Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning

Transformation :

Crafting Formational Learning A teaching practice resource for Christian schools

Transformation by Design: The Big Picture (prequel to this resource) focused on best practice in designing curriculum for Christian schools. This resource builds upon the work of the original contributors, and extends into a discussion about best practice in teaching and learning within Christian schools.

All content in this resource is copyright. However, it may be reproduced in part for curriculum preparation and training purposes. If reproducing for training purposes, please acknowledge source.

Acknowledgements

ISBN: 9780648064350

We acknowledge the generous support from the de Bruyn family from Penguin, Tasmania, for covering the costs of the printing of this resource.

A full catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia.

This work is by no means original. It brings together the contributions of many authors, teachers, and expert practitioners who have all contributed to development of the craft of teaching in the pursuit of formational learning for the students in their care.

Writing Team Martin Hanscamp.

Daniel Clarke, Alice Mustin, Chris Parker.

Reference Group Yvonne Bradley, Janita Bratton, Emily Brooks, Michelle Dempsey, Kathleen Flentje, Dr Fiona Partridge, Jacqui Stok, Jay Trevaskis, Tim White.

Copyright © 2019 Christian Education National PO Box 1892 PENRITH NSW 2751 cen.edu.au

Cataloguing

trove.nla.gov.au Professional Learning Workshop This resource also serves as the participant workbook for a series of workshops (and online courses) offered by CEN Professional Learning.

For more information, email professionallearning@cen.edu.au or visit professionallearning.cen.edu.au.

Artwork Design: Taninka Visuals tanya@taninka.com.au Printing: Springwood Printing Company Printed on PEFC certified stock.

Transformation :

Crafting Formational Learning A teaching practice resource for Christian schools

Contents Introduction More Than Biblical Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Biblically-Informed Teaching and Learning. . . . . . 9 Framing Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Chapter 1: Crafted Teaching and Formational Learning What’s Our Purpose?

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Our Framing Statement Part 1: Crafted Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 What Makes Crafted Teaching?

The Master Craftsperson

Chapter 2: Curious and Courageous Teachers Who Are We as Teachers?

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 The Teacher’s Backpack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Who I Am My School’s Expectations My Society’s Expectations The Landscape of God’s Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47

Chapter 3: Curious and Courageous Students Who Are Our Students and Who Are They Becoming?

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Crafted Teaching Is Built on Strong Relationships

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Crafted Teaching Goes Down Rabbit Holes

Who Are Our Students? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Crafted Teaching Is Being Weighed Down

The Office of the Student

Part 2: Formational Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Christ-Centred; Student-Oriented

Why Formational Learning?

Faith Formation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Who Is Involved in Formation?

A Varied Faith Context

Formational Learning Is Vision-Guided

Faith Status of the Student

Formational Learning Is Holistic

Faith-Nurture Approach

The Forming of Head, Heart, and Hand

Ways of Nurturing Faith Character and Wisdom Formation. . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Diversity of Learners. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59 Language of Diversity Diversity and Special Need Who Are Our Students Becoming?. . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 3

Contents Chapter 4: Extending the Big Picture Template What Tools Do You Use to Plan for Formational Learning?

Chapter 5: Assessment Towards Formational Learning How Are Our Students Learning and Forming and How Are We Communicating This?

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Embracing Backwards Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65

Assessment of Faith and Character. . . . . . . . . . . . 95

The Template. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Examples

The Template Is Not a Teaching Program

Assessment or Evidence of Learning. . . . . . . . . .104

The Big Picture Template Summary

Modes of Assessment

The Template Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Assessment OF, FOR, and AS Learning. . . . . . . .105

Main Idea/Deep Hope

Assessment of Learning (Summative)

Assessment Towards Formational Learning

Assessment FOR and AS Learning (Formative)

Formational Teaching and Learning Practices

Reframing Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

The Learning Community, Culture, and Space

Assessment Is Central to the Planning Process

The Big Picture Template: Examples . . . . . . . . . . .73

A Broader Approach Eight Characteristics of Formational Assessment Assessment Frameworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Using Probing Questions Using Rubrics and Matrices Reshaping an Assessment Task Communicating and Celebrating Learning. . . . . 118 The Place and Value of an Audience Motivation and Audience Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Government Requirements Alternative Examples

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Chapter 6: Understanding the Teaching and Learning Landscape How Do We Appraise the Various Approaches?

Chapter 8: The Learning Community, Culture, and Space Where Are Our Students Learning?

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

The Class Community. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

The Purposes for Learning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Organisation or Organism

Learning for Understanding and Mastery

Formation of Community

Learning for Appreciation

Positive Relationships Build Community

Learning for Responsive Action

The Importance of Shared Vision

Qualities of Learning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Building Community

Learning That’s Authentic

The Class Culture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Learning That’s Courageous

Community Practices Shape Culture

Learning That’s Curious and Playful

Elements Influencing Culture

Learning That’s Gritty

When a Student Rejects the Culture

Learning That’s Intentional

The Physical Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Learning That’s Owned Approaches to Teaching: A Critique. . . . . . . . . . . 130

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Space Shapes Culture Shapes of Learning

Rote Learning Direct Instruction Inquiry-Based Learning The Questioning Approach

Appendix 1: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 A Summary of Transformation

by Design: The Big Picture

Gaining Clarity Inquiry-Based Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Chapter 7: Formational Teaching and Learning Practices How Do We Design and Plan for the Practice of Formational Learning?

Appendix 2: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Working With Prescribed Curricula References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Ineffective Designing and Planning Tools to Help Us Choose Asking Probing Questions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 The Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Renewal Schema The Probing Questions Template Pondering Considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Ten Considerations Choosing Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 Ten Strategies Further Resources

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 5

6 • Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning

Introduction I glance over at my bookshelf with its wonderful collection of what Christian teachers and theorists have written . . . I look lethargically down at the next documentation requirement before me . . . I spend some moments reflecting on my journey of growth in this area—the Christian education courses I have done, the conferences I have been shaped by, the wonderful input from fellow Christian teachers.

It has taken a bit of time to understand the big story of the Bible—creation, fall, redemption, renewal, but I pretty much get it now. What a great story! I’ve become more familiar and even immersed in all this ‘worldview’ perspective stuff. I’ve even written a biblical perspective or two. How good is that! I’ve been working pretty hard at getting the flavour of the school into my curriculum and lessons.

I get it that teaching Christianly is more than a poster on the wall or being Mr Nice Guy or having homeroom devotions. I’ve even been getting some good national testing results, and some kids have even come to know Jesus. I reflect back at that ever-so-diligent, eager, ‘green’ teacher that I was and I know I’ve come a long way.

However, despite all these good things, I still have this nagging doubt—am I doing it right? We haven’t had many staff discussions on our practices within the classroom. I haven’t seen a lot that’s been written on Christian pedagogy. And, I haven’t given a lot of attention to the chalk-face, the hands-on, the this-is-what-it-looks-like-in-my-classroom. I still need some help. I need help to think through my practice as a Christian teacher. I think that would help me deal with this nagging that there’s more.

Transformation by Design: The Big Picture considered the importance for Christian educators of the big picture of curriculum design and its foundational elements. It explored curriculum frameworks, biblical perspectives, enduring understandings, and the responses we seek from our students—we called these Threads. Appendix 1 provides a summary of the key components of Transformation by Design: The Big Picture.

This book, Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning, is a companion to Transformation by Design: The Big Picture. In this resource, we turn our attention to the way we unfold our teaching and learning (the craft of teaching) and to the why of our teaching (formational learning). We offer a designing and planning framework for the task of building a holistic, crafted, and formational approach to teaching and learning.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 7

More Than Biblical Perspectives In their book, Teaching and Christian Practices, David Smith and Jamie Smith (2011) contribute to the discussion of the distinctiveness of Christian schooling, including its practices and rituals, questions around how students are formed, how we foster faith and response; and what is involved in well-crafted Christian teaching.

Smith and Smith suggest that there have been countless “ . . . debates about the dynamics of worldviews, presuppositions, perspectives, science and religion, and various ‘isms’ . . . [but little debate on] . . . how teaching and learning are supposed to work in a Christian setting” (Smith & Smith, 2011, p. 3). An emphasis in teacher professional development has been on worldview discernment and the development of biblical perspectives with the understanding that this would lead to faithful biblically-informed learning.

Although these are an essential, and central, focus of Christian education, an exploration of what it is to teach in a biblically-informed manner must also consider how the biblical story shapes all of our teaching practice and processes as well as the purpose of learning.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning is an extension to Transformation by Design: The Big Picture. This resource emphasises that while the big picture remains vitally important, Christian education is so much richer when it does not stop at curriculum design and the developing of biblical perspective statements. The big picture story of the Bible, and the gospel of the Lord Jesus, can and must influence the crafting of our teaching and the formation of our students through their learning.

Smith and Smith (2011) encourage and challenge Christian teachers to develop teaching strategies that transform their pedagogical practices and habits. Such transformation facilitates the formational learning that occurs in classrooms—places which seek to foster vital growth in both student and teacher.

If we believe that all things come under Christ’s lordship, and we resonate with Abraham Kuyper that, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign

This resource emphasises that while the big picture remains vitally important, Christian education is so much richer when it does not stop at curriculum design and the developing of biblical perspective statements.

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over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’” (Kuyper, 1880), then every area of schooling, all aspects of our teaching and learning, and the class cultures we nurture, need to be looked at with biblically-informed eyes.

We, as Christian teachers, can’t ignore the fact that faith applies as much to the craft of teaching and formational learning, as it does to biblical perspectives and curriculum content.

The faithful Christian teacher who is concerned with students, curriculum, classroom management, parents, the vision of the school, etc., ought to be asking: • How does the biblical narrative shape the craft of my teaching?

• What are the characteristics of learning that form my students towards discipleship?

• What teaching practices support, and what practices hinder, godly formation of my students?

• How do I critique and bring clarity to the large variety, and confusing array, of teaching practices constantly being presented in education?

Biblically-Informed Teaching and Learning Transformation by Design: The Craft of Formational Learning aims to assist in the practical craft of teaching from a biblically-informed understanding.

The professional learning section in school libraries, and teachers’ in-boxes, are already full of the latest research into teaching and learning improvement. This resource seeks to be distinctive in that its engagement with quality teaching and learning is approached through a biblically-informed understanding of life and education.

We recognise that by common grace God blesses humanity with insight through a variety of people— including through those who don’t yet know Him. As Christians living in God’s world, we are grateful for these insights while acknowledging that the effects of the fall may be woven into their structure and assumptions. We look for what is God honouring, while we investigate, engage, critique, refine, and humbly seek to discern the distortions and distractions from God’s big picture that may be evident.

We intentionally critique the roots of where ideas come from recognising that every idea—and every person—

starts from a place of worship. In our fallenness, we make mistakes. However, through Christ’s grace and renewing power, we keep coming back to seek His creational life renewal. We are called to be ambassadors of the Kingdom of light: agents of Jesus’ redemption. It is a calling to partner in the renewal and transformation of all things, including life, culture, and education.

We recognise that what makes Christian schooling different and what makes us as Christian teachers different, is that we live within the big purpose of God’s story. This resource seeks to unfold what this means in the sphere of teaching and learning.

We look for what is God honouring, while we investigate, engage, critique, refine, and humbly seek to discern the distortions and distractions from God’s big picture that may be evident.

Framing Statement In harmony with the curriculum design process presented in Transformation by Design: The Big Picture, we present a framing statement for this resource. Articulating a framing statement is helpful in providing an anchor point for ideas and implications to be tethered to.

Formational learning develops the mind, captivates the heart, and equips the hand, encouraging curious and courageous learners to explore God’s world and live out the hope of Christ.

May this also become an anchor point for your teaching and learning as you work through this book and reflect on your vocation as a Christian educator.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 9

Overview The following provides a brief overview of the content and structure of the book.

In Chapters 1-3, we present the grounding for formational learning. In Chapters 5-8, we explore the practice/s of formational learning. Chapter 4 links these two sections together.

Chapter 1 Crafted Teaching and Formational Learning What’s our purpose?

Chapter 1 introduces our key terms—the craft of teaching and formational learning—and explains how the biblical story gives them shape. We provide an exploration of the how (the craft of teaching) and the what (formational learning) of Christian teaching and learning.

We provide a framework for understanding the direction and purpose of Christian education and how that can be realised in the practices of the classroom.

This framework shows how other key influences (like a prescribed curriculum or contemporary educational insights) can integrate with a teacher’s planning for formational learning.

Chapter 2 Curious and Courageous Teachers Who are we as teachers?

With the framework and foundation established, Chapter 2 explores the roles of the teacher. The role of the teacher is to lead the learning. That is quite a challenge when weighing up all the things we need to be aware of, and all the expectations on us. This resource aims to assist you in this task and build your curiosity, courage, and confidence. We introduce the metaphor of a backpack—the teacher’s backpack—to explain all the things that the teacher needs to carry and be aware of.

Chapter 3 Curious and Courageous Students Who are our students and who are they becoming?

As teachers, we approach the classroom with a deep desire to know who our students are, how they might best learn, and how the whole student group works together in community. Each unique and complex student brings to us his or her own faith, personality, capacity, gifts, disposition, and understandings. We explore what learning strategies we might use in response to this gathering of information and insight.

10 • Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning

We desire for our students to grow in understanding of who they are and what place they have within God’s world. We want each student to have the best opportunity to learn and to grow in faith—to be curious, courageous, and active participants in their own learning and the communities of which they are a part. We seek to understand their hopes and needs.

We seek to build our relationships with students as we care for their welfare and wellbeing. We consider the school’s goals for their learning after 13 years of schooling.

Chapter 4 Extending the Big Picture Template What tool do you use to plan for formational learning?

This chapter builds on the model that was outlined in Transformation by Design: The Big Picture. That model pivoted on the Big Picture Template—a tool used to outline a curriculum design process for Christian teachers. The focus was on capturing a biblicallyshaped approach to curriculum design.

In this resource, the attention extends to focusing on a biblically-shaped approach to teaching and learning practice through the use of an extended Big Picture Template. This chapter, and the presentation of the extended template (with worked examples) provides the pivot point between the grounding for formational learning (Chapters 1-3) and the practice/s of formational learning (Chapters 5-8).

Chapter 5 Assessment Towards Formational Learning How are our students learning and forming, and how are we communicating this?

As Christian teachers, we seek an approach to assessment that goes well beyond a list of grades and comparisons. This chapter explores our desire for students to be included as a critical part of the assessment process; a desire for them to be aware of their own growth and progress as well as the next steps needed in moving their learning forward. In other words, assessment, feedback, and reporting that empowers, rather than disempowers. Assessment, feedback, and reporting for learning rather than of learning.

This chapter also explores the authenticity of learning tasks and assessments, the pursuit of high-quality products of learning, the contexts for celebrating learning, and the appropriate audience for sharing the results of learning.

Chapter 6 Understanding the Teaching and Learning Landscape How do we appraise the various approaches?

Chapter 8 The Learning Community, Culture, and Space Where are our students learning?

When teachers understand the breadth of influences shaping the teaching and learning landscape, they become better equipped to design and plan teaching and learning practices that are formational. With so many good ideas abounding, it is important for teachers to understand where these movements and insights come from and how the biblically-informed teacher might engage, critique, and respond.

In this chapter, we explore the importance of nurturing community, forming culture, and shaping space within our classrooms. Crafted teaching and formational learning seek to build, shape, and grow a dynamic, life-giving class community and culture where learning has every opportunity to flourish. We discuss the shaping of class cultures that are safe and productive, challenging and caring, collaborating and communityminded, joy-filled and intentional: class cultures that are Christ-honouring and grace-infused. We also explore the options available when individual students place themselves at odds with the shared vision of the class learning community with an emphasis on grace and restoration.

This chapter reviews the contemporary teaching and learning landscape and explores the history, nature, purpose, and benefits of a range of approaches that are available.

Chapter 7 Formational Teaching and Learning Practices How do we design and plan for the practice of formational learning?

As Christian teachers, we seek to intentionally design formational learning practices that develop the mind, captivate the heart, and equip the hand for the love and service of God and others. This chapter explores the desire to have classrooms that are full of welldesigned learning practices that are in line with the learning context and respond to the needs of our students.

This chapter first offers a familiar (creation, fall, redemption, and renewal) and helpful framework for the practice of formational learning. Second, it provides a selection of practices and strategies that develop formational learning. Lastly, teachers are encouraged to develop great ideas with their colleagues and to continually collect and collate great resources—all with a view to enhancing the formational learning of our students. A number of recommended resources are provided.

We also investigate the spaces and structures in the school, and in classrooms, that impact on formational learning. Focus is given to class learning structures and the messages about learning, people, and God’s world that can unfold through our structures and practices.

Appendices Two appendices are provided: 1. A Summary of Transformation by Design: The Big Picture 2. Working With Prescribed Curricula We hope this book will inspire, empower, and equip teachers to be more confident in their craft and more curious and courageous as leaders of formational learning.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 11

Chapter 1

Crafted Teaching and Formational Learning What’s our purpose?

12 • Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning

Summary Framing Statement: Formational learning develops the mind, captivates the heart, and equips the hand, encouraging curious and courageous learners to explore God’s world and live out the hope of Christ.

Main Idea/Deep Hope

Enduring Understandings

Our deep hope is that Christian teachers may realise that crafting a holistic and formational approach to teaching and learning is essential.

Vision and purpose are essential for an effective learning journey.

Essential Questions • To what extent is teaching a craft?

• What is the purpose of education?

• What would learning that is not formational look like?

• The biblical narrative of creation, fall, redemption, and the coming of God’s Kingdom, is the story that informs and shapes every aspect of the life of the school.

• Teachers must be intentional in the way they craft their teaching.

Further Questions to Ponder • What do I know and what do I have (core understandings and resources) to help me craft my teaching?

• How well does what I consider to be the purpose for education align with my school’s mission and vision?

• How much attention do I give to crafting my approaches to teaching and learning?

• How much do I consider who and what are being formed by my teaching when planning?

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Introduction People need vision and purpose in their lives. God’s revelation in Jesus offers a core vision for all of life— and therefore education. This chapter seeks to capture that vision for all of life applied to Christian schooling through the two key terms, crafted teaching and formational learning. We state the guiding purpose of this resource is to build a holistic, crafted, and formational approach to teaching and learning.

The guiding purpose of this resource is to build a holistic, crafted, and formational approach to teaching and learning.

H e ar t

Formational learning

Hea d

nd

Exploring God’s world

Ha

Curious and Courageous Learners Living out the hope of Christ

Diagram 1.1 The relationship between the components of the framing statement

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Our Framing Statement Christian schools provide varying rich responses to the question, “What is Christian education?”. An example follows: Christian education is not just about a Christian way of understanding. It is also about a Christian way of living. When Jesus said, “Follow me,” he was expecting people to dedicate their whole lives to serving God. Christian education informs, invites, and inspires young people to live this way. The Christian school offering Christian education seeks to teach this way of life every day through all that is done and taught. (Strathalbyn Christian College) It can be helpful to capture a school’s vision in a focused form of words while at the same time recognising that short statements won’t necessarily capture the fullness of all that is intended. In the same way, we provide the following framing statement as an anchor point for the ideas in this resource.

Formational learning develops the mind, captivates the heart, and equips the hand, encouraging curious and courageous learners to explore God’s world and live out the hope of Christ.

Formational learning, and the concept of head, heart, and hands will be defined and expanded in their own dedicated section in this chapter. First, we briefly define curious and courageous learners, explore God’s world, and to live out the hope of Christ. Diagram 1.1 shows the relationship between the components of the framing statement.

Curious and Courageous Learners (Both Teachers and Students) As teachers, we hope to live out and model to our students what it means to be curious (inquisitive, inquiring, interested, questioning, probing) and courageous (bold, gutsy, spirited, daring, plucky, audacious) teachers and learners so that our students

can also express these qualities in their approach to learning and living. We acknowledge that the teacher is also a learner and there are times when the student is a teacher.

Explore God’s World As our students probe, poke, experience, and begin to understand and even change God’s world, it is our desire that they will have their eyes opened to God’s invisible qualities (Romans 1:19-20). At the core of Christian education is the hope that our students will see that learning in God’s world will help them to understand who they are, who their fellow humans are, what the world is like, and how they can respond to the invitation to be human and to receive and return God’s love. Each of these aspects occurs in relation to the God who created and sustains our world.

To Live Out the Hope of Christ A biblically-informed approach to education introduces students to the goodness of God’s creation, the breakdown that occurred in every dimension of life caused by human rebellion, the renewal of all of life through Christ’s victory over sin, and the call to be agents of Christ’s redemption by bringing hope into the broken world that God still loves and sustains. Rohr (2016) reminds us: We must help people connect to The Story, the mystery of God and the universe, so that they can understand the significance of their lives as part of the body of Christ and the Great Pattern, what Jesus calls the “kingdom of God”. More than ever before, our species must discover a common meaning, a shared story, to give our lives purpose and harmony. (par. 6)

At the core of Christian education is the hope that our students will see that learning in God’s world will help them to understand who they are, who their fellow humans are, what the world is like, and how they can respond to the invitation to be human and to receive and return God’s love.

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Part 1: Crafted Teaching Teaching is not just an art form (with its emphasis on individual expression and creativity) or just a science (with its emphasis on formula, correctness, and evidence). Teaching involves responsibility, intuition, goal orientation, and the specific learning needs of the student. Therefore, it is helpful to think of teaching as a craft, with an emphasis on designing, reflection, diligence, forming, evaluating, and skilful reshaping.

In watching someone lead a children’s talk at church, or MC a wedding, or guide a meeting, or organise a children’s party, one might hear comments like, “You can see they’re a teacher,” or, “They’d make a good teacher”. These comments recognise that teaching involves a myriad of skills—confidence in being ‘up the front’, reading and commanding the audience, clear speaking, organising thoughts, knowing how to pause, to work with interruptions, control voice intonation and eye contact, ability to draw the audience back, weighing up the tangents that inevitably arise that weren’t in the lesson plan, apply the effective use of questions, aware of where to stand and when to move.

There are many subtle little things (and some big ones) at work when addressing an audience, and so many considerations to craft.

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All teachers need to diligently train and practise effective teaching techniques as they hone their craft.

While training and practising are a critical part of being a teacher, well-crafted teaching cannot be reduced to a set of specific skills.

Every teacher hopes that learning follows teaching.

This is not always the case, however. Some teachers can teach and teach and teach and when we look closely at what learning has occurred, the results are less than impressive. In these situations we often observe a teacher who has neglected to properly design and anticipate learning; they have not given attention to the crafting of teaching and the formation of learning.

While training and practising are a critical part of being a teacher, well-crafted teaching cannot be reduced to a set of specific skills.

What Makes Crafted Teaching?

The craft of teaching may also be described as the practice of teaching—or pedagogy, to use a more formal term. One simple definition of crafted teaching is that the teacher knows their content, knows their students, and then knows how to connect the two.

Another definition might be that the teacher ignites a flame of curiosity, focuses that flame, equips the student to explore that curiosity, and nurtures the setting for the flame to thrive.

• Understanding that there is no one approach to best practice, with each teacher developing their own confidence, expertise, and craft.

Word alert

• Displaying graduate and accreditation certificates.

Pedagogy: Pedagogy is often heard in education and is often used by teachers. However, it is a word that is perhaps often not well understood. It originates from the Greek paidos meaning child and agogos meaning leader—therefore to lead the child.

• Acquiring a large toolkit of skills.

Pedagogy, in broad terms, refers to the profession or science of teaching. It has had an emphasis on the approach to, or practice of, education, or the act of teaching and how this influences students’ learning.

Crafting teaching and learning is achieved by: • Gaining confidence by having an expansive big picture vision for formational learning.

• Having the space, setting, and time to properly engage in the intentional design of formational learning.

• The school doing all in its power to establish the conditions and culture which encourage teachers to hone and develop their craft. The teacher being self-aware—knowing themselves well—their heart, gifts, passions, strengths, weaknesses, calling, and vocation (these can’t be measured by a professional standard).

• Being courageously self-critical—observing, reflecting, and revising accordingly.

• Watching other teachers go about their craft and seeking to work collaboratively.

Crafting teaching and learning is not achieved by:

• Having the confidence to stand in front of the class on day one (though getting through that is important).

• Data collection perfection.

• Meeting all the professional standards.

• Conquering administrivia, assessment regimes, and data collection.

• Teaching to the test in order to have continually improving external test results.

• Being the creative bower-bird, search-engine teacher who continually collects creative new teaching ideas.

• Surviving until the end of term.

The teacher ignites a flame of curiosity, focuses that flame, equips the student to explore that curiosity, and nurtures the setting for the flame to thrive.

• Continually looking for ways to re-craft and improve expertise and nimbleness.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 17

The Master Craftsperson When considering the many types of ‘craft’ available through the ages, we might reflect on the idea of a master craftsperson. Capturing what it means to be a master craftsperson is no simple exercise. There is nuance, subtlety, heritage, and deep skill to be considered in such a definition. Being a teaching master craftsperson, however, might involve: 1. Clearly, and constantly, holding a big picture purpose in mind.

2. Knowing themselves, their task and calling, and what it means to be well equipped for the task.

3. Understanding who their students are and how they can empower them for their calling and for the task of learning.

4. Recognising how their students are progressing and how best to assess that progress.

5. Having quality tools and templates to aid with curriculum design and assessment and for planning teaching and learning.

6. Understanding and critiquing the broad teaching and learning approaches and movements and being able to work out their own authentic approach, as well as their school’s approach.

7. Diligently planning and designing their teaching and learning practice.

8. Crafting the physical space, learning community, and culture of their teaching and learning spaces.

Crafted Teaching Is Built on Strong Relationships Flowing from our understanding of God’s nature, we acknowledge that good teaching is built on good relationships. There are so many ways in which relationship with students is built and nurtured and each teacher does this a little differently. Most great teachers have an inbuilt understanding as to how to go about establishing that relationship with students, though these skills can, to some degree at least, be learned. “Good teaching,” says Palmer (2017), “. . . cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher” (p. 28).

Students seem to have an inbuilt sensor to detect whether or not teachers actually like them. Teachers who either don’t particularly like students or have fallen out of love with the vocation of teaching, should consider seriously whether or not they should stay in the profession.

Some of the common ways in which strong relationships are built between teachers and students are through: • Warmth: friendliness at the start of the lesson; facial and body language demeanour; offering timely, encouraging words.

• Understanding: student abilities and interests; noticing students’ demeanour; picking up on what students bring along, how they respond, when they hide.

• Quirkiness: being unpredictable; using humour (if that’s your gift); using the unexpected to generate learning.

• Sacrifice: remembering particular individual student matters; providing assistance out of normal classtime; working hard to set up a positive class culture.

• Stories: connecting your story with your students’ stories; appropriate use of your own story and how you unfold the story of yourself; developing skills to draw out student stories.

Having strong and positive relationships with your students isn’t just possible at the more flamboyant or charismatic end of the personality spectrum. Strong relationship is also shown through steady commitment to such things as fairness, being well prepared, turning up on time, providing personalised and prompt feedback, delivering on promises of assessed work being returned, and by not bringing your personal life hassles into the classroom.

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Crafted Teaching Goes Down Rabbit Holes

Crafted Teaching Is Being Weighed Down

Well-crafted teaching is willing to go down rabbit holes, but with considered disorientation. New teachers often excel at pre-lesson planning and are unsettled by deviation. If something wasn’t a part of the lesson plan they may cut it off so as to move back to what’s ‘important’. Students can pick up on the fact— even subconsciously—that the content is the most important driver.

Teaching has always been concerned with the weighty task of implementing curriculum. More recently, other burdens are being added to the load. Although not without merit, mandated curricula (and the oft associated overcrowding), the emphasis on external testing, an increasing reliance on data collection, and the general increase in bureaucracy-driven administrative demands, are adding unreasonably to the load a teacher must carry. This weight is draining teacher energy and providing a counter-productive distraction from the key task of crafting formational learning.

Teachers should be willing to go down rabbit holes and to find ways back to meaningful learning goals. This is not rabbit-holing because of being unprepared.

This is rabbit holing because of its potential for adding to quality teaching and learning. Although students may make a game out of distraction, time and again the teacher shows their skill through reorienting and weaving through and back to worthwhile learning goals (even if they weren’t on the lesson plan).

Pictures of Alice in Wonderland entering into an amazing world, not quite sure where she is going, piquing interest, and stumbling into new learning adventures along the way, are helpful. A key skill in the craft of teaching is keeping flexibility hand-inglove with the bigger goal intentions. The teacher is not merely a facilitator—and nor is the student on a self-led journey of discovery to nowhere in particular.

Formational learning is about crafted teaching that is carefully designed yet agile and responsive.

Rabbit-holing should not be overplayed, of course. Too much rabbit-holing could result in large syllabus holes.

This can present as a tension for the teacher when content coverage is a significant pressure. We believe that teaching that doesn’t facilitate some active rabbitholing from time to time needs to be reappraised.

Overcrowded Curriculum Formational learning seeks a deep understanding that resists a mere theoretical, shallow knowledge.

It not only seeks a deep and rich transformation of the student through their learning but also requires a deep reflection on, and transformation of, practice.

Racing from one topic to another to comply with an overcrowded curriculum is the very opposite of formational learning. While there are benefits in the standardisation of a mandated curriculum, many teachers feel that their role has changed to that of a technocrat needing to find the most efficient way of pushing students through a prescribed course. See Appendix 2 for an expanded discussion of this issue.

Teachers should be willing to go down rabbit holes and to find ways back to meaningful learning goals. This is not rabbit-holing because of being unprepared. This is rabbitholing because of its potential for adding to quality teaching and learning.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 19

Bureaucratically Driven Administration We indeed acknowledge that some administrative tasks—even if time-consuming—have positive localised benefits for teachers and students in performing their tasks more effectively and safely (e.g., health and safety documentation, mandatory reporting, child safety standards, professional standards, etc.). However, the tendency to increasingly lean on a bureaucratic, administrative solution to educational and social concerns may be counterproductive and requires serious reflection from educational leaders.

Some characteristics of this administrative imposition are: • The increasing role of the state with its limited and imposed accountability regimes (sometimes referred to as ‘compliance creep’).

• The increasing reliance on external testing regimes and the pre-service and postgraduate training, professional development, textbooks, resources, and societal expectations that follow.

• The increasing commitment to quantitative data collection driven by a belief that greater accountability and transparency alone will provide reliability and drive teacher and school improvement.

• The tendency of schools to uncritically adopt everexpanding standardised IT systems, seeking an improved efficiency that frequently proves illusory.

The Consequences of Bureaucracy When teachers become weighed down with administrivia and with a bureaucracy biased towards quantification, the rich use of qualitative professional judgement and evaluation becomes de-emphasised and devalued. The intentional planning and design of high-quality formational learning can be diminished as there isn’t sufficient energy and time. This can result in anxiety, stress, low morale, and an increasing lack of time and emotional energy for rich relationships with students.

Testimonies from teachers reflecting on this burden can be viewed on the following pages.

Our Response to the Bureaucracy A bold critique of this increasing administrative burden is timely. We are seeing over-testing with unimpressive overall learning benefits (there are some benefits), the present obsession with data collection, and the overemphasis on the use of quantitative means to assess (in the name of an ‘evidence-based’ approach). Teachers need space, respect, trust, and the opportunity to freely perform their craft.

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We urge governments, school boards, and school leaders to do all in their power to pare back administrative demands and allow teachers to focus on formational learning. Educational leaders will serve their teachers well by filtering, triaging, and transforming the bureaucratic narrative rather than simply passing it down the line. The filter must always be the mission of the school and the big picture vision of formational learning. Other responses lie in critically reviewing the external and internal bureaucratic load (not simply handing it down the line): streamlining requirements using plain-speak, reassessing the faceto-face teaching time required of teachers, appraising what administrative tasks are absolutely essential for teachers to complete, increasing the non-teaching support staff ratios as a percentage of the budget to complete as much of the administrative load as is possible. None of these solutions, of course, are easy or cost-free.

This appeal does not suggest or support a lack of willingness of teachers to engage in mandatory administrative requirements, or to be transparent and accountable. All teachers should be willing to positively work with quality, practical, valid, and reasonable compliance and accountability policies and procedures.

When experiencing low morale and stress, however, teachers must redirect their efforts back towards their personal vision and calling—the deep formative learning, through crafted teaching, that shapes students’ lives.

Reflection • If teaching is to be seen as a craft, has there been a loss of this craft during your time of service? If so, why?

• What characteristics of the craft are being lost?

• What sensible and moderate advice would you give to a principal or school board about the retention of the craft of teaching?

Data Bingo If you were to attend an educational research conference you are likely to come across the following words. This exercise can be applied to any area that is getting bogged down by jargon. The point here is to ensure that words and key terms have meaning and that they are understood by all. It is not to deride these terms per se.

Outcomes-based education

Evidence-based Evidence-informed education teaching practice

Quality teaching

Standardised tests

Best practice

Professional accountability

Professional practice

Transparency

Rubrics

Scrutiny

Scientific inquiry

Latest research studies

Randomised controlled trials

Hard robust data

Correlational studies

Standards

Declining/Raising standards

Benchmarks

Application of evidence

Analytical tools

Probes

Scientific trials

Data tools

Template

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 21

Teacher Responses “If I have to write one more report using the administration’s template of blah blah . . . if I have to collect one more set of ‘evidence-based’ results that I send off into the never-never of the school’s depository of data . . . if I have to write another 20 learning objectives per subject per term . . . if I have to attend one more PD on some obscure area of OHS . . . if I have to write up my lessons a term ahead for parents to see what I’m doing, except that just isn’t the way the lessons actually occurred . . . if I have to conduct another individual benchmark test to ascertain where my student is at when I could tell you in a jiffy . . . if I have to fill out one more ream of assessment paperwork . . . if I have to understand one new wiz bang rubric . . . if I have to understand one new set of definitions for what a learning disability might mean . . . if I have to throw out my old templates and adopt the ‘you-beaut’ new prototype . . . if I have to write one more 17-page risk analysis for next month’s camp . . . if I have to collect one more insurance indemnity form for the moment I step outside the school . . . if I have to write one more learning outcome that is just gobbledygook . . . if I have to invent one more success criteria . . . if I have to—well, I think I’ll just give it all away. And I used to love it. What changed?” (frustrated teacher: name withheld) “Compliance, standardised testing, emphasis on data, mandated curriculum, increasing adjustments, and a need to prove evidence for accountability can overwhelm a teacher’s joy, creativity, reliance on the Holy Spirit for inspiration, relationship, and the fun of exploring this amazing world.” (Daniel, QLD) “The heavy-handed imposition of evidence-based education pretends that teachers are scientists using data, tools, tests, rubrics, standards, benchmarks, probes, and scientific trials rather than the ‘soft’ skills of teaching—listening, emphasising, reflecting, and sharing. This obsession with evidence and the horror distortion of a data-driven approach leaves students consigned to boring, standardised, and ineffective cookbook teaching.” (Abridged from The Australian, 5th April, 2019).

