How students can win at the 'study game' - don't discount the use of laptops

Assessments are an opportunity for each student to show themselves and their teacher the wonderful things that they have learnt, understood and can now apply to a variety of questions. I know that when facing exams it may not quite seem like it (I just sat a 2 hour exam in some study that I am doing!) And yes, they also provide marks for reports and authorities.

Playing the long-term game

Whilst it may seem to a student that cramming will pay off in the short term by quickly storing information in their short-term memory, this will not assist them with the end of course Examinations.

How to regularly revise

Research has shown that revision that involves some processing of the information – such as creating a mindmap, creating a summary of a summary, or aligning pictures or diagrams to understand complex ideas helps to develop deep processing and hence retention of information in the long-term.

Don’t plan to cram!

It’s important to practice writing out answers to questions with pen-and-paper and not solely rely on the use of a laptop. In fact, research has shown that when taking notes, students may take too many verbatim notes using a laptop, particularly in the tertiary lecture setting. To overcome this and get the benefits of collaborating with peers whilst studying, students should print their notes, and then type up a new summary of those notes and add pictures to assist recall. By simply remembering one key word, the brain often recalls much of the associated information with the key term.

It is through the organisation, synthesis and summarisation of content that students learn best.

Khan Academy announces a new partnership - brings lots of new free apps!

Khan Academy has today announced that they have acquired Duck Duck Moose, a created of children's apps and they are now free. To see the full list of apps, visit the app store.


My son has loved More Trucks for quite some time. Below are a few educational ones that I'll draw your attention to:

Chatterpix (and Chatterpix Kids) allow simple creativity with photographs for children, such as to make a photo of a person talk, add stickers and fun.

Duck Duck Moose reading. There is also a Maths app and many other educational subject specific apps.

BOSTES is no longer, the NSW Education Standards Authority is taking over! What this means for you...

What's in a name change?

So, the name is going to change. We have only had "BOSTES" for a few years (since 2014), with the merging of the "Board of Studies" and "Institute of Teachers" in NSW. At this time, the organisation went through a lengthy process of rebranding everything with their new 'orange books' logo. They are now turning around and putting more money into rebranding once again as they become the "Education Standards Authority" (ESA).

What is the change in powers for Registration and Accreditation?

1. Reduce the administrative burden of School Registration

2. It appears that Principals will have more power (and responsibility) to certify the existence of documentary evidence.

3. They seek to increase the number of random and risk-based audits in Independent, Systemic and Government Schools.

Will anything change in the way Curriculum is implemented?

1. Remove duplication of syllabus writing between BOSTES and ACARA. One of the goals of ESA (referred to as 'The Authority" by the BOSTES review, but as ESA by me) is to "Streamline curriculum development process with a more constructive approach to the national curriculum roll-out that removes duplication and expedites syllabus development". This means in essence that the duplication where BOSTES was writing a syllabus re-worked version of the ACARA Australian Curriculum seems quite logical. It made no sense, if the curriculum was truly to be "Australian" for NSW to decide to write their own documents.

The new model will be "adopt and adapt" to reduce overcrowding. This will free up resources (apparently / hopefully) to focus on improving teaching and learning. This will be hard for many in NSW to stomach, but from a holistic perspective, I welcome this change.

2. Future syllabuses will support increased flexibility for teachers so that students can go deeper. Whilst depth is important, it is also essential that we do not deny the value of surface-level knowledge as Hattie would argue.

What will change for Teacher Accreditation

1. For Teachers. The Maintenance of accreditation at Proficient level will be streamlined if schools have a Performance and Development Framework in place (which they must, according to AITSL)

2. For Schools. At present, when a teacher is accredited at Proficient Teacher, there is a detailed checking of documents that occurs by both BOSTES staff and independent consultants. This will be minimised to focus on consistency (which was its original aim) rather than the many man-hours that goes into the current process. In effect the TAA (the School Principal in many cases) will be given more power in not only signing off a teacher's Proficient Teacher Accreditation, but also in validating the documents are completed.

