Sunday, April 16, 2023

Doctor of Education Thesis: Connected classes: a case study of one high school's journey from a traditional to a future-focused curriculum. (2022)

 




Just over a week ago I graduated from the University of Canterbury with a Doctor of Education. I walked in the graduation parade and later in the week crossed the stage to receive the actual certificate. I’m incredibly proud of what I have achieved. When people say a doctoral study is full of highs and lows, they are right. The highs are high and the lows, well let’s just say I had an amazing supervisor (Sandra) who on more than one occasion gave me the encouragement to keep going. I’m incredibly grateful to both of my supervisors, Sandra and Alison, and to my examiners. They provided me with support, advice, and guidance which helped me to produce a piece of work that I’m very proud of.

Next steps: now that I’ve had a we bit of a break from writing I am going to try and write an article or two for publication. I’m also working with GrowWaitaha to turn the Connected Curriculum Learning Design Framework into a usable teacher resource.

Below is a copy of the abstract for the thesis and if you feel like taking a look at the actual document, hopefully this link works!

 

Abstract

Today, we live in a knowledge-based economy and educators need to design learning which focuses on the ‘knowledge and skills necessary for the knowledge age and where innovation is a valued commodity (Bolstad & Gilbert, 2012). Using action research with a participatory component and presented as a case study, this research examined one high school’s journey as they moved from a traditionally structured school, based on the factory model of education, to one that is future-focused. Future-focused learning takes into consideration a changing understanding of what knowledge is valued by society and the skills necessary for dealing with uncertainty and change. The New Zealand high school involved in this research provided the opportunity for teachers to change the delivery of curriculum from a traditional single-subject mode of delivery to one that connects the curriculum using a concept-based curriculum, with a focus on 21st-century skills. The three subject areas connected were Science, Social Studies, and English at Year 9 and Year 10 (students aged approximately 13–15). A challenge for the school involved in this research was how to shift to a future-focused institution and support teachers in changing the design of the curriculum and pedagogy. There is a range of literature on curriculum integration but there are limited resources for teachers on how to implement curriculum integration. This research focused on examining the processes the school’s Senior Leadership Team undertook to create a learning institution that is future-focused, which would enable teachers to change their curriculum design and delivery.

The school involved in this research designed and implemented change by having a clear understanding of the school’s ‘Character and Culture’, which then informed the school's systems, pedagogy, and curriculum. Understanding the Character and Culture of the school was about knowing the people currently within the institution, who they are as individuals, the strengths and weaknesses, the diversity of the student population, and the needs of the students and staff. Each school has its own character, such as the history of the school, location, and people within the school, which can change over time. Established schools need to work with the people within the school community to drive change. Before embarking on changes that affect curriculum, pedagogy, and systems, the findings of this research indicate that schools should take the time to understand fully the Character and Culture of the school.

This research not only examined how the Senior Leadership Team created an environment for change but also how teachers at the school, involved in this research, plan, and implement a future-focused Connected curriculum for the subjects of Science, Social Studies, and English. As part of this research, based on the literature and working with the teachers, the researcher designed a new pedagogical framework called the Connected- Curriculum Learning Design Framework. This new Connected Curriculum Learning Design Framework considers 21st-century skills, concept-based curriculum, and specialist-subject pedagogical content knowledge. It is based on students developing and creating knowledge by moving students from surface-to-deep to transference of learning while concurrently developing 21st-century skills by using innovative pedagogical strategies and a concept-based curriculum. This research captured the experiences of three teachers involved with the planning and implementation of the curriculum with a Connected learning class at Year 9 and Year 10.

The two most significant outcomes of this research are the Connected Curriculum Learning Design Framework and an understanding of Character and Culture. The Connected Curriculum Learning Design Framework used in conjunction with practical planning documents provides a method for moving students through three phases of learning: surface-to-deep-to-transference of learning using innovative pedagogies. However, before teachers can redesign a curriculum that is future-focused, it is necessary for a Senior Leadership Team to create an environment for change, and the teachers involved have a coherent understanding of the purpose. The understanding of the Character and Culture of the school is a significant outcome of this research as it provided the ability for the teachers and the researcher, as the coordinator of the Connected classroom, to shift from a traditional form of teaching to one that is future-focused. Schools wanting to make significant change, from a traditional mode of instruction to one that is future-focused, first need to consider the Culture and Character of the school undergoing change prior to implementing new pedagogical approaches. The Connected Curriculum Learning Design framework provides a pedagogical approach for teachers to design and deliver agentic learning programs for students, which include subject-specialist learning, curriculum integration and a focus on 21st century skills.

