Transformation: Leading Quality Curriculum

1. Transformation: Leading Quality Curriculum The Conceptual Model

2. Transformation: Leading Quality Curriculum • Day 1: • The conceptual model • The Quality teaching model • Leading quality assessment • Day 2: • Ways to implement and lead the model: • Through an environmental project • Through a term 4 unit of work • Through a scope & sequence • Through quality assessment • Planning for Implementation

3. The Planning • Small steps • A stage or faculty leader modelling and leading by example • Transforming a current unit of work • Begin by asking the question ‘What do we want the students to learn by the end of the unit?’ • Move to examining the scope and sequence through the conceptual lens asking the same question and the plan the assessment tasks (backward mapping)

4. The Barriers • Exams – Naplan, HSC, but wait there’s more… • Syllabus requirements • Parental and community expectations • Teaching to the exam requirements rather than the course requirements • Time • Access to technology • Complacency

5. Leading Transformation • Committed leaders and key players • A purpose and a goal • A plan • Small steps: Term 4 unit of work; cross KLA units of work; an authentic task

6. “We have to know where we want to end up before we start out – and plan how to get there …” (1999, Tomlinson).

7. Global Demands Skills Required for the 21st Century Workforce: • Critical thinking • Problem solving • Innovation • Collaboration • Creativity • ICT

8. National Curriculum Goals • Goal 1: • Australian schooling promotes equity and excellence: promote personalised learning that aims to fulfill the diverse capabilities of each young Australian. • Goal 2: • All young Australians become: • successful learners • confident and creative individuals • active and informed citizens

9. National Curriculum Expectations • A solid foundation in skills and knowledge on which further learning and adult life can be built. • Deep knowledge and skills enabling advanced learning, ability to create new ideas & translate them into practical applications. • General capabilities that underpin flexible thinking, a capacity to work with others, an ability to move across subject disciplines

10. Cross-Disciplinary • Recognition that new ways of thinking are borne out of deep knowledge & its application across disciplines • Students should participate in learning that applies specific discipline-based knowledge and skills across disciplines to encourage thinking and working in new ways. • Cross-Disciplinary: ICT & Design, Civics & Citizenship, Business

11. The Research • Marry Creativity & Innovation • Deep knowledge & deep understanding • Integrate problematic knowledge and student direction • Process first then product • Create the environment for creativity • Coyle and Colvin (1999): The brain is phenomenally plastic, and that we construct ourselves through behaviour – “It’s not who you are, it’s what you do and where you do it.” • Hattie (2003) & Dinham (2008): The significance of deep knowledge, direct instruction and scaffolding the learning • Westwell (2009): Creativity is connected to what is already known • QT model based on best practice and effective research

14. The Design Approach “Intellectual work that is challenging, centred on significant concepts and ideas, and requires substantial cognitive and academic engagement with deep knowledge” Quality teaching Discussion Paper

15. The Design Approach “The first thing that teachers will need to do is select and organise the essential knowledge, understandings, skills and values from the syllabus around central concepts or ideas…” Quality teaching in NSW Public Schools

16. The Design Approach “Without designing around provocative questions and big ideas, teaching easily succumbs into an activity - or coverage - orientation without clear priorities.” Understanding by Design McTigh and Wiggins ASCD 1999

17. The Design Approach • Holistic and conceptual model connecting learning with syllabus content, knowledge and skills and the explicit teaching strategies • Driven by the concepts and key learning ideas • Integrated assessment of, for and through learning – backward mapping • Distillation from concept to key learning ideas to assessment to explicit teaching and learning strategies • Facilitates integration of programs and/or assessment across KLAs, higher-order thinking & problematic knowledge

18. Focus on learning • What do I want my students to learn? • Why does it matter? • What do they already know? • How will they demonstrate learning? • How will they get there?

19. The Model Focus Topic/Subject/Context/Outcomes Concept + Key Question or Essential Learning Statement Overarching idea of the unit (Deep knowledge) Key Ideas + Question What students will learn by the end of the unit (Deep knowledge) Key Ideas + Question Reflect intent of the outcomes and concept (Deep knowledge) Key Ideas + Question (Deep knowledge) Outcomes and Assessment (Deep understanding, Problematic knowledge, Higher-order thinking, Explicit quality criteria) Demonstration of key learning ideas - Not too many! Pre-testing/Pre-assessment (Background knowledge - connections to prior learning) Brainstorming, Graphic organisers – KWL, mind mapping, Y chart, Lotus diagram. Quiz Teaching Strategies Learning Activities Explicit Literacy & Numeracy Strategies Teaching Strategies Learning Activities Integrated ICT Teaching Strategies Learning Activities Explicit / Systematic Building the Field Teaching Strategies Learning Activities Connected & Scaffolded Teaching Strategies Learning Activities Scaffolds / Models – annotated Resources

20. What do I want my students to learn? Why does it matter?The Concept and Essential Learning

21. The Design Approach • What is a concept? • How do I arrive at the right concepts? • Why would we program around concepts?

22. The Topic/Focus • Identify the topic or focus of the unit of work such as: • Living Lands • Symbols and Systems • Shakespeare • Probability • Living things

23. The Outcomes • Ask the question what do I want my students to learn by the end of the unit and select the relevant outcomes • Not too many! • Take into account the: • Continuum of learning • Timing of the unit of work • Scope and sequence

24. The Outcomes • Interrogate the outcomes you have selected and the learn to and learn abouts • Identify the essential learning of the outcomes

25. The Learning • Re-ask the question what do I want my students to learn by the end of the unit? • Record the essential learning goal • What concept/s capture the learning?

