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Is Inquiry-Based Learning Effective?
Comments Off on Is Inquiry-Based Learning Effective?Is Inquiry-Based Learning Effective?
How can a teacher ignite students’ interest in school subjects? Instead of the teacher telling students everything they need to know, inquiry-based learning asks students to construct their own knowledge through experiences and explorations. Inquiry-based learning emphasizes learning by doing and mirrors the work of scientists as they actively discover knowledge. In inquiry-based learning, students undertake some or all of the follow activities:
- formulating a question or a set of questions;
- designing an investigation to research the question(s);
- identifying and collecting relevant resources;
- developing explanations based on evidence and scientific knowledge;
- sharing investigation procedures and findings;
- reflecting on the learning process and outcomes.
Research has found that inquiry-based activities can boost students’ learning in a wide range of school subjects. There is evidence that inquiry-based learning can motivate students to learn and advance their problem solving and critical thinking skills. However, the effectiveness of inquiry-based learning depends on the guidance provided by teachers. Unguided or minimally-guided inquiry may not work for students who have less previous knowledge or ability in the subject area. When the demands of the learning activities exceed students’ abilities, their learning is blocked and they may develop misunderstandings about the topic.
Therefore, appropriate guidance must be incorporated into students’ inquiry learning. For example, teachers should guide students to develop a good question for investigation, monitor their inquiry process, and provide guidance when they encounter difficulties. Teachers should give students ongoing feedback and encourage them to constantly assess their own learning.
Compared with having the teacher present all of the information, research offers clear evidence that teacher-guided inquiry works in the best interests of students and their learning.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION RESOURCES
Alberta Education: Inquiry Based Learning
https://education.alberta.ca/teachers/aisi/themes/inquiry.aspx
National Science Foundation: Thoughts, Views, and Strategies for the K-5 Classroom
http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2000/nsf99148/htmstart.htm
YouthLearn: Intro to Inquiry Learning
Thirteen Ed Online: Inquiry-Based Learning
http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/inquiry/
REFERENCES
Artigue, M., & Blomhøj, M. (2013). Conceptualizing inquiry-based education in mathematics. ZDM Mathematics Education, 45(6), 797-810.
Atkinson, M. P., & Hunt, A. N. (2008). Inquiry-guided learning in sociology. Teaching Sociology, 36(1), 1-7.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20058621
Edelson, D. C., Gordin, D. N., & Pea, R. D. (1999). Addressing the challenges of inquiry-based learning through technology and curriculum design. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 8(3-4), 391-450.
Friesen, S., & Scott, D. (2013). Inquiry-based learning: A review of the research literature. Paper prepared for the Alberta Ministry of Education. Retrieved from http://galileo.org/focus-on-inquiry-lit-review.pdf
Furtak, E., Seidel, T., Iverson, H., & Briggs, D. (2012). Experimental and quasi-experimental studies ofinquiry-based science teaching: A meta-Analysis. Review of Educational Research, 82(3), 300-329.
Harris, C. J., & Rooks, D. L. (2010). Managing inquiry-based science: Challenges in enacting complexscience instruction in elementary and middle school classrooms. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 21(2), 227-240.
Kirschner, P. A., Sweller, J., & Clark, R. E. (2006). Why minimal guidance during instruction does not
work: An analysis of the failure of constructivist, discovery, problem-based, experiential, and inquiry-based teaching. Educational psychologist, 41(2), 75-86.
Little, S. (2010). Inquiry-based learning in the social sciences: A meta-analytical study. CILASS: Centre for Inquiry-based Learning in the Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sheffield. Retrieved from www.shef.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.122795!/file/IBL_in_SocSci-FINAL.pdf
Minner, D. D., Levy, A. J., & Century, J. (2010). Inquiry‐based science instruction — what is it and does itmatter? Results from a research synthesis years 1984 to 2002. Journal of Research in Science Teaching,
47(4), 474-496.
Saunders-Stewart, K. S., Gyles, P. D. T., & Shore, B. M. (2012). Student outcomes in inquiry instruction: A literature-derived inventory. Journal of Advanced Academics, 23(1), 5-31.
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New Pedagogies for Deep Learning – Innovation and Change Essential!
Comments Off on New Pedagogies for Deep Learning – Innovation and Change Essential!Education is at an inflection point. There is an increasing focus on shifting from a system that doesn’t serve the current needs of all students in an increasingly complex world, to one that is driven by innovation and change. Innovation and change is needed because there is not a clear picture of what the new learning goals and pedagogies are that will deliver the Deep Learning outcomes we want for all students, so that they can flourish in this increasingly complex world.
For me, the heart of this change is a focus on supporting the type of system transformation needed to provide a model where all parts of the system are aligned and working towards equipping students with Deep Learning competencies that enable them to be creative problem solvers who can collaborate effectively within and across teams, and who can pursue leadership for action in a sustainable context. Focusing on developing Deep Learning competencies for the ‘6 Cs’, as Michael Fullan calls them (Citizenship, Character, Collaboration, Communication, Creativity and Critical Thinking), and leveraging the increasing digital ubiquity available will require a sustained focus on implementing innovation and change.
While there is an increasing focus on this work, many people are asking ‘how’ this will be achieved. To help answer that question, I am part of a global partnership with education leaders such as Michael Fullan, that is working at implementing such change across several countries, including Canada. The global partnership is called New Pedagogies for Deep Learning, and we are working with clusters of 100 schools in up to 10 countries to identify the new pedagogies that will deliver Deep Learning outcomes for all students, leveraging digital to accelerate and deepen the learning.
Because there is no existing blueprint for the change we hope to enable, we are working with clusters, schools, teachers and other stakeholders in what we call an “innovation implementation partnership.” This means each cluster needs to be willing to challenge current assumptions and orthodoxies, and to learn from the work when answers aren’t always clear. Learning by doing, a willingness to innovate based on collaborative inquiry and a commitment to learning from the other schools and clusters are all key. Combining this with what Michael Fullan’s work describes as the key conditions for Deep Learning at the school, cluster and system level – a clear and agreed vision, focusing on a small number of ambitious goals, building capacity focused on pedagogy, measuring what we value and leadership at all levels – provides new opportunities to extend Deep Learning for all students so they are able to flourish in an ever-changing and complex world.
You may ask, “What are new pedagogies and why do they matter?” We believe that equipped with new pedagogical models, a growing digital ubiquity and new learning partnerships, students will shift from learning about life to learning being living. Driven by the new learning partnerships – the changing relationships between teachers, students, families and communities, with teachers taking on the role of activators – new pedagogies bring together existing contexts with Deep Learning competency development that leverages digital to accelerate and deepen the learning. In this way, education is not about students ‘learning’ answers to the already known, it is about them applying learning to real-world problems that necessitate the creation of new knowledge. This requires teachers to feel comfortable as part of learning partnerships where they don’t know the answers!
Leaders wishing to embark on such a journey will need to have the courage to challenge their current situations, let go of what isn’t working, and focus on collaborative innovation and inquiry that will generate the new knowledge to propel their organizations. There is no standardized approach for this journey, and so being ready to be a leader and learner and challenge yourself and those you work with to ask the difficult questions is critical. It is when we admit that we don’t have all the answers that we can truly become learners.
As programmer and facilitator of CEA’s upcoming Challenge to Change Symposium, I’m thrilled to be able to weave these Deep Learning concepts into the day to inspire a change mindset among participants, and some good ideas about how they can return to work and make this meaningful change happen.
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Building Community
Comments Off on Building CommunityAround the world, our sense of community is changing. Technology and social media have made the world smaller than ever, and people are building their own communities, regardless of geographic boundaries. School communities are, inevitably, changing too. A more expansive concept of school seems to be emerging, with connections and relationships extending well beyond the school walls to encompass families, community partners and mentors, and “virtual” classmates from schools around the world. Within the school walls, an increasingly diverse student population and shifts in the roles of teachers and learners are also changing the dynamic. In this issue, we wanted to explore how educators can create and support vibrant, positive, creative school communities.
The articles that were contributed in response are a wide-ranging and inspiring look at what is possible. Chris Wejr (p.12) shares his experience using social media to include parents into the school community and reinforce positive school culture. Ray Derkson (p. 20) describes Manitoba’s innovative approach to ensuring strong community input and participation across a huge and widely diverse school division. And Thomas Arnett (p. 16) presents models of “blended learning” that change the structure of the school day and the relationship between student and teacher.
