Now after all the research that I have done and all the discoveries I have made, where and how am I going to apply my newly revealed knowledge? Are there further steps that I can take to further my inquiry on the topic?

I’ll start off by stating that I definitely will be applying my findings to my own practice as I head out on my long practicum this spring.

I am interested to find out how implementing a classroom community and forming relationships will change the dynamic of my students. Likewise I will also be looking forward to use the relationships that I develop towards how I choose to scaffold and how much autonomy I decide to administer to students based on their capabilities. I especially hope  to use this skill within teaching physical education where knowing the student’s own performance capabilities and tailoring that to each lesson could mean the difference whether or not that person becomes motivated to stay active throughout their life.

Furthermore, I am sure that as I begin to implement my theory to my practice I will begin to find new findings and experiences that will also advance my understanding of appropriate levels of autonomy and scaffolding. And thus continues my own spiral on inquiry, which will continue and develop as long as I continue to endeavour in the career of teaching.

Thus far we have explored multiples components of my inquiry question including it’s background, relevance, and what I did to go find the answer. So after all is said and done, what really did I learn? Was I able to find a valid explanation, or did I end up in a dead end alley with nowhere to go? Without any further rambling here’s what I was actually able to pull out of all my research and experiences.

First off I have come to sincerely believe in the magic of classroom community. As I look back on it now all the classes that I was

Community brings development

able to excel in had a very close group of individuals. I felt like I was inspired to do well because I knew that my instructor knew what I was capable of and expected that of me for each assignment. Likewise, my instructor knew how every single single student within the class was able to excel. She knew when she could hand over a little extra responsibility or when to give individuals who were struggling a slight push from behind to get them going again. It seems to me that once a strong enough community is put in place within a classroom (or even a school for that matter), students and teachers can begin to form an understanding in which both parties know the strengths and weaknesses of the other. As I mentioned before in my previous posts, these connections provide the teacher to provide the students with proper scaffolding autonomy in order to create a zone of proximal development with each of their students. This  in turn inspires the student as they cultivate more and more motivation while also developing their own ability to become the self-regulated learners that we as teachers want them to be.

Furthermore, there lies an important component within classroom community that I slightly touched on before and that is the relationships that generate because of it. The relationship between a student and his/her teacher should create a security within the classroom in which the student can thrive. For example, if the student has a trustworthy relationship with a teacher, that allows the student to be at ease knowing that the teacher can identify with their own level of understanding. Similarly, the teacher also knows what the student can handle as well as their level of proficiency in tackling assignments. As I mentioned before this enables the instructor to create developmentally applicable lesson and activities in which the student either needs scaffolding or to be let off on their own.

Based from my own experiences and from what I’ve discovered through research, I am a firm believer that in order to correctly and proficiently develop your students you must have a sense of relations with each of them. This in turn will fashion community even furthering the student’s own feelings of security, self- motivation, and regulation.

In the last post you’ll notice that I discussed my research on the background and previous documentation concerning my question of inquiry. However, what kind of resources would I use to try and seek the answer? Here I will be talking about what I used to further my knowledge on what seemed to work for other teachers and researchers in creating the ability to administrate scaffolding and autonomy.

While thinking about my question I began to look into why teachers might find the skill of balancing autonomy and scaffolding within the classroom. I thought that in order to start somewhere I would have to look for the root of the problem, and one article helped me find that root. I was thinking that in order to really know where a student lies within their developmental ability one must establish a relationship with that student and really get to know them. This rule also applies for the rest of the students within the classroom in the sense that teachers must get to know each and everyone of their students in order to provide developmentally appropriate classes. This also helps create what is also known as a good classroom environment. Additionally, my cohort members and I have recently been learning that in order to have a good sense of classroom community the teacher must first acquire the necessary skills the implement good classroom management. However, even though skills regarding classroom management are essential to creating an effective class,  Martin (2004) has recently discovered that “knowledge of classroom management has not developed concurrently with changing ideas of more active and socially interactive teaching and learning” (pg. 406). In other words, classroom management skills have been put on the shelf while classrooms are still changing and adapting and in need of new administrative strategies. Martin (2004) goes on in explaining that “they feel that ideas of effective classroom management have remained typically unchanged and [their] attempts to create a progressive curriculum reform have ‘created an oxymoron: a curriculum that urges problem solving and critical thinking and a management system that requires compliance and narrow obedience” (pg. 406). Therefor, as all the focus is being put on generating new and interactive curriculum, administrators are forgetting that in order to create the type of students that are confident enough to self-regulate and effectively use autonomy instructors need to be aware of how to properly manage that change.

Through my research I also found support from a website from the Centre for Spiritual and Ethical Education (CSEE). Here they show the relation between community and autonomy in saying that in order for “[students] to be happy, and flourish as part of a community, [they] must experience a reasonable amount of autonomy” (2007). Once again we see that autonomy and community are both linked to the success of the student. It has become evident to me that without community within a classroom the teacher has limited relations with his/her students, and therefor has troubles gaining perceptions of their developmental level. To continue on the importance of building a relationship with your students, Bergin & Bergin (2009) describe the effects of students gain a sense of attachment to their instructors through the development of a classroom community. “Attachment provides feelings of security, so that children can explore freely. While all children see k to feel secure, attachment helps them balance this need with innate motivation to explore their environment” (Bergin & Bergin, 2009). As the Bergins describe, you can see a definite side effect of classroom community and teacher-student relationships in allowing the student to gain a sense of self-motivation.

