21st Century Learning... Intellectual Freedom and Structure

The BC Ministry of Education has rolled out the new "21st Century Learning" direction, a large component of which is self directed learning. This is clearly a move that we need to be making... or is it?

I worked in many roles (teacher, advisor, department head, vice principal) at Frances Kelsey Secondary from 2000-2008. The philosophy of the school has been to educate within a self directed/self paced model since 1995 and we worked hard to make it work for students with much tweaking and re-tweaking.

There was one particular project where grade 9 students would complete a self directed project on the topic of Child Labour using examples from the 1800's Industrial Revolution and modern times to gain credit in both English and Social Studies. The project was well designed and well explained as the teacher librarian took the lead on organizing sessions with the classroom teachers. It was a great learning experience for some and for others it turned into the  biggest roadblock to completing those courses as they did not get it done. Why?

Interestingly, some of the students who struggled with school completed just fine, while some of the kids who struggled were high achieving. It wasn't necessarily about ability. It also wasn't only about effort, as some of the hardest working students breezed through this topic easily while others became frustrated trying to figure out where to start and what to do. There was also the biggest challenge of all, which was how to create a sense of urgency to get it done... putting in our timelines while trying to respect the kids' goal of planning their learning. As with most of us, procrastination is a powerful enemy.

It was important to have that project in the curriculum for those courses. Kids learned about planning, research and organizing their learning. However, I would not want to have had another similar project back to back with this one. Maybe that is the point. Self direction is great, but it cannot be all the time.

Think of yourself. I enjoy taking on a project where I see a need and an opportunity, but in between these endeavors it is comforting to have the tasks someone else is requiring that I do. The real challenge is to find the balance freedom to design your learning within a framework of structure.

Testing and Survey Season... a time for contemplation

It is that time of year in public education that I affectionately refer to as "survey season". In the month encompassing late January to mid February, schools will complete provincial exams in grade 10, 11 and 12 the FSA tests in grades 4 and 7, the provincial satisfaction survey in grades 7, 10 and 12, social responsibility ratings for grades 7 and 9... and I may be forgetting to list one or two as my mind is also focused on the 1701 enrolment re-count, the Bill 33 compliance forms and mid year class rotations.

If this sounds like a complaint, it is only a conditional one.

It feels like the Satisfaction Survey, while a good idea on paper, is not reliable in practise. Very few parents and almost no staff participate. Students do not want to do it, but are made to which means they are not vested in their responses. I have to question the investment of time and energy on this one.

The other is the FSA. I do not object to the idea of "light testing" of the system. I remember a comment from a seminar I attended with Linda Kaiser and Judy Halbert (provincial leaders in education) where they made the comment that low stakes testing at grades 4, 7, 10, 11 and 12 was appropriate as "checks on the system". I agree. Provincial testing is by no means perfect, but don't we want an indication that kids in Nelson can demonstrate learning outcomes at similar levels to kids in Prince George to kids in Vancouver to kids in the Cowichan Valley... and bodies who use that information for questionable purposes should not deter us. As a respected colleague of mine stated at a staff meeting "I am not a card carrying member of the Church of the Fraser Institute... but measuring performance matters".

The FSA is too politicised and it is probably too long. What would happen if it were replaced with one hour provincial exams in Math and English (reading and writing) that were worth 5-10% of a final grade? Low stakes, worth something to the students and provides an indication as to how the system is performing.

I (and I might be in the minority here) like the provincial exams as they currently exist. The grade 10 Math, English and Science exams as well as the Socials 11 exam are worth 20% of a student's mark. That is a good percentage. It means the exam in meaningful in the calculation of the final grade, but it is not high stakes testing. We always wanted our students to go in with a "magic 63%" as their course mark as that means no matter what happened with the test, they would know that the blended mark would be a passing 50% (by the way, I never had a student score a 0 on an exam). In this way, students are nervous, but not paralysed by fear. If I had a suggestion here, it would be to consider moving the only other mandatory exam, English 12 or Communications 12, from 40% of a student's final mark to 20%.

I also like the fact that most provincial exams are an ending assessment of mandatory courses that students have been taking since elementary school. SS 11 is the last of the Social Studies courses for graduation before it breaks into electives such as History 12, Law 12 and Geography 12. Science 10 is mandatory and then it can be a choice of one or more of Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science and others for the grade 11 Science requirement. English or Communications 12 is the last of the mandatory courses for graduation.

Interestingly, English has both a measurement at the grade 10 and 12 level.  What about Math? Students need to complete a Math 11 course to graduate, so why not have the final measurement at that level? If we want a check on math skills between grade 7 and 11, why not move the Math 10 exam could be moved to grade 9?

It feels good to get these thoughts out now, as in two weeks we will be knee deep in "survey season" for another year.

Middle School exploratory options... and the value of conversations

In mid December, I was able to meet with Janet and Nancy (the Principal and Vice Principal) from Kitimat in the Coast Mountain District as they will be moving to a middle school structure in their school next year and they were in the Cowichan Valley looking for some ideas. We discussed many things, one of which was how to best run exploratory and elective courses.

At Quamichan, we have the grade seven and eight students stay with their class as they go through two to three main teachers (Humanities and Math/Science with French, Literacy and PE mixed into the teaching assignments). We then have the exploratory blocks as eight to ten week cycles that the groups rotate through (this is where we mix classes so the kids have a chance to be in classes with different students then their home room).

In grade nine we have the students assigned block by block to ensure specialized instruction and prepare them for secondary school. What we have done this year is to then group all of the exploratory options in the same blocks so we can offer the students half or full year exploratory options. In this way, the grade nine students, instead of only selecting three exploratory choices, have the option to experience as many as six different half year electives or to stay in the elective all year if they have a passion for the subject. This also allows us to use some of the half year blocks for IDS, tutorial and LA options.

We also made some hard decisions this year as declining enrollment means that choices must be made. In grade seven we dropped the formal computer studies elective and combined woodwork with art to allow us to offer a "Coast Salish 7" course, the goal of which is to build common understanding of the First Nations history in the Cowichan Valley for all of our students during their first year at Quamichan. In grade eight we were able to maintain a full slate of elective options as it is a larger group. Choices will have to be made next year. In grade nine, the half year elective options allowed us to create a contemporary "Music 9" class that runs in addition to band and kids can learn to play guitar, piano, sing, record, produce, make videos... for modern music. 

Maybe the most important point of this whole exercise was that, in discussing these exploratory issues with Janet and Nancy, it also had a very positive effect as a reminder that we, at Quamichan, are experimenting and being creative to better the educational experiences of our students. Sometimes during the year, in between the constant politicization of education amongst the different "adult" groups and the normal day to day stressors, it is vitally important to "keep our eyes on the prize". Having a chance to talk with others, especially those who are from another district, can be a real shot in the arm.