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CHURCHILL | GODINHO | JOHNSON | KEDDIE | LETTS LOWE | MACKAY | MCGILL | MOSS | NAGEL | SHAW WITH JESSA ROGERS
TEACHING MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.
FOURTH EDITION
Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.
Teaching Making a difference FOURTH EDITION
Rick Churchill Sally Godinho Nicola F Johnson Amanda Keddie Will Letts Kaye Lowe Jenny Mackay ` McGill Michele Julianne Moss Michael C Nagel Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.
Kylie Shaw with Jessa Rogers
Fourth edition published 2019 by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd 42 McDougall St, Milton Qld 4064 Typeset in 10/12pt Times LT Std © John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd 2011, 2013, 2016, 2019 The moral rights of the authors have been asserted. A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia. Reproduction and communication for educational purposes The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of 10% of the pages of this work or — where this work is divided into chapters — one chapter, whichever is the greater, to be reproduced and/or communicated by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or the body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL). Reproduction and communication for other purposes Except as permitted under the Act (for example, a fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review), no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All inquiries should be made to the publisher. The authors and publisher would like to thank the copyright holders, organisations and individuals for the permission to reproduce copyright material in this book. Every effort has been made to trace the ownership of copyright material. Information that will enable the publisher to rectify any error or omission in subsequent editions will be welcome. In such cases, please contact the Permissions Section of John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd. Cover images (top, then bottom left to right): © antart / Shutterstock.com; © Olesia Bilkei / Shutterstock.com; © wavebreakmedia / Shutterstock.com; © Africa Studio / Shutterstock.com; © wavebreakmedia / Shutterstock.com; © Denis Kuvaev / Shutterstock.com. Typeset in India by Aptara Printed in Singapore by C.O.S. Printers Pte Ltd
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS Dedication xi About the authors
CHAPTER 2
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Historical insights into teaching 40
PART 1
The teaching profession
1
CHAPTER 1
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Introducing teaching as a profession 2 Introduction 4 1.1 Teaching in the twenty-first century 5 The ‘apprenticeship of observation’ 6 Teaching as a profession, teachers as professionals 6 The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers 8 Continuity and change 9 Teaching matters: a new era for teaching and learning 12 1.2 Developing your teacher identity 16 Storying teaching 16 Theorising teaching and identity 17 Enacting beliefs and values 18 Transforming personal identity 18 1.3 Pedagogy 20 Pedagogical knowledge 20 Pedagogical renewal in Australia 22 The Australian Curriculum 26 1.4 Reflective practice 28 1.5 Doing teachers’ work to trouble whiteness 29 Entering the profession 29 Assessment of pre-service and graduating teachers 30 Contributing to the professional knowledge base 31 Summary 34 Key terms 34 From theory to practice 35 Websites 35 References 36 Acknowledgements 39
Introduction 42 2.1 A critical perspective and transformative teaching 43 The value of a critical perspective 44 2.2 Social, political, economic and cultural factors shaping education 45 Stakeholders and educational interests and needs 47 Governance 49 Shaping the profession 51 2.3 Discourses of education 53 Discourses of the child 54 Theory and practice in educational discourse 56 2.4 Pedagogy, curriculum, classroom management and technologies 57 Pedagogy 57 Curriculum 59 Classroom management 62 Technologies of schooling 64 2.5 Teachers’ work, teachers’ lives, teachers’ identities 69 The challenges of professional decision making 70 Professional standards, teaching and ‘us’ 71 Summary 73 Key terms 73 From theory to practice 74 Websites 75 References 75 Acknowledgements 78 PART 2
Understanding learning and learners 79 CHAPTER 3
Student learning 80 Introduction 81 3.1 Domains of learning 82 What is ‘learning’? 83 Theoretical perspectives of learning
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3.2 New insights into learning 92 How the brain learns — contemporary scientific insights 93 Retaining what is learned 99 3.3 Enhancing learning 103 Multiple intelligences 104 Emotional and social intelligences 106 Summary 111 Key terms 112 From theory to practice 113 Websites 114 References 114 Acknowledgements 117 CHAPTER 4
Understanding and motivating students 118 Introduction 120 4.1 Understanding students 120 The twenty-first century learner 121 Talkin’ about a new generation? 124 4.2 Motivating students 127 Theories of motivation 127 Emotions and motivation 129 The problem with rewards 132 4.3 Motivation to learn 134 The impact of stress, anxiety and learned helplessness 134 Limiting stress and enhancing success 135 4.4 Engaging motivation and learning in the twenty-first century 139 Fostering motivation 139 Summary 143 Key terms 144 From theory to practice 144 Websites 145 References 145 Acknowledgements 148
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CHAPTER 5
Learner diversity, pedagogy and educational equity 149 Introduction 151 5.1 Understanding diversity and difference 152 Naming equity groups in Australian policy 154 Explaining student diversity 157 5.2 Professional knowledge and educational equity 158
Special education: three decades of critique 159 Discourse in everyday practice 161 Who is responsible for equity? 163 High-quality, high-equity curriculum and pedagogy 163 5.3 Teaching all students 166 Supporting learner diversity 167 5.4 Planning multilevel curriculum and inquiry 170 Negotiated and inquiry learning in Australia 170 Essential questions 170 Inquiry learning and activist teaching 171 5.5 How equity works in practice 173 Investigating practice and taking action 174 Developing a supportive and productive learning environment 177 Pedagogies to look for 177 Using supports in the classroom to ensure curricular justice 181 5.6 Understanding the needs of Indigenous students 182 Summary 186 Key terms 186 From theory to practice 187 Websites 187 References 188 Acknowledgements 190 PART 3
Preparation, practice and process 191 CHAPTER 6
The curriculum 192 Introduction 193 6.1 Exploring the notion of curriculum 194 Differentiating curriculum from syllabus documents 195 A pedagogical view of curriculum 196 Curriculum as lived experience 197 Pondering the Australian Curriculum 198 6.2 Curriculum as cultural construction 201 Whose knowledge is of most worth? 201 Who sees themselves within the curriculum? 201 6.3 Models of curriculum 203 Integrated curriculum 203 Inquiry-based curriculum 205 Arts-based curriculum 205
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Emergent curriculum 206 Outcomes-focused curriculum 207 6.4 The hidden curriculum 208 Hidden curriculum as implicit and unintended 208 6.5 Teachers as curriculum workers 209 Teachers as critical consumers and creators of curriculum 210 6.6 Curriculum as praxis 211 Curriculum exceeds the textbook 211 Curriculum as a shared understanding 212 Summary 214 Key terms 214 From theory to practice 214 Websites 215 References 215 Acknowledgements 217 CHAPTER 7
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Planning for practice: connecting pedagogy, assessment and curriculum 218 Introduction 220 7.1 Curriculum, pedagogy, assessment 221 Curriculum 221 Pedagogy 222 Assessment and reporting 222 7.2 Layers of curriculum planning: macro to micro 224 The Australian Curriculum and state curriculums 225 International Baccalaureate and school programs 227 7.3 Some guiding principles for planning 229 Planning begins with knowing your students 230 Planning requires attention to intellectual engagement 230 Planning entails a critically reflective stance 230 Planning must retain a degree of flexibility 231 Planning should include entry points for student input and negotiation 232 7.4 Planning at the micro-level: individual lesson plans 233 Strategic planning for lessons 233 7.5 Planning a unit of work: a sequence of lessons 238 What might a unit planner look like? 239 Learning experiences 243
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CONTENTS
7.6 Inquiry-based pedagogy 245 Inquiry as a systematic, sequenced study 246 7.7 Planning to differentiate the learning for student diversity 247 Individual learning plans and contracts 249 Summary 252 Key terms 252 From theory to practice 254 Websites 255 References 256 Acknowledgements 259 CHAPTER 8
Pedagogy: the agency that connects teaching with learning 260 Introduction 261 8.1 Connectedness: knowing yourself 262 The discipline of noticing 263 Storying your practice 264 Cycles of personal development 265 8.2 Pedagogies of practice 266 Pedagogical frameworks 267 Critical pedagogy 268 Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) 268 Technological pedagogies 270 Instructional pedagogy: explicit teaching 271 What distinguishes the practice of expert teachers? 273 Rethinking a definition of pedagogy 274 8.3 Pedagogy: learning places and spaces 275 Place-based pedagogy 275 The physical environment 276 Reggio Emilia schools 278 8.4 Collaborative pedagogy: establishing the classroom culture 279 Classroom discourses 280 Building relationships 281 Working as a group 281 Cooperative learning 282 Teacher-facilitated group work 284 8.5 Dialogic pedagogy 285 Learning to question: questioning to learn 286 Framing questions 286 Student questions 287 Substantial conversations 288 8.6 Dispositional thinking pedagogy 291 Critical, creative and reflective thinking 291
Summary 295 Key terms 295 From theory to practice 296 Websites 297 References 297 Acknowledgements 301
10.2 Approaches to ICTs in schools 338 Attitudes to ICTs 338 Funding 340 Behind the times 341 10.3 Planning for teaching with ICTs 342 Persistence and attitude to ICTs 343 Access 343 Skills 345 Functionality 345 Confidence 346 Concerns and restrictions 346 Letting go 347 10.4 The Digital Technology Impact Framework 348 Transforming the curriculum 350 10.5 Curriculum transformation 352 Examples in practice 352 Summary 359 Key terms 359 From theory to practice 360 Websites 360 References 360 Acknowledgements 362
CHAPTER 9
Organising the learning environment 302 Introduction 304 9.1 Creating effective classroom learning environments 304 A focus on professional knowledge 305 Proactive planning 305 Applying your professional knowledge in context 306 9.2 A model for organising the learning environment 307 Examining the model 308 Learning-friendly classrooms 309 9.3 Sociocultural principles 309 Safe and supportive school environments Implementation 310 Planning for teaching in an ILFE 319 9.4 Challenge and engagement 321 Facilitating learning 321 Challenging and engaging? 323 Classroom practice 324 9.5 Tools and issues 324 Putting it all together 324 Summary 328 Key terms 328 From theory to practice 329 Websites 329 References 329 Acknowledgements 332
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CHAPTER 10
Teaching with information and communication technologies 333 Introduction 334 10.1 The nature of technology and ICTs 335 Educational technologies 335 Technological pedagogical content knowledge 336
CHAPTER 11
Interactive student engagement and management 363 Introduction 365 11.1 Establishing an effective learning environment 367 Basic behaviour responsibilities 368 Proactive management 369 Behaviour guidelines 371 11.2 Planning for student engagement and management 375 Understanding student behaviour 377 Working from a positive mindset 380 Planning for behaviour 382 11.3 Strategies and skills to effectively engage and manage students 385 Managing behaviour 386 Six-step strategy for taking control 387 Applying interactive skills and strategies 391 11.4 Reflecting on your management 401 Reflecting on a teacher’s role 401 Reflecting on student management 402 When it’s working 402 When it’s not working 404
CONTENTS
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Behaviour management plan 409 Summary 412 Key terms 412 From theory to practice 412 Websites 415 References 415 Acknowledgements 416 CHAPTER 12
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Assessment and what matters: feedback, reporting and fairness 417 Introduction 419 12.1 Assessment in learning and assessment audiences 422 Equity and culture-fair assessment 424 Evidence-based learning 425 Assessment for learning 428 Theoretical frameworks for conceptualising student achievement 429 The link between assessment, curriculum, teaching and learning 430 Assessment can be problematic 431 12.2 Assessment concepts and terminology 432 Informal and formal assessments 432 Diagnostic assessments 434 Summative and formative assessments 435 Assessment for, of and as learning 437 Norm-referenced and criterion-referenced assessment frameworks 439 Outcomes, standards, benchmarks and performance measures 440 12.3 Assessment design, strategies and techniques 441 The assessment process: quality issues 442 Selecting and implementing assessment strategies and techniques 444 Authentic assessment 447 Rubrics 449 Portfolios 450 Self-assessment and peer assessment 452 Assessment and digital environments 453 12.4 Assessment feedback 454 Why feedback is important 455 Feedback techniques 456 12.5 Monitoring and recordkeeping 457 Forms of records 457
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CONTENTS
12.6 Reporting on student learning 459 Expectations on schools 459 Expectations on teachers 459 Sample report — primary 461 Sample report — secondary 463 12.7 Assessment and reporting: future challenges and dilemmas 464 The system and the individual 464 Empowering the student 465 Focus of learning and operational changes 467 Summary 469 Key terms 469 From theory to practice 470 Websites 471 References 471 Acknowledgements 475 PART 4
Effectiveness, professionalism and the future 476 CHAPTER 13
Reflective practice
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Introduction 478 13.1 Reflecting on reflection: beyond the gaze 479 13.2 Thinking differently about thinking 480 Reframing thinking 480 Reflection on action 481 Reflection in action 481 Reflective practice in teacher education 481 13.3 Mobilising reflection 483 Making reflection manageable 483 13.4 Autobiographical reflection 485 Autobiographical writing 486 Why use multiple data sources to reflect upon? 487 13.5 Critically reflective practice 488 Understanding ‘critical’ 488 Critically reflective teaching 488 13.6 Technologies of reflection 490 Notes/written reflections 490 Reflective journal 490 Portfolio or e-portfolio 490 Blogs and wikis 491 Audio and video recordings 491 Observation by a critical friend 491 Pedagogical documentation 492
Practitioner research 492 Professional learning communities 493 13.7 Reflexivity and teaching: beyond the self 494 Reflexivity fosters insights 494 Reflexivity in action 495 13.8 Teachers as critically reflective practitioners 496 Why does this matter? 496 Teachers as leaders 497 Summary 499 Key terms 499 From theory to practice 499 Websites 500 References 500 Acknowledgements 502 CHAPTER 14
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Theorising about teaching practice 503 Introduction 504 14.1 Tacit knowledge 506 14.2 A teacher’s practical theory 509 How do I build it? 510 14.3 Components of a teacher’s practical theory 512 Beliefs 512 Values 513 Principles 514 Rules 514 Aims and goals 515 Strategies and tactics 516 Student cues 516 Teacher attributes 516 14.4 Images and metaphors 516 14.5 Contextual variables 517 14.6 Novice to expert 518 The novice 518 Advanced beginner 519 Competence 519 Proficient and expert 519 Effective teachers continue to grow in expertise 520 14.7 Process of critical reflection 522 What is critical reflection? 522 Becoming a critically reflective practitioner 526 Unpacking and applying the critically reflective model to our practice 528
14.8 Investigating your own practical theories 531 Journal keeping 531 Personal narratives 532 Critical incidents 536 Summary 539 Key terms 539 From theory to practice 540 Websites 542 References 542 Acknowledgements 544 CHAPTER 15
Professional, ethical and legal issues for teachers 545 Introduction 547 15.1 The nature of teachers’ work 548 Conceptions of teachers’ work 548 What constitutes good teaching? 550 15.2 Teachers’ thinking about their work 551 Teachers’ thinking through the career life cycle 551 Other perspectives on teachers’ thinking 552 Teacher culture 552 15.3 Professionalism and accreditation 554 The development of professional standards in Australia 555 The implications of professional standards for teachers 556 15.4 Ethical frameworks and codes of conduct for teachers 558 The Melbourne Declaration 559 15.5 Teachers and the law 563 Teachers, accountability and the law 563 Schools, accountability and the law 564 Issues in duty of care in practice 566 Implications — sufficient and reasonable 568 Issues in duty of care revisited 569 15.6 Professional learning for your career 571 Ongoing professional development 571 Professional associations 573 Summary 577 Key terms 577 From theory to practice 578 Websites 578 References 579 Legal authorities 580 Acknowledgements 580
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CHAPTER 16
The future of teaching: schooling, equity and social change 581
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Introduction 583 16.1 The purposes of schooling 583 Schools in crisis? 584 Can schools be neutral or apolitical? 585 16.2 Equity: a mandate of schooling 586 A brief history of the purposes of mass schooling 586 16.3 Contemporary teacher practice: realities and constraints 588 A snapshot of contemporary teacher practice 589 Attempting to address inequity through education 590
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CONTENTS
16.4 The broader social change context 592 Political–economic trends impacting on schools 592 16.5 Teachers making a difference 594 Teacher practice: critical and socially just pedagogy 595 16.6 Supporting equity and justice: a whole-school approach 600 Relationships at the core of teachers’ work 602 Summary 604 Key terms 604 From theory to practice 605 Websites 606 References 606 Acknowledgements 607 Index
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DEDICATION
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This book is dedicated to Peter Ferguson (1951–2017), one of our founding authors on Teaching: Making a difference. For decades before his career as an academic, he was a much-loved teacher in Tasmania. He will be remembered for his great contribution to science education and as an author who inspired thousands of learners across Australia.
DEDICATION
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS Rick Churchill After two decades of teaching and curriculum leadership in South Australia, Rick Churchill was appointed as a teacher educator in the Faculty of Education at the University of Tasmania, where he completed his Doctor of Philosophy in 1998. He has since worked in pre-service and postgraduate teacher education at three universities in Tasmania, Queensland and Victoria. Included among his roles in teacher education have been coordinator of professional experience at both the University of Tasmania and the University of Southern Queensland, coordinator of graduate entry programs at USQ and La Trobe University, coordinator of pre-service programs and Associate Dean (Academic) at USQ, and Associate Professor in Teacher Education and Associate Dean (Academic) at La Trobe University. He taught a variety of pre-service teacher education programs, particularly in the areas of classroom management, beginning teacher professionalism and transition into the profession. Rick retired from his position at La Trobe University and relocated to the East coast of Tasmania in 2014, but maintains an active involvement in doctoral supervision and in consultancy and volunteer activities.
Sally Godinho Sally Godinho is an Honorary Fellow at Melbourne University’s Graduate School of Education. She has over 30 years’ experience in education, having taught in primary schools and lectured undergraduate and postgraduate students in curriculum and pedagogy. Sally completed her Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Education degrees at the University of Melbourne. Her research and publications have focused on teachers’ pedagogies, students’ classroom interactions, integrative approaches to curriculum design, and two-way learning environments.
Nicola F Johnson Nicola F Johnson is an Associate Professor in the School of Education in the Faculty of Education and Arts at Federation University Australia. Nicola obtained her Doctor of Philosophy from Deakin University, and her undergraduate qualifications were earned at Bethlehem Tertiary Institute in New Zealand. Nicola’s research concerns internet over-use, the social phenomena of internet usage, technological expertise, and the use of information and communication technologies to enhance teaching and learning. Nicola is the author of The multiplicities of internet addiction: The misrecognition of leisure and learning (Ashgate, 2009) and Publishing from your PhD: Negotiating a crowded jungle (Gower, 2011), and co-editor of Critical perspectives on technology and education (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015). Her latest co-authored book is entitled Everyday schooling in the digital age: High school, high tech? (Routledge, 2018).
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Amanda Keddie Amanda Keddie is a Professor of Education within REDI (Research for Educational Impact) at Deakin University. She obtained her Doctor of Philosophy from Deakin University. She was awarded a Bachelor of Education at the University of Tasmania and has worked as a primary school teacher. In her career, Amanda has predominantly held research positions — previous to her current position she held an ARC Future Fellowship at the University of Queensland, a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Queensland, a Leverhulme Fellowship at Roehampton University (London) and a Research Fellowship at Griffith University. She is a leading researcher in the fields of gender, cultural diversity and social justice, and has published extensively in these areas. She is the author of Educating for diversity and social justice (2012), Leadership, ethics and schooling for social justice (2015 with Richard Niesche) and Supporting and educating young Muslim women (2017).
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Will Letts Will Letts is Associate Dean Academic in the Faculty of Arts and Education at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst, NSW. Will earned his Doctor of Philosophy in Curriculum and Instruction (Science Education) from the University of Delaware and his BA in Biology from Bates College in Maine, USA. His research interests include the cultural studies of science and science education, especially with respect to sex, gender, and sexuality; interrogating subjectivities in ECE/teacher education; and the enactment of pedagogical documentation in tertiary settings. You can reach Will at [email protected].
Kaye Lowe Kaye Lowe is Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Canberra and Director of Read4Success. Since completing a PhD at Indiana University, she has been an academic at the University of Kentucky (US), James Madison University (US), University of Western Sydney and Charles Darwin University. She was the Chief Investigator and Evaluator of Reading First in Kentucky. She has worked in many learning contexts including P–12, parent education, adult education, jails and juvenile justice. She works with education systems to bring about change in literacy instruction. She is author and creator of i-READ: Literacy Intervention for Middle and Secondary Schools and regularly conducts parent education courses throughout Australia. Her research interests include literacy and language learning, supporting Indigenous learners, parent education, technology and literacy learning, boys’ education, adult literacy education and inspiring reluctant writers. She has written four books and numerous articles on literacy learning, reading and writing. She has been the recipient of many grants, three of which were projects of national significance.
Jenny Mackay Jenny Mackay is an author and internationally recognised specialist in behaviour management and student–teacher interactions. Following extensive research analysis into classroom dynamics she has originated a methodology that conveys comprehensive, practical student management skills and guides teachers in their classroom practice. She travels widely, delivering seminars for her educational consultancy, and is based in Melbourne where, until recently, she taught in the Department of Education at Deakin University.
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` McGill Michele Mich`ele McGill has been engaged with pre-service and postgraduate teacher education for over three decades in Tasmania and Queensland as well as in Alberta, Canada. Her primary focus has been working with beginning teachers (undergraduate and postgraduate) and with experienced teachers to uncover their personal pedagogies. As the world of the real and the virtual are rapidly merging and learners and their contexts are rapidly changing, the ways in which teachers understand and express their personal pedagogies are becoming critical. Her research interests are in working with teachers and the processes through which teachers determine their personal narratives and case studies to uncover their personal pedagogies and how they influence and guide their teaching practice. Mich`ele is the co-author with Associate Peter McIlveen of Unpacking the case: Designing for learning, 3rd edition (Pearson, 2015). Mich`ele has now retired from the University of Queensland with the role of Honorary Lecturer and is continuing her research into teachers’ personal pedagogy through publishing, conference presentations and working with a research group to focus on assisting teachers to uncover and acknowledge their own personal pedagogies.
Julianne Moss Julianne Moss is Professor in Education, holds a personal chair in Pedagogy and Curriculum at Deakin University and is an Honorary Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne. Currently she is Director of REDI (Research for Educational Impact), Deakin University’s strategic research centre in education. She is a past President of the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) and was Course Director of Deakin’s Master of Teaching from 2013–2015. Julianne obtained her Doctor of Philosophy ABOUT THE AUTHORS
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from Deakin University and her postgraduate and undergraduate qualifications were earned at the University of Tasmania. She began her career as a teacher of visual arts in secondary schools in the Northern Territory. Following this she taught in secondary and primary schools in Tasmania and held leadership positions as a regional support officer in literacy and later as a principal in the Tasmanian government school system. Her research interests centre on curriculum reform, curriculum theory, teacher professional learning (particularly in the context of issues of understanding student diversity), educational exclusion and social inclusion. She has contributed over 100 academic and professional publications. Over the past ten years, Julianne has been researching and developing visual methods for researching education. Her recent book, edited with Barbara Pini, Visual research methods in education (2016, Palgrave Macmillan), explores these issues in depth.
Michael C Nagel Dr Michael C Nagel is an Associate Professor within the School of Education at the University of the Sunshine Coast where he researches and teaches in the areas of human development and learning. A prolific author, he has written many journal articles and thirteen books related to child development with a particular interest in the developing paediatric brain, behaviour and learning. Along with being a contributor to a number of textbooks used in undergraduate and postgraduate education courses throughout Australia, Dr Nagel has also been nominated as ‘Australian Lecturer of the Year’ each year since 2010. Dr Nagel is a member of the prestigious International Neuropsychological Society, the Queensland Director of the Australian Council on Children and the Media, and is a feature writer for the Jigsaw and Child series of magazines, which collectively offers parenting and educational advice to more than one million Australian readers. When he is not busy professionally, he spends his time learning the important lessons of adolescence and life from his own children, Madeline and Harrison.
Kylie Shaw Kylie Shaw is the Deputy Head of Research in the School of Education at the University of Newcastle where she lectures in a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Kylie obtained her Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Newcastle in the area of student experience in higher education. She has been a teacher for twenty years and has taught in primary and middle school contexts. She has been the Academic Coordinator of Middle Years and Coordinator of Learning Support K–12 in the independent school system. Her research interests include innovative approaches to teaching and learning and her expertise has been sought in this area through consultancies with Microsoft and Pearson International. She is currently Chief Investigator on an Australian Research Centre (ARC) Discovery Project examining the learning profiles and wellbeing of doctoral learners and on a NSW Department of Education research project exploring the impact of physical activity interventions on literacy learning in primary schools.
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Jessa Rogers Dr Jessa Rogers is Project Director — Indigenous Education and Research Strategy in the Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic Innovation) (PVCAI) at the University of New England (UNE). The PVCAI portfolio is responsible for teaching and learning quality and academic innovation. Jessa’s role in this portfolio is to oversee the reform of the university’s curriculum in order to embed Indigenous perspectives across the university’s course offerings, enrich current Indigenous research practices, and increase support of Indigenous researchers and higher degree research (HDR) students at UNE. Prior to joining UNE, Dr Rogers was a Fellow at Harvard University in the Department of Anthropology. She is on the Federal Expert Group for the English Language Learning for Indigenous Children (ELLIC) program and recently completed her 3-year term on the National NAIDOC Committee. Jessa’s PhD at the Australian National University looked at the use of Indigenous research methods and methodologies with young Indigenous women to understand their experiences of education away from home. Jessa xiv ABOUT THE AUTHORS
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previously opened Australia’s first boarding school for Aboriginal young mothers and babies and was the youngest Aboriginal principal in Australia. Jessa is a Wiradjuri woman with cultural connections to Cootamundra and surrounding areas of NSW, and wh¯anau connections (through marriage) to Ng¯ati ¯ Kauwhata, Ng¯ati Raukawa in Aotearoa New Zealand. Her current research looks at Kanaka ‘Oiwi youth experiences attending Indigenous boarding schools in Hawai‘i using Indigenous visual research methods. Dr Rogers was brought onto this edition of Teaching: Making a difference to include a greater inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
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BRIEF CONTENTS Dedication xi About the authors
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PART 1: The teaching profession
1. Introducing teaching as a profession 2. Historical insights into teaching
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2
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PART 2: Understanding learning and learners
3. Student learning
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4. Understanding and motivating students
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5. Learner diversity, pedagogy and educational equity 149 PART 3: Preparation, practice and process
6. The curriculum
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7. Planning for practice: connecting pedagogy, assessment and curriculum 218 8. Pedagogy: the agency that connects teaching with learning 260 9. Organising the learning environment 302 10. Teaching with information and communication technologies 333 11. Interactive student engagement and management 363 12. Assessment and what matters: feedback, reporting and fairness 417 PART 4: Effectiveness, professionalism and the future
13. Reflective practice
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477
14. Theorising about teaching practice
503
15. Professional, ethical and legal issues for teachers 545 16. The future of teaching: schooling, equity and social change 581
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Index
608
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PART 1
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THE TEACHING PROFESSION 1
Introducing teaching as a profession 2
2
Historical insights into teaching 40
CHAPTER 1
Introducing teaching as a profession LEARNING OBJECTIVES
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After studying this chapter, you should be able to: 1.1 describe teaching as a twenty-first century profession 1.2 begin to understand and analyse your own professional identity 1.3 discuss key aspects of pedagogical knowledge 1.4 describe reflective practice and its importance in ongoing professional development 1.5 recognise that personal and professional beliefs impact on pedagogical decision-making and teacher agency.
OPENING CASE
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Why teaching? Tory has just landed his first full-time ongoing teaching job. The position is in a middle school in rural Australia, in a town of less than 10 000 people. He accepted the job after applying unsuccessfully for more than 40 positions in the metropolitan area close to where he completed his teacher education. With a double degree and qualifications to teach in early childhood settings and primary schools, he has won a position in a P–12 school with an enrolment of just over 300 students. The school ICSEA (Index of Community SocioEducational Advantage) is 950. Tory has had one placement in a school where he taught a multiaged class of Year 5 and 6 students. While his new position will involve teaching Year 7 and 8 students, he is feeling confident, as during his course he chose electives in integrated curriculum and science education. This school was in an area where students had a positive view of themselves and their learning. Tory had gleaned from the interview that this may not be the case in his new school. School attendance and retention were key issues that the school had identified in the school plan as key priorities over the next three years. Nonetheless, Tory is thrilled to have finally secured a full-time position with a regular salary and school holidays, providing time to fulfil his long-held travel plans. He has completed endless days of casual teaching and two short-term contracts of six months each, and received lots of encouragement from teachers and principals. In his last contract position, he had hoped to secure at least a one-year contract, but there was a long list of teachers who had to be reassigned in the region, and associate teachers on government-funded initiatives who were ahead of him each time a vacancy arose. He greatly appreciated the encouraging feedback he’d received from his colleagues, but it was challenging to explain to his family and friends why he was not able to secure an ongoing teaching position. Tory, like many people who join the teaching profession, was the first in his family to attain a degree. After all the long hours he’d spent studying while holding down a full-time position in a hardware chain, having to move away from his family and friends to take up this full-time position was not necessarily seen as a win by those close to him. Like many people who go on to become successful teachers, Tory’s choice of career was inspired by some of his own brilliant teachers. He particularly recalls his Year 3/4 teacher, Ms Rossi. Ms Rossi, he had imagined as a nine year old, was ‘pretty old’. Later, when he returned to his old primary school for a five-week professional experience, he realised that Ms Rossi had been in her early thirties when she taught him. The sorts of things he recalls her doing, and that he observed her still doing in her classroom, was the curriculum planning that included student access to a range of before-school activities. Outside the classroom were boxes of class sporting equipment, an early morning computer roster, a table in the hallway for revising and catching up on tasks, a bowl of fresh fruit that had been donated by FoodSavers, and a compost bucket for the leftovers. There was also a list of classroom monitors for general clean-up and kitchen garden duties. While he knew that he would be teaching older students, he also knew that central to the foundation for education is the need for all students to develop a sense of belonging to their school community, and strong relationships with their teacher. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ QUESTIONS 1. What influenced you to be a teacher? 2. Think about how you remember your school teachers. How would you like your students to think of you? 3. How are expert and beginning teachers similar and different? 4. Consider how culture and family impact on education. 5. What career progression and leadership options are available for teachers today?
CHAPTER 1 Introducing teaching as a profession
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Introduction The commitment to teaching that beginning teachers like Tory bring to their studies and their careers affirms that teachers today — as those who have gone before them — have a love of learning and a genuinely felt passion for teaching. An enthusiasm for learning and a deep commitment to humanity and making a difference in the lives of the next generation are among the qualities of people drawn to a career in teaching. The authors of this text welcome you to the profession and what is ahead. As you browse through this text, some chapters or headings may immediately jump out at you based on your current understanding of what it means to learn to teach. Initially you may think that all you need to know is something about student learning, planning and managing classroom behaviour. However, from the moment you first enter a school as a teacher and take a look at twenty-first century education from the other side of the desk, so to speak, the complexity and extent of the range of knowledge required to be a highly skilled teacher will become apparent. This chapter (outlined in the diagram below) will introduce you to teaching as a profession and, we hope, provide you with a starting point from which to explore the many themes presented in this text. This text is designed to support you and help you develop throughout your initial teacher education and your early teaching years. You will also be exploring the big questions about the purposes of education and your professional identity, values and beliefs and how you can shape your career as a leader in education. When you arrive at your first class at a school, take a few minutes to consider why so many people retain powerful memories of their teachers. Years later, a particular teacher may still be recalled with respect and admiration. For some students, a teacher is remembered as someone who helped them completely turn their lives around. In the words of an experienced teacher and teacher educator, ‘Whatever the situation, the influence teachers have on their students is long lasting and can be profound. Good teaching makes a difference in the lives of children and young people’ (Pugach 2009, p. 1). Through school and classroom experiences, students discover possibilities for their futures, gain the knowledge and skills to pursue their hopes and dreams, and develop beliefs, attitudes and behaviours towards society. Consider the experiences of a pre-service teacher, recounted next. The narrative describes the initial experiences of a pre-service teacher and is a snapshot of how an accomplished and outstanding teacher works in today’s classrooms, which are rich in student diversity. Introducing teaching as a profession
Teaching in the twenty-first century The ‘apprenticeship of observation’
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Teaching as a profession, teachers as professionals The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers
Developing your teacher identity Storying teaching Theorising teaching and identity Enacting beliefs and values Transforming personal identity
Continuity and change Teaching matters: a new era for teaching and learning
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Pedagogy
Reflective practice
Doing teachers’ work to trouble whiteness
Pedagogical knowledge
Entering the profession
Pedagogical renewal in Australia
Assessment of pre-service and graduating teachers
The Australian Curriculum
Contributing to the professional knowledge base
Before commencing on her initial professional placement in her teacher education program, Ly is asked by her cohort leader to prepare a detailed context statement on the school where she is going to be placed for one day a week for the first semester of her course. The starting point for her research is the school’s website. The Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) score of 1018 reported on the mySchool website shows the distribution of the scores is relatively even. The school has a strong emphasis on sustainability and the environment, and is culturally and socio-economically diverse. The suburb is in the inner city and contains many new arrivals, as well as professionals who are eager to live close to the city. Bottom quarter 30%
Middle quarters 20%
25%
Top quarter 24%
At the end of her first day of professional experience, Ly is required to complete an online post for members of her cohort. She writes, ‘in the school environment, and within the classroom and playground there does not appear to be a divide between the students’. However, as she waits with her school mentor at the end of the day, she notices something striking. Parents who are waiting to collect their children after school are gathering in very different ways to what she has observed in the playground and in class. She concludes her 300-word post with the following: ‘out of the school there is a more apparent racial divide’. In her professional subject taught in the following week by her university lecturer each member of the cohort group is required to present to each of their group members an analysis of their initial observation and experiences of their school placement. Ly and her group are encouraged by their lecturer to delve further and to look up the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data for their respective schools. Ly reports to her group that while the ABS data shows an ethnically diverse area that reflects the make-up of the school, there is also a staggering variety of birthplaces, with no dominant foreign birthplace, or even a dominant continent of origin. Ly does not have time to debrief with her tutorial group that day, so she posts again on the discussion board that night. She writes, ‘I now understand why my classroom teacher allowed the students to choose their own topic for their survey. At first I thought it would be much easier if all the class were surveying the same thing. One student decided to survey the class on their ethnicity. He counted 13 different ethnic backgrounds in a class of 21. I learnt a lot about the school and the students’ needs, interests and backgrounds by the use of an open-ended task. I am looking forward to going back next week and discussing these issues with my mentor teacher. I am learning a lot already from her, I think she is a great teacher.’
How did Ly’s teacher become accomplished? When teachers and schools do their jobs well, students from all life circumstances, in every community, attain their potential. The day-to-day choices and judgements teachers make directly affect the quality of learning that takes place and also the lives of their students. In other words, good teaching matters — it matters a great deal. Once you make the commitment to teach, you agree to take responsibility for the quality of the experiences each of your students will have in your classroom during formative times of their lives and to honour the richness that is in every classroom.
1.1 Teaching in the twenty-first century Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE 1.1 Describe teaching as a twenty-first century profession.
Research in education endorses the idea that there is no single variable that improves student achievement more than the introduction of a great teacher. Teacher quality and teaching quality go hand in hand. ‘Teacher quality — what teachers do’ (Riley 2009, p. 7) comprises the identity of the teacher, their knowledge and their ability to develop strong skills in pedagogy, content and theory in order to plan for the learning of all students. ‘Teaching quality — what students learn’ (Riley 2009, p. 7) focuses on the teaching and learning that teachers put in place on a daily basis to improve student achievement. Teaching quality is dependent on: r the personalisation of learning and respect for diverse learners r building positive student–teacher learning relationships CHAPTER 1 Introducing teaching as a profession
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r the capacity to implement curriculum relevant to the twenty-first century r the continuous monitoring and evaluation of student learning. This text is designed to help you become a high-quality teacher who practises teaching in accordance with professional standards and through an ethic of respect and care. The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) provides national leadership for the Australian, state and territory governments for the teaching professional and school leadership. The website will provide you with a wealth of ideas and information about the profession of teaching that will guide you through both your initial preparation and throughout your career in teaching or leadership of teaching. The aim of this text is also to support you to develop a critical perspective on learning and teaching and on the professional theories you will encounter during your studies and your work. A critical perspective is a way of viewing information, ideas and practices that refuses to take them for granted. This also involves critical self-reflection and self-evaluation to find any ‘blind spots’ that we may overlook due to our worldview and background. Coming to know your blind spots, examples of which may be your whiteness or resistance to other viewpoints, is critical to developing your understanding of professional knowledge, practices and your identity and engagement as teacher.
The ‘apprenticeship of observation’ What do you remember of your schooling? Do you think it has shaped your views on learning and teaching? Dan Lortie, an eminent American sociologist of education, coined the term the ‘apprenticeship of observation’ (Lortie 1975, p. 61). The phrase refers to the fact that people who choose to study education begin their course having already experienced more than 12 years of continuous contact with teachers. Lortie argues that the apprenticeship of observation may lead to the assumption that ‘anyone can teach’ (p. 62). This assumption originates, in part, in the proposition that every student can make a reasonably accurate portrayal of a classroom teacher’s actions. There is little doubt that people wanting to become teachers begin their studies with much more experience of education than a student choosing to enter some other profession. They have, however, as a student experienced only one aspect of teaching — and without an understanding of the knowledge or skill behind their teachers’ practices. It is important, therefore, that now — and indeed throughout your career — you take a critical perspective on your prior knowledge of schooling. The notion of the apprenticeship of observation is widely used to explain the apparent lack of influence exerted by teacher education programs on teachers’ practice and may help explain the historical reluctance to invest in pedagogical research. It is crucial, however, that, as a profession, teaching possesses and articulates a high degree of specialised theoretical knowledge — and methods and techniques for applying this knowledge in day-to-day work. This also means keeping up to date with recent research and policy changes. As someone new to the study of education and teaching, you might be surprised to learn that despite much public debate regarding how best to fund education in Australia, Australian education is still funded by a model introduced by the Howard government in 2001.
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Teaching as a profession, teachers as professionals The view of teaching as a profession and of the type of knowledge and skills that teachers must possess continues to evolve. Figure 1.1, drawn from the findings of an Australian analysis of teacher education (Reid & O’Donohue 2004), illustrates how approaches to teaching and teacher education differ. Figure 1.2 shows the building blocks of professional identity and the expertise required of teachers in the twenty-first century. You will encounter these themes throughout your studies. Think ahead a year or two and, like Tory from our opening case, consider the excitement and challenges you will face in your first year of teaching. You may be aspiring to be a school curriculum or year level coordinator or a leader in community education such as a childcare centre or a not-for-profit organisation. Your course of study will help you recognise and question the loosely formed, or ‘tacit’, knowledge developed through your own experiences of education. It will help you improve your knowledge and skills throughout your career in teaching, which may end up being in a leadership role. 6
PART 1 The teaching profession
FIGURE 1.1
The continuum of teacher professional knowledge
The basic knowledge and skills approach Teachers are technicians: a teacher’s role is to convey a narrow core of knowledge.
The skilled artisan Teaching is a skilled, practical activity, best learned on the job.
Educators as enquirers into professional practice Educators are engaged in the process of accessing and producing new knowledge and making their own professional meaning.
The professional competency standards approach Teaching is a profession with accountability and which should be subject to professional self-regulation.
Source: Based on information from Reid and O’Donohue (2004, pp. 561–63).
FIGURE 1.2
Professional identity and expertise in the twenty-first century
Reflection and noticing Recognition and respect Networking
Mentoring and induction
Disciplinary knowledge
Cross-disciplinary knowledge Professional ethics
Values
Self-assessment
Professional standards
Lifelong learning
Problem solving
Teacher research
Professional membership
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Professional activism
Partnerships
Equity and social justice
Relationship building
Twenty-first century curriculum
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At this point, you are likely to be a pre-service teacher, a graduate teacher or perhaps someone just considering teaching as a career. The term pre-service teacher refers to students enrolled in a course of study intended to satisfy requirements for employment as a teacher. Graduate teacher (or beginning teacher) refers to a teacher in the first and subsequent early years of their professional life. An accomplished teacher is an educator who typically has more than five years of teaching experience and can demonstrate expert performance through tangible evidence such as a teaching portfolio or a leadership position. This professional progression is summarised in figure 1.3.
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FIGURE 1.3
The continuum of teaching practice: pre-service to accomplished teacher
Pre-service education
Graduate teacher
Accomplished teacher
1–4 years
1–5 years
5 years onwards
Teaching, as you might have already understood, is a dynamic profession. In the twenty-first century change is a constant and every teacher lives and learns through social and professional change. The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) develops national policies and highquality tools and resources to support improvement in teaching and school learnings, and in turn student learning. On 14 October 2011, Australian education ministers endorsed the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. In 2014 a major report, Action Now: Classroom Ready Teachers (TEMAG 2014), recommended significant changes for the preparation of pre-service teachers, including selection requirements and literacy and numeracy requirements set down for entry to the teaching profession. The seven Australian Professional Standards for Teachers remain unchanged, but greater attention is now required to ensure that teachers in all Australian schools can identify what teachers need to know and be able to do in order to teach Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, and to teach all students about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages, history and culture. Teaching is a key focus of AITSL. Areas that are of importance to pre-service and beginning teachers include: r the promotion and embedding of the Australian Professional Standards for all teachers r high-quality induction for early career teachers r evaluation of the use and impact of the Teaching Standards r tools and resources to support teachers to engage in practices that improve learning. Australian Teacher regulatory authorities register teachers in each state and territory. Registration requirements vary between Australian states. Although AITSL does not register teachers, they can give you information on registration, and some tools and resources to help you prepare for registration. The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) career stages are defined as graduate, proficient, highly accomplished and lead. The AITSL website has a large section that demonstrates these career stages through illustrations of practice. To progress through these four career stages you will need to evidence your practice and growth as a teacher over time.
The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers The Australian Professional Standards (APS) for Teachers comprise seven standards that outline what teachers should know and be able to do (see table 1.1). The AITSL website contains detailed information on the APS and also acknowledges the crucial role of teachers in Australian society and their contribution to a high-quality education system.
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Keep up to date on what is happening with teacher standards by visiting the AITSL website regularly. Like all such attempts and long-standing examples of teacher standards, such as those developed by the Ontario College of Teachers in Canada in 1997, developing teacher registration standards aims to capture the key elements of quality teaching. The APS show what teachers are expected to know and be able to do at four career stages: graduate, proficient, highly accomplished and lead. When you look at the Standards you will notice that they are grouped into three domains of teaching: professional knowledge, professional practice and professional engagement. However, teachers with expert professional knowledge recognise that these elements of teaching practice draw on aspects of all three domains and will overlap and interconnect. TABLE 1.1
The Australian Professional Standards
Domains of teaching
Standards
Professional knowledge
1. Know students and how they learn. 2. Know the content and how to teach it.
Professional practice
3. Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning. 4. Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments. 5. Assess, provide feedback and report on student learning.
Professional engagement
6. Engage in professional learning. 7. Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community.
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Source: Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL).
Within each standard, focus areas provide further illustration of teaching knowledge, practice and professional engagement. These are then separated into descriptors at the four professional career stages. When you enter an accredited teaching program, by the end of your course you will be expected to meet a number of requirements. These requirements include standards for the graduate career stage; proficiency in literacy and numeracy; teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, and engaging with parents and communities to teach Indigenous content in and across the Australian Curriculum. Following graduation, provisional registration is the first step towards full registration. Once you are provisionally registered, and have started teaching, you can work towards full registration, which is against the proficient career stage of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. The timeline to achieve full registration varies, so check with your teacher regulatory authority. Beginning teachers are required to move from provisional to full registration in the early years of their career. Preparing for full registration should be aligned with and supported by your induction within a school. The Australian teacher regulatory bodies are: r Australian Capital Territory — Teacher Quality Institute (www.tqi.act.edu.au) r Australasian Teacher Regulatory Authorities (www.atra.edu.au) r New South Wales — NSW Education Standards Authority (http://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au) r Northern Territory — Teacher Registration Board of the Northern Territory (www.trb.nt.gov.au) r Queensland — Queensland College of Teachers (www.qct.edu.au) r South Australia — Teachers Registration Board of South Australia (www.trb.sa.edu.au) r Tasmania — Teachers Registration Board of Tasmania (www.trb.tas.gov.au) r Victoria — Victorian Institute of Teaching (www.vit.vic.edu.au) r Western Australia — Teacher Registration Board of Western Australia (www.trb.wa.gov.au).
Continuity and change Teaching is a profession that has a long history, with traditions dating from Socrates (c. 469–399 BCE), Plato (c. 424–348 BCE) and Aristotle (c. 384–322 BCE). CHAPTER 1 Introducing teaching as a profession
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Australia’s educational history is overwhelmingly influenced by Western traditions. Australia, like many other nations, has established schools, structures and education systems that maintain and contribute to our social fabric and culture. Many changes in education have been linked to major historical events or shifts, such as the two world wars and globalisation. Some of the events that have been most influential in Australian education and the educational context are listed in figure 1.4. This summary shows in brief how the Australian history of education has, in the main, been told through the colonisation of Australia, with the place of Aboriginal Australian history and education ‘whitewashed’. Darker parts of the history of education, such as the experiences of the Stolen Generations, are invisible. As Patrick Dodson says in his Foreword to The State of Reconciliation in Australia, ‘There is a discernible lack of appreciation by settler Australia about the grievances and sense of historical injustice that Indigenous people feel. This must be addressed for Australia to be reconciled’ (Reconciliation Australia 2016). FIGURE 1.4
Historical influences on Australian education
2018
National Quality Agenda for Early Childhood Education and Care (NQS) commences in all states and territories, including Western Australia
2017
Gonski 2.0 school funding package passes through the Senate
2015
Foundation to Year 10 Australian Curriculum is implemented in all states of Australia
2009
Proposed reform of Commonwealth anti-discrimination legislation — one law proposed
2008
National apology to Indigenous Australians and the Stolen Generations
1992
Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cwlth)
1986–93
Initial attempt to implement a national curriculum
1985
Reform of education legislation — education extended to students with disabilities from 1985 onwards
1973
Disadvantaged Schools Program — a Commonwealth program to reduce the effect of poverty
1946–60s
Post-war baby boom and waves of immigration — rapid growth of school enrolments
1939–45
World War II
1917–30s
Expansion of secondary education, but by 1946 still only 88% of 13–14-year-olds were in full-time education
1914–18
World War I School compulsory for ages 6–13. Many left at the primary level as secondary schooling was fee-based
1860s–1870s
Compulsory education legislated, e.g. Public School Act NSW (1866); Public Schools Bill, Tasmania (1868); Education Act Victoria (1872)
1788–1901
Settlement of Australia — Colonial period
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Figure 1.5 provides a snapshot of some of the changes that have occurred in approaches to teaching and learning over time. A comprehensive discussion of the history of education, and what we can learn from it, is provided in chapter 2.
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FIGURE 1.5
How approaches to teaching and learning have changed over time
Move away from
Move to
Emphasis on what is being taught
Emphasis on what students are learning — the learning outcomes
Separate curriculum areas — compartmentalised knowledge
Integrated learning areas — knowledge schemes are linked to help students make meaning
‘Clairvoyant pedagogy’ when program plans are made for a month, term or year in advance
Ongoing assessment is used to develop plans that respond to learners’ competencies, interests and needs
Assessment at end of teaching
Assessment to begin planning and teaching
Learning is an individual process
Learning is a social process
Teachers must meet children’s needs
Learning experiences build on children’s strengths, competencies and interests
Teachers must assess observable behaviours and products of learning
Assessment should include higher-order thinking skills such as problem solving and creative thinking needed by citizens of the twenty-first century
Source: Corrie (2002, p. 27, figure 2.1).
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WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
Over the last decade researchers from the University of Newcastle, Australia have argued that ‘Quality Teaching is not a series of teaching skills which, if practised enough, will yield good outcomes for students’ (Griffith, Gore & Ladwig 2006, p. 11). The continuing program of research conducted at the University of Newcastle into the Quality Teaching framework (Bowe & Gore 2017) has some important implications for teachers at all career stages, and especially pre-service teachers, no matter which framework for teaching (and there are many) you may be introduced to. The statement above is a useful point to consider as you begin to formulate your understanding of ‘teaching quality’ and ‘quality teaching’, and how you will progressively curate your ‘professional’ rather than ‘lay’ notions of teaching and learning, and learning to teach. Knowledge of teaching tactics, such as group work, cooperative learning and routines for thinking, for example, do not add up to teaching quality, and are not key to the Quality Teaching framework. Teaching and learning to teach requires a specific knowledge base that includes teachers’ lessons, classroom repertoires and knowledge of your students. Research evidence from both Australia and the United States grounded in the study of many hundreds of teachers’ lessons (Bowe & Gore 2017; Newmann & Associates 1996), however, shows that teaching quality is multidimensional and requires deep curriculum knowledge, the building of classrooms that are positive learning environments, and rich learning experiences that have meaning over time ‘beyond doing school work for the sake of getting through school’ (Griffith et al. 2006).
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So, questions to keep in mind as you enter schools as a pre-service teacher include: How have the built environment and learning spaces changed in Australian schools? To what extent have images of learning and teaching changed over time? In what ways are active learning and well-being for all students promoted and achieved? What integration of ICT into learning and teaching is used by teachers and students? And finally, is an education revolution through deep learning visible?
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Teaching matters: a new era for teaching and learning
Schooling is shaped by the past, the present and the future. So how do we embrace the future, understand our past and teach effectively now? As Deborah Britzman (2003, p. 20) has stated, learning to teach is a constant struggle between the ‘biography of the structure called schooling and the biography of the learner’. Her analysis draws attention to the extraordinarily complex nature of learning and teaching and how every learner is different. Putting the student at the centre of the learning and teaching relationship is a critical component of successful teaching, and forms the basis of the chapters in part 2 of this text. Another important building block is to plan, prepare and practise teaching based on a strong knowledge of curriculum, pedagogy, effective learning environments, technology, assessment and feedback. These topics are discussed in detail in the chapters in part 3 of this text. The final pieces of the puzzle are reflection, professionalism and transformative teaching practice, discussed in part 4 of the text. Throughout the text and across all of its topics, seven basic ideas about the learning and teaching process are evident. 1. You, like each student you will teach, are a learner. 2. While common practices among teachers exist, practices will vary from teacher to teacher. 3. Storying accounts of learning and teaching are a valid and accessible way for pre-service and graduate teachers to reflect upon various events and perspectives that inform their beliefs and decision making. 12
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4. Conceptions of teaching taught to pre-service teachers represent contemporary theories of knowledge, but none is absolute. In time they will be replaced, revised or reformed. 5. Personal and professional beliefs arising from research, theory, experience and reflection are the drivers of ongoing change. 6. A career in teaching will involve ongoing workplace and allied professional learning. 7. In Australia, teachers have a responsibility to learn about, and include in their classrooms, respect for Indigenous peoples, including students and Indigenous knowledges. It is evident then that becoming a teacher is a commitment to lifelong learning. Consider some more words from Anthea and her colleague Mark, who is teaching in another school. These comments were made in the early weeks of their first year of teaching.
The much anticipated first weeks of teaching have finally arrived and, now in week three, I think I need another holiday. I am loving teaching most of the time, but feel like I have been hit by a train — an express train. My first class was a Year 11 English class and they were angels; they sat there quietly just wanting to learn. I had been so nervous about teaching in the weeks leading up to the first day and this allowed me to relax a bit. However, this euphoric feeling of happiness was cut short when I met my Year 8 Humanities class; if my Year 11s were angels, this class was definitely sent from Lucifer. They tested all my classroom management skills, moving students, rearranging furniture, I even had to kick the entire class out of the room to line up again, but finally, by week three, they join the Year 11s with divine status. ANTHEA, GRADUATE TEACHER I recall that towards the end of my second placement last year, I felt comfortable enough to shift the focus from my own aptitude to a focus on student learning. This came after a settling-in period and a feeling of comfort in my classrooms. But I am sure that this is a product of time, and am not worried that it has not happened yet this year. But I am sure that I cannot be a good teacher until I spend my time thinking more about what the students are taking in, as opposed to my need to feel competent at the front of the class. MARK, GRADUATE TEACHER
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Learning in the twenty-first century The constructivist theory of learning is one of the most debated and influential theories of education. In essence, constructivism suggests that everything a person learns is mediated by their prior experiences and understandings. This means that people build their own knowledge and understanding — they do not simply absorb what they are ‘taught’. Constructivist explanations of learning echo the contributions of well-known theorists such as Jean Piaget (1896–1980), John Dewey (1859–1952), Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934), Maria Montessori (1870–1952) and Jerome Bruner (1915–2016). These are theorists you will hear more about in your teaching studies and in the later chapters of this text. As someone who will be a lifelong learner, it is important to commence your course of study engaging with constructivism and the associated theories that guide views about learners and learning in the twenty-first century. You need to understand that how you perceive ideas and information is substantially influenced by your past experiences and learning. Personal beliefs, once acknowledged, must be continually held up for scrutiny as learning to teach commences. The report, The State of Reconciliation in Australia (Reconciliation Australia 2016), provides educators with a working framework of five key dimensions (historical acceptance, race relations, equality and equity, institutional integrity and unity) that are of immediate use in both learning about and demonstrating the significance of recognition and respect in learning for all students. You also need to know that the learning of each of your students is similarly influenced by their place-based context and social milieu. This goes to the heart of the concept of ‘teaching quality’, described earlier in the chapter. Each learner has different needs. Deborah Britzman’s (2003, p. 20) earlier stated words highlight the struggle between the ‘biography of the structure called schooling’ and the ‘biography of the learner’ and further hint at some of the issues you will CHAPTER 1 Introducing teaching as a profession
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meet. For example, in the 2009 admission to Australian universities, students from the lowest socioeconomic quartile obtained just 15 per cent of places, and only 11 per cent were accepted at the most prestigious universities. This suggests that student achievement is affected by socioeconomic status. As an editorial in The Age (2009) noted, ‘that is a damning disparity for a “fair go” society’. The current state of play in student equity data can be found by accessing the link at the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (see http://data.ncsehe.edu.au). The state-by-state display enables comparisons to be made to illustrate that the above ratios still hold. Education has been tasked with the challenge of building and creating futures for its citizens. While it is a given that schooling, school attendance and a rich curriculum matter, schools are only one site of childhood. Young people, including early childhood and primary school-aged students, are constantly negotiating multiple spaces of their worlds. Boocock and Scott (2005, p. 137) refer to the places between schools and neighbourhoods as ‘kids’ spheres’. Julian Sefton-Green and colleagues (Sefton-Green et al. 2016) have also pointed out that children do not just learn about their world through formal education. A range of informal and non-formal learning spaces shape the engagement of young children and young people with the world through digital literacy, both online and offline. Other possible sites of learning include places such as clubs, libraries, museums and galleries. This team of researchers points to the way that, for contemporary children, online and offline boundaries are fluid, as their play and literacy practices cross physical and ‘virtual’ and material and immaterial domains. They do so in fluid and dynamic ways. When children and young people are not in school they are often found in pairs or groups of peers, and are both formally and informally learning through conscious and unconscious exchanges. Therefore, core to teachers’ work is ensuring teaching and schools include, rather than exclude, unique learner perspectives. Indeed, the ‘never-ending struggle for social justice’ (Lather & Smithies 1997, p. 50) is an issue for all Australians. This struggle is well illustrated in the educational disadvantage that continues to impact some Indigenous families.
Every student is unique, with unique learning needs.
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Australia is a diverse country. It has a range of socioeconomic conditions, varied geographical and climate characteristics and it is one of the most multicultural countries in the world. Indigenous knowledge and patterns of immigration have profoundly defined Australia as a nation. However, as noted earlier in this chapter, entrenched discrimination at a systemic and social level persists for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Our identity as a nation has shifted and is constantly shifting. The influence of globalisation and technological changes in particular are at the forefront of many changes. Teachers are being continually confronted by the differences between the globally ‘relevant’ and ‘irrelevant’ societies in their classrooms (Castells 1999). These are broad factors that need to be acknowledged in teaching all learners. In addition, each learner’s unique, individual characteristics affect learning outcomes. With all this in mind, as Baird and Love (2003) state, approaches to teaching and learning that recognise constructivism often include: r ‘real-life’ activities r access to expert performance and the modelling of processes r multiple roles and perspectives r reflection r collaborative construction of knowledge r articulation of personal values and beliefs r coaching and scaffolding. Since Baird and Love (2003) formulated this position, much research evidence has been generated that highlights the significance of understanding that learning is highly situated and must be continuously evaluated and refined in the context of the whole school learning environment. Changing how teaching and learning gets done is often encapsulated by the term ‘school change’, and Hall and Thomson (2017a, p. 176) suggest that inspiring and enacting school change can be thought of as a process of ‘redesign’ through the creative work of ‘redesigning’ whole schools. ‘Redesigning is a process of working on and working over existing school practices, cultures, structures and so on, so that they are (re)produced and transformed’. As a beginning teacher, you have a key role in adding new ideas and resources to schools. Hall and Thomson (2017a, p. 177) also affirm that pedagogy is at ‘the heart of redesign’. Teachers’ work requires you to balance your students’ learning needs with your own learning, typically developed in the workplace. In essence, you will witness and juggle the contemporary debates about learning as you experience learning to teach and beginning to teach. John Holt (1964, p. 173), an American educator who coined the term ‘unschooling’, returns us to the heart of teachers’ work: Since we can’t know what knowledge will be most used in the future, it is senseless to try and teach it in advance. Instead we should try to turn out people who love learning so much and learn so well that they will be able to learn whatever needs to be learned.
It is in this spirit that you have taken on the task of learning to teach and teaching to learn. WHAT CAN I TAKE INTO THE CLASSROOM?
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According to Joyce, Weil and Calhoun (2004, p. 7), successful teachers are not simply charismatic and persuasive . . . [but] engage their students in robust cognitive and social tasks and teach the students how to use them productively. Effective learners draw information, ideas and wisdom from their teachers and use learning resources effectively. Thus, a major role in teaching is to create powerful learners.
What is your definition of a successful teacher? Do you disagree with anything in the first section of the chapter? Why? What have you learned from the discussion of teaching as a profession in this chapter so far? How do you think it will affect your approach to teaching? Look up the AITSL Illustrations of Practice. Get to know this section of the website: www.aitsl.edu.au/ teach/standards/illustrations-of-practice.
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Select Standard 1 ‘Know students and how they learn’, and choose an illustration of practice relevant to you. You may choose to do this as a group task. If you work in a group of six pre-service teachers, you can allocate one dimension of the standard to each group member. Watch the video and change the discussion questions to the future tense, so that they are appropriate to the stage of your pre-service course. Post your responses to other members of your tutorial group and discuss the responses. Create a pedagogy postcard by developing an online blog that can be shared with others. A pedagogy postcard, as the name suggests, is a short account of a single and specific element of teaching practice and learning practice. Think of this activity as either being able to be completed in an online forum that begins with an image that resembles a postcard. A guide to creating pedagogy postcards can be found by looking up: https://teacherhead.com/2014/05/11/the-pedagogy-postcard-series-all-in-one-place.
1.2 Developing your teacher identity LEARNING OBJECTIVE 1.2 Begin to understand and analyse your own professional identity.
The discussion in the first part of this chapter emphasised the need for each teacher to bring a critical perspective to teaching’s professional knowledge base in order to construct a personally relevant understanding of teaching. This is part of the process of a teacher developing their ‘teacher identity’. Trevor Hay suggests that a teacher’s self-concept of their ‘teacher identity’ is formed by four processes: 1. narrating identity: stories about teaching and identity 2. imagining identity: contemporary theoretical approaches to teacher identity and identity through metaphor 3. acting out identity: examples of teacher values and beliefs in action 4. integrating identity: personal transformation (Dixon, Ferguson, Hay, Moss & White 2004, p. 16). We will discuss each process in turn, but it is important to recognise that the processes are simultaneous and ongoing.
Storying teaching
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A teacher’s identity is strongly shaped by the ‘story of teaching’ — both the teacher’s own stories of their experiences and the stories of colleagues, peers and mentors. These stories will act as guides in the initial stages of your personal and professional identity making. Your colleagues will share short, personal narratives with you, describing critical instances encountered within their own lives and professional careers. For example, the thoughts of graduate teachers Anthea and Mark, recounted earlier in this chapter, are examples of stories of teaching. You may have recognised familiar thoughts or experiences by reading their accounts. Your reflection on the experiences and stories of others will form part of your identity. At the same time, your stories will contribute to the changing stories and discourses of teaching. Dixon et al. (2004, p. 15) note: Teacher discourse is . . . a matter of structured thinking, analogous to the kind an author uses in transforming a sequence of events into a story. This form of thinking, and the language derived from beliefs, attitudes, values and theories constitute a story of teaching. Biography, autobiography and even fiction are part of a theoretically valid, ‘story-ed’ approach to the examination of teachers’ lives and teachers’ work.
Media provide another way that we can readily access and analyse constructions of teaching. The Australian television series Summer Heights High provides a story about secondary schooling and the identity of individual students and teachers. First Day, the now seminal documentary produced by the Australian Children’s Television Foundation, likewise provides significant insights into how teachers teach in differing contexts and support parents’ and caregivers’ expectations as children make the transition to formal school entry. 16
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Sharing stories is an important part of developing a teacher identity.
It is important to also recognise that narratives and discourses can have a constraining effect. For example, while language on the one hand allows us to share stories, it also often serves to regulate who can speak with authority, who must listen, whose social constructions are important and whose are erroneous and less important.
Theorising teaching and identity Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel. Socrates (c. 469–399 BCE) Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
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WB Yeats (1865–1939)
Descriptions of professional practice and conceptions of teaching and learning often use metaphors. Metaphors help capture and describe abstract concepts, making them more practical. Do you as a pre-service teacher have an initial metaphor for teaching? For some time, educators and educational researchers have appreciated that metaphors for teaching and learning are not simply about the world, but also help construct our overarching expectations and understandings of education. Many pre-service teachers, when invited to generate an initial metaphor for teaching, cite metaphors of growth and change: the teacher as ‘gardener’ or teaching as ‘planting seeds’, ‘growing a future’ or ‘nurturing young flowers’. By analysing the conceptions of teaching and observing the history of education embedded in these metaphors, teachers are representing traditions of education that echo the child-centred perspectives of Dewey in the United States, as well as the progressive education movement. Progressivism aims to work towards creating a better society and is attributed to the European CHAPTER 1 Introducing teaching as a profession
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tradition of education led by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), followed by Johann Pestalozzi (1746–1827), Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776–1841) and Montessori. According to Socrates, the teacher was a ‘midwife’. Freire (1972) referred to the metaphor of ‘banking’ to sum up how education is overly governed by teachers who ‘fill’ the students by making ‘deposits’ of information that he or she considers to constitute true knowledge. Others apply the metaphor ‘teacher as artist’. The metaphors you choose will shape your actions as a teacher (Tobin 1990). It is vital at the early stage of your initial orientation to the profession that you are highly sensitised to the language you may use to define your work and your perception of the students you teach. As a teacher you need to identify and clarify the teacher talk that serves to both regulate and dominate the teacher you are becoming. For example, teacher talk such as, ‘In term 3 my students really blossomed’, ‘On Friday afternoon my classroom is like a zoo’ or ‘She is one of the top students’ contains several metaphors — ‘blossom’ suggests growth and development; ‘zoo’, of course, likens students to animals and a less than respectful relationship; and ‘top students’ suggests a vertical orientation and a hierarchy of learning and learners — and perhaps even teacher bias towards high academic achievement. Judith Lloyd-Yeo (2001–02) points to common metaphors used in education such as A lesson is a journey; knowledge is a landscape, and, for example, the high frequency usage of the word ‘cover’. Teacher statements that apply the word ‘cover’ include such assertions as, ‘I covered Newton’s Laws last week’, ‘There is so much to cover in the curriculum’ and ‘He is covering up what he does not know’. Lloyd-Yeo’s review of recent research concludes that the metaphors teachers use profoundly affect their work, behaviour and perceptions.
Enacting beliefs and values The third part of the process of developing a teacher identity involves putting values and beliefs into practice. It involves making decisions about what to teach and how to teach based on professional knowledge. This is explored in much greater depth in the next major section of this chapter. It also involves deciding how to respond to students and issues in the classroom. Further, teacher identity is also reflected in interactions with colleagues and stakeholders such as parents. Mason (2002) uses the term ‘the discipline of noticing’ — being mindful of the elements that are drawn into our practice.
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Transforming personal identity Teachers’ work lives are in perpetual motion between: r teachers and learners (the who) r subject matter (the what) r instructional methods (the how). There is more to teacher identity than this ‘didactic triangle’ (Klette 2007, p. 147), however. As the model in figure 1.6 suggests, identity, beliefs and action continually interact with each other, both directly and via engagement with the processes of awareness, reflection and response. The shape of identity and belief formation, professional thinking and decision making (i.e. deciding what actions to take) will be unique for each of us. Further, our identity will change over time in response to reflecting upon our professional knowledge and practice, the learning outcomes our students achieve, and the ideas we are exposed to from colleagues, researchers and other stakeholders in education. In this way, teachers come to transform their own beliefs, knowledge and practice.
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FIGURE 1.6
Shaping personal and professional identity
Awareness
Reflection
Identity
Noticing
Beliefs
Action
Response Source: Based on Dixon et al. (2004, p. 20).
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WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
Consider the following common metaphors for teaching. What interpretations of teaching and learning do they represent? What aspects of teaching and learning are obscured? r The teacher opens doors r The teacher as coach r The teacher as student r The teacher as tour guide r The teacher as artist r The teacher as a lighthouse r The teacher as gardener r The teacher on a journey with the students r The teacher as the chess grand master r The teacher as company director r The teacher fills the empty vessels r The teacher as jazz musician r The teacher as video game designer r The teacher as a clinician and analyst Consider, for example, that if a teacher is a gardener then students are plants; if a teacher is a clinician, students are patients or clients; if a teacher is a video game designer, students are part of the gamers’ network; if a teacher is a jazz musician, the teacher is adept at improvisation. If the teacher is the grand chess master, as masters they have approximately 50 000 patterns in their repertoire, but the ‘difference is that, in chess, only one player moves at a time and the pieces only move when the player moves them. Teachers are not that lucky; their chess pieces think and move on their own’ (Bennett & Rolheiser 2001, p. 6). Go to the Teacher Feature section of the AITSL website: www.youtube.com/channel/UCWHluxZguKs 9rclMlUmS1zQ. Here you will find many examples of teachers from all career stages discussing their passion for teaching. Watch at least three videos from the Most Popular Teacher Feature link. Select your number one teacher from the AITSL Most Popular Teacher Feature. Write down the name of the teacher, and from the video and any other information you may be able to research about the teacher, write a short case study of 350–500 words about their beliefs and values and how they represent their professional identity. Listen, look closely and consider factors such as gender, age, race, geographic place of work, current position and their professional history in your case study.
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Define your metaphor for teaching in around 300 words. Add to this your understanding of how your gender, age, race, geographic place of work, previous education and career background may or may not impact on your developing teaching metaphor and identity. Upload your video, mp3 file or written case study to your professional blog or e-portfolio on the learning management system used in your course. Remember this is a professional task and should follow professional protocols. Once material is in the public domain, anyone can access this information. The understanding and application of the use of metaphors reflects the growing body of research that draws from ides about situated learning (e.g. Lave & Wenger 1991), which challenges traditional views on learning as the acquisition of or changes to concepts or schemata. As recent research indicates, this position is ‘Born of the realization that there is only limited transfer of knowledge and that learning is always embedded in a context, ideas developed that focused on knowing as a process, rather than knowledge as an entity’ (Wegner & Nuckles 2015, p. 625). Teaching metaphors are a window to your conception of ¨ teaching that reflect your cultural context. Conceptions of learning equally can be built on misconceptions of learning. Teachers who teach all students also need to understand that both lenses are available at the same time and one of these lenses ‘can be more dominant than another in each instance of action’ (Wegner & Nuckles 2015, p. 625). ¨
1.3 Pedagogy LEARNING OBJECTIVE 1.3 Discuss key aspects of pedagogical knowledge.
Pedagogy is a term that you will hear and meet many times in learning to teach. Some simply define pedagogy as the ‘art and science’ of teaching (Bennett & Rolheiser 2001). For others, pedagogy is regarded as ‘teaching method’ or the ‘how’ of teaching, as opposed to the theory of teaching. As Canadian educator and researcher Max van Manen (1991, p. 31) states:
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pedagogy is not just a word. Pedagogy is not found in observational categories, but like love or friendship in the experience of the presence . . . pedagogy is cemented deep in the nature of the relationship between adults and children.
Pedagogy is fully explored in a later chapter of this text. At this stage, it is important to appreciate how theory and practice interact and to consider the complexity inherent in the development of pedagogical knowledge. Theory on pedagogical practices is informed by a range of educational philosophies and values and by the different assumptions that are held about learning, student development, appropriate styles of teaching and curricula. Current influences on understandings of pedagogy range from cognitive psychology (see, for example, Eggen & Kauchak 2001) to sociology (see, for example, Bernstein 1996), to feminism (see, for example, Luke & Gore 1992; McWilliam 1999), to workplace learning (see, for example, Fuller & Unwin 2002), to creative and placed-based pedagogy (see Hall & Thomson 2017, pp. 120–137; Somerville & Green 2015). Pedagogy is more than just acquiring a set of teaching skills for use in the classroom. Pedagogy may be considered ‘effective’ depending on the level of student acquisition of knowledge, skills, attitudes and dispositions (Vaughn, Bos & Schumm 2006). It is apparent, then, that effective pedagogy is closely related to high-quality teaching, described earlier in this chapter.
Pedagogical knowledge Lusted raises the question ‘Why is pedagogy important?’, followed by the response, ‘It is important since, as a concept, it draws attention to the process through which knowledge is produced’ (cited in Britzman 2003, p. 53). Ball (2000, p. 241) raises two pertinent questions relevant to the contemporary context of understanding the term pedagogy. 20
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1. On one hand to what extent does teaching and learning to teach depend on the development of theoretical knowledge and knowledge of subject matter? 2. On the other hand, to what extent does it rely on the development of pedagogical method?
Policy makers and practitioners continue to debate the respective merits of general pedagogical knowledge (i.e. knowledge of how to teach) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) (i.e. knowledge of specific content to be taught and how to teach that specific content). An overarching problem that Ball (2000, p. 242) notes is that teacher’s learning is being organised and formalised into concepts, theories and/or ideas to the point where their practice of teaching becomes fragmented. This leaves teachers to deal with integrating subject matter and pedagogy into their work on their own, while assuming this integration is simple and will happen naturally as teachers become more experienced. Ball notes that this is not an easy integration and, therefore, sometimes does not happen at all.
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The respective merits of general pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge can be a matter of much debate.
Lee Shulman’s seminal work (1986, 1987) continues to guide the research, policies, programs and practices of local, national and international work on pedagogy. For Shulman (1987), knowledge is viewed as multifaceted, covering myriad interrelated dimensions. His categories of professional knowledge include: r content knowledge r general pedagogical knowledge, with special reference to those broad principles and strategies of classroom management and organisation that appear to transcend subject matter r curriculum knowledge, with particular grasp of the materials and programs that serve as ‘tools of trade’ for teachers r pedagogical content knowledge, that special amalgam of content and pedagogy that is uniquely the province of teachers, their own special form of understanding CHAPTER 1 Introducing teaching as a profession
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r knowledge of learners and their characteristics r knowledge of educational contexts, ranging from the workings of the group or classroom, to the governance and financing of school districts, to the character of communities and cultures r knowledge of educational ends, purposes, and values, and their philosophical and historical backgrounds (p. 8). Researchers such as Hall and Thomson have also been exploring Shulman’s term ‘signature pedagogies’ (Hall & Thomson 2017b) to better understand what happens when cross-curriculum studies are being taught by teachers and other creative practitioners such as artists. The research team has found that there are distinctive ‘habits of mind’, ways of thinking, doing and being — for example, for a mathematician, an artist or a geographer — that are important parts of teaching discipline knowledge and make visible the ‘pedagogical practices that were distinctive across individual or small clusters of disciplines’ (Hall & Thomson 2017b, p. 108). So it is no surprise that we need to continually focus and question teacher knowledge.
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Pedagogy informed by knowledge of learners and learning and curriculum change There is consensus that teachers need to be active participants in continuously improving their pedagogy in order to improve student outcomes. Equally, research and policy endorses that the curriculum reform requires pedagogical change. Students develop deep understanding of important concepts when their learning is built on previous concepts and experiences, and ideas are connected to one another. Linda Darling-Hammond (1998) proposes that an understanding of child and adolescent development supports growth in various domains — cognitive, social, physical and emotional — and can enable teachers to shape productive experiences for students. Some research studies have documented a moderately strong correlation between what learning theories teachers know and what students learn (see, for example, National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future 1996; Dalton 1998; DarlingHammond 1998). What teachers must learn about and teach to their students is affected by this changing knowledge; its permeable character and teacher flexibility are viewed as constituting effective teaching practices (Hill 2003, p. 6). Researchers such as Lucas, Claxton and Spencer (2013) have foregrounded the importance of creativity in education and the metacognitive dimension of learning, that is, learning how to learn. This research and the recognition in schools of the need for an explicit focus on pedagogy has led to the development of any number of schools and systems adopting or developing whole-school pedagogical frameworks. The Thomas Tallis School in London, for example, has formulated a schoolwide pedagogical design that is founded on what they term ‘Threshold Concepts, Powerful Knowledge and Habits of Mind’ (see www.thomastallisschool.com/tallis-pedagogy-wheel-guide.html). Schools like the Thomas Tallis School, along with most of those you will get to know during your professional experiences, will display a working pedagogical model. It is important to note that these will vary across schools and the states and territories and countries. As is stressed throughout this chapter, the co-construction and relational work that teachers enact is critical in enabling students to develop the skills and confidence they need to become highly effective independent learners. Pedagogical frameworks alone do not add up to success for learners, or measures of quality teaching. As a professional, ultimately you are required to describe and analyse the pedagogical work enacted in your classroom and how your planning, pedagogy, curriculum and assessment practices engage and impact on student learning. More about how you begin this element of your professional work follows in the next section of the chapter.
Pedagogical renewal in Australia Early in your teacher education program, pedagogy and curriculum are important concepts for you to understand. The interrelationships and networks between and across these two core concepts are critical to generating orientations for thinking about learning and teaching, and for understanding how curriculum decision-making and enactment takes place. Accomplished teachers will tell you that these apparent ‘lock step’ practices are not the reality of curriculum enactment. The Australian Curriculum is Australia’s 22
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‘live’ case in point. The history of Australia’s curriculum shows a lack of national agreement on what should constitute curriculum for all young Australians, and hence many inconsistencies and exclusions can be traced across the various states and territories. Among these exclusions are the needs of groups of students who have been marginalised and excluded from schooling, such as students with disabilities and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. In the early 1990s, the federal government attempted to establish a national curriculum. Following extensive consultation with state policy makers and teachers, the Curriculum Corporation (now Education Services Australia) published 16 documents: The Statements and separate Profile documents for eight key learning areas (mathematics, English, the arts, technology, science, studies of society and environment [SOSE], languages other than English [LOTE], and health). These documents influenced the development of state curricula over the following years, but fell well short of replacing the traditionally conservative and bureaucratically driven state-based curricula (Green 2003) and the need to be inclusive of all learners. In 2008 the National Curriculum Board was established in another attempt to align curriculum across the states and territories. Before looking at this most recent attempt to establish a national curriculum, it is worthwhile briefly exploring some of the states’ approaches to develop an understanding of the definitions of pedagogy that have had currency in Australia. An overview of how pedagogical knowledge is accorded in three Australian states — Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria — follows in this section. The trend in recent years has been to articulate broad principles of classroom organisation and practice that appear on a surface reading to transcend subject matter. These system-wide positions are representative of Lee Shulman’s (1986, p. 5) questions, proposed over two decades ago, which ask what the domains and categories of content knowledge are in the minds of teachers. How, for example, are content knowledge and general pedagogical knowledge related? In which forms are the domains and categories of knowledge represented in the minds of teachers? What are promising ways of enhancing acquisition and development of such knowledge?
Implicit in recent Australian approaches is that pedagogy is developed in the workplace and is the practice or craft representing teachers’ understanding and accumulated wisdom acquired over many years. The need for continuing learning about pedagogy has not lessened. As teachers who will be graduating during the implementation of the Australian Curriculum, expect to hear more, not less, about the importance of pedagogy and change in teachers’ work. Below is a snapshot of the history of these reforms and the approach to pedagogy, which to varying degrees continue to influence the policy frameworks and practices in Australian education. Some states are making changes to their pedagogical frameworks, others are not, so as we have stressed earlier it is important to keep abreast of these changes.
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New Basics The Queensland School Reform Longitudinal Study (QSRLS) (Lingard et al. 2001), and its associated New Basics project (Education Queensland 2000) and Productive Pedagogies framework (Hayes, Mills & Lingard 2000), conducted at the beginning of the twenty-first century, aimed to focus on the underlying dimensions of pedagogy that have meaning in authentic classrooms and can be sustained organisationally by schools. QSRLS was and remains a landmark study in the history of pedagogy and curriculum in Australia. New Basics asserted ‘improved pedagogy is at the heart of this agenda’ (Education Queensland 2000, p. 5). Teachers were urged to mentor one another as pedagogues, to open their classrooms to their colleagues, to swap strategies and to talk about pedagogy (Luke 1999). Education Queensland’s ‘Five principles of effective learning and teaching’ (State of Queensland [Department of Education] 1994, p. 4) then stated effective learning and teaching: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
. . . is founded on an understanding of the learner. . . . requires active construction of meaning. . . . enhances and is enhanced by a supportive and challenging environment. . . . is enhanced through worthwhile learning partnerships. . . . shapes and responds to social and cultural contexts. CHAPTER 1 Introducing teaching as a profession
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These principles were expected to underpin learning and teaching practices across all school sectors in Queensland. These principles claim to stand against a single view of pedagogy and isolate the independent effects of any one specific teaching technique or learning skill. These principles entrust teachers with responsibility for a repertoire of ‘pedagogical strategies’ to implement in their classroom. Rich tasks are a component of the New Basics framework (State of Queensland [Department of Education and Training] 2004) and were designed so that students can display understandings, knowledges and skills through performance on transdisciplinary activities that have an obvious connection to the ‘real world’. The emphasis on the ‘real world’ draws from the literature in ‘authentic pedagogy’. A close examination of some published examples of rich tasks identifies the connections with the thinking of John Dewey (1859–1952), Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934), Paulo Freire (1921–1997) and Ted Sizer (1932–2009), all of whom published widely in relation to authentic learning. Rich tasks were supported by the Productive Pedagogies framework (State of Queensland [Department of Education and Training] 2002). Productive pedagogies are deemed to exhibit: r intellectual quality (e.g. higher-order thinking, deep knowledge, deep understanding, substantive conversation) r connectedness (e.g. knowledge integration, background knowledge, connectedness to the world, problem based curriculum) r supportive classroom environments (e.g. social support, academic engagement, explicit performance criteria, self-regulation) r recognition of difference (e.g. cultural knowledges, inclusivity, narrative, group identity, active citizenship). The key components of the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority’s integrated approach to teaching, learning and assessment, including equity and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives, are now framed through K–12 policy advice and resources (see www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/ k-12-policies). The resources for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives are very instructive, regardless of the state or territory that you are preparing to teach in. It is important for you to access these and build them into your planning for teaching and learning in order to ensure that, by the end of your course, you can show evidence of your professional knowledge to meet AITSL Standards 1.4 and 2.4. Each school is required to have a pedagogical framework that is collaboratively developed with the school community. This acknowledges the evidence that research-validated pedagogy implemented consistently across a school setting and supported by instructional leadership improves student performance.
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Quality Teaching The influences of the New Basics framework and program of research are still visible in the development of the Quality Teaching framework in New South Wales. The commitment of the NSW Department of Education and Training to develop fully the talents and capacities of all students in the public-school system prompted the development of the Quality Teaching framework of pedagogy. Developed by James Ladwig and Jenny Gore in consultation with and on behalf of the NSW Department of Education and Training, this model acknowledges that it is the ‘quality of pedagogy that most directly and most powerfully affects the quality of learning’ (Department of Education and Training [NSW] 2003, p. 4). Although the model encourages conversations on pedagogy from all relevant stakeholder groups, the model also advocates for individualised and personalised pedagogical approaches from the teacher. Similar to New Basics, the ‘generic qualities of pedagogy’ identified in the document are in pursuit of the individual differences teachers take into account in their teaching, and across all the different styles of and approaches to teaching. The Quality Teaching model proposes that the following three dimensions of pedagogy and classroom practice have a positive effect on students’ learning and improving student outcomes: 1. promoting high levels of intellectual quality 2. promoting a quality learning environment 3. developing in students a sense of the significance of their work. 24
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Quality Teaching builds on what many teachers already know, understand, value and do in terms of high-quality teaching practice. It begins from the premise that all teachers can teach well and all students can learn. A ‘self-styling’ approach to pedagogy by every teacher is intended to allow teachers to regain control of their teaching by defining their teaching goals and monitoring their progress in achieving them. A key component in ‘self-styling’ is ‘reflective thinking’ about ways for teachers to modify and refine their learning and pedagogy. This is designed so that every teacher can think more carefully about what their students will learn. To engage in ‘self-styling’, Quality Teaching encourages teachers to pose the following four questions (Gore, Ladwig & King 2004, p. 4). 1. What do you want your students to learn? 2. Why does that learning matter? 3. What do you want your students to produce? 4. How well do you expect them to do it? The dimensions and elements of the Quality Teaching framework are outlined in table 1.2. TABLE 1.2
Dimensions and elements of the Quality Teaching framework
Intellectual quality
Quality learning environment
Significance
Deep knowledge Deep understanding Problematic knowledge Higher order thinking Metalanguage Substantive communication
Explicit quality criteria Engagement High expectations Social support Students’ self-regulation Student direction
Background knowledge Cultural knowledge Knowledge integration Inclusivity Connectedness Narrative
Source: Adapted from Bowe and Gore (2017, p. 357).
Since the development of the Quality Teaching model, Jenny Gore has continued to further research and focus on the issues that are barriers to pedagogical practice and research. This pedagogical framework has more recently been paired with a structured teacher professional learning model, Quality Teaching Rounds (see Bowe & Gore 2017), to strengthen directly oriented professional learning and enhanced classroom practice. To learn more about these issues you can follow up by viewing an online lecture given by Gore at www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1_f7-sRVBc.
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The Principles of Learning and Teaching in Victoria The Principles of Learning and Teaching P–12 initiative provides a structure to help teachers focus their professional learning (Department of Education and Early Childhood Development 2008). In brief, the principles are: 1. the learning environment is supportive and productive 2. the learning environment promotes independence, interdependence and self-motivation 3. students’ needs, backgrounds, perspectives and interests are reflected in the learning program 4. students are challenged and supported to develop deep levels of thinking and application 5. assessment practices are an integral part of teaching and learning 6. learning connects strongly with communities and practice beyond the classroom (Department of Education and Training [Victoria] 2004; Department of Education and Early Childhood Development 2008; Department of Education and Training [Victoria] 2017). The principles build on earlier work that shows that different teaching approaches often result in substantial differences in both the ways students approach their learning and the quality of that learning. They essentially provide a basis for schools and teachers to ‘review their own practice’ (Department of Education and Training [Victoria] 2004, p. 2) rather than advocating a ‘right’ or ‘best’ way to teach. The principles recognise the importance of collaborative reflection on pedagogy and creating classrooms that can be characterised as ‘learning communities’.
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The principles reflect a view of pedagogy that centres on the following tenets (Department of Education and Training [Victoria] 2004, pp. 2–3): r interacting with students (i.e. asking and responding to questions, using students’ ideas and responding to students’ diverse backgrounds and interests) r creating a social and intellectual climate r framing the content around a series of tasks to be completed or as key ideas and skills that are revisited and built upon r creating and operating as professional learning teams, which will enable rich and productive conversations. The Principles of Learning and Teaching P–12 are intended to: r develop a shared language of pedagogy based around the principles r develop insights into the classroom strategies and activities appropriate to each principle r discuss instances of the particular principle in their current practice r develop a process or plan to extend the principle in their school, as a potential initiative or set of initiatives (Department of Education and Training [Victoria] 2004). As the momentum of the Australian Curriculum develops, teachers in all states will be part of national initiatives designed to improve teacher quality through models of school partnerships and centres of teaching excellence.
