NZ school qualifications - review

There has been discussion for several years in NZ, on how to reform the NZ school qualification structure. There is already a high level review of NZ education system, signaled by the new Ministery of Education, with movement in the vocational education sector as summarised in my last blog.

One avenue explored is from this report by the NZ Initiative, titled "Spoiled by Choice".  The NZ initiative is a non-partisan 'think-tank' which is on the 'right' of the political spectrum. It seeks to promote competitive, open and dynamic economies and a free fair and cohesive society through uncovering policies and ideas.The report, provides a good overview and history of the National Certificate in Education (NCEA), which was introduced between 2002 and 2004. Both my children just missed the changeover and finished their secondary school just before NCEA began, so I was spared the angst of having to understand the 'new' system. The report details the promises and how some of these became challenges. One aspect being the process of 'credit harvesting' and the shift of teachers and students to 'teaching / learning for the assessment'. The report also proposes that NCEA has not lessened the socio-economic divide and that a 'one size fits all' system has been difficult.

Stuart Middleton, who has been a supporter of NCEA provides a summary In particular, he has always advocated the 'flexibility' inherent within NCEA to meet the needs of student who are 'non-academic' and seek a different pathway through school towards work or tertiary study which is vocational.

The main recommendations in the NZ Initiative report are:

Raise English and te reo and maths requirements

Expect a broader core of subjects

Reduce number of standards

Make it harder to teach to the test

Reduce reliance on internal assessment

Use comparative judgment software 
Commission independent analysis.

Another report which is connected is one commissioned by the Children's Commission in NZ. This report - titled "Education matters to me: key insights" provides for the student voice. A summary is provided through Stuff. In the report, there is a call to listen to students and to be cognisant of their needs. In particular, their individuality, what they bring with them to school, an end to racism and to 'teach me the way i learn best'. 

As any change in the school system impacts on tertiary education, it is important to keep up with what is happening. 

Youth Guarantees Scheme - NZ outcomes

A flurry of activity within the NZ Voc Ed Blogger community after a local media article reporting on the outcomes of the Youth Guarantee programme in NZ, published in August.

Details are summarised in powerpoint by David Earle and Tertiary Education Commission - TEC - summary sheet.

Youth Gaurantees is set up to provide free tertiary education to students 16 - 19 who are in danger of becoming NEETs (not in employment, education or training). As such, the funding has mainly been targeted at students who have dis-engaged from the formal school system. Programmes tend to revolve around providing learning to ensure literacy and numeracy foundations are established, often within situated learning environments - i.e. pre-trade / vocational pathway programmes.

The media snippet on TV1 news, sparking the blogging, was confused Youth Guarantees with apprenticeship :( leading to a mishmash of outcomes being reported which did not make much sense.

Stuart Middleton's latest blog covers some of the misconceptions and challenges related to helping young people find their feet in an educational systems still very much premised on preparing school leavers to move into further academic study.

This morning, more fuel added to the debate with an analysis of the types of NCEA (National Certificate of Educational Achievement) Level 2 subjects completed by students' ethnicities. The summary makes for important reading. Basically, academic subjects have low numbers of Maori and Pacifika students and when these students do undertake study in physics, chemistry etc. they are less likely to achieve. Completion of the 'vocational' subjects - hospitality etc. tends to be higher in the lower decile schools and with higher proportions of Maori and Pacifika students.

Quote from article:

Dr Aaron Wilson, the co-author of a University of Auckland paper about similar trends, said the fault was partially with the qualification design.

"NCEA's greatest strength and greatest weakness is it's flexibility," he said. "It can be used to recognise strengths and open doors, or pigeonhole kids and limit their pathways."

So, the conundrum is, how can the educational system work for all students, regardless of ethnicity and social economic status? Unfortunately, society still measures ones worth through 'intellectual' muscle. Never mind that 'vocational learning' can be just as complex. My example is coffee making. For the average person, making coffee using a domestic espresso machine can be fraught with variables. To get every cup of coffee the same, each and every time the machine is used, takes quite a bit of practice. One needs to learn how to 'read' the machine and match the machines function to the type of coffee being used. Frothing milk to the right consistency and temperature each and every time is another challenge! Yet, a learner who completes competency in coffee making is seen as 'less worthy' than someone who completes level 2 physics. 

