Teacher as Researcher - Instructional Intelligence

Teacher as Researcher – Instructional Intelligence
I find this week’s topic of narrative research interesting as it illustrates the pedagogically sound principle of reflective practice. Throughout this course we have been required to reflect following our assignments and to be honest I found this a frustrating component. Perhaps due to course load time constraints or my learning needs as an ESFJ, I prefer clear cut and quantifiable guidelines and felt uncomfortable with the need to analyze assignments. I think this comes from my preference to get feedback from others as well as my own highly self-critical nature.

I have begun to see that reflective practice does hold considerable merit. In my LA course this semester we have learned that the act of writing helps students organize and further their thoughts. Further the narrative format is a way of writing that accesses both our senses and feelings in a personally accountable way. We are giving voice to our feelings and ideas and in essence allowing ourselves to be vulnerable. The experience of writing a narrative story in my LA course was an excruciating process yet the outcome was profoundly exhilarating! I was able to discover my voice and allow myself the gift of creating a personal touchstone. I do think it is important to consider the audience of the reflection just as students behaviour is affected by the observer hence our reflections are impacted by the fact that they are not wholly for us as they become documents of academic assessment.

The article on re-imagining curriculum was profound as it spoke to the idea of a cooperative arrangement of curriculum between teachers and students. The impact of studying curriculum by the M. Ed. teachers allowed the students the opportunity to move from receivers of curriculum to participants with curriculum. This was the “empowerment and possibility of invitation” that the author Bandes and Fels speak of.

This notion reminds me of the article I found to supplement my reading facilitation. It was entitled “Instructional Intelligence” and was written by John Mazurek. The article explains that instructional intelligence is the ability to combine and integrate instructional processes in ways that are powerful for student learning. The author reiterates the need for teachers to be consciously aware of their instructional decisions to be able to understand why their lessons work or don’t work. The author purports that only through the practice of focused reflection and a commitment to articulate the process of teaching can instructional intelligence be realized.
Narrative research has value I believe, but perhaps is difficult to quantify. The value is perhaps more in the avenues for exploration and in the questions it gives birth to. Perhaps this personal need I have to find the most productive way to reach outcome is my real foe. What I am beginning to realize is that the answers I seek may not be out there in literature and textbooks. The answers to becoming the educator I envision will originate from within only when I embrace the questions that the answers convey.