Appendix A. Examples of the teacher interview questions ... - T-Space

Appendix A. Examples of the teacher interview questions. The purpose of this interview is to understand how teachers at ICS approach and improve their teaching, so that we can identify important factors conducive of innovative teaching. 1a. How do you see the role of yourself as a teacher relative to a researcher? 1b. How would you answer the same question before you adopted knowledge-building practice? 2a. What are the three most important qualities you would like to develop in your students? 2b. What are the major things you do to develop these qualities? 3a. What are the most important efforts you make to enable your class to operate as a community? 3b. How would you describe this community? 4. What have been your three most important improvements in your teaching in the past years? Please elaborate when and how these improvements happened. 5.a From what sources did you first learn about the approach of Knowledge Building Talk (KB Talk)? 5b. In what ways have you improved KB talks in your classroom? 6.a What are the major challenging issues you encounter in your classroom 6b. How do you respond?

Appendix B-1 Chloe – Interview Experience of Chloe: 5+years Knowledge building experience. Column 1 contain the segment number (denoted as the line number for reference) in the transcript, column 2 shows who was speaking (R is the researcher, T is the teacher) and column 3 contain the text. The texts referred to in chapter 4 are highlighted in yellow (Section 4.2.1). L1

R

How do you see your role as a teacher as to a researcher?

T

I think the big difference for me prior to myself, prioritizing myself as a teacher as suppose to a researcher is that the children always come from, so the immediate needs of the children in my class, the more global needs of what I want for the children of my class, that is always of my very first concern, where else is I am acting in the role of researcher, then I am trying to find information of the children in a more global way as suppose to the individual I am dealing with ... child development and in a big way, I think that is the big difference.

L2

R

Follow up question - how would you answer the same question before you adopted the KB, any difference?

L3

T

I think that I wouldn't answer it so differently because I wouldn't have understood what the role of the teacher researcher is like as much, and I think as a teacher I have always been somebody who has been very flexible, I don't teach the same thing every year, I never try to think that work very well, I am going to do the same thing again, I am always looking for ways to improve my practice, I think what. The kb process brought to me was making that more explicit and embedding it in an environment that is so embraced. And the work and the thing I do in class I used to be on my work, I was an individual looking at question and it really was more about just being the individual in my class, the way it is different now is that I am much more connected to the community that is thinking about the same question, even though I am in the same building, I am still more connected to the community thinking about the same question and it is so much more obvious, that the question that I am asking about the individual children in my class are broader questions that affect teaching generally. I think that is probe the change in my thinking, it has connected me I a broader way to other teachers.

L4

R

What are the three most important characteristics you want to develop in your children?

L5

T

In the children in my class. I think the most important one is independence in their thinking, I want the children to make independent purposeful choices about how they spend their time in class, so when they presented with the question, or a bunch of material, or an open time frame, that they can be thinking about in a very purposeful way about how they are going to pursue it, whether it is playing in the yard, or in a math class or thinking about big question, or the sound unit that we are doing, I want them to be knowing that they can act independently, they don’t need a teacher to guide them a whole way and telling them what is right or wrong.

SC~R

L6

T

The second one, for me, really understanding how important respect is in a classroom, that every voice deserved to be heard, their own voice deserved to be

SI~R

heard, that is not what is about the teacher said, about what they want, we need to hear what everybody said, if you can really build the foundation of respect, it means if you are seating on a carpet with 5 yr. old or 12 yr. old, it means you can have a real conversation, you don't always have the same voices in charge, and it means you are listening to ideas in a very open way, so people are more likely to share their ideas with you, that is where their happiness is, where their sadness is, it is about respect L7

T

The third one, is the excitement, the enthusiasm, in ICS, I hope they burst into my class everyday, wanting to be there because they know that they are going to have opportunity to choose what they want to do, to choose who they want to be with, and a teacher s making those decision for them, that we are going to be giving them the right kind of work, it is going to be interesting, challenging, not too hard, it is going to be interesting for them, so they can feel successful, so they can feel that, they can feel successful and they can feel enthusiasm in everything they do.

L8

T

And intellect enthusiasm

L9

R

What are the major thing you do to develop these characteristic

L10

T

The first one, I try to model, a lot of my expectation for the children, so when we sit on a carpet, we don’t sit on a chair, if children are on the floor, then I am on the floor, so I think that is important, for me to be at their level, I try in the conversation to, I am there and I might be guiding it, I might be facilitating it, but I am not running it, I am not the person who is saying, you are right and you are wrong. I am hoping that I am showing what kinds of comments, what kind of questions have value for the whole group. But that everybody deserves to be heard, so modeling it I think is so important. I try my best to really get at why the children are asking certain question, why are they behaving in a certain way, I think that is showing respect for them, that they are people who are complex, who have a lot more going on then what you happen to see in the exterior. So taking your time to find out what is inside is so important, I am very lucky that I get to come to school everyday loving what I do, and I get very excited about being with the children and I think that my enthusiasm can stay very rich, because not only my soul constantly amazed at what the young children can do at their age, and that because I don't do the same thing every year it always new to me as well, I don’t know where it is going to go, I really am letting the children lead, where our science discovery unit leads, it is really led by them, that is constantly thrilling for me, and hopefully that communicates itself to the children as well, I think that is a big part to it.

