Guest posting to voced-coord email list.
Item 6 of 10:

Date: Sun, 1 Nov 1998 13:17:23 +1100
To: voced-coord@owl.qut.edu.au
From: Jim Cumming
Subject: VocEd: Years 9 and 10 (guest)

Dear Colleagues

A few VECO members have contacted me personally about Years 9 and 10, rather than go through the whole group. These messages have been mainly about good practice - either in the form of requests for information about, or feedback on, innovation that is underway in local settings.

In a posting to VECO earlier this year, I provided details about a national project in Community Based Learning (CBL) that is being implemented in 1998, involving students in Years 9 and 10 as active participants. There are five pilot studies in the project, each of which involves a school working cooperatively with a community or service agency (e.g. Red Cross, BoysTown, Exodus Foundation, an Indigenous community etc) to generate high quality outcomes for participants and stakeholders alike.

Rather than provide general details about the project, and at risk of stealing a local community's thunder before the study is completed, let me illustrate with just one example. Latrobe High School in Tasmania is working in partnership with the local branch of the National Trust and the local shire council. During 1998, these groups are working cooperatively to restore a local historical site - 'Granny Palmer's Cottage' - as a self-funded tourist destination.

While this particular initiative contains elements of enterprise education, citizenship education and vocational learning, the focus is on integrating CBL across the Year 9 and 10 curriculum. For example, teaching staff from across eight learning areas are involved (i.e. there is a sense of collective ownership). In addition, not only are representatives from the local branch of the National Trust, the Council and business community involved, but so too are local artists, historians and authors.

Teachers and community personnel are working with students from Years 9 and 10 on a range of activities that include furniture, signage,brochures, maps and public performances. The pilot has had such a positive impact that the school is in the process of creating a more flexible timetable, and intends subsequently to submit a proposal for the accreditation of a course in CBL through the state's curriculum and assessment agency, TASSAB.

This is just one example of a number of projects around the country that are endeavouring to create new opportunities for students in Years 9 and 10 that are not in the form of 'extra curricular' activities, 'alternative' programs, or 'one-off' special projects.

A few of the outcomes for students that have been noted in the five CBL pilots underway at present include:
- student engagement (eg increased motivation and self-esteem);
- student empowerment (eg students' perception that they can 'make a difference'); and
- student achievement (e.g. skills and knowledge as well as products and services that are VALUED by a range of groups). Significant benefits have also been identified for teachers, schools, service agencies and the local community.

It would be useful to get some idea of the range of innovative projects and activities in Years 9 and 10 that VECO members are either implementing themselves, or are aware of through their contacts and networks. As I commented personally to one VECO member last week, "don't hide your light under a bushel"!

By the way, for those interested in more information about CBL, you can access a discussion paper at http://www.dsf.org.au/papers/ol/CBL0897/CBL0897.html Planning is in process to provide a report of the national CBL project with details of the five pilot studies, early in 1999. Details will be provided on VECO when they are available.

Jim Cumming
Educational Solutions Pty Ltd
Tel (02) 6254 8538
Fax (02) 6255 2072
jcumming@dynamite.com.au