Participating and Contributing at the Rocky Shore Part 1

School: Owhiro Bay

Year Level: Year 1

Teacher: Deanne Daysh

Focus area: To investigate ways to improve student capability to participate and contribute including student ability to work cooperatively in a group.

Research Questions:

Question 1. Implementation:

Question for teachers:
How can teachers and students co-construct anticipated knowledge for the theme ‘Caring for Owhiro Bay’?Question for students:
- What do you know already about Owhiro Bay beach?
- What skills do you already have that might help you in this study ‘Caring for Owhiro Bay’ beach?
- What attitudes or virtues do you already use or know you will use in this study ‘Caring for Owhiro Bay’ beach?
- What do you (the students) think will come out of this study? ie: Outcomes or Learning intentions and success criteria?
- What do you (the students) think you will learn in our work on caring for Owhiro Bay beach? ie: Outcomes or Learning intentions and success criteria?
- What will you know at the end of the study?
- What new knowledge will you gain?
- What skills will you learn or practice by the end?

Question 2. Engagement:

Teacher Question:
How engaged are the students when they have decided on the knowledge outcomes for the theme ‘Caring for Owhiro Bay’?

Student Question:
What do you want to learn in our work on Caring for Owhiro Bay beach?

Question 3. Knowledge:

Teacher Question:
What is the growth of knowledge – beginning and end study?

Student Questions:
What have you learnt in this study ‘Caring for Owhiro Bay’?
What new or different skills have you used or developed in this study ‘Caring for Owhiro Bay’?

Success Criteria for Knowledge

Expert: Students will be able to ask "How good is my knowledge and what more do I need to find out?"
Practitioner: Students will be able to find out why there is not more life in the rock pools and at the beach at Owhiro Bay and use this knowledge to take action.
Apprentice: Students will be able to present what they have learnt back to someone.
Novice: Students will be able to find out about rock pools and the Owhiro Bay and the life in it.

Question 4. Competency:

Teacher Question:
What is the growth of student capability to Participate and Contribute in a group?

Success Criteria for Competency

Expert: The student knows and can explain their strengths and weaknesses, and knows what they need to do to improve their group skills.
"What do you need to do to improve?"
Practitioner: The student will use group skills and apply these in a range of contexts eg playground, classroom, sports field.
"How can you do this again?"
Apprentice: Students can engage in group activities and explain what this looks like and sounds like.
“What do you know about?” “What will I see/hear?”
Novice: Students can engage (take part) in group activities.

Learning Story:

Time frame: March – end of June 2008
- Beginning data was collected in week 7 Term one.
- End data was collected in Week 9 Term two.

Science is the main focus of study for Owhiro Bay School during this year. The school is involved in the Assess To Learn programme with a focus on Science. Our over riding question for the students is ...

“How can we care for Owhiro Bay?”
- During term one we focused on “ What lives in the Owhiro Bay environment?"
- During term two we focused on "How do things interact in the Owhiro Bay coastal environment?"

Year one – Deanne Daysh

The big question for our research was:

How can teachers and students co-construct anticipated knowledge that comes out of the theme ‘Caring for Owhiro Bay’.

We had a big list of questions that, at the beginning of our pilot action research project, we wanted to work on with the children. These questions are listed above in the Research questions section. However – after a short time- we realised that we had ‘bitten off more than we could chew’. It was obvious that we needed to refine the pilot down and to focus on just one aspect and on one or two questions. After gaining a better understanding of the science involved in identifying the creatures that live in the rock pools at Owhiro Bay and the local coast line we were able to refine our research down to focus on the following question for the students:

“What do you know already about what we may find at Owhiro Bay?” and
“What do you want to find out about?”

The students worked in cooperative groups (using a KWHL) to identify knowledge they already know they have about Owhiro Bay beach and what creatures or things they may find there. I adapted the KWHL for the year ones and focused on the K (What I know) and W (What I want to know) parts of it.

The students then drew pictures of what they thought they would find at the coast in the rock pools, on the beach and in the sea (to a depth up to their shoulders). The most of the local children spend a lot of time at the beach and so had good knowledge of what they thought they may find there. Students worked in cooperative groups to identify (draw on their prior knowledge) what they wanted to find out during the study – what they wanted to know? We wrote these down, displayed these on the wall in the classroom and continually referred to them during the study.

We went on two visits to the rock pools over the term. The first visit was to identify what there actually was down there. Where each of the creature’s habitats were (where they were to be found). Back at school we did lots of work identifying the things we found. Finding out their names, what they ate and where they lived e.g. in the rock pool, in the seaweed. We also had a visit to the Island Bay Marine Education Centre, from Dept of Fisheries (to talk about fish quotas) and a visit from DOC who accompanied us down to the beach to discuss the new Marine Reserve and the habitats of the creatures we found at the beach.

Initially there was an expectation that the students would self assess their engagement in learning – at the beginning of the study and again at the end of the study. Given the age of the students involved (five year olds) I adapted this assessment. The assessment became a teacher assessment of the student’s engagement. This was done by observing them working in cooperative groups. I recorded this on the Student engagement – Teacher reflection sheet. Both beginning and ending engagement assessments were done in this way. I then assessed where the students were on the knowledge and capability matrix during the study.

Results:

Outcome 1. Engagement:

SCALE: 1 = never, 2 = not very often, 3 = about half the time, 4 = often, 5 = always

Mean level of engagement of students ...

Offered ideas- at start 3.0; at end 3.3
Asked questions - at start 3.5; at end 3.5
Listened to and thought about other's ideas and responded respectfully - at start 1.6; at end 2.5
Used positive body language related to task - at start 3.7; at end 3.7
Persevered in order to enact related task - at start 1.9; at end 2.9
Showed evidence of being active learners outside school time - at start 2.3; at end 2.8
Showed interest in directing their own learning - at start 2.5; at end 2.8
Had behavioural issues that impacted on their learning - at start 1.3; at end 1.2
Show evidence of using what they have learnt - at start 1.2; at end 3.1

Outcome 2. Knowledge:

Number of students who were ...

4. Experts - at start 0; at end 0
3. Practitioners - at start 0; at end 0
2. Apprentices - at start 0; at end 8
1. Novices - at start 20; at end 12

Outcome 3. Competency:

Number of students who were ...

4. Experts - at start 0; at end 0
3. Practitioners - at start 0; at end 0
2. Apprentices - at start 0; at end 14
1. Novices - at start 20; at end 6

Conclusions:

Student excitement about the study of the Owhiro Bay coast and the rock pools there was great. There was lots of enthusiasm and it was excellent having a reasonably familiar and local topic as there was lots of prior knowledge that the children were able to bring. Some children demonstrated a good understanding of what they may find e.g. crabs, starfish while others did not e.g. a beaver, a poisonous crocodile.

They found it quite easy to identify the things they wished to find out about. This was then used as a base for observation on our trips to the beach and rock pools. The main thing the children were interested in finding out was what was there (who actually lived at Owhiro Bay beach) and who ate who. This was the main focus of our learning. Student engagement with learning was noticeably higher following our visits to the beach and the discussions involved in co-constructing what we were to learn. These visits and the discussions we had in our class contributed greatly to the co-construction of our study and were the primary reason for the increased engagement of the students.