Taita College (TLIF 5-037) - Sustainability-adversity project-based learning Publications
Publication Details
Project Reference: Taita College (TLIF 5-037) - Overall, the project encouraged students to have a go at project-based learning. It helped them to understand the swamp as a living and inter-related system which had been badly impacted due to neglect and is now restored. For some students, the project provided the opportunity to see what they could do, rather than what they could not. The students have taken on the ownership of this wetland and are choosing to spend as much time as possible in that area.
Author(s): (Inquiry Team) led by Sujata Rajagopal
Date Published: February 2019
Overview
Science teachers at Taita College wanted to know how they could use project-based learning as an approach to improve student engagement in learning, with a focus on sustainability and how living things respond to adversity. The school’s teacher of te reo Māori had a vision to restore the mauri of the swamp adjacent to the school, with a restoration project that would teach students about kaitiakitanga.
Supported by their critical friend and a range of conservation organisations, the teachers designed a sustainability education programme that had students taking action for their local environment. Threaded through the project was learning for teachers about how to move from a teacher-led to a student-centred pedagogy and about the importance of literacy in science.
The project had tangible outcomes for teachers, students, and for the wetlands. Having learned how to gather and analyse evidence, the students knew that their hard work in clearing away weeds and blackberry was resulting in improvements in water quality and the number and diversity of the creatures the wetlands support. They had given something important to their community and had shared what they learned with younger students. Senior students gained NCEA credits that were meaningful for them. All students learned that a career in science was a possibility for them.
The teachers learned the importance of scaffolding for them, as well as for students, and of having a visionary leader. They learned that improvement in science learning also requires attention to literacy.
The inquiry story
This inquiry involved three teachers of science and one teacher of te reo Māori. The focus was on the entire Year 9 cohort as well as a group of older students taking science and others taking te reo Māori. It also reached out into the community, including conservation organisations and local primary schools.
What was the focus?
This inquiry addressed the global issue of sustainability, and the adverse impacts of human activity on the natural environment. It also addressed low student engagement with and achievement in science, issues the teachers identified as being at least partly caused by students’ literacy in English being lower than the average. Looking to themselves, teachers reported feeling siloed and that they lacked strong understandings about sustainability. Pedagogy was mostly teacher-led and relied upon resources that were too difficult for many students to understand. These issues were exacerbated by the fact that two teachers had not been brought up in New Zealand, with one being a very recent immigrant. On the other hand, the school’s teacher of te reo Māori had attended Taita College as a student himself. He had a vision to restore the mauri of the swamp that is part of the school’s tūrangawaewae.
The team identified project-based learning as an approach that would help teachers shift from teacher-led to student-centred learning while taking positive action to restore the swamp. The teachers addressed three questions:
- With support and guidance, how can participating teachers adapt their pedagogical approach to initiate, support, and manage student learning about sustainability through a project-based learning approach?
- In what ways do students engage in project-based learning, and what do they learn from it?
- How can students and teachers work with experts to restore the ecological health of the school swamp?
What did the teachers try?
The project commenced with intense scaffolded guidance from the project’s critical friend aimed at helping to shift teachers’ understandings about the theory and practice of student-centred learning. This mahi included training in how to design tasks and resources that are engaging for students whose literacy in English and capabilities in science were at different levels. The first five weeks of this work culminated in a successful jigsaw task that was co-constructed by students and teachers. The professional learning for teachers continued throughout the year, monitored, and informed through a variety of means, including teacher observations and group hui.
The ongoing work with teachers included introducing them to a framework for supporting and monitoring project-based learning and another for students that was designed to enable them to self-evaluate shifts in their understanding about sustainability and sustainable living. While the students worked and learned together, they also each completed their own projects that were put on display for their whānau.
The teachers learned about the science capabilities, focusing on gathering evidence and experimenting with using NZCER’s Thinking with Evidence test. The students were supported to set up a monitoring station that will remain as a way of checking the impact of their work on the swamp.
The project’s first focus was on sustainability. Students of all four participating teachers worked in the swamp twice a week, clearing out blackberry and old fences while learning about how lack of human care had degraded their tūrangawaewae. The project’s critical friend supported the teachers to design tasks that grew their knowledge about ecological sustainability, and the teacher of te reo Māori taught his colleagues and the students the tikanga around kaitiakitanga. All teachers grew their skills in tasks such as how to test water samples, which they then shared with their students.