 

Saturday, January 14, 2023

ChatGPT: an Educators Perspective

ChatGPT

ChatGPT is a conversational AI that follows instructions given via a prompt. ChatGPT has the ability to answer follow-up questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests”. It can also correct code. (https://openai.com).

A quick search on LinkedIn, YouTube and educational pages on Facebook that I follow reveals a very interesting conversation taking place. These conversations  include everything from how to use ChatGPT for planning lessons to concern around students plagiarising using ChatGPT. The future capabilities of AI are fast becoming a reality and there seems to be equal amounts of excitement and concern!

There are YouTube videos on how to create lesson plans, rubrics, comprehension resources where ChatGPT does the heavy lifting; creating the resources, designing the inference questions, and even providing the answer grid and for the appropriate level (see here https://tinyurl.com/yc8mfwed).

A simple search online for ‘can ChatGPT solve IB maths questions’ turns up this blog post on what questions ChatGPT got right and wrong: https://tinyurl.com/2p8s5pcs. ChatGPT scored 5 with the author noting that with a few tweaks it could easily score higher. It did make some very surprising basic mistakes – but overall was still able to achieve a solid IB Level 5 (a good performance), and it did this in about 5-10 minutes” (Chambers, 2022). 

As far as essays go, just provide a prompt with the context, level, wordcount and question and voila! ChatGPT can even provide feedback on student writing.

This all sounds pretty useful. However, ChatGPT currently has a number of limitations. It will fill in knowledge gaps, make mistakes, and include references that don’t exist. It’s constantly being developed by the users and therefore dependant on the views, opinions etc. of those humans “ChatGPT was trained using a massive dataset of text written by humans that was pulled from the Internet. Thus, the responses can reflect the biases of the humans who wrote the text used in the training dataset”. (Torrey, p7). Because of this ChatGPT can be discriminatory and biased.

ChatGPT is an interesting tool in that teachers can use it to ‘save time’ and essentially students could use it to potentially ‘pass’ with minimal effort. It comes as no surprise that newsfeeds in the edusphere are filled with teachers voicing their concerns (and equally as many showing their support) around students using such technology.

Cyberwise (https://tinyurl.com/2mnazjre) recently produced an article on the positive and negatives of ChatGPT written by ChatGPT itself. This article asked the question of whether students using ChatGPT was plagiarism and the response from ChatGPT was this:

It is generally considered plagiarism to present someone else's work as your own, whether you have copied it directly or asked someone else to produce it for you. This includes using a language model such as ChatGPT to generate text that you then submit as your own.” (ChatGPT)

With all the fuss around this, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until another digital tool will identify whether the student work is their own or from an AI tool like ChatGPT. But what to do in the interim? Well, in this author’s opinion, perhaps we teachers learn to embrace it.

Research conducted By Susnjak at Massey University, NZ, titled ‘ChatGPT: The End of Exam Integrity’ found that ChatGPT can produce work that demonstrates critical thinking. This raises good questions about exam integrity. According to the article, the area of exam integrity in online assessmentis under researched. An interesting finding in this research was,

 “It is clear from the experimental evidence conducted in this paper that AI technologies have reached exceptional levels and are now capable of critical thinking rather than just information retrieval…One of the most impressive capabilities of ChatGPT is its ability to reason critically, as well as express thoughts and ideas in flawless prose. This technology has demonstrated exceptional competency in these areas, seemingly matching the capabilities of humans” (p13)

The risk identified by this article is “that students could potentially use ChatGPT to cheat on exams, as the technology is able to generate responses that are indistinguishable from humans.” (p.14).

The question that AI such as ChatGPT raises for me is what knowledge and skills are currently of value to communities? My rationale for this is that schools are in the business of providing students with knowledge and skills that are valued by communities - be they tertiary, industry, familial or something else. Overtime, what these communities value in terms of knowledge and skills changes.

