Hard News: Standards Matter
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The pamphlet is blah - below is a link to a reading standard
http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/National-Standards/Reading-and-writing-standards/LayoutI linked to this (below) in another thread - John Hattie's view of the stds - I apologise if someone has already linked ...
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Gordon,
Apologies if I'm being a bit thick here, but what exactly does your interesting discourse on the use of online collaborative and multi-media tools have to do with my question on the possibility of keeping an individuals national standards results private?Emma,
I know we have rights to certain information, but we also have rights to keep certain information private, don't we?
Can anyone view my daughters school results if they wish, under an official information act request?I have no idea what the answer to that is, by the way. But regardless, I really don't see what business test results of an individual child are of anyone other than the child and their immediate family.
*edit* And the school, obviously... -
Practically, unmoderated publishing of either individual results or aggregates can encourage changes in systemic behaviour that undermine learning outcomes. Excluding students who will reduce averages is one. Teaching to the test is another.
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Russell, I just found your post from Jan 09 where Tolley commented on The University of Auckland asTTle assessment tool as having a 'profound influence' on the future of schooling in New Zealand. Reading Hattie's interview posted above, seems the paths have diverged somewhat.
Hattie published this on the AU FoE site today. John Hattie to run workshops on e-asTTle and national standards.
“To get the very best out of national standards they need to be used to help students to learn. They can help to provide a shared language of learning within and between schools, and having a common language for understanding progress is a fundamental skill that teachers and schools need to have.”
Professor Hattie and his team want to work with schools to get the very best out of the standards, so they become an important part of the language of the school, rather than a means to report to parents, the Board and the Ministry.
“Reporting results is important – but it’s not as important as using the standards with the students to enhance teaching and learning,” Professor Hattie says.
Looking on the asTTle information page, it was also developed in both English and Maori.
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Does the query imply that people have been commenting on the party policy without reading it?
Perhaps assuming that the Ministry's policy is the same as Government policy is the same as what the National party sold to voters. Touching of us.
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Has anyone explained the rationale behind exempting private schools from the standards?
I would have thought that if they receive any money at all from the Government they should be part of the process - this is a democracy isn't it? everyone equal and all that?
(and didn't Key grant them truckloads of dosh last budget - accountability for all please.)Finnish students have come out number one in the three international assessment tests
Time to introduce proper Finnishing Schools then...
...or a Danish Pass Try... -
Russell, it is such a joy to have intelligent words to read. Thank you and to all the PA family for their comments. You have inspired my day.
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Allan P writes: Gordon,
Apologies if I'm being a bit thick here, but what exactly does your interesting discourse on the use of online collaborative and multi-media tools have to do with my question on the possibility of keeping an individuals national standards results private?Gordon responds:
My poor communications skills. But
1. Personal portfolios of what each student can do are generally better guides to progress than written exams or reports by someone else.
2. With good digital school networks, individual "digital portfolios" can be restricted to viewing only by the individual student, the student's own parents and his or her teacher (thus protecting each student's privacy).
3. Most good "school network systems" then allow each teacher to view all the portfolios of students in his or her classes and — in the case of "individual tests" — the computer systems can print out comparative class results. However
4. Some of the best work done in digital classrooms now involves teams of students with different talents — and often those are shared on line, with students' approval, on school Websites.
5. As another example, for years most schools (certainly in affluent countries) have produced their own school "annual": with printed colour photos of work-examples from each classroom. But each school (with computer systems) can now enable each student to produce his or her own "digital year book" with examples of personal work, plus the outstanding work of one's own class or groups.
Let me give yet one more example from personal experience. I regularly visit one of the world's best private international schools — one of the first in the world to use the International Baccalaureate curriculum over all age levels from aged 3 to senior high. Because this school has 3,600 students from 70 nationalities, it offers a choice of six second languages, with one-hour's tuition every day. Because the IB primary years program (you may recall) revolves around six global themes a year, when, say, eight-year-olds are researching "the human body" for six weeks, then "literacy", "writing", "art", computer studies and second-language-study will also revolve around that "inquiry topic".