There was a deliberate focus on teaching students the scientific terms used to talk about the system they were exploring (such as “habitat”, “niche”, “adaptation”, and “food chains”). These were supported with opportunities to use the new terms, in the field, through doing project-based Sparklers’ lesson starters, and through having students maintain journals.
The sustainability project was followed by the adversity project. It built on the students’ first-hand experience of how lack of human care can lead to the degradation of natural environments, such as the swamp. The adversity project looked at the impact of not living sustainability from a broadened perspective, including economic and biological sustainability. Students had first-hand experience of coping with adversity during the Covid-19 lockdown. They talked about the resilience that kept Aotearoa relatively safe and on return to the school, all Year 9 students designed and made face masks.
An important feature of the entire project was engagement with outside experts. Some visited and worked with the students in the field, teaching them how to remove weeds safely and how to investigate what lives in the swamp. The students also visited sites such as Waiau Park, Somme’s Island, and Zealandia to learn about the ecosystems there and the work being done to restore them. In turn, students shared their own growing knowledge and expertise with others, forming tuakana-teina relationships with students from local contributing schools who visited to learn about the plants and creatures in the swamp and how to work safely there. Teachers from all these schools co-constructed rubrics for communicating information about science learning to whānau.
Students further contributed to their community when both junior and senior students spent three days working with the Greater Wellington Regional Council to plant 1100 native plants by the Hutt River.
What happened as a result of this innovation?
Despite the degradation of the swamp – which the teachers and students learned to call “wetlands” – the students were excited to find a surprising number of creatures living there, including taonga species, such as long-finned tuna and giant and banded kōkopu. The value of the project is clearly evidenced in data showing an increase in both the number and variety of living things in the wetlands.
These were some of the significant shifts for teachers:
- Teacher pedagogy is now student-centred rather than teacher-led. This significant shift has extended beyond the swamp project.
- Teachers are using what they have learned through being scaffolded themselves to better scaffold student learning.
- Teacher planning and their selection and development of relevant resources has improved.
- Teachers are using cooperative learning activities, such as the jigsaw approach.
- Teachers have improved their knowledge and understandings about kaitiakitanga and ecological sustainability.
- Teacher monitoring of student progress has improved. This includes using the Student’s Competence in Sustainability Education framework and co-constructing a new rubric for communicating information about progress in science to whānau.
- Teachers have improved their relationships with students. They better understand their learning needs and how to address them.
- Teachers found that the Thinking with Evidence test required literacy skills that are currently too advanced for their students. They learned that literacy skills are critical to building students’ knowledge in science and are being deliberate in scaffolding scientific vocabulary and literacy practices.
Teachers’ efforts have been rewarded by improvements in student outcomes. These include:
- Significantly increased student engagement, interest in, and ownership of the wetlands project, with all students completing projects and students choosing to go there in their own time.
- Students developed their knowledge and understanding about kaitiakitanga, ecological sustainability, adversity, and resilience. This was particularly important during the COVID 19 lockdown restrictions when they learned about the importance of science-based health decisions during the pandemic.
- Students gained an insight into what scientists do in a broad range of disciplines. They can see that a career in science is a real possibility for them.
- Improvements in students’ science vocabulary and literacy.
- Twenty students who were at risk of failing NCEA Level 1 became interested in the project. An assessment task was designed for them, and all achieved the four additional credits it offered them.
- Senior students taking Te Reo Māori gained an additional 22 NCEA unit standards at levels 2 and 3.
What did they learn?
The teachers learned that significant change to teacher practice requires them to have an expert guide to support and scaffold them in their learning. It also requires a leader with vision and drive. They learned that involving students in projects that they can take ownership of, contribute to, and share with pride is a powerful way to grow their engagement and achievement. Finally, if students are to communicate their learning in science, they need to be able to write about it. Success in science requires success in literacy.
Inquiry team
This project was led by Sujata Rajagopal. Her colleagues on the inquiry team were Yenktesh Naidu, Deepak Prasad, and Simon Hirini.
Dr. Azra Moeed (Victoria University of Wellington) was the project’s critical friend.
Additional expertise was accessed from Zealandia, Hutt City Council, Mountains to Sea Wellington, the Department of Conservation, National Institute of Water and Atmospheric research, and Greater Wellington Regional Council.
The project team would like to thank the Principal, Karen Morgan, and the School Board for their support. Their sincere thanks to the office staff and to the many organisations that have contributed to their team’s learning.
For further information
If you would like to learn more about this project, please contact the project leader, Sujata Rajagopal, at Sujata.rajagopal@taita.school.nz
Reference list
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