MIT May 20th - Using Catalyst

Catalyst is a collaborative inquiry game developed by CORE Education. Modelled on Kaser and Halbert's Spirals of Inquiry, Catalyst is underpinned by the OECD Seven Principles of Learning. Teams use a game piece to move along the six phases of the Spirals of Inquiry. Each team member is assigned a role and uses role cards to prompt learning-focused conversations and provoke new thinking and learning. The process encourages deepening learning-focused conversations, while allowing everyone to be an expert inquirer. At our MIT hui this week, we worked in small groups using the game to help promote discussion about what was happening with our learners; to identify teaching practices that were helping/ not helping; to think about what research was linked to our thinking; and problem solve together. The game is linked to the OECD's principle's of learning.

The OECD’s work on innovative learning environments was led by Hanna Dumont, David Istance and Francisco Benavides. Their 2010 report “The Nature of Learning” identified seven key principles of learning:
• Learners at the centre
• The social nature of learning
• Emotions are central to learning
• Recognising individual differences
• Stretching all students
• Assessment for learning
• Building horizontal connections

The Catalyst game encouraged each of us to ponder our inquiry, thinking about:
• What are we doing well that is promoting learning and how do we know?
• What are we not doing so well that isn’t promoting learning and what evidence do we have?
• What do we need to think about next?

 My inquiry related mostly to thinking more about student voice. How could I access and use voice collected via the recent Woolf Fisher survey? What about data from the Kahui Ako student surveys? In addition to ongoing collection of data via Kea Class Captain's log recording student voice on learning, what other ways could I collect and monitor student voice related to learning, that would help to track progress and monitor key aspects of learning that students are finding most helpful.