L11

T

I have one more thing I want to say for the last one, I just want to jump at it first. I give them time, and I think that it is one thing that is school and teacher, we don't do enough of, we don't give children enough time to follow through with what they are doing, so I try to give them time in a day and I try to give them time across a unit, so we don't spend two weeks on something, so we let it go as long as it makes sense, which may be (8:30) you never know, I didn't used to do that when I am a early year teacher, but now I am much more comfortable just letting them run along as long as they think it is valuable,

L12

I

What are the most important effort you made to enable your class to operate as a community

L 13

R

We talk a lot, we bring problem of understanding or social issue to the group, so

SC~R, SI~R. C/S~R

CS&C~ R

CS&C~ R

C/S~R;

that we are not just talking about, we are understanding them, when we have a problem, not matter what kind of problem it is, you can solve something piece by piece as it just come up, with the few kids who are interested, or you can bring it to the community and then you can see that you are not just solving that small problem that just came up, you are trying to solve for all problem, for all conflicts, and so the children discover that there is a way of following through on problem, any kind of problem, there are people you can go to, there are vocabulary, strategy that you can use, and that they can be such a big part of problem solving, and then again, just respecting their interest, makes them feel so much a part of what hey are. I also try to make it clear to the children, you don't have to be friend with every body, it is important to say not everybody here is your friend, they are not going to believe you if you force something to them, you lost their trust. But I said every body here is a member of the community, so you don't have to love them, but you do have to treat them with respect and with kindness. That means you have to treat them with respect and kindness, you have to treat their ideas with respect and kindness, they work with respect and kindness, we do talk about it a lot, I try to be very consistent in the way I model that and respond to how I see it happening in class. Whether in a positive or something negative that is happening, I draw people's attention, L14

R

How would you describe this community

L15

T

My community in my class or this school community

L16

R

I think at your class level

L17

T

Well, I think that every year is a process, when they come in five years of age, they really come to learn what it means to be the larger part of the group, for many of them it is the first time they see themselves as part of a larger group, they realize they are making an impression on their people. It is not just their world and they are part of it. A lot of work has to be done to help children figure out what their role is in that. I think at this point, we actually have a lovely community, you go into my class, you are going to see children commenting on other people work in a beautiful way, you are going to see children being inspired by what the other children do, not saying that they want to join them because it is fun, but using those ideas and translating them, I think hopefully you will hear an adult voice isn't the only thing you will hear, there are many conversation, what you will see is children who are very easy with each other and very easy and comfortable with the adult because they know the adults are there to support them and help them, to give them information when they needed, but the adults aren't there dictating what they are doing, I think that is how I will describe my community.

L 18

R

What have been your three most important improvements in your teaching in the past years, please elaborate when and how this improvement happened?

L 19

T

I think a watershed moment for me, as a teacher, happened in my first year of senior kindergarten. It wasn't my first one but it was a very important, it was the very first day of school, and I have told the story, unfortunately, before, but I thought it would be interesting to do a study on tree, and whenever I think about a broader topic that we might have been looking at. I think about how I can impact there interest in class, I try to think where they would go, every year, they bring leaves to class, every year in the fall, they bring it in, I figure they would be thinking of the leave and the color and maybe get to the sap, I have not gone beyond that, I was going to wait for the kids. The very first day, the

SI~R

CS&C~ R, SC~R

C/S~R

kids knew about trees and as they told me about trees, somebody said, branches, the root went in, twig went it, nest went in, and then a child said, lungs. And I just stopped and it was an important moment for me, because it make it explicit that about trees have lungs. I don't think I would have said that. But in such a clear way, it puts me in an interesting position, so I said, where would I put the lungs, and she said I don't know, but they have to breathe, don't they, they are alive. So for the next month, we looked at how tree breathes and that caught the interest of the class. I know nothing about it, it connected me very strongly to some people that involve KF, somebody in OISE who heard about it through the KB work that we did on Thursday, connected me ultimately to a professor, I cant remember, in Pennsylvania, or something, and connected me back, but it was absolutely fascinating. And it was so excited because I was really starting from stretch, I did have any idea how trees breath, it was so exciting, it was the first year, it was the first year that I came up during the Christmas vocation, it was three month passed when we were studying trees, and I felt that we had to stop studying tree, and in January we have to start something new, and we fought against that, at least we did start looking at new things, but I let the threads of the tree continue through, and it is amazing to know that you don't have to have these arbitrary barrier, you can do so many things, you can do literacy and drama, and deep thinking, and specific experiment, and every kind of learning that you are able to do, you can actually do one topic, because if it is a good topic, like tree, it is so rich and there is so many direction you can go, it linked them to the human body, because they were thinking about breathing, the they started to think about, finally about saps, and saps in terms of being blood, it was fascinating, and for me, that was a huge moment for me, as a teacher, to realize just how much you can blast open the possibility of depth and time. L20

