Teaching in the Context of ICT

Page 35 of the New Zealand Curriculum describes teaching as a process of inquiry.In this ongoing, cyclical process, teachers constantly ask themselves where their students are in their learning, how they can help them progress, and how their teaching impacts on the students’ learning

Focus Inquiry

Teachers identify the outcomes they want their students to achieve. They consider how their students are doing in relation to those outcomes, and they ask what their students need to learn next in order to achieve them. The following questions may be pertinent -

1. How will I know the learner?
2. How will I assess prior knowledge?
3. What knowledge is important?
4. What is important given where my students are at?

Teaching Inquiry

Takes place both during and after teaching as teachers monitor their students’ progress towards the identified outcomes and reflect on what this tells them. Teachers use this new information to decide what to do next to ensure continued improvement in student achievement and in their own practice. It is, therefore, important to ask -

1. What strategies (evidence- based) are most likely to help my students learn this?

Learning inquiry

The teacher investigates the success of the teaching in terms of the prioritised outcomes, using a range of assessment approaches. They do this both while learning activities are in progress and also as longer-term sequences or units of work come to an end. They then analyse and interpret the information to consider what they should do next. The questions are -

1. What data could be collected?
2. What tools could be used to do this?
3. What happened as a result of the teaching?
4. What do I need to change?
5. What are the next steps for learning?