tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29617271319006977582024-03-14T17:31:12.831+08:00Education WAAn insight into secondary mathematics teaching in Western AustraliaUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger601125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961727131900697758.post-48369524130065773092022-03-27T15:31:00.005+08:002022-04-07T12:47:05.879+08:00Week 8 complete - Covid at peak.<p>Covid is impacting on classes at all levels.</p><p>Student services is struggling with demand. Assessment is scattered. Large numbers of students have missed significant parts of the school year. Teachers are fearful of getting sick and have found it hard to take leave with the restrictions in place to recharge. Relief is hard to find, classes are being collapsed and schools are coping - but that's about it.</p><p>Behaviour issues tend to revolve around getting students to put on masks. It's a bit tense.</p><p>It's important we all keep our heads down, focus on what needs to be done, and keep it all together until week 10. It's not the time for new initiatives, pushing for progress or seeking improvement. Calm the ship, wait for still waters and then strike again forward.</p><p>My classes this year have been a joy to teach with results at all levels. It's a shame it's happened under these conditions where the initiative put in place would be able to shine. Academic support classes in 7 & 8 are engaged and enjoying school. Pathway 3 classes in Year 10 are providing feedback to students of realistic course selections for Year 11 and Methods well supported through ICT and MathFest earlier in the year. Few requests for changing streams and high levels of success being encountered resulting in lower behavioural challenges. Time is available to work with students at risk.</p><p>Lets get through covid peak and move on.</p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961727131900697758.post-48056052266398920072022-02-06T09:54:00.005+08:002022-02-07T20:33:59.451+08:00Programmes are not prescriptive<div><br /></div><div>Programmes of work are not prescriptive. They provide the intent of the teaching for a series of work as set by the syllabus. As a HOLA, explaining this is difficult and when a teacher tells me that the reason for teaching work that is not understood well by students is that "it's in the programme", it creates an all too common scenario.</div><div><br /></div><div>If 1.0 FTE is full time, 0.2 FTE is a class load. HOLAs are officially on 0.7 teaching time, but 1/2 a class (0.1) doesn't timetable well and is typically filled with behavioural support; it is more common to have 0.6 teaching time. I have two after school classes and the summer school, so I'm not topped up sharing a class with someone very often.</div><div><br /></div><div>.. thus, it's reasonably common as HOLA that I take a class for another teacher. This is different to classroom observation, as I am teaching the material and can get a feel of what is possible and not possible to do with a class.</div><div><br /><div>What worries me is how often I get given the class and assess that it is off syllabus, too difficult, lacks differentiation or is too easy. When queried, all too often it is because "it is on the programme".</div><div><br /></div><div>I scratch my head at this point. I understand that teachers are time poor, prepare in advance to manage load and have the occasional lesson that is pitched incorrectly. What I think we need to do more is evaluate the programme and if it is not working, be more willing to discuss that it is not appropriate for a particular class, abandon the preparation and move with what the students can do until the next topic.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is quite confronting for teachers reliant on their programmes to sequence their lessons for them. </div><div><br /></div><div>It is also very risky to prepare booklets prior to knowing the level of a class - it is not necessarily time wasted (as they might be used at a later date by the teacher, another class or a colleague), but may not be appropriate for the class intended. The great thing about a teacher vs online coursework is that if the lesson is not working, it can be abandoned and modified typically as a "chalk and talk" lesson that can be devised on the fly. With the knowledge gained through interaction, the next lesson can be planned better. I am not proposing all lessons are done on the fly (it takes a lot of skill to do this) and I don't know too many people that can do this successfully, but there are times this is necessary to maintain the flow of learning.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>A text can be superior to an ad hoc google based worksheet series of lessons for "average" students as the sequence has been trialled and most of the time interprets the intent of the syllabus dot point. A worksheet can be good to supplement where a text does not give a comprehensive approach. After years of denigration of the benefit of texts to provide sequenced item banks of questions, sometimes I think we go too far photocopying work that sounds ok until we put it in front of kids (typically in a form they are not used to seeing, is too hard/too easy, out of sequence, for a different context or year group, overly repetitive and skill based). There are times we are better working through the worked examples in texts with students than re-inventing the wheel. Where proof is involved (particularly in Trigonometry and Geometry with average to talented students), working through textbook examples are often better than empirical "use this formula" by "putting numbers here" and having no idea why formula or identities work.</div><div><br /></div><div>My instruction to teachers about programmes is that programmes are not prescriptive - they indicate the intent of the year and when assessment will be held. Tests should not be written until after the coursework is completed (or at least is known where the course will finish). If a class has different requirements, do different work and assess that. Be aware of the grade related descriptors and continue the discussion with students and colleagues about the level of work being done with the class. </div><div><br /></div><div>A class constructed to support the volleyball timetable will be different to one supporting art students or English students. Although it is attempted to balance behavioural and academic requirements in streams, it is not always possible. </div><div><br /></div><div>How we teach requires re-thinking of how information is presented to ensure each student finds a level of success. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961727131900697758.post-38188154883476493722022-01-26T07:55:00.003+08:002022-01-27T04:59:11.455+08:00The true superheroes<p>Today we have Marvel leading the way in what it takes to be a person that does the right thing. The message is that you need special powers to do something that is not full of self interest or narcicism. It is not normal to participate in something that you don't gain material benefit from. After all, capitalism is the American way. Philanthropy is what you do when you can't possibly spend it all and cynically could be seen as "a look at me" event or publicity exercise, rather than actually doing good in the community.</p><p>Our culture is dominated by "the look at me" ideal, but it wasn't always so. The idea of giving as a pathway to fulfilment and happiness is known by the older generation. Looking at organisations such as Lions and Rotary, putting internal politics aside, both organisations have people in them that genuinely get pleasure from doing good in the community in which they live. I would put forward that these people are the real superheroes as they assist where there is no reason to assist, other than it is the right thing to do. There is no material benefit other than gratitude and a thank you.</p><p>Current generations have faced hardships: bushfires, high interest rates, climate change and now covid but have not faced war, high unemployment, famine - issues about safety, security, extreme poverty and basic needs in the way past generations have. Bringing together of a whole community has not been required in the same way as past generations.</p><p>There are some members of our community that have faced a loss of basic needs. These are some of the nicest people in our communities as they know what it is like to have very little and still see the good in the world.</p><p>It is important that our youth are encouraged to experience that community service is a path to a fulfilling adulthood and have authentic ways to engage with it. I do not in any way propose compulsory community service, but giving them access to those that are willing to serve, when they are ready to serve (through the armed forces or through local community organisations) is important to their growth - having opportunities and positive experiences that they can access when they are ready and continue into adulthood.</p><p>Without these positive role models, they may believe the hype that only those with super powers can do good. And it is simply not true at all.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961727131900697758.post-77980796515774003832022-01-21T06:05:00.014+08:002022-01-24T08:10:15.058+08:00MathFest 2022<p>MathFest 2022 is rapidly coming to an end. It's been quite a ride. My feet are hurting, my voice is gone, I might need some time to recuperate over the weekend. But.. has it been a success? I'll know for sure after surveys are in.</p><p>Initial signs are good. Four schools, sixty Methods students, anecdotal student responses is that they have loved it, even though it is five days during the holidays, in 40C heat with evap airconditioning, no internet due to a network upgrade, surrounded by building works, presenters dropping like flies due to covid fears, zero budget; yet there has been no student dropoff in attendance during the week. Developing together a concept aimed to increase engagement, retention and achievement of high level mathematics students in the northern corridor has had its challenges. </p><p>Comments like "this is awesome" and "thank you sir for this" from students mean a lot. Teachers commenting that students will "remember this" and "we'll be back next year with more" confirm that the idea is sound.</p><p>The volunteers that presented for the week are the pinnacle of what teaching is. People giving up their time, for highly engaged kids. No sign of the entitled youth we encounter during the year, engagement hasn't been extinguished through explicit instruction. We're doing it like it should be done.