PROJECT: DESIGN FOR LEARNING

Aim:

To design and build our own model of pedagogies that maximise productivity.

Overall strategy:

Develop a framework that combines as much as possible, the key understandings of effective learning from current drivers of teaching:

  • Visible learning - know your learner, adjust your teaching to maximise learning, track learning, be clear and explicit, etc
  • Assessment for learning – find out what they know and can do and adjust teaching to maximise learning, current ideas from ACER.
  • Inquiry learning – Engage the students in learning to meet a meaningful outcome, to solve a problem, create a product, answer a question etc
  • Psychology of learning – motivation requires engagement, engagement (i) requires self-efficacy and (ii) some sense of control, self-efficacy requires the possibility of success, need to explicitly create link between success and effort in students’ minds, use pedagogy and language to build appropriate beliefs about learning such as ‘doing a good job’, not being satisfied with performance (Personal Best), and ‘It’s what you do with the learning that counts’.

Content:(Discussion topic 1)

  1. Only that which is necessary to respond to the inquiry should be explicitly taught, preferably as concepts from the ACARA concepts in levels document.
  2. Basic content, ie vocabulary and facts to be memorised, is the students’ responsibility to be done at home or spare time. Do not spend significant class time on this. Ensure that they are clearly described for all students to attempt to learn.
  3. The amount of content accessed by a student to respond to the guide questions will often reflect the standard of achievement (but note that lists of content is not a sign of an ‘A’ student because it requires integrationcf SOLO).
  4. Supporting or interesting content can be taught but not explicitly assessed except as used by the students to do a ‘good’ job of the task.
  5. Teach students that integration of more content to support their response to the inquiry, generally the higher the result.
  6. Teach explicitly that just doing the work they are specifically asked, no matter how completely, is NOT doing a good job (cf effort standards). Doing a ‘good’ job is intentional choices to construct a quality response to the inquiry. Answering questions is not the same as developing a quality response to questions.

Assessment:

1)Assessment is to be seen explicitly as an aspect of pedagogy. Ie assessment is used to support learning.

2)Assessment should be of ‘what students know and can do’ and translated to levels of achievement only as needed.

a)Record concepts in levels (mandatory for 7 – 9)

b)Includes specific skills eg a student could be high level in concept development but deficient in communicating in responses to the task, or rarely critiques their own decisions.

3)Assessment should create a clear link between effort and success.

4)Assessment should never tell any student that:

a)They can’t do science no matter how hard they try.

b)They have done enough and can stop trying.

5)Assessment has to provide appropriate level of cognitive complexity for EACH student.

6)Assessment should result in success at some level for every student who engages and the successes should be recorded.

7)LoA decisions should be made using the final task plus data from all previous assessment of what they know and can do. Use of database for records is mandatory.

8)Assessment of skills is developed continuously from classroom activities, low stakes assessments and final task.

Inquiry learning

  1. is

Designed explicitly to culminate in a high quality response to a problem or issue,

A collaboration between teacher and student to result in new learning,

A way to develop student learning skills and strategies (cf Anita’s techniques),

A mixture of student and teachers driven research.

  1. Is NOT

Discovery learning,

Only driven by student interests (though there may be aspects of student driven research).

Examples of basic structure:

Rockets, MTV and Roller coaster units work as models for basic structure of units.

  1. Set guide question(s).
  2. Teach 1 or more key ideas to set scene for first learning session.
  3. Learn by ‘doing’ eg research, build, experiment, solve problems (Anita P)
  4. Assess for learning (all possible ways. See assessment section)
  5. Repeat 2 – 4 till completion of major task.

Specific strategies:

Explicitly describe strategies for Inquiry learning eg

  1. Define curriculum as ‘Questions to respond to’eg

What is the universe, How did it begin and how do we know, and

How do we build a rocket to fly as high as possible, etc

  1. Create ‘Guides to learning’ (cf Universe guide) as forms to complete.

What not to do – ask for specific closed answerseg filling in close activities.

What to do – seek research and open response eg

The universe contains many objects. Research and explain what they are:

ANebulas

Quote 1

Quote 2

Explanation

BStars

Quote 1

Quote 2

Explanation

Rebuild network folder structure.

  1. Remove old resources to ‘OLD’ folder.
  2. Build new structure for each unit

Core resources – unchanging except by agreementeg

Guide questions/Overview

Guide to learning

Agreed resources

Supporting resources

By teacher name

Strategy for managing shared resources. Effectively.

ACopy as needed to teaching folder on own computer.

BCopy back to your folder in ‘Supporting resources’ on G:drive only if changed.

CIf a resource was particularly useful/effective see HoD to see if it should go into ‘core’ folder.