Staff Development Day Data to Inform Practice (21 century skills and capabilities)

1. Staff Development Day Data to Inform Practice (21 century skills and capabilities) Dr Max Smith Senior Manager Student Engagement & Program Evaluation Conjoint Professor School of Education University of Newcastle 18 July 2011 NSW Department of Education & Communities NSW Public Schools – Leading the Way www.det.nsw.edu.au

2. As the Japanese proverb so ably puts it: None of us is as smart as all of us We need to move out of our comfortable silos and draw on each and every human being’s talents and energies

3. Educators as future makers • Education is a largely future oriented enterprise • Amongst its purposes are preparing people to live well in the future: preparing them as future citizens and as future workers • But more than preparing learners for the future, education plays a significant part in constructing the future • What and how young people learn in school and tertiary education today very much influences what the world will be like in the future • Education, then, is a future making process • Educators are future makers As for the future, your task is not to foresee but to enable … French writer and philosopher Antoine de Saint-Exupery

4. Assessment literacy Assessment literacy as a strategy involves developing the capacity of teachers and principals collectively to: 1. Gather and access dependable student achievement data 2. Make critical sense of the meaning of the data 3. To develop school improvement action plans based on (1) and (2) 4. Be effective players, proactive and open about the uses and abuses of achievement data-- being engaged in public discussion with a range of stakeholders so that the rationales for decisions are transparent Fullan et al (2001), Accomplishing Large Scale Reform: A Tri-Level Proposition, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Prepared for the Journal of Educational Change, November

5. http://www.hfrp.org/content/download/3809/104680/file/PolicyForumPaper-120710-FINAL.pdfhttp://www.hfrp.org/content/download/3809/104680/file/PolicyForumPaper-120710-FINAL.pdf

6. e.g. The effect of self-concept on examination grades SocialAffect AcademicOutcomes e.g. The effect of learning in science on quality of life Affective and academic outcomes:The virtuous circle • It is readily recognised that positive social affect improves academic outcomes • Recognising the link between academic success and social outcomes is less commonly discussed

7. Reflection:Assessment in the middle years • Uses collaborative 21st rubrics. Students and teachers collaborating to develop learning activities and assessment tasks and inclusive of 21st century skills • Allows students to own their learning and see assessment as an integral part of this • Features open ended tasks that allow relational and extended abstract levels of understanding to be displayed • Engenders independence in learning • Promotes higher order thinking and creativity • Features open-ended, authentic tasks that allow relational and conceptual (extended abstract) levels of understanding to be displayed

8. The Department’s commitment • The Department of Education and Communities is committed to preparing people to live well in the future: preparing them as future citizens and as future workers  • The Department is concerned not only to develop basic skills in literacy and numeracy, important as they are, but also to develop in all students 21st century capabilities

9. Social/affective v’s academic outcomes Lighthouse schools (Transcendents) Academic Press (Geeks) High achievers Goal congruence Alienated students Bon-vivants Low Academic achievement High Underperforming Schools (Social Butterfly) Sinking schools (Students at risk) Low achievers Social/affective outcomes Low High

10. ESSA science against liking-for-scienceSchool-level relationship

11. ESSA science against liking-for-scienceStudent-level relationship

12. A taxonomy of social outcomes OUTCOME EXAMPLES VIEW OF THE SOCIAL · · Affective/attitudinal Pro-social values & Psychological · behaviours Individual skills & · Feelings and beliefs · attitudes Meta-cognitive · Perceptions of self · competencies and others Social competencies Acceptable values, Social practice · · · attitudes norms perspective Social skills (group · work, problem solving, support for others) Institutional indicators Attendance rates Rationalist · · · Exam results Aggregated · · Playground behaviour Observed school and Social · · · interactionist classroom Classroom · management environment Ethnographic · Ainley, J., Batten, M., Collins, C. & Withers, G. (1998). (TBC)Schools and the Social Development of Young Australians. Melbourne: ACER.

13. Challenges of the 21st century Five challenges stand out and are often discussed in the literature: • Social challenges - vitality of our democratic society • Economic challenges - such as preparing our students for employment in jobs that do not yet exist, creating ideas and solutions for products and problems that have not yet been identified, using technologies that have not yet been invented • Technological challenges - such as preparing ourselves for the increasing power of, and dependence on, science and technology; information overload; and increasing global integration • Health challenges - maintaining and improving our physical and mental health • Ecological challenges - finding ways to live and work that are less harmful to living systems

14. 21stcentury capabilities #1 The ability to think well including abilities to: • think critically, that is examine, reflect, argue and debate • think deeply and logically • solve problems in ways that draw upon a range of learning areas and disciplines • be creative, innovative and resourceful

15. 21stcentury capabilities #2 The ability to live well including the abilities to: • manage one’s emotional, mental, spiritual and physical wellbeing • relate well to others and form and maintain healthy relationships • have concern for the lives of other living beings

17. http://www.p21.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=254&Itemid=119http://www.p21.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=254&Itemid=119

18. Microsoft ITL research project • The ITL pilot showed that when educators develop learning activities that require 21st century skills, students demonstrate them • Howev4er, only 10% of assessment activities incorporated any 21 century competencies • And more than 50% of learning activities scored the lowest possible score, suggesting that many educators are only in the early stages of teaching these skills • Showed that educators need clear definitions of these skills, examples of how to develop them through teaching and learning, and a way to measure their success Announced in January 2011http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2011/jan11/01-09workskillspr.mspx

19. The REAL FrameworkReflective Engagement (for) Authentic Learning Five probes Geoff Munns et al. The Fair Go Project

20. Munns, G. & Woodward, H. (2005) Pen 155. Primary English Teachers Association

24. Questions about 21stcentury capabilities • What exactly are the 21st Century Capabilities? • How can they be assessed? Pencil and paper/ tick a box tests do not seem sufficient? • How are 21st Century capabilities best learned? How can teachers best support students in cultivating 21st Century capabilities? • Assuming 21st century skills can and should be taught within the traditional disciplines, are they different from one discipline to another? • What are the implications for teacher education and professional learning of the imperative of 21st Century capabilities for all? • How can we validly and reliably evaluate education system’s efficacy in developing students’ 21st century skills? • How do we build the capacity of systems to develop 21st century skills?

25. Reflection:Assessment of 21 century competencies

26. The Whole Mind Dan Pink in his book reminds us that the future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind: • creators and empathizers • pattern recognisers and meaning makers • artists • inventors • caregivers • consolers • big picture thinkers

27. The diligent (righteous) gardener The goal will be to invent a job, not find a job … a form of social entrepreneurship Based on: Confidence Build individual Friendships strengths based Risk taking education with Passion a strong global Unique ideas orientation Motivation Innovation The stone age didn’t end because they ran out of stones Professor Yong Zhao, Presidential Chair and Assoc. Dean for Global Education College of Education, University of Oregon