Research 1
CISC 8101 - RESEARCH AND COMMUNITY INFORMED PRACTICE
Research and Community Informed Practice Assessment 1 - G Harris
Research and Community Informed Practice Assessment 1 - G Harris
21st century skills are crucial for our children to acquire in order for them to actively participate in society as adults (ITL research, 2012). I have chosen to focus on 21st century skills as through scanning learners of the relevant age group, reading literature and talking to colleagues I found that a concern from all groups was children being prepared for their future. The community shared a need to develop necessary skills and behaviours in order to succeed. Two children shared that they valued learning to use the school values of respect, resilience, responsibility and relationships. Another child added to their comment that these were important to learn as you needed to know how to “be good when you’re old” or “they will fire you”. One author suggests that there is a consistent finding that despite both younger and older children receiving equal preparation it is in the early years that teachers have a greater impact on children's future academic performance (Schnieder, 2017). For this reason it is important to take action that will make a meaningful difference for my learners. When scanning my community I was aware that I would be beginning the take action phase of the research project while working in a new school, in a different community. For this reason I asked a new colleague from my future school what the needs were of their students. She said skill development was a key area of growth as there was a limited range of digital devices available at the junior year level. This will be a barrier but it will not prevent the children from developing the necessary skills.
Theme 1: Digital Literacies
A theme I identified in the literature when reading about 21st century skills was the need for children to develop digital literacies in the early years. How digital literacies are taught and the significance digital literacies should be given in the classroom is discussed by a range of authors.
An argument among the literature was around the best way for the children to acquire and learn new digital literacies. Shively suggests that these skills should be developed through the constructivist model of experiential learning (2017). Anagun agrees with this perspective suggesting that “environments foster the development of competencies”(2018). How I can use the environment to enable skills to be acquired will be important for me to consider. Good use of the teaching environment could help overcome the limited access to digital tools. Other literature however does not break down the acquisition of these skills to a learning theory but rather gives examples of how a possible tool or app would support children to develop digital literacies, and through that, 21st century skills. Lu, Ottenbreit-Leftwich, Ding and Glazewski suggest that a key issue for teachers when considering the implementation of digital literacies in the classroom should be “what constitutes developmentally appropriate practices...in early childhood classrooms” (2017). They suggest the use of ipads as they have a large touch screen and a tactile based interface (Lu, Ottenbreit-Leftwich, Ding and Glazewski, 2017). However, that does not mean that ipads are exclusively the best tool to use to develop digital literacies. Wohlwend suggests “that children use keypads and touch screens on a broad range of technological devices”(2015). Furthermore Wohlwend suggest that it is important we start “building on children's existing digital literacy abilities...and collaborative play skills” in the early childhood classroom in order to prepare them for the “future literacies”(2015). This is an important point to note as when scanning the community the children saw the school values which are taught through play based learning as important to them and their learning. (O’Neal, Gibson, and Cotten) suggest that while technology is being used in the classroom in order to develop digital literacies it is often being taught as a separate subject (2017). They argue that in order to effectively develop 21st century learning skills digital literacies need to be integrated (O’Neal, Gibson, and Cotten, 2017).
External barriers such as lack of resources, administrative support and attitudes and perceived technology skills could affect the implementation of my action plan (O’Neal, Gibson, and Cotten, 2017). I need to be aware of potential barriers when moving into a new school environment in order to identify them promptly so I can find a way to work with them and carry out my proposed action as effectively as possible. Liberman, Bates and So point out though that despite the positive effect some apps and digital media can have in developing children's skills in the early years “many...digital media products for young children have never been studied or tested”(2009). Liberman, Bates and So also found that young children who were regularly exposed to “open-ended computed based learning displayed more curiosity, hypothesising, problem formulation and solution, collaboration, motivation” (2009).
There is a clear need for longitudinal studies that look into the effect of digital media in younger children. Most of the literature is based on short term studies that look at small groups. There was a distinct lack of relevant peer reviewed literature that focused on the New Zealand context. When choosing my next steps I need to be aware of the lack of research undertaken on the positive or negative effects of apps and technology created for young children.
Theme 2: Collaboration
The importance of children learning the skill of collaboration is described by various sources. Rshaid explains most importantly that both now and in the future it is unlikely that our children will be “working in isolation” (2014). Therefore it is important that we teach our children how to collaborate and contribute. Khoo suggests that working collaboratively allows the joint acquisition of knowledge that was not previously held (2015). ITL research outlines the importance of adequately designing tasks as the teacher in order to teach children to collaborate effectively (2012). They specify that the learning should involve the children working together, having shared responsibility, making substantive decisions together and their work needs to be interdependent (ITL, 2012).
