Tag Archive for CfE learning

Getting to know the E’s and O’s

20/05/2011 assessment, cfe, change, Featured, learning cycle One comment

I know, I know. The experiences and outcomes have been around for ages now. Surely we’re long past getting to know them? In my experience however, this simply isn’t the case. Many of us seem to have taken something from them first time through, but now that we’re approaching the blunt end of assessment and reporting we’re beginning to wonder if we got them right.

Through our work with Myra Young, we’re being encouraged to take another look at the experiences and outcomes – this time starting with the purpose. This can often lead to a quite different approach to planning. Rather than looking at the experiences and outcomes and jumping straight to the activities we’d carry out, we think first about what the purposes of the outcomes are in terms of learning, how this could be evidenced and what the success criteria are.

On our inservice days next week at my new school, we’re lucky enough to be receiving CPD from teachers at Cramlington Learning Village with a view to planning our lessons using the accelerated learning cycle. But first I’m going to suggest that we need to ensure we understand the curriculum before jumping into detailed collaborative planning of lessons based on the learning cycle.

This can be illustrated with one of our science experiences and outcomes. Whilst in the past this might have led to us planning a series of lessons covering all the various organs of the systems we feel we need to ‘cover’, a fresh look at the purpose of the learning outlined in the curriculum brings a different emphasis and therefore quite different lessons.

We often complain the experiences and outcomes are vague and complex (which they are…but do we really want a version of the National Curriculum instead?) but if they are how can we expect to be fully familiar with them already? As difficult as it is to accept from the perspective of development work (which is going to get worse when the new NQs start arriving), the reality is that our understanding of the curriculum is going to evolve over time and I’m doing my best to try to keep my mind open to that…

Cross-posted on pedagoo.org

Professional Development and Professional Learning

07/05/2011 cfe, learning communities, MEd, Reading 2 comments

I was at Uni this afternoon for the final session of my penultimate MEd module – and the last CTeach module for a while!

At one point we were having a particularly interesting conversation so I thought I’d put up a wee tweet:


Discussing the difference between professional development and professional learning #MEd #CTeach
07/05/2011 2:18 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite
@fkelly
Fearghal Kelly

Which generated an interesting reply…


@ I thought about that for 5mins and tied my brain in a knot.Must be cyclical relationship no?Hope you will blog your answer later :)
07/05/2011 2:28 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite
@dotcoe
Dorothy Coe

Unfortunately I don’t have time to do a full blog post, but I couldn’t ignore such a request!

We were discussing this in the context of leading our collaborative professional enquiry and the need to try to encourage our colleagues not to view participation as a passive CPD opportunity, but rather an opportunity for them to actively develop their own learning. Loughran’s (2010) definitions were really useful to explain a possible difference in the two phrases:

Professional Development has typically been understood as the more traditional approach to in-service that teachers often experience when they are asked to implement a new curriculum or some other policy initiative. In many cases, the waves of change that regularly flow over the profession generally involve some form of up-skilling in relation to the new things that we are expected to do or to deliver. Therefore, traditional professional development is often linked to the implementation of some form of educational change by doing something to teachers, that is, telling us about the change and expecting it to then be carried out. In this way mandated changes are presented, we are trained in those changes in terms of technical requirements (sometimes as simple as re-labeling existing curriculum and practice) and then we are expected to implement those changes. It is a top-down approach and it functions in a similar way throughout the education system whether it be in the form of policy initiatives from the central education bureaucracy or at local school level from the principal’s office.

And professional learning…

Professional learning operates in a different way. Professional learning assumes that we have some commitment to the change(s) – that the change might be driven, or developed and refined, by us. In essence, professional learning works on the bases that change is a result of work with, and/or by, teachers. Further to this, professional learning also carries an expectation that we are able to bring our expert judgement to bear on how change might best be implemented in our own context and practice. Therefore, professional learning is more about the learning that occurs through the process and how that learning is then able to be applied in our practice. Involvement in professional learning is therefore more likely to be voluntary, and the subsequent learning is personal and appropriately shaped and directed by each of us as individuals.

What do you think Dorothy?

ePLC

26/09/2010 cfe, change, learning communities, reflection, TeachMeet 6 comments

I’ve had this idea growing since TeachMeet the other night when I facilitated one of the World Cafe discussions around the following question.

How do we genuinely involve pupils in their learning and assessment?

You can see the outcomes of the discussion here.

The reason I asked this question is that I think that developing this aspect of our practice as teachers, particularly in the Secondary context, is a major challenge and the key to successfully implementing Curriculum for Excellence. I was very struck by the animated and rich discussion which occurred at TeachMeet…it would appear that I am not alone in pondering this question. In fact, I know of many others from twitter & blogs who have been not only considering this – but trying out ways to address this issue.

As well as giving some thought to this, I’m also currently doing a lot of reading around the notion of Collaborative Professional Enquiry / Collaborative Professional Learning / Professional Learning Communities / Group Action Research. This is primarily to aid me in my work towards my CTeach MEd which I’ve recently returned to after a year out.

