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National Council for Curriculum and Assessment | APRIL 2006 | Issue 3
supporting teaching and learning
info@ncca
f
DVD for parentsThe What, Why and How of Children'sLearning in Primary School
page 8
this issue / School Reports /
Curriculum Online / Developing
Learning / Linking with Schools /
Assessment for Learning / Education
in the USA and much more...
...to the third issue of info@ncca,the final one of the school year.While we have had feedback andcomments on many of thearticles and updates in previousissues, the piece about theNCCA’s work on guidelines forthose working with exceptionallyable students generated moreresponses than anything else sofar. It’s clear that this is a hottopic for teachers and principalsin primary and post-primaryschools. You can follow the workon www.ncca.ie and your ongoingfeedback and suggestions will bemost welcome.
The work on developing a national reportcard template is part of the bigger project ofsupporting schools in reporting to parents.The feature on parent-teacher meetings wasrequested by a number of principals, parentsand teachers who were interested in hearingabout schools that have moved to teacher-student-parent meetings, and how this newformat has worked for them.
Those working in Irish-medium primaryschools will be interested in the update onthe work on language and literacy. Along withthe international review of research into goodpractice, we have also been developingdescriptions of practice in a number of Irish-medium primary schools, including Gaeltachtschools. The different approaches areoutlined in the article; don’t miss your chanceto have your say in the development ofguidelines on language and literacy in Irish-medium settings. Details of how to participatein the consultation are included.
As examination time approaches, we thoughtit would be timely to remind those working inpost-primary schools (and the many teacherswho share examination anxieties as parents!)about the senior cycle reforms and thecontinuing work on transition units, shortcourses, and revised subjects. The seniorcycle team have put together a summary ofthe main strands of work. If you want moredetails on a particular subject, or want to takea look at some of the emerging transitionunits – the website has a dedicated seniorcycle space with all the latest developments.
Whether you are heading for the big finish atthe end of May or the end of June, may I wishyou a restful, enjoyable and well-earnedsummer break.
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welcome...
info
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Anne LooneyCEO
National Council for Curriculum and Assessment
what’s in this issue gg
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Linking with schools 4
Curriculum Online 7
Finding common ground 8
Profile: Anne Moloney 10
Early childhood education 10
Language and literacy 11
DVD for parents 12
Caught in the middle 14
School reports 16
Developing learning 18
Primary Curriculum review 20
Profile: Sheila Nunan 20
Qualifications framework 21
Education in the USA 22
Finding Form 24
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Supporting teaching and learning...info@ncca is published three times over the schoolyear, in September, January and April.
Copies are distributed to teachers in every primaryand post-primary school in the country. Electronicversions of the newsletter, in both Irish and English,are available to download from our website, atwww.ncca.ie. If your school requires extra copies ofinfo@ncca, please send your request by email, orpost.
We welcome articles from teachers as well ascomments and queries about content.
Contact details:
Email: [email protected]
Fax: 01 661 7180
Website: www.ncca.ie
Post: Editor, info@ncca,
National Council for
Curriculum and Assessment,
24 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.
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When developing advice on curriculum andassessment, the NCCA works as closely aspossible with early childhood settings,school communities, teachers andpractitioners. This happens in a variety ofways at different stages of each project.
Working with schools and school communities, includingteachers, management, parents and students, is veryimportant to us because it helps to ground our projects inreal classroom situations and contexts. It helps us to get areal sense of what schools need in the area of curriculumand assessment – what works and what doesn’t. It alsokeeps us in touch with the ‘real world’ where curriculum isbeing implemented – lets us know what is happening on theground, as it were. In doing so, we try to ensure that wework with a wide variety of school types and sizes, as wellas early childhood settings.
This work greatly influences the development of our adviceto the Minister for Education and Science. For example,when we carried out our review of Senior Cycle Education in2004 we included ‘live’ consultations with eight schoolswhere we had extensive discussions with teachers,management, parents and students around the proposalsthat were being developed. These discussions influencedthe advice that we forwarded to the Minister in April 2005.
The list of 2006 projects shown on these pages providessome idea of the range of ways in which our links with
schools and teachers happen and the areas of work thatare involved. Detailed descriptions of three initiatives, theearly childhood portraiture study, using ICT with CSPE andthe senior cycle school network project, further illustratethe productive nature of this type of work.
School work 2006Early Childhood and Primary education
NCCA work: The production of a DVD for parentsSchool work:Teachers, parents, principals and children all contributed tothis project. Discussion groups of parents advised on whatthey needed to know and how best to present it. The filmingwas done in schools with real characters – not an actor insight! For further information, see article on page 12.
NCCA work: Developing guidelines on languageand literacy in Irish-medium schoolsSchool work:Interviews with children, parents, teachers and schoolmanagement gave us great insight into how schoolscurrently plan their approaches in the infant classes inparticular and we are using these descriptions of practicein a wider consultation. Read the article on page 11 for moredetails of this initiative.
Linking withschools
From the ‘bigpicture’ to the ‘real picture’
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Early childhood portraiture study The NCCA is working with a number of early childhoodsettings including infant classes to gather informationfor the Framework for Early Learning. This work is takingplace in the form of a portraiture study, which involvesrecording and interpreting the perspectives andexperiences of participants in particular settings.
The purpose of this portraiture study is to:
f represent the voices and experiences of childrenfrom 0-6 years
f develop exemplars of good practice across the earlychildhood sector which will be included in theframework.
Through observing and listening to children, talking withthem and sharing in their activities and experiences indifferent settings, the NCCA is gaining a greaterunderstanding of what life is like for them in a range ofsettings for early learning.
The children’s parents and practitioners also have muchinformation to contribute to the portraits, and theirperspectives are being documented in interviews. All ofthis information will help us to ensure that the frameworkis meaningful and relevant to children and adults in earlychildhood settings including infant classes.
The completed portraits, along with an outline of theportraiture study and its key messages for theFramework for Early Learning, will be available todownload from the NCCA website in the autumn.
NCCA work: Piloting with modern languages inprimary schoolsSchool work:A number of primary schools are piloting the use of contentlanguage integrated learning (CLIL) in the primary schoolcurriculum. This means that they teach other subjectswholly, or partly through the target language (musicthrough Italian for example). Others are focused onlanguage awareness. These schools will help us indeveloping advice on the future role of modern languages inprimary schools.
NCCA work: Developing report card templatesSchools work:Schools and teachers are working with the NCCA advisingon the most user-friendly approaches to reporting, andtrying out the prototypes in development before they arecirculated more widely. This school work will be vital inensuring that we capture the good practice that schoolshave already developed. For further information on thisproject, turn to page 16.
NCCA work: Developing an ICT framework forschoolsSchool work:As with the report card templates, schools are also roadtesting the ICT framework to ensure that it translates wellfrom the paper or the screen to the classroom. Teachersusing the framework are also providing exemplars fromtheir own classrooms so that other teachers can see theframework in action.
Post Primary education
NCCA work: Assessment for LearningSchool work:Groups of teachers from networks of schools who havebeen using Assessment for Learning approaches in theirclassrooms have gathered examples of student work acrosseight subject areas at junior cycle. These examples, whichcan be found at www.ncca.ie, are being used to supportteacher assessment and reporting in junior cycle.
In doing so, we try to ensure that we workwith a wide variety of school types andsizes, as well as early childhood settings.
