Professional Documents
Culture Documents
CURRICULUM DELIVERY
AN ASPIRATIONAL DOCUMENT
Raising Achievement................................................................................................................ 7
Reducing Disparity.................................................................................................................. 7
Student Diversity..................................................................................................................... 9
Knowledge............................................................................................................................ 11
Pedagogies ............................................................................................................................ 14
Intellectual Quality................................................................................................................ 15
Connectedness....................................................................................................................... 16
Transdisciplinary Topics........................................................................................................ 27
Concepts............................................................................................................................... 30
Attitudes............................................................................................................................... 30
Action .................................................................................................................................. 30
ASSESSMENT ...............................................................................................................31
Self Review........................................................................................................................... 33
Tools.................................................................................................................................... 33
REPORTING...................................................................................................................34
PLANNING......................................................................................................................37
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT............................................................................38
PROGRAMMES .............................................................................................................45
Social skills........................................................................................................................... 47
Library ................................................................................................................................ 47
Active Environment............................................................................................................... 48
Organised Physical Activity .................................................................................................. 48
Summit Club...................................................................................................................... 48
Jump Jam ...................................................................................................................... 49
Sports Coordinator.............................................................................................................. 49
Camps & Activities ............................................................................................................. 49
Education Outside the Classroom........................................................................................... 49
Te Pouahi............................................................................................................................. 50
A Philosophy of Education
The philosophy of education that underpins the actions of the people in our school who
are concerned with curriculum implementation derive from five basic philosophies of
education:
• Perennialism
• Idealism
• Realism
• Experimentalism
• Existentialism
Perennialism is a very conservative and inflexible philosophy of education. It is based
on the view that reality comes from fundamental fixed truths-especially related to God. It
believes that people find truth through reasoning and revelation and that goodness is
found in rational thinking. As a result, schools exist to teach reason and God's will.
Students are taught to reason through structured lessons and drills.
Idealism believes in refined wisdom. It is based on the view that reality is a world within
a person's mind. It believes that truth is in the consistency of ideas and that goodness is an
ideal state to strive to attain. As a result, schools exist to sharpen the mind and
intellectual processes. Students are taught the wisdom of past heroes.
Realism believes in the world as it is. It is based on the view that reality is what we
observe. It believes that truth is what we sense and observe and that goodness is found in
the order of the laws of nature. As a result, schools exist to reveal the order of the world
and universe. Students are taught factual information.
Experimentalism believes that things are constantly changing. It is based on the view
that reality is what you experience. It believes that truth is what works right now and that
goodness comes from group decisions. As a result, schools exist to discover and expand
the society we live in. Students study social experiences and solve problems.
Existentialism believes in the personal interpretation of the world. It is based on the view
that the individual defines reality, truth and goodness. As a result, schools exist to aid
children in knowing themselves and their place in society. Students learn what they want
and discuss subjects freely.
A danger associated with adopting a particular philosophy is that the view of the world
through that philosophy and the ability to change it are restricted. A combination of
several of these philosophies or approaches may better serve the interests of a wider
range of views and possibilities. This amalgam ought to guide us in our endeavours and is
perhaps best seen through the words of Tom M andel:
Raising Achievement
M inistry of Education research shows that overall student achievement in New Zealand is
high and that, on average, New Zealand students rank highly compared with other
countries.
Reducing Disparity
Reducing disparity is about reducing the gaps between our highest and lowest achievers
while raising overall levels of achievement. It is about every individual being given the
encouragement, support and opportunity to realise their education potential regardless of
their social or cultural background, their location or individual needs.
Effective Teaching
Effective teaching means teachers:
• have high expectations of all learners’ ability to achieve
• have the content knowledge, skills and attitudes to respond flexibly and
appropriately to the needs of diverse learners to both challenge and support them
to achieve.
We need to be strategic about our plans for student achievement and clear about the
information/evidence basis that underpins them. This will see the development of explicit
and successful strategies for the diversity of student needs with particular attention to
groups of students not doing well.
M onitoring overall student progress, using internal, national and international data to help
benchmark performance, evaluating the effectiveness of programmes and the capability
of the teachers, will all be important in developing and reviewing strategies to improve
achievement.
Student Diversity
Student diversity is the reality in today’s education system.
Students represent many different home and social backgrounds and many nationalities.
They represent a wide range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds, have a range of first
languages and a wide range of learning needs, interests and gifts.
This demands broader views of effective teaching that encompass goals of identity and
social participation along with the knowledge and skills needed to participate effectively
in the world.
Effective teaching requires teachers to relate their teaching to the wide range of home,
social and cultural contexts of their students. It also requires teachers to better recognise
differences in the prior knowledge of their students and build learning from this.
One key area of focus is increasing the ability of teachers to develop strategies that take
greater account of the individual needs of learners while teaching and learning in a group
setting.
In 2006 the main curriculum theme throughout the school will be “This is our world
and we are responsible for it!!”
1
Mary-Ann Mills (Ministry of Education) in an address to the NZPF National Conferen ce held in Napier
July 2007.
2
The school promotes an approach to teaching and learning which enables students to achieve deep
understanding through transdisciplinary inquiries. The transdisciplinary approach draws on practices and
skills across disciplines. It attempts to retain the integrity of each disciplinary methodology, epistemology
and canon. Transdisciplinary learning is complex, active learning based on significant issues, tasks,
questions or problems, each delivering a range o f learning outcomes deriving from several key learning
areas. It uses ideas that draw on knowledge and methodologies from several disciplines. Transdisciplinary
investigations involve students in using more than one discipline in solving significant real world questions
or problems. Approaches that are transdisciplinary increase students’ capacity to make connections in their
learning across the curriculum and between disciplines. Transdisciplinary learning is engaging for students
becaus e it supports their involvement in tasks that are worthwhile, significant and meaning ful such as those
undertaken by success ful adults.