The last time I visited that school, on three days I was invited into three separate language classes. Of those:
Students in one class were learning French by dressing up as French models and running their own French fashion parade, with brilliant commentary — before an audience of their parents — while other students videotaped the show. Then the students ""showed what they had learned" by teaching French to their parents in interactive ways ("My shirt is red. What colour is your shirt?" — in French, which was not the language of any parent).
In another class, non-Chinese students were making an audio visual presentation in Chinese (written and spoken Mandarin) on the impact of diet on the human brain and its ability to learn.
And in the third, non-German-speaking students were learning German by presenting a play of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
All demos were being videotaped to go on the class websites — but teachers' reports on, say, individual student results are restricted to individual students and parents.
In "arts" classes, in particular (painting, drama, music etc), individual brilliance can, at the choice of each student, be either restricted to personal viewing online or be readily available on the school site.
And the importance of all this as it applies to the "standards" debate? If you were starting as a singer, painter, actor, graphic designer, television interviewer, puppet maker, or costume designer, which would enhance your prospects for a job: a written report by someone else or a multimedia demonstration where you actually show your skills?
It's all so bloody obvious (when you see great schools in action, in New Zealand and elsewhere) it's amazing (to me) there is any debate.
But there is an even bigger issue here, I think (to comment on Sacha's last post, immediately above this one): nearly all students have an individual ability to excel as something — and that is generally what they love to do. So encouraging every student to present their own individual talents, in action — and their ability to blend in multi-talented teams — is the first step to achieving a great career doing things you love to do.
Doubt it? Ask Susan Boyle. Better still: see how she demonstrated her talents to millions:
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From Key's speech this afternoon:
This year we will develop a policy about the use of information collected through National Standards. We want to strike a balance between being up-front with parents and communities on the one hand, and on the other hand ensuring that information isn’t misconstrued or misinterpreted. We will announce our policy in this area prior to the collection of National Standards data in 2011 and its subsequent reporting in 2012.
Because it's only just occurred to them there might be a problem? It's a shame Key can't just bring himself to put it as bluntly as Schrager did.
Something like:
This information was not collected for the construction of "league tables", it is not fit for that purpose, and if you try and use it for that just so you can sell a few more papers, you will de damaging our children's education and we will come down on you like a ton of fucking bricks. Thank you for your co-operation.
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Thanks for your response Gordon. All fascinating stuff, and certainly thought provoking.
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Doubt it? Ask Susan Boyle.
I'd want my little Susie to read and write and do maths too. Can all that be taught in group projects?
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It already is
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What about students who aren't so keen on that sort of thing? I mean, that French fashion parade sounds great for *other people*, but group projects are my personal version of hell. I hated them at school. I hated them at university. I hate them at work. Just let me read the books and take some notes and write an essay, by myself. (I think I might be a learning styles dinosaur. Get off my lawn, you educationally innovative whippersnappers!)
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Because it's only just occurred to them there might be a problem? It's a shame Key can't just bring himself to put it as bluntly as Schrager did.
... or at least the way Mikaere Curtis did upthread when he presented his innovative suggestion with which I can find no flaw.
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What about students who aren't so keen on that sort of thing? I mean, that French fashion parade sounds great for *other people*, but group projects are my personal version of hell. I hated them at school. I hated them at university. I hate them at work. Just let me read the books and take some notes and write an essay, by myself. (I think I might be a learning styles dinosaur. Get off my lawn, you educationally innovative whippersnappers!)
Everything Danielle said.
It's nothing to do with dinosaurishness, it's to do with being a verbal rather than a visual learner/communicator. It has been not so many years since I was a high school French student and, personally, I would have rather shot myself* than done a fashion parade.
*Somewhere damaging but non-fatal, in the interests of disqualification
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Seriously Emma? It isn't just an n=1 problem? Cause if that's true it says something interestingly weird about either English or Sign in their ability to communicate numeracy.
