CURRICULUMFRAMEWORKNARBETHONGSPECIALSCHOOL

Context

The focus of educational programs at Narbethong Special is on learning and teaching contexts for students who are vision impaired. Educational programs are provided for pre-school age students who are vision impaired, for students who are vision impaired with additional disabilities and for students who are deafblind.

The permeating influence on the curriculum of the school is the learning and teaching methodology of Active Learning. Dr Lilli Nielsen designed this methodology for young vision impaired students and for students with vision impairment and additional disabilities.

Our vision is for all students and to reach their own individual potential and to become as independent as possible.

Active Learning Philosophy

The philosophy of an Active Learning program is that “children learn from their own active exploration and examination” and thus “learn the basic steps that lead to mastering the skill in question”. (Nielsen 1993). The methodology suggests that children learn skills through play and acquire skills in a developmental sequence.

Initial Assessment of each child’s developmental levels

In the classroom, learning and teaching begins with an assessment of each student’s developmental levels. The tool for supporting teachers with this assessment is the Functional Assessment Scheme developed by Dr Lilli Nielsen.

This assessment helps the educational team provide the best possible basis for developing an appropriate learning program for the students. The assessment scheme is divided into 20 functional fields. Each field is then divided into 11 segments eventually covering all developmental functions from 0 – 48 months.

From the data gathered teachers can assess the developmental level of each student and provide a learning environment to foster development across a range of areas.

On-going assessment occurs through observation of the child’s own play and engagement with the various environments provided.

Core Learnings

The Core Learnings around which curriculum is organized at Narbethong Special School are:

Gross Motor Skills

Fine Motor Skills

Self Help Skills

Communication Skills

Social / Emotional Skills

These core learnings form the base for the FIELA curriculum which was designed according to Nielsen (1998) “to ensure that the child with one or several disabilities can access an individual learning program which will match their developmental level, their needs for learning, and their interests, and so maintain them in an ongoing dynamic learning circle” (p. 9).

The acronym FIELA is made from the words

Fflexible

Iindividual

Eenriched

LAlevel appropriate

The philosophy behind the FIELA document is one that staff prescribe to in their daily teaching program. According to Nielsen (1998) the curriculum offered to a child must be flexible so that it can at any time be adapted to the child’s interest, progressive learning needs and to the skill the child prefers to learn at any specific time.

Secondly, the curriculum must be individualised so as to recognise the impact of the unique combination of disabilities on each individual’s way of acquiring skills and other prerequisites for achievement. The program offered also needs to be enriched so that it provides the child with a variety of experiences both in the gross and fine motor areas and for exploration and discovery.

Nielsen (1998) stated that curriculum needs to be level appropriate in that it meets the learning needs at a specific point in time and according to the level of development.

A class program is made up of two parts. The first component deals with the child’s self-activities and the second part focuses on child/adult activities. Therefore opportunities are provided for the child to:

  • repeat
  • experiment
  • explore
  • compare
  • achieve knowledge of the position of objects
  • achieve object concept
  • learn about the relations between objects and his own body
  • learn about the relations between objects
  • achieve the concept of numbers
  • link new experiences to familiar ones
  • play sequence games
  • play constructively i.e. separate & put together
  • solve problems
  • share his experiences with others
  • interact

Pedagogy (The Art of Teaching within an Active Learning Approach)

Teachers working within an Active Learning approach are aware of the need to provide certain conditions so that learning can occur. The students must have:

  • opportunities to learn from the developmental stage they are at
  • opportunities to find the optimal way for the active movement that they can do themselves
  • time to repeat activities as many times as is necessary to store information and to know that a specific action gives the expected result
  • opportunities to compare experiences, to discover differences and similarities, to associate and link new experiences with those already stored and later on to categorize and generalize experiences
  • opportunities to learn across all developmental areas
  • opportunities to share interest and experiences with others thus imitating interaction (Nielsen 1993)

Assessment

Continuous assessment of each child’s development and skills occur within the program. This assessment is conducted in a variety of ways:

  • teacher observations which could include videoing of students engagement in their learning environments
  • data collection relating to students’ movement and play within various learning environments
  • data collection in relation to Individual Education Plan goal achievement
  • re-assessement of developmental levels using the Functional Assessment Scheme
Reporting

Reporting to parents regarding student achievement is an essential element of the framework of school activity. Parents are engaged in a formal reporting process with teachers twice a year. This occurs with the Individual Education Plan process. Twice a year parents meet with teachers and other members of the educational team to discuss future goal setting for their child. Not only does this process report on achievement of previous Individual Education Plan goals but also informs parents of current skills and developmental levels.

Teachers also maintain data sheets concerning Individual Education Plan goal attainment. This information is collated and provides information from across the school on Individual Education Plan goal attainment.

Achievement is also documented on the OneSchool site twice a year.

At the end of each year a formal end of year report is prepared for parents that highlights individual students’ achievements.

G:\Coredata\Curriculum\curriculum statement\curframework.doc