3. For Professional Development Providers. The approval process to become a registered provider (QTC) will be simplified.

For the future...

Recommended for further investigation is:
- HSC Disability adjustments
- Early Childhood educaiton
- VET
- Home Schooling

Click below for links to the review, overview and media release.

Promoting the #DeviceFreeDinner from @CommonSense

There are some places where devices don't belong... and yes the dinner table is one of those! Let's strive for good relationships with our children by having deep conversation over dinner, rather than being 2 adults and 2 children co-habiting the same house!

The argument 15 years ago was about watching television whilst at the dinner table, but it has become even harder now with the mobile phone and tablet devices and it's not just the children! Often it is the example of the parents taking a work phone call at the dinner table, reading the newspaper online or checking facebook that is demonstrated to children. It is a travesty to see a family in a restaurant with all members with heads buried in phones... often with the kids with headphones on just to make sure that no communication happens!

Dinner is not the only place this is an issue, but it is a great place to start. So, will you take the DeviceFreeDinner Challange that Common Sense has put before us?

Sign up for tips to make this a reality: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/device-free-dinner

I certainly don't have all the answers. There are definitely those nights where it is easier to let the tired 5 and 7 year old watch something on their iPad rather than struggle through getting them to eat their dinner and have some interaction, particularly after a hard day at work, but it's important to make the effort!

Training your children in good habits starts at a young age! Do you realise what you are doing and demonstrating at the dinner table?

Washington Post Article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/08/05/can-you-survive-a-device-free-dinner/

Videos from CommonSenseMedia

Why the call to make Algebra optional in the US takes them in the wrong direction!

 One of the myths is that every one of us is going to have to know algebra, geometry, trigonometry in the 21st century, because that’s the way a high-tech age is going. (Andrew Hacker)

Algebra is a core component of Algebra in the US. Andrew Hacker argues that only 5% of the workforce uses Advanced Mathematics in the US, which is the incorrect starting point. It is not the content that is taught in Mathematics that is essential for all school leavers, it is residuals of learning that are key - the mathematical thinking, the problem solving and mathematical literacy that all citizens need. To be fair, Andrew Hacker does focus on a move to literacy; however, how can you promote mathematical literacy without rigorous content as the context in which to teach that literacy? Yes, Numeracy can be taught in subject such as Science and Geography (and I would argue in all subjects, even English), but there also needs to be significant thought in an abstract manner.

We need to focus on the residuals of learning - what is it that students take out of our classes and continue to hold on to long after they have forgotten Pythagoras' Theorem?

What is the impact for Australia?

There is of course some merit to his argument, that for some students applications of mathematics (arithmetic) would be of more benefit than calculus. So, how does all of this sit in Australia? The Australian Curriculum as formed in NSW Syllabus documents has a balance of algebra that is required in the junior years, through to optional courses in the senior years of General Mathematics that focuses on real world applications and the calculus based courses.

The curriculum in NSW is undergoing change at the moment and the increase of statistical numeracy for all students studying a Mathematics course is a welcomed step forward.

See the video where Andrew Hacker argues for reform in his book "The Math Myth":

Source: PBS, 6 August 2016, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/thinking-math-terms-literacy-not-levels/

I'm concerned that the HSC reforms will increase stress and anxiety, not reduce them.

One of the significant aims of the reforms to the HSC that have now been released, was to reduce the stress and anxiety in our senior students.

Do we know what causes the anxiety? I would argue that we have not thoroughly investigated the causes of the anxiety, much of which could be attributable to changes in society and family situations such as both parents working longer hours. If we do not know what causes the anxiety in students and only try and attack the problems students have one at a time through psychologist visits, then we are unlikely to have the impact we desire.

