Curriculum repertoire, reflections and revelations: a teacher’s perspective

Ms Jennifer Moloney Bendigo Senior Secondary College Bendigo, Victoria, Australia

A recent issue of ACEL Fast News (13 April 2007) left us with a thought-provoking quote from Plato, to consider as a final note:

‘Do not then train youths by force and harshness but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of genius of each’.

I found immediate connection with the essence of the passage. I considered it a great place to begin my discourse on the conference theme: ‘Curriculum; Getting the Balance Right in Your School’.

In communicating my ideas, I come with perspectives formed from 22 years experience in six secondary schools (including a technical school, several preparatory to year 12 schools, several year 7 to 12 schools and a senior secondary school), a range of leadership positions and a range of experiences in state-wide curriculum and pedagogical educational initiatives. It is from this background that I identify several areas that I consider to be important as components of curriculum delivery, for the development of our ‘towards the 21st century’ students.

Today’s students will need readiness and adaptability to embrace the challenges that they will inevitably come across, as they move on to become participants in post-education establishment environments. As we are well aware, a contributing factor to the ever-changing landscape they will encounter will come from the ever-evolving changes that come from our advances with technology. Such changes already influence our everyday dealings, in addition to the face of the workplace. Preparing students with the skills and knowledge to cope with both arenas is therefore surely an important consideration.

Youth readiness and adaptability can flow from supported development of personal skills and work readiness skills and knowledge. I have experienced great gains in student engagement and learning outcomes when this has been embedded in a community-based context, through negotiated project work. From this, I connect to the notion of transformative learning, which is linked to the interests and orientations of individuals – building hope, optimism and self-efficacy (Goleman, 1995). In the context of preparing, I am heartened to know that this increases the likelihood of students finding ways to motivate themselves, accomplish their objectives (Snyder et al, 1991) and being flexible enough to find different ways to get to their goals. Bandura (1994) links developing competency to the development of resilience, which is a key personal skill for coping with change; another plus given my thoughts on what is required for our ‘towards the 21st century’ students.

The Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) provides a curriculum framework that gives scope for transformative learning, through the introduction of experiential learning into the learning experience. In relation to the changing society that will be, as we move towards the 21st century, the program provides scope to move away from unwittingly developing submissive, dependent learners (Knowles, 1990). VCAL provides scope for making a move from teaching students, as though they are ‘receptacles’ waiting to be ‘filled,’ to developing self-reliant learners who can transform ideas to other material and situations they consider (Freire, 1972, in Reed and Johnson 2000). Clearly, this is important given that we cannot truly predict what our ‘towards the 21st century’ students will be required to contend with.

The experiential model of learning assumes that knowledge is unique to each individual through exploration of their environment. It is learning that comes from the interaction of students with the real world (Barth 2004). The role of the teacher becomes the advisor, the mentor, and the facilitator of learning. Students learn with primary source material, in contrast to working with supplied secondary sources of information. Through this approach, students can learn through experience, participate in open-ended learning activities, experience opportunities for inclusive, social learning and experience relevant learning contexts. It is through this approach that I have been able to allow students to build ‘what amuses their minds’ into their learning, allowing both them and myself to ‘discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of genius’ they each have.

A key factor to the unlocking and discovery that has occurred has been the integrated use of technology into the learning environment. Several student profiles have been grouped into collective summaries to demonstrate the transformations that have transpired through the VCAL program at Bendigo Senior Secondary College:

Example 1

A rather negative student who did not willingly participate or interact positively with others had a high level and broad range of ICT expertise. Through the program, this student assumed responsibility for making a non-working computer functional, demonstrated leadership for the team as a result of his high level ICT skills, and earned respect from other students for his achievement. He planned and organised the events of the day and helped others to learn how to make a computer internet-capable. He showed initiative and made key decisions about the imaging requirements and the requirements for installing a modem. He researched, costed and advised the group about the purchase of a compatible modem. He showed preparedness to take on, and learn, new things. He undertook the role of minutes secretary for a community ICT Youth Reference Group; taking on a role he was not sure of. He also developed his communication skills, both written and verbal. He was accommodating of the need to adapt to different communication methods, in order to relate to a non-hearing student in the group.

