TOD NCEA 19th November

 Five aspects of change: system changes

NCEA is changing radically and we were introduced to those changes during teacher only day en-masse... a lot to digest.

1) Well being - less assessments more big picture thinking.

2) Equity and inclusiveness - how do we build school courses that represent and honour the diversity in our society? 

3) Coherence - links from the NZC through to the outcomes will be clearer. At the moment, I don't feel like the NZC integrates with NCEA and that they can be taught quite independently from each other, so addressing this is a good thing.

4) Pathways - suitability - vocational type courses are unit standards based and that says they are worth less to the learner and at times community. If we continue to undervalue these areas we will continue 

5) Credibility - is this about the rigour of which we assess NCEA or the creditability of courses? One of the things our group noted was that our inherent course elitism at school possibly denies our students opportunities to just learn process, with this focus on content. If you want to go to Art school and didn't do Art at school you do a catch up course at uni if you have your UE and apply and most likely get in, likewise for all aspects of health sciences. Why are we so caught up with exactly what content kids are learning, when process is actually more important? 

Change one - removing fees, and making it easier to apply for SAC

Change two - opening te ao Māori pathways. Māori performing arts is not UE, yet dance and drama are. That is being addressed. Integrate mātauranaga Māori. This will be integrated into our outcome statements for NCEA. Unsure what that looks like. 

Change three - strengthen literacy and numeracy requirements - are they going to make this harder to attain? It sounds like they will streamline what and where literacy and numeracy will come from. There will only be lit and num from one 20 credit package to gain these standards and they can attain them from year 9 onwards.

Change four - less credits for each subject. Less fragmentation of learning. Every subject will have 4 AS and it will be a 50:50 split; externals will not necessarily be 'exams'. 

Change five - hard to understand? Simplify. Removing the 20 credit carry over, limiting resubs. Maximum enrolment of credits - 120 L1, 120 for L2 and 3.

Change six - show clearer pathways - vocational entrance award introduced, just like UE. graduate profile for each level of NCEA will be introduced and record of achievement will be simplified so it makes sense to employers.

Change seven - keep level one as optional. Level one kept broad, level two and three will be where specialisation occurs. 

Reflect on the following for the day as we go over the modules:

1 - Know and think - skills knowledge capabilities needed?

2 - Feel and believe - what are the attributes and capabilities required?

3 - Build and create - structures to  support change and implementation

4 - Actions to take away - need to do and think of now? 

1) We need to be willing to be process teachers rather than content teachers.  Let go of the elitism of particular subjects and particular pathways. There is a move to a vocational entry qualification like University Entrance. I note they seem to discuss how Māori Performing arts are not recognised as Achievement standards, yet when they moved to discussing other pathways other than traditional University ones, this was not a 'thing' that was acknowledged. 

Big picture planning rather than a pick and choose model of achievement standards will need to be thought through in order to be able to effectively tie the big ideas to the standards. It does concern me that student choice could be lost here in Visual Arts. Setting up a good selection of student choice that interrelates to the planning matrix is going to be necessary and is not a small task. 

We could/can look at adjusting our level one matrix in Art to be inclusive of the big ideas as a starting point that could lighten the change process load. Along with how we integrate T-shaped literacy within that matrix, it feels like a do-able and workable task. 

2) Feel and believe - acknowledgement of unintentional streaming of Māori/Pasifika learners. Is it happening at Hornby? If it is, it is an aspect of institutionalised racism that needs addressing.  

3) Build and create - it appears that we are being directed towards cross curricular structures, which given Hornby's start in this area with Hurumanu, could be an easier transition. I see that Rolleston College and Haeata are already well-entrenched in this direction. Looking at their course outlines along with thinking about the needs and wants of our students currently situated in Hurumanu would be useful. I am unsure what our leaders in this area are doing in regards to collecting data from the students experiencing Hurumanu currently, but one would presume they are and that this would help us plan further into NCEA levels. 

4) Actions to take away - how the big ideas direct the learning from above. I would like to break down my understanding of these in relation to art making outcomes more. I can see how they can be used to reconfigure our existing research and practical applications Artist models matrix for level one. I can also see how T-shaped Literacy would slot into that as well. We will make that our reality for 2021 in preparation to understanding how they work for the roll-out of the new standards in 2022.