Therefore, back to square one :( Vocational education's credibility and respect, as Stephen Billett argues, is really the prime objective. Until society as a whole, commits to respecting the parity of skill and knowledge, we will still be reading articles as produced over the last two weeks. NZ has set the framework with NCEA and the qualifications framework - to provide equivalency to all learning. However, there is still lots of work to bring the general populace to understanding the need to respect all forms of learning and contributions.

National tertiary learning and teaching conference - Day 3

Keynote from Dr. Peter Coolbear from Ako Aotearoa opens the last day of an interesting conference. Peter presents on 'supporting the success of priority learners - translating policy aspirations to enhancement of practice'. Covered the policy sitting, what the education performance. indicators are telling us, argue that teaching teams have a role to play and then some projects that hope to address some the issues. Alco Aotearoa working assumptions include working in a system that allows great teaching and learning to occur, we do not do enough to share good practice, we still allow mediocre performance, the system is fragmented and research still weak and has limited impact on practice. These views are shared by government. NZ has moved to greater public accountability from all public funded education. EPls tell us that course completion rates have plateaued at 80 -85%. Therefore, as tertiary teachers, maximising individual performance is no longer enough, focus needs to shift to whole teaching teams causing a significant culture change.  Teaching teams need better management, support and take responsibility for student success on their programmes. Suggested a traffic light model of assessing programme academic health based on principles of learner focus, outcome focus, learner support etc. and include accreditation, completions, academic standards, student evaluations, graduate destinations, equity pathways and community /Iwi involvement. Provided overview of how traffic light model may work for students, teaching team, managers, academic board and council. Related projects include: improving large class learning, using student evaluations to improve outcomes, model of success for Maori learners in workplace settings, success for Pacifika, adult refugee learners: effective responses and recent publications bringing themes together

Parallel sessions follow morning tea. I attend Iain Huddleston's on 'blended delivery gains student support'. Presented examples of changes made to delivery of an engineering course to improve students' learning experiences. Technology based resources were developed to enhance learning and a blended approach used. Group work and enquiry based learning used. Each week groups presented their learning qfrom week before and rest of class time put into exploring the next topic. A learning commons environment set up supported with WIFI, laptops and presentation facilities. Presentations are marked and count towards summative assessments. Review of topics through online quizzes and crosswords. Students develop research, presentation, team work and collaborative skills.

Last keynote with Dr. Stuart Middleton on 'teaching and learning: the Park momentos or 21st century'. Began with overview of how he arrived to the work he is now focused on. English speaking systems seem to all have similar challenges with equity and outcomes. Challenge is to address the schools system as vocational and higher works from the outcomes students bring with them. ITPs have to work with school systems to bring about change and interconnections so students are able to transition into programmes that will provide them with future prospects. Structures like curriculum, time, pastoral care, age related cohorts, sectors, programmes and delivery are things that need change. Transitions between various educational sectors has attrition. Proposed 2 sectors. MIT tertiary High School one way to integrate secondary and tertiary, leading to a seamless transition to allow students to complete multiple qualifications across sectors.

Conference closes with Poroporokai.

Overall, the range of presentations was good. A balance between reports from practitioner on their own teaching contexts and keynotes that set the tone and create forums for discussion. Always good to catch up with colleagues from other institutes to share ideas and brainstorm creative ways to do more with less in the staff development process.

Learning by failing

Stuart Middleton  blogged last week about his experiences as a ‘first generation’ university student and how he learnt from failing a his first year at university.

A good follow up to my reading of the furtureored blog where where were two postings on learning through failure and the role of failure in constructive learning.

The above blogs gave me some food for thought, as my experiences as a teacher of tutors, has brought home to me that some tutors are more empathetic with students. Especially if they had experienced some form of ‘failure’ at school. For instance, many of our trades tutors, ‘fell’ into an apprenticeship due to not completing school cert. while at school. So many of them have gone on to complete other academic endeavours, but their memory of not doing well at school, remains with them. For many of these tutors, using 'failure' to motivate young trades students to aspire to better results, is one strategy I have observed in trades teaching. Learning by making mistakes, is therefore a useful strategy, in a supported learning enviroment.

ITF Secondary – Tertiary transitions forum

The ITF NZ Secondary to Tertiary Forum ran was on 1^st October. Unfortunately, I had already committed to presenting at the National Teaching & Learning Conference at UCOL.  However, the efficient ITF has posted the power points of various presentations and I spend the morning catching up on the various presentations, which inform work I am doing on the ‘first year apprentices’ project.

