Stuff News seems to be determined to outrage people with inflammatory headlines. Point in case: -
Now let's get my own opinion out of the way first. Yes, I totally believe that every school in NZ should include the NZ Land Wars history in their curriculum and I sincerely hope that they do.
But, here's where misunderstanding of the NZ Curriculum structure gives Stuff the opportunity to rile the ire in many NZers. The NZ Curriculum is a framework. We are so lucky in NZ to have the ability to build our curricula around the framework, compared to most countries who tell their people exactly what they must learn and when. What it means is that using the 8 principles as a foundation, school communities can pretty much build their own content with a vision of having confident, connected, actively involved lifelong learners who are thinkers, able to relate to others, understand text and symbols, manage themselves, and participate and contribute!
So, with the hugest admiration of Waimarama and Leah, whom I think have done an invaluable job of raising awareness of the NZ Land Wars through their student-led petition, the MOE tried to clarify how forcing certain subject content is just not feasible in our NZC framework. And Stuff goes ahead and reports it in the headline "MOE refuses....".
The two young women, Waimarama and Leah, are a lot more educated than Stuff. Their petition asked for physical and online resources to be provided. Perfect! The Learning Outcomes and Achievement Standards that they also asked for already exist in the curriculum and NCEA. But teachers build their own content and context around these, depending on their school or kahui ako's local curriculum.
Inflammatory headlines are nothing but clickbait, and a disgraceful example of why digital citizenship needs to be part of every school's curriculum. But that's another story!
How timely that the Ministry of Education has released new resources on TKI to support the review of your local school curriculum. The resources come in the form of three booklets:
Local Curriculum
Assessment for Learning
Information Sharing and Building Partnerships
I say "timely" because schools will need to review their curriculum as they integrate the new digital technologies curriculum into their existing curricula. The rider on each of the progress outcomes for computational thinking (CT) and designing and developing digital outcomes (DDDO) is that these outcomes are couched in authentic contexts.
We are so lucky to have a national curriculum framework that asks our schools to build on a vision of having confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learners. We, as NZ teachers, are also so fortunate to have the opportunity and responsibility to build key competencies in our learners. While I have seen a lot of schools spend time on developing their local vision for their learners, the thing I see most often lacking in local curricula is coherence across the school, and learning happening in authentic contexts.
Some leaders think that by having an arbitrary theme for learning each term or year, this will bind the curriculum together. I see things a little differently. By asking your wider school community what is important to them in terms of their people, surroundings and actions, you can build a better local curriculum together. You also need to consider the future - and how to prepare our young people for a future which is radically different from anything known before.
The MOE resource booklets have a guide which states:
Your local curriculum is the way you bring the New Zealand Curriculum to life in
your school. It should:
• be responsive to the needs, identities, languages, cultures, interests, strengths,
and aspirations of your learners and their families
• have a clear focus on what supports the progress of all learners
• help students understand Te Tiriti o Waitangi – its past, present, and future
(you will also be planning learning that helps students live the Treaty as citizens
of Aotearoa)
• help learners engage with the knowledge, values, and key competencies, so
they can go on to be confident and connected lifelong learners
The MOE resources also identify 4 high impact practices that help in the design of your local curriculum, as illustrated in this image:
So how do schools start to review their own curricula, build on what they have, and design a flexible, adaptive curriculum that reflects the culture and desires of their community but also looks to the future? The guide from the MOE suggests some activities for each of these practices, but here are some thoughts around each of the practices that might prompt you to start your review.
1. Enabling Relationships for Learning:
Let's start by asking the question: -Who are our learners? What varied and rich family backgrounds do they arise from? How do we draw on their strengths and cultures?
I have been imagining and "possibilising" what I might do as a leader in a school. I live in Taupo, so let's start there when thinking about a local curriculum design. If you asked me who are the people here with which the school needs a relationship, I would firstly say it is crucial that we discover, honour, and respect customs and tikanga of the tangata whenua - Ngati Tuwharetoa, so that becomes an integral part of the curriculum in every class. The school curriculum should grow out of this bicultural heritage, not just give a passing nod to it.
We also have the current population of Taupo, many of whom are employed in the service industries of our tourism-based economy, lots of owners and workers in forestry and farming around, but also lots of retired people and lots of tourists/ holiday home owners. We have global connections with incoming tourists and scientists working in this area. As well, it is important that our lake and the geothermal, volcanic origins of our environment are valued and protected so that there is a positive relationship with our surroundings. We want our learners to be able to hold their own in any corner of the globe, so using the context that we live and interact in, how can this be incorporated?