T

It was a great year. Do you want more example

L21

T

Some other example. As a teacher, I think that a number of yr. ago, when I was in the JK, I connected with Ronny when he was in the grade 4, and we were doing something about water and they were doing light and sound, I think this is how it works, so it all can fit together in terms of wave, and some of my kids were asking question about it. But rather then my leading the children somewhere, I talked to Ronny about it and ask him if his children in Gr 4, could be the children working with JK, so they had to think about how they would take the information they knew and explained it to four year olds, and they came down a couple of times to show us experiment, to talk to us about their understanding of it, that was for me a very important part of being a teacher, because I could see how important it is for Gr 4 students, the way it consolidated their understanding, it was so fabulous, and the way they were able to capture the interest and communicate their ideas to small children, was something that many of the adults find tricky, so that I think was a big moment for me. And first big change for me as a teacher, I feel like I am changing all the time, so it is hard to pick particular things, I think I think having being forced to articulate, what it means to be a teacher in the classroom, we are not always the authority in terms of, not always, the intellectual authority, maybe that is it. Yet you still have to pull the pieces together, you still have to be the one to make thing safe for everybody, physically, socially, intellectually, so juggling that in a way that feel right for me as a teacher, and feel right for the children, I think that has been a big change for me as well, because more and more I see, that I can hold all the pieces together, I can be that teacher who can manage things who can keep things safe, who can let kids know what really is ok, and be more flexible with what is appropriate and what is not appropriate and be more flexible with letting the children make decision for the group.

SC~R

L22

R

Is from what sources did you first learn about the approach of KB talk

L23

T

Oh, it was all in here, it was all in this building; it was all knowing that some of the teachers were involved in it. RR, right from the beginning, B.C, R.M, came on afterward. I was away, at some point, I was with very young children, and then I was with, I have my children earlier on as well. So things have been taking me out of the building, or I thought oh, I have very young kids I am not worried for that. One year I decided to sit in one of the meeting on KF discussion happening every week, that's when I started to hear about it more, I have heard about it in some of our meeting, but it seemed to be so disconnected, only when I started to sit in some of the meeting on a regular basis, that I heard about the more formalized KB process, and what I realized was, that it was really in keeping the way I already taught, we already gather in a group to discuss our interest and problem, and putting it into a stronger context, for their intellectual development, cognitive development and social development.

L24

R

In what way have you improved your kb talk in your classroom?

L25

T

I loathed to say I improved it at all, for me, I feel that every year I am starting from stretch, with such young children, they have certainly, they have1 or 2 yr. at ICS already, so they are coming with an appreciation, that somebody is going to listen to them, but for me, the struggle is always to be, yes, for you to be listened, but for you to listen to someone else, so it is always a little bit of a stretch, breaking down the hierarchy so that we don’t hear the same three or four voices dominating the conversation, so that anybody contributing the idea has some deeper value that everybody is going to hear it and act upon it, without me being the trigger for that, the beginning of the year, every year I feel like I am the trigger, so I might be getting better at it, but I don’t have the sense that I am getting better at it, I think I understand the context better, I understand the process better, but it, again its just always feel a little bit of starting from stretch, and at the end of the year, it is just, not by the end of the year, but by January, to have the pleasure of sitting on the carpet because I am so removed from so much of what is happening. At the beginning of the year you can hear my voice connecting a discussion after every child has spoken, even just to say. Point to the next person, and by January, the children voice, they are waiting for one voices to finish, they want to say what they are saying might have changed while they have waited, but now they are responding to what they are going to say, based on what they just heard, so it comes later in the year, and then I just try to catch that and go with it. I don’t know if I am getting better.

L26

R

Is what are the major challenging issue you encounter in a classroom recently

L27

T

This year, I am finding that I have social issues, that I am not encountered I this age group, I have a few children, specifically a few girls, not so much the boys, but more of the girls were sophisticated in some of the way they use their positions socially to manipulate other children and to make other children feel good or bad about themselves, and so that has been a big focus for me, in terms of the work I am doing in the community, again breaking down this hierarchy because the students in the beginning were regularly being hurt , they came in with a culture where certain voices has absolute authority over the other children. If one of them says something, the other children, even if they were very upset, would accept it. So I am not going to give you don't any example but it was very troubling, so I really work hard to make sure that when we are having any kind of discussion about some kind of social conflict, we are not used to dealing with so many deliberate and unkindness as I have this year. It

really has got over the worst of it I think. But that of course translate so much, if you were willing to be unkind to somebody, unkind to them about their feeling then why wouldn't you be unkind about heir ideas or anything else. So that has really been a focus to me, and making sure that when we are in a group, children who are used to being follower, used to accepting the authority of few other children, know that I value their voice as much as I value what these child has to say. Maybe at that point, I value it more, because it is new, it is new for them to speak up, and it is new for the group to hear them. So I am working so hard trying to get those voices heard, and even dampening a little of the other voices, and that create its own difficulty because for the children who are used to be talked of, they feel threatening, I need them to feel safe and successful, but I need them to feel safe and successful without affecting other children. L28

R

I guess you already responded to the following question, which is how do you respond to the challenge and issue.

L29

T

I think that is the main one of course, I make sure I speak, if I really have a child that I have concern, then I speak to the parents about it, I let Ellen know about it, I talk to any of the specialty teacher that will be involve with them, I talked to my peers about it, those who have taught the child before, or whom I think might have particular insight of it. Because of the child they are teaching or their experience, of course if it translate more specifically to the work that we are doing, the idea building, the inquiry, the map, whatever, then I would definitely be taking to the other teachers in the building to ask for their advice.

Appendix B-2 Nancy (Case study 2 in Appendix B-2) – Interview Experience of Nancy: < 10 years teaching experience; 2-5years Knowledge building experience. Column 1 contain the segment number (denoted as the line number for reference) in the transcript, column 2 shows who was speaking (R is the researcher) and column 3 contain the text. The texts referred to in chapter 4 are highlighted in yellow (Section 4.2.1). L1

How do you see the role of yourself relative to a researcher?

