p. 1

curriculum implementation exploratory studies 2 1 curriculum implementation exploratory studies 2 report to the ministry of education hipkins r cowie b boyd s keown p and mcgee c nzcer/university of waikato

[close]

p. 2

isbn 978-0-478-36760-7 isbn 978-0-478-36761-4 web rmr-970 © ministry of education new zealand 2011 research reports are available on the ministry of education s website education counts www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily coincide with those of the ministry of education.

[close]

p. 3

curriculum implementation exploratory studies 2 final report rosemary hipkins bronwen cowie sally boyd paul keown and clive mcgee new zealand council for educational research te rnanga o aotearoa m te rangahau i te mtauranga wellington

[close]

p. 4

ii curriculum implementation exploratory studies 2 new zealand council for educational research p o box 3237 wellington new zealand

[close]

p. 5

curriculum implementation exploratory studies 2 iii acknowledgements this project would not have been possible without the positive response and supportive participation of the case study schools and workshop participants we are grateful to all those school leaders and teachers who so willingly gave us their time and so generously shared their thinking and learning about the new zealand curriculum in all its layers and complexities we also thank the ministry of education moe for having the foresight to commission the work and to work alongside us through the inevitable ups and downs of an extended study of this type our shared conversations along the way were invaluable for ensuring the analysis could optimise the value of the research findings for ongoing the new zealand curriculum-related work wherever that is being carried out a large team of researchers contributed to the studies in the field and the preparation of the case studies and vignettes that underpinned the final stage of analysis which is the subject of this report from the wilf malcolm institute of educational research wmier at waikato university the team included bronwen cowie clive mcgee paul keown beverley cooper merilyn taylor and michele morrison the new zealand council for educational research nzcer team comprised rosemary hipkins sally boyd ally bull and rachel bolstad we also thank those staff in supporting roles who helped us along the way christine williams at nzcer provided administrative support as did ruth kapoor and margaret drummond at wmier diana todd at nzcer managed the contractual partnership.

[close]

p. 6

iv curriculum implementation exploratory studies 2

[close]

p. 7

curriculum implementation exploratory studies 2 v table of contents executive summary 1 a summary of key findings for each research question 1 1 changes made to engage students in learning 1 2 the benefits and challenges posed by community engagement 1 3 iterative exploration of the key competencies 2 4 the principles at work in the school curriculum 2 5 how are we doing teaching as inquiry 3 6 rethinking relationships between breadth and depth 3 7 national standards and the new zealand curriculum a continuum of possibilities 4 8 accessing and using resources to help lift achievement in the secondary schools 4 9 barriers versus enablers or enabling constraints 4 addressing the overarching question 5 1 introduction 7 organisation of the report 8 student-centred perspectives and impacts 8 the enacted curriculum including teacher views and actions 8 responses in the broader policy context 8 overall synthesis 8 2 an overview of the research processes 9 the mediated conversation process 9 the mediated conversation participants 11 observations about the method 11 processes followed for the case studies 11 selecting and visiting schools 12 data collected 13 observations about the case study method 13 data analysis 14 3 changes made to engage students in learning 15 how schools understand engagement challenges 15 a focus on attendance and presence 16 a focus on lifting achievement 17 creating a sense of relevance and connectedness student voice initiatives 18 student leadership opportunities/student consultation 18 inquiry learning/learning in engaging contexts 18 self-regulation learning to learn 20 responding to diversity 20 a focus on effective pedagogy 20 commentary 21 4 the benefits and challenges posed by community engagement 23 the nature of engagement with the wider community 23 informing parents about curriculum directions 23 involving parents in supporting students learning 24 getting parents into school and making them feel welcome 24 adopting strengths-based approaches 25 changes to reporting processes 25 the community as an authentic audience for demonstrations of learning 27 engaging parents in shaping the curriculum big picture 27 parents as contributors to the enacted curriculum 28 the community as a resource for students learning 28 community contributions to building a local curriculum 28 the challenges of community engagement 30 what now 32

