1 / 28

The core business of schools is LEARNING

The core business of schools is LEARNING. Jan McClure, David Shepherd Ballarat and Clarendon College. Is the individual learner making progress? …enough progress? …optimum progress?.

anne-lott
Download Presentation

The core business of schools is LEARNING

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The core business of schools is LEARNING Jan McClure, David Shepherd Ballarat and Clarendon College

  2. Is the individual learner making progress? …enough progress? …optimum progress?

  3. To answer these questions, at Ballarat and Clarendon College we have developed progress maps / developmental continua in Years 5 – 9.

  4. CURRICULUM / ASSESSMENT After identifying the Essential Learning Outcomes we developed the continuum to describe the likely learning path in each ELO. ELOs Developmental Continua

  5. LEARNING Assessments of student learning are made against a continuum. The continuum provides a scale against which we can measure progress.

  6. Thinking ELO 1: Hypothesis and Contention

  7. RATIONALE Use of a developmental continuum • Supports metacognition • Scaffolds learning • Provides a common language • Builds expertise in assessment • Provides a scale for tracking progress over time.

  8. METACOGNITION Self-regulation – defined as: • the ability to orchestrate one’s learning: to plan, monitor success… • effective intentional learning

  9. METACOGNITION Also about the ability to reflect on performance “if children lack insight to their own learning abilities, they can hardly be expected to plan or self-regulate efficiently” Bransford, Brown & Cocking How People Learn

  10. SCAFFOLDING • Maintaining the pursuit of the goal • Marking critical features of discrepancies between what a child has produced and the ideal solution. Bransford, Brown & Cocking How People Learn

  11. STRATEGIC COMPETENCE “In order to develop strategic competence in learning, children need to understand what it means to learn, who they are as learners, and how to go about planning, monitoring, revising, and reflecting upon their learning and that of others” Bransford, Brown & Cocking How People Learn

  12. CHALLENGES • Large commitment to whole-school development. • The learning continua are difficult to develop.

  13. THE IMPORTANT OUTCOMES: • You can track progress of the learner from year to year. • You can tailor the teaching for the learner. • Helps students to develop strategic competence in learning. • Enables the school to assess the effectiveness of the teaching against intended learning.

  14. OUTCOMES continued… • Facilitates decision-making around the allocation of resources for professional development. “Improvements in instruction have immediate effects on student learning…demonstrated through skillful assessment. Professional development is the process by which we organise the development and use of new knowledge in theserviceof improvement.” Richard Elmore

  15. PROGRESS • Is the individual student making progress? • Is the individual student making enough progress? • Is each student making optimum progress?

  16. TowardsAssessment-Based Pedagogy: The Importance ofProfessional Development Hilary Hollingsworth Education Consultant

  17. proposal In order to teach and assess effectively we need to develop shared visions of: • learning with understanding • levels of learning, or learning maps • the role of the key players - students

  18. proposal To develop shared visions we need to: • establish and support a culture of teacher professional learning (where learning opportunities are focused, substantive, pervasive)

  19. research Richard F. Elmore, Bridging the Gap Between Standards and Achievement “Few school districts treat professional development as a part of an overall strategy for school improvement.” “The knowledge gap… is not so much about knowing what good professional development looks like; it’s about knowing how to get it rooted in the institutional structure of schools.”

  20. research “…the practice of improvement is largely about moving whole organizations–teachers, administrators and schools–towards the culture, structure, norms and processes that support quality professional development in the service of student learning.” “When you begin to describe the organizational conditions under which professional development actually contributes to instructional capacity in schools, you begin to describe an organization as it rarely exists.”

  21. research What is needed are, “enlightened professional development practices” that become “part of the mainstream of school life”.

  22. “show me”example Such practices are being put in place at Ballarat and Clarendon College.

  23. “show me” example For example, leaders are: • developing considerable expertise about instructional practice • working with teachers in their classrooms in a way that supports continuous improvement • supporting and funding the work of teachers and professional developers in sustained interaction • setting priorities for improvement • developing the school culture as a learning environment for teachers and students • designing the instructional day to facilitate the learning of both students and teachers

  24. “show me” example One initiative: Lesson Study • in-depth study of a single lesson over extended time • focused on student learning and understanding • involves observation, analysis, and research • develops shared understandings among teachers • pervades teaching

  25. “show me” example Steps in the Lesson Study Process • Defining the research theme • Defining the subject matter topic and goal • Developing the concept map • Selecting the subject matter context • Selecting the lesson context • Planning the research lesson • Designing the lesson observation tools • Teaching the research lesson • Reflecting on and debriefing the research lesson • Revising the lesson

  26. “show me” example “The lesson study process has an unrelenting focus on student learning. All efforts to improve lessons are evaluated with respect to clearly specified learning goals, and revisions are always justified with respect to student thinking and learning.” Stigler, J.W., & Hiebert, J., The Teaching Gap

  27. “show me” example “… effective professional development is connected to questions of content and pedagogy that educators are asking–or should be asking–about the consequences of their instructional practices on real students as well as in general questions about effective teaching practice.” Elmore, R.F., Bridging the Gap Between Standards and Achievement

  28. reflection Are our key decisions and actions focused on advancing the progress of individual students?

More Related