L2

What I realize is I feel as a teacher there is a lot of different role – being the subject of research, sometime I am being the eye of the classroom to develop research. Being a teacher is also a co-designer – we work with people to design and determine what kind of research would work well. As a teacher, bringing valuable question to the research. I think as practice, we should always have a mind of a researcher, even if there is no research in formal way, as a teacher growing with the teacher, asking ourselves question, testing things out, what kid observe and the feedback that can help with our practice.

L3

Before adopting KB practice

L4

It was one of the most exciting moment for me, for my MA class, we went to visit Bev classroom and Ronny and Belle telling us about KB – I was very excited about this kind of thinking, about education about thinking.

L5

R

What are three most important qualities you would like to develop in your students

L6

T

Part of coming to ICS – I felt that adults are kind to children, there is a kind of respect among people who work here and that piece of kindness and respect is something we value here, for their ideas and for themselves as a person. That piece of respect is what we have been working on with the children and we hope to model that to them.

L7

T

Curiosity is part of why I think I love KB so much. It is this feeling that we can be part of what spark the children or where their curiosity is now that is for me a way to understand children thinking. The wonder and of the world that is so full of beauty, that sense of wonder and being amaze of something, of new thing, felling that satisfaction, the world expanded, that start with our natural instinct of thing.

L8

T

Wisdom for children, to be in a community, we need to have our priority sorted out. Ho to make choices for the people around us.

L9

R

What are the things you do to develop these quality

L10

T

We talk a lot, as a class, as adult, we reflect on things, my own wonder, my own reflection, we work through conflict together, if they are having trouble with each other, I want to be with them, my own wisdom is called upon, how to be with them to be kinder, more comfortable, in ways that

SI~R

can allow us all to be exploring that curiosity, a lot from talking to support the social conflict, also allowing them certain freedom so that they can encounter those difficulties. Letting them run into the difficulties so they can have those feel and conflict. L11

R

What are the things you do to allow your class to work as a community

L12

T

I think first I asked question, I ask a lot of question, that is I am trying t find out a lot bout the children, about heir feeling, their conflict, their family I know better how to support them. For the community is my own knowledge about them. Both by modeling and finding out about each other, also when I know the children well, it helps me to support them as individual; I expect them to work and to listen to each other. We put quite a lot of thought on, how we group the children in different ways. We think about if it is more helpful for them to work on their own or as a group. Many things we feel we have to talk as a community, as a whole class, because of that sense of community, without anyone not being involved.

L13

T

I think as teacher, in my classroom, with student teacher, we talked more about collective learning more then individual learning. We want to know the children as individual so well that we know how to support them. In my talk, as a teacher of the classroom, I talk to them a lot more about how we are all learning, rather then, are you getting ahead? Are you getting ahead? And part of it is in that no marking, about not being competitive, in that how it is helping all our learning.

L14

R

How would you describe this community?

L15

T

A school community is a group that shares opinion, questions, and responsibilities for finding that new thing, share the responsibility of making it s safe school. Everyone in the group has that responsibility to bring their critical thinking. Share the opportunity to have fun and they can express themselves, I want every child to feel save to share. They share their responsibility for people to share and for people to be happy at school and where they can feel comfortable learning.

L16

R

What have been three of your three most important improvement in your past teaching. How and when these things happened.

L17

T

There are so many little things; it is hard to see it happened. I think my expectation has been refined. When teaching gr 2 the second yr. I know more of what I expect and what my classroom looks like. I think that it just come as experience that you become clear about what you expect and where you feel you children can go. It sort of feeling there is system that helps me now. Come with experience knowing better how you organize time and how the classroom can work well. The other piece, with time, with KB, I feel this year I have a better sense of the arc of the year and how the learning. Like last year when I really first time doing KB with 7 yr. old, but having the year, I know that in September, I have so many more months to come, I know what is realistic, when that energy flow of the learning is about, more of a grasp of what the year looks like (15:27)

L18

R

Some kind of expertise of growth

S/C~R

CS&C~R

L19

T

From what sources did you first learn about the approach of KB talk

L20

T

In my MA – Belle and Ronny give about KB – I don’t know how much they did KB talk. I did my intern with her – with children doing he kind of KB talk – I feel what I do in my KB talk – also talking to Patty McDonald – she did in Gr 2, she has such great clarity, she tells me about the way she did that, and what she expects.

L21

T

Pat, she was my teacher in summer at Clandestine – through teacher college Columbia.

L22

R

In what way have you improved KB talk in your classroom?

L23

T

This is interesting for me; I feel that the group of children is so diff this year, it is hard to know if the diff is the children or I. I feel that the KB talk is so much more purposeful this year, mostly I just think it is the children who seem to be many deep thinkers, and they love to share their theory. On the other hand if there is a little piece that I am contributing, I think I am helping the class to focus on better questions so when the kids question come up, I think it is better then before, when I judge if this could lead to a good KB talk. I think maybe I am doing a little better. I think the children were amazing.

L24

T

I feel that I only have 2 yrs. to compare to. I was in nursery before. The only formal BK talk has been last year and this year. The two group of children where so different in the way they speak to each other for me to tell.

L25

R

What are the major challenges in classroom recently?

