Technology in an IB programme
Level: Years 7-8
School: Takapuna Normal Intermediate School
Teachers: Jackie Jones, John Drought, Adrian Steel, and Alex Elton-Farr
Category: Creating a Technology Programme
When Takapuna Normal Intermediate joined the International Baccalaureate(IB) programme in 2008, Technology teachers had the challenge of developing their own course within the IB framework. The school chose to follow the IB primary years programme (PYP, ages 3 to 12) rather than middle years programme (ages 11-16), in part because it is inquiry-based and the school was already operating on an inquiry-based system. The primary years programme, however, does not recognise Technology as a subject area, but as a discipline within a trans-disciplinary programme.
The Technology team of Jackie Jones, John Drought and Adrian Steel [Alex Elton-Farr replaced Adrian in 2010] participated with the rest of the staff in training sessions over two years, but had to develop their own Technology IB programme. At the time Takapuna was the only intermediate doing IB so, although they could look at examples of primary years Technology planning done at schools in other countries through the online IB Curriculum Centre, the three had to work out their own course to fit the New Zealand Curriculum.
In 2009 the Technology team was accepted into the Resource Development and Facilitation: Years 7-10 Technology Project, which provided them with the opportunity to trial the components of the Technological Knowledge and Nature of Technology strands, and to consider progression across Years 7/8 while planning their IB Technology programme.
The IB programme is based on six trans-disciplinary themes which the whole school works on over a year:
- who we are
- where we are in place and time
- how we express ourselves
- how the world works
- how we organise ourselves
- sharing the planet.
Instead of identifying an individual issue, Technology teachers work on the same integrated theme as classroom teachers – they fit their own context into the theme to suit their area of teaching, and adapt or create units within these constraints. Specialist teachers are required to use the same key concepts as classroom teachers. With the theme 'How we express ourselves' for example, Jackie developed a design brief in which her Year 8 students 'develop a food product that displays my uniqueness' in relation to different perspectives of multiculturalism.
Working on a common theme required more collaboration with colleagues – Jackie comments that in an ideal world the specialist teachers would fully collaborate with classroom teachers, sitting in on meetings and working from the same planner, but that with the current timetable structure they haven't achieved that yet. The team has, however, allocated one specialist teacher to each syndicate so they can maintain contact and share information with the rest of the school.
When the team first started planning their IB Technology programme, they realised that the IB philosophy aligned well with the Technology Curriculum as they both share a similar vision, values and skill set. Their programme didn't need to change much, says Jackie, because the school was already using the "Gwen Gawith inquiry process" – so it was more a case of ensuring that they used the IB terminology and planning documents. The IB programme requires every teacher to use the same planning template, in which they fill out what they want students to learn, the lines of inquiry, the questions they're going to ask, the purpose of the work, assessment and reflection. Jackie also has a supplementary sheet on which she records learning engagements in more detail and how they relate to the Technology achievement objectives. A large part of the IB planner requires teachers to reflect on student learning, which is useful for formative assessment and future planning. Jackie points out that IB hasn't changed what they are teaching, but more the teaching strategies the team uses.
The IB programme has specific terminology, so the team had to change their vocabulary to align with what was being used across the whole school. Jackie explains "We still talk about 'key questions' but now also about 'lines of inquiry'" (Lines of inquiry are the questions that need to be investigated during the research process). The 'Habits of mind' terminology that had been widely used in the school was replaced by the 'IB Learner profile'.The 'Learner profile' terminology is displayed in every room along with the 'Key concepts' – the IB terminology doesn't affect student learning of Technology words and Jackie displays the three Technology strands on the wall along with words for Food Technology-specific knowledge and skills. "It's not up there to look pretty; if students are evaluating their work, I ask them what skills they have used and I encourage them to look at the wall. When they're working and want a "thingie", I know what they mean but tell them to look and find the correct word."
John, Jackie, Adrian and Alex have each developed units for their specialist teaching areas, within the overall Technology programme, taking the IB theme and designing a unit to fit with it. Year 7 students start the school year working on the theme 'Who are we?' in each specialist area. Jackie took this concept of building relationships with family, friends and community and related it to students building relationships within the Food Technology room – that everyone needed: their own space; to work as a team; to work out basic safety, hygiene, time management, knowledge and skills; to identify learning needs; and to set a learning target. She videos the students talking about their products/outcomes and encourages them to use Technology words: "My stakeholder is..."; "My outcome is suitable for my stakeholder because...".
Although the three teachers found creating an IB Technology programme overwhelming at first, they concluded that it really wasn't much different to what they had been doing and, as they worked through it, it began to "flow" more easily. John points out that they still plan from The New Zealand Curriculum documents, as well as the IB 'Making the PYP happen' planning guide. Jackie adds that "IB is just a vehicle for delivery, a vehicle that gets you thinking on a much deeper level about what you're doing."
For an example of how Jackie has created a unit based on the theme 'Where we are in place and time', look at her planning for Food for thought.
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