Outcomes
The units were successful in that they resulted in high level learning outcomes for students and satisfying professional practice for their teachers.
Jo and Annie are satisfied the aims they had in mind when designing the generic unit were achieved:
- The level of authenticity achieved was increased
- Teaching became more active
- Learning was embedded and became a purposeful, directed activity rather than a disjointed set of apparently random demands and targets.
- Student practice became more natural and less assessment-driven
Success in meeting these goals was reflected in the authentic technological practice of their students, the outcomes produced, and the high levels of achievement in internal and external assessments. Two-thirds achieved Merit or better, with over a third achieving Excellence. These results compared favourably with the previous years.
Other important benefits flowed from the units, largely as a result, Annie believes, of making the context of the unit authentic and successfully embedding the learning within this context. The students showed:
- Increased confidence in dealing with stakeholders
- Increased engagement with the lessons, teachers and stakeholders
- More active learning
- Less focus on assessment 'hoop jumping' and 'achievement'. The results flowed out of the practice itself.
- More natural, less forced or contrived technological practice with improved quality and originality of outcomes
One measure of success of the unit was the higher level of student engagement and effort. "Students like having a teacher in front of the blackboard," says Jo. "It requires little or no effort on their part. We asked them to participate more actively in their own learning rather than passively absorb crumbs from above."
This increased engagement translated into a longer-term buy-in into Technology as a whole. Many, if not all the students, went on to do Technology the following year. The students used the Year 11 unit to springboard into more challenging learning.
Jo says teachers have to accept constraints will always be present and must be allowed for on a flexible basis: "We planned lessons but sometimes negotiated outcomes." The approach in Technology is about anticipating problems and having time to for student to explore them as they arise, Annie says, and differs from what she calls "the old build and fix approach". Time is important – students need time to fully explore the context of a unit and key factors surrounding it, as well as time for the development and trialling stages.
A key point, Jo and Annie stress, is the need to embed the learning in a unit so it appears to emerge naturally through the process of technological practice. For example stakeholders in a project should, after being primed-up ahead of time, allude to or even directly suggest key factors of a potential project when speaking to the students. As a result, the key factors will 'suggest' themselves to the students and in some cases, order themselves in terms of priority. Students were able to justify their selection of key factors and the way they prioritised them, by citing the evidence presented to them by visiting experts.
For example, Jo asked some of her students why they had chosen to use a 250ml quantity for their product and they said because their stakeholder had told them they should because of the size restriction of packing them for overseas."
Both Annie and Jo observed that students responded well to the authenticity of stakeholders and the constructive, honest 'real-world' feedback they provided on student work. "They felt important; their work was real and valued outside of school."
Student's technological practice and understanding of the technological process seemed to flow from the lessons. By way of an example of this and the improved understanding it produced, Annie says she fielded less "why are we doing this?" queries from her students. In a well planned lesson set in an authentic, meaningful context that students relate to, the answer is obvious to the students, because it's part of a process, a means to an end and needn't be asked.
Similarly, the evidence required for assessment was a natural consequence of student practice not as an end point in itself.
The structure of the lessons resulted in a learning momentum, which lasted through out the year. A good classroom culture was established early in the year and maintained.
For their part, Jo and Annie say their teaching became more intentional, more planned and directed and less assessment focussed. It's a good feeling, they say, as is the confidence that comes from knowing your students have done good technological practice.
