A Curriculum Planning Tool For Teaching Climate Change

Sue Lyle outlines a curriculum planning tool for organising an approach to teaching and learning around environmental damage, the loss of bio=diversity and the forces in play in creating, and the obstacles to stopping, climate change

If Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship is to be embedded across the curriculum we need a plan. Since I began writing curriculum materials in 1985, I have researched and developed a curriculum planning tool that has proved helpful to teachers.

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      string(5660) "CreativeApproaches44Volume6.1nCreativeTeaching&LearningHave you solvedthe mystery ofliteracy across thecurriculum?Literacy across thecurriculum has been thesubject of increasingdiscussion since thegovernment white paperin 20111,with all teachers,no matter their specialistsubject area, now havingthe responsibility to embedliteracy in their schemes ofwork. Planning activities toconvey subject content yetpromote literacy is thereforean important skill all teachersneed to develop.One powerful tool forpromoting literacy acrossdifferent subject areas isMysteries – a collaborativelearning activity devisedby the Thinking ThroughGeography group in the 1990s.Mysteries recently enjoyedIt’s the role of all teachers to developliteracy, no matter their subject area. Couldlongstanding collaborative learning tool,Mysteries, be the solution? Sue Lyle exploresthe potential for developing listening, speaking,reading and writing with a Mystery for KS3science and geography.45Volume6.1nCreativeTeaching&LearningCreativeApproachesa digital upgrade, but the paper version isstill a valuable activity for any classroom,presenting opportunities for pupils to extendand consolidate their literacy skills whilestudying the content of subjects other thanEnglish.Mysteries can provide real cognitivechallenge to small collaborative groups, buttheir effectiveness relies on thorough planningand careful preparation of information for thestudents to sort.2 The Mystery featured in thisarticle has been carefully prepared to supportteachers in exploring the impact of intensiveanimal farming on climate change, and can belifted straight from the page to the Key Stage3 geography or science classroom.But first, what makes a Mystery, and howwill using it with your pupils help to strengthentheir higher-order literacy and learning skills?How do Mysteries improveliteracy?In Mysteries, pupils are given an open question,then a series of paper slips presentingstatements related to the overarching topic.These statements may be irrelevant, misleadingor contradictory, or they may provide valuableinformation – it’s up to the pupils to rank andreconcile the statements in order to come toa final, personal judgement.Skills of listening, speaking, reading andwriting are naturally built into Mysteries.For example, as the students work withthe statements, they have to listen to eachother and take account of others’ opinions.They must also talk together to suggestdifferent ways of organising and presentingthe information to support their response tothe Mystery’s question.Statement sorting of this kind is also a verygood way to promote reading. The languagewe associate with scientific or academicwriting often uses the third person and passivevoice – a style students often find difficult toaccess. Presenting the information in ‘bite-size’chunks on individual slips of paper helps tomake the text more accessible. Pupils shouldbe encouraged to support each other with thereading in order to make sense of it.The activity also requires pupils to makeinferences, and compare and contraststatements in order to classify them – vitalreading skills to develop, especially ahead ofGCSEs. Furthermore, as students read and re-read the statements to classify, find evidenceand identify connections and comparisons,they will come to see the different waysreading allows them to interpret information.This will help them to see how literacy can getthings done.During the sorting process, pupils shouldbe encouraged to make notes to help themorganise and develop their thinking. They willalso need to learn how to structure a logicalargument. At the end of the session, whenthey are called upon to effectively explain howthey came to their conclusion and support thiswith relevant evidence, how well the studentsdo will depend directly on how well they havegrouped and organised the paper slips.Developing higher-order thinkingskillsIn the process of listening, speaking, readingand writing, the students are also engaged ina wide range of higher order thinking skills.These include:n classificationn analysis of problems, events and argumentsn testing of hypothesesn speculationn inductive and deductive reasoningn the establishment of cause and effect.Mysteries always have a strong narrativethread linking the cognitive with the affectiveto engage students and enable them to exploreattitudes and values. As students considerissues from the different perspectives ofinterested parties represented through thestatements, they realise that evidence can beCreativeApproaches46Volume6.1nCreativeTeaching&Learningsubjected to different interpretations.Overall, Mysteries provide opportunities forexploring key issues in a way that promotespupil thinking, brings the content of real-world issues alive, and improves literacy.Furthermore, they can help pupils becomemore curious and reflective about importantissues facing society and also promotecollaborative learning.A Mystery for KS3 geography orscienceThe Mystery provided here examines modernfarming practices in animal rearing and itsimpact on the climate. Global warming is animportant environmental issue, which pupilshave most likely heard discussed in the media.It’s also a very controversial issue, whichwill no doubt increase their motivation andengagement.The activity links to the science curriculumfor 11 to 14-year-olds, which states that pupilsshould learn about the ‘production of carbondioxide by human activity and the impact onclimate’. It can also be used as part of thegeography curriculum related to economicactivity"
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Creative Teaching & Learning

Have you solved the mystery of literacy across the curriculum?