I can’t help but go back the OECD Future of Learning 2030 document and agree that:

“Students need support in developing not only knowledge and skills but also attitudes and values, which can guide them towards ethical and responsible actions. At the same time, they need opportunities to develop their creative ingenuity to help propel humanity towards a bright future.

As Andreas Schleicher, Director of the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills, commented in 2019, “Education is no longer about teaching students something alone; it is more important to be teaching them to develop a reliable compass and the navigation tools to find their own way in a world that is increasingly complex, volatile and uncertain. Our imagination, awareness, knowledge, skills and, most important, our common values, intellectual and moral maturity, and sense of responsibility is what will guide us for the world to become a better place” (Schleicher, 2019[2]).”(p6)

So, we have some choices:

·       Status Quo – essentially do nothing! Teachers could use ChatGPT to create lessons and assist with teaching. Students use it in their learning and potentially as a method for producing work that is not their own. This will then result in school policies and consequences to try and curtail the misuse (I use this term in a general sense) of the technology.

·       Embrace the technology – this choice has a lot of potential future scenarios, such as integrating AI into teaching and learning programs, changing the way we evaluate learning, changing our teaching and learning programs and the creation of new knowledge and skills, the list goes on…

Whatever we choose, the fact remains that the technology is here and will only continue to develop.

Embrace the technology but how?

This is a big question and one I don’t have the answer for!

But, I do believe that we need humans who can critically think, be creative, design and solve problems to improve the environment for those that live in it (ethically).

As educators we need to think about the purpose of teaching and learning, the content of the teaching and learning and if how we ‘assess’ is currently a good measure of success in students gaining knowledge and skills. While AI is increasingly able to respond to prompts with in a more human-like manner, we as teachers need to ensure that we don’t create passive citizens but active lifelong learners who have the  ‘attitudes and values to act ethically’. 

So, if our concern as educators is that AI is providing students with the answers – maybe we are asking the wrong questions?

 

 

 

 

Reference

Blakemore, T. (2023). ChatGPT tutorial for Teachers, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQJOXn4NG40

Chambers, A. (2022). Can Artificial Intelligence (Chat GPT) get a 7 on an SL Maths paper? IB Math Resources from Intermathematics  https://ibmathsresources.com/2022/12/11/can-artificial-intelligence-chat-gpt-get-a-7-on-an-sl-maths-paper/

ChatGPT (2022). Cyberwise https://www.cyberwise.org/post/the-pros-and-cons-of-students-using-chatgpt

OECD. (2019) Future of Education and Skills 2030.  https://www.oecd.org/education/2030-project/teaching-and-learning/learning/learning-compass-2030/OECD_Learning_Compass_2030_Concept_Note_Series.pdf

https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/

SusnJak, T. (2022). ChatGPT The End of Online Exam Integrity. Massey University Auckland, NZ. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2212.09292.pdf

Trust, T (2022). ChatGPT and Education, https://tinyurl.com/yv6m7ra7

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

My EdD research: Prelim findings on integrating curriculum interview on the 'Master of One' podcast


Last week, I was interviewed about my EdD research for the 'Master of One' podcast (also on Spotify). This podcast has been created by Toni Westcott and Laura Butler, two NZ educators. The purpose is to share teachers who are completing postgrad study to "unpack educational research done by teachers and sharing practical tips for your classroom".


My research is a Case Study looking at how one high school transitions from a traditional mode of instruction to future focused and how teachers collaborate to deliver an integrated program at Yr 9/10. This research is to capture how a high school makes the change from a traditional subject-silo approach to an integrated approach to curriculum. It also looks at how teachers collaborate to deliver an integrated program. The curriculum areas integrated are Science, Social Studies and English. The study will specifically examine the processes of change and the experiences of different stakeholders. It is hoped that the findings will provide educators and other interested parties with evidence-based research that can inform future change and practice within secondary education.


Currently, I am at the stage of writing up my findings.

Here is the podcast:




Thank you to Toni and Laura for this opportunity.

Monday, April 13, 2020

Some thoughts...



The Education community locally, nationally and internationally is an amazing community to be part of. But during this lock-down and Covid 19 the challenges facing us in NZ are being faced everywhere. It has been awesome seeing the resource sharing to generating ideas and discussion on what innovations could come out of all this. I would recommend DistruptEd TV as a great viewing. I have been thinking about how we can innovate not within our current structures but how do we change from the outside these structures. What is worth keeping and what could be very different - I would love to be part of some 'anything is possible' thinking around this. 