[close]

p. 8

vi curriculum implementation exploratory studies 2 5 iterative exploration of the key competencies 33 how schools have engaged with the key competencies 33 taking a systems approach to enacting the key competencies 34 key competencies at the school-wide level 35 key competencies within the primary school learning programme 37 key competencies within the secondary school learning programme 38 assessment practices and key competency development 38 key competencies for teachers 40 where to next 40 6 the principles at work in the school curriculum 43 the work that principles do 43 the individual principles at work 44 high expectations 44 community engagement 45 learning to learn 45 treaty of waitangi 46 cultural diversity and inclusion 47 coherence 48 future focus 49 how schools were addressing this principle 49 thinking about the principles as a system 50 does it matter if principles are in the background 50 7 how are we doing teaching as inquiry 53 how schools understand and enact teaching as inquiry 53 an accountability approach to inquiry 54 structured group reflection as teacher inquiry 55 an action research or ariki-style approach 55 a lesson study approach 56 is it working 57 teacher inquiry both individual and collective 58 the tensions of accountability versus exploration 58 8 rethinking relationships between breadth and depth 60 the nature of the either/or dilemma 60 ways of addressing the breadth/depth relationship 61 traditional coverage thinking 61 planning that balances breadth and depth 61 breadth and depth in situated experiences 62 connected knowing that is broad and deep 63 issues and challenges for developing connected knowing 64 benefits for developing connected knowing 65 9 national standards and the new zealand curriculum a continuum of possibilities 69 working together to align the new zealand curriculum and the national standards 69 the main areas of concern and opportunity 71 tensions between national standards and the new zealand curriculum content 71 tensions between national standards and student-centred intent of the new zealand curriculum 71 concerns about making overall judgements 72 concerns for later adopter schools 72 the push of data-driven accountability and the pull of professional inquiry 73 10.accessing and using resources to help lift achievement in the secondary schools 75 the relative invisibility of targeted resources 75 simple compound and complex resources lining up the ducks 76 a complex framing of resourcing 76 pedagogy as curriculum in action 79 distributed leadership of curriculum implementation 79 assessment and reporting that forms and informs learning 79 changing classroom and school cultures 79 links between the action areas and targeted resources 79 gaining greater leverage through complex resourcing 80

[close]

p. 9

curriculum implementation exploratory studies 2 vii 11.building on the past and present looking to the future 83 a responsive curriculum is a more transparent curriculum 84 transparency about the goals and processes of education and learning 84 recommendations 85 strategic use of distributed and decentralised leadership 85 recommendation 86 the school community as a learning community 86 recommendations 87 transparency about knowledge and evidence of learning 87 recommendations 88 crafting system coherence to leverage implementation 90 recommendations 90 in summary 91 references 92 tables table 1 table 2 cies overview in the context of the new zealand curriculum implementation 7 the research design for cies 2 10 figures figure 1 figure 2 figure 3 figure 4 taihape area school s multifaceted approach to address student engagement 16 one school s vision as a visual metaphor 35 a visual metaphor with a focus on learners 36 direct and indirect state resourcing of the new zealand curriculum 78

[close]

p. 10

viii curriculum implementation exploratory studies 2

[close]