Well, not according to various ITODs and facilitators I've spoken to, although there does seem to be a tendency to say 'this problem your child is having is perfectly normal for deaf/hearing-impaired children.
There's a lot of technical language in maths that they have to learn from scratch - we had to teach Rhiana that subtract and minus and takeaway and less all meant the same thing, for instance. Deaf/hearing-impaired children tend not to pick up new language from context. I suspect science is also a problem for the same reasons, but the language doesn't hit at such an early age and is better explained when it does.
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Also, this
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I'd want my little Susie to read and write and do maths too. Can all that be taught in group projects?
I think what is being said is that they start by running a fashion show and then have to do the costings (maths) and write the script, presumably first in English (reading/writing) and then ...
Essentially it's learning the boring stuff by stealth. And it seems to work better than the way I learnt. Oh and they know it works better because education scientists have spent time developing tools and methods that can reliably and reproducibly assess how well the education system is working.
It is also pretty much how I learnt to write ... Finally when I came to write my first thesis it dawned on me that my written communication skills weren't up to the task and with the help of my MSc supervisor essentially learnt "English".
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The whole point of learning styles is that some people learn well in groups and some by themselves or with one friend.
My sons always moaned about group work at Waikato because as reasonably responsible types they often had to keep a group going and then the slackers got rewarded too.
OTOH I remember one son buzzing about a law project he completed with a friend in some sort of mock court case.
There's a time and place. As a secondary teacher now sort of retired I loved seeing kids work in groups but shuddered at the down time and was spectacularly bad at sorting out their personality clashes. I guess it's a bit different in primary schools.
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Cecilia asks: I'd want my little Susie to read and write and do maths too. Can all that be taught in group projects?
I'm having a quiet day, Cecilia, so here goes, starting with maths:
1. it all depends how Cecilia learns best.
2. Some of us are strong visual learners: so we have to see "maths" in pictures.
3. Some of us are "spatial" learners, so we probably learn maths best by playing with blocks.
4. Some are mainly "kinesthetic" or physical learners — and if you have a young kinesthetic learner she may learn to count easily by playing hopscotch or other physical games. At a young age, she will almost certainly learn by playing other visual games such as "Snakes and Ladders" , "Chutes and Ladders" in the US) , "Ludo", "Grab" or similar beginner card games; and then on to Dominoes.
5. Some of us are musical learners — and there are plenty of
raps" and songs to encourage learning maths.6. Many of us learn best in groups — we have strong social tendencies, so weight learn best by playing verbal and mathematical games with friends.
7. Others are tactile learners: we learn best by feeling and touching. for example, if you have a young child who finds it difficult to learn to spell, and often confuses b, p, d and q. So try "back writing" by physically writing those letters on her back in bold strokes of your hand: "buh: down like a bat and around like a ball".
8. Others may be logical learners and may learn best by what, in my earlier days, we called "memorising the times tables". And
9. Some, like Danielle (above) , who hate learning in groups, are probably "introspective learners", and learn much better by themselves.
All good teachers know that every one of us has a unique learning style, and they make sure that lessons and learning plans cater to different types of learners. Unfortunately most written tests are "geared" to appeal to logical and linguistic learners: those who are strong in writing, speaking and doing basic mathematics.
Now let's try "writing", presuming your Susie is really little:
1. Montessori pre-schools use wonderfully effective ways to make sure that every child can learn to write well BEFORE turning five. (Maria Montessori was Italy's first qualified woman medical doctor; and around 100 years ago she developed the practical theory that young children learn best through all their senses. She developed a series of sequential activities to develop through those senses. Amazingly, in working with so-called defective children in "lunatic asylums", she soon had them, too, reading, writing, spelling and counting well before starting school. She would be appalled today to find that in an advanced country such as New Zealand, where 80 per cent of students get a great education, we were still debating how to teach children to read, write and do basic maths at primary school, when her "handicapped" children could achieve that much earlier in life.)
