New Plymouth Girls’ High School (TLIF 5-067) - Shape your Future Publications
Publication Details
Project Reference: New Plymouth Girls’ High School (TLIF 5-067) - The students in Shape experienced academic success, and for some this was beyond what would ordinarily be expected of them, given their achievement at the end of Year 10. Alongside this, the students reported a much more positive learning experience, one that fostered feelings of control, connection, care, and confidence. While we are not able to draw a straight line of causation between feeling well and achieving well, there is a strong correlation here. Is it too much to suggest that if we feel good, we tend to do good? Is this more important for students who are not academic ‘stars’?
Author(s): (Inquiry Team) led by Kirsty Grieve, supported by Victoria Kerr
Date Published: January 2019
Overview
Teachers at New Plymouth Girls’ High School were concerned that some students were disengaged from learning. These students were compliant rather than disruptive. However, when surveyed, it was discovered that they felt their teachers were not interested in their culture, learning at school was not interesting to them, and they did not have a say in what happened to them at school.
The students in Shape experienced academic success, and for some this was beyond what would ordinarily be expected of them, given their achievement at the end of Year 10. Alongside this, the students reported a much more positive learning experience, one that fostered feelings of control, connection, care, and confidence. While we are not able to draw a straight line of causation between feeling well and achieving well, there is a strong correlation here. Is it too much to suggest that if we feel good, we tend to do good? Is this more important for students who are not academic ‘stars’?
Project report
Inspired by Bandura’s theories about self-efficacy and about the success of project-based learning at Howick College, a group of teachers co-designed a new programme of learning called Shape your Future. The programme was intended to grow students’ self-efficacy and thus enable them to think critically and actively shape their future. It was cross-curricular, so teachers had to think about how to grow literacy within each of their disciplines while also making connections between them and with the ‘real world’. Shape your Future was first trialled with students in Year 11 and then with another class in Year 12.
The teachers had to learn to ‘dance’ in the space between teacher control of learning and teacher input. Prompted by their students, they learned to sit back and observe, then select strategies that would help move learning along without taking it over.
The programme was successful in growing self-efficacy and students’ sense of self. Participating students report feeling more confident and more connected to those around them and having a stronger sense of self. Academically, they are performing well, achieving more NCEA credits than anticipated, including more that are endorsed. The programme’s success is reflected in the school’s decision to now offer it at every level from years 11 to 13.
The inquiry story
This two-year inquiry project spanned two years, starting with a Year 11 class of 20 students in 2019 and moving on to include a Year 12 class in 2020. The inquiry was cross-curricular, involving teachers from the English, science, mathematics, visual arts, and technology learning areas. It had strong support from the school principal.
What was the focus?
When New Plymouth Girls’ High School implemented NZCER’s Wellbeing Survey in 2017, the school identified many positive aspects to students’ experience of learning at school. Students generally felt accepted and that they belonged. However, there were also some areas of concern. Fewer than 50% of students felt their culture was of interest to teachers, that their learning was interesting, and that they had a say in what happened to them at school. Furthermore, teachers had observed that some students had quietly disengaged from learning. They complied with teacher directions, but without truly engaging in the learning.
Bandura’s (2008) theory of self-efficacy resonated with the teachers. Bandura argued that “Human well-being and attainments require an optimistic and resilient sense of efficacy”. The team asked, “How can we grow learner self-efficacy to enable our students to think critically and actively shape their future?”
Bandura (2008) argued there are four ways in which self-efficacy is developed:
- Mastery experiences: students having the opportunity and support to experience success
- Social modelling: students getting to see others be successful
- Social persuasion: teachers strengthening students’ belief that they can be successful
- Emotional and psychological feedback: students feeling confident in themselves.
This meant that teacher development focused upon adopting practices that enabled each of these to happen.
The team was interested in Howick College’s work on developing an integrated curriculum (as described in their TLIF report). With this in mind, the team went on to develop the following innovation statement:
We would like to know if all our students (especially those who are currently disengaged) can develop a greater love of learning and become more curious of the world around them when teachers take a more facilitating role (where students are given more ownership to control and manage their learning) and where teachers work together to deliver a more integrated curriculum, centred on real world inquiries.
What did the teachers try?
Initially, the teachers intended to focus on co-constructing with each other and their students a curriculum that was more connected with the real world, a world that is in a state of rapid and significant change. Such a curriculum would foster ‘soft skills’, such as adaptability, resilience, and the ability to generate positive learning from mistakes. It would enable students to think critically and problem solve, collaborate across networks, lead by influence, have initiative and be entrepreneurial, communicate effectively, and be curious and inspired about the society they live in.
In 2019, the teachers co-designed a cross-curricular Year 11 programme like the one created at Howick College. This meant supporting students to engage in project-based learning that offered them opportunities to make meaning in disciplinary-specific ways while also making connections between related concepts, within and across the learning area disciplines. The new programme was called “Shape your Future” and the students who participated agreed to a programme that would enable them to learn in new ways. They would spend 24 hours per week in the programme on the school’s ten-day timetable, and the rest of their time taking other subjects they had selected.
