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 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
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!
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!
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