3 Dec 2015

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      string(366) "... see page 72), these websites will support you in your journey. If not,you will nevertheless find a great many tools and resources to bolsteryour teaching of such topics as energy, waste, water, sustainability,climate change, urban development and more.e-learning80Volume6.2nCreativeTeaching&LearningIt’s hard to know where to ..."
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      string(5708) "Volume6.2nCreativeTeaching&Learning79e-learningThe future is justa click awayAs populations grow and the effects of climate change worsen, it’s vital citiestake action and evolve into cleaner, greener environments. We provide acompilation of websites to support you and your pupils in an explorationof the future of urban life in relation to renewable energy, sustainability andcitizenship.Fifty per cent of the world’s population crams itself into cities,and that number looks set to increase, with a predictedthree out of four of us living in urban areas by 2050. Citiescan be wonderful places, but metropolitan planning doesthrow up a number of important problems that challenge eventhe most accomplished thinkers. Many of these are environmentalissues, but the key concern is, of course, energy and the potentiallydevastating impact of our production of it. Air pollution is alreadyhazardous in many cities, sea levels are rising dangerously, as aretemperatures, and there’s no longer any denying that our ongoing,unrestricted burning of fossil fuels is the cause. The search is on,then, for a sustainable energy source that is relatively economical,won’t harm the environment and will successfully meet the risingdemands of the world’s expanding cities.Investigating possible solutions to this with children and youngpeople – as well as exploring wider issues related to our future –gives them a useful opportunity to develop important learninghabits, namely creative thinking, logical reasoning and problem-solving. The curriculum links are endless, and hopefully, seeingthe real-world applications of what they’re learning in science,engineering, geography and more will spark enthusiasm for thesubjects and encourage pupils to pursue careers in these areas.But having children dream up creative solutions to suchchallenges isn’t just a theoretical exercise. They are, after all, thenext generation of scientists, engineers and politicians. Who knowswhere their ideas may go?With this in mind, we have put together a compilation of usefulwebsites to explore the future of our world – and how pupils canchange it. If you are taking part in the Shell Bright Ideas Challenge(see page 72), these websites will support you in your journey. If not,you will nevertheless find a great many tools and resources to bolsteryour teaching of such topics as energy, waste, water, sustainability,climate change, urban development and more.e-learning80Volume6.2nCreativeTeaching&LearningIt’s hard to know where to begin with the Pod by EDFEnergy – it’s a huge site, with seemingly endless resourcesand exciting things to get involved with! New users, however,should begin by registering. The Pod will need to verify thatyou are eligible to join, which can take a day or two, but onceyou are registered, you will be able to access the site’s manyresources. These fall into a range of curriculum areas – mainlyscience, geography and maths – and cover a number of topics,including energy, water, waste and transport. There are lessonplans, videos, assembly presentations, posters, games andmuch more. It’s a bit overwhelming at first, but the searchfunction is very effective, and it’s well worth a browse.A unique aspect of this site is its community spirit, which canhelp you and your pupils feel part of something bigger. Makea pledge as a class to reduce waste, save energy or protectdiversity, or use the map to find potential Pod partners in theUK and abroad. Registered teachers can also blog about theirclassroom activities, as can their pupils – a great feature, as weknow blogging improves children’s literacy, and the possibilityof a global audience can help elevate their work to greaterlevels. The teacher blogs vary in quality, but these, along with aselection of school case studies, are a great place to get ideasand inspiration for your own sustainability projects.You may also like to get involved in some of the Pod’scampaigns – perhaps their annual Energy Month inNovember, or the upcoming Waste Week in March. A numberof campaigns run all year too. Of particular interest to me was‘What’s under your feet?’, a real-life science experiment thatgets pupils examining soil samples, counting invertebratesand surveying birds to help the British Trust for Ornithologyinvestigate the impact of climate change on British birds. Theexperiment has already begun, but schools can still take part.A visual and attractive site, Earth Day Network’s Green CitiesCampaign explores the need for cities to become moreactively environmentally friendly as populations grow andclimate change worsens. The aim of the campaign is for allcities to go 100 per cent renewable by 2050, and the siteexplores what the everyday person (or child) can do to achievethat. 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Creative Teaching & Learning