The curriculum is about laying the foundations that will help children deal with aspects of
an emerging world that have to be taken seriously by the school. That includes issues of
identity, new economies, new technologies, diverse communities and complex cultures.
These need to be the focus of debate, data analysis and collection, higher order thinking
and basic skills building.
The design of our approach to curriculum delivery is an attempt to meet the complexity
of the challenge of preparing children for 2012 and beyond, empower and encourage
teachers, unclutter the curriculum, up the ante intellectually, deliver fewer alienated
students, prepare students for a future in an uncertain world, and position the classroom
within the ‘global village’.
We also want to provide a framework of action and support to help teachers improve their
performance as teachers and to do this in a way that directly confronts the challenges that
lie ahead of us.
Knowledge
“Wikipedia is an example of people participating in the production of knowledge.”3
Knowledge has been defined in many ways by countless ‘experts’. Two examples will
suffice to show knowledge as a noun: “Knowledge is the internalization of information,
data, and experience. Tacit Knowledge is the personal knowledge resident within the
mind, behavior and perceptions of individual members of the organization. Explicit
Knowledge is the formal, recorded, or systematic knowledge in the form of scientific
3
Mary-Ann Mills (Ministry of Education) in an address to the NZPF National Conferen ce held in Napier
July 2007.
formulae, procedures, rules, organizational archives, principles, etc., and can easily be
accessed, transmitted, or stored in computer files or hard copy”.4
In her book, Catching the Knowledge Wave? Gilbert takes apart some of our most
deeply-held ideas about knowledge and education, and explores the ways our schools
need to change to prepare people to participate in the knowledge-based societies of the
future. M ary-Ann M ills provided said, that people and children in particular need to
participate in the production of knowledge and gave the growth and use of Wikipedia an
example of how that is already happening. 7 The rest of this section draws entirely on
Gilbert’s work.
The knowledge society is an idea that is widely discussed, but not well understood.
Perhaps this is because we need to use knowledge as a verb, not a noun – it something we
do rather than something we have. This new meaning is quite different to the one our
schools were built on, and because of this knowledge society developments are a major
challenge for our schools. Gilbert argues that we cannot address this challenge by simply
adding more ideas to our existing structures. We need a completely new framework, one
that takes account of knowledge’s new meaning, but that in practice also gives everyone
an equal opportunity to succeed.
The book argues that our current education system is set up to serve industrial age, not
knowledge age, needs. It works like a production line, using the traditional academic
subjects to sort people according to their likely place in the job market. This, it argues, is
completely inappropriate as we move into the knowledge age.
If people are to have a job at all in the ‘new work order’, they need more than basic
literacy and numeracy skills. Everyone (not just those heading for university) now needs
‘higher order’ thinking skills. They need the ability to be an independent learner, and the
4
home.earthlink.net/~ddstuhlman/defin1.htm
5
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge
6
http://jtd.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/4/2/105
7
Mary-Ann Mills (Ministry of Education) in an address to the NZPF National Conferen ce held in Napier
July 2007.
ability to go on learning all their lives. However, they also need to know quite a lot – not,
as in the past, at the detailed level of traditional forms of knowledge, but at the ‘systems’
or ‘big picture’ level. They also need the ability to work as part of collaborative teams in
which the members acknowledge, recognise and build on each other’s strengths and
weaknesses.
In contrast to the present system that encourages people to master existing knowledge for
its own sake, a knowledge age education system needs to help people (all people) go
beyond this. It needs to help people develop the ability to generate new knowledge from
old. This move from industrial age to knowledge age is a paradigm shift, not a gradual
progression.
One of the defining features of the knowledge age is that knowledge has a new meaning.
The old idea of knowledge as ‘stuff’, something we get, and store away somewhere, is
being replaced by a new view of knowledge as being more like energy – something that
does things, something that makes things happen.
This new view of knowledge doesn’t mean that the ‘old’ kinds of knowledge (the stuff
we get to store away) don’t matter any more. On the contrary, old knowledge is the raw
material for the new, so we still need to know it.
The ability to do things with knowledge is now the key skill people need: however people
need to be taught how to do this and they need to learn how to do it from an early age
(not wait until postgraduate university level).
A second key feature of the knowledge age is a new model of individuality (what it
means to be a person), and, as a result, new ways of thinking about things like equality
and social justice.
The new ideas about knowledge and identity are a significant challenge to our current
education system. We can’t address this challenge by tinkering with the current system –
a paradigm shift is needed. 8
8
http://www.nzcer.org.nz/pd fs/14057-summary.pd f
Currently our collective beliefs about knowledge are that knowledge is:
• Constructing meaning through interaction and creativity.
• Understanding demonstrated through interpreting, analysing reasoning and
applying learning.
• Information that furthers the acquisition of more knowledge through
manipulation.
• The ability to understand, transfer and use information.
Pedagogies
Usually known as ‘teaching’ the pedagogies used in the school are comprehensive and do
not focus on just one aspect of teaching. They require attention to many essential aspects
of classroom teaching. Our current belief about teaching is that it is a cluster of activities
undertaken by the teacher to ensure learning and includes:
• Organising
• Facilitating
• Inspiring
• M otivating
• Supporting
• Guiding
• Informing
Productive Pedagogy 9 refines the notion of teaching and takes existing techniques and
learning concepts, and groups them into a simple model comprising four 'dimensions':
• Intellectual quality
• Relevance (or connectedness)
9
Productive Pedagogy is a term used in the Queensland New Basics approach to curriculum construction
and delivery. It has been used here to achieve a focus on things that effective teachers ought to do at a
practical classroom level.
The measurement and evaluation of these factors, combined with the increased awareness
of teachers of the most effective techniques, contributes to their success as classroom
tools.
