Month: January 2018

This is it!

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Well, we are at the end of the final week, and we have all that we’re going to have for now as we head in to our practicum placements.

Do you ever feel fully prepared for anything? Can’t say that I have, but I can say this: Everything I have learned so far has gone into this planning phase, but when the rubber hits the road (the theory meets the practical) will the wheels stay on? I like a bit of anarchy (controlled anarchy that is), especially in a classroom full of eager young minds, but I have the same doubts and reservations that I’m sure everyone has:

Are they going to pay attention when I’m trying to speak?

Are they going to put pen to paper when I ask them to visualize, draw, imagine, ideate, or design?

Will they sense my passion for teaching them and feel inclined to release their inquiring minds?

What if they find me boring??

 

I have to constantly remind myself to be myself, because kids seem to see through just about anything that is not authentic, even before they have the ability to articulate why. I am going to leave my door open to these students, and I hope they all choose to come in as I have a lot to offer…and its all free for the taking.

I’m starting off the first week with 2 different food blocks for 6/7’s and 8/9’s, general foods and cooking with fire respectively.I know they’re both going to be fun, but its that rough start out of the gate that I’m always worried about, getting the kids to talk, laugh and engage on day 1.

I think one of the adaptations I’ll be forced to make is just that – adaptability. As my SA says, you aren’t going to plan for 10 weeks, unless you like a lot of re-writing when you have to toss half the plan out on the end of week 1. Im trying to think more big picture, like how will I prompt something out of these kids when they often seem uncomfortable talking, or are just uncomfortable in their own skin period. All I can do is be myself, and maybe talk about my own uncomfortability to put their minds at ease – I’ll just have to adapt on the fly and see how it goes.

The next post will be at the end of day 1 as I’m not sure what else to comment on or think about at the present time. Everybody always says don’t worry about, and I try not too, but I’ve heard that before and it’s not really a switch I’ve ever had the ability to click off when the time had come. But my girlfriend always says – “If you are a little worried, you’re probably better prepared and more thoughtful than the person who is not worried at all.” Hope she is right.

Wow….It’s 2018!

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Through these last few years of BCIT and now UBC, every time something came up that I was a little uncertain about regarding teaching, it was deferred to the “I’ll have to address that in 2018” pile. Guess what?

So, practicum at the end of the month, I have all sorts of ideas, I have no idea if said ideas will work, and I’m on task to sort and prioritize. It’s a great group of people I’ll be working with at Lake Trail, good admin, an FA who I think knows a lot about classroom management and has offered up his assistance…What could possibly go wrong? Nothing, as long as I don’t get my overactive imagination in the way. Imagination is a great thing, and mine has stayed as strong as it was when I was a little ‘un, except it has that creeping dark side that holds the “what if…” category on the other side of the second class lever (that’s the teeter/totter style). For the most part I feel good, and the kids really seemed to like me, but I think they were in some sort of interview process once they got word I would be there again next year (from short practicum in November). What if I’m boring? What if they’re yawning during my lectures, how do I make the Canada Food Guide a “fun” lecture? I’m not as worried about the wood shop and electronics, lots of cutting, banging, and power tools to keep anyone engaged for a lifetime, but I’ve never actually “taught” home ec in the traditional sense, just years of nutrition to adults and youth on a one on one level. That is much different.

So I have my ideas, I have my imagination, I have an inkling I passed the kids interview, and I’m ready to dive in to the mix; I hope UBC has some good last words of wisdom before I hurl myself back in time to my grade 6 mindset to ask: “what exactly are these kids thinking right now….?

The inquiry proposal is going well, and I’m hoping to be somewhat ahead of the curve by the time I get to Comox. It’s been quite a vague are for most of us up till now, and I understand its going to get greyer until they figure out a standardized way to assess these kids right across the board, and explain to their parents that its not about ABCD and F anymore, but how deep you can question a concept in your mind, and how far can you go till you get a satisfactory answer to back fill the tunnel that led you there.