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Moving from RAP to eRAPThe Civic Social and Personal Education (CSPE) ActionProject provides students with an opportunity to identifyan issue of interest or concern to them and to engage inmeaningful action on that issue. Students then reporton the learning and skills gained through this processand in the majority of cases write up their reports usingthe Report on the Action Project booklet (RAP).
This year a number of teachers have agreed to explorehow ICT can help their students, both in doing their ActionProjects and in reporting on them. We hope that ICT willoffer opportunities to capture more of the ‘action’, andwill also interest and encourage students who would
appreciate an alternative to ‘pen and paper’. In eachparticipating school the CSPE students are using digitalvideo cameras to record all the activities in their ActionProjects and this footage will be used to produce audio-visual Action Project reports.
So far, the response from students has been verypositive, with wide agreement that it is ‘more fun’,‘more interesting’ and ‘more motivating’ than writing upreports
The outcome of this project will inform futuredevelopments in the assessment of CSPE and will be ofrelevance to other subjects that have a similar secondassessment component.
Senior cycle school networkAs part of the review of senior cycle education, 20schools have formed a school network to develop someof the key areas of work. These schools are working withthe NCCA to investigate the practical implications of thedevelopments as they move forward, such as theimplications for curriculum planning, teacherdevelopment, resources and timetabling. Through theirinvolvement in the network, teachers are writing a seriesof Transition Units developed to a common template.
Some of the network schools are investigating howmore flexible programmes of study might be developedfor some senior cycle students and how they mightwork. Others are involved in developing learningmanagement materials or looking at how a key skillsapproach to teaching and learning could be used withinspecific subject areas.
Schools that are interested in getting involved in futureconsultations or development initiatives should contactus at: [email protected].
NCCA work: Assessment in physical educationSchool work:PE teachers are using Assessment for Learning (AfL)approaches in their teaching and seeing how they cansupport the development of the PE portfolio. Students arealso participating in this project offering their views on theprocess.
We owe a considerable debt of gratitude to the many school principals, teachers, practitioners, parents, children and youngpeople, who give so generously of their time and expertise in support of the work of curriculum development in NCCA. Ifyou would like further information on any of the initiatives mentioned, please contact us at: [email protected].
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This work greatlyinfluences thedevelopment of ouradvice to the Minister forEducation and Science.
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Curriculum Online
At last! A dedicated curriculum website thathouses all primary and post-primarycurriculum and syllabus documents at theone, user-friendly, address:www.curriculumonline.ie. While the NCCAcorporate website has been acting as atemporary home to curriculum documentsand guidelines and a gateway to syllabusdocuments (housed on the DES site), theweb team has been busy constructing a newhome to accommodate all.
The ‘home’ page of Curriculum Online invites the user tochoose access to either primary, junior cycle or senior cyclesections. The primary option brings you to the Introductionto the Primary School Curriculum, curriculum documentsfor each subject and teacher guidelines for each subject.The junior and senior cycle options bring you to syllabusesand guidelines for each subject.
Curriculum Online has been designed with teachers inmind, but should prove useful to students, parents andanyone interested in the Irish education system. Forprimary school teachers the planning of an integrated
programme of work across different curriculum subjects isfacilitated by the search options. The development ofthemes and topics of work, thus, will be both easier andless time-consuming.
Post primary teachers will also enjoy searching topicsacross subjects and, even, between primary, junior cycleand senior cycle. The mathematics teacher of first years, forexample, is only a click away from knowing what his or herstudents were taught in 6th class and therefore wellpositioned to address their learning needs.
As the Curriculum Online site develops we will continue toimprove the search facility in line with the requirements ofteachers. So, we would appreciate your input. Feel free touse the feedback form (just click the ‘contact’ button) toprovide suggestions for improvement or to communicateyour experiences with the site.
And we’re not finished yet! The Irish version of thecorporate NCCA website is now online and a Curriculum inAction website is currently in the planning stages.Info@ncca will keep you posted about developments as theyoccur.
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When, as part of the second phase of theNCCA initiative in Assessment for Learning(AfL), we asked teachers to tell us whatwas the most important consideration inreporting to students and parents theyprioritised the following:
f Setting clear targets and showing progress
f Looking for the positive
f Reporting more fully and more frequently.
Not surprisingly, teachers agreed that parent/teachermeetings are more effective than term reports because theface-to-face contact allows them to convey messages thatare not easily captured in written reports – such as ‘how thestudent participates in class’, and to offer ‘the kinds ofcomments that will help students to improve their work’.Some teachers commented on the potential contribution ofparent-teacher meetings to a sense of shared endeavourbetween teacher and parent.
PTS meetings in practice
In the course of putting the feedback from teachers togetherwe discovered that two of the AfL schools, Jesus and MarySecondary School in Enniscrone, Co Sligo and GlanmireCommunity College in Cork, use parent/teacher/studentmeetings instead of the more conventional parent/teachermeetings. Naturally, we were keen to find out more.
Here’s what Sr Mary Kelly, Principal of Jesus and MarySecondary School in Enniscrone, had to say: ‘We have hadparent/teacher/student (PTS) meetings since January 2002.The impetus for the change came from staff discussionsduring our school development planning sessions. We hadbeen keen to see how we could involve parents more fully inthe school community and in supporting their children’slearning and we were anxious to make parent/teachermeetings more effective.’
How frequently do they happen?
The Enniscrone school runs PTS meetings once a year foreach year group, except for students in Leaving Certificatewho have two meetings during this, their final year inschool. In Glanmire Community College, which opened in1997, they have always had PTS meetings for all students.Like Enniscrone, they have two meetings per year for
Leaving Certificate students and also for students in theirJunior Certificate year. Importantly, both schools still offerparents the opportunity to have a one-to-one meeting witha teacher if and when the need arises.
Benefits for all
The benefits of the PTS system for teachers are many.Reporting on achievement is clearer, fuller, and moreimmediate.
‘Yes, having the student present ensuresthat he or she is more accountable fortheir progress (or lack of it) but that’snot the main thing. More importantly, theteacher gets an opportunity to praise thestudent, to highlight the progress he orshe has made, and in front of the parent,so there’s a positive reinforcement allround. There aren’t second-handmessages being relayed. It’s all in theopen, there’s greater clarity allround.’
(Teacher, Glanmire.)
Teachers also say that the PTS meeting makes a positiveimpact on the in-class behaviour of students and on theirattitude to work, their engagement and commitment.Sometimes a remark a teacher might make during themeeting will lead to a change in the learning behaviour of astudent, for example, the student showing a greaterwillingness to ask or answer questions in class. ‘This givesyou a better relationship with the students; they feel moresecure in the class because the meeting leaves no grey areas.Everyone is straight up about what is happening!’ (Teacher,Glanmire.)
In the important matter of supporting their children’slearning, there are benefits for parents, too. Having thestudent present during the meeting ensures that both theparent and child see more clearly what the teaching andlearning issues are. ‘If, as a parent, you learn from the meetingthat there are issues like homework or behaviour then you canaddress those and not be distracted by other things that mightnot be so important. You can be sure about the things you needto address, where you need to give more support and so on.’(Parent, Glanmire.) This feeling of being more sure about the key issues is of real value to the parents.
