Learning on Purpose

Further from a previous post detailing a new framework for our Year 9 programme, a colleague and I have started mapping out how a new, more futures focused, Year 9 Science programme might look.  We are trying to find a balance between background disciplinary knowledge and allowing for the development student's capacity to create new knowledge and investigate the world's wicked problems and possible solutions. Key Competencies for the Future (Hipkins, Bolstad, Boyd and McDowell; NZCER 2014) has been an immense help for me as I work my way through the tension that exists between traditional science education which focuses on the acquisition of knowledge and future-oriented science learning, where we should use the Nature of Science learning outcomes to develop science thinking and literacy in an effort to have informed citizens.  A part of the book that has resonated with me the most in this aspect is Chapter 3 p45-46 which describes assumptions about the mind, knowledge and...

I was lucky enough to bring a team of colleagues to the #edchatNZ conference in August.  Experiencing the 2 days together showed me I was no longer a lone nut, I was part of a mixed nut group keen to enact change.  We naturally leaned towards ways to improve our local junior curriculum (Years 9 and 10).  In a high performing school so focused on excellence, especially in NCEA, junior classes can easily become the poor cousins to senior classes for busy, fully loaded teachers of multiple levels.  In times of busyness and stress, we readily default to the industrial model of teaching that we were bred and educated in.  So as a group we decided to make our junior programmes an absolute focus for improvement.  We want to work more collaboratively, be cross-curricular, use assessment for learning and explicitly teach the principles, values and key competencies. So post-conference around the lunch table we kept the conversations going, more people came on board...

If you get included in the blogging meme: copy/paste the questions and instructions into your own blog then fill out your own answers. Share on twitter tagging 5 friends. 1. How did you attend the #Edchatnz Conference? (Face 2 Face, followed online or didn’t) Face 2 face - no other option for me really! 2. How many others attended from your school or organisation? 6 other fantastic people from my school attended, we have a supportive senior leadership team 3.How many #Edchatnz challenges did you complete? 7 4. Who are 3 people that you connected with and what did you learn from them? Red Nicholson (@rednz) - I learned that there are tweeps out there who are as passionate about transformational education as me but have far less freedom than I do.  I think I take that for granted too often, I have neve been told I couldn't try something with me class.  Makes me want to go on a break-out / intervention mission Catherine Delahunty (@greenca...

In April blogged my excitement at relinquishing control of learning, of giving them some agency, and some choice.   http://learningonpurpose.blogspot.co.nz/2014/04/making-it-real-relinquishing-control.html I can't remember the last time I had students so engaged and so invested in their learning.  Unfortunately, they were not being assessed on commitment, investment and effort.  Had they been, it would have been Achieved with Excellence for all.  Such is the beast, they were being assessed against a standard. Some did not meet the standard to the level at which they expected.  I also can't remember that last time I had this emotional a response to results.  I can't help wondering if the intense response was influenced by the degree to which they invested themselves into the project. In an effort to give some perspective, we discussed what they learned that was outside the standard.  What skills and competencies did they gain working for 10 weeks on...

This week saw my Level 1 students put their SOLO work in to action.  I started off by giving them a SOLO grid of learning activities that match the SOLO learning outcomes.  My hope is that they will start to find and share learning activities themselves when they become more familiar with the taxonomy. We talked about using the unit plan to decide where they were in their learning, what the did and didn't understand.  They then self-selected activities to consolidate their understanding, and then challenge themselves to a higher level. Building DNA with lollies proved to be a popular activity choice (go figure!).  How they shared their justification of lolly choice and manipulation was up to them.  One group chose a static image: Another group use iLapse on an iPad to film the building and then replication of DNA When I asked this group to justify their process and link it to the actual biology process, so working in the extended abstract...

My first class hack for this project is using SOLO taxonomy to co-construct a genetics unit with my Level 1 Biology class.  We began by identifying what we know, what we want to know, and what we need to know. I then introduced SOLO to the class as a framework for differentiated and personalised learning.  We have used this framework to structure and articulate differentiated learning outcomes.   A question I get asked often as a teacher, is one that I find very challenging to answer - "What do I need to do to get Excellence"  The anti-establishment part of me rebels at the question - why should the grade matter?  Love the learning and learn it well!  Bless most of my students though, when they ask this question, it's not just because they are only interested in results, they do love their learning, but in the end, they have goals for tertiary study and the competitive courses and universities want strong academic records....

I love Level 3 Biology right now.  We are doing AS91601, colloquially known as 3.1 - a standard one colleague of mine calls the only real science we do in the school.  That colleague teaches another Science, and, by his own admission, is quite jealous. The task requires students to measure the response of a plant or animal to an environment stressor.  Measure - the collection of primary data, carried out through fair testing or pattern seeking. In past years we've done this the easy way.  Only 1 plant or animal, in fact in some years, the whole cohort has done the same organism, and a limited list of abiotic environmental stressors.  Students went through the process mechanically, robotically, with little interest or engagement.  They shared methods and results (inauthentically) and in the worst instances, fabricated the entire investigation. This year we relinquished control.  There is a vastly extended list of suggested plants and animals, and ...

I had one of those moments today, when it felt like the hard work and fighting the good fight become worth it..... when discussing PL one of my colleagues complained about learning how to use a digital tool and asked when we would get on with the pedagogical discussion - how to use the tool effectively improve outcomes for learners. Some background..... Late 2012 a group of us 'early adopters' formed a group that would research and drive PL for our school.  We had recently become BYOD and had a fabulous wireless network to back it up.  Uptake was slow, students weren't bringing devices, teachers weren't expanding learning opportunities.  We called ourselves BLING (Blended Learning INquiry Group).  We met, we talked, we hashed out a plan. In 2013 the academic goal for teachers was to explore and implement blended learning techniques.  Blended learning, for us, was about giving students access to as many effective learning opportunities as possible. Our senio...