We shall see.

Objective assessment of the Inquiry process

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A Method of Objective Assessment:

(For the Inclusion of Inquiry Based Learning in Project Based Units).

 

Introduction

An argument by long time technology education (shop) teachers is that they have always practiced inquiry-based learning. While this is true in principle, many tech ed teachers still feel more comfortable with a lopsided proportion of prescriptive projects versus self guided and directed inquiry driven projects. Having said that, a certain amount of prescribed, instructor guided project work is essential in the tech ed shop, if for no other reason than the high level of importance allotted to safety. Basic safety principles do not lend themselves well to inquiry based learning in practice, so a degree of guided instruction is, in my opinion, non negotiable when it comes to introducing power and hand tools. Once the class as a whole has moved beyond safety and into the first project, the seeds of inquiry based learning can be integrated into what will ideally become a lifetime of creative and critical thinking skills that can transfer into the quick thinking and highly adaptable traits required in the modern post secondary and working world.

 

Assessment Methods

The basis of this paper is how can we properly assess for not only project based learning outcomes, but for the process as it relates to the curricular competencies, and inquiry based learning as it relates to these and core competencies/big ideas. It is essentially a blend of many assessment methods new and old, with an emphasis on practicality for the new teacher. The paper will focus on a multi-part assessment that is weighted heavily toward process and inquiry based concepts, and includes techniques such as:

  1. Beginning of unit reflection on what “chosen ADST skill” means to the student.
  2. Instructor and student generated rubric – broad coverage aligned with the learning outcomes and lectures on safety, teamwork, the classroom community and core competencies, and finished projects (lesser weight).
  3. Ongoing teacher observations and logging, low inference, cross sectional data.
  4. Zumach’s (2016) 10 step handbook for assessment of inquiry based learning
    1. Including assessment “for” and “as” learning through frequent feedback.
  5. End of term reflection on progress in process, for the students to compare and self assess.
    1. Including peer assessment of group dynamic.

Process

Near the beginning of an ADST unit (woodwork for example), the instructor will initiate an individual student self-reflection to get a sense of what they are feeling as they enter the shop for the first (or perhaps not) time. Questions can be simple and open ended such as: “What do you think of or feel when you see all the power tools?” or “What type of projects do you imagine yourself making out of wood?”. These initial reflections will be held by the instructor until the end of term, and will give the students an opportunity to observe and reflect upon the skills, competencies, and social skills they have acquired throughout the unit when compared to their final reflection at the end.

Zumach (2016) states that a rubric or a single letter grade cannot capture the depth of inquiry-based learning that students acquire in an entire term; I likewise believe this to be true. Assessment of process must share an equal depth and breadth if it is to capture all of its facets, so the more traditional rubric should focus on a more broad outline of operations of the individual student relating to the classroom as a community, with a focus on personal & social and communication core competencies, for example:

  • Assessment of your partner and group safety captain.
  • Awareness of others and surroundings via class safety reports.
  • Consistent use of PPE and machine safety protocols.
  • General performance in a group dynamic

These operations and behaviours should be outlined and reinforced in lectures, discussions, and learning outcome in the form of low stakes quizzes, as well as tracked for “assessment for learning” adjustments by way of low inference logging by the instructor (described next). The only summative assessment used will be in the form of a safety test, which must be re-taken until a minimum standard (usually 80%).

With the bulk of the post safety unit comprised of inquiry based learning, frequent observations, low inference incident logging, and frequent feedback can be used as an augment to the rubric as an assessment for learning process. Intermittent self-assessment as described by Davies should also be frequently integrated for the “assessment as learning” component of feedback, a process that has garnered much attention and positive feedback over the past few years (2007). Designing the rubric to guide your prescribed learning outcomes, and subsequently refining and defining it transparently with the rest of the class will add validity and student buy in by supporting your “class as a community” centered pedagogy in a practical, fair, and equitable way.