</p><p>Two 'big ideas' came out of MathFest 2022, "infotainment" and "unstruction". Infotainment was a mode of delivery that allowed presenters to ignore syllabus requirements during MathFest and travel with the interests of students. This freed presenters from assessment/course outlines and allowed them to flavour the course with topics, questions and interest areas such as historical elements, associated mathematics, delving deeper into key concepts than time would usually allow. Unstruction was freedom to work with students to enjoy learning rather than be instructed explicitly from a syllabus led schedule that needs to be taught. </p><p>Delving into the meta of learning helped students see the difference in learning vs instruction and empowered students to adapt and develop agility to shift thinking, rather than be fixed in their expectation (and engage in the blame game), when teaching style does not align directly with a student. </p><p>Presenters have been subject to getting WWC, vaccination records, medical issues, childcare for their own children, caring for sick family members, competing demands at the start of the school year, broken cars, covid fears, without funding for resources we take for granted during term. All with a smile.</p><p>Teachers have been designing investigations together, doing them with students, discussing resources, pedagogy, impediments to success, finding things that work.</p><p>We need to think beyond chalk and talk if we want to engage this generation and define what teaching needs to be. We need to embrace our responsibility that teaching goes beyond subject knowledge and into the realms of values education and what was parenting. We need to think laterally beyond the 40 week term.</p><p>The themes of consolidation, concept investigation and self development have permeated through the sessions. Community involvement through past students, volunteer teachers from across Perth, the local Duncraig Lions club volunteering time and resources, Curtin University involvement all have provided the example required to get students to think beyond themselves and know that they are valued and belong. </p><p>Students now have a responsibility to not only believe in themselves, achieve but also to inspire younger students, their teachers and the local community. They will do great things.</p><p>It's nice to be a part of it. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961727131900697758.post-24818809007242033572021-12-27T11:20:00.023+08:002022-01-01T12:33:03.221+08:00'Merit based' in DOE, permanency and retirement<div>As an employee, I rarely criticise my employer. This comes from my corporate roots, if you are in conflict with your employer, find another job or risk being demoted or fired. </div><div><br /></div><div>I'm also known for considering the teachers union an anachronistic parasite, similar to the entire union movement. I'm not an activist and I don't represent (or seek to represent) anyone. I just seek to find ways to improve things and this so far has kept my little blog out of harms way. </div><div><br /></div><div>DOE has a highly skilled workforce, with the majority of staff university educated. The Department is run as a hierarchy, with Principals at the top in schools and the Director General above Principals. In schools, a teacher can aspire to be a Principal, a Principal can aspire to be the Director General with steps in between.</div><div><br /></div><div>As with any pyramid hierarchy there are fewer positions available the higher you get. Those aspiring are well known and mentored by those above them. Although there is no seniority per se, it is built into the system. The idea of merit has created a "seniority based" approach as mentors are required to successfully apply for higher positions - it is not about demonstrating good practices at current level, it is about demonstrating the skills and capability required for positions above level that you are not doing, or are doing in relief capacities, and being able to apply for promotional roles in the form required (answer selection criteria, use SAOs, etc). An incumbent has a significant advantage as they know the position and can more easily meet merit based requirements. Without help from a mentor you will not create a competitive application to get an interview. Schools do not want disruption or introduction of a person that could break a fragile culture and restricting access to promotional positions is one method to achieve this.</div><div><br /></div><div>This can lead to a disatisfied workforce where staff are unable to attract mentors as they lack connections to the leadership team they are attached to. In these instances promotion is seen as favouritism - which is true to a degree, the system requires staff to bend to the needs of the organisation and show that they can do the tasks required before being given the position. There is a lack of understanding that the process is not about the job you are doing.</div><div><br /></div><div>The protection of school culture is a safety net though, as the wrong person at the wrong time can negatively disrupt a culture, especially if they view the current culture as flawed. The culture is set by the Principal and although a Principal can be influenced to change their position directly, they cannot be undermined by school leaders whiteanting a position.</div><div><br /></div><div>Permanency causes a problem. In the corporate world the person would be encouraged to move on or be counselled to change their views if they were in direct conflict with management. An underperforming staff member in DOE is tolerated as long as they do not cause headaches with parents and are isolated from causing harm. </div><div><br /></div><div>Mental health is a common concern. Teaching is a highly stressful activity at times, when combined with family trauma, children growing up, constantly dealing with adoloscence, caring for elderly parents, sickness, dips in performance can occur. Staff can also be reaching retirement age and lose some of the drive found earlier in the profession.</div><div><br /></div><div>Underperforming within the protection of permanency is not necessarily bad. The 'Merit system' with promotion the positive objective, has taken the "teaching college" and tried to force it into something it is not. To avoid the disgruntled workforce, we need to change how we think of teaching and not see promotion as a career objective. Permanency is the correct strategy but does not need to be tied to a Merit approach. Culture is instead the key. </div><div><br /></div><div>1. We do it because we love teaching</div><div>2. The outcomes are not promotion but delivery of the next generation of students and teachers to their aspirations</div><div>3. We have a responsibility to protect the college by mentoring younger teachers through the early crisis years</div><div>4. We have a responsibility to assist those at risk and guide them back to being productive students and teachers</div><div>5. Those with reduced capacity heading towards retirement have significantly contributed, need to be valued, recognised, cared for and given productive work</div><div>6. Recognition that most staff roles have a management requirement, unusual in any other industry</div><div>7. Recognition of success and failure through an evidence based approach</div><div>8. Acknowledgement that our working conditions are better than most other industries</div><div>9. Recognition that promotional positions do not have remuneration commensurate with the increase in responsibility. </div><div><br /></div><div>If you haven't asked yourself, "why do I teach?" now is always a good time to do so :-) There are those suited to promotional positions, but they are not for everyone and should be given to those in the correct frame to do the job well. The real return and fulfilment is in teaching children, not money, not promotion.</div><div><br /></div><div>What our profession does not need:</div><div>1. Tokenistic care through 'here's a card, call them' without follow up.</div><div>2. Use and abuse workforce</div><div>3. Cliques</div><div>4. Promotion to incompetence (misuse of the Merit approach)</div><div>5. Faddish application of research (explicit teaching of "all" I am looking at you!)</div><div>6. Being risk averse: poorly managing innovation/risk taking/workload</div><div>7. Undervaluing management under the guise of a "Leadership" focus</div><div>8. Leaders without proper guidance and accountability</div><div>9. Poorly defined roles</div><div>10. Political interference</div><div><br /></div><div>All the elements of a great system are there but it needs a new lens to consider how to take the best of the system and provide members with a feeling of contentment and worth through student performance, rather than through promotion. Without this, we risk losing the heart of teaching and will not garner the respect earned in countries where education is a key part of the national culture. As our industry moves from dig it/sell it mining base to a service based economy, education is the biggest element to providing export dollars from students working internationally or in manufacturing with high levels of automation which will subsequently protect our high standard of living. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961727131900697758.post-58328241714122622042021-12-19T12:19:00.007+08:002021-12-19T12:22:27.145+08:00 Boardgame update 2022<p>Each year I go through the successes in my boardgame collection with students at school. This will support the majority of students in a high school and most classes that I have introduced them to. If you were looking to set up a boardgame collection for a library or department, you wouldn't go far wrong.</p><p>None have a huge ruleset and can be self taught by most groups (other than the adult ones at the bottom).</p><p><b>Dexterity Games</b></p><p>* Rhino Hero<br />* Tumbling Dice<br />* Looping Louie<br />Hamsterrolle<br />Klask</p><p><b>Puzzle Games<br /></b><br />* Blockus<br />* SET<br />Kaleioscope<br />Turing Tumble<br /><br /><b>Strategy</b></p><p>Connect4<br />* Santorini<br />For Sale</p><p><b>Social/Party<br /></b><br />* Anomia<br />Murder in Hong Kong<br />* Spot it / Dobble<br />Spicy<br />Spyfall<br />** Crappy birthday<br />Uggtect<br />* Uno</p><p><b>Cooperative<br /></b><br />* 5 Minute Marvel<br /><br /><b>Traditional Board/Card Games</b></p><p>Citadels<br />Ticket to ride<br />Elfenland</p><p><b>Games most played with adults in 2022</b></p><p>Gloomhaven<br />Darksouls<br />Warhammer Killteam<br />D&D<br />Imperial Assault<br />Indonesia<br />Space Hulk</p><p>Staff often ask me how I hear about games and where I get them from. Stand up and sit down on youtube is a great channel for board game information, as is the hottest list on boardgamegeek.com. Student favourites are marked with a *. The favourite by far marked with **.</p><p>Most games can be bought locally in Perth from Tactics or Gamesworld at a premium. Harder to find games can be found from Milsims.com.au in Melbourne, Amazon online or sometimes Gamesempire.com.au.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961727131900697758.post-53290008046080373842021-12-02T06:25:00.008+08:002021-12-05T07:38:47.385+08:00Changes in 2022 and beyond in Upper School MathematicsFive emerging themes in 2022 are of some concern in Mathematics and the severity will depend on the implementation by SCSA. These are not new to 2022 but may be a surprise if you are not familiar with them.