Guest posting to voced-coord email list.
Item 8 of 10:

Date: Wed, 4 Nov 1998 14:30:03 +1100
To: voced-coord@owl.qut.edu.au
From: Jim Cumming
Subject: VocEd: Years 9 and 10 (guest)

Dear Colleagues

In response to Christina's question about whether kids in Years 9 and 10 get bored doing a project for 9 months, the opposite seems to be true for most kids. Of course there will be some for whom the project doesn't work as well as it might. However, what seems to happen is that most get turned on by these self-directed and experiential kinds of learning experiences. A key factor is that the student, rather than the teacher, has prime responsibility for planning, implementing and evaluating the project.

It needs to be emphasised that many of the schools involved in these kinds of initiatives have been doing so for several years, and they have developed a 'culture' that acknowledges and supports this kind of learning and teaching. A key factor is that the kids take several weeks in Year 9 to select their topic; discuss it with their parents; and negotiate the details with their teachers for implementation in Year 10. One of the good things about this approach is that kids get to work on a project that is either at, or just above, their own level and the results are judged in relation to the outcomes that individual students negotiate and ultimately produce (i.e. the student is not judged in relation to other students). This picks up on a point that Janelle raised earlier in the discussion about student grouping and standards.

There is considerable potential in these projects to promote an integrated approach to both curriculum and assessment by involving teachers from a range of key learning and other areas. It also addresses the common complaint of students in Years 9 and 10 regarding curriculum fragmentation and having to complete a plethora of assignments and tests (many of which are discarded by students soon as they are completed).

The focus here is on producing one QUALITY item that demonstrates a student's capacity to plan, organise, present, provide evidence and reflect on their learning experience. Is that the sound of key competencies I can hear playing in the background?

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