L26

T

In my classroom as a whole? Or with respect to KB.

L27

T

I am thinking about KB – it is ‘time’, we were kinda getting momentum, and then we have Halloween, my COI. Finding time, not just when you are exhausted yesterday, I spent a few hours on COI. That felt so good. Normally I find it difficult to find a good time to contribute, other then technology. Once my COI got erased, and another time I wanted to get on outside school. That is probably what teacher is feeling. I need to find better way to do that. I feel that there is a lot of support her.

L28

In terms of the kids, I don’t think it is a good issue. I need to talk to them about what is a good note. At this age, sometime their learning, I need tot talk to them about what good notes are. At this stage they are learning about research, after that I realize they were putting things right from the book onto the database that were straight from the book

L29

The other thing, which I think is also a natural part of KB, focusing, like the questions are just so many, I think we have that balance between the incredible expansiveness of the database and following the kids and for us to go deeper into certain question. I am still trying to figure out what are the deeper things we could do, rather then stay on the surface of other question.

CS&C~R

Appendix B-3 Bruce – Interview Experience of Bruce: 5 years teaching experience; 2-5years Knowledge building experience. Column 1 contain the segment number (denoted as the line number for reference) in the transcript, column 2 shows that was speaking (R is the researcher) and column 3 contain the text. The text referred to in chapter 4 is highlighted in yellow (Section 4.2.1). L1

R

How do you see the role of yourself as a teacher relative to a researcher?

L2

T

Though I always felt that research informed practice, I did not consider that the two could occur simultaneously. I imagine my role both as the researcher and the researched. I am constantly examining KB’s effect on me, the teacher, as well as its impact on the students my classroom.

L3

R

How would you answer the same question before you adopted practice?

L4

T

I think I would have answered that I had a sort of dual identity. Though I always wore the “Teacher Hat”, I felt that I had to somehow extricate myself from my practice so that I could don the “Researcher Hat”. This was not always easy. Teaching requires an emotional as well as intellectual investment. I felt that research needed to be more detached and clinical in order for it to be successful.

L5

R

What are the three most important qualities you would like to develop in your students? I want my students to always be curious. I want them to know that their ideas can affect change. At the same time, I want them to be mindful and careful of the impact their actions can have on themselves, each other and the world around them.

L6

T

What are the major things you do to develop these qualities? 1. This seems simple: I ask them what they are curious about and I listen carefully for common themes or questions. Learning is most meaningful when questions are generated from students. 2. Again, this seems simple: I follow up on areas of interest. We explore ideas together and we delight in what we learn. We find ways to implement what we have learned in our lives (for instance, we bring home our pumpkin seedlings so that we can plant them in our yards or community gardens). 3. We talk about consequences: “For every action, there is a reaction.” This has implications for the way we go about discovering and exploring our ideas (we intend to do no harm). This also has implications for social justice in the classroom in that we are careful about how we respond to the ideas of others.

knowledge-building

L7 T I am very explicit about the children’s membership in and responsibility for the classroom community. I discuss with these very young learners the notion that they can make “good learning, sharing and caring choices”. We talk frequently as a group about ways that we can help each other. We often discuss such difficult issues as how we can manage time, resources and attention when they are in limited supply. We spend a lot of time talking about concepts of “fairness” and that “fair” does not mean that everyone gets the same treatment. It means that we try to give each member what he or she need (and that may look very different depending on the individual.) L8

R

How would you describe this community?

L9

T

It is a dynamic community that is energetic and eager to share ideas. However, this community is not without its tensions. Sometimes, individual members find it difficult to make sound choices. Sometimes, even in a group this young, there can be strife when jockeying for positions of power and popularity. The work that I have done to promote classroom community enables us to discuss issues as they come up (either individually or as a group) because we have a common language around expectations for our behavior.

L10

T

I learned about KB from colleagues who were the first to bring it to ICS. Later, I learned about how KB talks could be implemented at a “tutorial” that was presented at a Summer Institute.

L11

R

In what ways have you improved KB talks in your classroom?

L12

T

I have reconsidered my role in KB talks. When I started KB talks, I appointed myself the person with the “big ideas”- I introduced the focus of discussion and I had the overarching goals.

L13

T

It is always a challenge when confronted with what to do when there is a student who already has the “right” information and is, therefore, considered the authority by the group. KB can quickly come to a halt when that happens.

L14

R

How do you respond?

L15

T

I am careful about what the “big question” might be for KB so that there will be ample opportunity for a variety of ideas. I also try to plan for ways to draw the conversation away from absolutes and towards more hypothetical or theoretical discourse.I have also adopted many of the innovations of my colleagues by adapting them to suit my classroom. For instance, I changed the scaffolds in last year’s KF view to reflect the abilities of my students after one of my colleagues suggested that he had done this for his class.

CS& C~R

T~R

Appendix B-6 Karen – Interview Experience of Karen: 2-5years Knowledge building experience. Column 1 contain the segment number (denoted as the line number for reference) in the transcript, column 2 shows that was speaking (R is the researcher) and column 3 contain the text. The text referred to in chapter 4 is highlighted in yellow (Section 4.2.1). L1

L1

How do you see the role of yourself as a teacher relative to that of a researcher

L2

L2

I think almost every teacher is a researcher, if they are interested in doing things better, and interested in knowing how children are learning, because every time you plan a lesson or you present a lesson or you include the children in lesson, you are always watching and paying attention, and you have new information about the child, to see how much they are learning, and what their next thoughts are, and how they can apply it, so it always seems to be a process of research to me.