<div><br /></div><div>- The requirement to embed design requirements (general capabilities) in classroom programmes</div><div>- The reduction in assesments per course to 8-10 assessments per year</div><div>- The requirement to follow the Mathematical Teaching Process, Statistical investigations or Theoretical investigations in ATAR</div><div>- Grading in Essential and ATAR courses</div><div>- Intended purpose of Applications and Methods</div><div><br /></div><div>They are listed in order of prediction of impact from lowest to highest</div><div><br /></div><div><b>General Capabilities</b> </div><div><rant>General capabilities assist with the design aspects of a course. A well designed syllabus has the general capabilities written in such that they flow naturally through the programmes of teachers. If we are having a discussion (again) that general capabilities are not being implemented by teachers and displayed by students then the design of the course is the problem, not the application by teachers </rant over>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Likely Impact: Minimal as teachers will ignore instructions about general capabilities as they can't be measured and have little/no positive impact on the course results.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Reduction in assessments per course to 8-10 in 2023</b></div><div>Statistically creating fewer data points, will reduce the reliability of results in mathematics. This has the potential to reduce the correlation of class and external exam marks from the enviable position of Mathematics compared to other courses to among the same lines. </div><div><br /></div><div>Given the requirement of two of each type required</div><div><br /></div><div>Year 11 (Four terms)</div><div>Investigation: 2 items</div><div>Response: 4-6 items</div><div>Exam: 2 items</div><div><br /></div><div>Year 12 (Three terms)</div><div><div>Investigation: 2 items</div><div>Response: 4 items</div><div>Exam: 2 items</div><div><br /></div></div><div>This is 1-2 response task per term.</div><div><br /></div><div>The is not significantly different to current programmes albeit I prefer to have an additional investigation as the marks are more variable than response tasks and skew the distribution.</div><div><br /></div><div>Suggestions made by SCSA to not assess dot points (which has always been done to some degree) or include assessment of content in investigations (I'm not even sure how assessment of content can work within an investigation as that is not the aim of an investigation) were put forward as good alternatives to response tasks.</div><div><br /></div><div>Teachers are already talking about ways around the new requirements, specifically to combine recording of assesssments (one assessment with parts held two weeks apart).</div><div><br /></div><div>The rationale for this by SCSA was to decrease the anxiety of students (using Physics as the example of 17 assessments) but I am not sure that creating more high stakes testing (as weighting is much higher with fewer assessments, likely to increase anxiety) will achieve this especially as encouragement was made to increase ungraded formative assessment through EPW style investigative learning practices.</div><div><br /></div><div>The stated goal of reducing dot points in Unit 1 of Methods 11 is more likely to reduce student anxiety.</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Likely impact: Reduction in reliability of Mathematical correlation between class and exam marks to level of other courses. Reduction in number of investigative tasks given. Lower SD in class marks in during investigative tasks to minimise impact (likely based on work ethic rather than capability). </div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Mathematical Teaching Process</b></div><div>The ongoing faddish discussion about embedded critical thinking through Mathematical thinking processes continues with the encroachment of MTP in ATAR courses since 2018. Until now the definition was fairly wishy washy and could be worked around.</div><div><br /></div><div>Investigations have now been informally categorised as Statistical investigations, Practical Applications and Theoretical investigations each following a similar process to the old Mathematics in Practice (MIPS) approach. Whilst I am a big supporter of the MIPS approach in a MIPS type course, imposing the time requirements of this approach on a student and the subsequent reduction in mathematical application during an investigation that it imposes is detrimental to an ATAR course.</div><div><br /></div><div>Likely Impact: The watering down of theoretical style investigations continues in Methods.</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Grading changes</b></div><div>The statement made by SCSA presenters was that in ATAR and General courses, the difference in an A, B and C style question is not content related but is related purely on how the question is asked and the amount of scaffolding given.</div><div><br /></div><div>This makes a mockery of the differential in Mathematical ability required to complete each course particularly evident in the difference between Applications and Methods.</div><div><br /></div><div>The rationale given was that scaling would compensate for this - but it doesn't if the gap between courses increases beyond the 5% mean + 5% of course total scaling given - Methods students are penalised for doing harder work (rather than rewarded). </div><div><br /></div><div>Given an A, B or C in Methods is significantly harder to achieve (due to content continuing to be learned at a faster pace than Applications requiring a more difficult sequence of learning), it is hard to fathom how the way a question is asked and subsequently answered, fairly and adequately assesses the level of a student. To reduce it to this does not replicate the alignment currently required by ATAR assessment via understanding displayed in the external exam and the assessment completed to achieve similar class marks.</div><div><br /></div><div>Likely Impact: This will need to be rethought. It is not a good idea and will not be replicable under exam conditions without a blowout in Methods marks. Students in 50-57 Methods range (exam and class) in Year 11 are achieving 80% (65% after scaling) in Applications - and this is being told to students by course counsellors, reducing retention in Methods courses.</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Rationale of Methods and Applications</b></div><div>Universities have knobbled interest in Specialist courses (there is little desire during mining slumps) by reducing pre-requisites outside of engineering (or even in engineering in some cases) and now are doing similar to Methods courses. Students are discouraged from attempting ATAR Methods by counsellors as it is not required for their courses and complete the easier ATAR Applications instead.</div><div><br /></div><div>Intended level of difficulty (increasing to left)</div><div><br /></div><div>Foundations Essentials Applications/Methods Specialist</div><div><br /></div><div>In a discussion with SCSA staff post meeting it was stated (and themed throughout the presentation) that Applications and Methods are aimed to be delivered at the same level (and the grade related descriptors show this) but for different purposes (eg Applications for biological sciences/humanities students, Methods for Physical Sciences, Specialist for Engineering students).</div><div><br /></div><div>If this is the case Methods and Applications require a significant re-write (and I don't believe this is the intent as this was stated in the presentation) as they do not meet this purpose. Whether Methods needs to come to the level of Applications or the Applications course requires a complete rethink (this is my belief) is not clear.</div><div><br /></div><div>Likely impact: This will need to be rethought. Scaling will negatively impact students whilst this is poorly understood and implemented as per 2020. Return to a hierarchy of Foundation -> Essentials -> Applications -> Methods -> Specialist in a future iteration of courses is likely.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961727131900697758.post-25111448208170456962021-10-26T08:02:00.009+08:002021-11-10T17:57:33.815+08:00Maths as a Mixed Martial art<p> Entering a Year 7 classroom can be quite daunting for a
student. I'm reading a few dystopian dramas and imagined a parallel universe with traditional classes mixed with mixed martial arts (MMA) bouts - a child entering a high school classroom for the first time. It's all a bit dramatic but typical of my sense of humour.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Jonny enters the Octagon being unable to count the sides, knowing
that he is about to take a beating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
hasn’t done the work required to be at this level.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every previous outing he has failed. He seeks
to distract his opponent by avoiding work set, breaking the rules and getting
thrown out before his lack of competence can be identified and ridiculed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Against all odds he attempts to answer the
first question and it beats him to a pulp.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Mary enters the Octagon full of confidence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She struts around the room announcing to
everyone how this is too easy, she has the answer for every problem, being well
prepared through her summer programme and her University educated parents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She sees others in the room similarly
confident – is she really the best in the room anymore? Her confidence
falls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her first answer is wrong and now
she is no longer the no.1 contender.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Harry walks into the Octagon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has worked hard but never found the
success that warrants the work that he has put in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every step forward is difficult and he envies
those that make it easy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He timidly lifts
his hand to give an answer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is
ignored for a student that is actively seeking to give theirs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His answer is correct but nobody knows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He fails again.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“Jill enters and listens to the instruction before the match.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She has heard it all before and could recite
it before it is said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She drifts off and
starts thinking about fairies and unicorns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The match starts, the test given and it is all over in a moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She has defeated each question and can return