Why less Assessment Tasks could increase anxiety. It makes perfect sense that if we reduce the number of assessment tasks, then we will reduce the anxiety in our students. This may not be the case. To take the extreme view (which has not been proposed) and remove all internal assessment, surely stress would decline. This may be true throughout the year, but stress and anxiety over the one high stakes exam would skyrocket. With 3 tasks in Year 11, the most likely situation is 2 x 30% tasks and 1 x 40% task, which means that each of these becomes increasingly important.

How were assessments different in the past? When I was in school, you did not necessarily know about tasks ahead of time, there was no 'formal notification' and you just showed up and did the task. There were probably more tasks to complete, but each of them was of little importance to the final grade (10%) but useful for bench marking what content you had actually learnt and what you needed to revise (Assessment for Learning).

Surely investigation tasks are great... or are they? In my experience, it seems to be the ongoing investigation style tasks that create the greatest anxiety for students with mental health concerns. There is always something more that they can do to improve, add to and work on an investigation until it is handed in. Where do you start? There are weeks of agonising over a long-term task like this, even if it is restricted to class time.

I applaud BOSTES for trying to reduce stress and anxiety in our students, but I am concerned that the proposed reforms may have the opposite impact.


If you suffer from anxiety, then consult a psychologist of call lifeline on 13 11 14

Do you use quizzes as end points, or just the beginning?

Often we use a quiz, topic test or even an assessment task as an end point. How much have the students learnt? Have the students understood the content? We then quickly move on to the next dot point or the next unit. To compound this, students get their quiz back, see their mark and then make judgments about themselves as people "I did really well" "I'm good at this" or "I'm no good at school" rather than focus on the learning.
Consider the impact that we can have on our student's learning if we can challenge students to assess their own progress. After completing a quiz or test, consider giving no marks to the student, but just feedback. What if the students answer questions such as those below:

• After completing the quiz, how confident are you about the content in the unit?
• How hard did you find the quiz? Very easy / easy / hard / very hard
• Which parts of the content do you think you are still a little rusty on?
• Which parts do you feel as though you have sufficiently mastered?
• How prepared did you feel for the quiz?
• What are some specific questions that you have about the content?
• Is there anything that you'd like to investigate further?

We can use many assessment for learning tools to get quick feedback in the process of teaching, whether it be mini-whiteboards, getting student to write a big answer on their iPad and hold it up, putting a post-it on the board when they leave the room or use digital tools such as Formative or Kahoot.  But, consider how we can reform the summative assessment to focus on learning and progress.

As Year 12 commence their Trial HSC Examinations, consider and disucss with colleagues how you will hand back the papers to your students to get the biggest impact from the significant amount of work by students and teachers that goes in to preparing, sitting for and then marking the Trials.

Looking for a new assessment for learning tool? Consider Answer Pad.

More information on Assessment for Learning tools can be found on the Commonsensemedia Graphite blog - https://www.commonsense.org/education/blog/the-best-formative-assessment-tools-tips-and-lessons

How would you go on the new Literacy and Numeracy Test for minimum requirements for the HSC?

Here is the test on the BOSTES Concerto Platform. What do you think of it? Leave your comments below.

http://hscliteracynumeracy.bostes.nsw.edu.au/

Asia, Women and Aboriginals - that's what the new HSC is all about if you believe the @SMH

The SMH reports below that 'thousands of schools' will be impacted. YES! Everyone school in NSW teaching the BOSTES courses for the HSC will be affected by the changes. There is no need to sensationalise it with the 'thousands' impacted.

Thousands of NSW school students will have a greater focus on the environment, Asia, and the role of women and Aboriginal leaders in shaping modern Australian history under a suite of proposed electives to be introduced by the NSW Board of Studies on Thursday. (SMH)

Regardless, if you read the SMH headlines, you may start to believe that the new HSC is about an agenda push into Asia, Woman and Aboriginals. Yes, there will be increasing parts of content that relate to these ideas, but isn't that just a recognition that over the past two decades we have more trade with Asia, we have given land back to and said sorry to Aboriginals and been (hopefully) less discriminatory towards women. The curriculum documents still include reference to more traditional such as Nazi Germany.