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“Apparently I’m more valuable as an assessor, an examiner, a data collector. I have had to dull my once-engaging lesson sequences. Now I must begin by planning the assessment, consider how students will show what they’ve learnt and pre-determine what they are going to learn. . . . It is mechanical and rigid and driven. This testing costs me dearly—it costs me time with my learners, it costs my energy, it costs me the trust of my students. But it’s costing Australia too—the price of our young minds and their desire to learn. My career has not been long but in that time I have endured the imposition of initiatives such as A-E reporting, NAPLAN, My School, Professional Standards for Teachers, Quality Teaching Frameworks, and a national curriculum. I have become morally and ethically conflicted as I am drawn away from my students and their needs and drawn towards checklists and continuums. And with each new agenda comes paperwork, so much of the stuff that it piles up on my desk and crowds out the note from Donna’s mum about her asthma and the book I wanted to share with Toby and the picture Kalindah has drawn for me.” (Sydney Morning Herald, August 13, 2016) “I used to be on about tests and grades and awards.

Now I’m a mum with two children, one of whom has extra needs and I think I have much clearer vision of what my children need. They need to know they’re loved; what gifts they’ve got; what they need to get by; and that they’ve got a great purpose in life. If my children’s teachers can help us in pursuing that, we’re with them all the way. In the end, their NAPLAN results tell me something, but they don’t tell me a lot about the really important stuff.” (Sarah, VIC)

Part 2: Formational Learning Formational learning is at the heart of the purpose of Christian schooling. Formational learning stands in contrast with other more limited statements of purpose such as academic success, skills acquisition, vocational preparation, socialisation, and citizenship.

Whilst these purposes are all valid, a much richer and deeper vision is essential to capture the big picture purpose of Christian education. This deeper purpose is suggested in the etymology of the word education.

The word is built from the two Latin root words: ex, meaning out, and ducere, meaning to lead or to form or draw out. Van Brummelen (1998) helpfully expands this by stating: To educate means to lead forth, shaping attitudes and dispositions, and giving form to ideas. . . . It can never be neutral, for when we attend with people our interaction is based on our view of the person and the purpose and meaning of life. Education is always religious in the sense that it cannot but lead forth according to our faith commitments and ideals. (p. 5) Every teacher, every school, every form of teaching practice (pedagogy), embodies within itself (whether consciously or not) a particular type of forming. The destination of this drawing out and the shape of the forming depends on the vision of what it means to be human. Plantinga (2002) helpfully suggests that, “Nobody pursues purely ‘objective’ learning. Everybody pursues ‘committed’ and ‘socially located’ learning. In fact, everybody’s learning is ‘faith-based’ (p. 67).

The purpose of Christian education is to seek a particular type of student formation. Students are invited to be people who not only understand the world God has made—through the lens of His big story—but are inspired to be engaged in His world as they live out what it is to be truly human as an image-bearer of the Creator. In this resource we define formational learning as that which shapes and forms the whole person (character, head, heart, and hand) to reflect the image of God. Smith (2009) suggests: Education is not primarily … concerned with providing information; rather, education most fundamentally is a matter of formation, a task of shaping and creating a certain kind of people. These people are distinct because of what they love and desire – the kingdom of God. (p. 26)

Students are invited to be people who not only understand the world God has made— through the lens of His big story—but are inspired to be engaged in His world as they live out what it is to be truly human as an image bearer of the creator.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 23

Why Formational Learning?

Educational writers and theorists capture their particular vision for education in many ways. They speak of direct instruction, or perhaps use a description that fits within the inquiry-based learning approaches (e.g., action, active, collaborative, cooperative, deeper, discovery, expeditionary, experiential, exploratory, inquisitive, open, problem-based, project-based, visible, etc.). Or they might refer to a more general vision through a summary phrase (e.g., learning for excellence, exceptional learning, learning for life, service learning, immersive learning, etc.).

We’ve chosen the term, formational learning because it intentionally captures depth and purpose in the one broad, clear, and simple term. It is intentional in that teachers need to work at it; it has depth in that it suggests teachers can plumb broader and richer dimensions in their learning endeavours; and it is purposeful in that it inspires teachers to strive for the direction and outcomes captured in the following framing statement:

Formational learning develops the mind, captivates the heart, and equips the hand, encouraging curious and courageous learners to explore God’s world and live out the hope of Christ.

Who Is Involved in Formation?

While teachers are actively and importantly involved in the formation of who students are becoming, students are being formed from the moment they are born and their influence circle becomes wider as they grow. Parents partner with schools to assist them in educational formation, but it would be wrong to assume that schools are the main formers and shapers, or that other agencies belong only at the margins of influence.

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Indeed, there is a battle for influence happening, more so today than in the past. Students are being influenced by everything and everyone around them— in particular their families, of course, but also their traditions as well as the societal context in which they find themselves. Students’ desires and attitudes are being ‘formed’ all the time. Some of those influences are good and wholesome, others may be negative: even destructive.

While Christian teachers are actively involved in the formation of their students’ faith, wisdom, character, and education in the fullest sense, teachers do not form students as if they were entities that can be manipulated to the desires of the shaper. Student agency, student decision-making, and student responsibility are recognised as part of the forming process. Fowler says, “Students are created in the image of God and called to serve in creative responsibility. Students are not objects to be shaped and moulded but persons to be nurtured” (Hanscamp, 2018, p. 40).

However, if we use the terms form and formation in a non-deterministic sense—always remembering that our students are God’s image-bearers—it might be acceptable to use a phrase like, “We are actively involved in the formation of our students”. It captures clearly our mission and intentionality. Therefore, according to the context we might interchange such words as nurture, guidance, influencing, forming, and formation. We have tried to avoid terms like moulding and directing, or phrases like, “We form students to . . .”.

Word alert Student agency: is a phrase which acknowledges the active role a student has in their learning. Providing increased opportunities for constructive student agency treats the students with integrity as imagebearers. In education, it may mean encouraging students to express their voice and to become a partner in the learning journey. Increasing student agency in learning means the teacher moves from a position of dominance to mentor, allowing formational learning to be expressed in ways authentic to the student.

Formation Learning Is Vision-Guided All schools are involved in some kind of formation, consciously or unconsciously. In Christian schools, we acknowledge that we have a vision to provide much more than simple knowledge and skills. We have a vision that students will become the fullest version of who God wants them to be. In recognising that there are no neutral spheres in life, however, we don’t leave students without teacher guidance. Schooling and education are not faith-free or value-free. This nonneutrality is helpfully explained by Smith (2017) when he says, Every school has a value system. Every school subject is taught in a way that implies a certain kind of value system that implies a vision of what this subject is – what is its place in the world and what kinds of things we should be doing. For example, if I go to a Maths class and all the work problems are to do with spending money – that’s a value system. I once went through a Maths text and every problem was to do with using or spending money on consumer goods. There was not a single example of charitable giving. That’s formation, right? Do that for a year in a Maths class – that’s formation! You are learning what numbers are for and what they’re not for.

Whilst respecting student agency, parent authority, and choice—and acknowledging the backgrounds students come from—we need to be clear and confident with parents and students about the specific formation we are attempting. We seek to tell them clearly about our vision for formational learning. Following are some of the characteristics of formational learning that we will communicate:

• We seek to nurture our students to walk in the way of the Lord.

• We want our students to understand and deeply know who they are as designed, loved, and created children of God—with a calling that is full of hope.

• We desire our students to be invited, inspired, and equipped to participate in the redeeming of a broken and fallen world.

• We urge our students to love God with all their heart, soul, and mind and their neighbours as themselves.

• We desire to work in partnership with parents in the formational learning of their children.

• We hope to influence and nurture the direction that our students are growing in and the people they are becoming.

Sometimes teachers think that they are simply the Grade 4 teacher or the English teacher or the science teacher. You might hear phrases like, “I just teach food technology. It is what they appointed me to do. It’s what I’m good at. Don’t ask me to do things that are not my strong suit!” For Christian educators, this attitude is misplaced. Christian teachers are unavoidably involved in formational learning—whether they acknowledge it or not. They must ask themselves, “What kind of belief, hope, view of humanity, definition of success, etc. am I forming in my students?”

In recognising that there are no neutral spheres in life, however, we don’t leave students without teacher guidance.

Schooling and education are not faith-free or value-free.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 25

Formational Learning Is Holistic In Chapter 2 of Luke, we see a fabulous summary of well-rounded, holistic formation. The gospel writer describes Jesus’ growth as a young man, saying that He became strong and grew in stature (physical), was filled with, and grew in, wisdom (intellectual, mental), that the grace of God was on Him (spiritual), and that He gained favour with God and man (spiritual and social).

Formational learning focuses on the whole person— physical, intellectual, spiritual, social, and emotional.

It involves and impacts a student’s head, heart, and hands. It is well-rounded. It impacts the whole of life.

It generates wisdom and it shapes character. This was acknowledged, and helpfully articulated, in a government declaration made by all Australian state education ministers in 2008: Schools play a vital role in promoting the intellectual, physical, social, emotional, moral, spiritual and aesthetic development and wellbeing of young Australians, and in ensuring the nation’s ongoing economic prosperity and social cohesion.

Schools share this responsibility with students, parents, carers, families, the community, business and other education and training providers.

(Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australian, 2008) Formational learning impacts the whole of life. It could be referred to as, ‘all of life learning’, or ‘holistic learning’. This definition of formational learning is grounded in a theology which acknowledges that all things in the world belong to, and are upheld by, Christ.

Paul the apostle explains: The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:15-17)

Formational learning focuses on the whole person—physical, intellectual, spiritual, social, and emotional.

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We acknowledge that God is in all things—ever present and interested. We understand that Christ is at the centre of all things. It is because He is the pivot-point at the centre, that we seek to explore and connect all aspects of the creation in terms of their proper relationship to Him. However, in the context of secular education, a government document suggests, “holistic approaches to teaching and learning recognize the connectedness of mind, body and spirit. . . . Educators take a holistic approach [when] they pay attention to children’s physical, personal, social, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing as well as cognitive aspects of learning” (Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations [DEEWR], 2009, p. 14).

While appreciating this definition, formational learning has a broader understanding that incorporates the breadth of what it means to be human and the full orb of the schooling endeavour. Formational learning is holistic learning that relates to all of the child, it embraces all the dimensions of what it means to be human, it covers all subjects fields, it appreciates and honours the interconnectedness of all things in God’s world, it involves all partners in the school community, it applies to all of life, and it is all for the glory of God. As the writer of the proverb suggests: My child, keep your father’s command and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. Bind them always on your heart; fasten them around your neck. When you walk, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you. For this command is a lamp, this teaching is a light, and correction and instruction are the way to life. (Proverbs 6:20-23)

The Forming of Head, Heart, and Hand

Burggraaf (2014) describes the heart as reflecting the fabric of a person’s life and shaping the formation of their character.

The reference to head, heart, and hands helpfully captures the holistic engagement with the student; their minds and learning; their hearts and faith; and their hands and character all being influenced and nurtured during the highly influential time of their schooling. It might be suggested that Christian education can be summed up in one simple mantra, “Head, Heart, and Hand”.

Hand

Head Formational learning seeks to develop a student’s mind. The writer of Proverbs pleads, “Though it cost you all you have, get understanding. Cherish her and she will exalt you; embrace her and she will honour you” (Proverbs 4:7-8). The apostle Paul encourages us to have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16) and to take every thought captive to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). As Burggraaf (2014) suggests, “Students come to understand the interrelatedness of all aspects of life and their relationship to Christ. They bring Biblical discernment and critique to the ideas, theories and insights to which they are exposed” (p. 59).

Many educational approaches see the student primarily as a thinker, with learning being focused around cognitive functioning, intellectual contemplation, and conceptual mastery. Christian educators, however, understand that the formation of the mind also nurtures wisdom and godliness.

Dow (2013) encourages us to realise that a Christian’s mission is not only to pursue moral character but also “intellectual character” (p. 24). He states that: The development of intellectual character is one of the most important and life changing quests anyone can embark on. But as the very heart of Jesus’ command is to love God with all your minds, the pursuit of intellectual character is particularly important to Christians. (p. 24) Paul again points to the importance of transforming our minds, noting in Romans, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2)

Heart Formational learning aims to nurture the desire of a student’s heart. Burggraaf (2014) suggests, “Biblically, it is the heart (kardia), metaphorically, that is the seat of learning and formation” (p. 59). At times it is difficult to separate heart, mind, and will, but generally, the heart is seen as the root of the spiritual life, the focus of the emotions, and the seat of human thought.

Formational learning equips a student’s hands and captures the idea of a positive and embodied response.

We note that the formation of head and heart, when allowed the freedom to respond, cannot help but be demonstrated in a response and in actions of the hands. Formation generates responsiveness because deep knowing is always embedded in action and engagement.

It follows then that our teaching and learning will provide multiple and diverse opportunities for students to respond, whether that be practically, or in other appropriate ways, within the learning context.

Hence the student response Threads presented in Transformation by Design: The Big Picture (see Appendix 1 for a summary).

Integrating Head, Heart, and Hand Even though we tend to associate thoughts with the head, emotions with the heart, and actions with our hands, these are, in reality, inseparable. Even though we’ve sought to unpack their separate emphases above, they cannot be split up in a simplistic way.

The Scriptures intermix these terms and others (soul, being, mind, and will) when seeking to capture the essence of a person, or when a particular emphasis is desired. This is helpfully explained by Mason (2017): Strength and maturity produces wisdom and discernment, which in turn provokes and enables right action. The hands give practical expression to what we think and feel. Our hands thus reflect what is going on in our hearts and head, an output of faith. On the other hand, (pun intended) our actions can be an input to faith as well. Children mostly begin with action, and as problems arise they need to think and problem solve, which in turn involves the heart, feelings and emotions. Therefore, actions can be precursor and catalyst to understanding and feeling, as well as a response to it. Understanding the potential of hands as both output and input in the head, heart and hand trinity is transformative. (para. 8) In using head, heart, and hand as a part of our core definition of formation, it is important to see that God calls us to a ‘boots and all’ response—one that emphasises the full breadth of a person’s understanding, desires, and response. Hence, we can say that He calls Christian educators to critique the distortions that arise in education when the rational head is elevated and given primacy over heart and hand.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 27

Chapter 2

Curious and Courageous Teachers Who are we as teachers?

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Summary Framing Statement: Formational learning develops the mind, captivates the heart, and equips the hand, encouraging curious and courageous learners to explore God’s world and live out the hope of Christ.

Main Idea/Deep Hope

Enduring Understandings

Our deep hope is that teachers can be curious and confident leaders of learning, inspired and equipped to develop formational learning.

• A well-equipped, thought-filled, and well-organised teacher backpack is essential for effective teaching and learning.

Essential Questions

• Each teacher is unique, bringing along their own God-given gifts, passions, calling, and abilities to the teaching craft.

• What is a teacher?

•

Who is a teacher?

• What does a courageous and curious teacher look like?

Further Questions to Ponder • How is my relationship with Jesus shaping me personally and in my teaching practice?

• How does my participation in God’s grand story help me to unfold that story with my students?

• What are the qualities that make up an effective teacher?

• How does my worldview influence my teaching?

• How can I continue to enhance my professional journey as a life-long learner?

• A teacher’s faith and worldview impact their approach to teaching and learning.

• An effective and faithful teacher lives out and teaches their faith.

• Christian teachers are to be curious and courageous role models who reflect on their practice and are willing to be challenged for growth.

• A Christian teacher recognises their place in God’s grand story and seeks to embody, personalise, explain, and enfold students in this story.

• A Christian teacher works in community, both with students and other teachers, learning from and supporting others.

• Teachers must consider their well-being—with help from others—so that they can sustainably contribute to the lives of their students.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 29

Introduction For a teacher, driving through the school gates on any given day often seems like preparing to be a parent handling an emotional toddler. Each day is different with a wide array of events, emotions, and experiences.

You never really know what the day will hold, which direction it will go in, and what challenges you will face.

This makes teaching exciting and adventurous. Equally, it can be exhausting, even overwhelming. You can finish some days feeling exhilarated and some days, defeated.

We treasure the deeply rewarding and satisfying moments when we’ve seen a student make courageous steps of progress, or change a preconceived idea, or modify a poor behaviour. There is a rich delight when we reconnect with a student years later and they somehow remember something we have said, or make mention of the impact we have had in their lives.

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In order for Christian teachers to be faithful in the call of Christian education, they need a simple and clear understanding of what their task involves. To manage and grow in the challenging context of the classroom— with all the increasing demands placed on them— teachers must remain curious, courageous, and faithful to their calling.

On our journey as a curious and courageous teacher, there are important things that we must carry with us in our teaching backpack. There can also be some unnoticed—and possibly unhelpful—things that we carry which actually weigh us down. And what about the things we failed to pack? How good are we at determining the difference? What vital things do we sometimes forget to take with us?

There is a rich delight when we reconnect with a student years later and they somehow remember something we have said, or make mention of the impact we have had in their lives.

The Teacher’s Backpack To be well equipped, confident, and fruitful, each teacher needs to know who they are, what they are doing, why they are doing it, and where they are going. In order to engage in the teaching journey the teacher needs to give faithful attention to what they bring with them—their well-equipped, thoughtful, and well-organised backpack. Having a great backpack is vital for great teaching. Within our backpacks are the tools and equipment, the insights, the tricks, and the experiences we’ve collected along the way, as well as that load of expectations from our schools and our broader community/society.

If our backpack is chaotically filled with all sorts of extras; if it’s not well packed and it is not easy to locate what we need; if it’s not well fitted and is too large or too small; if it rubs because the load is unbalanced or the straps poorly weighted; if there is any other reason why it doesn’t sit comfortably . . . we will be entering the adventure of the classroom with more than we can manage. Teachers with poorly-filled, disorganised, or over-weighted backpacks will be simply seeking to survive each day and they will quickly find themselves on a journey to exhaustion.

In order for teachers to be faithful and to be sustained in their vocation and to be great at their craft, it’s important they recognise, and appreciate, all the elements that come together for quality teaching and learning to occur. We consider all the things that we bring along personally and then those things that directly relate to our context. The contents of our teacher backpacks may be grouped as follows: • Who I am.

• My teaching tools, equipment, and skills.

• My school’s expectations.

• My society’s expectations.

Teachers with poorly filled, disorganised, or over-weighted backpacks will be simply seeking to survive each day and they will quickly find themselves on a journey to exhaustion.

Reflection The backpack metaphor helps us reflect on: • What is needed for the journey into the classroom?

What is the essential ‘equipment’?

• In which way is each teacher’s backpack common and different in what it holds?

• What a teacher needs to carry and what they have choice over.

• The ways in which the contents of our backpacks can be positive and not just negative ‘baggage’.

• How best to maintain our backpack and the importance of doing the occasional clean-out.

• The need to take off backpacks at the end of a day.

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The Teacher’s Backpack The things that a Christian teacher carries

worldview teaching skills

view of the teacher

teaching experiences

view of the student

teaching tools

view of knowing

teaching equipment teacher training school expectations societal expectations

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gifts and dispositions calling/vocation Bible faith first aid kit

Who I Am

My Gifts, Expertise, Experiences, and Dispositions

Understanding myself, what brought me to teaching, what experiences I’ve had, what skills and dispositions I have, how I’m growing in faith and trust in Jesus, and how I’m looking after myself are important considerations for a well-packed backpack. Who am I personally? Who am I as a teacher? Am I an introvert or an extrovert, or in-between? Am I organisationally fussy, or casual and ad hoc? Do I like closure or am I happy with open-endedness? Do I tend to dominate or be subservient or withdrawn? Do I tend to be anxious or relaxed or just self-contained? Am I punctual or not?

Am I risk-averse or impulsive? And so on . . .

What are my individual gifts—particularly those I bring along as a teacher? If you had to name 10 key ones, what would you list? Each of us has a wide variety of gifts and abilities that have caused us to choose teaching as a career and led us to the classroom.

We have developed specialised knowledge and expertise in a particular field of study, or we might have a disposition towards working with a particular age group. Our life experience has built up a résumé of insight that has assisted us along the way. When we are conscious of these aspects about ourselves, we have greater freedom and confidence to share of ourselves, and to be the great teachers we aspire to be.

Each of us is a unique human being, created and loved by God. Each of us brings who we are to our classroom—our personality, heritage, life experience, expressions of faith, and so on. Students learning in a community of teachers are blessed to experience a range of personalities, characters, and dispositions.

As each teacher provides their unique contribution, students are exposed to an array (hopefully broad and varied) of guiding influencers.

God gives us a team to be a part of with the wonderful calling of building each other up. He calls us to be confident in expressing the unique gifts that He has given each of us. However, sometimes we may use our uniqueness as an excuse for slackness or a lack of professionalism. We are individuals, but our full identity as an individual can only be fully found when seen in community; e.g., it’s not okay to simply say, “I’m just an individual teacher who’s disorganised; you just need to accept me as I am!”. Through God’s transformative power we can all grow, even in the areas where we might be less strong, and we do this as a community.

As Paul reminds us in Romans:

For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

Romans 12: 4-5

Dispositions are much like mindsets and they are enormously important to our work. Our disposition is influenced by, and influences, the context of our team, our classroom, and our school culture. Our dispositions and mindsets can be contagious—positively or negatively.

Professor Carol Dweck (2017) suggests that our mindset can be fostered and oriented towards growth or towards being fixed. The implications of this insight for student learning are significant. The implications for teachers, however, may be even more profound.

Dweck defines a growth mindset as the belief that our abilities and intelligence can grow. She suggests that, “This growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things that can be cultivated by your efforts, your strategies and help from others” (p. 7).

Dweck describes the limits of a fixed mindset when she suggests that: Believing that your qualities are carved in stone— the fixed mindset—creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over. If you have only a certain amount of intelligence, a certain personality and a certain moral character—well, then you’d better prove that you have a healthy dose of them. It simply wouldn’t do to look or feel deficient in these most basic characteristics. (p. 6) Whilst a growth disposition/mindset is an important component for being a courageous, transformed teacher, we also acknowledge that, as Christian teachers, we are not in ultimate control. God is, and there are some God-defined limits. We have extraordinary authority, aptitude, and agency, but we also are most free when we accept both our capacity and our limits—as well as the boundaries of our context.

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Reflection

My Calling and Vocation

The following is a list of poor dispositions or mindsets, but ones that are sometimes found in teachers. Do any of these poor dispositions resonate with you? If so, what can you do about that?

God guides, or calls, us to the vocation of teaching.

For some of us that is for a particular time and place.

For others it is a lifelong adventure. This means that we all have a unique shaping story of how and why we became a teacher. This story comes with us in our backpack. There can be great encouragement in sharing this story with others as we ponder our vocational calling.

• I’m self-sufficient and individually competent— there’s not much new for me to learn. Just leave me alone to get on with it.

• I know what I know and I know what I can do. Why do I need to do more professional development?

• I’m not really that good. I feel inadequate and lack confidence. I can’t really do anything about it—I’ll just have to keep hiding for as long as I can.

• All feedback feels like judgement. I can’t help but react with over-sensitivity and defensiveness.

• I feel I have to prove myself over and over again in order to remain valid as a teacher—and as a person.

God guides, or calls, us to the vocation of teaching. For some of us that is for a particular time and place. For others it is a life-long adventure.

Understanding our calling makes a significant contribution to our confidence and courageousness sustainability. When the job gets difficult and we start wondering what we are doing, going back to what we believe God has called us to is an important wellspring to draw from. Likewise, embracing community and being open to sharing your journey with your colleagues can also be wonderfully encouraging and empowering. As Palmer (2017) suggests: If we want to grow as teachers—we must do something alien to academic culture: we must talk to each other about our inner lives—risky stuff in a profession that fears the personal and seeks safety in the technical, the distant, the abstract. (p.12) On the following page, read the stories of how Alice and Jacqui (two key contributors to this resource) came to be teachers and to work in Christian schools.

Reflection Using the following questions, reflect on your calling into teaching and consider a forum in which you may be able to share the story that unfolds: • How did God work in our lives so that some ‘doors’ were opened for teacher training?

• Who spoke into our life about what we might do?

• Did we think about our vocation as a way of serving God? • What were our deep hopes for the impact we could make?

• Have these changed?

• Do we understand teaching as a ministry?

• Once we started, what has kept us going despite all of our failures and disappointments?

• What keeps us passionate in the role?

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Teacher Stories Alice’s Story

Jacqui’s Story

One of my most memorable teaching experiences was as a 20 year old, walking into a room at the Khartoum Theological College in Sudan to teach English to a ‘mixed’ adult group. As I walked in, all I remember was seeing a sea of 30 men and one woman. I timidly started to teach to the western textbook on grammar that I had been given. However, I very quickly realised that despite their compliant dedication to the activities set, the context was wrong. The class dynamics began to change when I threw away the textbook and began to understand who my students were and then to shape the learning in a more authentic and culturally appropriate way. I began to get them to tell their stories and retell Bible stories to practice their speaking and listening skills. This experience gave me motivation to finish my teaching degree and complete further studies in Educational Leadership and International Education.

As a child, what I ‘wanted to be when I grew up’ changed on a weekly basis. One week it was zoo keeper, the next a ballet dancer, then a missionary, a firetruck driver (I was afraid of fire so I didn’t want to be the one putting the fires out), a swimmer, a worker in a chocolate factory . . . And then, in Grade 2, I had a nasty teacher who refused to pronounce my name correctly and forced me to sit still even though my body just wanted to wiggle—a lot. It was then I decided I wanted to be a teacher who would love her students and teach in a way that suited their quirks.

Starting out in my first school as a secondary history and legal studies teacher, my primary focus was on producing ‘hands on’ learning that was experiential, engaging, and fun. My time was spent planning and delivering the content in the most memorable and creative way I could. It was in my third year teaching, that I was sitting in a three day professional learning course on worldviews that I began to realise the greater possibilities and vision for Christian education.

From this pivotal and formative moment, I began to ponder how I could reframe what I was teaching from the start to the end. I focused on intentionally identifying key questions and moments in the course of where I could draw connections to an understanding of God’s world.

I also had a brilliant mentor. He was a passionate history teacher, who at times jumped on desks, shouted, and delivered the most animated lectures I had ever seen. The students loved his passion for what he taught. From him I learnt how to extend thinking and how to build depth in understanding. However, he was not sold on Christian education. In fact, one day when I was sharing how excited I was at my new found passion for the possibilities of Christian education, he said pointing his finger at me, “No one has ever showed me HOW to do it!” Everyone talks about it and we sit through Christian education PD, but I don’t know what that looks like in practice.” That began my quest to prove to him, and myself, that it was, and is, possible to design and implement curriculum through a biblical lens that is explicit and authentic.

Fast forward over 18 years, and after almost getting sucked into being a professional engineer and a physicist, I graduated as a teacher. My dad (a principal in a Christian school) drove me the three-hour journey through morning peak hour to my job interview. He quizzed me along the way and gave me tips on how best to answer the questions. That was when I began to realise that this Christian school thing was a lot more than simply being a Christian in a school with a lot of other Christians.

I had the privilege of working in a wonderful school where discussions about biblical perspective in our areas of teaching expertise were common.

Furthermore, we were encouraged to study through the National Institute for Christian Education (NICE).

This study opened my eyes to the bigger picture of Christian education. Along with other teachers, sometimes I just wanted to be told how to ‘do’ Christian education in my subjects.

A significant turning point in my understanding of Christian education came in June 2010. I headed over to Michigan for a week-long workshop led by David Smith of the Kuyers Institute. In his opening session he asked us (a group of 20 educators) what the hinge was between Christian and teaching. Is it the Christian teacher? ‘No,’ I thought. Is it using the Bible in the classroom? ‘No,’ I thought. Is it biblical perspectives and worldview? ‘Yes;’ this was the answer I thought he was looking for. But David explained that all of these hinges were equally important in Christian education.

He wanted us to consider a fourth: a focus on Christian practices.

Since this experience, I have often reflected on the multi-faceted nature of Christian education. It is my deep hope that teachers feel empowered to engage with and explore this thing called Christian education without the pressure of thinking there is only one ‘true’ approach. For Christ is Lord of all of life and that means we have endless opportunities to explore His sovereignty in education.

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My Faith

My Bible

It is likely that the process of being employed in a Christian school would have involved us giving an account of our faith—whether in an interview or a written part of the application process. The school might have asked us to commit to an agreement of their core beliefs. We therefore could be expected to lead a devotion, or develop a biblical perspective for a curriculum unit, or pray with colleagues or students.

We would be expected to embrace opportune moments to connect our faith with the lives of our students.

Every Christian teacher’s backpack needs to have a well-read Bible. We know that the Bible is God’s unfolding story of His interaction with His people, place, and purpose—a story which pivots on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

Each individual’s faith journey is a different one. How did we come to faith? Can we talk readily about our core personal beliefs? How are we deepening our understanding of the Scriptures? How are we nurturing growth in our spiritual life? How engaged are we with the life of our local church community? It is obvious that all Christians must nurture their faith and this is no less the case for Christian educators. Annandale Christian College (2016) expresses this helpfully: [We] believe that human beings are designed as relational beings, called by the Creator to live in a right relationship with Him and to allow that relationship to guide all other relationships. We, therefore, recognise our responsibility to nurture our own personal relationship with Jesus as Lord and Saviour; to deepen our understanding of God’s Word through regular study and reflection; to rely on the Holy Spirit to enlighten and empower us in the task of teaching Christianly. (p. 39) The Christian life is one of ongoing discipleship with all of its joys and struggles. The Christian school wants to encourage us in our Christian walk and assist us in living out our faith. How is our faith evident in the classroom? How, as students of the Bible, do we let this understanding permeate our own—and our students’—thinking and living? How are we modelling the Christian life with our students? These challenging questions are all a part of our faith journey within the life of a Christian school. As Cairney (2012) states, “Good Christian pedagogy requires teachers mirroring the person of Christ to make good and wise choices each day as they nurture their children” (p. 59).

Reflection One of the most powerful staff devotional times is when teachers share their testimonies of faith with colleagues. Why not make this suggestion as a way of building up the staff ‘body’ and cultivating this important practice.

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We know also that the Bible’s account of universal history gives us a big picture story that shapes how we view, understand, and engage with all of life. This is the foundation of Christian education and therefore it must always be a part of the backpack, constantly in the heart and hands of the Christian teacher shaping all that they think, say, do, and unfold with their students.

Just as English teachers assist students to understand and interpret a text, as students of the Bible, we want to understand and use the Scriptures in a helpful, contextual, sophisticated, and faithful way. This doesn’t mean that the learning journey is characterised by the mere quoting of decontextualized texts, or the unguided reading of passages, or the constant use of biblical language, or the use of the Bible primarily as a moral guidebook, or as merely a place to find good advice on how to live, or giving the impression that just opening the Bible provides some sort of connective power.

What we do want is a learning journey that is immersed in the biblical story and is shaped at all turns by the gospel. It is good news for all of life—including teaching and learning. As the apostle Paul says, “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:16-17).

When we teach in a Christian school we have joined a community of believers from a variety of different denominations and flavours of Christianity and hence Christian theology. This is part of the richness of the Christian school. However, at times it may make navigating a little tricky as certain theologies and doctrines are held more, and less, tightly by our colleagues, our parents, and sometimes our students.

There may be times when a certain doctrinal position will impact directly on our teaching, but this is not usually the case. As a community we keep drawing back to the beautiful core of the Bible—the big picture gospel anchored in Jesus—and the rich and holistic vision for life and world that this brings.

As students of the Bible, we want to understand and use the Scriptures in a helpful, contextual, sophisticated, and faithful way.

My Worldview Every person has a worldview formed and shaped by their experiences and by the patterns (cultural stories) in which they dwell.

“Everyone has a worldview,” says Schaeffer (1982), “. . . whether ditch digger or professional thinker. No one can live without one” (Schaeffer, 1982, p. 279 ).

The truth is you cannot get out of bed in the morning without a worldview. You also cannot bypass your worldview. It is a deep down part of who you are and will shape how you respond to the world around you.

Indeed, often you respond according to what you believe even before you have had a chance to think about how you should respond. Your worldview shapes your view on what a human is, the nature and purpose of the world, the purpose of life, the point of learning, and where you place authority for truth, etc. Your worldview has a powerful influence on you and on the way you view life and learning.

The Christian teacher also recognises that they are not the only ones in the learning adventure with a worldview. Each colleague has a worldview through which they see and process life. For example, whilst our Christian colleagues are likely to share many faithshaped views, they may diverge in outlook because of their distinct family heritages. Each student, no matter what age, has a worldview that has been shaped by their experiences and the cultural stories within which they live and breathe. Each teaching resource has been written by people with a certain worldview.

The government curriculum has been written by leaders and bureaucrats with a distinctive worldview.

Educational commentary is made by researchers with a worldview that shapes their understanding of the purpose and vision of education.

That is a lot of different views of life and the world at play in the classroom. The first step in navigating this worldview minefield is recognising that they exist, that they can’t be bypassed, and that deep down in your teacher’s backpack is your own worldview which is shaping how you see all things.

It is big stories, or narratives, that form worldviews in people. Christians are called by God to be a people shaped by an understanding of God’s dealings with His people. A worldview shaped by the good news of the Bible will provide us with distinctive views of success, hope, purpose, universal history, humanity, the order of the world, and so on.

As Christian teachers, we seek to tell the Bible’s big story through the unfolding of our teaching and learning—both through curriculum design with its content and the perspectives we teach, and through the teaching practices that we design, plan, and unfold. We must give attention to both.

