Weaving the curriculum together

1. Weaving the curriculum together Introduction to PPTA workshop, April 6 2009 Rosemary Hipkins New Zealand Council for Educational Research

2. WHY HOW WHAT

3. Why change anything? Interwoven themes from the future focused literature: • Knowledge society (global scale of issues, communications technologies, multi-cultural societies, identity etc) • Complexity, emergence, non-linear systems (climate change, financial crisis) • Changing patterns of work and living require new competencies as well as traditional ones Have we taken the time to examine our own assumptions about what matters in learning and why?

4. School/work distinction Follow instructions Memorisation, standardisation, reproduction of knowledge Focus on individual work Lifelong learning Show initiative and self reliance Creativity and finding the point of difference Focus on team work Changing work-related values www.coe.ilstu.edu/rpriegle/wwwdocs/hidden.htm

5. Actively involved Participants in a range of life contextsContributors to the well-being of New Zealand – social, cultural, economic, and environmental Lifelong learners Literate and numerateCritical and creative thinkersActive seekers, users, and creators of knowledgeInformed decision makers Confident Positive in their own identityMotivated and reliableResourcefulEnterprising and entrepreneurialResilient Connected Able to relate well to othersEffective users of communication toolsConnected to the land and environmentMembers of communitiesInternational citizens The vision statement reflects change imperatives But how do we help our students to BE the vision?

6. Designing a principled curriculum • High expectations • Treaty of Waitangi • Cultural diversity • Inclusion • Learning to learn • Community engagement • Coherence • Future focus HOW? All of these can be interpreted in different ways Part of our planning job is working out what they could mean for the “how” of our practice

7. “How” messages about teaching Shared learning Opportunities to learn Making connections Enhancing relevance Reflective thought and action Supportive environment Maybe, this time, the change is as much about reviewing how we teach as what we teach?

8. The “front end” • Vision • Values • Principles • Key competencies • Pedagogy • A potentially transformative package The “back end” 8 levels 8 learning areas 8 sets of AOs per level The revised package We have to make sense of how the bits can be worked together to deliver the big picture goals

9. What: changes in ways we use content will be controversial! Knowledge and its organisation Based on Reid, 2006. Teaching OF subjects A change of emphasis! From the horses’ mouth: [learning area]statements should be the starting point for developing programmes of learning suited to students’ needs and interests. Schools are then able to select achievement objectives to fit these programmes (p.38)

10. The “so what” message in the essence statements In science, students explore how both the natural physical world and science itself work so that they can participate as critical, informed, and responsible citizens in a society in which science plays a significant role. How will students see the “so what?” in what you plan to teach? Can you find ways to put them in the driving seat of their own learning more often (without in the process abdicating your role as the more knowledgeable leader of learning)?

11. Have you considered the implications of the expanded learning area statement: My question: what is the relationship between the first two (traditional “having” knowledge outcomes) and the second two (anticipatory“using” learning outcomes) Concepts and theories (content) Problem solving, building new knowledge (“research”) Ways science works (“investigating”) Informed decision making, sustainability

12. Lifelong learners – the vision Essence statements – the why and what Guidance on the reasons for content inclusion – supported by the Achievement Objectives, in combination with relevant values Learning to learn – the design principle Thinking KC (as an enabler) Which bits are missing from my unit plan? Opportunities to practice (we can’t get competent for students) New assessment practices – how we will know if it worked One example of alignment

13. Key competencies as weaving materials Putting it all together to refocus learning opportunities

14. The “front end” • Vision • Values • Principles • Pedagogy The “back end” 8 levels 8 learning areas 8 sets of AOs per level Might key competencies be the “glue” that brings all these pieces together?

15. Reid’s model of curriculum implementation What do we want our kids to be? Capabilities Teaching through knowledge FOR capabilities (i.e. key competencies) Knowledge and its organisation Disciplinary knowledge is the basis through which we teach for capabilities (as outcomes in their own right)

16. KCs can be taught as well as caught Thinking as an example • Active practice in cognitively challenging tasks; • Learning a variety of thinking patterns and skills; • Opportunities to transfer thinking skills from one context into different contexts; • Specific feedback on progress in use of thinking tools and approaches; • Freedom to think and learn from mistakes. Gaining language tools to think about thinking; Zohar and Schwartzer, 2005

18. Some of our learning so far… • Relationships and connections really matter - building links and weaving webs of meaning is an active, dynamic, personal process • Contexts are integral to learning and should be never be taken for granted • Meaning-making is not self-evident – students need to be shown how it works in different disciplines and settings

19. Knowledge about knowledge could sit at the intersection of ULST and Thinking KCs • knowing how different knowledge areas ‘work’; • knowing the sorts of assumptions that underpin each knowledge area; • knowing how ‘experts’ generate and justify new knowledge in specific knowledge areas. Experts say working theories of knowledge are essential for participation in the knowledge age, but how do we help students in an area that is likely to be somewhat new for many of us?

20. Putting the meaning-making on the outside.. What might this look like in your subject? This is an important way to understand “Using language, symbols and texts”

21. Learning about history as a discipline To research like a “real historian” requires: • Learning to choose and evaluate sources • Learning to compare and contextualise multiple sources of information • Learning to corroborate information from different sources • Weaving a story based on the sources - learning to generalise What are the equivalents of this in your subject area? What might we need to do differently so students have powerful and authentic experiences of knowledge building?

22. Reviewing what KCs can do • Drive front end ideals into the different learning areas by changing pedagogy • Act as both means and ends for learning - they are always all in play, but one might be fore-grounded for explicit development • Focus us on the how not just the what of learning • Focus on the how not just the what of knowing • Help students take ownership of their learning

23. Making space in a crowded curriculum I believe there is an urgent need to address the “so what” question when retaining traditional “content”. If there are truly fundamental principles in science, then the extended study of any few topics in science will eventually bring students into contact with those principles. (And if not, then they were not really so fundamental, were they?) Jay Lemke, 2005 Do we need to reduce content in our curriculum area? If yes, what principles should we use to decide what stays and what goes?

24. Rethinking assessment practices • What is being assessed? • What evidence are we planning to gather and what will we use it for? • How integral are our assessment plans to the teaching and learning intended? • Are there ways we can put students into the assessment driving seat more often? • Do our students really know what quality work looks like and why we value what we do?

25. References Gilbert, J. (2005). Catching the Knowledge Wave? The Knowledge Society and the future of education. Wellington: NZCER Press. Lemke, J. (2005). Research for the future of science education: New ways of learning, new ways of living. Opening plenary at VIIth International Congress on Research in Science Teaching, Granada, Spain http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jaylemke/papers/Granada%20Future%20Science%20Education.htm. Reid (2007) Key competencies: a new way forward or more of the same? Curriculum Matters, 2, 43-62. (Journal available on subscription from NZCER) Zohar, A., & Schwartzer, N. (2005). Assessing teachers' pedagogical knowledge in the context of teaching higher order thinking. International Journal of Science Education, 27, 1595-1620.