Finding commonground
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The parent / teacher /student meeting
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Something that might not occur to us immediately, but is abig plus for parents, is the fact that the PTS meetinglessens the anonymity of meeting teachers. ‘You don’t findyourself in a big hall or on a corridor wondering which teacheris which. Your child is with you and you feel somehow more athome or at ease in the school because of that.’ (Parent, Glanmire.)
The experience has been similarly positive for parents ofthe students in Enniscrone; in fact, there has been a 25%increase in participation by parents since the schoolchanged to this system.
Equally, there is considerable value for students. Themeetings afford them the opportunity to check on theirprogress in subjects in a one-to-one setting. As one of thestudents in Glanmire puts it: ‘Sometimes in class the teachergives general guidelines about what is important but in themeeting she is able to focus on your own strengths and onwhere you need to concentrate so as to improve. Just foryourself.’ This experience of personal attention and workreview is valued highly by the students who feel that itprovides them with a good opportunity to ask the rightquestions. Being present at the PTS meeting means thatthey get ‘the full message’ there and then, without its havingto be relayed by their parents. They feel that this makesdiscussions about schoolwork at home much moremeaningful. The students are also aware of getting more outof the meetings as they get older and more confident, moreaware of their progress and of their needs.
Reviewing progress
As mentioned earlier, both the Enniscrone and Glanmireschools have two meetings per year for students in theirLeaving Certificate year. The focus of the first meeting is toset out targets for the coming year and the second meetingreviews the student’s progress in the light of those targets.This is especially important if issues like study habits,organisation of work, what level an exam might be taken at,and so on, are raised in the first meeting.
Parents agree that the only disadvantage of this system isthat a student who is not working to his or her potential ismore likely to be confronted by the fact and yet, as oneparent from Glanmire put it, ‘that is not a disadvantage,really, because the discussion is more likely to bring aboutchange and it should ensure that it is not happening on acontinuous basis.’
Assessment for learning
From an assessment for learning point of view the systemhas obvious benefits.
f The focus of the meeting is on the student’s progress inlearning, not on generalised comments about ability orbehaviour.
f It gives the teacher an opportunity to set, share, andreview goals and targets for each student.
f It gives the student the opportunity to look for specific,focused feedback and direction from the teacher
f It means that the parents hear key messages abouttheir son or daughter’s progress (including those all-important words of praise and encouragement) withouthaving to relay the messages later.
As a parent from Glanmire Community College says: ‘It’seasier to find the common ground if all parties are presenttogether.’
We would like to thank Sr Mary Kelly, Principal of Jesusand Mary Secondary School, Enniscrone, Co Sligo, Mr JohnFitzgibbons, Principal of Glanmire Community College,Riverstown, Co Cork, and the teachers, parents andstudents from Glanmire for sharing their experiences andinsights with us.
If your school has PTS meetings we would be delighted tohear what your experience has been, or if you would like tocomment on this article, please feel free to contact us at:[email protected]
In the important matter ofsupporting their children’s learning,there are benefits for parents, too.
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2006 is another busy year for the NCCAEarly Childhood Team. We have three tasksin the year ahead, based on the manysuggestions and comments made by theearly childhood sector, including infantteachers, during the consultation on thedevelopment of a Framework for EarlyLearning in 2004. These tasks are:
f developing the content of the Framework for EarlyLearning
f completing a portraiture study in settings includinginfant classes
f writing background papers.
A key part of the team’s work at the moment involvespresenting children’s early learning and developmentthrough the Framework’s themes (well-being, identity andbelonging, communication, exploring and thinking) usingaims, goals and learning experiences. Our portraiture workwith children, teachers and parents in infant classes willhelp us to include lots of practical examples of how theaims and goals can be used by practitioners and teachersto support young children‘s learning and development.
The Framework for Early Learning will be completed byspring/summer 2007 after which it will be published and disseminated to early childhood settings, includinginfant classes.
More information on the Framework for Early Learning isavailable on the NCCA website at www.ncca.ie.
Profile: AnneMoloney
Education Officer,ICT Primary
Learning has always been a large part of AnneMoloney’s life. From herearly years in Co. Clarethrough to her current
position as education officer withthe NCCA, she has shown a deep interest in both
the academic and the practical aspects of teaching and learning.
The craft of teaching was studied at Limerick’s MaryImmaculate College, followed by a move to Dublin and2 years at an inner city school followed by a 15 yearstint at St Philip’s primary school in Clonsilla. Duringthis period she managed to fit in a Diploma inEducational Administration and an M.Ed from UCD, anda graduate Diploma in Business Studies andInformation Technology from Dublin Business School.
An active interest in change and the curriculumprompted a move to join the PCSP following the launchof the new curriculum in 1999. After a hectic but ‘veryinteresting’ year Anne decided it was time to dip a toeinto the commercial world and by doing so utilise allthree strands of her working life to date. So it was thatteaching, learning and ICT were brought together in thepost of Instructional Designer with elearning company,
Smartforce. The experience gained working in abusiness environment was an interesting change: ‘Ifound there was a big difference. As teachers we areeach accountable for our own work – we makedecisions and do things in our own way. In business,you are part of a process.’
Anne joined the NCCA in 2003 to work on ICT in theprimary curriculum and she was plunged ‘straight in atthe deep end’, working on the ICT guidelines whichcame out in March 2004. As can be expected from oneso committed, she has strong views on the place of ICTin children’s lives. ‘ICT is a normal part of life now forchildren, even before they start school, and isbecoming an increasingly useful tool for teachers.Teachers have a valuable role in helping children inschool to use ICT productively, creatively, confidentlyand safely in their learning. A big challenge for ICT inschools is using the Internet productively. We need toeducate children about the ethics and societalimplications of Internet use and how to use it andmobile technologies, for example, in terms of rightsand responsibilities. That kind of knowledge is farmore important than the ‘how to’s’.
There is always a danger with ICT that the technologybecomes more important and more intimidating thanits potential uses or, even, misuses. With people suchas Anne Moloney involved in working on the ICTframework for schools we can all be confident that aninformed and grounded perspective prevails.
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Do you introduce formalreading ‘as Gaeilge’ or inEnglish? Does your schoolhave a policy for introducinglanguage and literacy?These are questions that weare asking teachers as partof a consultation onlanguage and literacy inIrish-medium schools. Andthey are questions worthanswering as they providean opportunity to helpinform the development ofguidelines on policy andpractice in an area that ischaracterised by a widerange of approaches.
The groundwork for this consultationhas already been completed, as can beseen from the consultative documentavailable on our website which drawson two major pieces of work:descriptions of practice in schools anda review of research literature.
Descriptions of practice
In developing descriptions of practice,NCCA staff visited 6 Irish-mediumschools (3 Gaelscoileanna and 3 inGaeltacht areas) around the country togather information on practice in eachschool and to examine the rationalebehind the various practicesportrayed. We conducted semi-structured and focus group interviewsin each school and documented theopinions and experiences of children,teachers, parents and schoolmanagement. Practice in each school,we found, varies in relation to
f whether formal reading isintroduced first in Irish or inEnglish
f the extent and nature of theteaching of English in infant classes
f the approaches used.
Review of literature
The consultative document also drawson a review of national andinternational literature on approachesto language and literacy in varioustypes of settings in which two or morelanguages are embedded in the
culture. The review explores a numberof questions in the areas of
f curriculum planning,
f various types of immersion (thetypes of settings in which learnersreceive their education through themedium of a second language),
f language maintenance (howendangered languages are keptalive a language is maintained as aliving language of the community),
f parental involvement
f assessment and achievement
f professional development.