 

Inquiry Based Learning

It is important for new teachers to also have a working definition of inquiry in addition to the many charts and spirals that describe the process. I found personally that the term “Inquiry Based Learning” was never actually defined for me, and as a result caused me much distress and uncertainty whenever it was mentioned in passing or during lecture.

Zumach (2016) defines inquiry-based instruction as:

Inquiry-based instruction can involve learners investigating real-world problems, developing questioning, research and communication skills, collaborating within and beyond the classroom, and developing a deep understanding of content knowledge. This learning is often integrated into a public setting where the students have the opportunity to contribute to expanding a general knowledge of how the world works (Stephenson, 2015). This method of instruction is often anchored with an essential question that is explored through a guided, partially guided or open inquiry (Wiggins, 2005) (p. 5).

Another more student centred definition is culled from the M.O.E:

Inquiry is the mindset students use to build their own knowledge and understanding through an active, open-minded exploration into a meaningful question, problem, or issue. (Ministry of Education, 2015).

Outlined in Zumach’s assessment of inquiry based learning handbook are several facets of learning that are derived from the core competencies, along with composite additions relating to higher order taxonomic thinking based on curricular competencies (2016):

  1. Personal Responsibility and Awareness
  1. Personal Identity
  2. Communication
  3. Critical Thinking
  4. Creative Thinking
  5. Reflecting
  6. Collaborating
  7. Social Responsibility

IX/X.      Understand: Explain and Understand: Apply.

Zumach (2016) provides a series of lesson plan examples to teach and asses these specific facets in the realms of “for” and “as” learning, used in conjunction with the student self-assessment protocols that require meta cognition to understand, disseminate, and ultimately describe their thoughts (Davies, 2007). To implement a practical handbook such as this would certainly be a challenge to the novice teacher, but at the very least it still provides a framework for progression in the assessment of inquiry process. Many concepts ranging from the entry and exit reflections, rubric of learning outcomes, and assessment for and as learning overlap and merge with the learning facets, and as such could be well defined as similar tools in different contexts – a toolbox to assist the new teacher in building effective, reliable, and valid assessment models for their own ADST (or other) classroom’s.

 

Conclusion

At the onset of the inquiry proposal, I was seeking an assessment method specific to ADST and its (perceived) nuances, but discovered that properly designed and implemented assessment strategies are not only more universal in their structure (owing to the focus of transferable knowledge through inquiry based learning), but less esoteric and more practical when put in the context of sample lesson plans to address the facets of learning. During the upcoming practicum, I will attempt to test the method and observe how closely the outcome aligns with the objective, and report further findings in the final phase of the inquiry project.

 

Reference List

Biggs, J. (1998). Assessment and Classroom Learning: a role for summative assessment? Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 5(1), 103-110.

British Columbia Ministry of Education. (2015). Glossary of curriculum terms. Retrieved from https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/sites/curriculum.gov.bc.ca/files/pdf/glossary.pdf

Davies, A. (2007). Making classroom assessment work (2nd ed.). Courtenay, BC: Connections Pub.

Harlen, W., & James, M. (1997). Assessment and learning: Differences and relationships between formative and summative assessment. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 4(3), 365-379. doi:10.1080/0969594970040304

Zumach, K. (2016). Assessment in inquiry-based learning: the rationale and design of a handbook for teaching and assessing key learning facets (Doctoral dissertation, Electronic version published by Vancouver Island University). Retrieved from https://viurrspace.ca/bitstream/handle/10613/2924/Zumach.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

 

 

 

Original outline of key concepts from 450B:

  1. Key concepts to explore:

 

  1. Objective assessment of a students understanding and application of the curricular competencies in respect to making (Biggs, 1998).
    1. How do students utilize this design wheel? Is it effective in producing the best result they can achieve at any given point on their learning spectrum?
  2. Objective assessment of a students physically manufactured product (equity or equality).
    1. Based on a student’s level of background or baseline knowledge, is their level of progression (gap from start to finish) equal? If not, what is a fair and objective assessment of their final level (project or knowledge).
  3. Assessment of a student’s social/emotional and personal development.
    1. Has the assessment of the students work or progress helped or hindered them in the social and emotional development sphere?

