Google Ed! Exploring, mapping and searching curriculum and assessment…. Anne Looney SDPI 2008

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 middle Who may be used to ‘hiding’ Who may be used to an easy pace Who may ‘passenger’ Who may not have talked about learning Who may want the answers, not the questions

Futures…  achievement gaps  concerns for teacher quality  collapse of public education  Disaffected student groups OR…  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 studystudy 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 subjectsShort 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 Sept 2009 Strands June 2010 Changes to paper 2 (S1+S2) Sept 2010 Strand 5Strands June 2011 Changes to paper 1 S3 + S4 No change in exams Sept 2011 All strands in placeStrands (*) June 2012 Full changes to both papers 1 and 2 No change paper 1 Changes to paper 2 (S1+S2) Sept 2012 Full new syllabuses in all schools June 2013 New exam paper 2Changes to paper 1 (S3+S4)* New exam paper 2* June 2014 New papers 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 (5 th and 6 th 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

Information on Project Maths URL:

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