One of the inspirations for this issue was a two-day workshop CEA held in October 2013, titled, “What’s Standing in the Way of Change in Education?” As part of the process, participants were asked to share their personal vision of “the school of their dreams.” Person after person described schools rich in authentic, meaningful, and personalized learning experiences. But another strong thread had to do with community, as described in the summary report:
“The schools of their dreams are welcoming, collaborative environments, respectful of the many layers of diversity that now define the Canadian social fabric. They are places where a strong sense of community participation and contribution adds to the rich set of resources that can bring learning to life.”[1]
There may be a long way to go to fully achieve the “dream schools” described to us in the CEA workshop. But exciting changes are being made right now to create richer, stronger, more responsive school communities, as the examples in this issue demonstrate. Whether at the classroom, school or regional level, there is no lack of exciting ideas. To paraphrase Ray Derkson in his article, “Let’s try them and see what happens.”
This blog post is part of CEA’s focus on The New School Community, which is also connected to Education Canada Magazine’s The New School Community theme issue and a Facts on Education fact sheet How does parent involvement in education affect children’s learning? Please contact info@cea-ace.ca if you would like to contribute a blog post to this series.
[1] Read the whole report at: http://cea-ace.s3.amazonaws.com/media/CEA-2013-2014-AR-Annual-Performance.pdf
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Youth, Education and Marginality: Local and Global Expressions; Edited by Kate Tilleczek and Bruce Ferguson
Comments Off on Youth, Education and Marginality: Local and Global Expressions; Edited by Kate Tilleczek and Bruce FergusonI THINK MOST OF US would agree that today’s youth are experiencing a society that is very different from that of generations before – a society with much uncertainty and instability fueled by: burgeoning urbanization, rapid technological changes, rising economic inequities, growing concentration of economic capital (wealth) in the hands of a few; skepticism about the efficacy of our democratic and meritocratic systems; growing numbers of females and ethnoracial minorities graduating from postsecondary institutions who remain over-represented among the unemployed; heightened surveillance of those deemed to be problem citizens; and the growing discontent with globalization. What are the consequences of these concerns for today’s youth? What are their readings of the conditions with which they are confronted? And how are they navigating and negotiating the structures that produce and maintain these conditions?
In Youth, Education, and Marginality: Local and global expressions, editors Kate Tilleczek and Bruce Ferguson and their contributors provide useful insights into the experiences, perspectives, and aspirations of youth who have been marginalized by the systems of education and schooling to which they are exposed. As Tilleczek and Ferguson write: “The social complexity of [the youth’s] experiences and life stories, and the ways in which schools respond to them, is the focus of this book” (p. 2). The significance of exploring the role of schooling and education in the lives of the young people who are casualties of inequity is well articulated by Jean Mitchell in her essay, “Marginalization Spaces, Disparate Places: Educational and youth practices in a globalizing world.” She writes: “Education as an institution and as a long-standing instrument of modernity in both colonial and post-colonial contexts shapes the lives of youth in particular ways to fit the shifting contours of global economies and government agendas” (p. 79).
Furthermore, in the current neoliberal context the ethos of individualism, hard work, merit, “right” choices, personal responsibility, and delayed gratification are the values and norms by which youth are encouraged to live their lives, approach their learning, and construct their aspirations. There are youth for whom this ethos – structured by Eurocentic, middle class, heterosexual, adult norms – are proving to be inadequate or limited in enabling them to take advantage of the opportunities promised through education and schooling. If indeed we are to develop a healthy democracy in which all Canadians are able to fully participate, then they must gain equitable access to education that builds on their abilities and skills – giving consideration to the different and varied social and cultural capital they bring to the teaching/learning process. And to ensure that their needs are addressed, rather than simply “give voice,” we need to hear often from these Canadians, and read about them from scholars and other adults who will provide spaces for them to tell their own stories or counter-stories. This is what Tilleczek and Ferguson set out to do in their book.
The stories of the youth are illustrated through empirical research, theoretical considerations, and policy discussions by scholars, youth workers (or practitioners), and policymakers. As well, youth have contributed poetry, prose, drawings, paintings, and photographs. The multi-genre texts featured in the “Youth Art” sections of almost every chapter capture in their own voices, the lived experiences, cultural nuances, aesthetic expressions, and inspiring images of the youth. This rich and diverse pedagogical presentation is a compelling aspect of the book, for it communicates insights into the “Changing World” of the youth (see Selima Jacqueline Peters’ poem, p. 10), giving readers access to the lived experiences of youth both in their voices and through the re-constructed narratives represented in scholarly research.
The essays and research reports of contributors reveal the nuances, shifts and complexities of the marginalization of the youth in relation to their identities, relationships, negotiations and responsibilities, and noting the role of gender, class (poverty), ethnicity, race, sexuality, aboriginality, and health (mental) in the marginalization processes. But contributors did not all consistently reference the inter-relationship of these factors on the social and educational situation of the youth. Race was sometimes confused or conflated with ethnicity. For example, in taking up Jalisha’s reference to her “Black, dark” skin, Tilleczek refers to “her ethnicity” when in fact race is what is being identified. The conflation of race with ethnicity means neither the issues of racialization and racism, nor the problems that contribute to the marginalization of racialized youth, will be adequately identified and addressed.
The international comparisons by Jean Mitchell, Chapter 4, and Andy Furlong, Chapter 7, were valuable to our understandings of the experiences of today’s youth beyond Canadian borders. I wonder what a comparison with youth in the United States might have added. Not only did contributors highlight the social, economic, educational, cultural, and political conditions that these societal and world conditions have spawned for today’s youth, they offered ways in which educators, practitioners and policymakers might work to address their situation (see in particular Chapters 4, 6, 8, 11 and 12). Contributors – including the youth – reason that it is important for educators and all who work with youth to pay attention to their lived experiences within their diverse networks and communities to which they belong and/or from which they gain their sense of belonging and identity. Doing so will help to foster healthy social and emotional development and well-being among youth.
Rummens and Dei (Chapter 6) suggest that a “critical inclusive approach” to the education of youth would help to “facilitate and enhance” their learning (p. 126). Such an approach necessarily involves “close relationships, mutual understanding and social bonding” between school personnel, parents and communities. I concur, for as I argued elsewhere, in working with marginalized students or students from marginalized communities, educators need “to have a knowledge of the community and the culture if they are to effectively facilitate a teaching and learning process in which students are able to see the relevance of their learning to their lives.”[1] When youth witness the validation of their experiences, and “the validation of their culture within the educational process, they concatenate their identities as family members and students.”[2] Probably, Melissa (age 22) speaks for many of today’s students, and more generally the youth, when she says: “It’s not that I want the whole world to cater to me or anything, I just see it catering to everyone else… and don’t get me wrong, I don’t need charity or anything, all I want is an equal shot” (p. 22).
Photo: Dave Donald
First published in Education Canada, September 2014
[1] C. E. James, Life at the Intersection: Community, class and schooling (Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, 2012), 124.
[2] J. Cammarota, “Participatory Action Research in the Public School Curriculum: Toward a pedagogy of dialogical authoring,” in Revolutionizing Education: Youth participatory action research in motion, J. Cammarota & M. Fine (eds) (New York: Routledge, 2008), 135.
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The Challenge to Change Symposium
Comments Off on The Challenge to Change SymposiumA CEA Symposium that gets to “the how” of education systems change
https://vimeo.com/106672501
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Futures Start Here
Comments Off on Futures Start HereEducators are in constant competition with the ever-increasing wireless and communicative world of students. Outside of juggling fire, performing illusions, and donning a duck costume, teachers are constantly working on engaging students in learning.
The fact is, students who are not engaged do not achieve. This fact is not lost on the professionals within Regina Public Schools.
With graduation rates between 68 and 72 percent, the senior administration at Regina Public Schools – one of the largest school divisions in the province of Saskatchewan – empowered students and professionals to challenge the norm. This empowerment has led to the creation of a new learning community in Regina: Campus Regina Public. Campus Regina Public is an interest-based career-pathway option for Grade 11 or 12 students to study within a unique educational community.
In 2009, the senior administration of Regina Public Schools tasked a group of superintendents, administrators, consultants, and teachers to research new ways to engage students. This task continued through 2014, and is continually evolving. The initial process employed a very traditional model of inquiry involving research, site visits (throughout North America), concept and implementation plans. While this model of inquiry was the needed first step, the professional group realized that a traditional research model would only recreate a traditional learning community.
The solution, while not necessarily new or innovative, was to focus primarily on the wants, needs and advice of students, in consultation with the advice of industry leaders in the community. Each high school was asked to select 40 to 45 students from various demographic backgrounds to give feedback on the current state of education. There were many themes reported, but overwhelmingly, certain themes were central at all schools:
- Students believed that teachers were working extremely hard and that teachers cared immensely about their students.