2. Strengthen Collaborative Inquiry
It takes a village to raise a child. We are all in this battle of life together. No effective education system works in isolation from the rest of society. Deciding priorities each year should be a shared work, with strategic goals being understood widely. If everyone in a school community is involved in decision-making, everyone should be able to see and articulate the needs of the learners and therefore the curriculum. And most importantly, how do we put the understanding of the needs into actions? This involves collaborative inquiry. Knowing what we want, and working out how to get there, by researching together and supporting each other and developing best practice. This segues quite naturally to the next high impact practice: 3. Building Coherent Pathways
For a while now, schools have a concept of their graduates - often coined a 'graduate profile' - but how well do our schools and teachers know what that might look like for a learner after each year of learning? Do we have a school- and community-wide understanding of the steps taken at each level to develop the graduates we desire? Is your curriculum publicised and promulgated (shared widely) in your community? 4. Provide Rich Opportunities for Learning
Too often, rich opportunities for learning are not utilised. It involves a certain amount of letting go of control by schools' teachers. I don't mean letting the students riot. I mean using that teachable moment when a learner asks a question totally unrelated to the "topic of the month" or comes to school with a burning thought, or something happens in the playground or the environment that prompts fascination. It also means looking at your curriculum and NOT teaching that unit on monarch butterflies that has been untouched in 20 years, unless a monarch butterfly makes its way into your classroom and lands on the nose of your most vocal student who suddenly becomes very quiet and still.
The purpose of this blog post is to set you wondering about what you can do about your local curriculum. Do not expect an overnight fix, after all, it has taken 10 years of the NZ curriculum implementation for some to realise that they have not done it well yet. It will take time and effort by all stakeholders, and sometimes you will have to start by convincing some people that they are stakeholders in your school. No doubt, I will have more to say about it, but as usual, I invite your thoughts.
Since I started writing this blog earlier this year, it is interesting to note that the MOE has suggested that Local Curriculum Design become one of three new national priorities for professional learning. Have your say about this proposal on their website.
Footnote: Thanks to Amiria McGarvey for providing the prod to write this post!
The new digital technology areas in the New Zealand Curriculum both urge learning to be carried out in authentic contexts, as does the whole Technology Curriculum. I really like the idea of authentic contexts for learning as it implies genuine, real-world, problems that learners are able to explore in a flexible, engaging way.
However, I have heard a number of definitions which leave me scratching my head about what is an authentic context. Some say if it engages the learner and that they can see where it is applied then it is authentic, but I disagree. To me, that sounds like applied learning and is not much different to the way I was taught, where we were told the "law" or "truth" or "fact" and then provided with 2 or 3 examples of this. For example, some bacteria are helpful to humans eg they are present in the gut and stop harmful bacteria from causing disease, or bacteria help in the breakdown of dead organisms. Some also use the "mantle of the expert" approach, so that learners can imagine and explore how real-life situations might pan out.
An authentic context, however, is a real-life problem or project that is relevant and engaging for the learners as they work toward solving the problem. Because real-world problems are often messy and even "wicked", the learning is often not linear and can lead the learner down all sorts of rabbit holes. The one thing for learners to keep in mind, in this distracting situation, is the problem. Will the learning help solve the problem?
It is very difficult to plan in depth for this type of learning, other than to spend some time working together to identify a real-world problem or project that is interesting to them and will engage them. From there you will need to do some backward planning (what have the children learned during this work?) to ensure that your students are making progress.
There is danger in the authentic context being too teacher-directed or externally imposed on learners. Sometimes community contexts are not engaging for learners as described in Themes of Future-Oriented Teaching and Learning: A New Zealand Perspective on page 53. Piquing the interest of learners can happen in a number of ways - perhaps something they heard at home, there was something on the internet, or a principal talked about something in assembly or they watched a youtube in class. Whichever way the interest started, discourse helps learners understand the complexity of the problems. Talking amongst themselves and asking questions is so important.
Remember, too, that not all learners will engage in a specific authentic context, and you will need to allow for more personalized learning approaches. Inquiry learning which is less teacher directed should meet the needs of these learners.
In this video, two authentic contexts are shown. In the first example, the students are younger and there is more teacher direction about the questions that are posed, while in the second, the students are older and are charged with teaching other people about the water quality of one of their community rivers.
Computational thinking is about understanding the computer science principles that underlie all digital technologies, and learning how to develop instructions, such as programming, to control these technologies. Designing and developing digital outcomes is learning how to design quality, fit for purpose, digital solutions. Both of these areas need to be explored in authentic contexts. How are you ensuring that your learners are doing this?
When you explore some of the contexts in which the progress outcomes are embedded, do you consider that they are authentic? Does anyone have any relevant readings?