26. The Design Approach A Concept: • A significant notion that reflects the core ideas of the content being taught and enables students to comprehend and create meaning

27. The Design Approach A Concept: • Is not a theme or a topic! • Has layers and nuances • Represents depth rather than breadth

28. The Concept • Is the concept grounded in the syllabus or syllabi? • Does the concept capture the deep learning that you want students to have by the end of the unit of work? • Is the concept appropriate and relevant for the specified students at that moment in time? • Have you considered the concept in terms of the continuum of learning? • Does the concept have significance and endurance?

29. Deep knowledge • Knowledge is deep when it concerns the central ideas or concepts of the KLA/s and when the knowledge is judged to be crucial to the topic or subject being taught.

30. Key Learning Ideas • Now identify from the outcomes the key learning ideas • Two to three ideas that capture the learning, skills and knowledge of the syllabus outcomes

31. The overarching question or learning statement • Pose an overarching key question or essential learning statement that encapsulates what students need to learn by the end of the unit • Differentiates the learning

32. Overarching Concept & Question Stage 2 Local Environments: • Concept: Interaction • Our relationship and interaction with the environment: health, safety, artistic expression and sustainability • The importance of sustainable design • Question: Why is it important that we care for and respect our local environments such as our school?

33. Stage 4 Technology Mandatory • Concept: Green Design • Key Question: What is the role of design and emerging technologies in responding to climate change and global warming? • Key Learning Ideas: - Application of a range of graphics tools in the in the development of design projects: What are the most effective graphics tools for persuasive design projects? - Understanding of the factors influencing design such as environmental and resource availability: What key factors influence design choices?

34. The Learning • Stage 5 : Anime • Outcomes: 2, 3, 6 & 10 • Concept: Cultural Perspectives • Question: How significant is cultural context in shaping our perspectives and our use of textual features? • Key Learning Ideas: • How cultural context shapes perspectives and ideas in texts • How filmic techniques in anime convey cultural perspectives

35. What do my students already know?Connecting the learning to prior knowledge

36. What do they already know? • Unless new knowledge becomes integrated with the learner's prior knowledge and understanding, this new knowledge remains isolated, cannot be used effectively in new tasks, and does not transfer readily to new situations.

37. What do they already know? • Pre-assessment – Data & Background knowledge: This can be informal but it is important as it informs teachers what the students know so that a unit of work or program can be differentiated to suit the learning needs of the students. • Look at the end of stage performance descriptors in the syllabus for your unit!

38. How will they demonstrate learning?Quality Assessment

39. Assessment What do I want the students to do or produce to demonstrate their learning and understanding? Think of the unit you are planning, what task/s would you use?

40. Assessment for Deep understanding “Focus tasks on relating central concepts and ideas with other concepts, or to particular contexts. Linking the task to previously addressed ideas (from either prior class work or other tasks) or to new, as yet unexplored, concepts or contexts are two ways to strengthen the deep knowledge of a task. Ensure that the task connects and supports the key concepts being addressed.” -QT Framework

41. Deep understanding • Student direction • Connectedness - authenticity • Higher-order thinking • Substantive communication • Explicit quality criteria • Problematic knowledge

42. Quality Assessment • All current research supports the potent impact of quality assessment and feedback on student learning outcomes. • HSC review identified engagement and enjoyment as influential • Our students need to become independent thinkers and learners; flexible and creative problem solvers; team players; resilient and committed citizens!

43. Assessment for Deepunderstanding Biggs [1999], p78 UCLAN http://www.uclan.ac.uk/ldu/resources/toolkit/lrg_groups/index.htm • Accurate outcomes • Key learning ideas • Nature of the task in a clear and precise rubric • The verbs! • Explicit quality criteria • Marking guidelines reflecting the outcomes being assessed

44. Deep understanding When students truly understand, they can: • Explain, make connections, offer good theories:Make sense of what they experience; show their work and defend it; provide thorough, supported, and justifiable accounts of phenomena, facts, and data • Interpret:Tell meaningful stories; offer translations; provide a revealing historical or personal dimension to ideas and events; make it personal or accessible through images, anecdotes, analogies, models

45. Deep understanding • Apply and Produce: Effectively use and adapt what they know in diverse contexts, and design effective products. • Appreciate Other Perspectives: See multiple points of view, with critical eyes and ears; see the big picture.

46. Deep understanding • Empathise:Get inside, find value in what others might find odd, alien, or implausible; perceive sensitively, enter the mind and heart of others. • Self-knowledge:Perceive the personal style, prejudices, projections, and habits of mind that shape and impede their own understanding; are aware of what they do not understand, and why it is so hard to understand.

47. Assessment for Deep understanding • First task is teacher directed • Introduces the concept and the key learning idea/s • Second task encourages risk taking: • Higher-order • Moving towards student directed/open-ended & problematic knowledge

48. Quality Assessment: Stage 4 Mathematics • Concept: Navigating: Understanding your place on Earth, physically and culturally, through Mathematics • Key Question: How do you plan a world tour surfing competition? • Key Ideas: • Using knowledge of fractions and circles to specify location • Measuring distance, time and rate • Interpreting data

49. Stage 4 Mathematics • What do you want the students to learn?How to measure location, distance, time and speed. • Why is it important? Using mathematics to better understand the content and context of everyday experiences. • How will you know that students are learning? Through discussion, worksheets and a formal presentation.

50. Quality Assessment: Stage 4 Mathematics • You have been asked to set up a world tour surfing competition. This will involve selecting locations; planning a travel itinerary; describing local conditions; and basic budgeting. Thirty-two top competitors will be invited to take part. A luxury, ocean going motor launch has been charted to house staff and competitors and will sail to ten top surfing spots. • List your ten sporting spots on worksheet 5.1 along with their latitude and longitude. Create placemarks in Google Earth. Plan a route to get around your chosen locations. Again use Google Earth and measure the distances, in nautical miles, between each location. Record this information on worksheet 5.2.