John Primary School Principal - post 4

John gave himself a slight talking to as he had temporarily forgotten a very important future proofing tool.  He once again committed to working very hard to ensure that a sense of humour was imbued as part of the culture of his school community, a sense of humour based on caring for one another by keeping the spirits of all at a high level of joy and enthusiasm.




May the Force be with you!



GD

John - Primary School Principal - post 3

Here is the final post for John:

In the curriculum area of the TechnologiesJohn also wanted the mastery principle applied. He felt that for whatever the future might hold the Design and Digital technologies would be essential skills for lifelong learning and for various jobs of the future.  Again he would look to achieving the prescribed outcomes of the Technologies’ syllabus through integrated studies.

For the LanguageJohn would deploy a specialist in the main chosen language for the school.  In his case he wanted Indonesian or Chinese given the economic and cultural importance of these countries to Australia. He knew he only had the resources for one language and the decision as to which one was pending. He felt he would be happy for the specialist teacher to ensure effective oral speech with being able to write the language a bonus.

He hoped that he could employ a specialist who would be at the school for some years, thus potentially guaranteeing continuity of learning outcome attainment for each student. Again informative data bases for each student’s achievement would be vital.

Informative data bases were essential to his mastery approach.  The idea that a teacher taking in the new pupils at the commencement of each year tests to find out what they know and understand is archaic, with the modern computing infrastructure enabling ease of establishment of informative data bases. 

The interactive teacher discussions to enable consensus about what mastery looks like for the learning outcomes of the prescribed syllabus was another crucial process if the mastery principle was to work.  John knew these standards- setting in-services worked as he had done them already.

The mastery described above necessitated regular spaced assessments to ensure the mastery of the prerequisites.  John’s thinking was that for all other areas of the curriculum up to the end of primary school, the Leopards, Jaguars and Panthers would learn together in their classes grouped by age.  What did this mean for each subject area?

Uppermost in his mind at this stage of his introspection was the development of a purposeful student and staff wellbeing program.  He postulated that the Physical and Health Education programcould have a special role in achieving this, but he also knew that every teacher daily would be contributing to the well being of the students in their care.  Wellbeing and its attainment was to be a part of the culture of the school. He wanted each child to daily walk through the school gates knowing that they were safe and respected yes, even loved.

His Physical and Health Education (PE & H) specialist teacher would be part time and hopefully also be on the staff of the local public (State) secondary school but this was not essential. He dreamed of the PE & H program being focused on the individual fitness of each child.  His rationale was that fit students are better able to cope with the learning program and are part of a wider community push towards preventative health processes. Along with the School Counsellor the PE & H specialist teacher would be responsible for the major aspects of the regular spaced assessments of each student’s wellbeing.  He knew that there were many available sources of assessment tools so that the design of such would not be a burden to the responsible staff members.  Under the guidance of the School Counsellor and the PE & H teacher each generalist class teacher would assist in the administration of the surveys and the compilation of the data.

All of the above was not meant to detract from the PE & H teacher moving the students towards the attainment of the learning outcomes of the prescribed syllabus. He knew it was a big call for a part time teacher and part time School Counsellor but was certain that between them they could mange this important task.

For the Humanities and Social SciencesJohn wanted each generalist classroom teacher to work through the prescribed syllabus for that age/grade with no cross setting required. The aim was to cover the learning outcomes for the syllabus with some spaced assessments to check on whether each student was taking in what the learning experiences had intended. Assessment was no to be a dominating feature and reporting to parents would reassure that the syllabus was fully covered within the academic year. John did not want formal grades of any description to be applied but he wanted parents reassured that the syllabus covered inquiry skills and knowledge and understanding inclusive in specialist areas such as history, geography, civics and citizenship and economics and business with a special emphasis on Australia. He wanted students above all to be enthused about these aspects of their country through exciting learning experiences. John knew he might have problems convincing parents that it was acceptable not to have formal grades.

John had a special feel for the Arts area of learning, especially the performing arts.  He had experienced how participation tended to provide positive opportunities to build self- esteem for the majority of the students.  He knew how important this could be for the Leopards who may be struggling with the academic subjects that would be the basis of STEM studies in secondary (high) school. Thus Dance, Drama, Media Arts, Musicall provided the performance opportunities. It should all be fun based.  When it evolved to performing for audiences every child should have a role at various times.  John knew that to hear the applause of say an adult audience at a concert was so positively reinforcing.  He also knew that opportunities to act out various situations can help children to understand and learn to deal with situations such as bullying or feeling shy.