I have a fear that in 20 years time when I am probably ready for dying, that school will still be the same as it is now. There are still too many teachers still standing in front of classes "delivering" the lesson to the learners. Andreas Schleicher says in this 2017 video, at about 12mins 30 seconds, that we have 21st-century technology and 21st century learners, with 20th-century pedagogy, in 19th-century institutional structures.
This is why we are in a position where technology has not necessarily been helpful to learners yet, because we are doing old things with new technologies, which means students have "mile-wide, inch-deep understanding" as Schleicher puts it. Deep conceptual understanding is not there, as shown in the PISA testing.
Schleicher says to overcome this, we must find a way to amplify the relationship (13'56") that teachers have with their students, because learning is a very social, relational process. Just replacing a teacher with technology is doing more bad than good.
I have noticed teachers telling me that they are using digital technologies really well because they are using Google Classroom. This is not enough. Don't just use the technology to "deliver" a lesson in the same way that you would have delivered it in the past.
So how can you amplify the relationship? You as the teacher are the person that they know and trust. How can you make sure that you multiply your availability without wearing yourself to a frazzle? Some of the things that I would try would be to
have a class blog or site that your learners can refer to for aspects of their work, like resources. Personalise it as much as you can with your face, interests, and snippets of what you thought was exciting on the news or in school.
make little instructional videos with your face embedded (yes, get over it, it is a 21st century requirement).
get involved in social media - professionally! Use Snapchat, Instagram or Twitter in your classes for learning.
reach out to your students through feedback forms (getting to know your learners, finding out their questions, formative assessments).
make the conversations two-way. Respond to their work (through commenting, posting, voice notes).
ask an open-ended question on Flipgrid at least once a week and review/respond to the answering videos.
explicitly include collaborative digital activities in your classwork, and assign a group leader each week to give feedback to you and each other on how work is progressing. Ask them their next steps. Develop their collaborative problem-solving and social skills so that they can work with people who think differently to them.
teach and learn about digital citizenship (that is, how to be a good person, no matter what the medium).
use social bookmarking (sharing resources through an app like Diigo) and share your comments, while asking for their comments as well.
make connections to your learner's whanau through google classroom, Seesaw, Flipgrid or whatever your poison, through positive affirmations on achievements.
acknowledge talents and adjust students' work accordingly
Doing any one of these things takes time to set up, so start with small steps and build up from there. Your aim is to amplify the relationship that you have with your learners digitally so that your face to face time with them is a lot less demanding and easier to manage,
I will be really interested to hear of other ways that you have amplified the relationship with your learners, and of course if you try any one of these things then what have been your successes and failures?
Schleicher says you have to believe that education can change. I hope my fear is not realised.
Last week, I attended the Google Summits, run by the EdTechTeam, in Auckland and Whangarei. So much learning still! These are the best events I attend in terms of professional development because they are well organised, friendly, and provide inspiration and learning in such a variety of ways, with overseas and local presenters.
As I am a Google for Education Trainer, I presented a workshop on 'Good Google Tools for Portfolios for the Teaching Standards', a subject that all teachers need to address. There are so many easy ways to get your portfolios together for certification, and appraisal, through which your principal must ensure that you meet the standards.
I am sharing my slides here and also will shortly add a video which will talk you through the slides. Hopefully, you will find some gems here which will suit your purposes. What you actually need for your portfolio is shown in slides 10 - 15. Some examples can be found on how you can do that in later slides along with some of my youtube videos.
And here's the video which will talk you through some of the slides - GOOD LUCK!
It scares the hell out of me that educators are so entrenched in assessment-driven curricula that they are panicking about what to do in class now that National Standards are abolished.
Step 1. Do some reading around future-focused learning and new pedagogies for deep learning. Go on, google it!
Step 2. Start by getting your learners to talk about what is important in the world.
Step 3. Let them think about ways they can have a part to play.
Step 4. Teach them ways of working on being communicative, collaborative, connected, creative, critically thinking, and expressing their character or culture
Step 5. Build on their individual skills and talents.
You won't stop wondering why you ever thought National Standards were so great.
In talking to a friend recently, I discovered that her teenager, who has just started college, and is still small, as boys often are at that tender age of 13, has a backpack full of textbooks to carry every day, along with a laptop as well. This just about makes my blood boil. What on earth are teachers doing, still expecting kids to carry textbooks? And exercise books? This is the age of the digital school, isn't it?
If your school has moved to a digital environment (and there is no reason why it should not have in this eighteenth year of the 21st century), then you need to ditch the textbooks and the countless exercise books. There is absolutely no need for huge stationery lists anymore. You need to protest and make sure the school makes changes so that stationery lists are minimal and the only book that the learners carry is the occasional one that they might borrow from the classroom or the library for a bit of extra reading or study (yes, chuck out the homework, too).
Why on earth are schools spending their budgets on textbooks? Please, can someone explain?