Within these key concepts, a built-in problem arises from the lack of literature relating directly to assessment of the newly integrated curricular competencies. As a result, the focus of fair and equitable assessment based upon current curricula in general may be an avenue to explore via comparative and similar study’s (Biggs, 1998)

 

  1. As we transition away from averaging numbers and assigning finite letter grades (Zumach, 2016), how do we re-educate parents on a system they are un-familiar with and leery of the merit? The very nature of the subjective and biased nature of a human instructor calls into play the level of objectivity in any assessment.

Furthermore, cultural differences in students, their individual habitus (and age), and how ingrained the culture is will be important factors in SEL, and personal and social development in the classroom. How do you foster a preservation of the culture while simultaneously fostering a sense of belonging in the new culture? Integrating non-english speaking parents into the students’ assessment process is of primary importance in this arena.

Teaching Philosophy for Home Economics

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Practical experience update to a quasi-theoretical philosophy of teaching:

For clarity and easy referral, the original platform statement is included at the end of this update.

 

When I originally wrote this statement seven months ago, I based at least half of it on articles I had read that made me re-think what home economics was actually about (in the philosophical rather than historical sense). My beliefs since practicum have not changed, but they certainly have shifted and focused toward two major points I outlined in the original platform. The first point concerns my belief that home economics is and always has been about the family, but my definition of family has broadened to include the importance of the community in the classroom ideals I learned and later practiced first hand in my teaching. Being a product of the 1980’s curriculum, I am still adapting to this new idea of the engaged, inclusive classroom operating as a family unit. I learned quite quickly that I have a small window of opportunity to grab hold of the students in the classroom before they spiral down into their familiar matrix of texting and online phone-gaming. I realized that one cannot underestimate the need for this community classroom ownership, and that it must be articulated quickly if you don’t want to struggle for weeks to “get your class back”.

 

By means of further expansion on that idea, the de-emphasis on content in the new curriculum is a slippery slope for a new teacher because esoterically trying to put across big ideas and competencies without solid and engaging activities relating to the content can be met with a lot of glazed eyes, and your journey toward strengthening the core competencies stalled as a result. Again, I am talking about a new teacher, so my ignorance is shining through, but if you find a good hands on project quickly to get you closer to the students, it will make your journey to the higher order thinking and principles a more successful one.

 

The second point that has risen to the surface in my mind is that of reflective practice. I spent a lot of time, maybe too much by some people’s standards, thinking and mulling over ideas, activities, delivery methods, and strategies that worked very well, marginally well, or not at all, until common threads started to form and clarify my thoughts. Reflective practice works, there is no doubt in my mind. If you are in this profession for the right reasons, the betterment of children’s lives, then this should be a natural and necessary progression in your journey as a teacher. Take some risks, and reflect on them in a practical sense after the fact, regardless if they fall flat or soar. I have never been scared to take risks, but like many, I dislike failing. Re-framing this into a learning experience however, takes the pressure off you and your class as the process becomes the precedent, and failure simply a checkpoint – a chance to gather the class for an analysis, charette, or other community problem solving and idea sharing forum.

 

I was pleased to see that my overall assumptions about home economics (and technology education) were on point, and that the practicum gave me exactly what I wanted and needed: A testing ground for my thoughts and ideas on strengthening connections through family.