Lastly, I held a short interview with one of the teachers on staff at my practicum school to discuss what they thought about determining the proper amount of scaffolding and autonomy. Through listening and applying my own thoughts it definitely seems prevalent that teachers and students need to have a level of understanding between each other. It seems unwise that a teacher might administer autonomy freely within a class without directly knowing the characteristics and behaviour tendencies of those students.

I can safely say that my idea of community being used to combat the issue of the use of scaffolding and autonomy came directly from these sources. I believe that each of these articles and sources provide a wealth of knowledge that will help direct my own inquiry.

Photo Retrieved from: http://www.parmarglobalimpex.com/inquiry

Even though I may have come up with this question within the span of a few classes, I want to reinforce that the source or main idea of this question did not formulate out of thin air. There are some well documented cases of this predicament taking place, some of which I was able to experience myself while teaching at my practicum school.

I’ll start by quoting an article by Anderman and Anderman (2010) that states “teachers have to make daily decisions about the amount of autonomy that will be afforded to students” (pg. 111). Here we see how  the allowance of autonomy is an ongoing debate within teacher’s classrooms day in and day out. Teachers struggle with the decision

 of how much autonomy is healthy enough for their class and as Anderman and Anderman (2010) explain

“the decisions that teachers make about autonomy can have profound influences on student’s learning and motivation” (pg. 111). So as you can see and as I have discussed before, this is a touchy subject when trying to design lesson plans, unit plans, and class activates. Not providing enough autonomy may limit the child’s opportunity for development, while too much may create a classroom full of chaos and distraction. The task gets even more difficult as Anderman and Anderman (2010) exclaim that teachers need to consider each student differently since their levels of autonomy should “differ for students at different ages and grade levels” (pg. 112).

It’s also documented that there can be cases of too much autonomy that students simply cannot handle. Some students are fine with being able to take a problem, figure it out and then run with it, others however need a little more scaffolding and guidance. Winters et al (2008) have found just that situation within a computer based learning environment. In this scenario, students were encouraged to use self-regulating learning strategies within their program of a computer based learning. What Winters et al (2008) found was that ” CBLEs (computer based learning environment) allow for a high degree of learner control opportunities for self-directed learning. However, empirical research has shown that students often struggle when using CBLEs” (pg. 430). Here we see that it is in fact possible for students to be overloaded with too many responsibilities or opportunities and as a result, their development is inhibited. In situations where “it is oftenup to the learners to determine which representations are the most helpful” (Winters et al, 2008), it can often become too much for the student to bare and begin to cause demotivation. Cleary and Zimmerman (2004) also share their concerns with the overuse in autonomy as it may cause “breakdowns in academic self-regulation such as lack of attention in class, failure to prepare for examinations, and even failure to attend school” (pg. 537).

Even in my own experiences I have seen students that are not able to reflect and think on their own, which would rather seek guidance than try to attempt solving the matter out on their own. These students are in need of scaffolding to help in the development of their own self- regulating and autonomous strategies.

Hopefully this has helped express where I am coming from with my question of inquiry. There is a definite need in the development of skill where teachers can identify the level of autonomy their students can handle. Imagine the time well spent when a teacher can spend time scaffolding the students that need it the most while allowing students that can self- regulate and cope with autonomy.

Photo Retrieved from:http://evelinojeda.blogspot.ca/2010/05/learner-and-teacher-autonomy.html

So why in fact did I choose this topic to be the basis of my inquiry question? What part of it stood out and why did I have the urge to dive in deeper within the subject? Well, to simply answer your question, this is intact a very common question! It seems today that one cannot go into a single classroom and not have a diversity of developmental levels among the students. I can personally remember on the very first day we were allowed to go and visit each opt our potential placement schools, stepping into the first classroom that I visited and beginning to observe. At the beginning of the class when the teacher began to lecture everything seemed to be normal with your typical students who were listening, talking, drawing and what have you. However, once the sponsor teacher suggested that I go ahead and

try helping some of them with the assigned math homework, my perspectives began to change.

Each student that I visited was vastly different from the next in their level of understanding. For example, the first student that needed my help only needed a simple reminder before they were on their way flying through the rest of the question. The second student needed a bit more help in the sense that we both walked through the question step by step and eventually they got it. The third student however could not grasp a simple concept that was needed in order to successfully complete the question. No matter how I attempted to relate, explain, or describe the concept the students simply could not begin to understand. So as you can see, each of these separate students needed a different dosage of autonomy and scaffolding. In one example it didn’t take much before they were off on their own working through problems, the other needed a little bit of a boost before being able to take the reigns, and the last example need complete guidance from the start.

I hope that this shared experience has helped shed some light on the importance of my question. My hope is that as I go deeper into my research and personal experiences that I will be able to begin to apply my findings to my own approach to teaching. Furthermore, my ambitions are to find out when to recognize when the child needs the help of scaffolding as well as when they become able enough to develop their own self-efficacy and autonomy. By applying these new findings to my own practices I hope to better the learning of my students through proper developmental monitoring and guidance.

Photo retrieved from: http://capnsmarrowblog.blogspot.ca/2013/12/stemcell-boost-christmas-present-from.html