The way in which I have unpacked the quantitative and qualitative data I have gathered from my students between the years 2013 and 2016 is important as this provides the foundation of information required for you to understand how I make decisions about the content and pedagogical knowledge incorporated into my lectures.
I use the same approach with all my core modules (which you can review in the about link). For the purpose of this teaching portfolio, I will focus only on Foundation Phase Physical Education as this is where the most education-through-movement takes place. Additionally it is where I use integrated lesson plans which merge Foundation Phase Curriculum assessment and Planning Statement (CAPS) document guidelines on Beginning Knowledge, Creative Arts and Social-Well being. I also aim to get students to merge movements with Language and Maths for Foundation Phase learners. Using movement to educate has been highlighted by researchers such as Asher (2012) and applied in class by teachers such as Kurt Minnaar. Mike Kuczala additionally elaborates on movement and education in his Ted talk.
I have visually illustrated my 'interrogation' cycle below. I use the word 'interrogation' as it sums up the intensity and persistence I use to critical reflect on my students' feedback, colleagues' reflections, literature findings and my personal experience and thoughts.
My reflections include WHAT am I using, WHY am I using it and HOW I will implement it. I then ask myself HOW it has affected my students and WHY it has affected them that way. Hence once I have implemented the content and pedagogical approach I observe my students, get quantitative or qualitative feedback from them, consult and share the results with experienced colleagues and consult literature.
What should be of interest is how I became more aware of the analysis 'lens' I was using whilst implementing my 'interrogation' cycles of the information gathered between the years 2013 and 2017. I became more aware of my ontological, epistemological and methodological view point when I was introduced to qualitative research and Participatory Action Research. Additionally my collaborations with the Center of Teaching, Learning and Media (CTLM) introduced me to terms such as pedagogy, teaching philosophy, assessment strategy, student centered approach and humanizing pedagogy to name but a few.
As I came from a positivist background (publishing mainly in quantitative research) and focused primarily on quantitatively based systematic reviews, I tended to view my data from a content perspective versus student emotion based perspective. Hence only as I progressed in my teaching career did I become more aware of how to practically apply emotionally engaging and student-centered approaches.
The career and reflective stages I have been through can be best explained within the article by Asaf, Shachar, Tohar and Kainan (2008). Whilst reflecting on the article I feel as though I am in the activism and taking stock stages of Huberman's career stages, the apprentice stage of Steffy, Wolfe, Pasach and Enz stages of career development and in the research based reflective phase of Griffiths and Tann's teacher reflectivity. To evaluate the phases of reflection and analysis I have been through refer to the years 2013 to 2017 focused on :
- 2013: Humble Beginnings
- 2014: Learning the Hard Way
- 2015: A New Start
- 2016: Habits Die Hard
- 2017: Innovation
I feel the following two pictures sum up my experiences.
Reflective and Reflexive Actions are Important