Enhancing intellectual quality involves recognising that knowledge isn't a fixed body of
information. This idea is consistent with Gilbert’s ideas about knowledge. It encourages
students in higher-order thinking10 and has a problematic approach to knowledge which
involves communicating ideas and arguments as opposed to a 'giving' approach. It's about
getting students to do learning work rather than busy work, but most of all it's about
engaging students in big ideas and complex understandings.
A socially supportive classroom environment is one where students are able to influence
activities and how they are implemented. It also involves a high degree of self-regulation
by students. It's about making sure the classroom supports learning. It's not just making it
a warm, happy place to be, but an environment that has high expectations of students and
which encourages them to take risks in learning.
Intellectual Quality
Intellectual quality refers to the level at which students are engaged in authentic learning
activities that promote the kind of thinking required of successful adults in the real
world. Tasks and instruction with high levels of intellectual quality typically include
features such as:
• Complex problems or issues
• Real-world tasks
• Higher-order thinking
• Sustained classroom discourse
• Elaborated communication
• Inquiry leading to in-depth understanding
10
This notion is consistent with ideas centred on Bloom’s taxonomy and has been used in the school for
many years.
11
This notion is part of the school’s strategic plan Goal 3 concerning diversity.
We want to ensure that students manipulate information and ideas in ways which
transform their meaning and implications, understand that knowledge is not a fixed body
of information, and can coherently communicate ideas, concepts, arguments and
explanations with rich detail. We want students, teachers and families to engage in:
• Higher order thinking - students will manipulate information and ideas in ways
that transform their meaning and implications
• Deep knowledge –concerns the central ideas of a topic or discipline that is judged
to be crucial to the topic or discipline. Relatively complex connections are
established to central concepts
• Substantive conversation - there is considerable teacher-students and student-
student interaction about the ideas of a substantive topic; the interaction is
reciprocal, and it promotes coherent shared understanding
• Knowledge as problematic – understand that knowledge is not a fixed body of
information, but rather is in the process of being constructed, and as such is
subject to political, social and cultural influences and implications. M ultiple,
contrasting, and potentially conflicting forms of knowledge are represented
• M etalanguage - has high levels of talk about talk and writing, about how written
and spoken texts work, about specific technical vocabulary and words
(vocabulary), about how sentences work or don't work (syntax/grammar), about
meaning structures and text structures (semantics/genre), about issues how
discourses and ideologies work in speech and writing
Connectedness12
Adults in diverse fields must construct knowledge through disciplined inquiry that uses
knowledge, skills, and technology. Results of the disciplined inquiry can be expressed in
written, symbolic, and oral discourse, by making things (bridges for example) and in
performances for audiences. These expressions and products have value beyond schools.
Thus, we want to ensure that students engage with real, practical or hypothetical
problems which connect to the world beyond the classroom, which are not restricted by
subject boundaries and which are linked to their prior knowledge. To that end we expect
that:
• Knowledge integration - explicit attempts are made to connect two or more sets of
subject area knowledge, or when no subject area boundaries are readily seen.
Topics or problems which either require knowledge from multiple areas, or which
have no clear subject areas basis in the first place are indicators of curricula which
integrate school subject knowledge.
• Background knowledge will be recognised and used - lessons will provide
students with opportunities to make connections between their linguistic, cultural,
world knowledge and experience and the topics, skills and competencies at hand.
12
Learning is fundamentally about making and maintaining connections: biologically through neural
networks; mentally among concepts, ideas, and meanings; and experientially through interaction between
the mind and the environment, self and other, generality and content, deliberation and action.
• What children learn will show connectedness with the ‘real’ world - the lesson has
value and meaning beyond the instructional context, making a connection to the
larger social context within which students live. This will involve the study or
solving of a real-world public problem; lessons that focus directly upon or builds
upon students' actual experiences or situations.
• The curriculum will be problem based 13 - lessons in which students are presented
with a specific practical, real, or hypothetical problem (or set of problems) to
solve will be conducted. Problems are defined as having no specified correct
solution, requiring knowledge construction on the part of the students, and
requiring sustained attention beyond a single lesson.
13
This is in line with a statement in the Technology Curriculum that invites children to ‘solve practical
problems within society’ p8.
14
Constructivism (Vygotsky, 1986; 1978) is an approach to learning in which students’ cognitive
development occurs through interaction with authentic experiences. Support is provided through
scaffolding that includes structures and steps in what Vygotsky referred to as the zone of proximal
development (1978; 1986). In this way, the teacher plays a support role as students apply their skills. In this
school, class programmes will employ a constructivist approach in which the students and teachers will co-
create new knowledge and understanding of complex issues chosen for study. In this way students will play
a significant role in their learning.
Valuing of Diversity
We want to ensure that students know about and value a range of cultures, create positive
human relationships, respect individuals, and help to create a sense of community.
16
Children will have opportunities to develop understandings of other cultures
• Cultural knowledge - explicit valuing of their identity represented in such things
as beliefs, languages, practices, ways of knowing.
• The principle of inclusion will be followed - the degree to which non-dominant
groups are represented in classroom practices by participation.
• Narrative - a sequence of events chained together. The use of narrative in lessons
is identified by an emphasis in teaching and in student responses on structures and
forms. The use of narratives in the form of personal stories, biographies, historical
accounts, literary and cultural texts
• Group identity - create learning communities in which difference and group
identities are positively recognised and developed within a collaborative and
supportive classroom community. Differences and group identities are positively
developed and recognised while at the same time a sense of community is created.
• The teacher elaborates the meaning of active citizenship and facilitates its practice
both within the classroom and outside.
15
This particular requirement aligns very clearly with the Key Competencies proposed by the Draft
Curriculum Statement released on 31 July 2006.
16
Goal 3 in the school’s strategic plan makes the statement: “To Value Diversity” and this section is
included to elaborate on what they might mean for children at the classroom level.
17
Teaching for Und erstanding (TfU) had its beginnings in 1988 when Howard Gardner, David Perkins and
Vito Perrone from the Harvard Graduate School o f Education began a dialogue around the following
questions:
• What does it mean to understand something?
