Conference Agenda

Objectives:

Data is the lens through which we increasingly view our world. Yet, understanding how to engage with data can be challenging. There is a need to provide students with authentic experiences to investigate their own science questions using a variety of datasets (NASEM, 2016, p. 2). Researchers in Puerto Rico have been developing a professional learning network of teachers, scientists, and learning scientists to support teachers in implementing the Data Jam model (Bestelmeyer et al., 2015) in which students use long-term ecological data about the El Yunque national forest in Puerto Rico to develop their own investigations and use data as evidence for a scientific argument. The objective of this session is to introduce participants to the outcomes of the professional learning network and engage the participants in a sample professional learning network activity centered around a data-based investigation of an environmental phenomenon in Puerto Rico.

Educational importance for theory, policy, research, and/or practice

The guiding theory for our work engaging students in authentic scientific practice is legitimate peripheral participation (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Lave and Wenger define all learning as movement from the periphery of a community to centrality within the community. Their framework reveals several key characteristics engaging students in communities of practice in formal education settings: (a) engaging students in scientific practices, (b) using scientific tools, (c) learning the language of science though building social bonds with other members of the community, (d) developing learning sequences in which students learn scientific practices in the opposite order than how they are completed in practice, and (e) supporting development of scientific identity.

Teaching is a profession where teachers are isolated from the communities that they are teaching about. This work extends the notions of professional learning networks to include not only a peer network but also practicing scientists and learning scientists. To support teachers in shifting their practice towards authentic scientific practice, we first engaged teachers in authentic scientific practices through professional development and then embedded teachers within a professional learning network with other teachers, practicing scientists and learning scientists. As teachers implement Data Jam in their classroom, they bring samples of students’ ongoing work and data analyses to monthly Virtual Lab Meetings to discuss issues related to their teaching practice and students’ scientific investigations. Through structured protocols, teachers receive input from their peers, scientists, and educational researchers. Our findings reveal that exposure to authentic practices through student investigations and interactions with scientists develops teachers' scientific identity and capacity to support student investigations.

The format and approach(es)

We will provide a short presentation on the theoretical background, Data Jam model, and teacher outcomes. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in a simulated virtual lab meeting with student artifacts to gain experience with the professional learning network model to support legitimate peripheral participation.

Connection to the conference theme

This presentation fits within the Professional Learning Networks Network and addresses the overall conference theme of providing a model of professional education to support school improvement in data science.

The Networks of Inquiry and Indigenous Education (NOIIE) started in 2000 as a school-to-school network in British Columbia focused on changing the outcomes of learners through formative assessment. Twenty-three years later, our focus has expanded to changing the experiences for all learners by using a shared framework, the Spiral of Inquiry. Central to this work is our shared commitment to equity, quality and social justice that is reflected in one of our three main goals: Every learner will cross the stage with dignity, purpose and options.

The Network has grown to include schools in several international jurisdictions. Our joint mission is closely connected to the Congress theme of quality professional education for enhanced school effectiveness and improvement and, in particular, to the sub theme of leading improvement collaboratively and sustainably.

Increasingly we are witnessing a phenomenon across the networks that we describe as catalytic affiliation. Catalytic affiliation is a conceptual idea that can unpack the complexity of relational ties that thrive in inquiry networks. It also helps explore how social practices such as kindredness, authenticity, relational agency and reciprocal aligned beliefs work in tandem to deepen and accelerate systemwide improvement and innovation. Catalytic affiliation is more than a practice of individual leaders; it is a characteristic of networked learning spaces deeply anchored in shared repertories of learning, action and commitment, attracting and broadening professional engagement.

The purpose of this innovate session is to illustrate the ways in which the phenomenon of catalytic affiliation is evident in the experience of network leaders through imagery and metaphor. In the process, we invite others to explore the concept of catalytic affiliation and the implications that this has for high quality professional learning in very different policy environments

We live in a time of rapid and complex social, economic and political change. Compounding challenges such as technological advances, population growth and sustainability require new ways of thinking and working. Many students will go on to work in jobs that don’t yet exist. Creativity, communication, critical thinking, adaptability, and teamwork are already recognised as key attributes. There is a disconnect between the current educational experience for many students and what they need to thrive in this increasingly uncertain world. What and how student learn needs to be re-designed in many instances.

Quality professional education must support Educators to not just react to these fundamental challenges, but to reimagine and lead change. Teachers and school leaders need their own creative mindset so they can improve teaching & learning to support students to capitalise on the opportunities in life now and in the future. To achieve this, there needs to be a mechanism for supportive, high-quality professional education that does not just reinforce the status quo but challenges Educators to think differently about what, how and why we educate young people today.

The UCD Innovation Academy has ten years experience in delivering a Professional Certificate & Diploma in Creativity & Innovation in Education. This programme invites Educators to revisit and reimagine their education practice in an immersive, experiential environment. Specifically, they have the opportunity to develop their creative mindset, explore new approaches to teaching & learning and develop their leadership capacity for effecting change.

This programme is based on robust evidence of what makes effective professional learning for Educators. Active learning underpins the design of the programme. Educators are engaged in the same style of learning promoted for students, often going through their own transformation with regards to how they view themselves as both learner and teacher. Collaboration and community of practice is at the heart of the programme, with time to share and learn together, as well as individual reflection built in. The programme culminates in an Action Learning Project whereby Educators are supported with mentoring and coaching to contextualise and embed the learning for their setting.

This Innovate session will be a hands-on workshop. Attendees will participate in a 30 minute creativity sprint which will demonstrate some of the active-learning methodologies that we use in the Professional Certificate & Diploma in Creativity & Innovation for Educators course. Attendees will engage in creative collaboration, explore their own creative mindset and experience first-hand a range of teaching techniques that develop student attributes such as communication and critical thinking.

The significance of this course from the UCD Innovation Academy should not be underestimated. Retaining high-quality educators, who are committed to and have the capacity to lead change is essential. Educators who have completed the programme often remark that it has reignited their passion for the job, they have reconnected to their moral purpose and are now more confident in their ability to lead school improvement. Professional education is not just for the minds, it must also be for the heart.