The Doncaster Cluster understands that the Thinking Oriented Curriculum involves the application in the classroom of specific pedagogies and thinking tools that enable students to:

• think more deeply

• understand more thoroughly,

• solve problems and address new situations with greater confidence

• retain knowledge better

• engage in their schooling more enthusiastically

• develop flexibility and ability to adapt to change

• work more effectively and productively with others

• develop real learning partnerships with their teachers

• develop learning skills for life

A Thinking Oriented Curriculum Audit has been developed to determine the level of acceptance and implementation of the Thinking Oriented Curriculum among cluster Middle Years teachers. This audit is available on request from the cluster educator.

Contact
Alison Gaffney
Cluster Educator
E-mail: gaf@doncastersc.vic.edu.au

 

"The effective schools research found that classroom-to-classroom differences in effectiveness within schools is greater than school-to-school variation. Professional learning communities internal to a school should reduce the variation across classrooms with more and more teachers gravitating toward the best practices."

(Source: Michael Fullan interview in the Journal of Staff Development Winter 2003, Vol 24, Number 1, http://www.nsdc.org/library/jsd/fullan241.html)

Resources we have found to be effective:

• Andy Hargreaves : The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization

• Peter Senge - The Fifth Discipline

• Robert Evans - The Human Side of Change in Schools

There are some wonderful professional learning teams in our individual cluster schools and to facilitate the aims of the cluster we have set up Cluster-wide learning teams.

The cluster decided to start with Literacy and Numeracy Professional Learning teams. The members of these teams are also involved with reciprocal visits.

The program has paid for time release and the teams have managed to meet once a term for one half day.

We have cluster teams working on our Research Project, Problem-Based Learning.

 

For our research project, led by Dr Samy Azer, a renowned expert in medical education and problem-based learning at the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, the University of Melbourne, the cluster is undertaking a pilot study on the usefulness of problem-based learning (PBL) in the Middle Years.

PBL is an innovative method of delivering the curriculum using a series of case scenarios. The cases are based on CSF II outcomes. The template of these cases aims at enhancement of students' skills and understanding rather than 'rote learning'. These educational aims are:

• Integration of knowledge across disciplines

• Hypotheses generation

• Collection of information and assessing their significance

• Weighing the evidence for and against each hypothesis

• Interpretation of findings

• Applying information to real life situations

• Making decisions on the basis of available evidence

• Searching for information that could help students' understanding.

The training of the staff and the implementation of the research will be run under the close supervision of Dr Azer. The research methodology will follow the ethical guidelines developed by the Department of Education, the school environment and the nature of PBL. The areas we will explore in the research have not been finalised, but will include, for example, the level of engagement and motivation of students in their classes, students' understanding of the value of applying knowledge in real life situations as well as school and staff development.

At this stage it is envisioned that the methodology will include the following:

• The use of questionnaires to assess students' experience

• Assessment of psychometric interaction, group engagement, group function, depth of discussion, facilitation process and degree of collaborative learning in the classrooms

• Interviews with the PBL teachers to gather their reflections on the process

• Assessment of students' understanding and learning skills

• Weekly meeting of the teaching team with Dr Azer to discuss and reflect on their experiences in PBL within the classroom

All enquires regarding this project should be directed to:

Dr Samy Azer
Senior Lecturer in Medical Education
Phone: 8344 8035, e-mail: samy@unimelb.edu.au
Address: Faculty Education Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, the University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.

 

The Literacy Team has covered the following topics:

• A Literacy Audit of practices in the cluster schools. The cluster schools have completed a Literacy Audit as a resource for the cluster.

• Getting to know you, exchange of information between the schools

• Early Years Literacy an introduction by trained teachers from the cluster schools

• Middle Years Literacy

• Developing joint units of work based on the Carolyn Coil model

• Socratic Seminars workshop

• Establishing priorities protocol

• Reading

• Moderating student work for level 4 and level 5

The Literacy Team has also conducted a cluster-wide debating competition Student Activities.

Further web links for Literacy:

• www.alea.edu.au (Australian Literacy Educators' Association)

• www.peta.edu.au (Primary English Teaching Association)

• www.netspace.net.au/~vate/ (Victorian Association for the Teaching of English)

 

The Numeracy team has covered the following topics:

• “How do you teach Maths at your school?” Information sharing

• “A great Maths classroom looks like …” Discussion using a Y chart

• Early Years Numeracy (Talk to Natalie Maltby from Birralee Primary School about Early Years Numeracy E-mail: maltby.natalie.m@edumail.vic.gov.au

• Middle Years Numeracy

• Teaching Fractions (Contacts: grace.robyn.c@edumail.vic.gov.au and vakalis.christine.c@doncastersc.vic.edu.au)

• Developing common units of work for the reciprocal visits

• Strategic Maths Games - Talk to Christine Vakalis from Doncaster SC about Strategic Maths Games: vak@doncastersc.vic.edu.au) (Student Activities)

• o The implications for the Middle Years classrooms of the phasing out of calculators in VCE exams.

Some interesting Websites for Maths

• www.nzmaths.co.nz/Algebra (Maths)

• www.visualfractions.com (Maths)

• www.mcdowallss.qld.edu.au/Zones/student/classpages/yr5/home.htm (Activities for fractions based on pizzas)

 

A program of reciprocal visits as been organized. So far this has been confined largely to the teachers in the Literacy and Numeracy Professional Learning Teams. A secondary teacher and a primary teacher were paired after a survey was conducted to find areas of common interest. A reporting sheet was developed to assist teachers to reflect on their visits. This reporting sheet is available on request from the cluster educator.

The Numeracy Professional Learning Team developed common units of work and the paired teachers taught these units in the two settings and compared their experiences.

 

Focus Groups interviews were conducted by the cluster educator assisted by a staff member. Groups were set up in each of the cluster schools. The students in the Primary School groups were composed of students who will be attending Doncaster Secondary College in 2004, to allow for a follow up interview. The Doncaster Secondary students were chosen from students who had attended the cluster Primary Schools. Middle Years issues were covered by the groups.

Each school received a report on the findings of their school group and the cluster-wide findings were collated. These results provide the basis for discussion, advice to teachers and for planning.

2004 - We are completing the second round of Focus group interviews with the Doncaster SC students who were interviewed at their Primary Schools in 2003. We are asking them to reflect on the comparison between their primary School experience and their secondary school experience in the following areas:

• Pedagogical styles

• Relationships between students and teachers

• Relationships between students