The Visual Artsprovided opportunities to express ideas in colour and in various designs.  There was also scope for the application of this area of the Arts to the creation of stage sets, the designing of T-shirt art and just the sheer joy of painting and/or sketching what can be observed.

Above all John in his role as the educational leader of his school community wanted his students to carry through on the arts into adulthood as a way to relax, enjoy, share and be participating members of their respective communities.  He imagined seeing his students as young adults playing musical instruments, singing in choirs and performing in plays.

John respected the Arts as a definitive part of the culture of society.

In summing up this period of introspection, John wanted each student to develop confidence in their ability to learn.  He wanted to see creativity and problem solving as an element in many of the learning experiences as well as the fostering of critical thinking. 

It was one thing for John to have the above views about curriculum implementation.  Somehow he needed to bring the teaching staff along with him and be prepared to adjust the thinking to take into account innovative ideas from any member of the staff.  This meant providing them with opportunities to float such ideas.

******************

Well there it all is for the Primary School Principal trying to future proof his students.  Of course a lot would depend on where the secondary (high) school proceeded with its future proofing.

May the Force be with you!

GD

John - Primary school Principal - post #2

John, continuing from the previous post:

He had a bit of a feeling that deploying a teacher with special responsibility for integrating STEM studies might be the way to go. Leave the students in the generalist class teacher structure K-6 with each teacher teaching a class grouped by age and consequently heterogeneous in ability to learn. The integration specialist would advise the teachers on STEM integration projects which could well be across say all the year 4 classes or across grade levels. Flexible learning groups could be the way the way to go. This approach did not cut across applying the mastery principle described above.

As an aside John thought that he would need to extend the mastery principle to coding and touch typing skills as students developed their computer literacy.

He wanted also to apply the mastery principle to Science. However he felt that the learning outcomes could be achieved by the generalist class teacher working with the whole heterogeneous class in the dedicated science room.  He could not afford to employ a science specialist but hoped that from time to time one of the science teachers from the local high school could be co-opted to come and assist.  In addition he wanted to explore embracing freelance teacher opportunities on the internet where an annual subscription would allow access to this avenue of expertise. Formal grades were to be applied but not in the form of Above satisfactory, Satisfactory and Below Satisfactory as in the prescribed syllabus (ANC).  Rather he wanted statements about each student like:

·     ‘has achieved all the outcomes of the prescribed syllabus for the year level and moved beyond these’; 

·     ‘has achieved all the outcomes of the prescribed syllabus for the year level’; 

·     ‘did not quite achieve all the outcomes of the prescribed syllabus for the year level but generally has a solid grasp of what science is all about”; 

·     ‘found science hard going but we are monitoring this as James moves into the next academic year’;

·     displays confidence in observation, the application of critical thinking;

·     understands at a basic level what it means to establish an hypothesis and to use an inductive method to test it; 

·     has a feel for basic ethics as applied to scientific endeavour.  

Above all John wanted parents to be educated in the detail of the science syllabus given the importance of STEM subjects for the jobs of the future. John surmised that the primary science syllabus of the WAANC was contemporary and futuristic with each year level being organised as follows:

Science Understanding

·     Biological Sciences

·     Chemical Sciences

·     Earth and Space Sciences

·     Physical Sciences

Science as Human Endeavour

·     Nature and development of science

·     Use and influence of science (…not in P syllabus)

Science Inquiry Skills

·     Questioning and predicting

·     Planning and conducting

·     Processing and analysing data and information

·     Evaluating (…not in P syllabus)

·     Communicating

John wanted his students to move into secondary (high) school with a sound general grounding in science and above all an enthusiasm for the subject



May the Force be with you.



GD

John primary school Principal

As promised in the previous post I am now being John, primary school (K-6 or F-6) Principal having a private introspective time on how best to implement the prescribed curriculum (WAANC).

John – Primary School Principal

John was aware of the contexts described above and resolved to do everything in his power to ensure that his teachers were also aware.  

In order to go a long way towards producing students who had the skills and knowledge to adapt to a rapidly changing world, to future proof students, John surmised that the main focus areas of learning would be:

·     A high level of all aspects of English language literacy so that students were effective information processing persons and communicators.

·     A high level of numeracy given the importance of mathematics as a tool for solving real problems in a fast-paced high tech world.

·     A high level of digital skills including coding, touch typing and computer literacy.

·     Experience in Science such that his students would enter secondary school having comprehensively covered the prescribed Science syllabus, being enthusiastic appliers of the scientific method and having inquiring minds.

·     Experience in the Design technologies such that there was enthusiastic application of design skills to the solving of real life problems.