The next step in the process ofconsultation requires the participation ofteachers in Irish-medium schools. Weare asking you to study the consultativedocument on our website (www.ncca.ie)and contribute your views and ideaseither through our online survey or bysubmitting a written response.
Once you’ve had your say, the findingsfrom this consultation will inform ouradvice to the Minister for Educationand Science on this issue and, asalready stated, will also inform thedevelopment of guidelines onlanguage and literacy in Irish-mediumprimary schools. Whether you areinterested in becoming part of thisprocess or just interested in theprocess itself, visit our website atwww.ncca.ie for full details.
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Language and literacy
What’shappening inIrish-mediumschools?
Contribute yourviews and ideaseither through ouronline survey or bysubmitting awritten response.
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The What, Why and How of Children’sLearning in Primary School is a DVD forparents about the Primary SchoolCurriculum. It was launched recently andall parents of primary school childrenthroughout the country have been receivingtheir free copies. Copies for teachers havebeen included in each school pack, becausewe know that you will find this resourceuseful in communicating with parents ofchildren in your classroom.
What is this DVD about?
The What, Why and How of Children’s Learning inPrimary School provides information for parents about
what children learn in school, why they learn with thecurriculum and how they learn through different teaching
methodologies. The introduction to the DVD highlights theimportant role of the parent in supporting the child’slearning. It provides an overview of the Primary SchoolCurriculum (content and methodologies) as well asinformation on assessment and homework.
By presenting the learning stories of five children at schooland at home, the DVD provides parents with insights into
children’s experiences with thePrimary School Curriculum.Lucy’s is the first story to beintroduced. She is two years oldand her story focuses on early learning in the home.Colm is 5 and his story focuses on learning in junior andsenior infants. Courtney (age 7) shares her experience oflearning in first and second class, Seán (age 9) presentslearning in third and fourth class and Abeeha who is 11introduces learning in fifth and sixth class. Through thestories of these five children, the DVD shows how parentscan support their child’s learning in preparation for primaryschool, during primary school, and in preparation for post-primary school.
How will the DVD help the parents ofchildren in my class?
The NCCA’s Primary Curriculum Review, Phase 1 (2005) andsubsequent consultation with parents highlighted a criticalissue with regard to children’s learning. In order toeffectively prepare children for primary school and tosupport their learning in school, parents told us theyneeded much more detailed advice and direction. The DVDresponds to this need by giving parents a ‘fly on the wall’view of learning in real homes and real classrooms, therebydemystifying their child’s school experience. In anentertaining and engaging way, it offers advice to parentson how they can support their child’s learning in practicalways at home. It provides answers to many of the questionsparents have about their child’s learning with thecurriculum. Most importantly, it emphasises theimportance of the parent’s role in helping children tosucceed in learning.
Why a DVD?
Using DVD as the medium forour message has enabled usto reach a more diverseparent audience in 2006 thanthe NCCA booklet for parents,‘Your child’s learning’ did in2000. With a menu choice of five languages (English,Gaeilge, French, Lithuanian, Polish) parents of manycultural backgrounds are catered for and there is also anoption to view subtitles in English while watching thedifferent language versions. Furthermore, the menu optionsallow parents to choose to watch the whole DVD at once, orto watch it over time in sections.
DVD for parents
Nobody knows a child like its parent and if we wantthe children in our school to do well we need thesupport of their parents to achieve that.Mary: School Principal
I love doing Irish, I do!Second class child
The What, Why and How of Children’sLearning in Primary School
I find the best way that I canlearn is working in groupsand discussing stuff Fifth class child
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How will theDVD help me inmy work as ateacher?
While the DVD wasdesigned for parents, itis also a valuableresource for teachers in
sharing information about how the curriculum is organisedin your classroom and school. Because it is interactive, you
can use the child’s story for your class level to provideinformation to parents and to prompt discussion about howparents can support the learning in your class. Similarly, youmight wish to use the introduction, which provides anoverview of the Primary School Curriculum, to stimulatediscussion with parents about different issues related tolearning with the curriculum. It’s up to you how you choose touse the DVD and we look forward to hearing about yourexperiences with it.
More tocome….
To supportschools in usingthe DVD with parents, the NCCA has preparedtemplates for primary schools that provideinformation about learning with the curriculum ateach of the four class levels. The templates will bepresented in a booklet for schools, and published on theNCCA website: www.ncca.ie. Schools can download andcustomise this booklet by adding relevant school details,e.g., by inserting the school name, crest or logo on thecover page. We hope these templates are a useful resource
for you and your colleagues as you communicate with parentsduring the school year.
Míle Buíochas
Many people contributed tothe production of The What, Whyand How of Children’s Learning inPrimary School. The NCCA would liketo take this opportunity to especially thank the principals,teachers, parents and children who made this DVDpossible. They opened their schools and homes to us andallowed us to capture engaging glimpses of how childrenare supported in their learning, by teachers and parents.We hope you enjoy the DVD and we look forward to hearingyour views.
If you would like to share your experiences in using theDVD, please email us at: [email protected]
When you sit with your kids…and give them an hour or evena half-hour and the things thatyou can get them to do and theway they learn from it… Theythink it’s great!Helen: Parent
When the parent is interested thechild is going to be interested.Maeve: Teacher
I feel proud of her andnot just proud. I feelhappy as well that she’sgoing on the right trackfor the future and for the bestTariq: parent
Ask teachers which year group in juniorcycle is the most difficult andchallenging to teach and most willanswer, second years! With theinnocence of first year behind them,second years begin to challenge thesystem. We blame it on adolescence oron the lack of an exam focus, or on oneof a number of other reasons. But weseldom find out what it’s like to be asecond year. Well, that’s what ESRIresearchers did recently when, as onepart of a major study commissioned bythe NCCA, they asked over 900 studentsin 12 Irish schools to tell them just that– what school life looks like through theeyes of second year students.
The findings of this part of the study give us a uniqueinsight into what second years think about school, about thesubjects they like and dislike, what helps them to learn,how they get on with and relate to their teachers, and howthey feel about themselves. We don’t look to this part of theresearch study for definitive answers, but what it does do israise some very interesting and quite thorny issues! So readon – and find out what some of our students think…
…about school
First, the good news! The majority of second years say theylike school, get on well with teachers, work hard, andparticipate fully in school life. Girls, especially those fromprofessional backgrounds and those with higher academicability, are in the majority here. But there is a minority who
Theexperiencesof secondyearstudents
The majority of secondyears say they like school,get on well with teachers,work hard, and participatefully in school life.
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Caught in the middle
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tell a different story. They don’t get on so well with theirteachers; they misbehave and ‘get given out to’ more often;they see themselves as drifting and even as beginning theprocess of disengaging from school life altogether. Toooften these ‘drifters’ are boys, and those with loweracademic ability levels. In fact, these two groupings, withtheir different experiences and expectations of school,appear again and again in the findings of the ESRI study.Not so surprising, you might think…but what about thisone? Students generally become less positive about schoolas time progresses - in fact, the proportion of students whofind schoolwork interesting falls from 50% at the start offirst year to a low of 20% by the end of second year.