to the unicorns, with no idea of what she is capable of.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“The teacher stands in the middle of the ring again as
referee, coach, mentor, instructor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Full
of enthusiasm at the start, waning over the course of the match as the level of
focus required and the challenges faced start to wear her down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Will she do a good job or will the
commentators attack her for not being all that is required?”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“The crowd stand on the edge of the ring, each encouraging
their contender despite all odds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every parent
is different – some on phones watching Netflix, others actively denouncing the
referee despite all evidence, others taking notes of what needs to be done in
the next match, others confused unable to comprehend what is happening.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In hindsight after writing this in the shoes of each participant, I realised learning should not be treated as a combat sport but often has elements of it. I think I traumatised some of my staff when I read it to them. We need to be mindful
of what we are expecting of students, making it into something that is wonderful to experience and not what is written above.<o:p></o:p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961727131900697758.post-31189258890341658142021-10-22T04:39:00.005+08:002021-11-05T06:56:56.121+08:00Long term improvement in Mathematics classes through an evidence based approach.<p>The health of a faculty can be measured in a number of ways:</p><p>- Student Behaviour</p><p>- Staff Morale</p><p>- Student Achievement / Student Progress</p><p>- Engagement</p><p><br /></p><p>Measuring these is a complex and time consuming task.</p><p>- Student Behaviour (no. of behaviour reports)</p><p>- Staff and Community Perception (perception surveys, anecdotal evidence)</p><p>- Student Achievement / Student Progress (student class results, standardised testing)</p><p>- Engagement (student perception, participation rates, student success)</p><p><br /></p><p>Each term, we focus on one of the measures and identify where focus areas are, possible measures for improvement and where success has been found. Currently we are working on engagement in classrooms. The chosen metric is success that a student is experiencing.</p><p>For instance, a class with an average of 50 under assessment conditions has half of the students in the class feeling unsuccessful as they have not been able to complete half of the assessment set. Given that 50% is a common indicator of where minimum performance is expected, it is a fair indicator that engagement rates are poor and/or declining.</p><p>To drive improvement and increase engagement, a target of 85% of students achieving at least 50% on assessment tasks was set for the team. Classes and teachers reaching this target were identified and then examined for practices that could be developed across the team.</p><p>Eyebrows were raised that such a high percentage was set as the target off a relatively low base. Students entering high school experience success in Year 7 & 8, as work becomes more difficult and adolescence in Year 9, engagement can fall if not attended to and then lead to Senior school where students are placed in courses doing work predominantly covered in Years 7-10 and engagement rates rise. Achievement of WACE is a siginificant motivator for staff and students given it is a highly monitored metric.</p><p>The forgotten middle is another area to target as often high achieving (and motivated) students and low ability students are given additional attention. Students at a C level are often banded together and reinforce average performance with lower expectations (and subsequent class averages) experienced. By encouraging higher levels of success (by increasing expectation and modifying grade cutoffs/assessment difficulty) it is hypothesized that higher overall achievement can be achieved (a concept at the heart of pathway grades in public schools).</p><p>Classes averages of 65, with SD of 12 indicate success levels commonly experienced in Methods and Specialist classes. Averages of 60 with SD of 10 indicate levels similar to Applications classes. Low SD indicate that assessments or instruction may be too narrow and skills based, pedagogy change may be required, wider may indicate that sections of the class require additional attention. Both cases may indicate that streaming processes need review.</p><p>Given 85% of students achieving passing grades is difficult to achieve, it requires attention at a student level, analysing individual student performance/underperformance, how it can be measured and how it can be improved. This can be done vs standardised testing or class averages longitudinally by teachers to identify students that require additional attention.</p><p>Where students experience legitimate, well explained succcess, senior school Mathematics participation, retention in courses and course achievement should improve. The cycle of improvement is long, with 5-7 years to see significant change in results and culture of achievement. Short term gains at a year or class level need to be celebrated to maintain the focus on improvement.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961727131900697758.post-9422857450114459892021-09-22T06:33:00.004+08:002021-09-24T06:11:31.145+08:00Nearly end of term<p> It's nearly end of Term 3. Time to thank everyone that has helped get this far.</p><p>Students that are looking forward to the holidays but are tired and ratty.</p><p>Teachers that are dragging their feet into work and are looking forward to the recharge that is coming.</p><p>Principals and admin that are dealing with all the complaints and grizzlies that are occurring.</p><p>Student services that are just trying to hold it all together.</p><p><br /></p><p>It's not a nice time but if we are all understanding we can make the most of it. Not everything that happens in the next few days will be rational - put decisions off, understand that people can be emotional and these next few days will be fairly painless. </p><p>Get the last bit of content and marking done and we are on our way.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961727131900697758.post-71544552410915902562021-09-12T18:50:00.012+08:002021-09-12T20:45:52.135+08:00High School Board Games 2021 edition<p> My most recent plastic box filled with boardgames in the high school classroom (in no order):</p><p>Anomia (party) - 4 players<br />For Sale (auction) - 6-8 players<br />Citadels (strategy) - 6 players<br />Hamsterrolle (dexterity) - 4 players<br />Five Minute Marvel (action) - 4 players<br />Dixit (party/deduction) - 6-8 players<br />Rhino Hero (dexterity) - 4 players<br />Turing Tumble (problem solving) - 1 player<br />Murder in Hong Kong (deduction) - 6 players<br />Santorini (strategy) - 4 players<br />SET (trick taking) - 6-8 players<br />Blockus (abstract) - 4 players</p><p>With the exception of Hamsterrolle (out of print) and Turing tumble (expensive), they are all usually readily available, most fairly cheaply. I try and keep 6-8 games going concurrently thus it is important to have games of 6-8+ players for larger classes.</p><p>All can be taught or learned from the instructions, played and packed up in less than an hour. I have a second box of different games I use for younger or less mature classes.</p><p>Previous success has been found with but have been replaced by the games above:</p><p>Ticket to Ride (trick taking)<br />Carcassonne (tiles)<br />Coup/Resistance/Avalon (strategy)<br />Spyfall (deduction)<br />Apples to Apples (party)<br />Kingdomino (tiles)<br />Splendor (strategy)<br />7 Wonders (strategy)<br />Love Letter (strategy)<br />Pitchcar (dexterity)<br />Lupus in Tabula/Werewolf (party)<br />Azul (tiles/strategy)<br />Dominion (deckbuilding)<br />Machi Koro (dice)</p><p>There are many games I enjoy more, but won't work within the hour constraint common in a school period.</p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961727131900697758.post-25073186097471832572021-09-10T06:29:00.005+08:002021-09-11T05:39:47.142+08:00Support vs intervention<p>Mainstream and extension classes are able to access the year level curriculum as set by the Curriculum and Standards Authority (SCSA). Some students for a range of reasons are unable to access this curriculum. To assist them requires a level of differentiation either through ongoing additional support or intervention.</p><p>Reasons for requiring differentiation are extensive. Gaps in conceptual understanding happen for many reasons - illness, teaching quality, taking holidays during term, sporting commitments, lack of ability, mental health, lack of cultural support, lack of confidence, peer conflict, family conflict. </p><p>Whether a child requires ongoing additional support or intervention requires careful analysis to see if it is feasible to bridge the student back to the year level curriculum or if they will require ongoing additional support throughout schooling.</p><p>Support classes acknowledge that students are unlikely to access the year level curriculum and are typically assessed against what they can do through procedures such as SEN reporting. This allows the student to achieve success in the classroom and promotes engagement. Parents need to be informed and on board with the decision if students are moved to supported environments. It is not a decision that can be made lightly.</p><p>Intervention is different, is less frequently done during normal classroom time and typically done through tutoring and outside of the classroom. When done in the classroom, interventions are measures introduced that assist students learn the behaviours and techniques known by mainstream students whilst preventing the student from falling further behind. This means that students that are behind, have to work harder in class than students on syllabus, to catch up, something difficult to achieve with struggling students. EALD students and highly motivated students are groups where catchup is possible, particularly where literacy is the inhibitor.</p><p>Streams encounter the issues solved through intervention frequently as behaviours required in higher streams need to be taught to students in lower streams to increase the chances of success prior to transition. Where this is not done effectively, students are less likely to find success in classes that they are moved to and transition takes longer to achieve. Typically intervention during transition is required in the form of encouragement, academic assistance and peer alignment to bridge students to the requirements of the new stream.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961727131900697758.post-21883116775484449612021-09-07T07:50:00.015+08:002021-12-31T19:49:31.612+08:00Working hours<p>The common perception is that teachers are overworked and underpaid. There are times when this is still true. The first three years as a graduate teacher is a slog. Exam marking. Designing investigations. Managing 30 adolescents is hard.