Our worldview thinking will fundamentally affect all of our other major views. Some of the specific key ones for the Christian teacher are our views of the student, ourselves as the teacher, and our view of knowledge.

Each of these provide insights into how we approach our teaching and learning.

It is big stories, or narratives, that form worldviews in people. Christians are called by God to be a people shaped by an understanding of God’s dealings with His people.

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My View of the Student Why Can Christian Teachers Become Overwhelmed With Worldview?

Firstly, thinking about worldview takes effort.

Dealing with matters that involve assumed understandings that are different for every person, and where the discussion is frequently expressed in conceptual and nebulous terms, is challenging. Second, Christian education worldview discussion has sometimes been full of jargon and inaccessible philosophy. Third, it has sometimes been overemphasised as if it is the only way to really understand Christian education.

David Smith (www.whatiflearning) uses the illustration of a castle wall when he points out that worldviews are like the turrets on the wall and they are fiercely defended—key positions of attack and defence. However, he points out, other parts between the turrets, like our educational practice, might be broken or poorly defended or given little attention. He says we should make sure the whole wall is strongly built.

As we focus on our classroom practice later in this book, it does not mean that we neglect the worldview ‘turrets’. Christian teachers, those who lead the challenge for children’s hearts and minds, must be alert to the overt and subtle worldview voices that are found in all educational frameworks, practices, textbooks, and curriculum packages. We therefore encourage Christian teachers to not give up on worldview analysis or become lazy in their critique. Keep nurturing discernment as you engage and critique in teaching teams.

Keep recognising that our religious outlook shapes our worldview. Both are crucial for shaping an exciting and renewed approach to our teaching and learning practice.

Do I view my students as sponges ready to absorb everything I have to pour into them? Are they needy receptacles able to take on board the basic knowledge, skills, and competencies that will equip them to contribute to the good of society? Are they springs being wound up ready for release into ‘life’ after 13 years of preparation? Are they merely potential workers in the cogs of an essentially economic society? Such views have been a part of the Western educational paradigm for the past one and a half centuries. Whilst some aspects suggested above are reasonable expectations in themselves, they are poor answers to the bigger question—who are my students?

To answer this question we need to ask the bigger question of what it means to be human. The answer to this is found at the very start of the Bible where God creates people as the crown of His creation and breathes into them all the qualities of what it means to be human. Our students are made in the image of God (imago deo). They bear God’s likeness and therefore we can say they have the potential for creativity, relationship, love, longing, dreams, desires, selfsacrifice, and so much more of what it means to reflect the Creator. Smith (2016) testifies that: It was the day that I began to stop treating these image bearers of God, my students, like they were simply ‘brains on a stick’ and began a journey to discover how to nurture these desiring and passionate students into a curriculum that is ‘dripping with God’. (p. 96) If the purpose of education is to draw out all the potential that God has created in His image-bearers, then Christian teachers will be involved in unpacking all of this humanness. A good education will seek to image God well. The Christian teacher wanting to draw out all the God-given qualities of being human will seek a much richer approach than the reductionist approaches we began with. We hope that our students will be well-rounded, multi-gifted, curious, courageous, lovers of learning and life, and inspired towards responsive discipleship.

Therefore, we can say that our students are precious, loved, and full of potential. Each is precious, not because of their achievements or where they rank against their cohort, but because God calls them by name. Each is loved, not because they are easy to manage or appreciative, but because God loved them first. Each is full of potential, not because they can reach standardised expectations, but because God promises to walk beside them.

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Whilst our students are loved, they are also fallen. They will have a tendency to selfishness and self-absorption.

They will have a default inclination to reject authority over their lives. They will wrestle with their own brokenness and flirt with the brokenness around them.

However, as Christian educators, our starting point in understanding our students is never their fallenness; and our end point in understanding our students is also never their fallenness. No matter what they do, or think, as we go on a learning journey with them, we begin by knowing that they are loved by God and made in His likeness; and we end with knowing that they are redeemable because of what Christ has done for them.

An example is the significant distortion that has arisen in our materialistic and individualistic world of overemphasising the students’ singular importance over against who they are in relation to God, others, and their world. Therefore, it has been helpful to use the key phrase, “Christ-centred, student-oriented” in contrast to the commonly used phrase, “studentcentred learning”.

My View of the Teacher Who are we as teachers? Are we glorified babysitters?

Is this just another job that we found ourselves in, one that has good holidays? Are we technicians charged with the job of delivering on a set of learning goals found in a syllabus and textbook package? Are we charged with the task of taking each of our students one year further up the learning ladder? Are we like a craftsperson (master instructor) imparting our skills and knowledge to our apprentices? Are we role models, nice people who build warm relationships with our students and thereby earn the right to encourage them to take guided steps in their learning? Are we mainly facilitators trying to find the best creative means of unleashing the learning potential within our students?

Reflection Reflect on the following questions: • What image or metaphor for a teacher resonates with you?

• What image or metaphor might you use to describe yourself as teacher?

• What image or metaphor might your students chose to describe you?

The following text is from a popular motivation poster that is widely available: “Notice to all students. Leave the excuses at the door. If you didn’t do your homework, just admit it. If you didn’t understand the assignment, ask for help.

If you didn’t study for the test, accept the grade and resolve to do better (with my help if necessary) next time. If you refuse to follow my rules, accept the consequences. This is not a democracy. This is my (and your) classroom and I’m here for one reason and one reason only: to teach you, to inspire you. I’ll do my part. The rest is up to you.”

Reflect on the following questions: • What’s your first reaction to this poster?

• What do you like about it?

• What about it sits most uncomfortably?

• Is it content or tone that you react to? Or both?

• How might we critique the resource from a biblical perspective?

Christian education recognises the biblical truth that teachers hold the God-given office (or the charge/ responsibility) to lead learning. This leadership has authority, but it’s not by virtue of an individual having more importance, rank, or power. The office of teacher, rather than the individual, carries the responsibility and hence the authority—a subtle but important distinction to make when developing a view of the teacher. The office of the teacher, just like the office of parent, principal, etc., needs to be honoured and supported.

The whole Christian school community should be uplifting the teacher so that they can effectively fulfil their office: which is to lead learning.

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My View of Knowledge As a teacher you will carry with you in your backpack both what you state you believe about knowing, as well as your deep default (worldview) view of knowing. Given the foundational place learning has in the adventure of schooling, it is important for Christian teachers to consider their big picture view of knowledge and knowing.

The field of study that looks at views of knowledge is epistemology. It studies the nature of knowledge and how we can justify or rationalise what we know. Lots of critical questions spring out of epistemology: Does absolute truth exist? Can we actually know anything with certainty (or only some things)? If truth does exist, how can we get to it? How much of truth is constructed by the learner?

For a long time, Western education (and society) was strongly shaped by a view that ultimate truth existed and could be known. In this view, certainty comes through reason and objectivity and is ‘scientific’. More recently we have seen a view emerge that there is no absolute truth and knowing is mostly subjective—just individual responses to experiences.

As Christian educators, we need to give attention to these issues and critically reflect on how our view of knowing has been shaped by the cultural narrative around us. As a Christian teacher we can’t entirely avoid thinking philosophically. There are key issues where we must engage and this is one of them.

A predominant narrative of Western societies is secular humanism. Secularism emphasises separation of the parts that have no alleged religious influence (dualism) from those parts where religion can have a place. Humanism emphasises individual and communal human needs and wants, without seeing any broader or transcendent reference point. Secular humanism, with its rejection of God and a reduced definition of religion, has itself become the dominant ‘religious’ outlook of most Western societies.

Any attempt to dethrone God as Creator, ruler, and redeemer is fundamentally incompatible with a Christian worldview. The Bible continually warns us that man’s heart seeks to serve himself rather than God and it is only through the stirring and quickening of the Spirit that people can see their need to look to God to find their meaning. Again we consider the Apostle Paul’s urging: See then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. (Colossians 2:6-7)

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Another influential cultural narrative is expressed in the sociological theories of knowledge—constructivism and social constructivism. These have been the predominant teaching and learning theories that have shaped Western education for the past six or so decades. Although not without some merit when considering formational learning, some of the grounding assumptions of these views require significant critique by Christian educators (see Chapter 6 for a more detailed analysis and critique).

A Christian view of knowing suggests that absolute truth exists but we can only know it by God choosing to reveal it. He does this through blessing us with the gifts of curiosity, rationality, and scientific endeavour.

However, in a broken and sinful world, all our pursuits of knowing are tainted. As the Apostle Paul describes, “For now I see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know . . .” (1 Corinthians 13:12, KJV).

The predominance of social constructivism in education requires Christian educators to have a wellordered and maintained Christian view of knowing in their backpack. Constructivism claims that all knowledge and meaning, ideas, and understanding are constructed out of subjective human experience.

Knowledge is not derived from any objective or revealed source, so tolerance for personal meaning must pervade the classroom. Social constructivism goes further in acknowledging the role of the students’ background and societal context (and fellow student’s views) in forming their own unique view of truth.

We seek a knowing that embraces the godly wisdom of a view of the world that is always shaped by the Bible. Further, the Bible points out that knowing has a relational aspect where we humbly and graciously take into account, and seek to understand, the perspectives of others through careful and critical listening and engagement.

Reflection Reflect on the following questions: • When are the times and contexts in your teaching and learning when you might tend toward a certain certainty?

• What are the times and contexts in your teaching and learning when you might tend toward a certain uncertainty?

• Spend 10 minutes now writing a 1 or 2 paragraph explanation of a Christian view of knowing in your own words.

My First Aid Kit A teacher’s well-being and general state of health are a vital part of being well prepared for teaching. The metaphor of a first aid kit does not perfectly explain what we are referring to. However, the caring and nurturing of my good health by myself and others is in keeping with the backpack metaphor.

Teaching can be extraordinarily demanding. There are moments of great excitement and exhilaration and there are times of sheer exhaustion. We can get tired, annoyed, dispirited, anxious, and depressed. We can feel underappreciated, overwhelmed by additional things, and, at times, like an imposter. How do we manage these challenges and emotions?

Frequently, people talk of seeking balance in their lives: in relationships, work, church, recreation, fitness, etc. Many of these competing things need to be held in tension and perhaps we’ll never find that perfect balance. We do know, however, that when things are seriously out of balance, signs of illness, stress, confusion, lack of confidence, isolation, irritation, poor sleep, demotivation, and weaker performance will emerge.

The well-being manuals are full of wonderful advice: strive for balance, set in place boundaries, protect your family and home relationships, turn off when you are not at work, find adequate rest and play, have good refreshing holidays, take the regular Sabbath rest (however you might define that), be accountable to others, and so on.

Resting in God’s grace and letting Him guide us will mean that we understand the hard work of our calling as teachers, but also the problems that come with overdoing it and not properly caring for ourselves. It will also mean that we can relax in knowing that we have nothing to prove because Jesus has already proved it; there is no shame for any shortcomings because Jesus has already paid the price and redeemed us; there is no imposter syndrome because we are in Christ and we serve in His strength; we find shalom because we know that all things are as they should be in Jesus—complete, whole, at peace. Segal (2018), when exploring a self-care pursuit for Christians, helpfully reminds us that:

The care that you really need is not buried somewhere deep inside of you, waiting to be unlocked by some dessert or diversion. No, you need the healing forgiving, restoring, and transforming grace of a God who loves you. Only someone stronger than your greatest weaknesses, bigger than your worst failures, and brighter than your deepest darkness could address the things you fear or regret. (p. 27) Our work is a wonderful calling and a large part of our service to God. We seek a healthy tension between understanding that it is both hard and draining and, at the same time, fulfilling and satisfying.

Reflection Are you able to pray the following prayer? Maybe you could find a couple of colleagues with whom you could share this prayer.

Dear Lord, help me to grow in my understanding and love of you and therefore also my understanding and love of myself. Help me to care for myself, so that I can better care for and love my family, friends, colleagues, and students. Help me to relax in the deep knowing that Jesus has paid the price, has done it all and has me in the palm of His hand. Let me know afresh your care for me, so that you may work in me what is pleasing to you, through Jesus Christ who has redeemed my life from chaos and saved me from relying on my own strength. Amen

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My Teaching Tools, Equipment, and Skills

My Training

Usually when we think of what a teacher does and prepares for, we think of the classroom. The classroom context can be in a set room with tables and desks, in the lab, the gym, the oval, the theatrette, the schoolyard, the neighbourhood, on excursion, or camp.

Into the ‘classroom’, the teacher brings along the key ingredients, the most direct parts of that make up their load. These parts fill up the bulk of the teacher’s backpack, and therefore each is explained in its own chapter in this resource as indicated in the following outline:

It might be stating the obvious to suggest that a teacher’s ongoing training and professional development are crucial for effective teaching and learning. All schools seeking to develop Christian education will be running interesting, provocative, and biblically-informed professional development programs. This is not only because of teacher registration requirements, but also because it is crucial that teachers are life-long learners who keep up-todate with developments and key training necessities and who stay fresh as Christian educators. Teachers need to be asking: What is in place to support my growth and professional learning needs? Are these working? How much initiative should I be taking in this area? Blomberg and Stronks (1993) helpfully state the imperative for student learning of continuing teacher professional development:

• What’s our purpose?

Chapter 1 - Crafted Teaching and Formational Learning • Who are we as teachers?

Chapter 2 - Curious and Courageous Teachers • Who are our students and who are they becoming?

Chapter 3 - Curious and Courageous Students • What tools do you use to plan for formational learning?

Chapter 4: Extending the Big Picture Template • How are our students learning and forming and how are we communicating this?

Chapter 5 - Assessment Towards Formational Learning • How do we appraise the various approaches?

Chapter 6 - Understanding the Teaching and Learning Landscape • How do we design and plan for the practice of formational learning?

Chapter 7 - Formational Teaching and Learning Practices • Where are our students learning?

Chapter 8 - The Learning Community, Space, and Culture

If Christian schools are to improve teachers they will need to develop opportunities to engage in learning themselves. If a Christian school is to be a vital, enriching community of learning, it ought to expect and honor the growth of its teachers and principals.

Certainly, the school exists not for the teachers but for the students. But the students will derive the most benefit when the working environment is not only congenial but also stimulating for the teachers. . . . In the professional development of teachers, we believe that personal and communal growth are essential for staff development. Teachers must continue to learn personally and communally in order for them to encourage learning in students. (p. 290) Christian Education National (CEN), the publishers of this resource, have had a long heritage of commitment to developing rigorous, biblically-grounded professional development for teachers in Christian schools—both face-to-face and online. This extends from day workshops to accredited postgraduate degrees in Christian education offered by their postgraduate arm, the National Institute for Christian Education.

Reflection You may well have dipped your toes into lots of short professional development in Christian education at conferences and workshops. Is it time you considered diving in to postgraduate study as a life-long learner and professional Christian educator?

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My School’s Expectations A teacher’s load has more components than just the teacher themselves and what is happening in their classroom. The context of the school—its vision, community, culture, and structures—needs to be considered.

My School’s Vision Each Christian school expresses its vision, character, and culture in its own particular way. Are you aware of your school’s vision? Do you understand it? Does it resonate with you? Often vision and mission can simply sit as motherhood statements and be largely irrelevant to day-to-day school life. Other times they can capture something of the unique and particular character of a school and bring focus and inspiration.

Reflection • Find your school’s vision and write it down in your own hand.

• What do the words actually mean?

• How much is your vision for learning in harmony with the school’s vision?

• How well is your school living out its stated vision?

How well is the rhetoric matching the reality?

• What other places, and ways, is the school expressing its vision and mission?

• Are there other unstated visions that are driving your school’s agenda?

• When you are being most honest, are there other background visions you have for learning that may be having more influence than they should?

My School Community A key feature of the Christian school is that it is a covenant community of students, teachers, and parents. It is a relational community where trust and mutual service are able to flourish. It is a learning community which deliberately nurtures and designs an intentional learning environment. It is a covenantal partnership community of mutual understanding and support for each of the partners involved. It is a respectful community that understands the expectations and authority limits (boundaries) of each office (student, teacher, and parent).

The role of parents in Christian school communities is quite distinct from the role that is contemplated in some other schools, where education might be seen as primarily a state responsibility or even as a transactional commercial relationship. Parent partnership has a profound impact on the nature, purpose, and culture of the school and therefore the way in which teachers teach.

Word alert Covenant: Many Christian schools embrace a covenantal theology. They understand from the Scriptures that covenant refers to the agreement God has with His people—God will be faithful and His people are invited to respond with gratitude, obedience, and faithfulness. When a school refers to a covenant community, it’s emphasising its partnership and inter-relational (students, parents, and teachers) service to God.

Often vision and mission can simply sit as motherhood statements and be largely irrelevant to day-to-day school life.

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My School’s Culture

My School Approach to Practices

Positive, vibrant, and cohesive school cultures are very common. Sadly however, we sometimes see a negative, aimless, or fractured culture. When considering the impact on learning for students, the sub-culture of the teachers (and wider staff) is crucial.

A positive, dynamic, and motivating culture emerges when teachers:

It is important that all schools research, articulate, and implement whole school approaches to their documentation, assessment, and reporting practices.

Everyone ‘doing their own thing’ inevitably leads to disharmony and poor learning outcomes which diminish the overall effectiveness and reputation of the school.

• Have strong support and clear expectations.

Good quality approaches are beneficial for everyone as they assist in planning and accountability, fostering learning cohesion, the development of a commonly understood language, acting as a quality-control tool, bringing about ‘time and motion’ efficiencies, and helping teachers to build on prior work.

• Understand the shared school vision and direction.

• Have a strong sense of support that fosters a teacher’s need to grow and develop.

• Work together in teams—for their mutual support, accountability, and encouragement. This requires spending time together developing a shared language, collaborating to write curriculum and design learning experiences, sharing ideas, and critiquing one another.

• Are held accountable for their growth and professional learning and where mediocrity and poor performance are effectively addressed.

• Have sufficient freedom to express their individual flair, initiative, and creativity.

• Can readily share their resources, gifts, and insights.

Everyone ‘doing their own thing’ inevitably leads to disharmony and poor learning outcomes which diminish the overall effectiveness and reputation of the school.

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However, greater standardisation of year-level expectations and reporting mechanisms, increased use of IT systems (for time and quality efficiencies), and greater measures of societal (government) and even school-based accountabilities, have all led to a far greater reliance on ‘systems’ and have frequently caused additional administrative burdens for teachers.

All whole school approaches must support a sustainable work-life for teachers as well as the learning vision and mission of the school. Operational procedures and IT tools should serve the school well, not the other way around.

My Society’s Expectations Society, whether generally or through the agency of government, places expectations upon schools and teachers that significantly shape teaching and learning practice. Teachers need to be aware that these expectations are part of their backpack whether they’re aware of them or not—and whether they want them or not!

Changing Global Context The evolving global context—from the industrial age to the information age—is challenging for teachers, with schools having to constantly update their courses and practices.

Christian schools will reassure teachers (and students) struggling with change with reiteration of the overarching narrative: God is sovereign and will actively sustain His world until He returns; that ultimate salvation is found in Jesus Christ alone (not via human ingenuity, democracy, or tolerance); that technology can be used for good or bad (and can shape us even when we use it ‘well’); and that, as human development and dominion continue, we will be guided by the values, ethical insights, and moral framework of the Bible.

School as Social and Economic Saviour In a context of diminished roles for other key socialisation agencies (the family, the church, volunteer groups, etc.), society has turned to the school as its ‘social saviour’. As possibly the last significant social agency, the school has grown in importance and, as a consequence, so has the load that schools carry.

Wherever there is a social problem or a perceived deficiency in social training (mental health, bullying, drug taking, road safety, domestic violence, etc.), the school is expected to rise to the challenge, educate our young people out of the perceived social weakness, and also to squeeze this training into an already overcrowded curriculum!

Word alert Utilitarianism: is the view that something has worth or usefulness when it has utility or pragmatic worth.

Schools are seen as being purposeful because they can serve society’s greater social and economic good. The theory here is that a healthy, competitive, functioning economy requires the undergirding of a high quality and user-focused education system.

The utilitarian purpose of schools being principally for preparation for later life and the provider of a trained workforce is a limited response to the question of the purpose of school. Not only is this a stifling response to the purpose of schooling, it also lacks an authentic engagement in the present. The Christian school maintains that students are not just future workers, or future successes, or future citizens, or even future image-bearers. They are current workers, successes, citizens, and image-bearers—albeit of shorter stature, with less independence, and in greater need of guidance.

Christian teachers celebrate that our students have an immediate vocation in the here and now. We encourage students to serve and glorify God, both now and forevermore. We critique the utilitarian mindset for its overly pragmatic and reductionist approach. Many things that do not seem to have immediate use, or are not esteemed, are worthy of study because they are part of God’s world, waiting to be discovered, enjoyed, explored, and unfolded. So much of what matters in God’s world is not captured in training for a job—such as poetry, music, art, astronomy, theology, and so much more.

Christian teachers celebrate that our students have an immediate vocation in the here and now. We encourage students to serve and glorify God, both now and forevermore.

If we were to ask the average citizen what they saw as the key purpose of schooling, however, the most likely answers will emphasise the utilitarian and preparatory function of the school. Responses might be, “to get a good job,” or, “to learn the basic skills important for life”. The school is seen as a preparation ground for later life—tertiary study, workforce, citizenship.

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Increased Standardisation

Prescribed Curricula

Governments have the responsibility and authority to establish appropriate compliance requirements. In more recent times, however, public policy has been used as a means to drive social change. Key examples of these are the mandated curricula and national standardised testing, though there are many others.

Christian schools and teachers are encouraged to discern, critique, and engage positively with prescribed curricula requirements, whilst using the maximum measure of freedom allowed to develop their own distinctive biblically-informed voice and perspectives.

Transformation by Design: The Big Picture is a key resource that assists Christian teachers to develop their learning plans from a biblical perspective (see Appendix 2 for a fuller exploration of how to work with prescribed curricula).

Christian schools seek to be responsible (communal) citizens on the one hand, and on the other hand to protect their faith-based character and independence.

Christian schools need to be aware that too great a measure of compliance and accountability may limit parental choice in education and diminish some of the foundational qualities of Christian schooling. The right to be a distinctive and faithful Christian school presence needs to be understood and guarded.

Increased Measurement Within the context of requiring robust, hard data to prove that a school, or a national education system, is performing appropriately, evidence is needed for comparative and compliance purposes. Governments use standardised tests as one of their tools.

Christian schools agree that governments have the right to implement measures like national educational standards and testing. However, the ways in which the data are used to provide a comparison of students, schools, and states, should be boldly critiqued.

An education system that ends up being shaped largely by the standardised test (the metaphor of the tail wagging the dog comes to mind), is not in keeping with the holistic, formational approach that Christian schools advocate. Christian schools need to engage positively with the requirements, but they should also critique the worth and impact of these testing instruments. They may well have limited options for rejecting them, but they can choose not to embrace the cultural narratives that come with them—Christian schools should be continually telling a different story of learning and life, even as they engage with external requirements.

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Word alert Curriculum and syllabus: We use the term curriculum for the broader state-outlined (and mostly prescribed) set of courses to be taught. We use the term syllabus for the school-based learning program that responds to state curriculum requirements.

Christian schools agree that governments have the right to implement measures like national educational standards and testing.

However, the ways in which the data are used to provide a comparison of students, schools, and states, should be boldly critiqued.

The Landscape of God’s Story Humans make sense of their world through storytelling—from the big stories (meta-narratives) all the way through to the tiny stories of what is happening in your life today. “Without a narrative,” suggests Postman (1995), “. . . life has no meaning.

Without meaning learning has no purpose. Without purpose schools are houses of detention, not attention” (p. 5). It is critical that we recognise the main stories that inform our lives, and specifically in the context of Christian education, what big stories inform our teaching and learning designs and practices.

God created a wonderful world with humans being the crown of creation. We messed it up by rebelling and disobeying God. God did not give up; He has always had a plan. He sent His Son Jesus to bring restoration to our broken relationship and a restoration of the fabric of creation. Now we have the invitation to live renewed lives as disciples of Jesus, joining in with His great restoration adventure.

As Christian teachers, we recognise that undergirding our life and our school’s mission is this big story—a story that provides us with an understanding of who we are, where we live, and our role in the story. We believe we were created to participate in the epic story of God’s unfolding plan of redemption—He invites us to be a part of the making of all things new.

We believe we were created to participate in the epic story of God’s unfolding plan of redemption.

Smith (2013) describes this well: It is crucial that the task of Christian education and formation is nested in a story – in the narrative arc of the biblical drama of God’s faithfulness to creation and to his people. It is crucial that the story of God in Christ redeeming the world be the very air we breathe, the scaffolding around us, whether we’re at our Bunsen burners or on the baseball field, whether we’re learning geometry or just learning to count. All of the work of the Christian school or college needs to be nested in this bigger story – and we need to constantly look for ways to tell that story, to teach in stories, because story is the first language of love. If hearts are going to be aimed towards God’s kingdom, they’ll be won over by good storytellers. (pp. 160-161)

Reflection When teachers understand the language of metanarrative, they are assisted in responding to the important life questions that students ask, such as, “How do you explain life?”, “Why do I exist?”, “What am I doing here?”, “What’s good and bad and how do I tell the difference?”, “What is love?”, “What is truth?”.

It also assists them in responding to the big school based questions, “Why do we go to school?”, “Why a Christian school?”, “How do we know a school is doing a good job?”.

How would you answer these questions with your students? Do they ever come up in your classes? Are there ways in which you can design your syllabus, and plan your practice, that can encourage them to come up? How can you encourage your students into this metanarrative thinking?

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Chapter 3

Curious and Courageous Students Who are our students and who are they becoming?

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Summary Framing Statement: Formational learning develops the mind, captivates the heart, and equips the hand, encouraging curious and courageous learners to explore God’s world and live out the hope of Christ.

Main Idea/Deep Hope

Enduring Understandings

Our deep hope is that we will see our students as precious image-bearers of God, with distinctive gifts and full of potential for learning, faith, and being responsive disciples of the Lord Jesus both now and in the future.

• Students and teachers are made in the image of God and each bring their own unique gifts and abilities, life experiences, learning strengths, and challenges.

Essential Questions

• Students are diverse in many ways: in their learning, in their faith perspectives and worldviews, and in their rate of development.

• What effect does a student’s faith have on their learning?

• The teacher’s view of the student matters.

• Can students be taught to have a faith?

• Teachers see each student as capable of growth and development despite any obstacles that may be apparent.

Further Questions to Ponder

• Teachers guide students in both their academic learning and spiritual formation.

• How important is relationship for learning to occur?

• How well do you know your students’ gifts, dispositions, passions, struggles, testimonies?

• Is a student’s vocation and calling always for the future?

• The success of learning is unique to the specific learners in the group, their prior knowledge, disposition to learning, and knowing how they learn.

• How well do I know the learning dispositions of my students?

• What are some of the key ways to nurture a student’s faith?

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Introduction Many notions are foundational when considering the formation of students within the Christian school.

First, the purpose of the school is formational—to “develop the mind, captivate the heart, and equip the hand, encouraging curious and courageous learners to explore God’s world and live out the hope of Christ” (framing statement).

Second, the school recognises that students are made in the image of God, and therefore they are unique, they learn differently, and they have different talents and abilities. However, these characteristics are not fixed. The Bible’s narrative is one of change and growth. Students are changeable; they are transformable.

Second, the school recognises that students are made in the image of God, and therefore they are unique, they learn differently, they have different talents and abilities.

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Third, the school understands that learning changes lives. Hence, the development of formational learning.

Burggraaf (2014) states: Learning involves the rich mix of the individual student, the social context, the understanding of knowledge, the dynamic relationship of teacher and student, the world view framework by which we understand the world, the family context, the spatial environment, an understanding of motivation and individual differences, and educational ideas and strategies. The interaction of this complex set of factors needs to be understood to provide rich learning. (p. 27)

Who Are Our Students?

Who are our students, and how do we relate to them? Each student bears the image of their Creator: loved, gifted, full of potential, unique, and called to respond and serve. This idea, that each student is the workmanship of the Creator and has Kingdom work to do, underpins formational learning. Seeing each student as God’s image-bearing creation means we see each student for their complex and special uniqueness. They are not another ‘cog in the wheel’, or merely objects, or simply receptacles of information.

As Christian teachers we ask ourselves, “How can we help this student grow towards God’s purpose and plans for their life?” (Ephesians 2:10). We acknowledge each student’s individual worth while recognising that this does not mean that the world—or their world— should revolve around them. They were created for relationship—in, and for, community. Individual worth only has meaning when it is understood in its correct creational and communal context.

It is also important to note that our view of each student’s uniqueness is held in tandem with our understanding that God has made us for communal living. Our classrooms necessitate common expectations, groupings, and shared learning. The present-day emphasis on a student’s individuality (where at times teachers might think they are expected to teach 24 diverse individuals catering to each student’s own specific learning needs) should not be confused with our view of uniqueness and diversity.

Getting to know our students includes getting to know their stories. Like teachers, they also have backpacks that they carry, filled with things like heritage, family narratives, expectations, motivations, feelings, hopes, desires, dispositions, and views of life and purpose.

Their unique histories mean that they may also carry failures, traumas, and they may come from contexts with varying measures of support.

A student’s story will impact enormously on their courage, their motivation, their mindset for learning, and their willingness to engage with a learning community’s shared vision. Like teachers, they will also carry with them the expectations of their school’s culture and society’s expectations.

The Office of the Student Teachers have an office or a particular task to fulfil.

Likewise, students have their particular office to fulfil.

The student’s office or role is to take ownership of their own learning and to be the best learners they can be using the gifts that God has provided to each of them.

Fowler explains: The student’s office or job is a calling to serve as a learner. Within this office they have an authority, not over persons, but an authority over learning. . . . As with other offices, the authority of the student needs to be communally affirmed by making room and freedom for students to take initiatives, make decisions, and make mistakes in their learning. A community that provides a nurturing environment will treat students as responsible communal partners in learning, participating in the shaping of their own learning. (Hanscamp, 2018, p. 44) A student’s calling, vocation, or office is not something which they are preparing for when they leave school.

They have been called to an office in the here and now—it’s an immediate calling. Their vocation is happening right now, at school. Students are not being prepared for some ‘real life’ to come, they are being prepared for the real life that is happening for them right now. Therefore, we avoid the notion, and the language of, ‘school as preparation ground’, or ‘preparing students to be the leaders of the future’.

They are servants now. They are leaders now. They have a rich and deep calling to an office now.

A student’s calling, vocation, or office is not something which they are preparing for when they leave school. They have been called to an office in the here and now—it’s an immediate calling.

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Christ-Centred; Student-Oriented If a formational education for the student is the purpose of schooling, then is it fair to say that students must be the focus of the school and the centre of attention? Well yes, but not to the extent that we would agree unreservedly with the phrase ‘studentcentred learning’.

Christian education is Christ-centred, studentoriented. Christ-centred because all things hold together in Christ—He is at the centre of all knowledge, all learning, and, therefore, every aspect of schooling.

It is student-oriented because students are at the very heart of the educational endeavour—the focus being their formation.

Student orientation recognises that teachers treat each learner as a unique individual, made in God’s image, known to him by name and nature, gifted specifically by him and responsible directly in service to him.

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Burggraaf (2014) explains student orientation as recognising that: . . . students bring their gifts, ideas, skills, insights, and responsibility to the educational task and need to be involved in shaping the learning process, and that learning needs to be oriented around their needs, abilities and interests. However, they are not the only source for shaping the curriculum and the learning process. It is Christ and the biblical story of the redemption of the whole of life that provides the framework for curriculum and learning. Teachers in their office as educational leaders also play a vital role in shaping and guiding the educational task.

Students don’t create their own meaning of the world as in constructivist approaches, but unwrap and unfold the meaning already inherent in created reality under the guidance of their teachers.

Student orientation recognises that teachers treat each learner as a unique individual, made in God’s image, known to him by name and nature, gifted specifically by him and responsible directly in service to him. As teachers we work with the very crown of God’s creation – the bearers of his image, scarred by sin but nonetheless reflecting his image and open to redemption in Christ to become children of God and heirs of his kingdom. (p.121)

Faith Formation Christian education has a central and clear intention to contribute to students forming vibrant, living, and active faiths—responsive disciples having the mind, heart, and life of Christ. Discipleship means they will grow in their ability to see the world with a biblical perspective, respond to it in ways that honour God, and live in service to Him and others. Their response is characterised by wisdom and knowledge, discernment and creativity, playfulness and perseverance, love and compassion. Responsive discipleship is characterised by “unwrapping God’s gifts, sharing each other’s burdens, and working towards shalom” (Burggraaf, 2014, p. 19).

The Christian school unfolds the discipleship goal by ensuring that all of its learning, and community life, is shaped by the gospel. We recognise that the “educational approaches, learning strategies, learning experiences and habits, and learning spaces and contexts, can either shape desires towards kingdom goals and life purposes or away from Biblical life goals” (Burggraaf, 2014, p. 59).

Perhaps the ultimate goal of the Christian school is faith formation. However, we acknowledge that faith is the work of the Spirit. Parents and church have primary responsibility though they partner with the Christian school—and the Christian teacher—by providing a context for faith development during learning. As suggested by CEN (2016): At the end of the day, it’s not academics and the external pursuit of excellence alone that will determine the quality of life for a child. We believe that nurturing the whole child means developing a strong sense of faith and calling – equipped to embrace life’s challenges, celebrations, and opportunities so they can flourish in God’s kingdom.

We call it whole person development. (CEN, 2016, p. 34)

A Varied Faith Context Our Christian school communities are places of mixed faiths. Some students come from active Christian homes, some from nominal Christian homes, and some from homes where there has been little exposure to the Christian gospel. Parents send their children to our schools for a variety of reasons: heartfelt Christian partnership, a pastorally caring community, good values, academic rigour, a cheaper independent school option, teachers who are relational and conscientious, an attractive environment, etc.

Christian teachers often grapple with a critical question; is the school’s task to evangelise students?