Let's not get too concerned too quickly at this review stage where BOSTES is seeking feedback from stakeholders. Let's take time to digest the content and consider how it may be taught in schools and how it will positively or negatively impact student outcomes. Will it assist them in their life more than the current content?

Adrian Piccoli sums up the main HSC reforms that are upon us

My HSC: A guide to HSC reforms for students

Big changes to the English Syllabus - jury is still out!

The English curriculum is undergoing a massive change, back to pre-2000 days moving away from feminism, nihilism and post-modernism to a close study of original texts, grammar and language.

Whilst many English teachers love this more theoretical content (and opposition from the English Teachers' Association if likely), BOSTES has taken the position that it is not the best thing for the students.

The modules on belonging and journeys have been scrapped, which will be well supported by the student population who were broadly negative in attitude towards these units.

As BOSTES tried to reduce stress, the @SMH incorrectly says changes will increase pressure on 14 year olds!

The SMH in this article on Tuesday reported that:

The move is expected to heap pressure on students as young as 14...

(SMH)


With a Band 8 or better being awarded to most students above national minimum standard, this is a low benchmark (not high as BOSTES argues). By the time students, three years later, finish Year 12, they should not be labeled as "as minimum standard" for a Year 9 student. If this is the case, we have failed as educators or the student most definately should not be awarded the credential of HSC (not an automatic entitlement!)

Students will have the opportunity to sit online literacy and numeracy tests at various points to show that they have met the standard. the Band 8 at Year 9 is jut the first opportunity that students have to demonstrate this. It may have the impact of Year 9 students taking NAPLAN more seriously and hence achieving better results - which I'm sure the NSW government would love to see when being bench-marked against other states.

"This is about motivating students in junior high school particularly," Mr Piccoli said.

(SMH)

If you want more details on what a Band 8 actually is, visit the NAP website: http://nap.edu.au/results-and-reports/how-to-interpret 

BOSTES says farewell to some great Mathematics content

It is probable not surprising and something that I had anticipated that the thorough investigation of the parabola, locus problems and eventually conics have been removed. It is disappointing, given some of great problem-solving skills that this develops in our students.

Circle Geometry has now moved completely to Extension 2 Mathematics, which represents the overall reduction in Coordinate Geometry.

So long curve sketching. Whilst functions remain a significant part of the 2 unit course and there is still a focus on Trig graphs in Extension 1, the more complex analysis of graphing has been diminished.

Motion seems to have been moved completely from Extension 1 Mathematics to Extension 2 Mathematics (despite being kept in the glossary of terms for Extension 1 - maybe an attention to detail thing??)

Volumes only seem to be investigated superficially in Extension 1, with no harder problems in Extension 2, although this could come into the integration parts of the course.

There are of course additions to the courses. Namely, Statistics in the calculus courses and Matrices (vectors) being introduced to Extension 2 Mathematics.

BOSTES Draft Mathematics Syllabus includes sweeping changes for the HSC Examination

Mathematics General 1

This course seems to have been elevated with the inclusion of an HSC Examination.

Multiple Choice
There are two proposals being put forward for HSC Examinations, which considers:

1. Continued inclusion of Objective response (multiple choice), with a reduction in General 2 Mathematics to 10 questions
2. Removal of objective response questions.

It was a curious change to include (cost-saving) multiple choice questions to the Mathematics courses a few years back. Given the feedback that must have been received, there seems to be a sensible consideration of the removal of Multiple Choice questions to again focus on thinking, understanding and process (which is what Mathematics is about) as opposed to just considering the final result.

Common Questions

There will be 30% of marks common between General 1 Mathematics and General 2 Mathematics.

There will be 30% of marks common between General 2 Mathematics and Mathematics.