</p><p>.. but.. are teachers actually doing the quoted average 60 hours per week? Possible reasons for working these hours are lack of organisation, failure to collaborate, capacity building, reinventing the wheel, "recovery time", carrying unproductive staff, behaviour management and allocation of duties beyond the classroom. At face value it appears to be a misconception that isn't really happening and is based on historical/aged evidence.</p><p>Today we buy exams, work across schools to share assessments, mark formally less frequently, have programmes that describe what to teach, when to assess and what to assess that are trialled and tested over multiple years (the last full syllabus refresh was 2016ish), have IT to assist reusing of resources, have significant item banks to draw assessment from. It is not clear what the majority of teachers are doing that takes increased working hours beyond the 37.5 normal working week.</p><p>Teachers have 20ish hours of contact time - that leaves an additional 40 hours (according to the average) of time doing DOTT tasks (of which traditionally 20 hours are unpaid, recompensed through additional holidays and flexible time outside of school hours). The lack of auditing of what teachers are doing to ensure that time is being efficiently used talks to systemic management inefficency and appears to be an area that can be investigated for more productive use of public monies.</p><p>Yet the perception is that teachers are overworked and underpaid. This perception shift needs to occur towards that we are in a priviledged situation and have a profession that is well staffed, conditioned, paid and catered to. It is an unpopular postulate that we are not overworked/underpaid but one that needs to be considered and marketed.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961727131900697758.post-23018820869590992682021-08-28T09:44:00.006+08:002021-09-11T05:45:53.537+08:00Streaming - not as simple as moving a student.<p>I spend considerable time each term dealing with streaming issues. The issues in each stream are significant and relate to the perceptions of how streams should work by stakeholders. Some of the issues faced below occur each term and relate to students wishing to move streams.</p><p>1. Stream sniping: A disengaging student in the bottom third of a class seeks access to a lower stream to find success and claims demotivation/anxiety as primary reason for lack of success. Where a large gap exists between streams, by allowing a high ability student into a lower ability class, it has the potential to demotivate current students finding success in the lower stream. The preferred solution is to use engagement strategies to again make the student competitive in the higher stream.</p><p>2. Teacher pedagogy: A student is struggling to adapt to teaching methods of a teacher compared to a teacher in a previous year. This is most evident when moving from an inexperienced teacher that teaches a narrow directed course to a more experienced teacher that drives a conceptual course in middle secondary years. Issues can also relate to over or under expectation of students, particularly late maturing boys or over emotional girls. The preferred solution is recognise the issue and to develop the capacity for independent learning whilst providing additional support for students struggling in transition.</p><p>3. Performance Anxiety: A student who has experienced significant failure over time may be unable to function optimally under assessment conditions. The preferred solution is to focus on what has been learned from each assessment and provide alternate assessment feedback to the student to indicate their learning. </p><p>4. Restreaming resistance: Teachers can provide significant resistance to restreaming students as it can cause considerable disruption to stable environments to continue to have students introduced to a class. Popular teachers able to cater with difficult students can often have classes swell in size if not observed carefully. Where restreaming has been successful, the temptation is to introduce more students that are also struggling to see if a similar result can be obtained. The solution here in most cases is to resist re-streaming outside of defined streaming times during the year in all but extreme cases and limit transition issues to defined periods during the year to maximise learning for all students in each class. </p><p>5. Parent nag: A student can nag their parent into continuous follow up with the school where no evidence exists that a student warrants moving. This can often follow when a student is allowed to move for legitimate reasons and friends or students with lower results see it as a path to lower work expectations. The solution for this is a clear understanding of the evidence base for the student (current ranking, standardised testing, prior grades) and re-presenting this nicely back to the parent. Often this is as simple as replying with their ranking and indicating that others would be considered first.</p><p>6. Disengagement: Where students disengage on mass, as issue exists for the teacher to re-engage the class. The solution requires examining pedagogy, engagement strategies, expectations, content and audience to identify strategies that may work. This can require questioning teaching philosophies and compromising principles to get students to a position where learning recommences.</p><p>7. Isolation: This is a hard one. Where a student is an isolate in a class and friendship groups are elsewhere, especially students with limited social skills, the requirement to move class can be legitimate. The performance of a student in this situation where a student is on their own or where a class has turned on them (girls in particular can be mean in this situation), moving the student can be required. This should be done in conjunction with student services to ensure that the teacher isn't then nagged by a wider range of students.</p><p>8. Transition: A student transitioning from a lower to a higher pathway needs time to transition as there will be considerable gaps in understanding, particularly closer to Year 10. Students in this situation need constant care and encouragement to find success. To promote success, students should be primed as to the expected behaviours of the new class and be preloaded with material prior to movement to support their success in the new class.</p><p>Streaming is not a simple solution to drive learning - it is a blunt instrument that is used at specific times of the year to ability group students. After it is done, time is needed to assess the requirements for the next streaming point - constant change will result in making it difficult to settle the streams and get them right - it is better to use differentiation between streaming points and make better streams than to use streams as diagnostic tools to provide students opportunities and disrupt the learning of many, constantly. Those involved with streaming know this intuitively, as they have to deal constantly with the demands of restreaming otherwise.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961727131900697758.post-72623367083322866492021-08-18T08:08:00.012+08:002021-09-11T05:48:20.788+08:00Approaches to teaching<p>There are many common approaches to teaching and they tend to develop as teachers gain experience. </p><p>When teachers start out, especially in Maths, a text is your best friend. It helps with sequencing, pacing, depth and the hidden elements/assumed knowledge of a syllabus. There is a lot to do. By reading a few texts treatment of a topic, the main elements can be drawn out and students are given sufficient practice to get by. Link it together with some worksheets and the occassional activity that is broadly linked to the topic (Kahoots are the current tool of choice) and a class won't get too bored with the approach. Teaching is predominantly aimed bottom/middle with some end of chapter extension work. Teachers are generally time poor, trying to cope with a variety of demands on their time whilst trying to demonstrate their enthusiasm and confidence.</p><p>As time passes, dependence on the text becomes less, the teacher evaluates where the class is at the start of a topic via some form of formative assessment, teaches the content that the syllabus indicates and provides practice to the class, balanced by the capacity of the class - developing its work ethic, revision strategies, collaborative skills and appreciation for learning. The focus is reasonably narrow to ensure that the main ideas are cemented in for the next topic, making teaching a bit stop/start. The difficulty level may shift from topic to topic based on the strength of students but the content taught is basically the same across the class. Teachers are still time poor, but time spent is more effectively on the tasks chosen, the ability to collaborate is significantly higher and the search for efficient partnerships with other teachers begin, typically for resource sharing and assessment writing.</p><p>Ultimately the teacher can teach each topic without the text, gains a feel for where the class is at (usually based on time to complete initial tasks) and a lesson becomes a journey through the topics bridging from one idea to the next, creating a picture in the mind of the student of mathematics and establishing the elegance and wonder of mathematical process and solutions. The text is used only as an example of how increasingly abstract concepts taught can be applied widely, providing opportunities to explore and journey in ever wider circles bridging between different branches of mathematics. Focus is given to the individual needs of each student and the method of teaching is adapted as required. The skill of the teacher is ensuring that main concepts are well understood, changing the order of learning if required, but ensuring flow/engagement is maintained during learning. Collaboration becomes more effective, reflecting on effectiveness of learning in different contexts, not just looking at resource sharing.</p><p>Many times when a student complains about a teacher, it is that they are familiar with a particular style of teaching, have adapted to it, were doing better and are finding it difficult to evolve to a new style. All three styles above can support high and low achieving students within acceptable parameters, but the responses of students will be different.</p><p>Understanding where a teacher is in their own learning journey assists with setting fair expectations and areas for reflection. Judgement by others should be suspended with understanding taking its place, being patient as each teacher moves through their current level of learning towards teaching competency.