Professional Support Facilitation

Beacon Practice Professional Support Facilitation
Professional Support is provided by Cliff Harwood and Ange Compton who work alongside the Beacon Practice teachers to thoroughly embed practices of excellence in their delivery of the Technology curriculum. They also provide advice and support on how to utilise technologists from industry and tertiary institutions, to enhance the delivery of a technology programme.

Cliff Harwood

National Technology Professional Development manager

Cliff has been closely involved with the implementation of the technology curriculum since his early days as Head of Faculty – Technology, at Awatapu College. At Awatapu Cliff headed a diverse and innovative curriculum team which, among a range of initiatives, offered bursary and scholarship technology programmes under the guise of Art Design and was involved with Massey University in the development of their Diploma of Technology Education for teachers.

He moved to Massey University College of Education as secondary technology adviser and then coordinated the secondary in-service programme at the College. While at Massey, Cliff played a leadership role in both translating the technology curriculum into teachers' classroom practice and in developing and implementing national qualifications.

Early in 2007 Cliff moved from his College of Education position to take up the newly established role of National Technology Professional Development Manager under contract to the Ministry of Education.

Cliff will work with a wide range of technology teachers and facilitators to
support and develop a number of effective learning communities. The initial
focus will be on work in the secondary sector but there will be opportunities for practitioners in all parts of the technology education sector to participate and contribute to the learning communities. Cliff will be specifically working with technology facilitators, Beacon Practice teachers and teachers engaged in trialling material to support the reviewed curriculum.

Cliff has a particular research interest in teaching strategies to support learning in technology and ways of evidencing student learning for qualification and formative purposes.

He believes that Beacon Practice will prove to be a significant component of the GIF-Technology Education initiative. "It will provide those teachers involved in the imitative with a means to gauge their practice, supporting them to reflect on what they are currently doing and giving them opportunity to extend and improve current practice", he says. "However, equally important will be the diverse range of outcomes from the project that will become openly accessible to other teachers nationally."

Ange Compton

Professional Support Facilitator

Ange joined as a Beacon Practice Professional Support Facilitator in July 2006. At this time she was the Secondary Schools Technology Adviser, and Primary Schools Science adviser in Tai Tokerau with TEAM Solutions, The University of Auckland. In 2007 Ange joined Beacon Practice Technology as a full-time facilitator.

Ange has taught in the early childhood, primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. Her interest in technology education began in 1993 while teaching at Hillcrest High School.

Ange brings to technology an understanding of the philosophy of the curriculum area embedded within a robust teaching practice. Her research interest is the interface of the nature of both science and technology and their respective domains of knowledge.

Ange's recreational interests are running, gardening, and golf (when she can fit in 9 holes).