Pīkau 23: Evaluating your learning programme
Why this matters
Part 4
This pīkau is the final part of a four part series. If you haven’t seen the previous pīkau then we suggest visiting these pīkau first:
- Pīkau 20 – Create your DT learning programme
- Pīkau 21 – Incorporating authentic contexts
- Pīkau 22 – Incorporating a design process
Evaluating your learning programme
Taking a step back to review your learning programme is important to ensure that it meets the needs of all learners, and the New Zealand Curriculum.
Evaluation and iteration are critical elements in the practice of every teacher.
Effective teaching and learning "requires that teachers inquire into the impact of their teaching on their students." (Teaching as Inquiry, New Zealand Curriculum, 2007, page 35).
Teachers constantly inquire into what it is that they do, and what has the biggest, positive impact on their students' learning.
This pīkau takes you through an evaluation of the digital technologies learning programme you have developed.
Aligning Learning Programmes with New Zealand Curriculum Principles
Catherine and Neville discuss what the Principles of the New Zealand Curriculum are, and how they support decision making for curriculum design.
This resource is downloadable and can support you to discuss the eight New Zealand Curriculum principles in their entirety with your colleagues/teams/departments.
Download:
Catherine and Neville discuss what the principles of the New Zealand Curriculum are, what their purpose is, and how they guide us to make decisions about curriculum in our schools.
This clip gives ideas of how a couple of the principles can be a focus in a learning programme and how all eight might be able to be covered in a broader learning programme across a number of years learning for a student as they move through the school.
Developing a local curriculum
New Zealand schools shape their curriculum so that teaching and learning is meaningful and beneficial to their particular communities of students.
The reason local contexts matter is that students are more likely to be engaged when they are solving problems that affect them, their whānau or communities.
You may have noticed that many authentic contexts are local and provide better accessibility and meaning for the students to engage with.
Developing a local curriculum for your school is beyond the scope of this pīkau. However, the curriculum guides below will be very helpful to those wishing to consider this further.
Local Curriculum and Technology
This clip is part of a 40 minute webinar that Sarah Washbrooke from Remarkables Primary School presented for Technology Online. She talks about how to make and use engaging community connections to develop digital technologies understandings.
If you're interested in listening to the whole webinar, there are links to the recording and Sarah's slides below.
Full webinar recording
Additional supporting slides
Download the webinar slides:
Resources for team/faculty leads
Here's a resource that may be useful for leaders and teams when planning their curriculum design and coverage
Question for team/department leads to discuss with teams:
How do you know all the POs and AOs are being covered for the students as they transition through your school/kura?
Below is an example of how you can plan across a number of year levels and reduce the amount of curriculum aspects that can be covered in a learning programme.
In your teams, take a look at the example of curriculum coverage and use the blank template to see if you can map your school's coverage of the NZC requirements for digital technologies.