Diagnostic Impressions 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Anorexia AnxAndMood Anxiety ASD Behaviour Learning Mood Stress (blank)
What kinds of anxiety do we see? – Concern about external expectations – Comparison to others – Fear of failure and fixed mindsets – Perfectionism – unrelenting high standards – Anxiety disorders – generalized anxiety (worry about lots of things); social anxiety; specific phobias (e.g. oral presentations)
Perfectionism 1. The relentless striving for extremely high standards 2. Judging your self-worth on your ability to achieve such unrelenting standards 3. Experiencing negative consequences of setting such demanding standards, yet continuing to go for them despite the huge cost to you. Healthy striving VS Avoiding failure Self-criticism VS Contentment
Student Care in the Curriculum Year Level Ethics Topics Year 7 Resourceful Adolescent Program Being Friendly Learning Well Year 8 Confident Me (Body Image) .b Mindfulness Year 9 Positive Education (Gratitude, Kindness, Personal Strengths) Empathy Year 10 Being the Best You. Community Service Year 11 Leadership Year 12 Transitions
Academic Care Conversations • Planned ‘conversations’ within the House Group encouraging positive academic habits- personal bests, healthy striving • Aligns with Cultures of Thinking • Builds academic resilience • Emphasises positive learning habits and processes • Encourages students to take responsibility for their learning
Mindful ness “Paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non- judgmentally” - Kabat-Zinn
School Psychologists – One-off supportive counselling sessions – Developing helpful cognitive strategies – Managing strong and overwhelming emotions – Taking adaptive, meaningful actions
Ruth Jans Understanding the adolescent brain to inform formative assessment
We want to avoid:
Brain-based research for the classroom White, D. (2013) A Pedagogical Decalogue: Discerning the practical implications of brain- based learning research on pedagogical practice in Catholic Schools. Conference Proceedings – Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) Conference, 2013, p68-78.
In essence, brain- based education involves ‘ designing and orchestrating lifelike, enriching and appropriate experiences for learners ’ and ensuring that ‘ students process experience in such a way as to increase the extraction of meaning ’ (Caine & Caine, 1994, p. 8). Excerpt from Dan White’s “Pedagogical Decalogue”
How the Limbic system affects learning The limbic areas are the major ‘gating’ systems that allows the brain to discern any perceived emotional threats before upshifting (the ‘ladder’) to any form of high - level thinking activity or downshifting (the ‘snakes’) to a ‘fight or flight’ response Dr Dan White (2013)
Key Point: The importance of appropriate levels of challenge …
Thinking about our pedagogical practices
How much time does the average teacher wait after asking a question? Some research indicates 2-3 A. 10 seconds seconds (Ben-Hur, 1998), whilst B. 1 second others suggests teachers wait less than a second (Rowe, 1987) C. 2-3 seconds before they do something – identify a respondent, rephrase D.5 seconds it or answer it . And what sort of questions require Lower-order / Recall questions less than a second to process and respond to…?
“Think time”
Other key ideas… • Chunking Intense concentration + neural recovery time + intense concentration = highly effective learning Less Chalk’n Talk Teacher direction should be limited to 20%-40% of the class time BUT studies show that we do the opposite.
Focus on imbedding opportunities for Formative Assessment
Techniques to engage students and avoid “fight/flight/freeze” • Think – Pair – Share: talking for 30 seconds (to a minute) with a partner and then invite students to share an interesting point their partner made • • Peer Assessment “Two stars and a wish” • What did we learn today? (end of lesson review) • Pre-flight checklist • Traffic lights or Red/Green discs
Harvard Project Zero: Cultures of Thinking
Harvard Project Zero: Cultures of Thinking • See Think Wonder • Micro-lab • CSI • Sentence Phrase Word • Family Dinner = Chalk and Talk + Step Inside + See Think Wonder • I used to think; Now I think • Connect, Extend, Challenge • Headlines
Assessment Changing a culture of thinking
2015 year 7 students’ visual representations of assessment If assessment was a creature, what would it look like?
Academic Care Associate Dean of Academic Care – Student Care Team • Goal setting • Mentoring Year 12 Buddies; Study Buddies; House Group Teachers; HOH; Teachers • Personal reflection • Term Planners • Master Classes
2015 2018 This year we trialed Semester 1 English assessment = no marks
2018 year 7 students’ visual representations of assessment If assessment was a creature, what would it look like?
By taking away a letter grade for 1 semester in year 7 English… • Student anxiety levels regarding English assessment decreased • Students’ focus AND Parents’ focus on Feedback increased • Student engagement with and understanding of descriptors in criteria increased
But… • Academic Awards • OP ATAR Still a system which ranks students • Published NAPLAN results • Expectations Parents’ & Students’
Stephen Woods The grades/feedback nexus: See the formative forest rather than the summative tree
Seeing the Formative Forest, (not the Summative Tree)
A humble strategy for changing the dreaded handback from fraught showdown to segue to formative learning.
The Premise • Handing back summative assessment often creates a tense, and potentially damaging situation.
The Premise • Handing back summative assessment often creates a tense, and potentially damaging situation. • Recipients can be smugly complacent . • Recipients can be disappointed or outraged .
The Premise • Handing back summative assessment often creates a tense, and potentially damaging situation. • Recipients can be smugly complacent. • Recipients can be disappointed or outraged. • Not much learning happens, either way.
The Premise • Handing back summative assessment often creates a tense, and potentially damaging situation. • Recipients can be smugly complacent. • Recipients can be outraged. • Not much learning happens, either way. • Recipients’ supporters can become involved.
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