p. 11

curriculum implementation exploratory studies 2 1 executive summary this is the final report for the research project curriculum implementation exploratory studies phase 2 cies 2 over two phases and three years the cies project has developed an analytical account of the various ways in which innovative schools and individual teachers have been working to implement the revised new zealand curriculum ministry of education 2007 cies 1 employed case studies as the main methodology cowie et al 2009 cies 2 continued the case studies with nine schools from cies 1 and added a case study of a low-decile rural full primary school cies 2 also involved mediated conversations with two groups of school leaders auckland christchurch and two groups of teachers secondary in auckland primary in wellington for these conversations participants came prepared to talk to three or four other participants and a researcher for around 15 minutes they introduced and discussed an artefact generated through or representative of their curriculum implementation practice subsequent to these short sessions the moe research questions were introduced and discussed during cies 2 we also reviewed existing research about community involvement to produce a short synthesis bull n.d after conducting separate analyses of the case studies and the mediated conversations we merged the overall findings to produce this final synthesis the report also takes account of key findings from cies 1 cowie et al 2009 to document the implementation of the new zealand curriculum across all three years of the project a summary of key findings for each research question 1 changes made to engage students in learning across the many schools represented in cies 2 there was wide recognition of the need to do more to engage students in learning all students and not just those who have traditionally been easy to involve many schools saw the challenge of increasing engagement levels as a multifaceted endeavour requiring change on a number of fronts including increasing student attendance at school lifting achievement so that all students experience success creating a sense that learning matters often linked to so-called student voice initiatives and a focus on the qualities of students learning experiences typically linked to an exploration of the effective pedagogy section of the new zealand curriculum the range of student voice initiatives included the provision of student leadership opportunities introduction of new processes for student consultation the use of inquiry learning or other pedagogies that made space for aspects of students wider lives to be included in learning the provision of opportunities and support for student self-regulation and learning to learn and the adoption of culturally responsive pedagogies participants often commented anecdotally that they had seen lifts in student attendance and motivation including for mori students however schools are mindful that there can be a lag as children make up for lost time some teachers said it was too soon to expect lifts in achievement there is some debate about whether schools need specific goals for their mori students differentiated from other school-wide goals interestingly only one school leader described an initiative that could be described as meeting the challenge of allowing mori students to succeed as mori there is a need for ongoing conversations about what rethinking meanings of achievement might entail such conversations are likely to raise interesting skill and capacity issues 2 the benefits and challenges posed by community engagement as with so many other aspects of curriculum implementation in some schools the new zealand curriculum has acted to provide additional support and impetus for directions in which the school was already moving the possibilities for community engagement that bull n.d identified within the data lie along a continuum from approaches and actions

[close]

p. 12

2 curriculum implementation exploratory studies 2 that essentially inform to those that open up more participatory interactions between the school and its community the new zealand curriculum-related activity has particularly focused on the first three of the purposes listed below but there were examples of all of them across the schools informing parents about curriculum developments at the school involving parents in a two-way exchange of information intended to better support students learning consulting parents about the vision values and overall direction of the school s curriculum and including their input in the processes used to shape relevant documents and school-wide practices providing the community with the skills information authority and resources to work with the staff to make decisions about the curriculum and learning at the school gaining active participation of parents is not easy and schools well-intentioned efforts are not always rewarded with high participation levels one challenge not mentioned by schools but evident from the analysis is that some schools may be hampered in certain aspects of community engagement by a lack of clarity about the purposes of such activity and what should ultimately be achieved clarifying the range of purposes for which the community might become more involved in building and enacting a local curriculum could be a productive next step to capitalise on these positive gains 3 iterative exploration of the key competencies the key competencies are widely seen as an interesting new aspect of the new zealand curriculum and so have been a common entry point for many schools exploration of the national curriculum once schools and teachers have moved past the need to understand the nature of the key competencies their focus has typically turned to their use as a means to rethink practice generic explorations have typically been coupled with the idea of learning-to-learn resulting in an emphasis on aspects of pedagogy such as fostering self-management strategies as yet it is less common to find discipline-specific changes to teaching and learning made in response to key competencies a powerful cycle of iterative learning takes place when schools connect ongoing exploration of the key competencies to earlier professional learning one consequence of ongoing exploration might be a recognition that the key competencies can be developed throughout all aspects of school life both inside and outside classroom programmes another change might be recognising that assessment and reporting practices need to change i.e not just teaching practices schools and teachers are also recognising that the focus on lifelong learning competencies applies to teachers as well as students despite this considerable progress exploration of the key competencies is likely to continue to be a fruitful focus for professional learning for all the cies schools an area of next exploration is likely to be differences in opportunities for competency development offered by different subjects or different types of learning experiences 4 the principles at work in the school curriculum teacher commentary suggests the principles are often embedded in other aspects of implementation rather than being foregrounded in curriculum decision making the coherence of the front end of the new zealand curriculum ensures that they are being enacted whether deliberately or via their alignment with other aspects of the new zealand curriculum and other professional learning and change initiatives for example the principle of high teacher expectations was clearly reflected in the attention being paid to student engagement and high expectations were also often communicated to the whole school community via each school s vision for learners because the new zealand curriculum s vision values principles key competencies and effective pedagogy sections are broadly coherent in their core messages an exploration of the principles offers a valid entry point to the curriculum one that is of equal merit and potential value to that of a focus on the more common entry points of vision key competencies or learning areas this diversity of entry points is likely to be of value for later adopter schools that

