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I Thought I Knew

The following is an exerpt from Miranda Rose's MA thesis: Creating a Learning Community Through a PE Teacher's Exploration of Inquiry: A Collaborative Autoethnographic Study (2008).

"I Thought I Knew"


I was fresh out of teacher's college- I thought I knew what I was doing. I had read all the books, I had come through my practical experience with flying colours. I was sure I wanted to teach in some sense, but not in a public school, not around home - really not in just any school, and not in just any classroom.


I decided to go overseas. I made the journey with really little idea of what lay ahead. I arrived, settled in, and got straight into work and living in a foreign land. What amazed me first off was that the students were so similar to the students I knew back in Canada. The students at this international school were from diverse cultural backgrounds, for the most part privileged upbringings and they came from fairly wealthy and educated backgrounds; but they were none the less kids at school, day in day out going through a school system. Some students did their homework, some didn't and just like at home they all had strengths and weaknesses. There were students with learning disabilities, social issues, and interesting behaviour just like students I knew back in Canada.


I was so fortunate in this experience for many reasons. It was my first taste of truly living an adventure; I was learning so much everyday about the world, about teaching and learning, about life and about myself.


A large part of this remarkable first teaching experience can be accredited to the staff I was so lucky to be a part of. Looking back I can see just how amazing the assembled teachers at this particular international school were. They came from all corners of the world, they had some incredible stories and experiences and they were all at this new school for an adventure and challenge. I think also, many of them shared a common understanding of teaching and learning. Going into that first job, I thought I knew a lot about teaching, learning and students; I had no idea my journey was really just beginning.


The school in Northern Thailand was operating as an International Baccalaureate (IB) candidate school. The teachers on staff were building a programme to meet the requirements of the Primary Years Programme (PYP), and Diploma Programme (IB DP) and ultimately the Middle Years Programme (MYP) frameworks. My arrival could not have been any better - I came on board just in time.


The language of these programmes was new to me, the approach was quite different to the curriculum documents I was used to. The ideas did make sense to me, and though it was different than what I'd had personal experience with, I could recognize it was good teaching practice. However, the application of the programme to what I was doing was another story. The notions of student centered learning, of integration, and of inquiry-based learning were intriguing and we'd touched on them in my teacher training, but had I really seen or used them in practice? And, in the context of foreign language learning and physical education, I was really thrown for a loop. It was overwhelming. I was faced with ideas that made me consider my role as a teacher, my teaching practice, the PE programmes I knew and was working in, and my understanding of learning. It was actually a bit threatening. I thought I knew teaching...


I had my year plans, I had my unit plans, I had my daybook and my assessment book. I planned great lessons and I "performed" well in front of a crowd (the students). My students were happy and followed along with me in the driver's seat for the first year. I spent lots of time having everything in order for my students when they arrived to either French or PE and I spent a lot of time "teaching" in my lessons. I was in control.


Something wasn't sitting right though. As the staff went through the development of the PYP framework for our school, discussion, reflection and quite frankly experimentation ensued. I was thinking a great deal about how I was going about my programme. What were my students really learning in my classes? And how were they actually learning? What was I doing that complemented the inquiry-based learning expectation of the curriculum framework? Was my programme learner centred?


Being on my own in the primary French department and pretty isolated in the early childhood PE section of the PE department left me few colleagues specific to my subject area with whom to explore my questions. As a result I spent a great deal of time with primary level homeroom teachers in the school. I was trying to understand how they operated in the framework and how they facilitated such active and vibrant learning communities within the walls of their classrooms. I became fascinated with the learning process, and student engagement. I liked the "noisy" classrooms, I was wowed by the independence and responsibility students demonstrated when given the opportunity.


The more I saw, the more I explored, the more I knew it made sense to me. But more and more questions came to my mind. These questions were related to practice, to learning, to understanding, to assessment, to PE, to teaching PE, to sport and ultimately to my role as a teacher. It was uncomfortable. As a person who likes to know both in what direction I'm heading and in being able to package thoughts up into nice little theories, I was struggling to figure out where I fit, how I fit, and if I fit at all. I thought I knew teaching...

Miranda Rose
Raha International School
Abu Dhabi, UAE
mirandarose14@hotmail.com