The Australian Curriculum
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The federal government in 2008 announced the introduction of an ‘education revolution’. Since that time the national landscape has changed significantly, with a focus on key principles that would underpin a nation-wide approach to education. The development of a shared curriculum was guided by the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians, which committed to ‘support all young Australians to become successful learners, confident and creative individuals, and active and informed citizens’ and to provide students with ‘the essential skills, knowledge and capabilities to thrive and compete in a globalised world and information rich workplaces of the current century’ (ACARA 2009).
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One of the outcomes of the declaration and the federal focus on the education revolution has been the earlier noted development of the Australian Curriculum (ACARA 2014), which is being implemented across all states and territories. On 18 September 2015, the Education Council endorsed the Australian Curriculum in eight learning areas. The endorsed Australian Curriculum includes: r the revised Foundation–Year 10 Australian Curriculum for English, Mathematics, Science, Humanities and Social Sciences, The Arts, Technologies, and Health and Physical Education r Foundation–Year 10 Australian Curriculum: Languages for Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Modern Greek, Spanish and Vietnamese r Australian Curriculum: Work Studies Years 9–10 (an optional subject designed to ready young people for work) r Across Foundation–Year 12, curricula for 43 learning areas and subjects which are published on the Australian Curriculum website (ACARA 2017). ACARA is continuing to develop languages curriculum and materials to support teachers as the curriculum is being implemented. To learn more about curriculum development for each learning area, go to the Learning areas/subjects page. In the Australian Curriculum, as well as core subjects, teachers will be expected to teach and assess ‘general capabilities’ and ‘cross-curriculum’ perspectives. Decisions on curriculum can often be announced unexpectedly, so remaining up to date on the current state of play in your context is critical. To access the most recent updates to the Australian Curriculum see the Australian Curriculum website (ACARA 2017).
Education Minister Simon Birmingham and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull
In 2014, a review of the Australian Curriculum was commissioned by the Abbott government. This followed a change of government at the federal level and increasing concerns about recommendations made in the Gonski Report on the review of funding for schooling not being actioned by the new government CHAPTER 1 Introducing teaching as a profession
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(DEEWR 2011). The review was headed by Dr Kevin Donnelly and Professor Ken Wiltshire and a final report was released at the end of 2014, including a recommendation that the curriculum is too crowded (Department of Education 2014). The process of moving to the Australian Curriculum, with inclusion of all stakeholders in education, has had many complexities. Currently, the guidance of the curriculum at the national level will continue. Over the next decade in a plan dubbed ‘Gonski 2.0’, announced by the Turnbull government in 2017 and led by Education minister Simon Birmingham, schools across Australia are expecting their funding to be boosted by an extra $18.6 billion. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
How do you learn to teach? Using the framework for this chapter, Introducing Teaching as a Profession, draw up a concept map that uses the five pillars of understanding to record your initial insights on becoming a teacher. As your course progresses, revise and update your knowledge. List what has changed over time in the Foundation–Year 10 Australian Curriculum (https://acaraweb .blob.core.windows.net/resources/Changes_to_the_F-10_Australian_Curriculum.pdf) in your subject specialisation or interest. Conclude by adding a critically reflective response to each of the following questions: What do I value most? What experiences have shaped who I am as a person? How do these impact the way I see the world? How do my values impact my teaching practice? How do I notice and respond to white privilege and exclusion in planning for teaching and learning the Australian Curriculum? Review the AITSL teaching standards that focus on teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, histories and cultures Standards 1.4 and 2.4, and visit www.narragunnawali.org.au/curriculumresources. Draw up a list of key elements you will need to include in your lesson planning proformas. Develop three reflective questions that you can use to continuously demonstrate what and how you are learning about Indigenous peoples, cultures and histories through your course. Explain what it is expected that you will teach and assess under the ‘General Capabilities’ and ‘Crosscurriculum’ perspectives in your specialisation. If you are preparing to be a secondary teacher, choose one school subject. If you are preparing to be an early childhood or primary teacher, choose either science or the arts as your focus.
1.4 Reflective practice
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LEARNING OBJECTIVE 1.4 Describe reflective practice and its importance in ongoing professional development.
Teacher educators have a responsibility to ensure that graduate teachers enter the profession with confidence and enthusiasm. Pre-service education is your initial socialisation and induction to the profession and can play a vital part in your ongoing learning. A graduate teacher, ready to enter the profession of teaching, is able to describe and demonstrate: r key principles of pedagogical knowledge r high-order communication skills — an analytical and critical disposition are central to developing skills of reflective professional practice r the ability to incorporate innovative approaches into their professional knowledge base, including new technologies, new media and other innovative approaches such as arts-based methods r ethical practice r curricular and pedagogical designs that meet the needs of all students. Developing deeper understandings of pedagogy requires a reflective teacher stance. Reflective practice is both a common process in everyday life and a prominent part of teacher education programs and teaching practice. It involves constantly reviewing one’s beliefs and practices, the theories and ideas underpinning them, and the outcomes observed, in order to learn from them and improve upon them.
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The concept of the reflective practitioner was described by Donald Sch¨on as ‘the expert who was wide awake to, and aware of, their practice, not just immersed in it’ (cited in Mason 2002, p. 15). Think back to the opening case and the way that Tory was reflecting about his students, their learning and why he decided to take up teaching as a career. There are a number of ways that you can reflect on your practice. You may develop a reflective journal, visual diary or blog, mp3 audio file or post to a discussion board. Each approach aims to improve your work as a teacher and to support you to put forward dilemmas and resolutions to issues. Reflection can use both formal and informal methods. Informal approaches such as staffroom or corridor conversations are a necessary part of building professional communication and relationships. However, to be useful and support you in monitoring your professional learning over time, the spoken word and records of the spaces and places where you teach should be documented and analysed. The theory, issues and practices of reflection are further discussed in chapter 13.
1.5 Doing teachers’ work to trouble whiteness LEARNING OBJECTIVE 1.5 Recognise that personal and professional beliefs impact on pedagogical decision-making and teacher agency.
1. Plan a lesson for your professional experience placement that uses a yarning circle. Resources to assist you can be found at www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/k-12-policies/aboriginal-torres-strait-islander-perspectives/ support-materials/yarning-circles. In your plan, identify how you will use the strategy to build respectful relationships and to preserve and pass on cultural knowledge. 2. What are the barriers to increasing the number of Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander peoples joining the teaching profession? 3. Connect with a local elder in your region. What insights do they offer teaching professionals to ensure that in our practice evidence for Standard 2.4 ‘Understand and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to promote reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, which will demonstrate broad knowledge of, understanding of and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and languages’ is met?
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Entering the profession Very quickly as a pre-service and graduate teacher you assume responsibility for independent teaching. Typically, over a course of study, phased periods of school experience occur. The extent and length of practicum experiences depend on the design of your program. Upon securing your first teaching position you will commence independent teaching. The autonomous entry you experience is a defining feature of the teaching profession but also brings many challenges. It is well known the first year of teaching can be highly stressful, particularly if graduate teachers have come from a shorter graduate course and have not had the advantage of a substantial internship within their program. Such teachers have never been alone in a class without a mentor teacher, and they have generally only had to teach two sessions a day. Suddenly the graduate teacher is expected to take complete control and teach a full load. A great deal of significant — but largely unsupported — learning happens in the induction year. It is well established in the research literature and certainly part of the rhetorical teacher talk and socialisation that some teacher education omits much of the real world of classroom teaching and everyday school life. The rejection of academic training (to greater or lesser extents) experienced by many pre-service and graduate teachers at some stage after experience in schools was recognised by Zeichner and Tabachnick (1981) in the United States over thirty years ago. Their work acknowledges the tension between university-based learning and school-based learning, suggesting that the effects of universitybased teacher education are ‘washed out’ by the process of socialisation of pre-service or graduate teachers into the teaching profession.
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Assessment of pre-service and graduating teachers As noted earlier in this chapter, Australia has a set of Australian teaching standards. These standards refer to the domains of teaching: professional knowledge, professional practice and professional engagement. Although the approach to assessment of Australian teaching standards is under development, as a graduating teacher you will be required to participate in a formal system of teacher accreditation. In your course, over time, you will be prepared to develop an understanding of these processes. Take another close look at the AITSL Graduate Standards Overview. Current expectations are that the graduating teacher will be expected to show interconnected understandings of theory, practice and reflection. The assessment used will therefore reflect these dimensions. In Australia and internationally the use of evidence-informed practice and the role of teacher inquiry and/or research to inform future teaching and assessment plans has changed over time. The next section of the chapter discusses how these practices have been evolving, beginning with the teaching portfolio. The teaching portfolio has for some time been regarded as a passport to the teaching profession. In some states of Australia the evidence portfolio is already a part of teacher registration requirements. As Rieman (2000, p. 3) states, ‘a portfolio is more than your best teaching efforts; rather, a portfolio is a demonstration of your growth and improvement’. The literature on portfolios includes definitions that range from ‘summary of accomplishments’ to ‘a comprehensive self-reflective record of a teacher’s strengths and weaknesses’ and ‘a way to assess teacher quality’ (Wolf 1996). The Standards Council of Victoria (1997, p. 3) stated that a portfolio is ‘a quality record of a teacher’s practice selected for a particular purpose’. Wolf (2000) identifies three broad categories for professional teaching portfolios: (1) learning, (2) assessment and (3) employment. He describes a teaching portfolio as ‘a depository of artefacts or assorted documents . . . that require a written reflection by the developer on the significance of or contributions of these artefacts’ (p. 36). A different definition by Wolf and Dietz (1998, p. 13) describes a teaching portfolio as ‘a structured collection of teacher and student work created across diverse contexts of time, framed by reflection and enriched through collaboration, that has as its ultimate aim the advancement of teacher and student learning’. On the other hand, Retallick and Groundwater-Smith (1996, p. 13) define a portfolio in more generic terms as ‘a compilation of evidence which demonstrates the acquisition, development and exercise of knowledge and skills in relation to your work practice’. More recently, e-portfolios — with digitised documents and hyperlinks — that provide connections to evidence and standards of teaching have become widely advocated in teacher education. As mentioned earlier, a portfolio is not merely a collection of everything you do or have done — teaching portfolios are important in capturing the essential elements of your practice and providing the place where you can readily develop reflective teaching practice. Building a portfolio is an essential part of developing and maintaining professional status. Throughout your professional life the portfolio may be used in: r preparation for internship and job interviews r documentation of your philosophy of teaching supported by curriculum and assessment practices r teacher registration r attaining accomplished teacher status through detailed reflective documentation. Typically, evidence of teaching will be required in specified domains and reflect the everyday work of teaching. Authentic assessment, sometimes also referred to as performance assessment, aims to improve understanding and critical thinking. Usually it is based in real work applications, clearly shows what is required of the learner and is intended to be assessment for learning. Therefore, assessment for graduating teachers will aim to capture the complex and multifaceted nature of teaching and assessment and will align with both goals of the curriculum (teaching and learning) and professional standards (teacher occupational knowledge). This sounds complex, and it is. Meeting such outcomes generally occurs towards the end of your course and occurs in what are sometimes referred to as capstone subjects. Authentic or performance learning of graduating teachers usually has a number of parts and will confirm that the graduate is ready to teach by a judgement that is made on the evidence of practice described as:
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r r r r r
learning and its context planning teaching and assessment teaching students and supporting learning assessing student learning reflecting on teaching and learning. As part of the recommendations of Action Now: Classroom ready teachers (TEMAG 2015) AITSL is tasked with a number of responsibilities, including a robust assessment of graduates to ensure classroom readiness. All providers are required to have a teaching performance assessment in place by 2018. The form of assessment will be performance based, with graduating teachers being required to align their evidence to the Australian Professional Standards for Teaching. Cohorts of students who have completed these forms of assessment already have commented that the process has led them to be well prepared for applying for advertised teaching positions and eases their preparation for state-based teacher registration. They reflect that they have been supported to: r focus thinking on different areas of teaching r think about practice, why do they do what they do, how they would articulate this to their students/ colleagues/parents and principal r show what they have understood as a teacher r reveal their strengths and weaknesses and develop a plan for future changes r define professional learning goals based on what worked and did not work r develop an increased awareness of assessment of student learning linking to curriculum standards r be a reflexive teacher, to see the big picture of teaching and the importance of continuous learning. Julie White and Trevor Hay (2005) summed up the distinctions in the way that portfolios as a form of authentic assessment get used in the teaching profession as being either ‘Are you good enough?’ (i.e. standards and accountability models) or ‘Who are you?’ (i.e. approaches that reach into the process of developing the personal professional knowledge of teachers). It is important to recognise that you will be required to provide ongoing evidence of your professional learning. Teacher professional learning is a constant in teachers’ lives. It is both rewarding and enjoyable. Good professional learning will engage you in any number of practices, including school-based workshops, teacher conferences, online communities and personalised forms of inquiry where you may investigate your classroom practice or work collaboratively with other teachers through face-to-face and virtual means. The graduate teacher assessment task and then the evidence portfolio is now regarded as a major component of becoming and being a professional and lifelong educator.
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Contributing to the professional knowledge base To understand, construct and analyse our professional knowledge and our theories of teaching and learning, teachers are required to read and understand contemporary research and over time to develop the skill of conducting or participating in systematic and rigorous educational and teacher research (Clarke & Erickson 2003). The purposes behind particular classroom practices are as important as the practices themselves, and there is ‘neither a simple formula to be adopted by unthinking or disenfranchised teachers, nor a framework that stipulates a singular approach to effective teaching (Gore, 2007)’ (Bowe & Gore 2017, p. 358). Teacher research therefore ensures teachers are contributing to their professional knowledge base and are acknowledged as being significant voices in the shaping of professional decision-making and professionalisation. There are any numbers of approaches to practitioner research. As Jean McNiff (1993, p. 18) suggests: r each individual may legitimately theorise about their own practice and aim to build theories r theorising as a process is appropriate to educational development — people change their practices and their practices change them
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r the interface between person and practice is a process of theory building, which involves a critical reflection on the process of ‘reflection in action’, and which legitimates the notion of a changing individual interacting with the world. Reflection upon formal professional knowledge, developed through research and theory, is the best way to initially develop and refine a professional belief system that analyses your conceptions and misconceptions of teaching and learning. A teacher who shapes their theory in this way will have a professionally defensible approach to their teaching. There are any number of differing approaches to teacher research and inquiry. However, it remains that teacher reflexivity — that is, the capacity to refer to one’s actions — is crucial in accounting for the multiplicity of elements that constitute the teaching self and the act of teaching. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
File your school experience reports. Select a focus area based on the school-based assessor’s comments for your immediate and ongoing professional learning. Write a short autobiographical piece that will form the starting point for your professional portfolio or graduating teacher assessment document. Keep in mind the purpose and audience for your work (e.g. internship, employment application, graduate teaching standards, reflective practice). Develop a checklist for the development of evidence-informed practice over time. Here are some suggested headings: r Title page that indicates the purpose of the assessment (internship, graduating teacher) r Brief autobiography r Belief statement: an informed, evolving position on a personal professional theory r Planning: establishing a balanced instructional focus. How do the plans support student learning? r Pedagogy and student diversity. How do the plans make the curriculum accessible to all students? r Curriculum and assessment: designing assessments, monitoring and analysis r Reflection: use of research, theory and reflections on teaching and learning to guide practice r The teaching professional: investigating practice r Appendices. Remember that graduating teacher assessments are not just printed documents. Increasingly, multimedia stored on a secure YouTube link may also be an important part of your evidence. Audio or video recordings of lessons may also provide useful material for your reflective practice. Open and maintain a professional learning log. List the title, date and summary of the event attended and include a section for Reflections that links to your current practice and describes what changes you intend to make.
INSIGHTS IN EDUCATION
Teacher education
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What do we learn about schools, teaching and learning by analysing school marketing materials? Over the last five years Trevor McCandless has been asking, why do ‘local schools’ now feel the need to market themselves? He has also asked, do schools with higher proportions of boys market themselves differently to schools with a more equal balance of the sexes? And does having large numbers of students from non-English speaking backgrounds impact on how schools want to be seen? [I]nternational research has concluded that school marketing is ‘uniform and formulaic’ (Gewirtz et al. 1995, p. 137), with schools engaged in ‘playing to preferred customers’ (Lubienski 2007, p. 132), generally meaning the children of middle-class parents . . . Schools derive advantages if they can attract the ‘right’ students (Ball 2003, 2006b; Ball & Gewirtz 2010; Bonnor & Caro 2007; Brantlinger 2003; Gorur 2013; Ho 2011; Nash 2010; Smedley 1995; Teese 2011) and these ‘right’ students are the ‘kids that bring cultural capital to the school that will increase its results (girls, high socio-economic background families, academic ability, sporting or creative prowess)’ (Bonnor & Caro 2012, pp. 83–4) . . . Other research has shown that students receive differential attention given their likelihood to contribute to
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school improvement on government mandated measures and assessment instruments (Ball 2006a; Ball, Maguire & Braun 2012). Others have stressed that the students likely to receive additional attention is highly gendered and raced (Ball et al. 2012; Youdell 2006). The coincidence of these factors has been used to explain the apparent commonality of school marketing materials. Research has shown that overwhelmingly it is middle-class parents who are the active choosers in the school marketplace (Ball 2003, 2006b; Ball & Gewirtz 2010; Ball et al. 2012; Campbell et al. 2009). If all schools seek to attract the same students — that is, students already holding the habits and dispositions that ensure academic success — then school marketing will appear similar no matter which school produces it, because it is marketing to the same people: the white, mostly female, children of middle class parents . . . Furthermore, Australian research has also considered the nature of white flight from schools deemed to have too many none [sic] Anglo-Saxon background children (Ho 2011). That school marketing might not take any of these issues and concerns into consideration while trying to attract students — given their own student populations — seemed improbable. TREVOR MCCANDLESS PhD (2017, pp. 2–3)
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LECTURER AND RESEARCH FELLOW, DEAKIN UNIVERSITY
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SUMMARY No single variable improves student achievement more than the introduction of a great teacher. Teaching is supported by a wide and deep body of professional knowledge that continues to evolve. As you prepare to join the teaching profession you will be exposed to both theory and practice. It is important to bring a critical perspective to ideas, theories and practices to ensure you construct a personally relevant understanding of teaching. Teachers tend to form and develop a ‘teacher identity’ over time through four processes: storying teaching, theorising teaching and identity, enacting beliefs and values, and transforming professional identity. The shape of identity and belief formation, professional thinking and decision making (i.e. deciding what actions to take) is particular to each person. Teacher identity changes over time in response to reflection upon professional knowledge and practice, the learning outcomes students achieve, and ideas from colleagues, researchers and other stakeholders in education. In this way, teachers come to transform their own beliefs, knowledge and practice. Pedagogy is a term that describes the art, science or strategies of teaching based on professional knowledge and reflective practice. General pedagogical knowledge is knowledge of the theories of effective teaching. Pedagogical content knowledge is knowledge of specific subject matter to be taught and how to teach that specific content. Pedagogy is closely related to curriculum, which describes the educational content that is to be taught. The Australian school system has been characterised by somewhat divergent curricula in different states, but recently a national Australian Curriculum has been developed in core subject areas to bring greater consistency to Australians’ schooling and includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives, which are embedded throughout the entire curriculum, at every age and in every subject. Becoming an accomplished teacher requires the adoption of reflective practice, which involves constantly reviewing one’s beliefs and practices, the theories and ideas underpinning them, and the outcomes observed, in order to learn from them and improve upon them. Reflection is also an important component of continuing to build teaching’s professional knowledge base. Teacher performance assessment is an important part of reflective practice, as well as providing tangible evidence of achievement and development as a teacher, and of your students’ learning.
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KEY TERMS accomplished teacher An experienced educator who can demonstrate expert performance through tangible evidence, such as a teaching portfolio or a leadership position. constructivism An approach to teaching that recognises that everything a person learns is mediated by their prior experiences and understandings; thus individuals construct, rather than absorb, new knowledge. critical perspective A way of viewing information, ideas and practices that refuses to take them for granted, and instead asks what are the implications, and for whom, of this idea or this way of doing things. general pedagogical knowledge Knowledge of the theories of effective teaching. graduate teacher A teacher in the first and subsequent early years of their professional life. ICSEA (Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage) ACARA provides a definition of ICSEA. The definition and method of calculation is found at: https://acaraweb.blob.core.windows.net/ resources/About_ICSEA_2014.pdf. ICSEA is one of any number of statistical calculations that have parallels across the world and attempt to measure students’ socio educational backgrounds for policy and funding purposes. mentor One who supports professional learning, typically during pre-service experiences, on entry to the profession or for a specific need. 34
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pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) The teacher’s unique amalgam of content and pedagogy. pedagogy The art, science or strategies of teaching based on professional knowledge and reflective practice. pre-service teacher A student enrolled in a course of study intended to satisfy requirements for employment as a teacher. professional standards A set of statements intended to articulate the knowledge, skills and understandings that define good teaching. reflective practice The commitment to constantly review one’s beliefs and practices, the theories and ideas underpinning them, and the outcomes observed, in order to learn from them and improve upon them. teaching portfolio A collection of work, framed by reflection and enriched through collaboration, that has as its ultimate aim the improvement of teacher and student learning.
FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE 1.1
LO1
Develop a visual essay on teaching as a profession. The essay may take a historical perspective or be a contemporary account of a defined period. Be sure to capture teachers and students at work (but ensure you seek permission to photograph and/or identify students and teachers you observe and interact with). 1.2
LO2
Reflect upon your personal metaphor for teaching. How culturally situated are your beliefs? In what ways will you subject your cultural background to critical scrutiny as you are learning to teach and getting to know your students? 1.3
LO3
What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a national curriculum? What are some of the challenges in implementing changes to curriculum across different jurisdictions? 1.4
LO4
What is a Reconciliation Action Plan? Sign up for the Narragunnawali site to learn more about RAPS and how to develop and evaluate a RAP. 1.5
LO4
Join some professional networks to receive regular updates on issues in education. Some ideas might be to follow appropriate Twitter accounts, to sign up for updates to the Australian Curriculum or to get a student membership for a professional organisation such as the Australian College of Educators (ACE).
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1.6
LO5
Review AITSL Standard 2.4 ‘Understand and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to promote reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians’. Analyse the Twitter feed on @indigenousx in recent weeks. What issues and perspectives dominate? What is being said, and what is not being said? What can you take into the classroom from the analysis to provide the evidence required to meet AITSL Standard 2.4?
WEBSITES 1 The Australian Council for Educational Research, better known by its acronym, ACER, is an inde-
pendent not-for-profit Australian body that has a long association with the teaching profession. Established in 1930 with five staff, the organisation now has 380 staff, and offices worldwide. ACER publishes evidence-based resources and information sources of interest to practitioners and CHAPTER 1 Introducing teaching as a profession
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researchers. They provide a number of no-cost resources, including the publication Teacher: evidence, insight and action, a magazine that contains links to podcasts, research articles and stories written by teachers: www.teachermagazine.com.au 2 Reconciliation Australia was established in 2001 and is the lead body for reconciliation in the nation. As an independent not-for-profit organisation that promotes and facilitates reconciliation by building relationships, respect and trust between the wider Australian community and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the organisation’s vision is to enable all Australians to contribute to the reconciliation of the nation. Their vision of reconciliation is based on five interrelated dimensions: race relations, equality and equity, unity, institutional integrity and historical acceptance. The website details programs for schools, and also provides resources that are invaluable to improving your professional knowledge base and helping you as a teacher and your students become an integral part of Reconciliation Australia: www.reconciliation.org.au 3 The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) website provides you with information on the national requirements for teaching and leadership. Keep up to date with a range of resources and information for your entire teaching career, and perhaps in the future a leadership career, by regularly visiting this site: www.aitsl.edu.au 4 Together for Humanity is a multi-faith not-for-profit organisation that is helping schools, organisations and communities respond effectively to differences of culture and belief. They do this by bringing students, teachers and those in the community into contact with people from diverse backgrounds in an open and supportive setting. The website has a large number of resources, including the open access interactive online resource ‘Difference Differently’. Difference Differently is suited to individuals as well as school-based professional learning, and has been trialled and evaluated as part of recent research in schools (Halse, Mansouri, Moss, Paradies, O’Mara, Arber & Denson et al. 2015): www.togetherforhumanity.org.au
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REFERENCES Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) 2017, Australian Curriculum website, www.acara.edu.au/curriculum, viewed 29 September 2017. —— 2014, Australian Curriculum website, www.australiancurriculum.edu.au, viewed 30 November 2014. —— 2009, www.acara.edu.au, viewed 15 April 2010. Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) 2017, www.aitsl.edu.au. Baird, J & Love, K 2003, ‘Teaching purposes, learning goals, and multimedia production in teacher education’, Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 243–66. Ball, D 2000, ‘Bridging practices: intertwining content and pedagogy in teaching and learning to teach’, Journal of Teacher Education, vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 241–7. Ball, SJ, Maguire, M & Braun, A 2012, How schools do policy: Policy enactments in secondary schools, Routledge, London. Bennett, B & Rolheiser, C 2001, Beyond Monet, Bookation, Toronto. Bernstein, B 1996, Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity, Taylor & Francis, London. Bonnor, C & Caro, J 2012, What makes a good school?, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney. Boocock, SS & Scott, KA 2005, Kids in context: The sociological study of children and childhoods, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, New York. Bowe, J & Gore, J 2017, ‘Reassembling teacher professional development: the case for Quality Teaching Rounds’, Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 352–66. Britzman, D 2003, Practice makes practice: A critical study of learning to teach, State University of New York Press, Albany. Campbell, C, Proctor, H & Sherington, G 2009, School choice: How parents negotiate the new school market in Australia, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW. Castells, M 1999, ‘Flows, networks and identities: a critical theory of the informational society’, in M Castells, R Flecha, P Friere, H Giroux, D Macedo & P Willis (eds), Critical education in the new information age, Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham. Clarke, A & Erickson, G 2003, Teacher inquiry: Living the research in everyday practice, Routledge Falmer, London. Corrie, L 2002, Focus on learning relationships. Investigating troublesome classroom behaviour: Practical tools for teachers, Routledge Falmer, London.
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Dalton, SS 1998, Pedagogy matters: Standards for effective teaching practice, Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence University of California, Santa Cruz, California. Darling-Hammond, L 1998, ‘Teacher learning that supports student learning’, Educational Leadership, vol. 55, no. 5, pp. 6–11. Department of Education 2014, ‘Review of the Australian Curriculum: final report’, www.education.gov.au, viewed 30 November 2014. Department of Education and Early Childhood Development 2008, ‘Principles of learning and teaching’, training information, www.education.vic.gov.au, viewed 12 January 2010. Department of Education and Training [NSW] 2003, ‘Quality teaching in NSW public schools’, discussion paper, www.det.nsw.edu.au, viewed 12 January 2010. 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Green, B 2003, ‘Curriculum inquiry in Australia: toward a local genealogy of the curriculum field’, in WF Pinar (ed.), International handbook of curriculum research, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ, pp. 123–41. Griffith, T, Gore, J & Ladwig, J 2006. ‘Teachers’ fundamental beliefs, commitment to reform, and the quality of pedagogy’, paper presented at Australian Association for Research in Education Annual Conference, Adelaide, 26–30 November. Hall, C & Thomson, P 2017a, Inspiring school change: Transforming education through the creative arts, Routledge, Oxon. —— 2017b, ‘Creativity in teaching: what can teachers learn from artists?’, Research Papers in Education, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 106–20, doi: 10.1080/02671522.2016.1144216. Halse, C, Mansouri, F, Moss, J, Paradies, Y, O’Mara, J, Arber, R, Denson, N . . . Wright, L 2015, ‘Doing diversity: intercultural understanding in primary and secondary schools’, An Australian Research Council Linkage Project Final Report, Deakin University, Geelong. Hayes, D, Mills, M & Lingard, B 2000, ‘Productive pedagogies’, Education Links, no. 60, Winter. Hill, P 2003, ‘Pedagogy for deep learning’, paper presented at the Curriculum Corporation Conference ‘How to teach better’, Perth, Australia. Ho, C 2011, ‘“My School” and others: segregation and white flight’, Australian Review of Public Affairs, www.australianreview.net/digest/2011/05/ho.html, accessed 17 February 2016. Holt, J 1964, How children fail, Penguin, Harmonsworth. Joyce, B, Weil, M & Calhoun, E 2004, Models of teaching, Allyn and Bacon, Boston. Klette, K 2007, ‘Trends in research on teaching and learning in schools: didactics meets classroom studies’, European Educational Research Studies, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 147–60. Lather, P & Smithies, C 1997, Troubling the angels: Women living with HIV/AIDS, Westview Press, Harper Collins, Colorado. Lave, J & Wenger, E 1991, Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Lingard, RL, Ladwig, J, Mills, MD, Hayes, D, Luke, A, Gore, J & Christie, PH 2001, ‘The Queensland school reform longitudinal study: A strategy for shared curriculum leadership’, in AR Thomas (ed.), Teachers’ Manual, State of Queensland (Department of Education), Brisbane. Lortie, DC 1975, Schoolteacher, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Lubienski, C 2007, ‘Marketing Schools: consumer goods and competitive incentives for consumer information’, Education and Urban Society, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 118–41. Lucas, B, Claxton, G & Spencer, E 2013, ‘Progression in student creativity in school: first steps towards new forms of formative assessments’, OECD Education Working Papers, no. 86, OECD Publishing, http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/5k4dp59msdwk-en.
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Luke, A 1999, ‘Education 2010 and new time: why equity and social justice still matter but differently’, paper prepared for Education Queensland Online conference, www.education.qld.gov.au, 20 October. Luke, C & Gore, J 1992, Editors, feminisms and critical pedagogy, Routledge, New York. Mason, J 2002, Researching your own practice: The discipline of noticing, Routledge Falmer, London & New York. McCandless, T 2017, ‘Schooled into place: a mixed methods social semiotic analysis of school marketing materials’, Doctor of Philosophy thesis, Deakin University. McNiff, J 1993, Teaching as learning: An action research approach, Routledge, London. McWilliam, E 1999, Pedagogical pleasures, Peter Lang Publishing, New York. National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education, ‘Equity ratio reports’, http://data.ncsehe.edu.au, viewed 12 September 2017. National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future 1996, What matters most: Teaching for America’s future, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York. Newmann, FM & Associates 1996, Authentic achievement: Restructuring schools for intellectual quality, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA. Pugach, MC 2009, Because teaching matters: An introduction to the profession, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken. Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority 2017, ‘K–12 Polices and resources’, www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/k-12-policies, viewed 28 September 2017. Reconciliation Australia 2016, The state of reconcilliation in Australia: Our history, our story, our future, foreword by Patrick Dodson, www.reconciliation.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/The-State-of-Reconciliation-report_FULL_WR.pdf. Reid, A & O’Donohue, M 2004, ‘Revisiting enquiry-based teacher education in neo-liberal times’, International Journal of Teaching and Teacher Education, vol. 20, no. 6, pp. 559–70. Retallick, J & Groundwater-Smith, S 1996, The advancement of teacher workplace learning, Centre for Professional Development in Education, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW. Rieman, P 2000, Teaching portfolios: Presenting your professional best, McGraw Hill, Boston. Riley, C 2009, ‘Teacher quality vs teaching quality: what’s the difference’, Innovations, no. 8, pp. 6–9. Sefton-Green, J, Marsh, J, Erstad, O & Flewitt, R 2016, ‘Establishing a research agenda for the digital literacy practices of young children: a white paper for COST Action IS1410’, http://digilitey.eu/. Shulman, LS 1987, ‘Knowledge and teaching: foundations of the new reform’, Harvard Educational Review, vol. 57, pp. 1–22. —— 1986, ‘Those who understand: a conception of teacher knowledge’, American Educator, vol. 15, pp. 4–14. Somerville, M & Green, M 2015, Children, place and sustainability, Palgrave Macmillan, UK. Standards Council of Victoria 1997, Preparing a professional portfolio, Standards Council of the Teaching Profession, Victoria. State of Queensland [Department of Education] 2004, ‘The New Basics project’, www.education.qld.gov.au, viewed 30 July 2010. —— 2002, ‘Productive pedagogies’, www.education.qld.gov.au, viewed 11 January 2010. —— 1994, ‘Principles of effective learning and teaching’, Education Resources Information Centre, www.eric.ed.gov, viewed 11 January 2010. Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group (TEMAG) 2015, Action now: classroom ready teachers, 13 February, www.studentsfirst.gov.au/teacher-education-ministerial-advisory-group. —— 2014, Action now: Classroom ready teachers, Australian Government, Canberra, https://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/action_now_classroom_ready_teachers_print.pdf. The Age 2009, editorial, 21 January. Tobin, K 1990, ‘Changing metaphors and beliefs: a master switch for teaching?’, Theory into practice, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 122–7. van Manen, M 1991, The tact of teaching: The meaning of pedagogical thoughtfulness, SUNY Press, Albany, New York. Vaughn, S, Bos, CS & Schumm, JS 2006, Teaching exceptional, diverse, and at-risk students in the general education classroom, Allyn and Bacon, Boston. Wegner, E & N¨uckles, M 2015, ‘Knowledge acquisition or participation in communities of practice? Academics’ metaphors of teaching and learning at the university’, Studies in Higher Education, vol. 40, no. 4, pp. 624–43, doi: 10.1080/03075079.2013 .842213. White, J & Hay, T 2005, ‘Passport to the profession: standards-based portfolios’, in T Hay & J Moss (eds), Portfolios, performance and authenticity, Pearson Prentice Hall, Frenchs Forest, pp. 61–73. Wolf, K 2000, Leading the professional portfolio process for change, Hawker Brownlow, Cheltenham, Victoria. —— 1996, ‘Developing an effective teaching portfolio’, in K Burke (ed.), Professional portfolios: A collection of articles, Hawker Brownlow Education, Cheltenham, Victoria. Wolf, K & Dietz, M 1998, ‘Teaching portfolios: purposes and possibilities’, Teacher Education Quarterly, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 9–22. Youdell, D 2006, Impossible bodies, impossible selves: Exclusions and student subjectivities, Stringer, Dordrecht. Zeichner, KM & Tabachnick, BR 1981, ‘Are the effects of university teacher education “washed out” by school experience?’, Journal of Teacher Education, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 7–11.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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Photo: © Emma Tunbridge/Norfolk, UK, 2014 / Corbis Images Photo: © michaeljung / Shutterstock.com Photo: © DGLimages / Shutterstock.com Photo: © MBI / Alamy Photo: © Rob Marmion / Shutterstock.com Photo: © News Ltd / Newspix Photo: © Nils Versemann / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Ross Schultz / Newspix Figure 1.5: © Corrie, L 2002, Investigating troublesome cassroom behaviour: Practical tools for teachers, Routledge Falmer, figure 2.1, p. 27. Reproduced with permission from Taylor & Francis Group UK. Table 1.1: © 2011 Education Services Australia as the legal entity for the Education Council. ISBN: 978-0-9871650-2-2. Text: © McCandless, T 2017, ‘Schooled into place: a mixed methods social semiotic analysis of school marketing materials’, Doctor of Philosophy, Deakin University.
CHAPTER 1 Introducing teaching as a profession
39
CHAPTER 2
Historical insights into teaching LEARNING OBJECTIVES
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After studying this chapter, you should be able to: 2.1 explain how a critical understanding of the requirements of teachers included in the various statements of professional standards might enable teachers to better meet the needs of all learners in their classes 2.2 explain how social, political, economic and cultural factors shape educational histories, knowledges and practices, as well as the teaching profession itself, including the marginalisation of Indigenous knowledges and peoples from schooling 2.3 describe how discourses of education might shape your capacity to think creatively and critically about your professional practice 2.4 describe how pedagogy, curriculum, behaviour management and educational technologies have been shaped historically and how understanding this might inform a transformative approach to your work 2.5 explain how developing a personal–professional identity as a critical, transformative teacher might help you more effectively support all your students (including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students) to use their schooling to improve their life chances and wellbeing as people, and identify key responsibilities of Australian teachers in rectifying institutional disadvantage.
OPENING CASE
Engaging with professional practice It was the final week of the Foundations of Education course and Emily was working on the collaborative group assignment with classmates Kirra and Oskar. The task was to critically reflect on a demonstration lesson they had just observed in a small rural school using the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (see table 2.1). Emily admitted that she was a bit nervous about being critical of the teacher, as she was unsure about how qualified she was to make judgements on the lesson. Oskar suggested that instead of judging the teacher they should think about some of the theories they had learned in the course and approach the observation from that point of view. Then they could share insights gained through the lesson in relation to educational theories rather than the teacher’s practices. Kirra agreed, adding that she saw the standards as a guide, rather than a set of rules that teachers must follow.
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TABLE 2.1
Authorities that oversee the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers
Jurisdiction
Authority
Australia (national)
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership — www.aitsl.edu.au
NSW
NSW Education Standards Authority — https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au
Victoria
Victorian Institute of Teaching — www.vit.vic.edu.au
Queensland
Queensland College of Teachers — www.qct.edu.au
WA
Teacher Registration Board of Western Australia — www.trb.wa.gov.au
SA
Teachers Registration Board of South Australia — www.trb.sa.edu.au
Tasmania
Teachers Registration Board of Tasmania — www.trb.tas.gov.au
ACT
ACT Education Directorate — www.det.act.gov.au
NT
Teacher Registration Board of the Northern Territory — www.trb.nt.gov.au
The group then looked at the standards together and discussed how curriculum, pedagogy and classroom management were important to being an effective teacher. The lesson they observed was part of a literacy program the school had adopted, and the combined Year 1/2 class, with 20 girls and 4 boys, had been working in small literacy groups. Oskar noticed that most of the boys were not engaged in the lesson and wondered if the reading books had been selected with boys in mind. Perhaps the female teacher did not know how boys learn (Standard 1 ‘Know students and how they learn’). Emily disagreed, adding that if the teacher had been doing a better job she would have focused them back on the task (Standard 4 ‘Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments’). Kirra noted, that in relation to Standard 4, the teacher had established clear expectations and had organised routines so the rest of the students worked independently; it was the boys who continued to appear disinterested in the literacy tasks. She had noticed that the boys came from different cultural backgrounds, and thought this may explain their difficulties in reading the books provided. Oskar added that he thought it was important to understand different perspectives about teaching, pointing out that they were basing their observations on their own ideas of what makes a good teacher. He thought that being critical of different theories about education and how these theories help to shape professional practice would help them better reflect on the lesson using the standards. The teacher in this
CHAPTER 2 Historical insights into teaching
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lesson facilitated rather than directed the learning, which Oskar felt was more aligned with twenty-first century approaches. Maybe the issue was also related to intellectual development theories, as they had learned in their lecture on Piaget and Vygotsky. Through discussions with her peers, Emily realised that there was a lot to learn about becoming a teacher and that she may be called upon to teach in very different contexts to those she had herself experienced. At first she was worried about judging the teacher but then, when discussing the lesson, her first thought was that the teacher was to blame for the boys being off-task. Teaching was more complex than she had thought. Oskar and Kirra were both thinking critically about the lesson in relation to the theories they had been exploring in class, rather than relying on what they already knew. She could see that she would need to stop taking her past experiences for granted and start to engage in more critical discussions. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ QUESTIONS 1. What do the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers say about knowing students and how they learn? 2. Why do you think the standards might ask teachers to be ‘critical’? 3. Are there any parts of the standards that are difficult to reflect on in this scenario? 4. How do you think each member of the group would approach Standards 1.4 and 2.4 given there were no Indigenous students in their observation class?
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Introduction This chapter will help you develop a critical perspective on your work as a teacher. It does not provide you with a particular critical perspective; rather it helps you learn techniques to develop your own. This involves two basic elements. 1. Learn how to question taken-for-granted histories, knowledges and practices. 2. Gain enough basic knowledge of education to begin to see alternative ways to think about and deal with issues and to see the consequences of different practices. The critical perspective it will help you develop will have three dimensions, all of which will involve learning and asking questions about: 1. teachers’ ‘obvious’ core classroom work 2. other aspects of teachers’ work, such as engaging with families and communities, and engaging with the teaching profession and professional learning 3. how family, community and broader social contexts and teachers’ classroom work interact to shape learning outcomes and life chances of children. Why? If schools worked well for everyone — or perhaps just for most students, families and communities — it would not matter if the established ways of doing things were simply taken for granted and reproduced. For many, however, schools do not work especially well. They do not accomplish what they set out to achieve. They fail large numbers of students, who do not become competent in reading, writing and mathematics (see, for example, State of Queensland 2002). Further, they fail in ways that concentrate their failure and its consequences in sections of the population that are already politically marginalised, financially disadvantaged and socially stigmatised (James 2002, 2008; Teese & Polesel 2003), despite governments’ own commitments to equity (Ministerial Council on Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs [MCEECDYA] 2008; Watson 2003). In Australia, this has resulted in the marginalisation of students and cultural groups who have historically not been welcomed within education, such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families. This is a powerful argument for the need for a critical perspective. This chapter (outlined in the diagram below) provides insights from history to help you develop a critical perspective on information, ideas and practice in education. History reveals how previous 42
PART 1 The teaching profession
generations understood and attempted to resolve particular issues. It highlights the importance of context in shaping educational ideas and practice. It reveals different approaches and the quite different consequences of those approaches, including positive and negative implications for teachers and for teaching and learning. History can show, for example, how different approaches to education affect the capacity of different groups in society to benefit from schooling, as well as how they can demand different attitudes and behaviours of teachers themselves (e.g. a ‘do as you’re told’ approach or a ‘make professional judgements’ approach).
Historical insights into teaching
A critical perspective and transformative teaching
Social, political, economic and cultural factors shaping education
The value of a critical perspective
Stakeholders and educational interests and needs Governance Shaping the profession Marginalisation of Indigenous knowledges and peoples
Discourses of education
Pedagogy, curriculum, classroom management and technologies
Teachers’ work, teachers’ lives, teachers’ identities
Discourses of the child
Pedagogy
Theory and practice in educational discourse
Classroom management
The challenges of professional decision making
Curriculum
Technologies of schooling
Professional standards, teaching and ‘us’ Identifying key responsibilities in rectifying institutional disadvantage
2.1 A critical perspective and transformative teaching
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LEARNING OBJECTIVE 2.1 Explain how a critical understanding of the requirements of teachers included in the various statements of professional standards might enable teachers to better meet the needs of all learners in their classes.
To understand the importance of developing a critical perspective, let us explore your assumptions about teachers and teaching. By now, you have lived through at least 12 years of teaching and experienced at least a dozen teachers — probably many more. Based on this extensive experiential knowledge of schools: 1. list the characteristics of a good classroom 2. list the characteristics that define good teaching. Your lists may include something like the following: 1. good classroom: teacher and students; desks and chairs; books; whiteboard (possibly an electronic whiteboard) and computers 2. good teaching: clear explanations and good classroom management (or, perhaps, discipline or behaviour). Take some time to consider the extent to which your lists are consistent with what happens in most of the classrooms you have experienced or know about. You will probably find that your lists reflect widely shared images and understandings of what classrooms and teaching ‘look like’. It is likely that your view of good teaching reflects normalised practice — practice that is accepted as more-or-less the CHAPTER 2 Historical insights into teaching
43
only way, or at least the standard proper way, to do things (Vick 2008). Normalised practice is the result of taken-for-granted professional knowledge and practice as usual. The problem is that we are likely to think and teach within the limitations of normalised practice unless we deliberately cultivate ways of thinking differently about teaching and find different ways to teach — that is, unless we develop a critical perspective. As Oskar explained to the group in the opening case, a critical perspective is a way of viewing information, ideas and practices that refuses to take them for granted. Instead, it examines each idea and each way of doing things and asks, ‘What are the implications and for whom?’ A critical perspective is crucial to developing approaches to teaching that enable teachers to better meet the needs of those being taught, recognising that many students have not been served well by practice as usual or the taken-for-granted professional knowledge that informs such practice.
The value of a critical perspective
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The value of a critical perspective is in what it might offer in developing transformative teaching practice that will best serve the needs of all those you teach. To be useful to you as a teacher, you must relate a critical perspective to your own knowledge and practice. For example, the group in our opening case needed to develop a critical perspective on professional standards and then make connections between their consequent understanding and their own practice. In developing a critical perspective, history offers much insight. For example, we can study how unequal educational outcomes were understood and addressed in different times and contexts. We can also understand the way in which particular approaches had quite different implications for the ways teachers taught and for the different social groups they taught. Insights such as these can allow for an understanding of how an idea such as ‘best practice’ might not always be ‘best’ for everyone — a first step towards finding ways that might work well for those you teach.
What are your assumptions about teachers and teaching?
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A critical perspective also helps build an understanding of how different stakeholders have conflicting views of the purposes education should serve. It is with this understanding that teachers negotiate a path between the requirements of the system or school they work in and the needs and wants of the families their school serves. Such understandings will prompt teachers to ask how well schools and teaching practices actually serve children, families and the community, to find out what their needs and interests are, and to look for what practices work best for them. This is at the heart of transformative practice, informed by a critical perspective on histories, knowledges and practices. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
Think about the assumptions you bring with you to teaching based on your own experiences. What is your background? What barriers to learning have you overcome in your journey to becoming a teacher? The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers require teachers to work in ways that offer rich learning experiences and high-level learning outcomes for all. How would you approach teaching in a context with which you were not familiar? How could you ensure that your understandings about teaching incorporate the perspectives of all students, irrespective of aspects such as location of the school (i.e. rural or metropolitan), cultural background of families (including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families) or socioeconomic status?
2.2 Social, political, economic and cultural factors shaping education
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LEARNING OBJECTIVE 2.2 Explain how social, political, economic and cultural factors shape educational histories, knowledges and practices, as well as the teaching profession itself, including the marginalisation of Indigenous knowledges and peoples from schooling.
Schools did not always hold the central position in society that they do now. Until about 200 years ago, most people attended school for just a few years. Moreover, the schools they attended were very different from the schools we are familiar with today. Mostly, they were accommodated in multipurpose buildings (e.g. churches and teachers’ homes). They were small, often with only a handful of children, and those children were taught individually, often by rote, with no set curriculum (Barcan 1980; Miller 1986; Vick 1992). Anyone could establish and operate a school as long as they could attract paying customers. In Indigenous societies, schools were unnecessary: the education of children was built seamlessly into the structure of daily life and social obligation. Now, most schools are large, formal institutions in purpose-built accommodation, organised into ageand attainment-graded classes, with set curricula and group teaching. Governments make strong claims on children’s time and families’ rights in respect of their children, and urge a commitment to ‘lifelong learning’ (MCEEDYA 2008) and the ‘pedagogisation’ of the whole of life (Bonal & Rambla 2003). Understanding how schooling has evolved will help you develop an appreciation of the significance of many aspects of education. Until about the 1850s schools in Australia were provided by a mix of the following: individual school teacher initiatives, churches and local ad hoc school committees. From about 1850 to the 1870s the government played a small but significant role by subsidising some schools to ensure that schools operated in every community (Vick 1992). From the 1870s the states (starting with Victoria in 1872, through to Western Australia in 1896) began to establish powerful departments of education to provide secular primary schooling to ‘every child’ (Austin 1972). In practice, however, they showed little interest in the education of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander children, who were left largely to the missionaries until the 1970s (Foley 2007). The Catholic Church took exception to the state’s secular approach — what the church saw as a ‘godless education’ — and set up a rival system, using unpaid orders of religion such as Mary MacKillop’s Sisters of St Joseph (Chapman & O’Donoghue 2007). Secondary education continued CHAPTER 2 Historical insights into teaching
45
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to be provided by churches, independent school trusts and private teachers. Federation in 1901 left responsibility for education with the states, and the system remained largely unchanged until the early twentieth century. At that time, the states began to move into secondary schooling (Sherington, Peterson & Brice 1987), although state systems did not rival private secondary school provision until the 1950s (Teese 1983). The development of kindergartens, starting in the late 1800s and expanding considerably in the early 1900s, took place outside the mainstream school system, largely through the philanthropic work of middle-class women. In the 1970s, the Whitlam federal government took an increasingly major role in funding and shaping educational policy, although it had no powers to directly establish schools. Its funding arrangements had a major impact on the rapid growth of Catholic systemic secondary schools and a range of other religious primary and secondary schools. These developments are summarised in table 2.2. (For a more comprehensive overview, see Barcan 1980, 2010.) This pattern of provision and the changing importance of education are inseparable from the changing social, cultural and economic contexts of education and the different purposes to which those contexts give rise for different educational stakeholder groups. Across the history of schooling in Australia, as elsewhere, education gradually developed four distinct purposes: 1. ensuring social and political stability 2. building a national culture 3. contributing to the economy 4. enabling social, cultural and economic improvement on the part of individual parents and children, and contributing to the development and wellbeing of young people as they grow into adults. In the earliest days of white settlement of Australia, a major purpose driving the provision of schools, especially by the churches, was to ensure a stable, orderly society by moralising the children of convicts. Considerably transformed, this purpose continues in the form of values education, often embedded in the social studies and related curricula (Fraenkel 1973; Selman 1971; Toomey & Lovat 2007). By the 1850s, with the prospect of democratic colonial government, this social purpose shifted to ensuring that the population at large could use their voting power ‘sensibly’ to promote the common good. After World War II, schools also took on the important additional role of facilitating a more just and equal society (Connell 1993; Miller 1986). At the same time, schools took on the purpose of creating a sense of common identity and interest among the wide range of national, ethnic and religious groups that already comprised Australian society. In the nineteenth century, this common culture was built around British imperial identity and loyalty, totally ignoring Indigenous cultures. This transformed into national loyalty in the 1900s with Federation. This, in turn, changed from a sense of the nation as essentially British until the 1970s (with Indigenous and non-British immigrant children deliberately assimilated into Anglo-Australian culture) to a sense of the nation as harmoniously multicultural from the 1970s onwards (Selleck 1982). From around the 1900s, as economic productivity became more dependent on education, schools took on an explicit economic purpose. This accelerated from the 1950s with the rise of a much larger administrative and professional sector of the economy and, more recently, with the rise of the globalised ‘knowledge economy’ (State of Queensland 2002). This trend has also been boosted by the national and international comparisons now widely used to measure states’ and nations’ educational performance; for example, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) and the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) (Masters 2009). Additionally, there has been increased awareness and knowledge within state and federal education about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander educational policy and practices. This is evidenced through the Embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Perspectives in Schools (EATSIPS) framework (DET 2011) and the development of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Strategy. From the outset, one purpose of education was self-improvement. Initially this took the form of participating more fully in an increasingly literate culture. With the growing economic role of education, however, it also offered opportunities for economic advancement. 46
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TABLE 2.2
Historical development of provision and governance of education in Australia
Period
Provision
Governance
To 1850
Schools provided by churches, local communities, individual teachers
Governance at individual school level; many teachers empowered through ownership of their schools
1850–1870s
School provision continues as before, but with some government financial support
Governments begin to intervene in school governance by tying funding to inspection and limited regulation
Government-supported schools form the basis of emerging public school systems 1870s–1900
Comprehensive state departments formed to fully fund and control secular public primary schools
Tighter governance of schools by education departments empowered to regulate in detail all aspects of schooling
Middle and secondary schools continue as private ventures
Direct disciplinary powers over teachers
Catholic Church establishes its own separate, church-funded system 1900–1950
Parents often empowered through school committees with power to employ teachers
States begin to provide secondary schools Most secondary schooling still provided by private schools
Governments make school attendance compulsory for ages 5 to 11 or 12 Parental involvement in governance removed Governance of public schools continues unchanged Private and secondary schools come under increasing regulation by government, enforced by power to close schools Minimal formal regulation of curriculum Governments raise school leaving age to 14 or 15
1950–1970
State schools begin to dominate provision of secondary places Rapid growth in secondary school participation
1970s–2000
Systematic Commonwealth funding for education, including private schools Rapid growth of private sector, including Catholic systemic secondary and other religious schools
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2000–present
Governance as for previous period, but senior secondary curriculum governed by independent public examinations boards dominated by universities Increasing role of Commonwealth government in shaping schooling purposes and policy, exercised through education budget allocations to states Raise effective school-leaving age through restricted access to social security
Funding for public schools largely through state education departments
Restoration of minimum governance role for parents in state schools through school councils; governance of private schools remains with school councils, constrained by government policy
Systematic Commonwealth funding for education, including private schools
National governance of curriculum and teacher professional standards
Rapid growth of private sector, including Catholic systemic secondary and other religious schools
State-level teacher registration bodies with teacher representation exercise governance of teachers through accreditation of teacher education and regulation of teachers through registration and professional standards
Funding for public schools largely through state education departments
Stakeholders and educational interests and needs The growing importance of education, the different purposes of education and the structure of educational provision underpinned the emergence of different educational stakeholders and, in turn, tensions between their various interests in education. CHAPTER 2 Historical insights into teaching
47
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Governments as stakeholders were interested from the outset in the social and cultural purposes of education. From the early 1900s, and accelerating through the post-war period into the present, they were also interested in the contribution of education to national economic growth. Business as a stakeholder group has shared with government a core interest in the economic role of education, but with a distinctive twist: in the 1800s employers were interested in schools’ capacity to instil habits (e.g. self-discipline and punctuality) and values (e.g. respect for authority) that would make people better workers. In the early 1900s they became particularly interested in having schools stream people into curricula that would fit them for different types of occupations on the basis of gender and ability (McCallum 1990). Families as stakeholders share an interest in education for individual self-improvement — both culturally and economically. However, families make up a very diverse stakeholder group. Not all families were or are equally well placed to take advantage of the opportunities schools offer. Across the past century, the social group most successful in capitalising on the opportunities schools offered for social and economic advancement of their children were urban, middle-class parents (Campbell & Sherington 2006). Indigenous families and parents of low socioeconomic status were, from the start, effectively excluded from the sort of engagement with schools that would have made advancement of their children possible (Vick 1992). Students are also stakeholders independently of their families. They have particular interests in the ways schools are organised, the social relations of schooling, the regimes of teaching and learning, and the codes for regulating behaviour. As young children in early childhood and primary settings, they experience the tensions between the regime of home and the regime of school. As young adults, many middle, secondary and senior secondary school students experience the tensions between their semi-adult outof-school lives and their regulation as legal children in school, as well as between their sense of the purposes schools should serve and the teaching and learning they actually experience. It is crucial, as Starrenburg (2011) argues, to listen to what students say about their experiences of schooling and the place of education in their hopes and dreams for their lives. Teachers are clearly a major stakeholder group. They have a major interest in their working conditions, their status as a profession, and issues of quality and social justice in education. They have been highly organised into teacher unions and associations for most of the history of mass schooling and have consistently battled for improvements on each of these fronts (Hyams 1979). It is important to note that teachers often develop a sense of themselves as professionals, which leads them to understand themselves as educational experts (see ‘Shaping the profession’ later in this chapter), and regard their professional knowledge as meaning that they do not need to listen attentively and consider seriously the knowledge, insights, values, and hopes and dreams of the young people they teach and their families. Advocacy groups are also key stakeholders, representing particular groups of students such as Indigenous students (Aboriginal Education Consultative Group, Victorian Aboriginal Education Association Incorporated, South Australian Aboriginal Education and Training Consultative Body, ACT’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Consultative Group), refugee children (Australian Refugee Association) and children and young people with disability (Children and Young People with Disability Australia) to name a few. There is a move to establish peak community advocacy and advisory bodies, such as the nationwide network of Indigenous Education Consultative Bodies (IECBs), which represents the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across Australia on education. IECB delegates hold positions on local, state and national boards and advisory groups in education. For 150 years the media have acted as a stakeholder group, holding themselves up as representatives of public opinion, expressing and guaranteeing ‘the public interest’. However, contemporary business pressures have escalated the media’s interest in education for its capacity to provide a good story, which has compromised its capacity to present a balanced view. Over the past decade, the wide uptake of new technologies and social media has given voice to individuals and entities through platforms such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, with the potential to influence key stakeholders across a range of educational issues.
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Key stakeholder interests in education over time are presented in table 2.3. A consequence of the proliferation of stakeholder groups, and the diversity of their interests, is that education and schooling are highly contested, as different stakeholder groups struggle to ensure that their voices are heard and their own needs and interests are served. In this context, the structures and systems of governance of education are most important. TABLE 2.3
Stakeholders’ interests and voices Stakeholder
Period
Government
Business
Media
Families
Teachers
Students
1850–1875
Unifying common culture, forming citizens
General work-related disciplines and attitudes
Speak for public interest
Direct control in schooling
Working conditions
Promote values associated with government and (post-1900) business
Education for self-improvement
Professional status
Directly subject to school practices
Increasingly marginalised
Professional standards and educational quality
1875–1900
Self-improvement 1900–1970
National economy added to common culture and citizenship
Work-related skills and knowledge; preparation for differentiated labour market
1970–2000
2000–
Increased oversight from federal government, rhetoric of minimum standards and global rankings
Knowledge and creativity for competitive global knowledge economy
Education for socioeconomic advancement of children
Directly experience home–school tensions No voice
Voice through unions
No formal voice
Continue to speak for public interest, but also sensationalist ‘beat up’ issues
Socioeconomic advancement
Social media enables individuals to exert influence and disseminate personal opinion
Increased voice for families from marginalised communities through advocacy groups (ATSI, refugees)
Subject to school practices
Some voice through school governance
Experience home–school tensions Some voice through school student councils Increasing legal rights
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Governance Classrooms are, of course, parts of schools, which are in turn parts of larger organisational structures. Those structures and all elements within them are shaped in different ways by systems of governance. Governance refers to the policies, regulations and procedures used to manage a system or organisation. In the context of schools, governance refers to the methods used to achieve the broad purposes for which governments support education, in the case of public schools and publicly funded aspects of private schooling, and the more specific outcomes that are sought by particular school systems, and school councils in the case of independent schools. Recall the group from the opening case. They would not be able to fully understand the significance of professional standards without understanding the current system of governance of education. They would not be able to understand the significance, strengths and limitations of that system without some knowledge of alternatives, such as those that a historical survey of the governance of education might reveal. CHAPTER 2 Historical insights into teaching
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Private school providers have always necessarily established their own systems of governance internally, but historically these have been institution-specific, depending on the particular way the school was established — whether by boards of trustees, churches or entrepreneurial individual teachers. With the introduction of government support for schooling — and the beginning of public school systems around the 1850s — came formal systems of governance (Vick 1992). Government boards established fairly minimal sets of regulations that determined the broad scope of the curriculum, the number of students needed and the standards required of school premises. The regulations required that teachers be of good character and indicated that teachers had to meet certain ‘standards’ of teaching in order to secure funding (though they did not attempt to define these ‘standards’). The government boards enforced the regulations through: r their capacity to grant or withhold funding r a team of school inspectors appointed to report on quality and compliance. The education departments established from the 1870s regulated all aspects of schooling in fine detail. One infamous but short-lived regulatory mechanism was the ‘payment by results’ scheme, whereby the inspector conducted a surprise visit to a school and tested classes in various subjects; up to one-quarter of a teacher’s salary depended on the students’ results in those tests. The Catholic systems adopted a similar approach, reinforced by religious authority. These developments involved changes in both the mode of governance (from indirect governance — largely dependent on market forces, underpinned by general financial incentives — to very direct governance) and the intensity of governance (from minimal regulation of, for example, curriculum or the scope of teachers’ duties, to minutely detailed specification of what was required of teachers). This system of governance expanded after 1900 to cover the growing state and private secondary sectors and lasted until the 1970s. From the 1950s, the Commonwealth government began growing a new layer of governance over the top of the existing layers. Initially, it used ad hoc financial incentives to promote particular improvements — for example, in school libraries and science laboratories. In the 1970s, however, it brought all schools within a national framework of governance. Administratively, for the most part, the processes of governance of state schools continued to operate largely through the state systems. (There was a brief exception in the 1970s when the Whitlam government sought to promote innovations at the school level by bypassing the state departments, which it saw as deeply conservative.) For non-government systems, governance at a national level has tied funding to specific policy objectives and has been implemented through accountability procedures. Whatever the formal administrative channels, it is clear that the capacity to shape education has shifted significantly from state to federal level (Barcan 1980). From the 1970s there were significant changes in the direct governance of teachers within state systems. The detailed inspection of teachers’ work was abandoned and the inspectorate itself was dismantled. The various teacher registration bodies (see table 2.1), operating independently of governments and education departments, and usually with significant teacher representation, took the place of the inspectorate. Such bodies have the power to define professional standards (for all teachers, public and private), accredit programs (such as the one you are studying in) and establish requirements for continuous updating of professional knowledge after graduation. For the purposes of this text, the significance of these systems of governance is twofold. First, different governance arrangements have differing impacts on teachers, teachers’ work and student learning, as illustrated in the three examples outlined in table 2.4. Second, they empower different stakeholders differently. In practice, government is overwhelmingly dominant, but teacher representation on teacher registration bodies may give teachers a voice in shaping the profession. It should be noted though that even the establishment of school councils with parent representation as part of local school governance has not given parents any effective role in shaping the work teachers do with their children.
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TABLE 2.4
The impact of governance on teachers and their work
Payment by results (1880s)
Teachers pressured to push classes to mindlessly rote learn testable facts and processes
The Commonwealth scheme to provide school libraries (1960s)
Provided the resources that enabled teachers to require students to engage in independent learning
Schools Commission Innovations Program (1970s)
Teachers and schools enabled to bypass their state departments for projects that would transform teaching and learning in a multitude of ways
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Shaping the profession The modern profession of teaching was created at about the same time as the first school systems. It was created in competition with other quite different understandings and practices of teaching, and ways of becoming a teacher. Until the late 1800s, anyone who had something to offer in the way of learning, from rudimentary skills of reading to the most advanced scientific, literary, artistic or ‘practical’ education, could open a school or apply to the local community to teach in its school. They were not required to have ‘teaching qualifications’, and such formal qualifications were rare. Rather they were subject to market forces — if parents were satisfied with the education of their children, the school stayed in business, or the teacher stayed in employment; if not, children’s attendance dropped and they went out of business, or they were sacked. This changed dramatically with the rise of the ‘modern’ classroom and the beginnings of formal, systematic governance of education. Prospective teachers for the emerging public school systems were now required to read the growing education literature and undertake some training in the ‘approved’ methods. Entry to the occupation was regulated by examinations set by employers. Many of the teachers who had already been trained in England or elsewhere actively promoted the new ways, including a vision of teaching as a social mission. They argued that teaching should be seen as a profession, with powers to develop standards and regulate entry to the profession. Governments partly supported these views. Establishing school systems was costly, however, and their strategy in practice was to attract two groups for whom any salaried position would be better than most alternatives open to them: women and workingclass men. Any moral and educational ‘deficiencies’ could be offset by tight regulation, strict discipline and brief training in ‘model’ schools (Hyams 1979). Thus, teaching was created as a low status, low paid, highly regulated, gendered occupation. Women were paid substantially less than men, and worked mostly in the teaching of very young children and in rank and file rather than higher-level positions. Overall, the profession came to be numerically dominated by women, but organisationally dominated by men. In this context, the early focus of teacher unions was on ‘professional self improvement’ (Hyams 1979). In many important respects the teaching profession today continues to reflect these origins — in its social and gendered composition, its struggle for professional status, and the strength and focus of its unions (Connell 1985; Mackinnon 1997; Rousmaniere 1997; Theobald 1996). Attempts to improve the standing of teachers as professionals led to the preparation of teachers in teachers’ colleges and university departments of education after 1900. Programs combined academic study of education, technical studies of curriculum, school systems and departmental regulations, and practical experience in schools. Academic study meant that incoming teachers were introduced to understandings of teachers’ work by the writings of the most internationally renowned scholars, researchers and theorists. This provided an authoritative knowledge base for teachers, not only informing their work but giving them claims to professional expertise. This led to tensions between the colleges and the departments, as academic research highlighted significant problems in mass schooling: tensions between narrow disciplinary and occupational preparation, the broader moral and cultural growth and (from psychology) the development of the whole individual (Vick 2006a). Such work included research on individual differences, sponsored by the Australian Council for Educational Research, and on a range of curricular and pedagogical matters, conducted by staff at Sydney Teachers College and disseminated through the Education Society. CHAPTER 2 Historical insights into teaching
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Additionally, some studies highlighted the role of play in learning, especially for younger children, in ways that challenged normal classroom practice. Such considerations led teachers’ colleges to view their role not just as preparing teachers who were ready for work and could take their place in schools, but as the new generation of teachers of vision, who might undertake the work of transforming existing practice for the better. These tensions were heightened from the 1970s, when the Commonwealth government intervened to turn the education departments’ teachers’ colleges into independent colleges of advanced education. Teacher education is now predominantly carried out in universities, where pre-service teachers are challenged to learn the scholarly knowledge required to be an educator, while also applying what they learn to current practice. It is important to recognise that, as with schooling, universities historically have not always been places that have welcomed people with diverse backgrounds such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. No Aboriginal people graduated from university until the late 1960s: Charles Perkins was the first male to graduate (from the University of Sydney) and Margaret Valadian the first Aboriginal woman (from the University of Queensland). As with other professions, teaching therefore has a shortage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander educators. Teachers’ attempts to shape their work, in terms of teaching and learning and industrial conditions, have been constrained by governance regimes. They are also subject to competing demands from different stakeholders, some of which are built into governance, but others of which emanate from outside. Educators need to decide how to balance the competing interests of stakeholders with their own understandings of how to be a quality teacher — a matter of ethical and political judgement as well as a technical matter of deciding how best to achieve those purposes. It is worth noticing that the development of professional standards in Australia has involved consultation with teachers, and that the bodies that govern teacher registration include teachers, with an aim to include representation from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It is also worth asking to what extent this gives teachers a significant voice in governing our profession, to what extent this incorporation of teachers works to align teachers with government, and to what extent the incorporation of teachers might reinforce taken-for-granted practices on the one hand, or critical understandings on the other. Balancing the purposes of different social groups is complicated by the fact that not all stakeholders are equally placed to express their views or have them heard — a minister of education, for instance, has a much greater voice than a parent with minimal education and a deep insecurity in dealing with the school but who is desperate for their child to succeed. One way the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers seek to ensure that parents are included as stakeholders is through Standard 7 ‘Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community’. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
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As a beginning teacher, one of the challenges you will face is being able to effectively communicate your decisions, based on professional judgement, to other educators and parents/caregivers. Your underlying beliefs and principles about teaching will frame the way you respond to issues, such as classroom disruptions or student behaviour. How will you work towards overcoming historical disadvantage in your classroom with your Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students? Access the website www.strongersmarter.com.au and reflect on your approach to this complex challenge. In particular, read about establishing high expectations relationships. How does this approach differ from a deficit discourse, which suggests that Indigenous children are less able to learn than their non-Indigenous counterparts because of their background and their need to ‘catch up’ to other children? Explore how and why our own beliefs and assumptions impact on interactions with Indigenous peoples and how this translates into a classroom environment between teachers and students.
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2.3 Discourses of education LEARNING OBJECTIVE 2.3 Describe how discourses of education might shape your capacity to think creatively and critically about your professional practice.
The development of a body of research and theory that constitutes the core knowledge of the teaching profession has been integral to the development of modern schooling and the profession. The body of research and theory comprise discourses of education. Referring to them as ‘discourses’ indicates that they are a structured, highly organised body of ideas, principles and ways of establishing credibility that is largely taken for granted as being the authoritative knowledge of the field. From the beginning of mass schooling, its advocates and developers generated general principles of teaching. Many of these related to the social purposes of education — building a national culture and inculcating disciplined habits — for which governments and business stakeholders promoted mass schooling. Later, when it became clear that schools might make a contribution to the economy, economic purposes began to figure in educational discourse. These understandings of the purposes of education shaped ideas about the curriculum, teaching and the management of classrooms (including students’ behaviour and the characteristics of the ideal teacher). The realities of schools also forced new issues into consideration; for example, the fact that children subject to various contagious diseases were now brought together daily forced matters of health into educational discourse (Vick 1997). As school systems became more extensive and more comprehensive, and as training in teachers’ colleges became better established, there was a transformation in the discourses of education. They shifted from in-principle arguments about what should work and philosophical arguments about children’s needs, to arguments based on empirical observations and statistical data, increasingly theorised from within the frameworks of psychology (and later sociology) and couched in the authoritative language of science (McCallum 1990; Vick 2006b). FIGURE 2.1
The circular relationship between school systems and the discourses of education
Schools — structures, practices, outcomes
Make recommendations about what should be
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Growth of educational knowledge/discourse
Site for research
Presents findings about what is
The relationship between school systems and the discourses of education is, in fact, circular. (This idea is illustrated in figure 2.1.) Schools need better knowledge about how to make them work (for the purposes already established). They provide the sites for observations and experimental comparisons. The departments’ own records provide statistical data about what children of different ages know and do. University departments of education provide a need and a market for such literature. They employ a group of people whose jobs give them opportunities to systematically and formally study educational practices and outcomes, and whose claims to academic authority are boosted by producing such studies. CHAPTER 2 Historical insights into teaching
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In an important sense then, education discourse describes existing educational arrangements and the issues arising within them. At the same time, the use of the authoritative language of science, research and theory, and the use of these discourses to derive ideas for practice makes them normative — discourses about what ought to happen. A crucial feature of mainstream discourses of education is that they shape our capacity to think about educational issues and practices. They enable us to think about such things as ‘children’s needs’ or ‘best practice’, but they also limit the ways we can think about them. In this way, dominant discourses in education are linked to taken-for-granted understandings and to ‘practice as usual’. One of the ways this happens is by maintaining the view that, as professionals, we know what is best for others; it positions us as ‘experts’ about other people’s needs (Baker 1999), so that we continue to do what has become taken for granted as good practice, and cannot listen to the young people in our classes, their families and communities. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
For Indigenous students, mainstream discourses of education are problematic due to the lack of representation of their own cultures. If, as is outlined above, teachers as professionals take good practice for granted and don’t draw on the input of Indigenous students, families and communities, this can impact on inclusive teaching practices. Read the report by ACER on Critical pedagogies and improving Indigenous learning outcomes through cultural responsiveness (Krakouer 2015). Reflect on the hidden curriculum, even within your own education. What aspects can you identify and share? How does the lack of representation of people from their own culture in school communities impact Indigenous learning outcomes? How can you, in your role as a teacher, address marginalisation of Indigenous knowledges and peoples from schooling?
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Discourses of the child One important strand within the discourses of education concerns the nature of ‘the child’. From the earliest days of mass schooling, education discourse constructed ‘the child’ as different from ‘the adult’. In particular, the child lacked capacities that characterised the adult, needed protection and was unable to engage in meaningful decisions about what they should learn or how they should behave. Such notions underpinned, and continue to underpin, the presumption that ‘the teacher’ or other adults should determine the curriculum, construct learning experiences for the child and be responsible for the social, behavioural and moral order of the classroom (Baker 1998; Tyler 1993; Whitehead 2006). Equally, however, such discourses stressed, across the history of modern schooling, the importance of the ‘whole child’. The whole child is commonly understood as including body, mind and spirit or heart. Such discourses had implications for the role of the teacher not only in imparting knowledge and skills, but in engaging the child’s intelligence, providing nurturance and pastoral care, and developing habits and attitudes of self-discipline and proper subordination (Hunter 1988, 1994; Patterson 2002). With the growth of educational research, theories of the child became more differentiated. Differentiation involved the division of general theories of the child into specific subfields; for example, motivation and behaviour, cognitive and moral development, intelligence(s) and personality, and how the child learns. Each subfield was further divided into rival theories with different implications for teachers. This body of research also led to theories of differences between individual children. The establishment of ‘intelligence’, in particular, as a measurable attribute of each child gave researchers, school and system administrators, and teachers the means to differentiate between individual children. Of course, teachers had always differentiated between children based on perceptions of different abilities, but had done so in intuitive, ‘commonsense’ ways, using vague notions such as ‘bright’ and ‘dull’. The development of scientific definitions and measurements gave precision to the task and enabled educationists to make scientific decisions about the social, occupational and educational needs and capacities of individual children. 54
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Once individual differences could be established and reliably measured, it was a short step to exploring other aspects of children; for example, their physical, emotional and behavioural characteristics, and their backgrounds (i.e. gender, social class and ‘race’ [widely used as a term, but used in a wide variety of ways]).
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Discourses of education often focus on the nature and role of the child and the teacher.
Thus, a growing body of internationally circulated psychological research, including that by Cyril Burt in England and a range of researchers strongly supported by major philanthropic foundations in the USA, ‘proved’ that poorer classes were less intelligent than wealthier classes; that the olive-complexioned European races were less intelligent than the paler north-western Europeans; and that the coloured races were less intelligent again, with the Australian Aboriginal race constructed as perhaps the least intelligent race on the planet (Karier 1972; Miller 1986; McCallum 1990; Wooldridge 1994). Of course, these claims were highly problematic and have been discredited, but the fact that they claimed the authority of science meant that they were widely accepted at the time, and this encouraged racist and discriminatory views of Indigenous peoples that continue to be present in society. However, Australian classrooms are becoming increasingly diverse, with many students coming from overseas as well as being raised by parents of different cultural backgrounds. Discriminatory views and stereotypes are increasingly being addressed in schools, with more diverse stakeholders being involved in education (i.e. through parent and teacher associations, professional organisations and advocacy groups), resulting in more inclusive policies and practices. There are media campaigns that highlight these inequities, such as the Beyond Blue Invisible Discriminator social media campaign, which helps schools unpack discriminatory views and practices. Additionally, resources are available for teachers to help them understand and cater for student differences in the classroom, such as how Indigenous students are distinct from non-Indigenous peers (Martin 2005; Martin 2007). CHAPTER 2 Historical insights into teaching
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Normal and alternative educational ideas While much educational discourse focused on, and took for granted, the prevailing normal arrangements of schooling, theoretical studies of children and their learning and other needs led to a body of discourse critical of existing schooling and articulating a range of alternatives. These included the kindergarten movement from the late 1800s, with an emphasis on play, self-expression, and the artistic and emotional dimensions of learning and personal development; the Montessori approach to early childhood education; and a range of ideas (and schools) that drew on Freudian psychoanalysis to prioritise the working out of children’s emotional conflicts as a precondition for academic learning (Lawson & Petersen 1972). Similarly, sociological studies of educational outcomes brought about education discourses that focused on social participation as a central concern of education, advocating school-level democratic principles and practices, reconceptualising the social justice role of school, and exploring models of teaching, learning and curriculum that might facilitate that role (Connell, Ashenden, Kessler & Dowsett 1982).
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Theory and practice in educational discourse Discourses of education had always stressed that theories of education were fundamental to good practice. Indeed, teaching not grounded in and driven by theory was described as ‘mere empiricism’, ‘tricks of the trade’ or ‘recipe’ teaching. This presumed a relationship between educational theory and teaching practice in which theoretical knowledge, derived from observation of and reflection on practice, was considered more important than ‘mere’ practical knowledge. The implication of this was that practice should be based on theory (Vick 2006a). Two factors led to the relationship between theory and practice becoming looser. First, the production of theoretical knowledge was increasingly generated by people not teaching in schools. Second, the methods for developing theory focused increasingly on the development of fully articulated theories. Thus it became increasingly difficult to see how theory and practice were related — a common complaint raised by pre-service and graduate teachers (Ramsey 2000). The distance from the daily problems of practice in existing classrooms, however, created greater capacity to identify problems within the school systems and to offer transformative strategies. It enabled theory to be critical, in the sense the word has been used in this chapter. For pre-service and graduate teachers, this produced tension between wanting to transform, on the one hand, and the daily pressures to perform according to the established demands and routines and commonsense understandings and practices of schooling as usual, on the other. Several important issues arise from this understanding of educational discourses. First, however important and valuable these discourses might be in constituting a body of professional knowledge about teaching, they are problematic for several reasons (Griffin 2008; Zeichner 1989). r Many of the things that were taken for granted as scientifically established truths about education have turned out to be reflections of social values or, worse, prejudices in relation to class, gender, ethnicity, race or culture. r Rather than knowledge of ‘education’ or ‘children’, education discourses reflect knowledge of educational practices and children’s learning and behaviour in schools — and not just any type of school, or school as an abstract concept, but schools organised and conducted in very specific ways. r The status of teachers’ professional knowledge base often leads teachers to disregard the knowledge and insights of parents and to marginalise them as partners in the education of their children. Second, discourses of education do not comprise a single systematic or coherent body of thought. Rather, they include a widely diverse array of theories and highly divergent views, and address varying aspects of education. This makes it very difficult to find a simple theoretical answer to the complex practical problems encountered in educational endeavours. Third, discourses of education limit the capacity to think ‘outside the square’. The particular intellectual tools they provide guide thoughts in some particular ways and not in others. For example, discourses of education may focus thought on the rational mind and not on the emotions. Further, in so far as they offer sociological explanations for different aspects of educational participation and outcomes, they can lead 56
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to a strong sense of how little can be achieved, which in turn can foster defeatist attitudes in relation to engagement and learning on the part of rural, Indigenous and low socioeconomic status students (Cook 2008). We have seen, then, that it is important to adopt a critical perspective on the discourses of education. Nonetheless, they offer exceptionally powerful means to think through complex educational problems and thereby form the basis for making richly informed professional judgements in a wide range of situations and contexts. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
The fact that discourses of education do not form a neat, self-consistent or unified whole presents you as a teacher with significant challenges. In implementing Standard 3 (Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning) and Standard 4 (Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments) you are likely to be under considerable pressure to adopt practice as usual. Critical discourses can help us understand the ways practice as usual produces poor outcomes for many students. One implication for all of us as teachers is that, as we ‘engage in professional learning’ (Standard 6), we should explore the ways critical discourses can help us develop ways of seeing the limits of practice as usual, and classroom strategies that go beyond those limits. For you as a pre-service teacher, this might mean identifying and reading, re-reading and thinking carefully through chapters and articles that offer critical perspectives on curriculum, pedagogy, classroom management and technologies of schooling. Taking it further: Conduct some research on a pedagogical practice called ‘8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning’. Would you consider it best practice for Indigenous students? Discuss the benefits of using Indigenous pedagogy in a classroom featuring students of many different cultural backgrounds.
2.4 Pedagogy, curriculum, classroom management and technologies LEARNING OBJECTIVE 2.4 Describe how pedagogy, curriculum, behaviour management and educational technologies have been shaped historically and how understanding this might inform a transformative approach to your work.
Pedagogy, curriculum, classroom management and technologies of schooling are — and always have been — key areas of concern for stakeholders in education. In this section of the chapter, we discuss each of these in turn, looking at how they have been shaped over time and how a critical perspective on these topics can help you achieve a transformative approach to your work as a teacher.
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Pedagogy From well before the 1850s and the birth of mass school systems, moralists, other social commentators and educators had become interested in the question of how best to teach children (Hunter 1994). Notice the focus here on the teacher teaching, as distinct from the student learning. Teacher-centred pedagogy continues to be widespread, dominated by the content of what teachers say, and the amount of time taken up by teacher talk. This focus has remained a major centre of attention. The focus on the teacher was only challenged — with limited success — by the rather different focus on children’s learning into the twentieth century (see, for example, Cole 1932). A problem with the focus on teaching, at the expense of a focus on learning, is that it reduces teaching to a matter of technique. This can easily slip into a ‘one size fits all’ approach or — a close variation on this — an approach that sees different techniques applied in blanket fashion to whole social categories of children, such as the recommendation ‘don’t look Indigenous children in the eye’. Until quite recently, such approaches were widely accepted, despite the crude generalisations they rested on. CHAPTER 2 Historical insights into teaching
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The term pedagogy has become popular again in recent years as part of an attempt to integrate a proper recognition of the important role of the teacher and their teaching with the equally important recognition that instructing a class does not necessarily produce learning. Pedagogy captures not only what teachers do, in the form of teachers’ actions, but also their role in making judgements and decisions that take into account a wide range of understandings of students and their needs (Brady 2003; Foley 2007). The focus on the teacher is associated with a repertoire of activities and actions that have been central to the collective images of teaching for more than 150 years: the teacher standing at the front, talking, writing on the board and controlling (at least in intent) virtually everything that takes place in the classroom. The fact that it is so dominant is a powerful indication of its hold over the imagination. Unless teachers deliberately choose and cultivate the capacity to do otherwise, it is likely to dominate their own classroom practice (Vick 2008). In this scenario, the teacher is the active agent; the students are passive. The focus is on the teaching, not on the learning. This approach is closely tied to the social technologies embedded in school architecture, and to the normalised and normalising discourses of education noted earlier in this chapter. It is the almost overwhelming power of this taken-for-granted view of teaching, reinforced by the factors noted above, that makes it so universal, so difficult to resist and so difficult to do otherwise. Across the history of mass schooling, it has been unusual to describe what teachers do, in terms of the actions they perform (e.g. speaking, pointing and writing on the board). It is also unusual to talk about how these actions involve the exercise of power and control in the classroom (except when referring specifically to discipline and the management of classroom behaviour). Rather, teachers’ intentions are spoken of: ‘settling the class’ or ‘establishing proper conditions for learning’. Thus, a lesson plan might say the teacher will ‘settle the class, introduce anticipatory set; exposition of new concepts and content; consolidation exercise — individual practice, check and revise student understandings; settle class, tidy room and dismiss’. What happens in practice is that teachers walk into the room, stand at the front and talk. Some of the talk will be about asserting control over the other people in the room; for example, persuading them to sit down in particular places, and not to talk, or listen to their iPods or text each other on their mobile phones. Some of it will be telling the other people in the room what they should know — even what they should ‘make’ of what they know (information and understanding) or what they should be able to do with what they know (the ‘what learners know and can do’ or outcomes-based approaches). Later it will be telling them what activities to do (e.g. write, draw or calculate). It may be telling them that they may now ask questions — giving them an opportunity to talk, but under particular rules and conditions. While this might not be a ‘nice’ or comforting way to talk about what teachers do, it does allow thought to be given to the ways ‘pedagogical strategies’ are based on teacher control, rather than on student learning. Noticing this allows us to consider other ways of doing things — ways that might focus more on student learning (Vick & Martinez 2011). Underlying this discussion is the recognition that pedagogy involves the exercise of power. Often power is thought about as simply repressive, so that the only good thing to do with it is to get rid of it. However, a quite different understanding sees power as productive — it can shape the development of particular capacities (McHoul & Grace 1993). This lets us ask what particular capacities different forms of pedagogy lead to: capacities to engage in independent decision making and effective social action? or capacities only to accept and to follow? The problem with practice as usual is that it is more likely to teach how to accept and to follow than how to be an independent decision maker and effective social actor. A critical perspective on pedagogy, and how it has remained largely unchanged over the history of mass schooling, reveals how professional practice might be severely limited by the capacity to understand what is being done, and lets us imagine what might be done differently. Understanding how thinking as usual constrains teachers in their practice offers the possibility of asking what different pedagogical practices might be available or possible, how teachers might engage in them and what sorts of consequences such different practices might have for students’ own learning. Such an approach is crucial if teachers are to shape practice and engage in educational transformation.
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WHAT CAN I TAKE INTO THE CLASSROOM?
High-stakes national testing, such as NAPLAN, can result in pressure for teachers to engage in teachercentred teaching. This pressure is increasing given the rhetoric surrounding teacher quality and the implication that teachers will be judged by how their students perform in these tests. While transmission pedagogy is an efficient means for providing a basic overview of content, it is not effective as a way of developing the rich and complex understandings of the issues that specific content is intended to facilitate. Recognising the historical, contextual and social pressures to focus on transmission of content and the limitations of transmission pedagogy for effective/deep learning will help you to appreciate the importance of concrete strategies to take into your classroom. How can you design learning opportunities that allow students to cover core content without you telling them? Think about: r authentic learning opportunities r long-term activities that integrate content from more than one discipline area r opportunities for students to be involved in collaborative decision making r the cultural bias that exists in high-stakes testing such as NAPLAN for students who do not speak English as their first language.