The simple answer is no, it’s not the school’s primary task. Yet the school as a Christian faith-based community cannot help but reflect the faith that is at its heart. It is a faith that desires children to experience the love of God wherever they are—in the home and in the church and also in the school. So it is inevitable that students will sense that they are being challenged and grown in terms of faith and in their commitment to discipleship.

Typically, a Christian school will reflect a diversity of expressions of faith, which can bring challenges from time to time. Take the example of how a school might respond to the desire by students to set up a lunch time group that invites speakers to finish with an ‘altar call’; or a regular assembly student faith testimony spot; or a child sharing in class that anyone who doesn’t know Jesus personally is a sinner heading for damnation. Given there are so many theological viewpoints and assumptions about the way life and faith works, how does the teacher/school engage and respond?

Reflection Discuss the following reflection questions with a staff team: • What is the faith situation of children growing up in Christian families?

• Are the above-mentioned activities a critical focus of the Christian school? How would parents from various church backgrounds view these?

• How does faith work for a Foundation student, for a Grade 6, for a Year 9, for a Year 12?

• How do we challenge students to faith?

• How do we nurture the faith journey of students from Foundation to Year 12?

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Faith Status of the Student Our particular view of the faith situation (status) of the student is a significant influence upon the way we engage with students regarding matters of faith.

Buckland, the author of Children and the Gospel (2001), presented the following scenario during a workshop: Imagine there are two families, living on either side of you. Each family has a two-year-old child. One set of parents are self-declared atheists. The other set are committed Christians. In a tragic set of circumstances both children are killed on the same day. After sharing their grief and journeying with them, and it came to a discussion about their child’s destiny, what would you say to each set of parents and on what grounds would you say it?

What would your response be? What would your colleagues say? Are both children with God? On what grounds would we be able to say that? Is suggesting that it is too hard for us to know, so we leave it in God’s hands, a valid response?

The following six statements reflect different responses that teachers might have to these questions: 1. All children start life outside of the Kingdom of God This view sees children like adults—fallen, responsible, and accountable. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

This view is characterised by a strong evangelistic response.

2. The presence of Christian parents establishes a child’s standing with God This covenantal view emphasises the theology of a faithful God relating to families, to groups, to the church. This view meets a deeply felt need within Christian parents. Children are ‘in’ until they choose to be out. The biblical texts emphasised are the ‘you and your children’ passages. “Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is they are holy” (1 Corinthians 7:14).

3. The presence of Christian parents creates privilege but not right standing This view takes a non-committal stance suggesting that there is a greater likelihood of faith because the child is growing up in an environment where faith is taught and modelled.

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4. The experience of baptism establishes right standing with God This view is also covenantal but adds strength to the place of the sacrament of baptism providing renewal. A softer version of this view sees baptism as strengthening the privilege of exposure to the gospel and enhancing future possibilities of coming to faith.

5. All children belong to God This view (aligning closely to a universalist view) sees children as gentle and pure, innocent and good, until they become corrupted by the adult world of greed and selfishness. It sees the sacrifice of Christ as covering children until they opt out or can take full adult responsibility for their sin and guilt “The little ones . . . your children who do not yet know good from bad” (Deuteronomy 1:39).

6. A child has belonging that may become allegiance or rejection and rebellion In God’s grace, children belong and begin with Him. However, with growing awareness and emerging responsibility they may choose to drift away or rebel unless there is effective nurturing or faith challenge.

Over time, maturing children choose who they will belong to. This belonging may become allegiance to Christ or rebellion against Him (Mark 10:13; Deuteronomy 1:39; Ephesians 4:14,15).

While respecting the differing theological views, the identification of some common ground can be helpful.

Within the context of the multi-denominational community that is a Christian school, view 6 can be useful. It acknowledges the environment of faith that most children in the Christian school grow up in. It recognises that children are ‘little sinners’ and not naïve about their innocence. It allows for the child/ teenager to become increasingly accountable and personally responsible so that faith responses and decisions can be appropriately encouraged. It respects the individual and where they may be at with God and doesn’t impose inappropriate demands for responses.

Whatever the theological differences, all Christian schools would agree that the focus of faith is the story of Jesus Christ. It is because of His redemption story, in the world and in people’s lives, that students are pointed towards Jesus to consider His story as their story. As the gospel writer says, “These are written that you might believe that Jesus is Christ . . . and believing you might have life” (John 20:31).

The Faith-Nurture Approach In the Christian school context it is helpful to understand a student’s faith as a journey either towards or away from Christ. The Bible often uses this metaphor of journey. The stories of Exodus and Israel are journey narratives with their cycles of obedience and disobedience while still being the people of God. Paul talks of “pressing on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me” (Philippians 3:12-14). The writer to the Hebrews says, “let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:1).

It can also be helpful to think of faith developmentally.

Students make meaning and develop in their understanding of the information that they get about the world as they mature. They grow through sensory, to concrete, to abstract experiences and stages. They grow in their ability to process, think, generalise, and respond to all the inputs they receive.

In his seminal book, Will Our Children Have Faith?, Westerhoff explains that faith grows like the rings of a tree, with each ring adding strength to and changing the tree, building on that which has grown before.

Westerhoff’s styles are: EXPERIENCED FAITH – early stages of faith development where children take on the rituals, habits, language, and behaviours of the family environment. The key ingredients are trust and love.

AFFILIATIVE FAITH – as older children and younger teenagers become more familiar with the Christian story they look to hero and villain stories and see how that works with people they admire. The key ingredients are belonging, affections (involving their feelings and emotions), and authority.

SEARCHING FAITH – with older teenagers, questioning many things about who they are and what they want to become, young people wrestle with and search for personal relevance and meaning. The key ingredients are doubt, autonomy, critical judgement, comparing alternatives, and experimentation.

OWNED FAITH – moving forward in faith growth from a questioning period to a mature understanding and personal acceptance. The key ingredients are commitment, conversion, profession of faith, witness, and service.

While appreciating that we frequently do approach faith development for students in the Christian school through the model of a faith-nurture approach, we need to recognise that faith may be complex and that there are a variety of ways in which children and young people come to faith.

More specifically, in Westerhoff’s model, we can observe that: • Discipleship is the process of seeking a mature faith.

• Over subsequent reprints of his book, Westerhoff adjusted his language from “stages” to “modes”.

The language of stages can lead to thinking that faith has a pre-existing linear structure. Therefore the language of modes is a more helpful framework.

• Faith is not always a slow process of enculturation or acquisition by osmosis, though young people are significantly influenced by their context and their friendship circle.

Faith is complex. If we think that understanding how children learn is complex, the question of how students grow in faith is far more so. Faith has many dimensions and considerations as suggested below: • Faith is believing (theological considerations) • Faith is thinking (cognitive considerations) • Faith is imagining (aesthetic/lingual considerations) • Faith is doing (social/cultural considerations) • Faith is trusting (psychological considerations)

Reflection What insights and aspects about a student’s development (cognitive, psychological, emotional, and social) have a bearing on your approach to encouraging a student’s faith?

How do you respond to the idea of ‘faith development’ and ‘moral development’?

What sort of language around faith is appropriate for your students? What words and concepts would you explore with them?

Those who have grown up in a Christian home frequently testify that faith for them was a process of slow and developmental growth, whereas those who have had a more specific moment or experience of conversion relate well to Paul’s moment on the Damascus road.

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Ways of Nurturing Faith What are the most appropriate ways of inviting students to faith? This often unfolds through: 1. Providing an environment of faith—language, values, rhythms and routines, what is valued, worship, modelling of the adults and senior students, etc.

2. Inviting students into the biblical story of redemption, and offering it as their faith story.

Christian school students are invited to participate in God’s unfolding story of redemption. As we invite students into the Bible’s redemptive drama, we help them to see the pattern of the story and the possibilities of understanding that this story can be their own and they can live in it. This requires an intimate familiarity and knowledge of the full contours of the story.

Christian schools typically go about this in two ways.

First, through the daily devotional routines, and within the learning of the classroom. Teachers are connecting the biblical story to their own stories and those of the students and to the classroom story. Students see the Bible connect through the interweaving of biblical perspectives and Threads within their learning.

Second, Christian schools have a host of ways in which the Bible is specifically taught (e.g., through specific Christian studies or a biblical studies curriculum).

Specifically teaching the Bible is an interesting and challenging task. On the one hand, the Bible needs to

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be taught—particularly for those who have had little exposure to it—with commitment and flair so that students become familiar with the drama, characters, plot, contours of the story line, author’s intentions of the whole story, etc. On the other hand, a once a week Bible lesson can be viewed by students as being dualistic and separate from other aspects of learning and life. Those teaching the Bible in this way need to be committed to creativity and collaborative professional sharing, and schools committed to well resourcing this complex area.

A creative example is the school that devised a Bible teaching program where students from F-12 were taken through the whole biblical story four times (F-2, 3-6, 7-9, and 10-12) from the organisational metaphor of a train journey. It involved the same origin and terminus stops, but each of the four plans had different stops throughout the journey. This way the same story was retold with new and interesting detail and increased attention on particular train stops.

As we invite students into the Bible’s redemptive drama, we help them to see the pattern of the story and the possibilities of understanding that this story can be their own and they can live in it.

Questions Parents Ask Teachers I don’t share your Christian faith, but I want my child to have solid values. Will you provide this?

Our Christian beliefs and values permeate all that we do—in the classroom, in the playground, on the sporting field, on camps, and on excursions. We encourage students to live out these values and beliefs. As students mature, we seek to encourage the development of belief and personal values in a way that respects their personal responsibility.

Many Christian values are common in our society because it has been somewhat shaped by them.

So all students, whether or not they embrace the Christian faith as their own, will benefit from being exposed to these values and seeing the way they can enrich their lives.

What if my child is not a Christian?

Families who do not express the Christian faith should know that the school will teach and approach its schooling out of a Christian view of life. Four key concepts are important here: confidence, openness, awareness of perspective, and individual choice.

1. Confidence: The school and its teachers will speak confidently out of a Christian framework of understanding, i.e., God is creator and the sustainer of life; God gave us the gift of life and calls us to respond in service to His provision; life is messed up because of sin and there’s a need for a Saviour to rescue us and the world.

This confidence shapes and influences our whole approach while at the same time being respectful of openness and individual choice.

2. Openness: A healthy education needs exposure to, and some understanding of, all the major religions, including the main Australian one: namely secular humanism (a philosophy that rejects the spiritual as a basis for moral reflection and decision-making). Many Australians think of themselves as secular (without religion), though at xxx CS we say that that is impossible for everyone has a faith in something; everyone serves some form of god.

3. Awareness of perspective: It is important that all students acknowledge that deep beneath their ideas, values, and outlook on life are answers to the key religious questions of life. At xxx CS, we seek to help all students see what set of ‘glasses’ they have on. It is critical to not only acknowledge the set of glasses but also be able to describe how they shape vision.

We call this view of the world a worldview.

To help us understand worldview we ask four worldview questions: Who Am I? Where am I? What’s the problem? What’s the remedy? The answers to these four questions, when applied to any person or group or culture, will reveal the worldview and the deeper religious roots that guide it.

4. Individual choice: There is a deep respect for each individual student’s need to make their own faith choices. Christianity is not enforced as the one right option. Students are not Biblebashed. Favouritism isn’t given to Christian kids. Supposed correct ‘Christian’ responses do not get the best test results. Students are not subjected to untoward pressure to give ‘Christian’ responses. Each individual has the responsibility to work out their own faith. This is as true for students from Christian homes as for those where that isn’t the faith expressed.

We strongly believe that all students have a religious outlook on life and it is best if they can acknowledge that for themselves.

I just want my child to get a good education and to be happy, is that okay?

A good education and happiness are not bad things to aspire for, as long as we don’t think they are a commodity we can buy. Unfortunately, our culture is quietly influencing parents to become consumers in an enterprise where a child’s education is a commodity that can be purchased.

We know that it is not and we are convinced that by discovering that education is about partnership and perspective, you will be able to play a real part in your child’s good and happy education.

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Character and Wisdom Formation Christian educators have the privilege of seeking to form faith, shape character, and nurture wisdom in students. These three formational goals are intrinsically interwoven as students are called to respond to the message of faith that is expressed throughout the daily practices of the school and classroom.

Formational learning involves the whole student— their head, heart, and hand. Therefore, learning is not primarily measured in terms of students knowing more, but in them being more: exercising wisdom, growing Christian character, and serving more faithfully. The Christian school, and your classroom, therefore, considers the areas of wisdom and character formation within its overall goal of formational learning.

Growing Christian Character How do we understand character and wisdom formation and move these from posters on classroom walls into the heads, hearts, and hands of our students?

How does Christian education shape character and nurture wisdom?

The Scriptures clearly tell us that it is the work of the Holy Spirit that transforms the desires of students’ and teachers’ hearts towards the Kingdom of God. Therefore, it is the school’s role to shape its educational experiences and settings in openness to the direction and guidance of the Spirit. The Christian school within its daily teaching and learning practices and routines, will seek to develop habits of righteousness and holiness.

There are two approaches to character formation that have a weak foundation. First, the view that says character can be taught by instructing students in a list of virtues—teaching the best traits that Jesus displayed (e.g., honesty, patience, love, mercy, etc.). While these virtues are worthy of appropriate attention, you cannot actually teach Christian character. Not only does this approach tend to be selective in its understanding of virtues, it tends to get the theological order wrong. It is the Spirit working in the lives of students who transforms and turns their hearts to God, not the teaching of moral virtues.

Second, a utilitarian view suggests that character response should be viewed through the lens of its consequences (e.g., one doesn’t bully because it hurts someone else). This view is not grounded in God’s truth, which focuses on responding out of what God

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has done for us, while being aware of consequence.

This means one doesn’t bully because God says harming others is wrong, and because He calls us to love our neighbour and to seek what is right.

Our approach to character development takes a holistic approach where we seek to model and exercise good character in all its fullness. It might be appropriate to teach about key character virtues, but not in isolation from the rest of our teaching and learning. This process of living out and building a Christian ethic into the school culture presents healthy character as a communal practice.

Growing Christian Wisdom Wisdom, an aspect of character formation, is generated and emerges from engagement and immersion in real life. Students can see wisdom demonstrated as they relate what God’s will is to the contexts of their learning, relationships, and life issues they encounter. Wisdom goes much further than where knowledge reaches. Knowledge, which is generally seen as justified true belief, can be limited to individual thoughts and understandings, whereas wisdom involves a whole of life disposition to think, feel, act, and live in a certain way.

Wisdom is ultimately found in a person. Proverbs and other Old Testament texts personify wisdom. In the New Testament we see that Jesus embodies wisdom— He is wisdom. As Medders (2016) suggests, Jesus is “Proverbs wrapped in flesh” (par. 3). To highlight and unfold wisdom to our students is to highlight and unfold Jesus. To invite and nudge students into wisdom is to invite and nudge them towards the Christ as Lord and ultimate wisdom. The Apostle Paul declares, in speaking about disciples of Jesus, that, “. . . you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption . . .

(1 Corinthians 1:30).

Students can see wisdom demonstrated as they relate what God’s will is to the contexts of their learning, relationships, and life issues they encounter.

Diversity of Learners Part of the beauty of God’s creation is the tension of ‘unity in diversity’. God’s handiwork shows His delight in the abundant variety and difference He has built into creation. As an integral part of the creation, human beings are also diverse in their abilities and gifts, backgrounds and heritage, interests and concerns. God sees each individual as imago deo, unique and special, and an integral part of the loved body of humankind.

Annandale Christian School suggests that: Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus showed His love for others no matter their difference. He walked with people and talked with them. He was interested in individuals, recognising the value of each as God’s precious creation. In the gospels, Jesus adapted His approach to reach the audience with whom He was interacting. In the same way, Christian teachers are called to value students and their differences and account for these when designing learning experiences within the classroom. (2016, p. 21) The school has a responsibility to work with this diversity rather than being tempted to take the easier road of uniformity and standardisation. The Christian school is led by the creational order and the gospel, to nurture differences and allow diversity to flourish.

Burggraaf (2014) explains: Differently abled students bless the community and provide opportunities for us to serve each other. . . .

As a learning community teachers and students learn to be accepting of differences, accommodate the expression of differences and shape curriculum and learning to allow people with a variety of abilities to flourish and enjoy achievement and success. (p. 43)

Language of Diversity The language that we use to speak of student need requires careful consideration. We might remember some of the demeaning labels previously used to describe students with extra needs. Presently we use the terms special needs students or students with disabilities. No doubt these terms will also change in time. At the other end of the needs spectrum, the terms gifted or talented students may be used. These terms might present the Christian teacher with some concern because they start with the assumption that all students are gifted. Therefore, when students with higher relative giftedness are addressed, the labelling language becomes clumsy. Our recommendation is to explore the language of enrichment or extension rather than gifted.

Students with extra needs include those with emotional, behavioural, intellectual, language, physical, and sensory impairment learning disabilities.

The established set of special needs recognised and supported (and often times funded by government) by most schools are: dyslexia, attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, Asperger’s syndrome, hearing loss, and higher relative ‘gifted/talented’. A number of other learning disabilities like trauma, language disorders, oppositional defiance disorder, and other emotional behavioural problems, can be equally challenging but tend to receive less recognition and resource deployment.

The Christian teacher will embrace individual differences and provide every student with rich learning experiences. This will include flexibility of structures, variation of groupings, negotiated programs, extra scaffolding and support, individual tutoring, modification of curriculum, and programs that cater for a variety of interests. This is not just left to the experts but is integral to the task of all teachers.

Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus showed His love for others no matter their difference.

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Diversity and Special Need It is helpful to keep in mind the following considerations in relation to student diversity: • All students are gifted. We aim to help all children identify their gifts and provide programs that will encourage students to grow and develop and excel in the use of those gifts. The way in which we recognise giftedness tells an important story about the school’s views on diversity and whether some students are seen as more worthy than others. This does not mean that the recognition of gifts, or their expression, is discouraged (far from it).

• A recognition of diversity is crucial in order to run effective learning programs for all students.

We must address both ends of the learning needs spectrum. Teaching to the middle frequently results in boredom and disengagement from students at both ends of the academic spectrum.

• Considered, targeted, and well-designed adjustments (specific programs or teacher aide support) go a long way to addressing needs.

Laying this responsibility at the teacher’s door is by no means expressing support for an overlyindividualised approach to designing student learning programs (i.e., 24 personalised learning programs). The communal and common learning program of the classroom is still vitally important and a reality of everyday life that, ideally, all students need to be exposed to.

• A willingness of parents to partner with the teacher is vital. It is helpful when parents spend time with their child’s class teacher in order for everyone to understand the nature of the issues and to think through how best to respond.

• A commitment to respond to all students’ needs.

Frequently, we can give strong attention to the more ‘needy’ end and offer less pushing and challenging at the other end. We recognise the need to stimulate, challenge, extend, and support students with stronger intellectual and other gifts.

Contrary to popular perception, students who need ‘extension’ are not always those with a high IQ. Extension students can show high performance capability in artistic, creative, intellectual, leadership, and other specific academic areas.

Extending these students frequently requires support services and activities not necessarily provided for in the everyday activity of the classroom.

• A clear approach to considering both ends of the learning needs spectrum. It is most helpful when this is clearly articulated and understood by teachers and parents. It might be helpful for schools to consider the following in defining their approach: • The importance of developing a healthy and active parent-teacher-school partnership.

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• The building of learning profiles and individual learning plans for each every extra needs student.

• The need for teachers to be familiar with, and be provided with, a range of tools to identify strengths and weaknesses in students.

• The richness of student participation in parts of the design and implementation of the learning program.

• The beauty of teachers sharing their differentiation insights within their teams when students move between classes and years.

• The importance of specialised training and personnel resource provision for teachers.

• A knowledge of developmental readiness for learning at different ages. Developmental frameworks (e.g., Piaget, Kohlberg, McCarthy, Erikson) are helpful to the extent that they reflect a biblical understanding of the child. We keep developmental readiness in mind when catering for specific needs.

• Careful consideration and planning for the enrolment of students with extra needs. We ensure that parents have a clear understanding of what the school can offer. We also remember that within the boundaries of discrimination legislation, a student’s extra learning needs cannot be a factor in determining eligibility for enrolment.

Parents of a child with extra needs may have heard of their local Christian school’s reputation for care. They sense that this might be a better option for their child.

While this might be accurate, enrolment first and foremost is based on the understanding of a parentschool partnership. Schools enrolling an extra needs student need to undertake investigation and planning steps to ensure that a learning plan is in place from the beginning.

Word alert Differentiation has become an educational buzz word and can be spoken of as the panacea for the challenge of diversity in learning needs. It is important for teachers and parents to understand that it does not just mean the development of individual student learning plans for students at both ends of the learning needs spectrum (even though this is necessary), but a more broad approach from the teacher.

Differentiation means to provide targeted learning experiences that cater for the different levels of student learning and to employ a wide variety of differentiation strategies, techniques, and lesson adaptations in order to more capably instruct (within the same classroom) a diverse group of students with a diverse set of learning needs.

Who Are Our Students Becoming?

A teacher reflection: I take a deep breath and pause for a moment before leaving my class for the day. Before me sits the pile of recently marked math tests. It shows the students understand the critical learning requirements for their year level. We have worked so hard on getting these concepts—I’m pleased. But something nags at me.

It feels like my days are full—packing the teaching of content descriptors into every part of my timetable.

This ‘curriculum downloading’ is not why I first got into teaching. I close the door and head to my car. Walking past our canteen, I see one of my students. They are standing beside our canteen lady, they are laughing and sorting a large pile of lunch order bags into piles ready for our sports day. I pause to take in the scene and begin to smile. “Sorting, counting, organising”, these are concepts we have covered in class. Here these skills are being used by one of my students in a real context, to help others and serve our community.

Before me, in this moment of student and staff working together, is a reminder about why I became a teacher. It is about being part of the formational learning which compels a student to stay late and lend a hand. Refreshed and inspired, I head to the car.

When we think of the goal and purpose of Christian education—for students to live out the hope of Christ—and all the faithful effort that is put into establishing Christian schools and developing Christian education, we need to at some stage question the effectiveness. Are students’ lives transformed, and are they living out Christ’s hope in their lives and in the society they engage with? As we consider this goal, and our success in the realisation of the goal, it is helpful to ask: • What is the school doing to intentionally guide and transform students?

• What are the characteristics or qualities we want our students leaving school with? What do we want them to think like, feel like, be like?

• How does the school measure its effectiveness (or lack of it) in this regard?

• What positive impact has a Christian school education had in the personal life of the graduate and on their impact in Australian society?

These questions can be asked both during students’ time at school and after graduating. One of the challenges in this reflection is whether the evidence of students growing in faith, wisdom, and character may, or may not, be fully demonstrated during the student’s time at school or whether the expression will become clearer over time.

A number of schools and survey tools have been used to address these types of questions. Schools have conducted their own exiting surveys. Some schools have used the Gallop Strengths Finder surveys which have looked at student perceptions of future positivity and ‘hope’ outlooks.

The CARDUS organisation in North America has conducted widespread comparative studies into faith formation. They have surveyed the impact of Christian schools (and other schools) on the lives of students and surveyed the Christian school contribution to society. This long-term longitudinal study has examined secondary graduates of a range of schools (public, Catholic, evangelical protestant, and nonreligious independent). The results of these studies are available on the Cardus website. (www.cardus.ca).

In 2016 the Australian Association of Christian Schools commissioned a study by the Christian Research Association within a much larger survey (The Study of the Economic Impact of Religion on Society). A report titled the Influence of Christian Schooling on Religious and Pro-Social Behaviour (Hughes and Reid) was published in 2016.

The research shows that Christian schools (as compared to government, Catholic, or other independent schools) share a positive influence (the school and family together) that contributes towards the development of faith and behaviour (including a meaningful and positive contribution to Australian society) in students that continues after they leave school. This report states that, “While significant differences between those educated in Christianbased low-fee schools and those educated in other school systems have been identified, it is not possible to ascertain whether these differences are the product of their schooling or the product of different family backgrounds” (p. 4). One of the challenges in this field of research is that it is difficult to separate out the influences of the family, church, and school.

Some of the more specific findings included the suggestions that students of Christian schools: • Attended church at a significantly greater measure.

• Had a significantly higher continued church involvement.

• Affirmed more strongly that religious faith shaped their lives.

• Were far more likely than other respondents to say they believed in a God concerned with human beings, that their faith shaped how they lived, and that they were religious.

• Affirmed more strongly (than government schools) that their schools had helped them to be good citizens and to make the world a better place, had encouraged them to work for social justice, and to develop principles for life.

• Had the highest level of reported time spent caring for others.

• Spent significantly more hours volunteering and doing unpaid work for voluntary organisations.

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Chapter 4

Extending the Big Picture Template What tools do you use to plan for formational learning?

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Summary Framing Statement: Formational learning develops the mind, captivates the heart, and equips the hand, encouraging curious and courageous learners to explore God’s world and live out the hope of Christ.

Main Idea/Deep Hope

Enduring Understandings

Teachers are provided with a key design tool to prompt and support them as they confidently plan formational learning.

• Curriculum planning using the Big Picture Template enhances planning by ensuring teachers know where they are going and what the journey will look like.

Essential Questions • How might having a plan affect an outcome?

• Are design tools transferable across all contexts?

• How can having a template for planning learning both help and hinder?

Further Questions to Ponder • What will the extended Big Picture Template replace that I am currently using?

• What is the relationship of the extended Big Picture Template to my current teaching program?

• Christian teachers are curriculum developers not just deliverers of a prescribed curriculum.

• The Big Picture Template focuses and clarifies learning outcomes, assessment, learning practices, and culture that are crucial to formational learning.

• The Big Picture Template is one (recommended) approach. However, the aim is to assist teachers and not to add to unnecessary documentation.

• Key probing questions are useful at each stage of planning towards formational learning.

• Will my creativity still be able to be expressed while using the extended Big Picture Template?

• How will I collaborate with my colleague/s in completing the extended Big Picture Template?

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Introduction Formational learning can be hindered by teachers falling into planning traps: finding a good idea or activity and then simply ‘running with it’, thinking that they need to just deliver a pile of content and learning will automatically just occur, mistakenly thinking that filling out school’s daily work program is what constitutes effective learning planning, or using a commercial learning program or text book and embracing without discernment.

The rationale underpinning the Big Picture Template challenges the above weaker approaches and offers simple and useful tools that are effective for the shaping of formational learning. This process is not intended to add further to teacher administrivia by being approached mechanically. Rather, it is designed to encourage planning and to facilitate planning happening in the most appropriate order—big picture thinking, followed by assessment planning, then

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finishing with the design of the teaching and learning strategies and practices.

This chapter builds on the model that was outlined in Transformation by Design: The Big Picture. The model (given specific articulation through the use of the Big Picture Template) outlines a curriculum design process for Christian teachers to develop a biblically-shaped approach to teaching and learning.

The rationale underpinning the Big Picture Template challenges the above weaker approaches and offers simple and useful tools that are effective for the shaping of formational learning

Embracing Backwards Design Understanding by Design (UbD) is a curriculum framework developed by Wiggins and McTighe (2005). A key aspect of their curriculum framework is a backwards approach to design—a planning with the end in mind. It challenges teachers to be more intentional in curriculum design for the purpose of responding to student learning needs and for the realisation of learning outcomes (improved student understanding). In Transformation by Design: The Big Picture the Understanding by Design framework is described as follows: The beauty of the UbD approach to curriculum development is that it encourages teachers to be mindful that the desired results identified . . . are clearly evident in all areas of curriculum planning.

This is one of the key reasons that we have chosen to adapt it and use it for our approach. The Biblical Perspective and discipleship responses should not simply sit at the top of our curriculum documents.

They should be outworked in carefully chosen Enduring Understandings, Essential Questions, Knowledge, Skills, Assessments, Learning Activities, as well as in daily classroom practices. (Dickens et al., 2015, p. 21) This resource embraces a backwards design approach as a significant structural influence on the way we have constructed our model and the Big Picture Template.

The notions of backwards design have great merit.

Wiggins and McTighe (2005) state, “Regardless of our teaching strengths, preferred style or comfortable habits, the logic of backward design requires that we put to test any proposed learning activity, [in line with the designed outcome]” (p. 192). While the UbD model has been useful in assisting our approach, we have modified it to suit our purposes (e.g., UbD presents a sequential, linear, or staged approach, whereas we suggest a more flexible multi-entry approach). Our view is that teachers tend to design in a more organic, flexible, and customised manner (see the metaphor of a jigsaw approach as explained in Transformation by Design: The Big Picture p. 16).

The UbD model of planning has three main stages: • Stage 1 - identifies the desired results • Stage 2 - determines the acceptable evidence • Stage 3 - designs and plans the learning activities and instruction In our adapted approach, Stage 1 is explored in the Big Picture Template as it appeared in Transformation

by Design: The Big Picture. It establishes a clear big picture (purpose) and understanding framed through the biblical lens. It shows our distinctiveness, our form of educating for a purpose, our big hope of guiding students into an understanding of God’s story, and how they can participate in the story.

Stage 1 provides a summary of the whole unit, capturing the main points and answering the “Why?” and “What?” questions. It articulates the biblicallyinspired perspective that shapes, and is woven through, the unit of study. It identifies the student responses that the teacher seeks. This stage lays out the goals and groundwork for the learning design and plan.

Within UbD, Stage 2 determines the acceptable evidence and assessment of learning (see Chapter 5 for further exploration). Stage 3 is where the teaching and learning practices are planned (see Chapters 6 and 7 for further exploration). We have expanded on the UbD categories, by adding Stage 4 which considers the learning community, culture, and space that significantly shapes and impacts the teaching and learning approach (see Chapter 8 for further exploration). Diagram 4.1 shows the grouping of the components and their place within the UbD model and Big Picture Template.

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The Template This resource expands and completes the Big Picture Template. Teachers are encouraged to approach the template from the starting point of what is the most accessible or practical for them. Rather than commencing at a specified starting point and following a prescriptive order, what is most important is that all parts receive their appropriate attention. The template spaces in each section are simply that: spaces to allow for brainstorming and reflection. In this sense they are open and their size and shape is not prescriptive.

The expanded template (sections 8-10) continues as a recommended model for schools to adapt and modify to suit their context. Some schools have found that slight modification of the template structure is needed to cater for varying localised contexts (e.g., differences between primary and secondary).

A Big Picture Understanding See Chapter 1 and template sections 1, 3, 4 (What UbD labels Identifying Desired Results—what we have captured in the Main Idea and Enduring Understandings)

Assessment Towards Formational Learning See Chapter 5 and template section 8 (What UbD labels Determining the Acceptable Evidence)

The Template Is Not a Teaching Program The template and tools are not designed to replace a school’s work programs or to double up on documentation and programming requirements.

Cutting and pasting across tools is recommended when appropriate (e.g., in boxes 6A and 6B of the template).

The template is offered for the teacher to use as a planning framework and shaping tool before commencing their work program. Some schools have adopted the Big Picture Template as the full frame for the school’s articulation of their syllabus and work program. Others have used it as the beginner designing frame. Both approaches can work, particularly where a school modifies the template to their context.

See Diagram 4.1 that describes the grouping of the components and their place within the UbD model and the Big Picture Template.

Formational Teaching and Learning Practices

The Learning Community, Culture, and Space

See Chapters 6 & 7 and template section 9

See Chapter 8 and template section 10

(What UbD labels Planning the Learning Experiences and Instruction)

Diagram 4.1. The grouping of the components and their place within the UbD model and the Big Picture Template.

66 • Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning

The Big Picture Template Learning Area: Topic:

Year Level:

1. The Main Idea and/or Deep Hope

Capture the Main Idea and/or Deep Hope for the unit.

2. Biblical Perspective

Articulate the connections between the biblical story and the unit.

3. Threads

Choose the relevant response threads.

4. Enduring Understandings

5. Essential Questions

6a. Knowledge

6b. Skills

Identify the enduring understandings Identify misunderstandings.

Note the relevant key knowledge.

Shape the essential questions.

Note the relevant key skills.

7. Prescribed Curriculum

List the relevant content headings and descriptors.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 67

8. Assessment Towards Formational Learning Describe the different types of evidence to be used to support the desired outcomes.

9. Formational Teaching and Learning Practices Outline the key formational teaching and learning practices (i.e., considerations and strategies). This is not your teaching program but a place to outline your key formational practices.

10. The Learning Community, Culture, And Space Describe the specific class structures, habits, atmosphere, ethos, language, and practices that would help tell the story of formational learning.

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The Big Picture Template Summary Main Idea/Deep Hope

Summarising the Main Idea

1

The Main Idea is what focuses and holds together the unit. It is a single sentence; the big summary that captures the overall Main Idea.

Biblical Perspective

Articulating the biblical story

2

The Biblical Perspective is an articulation of where the topic fits into the biblical story and where the biblical story specifically speaks into the topic area. The key framework of creation, fall, redemption, and renewal (CFRR) is a helpful tool.

Threads

Bringing the responses alive

3

Threads are the responses that we wish to draw out after understanding God’s revelation as articulated in the Biblical Perspective. Threads assist in drawing the unit together and provide students with opportunities to live out their new learning.

Enduring Understandings

Identifying the Enduring Understandings

4

This is an opportunity to identify those more specific and Enduring Understandings that flow out of the Main Idea and which we wish students to grasp as a result of studying the unit. Enduring Understandings shouldn’t be confused with simply listing key knowledge and content.

Essential Questions

Shaping the Essential Questions

5

Essential Questions are questions that are created to help focus and capture the Main Idea of a unit and that stimulate deeper student thinking about the topic.

Knowledge and Skills

Noting the key Knowledge and Skills

Prescribed Curriculum

Listing the content and descriptors

7

The Prescribed Curriculum section is a useful reference point and audit tool. A critical review of the Prescribed Curriculum’s list, and a careful selection from it is made in the light of all the other design elements within the Big Picture.

Assessment Towards Formational Learning

8

Describing the evidence In Formational Learning we approach assessment (sometimes called ‘evidence’) early on in the planning of our teaching and learning practice because we are focused on formation and we want to know what the desired learning outcomes are.

Formational Teaching and Learning Practices

9

Describing the practices Formational Learning will seek to plan key teaching and learning practices that will bring formation.

Planning will involve teachers weighing up the best considerations and strategies that might be used to guide their teaching so that the formational learning hopes and goals are best realised.