Teacher observation and student voice were important to this project. At the end of Term 1 2019, students were asked for their feedback. They expressed thoughts such as: they wanted genuine choice; they didn’t feel trusted; they felt the teachers needed to be braver; and the class was beginning to feel like a ‘normal’ one because of the emphasis on achievement standards. Teachers realised that they needed to shift from controlling the learning to influencing it. After further learning and reflection, they decided the following strategies would help them create the space for learner self-efficacy to develop: ‘frames’ for learning; using the environment as the third teacher; ‘spray and walk away’; observation; questioning; ‘working with’; and direct instruction. They decided upon a different approach to NCEA internal assessment, with an emphasis on gathering evidence and looking for standards to ‘fall out’ of the learning.
In 2020, the programme was extended to a class of Year 12 students. Adjustments continued to be made as teachers responded to what they were learning. Teacher observations made it increasingly apparent that when the learner had control of a teaching-learning interaction, and thus the strategy the teacher used, the impact on self-efficacy was ‘rich’. Often, this richness occurred on the back of focused listening and observation on the part of the teacher, which then allowed the teacher to respond more intentionally to learner need.
What happened as a result of this innovation?
Teachers in the project talk about a ‘dance’ that takes place in the shift from teacher control of learning to teacher input. Shifts in teacher practice designed to foster student agency and self-efficacy have included the following:
- Teachers are more willing to take risks and experiment with new pedagogies.
- Teachers are increasingly willing and able to listen to students and respond to what they say are their goals.
- Teachers offer students co-constructed learning opportunities that give them choice over their learning and foster a sense of ownership.
- Teachers are taking more time to observe student interactions and engagement, read what is happening, and respond thoughtfully and appropriately.
- Teachers have improved their use of formative feedback.
- Teachers have improved their questioning and other approaches designed to prompt reflection and prompt students to take responsibility for problem-solving (for example, ‘spray and walk away’).
- Teachers are extending ‘wait time’ and reducing their use of teacher-directed talk.
- Teachers are getting to know students and constructing deeper relationships founded on care and trust.
- Student interviews at the end of 2019 and 2020 revealed the following:
- Students felt they had increased sense of control over what they learned and how they used their time.
- Students had deepened their relationships with their teachers and peers. They felt cared for, believed in, appreciated, and accepted.
- Students had more pride and a wider definition of success. NCEA achievement mattered, but they were interested in going beyond assessment requirements and making an impact on their world.
- Students recognised that the programme had potential for ‘time wasting’ and some had found it harder than others to attain NCEA credits. However, they demonstrated higher levels of reflection than others and took ownership of their learning successes and failures.
In terms of Bandura’s framework:
- Mastery: Students felt they had been given opportunities and support to experience success, including through connections with the wider community.
- Social modelling: Students got inspiration from their peers’ success.
- Social persuasion: Deepened relationships with teachers strengthened students’ belief in themselves.
- Emotional and psychological feedback: Students felt appreciated and that there were reasons to feel confident. They got to know themselves better and to get more comfortable with themselves.
The students in Shape experienced academic success, and for some, this was beyond what would ordinarily be expected of them given their achievement at the end of Year 10. This happened for both Year 11 students in 2019 and Year 12 students in 2020. Causation cannot be proved, but the interviewed students believed that the new teaching approaches had increased their sense of control and improved their engagement in class.
What did they learn?
The inquiry suggests the importance of teachers and students developing caring and trusting relationships in which students are trusted to make choices and teachers have the courage to prioritise learning over assessment and are willing to listen, observe, and respond. Handing increasing control over learning to students grew their self-efficacy and along with this, their sense of wellbeing and, it seems, their ability to achieve academically.
The project team notes that it was not only the teachers who were brave and worked hard. The support of the school principal helped them to be brave, just as the students had said they wanted them to be.
Inquiry team
The project was led by Kirsty Grieve, supported by Victoria Kerr. The rest of the inquiry team consisted of Katie Smith, Grant Robinson, Judith Lamb, Nick Bouterey, Tony Smith, Robert Young, Lynda Fromings, and Jackie Crawford.
The project’s external experts were Bevan Holloway (Smata) and Dr Rose Hipkins, (New Zealand Centre for Educational Research).
For further information
If you would like to learn more about this project, please contact the project leader, Kirsty Grieve, at kgrieve@npghs.school.nz
Reference list
Bandura, A. (2008). “An Agentic Perspective on Positive Psychology”. In S. J. Lopez (Ed.). Positive psychology: Expecting the best in people (Vol. 1). New York: Praeger.
Brown, J.S., & Thomas, D. (2011). A new culture of learning: Cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Cannon Design, Inc; VS Furniture, Bruce Mau Design, (2014). The third teacher: 79 ways you can use design to transform teaching & learning. New York, NY: ABRAMS.
Claxton, G., & Powell, G. (2019). Powering up students: The learning power approach to high school teaching. Carmarthen: Crown House Publishing.
Cowie, B., & Hipkins, R. (2014). Mediated conversations: A participatory method for generating rich qualitative data. In SAGE Research Methods Cases (pp. 1-13). London: Sage Publications Ltd.
Sheldon, K. M., Ryan R. M., Deci E. L., & Kasser T. (2004). The independent effects of goal contents and motives on well-being: It’s both what you pursue and why you pursue it. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30(4), pp. 475–486.
Howick College (TLIF 3-013). Innovation stream: Curriculum innovation at Howick College
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