St Margaret's College
Over a three-year period, St Margaret's College's Beacon Practice project aimed to incrementally create and implement a seamless strategy and action plan from for technology education Year 1 through to Year 13. "Although the teachers at St Margaret's College were already demonstrating good practice there was an expectation that we could all do what we were doing better. This is what the Beacon Practice project enabled us to do," says project co-ordinator and HOD Technology Claire Woods.
"Principal Claudia Wysocki (since retired) was very supportive of the project and the whole school was enthusiastic about it with the students themselves very much on board," she said.
In 2005, building on the existing strengths of the school's Year 9-13 technology programme in textile and fashion design and construction, Claireworked with three other staff – Terry Wood, Brian Woods and Trudy Keys, all experienced technology educators – to develop a strategic plan for technology education from Years 7 to 13. Teamwork and mentoring were two particular areas of development (see Case Study BP606 Teaching as a Team and Case Study BP607 Peer Mentoring). Regular weekly Beacon Practice meetings were formally timetabled in to the school day, with a focus on quality teaching and learning and the visionary department planning.
In 2006 the initiative was broadened to include Years 1 to 6, with the aim of developing a seamless technology education programme from Years 1 to 13. The Primary school coordinator (Nicky Dunlop) and the Year 4 classroom teacher (Deborah Lean) joined the four 2005 Beacon teachers to develop a school-wide strategic plan for technology education, using several key sources: the school's vision, the essence statement, key competencies and senior qualifications (NCEA and International Baccalaureate). Claire worked with teachers from the primary, middle and secondary schools to achieve this goal.
A glossary was developed for Technology providing consistency of definition and a focus for professional discussions between teachers, and teachers and students. This was used in 2007 and will be developed further in 2008 to include new terms used in the revised curriculum document.
In 2007 the six teachers and junior teacher Jo Clarke worked on refining and implementing the achievements of the first two years and to develop a set of matrices (pdf 100Kb) for Year 1 to Year 13 providing a clear pathway for seamless technology education for students at St Margaret's.
A new Year 11 ICT course was also developed during 2007 and implemented in 2008. This course focuses on film making and media presentation and will include the knowledge and skills that underpin information and communication technologies, and will prepare students for the ITGS International Baccalaureate course as well as NCEA Technology courses.
The Beacon teachers also worked on transferring Technological Practice to other curriculum areas through integrated studies –Year 8 students, for example, undertook a Technological Practice approach to an adventure tourism unit during school camp.
For new teachers to the department, a very robust scaffold was developed so that consistency between teachers can be maintained in times of change – during the year this was put to the test when two relief teachers successfully covered the classes of staff on study leave.
In October 2007 the St Margaret's Beacon teachers made a presentation at the TENZ Conference, including the strategic plan and other achievements to date in a workshop, which receivd very positive feedback.
To ensure the on-going development of Technology at St Margaret's, the group developed a Strategic Focus Plan for 2008.
Reflection
In her final Beacon Practice report, Claire says that the development, implementation and on-going refinement of a Years 1 to 13 strategic plan and increased professional contact between Technology teachers of all levels has resulted in enriched student learning in Technology in both the junior and senior school.
"We have now established professional learning community of technology teachers. The professional development and professional discussions have resulted in a philosophical shift as well as a shift in classroom practice, which has had a positive impact for both staff and students."
The use of mentoring has enhanced student communication across year levels has been invaluable, she says. Senior students have benefited through the reflective quality of mentoring, and the younger students from the exposure to higher levels of work and practice.
The new Year 11 Technology (CommTech) course was implemented in 2008 and will develop further into Year 12 (2009) and Year 13 (2010).
The status of technology education at St Margaret's College has increased markedly through the Beacon Practice initiative. "Beacon Practice was invaluable in educating the school community about the changes in technology education," says Claire. "It has provided a solid research basis for informed discussions, enabling some staff who were resistant to change, to shift their thinking and practice."
This rise in status is evident in the presence of technology education in articles in the school's marketing publicity, Technology staff appearing on the achievements' board on the street frontage and the increase in the number of students studying Technology in Years 11 to 13.
In fact the Beacon Practice model has so impressed the school principal that it was adopted as the school's Reflective Practice model for other departments. In 2008 it was used by the PE Department with an external facilitator. The Beacon teachers have volunteered to provide support to this initiative and other teachers by sharing the framework that has been established for technology education at St Margaret's.
RSS Feed