Curriculum Of the three core aspects of teachers’ work — pedagogy, curriculum and classroom management — it is curriculum where changes over time can be most easily seen and tracked. This task is, however, complicated by the fact that most curriculum histories deal with only one curricular (subject) area and thus lose sight of the broader features of the curriculum as a whole in any given period. Consequently, the best overviews of curriculum developments as a whole are provided by general historical accounts, rather than by specialised studies. Such overviews point to the broad social processes shaping curriculum and to the broad social purposes curricula serve (Green 2003; Vickers 2010). The following overview draws on two contrasted examples of such general histories (Barcan 1980; Miller 1986). General overviews, however, mask the differentiation between curricula in different parts of the school system (e.g. private colleges versus state high schools), the status of such different curricula, the capacity of the different sectors to shape curriculum, and the status and ‘market value’ of different areas of study (Teese & Polesel 2003). They also readily overlook the significant differences between the experiences of ‘mainstream’ students and those from a diversity of social and cultural backgrounds, such as Indigenous students (Williamson 1991).
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Early curricula (1850–1900) Prior to mass schooling, teachers taught what they wished and what they were able to teach — and what would attract students and their parents’ fees. Not only was there no standard curriculum, but there was no strong notion that such a thing might exist or be desirable. However, the purposes for which mass school systems were established produced a curriculum that would teach morals, ‘good’ social values, some basic skills and some basic knowledge that would help students understand their place in the world. The curriculum, then, focused on reading, writing and arithmetic, and some knowledge of the ‘mighty British Empire’ and of the ‘natural’ hierarchies of society. The curriculum itself was initially not much more than a mere list of subjects. With the development of the education departments, this rapidly transformed into highly specific and detailed lists of subject matter for each subject at each grade level. This form of control over what was taught was supported by the distribution of mandated textbooks and enforced by a regime of examinations to ensure that children had learned what was required (Barcan 1980; Miller 1986).
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In taking a critical perspective on curricula, it is important to study both a broad overview and the significantly different experiences of students from a variety of backgrounds.
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Early twentieth-century curricula By the early twentieth century, this detailed curriculum changed in two important ways. First, it was extended from primary schooling to secondary schooling. Second, as secondary schooling began to expand, it abandoned the common curriculum model of primary schooling in favour of a curriculum that was divided into several parallel streams: academic (for professional and other white collar/clerical occupations), technical (for working class boys to encourage the development of manual trade skills and knowledge to improve workforce productivity) and domestic (for girls to be more efficient wives and mothers — and, as women were increasingly accepted as legitimate participants in the paid workforce, for female occupations) (Mackinnon 1997). In doing so, it borrowed largely from developments in the model progressive economies of the United States and Germany, influenced for the first time by the notion that education might be directly related to specific work-related knowledge and skills. A focus on such developments masks the educational marginalisation of Indigenous students and Indigenous knowledges in the curriculum (Austin 2000; Foley 2007; Partington 1998). The distribution of students into these streams was guided by the newly developed ‘scientific’ notions of intelligence and merit, which held that certain occupations required different levels of intelligence, that different forms of intelligence required different forms of education and that the role of schooling was to match intelligence to curriculum to working futures (McCallum 1990).
Late twentieth-century curricula By the 1970s, a different view had emerged — that education (and life futures) should be based on interests rather than measured intelligence, and that far more people were capable of a far wider range of educational experiences and learning outcomes than had been recognised by the previous approach. In the name of equity there had to be far greater equality of opportunity and a wider range of choices. The 60
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streamed curriculum was replaced by a full range of subjects from which students could pick and choose with minimal constraint (White 1987). At the same time the curriculum was, in most states, becoming less centrally controlled. The old detailed syllabuses for each subject at each year level were being replaced by much broader indications of the sorts of things that might be studied and the sorts of benefits that they might seek to produce. This was driven by two major influences and one minor one. The first major influence, which kickstarted the shift in emphasis, was the desire to build a better society after the horrors of World War II. The second was the growing influence of educational sociology, often left-wing in orientation and committed to the belief that education should transform society rather than maintain social inequalities. The third, at this stage minor, influence was human capital theory, which held that not to educate all members of society to the best of their ability was a waste of their economically valuable potential. Sociology of education was particularly influential in curriculum and equity policy. A wide range of sociological studies of culture and education argued that the curriculum inherited from the past embodied the culture of the elite, that cultures were largely relative, and that marginalised social groups would succeed better if the curriculum embodied more of the culture they were familiar with. Accordingly, the curriculum expanded with a dazzling array of subjects that owed less to the standard academic disciplines and that were more open to the notion (largely from Vygotskian educational psychology; see chapter 3) that students constructed their own knowledge rather than ‘absorbing’ it in any authoritative predetermined form from teachers or textbooks. This flourishing of diversity reflected, in part, the dramatic sense of social change that accompanied the anti–Vietnam War, civil rights, feminist and other movements for reform. It was certainly accompanied by a dramatic reduction in the central regulation of schools and teaching. It also reduced the domination of central examination systems in favour of school- and teacher-based assessment (Aspland, Brooker & O’Donoghue 1993).
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Recent developments The recent movement towards establishing an Australian curriculum has to some extent challenged the states’ traditional and constitutional control of education. While there has been no return to the detailed prescriptive syllabuses that spelt out long lists of facts or skills to be demonstrated, there have been concerted attempts in all states to determine the outcomes students at different levels should achieve and/or the key learning they should undertake. This can easily be seen as a move against the laissez faire approach of the 1960s to 1980s. There are three factors driving this shift. r Educational and cultural conservatives have argued, especially through the mass media, that the educational ‘radicals’ from the 1970s onwards have abandoned or destroyed educational standards. By this they mean both the content of the curriculum (‘meaningless postmodern mumbo jumbo’) and the assessment of students’ learning. r The inheritors of the radical educators of the 1970s and 1980s continue to challenge the exclusive value of the ‘classic’ curriculum advocated by the conservatives. They emphasise the importance of rich learning tasks and intellectual engagement across disciplines with knowledge that directly relates to contemporary social, political and cultural realities. r Economic rationalists and neoliberals — inheritors of the earlier social capital theory — argue that the major role of education is economic in nature. They argue that competing in a globalised economic environment requires the intellectual flexibility and inventiveness promised by engagement in the types of learning indicated by ‘rich tasks’, especially when accompanied by the development of high-level ICT skills. Despite the changes in the detailed forms that the curriculum has taken over the past 150 years, it should be noted just how much of it has remained the same, including its focus on reading and writing (‘literacy’), arithmetic (numeracy), science and the studies of society (traditionally history and geography, but also civics, social studies, SOSE and the like). However, there has been a philosophical shift towards CHAPTER 2 Historical insights into teaching
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fairly and equitably reflecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and peoples in the current Australian Curriculum.
WHAT CAN I TAKE INTO THE CLASSROOM?
As we noted earlier, there are many things you can do to make use of the insights that a critical understanding of educational history might offer. For early childhood settings: Historically, early childhood education has always recognised children’s own agency in their learning and the role of play, and adopted a holistic focus on children’s development. A problem of mainstream schooling, derived from practice as usual in primary and secondary settings, concerns the increasing pressure to engage quite young children in a curriculum that focuses on content and the mastery of specific skills, in particular skills in the use of Standard Australian English. A critical understanding of the multiple purposes of education and the ways they play out in the curriculum will help you take into the classroom an appreciation of the importance of developing strategies for facilitating quality learning for all students in your classroom that recognise that different social groups use different variations in forms of English, but also take into account that mastery of Standard Australian English is crucial for success in school and later life. How will you develop such strategies? Think about: r how you might take into account children’s skill in using ‘other’ variants of English (e.g. Creoles or Aboriginal Englishes), when judging their capacity to use Standard Australian English r how you might be making ‘deficit’ judgements of them on the basis of their use of languages other than Standard Australian English as their first (or second or third) language r how you might make use of children’s confidence in using ‘other’ variants of English as a resource, both for your general teaching across the curriculum and for your specific work in helping them also develop confidence and mastery in the use of Standard Australian English. Access the article Indigenous culture: it’s everybody’s business from www.earlychildhoodaustralia .org.au for more information about cultural competence in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
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Classroom management From the beginning of mass schooling, both descriptive and normative accounts of good education have stressed the management of the school and classroom. During the late 1800s, management concerns focused on a range of issues: organisation of students into classes, organisation of the curriculum and timetable, management of student behaviour, and organisation of classroom space to facilitate learning and behaviour management. By the end of the nineteenth century, the first two of these were effectively solved at the level of system-wide regulation. The latter two — management of behaviour (or ‘classroom discipline’) and the management of the classroom to promote learning — became major concerns for teachers and other stakeholders (Vick 1992). It is not difficult to see why. For 150 years, most schools have brought large numbers of children (at least some of whom did not particularly want to be there) together into a single room, under the authority of a single teacher charged with getting them to learn things that are determined by others and may or may not have any intrinsic interest to the students themselves. Perhaps this is why so many films about teaching, teachers and schools portray classrooms and schools as sites of struggle for order — if not battlegrounds. While contemporary educational policy stresses that the primary focus should be on learning, in practice, taken-for-granted knowledge understandably insists that without order and control it is impossible to teach. Consequently, much discussion of classroom management, historically and now, focuses on ‘discipline’. Early discourses of education stressed what they saw as rational, scientific methods of discipline and the establishment and maintenance of classroom order. Central to these strategies were what one early advocate of rational discipline summarised as ‘detention and ridicule’. From today’s perspective such approaches can appear crude, although we should reflect on the extent to which these two techniques 62
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remain central to the teacher’s ‘armoury’ (noticing, of course, how such a choice of term reflects the sense of the ‘classroom as battleground’, introduced above). This needs to be seen in perspective. The schools that the modern mass school systems sought to replace typically only survived if they enjoyed a level of parent satisfaction. Many of them were, by modern standards, not good places for children. For example, we would not accept today that discipline should involve beating a child. Yet, in the past, the acceptance of corporal punishment reflected the taken-forgranted understanding that the primary responsibility of a teacher was to establish control. Whatever the strategy, a discipline-focused approach stressed the authority and capacity of a teacher to secure effective authority. It put pressure on teachers to act forcefully. Alongside this focus, a parallel approach stressed the moral authority of the teacher and the importance of cultivating the students’ affections, loyalty and desire to do the right thing. Consequently, David Stow, a Scottish educationist whose writings were influential across the English-speaking world, articulated an approach in which the teacher observed carefully children’s ‘free’ playground activities and used examples from their own play to engage them in (strongly guided) moral reflection on their behaviour, with a view to cultivating a moral self-discipline (Hunter 1988, 1994; Patterson 2002). From the beginning of organised schooling, the capacity of teachers to establish and maintain order was a primary concern within the systems of governance. Hence, inspectors’ report forms asked them to observe and comment on the ‘orderliness etc.’ of the classroom. This official emphasis on the importance of establishing order came to be paralleled by pressures from parents, other teachers and even students. A number of studies report that teachers who ‘fail’ to keep an orderly, quiet classroom are often seen by their colleagues as unsatisfactory. This is partly because their failure is seen as evidence of a lack of a key professional competence. In addition, it disrupts others’ classes and teaching (especially where classrooms are in close proximity to one another). Further, a failure to establish ‘standards’ of behaviour is seen to weaken the school’s discipline as a whole and to have flow-on effects to other teachers and classes — to the point where many teachers are deeply nervous about being observed at work by others (Clunies-Ross, Little & Kienhuis 2008).
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Alternative approaches to classroom relations While the ‘control’ approach is dominant in schools and popular culture, it is the ‘engagement’ approach, broadly speaking, that has come to be dominant in the normative research and policy discourses of education. In part, this development has been fuelled by understandings, often rooted in psychology and psychoanalysis, of the relationships between the fundamental needs of children and their behaviour. Put simply, if teachers meet the basic needs of children (from material needs for food and shelter to less tangible needs such as respect and being valued) the behaviour of students is unlikely to be problematic (Lawson & Petersen 1972). However, in the context of pressures to prioritise order, these approaches are often seen as ‘wishywashy’, ineffectual and a sign of the disconnectedness of policy makers and pre-service teacher education programs from the real world of teachers and teaching. The ‘real problem’, in this view, is that such approaches have tied the hands of teachers so that they are unable to establish the conditions under which they can do their (other) core work of teaching. There is little chance a teacher can escape the tension between the daily pressures of class teaching and the ideals of humane and child-centred teaching. This makes it all the more important to develop a critical understanding of the complex issues involved. This will not provide simple generic answers, but it will give you a basis for making on-the-spot judgements that reflect a deep — rather than superficial — appreciation of the issues to be balanced and the options available to you.
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WHAT CAN I TAKE INTO THE CLASSROOM?
There is increasing focus on implementing more ‘innovative’ approaches to teaching and learning for future schooling. An example is open-space learning environments, where often classes are combined into larger groups. This impacts the way teachers work, as their teaching practice is more visible to colleagues. Often teachers working in an open-space learning environment are asked to participate in team-teaching, collaborative planning and to develop more integrated approaches to curriculum. Bearing in mind the many things you can do to make use of the insights that a critical understanding of educational history might offer, consider how the history of schools and classrooms can inform how we understand and approach issues of classroom behavioural and interactional style in such environments. How would you structure classroom activities and respond to children’s behaviours in ways that take the learning environment into account? Think about: r the assumptions you make about ‘good’ classroom behaviour r how you may vary expectations for students who experience learning difficulties or have special needs r how you would incorporate technologies, such as laptops or tablets.
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Technologies of schooling One of the powerful aspects of schooling that almost invisibly shapes much classroom practice (in particular pedagogy and classroom management) — and is, of course, also powerfully shaped by the broader forces shaping education generally — is the technologies of schooling. When people talk about technology in the classroom, they are usually referring to the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) — laptops, tablets, smartboards, googling information online, using word-processing programs for written assignments and PowerPoint or Prezi for orals, and using blogs, wikis, Facebook and Twitter to share or work collaboratively. Teachers are supposed to use these technologies and educate students on how to use them (although in this field many teachers have students who are at least as knowledgeable as they are). Teachers also need to be aware of the dangers and risks associated with ICTs — from predatory uses of the internet to the opportunities to plagiarise work. Some teachers may be concerned about the unfiltered character of the ‘knowledge’ available on the web — where science and good scholarship rub shoulders with misinformation, wild claims and untested opinion. Schools also respond differently to other aspects of technology in the classroom, such as students’ use of mobile phones when they are supposed to be concentrating on their work, and the potential for cyberbullying. The issues previously described, however, tend to reduce ‘technology’ to just ICTs and treat it as though ‘technology’ were a new thing. In fact, the classroom itself and virtually everything in it (books, pens, paper, photocopiers and so on) are educational technologies — tools and processes for doing particular educational tasks in particular ways. In this sense, technology in the classroom is not new; it is as old as the classroom itself. Discussions focused on ICT often talk about technology as if it is the material or virtual objects themselves (e.g. the smartboard, the whiteboard or the blackboard) that are the technology. However, any discussion of technology should also recognise social technologies — the organisation and use of spaces, relationships, procedures, artefacts and so on to facilitate some things and make others difficult, to give some individuals greater capacity for action and control than others, and to constrain relationships and behaviour (c.f. Lawn & Grosvenor 2003). If you think of technologies in the classroom as only ICTs, you will fail to see or understand how other technologies help shape the quality of classroom life, effective participation in learning and educational outcomes.
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Buildings as technologies The idea that education should take place in spaces designed specifically for, and dedicated exclusively to, learning and teaching was fundamental to the development of mass school systems. Early classrooms were purpose-designed and built with rows of desks facing the front. This was intended to shape the activities within the school, make the teacher the focus of attention, and allow the teacher to observe all students and monitor their behaviour. The creation of dedicated classrooms displaced arrangements that, for example, allowed children to talk and share their work with each other. Early purpose-built classrooms were a powerful social technology that emphasised the prerogative of the teacher to decide what should be learned and how it should be learned. The classroom provided a different type of desk for the teacher, along with cupboards and material resources, and, importantly, rules about who could go where and when, and who controlled the cupboards, the blackboard, the distribution of textbooks and so on. The provision of such specialist school buildings was also a technology for structuring relations with the school’s communities — informing the community that this was the teachers’ domain, and that parents and other members of the community were outsiders (Rockwell 2003). Similarly, the structuring of school grounds, with toilets discretely located and carefully screened, and the marking off of distinct play areas for boys and girls, and for older and younger children, was a social technology for both ordering behaviour and associating particular social and moral messages with particular human activities (Vick 1993). The most common early form of specialist school building was the single classroom school. Within such a classroom, students might be grouped according to ‘level’, ‘grade’ or ‘standard’, but there was little formal architectural differentiation of internal space, except for the occasional division into boys’ rooms and girls’ rooms, or infants’ rooms and rooms for the others. Larger schools comprised a number of separate rooms, one for each class with its own teacher. Such spatial technologies corresponded with the age–grade lock-step curriculum, often subdivided according to individual differences (notably, of ‘intelligence’) and structural differences (of gender, class and race), to provide them with different treatments and experiences. As schools became larger and more complex, so too did the differentiation of space and the work different spaces did in organising social relations and behaviour. For instance, the introduction of staff rooms created another exclusive area for teachers, further marking out the social differences between teachers’ status and power as adults and professionals and children’s inferior and subordinate position in the school (Vi˜nao 2003). An interesting move towards reducing differentiation, with clear implications for social relationships, has been the reduction of separate boys’ and girls’ spaces in schools. The classroom plan from the Dana Street National School shown in figure 2.2 depicts what once was considered a normal division between genders.
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Social technologies: shaping teaching, learning and behaviour So far this chapter has focused on technologies for shaping broad boundaries of behaviour and the power relations that go with them. Other equally powerful technologies shape teaching and learning. Many of them have been present since the birth of the modern classroom. Textbooks are a prime example. Part of the discourse of modern schooling was the value of class teaching and its complement — the highly structured and planned curriculum. There were two obvious ways to facilitate this. One was by whole group oral instruction, where the teacher used a ‘repeat after me’ approach to tell students what they should know, then required them to regurgitate that knowledge. The other, which quickly established itself as fundamental to the modern classroom, was the textbook. For school systems, textbooks allowed central control over the content of instruction. For teachers, they eased the pressures of oral instruction, provided a tangible material focus for student learning (without seriously compromising their control over both content and process) and forced children to do some of the work of learning for themselves, rather than merely parroting back what the teacher had just said. As university students, you will be well aware that textbooks have remained one of the staples of education to the present day. CHAPTER 2 Historical insights into teaching
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FIGURE 2.2
The design of the Dana Street National School exhibited the once-normal division between genders
Front elevation Verandah
Mistress’s chamber 14ʹ × 13ʹ
Hall
Master’s chamber 14ʹ × 13ʹ
Girls’ school 45ʹ × 25ʹ
Boys’ school 45ʹ × 25ʹ Mistress’s sitting RM 15ʹ × 11ʹ6ʺ
Entrance hall
Master’s sitting RM 15ʹ × 11ʹ6ʺ
Verandah
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Plan
Another standard technology from the earliest years of mass schooling was the copybook. Copybooks provided models of writing, which students had to reproduce exactly. The layout of the copybook — the copy line at the top of each page, with dotted lines underneath for the student copy — was designed to facilitate accurate reproduction and to allow the student and the teacher to check the accuracy of the copy. Such a technology for learning to write did not focus on the functionality of writing (that it could be read clearly and easily) but on the discipline of (behavioural and cultural) conformity (Jones & Jenkins 2000). While primary school teachers are still required to teach children how to produce a particular script, and still often stress the general value of neatness, the mechanism for enforcing minutely detailed 66
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exactness — in particular the annual formal inspection by the Inspector — has gone. One result is a much-reduced emphasis on the importance of attention to what is now considered mindless detail. Worksheets are a more recent technological innovation in the classroom. Their use depended on the invention of cheap and easy means for teachers to reproduce pages of material (e.g. information, questions, exercises and instructions). These were not widely available to individual teachers until the middle of the twentieth century. Although various stencil duplicators were available from the early twentieth century, some were messy to use, while others were time consuming and more difficult to use and were thereby better suited to larger runs of core teaching materials (e.g. topic outlines in secondary schools and universities) than to ‘throwaway’ classroom materials. Like the copybook, worksheets are not simply a means for learning. They ensure teacher control of content and the learning process, engaging students in superficially ‘independent’ learning that is the same for all members of the class. Also like the copybook, worksheets often focus on low-level cognitive functions such as recall of detail, focusing students on busyness rather than thinking, and limiting the opportunity for students to ask questions for themselves. Timetables are another technology introduced from the beginning of mass schooling. Timetables regulate the school day, dictating what is to be done, when and for how long. Timetables are linked to the structure of curriculum. Together they define how much time is to be devoted to particular subjects. They control teaching and learning in ways that make intrinsic interests and processes irrelevant. From the beginning of mass schooling, homework was seen as a means of extending the disciplines and moral messages of school into the home. The school diary, an invention popularised by the mid-twentieth century, was a particular technological innovation that strengthened the capacity of schools to engage parents and regulate students’ out-of-school activity. When fully enforced, homework required parents to at least see what their children were being asked to do and provided explicit guidelines to parents as to what constituted an appropriate commitment to learning on the part of the child. While part of the intent of the diary was to draw parents into the behaviour patterns of ‘good’ families, it also sought to enlist parents in the school’s management of children beyond the limits of the school day. All these technologies shape the lives of students and teachers. They both constrain teachers and students and enable particular practices and the development of particular capacities. The timetable, for instance, constrains the organisation of learning activities. It also teaches both teachers and students the importance of imposed priorities over individual interest, and teaches students the time discipline, punctuality and organisation required by a modern economy. However, it is not just the individual technologies that are so powerful in shaping what teachers and students do and how they do it; it is locking them together into ensembles (timetable + curriculum + textbook + rows of desks and chairs + examination) that makes practice as usual so difficult to change, partly because it becomes difficult to imagine individual elements apart from the whole, and partly because changing one element seems to have flow-on effects, requiring change in other elements of the ensemble.
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‘Progressive’ technologies There were exceptions to technologies that helped shape ‘normal’ school practice (Lawson & Petersen 1972). Kindergarten and Montessori education, for example, focused on children’s self-directed, playlike, sensuous learning activities, and this required a different organisation of space and different learning technologies in the form of hands-on learning materials (Petersen 1983). There is a stark contrast between the construction of space, discipline, order and control in a Montessori classroom and in a ‘normal’ classroom. This can be seen in photographs of Montessori methods: Children are not lined up in rows, are not overtly directed by the teacher, are not all engaged in the same activity and are using concrete learning materials rather than the more abstracted learning from textbooks (Vick 2009). In this context, computers and the internet offer diverse ways of enabling and/or controlling independent learning. On the one hand, they offer the possibility of highly structured, teacher-controlled CHAPTER 2 Historical insights into teaching
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learning activities, essentially functioning as technically sophisticated textbooks. On the other, they open up the possibility of students constructing their own learning and exploring their own questions and issues. Teachers are often acutely aware of and concerned about this possibility. Computers and the internet offer access to diverse information and provide for student decision-making about where to go and what to do. It is difficult to police student activity on a detailed, minute-by-minute level in a school computer lab or library. The important point here is that the significance of particular classroom technologies lies not only in the material technologies themselves, but in the ways they are used as social technologies — technologies for shaping social activities and relations. As schools increase the use of mobile devices and introduce policies such as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), there is the potential for increased equity issues between those students who can afford to access current technologies, such as laptops and tablets, and those who cannot. Additionally, as homework is given to students through 24/7 software platforms such as Moodle and Edmodo, families are increasingly required to provide internet access at home, which can be costly and unaffordable for families from a low socio-economic background. This is creating a digital divide in schools between those who have access to technologies and those who do not.
Montessori education focuses on children’s self-directed, play-like, sensuous learning activities. The Montessori approach is still popular today.
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WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
As teachers, we make choices every day about what to teach and how to teach it, including how to relate to and organise children and cultivate respectful relations among them, and use the various classroom technologies available to us. Often these choices don’t appear to be choices, but just a matter of implementing decisions about curriculum, pedagogy and classroom management made by others. One of the implications of a critical historical understanding of these aspects of teaching is that we should make these decisions consciously, knowing that there are different ways to organise curriculum, teach and manage classrooms, and that these have different consequences for different children’s learning. As a pre-service teacher, this suggests that you should be exploring widely the different approaches to curriculum, pedagogy, and classroom relations and technologies, and developing your critical understanding of how different choices might affect the learning outcomes of different groups of children. How would you approach planning to teach in a rural classroom with a high proportion of Indigenous students? Would this approach differ if you were placed in a metropolitan school with a high proportion of students who were refugees? Share and compare your ideas with another pre-service teacher.
2.5 Teachers’ work, teachers’ lives, teachers’ identities
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LEARNING OBJECTIVE 2.5 Explain how developing a personal–professional identity as a critical, transformative teacher might help you more effectively support all your students (including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students) to use their schooling to improve their life chances and wellbeing as people, and identify key responsibilities of Australian teachers in rectifying institutional disadvantage.
Many of the features that characterised the teaching profession in the past continue into the present: r the centrality of pre-service teacher education to teachers’ knowledge base and the standing of the profession r the strength of teacher organisations and their focus on both industrial and educational issues r the sense, shared by many teachers, that teaching is a vocation, not merely a job r the sheer challenge of daily classroom teaching. There are significant changes as well. These include: r the emergence of national educational and professional frameworks r the re-assertion of control over teachers and teaching by governments and their agencies after the ‘looseness’ of the 1970s and 1980s r the change in form of such regulation, from direct regulation by employment agencies, to professional self-regulation by bodies on which teachers have strong representation and that cut across the various educational stakeholder groups. Each of these issues poses new challenges for teachers to understand and engage with, so that they continue to be active in shaping their profession and the conditions that govern it. All these aspects of schooling are central components of teachers’ work. All of them shape teachers’ lives — their working lives, their personal lives and their identities (Connell 1985). The complex interaction of what teachers do and the conditions under which they do it form an integral part of who teachers are — their identities. This sense of not simply ‘doing teaching’, but being a teacher, means that teachers commonly invest heavily in their work in terms of time and emotional commitment. A sense of professionalism is one of the important continuities that characterises teachers. One important element in this sense of professionalism, from the earliest days of mass schooling, has been that teachers do not simply do a job, but have a vocation — a mission — and that they want to make a difference. As has been seen, however, this places them at the difficult interface between conforming to and reproducing existing norms and practices, and the need to help transform schools that research shows are failing so many children. This is made more challenging by the fact that many of the norms that dominate the teaching profession and practice are reinforced in multiple ways: professional CHAPTER 2 Historical insights into teaching
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codes, legislative and judicial requirements, media publicity and a range of traditional (e.g. books and professional magazines) and non-traditional (e.g. websites) sources of advice, support and resource materials, and parents and students. These involve not just teachers’ ideas but also their bodies: the ways they teach, the ways they manage children, the ways they occupy classroom space and mobilise classroom technologies, and the ways they conform or otherwise to normalised understandings of what a teacher should look like and how a teacher should act.
Being a teacher seeking transformative teaching practice involves a heavy investment of time and emotion.
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The challenges of professional decision making Returning again to the task the group had to address at the beginning of this chapter, a number of things are observable. r Their task is not merely an academic, abstract in-class exercise or a piece of intellectual knowledge about aspects of teachers’ work. Rather it is part of a journey towards developing a rich, complex understanding of not just how to run an efficient classroom, but of how to develop the critical understandings that will enable them to be transformative teachers. r Professionalism for the most part involves a commitment to making a difference; in particular, by actively enabling all children to achieve their potential. r While it is possible to see the current professional standards as a set of regulations with which to comply, it might be useful to look for the ways they support a transformative approach to professional practice. This approach, in light of even a brief knowledge of the historical development of the profession, will help you gain a richer, more subtle and more complex appreciation of how teachers have, collectively as a profession, striven to make their work of real social value, to really serve the needs of the children they teach and the families they come from. This approach highlights the possibilities for transformative practices that challenge taken-for-granted assumptions and knowledge and do not simply repeat practice 70
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as usual. Such an approach can help teachers face the challenges of their professional lives with resilience and creativity.
Professional standards, teaching and ‘us’ At this point in the chapter you should be able to help the group from the opening case frame a critical response to the professional standards. Naturally, it would not be ideal to try to tell them what their response should be in detail; rather to assist them with some of the questions that will help frame their own critical perspective. A good starting point would be the Charter for the Australian teaching profession (Teaching Australia 2008). We bring to the role high levels of professional knowledge, expertise and ethical commitment. Our practice reflects the essential balance between conserving and renewing what is, and anticipating and building what can be. We work in partnership with colleagues, families, other professionals and the wider community. We take responsibility for the development and renewal of our profession. We act to advance the quality and reputation of teaching through professional learning and reflection. We are specialists in teaching and learning. We have expertise in student development, including how young people gain knowledge, learn to think critically and develop creativity. The teaching profession sets itself demanding standards. We act with judgment, integrity and respect to build the trust and confidence necessary for successful learning.
This chapter helps us observe that the notions of professionalism have been hard won, but also limited in ways that set teaching aside from the ‘model’ professions such as medicine. Notions of ethical commitment, integrity and respect are the inheritance of the early push for teaching to be seen as a mission, rather than a job. This inheritance has prompted teachers to look beyond mere money, but has also allowed exploitation in the work of teachers. It makes clear not only an issue of balance, but also of difficult tensions between conserving the systems as they stand and transforming them, as well as the difficulty of imagining how they might really be transformed. The chapter lets us see how claims to expertise not only provide a platform for proper recognition of the unique contribution teachers make to the development of children, but also make it easy for teachers to see themselves not as partners with parents, but as judges of their views and practices. An appreciation of history also facilitates recognition and formation of a stance on the complex challenges facing education and the teaching profession. It helps contextualise the questioning of the claim that ‘A model for national professional standards has been agreed by the teaching profession.’ (These standards can be found at www.aitsl.edu.au.) It enables teachers to reach a considered recognition of how professional standards might simultaneously enhance their standing and give them greater collective control over their own profession, while also strengthening the detailed regulation of their working lives. Also, it allows them, with their colleagues, to decide how they weigh the pros and cons of initiatives that bypass the historically established understanding that both the individual competence of teachers and the collective standing of the profession depend heavily on formal professional education (The World Today 2008).
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WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
Standard 1 of the Australian Standards requires you as a professional teacher to ‘Know students and how they learn’. In part, this involves knowing their individual strengths and weaknesses, individual interests and learning styles, and individual emotional needs, but in part it involves knowing children’s social and cultural backgrounds. One implication of this for you as a teacher is to recognise children’s social and cultural backgrounds, not in terms of what they lack but as assets for you and for their own learning. A further implication for you as a teacher is that you will need to get to know your students’ backgrounds by listening to them, their families and others in your school community, so that you appreciate the things
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they value, the place education has in their plans and the kinds of learning they understand will be of value — this means not thinking of yourself as the expert about your students. Read the United Nations Declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples document at www.reconciliation.org.au. Consider how you will ensure the Indigenous students in your classroom are taught with respect for their rights as Indigenous people.
INSIGHTS IN EDUCATION
The views in this chapter are, inevitably, those of the author. Most authors find it easy to see the value in what they write. Not everybody agrees with any author — either with what they have to say or with the value of what they have to say. This can be especially true where the author is writing about history and the reader is interested in issues of professional practice in the present. Given this, it might be interesting to know what other experienced professionals think. One person — another academic researcher — read this chapter and commented on the historical approach to teaching it adopts: . . . the exploration and examination of the development of education and schooling shatters the rosetinted lenses on supposedly ‘progressive’ or ‘effective’ approaches to improve schooling, pedagogy and education systems. It does so by revealing systematically the complex purposes of schooling and the manifestations of these purposes on institutional as well as daily, almost mundane, practices of teachers. In so doing, it punctures the hope of seeking ‘education revolution’ and, at the same time, steadies the intent towards reviewing, refining and re-engaging teaching as a productive practice of power. The historical approach re-frames the consideration of what constitutes teaching, and effective teaching, and offers insights in re-thinking the purposes of education, and shaping ‘innovative’ pedagogy or strategies to attain them.
Another, a final year undergraduate education student with a richly diverse experience of life, education and work before studying to become a teacher, commented:
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What this chapter has to offer is a critical historical perspective on our work — something vitally important to bring to that work we do as teachers. As a final year education student, who will be teaching soon, it helps to bring a whole range of things I’ve learned into perspective . . . helps me understand perhaps some of the ‘why’s and how’s’ of schooling and the way it works so badly for so many kids. This was so clear in many of the situations we encountered on prac, and for me, also in a series of interviews I did with high school kids in my recent research project. What a historical and critical perspective gives to us as teachers goes beyond simply ‘a good way’ to think about teaching, it helps to clarify what our aims might be in a way that affects how we relate to our students — our ‘classroom management’. We all make assumptions about kids, their lives, their families, their communities, their hopes and dreams, but we can not teach — or live — on assumptions alone. This chapter is an argument against such deterministic thinking. Putting the present into historical perspective also helps me see how the things we all tend to take for granted are just one way to do things, one way to understand and do things, and that they are still affected by the values — often elitist and exclusive, and incredibly judgemental about kids and families who are marginalised in all sorts of ways — that were built in from the start, and how we can’t just want to do the right things by the kids we teach . . . we need to learn, think and understand . . . yes, there’s that word again . . . critically . . . how schools work. I guess the other thing I want to say that I liked about the approach here was how it picked up on the standard about engaging with parents — and this also appeals to me as a parent with two kids in school. Not just reporting back to them our judgements of their kids, but actually listening to them, being interested in who they are, their knowledge of their kids, their views of what their issues are . . . what their needs are. But moreover, making communities and their opinions guide our personal accountability agendas more than numbers on a NAPLAN table.
These comments suggest that while an historical perspective might not provide a flood of useful practical tips, it can offer insights into teaching practice that enable teachers to engage with their daily classroom practice in the critically reflective ways the professional standards expect of them.
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SUMMARY A critical perspective is a core element of professional teaching, built into the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. A critical perspective lets us recognise that many of our educational ideas and practices we simply take for granted from our deep immersion in the experience of schooling without ever considering where they come from or whether they promote quality learning for all the students we teach. A critical perspective enables us to ask questions such as ‘Whose cultural practices does this school practice reflect?’ and ‘For whom might this practice not promote quality learning?’ The first step in your journey towards developing a critical perspective is to recognise that current teaching practices are, in fact, the result of particular historic choices, and are shaped to a large extent by the different capacities of different stakeholder groups in society to determine the purposes school serve. A critical perspective makes it possible to notice the continuity and inertia of schools and their resistance to fundamental change. A substantial part of this continuity is grounded in the discourses of education — the ways of talking and thinking about education that have been learned, especially with the growth of a literature and science of education, and the universalisation of experience of schooling. This historical resistance to change on the part of schools can be seen in virtually all aspects of classroom practice: the curriculum, the ways teachers teach and engage students in learning, and the ways they organise and deploy both the material and the social technologies available to them. As teachers, we have a responsibility to learn about and to respect all students, including Indigenous Australian students, within Australian schools. Curriculum, pedagogy and resources all speak volumes about what is, and isn’t, considered valuable and important. An exploration of the different dimensions of schooling, and the factors that shape it, make it possible to develop an enhanced capacity for critical reflection — one of the characteristics of good teachers commonly built into statements of professional standards. It helps develop a capacity to see what familiarity makes difficult to see: that the particular ways teachers do things now have both strengths and weaknesses, and enable some things and inhibit others; and, given the seriously problematic outcomes of present schooling practices for many, that there are options for practising differently, in ways that might produce better outcomes for more of the children they will teach. This is at the heart of transformative teaching practice.
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KEY TERMS critical perspective A way of viewing information, ideas and practices that refuses to take them for granted, and instead asks what are the implications, and for whom, of this idea or this way of doing things. discourses of education The body of research and theory that constitutes the core knowledge base of the profession; a structured, highly organised body of ideas, principles and ways of establishing credibility that is largely taken for granted as being the authoritative knowledge of the field. economic rationalists Advocates of a policy approach that favours a deregulated free-market economy, privatisation of state-owned resources and a reduction of the size of the welfare state, including government education spending. educational technologies Tools and processes for doing particular educational tasks in particular ways. equity A concept concerned with, and committed to, fairness for all groups within a society. governance Policies, regulations and procedures used to manage a system or organisation in order to achieve goals. neoliberals Advocates of neoliberalism — a view of the world based on the belief that the optimal economic system is achieved by giving free rein to market forces, emphasising twin political goals of economic growth and political liberty. CHAPTER 2 Historical insights into teaching
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normalised practice Practice that has, through social processes, become established as what one should do (or think). pedagogy The art, science or strategies of teaching based on professional knowledge and reflective practice. power The capacity to shape situations, ideas and/or actions. It can take the form of physical or material force, law, ideas or discourses, and practices or procedures. practice as usual The practices educators usually enact as a matter of routine. Practice as usual is the practical equivalent of taken-for-granted knowledge. social technologies The organisation and use of spaces, relationships, procedures, artefacts and so on to facilitate some things and make others difficult, to give some individuals greater capacity for action and control than others, and to constrain relationships and behaviour. stakeholders Individuals or groups that are affected by and concerned with an issue or organisation. Different stakeholders often have competing needs and interests. taken-for-granted professional knowledge Educational ideas accepted so readily that assumptions, values or implications for different groups of students and their families are not questioned. transformative teaching practice Teaching that deliberately seeks to enhance students’ learning outcomes and consequent life chances by explicitly addressing barriers to learning arising from a range of social and individual disadvantages, as a fundamental and integral part of pedagogy.
FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE 2.1
LO1
Think about what you understand by ‘critical understanding’ and why it might be important to your practice as a teacher. Hint: How can you reflect on your own experiences to unpack your beliefs and understandings about teaching as a profession? With members of your tutorial group or study group, formulate a short paragraph explaining what you understand by ‘critical understanding’ and why it might be important for your practice as teachers. Hint: Focus on one marginalised social group and identify ways that ‘practice as usual’ might not work for students from that social group. 2.2
LO2
List the social, political, economic and cultural factors the chapter identifies as shaping educational practices; explain how these factors might combine to work against the valuing of the cultural practices and educational views and values of marginalised social groups. Hint: Think about how one socially marginalised group might be seen by dominant groups in education (e.g. politicians, media and teachers) in negative rather than positive terms. 2.3
LO2
Explain how the exclusion or devaluing of the cultural practices and educational views and values of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples might result in poorer educational outcomes for Indigenous Australian students. Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.
2.4
LO3
Briefly summarise what you understand by ‘discourses of education’. Outline one way such discourses might lead teachers to consider that they do not need to value parent and community input into their classrooms. Hint: Consider what the chapter says about (1) the scientific nature of professional discourses and (2) the ways discourses of education construct teachers as experts. 2.5
LO4
With members of your tutorial group or informal study group, identify three major classroom management issues. Identify the main reasons you consider them to be important. Critically discuss the extent to which your reasons reflect ‘taken-for-granted’ assumptions from ‘normal’ discourses of education. For one of your chosen issues, discuss alternative ways of thinking about the issue that 74
PART 1 The teaching profession
focus on quality learning outcomes for all students. Hint: Approach this last task by focusing on students from one marginalised social group. 2.6
LO4
Identify one way in which the curriculum has evolved historically to privilege white, middle-class, masculine cultural values. Explain how this might work against the engagement of children from Indigenous families in quality learning. Suggest one way to incorporate the cultural values of Indigenous students and families in one subject within the curriculum. Hint: Consider the possible role of negotiating curriculum content with students and community members. 2.7
LO4
Identify how teaching and learning in the twenty-first century draws on historical views about education. With your tutorial group or informal study group, discuss whether new technologies have shaped contemporary approaches to teaching. Hint: Consider how the use of computers and tablets in the classroom is impacting how curriculum is taught. 2.8
LO5
List, and number in order of importance, the ten things you consider the most important elements of being a professional teacher. Have you included ‘engaging with parents’ (or something similar), ‘being critical’ (or something similar) and ‘transformative teaching’ (or something similar)? Where have you listed them in your order of importance? Write a short paragraph or list of bullet points explaining where you have ranked them (or why you have not included them). Hint: Consider how your responses have addressed the issues and arguments raised in this chapter.
WEBSITES 1 The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) website explores the
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Australian Professional Standards for Teachers through career stage and domains of teaching. Here you are able to download the Teacher Standards that are referred to in this chapter and view illustrations of practice (video case studies) for each standard. Information about AITSL is also provided, as well as guidelines for preparing to teach: www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/standards 2 Reconciliation Australia is an independent not-for-profit organisation established in 2001 that promotes and facilitates reconciliation by building relationships, respect and trust between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the wider Australian community. This website provides information, programs and resources for teachers: www.reconciliation.org.au 3 The children’s book My Place was written by Nadia Wheatley and illustrated by Donna Rawlins. Originally written to celebrate the 1988 bicentenary of Australia, it presents the stories of 21 fictional children, one for each decade since 1788. Each story draws on a decade of Australian history seen through the eyes of children. The ABC developed the stories into a TV series. This website provides a decade-by-decade timeline and resources for teachers: www.myplace.edu.au/home 4 The National Film and Sound archive is a great place to find resources based on the history of teaching in Australia. It is a rich source of historical resources, including print media, radio and video, exploring the history of schooling in Australia: www.nfsa.gov.au
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Baker, B 1999, ‘The dangerous and the good? Developmentalism, progress, and public schooling’, American Educational Research Journal, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 797–834. —— 1998, ‘Child-centred teaching, redemption, and educational identities: a history of the present’, Educational Theory, vol. 48, no. 2, pp. 155–74. Barcan, A 2010, ‘Public schools in Australia from the late 1970s to the late 1980s: the seeds of change’, Education Research and Perspectives, vol. 37, no. 2, pp. 1–37. —— 1980, A history of Australian education, Oxford University Press, Melbourne. Bonal, X & Rambla, X 2003, ‘Captured by the totally pedagogised society: teachers and teaching in the knowledge economy’, Globalisation, Societies and Education, vol. 2, pp. 169–84. Brady, L 2003, ‘Changes in school teaching in Australia’, Educational Practice and Theory, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 5–16. Campbell, C & Sherington, G 2006, The comprehensive public high school: Historical perspectives, Palgrave Macmillan, Sydney. 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Griffin, R 2008, ‘Early reading partnerships: a parental perspective’, unpublished BEd(Hons) thesis, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland. Hunter, I 1994, Rethinking the school: Subjectivity, bureaucracy, criticism, Allen & Unwin, Sydney. —— 1988, Culture and government: The emergence of literary education, Macmillan, London. Hyams, BK 1979, Teacher preparation in Australia: A history of its development from 1850 to 1950, Australian Council for Educational Research, Melbourne. James, R 2008, Participation and equity: A review of the participation in higher education of people from low socioeconomic backgrounds and Indigenous people, Universities Australia, Canberra. —— 2002, Socioeconomic background and higher education participation: An analysis of school students’ aspirations and expectations, Australian Government Publishing, Canberra. Jones, A & Jenkins, K 2000, ‘Disciplining the native body: handwriting and civilising practices’, History of Education Review, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 34–46. Karier, C 1972, ‘Testing for order and control in the corporate liberal state’, Educational Theory, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 154–80. Krakouer, J 2015, ‘Literature review relating to the current context and discourse on Indigenous cultural awareness in the teaching space: critical pedagogies and improving Indigenous learning outcomes through cultural responsiveness’, ACER, https://research.acer.edu.au/indigenous_education, viewed 24 November 2017. Lawn, M & Grosvenor, I 2003, ‘Introduction. The materiality of schooling’, in M Lawn & I Grosvenor (eds), Materialities of schooling: Design, technology, objects, routines, Symposium, Oxford. Lawson, MD & Peterson, RC 1972, Progressive education: An introduction, Angus and Robertson, Sydney. Mackinnon, A 1997, Love and freedom: Professional women and the reshaping of personal life, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Martin, K 2007, ‘Making tracks and reconceptualising Aboriginal early childhood education: an Aboriginal perspective’, Childrenz Issues, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 15–20. —— 2005, ‘Childhood, lifehood and relatedness: Aboriginal ways of being, knowing and doing’, in J Phillips & J Lampert (eds), Introductory Indigenous studies for education, Pearson Education, Frenchs Forest, NSW, pp. 27–40. Masters, GN 2009, A shared challenge: Improving literacy, numeracy and science learning in Queensland primary schools, Australian Council for Educational Research, Melbourne.
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McCallum, D 1990, The social production of merit: Education, psychology, and politics in Australia, 1900–1950, Falmer Press, London, New York. McHoul, AW & Grace, W 1993, A Foucault primer: Discourse, power and the subject, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne. Miller, P 1986, Long division: State schooling in South Australian society, Wakefield Press, Adelaide. Ministerial Council on Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs (MCEECDYA) 2008, Melbourne declaration on educational goals for young Australians, www.mceetya.edu.au, viewed 15 January 2010. Partington, G 1998, ‘In those days it was that rough: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history and education’, in G Partington (ed.), Perspectives on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education, Social Science Press, Katoomba, New South Wales. Patterson, A 2002, ‘Installing English at the “hub” of early twentieth century school curricula in Australia’, History of Education Review, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 45–57. Petersen, RC 1983, ‘The Montessorians — MM Simpson and L de Lissa’, in C Turney (ed.), Pioneers of Australian education, vol. 3: Studies of the development of education in Australia 1900–50, Sydney University Press, Sydney. Ramsey, G 2000, Quality matters: Revitalising teaching: Critical times, critical choices. Report of the Review of Teacher Education, New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, www.det.nsw.edu.au, viewed 15 January 2010. Rockwell, E 2003, ‘Walls, fences and keys: the enclosure of rural Indigenous schools’, in M Lawn & I Grosvenor (eds), Materialities of schooling: Design, technology, objects, routines, Symposium, Oxford. Rousmaniere, K 1997, City teachers: Teaching and school reform in historical perspective, Teachers College Press, New York. Selleck, RJW 1982, ‘State education and culture’, Australian Journal of Education, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 3–19. Selman, RL 1971, ‘The relation of role taking to the development of moral judgment in children’, Child Development, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 79–91. Sherington, G, Petersen, RC & Brice, I 1987, Learning to lead: A history of girls’ and boys’ corporate secondary schools in Australia, Allen & Unwin, Sydney. Starrenburg, E 2011, ‘Rethinking research: travels through the discourse of higher education participation’, unpublished BEd(Hons) thesis, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland. State of Queensland 2002, Queensland the smart state: Education and training reforms for the future: A white paper, State of Queensland, Brisbane. Teaching Australia 2008, Charter for the Australian teaching profession, Teaching Australia, Canberra. Teese, R 1983, ‘The growth and decline of the Victorian government secondary school, 1954–1981’, in R Teese & G Wickham (eds), Melbourne working papers 1983: Papers in contemporary Australian education, culture and politics, University of Melbourne, Sociology Research Group in Cultural and Educational Studies, Melbourne. Teese, RV & Polesel, J 2003. Undemocratic schooling: Equity and quality in mass secondary education in Australia, Melbourne University Publishing, Carlton, Victoria. The World Today 2008, ‘Gillard’s teacher training plan meets with resistance’, www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2008/ s2358296.htm, viewed 15 January 2010. Theobald, M 1996, Knowing women: Origins of women’s education in nineteenth-century Australia, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne. Toomey, R & Lovat, T (eds) 2007, Values education and quality teaching: The double helix effect, David Barlow Publishing, Terrigal, New South Wales. Tyler, D 1993, ‘Making better children’, in D Meredyth & D Tyler (eds), Child and citizen: Genealogies of schooling and subjectivity, Faculty of Humanities, Griffith University, Brisbane. Vick, M 2009, ‘Re-imagining teachers’ work: photographs of Blackfriars School, Sydney, 1913–1923 as representations of an educational alternative’, History of Education Review, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 81–93. —— 2008, ‘Imagine (like) this: the work the representation of teachers’ work does’, in Teacher Educators at Work: What works and where is the evidence? Papers from the 2008 ATEA Conference, Sunshine Coast, 8–11 July 2008. —— 2006a, ‘It’s a difficult matter: historical perspectives on the enduring problem of the practicum in teacher preparation’, Asia–Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 181–98. —— 2006b, ‘Texts and contexts: international sources and universalistic discourse in Australian teacher education 1900–1950’, Australian Journal of Teacher Education, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 12–18. —— 1997, ‘Normalisation in 19th century Australian education’, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 113–26. —— 1993, ‘Building schools, building society: accommodating schools in mid-nineteenth century Australia’, Historical Studies in Education/Revue D’Histoire De L’Education, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 231–50. —— 1992, ‘Community, state and the provision of schools in mid-nineteenth century South Australia’, Australian Historical Studies, vol. 25, no. 98, pp. 53–71. 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Vi˜nao, A 2003, ‘The school head’s office as territory and place: location and physical layout in the first Spanish graded schools’, in M Lawn & I Grosvenor (eds), Materialities of schooling: Design, technology, objects, routines, Symposium Books, Oxford. Watson, L 2003, Lifelong learning in Australia, Department of Education, Science and Technology, Canberra. White, D 1987, Education and the state: Federal involvement in educational policy development, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria. Whitehead, K 2006, ‘Re-viewing the “ideology of adolescence” in middle schooling’, Curriculum Perspectives, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 62–6. Williamson, A 1991, ‘Learning “White Way”: curriculum, context, and custom in schooling Torres Strait Islanders before World War II’, Australian Journal of Education, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 314–31. Wooldridge, A 1994, Measuring the mind: Education and psychology in England, c. 1860 – c. 1990, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, New York. Zeichner, K 1989, ‘Teachers for democratic schools’, Action in Teacher Education Journal, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 5–10.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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Photo: © Monkey Business Images / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Monkey Business Images / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Monkey Business Images / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Neda Vanovac / AAP Images Photo: © News Ltd / Newspix Photo: © Monkey Business Images / Shutterstock.com Figure 2.2: © Dana Street National School, Ballarat, 1857 [Victoria] [picture] / Laurie Burchell. State Library of Victoria. H2006.165/56. Text: © Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL)
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PART 2
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UNDERSTANDING LEARNING AND LEARNERS 3
Student learning 80
4
Understanding and motivating students 118
5
Learner diversity, pedagogy and educational equity 149
CHAPTER 3
Student learning LEARNING OBJECTIVES
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After studying this chapter, you should be able to: 3.1 describe and discuss the term ‘learning’ in conjunction with theoretical perspectives of learning 3.2 explain basic aspects of neural development and processes related to learning and memory 3.3 discuss the relationships between different forms of intelligences and learning, as well as environmental factors that influence learning.
OPENING CASE
New times . . . new learning? Jordan is enjoying her first year of teaching, and is excited to be involved in the professional development seminar her principal has organised for all staff. She has read the materials provided, but has found them to be a bit confusing. The first reading asks teachers to consider what learning means to them, given the difficulties in defining such a broad and complex term. The first task seems like a worthwhile endeavour, but later the materials present a learning inventory for each staff member to complete. The goal is for staff members to determine whether they are visual, auditory or kinaesthetic learners. This activity is known as a VAK inventory. For Jordan this presents a philosophical dilemma, in that during her years at university she was exposed to a number of theories about learning, along with a number of myths. One of those myths was the existence of individual learning styles. In fact, Jordan recalls one educational psychology course she undertook that specifically debunked any notion of individuals being visual, auditory or kinaesthetic learners. To try and gain some clarity, Jordan discusses her views and understandings of ‘learning styles’ with one of her colleagues, only to find that he is a huge supporter of the VAK inventory and believes that learning and teaching activities could be improved if all teachers used learning styles models to plan their teaching. Another colleague completely disagrees with any notion of VAK learning styles and feels like the professional development will be a waste of time. The scenario presented above is not uncommon in educational contexts. Many teachers participate in various professional development activities to enhance their pedagogy and, by association, the learning outcomes of their students. Concurrently, the range of professional development activities is almost as expansive as the number of theories associated with how people learn. In order to engage with such activities now and in the future, it is important to reflect on the following questions. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ QUESTIONS 1. What does learning mean to you and what are your understandings of how students learn? 2. How do we know when something has been learned and how do we measure learning? 3. Is all learning measurable, or is it possible to learn something without demonstrating it overtly? If you believe this to be true, what might that mean in terms of your own personal philosophy of learning and your practice in the classroom?
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Introduction In the opening case, Jordan questions her, and her colleagues’, understanding of ‘learning’ and their associated understanding of an impending and seemingly contentious professional development seminar. Many teachers often find themselves in similar situations due to new research and studies into learning. Questions such as what it actually means to learn something, or how learning occurs, have been given new life due to advances in science and technology. Indeed, greater insights into learning have never been more available than they now are and the works of many important theorists of the past are now being broadened and expanded upon, thereby providing future teachers with a better understanding of what lies at the foundation of their work. This chapter is about learning — in particular, learning that occurs in schools. If asked to define the word ‘learning’ you may find it somewhat difficult or ambiguous, for it is a term people often take for granted without considering all of the intricacies and idiosyncrasies behind any possible definition. While finding a definition for learning can be difficult, there are three important characteristics of learning to CHAPTER 3 Student learning 81
keep in mind as you work through this chapter and prepare for a career as a teacher. First, learning starts long before students enter a school or any other institution of instruction. Neuroscientists would argue that learning begins about 17 days after conception when the neural tube in the brain closes and neurons begin to generate, migrate and communicate. (We will look at this in greater detail later.) Second, learning is part of the human condition and every day — throughout our lives — we learn. In other words, it is undesirable to suggest that learning only happens in certain contexts or that learning is simply a process of acquiring knowledge from a teacher. Learning occurs through complex interactions with others and via various environmental stimuli and activities. Third, learning is not always easily measured or something attributable to a select group of individuals. We are all capable of learning and there is research to suggest that not only do we continue to learn, but that we can learn to learn more effectively and teachers can be part of this process. Therefore, as a future educator you must remember that you too are learning, and this chapter (outlined in the diagram below) is offered as an avenue for that endeavour in conjunction with being set out for you to start acquiring the attributes necessary to enhance and engage positively with student learning.
Student learning
Domains of learning
What is ‘learning’? Theoretical perspectives of learning
New insights into learning
How the brain learns — contemporary scientific insights
Enhancing learning
Multiple intelligences Emotional and social intelligences
Retaining what is learned
3.1 Domains of learning
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LEARNING OBJECTIVE 3.1 Describe and discuss the term ‘learning’ in conjunction with theoretical perspectives of learning.
What is learning? Is it a process or the product of some type of endeavour? How do we know if something has been learned? While most people would say they know what learning means, the term itself is ambiguous. Some might say that learning is an attempt to create a lasting memory of something. Others might argue that learning occurs when the brain puts pieces of information together to develop a concept, an idea, some level of understanding, proficiency in some sort of skill or something more esoteric such as a ‘state of being’. While there may be many facets to learning, one thing is relatively certain: learning is the core concern of teachers and of education. After all, don’t children go to school to learn? One of the difficulties in developing one’s understanding of learning, and indeed student learning, can be found in historical approaches to learning and teaching in schools. Traditional classroom endeavour typically focused on teaching, not learning. In Australia and most other Western countries, education was premised on a factory model of production whereby a teacher’s role was to progressively fill in the blank slates of student minds with the information necessary for a successful future. The factory model of education is a remnant of the industrial age and literally assumes that teaching and learning are synonymous with a production line: start with a raw product (student), add information vis-`a-vis an expert 82
PART 2 Understanding learning and learners
(teacher) and learning and knowledge will be the end product. The two fundamental premises behind this idea of education are that students arrive without any prior knowledge or skills and that for every bit of teaching that occurs there is an equal amount of learning by the student. What follows then is a view that learning can be accurately measured, usually at the end of study of a particular subject, topic or program. In the end, this model has proven to be highly problematic, in that learning is not always easily measured and a one-size-fits-all production line of learning and teaching does not adequately address the range of individual learning styles and learners in one classroom, let alone one school. Moreover, a factory model approach to education arguably misplaces the primary objective of education by emphasising teaching instead of learning. Interestingly, many schools, especially secondary schools, still practise a factory model of education without truly questioning the nature of human learning. In the twenty-first century a more comprehensive understanding of learning founded on contemporary and earlier theoretical perspectives is warranted. In order to gain greater insights into student learning it is important to look at different, equally important, understandings of learning. This is achieved in the following sections where notions of learning are discussed in an open framework and then placed against theoretical perspectives. As you read through each section it is important to continually take note of your own learning by reflecting on your own assumptions and beliefs. A fundamental aspect of teachers making a difference in the lives of their students is the notion of their development as reflective practitioners. Donald Sch¨on (1983) is widely credited for coining this important term, which describes teachers who continually examine their beliefs and practices along with their origins and the impacts they have on the learning process. A primary focus of such endeavour is personal growth and development. Therefore, looking at ‘learning’ and theories of learning while reflecting on your own beliefs is part of a larger process of your own growth, development and learning.
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What is ‘learning’? As noted earlier, trying to distinctly define ‘learning’ is an arduous task. It was also noted that in educational contexts, and indeed elsewhere, learning has often been seen as a product of some endeavour. Often learning has been demarcated as an outcome or an objective, suggesting that some aspect of change in an individual has occurred. Moreover, the benchmark for change has often narrowly focused on behaviour and/or some quantifiable measure — often structured as an examination. In the last couple of decades some learning theorists have moved away from an arguably simplistic notion of understanding learning as a product only to looking at learning as changes in the way people ‘understand’, ‘experience’ or ‘conceptualise’ the world around them. A view of learning encompassing this approach suggests that learning is both a product and a process. Within this framework, learning is also recognised as both something external (something that happens as a result of an experience) and something internal (something an individual does in order to understand the world). In his overview of some of the earliest works regarding the internal and external characteristics of learning, Paul Ramsden (1992, p. 92) cites a detailed framework from the research of Roger Saljo, who is considered by many as a pioneer in the field of learning. In his research, Saljo found that students conceptualised learning as falling into the following five categories. 1. Learning as a quantitative increase in knowledge: Learning is acquiring information or ‘knowing a lot’. 2. Learning as memorising: Learning is storing information that can be reproduced. 3. Learning as acquiring: Learning is acquiring facts, skills and methods that can be retained and used as necessary. 4. Learning as making sense or abstracting meaning: Learning involves relating parts of the subject matter to each other and to the real world. 5. Learning as interpreting and understanding reality in a different way: Learning involves comprehending the world by reinterpreting knowledge. CHAPTER 3 Student learning 83
Careful examination of the above conceptions offers evidence of two important aspects of learning that help frame our understanding of learning in this chapter. First, it is apparent that, taken in total, the categories identify learning as both a process and a product. Therefore, teachers must continually bear in mind that the object of their craft cannot be based entirely on some tangible piece of concrete evidence at the end of some predetermined time frame; inputs and time do not easily equate to a preconceived output. Second, while the first three categories delineate learning as a measure of something that happens externally to an individual, the last two categories clearly identify learning as something qualitatively different in that learning is also something that occurs within each individual. Again, this is important for teachers to remember. What is taught is not always the same as what is learned and students are not empty vessels waiting to be filled, but rather individuals who bring with them a diverse set of experiences and skills that are always part of any learning experience. With a view to learning being both a product and a process, a further important consideration is our own and collective beliefs about learning. These beliefs are products of our experiences and impacted upon by society, culture, ethnicity and other factors. For example, Indigenous Australian students may possess different beliefs about, and understandings of, learning and knowledge compared to non-Indigenous people. Such perspectives about learning and learning environments have been shown to both help and hinder Indigenous students (Ockenden 2014), and, as such, it is important for teachers to remember that belief systems play an important role in learning. Guy Claxton, a renowned author and Professor of the Learning Sciences at the University of Bristol Graduate School of Education, states: ‘how well people learn is shown to be a function not only of the learning tools they possess, but the implicit beliefs they have picked up’ (Claxton 1999, p. 33). Our personal and cultural beliefs are often used to support taken-for-granted assumptions about learning — and we all make assumptions about learning, whether we realise it or not. We assume what is important for students to learn, who can learn and why, and what strategies can be used to enhance our own learning and that of others (Darling-Hammond & Bransford 2005). Claxton (1999) suggests that Western societal assumptions about learning have been too narrowly defined and we would be better placed as educators and learners to reconceptualise our beliefs if we are to prepare students for a future that is as ambiguous as the word ‘learning’ itself. Table 3.1 is derived from Claxton’s (1999) work, which identifies traditional beliefs about, and newer understandings of, learning. TABLE 3.1
Traditional beliefs and newer understandings of learning
Traditional Western assumptions of learning
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Learning is the acquisition of knowledge. Knowledge is true. Learning is for the young. Learning is simple. Learning involves teaching. Learning proceeds calmly. Proper learning involves understanding.
A new look at learning Living is learning. We learn many different kinds of things. We can get better and worse at learning. Learning is multifarious. Learning to learn is developmental. Learning involves the discovery of relevance. Learning tools are in the world as well as in the mind. Learning involves self-knowledge and self-awareness. Learning is always a gamble. Learning is not always fast and smooth. Learning power develops through culture, not through instruction. The development of learning power is a matter of belief. Learning matters now.
When looking at table 3.1 it is important to remember that as learners we will see validity in some of the points but scrutinise others. Perhaps that is the essence of learning in itself: take what you know, pull it apart, add to it and ultimately form new ideas, understandings and conceptions. Indeed, within 84
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some theoretical frameworks for understanding learning, this is a primary consideration and as such is looked at later in this chapter. To summarise, in order to develop our understanding of learning and, by association, student learning it is pertinent to know that we need to actively: r examine theories of learning r question our experiences of learning r reflect on ideas underpinning our understanding of learning r develop our understanding of learners r think about our own beliefs regarding learning. You have already begun some of the processes above, but at this stage it is timely to look at some of the philosophies and theories that have shaped our understanding of learning.
Theoretical perspectives of learning The preceding section offered a view of learning as maintaining the characteristics of both a product and a process. However, looking at learning as a ‘process’ provides us with a good starting point for examining the various theoretical perspectives identified below: r behaviourist orientations to learning r cognitive orientations to learning r humanistic orientations to learning r social/situational orientations to learning r constructivist orientations to learning. It is important to note while looking at each of these perspectives that there exists a degree of overlap between and among them. They are separated in order to focus on specific details and ideas within each, but as you read on you will see commonalities and points of convergence as you develop your own understanding of learning. In relation to the theoretical orientations noted above, it is also important to remember that learning and human development are intimately intertwined, and while studying human development is beyond the scope of this chapter, we must always remember that individual development and maturation impacts on learning. The following theories offer implicit perspectives on this important consideration, but the overall purpose is to present the reader with an overview of theoretical positions for developing an individual framework of understanding learning.
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Behaviourist orientations to learning In order to understand behaviourist approaches to learning, a bit of history is required. The term behaviourism was initially coined by John Watson (1914, 1925), who believed that the key to understanding learning could be found in analysing behaviour. Much of this early work built on studies of animal behaviour. Behaviourists believed that observable stimuli produced observable behaviours and as such learning was ‘conditioned’ through external stimuli. Watson’s work was further developed by others, most notably by BF Skinner (1953, 1963), who described learning as an enduring change of behaviour resulting from external events, be they conscious or unconscious. Skinner described this process as operant conditioning. Skinner believed learning occurred when some kind of event or condition (stimulus) triggered an action (response) and those actions that were rewarded in some manner were likely to be repeated (learned). According to this perspective those actions or responses that were ignored or punished also resulted in a change of behaviour. While behaviourist explanations of learning include a plethora of technical terms, ‘operant conditioning’ is arguably the one that stands at the forefront of educational practice. Therefore, for learning to occur in an educational context the role of the teacher was to create an environment of optimal conditioning: provide the appropriate stimulus vis-`a-vis curriculum and follow this with some form of reward or punishment.
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In many respects this view towards learning is still observable in schools, particularly in the context of behaviour management. However, this particular orientation to learning does have a number of limitations, especially in relation to the overall learning process. First, behaviourism tends to neglect the contribution of cognition and cognitive skills to any learning process, especially for more complex forms of behaviour such as problem solving. Second, there are a number of concerns about the impact of long-term dependence on extrinsic, rather than intrinsic, forms of reinforcement, along with philosophical and ethical issues surrounding the use of punishment. Finally, a behaviourist orientation places little, if any, emphasis on sociocultural or environmental factors that impact on learning. At best, this orientation offers a starting point or a single component for unpacking a wider perspective regarding learning.
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Cognitive orientations to learning Cognitive orientations to learning are built on aspects of human development, particularly cognitive development. For cognitivists, learning is intimately intertwined with developmental changes and a gradual increase in the sophistication of mental processes. Simply stated, we know that the mental processes of a two-year-old child are vastly different from those of a thirteen-year-old adolescent and that this impacts on learning. Therefore, the process of learning for cognitivists focuses on internal mental processes, which include such things as insight, information processing, memory and perception and that are directly related to stages of development. For some cognitive theorists, an understanding of learning is couched in a framework known as the ‘information-processing model’. The information-processing model sees children actively making sense of their experiences and modifying their own thinking in response to environmental demands. The model itself initially portrayed cognitive endeavour as being similar to how computers process information, but this view was criticised for being overly simplistic in that human thinking and learning cannot be easily explained in the same 86
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manner as the rigid algorithmic framework found within a computer (Ormrod 2008). There are, however, a number of important strengths of this model, most notably in its focus on understanding how memory works and in the development of teaching interventions to assist in advanced problem-solving skills. A detailed look at memory is included later in this chapter. The cognitive orientation to learning focuses on how learners manipulate information during learning and how learners make meaning out of information and experience. Learning itself often becomes defined or delineated as the acquisition of new information. There have been a number of influential theorists in the area of human development and cognition, most of which work in the field of psychology. In the context of education, two names that continue to surface and influence our understanding of learning and teaching are Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. Until the early 1980s the work of Piaget (1896–1980) was arguably the dominant explanation of cognitive development and provided an overarching framework for pedagogy and curriculum. In the mid-1980s the research and work of Vygotsky (1896–1934) gained greater exposure and began to influence collective views of learning and education. This influence continues today and underpins much of contemporary educational practice. The following descriptions of each man’s work may appear somewhat unrelated but it is significant to note that their work is quite complementary and during their lives Piaget and Vygotsky communicated with one another, sharing their ideas while building their theoretical perspectives (Pass 2007). There are a number of important aspects of Piaget’s work that impact on how educationalists view learning and teaching. However, all of these components are premised on Piaget’s stages of cognitive development, which to this day impact on pedagogical and didactic decision making. For a summary of Piaget’s stages, see table 3.2, adapted from the works of Vialle, Lysaght and Verenikina (2005) and O’Donnell, Reeve and Smith (2009). Table 3.2 is but a brief summary of Piaget’s work and it should be noted that while it is, and has been, an influential approach to understanding learning and development, it is not without its critics. First, many would argue that Piaget underestimated many childhood capabilities and overestimated adolescent capabilities. Contemporary neuroscientific research supports these criticisms and is discussed later. Moreover, Piaget’s work has also been criticised for some of its ambiguity surrounding vague explanations of cognitive growth and for its omission of cultural and social influences on development and learning. Vygotsky offers a complementary approach to Piaget by taking into account the impact of culture and social interaction on development. Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development is often referred to as a sociocultural theory (Wells 1999). This term reflects the view that learning and development is not just a process of increased mental sophistication but is also mediated through social and cultural interactions. For Vygotsky, an integral component of child development is how children grow into the culture to which they belong. Cognitive development is an outcome of interaction between a child, its carers and the environment, and much of this is mediated through language and other cultural tools including counting systems, works of art and writing. Vygotsky also believed that a central tenet of the learning process was the distance between a child’s current level of competence on a task and the level the child can achieve with support or guidance. He labelled this distance the zone of proximal development (ZPD). For Vygotsky, interaction with peers and adults helps learners to bridge this gap. This theory is evident in contemporary educational practice in the form of ‘scaffolding’ learning — providing the support necessary for learners to enable them to accomplish a task and learn more independently. The detail and specificity of the combined works of Piaget and Vygotsky are beyond the scope of this work. From the notes above, however, it should be evident that each has had a profound impact on how we understand learning and on how we educate children. Significantly and by way of summary it is important to note that both theorists highlight the need for teachers to: r observe children and design learning experiences from those observations r match learning experiences with the level of cognitive development r recognise the contributions and impact that social, cultural and physical environments have on learning. CHAPTER 3 Student learning 87
TABLE 3.2
Piaget’s stages of development
Stage
Approximate age
Sensorimotor
0–2 years
Key characteristics
Types of behaviour and thinking
Develops an understanding of the world through sense and motor activities
Reaching for objects
Goal-directed activity increasingly replaces reflex actions Development of object permanence occurs — the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen Preoperational
2–7 years
Development of language and other symbol systems Egocentricity Logic applied in one direction only
Concrete operational
7–12 years
Ability to apply logic in hands on activities Concrete experiences used to solve problems but unable to mentally manipulate conditions unless they have been experienced
Imitation and memory processing becomes evident Looking for lost objects
Intuition at problem solving Inability to empathise Uses gestures, signs, sounds and words to represent and convey meaning Games are rule governed Development of the idea of conservation — the ability to recognise that certain properties (e.g. volume) stay the same despite a change in shape or appearance Development of the idea of irreversibility — the mental ability of reversing physical or mental processes
Formal operational
12 years and older
Able to think abstractly, form hypotheses, solve problems in a systematic fashion and engage in mental manipulations
Development of scientific, rational thought Concern about identity and social issues becomes evident
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Humanistic orientations to learning The notion of a humanistic orientation to education was born out of humanist psychology, which emerged in the 1950s as a reaction to behaviourism’s overly ‘scientific’ methods and to psychiatry’s focus on mental illness and disturbance. Humanism in its own right is a system of thought that is predominantly concerned with the human experience with a general orientation to life or a personal philosophy that recognises the uniqueness of human beings and the qualities of life that contribute to our humanity. Not unlike the orientations discussed above, humanistic orientations to learning have been influenced by some key individuals, most notably Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers. Perhaps Maslow’s greatest contribution to humanist psychology and our understanding of learning in that context is his position that people are driven to satisfy their needs and these needs can be organised into a hierarchy. For Maslow this hierarchy consisted of five levels and he presented this model as a pyramid, suggesting that the highest levels of need cannot be attained or given due consideration unless the basic needs at the foundation of the pyramid are met (Maslow 1943, 1954). Figure 3.1 identifies the needs Maslow attributed to human endeavour. While critics of Maslow argue that there are limitations to his work, primarily with being able to determine if and when needs are met and the ambiguous nature of the term ‘self-actualisation’, there is little doubt that it has had a significant and continuing impact on education and our understanding of learning. Perhaps most importantly, it asks educators to focus on student needs in a learning situation rather than those of the teacher or curriculum. Carl Rogers has also been very influential in shaping education and approaches to learning in terms of meeting the needs of students. 88
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FIGURE 3.1
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Self-actualisation (e.g. maximising one’s potential)
Self-esteem (e.g. competence, approval, recognition)
Belongingness and love (e.g. acceptance, affiliation, affection)
Safety (e.g. security, protection, nurturance)
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Physiological needs (e.g. food, water, oxygen)
Rogers was one of the most influential psychologists in American history. He made outstanding contributions to the fields of education, counselling, psychotherapy, peace and conflict resolution. For Rogers, learning is about personal change and growth. His view was that human beings have an inner drive towards self-fulfilment and maturity, and a natural potentiality for learning. Rogers also stressed that the best learning comes from ‘doing’. He also stressed the importance of freedom and choice in learning and advocated that schools should provide a nurturing environment where learners can follow their interests. Echoing Maslow’s work, Rogers believed that within nurturing environments, learners are free to learn, explore and reach their full potential. His ideas were to become known as learner-centred education, whereby students develop their capacities to reflect upon their needs and seek information for themselves, and the teacher acts as a facilitator of this process (Rogers 1969). Rogers’ influence on education is no less significant than Maslow’s and even today his philosophies are evident: much of contemporary educational rhetoric espouses the teacher’s role as being that of a learning facilitator. Perhaps one of the greatest strengths of Rogers’ work can be found in teachers having positive views of children and actively listening to their needs. When looking at the intricacies of a humanistic orientation to learning it should become apparent that those who adopt this approach to their teaching would aim to enhance learners’ personal and emotional development within a caring and supportive learning environment. Interestingly, strong advocates of humanist education believe that their aims cannot always be achieved in mainstream educational contexts. That being said, any environment that is genuinely concerned with learning would likely adopt principle tenets of humanism whereby students’ needs and desires, personal values, self-perceptions and motivations are addressed.
Social/situational orientations to learning The next theoretical perspective focuses on social/situational orientations to learning. This particular approach encompasses what has become known as social learning theory (Bandura 1976). Social learning theory could be described as an extension of the behaviourist and cognitive explanations of learning. CHAPTER 3 Student learning 89
Arguably, it could be considered a transition between behaviourist learning theories and cognitive learning theories. Albert Bandura is generally considered to be the principal architect behind social learning theory. Social learning theory suggests that people can learn by observing the behaviours of others and the outcomes of those behaviours. A point of departure from behaviourists, however, is that learning can occur without a demonstrable change in behaviour. Remember that according to the behaviourist orientation learning has to be represented by a permanent and observable change in behaviour. For Bandura and others who align to a social/situational orientation to learning, people can learn through observation alone, and their learning may not necessarily be shown in their performance. In other words one may observe and learn but not necessarily imitate the behaviours observed. Importantly, observations are also influenced by four important processes — attention, memory, rehearsal and motivation — and, as such, social learning theorists also recognise that cognition plays a role in learning (Hergenhahn & Olsen 2005). Moreover, personal characteristics including mental and emotional factors (e.g. goals and anxiety), self-perceptions and individual beliefs related to self-efficacy impact on learning. Over the past 30 years, social learning theory has become increasingly cognitive in its interpretation of human learning and is now often referred to as social cognitive theory. A third important factor that impacts on learning and is recognised in the social/situational orientation is the role of the environment. For social learning theorists both physical and social environments influence learning. For example, the nature of a task given to a student, the reinforcement and/or punishment of certain behaviours, and the dynamics of small group and whole class interactions in relation to the actual size of the classroom will all impact on learning. Consequently, the environment, behaviour and individual personal characteristics shape and are shaped by interactions, which in turn shape individual learning. Bandura (1986) refers to this model as triadic reciprocality, which offers a succinct summary of this orientation through figure 3.2. FIGURE 3.2
Triadic reciprocality
Behaviour
Environment
Personal characteristics
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Constructivist orientations to learning Our final look at a theoretical perspective is a brief overview of a constructivist orientation to learning. In itself this orientation encompasses an array of related perspectives that, because of their specificity and detail, are beyond the aims of this chapter. Ernst von Glaserfeld, a leading theorist in this area, describes it as ‘a vast and woolly area in contemporary psychology, epistemology and education’ (von Glaserfeld 1997, p. 203). There is no one constructivist theory but in its simplest terms constructivists assume that learning is a process of constructing meaning and much of this is derived from how individuals make sense of their experience (Merriam, Caffarella & Baumgartner 2007). Two prominent versions of this orientation that require some elaboration are cognitive constructivism and social constructivism. Cognitive constructivism may be considered an extension of the work done by Piaget in that the ‘making of meaning’ alluded to above relies on an individual’s cognitive capacities and abilities to assimilate new information within existing schemes or frameworks of understanding. In essence this framework involves a progressive adaptation of existing schemes to the physical environment whereby meaning is constructed vis-`a-vis a person’s previous and current knowledge structure. Learning is therefore the 90
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product of an internal cognitive activity and learners actively construct knowledge (Merriam, Caffarella & Baumgartner 2007). In contrast to the role of cognition in learning, social constructivists view knowledge as the product of learning whereby individuals engage socially through conversations or shared problem-solving tasks and/or activities. According to Driver, Asoko, Leach, Mortimer and Scott (1994, p. 7), the making of meaning ‘is thus a dialogic process involving persons-in-conversation, and learning is seen as the process by which individuals are introduced to a culture by more skilled members’. This approach resonates well with the work of Vygotsky given that he proposed that learning was an activity socially mediated through the symbols and language of a culture. In an educational context, constructivists view learners as self-regulated and active participants in their learning, and active ‘constructors’ of meaning. The learning environment in turn encourages social networks and/or experiential opportunities where individuals are encouraged to make sense of information for themselves. Methods of attaining a constructivist approach in this context might include inquirybased learning or problem-based learning. The focus of this type of approach is the student and equally important is the fostering of positive student–teacher relationships. For some, however, encouraging student-centred learning may be time-consuming, especially for secondary teachers who face pressures regarding curriculum coverage, which may limit their ability to implement constructivist principles. Moreover, developing group work skills takes time and experience; students need specific skills, and not all group work is efficient and effective. Finally, those teachers who operate as the purveyors of knowledge in a didactic model of teaching are often daunted by classroom-management concerns when managing group work.
Some final thoughts on orientations to learning After reading about the orientations above, it becomes apparent that each maintains some positive characteristics but also problematic concerns. What is important in this context is for you, the reader, to CHAPTER 3 Student learning 91
recognise that the orientations provide evidence of Claxton’s (1999) view that learning is multifarious. Learning is not a simply stated taken-for-granted notion of the interactions that exist in a school. Learning is a process that occurs each and every day in formal educational contexts and beyond. For future educators, the task then is to adopt approaches that suit one’s individual philosophies while continually reflecting on practice and making changes where necessary. It is also important to remember that theories of learning and theories of teaching (pedagogy) do not always fit comfortably with one another and, as such, each educational context requires pre-service teachers to think about learning and teaching within the environment in which they find themselves. The following sections of this chapter offer further ideas about learning as part of becoming a reflective practitioner.
WHAT CAN I TAKE INTO THE CLASSROOM?
When you visit a school for a practicum placement, take time to observe how your supervising teachers engage their learners. Do their approaches to teaching and learning incorporate any or all of the orientations discussed in this chapter? Some might argue that the age or year level of a group of students may shape a teacher’s approach. Within the particular context of your practicum, do you witness one approach as dominant over others? If so, why do you think that is? Depending on the location of your practicum placement, you may have students from a range of diverse backgrounds, including Indigenous students and students from different ethnic backgrounds. Can you observe any differences in how students might engage with the learning process? If your mentor teacher feels it is appropriate, discuss with the students what learning means to them and reflect on their beliefs about learning. Do any of their beliefs appear different to your own? If so, what might this mean for your teaching?
WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
After reading through the work above, can you write a personal definition of ‘learning’? What approaches to learning have you experienced and what approaches would you like to adopt as part of your own repertoire of personal practice as an educator? If you are having difficulty, try starting with the following prompt: As a future teacher, which do you think is more important: that students do well in their studies or that they feel good about themselves and enjoy the school environment? After identifying your ideas, try to align them with the orientations discussed in the first part of this chapter and reflect on why you have adopted a particular position(s). Can you think of a teacher you had who followed a particular orientation to learning that may have had a significant impact on your own perspective?
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3.2 New insights into learning LEARNING OBJECTIVE 3.2 Explain basic aspects of neural development and processes related to learning and memory.
Historically, much of what we understood learning to be and how to engage learners in an educational context was premised on observing behaviour, trial and error, and intuition. The earliest days of education relied heavily on shallow interpretations of learning experiences and limited understandings of how the brain actually works. As a future educator you are now living in a time when our collective understanding of the intricacies of the brain grows exponentially every day. With these insights we are also gathering some equally important information on how the brain works, what might enhance learning and, significantly, what might hinder learning. 92
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There is little doubt for many people that while looking at theoretical perspectives regarding learning there should be opportunities to focus on the inner workings of the brain. After all, it is a safe assertion that understanding how the brain matures and works offers educators an opportunity to better understand learning and what is arguably at the core of their business. It is also a fairly safe assumption that a majority of today’s teachers know little about the neurological foundation of their practice. In all likelihood teachers who did their training some years ago have had few opportunities to study aspects of neural development due to the limited amount and scientific nature of the information available at the time. Indeed, much of their training focused primarily on the behaviourist orientation whereby understanding what might be happening inside a brain was done by observing outside behaviour (Sousa 2001). However, with advances in technology, researchers have been able to theorise how the brain works and evolves into the marvel that it is. This information is being passed on to the general public in a number of different media. For current and future educators this is an exciting time given that the last decade has seen neuroscience, psychology and education merge boundaries and provide important insights into the workings of the human brain. The following sections of this chapter look to unpack what we do know about the brain and how this might influence our understandings of learning and, by association, our practice as teachers.
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How the brain learns — contemporary scientific insights When do you think learning begins? Historically this has often been a question of guesswork and intuition. Not all that long ago very little was known about learning and in particular how the brain learns. Even as late as the 1970s, developmental psychologists believed that newborn babies were not able to think and were actually capable of little more than simple automatic responses; in essence, newborns were considered not much more than ‘carrots that could cry’ (Gopnik, Meltzoff & Kuhl 1999; Nagel 2008). Advances in technology in conjunction with new scientific and medical procedures tell us that from a neuroscientific perspective learning starts around 17 days after conception. This is the time when neurogenesis begins. For neuroscientists, learning originates within neurons and neural connections. Indeed, if you are going to understand how the brain learns then you must begin with an understanding of neural development. Neurons (or nerve cells) are integral to behaviour and learning and, as shown in figure 3.3, are comprised of a nucleus with dendrites, axon and axon terminals (Howard 2006). As noted above, it is very early in life that the brain begins to produce neurons and by the seventeenth week of pregnancy the foetus will already have approximately a billion neurons. The production of neurons occurs at a rate of about 50 000 per second and at birth a newborn will actually have twice as many neurons as necessary. Later in life this excess is actually pruned back. Neurons are different from other cells in the body in that they have sophisticated mechanisms for transferring information to one another. Most people have heard of the term ‘synapse’ and this term is jokingly used to explain lapses of memory or seemingly silly behaviour. In actuality, a synapse is the site of the electrochemical impulse that occurs when the dendrites of one neuron pass information through the axon terminals of another. The passing of information from one neuron to another involves a great deal of complexity and in many respects is still a bit of a mystery to scientists. What scientists do know is that this type of communication occurs when our senses receive information from the external world around us and the brain reacts accordingly. This passing of information leads to the development of long-term, hardwired neural circuitry, which, for neuroscientists, is the essence of learning. Moreover, this process of hardwiring visa` -vis synaptic transmission reveals that, from a neuroscientific standpoint, learning is actually a use it or lose it process. As the brain responds to the environment it lays down connections that, over time and through repetition, may become hardwired pathways for behaving in a certain way. Conversely, those connections that are not repeatedly used are often discarded or pruned away during various stages of development (Diamond & Hopson 1999; Ratey 2001). CHAPTER 3 Student learning 93
FIGURE 3.3
The anatomy of a neuron
Dendrites
Cell body
Nucleus
Direction of nerve impulse Myelin sheath Axon
Axon terminals Synapse
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Postsynaptic neurons
As a future educator, you may be saying to yourself that all of the above is interesting, but why is it so important to know in terms of learning and teaching? The answer to this question is simple. Although a great deal of the brain’s architecture is put into place in utero, it is after a child is born that learning really begins to flourish with a prolific rate of growth in neural connections. These connections are influenced by individual experience in the world around us and, as such, children at all ages need appropriate environmental stimuli to facilitate their learning and neurological development. Stimulating experiences activate certain connections, repetition consolidates these connections and the brain learns. A factor of considerable importance with regards to stimulating environments is that scientists have recently discovered that regions of the cerebral cortex increase in size when exposed to stimulating conditions and the longer the exposure the greater the growth. In fact, the research available tells us that stimulation increases the overall number of dendrites in each neuron, which in turn enlarges or thickens cortical cells (Diamond & Hopson 1999; Shore 1997). Another important consideration is that the brain does not mature in a linear fashion and regions of the brain responsible for our survival, emotions and capacity to engage in abstract or highly sophisticated cognitive endeavour develop along different timelines. This is 94
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why we don’t ask eight-year-old children to engage in complex algebraic equations or expect two-yearold infants to always respond rationally when they are told they can’t have a chocolate biscuit. This is also why we must look at aspects of neural development within significant time frames of growth and maturation.