[close]

p. 13

curriculum implementation exploratory studies 2 3 might prefer to begin with a discussion on the way teachers decide what and how to include particular topics ideas and activities in the curriculum the future focus principle is arguably the one that has received least attention to date this principle appears to be somewhat problematic in its conception through the potential limitation of listing topics rather than introducing a focus on futures thinking and/or school change another challenge for working with the principles is that they can be read in isolation or as an interconnected set there would seem to be merit in considering them as a system 5 how are we doing teaching as inquiry the effective pedagogy pages of the new zealand curriculum have prompted a fresh look at teaching methods in the early adopter schools both primary and secondary it was clear to the leaders of these schools that a transmission of information model of teaching will no longer suffice whereas the new zealand curriculum model for teacher inquiry ministry of education 2007 p 35 implies an individual inquiry process most schools were using some version of the new zealand curriculum model as a tool to deprivatise practice via collective inquiry school leaders and teachers in the early adopter schools tended to emphasise the learning together with the intent of collectively building practice at different levels of the school system a number of different teacher-as-inquirer models were evident across the case study schools and each school could be using one or more of these approaches in combination an accountability approach where the focus was on improving the numbers in relation to specific aspects of student achievement a structured group reflection approach where the focus was on exploring professional readings an action research/ariki-style approach with a focus on a particular aspect of practice question or issue which leaders or teachers were exploring individually but with team input a lesson study approach over the three years of the cies study there has been considerable work done on teaching as inquiry in the early adopter schools although the conflation of teaching as inquiry and inquiry learning is no longer prevalent there is still a degree of confusion for some teachers the evidence from the schools and teachers involved in this study indicates that they are working hard and successfully on building a culture of openness trust and collective responsibility so that data collected and analysed are used positively and constructively to improve the outcomes for all they have it would seem avoided negative criticism and blaming individuals or groups 6 rethinking relationships between breadth and depth research participants in both the workshops and the case studies appreciated the freedom that the new zealand curriculum gave them to move away from a traditional coverage focus however there was some concern about how to balance breadth and depth largely associated with meeting external accountability demands four possible models for addressing relationships between breadth and depth were discerned within the data traditional coverage thinking where the focus is on covering each learning area in a manner that is readily auditable teacher planning that balances breadth and depth by holding them in tension breadth and depth balanced through inquiry processes with a strong emphasis on making connections with students out-of-school lives and experiences

[close]