I have discovered that I love being at home and I think my career in education provides a nice balance of being surrounded by people all day and then relaxing at home. Before lock-down my favourite unwind activities were running at the gym (I love treadmill running) and kick boxing. I am not doing either whilst in lock-down. Instead I walk almost every day with my daughters (Miss 12 and Miss 18) and these walks whilst never far from home are a good distance. Our walks sometimes involves solving riddles or taking conversation starters or just simple road trip games like eye spy. This is the favourite part of my lock-down day. I have also rediscovered my love of cooking from scratch and have made homemade gnocci, tortilla's, pizza, pizza sauce... I think it is because I have the focus and energy rather than the time to put into it. The two girls have been watching the Marvel movies in order which has created a nice connection for the two of them. They discuss the acting, dialogue, whether the props are consistent between the movies, sound tracks etc. But as a parent I love that they have found something to share and connect to whilst in lock-down. 

I realised, when I saw this photo that over the past couple of weeks I have been role modeling to my 12 yr old, how to work from home (usually I would work/study after she is in bed). Here in this photo she has her first learning zoom. 


Miss 12 is a Civil Defence cadet and they are meeting 1x a week at home. She has work to do in-between each zoom including a NCEA Level 2 standard. All cadets are expected to complete the work, regardless of age and this is something I really appreciate. The zoom meetings take a similar format  with a Q&A, quiz and general social connection. I posted this photo because Miss 12 wanted to be set up at my work station, in my chair etc. Over the past 2 weeks working from home she has seen how this new way of being, works in our home for me.  I have since given her a desk and chair in the living area (our shared work zone ) for when school starts on Wednesday. 

This is just a personal reflection of how life is working in my family bubble. That without realising it our day and week has a new rhythm. We celebrate Wednesdays rather than the weekend as that is another week down. Thankfully, we still enjoy each others company but allow each other space. We've celebrated a couple of birthdays via zoom, Easter via zoom. I have connected with friends/family who are oversees via video messenger.  I have not taken up any new hobbies and probably should be doing a little more study than I have. But this is an adjustment and it pays to be kind to ourselves and each other.

Friday, March 27, 2020

#Edchatnz


Online Learning Communities

I have to say the online learning community of teachers is amazing. One of these groups is #edchatNZ on twitter. In the past,  at the beginning, sometimes I tuned in but didn't comment and at other times I did. Yesterday, I was so excited to see, in light of current events the hashtag was reactivated and I was excited. I had forgotten or maybe I am just older the pace of discussion and the need for tweetdeck was crucial. If you are a Kiwi teacher here or abroad or just a teacher in need of some awesome conversation tune in and share your thoughts.

Photo of the day goes to my daughter. I organised a family 5pm virtual catch up with all the family. It was awesome, so get the whānau together, or the dept or even a team of mates - connect, it is the most important thing we can do.


Thursday, March 26, 2020

March 26th - Binge-ing



As someone who struggles to see in New Years Eve, I had no problem seeing the clock strike 12 last night as NZ enters the lockdown! Possibly Auld Lan Syne would have been an appropriate song to sing as we farewelled one way of living.

I've titled this post 'binge-ing', mostly because I feel like I have been binge-ing the news and Miss 12 has been binge-ing her learning. And like a good binge it can leave you feeling a little full and in need of a rest. As a result, I have stepped away from the media and took myself for a walk. It was interesting to see families out walking together keeping a safe distance with a nod or quiet hello from across the street as we passed. I didn't see anyone on their phones!  I guess we are on a go slow at the moment.


I have been really impressed with our wider educator community. Having been on Twitter for a number of years and using this as a source of support I find myself there again. I am really happy to see the restart of the #edchatNZ and really recommend joining this hashtag at 8:30pm tonight. It is especially a great place to start if you are new to Twitter.
Here is a great article I saw someone share Twitter:  Eight Steps to Smoother Transition to Online Learning

Something else I am finding interesting at the moment is all the discussion on the 'how' to deliver the learning remotely. Whether it is checking in with students or running shortened lessons for those who can.  This morning one of our Social Studies teacher's ran a current event quiz through Microsoft Teams and about 10 students tuned in but what was pretty cool were the parents joining in. Whilst these are challenging times it will be interesting to see how this affects teaching and learning in the future.
If you you use Microsoft (like the school I'm with), there are all sorts of support coming through like videos on how to use tools such as Microsoft Stream. It is a video storage/library for your organization that you can upload videos too for your students, and where meetings are recorded to if using the the Meeting function in Teams. I am just learning about Microsoft Stream but what I really like it is a secure place for only those in  your organization.