·     Developing a working understanding and knowledge about the Earth and how living and non-living things were an integral part of the Earth and Universe environments. Part of this would be to come to considerable knowledge about the history and geography of Australia and its Pacific neighbours and to begin to understand how various human agencies such as the levels of government and business operated.

·      John also had special views about the value of the Arts and Health and Physical Education but he would give more detailed thought to these areas of student development later.

To attain the highest levels of English language literacy and numeracy skills John  concluded that in these areas of learning no student should move to the new learning to come unless they had mastered the prerequisites for that new learning. He was prepared to let each class teacher in their class grouped by age and thus being heterogeneous in learning abilities up to the end of year 3 primary, cope with the Leopards, Jaguars and Panthers.  He knew that his junior primary teachers were skilled in deploying a small group structure within their classes to cater for continuous mastery learning as described above.

From year 4 onwards he was tempted to use cross setting for English literacy and numeracy learning with the Leopards in one set, the Jaguars in another and the Panthers in another. This was easier for him in his large primary school of 450 students. He knew it was not as easy to do this in smaller schools but Principals usually found a way. However he was troubled that the STEM focus might not be achieved unless a cross-curriculum subject integrated approach was adopted. He envisaged a problem solving of real life situations that challenged students to think critically and outside the box.  As an example, he had a tingle of excitement as he imagined a challenging problem solving project with regard to how the school community as part of the wider community contributed to more effective management of waste. He could see students K-6 involved in such a project with an integrated approach touching the Humanities, Science (…including ethical considerations), Mathematics, Design Technology, Digital Technology and English communication, achieving STEM learning outcomes solving real life situations. Would cross setting stifle such an integrated learning approach? Yes was John’s conclusion but he would take the issue to his staff creating discussions to find the best organisation for the STEM learning whilst ensuring the mastery attainment of the learning outcomes of the English and Mathematics syllabuses.

He had a bit of a feeling that deploying a teacher with special responsibility for integrating STEM studies might be the way to go. Leave the students in the generalist class teacher structure K-6 with each teacher teaching a class grouped by age and consequently heterogeneous in ability to learn. The integration specialist would advise the teachers on STEM integration projects which could well be across say all the year 4 classes or across grade levels. Flexible learning groups could be the way the way to go. This approach did not cut across applying the mastery principle described above.

As an aside John thought that he would need to extend the mastery principle to coding and touch typing skills as students developed their computer literacy.

More from John in the next post.

May the Force be with you!

GD

Future proofing students - what school Principals need to know to implement a relevant curriculum

In this post I will use Western Australian (WA) schooling as the context for the arguments to follow.  This should not be too restrictive of the usefulness of anything I have to say. Cheeky hey, in assuming that I might have something useful to say.  You be the judge.

Consider the situation WA primary (elementary) and secondary (high) school Principals face as they consider how best to implement a prescribed curriculum, the Western Australian version of the Australian National Curriculum (WAANC).

Let me present a context for Principal introspection of how they might best implement the WAANC in their schools.  In establishing this context I have only scratched the surface of what the world might look like into the future, a taster if you like, a motivation to explore further if need be. I probably need to apologise in advance for maybe over quoting Michael Fullan.  He is a guru for me having taught me so much about how to understand and manage change in organisations.

WHAT THE FUTURE JOB MARKET MEANS FOR SCHOOL PRINCIPALS

Possible Contexts for the Future

As a start to exploring this challenge for school Principals the author asked Google:

What will jobs of the future look like? 

This threw up several exciting sites full of vital information.  A test applied to utilising the content of each article was the validity of the sources used to create it.

Principals, who haven’t already done so are urged to ask this question of Google and explore the sites that come up until they begin to see commonalities.  This will provide a context for the introspective activity that Principals are advised to carry out in how best to implement the prescribed curriculum in this context of exponential change.

At this point one article, a comprehensive blog post and an Executive Briefing are mentioned. 

The very comprehensive articletitled “Best Careers for the Future: 51 Jobs for 2020 and Way Beyond”  contains detailed descriptions of the  51 jobs, many that currently exist and some that are predicted occupations. The article also contains valuable insights under the following headings:

·     Biomedical Advancements and Ever Smarter Machines;

·     Cultural Demographic and Economic Changes;

·     Global Challenges and Crises;

·     Human Drive to Play and Explore;

·     Get the Skills You’ll Need for What’s Ahead.

This article is an excellent starting point for Principal introspection on how it affects the implementation of a prescribed curriculum.