</p><p> </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961727131900697758.post-75615183186742218252021-08-05T10:39:00.011+08:002021-09-01T19:15:12.906+08:00Deficit Based Approach<p> A deficit based model from a quick Google search could be defined as:</p><p></p><blockquote>"<span face="arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 16px;">The deficit model of teaching, in which the teacher provides the learning to make good a deficit, stands in direct contrast to the belief that the teacher's role is to draw out learners' tacit knowledge and understanding through questioning and facilitation." Oxford Reference, 2020.</span></blockquote><p>It's a model that has been prevalent in teaching from inception. We teach, we tell kids what they can't do. It's in contrast to a model where the focus is for the teacher to assist students understand the required information, develop a skill to complete a task or how to assimilate a concept within their existing conceptual framework and where it is not understood, diagnose and work with them to rectify the ommission.</p><p>When working with teachers with disgruntled parents, I am most interested in how well a teacher knows the student. If they know their friendship group, can tell where they sit in the class, can describe their demeanour, provide an accurate guide of their recent performance, talk about the positives of the child, it's a fair indicator that the student may not be telling the full story to their parents. In these cases the solutions required tend to be quite simple, are behaviour management related and easily remedied.</p><p>If a teacher is unaware of these things and can only describe what the student is not doing, it rings immediate alarm bells that this situation may need further investigation. These tend to be the cases of high ability or at least capable, underperforming students where a disconnection has occurred between the teacher, family and student (my specific area of interest). It can also be an indication that the teacher has defaulted to a deficit model and needs assistance to reconnect with their student.</p><p>In these cases it is important to let the air out of the situation, let everyone be heard and then gently guide the conversation back to what can be done to assist the student find success. It is not sufficient to say they are underperforming and set a goal of, "student will improve their grade by 10% by Term 3" unless it also says how they should achieve the goal. Goals set should be guided by the teacher with measures that are likely to reach an achievable outcome together with an aspirational goal. These measures should observable; processes, techniques, habits or revision that will be checked that they have been done and then measured for success against the goal.</p><p>If the student does what the teacher indicates and does not achieve success, they will lose confidence in the ability of the teacher. It is very important that whatever measure is set, that the probability of success is high. Often the measures initially set by a teacher are not specific, not measureable and have no way to ensure that the student is doing it correctly. In these cases they are very likely to fail with blame deflected to the student.</p><p><br /></p><p>A recent case I was working on:</p><p>Problem: The student was writing a persuasive text rather than the required informational text. </p><p></p><p></p><p>Deficit Feedback to student: Student is not specific when stating her solution. Language used is not appropriate.</p><p>Alternate Response: Understanding of an informational text requires additional attention. Revisit an informational text with the student and contrast it with a persuasive text. Student to construct an informational text as a formative assessment, to be discussed and annotated with the teacher.</p><p><br /></p><p>Problem: Level of detail is insufficient in written response.</p><p>Deficit Feedback to student: Response is full of waffle and preparation is insufficient.</p><p>Alternate response: Student would benefit from further developing her mind mapping techniques. Student to construct a mind map for next task and compare her response with a student that is highly capable in this skill. Student to submit next mind map created before constructing next written article. Student to construct a glossary of terms before next essay and review with teacher before next task.</p><p><br /></p><p>and so on.. It is a different way of thinking and requires the responsibility of teaching to be firmly with the teacher working with the parent and student. With a reflective, timid, hardworking student in particular, asking them to self reflect and inform the teacher what they need to do is an intimidating, frightening and pointless task only likely to raise anxiety and lower performance further. This may in some cases remove the student from the care of the teacher (thus allowing the teacher to focus on other things) but is not in line with department policy on high care, high expectations.</p><p> </p><span face="arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 16px;"></span><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961727131900697758.post-9559902966223041612021-07-22T07:17:00.009+08:002021-07-22T10:39:15.451+08:00New Term blues<div>I try not to take a term for granted. Teaching children is a privilege I may not always be capable of delivering to the level required. 13 years of each term - am I going to make it to the next term - am I good enough to do this well? Should I hand it over to someone more capable? At the end of each term, a sense of relief, but we can feel tired and a bit jaded. The first week of a break is recovery and recharging the battery during the second week starts the readiness process for the following term.</div><div><br /></div><div>Ego usually kicks in and says "yes I am more than good enough/ready", but not always. It only takes a bad result or a poorly handled situation to start that internal conversation of have I been promoted beyond my ability and I should I step aside for someone that has more natural ability and doesn't have to work as hard to get similar results. </div><div><br /></div><div>It's a rare term when I return after a break and think - I'm ready and let's get into it. It's usually a mix of trepidation, knowledge of what needs to be done and concern about what could arise as we enter the door. This can reduce the enthusiasm that needs to be present at the start of each term after a break. I'm mindful of the blues as it can infect a team with negativity and reduce it's ability to be flexible and agile but this anxiety is also what leads to high performance!</div><div><br /></div><div>Term 3 is a pressure cooker and week 8 is the most difficult week of the year - a time when the pressure is at its worst - ATAR, grumpy kids, assessment due. Teachers start thinking that being promoted or seeking greener pastures is preferable to increasing demands and behavioural concerns. The silly season starts with a merry go round of teachers changing between roles and schools. With these changes comes more pressure on leaders to keep teachers in front of classrooms and maintaining delivery standards. It's no wonder that leaders at the start of the term can have a few more wrinkles than before the holidays.</div><div><br /></div><div>The main message here is that even the most outwardly confident leaders have doubts about the direction they are taking, can lack confidence and are constantly reviewing how they should deliver. As much as they are trying to support you, they need to know that you believe in what they are trying to achieve and require this belief to make things happen. This is true from mentoring a peer all the way up to the Principal.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Any change a leader does is bound to upset someone - getting everyone to agree is a difficult/pointless task as it often leads to "good enough solutions" rather than optimal ones, the compromises required to make everyone happy negate the benefits sought (and the change is often better abandoned than pursued). The pursuit of a goal can stress the belief in a leader when the status quo requires less work than the improvement sought, a status quo likely gained as it made life easier for teachers but is not in the best interest of students.</div><div><br /></div><div>Thank goodness that HOLAs still teach - without the positive feedback from students it is sometimes a thankless task. <br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961727131900697758.post-18669744301217169702021-07-02T09:02:00.019+08:002021-09-11T05:54:39.250+08:00Screencasting, blended and flipped classrooms<p>Blended classrooms and flipped classrooms were quite the fad for a time. I've had a bash at both and find blended classrooms to be vastly superior to flipped classrooms, with neither more effective than standard classroom teaching with a whiteboard and text. My interest has always been in underperforming students and ICT is one of the tools I use with them, typically not exclusively but as a part of a bigger solution and generally not for initial instruction. </p><p>Where technology replaces a teacher, it usually fails abysmally to overcome engagement, gaps in learning and pastoral care issues that are the bread and butter of today's classroom. </p><p>Despite this, I have produced over 200 5 to 10 minute videos over the last two years for students. Each might get watched 8-10 times per year. Speaking with a local publisher that came to visit, he asked why bother? There are hundreds of teachers producing resources and few being utilised, where is the return for effort? I didn't argue, but did smile. I think, on this, I have cracked how this IT malarky is useful in the classroom. It's not rocket science but has taken 13 years to realise.</p><p>Let me make this clear. As the main teaching tool, first point of introduction to a topic, generally speaking, a video is a poor teaching tool. For disengaged or students that lack the ability to learn independently, it is useless. In both of these cases, intervention is required by the teacher to engage students before any meaningful learning can occur.</p><p>What ICT can do is address many of the secondary issues faced in a classroom and promote higher levels of success.</p><p>- Students that are absent due to illness have access to the learning for the day<br />- Students can use ICT as a revision tool prior to assessment<br />- Students can use ICT to revisit the material taught and gain depth to their understanding by re-examining difficult parts<br />- ICT can extend the reach of a classroom by providing assistance outside of class time<br />- ICT improves my teaching as I have to think prior to presenting to the class how I wish to introduce the topic<br />- ICT can assist me recall from year to year how to best teach a topic</p><p>- ICT provides feedback on parts of the course students are finding difficult (more students tend to watch)<br />- ICT provides an avenue for having a second crack at teaching a concept when I haven't connected fully during class<br />- ICT provides avenues for discussion about how I teach and how a topic can be taught (particularly useful for working with new teachers)</p><p>- The assistance given to students is in the form that I teach (as opposed to tools produced by others) and in the form I will later assess to the level required by the WA Syllabus.