…about the subjects they take
Students report that they like subjects where the learning isorganised in an active, project-like way, subjects like art, thetechnology subjects, home economics, PE, music. They areless keen on Irish, French, German, mathematics, businessstudies, history and geography. The ‘active’ subjects are evenmore important to that second, disengaged, grouping. Sowhy is it, as the study shows, that students in this group haveless access to subjects with a practical focus than their moreacademically able peers? The study also found that studentswho had restricted subject choice and who regretted takingsome subjects had significantly more negative feelings aboutschool and their teachers than other groups of students.
…about teaching
So, what makes a good teacher? Few surprises here really.According to our second years the good teacher is someonewho:
f explains things well
f enjoys teaching
f students can talk to
f has a good sense of humour.
Other qualities the students value are ‘encouragesquestions’, ‘gives praise’, ‘doesn’t give out all the time’‘keeps order’, and ‘relates the subject to life’.
…about learning
Students were asked about the kinds of lessons in which theylearn most. They said it was in classes where the teacherexplains things very well, where they (the students) like thesubject, and are good at it. Practical activities likediscussions, working in a group, or where the teacher makesthe subject more interesting by using different teaching stylesrather than just working through the textbook, were all seenas helping them to learn. Here’s what one student had to sayon the matter: ‘And you’d learn a lot as well…we did a wholeactivity on, like, learning these French verbs or something andeveryone knows them now…everyone learnt them and we didn’teven try to, it was just a game really.’
…about streaming
Although the research findings about the subject ofstreaming are in general pretty negative, they raise one of
those particularly thorny questions: what does streamingactually do for the students who end up in the lowerstreams? The immediate answer is: it keeps them there. Theexperience for students who are placed in lower streams asearly as first year in post-primary school is that they remainin lower streams through junior cycle and that they take theirexamination subjects at ordinary or foundation levels. This, ofcourse, is highly predictive of the levels at which they willtake their subjects for Leaving Certificate, assuming theystay on that long in school. But the most negative aspect ofthis is that the students themselves are keenly aware of thispattern. And this extends to their attitudes to homework andstudy. Students who rate themselves ‘above average’ spendmost time on homework per night (95 minutes), whilestudents who rate themselves ‘below average’ spend least(60 minutes). In streamed schools, which do the ‘rating’ forthe students, many students in the bottom streams reportedthat they got no homework as they would not do it anyway!
...about study and exams
The attitudes of second year students to study and tests canappear almost contradictory at times, and peer pressureseems to exert a strong influence on those attitudes. Whilethey generally think it is a good idea to study, most studentssay they do not study, and pretend they haven’t studied eventhough they have. This seems to be because they are afraidthey will be teased for studying and don’t want others toknow in case they do badly. It seems all right to appear‘naturally clever’, but it’s not cool to study!
How to get the best out of second years
The study shows that the type of interaction students havewith teachers and the school is one of the strongestinfluences on how they get on in second year. Students whohave experienced positive interaction with teachers have amore positive self-image, both academic and social. Theopposite is the case for students who have experiencednegative interaction with their teachers. They are also morelikely to become disengaged from learning and from schoollife. They have lower academic aspirations, miss moreschool and are more likely to leave school before or afterthe Junior Certificate.
However, where the climate of the school and theatmosphere of the classroom is positive, students are morelikely to enjoy school and to like teachers. They are likely tobe more engaged in their study, have higher academicaspirations and are less likely to misbehave. What morecould we ask for!
This article is based on Pathways through Junior Cycle: theexperiences of second year students, by Emer Smyth, AllisonDunne, Selina McCoy and Merike Darmody, ESRI. A summaryof the findings is available free of charge from www.ncca.ie.
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Students report that theylike subjects where thelearning is organised in anactive, project-like way.
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Very shortly, that time of year will comearound when you start preparing your end-of-year reports. The exercise may promotereflection on the strengths and weaknessesof the particular format used in yourschool. In which case, it may be a comfortto know that the NCCA has also been givingthe issue of helping primary schoolteachers report children’s progress toparents some thought, and has begun todevelop Report Card Templates, whichschools can modify for their own use.
As a first step in this work, we have been investigating howschools in other countries report children’s progress toparents by asking:
f What information is included in reports?
f How is children’s progress described in reports?
f How often do parents receive reports?
f How are parents and children involved?
We asked these questions of 11 countries, includingAustralia (Queensland), Canada (British Columbia), Finland,Germany, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern
Ireland, Scotland, Spain and Sweden. We found that thecontent of reports is similar across countries, but the waychildren’s progress is presented varies considerably.Reports are typically issued in conjunction withparent/teacher meetings and in some countries childrenthemselves are included in the reporting process. Thenumber of reports issued by schools each year also varies.
What information is included in reports?
In most countries, the report gives two types of information- information on the child’s progress in curriculum subjectsor areas of learning, and information on the child’s learningstrengths and weaknesses. Some reports also comment onthe child’s learning dispositions e.g. motivation, thinkingskills, work habits and on the child’s personal and socialdevelopment e.g. play, behaviour, personal care. Educationauthorities in some countries specify what a report mustcontain. For example, British Columbia requires statementsabout what a child is able to do, about areas of learning thatrequire further attention or development, and about waysthe teacher and parents can support the child’s learningneeds. In other countries, the school must includeminimum information. For example, in England and Walesthe report must provide information on
f achievements in all subjects
f general progress
f attendance
f results of National Curriculum tests.
The school can decide what additional information is to beincluded on the report card. Schools decide the format andlayout of their own report cards in most of the countriessurveyed.
How is children’s progress described inreports?
Most countries use outcomes rather than norms to reporton the child’s learning. In other words, teachers compare achild’s progress with expected standards, rather than withprogress made by other children. Teachers use levels (e.g.Northern Ireland, England and Wales) to show the progressthe child has made. In Northern Ireland, levels of 1 to 5 arereported for the child’s progress in literacy, numeracy andICT. In Year 4, a child’s work in mathematics is consideredcompetent at Level 2; in Year 6, work at Level 4 would beconsidered competent. A child’s progress towards these
School Reports
“His grades are falling. Must be hangingout with the wrong crowd.”
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How do primary schools in other countries report progress?
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levels is cumulative and is achieved over the seven years ofprimary school.
In some countries (e.g. Sweden, New Zealand and Finland)teachers use comments to report on young children’slearning. Grades are added to these comments from aroundmiddle primary onwards. Reports in many countries alsoinclude the results of standardised tests, usually in literacyand numeracy.
How often do parents receive reports?
In most of the countries surveyed, schools provide parentswith two or three reports during each school year. BritishColumbia is the exception with five reports in one schoolyear! Countries that issue two reports (such as Scotland)provide an interim report with a formative emphasis (i.e.aiming to help the child’s learning in the remainder of theyear) and an end-of-year summative report (i.e. telling howthe child has achieved across the term or year). Reportscan be oral or written. Teachers usually meet parents todiscuss the report’s contents. This meeting also givesteachers and parents a chance to share other informationabout the child’s learning.
How are parents and children involved?
In most of the countries surveyed, reports provide advice forparents on how to support their child’s learning. In somecountries (e.g. Australia, New Zealand and Scotland)additional support for parents is provided through websitespublished by the education ministry or department.Samples of children’s work are published on the websitesto show parents what children do in school.
Children are involved in developing reports in somecountries (e.g. Northern Ireland and Scotland). Here,children are invited to contribute information to the reportbefore it issues to their parents. Their input (in writing ordrawing) focuses on how they see themselves as learners.The decision on whether or not to involve children inparent-teacher meetings is made by the individual school inmost countries surveyed.
