Google Ed! Exploring, mapping and searching curriculum and assessment…. Anne Looney SDPI 2007

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

Explore YOUR context/setting Any other sources of press? Who is winning?

Mapping

Compass points  Inclusion  Report Card Templates  Assessment for Learning  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.

NCCA Inclusion Project  Case Study Research  Schools dealing with the ‘inclusion challenge’  To move beyond anecdote  To capture what schools are doing –Beyond normative policy to practice –The ‘costs’….  To tender this autumn

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

Assessment for Learning  School-based work is complete  Dissemination of strategies –With support services –ACTION  Assessment in Primary Schools: Guidelines for Teachers 

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 Mathematics Applied Mathematics Languages Biology Chemistry Physics Social and Political Education Physical Education Enterprise Education Technology – Art and Music Psychology Social, Personal and Health Education PE framework

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

Primary/post-primary connections  Info market research  ESRI findings –On progression –On settling in –On progress –On the long-term impact of this  Curriculum connections…  Building bridges

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