• How do we develop understanding?
• What do we need to understand?
18
The backward design process o f Wiggins & McTighe begins with the end in mind. One starts with the
end - the desired results (goals or standards) - and then derives the curriculum from the eviden ce o f learning
(perfo rmances) called fo r by the standard and the teaching needed to equip students to ‘perform' (Wiggins
and McTighe, 2000, page 8)
learning experiences that will be needed to enable students to develop and demonstrate
the identified understandings. TfU and UbD can be successfully combined with inquiry
learning to provide powerful learning programmes for children.
play?
Inclusivity Are deliberate attempts made to increase the
participation of students of di fferent
backgrounds?
Narrative Is the style of teaching principally narrative, or is
it expository?
Group identity Does the teaching build a sense of community and
identity?
Citizenship Are attempts made to foster active citizenship?
The Draft New Zealand Curriculum has suggested some ways a school might organise a
curriculum and these have been incorporated into the organisers proposed for our school.
We use clusters of essential practices that students need in order to flourish in 'new times'.
Apart from globalisation, factors contributing to new times include the shift towards new
and constantly changing technologies, complex transformations in cultural and social
relationships, fluid demographics, and a sense of uncertainty about the future. At the
same time, and specifically related to the education field, are the increasingly
complicated demands on teaching and assessment that have accompanied the
diversification of classrooms.
This approach will help teachers and curriculum planners to move beyond a defence of
status quo knowledges to a critical engagement with the ongoing change that
characterises new times. The curriculum is predicated on the existence of mindful
schools, where intellectual engagement and connectedness to the real world are constant
foci.
Because we are not certain that we know futures - the future of an individual, the future
of the world, we best ensure that our students are prepared for uncertain futures by
allowing diversity within a general framework that emphasises the value and, hence,
relevance, of development of human qualities and potential.
An understanding of self involves knowing who one is (e.g. genetic makeup), where one
has come from (e.g. some cultures place significant importance on knowing about
connections to the past), and where one wants to go.
• Living in and preparing for diverse family relationship
• Collaborating with peers and others
• M aintaining health and care of the self
• Learning about and preparing for new worlds of work
• Developing initiative and enterprise
Historically, communications media have included spoken language, writing, print and
some visual media like photograph and film. Since World War II, the various electronic
media such as television and other digital information technologies have provided much
more complex audiovisual layers to these.
Yet the old technologies of pen writing, book reading, spoken communications, mental
arithmetic and so on are not made redundant by these changes. They remain central to the
New Basics. But if new communications technologies are viewed merely as add-ons then
there is the danger of further crowding an already cluttered curriculum. New
communications change the way we use old media, enhancing and augmenting them.
Communications media require mastery of symbolic codes ranging from number systems
to sign language, from linguistic grammars to computer codes. Networked societies call
for various kinds of literacy simultaneously, the mastery of many different codes, and the
capacity to switch between and blend multiliteracies. For instance, to read or construct a
web page requires an array of literacies and numeracies: traditional print literacies (to
record information and ideas); visual literacies (for overall design and to manipulate
images); aural and musical literacies (to build a soundscape around the page);
mathematical understandings of number and chance and data (to keep track of usage and
to survey interest levels).
Active Citizenship
Students explore what it means to be a citizen. Through their participation in
learning experiences in the school or community, they learn how to become active,
informed, and responsible citizens who know how to contribute positively to the
development and well-being of the society in which they live. Active citizenship raises
basic questions such as “What are my rights and responsibilities in communities, cultures
and economies?” and require us to address with children issues such as
• Interacting within local and global communities
• Operating within shifting cultural identities
• Understanding local and global economic forces
• Understanding the historical foundation of social movements and civic institutions
Schooling was founded on the development of students as worthwhile and contributing
citizens. Producing active citizens remains a specific goal of schooling-whether the active
citizens are compliant members of an assumed social order, participants within given
social structures, or active agents of social change.
This approach involves students in the reinvigoration of valued social practices and civic
institutions through exercising their democratic rights and responsibilities. In recent
times, there has been increased advocacy for the importance of preparing students to play
a more active role in society.
This view of citizenship suggests that schools engage students in active participation in
social, political and economic issues in communities, as well as in their school life and
studies. Communities take on a different perspective when viewed not merely as physical
spaces with clearly defined boundaries but as a series of interacting, intersecting social
relationships and groupings. Important social changes and issues may have local impacts,
but also reflect global dynamics. The power of communications technology in redefining
what were once reasonably static and defined boundaries has to be acknowledged in this
context. For example, the online economy is changing patterns of consumption,
production and delivery of goods and services. It has created new industries based on
products and services especially designed to exploit these opportunities.
Because the election of governments, the fall of political regimes, and the gruesome
details of war are portrayed in our homes on tiny screens every day, young people need
help in understanding the significance of these events and some criteria for evaluating
them.
Students investigate the long term impact of social, scientific, technological, economic, or
political practices and consider alternatives that might prove more durable for the
economy, for society, and for the environment.
Environments involve people locally and globally and it is important that sight not be lost
of this. In studies of Asia, for example, students explore what it means to be part of the
global community as they learn about and connect with the peoples and cultures of Asia.
Such studies can encompass both the diversity of the Asian region and the diversity of
people from Asian backgrounds living in New Zealand.
It is important that public concerns are not dealt with by value-neutral experts or by
manufacturing controversy. But a cautionary note must be sounded. It is also important
that public concerns are not turned into a forum for sharing ignorance or withholding the
worst aspects of a situation. The way to ensure that the expression of an opinion on such
matters is founded on a knowledge base is to ensure that students are not scientifically
illiterate.
sustainability have become both cultural and curriculum imperatives. Living in and
building sustainable environments involves careful planning and consultation, and is an
area in which schools have become increasingly involved. The implementation of this
category means that students will have the opportunity to apply their scientific,
technological, environmental and design understandings within a practice-oriented
framework.