How is the NCCA using this information?
This information on how schools in other countries reportchildren’s learning is a useful starting point for the NCCA indeveloping Report Card Templates which schools canmodify for their own use. The Primary Assessment Team isalso tapping into the success of the Assessment for Learning(AfL) initiative in post-primary schools (see issue one ofinfo@ncca) in working with schools to develop thetemplates.
The Report Card Templates can only come to life in thehands of principals and teachers and in the context of veryreal classrooms, with children and parents. Theassessment team will begin working with schools duringthe 2006-07 school year to ensure that the Report CardTemplates are as practical and useful as possible forteachers and for parents. If you are interested inparticipating in this work, or if you would like furtherinformation, please contact us at: [email protected]
Further information on the NCCA’s assessment work isavailable on our website, at www.ncca.ie.
Schools decide the formatand layout of their ownreport cards in most ofthe countries surveyed.
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Are students learning what they need tolearn to prepare them for life after school?More importantly, does the way that theylearn provide them with the skills and toolsthey need for their future as learners?
Students, teachers and parents had much to say about whatand how students learn during the review of senior cycle.Many commented on the influence of the Leaving CertificateExamination on what happens in senior cycle classrooms.The general thrust of the comments can be captured througha few quotations from the online survey (NCCA, 2004):
…The senior cycle must move away from a systemwhere recall is dominant and must adapt to a systemwhere critical thinking and understanding holds moreprecedence. (Teacher)
…students need to learn for understanding and not justfor exams. I feel this is at the heart of theunsuccessfulness of the current system, and affectsnot only what and how pupils learn but also what andhow teachers teach. (Student)
Students are too young to specialise, life intervenesand students should learn that they can changedirection at any time in their lives. An attitude oflifelong learning should be instilled… (Parent)
What teachers, parents and students have been saying isthat senior cycle students need to develop their learning ina number of ways. They need to develop:
f cognitive learning in terms of higher order thinking
f skills that will be useful to them in their ability toaccess and manage learning in the future
f motivation and personal values about learning
f the ability to learn independently and the capacity towork with others.
These views are also supported by debates in othercountries. A recent OECD report argued that
…coping with today’s challenges calls for betterdevelopment of individuals’ abilities to tackle complexmental tasks, going well beyond the basic reproductionof accumulated knowledge.
Approaches to improving learning atsenior cycle
Much of the emphasis in the current developments atsenior cycle is on improving how students learn. This willhappen in a number of ways.
f Key skills, which emphasise the skills and attitudes thatstudents and teachers are looking for, will be developedthrough all the subjects, short courses and transitionunits.
f Teaching and learning methodologies will supportstudents in becoming more responsible for their ownlearning.
f There will be a greater variety of assessment methodsthat will encourage the development of a greater varietyof skills.
In this issue we focus on work in progress on key skills andhow it is proposed they will be developed in the first phaseof subject review, short courses and transition units. Watchout for further updates in forthcoming issues.
Key skills - work in progress
We are currently working on five key skills and each onewill contribute to a new culture of learning through all thesubjects, short courses and transition units. As existingsubjects are being reviewed and new subjects, shortcourses and transition units are developed, elements of thekey skills will be built into the learning outcomes for each.
Information-processing – will help students become moreeffective learners in an information-intensive environmentand will include the skills of accessing, selecting,evaluating and recording information.
Critical and creative thinking – will help students be moreaware of different forms and patterns of thinking so thatthey can become more skilled in higher order reasoningand problem solving.
Communicating – will help students become bettercommunicators, using a variety of media, and to recognisehow communication methods influence their ownunderstanding and knowledge. Specific skills includereading, expressing opinions, writing, making oralpresentations, analysing visual forms and so on.
Developinglearning
“
”
Improving what andhow students learnat senior cycle
(The DeSeCo Project, Executive Summary, 30 June, 2005) www.oecd.org/edu/statistics/deseco
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Working with others – will highlight the role that workingwith others has for learning and for achieving both collectiveand personal goals. Students will gain some appreciation ofthe dynamics of groups and the social skills needed toengage in collaborative work.
Being personally effective – will help students develop aspersons, become more self-aware, and to use that knowledgeto develop personal goals and action plans.
How the skills contributeto the development ofa successful learner
As students become skilful inthe five key skills as well asthrough their learning insubjects and short coursesthey will develop a growingknowledge about learning ingeneral and their ownlearning in particular.Students will develop beliefs
about learning, learning strategies, the capacity to bereflective, to make connections across learning, and awillingness to engage in new learning situations.
Phase one begins
Work is now underway on the Phase One developments.The subjects listed will be reviewed over the next year to
eighteen months. New subjects will be developedover the same time period, as will short
courses. The first transition units will beready by the end of 2006. This work will
include the embedding of the keyskills, reduction of content where
necessary, development of learningoutcomes, advice on assessmentcomponents and teaching andlearning methodologies.
Updates will be available on theSenior Cycle Review section of
the NCCA website, atwww.ncca.ie.
Phase one curriculum componentsSubjects to bereviewed
Mathematics
Applied Mathematics
Irish
English
Modern languages
Biology
Chemistry
Physics
New subjects
Social and Political Education
Physical Education
Short courses
Enterprise
Media andCommunicationTechnology
Mathematicalapplications
Course/courses in theArts/Humanities area
Transition Units (some examples)
Genetics andBiotechnology
Classical Studies
Performance Arts
Sociology of Reality TV
Meteorology
Sports
Science
Legal Science
Craft Design andTechnology
Irish Cultural Studies
Otherdevelopments
Social, Personaland HealthEducation
Physical EducationFramework
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If you were following the NCCA’s PrimaryCurriculum Review over the last year ortwo, you’d be forgiven for thinking we hadalready finished the entire review! Not so,but thanks to the collaboration of teachersand principals, children and parents, wemade a great start.
The first phase gathered information about yourexperiences with three curriculum subjects: English, visualarts and mathematics during the 2003/2004 school year.Our findings were published in a report on the NCCAwebsite in May 2005, and in a summary booklet whichincluded information from the Inspectorate’s evaluation ofthe same three subjects, in October 2005.
Since the completion of phase one, we’ve been busyresponding to the four issues identified in the review:
f developing Additional Support Material for the EnglishCurriculum on the structure of the English Curriculum(disseminated to teachers in Winter 2005)
f developing a DVD for parents on The What, Why and Howof Children’s Learning in the Primary School (recentlydisseminated to parents and schools)
f continuing our work in developing advice for teachers onassessment in primary schools
f developing the NCCA website to include advice onteaching methodologies (e.g., including teaching multi-class settings, differentiation, etc.).
We’re now preparing for the second phase of the review.This involves gathering information from teachers andothers on the Gaeilge Curriculum, Science Curriculum andthe Social Personal and Health Education (SPHE)Curriculum during the 2006/2007 school year. As before,we’re developing Review and reflection templates forteachers to prompt your thinking about your successes,challenges and priorities in teaching these three subjects.These review templates will be available on our website inSeptember. In the meantime, if you would like to share yourexperiences with the curriculum for Gaeilge, Science or forSPHE with the NCCA team, we very much welcome yourviews. You can email us at: [email protected]
Primary Curriculum review
Profile: Sheila Nunan
Member of NationalCouncil forCurriculum andAssessment andChairperson ofPrimary LanguagesCommittee.