- Students were bored at school. The term “dying in my desk” was used by numerous students. School needed to be more activity based and less theoretical in nature.
- Students expressed that the skills they were learning did not meet the needs of ever-changing industry.
- Students were tired of being asked for input and then having their input ignored because it did not fit into the traditional model each school employed.
- Students wanted to be challenged to show what they have been taught in a practical sense rather than through a written test.
Additional focus groups were held with members of various industries in Regina and surrounding areas. Industry participants reported the following:
- Students need to be taught basic Math and English skills in order to meet the needs of industry. But equally important was the ability to problem-solve and work as a member of a team.
- Schools need to provide real-world opportunity for students to develop the soft skills necessary to function in every industry.
- Industry partnerships should be developed with schools directly in the classrooms rather than the traditional corporate sponsor relationships that currently exist.
- The massive need for skilled employees was not being met within the current education system.
The next phase was to take these ideas formulated at the division level and implement them at the school level. The findings of the traditional research combined with the use of student and industry feedback became the foundation of Campus Regina Public.
The challenge was to ensure that the feedback of students and industry would drive the development of the learning environment that Campus Regina Public would become.
The Campus Regina program
Campus Regina Public explicitly answers the question every educator has heard: “When will I ever use this in real life?” Students become a part of an educational community that brings together elements of secondary education, post-secondary and industry. Courses are designed to integrate a core credit (Math, English, Science, Social Studies) and an elective credit into a cohesive, relevant and in-depth learning community. Carefully designed industry partnerships and direct industry involvement provide a relevant and authentic environment for student learning. Many of the courses provide students with the opportunity to achieve certifications necessary for industry; for example, WHIMIS, First Aid, CPR, and Scott Safety Training. The learning environment at Campus Regina Public has industry standard equipment and lab spaces.
Essentially, Campus Regina Public gives students the opportunity to discover if they would be suited to be employed in certain areas. Students are given the opportunity to explore and take risks, while achieving credits toward graduation and learning specific career skills.
Campus Regina Public offers 20 different career pathway courses, selected to meet student interest and industry need, with such varied options as:
- Construction Technology (Math and Construction)
- Financial Services (Math and Accounting)
- Graphic Design (English and Graphic Arts)
- Application and Video Game Design (Computer Science and Communication Media)
- Fire Sciences (Chemistry and Physical Education)
- Performing Arts (English and Theatre)
- Oil & Gas Production (Social Studies and Mining)
Campus Regina Public does not specifically target students; students of all abilities and skills who feel this approach is more conducive to their learning style are welcome.
Core competencies for curriculum are evaluated based more on performance than on theory.
Sample courses
Electrical and Electronics: Students apply mathematical formulas and measurements while connecting basic circuit panels. Students eventually will apply the knowledge gained to perform the wiring of multiple rooms, thus fulfilling components of both the Electrical and Math curricula. Finally, students will be sent out into the field with our industry partner, SaskTel, to learn from actual industry members in the field.
Cosmetology and Health Sciences: Students collaborate on real-world accident scenarios. The Cosmetology students create the scenarios, fulfilling the English curriculum components of writing and speaking, and apply make-up and prosthetics to actors, thus fulfilling the Cosmetology curriculum components. Health Science students evaluate the scene, diagnose injuries and apply first responder skills, fulfilling both Biology/Health Science and Work Experience requirements.
One unique aspect of Campus Regina Public is the industry partnerships that have been developed for almost every course. This practice has allowed for a relevant and current industry reality in an educational environment.
For example, our Law, Public Safety and Security course (LPSS) is a partnership between Campus Regina Public and the Regina Police Service. The Regina Police Service provides a member of the service (who also holds a valid teaching degree) to collaborate with another teacher on a daily basis. The LPSS course is designed to emulate Police College. Students are required to wear uniforms and follow an agreed-upon moral code.
Another example is a newly developed partnership with Capital Auto Group. Senior management staff from Capital Auto Group have been instrumental in the design of a new lab and in the acquisition of tools and supplies. However the partnership, as with all our partnerships, is based on reciprocation. For example, the automotive facilities will be available for use by Capital Auto Group for their own training when not being used by the school. The Capital Auto Group team has agreed in principal to provide training for our teachers, to provide work experience for our students and ultimately, to interview and possibly hire some students.
Student response
In just two years, Campus Regina Public student enrolment has doubled. In the first year over 300 students registered and this year we had over 600 hundred students. The projections for the 2014-15 school year anticipate close to 900 students enrolled.
Feedback from students has been positive. In a speech to a chapter of the Regina Rotary Club, Riley Wood described her experience:
“By taking both these classes I was able to explore two careers that were of interest to me, which were Social Work and Nursing. Getting the chance to explore these career paths in detail, while attaining two credit courses as well, was very beneficial to me, especially while approaching my graduating year.”
Does Campus Regina Public improve outcomes? Ultimately, the program’s success will be measured by students who graduate and acquire employment. Our first two years indicate that the new educational community created at Campus Regina Public is improving outcomes. In our first year, students successfully completed 89 percent of all credits. First Nations and Métis students successfully completed over 65 percent of all credits. In this year, overall successful first semester completion was 91 percent, and 73 percent for First Nations and Métis students; second semester was 92 percent, and 80 percent for First Nations and Métis students.
Our slogan says Futures Begin Here. At Campus Regina Public, we truly believe that futures do begin here!
For more information: http://campusreginapublic.rbe.sk.ca
Photo: courtesy Jason Coleman
First published in Education Canada, September 2014
EN BREF – Le programme axé sur les carrières Campus Regina Public s’adresse à tous les élèves de 11e et de 12e année fréquentant actuellement les écoles secondaires publiques de Regina. Offrant des cours spécialisés de deux crédits portant sur des carrières et donnés par des professionnels sectoriels chevronnés utilisant du matériel de pointe, le programme fonctionne en partenariat avec des entreprises et des industries locales afin que tous les programmes de formation procurent aux élèves les compétences professionnelles requises pour travailler. Par la planification de carrières, l’enseignement de compétences, les cours magistraux, l’accréditation et l’expérience de travail pertinente, les étudiants sont prêts à accéder directement à la population active ou à entreprendre des études postsecondaires.
Le processus de création d’une nouvelle communauté d’apprentissage, qui repose sur la pertinence et l’authenticité, a été déterminé par les élèves et documenté par l’industrie locale. L’article traite de la création de ce programme expérientiel conçu pour aider les étudiants à trouver leur voie professionnelle.
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Students Tackle Tech
Comments Off on Students Tackle TechOur school had no Wi-Fi, but it was coming. The impact of the impending Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy was beginning to stir students and teachers, who were both eager and nervous about changes to policy and practice. Staff were concerned about student behaviour and academic dishonesty, and students were concerned about cyber-bullying and access to technology. School administrators were interested in student and staff input into the development of a school technology policy. The time was ripe for students at my school to have a voice in policy development. Problem-based learning (PBL) seemed the perfect vehicle for engaging this participation.
Problem-based learning involves using a problem to trigger students’ interest in a topic and to act as a motivator to learning and inquiry.[1] It can lead to increased student achievement and improved attitudes toward learning.[2] Originally a learning model developed by Dr. Howard Barrows at McMaster University for the study of medicine, PBL has been adopted in education because of its ability to foster 21st century skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, communication, creativity, and decision-making.[3] Problem-based learning requires the teacher to move away from a teacher-centered approach and to act more as a facilitator or tutor supporting student exploration of a problem through inquiry.
In the PBL project I designed, students were encouraged to use an inquiry model to investigate and create meaningful suggestions that a school committee could examine prior to the development of the school’s technology policy. I wanted students to feel empowered by their own research data, so I approached administration to request their participation in a research poster presentation session where students would share their research findings on the implications of student access to Wi-Fi at our school.
The process
After learning about the social science inquiry method, students focused on our learning goal, which was to explore the implications of the implementation of school-wide Wi-Fi. Students developed research communities and began discussing how Wi-Fi would impact stakeholders. Initially stymied with such an open-ended learning opportunity, students took time to query technology’s impact in schools and eventually began surfacing the challenges and obstacles for students, teachers and parents. This took a lot longer than I had expected; I had to recognize that PBL is a process that requires time and support. Focusing on our learning goal and not sweating the small stuff was key. Eventually, authentic research questions that connected students to their topics began to emerge. Students asked the following questions:
- What are the economic implications of a BYOD policy for students at our school?
- Can cheating be prevented when students have access to their own technology in the classroom?
- Can technology in the classroom improve teaching methods and increase student engagement?
- Will students experience an increase or decrease in cyber-bullying with greater Internet accessibility?