Example 2

Vision Australia’s Youth On Air Program has presented us with a fantastic opportunity. A digital voice recorder has become a tool that has changed a shy, quiet student, who reluctantly engaged in activities and conversations, and who had great difficulty with written communication, into a ‘roving reporter’ for the theme of our monthly program. By becoming the ‘digital recorder expert’, this student has been able to demonstrate leadership qualities and has become an active participant in the Radio Club team. This student independently initiated the completion of a book review, allowing others to appreciate her avid interest in, and amazing knowledge, of history, which otherwise was not at all apparent. This outcome has been largely facilitated by the role of our classroom assistant, who enables more one-to-one attention, tuition and encouragement.

In such a learning environment, mp3 players, mobile phones, individual DVD players, PDAs and other ‘technology tools’ become potential ‘unlockers’ and are worthy inclusions for exploration in the learning and teaching program. My experiences have helped me to form the notion that what really matters, in the first instance, in curriculum today, centres on building opportunities for the interest and engagement to take hold, so that individual development can be encouraged and guided.

I often reflect on the differences between my teaching and the learning in my VCAL classes, as compared to that in my Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) classes. With more focus on the preparation of students for tertiary studies and further education, I experience a temptation to fall back towards the more structured ‘look, listen and learn’ teaching methodologies, where the emphasis is on rote learning, either directly or setting students up for this so they can ‘study for exams’. When I consider my own senior level learning as a student, and my earlier teaching and learning practice, I do note that a progression in approach has happened.

It is interesting to note that, for me, as a teacher in the VCE learning environment, the catalyst for change was technology. As it is for many of my VCAL students, I, too, have experienced an unlocking through discovery and exploration. I feel a resonance with my experiences here and with the VCAL students in their learning style.

Prior to my current placement, I had taught in rural and remote schools. I had not had access to computers or the internet to gain practical experience of how they might be part of a learning experience in the VCE classroom. When I moved to my current school, I can clearly remember the computers sitting there with the expectation of use about them, and the students sitting there with an expectation to be using them. I was there wondering about what I would do with the students and computers to fill up the class time, while being sure that they were ‘getting it all’ for the exams. I madly set about up-skilling. I furiously learnt from my students and colleagues. I accessed internal and external training and shared newfound skills. As part of a teaching team, my colleagues and I shared our practices and sought to improve upon them. We were motivated in our own learning through pleasure (in working together) and an increase in our self-esteem (from our increasing expertise).

I find that, with the VCE, the constant balance of time and volume of content and subject specific skills to be developed works against the inclusion of more extensive, open-ended project work that is linked to the broader community. It is difficult to integrate linked workplace skill development – a situation that is made easy through the VCAL curriculum framework. For VCE students, such experiences are largely gained through their individual out-of-school time work arrangements and their own community participation. Excursions, while possible and valuable, fall short of what can be facilitated for student learning through the VCAL program.

For the students in my VCE classes who are not looking for a direct pathway to university or further education, I wonder about their readiness to enter the workforce from such a learning environment. In comparison, VCAL students have had more opportunities to build skills and knowledge for transition to the world of work from their senior schooling. An important facet of our senior curriculum structures is the flexibility that can be used between the two certificates. Should students seek a more work-oriented learning environment, our ability as a school to offer a range of Vocational Education and Training (VET) options is an important factor in them being able to capitalise on the flexibility that exists.

In relation to the other qualities I mentioned earlier, that I see to be important - readiness and adaptability to embrace the challenges and resilience to change - I see two very different contexts and sets of learning experiences that are building this in students. To quantify one outcome as more beneficial for our ‘towards the 21st century’ students than the other would be a big call, from where I sit. Overall, while I have noted such things, I would require suitable data, from a range of contexts, and an analysis of this with a balance of opinion, before I looked for specific changes to current curriculum frameworks.