</p><p>- Parents access the videos to ensure they are teaching using the method required to the level required.<br />- ICT is another avenue to show that I care about my students.<br />- ICT is an opportunity to revisit syllabus dot points <br />- ICT removes student excuses for not completing or understanding work.</p><p>- ICT actively, repeatedly models how to deconstruct a text and use a worked example.</p><p><br />Addressing the publishers issue, if a video takes 10-15 minutes to create and only 8-10 students look at it, it is a good use of time. With 200 videos available, that's 800 individual interventions that would not have occurred otherwise. Each successful intervention raises confidence and reduces disengagement (which can be important with students on the edge of disengagement). </p><p>Intervention one on one during lunch time is a more common intervention, but much less efficient. Even every lunch, 50 per term would only be 200 interventions. If the recordings are utilised for more than one year that could double or triple their effectiveness.</p><p>It's important to realise that I say to students that they do not have to watch them (unless under covid lockdown and it is the only teaching instruction available from me) and they do not include all that is taught in class - it is a support for them, not a way for me to get out of teaching (avoiding the complaints being made about universities).</p><p>If you would like to see some of the work I have done, it's all on Youtube <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/74rmiln/featured">here</a> and some on Prezi from the link on the right from a long time ago before my interval in admin.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961727131900697758.post-90797511988118391892021-06-30T08:25:00.006+08:002021-07-11T18:23:31.408+08:00Assessment and retention<p> For many years schools ran to a basic formula:</p><p>1. Set Programme based on Syllabus</p><p>2. Teach</p><p>3. Revise</p><p>4. Test </p><p>5. Correct major issues (repeat 2,3,4,5 for each topic)</p><p>6. Exam </p><p>7. Grade students to normalised performance (repeat 2,3,4,5,6,7 for each semester)</p><p>The major issue with this approach was that the level of students on entry was not evaluated, grades were based on cohort performance, delivery was more important than learning and student anxiety for high stakes testing impacted on health and student performance.</p><p><br /></p><p>This process changed during outcomes based education to:</p><p>1. Diagnose level of students using existing grades and standardised testing</p><p>2. Set Programme based on evidence</p><p>3. Teach</p><p>4. Check level of understanding through formative assessment</p><p>5. Revise</p><p>6. Perform summative assessment using appropriate assessment technique </p><p>7. Correct major issues (repeat 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 for each topic) </p><p>8. Grade students to developmental continuum (repeat 2,3,4,5,6,7 for each semester)</p><p>The issue with this approach is that the requirement to follow the Syllabus is not clear and the overhead for meeting the needs of every student is higher. Schools can deviate significantly from the intended curriculum and grading can become difficult as what is being taught in each school is different, as is interpretation of the developmental continuum.</p><p><br /></p><p>This process changed during the A-E standardised grading period (Australian Curriculum) to:</p><p>1. Set Programme based on Syllabus.</p><div>2. Diagnose level of students using existing grades and standardised testing</div><p>3. Set level of delivery based on evidence gathered</p><p>4. Teach</p><p>5. Check level of understanding through formative assessment</p><p>6. Revise</p><p>7. Perform summative assessment using appropriate assessment technique </p><p>8. Correct major issues (repeat 2,3,4,5,6,7,8 for each topic) </p><p>9. Grade students using on grade related descriptors based on their predicted end of year performance (repeat 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 for each semester)</p><div>During this iteration, teaching to the test became prevalent as the need for retention reduced without exams. Over time, without retention, the level of learning decreased resulting in increasing levels of failing students by Year 10. The standard set for each year level was unable to be achieved for large numbers of students increasing levels of anxiety as they encountered increasing levels of failure.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961727131900697758.post-23260171702038190942021-06-29T08:10:00.006+08:002021-06-29T08:58:53.487+08:00Lockdown and education<p>With four days of an 11 day term remaining, teachers are crawling to the finishing line. Kids and staff are ratty and tired. Parents in the northern suburbs will be keeping students home for fear of getting the Delta strain and students will be looking forward to a break from the hum drum of school.</p><p>It would be nice if teachers were given the same status as other essential workers if we are required to work together in a Covid high risk area with little ones with limited hygeine skills. Given we support those that are essential services (that can't operate without us) makes us essential services too?</p><p>With 50% of students at school, whatever is being taught has to either be retaught, create gaps or be revision. It's not really very effective learning.</p><p>Mark McGowan is the people's premier. Given the current questioning of why schools are open, it would be expected that he closes them in the next day or two. It wasn't taken well that schools were kept open purely for essential services and not because children require an education or that education is valued by society!</p><p>The pressure on some teachers at the moment is considerable and should not be underestimated. Fear of covid has clear and observable effects on teaching staff, especially those that are also caring for elderly and are not vaccinated.</p><p>The vaccine rollout is currently slow due to fears of vaccine side effects (both Pfizer and Astra Zenica) and due to availability of vaccines. </p><p><br /></p><p>The next few days should be an interesting time again. Bring on the break to reset everything again.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961727131900697758.post-85865423064380162782021-06-12T07:58:00.008+08:002021-06-15T06:24:34.084+08:00Reporting, Pathways and Streaming<p>Students are commonly placed in Pathways in schools commonly known as streams. These streams set the level of teaching to ensure students are successful at the work that they attempt. One class may focus more on the higher conceptual ideas leading to higher grades and other may focus on lower ability work. All from the same year level syllabus, just at different difficulty levels. </p><p>Students that succeed at a high level in their Pathway are given the option of promotion to a higher class and those underperforming are placed into a class where they are more likely to find success.</p><p>Many considerations are made when examining Pathway changes:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Whether swaps are available to maintain classroom size (and would also benefit from change)</li><li>Maximum class size restrictions</li><li>Content being delivered (where courses are not aligned)</li><li>Gender balance</li><li>Pastoral care</li><li>Reporting periods</li><li>Student aspirations</li><li>Demand for seats (whether other students are seeking the place in the class desired)</li></ul><p></p><p>Reporting plays a large part in deciding who may be moved between Pathways. An evidence base is required before a student is moved. Once identified, success of the student in the new pathway is influenced by the preparation done by the recommending teacher prior to the move. This would normally involve:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Warning guardians and student that a move is imminent without improvement 6-8 weeks before the move.</li><li>Talking to the parent about the need for the move when the decision has been made</li><li>Discussing with the student what would be required to return to the class if desired</li><li>Examining the impact on aspiration and possible grades of the move</li><li>Identifying the difference in expected behaviour/work ethic required in new Pathway</li><li>Discussing that the first 4-5 weeks to be difficult during transition</li><li>The student discussing expectations with the new teacher</li><li>Indicating the required classroom behaviours and study habits</li><li>Introducing the student to the new teacher</li></ul><p></p><p>Where this has not been done, it can cause considerable additional difficulty, angst, anxiety and resistance to the Pathway move, instead of relief or welcoming of a new challenge.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961727131900697758.post-63376788785365988162021-05-01T08:23:00.019+08:002021-05-14T07:15:05.757+08:00Self Sabotaging or inhibiting your career in Education<p>Self sabotaging is something I've watched a lot in education, it can be devastating to a career. Self sabotaging is doing things that will inhibit your progression as a teacher or administrator. One of the self sabotaging criteria is underperformance and a lack of reflective practice. This is at the heart of doing things that are the opposite of what is desired as a teacher or administrator.</p><p>Signs that a teacher is underperforming:</p><p>- Hiding performance / resisting transparency measures</p><p>- Student performance is lower than standardised metrics or moderated results with other classes</p><p>- Attempting to deflect/criticise/identify/draw attention to other teachers that may also be underperforming</p><p>- A lack of self reflection / lack of evidence that underperformance is being addressed</p><p>- An inability/unwillingness to collaborate effectively with all members of the team</p><p>- Student/Parent complaints</p><p>- Requests for others to do their work or be paid extra for work that is part of their job description</p><p>- Unwillingness to contribute outside of 8.30 to 3.00 </p><p>- Requirements for admin to regularly intercede due to conflict </p><p>- Lack of modification of identified undesirable behaviours</p><p>- actively seek to avoid classroom teaching</p><p>- personalising criticism rather than seeking to address an issue</p><p>- Fear and discipline is the main motivator to encourage learning</p><p>If someone is seeking promotion to HOLA, Student Services or Administration they need to have support that they have the ability to perform in that role and evidence that they have recently performed in that role. Staff don't often realise that when a leader is requested for a recommendation they cannot over inflate the negative and need to identify what they can do as well as any weaknesses. All staff have weaknesses that can be addressed over time. That notwithstanding, underperforming staff seeking promotion are typically unable to show the qualities that would make them competitive for promotion and have some of the following qualities:</p><p>Signs of self sabotaging:</p><p>- Alienating those whose support is required for promotion</p><p>- Creating factions seeking to undermine initiatives to improve student performance </p><p>- Promoting the good old days without promoting the changes that have been successful </p><p>- Being inflexible / cantankerous / obstinant / passive aggressive / passive defiant / avoidant</p><p>- inflated opinion of ability</p><p>- Not seeking or taking opportunities to display skills and attributes</p><p>- low self esteem (depression) / highly inflated self esteem (narcissism) </p><p>- are not clear about their career aspirations</p><p>- have not sought assistance with their application / have attracted few mentors</p><p>- Seeking to get their own way by "bullying", aggressive or emotional language</p><p>These behaviours need to be discouraged as they are not good for the health of the organisation, or the person exhibiting these behaviours as they will often be unaware of why they are not getting the recognition or promotion they believe they deserve.