We are concerned here with enhancing activity in context. Unless that activity is made
integral to the learning there is a risk that scientific understanding and processes will be
regarded as irrelevant to the lives of the vast majority of students who choose to not study
science at advanced levels after leaving school.
The transdisciplinary themes provide the framework for the exploration of knowledge.
Teachers and students are guided by these themes as they design curricular units for
exploration and study. Students explore subject areas through these themes, often in ways
that transcend conventional subject boundaries. In the process, they develop an
Transdisciplinary Topics
Each year transdisciplinary themes are expressed as topics or major understandings. In
2006 the topic for the year is “This is our world and we are responsible
for it!!” The emphasis will be on Social Studies, Science and Technology although
teaching and learning will utilize other areas of knowledge.
An outline of a section of the 2006 curriculum plan illustrates how we currently think
about the transdisciplinary approach to curriculum organization and delivery.
Currently we are building a plan for curriculum delivery within the framework below:
Term 3 - How
technology will
work for us
Term 4 - The
future starts
now
2008 Health and P.E. We owe it to Science
ourselves to Technology
have a personal Social Studies
health plan The Arts
2009 Social Studies Science –
Environmental
Health & PE
Technology
The Arts
2010 Science & Health & PE
Technology Social Studies
The Arts
2011 Health and P.E. Science
Technology
Social Studies
The Arts
There is considerable scope for refining the plan as we approach each year. For example,
based on our experiences in 2006, the following is an outline of what 2007 could look
like.
Appreciation
The first four – concepts, competencies, attitudes and actions – are relevant in and across
all subject content areas and provide the framework for structured and purposeful inquiry.
They can have different applications and interpretations, depending on the subject area.
The fifth element is knowledge, which is considered to be a holistic understanding of
ideas, not merely the acquisition of facts and skills and should be read in light of the
insights provided by Jane Gilbert whose work was presented earlier.
Concepts
What do we w ant students to understand?
Eight fundamental concepts, related to the curriculum organizers described above and
expressed as key questions here, propel the process of inquiry and help to encourage a
transdisciplinary perspective. These concepts drive planning and teaching processes
including units of inquiry – the details of which teachers and students design together -
they lie at the heart of the curriculum model. The concepts are the following:
• Form: What is it like?
• Function: How does it work?
• Causation: Why is it like it is?
• Change: How is it changing?
• Connection: How is it connected to other things?
• Perspective: What are the points of view?
• Responsibility: What is our responsibility?
• Reflection: How do we know?
Key Competencies
What do we w ant students to be able to do?
Key competencies19 are essential throughout life, for work and play. They are the
capabilities people need to live and to learn to make a contribution as active members of
their community. The key competencies acquired in the process of structured inquiry are
thinking, communication, social, research and self-management skills. See also the
repertoire of skills outlined below.
Attitudes
What do we w ant students to feel, value and dem onstrate?
The programme promotes and fosters a set of attitudes that include tolerance, respect,
integrity, independence, enthusiasm, empathy, curiosity, creativity, cooperation,
confidence, commitment and appreciation. See also the profile for students set out below.
Action
How do we want students to act?
Students are encouraged to reflect, to make informed choices and to take action that will
help their peers, school staff and the wider community. The actions we would like to see
19
These were presented on p20-21.
them engage in during their lives are reflected in the key curriculum organizers discussed
above.
Assessment
Assessment is the process of acquiring information and making judgments about students'
learning. The purposes of assessment include the following:
• to assist student learning related to outcomes,
• to make judgments about students' achievements,
• to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching programs, and
• to inform decisions about students' future learning.
Teachers organize continuous assessment over the course of the school year according to
specified assessment criteria that correspond to the objectives of each programme of
work.
Formative assessment
is interwoven with daily learning and helps teachers and students find out what the
students already know in order to plan the next stage in learning. Formative assessment
and teaching are directly linked; neither can function effectively or purposefully without
the other.
Summative assessment
happens at the end of the teaching and learning process and gives the students
opportunities to demonstrate what they have learned. The school promotes the use of a
range and balance of school-based assessment and feedback techniques, including
student/teacher/parent conferences, writing samples, structured observations, and
performance tasks assessed by teachers and by the students themselves.
Rich Tasks
The Rich Tasks approach to teaching and assessment is being developed in the school
and utilizes a number of approaches currently used widely in schools. That includes the
testing activities used in the NEM P project and the exemplars used in English and other
curriculum areas.
20
A Rich Task is the outward and visible sign of student engagement with the curriculum. It is the
assessable and repo rtable outcome o f a curri culum plan that prepares students for the challeng es of li fe in
'new times'. A Rich Task is a reconceptualisation of the notion of outcome as demonstration or display of
mastery; that is, students display their understandings, knowledges and skills through performan ce on
transdisciplinary activities that have an obvious connection to the wide world. In this respect it is
synonymous with authentic assessment and is consistent with the requirements of the Teaching fo r
Understanding model of curriculum implementation.
21
A Rich Task is the culmination of three years’ work. It is not a short-term ‘project’. Not only is the
quality of the product important but also the intellectual strategies that are acquired by the student in the
processes leading up to the completion of the task.
engages learners in forms of pragmatic social action that have real value in the world.
The problems require identification, analysis and resolution, and require students to
analyse, theorise and engage intellectually with the world. In this way, tasks connect to
the world outside the classroom.
As well as having this connectedness, the tasks are also rich in their application: they
represent an educational outcome of demonstrable and substantial intellectual and
educational value. And, to be truly rich, a task must be transdisciplinary.22 Rich Tasks
have relevance and power in new worlds of work and everyday life. It is important that
they have recognisable face value with educators, parents and community stakeholders as
being significant and important. Finally, it is crucial that tasks be rich in developmental,
cognitive and intellectual depth and breadth to guide curriculum planning across a
significant span of schooling.