Early development and learning From the information already presented it should be apparent that a great deal of neural activity, growth and development occurs in the early stages of life. Neurons provide the raw material for learning by building connections, but these connections and the neurodevelopmental timeline that exists from birth into adulthood is mediated by various processes. Through early childhood and into adolescence this timetable is significantly influenced by myelin, a material that insulates the axon of a neuron. Myelin appears as white fatty material and is often referred to as the white matter of the brain. As an insulator, myelin aids in the transmission of information from one neuron to another and the more ‘myelinated’ axons in the brain, the greater opportunity for neural information to be passed quickly. The result of all of this is that certain activities may be easier to learn when regions of the brain are sufficiently myelinated or when brains become ‘fatter’. In terms of early development and learning, myelination is very important for children, due to the fact that when we are born we have very few myelinated axons. This is one reason that vision and motor coordination are so limited at birth — the neural networks responsible for facilitating vision and movement are not working fast enough, but barring any unforeseen circumstances they will become much more efficient when myelin increases. Furthermore, as we grow older different regions of the brain myelinate at different times. For example, when Broca’s area (the region of the brain responsible for language production) myelinates, children are then able to develop speech and grammar. These times of myelination have become referred to by neuroscientists as learning windows and amazingly a healthy brain knows which areas need to be myelinated first and that myelination cannot happen all at once (Diamond & Hopson 1999; Herschkowitz & Herschkowitz 2004). Figure 3.4 offers a graphical overview of some of the known ‘learning windows’. FIGURE 3.4
Learning windows — key periods of neural connectivity
Motor development Emotional control Peer/social skills Binocular vision Habitual ways of responding
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Vocabulary development Language development Symbol recognition Instrumental music 0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Age (years) Source: Adapted from Chugani, Phelps and Mazziotta (1987, 1989); Chugani (1994, 1996); Diamond and Hopson (1999); Eliot (2000); Herschkowitz and Herschkowitz (2004); Hirsch-Pasek, Golinkoff and Eyer (2004).
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While the neurobiological aspects of ‘learning windows’ may appear rather straightforward, a number of other determining factors also influence neural proliferation. In conjunction with the timelines noted above, stimulation from the environment is influenced by cultural and social factors. In other words, ‘the exact web of connections among neurons at a particular moment is determined by a combination of genetic makeup, environment, the sum of experiences we have imposed on our brains and the activity we are bombarding it with now and each second into the future’ (Ratey 2001, p. 26). In this sense nature and nurture are not dichotomous entities, but actually work in tandem to facilitate learning and shape the mind. For Dr Harry Chugani, one of the world’s leading authorities in this particular field, nurturing in an educational context is incredibly important, and he suggests that education systems ‘would do well to exploit biological windows of opportunity while learning is theoretically more efficient and easily maintained’ (Nagel 2006, p. 33). There are other important considerations to remember when looking at ‘learning windows’. When scientists first uncovered this important aspect of optimum times for neural stimulation they referred to them as ‘critical’ periods. This terminology led to a misconception that once the window closed learning was not possible. It is important to remember that not all learning is ‘critically’ influenced by ‘learning windows’. The type of ‘learning’ that happens in educational contexts occurs over a lifetime, unconstrained by any window of opportunity. The key with the concept of a learning window is that these timelines provide an optimum time for stimulation. Some of these windows do require the necessary stimulation to hardwire the brain (e.g. sight requires early visual stimulus), but the brain allows for the traditional notions of learning that exist in schools to occur; it just might be somewhat more difficult to achieve certain skills later in life (e.g. second language acquisition). You might think that if experience and activity are indeed significant factors in neural development then surely the earlier the stimulation (e.g. ‘enrichment’) the greater the propensity for learning and early success. This idea has led to some very worrying trends in early learning contexts. In Australia over the last 20 years, the notion of enriching the lives of young children to ostensibly give them a competitive edge at school success has witnessed an alarmingly increasing trend of extra tuition and curricular activity. For most people, trying to gain some measure of success for their children may not appear as such a bad thing. After all, most would agree that parents and educators are only trying to do their best to enhance the options and futures of the children around them. However, when doing their best encompasses a ‘more is better’ approach without any measure of understanding regarding child development, the end result could be that more is less. Experience is important, but so too is each child’s individual developmental timeline. Learning windows provide a guide, not an absolute, and trying to educate and enrich a child too early has led to what child development expert Professor David Elkind refers to as the ‘hurried child’ (2001). For Elkind and others, the prevailing message in today’s world is that it is no longer sufficient for children to learn independently as they have for millennia. However, unless you live in extreme poverty, isolation or social and emotional deprivation, the natural everyday environments children find themselves in promote strong neural development (Hirsh-Pasek, Golinkoff & Eyer 2004). The important message here regarding learning is that, although scientists are aware of the fact that once a prime time has passed the ability of the brain to forge certain kinds of neural pathways diminishes substantially, this does not mean learning cannot occur. What is significant is the type of learning being done — and in most cases only those experiences that have robbed the brain of important early stimuli appear irreversible. For the majority of children, the day-to-day experiences of life are often enough to ensure a healthy start to development and learning. It is important to emphasise that healthy development is also the product of nature and nurture, and as such, the experiences children are exposed to can both enhance and hinder all aspects of development and learning. For pre-service teachers it is also important to recognise that, in terms of early learning in an educational context, children must be allowed opportunities to explore their environments freely and selfregulate their behaviour, and be encouraged to ask questions. During the early years the brain is not always receptive to carefully organised or sterilised, sequenced material. It tends to run on more of an emotional trajectory, which is why ‘play’ is such an important component of formal and informal early 96
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learning. Individual experience fosters new brain growth and refines existing brain structures, and there is nothing more naturally individual for children than opportunities to learn via playing. There is a growing body of neuroscientific research identifying that children who do better academically and socially throughout their school lives come from home and early learning environments that provide substantive opportunities to explore and play (Eliot 2000; Hirsh-Pasek, Golinkoff & Eyer 2004). The importance of play cannot be understated or overemphasised. This is especially true for those who see play as something to be done when all the hard work of ‘schooling’ has been achieved, or assume that learning in children and adults occurs in a similar fashion (Sunderland 2008). The importance of play in terms of social, emotional and cognitive development has a long history and is well established in the research literature (Nagel 2012). For example, studies tell us that self-directed and open-ended play can be linked to better language and problem-solving abilities, better social skills, enhanced memory capacities, expanded creative endeavour and less stress in children (Medina 2010). For early development and learning, extensive opportunities for children to explore the world around them and play are integral components of early childhood education and complement the rationale that institutionalised learning prior to Year 1 has traditionally been referred to as preschool. Contemporary research also tells us that it is only after their fifth birthday that a child’s brain is emotionally and cognitively ready for the type of formal learning and teaching that exists in a primary school. The capacity to follow adult reasoning, use memory in a deliberate fashion, begin to grasp abstract concepts and have enough self-control to sit for long periods of time and attend to what is being taught ‘starts’ around the age of six. During the primary years much of the brain then goes through a process of neural consolidation until adolescence engages the brain in some significant neural restructuring.
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Adolescence and learning Many people would probably agree that some measure of consideration regarding early development and learning be provided for future teachers. There is, and has been, widespread agreement that the early years are very important in terms of development and learning. Much of what has happened in traditional education has focused on the unique learning needs of young children. This has arguably been part of the work of Piaget and others who believed that all of the important processes of the mind were in place by around the twelfth birthday. From the past decade, however, a great deal of research now tells us that when children enter adolescence the brain undergoes some major restructuring and development that ultimately impacts on behaviour and learning. Recall from the previous section that according to neuroscientists learning occurs when neurons ‘talk’ to each other. Much of this communication occurs without any conscious attention to thinking as the body absorbs a never-ending supply of sensory stimulation from the environment. However, when we are asked to attend to a particular experience such as a maths lesson in school, the brain is more likely to be stimulated if the information and experience it is immersed in maintain a high level of relevancy, currency or curiosity. These types of experiences are more likely to engage the emotional part of the brain, which we now know is an integral link to cognition and learning. The significance of this during adolescence is even more stark and revealing given how the brain matures and changes. Before looking at the neurological reality that parents and teachers face when their children begin to mature into adults, it is important to articulate what we mean by ‘adolescence’, which is actually a socially constructed term. For example, many Aboriginal cultures have different understandings of what constitutes an adolescent, while other cultures might focus on some aspect of age as a benchmark for the beginning and end of adolescence. In the context of this work the word ‘adolescence’ is situated with the word ‘pubescence’, which is a medical term denoting a change in an individual’s reproductive organs. The reason for placing adolescence in this framework is that a change in reproductive capacity closely aligns with changes to the brain and, as such, provides some clarity regarding when the transition from child to adult actually begins. For some children, this change is occurring well before they become teenagers, resulting in some amazing neurological transformations before the second decade of life. CHAPTER 3 Student learning 97
There is an abundance of literature available describing adolescent neurological development that goes beyond the scope of this chapter (see for example, Andersen 2003; Giedd 2004; Giedd et al. 1999; Nagel 2004, 2005, 2014; Strauch 2003). At the risk of oversimplifying this important developmental milestone, we will limit this discussion to broader and perhaps more general perspectives, starting with some structures of the brain and how their maturational timeline may impact on behaviour and learning. When looking at a human brain, scientists generally describe it as maintaining three major structures. The brainstem or region closest to the spine is responsible for functions not under conscious control and where fight-or-flight survival responses are activated. The limbic system or central part of the brain harbours and processes our emotions. And finally the uppermost region of the brain known as the cerebrum maintains what is often referred to as the ‘thinking’ centre of the brain (Hardiman 2003). The cerebrum generally refers to the combined right and left hemispheres of the brain that house the occipital, temporal, parietal and frontal lobes and the cerebral cortex, the uppermost grey layers of the brain where thinking, consciousness and further responses to environmental stimuli take place. Most people identify the brain with this region because of its most obvious characteristic — its wrinkly surface, which is highly convoluted and purposeful in design for it increases its own surface area without increasing its overall volume or size (Berninger & Richards 2002; Hardiman 2003; Ratey 2001). For each person there exists some measure of variation in the surface landscape of the cerebrum, but overall the regions themselves are similar for everyone in terms of their design and function. The main structures of the human brain are shown in figure 3.5. FIGURE 3.5
The human brain
Cerebral cortex Corpus callosum
Limbic system
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Brainstem
Spinal cord
One of the most important considerations regarding structures of the brain is that the brain actually matures from the bottom up and around to the front. In other words, the brainstem and limbic system, areas responsible for survival and emotions, mature before areas of the cerebrum and most notably before the prefrontal lobes are fully firing. The prefrontal lobes often attract the most attention in terms of developing an understanding of learning due to the fact that this area of the cerebrum is the brain’s thinking centre or what some refer to as ‘the brain’s chief executive officer’. This important region of the brain allows us to be consciously aware of our thoughts and actions and is responsible for aspects of abstract thought, memory, higher order thought processes, problem solving, decision making, planning, creativity, judgement, language and the mediation of inappropriate emotional responses. While it is significant 98
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to remember that this area of the brain does not fully mature until the third decade of life, it is equally important to remember that we are born with more neurons and develop more neural connections than we actually need. During adolescence the brain also travels down a pathway of deconstruction whereby it discards unused synaptic connections or prunes itself as it works towards becoming more efficient (Giedd et al. 1999). The experiences that are provided to children are very important but become increasingly so during adolescence when synaptic pruning may cut back 7 to 10 per cent of the brain’s grey matter, with some smaller regions losing as much as 50 per cent (Sowell et al. 1999). In other words, it is during this time in our lives when the adage of ‘use it or lose it’ noted earlier is most prolific. The activities that adolescents engage in repeatedly will be most successful at developing the neural circuitry of the brain; consequently this process, along with the other developmental phases noted above, has a profound impact on adolescent emotions, thought processes and, by extension, learning. If, as the research suggests, areas of the brain responsible for emotive and survival responses (the limbic system and areas of the brainstem) mature and develop sooner than areas responsible for higher order thinking and other executive processes, then one of the ways to enhance learning and hold attention for adolescents is through engaging in relevant activities that allow for sensory motor experiences (Davis 2001; Kolb 2000). Inquiry-based learning or problem-based learning may offer such opportunities in that they allow students to engage their emotions in the context of problems that interest them and also allow for the continued building of neuron connections discussed earlier (Kwon & Lawson 2000). Indeed, the emotional part of the brain may be the key to learning during adolescence whereby we recognise that when the brain perceives the information it is receiving to be important and emotive or stimulating enough, synaptic communication occurs. As noted earlier, neuroscience is telling educators that relevancy, currency and novelty can act to stimulate the brain’s innate drive to learn and find meaning (Caine & Caine 2001). Finally, it is fairly safe to assume that most educators who work with adolescents know that they are dealing with an interesting blend of emotions and behaviours that often seem at odds with adult perceptions and opinions. It is therefore important to remember that the adolescent brain is a work in progress and helping to nurture that development is as important, if not more so, as attaining various levels of academic prowess. Indeed, when one thinks of adolescence and learning it is a safe assumption that failing to educate with the developing brain in mind may in fact hinder a young person’s ability to succeed academically, emotionally and personally. While engaging in learning with adolescents it is important to always bear in mind that you are dealing with biological beings in culturally designed institutions — and to design your practices around this notion (Sylwester 2003). Such reflection and planning would also need to take into account the important neurobiological aspects of memory and its role in learning.
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Retaining what is learned For many people the barometer for indicating whether learning has taken place or not is how well someone remembers something. Attempts to understand human memory and how it works as a function of the brain and a product of learning have captured the imagination of scientists and philosophers for over a century (Nelson 1995). However, much of the work done in the past has operated within an incomplete understanding of the neurobiology of the brain. Since the turn of the century a great deal of scientific progress into understanding memory has occurred with the advent of new technologies for improved brain imaging (Kandel 2006; Sylwester 2005). Because of these advances we now have a greater understanding of memory, learning and the retention of new information.
Memory In itself ‘memory’ is not dissimilar to the term ‘learning’ in that it is often a taken-for-granted notion of human endeavour. Indeed, the two terms are so inextricably linked that studying one without the other CHAPTER 3 Student learning 99
is arguably impossible. Nonetheless, it is important to note that while learning refers to the acquisition of knowledge, information and/or skills, memory is the term used to describe how and where our brain stores learned information and skills (Sylwester 2005). Concurrently, many people often think of memory as a video camera whereby events are recorded as they happen, stored in a particular place and then played back later when needed. This view of memory is problematic in that memories are not a unitary trait; rather they are stored in various pieces throughout the cerebrum and dependent on various structures and their interconnections (Cycowicz 2000). The shape, smell, colour and taste of a lemon, for example, are categorised and stored in different neural connections; activating these sites simultaneously unites a recollection of our experiences and thoughts involving a lemon and we remember (Sousa 2001). Moreover, while we are capable of learning many things, it is important to recognise that memories are far more malleable and fallible than we would like to think, and retaining what is learned is not always a fait accompli. This may appear somewhat disconcerting, but while memory must have some aspect of stability so that we can learn vis-`a-vis building up experiences, it also has to be flexible enough to adapt to our changing environment (Ratey 2001). It should be evident that the formation of a memory via learning is a highly complex neurological process that is often taken for granted because it appears to happen quite naturally. The totality of the processes and structures in the brain that help to shape our memories are too innumerable and multifaceted to discuss here. In the context of learning there are, however, some important considerations to remember. Firstly, our memories are shaped by our experiences and, as such, the environment and our senses are the starting point for memory creation. Each and every new experience causes the neural firing across synapses noted earlier to become either stronger or weaker, and this is dependent on how often these pathways refire. The concept of ‘use it or lose it’ is highly applicable here; the more a path is refired, the more permanent the message or learning becomes (Ratey 2001). Importantly, this process is not a standardised routine, and motivation and emotion play a role in determining the strength of a memory given that we generally attend to information or stimuli that is personally meaningful or elicits some emotional connection. Finally, it is important to note that — not unlike the multifarious and innumerable neurological aspects of learning — there are different stages and types of memory that are integral to understanding both learning and memory. Immediate/short-term memory, working memory, long-term storage and types of memory
Although short-term memory is as easily distinguishable from long-term memory as the words themselves suggest, the process by which short-term memories make the transition to long-term storage is far more complex. To better understand the role of memory in learning, figure 3.6 provides a starting point for describing the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of memory. FIGURE 3.6
The ‘what’ and ‘how’ of memory Stages of memory
Types of memory
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Implicit Environment and experience
Immediate/shortterm memory
Working memory
Procedural memories
Long-term memory Explicit
Episodic and semantic memories
Source: Adapted from Sousa (2001).
In order to understand ‘immediate’/short-term memory, think of a time you looked for a telephone number in a phone book, put the book down, then went and dialled the number. That information would 100
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likely be stored for a very short time and if there was no answer to your call or the line was busy, by the time you went to redial it you would have probably forgotten it. Immediate/short-term memory can last a few seconds or a few minutes — depending on the importance and significance of the data — and operates on a conscious and subconscious level (Cowan 2008; Howard 2006; Sousa 2001). For many years short-term memory was considered to be synonymous with working memory, but contemporary understandings of memory now tend to separate the two. Working memory is part of the executive function of the prefrontal cortex and improves with age. It allows us to carry out the hundreds of tasks we do each day and ensures we avoid overloading our neural system by forgetting unimportant and insignificant events. Working memory operates on a conscious level and registers our current activities while retrieving information from long-term storage when necessary. There is some debate as to how long memories might be held in this stage, but what is known is that working memory is temporary and wanes quickly unless there is a change in focus or context. This helps to explain why learning and teaching with young children require shifts in activity duration and style. That being said, it is significant to note that although working memory improves as we get older, even for adults the likelihood of shifting items from working memory to long-term storage is enhanced when the focus of instruction or interaction is varied and activates as many of our sensory perceptions as possible. In other words, varied approaches to instruction or interaction require shifts in attention and cognition, and neuroscience tells us that working memory is closely associated with attention and linked to cognitive aptitude (Cowan 2008; Vergauwe & Cowan 2015). Working memory is also currently recognised as complicit in those who struggle with poor evaluation and anticipation of consequences or action disorders. Those who have neurological difficulties with their working memory often have difficulties with coherent thinking, attention, social interactions and long-term storage of events. Long-term memory is a fairly self-evident term. This is the final stage of memory processing and long-term memories appear to be scattered throughout various regions of the brain. It also appears that the amount of information that the brain can store in long-term memory is somewhat limitless, and after we memorise something we can direct our attention to other things for a few minutes or even years and then retrieve the first item again at will (Klingberg 2009). As yet, neuroscientists would generally agree that much of what we know about how the brain stores memories is still a mystery but they may agree that in some sense long-term memory is also like the hard drive of your computer — information stored is only done so when the ‘save’ button is hit. Usually the shift from working memory to longterm storage occurs when an event is emotive, makes sense, provides an epiphany or has some meaning attached to it. Events that elicit a strong emotional response or survival instinct are almost always stored for future reference. The emotional part of the brain, or limbic system, appears to be the relay station for much of the brain’s memory-processing capabilities and the stronger the emotion or the more an event causes an emotional response, the more likely it is to be transferred from the relay station to other regions for future use. This is one level of learning that focuses on emotion and survival. On another level of learning — that occurring in educational contexts — for information to be moved to long-term memory, an experience has to make sense and have meaning. Information that has both is more likely to get stored; however, one of the difficulties in this process is that having meaning is a personal component of learning. Again, the terms relevancy, currency and novelty are important. When a person identifies that something is relevant to their lives, is current to them or happening in the present and/or is novel, it is more likely to be shifted into long-term storage because the limbic system then gives it an emotional tag and moves it accordingly. When someone queries why they have to learn something, that is the first sign that it will in all likelihood be forgotten unless some relevancy or meaning is provided. In that sense, some types of memories are more easily stored than others. As noted in figure 3.6, there are two types of memory: implicit and explicit. Implicit memory is responsible for the laying down of skills and habits, which are often engaged on a subconscious level, while explicit memory encodes factual knowledge. Eating, walking and riding a bike are implicit memories, whereas names, faces and dates are characteristic of explicit memories. Another important aspect of understanding implicit and explicit memory is the subcomponents of each. CHAPTER 3 Student learning 101
Within the framework of implicit memory lies procedural memory. Procedural memory encompasses the steps or procedures for doing something; in essence it is the ‘how’ of doing something. Procedural memory includes the how of riding a bike, driving a car, swinging a cricket bat, walking and tying a shoelace, and becomes more automatic with practice. Conversely, explicit memory includes episodic and semantic memory. Episodic memory is the memory of life experiences and the capacity to place facts and events in time and refer to them freely. Once again, it should be noted that emotion plays a prominent role in ensuring the long-term encoding of episodic memories. Semantic memories on the other hand are arguably more cognitive and are memories about information and knowledge of the world around us. Semantic memory allows for the retention of facts and everyday functions. It differs only slightly from episodic memory in that semantic facts are removed from a specific moment and place. Another important difference between semantic and episodic memory is that episodic memory is far less reliable and easily distorted by any number of distractions including fear, anxiety and stress (Howard 2006; Ratey 2001). This is one of the reasons that eyewitness testimony to crimes can be very problematic in terms of accuracy of detail and clear recollection of events; the emotionally laden nature of a crime-related episodic memory is likely to induce strong and vivid recall regardless of its accuracy and, as such, maintains the potential to distort the overall recollection of the experience (Pink 2010). Semantic memories, on the other hand, given their nature, are far less flexible but arguably more difficult to attain in the context of learning in schools. Quite often the permanent acquisition of information through rote learning or any other form of memorisation is not achieved. Again, the criteria for long-term memory storage must be heeded in that the acquisition of factual information without some measure of relevancy or emotional stimulus is unlikely. Language depends on semantic memory and — barring any form of impairment — is easily acquired because it is a meaningful and relevant endeavour for our survival and emotional and social wellbeing. Learning the periodic table of the elements, on the other hand, may not garner the same measure of enthusiasm or urgency. An important question for future teachers then is how can learning be transferred and/or retained effectively.
Transfer and retention
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A good portion of teaching in schools centres on delivering facts and information to build concepts that explain a body of knowledge. We teach numbers, arithmetic operations, ratios and theorems to explain mathematics. We teach about atoms, momentum, gravity and cells to explain science. We talk about countries, famous leaders and their trials and battles to explain history and so on. Students may hold on to this information in working memory just long enough to take a test, after which it readily decays and is lost (Sousa 2001, p. 84).
If you think back to the opening of this chapter, we explored the notion of learning as a product and process. We can continue to use this framework in the context of how the brain transfers and retains information. At the risk of appearing repetitive it is important to remember the following points. r Brain maturation and development is a lengthy process stretching from early conception into the second decade of life. r During the brain’s developmental journey there are windows of opportunity for learning particular things. r The environment is an important component of neural development and learning — and nature and nurture operate in tandem, not as ‘two horses trying to win the brain development cup’. r Much of what goes on in an adult’s head is vastly different to what goes on in the mind of a child or adolescent. As such, many of the skills and cognitive abilities adults take for granted, students are yet to possess with the same efficiency and expediency. r There exist different stages and types of memory, yet some of the underlying principles in terms of shifting short-term memories to long-term storage parallel each other (i.e. relevancy and meaning, emotional content, novelty and currency are all powerful mediators of learning and memory storage). With those ideas in mind it is also essential to recognise that while we know that the environment plays a role in learning and shaping the brain, in itself the brain is not primarily an experience-storing device 102
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but is a dynamic computing device that is primarily rule driven (Gazzinga 1998). Learning occurs via synaptic transmissions, is hardwired into the brain through repetition, and is more likely to be retained if it engages more than just the cognitive capacities of the mind. This is the art and science of learning and teaching. It requires educators to look beyond traditional views of classroom endeavour while simultaneously thinking of enhancing learning through new paradigms of thought and emerging frameworks of learning in the twenty-first century. In order to further our understanding of transfer and retention, those ideas are presented in the last section of this chapter.
WHAT CAN I TAKE INTO THE CLASSROOM?
In 2009 the term ‘neuroeducation’ emerged out of a series of conferences in the United States. The intent of those gatherings was to bring together some of the world’s leading researchers in the fields of education, psychology and neuroscience with a focus on linking educational practice with neuroscientific research and vice versa. Today, a growing number of educators and schools are looking to neuroscience to help better understand ‘learning’, ‘behaviour’ and inform what they do in school environments. In your experience, have you witnessed any evidence of schools or teachers incorporating brain research into their curriculum or teaching endeavours? Should they? Will you and if so how? Perhaps a good place to start would be to explore in greater detail how memories are stored and how they can be enhanced. For example, there are important links between emotions and memory and we are more likely to remember things that have some emotional value to us. Emotions can also shut down learning when a person is anxious and/or stressed. What might that mean in terms of how you design and deliver a learning and teaching episode?
WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
When Jean Piaget developed his theories of cognitive development he did not have the luxury of being able to see the brain in action as researchers do now, nor did he have empirical data outlining the developmental trajectory of the human brain. Consequently, some aspects of his theories are not entirely accurate, especially in regards to the full maturation of the brain’s frontal lobes. We also now know that as children move through the teenage years, their brains are undergoing some significant aspects of reconstruction which in turn impacts on all aspects of learning and behaviour. Importantly, and as noted earlier, emotions play an integral role in learning, suggesting that meaningful learning and long-lasting memories are more likely to occur when learning experiences and content are relevant, current and novel. How do you ensure that the content you are going to deliver is relevant, current and/or novel to the life of the students? Remember, students are required to learn many things, but without a sense of connection between those things they are not likely to retain what they have learned.
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3.3 Enhancing learning LEARNING OBJECTIVE 3.3 Discuss the relationships between different forms of intelligences and learning, as well as environmental factors that influence learning.
Along with concepts of memory and memory retention, people often associate learning or one’s capacity to learn with the term ‘intelligence’. Indeed, intelligence is often linked with a general aptitude and capacity for understanding and learning — and for many people, intelligence is valued in terms of ‘the more the better’. In everyday usage, intelligence has traditionally been conceived as a mental ability that is present in different amounts and is measurable using various tests. The results of these tests produce an ‘intelligence quotient’ or IQ score that is then often used as a label for denoting levels of intelligence. While intelligence tests are not uncommonly used in psychological contexts, their value with regards to CHAPTER 3 Student learning 103
educational contexts is highly contested. On a positive note, intelligence tests may be useful for identifying students who are at risk of problems in learning as a result of impaired intellectual abilities or conversely can be useful for identifying students who are intellectually gifted. Consequently, the result of intelligence tests may guide the planning of appropriate educational programs for learners. Notwithstanding the potential benefits of intelligence testing, there are a number of issues. First there are questions concerning the reliability and validity of scores derived from tests. There are also issues of cultural bias and the one-dimensional nature of identifying intelligence found in tests. It is not uncommon for minority and economically disadvantaged students to score lower than other students. In terms of student wellbeing, there is a risk that information about an individual student’s performance on an intelligence test will lead to expectations that have an adverse effect on that student’s achievement and self-concept. Finally, the idea of intelligence as mental agility or mental speed is a Western notion. In other words, the skills valued by a society are likely to represent the skills that are useful in that society, which in turn contribute to the content and structure of tests. Consider, for example, that in some Pacific Island communities, skills of navigation may be associated with intelligence, but these same skills may not be represented in Western intelligence tests. Over time, definitions of intelligence have evolved, resulting in new models of understanding the links between ‘intelligences’ and learning. Therefore, although some of the earliest pioneers developed important frameworks for understanding intelligence, it has only been in the past 20 years that learning and learning in educational contexts have begun to embrace new and important insights related to intelligence, with a common thread among theorists that there are in fact multiple forms of intelligence. One of the primary contributors of these new insights is Professor Howard Gardner of Harvard University and his theory of ‘multiple intelligences’.
Multiple intelligences
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In the heyday of the psychometric and behaviorist eras, it was generally believed that intelligence was a single entity that was inherited; and that human beings — initially a blank slate — could be trained to learn anything, provided that it was presented in an appropriate way. Nowadays an increasing number of researchers believe precisely the opposite; that there exists a multitude of intelligences, quite independent of each other; that each intelligence has its own strengths and constraints; that the mind is far from unencumbered at birth; and that it is unexpectedly difficult to teach things that go against early ‘naive’ theories of intelligence that challenge the natural lines of force within an intelligence and its matching domains (Gardner 1993, p. xix).
Howard Gardner, a world-renowned author, academic and developmental psychologist, is the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Gardner has had and continues to have a tremendous influence on our understanding of intelligences. His work has been widely accepted and applied in educational contexts throughout the world. In his earlier work Gardner viewed intelligence as the capacity or ability to solve problems or develop products that would be valued in more than one cultural setting (Gardner & Hatch 1989). These ideas underpinned his initial model of a theory of multiple intelligences (MI), which consisted of seven intelligences. In 1999 Gardner revised his model to include an eighth intelligence and these are presented in table 3.3. As previously noted, Gardner has been very influential in shaping an understanding of intelligence. That being said, his work is not without its criticisms. One of the foremost of these is whether what has been noted as an ‘intelligence’ could more accurately be described as a ‘talent’ or ‘ability’. In that sense, Gardner is not the first to generate a list of human abilities, and he has acknowledged that articulating his theory as one of ‘intelligences’ has probably garnered greater attention than if he had developed a theory of multiple ‘abilities’ (Willingham 2009). Indeed, it could be argued that any call to enhance teaching or design curricula around notions of ‘intelligences’ receives greater emphasis than those espousing the enhancement of ‘talents’. This may not necessarily be a limitation in that it suggests that learning is multifaceted and teaching should take this into account. 104
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TABLE 3.3
Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences
Intelligence
Characteristics
Logical–mathematical intelligence
The capacity to analyse problems logically, and the ability to detect patterns, reason deductively, think logically, carry out mathematical operations, and investigate issues scientifically.
Musical intelligence
Skill in the performance, composition and appreciation of musical patterns. It encompasses the capacity to recognise and compose musical pitches, tones and rhythms.
Spatial intelligence
The potential to recognise and use the patterns of wide space and more confined areas.
Linguistic intelligence
The ability to effectively use language to express oneself rhetorically or poetically, and remember information. Sensitivity to spoken and written language, the ability to learn languages, and the capacity to use language to accomplish certain goals.
Bodily–kinaesthetic intelligence
The potential of using one’s whole body or parts of the body to solve problems and the ability to use mental abilities to coordinate bodily movements.
Interpersonal intelligence
The capacity to understand the intentions, motivations and desires of other people.
Intrapersonal intelligence
The capacity to understand oneself, to appreciate one’s feelings, fears and motivations.
Naturalist intelligence
The capacity to recognise, categorise and draw upon certain features of the environment.
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Source: Adapted from Gardner (1993, 1999).
A further criticism of ‘multiple intelligences’ can be found, not in Gardner’s theory, but in how it is often applied or presented. In trying to apply Gardner’s work there is often a misguided notion that the application of his model always necessitates that the teaching of any new content should encapsulate a pedagogical approach touching on all ‘intelligences’. For example, if students are to learn about some aspect of punctuation then perhaps they should do so through singing (musical intelligence). Gardner, and indeed many cognitive scientists, disavow this idea, for the intelligences (or abilities) are not interchangeable . . . grammatical concepts have to be learned grammatically and skill in music will not help (Willingham 2009). It is therefore important to keep in mind that some learning experiences are not easily applied across all of the categories provided by Gardner. It is also important to recognise that attempts to use Gardner’s work, or any other similar framework, as a mechanism for suggesting that teaching to a particular ‘intelligence’ or preferred learning style can improve individual educational achievement is not yet readily supported by empirical evidence. Learning style approaches to enhancing academic achievement have become popular and prevalent across many educational sectors (Pashler et al. 2008). Unfortunately, and as noted above, beliefs about learning styles enhancing educational practice are often just that — ‘beliefs’ that have not yet been supported with any substantive research evidence (Pashler et al. 2008; Willingham 2009). What we do know about learning in an educational context is that teachers almost always want their students to remember how to do things and/or what things mean. What must be taken into account therefore is that children are more alike than different in terms of how they think and learn, and in a school context the vast majority of learning experiences for imparting meaning require visual and auditory modalities (Willingham 2009). This in turn suggests that while teachers should indeed think of the best modality to present material, the goal should be to find the content’s best modality rather than searching for each student’s best modality or learning style (Willingham 2009). Until there is a sound body of evidence linking learning styles to academic achievement, teachers should take caution in trying to ascertain every student’s learning style and then label and teach them accordingly. While all students may have some capacity for ‘kinaesthetic CHAPTER 3 Student learning 105
learning’ or learning by feeling or movement, the concept of democracy is not something easily touched. Criticisms aside, it is significant to note that what Gardner has described as ‘intelligences’ are not something that he discovered per se, rather something he has refined that helps to extend our understanding of how people learn particular forms of content and/or ideas. In an educational context Gardner’s work has helped to extend traditional ideas about intelligence to include a wider range of abilities, and each intelligence is specialised for acquiring knowledge and solving problems in different areas of cognitive activity. Importantly, how individuals perform in one area is distinct from how they may perform in another, and content also varies from one discipline to another. And while some might argue that the intelligences identified are single uniform entities, they rarely operate independently, may be used simultaneously, and tend to complement each other as people develop skills or solve problems (Gardner 1993). This chapter is based on the view that the labelling of his work as intelligences as opposed to talents has actually had a beneficial outcome in terms of educating young minds; teachers can use the notion of ‘intelligences’ as evidence for carefully examining the content and meanings they wish to impart and thereby differentiate pedagogical and didactic endeavour. In terms of enhancing our understanding of learning, a theory of multiple intelligences also reminds us that traditional ‘schooling’ has often viewed and valued particular types of intelligences and knowledge over others. Most notably logical–mathematical and linguistic intelligence have maintained a central focus in school endeavour — and, while important, they represent the types of learning and teaching often associated with content and educational goals from earlier generations. The twenty-first century, however, may require schools to invest time in other aspects of Gardner’s framework and, as such, ‘intelligences’ are arguably better placed as a launch point for reviewing how to impart curriculum rather than labelling students. In this sense the categories he has provided offer current and future educators with a framework for designing contemporary educational experiences that encompass a broader perspective of teaching as well as learning. That being said, the theory of multiple intelligences is but one piece of an emerging puzzle for enhancing learning.
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Emotional and social intelligences In 1995 Daniel Goleman published a book that would become an international bestseller and driving force behind understanding and appreciating emotions and the ‘emotional’ brain. Emotional intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ drew on what at that time was groundbreaking neurological and behavioural research to remind us how important our emotions are in everything we experience and do (Goleman 1995). In 2006, Goleman added to this important work on emotional intelligence with a new offering focusing on ‘social’ intelligence. This added substantially to his initial writings and provided the general public with an increasingly important picture of the connections between our emotional, social and cognitive wellbeing (Goleman 2006). Goleman’s work helps to highlight another important change in our collective view of intelligence and learning. The notion that emotion plays a role in learning has been part of educational discourse for many years; however, it was not often given much attention. Fortunately, what first appeared in education in the 1960s as ‘affective education’ is seeing somewhat of a renewal in schools in various forms including ‘social development’, ‘life skills’, ‘social and emotional learning’ and ‘emotional literacy’. There are direct links with Gardner’s work in that he identifies this area as ‘inter and intra personal intelligences’ and argues that it is no less important than any other aspect of intelligence (Gardner 1999). Indeed, a child’s emotional development and emotional state can ultimately facilitate or hinder their learning ability and play an important role in academic outcomes (Zins et al. 2007). Emotional intelligence and development is also intimately linked with social intelligence and development, and both are integral to long-term school success and overall wellbeing. Moreover, the most recent advancements in neuroscience provide education with greater impetus for developing programs like these further and also add empirical evidence to the anecdotal experience of generations of parents and teachers alike. 106
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It is a safe assumption that the majority of parents and educators are aware that every child is made up of a complex mix of emotions, which in turn impact on their social world. Until recently, however, the potential for the emotional part of the brain to impact on our thinking and cognitive performance was not well understood because cognition and emotion were considered to operate in isolation from one another (Caine & Caine 2001). Some of the most recent research and scholarly writings available have identified that our previous understanding of the links between emotion and cognition were hugely problematic. Various research disciplines have provided significant evidence that emotions play an integral role in a person’s capacity to learn and the whole process of learning and coming to understand something is actually driven and/or hindered by emotion (Caine & Caine 2001; Damasio 1999; Goleman 1995; LeDoux 1996). Scientists have identified that our limbic system or emotional part of our brain can actually shut down cognition or our ability to think clearly. Studies examining the role of fear and anxiety have demonstrated that negative responses to the environment due to some measure of stress can directly impact on a student’s neurological capacities to learn (Lupien et al. 2007; McEwen 2002; Sapolsky 2004). For example, consider a time when you were experiencing a heightened emotional state resulting from an argument with someone. This type of event often signals an emotional transaction in the brain, facilitating a primal survival mechanism of releasing powerful hormones to prepare for a fight-or-flight response. Now think back to sometime after the event when you appear to regain clarity of thought and suddenly an epiphany or light bulb moment takes place and you ask yourself repeatedly, ‘Why didn’t I say this?’ or ‘How come I didn’t say that?’ The simple truth is that when hormones are released as a result of anger, fear, anxiety or stress your capacity to think is diminished because you are in a fight-or-flight response and your brain’s main agenda is survival. Only after a period of time has passed, allowing for hormones to balance themselves, do you begin to have clarity of thought. Researchers refer to this experience as ‘downshifting’, whereby individuals lose a great deal of access to higher order thinking, creativity and some of our normal cognitive capacities so that we can deal with the immediacy of the emotional moment (Caine & Caine 2001).
A child’s emotional development and emotional state can ultimately facilitate or hinder their learning.
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The importance of understanding the powerful role emotions play in learning cannot be understated. Earlier, we identified how important it was to engage the emotional part of the brain in learning, given that this region matures earlier than the higher order thinking regions of the brain. It is equally important to consider that while many would suggest that a school is a place where learning should enhance cognitive capacities and prepare students for the future, schools and the learning activities that take place are also responsible for developing healthy emotional and social minds. In other words, any environment where learning takes place must be cognisant of ensuring that time is allocated to social and emotional development in tandem with enhancing cognitive capacities. Concomitantly, there is an abundance of research showing that emotional literacy programs not only enhance the personal lives of students but also improve academic achievement and school performance (Goleman 1995). Learning environments willing to take this important aspect of intelligence on board need to contextualise the format of any emotional intelligence program, but they might include assertiveness training, development of coping skills, conflict resolution strategies, understanding the perils of negative self-talk, ‘rites of passage’ exercises, team-building skills, cooperative learning, time management training and studies in how the brain grows and matures. A learning environment embedding such approaches in its construction of learning will be better equipped to deal with the environments and world that students currently find themselves in. Such environments also assist in helping to develop students’ social intelligence and interactions. During the first half of the 1900s, Edward Thorndike proposed the idea and formulation of social intelligence, which focused on describing, defining and assessing socially competent behaviour (Crowne 2009; Goleman 2006). Over time and with advances in technology the earliest understandings of social intelligence have been enveloped under various descriptors including social neuroscience (Cacioppo & Berntson 1992), interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences (Gardner 1993, 1999), interpersonal neurobiology (Siegel 1999) and social cognitive neuroscience (Ochsner & Lieberman 2001). In the context of this work the term ‘social intelligence’ is used to encapsulate fairly consistent parameters found throughout each of the above labels. Specifically, social intelligence (SI) is characterised as knowledge of social situations and the skills to perceive and interpret those situations accurately in order to allow one to behave successfully in those situations or, more succinctly, the ability to interact effectively with others (Crowne 2009). An important question, then, is how and why would SI be important to learning. Paralleling the importance of emotional intelligence, social intelligence is closely related to cognition and, as such, maintains important considerations for future teachers. Take, for example, the social intelligence of students who have been identified as falling within the spectrum of autism. Approximately one in two hundred children will have one of the autistic conditions found on the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) continuum. Quite often they are identified as having Asperger’s syndrome and can be found in mainstream classrooms (Attwood 2007; Baron-Cohen 2003; Greenspan & Wieder 1998). Children with Asperger’s syndrome can have normal to exceedingly high IQs, yet are seen as socially ‘odd’, may struggle with communication and find it difficult to form relationships with other children (Baron-Cohen 2003). Teachers often focus on understanding and developing aspects of social intelligence over many other activities in a classroom and school environment as they see this as being of greater benefit to these children. Notwithstanding the diverse needs of children who may possess some of the characteristics of ASD, many mainstream children also benefit from teachers who are attuned to the importance of ‘social intelligence’. Relationships drawn from social awareness and positive engagement with others can have a direct impact on a child’s emotional status, physical wellbeing and overall capacity to function in any learning environment. To that end, it is important to remember that emotional intelligence and social intelligence are intimately connected: they can be nurtured through the types of activities noted earlier and they share no less importance in the day-to-day activities of school than those activities set out to engage the ‘thinking’ part of the human mind. After all, learning and teaching are, at their foundation, human endeavours, and part of being human means meandering through emotional states and social situations. 108
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WHAT CAN I TAKE INTO THE CLASSROOM?
Since Goleman (1995, 2006) introduced the terms ‘emotional intelligence’ and ‘social intelligence’ to the public domain there has been greater recognition of the links between the two, and their collective importance in terms of student wellbeing and academic achievement. Indeed, much of the current psychological and educational nomenclature now couples those two terms under the label ‘socio-emotional’ wellbeing, development and/or intelligence. In an Australian context, socio-emotional considerations are highlighted even further when considering Indigenous students and students from diverse backgrounds, who may experience ‘schooling’ in very different ways given their own social and cultural contexts. Reflecting on what you have learned thus far, what might be some important things to remember related to student learning when considering social expectations, behaviour and emotional understandings? As a teacher, what might you need to learn in terms of supporting students of all backgrounds?
WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
There is evidence to suggest that students today are dealing with increased levels of anxiety and stress associated with an educational culture of performativity. This is evident in studies in Australia noting how standardised testing, for example, has resulted in students experiencing an array of anxiety and stressrelated conditions (Wyn, Turnbull & Grimshaw 2014). Significantly, a focus on performativity, standards and outcomes often has a negative impact on learning and, paradoxically, on student achievement. Within your developing philosophy and pedagogical skill set, what things can you do to ensure that the learning environment you create optimises learning, diminishes anxiety and/or stress and embraces the diverse range of students you have in your classroom? How will you cope with your student’s socio-emotional needs in the context of a rapidly changing and global world?
INSIGHTS IN EDUCATION
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Knowledge of how the brain learns could, and will, have a great impact on education. Understanding the brain mechanisms that underlie learning and memory, and the effects of genetics, the environment, emotion and age on learning could transform educational strategies and enable us to design programs that optimize learning for people of all ages and all needs. Only by understanding how the brain acquires and lays down information and skills will we be able to reach the limits of its capacity to learn (Blakemore & Frith 2005, p. 1).
It is an exciting time to be an educator. While the training of previous generations of teachers was embedded with many sound theories of learning and behaviour, today’s pre-service teachers are being offered far greater insights into how the brain matures and develops, and the implications this has for learning. For example, neuroscientific researchers are now able to show that when you learn something new and/or consolidate previous information there is an actual physical change to the brain (Doyle & Zakrajsek 2013). Such information is becoming increasingly important in terms of learning and the science of teaching. And while trying to fully understand and describe the term ‘learning’ is not an easy task, research into the brain at the nexus of the psychology of learning is increasingly informing and changing what occurs in the classroom and school. This information is also affirming and modifying previous theories related to learning and hopefully adding to a greater understanding of the skills and attributes required by a teacher in the twenty-first century. The information in this chapter has been offered to help develop your understanding of learning and your developing skillset as a future teacher. Exposure to a variety of early theoretical frameworks and contemporary insights into learning can assist in your planning of learning experiences. Although the work described in this chapter may not offer innumerable practical strategies, this is purposeful in that theories guide and give meaning to what we see and those that can be verified by research can serve
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as a basis for practical action. When a theory helps us to understand learning we are in a much better position for knowing how to improve our craft as teachers and how to maximise learning opportunities. As reflective practitioners, theoretical frameworks shape our understandings and world views. Your ideas and experiences will also add to and shape your theoretical and philosophical approaches to learning and teaching. Equally important, theoretical frameworks also shape educational, social and public policy. This chapter was designed to give you a greater understanding of learning and the connections of this learning in an educational context. Learning is, in fact, both a process and a product depending on the task at hand and the desired outcome. Learning is also not something easily described. As noted earlier, learning is developmental and multifarious. As you have worked through this chapter you have developed your understanding of learning while learning many different things about something you may have taken for granted. Hopefully you have learned something in relation to earlier theoretical perspectives and newer insights into learning. Equally important in the context of twenty-first century educational practice, an understanding of neural development and the role of environmental stimuli will also have proven relevant and become ingrained in your own memory systems. With those foundational theoretical and developmental perspectives in place, the next part of your own developmental learning process is making the links between those perspectives and newer understanding of intelligences and emotions. When you are able to do this then you will have developed your own set of learning tools to enhance your practice as a teacher. Finally, your own self-knowledge and self-awareness of learning will have made some of the work above appear more relevant and novel than others and will have undoubtedly shaped your learning in, and of, this chapter. The key for you now is to reflect on what you have learned — for the overall intent of this chapter is best summarised in a quote attributed to Socrates, who said: ‘I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.’
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SUMMARY Learning is an ambiguous concept. Various theoretical perspectives have been proposed over the years to help provide different ways to view and understand learning. While none of these perspectives can offer a complete explanation of learning, an understanding of each helps teachers become reflective practitioners — to continually examine and critique their own beliefs and practices and how those beliefs and practices affect their students’ learning. Reflection is an important part of every teacher’s own growth, development and learning. The key theoretical perspectives on learning include behaviourist orientations, cognitive orientations, humanistic orientations, social/situational orientations and constructivist orientations. Recent advances in technology have enabled researchers to theorise how the brain works and changes. This has seen neuroscience, psychology and education merge boundaries and provide important insights into the workings of the human brain. These insights influence our understandings of learning and our practice as teachers. For example, we have learned that the brain does not mature in a linear fashion. Regions of the brain responsible for our survival, emotions and capacity to engage in abstract or highly sophisticated cognitive endeavour develop along different timelines, suggesting that there are particular times to engage with various activities, and these activities need to be both developmentally appropriate and pedagogically sound. ‘Memory’ describes how and where our brain stores learned information and skills. The formation of a memory via learning is a highly complex neurological process. First, our memories are shaped by our experiences — the environment and our senses are the starting point for memory creation. Second, motivation and emotion play a role in determining the strength of a memory. Third, there are different stages and types of memory. Immediate/short-term memory stores information for a very short time and then forgets it. Working memory allows us to carry out the hundreds of tasks we do each day and ensures we avoid overloading our neural system by forgetting unimportant and insignificant events. Working memory also allows us to draw on long-term memories when we engage in new activities or need to recall past experiences in order to achieve new goals. Long-term memory is like the hard drive of a computer — information stored is only done so when the ‘save’ button is hit. Usually the shift from working memory to long-term storage occurs when an event is emotive, makes sense or has some meaning attached to it. Information that has both is more likely to be stored; however, one of the difficulties in this process is that having meaning is a personal component of learning. When a person identifies that something is relevant to their lives, is current to them or happening in the present and/or is novel, it is more likely to be shifted into long-term storage. Memory may also be thought of as implicit or explicit. Within the framework of implicit memory lies procedural memory, which encompasses the steps or procedures for doing something — things that become automatic with practice. Explicit memory includes semantic and episodic memory. Episodic memory is the memory of life experiences and the capacity to place facts and events in time and refer to them freely. Semantic memories are memories about information and knowledge of the world around us. Semantic memory allows for the retention of facts and everyday functions removed from a specific moment and place. ‘Intelligence’ has traditionally been conceived as a mental ability that is present in different amounts and is measurable using various tests. Over time, definitions of intelligence have evolved, resulting in new models of understanding the links between ‘intelligences’ and learning, particularly that there are in fact multiple forms of intelligence, such as logical–mathematical, musical, spatial, linguistic, bodily–kinaesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalist intelligences. Emotional and social intelligence are also important concepts related to students’ personal lives and their academic and school performance.
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KEY TERMS behaviourism A branch of psychology based on the idea that all the actions of living things — including acting, thinking and feeling — can and should be regarded as behaviours. cerebral cortex A structure within the human brain that plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language and consciousness. cognition The inner actions, processes and products of the mind that lead to knowing, including paying attention, remembering, categorising, planning, reasoning, problem solving and thinking creatively. cognitive constructivism Constructivist learning theory suggests that learning is a process of constructing meaning. Cognitive constructivism emphasises the role of cognition in this theory vis-`a-vis the accommodation of new information in existing conceptual frameworks or schemes. cognitive development Most commonly regarded as the development of the thinking or rational part of the conscious and subconscious. emotional intelligence An aspect of intelligence dealing with emotional self-management; developing and understanding emotional intelligence is an integral component of learning and wellbeing. explicit memory Memory of factual experiences (episodic memory) and information and knowledge (semantic memory). factory model A great deal of educational practice in the twentieth century was structured like an assembly line whereby students came into schools, received knowledge from the teacher and then became learned individuals. To some extent this is still evident, especially in secondary schools where students come into class in a large group, teachers stamp them with a lesson and then they move on. implicit memory Memory responsible for routines, skills and habits. inquiry-based learning An approach to learning that focuses on creating learning experiences in which students ask questions and work together to arrive at solutions to their problems; the teacher acts as facilitator rather than instructor. intelligence Traditionally, a general aptitude and capacity for understanding and learning. learner-centred education Model where learning focuses on what students identify as their needs and the teacher’s role is to facilitate a process to assist students in seeking the information they need to succeed. learning windows Optimum periods of maturation when the brain requires certain types of input in order to create or stabilise long-lasting structures; during the learning windows, the brain is most receptive to particular stimuli. multiple intelligences (MI) A categorisation of intelligences that are specialised for acquiring knowledge and solving problems in different areas of cognitive activity. myelin A white fatty substance that grows as a sheath around the axon of a neuron and acts as an insulator and conduit for transmitting information from one neuron to another. The thicker the myelin, the greater the expediency of neural transmission. Myelin is often referred to as the white matter of the brain and grows in volume throughout the first two decades of life. myelination The process of myelin growth. neurogenesis The process by which neurons are created that is most active during prenatal development. neurons Cells in the nervous system and core components of the brain that process and transmit information by electrochemical impulses. operant conditioning The use of positive and negative consequences to strengthen or weaken voluntary behaviours. problem-based learning An approach to learning in which students work collaboratively to solve challenging, open-ended, practical problems and reflect on their learning experiences.
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reflective practitioners A desired attribute of teachers in the twenty-first century, the notion of a reflective practitioner suggests that teachers continually examine their beliefs and practices in order to enhance their teaching practice and learning. self-efficacy An internal belief of being capable of performing in a certain manner to attain certain goals. social cognitive theory An extension of social learning theory giving greater emphasis to the cognitive aspects of social learning. social constructivism Constructivist learning theory suggests that learning is a process of constructing meaning. Social constructivism emphasises the use of cultural tools (e.g. language) as a major influence on meaning construction. social intelligence (SI) Closely linked with emotional intelligence, social intelligence focuses on being intelligent ‘about’ and ‘in’ relationships through sensing and feeling the emotions of others in order to engage in positive interactions. social learning theory Developed by Albert Bandura, the theory of ‘social learning’ suggests that individuals learn by observing other people’s behaviours and the outcomes of those behaviours. synapse The site of the electrochemical impulse that occurs when neurons pass information to one another. Synapses allow neurons to form circuits within the brain and central nervous system. triadic reciprocality A theory that suggests a person’s behaviour both influences and is influenced by personal factors and the social environment. zone of proximal development (ZPD) A concept developed by Lev Vygotsky identifying the difference between what a learner can do without help and what he or she can do with help. This has translated into mainstream education in terms of ‘scaffolding’ learning or facilitating experiences that allow students to move through the ZPD.
FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE 3.1
LO1
Behavioural explanations of learning focus on learners’ behaviours, observable actions or activities. While some aspects of behavioural principles can appear controversial, they are still widely evident in contemporary learning and teaching endeavour within educational contexts. Describe and discuss some of the strategies teachers may implement that are influenced by behaviourism. In your discussion identify some of the strengths and weaknesses of this theory and its application to the classroom context. 3.2
LO1
In relation to question 3.1 above, behaviourist approaches to learning have limitations in terms of social and cultural context. Consider the potential differences in how Indigenous and nonIndigenous students might perceive rewards and punishment, and how this might impact on classroom endeavour. Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.
3.3
LO1
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs provides a good framework for considering the needs of students at the nexus of positive learning experiences. This is also important when considering the ethnic and cultural diversity that is evident in many Australian classrooms. List some ways in which you might be able to help students meet basic and psychological needs at school. Also, what must you do, or need to know, in order to help students move up Maslow’s hierarchy and develop positive notions of self-esteem? 3.4
LO2
The concept of ‘learning windows’ offers key insights into the links between nature and nurture. Can you think of ways that schools could embrace this important framework for understanding neural development and make systemic changes to enhance formal educational endeavour? CHAPTER 3 Student learning 113
3.5
LO2, 3
When learning something new it is most helpful for a learner to be interested in what is being learned, to see value in it, to pay a lot of attention to it and, when possible, to practise it a great deal. Moreover, it should not come as a surprise to know that emotional arousal organises and coordinates brain activity in the areas of the brain that form memories. Now consider the diverse nature of many classrooms and how this might impact on the planning of learning activities. For example, for the Indigenous people of Australia, relationships and connections that link social, physical and spiritual parts of life help to shape learning and knowledge. What might this mean in terms of planning learning activities and how might teachers tap into their students’ emotions with a view to ensuring that all students are included in the process of learning and potential successful completion of learning outcomes? 3.6
LO3
There is little denying the links between emotions and relationships. As a future teacher can you list at least five ways you can enhance social intelligence in the classroom or school environment? What can you do specifically to enhance the social relationships of the students in your class or to develop positive relationships between you and your students? 3.7
LO3
There has always been a great deal of debate regarding the nature of intelligence; however, most theorists now believe that intelligence is a product of both heredity and the environment. If intelligence is only partly explained by genetic factors, how might educational environments restructure their learning experiences to enhance newer understandings of intelligence? Do you believe that educational environments need to rethink intelligence? If so, how can environmental influences be manipulated to develop capacities of intelligence in schools?
WEBSITES 1 The DANA Foundation is a private philanthropic organisation based in New York and committed
to advancing brain research and educating the public. This website has links for educators, and provides information and resources for teachers and students alike: www.dana.org 2 This website offers teachers resources and ideas for engaging twenty-first century learners. The site was developed with input from teachers, education experts and business leaders, with a goal towards defining and illustrating the skills and knowledge students need in order to succeed in work, life and citizenship: www.p21.org/our-work/p21-framework 3 This website offers an online resource that teachers, administrators and school staff can visit each day to find high-quality and in-depth original content, along with resources and information related to learning and classroom endeavour: www.educationworld.com
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REFERENCES Andersen, SL 2003, ‘Trajectories of brain development: point of vulnerability or window of opportunity?’, Neuroscience and Behavioral Reviews, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 3–18. Attwood, T 2007, The complete guide to Asperger’s syndrome, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London. Bandura, A 1986, Social foundations of thought and action, Prentice Hall, New Jersey. —— 1976, Social learning theory, Prentice Hall, New Jersey. Baron-Cohen, S 2003, The essential difference: The truth about the male and female brain, Basic Books, New York. Berninger, VW & Richards, TL 2002, Brain literacy for educators and psychologists, Elsevier Science, San Diego. Blakemore, SJ & Frith, U 2005, The learning brain: Lessons for education, Blackwell Publishing, United Kingdom. Cacioppo, JT & Berntson, GG 1992, ‘Social psychological contributions to the decade of the brain: doctrine of multilevel analysis’, American Psychologist, vol. 47, no. 8, pp. 1019–28. Caine, G & Caine, RN 2001, The brain, education, and the competitive edge, Scarecrow Press Inc., Lanham, MD. 114
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Chugani, HT 1996, ‘Neuroimaging of developmental non-linearity and developmental pathologies’, in RW Thatcher, GR Lyon & J Rumsey (eds), Developmental neuroimaging: Mapping the development of brain and behavior (pp. 187–95), Academic Press, California. —— 1994, ‘Development of regional brain glucose metabolism in relation to behavior and plasticity’, in G Dawson & KW Fischer (eds), Human behavior and the developing brain, Guilford Publications, New York, pp. 153–75. Chugani, HT, Phelps, ME & Mazziotta, JC 1989, ‘Metabolic assessment of functional maturation and neuronal plasticity in the human brain’, in C von Euler, C Forssberg & H Lagercrantz (eds), Neurobiology of early infant behaviour. Wenner-Gren international symposium series, vol. 55, Stockton Press, New York, pp. 323–30. —— 1987, ‘Positron emission tomography study of human brain functional development’, Annals of Neurology, vol. 22, pp. 487–97. 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Greenspan, SI & Wieder, WS 1998, The child with special needs: Encouraging intellectual and emotional growth, Perseus Books, Reading, Massachusetts. Hardiman, MM 2003, Connecting brain research with effective teaching: The brain-targeted teaching model, Scarecrow Press, Maryland. Hergenhahn, BR & Olsen, MH 2005, An introduction to theories of learning, 7th edn, Prentice Hall, New Jersey. Herschkowitz, N & Herschkowitz, EC 2004, A good start to life: Understanding your child’s brain and behaviour from birth to age, Dana Press, New York. Hirsch-Pasek, K, Golinkoff, RM & Eyer, D 2004, Einstein never used flashcards: How our children really learn — and why they need to play more and memorize less, Rodale, New York. Howard, PJ 2006, The owner’s manual for the brain: Everyday applications for mind–brain research, 3rd edn, Bard Press, Texas. Kandel, ER 2006, In search of memory: The emergence of a new science of mind, WW Norton & Company, New York. 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Lupien, SJ, Maheu, F, Tu, M, Fiocco, A & Schramek, TE 2007, ‘The effects of stress and stress hormones on human cognition: implications for the field of brain and cognition’, Brain and Cognition, vol. 65, no. 3, pp. 209–37. Maslow, AH 1954, Motivation and personality, Harper, New York. —— 1943, ‘A theory of human motivation’, Psychological Review, vol. 50, no. 4, pp. 370–96. McEwen, B 2002, The end of stress as we know it, John Henry Press, Washington, DC. Medina, J 2010, Brain rules for baby: How to raise a smart and happy child from zero to five, Pear Press, Seattle. Merriam, SB, Caffarella, RS & Baumgartner, LM 2007, Learning in adulthood: A comprehensive guide, 3rd edn, John Wiley & Sons, San Francisco. 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Sowell, ER, Thompson, PM, Holmes, CJ, Jernigan, TI & Toga, AW 1999, ‘In vivo evidence for post-adolescent brain maturation in frontal and striatal regions’, Nature Neuroscience, vol. 2, no. 10, pp. 859–61. Strauch, B 2003, The primal teen: What the new discoveries about the teenage brain tell us about our kids, Doubleday, New York. Sunderland, M 2008, The science of parenting, DK Publishing, New York. Sylwester, RA 2005, How to explain a brain: An educator’s handbook of brain terms and cognitive processes, Corwin Press, California. —— 2003, A biological brain in a cultural classroom: Enhancing cognitive and social development through collaborative classroom management, 2nd edn, Corwin Press, California. Vergauwe, E & Cowan, N 2015, ‘Attending to items in working memory: evidence that refreshing and memory search are closely related’, Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 1001–1006. 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Wells, G 1999, Dialogic inquiry: Towards a sociocultural practice and theory of education, Cambridge University Press, New York. Willingham, DT 2009, Why don’t students like school? A cognitive neuroscientist answers questions about how the mind works and what it means for the classroom, John Wiley & Sons, San Francisco. Wyn, J, Turnbull, M & Grimshaw, L 2014, The experience of education: The impacts of high stakes testing on school students and their families, The Whitlam Institute — University of Western Sydney, Sydney. Zins, JE, Bloodworth, MR, Weissberg, RP & Walberg, HJ 2007, ‘The scientific base linking social and emotional learning to school success’, Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 191–210.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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Photo: © bikeriderlondon / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Caiaimage / Getty Images Photo: © bikeriderlondon / Shutterstock.com Photo: © michaeljung / Shutterstock.com Figure 3.1: © Maslow, AH 1998, Toward a psychology of being, 3rd edn, John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
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CHAPTER 4
Understanding and motivating students LEARNING OBJECTIVES
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After studying this chapter, you should be able to: 4.1 describe contemporary perspectives and issues related to the characteristics of twenty-first century learners 4.2 discuss the term ‘motivation’ in relation to theoretical perspectives and research into motivation 4.3 describe the importance of motivation in terms of learning and school environments 4.4 explain and discuss past conceptualisations of motivation in relation to twenty-first century learning and ‘schooling’.
OPENING CASE
Wanting to learn
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Jake is finding it difficult to pay attention in class. Since moving from an Aboriginal community some months ago and starting in his new school he has made new friends, but his motivation in the classroom is very low. He tries to engage with the material, but his mind wanders and he loses track of what he is doing and what he needs to get done. He wonders what his friends and cousins are doing back home, and finds the schoolwork uninteresting. At times he feels like he can’t do well, and his confidence is only elevated when he is doing sporting activities. Jake’s teacher, Mrs Hart, is concerned about his progress and believes that if he just worked harder and put more effort into his classroom endeavours he would do very well. She tries to entice Jake with rewards, and assigns him a buddy to help with his work in the hope that this might inspire him to try harder. The rewards and buddy seem to work for a short time, but Jake ultimately reverts to his previous behaviours. Mrs Hart wonders if Jake might have a learning difficulty or if his problems are strictly related to his attitude. Because he does not present any behavioural or discipline-related problems, Mrs Hart decides to leave Jake alone for the time being in the hope that things will improve in the future. It is not uncommon for teachers to face similar scenarios to that of Mrs Hart. There are times when students seem very uninterested and unmotivated. Student motivation is an important consideration for all classroom teachers, and teachers often employ a range of strategies and methods to engage their students in classroom activities and assignments. However, strategies for motivating students do not always work, and motivation is also impacted upon by factors outside of the classroom. In terms of learning, engagement and academic outcomes, however, some would argue that if teachers are interested in promoting meaningful learning then they must also be interested in priming a learner’s motivation to learn (Mayer 2008). Fortunately, questions surrounding what motivates students have been the focus of extensive scientific and psychological research, given that motivation is a key behavioural component related to enjoyment and success at school. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ QUESTIONS 1. Can you define the term ‘motivation’? What does the word mean to you? Do you think motivation is an individual trait? What factors do you think might impact on a person’s motivation? 2. As a student can you recall when you were most motivated and what led to such high levels of interest? Can you remember how a particular teacher or teachers were able to motivate you to do things, even those things that did not originally interest you? Can you also remember times when you were not motivated and what may have contributed to that sense of lethargy or inaction? 3. Can you recall students in your classes who seemed unmotivated? What did the teacher do, if anything, to help with those students’ level of motivation? Were rewards and punishment used, or can you recall other methods teachers used to get students motivated? 4. Understanding motivation is arguably one of the most important factors for engaging deep learning and limiting behaviour problems. A key question for pre-service teachers, then, is what can be done to ensure a high level of motivation in their students? What are your thoughts about this question? When you have read the chapter, return to this question. Have any of your ideas changed?
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Introduction The importance of student motivation cannot be underestimated. Students who are motivated to learn generally have higher rates of academic success, present fewer behavioural problems and have less tendency to view school in the same light as visiting the dentist. Motivated students enjoy being at school and teachers enjoy teaching motivated students. Researchers, teachers and parents are often baffled by why some students seem to thrive and learn with the requisite amount of motivation while others struggle to find the will to engage with their learning. Concurrently, there is an equal amount of circumspection related to what role and requisite skills a teacher has in motivating those students who find themselves bored, restless or simply not engaged in the learning and teaching process. Understanding motivation is not a simple task and too often motivation is bantered around as a taken-for-granted aspect of the human condition. But what is motivation and how is it that some are more motivated than others when approaching various tasks? This chapter looks to provide insights into this important question at the nexus of learning and ‘schooling’. It also looks to unpack the latest research revolving around students and learning in the twenty-first century. The intent is to provide a broad overview of the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of how students may be motivated to learn and more importantly how teachers might trigger student engagement via motivation. The structure of the chapter is shown in the diagram below.
Understanding and motivating students
Understanding students
The twenty-first century learner Talkin’ about a new generation?
Motivating students
Theories of motivation
Motivation to learn
Emotions and motivation
The impact of stress, anxiety and learned helplessness
The problem with rewards
Limiting stress and enhancing success
Engaging motivation and learning in the twenty-first century
Fostering motivation
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4.1 Understanding students LEARNING OBJECTIVE 4.1 Describe contemporary perspectives and issues related to the characteristics of twenty-first century learners.
To understand the importance and power of motivation in the context of contemporary educational endeavour it is useful to start by looking at some of our current understandings of twenty-first century learners. After all, the focus of this chapter is motivating students, and without carefully considering twenty-first century students and their ‘lifeworlds’ it would be impossible to have a breadth of understanding of this important aspect of learning and teaching.
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The twenty-first century learner In terms of learning and educational endeavour, an important question to consider is to what extent, if any, students of the twenty-first century differ from those of previous generations. Quite often media representations of students suggest that today’s learners are different. In many instances they are portrayed as deficient. Newspapers run articles on student disengagement, truancy and discipline problems. Teachers can be heard lamenting about students not appreciating learning like they used to in ‘the good old days’ and politicians lead a cacophony of voices suggesting that things would be better if we raised and measured predetermined notions of standardised learning outcomes. Perhaps some of this criticism is valid, but could it be that the problems presented are also part of an egocentric belief that students should learn in the same manner as previous generations? After all, things have not changed that much, have they? Learning is still learning, isn’t it? Schools are the bastions of learning and where ‘good learning’ occurs, aren’t they? Students still learn in the same way that their parents and grandparents did, don’t they? The short answer to all of these rhetorical questions is that learning and twenty-first century learners do appear to be quantifiably and qualitatively different from previous generations. There is mounting evidence that today’s students have a very different relationship to information and learning compared with previous generations — and it would seem that the winds of change have been blowing for some time now. In the early 1900s the challenge of mass education led to a system of teaching and learning analogous to mass production in factories, whereby children were regarded as raw materials to be processed by technical workers (teachers) to reach an end product (Bransford, Brown & Cocking 2000). A great deal has changed since the early days of ‘schooling’ and, while there has been some progress in pedagogical and didactic decision making due to greater emphasis on understanding learning as a process and the realisation that children are not empty vessels to be filled, issues surrounding motivation and learners in the twenty-first century are equally evident. Fortunately, the last decade has witnessed a great deal of interest and research surrounding educational endeavour and contemporary learners.
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Digital natives The extent to which students of today may be different to those of previous generations is often presented in terms of generational labels. For example, ‘Baby Boomers’ are positioned as those born post–World War II and into the 1960s. ‘Baby Boomers’ are ascribed various characteristics derived from the era in which they grew up and the associated values, morals and culture that shaped their beliefs and actions. Since the latter part of the 20th century, however, terms such as the ‘Generation Y’ and ‘Millennials’ have been used to acknowledge those born in the 1980s and after the turn of the century, respectively. Most recently, the term ‘iGen’ has been added to the generational nomenclature, and encompasses those born when the internet became commercialised and those who have grown up with an iPhone or iPad (Twenge 2017). Millennials and those belonging to the category of ‘iGen’ make up the school student population in Australia today, and a useful label for these students, coined at the turn of the century but still applicable today, is digital natives — people who have never known a world without computers, 24-hour TV news, the internet or mobile phones (Prensky 2001). In 2006, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, digital natives represented about 39 per cent of the population, and many of them were currently enrolled in various levels of schooling (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006). That number may have shifted somewhat in the last decade, but the nature of the students in schools today has not, whereas primary and secondary students throughout Australia today are arguably quite different from those of previous generations. The fundamental aspect of what separates these individuals from previous generations is that they have been raised in an era of affluence aligned with expansive and pervasive technological change. Their world has revolved around digitisation and their experience of the world is shaped by the technology they adeptly manoeuvre through on a daily basis. Many students who fall into this group rarely enter a conventional library, let alone look CHAPTER 4 Understanding and motivating students
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something up in a traditional encyclopaedia; instead they use Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia and other online resources (Small & Vorgan 2008). They tend to assume that all necessary information can be gathered instantaneously, and they are not satisfied with only acquiring and utilising information; they seek to create it through blogs, interactive media, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr, Twitter and other social networks (Dannar 2013). Conservative estimates suggest that by the age of 21 digital natives will have spent at least 10 000 hours playing video games, sent more than 200 000 emails, watched 20 000 hours of television and spent 10 000 hours on a mobile phone. Children under the age of 6 years will spend 1.58 hours per day using a computer compared to 2 hours a day outside playing and 40 minutes of reading or being read to (Oblinger & Oblinger 2005). A recent study identified that people 8 to 18 years of age expose their brains to more than 8 hours of digital and video sensory stimulation each day (Roberts, Foehr & Rideout 2005). Interestingly, that figure appears to be growing, given that much of the time spent doing homework and other activities falls under the umbrella of ‘multitasking’, where technology is used simultaneously while engaging in more mundane or less-interesting activities (Twenge 2017). Students and children today are texting, blogging, tweeting, chatting, gaming, shopping and socialising in a digital world with which they are intimately connected, and doing so in multiple contexts and across multiple tasks and opportunities. They describe technology as being embedded in society, really helpful, making things faster, an opportunity to connect with friends, a way to get help on anything and everything, and a tool for learning as much as they want about virtually any topic (Bransford, Brown & Cocking 2000). For them, learning and access to information occurs in bytes and nanoseconds, and they appear to be prolific multitaskers as they move from one virtual space to another while manipulating an ever-increasing array of technological wizardry. As table 4.1 suggests, there can be little doubt about technology’s influence on twenty-first century learners and education.
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TABLE 4.1
Technology now and then
Characteristics of ‘schooling’ and ‘learners’ Cognition and ‘learning’
That was then
This is now!
Finding information
Seeking, sieving and synthesising disparate sources of data
Sequential assimilation of a linear information stream
Multitasking among disparate experiences and information sources Focus on associative interconnections among chunks of information Constant reflection on and sharing of experience via virtual spaces Mind extended via distributed cognition, sensation and memory
Identity
Identity groomed and expressed in the context of face-to-face groups interacting with local resources
Virtual identity unfettered by physical attributes such as gender, race or disability The self is continuously reformed via an ever-shifting series of distributed networking with others and with technological tools The self as an electronic nomad, no longer needing a local physical infrastructure to articulate identity
Instruction
Educators design and deliver one-size-fits-all content, pedagogy and assessment
Learners influence design of content, pedagogy and assessment based on individual preferences and needs
Students are passive recipients
Knowledge sharing among students as a major source of content Guided social constructivism and situated learning as major forms of pedagogy Case-based participatory simulations complement presentational/ assimilative instruction
Assessment
Student products, generally in some form of print medium or artefact including tests, projects and papers Grading regularly focuses on individual performance
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Students provide summative feedback on instructional effectiveness
Student products often involve nonlinear, associational webs of representations (e.g. authoring a web page to express understanding of a topic rather than authoring a paper that synthesises expert opinions . . . in a virtual world there are many experts) Peer-developed and peer-rated forms of assessment complement grading, which is often based on individual accomplishment in a team performance context Assessments provide formative feedback on instructional effectiveness
Source: Adapted from Oblinger and Oblinger (2005).
Another interesting characteristic at the nexus of technological advancement and new generations of learners is the evolution of new language systems for communication. For digital natives, printed text is something to be tolerated when they are not able to get online, Google, text or tweet. Abbreviations (‘chat acronyms’ or internet slang) and graphics are integral aspects of communication and even or . Moreover, for older emotions themselves are sent via cyberspace to see if the recipient is CHAPTER 4 Understanding and motivating students
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generations and older educators, students who are mobile, tech-savvy, digitally literate and ‘connected’, living experientially and socialising in a virtual world of multiple identities and avatars, present new and different challenges in terms of learning and motivation. Indeed, there is some research suggesting that those who have grown up in a digital world may not only be shaping their social and emotional worlds differently, but may also be having their cognitive processes and neural architecture wired very differently from those born long before computers became household items: . . . the brain circuitry of today’s high school and college students represents the culmination of a lifelong exposure to technologically mediated sensory stimulation. In many instances, these young people can comfortably manage a frequency and intensity of stimulation that earlier, less technologically inclined generations would experience as sensory ‘flooding’, or sensory overload (Restak 2001, p. 90).
Talkin’ about a new generation? Flashback . . . it’s 1982 . . . Argentina goes to war with England over the Falkland Islands; Barney Clark is the first recipient of an artificial heart; Michael Jackson releases ‘Thriller’, the biggest selling album of all time; the Cable News Network (CNN) is launched; Venus Williams, Grant Hackett and Steven Gerrard celebrate their second birthday; the world meets Rambo, Conan the Barbarian, Tron, the Man from Snowy River and Tootsie; ET phones home; and Time magazine’s ‘Man of the Year’ is a computer. Only ten years after CNN made its first broadcast the World Wide Web made its debut. For most of you and all of your future students, these things will seem like ‘ancient history’, but the rate of technological advancement continues and students can be heard pontificating that email is for old people while they navigate the web and social networking tools in the palm of their hand. Generational changes within and across societies are nothing new and there is nothing unusual in one generation identifying that the next may have different ways of viewing and making sense of the world around them (Young 2008). Generational differences have been investigated within various frameworks and continue to be fodder for a great deal of research endeavour (see, for example, Edmunds & Turner 2002; Grose 2005; Lovely & Buffum 2007). In the twenty-first century, however, there is mounting theoretical and empirical evidence to suggest that those born into the world of digitisation may be neurologically different and much of this is attributable to the technological environment in which they are immersed. For the first time, scientists are looking into the real possibility that the brains of one generation may actually be firing differently to the brains of previous generations (Restak 2003; Small & Vorgan 2008; Tapscott 2008). These changes in neurology suggest that ‘what used to be simply a generation gap that separated young people’s values, music and habits from those of their parents has now become a huge divide resulting in two separate cultures’ (Small & Vorgan 2008, p. 3). In order to comprehend why this may be happening, an introductory understanding of aspects of neurodevelopment is required.
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Neuroplasticity Much of what we have historically ‘known’ about the brain has now been proven to be problematic. This is especially true with regards to our understanding of neuroplasticity — the changes that occur in the organisation of the brain as a result of experience. During the twentieth century it was believed that much of the brain’s architecture did not change after the third birthday. The eminent psychologist Jean Piaget himself suggested that all aspects of neurodevelopment finished during adolescence. Current understandings of the brain suggests that full maturation of the brain does not occur until the second decade of life and during adolescence the brain goes through some major restructuring (Giedd et al. 1999; Giedd 2004; Nagel 2005; Spear 2000). Moreover, advances in technology and neuroscientific research have identified that various kinds of stimulation actually change brain structures and affect the way people think, and that these transformations go on throughout life (Diamond & Hopson 1999; LeDoux 2002; Ratey 2001). Equally significant is the myth that we possess a fixed number of brain cells that die off 124
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one by one as we grow older. In fact, our supply of brain cells is replenished constantly, and the brain changes and organises itself differently based on the inputs it receives from the environment around us and via our senses. The brain’s capacity to reshape and reorganise itself is the phenomenon now known, and identified above, as neuroplasticity.
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Neuroplasticity and environmental stimuli
Another important aspect of neuroplasticity is the role of culture and environmental influence. We now know that brains that undergo different developmental experiences develop differently, but social psychologists have also identified that individuals from different cultures think differently (Nisbett 2004, 2009). In other words, a longstanding debate about which is more influential, nature or nurture, is now becoming a moot point in the eyes of neuroscientists and social psychologists. Our experiences not only shape our neural architecture but also the very cognitive processes that we often take for granted, including logical and analytical reasoning, memory and perception. Although there has been little opportunity to directly observe the brains of digital natives to see whether they are physically different, recent studies looking at brain activity, along with indirect and anecdotal evidence, are extremely persuasive. A recent research project in the United States offers intriguing and compelling insights regarding the impact of technology and the brain. Gary Small is a professor of psychiatry and biobehavioural sciences, the director of the UCLA Centre on Aging, and one of the world’s leading scientists in the fields of memory and longevity. Professor Small and colleagues published an astounding piece of research where they found differences in brain activity between internet-na¨ıve and internet-savvy individuals. Small and his colleagues monitored the brains of 24 adults as they performed a simulated internet search and again as they read a page of printed text. While engaging with the internet, the researchers found that those individuals who used the internet regularly showed twice as much activity in regions of the brain responsible for decision making and complex reasoning compared with those who had had limited exposure to the internet. The research concludes by suggesting that internet use enhances the brain’s capacity to be stimulated, and that internet reading activates more brain regions than printed words (Small et al. 2009). Importantly, the researchers also suggest that these types of differences are likely to be even more profound across generations because digital natives have been exposed to more technology than previous generations. They also acknowledge that technology has, in all likelihood, made the brains of digital natives particularly adept at filtering information and making snap decisions, but less capable of reading facial cues or picking up on subtle physical gestures. The potential impact of technology on the neuro-circuitry of humans should not come as a surprise given what we know about the brain’s plasticity. Research work done prior to that noted above has shown that professional musicians have more grey matter in brain regions responsible for planning finger movements and that musical training impacts Areas of activation are indicated in blue for the net-na¨ıve on regions of the brain and brain activity differ- group and in red for the net-savvy group. The left images are ently in musically trained and non-musically for a reading task and the right images are for an internet task. CHAPTER 4 Understanding and motivating students
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trained individuals (Gaab & Schlaug 2003; Gaser & Schlaug 2003; Trainor, Shahin & Roberts 2003). Moreover, research conducted at the Chinese Academy of Sciences by Wei Gaoxia and Luo Jing (2009) during the Beijing Olympics found that elite athletes like Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps had greater grey matter density in regions of the brain responsible for movement. This work furthers the notion that long-term experience and exposure to particular stimuli and training triggers changes in related brain regions. Therefore, it would seem to make sense that the brains of people who process a constant stream of digital information while focusing and shifting attention in a virtual world may be structured and work somewhat differently than the brains of those who are not immersed in that technology on a regular basis.
Neuroplasticity and ‘educating’
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The prospect of changes in neural hardwiring due to technology raises interesting questions for educators. Presumably changes in the brain result in changes in perceptual, cognitive and communicative styles. This, in turn, suggests that the types of mediated instructional strategies used to motivate today’s students will require revision and renewal. It almost goes without saying that methods of engaging learning and motivating students in the past would be problematic in a digital world. How digital natives behave in terms of attending to and working through tasks may be very different to that of their twentieth century counterparts. ‘Hyperlinked’ minds that are intimately connected with their immediate and virtual worlds — where gratification and success can happen in nanoseconds — may not be all that interested in gold stars and incentive plans. Motivation and engagement in learning may also require pedagogic techniques that can take advantage of multitasking and a continual shifting of focus. The twentieth-century teacher’s catch cry of ‘time-on-task’ may also require a complete reconceptualisation in terms of what that might mean for twenty-first century learners. Given the research cited above and the anecdotal realisation by most individuals that technology has a tremendous impact on all of our lives, it is self-evident that teachers will need to carefully consider the role of motivation in a learning context. It is equally important to note that the changes discussed above are not necessarily something to be viewed as negative or entirely problematic. Some of the latest research available suggests that technology may actually be improving cognitive ability, mental response times, specialised attention skills and multitasking skills (see, for example, Flynn 2000; Kearney 2007). Moreover, if we lament that digital natives appear to have shorter attention spans or ‘digital ADD’, perhaps we should question what we are asking them to attend to in educational contexts or, more importantly, how we are asking them to pay attention. Consider, for example, the television viewing habits of young children where research has identified that children attend to television ‘in bursts’ — they tune in just enough to get the gist of what is going on and be sure it makes sense. Children’s television programs (e.g. Play School and Sesame Street) follow this formula, and children as young as five are able to garnish enough understanding from snippets of viewing while attending to other tasks as children who attend to a program’s entirety (Gladwell 2002). In other words, shifting focus from one medium to another appears to be something children are not only capable of doing, but do strategically and purposefully. Bear in mind that digital natives spend a great amount of time shifting from medium to medium as they navigate their way through technology.
WHAT CAN I TAKE INTO THE CLASSROOM?
When you visit a classroom, take note of the learning and teaching dynamics. Quite often, twenty-first century learners — who are empowered in so many ways outside their schools due to the communication technologies available to them — have little or no meaningful voice at all with regards to their learning and/or the dynamics of the learning environment. In a world where young people can create digital content using various platforms, such skills are often ignored or underutilised in schools.
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What strategies are in place to take advantage of the skills and knowledge brought to the classroom by students? How are the learning activities that are set out to engage students delivered? Is technology used purely for gathering information and producing Word documents? Do students have input into the learning, and how does the teacher maintain student interest and attention? How can teachers use technology with their students in a meaningful way?
WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
Given the information provided in this chapter, can you list some ideas about how you might accommodate the skills, attributes and learning styles of twenty-first century learners to ensure that you connect with their worlds? As a future teacher, how are your own skills in the digital world? What can you bring to the learning environment that resonates with the world of digital natives? Given the diverse nature of Australian classrooms, how can new technology assist you, as a future teacher, to embed Indigenous content and perspectives, along with those of other groups, in meaningful ways for digital natives? List the technologies you are comfortable with and then do a bit of research to see what you might be omitting or unaware of. After jotting down what you are capable of doing with technology, list how you might motivate your students by giving them a ‘voice’ in their learning. As an example, are you prepared to ask questions such as ‘Does anyone use the internet in a way that is relevant to what we are doing?’ or ‘Can you think of examples of this type of problem in any of your computer games?’ Tapping into the contemporary lifeworlds of students and having them shape the learning experience is a powerful motivational tool.
4.2 Motivating students LEARNING OBJECTIVE 4.2 Discuss the term ‘motivation’ in relation to theoretical perspectives and research into motivation.
The first part of this chapter described some of the latest research and insights into students of the twentyfirst century. There can be little doubt, and indeed the growing body of research suggests, that students today are very different from those who wandered school hallways in past generations. Students today see the world differently and have engaged with technology in such a profound way that it may be changing the very neuro-architecture of their mind. It is therefore crucial to have a sound understanding of the interrelationships between motivation, student learning and behaviour. The following text provides theoretical and historical understandings of motivation, followed by practical considerations for positively influencing student motivation. After all, part of being an effective teacher means knowing what encourages students to become and remain engaged with their learning (Darling-Hammond & BaratzSnowden 2005).
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Theories of motivation There are a number of ways to describe and define ‘motivation’. The word itself comes from a Latin root, movere, meaning to set in motion. Broadly defined, motivation is a person’s internal instigation and direction that influences their behaviour. In simpler terms, motivation relates to our drive to do something or our will to set things in motion. In this sense it is important to note that motivation is influenced by a variety of factors including, but not limited to, family, culture, health and prior physical, social, emotional and environmental learning experiences (McInerney & McInerney 2006). In an educational context, motivation may be described as a student’s desire, intention and behaviours directed to learning and achieving their optimum educational outcome. Motivation plays a significant role in student interest and enjoyment, is subject to influence from peers, teachers, parents, subjects and schools, and is informed by ethnic and cultural backgrounds (MacCallum 2001; Martin 2007, 2008). Motivation is, then, influenced by a wide CHAPTER 4 Understanding and motivating students
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variety of complex personal, social, emotional, cultural and environmental interactions, resulting in a number of theories or views of motivation. Not unlike various theories of learning, behaviourists, social cognitivists and humanists present varying perspectives on motivation. Each of these has its critics and advocates, and it is beyond the scope of this chapter to delve into a detailed debate of each. Instead, each perspective is broadly discussed in the following sections. Where applicable, fundamental concerns about the perspectives are presented. Following a brief examination of these perspectives, we examine a contemporary model that further acknowledges the work of cognitivist researchers in linking the powerful role emotions play in motivation. This is purposeful in that regardless of ethnicity, gender, culture or other factors, emotions play a central role in motivation and, by association, behaviour.
Behaviourist views of motivation For behaviourists, motivation to do something is derived from past experiences and influenced by rewards and/or punishment. For example, when students are rewarded with praise they look forward to learning and anticipate further rewards. Rewards may be something tangible or something that elicits a positive emotional response. A behaviourist view emphasises extrinsic reinforcement to stimulate learners’ engagement (e.g. praise or a smile). In the eyes of behaviourists, the desire to do something is derived externally and, as such, school activities and learning are enhanced through extrinsic motivation. Importantly, the removal of undesirable behaviour also functions on this model with the use of negative reinforcement or punishment. Behaviourism has had a tremendous influence in educational contexts and is still evident in contemporary school settings. There are, however, a number of important issues surrounding this perspective on motivation and we discuss these later in the chapter.