Students were supported with direct instruction on research methods and provided with tools like organizers to help them with their inquiries. Working collaboratively, students engaged in primary data collection and analysis using quantitative or qualitative methods. To further create a transparent and authentic learning experience, students co-constructed assessment criteria and engaged in peer assessment as a means to provide feedback prior to the development of the final research poster and session. My role was to support, ask questions, provide guidance and listen enthusiastically to their creative approaches.
The results
The student research findings were not only relevant to the student body of our school, but were also in line with research on the use of technology in Canadian schools:[4]
- Not everyone can afford a smartphone.
- Cheating is common both with and without a technological device.
- Fifty percent of students use an electronic device for schoolwork.
- Most students feel comfortable approaching an adult about cyber-bullying.
Students made the following suggestions to the administrator who visited during the poster session:
- Schools should provide access to technology for those who cannot afford it.
- Consistent guidelines about technology use should be reinforced to emphasize digital literacy and citizenship.
- Teachers need support to help overcome discomfort with technology and to increase their knowledge of how to use technology in the classroom.
My class was pleased by the fact that their voices were heard and satisfied with their ability to contribute to policy development at the school level.
Students’ responses to the PBL experience were positive and showed the intended outcomes of increased motivation, collaboration and critical thinking. In her final reflection, a student expressed her feelings of empowerment; she liked how the research “allowed me to present my ideas to a higher authority… and… to not only learn about the topic in question, but also help me improve my learning skills.” Another student noted, “It allowed me expand my arsenal of collaboration methods… and gave me a new respect for problem-based learning.” One student suggested that her greatest learning was “the ability to analyze and interpret the various aspects of a research topic.”
Although some students struggled, they still noted benefits of PBL. Issues around failing technology, absent team members and lack of time were noted as key frustrations. One student described how her group had to overcome the “problem of picking a specific topic” that could be managed in the given time. Another student stated, “Overall I found that the material and skills we have been learning in class is really what got everyone through the project.” Even when the task was challenging, students were able to apply their skills and knowledge to impact the BYOD learning environment for future students.
Implementing PBL requires planning and program consideration. Attention needs to be paid not only to skill development, but also to the development of content knowledge,[5] with clear steps for students to collate and reflect on all the learning that goes on during the project. Teacher training and collaboration before and during the project’s implementation is also important.[6] Without the support of my colleagues and administration, this endeavour would have been overwhelming.
Resources
For practical tips on implementing PBL in your classroom, check out Jennifer Nichols’ post, “10 Practical Ideas for Better Project-Based Learning in Your Classroom” on TeachThought: www.teachthought.com/learning/10-practicalideas-for-better-project-based-learning-in-your-classroom/
Photo: iStock
First published in Education Canada, September 2014
EN BREF – L’instauration de la méthode de l’enquête dans les écoles secondaires peut constituer un défi, mais lorsqu’un problème significatif se pose, tel le passage à une politique « prenez vos appareils personnels » (PAP) dans une école, l’apprentissage par résolution de problèmes (ARP) peut constituer le moyen pédagogique indiqué pour engager les élèves dans la co-construction de leur environnement d’apprentissage. Des élèves d’un cours de sciences sociales de 12e année ayant travaillé pour relever les défis de l’ARP ont vécu les avantages d’un engagement accru et d’une contribution significative à l’élaboration d’une politique au palier de l’école.
[1] Steven W. Whitcombe, “Developing Skills of Problem-based Learning: What about specialist knowledge,” International Journal of Continuing Education & Lifelong Learning 5, no. 2 (2013): 41-56.
[2] Clive Agnew, “Evaluating Changes in Learning and Teaching,” Journal of Geography in Higher Education 25, no. 3 (2001): 293-298; Gabi Jerzembek and Simon Murphy, “A Narrative Review of Problem-Based Learning with School-aged Children: Implementation and outcomes,” Educational Review 65, no. 2 (2013): 206-218.
[3] Laura Greenstein, “Beyond the Core: Assessing authentic 21st century skills,” Principal Leadership 13, no. 4 (2012): 36-42.
[4] Dianne Looker and Victor Thiessen, “The Digital Divide in Canadian Schools: Factors affecting student access to and use of information technology,” Statistics Canada, no. 81-597-XIE; The Canadian Council on Learning, “The 21st Century Cheater: Academic dishonesty in Canada’s schools,” www.ccl-cca.ca/ccl/Newsroom/Releases/20100706AcademicDishonesty.html; Omar El Akkad, “Canadian’s Internet Usage Nearly Double the Worldwide Average,” The Globe and Mail, March 8, 2011, www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/tech-news/canadians-internet-usage-nearly-double-the-worldwide-average/article569916/
[5] Eric Pawson, E. Frounier, M. Haigh, O. Muniz, J. Trafford and S. Vajoczki, “Problem-based Learning in Geography: Towards a critical assessment of its purposes, benefits and risks,” Journal of Geography in Higher Education 30, no. 1 (2006): 103-116.
[6] William Alexander Moylan, “Learning by Project: Developing essential 21st century skills using student team projects,” International Journal of Learning 15, no. 9 (2008): 287-292.
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Building Community
Comments Off on Building CommunityAround the world, our sense of community is changing. Technology and social media have made the world smaller than ever, and people are building their own communities, regardless of geographic boundaries. School communities are, inevitably, changing too. A more expansive concept of school seems to be emerging, with connections and relationships extending well beyond the school walls to encompass families, community partners and mentors, and “virtual” classmates from schools around the world. Within the school walls, an increasingly diverse student population and shifts in the roles of teachers and learners are also changing the dynamic. In this issue, we wanted to explore how educators can create and support vibrant, positive, creative school communities.
The articles that were contributed in response are a wide-ranging and inspiring look at what is possible. Chris Wejr (p.12) shares his experience using social media to include parents into the school community and reinforce positive school culture. Ray Derkson (p. 20) describes Manitoba’s innovative approach to ensuring strong community input and participation across a huge and widely diverse school division. And Thomas Arnett (p. 16) presents models of “blended learning” that change the structure of the school day and the relationship between student and teacher.
One of the inspirations for this issue was a two-day workshop CEA held in October 2013, titled, “What’s Standing in the Way of Change in Education?” As part of the process, participants were asked to share their personal vision of “the school of their dreams.” Person after person described schools rich in authentic, meaningful, and personalized learning experiences. But another strong thread had to do with community, as described in the summary report:
“The schools of their dreams are welcoming, collaborative environments, respectful of the many layers of diversity that now define the Canadian social fabric. They are places where a strong sense of community participation and contribution adds to the rich set of resources that can bring learning to life.”[1]
There may be a long way to go to fully achieve the “dream schools” described to us in the CEA workshop. But exciting changes are being made right now to create richer, stronger, more responsive school communities, as the examples in this issue demonstrate. Whether at the classroom, school or regional level, there is no lack of exciting ideas. To paraphrase Ray Derkson in his article, “Let’s try them and see what happens.”
Write to us!
We want to know what you think. Send your letters or article proposals to editor@cea-ace.ca, or post your comments about individual articles on the online version of Education Canada at: www.cea-ace.ca/educationcanada
Photo: Dave Donald
First published in Education Canada, September 2014
[1] Read the whole report at: http://cea-ace.s3.amazonaws.com/media/CEA-2013-2014-AR-Annual-Performance.pdf
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Learning through empathy
Comments Off on Learning through empathyNone of us alive today are responsible for the decisions of those who crafted the laws that made some lesser than others. We did not write the Indian Act or build residential schools. We did not pass out pock infested blankets or exile whole populations of people to patches of land or steal one generation from another. This is not our doing, and, it is the history of our land. We share this history now. All of us who were born here or choose to live here: this is our shared history. We share these stories just as we do the beautiful, compassionate stories of our past.
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Aboriginal education needs to be place-based education
Comments Off on Aboriginal education needs to be place-based education“Indian Control of Indian Education” was a brilliant piece of agenda-setting in the early 1970s.
Anything governments did about Aboriginal education from that point on could be measured against a common yardstick: Is this what the community wants? Is it what parents want?
All over Canada, education agreements have been negotiated with local Bands and other Aboriginal organizations on the basis of that simple idea.
The trouble is that the realities are not simple.
Aboriginal students are extremely diverse, and the histories and current situations of their communities are extremely diverse. Yet schools have a hard time dealing with diversity – not just in Aboriginal communities or towns and cities with large Aboriginal populations, but everywhere.
The fact is that schools were designed, back in the 19th century, to create a more homogenous, unified, mobile population across Canada. That is basically what schools are for. Sure, they can be tweaked in various ways to try and accommodate local differences, but such efforts are add-ons, not part of the basic logic of school.