The future is just a click away

11 Feb 2016

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      string(393) "... positively,they could become development opportunities that wecan meet, enriching our lives as teachers and the lives ofour students. Introducing something as significant as thenew curriculum is best handled as a change managementprogramme, using the varied tools and skills that areavailable for organisational and cultural change.A useful tool for ..."
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      string(5771) "37June/July 2008    Managing Schools Today   National CurriculumOn 15 February the Times Educational Supplementled with the news that the Government maysoon require schools to assess and measure theirpupils’ creativity and thinking skills, and that this areamay become subject to inspection. What lies behind thisforecast is the new National Curriculum. In this article wewill examine in depth at some implications of the newcurriculum, for pupils and for staff. We will look at a practicalcompetency framework which staff may use to prepareschools for a transformed climate for thinking and creativitydevelopment (a full version of the framework can be foundon the MST website at www.teachingtimes.co.uk/images/IM/competencies_national_curriculum.doc).The new National Curriculum is much more than a changeof what we teach: it’s a wholesale reform in why, how, when,where, to whom, from whom and in what context. But mostof us are only starting to see the fuller implications of the newcurriculum: a foundation for school provision for many yearsahead covering both teaching and pastoral activity. We needto make long-term plans now, covering the whole schoolexperience from a student’s perspective.Competenciesand the newNational CurriculumAs schools gear up for thenew National Curriculum,Jason Cauchi explores thepotential of competencyframeworks for preparationand developmentopportunities38National CurriculumManaging Schools Today    June/July 2008To teach this curriculum, we need to do some thingsdifferently and to teach and interact with students insome new ways. Most of us don’t know how, exactly – sowe need to find out. Very few of us, if any, are completelyready to meet every requirement today. The concerns thatthis raises could become barriers to the implementation ofthe new curriculum. Or, if identified and handled positively,they could become development opportunities that wecan meet, enriching our lives as teachers and the lives ofour students. Introducing something as significant as thenew curriculum is best handled as a change managementprogramme, using the varied tools and skills that areavailable for organisational and cultural change.A useful tool for handling this process is to involve staffand students in creating and using a set of competencies, inaddition to national standards for teachers that we all need.Schools can use a competency framework for manypurposes. Stephen Chamberlain, headteacher of Burnt MillSchool in Harlow, is enthusiastic about the opportunitiesoffered by the new National Curriculum. “We already usecompetencies through having an exciting competency-based curriculum for our younger students,” he says. “Thishas had a real impact on their learning and their confidenceto face new challenges. Developing staff competenciesis a standard tool for organisation development. Weaim to involve staff fully in innovative new curriculumdevelopment to transform learning. We plan to exploredifferent ways of using a staff competency framework andreadiness assessment as part of that involvement.”Competencies could aid the transition and use of thenew curriculum. These could be used developmentally ina variety of ways, accepting that meeting every standardat a high level is not always possible, even for highlyskilled teachers and pastoral staff. Figure 1 gives someexamples.A competency framework for these purposes needs tobe based on the new curriculum’s demands on staff andwhat staff need to know and do to meet them. These aresummarised in the questions shown in figure 2. A projectteam asking and answering these questions will need toinvolve the staff to a considerable extent and to invite atleast some contributions from students.Figure 1 – Some uses of a staff competency framework for the new National CurriculumEarly on To gauge how ready an individual or team is to plan and introduce the new curriculumTo plan the pace and sequencing of implementationTo plan individual and team CPD, help to undertake training needs analysisTo plan sourcing of outside help, eg between departments, from outside schoolTo identify barriers and plan together to overcome themDuringimplementationTo ensure that practice of all competencies occurs and teams have as manycompetencies  as possible present in themTo identify development needs as implementation experience is gainedOnce the curriculumis establishedTo use as a basis for further competency planning, to raise standards further andmeet new needsTo improve recruitment, selection and induction of new staffTo plan ongoing individual and team CPD, team building, etc.39June/July 2008    Managing Schools Today   National CurriculumFigure 2: Questions for a project team to develop a staff competency frameworkQuestion CommentWhat do we need to do as a school/department/pastoral team? Who needs todo what?A good starting point could be use of figure 4 at the website (“What’snew? What do we need to know and do differently? Some examplequestions in response to the new National Curriculum”)Discussion of a school draft response to the new requirements, alongwith the key documents on which the school’s response would bebased, e.g. on ECM. Figure 4 tries to give some key answers as a startingpoint for discussion to the questions of what, why, how, when, where,to whom, from whom and in what context. For senior team discussionand whenever possible, use a highly interactive discussion space andinteractive software if possible, to stimulate creativity. Ensure that stafffeel free to contribute. They need to ask some fundamental questionsabout how we work"
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Leadership

