I. General Information
School Name: Twelfth Avenue Elementary
School District: SD#41 Burnaby
Inquiry Team Members: Stephanie Lundrigan: stephanie.lundrigan@burnabyschools.ca, Ryan Hait: ryan.hait@burnabyschools.ca, Karen Yong: karen.yong@burnabyschools.ca, Natalie Warkentin: natalie.warkentin@burnabyschools.ca, Joanie Koch-Kalanj: joanie.koch-kalanj@burnabyschools.ca
Inquiry Team Contact Email: stephanie.lundrigan@burnabyschools.ca
II. Inquiry Project Information
Type of Inquiry: NOIIE Case Study
Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Intermediate (4-7)
Curricular Areas Addressed: Applied Design, skills & Technology, Arts Education, Language Arts – Literacy, Language Arts – Reading, Mathematics / Numeracy
Focus Addressed: Local Indigenous Knowledges, Core competencies (for example, thinking, communication, personal and social), Land, Nature or Place-based learning, Self-regulation
In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Increasing student engagement and self-regulated learning by providing increased agency and autonomy.
III. Spirals of Inquiry Details
Scanning: The upper intermediate students saw learning as something that was being done to them and, with the long standing and very dedicated PBS program, they were not actively engaged in their learning and were highly skeptical of the initial conversations and attempts at increasing agency. Many did not appear curious and were not really invested in their learning. There was not a sense of belonging to a school community.
Focus: It is important for all learners to engage in their learning, to connect to place, and to be curious. We were hoping to see our students become engaged and excited about their learning. We were hoping that they would have a greater connection to place and invest their time and energy in their education.
Hunch: Our hunches were that there was an organized, systematic way of delivering learning at this school. It was teacher driven and based on behaviour modification principles. The OECD seven principles were not in evidence.
New Professional Learning: We explored making the OECD seven principles of learning evident in practice. We were explicit with what we were doing. We relied highly on the work of Leyton Schnellert and Kimberly Sinclair as well as David Yeager, Tamara Strijack, Shane Safir and Rebecca Winthrop to guide us. This was particularly helpful in the initial stages when it seemed like nothing we were doing was going the way we expected, and our colleagues were doubtful about the strength of our practice.
Taking Action: We began by surveying our students individually. We took the time to get to know each of them and find out what interests they had. We set aside most of Friday afternoons to pursue personal inquiries through the ADST curriculum.
We soon discovered that they were makers and loved creating things. They were also interested in entrepreneurship. We registered for the Young Entrepreneur Program in response. We did not follow their program closely but found their resources really valuable. A significant culminating project for these students was an Entrepreneur Fair where they sold the items they had crafted. This money was used to finance their annual camping trip so their families would not have to worry about the financial aspects.
We also explored other sections of the ADST curriculum – robotics, foods, textiles and woodworking. The students could choose their project. They also found they were choosing working partners as a result of these interests. Many of the working partnerships would have been highly unlikely in other classroom situations.
Because of their increased engagement, they became much more accepting of autonomy. Initially, they did not know how to respond. They were not used to expressing their opinions, advocating for themselves, or problem solving. Accountability was not a high point. They were used to people telling them what to do and floundered for quite a while. Their perspective taking and conflict resolution also grew throughout the year.
Checking: In some ways we did make a substantial difference. Many of the students involved in this project were grade sevens. They are going off to high school in September. They are headed to high school with increased engagement for learning (they see learning as much more multi-faceted now), they are stronger self-advocates, they are more thoughtful with one another and are confident in their abilities.
Our evidence is our observations, students’ surveys and conferencing.
There is a continuing cohort that will be entering grades six and seven in the fall. It will be important to continue this work with them.
Reflections/Advice: It will be important to continue this work with them. Some of our professional learning would be that engagement and autonomy are not easily gained. It can get messy and feel like it is not working. Having collaborators to talk things through is important. Some of these collaborators are the students themselves and it is also possible to talk things through with them.
We will continue with this inquiry – tailoring it to this group of students. Finding resources to sustain this type of programming is a bit challenging. Enlisting the support of the community, really making it known what is happening is important. There is support in unlikely places and many people would be really interested in what is happening.