The Learning Community, Culture, and Space

10

Crafting the learning place Formational learning is affected by the Learning Community, Culture, and Space. Planning will seek to capture how the classroom (and beyond) will connect with, and enhance, the building of a rich formational learning culture and environment—giving particular attention to the current unit of study.

6

Teachers are all too familiar with the task of compiling a list of Knowledge and Skills for a unit. Careful consideration of prescribed Knowledge and Skills should be merged with an understanding of the thinking that has already occurred in sections 1-5.

This is not simply a cut and paste of knowledge and skills lists. Teachers wisely choose and reframe the list using clear, user-friendly language. It is likely that extra knowledge and skills will emerge from the overall process. This section is a significant intersection/ collision point between what’s above and what’s below.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 69

The Template Components Main Idea/Deep Hope Capture the Main Idea/Deep Hope for the unit

1

This is a slight modification to the template in Transformation by Design: The Big Picture. Previously we labelled the opening single sentence of the template as the Main Idea only. It was described as follows: The Main Idea is a single sentence that captures the main message of the unit . . . [It] is like a hinge upon which the whole unit swings. This hinge is critical for understanding as it holds together all the various pieces of information that are a part of a unit/topic . . . [Within the Main Idea] teachers need to ask, “what are we going to learn?” not, “what are we going to do?” . . . The Main Idea is one of the take-away or enduring messages that we would like students to have, and which they should be able to engage with for years to come after the unit is finished. (p. 22) We have found that as teachers have engaged with the Big Picture Template they have warmed to the term Deep Hope. This term encapsulates with greater depth their genuine aspiration for how the students will be influenced by the unit. The terms are interchangeable. However, the term Deep Hope has a number of benefits, including: •

A broader application for teachers. It is possible to ask of any area/innovation/topic/project the question (e.g., unit title, new classroom design, assembly program feature, new uniform), “How is [ ] developing deep hope in students’ lives? “.

• All students, no matter what their faith perspective, instantly understand the intention and passion of the term.

• Encompassing more than just a rational concept—it alludes to conviction and action. * The phrase ‘deep hope’ was originally developed

by Matthew Beimers and Darryl deBoer from Surrey Christian School, Canada. Darryl continued its use in the Teaching for Transformation resource/program with the Centre for the Advancement of Christian Education (CACE).

Seeking out evidence of formational learning requires teachers to have a more complete picture of assessment that goes beyond a rigid systemic view of grades and comparison.

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Assessment Towards Formational Learning

8

Describe the different types of evidence to be used to support the desired outcomes Instead of moving straight from the Big Picture desired learning outcomes to planning the learning, it is important to determine what counts as evidence of the understandings being sought. This portion of the template identifies the key assessment and feedback tools to be used for the realisation of the desired learning outcomes (kinds of understandings, knowledge, skills, and responses).

How teachers view the purpose of assessment is crucial in terms of the choices teachers make for the evidence of learning. Seeking out evidence of formational learning requires teachers to have a more complete picture of assessment that goes beyond a rigid systemic view of grades and comparison (see Chapter 5 for further exploration of assessment).

Our view of assessment and evidence for learning is that it should: • Be determined before learning activities are chosen.

• Demonstrate the student’s current capabilities so that the learning opportunities can be planned accordingly.

• Strongly influence the shaping of the learning and provide opportunities to demonstrate student understanding.

• Not be regarded as the conclusion to the process but, rather, central to the process and happening whilst the learning is occurring.

• Provide a source of feedback for students along the way. Teachers need to identify where and how they will sample student understanding so they can make the appropriate adjustments.

• Empower and actively engage the student.

Students should be included as a critical part of the assessment process, as they become aware of their own growth and progress, and what the next steps are in their learning growth.

A number of factors should be considered when crafting the key assessment and feedback instruments.

Each of these should be considered within the context of having engaged with the biblical perspective and having identified the relevant Threads that might be used. Considerations include: • Spending time to ascertain whether the kinds of understandings, knowledge, and skills identified in the big picture have been achieved.

• Using a variety of assessment strategies/ instruments to test and reinforce the understandings, knowledge, and skills desired, and to inform the development of teaching and learning plans. This should include the use of self, peer, and teacher assessments.

of formational learning are maximised (see Chapters 6 and 7 for a fuller explanation of the practices that can be considered).

• Planning how students will be given opportunities to demonstrate their learning and given time to reflect, build, and refine their understandings.

• Knowing your students—their prior understanding and faith outlook—in order to discover the next steps in learning. Obviously, every student group and context will be different.

Designing the learning plan involves: • Making use of learning design principles and tools.

• Carefully considering which activities, instructional strategies, resources, and sequences of learning will be most effective in adding value to the big picture desired learning outcomes.

Probing Questions • What is the evidence that formational learning is occurring?

• How will you assess prior learning (faith, understanding, skill)?

• What sort of feedback will students receive (specific to their formation)?

• What opportunities are there for students to show evidence of progress in their understanding and response to the identified biblical Threads?

• How will you provide opportunities for, record, and give feedback on the biblically authentic changes in student thinking, desiring, and doing?

• What opportunities are there for students to provide feedback on their learning and on teacher guidance?

• How will students reflect upon, and selfassess, their learning?

• How might formational learning be communicated to parents?

• Designing and planning the effective timing for instructional strategies and practices. Sequencing the learning to ensure adequate time is given for the use of explicit teaching methods, followed by time for thinking, reflecting, experiencing, and acting (the learning cycle).

• Incorporating differentiation strategies that factor in the range of gifts, understandings, and capabilities of the students.

• Wisely choosing from the variety of resources and approaches available to design and plan for effective formational learning.

• Using opportunities to reframe, redirect, and emphasise biblically-guided learning.

• Demonstrating how student responses (e.g., engaging response Threads) will be shaped throughout the unit and summarised at the end of the unit.

Probing Questions • How will the selected activities, resources, and strategies impact on the head, heart, and hand of students?

Formational Teaching and Learning Practices

9

Outline the key formational teaching and learning practices (i.e., considerations and strategies). This is not your teaching program but a place to outline your key formational practices.

This section captures how the learning will occur—how the sequencing, instructional strategies, activities, material, and resources are planned. Here Christian teachers have the opportunity to develop teaching practices and strategies that frame the classroom as an arena of learning, faith-exploration, and life-growth.

This portion of the template outlines how the practices of teaching and learning (the structuring and sequencing of instructional strategies, resources, and materials) are organised for the unit so that the goals

• Are there opportunities for students to engage and explore the Threads?

• Have you given sufficient time for students to experience, think, reflect, and respond to the learning (the learning cycle)?

• Have you provided sufficient opportunities for students to rethink, rehearse, revise, and refine their work based on timely feedback?

• What differentiation strategies have you used to reflect your understanding of how this group of students learn?

• Are the resources high quality, varied, and sufficient to support learning?

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 71

The Learning Community, Culture, and Space

10

Describe the specific class structures, habits, atmosphere, ethos, language, and practices that would help tell the story of formational learning The classroom can quickly become a place of habits and practices, rituals and routines—it can then build its own culture. Each learner group is shaped with particular group norms, practices, and behaviours in the day-to-day and over time. The broader school setting and structures and the school’s particular culture also influence the class culture.

In all of this, it is the teacher’s responsibility to be aware of these habits and practices, rituals and routines, and to create, build, and maintain a rich learning culture that reflects a biblical model of community.

Probing Questions • What particular structures, language, habits, or routines might enhance formational learning in this unit?

• Describe the class structures and habits, atmosphere, ethos, language, and practices that could be emphasised in this unit to shape a particular culture of learning.

• Could the learning space be shaped to be more conducive for learning the specific learning outcomes for this unit?

• Are there any aspects of the current classroom culture that might impinge on formational learning in this unit?

• What specific opportunities are there in this unit for students to be encouraged to learn in community?

• How will your class structure and practices model and articulate the chosen Threads?

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Reflection The following questions provide an opportunity to reflect on planning for formational learning: • What clarity has this resource brought me concerning my planning for formational learning?

• What questions do I still have which I hope this resource will answer?

• Working with a partner, explain what you understand to be the model that the template is built on. How much does the process outlined align or differ from your current practice?

• Working with a partner, discuss how this purposeful planning process is in harmony with God-honouring education.

The Big Picture Template: Examples The following completed templates are provided as examples of teachers using the Big Picture Template as a planning tool for both curriculum design and teaching and learning practice. They may not be completed exactly how you might have approached the unit (and the curriculum outcomes), and they may not, indeed, be perfect, but we trust you will find them helpful in developing your appreciation of how the template may assist you in designing formational learning.

Example 1 Learning Area: Design and Technology Topic: Food and Fibre Production Year Level: 5

1. The Main Idea/Deep Hope

Capture the Main Idea and/or Deep Hope for the unit.

I have a deep hope that the students would make connections between the effort, energy, and resources required to grow and make food and love hard physical ‘real’ work that creates ‘real’ products.

Possible unit titles: Gardening, Harvesting, and Creating.

2. Biblical Perspective

Articulate the connections between the biblical story and the unit.

Physical beings need physical nourishment, which means people need to eat. We must eat regularly and ‘healthfully’. Through the ages and around the globe, the question of, “What is good to eat?”, has been answered in many ways. Today, our current industrialised ‘food system’, means answering this question requires increasing discernment. Food production, currently feeding a population of 7.7 billion people, has been industrialised. We have become disconnected with the food production. Most of us are unaware of the source of origin, chemicals, transportation, or processes involved in getting the food which we eat every day.

God works in the world ‘organically’. Watching plants grow reminds us of God working in the world. The changes are slow but real. It is Him at work in the world. This unit seeks to honour God’s work in our lives by doing real work in God’s world.

Creation (God’s good world means we can engage in it) We know that God loves gardens (He made one), invited humanity to care for His creation, and the first role given to humanity was as gardeners! As God’s people, created and sustained by His hand, we want to develop a right understanding of the goodness of food (Genesis 2:10) and the way that it teaches us about Him and our role in His creation as His people. Food is a good gift from God, it reminds us of our dependence on Him for all our needs; physical (to nourish our bodies), spiritual (fed by Him, sharing ‘His table’), and social (to belong to others, sharing in His grace and generosity to us). We want to recognise the integral place food has in our lives and our culture and, lastly, we want to learn how its production and consumption can bring life and health to all those involved in the production, preparation, eating, and sharing of food! God made food as good gifts for His people to nourish their bodies.

Fall (The world is affected by sin, we therefore must critique it) We know that the once good garden became a crime scene of deception, rebellion, and ultimately death. This original sin has spread to every area of the world, including our relationship with food. There is increasing separation between food producer and food consumer resulting from the push by the food industry to abandon a rich cultural heritage of food preparation skills and to emphasise processed foods full of empty energy rather than the whole foods. While food is celebrated on TV shows, millions starve. Food is no longer a source of celebration for which we give thanks. A distorted view of food means we see it either as a utilitarian necessity or as a status symbol.

Redemption (Jesus is reconciling all things to Himself which means we are called to transform the world) As agents of God’s reconciliation, we proclaim Jesus’ Lordship over the food production. Planting, harvesting, preparing, sharing, and celebrating are elements of food production over which we are called to enact new (or ancient) practices proclaiming the truth that this is God’s good world. We will reclaim the honour of work and the goodness of this physical world.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 73

3. Threads

Choose the relevant response Threads.

3. CARETAKING EARTH: Students actively respond to God’s call to carefully manage all of creation.

16. REFLECTING CREATIVITY: Students praise God by reflecting their Creator in making expressive and inspiring things and ideas.

10. IMAGINING INNOVATIONS: Students innovate and renew for good purposes and thereby praise the master designer

4. Enduring Understandings

Identify the enduring understandings.

Identify misunderstandings.

• Participating in God’s creational work is good.

• Bread is precious!

5. Essential Questions

Shape the essential questions.

• How can we care for the earth?

• How can we love others as we do this? (How are we treating each other?)

• When something doesn’t work, try again. Try harder, smarter, different (John Ortberg).

• How can we encourage each other as we do this?

• God gave us work. Hard work is ok. We can use it to serve others.

• How could we do this better?

• How do our choices matter?

• Being organised is helpful. (Don’t rush! Be strategic, be thoughtful!)

• Consequences are a part of life.

Misunderstandings • Work is easy.

• I shouldn’t have to work hard.

• Food is easy to produce.

6a. Knowledge

6b. Skills

• Investigate how and why food and fibre are produced in managed environments (ACTDEK021)

• Generate, develop and communicate design ideas and processes for audiences using appropriate technical terms and graphical representation techniques (ACTDEP025)

Note the relevant key knowledge and skills.

• Investigate characteristics and properties of a range of materials, systems, components, tools and equipment and evaluate the impact of their use (ACTDEK023) (Australian Curriculum)

Note the relevant key knowledge and skills.

• Select appropriate materials, components, tools, equipment and techniques and apply safe procedures to make designed solutions (ACTDEP026) • Negotiate criteria for success that include sustainability to evaluate design ideas, processes and solutions (ACTDEP027) • Develop project plans that include consideration of resources when making designed solutions individually and collaboratively (ACTDEP028) (Australian Curriculum)

7. Prescribed Curriculum

List the relevant content headings and descriptors.

By the end of Year 6, students explain how social, ethical, technical, and sustainability considerations influence the design of solutions to meet a range of present and future needs. They explain how the features of technologies influence design decisions and how digital systems are connected to form networks.

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7. Prescribed Curriculum (continued) Students describe a range of needs, opportunities, or problems and define them in terms of functional requirements. They collect and validate data from a range of sources to assist in making judgements. Students generate and record design ideas for specified audiences using appropriate technical terms, and graphical and non-graphical representation techniques including algorithms. They plan, design, test, modify, and create digital solutions that meet intended purposes including user interfaces and a visual program. Students plan and document processes and resources and safely produce designed solutions for each of the prescribed technologies contexts. They negotiate criteria for success, including sustainability considerations, and use these to judge the suitability of their ideas, solutions, and processes. Students use ethical, social, and technical protocols when collaborating and creating and communicating ideas, information, and solutions face-to-face and online. (Australian Curriculum)

8. Assessment Towards Formational Learning

List the different types of evidence (pre/post assessment, summative and formative, teacher, self, peer, etc.) to be used to support the desired outcomes.

Discussion of prior learning and interest and student journal entry answering preconceived understandings about food and work.

Class meetings (and 1:1 teacher-student chats) will provide opportunity for students and teacher to provide warm and cool feedback on student participation.

Reflection and formative feedback after each stage of planning and creating the garden, growing, milling, threshing, winnowing, and cooking. They will all attend to the criteria in practical ways. Conversations with the teacher, a checklist, and anecdotal notes will be recorded.

The summative assessment will be the learning journal which documents each stage (from planning the garden to eating the bread). This journal will also be the place where students answer set reflective questions about their growth in response to inevitable difficulties.

Note to sceptics and farmers: It is acknowledged that we will need to supplement with other flour and this will be discussed with the students.

9. Formational Teaching and Learning Practices Outline the key formational teaching and learning practices (i.e., considerations and strategies). This is not your teaching program but a place to outline your key formational practices.

To implement this unit, engage students, and encourage formational learning, I will draw from the following approaches: • Inquiry-based learning (active learning) • Collaborative learning • Project-based learning I will focus on the following three strategies: Hook: Creating a class garden using white foam boxes with food-bearing plants.

So much ‘wow’ will be generated by getting out of the classroom and ‘playing with dirt’. Of course there will be lots of preparation and planning, however the initial hook of actually doing and creating a garden will provide the drive for the rigorous learning we will be doing. It is hoped that throughout the unit as seedlings sprout, flowers bloom, and grain ripens, there will be a natural hook to excite and propel the students forward.

Connect: Linking food origin with our consumption.

We are disconnected from our world. Packaging, supermarkets, and fridges are the only food experiences of most children in Alice Springs. Many of them have never got their hands dirty on purpose in dirt. Plastic is choking our planet. It is disconnection from the created order gone viral.

This disconnection is not only expressed in the physicality of food, but in societies disconnection from the author of life! If we don’t connect with God’s creation, how can we nurture it? How can we empathise with its ‘groaning’? How can we make the important changes that are needed to care well for God’s creation as is our mandate in Genesis?

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 75

9. Formational Teaching and Learning Practices (continued) Experience: Immersing students in the task of growing, harvesting, and producing food.

My observation is that many students have not developed an ability to ‘work with their hands’. Many students struggle to see the value in ‘working hard’ and many have not practised the simple repetitive tasks that contribute to the development of fine and gross motor skills. There is something significant about this kind of work. Work that touches the earth, and where choices are ‘real’ and impact on the physical environment.

Learning that a loaf of bread is made of wheat and uses 2000L of water, for example, is significantly different than growing wheat to make bread and then spending the time watering it, separating the chaff and seeds, and milling it. We need this kind of learning. This kind of learning provides many opportunities for deep formational learning.

I’m also looking forward to the Bible becoming alive as we engage with the parable of the sower, Psalm 1, and the parable of the yeast.

10. The Learning Community, Culture, and Space

Reflect on specific class structures and habits, atmosphere and ethos, language, and practices that may support formational learning.

Much of this unit will involve students out of their seats. We will use established protocols of working in teams, having specific roles within the groups, respecting others’ work, and the need for safe handling of tools.

I will intentionally build a culture by sharing a vision which values local, connected, sustainable innovation.

There will be many specific technical words associated with the process and some general concepts such as seasons, tending, slowness, and rhythms. This language would be experienced, explained, deliberated, and used.

Sharing this story with the rest of the school (and the bread with another class) is another important part of this learning journey.

Thanks to Nick Harder of Araluen Christian College, NT, for this template example.

Example 2 Learning Area: The Arts - Music Topic: Music for Film and/or TV Year Level: 7

1. The Main Idea/Deep Hope

Capture the Main Idea and/or Deep Hope for the unit.

I have a deep hope that my students will celebrate God’s gift of music, while being discerning to see how the entertainment industry use music to manipulate and influence audience emotions, thoughts, and decisions.

2. Biblical Perspective

Articulate the connections between the biblical story and the unit.

Music is a good gift from God. Being human is to respond and to make connections and celebrate through music. Music is a powerful way to connect to the fullness of life that God has provided us. Music can influence our emotions, trigger memories, assist in reflection, and be used to celebrate and commemorate people and events in our lives. Music can reach a depth in us that connects us to our Creator.

However, due to human sinful nature, music can also be used to tear down people. The media and film and entertainment industry can improperly influence our emotions and thoughts through the producer’s poor motivation and manipulation, often with opaque subtlety. Researchers are learning more about the science of how music connects to our emotions, memories, thoughts, and actions. We need to celebrate God’s good gift of music while being discerning about how we, and others, use music to communicate and receive messages.

We therefore want to provide students with the skills and discernment needed to be able to challenge these distortions in society and learn how to craft music in a way that supports storytelling and brings God’s life, fullness, and spirit through music.

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3. Threads

Choose the relevant response Threads.

• 16. REFLECTING CREATIVITY: Students contemplate both the Creator and His handiwork and respond in delight and praise.

• 5. CHALLENGING DISTORTIONS: Students identify and critique areas impacted by sin and then discern God’s purposes.

• CRAFTING MUSIC (custom Thread): students understand compositional techniques to create mood and listener response.

4. Enduring Understandings

Identify the enduring understandings.

Identify misunderstandings.

• Music is a part of creation, given to us by God for our enjoyment.

• Music can have a subconscious impact on our decision making and thought processes.

• There are compositional techniques that can be applied to communicate ideas and influence audience emotion.

5. Essential Questions

Shape the essential questions.

• How and why does the media/film industry use music to shape its audience?

• What are some of the common compositional techniques that are effective in shaping various emotions? How can I craft and listen to music in a way to honour God and encourage wise living?

• How does music influence me and shape culture around me?

6a. Knowledge

6b. Skills

Students:

Students:

• Study the role of music in film and become familiar with a number of compositional techniques and instrumentation to ‘create and manipulate mood’.

• Perform musical compositions and arrangements individually and/or in groups.

Note the relevant key knowledge and skills.

Note the relevant key knowledge and skills.

• Become familiar with film ‘spotting’ technique and using a storyboard to plan musical sound tracks.

• Experiment and improvise both individually and in groups using stimulus characteristic of the repertoire studied.

• Become familiar with a range of film and music genres.

• Organise musical ideas into simple compositions both individually and in groups.

• Become familiar with a range of film music composers (e.g., John Williams) and popular character motifs in Western culture films (e.g., Darth Vader/Jaws).

• Explore forms of musical notation, including computer-based applications, as a method of recording their own musical ideas.

• Become familiar with film and music composition terminology, e.g., main title/end title/soundtrack/ storyboard/motif/underscore/scene music.

• Develop skills in applying common music compositional techniques and clichés that are commonly used in Western culture films to evoke mood/emotion/meaning.

Australian Curriculum Content Descriptions Develop musical ideas, such as mood, by improvising, combining and manipulating the elements of music (ACAMUM093) Analyse composers’ use of the elements of music and stylistic features when listening to and interpreting music (ACAMUR097)

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 77

7. Prescribed Curriculum

List the relevant content headings and descriptors.

Achievement Standards – Year 7-8 Music By the end of Year 8, students identify and analyse how the elements of music are used in different styles and apply this knowledge in their performances and compositions. They evaluate musical choices they and others from different cultures, times, and places make to communicate meaning as performers and composers.

Students manipulate the elements of music and stylistic conventions to compose music. They interpret, rehearse, and perform songs and instrumental pieces in unison and in parts, demonstrating technical and expressive skills. They use aural skills, music terminology, and symbols to recognise, memorise, and notate features such as melodic patterns in music they perform and compose.

(Australian Curriculum)

8. Assessment Towards Formational Learning

List the different types of evidence (pre/post assessment, summative and formative, teacher, self, peer, etc.) to be used to support the desired outcomes.

Engage a real audience/meet a real need • In groups, students will use their different abilities to contribute to a short compositional piece as a soundtrack to accompany selected visual footage.

• Each group will choose an event or purpose for their music piece. This could be ANZAC Day or Easter reflection or Remembrance Day. The compositional piece will be played at assembly or middle school info night, etc., with a description of the purpose of the piece.

Self-assessment • Individually, students will have the task of journaling what they listen to during the week and how that impacted their feelings at the time. What music did they listen to with others, or individually, when they felt tired, sad, angry, excited, etc.? This task would also include making notes of the music used during watching visual footage (e.g., a YouTube clip, advertising commercial) and how it was used to change mood, emotions, or thinking.

Biblical Threads • Throughout the unit, students will be required to identify and share examples of music in the media and entertainment industry they have found during the week that demonstrate compositional tools to manipulate or encourage a response from the audience.

• At the end of the unit, students will present and explain the musical piece that had the most impact on them.

Formative tasks • Individual journal of soundtracks noticed and reflected upon during the course of the unit and presentation to class of a piece of interest.

• Peer feedback, participation in discussion, developing discernment while listening to compositions.

• Completion of a range of activities in composition workbook (created by teacher).

• Rehearsing as an ensemble, working together.

Summative tasks to address the relevant section of the Achievement Standard: • Students identify and analyse how the elements of music are used in different styles and apply this knowledge in their performances and compositions.

• Students evaluate musical choices they and others from different cultures, times, and places make to communicate meaning as performers and composers.

• Students manipulate the elements of music and stylistic conventions to compose music: • Individual student completion of a 60-90 min soundtrack (using ACID or Garage Band software), supported by a storyboard of three scenes (using a template) and practitioner statement of the compositional choices.

• Participation in an ensemble performance of a group composition, with accompanying visual images/ footage.

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9. Formational Teaching and Learning Practices Outline the key formational teaching and learning practices (i.e., considerations and strategies). This is not your teaching program but a place to outline your key formational practices.

Hook/launch lesson • Students enter the classroom and are asked to find a place in the room where they can lie still without distractions and listen intently to the opening main title score/recording which will be played without being told what the film title is. Prior to listening, the students are asked to consider what they hear, think, and wonder as they listen to the recording. Suggested titles include: Kung Fu Panda, 2001: A Space Odyssey.

(See, think, wonder thinking routine used). At the conclusion of the soundtrack, the teacher prompts students to share their responses on what they heard, thought, and wondered, leading students to discuss the instrumentation.

Experience • Music to create mood. Students sit and listen to different types of music which demonstrate the power to lift our spirit towards worshipping God, to soothing, or times of grief and mourning.

• Students watch a scene from a film with different soundtracks and how it changed what they thought would happen next. Students then watch various clips/film pieces that demonstrate how music creates mood (manipulation of Darth Vader’s character—the music comes on before he enters the scene, or a Mary Poppins edited music clip—a nice film totally changed through music to a scary film piece).

Reflection • Students sit in a U shape ready to listen and share to each other. They share their journal entries of what they listened to during the week and how that impacted their feelings at the time. What music did they listen to with others, or individually, when they felt tired, sad, angry, excited, etc. This task would also include making notes of the music used during watching TV and how it was used to change mood, emotions, or thinking.

They would also discuss the music compositional characteristics in each piece.

• At various times throughout the course students respond to: How do I know I am becoming a discerning listener? How do I know that I am thinking and discerning how music is impacting and shaping me?

Create • Students are given two characters and have to compose musical samples to produce emotions to suit the character, developing a motif and riff.

• They are also then given their assessment task to work on as they create a compositional piece for a purpose and audience, supporting a visual story. Students are given multiple times to rehearse and enhance their delivery and explanation of how the music is designed to influence the audience. Music software such as ACID music can be used to create loops and soundtracks.

Act: Response to learning • Students will complete a range of short compositional exercises, exploring and applying various compositional techniques.

Reflection • After studying this unit, students will reflect on how they are going to be more discerning in the music they listen to.

• How will they create music to reflect and bring honour to God? • How might they work with others to use their creative abilities?

Resources • Teacher developed workbook of compositional techniques and analysis activities.

• Music and film glossary of terms.

• Music looping software such as ACID or Garage Band.

• Access to keyboards and a range of percussion instruments.

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10. The Learning Community, Culture, and Space

Reflect on specific class structures and habits, atmosphere and ethos, language, and practices that may support formational learning.

Create an atmosphere/culture where as a community of learners in each class we spend time to listen to music and unpack the impact of the music on our emotions. Teacher can model language of how to discuss compositional techniques and music appreciation listening skills. As a liturgy, each class start the lesson with a song/reflect on purpose and emotive response for the audience, etc.

A particular piece of music is played each lesson to signal when it is time to be seated, ready for a student to present a musical recording that has had an impact on them over the past week while journaling, or that they found effective in moving their emotions and supporting the visual footage.

At the end of year lesson, there is a time to view a film clip or listen to a musical composition that is out of the ordinary, something students may not have listened to before, or an unusual style of music, etc. Teacher encourages students to develop listening and analysis skills to unpack the compositional tools evident in the piece and the instrumentation.

Students are also encouraged in their different performance abilities to respect, appreciate, and work together to develop a piece (assessment task—differentiated for each learner to contribute) and to produce beautiful work together.

Community of learners • The cohort of students is a mixture of those familiar with the study of music as a primary school specialist subject, those with individual instrumental tuition support, and those new to the school with little music background. All students are encouraged to participate and develop their knowledge and skills at their various entry levels.

Adjustments and modifications • May need to allocate specific roles to some students with special needs. Be aware of students with noise sensitivities.

• Ensure students with already evident musical gifts and talents are extended in their learning.

Thanks to Fiona Partridge of Torrens Valley Christian School, SA, for this template example.

Example 3 Learning Area: Visual Art Topic: Impressionism Year Level: 10

1. The Main Idea/Deep Hope

Capture the Main Idea and/or Deep Hope for the unit.

God created beauty in the landscapes around us (both literal and in artwork) and we have the opportunity to observe these and respond to them.

2. Biblical Perspective

Articulate the connections between the biblical story and the unit.

Creation • The arts (aesthetics are an integral part of life, Genesis 1 & 2). Psalm 24 says, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.”

• Aesthetic works become art when their imagery and symbolism offers insight into life. Artworks evoke and connect meaning for living. We experience and feel works of art in different ways and at different levels.

• God has endowed artists with artistic expression gifts which allow artists to express their ideas, (possibly joy and thankfulness for God’s blessings). Monet’s Water Lilies, the English and Australian landscapes, and the beauty of the school environment are the focus of our look at landscape and God’s creation.

• Appreciation and understanding artists’ work draws out interesting insights into the artist, their context and era, their motivation for producing the artwork, and why it is popular or not.

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2. Biblical Perspective (continued) • Investigating, appreciating, and critiquing great artists’ artworks: • can enhance and change the way we understand ourselves, others, our society, and offer insights into deepening our understanding of what it means to live a flourishing life.

• Affects our perspectives by presenting a point of view in aesthetic, symbolic, and other striking ways.

• Stimulates us to look into the perspectives and values of others.

• Students look to God for their creativity. All students need to grow in their artistic appreciation and development. Some students have ‘deeper’ artistic abilities and gifts. Even though some students can have distorted impressions of their artistic ability (“I can’t do art”), as image-bearing subjects of the creative Creator, all students are called to respond actively to God’s desire that they gain creative and artistic insight for the enrichment of their lives. This involves well-crafted inquiry and investigation, understanding and contemplation, skill development and practise, a willingness to ‘have a go’, and making meaning of aspects of God’s creation.

• We can produce artwork or appreciate artworks in responsive and creative ways. Producing artwork can enrich our lives through interpretative expression, joy, delight, playfulness, and creativity. Students engage in both studio painting and ‘plein air’(the act of painting outdoors).

Fall • The arts can serve God and others but it can also be an idol.

• In looking at Monet’s Water Lilies, while we gain delight, appreciation, and insight into the work of a master artist, we also note that great artworks can become idols in themselves. Probing questions like: What is the value of Monet’s work? How is that determined? Why is one artwork of equal skill not worth as much? Why do wealthy people/museums want to acquire and display famous artworks? How do we balance the priceless value against the value of God’s handiwork in the creation of people? Is this a fair question? What about all the trinket copies? How does a famous image like Water Lilies—a preserved and sugar-coated version of what is true, good, and proper—represent our society and our society’s approach to ‘high art’?

• Even though in this topic we are looking at beauty (a very common use of art), we acknowledge that art, because it captures real life, also at other times needs to ‘insight’ fear, sin, distortion, and guilt, as well as joy.

Redemption and renewal • “In the curriculum, the arts have at least three [interrelated] goals: • First, they make students critically aware of the role of aesthetics in society, both past and present.

• Second, they help students enjoy and appreciate aesthetic products through experience and performance.

• Third, they unfold students’ aesthetic potential through composing works of art.

These three goals are interrelated. For instance, performance and composition enhance critical awareness, and critical awareness can give new insights for the creation of works of art. What is clear is that a range of aesthetic experiences, experimentation and exploration, and thoughtful instruction are all necessary components of arts education” (Van Brummelen, 1994, Steppingstones to Curriculum).

• A good art education will mean students are shown how to critique great artworks and ask probing questions like: What is beauty? How does this artwork add value to my life? What values are represented in this artwork?

• Artists who are Christians serve God through their art. They may be agents of redemptive love and grace (renewal) as they manifest shalom (How does a biblical vision of shalom, that incorporates beauty and appreciation, compassion and justice, humility and peace, provide the foundation for aesthetic activity?), as well as being affected by the fall (and its distortion and despair).

• Art value and interpretation are uncertain and subjective. On what basis do we determine what is average/ good/great art? Can we name these criteria? Does the uncertainty here bring about surprise and wonder that enriches life?

3. Threads

Choose the relevant response threads.

• 13. PONDERING CREATION: Students contemplate both the Creator and His handiwork and respond in delight and praise.

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4. Enduring Understandings

Identify the enduring understandings.

Identify misunderstandings.

• Appreciate the intricate beauty of creation and show through artworks our interpretation and appreciation of it.

• Impressionism captures a fleeting moment in terms of light, colour, and atmosphere. Reflect how light has brought joy and richness to our lives.

• Students will appreciate the skills of past artists to record the beauty of God’s landscapes and attain the learning involved to create their own response.

5. Essential Questions

Shape the essential questions.

• The Impressionist movement captured emotion and expression in particular ways. What were they?

• How does Impressionism provide us with insight into our relationship with nature?

• What does ‘light’ tell us about God and His creation?

• How have the movements (European and Australian) we are studying been captured in the landscape? What contrasts in understanding the beauty of God’s creation are evident?

• Applying the insights we have gained into Monet, what style and approach will I take to capturing our school’s plein air (the act of painting outdoors)?

6a. Knowledge

6b. Skills

Students will know:

Students will be able to:

• The significance of the art movement—students analyse and evaluate how artists communicate ideas and convey meaning in artworks.

• Mix and apply paint to create effects of light through the use of colour and techniques in using the different painting media and materials.

• The cultural and historical impact of the time— students identify the influences of other artists and analyse connections between techniques, processes, and visual conventions in artworks to develop their own art practice.

• Students select and manipulate materials, techniques, processes, visual conventions, and technologies to express ideas and viewpoints in their artworks.

Note the relevant key knowledge and skills.

Note the relevant key knowledge and skills.

• Present their work to enhance our space.

• The style that characterises Impressionism.

• How to analyse and evaluate artworks such as Monet’s Water Lilies, discussing how ideas and beliefs are interpreted by audiences of different cultures, times, and places.

7. Prescribed Curriculum

List the relevant content headings and descriptors.

Content: Visual Arts Explore and express ideas • Explore the visual arts practices and styles as inspiration to develop a personal style, explore, express ideas, concepts and themes in art works (VCAVAE040) • Explore how artists manipulate materials, techniques, technologies and processes to develop and express their intentions in art works (VCAVAE041) Visual arts practices • Select and manipulate materials, techniques, and technologies and processes in a range of art forms to express ideas, concepts and themes (VCAVAV042) • Conceptualise, plan and design art works that express ideas, concepts and artistic intentions (VCAVAV043) Present and perform • Create, present, analyse and evaluate displays of artwork considering how ideas can be conveyed to an audience (VCAVAP044) Respond and interpret • Analyse and interpret artworks to explore the different forms of expression, intentions and viewpoints of artists and how they are viewed by audiences (VCAVAR045) • Analyse, interpret and evaluate a range of visual artworks from different cultures, historical and contemporary contexts to explore differing viewpoints (VCAVAR046)

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8. Assessment Towards Formational Learning

List the different types of evidence (pre/post assessment, summative and formative, teacher, self, peer, etc.) to be used to support the desired outcomes.