Social cognitivist views of motivation In contrast to behaviourist views, social cognitivists suggest that children should be seen as innately active learners. As such, rewards may not be necessary. Indeed, some cognitivists argue that there is little need to focus on the place of motivation in the classroom. For social cognitivists, motivation is often described as goal-directed behaviour that is closely linked to feelings of personal effectiveness and develops as children develop an intrinsic desire to learn. For cognitivists, students study something or learn to do something because it produces personal positive consequences such as knowledge, competency or a sense of independence; in other words, learning is linked with intrinsic motivation. Importantly, those who experience success are more likely to value their own competence than are those who regularly experience failure. As such, motivation is intimately linked with one’s sense of self and self-efficacy. This sense of self is influenced by peers and significant others. In the context of educational environments, it is a fundamental component of motivation, emotional wellbeing, learning and success.
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Humanist views of motivation Humanist theories of motivation are linked to achievement and education, but also to student welfare and wellbeing. Abraham Maslow (1999) perceived motivation in terms of a hierarchy of needs, the components of which act as motives whereby particular types of human endeavour (i.e. learning) are contingent on meeting those needs. According to Maslow (1999), once basic physiological needs have been met, people are motivated to meet needs associated with safety, love and belonging. As individuals meet those needs they are then motivated to engage in different levels of human endeavour. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs was presented in chapter 3 (see figure 3.1). For many humanists, alternative views of motivation present a number of difficulties in educational contexts given the innate nature of human endeavour in the classroom. That being said, each of the theories presented above presents a variety of strengths and limitations as a whole. It could be argued that each theory highlights the positive impact of motivation on students’ achievement, self-confidence and 128
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independence. They also draw attention to the need for educators to recognise the range of student needs, including those associated with sociocultural context, indigeneity, physical and personal wellbeing, and acknowledge the importance of learners’ attributions of personal success and failure. Conversely, it is important to note that, taken individually, some aspects of the theories noted above may have a limiting effect on learners. For example, they may encourage surface rather than deep learning if extrinsic rewards are overemphasised. Concurrently, terms such as ‘self-actualisation’ lack clarity and are not easily described or measured. In addition, the link between motivation and emotions is often understated or tacitly implied. Therefore, it is important to look beyond the theories presented above and examine some of our newest understandings of motivation derived from contemporary cognitive and neuroscientific research. An appropriate avenue for doing so can be found by looking at the links between emotions and motivation.
Emotions and motivation Over the past 20 years much of the research regarding motivation has been dominated by cognitive theories and most recently by advances in neuroscientific research. Each year we gain greater understanding of how motivation works and how the emotional part of the brain plays an integral role in energising or limiting motivation in students. Four of the most prominent cognitive theories regarding motivation also provide a framework for linking emotion, motivation and learning in an educational context. These theories are presented in table 4.2. While looking at the table, the links between emotion and motivation should be evident. It is important, however, to bear in mind that motivation is not an emotion per se but a process that links emotion to action (Ratey 2001). It is also significant to note that each of the theories below further supports an emphasis on intrinsic motivation for learning. TABLE 4.2
Motivational theories and the implications for learning
Theory
Implications for motivation
Implications for learning
Interest theory
Motivation is enhanced because the student values the experience or finds it important.
Learning is improved when students are highly engaged with what they are being taught.
Self-efficacy theory
Motivation is enhanced because students feel capable.
Learning is improved when students see themselves as competent for the given task.
Attribution theory
Motivation is enhanced if students believe the outcome of what they do is a result of the effort they make.
Learning is improved when students associate success or failure with the effort they make as opposed to their ‘ability’.
Goal orientation theory
Motivation is enhanced when the value of understanding material presented is linked to students’ personal objectives or values.
Learning is improved when students want to understand the material.
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Source: Adapted from the works of Pintrich (2000, 2003a); Elliot et al. (2005).
From table 4.2, it is apparent that educators interested in promoting meaningful and engaging learning experiences must also be prepared to prime an individual’s motivation to learn — and arguably do so on a level beyond extrinsic rewards. The importance of this cannot be over-stressed and is articulated nicely by Ryan and Deci (2000, p. 56) when they state that: In humans, intrinsic motivation is not the only form of motivation, or even of volitional activity, but it is a pervasive and important one. From birth onward, humans, in their healthiest states, are active, inquisitive, curious, and playful creatures, displaying a ubiquitous readiness to learn and explore, and they do not require extraneous incentives to do so. This natural motivational tendency is a critical element in cognitive, social, and physical development because it is through acting on one’s inherent interests that one grows in knowledge and skills. CHAPTER 4 Understanding and motivating students
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Emotions play an integral role in student motivation.
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Arguably, everyone is innately motivated to search for meaning and such endeavour is profoundly emotional in design and purpose (Caine & Caine 2001). Aspects of learning — including perceiving, thinking, interpreting and understanding — are driven by emotion and, as such, motivation and emotion are inextricably linked (Damasio 1999). It is apparent then that in an educational context motivation depends on an individual’s interactions with any material to be learned at the nexus of their interpretations, memories, beliefs and attitudes to the learning situation. Moreover, a lengthy and substantial body of research tells us that students are more likely to actively engage in an activity, persist in it over time, work hard to achieve an outcome and actively strive to understand what they are learning when they value the activity on a number of levels (e.g. interest and/or utility) (Jang 2008). The fundamental point of consideration derived from these studies is that seeing value in what is to be done serves as an example of the importance of emotion in motivation. When people are motivated to learn they engage their emotions with educational endeavour in a deeper, more meaningful and longer lasting way that is also transferable to new and/or novel situations (Mayer 2008). In other words, motivation and learning are not purely cognitive endeavours but are linked to the limbic system or emotional part of the brain.
The limbic system The limbic system sits above the brain stem, in the middle of the brain (see figure 4.1). This central part of the brain harbours our memories, processes our full range of emotions and connects the lower regions of the brain responsible for motor and automatic functions with the higher regions responsible for cognitive thought. The limbic system occupies about one-fifth of the brain’s volume and is not only responsible for generating and processing emotions, but also motivates and directs us to behave in particular ways — most notably to engage in survival behaviours such as eating, fighting, fleeing and sex (Carter 2000; Medina 2008; Nagel 2008; Ratey 2001). 130
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FIGURE 4.1
The limbic system
Amygdala Hippocampus
Aside from the survival functions of the limbic system, it also plays a role in sleep, attention, regulation of bodily functions, hormones, smell and the production of most of the brain’s important chemicals (Howard 2006; Sylwester 2005). The structures in the limbic system that appear to have the greatest influence on motivation and learning are the amygdala and hippocampus.
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The amygdala
The amygdala has been described as the neural basis of emotion and has been the object of growing interest in most brain-referenced theories of emotion, behaviour and learning (Berridge 2003; LeDoux 2000, 2002). Amygdala is actually the Greek word for almond and there are two of these almond-shaped structures located in the lower area of the temporal lobes. One of the many interesting characteristics of the amygdala is that our feelings are dependent upon which parts of it are activated. Stimulate one part and you get a fear response; stimulate another region and you create what has been described as a ‘warm floaty feeling’; while a third region can result in outbursts of sheer rage (Carter 2000). The range of emotional responses housed in the amygdala are but one indication of the brain’s ingenious design. In packing all of these types of mechanisms in one area, we can shift from appeasement to fight or flight very expeditiously when necessary; if a smile will not deter an aggressor, then flight or attack is easily triggered (Nagel 2008). Importantly, the amygdala is intimately linked with the frontal lobes of the brain and these regions act in concert in terms of mediating emotion and attending to interesting stimuli. These areas also form part of the brain’s dopamine reward system. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that plays a role in motivation, reward seeking, feelings of wellbeing and switching our levels and duration of attention (LeDoux 2002). This powerful chemical works in tandem with the amygdala and frontal lobes. Research has identified that when the reward system of the brain is engaged in tasks that are challenging and meaningful with low risk of failure, motivation to succeed is increased and connections between brain cells are dramatically enhanced (LeDoux 2002; Smith 2004). Meaningful learning engages powerful emotions, especially if there is some small measure of risk. It is important to emphasise this point: High challenge with low risk of failure enhances motivation and neural connections. In other words, the risks associated with high stakes assessment, such as examinations, may not only limit motivation and hinder learning, but may also only provide surface-level indicators of any learning that has taken place. CHAPTER 4 Understanding and motivating students
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Another important characteristic of the amygdala is its role in the consolidation of some long-term memories throughout various regions of the brain because of its capacity to label an experience with some form of emotional tag. Generally speaking, the amygdala appears to add various measures of emotional significance to an experience and it also works in tandem with the hippocampus towards assessing the emotional relevancy of an event and then storing the memory of that experience (Sylwester 2005; Wolfe 2001). Tangential to the amygdala’s influence on memory formation is evidence demonstrating that the amygdala intimately responds to stress and fear and, as such, memory and learning can be impeded by these emotions. There is a growing body of research indicating that stress, fear, anxiety and other emotional responses to environmental stimuli can directly impact upon motivation, cognition and learning (Arnsten & Shansky 2004; Lupien et al. 2007; McEwen 2002, 2006). Because of its importance, the impact of stress on motivation is covered in greater detail later in the chapter. The hippocampus
At this stage it is prudent to look at another important component of the limbic system — the hippocampus. Not unlike the amygdala, the hippocampus performs a number of essential functions. As noted above, the hippocampus works in conjunction with the amygdala. The amygdala attaches an emotional tag to an event and the hippocampus then acts as a filter deciding which information goes where. During this process the hippocampus determines the level of engagement an individual may have in the activities around them by monitoring events as either novel or ordinary. For educators, the significance of this lies in remembering that educational experiences that might excite these parts of the limbic system due to their novelty or emotive content have a greater possibility of intrinsically motivating students and facilitating long-term memory storage in various regions of the brain. In other words, novelty or connecting with the emotional centres of the brain — and not some measure of extrinsic reward — may provide the greatest catalyst for motivating students. Neuroscientists are therefore offering evidence of what critics of behaviourism have argued for some time: rewards are problematic and may be detrimental to motivation.
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The problem with rewards What would you say if someone were to tell you that rewards and punishments were one and the same? Has it ever occurred to you that each operates on basically the same premise — do this and you will get that? Rewards and punishment can never be separated, and the most significant problem with using rewards as a motivational tool is that they rely on the decisions of others. It is also important to note that handing out rewards is premised on a behaviourist model whereby humans are passive beings whose behaviour must be elicited by external motivation in the form of an incentive. This model is, by most measures, antiquated (Kohn 1999). Conversely, intrinsic motivation is derived from within. As such, each individual has greater control and autonomy over their actions and approaches to learning — they do things for the joy of doing it or because they want to discover something, answer a question or experience a feeling of accomplishment (Walker-Tileston 2004). That being said, rewards are still common in many educational contexts and we should explore why this might be and what, if any, are the alternatives. Before looking at the problems with rewards in the educational context, it must be acknowledged that our society as a whole functions with rewards and punishments. We are rewarded for work with a salary and abide by laws to avoid punishment. Students learn of this system long before they enter a school, but shouldn’t education be about engaging learning in a way that derives its rewards from within through fun, enjoyment and a sense of achievement? Neuroscientists would probably say yes given the power of emotions and our innate tendency towards intrinsic motivation (Caine & Caine 2001; Ratey 2001). Nonetheless, rewards are often regarded as integral to classroom and school endeavour — but why? One of the principal reasons for employing reward systems is their perceived effectiveness in eliciting particular behaviours. This is apparent in many areas of work and schooling, but in terms of motivation 132
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and learning, rewards generally work best in the short term only and seldom lead to lasting change. In other words, when the rewards disappear so too does the behaviour, or when the rewards are no longer ‘rewarding’, they must be enhanced. The focus in this entire endeavour then becomes the reward and not the learning experience at hand. Moreover, in many situations, rewards actually inhibit intrinsic motivation in that they can be demotivating in the long term due to the fact that others decide who gets rewarded and how. Another premise for the justification of rewards is the view that they might enhance performance. However, not unlike the short-term benefits noted above, rewards seem to improve performance only at extremely simple and quantifiable tasks (Caine & Caine 2001; Kohn 1999). In fact, rewards may actually hinder motivation and learning given the inherent difficulties that arise when someone never receives a reward or when anxiety levels increase while attempting to attain a reward. In this sense rewards can have the same emotional impact as punishment by engaging a stress response that is not conducive to higher cognitive functioning. It is significant to note that the rational premise underlying a belief that people will always work for rewards rarely takes into account that this is not the case; sometimes rewards work and sometimes they do not. Finally, there is little empirical data to support the notion that rewards or extrinsic motivating factors engage learning in a deep and meaningful way. Indeed, much of the research evidence available supports the notion that intrinsic motivation is conducive to productive classroom behaviours, creative thinking, higher level problem solving and long-term memory capacities (Caine & Caine 2001; Kohn 1999; Ormrod 2008; Walker-Tileston 2004). Perhaps this is linked to a seemingly inherent tendency in human beings to seek out novelty and challenges, to extend and exercise their capacities, to explore and to learn, and as such anyone who is interested in enhancing intrinsic motivation in children and students should not focus on external control systems such as rewards (Deci 1971, 1972). The question, then, is how best to engage intrinsic motivation and what might you do to ensure optimum opportunities for fostering a motivation to learn.
WHAT CAN I TAKE INTO THE CLASSROOM?
Much of what occurs in schools in terms of behaviour management and learner engagement still relies a great deal on behaviourist notions of motivation. Can you think of times as a student when your teacher(s) followed behaviourist traditions and if so what did they do? When you next visit a classroom can you find evidence of similar behaviourist practices occurring? Do they appear successful or are there observable problems in such an approach? What would you do differently to elicit the desired behaviour or outcome you would like to achieve?
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WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
Earlier it was asserted that human beings have innate tendencies to seek out novelty and challenges, extend and exercise their capacities, and explore and learn. If such innate tendencies do exist, this suggests that emotion and motivation are indeed intimately linked and that intrinsic drivers are powerful tools for learning and achievement. As a future teacher, and considering curriculum content, what do you think are important things you will need to do to tap into the intrinsic drives of your students? Some researchers suggest that knowing your students and relationships might be keys for success in this endeavour. Do you agree, and if so what will you do to reach attain such knowledge and attributes?
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4.3 Motivation to learn LEARNING OBJECTIVE 4.3 Describe the importance of motivation in terms of learning and school environments.
Teachers are interested in and would like to know more about the factors that may facilitate or hinder students’ deep involvement in learning. Motivation is one of those key factors. According to Pekrun (2009, p. 575): Emotions are ubiquitous in school settings. Learning and achievement are of fundamental importance for students’ educational careers implying that achievement-related emotions such as enjoyment of learning, hope, pride, anger, anxiety, or boredom are frequent, pervasive, manifold and often intense in academic situations. The social nature of these situations also contributes to the emotional character of school settings . . . emotions are functionally important for students’ motivation, cognitive performance and personality development.
To motivate students in a productive and meaningful way, a teacher must carefully consider how to tap into students’ emotional lifeworlds. Motivation affects the amount of time students devote to any learning activity. As such, both the cognitive and the affective regions of the brain are important components of motivation and learning. People think and feel simultaneously and learning can be both enhanced and jeopardised by these endeavours. Given the information presented earlier and related to a new generation of learners, teaching twentyfirst century learners may require new pedagogical strategies and a greater appreciation of the impact of the digital world in which young people are deeply immersed. An equally important aspect of developing pedagogical skills for enhancing motivation is the realisation that, like other aspects of development, motivation changes with age and is the product of an individual’s persona and environment. The remainder of this chapter explores some key considerations, strategies and issues surrounding motivation in the classroom. The first part of that exploration is a look at those factors that limit motivation.
The impact of stress, anxiety and learned helplessness Earlier we identified how rewards can be problematic in terms of long-term outcomes and depth and breadth of learning. Moreover, the emotional part of the brain was noted as an important component of motivation and intrinsic motivation was identified as being a powerful avenue for meaningful learning. It is important to recognise, however, that the experiences students bring to the classroom and their views of themselves as learners can have a detrimental impact on their emotional state and therefore their motivation to learn. This is particularly evident with students who are stressed, anxious or have very low opinions of themselves.
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Good stress, bad stress In itself, stress is not always negative, nor is it always the same for each person. Some things can be labelled absolute stressors in that they create a stress response in all individuals. Other events initiate a stress response in a particular person due to individual circumstances and are referred to as relative stressors (Lupien et al. 2007). An earthquake could be considered an absolute stressor, while being late for work due to transportation issues might be a stressor for some individuals but not others. Absolute stressors generally evoke the greatest physiological response in the body but are rare. Relative stressors, on the other hand, vary in their physiological impact given that such responses depend on the individual and the mechanisms individuals have in place to help them cope with any situation. Generally speaking, relative stress occurs when an event is interpreted as being threatening, novel, unpredictable and out of one’s control and in such circumstances the fight or flight mechanisms designed to save oneself from an earthquake are also engaged, releasing powerful reactions in the body and mind (Lupien et al. 2007; McEwen 2006). Importantly, some stress is good and often mediated through competition and 134
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other aspects of school and life. Indeed, optimum levels of stress (eustress) are often powerful empathetic, motivational and creative forces allowing individuals to achieve success in a variety of demonstrable ways, while negative, chronic or traumatic stress (distress) can be very problematic given how it engages the body’s physiology (Nagel 2009). Quite simply, too much stress, or more worryingly a chronic overreaction to stress, overloads the brain with powerful hormones and ignites an evolutionary response designed to enhance our survival through fight or flight mechanisms. Therefore, it is important to restate something mentioned earlier: high challenge and low risk are positive aspects of motivation and learning, but when stress is chronic or a contributing factor towards anxiety then different outcomes are likely. Anxiety refers to feelings of tension, uneasiness and apprehension. It is generally considered to have a negative impact on children’s motivation and achievement. Some level of anxiety in the form of arousal or alertness and attentiveness can be helpful, provided it does not impede performance. Excessive arousal, on the other hand, is often associated with high anxiety, which can lead to limited cognitive capacities, poor academic achievement and low self-esteem. Moreover, one of the most worrying characteristics of low self-esteem is its link to ‘learned helplessness’.
Learned helplessness In the mid-1960s, a group of researchers led by Martin Seligman (1972; see also Seligman et al. 1968; Peterson, Maier & Seligman 1993) developed the theory of ‘learned helplessness’, a consequence of some surprising results encountered while studying the relationship between fear and learning in dogs. In a controlled study, these researchers inflicted electric shocks when dogs attempted to leave their cages. Some time later when the dogs were provided a way out without any form of hindrance, the dogs made no effort to escape. Apparently, the dogs had learned that they were helpless in this situation and that attempts at escape were futile. These results were later transferred to theories of human behaviour. This saw the emergence of cognitive psychology, suggesting that what a person thinks plays a determining role in their behaviour. In terms of classroom endeavour and motivation, learned helplessness can contribute to an expectation, based on previous experience, that learning efforts will lead to failure. If previous learning experiences have contributed to low self-esteem then a student will believe that no amount of effort will lead to success. As such, ‘So why bother trying?’ becomes the banner of learned helplessness. For teachers, this means that to enhance motivation, it is crucial that activities are relevant to students, premised on their interests and the experiences they bring to the classroom, and allow for measures of individual success.
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Limiting stress and enhancing success While the activities and intentions of individual teachers are important influences on a student’s motivation, it is also important to recognise how some aspects of ‘schooling’ and teaching may contribute to student stress and diminish motivation. Arguably one facet of education that stands out the most in terms of both stress and diminished motivation is assessment. It is a fairly safe assumption that most people see assessment as an integral aspect of school. After all, teachers and parents alike have a vested interest in seeing how their students and children are doing in school and how their learning might be progressing or faltering. Students themselves are also interested in many aspects of assessment. Assessment has, and always will be, part of mainstream educational endeavour. This text acknowledges the importance of assessment and contains valuable insights into assessment and contemporary theory in that aspect of schooling. Within the context of stress and motivation, however, it is important to look at two aspects of assessment that present an array of tensions related to those important aspects of learning. These include homework and standardised testing. Before visiting links between homework, standardised tests, motivation and stress it is significant to note that opinions on homework and standardised tests are often founded on belief and intuition rather than empirical evidence. Homework and standardised tests also facilitate passionate debates regarding their intent, efficacy and outputs. The full extent of these debates is too numerous to articulate and, as CHAPTER 4 Understanding and motivating students
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such, what follows is a brief look at how homework and standardised tests may produce stress and anxiety and by association diminish motivation and aspects of learning.
Homework
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One of the most predictable aspects of school, which almost every adult has an opinion of and can attest to experiencing, is that of homework. In his work analysing homework studies, Harris Cooper (1989, p. 7) offers a clear and succinct definition of homework as those ‘tasks assigned to students by school teachers that are meant to be carried out during nonschool hours’. Overall research on homework has a long history, arguably characterised as political, contradictory and often inconclusive; for every advocate expounding homework’s merits there is a critic decrying its disadvantages. Homework policies can be found on government websites, in school-based documents and on the walls of many classrooms and, as such, are often taken for granted as part of sound educational endeavour. Parents will often judge a school’s effectiveness on the presence or volume of homework prescribed to its students. Although it is beyond the scope of this chapter to examine all the available research related to homework, there are some issues worthy of consideration regarding homework’s efficacy and its overall impact on learning and motivation. One of the first areas of concern regarding homework is a tendency by policymakers, researchers and educators to generalise about the amounts of homework students should do and its efficacy in raising scholastic achievement and ‘positive’ life skills such as time management. To date there is very limited empirical evidence to support homework as a significant mechanism for improving achievement and no evidence that it enhances time management skills or other associated attributes (Hattie 2009; Trautwein & Koller 2003). Homework may assist learners in terms of reviewing or consolidating some aspects of learning and it may provide communication platforms between teachers and parents. However, it should not be taken for granted as integral to learning, but rather as something negotiated between teachers, students and parents. A second noteworthy concern is that, although homework may be assigned with the best of intentions, teachers and parents alike frequently cite it as a source of difficulty and conflict at home and at school (Warton 2001). For teachers and parents there is often a mismatch between teacher expectations and parental input that, in turn, can create tensions between teachers and parents, parents and children, and teachers and students. Too often these types of conflicts result in a great deal of anxiety or stress for all involved and, as noted earlier, too much stress can impact negatively on motivation and achievement. Finally, research linking homework to academic achievement and many other aspects of school endeavour may best be described as scant, inconclusive and fraught with difficulty. Perhaps the major contributing factor to such difficulties is that, not unlike other aspects of education research, the subjects of such research (i.e. students) are not a homogenous group. Homework may be a positive activity for one set of students but completely disastrous for another. Consequently, any discussion or policy related to homework must also take into account sociocultural factors that may impact negatively on students engaging in any type of homework activity (Buell 2004). For some students, life outside of the confines of a school may not be conducive to hours of homework. This is also an important aspect for consideration in any discussion of standardised testing.
Standardised testing Like the subject of homework, standardised testing is now evident across an array of educational policies and activities at national, state and local levels. Students experience standardised tests throughout primary school and various iterations of tests are used in secondary schools to not only note levels of student achievement and articulate future study choices, but also serve as a marketing mechanism for schools to promote their excellence. Examinations and testing have a long history in education as a tool for determining what students have learned, and standardised tests have gone through various eras of fashionability. The popularity of standardised tests often fluctuates depending on political contexts or calls for increased accountability. Currently there are a number of opportunities for students to 136
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participate in standardised tests, and the intent and outcomes of those tests are often fodder for much rhetoric, critique and debate (see, for example, Bennett & Kalish 2006; Buell 2004; Caine & Caine 2001; Kohn 2000). And again, similar to homework, standardised testing is not something that should be immune to critique; rather, it should be analysed across a number of parameters including any potential negative impact on learning and motivation. One of the most prevalent challenges at the nexus of standardised testing and learning is that testing can be limited in determining what a student actually knows and/or has learned. Much of this has to do with how tests are administered and how feedback is provided. Too often, the guidelines for administering standardised tests place students in contexts vastly different from mainstream classroom endeavour and, therefore, can invoke negative reactions such as stress or anxiety. Importantly, high levels of test anxiety have been shown to negatively impact on aptitude, problem solving, memory, grades and overall academic achievement in reading, English, maths, natural sciences and foreign languages in students ranging from Year 3 to university (Cassady & Johnson 2002). A secondary problem with standardised testing is that feedback from the tests is often presented long after the actual test was taken and, as such, is ineffective as a tool for enhancing learning. Many studies have demonstrated that feedback and, in particular, immediate feedback derived from engagement in a task are important considerations for learning and overall academic achievement (Hattie 2009). Feedback in the form of test scores long after the test was actually taken serves limited purposes and is too often ineffectively used as some way of comparing students and/or schools. Many standardised tests overemphasise memory for isolated facts and procedures and, if used to judge a teacher’s efficacy, tests can become a focus of school endeavour that emphasises memorisation above deep and meaningful learning (Bransford, Brown & Cockin 2000). In that sense, contemporary research suggests that tests can be administered as formative assessment strategies and thereby are best used as mechanisms for pedagogy and learning, not of pedagogy and learning (Carey 2014; Storm, Bjork & Storm 2010).
What a person thinks plays a determining role in their behaviour.
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Finally, it is important to note that standardised tests, and indeed many types of testing and assessment, are often culturally biased, thereby disadvantaging some groups of students while privileging others. Indeed, there is much evidence to support the suggestion that specific test items, test administration and reporting formats actually discriminate against Indigenous Australian students on the basis of linguistic and culture-specific background (Tripcony 2002). Given the potential for such discrimination, it should be apparent that any use of standardised tests should be done with a great degree of caution, and only for individual purposes, rather than comparative measures. It is significant to acknowledge that parents and teachers alike should be interested in some notion of standards, and standardised tests can prove useful in certain circumstances. Knowing that a particular student is above or below average in a particular academic area via a diagnostic tool such as a standardised test can be helpful in designing learning experiences and providing support mechanisms where necessary. However, when standardised tests are positioned as markers of success — used in isolation from other types of assessment or to garnish greater emphasis than other aspects of ‘schooling’ — they can contribute to a culture of ‘high’ stakes assessment, emphasising academic achievement over everything else and delivering worrying degrees of stress and anxiety to students, parents and teachers (Kohn 2004; Nagel 2009). Moreover, too much emphasis on ‘how’ students are doing can undermine any meaningful discussions and/or engagement on ‘what’ they are doing (Kohn 2000).
WHAT CAN I TAKE INTO THE CLASSROOM?
Schools often underestimate the impact of stress on students and student learning. Can you remember a time when some aspect of school created stress for you and how this impacted on your learning and/or behaviour? When you visit a school as part of your practical placement, see if you can identify similar situations that you experienced and whether or not this is having a negative impact on any students. Discuss with teachers their experiences with students who presented anxious behaviour or signs of stress and how they mediated that behaviour to promote learning. If possible, talk to students about aspects of school that they find stressful, or what might make them feel anxious and see if they have any mechanisms or strategies for dealing with those relative stressors in their school lives. This would be particularly useful if you are able to discuss stress and stressors with students from different ethnic backgrounds or with Indigenous students. Finally, see if the school has any programs to assist with stress and anxiety, such as meditation, relaxation times, resilience programs, or other support mechanisms, and note what they do for future reference.
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WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
The expression of emotional states comes naturally to all human beings regardless of age. However, depending on age and context, children of all ages are generally unaware of how negative emotions such as anxiety may manifest themselves until they are in a state of emotional upheaval. It is impossible for any teacher to prevent all events that may cause anxiety or distress, but it is possible to teach students how to monitor their own emotional states. It is also possible for teachers to proactively combat stress and anxiety in their students. For example, a growing body of research cites humour as a valuable tool for regulating anxiety and stress. Some studies have demonstrated that the small act of telling or ‘getting’ a joke results in widespread activation of the frontal brain regions involved with emotional regulation, attachment and the resolution of novel and incongruent information (Cozolino 2014). Perhaps one of the most valuable tools you can have, or need to foster and develop, for alleviating stress in your students is the capacity to make them laugh . . . part of the ‘art’ of teaching supported by science surrounding the brain.
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4.4 Engaging motivation and learning in the twenty-first century LEARNING OBJECTIVE 4.4 Explain and discuss past conceptualisations of motivation in relation to twenty-first century learning and ‘schooling’.
Individual success is very important in terms of motivation, but so are expectations, both real and perceived. Early models of motivational theory have identified that when individuals expect to do well they tend to try hard, persevere and perform better. Concurrently, students who believe in their ability to do well are much more likely to be motivated in terms of effort, persistence and behaviour (Pintrich & Schunk 2002). Confidence (arguably a product of the emotional part of the brain) is also an important component of motivation, and research tells us that confident students will be more cognitively engaged in their learning than those students who doubt their capabilities (Caine & Caine 2001; Pintrich 2003b). This suggests that enhancing motivation necessitates the provision of tasks that are within the range of competence for students but do offer some degree of challenge. This also allows students to use whatever they bring to the classroom in terms of prior experiences (Pintrich & Schunk 2002). It is also significant to mention that, while positive feedback is often promoted as integral for enhancing self-worth, it is more important to ensure that students are provided with accurate and realistic feedback. This will help them understand what they can and cannot do and assist them in acquiring the expertise needed to learn (Pintrich & Schunk 2002). Simply offering positive feedback for the sake of being positive can be counterproductive with regards to motivation and learning in that it may appear patronising or as a form of ‘dumbing down’ the overall learning experience.
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Fostering motivation The overall implication of the information presented above is that there is no single right way to design experiences or environments to foster motivation. Not all learning opportunities have to be designed, organised and structured in the same way. It is also important to bear in mind that motivation is intimately linked with individual and/or situational interests within learning, curricula, family and cultural contexts (McInerney & Van Etten 2001). In essence, motivation is highly complex and affects the amount of time and energy a student is willing to devote to learning and positively engaging with the classroom and school environment. To that end, there is no magic formula for motivating all students all of the time, but there are some important things to consider when planning for engaging students. Planning to motivate students should include: r designing learning experiences that are at an appropriate level of difficulty, challenging and specific r providing strategies and ideas for students to succeed r providing ongoing and informative feedback r providing scaffolding to ensure successful outcomes are within the grasp of the student. There are a number of other elements for enhancing the motivation to learn that teachers can use for positively engaging students. These elements are provided below as a set of tools for the teacher. Some of the points noted below focus on the learning environment itself. A starting point would be to continually engage with the following questions, adapted from the work of Walker-Tileston (2004), which put the learners centre stage and require the teacher to consider student needs and desires. In other words, what will you do to: 1. ensure that students feel accepted by the teacher and their peers (to enhance self-esteem and selfworth) 2. provide opportunities for students to self-reflect and articulate their own ideas and feelings about learning (to enhance self-esteem and self-worth) 3. ensure that students know what to expect and have some sense of predictability (to diminish stress and anxiety)
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4. ensure that students perceive the learning environment as a comfortable, orderly, safe and secure place (to diminish stress and anxiety) 5. ensure that students perceive the learning environment as their space for learning and that they are part of all learning activities (to enhance self-esteem and self-worth, and diminish stress and anxiety) 6. ensure that students believe that they have some control over their learning (to enhance self-esteem and self-worth and diminish stress and anxiety)? The questions above provide an important starting point for considering the needs of students and engaging motivation. Table 4.3 provides a framework for enhancing the design of learning experiences with a view to intrinsically motivating students. There are developmental patterns and characteristics related to intrinsic motivation in school tasks and, prior to looking at specific strategies, it is important to keep the following in mind. r Student perceptions of ability become increasingly realistic as they get older. r Personal interests gain greater significance and coincide with perceived strengths as students get older. r Task selection becomes less tied to personal interest and more to self-efficacy and/or long-term goals. TABLE 4.3
Designing learning environments with motivation in mind
Motivational characteristic
What it means for teachers
What it suggests for teaching
Adaptive self-efficacy and competence beliefs motivate students.
Students who expect to do well are much more likely to be motivated to, and tend to, try harder, persist and perform better.
Provide clear and accurate feedback regarding competence and self-efficacy; focus on the development of competence, expertise and skill.
Students who feel they have more control over their learning and behaviour are more likely to do well and achieve higher results than are those suffering from learned helplessness.
Provide feedback that stresses the process of learning rather than focusing on assessment. Stress the importance of effort, strategies and potential self-control of learning.
Adaptive attributions and control beliefs motivate students.
Design tasks that offer opportunities to be successful but also challenge students — high challenge, low risk!
Provide opportunities to exercise some choice and control. Build supportive and caring personal relationships in the community of learners in the classroom.
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Higher levels of interest and intrinsic motivation motivate students.
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Aside from beliefs of competence and self-control, interest and intrinsic motivation are more likely to motivate students and are associated with more cognitive engagement, enhanced memory and higher levels of achievement. The brain is attuned to novelty and curiosity and, as such, motivation to learn is enhanced when what is to be learned draws on personal and situational interest.
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Know your students and design learning activities that connect to them on a personal level — engage the emotional part of the brain! Provide stimulating and interesting tasks, activities and materials, including some novelty and variety in tasks and activities. Provide content material and tasks that are personally meaningful and interesting to students. Display and model interest and involvement in the content and activities.
Motivational characteristic
What it means for teachers
What it suggests for teaching
Higher levels of value motivate students.
Although interest is important, so are perceptions of value or importance.
Provide tasks, material and activities that are relevant and useful to students, allowing for some personal identification with school. Classroom discourse should focus on importance and utility of content and activities, and not always focus on outcomes.
Goals motivate and direct students.
Different goal constructs motivate students. Importantly, social goals have been shown to be as important to motivation, effort and learning as academic goals. As such, social engagement is not necessarily a distraction from learning. This further illustrates the important links between the emotional parts of the brain with higher order cognitive endeavour.
Use organisational and management structures that encourage personal and social responsibility and provide a safe, comfortable and predictable environment. Use cooperative and collaborative groups to allow for opportunities to attain both social and academic goals. Classroom discourse should focus on mastery, learning and understanding course and lesson content. Use task and evaluation structures that promote mastery, learning, effort, progress and self-improvement standards, and rely less on social comparison or normreferenced standards.
Source: Adapted from the work of Wentzel (2000); Pintrich (2003b); Vialle, Lysaght and Verenikina (2005).
One final consideration related to fostering motivation in the classroom focuses on the importance of positive relationships. There is ample evidence demonstrating that positive relationships between teachers and students positively impact on emotions, motivation and academic/school success (Cozolino 2013; Tokuhama-Espinosa 2011). Teachers who display warmth and enthusiasm towards their students and ensure that they are fair and accepting of all students’ ability, background, commitment and personality traits instil equity in their practice and a sense of safety, security and belonging in their classroom (Nagel & Scholes 2016). This is an important consideration for Australian teachers who must work to meet the needs of a students who come from diverse backgrounds and cultures.
WHAT CAN I TAKE INTO THE CLASSROOM?
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Consider the following quote (Caine & Caine 2001, p. 45). Emotion lies at the heart of the motivation that children have for learning . . . if a child is intrinsically interested in math or history, that interest is a gift to the child and teacher. However, there are always deeper, less obvious motives that every child has . . . the drive to connect and belong to a group and find a place in the world . . . the drive to communicate with people who are important . . . the drive to thrive and succeed and survive in whatever world a child finds itself.
Classrooms are complex environments of human interaction and endeavour. As you visit various classroom settings, take note of how the emotional lives of students are accommodated and nurtured with a view to enhancing an innate desire to learn. If you see students who are not prepared to engage in learning, are you able to identify why and think of ways to tap into the emotional part of the brain? Two words to always keep in mind when trying to motivate are ‘currency’ and ‘relevancy’: how current is the material to the student, and how relevant is it to the world they live in? Can you bring their outside experiences to bear on the curriculum being delivered?
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WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
In his book, Teaching for tomorrow, Canadian teacher Ted McCain (2005) proposes some especially practical ideas for engaging independent and higher order learning for twenty-first century learners. His ideas also tie in nicely with the suggestions offered above in that they provide further impetus for engaging the emotional part of the brain in order to motivate students. r Resist the temptation to ‘tell’. r Stop teaching decontextualised content. r Stop giving students the final product of our thinking. r Make a shift in our thinking — problems first, teaching second. r Progressively withdraw from helping students. r Re-evaluate evaluation.
Given all of the information in this chapter and McCain’s (2005) ideas above, what strategies can you start building on as a pre-service teacher to enhance motivation and give greater ‘voice’ to your students? Think back to the opening case presented in this chapter and outline what you might do to motivate Jake. As you embark on your career as a teacher, it is highly likely that you will encounter a number of students like Jake, and part of your craft will be to find ways to engage Jake’s intrinsic motivational circuitry. Past educational practices may not provide the best model for twenty-first century learners — so what will you do differently? Remember, if you teach the way you were taught then you and your students may find your motivation levels waning. INSIGHTS IN EDUCATION
Consider the following quotation.
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The academic lives of children are challenging and complex. In line with the mission of schooling, children are expected to engage in academic activities, learn from instruction, and meet standards of intellectual competency established by others. Each day at school children also are expected to adhere to classroom rules, maintain and establish new relationships with classmates and adults, and participate in activities as part of their school community. Central to understanding children’s success at these activities is motivation, that is, the energy they bring to these tasks, the beliefs, values and goals that determine which tasks they pursue and their persistence in achieving them and the standards they set to determine when a task has been accomplished (Wentzel & Wigfield 2009, p. 1).
The quotation highlights how important motivation is to the educational lifeworlds of children. Motivation affects the time and energy students are willing to put into learning. Generally speaking, learners of all ages are motivated when they see the usefulness of what they are learning, when they can connect their learning to their day-to-day lives and when they can use what is being learned in a meaningful and purposeful way. To that end it is imperative to take into account the integral role emotion plays in motivation and, by extension, learning. Classroom ‘learning’ cannot be discussed solely in terms of cognition. Our growing understanding of the brain provides evidence of how emotions might enhance or impede learning. For those entering the profession of teaching the key is to maintain your own motivation by: r always looking for ways that your students can have a voice in how their learning occurs r striving to ensure learning experiences are challenging and relevant to the learners r supporting learners when needed. In the end, a fundamental attribute for powerful teaching and positive learning environments is doing all that can be done to ensure learners are motivated and engaged.
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SUMMARY Student motivation — and the capacity to motivate students — is one of the most crucial components of engaging students. Connections between motivation and the characteristics and/or needs of twenty-first century learners have been explored within a framework suggesting that students today are very different from those of past generations. The growth and pervasiveness of technology demonstrates that students today experience the world and their approaches to learning in a very different way. Indeed, much of the research currently available suggests that the neuro-architecture of contemporary students’ brains may actually be changing due to neuroplasticity. In itself neuroplasticity refers to the brain’s ability to hardwire and rewire itself as it responds to the environmental stimuli around it. Importantly, not all environments outside of schools are identical, so careful consideration must be given to what students bring to the classroom at the nexus of a rapidly changing world. Furthermore, the implication of the brain’s capacity for change is that what happened in classrooms of the past may not be entirely motivating for students of today. Theories of motivation have a lengthy history and the views of behaviourists, social cognitivists and humanists continue to offer important ideas surrounding motivation. Underlying each of these theories is the positive impact motivation can have on student achievement, self-confidence and independence within the context of meeting a range of student needs associated with physical and personal wellbeing. In itself, personal wellbeing is deeply connected with emotions. This suggests that attention should be given to any aspects of educational endeavour that might limit motivation and learning vis-`a-vis stress and anxiety. Some aspects of contemporary ‘schooling’ may diminish a sense of wellbeing and, as such, should be scrutinised. Where necessary, these aspects should be changed to ensure that learning environments do not inadvertently diminish individual success through negative emotions such as anxiety, fear or apprehension. In the past 20 or so years greater attention has been paid to the emotional part of the brain and its relationship to motivation. Human beings are curious about the world around them and a great deal of natural inquisitiveness originates in the emotional part of the brain — the limbic system. The limbic system consists of a number of important components. In the context of motivation, the most notable are the amygdala, the hippocampus and the neurotransmitter dopamine. Each of these works in concert and provides links between emotions, motivation and, by association, memory and learning. The key point is that intrinsic motivation — the motivation that comes from within oneself — thrives on heightened emotional status and with regards to learner engagement is far more powerful than extrinsic motivation or rewards. In themselves, rewards are not always problematic, but teachers too often rely upon them for substantive change when they are mainly short-term solutions. Sustained motivation is linked more directly to intrinsic variables and a positive emotional state. Moreover, rewards are subjective in nature and as such, cultural factors, especially for Indigenous Australian students, must be included in considerations regarding rewards and all aspects of student motivation. Stress and anxiety can impede a student’s positive emotional state. Stress can not only limit a student’s motivation, but also literally shut down thinking. The powerful chemicals that are released when we are stressed shift us into survival mode. As such, fight or flight responses override the ‘sit and think’ mechanisms of the mind. Prolonged stress can even result in anxiety problems or learned helplessness, which inevitably hinder motivation even further. Fortunately, teachers can play an important role in alleviating stress. For future teachers an understanding of motivation must be placed within the realisation that — because each student is an individual — there is no all-purpose method that will motivate all students. There are, however, a number of components of classroom practice that can assist a new teacher and are worthy of constant reflection. These components include scaffolding, timely and informative feedback, challenging but low risk experiences, safe and supportive environments, and opportunities for students to self-reflect.
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KEY TERMS digital natives Individuals who have grown up with digital technology such as computers, the internet and mobile phones. distress A negative form of stress that overloads the brain with powerful hormones and triggers fight or flight mechanisms. eustress A positive form of stress, usually related to desirable events in a person’s life such as the exhilaration that occurs from competition. It can act as a powerful empathetic, motivational and creative force. extrinsic motivation Motivation derived from external incentives, usually in the form of a reward and not necessarily linked to a particular activity. intrinsic motivation Motivation derived from engagement in a particular activity that also fosters some form of a positive consequence as a result of the overall endeavour. neuroplasticity Changes that occur in the organisation of the brain as a result of experience vis-`a-vis stimulation from the environment (also referred to as brain plasticity, cortical plasticity or cortical re-mapping). scaffolding Providing any necessary resources and support to promote learning. This is especially important when concepts and skills are introduced for the first time so as not to frustrate or discourage students.
FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE 4.1
LO1
Increasingly, technological devices are becoming much more pervasive in our lives. Many young people carry the world of information and media in the palm of their hands while schools look to embrace technology in a positive way. As a future teacher, how will you use technology to support learning? With regards to the case study presented at the beginning of the chapter, can you think of ways that technology could be used as a tool for embedding Indigenous knowledge and perspectives into activities and lessons? 4.2
LO2
Motivation is a key factor in school success for students. At times, even the space we occupy can be motivating or demotivating. How would you design a classroom and what rules and/or procedures would you have to promote greater engagement in learning and opportunities for your students to feel a sense of autonomy and mastery? 4.3
LO2
Referring to humanist orientations and the work of Abraham Maslow in this chapter and chapter 3, what is the significance of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in an educational context? How might motivation be impacted upon by factors within each level of the hierarchy? Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.
4.4
LO3
How does motivation impact on achievement? Is motivation the same for all people? List some of the things that motivate you to succeed in your own studies, label them intrinsic or extrinsic, and compare them with what motivates your peers. Take note of some of the similarities and differences, and see if you can create a list of factors that appear universal and, as such, potentially able to shape your practice as a future teacher. 4.5
LO3
Stress, in the form of distress, can be a very negative influence on behaviour, motivation and learning. Quite often, schools contribute to student stress and anxiety. Many students experience anxiety and other aspects of negative stress at school. List some things that may stress students and how 144
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these can be avoided. It is important to remember that factors that might contribute to stress will vary with age. Keeping this in mind, make your list according to the age of students you are hoping to teach. For example, test anxiety is more common in high school than in early childhood settings. 4.6
LO3
As discussed in the chapter, some aspects of stress or, perhaps more accurately, stressors, are individualistic in nature and referred to as relative stressors. In other words, some things might stress one individual and not another. Given the likelihood that you will work in classrooms with students of Indigenous or diverse ethnic backgrounds, what are some things you will need to know and do to ensure students feel safe, secure and devoid of stress within the learning environment? 4.7
LO4
Traditional behaviourist orientations to motivation focus on reinforcing desirable behaviours through the use of punishment and/or rewards. Considering that the underlying framework behind rewards and punishment is similar — do this and you will get that — how might rewards diminish intrinsic motivation? Moreover, how might an individual’s culture and belief systems influence the efficacy of rewards and punishment? As a future teacher, and looking back over this chapter, what considerations might you need to make when using a behaviourist approach to enhancing motivation?
WEBSITES 1 Teach Hub is an American website offering resources and ideas for practising teachers in early
childhood, primary and secondary education. Their link to motivation provides some good ideas for helping to motivate students: www.teachhub.com/top-12-ways-motivate-students 2 CreativeSpirits is an Australian website offering contemporary information about all aspects of Australian Aboriginal culture, including practical advice and resources for working with Indigenous students. This section of the website provides ideas for engaging Indigenous students: www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/education/teaching-aboriginal-students 3 This website from Vanderbilt University provides detailed background into extrinsic and intrinsic motivation and strategies for engaging motivation in the classroom. The site itself is a subset of a larger site, full of helpful resources and ideas for teachers: https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-subpages/motivating-students
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McEwen, BS 2006, ‘Protective and damaging effects of stress mediators: central role of the brain’, Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 283–97. —— 2002, The end of stress as we know it, John Henry Press, Washington DC. McInerney, DM & McInerney, V 2006, Educational psychology: Constructing learning, 4th edn, Pearson Education, Frenchs Forest. McInerney, DM & Van Etten, S 2001, Research on sociocultural influences on motivation and learning, Information Age Publishing, Greenwich, Connecticut. Medina, J 2008, Brain rules: 12 principles for surviving and thriving at work, home and school, Pear Press, Seattle. Nagel, MC 2009, ‘Mind the mind: understanding the links between stress, emotional well-being and learning in educational contexts’, The International Journal of Learning, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 33–42. —— 2008, It’s a girl thing, Hawker-Brownlow Education, Heatherton, Victoria. —— 2005, ‘Understanding the adolescent brain’, in D Pendergast & N Bahr (eds), Teaching middle years: Rethinking curriculum, pedagogy and assessment, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, pp. 65–77. Nagel, MC & Scholes, L 2016, Understanding development and learning: Implications for teaching, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, Australia. Nisbett, RE 2009, Intelligence and how to get it: Why schools and cultures count, WW Norton & Company, New York. —— 2004, The geography of thought: How Asians and Westerners think differently and why, The Free Press, New York. Oblinger, DG & Oblinger, JL 2005, Educating the net generation, EDUCAUSE Inc., Boulder, Colorado. Ormrod, JE 2008, Human learning, 5th edn, Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Pekrun, R 2009, ‘Emotions at school’, in KR Wentzel & A Wigfield (eds), Handbook of motivation at school, Routledge, New York, pp. 575–604. Peterson, C, Maier, SF & Seligman, MEP 1993, Learned helplessness: A theory for the age of personal control, Oxford University Press, New York. Pintrich, PR 2003a, ‘Motivation and classroom learning’, in WM Reynolds, GE Miller & IB Weiner (eds), Handbook of psychology: Educational psychology, vol. 7, John Wiley & Sons, New York, pp. 103–22. —— 2003b, ‘A motivational science perspective on the role of student motivation in learning and teaching contexts’, Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. 95, no. 4, pp. 667–86. —— 2000, ‘Multiple goals, multiple pathways: the role of goal orientation in learning and achievement’, Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. 92, no. 3, pp. 544–55. 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Seligman, MEP 1972, ‘Learned helplessness’, Annual Review of Medicine, vol. 23, pp. 407–12. Seligman, MEP, Maier, SF & Geer, J 1968, ‘The alleviation of learned helplessness in the dog’, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, vol. 73, pp. 256–62. Small, GW, Moody, TD, Siddarth, P & Bookheimer, SY 2009, ‘Your brain on Google: Patterns of cerebral activation during internet searching’, The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 116–26. Small, G & Vorgan, G 2008, iBrain: Surviving the technological alteration of the modern mind, Harper Collins Publishers, New York. Smith, A 2004, The brain’s behind it: New knowledge about the brain and learning, Hawker-Brownlow Education, Heatherton, Victoria. Spear, LP 2000, ‘The adolescent brain and age-related behavioral manifestations’, Neuroscience and Behavioral Reviews, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 417–63. Storm, BC, Bjork, RA & Storm, JC 2010, ‘Optimizing retrieval as a learning event: when and why expanding retrieval practice enhances long-term retention’, Memory and Cognition, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 244–53. Sylwester, R 2005, How to explain a brain: An educator’s handbook of brain terms and cognitive processes, Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, California. Tapscott, D 2008, Grown up digital: How the net generation is changing your world, McGraw-Hill, New York. Tokuhama-Espinosa, T 2011, Mind, brain and education science: A comprehensive guide to the new brain-based learning, WW Norton & Company, New York. Trainor, LJ, Shahin, A & Roberts, LE 2003, ‘Effects of musical training on the auditory cortex in children’, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, vol. 999, November, pp. 506–13. CHAPTER 4 Understanding and motivating students
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Trautwein, U & Koller, O 2003, ‘The relationship between homework and achievement — still much of a mystery’, Educational Psychology Review, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 115–45. Tripcony, P 2002, ‘Challenges and tensions in implementing current direction in Indigenous education’, paper presented at the Australian Association for Research in Education Conference (AARE), Brisbane. Twenge, JM 2017, iGen: Why today’s super-connected kids are growing up less rebellious, more tolerant, less happy — and completely unprepared for adulthood — and what that means for the rest of us, Simon & Schuster Inc., New York. Vialle, W, Lysaght, P & Verenikina, I 2005, Psychology for educators, Thomson Social Science Press, Southbank, Victoria. Walker-Tileston, D 2004, What every teacher should know about student motivation, Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, California. Warton, PM 2001, ‘The forgotten voices in homework: views of students’, Educational Psychologist, vol. 36, no. 3, pp. 155–65. Wentzel, KR 2000, ‘What is it that I’m trying to achieve? Classroom goals from a content perspective’, Contemporary Educational Psychology, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 105–15. Wentzel, KR & Wigfield, A 2009, ‘Introduction’, in KR Wentzel & A Wigfield (eds), Handbook of motivation at school, Routledge, New York, pp. 1–8. Wolfe, P 2001, Brain matters: Translating research into classroom practice, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Alexandria, Virginia. Young, K 2008, ‘Talkin’ about my generation: a look at the generational gap in the classroom’, The Australian Journal of Middle Schooling, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 5–12.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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Photo: © Fon Hodes / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Monkey Business Images / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Professor Gary Small Photo: © MBI / Alamy Photo: © Monkey Business Images / Corbis Images Text: © Elsevier (quote from Ryan & Deci 2000)
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CHAPTER 5
Learner diversity, pedagogy and educational equity LEARNING OBJECTIVES
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After studying this chapter, you should be able to: 5.1 understand your professional responsibilities to all learners 5.2 describe how knowledge of diversity and difference has changed over time and the consequences for educational equity 5.3 define the key conceptions and dilemmas of teaching all learners 5.4 discuss inquiry-based approaches to learning and the role of activist teachers 5.5 communicate principles of pedagogical knowledge and analyse how your teaching can be improved to meet the needs of all learners 5.6 construct an informed evidence base for teaching all students that demonstrates a deep knowledge of the needs of Indigenous students within the Australian context.
OPENING CASE
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Recognising culture in teaching and learning Ly is in the third year of her four-year teacher education program and is selecting her final semester 2 units. She notices in the course map that there is a Global Experience Program (GEP) offered in mid-October. The details on the website mention that the GEP is a teaching practicum experience that offers pre-service teachers a diverse range of experiences in other educational settings. Each year the GEP program travels to the Northern Territory, Vanuatu, Nepal, Switzerland and Chile. The unit outline states that the program challenges pre-service teachers to think about, deal with and appreciate cultural and educational knowledge and/or practices and perspectives that are different from their own, leading them to develop a broader range of teaching and learning approaches and a more global perspective on education. Ly sends a quick text message to her circle of friends: ‘Are you interested in GEP unit? info mtg in 2wks NT maybe?’. Ly makes an appointment with the course advisor and follows up by attending the GEP forum, where she gets to hear from past students who have completed a teaching practicum through the GEP program. One of these students is Dan. Dan has travelled a lot; during his school years he holidayed with his family overseas, and in more recent years he has travelled with his friends to Bali, Thailand and Vietnam, but he has not seen much of other Australian states. As Ly listens to Dan’s presentation, one of the things that strikes her the most is one of his introductory remarks: ‘Doing a teaching degree has made me so aware of my own inadequacies. I had never realised that I had so little understanding of what it means to teach in a culturally appropriate and sensitive manner.’ Dan is unafraid to point out that before undertaking the GEP program he lacked knowledge of Indigenous Australians, their history and Indigenous ways of knowing. Dan speaks about how critical it is to develop intercultural awareness and sensitivity that will also impact on the diverse needs of Australian students, who, as he continually points out, do not all live in cities and are not all white or monolingual. During the GEP he learned firsthand about the diversity of Aboriginal cultural groups. In the remote GEP school where he did his five-week practicum, 97 per cent of the students were Indigenous Australians, with a language background other than English. The measured level of disadvantage reflected in the My School Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) rating was 581 (1000 being the average), and the school had an attendance rating of 53 per cent. There were seven main languages spoken in the area. Over the course of the school year students moved between the school and many homeland sites, and could be speaking any of the seven local languages. In his presentation, Dan also speaks about the value of being in a community school setting where educational opportunities and access included ` a Families as First Teachers program (FAFT 0–4 year olds), a creche, preschool, primary, middle and senior years, and being part of a large school staff of around 120 people, including teachers, assistant teachers, administration, grounds and ancillary staff. Here he also learned about the Learning on Country (LoC) program, which is grounded in place-based pedagogy and where learning and communication are structured around what is most meaningful to the students — their places, their culture. LoC experiences connect closely with the pedagogies endorsed by the eight Aboriginal ways of learning. Prior to going on the GEP a number of Dan’s university lecturers had mentioned this framework. But, as he admits, he had not fully recognised the richness and depth of the model for planning and assessing any class, anywhere. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ QUESTIONS 1. What are your experiences of learning on country? How may pre-service students in your group responded affirmatively to this this question? What explains the result? 2. What facilitates or impedes teachers’ understanding of different ways of learning? 3. What are the essential understandings needed in order to design learning experiences that embed the eight ways of Aboriginal learning?
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Introduction This chapter asks you to consider how equity is understood in education through a focus on learner diversity. Debates surrounding equity in education involve issues of theory, philosophy, educational policy and teaching practice. The popular ideas about equity that enter via the school gate can be multifaceted, often contradictory and driven by deliberate myth making. Ask yourself, ‘How well did my teachers and schools cater for students who for some reason had successful or not so successful experiences of schooling?’ There is little doubt that meeting the needs of all learners is a complex and challenging part of teachers’ work. Yet the opportunity to make a difference for students who find schooling a challenge may be the very reason you want to teach. As a teacher, many experiences and events will involve issues of equity in education. Our expectation is that you will leave your course with a commitment to teach all students. Your knowledge and ability to teach all students will continue to refine and develop over time. For example, what may seem a simple task — such as designing a classroom seating plan — may have hidden implications for planning and catering for the diversity of learners who make up any classroom community. Equity and social inclusion is improved by challenging and changing educational outcomes. As the Cambridge Primary Review states, ‘poverty, inequity and prejudice impede the progress of many children’ (Alexander 2010, p. 126). The struggle for equity and social inclusion has been ongoing since the establishment of mass education. In a rapidly globalising world, the fabric of Australian society will continue to change. In other parts of your course you will have been invited to develop reflective practice as a way to discern how pedagogical knowledge changes over time. You need reflective skills and more, such as a working knowledge of policy, to help you increase your knowledge of equity and to make changes to your teaching to deliver high-quality, high-equity outcomes.
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Learner diversity, pedagogy and educational equity
Understanding diversity and difference
Professional knowledge and educational equity
Naming equity groups in Australian policy
Special education: three decades of critique
Explaining student diversity
Discourse in everyday practice Who is responsible for equity? High-quality, high-equity curriculum and pedagogy
Teaching all students
Supporting learner diversity
Planning multilevel curriculum and inquiry
How equity works in practice
Negotiated and inquiry learning in Australia
Investigating practice and taking action
Essential questions Inquiry learning and activist learning
Developing a supportive and productive learning environment Pedagogies to look for Using supports in the classroom to ensure curricular justice
Understanding the needs of Indigenous students
Australian Professional Standards 1.4 and 2.4 Narrative exchanges for understanding ATSI The state of Indigenous education Health and education
Diverse educational arrangements characterise Australian education. While issues such as the school starting age and national curricula may change over time, Australian schools, which are primarily CHAPTER 5 Learner diversity, pedagogy and educational equity
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categorised as government or non-government, are also divided by a classification of ‘ordinary’ and ‘special’ schools. The arrangement of special schools varies from state to state and forms part of the equity policy debate in Australia. What you understand about your state and local learning arrangements for students who are acknowledged as having diverse needs is critical to your capacity to act locally. As Banks et al. (2005, p. 240) note, ‘school norms are expected to govern students’ academic and social behaviour (as well as their social status), and the extent to which student behaviour abides by these norms has a great deal to do with their academic and school success and their treatment by school personnel’. Underpinned by sound theoretical and practical knowledge, as a teacher new to the profession you are expected to actively participate in debates over school norms.
5.1 Understanding diversity and difference LEARNING OBJECTIVE 5.1 Understand your professional responsibilities to all learners.
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Australia is one of the most ethnically diverse nations of the world (Brennan-Kemmis & Smith 2006). Waves of migration from Europe, Asia and Africa have brought many benefits to everyday life in both urban and regional communities in Australia. We often proclaim that migration is a powerful force in our social history. However, for all the rhetoric of Australia being a land of opportunity and a ‘fair go’, scratch the surface of our educational achievement data and we are quickly reminded that injustice remains. Take, for example, Indigenous education. The Closing the gap — Prime Minister’s report 2017 (Commonwealth of Australia 2017) was released 50 years after the 1967 Referendum when Australians overwhelmingly agreed that the Commonwealth had ‘a duty to make laws to benefit the First Australians’ (Commonwealth of Australia 2017, p. 4). The following snapshot of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) education outcomes is illustrative of the range of networked factors that impact on student learning from the early years to the compulsory years of schooling. In 2016 there were 207 852 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students attending Australian schools.
A snapshot of educational outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations (Australian Government 2018; Council of Australian Governments 2017): r In 2015, 87 per cent of all Indigenous children were enrolled in early childhood education in the year before full-time school, compared with 98 per cent of their non-Indigenous counterparts. r The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population is quite young compared to the general population. In 2011, 36 per cent of Indigenous Australians were aged 0–14 years, compared to 18 per cent of nonIndigenous Australians. r The attendance rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in 2016 was 83.4 per cent, compared to 93.1 per cent for non-Indigenous students. r There were 250 distinct Indigenous language groups in Australia at the time of European settlement. Now only around 120 of those languages are spoken, and many are endangered. We have an obligation to protect, preserve and celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait languages. r In 2015, Indigenous children were almost twice as likely as non-Indigenous children to be developmentally vulnerable in health and wellbeing, social competence, communication and emotional maturity, and nearly four times more likely to be developmentally vulnerable in language and cognitive skills. The gap in this domain has decreased from 20.7 percentage points in 2009 to 14.5 percentage points in 2015. r Indigenous and non-Indigenous children with the same level of academic achievement at the age of 15 go on to complete Year 12 and higher education at the same rates. r In 2015 Indigenous students represented 1.5 per cent of domestic students in higher education. r Indigenous Australians with bachelor degree or higher qualifications have very high levels of employment (similar to non-Indigenous graduates), compared to those with Certificate II and below qualifications and those who have no post-school qualifications.
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Source: Commonwealth of Australia 2017.
It remains that teachers’ work in the twenty-first century is carried out among the competing tensions of our rapidly changing social fabric, government policy and ongoing political intervention. It is crucial that teachers better understand how their work might productively contribute to understanding difference and adding life opportunities through education. As a teacher, your professional knowledge base requires a deep and considered position on issues of diversity, difference and the pedagogies of hope that educational equity must deliver. The analysis of equity concepts, policy and actions through pedagogical decision making cannot be separated from socialisation of the teaching profession. For example, while the Australian student population — as in most parts of the globe — is linguistically and culturally diverse, it is significant that the Australian teaching profession is overwhelmingly Anglo-Australian and of middle-class background. Workforce data and recent research (Mayer et al. 2017) confirm ATSI peoples are significantly underrepresented in schools — comprising 1.2 per cent of the teaching population in comparison to just over 5 per cent of the student cohort. CHAPTER 5 Learner diversity, pedagogy and educational equity
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Likewise, in the teaching profession most classroom teachers are women and most principals are men, highlighting how issues of gender emerge in professional socialisation. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the proportion of full-time equivalent (FTE) teaching staff who are female continues to rise. In 2008, 69.0 per cent of all FTE teachers were female, as were 80.4 per cent of all FTE teachers in primary schools and 57.3 per cent in secondary schools, compared to 1998 when 65.5 per cent of all FTE teachers were female — 77.5 per cent of primary school teachers and 53.5 per cent of secondary school teachers. This trend has continued, with the number of female teaching staff increasing at almost double the rate of male teaching staff over the decade from 2001 to 2011. In 2015 almost three-quarters (73.7%) of all in-school staff (FTE) were female. As in previous years, there were considerably more female teaching staff than male. This was particularly the case at the primary level, where women comprised 83.2 per cent of teaching staff (FTE) in Catholic schools, 81.8 per cent in government schools, and 77.6 per cent in Independent schools. The highest proportion of male teaching staff was at the secondary level in Independent schools (43.5%) (ABS 2015).
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Naming equity groups in Australian policy In order to frame equity policy, in recent years state bodies and educational authorities have included the following terms to describe equity groups (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2014; Bowman 2004, p. 17): r Indigenous Australians r people with a disability r people with low levels of literacy and numeracy r people who live in poor socioeconomic conditions r people with low levels of formal attainment r people in correctional services r women seeking to re-enter the workforce r older displaced workers r older men in rural and regional towns. The accuracy and naming of definitions for equity groups is not without criticism. New understandings of the complexity of disadvantage point out very strongly that to assume current equity groups are homogenous may overlook the diversity that exists within each group. For example, not all Indigenous Australians are located in the same geographical area or have the same socio-economic status or school opportunities (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2014, p. 43). In this chapter, the issue of learner diversity and the understanding of difference is developed by focusing on inclusion and exclusion. Therefore, you will not find discussions of race, gender, religion, disability, socioeconomic status and class as discrete concepts. Echoing recent rethinking in the social sciences and education, learner diversity is understood as centring on issues of power and language and the lived experience of curriculum and pedagogy. In acknowledging the lack of homogeneity in any one group you will therefore find concepts that will overlap and require you to disrupt your belief system and consider your evolving teacher identity as someone who is expected to teach all students. Chapter 1 introduced you to the flux and changes that will occur as understandings of teaching to learn deepen your self-knowledge through inquiry and direct experiences in school settings. Australian national policy initiatives and longstanding conventions decreed by the United Nations (UN) have long highlighted the need for schools and systems to refocus their energies to create a more socially just education. Figure 5.1 describes how inclusion and equity policy analysis interact with each other. Inclusion in education involves: r putting inclusive values into action r viewing every life and every death as of equal worth r supporting everyone to feel that they belong r increasing participation for children and adults in learning and teaching activities, relationships and communities of local schools 154
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r r r r r r r r r r
reducing exclusion, discrimination, barriers to learning and participation restructuring cultures, policies and practices to respond to diversity in ways that value everyone equally linking education to local and global realities learning from the reduction of barriers for some children to benefit children more widely viewing differences between children and between adults as resources for learning acknowledging the right of children to an education of high quality in their locality improving schools for staff and parents/carers as well as children emphasising the development of school communities and values, as well as achievements fostering mutually sustaining relationships between schools and surrounding communities recognising that inclusion in education is one aspect of inclusion in society (Booth & Ainscow 2011).
FIGURE 5.1
The UNESCO Framework for Inclusion and Equity (2017)
1 Concepts
3 Structures and systems
Inclusion and equity as a process
2 Policy statements
4 Practices
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Source: Adapted from UNESCO-IBE (2016).
In Australia, the UNESCO Framework for Inclusion and Equity can be demonstrated in action through the eight Aboriginal ways of learning shown in figure 5.2. The right of Indigenous peoples to education is protected by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which in Article 14 states that ‘Indigenous peoples have the right to establish and control their educational systems and institutions providing education in their own languages, in a manner appropriate to their cultural methods of teaching and learning.’ The framework shown in figure 5.2 was developed by the Community and Elders of Western NSW, the NSW Department of Education and Training, the Western NSW Regional Aboriginal Education Team, and Tyson Yunkaporta (Yunkaporta 2009; Yunkaporta & Kirby 2011). The eight interactive teaching and learning pedagogies include narrative-based learning, visual learning processes, hands-on/ reflective techniques, use of symbols/metaphors, land-based learning, indirect/synergistic logic, modelling scaffolded genre mastery and connectedness to community. Godinho, Woolley, Webb and Winkel (2015) put these principles to work in a project to develop the English and Science literacy skills of Aboriginal students in Mannigrida, a remote community in the Northern Territory. Through cross-cultural exchanges and ‘on country’ visits, Aboriginal biocultural knowledge was integrated with Western scientific understanding to develop curriculum and literacy resources. The research points out that relationship-building, coupled with a sustained presence in the community, were critical to strengthening the partnership, and highlighted that establishing trust and credibility must precede any research initiatives. To avoid cultural blindness and bias and the use of white power and privilege, the following is recommended as a guide to establishing a learning community between Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators. r Begin with local knowledge systems of place and seek opportunities for transfer of these traditional knowledge and skills to the focus of inquiry. CHAPTER 5 Learner diversity, pedagogy and educational equity
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r Employ respectful listening and acknowledgment of cultural knowledge to establish trust. r Incorporate new technologies for capacity building, and enhanced literacy and numeracy skills gradually and concretely. r Implement ways of collaboratively communicating integrated knowledge to the local broader community. r Explicate local complexities and constraints. r Recognise the need for constant face-to-face communication and supportive scaffolding to sustain engagement and impact. FIGURE 5.2
Eight Aboriginal ways of learning
Story sharing
Community links
Learning maps
Deconstruct Reconstruct
Non-verbal
Symbols and images
Non-linear
Land links
Source: Yunkaporta (2009); Yunkaporta & Kirby (2011).
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WHAT CAN I TAKE INTO THE CLASSROOM?
A number of key open access resources have been developed in Australia that are useful for developing understanding that respects intercultural and intracultural school redesign. One of these resources is the Difference Differently online professional learning modules developed by the Together for Humanity Foundation. These modules have resources both for teachers and students. Reflecting on how a school used the resources, one teacher commented that while the online activities for students are really useful, the most powerful experience is when the school has three people from widely different backgrounds and life experiences come into the school and spend time to share their life experiences, beliefs and customs. The students are enthralled by the stories and their perspectives on life and living in the community. That proves to be really powerful for the students, and also provides a key turning point for staff to rethink how they can redesign curriculum and pedagogical practices. Visit the Together for Humanity Foundation website (www.togetherforhumanity.org.au) and browse the Difference Differently online modules. Compile a list of three ways you can incorporate intercultural understanding into your own lessons.
Figure 5.3 lists the policy statements of some educational organisations in relation to diversity and education. These are useful sources of information, and a starting point for finding resources to support and build a professional knowledge base for principles of social inclusion and inclusive education. 156
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FIGURE 5.3
Key organisations and policy statements
The Australian Human Rights Commission www.humanrights.gov.au The Australian Human Rights Commission (formerly the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission) was established in 1986 by an Act of Federal Parliament. The Commission is an independent statutory organisation that reports to Federal Parliament through the Attorney-General. The Commission’s website is a significant resource for information and teaching resources on: r social justice for Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders r age discrimination r disability rights r human rights r race discrimination r sex discrimination r education r legal research and resources. The Student Wellbeing Hub https://studentwellbeinghub.edu.au The resources available on the Student Wellbeing Hub are designed to help create learning communities that promote student wellbeing and the development of respectful relationships. The Hub is guided by the principles of the National Safe Schools Framework, which outline the important role of educators, parents, carers and the wider community in working with schools to create and maintain safe and supportive learning and teaching communities that build respectful relationships. The Framework is aligned to the Australian Curriculum and the individual national, state and territory initiatives, policies and legislative frameworks currently in place to support students’ safety and wellbeing. © 2017 Commonwealth of Australia, Australian Government Department of Education and Training. Creative Commons BY 4.0, unless otherwise indicated.
United Nations Education and Scientific Organisation www.unesco.org UNESCO Education UNESCO Education promotes three broad themes: r learning through life r improving education quality r promoting rights and freedom.
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UN Convention on the Rights of the Child UNESCO contributed to the process of elaborating the General Comment No. 1 (2001) on Article 29 (1) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC). This General Comment states that ‘The child’s right to education is not only a matter of access but also of content’. It thus reflects UNESCO’s concerns. See the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, www.ohchr.org. UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples UNESCO supports its member states and collaborates with partners to ensure that the right to education for indigenous peoples is respected, protected and fulfilled. This includes monitoring the right to education for all, including indigenous peoples, and ensuring equitable access to lifelong learning and quality and relevance of teaching and learning.
Explaining student diversity In teacher education, a psychological perspective is the most commonly taught and reported explanation of student diversity. Psychology is the science of human behaviour. Through your reading and the framework that is applied in this chapter you will find other explanations of diversity and difference. To ensure educational equity is applied in the practice of teaching and linked to sustainable change, learner CHAPTER 5 Learner diversity, pedagogy and educational equity
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diversity must also be understood as a matter of curriculum and pedagogy. Stereotypical labels, including explanations of students according to intelligence quotients (IQ), when attached to equity groups, can get in the way of sound curriculum and pedagogy. A standpoint of inclusion works against educational exclusion. Clough (1988), some three decades ago, defined a social justice conception of curriculum. It involves: r framing problems in context r adopting a framework that can draw on various theories and so accommodate complex interrelations r systematically recognising the experience of teachers, students and parents to better understand and interpret teaching and research situations r teachers and researchers monitoring and documenting learning events, leading to critical self-evaluation and appropriate revision of research approaches. Teaching all students, therefore, can be reframed as issues of curriculum, assessment and pedagogy that are informed by: r exploring a range of theories r questioning the separation of ‘ordinary’ and ‘special’ schools r understanding historical and local contexts r positioning the teacher as an action-oriented teacher/researcher who is seeking problems and solutions r an ethical standpoint that understands the limitations of othering (distancing oneself from ‘others’). In Australia, Kamler and Comber (2004) offer the concept of ‘turn around pedagogies’ to draw our attention to the issues of equity embedded in curriculum decision making and the social contexts of schooling. Their research explains how the discourses of blame that accompany literacy failure can be disrupted. In their words, ‘We not only challenged teachers’ tendency to blame parents, but took away the individual blame from teachers for their failure to connect with students. That is, we framed the comparatively low performance of low-socioeconomic and marginal groups of children as a collective socio/political and global problem with new dimensions in new times that make it even harder to intervene’ (p. 141). It is a long-held view that schools can and do make a difference in creating more equitable societies. One of the qualities of a teacher who works from a platform of social justice is that they understand that in the globalised world of the twenty-first century, policy formation, both national and international, has become a strong arm of intervention in schooling. Teachers and pre-service teachers readily admit they are not well prepared to tackle the challenges of meeting diverse student needs (Keddie 2012; Mayer et al. 2017). This admission reflects the complexity of the issues at hand and the need to consider the big issues of our time, which all contribute to a reading of the ‘politics of difference’ (Young 1994). ‘Becoming’ (Britzman 2003) a teacher, as has been stressed throughout this text, does occur over time, but regardless of where you may teach in the future, no-one can stand apart from the magnitude of issues that arise from a globally connected and dependent world. To ensure that the ‘responsibility’ (Halse 2017) for diversity is upheld and to create classrooms that teach for these understandings may seem an impossibility. Inspiring narratives can connect pre-service teachers, teachers and school leaders to socially just actions that do change schools and communities (Goldstein 2016; Keddie 2012), but we need these types of outcomes to be both more widespread and better known.
5.2 Professional knowledge and educational equity LEARNING OBJECTIVE 5.2 Describe how knowledge of diversity and difference has changed over time and the consequences for educational equity.
The history of education shows that schooling was originally built around privilege. Schooling initially was conducted in the homes of the wealthy and usually focused on literacy and numeracy. In Australia, the first teachers were convicts selected on the basis of good behaviour, skills and the ability to discipline the unruly (Groundwater-Smith, Cusworth & Dobbins 1998). One of the greatest difficulties faced by educators is knowing and showing how teaching makes a difference. What is the professional knowledge base required to teach all students? As professionals in the twenty-first century, it is a given that teachers 158
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will develop as teacher–researchers. An essential starting point is teachers’ capacity to determine how their efforts to transform existing arrangements make a difference. They must also ask, of course, whether they are merely perpetuating existing barriers. Take, for example, the big picture of Australian schooling and student enrolment. In 2016 there were 3 798 226 students enrolled in schools across Australia, representing an increase of 47 253 (1.3%) on the previous year’s figure. The number of students enrolled in government schools rose by 38 672 (1.6%), while in the non-government sector, students enrolled in Catholic schools reported a very slight increase of 1511 (0.2%), and students at Independent schools increased by 7070 (1.3%) on the 2015 figure (ABS 2016). In 2016 there were 9414 schools in Australia, a number that has continued to decline over the past decade. But what of opportunity for rural students or others whose social circumstances determine that educational access is a local and possibly under-resourced government school? Also consider students with disabilities, ongoing health conditions or mental illness who — despite the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and Disability Education Standards 2005 — find themselves excluded from local schools. Ben Whitburn, an early career scholar who has researched the experiences of young people with disabilities in both Australia and Spain, reflected on his experiences as someone who has lived with a disability since the age of 4. I have a personal stake in the various discourses that play out in relation to disability within social worlds; or perhaps it should be the other way round. Following complications with the removal of a benign brain tumour, I was diagnosed with profoundly impaired vision at the age of four in the early 1980s. The medical wolf pack that forever lingers closely to disability was considerably ferocious at that time. Under the remedial approach to child assessment, medically trained professionals held views that such children lacked the capacity to learn alongside children without disabilities (Clough 2000). Soon after my diagnosis, when visiting the neurosurgeon for a regular check-up, he clarified — in his professional view — the implications that my medical misfortune would purportedly have on my education and subsequent life. He sanctimoniously advised my mother to have me enrolled into Narbethong, the special school for blind children in Brisbane, Australia as if it were the only solution to my receiving an education. Thus, my future was sealed. My vision impairment, the ‘aetiology of the problem’ (Bailey, cited in Clough 2000, p. 11), would be the driving force behind my coercion into special segregated education. On this day, the surgeon operationalised Foucault’s gaze of normalising judgment as it is often trained on children with disabilities from medical expertism. On this day, he insisted on exercising his power to distinguish me as a child with special needs against the backdrop of ‘normal’ children with functional vision (Whitburn 2014).
Ben, however, did not ever attend a special school. Instead he attended neighbourhood schools with support. Today, Ben is a lecturer in education. He completed his PhD and is continuing to research and advocate for critical research and classroom practices that work against exclusions in schooling and society at large.
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Special education: three decades of critique Locally and internationally, what teachers should be able to learn and do to cater for learners with diverse needs remains heavily dominated by the field of special education. The field has a unique and particular history aligned to medical and psychological discourses. Research and scholarship of the past three decades has pointed to an ongoing critique of the field (Moss 2011; Slee 2011). In the 1990s, Skrtic described the following limitations of the special education field. Skrtic (1991, 1995) and others have argued that segregated education through the special schools system cannot demonstrate convincing outcomes. Skrtic’s critique of the field centred on four key assertions. He questioned whether: 1. student disability is pathological — whether the diagnosis and/or naming of a disease or condition is prima facie (based on first appearance) 2. diagnosis is objective and useful — that is, whether from a diagnosis methods or approaches to teaching and learning can be devised and are of use to educators CHAPTER 5 Learner diversity, pedagogy and educational equity
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3. special education is a coordinated system of services that benefits diagnosed students — whether the system is unquestionably ethical and fair to all students 4. improvements develop from conventional diagnostic and instructional practice — whether once diagnosed, the teacher’s task is to implement strategies on the basis of pathology (the nature of the disease). It is well known that even within specialised settings with very high student–teacher ratios, teachers are unable to truly execute individual programs. In Australia, special education is visible through the organisational patterns of schooling in government and non-government sectors and includes separate special schools, alternative educational arrangements, separate classes and support classes in or attached to neighbourhood schools. It would be difficult to argue that Australian education has adopted a wholly inclusive approach. As table 5.1 indicates, special schools represent less than 5 per cent of the total number of Australian schools. Data from 2008, 2012 and 2016 indicate that while the number of schools in Australia has declined over this period, an increase in special school numbers has occurred. The increase in numbers has been in the independent sector, which perhaps speaks to the domination of the competitive academic curriculum in these systems. Curriculum, discussed later in this chapter, is much more than a simple definition of learning and list of learning objectives. The manner in which curriculum is organised in schools is core to understanding issues of equity. TABLE 5.1
Total Australian schools
Year
All schools
Special schools
2008
9468
416
2012
9427
424
2016
9414
461
Notes
Decrease overall in school numbers
Increase in special school numbers
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Source: ABS (2008, 2012, 2016).
In the seminal work, Making the difference, Connell (1982) pointed out that the competitive academic curriculum dominates most people’s (including teachers’) ideas about curriculum. Connell went on to state that the competitive academic curriculum creates a hegemony; that is, the high status afforded to the sorting of students into subjects and levels overrides the status of other activities and therefore subordinates others to a lesser place in the social hierarchy with fewer opportunities for their education. Hegemony is also arguably present in the way that Australian schools are organised, as enrolment in special schools is based on student abilities — those considered unable to benefit from the academic curriculum. Considering the above evidence and noting that national equity policy has not been at the centre of national policy for more than 15 years, it would be fair to assert that Australian education remains dominated by the competitive academic curriculum, a position taken up by Connell some time ago (Connell 1985). The ‘middle schooling’ movement — focused on school Years 5 to 9 (Barratt 1998; Cole, Mahar & Vindurampulle 2006a, 2006b) — has been identified as a site of hope for affirming and prioritising learner diversity. Again, though, the influence of this movement has been described in less than optimistic terms, such as ‘at the cross roads’, a ‘wasteland’ and ‘unfinished and exhausted’ (Prosser 2008; Smith & McEwin 2011). While ‘inclusion’ and ‘exclusion’ are now often used to explain how schools might gauge their contribution to equity and equity policy, it is all too easy for actual implementation to suffer as new waves of reforms are imposed. It is important that pre-service teachers not become overwhelmed by the obstacles to inclusion and equity to the extent that they lose their enthusiasm. After all, outcomes for students rest on what teachers do and how they are able to collaborate with others to ensure education is for all. 160
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WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
As identified earlier, this chapter asks you to engage actively in debates that relate to equity in education. The state of reconciliation in Australia is a debate of significance for all Australians and has sharp relevance and resonance for beginning teachers. The report of the state of reconciliation in Australia identifies five interrelated dimensions of reconciliation, as shown in figure 5.4. FIGURE 5.4
Five interrelated dimensions of reconciliation
Race relations
Equality and equity
All Australians understand and value Aboriginal
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous
participate equally in a range of life opportunities
cultures, rights and experiences, which results
and the unique rights of Aboriginal and Torres
in stronger relationships based on trust
Strait Islander peoples are recognised and upheld.
and respect and that are free of racism. Unity An Australian society that values and recognises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and heritage as a proud part of a shared national identity. Institutional integrity
Historical acceptance
The active support of reconciliation by the
All Australians understand and accept the
nation’s politicial, business and
wrongs of the past and the impact of these
community structures.
wrongs. Australia makes amends for the wrongs of the past and ensures these wrongs are never repeated.
Source: Reconciliation Australia (2016).
Read over figure 5.4, then return to the tile titled ‘Equality and equity’. How do these principles apply to a range of equity groups? Are these issues the same or different for all named equity groups listed previously? What are the key issues for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to realise equality and equity through education?
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Discourse in everyday practice It is crucial that teachers critically analyse the origins and language of their everyday practices. Deficit discourses and contradictions are strongly embedded in the language and practices of schooling. This contributes to deficit positioning. In contemporary society and education, the process of assigning meaning through language, signs and symbols is relentless and occurs in families, schools and communities. The dehumanisation of people through blame — that is, naming people as deficient in some way — is also hegemony. The impact of hegemony is alienation and exclusion. The dehumanisation of people, families and students is profound and has devastating and lasting effects. If teachers are to work for student outcomes that are beyond deficit positioning it is necessary to carefully analyse why: r the continuing associations between poverty, race, identification and socioeconomic status result in an overrepresentation of certain groups in learning difficulty classifications r more special schools exist in areas where economic indicators are lower and, more recently, where high stakes assessment is highly prevalent r a greater number of Indigenous students are represented in low school retention figures and low literacy and numeracy benchmarks. CHAPTER 5 Learner diversity, pedagogy and educational equity
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WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
One of the most challenging aspects of teaching and learning for beginning teachers is the planning and enacting of lessons that provide challenging content while still providing other learners with sufficient prior knowledge to participate meaningfully in class. Pre-service teachers often report that in the early stages of their teaching it is impossible to have eyes everywhere (although this is a skill teachers develop over time). As a pre-service teacher, it is easy to fall into the familiar trap of focusing on your own actions and behaviours and neglecting to notice how all the students are responding to the lesson. Videoing lessons over time and analysing these short video clips is an important part of critical reflection on your teaching practice. Modelling strategies, while useful to open a lesson, are no substitute for follow-up questioning during the lesson. Pausing midway through the lesson allows students both to demonstrate and explain their learning to the whole class or a partner. Watching a video of your own teaching is an interesting, eye-opening and often confronting experience. This is because it facilitates the critical reflection of the effectiveness of the lesson and teaching methods, and allows you to observe the classroom environment, perhaps noticing things that didn’t catch your eye at the time, due to dozens of things taking place at once. There are a number of online videos and resources where teachers talk about their practice and how they have grown by using this form of self-study and review. Remember that as both a pre-service and beginning teacher you will require and benefit from tailored support. Schools that take a whole-school approach to teachers’ professional learning are more likely to help you develop over time and position the school as a learning community for both students and teachers. Mentoring action planning Mentee: Term: Issues discussed:
Mentor: Week:
Date:
Australian Professional Standard addressed this week/meeting:
Form of evidence (e.g. journal, classroom video, professional conversation); location of evidence (e.g. classroom, playground, staffroom, meeting)
Comments for critical reflection and analysis:
Action points for mentee and mentor:
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1. 2. 3. 4.
Focus standard for next week/meeting:
5.
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Who is responsible for equity? Broadly, Australians believe that human rights and democratic principles are an integral part of the country’s social fabric. Nevertheless, teachers, when confronted with issues of diversity, tend to defer to the identification of groups for whom special provision has been made. The result is deference to experts and specific programs and resources. Although examples of transformed practices can always be found, on balance schooling in Australia is caught in traditions that better fit with older factory models of schooling than with twenty-first century principles of equity. At this point it is important to remind ourselves that teachers are not solely responsible for all educational opportunities and student learning. School administrators, leading teachers and curriculum coordinators make any number of organisational decisions that have broad consequences for equity and student learning outcomes. Theories of difference detail how contemporary views of equity and diversity are formed and developed over time. Social scientists working in the disciplines of philosophy, psychology, sociology and cultural studies have made contributions to our knowledge of equity and learner diversity. Schools are organisations in which the distribution of human and financial resources shapes equity practices. It is important that we continually remind ourselves that practices are derived from a wide palette of theories and philosophies. To analyse the implicit assumptions that are so often hidden in practice, close scrutiny of everyday practices and their origins is needed. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
What theoretical and philosophical positions guide your personal professional beliefs? Construct a 400-word statement that explains your theoretical and philosophical orientation to educational equity. Invite others to agree or disagree and help you refine your position. Share what helps to make these complex ideas useful in studying equity issues in Australia.