 

 

Original document

Introduction

 

For me, Home Economics has come to be about the family. On the micro level, this is the immediate family, but the macro view of community, country, and world as family are likewise a view we must adopt. Presently, globalization requires me, and us, to view the world through a more holistic lens, though I can assure you that when I first enrolled in the faculty of Human Ecology in nineteen ninety five, this was not the case. I had an interest in health and fitness, and my primary motivation was to become an expert in both of fields. In some ways I did in fact accomplish that goal, and spent many years, some good, some bad, teaching people how to eat, exercise, and live healthy. What I learned along the way is that I was not dealing with calories, proteins, and the Harris-Benedict equation for “Female – 25-40”, but with real people and real families, and the main challenges they faced as they navigated the very rough waters of life relationships, and the world at large.

 

The changing identity of Home Economics (Human Ecology)

 

People often asked me: “What exactly is Human Ecology?”, to which I answered “Peoples interaction with their environment, with respect to food, clothing, shelter, and family unit management”. Not unlike the mission of Home Economics, this description is insufficient. Everyone understands that we must go to work, conform to certain rules at said work, and get paid so we can survive. But what about the other 16 or so hours of the day, what are the rules, rewards, and duties there? Like the role of Home Economics on the world front, these parameters are not clearly defined, and as a result, both have suffered greatly to survive.

 

In the early part of the 20th century, Home Economics was not only about health and hygiene, but women’s educational and societal rights, and cultural values that pertained to both the family and society as a whole (Smith & De Zwart, 2010). The McDonald –Robertson movement adopted the slogan of “head, heart, and hands” pertaining to the educational goals of young girls and boys in household and manual training respectively (Smith & De Zwart, 2010, p. 20), strikingly similar to the technology education slogan of “head and hands” currently in use today. Through the great depression, war, and rise of commercialization and advertising, home economics continued to survive and attain recognition as a scientific form of home management, only to falter in the nineteen sixties as traditional sciences and ground-shattering events like the race to space shifted the educational focus away from home management (Smith & De Zwart, 2010).

 

Even as home economics continued its struggle to find legitimacy into the late nineties, it continued to broaden its focus in the socio-political scope of family institutions and the economy, community issues in obesity and food safety, and global level perspectives on social justice and sustainability in the new millennia (Smith & De Zwart, 2010, p. 20). I believe that this new global perspective is the outlet that home economics must plug in to as people strive to find meaning in an increasingly disconnected society. Even though technology brings us virtually closer together, its pacing and exponential increase of use in our daily lives threatens the value placed on “organic” interaction. If human beings disconnect from actual interaction, then context, empathy, nuance and mutual understanding are sure to suffer in the wake.

 

Home Economics and the Family

 

An archaic catch phrase of home economics used to be “(home economists should be able to) catch good husbands (because they had a) license to become a good wife and mother” (Darling, 1995). In some ways, this distorted statement is true in that home economists are better wives or husbands because they are trained to understand the family dynamic and its importance in the home, community, and beyond. Although the sexist ignorance of the time may be laughable now, it belied the fact that home economics was already on a noble and pertinent track, leading to its present day indispensability on several global fronts. It is at this point that I must step back and iterate that my belief in home economics is not just a purely theoretical and esoteric view, but a practical handbook for better living within the family dynamic. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs was taught to me in the context of home economics and human ecological interactions, and while not culturally universal as once thought (Wachter, 2003), still provides a framework upon which home economics still rests. In terms of food, basic physiological needs are met, but does that also not reach into the upper echelon of safety, love and belonging? Families operate on many levels simultaneously, and the interactions between food, celebration, providing shelter and clothing, and showing love will lead an individual to esteem and self actualization. Many believe that the continuing degradation of this family construct is intimately tied to the fraying social fabric of life, and cite individualism, lack of respect and personal responsibility toward others, general impersonality to daily life, and (the ensuing product of) poor community values as factors therein (McGregor & Chesworth, 2005, p. 30). However, it appears that although people and families are mostly driven by “doing and having” instead of “being and relating”, they are increasingly willing to “trade it all in” in exchange for some deeper meaning to life (Darling, 1995, p. 30). It is here that we move to the next position that home economics must take.