The blog postby Justin Lee titled “What Does a Future with No Jobs Look Like?” contains a vital quote as follows:

“It’s estimated that as much as half the world’s labor could be automated over the next 20 years. There are two potential outcomes of this massive disruption of the labor market:

(1) an era of mass unemployment and social instability, or
(2) an age of abundance where we are free to pursue creative work”

The Executive Briefingis by the McKinsey Global Institute, May 2017 (McKinsey.com).  This Briefing is all about the effects of “…automation and digital platforms and other innovations that are changing the fundamental nature of work.”  It is worth reading this whole briefing.  The content provides a valuable context for Principal introspection on how best to implement prescribed syllabuses with an eye to the future for their students.

One could also search for articles about jobs that will most certainly disappear, however a small sampling of this line of research proved to throw up a negativity that in the author’s view would serve no useful purpose for the introspection of Principals. 

The commentators about the future tend to recognise the following major contexts:

·     An ever-increasing world population that will put pressure on the resources available even taking into account technological advances. Parts of the Earth could become water-stressed.

·     An important part of the above is an increase in life expectancy that means more people are living longer to 80 and above.  This will throw a major weight on governments to cater for this specific population especially in the advanced countries. It is of no surprise then that predictions of jobs that have a long life into the future are in the category of caring for the aged in various ways.

·     Owing to the effects of jobs becoming automated, a time when a lot of people may be without work and very poor.  If this scenario occurs there are even predictions that there could be a high premature death rate in this group.

·     An alternative scenario where many will not work or work part time and yet be able to live a comfortable life based on receiving a Universal Basic Income (UBI) and the existence of a negative tax regime. Social welfare handouts would be replaced by the UBI.

·     A further scenario already occurring is the creation of jobs in large numbers to replace those that have become redundant.  A concern here is that many of the new jobs will require a high level of learning skills which may be beyond some individuals.

It is also considered useful to provide a reality check for professional educators from K into tertiary levels.

The Realities of Each Age Cohort Entering the School System

Within the context of a curriculum where each subject is organised in year or age/grade levels such as the Australian National Curriculum (ANC: noting that all references to the ANC are based on the author of this blog sighting the actual syllabus detail in May/June 2019).  In general the curriculum used for this blog material was the Western Australian (WA) version of the ANC.

Principals know as a rule of thumb that in each age cohort there will be those youngsters who struggle to keep pace with the learning achievements of their peers : I will call these the Leopards.  There will be another group that regularly achieves what is set out in the prescribed curriculum for each subject (learning area) for the year for their age level: I call these the Jaguars.  There will be a third group that in each year level achieves well beyond what is in the prescribed curriculum.  Of course there is also a population of students who for various reasons such as physical and/or mental disabilities are more effectively placed in Special Education environments where teachers with appropriate training bring each child on in small incremental steps. These students are brilliantly educated by the special teachers and are usually in a dedicated special class or centre.

To enable each Leopard, Jaguar and Panther to master the prerequisites for new learning to come, at least in English language and mathematical requirements as in the prescribed curriculum, class organisations such as cross setting are deployed.  This often occurs in the mid primary and especially throughout the secondary (high) school years.  Principals generally have to work hard to convince parents that this form of organisation is necessary to allow each student to proceed at their own rate regardless of a curriculum content organised generally in age/grade or year levels. The Principal is aiming for continuity in each youngster’s learning. 

Another reality is that Principals of Australian schools annually face the reality of the compulsory NAPLAN (National Assessment Program Literacy And Numeracy) assessments for their year 3s, 5s, 7s and 9s. The outcomes of these assessments are published for each school on the Myschool website and became a point of reference for parents who want to see how their school is performing in literacy and numeracy compared to like schools. NAPLAN is contentious and criticisms that schools coach for the tests abound.  The professional writers of educational materials are part of this bandwagon, producing swathes of NAPLAN coaching materials available in appropriate retail outlets. Over several years there have been repeated outbursts from federal politicians that NAPLAN results show Australian students well down the pecking order in literacy and numeracy for a developed country.  NAPLAN does not seem to be changing this picture. 

Secondary school Principals in Western Australia have the added requirement of students, usually in year 10, choosing a set of subjects that lead to university entrance, another set that provide a vocational orientation and more recently (2019) a set of subjects that hover somewhere between. This latter is not universally accepted with the concern that such students may end up in some sort of secondary school graduation limbo. There is a lot of pressure from politicians for as many students as possible to opt for the harder Mathematics and Science subjects and this pressure therefore comes on to the Principal.