p. 14

4 curriculum implementation exploratory studies 2 a focus on connected knowing in which students learn in ways that broaden their awareness of the connectedness of ideas and actions in the world leader and teacher comments suggest we need innovative examples to show students could learn in ways that are simultaneously deep and broad the idea of connected knowing could be a useful start point for exploring this challenge learning that is deep and broad should support increased success in high-stakes assessments which would have appeal for teachers such learning would also support students learning for active participation in society as is envisioned in the new zealand curriculum 7 national standards and the new zealand curriculum a continuum of possibilities in the early adopter schools in this study working to strengthen the achievement of every student via evidence-based practice was widely understood to be central to the new zealand curriculum for this reason these school leaders were not opposed to national standards per se however they did have concerns about the manner of implementation of the standards initiative and some of the proposed detail they did not want to be diverted from the vision and direction they had developed for their school which incorporated the new zealand curriculum so they were working to shape the standards initiative to retain their autonomy in working towards what was best for their students concerns were expressed by case study secondary and primary school leaders and teachers about the potential of the standards to narrow the taught curriculum and to undermine the intent of the new zealand curriculum to be used to design a local curriculum to address students differing learning strengths and needs other concerns revolved around the integration of evidence from multiple sources mindful of the challenges of their own school s new zealand curriculum journey and of needing to work hard not to be diverted from this by the standards initiative cies study principals were worried about the diverting impact of national standards on schools that have yet to reach this point on their new zealand curriculum implementation journey 8 accessing and using resources to help lift achievement in the secondary schools when the question of resources was raised a common first response was what resources it appears teachers are often unaware of the source of materials they use tellingly this question prompted some of the case study teachers and leaders to observe that the new zealand curriculum implementation was more applicable to years 9 and 10 because the national certificate of educational achievement ncea dominates the senior secondary years when prompted to think of ncea resources as potential curriculum resources some teachers commented that the annotated student examples and moderators reports were extremely useful reconsidering this question we sought to explore why it might be that resources are not more visible in the light of all the data we had gathered during the project we propose a model that suggests interrelationships between the new zealand curriculum with its positioning of students as central to the curriculum and other policy initiatives such as ka hikitia and the pasifika education plan the model establishes four areas of action pedagogy as central to curriculum change the importance of distributed leadership of change the influence and role of assessment and reporting that forms and informs learning and the need to change classroom and school cultures each of these areas of action has a mix of potentially available resources and ongoing resourcing implications however intended impacts will be realised only when individuals see ways to use resources to transform their intentions into action and when they are willing to invest the effort to do so 9 barriers versus enablers or enabling constraints rather than consider barriers and enablers as binary opposites it seems useful to identify factors that could act as enabling constraints this notion taken from complexity theory focuses on the possibilities for action within the boundaries of the identified constraints the analysis identified the following enabling constraints across the schools in the study:

[close]

p. 15

curriculum implementation exploratory studies 2 5 distributed leadership and decentralised control/responsibility evidence-based/data-informed individual and collective inquiry and action implementation of change as a process of iterative adaptation the use of symbolic artefacts as touchstones for change a deliberate search for coherence across practices and initiatives to leverage implementation bringing together resources to build capacity a focus on the school community as a learning community critical and constructive use of data aligning assessment policies national standards and ncea with the intent of the new zealand curriculum each of these factors operates to reposition potential barriers as opening up complex spaces of possible actions to give effect to the new zealand curriculum addressing the overarching question how does the school curriculum respond to the needs of the community and reflect the needs of its students how is it enacted in the school the nearly 60 schools in the cies 2 study were actively working to address the challenge of building a responsive curriculum as early adopters many were in fact conscripting the curriculum into a learning journey which had begun well prior to its appearance they understood the necessity of making changes in schooling and that doing so would require a collaborative learning effort the new zealand curriculum provided a compelling focus for involving the school and wider community in this learning the report documents the notable achievements of this process looking across the three years of data collection in the case study schools it appears that the process of curriculum implementation has followed an s-shaped or sigmoid curve this idea comes from ecology and has more recently been used in various branches of the social sciences including education this sigmoid model highlights growth as a series of spurts of change followed by plateaus which act as periods of consolidation and preparation for the next spurt during the plateau time schools are amassing understandings needed to meet adaptive challenges that go beyond their current capacity or current way of operating fullan 2004 p 4 a key challenge for schools and the education system as a whole is to transition to the next stage of development where the intended reinvention of a 21st century curriculum can be more fully realised on the foundation of the hard work schools have undertaken to date the sigmoid model points to the need to avoid an alternative possible trajectory of losing momentum and falling back into old patterns it also provides a reason for other good schools to undertake more extensive change since the sigmoid curve change theory predicts complacent organisations typically do not perceive a need for change until they are well into the decline phase indications are that ongoing adaptive curriculum change will need to be underpinned and informed by the development of greater transparency about the goals of education/schooling what we envisage as student learning and achievement learning challenges implicated in new ways of working

[close]