Although Rich Tasks vary in the intensity of what is expected of students, all of them:
• draw from academic scholarship and connect to sensible decisions in a prudent
world
• draw on topics widely accepted in history, science, mathematics, home economics
and so on
• ask for straightforward analyses and the possession of ingenuity
• ask for analyses that go beyond the data presented (that is, ask the student to do
autonomous creative work)
• call for realistic decisions and defences of those decisions
• involve topics of interest to people in that age group
• require judgments that most young people would expect of thoughtful citizens
22
Transdisciplinary learnings draw upon practices and skills across disciplines while retaining the integrity
of each individual discipline. This is not the same as the traditional interdisciplinary approach that seeks
links between disciplines often via thematic learning.
• depend, in some cases, on the judgment of adults monitoring the process (for
example, by defining terms or shaping contemporary meaning).
Thus, Rich Tasks are the assessable and reportable outcomes of a curriculum plan that
prepares students for the challenges of life in 'new times'. The Rich Task is a
reconceptualisation of the notion of outcome as demonstration or display of mastery; that
is, students display their understandings, knowledges and skills through performance on
transdisciplinary activities that have an obvious connection to the wide world.
Self Review
The approach to self review utilises a number of checklists to provide feedback on:
• the National Education Goals
• The National Administration Guidelines
• The School Strategic Plan
• The Curriculum Plan
The information provided by teachers is used to inform analysis and to make planning
decisions.
Tools
Some of the assessment tools used in the assessment map include:
• AsTTle
• STAR
• PAT Listening
• Running records
• Exemplars
• NumPA
• GLOSS
• Performances of Understanding
• High Frequency word lists
• Essential Spelling Lists
23
See Appendix
Reporting
Regular school assessment and reporting play a major role:
• in the students’ and parents’ understanding of the objectives and assessment
criteria
• in the students’ preparation of their work for assessment
• in the development of the curriculum according to the principles of the
programme.
Teachers are responsible for structuring varied and valid assessment that will allow
students to demonstrate achievement according to the objectives for each programme.
These include:
• open-ended, problem-solving activities
• investigations
• organized debates
• hands-on experimentation
• analysis and reflection.
In keeping with the ethos of approaches to learning, teachers will also make use of
quantitative and qualitative assessment strategies and tools that provide opportunities for
peer- and self-assessment.
The recording and reporting of individual levels of achievement are organized in ways
that provide students with detailed feedback on their progress as it relates to the
assessment criteria for each programme of work.
• children will own the portfolios (as compared with teachers owning them)
The student and teachers collaborate on selections for the portfolio, which may contain:
• Examples of the student’s work
• Information about any extracurricular achievements or other activities undertaken
by the student
• A self- assessment by the student
• A reflective element
• The portfolio also serves as the focus for parent interviews and places the student
in control
• The portfolio will also assist in handling transfers of students between classes and
between schools
Inquiry, interpreted in the broadest sense, is the process initiated by the learner or the
teacher, which moves the learner from his or her current level of understanding to a new
and deeper level of understanding.
The school emphasizes the importance of children making connections between their
experience and the incremental pieces of new information they encounter. The
programme supports the child’s struggle to gain understanding of the world and to learn
to function comfortably within it, to move from not knowing to knowing, to identifying
what is real and what is not real, to acknowledging what is appropriate and what is not
appropriate. To do this the child must integrate a great deal of information and apply this
accumulation of knowledge in a cohesive and effective way.
Inquiry involves an active engagement with the environment in an effort to make sense of
the world, and consequent reflection on the connections between the experiences
encountered and the information gathered. Inquiry involves the synthesis, analysis and
manipulation of knowledge, whether through play for younger children or through more
formally structured learning in the primary years.
The lively, animated process of inquiry appears differently within different age ranges.
The developmental range evident in a group of 5-year-olds, which can often be from
three to eight years, demands that the teacher be a careful, thoughtful participant in, and
monitor of, the ongoing exploration and investigation that the children engage in or
initiate. The programme provides guidelines for the teachers of young children
concerning the role of the environment in presenting surprises to the children, for them to
wonder at and be curious about, and to stimulate purposeful play.
The school recognizes many different forms of inquiry based on children's genuine
curiosity and on their wanting and needing to know more about the world. It is most
successful when children's questions are honest and have real significance in moving
them in a substantial way to new levels of knowledge and understanding. The most
penetrating questions, ones most likely to move the child's understanding further, come
from existing knowledge. The structure of the learning environment, the home, the
classroom, the school, the community, and the behaviour modeled by others in that
environment, particularly the parent and the teacher, will lay down the knowledge base
that will nurture meaningful participation and inquiry on the part of the child.
An explicit expectation is that successful inquiry will lead to responsible action, initiated
by the children as a result of the learning process. This action may extend the child's
learning, or it may have a wider social impact, and will clearly look different within each
age range.
Aspects of other pedagogical approaches can also be incorporated into the teachers ‘tool
kit’ and will provide additional support for learning programmes. The relationship
between the three models can be described as:
Planning
To help teachers plan effectively for inquiry learning a number of planning formats are
available to teachers 24. Unit planners are designed around seven open-ended questions:
• What is our purpose?
• What resources will we use?
• What do we want to learn?
• How best will we learn?
• How will we know what we have learned?
• How will we take action?
• To what extent did we achieve our purpose?
Whole school planning provides a framework for connectedness, coherence, balance and
continuity. It requires the support and involvement of all groups including students,
teachers, parents and the wider community.
Distributed Leadership
Distributed and authentic leadership is practiced in the school through the organization of
management teams into two types – strategic and operational 25. Three distinctive
elements of the concept of distributed leadership are offered.
24
See Appendix 2 for a sample of a planning fo rmat that might be used by teachers.
25
See Appendix 3 for a diagram that shows the management teams in the school.