</p><p>Bullying is an important one. In today's society no-one should promote someone known for bullying. This is an absolute headache for admin as a bully will create work for those working around them for the sake of "efficiency" benefits that rarely exist or put people down to raise their own self esteem causing anxiety, low morale and turnover of staff.</p><p>Good leadership requires making it clear what desirable and undesirable behaviours are and providing a clear organisational vision. Management is required for compliance issues, where leading staff willingly fails and/or where corrective instruction is required. Leadership tends to focus on macro decisions regarding the pathway of a faculty (relying on professionalism to interpret correctly the direction given), "micro" management should be minimised to what is absolutely necessary to get a person to fulfil their responsibilities.</p><p>Unmanageable staff need to either be limited in scope (typically because they are highly functional in a subset of roles needed by an organisation) and/or be informed that their behaviours are unacceptable, informed as to why, the possible consequences of these behaviours and given a period of time to rectify their behaviour. It should be clear that Management is not bullying, but management should be underpinned by an evidence base, clear communication or an instruction from higher in management.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961727131900697758.post-76078430214504049482021-04-24T10:13:00.003+08:002021-05-13T05:57:24.533+08:00Covid and Good Enough Teaching<p>I was talking with a colleague on Friday and conversation returned to online education. The premise was if online teaching was good enough and more cost effective than online delivery, would schools move to online delivery for students in courses where it was reasonably effective.</p><p>The hypothesis was that is is possible for a highly skilled teacher (top 10% of teachers skilled in delivering the course) to deliver highly effective content for a Methods course to a large number of students (>1000). If this was possible, it would have the potential to reduce costs significantly, as the IT infrastructure has already been significantly implemented (and tested during Covid) and face-to-face teachers would not be required. If each class is about 20 students, that's 50 teachers at $24000 per year, $1.2 million dollars. If a fifth of that was allocated to online tutors and markers, that's still a saving of about 1 million dollars. Where schools are struggling to run small courses and SCSA prevents mixed year classes - this could be a godsend. Schools wouldn't even run classrooms, just timetable time for students to be at home working. After the content was created it could be re-run year after year. This is already happening in University mathematics courses.</p><p>My colleague took this further and said that the online course would deliver better instructional content than current classrooms in face-to-face mode. Information could be standardised more easily to the intent of syllabus writers, typically teachers delivering courses face-to-face are not in the highly skilled category, teachers have competing demands in different courses and may have issues impacting on performance from outside the classroom.</p><p>Theoretically we could run schools in an online/offline more, where students come to school for socialisation, tutoring and assessment and stay at home for the rest of the time learning online. Content would be superior and the teaching environment could be better utilised in a cheaper "good enough" solution - the ultimate aim of any bean counter. Schools could support a greater number of students and become much more efficient delivering content.</p><p>Could a compromise be that all ATAR courses be delivered online/offline and students only attend schools 2.5 days per week?</p><p>The obvious counter to all of this is that not all high school students are motivated enough to work online for a long period, schools do more than deliver content, context and socio-economic factors impact implementation and research is required to analyse how students impacted by covid perform at University and other higher learning online. </p><p>Education has not evolved for 100 years and is predominantly still delivered in the same mode despite significant changes in technology. Education appears to be on the precipice of a technology disruption. Will we too be the victims of automation, or will we navigate it somehow to continue to be an integral part of society?</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961727131900697758.post-60951830047053163622021-04-04T11:26:00.002+08:002021-04-14T17:05:10.006+08:00The bucket<p>Alan Hughes (Level 9 HOLA) introduced me to the idea of the bucket. The bucket represents the resilience of a student. Each time a student offers an answer and gets a negative response (laughing, teasing, being wrong) they lose a little of themselves out of the bucket. If they get a positive response, the bucket starts to fill again.</p><p>As the bucket gets more and more depleted, they get more unwilling to put themselves out there. When it is near the bottom, they will protect what is left by refusing to answer, refusing to try, being defiant and protective of what little self esteem they have left in the bucket. Adolescence is a difficult time, between hormones, increasing academic ability, fragile confidence, peer issues, seeking independence and protective parents, a lot is drawing out of the bucket.</p><p>It is important to ensure that students never reach the point of protecting themselves. The bucket should be overflowing with enthusiasm with opportunities to build self confidence - not everyone outside of the classroom will understand that this is important or why you are working with this student. It starts with a welcome, hello and something positive that they can contribute. </p><p>When a child has little in the bucket it is important to provide opportunities to refill it before it reaches the point of self protection.</p><p>When a child is at the point of self protection, a caring person will let them know it is ok and help them refill the bucket - preferably assisting with diminishing demands on the bucket from outside the classroom.</p><p>Since it was first introduced to me, I have appreciated the bucket analogy and it assists in understanding why Alan is such a great person and teacher. He lives the analogy and has assisted many students refill the bucket.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2961727131900697758.post-34765625852325062512021-03-28T17:47:00.015+08:002021-06-16T05:54:30.779+08:00Performance Anxiety and measures of success<p>Anxiety is a two edged sword. Can't perform without it, can't perform with too much of it.</p><p>Understanding how success impacts anxiety is an important part of the performance anxiety picture. Where we set the bar for students is important as it provides them with what sort of performance constitutes success.</p><p>One measure of success is achievement - this is where a student is able to do something expected at a prescribed point in time. A student that can write their name consistently is an achievement in pre-primary, but an area of concern if they were still trying to do this in Year 4.</p><p>Another measure of success is progress - this is where a student is able to do something later that they could not do at a previous point in time. A student that could not tell the time in Year 6, but can do so in Year 7 is an indicator of progress.</p><p>A third measure of success is a normalised ranking. With normalised ranking, a student is doing better compared to their peers longitudinally over a period of time. A student was 5th in the class for spelling in test 1, was 1st in test 2 and consistently in the top 10 for the year. Achievement is measured for each test, progress is monitored as they move up and down the class ranking.</p><p>Traditionally schools have used normalised ranking to give students feedback as to how they are progressing towards year level achievement standards. This allows students to feel successful as they measure themselves against peers and do better or worse dependent on effort (something that they can control). Whether a child is meeting the Year level achievement standard is irrelevant as long as they are making progress with their peers. </p><p>Movement to a national achievement standard changed this to having an achievement focus, and as consequence a large group of students now encounter constant failure with D/E grades. In extreme circumstances, students would also face failing "assessment after assessment" being measured against grading standards that they had no ability to reach, to support the awarding of D/E grades.</p><p>This focus on achievement rather than progress increased performance anxiety and is currently at epidemic levels in schools. Success lowers performance anxiety and anxiousness caused by the fear of failure. If students only face constant failure then anxiety will rise to unbearable levels preventing progress. An outlet is needed for anxiety to be released. This is where we are today and it will take academics to prove this true with the benefit of hindsight. </p><p>Should we set student success to be:</p><p>- achievement of excellence (eg. through a focus on Year level Achievement Standards);<br />- progress (eg. improvement in skills over time); or<br />- ranking (eg. position in a class of similar students).</p><p>Should we frame this within an understanding of:</p><p>- Constantly seeking excellence (with an understanding that the bar moves with the definition of developmental "excellence");<br />- Always doing your best (with an understanding that continuous effort is required); or<br />- Putting in the effort where required (with an understanding that you can only do what you can do and develop reserves where possible).</p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0