There will be 25% of marks common between Mathematics and Mathematics Extension 1. Extension students will no longer sit the Mathematics Exam!

Extension 2 students will also sit the Extension 1 exam.

Internal Assessment

All calculus courses now require one x 20% - 30% task as an investigation style task.

Content changes

It will be interesting to see what content has changed as we dive on in! I'm looking forward to seeing the statistics sections in the calculus courses.

Extension 1 Mathematics is now essentially 3 strands - Trig Functions (also Functions in Y11), Calculus and Statistical Analysis. Looks like a lot has been removed, but will need to dive deeper into the content to see the changes proposed.

Extension 2 has Proof, Complex Numbers, Mechanics and Vectors and Calculus.

The 'modernised' HSC - a timeline of events

The following timeline has been produced by BOSTES to show the important markers for the HSC and is available from: http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/stronger-hsc-standards/ 

If you'd like more details on where we've come from with the HSC over 54 years - vist this site: http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/news-media/hsc-media-guide/hsc-timeline.html

The 'New' New HSC - Everything you need to know

Past developments

At the turn of the century the "New" HSC was launched with some modifications and some subjects not changing very much (eg

Mathematics, my own subject area). Some subjects saw considerable change, such as the reduction of '3 Unit' options in many subjects and a shift away from the mathematical basis in some sciences to a more philosophical approach, which the aim of increasing the participation of girls in the sciences. Students were given the freedom to select from the broad range of subjects, with English being the only compulsory subject and not the humanities / sciences split that there was previously.

Adrian Piccoli, NSW Education Minister, notes that this last review was before smartphones, google and social media. A lot has changed in the landscape!

Current Changes

BOSTES has consulted with many educational organisations regarding current pressures in the HSC to try and improve what is already regarded as a strong, positive credential - the HSC. Below is a snapshot of the key changes:

Impacts Year 9 2017

1. Minimum Standard

There will be a minimum standard in Literacy and Numeracy, which can be gained as a Band 8 at Year 9 in NAPLAN or by completing an online test after Year 9. (This may include a unit of literacy or numeracy in Stage 6 if not proficient). 

Impacts Year 10 2017 (Year 9 2016)

2. Syllabus Review (Curriculum)

New syllabus (incorporating Australian Curriculum) for English, Mathematics, Science and History (to be taught in Y11 2018)

Regularly review syllabus documents for Stage 6 courses on at least a 5-yearly basis. Publish the syllabus documents as online documents within the framework of syllabus.bos.nsw.edu.au.

Potential new subjects of Philosophy and Psychology.

Introduction of a Science Extension course (HSC from 2019)

Review of Extension courses to focus on complex thinking (particularly English, I suggest)

3. Assessment

New guidelines and rules around type, length style and number of tasks for internal assessments. 3 max in Y11 and 4 max in Y12 (possibility of completing one HSC task in Y11). The aim of this is to reduce stress and anxiety amongst students. It will of course increase the weighting of each task (e.g. Y11 could have 1x40%, 2x30% tasks). Time will tell if this aim is achieved.

Internal assessment tasks will have to be in varied form (eg speeches, presentations, projects, in-class problem solving, etc) which has been encouraged in the past, but may be more prescriptive in nature. This is trying to change the practice common in schools of using internal assessment tasks to practice for 'the real thing' of the HSC Examination in Term 4. Given that scaling of internal marks will (as far as I can see) still be linked to HSC Examinations, this will not remove the incentive for schools to try and continue this practice.

Redesign of HSC examination questions to focus on depth and reduce the opportunity for pre-prepared or plagiarised answers (not sure how they hope to achieve this)

Research ongoing about the incorporation of online assessment.

Apply a common scale for comparing the Mathematics courses, to reduce the incentive for students to maximise their ATAR by selecting General Mathematics 2, when they would be better suited to a calculus-based course.

