Participating and Contributing at the Rocky Shore Part 2

School: Owhiro Bay

Year Level: Year 5/6

Teacher: Colin Thompson

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’?

Questions 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.
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:

Owhiro Bay’s key competency is Participating and Contributing. Effective Teaching Strategies were weaved into the learning to enhance the participation and contribution. Through the pilot children used co-operative groups regularly and many Effective Teaching Strategies like share, pair, square and bus stops and one stay the rest stray.

This topic was proposed by the community because they felt the children from Owhiro Bay needed to learn about their own local environment. Initially we (teachers) had professional development from Victoria University to prepare us for the direction that we were taking and to increase our background knowledge base. For the children it was essential to build up their knowledge base so that they had enough background to make relevant and considered decisions and eventually take some action to enhance and sustain their community.

The Science focus was integrated into English with Information Reports. This enabled the children to display their findings in a coherent written manner.

The science learning sequence:

LI: To find out what lives in Owhiro Bay’s coastline

The children used brainstorms, donuts and finally a KWL to establish their prior knowledge about their local environment. They were not restricted to identifying Rocky Shore creatures; however that was the direction we ended up taking. The children identified many of the common creatures but were less than forthcoming with the less common creatures.

The children went for two visits to the Owhiro Bay rock pools. The first visit was where the children examined and held different creatures, with a lot of exploring of the rock pools.

The second visit was with DOC who discussed the new Marine Reserve. They also discussed habitats of many of the local creatures. The children also had a visit to the Island Bay Marine Education Centre. Whilst the children were able to view and touch many coastal creatures, the weather prevented us from visiting the Island Bay rocky shore with a local ‘expert’.

LI: to group/classify the different types of living organisms

The children were given access to books cds and the internet. In co-operative groups they set about discussing then grouping and classifying the different type of organisms. Their scientific vocabulary increased with the use of the different resources. They were also starting to make connections about the communities and not just thinking about creatures in isolation.

LI: to investigate the living organisms at Owhiro Bay Coastline

This Learning Intention provided more learning of knowledge, to enable the children to develop further links and understanding of the Owhiro Bay coastal communities.

LI: to select and investigate a living organism

Again the focus was to enhance the children’s knowledge, this time specifying a single creature at Owhiro Bay coast to analyse. This included the implications of their habitats, food and breeding. The children also touched on the environmental impact/situation of their creature.

LI: identifying that all creatures need certain things to stay alive

This LI started with what humans need to survive then the children transferred this knowledge to what plants and animals need to survive. This also introduced the adjustments required for tidal changes.

Results:

Outcome 1. Knowledge:

Number of students who were ...

8. Proficient experts - at start [0]; at end [0]
7. Beginning experts - at start [1]; at end [1]
6. Proficient practitioners - at start [0]; at end [2]
5. Beginning practitioners - at start [0]; at end [7]
4. Proficient apprentices - at start [2]; at end [4]
3. Beginning apprentices - at start [8]; at end [9]
2. Proficient novices - at start [8]; at end [1]
1. Beginning novices - at start [6]; at end [1]

Knowledge effect size = 0.56

Outcome 2. Competency:

Number of students who were ...

8. Proficient experts - at start [0]; at end [0]
7. Beginning experts - at start [0]; at end [2]
6. Proficient practitioners - at start [0]; at end [4]
5. Beginning practitioners - at start [4]; at end [7]
4. Proficient apprentices - at start [2]; at end [5]
3. Beginning apprentices - at start [8]; at end [4]
2. Proficient novices - at start [7]; at end [1]
1. Beginning novices - at start [4]; at end [2]

Competency effect size = 0.63

Conclusions:

This pilot was a big learning curve for us all. personally it was a little more difficult because I did not get the initial training at the beginning. We originally started off envisaging that our particular pilot would last up to one year. We changed this and significantly reduced our questions after some clarification. Through discussion we finally came to a workable understanding as to how to include our AtoL PD into the pilot. In retrospect the two dovetailed very well, however the initial overwhelming number of questions did cloud our perspective of both.

The use of Effective Teaching Strategies certainly enhanced the children’s participation and contribution. However, as I was relatively new to a lot of the strategies they were used tentatively. As the pilot went on I found that the success that the strategies produced encouraged me to use them more.