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
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