There are no limits built into the concept of distributive leadership. This openness is not
limited merely to the extent to which the conventional net is widened within a particular
community. It also raises the question of the boundaries of the community within
which leadership is distributed. M uch of the literature examines the concept of
distributed leadership in relation to the teachers in the school. However, there are other
members of the school community whose roles need to be considered. In particular, what
are the roles of the parents, pupils or elected board of trustees in relation to distributed
leadership?
Thirdly, distributed leadership entails the view that varieties of expertise are distributed
across the many, not the few. Related to openness of the boundaries of leadership is the
idea that numerous, distinct, germane perspectives and capabilities can be found in
individuals spread through the group or organisation. If these are brought together it is
possible to forge a concertive dynamic which represents more than the sum of the
individual contributors. Initiatives may be inaugurated by those with relevant skills in a
particular context, but others will then adopt, adapt and improve them within a mutually
trusting and supportive culture.
Professional Development
Teachers must be dedicated to a continuous plan of professional development that
extends through the life of their professional career in education through on-going and
sustained professional development endeavours 26. We believe that effective teachers are
life-long learners, that professional development must be an on-going process of refining
skills, inquiring into practice, and developing new methods.
The professional strengths and accomplishments of the school must work to complement
the learning needs and requirements of the entire student population. Professional
development activities must also complement both the needs of the educator and the
goals and objectives of the school. These activities must focus on the conditions which
affect student learning in order for teachers to develop the knowledge and expertise
needed to enable students to function as independent thinkers and creative learners both
in the school community and in the larger environment of society as a whole.
A common set of beliefs about teaching and learning is reflected in the following
standards for professional development plans pursued by individual staff members.
26
Each teach er is required to maintain a record of pro fessional development they have undert aken during
the year. In 2006 teachers are required to prepare a person al pro fessional development plan for literacy.
5. Provides for integrating new learning into the curriculum and the classroom
a. empowers teachers to connect their learning to what they teach and to
incorporate new concepts into practice
b. provides for initiation and implementation of desired change to achieve
student outcomes
c. provides for ongoing support for individual teachers within the school
environment
8. Results from clear, coherent, strategic planning that is embraced and supported by the
Board of Trustees
a. delineates what students are expected to know and be able to do
b. supports a clearly delineated vision and is aligned with the school goals
c. focuses on sound, research-based theories in school management
d. focuses on individual, collegial, school improvement
e. is perceived by the professional staff and the community as a critical part
of the quest for excellence
f. fosters the use of reflection and self-assessment in professional and
intellectual growth
g. allows teachers to pursue personal educational opportunities that reflect
the school’s strategic plan
h. encourages careful experimentation with new practice and creative use of
best practice
i. reflects the educational outcomes the school seeks to achieve
j. assists teachers in analyzing disaggregated student data (i.e., gender,
socioeconomics and ethnicity) and in making decisions based on that data
9. Develops a school culture that fosters continuous improvement and that challenges
traditional roles and relationships among teachers
a. recognizes that collegial support and interaction are essential to the
success of every aspect of education
b. provides for ongoing and meaningful collaboration among teachers
c. values individual efforts at self improvement
d. provides teachers with incentives and support to pursue a plan of
continuous improvement
e. involves strong leadership from all areas of the school community to
encourage a commitment to life-long learning
f. encourages creativity and innovation
g. supports the ongoing development of new skills in a collaborative
environment
h. values the contribution of practitioners in the pursuit of enhanced student
learning
10. Is supported by the intellectual and financial commitment which enables the
achievement of professional development plans
a. is an on-going process which respects the personal strengths and needs of
each educator
12. Empowers teachers to work effectively with parent and community partners
a. assists teachers in establishing relationships and partnerships with parents
and families
b. enables teachers to identify and use community resources to foster student
learning
c. promotes an environment where teachers feel comfortable and confident
working collaboratively with other teachers, parents, business and
community leaders
Programmes
A wide range of programmes are on offer as a professional response to Goal 1 in the
school’s strategic plan and to the National Administration Guidelines.
SENCO
The SENCO (Special Educational Needs Coordinator) plays a critical role in ensuring
children with special needs are catered for. This is a 1.0 FTTE position created through
entitlement staffing and is given to Reading Recovery (0.4) and Special Needs (0.6). The
latter function includes CWSA and ESOL support for teachers, children and families. The
SENCO is the main reference point for teachers, families and external agencies.
Reading Recovery
The school has two part time Reading Recovery teachers – the SENCO (0.4) and another
0.2 component funded by the M inistry of Education. The school also funds extra support
to ensure all 6 year old children are tested with the six-year net and to ensure all
discontinuance testing and recommendations are completed.
Rainbow Reading
Rainbow Reading is a tape assisted reading programme designed to support children who
require extra ‘mileage’ in reading. The SENCO overseas the selection of children for the
programme which is then implemented by an experienced teacher aide.
Motor Skills
The SENCO overseas the M otor Skills Programme that is designed to assist children who
have difficulty with gross and small motor skills. The programme was instituted after
research and trials conducted in 2001 with a grant from the Nelson Principals
Association. The literature search suggested that children who have difficulty with gross
and small motor skills also have difficulty in some areas of learning. We worked on the
assumption that if we can improve children’s motor skills that may ensure they don’t
develop learning difficulties. School data kept since 2001 shows that the programme is
successful in developing the motor skills of children in the programme compared with
those who could have been in the programme. What has yet to be tested is the correlation
with improved learning.
The SENCO and a skilled teacher aide conduct initial assessments for M inistry of
Education funding and to establish student’s skill levels. Teachers are expected to plan a
programme around the assessment results.
In-class learning:
This comprises exposure to and immersion in English language, classroom practices
(do’s & don’ts) and culture. Reading, writing, speaking and listening with the class and
also key components in their orientation and learning.
