Mistakes are okay in new Leaving Cert pilot project
Niamh McNamara, Mungret, and Orla McMahon, Raheen, pictured after sitting the Leaving Cert Maths paper at Crescent Comprehensive College in Limerick
Tuesday June 10 2008
GOVERNMENT education advisers are exploring a new approach to teaching Leaving Certificate students, where it's okay for pupils to make a mistake.
Rather than being taught to just "get the Leaving", 450 students in a pilot project last year also developed lifelong learning skills as they studied for their exams.
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) pilot involved 450 students and 20 teachers in 11 schools -- and took in English, Irish, French, Spanish, maths and biology classes.
The successful test-run highlighted the benefits of helping students develop learning skills.
Students learned to appreciate the difference between information and knowledge, and that having information was not the same as knowledge.
The classroom revolution, which involved a reduction in course content, was a move away from spoon-feeding passive pupils information to be regurgitated at exam time.
The focus of the method is on creating effective learners and assisting students to take more responsibility for their learning, gradually decreasing their dependence on teachers.
Enthusiastic teachers said it worked, and, while some students took time to adjust to more active learning, many embraced the change.
The method is based on five key learning skills identified by the NCCA, including:
- information processing -- learning to appreciate the difference between information and knowledge.
- critical and creative thinking -- developing skills in higher reasoning and problem solving
- communicating -- recognising how central communication is to human relationships.
- working with others -- appreciating group dynamics, and developing the social skills needed to engage in collaborative work.
- Being personally effective -- developing strategies around self-appraisal, goal setting and action planning, and recognising how to get things done effectively.
According to an interim NCCA report on the project, "the five key skills do appear to lead to more effective learning and greater engagement and enjoyment in learning".
Confidence
"Some students benefited from a classroom culture in which mistakes were seen as an opportunity for learning," the report stated.
"Some began the school year believing that they were no good at certain subjects. The teaching methodologies helped students gain a positive experience of themselves as learners."
But the new approach is not without its challenges such as:
- convincing teachers and students of the value of the approach.
- the amount and type of syllabuses change needed.
- New assessment methods to support the methods.
- teacher training and additional time needed for lesson planning.
Rather than teaching the skills as stand-alone subjects, the NCCA project embedded them into the curriculum.
This took more time and meant less course material could be covered but, as the project progressed, teachers found that the skills could be adapted to all subjects and topics, to varying degrees.
Teachers also found that key skills appeared when the teaching structure and methodology was changed.
"When teachers who were used to reading out notes for students to take down began to consider teaching students how to develop and write their own notes, they saw the possibility to develop critical thinking alongside information processing," the report stated.
Teachers reported that key skills became the focus in planning lessons, and there was an important shift from content-centred to learner-centred teaching.
However, they argued that real change would necessitate a reduction of syllabus content.