So the idea that has arisen from these thought processes is –

Can we create an ePLC [electronic Professional Learning Community] to work together to develop our knowledge of this key issue?

I’m sure many would argue that many informal professional learning communities of sorts already exist through twitter and the blogosphere. But what I’m talking about here is setting up a much more formal group of 5/6 teachers to carry out a piece of collaborative professional enquiry. This could be around something like the following question?

What impact does involving pupils in planning their learning and assessment have?

I have a bit of a problem at the minute in that I don’t have a class just now, but I would be happy to facilitate the community – i.e. arrange meetings, share readings, administer file sharing, contribute to discussions etc.

What do you think? This may well be happening already elsewhere, but if so I haven’t encountered it. It could take our electronic professional interactions to a new level…? Can you imagine a more exciting form of CPD?

How to implement CfE

17/09/2010 assessment, cfe, change, Featured No comments

At the minute, I’m going around and speaking to lots of PTs in East Lothian to see how they’re getting on with CfE. This is resulting in a lot of conversations about how best to approach the Curriculum for Excellence as a department/faculty. I thought I’d try and produce a really simple summary of the sorts of steps some people have taken to implement CfE. This will be an amalgamation of different ideas distilled by me. This list could evolve and change as I continue to visit PTs and departments, and if you input your ideas as comments or on twitter. Hopefully this will be useful to folk who are still unsure of the way forward…

Ok then, here goes…

  • Audit what you currently do against the Experiences & Outcomes. Don’t just think about what you teach already, but how you teach it, making use of the Principles & Practice papers for your curriculum area and subject. This is a necessary first step, but it is only a first step – be careful not to get stuck here.
  • Move the Experiences & Outcomes to be the starting point for your planning for the future. Incorporate the ideas from your previous courses from your audit, and build/adapt these where appropriate. Make sure that you consider the fact that some pupils will need to consolidate their learning from Second Level when they start S1 but that others could be well into Third Level already. Consider speaking to your primary colleagues to find what learning will have already been taking place.
  • Build your ideas for assessment into the planning stage. Visit the National Assessment Resource to see how others have approached this. Examine the effectiveness of your assessment arrangements. Look again at Assessment is for Learning. How evident are all the aspects of AifL in your S1 course really? Are pupils engaged in their assessment? Do you need to consider a greater variety of evidence? Do your current assessments allow learners to demonstrate the acquisition of the full range of skills included in your Experiences & Outcomes? nationalassessmentresource.org.uk
  • Begin to find a shared a standard. Arrange a moderation meeting within your department. Ask your colleagues to bring samples of pupils work and see if you can assess their progress against the Experiences & Outcomes and if you can agree on this. This is the professional dialogue which is outlined in BtC5 repeatedly. Have a look at the new BtC5 reporting document. Can you make use of the terms developing, consolidating and secure to describe progress within a level? ltscotland.org.uk/buildingyourcurriculum/policycontext/btc/btc5.asp
  • Plan for choice within the delivery of your courses – both for the teachers and the learners. Agree the outcomes which will be met, but understand that different classes, and indeed different learners, could get there in different ways.
  • Incorporate Literacy, Numeracy and Health & Well-being Experiences & Outcomes into your courses where appropriate. Make sure that when they’re present that they’re meaningful and that you discuss the learners’ progress within these E&Os as well as the Curricular Area E&Os. Consider speaking to your English, Maths and Guidance colleagues for advice on content and teaching approaches.
  • Look for opportunities for inter-disciplinary learning where appropriate. Again, make sure this is meaningful and that progress is made against E&Os for both Curricular Areas. See the LTS website for the recent report on Interdisciplinary Learning for further advice and ideas. Interdisciplinary Learning
  • Look for ways of building on learning outside of the classroom. What are the pupils learning through extra-curricular activities? Can you make links, i.e. with Community Learning & Development, to develop this?
  • Consider the arrangement of your courses. What is the most appropriate way of delivering the E&Os? Work with your SMT and colleagues to find a way of making best use of time.
  • Use the SQA website to engage with developments in National Qualifications. Sign up for the MyAlerts service for your subject area, share what’s going on as a department and contribute your feedback to the process. sqa.org.uk/curriculumforexcellence

You can download this summary as a word file as well by clicking here.

I acknowledge this could be perceived as quite a crude and incomplete list, but it’s a start and I think some people might find it useful.

Having a bash….the boring version.

12/05/2009 cfe No comments

In a recent post I shared a prezi I made to summarise my attempts to introduce the ideas encouraged by aCfE into my classroom.

I have since typed this up as an APL claim towards my MEd as part of my work towards becoming Chartered. I thought I should share this also…so click on the image above to view.

About Learning

02/10/2008 cfe 3 comments

I’m in the middle of reading “About Learning: Report of the Learning Working Group” published by Demos in 2005. This is on my reading list for day 3 of module 2. I’m really enjoying it (I know, I’m a freak). It’s got Curriculum for Excellence written all over it and it’s come from the great punching bag in the South – Englandshire!

If you’re as sad as I am, why not have a read?