2. Very simply, "hand writing" (unlike speaking) is a learned process; before a child can learn to write fluently, he or she has to "play" using many physical activities. These activities firstly develop "big muscle hand coordination" (activities like rolling big balls, and then holding plastic hug handles and pouring rice from one jug to another; later fitting large coloured blocks, with large holding-knobs, into matching patterns. Then doing ditto by holding on to small knobs with smaller blocks to develop "the pincer grip" to hold a pen.
Now how about reading?
Would you like the short version or the long? The short? Fine:
1. English has more words than any other language in the world: 625,000 in the most recent Oxford Dictionary. But
2. Around 2,000 words make up 90 per cent of most spoken English.
3. Only 400 to 450 words make up 65 per cent of most written English.
4. Only 43 words make up 50 per cent of daily English.
5. Amazingly, ten words make up 25 per cent of most speech (are,and, the, be, it, of, have,, will, you to).
6. 84 per cent of English words have simple patterns (about half are phonetic: spelled as they sound — at, cat, sat, fat, bat, hat; ad most of the others have easily-identifiable patterns— fate, mate; and prefixed like un, dis and re; and suffixes like ed and ing).
7. All good books for infants are graded by sequential levels. My personal favourites are those of an old friend and colleague, Dr Seuss. His publisher once challenged him to write and illustrate a book using no more than the 225 most-used words. Seuss eventually did it with "The Cat In The Hat". Later he did another book using only 50 words. And this concept developed into his "Beginner Books" series. Highly recommended.
8. Seuss's genius (as well as being an incredible illustrator) was to rhyme words that sounded the same but were spelled differently: This was no time for FUN; there was work to be DONE. I must have read all the Dr Seuss books to our children dozens of times, so that the joy of reading and seeing the words and pictures embedded the most-used words and phrases.
OFFER TO YOU AND OTHERS TAKING PART IN THIS DEBATE:
You may know I'm the co-author of a series of books, entitled "The Learning Revolution". The latest has recently been published: "UNLIMITED: The new learning revolution, and the seven keys to unlock it". Go to our website, www.thelearningweb.net, and you can read the first 32 pages free of charge. For for those taking part in this debate: look through the Contents pages in those first 32, and email me the titles of any three chapters (gordon@learningweb.co.nz) and I will email the complete chapters back, also without charge.
Chapter seven is on early-childhood learning.
Chapter four is on learning styles.
Both might help Susie.
Above that, go see a good teacher. After all: remember I dropped out of the system illegally at age 14 — and started learning.
Fortunately I'd discovered an incredibly great primary school principal when I was 10. He quickly perceived that my "natural talent" was "communications": reading, writing, making wall posters, presenting "illustrated morning talks". So (praise be) he took me to the Greymouth Public Library and introduced me to the head librarian. His introduction echoes down the years: " Libraries aren't just places that store and lend books. This library is your window on the world. And this librarian is your guide; she is trained to help you find information you're looking for."
That Principal's name was Jock Graham. One of my greatest mentors.
Today my 24 X 7 librarian is Google (developed, by the way, by two students who went to Montessori pre-schools)— but only as the basic starting point on whatever incredible journey we're making today.
Like this interesting online conversation.
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There's a time and place.
I don't think it's all group work.
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That was just a little TL:DR (too long, didn't read) and advertorial, but otherwise an interesting contribution to the debate Gordon.
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Thorough answer, Gordon. I actually have a pretty old copy of The Learning Revolution!
The fact that Google's developers were Montessori students is very interesting. But just to be difficult I want to ask this: if the Montessori method is so good, why isn't everyone using it?
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TL:DR (too long, didn't read)
Always wondered what that meant. See, learning all the time..
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if the Montessori method is so good, why isn't everyone using it?
Because you have to pay extra for it? As with Steiner, I am rather hesitant about basing an entire educational philosophy on one perception (or the ideas of one guru) about learning. For example, I can't fathom the Steiner prohibition of primary colours, in favour of pastel version of the world. Or their attitude to children playing with toy guns, whilst they are happy to let them wave swords around, in some kind of cod-Middle Ages fantasy. I think it is more about adult fantasies, than what children should be allowed.
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