L3

L3

And when I started as a Phy Ed teacher, and so I have never done it before, so every time I taught something it is always something new, and I would try one approach in something, and the next class I will try something completely different to see how it worked. It always felt like I am doing research in how to be a better teacher. So it was kind of research on how children learn and research on how to teach. So I felt like I was always doing it, and now I am in the library, I feel that it is related, because researcher has to read a lot to know what is happening outside their space, and then place what they are doing and look at their context and how will it work, and what would work for me, so I think it is important. I guess I would look at what other library and what other librarians is doing. Other teacher in any field, to look at what they are doing, and then to think about it, not apply that but to think about how I am going to approach my space, with that background knowledge, which researcher have to have background knowledge or else you would just research into whatever. So I think that they are really closely tied and I am trying to think if a teacher could be a teacher without being a researcher, I think they can be but I don't think they will be a very effective teacher. If you weren't imaging how you teach and if you weren't reflecting how you are teaching, I don't think you would be so much a researcher as you are a teacher. I think we don't have that kind of teacher, and I think everyone is aware and mindful about his or her teaching.

L4

L4

I - how long have you been here,

L5

L5

This is my fourth year, in total and also in ICS, so I never taught anywhere else. Only at ICS. But I had practicum experiences, 6 weeks each in 4 different public schools. I used to do tour guiding for public school and take them to Ottawa; I have experience with public school but not being a teacher.

L6

L6

- - So the second part of the question, how would you answer this before you adopt knowledge building approach

L7

L7

I think before using the KB approach, which I used it in a way that I know that is how the culture of our school works, that is how our student work, and how our student work best. Maybe that is not how all of student work best, I am not sure (laugh). But I know that is how it work, so when I started teaching Phy

Ed, I didn’t understand as much about KB, and student were really frustrated in gym class, because they didn't have a chance to talk about what they are going to be doing, how they are going to be doing, and it was my job to tell them the rules and tell them how they are going to do it. Especially in Phy Ed when you want the kids to be active, you don't want too much discussion. So that was the beginning, then I realized they like to talk about it, so what rules, how do you think it work best. Even just the decision, it wasn't totally KB but it was at least a bit closer, they did response better to that. It was really tricky to find out how much time would be right to spend talking in phy ed class, and how much time they need to be moving. It is neat to see how ben has dealt with that struggle and also with my library program, it was one of the thing about KB that we do more now is that I follow what the children are interested in and intrigued in, and that has been working a lot better. When I first started gr 5 and 6s, I kind of have an idea of what they should be doing and idea of what they should be learning, and they weren’t as on board as they are now when I follow with what they want, and I also realize now that it is development, they are very critical in gr5/6, it is better to turn on to the being critical with the literature then with my teaching. I think that is how KB comes into my practice. And in the library with all the classes, we do a lot of discussion around our understanding of things, because when you reading a story there are so many things that kids might not understand, so they really have to bring their own knowledge, it is almost like a mini KB talk, where they discuss what does this means and so on. So the way it change is especially in terms of my phy ed teaching, which is like first year. Because I thought I have to bring in the whole thing and decide what happened. Then eventually I know we have to be in it together, it is more fun L8

L8

I - it is interesting to, in terms of the role of teacher in library, guess the students to have stacks of book, to be the authority, how do you approach, (not bringing in the authority), how to be come up with their own idea, as they face all other ideas in books?

L9

L9

Right, I guess it is about looking at books with different ideas, and their own ideas would appear, they are expected to be critical thinker and they think that it is their role, is being a critical thinker of knowledge, and that is...it worked pretty easily. It is not too difficult to do. With the gr5/6 I found that they really like looking at younger children book. Like the stuff they would read when they are 5 or 6, and revisiting those, and they are reading and say 'oh look at this’, 'this is such a silly book, being critical about it, but this year I start to turn into 'why did the adult wrote it?’ the time at which they wrote it', because if it is written in the 1900, then it would be different from the story coming from now. And so I guess that's how they get so introduced to

L10

L10

I - what are the three most important quality you like to develop in student

L11

L11

In the library, in my role, I think I would want them to understand themselves as learner, and to think how they learn best. Because, or to get start working on that, because they are going into all kind of teachers, assignments, and subject, who knows what they are going to be interested in, but if they know how they learn best, they are going to have that tool to apply to anything that they get to. Hmmm.I want them to have critical thinking skill, I think it is important in all the classes, when I teach them about internet and researching from somewhere, it is about people's ideas and deciding which part of those you are going to agree with or whether you are going to share with the rest of the class from those ideas. So there is going to be those filtering place. So part

of my job as a librarian is to make sure they can look at something, someone's idea, they can decide if it is the authoritative source, I think critical thinking, knowing themselves as a learner, and the third one, for me, is the confident to look at books and to enjoy books, and to go into a space where they need to find new information and be able to grasp it, different places, and so like they can know they can apply the skill anywhere, any library, any computer, or anywhere they are, to get the information, because a lot of time for researcher, you are just researching, you are always kind of reading and understanding the world. So to have the confident to do it, I think most of the ICS kids do. Then even the reading of fiction, I love reading for reading sake as well, not jus for researching sake. So I think that is my job as a librarian. L12

L12

I -I guess you already touch the second part, like how to drive or facilitate those qualities.