Competencies and the new National Curriculum

14 Jul 2008

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      string(5732) "colleagues in secondary who are specialists. Mastery might actually be a way for many teachers to improve their own maths. In Shanghai, maths at both primary and secondary is taught by mathematics specialists who teach one to three 35 minute lessons daily and spend the rest of their time planning collaboratively, marking pupils’ work and engaging in teaching research. Interestingly, these teachers also hold regular interventions in small groups to address areas of difficulty and provide pupils with extra practise on the same day.Unbelievably, Shanghai teachers are also expected to complete 240 hours of further training every five years. Compare this to UK teachers who might not even get any formal CPD now thanks to strangled budgets.  The situation is different in Singapore where specialist maths teaching is the norm only in upper primary and secondary. Their teachers are also ‘entitled’ to a whopping 100 hours of professional development every year.Maths mastery has been seductive and there are many evangelists singing its praises but what’s the evidence? Does it work? Can it really be a magic bullet? Yes, within high performing countries, disadvantaged pupils do as well as their peers (PISA, 2014). The mastery approach is credited with boosting students in China, Hong Kong and Singapore to the top of the OECD’s Pisa rankings. What works well in one part of the world is worth investigating however, we need to exercise caution against assuming a simple causal relationship between the systems in high performing jurisdictions and their outcomes. Outcomes are the result of more than the education system and as Pasi Sahlberg says in his Foreword to Teach Like Finland by Timothy D. Walker, “…I think it is impossible to transfer education systems from one place to another. Education systems are complex cultural, organic entities like plants or trees that grow well only in their home soil and climate.” What works in Shanghai might work in Swindon but the parental attitudes and wider cultural values at work are going to have an impact. Still, this hasn’t stopped Collins Learning from producing ‘Real Shanghai Mathematics’ a primary mathematics programme for Years 1-6 which will be directly translated from the Chinese with no revisions except a currency change from renminbi symbols to British pound signs.It would be too far-fetched to say that mastery has been a huge con and we have fallen for it hook, line and sinker. Mastery comes in all shapes and sizes and the ideas around it have been interpreted and developed in different ways – context is king and it depends which wind you are standing in. There is no special curriculum which is ‘The Maths Mastery Curriculum’ but ‘mastery’ is used so freely and generically that it is easy to see why there might be a misunderstanding that there is only one maths mastery approach. Over the last few years there have been a number of  ‘providers’ and publishers eager to put their own spin on maths mastery as a way to teach maths. Inspired by Singapore and Shanghai, they have evolved their own philosophies and ‘sold’ mastery to teachers as an engaging and accessible style of maths teaching full of promise. Put simply, whilst the general principles might be similar, the mastery approach can vary which means schools can get quite a different version of it depending on what and who they ‘buy into’.  Many favour the Singapore brand of mastery to the Shanghai approach because the Singaporean system is more closely aligned to the English curriculum whereas the Shanghai method relies on specialist maths teachers. Whether or not introducing East Asian teaching methods into western schools is a good idea is something that has been independently evaluated for the Education Endowment Foundation by  Dr John Jerrim at the Institute of Education, University of London and Professor Anna Vignoles at the University of Cambridge. They evaluated the ARK ‘Maths Mastery’ programme, a Singaporean inspired ‘mastery’ teaching approach adopted by a selection of England’s primary and secondary schools and endorsed by government ministers. This branded variant of the mastery model is made up of three parts: Deep understanding, through a curriculum that combines universal high expectations with spending more time on fewer topics and heavy emphasis on problem-solving.Integrated professional development through workshops, visits, coaching and mentoring and ‘access to exclusive online teaching and learning materials, including lesson guides for each week’.Teacher collaboration – primary schools are allocated a geographical cluster of 4-6 schools while secondary schools attend a ‘national collaboration event’. There is also an online dimension.The EEF report and reached four key conclusions:‘On average, pupils in schools adopting Mathematics Mastery made a small amount more progress than pupils in schools that did not. The effect detected was statistically significant, which means that it is likely that that improvement was caused by the programme.’‘It is unclear whether the programme had a different impact on pupils eligible for free school meals, or on pupils with higher or lower attainment.’‘Given the low per-pupil cost, Mathematics Mastery may represent a cost-effective change for schools to consider.’‘The evaluations assessed the impact of the programme in its first year of adoption. It would be worthwhile to track the medium and long-term impact of the"
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Leadership

Maths Mastery – Is It Just Another Fad?