How educational leaders develop trust

Viviane Robinson from the Centre of Educational Leadership in Auckland explains that trust is gained in the little things we do as leaders.

Minions explain classroom rules

When starting a new class, it is important to set some expectations. The clip below may be a fun way to introduce the idea of classroom rules and why they are important.

How much is your time worth to you? Not much it turns out!

I recently watched this youtube clip where Merlin Mann talks to "Knowledge Workers" at Google  and he raised an interesting question of how much we value our own time. An initial response is that of course I value my time heavily, but it is interesting to consider what this means and what the implications are for us. If we highly value our time, then we won't just let people use our time without making a conscious decision.

Merlin gives a great example - if someone walks down the corridor and asks for $100. Would you easily give the $100 away? certainly not! But, what if someone comes in the corridor and wants to have a 15 minute conversation (ie take, use, dispose of 15 minutes of your time) - how freely we give this commodity away.

Time is more precious than money, you can always get more money (Merlin Mann)

Another interesting side-effect of not highly valuing your time is that it can lead to procrastination. If we really see time as having a true a precious commodity, then we will not waste it. After all, we only have a limited time on this earth.

There is a real tension here. Good leaders are approachable, tend to have open door policies and will hear staff/colleagues and help them. What I've learnt from this however, is that there must be a balance.

What is the opportunity cost of giving someone 15 minutes of your time?

Who gets access to you? Who is allowed to have your time? For how long? How much notice do they need to give?

We used to respond to email instantaneously - as soon as we heard the "ding". But we have transferred this over to real life. Crazy! Like we have turned off the 'ding' of email, maybe we need to turn off the any-time access that people have to us.

Don't just say "Yes" every time someone asks as this demonstrates that we don't value our time.

How involved are the parents at your school?

Today, the Sydney Morning Herald published an article "Helicopter parents stalk teachers over kids' homework", which raised an issue that has increasingly impacted schools over previous years. 

There is a definite impact on teachers of this kind of approach that parents can take, but I think the bigger impact is on students who are not making the mistakes that are so vital in us learning and changing. 


It can be difficult as a parent. With my daughter going into Year 2 this year, I want the best for her and would love to solve all of her problems, but rather it is more important for her to take responsibility for her learning and education for this little as packing her own bag  to remembering to do (and not lose) her homework sheet. 
I applaud the SMH for raising this important issue. 

"In days of old, parents would say to the child 'why aren't you doing your homework'. Now they're much more likely to say to the school 'what are you doing about it?'" Ms Locke said. (SMH, 31/1/2016)

See the full SMH article: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/helicopter-parents-stalk-teachers-over-kids-homework-20160129-gmhd1r.html#ixzz3ylWRmctm

Improving iPad usability for Schools - what's coming...

Apple is releasing iOS3 to developers, which promises some improvements for schools. 

1. Classroom Management - the ability to project an iPad screen to all the students in your class or quickly put one of them on the Apple TV. Of course, it is essential that you have an Apple TV in every classroom of the school, something that would be of benefit but may nor be realistic for many schools. Whilst this is a nice gimmick, I would still defer to putting my screen on the projector rather than to all the students iPads. I also wonder how the data will be gathered for teachers to pick which students are in their class - most of these systems are cumbersome and you have to set up each class you teach.
2. Multiple users login - this appears to be a great feature for students who share iPads - just  nett a different passcode and you get a personalised experience. I wonder whether this will remember which user is logged in to apps like OneDrive. The more students who see the iPad as their own device, the more content they will store on it, which will force schools to buy devices with larger storage. Not necessarily a bad thing, but an additional cost.

Whilst there are negatives with these, it is good to see that Apple is attempting to support education with iPads. Whether they are the right device for education remains to be seen, but I believe that when the Apple Pencil comes to the standard iPad, usability will be greatly improved!

Based on the article printed by @smh http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/mobiles/ios-93-beta-shows-off-big-changes-coming-to-iphone-and-ipad-20160112-gm416p.html