• Feedback and guidance are provided throughout the production of students’ artworks.

• Students are assessed by the teacher using a rubric covering the following: • Research of the Impressionism period • The student’s acrylic painting based on Monet’s Water Lilies • The student’s plein air painting of the school grounds • A self-evaluation and reflection by the students of their artworks and the skills/insights they have gained through this exercise • Students will present their work for display. Their work will be displayed for enhancing the learning space and presented for Open Day.

9. Formational Teaching and Learning Practices Outline the key formational teaching and learning practices (i.e., considerations and strategies). This is not your teaching program but a place to outline your key formational practices.

• The hook: Launch this topic by displaying landscape images (with an appropriate period music piece running in the background) from the Impressionism movement with particular use of Monet’s Water Lilies.

• A great resource: Use the YouTube resource on how to paint the artwork Water Lilies. Take time to analyse it and then practise the techniques applied by Monet to capture the light and beauty in a fleeting moment of time.

• Having a go: Using the insights and skills learnt from the YouTube clip, students can produce their own painting of Monet’s Water Lilies with an emphasis on using a certain application of paint and trialling different techniques.

• Connect and reflect: Students present their work for display (find the best audience context) and complete a self-reflection and evaluation exercise.

• Extension and experience: Students build on their skill set to take time to paint in a plein air style (outdoor landscape) around the Year 9 lake on the school site. This provides a challenging task where students must resolve their own ideas to portray the beauty of God’s creation.

• Revisit, connect, and reflect: Students present drafts of their work and evaluate their experience in contrast to studio painting from more specific instruction (perhaps multiple versions).

10. The Learning Community, Culture, and Space

Reflect on specific class structures and habits, atmosphere and ethos, language, and practices that may support formational learning.

Research and experience suggest that formational learning best emerges from experiences that get at our gut and touch our heart.

Students learn the theoretical aspects of the unit, but the discussions and practical activities such as painting their impressions of the environment around them and being ‘image reflectors’, helps students to appreciate and become creation understanders and appreciators. Through their individual and group work, and working indoors and outdoors, students have a range of opportunities to be reflective, engage in discussion, and work cooperatively as they deepen their insights and produce their own visual artworks.

Thanks to Maria Hotton of Donvale Christian College, VIC, for this template example.

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Example 4 Learning Area: Mathematics Topic: Fractions Year Level: 3/4

1. The Main Idea and/or Deep Hope

Capture the Main Idea and/or Deep Hope for the unit.

Fractions help us think about fairness. I hoped that the students will develop their understanding of fractions through real-life applications and to use their understanding and skills to be more fair.

Possible unit titles: “It’s equal but so unfair!”

2. Biblical Perspective

Articulate the connections between the biblical story and the unit.

Creation Within His creation, God created all things to be in right relationship with Him and each other. When things fit together and patterns are found, it is because God made it with order and purposeful intention.

Fall Sin damaged the balanced relationships between us and God, and amongst us members of His creation.

Greed is a factor in human hearts where people wanted more than their share and division became unjust.

Biblical characters demonstrated this: Solomon having many concubines and wives, and Zaccheus the tax collector. Even in our society, the way in which we share our resources amongst communities, there are so often ‘fractions’ of people neglected, forgotten, or left without.

Redemption Christ has brought more wholeness and completion back to this imbalance and to make us whole again in relationship with God. God, by sending His son Jesus to die on our behalf bridged the gap and by leaving the Holy Spirit to intercede for us. In His ministry on Earth, Jesus lived the life of a servant king who cared for those in need, giving generously to those who had been forgotten and left without. He highlighted where there is an imbalance and how we should give resources, where sinners weren’t being shown salvation, e.g., fish and loaves into a greater sum.

Renewal We can see the beauty of God and His order in the patterns of fractions. We are also called to consider what is fair when sharing resources, money, and time with others. Jesus spent more time and energy with those in greatest need rather than equally amongst all people. Therefore, when using fractions practically, we must consider what fairness is in God’s eyes and whether we can be fair in the unequal sharing of resources.

3. Threads

Choose the relevant response Threads.

• DISCOVERING PATTERNS: Enjoyment of fractions and discovering patterns and order in fractions.

• CHALLENGING DISTORTIONS: Sin has impacted the way people choose to spend money, time, and resources, creating an unfair and unjust world. Students are challenged to look at the idea of fairness in creation: Is it fair to share resources equally amongst those in need and those in plenty?. This is done in the knowledge of God’s love for all His creation.

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4. Enduring Understandings

Identify the enduring understandings.

Identify misunderstandings.

5. Essential Questions

Shape the essential questions.

• Can I get through life without fractions?

• There are rules and patterns that govern fractions.

• How can we bring about balance in creation?

• Fairness may not mean equal share for others.

• Why can’t the same fraction be the same amount every time?

• There is joy in discovering patterns.

• What is fairness?

Focus questions: • Are there different ways to make a whole?

• Why must fractions be equal?

• What methods can be used to compare fractions?

• How can two different fractions be the same, e.g., 4/5 and 8/10?

• How has sin affected the way people share resources?

• Should all things be divided into equal parts? Food for the hungry and the well fed; money for the rich and poor.

• How can I serve when using fractions?

• Is it fair to not share equally?

6a. Knowledge

6b. Skills

• Can understand the relationship between families of fractions (halves, quarters, and eighths, or thirds and sixths).

• Can partition areas, lengths, and collections to create halves, thirds, quarters, and fifths, such as folding the same sized sheets of paper to illustrate different unit fractions and comparing the number of parts with their sizes.

Note the relevant key knowledge and skills.

• Can understand that fractions and division require equal parts.

• Can determine the difference between fair and equal.

Note the relevant key knowledge and skills.

• Can locate unit fractions on a number line.

• Can convert mixed numbers to improper fractions and vice versa.

• Can investigate the use of fractions and sharing as a way of managing country: for example taking no more than half the eggs from a nest to protect future bird populations.

• Can use division by 10 to extend the place-value system.

• Can use knowledge of fractions to establish equivalences between fractions and decimal notation.

• Can compare different responses to a problem and classify them as better or worse using a thinking tool and comparing the classifications with others and how the judgements were reached.

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7. Prescribed Curriculum

List the relevant content headings and descriptors.

Mathematical Model and represent unit fractions including 1/2, 1/4, 1/3, 1/5 and their multiples to a complete whole (VCMNA136) Investigate equivalent fractions used in contexts (VCMNA157) Count by quarters, halves and thirds, including with mixed numerals. Locate and represent these fractions on a number line (VCMNA158) Recognise that the place value system can be extended to tenths and hundredths. Make connections between fractions and decimal notation (VCMNA159) Ethical Capability Explore the extent to which particular acts might be regarded by different people as good or bad, right or wrong, better or worse, and explain why (VCECU005) (Victorian Curriculum)

8. Assessment Towards Formational Learning

List the different types of evidence (pre/post assessment, summative and formative, teacher, self, peer, etc.) to be used to support the desired outcomes.

• Prior knowledge of fractions would be recognised through a formal pre-test, which serves to determine what skills and knowledge students are beginning with, consolidating, or have established. This would inform targeted teaching groups and whole class learning.

• Understanding of fair v equal takes place in the form of scenario cards which allow students to work with other students to answer how they would solve ‘real-life maths problems’. These are done at the beginning to facilitate discussion and introduce the concept of fairness and equality. The parable of the workers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16) is a great example of the discomfort we can feel when things don’t feel fair as they are equal.

• Knowledge of tools demonstrated in tasks but understanding shown in application of these tools in mini investigations.

• 1:1 ‘teaching the teacher’—students demonstrate their understanding of various fractions skills through a YouTube style video tutorial where they teach the concept to the teacher. Useful videos are kept as a teaching tool for future students in the subject.

• Final project will allow them to discuss and decide on the tension between fairness and equality, while using their skills in fractions.

9. Formational Teaching and Learning Practices Outline the key formational teaching and learning practices (i.e., considerations and strategies). This is not your teaching program but a place to outline your key formational practices..

All learning is in the context of God’s overarching story, so a clear outline of the topic of fractions within the creation, fall, redemption framework is given at the start of the unit. This allows the clash to be placed in the context of sin’s distorted effects in God’s creation and the need to connect and experience change because of Christ’s redemptive actions.

We would focus on three key strategies in this unit: Clash Students are often so caught in the current of solving word problems in autopilot, that by challenging the context of these can unsettle them. They are comfortable finding the mathematical answer as a calculator would, but what do they decide when they see the story behind the numbers? Below is an example of this that would facilitate discussion and introduce the concept of equal v fair.

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9. Formational Teaching and Learning Practices (continued) The School Community Group has baked 8 delicious lasagnes for families in need. Many fractions issues arise during the making of the lasagne (what proportions of the ingredients, the layers, how much of the fill goes between layers, why are there 4 fills but 6 layers? etc.).

• With 3 families on the list, how much lasagne does each family receive?

• What if you found out that one family has 7 kids while another just has 1?

• Would your answer change or remain equal?

• What other information would you want to know to make sure the food is shared fairly?

• Is it better to share equally or fairly in this situation?

Scenario cards such as this are used at the start of the term to help students recognise what factors are involved in real-life decisions.

Connect After the scenario cards, a context for these in their community is brought into the lessons. Charities that work in the local area with those in need, are researched in class so that students can identify their personal opinion on what causes mean more to them. This will inform the final project that will challenge them to balance fairness and equality to determine how funds should be distributed to these charities.

Experience In the last couple of weeks is the Bake Sale Fundraiser Project. Students work in groups to use fractions in adjusting recipes and selling their baked goods to those in the school community. The aim is to fundraise for previously researched and selected local causes that the students have shortlisted as a class.

Following the bake sale, they consider how to distribute the funds raised across a selection of these causes. To achieve this, students create a proposal (cross-curricular links) to explain how they believe it should be divided fairly rather than equally. The students then vote on the preferred proposal (not their own) and the funds are donated according to that plan. This project is the final assessment that helps students draw upon the mathematical tools they’ve acquired during the term to a real-life context that they feel passionate about.

10. The Learning Community, Culture, and Space

Reflect on specific class structures and habits, atmosphere and ethos, language, and practices that may support formational learning.

A distinction is made in the skills the students are learning and how they use them. The analogy of tools in a shed is explained to the students so they understand that, for example, you might be able to use a hammer but there is greater skill in knowing when and how to use it in different situations.

Often the students will apply the tools learnt regarding fractions to come up with an answer, but as we look at the people behind the scenarios, students start to consider how they would use the tools of fractions/division and if they would divide it equally, at all. This is an important mathematical and life skill—rather than how do we find an answer, we want our students to understand how to solve the problem. With this in mind, we use the phrase, “What answer does a calculator find?” to find the mathematical answer, but then follow up with, “What answer do you find?”. This is not used with every maths question, else it would be exhausting and ambiguous.

However, it serves the purpose of seeing the gospel behind real-life maths problems so that the students understand how to use the tools and gifts God’s given them.

Parallels are drawn with Jesus’ ministry and His counter-cultural approach. Some saw His attention to the poor both as unequal and unfair as He paid little attention to the people of influence and religion. Instead, His ministry is one of love and grace for those that don’t deserve it, but need it!

The ongoing assessments throughout the term help determine the different maths tools or specific skills they have acquired. But these tools, like those one would find in a shed, need skill and the right context/application to be effective.

Thanks to Alistair Coffey of Mt Evelyn Christian School, VIC, for this template example.

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Example 5 Learning Area: PDHPE Topic: Relationships and Sexuality Year Level: 10

1. The Main Idea and/or Deep Hope

Capture the Main Idea and/or Deep Hope for the unit.

Celebrating is a relational task that flows from humans being designed as fundamentally relational. I hope that we believe that Christians are free to party; that they would feel free to celebrate people and relationships in a gathered celebration without any sense that God takes issue with celebrating (partying). I hope that they would recognise the God-honouring ways that partying can unfold, and discern the ways in which many partying practices can be counter to God’s good design for humans. I hope that a graduate of the unit will be a courageous discerning party-goer.

Possible unit titles: “People Were Designed to Party”, or, “I Relate; Therefore I Celebrate”, or, “Safe Celebrations”

2. Biblical Perspective

Articulate the connections between the biblical story and the unit.

Creation • Created for relationship (therefore celebration).

• We can celebrate our relationships with others and with God. • Gathering and celebrating initially had no risk.

• Celebrating is God’s good design (consider people, community, food, ‘drugs’, etc.).

• The Trinity is God in party.

Fall • Celebrating can turn to idolatry (pleasure, acceptance, celebrity, etc.).

• Sin results in celebrating having risk, vulnerability, peer pressure, distraction from God woven through it.

• Ultimately a celebration of self and not of God and others (as image-bearers).

Redemption • On the cross, Jesus absorbed all the risk, brokenness, and vulnerability woven into celebrating onto Himself.

• The cross brings freedom to enjoy the celebration of God and others (as image-bearers) risk-free—not just the person (or thing) but a thankfulness to God for them.

• The cross brings grace to those that may have played around in the practices of the fallen view.

Renewal • There is immense potential to be agents of renewal when celebrating—particularly in the context of the current way that Australian youth society seeks to celebrate.

• A responsive disciple of Jesus will seek to divert the focus of partying back to God-honouring celebrating that bends people away from idolatry back to goodness in relationship and community.

NOTE: It could be good to start the unit at renewal (or even at the grace and forgiveness that is available).

3. Threads

Choose the relevant response Threads.

• 4. CELEBRATING LIFE: Students embrace the full suite of God’s provisions in life and live in such a way that they all may flourish.

• 14. PRACTISING HOSPITALITY: Students welcome and accept others, and use their gifts to accept others into community.

• 17. RELISHING PLAY: Students have an attitude of joy-filled play as they respond to what God has provided and Christ has restored.

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4. Enduring Understandings

Identify the enduring understandings.

Identify misunderstandings.

• God loves celebrations.

• People are designed for relationship, community, and celebrating.

5. Essential Questions

Shape the essential questions.

• What makes a celebration?

• Why do we love things that are risky or even bad for us?

• Is it possible to party well?

• I don’t need to celebrate like the ‘world’ to be loved.

• Should a Christian attend a party where risky, godless (or illegal) things might occur?

• All actions (including when we celebrate) have consequences whether reaped immediately or longer term.

• What does it mean to celebrate counter-culturally?

• Should we all celebrate in the same way?

• I can have heaps of fun when partying without compromise.

6a. Knowledge

6b. Skills

Exploring external influences on sexuality and sexual health behaviours, and recognising the impact that decisions and actions can have on own and others’ health and well-being.

Practising skills to deal with challenging or unsafe situations, such as refusal skills, communicating choices, expressing opinions, and initiating contingency plans.

Critiquing images and messages in the media that portray what it means to have a good time and be fun to be around, and evaluating how these images can be interpreted.

Asserting their stance on a situation, dilemma, or decision by expressing thoughts, opinions, and beliefs that acknowledge the feelings of others.

Note the relevant key knowledge and skills.

Evaluating the influence of personal, social, environmental, and cultural factors on decisions and actions young people take in relation to their health, safety, and well-being.

Investigating the characteristics of positive, respectful relationships and the rights and ethical responsibilities of individuals in relationships.

Investigating how the balance of power influences the nature of relationships and proposing actions that can be taken when a relationship is not respectful.

Comparing own decisions with those of others and acknowledging others’ rights to act differently and to change their mind.

Examining social, cultural, and economic factors that influence the health behaviours of people in their community.

Note the relevant key knowledge and skills.

Assessing behavioural expectations in different relationships and social situations, and examining how these expectations can influence decisions and action.

Proposing and practising a range of realistic responses to scenarios where peers are encouraging them to take unnecessary risks.

Practising skills to deal with challenging situations such as communicating choices, expressing opinions, and initiating contingency plans.

Evaluating strategies and actions to increase personal safety and planning to promote these in the school and community.

(Australian Curriculum)

(Australian Curriculum)

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7. Prescribed Curriculum

List the relevant content headings and descriptors.

Years 9 and 10 Understanding How Health and Physical Education Works Focus Area: Relationships and Sexuality (RS) Year 9-10 Achievement Standard By the end of Year 10, students critically analyse contextual factors that influence identities, relationships, decisions and behaviours. They analyse the impact attitudes and beliefs about diversity have on community connection and well-being. They evaluate the outcomes of emotional responses to different situations. Students access, synthesise and apply health information from credible sources to propose and justify responses to health situations. Students propose and evaluate interventions to improve fitness and physical activity levels in their communities. They examine the role physical activity has played historically in defining cultures and cultural identities.

Students demonstrate leadership, fair play and cooperation across a range of movement and health contexts.

They apply decision-making and problem-solving skills when taking action to enhance their own and others’ health, safety and well-being. They apply and transfer movement concepts and strategies to new and challenging movement situations. They apply criteria to make judgements about and refine their own and others’ specialised movement skills and movement performances. They work collaboratively to design and apply solutions to movement challenges.

(Australian Curriculum)

8. Assessment Towards Formational Learning

List the different types of evidence (pre/post assessment, summative and formative, teacher, self, peer, etc.) to be used to support the desired outcomes.

Teacher may choose to conduct an anonymous student survey at the start of the unit to gain an understanding of attitudes in the class cohort towards health, identities, relationships, decisions, and behaviours. Teacher may use some of the survey data as content for analysis—exploring how societal norms, stereotypes, and expectations influence the way young people think about their bodies, abilities, gender, sexuality, food, physical activity, sexual health, drugs, and/or risk-taking behaviours, when ‘celebrating’ and partying.

Students will participate in peer-assessment activities (formative).

Major assessment task: Students will investigate and analyse a contemporary form of ‘celebration’ in our society today, presenting the information in a multimedia format to inform peers and younger students about risks, and suggest plans, implement, and critique strategies to enhance health, safety, and well-being of their communities.

OR Students will investigate and analyse a significant event in the school history or local community which will be recognised during the unit. Students will plan, prepare, and implement a gathering to celebrate and acknowledge the significant event well, enhancing health, safety, and well-being of the community.

The events may be planned and implemented in small student groups, targeted at a particular community audience/group of people or significant person in the life of the school or local community. The planning, development, and creation of a significant artefact representing the celebration may be part of the assessment activity.

90 • Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning

9. Formational Teaching and Learning Practices Outline the key formational teaching and learning practices (i.e., considerations and strategies). This is not your teaching program but a place to outline your key formational practices.

Hook The teacher will launch the topic, hooking into students’ emotions and understanding by setting up a silent student gallery walk, displaying a range of visual images, news headlines, advertisements, and photographs presenting a range of celebrations/party snap-shots, figures, and facts. Images should be both positive and negative—challenging students to take in how celebrations are important and significant in our culture, but can at times go terribly wrong.

Collaborate, story, and connect Students will collaborate to plan and implement a significant celebration for an identified purpose/person in the school or community.

Experience Students will be immersed in an investigation and analysis of a significant event: planning and implementing a celebration.

Act Students will create a meaningful artefact in response to the significant event.

10. The Learning Community, Culture, and Space

Reflect on specific class structures and habits, atmosphere and ethos, language, and practices that may support formational learning.

Teacher will need to set strong class expectations around respect, privacy, and ethical practices. Students will be encouraged to listen to each other and develop positive behaviours and a shared understanding around supporting each other to live healthy, positive lives in community.

Teacher will encourage water bottles and healthy snacks in the classroom, fostering student awareness, and ownership for their own health and nutrition.

Teacher will encourage brain-gym activities, movement and physical activity in the classroom, and foster student self-awareness (mindfulness in a godly sense) in this area.

Thanks to Jay Trevaskis, Logan Wakeford, and Ruth Winram of Covenant Christian School, NSW. for this template example.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 91

Chapter 5

Assessment Towards Formational Learning

How are our students learning and forming and how are we communicating this?

92 • Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning

Summary Framing Statement: Formational learning develops the mind, captivates the heart, and equips the hand, encouraging curious and courageous learners to explore God’s world and live out the hope of Christ.

Main Idea/Deep Hope

Enduring Understandings

Our deep hope is that the purpose of assessment be understood as serving the formational learning needs of each student. This requires a fuller picture of assessment that goes well beyond a systemic view of grades and comparison.

• Assessment is a critical part of the education process that equips teachers to shape formational teaching practices.

Essential Questions

• Assessment is a tool that supports formational learning by allowing a student to demonstrate competence and clarify student progression along an agreed learning path.

• Can formational learning be measured?

• Is it possible to have all forms of assessment serve student learning?

• Is there a difference between feedback and assessment?

Further Questions to Ponder • How will I go about providing assessment insights into faith and character formation?

• How do I choose appropriate assessment tools and feedback modes to provide the best support for my students?

• Assessment can lead to a grade; what else can it lead to?

• Why do we bother with assessment?

• Effective and authentic assessment helps students become aware of their own growth and progress.

• Assessment cannot be reduced to a means of providing a grade or a comparison.

• Because students are image-bearers, their value is not based on their success/failure on academic tasks.

• While assessment OF learning (summative) is appropriate to provide insight into where a student is against objective criteria, assessment FOR and AS learning (formative) provides greater benefit towards informing teacher practice and student learning.

• Student participation in the assessment process is crucial—effective, authentic assessment informs students of their own growth and progress and what their next learning step is.

• The audience for learners matters and should be chosen to celebrate learning achievements and support the overall formational learning goals.

• Teachers and schools celebrate learning through engaging students, parents, and the school community in key celebrations and events that showcase learning.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 93

Introduction One educator has said that a school’s true purpose is not expressed in its mission statement, but in its school report. What is assessed and reported shows what is really valued.

At the heart of formational learning is the desire to see students grow and be transformed to have the mind, heart, and life of Christ—to live out the hope of Christ as responsive disciples, and become agents of restoration in the world.

Valuing students as God-created, unique individuals will inform our view on assessment. Formational learning embraces the whole student and therefore the guiding, instructing, assessing, and the provision of feedback are all integrally connected and will include a student’s character and faith development. This is not necessarily grading, assessing, or reporting on a student’s faith and character in hard qualitative ways, but the provision of insightful, qualitative feedback that is vital for the student’s holistic formational learning.

The booklet Christian Education: Head, Heart, Hands captures this holistic development when it suggests: At the end of the day, it’s not academics and the external pursuit of excellence alone that will determine the quality of life for a child. We believe that nurturing the whole child means developing a strong sense of faith and calling—equipped to embrace life’s challenges, celebrations, and opportunities so they can flourish in God’s kingdom. We call it whole person development.

(Christian Education National, 2016, p. 33)

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This chapter invites teachers to consider the full spectrum of assessment strategies that embraces a broader and richer formational approach to learning. It defines assessment as a tool that supports formational learning by allowing a student to demonstrate competence, clarifying their progression along an agreed learning path. This type of assessment enables celebration of progress, and illuminates areas for successful future learning.

In many instances we use assessment to compare evidence of student learning with expected standards.

What you choose to do with this information is critical.

The information/data can be used to provide evidence for constructive feedback, to set new learning goals, to inform practice, to reshape the learning program, and to celebrate achievement.

Equally, assessment information can be used to label or compare students. It can be used to place schools on comparison tables. It can be used to motivate students to learn through appeals to pride. It can be used to justify awards. These may all inhibit formational learning, and may shape the class and school culture in ways that are at odds with the biblical narrative.

At the heart of formational learning is the desire to see students grow and be transformed to have the mind, heart, and life of Christ—to live out the hope of Christ as responsive disciples, and become agents of restoration in the world.

Assessment of Faith and Character For many teachers, the notion of assessing faith and character will come as an unsettling idea. What could possibly be the rationale for this approach?

First, Christian education is an education of the whole student. If assessment is about understanding where students are at, and education is about holistic formation, then teachers can offer insight and commentary about faith and character formation—in a Christian school, these are inseparably woven into all teaching and learning. This broader view of assessment goes to the heart of the purpose of what formational learning is.

Like all assessment, the reflection and commentary of the faith and character development of students gives feedback to teachers as to whether their own teaching and learning practices are promoting holistic student transformation and growth.

Second, it is intrinsic to the Transformation by Design approach. As students engage in a unit of learning designed through this methodology, they are invited to respond to their understanding of their place in God’s big story of life, hope, purpose, and the Lordship of Christ—the redemption story. The Christian teacher can be aware of these responses and can design assessment to help them and their students deepen their awareness of where they are in this formational journey.

Third, what we don’t assess tells a story about what we might consider as unimportant—just as only ever assessing a narrow suite of things can develop an impression that these are the most important to us as a community. According to White (2017), students see what is not assessed as being unimportant. He states: If we want a Christian worldview to be developed, or to challenge student thinking with Christian perspectives, do we not need to link those perspectives to assessment? The power of our choices and the limitations we place on assessment can shape a disinterested student’s response to the very perspectives we seek to encourage. (p. 17)

In reflecting on the message that large, standardised, externally-driven testing can give to students and parents, Alcock and Jacobs (2017) suggest: What does large scale reductive testing reveal about what is valued? It suggests that we value homogenous learning with no consideration for cultivating the range of individual learners aptitudes and interests. It is a funnel pouring all learners through a small opening to see if they can make it through to a certain score. (p. 181) Fourth, not only is a holistic approach to assessment an appropriate component of formational learning, we also consider an equal distribution of emphasis.

The phrase head, heart, hand encapsulates the deep, holistic approach to formational learning. In isolation, no single element (head, heart, hand) can fully encapsulate formational learning. Therefore, just one of these elements cannot authentically assess formational learning.

An assessment framework emphasising the head (cognitive skills), may prioritise the acquisition of academic knowledge, theoretical reasoning, and critical thinking. The pursuit of mere intellectual mastery is not the same as authentic heart-orientation and isn’t the sole aim of formational learning.

An assessment framework emphasising the hand (student’s actions), may encourage an outward show of appropriate actions. Outward, compliant behaviour is not the same as authentic heart-orientation and isn’t the sole aim of formational learning.

An assessment framework emphasising the heart (life orientation), may encourage a correct aspiration and desire, though intent without response, no matter how noble, isn’t the sole aim of formational learning.

In holistic formational learning the inseparable integration of the head, heart, and hand, not only means that we seek to not emphasise one over the other, but we also acknowledge that one does not authentically exist without its integration with the others. Schooling has tended to focus on assessing the head component of learning with an under emphasis on assessing the heart and hand.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 95

Examples Short Examples As teachers aim to provide insights into a student’s faith and progress development, the following brief examples may be helpful in beginning this exploration of how to assess holistically: Example 1 - If the student response Thread Challenging Distortions is woven into a unit of work focusing on the advertising world’s use of statistics, then an assessment task could be designed to gauge a student’s ability to, and attitude toward, challenging distortions.

Example 2 - If a deep hope for a unit of learning was that students would understand and show empathy towards post WWII migrants arriving in Australia, the teacher could comment regarding a student’s understanding of empathy and if they have been observed showing its outworkings.

Example 3 – If the biblical perspective for a unit of learning reflected an understanding of how beauty in God’s creation can be captured or distorted in impressionistic painting, then the teacher can comment on a student’s ability to articulate understanding based on a creation, fall, redemption, renewal framework.

Example 4 - A self-assessment rubric may contain the question, “How does the big story of the Bible inform the way I understand this topic?”. Responses might range from a clearly articulated personal response through to a confused/no response.

96 • Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning

Example Using a Thread As part of the planning process, box eight of the Big Picture Template asks teachers to “Describe the different types of evidence to be used to support the desired outcomes”. One of the desired outcomes is a student aligning their heart orientation toward the Threads of the unit. Therefore, consideration is given to the type of evidence required to assess if this is occurring.

We have taken Thread 12, Overcoming Setbacks, to explore more deeply how this may occur. The following templates can be adapted to suit any Thread (or character trait/expression of faith).

We use the following five questions to assist in assessing this Thread: •

What does Overcoming Setbacks look like in my class?

• What opportunities do I need to provide so the students can demonstrate formational learning in relation to Overcoming Setbacks?

• How will I gather evidence of formational learning in relation to Overcoming Setbacks?

• How will I provide feedback on my assessment of formational learning in relation to Overcoming Setbacks?

• How will I modify my planning and allow the student to adjust learning goals?

What does OVERCOMING SETBACKS look like in my class (evidence of learning) • Believing mistakes make them stronger.

• Wanting to improve.

For students it can look like:

• Knowing it is through God’s strength that they can overcome.

• Feeling strong enough to keep going when things get tough.

• Asking questions, based on incorrect answers, to understand how to improve.

• Continuing to try even if they feel like giving up.

• Asking for help to assess options in response to setbacks.

• Looking for new ways if something blocks their plans.

What opportunities do I need to provide so the students can demonstrate formational learning in relation to OVERCOMING SETBACKS? Provide meaningful opportunities for each student to share honestly their belief regarding: • The role mistakes play in their growth.

• Their desire to improve.

• God’s role in helping them overcome challenges.

I need to:

• How resilient they are.

Provide meaningful opportunities for each student to: • Ask questions when they make a mistake.

• Face obstacles and challenges.

• Seek assistance in response to challenges.

• Seek and create meaningful alternatives in response to obstacles.

How will I gather evidence of formational learning in relation to OVERCOMING SETBACKS? Observing students and making anecdotal records.

I can gather evidence by:

Using an observation check-sheet.

Asking students to fill in the Self-Assessment Rubric and provide examples of their behaviour that supports their assessment.

How will I provide feedback on my assessment of formational learning in relation to OVERCOMING SETBACKS? I can provide feedback by:

• Using the Teacher Assessment Rubric.

• Writing a comment in the formal report.

• Having a conversation with the student.

How will I modify my planning and allow the student to adjust learning goals?

The student and I can respond to the assessment by:

• Modifying my lesson plans, e.g., providing more time, being more explicit, providing more opportunity for student agency.

• Asking a colleague for assistance.

• Asking students to consider the feedback and help them adjust their learning goals.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 97

The teacher might find a rubric helpful in assessing a Thread. Below is an example Teacher Assessment Rubric for the Thread, Overcoming Setbacks.

Teacher Assessment Rubric: Overcoming Setbacks Not yet evident

Somewhat evident

Consistently evident

The student has said or done things which lead me to believe they don’t yet see that:

The student has said or done things which lead me to believe they are beginning to see that:

The student has said or done things which lead me to believe they see that:

• Mistakes make them stronger. • Mistakes make them stronger. • Mistakes make them stronger.

Heart

• They want to improve.

• They want to improve.

• They want to improve.

• It is through God’s strength they can overcome.

• It is through God’s strength they can overcome.

• They know it is through God’s strength they can overcome.

• They feel strong enough to keep going when things get tough.

• They feel strong enough to keep going when things get tough.

• They feel strong enough to keep going when things get tough.

I have seen the student:

I have seen the student sometimes:

I have seen the student:

• Ignore mistakes.

• Stop when things get hard.

Hand

• Not ask for assistance when they have setbacks.

• Ask questions, based on incorrect answers, to understand how to improve.

• Continue trying even if they feel like giving up.

• Ask for help to assess options in response to setbacks.

• Look for new ways if something blocks their plans.

• Ask questions, based on incorrect answers, to understand how to improve.

• Continue trying even if they feel like giving up.

• Ask for help to assess options in response to setbacks.

• Look for new ways if something blocks their plans.

Self-assessment by the students is a powerful component of formational assessment. Below is an example SelfAssessment Rubric for the Thread, Overcoming Setbacks.

Self-Assessment Rubric: Overcoming Setbacks

Heart

Not yet evident

Somewhat evident

Consistently evident

• I believe mistakes prove I’m not good enough.

• I sometimes remember mistakes make me stronger.

• I believe mistakes make me stronger.

• I feel I can’t improve.

• I usually want to make progress.

• I want to improve.

• I don’t think God can help me.

• I don’t feel I have the strength to keep going when things get tough.

• I sometimes remember it is through God’s strength that I can overcome.

• When I make a mistake, I try to ignore it.

• Sometimes I ask questions, • I ask questions, based based on incorrect answers, to on incorrect answers, to understand how to improve. understand how to improve.

• I stop trying when things get hard.

Hand

• I don’t like talking about my mistakes.

• When something blocks my plans, I usually stop.

• I feel strong enough to keep going when things get tough.

• I sometimes give up, and sometimes keep trying.

• I continue trying even if feeling like giving up.

• I sometimes ask for help to assess options in response to setbacks.

• I ask for help to assess options in response to setbacks.

• I sometimes look for new ways if something blocks my plans.

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• I know it is through God’s strength that I can overcome.

• I look for new ways if something blocks my plans.

Example of Assessing Character: Primary The following is an example approach developed by a primary school. It is provided as an example for teachers to consider when building their own framework for providing insights and feedback on the progression of faith and character development. It may also be useful as a student self-assessment tool. Note that small changes have been made (with permission) to the original in order to contextualise meaning. Teachers are free to use this tool as a basis for constructing their own matrix (if using all or parts of this matrix please acknowledge the source).

Courage I step out of my comfort zone I can show courage with: • Myself -

I accept my fears yet keep trying.

• Others -

I stand up for others even if it is unpopular.

• Learning - I take risks in order to learn.

Learning

Others

Myself

K-1

• I can try new things.

• I can tell someone when I’m nervous or afraid.

2-3

4-6

• I can try something I’ve failed at before.

• I can admit when I’m wrong and make amends.

• I can take a risk even when I’m nervous or afraid.

• I can let someone know when I am not being treated fairly.

• I can let someone know when someone is being treated unfairly in our classroom.

• I can ‘stand up’ and speak out for the needs of others.

• I can share my work with teachers, classmates, and family.

• I can share my work with large and small groups.

• I can try new materials and tasks.

• I can ‘have a go’ with my work even when it’s uncomfortable.

• I can express an opinion that may be different from my classmates.

• I can grapple with new ideas.

Responsibility I do what I am supposed to do I can show responsibility with: • Myself - I am ready for learning.

• Others - I make choices with others in mind.

• Learning - I can complete a task with quality.

Others

Myself

K-1

2-3

4-6

• I can show with my body that • I can show the speaker I am I am ready for learning. listening.