Aboriginal students are extremely diverse, and the histories and current situations of their communities are extremely diverse. Yet schools have a hard time dealing with diversity – not just in Aboriginal communities or towns and cities with large Aboriginal populations, but everywhere.
A good example is the teaching of Aboriginal languages in schools. Bringing a community language into school changes it, and how students identify with it. Ironically, the effect can be to emotionally distance students from the language, especially if they don’t encounter it in daily use in the community.
This kind of double-bind is at the heart of the problems experienced by Aboriginal students. If they buy into the logic of school, they will find it very difficult to balance that view of the world with a strong sense of rootedness in a particular community and place. If they reject the logic of school, it can be a pretty meaningless and hostile environment to have to endure.
The solution, I think, is to come up with a different vision of schools in general – one that emphasizes their connections with place and community.
Aboriginal education needs to be place-based education in order to attend to the particularity of each community and nation, without making assumptions about the identities, backgrounds and values of individual students. By place-based, I mean that as much of the curriculum as possible should be taught in ways that connect directly with the history and circumstances of where and how the students and their families live.
Aboriginal education needs to be place-based education in order to attend to the particularity of each community and nation, without making assumptions about the identities, backgrounds and values of individual students.
This implies different ways of training teachers, different ways of designing curriculum, and different ways of teaching. It implies getting away from the simple idea of “control” of education. Control means relatively little unless you can change the logic of school so that the local and particular become more central to its mission.
In Canada, good place-based education has to be, among other things, good Aboriginal education. Aboriginal history, values, perspectives and issues need to have a central place in any authentically place-based curriculum. So do, for example, issues of environmental awareness, resource management, energy use, habitat protection, social justice, economic equity, democratic governance, fair trade, human rights, mental and physical health, sustainable agriculture, and so on.
These are issues of concern in every community in Canada – precisely because they are not fully amenable to local control, and larger forces that care nothing for community needs (Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal alike) are steadily undermining our ability to address them.
Our ambitions for Aboriginal students need to extend beyond academic success as currently defined. We need schools dedicated to their well-being as whole persons, and to that of their communities and the natural systems that sustain them.
Enough of add-ons. Let’s tackle the heart of the problem.
This blog post is part of CEA’s focus on aboriginal student success, which is also connected to Education Canada Magazine’s aboriginal student success theme issue and a Facts on Education fact sheet on what the research says about how can we create conditions for Aboriginal student success in our public schools. Please contact info@cea-ace.ca if you would like to contribute a blog post to this series.
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Engage Aboriginal Students In Education
Comments Off on Engage Aboriginal Students In EducationI must state that I am a non-Aboriginal person who has worked in the field of First Nations Education spanning 30 years. I am not an expert in First Nations education, but I have worked with many First Nations students, educators, elders, and leaders in Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Manitoba.
What I have learned from my experience comes mostly from my students. Their perspective is the most interesting and valid because the opinions and ideas that they have shared with me – as their teacher and/or administrator – comes from a place of truth and reality, unaltered to suit an agenda or edited to conform to another’s requirements. I mention this because in education, we are most often provided with criteria, guidelines, and requirements before we complete a written or oral assignment. It sometimes causes us to focus on what the reader or evaluator wants to see more than what we have to say. It can be a distraction from the truth.
The concept of “student engagement” can be viewed in many ways. Some educators define it as a student who listens, pays attention, participates, makes eye contact with the teacher, and follows all school rules related to behavior. He is engaged; he is a good student; he tries.
Schools that focus more on embracing the student than promoting and rewarding conformity will provide a higher quality education to Aboriginal students.
Student engagement is actually much more complex as it is defined in a comprehensive way, such as students having the power of choice in school – that they have influence on what, and how they learn. This approach of student engagement allows for students’ culture, language, and worldview to come alive in their learning. They see themselves in the curriculum and their process in terms of ways of knowing and doing in the pedagogy. And while this process is less prescriptive, students meet and exceed the outcomes.
Student engagement can allow for students to take ownership over their own education – to learn how they want to learn through setting their own goals and measuring their own success. Multiple intelligences, differentiated learning, cultural intelligence, cultural education, and holistic education can all be addressed through authentic student engagement. This approach requires trust from educators that the students will choose to learn; and that they will make decisions that will take them on a path of academic success. It can be done; it has been done. It happens in classrooms and schools that take risks and trust that students naturally want to learn when provided with an opportunity that validates them and their perspective on the world. Schools that focus more on embracing the student than promoting and rewarding conformity will provide a higher quality education to Aboriginal students. More of these success stories should be shared with educators, leaders, and policymakers. Whether the documentation shares how a certain policy was developed to create student engagement or how not following the policy actually created student engagement and an environment more conducive to quality programming is interesting to note.
The most basic requirement for student engagement is attendance and reciprocally; attendance requires engagement. Many Aboriginal students face enormous challenges that interfere with attendance and engagement. Schools must engage these students in a way that connects with their strengths and validates their experience.
It may take a long time to convince many educators, policymakers, and curriculum developers to adopt this holistic approach, so decision-makers need to continue to pursue the available avenues within First Nation and provincial jurisdiction to develop more schools that are based on different philosophies.
It may take a long time to convince many educators, policymakers, and curriculum developers to adopt this holistic approach, so decision-makers need to continue to pursue the available avenues within First Nation and provincial jurisdiction to develop more schools that are based on different philosophies.
The short answer to the question of what needs to change to improve the success of aboriginal students is recognition of First Nation jurisdiction in education by the government and the allocation of the necessary resources to develop and sustain an education system that fits within the cultural framework of the individual First Nation. In this context, students will then be engaged.
This blog post is part of CEA’s focus on aboriginal student success, which is also connected to Education Canada Magazine’s aboriginal student success theme issue and a Facts on Education fact sheet on what the research says about how can we create conditions for Aboriginal student success in our public schools. Please contact info@cea-ace.ca if you would like to contribute a blog post to this series.
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How can we create conditions for Aboriginal student success in our public schools?
Comments Off on How can we create conditions for Aboriginal student success in our public schools?Aboriginal children under age 14 make up 7% of all children in Canada and the Aboriginal population is the fastest growing demographic in this country. Eighty percent of Aboriginal children attend off-reserve provincial schools. In terms of school success, there are significant gaps in learning outcomes and graduation rates between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students.
Nationally, provincially, and territorially, public school educators are committed to closing these gaps, and some success has been realized. For example, in classrooms where Aboriginal content and perspectives were incorporated into a high quality learning program, Aboriginal student grades increased significantly.
Strong leadership is critical to the development of high quality learning programs designed to provide Aboriginal students with every opportunity to succeed in Canadian public schools. Key strategies in creating environments to ensure this success include:
- Relationship building between the Aboriginal community and public school system administrators/educators and meaningful engagement of the Aboriginal community (Elders, Traditional Teachers, etc.) in all aspects of education from policy-making to creating curriculum and resources
- Increasing the numbers of Aboriginal teachers who share their culture and can identify with Aboriginal students and vice-versa
- Creating school cultures where Aboriginal students feel respected and can experience a positive sense of belonging
- Understanding and incorporating Aboriginal perspectives of learning that is: holistic; lifelong; experiential in nature; rooted in Aboriginal languages, cultures, and spirituality; community based involving family, Elders and other community members
- Incorporating Aboriginal perspectives and learning resources into daily curricula for all students – both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal – rather than presenting them as add-on materials or special topics for some groups only
- Providing teachers with authentic and culturally appropriate resources reflective of local Aboriginal communities and perspectives
- Requiring the inclusion of Aboriginal history and perspectives in teacher training and professional development activities to inform and shape teacher attitudes and instructional practices in classrooms.