 

Reflective Practice

 

As a teacher in home economics, I believe in embracing the concept of reflective practice. Home economics is in and of itself an interconnected discipline. We study the many facets of home economics independently, like food, textiles and family studies, but also identify that these studies are interconnected and must be viewed as such if we are to be effective teachers in the school system (Vaines, Badir, Kieren, & University of British Columbia, 1988). Vaines describes why we would choose to become a professional home economist by comparing the path of the reflective practitioner (a morally driven vision for the common good) to that of the no choice path which is devoid of a philosophical orientation on one extreme, or a technical rational path through more familiar territory where we fit into the machine like contextual box of “recipe for success” (Vaines et al., 1988). In choosing the path of reflective practice, one must consider many questions involving who you are and what you can do, what the nature of your practice is and what it means to you, along with the consequences therein, and how you fit in and foster a positive impact on a societal, moral and eventually global level (Vaines et al., 1988). As I stated previously, I entered into this profession very much on a technical rational level that, though career driven, still held an inkling of philosophical stance in that I actually wanted to affect a change, one person at a time. I was slow to come around, but my exposure to disintegrating families that my clients (parents) tried desperately to hold intact shifted my thinking toward a greater scope of affecting change on a larger level, with a standpoint of moral obligation replacing my prior egocentrism. Going back into schools after all these years was quite a revelation to me, as the demographic face of the classroom is absolutely nothing like I remember it. In the small town in southern Manitoba where I grew up, I can recall only two east Indian families, and one African Canadian family, the rest consisting of majority white and minority Metis and First Nations. This was in a rural secondary school of nearly two thousand students, so I can only imagine to what extent these individuals suffered in such a grossly imbalanced forum. This contrast impacted me greatly, and was the “enlightening” event that led me into the exploration of the mode of Reflective practice (Vaines et al., 1988). My final thoughts on this mode of practice lie in the First Nations education component which is embedded in the new B.C. curriculum. First Nations have always embraced spirituality and the connectedness with nature, and in many ways embody the spirit of home economics. Many cultures embrace many stages of a life cycle with the child held in forefront as the closest to the spirit world, and more open to knowledge then at any other point in life (McGregor & Chesworth, 2005) – this statement requires no further elaboration.

 

Conclusion

If society is indeed coming apart at the seams due to technology, our ever accelerating fast paced life, or just an overwhelming shift in focus from the world to the self, then the family unit must be rebuilt to support the imminent collapse in both the individual and the community around them. As in any structure, the base must be intact for the structure to hold, and home economics will provide that base. Educating students to the hierarchy of needs, and further adapting that hierarchy to include cultural and First Nations differences is a means of exposing them to a more world-wise view; in doing so we create a global perspective of acceptance and understanding. As we begin to better understand the consequences of our actions and their subsequent effect on others, we can better understand our moral place in the world, and begin a journey toward a life of deeper meaning and purposeful co-existence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

 

 

Darling, C. A. (1995). An Evolving Historical Paradigm: From Home Economics’ to Family and Consumer Sciences’1. Journal of Consumer Studies and Home Economics, 19(4), 367-379. doi:10.1111/j.1470-6431.1995.tb00558.x

 

McGregor, S., Chesworth, N. (2005). Positioning Human Spirituality in Home Economics. Journal of the HEIA, 12(3), 27-44.

 

Smith, G., & De Zwart, M. L. (2010). Home Economics: A Contextual Study of the Subject and Home Economics Teacher Education. Teachers of Home Economics Specialist Association (THESA), British Columbia.

 

Vaines, E., Badir, D., Kieren, D. K., & University of British Columbia. School of Family and Nutritional Sciences. (1988). People and practice: International Issues for Home Economists. People and Practice, 5(3), 1-17.

 

Wachter, K. (2003). Rethinking Maslow’s Needs. Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences, 95(2), 68.