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High-quality, high-equity curriculum and pedagogy To achieve high-quality, high-equity outcomes, teachers need to create learning environments that work against exclusion. Teachers also need to regard schools and classrooms as active sites of citizenship and student participation, and recognise the power of the hidden curriculum. The hidden curriculum can be intended or unintended, and refers to knowledge and practices that, although unspoken, are strong indicators of social justice and equity. Consider practices such as ranking, streaming and tracking students; having separate classrooms and units for students who require additional learning support; school rules; the nature of interactions between teachers and students; and gendered practices in subject selection. None of these are the focus of the intended learning outcomes, but they do reinforce particular norms and values. An analysis of the hidden curriculum and the impact on Indigenous learners conducted by Rahman (2013) shows how young Indigenous people are often culturally displaced when they enter school. ‘At home, Indigenous children are often expected to be fairly independent in their day-to-day activities, and rely very much on their own observations to learn new things, which can often conflict with school structure and expectations’ (Rahman 2013, p. 667). For many Indigenous students and their families, and other named equity groups, one of the greatest barriers to school success is that the cultural and social knowledge about how to succeed in school is not usually present. These arguments are well-rehearsed in the field of education (Bernstein 1971; Singh 2015), but we need to continually confront what the barriers are to making change happen at the grassroots level.
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High-performing schools A decade ago Luke, Weir and Woods (2008, p. 8) argued there is a case for a syllabus model that aims for a balance of ‘informed prescription’ and ‘informed professionalism’ with the aim of ‘high-quality’ and ‘high-equity’ educational outcomes. In other words, the curriculum should reach for both breadth and depth, and teachers should be empowered to let their knowledge grow over time. The OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) affirmed a range of research that suggests that students perform best: r in a positive learning environment that is oriented towards results r in a climate characterised by high expectations and the readiness to invest effort r where the enjoyment of learning is present r where a strong disciplinary climate is found r where good teacher–student relations exist (Luke, Weir & Woods 2008, p. 76). Students’ perception of teacher–student relations and classroom disciplinary climate display the strongest relationships with student performance. Students’ perceptions of the extent to which teachers emphasise academic performance and place high demands on students also tended to be positively related to performance, albeit less strongly so. Australian school principals who participated in PISA suggested that more could be done in relation to some of the dimensions identified. For example: r 31 per cent reported that learning is hindered by teachers’ low expectations of students r 48 per cent reported that learning is hindered by teachers not meeting individual students’ needs r 34 per cent reported that learning is hindered by staff resistance to change (Luke, Weir & Woods 2008, p. 76).
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Follow up these issues and ideas for classroom action by visiting the Student Wellbeing Hub, Element 2 ‘A supportive and connected school culture’ (https://studentwellbeinghub.edu.au/educators/national-safeschools-framework#/).
Social justice and whole-school action Over the years, Moss (see Moss 2002, 2011) has evolved, through a pedagogical and curriculum-based approach, some key principles for making more schools inclusive. These principles recognise the role of curriculum knowledge and action and the long-advocated move away from separate curriculum and schools. The inclusive pedagogical approach in action (IPAA) framework (Florian 2014; Florian & Spratt 2013) is a further example of ways for teachers and schools to adopt an activist and professional way of knowing. We can make more schools inclusive, and teacher actions will: r focus on what is to be taught (and how) rather than who is to learn it r provide opportunities for children to choose (rather than predetermine) the level at which they engage with the lesson r support students through scaffolded strategic/reflective responses when they encounter barriers to learning r ensure relationships between teacher and learner are continuously built over time r affirm interest in the whole child, and that the acquisition of knowledge and skills is balanced r balance learners’ needs in light of curriculum and pedagogical decision-making, not labels r see difficulties for learners as professional challenges, rather than the deficits of learners r interplay with school-wide practices r foster continuous professional learning and focus on growth over time (adapted from ‘The inclusive pedagogical approach in action (IPAA) framework’; Florian 2014; Florian & Spratt 2013). It is likely that in school contexts you will still hear teachers and curriculum leaders discuss specific programs for ‘ESL [English as a second language] learners’, the school support unit for ‘students with disabilities and learning needs’, the separate ‘special school’ for students with intellectual disabilities such as autism, accelerated programs for students described as being ‘gifted’, and programs for ‘rural and isolated students’. No-one can underestimate the complexity of how these structures have come about, or why some educators and researchers classify and think about student learning needs in this way. It has been long advocated that these structures fail to serve students’ learning or their growth as participative citizens (Hobba, Moss & Bridge 1999; Moss 2002). In the main, teachers, when confronted with issues of learner diversity, still defer to experts and specific programs and resources, rather than seeing their role as members of a community where changing professional knowledge and the identity formation of both students and teachers is key. The issues are complex, but working against deficit categorisation and developing curriculum structures that are enabling of learning communities and successful learning for all students is a key part of understanding your responsibilities and ongoing development as a teacher in the twenty-first century.
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WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
During his five-week block placement, Jason noted that on this placement he would be required to demonstrate evidence of three key elements of Standard 1 ‘Know students and how they learn’ (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership): 1.3 Students with diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds 1.4 Strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students 1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities.
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In the first week of his professional experience Jason had undertaken predominately whole-of-class teaching. His mentor teacher has suggested that he now needs to begin developing his skills in collaborative teaming and cooperative learning. He shared the following reflective statement written in his professional experience journal after his first attempt to teach through a collaborative learning model. Even when I carefully matched students so that abilities were mixed, some groups still struggled. Some groups worked very well the entire time, requiring no teacher guidance, while other students continually relied on my help. I was adamant this lesson was to build students’ skills in team work and collaboration, so made comments to students like ‘Ask your partner what they think’ to encourage the students to problem solve together. I did notice that some students, Chen and Rachel, took the leadership role in their groups and almost worked independently to complete the task while their partners did little. I wonder what would have happened if I placed these students together? Would this combination have sparked motivation and got them to work together and achieve the task, or would they have chatted and run out of time to complete the task? I had also underestimated the time it would take students to complete the task and so it will need to be carried over into another lesson. At the point in time that we finished, I don’t think that this was such a bad thing. Students were really losing heart in the task as it was a challenge and they were not used to this type of task.
What suggestions would you give to Jason to demonstrate knowledge of collaborative group learning? Include some suggested assessment tasks to judge students’ achievements on the final project, group effort and interaction. Evaluate in your own words how heterogeneous grouping fulfils the above descriptors of Standard 1. What advice would you give Jason to include in the artefact to meet the requirements of Standards 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5?
5.3 Teaching all students LEARNING OBJECTIVE 5.3 Define the key conceptions and dilemmas of teaching all learners.
Cherryholmes (2002, p. 116) provides a starting point to consider the meaning of curriculum: ‘curriculum is historically a course (of study) that someone runs (studies)’. Schools largely remain caught in curriculum design models that conform to the ‘classical meanings’ (Cherryholmes 2002, p. 116), and we easily recognise syllabus documents or textbooks as ‘curriculum courses’. In the first decade of the twentyfirst century, curriculum scholars have reminded us that our world is postmodern and it is a reasonable proposition that new meanings should be assigned to curriculum. As Cherryholmes (2002, p. 117) asks: How did/do we get from there — curriculum as a (race)course of study for students to (run) study — to here — curriculum as dispersed poststructural and postmodern texts and practices that students and teachers engage and pragmatically produce?
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WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
A mind map is an organisational tool that illustrates how one understands relationships between concepts and isolated pieces of information. You can compare a mind map to a road map of a city. Curriculum is a complex notion and forms the centre of your mind map. This activity will introduce you to the linkages and relationships between the many elements of curriculum. As in the example model shown, start with the major term: ‘curriculum’. Move from the more complex idea to a less complex idea. Connecting lines are drawn between concepts. Linking words can be placed between ideas to state the relationship between concepts. Cross-links between the segments of the concept hierarchy, classification or field can be added. Colour can be useful to highlight key concepts and linkages. Based on these instructions — and with help from (but not copying) the example in figure 5.5 — draw a mind map of how curriculum works for all students.
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PART 2 Understanding learning and learners
Curriculum mind map
Student-led conferences
ss-
ing arn Le 2.0 S AU lum s cu rri area cu ing s ritie arn prio Le lum ricu cur
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uen Infl
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Multimedia s er n i a New media Tr rs s he e c in a ipl Email Te sc Di Too ls Computer age
Movie cam Digital camera Video t Dep of res futu
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ct
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rs
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Multinationals
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es urc so
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Crowded Voters curric. (parents)
State s tic ownership i l Po (egos) Secondary Ter. VCE school
Outcomes
FIGURE 5.5
Social inclusion
RRRs His
Research
tor
y
Cultural Aims cohesion
University
TAFE
Employers
Jobs Employers’ needs/req.
Apprenticeship
Supporting learner diversity Recognition of difference and diverse cultural viewpoints are important and common themes in the design of the Australian Curriculum. In the Australian Curriculum, ACARA has chosen to include cross-curriculum priorities (see figure 5.6) and the general capabilities (see figure 5.7) in recognition that knowledge in the twenty-first century requires an ‘integrated and interconnected set of knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions that can be developed and applied across the curriculum to help students become successful learners, confident and creative individuals and active and informed citizens’ (ACARA 2013). Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.
FIGURE 5.6
The Australian cross-curriculum priorities (images from left to right are: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures; Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia; Sustainability)
Cross-curriculum priorities The Australian Curriculum has been written to equip young Australians with the skills, knowledge and understanding that will enable them to engage effectively with and prosper in a globalised world. Students will gain personal and social benefits, be better equipped to make sense of the world in which they live and make an important contribution to building the social, intellectual and creative capital of our nation. Accordingly, the Australian Curriculum must be both relevant to the lives of students and address the contemporary issues they face. With these considerations and the Melbourne Declaration on
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Educational Goals for Young Australians in mind, the curriculum gives special attention to these three priorities: r Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures r Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia r Sustainability. Cross-curriculum priorities are embedded in all learning areas. They will have a strong but varying presence depending on their relevance to the learning areas. The content descriptions that support the knowledge, understanding and skills of the cross-curriculum priorities are tagged with icons. The tagging brings to the attention of teachers the need and opportunity to address the cross-curriculum priorities at this time. Elaborations will provide further advice on how this can be done, or teachers can click on the hyperlink which will provide further links to more detailed information on each priority.
Where can I find more information about the cross-curriculum priorities? Further information can be found on the cross-curriculum priorities home page on the Australian Curriculum website at https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/cross-curriculum-priorities. Source:
FIGURE 5.7
Australian Curriculum www.australiancurriculum.edu.au.
ACARA general capabilities
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General capabilities in the Australian Curriculum General capabilities, a key dimension of the Australian Curriculum, are addressed explicitly in the content of the learning areas. They play a significant role in realising the goals set out in the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians (MCEETYA 2008) — that all young people in Australia should be supported to become successful learners, confident and creative individuals, and active and informed citizens. The Melbourne Declaration identifies essential skills for twenty-first century learners — in literacy, numeracy, information and communication technology (ICT), thinking, creativity, teamwork and communication. It describes individuals who can manage their own wellbeing, relate well to others, make informed decisions about their lives, become citizens who behave with ethical integrity, relate to and communicate across cultures, work for the common good and act with responsibility at local, regional and global levels. The general capabilities encompass the knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions that, together with curriculum content in each learning area and the cross-curriculum priorities, will assist students to live and work successfully in the twenty-first century. They complement the key learning outcomes of the Early Years Learning Framework (COAG 2009) — that children have a strong sense of identity and wellbeing, are connected with and contribute to their world, are confident and involved learners and effective communicators. The Australian Curriculum includes seven general capabilities: r Literacy r Numeracy r Information and communication technology (ICT) capability r Critical and creative thinking r Personal and social capability r Ethical understanding r Intercultural understanding. Source:
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Australian Curriculum www.australiancurriculum.edu.au.
PART 2 Understanding learning and learners
The three dimensions of the Australian curriculum
Sus
tain
abi
lity
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rac
Lite Digital Technologies
Languages
Design and Technologies
The Arts Health and Physical Education
Economics, Business
Civics and Citizenship
As eng ia and age A Ab me ustra nt w lia’ Isla origin s nde a ith Asi r H l and a isto Tor ries re and s Stra it Cu ltur es
Geography
Science
History
English
Mathematics
Three Cross-curriculum Priorities
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Seven General Capabilities
ng
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Source: http://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/primary-matters-newsletter/primary-matters-may-2017; Australian Curriculum www.australiancurriculum.edu.au.
A system-wide focus on pedagogy is crucial if teachers are to be engaged with curriculum reform practices. Productive curriculum and assessment approaches are becoming more student centred. Such approaches rely less on the teacher as the sole decision maker in the assessment process. Public scrutiny of learning performance is also increasing, linking the school and community in new ways. National testing programs and the greater visibility of individual school performance will raise significant equity issues. The National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) commenced in 2008. The program assesses students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 in reading, writing, language conventions and numeracy, and the test results are used to compare student achievement against national standards. The MySchool website (www.myschool.edu.au) developed by ACARA displays the profiles of almost 10 000 Australian schools, including schools’ results on national tests ‘to be understood in a fair and meaningful way’ (ACARA 2009b). CHAPTER 5 Learner diversity, pedagogy and educational equity
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NAPLAN is designed to test skills, rather than content, and focus on longitudinal profiles of students as they progress through their schooling. However, not all educators agree that NAPLAN is effective in schools. Research has found that teachers have experienced negative experiences in administering the NAPLAN test, with reports of teachers being pressured to ‘teach to the test’ and students being anxious over their performance (Dulfer, Polesel & Rice 2012). A difficult issue for teachers is how to draw the distinction between the impact of national accountability systems such as NAPLAN and what will be developed in the context of the classroom as part of their ongoing formative classroom assessment practices. A significant part of your professional knowledge and capacity to teach all students derives from the central role of teaching and learning relationships — with students, other teachers and community groups.
5.4 Planning multilevel curriculum and inquiry LEARNING OBJECTIVE 5.4 Discuss inquiry-based approaches to learning and the role of activist teachers.
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New and experienced teachers alike encounter difficulties in planning curriculum so that it includes all learners and interweaves cross-curriculum priorities and the capabilities specified in the Australian Curriculum. The three-dimensional model of the Australian Curriculum shows both the volume of knowledge that the Australian Curriculum has drawn together, and also what is expected of you as a teacher in threading together the three cross-curriculum priorities and the seven capabilities. One of the most powerful approaches teachers can use to address these challenges is through inquiry learning (Friesen & Scott 2013; Moss & Harvie 2015). Curriculum designed with inquiry in mind has the potential to support the learning of all students. Schools that have adopted inquiry models have won strong reputations for their capacity to teach all children and can evidence achievement against learning area curriculum standards, cross-curriculum priorities and the capabilities. In these schools we can see how a strong commitment to inquiry learning contributes to bringing together learning that maintains the rigour of each of the learning areas but also provides opportunities to show connections where students demonstrate their capabilities. Capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities, after all, are there to ensure that we focus on skills that are critical to twenty-first century challenges. Adopting an inquiry approach requires teachers to have strong pedagogical content knowledge and cross-curriculum knowledge. Teachers need to draw on their disciplinary knowledge of school subjects and interdisciplinary understandings such as creative thinking, critical thinking and problem solving — these are the building blocks of inquiry learning. The inquiry approach emphasises the interrelationships between knowledges. Thus explicit skills are taught, but generalisation and the creation of new knowledge is enabled. This requires connections with the community, but communities are often underutilised in the design and development of equity pedagogy. This may occur through initiatives such as service learning. Service learning is an approach to learning, teaching and reflecting that combines academic classroom curriculum with meaningful community service and engages elements of inquiry and negotiated curriculum models (Service Learning Australia 2010).
Negotiated and inquiry learning in Australia Boomer (1992) proposed the understandings of learning and curriculum negotiation summarised in table 5.2. This model was developed 20 years ago in the context of the middle years of schooling, but remains a highly useful and instructive approach to curriculum design. Boomer’s premise was that a negotiated curriculum process aligns with the learning process.
Essential questions Essential questions and their application to curriculum inquiry were widely used in the work of the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES 1994–2017), which was an innovative network of schools located 170
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in Chicago. CES was known for its emphasis on personalised, equitable and intellectually rigorous approaches to student learning. At the heart of the inquiry models are big ideas and essential questions. Unit-level questions signal the entry points to larger questions and can take the shape of any number of learning and assessment opportunities such as projects, case studies, performances, exhibitions and problem-based learning. Students working in these models do more than cover curriculum; they uncover learning that may be in the direction of content mastery and higher-order thinking, and learn new skills as needed under the thoughtful direction of their teachers. Very often this learning connects to a wide range of human, physical and community resources. The form that the teaching takes will vary enormously between schools, school systems and classrooms, but what is well established is the central role of the professional learning team in planning and enacting practice. TABLE 5.2
Negotiating the curriculum
1. Planning
2. Negotiating
Teacher planning (mapping the territory)
Teacher–class negotiation and organising
3. Teaching and learning
4. Performing
5. Evaluating
Student exploration, research, trying out, improvising, etc. Specific teaching
Consolidating learning to show understanding through various ‘outcomes’
Teachers and students reflecting on the quality of the process and the outcome
Source: Boomer (1992, p. 10).
The next section of the chapter suggests strategies for planning an inquiry focus. Cross-disciplinary approaches to curriculum design are most commonly described as multidisciplinary curriculum, integrated curriculum and interdisciplinary curriculum. Transdisciplinary curriculum (International Baccalaureate Organisation 2007) and integrated curriculum (see Beane 2006; Pigdon & Woolley 1992) first examine a topic through a specific discipline with other disciplines acting as a context or tool for inquiry. Cross-disciplinary curriculum design characteristically is open-ended and incorporates some aspects of problem solving that encourage high levels of student autonomy. Students are engaged in generating, exploring and responding to questions through integrative thinking, and they are encouraged to work collaboratively within learning communities to grapple with big ideas and to clarify emergent student values (Godinho 2007; Godinho & Shrimpton 2008).
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Inquiry learning and activist teaching Inquiry learning demands an activist teacher stance. Through inquiry, teachers and students collaboratively generate learning. Regardless of the student’s point of entry and stage of schooling, specific concepts are used to develop ‘throughlines’ (Blythe & Associates 1998, p. 120). Throughlines are goals that identify and support the concepts, processes, skills and understanding that we want students to develop. Some schools adopt a whole school or whole year-level focus built around throughlines that act as yearlong curriculum organisers. Table 5.3 provides examples of ‘big picture’ concepts and the related understandings and throughlines. For example, if the question ‘How safe are we?’ were to be explored in a primary school, this question could lead to a unit of work focused on the essential understanding that everyone has the right to feel safe and enjoy a quality of life supported by responsible rules and laws. Students may be encouraged to use surveys, interviews and drawings to understand and analyse: r the school hot spots for bullying r physical spaces such as toilets, playgrounds or sport facilities r access for moving equipment, using a wheelchair r cyber safety and computer use r the impact of bullying on our emotions. CHAPTER 5 Learner diversity, pedagogy and educational equity
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TABLE 5.3
Some big ideas, essential questions, big picture concepts and throughlines
Big ideas
Essential questions
‘Big picture’ concepts
Understandings and throughlines
Our nation
Who are Australians?
Nationalism
Australia is a diverse multicultural nation. People live in widely differing locations. Inclusion and exclusion are powerful forces. Is our school an inclusive school?
Place Social values Inclusion and exclusion Culture and the arts Mobility Global citizenry Power and justice
How safe are we?
Rights Rules Responsibilities Conflict resolution
Collaboration and interdependence
How many helping hands do we have in our community?
Volunteers and volunteering Helping professions Difference Development
The consequences of being unsafe affect individual and collective lives. Schools and citizens can act locally and globally to prevent, intervene and affirm the rights of all children. Am I safe in school and at home? Humans grow and change over time. As needs change connections to family, friends and/or social groups and community supports are essential. What makes a community caring?
Ageing Equity
Can we be different and the same?
Human rights Identity Discrimination Indigenous rights Social activism
Sustainability and the environment
How can we care for country?
Environmental science Sustainability Public policy Responsibility
Laws and rules make visible democratic values. Children and youth can have a voice in showing how important issues are identified and changed. What is my role as a future citizen? Ecosystems are central to sustainable futures; solving problems requires developed skills and community action. What is my responsibility to the environment?
Collaborative problem identification and problem solving Innovation and creative solutions
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Local and global futures
What is my future, our future?
Technology Ecommerce Creative economies
Australia is a diverse nation; people’s lives and jobs are diverse; humanising what is dehumanised requires creative forces. What makes a good life?
Lifestyles Change and continuity
If the question ‘How safe are we?’ were directed to the topic of cyber safety, middle and secondary students may begin by first brainstorming responses to: ‘Am I safe online?’ From this position students then participate in a cooperative group jigsaw activity. In a jigsaw activity, home groups of 4 or 5 members are established. Each home group member is assigned a focus to research, investigate or perform. Each member will later return to this home group as the ‘expert’ on their selected focus, having spent 172
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time engaging with an element in depth with other ‘experts’. Expert groups have a member from each home group. The ‘expert’ later returns to the home group knowing that they will have to communicate the understandings to their home group members fully and clearly. At the end of the unit or task, all members of the class will have been part of an inquiry that has engaged with significant, deep understanding. At the end of the unit the students will then be invited individually and as a class to evaluate their problem-solving strategy. How well did I: r define the issue/problem r generate possible solutions/alternative ideas r discuss possible solutions? As a class: r which solution is best r what values are influencing the solutions r what is the evidence, how reliable is it r whose viewpoint is being represented? Further case studies of how schools have developed inquiry learning can be found by accessing the Global Education website. Here you will also find a useful array of graphic organisers that can be used to refine thinking skills and demonstrate learning over time. (See www.globaleducation.edu.au/teaching-and -learning/school-case-studies.html, and templates for graphic organisers at www.globaleducation.edu.au/ 1840.htm.)
5.5 How equity works in practice
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LEARNING OBJECTIVE 5.5 Communicate principles of pedagogical knowledge and analyse how your teaching can be improved to meet the needs of all learners.
The development of learning environments that cater for all learners requires a clear commitment to principles of equity and social justice. It is essential to understand that: r equity is not simply about equal shares r practice can counter the negative impact of labelling and identity politics. Thus what is sought is not tips and tricks for multicultural education, students with ADHD, autism, Down syndrome, intellectual disability and the like; rather, what is sought is a strong alignment with curriculum and pedagogical knowledge. Best practice assumes that teachers teach all students. You may have heard the term ‘differentiated learning’ proposed as a method to ensure that all students are given curriculum access. This term has a particular history and works to label groups of students as those in need of differentiation. Bennett and Rolheiser (2001, p. 4) remind us that ‘action without reflection and reflection without action are both unacceptable stances in education’. Transformative pedagogy, or ‘pedagogy fashioned as a rhizome’ (Deleuze & Gutarri 1987) detects rigid arborescent tree structures, relies on the relays between theory and practice and traces new lines of flight and new knowledge. Bennett and Rolheiser (2001, p. 16) stress that when teaching is approached from a single world view, other theoretical perspectives of potential value are left out. A one-size-fits-all approach to learning is well illustrated in the debates surrounding the teaching and provisions for children with autism. At some points of these children’s lives, approaches derived from behaviourism may be all that enable learning to begin. However, students with autism also benefit greatly from opportunities in their local community school where a wider curriculum selection can best cater for their gifts, talents and needs to connect socially with others. An understanding of discourses and practices of pedagogy is essential to understanding the myriad classroom events that you will observe. Figure 5.8 explains the multifaceted dimensions associated with pedagogy.
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FIGURE 5.8
Pedagogy, teaching and learning environments for all learners
Pedagogy The teaching and learning concepts, skills, tactics, strategies and organisers that a teacher can apply to effect learning. The ‘art and science’ of teaching
Teaching and learning ‘big picture’ concepts help teachers to enact a variety of skills, tactics, strategies and organisers — safety, social justice, accountability, relevance, meaning, engagement, deep learning.
Teaching and learning organisers assist teachers to implement curriculum in an interrelated yet open-ended pedagogical set; e.g. multiple intelligences, Bloom’s taxonomy, arts-based pedagogy, social stories...
Teaching and learning strategies: a number of related concepts that can be used across the years, small groups and subjects; e.g. cooperative learning, mind mapping, concept mapping, group investigation...
Teaching and learning tactics cut across most subjects and grade levels linked to concepts, organisers and strategies, e.g. PMI — plus minus interesting; KWL — what I know, what I learned; ice breakers...
Teaching and learning skills, planning, organisation, questioning, deploying paraprofessionals, volunteers. Without these basics the concepts, tactics and strategies cannot be put into place.
Teaching and learning rhizomatics: the interconnecting of concepts, organisers, strategies, skills to engage all learners to achieve multi-layered learning outcomes; e.g. inquiry learning, arts-based learning, design-based learning.
Source: Adapted from Bennett and Rolheiser (2001, pp. 36–7).
Figure 5.9 includes commonly used teaching and learning approaches observed in the practice of teachers that have been successful in teaching all students.
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Investigating practice and taking action Active professionals work through values, apply critical thinking and — through discussion, debate and creative decision making — challenge oppressive practices. Most schools have a mission statement or code of conduct. The issue so often in school communities for both teachers and students is the relevance of the statement to the current enrolment of the school and the values of the school community. One of the most difficult tasks in beginning to teach and refining your personal professional belief system and practice is the development of ongoing methods to improve your practice. One of the benefits of the recent pedagogical initiatives of the large state systems is the acknowledged return to the heart of practice: pedagogy. Figure 5.8 is a suggested model to commence the self-assessment of your practice. From the responses of your students through a student questionnaire (see figure 5.9), consider the voice of students as a key first step in building your evidence of practice and development of a plan to investigate your practice. You might consider using www.surveymonkey.com to present the survey online to students and collate the data. Before carrying out a survey, ensure you follow the relevant ethics guidelines of your university and/or school system.
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FIGURE 5.9
Example of a student learning survey
Student learning survey For each issue, tick the box that indicates your opinion. Strongly agree 5
Agree 4
Neutral 3
Disagree 2
Strongly disagree 1
I belong. I am safe. I have fun learning. I like this school. I have choices in what I learn. My teacher treats me with respect. My teacher cares about me. My teacher thinks I will be successful. My teacher listens to my ideas. I have support for my learning. My family believes I can learn to my best ability at this school. My family wants me to do well in school. Comments: Teacher name: Thank you for participating in our class survey.
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WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
Examine how schools across Australia are designing curriculum for all students in the twenty-first century. Your lecturer may suggest some schools in your local area. Some examples to look up are: r Hornsby Girls High, www.hornsbygir-h.schools.nsw.edu.au/curriculum-activities r Collingwood College, http://collingwood.vic.edu.au/ where the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation commenced, and Reggio Emilia Inspired programs and Waldorf Steiner programs are taught. r Maningrida College, http://web.ntschools.net/w/maningrida/Pages/default.aspx r Big Picture Schools Network, www.bigpicture.org.au/big-picture-education-school-network. Using the following list, categorise the teaching practices in figure 5.10 and any other examples that come to mind as: r concepts r organisers r strategies r tactics r skills r interconnecting concepts — ‘rhizomatics’. This activity works best in a group of four or five students but can be done individually. To prepare for the activity you will need strips of cardboard or sticky notes, or you could use an enlarged copy of figure 5.10. Record each teaching practice on a single strip of cardboard, sticky note or puzzle piece. After you have completed the task, choose one area to focus on in investigating your own practice with a colleague during your next school placement.
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FIGURE 5.10
Teaching and learning practices for all students
Active learning
Circle time
Negotiated learning
Learning contracts
Problembased learning
Multi-age classes
Personalised learning plans
Cooperative learning
Peer tutoring and mentoring
Authentic assessment
Team teaching
Multiple intelligences
Performancebased learning
Creative processes and solutions
Open-ended tasks, and questions
Accelerated learning
Social stories
Running records
Inquiry learning
Interactive media
Texts and picture books K–12 with a range of identity constructions
Webquests
Real-life problem solving
Technology integration through digital recorders, computers, video, film, animation, video games, iPads etc.
Graphic organisers
Diagrams, drawing
Metacognition
Speech synthesisers, audio amplification, speech recognition software such as ‘Dragon naturally speaking’
Illustrations, posters
Painting, printmaking and textile arts
‘Shutdown’ spaces
Service learning
Stan da asse rdised ssm ent
Anger management
Student surveys
Word prediction software
Planned classroom layout
Imagination boxes
Three-way reporting
ePen
Picture scheduling
Accessible spaces
Changing spaces
Dictionaries and calculators of all shapes, sizes and fonts Concrete materials (e.g. corks, gum nuts, bottle tops, geoboards, pegs, fabric, string, linear & volume measures, scales)
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Studentproduced digital still photography
Discussion and debates
A climate of trust and respect
Collaboration rather than facilitation is evident
Shared decision making
A team culture
Students are leaders of management teams
WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
During your next school placement, observe how the school culture is developed. How are school values communicated?
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Developing a supportive and productive learning environment Every school community must strive to create a non-violent school culture. This requires action through broad cross-curricular initiatives as a whole school. Over the past decades teachers have developed any number of approaches to develop supportive classroom contexts.
Establishing classroom rules The development, implementation and evaluation of classroom rules that promote active civic participation can help ensure equality, freedom and protection for everyone. Too often, classroom rules are developed as a one-off activity rather than being interconnected and embraced as part of the ongoing life of the classroom and curriculum. In such cases, classroom rules can become a barrier, rather than a support, to developing community. The term ‘classroom management’ is frequently cited as an essential component of a teacher’s repertoire of practices. The idea of ‘managing problems’ is, however, best replaced by a focus on creating contexts that build learning relationships. In classrooms where the focus is on learning for all, the teacher and their understandings are the key determinant of whether a context becomes supportive or reactive. WHAT CAN I TAKE INTO THE CLASSROOM?
Making or reviewing rules Whether you are beginning a new school year or reviewing your progress as a learning community to date, the following discussion starters can be used with all learners. The purpose is to ensure that students understand the broad questions, such as ‘Why build community?’ and ‘What skills and commitments are needed to respond to injustices?’ Some discussion starters are as follows. r Are rules necessary in our classroom? r Why have rules? r Who should have a say in classroom rules? r Which rules will stop unfair behaviour? r Which rules could be made clearer? r What safety issues do we need to consider? r How do we make rules fair? r When do rules need to be changed?
WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
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Look up the National Safe Schools Framework and follow the link to the Safe Schools Hub. The National Safe Schools Framework is made up of nine parts called ‘elements’. Each of these elements helps schools to be safe and supportive for their students. The Framework is an essential part of understanding both professional conduct and the capacity of teachers to enact everyday practices that support these key responsibilities (see www .studentwellbeinghub.edu.au/educators/national-safe-schools-framework/#/).
Pedagogies to look for Any number of approaches to pedagogy and pedagogical methods are embedded in school subjects. Over your career you will develop your specialised pedagogical interests. To some extent your professional interests will be shaped by the stage of schooling you teach — early childhood, primary, middle or secondary. The following sections provide an overview of areas of professional development that contribute to teaching for all learners. CHAPTER 5 Learner diversity, pedagogy and educational equity
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The arts The arts are considered to be a catalyst for personal and social transformation in schools and the wider community, but rarely are arts, artists and questions of pedagogy entwined together (Biesta, Cole & Naughton 2018). There are a number of ways that the arts can be embedded beyond their learning area status and thus reach across the cross-curriculum priorities and the general capabilities. The processes and practices of artworks and performance in general can be linked to wider curriculum dimensions, and need not necessarily result in an enduring ‘product’. Hence, in the art world we have terms such as process drama, conceptual art, installations and pop-up events and a diversity of art forms that will embed digital media and participatory engagement. Ceremonies still play a vital part in Indigenous Australian culture. Distinguishing decorative body painting indicates the type of ceremony being performed. Visual arts practices associated with Aboriginal ceremonies are complex, deep, embodied human experiences which are interrelated with religious and cultural beliefs. In summary, the arts offer a lens into both historical and contemporary social issues, as well as simultaneously challenging them (Gadsden 2008, cited in Ewing 2010, p. 2). The next section of the chapter includes some examples of pedagogy to illustrate the importance of building pedagogical repertoires that you may not be exposed to through your studies.
Drama and conflict resolution Teachers who are confident in the use of drama- and arts-based pedagogy have access to powerful practices to support learners to engage actively in issues of conflict resolution and problem solving across the curriculum. Essentially, drama is about people, their social world and interrelationships. Teachers often feel that they do not have the specialised knowledge or facilities to get started in integrating arts-based pedagogies into subject-specific fields. Drama educators who work alongside teachers to deepen their pedagogical understanding emphasise that the regular classroom space in any subject area is all that is required. Drama- and arts-based experiences are also crucial for developing play skills (Dunn & Stinson 2012; Stinson & O’Connor 2008). Learners who have high support needs spend much of their life consumed in developing life skill practices and/or due to their mental and physical health miss large periods of school. While decisions to prioritise the basics are important, a comprehensive curriculum that includes the arts has any number of benefits, including the development of everyday interactions and basic skills. A variety of areas are important for developing your pedagogical repertoire, including: r getting started with drama r conducting class meetings r philosophy for children r communities of inquiry r developing skills in cooperative learning. These approaches help teachers manage whole class groups efficiently and effectively and simultaneously personalise student learning.
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Philosophy for children and communities of inquiry The essence of philosophical inquiry is to engage learners in philosophical discussion to stimulate thinking that increases understanding and leads to further questioning. The approach works with all learners and so should not be targeted only to students with well-developed skills of analysis and communication. ‘Philosophy for children’, originally designed by American philosopher Matthew Lipman in 1969, emphasises dialogue and strategically developed conversations that encourage children to find answers through the raising of questions.
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A community of inquiry is a dialogical process that provides opportunities for learners to: negotiate learning through their issues build their interests reflect on their questions value both talking and listening give and justify reasons for what is said contribute openly in a safe context (a ‘no blame’, ‘put-down-free’ zone) value thinking for themselves and the opportunity to change their own viewpoints. The role of questioning in a community of inquiry is critical. Questioning therefore is deliberative; teacher dominance is not evident, and questions posed by the teacher refine their students’ thinking, encourage reasoning and stimulate discussion. By implementing a community of inquiry the core values that centre an inclusive school community are promoted. The participation of all students and creative and higher-order thinking is encouraged by questions such as the following. r Why do you think that? r Did you mean . . . r Where are we at? [pause] r What have we decided so far? r [Student name], are you saying that . . . r What is the connection between . . . and . . . if any? Golding (2002) provides a detailed guide to the use of content-neutral questions and concept games such as racism, justice, intelligence, responsibility, rules, culture and violence. Encourage students to take responsibility for their views and be prepared to leave the complexity of problems in tact; many questions are complex and a single agreed meaning is not possible.
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r r r r r r r
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Cooperative learning
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Cooperative learning, as an approach to learning and teaching, is guided by skills development and understanding goals. Participation in cooperative learning requires social skills teaching as well as carefully designed teaching sequences that demonstrate to the group members that mutual goals are achieved through the process of participation. Therefore: r I will sink or swim with you. r I am not successful unless you are. r I benefit and so do you. At the heart of cooperative learning is that competitors do not solve problems; they shift blame and focus on deficits. Cooperative learning can involve simple and complex tactics and has been endorsed as a method that will benefit all learners, regardless of their level of performance. The research on cooperative learning also demonstrates that, if carefully implemented, it increases higher-order thinking. The five essential components of effective cooperative learning include the following. 1. Positive interdependence — each person’s efforts contribute to the group’s success. 2. Face-to-face interaction — each person promotes each other’s success by helping, assisting, supporting, encouraging and praising each other’s efforts to learn. 3. Individual accountability — each individual is assessed, but the results are given back to the group and individual; hitch-hikers and freeloaders make task completion impossible. 4. Interpersonal and small group skills — group members must be taught the social skills for high-quality cooperation and be motivated to use them. Games of any sort, table or outdoor, are an ideal way to initiate and develop skills of leadership, decision making, trust building, communication and conflict management. 5. Group processing — group members reflect on the group’s functioning ability and evaluate how well the group achieved their goals and maintained effective working relationships.
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Using supports in the classroom to ensure curricular justice Classrooms and schools are places where the rules of justice are embedded. Rarely do teachers or schools reject or fail to aspire to a social justice perspective on curriculum. However, the norms and practices of schooling are very resistant, and all too often arguments return to the allocation of the status quo, rather than careful school-wide planning that is well monitored and reviewed and uses the abundant research evidence. In Australia, funding to provide for students with diverse needs has flowed to schools through specific programs. Often students are described according to their eligibility for funding: the ‘integration’ or ‘inclusion kids’; the ESL (English as a second language) group; or ‘SSUs’ (Student Support Unit students). Although practices vary across Australia, a student with eligibility status typically brings a resource package to the neighbourhood school. In Victoria, for example, schools take a variable proportion of these funds for administration charges. Under this system, based on distributive justice, the resource package is based on a categorical allocation of individual students. Some students, despite a high level of need, such as students on the autism spectrum, with mental health issues or with exceptional talents and abilities, will receive few or no supports other than those that are available from the overall school budget. The intelligence quotient (IQ) remains the dominant mechanism for allocating funding, when — clearly — for many students standardised cognitive assessment is the least instructive evidence upon which to design and tailor a personalised learning plan.
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Paraprofessional support The confusion over how best to use resources to develop inclusive education arrangements is well illustrated in the organisation of paraprofessional help. The way that supports are used in classrooms is a key part of educational equity. One of the greatest tensions teachers feel towards learners is the distribution of their time and resources. Providing just allocations of resources — materials and quantitative and qualitative differences in attention — is a key aspect of developing and sustaining equitable practices. Ultimately the classroom teacher is the key coordinator of these decisions. Teachers frequently are torn between the view that on the one hand all children deserve equal shares and on the other hand that some students merit more than others. Paraprofessional help includes teaching assistants, but may also include youth or community workers and Aboriginal education officers. Aboriginal education officers (AEOs) work in schools where significant numbers of Aboriginal students are enrolled. The role of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Officers (IEOs) is to support students through key transition points in their education, build connections and relationships between schools, families and communities and support students and teachers in the school environment. In primary schools, this can also include classroom support. When another adult joins your classroom, consider the following: r introductions — letters and emails home, and newsletter entries r roles and responsibilities — a duty statement as well as day-to-day timetabling r procedures for unexpected situations, and medical and/or behaviour incidents r shared protocols for privacy, confidentiality and consent r team planning schedules. Specialised paraprofessional supports work closely with teachers to develop inclusive and culturally appropriate resources and programs. Using support staff requires preparation time. No-one can ever estimate the extent and depth of professional knowledge and judgement required to support all learners. The perpetuation of charity or welfare models are forms of exclusion. Continually improving your knowledge of diversity, equity and social justice is at the core of the life’s work of becoming and being a teacher.
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5.6 Understanding the needs of Indigenous students LEARNING OBJECTIVE 5.6 Construct an informed evidence base for teaching all students that demonstrates a deep knowledge of the needs of Indigenous students within the Australian context.
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A key question for all educators to ask is, are we making progress in Indigenous education? As has been outlined earlier in this chapter, as a graduating teacher you are expected to demonstrate your knowledge of and responsibility for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and further understand and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Two key Australian Professional Standards specify this knowledge (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership [AITSL] 2017): 1.4 Strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students Demonstrate broad knowledge and understanding of the impact of culture, cultural identity and linguistic background on the education of students from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds. 2.4 Understand and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to promote reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians Demonstrate broad knowledge of, understanding of and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and languages.
The following infographics in figure 5.11 succinctly illustrate the state of Indigenous education in Australia. Reviewing the evidence base about population, educational achievement and health outcomes is critical to informed policy and practice decisions for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.
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FIGURE 5.11
State of Indigenous education in Australia
While Indigenous students made up only 5.5% (1 in 20) of students in Australian schools in 2016, the number of Indigenous Australian students is rising much quicker than the overall population. Number of Indigenous Australian students All school levels, 2006–2016 (Source: ABS)
220 000
The number of Indigenous students in Australian schools has increased by 46.7% over the last 10 years. The total number of students has only increased by 12% over the same period.
200 000
180 000
160 000
140 000 2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
Health factors also have a direct and disproportionate impact on Indigenous Australian students. Indigenous Australians are 1.7 times more likely to have a disability than non-Indigenous Australians. And preventable hearing loss in particular is a major problem. Hearing loss Solid and consistent data on the rate of hearing loss in Indigenous children is not available, but the available data suggests hearing loss plays a significant factor in Indigenous achievement. r A 2000 report for the Department of Education found of 1032 Indigenous students tested across urban and remote centres, 79% had an educationally significant hearing disability — which affects language development and eventually school attendance. r The World Health Organization defines a rate higher than 4% of otitis media — the main cause of hearing loss in children — as unacceptable. Prevalence ranges from 10% to 54% in Indigenous communities, worse in remote and regional populations. Primary school Year 3 NAPLAN results, 2008–16 Non-Indigenous results 420
While there’s been more than double the amount of improvement in Indigenous results (8.7%) compared to non-Indigenous students (4.2%) since NAPLAN started in 2008, the average gap across all markers is still 17.9%.
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380
Indigenous results 340
300 2008
2009
Reading
2010 Writing
2011 Spelling
2012
2013
2014
Grammar and punctuation
2015
2016 Numeracy
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And the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) — an international comparative study of achievement in maths and science — shows that on international markers, Indigenous Australian students are falling significantly behind on maths and science by Year 4 — more than half are below the international benchmarks. Source: Claire Shaw, Jamal Ben Haddou and Wes Mountain, The Conversation, 7 June 2017.
Through this chapter you have been guided to recognise that central to meeting the needs of all learners lies the mixing of both the mastery and artistry of professional knowledge. As a graduating teacher you need to be aware of where the barriers lie within the cultures of schooling and social norms. Melitta Hogarth is a lecturer in education and is also currently completing a PhD. Her research looks at how the language in education policy is maintaining the beliefs, attitudes and values of colonial Australia. She argues that to understand how this is happening, you need to investigate policies that have been introduced, how they came about, and whether they have had any impact. The following narrative, written by Melitta, illustrates that in the history of education, barriers to Indigenous education run deep in our historical consciousness. In the year I was born – 1974 – it had only been two years since New South Wales had abolished the practice of excluding Aboriginal students from public schools. These explicit actions of exclusion were validated by policies such as the ‘Clean, Clad and Courteous’ policy. Aboriginal children could be excluded from the classroom at the morning parade due to perceived health and/or hygiene issues. There was also the 1902 ‘Exclusion on Demand’ policy, under which government schools in NSW were told to exclude Aboriginal children if other parents made a complaint about Indigenous children being in their child’s classroom. These children could then only attend special Aboriginal schools, which were not run by the Education Department, and were therefore predominantly taught by unqualified teachers. Most of the work in Indigenous education is commissioned government reports. These rarely include Indigenous voices and expertise – and when they do, the inclusion of Indigenous voices is overshadowed by the responses of governmental bodies. This is demonstrated in the evaluation reports of the Action Plan – a 2012 report about the implementation of the Action Plan. The feedback provided by the Indigenous Education Consultative Bodies was immediately countered by the Standing Council on School Education and Early Childhood’s comments. This is despite recommendations from a report published 15 years earlier, in 1975 by the Schools Commission in collaboration with the then Aboriginal Consultative Group, which suggested key areas for change, including: r making sure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were involved with all decision-making processes of Indigenous education r increasing the number of Indigenous teachers r ensuring initial teacher education courses included Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures r developing educational programs to inform parents and community about the efforts and initiatives that government is implementing to overcome educational disparities. Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.
Source: Melitta Hogarth, The Conversation, 8 June 2017.
INSIGHTS IN EDUCATION
Understanding student diversity In a large secondary school committed to combating exclusion, the leading teachers are working on a plan for a compulsory after-school professional learning session that will lead to the design of a wholeschool day focusing on literacy and the understanding of student diversity in the year 7 and 8 classes.
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The whole-school staff are aware that whole-school days such as the one they are planning should look to the aims of the school plan and ensure that the wider parent community is able to see the connections between the event and student learning. The teachers want to evoke the mood of a ‘launch’, so arrange for the school band to play and for food to be served. A planning meeting has been called to consider other suggestions. A multicultural fashion parade of traditional dress is suggested as an additional attraction. When the team considers this suggestion there is an animated discussion. Some teachers think a fashion parade would embellish the experience; others wonder who would parade the fashion and whether teachers, parents and students might be invited to participate. One teacher questions the concept of a multicultural fashion parade on the grounds that it ‘exoticises’ difference and presents a static view of culture. She does not believe the prospect of a multicultural fashion parade sits well with what the team is trying to achieve in terms of developing an inclusive school and deeper intercultural understanding. Dialogue focuses on how instead of exoticising superficial differences, the teachers can reflect on and share aspects of their own cultural identities. She gives an example: ‘I am from the surf coast and my whole wardrobe is from surf outlets; I wear clothes that are comfortable and that remind me of the sea.’ This example prompts the team to consider repurposing the idea of a focus on clothing. They decide to film ‘vox pop’ interviews with staff, asking the question, ‘Why do you wear what you wear’? The staff organise an official launch of the film, and school community members attend. As is demonstrated in this vignette, teachers’ understanding of diversity requires a clear purpose, dialogue, and opportunities to review and revise their personal professional positions and assumptions about their identity.
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SUMMARY At the end of a long school day, teacher discussions sometimes focus on how taxing it is to cater for all students and develop more socially just outcomes and inclusive schools. From newly commenced and experienced teachers alike, so often the immediate response is the return to the search for the ‘magic bullet’. Comments such as ‘I don’t have the knowledge to work with this or that group of students’, ‘they shouldn’t be here, there is a special school down the road’, ‘they need to learn more English’ and the like are unfortunately too common. Supporting student diversity requires teachers to act ethically and within the legal mandates of our nation and states. Above all, it means that you will continue to focus on the development of your knowledge of curriculum, assessment and pedagogy, the building blocks of high-quality, high-equity education. A key question for your ongoing self-assessment of your teaching is: Do my efforts lead to learning in ‘conversation’ with others — students, families, support staff? Or is my teaching ‘double speak’, that is deficit talk as an isolated professional where misdirection and blame alienate students and teachers and undermine meaningful collaborations between professionals?
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KEY TERMS competitive academic curriculum A way of organising knowledge in the school curriculum that sees students streamed into ability levels and subjects with status. cooperative learning An approach to learning with origins in developmental psychology that emphasises teacher involvement in setting goals, determining activities and evaluating student achievements. deficit discourses Language that reinforces the idea that its subjects are lacking in some respect. deficit positioning Discourses, or talk by professionals, that define students, families and communities as lacking in some respect and without agency. exclusion A multidimensional process of progressive social rupture, detaching groups and individuals from social relations and institutions, and preventing them from full participation in society. hegemony The dominance or leadership of one group over others. inclusion The child’s right to participate and the school’s duty to accept the child by restructuring school culture, policy and practices. inquiry learning Learning based around students’ questions; it incorporates a range of philosophical, curricular and pedagogical approaches to teaching. othering The practice of comparing oneself to others and at the same time distancing oneself from them. The social and/or psychological ways in which one group excludes or marginalises another group. problem-based learning An approach to learning in which students work collaboratively to solve challenging, open-ended, practical problems and reflect on their learning experiences. psychology The science of the mind or of mental states and processes; the science of human behaviour. school culture The sum of the values, cultures, safety practices and organisational structures within a school that inform the policy and function of the school. service learning A course-based educational experience in which students participate in an organised activity that meets identified community needs, followed by reflection to gain further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility. special education Services and practices in schools commonly associated with the provision and coordination of support and individualised learning programs. throughlines The overarching goals, big ideas or concepts of curriculum design that describe the most important understandings that students will develop over time. Throughlines provide the ‘big picture’ for students to make generalisations between what is learned in school and beyond. 186
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FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE 5.1
LO1
What are your professional responsibilities to your students in terms of educational equity? 5.2
LO2
What are the dominating values and assumptions that have shaped Indigenous education in Australia? 5.3
LO4
For the stage of schooling you expect to teach, describe three actions for designing a high-quality, high-equity curriculum. 5.4
LO5
As a teacher, what steps could you take to build a positive learning environment that ensures all students feel they are an active and contributing member of the classroom? 5.5
LO5
How will you design curriculum to improve your teaching and ensure you meet the needs of all learners?
WEBSITES
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1 Australian global educators place particular emphasis on developing relationships with our neigh-
bours in the Asia–Pacific and Indian Ocean regions. The Global Education website provides a concise, practical and philosophical guide to including a global perspective across the curriculum. There is also advice for teachers and school leadership teams on how to implement a global education framework at a school level. The resources section is rich in pedagogical examples for taking into the classroom: www.globaleducation.edu.au 2 The Alannah and Madeline Foundation was set up in memory of Alannah and Madeline Mikac, aged six and three, who were tragically killed with their mother and 32 others at Port Arthur, Tasmania, on 28 April 1996. The Foundation was launched in 1997 and has been operating for almost 20 years. The key objectives of the foundation are to care for children who have experienced or witnessed serious violence; reduce the incidence of bullying, cyber-bullying and other cyber risks; and advocate for the safety and wellbeing of children. The website features eSmart Schools, which is a cultural-change framework that guides the introduction of policies, practices and whole-school change processes to support the creation of a cyber-safe or ‘eSmart’ environment: www.amf.org.au 3 The Raising Children Network is an Australian parenting website that provides evidence-based and validated content, which is translated into everyday language and a range of languages to help parents and carers make decisions that work for them in their individual family circumstances. The website is invaluable for developing a wholistic understanding of childhood from newborns to teens, and includes sections on autism and disability: http://raisingchildren.net.au 4 The Cultural Infusion website supports the work of Cultural Fusion, a not-for-profit, charitable organisation, to build cultural harmony and well-being through contributing to a society that values intercultural understanding and artistic expression as a means of promoting social cohesion. There are a range of digital resources, including ‘Sound Infusion’, a royalty-free collection of sound clips from hundreds of the world’s instruments and musical traditions. There are also some tools to help students put those sounds together to make their own unique, cross-cultural compositions: https://culturalinfusion.org.au
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REFERENCES Alexander, R (ed.) 2010, Children, their world, their education, Final report and recommendations of the Cambridge Primary Review, Routledge, London and New York. Australian Bureau of Statistics 2016, ‘Schools’, cat. no. 4221.0, www.abs.gov.au. —— 2015, cat. no. 4221.0, www.abs.gov.au. —— 2012, cat. no. 4221.0, www.abs.gov.au. —— 2008, cat. no. 4221.0, www.abs.gov.au. Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority 2012, ‘Cross curriculum priorities’, www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/cross_curriculum_priorities.html. —— 2009b, ‘MySchool’, www.myschool.edu.au, viewed 15 March 2010. Australian Government 2018, Closing the gap: Prime Minister’s report 2018, http://closingthegap.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/ctg-report-2018.pdf?a=1. Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) 2017, ‘Australian professional standards for teachers’, www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/standards. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2014, ‘Towards a performance measurement framework for equity in higher education’, cat. no. IHW 129, Canberra. Banks, J, Cochran-Smith, M, Moll, L, Richert, A, Zeichner, K, LePage, P, Darling-Hammond, L, Duffy, H & McDonald, M 2005, in L Darling-Hammond & J Bransford (eds) 2005, Preparing teachers for a changing world: What teachers should learn and be able to do, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco. Barratt, R 1998, ‘Shaping middle schooling in Australia: a report of the National Middle Schooling Project’, Australian Curriculum Studies Association, Canberra. Beane, J 2006, A middle years curriculum: From rhetoric to reality, Hawker Brownlow Education, Heatherton, Victoria. Bennett, B & Rolheiser, C 2001, Beyond Monet, Bookation, Toronto. Bernstein, B 1971, Class, codes and control: Theoretical studies towards a sociology of language, Routledge & Kegan, London. Biesta, G, Cole, D & Naughton, C 2018, Art, artists and pedagogy, Routledge, London, New York. Blythe, T & Associates 1998, The teaching for understanding guide, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco. Boomer, G 1992, ‘Negotiating the curriculum’, in G Boomer, N Lester, C Onore & J Cook (eds), Negotiating the curriculum: Educating for the 21st century, Falmer, London, pp. 4–14. Booth, T & Ainscow, M 2011, Index for inclusion: Developing learning and participation in schools, 3rd edn, Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education, Bristol. Bowman, K (ed.) 2004, Equity in vocational education and training: Research readings, Australian National Training Authority, Adelaide. Brennan-Kemmis, R & Smith, E 2006, ‘Equity and diversity considerations: different contexts, different learners (research in vocational education and training)’, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, www.icvet.tafensw.edu.au, viewed 5 September 2009. Britzman, D 2003, Practice makes practice: A critical study of learning to teach, State University of New York Press, Albany. Cherryholmes, C 2002, in W Doll & N Gough (eds), Curriculum visions, Peter Lang, New York, pp. 116–26. Clough, P 2000, ‘Tales from the edge: narratives at the borders of inclusive ideology’ in Moore M (ed.) Insider perspectives on inclusion — Raining voices, raising issues, Phillip Armstrong Publications, Sheffield. —— 1988, ‘Bridging “mainstream” and “special education”: a curriculum problem’, Journal of Curriculum Studies, vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 327–38. Coalition of Essential Schools 1994–2017, www.essentialschools.org, viewed 15 September 2009. —— 2006a, ‘Understanding year 9 students: a theoretical perspective’, paper no. 8, Part A, Department of Education and Training, Melbourne. —— 2006b. ‘Understanding year 9 students: implications for policy and practice’, paper no. 8, Part B, Department of Education and Training, Melbourne. Commonwealth of Australia 2017, Closing the gap — Prime Minister’s report 2017, http://closingthegap.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/ctg-report-2017.pdf, viewed 3 November 2017. Connell, RW 1985, Teachers’ work, Allen & Unwin, Sydney. —— 1982, Making the difference: Schools, families and social division, Allen & Unwin, Sydney. Council of Australian Governments 2017, ‘Closing the gap: the next phase: public discussion paper’, https://closingthegaprefresh.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/resources/ctg-next-phase-discussion-paper.pdf?a=1. Deleuze, G & Felix, G 1987, A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia (trans. Brian Massumi), University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis. Dulfer, N, Polesel, J & Rice, S 2012, ‘The experience of education: the impacts of high stakes testing on school students and their families’, An Educator’s Perspective, Whitlam Institute, University of Western Sydney, Sydney. Dunn, J & Stinson, M 2012, ‘Dramatic play and drama in the early years: reimagining the approach’, in S Wright (ed), Children, meaning-making and the arts, Pearson, Frenchs Forest, NSW, pp 115–34.
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Ewing R 2010, The arts and Australian education: Realising potential, Australian Council for Educational Research, Camberwell, Victoria. Florian, L 2014, ‘What counts as evidence of inclusive practice?’, European Journal of Special Needs Education, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 286–94, DOI:10.1080/08856257.2014.933551. Florian, L & Spratt, J 2013, ‘Enacting inclusion: a framework for interrogating inclusive practice’, European Journal of Special Needs Education, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 119–35, DOI:10.1080/6257.2013.778111. Friesen, S & Scott, D 2013, Inquiry-based learning: A review of the research literature, paper prepared for the Alberta Ministry of Education, retrieved from http://galileo.org/focus-on-inquiry-lit-review.pdf. Gadsden, V 2008, ‘The arts and education: Knowledge generation, pedagogy and the discourse of learning’, Review of Research in Education, vol. 32, pp. 29–61. Godinho, S 2007, ‘A re-visioning of curriculum integration for the 21st century: creating spaces for conversation and dialogue’, Curriculum Perspectives, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 61–5. Godinho, S & Shrimpton, B 2008, ‘Interdisciplinary curriculum: a sustainable future or an unattainable vision in a changing educational climate?’, AARE refereed conference paper, 30 November – 4 December, Brisbane. Godinho, S, Woolley, M, Webb J & Winkel, K 2015, ‘Sharing place, learning together: Mutual capacity and partnership building’, UNESCO Observatory Multi-Disciplinary Journal in the Arts, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 2–27. Golding, C 2002, Connecting concepts: Thinking activities for students, ACER, Melbourne. Goldstein, T 2016, ‘Border crossing in the classroom through performed ethnography’, Perspectives on Urban Education, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 4–19, www.urbanedjournal.org/sites/default/files/pdf_archive/02_20160522_PUE_Goldstein.pdf. Groundwater-Smith, S, Cusworth, R & Dobbins, R 1998, Teaching: Challenges and dilemmas, Harcourt Brace & Company, Sydney. Halse, C 2017, ‘Responsibility for racism in the everyday talk of secondary students’, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 2–15. Hobba, L, Moss, J & Bridge, D 1999, Welcoming schools, video, UNESCO, Paris. Hogarth, M 2017, ‘Is policy on Indigenous education deliberately being stalled?’, The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/is-policy-on-indigenous-education-deliberately-being-stalled-76855. International Baccalaureate Organisation 2007, Making the PYP happen, IBO, Switzerland. Kamler, B & Comber, B 2004, ‘The new English teacher: redesigning pedagogies’ [online], English in Australia, iss. 139, February, pp. 131–42. Keddie, A 2012, Educating for diversity and social justice, Routledge, London and New York. Luke, A, Weir, K & Woods, A 2008, ‘Development of a set of principles to guide a P–12 syllabus framework: a report to the Queensland Studies Authority’, Queensland Studies Authority, Brisbane, Queensland. Mayer, D, Dixon, M, Kline, J, Kostogriz, A, Moss, J, Rowan, L, Walker-Gibbs, B & White, S 2017, Studying the effectiveness of teacher education: Early career teachers in diverse settings, Springer Nature, Singapore. Moss, J 2011, ‘Researching pedagogical and curriculum renewal in Australia – a visual and intertextual approach’, International Journal of Inclusive Education, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 285–30. —— 2002, ‘Inclusive schooling: representation and textual practice’, International Journal of Inclusive Education, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 231–49. Moss, J & Harvie, K 2015, ‘Cross curriculum design: Inclusive pedagogy across the curriculum’, International Perspectives in Inclusive Education, vol. 7, pp. 259–79. Pigdon, K & Woolley, M (eds) 1992, The big picture: Integrating children’s learning, Eleanor Curtain Publishing, Armadale, Victoria. Prosser, B 2008, ‘Unfinished but not yet exhausted: a review of Australian middle schooling’, Australian Journal of Education, vol. 52, no. 2, pp. 151–67. Rahman, K 2013, ‘Belonging and learning to belong in school: the implications of the hidden curriculum for indigenous students’, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, vol. 34, no. 5, pp. 660–72, DOI: 10.1080/01596306.2013.728362. Reconciliation Australia 2016, ‘The state of reconciliation in Australia: our history, our story, our future’, foreword by Patrick Dodson, Reconcilliation Australia, www.reconciliation.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/The-State-of-Reconciliationreport_FULL_WR.pdf. Service Learning Australia 2010, www.service-learning.com.au. Shaw, C, Haddou, JB & Mountain, W 2017, ‘Infographic: Are we making progress on Indigenous education?’, The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/infographic-are-we-making-progress-on-indigenous-education-78253. Singh, P 2015, ‘Pedagogic governance: theorising with/after Bernstein’, British Journal of Sociology of Education, pp. 1–20. Skrtic, T 1995, ‘The crisis in professional knowledge’, in E Meyen & T Skrtic (eds), Special education and student disability, an introduction, traditional, emerging, and alternative perspectives, 4th edn, Love Publishing, Colorado. —— 1991, ‘The special education paradox: equity as the way to excellence’, Harvard Educational Review, vol. 61, no. 2, pp. 148–206. Slee, R 2011, The irregular school: Exclusion, schooling and inclusive education, Routledge, London. Smith, T & McEwin, K 2011, The legacy of middle school leaders: In their own words, Information Age Publishing, Charlotte, NC.
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Stinson, M & O’Connor, P 2008, ‘Teaching drama to students with special needs: designs and methods’, in S Wright, L Cohen & K Poon (eds), Special education: Perspectives and practices, Prentice Hall, Pearson, Singapore. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) 2017, ‘A guide for ensuring equity and inclusion in education’, Paris 07 SP, France. Whitburn, B 2014, ‘The indelible ink of the special stamp: an insider’s research essay on imprints and erasures’, Disability & Society, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 624–37. Young, IM 1994, ‘Communication and the other: beyond deliberative democracy’, in M Wilson & A Yeatman (eds), Justice & identity: Antipodean practices, Allen and Unwin, Wellington. Yunkaporta, T 2009, ‘Aboriginal pedagogies at the cultural interface’, PhD thesis, James Cook University. Retrieved from http://eprints.jcu.edu. au/10974/2/02whole.pdf. Yunkaporta, T & Kirby, M 2011, ‘Yarning up Indigenous pedagogies: a dialogue about eight Aboriginal ways of learning’, in N Purdie, G Milgate & H Bell (eds), Two way teaching and learning: Towards culturally reflective and relevant education, ACER Press, Camberwell, Victoria, pp. 205–13.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Photo: © mastersky / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Commonwealth of Australia, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Closing the gap — Prime Minister’s report 2017. Used under a CC BY 3.0 Australia licence; see https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/deed.en. Photo: © bikeriderlondon / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Rawpixel.com / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Rawpixel.com / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Elise Derwin / Newspix Figure 5.1: Reproduced under a CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-sa/3.0/igo/. © UNESCO 2017, ‘Figure 1. Dimensions of the policy review framework’, A guide for ensuring inclusion and equity in education, p. 16. Figure 5.2: © Tyson Yunkaporta Figure 5.4: © Reconciliation Australia 2016, State of Reconciliation in Australia Report, February. Figure 5.6: Content descriptions/curriculum extracts © Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority ACARA 2010 to present, unless otherwise indicated. This material was downloaded from the Australian Curriculum website www.australiancurriculum.edu.au, accessed December 2017 and was not modified. The material is licensed under CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0. Version updates are tracked on the ‘Curriculum version history’ page www .australiancurriculum.edu.au/Home/CurriculumHistory of the Australian Curriculum website. Figure 5.7: Content descriptions/curriculum extracts © Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority ACARA 2010 to present, unless otherwise indicated. This material was downloaded from the Australian Curriculum website www.australiancurriculum.edu.au, accessed December 2017 and was not modified. The material is licensed under CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0. Version updates are tracked on the ‘Curriculum version history’ page www .australiancurriculum.edu.au/Home/CurriculumHistory of the Australian Curriculum website. Figure 5.11: © Shaw, C, Haddou, JB & Mountain W 2017, ‘Infographic: are we making progress on Indigenous education?’, The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/infographic-are-we-making -progress-on-indigenous-education-78253. Table 5.2: © Taylor & Francis Group Text: © Booth, T & Ainscow, M 2011, Index for inclusion: Developing learning and participation in schools, 3rd edn, Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education, Bristol. Text: © 2011 Education Services Australia Limited as the legal entity for the COAG Education Council Education Council. Wiley Australia Pty Ltd has reproduced extracts of the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership’s Australian Professional Standards for Teachers in this publication with permission from the copyright owner. Text: © Hogarth, M 2017, ‘Is policy on Indigenous education deliberately being stalled?’, The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/is-policy-on-indigenous-education-deliberately-being-stalled-76855. 190
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PART 3
PREPARATION, PRACTICE AND PROCESS 6
The curriculum
192
7
Planning for practice: connecting pedagogy, assessment and curriculum 218
8
Pedagogy: the agency that connects teaching with learning 260
9
Organising the learning environment 302
10 Teaching with information and communication technologies 333 11 Interactive student engagement and management 363
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12 Assessment and what matters: feedback, reporting and fairness 417
CHAPTER 6
The curriculum LEARNING OBJECTIVES
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After studying this chapter, you should be able to: 6.1 articulate several popular understandings of the term ‘curriculum’, and describe the advantages and limitations of each 6.2 explain the significance of understanding curriculum as a social and cultural construction 6.3 differentiate between several different models of curriculum 6.4 describe why attending to the hidden curriculum matters 6.5 advocate for understanding teachers as curriculum workers 6.6 explain the importance of understanding curriculum as praxis.
OPENING CASE
‘Curriculum’ can mean many things As the students shifted their desks back to a whole-class formation there was lots of chatter. The activity their lecturer Aparna had just asked them to do had engrossed them and generated animated responses, and their enthusiasm was evident in this transition time. Bella’s group began to share what they understood as ‘the curriculum’ — what it is that teachers are mandated to teach so that students can reach certain standards. It is often elaborated on in syllabus documents from various subject areas. Ted explained that his group had considered ‘curriculum’ rather than ‘the curriculum’, and that they thought curriculum was everything that was taught in a classroom. Although some of those lessons might be intended, others could be unintended but nonetheless still taught. Oscar piped up to explain that his group thought curriculum was everything that was learned, rather than merely taught in the classroom. This opened up a lively discussion about the possible gap between what is taught and what is learned, why that gap might exist, and how you could try to close it. And Mei noted that her group thought that the curriculum could exist outside of classrooms as well as within them. This activity had accomplished exactly what Aparna had hoped it would — unearthing the myriad definitions of curriculum that seem to exist. This was a really productive start to the next few classes, in which they would collectively explore curriculum in more depth to see if they could reach some shared understandings about how to conceptualise and work with it. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ QUESTIONS 1. Prior to reading this case, how would you have defined curriculum? 2. Has that definition shifted or changed at all as a result of reading the case? In what ways? 3. What definition(s) of curriculum do you find most useful in your studies and professional experience placements? Why are they useful?
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Introduction This chapter will engage you with various definitions and manifestations of ‘the curriculum’ and will encourage you to consider the advantages and limitations of each definition. It considers both the colloquial definitions of curriculum and those that are most useful to teachers and students. In addition, it will explore several concepts that arise as a result of thinking deeply about curriculum — such as curriculum as a cultural construction, the hidden curriculum and teachers as curriculum workers — and anticipate how these might impact upon the practice of teachers focused on student learning. This chapter advocates for conceptualising curriculum as praxis, rather than as a static body of information about a subject area. In what follows, you will be encouraged to consider a range of understandings about and manifestations of curriculum, in and outside of classrooms.
CHAPTER 6 The curriculum 193
The curriculum
Exploring the notion of curriculum
Curriculum as cultural construction
Models of curriculum
The hidden curriculum
Hidden curriculum as implicit and unintended
Differentiating curriculum from syllabus documents
Whose knowledge is of most worth?
Integrated curriculum Inquiry-based curriculum
A pedagogical view of curriculum
Who sees themselves within the curriculum?
Arts-based curriculum
Curriculum as lived experience Pondering the Australian Curriculum
Teachers as curriculum workers
Teachers as critical consumers and creators of curriculum
Curriculum as praxis
Curriculum exceeds the textbook Curriculum as a shared understanding
Emergent curriculum Outcomesfocused curriculum
6.1 Exploring the notion of curriculum
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LEARNING OBJECTIVE 6.1 Articulate several popular understandings of the term ‘curriculum’, and describe the advantages and limitations of each.
The term ‘curriculum’ is derived from the Latin word currere, which means to run a set route or course. That is an interesting connection to ponder. What relationship do you see between ‘to run a set route’ and what you understand curriculum to be? As the opening case with Aparna attests, curriculum is a term with many meanings, but because it is frequently used in schooling contexts, it often gets used without being clearly defined or clarified, so it is often up to the listener or reader to discern exactly how it is being used. It is a term you know, but it can be hard to utter a definition on the spot. What are some of the ways that you’ve heard the term curriculum used? You may have heard of syllabus documents referred to as the curriculum; or you may have read for class that a curriculum is something much broader and encompassing. This chapter aims to help you make sense of these differing definitions. Think about the difference between ‘the curriculum’ and ‘curriculum’: What different meanings are conveyed by those terms? ‘The’ perhaps makes it sound as if there is a particular, correct meaning that the term has and that you can unambiguously point to it. Curriculum unqualified by a ‘the’ could imply something much more open, less pinned down by a specific definition. You could also think about the translation ‘to run a set course’ and imagine that curriculum is a mapping of the course to be followed — in this case by learners. That makes good sense, and probably also rings true to your experiences. In order for them to run the correct route, you have to provide the map to the students, right?
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But does this commonsense definition of curriculum capture the full picture of curriculum? For all that it might have to commend it — a carefully planned, pre-ordained path — what might some drawbacks or limitations of this view of curriculum be? To help answer these questions, you can turn to the research literature. Shirley Grundy (1987, 1998) writes about two common understandings of curriculum — as an object and as an action. As an object the curriculum is thought of as a thing to be taught, learned, facilitated or transferred — ‘the curriculum’ in the previous distinction. You can literally put your hands upon it and carry it around in your briefcase or backpack. It is manifested in policy directives and mandates, state and territory syllabus documents, and teachers’ own programming and planning. It is decided upon by some for teaching to many others.
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Learners, teachers and context all form part of the curriculum.
As an action, it is a broader process of enacting what is mandated or planned, in light of all of the contingencies of practice — ‘curriculum’ in the previous distinction. That is, the learners matter, the teacher matters, the context matters. None of these things sit outside of the curriculum — they are, in fact, the curriculum. This view reminds us that it is not just what is intended that forms the curriculum, but what eventuates — through the teaching, student engagement, meaningful connections to students’ lives and relationship building that are inherent parts of the learning process.
Differentiating curriculum from syllabus documents The term ‘curriculum’ is such a common one that people use it and assume that everyone knows what they are talking about. You are left to your own devices to try to discern a definition. Teacher education students are often confronted by multiple meanings of the term. On practicum, for instance, you hear the syllabus documents for each learning area referred to as the curriculum, or as curriculum documents. And when a question about curriculum is raised supervising teachers often turn to the syllabus documents for the answer. When your faculty liaison reviews your lesson plans they note that you need to get your CHAPTER 6 The curriculum 195
curriculum expectations from the syllabus documents. These common experiences all reinforce a single (and as we will learn, narrow) view of curriculum. Grundy usefully translates the ideas of curriculum as a product and as an action into terms closer to the acts of schooling — the syllabus view of curriculum and the pedagogical view of curriculum. Teacher education students are often taught (explicitly and implicitly by example and the actions of their supervising teacher) a syllabus view of curriculum. This view holds that ‘the basic component of the curriculum, the syllabus, is designed elsewhere by expert curriculum designers and developers, and given to those for whom it is intended, for their use’ (Grundy 1998, p. 29). This is not to suggest that these syllabus documents are not thoughtfully crafted to capture the ‘big ideas’ of a given subject area or discipline, but only that as mass-produced and somewhat de-contextualised documents, they may not capture all that any given teacher or student, in any given place or time, might feel is worthy, important or necessary content. It is never the syllabus document or curriculum framework alone that determines what is taught to students, how they are engaged (or not) and what they eventually learn.
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A pedagogical view of curriculum Grundy’s pedagogical view of curriculum sees curriculum ‘not as a thing but as a dynamic process which engages all participants, especially teachers and students, in its active construction through their work’ (1998, p. 33). What other factors, beyond the planned mapping of the subject area, might be at play in this conception of curriculum? What else, besides policy decisions, curriculum mandates and teachers’ careful planning, matters or makes a difference in the learning/teaching nexus? Drawing on the important work of curriculum theorist Joseph Schwab (1969), Grundy articulates four elements that are part of this dynamic view of curriculum: 1. teachers 2. students 3. subject matter 4. milieu. Schwab referred to these as the four commonplaces of schooling. Before we explore the significance of each of these areas, think for a moment about what each of these components means to you and imagine how each could contribute to a more vibrant understanding of curriculum. Grundy contends that ‘we are unable to understand the nature of the curriculum unless we recognise that it is a consequence of the dynamic interaction of all four commonplaces’ (1998, p. 30). These commonplaces prove useful in thinking about curriculum because they help us to recognise and acknowledge that it is not only the subject matter that counts. Even the most thoughtfully planned lessons still depend on the quality of the teaching, the engagement (or not) of the learners, and the context in which the learning and teaching occurs. Thus, as you would be aware from years of being a student yourself, what is intended as the curriculum is not always what is learned, because of the interactions of these other components. It is not enough, then, for policy makers and curriculum developers to have particular intentions that they embed within the subject matter and to feel that those intentions will be achieved. This is too simplistic a view of what constitutes curriculum. To think more about the received or enacted curriculum, let us look at each of these components in more detail. Including ‘the teacher’ makes sense because, no matter what is intended and planned, the teacher has to (help) bring it to life — and the way that this happens will depend upon any individual teacher’s past experiences, values, attitudes and knowledge. The same lesson does not look the same or play out in the same way when different teachers teach it — an affirmation of the aforementioned qualities of teachers. Such a view of the teacher and their work moves us beyond metaphors such as teacher as mediator or facilitator of learning. Grundy notes, ‘As well as actively planning and providing the circumstances for engagement by the students with the subject matter in a particular learning environment, the teacher must also become a researcher of that interactive process’ (1998, p. 33). Thus, the teacher plays a role in decision 196
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making, evaluating, quality control, critical reflection (which will be explored further in chapter 13), judgement and action. In relation to the students, Grundy cautions, ‘you cannot actually have a curriculum without the active participation of the students’ (1998, p. 31). This illustrates the difference between what is intended, and what eventually gets enacted and received, or learned. Student agency and engagement must be factored into any view of curriculum, for their active participation in the teaching and learning will bring the concept/idea/content/subject matter to life — or not. Thus, it is in the partnership between a teacher and their students that the curriculum is negotiated, accepted, expanded, contested, reformulated and co-developed. What is being taught, or the subject matter, obviously factors in to this view of curriculum, for even in the ‘curriculum as object’ view, subject matter is foundational. But, as discussed earlier, in relation to the curriculum as syllabus view, the content of the curriculum is not universal, obvious or historically enduring. Teachers need to exercise professional judgement, thinking about the learners, the learners’ prior knowledge, the context and appropriate pedagogies in order to make sound decisions about the subject matter. Finally, the fourth commonplace is the milieu, or the salient features of the context that will support or hinder learning, and how those features are taken into account. For instance, decisions about what to teach and how to teach it are very much influenced by the fact that a classroom may have little in the way of supplies or resources. It does not necessarily mean that certain things will not get taught, but it could well influence how they are taught and why they are taught. Likewise, various social and cultural contexts from which the teacher and students come could also have direct bearing in what is taught, why it is taught and how it is taught. Thus, the context, or milieu, is of great importance in a pedagogical view of curriculum, for it insists that teachers take account of things that in more traditional or limited views of curriculum might be seen as outside the realm of concern for them. Thus, the interaction of these elements might be conceptualised in a pedagogical view of curriculum as shown in figure 6.1. FIGURE 6.1
The pedagogical view of the curriculum
Subject matter
Curriculum
=
Teacher
Students
Milieu
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Source: Based on Grundy (1998).
Notice how the double-headed arrows in figure 6.1 signal a dynamism and reflexivity between the various commonplaces. Instead of unidirectional arrows that would imply some direct or causal relationship, these arrows signal an interconnectedness and interdependency between the commonplaces.
Curriculum as lived experience Veteran teacher Rita Tenorio (2004) insists: Curriculum is everything that happens. It’s not just books and lesson plans. It’s relationships, attitudes, feelings, interactions. If kids feel safe, if they feel inspired, if they feel motivated, they’re going to learn important and positive things. But if those elements are not there, if they feel disrespected or neglected in school, they’re learning from that too. But they’re not necessarily learning the curriculum you think you’re teaching them. CHAPTER 6 The curriculum 197
Tenorio’s beliefs not only capture the pedagogical view of curriculum, but also draw our attention to the importance of that key feature of learning — no matter what topic or concept students are studying, learners need to feel safe, to feel inspired and to feel motivated. These aspects of learning, which exceed a lone focus on academic achievement and include striving for equity and positive social outcomes, are embodied in the Melbourne Declaration (MCEETYA 2008). Such conditions exceed any particular subject area or topic. They are foundational to creating generative environments where learning — of anything — can take place. Likewise, Hendrick and Weissman (2007) describe everything that happens to a learner in the course of a day as the curriculum. Again, such a definition reminds us that it is not just about what is planned and intended, but about all that transpires, and the meanings, feelings and understanding that those events generate. Lots of lessons get taught that were not necessarily intended (this will be explored in more detail below in relation to the hidden curriculum); they also occur as the result of the unintended curriculum. Lessons get learned each day, in positive ways — unexpected teachable moments and spontaneous opportunities to veer off in a new direction — and less positive ways — mishaps, accidents, things not going to plan, and the silencing or marginalising of certain students. But it is also important to take a critical view of such an assertion. ‘Curriculum is everything’ could also be so ungainly or overwhelming as to stop teachers or pre-service teachers in their tracks. So it is important to remember that while there are myriad factors that contribute to ‘the curriculum’ as it is lived and learned in (and outside of) classrooms, it is very useful to consider this ‘everything’ in categories or components so that we can be thoughtful about each one, rather than inundated by the notion that ‘it is everything’. The challenge is to find the right balance between appreciating and sustaining the totality of holistic learning experiences for learners, in manageable ways that teachers find intelligible and ‘do-able’. As Pinar et al. (1995) purport, curriculum is a field of study that is characterised by a multitude of discourses. It is these multiple discourses, and the multiplicity of voices within each discourse, that render the field of curriculum theorising as so robust. Your notion of curriculum should be equally robust, and that is what the pedagogical view of curriculum has to offer. It goes beyond the ‘what’ question (What will I teach?) and insists teachers take a more holistic and integrated view of the various factors or elements that bear on what gets taught and, perhaps more importantly, what gets learned. WHAT CAN I TAKE INTO THE CLASSROOM?
Think about the class that you are reading this text for. What view(s) of curriculum do you see discussed and enacted? That is, how do your lecturer and fellow students talk about curriculum? How is the term ‘curriculum’ used with you as students, if at all? What do you and your peers understand the curriculum to be? What sorts of evidence would you look for or listen for in order to be able to answer the questions above?
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Pondering the Australian Curriculum Having built the case for a pedagogical view of curriculum, we will turn now to the Australian Curriculum. In 1989, the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) released the Hobart Declaration on Schooling, which articulated ten national goals for schooling and provided a framework for cooperation between schools. The release of this declaration marked ‘a major advance in developing a national collaborative approach to schooling in Australia’ (MCEETYA 1989). This agreement between ministers was then replaced a decade later by the Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-First Century (1999). This document maintained a focus on national education goals, and noted that, ‘[t]he achievement of the national goals for schooling will assist young people to contribute to Australia’s social, cultural and economic development in local and global contexts’ (1999, p. 2). And again, almost ten years later in December 2008, the release 198
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of the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians continued the focus on a collaborative national effort to ensure high-quality schooling for all Australian students. It also had a strong focus on global issues and concerns linking Australia to the rest of the world. The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) is the independent authority responsible for the development of national standards to improve student learning outcomes, as well as a national assessment program and a national data collection and knowledge mobilisation program that supports all Australian students to engage in learning for the twenty-first century. Its establishment is the result of many years of national cooperation and collaboration around issues related to education and schooling. ACARA’s work is carried out in collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders, from schools and state and territory education authorities and governments, to professional and community groups and the general public. Schools in the various states and territories are responsible for implementation of the Australian Curriculum, with each state and territory developing its own implementation plans and support programs for teachers. Some Australian Curriculum documents have already been out for consultation and are finalised, while others are still being developed. Understandably, it’s a multi-year process to develop, consult on and publish curricula across all year levels and subject areas, so this work is ongoing. A couple of years before the release of the Adelaide Declaration, the Curriculum Standing Committee of the National Education Professional Association (CSCNEPA) released a working paper entitled ‘Developing a twenty-first century school curriculum for all Australian students’ (2007). This paper explored ‘the debate around the most productive national approaches to curriculum work in Australia’ (p. 3) and identified three types of national approaches to curriculum. The first involved a national sharing of ideas, resources, frameworks, and professional development opportunities; the second involved national collaboration in these efforts; and the third ‘could result in a single, formal, official curriculum at the national level’ (2007, p. 5). While much of what the CSCNEPA was recommending put the emphasis on the second approach to curriculum nationally, the debate subsequently shifted and, as described above, we have moved to a state of play where the third approach has been taken up. However, this result was not necessarily inevitable. Building upon the CSCNEPA working paper, Australian Curriculum Coalition (ACC), a forum of presidents, executive officers and executive directors of national education organisations, wrote to the federal Minister. In their submission, entitled Common view on the Australian Curriculum (2010), they voiced support for the broad project of formulating a national curriculum while suggesting changes to the process of curriculum development, noting the lack of a well-developed conceptual framework guiding this work and highlighting issues related to assessment, reporting and implementation that could be, in their view, improved. Here just two issues of the many that they raised in the paper to the Minister are mentioned to illustrate the challenges faced in developing, implementing and accounting for a national curriculum. The ACC (2010) expressed concern about whether a national curriculum was a core curriculum, ‘around which jurisdictions and schools might add further content of local relevance’ (p. 5) or if it constituted the whole curriculum, ‘everything expected to be taught’ (p. 5). In addition, they noted work that they felt needed to be done related to equity. The ACC (p. 6) cautioned: The principle that all students have an entitlement to the same challenging curriculum content is an important one. It is essential, however, that curriculum development is informed by an understanding of how this principle can work in practice, and in different contexts. The curriculum should aim to support ‘high quality, high equity’ for all young Australians.
So what are proponents of a single, national curriculum saying in support of such an approach? In ‘The shape of the Australian Curriculum Version 3.0’ ACARA (2011, p. 7) writes in favour of this project: The commitment to develop a national curriculum reflects a willingness to work together, across geographical and school-sector boundaries, to provide a worldclass education for all young Australians. Working nationally makes it possible to harness collective expertise and effort in the pursuit of this common goal. It also offers the potential of economies of scale and substantial reduction in the duplication of time, effort and resources. CHAPTER 6 The curriculum 199
Further, the ACC (2010, p. 3) noted, ‘We believe this ambitious initiative can lead to a curriculum that reflects who we are, our visions for the future and our best attempts to predict and plan for what young people will need to be active and successful participants in Australian and global political, economic, social and cultural life’. The current curriculum, which is up to versions 7.5 and 8.3, allows schools time to transition to the new version of the Australian Curriculum. The eight learning areas are all articulated and approved, and states and territories have produced syllabus documents that reflect the agreed-upon content and achievement standards. They have fashioned their own documents that take these national standards and contextualise them locally. One salient feature of the national curriculum framework is its attention to the proper place of Indigenous Australian content in the national curriculum. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures are identified as one of the three cross-curriculum priorities in the national curriculum (www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/cross-curriculum-priorities/aboriginaland-torres-strait-islander-histories-and-cultures). This is in part to help close the gap in learning outcomes between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and others, but also to ensure that all students ‘engage in reconciliation, respect and recognition of the world’s oldest continuous living cultures’ (AITSL n.d.). These issues are also addressed in relation to student diversity and supporting all learners (www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/student-diversity). As a collective whole, all Australian Curriculum learning areas are expected to contribute to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures cross-curriculum priority, and to bring this content to life through the curriculum and pedagogies used across the learning areas. So the debate about a national curriculum has been a robust and enduring one, and the moves towards creating and implementing one have been closely watched and both praised and critiqued by a variety of stakeholder groups. In light of what you’ve read and discussed in this section, what advice would you give someone who was concerned about the effects that a national curriculum could have on issues related to capitalising on specific contexts? They see this effort as a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach that runs the risk of glossing over important contextual factors offered up by particular, specific places throughout the country, as something that risks homogenising diversity and difference. What further questions would you ask this person to better understand their point of view? How would you respond to such concerns? WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
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AITSL has two standards that relate specifically to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content in the curriculum — Standards 1.4 and 2.4. Read about them here: www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/standards. Why do you think these specific standards are included? What more would you need to learn and know in order to be able to effectively implement these standards fully and as intended? What personal and/or professional learning plans could you put in place to ensure you learn and know these things? Take a look at the two Illustration of Practice scenarios next to Standard 2.4 to assist your thinking about these issues.
WHAT CAN I TAKE INTO THE CLASSROOM?
Get online and read Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians (2008). Focus on Goal 1: Australian schooling promotes equity and excellence, for instance, and write down some ways you could structure your classroom and enact your curriculum to help meet this goal. Even though the areas under this goal are quite broad and seem more aimed at society and schools, think about how one classroom (yours!) can work towards addressing and even redressing them.
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6.2 Curriculum as cultural construction LEARNING OBJECTIVE 6.2 Explain the significance of understanding curriculum as a social and cultural construction.
