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Tūngia te ururua kia tupu whakaritorito te tupu o te harakeke.
Set the overgrown bush alight, and the new flax shoots will spring up.
Question: What do Levin (just last week) and Australia have in common?
Answer: Both have been impacted by climate change.
Commiserations to all of you who were affected by the tornado that caused so much damage in Levin last week. The severity and intensity of the ‘weather event’ is becoming all too common here and overseas. Our thoughts and best wishes are with the communities coping in the aftermath. Climate change also had a big impact on the general election in Australia last weekend, as voters shot this issue to the top of their list. In the process, they changed the government.
Locally, nationally and internationally, COVID, like climate change, has disrupted many aspects of teaching and learning. One such disrupted routine is assessment of progress and achievement in learning. Internationally, our country participates in several international assessments – TIMMS, PIRLS and PISA. These tests are a ‘snapshot in time’. They give us an idea of how well we are going internationally, using measures that have rigor and accuracy. This year, the data from PISA will tell us how our system has responded to students’ needs post-pandemic. Because it will inform ‘next steps’ for us as a country, this assessment has a lot of value.
The pandemic has exposed our education inequities. Over two and a half years of disrupted learning some students thrived using hybrid, flexi-models of learning. Other students, with less access to resource and learning support struggled. We need to change how we define success in learning and how we measure it if we want more tamariki to succeed in the future.
Assessment in education is due for a shake-up and it is already happening. Again, using the international PISA assessment as an example, in 2022 a Creating Thinking assessment has been included to see how well students ‘generate, evaluate, and improve ideas that can result in original and effective solutions, advances in knowledge, and impactful expressions of imagination’. To elevate the status of these skills, alongside the more traditional academic measures of success, is a positive change. Our education system should value all skills, not just some.
COVID and Assessment – How to get the balance right?
What should we look to retain in assessment practices? What should we look to change?
Nationally, we have some thinking to do about how we define and measure learning success. Our sense of self, as lifelong learners, is heavily influenced by how “well” we do in school-based learning. How many times have we thought “Oh, I was never good at art, or music or maths?” This thinking comes from being tested and judged as competent or not. The testing and judging was not necessarily accurate at the time and it may not be accurate now. But, what it did do was shape our perception of ourselves as learners.
In 2022, we need to rethink what success in learning is, especially if we move towards creating student-centred, personalized learning pathways. We might ask
‘What would happen if the rigid, assessment benchmarks that have driven the pace of learning in our system and created judgements about students’ levels of competence, had more flexible timeframes?’
‘What would happen if we focused on learning through progress – moving through progressions – and passing achievement benchmarks on the way?’
Start from where the learner is at
To reengage students in learning we need to start from where they are now. Teachers, students and whānau need to support a pace of learning that works for the student, where students complete achievement benchmark assessments when they are ready, rather than when the system has scheduled it. For some, this will take more time than before. For some, this will happen faster than before.
This is not about lowering expectations. This is about recognizing we have students who are at very different levels of learning because of a pandemic. It is about ensuring we do not create more trauma by imposing unrealistic achievement expectations on students that are not relevant right now. It is about our students coming through our school system with a positive sense of themselves as learners, who can and have achieved success.
As education leaders, we need to be clear about should stay, what should change and what should go, so asssessment is a friend and not a foe.The NZPF-MOE Roadshow
The 2022 NZPF-MOE Curriculum Roadshow is focused on supporting principals to review and refresh both the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of a balanced maths delivery in their schools using existing resources.
The mathematics workshop is a Ministry inititiative, designed to support school leaders to lead a ‘Curriculum Refresh’ in mathematics teaching and learning. Strategies that will be shared have been shown to have immediate impact across a range of schools. Principals who have been part of workshops with Rob Proffit-White have shared that the workshops provided a clear and coherent line of sight for kaiako to
- optimise and plan a rich diet using existing and freely available resources
- build inclusivity and equity with an awareness of problem types
- identify, diagnose and remediate misconceptions that hold many ākonga back
- embed rapid routines that support whole class teaching and formative assessment
The background, aims and findings of this mathematics PLD will be presented through data snapshots, hands on activities and actionable ideas for taking away to try. This PLD is now centrally funded and Rob recently worked with 40 of our national maths providers to upscale this mathematics PLD to reach a further 300 schools.
Rob works with schools across Aotearoa NZ and Australia and moved to Otautahi Christchurch in 2020. He has a wealth of experience for supporting teachers and school leaders around Mathematics Curriculums, hence the invitation to lead this workshop.
Principals wanting further insights into each of the workshop’s key messages will have access to a series of free Zoom Hui in Term 3 and 4 to provide deeper insight as to how the concepts shared can compliment any school maths approach.
To book to attend a workshop in your region or to request a link for the Post-Attendance Webinar please follow the link.
Wondering of the Week:
To what extent have assessment systems in your school changed during the pandemic?
Poll is closed
Results of last Week's poll:
To what extent have you been able to prioritize your own professional learning this year?
Ngā manaakitanga
Cherie Taylor-Patel
cherie.taylor-patel@nzpf.ac.nz
Early Bird Registrations Closing Soon!
Registrations for the 2022 NZPF Conference are open. The conference will be held at the new Te Pae, Christchurch Convention and Exhibition Centre, on 14 - 16 September.
Register before the early bird deadline of 31 May to save up to $100 on your registration.
Visit the website to register now.
Nominations for NZPF Election 2022
Nominations are now open for NZPF President and Vice President for 2023.
Click here to download a nomination form.
Nominations close on 5 August and the electoral roll closes on 25 August. Your subscription payment must be received by this date in order to be eligible for voting.
NZ Principal Magazine also Online
You and/or your team members can easily access the NZ Principal Magazines online, as an e-magazine or as a PDF. Additionally you can search for a previous issue, an article by title or by the author of the article. All magazines back to Term 1 2012 are available in this format. To view or search click here.
PB4L Conference 2022 - Registrations open
This conference will be held on 26-27 August at Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington.
NZ Best Practice Workshops include:
- School-wide Tier 1 & 2
- Restorative Practice
- Huakina Mai
- Incredible Years Teacher & Parent
- Te Mana Tikitiki
- Check and Connect
- PB4L Leadership
- PB4L Data
Click here to regsiter and for further information.
NZPF assures its business partners that, as members, you will contact them to have a conversation if you are purchasing products, services or solutions for your schools that a business partner supplies. Please support our partners as their assistance to NZPF means better membership services to you.
