I have worked a lot with Aaron over the years. He opened my eyes to teaching techniques that really do enhance learning and engagement. In particular, I remember participating in a study which looked at classrooms discussion and difference between small group, whole-class discussion, open and closed questioning techniques. It was an eye-opener to me and I consider this almost every lesson I have had since. I was amazed how much of discussion was about myself talking and how often I gave closed questions to my students. The open-ended questions were far more important in developing critical thinking skills.
With this in mind, I really enjoyed reading Arron's article that I stumbled upon online. He reiterated a lot of my concerns working in low decile schools. This is how he sums up his thoughts on proposed changes to NCEA.
These schools and teachers are going to need professional development and other support from this and successive governments to really transform learning about the hard stuff. They do not deserve to be pillorised when pass rates drop. After all, they have been responding in completely rational ways to government targets and media league tables that have focused on the quantity rather than quality of academic qualifications.
Link to full article here
I am required to present to my school board next Thursday. All they are interested in is the pass rates in my subject in percentage terms, and how many students gained 14 plus credits in my subject. I plan on sharing with them a few of the unintended consequences of setting targets on academic achievement.