Much has also been written about declining student engagement in learning towards the end of the primary school years continuing into the secondary school years. The revered educational researcher Michael Fullan wrote a recent article “The nuance of academic achievement” (Australian Educational Leader, Vol 41, Term 1, 2019, pp 8-10) and the nub of his arguments is as follows:

He reinforces on a more global scale the points made above on the NAPLAN emphasis, citing the massive influence that international PISA testing has wrought, stating: “Ever since PISA came on the scene countries have engaged in an internal and worldwide competition to increase their “scores” on tests.” (p8) Fullan claims this has resulted in a heavy emphasis on academic achievement to the detriment of also educating the young to have a connectedness to life in a complex global world. He writes (p8):

The directional solution is blindingly obvious once stated.  Instead of trying to marshal everything to increase student achievement: instead of making student achievement the be-all and the end-all; instead of adopting a Procrustean approach to shoehorn everything (e.g. socio-emotional learning) in the service of academic performance – change the moral imperative itself to what is good for us as individuals and society. “

Fullan proceeds (p8) to suggest redefining the moral imperative as “high expectations for all students in both academic performance and in connectedness in life.” He defines such connectedness “…as having healthy connections in one’s situation and life.” Academic achievement and this connectedness should be equally valued. He says:  “Being good at schooling and being good at life would be integrated, starting with early learning.” He further claims: “… we would see greater and more widespread academic achievement along with greater wellbeing with this dual definition of the moral imperative than with the narrower academic version as the overarching priority.”

Fullan (pp8-9) reminds us that we already “….know that a growing percentage of students are finding current schooling less and less relevant as they go up the grade levels and the trend is intensifying over generations.”  While possibly overquoting Fullan it is vital to include:

I would say that a very conservative estimate is that only about 30% of high school students are actively engaged in learning.  Lee Jenkin’s (2013) student survey shows the percentage of students engaged in learning dramatically decreases over the grade levels into secondary schools.  The student survey “Gallup Poll” (2016) reported a decline in engagement rates from grade 5 (75%) to grade 10 (32%).

Within the context of the prescribed curriculum the STEM subjects now loom large as a focal point for future proofing students into adulthood. How to best to teach to this focus requires some careful thought given the need to develop the whole student. Hopefully it might be in a balanced learning environment as described by Fullan above.

Fullan (p10) and colleagues pin their faith in “deep learning” within a context of a redefined moral imperative.  One final vital Fullan quote:

Our six core learning goals similarly encompass academic and connectedness goals through the 6Cs: character, citizenship, collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking.  The strong pedagogy of our four pillars of learning (partnerships, engaging pedagogy, stimulating learning environments. and leveraging digital), are also in the service of centring on both academic and wellbeing goals. Our model also requires collaborative leadership and focus within schools and regions.

So what does a Principal need to do to take into account the futurist predictions, the realities of each age cohort of students and the system compulsory assessment requirements? Let us imagine John, a primary school (K- year 6) Principal and Helen, a secondary school (Year 7 – year 12) Principal are having a quiet introspective alone time thinking through how to structure the learning program given a prescribed curriculum, say the WA version of the ANC.

In my next post I will be John for a time.


May the Force be with you!


GD

STEM process in a school

Today I was waiting to collect my grand daughter from her government primary school in Western Australia.  Her teacher from the previous year came up to me to have a chat. What luck.  I was able to test some of the things I am steadily finding out about STEM pedagogy in schools. I'll call her Mary.

Mary and I chatted about STEM pedagogy in schools and I indicated that it was emerging in my research that STEM was best learned through real life problem solving experiences across the curriculum subjects.  Mary, who is for 2019, teaching the kindergarten children explained to me how she uses this approach. One such learning experience emanated from literature where she and the children were reading about farming. Out of this she set out to have the children design ways to contain the various farm animals. This meant designing animal homes, fences etc.  Engineering in real situations.  In another story the topic was lighthouses and how food is delivered to places in environments that are often hostile to landing goods on to the shore.  The children designed flying fox techniques to move the food on to the island.  They did this out in the school yard sending apples across a flying fox line and working out how best to create a stable carriage of the apples.  There were some mishaps and apples spilled out of the container.  This led to redesigning the apparatus. Here it is, STEM learning through real situations discovered through literature experiences.

Thanks Mary for opening up avenues for my next explorations into STEM pedagogy.

We discussed a number of other issues in education in Australia : two teachers chin wagging about how it all works or doesn't.  Manner from school heaven. Teachers get so little time to learn from one another. Mary and I agreed that the generalist primary teacher per class model means a lot of work time in isolation from colleagues.

May the Force be with you!


GD