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

207 Pages·2012·1.72 MB·English

by  Teo Chew Lee

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 SC~R
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.

L6 T The second one, for me, really understanding how important respect is in a SI~R
classroom, that every voice deserved to be heard, their own voice deserved to be
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 SC~R,
of questions have value for the whole group. But that everybody deserves to be SI~R.
heard, so modeling it I think is so important. I try my best to really get at why C/S~R
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, CS&C~
because not only my soul constantly amazed at what the young children can do R
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 CS&C~
first. I give them time, and I think that it is one thing that is school and teacher, R
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 C/S~R;
that we are not just talking about, we are understanding them, when we have a SI~R
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 CS&C~
children being inspired by what the other children do, not saying that they want R, SC~R
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 C/S~R
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
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 SC~R
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.
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, SI~R
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
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 S/C~R
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, CS&C~R
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
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 CS&C~R
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.