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

Stem

Still researching on the reflections of a Principal on how best to implement the required curriculum to sort of future proof graduating students. I'm getting there and just provide for the moment this snippet from reading a recent journal all about digital learning in a context of STEM.

What seems to be emerging is that STEM can be viewed as an across-curriculum subjects process whereby problem solving real situations using Science, Technology, Maths and Engineering or some combinations of these is an optimum way to go.  It would require gun teachers to manage the cross-curriculum subjects approach. I can't wait to find out more detail.

May the Force be with you!


GD

Research road block

I'm still researching the jobs of the future and can say at this stage that I am feeling more confident about the future for our youth.  There are however negatives that are of concern.

It's a big topic and I want to get it as right as I can before posting what I have discovered from the point of view of a school Principal.

One enjoyable road block is me needing to assist one of my grandchildren, now in first year high school, with an assignment on the family tree. Fascinating stuff, especially when you go back to great great grandparents. I also send my grandies a riddle each week and love the communication and some of their answers.

Chat soon about the current topic of 'jobs of the future'.

In closing, and on another worrying school matter, is the emerging violence from parents towards school Principals and their teachers. With email contact available to parents I feel there is a sense of the school staff being able to drop everything to provide instant gratification. Schools have to have a very public and purposeful student, staff and parent wellbeing program to counter this alarming trend.

May the Force be with you!



GD

Principal introspection

In good old Western Australia (WA) as a school Principal I would be faced with implementing the Australian National Curriculum (ANC) or a WA version of it.  I want to state up front that in a country like Australia, where responsibility for public (state or government ) schooling is a matter for each of the six states and 2 territories I am very comfortable in now having the ANC. The Federal Australian government assists each state with funding for education and at times sets out conditions like regular national testing in literacy and numeracy that states must abide by to receive the federal money. This national testing is known as NAPLAN (National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy).

Within the above context I would spend a considerable period of alone - time introspection as either a primary (elementary) school Principal or a secondary (high) school Principal working out how with my school staff I could implement an ANC taking into account what the futurists predict for the world and its employment opportunities of the future.

This would require me to educate myself about these futurist predictions. Currently I am doing this and find it a bit mind blowing. It causes me to ask whether the ANC fits the bill in readying my students for this ever changing world or does it generally fit the bill but needs some adaptations  added within my school community? As a primary school Principal I would undoubtedly come to a different set of conclusions compared to a Secondary school Principal whose students are much closer to further relevant tertiary studies or entrance to the world of work.

Being a senior person, Principal now well into retirement, I clearly recall in my day (God help me for this cliche) the contemporary view that we were educating our students towards a future of jobs that were yet to be created.  It didn't seem to cause much change to a very stable curriculum diet but today it is different.  Change is exponential and at a rate that makes our minds buckle.  That is why I would need the introspective time of which I write and in a context of what I can glean about the futurists' predictions.

In this blog I hope to develop this theme in more depth but at the moment am marshalling my arguments and thoughts.


May the Force be with you!

GD

Waking up

Here I am after a lengthy snooze period.  The schooling of our young is never far from my mind even though I have been retired for many years.

Currently I cannot stop wondering about how well schools are educating for the future.  Of course I also hope each day they are educating in a context of purposefully ensuring student well being. Without this the chance of learning is diminished severely.

Returning to the future.  What has caused me to return to active blogging on this site is some research I have commenced on "what jobs will look like in the future?" It is blowing my mind and I will devote some future posts to this topic in a context of primary (elementary) and secondary schooling.

May the Force be with you all!


GD