First presentation was from Jeremy Baker ITF executive director, who called for a more structured form of information to be provided to school leavers, already overwhelmed by a plethora of career options and provided with a whole host of options while still at school to try out occupations/ careers while still at school. The ITF proposes a ‘sectoral pathways’ to try to make the information on transition from school to tertiary options and eventually to work, clearer. Sectors include university and other pathways, service industries, manufacture and technology, building and construction, primary industries and social and community services.

Next up, Stuart Middleton, as per his video advocating for the establishment of ‘tertiary academies’ presents the rationale on powerpoint, for the need for a new interface to with multiple pathways which requires interaction between schools and tertiary institutions, in the form of ‘tertiary high schools’.

The Post-primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) represented by Penney Dunckley, Peter Kemp and Sarah Dalton, present secondary schools / teachers viewpoints on youth guarantees, trade academies and qualifications and the need for better strategies to help young people get the most out of their education.

The a presentation on the proposed structure for the Christchurch based ‘trades academy’ – Canterbury Tertiary College, to be a joint Linwood College and Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT) partnership beginning 2011. A comprehensive series of slides on the consultation process and the types of certificates / programmes to be offered.

The government Career’s services/ Ruapara perspective was then offered by Susan Kosmala on ‘smart decisions, smart transitions’. There is a need to still improve on information to be provided to school leavers as over 40% of tertiary students decide to change courses or drop out due to enrolling in the wrong course! Career’s services is now offering multiple entry points to their web-based resources via various social networking sites.

All in, the above presentations represent the ‘state of play’ with regards to the various initiatives being undertaken to assist students with school to post-school options. As Stuart Middleton explained, NZ will have a growing number of 'non-traditional' students which schools and tertiary institutes will need to put effort into engaging / re-engaging.

ITP Trades Forum @ Weltec

At the ITP trades forum on Friday, held at Weltec in Petone, Wellington. This is an intermittent one day forum attended by tutors and managers from trades faculties/ schools throughout NZ. The forum was opened by convenor, Ken Whittle after welcome and housekeeping messages from Alan Peck (from Weltec) who was the convener/organiser of the forum. Ken provided some background on the history of trades training which was set up just over a hundred years ago in NZ. Message is of change as various political /social changes influence the way in which trades training is delivered.


First up, Peter Mellow on '21st century learners and Web 2.0 - implications for learners' with a focus on learning environments / learning spaces and role of teachers in setting up / bringing about change within trades teaching. Peter ran an interactive session supported with multimedia clips. He began with a warm up to start and provided opportunities for participants to work together on several feedback sessions. He ran through characteristics of 21st learners, how technology now connects people (not only young people), how elearning can help students assess learning where & when they need to. Many teachers at level 1/2 (competent but still need help) with technology, need to be at level 3 - automous explorer in order to make the most use of technology for teaching/learning - perhaps teachers as educational technologist/technological educators. Good, M. (2001)- in the book Teaching and Learning online: New pedgogies for new technologies.  On the way to online pedagogy. Learning spaces involve some lateral thinking. Whiteboards on all walls (Resene sells white board paint), whiteboards on tables, lecture chairs which turn 360 degrees etc. to assist with building learning communities which can then be continued after class either physically (whole campus learning space) or virtually. 'your primary influence is the environment you create' Peter Senge. Web 3.0 - semantic web, 3D AI driven, data driven, web 4.0 all about activity, not data. gotoweb20 is a website which collects web 2.0 sites. Used blogging as an example of using web 2.0 to enhance student learning and showed Seth Godlin/Tom Peters video on blogging - and openforum event. also covered wikis, podcasting (Pt England in NZ as an example & AUT Maori language on ipod/ipod touches), eporfolio (Mahara), microblogging (Twitter - flash cards or announcement system). Ends with encouragement to give it a go :)

After morning tea, my session on 'becoming a trades tutor - crossing identity boundaries' went well and touched a cord with several tutors who are new to the ITP sector and their roles as trades tutors.