L13

L13

I guess I always start with, it will usually just arise from one of the picture book I have, or a story book, or 2 books of same ideas or two different approaches, or 2 different side to this argument, so usually you go into some kind of modeling, so this is how I organize the thinking, model how you collect information from a book, and write down what is important, and then it would go into their own application and their own decision o what is important. And it is always, the thing I like is to keep track for what the teachers are doing in their class. So like Nancy's class is doing water, so the teaching I do is always around water, or they questions in class, or their KB, I take little group out and do some research on water, and they talk about question they have and help them research them, so it always have to apply, or otherwise I do lesson on dictionary, and it is just a worksheet, but it doesn’t make sense unless it applies. It is the matter of finding that moment that the kids need that lesson, and pulling out the lesson and creating right away. So it is the right time and right subject, so it works. So that would be for the collecting or being able to research and also critical thinking, because especially the beginning they just copy down what the book says, so I say, is that helpful? Is that answering your question? And I close the book and as them what did you read, and see what they can say. I don’t like saying tell me in your own word. Because I used to be confused by that when I was a kid. Like 'but some of those words were technical' so it is hard for me to say that. The other one, the results is on learner, I make sure when I am teaching, to say, you might learn by doing it, so everyone has different way of learning and this is the way that is presented.

L14

L14

I- it is very interesting to hear the connection between students working into he library and the classroom, the extension of the idea. So I am to sure how the third question apply to your situation, what are the most important effort you made to enable the students in class to op as a community

L15

L15

I guess mostly when they come to the library, it is in groups of 11, they are already in half group, and it is usually all around me. We have a half circle kind of thing, so we read a story, or we read some information, and then we have a discussion around it, so its really important for them to have respect for each other, all those principles, so the can hear each other, and not out each other down, not put down some body else' ideas down. So I have to remind them of that, because sometime they might do naturally in a KB talk might not carry over to the library, or sometime they do definitely carry over. Like some classes, we say, I like to have a discussion about the book, and they would say, I like to build on and someone said, I do see it carry over sometime, but in

C/S~C

terms of community, that is that they can say what they want to say, and the experience with book is a very personal thing, so whatever response, whatever connection you made from a book to your life, that is ok, and that is right, and that you should share it too. So I guess in that sense, the community would be important because it is some whole group experience when we are in the library, that is not very much, sometime but not very often, they would go in pair or something. L16

I - so you let them pick books that they like and read individual

L17

After I read to them they would choose the book and read them individually.

L18

I - I guess you also touch on the second part, how would you describe a community, what they do, what is the ideal situation, are they working well as a community?

L19

It would be listening to each other, being open to each other ideas, try to stay on topic, but also honoring they come from different places and have different connection, I think. So that I find it really interesting how the students make connection, especially the younger one, the three or four or five, they might suddenly burst out, you don’t know how it is connected, but when you let them talk, they usually get to how it is connected, maybe when they are in the car this is what they see and the person in the story is in a car, or something like that, it is quite, you wouldn’t know the connection right away, but if you let them keep talk, it usually comes out, so you say, oh it reminded you of that because you are in the car. So I model a little bit too on how it is connected to what them. But we want that too, when the child is talking, is to connect to their experience, because it makes them meaningful.

L20

I - so, the fourth question, so are your three most important improvements in teaching, I am not sure including your first year or in your library work.

L21

I think, I feel like I am always trying to improve, it is hard to think of which one, I think there are always stages to your learning first it is important to loo around and see what is going on, that is where I go to conferences, visiting library, going to other school, looking at how their classroom is managed. Just understanding what people are doing. I started doing that, and when you actually do it, also the first year I was running program that was ran before, and see how it goes, it wasn't the first year, it was just the first couple of months, and the improvement comes in when you understanding of that, and the understanding of the other reading, the other courses or the other information that you have, and you can actually bring them together, that your can bring into your own program. That’s probably a big improvement, with ICS too, in the library there hasn't been a curriculum before, and so I have been developing a library curriculum, so that has been pretty big, in terms of seeing what other schools are doing, seeing kids in ICS trying out the subject that I think would make sense for kids of different ages, and seeing how they respond and figuring out the best way to do it. That has been a big improvement, having a goal, to create a curriculum, and having basic outline of a curriculum, and working on, egg, how is this lesson on dictionary is going to work, because kids know how to use a dictionary, when is it appropriate to do it, how do we fit it in, and in terms of mixing technology and the library, so having an understanding of what is the right balance between information and technology, like using computer to do research and teaching skills around that, as well as an appreciation for books, ad researching in books, and then the

third part would be an understanding and appreciation for story so it is kind of three parts and figuring out what is the best balance for the kids and the best way to teach because it is only half an hour a week. And I don’t know how much carry over there would be if I have assignment to be done in a week, so it is about making the best in that half an hour and making it have an impact and figuring out. So that will be, #1 improvement is to bring together what had been seen and what I have read, and bring that together and creating my own thing. #2 would be the curriculum focus, the three different category, I think my third most important improvement is trying to, not so much child base, is to encourage them to be independent in the library, so it has a lot of systemic issue. Right now we have some system, like we have a computer and the kids can sign the books out on their own, they can return it on their own. So I don't have to be there because I am only 60% library, so if I am not there, I want them to still have the access, to do the searching, putting label of the shell, teaching the kids, what shelf and what subject, it is just encouraging them and supporting them to be independent, and not rely on the librarian to be there all the time to help them out. So that is the big thing for the librarian, more concrete, in terms of the space and time, so that has been a big improvement. L22