EducationA native of Newbridge, Co. Kildare, my primary and post-primary education took place in my home town. Havingstudied for a B. Social Science degree in UCD, I latercompleted a postgraduate Diploma in Special EducationNeeds in St. Patrick’s College in Drumcondra.
WorkMy first job as a visiting teacher for young travellers wasinnovative at the time and I was able to define and developthe role for myself. The experience led me to understandthe challenges for children and parents of a differentcultural background becoming integrated into mainstreameducation. The experience of schools in facilitating thisintegration was also informative.
My current position as President of the INTO involves aninteresting and varied brief. I chair the many committees ofthe INTO and I also represent members in the DES andother bodies. In December 2005, I was elected GeneralTreasurer/Deputy General Secretary of the INTO and I lookforward to taking up this position in May of this year.
NCCA RoleIn 1995, I joined the NCCA primary co-ordinating committeewho were undertaking the review of the primarycurriculum. From 2003, I represented the INTO on theNCCA Council. The primary work of Council is to approvethe different documents produced by the NCCA. In myopinion, Council also acts as a valuable sounding board forthe discussion of these documents at their draft stages. Itis a fantastic opportunity to be part of the lively debatesthat happen in relation to the different curricular initiativesfrom early childhood education to the completion of seniorcycle. It leads, I believe, to more joined-up thinking aboutprimary and post-primary education
Looking forwardI think it is important that we continue to be vigilant aboutthe impact of developments in curriculum and assessmenton the reality of teaching and learning in the classroom.Teachers are coping with many demands including anincreasingly multicultural classroom and the inclusion ofchildren with special education needs. It is important thatsupport for teachers continues to enable them to cover allaspects of the curriculum.
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The National Framework ofQualifications has been in place sinceOctober 2003. Its purpose is to offer aframework through which all learningachievements can be easily comparedand valued. The framework nowincludes the vast majority of educationand training qualifications or awardsin Ireland. It includes awards currentlygained in schools, the workplace, thecommunity, in training centres and incolleges and universities. It alsoincludes those from the past that areno longer available. It is likely that allfuture awards will be developed withthe idea of inclusion on the frameworkin mind.
What is the framework?
It has 10 levels. Level 1 relates to a basiclevel of learning. It includes the abilityto learn under supervision, to take ininformation and use basic repetitiveskills. It also includes skills in basicliteracy and numeracy. Compare thiswith Level 10 wherelearners areexpectedto beable
to discover and develop new knowledgeand skills and where the skills requiredare highly specialised and can betransferred from one task to anothervery different one. From thesedescriptions you can see that each levelis described in terms of
f the knowledge learners need tohave
f the know-how and skill they needto be able to demonstrate
f the competence they need toabsorb and apply to all theirlearning.
National QualificationsAuthority of Ireland
Since 2003 the National QualificationsAuthority of Ireland (NQAI), who haveresponsibility for development andimplementation, have led the process ofplacing Irish awards on the framework.The school awards were placedbetween levels 3 and 5. The Junior
Certificate was placed at Level 3,while the Leaving Certificate,
including the LCVP andLeaving Certificate
Applied, was placedat Levels 4 and 5.
The placing ofthe LeavingCertificateacross twolevels
reflected the wide range of learningoutcomes included in the various seniorcycle programmes. At this time, thereare no formal awards associated withprimary education.
Legacy awards
In 2004 attention turned to older legacyschool awards and where they wouldbe placed on the framework. These arethe awards gained through schools inthe past but which have beendiscontinued. The old PrimaryCertificate was placed at Level 2 of theframework. The Group Certificate andthe Intermediate Certificate, whichwere combined in the late 1980’s tobecome the Junior Certificate, wereplaced, like the Junior Certificate, atLevel 3. The fact that these awards arenow included on the framework meansthat the learning achievements of thosewho gained these qualifications in thepast are fully recognised. Theirachievement can also be easilycompared with existing school awards.
Focus on the future
Review and development of theframework will continue in thefollowing contexts:
f The position of existing awardswill be kept under review e.g.whether achievement at differentlevels or grades in LeavingCertificate subjects should bereflected by differing placement onthe framework.
f Agreement will have to be arrivedat about where any new schoolqualifications or awards (say,arising from changes to theLeaving Certificate in the future)are to be placed.
The NCCA is developing proposals on anew curriculum framework for studentswith general learning disabilities (aged12-16). This framework will derive fromthe Junior Certificate and will include abroad, balanced set of learningexperiences as well as opportunities todevelop personal, independent andliving skills during the final years ofcompulsory education. Over the pastyear, this work has involved the NCCAparticipating in a FETAC Working Groupinvestigating the nature of awards to bedeveloped at Levels 1 and 2 of theframework.
Qualificationsframework Recognising
learningachievements
Since 2003 the National QualificationsAuthority of Ireland (NQAI), who haveresponsibility for development andimplementation, have led the processof placing Irish awards on theQualifications Framework.
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The American wayUna Maher describes the ‘wonderfulexperience’ of teaching in Oregon
I got married in 1999and shortly afterwardsmy husband’s companyrelocated us toOregon, USA. Oregonis located on theNorthwestern coastand is a lovely place tolive, with storybookseasons (hot summers
and snow in the winter.) We live inHillsboro, which is approximately 70 milesfrom the beach and 70 miles from Mt. Hood,a wonderful ski resort. It’s a long way, inmany ways, from St Brigid’s NationalSchool in Tallaght, where I gained my firstfive years teaching experience alongside avery energetic and dedicated staff andwhere I learned a great deal.
I teach at St. Clare Catholic School in Portland. I taughtsecond grade for three years and currently teachkindergarten, which is the first year of formal education inthe US. One noticeable difference between here and Irelandis that a teacher becomes a particular ‘grade teacher’ hereand rarely will change during their career. My colleaguesfound it strange that we would change grade level yearlywithin the same school. I believe, however, that thismovement through the grades keeps a teacher fresh and isa good practice in Ireland.
St. Clare School (like most Catholic schools) is a private,fee-paying school. We have kindergarten to eighth gradewith one class per grade level. We have a learningspecialist primarily for testing and diagnosing learningdifficulties and then creating ILPs (individual learningplans) for students. President Bush’s No Child Left Behindpolicy puts emphasis on holding schools accountable fortheir teaching and students’ learning. The Learning
Specialist was hired as a direct result of this policy. Thirdthrough eighth grades undergo standardised testingannually; students are graded against their peers while theschool is ‘graded’ based on performance. These tests coverlanguage, arts and maths.
St. Clare School is a fully accredited school. The WesternAssociation of Schools and Colleges (WASC) is the bodyresponsible for accreditation; it has a dual purpose ofensuring that schools provide high quality learningopportunities while also requiring the schools todemonstrate continual self-improvement. Upon completiona school is graded and assigned a return date for theprocess to be repeated. St. Clare achieved the maximumscore for 6 years.
My day begins at 7:30am with children arriving at 8:05am. Iteach a morning and an afternoon class, each 3 hours long.Similar to many schools in Oregon we are changing and willoffer a full day kindergarten program beginning September2006. Our school also has gym, art and music specialists.Having these teachers gives the classroom teacheradditional time to prepare, a luxury most teachers inIreland don’t have. Our maximum class size is 28, resultingin 14 per group for kindergarten. It is a luxury working withsuch a small number of students and allows for much one-to-one teaching.