Withdrawal
Where it is appropriate to do so children may be withdrawn for individual and small
group work. This will allow for a better ffocus on learning about and catering for
individual needs and so increase confidence in reading, writing, speaking and listening.
Sometimes withdrawal can allow children to meet with other ESOL students and so
create a community of mutual interest. Withdrawal sessions can allow a focus on
anything from basic alphabet and vocabulary to grammatical structures and ‘counselling’
depending on a student’s level.
Social skills
The school runs a whole school social skills programme based on a ‘preventive’ model of
learning. The key ideas are to ‘catch them while they are good’ and to let children know
what behaviours are supported in the school. Each week particular skills and values are
highlighted at the whole school assembly, reinforced in classrooms and recognised
throughout the school.
Library
The library is a critical resource area for teachers and children. It comprises three sections
– the main collection area where children read, browse and choose books for issue; the
mezzanine floor where the computer suite is located; and, a teachers’ work room where
teaching resources are stored.
Each teacher chooses a library session for their children when children can choose books
for issue. Some classes also utilise the skills of the computer teacher at this time.
The further evolution of these technologies and the development of new technologies will
play a key role in New Zealand’s transformation into an innovative, knowledge society.
Consequently, today’s students need to be confident and capable users of ICT and to
understand how to use ICT effectively across the curriculum.
Just like the ability to read and write, ICT literacy will be an essential life skill – an
economic and social necessity. “Without [ICT literacy], there is a risk that people will be
cut off from job opportunities and unable to take part in the full life of the community”
(New Zealand Government, 2005, page 18).
This e-learning action plan will also contribute to the Schooling Strategy goal of
supporting students to achieve their full potential by:
• promoting e-learning to extend and enrich educational experiences across the
curriculum;
• supporting students to become proficient in ICT literacy skills;
• supporting students in developing the sense of identity, the self-confidence, and
key competencies that are prerequisites for independent, collaborative, and
lifelong learning;
• supporting students who identify as M àori to use ICT to access high-quality
learning, both of te reo M àori and, through the medium of te reo M àori, to
participate as citizens of the world and to experience success in schooling;
• supporting Pasifika students to use ICT to embrace their unique Pasifika identities
and to experience success in schooling, both academically and socially”.
To support e-learning in the school two support staff positions have been created - ICT
technical and an ICT teaching position. Both positions are there to support teachers to
implement e-learning in their regular classroom programmes.
Nelson Central has also joined with other Nelson City Cluster schools to apply for an ICT
PD contract for 2007-2009. The focus of the application is Digital Stories27 and teachers
will be expected to make this a feature of children’s classroom and e-learning.
Active Environment
Nelson Central School is committed to the Active Schools model for the healthy physical
development of children.
Summit Club
The Summit Club is a group of children and teachers that walk each Thursday lunchtime
to the Centre of New Zealand. That involves a climb to the top of a hill which starts about
1km from the school. Children qualify for a badge when they have completed 10
‘summits’. That qualification earns an invitation for them to take part in a one day tramp
on one of the well know walks in the region. Children can earn subsequent badges for
each set of ten ‘summits’.
27
Digital Storytelling is the art of turning a personal narrative into a multimedia experience. It can
combine music, video and/or still images with your creative voice. The results are an original production
that engages the viewing audience in ways that are o ften surprising and powerful. Digital storytelling can
be used to introduce or reinforce the power o f writing. Through the writing process and its refinement,
students often discover the power o f personal expression and greater creativity with digital tools at their
aid. Advancements in technology have given everyone the opportunity to be a digital storyteller for an
online, world-wide audience.
Jump Jam
Dance is a vital and integral part of human life. It exists in many forms and styles and is
practised in all cultures, taking place in a range of contexts for various purposes. Dance
functions as ritual, as artistic endeavour, as social discourse, and as education, and peopl e
of all ages and at many levels of expertise are involved to varying degrees. (Ministry of
Education Arts Curriculum p18)
Jump Jam28 is one of the organised activities used to achieve the aims of the Dance
section of the curriculum along with our goals in the Active Environment programme.
Sports Coordinator
The school employs a Sports Coordinator for 15 hours per week. Some the key functions
of the role include: facilitation of physical activities within the school, being the first
point of contact for families and children who want to be involved in out of school sports;
a key organiser for in-school sports and coaching opportunities and liaising with teachers
over in-school events.
The Arts
The school has a strong history of promotion of and participation in the Arts.
Music
Each year the school brings together large numbers of children to form at least one and
sometimes two choirs and an orchestra.
Choir
The main criteria for entry into the choir is enthusiasm, reliability and willingness to
enjoy singing. Opportunities are sought for children to show off their repertoire from
28
Each teach er has a copy of the Jump Jam course inform ation that identifies the place and context fo r this
activity within the Health and Physical Education curriculum.
school assemblies, special school events and performances at the Nelson School of M usic
and Retired People’s Homes.
Orchestra
One does not have to be taking instruction in the playing of an instrument - anyone can
join the orchestra. Teachers are skilled at helping children find their niche and everyone
can enjoy the weekly session given to practising.
Production
As the right combination of staff skills, capability and enthusiasm come together
productions of various complexity are prepared and presented to varied audiences.
Mask Parade
The school takes part in the city M asked Parade every second year. In the period leading
up to the event teachers work with their classes to link this event to the annual theme and
explore particular aspects of masks and mask making.
Sculpture Symposium
Every second year the school organizes a sculpture symposium where teachers again
work with their classes to link this event to the annual theme and explore particular
aspects of sculpture. The event culminates in a day at school where children can show off
for their families the kinds of things they have been engaged in learning.
Te Pouahi
A significant feature if the school is the bi-lingual unit referred to as Te Pouahi. Currently
there are 30 children housed in three teaching spaces and taught by two teachers.
Children receive their learning mostly in Te Reo M aori with programmes in English
tailored to the needs and interests of children and their families. The opportunity to take
part in kapahaka is an attraction for some families.