With the shared commitment and collaborative effort of all stakeholders – Aboriginal communities; policy makers; administrators, teachers, parents, and students – we can create schools where all students, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, can learn and succeed at high levels.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION RESOURCES
Shared Learnings: Integrating BC Aboriginal Content K-10
http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/abed/shared.pdf
TDSB Professional Library, Education of Aboriginal Students in Canada: Selected Current References, August 2012
http://ramott.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/aboriginal-education2012_delinked.pdf
Resources for Rethinking: Aboriginal Voices in the Curriculum http://resources4rethinking.ca/en/resource/aboriginal-voices-in-the-curriculum
Western Canadian Protocol for Collaboration in Basic Education: Aboriginal Languages and Culture Programs
http://www.education.gov.sk.ca/wncp-common-language-framework
Edmonton Public Schools
http://aboriginaleducation.epsb.ca/
Successful Transitions for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Students http://www.education.alberta.ca/media/6397158/successful%20transitions%20fnmi.pdf
Promising Practices in Aboriginal Education
http://www.maei-ppw.ca/Ontario First Nation, Métis, and Inuit Education Policy Framework
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/aboriginal/OFNImplementationPlan.pdfEXAMPLES OF SPECIFIC ABORIGINAL EDUCATION POLICIES
Ontario
Aboriginal Education Strategy
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/aboriginal/curricNSNL.html
Manitoba
Integrating Aboriginal Perspectives into Curricula http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/docs/policy/abpersp/index.html
Saskatchewan
Aboriginal Education Initiatives in Saskatchewan Education: 1995-1998 http://www.education.gov.sk.ca/Aboriginal-Education-Initiatives
Alberta
First Nations, Métis and Inuit Education Policy Framework February 2002
http://education.alberta.ca/media/164126/framework.pdf
British Columbia
Ministry of Education Aboriginal Education Policy
https://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/abed/
REFERENCES
Anuik, J., Battiste, M., George, N., & George, P. (2010). Learning from promising programs and applications in nourishing the learning spirit. Canadian Journal of Native Education, 33(1), 63-82.
Canadian Council on Learning. (2007). Redefining How Success is Measured in First Nations, Inuit and Métis Learning, Report on Learning in Canada. Ottawa, ON: Author
Canadian Council on Learning. (2009). The State of Aboriginal Learning in Canada: A Holistic Approach to Measuring Success. Ottawa, ON: Author.
Claypool, T.R., & Preston, J.P. (2011). Redefining learning and assessment practices impacting Aboriginal students: Considering Aboriginal priorities via Aboriginal and Western worldviews. In Education, 17(3), 84-95.
Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC, 2009). Strengthening Aboriginal success: Moving toward Learn Canada 2020 (Summary Report from the CMEC Summit on Aboriginal Education, February 24-25) Summit on Aboriginal Education Summary Report. Retrieved from:
http://www.cmec.ca/Publications/Lists/Publications/Attachments/221/aboriginal_summit_report.pdf
Friesen, J., & Krauth, B. (2012). Key policy issues in Aboriginal education: An evidence-based approach. Toronto, ON: Council of Ministers of Education, Canada.
Gallagher-Mackay, K., Kidder, A., & Methot, S. (2013). First Nations, Metis, and Inuit Education: Overcoming gaps in provincially funded schools. Toronto, ON: People for Education.
Howe, E. C. (2011). Bridging the Aboriginal education gap in Saskatchewan. Saskatoon, SK: Gabriel Dumont Institute. Retrieved from:
http://www.gdins.org/ckfinder/userfiles/files/Bridging_AbEduGap_GDI_final.pdf
Kanu, Y. (2011). Integrating Aboriginal perspectives into the school curriculum: Purposes, possibilities, and challenges. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.
Mattern, A. (2013, Fall). The best is yet to come: Aboriginal teacher education programs thriving. Green & White: University of Saskatchewan Alumni Magazine, p. 22-23. Retrieved from: http://www.usask.ca/greenandwhite/issues/2013/fall2013/output/GandW.pdf
Richards, J. (2013). Why is BC best? The role of provincial and reserve school systems in explaining Aboriginal student performance (Commentary No. 390). Toronto, ON:C.D. Howe Institute. Retrieved from:
http://www.cdhowe.org/pdf/Commentary_390.pdf
Richards, J., Hove, J, Afolabi, K. (2008). Understanding the Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal gap in student performance: Lessons from British Columbia. Toronto, ON: C. D. Howe Institute.
Richards, J., & Scott, M. (2009). Aboriginal education: Strengthening the foundations. Canadian Policy Research Networks. Retrieved from:
http://cprn.org/documents/51984_EN.pdf
Riley, T., & Ungerleider, C. (2012). Self-fulfilling prophecy: How teachers’ attributions, expectations, and stereotypes influence the learning opportunities afforded aboriginal students. Canadian Journal of Education, 35(2), 303-333.
Statistics Canada. (2013). Aboriginal Peoples in Canada: First Nations People, Métis and Inuit (Catalogue no: 99-011-X2011001). Ottawa, ON: Ministry of Industry.
Thomas, D.M. (2005). Incorporating Aboriginal content and perspectives in Saskatchewan curricula: Experiences of selected teachers. Unpublished Master’s Thesis, University of Saskatchewan. Retrieved from:
Toulouse, P.R. (2011). Achieving Aboriginal student success: A guide for K to 8 classrooms. Winnipeg, MB: Portage and Main. Retrieved from:
https://www.portageandmainpress.com/lesson_plans/plan_303_1.pdf
Toulouse, P.R. (2008, March). Integrating Aboriginal Teaching and Values into the Classroom. What Works? Research into Practice #11.
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/Toulouse.pdf
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Educating ourselves
Comments Off on Educating ourselvesI was a fresh graduate from the Native Studies department at Trent University, working part-time on my master’s degree, when Pauline Harper called from Wandering Spirit Survival School to say, “We’ve suddenly lost our admin assistant. Can you fill in?”
That job stretched to nearly two years, and I still count it as one of the most enriching experiences of my life. Wandering Spirit was what was then called a Native Way school, an alternative school within the Toronto School Board mandated to teach the students about Aboriginal (mostly Ojibwe, in our case) culture and worldview throughout the curriculum. We had about 45 students, K-8 in three classrooms. We began each day – all of us, all together – with a smudge and prayer in Ojibwe from our Elder, Mr. Solomon. There was a giant Medicine Wheel, painted by the kids, on the Grade 3-5 classroom wall and Ojibwe word labels displayed in the K-2 class. We hosted a monthly community feast that lasted all day. These visible details don’t begin to capture the deep differences that seep into the bones of a school when everything, from student discipline to the parent council, is filtered through the lens of Indigenous philosophies and cultural practices. I am deeply grateful for being welcomed into this world.
That’s why I was excited about planning this theme issue on Aboriginal Student Success. The topic is of critical importance; as Darren McKee notes (p. 11), education has been used as an extremely destructive colonial weapon, and the reverberations of that history continue into the present day. Yet education also has the potential to empower today’s Aboriginal students to create their own, better future. And while that education must be shaped and controlled by the First Nations themselves, part of what’s required, as some of our contributors point out, is to strengthen the teaching of Aboriginal history, issues and ways of knowing in all our schools. Educating ourselves is the place to begin.
I knew that finding outstanding Aboriginal scholars and practitioners, who could give us a sense both of the exciting work being done and of the complexity and varied viewpoints involved, would be key to a successful issue. And so I would like to send out a special thank you to our Consulting Editor Michelle Hogue, from the University of Lethbridge, who not only co-authored an article this issue but volunteered her time to advise and connect us with some of Canada’s leaders in Aboriginal education. K’chi meegwetch, Michelle!
Write to us!
We want to know what you think. Send your letters or article proposals to editor@cea-ace.ca, or post your comments about individual articles on the online version of Education Canada at: www.cea-ace.ca/educationcanada.
Photo: Dave Donald
First published in Education Canada, June 2014
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Architecture and Education – What’s standing in the way of change in education?
Comments Off on Architecture and Education – What’s standing in the way of change in education?What’s standing in the way of change in education? It might be the physical space of schooling.
https://vimeo.com/94069247
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When is the best time for students to learn about the importance of mental health?
Comments Off on When is the best time for students to learn about the importance of mental health?“It’s so frustrating when people tell me they know how I feel.” – Read by Lynda Monahan during the first Let’s Talk Mental Health National Video Conference. She was reading a writing submission from a member of the Writing for Your Life program at the Canadian Mental Health Association.
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Taking mental health to school
Comments Off on Taking mental health to schoolAs I was editing the articles in this issue, an online fundraising campaign was launched in my community to raise money for a young woman who desperately needed intensive residential treatment for her eating disorder – a program not funded by our provincial health plan. She wrote eloquently about her inability to fight the disease on her own, her fear of dying, and the hopelessness that long wait lists engender in a young person who needs help now.
It’s a heartbreaking story that illustrates perfectly the “fractured system” that Kate Tilleczek and Katherine Lezeu describe in “Journeys in Youth Mental Health” (p. 12) – and yet it also gives me hope. It gives me hope because not so long ago, we would not have even heard this girl’s story, or had a chance to help (when I last checked, $36,000 had been donated). This girl and her family would have suffered in silence: the taboo around disclosing mental illness was too strong.
The uneasy impression I had when my sons were in high school – that more kids than ever before are struggling with mental health problems – is confirmed in this issue. But beyond the worrying statistics, something good is happening. Young adults I know (or know of, through my kids) are talking about their struggles. They are also blogging, advocating, and starting virtual support groups. When yet another gay teen commits suicide, or a mentally ill man “armed” with a screwdriver is shot by police, they are not just saddened – they are outraged. I know not all young people have this level of awareness, but I do believe they are leading a sea change in our public understanding of mental health.