• I can show the speaker I am interested.

• I can stop, look, and listen when a signal is given.

• I can respond to or give silent signals.

• I can anticipate and take action to help the class and myself be ready.

• I can safely be in ‘my spot’ on time.

• I can make an efficient transition.

• I can notice my surroundings and adjust my behaviour accordingly.

• I can take turns talking about • I can stay on topic when a topic. working with my team.

• I can explain how my whole class depends on my full participation.

• I can leave no trace.

• I can make choices to support the learning of others.

• I can do what is needed because others depend on me.

• I can leave no trace.

• I can leave no trace.

Learning

• I can follow directions.

• I can name what I am supposed to do and do it.

• I can keep track of my materials.

• I can put things back where they belong.

• I can follow directions without reminders.

• I can follow routines without directions.

• I can keep materials organised.

• I can use systems to organise materials.

• I can check my work and make revisions.

• I can meet deadlines.

• I can finish my work on time.

• I can use criteria and tools to check my work before seeking feedback.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 99

Initiative I take action when something needs to be done I can show initiative with: • Myself - I speak up for myself and share my ideas.

• Others - I do my part to help our community.

• Learning - I make connections and try to learn more.

Myself

K-1

• I can ask questions when I am not sure what to do.

2-3

• I can think about what I need and make a request.

Others

• I can help when needed without • I can do what needs to be done being asked. even without someone telling me.

• I can identify a problem in the classroom and suggest a solution.

4-6

• I can reflect on my strengths and weaknesses as a leader/ follower.

• I can describe the qualities of an effective leader.

• I can make choices about when to lead or follow.

• I can provide service to make our community better.

• I can organise others to take positive action.

Learning

• I can ask questions to help me learn more.

• I can contribute to class discussions.

• I can build on others’ ideas to further a class discussion.

• I can read and explore on my own to learn about things we are studying in school.

• I can take on challenges to extend my learning.

• I can apply what I am learning to be of service to the community.

Perseverance I keep trying I can show initiative with: • Myself - I speak up for myself and share my ideas.

• Others - I do my part to help our community.

Others

Myself

• Learning - I make connections and try to learn more.

K-1

2-3

• When something is hard, I will keep trying or ask for help.

• I can get started on my own even when the work is hard or is something I don’t like to do.

• I can make a plan to work through something that is challenging for me.

• I keep working until my work is finished or time is up.

• I can keep myself going even when I want to give up?

• I can be respectful even when it is difficult.

• I can offer solutions or encouragement when my team gets stuck.

• I can keep trying to work with others even when it is hard.

• I can continue to participate when things don’t go the way I planned.

Learning

• I can try again to make my work better.

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4-6

• I can work to resolve social conflicts and follow through with the commitments I make.

• I can contribute to class discussions.

• I can build on others’ ideas to further a class discussion.

• I can read and explore on my own to learn about things we are studying in school.

• I can take on challenges to extend my learning.

• I can apply what I am learning to be of service to the community.

Collaboration I work with others I can show collaboration with: • Myself - I contribute my ideas and listen to others.

• Others - I join with others to create work that is beyond what I could create on my own.

Learning

Others

Myself

• Learning - I work with others to achieve a common outcome.

K-1

2-3

4-6

• I can be friendly when I am working or playing with others.

• I can contribute my ideas in a group.

• I can consider ideas no matter where they come from.

• I can listen to others’ ideas even when I disagree.

• I can share materials and space with others.

• I can disagree in a respectful way.

• I can include others in my play.

• I can use a variety of decisionmaking protocols when collaborating with others.

• I can work with a partner to complete a task.

• I can work with a team to complete a task with quality.

• I can work with others to choose which ideas will help the group meet the goal.

• I can work with a team throughout all steps of the process to produce a quality product.

Compassion I am kind I can show compassion with: • Myself - I am kind to myself.

• Others - I show kindness towards others.

• Learning - I can learn from points of view other than my own.

Learning

Others

Myself

K-1

• I can name how I am the same as or different from my classmates.

• I can be kind to myself when I make a mistake.

• I notice when people are sad or upset and I can try to help.

• I can use kind words when I talk to friends.

• I can think about the people we study and imagine what they thought and felt.

2-3

• I can accept my differences.

• When something is hard for me, I can remember that I have strengths too.

4-6

• I can offer a unique perspective because of my differences.

• I can learn from my challenges without getting down on myself.

• I can think about what someone else might need and offer a suggestion.

• I can seek to understand why people think and act the way they do.

• I can listen to what someone is feeling/thinking and explain it in my own words.

• I can anticipate how my words and actions affect others and act on it.

• I can empathise with the people • I can understand an issue from and characters we learn about. multiple perspectives.

• I can use what I have learned to help others.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 101

Gratitude I am thankful I can show gratitude with: • Myself - I am grateful for all that I have.

• Others - I say thank you when someone does or says something nice.

• Learning - I appreciate the opportunities I have at my school.

Learning

Others

Myself

K-1

2-3

4-6

• I can name things I am good at doing.

• I can think about what I need and make a request.

• I can explain how my mistakes help me succeed.

• I name things others are good at doing.

• I can express gratitude towards others without being prompted.

• I can show gratitude toward others through my words, actions, and body language.

• I can name things in people that help me learn.

• I can name how opportunities outside of school help me learn.

• I can name things that make my school special.

• I can explain why others have different opportunities.

• I can show gratitude for the opportunities I have in and out of school.

• I can show I am thankful to others through words or actions.

• I can name how the opportunities I have had at my school help me learn.

• I can celebrate others’ opportunities.

• I can communicate how my school prepares me to be a community leader.

© 2012 Genesee Community Charter School, Rochester, NY (Used with permission)

An Example of Assessing Character: Primary and Secondary

Global competencies and Threads for assessment reporting Competency

Relevant Threads

Character

Loving God, Getting Wisdom, Imitating Humility, Overcoming Setbacks, Celebrating Life, Showing Mercy

Citizenship

Caretaking Earth, Embracing Diversity, Seeking Justice, Pondering Creation, Pursuing Peace, Shaping Culture, Practising Hospitality

Communication

Expressing Words, Building Community, Celebrating Life, Unwrapping Gifts

Creativity

Imagining Innovations, Reflecting Creativity

• Collaboration

Critical thinking

The following table suggests possible Threads that may relate to the global competencies as they relate to assessment and reporting.

Transforming Thinking, Getting Wisdom, Overcoming Setbacks

Collaboration

Building Community, Pursuing Peace, Expressing Words

Not only are Christian schools linking the full range of assessment processes to a fuller understanding of the formation of the student, but secular educators are also approaching assessment holistically. Fullan, Quinn, and McEachen (2018) emphasise the need for education to shift from standardisation, and content memorisation, towards the creation of deep knowledge and authentic competencies. They suggest these six deep learning global competencies: • Character • Citizenship • Communication • Creativity • Critical thinking

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In expanding on the six competencies, Fullan et al. provide a matrix that specifically outlines five outworkings of the Collaboration Deep Learning Progression: • Working independently as a team.

• Interpersonal and team-related skills.

• Social, emotional, and intercultural skills.

• Leveraging digital.

• Managing team dynamics and challenges. (pp.

141-143)

Social, emotional, and inter-cultural skills

Dimension

They also describe the progression points of the above subcategories for Collaboration. Each competency is broken into dimensions that combine to provide a complete picture of the skills, capabilities, and attitudes that contribute to success. For each dimension, “they describe what learning looks like for students who display limited, emerging, developing, accelerating or proficient evidence of development for that dimension” (p. 140).

The progression points for the subcategory of social, emotional, and intercultural skills, is provided below as an example.

Limited evidence

Emerging

Developing

Accelerating

Proficient

Learners have a basic sense of awareness about themselves and how their behavior affects others. They tend to see things only from their own perspective.

In some cases, this may inhibit their ability to form positive relationships.

Learners have a growing awareness of who they are, where they fit in the world, and how their behavior affects other people. This self-awareness is starting to provide a base for better understanding of how other people’s emotions and viewpoints differ from their own.

Learners have good awareness of who they are and where their own perspective comes from.

Self-awareness and listening skills allow them to better understand and empathize with the emotions and viewpoints of others, moving beyond “tolerance” or “acceptance” to genuinely valuing perspectives quite different from their own.

Learners have a strong sense of self and understand where their own perspective comes from and how it differs to others’. They listen carefully, empathize with the emotions and viewpoints of others, and use these to enrich their own learning. As a team member, they work effectively in ways that support, encourage, challenge, and grow not just themselves, but others as well.

Learners have highly developed social and emotional skills grounded in a clear sense of their individual and cultural identity. They communicate well across cultures and disciplines, work effectively in teams, and form positive relationships.

The skills they have developed in perspectivetaking and empathy, understanding someone else’s perspective- and changing their behavior as a result- clearly enhance team functioning.

(Fullan, Quinn, and McEachen, 2018, p.142)

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 103

Assessment or Evidence of Learning The term ‘assessment’ has connotations of something being done to a student, and can be seen as disempowering and final (even scary). The term ‘evidence of learning’ denotes the reality that students are the ones who are actively showing how much they know. Students may consistently show evidence of learning throughout the education process.

While students actively produce evidence of learning, they do not set the benchmark standards. Teachers know the expected standards (usually provided in set curriculum documentation) as well as the progression of learning. Teachers are the experts in comparing student evidence of learning with the standards. This is the work of assessing.

There is a time and place for all types of assessment— diagnostic, summative, and formative. There is a need to use the information obtained from assessment in many different ways. However, our emphasis on formational learning means far greater emphasis will be placed on formative assessment as a way of providing useful feedback for yourself and the students in how they can progress in their learning.

Word alert Summative and formative assessment:The goal of formative assessment is to compare student learning with determined criteria to provide meaningful, ongoing feedback. This information can be used by teachers to improve teaching effectiveness and inform students of their next learning steps. Formative assessment monitors and informs student progress during the course of the unit/topic.

The goal of summative assessment is to determine student learning compared against expected standards. This occurs at the conclusion of a defined instructional period. This information can be used to inform a grade. This data helps justify the success/ failure of the education.

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Modes of Assessment There are many ways a teacher may collect information. Examples include: apps drawings/ diagrams essays exams

exit tickets journals

portfolios reports presentations running records models projects tests observations quizzes fist and fingers

Assessment modes can be chosen based on two criteria: 1. Will this mode of assessment allow students to demonstrate their learning in the best way possible?

2. Will an effective assessment of the students’ learning be possible, based on the assessment mode?

Assessment OF, FOR, and AS Learning Assessment may facilitate: • Assessment OF learning (summative).

• Assessment FOR learning (formative).

• Assessment AS learning (formative).

All types are beneficial elements of an effective education program. The current infatuation for accountability and content has positioned many teachers to focus on assessment OF learning to the exclusion of assessment FOR and AS learning.

It is worth noting that it is commonly assumed that the student is responsible for the result, though this is not always the case. There are many reasons a summative assessment may show lack of learning, including inadequate teaching, a mismatch of teaching/ learning styles, unclear expectations, and poor teacher planning. It has been said that one student doing poorly in an assessment may point to the student, but many students doing poorly in an assessment may point to the teaching.

Some strengths of this approach are as follows: • It provides a snapshot of the current learning achievements of the student at a given point in time.

OF

• It demonstrates the content (the what) that a student has learnt.

Formative

• It demonstrates student understanding about what they have learnt.

FOR

• The assessment tools are designed early in the unit design process.

AS

Summative

• Students know what is expected of them in order to demonstrate their learning and the criteria to be used in assessing their work. They might even have samples of work showing what meets/does not meet success criteria.

Some weaknesses of this approach are as follows:

Diagram 5.1. Assessment within student-centred learning.

• Summative assessment usually occurs by the end of the unit when motivation is at its lowest.

Assessment OF Learning (Summative)

• Teachers and students focusing more on the ‘test’ rather than genuine learning can distort the learning.

Assessment OF learning is commonly referred to as summative assessment and measures how much of the expected learning the student demonstrates.

Assessment of learning assists teachers to use evidence of student learning to assess achievement against standards. This helps to determine the effectiveness of the education that has occurred.

• Assessment should serve learning: not drive it or shape it.

Assessment of learning is usually used to justify a grade or mark. The use of a rubric can be used to grade this type of assessment. Feedback typically is provided by a single grade/number/mark and is accompanied by some remarks from the teacher and a completed rubric.

• Over-dependence on summative assessment may lead to a reductionist, prescriptive, disempowering view of assessment.

• It tends to prioritise uniform, inflexible assessment strategies which do not cater for student diversity or local culture.

• When the focus is on ‘passing’, students are not encouraged to take risks or make mistakes.

Formational learning requires making mistakes.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 105

Assessment FOR and AS Learning (Formative)

Some strengths of this approach are as follows:

Assessment FOR learning and assessment AS learning are commonly referred to as formative assessment.

They are concerned with forming the student and revealing how the student is learning. The teacher and student use the knowledge gained to modify the learning plan to best meet the learning needs of students as the learning is occurring. As teachers gather quality evidence of student learning, they are able to adjust the learning program. They are equipped to give meaningful, timely feedback to the student about what they need to focus on.

• The assessment of strengths and weaknesses, growth or gaps, allows feedback that enables the modification of the learning program to maximise student learning.

Effective assessment for and of learning requires both teachers and students to be clear about the knowledge and skills needed to meet the big ideas embedded in the articulated learning goals. As assessment shows progress toward these goals, specific ‘next actions’ can readily be identified. Feedback to both the teacher and student is critical and is empowering to both.

• Students are equipped to describe in their own words/voice: the purpose of their learning, what they understand, how it connects to prior understanding, how they will demonstrate their learning, and the criteria used to evaluate their progress.

Brouwer (2007), when exploring the impact of student empowerment, suggests that: When teachers take student thinking, beliefs, prior knowledge, and unique learning approaches seriously as they design the learning plan, they honour the student as an active participant in their own learning. Students become co-workers in the learning journey as they begin to talk about their learning in their own voice. Students grow in independence as they learn to take greater responsibility for their learning. However, they also have the opportunity to practise and experience the kind of interdependence and mutuality that is characteristic of the body of Christ. As the teacher listens carefully and lovingly to the student and the student learns to listen to teacher and peers with expectation of useful feedback and guidance, the classroom becomes a safe, welcoming space for learning. (p. 10)

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• Formative assessment measures progress not just achievement.

• Formative assessment honours the fact that students are important agents in education.

Through their active involvement in the assessment process, students’ reflectivity and self-management are greatly enhanced allowing meaningful engagement in their own learning.

Assessment FOR Learning Assessment FOR learning usually occurs during the course of the learning. The whole focus of assessment for learning is to assist the teacher and student to know what needs to be done to ensure meaningful learning occurs. In short, assessment for learning is for learning.

Examples of assessment for learning follow: • Pre-learning – Teachers need information about what students already know and what they can already do in relation to the area being studied.

They gather this through brainstorming, pre-tests, content knowledge boxes, focused conversations, surveys, questionnaires, inventories. They use this information to plan effectively to maximise learning.

• During learning – Teachers gather evidence of learning using thumbs up/down, response cards, ungraded quizzes, one-minute essays, and exit tickets. Based on this they modify how they will structure the next few lessons. They talk with individual students about areas they need to focus on and specific learning they need to target.

Assessment AS Learning Assessment AS learning relates to students engaged in self, peer, and group evaluation to inform and improve current practice. In short, assessment as learning enables students to reflect on their own progress to inform their future learning goals.

Examples of assessment as learning follow: • Students evaluate their own work using a rubric and set specific learning intentions for the next lesson.

• Students use reflective journals to document their reflections on their own thoughts and learning processes (metacognition).

• Students lead focused conversations with peers or teachers about their work to critique their learning and decide what to focus on more.

While we understand that as the teacher, you are the expert in the education process, developing a wider understanding of assessment of, for, and as learning allows you to see the richer partnership opportunities which exist between yourself and your students.

Gerber (2016) suggests that Christian educators might consider renaming assessment for learning to “teacher enacted assessment”, and assessment as learning to “student-enacted assessment”, in order to make it abundantly clear that there is a far more active role for both students and teachers to pursue (para. 6-7).

Gerber (2016) poses five helpful questions for teachers to ask about their assessment: • How much of the assessment in my class is studentenacted?

• How much of the assessment in my class is teacherenacted and used to inform pedagogical choices?

• How much of the assessment in my class is summative?

• What evidence do I have that supports engagement in each of these areas?

• Is my assessment practice distribution congruent with student-enacted assessment practice?

Reflection • How can the understanding of assessment of, for, and as learning enhance your teaching?

• As you plan your next major unit, where do you think the major formative assessment moments lie?

• How can you use assessment for and as learning in your current units to partner with students in their learning journey? Detail some ideas now.

Student - Enacted

Teacher -Enacted

Summative

Diagram 5.2. Adapted from Gerber (2016, para. 8)

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 107

Engaging Positively

Critiquing

There is a good deal to be gained by engaging positively with NAPLAN, particularly when used as a simple diagnostic tool for teachers and parents.

It is generally acknowledged that the desired improvement in student learning outcomes through the use of national tests has not materialised after a decade of NAPLAN use. However, simplistic criticism of NAPLAN can be compared to blaming your thermometer for your fever.

Data can be used to inform learning and future planning. If it does not fulfil that purpose it is not worth collecting. To make data meaningful it needs to be used locally and individually. This is more than a simple perusal to gather a glimpse of apparent comparative performance.

When the data is used as a diagnostic tool at the local level, it can help inform about gaps, areas for focus, and students who need a varied or extra measure of attention.

There is much to be gained when using national testing results (both for individual students and following a cohort longitudinally within the one school). By viewing the changes over time much fruitful insight is gained and can be analysed.

As national testing (by necessity) requires all testtakers to respond to the same tasks in the same way, it has to be administered in a consistent manner and scored using a scale of standards in knowledge and skills. Therefore, it cannot help but only offer limited insights. However, these insights are worthwhile to gain when used appropriately (see previous comments about the need for achievement standards). We recognise that national testing only assesses a narrow band of student learning, even if literacy and numeracy are core.

Where we understand the place and role of national testing and understand that assessment “must relate to rich learning tasks that explore similarly rich contexts” (White, 2017, p. 15) in the context of the Christian school, then we will not allow national testing to dominate, or what some have termed ‘teaching to the test’. It must not be the assessment tail that wags the teaching and learning dog.

Understanding the limited and useful role of national testing can guide teachers. National testing does not define and measure success in education.

Christian schools will understand that broader educational formation goals will be incorporated when understanding success in educational performance.

Christian schools will seek to model this more balanced understanding and not get caught up in the many distortions.

When we make our teaching about the test, we have really lost a formational holistic focus. White (2017) states, “In the desire to formulate neatly packaged assessment data, we dare not strip learning of its beauty and richness by reducing it to simple, measureable, units of data” (p. 15).

There are numerous examples of where national testing is used poorly, for example being used: to roughly rate school performance without ‘demographics’, to establish comparison tables with raw scores indicating individual school performance, for marketing purposes when it supposedly benefits, and to narrow the curriculum (teaching to the test). Use of the data to create comparison of schools is wholly unfair and unhelpful.

While national testing is a helpful instrument in tracking changes over time between demographics, it provides little insight into what influences any noticeable change. It doesn’t provide insight into other important factors like: how engaged students are, what creativity they might have, what influence classroom dynamics and behaviour or class and school culture have on educational outcomes.

Standardised tests cannot help but be mainstreamcentric. The obvious challenges that arise for students with disabilities reinforces the idea that there are things those students might not do, or can’t do, that children without disability can.

Standardised Summative Assessment Regimes While there has been much discussion about the worth of measures like summative assessment tools for national testing, it is also recognised that this practice is well embedded and accepted throughout our schooling.

Standardised approaches to assessment include national testing, end of secondary schooling examinations, and the accompanying reporting and data that are made public. It goes without saying that behind any national assessment regime must lie a national curriculum and national achievement standards by which the testing regime can be based.

How do Christian schools work with this? Are there options or aspects to redeem? Appendix 2 explores this questions.

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Reframing Assessment Assessment Is Central to the Planning Process Our approach to assessment is informed by Understanding by Design (UbD). Wiggins and McTighe (2015) point out that assessment activities should not be regarded as the conclusion to the process, but rather central to the process and happening whilst the learning is occurring. Integral to the UbD model, is the fact that assessment strategies are selected before the learning activities are chosen.

Using the Big Picture Template, the desired understanding, knowledge, and skills for the unit are identified. The next step is deciding what collection of assessment tools you will use to assess understandings, skills, and knowledge to inform you and your students as to whether the planned learning is being achieved. These include feedback strategies. In this, we see that assessment is planned and not ad hoc.

A Broader Approach When you think about assessment, what comes to mind? Endless hours of marking student work, tests, assignments, projects, and essays? The grades in your markbooks? Grades that accrue to give an assessment score that ‘defines’ your students’ efforts and capabilities? Marks compiled for the hard data needed to report grades at the half and end of year? Writing reports?

These are all traditional images that reflect a limited (and typically a mostly summative approach) to assessment. Assessment can be much bigger than this.

Perhaps our view of assessment needs challenging.

In the following, we outline what it may be able to change to: a narrow understanding of assessment

a broader understanding of assessment

assessment used to define and rank students

assessment used to celebrate growth and achievement

a quantitative view which produces a letter or number grade

a qualitative view which provides useful descriptions

primarily using assessments which standardised grading

using personal, meaningful comments which enhance future learning

assessments which are just for assessing

assessment as an intrinsic part of the process to illuminate strategies for future success

assessments that are produced for an audience of one: the assessor

assessments based on authentic meaningful evidence of learning which has real value and ‘buy-in’ from the student

summative assessment which is focused towards a grade given at the end of the learning

incorporating formative assessment throughout the learning, shaping what and how content is taught

assessment is primarily focused on student current achievement

focusing on student progress and growth

Teachers Protected From Overload Some schools with a prescriptive curriculum and a particular interpretation of accountability, place a large (perhaps unreasonable) expectation on teachers. The demands made by continual assessment, differentiation, greater formational assessment approaches, partnership with parents, and in some cases a requirement to document all evidence used in assessment, means that teachers are exhausted.

While these things may assist student learning, teachers must be given additional time, tools, and training. Perhaps the most important of these is time. Staff responsible for budgeting and timetabling must recognise that if something new is added to a teacher’s role, space must be created (even if the new thing is evidence-based, new, effective, and in-line with a biblical worldview). Continually increasing expectations causes teachers to take shortcuts in their lives and often family, health, and wellbeing pay the price.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 109

Eight Characteristics of Formational Assessment The first half of this chapter has provided an understanding of assessment of, for, and as learning.

We have presented a case that the assessment is most useful when it serves to assist the ongoing formational learning journey of students. While assessment has many features, we draw your attention to eight characteristics of formational assessment that all support formational learning: 1. Moves students forward.

2. Engages to meet a real need and purpose.

3. Allows for quality feedback.

4. Uses appropriate assessment types for each learning stage.

5. Uses achievement standards.

6. Enlists student agency.

7. Honours partnerships.

8. Incorporates a diversity of strategies.

1. Formational Assessment Moves Students Forward A large amount of time and effort (and sweat and tears) goes into preparing, setting, and marking assessment. Why do we bother? Surely the purpose of assessment is not box ticking or simply compliancedriven, but rather has the goal of progressing learning. Hattie (2012) states that assessment should be, “oriented towards the teacher and about which students are moving towards the success criteria, what they have/have not taught well, and the strengths and gaps of their teaching, and when it provides information about the three feedback questions” (p. 125). Hattie outlines the three feedback questions as: 1. Where am I going? What are my goals?

2. How am I going? What progress is being made towards the goal?

3. Where to next? What activities need to be undertaken next to make better progress? (p. 116) As Hattie points out, after having determined the ongoing learning needs of the student, assessment should be used to modify and enhance the teaching and learning plan so that student learning is maximised. It is a key tool for customised teaching and planning future learning. The influential Australian report commonly known as the Gonski 2.0 Report (2018) suggested, “There is compelling evidence, in Australian schools and internationally, that tailored teaching based on ongoing formative assessment and feedback are the key to enabling students to progress to higher levels of achievement” (p. xv).

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2. Formational Assessment Engages to Meet a Real Need and Purpose Effective assessment is authentic. It is not an obscure or abstract invention of the teacher, or a piece of work that merely summarises the learning or expands on an aspect of it. Authentic assessment engages students in tasks related to “real work that meets real needs for real people” (De Boer, 2017). Authentic assessment makes learning more meaningful and enduring. The following list identifies what authentic assessment provides: • Adequate (extended) time to conduct investigation, compile findings, revise, and prepare the determined form of presentation/learning product.

• A real need or problem in the community to engage with—an authentic context that will shape the assessment task.

• For the presentation of a product or performance that is rooted in a real-life field of practice or personal experience.

• For better student engagement, ownership, understanding, and conclusions.

• Opportunity for students to self-navigate and selfassess their learning growth and progress.

• Students with opportunities to take learning in new directions and to respond in ways that are not predicted, or to go beyond what was intended.

Exploration and discovery of this nature, while unpredictable, can also result in expansionary learning outcomes.

• Exciting moments for teachers to see students taken further than what we expected or intended in the beginning—engaged in deeper learning.

• Opportunities for students/the class to respond as a community.

A large amount of time and effort (and sweat and tears) goes into preparing, setting, and marking assessment. Why do we bother? Surely the purpose of assessment is not box ticking or simply compliance-driven, but rather has the goal of progressing learning.

3. Formational Assessment Allows for Quality Feedback In order for a student to benefit from an assessment they must receive quality feedback. For feedback to be effective it must be timely, personalised, specific, and progress-minded. This type of feedback has significant influence on future achievement (Hattie, 2012). Hattie goes on to suggest that: As teachers derive feedback information from assessments that they set their students, there can then be important adjustments to how they teach, how they consider what success looks like, how they recognize students’ strengths and gaps, and how they regard their own effects on students.

The essence of such formative interpretations is providing teachers with feedback from assessments about how they need to modify their teaching, and providing students with feedback so that they can learn how to self-regulate and be motivated to engage in further learning. (pp. 125-126) Hattie and Timperley (2007) suggest that you can give useful feedback that supports learning at four levels: 1. Feedback about the task; How well were tasks understood/performed?

2. Feedback about the process; How well did the student use the main process needed to understand/perform tasks?

3. Feedback about self-regulation; How well did the student self-monitor direct and regulate their actions?

4. Feedback about the student as a person; Personal evaluations (usually positive) about the learner. (p. 87)

An Example of Teacher Reflection Jacqui is wondering about the need to provide a mark for every maths test she gives to her Year 7s. The students all expect one and she’s always marked the work and provided relevant correct answers. However, she’s been thinking about this question of feedback and what might assist her students to think more deeply about what they need to give attention to.

Therefore on this fractions test, she’s decided not to give a mark but a comment, drawing the students’ attention to the areas that they need to work on, e.g., “I want you to work on division and converting between a mixed fraction and an improper fraction”. Jacqui notes in her own records these areas so that she can follow up further down the track.

4. Formational Assessment Uses Appropriate Assessment Types for Each Learning Stage Quality teaching makes effective use of different assessment types to inform a student’s full learning journey. Different types of assessment are better suited to provide specific information at various stages in a unit. When you are comfortable and confident drawing from a large choice of assessments, you are able to craft your teaching with purpose.

While marking a test may be convenient, it is worth considering if there are other ways which may lead to more formational learning?

Typically, a unit begins with diagnostic assessments, which determine prior knowledge. Assessment for and as learning (formative) occurs throughout the learning and provides information which helps the teacher shape upcoming learning experiences and assists the student to refine learning priorities. This timely assessment approach (throughout the unit/ lesson) leads to the label continuous assessment.

Finally, assessment of learning (summative) will assess achievement against standards to help justify the effectiveness of the way education occurred. This information can inform future learning experiences.

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5. Formational Assessment Uses Achievement Standards

6. Formational Assessment Enlists Student Agency

Achievement standards provide expectations in much the same way as paediatric growth charts.

Because each person is unique, we do not see these progressions as inflexible or to be used to singularly rate failure or success. We understand that students grow in their understanding and skill acquisition at different rates.

A formational learning approach is underpinned by valuing students as image-bearers of God—created, loved, and unique. Although students are responsible to parental and teacher authority, they are ultimately responsible to answer to their creator God. It is therefore important that students are actively involved in the process of assessment as they grow towards independent, and inter-dependent, adulthood.

Achievement standards provide the basis for measuring success in learning. They also assist in understanding the learning pathway. Using achievement standards to compare students against each other is unlikely to enhance formational learning.

Consider whether it is helpful to state (e.g., within reports when it is not specifically required) a student’s ability against age-based achievement standards.

While mandated government curriculums often provide achievement standards, Christian educators may detail additional areas of growth desired for our students. By using the Big Picture Template, you can clarify what it is you want your students to achieve. While identifying a Thread or an Enduring Understanding, they become even more powerful when you articulate what this will look like for your students. Weaving Threads into your classroom teaching provides invitations for your students to develop the personalised heart disposition, and view life, in a particular way. How will you know if this is successful? An achievement standard is an attempt to articulate an observable action usually associated with the knowledge, skills, and focus.

Spending time to write achievement standards based on Threads, Enduring Understandings, and a deep hope/main idea can be a powerful clarifying activity.

Achievement standards provide the basis for measuring success in learning. They also assist in understanding the learning pathway.

While teachers have the primary responsibility for assessment, students can also be appropriately involved. Assessment takes on a new dimension when you explain to students the content and standards being taught and ask, “How can you demonstrate to me that you know this content?”. This question redefines assessment from something threatening, which must be conquered, to an opportunity for demonstrating growth. This question also redefines your roles. Rather than you being the source of obstacles thrusting assessment onto passive students, they are the ones at the helm with the initiative.

Teachers become the coach and mentor, assisting students in their journey. As the expert, you still determine if student evidence demonstrates comprehension. This is done by matching their evidence of learning with the standards explained to the students at the start of the journey. You are the assessor, not the assessment creator. As Ward (2013) suggests: Children can and should play a role in evaluating their own work, behaviours, and ideas. “The teacher is to teach children how to evaluate their own work, without this careful and thoughtful teaching, nurturing encouragement and demonstration of the use of sound criteria, how can we expect children to strive to reach their potential and become independent, life-long learners?” (Ward, 2013, p,20).

Facilitating greater student involvement in their own learning requires: • Assessment processes that are accessible to the student.

• Students knowing how assessment works: how to read a rubric, how to demonstrate learning, how to be objective.

• Students being able to evaluate themselves.

• Students having the time and tools for selfassessment and reflection.

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7. Formational Assessment Honours Partnerships Schools include parents in the learning journey by providing them with formal half-yearly and yearly reports. Honouring the home and school partnership offers many more possibilities. By including parents at each of the appropriate moments in a unit, they are empowered to make sense of the assessments and feedback. Many teachers send informative non-jargoned unit outlines at the start of the unit to inform parents about their deep hope, content, and planned assessments. Showcasing appropriate moments of learning to parents can help them connect with the learning journey and provide context for the assessments. This connection enables parents to assist their children in meaningful ways. It also empowers them to make authentic meaning from reports and have informed conversations about learning with you and their child.

Many schools schedule parent-student conference times. When schools are clear on the purpose of these events and the expectations of all participants they can be richly rewarding. Within the design of parentstudent conferences, the following questions should be addressed: • Is the focus about explaining the written report?

• Is the focus on sharing what content has been covered?

• Is the focus putting a face to a name?

• Are parents invited to ask questions?

• Are students able to share reflections of their highs and lows in the learning journey?

• Are the deep hope and Threads discussed?

• How is the importance of character formation conveyed?

Smith (2018) gives the example of two science teachers that he encounters at a parent conference: Any teacher comes to the task of imagination building with an imagination already pointed in certain directions. When my children were in high school, I attended a parent-teacher conference that left a lingering impression. Two of the science teachers shared a corner of the school gym, and my wife and I spoke with them both in quick succession.

The first—I think he was a chemistry teacher— shook our hands, introduced himself, found out which student was ours, and reached for his grade book. He opened it, ran his finger down the list of

names until he found the right one, then read aloud, one by one, each grade given for each assignment across the semester. He then commented briefly that it had been a successful semester’s work and waited expectantly for any questions we might have.

We then travelled about ten feet to the right for an audience with the physics teacher. He shook our hands, introduced himself, found out which student was ours, and then paused. After a few moments’ reflection, he commented that there was another student, sitting in the row behind our child in class, who had some learning difficulties and often found it difficult during long science classes to keep track of what was going on. He had noticed our child choosing tactful moments to turn around and make sure that this other learner knew what was happening. He particularly appreciated this, he said, because he had been emphasizing throughout the semester that the class should function as a Christian learning community, and that meant that there should be a shared focus on making sure that all were included and enabled to learn. He saw the moments of turning around to help another student as an important contribution to the class, and he let that valuation be known. He concluded with some further comments on the class, and invited our questions.

These two conversations left me wondering how many physics teachers see it as part of their pedagogical responsibility to teach students how to participate in Christian community. What is included in the imagined role of the science teacher?

Both teachers taught science in the same Christian school. Both seemed to be achieving academically admirable results. As far as I know, they may have been equally competent in scientific terms and equally effective at helping students to understand the nature, processes, and findings of science.

Yet it seemed they imagined their role differently.

They clearly imagined parents and the task of communicating with parents differently—one used the interaction to reiterate grade information that was already available through other channels, the other took the opportunity to communicate a broader vision for Christian education. It also seemed that perhaps they imagined the task of teaching science differently. Neither denied that a science classroom is focally about learning science, but only one of them explicitly saw the science learning as related to the practice of Christian virtues. (pp. 84-85)

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8. Formational Assessment Incorporates a Diversity of Strategies

Brouwer (2007) expands on some of the ways in which assessment can be reclaimed by suggesting:

Every child starts from a unique place. Formational learning requires a diversity of assessment strategies to better reflect each student’s journey. A diversity of strategies:

When the assessment process is intentionally rooted in and motivated by a God-shaped love of our students, we reinforce their God pronounced worth and help them flourish as unique, ‘created in the image of God’ people. When we centre our most powerful assessments on the big ideas embedded in an area of creation being studied, we honour the worth and interconnected complexity that is characteristic of God’s creation. When we offer students the opportunity to demonstrate their learning in real life situations that allow them to show how their faith shapes their response, we honour them as active participants in God’s kingdom. When we intentionally link assessment practices with such biblical values as humility, justice, self-denial, and delight, we point young people toward the kind of people God asks them to be. (p. 11)

• Includes assessment strategies that factor in learning styles and multiple intelligences.