While not advocating a particular position, when I think back over my noted experiences, reflections and comparisons, I can see what is beneficial for building readiness for our ‘towards the 21st century’ students. This is a balance of a number of things, including resources, support, opportunities and time – by a number of people in different positions of responsibility. A balance needs to be in place for students, teachers, support people and also parents/guardians. I have distilled a list of elements that I have encountered as being necessary ingredients for reaching the balance.

• Teachers with suitable operational spaces (Lovat and Smith, 2003) from which to build contextually responsive learning and teaching sequences. From this, the ability to get on with their job, while developing their own rhythm and experiences of flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).
• Students and teachers with access to up-to-date technology tools, applications and support, to give scope for the unlocking and exploring to happen.
• Effective, supported communication lines to the community for building mutually beneficial partnerships.
• Scope for collegial, collaborative team-based interactions.
• Supported access to professional development that is linked to the developments of the classroom and emergent technologies.
• Support to the classroom teacher and students, through the role of a classroom assistant, for individualising learning.
• Supportive leadership for the development of appropriate pedagogy and the provision of curriculum documentation for guidance and alignment.
• Support to students and parents to encourage attendance and receptivity for the presented opportunities.

I felt heartened by the development of the Blueprint for Victorian Government Schools, which gives documentation that can act as a road map for how we might proceed with building readiness for our ‘towards the 21st century’ students. Building student self-confidence, and willingness for students to take risks with their learning through positive collaborative practices, links directly to the Principles of Learning and Teaching (PoLT) of the Blueprint. Further to this, students taking responsibility for their own learning, through community based projects that build from their areas of interest, and that encourage team work, problem-solving and reflection, mirrors PoLT. Connected to Blueprint are the Principles for Assessment, describing how we can build scope for improved student learning and deep understanding through considering assessment for learning as learning, and of learning. While challenges do exist, we have well researched strategies detailed for us that remind us how we might engage students, and enable them to show us their particular talents and, importantly, build upon them.

Recently I graduated from a Master in Educational Leadership at Monash University, which links to Flagship Strategy 3 of the Blueprint – Building Leadership Capacity. A fundamental part of the journey was reflective writing. Recurring regularly in my mind and my writings, from the vast variety of professional reading I was exposed to, was the notion of Sergiovanni (2005), that leadership which bubbles up and that trickles down are both critical in schools. I connect to this yet again for the question of: ‘Who is responsible for curriculum within our schools as we move on to the 21st century?’ It will be through the ongoing building of this collective responsibility that our schools will be high achieving, for our ‘towards the 21st century’ students (Sergiovanni, 2005).

References

Bandura, A (1994). Self-Efficacy. In VS Ramachaudran (ed), Encyclopedia of human behaviour. (Vol. 4, pp.71-81). New York: Academic Press. (Reprinted in H Friedman (ed.), Encyclopedia of mental health. San Diego: Academic Press, 1998).
Barth, RS (2004) Learning by heart. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Csikszentmihalyi, M (1990). Flow: the psychology of optimal experience. Harper and Row, New York.
Freire, P (1972). In Reed, R & Johnson, T (2000). Philosophical documents in education. Addison Wesley Longman: US. pp.189-190. 2nd Edition.
Goleman, D (1995). Emotional intelligence – why it can matter more than IQ. Bloomsbury, London.
Lovat, TJ and Smith, DL (2003). Curriculum: action on reflection. 4th ed. Sydney, Social Science Press.
Sergiovanni, TJ (2005). Strengthening the heartbeat: leading and learning together in schools. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.
Snyder, CR, Harris, C Anderson, J, Holleran, SA, Irving, L, Sigmon, ST, Yoshinobu, L, Gibb, J, Langelle, C, Harney, P (1991). ‘The will and the ways: development and validation of an individual-differences measure of hope’. In Journal of personality and social psychology. Vol. 60(4) April. pp. 570-585.
Victorian Department of Education and Training. (2004). Blueprint for Government Schools. www.sofweb.vic.edu.au