I - you mentioned that the curriculum, on gr 5 and 6,

L23

No I have been developing for the whole school - so it is just a matter of what do they really need to know in JK...even if I read them a story, I would say is this a story book, or an information book, you don't have to read it from beginning to end, you can just read the part your need and get information from it. Vs. when you read storybook, it doesn't make sense to read story in the middle. Things like that, so how things are laid out. So that is the starting point, but the starting point for nursery is for them to sit together and listen altogether while one person tell a story because they are interested in sitting on someone laps to listen to a story, they are not used doing together in a group, they all come up to want to be up there with the picture, that is step one, and step 263 is to compare genre of different time, critical thinking and all that. KB talk? I heard about it in the MA program, we never had a KB talk, we have more KF, we posted things out, ad commented on each other posting, I think when I first started understanding about KB talk, was when I was a intern with Joy, a gr 3 teacher, her first year from the public board. She has not done it before, so it is her talk with Ronny, on who are we going to do it. So that is probably first time I heard, when we sat in a circle and did a KB talk. But the kids were really used to it, they had patty in the previous yr. that is the first time I heard about it. What is really helpful to us is the KB meeting every week, that is where I understand KB talk, basically we have a KB talk, and also people bring in information on their KB talk, when carol bring in her transcript on KB talk, that really helps me to understand what a KB talk is. We have them at our retreat as well; we mostly have it at our retreat when we talked about safety. I cannot remember how hard it is to have a KB talk, to say what you want to say about your idea. So a little bit about, wow we are asking kids to do it, it is hard. And Ronny said that, and I said, ya it is true, it is very hard to do a KB talk, just to be comfortable, to have you idea out there. I think it is really fruitful; we come up with the most information and most meaningful talk.

L24

L25

Particularly in your class, in what way did you improve B talk

L26 What way did I improve it? I think at first, I think the way that the KB talk comes up, if you take all of that in library, is in the middle of, before I thought it always have to be at the end of the book. So at the end of the story, you talked about how you felt about it, what you think about it, what they did like, and what they didn’t like, what idea came up. And I liked to do it in the middle, because the kids would ask the question in the middle, and it has to be addressed right there, and I think it is the best, and it is usually pretty short, like it might be 4 kids say something, then someone would say, are we back in the story now, because it is in the middle of the story. So I think that is when it happened and how it improved, because I thought it'll always has to be at the end of the story and it always have to be my lead, then later I realized in the middle is where it comes up, where it resonate with the kids, where it comes up, I think that is the improvement in the KB talk.

L27

Any other...in the context of the library, I assume it must be, it has to be a big difference, that the kids we taught in the whole class, how do we see, the adjustment, KB talk

L28

Sometime there is a concrete answer, because I have the source right in my head, so sometime people will have there discussion in the middle of the story, saying a little bit of, discussing oh is it true or not, what happened when they do this, what happened when the snake do this, and the next page may have the answer of what the snake does, it is a little bit different that way, but they still want to have that talk, even if they know the answer is coming up and I guess that is why it is interesting in the library, because sometime there are those authoritative sources, that is going to be the voice. And sometime kids just don’t agree with it too. They would say 'no no, I saw one and it did this' then you say, oh ok, maybe we should look at up, it is near, to see if there is one that does that. I- question 6, what are the major challenge and issue which you recently concurred.

L29

Some of the challenging issue are, I used to encounter challenges of kids, that when they come to the library, they would have time to silent read the whole time, or they would have time to read the whole book and silent read, but I thought it would be a waste of my time to be there if that is what they are doing, it is really hard to change their expectation, each year it gets better because I said, in the beginning, I said that sometime we are going to be reading story and that we are going to be together as a class, sometime we are going to do things with technology or about research that is going to help you for all your life interns of your learning. I told them right in the beginning, and the kids are more used to it now, because in the beginning I didn’t teach technology, I didn’t teach the research pieces intensively, but now as they go through the yrs., it has been 3 yrs., that has been nice.

L30

One challenge is always time, it is half group, so there is always a transition, they are always from somewhere, so sometime my time is only 20 mins rather then half an hour, so that is why I am setting up the independent system, so the signing out doesn’t need to be library time, it could be lunch time or recess. Some kids do come down at other time, some teacher are pretty flexible, if

they have time to read, they can come down. That is why I want that independent system, so I can teach, so I have that full half an hour, not just 20mins.

L31

Another challenge is that the teachers didn’t understand what I was doing, and because it is a bit tricky, they are also teaching critical thinking skill, they are also teaching technology, they are also teaching research skill, so it is a matter of finding time to talk with them. Ok when are you covering, can I do a lesson on this, so we can work together, on the kids' skill set, and based on the subject that make sense to them, that they are working in class. So that is been another challenge to find time to talk to teachers, to talk about their curriculum and how it can work with mine curriculum. That has been tricky but it is better now because there teachers who understand more of what I do now and what I can do. They would say 'Karen, can you do a lesson on this...

Appendix B-7 Katie – Interview Experience of Katie: