google ed! exploring, mapping and searching curriculum and assessment…. anne looney sdpi 2008...
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Google Ed! Exploring, mapping and searching curriculum and assessment….
Anne Looney SDPI [email protected]
Exploring
The press for reform…
The student experience
– Failure
– Non-participation
– Non engagement Evidence that the quality of teaching matters Evidence that it matters more for students with special
needs and with English as an additional language Public accountability for public services Knowledge society/ahead of the curve Inclusion
– The discourse of the problematic
And the press against
The stretch factor in Irish education The normative power of policy The rich, the poor and the nervous in-between About Mother and Other Tradition and nostalgia Complex educational structures, complex policy
context Policy inertia….
Explore YOUR context/setting
Any other sources of press?
Who is winning?
Mapping
Compass points
Inclusion
Report Card Templates
Project Maths
Key Skills/School Network
The classroom of diversities…
Greater ability range
Special needs
– general
– specific
English as an additional language
I teach science, not special ed…..
The cosmopolitan teacher?
– Subject specialist
– Static measures of success
– Changing student profile Teaching regardless…
– Teaching to the middle
– Teaching to the top
– The ESRI findings on pace of instruction
International experiences…
System-wide and deep response Resourcing is for the system not the ‘group’ An emphasis on data and evidence
Or
Ad hoc response Resources short-term and ‘targeted’ No or poor monitoring
Teaching for inclusion
Is teaching for success Is teaching for learning Is teaching for understanding Is teaching for progression Is teaching using evidence and feedback Is GOOD teaching……
Teaching for exclusion Is teaching to the test Is teaching to the text Is teaching for coverage Is teaching fuelled by guesswork and hope Is BAD teaching….
Differentiation
the most complex and technical aspect of the teaching craft
neglected in teacher preparation?
seen as static – getting the level/pitch right
Dynamic, demanding and sophisticated
Differentiation is
HIGHER LEVEL TEACHING!
Some differentiation challenges
The question of place The question of pace The question of range The question of choice The question of additional support
One of the biggest challenges… is to teach differentiation strategies……
To the students
Who may be used to learning in the middleWho may be used to ‘hiding’Who may be used to an easy paceWho may ‘passenger’Who may not have talked about learningWho may want the answers, not the questions
Futures…
achievement gaps concerns for teacher quality collapse of public education Disaffected student groupsOR… International praise for achievement standards Students with strong commitments to schooling High quality teaching force
100 year-old wisdom….
What the wisest and best parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon, it destroys our democracy.
John Dewey. 1899, p.5.
Report Card Templates
With three networks of primary schools In support of the statutory requirement to report to
parents To work with draft national report card templates
– Reporting to parents at two points in the school year
– To report the results of standardised tests
– To develop a shared language of student achievement Schools as change sites Principals leading change processes
Senior Cycle work
Senior Cycle
– phase one syllabuses
– short course on enterprise
– transition units
– flexible programmes of study
Key Skills
After 30 years of teaching, they pushed me to innovate and to really look at what it was like to learn in my class….
Phase one curriculum components
Subjects to be reviewed
New subjects Short courses
Other developments
Biology Chemistry Physics
Social and Political Education
Enterprise
Psychology
Social, Personal and Health Education
PE framework
Origins…
What we know about maths education in schools in Ireland
– Maths learning
– Maths teaching
– Public mathematics
What we know about maths education elsewhere
What we know about change
Phasing of developments
Bridging framework to link primary and post-
primary mathematics
Phased syllabus changes at junior cycle and senior
cycle – 5 strands over 3 years
1. Statistics and probability
2. Geometry and trigonometry
3. Number
4. Algebra
5. Functions
Initial school group (24) All other schools
Sept 2008 Strands 1 + 2
Sept 2009 Strands 3 + 4
June 2010 Changes to paper 2 (S1+S2)
Sept 2010 Strand 5 Strands 1 + 2
June 2011 Changes to paper 1 S3 + S4
No change in exams
Sept 2011 All strands in place Strands 3 + 4 (*)
June 2012 Full changes to both papers 1 and 2
No change paper 1Changes to paper 2 (S1+S2)
Sept 2012 Full new syllabuses in all schools
Full new syllabuses in all schools
June 2013 New exam paper 2 Changes to paper 1 (S3+S4)*New exam paper 2*
June 2014 New papers 1 + 2 in all schools
New papers 1 + 2 in all schools
Features of the change
Teachers at the centre
– school-based initiative (regional spread of 24 schools)
– immediate start-up and ongoing involvement
– lesson development and evaluation
– feedback to curriculum development process
– linking with primary school teachers (5th and 6th class)
– contributing to professional development of colleagues
Features….
Classrooms as the site of change Monitoring and evaluation System-wide reform A BIG IDEA!
The Maths Bridge
The first curriculum framework for primary post-primary transfer
Will connect curriculum Will support teachers in connecting learning Will bring teachers together in both the
development and the trialling Will focus on AFL Will bring post-primary teachers into contact with
Micra T and Drumcondra Tests
Senior Cycle Developments: Key Skills
Hypothesising and making predictions, examining evidence, reaching conclusions
Students should be able to…
develop a line of reasoning from prediction/evidence/conclusion
understand the need to isolate and control variables in order to make
strong causal claims
describe the relationship between variables
point out the limits of co-relational reasoning
draw generalisations and be aware of their limitations
Key Skills
Students felt more in command of
their learning, they took greater
responsibility, were more positive, very
cooperative
Teaching through skills is infinitely preferable to
teaching students to parrot
I liked listening to my friends speak
French and having conversations with them in French. It’s a lot more fun than
listening to the same person (the
teacher) each class.
The main thing I learned is that it is not bad to make a mistake as you can
learn a lot from your mistakes
Working together helps you learn
better than on your own
Stopped working on ‘auto-pilot’
Reminded me of what we are trying to do as teachers
I now understand Maths for the first
time
Findings
The five key skills are relevant to each subject‘surprised how key skills appeared when structure
and methodology are changed’ When key skills are the focus in planning for
teaching then teaching becomes more learner-centred
‘Using the key skills encouraged me to teach specifically to the individual, now I am more focused on the students not the content’
‘students take more responsibility, are more positive and very cooperative’
Teachers’ success in embedding the key skills relates to their understanding and practice of the key skills themselves
‘I stopped working on ‘auto-pilot, it made me focus more on thinking about the lesson before going into class and planning different approaches’
The successful embedding of key skills requires curriculum and assessment change
‘There is little point in teaching our subjects with key skills embedded unless the method of assessment at the end is also key skills compatible’
Feedback from the Key Skills Network
Classes are more enjoyable for everyone Group work needs to be planned Students like well-planned group work Relationships in the classroom are better Longer class periods are needed Students are reluctant to change at first, but are
glad when they do.
Map YOUR context/setting
Where are the sources of change?
Who is the focus?
Searching
Thinking about change…..
Clarity of intention Change happens all the time… Change takes time Change takes leadership Change strategies must be agile Evolution and support Heat and light Design for participation Quality Teachers