It is important to extend the discussion above to explicitly examine what is meant by acknowledgement of the curriculum as a construction, or more specifically, that it is a social and cultural construction. Such a notion is meant to work against a naturalised conception of curriculum that sees it as universal, unchanging or obvious. Quite to the contrary, what a curriculum could and should entail is almost always a matter of great debate. Far from being obvious or straightforward, curriculum needs to be delineated and debated upon, and as such it is indeed a construction of the social and cultural contexts from which it arises. Grundy writes that the curriculum, ‘is constructed at a certain time and for certain purposes, although common cultural traditions often minimise differences between, for example, the Australian states and between New Zealand and Australia’ (1998, p. 28). This can mean that at any historical moment ‘the needs of the society and of the economy for a skilled citizenry are to be paramount in determining the curriculum’ (p. 28). When cast with this clarity, it is easy to see how curriculum is always political. Another way to think about this is that the curriculum is covered with the fingerprints of those who develop it, and eventually of those who enact it and interact with it. That is, because those who develop the curriculum bring their own values, attitudes, interests and priorities to bear upon it (even if they say they are acting in the interest of others, it is their interpretation of others’ interests!), you can detect signs of those values, attitudes, interests and priorities when you examine the curriculum. And this is why any construction of curriculum is political — because it is covered with the cultural fingerprints of those who constructed it. Even if they purport to be aiming for a ‘neutral’ curriculum (if ever one could exist), it is value-laden because desiring ‘neutrality’ is a value in itself.
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Whose knowledge is of most worth? Michael Apple (1979/1990) asks about whose knowledge is of most worth and who benefits from that knowledge. If teachers ask those questions of the school curriculum, what will they find? Take, for instance, the idea that schooling is and should be committed to democratic ideals (see, for example, Apple & Beane 2007). How is that evident in the curriculum — beyond explicit teaching about democracy and the democratic process? From your earliest years you were probably taught about sharing, turn-taking, consensus decision making, listening to all opinions and the like. Whose values are espoused in such lessons? Whose knowledge is demonstrated as of most worth through such lessons? The point is not to suggest that these lessons were inappropriate (though some people might), but rather to simply illustrate that what is learned has been chosen by people who have particular values and want to transmit those values and even inculcate them in others. Thinking about another example, was your own early education infused with the histories and perspectives of Indigenous Australians? Whether it was or was not, what lessons did that teach you about whose knowledge is of most worth? How does that position you now to meaningfully include such content into your own teaching? What work do you still need to do in order to confidently and authentically include these histories and perspectives?
Who sees themselves within the curriculum? There has been increasing attention to the representation of many once-excluded groups within the curriculum. The reasons for these exclusions were perhaps a feature of certain times and the prevailing mores, or social customs, at those times. The effects of such exclusions, however, were alarming and profound. Such a curriculum, crafted by particular people with particular blind spots, interests and tolerances, was CHAPTER 6 The curriculum 201
undoubtedly partial. Explicating this notion of a curriculum of partiality, Kevin Kumashiro (2002, p. 58) writes: Some stories reinforce dominant frameworks for thinking about and acting in the world, others challenge them, and still others do both . . . The inclusion of more and different voices will not tell us a ‘truer’ story, but a different one, one with different political implications (Scott 1993). When we desire to include the same voices, or to include different voices in ways that differences have traditionally been added on, we are desiring (subconsciously or not) to continue using the same stories to make sense of the world.
The issue of multiple voices in the curriculum, or a lack of them, is illustrated wherever you look. Lingard et al. (2003) write about citizenship commonly being understood as a goal of schooling. But who are viewed as citizens, or future citizens? One way to answer the question is to look at who is represented in curriculum materials, who gets mentioned in the texts and about whom the curriculum is silent. Silence about groups of people or particular issues is still instructive — it teaches us who and what are not worth mentioning and not worth learning about. Do we have a clear sense, for instance, that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and perspectives are included in the curriculum? What evidence do we have to support or refute this assertion? How would ‘seeing’ Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the curriculum benefit us all? What are the costs of absence of and silence around certain histories and cultures? Who pays those costs? This might help explain why AITSL has standards that aim to redress the silence and absence of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from the curriculum. We see the fingerprints of the curriculum creators when we now recognise Indigenous knowledge systems as subjugated knowledge (Semali & Kincheloe 1999), underrepresented or completely missing from the curriculum. What does the exclusion of this material tell us about the crafters of our curriculum? Grundy reminds us that, ‘this understanding that the curriculum is a construction in which all participants in the educational enterprise are actively involved is, therefore, centrally important to our understanding of the meaning of curriculum and the work of teaching’ (Grundy 1998, p. 36). Think back to your experiences in early childhood, primary and secondary education. What did you learn about Aboriginal history and perspectives? What did you learn about the role of women in the early history of the country? What did you learn about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people? What did you learn about disabilities and people with them? Age and different generations? Body shape and size? Why do you think this was the case? Whatever you learned about these issues and groups of people, you did because the people who constructed your curriculum, and the people who enacted it in and outside of classrooms, made decisions that saw that content included or excluded. You’ll be in a position to make those decisions as well!
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WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
Some students, teachers and parents express concern about using lesson plans and other curriculum materials that are donated to schools by lobby groups and private industries, or available for free on their websites. The materials purport to focus on such laudable topics as active living, healthy eating and personal hygiene. But those critical of such curriculum materials feel the fingerprints (and often agendas) of the groups that created and are distributing them cover the materials. Find an example of such donated/freely available curriculum materials and review them for yourself. Are the fingerprints of their creators evident? If so, in what ways? Are any implicit messages or values evident in the materials? How might you critically engage students with these issues? Revisit these questions when you’ve read the section in this chapter on hidden curriculum.
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WHAT CAN I TAKE INTO THE CLASSROOM?
Find a picture book or story book that you have seen being read in a classroom to children. Examine the book to try to determine what you can say about the values, attitudes, interests and priorities of its author(s). If you saw the book being used with the class, how was it used? Was it simply read for the children to take in? Was it challenged? Did the teacher move beyond the views or values represented in it? Realise that teachers can make decisions to use materials in ways perhaps not intended by their authors/creators — in subversive ways! So a picture book may be silent about issues related to Aboriginal history, but the teacher could have chosen this text to raise that specific point, using the text as an object of critique to fashion a very different curriculum than you might have expected only having read the book. Thus, recognising the cultural ‘fingerprints’ that cover a curriculum can enable a teacher to make informed and critical decisions about what to teach, what to teach with, and how to teach it.
6.3 Models of curriculum LEARNING OBJECTIVE 6.3 Differentiate between several different models of curriculum.
In this section of the chapter several different models for the construction and enactment of curriculum will be examined. As noted earlier, there are many different discourses within the curriculum field, so the five mentioned here are indicative of the variation that exists within the field. They are also likely to be familiar to those working in schools, either because they are already in place or because schools are considering adopting some of these models. As you read through them, think about whether each is prevalent in the early childhood, primary, middle and/or secondary levels. What are the similarities across those schooling levels and what are the differences? Hendrick and Weissman (2007, p. 5) argue that a curriculum should help learners develop competence — ‘the wonderful feeling of assurance, exemplified by the statements “I can do it”, “I am able”, “I know how” and “I am an effective person”’. Think about what each of these models has to offer in terms of helping to develop competence, particularly those aspects that are different from top-down, centrally mandated models of curriculum development and delivery.
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Integrated curriculum Pondering an integrated curriculum is different depending on which level of schooling you are thinking about. Integrated curriculum in many ways is the de facto curriculum in early childhood settings where a distinction between disciplines or subject areas is not so salient. What is important is crafting robust and engaging learning experiences for children. Thus, good models of integrated curriculum can often be found in early childhood settings that enact Montessori or Reggio Emilia principles, for instance. Moving into formal schooling, subject matter distinctions start to become more apparent, and the imperative for integration becomes greater. By the time secondary school begins, where there are not only subject matter departments but also teachers who have undergone teacher education in a specific subject area (as opposed to being a generalist like early childhood and primary teachers), the need for integration is perhaps the greatest. Wilson and Jan (2007, p. 11) describe integrated curriculum as ‘the structured organization of teaching and learning experiences in which significant content, across and within learning areas, is selected to develop and extend students’ understanding of the world’. This organisation of the curriculum allows students to develop understandings of the world that foreground connections and relationships between ideas, concepts and phenomena.
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Good models of integrated curriculum can often be found in early childhood settings.
Affirming the personal and social consequences of curriculum, Beane (1997) describes integration as a curriculum design concerned with enhancing the possibilities for personal and social integration through the organisation of curriculum, based on significant problems and issues that transcend subjectarea boundaries. Susan Drake et al. (1992) discuss a process of breaking down boundaries in order to craft powerful learning contexts for students. They describe how integrated curriculum might be thought of on a continuum from multidisciplinary experiences to interdisciplinary experiences through to transdisciplinary experiences. Multidisciplinary approaches involve a range of subject areas being brought to bear on a particular big question or theme. Each subject area is seen as separate and maintains its own integrity, but it is stitched together with the other areas in the exploration of an issue of problem. For instance, students might investigate the question, ‘Is the stream behind the school healthy?’ from the perspectives of several subject areas. Interdisciplinary approaches involve finding overlapping skills and knowledge between subject areas, even though the subject areas remain discrete. As Drake et al. (1992, p. 4) note, ‘common essential learnings were the foci that connected subject areas’, and so the subject areas were drawn into even closer contact than with the multidisciplinary approaches. An example of a question that could be explored using an interdisciplinary approach is, ‘How can we assist in helping to stop the vandalism that is occurring at school?’ Letting the common skills, knowledge and strategies drive the formation of curriculum can lead to a transdisciplinary experience, because the divisions between subject areas are abandoned in favour of focusing on essential learnings and not worrying about labelling particular things as science, geography, art and so on. A transdisciplinary approach lends itself to investigating questions such as, ‘How can we work as a class to assist the homeless people we see in the neighbourhood around the school?’ Drake et al. (1992) write about how, as they moved through these stages in their own work, they moved from being 204
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subject experts to becoming ‘connection experts’ (p. 5) as they allowed their own curriculum development to be driven by the big questions, or essential learnings, rather than some worry about preserving subject area distinctions. But this is also the reason that this model of curriculum may be more difficult to enact in a secondary school than in a primary school. What is gained by integrating the curriculum? Such a holistic view to tackling a problem or answering a question (rather than a more atomistic view as reflected in the separate subject areas) has coherences with students’ lives that the bounded subject areas may not always have. Out of school, if you had a problem to solve, the disciplinary areas you needed to draw upon were probably not decided upon prior to attempting a solution — you probably just went about trying to solve it! Integrated curriculum offers that same coherence of learning experience — you draw upon the knowledge and skills that are useful to you at that moment to problem solve or clarify what you are investigating.
Inquiry-based curriculum
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In its broadest sense, inquiry might be understood as a stance towards learning and knowledge production. Wilson and Jan (2007, p. 10) write, ‘Inquiry learning involves students forming their own questions about a topic and having time to explore the answers. Students are both problem posers and problem solvers within inquiry learning’. As such, teachers work to help students develop their question-asking prowess, and to foster conversations that focus on asking ‘good’ questions. Because inquiry-based curriculum starts with student-generated questions, there is a focus in this model on developing effective questions and the higher order thinking skills that accompany developing and answering such questions (Wilks 2005a). Good questioning stimulates learning because it helps to extend thinking skills beyond simple recall and it serves to create links between students’ prior knowledge and new learnings. Questions articulated and used along the way might not only be aimed at answering the original question, but might also be metacognitive, focusing the students on their own learning as they work to answer their own question. For instance, asking students ‘What have you learned?’, ‘What interferes with your learning?’ or ‘How have your ideas changed?’ engages them with learning about their own learning and not just the topic of inquiry at hand. Although many similar formulations exist, Wilson and Jan (2007) write about six phases as part of a curriculum structured around inquiry. These phases and the corresponding abilities are (Wilson & Jan 2007, p. 12): 1. tuning in: identify what it is they want to know and do 2. finding out: locate the appropriate sources of information 3. sorting out: gather, sort and organise the information 4. going further: present the information in appropriate ways 5. reflection: reflect on what they have learned and the inquiry process 6. action: think about ways of applying their newly gained information to other situations. What inquiry-based curriculum affords, then, is a starting point for investigation, reflection and action that emanates from the students (or the students in collaboration with their teachers) asking questions that matter to them and their contexts, and working towards, if not arriving at, answers and solutions.
Arts-based curriculum This model of curriculum purports that the arts, far beyond just being a subject or content area, are an epistemological stance, or way of knowing about and seeing the world. As such, an arts-based approach to curriculum situates the arts and artistic ways of knowing as the foundation for the rest of the curriculum. This can be seen as different from an integrated curriculum approach, which does not necessarily privilege any one curriculum area, because in an arts-based approach the creative, visual and performing arts, broadly conceived, are the starting point to craft a curriculum that then weaves in other subject areas. So there certainly is some integration of subject areas, but this is all done under the ‘umbrella’ of the arts. CHAPTER 6 The curriculum 205
Ernest Boyer (1995, p. 18) wrote about the arts being one of the eight ‘core commonalities’ that he articulated as ‘universal experiences that make us human, experiences shared by all cultures on the planet’. He goes on to note (p. 20): For our most moving experiences, we turn to the arts to express feelings and ideas that words cannot convey . . . To be truly educated means being sensitively responsive to the universal language of art.
Such an approach to curriculum seeks to remedy the lower status of the arts in the school curriculum by arguing that the arts are fundamental, and through them, many other subject areas can be accessed for learning. Susan Wilks writes that the views that such a stance to the arts seek to dismiss include that the arts are of lesser cognitive significance than other subjects, that they are cognitively undemanding, that they are talent based and not transferable to the world of work, and that they are just a matter of personal taste (2005b, p. 66). Instead, what an arts-based curriculum does is bring to the fore the ways of viewing the world that the arts afford — dialogue, reflection, metaphor and imagination — as a tool for making meaning and understanding. The arts are an ideal vehicle for students to make connections between their own lives and the lives and experiences of others — whether they are from another place and time, or living now just across town. Teachers act to facilitate the making of these connections and help students to discover a range of ways to view the world and demonstrate or enact their understandings. Because ‘learning does not occur in self-contained episodes, but results from a montage of information gathered from family and friends, experiences and discussions’ (Wilks 2005b, p. 73), the arts are an ideal foundation from which to provide the multiple, dialogic opportunities necessary for learning to occur.
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Emergent curriculum Think back to the start of this chapter when it was revealed that the term curriculum comes from the Latin word currere, meaning to run a known course. Think about how ‘running a known course’ relates to the notion of something as emerging. Are these ideas coherent, or do you see some differences between them? The term emergent curriculum embodies a bit of a paradox — where the course of the curriculum is not all known from the outset. As Carol Anne Wien (2008, p. 5) writes about such a curriculum, ‘It is emergent — that is, its trajectory develops as a consequence of the logic of the problem, the particular connections that develop as participants bring their own genuine responses to the topic and collaboratively create the course to follow out of these multiple connections’. There is a tradition of constructivist approaches to emergent curriculum (Jones & Nimmo 1994; Katz & Chard 2000), and now Reggio Emilia approaches from Italy, which have been playing an increasingly prominent role in early childhood settings, inflect our understandings of emergent curriculum (Wien 2008). Such a curricular configuration is becoming more utilised in primary schools as well, but has been much less adopted in secondary schools. This is not the only model for which this has been the case in this chapter. What is it about secondary schooling that might explain why some models are not as readily adopted in secondary settings? Because ‘emergent curriculum wakes up schools and brings teachers, children, and administrators together in collaborative creative processes of learning’ (Wien 2008, p. 5), it can be very powerfully marshalled to start from students’ lives, experiences and questions. Like an inquiry-based approach, it often starts with a question or an ‘I wonder why . . . ’ statement. In addition, as Wien (2008) points out, adopting an emergent approach to curriculum is also about taking a particular stance towards children and their learning. It involves taking them seriously as the originators of questions worth answering, and then valuing those questions by making time to explore them. What is gained by taking an emergent approach to curriculum? New possibilities for a variety of participatory structures can be forged by letting children’s questioning drive the direction of learning. Collaboration can take place between the students and the teacher as well as among the students. A teacher’s 206
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attention is often freed to engage in deeper and more thorough forms of pedagogical and curricular documentation of the students’ learning because their own attention does not have to focus on delivering the lesson or even on having all of the answers. Instead, they can focus on the learning and strategise about how to help or intervene if the learning has stalled. So, although imbued with a certain degree of uncertainty as the curriculum moves forward, such a way of approaching curriculum honours children and their thinking in ways that other approaches fail to do.
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Outcomes-focused curriculum As the name of this approach to curriculum design and development implies, outcomes-focused curriculum discourse starts by articulating desired outcomes and then maps backwards to create a learning pathway to achieve those outcomes. As Aldridge and Fraser (2008, p. 2) describe it, ‘Outcomes-focused education is an approach to planning, delivering and assessing in which one first determines the required results, then identifies the skills and knowledge required to achieve those results’. By outcomes we mean ‘clear learning results that we want students to demonstrate at the end of significant learning experiences’ (Spady 1994, p. 2). The process of backward mapping from outcomes to teaching sequences is a significant one that works to ensure alignment between the teaching and learning activities and where the students are headed in their learning. Although all approaches to curriculum have the end in mind to some extent, in the sense that the creation and enactment of curriculum is ultimately about attaining certain learning objectives, this approach foregrounds the outcomes as the purpose for even having a curriculum. So in this discourse, while the journey may be interesting, its main purpose is to get to the destination. This is a shift in thinking from more traditional inputs-focused models of education that are concerned with the number of hours of instruction students receive, what curriculum materials are used or the teaching style of the teacher. Thus, outcomes-focused education organises everything around what is essential for all students to know and be able to do successfully at the end of their learning experiences. Learning is in turn defined as what students can demonstrate that they know. As Harden (2007, p. 666) notes, outcomes-based education has two main requirements: ‘the first is to make the learning outcomes explicit and the second is the use of the specified outcomes as a basis for decisions about the curriculum’. While there are differences between outcomes-based education and outcomes-focused education (Aldridge & Fraser 2008; Spady 1994), for the purposes of this chapter, Harden’s two points above hold true. That is, while there are some characterisations of outcomesbased education that set it apart from outcomes-focused education, here they are more closely related. Outcomes-focused education means that the curriculum model is guided by, even driven by, the outcomes intended. This is different from other ways of structuring or envisioning curriculum because ‘it requires a shift away from a system in which teachers often taught from a syllabus irrespective of a student’s readiness to learn at that level, to describing the outcomes expected of all students’ (Aldridge & Fraser 2008, p. 3). Outcomes are clear statements about what students will be able to do at the conclusion of a sequence of lessons or a unit, rather than simply what they should know. They are not values, attitudes or beliefs. Instead, they are the results of learning that teachers want students to demonstrate at the end of significant learning experiences and are concretely measurable. As such, outcomes are learner performances that reflect their competence at particular enactments of the content. All lessons start with the end in mind — the outcomes that will need to be attained. Other language that is used to describe this discourse of curriculum is about learners achieving competencies to demonstrate that they have learned particular information and skills. You can see how the language ‘demonstrate competencies’ coheres with the notion that this view of curriculum results in actions and performances of what has been learned. Proponents of this view of curriculum development and enactment point out that such an approach honours and accounts for the fact that different learners learn and achieve at different paces. Those who master content more quickly can demonstrate those outcomes and move on to learn more. Those CHAPTER 6 The curriculum 207
progressing more slowly can still be afforded the time and experiences to increase their understanding, and ability to demonstrate that understanding, without being pushed through lessons at a uniform pace with the rest of the class. Understood in this way, outcomes-focused views of curriculum can afford opportunities for differentiated instruction when the curriculum is enacted and learned. As Spady (1994, p. 5) notes, ‘WHAT and WHETHER students learn successfully is more important than WHEN and HOW they learn it’. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
Thinking about each of the models above, what assumptions or tenets underpin each model? For instance, an emergent model of curriculum is predicated on a particular view of children as competent and capable citizens. Do the other curriculum models conceptualise children in this way? Are all of the models congruent with one another, or are there models at odds with one another given their underpinning assumptions/tenets?
6.4 The hidden curriculum LEARNING OBJECTIVE 6.4 Describe why attending to the hidden curriculum matters.
Earlier in this chapter, we discussed the gap that can exist between what is intended and what is actually enacted or learned. As a corollary to that discussion, it is necessary to engage with the concept of the hidden curriculum. The hidden curriculum can be either intended or unintended. Jane Roland Martin (1983) has written that the hidden curriculum consists of ‘some of the outcomes or by-products of schools or of non-school settings, particularly those states which are learned but not openly intended’. The concept usually has a negative connotation, inferring that inequalities are reproduced or at least unchallenged — and work against the democratic intentions of schooling. As such, Giroux and Penna (1983) noted that the hidden curriculum can also refer to the transmission of norms, values and beliefs conveyed in both the formal educational content and the social interactions within these schools. This idea of the formal educational content, or subject matter, and the relationships that surround the learning of that subject matter, is evocative of the pedagogical view of curriculum. However, in the case of the hidden curriculum, the consequences are often unintended and unseen, and can have deleterious effects. The concept can also accommodate a notion of inculcation of particular norms, mores or values. Martin (1983) has elaborated examples of things that can be contained within and taught through the hidden curriculum: the social structures of the classroom; tracking systems; the teacher’s exercise of authority; rules governing the relationship between teachers and students; the teacher’s use of language; architecture; and disciplinary measures.
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Hidden curriculum as implicit and unintended The hidden curriculum often teaches about things that do not appear to be the explicit focus of the teaching and learning taking place at the time. For instance, though the lesson might be science, the lessons being taught via the hidden curriculum could be about the types of boys and girls that are good in science and whether those identities are acceptable in the wider social milieu, or context, of the school. Science class probably would not ever teach students that excelling in science makes you a nerd, but somehow that lesson is often learned. Of course it can also get challenged, but that it exists to be challenged means that it was learned in the first instance. The hidden curriculum, then, can teach ‘lessons’ not explicitly taught in or outside of the classroom. It may address questions such as ‘What kind of a boy/girl is popular?’, ‘What kind of a girl/boy does well in school?’, ‘Who does the teacher validate by spending time with?’, and ‘Whose lives, families or cultures are mentioned in learning materials, or about whose lives are there silences?’ For example, in her classic work about gender socialisation inside and outside of primary school classrooms, Barrie Thorne 208
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(1993) examined and analysed how the hidden curriculum conveyed messages about what being a proper ‘boy’ and being a proper ‘girl’ meant to the students. These were not explicit, intentional lessons taught to the children, but rather a series of messages, or norms for behaviour and self-presentation, that were conveyed both in the classroom and on the playground about acceptable identities and manifestations of being a boy and being a girl. Students who failed to take up the messages in this curriculum or who violated its mores were labelled with the all too familiar derisive appellations of ‘tomboys’ and ‘sissies’. As Thorne (1994, p. 111) notes, ‘The tomboy and the sissy stand at and help define the symbolic margins of dichotomous and asymmetric gender difference; the label “sissy” suggests that a boy has ventured too far into the contaminating “feminine”’. Children who ignored the lessons of the hidden curriculum often did so at their own peril. You would not find these lessons in any teacher’s lessons plans or programming, but these things were nonetheless learned as a part of these children’s schooling experience. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
If you are not knowledgeable about or confident in your abilities to teach about Indigenous content, what messages will form part of the hidden curriculum in your classroom? What messages get taught by the complete absence of this content? What messages get taught if the content feels supplemental, or if it’s not well taught? Are these the lessons you want your students to be learning?
WHAT CAN I TAKE INTO THE CLASSROOM?
Find some of the lesson plans that you created and used on your last practicum. With the concept of hidden curriculum in mind, review the plans for both what is there and what is absent, or the silences. What might have been part of the hidden curriculum in the classroom when you were teaching these lessons? To help you answer these questions, think about who these plans included/excluded, mentioned/failed to mention and engaged/failed to engage. What lessons might also have been taught, however inadvertent, through these lessons?
6.5 Teachers as curriculum workers
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LEARNING OBJECTIVE 6.5 Advocate for understanding teachers as curriculum workers.
One of the functions of schooling, and therefore of curriculum, is to assist in cultural reproduction — the maintenance and propagation of the beliefs, values and attitudes of a particular culture or of subgroups within a culture. If these beliefs and values are equitable and just, or even just agreeable, then the phenomenon of cultural reproduction can remain unchallenged or be praised. But if they are seen to be discriminatory, unjust or hurtful, there is an outcry for schools and teachers to intervene in these injustices by becoming agents for change — or what Judyth Sachs (2003) refers to as members of ‘the activist teaching profession’. Paulo Freire (1998) offers one vision of what this might look like and mean. He conceptualises it in terms of ‘teachers as cultural workers’. As should be clear from earlier, if the pedagogical view of curriculum is adopted, all of the work that teachers do is cultural, and therefore teachers themselves are cultural workers. There is nothing neutral, apolitical or acultural about the work of teachers — it is all embedded in a certain place and time, in certain communities with certain groups of people. And whether those groups are diverse or relatively homogeneous, the work is cultural work. Take now a robust pedagogical view of curriculum and you appreciate how obvious it is to see teachers as curriculum workers, for this view of curriculum encompasses all that is cultural in the work of learning CHAPTER 6 The curriculum 209
and teaching. In each of Schwab’s (1969) four commonplaces — teacher, students, subject matter and milieu — the cultural elements can be seen and curriculum work can be recognised as cultural work and vice versa. However, that does not mean this cultural work is obvious or easy. As Freire (1998, p. 71) notes, ‘We have a strong tendency to affirm that which is different from us as inferior. We start from the belief that our way of being is not only good, but better than that of those who are different than us’. This admonition is a reminder of how easy it is to treat what is known as ‘normal’ and what is unknown or unfamiliar as ‘abnormal’ when all that is required is acknowledgement of difference. What implications does this tendency have for the work of educators? What work might teachers need to do to thwart this tendency to denigrate what they don’t know or understand? Think, as well, about implications for your work arising from the idea that ‘Educators need to know what happens in the world of the children with whom they work’ (Freire 1998, p. 72). How might you go about learning about children’s worlds? How might this make you a cultural worker? And how might knowing more about your students, their families and their communities help mitigate against seeing difference as inferior?
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Teachers as critical consumers and creators of curriculum Try unpacking the phrase above — teachers as critical consumers and creators of curriculum. First, think about what the word ‘critical’ means to you. As we have discussed earlier in this text, for many the term has a negative connotation — that being critical means finding fault with, criticising or even denigrating. We use the term ‘critical’ in a much more expansive way and try to rid it of its wholly negative connotations. Here critical refers to a stance that seeks to identify the strengths or affordances of something, as well as to unearth its limitations, shortcomings or drawbacks. Therefore, a critical stance is meant to take an encompassing, unbiased view of something in order to fully assess it. Second, what does the word ‘consumer’ conjure up in your mind? Again, this word might have a connotation that is slightly negative — as one who wantonly takes, makes indiscriminate choices, or even over-indulges. In the context of this chapter, it is meant to signal that there are lots of curricular materials out there already, thoughtfully crafted and made public for others to read, review and make use of. Imagining teachers as consumers of this material makes good sense — why re-invent the wheel? As seen earlier, there are also lots of approaches to structuring and developing curriculum that teachers can be consumers of (or not). Third, the word ‘create’. Just as things like the internet have meant that there is more information than ever before readily available to students and teachers, given the pedagogical stance described above, there is still a need for teachers to create things that play to the strengths of their students, draw on their students’ prior knowledge and experiences, fit well within their communities and the communities the students come from, and resonate with children, adolescents and their families as things worth learning about. All this is not already ‘out there’, waiting to be found. Teachers still have to do lots of editing, reworking, piecing together and creating of the curriculum. Now string all three concepts together to make sense of teachers as critical consumers and creators of curriculum. Teachers need to bring a critical eye to what already exists that might be useful or need only minor editing and changing, and to use that same critical stance to make decisions about what they need to create in order to connect with their students and craft powerful learning environments and opportunities. When the critical stance is brought to bear on both consuming and creating curriculum, the result is a tight fit between the curriculum and the learners. In fact, as was evident in some of the curriculum models discussed earlier, a teacher might even backward map (Wiggins & McTighe 1998) from their students’ lives in order to critically craft a curriculum. This would certainly embody what being an agent of change might mean. For example, by engaging students with the Why is my curriculum white? project (www.nus.org.uk/en/news/why-is-my-curriculum-white), students are given the knowledge to ask and explore critical questions about the cultural origins of the curriculum and who is (and is not) taken 210
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account of, taught about and therefore valued. Fostering these discussions and explorations is the work of a critical consumer of curriculum. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
If you were to think back to teachers you’ve had, or better yet observe teachers that you’re currently studying with, what would you look for/listen for in order to identify them as acting like a cultural worker? What might be characteristics of their actions and/or stance towards teaching and learning that would allow you to confidently identify them as a cultural worker? What does it mean to function as a teacher who is an agent of change? What case would you mount to advocate for this stance? What case would you mount to argue against such a disposition? Which case do you find most compelling, and why?
6.6 Curriculum as praxis LEARNING OBJECTIVE 6.6 Explain the importance of understanding curriculum as praxis.
This chapter will conclude by pulling together the various threads that have been examined throughout into a coherent picture that sees curriculum as praxis, not just as a technical exercise of planning or accountability. Instead, consistent with the pedagogical view of curriculum advocated for within this chapter, curriculum itself can be viewed as an agent for change — in children’s lives, in their communities, in the world. Stephen Kemmis and Tracey Smith (2008, p. 4) define praxis as: Action that is morally-committed, and oriented and informed by traditions in a field. It is the kind of action people are engaged in when they think about what their action will mean in the world. Praxis is what people do when they take into account all the circumstances and exigencies that confront them at a particular moment and then, taking the broadest view they can of what it is best to do, they act.
Given what was discussed above, do you see connections between that and this notion of praxis as ‘educationally right practice’ (Kemmis & Grootenboer 2008)? Elements both of action and of reflection are key to these definitions.
Curriculum exceeds the textbook This seems consistent with what Salas et al. (2004) have in mind when they write about guidelines for developing curriculum. In a section of their article entitled ‘Move beyond the textbook’ (p. 8) they write:
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Many teachers, especially new teachers, fall into the trap of teaching straight out of an assigned textbook all the time . . . Go ahead and use the book if you need to, but use it critically. Ask yourself and your students: What are the implicit values being presented by this textbook? Whose voices are being heard? Whose voices are absent?
Teaching ‘straight from the text’ adopts an object view of curriculum, doesn’t it? It presumes that what is worth knowing is contained within the text, and the teacher’s job is to help students find it in the text. But curriculum is not just about learning content. Rather it is constituted in the social and cultural worlds of those who interact with it — it is inherently a social act (Grundy 1987) and, as such, it is about relationships between teachers and students, among students, between students and subject matter, and between students and the contexts in which they live and learn. An interest in teachers as agents of change or activists certainly presages an interest in curriculum as an emancipatory (Grundy 1987), as opposed to a merely technical, endeavour. Such a practice-focused approach envisions that curriculum ‘is constituted through an active process in which planning, acting and evaluating are all reciprocally related and integrated into the process’ (Grundy 1987, p. 115). The constitutive elements of praxis are reflection and action; the curriculum itself develops through action and reflection. CHAPTER 6 The curriculum 211
Curriculum as a shared understanding Lingard et al. (2003, p. 4) write, ‘In order to achieve improved outcomes for all students, it is necessary to align curriculum, pedagogies and assessment’. They envision this alignment occurring via a shared understanding of the intended student outcomes that hence shapes what the curriculum could or should look like. And if such an alignment were guided by a sense of what constitutes ‘educationally right practice’ (Kemmis & Grootenboer 2008), then it could constitute curriculum as praxis — the active alignment to maximise learning. Bringing these ideas back to the classroom, Salas et al. (2004) recommend to (preservice and graduate) teachers several elements in response to the curriculum question ‘How am I going to do this?’ In addition to ‘move beyond the textbook’, discussed above, they advocate (pp. 84–92): r do not underestimate what you bring to teaching r cut yourself some slack r do not let yourself get lazy r build community r teach everybody r be consistent r do not try to go it alone r assume nothing . . . and keep an open mind r encourage kids to bring their lives into the classroom r keep it real r let students see you as a person r take care of yourself r put anti-racism and multiculturalism at the heart of your work. What do you bring in terms of knowledge and experiences to help you make sense of what each element on the list means? This list is a wonderful enactment of many of the ideas that have been discussed in this chapter, and it consolidates those ideas through the lens of praxis. It also beautifully illustrates what gains are possible in moving beyond a technical conception of curriculum to one of curriculum as praxis. The list implores teachers to engage deeply in the meaningful work of connecting to students and their lives, and of capitalising on those connections to engender and enhance learning. For example, imagine the power of sharing your knowledge about and passion for Indigenous issues in education! To conclude, curriculum viewed as praxis is ‘those forms of practice that are enacted by those that are conscious and self-aware that their actions are “morally committed, and oriented and informed by tradition”’ (Kemmis & Smith 2008, p. 4) — myriad possibilities exist for connecting meaningfully to learners’ lives, for them to ask questions meaningful to their lives, and for them to take action to improve their lives and the lives of others. If that is not what you think of when you hear the phrase ‘the curriculum’, think again.
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WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
Can you recall ever being in a classroom, or in some other learning context, where the teacher worked as an agent for change (or as an ‘activist’) and the curriculum embodied a sense of what was just and morally informed? If you can, what features differentiated that learning context from the many others you’ve been in — both in terms of what was present in it and what was absent from it? If you can’t, why do you think that is? Given all of the classrooms and other learning contexts you have been in during your lifetime, what does that say about the prevalence (and perhaps the perceived worth) of such teachers and such contexts? What steps can you take to enact such a stance in your own learning context?
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INSIGHTS IN EDUCATION
. . . because schools and school knowledge are embedded in and structured by systems of domination and rule that are organized hierarchically around power relations of race, class, gender, sexuality, nationality, and other forms of socially determined categorical difference, the curricular knowledge asserted by groups in power generally supports status quo, hegemonic social relations and epistemologies. This curricular knowledge thus often contradicts and runs counter to the epistemologies and curricular knowledge advanced by oppressed groups. Put differently, the curriculum of the ruler will in many ways be oppositional to the curriculum of the ruled. . . . because of unequal power relations, the curricular perspectives of those in power are made operational in generally hegemonic and commonsense forms in school knowledge for everyone, regardless of social location and regardless of whether or not such perspectives are congruent with or contradict the material and social realities of students and their communities. Put differently, despite progressive curricular gains or curriculum accords made by educators and activists the unequal distribution of power leads to the unequal distribution of specific curricular knowledge, where those with more ` power can exert stronger influence on our commonsense understandings of the world vis-a-vis the curriculum, even if such commonsense understandings fundamentally operate as distorted conceptions of material and social reality.
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Engaging deeply with this excerpt from Wayne Au’s (2012, p. 66) book is a wonderful way to end this chapter because it weaves together so many of the threads that we’ve discussed. Clearly this was written by an educator who is working as an agent of change and a cultural worker who takes a pedagogical view of curriculum. The passages refer to the ways that the fingerprints of curriculum creators cover what they construct — whether in an explicit fashion, or as part of a more hidden curriculum. He calls our attention to the ways in which schooling, and curriculum, can engage in cultural reproduction, and he perceptibly illustrates that it’s the dominant culture that’s likely to get uncritically reproduced, to the detriment of many. Au reminds us that context does indeed matter by suggesting what occurs when context is ignored in ‘one-size-fits-all’ efforts. It can be capitalised upon to shape and refine what it being taught — both in affirmative, but also detrimental ways. In the end, contextual information can and should serve as a resource for shaping the curriculum, allowing us to connect with students, their families and their communities.
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SUMMARY There are many discourses about the concept of ‘the curriculum’. Many technical understandings of curriculum view it as a product, but a more productive view is understanding curriculum as action — what Grundy calls a pedagogical view of curriculum. In light of this pedagogical view of curriculum, it is important to consider what is meant by curriculum as a social and cultural construction, and what it means to consider teachers (and even students) as curriculum workers. There are numerous diverse models of curriculum. Many are based on the notion of an explicit, intended curriculum. There is, however, also a hidden curriculum that teaches many lessons. This chapter advocates a view of curriculum as praxis. There are gains to be achieved by taking such a view and enacting it within and outside classrooms. This view emanates not only from the inter-implicated nature of the curriculum across the domains of the teacher, the students, subject matter and the milieu, but also from a notion of curriculum as action, as process. Finally, the chapter advocates for understanding the need for and role of Indigenous Australian content within all areas of the curriculum.
KEY TERMS
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arts-based curriculum Using the creative, performing and practical arts as a context around and through which the rest of the school subjects are structured and taught. The arts become the organising context, or touchstone, through which connections to all of the other subjects are made. cultural construction Something that was created by people who are located in a particular time and place, and who bring their own values, attitudes, interests and priorities to bear on its construction and articulation. emergent curriculum The course of the curriculum is not fully known from the outset, but rather negotiated with the participants/students as learning progresses. four commonplaces of schooling The fundamental aspects of learning and teaching in schooling — the students, the teacher, the subject matter and the milieu. hidden curriculum Teaching about things that do not appear to be the explicit or intended focus of the teaching and learning taking place, and as such form part of the informal, rather than formal, curriculum. inquiry-based curriculum A stance towards learning where learners form, and are guided by, their own questions about issues, problems and phenomena. integrated curriculum Distinctions between subjects are minimised or eliminated as larger issues and problems are explored or investigated, blending traditionally distinct subject areas. praxis Morally informed practice enacted by those who are self-aware and who draw on the mores and customs of their field.
FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE 6.1
LO1
After reading this chapter, which definition(s) of curriculum resonate most with you? Has your thinking shifted at all since before you read the chapter? How so? 6.2
LO3
How would you characterise the curriculum model(s) evident in the subject you are reading this text for? On what bases are you deciding the appropriate models? What evidence exists to support your decision?
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6.3
LO1
What would need to change in order to have early childhood settings or schools become hotbeds for curriculum experimentation and innovation? What’s currently preventing this from happening? 6.4
LO2, 7
Choose a chapter from this text that you’ve already read. Can you discern any traces of the fingerprints of the people or culture(s) that developed, organised and/or presented the knowledge? Is there evidence of the fingerprints of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander peoples/cultures? If so, what are they? If not, does that mean that there are no such fingerprints, or that you just cannot detect them? 6.5
LO5, 6
Think about a topic you’ve recently read about and/or discussed in one of your subjects this semester. If you take on the role of critical consumer and creator of curriculum, how could you teach this topic to children or young people? 6.6
LO2, 4, 5
Viewing teachers (or students) as agents of change implies that things need to change. In relation to curriculum, what needs to change? 6.7
LO6
Make a list of affordances/advantages and a list of limitations/drawbacks to viewing curriculum as praxis. Which list is longer, and why do you think that is?
WEBSITES 1 ‘Why is my curriculum white?’ is a project of the National Union of Students in the UK. This
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initiative aims to draw attention to the white Western origins of our curricula and to question what needs to happen to better prepare students for our diverse, globalised world. Be sure to click on the link for the video embedded in the article: www.nus.org.uk/en/news/why-is-my-curriculum-white 2 ‘Teaching tolerance’ is a US-based site that has a myriad of resources, ideas and provocations for thinking deeply and differently about the curriculum, especially in relation to diversity, equity and justice: www.tolerance.org 3 The guide ‘Embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in schools: A guide for school learning communities’ ‘aims to further equip our school leaders and teachers with more in-depth knowledge, understanding and skills to teach Indigenous and non-Indigenous students with confidence and without prejudice’: http://indigenous.education.qld.gov.au/SiteCollection Documents/eatsips-docs/eatsips_2011.pdf 4 ‘Rethinking schools’ is the homepage for an organisation that produces a journal by educators for educators, sells books and has a blog. The website offers thoughtful and thought-provoking ideas for teachers interested not only in improving education in their own classrooms and schools, but also in helping shape reform throughout the public school system: www.rethinkingschools.org
REFERENCES Aldridge, J & Fraser, B 2008, Outcomes-focussed learning environments: Determinants and effects, Sense Publishers, Rotterdam. Apple, M 1979/1990, Ideology and curriculum, Routledge, New York. Apple, M & Beane, J (eds) 2007, Democratic schools: Lessons in powerful education, 2nd edn, Heinemann, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Au, W 2012, Critical curriculum studies: Education, consciousness, and the politics of knowing, Routledge, New York. Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) 2011, The shape of the Australian Curriculum — Version 3.0, ACARA, Sydney. Australian Curriculum Coalition 2010, Common view on the Australian Curriculum, ACC, Penrith. Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) n.d., www.aitsl.edu.au. CHAPTER 6 The curriculum 215
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Beane, J 1997, Curriculum integration: Designing the core of democratic education, Teachers College Press, New York. Boyer, E 1995, ‘The educated person’, in J Beane (ed.), Toward a coherent curriculum, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Alexandria, Virginia. Curriculum Standing Committee of the National Education Professional Association 2007, Developing a twenty-first century school curriculum for all Australian students, CSCNEPA, Carlton, VIC. Drake, SM, Bebbington, J, Laksman, S, Mackie, P, Maynes, N & Wayne, L 1992, Developing an integrated curriculum using the story model, OISE Press, Toronto. Freire, P 1998, Teachers as cultural workers: Letters to those who dare to teach, Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado. Giroux, H & Penna, A 1983, ‘Social education in the classroom: the dynamics of the hidden curriculum’, in H Giroux & D Purpel (eds), The hidden curriculum and moral education: Deception or discovery?, McCutchan Publishing, Berkeley, California. Grundy, S 1998, ‘The curriculum and teaching’, in E Hatton (ed.), Understanding teaching, 2nd edn, Harcourt Brace, Sydney. —— 1987, Curriculum: Product or praxis?, Falmer Press, London. Harden, RM 2007, ‘Outcome based education: the ostrich, the peacock and the beaver’, Medical Teacher, vol. 29, no. 7, pp. 666–71. Hendrick, J & Weissman, P 2007, Total learning: Developmental curriculum for the young child, 7th edn, Pearson, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Jones, E & Nimmo, J 1994, Emergent curriculum, National Association for the Education of Young Children, Washington, DC. Katz, L & Chard, S 2000, Engaging children’s minds: The project approach, 2nd edn, Ablex, Stamford, Connecticut. Kemmis, S & Grootenboer, P 2008, ‘Situating praxis in practice: practice architectures and the cultural, social and material conditions for practice’, in S Kemmis & TJ Smith (eds), Enabling praxis: Challenges for education, Sense Publishers, Rotterdam. Kemmis, S & Smith, TJ (eds) 2008, Enabling praxis: Challenges for education, Sense Publishers, Rotterdam. Kumashiro, K 2002, Troubling education: Queer activism and antioppressive pedagogy, Routledge Falmer, London. Lingard, B, Hayes, D, Mills, M & Christie, P 2003, Leading learning, Open University Press, Maidenhead, UK. Martin, JR 1983, ‘What should we do with a hidden curriculum when we find one?’, in H Giroux & D Purpel (eds), The hidden curriculum and moral education: Deception or discovery?, McCutchan Publishing Corporation, Berkeley, California. Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) 2008, Melbourne declaration on educational goals for young Australians, MCEETYA, Melbourne. —— 1999, Adelaide Declaration on national goals for schooling in the twenty-first century, MCEETYA, Melbourne. —— 1989, Hobart declaration on schooling, MCEETYA, Melbourne. National Union of Students 2015, Why is my curriculum white?, www.nus.org.uk/en/news/why-is-my-curriculum-white. Pinar, W, Reynolds, WM, Slattery, P & Taubman, PM 1995, Understanding curriculum: An introduction to the study of historical and contemporary curriculum discourses, Peter Lang, New York. Sachs, J 2003, The activist teaching profession, Open University Press, Maidenhead, United Kingdom. Salas, KD, Tenorio, R, Walters, S & Weiss, D 2004, ‘How am I going to do this?: guidelines for developing curriculum’, in KD Salas, R Tenorio, S Walters & D Weiss (eds), The new teacher book: Finding purpose, balance and hope during your first years in the classroom, Rethinking Schools, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Schwab, J 1969, College curricula and student protest, University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Semali, L & Kincheloe, J (eds) 1999, What is indigenous knowledge? Voices from the academy, Falmer Press, London. Spady, WG 1994, Outcome-based education: Critical issues and answers, American Association of School Administrators, Arlington, VA. Tenorio, R 2004, ‘Curriculum is everything that happens: an interview with Rita Tenorio’, in KD Salas, R Tenorio, S Walters & D Weiss (eds), The new teacher book: Finding purpose, balance and hope during your first years in the classroom, Rethinking Schools, Milwaukee. Thorne, B 1993, Gender play: Girls and boys in school, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey. Wien, CA (ed.) 2008, Emergent curriculum in the primary classroom: Integrating the Reggio Emilia approach in schools, Teachers College Press, New York. Wiggins, G & McTighe, J 1998, Understanding by design, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Alexandria, Vancouver. Wilks, S (ed.) 2005a, Designing a thinking curriculum, ACER Press, Camberwell, VIC. —— 2005b, ‘The visual arts as a thinking tool’, in S Wilks (ed.), Designing a thinking curriculum, ACER Press, Camberwell, VIC. Wilson, J & Jan, LW 2007, Focus on inquiry: A practical approach to integrated curriculum planning, Curriculum Corporation, Carlton South, Victoria.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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CHAPTER 6 The curriculum 217
CHAPTER 7
Planning for practice: connecting pedagogy, assessment and curriculum LEARNING OBJECTIVES
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After studying this chapter, you should be able to: 7.1 recognise the connectedness of curriculum, pedagogy, assessment and reporting in a student-centred approach to learning 7.2 identify the different layers that inform curriculum work 7.3 acknowledge general principles that apply to planning for teaching and learning 7.4 be aware of what level of detail to consider when planning a lesson 7.5 be familiar with the backward design approach to planning 7.6 apply inquiry-based approaches to planning 7.7 differentiate planning to cater for student diversity.
OPENING CASE
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Planning for learning: thinking capacities for the twenty-first century Georgie is an early career teacher who recently transitioned from teaching primary school students at an inner-city government school in Melbourne to teaching at a remote community school in the Northern Territory. Her pre-service training ensured that she was well versed in planning lesson sequences and programs. Through coursework, she acquired awareness of practices such as those advocated by Robert Marzano and John Hattie, including: having a clear focus for the lesson and communicating this; establishing connections with prior learning; offering explicit instruction; making opportunities to apply new knowledge; and assessing and reviewing students’ learning. She had the opportunity to expand upon this knowledge through extensive professional learning opportunities at her first school as a graduate teacher, where there was a school-wide focus on the application of best-practice teaching strategies. Yet, for Georgie, what quickly became apparent was the need to accommodate the school’s mandated curriculum and syllabi, and above all to get to know her students and how they learn. Moreover, familiarisation with The Capability Framework (Queensland Department of Education, Training and Employment 2013), which supports the effective teaching of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students who come to school speaking languages other than Standard Australian English, was essential. Rigorous attention to planning for learning is mandatory, but nothing can be achieved without a working knowledge of students. Through developing relationships with her students, Georgie got to know them and their interests, and utilised this knowledge in designing engaging lessons. This facet of teaching was even more important in the remote NT context, where many students come from challenging home environments and may have experienced trauma. It quickly became apparent that trust would have to be developed through relationships and predictable routines before any significant learning could take place. The school where Georgie worked utilised a prescriptive school-wide literacy and numeracy program (Direct Instruction modified script), outlining the order in which material was to be introduced. However, the program was much more effective when it was modified to accommodate student interest through games and the development of support resources that the children enjoyed using. For example, the system introduced phonemes in a particular order, and Georgie created sets of cards with illustrations of animals that the children recognised and enjoyed, and which they then used to practise their sounds. She firmly believes that effective teaching must be underpinned by data-based planning and information about what students know and what they need to learn next. However, she argues that equally integral is the building of trust-based relationships and ensuring that you not only know your students, but can read their mood, and are prepared to modify the content of delivery in order to achieve best outcomes for the students. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ QUESTIONS 1. According to the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, knowing students and how they learn at graduate level requires teachers to demonstrate a broad understanding of the impact of culture, cultural identity and linguistic background on the education of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students (1.4). How have you approached the development of this understanding? 2. What other adjustments to her lesson planning might Georgie need to make when working in this remote community? 3. Access The Capability Framework (Queensland Department of Education, Training and Employment 2013) (https://indigenousportal.eq.edu.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/eald-capability-framework.pdf) and note its relationship with the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership 2017).
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Introduction Planning is part of the daily rhythm of teaching, and as Deborah Britzman (2003) so cogently states, ‘practice makes practice’. For teachers, the ongoing challenge is to make students’ learning experiences both engaging and intellectually challenging. To do so requires careful attention to curriculum planning: decision-making about lesson content and resources, learning experiences, teaching strategies and methods, and assessment and reporting procedures. Planning also requires mindfulness of students’ cultural identities and differences in their physical, social and intellectual development. The opening case notes that planning starts with knowing your students — being responsive to their specific needs, interests and the local community. Georgie emphasises that knowledge and understanding of her students’ backgrounds and their life experiences are foremost in her thinking when planning lessons. As a pre-service teacher, you are likely to find that writing lesson plans that document the fine detail of your practice is very time consuming. Initially this attention to detail is essential, as lesson plans serve as a form of rehearsal for your teaching. Generally pre-service teachers find that their plans quickly become more refined and succinct as their confidence grows and lessons are viewed as part of the bigger picture of curriculum work. Although there is no blueprint for a successful lesson or unit of work, there are guiding principles, design approaches and frameworks to support planning processes that will be introduced and explained in this chapter. Planning for practice: Connecting pedagogy, assessment and curriculum
Curriculum, pedagogy assessment
Curriculum Pedagogy Assessment and reporting
Layers of curriculum planning: macro to micro
Some guiding principles for planning
The Australian Curriculum and state curriculums
Planning begins with knowing your students
International Baccalaureate and school programs
Planning requires attention to intellectual engagement Planning entails a critically reflective stance
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Planning must retain a degree of flexibility Planning should include entry points for student input and negotiation
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Planning at the microlevel: individual lesson plans
Planning a unit of work: a sequence of lessons
Strategic planning for lessons
What might a unit planner look like? Learning experiences
Inquirybased pedagogy
Inquiry as a systematic, sequenced study
Planning to differentiate the learning for student diversity Individual learning plans and contracts
The chapter begins by identifying planning for teaching as curriculum work and emphasising the interconnectedness of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. An explication of the layers of curriculum follows, and the impact of national, state and international curriculum approaches and frameworks is explored. The importance of including a focus on cross-curriculum priorities in addition to the learning areas and general capabilities is discussed. Factors are then identified that also need to be taken into account when planning at the whole-school, department and classroom interfaces. The Wiggins and McTighe (2011) ‘understanding by design’ approach to planning a unit is presented, and crossdisciplinary and inquiry-based approaches are discussed. The chapter concludes by observing that planning needs to be differentiated to respond to the range of student abilities, their interests, and cultural and community settings.
7.1 Curriculum, pedagogy, assessment LEARNING OBJECTIVE 7.1 Recognise the connectedness of curriculum, pedagogy, assessment and reporting in a student-centred approach to learning.
Planning for learning is a multi-layered, complex process. As a pre-service teacher, your responsibilities will generally progress from planning for small-group contexts to whole-class lessons, and ultimately to the development of a unit of work or sequence of lessons in collaboration with your supervising teachers. The planning behind lessons when you were at school was probably not something you thought about very much. However, while you may have forgotten much of the specific content of what was taught (the curriculum) in the thousands of lessons you experienced as a student, you are very likely to remember how those lessons were taught: the social and the intellectual climate that your teachers created. Teachers’ work involves constant decision making around curriculum, pedagogy and the assessment, as you will now be aware, and the reporting of students’ learning as you will become increasingly aware as a practising teacher. Figure 7.1 shows the four connected components of pedagogy, curriculum, assessment and reporting that need to be considered when planning for learning. In this model, which embraces a constructivist approach, the learner is placed at the centre; that is, the model brings a student-centred focus to curriculum planning. Constructivism argues that meaningful learning occurs when people actively engage with making sense of their world. The term ‘learner’ in itself implies a degree of agency in the learning process that emphasises the taking of some responsibility for one’s own learning. In their book Understanding by design, Wiggins and McTighe (2005, 2011) raise the importance of pondering the difference between knowing and understanding. This focus on learner and learning raises questions for which there are no simple answers, such as ‘What does it mean to understand something?’, ‘How do we plan to support the development of students’ understanding?’ and ‘How will we know if our planning has assisted in students gaining understanding of something?’ These questions are revisited later in the chapter.
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Curriculum During your school placements you will become familiar with the curriculum frameworks and school syllabi that focus teachers’ planning. Essentially, lesson planning is curriculum work — a layer of curriculum planning. In chapter 6, curriculum was described as a term with many meanings; it was noted that it often gets used without being clearly defined or clarified. The Department of Education and Child Development, South Australia (2017), offers a comprehensive definition, referring to curriculum as: the core knowledge, understanding, skills and capabilities students should learn as they progress through school, which teachers use to: r plan student learning; r monitor and assess student progress; r report student progress to parents; and r support student well being. CHAPTER 7 Planning for practice: connecting pedagogy, assessment and curriculum 221
FIGURE 7.1
Student-centred curriculum planning
Curriculum planning
Curriculum (what)
Pedagogy (how)
The student
Assessment (how well)
Reporting (where)
Source: Department of Education and Early Childhood Development [Victoria] (2009).
By contrast, the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA 2015) adds a citizenship emphasis, referring to curriculum as ‘the common set of knowledge and skills that are required by all students for life-long learning, social development and active and informed citizenship.’ Later in this chapter, different layers of curriculum that can influence planning are considered, including the importance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives. Over time you will determine your own definition of what constitutes curriculum, and in doing so you will decide what your priorities are in relation to how curriculum is planned, enacted and experienced.
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Pedagogy Pedagogy defines who you are as a teacher and is sometimes described very simply as the ‘art of teaching’. Your pedagogy is aligned to the beliefs you hold about learning and teaching, and it is this body of knowledge that defines you as a professional (Anderson 2005). These beliefs are grounded in both your professional and personal experiences of education. You will already be familiar with some educational theories that influence decisions you make about your practice, but your practice will also be informed by your own experiences of being a student. This involves a process of identifying, clarifying and justifying your theoretical beliefs about teaching and learning from what Clandinin and Connelly refer to as your ‘professional knowledge landscapes’ (1995). In essence, curriculum is what you teach and pedagogy involves how you teach and support students’ learning. Pedagogical decision-making impacts on the social and intellectual climate you create within the classroom and the type of learning that you promote. It will determine the discourses that are taken up and the tenor of the classroom interactions, and includes the way you question and work with student responses, as well as how you plan the learning experiences. Chapter 8 focuses on pedagogy’s connection with teaching with learning.
Assessment and reporting Accurate assessment of student learning is fundamental to making informed decisions about lesson planning. Assessment, however, has many guises, and these are elaborated in chapter 12. A fundamental 222
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difficulty with assessment is that everything students do has the potential to be assessed (Moss & Godinho 2007). While you need to be constantly monitoring the progression of students’ learning and engaging in spontaneous assessment opportunities during a lesson, you also need to plan some endpoint assessment. This will allow students to reflect on their learning and assist you in determining where the students are currently in relation to their learning, where they need to go and what you need to plan and do to get them there. Hence, there needs to be a blend of summative and formative assessment tasks that embrace both a creative and traditional mode, and enable students to demonstrate their learning in different ways. According to the New South Wales Education Standards Authority, opportunities should be planned and include: r assessment of learning (summative): using evidence collected at defined key points to assess student achievement against outcomes and standards, particularly for reporting purposes r assessment for learning (formative): gathering evidence about students’ knowledge, understanding and skills throughout the teaching and learning process to inform your future planning r assessment as learning: requiring students to monitor and evaluate what they know and can do, and to set goals for new learning. Planning is indeed a complex process. Online access to teachers’ programs and the My School (ACARA) website, which profiles a school’s academic performance in view of the most recent NAPLAN tests, makes teachers more publicly accountable for what and how they teach. Importantly, there is an increasing emphasis on evidence-based practice and the collection of student learning data to inform instructional strategies (Hattie 2012). This has meant that as teachers we need to be even more vigilant about the documentation of our work: the planning, assessment and reporting of students’ learning. Some approaches to curriculum design, such as Wiggins and McTighe’s (2005, 2011) Understanding by Design (UbD) and the International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary, Middle Years Programs and the Career-related Program (PYP, MYP & CP), advocate ‘frontloading’ the assessment. In the past, assessment was frequently an ‘add on’ at the end of the unit, with a quick test or assessment task being designed and administered. But when formal and informal assessment become an integral component of your curriculum planning, assessment is more likely to assess what it purports to measure, and thus to be considered valid (Cohen, Manion & Morrison 2007). As a practising teacher, you will be required to report students’ learning achievement to parents twice a year using a five-point scale or equivalent, consistent with the Education Funding Agreement between the states and the Commonwealth Government (Council of Australian Governments). Before you begin deciding the curriculum content, pedagogy and assessment that your lessons will include, you will need to consider other factors. The following list is far from definitive, but highlights possible factors that will influence your decision making about the lessons that you plan and teach. As you read the list of factors in figure 7.2, think of those that have influenced your planning of curriculum content, pedagogy and assessment during school placements. Also, add factors to the list that you think should be taken into consideration when planning for learning.
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FIGURE 7.2 r r r r r r
Factors that influence the planning of curriculum content, pedagogy and assessment
School policies School values Parental expectations School category: government, Catholic and independent Classroom settings: multi-age, composite or single grade Physical arrangement of space: open plan, shared teaching spaces, team teaching arrangements, Reggio Emilia classroom design
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r r r r r r r r r r r r r r
Teachers’ expertise and interests Teachers’ personal beliefs and understanding about learning and teaching Teachers’ self-efficacy (Bandura 1986) — their beliefs about their capacity to teach effectively Learning needs of students across the full range of abilities Timing: global, national and local contexts School location: inner city, suburban, regional, rural or remote Student learning styles Sociocultural diversity of students: linguistic, cultural, religious and socio-economic backgrounds Class size and gender balance Students’ previous learning experience and prior knowledge Students’ interests ICT use as an instructional mode or to enhance learning of content and skills Student input to some aspects of planning High stakes testing such as the National Assessment Plan — Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), Trends in International Mathematics and Science (TIMMS) and Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS).
WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
Think back to lessons at school that you found to be highly engaging. Were they also intellectually challenging, or were they engaging simply because they were classes where you had good fun? Think back to any classes (primary, secondary or tertiary) where your teachers/tutors made the lesson/tutorial content both intellectually challenging and engaging. What strategies did they use to achieve this outcome? To what extent have their practices influenced your planning for student learning? Which factors in figure 7.2 do you currently take into consideration when planning your lessons? Identify any factors that you think you should take into consideration for future planning.
WHAT CAN I TAKE INTO THE CLASSROOM?
At the next team planning meeting you attend, consider factors that have an impact on the teachers’ planning for learning. Refer to figure 7.2, but also identify any other factors that impact on the team’s decision making.
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LEARNING OBJECTIVE 7.2 Identify the different layers that inform curriculum work.
There are multiple layers to planning for learning, as these early-career secondary and primary teachers respectively attest: At the system level we have core documents and essential practices that are not really negotiable. At the whole-school level there are often school foci or charter priorities that dominate the planning agenda. Within the year level unit or subject faculty there are expectations — often stated in terms of the way we have traditionally done it. As an individual teacher, I too have needs in curriculum planning. I have areas of interest, expertise and passion. I have topics for which I have extensive resources. I need to bring myself and my strengths into the classroom. In the primary context, it is not uncommon to have a team approach to planning. We use the Australian Curriculum as well as the International Baccalaureate PYP framework to guide our curriculum mapping 224
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within each subject area. We meet as a team at the beginning of each term to plan out the maths units, literacy focuses and unit of inquiry, and then also meet each week to take these overarching planners and break them down into lessons and learning intentions for the week ahead. The children’s interests and passions also guide us, especially when designing provocations for play-based learning and choosing texts and topics for literacy. Offering choice and student voice wherever possible can help bring the macro-level documents to life in a way that children find engaging and authentic.
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Generally, the beginning point for teachers is the macro-level of curriculum documents, or what the first teacher refers to as non-negotiable aspects. The lessons you plan need to fit within the bigger picture of school curriculum planning. For many schools, including all government schools, curriculum documentation or frameworks at national and/or state level define the essential content for school programs and the standards for student achievements across the learning areas (often referred to as subjects or disciplines). These standards or learning outcomes describe what students are expected to know and be able to do at a given year level or band. Curriculum is dynamic, so it is constantly being reviewed and revised in line with research, theorising of learning, policy initiatives and the current governing party’s positioning of education. This means schools are constantly mapping teaching programs to ensure that content descriptions and achievement standards are being explicitly addressed. Although constitutionally the states are autonomous, limiting national policy control over them, the momentum for a national curriculum has been ongoing for decades.
The Australian Curriculum and state curriculums The Australian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (ACARA) has developed an Australian Curriculum that coexists alongside the school curriculums developed by the states and territories. It states ‘the Australian Curriculum can be used flexibly by schools, according to jurisdictional and system policies CHAPTER 7 Planning for practice: connecting pedagogy, assessment and curriculum 225
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and schedules, to develop programs that meet the educational needs of their students and that extend and challenge students’ (ACARA). As chapter 6 detailed, the three-dimensional Australian Curriculum addresses disciplinary knowledge, skills and understanding, general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities. These dimensions outline what will be learned from Foundation to Year 12. Disciplinary content draws on cross-curriculum priorities and general capabilities to provide rich learning experiences for students. Informed by the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians (MCEETYA 2008), ACARA (2013, p. 5) states that its curriculum seeks to promote equity and excellence and to support all young Australians to become ‘successful learners, confident and creative individuals and active and informed citizens’. The general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities are only addressed through the content of the learning areas. It is not intended that these three areas are always covered, but it is important to keep them in mind at all stages of curriculum planning in order to ensure they are considered for inclusion whenever appropriate. They are identified where they offer opportunities to add depth and richness to student learning via the content elaborations, which are provided to give teachers ideas about how they might teach the content. Icons are used to indicate where they have been identified in learning area content descriptions and elaborations. As a graduate teacher, your planning must demonstrate a broad knowledge and understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures and application of appropriate strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Close familiarisation with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures priority’s conceptual framework is therefore mandatory. The overarching concepts of Country/Place, Culture and People are elaborated under the organising ideas (www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/cross-curriculum-priorities/aboriginal-and-torresstrait-islander-histories-and-cultures). The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) also offers some useful strategies for guiding your planning: www.aitsl.edu.au/deliver-iteprograms/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-education. r Disciplinary knowledge, skills and understanding and achievement standards are defined across eight learning areas: English, Mathematics, Science, Health and Physical Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, The Arts, Technologies and Languages. r General capabilities encompass the knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions identified as playing a significant role in equipping young Australians to live and work successfully in the twenty-first century: Literacy, Numeracy, Information and Communication Technology Capability, Critical and Creative Thinking, Personal and Social Capability, Ethical Understanding and Intercultural Understanding. They are addressed through the content of the learning areas. r Cross-curriculum priorities are developed and applied through learning area content: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures, Asia and Australia’s Engagement with Asia. Each priority has three key concepts that are further developed through two or more organising ideas. r Achievement standards identify an expectation of the quality of learning (knowledge, skills and understanding) that students should typically demonstrate at the end of a year or band of years in schools Australia-wide. The Australian Curriculum defines achievement standards that describe the depth of understanding and the sophistication of knowledge and skill expected of students at the end of each year level or band of years. Work samples provided by ACARA and state curriculum communicate achievement levels that will guide you in making on-balance judgements about the quality of work students have achieved from the assessment data you collect. In any year level, the achievement standards provide a starting point for your curriculum planning. These standards assist you in determining where you want the students to be by the end of a lesson or unit before you think about planning their learning experiences. Schools also develop local curricula to meet the more explicit needs of their students, either directly from the Australian Curriculum or from state and territory curriculum documents that incorporate the Australian Curriculum. ACARA acknowledges that state and territory curriculum and school authorities are responsible for the translation of the Australian Curriculum in their schools, in line with system and 226
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jurisdictional policies and requirements. Essentially, the Australian Curriculum can be used flexibly by schools. Your supervisor will familiarise you with the curriculum documents that inform their school’s planning and what you will refer to when planning lessons or a unit or work. Although your planning will be mediated by the curriculum frameworks used by your school and their school-based syllabi, the pedagogical decision making is largely your responsibility. ACARA affirms that it is the classroom teachers who will organise learning for students and make decisions about the pedagogical approach that will give the best learning outcomes (ACARA 2013). The International Baccalaureate similarly delegates this responsibility to teachers.
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International Baccalaureate and school programs Although there are other curriculum frameworks, the International Baccalaureate (IB) is of particular significance. Founded in Switzerland in 1968, the IB now has global centres in The Hague, Netherlands, Singapore and Bethesda, USA. It aims to develop the intellectual, personal, emotional and social skills that students require to live, learn and work in a rapidly globalising world. It offers four programs for students aged from 3 to 19 years: the Primary Years Program (PYP) for students aged 3 to 12, focusing on the development of the whole child; the Middle Years Program (MYP) for students aged 11 to 16, which both embraces and transcends traditional school subjects and focuses on the development of life skills; the Diploma Program (DP) — a two-year sequence of subjects that qualifies students for university entrance; and the Career-related Program (CP), which aims to prepare students professionally and academically for life beyond the school years. At the time of writing, IB programs had been taken up by 4787 schools in 151 countries, with 6310 programs being offered worldwide. The first Australian International Baccalaureate school was authorised in 1978, and there are currently 185 International Baccalaureate World Schools in Australia offering one or more of the four programs. (The International Baccalaureate website provides access to current facts and figures.) However, frequently these schools also address national and state curriculum learning outcomes or standards in addition to the IB curriculum guidelines. Despite attempts to regulate schools’ enactment of curriculum through centralised state and national frameworks, in effect curriculum remains reflective of the broader cultures in which schools are situated. A school’s culture continues to be determined by factors such as its categorisation (government, Catholic or independent); its location (metropolitan, regional, rural or remote); the cultural mix of students; the socioeconomic status of the students’ families; the gender of students (single sex or coeducational); and the leadership style within the school. Independent schools are less constrained by the requirements of government systems. This has enabled them to engage with alternative curriculum approaches (Godinho 2007) such as the International Baccalaureate, Reggio Amelia, Rudolph Steiner and Montessori curricula. Some government schools also opt for alternative curriculum approaches, as Georgie indicates in the opening case with her school’s Direct Instruction approach to literacy. These streams are still compliant with state system requirements. Working out from these curriculum documents or frameworks, governments and/or schools create a syllabus for individual subjects. The syllabus is a framework or map that provides a descriptive overview of a learning area within the curriculum (a curriculum subset): a ‘structured summary and outline of what should be taught and learned . . . a bid to shape and set the parameters of the curriculum’ (Queensland Studies Authority 2008, p. 11). Schools will make you aware of the documents that inform their practice and to what extent you need to take them into consideration when planning lessons. Figure 7.3 provides a summary of the curriculum layers. However, Luke, Woods and Weir agree that ultimately, curriculum documents and syllabi cannot control and micro-manage what takes place in the classroom, as this remains each teacher’s professional responsibility (Queensland Studies Authority 2008). Do you agree with their statement?
CHAPTER 7 Planning for practice: connecting pedagogy, assessment and curriculum 227
FIGURE 7.3
Layers of curriculum development
National The Australian Curriculum identifies the subject content of what teachers are expected to teach and students are expected to learn for students from Foundation to Year 12. The Early Years Framework describes the principles, practices and outcomes that support and enhance young children’s learning from birth to five years of age, as well as their transition to school. State State governments develop their own curriculum organisers to define key content, and outline the achievement standards for students, with reference to the Australian Curriculum. International The International Baccalaureate (IB) offers a curriculum framework for students aged 3 to 19: the Primary Years Program (PYP), the Middle Years Program (MYP), the Diploma Program (DP) and the Career-related Program (CP). Given that IB is operative in 147 countries, if planning to travel and teach, knowledge of the IB World School approach to curriculum design could be advantageous. Other internationally recognised approaches used in some Australian schools include Reggio Emilia, Montessori and Rudolph Steiner. School School-based syllabi and outlines of what should be learned and taught: an official mapping of school subjects. This may include planning for one-year or two-year cycles at each year level; unit planning in key subjects/key learning areas; and scope and sequences that signal a continuum and focus for integrated, interdisciplinary approaches. Classroom Individual decision-making by classroom teachers with regard to implementing the curriculum includes selection of texts and resources, topic emphases, assessment of learning and, importantly, pedagogical decision-making. This necessitates attention to strategies that are responsive to the learning strengths and needs for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and those from other linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds.
WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
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To increase your own awareness of the layers of curriculum, speak with your supervising teacher/teachers and use the following question prompts to guide a discussion about the school or early learning centre’s practices. Early childhood r What curriculum documentation or learning approaches inform the school’s planning? r How does the teaching team approach assessing, documenting and reporting the children’s learning? r What planning is undertaken by individual teachers? r How are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives considered within curriculum planning? Primary r What curriculum documents inform your school’s planning of the teaching and learning programs? r What mapping of whole-school teaching and learning programs has been undertaken to identify where content descriptions and achievement standards are being explicitly addressed? r What planning decisions are left to the class teachers? r How are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives considered within curriculum planning? r How do assessment or testing requirements impact planning?
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Secondary r What mapping of whole-school teaching and learning programs has been undertaken to identify where content descriptions and achievement standards are being explicitly addressed? r What curriculum documents inform your school’s planning of the teaching and learning programs? r What planning decisions are left to the class teachers? r How are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives considered within curriculum planning? r How do assessment or testing requirements impact planning?
7.3 Some guiding principles for planning LEARNING OBJECTIVE 7.3 Acknowledge general principles that apply to planning for teaching and learning.
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As you read this section of the chapter, think about what principles might have guided your teachers’ curriculum planning. In addition to curriculum organisers that inform planning for practice, there are some generic principles that guide the process. While there is no substitute for the rigorous mental planning and decision making that goes into the planning process, overplanning can be as dangerous as underplanning (Groundwater-Smith, Ewing & Le Cornu 2015). A principle that you no doubt have already identified is that planning should not be binding. With social media networks such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook providing access to world events as they unfold, there is an increasing need to seize the moment and be flexible with your planning. Being alert to teachable moments can enable students to connect their learning more meaningfully. In the photo below, a student uses their fidget spinner for problem-solving exercises in their numeracy problems, the teacher having recognised a teachable moment around a current student fixation with these popular devices.
CHAPTER 7 Planning for practice: connecting pedagogy, assessment and curriculum 229
Planning begins with knowing your students Getting to know your students in a short time is challenging, but it is the starting point for your planning, as Georgie emphasised in the opening case study. Assessment data and profiles, including digital portfolios, can provide access to very helpful information about students’ learning and their achievement levels. Additional information can be gleaned from classroom observations and attentiveness to student conversations that will also help you understand the dynamics in the classroom and assist when grouping students. Some awareness of students’ preferred ways of learning is helpful for planning performance assessments and for making the learning experiences more relevant and engaging. You may find Howard Gardner’s (1993) theory of multiple intelligences (MI) (verbal/linguistic, logical/mathematical, visual/spatial, musical/rhythmic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, bodily/kinaesthetic and naturalistic) a useful tool for broadening your way of planning learning experiences. There are many online multiple intelligences surveys that you can access free of charge. The International Baccalaureate curriculum planner for the PYP and MYP includes pre-assessment of students’ learning to guide the planning process. The undertaking of pre-assessment allows you to map students’ levels of knowledge, thereby ensuring learning achievement standards and goals are appropriately pitched and that the planned learning experiences are relevant. There is nothing more deflating than hearing, ‘Not again. We’ve already done that.’ While more formal assessments such as a test or an explicit task may be appropriate, there are many informal strategies. A KWL is a graphic organiser that asks what a student knows (K), what they want to find out (W) and, after completion of the lesson or unit of work, what has been learned (L). It is one of many pre-assessment strategies, such as concept maps, graphic organisers and class discussions, that can serve to identify what students already know and assist in shaping the planning of a unit. These graphic organisers can be accessed at www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/ support/Pages/graphicorganisers.aspx. Depending on the age of your students, you could have a VIP student of the week. Criteria could be determined for sharing information about oneself, such as favourite foods, sports, heroes, celebrities, computer games, apps, websites, etc. What strategies have you used to find out about your students’ prior knowledge?
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Planning requires attention to intellectual engagement Despite the potential for productive learning outcomes, an innovative idea can amount to little more than a ‘fun’ activity if the required attention has not been paid to planning for learning. An individual lesson or unit must be relevant, engaging and, importantly, challenging for learners, that is both ‘hands-on’ and ‘minds-on’ (Wiggins & McTighe 2011). As Lev Vygotsky (1979) attests, learning experiences need to fall within the students’ zone of proximal development (ZPD): the distance between what a student can do independently and what can be achieved with the guidance of an adult or a more capable peer. If there is no challenge, there is no learning; likewise, if the challenge is too great, students will lose interest and disengage. Collecting and maintaining assessment data as evidence of learning is essential to guide your planning. Given the range of abilities, developmental levels and achievement of learning standards, this will generally require differentiating the learning experiences in some way to keep students within their ZPD.
Planning entails a critically reflective stance The question ‘How will we know if our planning has assisted in students gaining understanding of something?’ was raised at the outset of this chapter. To answer this question you need to develop a critically reflective stance. It may surprise you, but the best learning often takes place when your lessons do not go according to plan — a situation all teachers experience regardless of their career stage. Doll (2002) describes teaching as ‘pedagogy of practice’, and Britzman (2003) reminds us that as teachers we are always in a state of ‘becoming’. If practice is to be transformative, as Doll encourages, critical reflection 230
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is mandatory. Too often, reflection amounts to no more than a vague commentary or thinking back over what happened ‘mechanically and ineffectively’ (Mason 2002, p. 17). It is not the active, persistent and systematic reflection that John Dewey (1938) referred to and it lacks the critical edge, which if acted upon has the potential to transform practice. Donald Sch¨on (1999) essentialised the term reflective practitioner and coined the terms reflection-inaction and reflection-on-action. The former refers to a complex inner dialogue that occurs during practice and may or may not be exposed to others. The latter refers to thinking back over practice after it has taken place. However, as Mason (2002) asserts, for reflection to be reflective, one’s sensitivity to ‘notice’ must be heightened. Reflection should focus on the effectiveness of the planned learning experiences in fulfilling the lesson’s objectives/learning intentions, the usefulness of the resources, the appropriateness of the pedagogical strategies, the intellectual engagement of the students and what follow-up will be required. Gauging the effectiveness of student learning necessitates what John Hattie (2012, 2014) refers to as making students’ learning visible, and Ron Ritchhart (2011) refers to as making students’ thinking visible. Using reflection to identify evidence of what has and has not been learned enables you to determine the impact of your teaching and whether students have gained an understanding of the lesson’s learning intentions. The gap between one’s intentions and the actual outcomes of one’s planning can be seen as an ‘axis of development’ (Mason 2002, p. 21) — the scope for transformation. Reflection also requires awareness of the cognitive processes that impact on your learning. The term metacognition was first used by Flavell (1979), and a proliferation of associated terms have subsequently emerged, for example, metacognitive awareness, metacognitive skills, self-regulation, metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive thinking. Metacognition entails both reflecting about what you know and self-regulating how you approach learning by asking appropriate evaluative questions, such as ‘What am I doing?’ and ‘Why am I doing it?’, Boud, Keogh and Walker (1985, p. 19) pointed out that it ‘is only when we bring our ideas to our consciousness that we can evaluate them and begin to make choices’. Wilson and Wing Jan (2008) outline three components to metacognitive thinking: 1. awareness: consideration of the learning processes and what was and could be done 2. evaluation: judgement about your thinking processes 3. regulation: drawing on your own knowledge and skills to plan, self-correct and set goals. While metacognitive awareness and metacognitive thinking about your planning and practice are essential, they are also applicable for students, as the Australian Curriculum identifies (Reflecting on Thinking Processes, the organising element of the Critical and Creative Thinking Capability). This will require embedding metacognitive instruction in your lesson content, making students aware of the usefulness of metacognitive activities, and sustained teaching and application to support student take-up (Veenman, Van Hout-Wolters & Afflerbach 2006).
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Planning must retain a degree of flexibility As teachers we need to seize the moment and connect learning with the real world and our students’ lives. Situations such as the weather can be taken into account with a back-up plan, but no level of detail can address the unexpected situations or classroom dynamics that may require planning to be put aside without notice, for example, fire drills, music and school play rehearsals, and unexpected visitors to the school. As you are likely to have already experienced, it is not uncommon for an activity to take longer than anticipated, students to be disengaged, or prior knowledge be insufficient for the task. As Flavell’s seminal work in the 1970s so cogently stated, ‘How well you understand something now may not be a predictor of how well you understand it later’ (1979, p. 907). Moreover, responding to our students’ needs, be they cognitive, social or emotional, is precursory to any significant learning taking place, as the opening case reminds us. These scenarios will continue to challenge you to think on your feet and be sufficiently flexible to digress from your original plan so that learning opportunities are maximised. CHAPTER 7 Planning for practice: connecting pedagogy, assessment and curriculum 231
Planning should include entry points for student input and negotiation Garth Boomer (1992) has made seminal contributions to Australian Curriculum design and pedagogy (Green & Meiers 2013). He advocated strongly for student involvement in curriculum planning, but stressed that this should be negotiated. The word negotiation is critical, as there are always non-negotiable aspects of the curriculum. While Boomer’s model is mindful of the many constraints placed on teachers’ curriculum development, he argues that there are multiple entry points for the student’s voice, as research by Nadine Crane (2016) affirmed. Examples include: r choosing a topic for an individual inquiry within a unit of work based on an area of personal interest, but also connected with the topic and focus questions r selecting how the information for a project or inquiry will be sourced, such as the internet, reference books, interviews, multimedia texts and surveys r deciding how the findings of an inquiry or task will be processed and presented, such as a poster, video clip, PowerPoint presentation, talk, wiki, blog, website, written text or poem r giving input into writing the assessment criteria r making decisions about the format of the assessment performance task r determining what action the class or individual students might undertake at the end of a unit in response to some of the issues that emerge. Negotiating some aspects of the planning, even simply by offering some choices, gives students a sense of ownership and of taking responsibility for their learning. Importantly, the research has shown that opportunities to negotiate aspects of the curriculum provide motivation to learn (Shillinglaw 2001). Moreover, as Crane’s research reveals, Boomer’s ideas about giving students a voice in curriculum planning resonate with the Australian Curriculum’s Personal and Social Capability. What entry points for student input or negotiation will you include in your lesson/unit planning? The principles identified here as important considerations for curriculum planning and decision making are limited to some that are widely accepted. Over time, you will clarify more explicitly the principles that inform and guide your planning. This can happen through working collaboratively with colleagues to plan, teach, observe and refine class lessons, using some guiding protocols for the observations and follow-up dialogue. View an AITSL video clip that shows how these collaborations inform planning for practice. As part of your pre-service training, you may be required to record one of your lessons and then use this to reflect critically on the enactment of your lesson planning. The video, or edited excerpts, can then be shared with your supervisors and possibly those in your tutorial group to open up discussion about the effectiveness of your planning and pedagogy. The video may also be used as an illustration of practice to show competency in the Australian Professional Standards for Graduate Teachers (AITSL 2017).
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WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
As a practising teacher, critical reflection will continue to be an essential part of your curriculum work. Effective critical reflection on practice takes time and a commitment to practice: ‘practice makes practice’ (Britzman 2003). Use these reflective and metacognitive prompts to assist you in reflecting on the next lesson you give. Reflection r What evidence do I have that my learning intentions were met? r How did my prior knowledge about the students contribute to the lesson’s delivery and outcome? r How effective were my entry points for some student input and choice in relation to the learning tasks? r What adjustments did I need to make to my planning during the lesson? r To what extent was my lesson engaging and intellectually challenging for the range of students in the class?
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r Were the students able to engage in some metacognitive thinking about their learning during the lesson? Why/why not? Did I provide adequate opportunities for students to demonstrate what they learned in this lesson? Metacognition r How did my observations assist my judgements about students’ learning? r Did my planning processes have a positive impact on the lesson’s development? r To what extent have my reflections enabled me to consider a transformation of my lesson? How would that lesson differ if I repeated it? On your return to class, discuss the effectiveness of the prompts with your peers and refine them for future use.
WHAT CAN I TAKE INTO THE CLASSROOM?
Students also need opportunities to engage with metacognitive awareness and thinking. Include some questions in your planning to prompt students to reflect, adjust and explain their thinking behind choices, strategies and actions they have taken. These might include: ‘What do I know?’, ‘What do I want to know?’, and ‘What do I need to know?’ Refer to ACARA’s Critical and Creative Thinking capability, which requires students to think about thinking (metacognition). Reflect on actions and processes, and transfer knowledge into new contexts to create alternatives or open up possibilities.
7.4 Planning at the micro-level: individual lesson plans LEARNING OBJECTIVE 7.4 Be aware of what level of detail to consider when planning a lesson.
Although there is no blueprint for planning, tertiary institutions generally provide a structural framework to guide lesson planning. Google the phrase ‘lesson planning’ and activities, teaching strategies and resources will be generated for any topic, subject and year level that you enter (see, for example, Education Services Australia, www.esa.edu.au). While these online lessons may provide useful starting points, the best planning for student learning requires specific knowledge about your students and the school community. The Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL 2017) articulates standards around planning for and implementing effective teaching and learning matched to teachers’ different career stages. The graduate stages will provide a useful reference point for you to work towards. Lessons can be matched explicitly to curriculum standards or learning outcomes. You may also find the hyperlinked Elaborations on the Australian Curriculum useful when planning. While curriculum documents will make clear what has to be taught to students, what they should learn and what will be the expected quality of that learning, classroom teachers are the people who will decide how best to organise learning for students.
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Strategic planning for lessons So what do your lesson plans look like? Your supervisor and the institution where you are studying will undoubtedly have their own expectations. But over time you will develop your own preferred way of planning. Initially you are likely to over-plan rather than be caught underprepared. Detail such as planning for fast finishers, rather than giving time fillers, will assist with management issues that can arise when students are marking time. As flagged in the introduction, daily plans will reduce in detail with time, but it is still essential that your intentions for the lesson be clearly defined and that you have a record of planning for accountability purposes. The proforma shown in figure 7.4 requires you to be reflective and thoughtful about your planning, so a series of questions are posed to guide the process. Planning, whether at the micro-level of lesson plans or the macro-level of unit planning, targets specific knowledge, skills and values/attitudes. These are identified in state or national curriculum CHAPTER 7 Planning for practice: connecting pedagogy, assessment and curriculum 233
documentation, which defines the standards/learning outcomes students need to prepare them for further education, work and life, or in school-based curriculum learning outcomes. FIGURE 7.4
A lesson planning proforma
Learning area:
Year level:
Class size:
Time:
Curriculum connections (include standards, if relevant) _______________________________ Intended learning
What are my intended learning outcomes for this lesson? What knowledge, concepts, understandings and/or skills am I targeting? What explicit teaching will I undertake?
Assessment
What pre-assessment tasks will support the planning? How will I know that my intended learning objectives/outcomes have been achieved? What evidence will I collect to show students’ learning? (discussion, responses to questions, samples of work, presentations, written exercises etc.)
Prep (negotiation)
What planning can I do with others? How will I find out what the students already know? How will I build on their knowledge and experiences? How will I give students some ownership of the lesson by providing them with some choices within the lesson?