Then Lee Baglow from Unitec on 'self - exploration - a fresh look at pre-trade auto education. Programme change driven by staff dissatisfaction with the current ways things were being done. Involves a 'living curricula' which involves complex conversation, curiosity etc. creative skills. Examples provided of how programme adapted with improvement in retention, completion rates and increase in staff:student ratio. Includes the use of Web 2.0 to create eportfolios. Begins with students obtaining gmail accounts, use google docs. as repository for learning resources which students use to access resources and templates for students to work through, tutors are able to mark and feedback. Material also available via class blogger site. Students issued with Dell netbooks but all information stored on the cloud. Also 8 HD JVC video players to increase access to video material/powerpoints etc. Students are encouraged to store to maintain a learning journa/eportfolio on Blogger.com. Flexibility in delivery allows students to lead their own learning and set individual learning goals. Tutors build capability by using youtube videos to teach them how to use google docs etc.

After lunch, Julia Bruce from Wintec presented on 'principle-based teaching practice' and encouraging students to live their dreams. Developing her own teaching philosophy was a key towards becoming a better teacher and also in helping her students learn better. Her presentation provided examples of teaching resources aligned to her teaching philosophy. She started things out with a 'speed dating' activity in order to get conversation going on how to bring about change in tutor's approach to change, being change agents and working in an environment which is continually changing. Strategies to bring about authentic and collaborative learning including the use of photo shoots to collect hairdressing students' work, production of 'newspaper' by groups of students on theory aspects of the course, presentations by groups of students on other students' work, review teams to revise concepts using group work & kinesthetic resources (play dough, paint, markers etc.). Online discussion groups also used to explore case studies based around customer relationships etc. students encouraged to use journal tool on Moodle to reflect on learning. Possibilities for hairdressing beyond local opened out by using comparative tasks. Quizzes on Moodle also used for revision. Web based books turned into ebooks which are accessible on ipod touches. Julia has a Ako Aotearoa funded project to build guidelines for hairdressing tutors to engage with online learning. Work experience and polytech salon/client days assist with the attitudinal/dispositional skills. Salon teams are used so that each 'salon' has a concept of ownership and sense of purpose. Second interactive session with groups working on individual tutors' approaches/philosophies to teaching followed by groups sharing their discussion. Good sharing and discussion ensued :) opportunities for feedback on the session or for further questions offered as the presentation completed.

Then Ken Whittle from EIT on the development of new trades facilities at EIT which replace facilities that were 35 years old. Design of the facility driven by 'the curriculum' and focused on future industry needs. Curriculum based on feedback from industry / employers for greater emphasis on employability skills (communication, lit/num, info tech. time management etc.) rather than just technical skills. There is an increase in use of flexible learning materials to allow for smaller class numbers and greater access to p/t students. Therefore facilities designed to allow flexible use of space, integration of practical/theory and technician support centralised. Professional development provided to staff to adapt to teaching in new learning environment and in project based learning. Change over in curriculum along with implementation of embedded lit/num has increased both outcomes and retention.

The last session of the day was with James Cannan from MIT on 'Tertiary High School' a concept which CPIT is also going to put in place in 2011. This is for students still at high school to attend courses usually offered at tertiary institutions, so not only trades subjects but also computer studies, horticulture etc. Presentation began with a video from Dr. Stuart Middleton who blogs on edtalk. He has been championing the concept of tertiary high school but is out of NZ and unable to present f2f. He introduced the 'leaking education pipeline' in NZ including 20% of students disappearing from education by age 16, 30.000 secondary truants a day!, 4,000 excluded from school, 85% of youths who present in the youth courts are not attending school on a regular basis. All sobering stats. This 'leak' presents social issues, disengagment, youth inactivity and skills shortages. Disengagement - physical (not in school), virtual (at school but no school quals) and unintended (good intentions, right move, but little or no success post school - esp. in first year of tertiary ed.). Tertiary high school have a programme at polytech offered collaborative with secondary schools. Students identified as having potential but likely to not complete at year 10 are targeted for the programme. Mix of polytech and school qualifications offered with high credit bearing activities based on NZ curriculum. Included with be the development of work and personal skills including the development fo personal pathway plan, literacy (lit/num/digital) support and structured self-directed activities. Year 1 to inform student choice and provide discipline foundation skills. years 2 - 4 in mainstream polytechnic programmes.

Forum clossed with last thoughts / summary from Ken Whittle. An interesting day which the ITP sector needs to continue organising. There does not seem to be any other forum, apart from specific trade groups, in which trades tutors are able to meet and share ideas.  Most other ITP conferences are focused on elearning or on general teaching & learning, so a specific forum, open to all trades tutors, should be considered for the future. In particular to allow innovative tutors to share their work and for tutors to network beyond their own specialist areas and teaching institutions.