How can we, as educators, help? Our students bring their troubles to school with them, and too often face troubles at school. School leaders tell us they are searching for ways to support the many students struggling with mental health issues, yet it seems an overwhelming challenge. In this issue, we explore how we can “take mental health to school,” and share some initiatives that have been successful at reducing stigma and building knowledge. Schools are not treatment facilities, and they can’t make up for the failings of a fractured system – but they can be an important part of the solution.
P.S. Check out our web exclusive article, “Minding Your Mind,” to learn about a school mental health program developed in partnership with the non-profit youth mental health initiative mindyourmind: www.cea-ace.ca/educationcanada
This blog post is part of CEA’s focus on student mental health, which is also connected to Education Canada Magazine’s student mental health theme issue and a Facts on Education fact sheet on what the research says about effective approaches to improving students’ mental well-being. Please contact info@cea-ace.ca if you would like to contribute a blog post to this series.
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Dr. Kate Tilleczek: 2013 CEA Whitworth Award Winner
Comments Off on Dr. Kate Tilleczek: 2013 CEA Whitworth Award Winner2013 CEA Whitworth Award for Career Research in Education for Her Sustained Focus on Students on the Margins
http://vimeo.com/90975544
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Taking mental health to school
Comments Off on Taking mental health to schoolAs I was editing the articles in this issue, an online fundraising campaign was launched in my community to raise money for a young woman who desperately needed intensive residential treatment for her eating disorder – a program not funded by our provincial health plan. She wrote eloquently about her inability to fight the disease on her own, her fear of dying, and the hopelessness that long wait lists engender in a young person who needs help now.
It’s a heartbreaking story that illustrates perfectly the “fractured system” that Kate Tilleczek and Katherine Lezeu describe in “Journeys in Youth Mental Health” (p. 12) – and yet it also gives me hope. It gives me hope because not so long ago, we would not have even heard this girl’s story, or had a chance to help (when I last checked, $36,000 had been donated). This girl and her family would have suffered in silence: the taboo around disclosing mental illness was too strong.
The uneasy impression I had when my sons were in high school – that more kids than ever before are struggling with mental health problems – is confirmed in this issue. But beyond the worrying statistics, something good is happening. Young adults I know (or know of, through my kids) are talking about their struggles. They are also blogging, advocating, and starting virtual support groups. When yet another gay teen commits suicide, or a mentally ill man “armed” with a screwdriver is shot by police, they are not just saddened – they are outraged. I know not all young people have this level of awareness, but I do believe they are leading a sea change in our public understanding of mental health.
How can we, as educators, help? Our students bring their troubles to school with them, and too often face troubles at school. School leaders tell us they are searching for ways to support the many students struggling with mental health issues, yet it seems an overwhelming challenge. In this issue, we explore how we can “take mental health to school,” and share some initiatives that have been successful at reducing stigma and building knowledge. Schools are not treatment facilities, and they can’t make up for the failings of a fractured system – but they can be an important part of the solution.
P.S. Check out our web exclusive article, “Minding Your Mind,” to learn about a school mental health program developed in partnership with the non-profit youth mental health initiative mindyourmind: www.cea-ace.ca/educationcanada
Write to us!
Send your letters or article proposals to editor@cea-ace.ca, or post your comments on the online version of Education Canada at: www.cea-ace.ca/educationcanada.
Photo: Dave Donald
First published in Education Canada, March 2014
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A Curriculum of Relationship
Comments Off on A Curriculum of RelationshipThe boy sat hunched over his desk, watching with wide eyes as his teacher worked with a pair of students a few desks up from his own. His eyes slid to the other side of the classroom where groups of students chatted loudly with one another as they tackled the worksheet assigned to them, matching pictures of different types of bird beaks to their written definition. His fingers fidgeted with the pencil he held in his hand. In a cacophony of sounds, he was an island of solitude. He appeared lost.
As part of a graduate class on immigration and settlement issues, several of us had chosen to volunteer our time in a local English Language Learners’ (ELL) classroom composed of junior high students. Many of the students were refugees and had left countries characterized by strife. We had been informed on one of our previous visits that this boy was newly arrived at the school. Shy and unassuming, he was easy to miss in the loud, chattering crowd of kids who dominated the class. The bell rang and two of us lagged behind. Sonia* expressed her shock that the boy was “not learning” despite being placed in this special class. Ill at ease, wanting to support my fellow teacher and simultaneously disturbed by the idea that a student was perhaps being left behind, I struggled to formulate a response. Sadly, what emerged from my lips – a weak platitude – left us both dissatisfied.
The following week, my eyes landed once more on the new student. Sandwiched between an empty desk and a tall, lanky boy, I saw that yet again he appeared rudderless. I looked up without really seeing as the teacher provided directions for a language arts activity. My mind was busily sorting out ways in which help could be offered to this student. He could use an iPad. He could use the picture cards sitting on a shelf at the side of the classroom. He could have a scribe…
Instructions given, the teacher smiled at her class and jokingly urged them to get to work. My thoughts drifted and suddenly I was thinking about a young girl I had taught in my Grade 5 class the previous year. She had recently arrived from India and her English had been limited. Then, too, I had been worried about the type of learning which was occurring. I had not wanted her to fall even more behind. Making arrangements with her parents for her to stay after school, I spent time with her each day, trying to get her up to speed in Math and Language Arts. One day she came to me crying, saying that the other girls in the class didn’t want to include her in their play at recess. This was truly devastating for me to hear. I wanted all my students to feel they had a space of belonging in their classroom. While I had been concerned with the young girl’s skills in the different subject areas, I had not been attendingenough to how the students were engaging with one another. I had not been attending enough to how relationships were being shaped in our classroom. That year, I was reminded that while the mandated curriculum is important, a curriculum which speaks to children’s actual lives is equally if not more important.
The scraping of chairs against the floor brought me back to the present, and I allowed myself a moment to eavesdrop as the teacher moved from group to group. She was voicing words of encouragement and the rapport between her and the students was obvious. The boy was smiling shyly as his partner flipped the page of a textbook. The tension I carried in my shoulders eased. He and his classmates would face many challenges, but they were being supported in their learning in meaningful and tangible ways. Through the creation of caring relationships with their teachers and amongst themselves, they were learning a most valuable curriculum – one that puts citizenship and humanity first.
* Name changed
Photo: Vitchanan (iStock)
First published in Education Canada, March 2014
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Building Community through Online Contact
Comments Off on Building Community through Online ContactAround the world, many children live and attend schools in environments that separate them from neighbours who are different in religion, race or ethnicity. They are living what British Prime Minister David Cameron has called “separate lives.”[1] In other places, children may be separated by distance or historical conflicts. Sometimes it is difficult or impossible to cross these boundaries with face-to-face contact, so innovative educators in many countries have turned to online learning programs as a way of bringing children from diverse communities together. In this article, we will look at some examples of projects that bring students together in this way in Ireland, the U.K., Europe, and Israel and we suggest ways in which the approach might work in Canada.
Community cohesion
In the United Kingdom at the turn of the century, concerns about ethnic strife that focused on immigrant communities, specifically race riots in Bradford, led to a study commonly called The Cantle Report.[2] In that report, the authors found that Britain’s children were living in socially isolated communities, in what some researchers called “isolated, parallel lives” and others referred to as a process of “enclivisation.” The issues seemed similar to those that led to the famous 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision[3] that concluded “separate is not equal” when it comes to schooling.
Concern about the impact of social divisions on school children is not limited to the U.K. and the U.S. Immigrants from former colonies face similar “parallel lives” across Europe, and there is religious and ethnic separation in Israel. There are tribal conflicts in Africa and ethnic divisions in Asian countries. We see similar phenomena in Canada in the “two solitudes” of French and English Canada, in the isolation of Aboriginal communities, and in efforts to deal effectively with the needs of new Canadians.
The idea behind “community cohesion,” then, is to find ways to build a sense of inclusion or belongingness in which individuals who differ in religion, ethnicity, or other ways identify themselves with a common set of social goals.[4]
Why use online learning to promote community cohesion?
It might seem that the logical way to bring communities together would be to have people meet face to face to work collaboratively on issues that would give them shared experiences and a basis for greater mutual understanding. This is the reasoning that led the U.S. Supreme Court to abolish segregated schools. It is also the heart of what social scientists call the “contact hypothesis” – a clearly elaborated and highly researched argument that says when people from different groups work together, there is a reduction in prejudice among members of those groups.