Procedure
Engagement: What will be a good hook to start the lesson? What will be an entry point that will grab their attention? How will I connect students with their past learning experiences and prior knowledge of the topic? How will I make the expectations and the intended outcomes for this lesson explicit? Learning experiences: What learning experiences will best develop the intended outcomes? What explicit instruction will I need to give? What examples might I need to show? What is the logical sequence of the learning experiences? How will I differentiate the learning experiences to include all students? What will I prepare for ‘fast finishers’? What time allocations do the learning experiences require? Classroom organisation: How will I set up the classroom for this lesson? What grouping arrangements will be the most strategic? What balance of whole class, small group and independent learning experiences will I use? Dialogue: What opportunities can I create for dialogue? What questions can I ask to encourage exploration of concepts and big ideas? What spaces can I make for student questions? Reflection: How will I get students to both demonstrate and reflect on their learning? Closure: How will I bring closure to the lesson? How will I ensure the room is ready for the next class?
Resources
What resources, including digital, will best support the lesson? What equipment do I need to organise and check before the lesson? What materials do I need to prepare?
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What other arrangements are necessary? (e.g. organising a speaker, notifying other teachers of changes to routine, room layout, checking online presentation links) Evaluation
What worked well? What would I modify? What would I do differently next time? Which students do I need to follow up? What do I need to build on in the next lesson? How can I use the assessment information to improve student learning?
Planning for outcomes Intended learning objectives generally refer to short-term statements or orientations about student learning outcomes that relate to the knowledge, capabilities/skills and attitudes/dispositions that you want students to acquire. Your intended outcomes for a lesson need to be clearly written statements that are relevant to the subject or learning area. They should articulate what you anticipate can be achieved in the 234
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given time. Wiggins and McTighe (2011) stress the importance of determining these intended outcomes before deciding on the learning experiences and teaching strategies. Objectives describe endpoints. Objectives may initially seem challenging to write, so ask your supervising teachers to assist you when first attempting to frame them. Think about what type of knowledge you want students to acquire. Anderson et al. (2001) provide four categories, which are described in table 7.1. TABLE 7.1
Cognitive knowledge dimensions
Knowledge dimension
Examples
Factual knowledge Basic elements students must know to be acquainted with a discipline or solve problems
Knowledge of terminology and specific details
Conceptual knowledge Interrelationships among basic elements within a larger structure
Knowledge of classifications, categories, principles, generalisations, theories, models and structures
Procedural knowledge How to do something
Knowledge of skills, algorithms, techniques, methods and criteria for determining appropriate procedures
Metacognitive knowledge Knowledge of cognition in general and awareness of one’s own
Self-knowledge, strategic knowledge, contextual and conditional knowledge
Source: Adapted from Anderson et al. (2001).
Also helpful when you are writing lesson objectives are Anderson et al.’s (2001) categories of the cognitive process dimension. The six categories present a continuum of complexity. You will see how this continuum of cognitive complexity can also be used for framing questions in chapter 8. These levels are represented in table 7.2. TABLE 7.2
Cognitive levels of processing
Cognitive level
Processes
Verb stems
Recognising and recalling
Recall, name, state, define, repeat, list and identify
Interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarising, inferring, comparing and explaining
Rephrase, describe, reword, explain, illustrate, compare and infer
Executing and implementing: Applying/transferring what has been learnt to other situations
Apply, use, demonstrate, interpret, dramatise and implement
Differentiating, organising and attributing
Differentiate, compare and contrast, order, reason, draw conclusions and determine evidence
Remember Retrieving relevant information from long-term memory Understand
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Constructing meaning to demonstrate comprehension Apply Carry out or use a procedure
Analyse Breaking into parts to examine closely; organising ideas into logical patterns of understanding
(continued)
CHAPTER 7 Planning for practice: connecting pedagogy, assessment and curriculum 235
TABLE 7.2
(continued)
Cognitive level
Processes
Verb stems
Checking and critiquing
Critique, judge, assess, decide, rate, evaluate, measure, predict, estimate and choose
Generating, planning and producing
Compose, propose, suggest, construct, invent, formulate, create and prepare
Evaluate Making judgements based on criteria and standards Create Synthesising or reorganising separate elements to create a new structure or pattern
Source: Adapted from Anderson et al. (2001).
The following examples, taken from www.sciencebydoing.edu.au, are from science units designed for students in Year 7 to show how the verbs can be used to frame learning objectives for units of work. Science of toys r Carry out an experiment to test the effect of different factors on the flight of a helicopter. Circle of life r Understand the features of an organism and then be able to match the organism with a particular environment. Enough water for drinking r Share ideas about water supply and use r Describe some Indigenous practices related to water management. Learning goals are carefully worded statements about curriculum intent embedded in state or national curriculum documents, or in school-based curriculum documentation. Be mindful that the terms goals, aims and objectives and learning outcomes are sometimes used interchangeably. However, generally, learning goals are perceived as broad statements of intent that inform your more explicit lesson or unit learning outcomes/objectives (McGee & Fraser 2012). The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (AITSL 2017) emphasises establishing challenging learning goals as a key focus area when planning for and implementing effective teaching and learning (3.1). The curriculum learning goals may be expressed as the student achievement standards defined by your state or the Australian Curriculum. For example, the science lesson about electricity connects with the Year 6 science achievement standard:
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They analyse requirements for the transfer of electricity and describe how energy can be transformed from one form to another to generate electricity (ACARA n.d.).
Skills acquisition is addressed within the content of the learning areas. The Melbourne Declaration (2008) identified essential skills for twenty-first century learners and these have been embodied in the Australian Curriculum as General Capabilities: literacy, numeracy, information and communication technology (ICT) capability, critical and creative thinking, personal and social capability, ethical understanding and intercultural understanding. The International Baccalaureate similarly views skills as interdisciplinary and has broad-based categories for identifying those they perceive as important for preparing students for success at school and for participation beyond in a global world: social skills, research skills, thinking skills, self-management skills and communication skills. Values, attitudes and dispositions are not necessarily interchangeable, but there are crossovers, as curriculum documents show. The Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians (MCEETYA 2008) cites honesty, resilience, empathy and respect as goals individuals should aspire to achieve. They are embedded within the Australian Curriculum learning areas, the general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities. The IB refers to ‘attitudes’ that teachers are expected to foster in their teaching, and their PYP and MYP classes must target at least one of the following attitudes: appreciation, commitment, confidence, cooperation, creativity, curiosity, empathy, enthusiasm, independence, integrity, respect or tolerance. 236
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Resources can make or break a lesson plan or unit. Some schools are resource-rich; others resourcepoor. Yet, often resources that are available in schools go unused. Countless new items are catalogued, never to be borrowed. So do make yourself aware of what is available. Additionally, multiple resources can be readily accessed online. For example, Scootle (Education Services Australia 2017) is a national repository of 20 000 + digital resources aligned to the Australian Curriculum — see www.scootle.edu.au/ ec/p/home. It develops, shares and deploys nationally-owned education infrastructure and resources on behalf of the education ministers and is available to all Australian educators. Resource types include: interactive, image, audio, video, collection, teachers and text. AITSL also provides insights and suggestions for embedding tools and resources to promote Indigenous perspectives when planning. These are accessible from their website (www.aitsl.edu.au/tools-resources/resource/selecting-indigenous-resourcesillustration-of-practice). Examples of other digital resources you may find useful are: r interactive multimedia r interactive assessment r audio recordings r still images r video content. Resources play an essential role in planning for learning. With rich resources for teaching never before so readily available, gone are the days when textbooks alone sufficed. The effective use of resources requires planning so that they become seamlessly embedded and support students’ learning, rather than being an add-on that serves little purpose other than to entertain.
The teaching strategies or methods you choose will generally be consistent with your beliefs about how students learn. If, like Dewey and Vygotsky, you believe that knowledge is socially constructed, you will encourage opportunities for whole-class and small-group interactions. You will seek opportunities to scaffold the learning through questioning, explicit instruction, dialogue, drawing parallels to previous experiences and so on. CHAPTER 7 Planning for practice: connecting pedagogy, assessment and curriculum 237
There can, however, be a dilemma between balancing curriculum decisions made by others and your own beliefs, values and orientations (Eisner 1982). Pre-service teachers sometimes lament that opportunities to implement their ideas are limited by a mismatch between their pedagogical practices and the school-based curriculum decision making. Summative and formative assessment of your lesson is needed to make judgements based on evidence of student achievement of the intended learning outcomes or objectives (summative) and inferences about student progress to inform future teaching (formative). Students also need opportunities to reflect on and monitor the progress of their own learning. These assessment practices are discussed in chapter 12. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
Preparing lesson plans undoubtedly seems an onerous task at present. Yet you have probably discovered that there is no substitute for careful, rigorous lesson preparation. Checklists can be a saving grace when there is so much detail to address. However, there is an inherent danger of being reluctant to divert from the lesson’s structural framework, having invested so much time in the planning process. But remember, planning must be flexible. Recall a lesson where you have felt compromised in this way. What did you do? With hindsight, what could you have done differently?
WHAT CAN I TAKE INTO THE CLASSROOM?
Use the following checklist as an audit tool for your lesson plans. Identify what aspects of planning you find challenging, and what it is you specifically need to refine or modify. r Have I consulted relevant curriculum frameworks and made explicit connections? r Are my intended learning outcomes clearly defined? r Have I decided what evidence I will collect to determine whether the lesson outcomes were achieved? r Have I included some way of students connecting with their prior knowledge and experiences? r Are there opportunities for some student input/choice? r Have I considered how I will set the room up to best use the learning spaces? r Have I considered student dynamics for the grouping arrangements I will use? r Is my lesson content inclusive of all students in the class? r Are the resources seamlessly embedded in lesson plans to support students’ learning, rather than simply being an add-on? r Have I considered Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in this lesson? r Have I prepared some open-ended questions to focus discussions? r Have I considered how I will draw closure to the lesson? r Have I included opportunities for students to reflect on and articulate their learning?
7.5 Planning a unit of work: a sequence of lessons Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE 7.5 Be familiar with the backward design approach to planning.
In your practicum placement schools, how do teachers go about planning their units of work? As a preservice teacher you are likely to progress from preparing individual lesson plans to devising a sequence of lessons that comprise a unit of work. There are different models used by schools, but two commonly used models are the objective model (Tyler 1949), and the backward design model (Wiggins & McTighe 2005, 2011). In brief, the objective model is a linear approach with four steps: 1. statement of the objectives 2. selection of the experiences that will develop the objectives 3. determination of how the experiences will best be enacted to meet the objectives 4. evaluation of the students’ achievement of the objectives. 238
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Tyler’s objective model, despite its age, continues to have a significant influence in curriculum development and planning for learning. Wiggins and McTighe’s (2005) Understanding by Design (UbD) embraces a backward design approach. It is sometimes referred to as backward mapping (for example, Gilbert 2017). This model has received wide attention with its front-loading of assessment. Like Tyler’s rational-linear approach (1949), it first establishes the learning outcomes, objectives and standards, as shown in figure 7.5. In contrast to Tyler’s model, only three distinct stages are identified (outcomes, assessment and learning experiences) and assessment is addressed before the learning experiences. The design process is acknowledged as more fluid, with the design emerging from the context in which the curriculum is being constructed, as this assistant principal reveals: At the initial planning phase, we also devise common assessment tasks that will take place in the second half of the unit so that we can make summative assessments about the students’ development and allow for teachers to moderate. The bulk of the unit is planned after the ‘tuning in’ task has been completed so that we can drive the unit in the direction that meets the needs of the students, rather than set off on a predetermined path. FIGURE 7.5
UbD ‘backward design’ approach
Identify the objectives, learning outcomes and understanding goals that you want to achieve.
Determine what you will accept as evidence.
Plan the explicit teaching and learning experiences. Source: Adapted from Wiggins and McTighe (2005).
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For a detailed assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of different models of curriculum design, see Marsh and Willis (2007), and Brady and Kennedy (2007). Pasi Sahlberg (2011) attributes Finnish schools’ consistently high ranking in the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) to school-based and teacher-owned curricula. Effective teachers, according to Sahlberg, develop their own school-based curriculum units and programs drawing on mandated frameworks but catering for physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students and how these may affect learning.
What might a unit planner look like? Although you will begin by planning individual lessons, these lessons are generally part of a unit of work. There are many ways to document planning a unit of work. Carol Ann Tomlinson (2013) uses the acronym KUD to emphasise that essentially a unit must initially identify: r what you want students to know (facts, vocabulary, definitions) r what you want students to understand (principles, generalisations, big ideas of a discipline) r what you want students to do (processes and skills). Figure 7.6 presents one example of a unit planner proforma for you to consider and can be used either as a single subject unit planner or as a cross-disciplinary unit planner. The planner’s sequence of CHAPTER 7 Planning for practice: connecting pedagogy, assessment and curriculum 239
learning accords with the e5 instructional model (Department of Education and Early Childhood Development [Victoria] 2017) and the 5Es Teaching and Learning Model advocated by the Australian Academy of Science for the Primary Connections linking science with literacy (2017). Schools, however, may have their own specifications and inclusions, as the opening case study indicated. Cross-disciplinary approaches to planning are discussed later in the chapter. FIGURE 7.6
Example of unit planner proforma UNIT TITLE
Intended outcomes What curriculum (standards/learning outcomes, subject/course/program objectives) goals will this unit address? What cross-curriculum priorities will be addressed? Topic Year level
Duration of unit
Subject(s)
Concepts
Enduring understandings The overarching big ideas that frame the unit
Essential questions Open ended questions that provoke thinking and deepen understanding
Student expectations At the end of this unit: What key knowledge should we expect students to have? What should we expect students to be able to do (general capabilities addressed through the learning areas that include thinking skills, ICT skills, communication skills, self-management skills and research skills, etc.)? Students should know . . .
Students should be able to . . .
ASSESSMENT SUMMARY (ongoing: for, as and of learning) What evidence will we collect to show learning? What strategies can we use to cater for variances in learning styles and progress? How can we provide opportunities for self, peer, teacher and parent assessment? Pre-assessment:
Task(s) description:
Summative assessment task Formative assessment opportunities
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Resources What resources will best support students’ learning? The sequence of teaching and learning experiences Engage How will we create interest and stimulate students’ curiosity in the topic? What tasks will assist students to express what they know about the knowledge, concept or skill being developed, and assist them to make connections between what they know and the new ideas?
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Focus questions Questions to provoke curiosity and interest
Explore What hands-on tasks will support students to generate and investigate questions?
Focus questions Questions to focus students on learning and the learning process
How will the learning tasks enable students to gather and process new information that challenges their existing knowledge and understandings? Explain How will students communicate what they know and understand, and demonstrate the new skills they have learned? What strategies will assist students to connect and organise new and existing knowledge? Elaborate What tasks will enable students to apply what they have learnt to new situations to develop a deeper understanding of the skill/s or concept/s? Evaluate How will students evaluate and reflect on their learning? How will we evaluate students’ learning and the effectiveness of the unit? How will we guide students to identify future learning goals?
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An interdisciplinary unit focus How will students take personal and collective action? How can students relate their learning to real-life situations?
At the beginning of the chapter, one of the questions posed was ‘How do we plan to support the development of students’ understanding?’ Wiggins and McTighe’s UbD framework for designing performance assessments and instruction seeks to provide this support level. It is designed around six facets of understanding: 1. being able to explain 2. being able to interpret 3. being able to apply 4. having perspective 5. being able to empathise 6. having self-knowledge about a given topic. The ‘backward design’ approach determines the assessment and what will be accepted as evidence of learning before the learning experiences are detailed. This is consistent with the emphasis on standards and outcomes-based learning in state and national curriculum organisers. Concepts are often the starting point for planning a unit. They underpin enduring understandings/big ideas. Lynn Erickson (2008, p. 30), an advocate of concept-based learning, defines a concept as ‘a mental construct that is timeless, universal in application, and abstract (to different degrees)’. Although specific examples may change, the attributes of a concept remain unchanged. Some curricula are specifically concept-based, such as the International Baccalaureate’s PYP and MYP. The rich concepts that drive the PYP are: form, function, causation, change, connection, perspective, responsibility and reflection. To deepen students’ understanding, these concepts are constantly revisited in the units that comprise a school’s program for learning from Kindergarten to Year 6 and are always embedded in the unit’s central idea (enduring understanding). In the MYP there are just three fundamental concepts: (1) intercultural awareness, (2) holistic learning and (3) communication. Teachers, however, may identify additional subject-based concepts to focus student learning. CHAPTER 7 Planning for practice: connecting pedagogy, assessment and curriculum 241
Enduring understandings is a term often used for big conceptual ideas or what the International Baccalaureate terms ‘central ideas’. They are generally abstract in nature and express what is important for students to understand in a unit (Wiggins & McTighe 2011). Erickson refers to enduring understandings as generalisations. She defines them as ‘deeper transferable ideas that arise from fact-based studies’, which express ‘statements of conceptual knowledge’ (Erickson 2008, p. 83). These are often written by teaching teams because, although the statements look deceptively simple, they require deliberation to ensure they drive the learning experiences and clarify what it is you want your students to learn. An enduring understanding is about ‘uncoverage’, that is it ‘has to be worked through and validated as an appropriate and helpful conclusion’ (Wiggins & McTighe 2005, p. 132). Writing these enduring understandings generally involves intense discussion and debate that energises professional dialogue. Figure 7.7 demonstrates some examples for different subject-based units and transdisciplinary units of work. FIGURE 7.7
Subject-based examples of enduring understandings
A mathematics unit on statistics Statistics can both conceal and reveal information. Statistical analyses reveal patterns that assist government planning. A science unit on water Removing vast amounts of water from watersheds has the potential to destroy ecosystems. A history unit on early settlement of Australia The lifestyle, culture and survival of Indigenous Australians were threatened by the arrival of European settlers. An interdisciplinary unit: ‘immigration’ There are both overt and invisible barriers for people wishing to make Australia their new home.
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An interdisciplinary unit: ‘identity and difference’ Personal identity is shaped by one’s culture, by groups and by institutional differences.
In this approach to unit design, the teachers identify specific knowledge and skills that they want the students to acquire, in addition to meanings they will make. Essential questions describe open-ended questions that focus discussion and learning in a unit of work (Erickson 2008; McTighe & Wiggins 2013). McTighe and Wiggins (2013, pp. 5–6) have three criteria for essential questions — they: 1. are broad in scope and universal by nature (e.g. what is justice?) 2. reflect the key inquiries within a discipline (e.g. to what extent are current global weather patterns typical or unusual?) 3. are what students need for learning core content. Generally the criteria work alongside the enduring understandings. As the examples indicate, these are questions that are not easily answered and are returned to regularly over the course of a unit to guide students’ thinking ‘beyond the facts to the generalisations and principles that form the deep transferable understandings of a discipline’ (Erickson 2008, p. 188). As Erickson suggests, they are easier to write once the enduring understandings have been written. For example, the essential question for the enduring understanding of ‘the significant contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the present and past are acknowledged locally, nationally and globally’ could be ‘how are the significant contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, both present and past, acknowledged locally, nationally and globally?’ This example is drawn from the Australian Curriculum’s cross-curriculum priority, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures, and frames an inquiry unit, ‘Fire: A burning question’, developed by Gordonvale State High School, a government school located south of 242
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Cairns in Queensland (www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islanderhistories-and-cultures/illustrations-of-practice/fire-a-burning-question). The questions and the understandings focus on students’ meaning-making. Focus questions are also framed to take the students from the factual to the conceptual level of thinking as the unit develops. While not losing sight of the importance of big questions, you will need to ask a range of more specific questions, some of which will simply focus on recall of factual information, as it is facts that underpin the formation of big ideas. The role of questioning and the different types of questions that you can ask are discussed in chapter 8.
Learning experiences This is where teachers like to start the planning, but if the learning is to be purposeful (that is, develop and deepen students’ conceptual understanding of the topic), first the framework needs to be in place. Ongoing monitoring and assessment of the students’ learning will determine when explicit instruction is required in relation to developing the relevant knowledge, skills and concepts. An audit of the unit should reveal the connectedness of these learning experiences to the enduring understanding(s), and what it is you want students to know and do.
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Cross-disciplinary and integrated approaches Thinking back to your schooling, was curriculum taught in discrete subjects or did your teachers attempt to integrate the subjects? Curriculum can be placed on a continuum of design options from disciplinebased learning to the entire curriculum planned around this orientation. Phenomenon-Based Learning (PhBL) has a central place in Finland’s National Curriculum Framework (NCF). PhBL is a move away from subject-specific domains towards inter-disciplinary topics. Despite a very slight decline in recent international test score rankings, Sahlberg (2015) states: ‘educators in Finland think, quite correctly, that schools should teach what young people need in their lives rather than try to bring national test scores back to where they were.’ NCF states that students must be involved in the planning of phenomenon-based study periods, and that they must have a voice in assessing what they have learned from it. In Australia, integration attempts, although both demonised and defended by educators, have generally received systemic endorsement in contemporary Australian Curriculum frameworks and the International Baccalaureate’s PYP and MYP. The Australian Curriculum Framing Paper (ACARA 2012) states: ‘Rather than being self-contained or fixed, disciplines are interconnected, dynamic and growing. A disciplinebased curriculum should allow for cross-disciplinary learning that broadens and enriches each student’s learning.’ It is therefore likely that at some point in time you will be involved in designing units of work that cross the subject (discipline) divides, or you may have already done so. Essentially these units are organised around a topic that is open-ended and meaningful developmentally to the learners; involves two or more disciplines; focuses on the development of big conceptual ideas; and has content that is relevant to the students’ lives. Primary teachers, by virtue of being generalists, have long embraced approaches that plan across the learning areas, as this assistant principal’s comments reveal: Planning is a vital part of curriculum delivery at my school. With between six and eight class groups at each level, we need to ensure consistency whilst allowing for individual teachers to have some flexibility. We use the ‘eUnit planner’, a fantastic tool that provides a structure for us to build our units. Teams begin with topics that have been devised on a two-year cycle that follows the essential ideas in our system-level curriculum documents. A series of key concepts are then developed as statements of understanding.
Subject-oriented secondary teachers have been less inclined to embrace cross-disciplinary curriculum, although it is sometimes used to address disengagement in the middle years (see Beane 2006). Resistance CHAPTER 7 Planning for practice: connecting pedagogy, assessment and curriculum 243
can in part be attributed to seeing their role as gatekeepers acting to ensure that discipline knowledge is not devalued, diluted or subsumed. Resistance has also been attributed to pragmatics: r the intellectual challenge of developing conceptual understandings that cross subject boundaries to create a connected, cohesive curriculum (Godinho 2017; Shulman & Sherin 2004) r the complexity of designing assessment tasks across subjects and the lack of professional development to support teachers in integrative curriculum planning processes (Shulman & Sherin 2004). Yet the experience of cross-disciplinary planning can be very positive, as comments by a Year 8 student reveal when talking about the unit Reality Bites, which addressed the concept of ‘reality’ from the subject perspectives of science, English, religion and media studies: the most amazing rich discussion that opened us up to what was happening in science and religion and media and you know the links between them became very obvious. But the depth to which we were trying to wrestle with what reality actually was I think reassured us that we could build something quite meaningful around this for a unit about ‘reality’. Science mostly doesn’t interest me personally but when they bring in stuff like that — like it forces you to think, it really challenges you and it kind of pushes you to your limit and so you think well hang on there could be something more that I’m not thinking about. And in a way it sort of forces you to think about it. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
Use the SWOT analysis strategy to explore your thinking about cross-disciplinary approaches to planning for learning. r Strengths: What do you perceive as the advantages in planning a cross-disciplinary unit rather than planning within the subject/discipline boundaries? r Weaknesses: What do you perceive as the possible disadvantages in approaching planning for learning this way? r Opportunities: How might cross-disciplinary approaches assist students’ engagement with learning? r Threats: What do you perceive as possible trouble spots in relation to students’ learning when implementing cross-disciplinary curriculum?
WHAT CAN I TAKE INTO THE CLASSROOM?
Familiarise yourself with the AITSL standards at graduate level (www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/standards) and use the following standards to inform your planning for learning. Ask your supervising teacher to use these standards to discuss and give feedback for the lesson sequence you plan. 1.4 Strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students Demonstrate broad knowledge and understanding of the impact of culture, cultural identity and linguistic background on the education of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. 2.4 Understand and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to promote
reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians Demonstrate broad knowledge of, understanding of and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and languages. Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.
3.1 Establish challenging learning goals Set learning goals that provide achievable challenges for students of varying abilities and characteristics. 3.2 Plan, structure and sequence learning programs Plan a lesson sequence using knowledge of student learning, content and affective strategies. 3.3 Use teaching strategies Include a range of strategies. 3.4 Select and use resources Demonstrate knowledge of a range of resources, including ICT, that engage students in their learning.
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3.5 Use effective classroom communication Demonstrate a range of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to support student engagement. 3.6 Evaluate and improve teaching programs Demonstrate broad knowledge of strategies that can be used to evaluate teaching programs to improve student learning (AITSL 2017).
7.6 Inquiry-based pedagogy LEARNING OBJECTIVE 7.6 Apply inquiry-based approaches to planning.
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What examples have you seen in classrooms of students undertaking inquiries? Inquiry can be undertaken in its many guises from preschool years to Year 12, and the model or type of inquiry may vary across subjects. In science, the inquiry is likely to be inductive and begin by exploring a puzzling scenario that leads students to an explanation through a process of discovery. By contrast, in the humanities an inquiry is more often a deductive approach initiated through a problem or an issue. An inquiry may also be a negotiated aspect of a topic that students wish to know more about. In the primary years there needs to be a strong focus on the development of skills such as predicting, hypothesising, generating questions, engaging in dialogue and synthesising findings. The IB’s PYP recognises that students from Kindergarten onwards can engage in simple inquiries; likewise, the Reggio Emilia preschool philosophy encourages children to undertake extended exploration and problem solving — a form of inquiry. An example of a three-year-old’s inquiry is the topic ‘Shadows and Reflection’ around the central idea ‘shadows and colour come from light’. An example of a four-year-old’s inquiry is the topic ‘Families and Friends’ around the central idea ‘People need family and friends’.
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Inquiry is a systematic, sequenced study, a dispositional way of thinking and a dialogic discourse. Linda Darling-Hammond, in conversation with Maxine McKew (McKew 2014), stressed that at the rate new knowledge is created, transmission teaching does not prepare students for active participation in today’s world. She asserted that ‘we must teach in ways that allow students to do a lot of inquiry while learning facts and engaging with concepts so the habit of inquiry, of making sense [of the world] and thinking creatively become so deeply ingrained that they greatly exceed us in their capacity for problem solving. Essentially inquiry-based pedagogy emphasises: r process over content r conceptual understanding r student-initiated questioning r dialogue as a means of deepening thinking. (The dialogic stance is discussed in chapter 8.) Inquiry or discovery learning has been a focus of science curricula since the late 1950s (Chiarelott 2006) and a firmly established practice in Australian science, humanities and personal development curriculum frameworks since the 1980s. However, an inquiry-based approach to learning must be rigorous and not simply adjust to the near occasion in that it amounts to little more than students doing project work (Godinho & Wilson 2004).
Inquiry as a systematic, sequenced study An inquiry can involve a whole class, a small group or an individual student. Within a planned crossdisciplinary unit, opportunities may be created for students to negotiate their own inquiries about an aspect of the topic they wish to explore further or an issue/problem they have identified. Regardless of how the inquiry is generated, it is essential that students are involved in the decision making. There have been numerous inquiry models published for Australian educators, particularly focused at the primary level, that identify different stages as a way of guiding students through an investigation (see, for example, Hoepper 2017; Murdoch 2015; Murdoch & Hornsby 1997; Pigdon & Woolley 1992; Victorian Schools Division, Curriculum Branch 1987). Table 7.3 identifies frequently used stages for planning an inquiry. TABLE 7.3
Stages and purposes for an inquiry
Inquiry stage 1. Engagement and tuning in
Purposes To identify and define the issue or topic To generate interest To determine students’ prior knowledge and attitudes
2. Determining directions and organising ourselves To choose a focus for the inquiry To identify guiding questions and formulate a hypothesis or proposition To scope the inquiry and formulate a plan of action To determine sources for seeking required information
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3. Researching and acquiring information
To collect and synthesise information To compare and contrast information
4. Drawing conclusions
To interpret the information To present and communicate the understandings and conclusions that have been drawn
5. Taking action and reflection
To take action that makes some connection with the school, home and/or wider community To set goals for future learning based on self-assessment and reflection
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Although the defining of stages and their explicit purposes provides a useful structure inquiry is rarely a linear process, and the stages are often revisited. Reflection, for example, occurs at every stage, and this may lead to adjustments to the directions and organisation of the inquiry. The 5E inquiry-oriented model has gained widespread curriculum and systems endorsement in Australia and the United States at both primary and secondary levels (see Australian Academy of Science, www.science.org.au), and this too delineates teaching and learning stages (engage, explore, explain, elaborate and evaluate). Taking some action following an inquiry is consistent with the IB’s PYP and MYP planners, and the Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians, which advocates for students to be active and informed citizens. Inquiry can also be undertaken as a community of inquiry — a philosophical approach to learning for primary and secondary students (see, for example, Lipman 1988; Splitter & Sharp 1995; Cam 2006) that supports the development of students’ critical thinking skills. While this is highly recommended, it does require teachers to undertake some training. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
Inquiry is a process that involves active learning. Inquiries are undertaken by early childhood, primary and secondary students, albeit the focus will need to be adjusted accordingly. Inquiries can be discipline focused or they can be cross-disciplinary. They can also be problem- or issue-based, action-driven, negotiated or even play-oriented (Wilson & Wing Jan 2009). What approaches to inquiry-based learning have you seen implemented in schools? How will your planning ensure that inquiries are more than another project?
7.7 Planning to differentiate the learning for student diversity
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LEARNING OBJECTIVE 7.7 Differentiate planning to cater for student diversity.
In what ways have you evidenced teachers catering for the diversity of learners in their classrooms when planning a sequence of lessons or a unit of work? In any mainstream class there will be differences in students’ cognitive, social and emotional development. Issues of inclusivity that arise from these differences were addressed in chapter 5. The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (AITSL) make explicit that it is no longer acceptable for classrooms to plan and function as a ‘one size fits all’ model (Sizer 2004). Teachers are required to differentiate teaching to meet the specific needs of students across the full range of abilities, and to implement strategies that are responsive to linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic differences. Cultural and linguistic knowledge about students’ backgrounds is critical, given their impact on how students interact and how they tend to process and use information (Alberta Education 2010). Moreover, the Australian Curriculum acknowledges the need for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students ‘to see themselves, their identities and their cultures reflected in the curriculum across all learning areas so that they can they can fully participate in the curriculum and build self esteem’ (ACARAb). In chapters 5 and 8, the discussion about the eight Aboriginal ways of learning (Yunkaporta 2009; Yunkaporta & Kirby 2011) offers insights into pedagogies that will support your lesson planning for Indigenous Australian students. Differentiated teaching is one of ten high-impact teaching strategies (HITs) identified when ranking teaching strategies according to contribution to learning, by experts such as John Hattie and Robert Marzano (Department of Education and Training, Vic 2017). Carol-Ann Tomlinson (1999, 2017), a renowned expert and early advocate of differentiated teaching, believes students can still learn the same content and essential skills, but approach their learning in different ways (Tomlinson & McTighe 2006). That is, by adjusting the teaching of curriculum content to meet the learners’ individual needs, students can take different pathways to the same destination. CHAPTER 7 Planning for practice: connecting pedagogy, assessment and curriculum 247
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Differentiating the learning experiences therefore begins with getting to know individual students and recognising that they differ according to: r cognitive abilities, including students’ current level of understanding and ability in relation to a particular topic or skill r prior learning experiences, learning styles and preferences r motivation and engagement with learning r interests and talents (New South Wales Educations Standards Authority n.d.). Tomlinson notes that differentiation can take the form of multiple approaches to content (what students learn), process (how students make sense of information and ideas), and product (demonstration of learning) in academically diverse classrooms (Tomlinson 2017). She also suggests that when planning for differentiated instruction, a continuous blend of whole-class, small group and individual instruction be included, so that the class comes together regularly to review and share their learning. Elements you might already document in your planning include: r devising a pre-test to inform the planning of learning experiences r making explicit the ongoing formal and informal assessment r presenting information in multiple ways r offering choice in the format used for a final project or performance r setting open-ended tasks that allow students to work at different levels and paces r using group and targeted interventions to remediate learning difficulties r assessing student work against prior achievements rather than against other students’ work. There are some very accessible approaches that you can gradually introduce to your planning over time, such as negotiating some aspects of the learning (as mentioned earlier); taking into consideration students’ different intelligences and learning styles when planning learning experiences; offering choices about the method or format of learning performances for assessment; and using individual contracts or learning plans. In differentiating the learning experiences, the aim is to assist the learning process and to maximise opportunities for each student to experience success. Importantly, as John Hattie emphasises, every child deserves one year’s growth for a year at school, no matter what their starting point (Hattie 2012; Hattie, Master & Birch 2016). View the TeachingACEnglish video to see how planning can be undertaken — see www.teachingacenglish.edu.au/differentiation/overview/differentiation.html. Learning styles or preferred ways in which students more readily process information are broadly referred to as ‘visual’, ‘linguistic’, ‘kinaesthetic’ and ‘technological’. Howard Gardner’s framework of multiple intelligences (1993) differentiates specific abilities, and provides a useful tool for teachers when planning learning tasks. His ways of knowing counter the very narrow definition of intelligence based solely on a mathematical and linguistic perspective. Gardner argues (Lazear 1995, p. 3) that: r intelligence is not fixed r intelligence can be learned, taught and enhanced r intelligence is a multidimensional phenomenon that is always present at multiple levels of your brain/ mind/body systems. When planning assessment for a unit of work, it is important that students have the opportunity to show their learning in different ways, rather than a traditional reliance on the written or verbal/linguistic format. This is discussed further in chapter 12. In reading table 7.4, determine where your abilities lie and your preferred ways of expressing your learning. TABLE 7.4
Using multiple intelligences to plan for learning
Ability/way of knowing Verbal/linguistic
248
Identifiers
Learning activities
A facility with written and spoken words and a capacity to use language to communicate.
Debates, public speaking, written essays, report writing, learning logs and journals, poetry, storytelling and plays
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Ability/way of knowing
Identifiers
Learning activities
Logical/mathematical
Skilful with logic, abstractions, reasoning and numbers. Able to perform complex calculations.
Deductive and inductive reasoning, pattern games, computer programming, graphing, charts, logical and rational exercises, cognitive organisers and time lines
Visual/spatial
Skilful at imagining and representing something graphically. Able to visualise and manipulate images.
Mind maps, murals, graphic representations, flow charts, map making, sculpting, painting, drawing, photography, filming, video recording and computer games
Bodily/kinaesthetic
A capacity to learn when moving around, and participating in physical activities such as acting, performing and constructing.
Role-play, dramatisation, human tableaux, dance, lab experiments, charades, body language and gestures, mimes, physical routines and exercises, impersonations and inventions
Musical/rhythmic
A greater sensitivity to sounds, rhythms, tones and music.
Songs, raps, composing, orchestrating music and analysing musical structures
Interpersonal
Sensitivity to others’ moods, feelings, temperaments and motivations, and ability to work cooperatively within a group.
Interviews, people searches, blogs, group work, role play, conflict resolutions, and think, pair, share
Intrapersonal
Self-reflective and capable of understanding one’s own thinking, emotions, goals and motivations.
Setting goals and priorities, personal histories, personal scenarios, diaries and logs, and autobiographical writing
Naturalistic
A greater sensitivity to nature and one’s place within it.
Caring for, taming and interacting with animals, nurturing and growing things
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Individual learning plans and contracts Individual learning or education plans (ILPs and IEPs) are a targeted educational program for students who have been identified as having specific needs. This may include students receiving support from the Special Education Section, students in care, students referred to Student Support Services, and students accessing support through the Indigenous Numeracy and Literacy Consultant. ILPs typically define what needs to be taught, record achievement goals, note curriculum and pedagogical adaptations, and provide guidelines for instruction and participation (Foreman 2007; Palmieri & Godinho 2014). The planning and development of ILPs is challenging (Burgess & Kelly 2013), so this will generally involve you in collaboration with the teaching team, parents/carers and other relevant services and agencies. ILPs are flexible and are regularly monitored, reviewed and evaluated with regard to the specific goals that have been identified. Policies and practices regarding ILPs vary across the Australian states and territories. The Australian Capital Territory Education and Training website provides guidelines and information about the process of developing an ILP — see www.ainslies.act.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/238148/ ILP_guidelines.pdf. For Aboriginal students, Personal Learning Plans (Commonwealth of Australia 2017) and Personal Learning Pathways (NSW Government Education Public Schools) are used to identify, organise and apply personalised approaches to learning and engagement that are developed in partnership with students, their parents or carers. Likewise, these performance goals and approaches are subject to ongoing monitoring and review. Where they are in use, marked improvements in attendance, engagement and academic performance are often reported (Commonwealth of Australia 2017). Contracts can demonstrate to students that you want to involve them in decision making about their learning. A learning contract is a written agreement between the teacher and the learner, in which the CHAPTER 7 Planning for practice: connecting pedagogy, assessment and curriculum 249
learner agrees to complete tasks in a prescribed time frame. It can be undertaken at any year level with the structural format and content modified accordingly. Contracts can include some choice regarding learning activities; presentation format for a project; use of resources; the topic for an inquiry; and performance assessment. Contracts can also be a helpful way of maintaining a record of what each student has agreed to do when undertaking some independent form of project or research. The emphasis is on negotiation and this indicates there are constraints such as fulfilling curriculum requirements and addressing standards. For example, the International Baccalaureate programs (PYP, MYP and CP) invite students to engage in individual inquiries, but these are within ‘the lines’ or the parameters for the inquiry that have been determined and documented in the program planner. Negotiable and non-negotiable aspects of contracts need to be established from the outset. Contracts can be a useful way to plan time to work with individual students or small groups of students without having to direct the rest of the class. They do, however, require careful management, so be mindful to: r start small r make the purpose of the contract clear r familiarise students with the process r have realistic time lines r renegotiate the contract if necessary r schedule conferencing times r seek student feedback on the process. View the video clip on the AITSL Standards website in which a teacher working with a guided reading group demonstrates differentiated teaching that includes contract tasks: www.aitsl.edu.au/tools-resources/ resource/guided-reading-illustration-of-practice. FIGURE 7.8
Example of inquiry contract from Wilson and Cutting (2004)
Inquiry contract Name: __________________ Proposed topic for inquiry The connecting enduring understanding or essential question Why I want to explore this topic (justification) Prior knowledge: What do I already know? The focus questions (2–3) Copyright © 2018. Wiley. All rights reserved.
The resources I will use to seek information My proposed plan of action to answer questions Timeline for completion How I will present and communicate my findings
Student signature
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Teacher signature
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Parents may also be participants in a contract, and this can be a very strategic way to involve parents and keep them informed of actions you have planned to support their child. Similarly, individual learning plans can be planned for students who are assessed as requiring a modified program. There are other ways to differentiate learning, such as learning centres and planned interventions for students at the point of need. You can explore these over time to build a repertoire of strategies for differentiating your curriculum. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
Offering choices so students can engage with preferred ways of showing their learning, using contracts, designing individual learning plans, and adjusting the content and its delivery for different learning levels are all possibilities that can be embedded in your planning. How is diversity catered for in your placement school? What provision are you currently making in your planning for the diversity of learners in your classes? How do you intend to extend this provision over time?
INSIGHTS IN EDUCATION
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Planning for practice: Jo Parry (Deputy Principal, Victorian Primary School) reflects on school-based curriculum work While Jo asserts that planning for practice needs to be flexible, she argues there must be a clearly defined structure to ensure that the way forward is clear. Key elements of planning need to be identified, including some embedded routines that are predictable and known, for example, routines for reflection on learning. As Jo states, when planning lessons or a unit of work, it is critical to ‘keep the questioning inside your head about why you are doing something and what you believe in’. For Jo, the curriculum iterations at state and national level are not viewed as a frustration but rather, as an opportunity ‘to look at their units of work with fresh eyes; to see what can be re-written or transformed’. She believes auditing against revised content and standards can strengthen the planning and sequencing of their school-based curriculum. As a curriculum leader, Jo asks her team, ‘How can we make this work for us, rather than it being done to us?’ Jo emphasises the need to reflect on ‘the sort of teacher you want to be’. She firmly believes, ‘If you want to be “a honer” of your craft, if you really want to be excited by the learning that your kids are engaged in, you have to know your learners.’ Jo stresses that you cannot plan independently of your students. They also need ‘to have buy-in to what they are learning about and through . . . You can’t take another person’s lesson and dump it on the kids.’ Therefore, she cautions against the easy option of appropriating the profusion of lesson plans and units available online. Although differentiation can be challenging, Jo argues that ‘differentiation does not mean different activities . . . It is to do with confidence with the [teaching] content and the developmental curriculum.’ She attests that ‘with a good activity there should be the opportunity to challenge and push kids and the opportunity to scaffold and support [them].’ As a strong advocate of inquiry-driven pedagogy and curriculum, Jo believes that this approach lends itself to differentiation. Asking students about their wonderings and what they want to investigate at the engagement stage of a unit gives them some input into shaping their own inquiries and the unit’s pathway. However, Jo also emphasises that there are always non-negotiable aspects of the curriculum content and delivery. From the get-go, Jo insists that assessment must be central to lesson planning. She notes, ‘If you are not sure what the learning looks like, how can you make it better? You need to be able to recognise what is good learning and ask the questions: “Why is it good work?” and “What’s the criteria for that?” In effect, planning must address the question “What will be the evidence of successful learning?”’ As with the backward design approach, this must be established prior to determining the learning experiences.
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SUMMARY Planning is curriculum work and part of the daily rhythm of teaching (Britzman 2003). It is complex, be it at the micro-level of planning an individual lesson or determining the content and sequence of learning experiences for extended units of work. Curriculum planning requires recognition that curriculum (national, state and school documentation), assessment and pedagogy are interconnected. The frequent curriculum iterations will require you to keep abreast of these changes, but as Jo Parry reminds us in her interview, these iterations can have positive outcomes for refining school-based curriculum work. In a student-centred approach to curriculum design, planning begins with teachers knowing their students: being cognisant of their abilities and their socio-cultural world, so they can plan engaging learning experiences that extend the knowledge, skills and understandings of all students and challenge them intellectually. Moreover, planning must reflect the emphasis in the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (AITSL) and the Australian Curriculum (ACARA) on a broad knowledge and understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures and the use of appropriate strategies for teaching Indigenous Australian students. Student-centred teaching is guided by generic principles that include a critically reflective stance on practice; allowing input and negotiation around some aspects of curriculum with students; and retaining a degree of flexibility that allows teachers to respond to the unexpected and adapt planning to meet individual student needs. Wiggins and McTighe (2011) argue that learning requires ‘understanding’. They describe understanding as having six facets: being able to explain, interpret, apply, have perspective, empathise, and have self-knowledge about a given topic. Understanding means students can apply their learning effectively in new contexts. The Wiggins and McTighe curriculum framework, Understanding by Design (UbD), makes explicit that before learning experiences are planned, learning objectives and assessment procedures must be determined. They refer to this front-loading of assessment as ‘backward design’. Yet planning for learning also means differentiating student experiences to cater for learner diversity. Inquiry-based pedagogy affords opportunities for students to negotiate some aspects of the curriculum and to accommodate preferred ways of learning through the use of student contracts. It is, however, a lack of certainty and tentativeness about your practice that will enable you to re-imagine and mediate changes to your curriculum planning. As Sch¨on (1999) reminds us, there is no substitute for thoughtful planning informed by critical reflection both in and on action.
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KEY TERMS achievement standards The quality of learning students should typically demonstrate by a particular point in their schooling; describes the quality of learning, the extent of knowledge, the depth of understanding and the sophistication of skills. assessment as learning Requiring students to monitor and evaluate what they know and can do, and to set goals for new learning. assessment for learning (formative) Gathering evidence about students’ knowledge, understanding and skills throughout the teaching and learning process to inform your future planning assessment of learning (summative) Using evidence collected at defined key points to assess student achievement against outcomes and standards, particularly for reporting purposes backward design (also known as ‘backwards planning’) This approach is associated with the Understanding by Design curriculum framework. The teacher starts by determining what the learning outcomes will be and then plans the curriculum, choosing the learning experiences and resources that will foster student learning. concepts Described by Lyn Erickson as ‘a mental construct that is timeless, universal in application, and abstract (to different degrees)’.
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constructivism An approach to teaching that recognises that everything a person learns is mediated by their prior experiences and understandings; thus individuals construct, rather than absorb, new knowledge. cross-curriculum priorities In the Australian Curriculum: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures, Asia and Australia’s Engagement with Asia, Sustainability curriculum The sum total of resources — intellectual, scientific, cognitive, linguistic, textbook and adjunct resources and materials, official and unofficial — that are brought together for teaching and learning by teachers and students in classroom and other learning environments. curriculum documentation or frameworks The formal curriculum structures developed by the national and state governments, schools and organisations such as the International Baccalaureate Organization. curriculum planning The decision-making process associated with providing a sequence of learning tasks for a group of learners and the resources to support them. disciplines Distinct ways of thinking about and construing the world; they embody essential knowledge bases, methods of inquiry and means of communicating knowledge that are identifiable with the discipline; they are concerned with the production of knowledge and learning and its relevance to students. enduring understandings The big conceptual ideas that frame a unit of work. They are the important understandings that we want students to develop and learn. essential questions Questions that provoke discussion and sustained inquiry into the big ideas and content of a unit. focus questions Questions that target responses that assist in taking students from a factual to a conceptual level of thinking. intended learning objectives Short-term statements or orientations about student learning that relate to the knowledge, capabilities/skills and attitudes that you want students to acquire for a lesson or a unit of work. International Baccalaureate (IB) Programs of international education offered by a worldwide community of schools to students aged 3 to 19. The programs aim to develop the intellectual, personal, emotional and social skills to live, learn and work in a rapidly globalising world. knowledge, skills and values/attitudes School-based learning outcomes, as identified in curriculum documents, that will prepare students for further education, work and life. learning goals The intended outcomes of a learning sequence that describe what a student should know or be able to do. They may refer to knowledge, concepts, skills or attitudes associated with curriculum documents. metacognitive awareness Awareness of how one thinks and learns. When students are conscious of how they learn, they can identify the most effective ways of doing so, and become more autonomous. metacognitive thinking Often described as ‘thinking about one’s thinking’, metacognitive thinking has three components: consideration of the learning processes and what was and could be done (awareness); judgement about your thinking processes (evaluation); and drawing on your own knowledge and skills to plan, self-correct and set goals (regulation). multiple intelligences (MI) A categorisation of intelligences that are specialised for acquiring knowledge and solving problems in different areas of cognitive activity. objective model A curriculum model that first, establishes the learning objectives or purposes; second, determines what experiences are likely to attain the objectives; third, orders and organises the experiences; and fourth, decides on how achievement of the objectives will be assessed. pedagogy The art, science or strategies of teaching based on professional knowledge and reflective practice. resources The materials and aids that support the delivery of a lesson or unit. They may include multimedia, books, charts, posters, stationery, models, people and learning objects.
CHAPTER 7 Planning for practice: connecting pedagogy, assessment and curriculum 253
school subjects Units that occur in a distinctive institutional context (i.e. schools and classrooms) and reflect ‘versions’ of related disciplines and applied fields, drawing on stances, principles, procedures, goals and aims of the disciplines. skills The ability to do something well, which comes with knowledge, practice and aptitude. Skills are relevant to the disciplines (e.g. literacy and numeracy skills), but also transcend the disciplines (e.g. social skills, thinking skills, research skills and communication skills). syllabus An official summary and outline of what should be learned and taught: skills, knowledges, competencies and capabilities that need to be covered to meet statements of standards. Understanding by Design (UbD) Wiggins and McTighe’s framework for designing curriculum units, performance assessments and instruction, intended to support students to gain a deep understanding of the content. There are six facets of understanding: being able to explain, interpret, apply, have perspective, empathise, and have self-knowledge about a given topic. zone of proximal development (ZPD) A concept developed by Lev Vygotsky identifying the difference between what a learner can do without help and what he or she can do with help. This has translated into mainstream education in terms of ‘scaffolding’ learning or facilitating experiences that allow students to move through the ZPD.
FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE 7.1
LO1
Reflect on how your lesson or unit planning: (i) recognises the connectedness of curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment and reporting (ii) aligns with Wiggins and McTighe’s Understanding by the Design (UbD) approach to planning (figure 7.5). 7.2
LO2
Use the following three prompts to critically analyse the extent to which your placement school’s curriculum addresses the four interrelated layers for reviewing whole-school curriculum plans (VCAA n.d.). Provide a ranking from 1–5, and justify your scoring. Use this analysis for a tutorial group discussion of how this mapping supports planning for learning. r By school — a high-level summary of the coverage of all the curriculum areas, reflecting the school’s goals, vision and any particular areas of specialisation or innovation r By curriculum area — the sequencing of key knowledge and skills across the years of schooling to support a progression of learning r By year level — a coherent program from a student perspective that enables effective connections across curriculum area r By unit/lessons — specifying Curriculum F–10 content descriptions and achievement standards, activities and resources to ensure students of all achievement levels are able to progress.
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7.3
LO3
A consistent theme throughout this chapter is that knowing your students is pivotal to planning lessons and units of work. While assessment records, portfolios and profiles provide invaluable information and data, you also need to acquire some insights into students’ interests, what is important to them, their preferred ways of learning, etc. Prepare a short online questionnaire for students to complete that will provide this additional information to assist you when planning the learning tasks/experiences. For children in the early years, this can be completed by you based on the child’s responses to the questionnaire prompts. 7.4
LO4
Read the planning for practice conversation with Jo Parry at the end of the chapter. Note Jo’s cautionary comments about using the plethora of online lessons and units at teachers’ disposal, rather than developing your own around your students’ specific needs and giving them buy-in to the 254
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planning. Access several online units and undertake a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis, drawing on what you believe are the important considerations and inclusions when planning a unit or sequence of lessons. Examples to access: r www.sciencebydoing.edu.au r http://curriculumplanning.vcaa.vic.edu.au/by-unit-lessons r www.teachstarter.com/unit-plans r www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/illustrations-of-practice-overviews/endangeredanimals---lesson-plan.pdf?sfvrsn=4adde23c_0 r www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/illustrations-of-practice-overviews/sea-explorers---unitoutline.pdf?sfvrsn=1dce23c_0 7.5
LO5
Backward design embraces the understanding by design philosophy that we teach for understanding and transfer. View the video clip ‘Can you explain what understanding by design is?’ at www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8F1SnWaIfE. What messages are there in this video clip for you to take away about developing a unit of work using backward design? What challenges have you identified with this approach? There are three different goals widely associated with teaching: knowledge and acquisition of skills, meaning-making; and transfer of knowledge. Code the learning activities in your lesson plans or units of work. Alternatively, code some units of work developed by your placement school. To what do you attribute the outcome of your coding? How has this exercise affected your thinking about planning your lessons or a unit of work? 7.6
LO6
Professor Linda Darling-Hammond, from Stanford University, argues that we must teach in ways that allow students to engage with inquiry while learning facts and engaging with concepts so the habit of inquiry becomes deeply ingrained. She argues that inquiry processes are critical for active participation in today’s world. What evidence have you seen of students engaging rigorously with inquiry processes? How important do you consider this claim to be for the students you teach? 7.7
LO7
Identify the strategies you will implement to cater for student diversity in your planning.
WEBSITES 1 The e5 Instructional Model on the Victorian State Government Education and Training website is
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2
3 4
5
a reference point for school leaders and teachers to develop a deeper understanding of what constitutes high-quality teacher practice in the classroom: www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/ support/Pages/e5.aspx#link61 The Teaching Channel provides an overview of the e5 Science model that allows students to develop understanding through engagement and exploration: http://nextgenerationscience.weebly.com/5-esof-science-instruction.html Australian Curriculum suggestions and guidelines for addressing student diversity: www .australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/student-diversity The Differentiation Programming: New South Wales Education Standards Authority website defines differentiation and provides a range of strategies: https://syllabus.nesa.nsw.edu.au/supportmaterials/differentiated-programming The Alberta Education, ‘Making a difference: Meeting diverse learning needs with differentiated instruction’, website provides a rationale for differentiation, describes approaches and details how to differentiate planning and instruction: https://education.alberta.ca/media/384968/ makingadifference_2010.pdf CHAPTER 7 Planning for practice: connecting pedagogy, assessment and curriculum 255
6 Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (AITSL) articulate what teachers are expected to
7
8
9
10
11 12 13 14
know and be able to do at four career stages (Graduate, Proficient, Highly Accomplished and Lead): www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/standards Victorian State Government Education and Training has a range of graphic organisers that include a description and explain how, why and when each organiser should be used. Where available, links are provided to examples of how schools have successfully used a graphic organiser in the classroom: www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/support/Pages/graphicorganisers.aspx Australian Capital Territory Education and Training provides some very constructive guidelines and information about the process of developing an ILP: www.ainslies.act.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_ file/0008/238148/ILP_guidelines.pdf Australian Academy of Science: Science by Doing provides access to science units and teachers that connect with the Australian Curriculum. Access is free to all Australian students and teachers and presents science in an engaging, guided inquiry-based approach to lift student interest and understanding: www.sciencebydoing.edu.au This Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) interactive self-assessment tool has been designed to review the four essential interrelated layers of the whole-school curriculum in order to plan and identify any areas that require further improvement: http://curriculumplanning.vcaa .vic.edu.au/sat/self-assessment-tool Scootle is a national repository that provides Australian schools with more than 20 000 digital resources aligned to the Australian Curriculum: www.scootle.edu.au/ec/p/home Robert Marzano and John Hattie — Eight strategies on which they agree: www.evidencebased teaching.org.au/robert-marzano-vs-john-hattie The Oasis Multiple Intelligence website includes a video presentation with Howard Gardner: http://multipleintelligencesoasis.org/what-mi-am-i State Government of Victoria’s (2107) ‘Principles of Teaching and Learning (PoLT)’ provides useful guidelines relating to nine key principles for guiding planning for teaching and practice: www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/support/Pages/unpacked12.aspx#link61
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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Photo: © Rido / Shutterstock.com Photo: © wavebreakmedia / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Paul Biryukov / Shutterstock.com Photo: © Liquorice Legs / Shutterstock.com Photo: © SpeedKingz / Shutterstock.com Figure 7.1: © Reproduced with permission from the State of Victoria Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, under the CC Attribution 3.0 Australia licence — http://creativecommons .org/licenses/by/3.0/au/ Text: © 2011 Education Services Australia Limited as the legal entity for the COAG Education Council Education Council. Wiley Australia Pty Ltd has reproduced extracts of the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership’s Australian Professional Standards for Teachers in this publication with permission from the copyright owner. The author wishes to acknowledge the assistance of Kate Harvie (Deakin University) in the review of this chapter.
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CHAPTER 8
Pedagogy: the agency that connects teaching with learning LEARNING OBJECTIVES
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After studying this chapter, you should be able to: 8.1 identify the beliefs that inform your classroom practice 8.2 be familiar with some key pedagogies that shape teachers’ practice 8.3 acknowledge the impact that the physical environment can have on learning opportunities 8.4 recognise that effective communication is dependent upon establishing a supportive classroom environment 8.5 understand what is meant by dialogic pedagogy 8.6 frame questions that target different types of dispositional thinking.
OPENING CASE
Why pedagogy?
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KATE HARVIE (DEAKIN UNIVERSITY) My first five years of teaching were in a school in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. It was a small community school with very few discipline problems. Overall, the students were self-driven and enjoyed being at school. There were 170 students, and the staff knew each student by name. After five years of teaching, I set off to work in London for 12 months at an inner-London primary school with a Year 1 class. On my first day, as I entered the classroom, I expected to see 24 students, but only 16 were visible. The rest were hiding from me under tables and in the reading corner. I rounded them up and we began class. By 10 am one child had bitten another child’s ear, another had thrown a chair across the room and yet another had expressed, in very colourful language, that they really didn’t want me as their new teacher. Clearly I needed to dig deep and remember what I had learned about assertive discipline, positive reinforcement and classroom management strategies. But more than that, I needed to revisit the beliefs that grounded my teaching practice and reconsider not only ‘what to teach’ (knowledge) but ‘how to teach’ (pedagogy). Familiarising myself with the students’ abilities, talents and learning needs, and also their current interests, was critical for making my lessons relevant and engaging. A starting point in adjusting my pedagogical practices was reconfiguring the physical space of the classroom. This was based on my belief that the physical environment can critically impact the quality of educational experiences of both teachers and learners. I wanted the space to facilitate interactions between myself and the students. My priority was for us to function as a learning community and reflect who the students were, both collectively and individually, as learners. Having a firm belief in the benefits of collaborative group work, I started explicit teaching and modelling of respectful listening and ways of responding when others speak. We then developed some protocols and routines that helped the students take some ownership of their behaviours. The first term was essentially about establishing a relationship of mutual trust and respect. This required me to draw upon all that I knew about learners and teaching, and to closely examine my own personal pedagogy and how this informed the way I planned, taught and assessed my students. The pedagogy you develop is personal. It is drawn from your own experiences and philosophy but, importantly, adapted to fit your particular group of students. It may even change subtly from day to day, but should be visible and reflect who you are as a teacher, what you believe in and how you connect with the students you teach. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ QUESTIONS 1. What does the term ‘pedagogy’ mean to you? 2. In what ways do you think your pedagogy is visible to those who observe your teaching? 3. What adjustments did you make to your pedagogy during your last school placement?
Introduction Sometimes the words teaching and pedagogy are used interchangeably — albeit inappropriately. When pedagogy is perceived in this way, the interaction between teaching and learning is lost and the potential of pedagogy to impact on learning is diminished. In this chapter the conceptual framing of pedagogy is explored, revealing how pedagogical decision making can ultimately assist you in constructing a more meaningful and supportive learning environment for your students. Doreen Rorrison (2008) describes it as the intersection of content, process and theories with(in) learning environments. As the case study indicates, your beliefs about how students learn are reflected in the classroom culture you co-construct CHAPTER 8 Pedagogy: the agency that connects teaching with learning 261
with your students. In this chapter it is argued that for your practice to be effective, both subject knowledge (the ‘what’) and pedagogy (the ‘how’) need to be seamlessly interwoven. The chapter begins by discussing how teacher identity is shaped by personal and professional theorising of practice, and the importance of knowing one’s self. This is followed by detailing some of the different ways pedagogy has been embraced within the educational lexicon. The chapter then addresses how pedagogy influences the organisation of learning spaces and the way in which some teachers structure cooperative group work. In the final sections of the chapter, the focus is on classroom communication and establishing a supportive learning environment. Approaches to questioning, working with student responses, and engagement with thinking dispositions are discussed in relation to the responsibility teachers have to create an intellectual climate that promotes learning. As you engage with and reflect on the ideas presented in this chapter, ponder Deborah Britzman’s (2003, p. 54) statement that ‘pedagogy points to the agency that joins teaching and learning’. Pedagogy: The agency that connects teaching with learning
Connectedness: knowing yourself
Pedagogies of practice
Pedagogy: learning places and spaces
Collaborative pedagogy: establishing the classroom culture
The discipline of noticing
Pedagogical frameworks
Place-based pedagogy
Classroom discourses
Storying your practice
Critical pedagogy
The physical environment
Building relationships
Cycles of personal development
Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK)
Reggio Emilia schools
Working as a group
Technological pedagogies Instructional pedagogy: explicit teaching
Dialogic pedagogy
Learning to question: questioning to learn
Dispositional thinking pedagogy
Critical, creative and reflective thinking
Framing questions
Cooperative learning
Student questions
Teacherfacilitated group work
Substantial conversations
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What distinguishes the practice of expert teachers? Rethinking a definition of pedagogy
8.1 Connectedness: knowing yourself LEARNING OBJECTIVE 8.1 Identify the beliefs that inform your classroom practice.
Think of a teacher whose classes you always enjoyed and determine what it was about the teacher’s approach that made their classes stand out. Before exploring the concept of pedagogy in more depth, the 262
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significance of Parker Palmer’s (2007) emphasis on teachers’ connectedness with their students merits attention. In his book, The Courage to Teach, Palmer claims that knowing your students and your subject are heavily dependent on self-knowledge and that if you do not know yourself, you cannot know your students. He argues that: r good teaching cannot be reduced to technique r good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher r intellectual, emotional and spiritual pathways must interconnect. As Parker notes, the ‘what’ (knowledge) and ‘how’ (pedagogy) questions are asked, but seldom the ‘who’ question: ‘Who is the self that teaches?’ John Hattie (2012) argues that teachers’ beliefs about how students learn and their commitment to enhancing learning outcomes are the greatest influence on student achievement. It is the qualities of selfhood, as Mordachai Gordon (2008) suggests, that shape how teachers interact with students and subject matter. Nel Noddings’ (2006, p. 10) statement that ‘no goal of education is more important — or more neglected — than self understanding’ resonates with the importance that many educational theorists (e.g. William Ayres, Deborah Britzman, Stephen Brookfield and Jean Clandinin) place on knowing one’s self. They stress this is pivotal in establishing a teacher identity: an amalgamation of personal and professional knowledge and of lived teaching experiences. A dilemma you may have experienced is raised by Lanas and Kelchtermans (2015, p. 24), who believe that beginning teachers are ‘caught between what they wish to be on the one hand and what various others tell them they should be on the other’.
Teacher identity is an amalgam of personal and professional knowledge and of lived teaching experiences.
The discipline of noticing John Mason (2002) raises the importance of ‘the discipline of noticing’ — an attempt to observe closely and notice systematically — that allows you to affirm, question or challenge your theorising of CHAPTER 8 Pedagogy: the agency that connects teaching with learning 263
teaching. Noticing involves thinking about your teacher persona. Noticing occurs ‘in the moment’ but also allows for reflection on past experiences. As Deborah Britzman (2003) points out, everyone is beholden to memories associated with being a student: the good, the bad and the ugly; teachers who you perceived as ‘good teachers’, and those who you deemed not so good. Essentially, your teacher identity is embedded in your personal biography (Korthagen 2016). As you reflect on those personal experiences you will become increasingly aware of how they have shaped your teacher identity. Julianne Moss et al. (2004) have created a useful figurative representation of how teacher identity is shaped by personal and professional theorising. In other chapters the educational theories of behaviourism, humanism and constructivism are explored. It is your attachment to some theories more than others that will influence your professional identity. The representation in figure 8.1 shows how identity, beliefs and pedagogy interact with one another, implying that the state of ‘becoming’ a teacher is a continuing process (Britzman 2003).
FIGURE 8.1
Shaping personal and professional theory
Reflection
Awareness Identity
Noticing
Action
Beliefs
Response
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Storying your practice Clandinin and Connelly (1995, 1996) advocate the need for teachers ‘to story’ their practice as a means of identifying, clarifying and justifying their ‘professional knowledge landscapes’. Likewise, Schultz and Ravitch (2013) attest that the use of storytelling or narrative is a powerful way of exploring and exposing the complex processes of learning to teach. There is generally a very high level of anticipation and engagement among pre-service teachers after school placements, as stories of practice are shared. However, Deborah Britzman (2003) cautions that narratives are always constitutive of experience and therefore an interpretive activity. When story lines are not juxtaposed with theoretical positions there are concerns involved with using stories to make sense of one’s experiences. This can lead to justifying practice on the basis of ‘Well this worked for me’. Such a claim can overlook the diversity of learners and their individual needs, albeit unintentionally. Sharing narratives in peer groups can counter this issue by enabling an experience to be understood from other perspectives, and also by making explicit connections with theory (Korthagen 2016). It is by identifying your beliefs and their connectedness with learning theories that you will better understand your teacher narratives. Burnard and White (2008, p. 669) point to ‘the inherent complexity of teachers’ work’, and suggest it evolves through identity and biography, arguing that ‘beliefs, values and attitudes towards students, colleagues and community members as well as classroom strategies and processes all contribute to our conception of pedagogy’. 264
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Pre-service teachers are often keen to share their experiences after practicum placements.
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Cycles of personal development Throughout your teaching career, from being a pre-service novice to becoming an expert teacher with many years of experience, your pedagogy will be challenged. This will require you to re-examine the beliefs and theories that ground your practice and the construction of your professional identity. It is highly likely to involve periods of exploration, uncertainty and conflict (Meijer, de Graaf & Meirink 2011). If you have attended any professional learning sessions during your school placements, you may have already noted that teachers can sometimes be very resistant to changing their practice. There is a tendency to adapt to the ‘near occasion’ rather than embracing the reality or the complexity of the innovation or change. As shown in figure 8.2, John Mason’s (2002) cycles of personal development model is helpful in explaining initial responses to change or the take-up of new ideas when embedded pedagogical practices are challenged. The professional and personal theories of practice that influence and inform pedagogical decision making are not static; they are constantly open to review and change. For the duration of your career as a teacher you will be grappling with new ideas. At times these may challenge your pedagogy and engage you with Mason’s cycles of personal development. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ME?
According to Feiman-Nemser (2008), learning to teach is the process of professional identity construction — that is, learning to think, know, feel and act like a teacher. What past experiences of teaching and learning have shaped your teacher identity? Reflect on the way your school and tertiary experiences as a student have influenced your personal theorising of teaching. How does this personal theorising align with the theories you have learned during your course?
CHAPTER 8 Pedagogy: the agency that connects teaching with learning 265
FIGURE 8.2
Mason’s cycles of personal development Gripping Gripping Grasping
Grumbling
Grasping
Grappling
Groping
Grumbling
Grappling
Groping Griping
Griping
Grumbling about how things are, leading to Griping about specific frustrations, leading to Groping for some alternative, leading to Grasping at some passing possibility, which with luck leads to Grappling with some issue and proposed actions, developing into Gripping hard to ‘something that works’, then finding further Grumbling and Griping as the substance seems to leak out.
Source: Mason (2002, p. 9).
WHAT CAN I TAKE INTO THE CLASSROOM?
During your next school placement, observe how your students engage with the cycles of personal development when they encounter the change process in relation to their learning or to current procedure or routines. Then consider whether your students might benefit from being familiarised with Mason’s theory for managing changes both within and beyond the classroom. This could be undertaken as a Think, Pair, Share exercise — a process whereby the students individually ponder its usefulness as a way of monitoring their responses to change before sharing their thoughts with the student nearest to them, and then as a pair sharing their responses with the class.
8.2 Pedagogies of practice
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LEARNING OBJECTIVE 8.2 Be familiar with some key pedagogies that shape teachers’ practice.
Pedagogy is derived from the Greek word, paidagogas, which when translated literally means ‘to lead the child’. In what educational contexts have you heard the word pedagogy used? You may already have been involved in conversations around productive pedagogies, critical pedagogy, authentic pedagogy, technological pedagogies, dialogic pedagogy and even turn-around-pedagogies, to name but a few. You may also have encountered the term pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). In whichever context pedagogy is used, reference is made to its function in assisting students’ acquisition of knowledge, skills, attitudes and dispositions. A useful working definition of pedagogy outlines that it is how teachers: interact with students; that is how they question and respond to questions, use students’ ideas and respond to students’ diverse backgrounds and interests. It includes the social and the intellectual climate that teachers seek to create and the types of learning that they set out to promote (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations 2003, p. 2).
What is recognisable from this description is that pedagogy demands and constructs complex social relations, drawing attention to the processes through which knowledge is produced. 266
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Pedagogical frameworks The Productive Pedagogies curriculum framework emerged from the New Basics project and has been described as one of the greatest innovations in Australia’s history of curriculum design (Green 2003). Given the framework’s significance, you will find references to it in other chapters. The productive pedagogies themes are reflected in the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians (MCEETYA 2008) that underpin the Australian Curriculum. Table 8.1 summarises the four categorisations of Productive Pedagogies. TABLE 8.1
New Basics Productive Pedagogies
Intellectual quality
Connectedness
Supportive classroom environment
Recognition of difference
Recognition of difference
Knowledge integration
Student direction
Cultural knowledges
Deep knowledge
Background knowledge
Social support
Inclusivity
Deep understanding
Connectedness to the world
Academic engagement
Narrative
Substantive conversation
Problem-based curriculum
Explicit quality performance criteria
Group identity
Presenting knowledge as problematic
Active citizenship
Self-regulation
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Metalanguage
The Productive Pedagogies framework resonates with the New Pedagogies for Deep Learning (NPDL) Global Partnership (Fullan & Langworthy 2013, 2014), which is similarly learner-centred and based on Piaget and Vygotsky’s constructivist ideas. A notable difference, however, is NPDL’s emphasis on the fostering and leveraging of digital technologies. There are ten countries involved in this global partnership. When NPDL’s three components are integrated it is claimed they enable deep learning outcomes. 1. New learning partnerships between and among students and teachers that establish them as co-learners. 2. Deep learning tasks that restructure the learning process towards knowledge creation and purposeful use and have clear learning goals and clearly defined measures of success. 3. Digital tools and resources that enable and accelerate the process of deep learning (Fullan & Langworthy 2014, p. 10). NPDL teachers are required to take a highly proactive teaching role in supporting students to master both content knowledge and the learning process, rather than taking the stance of ‘guide at the side’. They are expected to interact with students to clearly define their own learning goals and success criteria; monitor their own learning; and critically examine their own work, incorporating feedback from peers, teachers and others (Fullan & Langworthy 2014). Curriculum must connect with student interests and aspirations, and a strong emphasis is placed on building trusted relationships between teachers and students. In Queensland, all government schools are required to develop their own pedagogical framework that embraces six core systemic principles that have a similar focus to productive pedagogies and NPDL: 1. student-centred planning 2. high expectations 3. alignment of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment 4. evidence-based decision making 5. targeted and scaffold instruction 6. safe, supportive, connected and inclusive learning environments (Department of Education, Training and Employment Queensland 2018). The Productive Pedagogies and the New Pedagogies for Deep Learning offer comprehensive starting points for reflecting on your pedagogical practices as a pre-service teacher and ensuring all students are engaged with intellectually challenging and relevant curriculum enacted within a supportive learning environment. CHAPTER 8 Pedagogy: the agency that connects teaching with learning 267
Critical pedagogy
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The critical pedagogy movement was influenced by the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. He believed that students who were disenfranchised by traditional schooling must learn to question and challenge dominant educational beliefs and practices. A detailed discussion of critical theory can be found in chapter 14. Freire argued that raising social consciousness assists students in fighting oppression and achieving social transformation. ‘Praxis’ — students engaging in cycles of theory, application, evaluation and reflection — was identified by Freire as pivotal in achieving social transformation. If you are concerned with issues of social justice and equity and are aligned with the critical pedagogy movement, this will influence the way you select, frame and present the content of your lessons. As an advocate of critical theory, you will also engage with a dialogic approach to teaching. Jo Kincheloe (2008) claims that critical pedagogy advocates are aware that every minute of every hour teachers are faced with complex decisions concerning justice, democracy and competing ethical claims. This involves all students, not just those who are disenfranchised. The decisions you make will include raising controversial issues with your students — a position that can be uncomfortable for some teachers, particularly in times of global uncertainty. Think of recent examples of controversial issues that are likely to have been raised in classrooms, such as the same-sex marriage and euthanasia debates. Perhaps it is worth keeping in mind Norman Denzin’s words that educators have a moral obligation to reject taking the path of least resistance. Referring to Howard Zinn, Denzin (2009, p. 38) reminds us that when injustices have been rectified, wars halted and people given their dues it is because ‘unimportant people spoke up, organised, and brought democracy alive’. This implies the moral obligation teachers have to engage students with controversial issues and to challenge them to critique and analyse social practices. Connections with critical pedagogy have strong resonance with the Australian Curriculum’s general capabilities, which are taught through the learning content areas, in particular: personal and social capability; ethical understanding; and intercultural understanding. The latter is referred to as ‘an essential part of living with others in the diverse world of the twenty-first century and assisting young people to become responsible local and global citizens, equipped through their education for living and working together in an interconnected world’ (ACARA). Freire’s ideas of critical pedagogy involve teachers in building a classroom community that works to promote social justice. Critical pedagogy can be located in postmodern, anti-racist, feminist, postcolonial and queer theories. Social theorists and activists stress the need for students to engage in social action and realise that by doing so they can make a difference, albeit a small one. Those who engage with critical theory include Michael Apple, Deborah Britzman, Henri Giroux, Ira Shor, Patti Lather and Peter McLaren. You can find out more about critical theory by visiting the Paulo and Nita Freire Project for International Critical Pedagogy at McGill University (www.freireproject.org). Inquiry-based approaches to learning, discussed in chapter 7, note the importance of including a ‘taking action’ phase in the inquiry sequence of learning experiences. How do you feel about discussing controversial issues with students? What might you have to take into consideration as a pre-service teacher and as a practising teacher?
Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) The concept of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) has become widely accepted in the educational lexicon. Its contribution to education is the identification of pedagogy as context specific, as opposed to pedagogy being a teacher’s generic teaching skills. Lee Shulman (1987, p. 8) describes PCK as ‘that special amalgam of content and pedagogy that is uniquely the providence of teachers, their own special form of professional understanding’. Yet, as a recent study of PCK in teacher education reveals, PCK must be an ongoing process that has its genesis in teacher education, but evolves with teaching practice and ongoing learning (Berry, Depaepe & van Driel 2016). The study concluded that PCK has static and dynamic components, referring to it as ‘knowledge of, expressed in action’ (p. 381).
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This description accords with Linda Darling-Hammond and John Bransford’s (2005) claim that PCK requires teachers to base their choice of teaching strategies on specific subject content knowledge, in addition to taking into consideration their students’ learning styles and anticipating difficulties they might experience. Strategies include: providing explanations and demonstrations; giving examples; and offering analogies and visual conceptualisations relevant to the subject’s content — ways of presenting the subject to make it comprehensible. PCK is but one of seven knowledge bases for teaching that Shulman identifies: 1. pedagogical content knowledge 2. content knowledge 3. general pedagogical knowledge 4. curricular knowledge 5. knowledge of learners 6. knowledge of educational contexts 7. knowledge of philosophical and historical aims of education.
John Dewey espoused the need to match subject content with pedagogical perspective, considering students’ age, cognitive developmental stage and learning styles.
Shulman (1987) argued that the domains of pedagogy and content were generally recognised and addressed as mutually exclusive, but believed that effective teaching exists at their intersection: a blending of pedagogy and subject or discipline content, as figure 8.3 shows. While the terminology of PCK was an innovation, John Dewey also espoused the need to connect disciplinary knowledge to students’ experiences and to match subject content with pedagogical perspective, taking into consideration the students’ age, cognitive developmental stage and learning styles. For example, when teaching fractions to CHAPTER 8 Pedagogy: the agency that connects teaching with learning 269
young children a teacher would use concrete materials such as multifix cubes or a pie construction model for children to physically manipulate. This would support them in recognising equivalency, (i.e. 24 is the same as a 12 ). However, with older students who are abstract thinkers, a teacher would be more likely to use explanations and diagrams. This suggests awareness of PCK encapsulating both knowledge of and the reasoning behind teaching topics by selecting strategies that are matched to students’ developmental needs, with the intent of enhancing their learning outcomes, as a more recent study of PCK in science education concludes (Carlson et al. 2015). FIGURE 8.3
Pedagogical content knowledge
Pedagogical content knowledge General pedagogical knowledge
Content knowledge
C
PCK
P
Source: Based on Shulman (1987).
Shulman did not discuss technology in relationship to pedagogy and content, but technological content pedagogical knowledge has emerged as another layer of pedagogical perspective and the conceptualisation of teachers’ practice, as digital pedagogies establish new ways of learning and working in a digitalised world.
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Technological pedagogies With online information, resources and materials available at the touch of a screen, technology is changing the way we teach and the way our students learn, as the New Pedagogies for Deep Learning project asserts. In your tertiary education and in your placement schools you will have observed teachers combining digital technology with traditional face-to-face instruction. This hybrid pedagogical approach is often referred to as blended learning. While definitions abound, some are school-context specific. For example, Victoria’s Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD 2012, p. 6) defines ‘blended learning’ as ‘integrating student-centred, traditional in-class learning with other flexible learning methodologies using mobile and web-based online (especially collaborative) approaches’. The challenge that blended learning presents for teachers, as you may have experienced, is achieving a seamless integration of technology with pedagogies that relate to established theories about how students learn. Fullan and Langworthy (2014) acknowledge that student-centred constructivist theories of learning underpin their ‘new pedagogies’ for deep learning, but argue that it is the power of digital tools that will now support students’ new knowledge creation and extend their connection to the world beyond the confines of the classroom. Studies of the impact of blended learning and the way educators use technology to improve student learning reveal the importance of promoting learning as a partnership and creating opportunities for 270
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social interactions with and among teachers and students (DEECD 2012; McKnight et al. 2016; State Government of Victoria 2012). This can be achieved through face-to-face discussion sessions and using online tools such as discussion forums, virtual conferencing, virtual world and online games, and mobile technologies such as flip cameras and voice recorders, to engage with parents and the wider school community. Other blended learning pedagogies that are supported by technology include: r providing direct instruction for student acquisition of new knowledge, and teaching and reinforcing digital technological skills (e.g. video editing, graphing software) r using digital resources and information displays to fill gaps and add richness and depth to curriculum content and keep it current r differentiating and personalising learning pathways to meet the wide range of student learning abilities through enrichment, additional support and matching student interests to content via online resources r setting up collaborations that connect students with teachers, peers, and experts beyond the classroom r facilitating opportunities to connect and publish across media platforms using digital tools (videos, blogs, podcasts, Web quests etc.) r developing ‘digital citizenship’ — that is, responsible use of technology r conducting ongoing monitoring and assessment to monitor student learning and provide immediate feedback (DEECD 2012; McKnight et al. 2016; State Government of Victoria 2012). Access to digital tools means that students can assume more personal control over their learning and take more responsibility for the learning process. However, this necessitates the development of students’ inquiry skills and, importantly, their critical thinking skills for assessing new information, ideas and perspectives and subsequently constructing new knowledge. As the Australian Curriculum ICT capability indicates, pedagogy must embrace investigating, communicating and creating with ICT. Importantly, supporting students through skilful questioning, discussion facilitation and dialogue — pedagogical skills discussed later in the chapter — will play a pivotal role in the integration of technology for deeper learning. As McKnight et al. (2016) conclude, if technology is emphasised over pedagogy it will be a barrier to the successful integration of technology.
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Instructional pedagogy: explicit teaching As teachers we must aim to identify those pedagogies that have a marked and meaningful effect. High on John Hattie’s list of the attributes of effective teachers, discussed in the next section, is direct instruction. Hattie’s study notes that the quality of this direct instruction or explicit teaching has a powerful impact on student achievement. Direct instruction may take the form of explicit teaching, drill-and-practice, didactic questioning, lectures, demonstrations, multimedia presentations and teaching guides. Yet what constitutes direct instruction has caused some confusion. It refers to the spectrum of explicit teaching from generic procedures of scaffolding, modelling, and working in small incremental steps, through to the highly scripted ‘Direct Instruction’ (DI) curriculum package developed by Siegfried Engelmann and Wesley Carnine and often referred to as DISTAR. Here, concern has been raised about the mismatch between material content developed in the United States and the students’ cultural experiences impacting on students’ motivation and engagement with learning. Direct Instruction (DI) emerged in the late 1960s as step-by-step, lesson-by-lesson learning programs based on B.F. Skinner’s classical behaviourist stimulus/response/conditioning model. Teachers are trained to deliver scripted lesson presentations precisely, including correction of student errors and use of behaviour modification techniques. DI is a key aspect of the social and welfare reform at the Cape York Aboriginal Australian Academy (CYAAA) led by Noel Pearson to improve learning outcomes for Aboriginal students with low achievement in English literacy and numeracy. This highly prescriptive pedagogical approach attempts to place quality controls on the curriculum delivery (Luke 2013) in school settings where teachers are often inexperienced and there is low retention rate. Acknowledging this initiative has only been operational for a comparatively short time, an evaluation by the Australian CHAPTER 8 Pedagogy: the agency that connects teaching with learning 271
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Council of Educational Research of Pearson’s initiative concluded it could not ‘empirically ascribe a causal connection between DI and student learning outcomes’ despite community members providing a wide range of anecdotal evidence of positive student outcomes (2013, p. 9). As the House of Representatives Standing Committee’s interim report for improving the educational opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students recommends, a longitudinal, comparative review of DI pedagogy is needed to determine its efficacy (Commonwealth of Australia 2016). What distinguishes DI from other direct instruction approaches on the spectrum is that they generally allow higher teacher autonomy and have context-based flexibility (Rosenshine 2008). Allan Luke (2013), in making a clear distinction between DI and explicit teaching, notes that explicit teaching: r establishes clear behavioural and cognitive goals and outcomes, which are made transparent to learners r tells students explicitly what they will be learning and how r familiarises students with assessment criteria that makes explicit what they have to do to show they have achieved the learning outcomes. These criteria adhere with John Hattie’s explanation of Direct Instruction and what Robert Marzano refers to as Overt Instruction. Marzano (2007) and Hattie (2009) have both reviewed research into which teaching strategies make the biggest difference to students’ results, and identify explicitly teaching what students have to learn as a critical strategy. Direct instruction is sometimes contrasted with student-centred exploratory approaches to learning such as discovery learning or inquiry-based pedagogy, discussed in chapter 7. But the polarisation of the constructivist and direct instruction approaches is generally considered a false dichotomy by contemporary educators (Purdie & Ellis 2005). Bruner, for example, when describing the scaffolding process, noted that this process involves the provision of direct instruction at strategic points of teaching practice. As pre-service teachers you are probably adopting both student-centred constructivist approaches and teacher-centred direct instruction methods.
The quality of direct instruction has a powerful effect on student achievement.
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Joyce, Weil and Calhoun (2009) identify five general components of direct teaching, which involve modelling, reinforcement, feedback and successive approximation, that may be supportive when planning for explicit instruction consistent with Hattie’s (2009) emphasis. The components are: 1. orientation phase: the teacher establishes the framework for the lesson — provides the lesson objective, describes the content in relation to prior learning and discusses lesson procedures 2. presentation phase: the teacher explains the new concept or skill, provides a visual demonstration and checks for understanding 3. structured practice: the teacher leads the class through practice examples one step at a time, checking for understanding and providing feedback to reinforce correct practice 4. guided practice: opportunities for students to practise semi-independently — teacher monitors student practice, providing corrective feedback and reinforcing correct practice 5. independent practice: once students have achieved 85–90 per cent accuracy with guided practice, students undertake independent practice over an extended period with delayed feedback. Models of gradual release of responsibility for learning to the students resonate with Piaget’s cognitive schemas (1952), Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development (1978) and Wood, Bruner and Ross’s work on scaffolded instruction (1976). However, Fisher and Frey (2008) describe a structure for successful instruction that involves an additional phase where students work collaboratively before undertaking responsibility as independent learners. Figure 8.4 shows how this collaboration allows students to support each other in acquiring a new skill or concept and gain confidence before ‘going it alone’. FIGURE 8.4
Gradual release of responsibility framework of instruction
Teacher responsibility: ‘I do.’ Guided instruction (teacher–student construction): ‘We do it.’ Collaborative (student–student construction): ‘You do it together.’ Student responsibility (independent construction): ‘You do it alone.’ Source: Adapted from Fisher and Frey’s framework for the gradual release of responsibility (2008).
With emphasis placed on students taking responsibility for their learning, they are often asked to complete independent work without first being provided with good instruction that provides essential background information. The beliefs about teaching and learning that define you as a teacher will determine how you apply direct instruction to your practice — as a constructivist scaffolding approach that emphasises collaboration and interaction (Fisher & Frey 2008; Joyce, Weil & Calhoun 2009), or as an explicit behaviourist approach (Gagn´e 1985).
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What distinguishes the practice of expert teachers? Hattie has earned a formidable reputation for his Visible Learning study (2009; 2012), which focused on identifying factors that impacted students’ academic result and calculated their effect. Like all studies, it is open to critique. For example, you may disagree with its singular focus. However, the scale of the study is far reaching, involving synthesis of 50 000 individual research studies and 800 meta analyses related to student achievement. Hattie uses effect size to demonstrate how much of an affect identified factors have on students’ results, which has been critiqued as a valid measure, although the American Psychological Association (APA) strongly endorses its application (Killian 2014). The strong take-home message is that knowing your impact as a teacher and being open to changing your strategies will improve student learning outcomes. Hattie’s key findings of what expert teachers do are: r provide and communicate clear learning intentions r define challenging success criteria r use a range of learning strategies CHAPTER 8 Pedagogy: the agency that connects teaching with learning 273
r know when students are not progressing r provide ongoing