Diagnostic Teaching in the qualcative age

Individual Literacy – what we hope we all do – address individual learner's individual needs. Diagnostic Teaching how we achieve the above goal For *Literacy read Literacy/Numeracy/General Education The Qualcative Age audit driven, assessment dominated, “accountable” delivery

New literacies, new contexts, new learners This session presents facilitated discussion on the following points: Is there a core literacy that underpins the new literacies? Is there a core context that underpins the new contexts? Is there a core learner that underpins the new learner? Is there a core teaching that underpins the new teaching?

The aim of this session. The aim of this session is to allow practitioners to reflect on “newness” and “change” and the contemporary socio-economic pressures operating in the literacy field.

Starting point Dacchi (45 years) – PhD Fine Arts, Griffith University - time to learn to write his own thesis. Phil (47 years) – four jobs(cook, aged care, nanny, caterer) manages successfully - cannot organise ‘learning’ paperwork/spell - Doing RPL, Cert III Com Cook Karen – never had a paid job, academically ‘able’ can read, write and spell - Cannot behave in an adult environment (learning/work) Eden (15)- cannot spell ‘pit’, ‘pot’, ‘pat’ - can give a cogent description of conservative versus liberal ideology off the top of his head

Qualculation Qualculation –as the propensity to‘enumerate, list, display, relate, transform, rank and sum’ Qualculation as a process of proliferation - in which entities are detached from other contexts, reworked, displayed, related, manipulated, transformed and summed in a single space. (Callon & Law 2003, p. 13)

Individualised (diagnostic) teaching Threats Rationale Model

Threats to individualised instruction Economic rationalism Economies of scale User pays Accountability Audit mania Standardisation

Education in an audit society Contemporary public sector reforms and the ensuing policies in the UK, USA and Australia and elsewhere have led to the development of the ‘audit society’ and ‘audit cultures’ … the major concern has been with issues of public accountability by making practices and processes more transparent as well as efficient, effective and economic. In practice, this has meant that, in its attempts to reduce any risk to the national involvement in its human capital, the state has sought to control and standardise the provision of such essential services as education and health. (Groundwater-Smith & Sachs 2002, p. 341) Keiko Yasukawa, University of Technology Sydney “Critical Mathematics for Critical Times” ACAL Conference 2009

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Individualised instruction - a battle won, but now we may be losing the war. Individual pre-training assessments Individual learning plans Individual learning support

Possible paradigm shift?? Social Return on Investment – models under review and consideration - with DEEWR and Productivity Commission, ABS at present. This means a different way of calculating and measuring the benefits of investing in longer term activity that may return a value to a different sector…. E.g. mental health clients may have reduced costs to health sector if they are included in activities such as training – and further benefits if that leads to a return to the workforce. Access & Equity Issues and Obligations Or The FAIR GO Section? Suzie Sereda – paper presented at the General Education Conference, 15 October 2009

Who are these individuals?

Intellectual impairment Learning Difficulties Broken education NESB Substance abuse Childhood abuse Unwilling learner Home schooled Mental Health Issues Poverty

While avoiding ‘the deficit model’, we need to acknowledge there are gaps. Then we need to consciously address how we can assist the learner to bridge them.

Rationale for individualised instruction - idiosyncratic Repeating the same thing over and over again, expecting different results is commonly known as the definition of insanity. Barbara Cole The Gifts of Sobriety Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. Albert Einstein To err is human, but it feels divine. Mae West The Wit and Wisdom of Mae West

Rationale for individualised instruction – research based learning difficulties – difficulty in acquiring concepts and skills in the domains of literacy and/or numeracy (Van Kraayenoord 1999:56) learning difficulties - often associated with higher order cognitive and metacognitive factors as well as motivational and affective problems (Van Kraayenoord 1999:61) Learning difficulties/intellectual impairment – same but different – different but same – unproductive theorising? Answer? Deal with the individual.

Rationale for individualised instruction – research based All students (where possible) (especially students with learning difficulties) need to become 'metacognitive' and be able to critique their own learning processes. (Kroll 1999:24) Need to explicitly teach thinking and problem solving strategies. Good strategy users have sets of strategies and can select and shift them when appropriate. When a strategy does not work, a good strategy user tries something else. (as above)

Rationale for individualised instruction – research based Make learning explicit. “What have I learned today?” “What is still difficult?” “What help do I need?”

More on making learning explicit Switching attention – strategic behaviour Chatter Internal locus of control Organisation Time management Self advocacy Excuse making Princess/diva syndrome Classroom escape Classroom “flow” Listening Blame game Hiding in the group Using volunteers

Model of individualised instruction

team teaching computers pre and post class 'write-ups' allows the teaching team to discuss students as individuals, reflect on progress or lack thereof, and develop new strategic approaches students with capacity to develop an internal locus of control (maturity) classroom culture of independence, tenacity and self responsibility.

Classroom mottos

Individualised Pre-training assessment Diagnostic Where is the student wanting to go? Is their plan realistic? (This needs to be continually revised) What will they need to learn to get there? Why has the intending student not experienced success? Establish motivation of student – tenacity level. Ascertain level of awareness of student of themselves as a learner. Assess current levels.

The teacher's role Diagnosis Reflection Adaptation Monitoring Motivation

Underpinning philosophies Individual difference Locus of control Independence Life long learning Neuroplasticity Social justice

Individualised programs – choice of texts Teachers need to get to know the students cultural/social background. What they can and can not do, what they like and dislike, what are their weaknesses and strengths. From this they can design meaningful experiences around who the students are and what they want to become.

Undertake Learning Learning experience Rewritten texts Simple narratives Increase in complexity and/or length (more abstract) Tasks increasing in complexity but from the beginning encourage not only factual recall but inferential thinking: What might have caused this? What are some possible solutions? How would you feel if you were in this position?

Individualised texts The same text can be used for many students but with a different focus stimulus to develop sentences push thinking increase production/fluency simply have a go broaden language skills – vocabulary increase general knowledge spell ‘environment’

More on assessment... Diagnostic approach moves away from teaching where a student's responses are simply marked as correct or incorrect (particularly relevent when addressing numeracy). It probes the depths and quality of a student's understanding. Shifts the student to understand that what they are producing is not to please the teacher but to move their own learning. Such an approach values individuals and allows the teacher to harness strengths while addressing weaknesses Assessment as integral to teaching – no longer an event marking “the end” of something.

Monitor – assessment individualised approach – avoids 'cheating' and all work can be considered as formative/summative assessment poses problems in the audit society accountability is necessary but must it come at such a cost to good teaching

Discussion As a practitioner in the qualcative age, how do you manage? Do you sometimes feel your workplace has become a setting in a Kafka novel, “ marked by a senseless, disorienting, often menacingly complex bureaucracy, by surreal distortion, and often a sense of impending danger”.

Teachers – professionals in the qualcative age?