However, in Israel, teacher education researchers at the Mofet Institute have found that when cultural norms (and possibly safety concerns) demand separate schools for students of different religious and ethnic groups (as well as separation of the sexes in some cultures), both teachers and children can grow increasingly comfortable with cross-community communication in online environments that minimize the appearance of those differences.
On the island of Ireland, the Dissolving Boundaries Programme has accumulated over a decade of experience in bringing children from the Republic of Ireland together with children in Northern Ireland to work collaboratively online on curriculum questions.
We have found no examples of North American school projects that used online learning methods with the explicit objective of increasing community cohesion. In the U.S., the difficulty at present is that although many children attend racially and ethnically integrated schools, few are actually in classes with students who differ racially or ethnically from themselves.[5] If 60 years of bringing groups together in the same building has not resulted in increased social and academic contact, then it might well be time to try online communication that is designed to do just that. In Canada, the more pressing problem may be the great distances that separate many Aboriginal students from other Canadians, but once again, online communication could overcome the challenges posed by those distances.
In short, the focus of online communication is communication and the goal of community cohesion is to get people communicating with others who differ from themselves. We have the technology; why not give it a try?
International examples
Ireland’s Dissolving Boundaries Programme[6] began in 1999 as a collaboration between the National University of Ireland at Maynooth, in the Republic of Ireland, and the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland. Ireland was divided in two by a 1921 treaty that sought to end centuries of conflict between Ireland and England. Throughout the 20th century, however, conflict continued until the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. This history of conflict has left a legacy of suspicion and distrust that continues to affect relations between the two parts of Ireland, and also between those in Northern Ireland who favour union with the Republic and those who prefer to maintain a closer connection with the U.K.
The Dissolving Boundaries Programme, importantly, was funded by the governments of both parts of Ireland. The project draws inspiration from the “contact hypothesis” and provides support for teachers who are willing to use technology to enable their students to work on common curriculum issues with students in the other part of Ireland. Currently, over 200 school-based projects involve hundreds of teachers and thousands of children who use online conference software, videos, and email to work together on teacher-developed activities that engage students in shared research, problem solving and writing in all curriculum areas. Face-to-face annual meetings are seen as an important motivational aspect of this program. Research and evaluations have consistently shown that the students enjoy the experience, that they feel they know more about students in the “other” community, and that they have more positive attitudes toward people who are different from themselves.
The eTwinning program[7] in Europe seeks to address a host of challenges involved in creating a political and economic union of people from a variety of cultures with different languages and a long history of conflict – including the two world wars in the 20th century. Additional challenges relate to the influx of people from former colonies and the further cultural and religious differences brought by immigrant workers. In 2005, the eTwinning program was created to promote the use of computer-based communication technologies to bring school children together in education projects that crossed national boundaries, with the intention of promoting mutual understanding and tolerance.It is telling that eTwinning changed its motto in 2008, from “school partnerships in Europe” to “the community for schools in Europe.” By July of 2012, there were 33 ministries of education participating in eTwinning and over 170,000 participants in more than 5,300 school-based projects. Assessments of the effects of the eTwinning program have largely been in the form of case studies and the perceptions of participants. In general, they indicate that participants believe the projects have increased technological skills, supported meaningful collaboration, and fostered improved understanding of other members of the European community.
Israel’s Mofet Institute also uses communications technologies to bring together children from the country’s ethnically and religiously diverse community. (Major religious groups are Jewish, Islamic, Christian and Druze; major ethnic groups are Jewish and Arabic.) The task is complicated by the diversity within these major religious and cultural groups. Since some of these groups require religiously separate education and some also require separate education by gender, many of Israel’s children attend schools with classmates who are very like them; however, there are also schools with a greater diversity in the student population. The divisions reflect the divisions in society, including housing patterns, and for many of Israel’s children there is little opportunity for face-to-face interaction with children from other Israeli communities.
Israeli researchers began their online work by bringing together teacher educators who were prepared to conduct online projects in the schools. The project leaders in the teacher education faculties have developed a variety of models of online educational interaction, including games that stimulate discussion of social issues. More recently, Israeli projects have engaged students in the use of social media to reach out across religious and ethnic barriers. Research based on interviews with teachers and students has generally showed that students begin the online class projects with concerns and reservations about communication with members of the “other” group, but that at the end, they report increased levels of trust and reduced levels of prejudice.
Challenges to community cohesion in Canada
How might such programs be of value in Canada? As noted earlier, many Aboriginal Canadians live in remote areas that impose a form of geographical isolation. We also have the French-English linguistic divide. Lastly, new Canadians often live in urban areas where school children may have contact with their own and other immigrant communities, but may not have much exposure to Canadian communities that were established long before their arrival. In each of these cases, in different ways, we believe that online school projects aimed at common curriculum objectives would contribute to a more cohesive Canada.
Canada has the technology to implement such programs and many of its teachers (and students) already have the necessary technological skills, so what is stopping us? One major challenge may be the issue of jurisdiction – education is a provincial responsibility so there are different curricula and no formal mechanism for national projects. Exacerbating this issue, Aboriginal education is a federal responsibility. However, if we look at the European Union, the national differences are even greater than our provincial differences. The E.U. put eTwinning into operation as a voluntary program built on individual teacher initiative, with professional development and small financial support as incentives. The Council of Ministers of Education of Canada is well situated to take a similar leadership role in building a comparable pan-Canadian program, and doing so would be a nation-building enterprise of considerable importance.
For this to work, we need to have faith in the ingenuity of Canadian teachers to find the curriculum matches that would make joint projects feasible. It may well be that such matches would prove to be easier than we might expect, given previous collaborative initiatives like the “Western protocol” and the use of a relatively common set of textbooks. Here, too, the example of the E.U. could be useful – the eTwinning website provides extensive guidance on how to find partner teachers and how to design and develop online learning projects.
Online schooling services in many provinces could also be a strong catalyst to moving quickly once an initiative has begun. As a bonus, such a program could provide the incentive for technological skill development in some teachers who have yet to find a reason to bring technology into their classrooms.
Language issues could, of course, be a sensitive point in developing Canadian online projects. While most eTwinning projects are conducted in English, the only language requirements of the program are that the teachers agree which language is to be used and the students have comparable levels of achievement in that language. In Canada we might want to encourage some bilingual projects in which learners use both official languages. Teachers working with Aboriginal students might see merit in projects that give their students opportunities to teach Native languages to other Canadian students. The key point is that the projects should encourage appreciation of linguistic diversity and support the learning of language skills.
Having examined the use of online learning to build community cohesion elsewhere in the world, we see a grand opportunity for Canada to not only learn from what has been done elsewhere, but also to develop a homegrown version that could be an important part of Canadian nation-building in the 21st century.
Illustration: Dave Donald
First published in Education Canada, March 2014
EN BREF – Les comparaisons internationales des résultats scolaires ont suscité beaucoup d’intérêt au cours des 20 dernières années. Ces comparaisons tendent à porter sur la littératie, la numératie et les habiletés de résolution de problèmes, en partie parce que l’Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques a ouvert la voie à l’élaboration de mesures fiables. Toutefois, dans de nombreux pays, les gouvernements reconnaissent que les écoles jouent un important rôle pour développer l’identité communautaire ou nationale – elles ont la responsabilité de rapprocher les gens. L’article porte sur quelques exemples internationaux de programmes scolaires élaborés pour développer la cohésion communautaire et demande aux enseignants canadiens d’établir quelles leçons peuvent être tirées de ces initiatives.
[1] D. Cameron, Speech on radicalisation and Islamic extremism (Feb. 5, 2011), reprinted by the NewStatesman.www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/02/terrorism-islam-ideology
[2] T. Cantle, Community Cohesion: A report of the independent review team (London: Home Office, 2001).http://resources.cohesioninstitute.org.uk/Publications/Documents/Document/DownloadDocumentsFile.aspx?recordId=96&file=PDFversion
[3] Brown v. Board of Education, United States Supreme Court, 347 U.S. 483 (1954). http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=347&invol=483
[4] S. Muers, “What is community cohesion, and why is it important?” The Guardian (March 21, 2011).www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2011/mar/21/community-cohesion-definition-measuring
[5] G. Orfield, J. Kucsera, and G. Siegel-Hawley, E Pluribus . . . Separation: Deepening double segregation for more students, The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles (Los Angeles: University of California at Los Angeles, 2012). http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/integration-and-diversity/mlk-national/e-pluribus…separation-deepening-double-segregation-for-more-students
[6] The Dissolving Boundaries Programme website is: www.dissolvingboundaries.org
[7] The eTwinning Programme website is: www.etwinning.net/en/pub/index.htm
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