The kindergarten curriculum takes a child-centeredapproach. There are many student directed activities andplay is valued as an essential medium for learning anddiscovering. Although we have some workbooks, mostteaching in kindergarten takes an integrated approach, witha strong emphasis on language arts and mathematics. Thechildren dismiss at 3:05pm and I finish at 3:35pm. The end ofmy day is usually spent dismissing students, meeting withparents, preparing for the next day and finally updating ourschool website; each grade is responsible for their own page.
It is a wonderful experience to be able to teach in a differentcountry. Although the children have similar needs theycome from very different cultural and familial backgrounds.Parental support is very strong in this fee-paying school; itis a valuable asset.
Education in the USA
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English is the official language ofinstruction, although over sixmillion of the approximately 45million school-aged children do not speak English at home.
The SystemFacts and figures from INCA
National level
The responsibility for education in the United States ofAmerica is devolved to state/district level. At national levelhowever, the United States Congress enacts legislation whichimpacts on states, communities and schools. In addition,there are national education reform strategies which aresigned into law. These include President George W Bush's2002 No Child Left Behind Act. The bill includes provision for:
f increased statutory testing
f improvements for failing schools, e.g. extra funding,summer schools
f teacher training to provide ‘highly qualified teachers’
f increased spending on literacy programmes.
The 12 year goal is to improve the academic proficiency ofstudents who are poor, who speak limited English or whohave various disabilities.
State and local level
Each of the 50 states is responsible for education withintheir individual state. States formulate policies on theallocation of funds, the certification of teachers, textbooksand library services, and the provision of records andstatistics; some states also specify curricula. The operationof public schools is managed by some 16,000 local districts.District school boards collect taxes, construct buildings andhave, traditionally purchased equipment, determinedinstruction policy and employed teachers and other staff.
English is the official language of instruction although oversix million of the approximately 45 million school-agedchildren do not speak English at home.
Educational phases
The three principle phases in the education structure in theUnited States are as follows:
f pre-compulsory: pre-kindergarten and kindergarten,age 3-5/6.
f compulsory: elementary and high school, Grades 1 –8/9, age 5/6 – 16/18.
f post compulsory: high school, Grades 9 – 12, age 16 -18.
Certification
Compulsory schooling ends by law at ages 16, 17 or 18,depending on the particular state’s education legislation.Students who leave school when they have completed theircompulsory education are not considered to havecompleted school and do not receive a certificate.The final years of education necessary for graduation areprovided in high school, Grades 9 – 12. When studentscomplete their education (Grade 12), they receive a HighSchool Diploma which shows that they have successfully
graduated from secondary school. The senior high schoolcompletion rate is 92.6 per cent of those who enrol atsecondary level.
Special needs education
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), requiresthat, wherever possible, students with special educationalneeds are catered for in mainstream publicly-fundededucation in their local school district, in educational settingswith their peers. Students with more severe needs may becatered for in self-contained classrooms or specialprogrammes within a mainstream school or they may beplaced in special schools. State-funded education is providedfor all students with special needs until they reach age 21.
School year
Every state has a minimum school year requirement, acommon standard for which is 180 days. Each local districtboard decides their own schools’ schedules. Schools openfor a five day week with a school day of five to seven hours.
Curriculum and assessment
Most states have common guidelines for a core curriculumwhich generally includes the following subjects: languagearts (English/literacy), mathematics, social studies (whichcan include history, geography, literature, multiculturalism,ethics and values, religion, contemporary issues), science,health, music, art and physical education (PE).
In the early and middle stages of compulsory education,many states operate state assessment programmesspecifically designed for diagnostic purposes. Schools alsoparticipate in periodic large scale national testing, ie., theNational Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) inreading, writing, science and mathematics. Since the startof 2002-2003, schools are expected to test children inreading and mathematics in three Grade spans – Grades 3-5, Grades 6-9 and Grades 10-12. No Child Left Behindrequires the introducion of statutory annual testing for allstudents in Grades 3-8 (ages 8-14) in english reading andmathematics. It is expected that science will be added tothis compulsory list for annual testing in 2007 -08
In senior high school, students can volunteer to participatein national tests which are designed to assess students’suitability for entry into third level education. These testsinclude Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SATs), American CollegeTesting (ACT) and Advanced Placement (AP) examinations.
For further information about the American educationsystem: www.inca.org.uk
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As we approach the final furlong ofthis school year, I reflect on the highsand the lows of my experiences as asecond season novice teacher. Amongthe highs was Friday 13th (who said itwas unlucky?) January, during the firstweek back after Christmas when thebody clocks were desperatelystruggling to readjust to the earlymornings again. The thing that I hadliterally prayed for when I was atschool myself happened. The ESB hadto close down our school to mend acable fault and sent us all home. Oh,the cheers! The elation! (And thestudents were quite pleased too.)
At this stage, with four exam classes,I’m even dreaming of the Leaving Cert.I’ve actually become obsessed. Everything seems to bemetaphor for the Leaving. Take the racing pages… ‘Sustaininga lean spell, of the sort that strikes every stable from time totime, struggling to find their best form’. That’s my class! AndI’m the trainer who has to ‘rouse their phlegmatic souls tosuccess’. While I do have a few students who ‘have ground tomake up at this stage’, I also have a few students who ‘havecatapulted themselves back to the fore after an ineptbeginning’ and one ‘20 box stable full of such quality that evenVincent O’Brien might envy’ with quite a few ‘likely favourites’.
They have to have been talking about the mocks when theysaid, ‘any serious overview of the contest is shaped by therecognition that it provides a natural springboard to the Juneshowpiece’. As for me, I’m taking the advice that ‘the timingof preparation is absolutely crucial’ and it’s now my ‘absolutepriority to coax them all to the peak of form by the beginningof June’. I feel such an enormous responsibility, even havingheard phrases like ‘teaching to the exam’ said with utterdisdain throughout the HDip. At the end of the day, many
students’ hopes and dreams for theirfutures depend to a large extent onteachers like me teaching to the examas best we can.
It’s been an exciting year for us so farin Coláiste Bríde. We are in theenviable position of having recentlymoved into our beautiful new school.Nobody who isn’t a teacher couldpossibly understand the absolute joywith which I say the following. I havemy own classroom. Yes, all mine, fullof my posters, charts, and my studentswork. And that’s not all. The piece deresistance is … a cupboard. Yes, full ofmy books, dictionaries, folders,materials etc. Gone are the days ofcarting 20 LCA folders, with posters, a
box of art materials, roll book, chalk and all my other bits andpieces outside to a prefab… invariably in the rain! It’s glorious.
When I look back on this school year however, what standsout most of all is nothing to do with exams, syllabuses or ournew school, but a terrible tragedy that brought us all to astandstill. One of our lovely 5th year students was knockeddown in a hit and run accident and, though she battledbravely, Marsia lost her fight for life on the 22nd October.Dealing with the response to this tragedy really brought home to me that what we do is so much more than teaching.Teaching is the easy part. I think the caring and pastoral side of our job (and being a class tutor) is themost challenging, and the leastacknowledged. And so, as I hang up myrookie shoes, I salute you for it and wish youall a fun and fruitful final term! Hi ho Silver!
Aoife McArdle teaches English and Italianat Coláiste Bríde, Clondalkin, Dublin 22.
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Confessions of a rookie teacher
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