Something I often ask myself is "What is education?" And having been a teacher for enough years now, and studied Education as part of a Bachelor of Arts at Victoria University you would think I'd have a pretty good idea as to what it is - but alas no - well, not really. But I like to think of it as 'learning', plain and simple. It happens everywhere and all the time!  As the photo above shows I am being 'educated' in the arts of sushi making - and pretty damned good I was too! But in my role as a Teaching and Leanring Advisor I am required to provide others with the benefit of my knowledge and experience. And I am only to happy and priveleged to do this. I do believe I have a wealth of experience in a number of pedagogies, theories, assessment tools etc that I have practiced and implemnted in schools. And yet I resist having blind faith in any particular pedagogy and/or theory. I'm a simple guy and always hold to something Christine Richmond, a notable behavioural expert, once said in a seminar I attended - "if it works and it's legal, keep doing it" We often forget, or perhaps don't pay enough attention to the fact, that as teachers we are dealing with the human element day in, day out, and as such there simply cannot be any hard and fast rules in education. I certainly support some pedagogies over others, but I would never suggest any pedagogy is the golden alixir that will cure any educational ills. I recall a quote by Will Smith in 'Hitch' when he says something like, and I paraphrase, - "Rule number one in relationships - there are no rules!". I believe that the same applies to education...

Do you often question ‘why’ or ‘what if...’ after a lesson or unit of work? For example, why did that lesson work so well or what if I tried that lesson again but changed the focus to literacy. If you have, what have you done about it? Did you think about it more deeply and make a change, or was it a passing thought that got lost as you moved onto the next lesson or unit?

One way to investigate the ‘why’ and ‘what if...’ questions to do with your teaching practice in a more formal way is to do some action research on the aspect of your teaching that you are interesting in improving.

If you research your own practice, you will gain an insight into your own teaching that you would never otherwise see and improve learning outcomes for students as well.

Action research is a vehicle that enables teachers to become highly reflective on their pedagogical practices, and also their pedagogical content knowledge, with the view of impacting on student learning and achievement. The research need not take up loads of time, but would compliment what teachers already do in the classroom. Teachers would just need to think about ways of gathering evidence or data to prove (or disprove) the success of strategies used in the classroom.

If you think you could do some action research on your teaching practice, keep an eye and ear out for information on this initiative starting in term one 2012. Or contact the Teaching and Learning Advisors ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).  We would like to hear your views on this topic.