How is Miss 12 going?
This is where the binge-ing comes in. Having got the work from her teacher she has decided to do as much of it as possible as quickly as possible so as to have time for "other stuff". The learning set by her teacher is something she sees as a 'must do' and she wants to get to the 'can do'.  Miss 12 also has homework from the Civil Defence Cadets that she is part of. This is quite challenging as we find ourselves using Google for the stuff we are unsure of. Whilst I write this blog she is preparing tonights dessert: apple and rhubarb crumble. However, I've just popped into the kitchen and the pie is in the oven and she is cleaning out the baking cupboard!
A quote from Miss 12 on learning from home "It sucks!" - Translation is that Miss 12 prefers to be at school with her friends and her teachers. 

My photo learning challenge 
Today I deleted some wrong photo files, normally careful to check I delete the raw orf file and save the jpeg, in my haste I deleted the jpegs from the camera. This mistake created today's learning. With Google's help I learnt that I could download a raw image extension from the Microsoft store and then go to a Convertio and convert the raw orf file to jpeg. 
It is just a picture of the kitchen table with my work and Miss 12s  work. The nerf guns are for some fun later in the week, the sports gear is Miss 18's as she's a PT and completing a Science degree in sports and nutrition. The recipe book is a platform for Surface/laptop during video meetings. In hindsight I should have collected the docking station and monitors from university. I'm lucky as I have a uni laptop for study and school laptop which means Miss 12 can use my personal Surface as she doesn't have a device.





Tuesday, March 24, 2020

An Idea and a Plan


I have two daughters at home: Miss 12 who is in Year 8 and Miss 18 who is at Uni. Miss 20 is in Wellington and currently is in the hospitality industry. Each child has been disappointed by the changes in the last few weeks, Miss 20 had her Uni graduation cancelled and work, Miss 18 cant do BJJ  and has had her learning go online, and Miss 12 has had all her sport cancelled. But due to their experience with Christchurch earthquakes a while ago now, they are disappointed but understand. The older two are also glad that we have power and most importantly working toilets! 

Miss 12 is annoyed that I am a teacher and she said she is going to enforce  the new school holidays dates!  Which made me think that it is important that over the next few weeks she doesn't see me as a teacher but as a mother who is helping her. In my opinion, while teachers are providing learning opportunities to the students at no point do we want the parent/s/caregivers to feel that they have to be 'teachers'. 

For our mental well-being when in isolation  I know that routine is important and social contact via online tools is also important. I've asked Miss 12 to think of at least 1 fun thing she wants to do each day, something to look forward to. With social interaction I was thinking of having a virtual pancake dinner with my family for my birthday that's coming up. I also thought I would create a virtual quiz for the nieces/nephews and my children to join in on. 

Yesterday, I realised it had been a few months since my last post. This could be a good time to get more into a routine with my blog! I thought I would try to blog most days with the following content whilst at Level 4 Covid19 shutdown:

  • Some things that may be useful related to learning, 
  • Something of interest to me in education
  • How Miss 12 is doing with her learning, some thoughts from her 
  • I have been slowly learning photography and thought the next four weeks could be helpful in this. To hold me to account I will post 1 photo (but not today as I'm currently in my pjs having morning coffee whilst I write this blog!)
 Here are some useful online resources

Science
Nano Girl : Has an amazing website with all sorts of Science stuff for students, parents and teachers. Nano Girl has a podcast and after each episode there is a video. She also has some great resources for explaining Covid19 and some experiments with soap

History/English
I saw this on the History NZ teachers FB page: We are currently living through a historical moment and someone has created a good task for teenagers around primary/secondary sources and keeping a diary of the current pandemic: Eye Witness to History

PE
The Body Coach is creating Youtube Videos P.E with Joe and these I think are coming out each day. A way for students to keep active and burn some energy.