Lieberman, Bates and So argue that “collaborative learning and social interaction can be enhanced with well designed technology”(2009). They specify well designed as they have a concern as outlined earlier over the lack of research into commercially available digital media for children. Knowing this, a consideration for my intervention could be Northcotes suggestion that skills and collaboration can be developed just through the act of giving children a camera, as through this “children [can] become contributors and collaborators in their own learning”(2009). However, it is how the children use the cameras and the task set by me as the teacher that will affect whether they gain the digital literacies and the collaborative skills they need. Wohlwend argues alternatively that the selection of open-ended apps that encourage active collaborative play and storytelling will enable children to develop the future literacies needed (2015). There is a wide range of literature on collaboration but once again as with digital literacies there is a limited range that addresses the junior years, and then an even smaller amount that looks at the New Zealand Context. However, McCauley and Mohaghegh do consider the NZ context, particularly the Maori and Pasifika perspective (2016). They include details of a forum run by NZ teachers that exclusively looks at learning with digital technologies for Maori and Pasifika learners (McCauley and Mohaghegh, 2016). This will be valuable for me to access when considering my action research as my class next year holds a range of ethnicities including Pakeha, Maori, Latin American and Sri Lankan.
Collaboration is an important skill for children to develop as it will likely affect how they can succeed in their future workplace. Future success was a concern the children, colleagues and literature shared. Collaboration will also meet my community needs as it has a set of criteria that can be taught in a range of ways, rather than just with a digital tool. Therefore I can teach collaboration even if I have a limited access to digital tools in my new school context. However, should I choose to use an app I need to be aware that an open-ended app that has been found to have a positive impact by research is the best choice.
By comparing and contrasting a range of literature I can see the value and importance of teaching digital literacies and collaborative skills in the junior years in order to effectively prepare learners for their futures. It is clear more research is needed into how these collaborative and digital literacies can be taught effectively in a junior classroom in the NZ context. When formulating my action plan I will need to question whether my actions will make a meaningful difference for my learners. My action will need to focus not just on the use of a tool but how the possible tool or action will develop the relevant skills that learners can carry into other areas and continue to use and develop for in their future.
As I am starting in a new community in a new school I have kept my question somewhat broad still. For the above reasons I have formed the below question.
How can teachers support and facilitate the development of digital literacies and collaborative skills in the junior years in a NZ context?
References
Anagün, Ş. (2018). Teachers’ Perceptions about the Relationship between 21st Century Skills and Managing Constructivist Learning Environments. International Journal of Instruction, 11(4), pp.825-840.
ITL Research. (2012). 21CLD Learning Activity Rubrics. Retrieved from https://education.microsoft.com/GetTrained/ITL-Research
LaToya J. O'Neal, Philip Gibson & Shelia R. Cotten (2017) Elementary School Teachers' Beliefs about the Role of Technology in 21st-Century Teaching and Learning, Computers in the Schools, 34:3, 192-206, DOI: 10.1080/07380569.2017.1347443
Lieberman, Debra & Demartino, Cynthia & So, Jiyeon. (2009). Young Children's Learning With Digital Media. Computers in the Schools. 26. 271-283. 10.1080/07380560903360194.
Lu, Y.-H., Ottenbreit-Leftwich, A. T., Ding, A.-C., & Glazewski, K. (2017). Experienced iPad-Using Early Childhood Teachers: Practices in the One-to-One iPad Classroom. Computers in the Schools, 34(1/2), 9–23. https://doi-org.libproxy.unitec.ac.nz/10.1080/07380569.2017.1287543
Mohaghegh, Mahsa & Mccauley, Michael. (2016). Computational Thinking: The Skill Set of the 21st Century. nternational Journal of Computer Science and Information Technologie. 7. 1524-1530.
Northcote, M. (2011). Teaching with Technology: Step back and hand over the camera! Using digital cameras to facilitate mathematics learning with young children in K-2 classrooms. Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom, 16(3), 29-32.
Rshaid, G. (2014). The 21st-century classroom. Englewood (CO): LLP.
Schenider, A. (2017). Citizenship Education for the 21st Century Leveraging the K-6 Developmental Time Window. Journal Of Education And Practice, 8(23). Retrieved from http://www.iiste.org
Shively, Kate. (2017). Reflections from the Field: Creating an Elementary Living Learning Makerspace. 6-8.
Wohlwend, K. E. (2015). One Screen, Many Fingers: Young Children’s Collaborative Literacy Play With Digital Puppetry Apps and Touchscreen Technologies. Theory Into Practice, 54(2), 154–162. https://doi-org.libproxy.unitec.ac.nz/10.1080/00405841.2015.1010837
CISC 8101 - RESEARCH AND COMMUNITY INFORMED PRACTICE
Research and Community Informed Practice Assessment 1 - G Harris
Research and Community Informed Practice Assessment 1 - G Harris
Part B - Online participation
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