7 Nov 2017

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      string(287) "... term or working memory with items that are not relevant to what is being learned, we are likely to see less learning. If nothing has changed in long-term memory, then nothing has been learned and nothing can be recalled or applied. It is the process of actively using or ..."
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      string(5644) "embed a memory all underpin learning. The notion that rehearsal alone will therefore ensure that knowledge and skills are embedded in the long-term memory is also an over-simplification, as it would support, for example, rote learning and drills, which are shallow learning and do not build the ability to apply learning. Engagement with the learning involves a more meaningful analysis and the use of that learning in different ways leads to better recall. For example, by giving words a meaning, linking them with previous knowledge or applying them in different contexts. It is clear, however, that if we overload the short-term or working memory with items that are not relevant to what is being learned, we are likely to see less learning. If nothing has changed in long-term memory, then nothing has been learned and nothing can be recalled or applied. It is the process of actively using or rehearsing and retrieving information that enables learning to be stored effectively in the long-term memory. Additionally, students’ motivation and the degree to which they understand the relevance of their learning are likely to embed that learning in the memory.Key point 1: We need to pace the learning to match the learners and not impose an arbitrary time scale by which something must be learned.Key point 2: We need to ensure that we refine the content of the curriculum to avoid overloading students’ working memories so core learning is not lost in extraneous information.Key point 3: We need to maximise the retention in their long-term memories of key information through active engagement and practice. Another model of memory stems from Robert and Elizabeth Bjork’s (Bjork & Bjork, 1992) work on learning and forgetting. They define the storage strength and retrieval strength of a memory to explain why we remember some things better than others. Storage strength is how well something is learned. Retrieval strength is how accessible it is. The levels are: low storage strength (not committed to long-term memory), high storage strength (committed to long-term memory), high retrieval strength (highly accessible) and low retrieval strength (difficult to access). Retrieval is essential to the process of learning because using memory shapes memory – it is a memory modifier. So, by requiring students to retrieve information on a regular (and spaced) basis, we actually make that learning more accessible in the future. The process of retrieving will require us to re-examine and apply that learning and thus improves the learning itself. While it would seem desirable to have high retrieval strength and high storage strength, the converse is true because the higher the retrieval strength the smaller the storage strength, and as retrieval strength declines the storage strength increases. So, to increase storage strength we have to allow for a degree of forgetting and work harder to retrieve the information. Of course, there is an optimum time gap – too long and the learning may be very difficult to retrieve.Key point 4: Low stakes testing, including multiple choice tests, quizzes and exemplifying, all require students to retrieve and reprocess learning, leading to deeper learning.Key point 5: After a period of learning, allowing an interval before setting a task or a test which requires the learner to retrieve that learning will increase the storage strength of that learning – this is called spacing.In developing learning, we need to ensure that new learning is stored in the long-term memory through active and deep learning opportunities which require students to process the learning in some way and which make links with prior learning. Bjork and Bjork’s work suggests that harder work improves learning because it slows learning down – the challenge of understanding something difficult requires more conscious effort and once understood is more likely to be retained. Conversely, easy work can boost quick retrieval but is less likely to be stored in the long-term memory. Additionally, the extent to which new learning links to previous learning and other knowledge, such as our understanding of the wider world or its interconnectedness, will increase the storage strength.Asian students working in the library.Key point 6: Creating learning tasks that are difficult and require students to actively contribute to the learning will improve the storage strength. Key point 7: Making links with prior learning and real-life contexts will enable the learning to sit within an existing framework and be more likely to stick.How does Mastery Learning align with these theories of memory?The key elements of Mastery Learning are where:Teachers believe that virtually all and at least 80% of students can learn all important academic knowledge to a level of excellence.Teachers set a high level of challenge and the classroom environment encourages and generates a positive attitude to learning.Learning is class-paced rather than unit-paced, based on a cycle of teaching, active learning, formative testing, feedback and alternative learning strategies, retesting, feedback and correctives, followed by a summative test after a period of time.The first two strands create a context and a positive climate for learning, ensuring that students are confident and receptive – we will look at these in more detail later in this article. How does the Mastery Learning approach support the key strands identified by research as essential to secure deep learning?Key Point 1: Pace – The principle of Mastery Learning is"
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Assessment

Mastery Learning is Where it's At

9 May 2018

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