Reviewing a Programme of Learning
Class: Years 7-8
School: Tauranga Intermediate School
Teachers: Raina Urwin, Phil Appelman, Warren MacDonald, Jo Young
Developing a Programme of Learning
Technology teachers at Tauranga Intermediate developed a Programme of Learning (POL) in late 2009 to trial in 2010 – see Techlink Teaching Snapshot Creating a Programme of Learning. The team – HOD Raina Urwin, Phil Appelman, Warren MacDonald and Jo Young – modified their POL in March 2010 and formally reviewed it in October that year.
The original POL (Word .doc, 49kb) was designed to ensure comprehensive coverage of the eight Components of the three Technology strands. There was a team-wide focus on Outcome Development and Evaluation (ODE), and each teacher was allocated two additional Components as 'major focus' areas which they would assess. Each Component was covered twice over two years, except for Characteristics of Technology. Teachers also had 'minor focus' areas which they would teach but not formally assess.
The POL was created to fit within the team's timetable and units, which followed a five-session (80 minute) structure. The four teachers develop new units each term that reflect school-wide 'themes', and often will also integrate their unit to meet their students' homeroom topics. Sometimes teachers will deliver different units to different classes, instead of teaching the same thing to all Year 7 or all Year 8 classes, which, they say, makes it more interesting for themselves.
Trialling and modifying the POL
The team trialled their POL in Term 1, 2010, but by mid-term found they needed to discuss their progress. They all agreed that it was difficult trying to achieve so much in five lessons, and that the teaching and assessing of three focus Components was taking up a huge amount of each lesson. They felt that student progression had taken a "back seat" to coverage. Raina notes that it was difficult trying to move her students from level 1 to 3 in the limited time available, and that the team needed to find a balance between teaching the practical aspects of their programmes and ensuring an in-depth understanding of the Components.
The team discussed their concerns about effective delivery of their POL with the school's senior management and were reassured that they could modify it and still meet the requirements of their school curriculum.
The POL was modified (Word .doc, 49kb) in March so that each teacher would have two major focus areas.
This meant dropping ODE as a shared Component but allowed them to cover their two Components in more depth.
Reviewing the POL
In late October 2010, the team reviewed the modified POL and agreed that although the original POL had more breadth, the modified version enabled more in-depth teaching. In addition to their 'major focus' Components, each teacher had covered some of the other Components in casual conversation or as pertinent examples cropped up. The formal review of the POL provided an opportunity to look at the recent (2010) changes to the Indicators of Progression and incorporate these into their programme. The team decided to continue their Year 7 programme as planned in the Modified POL but to change coverage of the Components in Year 8 (Word .doc, 29kb).
The review of the POL naturally led to a review of their assessment rubrics. The revised Indicators of Progression meant that the criteria in each rubric needed to be updated. These new rubrics, and a change in focus Components for some of the team, also meant the teachers regularly needed to review the teaching strategies they were using.
What Next?
The formal review of the POL also helped the team identify problems with the current timetable. All Year 7 students complete five sessions in each of the four technologies – Food (Raina), Electronics (Phil), Multi-materials (Jo), and Hard Materials (Warren). To provide more depth for their Year 8 students, the team had previously trialled some other ways of timetabling the Year 8 students:
- using the same timetable as Year 7s, so that each group has five 80-minute sessions in each of the four technologies
- each group having ten sessions of Food Technology but none in Multi-materials; or ten sessions of Multi-materials but none in Food Technology
- merging the two groups into a ten-session combined class where they are taught the Hard Materials and Electronics programme.
In 2011 the team is planning to trial a new structure, and Year 8 students will have five lessons of Food Technology and five lessons of Electronics. Raina decided that despite the disadvantage of having only five lessons, she wants every Year 8 student to experience a second year of Food Technology so will revert to the Year 7 structure. The Food Technology and Electronics courses will be taught separately but Phil is looking at possibilities for linking his unit with what Raina is teaching.
Jo and Warren plan to team teach a combined Multi-materials and Hard Materials Year 8 unit over ten sessions with a joint focus on Technological Modelling. This will give students the opportunity to work within a wider range of materials and skills over a longer period. Jo and Warren will learn from each other's knowledge and skills, and Jo comments that as the students move between them they will be exposed to their different methods of teaching Technological Modelling which will help in building up a good understanding of modelling.
RSS Feed
