I could further inquire into based on evidence of student learning. Let's be honest, the beginning of 2022 was unprecedented...yet again. Schools went into Hybrid Learning as students and staff fell victim to covid, again.

I was one of the few who struggled all year round with my health. I had finished with Covid BUT some of its symptoms chose to stay with me much longer than I'd anticipated. I was "diagnosed" with Long covid and I coughed for months on end. 

I started to think to myself "I am unwell, I've missed school quite a bit, some of my students attendance has dropped also (due to covid & the flu), what am I to do to ensure these kids are still learning and I am doing my job?" For the last couple of years,  Teacher "Well-being" plummeted. One of the major consequences of covid-19 in educational settings has been the transition from face-to-face instruction to home learning and now hybrid learning, in order to maintain teaching and learning quality standards.

Studies have shown an increase in stress and burnout in school teachers (Pellerone, 2021). Teaching staff are not coming back to what was considered a "normal" teaching environment. I therefore decided to refine my inquiry and focus it on Teacher & Student Well-Being - How does it influence achievement, engagement & enjoyment?

My intervention looks at how we can ensure our teacher practice involves practical strategies that improves interpersonal interactions. These include emotional intelligence, empathy, assertiveness, compassion etc, which can influence socio-emotional classroom environment and improve relationships between teachers, staff & students, eventually leading to an environment that fosters accelerated achievement, engagement and enjoyment of learning,

Changes were made in my usual "way of Teaching". The depth of collaboration and flexible learning spaces became a new normal at school and both teacher and student relationships soared. Our team took on the pedagogy of cross-grouping between the 3 classes in my team. Maths & Literacy were taught at the same time, and students would move to their designated classrooms with different teacher for the learning areas.

When teaching Maths & Literacy, we took on a Reciprocal Teaching approach and fostered Multi-Modal resources in our planning. We would often start each week with a school Karakia, then we'd meet as a Team to go through our learning for the week. We'd often start our meetings with an inspirational video, sharing the message that reinforces our PB4L focus for the week, along with some mindfulness sessions.

 The students also requested the weekly meetings because they were front-loaded with information on what was to come. Our teaching assistants were also present and liked knowing in advance, what the week ahead looked like.

The changes we made to our practice helped put teachers and students at ease. No panic, no stress if a teacher was down, because the learning content was the same across the syndicate. Anyhow, I will continue to share evidence of how my inquiry intervention has helped both teacher & student (occupational) well-being and it's impacts on the learning this year.

Intervention in progress...

Reference:

Pellerone, M. (2021). Self-perceived instructional competence, self-efficacy and burnout during the covid-19 pandemic: a study of a group of Italian school teachers. Eur. J. Invest. Health Psychol. Educ. 11, 496–512. doi: 10.3390/ejihpe11020035