Kerry Parker Curriculum Leader: Science The Correspondence School, NZ.

How to get our student to learn physics

rather than just gain credits

Kerry Parker Curriculum Leader: Science

The Correspondence School, NZ

You don’t feel that you have to be part of a sausage factory

That we gain useful ideas from each other Make contacts with people who can help us in

the future

Goals for this talk

How this talk began….

An invitation from the Cook Island Ministry of Education

Professional Development for Science teachers delivering NCEA….

How can we get our students to learn science rather than just

gain credits?

We have assessment systems

How to get our student to learn physics rather than just gain credits?

Who are they for?

Is it to measure student progress?

Are our assessments designed to sort out the clever kids?


Is it to evaluate the effectiveness of our teaching?

So we ‘make it simple’, we ‘get them ahead’, and we give them carrots and sticks.

We want our kids to do well


We end up spoon feeding


Fear of Failure

The fear of failure is more deadly than failure itself. The fear of failure paints so many imaginary scenarios which petrifies you and renders you immobile. http://www.boxingscene.com/motivation/26503.php


Intellectual dependency

Students lose sight of the purpose of school and learning

Knowledge is considered dispensable after it is used to secure a good grade.

Grade obsession

We want our students to do well and gain credit so our teaching is focussed on students gaining the standard◦ use pre-written tasks ◦ old and poorly written tests◦ many assessment events

Their issues /Our issues


Is this a problem for you?

What can you/we do about it?


So how does the permissive curriculum

affect this?


•World trends are towards less content


We may have a strange perspective

Rose Hipkins 2008


We’ve missed the whole point of education if students graduate from school still dependent on others to tell them that their answer are right, their products are adequate, or their behaviour is admirable.

Costa and Kallick in Assessing and Reporting on Habits of Mind, 2000

The ultimate purpose of assessment is to guide students to become self-managing, self-monitoring, self-modifying and self-assessing.


Remove fear of failure.

Build tasks into teaching programmes (not vice versa)

Get more appropriate and better-written tasks.

Build intrinsic motivation wherever possible

Focus on the curriculum goals, not the tasks.

http://www.echalk.co.uk/amusements/OpticalIllusions/wordInWord/doubleMeanings.html

We need to be able to answer the big questions:

Why are we teaching this stuff? What do our students really need? What do they really want? What learning styles will best suit them in

reaching these goals? Remember that NCEA is only an assessment

tool. Learning is our focus!

Before we start to use NCEA….


What do we want for our students?


1. Persisting

2. Thinking and communicating with clarity and precision

3. Managing impulsivity

4. Gathering data through all senses

5. Listening with understanding and empathy

6. Creating, imagining, innovating

7. Thinking flexibly

8. Responding with wonderment and awe

9. Thinking about thinking (metacognition)

10. Taking responsible risks

11. Striving for accuracy

12. Finding humor

13. Questioning and posing problems

14. Thinking interdependently

15. Applying past knowledge to new situations

16. Remaining open to continuous learning

Island Bay Primary

Look at standards and consider develop a programme which will meet your

students’ needs. Use carefully worded rubrics

With learning goals in mind…

At every stage it is important to use our peers for support• colleagues in school, • colleagues in other schools, advisors, • NZIP • NZQA NAFs and moderators• school-specific documents • NZC ……

Don’t go alone!

Think about what your students can do. • What sort of task should you use? • At what point in their learning programme will they

have reached the standard?• How much preparation do the students need to be

able to do it?• How much support will you be able to give them

while they are doing the task?Tasks must be valid and reliable, but you don’t have

to use closed-book tests. The goal is to assess whether the student is at

the standard.

Developing a task (1)

Peer Review.The task must allow students to provide

evidence that they have reached the standard

The task must offer M and E opportunities if the standard supports these.

Development of schedule: evidence statements and judgement statement – keep in draft while reviewing the task

Developing a task (2)

Prepare the students for the assessment – students need to be clear about what to do, but don’t make a meal of it. Plan thoughtfully.

The best preparation is good teaching and learning.

Preparing for the assessment

Stick to your assessment conditions – the golden rule is to ensure that the students are getting the opportunity to demonstrate whether they are at the standard or not.

During the assessment

• Marking :– Be clear about what the student has done with

regard to the standard– Allows teacher feedback which encourages

student reflection.– Emphasise the learning not just the credits!

• Grades must be checked through a rigorous peer-moderation process

After the assessment

Life is too short to be stuck in a sausage factory….

A sunny end in a beautiful place

Kerry Parker Curriculum Leader: Science The Correspondence School, NZ.

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