As I watched Dr. Johnson's video, I asked myself the questions that he posed. How do I know the things that I know about teaching? One of the things I know is that if there is a caring relationship between the teacher and student, the student will be more likely to perform better. This is one of those "knowings" that seems to be logical and makes sense and there are experts in the field to confirm that this is true. But in addition, this can be observed and documented. In my own classroom, I was able to observe that students with whom I felt a strong connection would put greater effort into their work even when it was hard for them. I have also observed this numerous times in my teachers' classrooms, as well as a few times when a student clearly does not feel cared for or welcome. This most often results in behavior problems and disengagement from the learning. In this example, you can "know" that something is true or real in more than one way.
For my "Need to Knows," I will be using several different methods for collecting data. The first will be surveying the teachers at my school site to determine what they know about the correlation between their practices and the development of student agency. The survey is combination of questions where they rate their knowledge and their students' actions based on a linear scale. And they will provide some short answer responses to more open-ended questions about the strategies they use and why. The results can then be analyzed for both the quantitative results of the general knowledge of the group as well as individual anecdotal data that might contribute to the learning of the team.
For my NTK about strategies to put in place to promote agency, there will need to be considerable collaborative work as the teachers construct the list and/or rubric together. We will draw from experts in the field and from their own classroom observations and experiences. We will also keep notes from teacher discussions and collaboration on units of inquiry. We will also interview students prior to our implementation to hear their perceptions of themselves as learners and whether they feel they have a voice or ownership of their learning. This will help us make decisions that will lead to our proposed outcomes. Then, teachers will put the agreed upon strategies in place.
For my NTK about whether students respond to the practices put in place, I will interview/survey students again to determine if there's a difference in their responses from the pre-assessment data. And we will collect data from our observations of how both teachers and students respond. Grade levels will reflect on the effectiveness of their agreed upon strategies. I will be looking for results that could possibly lead to sharing a set of strategies that would be effective for others as well in promoting student agency.