Deborah Courtney and Jennifer Brown-Omichi, Catholic Education Melbourne

Deep Learning and Animated Learners Research Project

Enacting the Victorian Curriculum Capabilities in our Catholic context

Current Context

“Today the question is not if we should seek to teach young people to be capable or what capabilities matter, but, given

the evidence of their importance, how best to do this for all young Australians and who should play a role.”

Lucas, B. & Smith, C. (2018). The Capable Country: Cultivating capabilities in Australian education, Mitchell Institute policy report No. 03/2018. Mitchell Institute, Melbourne. Available from: www.mitchellinstitute.org.au

Magee, J. and Jensen, B. (2018) Combining curriculum and best practice teacher professional learning. Learning First.

Overcome these common challenges in two key ways:1. By supporting educators to develop a better shared understanding of student learning progress.2. By providing the information educators need to develop their content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge and improve their professional practice in priority areas.

2018

• Unpacking and interpreting the curriculum

• Curriculum design

• Split screen approach

• SOLO taxonomy

• Provocations

• Recontextualisation

• Rubrics

2019

• Design

• Formative assessment

- Moderation

- Learning progressions

Cultivating Capabilities

Key learning so far

Provocations and scenarios

The use of provocations and scenarios are core in developing learning within the Victorian Curriculum Capabilities. When teachers introduced provocations to learners in a considered and timely way, learners were able to engage in rich concepts that progressed their capabilities knowledge and understanding.

Split screen Schools that utilised the split screen approach intentionally were more purposeful in their teaching and learning, clarifying and specifically stating the content to be studied and the skills to be developed and enacted.

Dialogue Dialogue has underpinned deep learning by learners and teachers. This has been evidenced in the ways in which they have been able to discuss deep concepts, consider multiple perspectives, engage with other philosophies and ways of life, and deal with unknown answers

Key learning so farPowerful Teaching ● Explicitly scaffolding learning - unpacking terminology

‘meta-language’ of the Capabilities curriculum with students.● Using evidence - creating rubrics to use with students to assess

learning, varying forms of assessment so students can demonstrate learning in different ways and contexts.

● Feedback - giving specific feedback for Capability learning.● The importance of knowing. Build knowledge of the curriculum -

exemplars. Where to start? Teaching backwards first ● Known and unknown● Capabilities driving the learning

Deep Learning Perspective taking - Learners contrast narratives from across generations, cultural groups and faith traditions. Consider multiple perspectives in their responses and explore all sides to an issue - able to balance and consider both sides or perspectives on an issue.

Partnering Flexible approach to professional learning and school engagementLearning from and with schools

Illustration of Practice: Mother of God Catholic Primary School, Ardeer

Michelle Buckley, Learning and Teaching Leader

Learning is for life not just for school. In our learning community we are focused on learning that enables us to participate fully in life in the 21st century.

“Mother of God School is a small school of 151 students. We provide a broad and rigorous learning and teaching program, focused on the needs of the individual child. We invest important time in the planning and resourcing of Literacy and Numeracy programs that support and extend our students. We utilize the Inquiry Learning model to ensure that learning is life-centered and that students take responsibility for their own learning. Play based learning is central to our Early Years program and provides a wonderful springboard for engaged and successful learning. ”

What was you initial interest in this project?Work around Building Learning Power, (Guy Claxton) for a number of years.

Starting with Capabilities - how to design learning with them up front.

Working out how to do it.

Project Focus

2018 Capability Focus - Ethical Capability

Deep learning focus - Invite dialogue by considering complex, moral and ethical questions.

Powerful teaching focus - Is intentional by surfacing issues that matter to the learners.

Animated learners focus - Demonstrate agency by seeing knowledge as connected and contestable.

Signature pedagogy - Philosophy for Children: Community of Inquiry, dialogue, question quadrant.

What have you learned about the capabilities?

• Need to spend time developing a consistent understanding of what is meant

• They are inextricably linked - have to work in at least 2 or more Capabilities each time

• There are pedagogies which maximise their integration ( Community of Inquiry and Thinking Routines)

How can we co-create the conditions for learning so that we all can flourish?

Architecture/ Structures - Learning conversations (wellbeing/ capabilities) - students and teachers

Culture - 7th classroom, norms for working together

How has your practice/your school culture changed?

2018 Ethical capability - stand alone - what and how?

• More use of provocations• More focus on making student thinking visible

through the use of thinking routines and community of inquiry

• Focus on asking better questions. Question quadrant (Phillip Cam)

2019 Ethical capability and Critical and creative thinking integrated part of everyday practice

• More focus on concepts driving curriculum design

What have you learned about your own practice as a result of student learning?

• Honouring kids questions to ensure engagement.• Starting Inquiry unit planning with the capabilities• Creating ‘wobble’ through provocations.• Using rubrics to track growth and progress

“Before the project I was aware of the capabilities, but I thought of them as something that permeates teaching anyway. This made it difficult to assess my students in those areas and I suppose my students were not always exposed to what they were entitled to in terms of the curriculum. Now I am a lot more strategic about how I incorporate the Capabilities and I have given a split screen success criteria a go as well. I found it very useful to have copies of the success criteria printed for my students from time to time and invite them to highlight the skills they demonstrate throughout the tasks. This makes the assessment so much easier and provides valuable data in terms of where my students are at and where they need to go next.” Kasia

Thinking Routine: Explanation GameEthical Capability:Use examples to evaluate ethical actions in relation to their outcomes.Identify different ethical issues associated with a particular problem.

Critical and Creative Thinking: Questions and Possibilities:Explain how to construct open and closed questions and use them for different purposes. Apply questioning as a tool to focus or expand thinking.

Reasoning:Consider the importance of giving reasons and evidence and how the strength of these can be evaluated

HistoryCreate a narrative about the past using terms and a range of sources.Describe perspectives of people from the past and recognise different points of view. Create a narrative or description which explains continuity and change and cause and effect using historical terms.

Task: Looking at Student Work

1. What was the teaching?- Use the Content Descriptors

2. Where is the student on the continuum of learning?

- Use the Achievement Standards

3. Where to next for this learner?4. How could the teacher modify this task design

to strengthen the learning outcomes?

For more information:

Deborah Courtney - dcourtney@cem.edu.au

Jennifer Brown Omichi - jbrownomich@cem.edu.au

Michelle Buckley - Mother of God Primary School, Ardeer