• Leads to differentiation.

• Provides more meaningful insight into a student’s learning.

The Christian school tries to avoid situations in which age-based expectations are made so central that more able students are tempted to arrogance, and the less able liable to self-loathing as a result of unwarranted comparisons. Sometimes these comparisons are the result of assessment and reporting practices. Such things as pride at ‘top of the class’ status, or despair as a result of being ‘bottom of the class’ are engendered because false inferences have been drawn on the basis of assessments.

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Assessment Frameworks Many educational commentators have entered into the discussion about developing and expanding the availability of high-quality assessment resources that teachers can use to pinpoint where students are in their long-term learning progress, how to diagnose individual difficulties and misunderstandings, and how to identify starting points for teaching and monitoring growth over time. Wiliam (2011) has been one of the foremost leaders in seeking to embed the power of formative assessment into teachers’ consciousness and practice. In this section we outline a number of ways that formational assessment can be approached.

Assessment ideas, strategies, practical techniques, and examples are widely available, particularly in relation to formative assessment. Examples include the use of rubrics and taxonomies, exit tickets, reflection techniques, peer-to-peer activities, a wide range of self-assessment and peer-assessment strategies, group work with peer assessments, reflections for the end of units as compared to the start, exercises that show group thinking and understanding progress, evaluations on ‘pre and post’ deep hope statements, solo taxonomies, continuum statements (capturing the understanding a student displays during their learning journey), strategies that assist students to give and receive feedback (warm and cool feedback language), and the provision of sentence starters for providing feedback.

Using Probing Questions The following list of probing questions are used in the Big Picture Template as prompts for teachers to design the way in which assessment interacts with the teaching and learning plan.

• What is the evidence that formational learning is occurring?

• How will you assess prior learning (faith, understanding, skill)?

• How will you provide opportunities for, record, and give feedback on the biblically authentic changes in student thinking, desiring, and doing?

• What opportunities are there for students to provide feedback on their learning and on teacher guidance?

• How will students reflect upon, and self-assess, their learning?

• How might formational learning be communicated to parents?

Using Rubrics and Matrices Rubrics are structured lists of criteria for evaluating a piece of work. Rubrics are often presented as a type of matrix that provides scaled levels of achievement or performance. The two terms are frequently used interchangeably. Rubrics are usually transparent so as to assist the student to understand expectations and for the teacher to know how to offer feedback.

They can be particularly powerful when developed by students, as they will clearly set benchmarks that they understand and can aspire to. They are less powerful when simply used as a grading scheme by teachers at the end of a unit.

Two examples are provided below that identify the relevant desired Threads—a key goal of formational learning. Three levels of evidence have been devised: limited, developing, and proficient. Teachers can use an example like this to create their own rubric across any subject area. They can develop their own levels of evidence and incorporate any relevant Thread.

Rubrics are structured lists of criteria for evaluating a piece of work. Rubrics are often presented as a type of matrix that provides scaled levels of achievement or performance.

• What sort of feedback will students receive (specific to their formation)?

• What opportunities are there for students to show evidence of progress in their understanding and response to the identified biblical Threads?

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Limited

Developing

Proficient

Humanities example

Creativity and designs are limited with little or no connection between the problem and solution.

Is engaged in designing and creates with meaning and purpose.

Designs are well developed and thought through, often beyond the brief.

Thread:

Stewardship of resources is underdeveloped or not thought through in any depth or with little to no consequence.

Applies stewardship principles to innovation in the planning and effecting stages.

Planning displays research and personal passion in focus area.

Requires prompting to imagine creative solutions. Thinking routines are linear with an unpreparedness to explore new possibilities.

Offers new ideas or creative solutions to problems, regards ideas from others to see improvements or create something new.

Reflects deeply on past and present innovations with a desire to see human endeavour reflect God’s good design.

Evaluates design solutions from a self-centred or too narrow view.

Evaluates from a personal, community/local, and global perspective.

Evaluates personally, locally, and globally. Offers and initiates ideas for the class or student cohort.

Is focused on personal learning and requires prompting to work on problems in pairs or teams.

Open to learning new concepts, is prepared to share learning with fellow students as well as accept feedback in order to improve.

Inspires peers with new learning.

Imagining Innovations

Maths example

Thread: Imitating Humility

Finds it difficult to receive feedback and requires prompting to ask questions and engage in discussions.

Sees limited connectivity between mathematical concepts and real world problems and how maths may solve future problems.

Responses are inconsistent.

All stages are thought through Brings ideas from home to from design to implementation share with the class to enhance with consistency in the community’s learning. stewardship or resources.

Takes on role as mentor or as peer support to encourage and collaborate with fellow classmates or those in younger years.

Makes connections between concepts and their use in everyday life, can reflect on the past in order to see how maths Helps others to make connections with concepts and can solve future problems. real world problems.

Contributes meaningfully to the class.

Contributes meaningfully to Responses display a consistent the class dynamic. approach to giving their best.

Responses display a desire to challenge self and serve others.

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Reshaping an Assessment Task Wiggins and McTighe (2005) developed a helpful model for reshaping an assessment task and describe it with the acronym GRASPS (goal, role, audience, situation, product, and standards). We outline this model in the example below: Reshaping an Assessment Task: GRASPS GRASPS

Description

Example: Mountain District Christian School turned 40 years old in 2019. In Grades 3 and 4 we are going to be finding out about the history of our school.

GOAL

The teacher starts out the project by presenting the Big Idea of the project.

Our goal is to find out how our school community began and how it has changed over time.

ROLE

Students are given a role in a specific occupation that reflects vocational real life.

Students are working as historians (someone who studies history).

AUDIENCE

Students are told who the Year 1 and 2 general studies class. audience is and for whom they are working.

SITUATION

Students are given a We are celebrating the school’s 40th anniversary and we need to situation they must solve. know the important events and details that have happened over those 40 years of the school’s development.

PRODUCT

Students choose which product they are going to create (such as a brochure, a commercial, a 3D model) that solves the problem and gives evidence of their understanding.

Students need to create an A4 digital presentation that contains the following information: (1) Important people who started MDCS; (2) Events during our 40 years and the people who played a part in them; (3) A timeline of important events; (4) Things that are still the same; (5) Describe and show the logos MDCS has used during its 40 years; (6) Things that MDCS celebrates and commemorates.

STANDARDS

Students are given clear criteria for success.

Students are marked (using a rubric) on ability to describe changes using detailed explanations, as well as skills in locating, collecting, and communicating findings. Students also complete a self-assessment (reflection tool) to assess understanding of Threads and essential questions/deeper understandings.

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Communicating and Celebrating Learning How are we communicating learning and student formation? Communicating learning is a key component of assessment, as students consolidate what they have learnt. The way in which we communicate learning reflects the way we view formational learning—to what real purpose it is directed. Communicating learning provides authentic opportunities (real work, real needs, real people) for the Christian school to live out the hope of Christ (or to practice living in the Kingdom story).

As communicating learning becomes a regular practice it continues to shape who our students are.

Communicating learning reflects that we learn from others and in community. Communicating learning provides wonderful opportunities to celebrate learning.

The benefits of a real audience for the students to work towards can be characterised by:

The Place and Value of an Audience

• The desire to tell and share stories about what the students are making.

Having an audience for your learning is a powerful motivational and accountability strategy. Some students are motivated to produce high quality work by a grade score, though many are not, particularly those who tend to receive the lower end of the grade scale (and sometimes the motivation is not exactly Godhonouring). In promoting the celebration of learning and the harnessing of an audience, we recognise the significant limitation of an audience of one (the teacher) that is frequently the case with summative assessment. Here students’ work, their projects, tend to end up in a recycle bin (therefore the phrase, ‘dumpster projects’).

In order to enrich assessment or formational learning it is important to consider the possible audience.

Berger (2014) suggests that the audience for learners matters and that “an authentic audience demonstrates for students that their work is real and important and increases their motivation and engagement” (p. 215).

Teachers determine the most appropriate audience context or opportunity for each major learning outcome/assessable item—areas across a unit that might suit the engagement of parents, professionals, outside organisations, etc. This is not simply working on a project and then inviting parents to come along and view the work. It requires thoughtful and careful planning and preparation, based on what brings further meaning to student learning. Berger (2014) again proposes, “Inviting families and community members into the academic culture of the school is a powerful shift and needs to be planned so that it is meaningful for the students” (p. 225).

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• Creating authenticity (real work).

• Increased motivation when students are presented with a real need or problem around them.

• Using the warm encouragement for learning that tends to arise from audience participation.

• The need to work together (team-based collaboration)—all students have to pull their weight.

• Team-based accountability of finishing by a set date.

• The interest that arises from making something that the group has personally designed.

• Providing clear evidence of what the students have been working on.

Berger (2014) states, “Students become leaders of their own learning—understanding learning targets, tracking their progress, using feedback to revise their work, and presenting their learning publicly and partnering with their teachers” (p. 9).

Within project-based movements there has been significant promotion of the notion of creating ‘beautiful work’ and establishing appropriate real audiences for the work to be exhibited to.

The documentary film Most Likely to Succeed records the following reactions from teachers as they visit a project-based learning exhibition: “It creates an authenticity because we are creating something for an audience.”

“The best is brought out because we make the work public and we all look at it.”

“It’s more of an exhibition of what they’ve learned to do, like to collaborate.”

“The exhibition is on them. It’s their exhibition. It’s up to them to prove what they’ve learned, what they’ve been doing, to articulate that learning to various audiences. They feel a lot of pressure and responsibility on themselves to make it look right.”

“Working for a real audience totally changes the dynamic. With the assignment you get it back, you crumple it up, and throw it in the trash can. That’s one kind of student experience. However, if the assignment is to produce something that you’re

going to present to professionals in the field, that’s completely changing the whole dynamic.”

“The things that give us the greatest satisfaction in life is making something that wasn’t there before. We all derive fantastic satisfaction from making something. The kids have that feeling. It’s transformative for them. ‘I made this and everyone’s coming to look at it’.”

“When you’re doing an exhibition with kids they’re not saying, ‘Why am I learning it? They know why they’re learning.”

“How crazy is it to turn it all over to you guys? What we’re striving for all of you is that you become independent in getting tasks completed.”

“There was a big shift in my faith in positive outcomes. I saw so many transitions. So many students that started as uninvolved or socially impaired, or really academically challenged, came out as different people, not perfect, but better than they came in.”

Reflection Describe an activity where you were able to address a real need and involve a broader audience in showcasing student learning and work.

Can you think of a time in your teaching that students responded to their learning and came up with a response or action to the problem or issue identified in their unit of work?

Motivation and Audience In reflecting on the appropriate audience for demonstrating learning, Berger (2014) proposes a hierarchy of needs model (as illustrated in the diagram below, though, not in Berger’s suggested order), which displays the correlation between student motivation and the audience and purpose of their work.

People capable of critiquing The school community A teacher to fulfil a requirement Parents Service to the world Public audience beyond the school

Reflection Reflect on Berger’s hierarchy of needs model. How might you reorder the hierarchy of the audiences as a Christian educator? How would you reorder based on what you think might be the best motivator from a student point of view? How would you reorder to reflect the common current practice in schools (delete the ones that are generally not considered)?

Berger has his own hierarchy in mind, suggesting that the tip of the diagram shows that student engagement is highest when they are doing work that is of service to the world, and lowest when students need to present solely to a teacher.

Examples Learning celebrations that would effectively engage students, parents, and the school community can include learning galleries, exhibitions, showcases, performances, parent workshops, class-based displays, real audiences, and student conferences.

It is common in the life of Christian schools to have many events across a school year. The usual events range from sporting events, music concerts, thanksgiving services, Easter service, and parent information evenings, etc. Whilst these are important ways of engaging the parent community, including other celebrations of learning can be powerful in showing what is valuable formational learning in a Christian school. Celebrating and communicating formational learning should be a key focus for any school community. Some celebrations of learning can be school-wide, or year-level focused, or may occur at the end of the unit, learning experience, or term.

Berger (2014) suggests: In some schools celebrations of learning are school wide, showcasing work at all grade levels and occur at key moments throughout the year . . . other kinds may occur at the end of the unit, learning experience or long term project. . . . The event needs to be thoughtfully planned and structured so that all students are supported to communicate their learning and present high-quality work to an authentic audience. (p. 223) Below are two examples of contrasting ways schools celebrate their exiting Year 12 students: School A holds a Speech Night which closes the year with appropriate moments of celebration and speech. Male and female duxes are named and honoured. Best in Year 12 class prizes are awarded across all subjects and some character prizes are also handed out. All other secondary year levels have their dux awards and the following year’s prefects and school captains are announced. These names are later added to the honour rolls in the main entry to the school.

Diagram 5.3. Adapted from Berger (2014). Order is deliberately random due to the following reflection activity.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 119

School B holds a final assembly (with parents invited) to celebrate the year and honour that year’s student leadership group and to announce the following year’s leaders. That event is separate from the Year 12 Celebration Night. This is a dinner at a local large venue where each Year 12 student can invite 5-6 others (depending on capacity). The highlight of the evening, amongst its other items, is the 1 – 1 ½ minute speech that the senior school staff make about each Year 12 student, including those who have undertaken non-academic Year 12 or Year 11 finishers. Teachers speak on those within their ‘home room’ and offer a personal celebration of the whole young adult. They gather their speech ideas and stories in the weeks beforehand, by trading notes with fellow staff.

Every school would have numerous examples of their own that reflect the celebration and communication of learning across the school and broader community.

The following examples come from Mountain District Christian School and show a healthy appreciation of the celebration of learning: Project Photo Ark Joel Sartore, through his stunning photography, draws our attention to the amazing animals with which we share the planet. He draws our attention to the fact that many of these animals are either extinct or on the brink of extinction. Using art as a vehicle for change, he seeks to inspire students to care—to stare these animals in the eyes, and then to ‘do something’.

Throughout term 3, students across the school worked towards ‘doing something’. This culminated in the hugely successful Photo Ark Community Event evening exhibition for the whole school community. Students involved gained an understanding and appreciation for our creation, our role as stewards, and what we can do to help conserve habitat. Students also were able to experience the joy of seeing their own work framed and on display in a real gallery context. We were so proud to be able to raise over $2000 for Joel Sartore and his Photo Ark Project.

Lia and Antonia

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Secondary Expo The gym was abuzz the night of the Secondary Expo. There was a wide range of future training pathways for students and parents to engage with.

The external providers included: Ranges Tec (Trade Pathways partner), Yarra Ranges Tech School (school partner for Digital Technology), Habitat Tree (Environmental Studies), Eastern College (tertiary pathways), and Lilydale Books. Our keynote speaker, Sharon Witt, inspired parents in their task of nurturing resiliency in children as well as setting healthy boundaries and implementing strategies for navigating technology. Another highlight was seeing many past students come along to offer their reflections and experience, career advice, and tutoring services. Students took up lead roles in sharing subject specific information and course offerings. This information, along with the Expo’s smorgasbord of ideas, student research, and student career interviews, was used to make subject choices and pathways for the coming years.

Janita and Paul Reducing the School’s Carbon Footprint Their goal was to determine the amount of energy used on a yearly basis by students and staff at the school. Students conducted an energy audit and calculated the carbon footprint of the building.

Students also travelled to different sites in Vermont to study systems being used to reduce fossil fuels.

They met with building managers and principals to interview them about the process of implementing an alternative energy source and the impact on their school or business. Students compiled their findings into an energy report and presented it along with a recommendation to the school board.

The presentation was also opened to the public with special invitations sent to experts and professionals directly involved in student learning and included student presentations on various alternative energy sources.

The celebration of learning had a dual purpose of showcasing student learning and serving as a pitch to local officials to make energy saving changes in the school. (Berger, 2014, p. 220)

Reporting We recognise that providing student academic reports are a formal requirement for schools. This section discusses the requirements of the Australian Government for report writing. It aims to show that schools have far greater flexibility in meeting their reporting obligations and can often do so without compromising the school’s overall approach to teaching and learning.

Government Requirements

Some issues and ideas for consideration follow:

3. Reports on student progress and achievement.

• The amount of effort that teachers put into formal end-of-semester student reports is immense.

Many teachers work extremely hard to convey the value of the whole child in a format that may not be designed to do so effectively. What is the role of the formal end-of-semester report? How can we make teacher workload more manageable? How can we report to parents what is really valued?

4. Reports which are defined against Australian Curriculum achievement standards.

• It is important to view reporting to parents within the school’s overall approach to teaching, learning, and assessing and the partnership between teachers, students, and parents.

• A formal end-of-semester report provides parents with a narrow, sanitised version of their child’s learning. Often teachers are prevented from saying what they really want to say and parents are not able to gain a complete picture of the child’s growth.

How can schools relook at reporting to empower parents and enrich parental understanding and honour the parent/school/student relationship?

The six key requirements regarding school reports (established under current national agreements) are to provide: 1. Reports twice per year.

2. Parents with a plain language report.

5. Reports to be relative to the performance of the student’s peer group.

6. Grades A-E (or an equivalent scale).

These requirements (written into the Australian Education Act 2013, Regulation Section 59) leave schools with far greater flexibility than many have been led to believe or understood.

Martin Hanscamp, formally of the Australian Association of Christian Schools, makes the following observations: 1.

Twice per year: this practice is firmly established across all schools.

2.

Plain language: all schools benefit from using this excellent guideline to review jargon, ‘teacherspeak’, and bland ‘say nothing’ phrases. Parents typically turn off when reports (1) ‘pack out’ space with bland ‘fill’ about subject content, (2) are full of ‘say nothing’ padding, and (3) fail to provide a personal comment about their child. Schools should support teachers through requiring clear, personalised, and non-jargon language and not pressuring teachers to fill in a box of text just because it’s there.

3.

Student progress and achievement: The obvious weakness of most reporting of the past has been its focus on summative data and a benchmark single grade/letter/number. There is a need for innovative reporting of progress.

4.

Assessed against Australian Curriculum achievement standards: The Australian Curriculum outlines an achievement standard written as descriptive paragraphs provided for each subject and year level. This is what schools must report against. Many educators are stressed at the overwhelming number of content descriptors and elaborations. There is freedom and flexibility in knowing that it is the achievement standards which are reported against and not the content descriptors and elaborations.

• While formal end-of-semester reports are one way of reporting on learning, there are so many other effective ways which can be utilised including parent nights, productions, presentation opportunities, learning soirees, etc.

• Reports and parent-teacher-student conferences/ interviews go hand-in-hand. Schools could consider including students within secondary interviews.

The obvious weakness of most reporting of the past has been its focus on summative data and a benchmark single grade/letter/ number. There is a need for innovative reporting of progress.

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5.

6.

Relative to the performance of the student’s peer group: This requirement has frequently been interpreted as demanding comparison with the immediate class/year level using a 4 quartile cohort matrix. The requirement does not necessitate this. The student’s peer group could readily be interpreted as what is expected of all Grade 5s for example. A harsh approach (interpretation) here has been to rank students in a class position (an approach that runs against so much that is characteristic of Christian education).

Grades A-E or an equivalent scale: Many schools have read this as a numerical marking out of 100 coupled with, (1) the moderation of applying a bell curve distribution and, (2) establishing a C level as ‘the norm’ (performing at expected level), which (3) can consequentially require that 66% of students will receive a C. Further, others have interpreted that a B should be viewed as 6 months ahead and an A as 12 months ahead. A C level used in this way roundly entrenches a nonintended message of mediocrity.

The A-E grading within the traditional school report frequently misses where students are in their longterm learning and does not indicate progress over time.

Many schools have adopted practices such as those listed above and gone beyond the stipulated requirements. If the rules do not insist on such practices, why should Christian schools limit themselves to such restrictive approaches?

The government requirements do not require the expansions outlined in point 6. Each school can define their own 5-grade scale relative to the specific learning standards. The requirement is that it has 5 levels and that these standards are defined.

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Alternative Examples Schools are free to define their own A-E scale providing it incorporates insight against the achievement standards. Here is an alternative example to a traditional A-E scale: Student competence or strengths and weaknesses (also commonly known as ‘academic achievement’).

H

Highly competent and confident

D

Displays sound understanding

R

Reasonable grasp in most areas

E

Experiencing some difficulty

S

Struggles excessively

These could be used to provide an overall assessment or to provide more specific grading in an assessment piece.

Approaches to learning or faithfulness in learning (also commonly known as ‘effort’).

1

Always / Exceptional response

2

Mostly / Diligent response

3

Commonly / Moderate response

4

Inconsistently / Poor response

5

Rarely / Inadequate response

A breakdown of some of the desired approaches to learning (chosen by a teacher and relevant to their particular subject) could be listed on the report and given a 1-5 rating (using the above ranking scale).

Possible approaches to learning being reported on could include: • Plans and organises effectively.

• Is attentive and focused.

• Participates well in class activities.

• Completes set tasks faithfully.

• Behaves responsibly.

• Is well prepared for class.

• Reflects on their learning.

The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), the government organisation established to supervise the reporting guidelines, specifically says of school freedom: Education authorities and individual schools are able to determine, in consultation with parents and communities, the style and format of reporting that best meets local needs and circumstances, including provision of any additional elements of student reports. This might include written comments about the quality of learning demonstrated by the student; indicators of student effort, engagement, behaviour and improvement; student self-assessment; and future learning goals. (2012, p. 25) Christian schools in particular should embrace the freedom and flexibility that is provided to ensure that some of the common misperceptions about reporting do not become the ‘reporting tail’ that wags the whole ‘teaching and learning dog’. It cannot be stated clearly enough that schools have the flexibility to design the format and style of school reports in the context of their overall approach to teaching and learning.

In regard to their approach to school reports, Christian schools might like to give thought to: 1. Ensuring that the 5-point scale being used aligns with the school’s mission.

2. Carefully considering whether comparative ‘student against cohort’ reporting is necessary.

3. Using the available increased flexibility and a greater variety of assessment and reporting options.

4. Providing for greater inclusion of the key formative assessment aspects encountered through a unit/ topic.

5. Making effective use of more descriptive, informative, and personalised comments about individual student achievement.

6. Ongoing forms of communication. The provision of continuous reporting options has become quite popular and has the virtue of providing meaningful feedback at the time of assessments as opposed to the end of the learning period. Some schools’ learning management (IT) systems have this provision to facilitate teacher, student, and parent use. One cautionary note here is our desire to protect teachers from a potential large expansion to their workload. If continuous reporting (for good reason) is adopted, but schools and parents still expect half/full year reporting (as per traditional summative practice), it would appear that a teacher’s workload will have simply doubled.

7. Including a pastoral/personal profile section which provides specific opportunities for reflections about faith and character (though these should be encouraged throughout all areas of learning).

Christian schools in particular should embrace the freedom and flexibility that is provided to ensure that some of the common misperceptions about reporting do not become the ‘reporting tail’ that wags the whole ‘teaching and learning dog’.

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Chapter 6

Understanding the Teaching and Learning Landscape

How do we appraise the various approaches?

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Summary Framing Statement: Formational learning develops the mind, captivates the heart, and equips the hand, encouraging curious and courageous learners to explore God’s world and live out the hope of Christ.

Main Idea/Deep Hope

Enduring Understandings

Our deep hope is that teachers may understand the influences that drive educational approaches and apply a biblically-informed critique in their response to formational learning.

• Teachers involved in developing formational teaching and learning need to have a framework for understanding and discerning the various complex insights that contribute to the educational landscape.

Essential Questions • In what ways has research into teaching and learning practice changed the landscape of schooling?

• What is the link between the purpose of learning and the practice of teaching?

• Is there only one type of teaching practice that produces a certain learning outcome?

Further Questions to Ponder • What key qualities of learning do I emphasise?

• What approaches to teaching and learning do I tend to emphasise?

• What have I found makes learning most effective?

• What are the latest innovative teaching and learning ideas that have grabbed my interest? Why?

• Christian education is Christ-centred and studentoriented. Christ-centred means that Christ is the centre of all things and the one who is followed and served. Student-oriented means that students are at the very heart of the educational endeavour and the focus needs to be on their formation.

• The purpose of Christian education is learning for balanced mastery between understanding, appreciation, and responsive action.

• Teaching approaches can broadly be classified as either rote learning, direct instruction, inquiry learning, and questioning.

• There are numerous qualities and approaches to learning and teachers need to make choices based on their biblically-informed outlook and the learning effectiveness of those choices.

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Introduction There are many educational theorists, movements, and great ideas that buzz around in the educational landscape—it can be somewhat confusing. With so many good ideas abounding, it is important for teachers to understand how a biblically-informed mind might engage and respond. This chapter reviews these theories and ideas under the headings of purpose, qualities, and approaches. We discuss how teaching and learning in the Christian school is benefited, while also appreciating the need for a biblically-directed discernment.

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There are many educational theorists, movements, and great ideas that buzz around in the educational landscape— it can be somewhat confusing.

The Purposes for Learning What is learning ultimately for? Framing all educational initiatives is an answer to this question. The answer to the question, “What is the purpose of learning and education?”, actually drives the grounding philosophy of much educational strategy and practice. What answer do you as a Christian teacher (or does your Christian school) give to the question, “What is the purpose of learning?”? How deeply have we considered the question? The answer to this foundational question gives us direction and mission; it provides a focus for what teaching and learning to plan for our students.

understanding, learning for appreciation, and learning for responsive action. This broader focus has arisen because of the distortions that have been caused when ‘mastery’ (read, ‘excellence’) has been given too great an emphasis. An unbalanced approach to mastery can tend to a desire of human mastery over the creation.

It views success as being judged on academic results alone. It seeks the simple mastery of information and skills. It views mastery for mastery’s sake as a legitimate quest. It uses competitive-based rewards for motivation.

Of the many answers to this grounding question proposed by educational theorists, we have chosen three that are helpful, at least in part, to learning in a Christian school: learning for understanding and mastery; learning for appreciation; and learning for responsive action. See Chapters 15 and 16 of Transformational Education for further exploration (Burggraaf, 2014).

A balanced approach views mastery as a subset of understanding. Formational learning is the much richer endeavour of motivating students to achieve, and to be, the best that they can be—with best always framed within faithfulness. Perhaps the terms ‘academically robust’, or ‘academic faithfulness’ are more useful phrases than ‘academic mastery’ in this regard.

Christian educators should apply care and nuance to this discussion and should differentiate between balanced and unbalanced mastery.

Learning for Understanding and Mastery The most common secular understanding of learning is that it provides mastery. According to this view, “learning increases the power of human mastery.

Knowledge is most valued for its power for mastery— linguistic, scientific, numerical, artistic, physical and technological” (Burggraaf, 2014, p. 147).

In Christian education, learning for understanding and mastery comes when students understand, test, and critique the underlying meanings and assumptions in the material that they are exploring. It is learning that should be academically rigorous as it strives for a balanced mastery of the subject matter. It’s not mastery for its own sake, but a learning focus that leads to a deeper understanding of what is being studied.

Because ‘academic excellence’ is so misunderstood in our society as a basis for rating, ranking, and reward, we should be especially careful not to conform to the practices and standards of the prevailing culture in this area. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate effort, diversity, and difference with parents and students. We celebrate achievement in sensitive and appropriate ways.

Many within Christian education have broadened the singular goal of mastery to include learning for

Learning for Appreciation Learning for appreciation is learning that enables students to see the world as a gift from God, given for them to ponder and enjoy—and for God to be glorified as they do. The value of this world is not just seen in its utility: a mere commodity to use or to master. Learning for appreciation encourages an exuberance for learning, and fosters joy, delight, and puzzlement as students discover the wonders of God’s world. When our educational practice fails to stop and relish the delight and joy of learning, an opportunity is lost. Finding the openings for students to respond in awe, wonder, and thankfulness should never be missed.

Learning for Responsive Action Learning should inspire responsible and thoughtful heart responses. Responses that deepen understanding, change minds, motivate heart-felt reflection, and where appropriate, mobilise hands into action and service. This responsive discipleship should be integral to the curriculum and not incidental or an add-on. Opportunities for response should be woven naturally into the fabric of the teaching and learning whenever possible and appropriate.

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Qualities of Learning All schools seek to emphasise particular qualities of learning. Teachers also tend to choose the learning qualities (or descriptive features) that they themselves demonstrate or to which they themselves aspire.

Throughout this resource, outside of the six terms listed below, we have used three other key descriptive words to assist in our focus of opening up insights into a faithful Christian practice of education, namely: crafted, formational, and holistic.

The qualities that we’ve chosen to highlight in relation to formational learning are:

Learning That’s Authentic Students should be seen as real people, involved in real enterprise, responding to real need, and making sense of a real world. Our schooling is not just a particular theoretical preparatory ground for a projected real life to come. It involves authentic learning experiences and challenges as they naturally arise out of the learning focus, or where teachers, through discovery and experimentation, develop authentic learning opportunities. The Threads in Transformation by Design: The Big Picture can be a helpful stimulus here.

• authentic • courageous • curious and playful • gritty • intentional • owned Other qualities could easily have been chosen (see exercise below). For example, a school might choose to focus on being adventurous, collaborative, deep, dynamic, industrious, innovative, meaningful, practical, relational, etc.

New and fresh terms/insights are constantly being proposed in schools—some are faddish, others profound. Some qualities might be chosen for emphasis or prominence from time to time. Some may be more subject specific. And, of course, not all the qualities need to be visible all the time. For example, some learning demands raw cognitive grit and struggle. At other times learning lends itself to being adventurous or will invite a commitment to creatively and experientially engaging in the ‘real’ world, and so on.

Learning That’s Courageous Learning needs to call on students to be brave, spirited, and plucky. Students are encouraged to put their best foot forward, at times stepping into unknown territory in order to expand on what they know. Inquiry, problem-posing, and deep questions are some of the methods teachers use to get students to expand their horizons and build on their knowledge.

Learning That’s Curious and Playful Just like the newborn baby who opens their eyes to a new world or the toddler who seeks to discover everything around them, a natural curiosity to discover and understand our world is built into each student.

Despite this desire being suppressed in some, it is the teacher’s task to open up that curious world and stimulate the interest, inquisitiveness, and imagination of students. Designing and nurturing curious learning takes discipline and hard work, though its outworking is frequently a playful and joyful enterprise.

Learning That’s Gritty Sometimes learning is sheer hard work. Like all parts of our work-life, some aspects can be at the more tedious or less exciting end of the scale. Engaging with these parts of learning takes diligence, persistence, and doggedness. The teacher seeks to effect skills of robust tenacity and resilience in students. It will mean working on areas of weakness, though doesn’t exclude working in areas of strength.

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Learning That’s Intentional Teaching and learning is a purposeful and planned endeavour. Intentional refers to the deliberate planning and enacting of teaching and learning practice for a big picture purpose. The New Testament Greek term telos means to intentionally go forward with a clear goal.

The Christian teacher, who carefully and deliberately plans their practice, has the telos of (from our framing statement), “exploring God’s world and living out the hope of Christ, by developing the mind, captivating the heart, and equipping the hands”.

Learning That’s Owned Learning should dynamically and actively engage the student so that they own their learning. Students should not be treated as passive agents in whom knowledge is deposited. Rather, they are active participants in their learning, making meaning and sense of their insights. Here, it is most helpful when students understand the purpose and significance of their learning as they take increasing responsibility and ownership for their learning. Burggraaf (2014) explains: Educational methodologies should stimulate a rich range of learning responses from the ‘aha’ experience of discovery, curiosity and discernment, to the ‘ah’ experience of awe, wonder, delight, admiration and praise, to the ‘haha’ experience of playfulness, laughter, celebration, fun and aesthetic delight, to the ‘ha’ experience of action, enterprise, service and industry. (p. 35)

Reflection What qualities would you like to see your school exhibit? What would be the seven most important descriptive words/short two-word phrases that best capture the type of learning or the type of school culture that you’d like to see? You could choose a wide range.

A possible staff exercise is to have everyone choose their own seven. After the initial brainstorm, meet in teams of two and over a short time period (don’t let it take too long, the point isn’t a ‘correct’ list), agree on a ‘paired’ seven, move onto a group of four . . . eight . . . and so on, until the whole group has an established seven. Discuss what these terms mean for your school.

Following is a list of possible words to consider: academic, active, adventurous, applied, appreciative, authentic, biblically-directed, caring, challenging, character, Christian, creative, committed, competence, convicting, courageous, culturallyengaging, curious, developing, discerning, distinctive, diverse, driven, dynamic, engagement, experiential, exploratory, experimental, extraordinary, faith-filled, faithful, fair, flourishing, forming, fostering, fresh, fun, gritty, grounded, hands-on, holistic, industrious, innovative, intentional, inspiring, Kingdom-focused, life-filled, life-long learning, maturity, meaningful, missional, motivational, new, nurturing, opportunityexploring, owned, parent-governed, partnering, passionate, playful, potential-realising, preparatory, practical, relational, responsive, resourceful, responsible, rich, rigour, serving, shaping, smart, storied, student-friendly, teacher-friendly, teamwork, theoretical, thinking, transformative, understanding, unique, visionary, well-rounded, whole-person, wisdom-seeking.

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Approaches to Teaching: A Critique We have chosen to briefly examine four major paradigms of teaching: • Rote learning • Direct instruction • Inquiry learning • Questioning All four will have a role (in varying amounts) in effective teaching and formational learning, though that does not mean that each carries the same weight. Effective learning recognises that the different approaches will have greater traction within different societies, subject areas, contexts, and even individual lessons.

Teachers and students have their own biases towards particular pedagogical approaches. Teachers craft their teaching and make strategic choices in terms of the mix of approaches in response to the learning context and the needs of students. Specific subject matter can lend itself to a particular approach. There is no simple guide or formula to the combination of approaches.

Learning is complex and requires the insight and craft of the teacher.

Problems do arise when teachers are inflexible or unwilling to consider the question of, “What works best?”. For example, English teachers might only use

Effective learning recognises that the different approaches will have greater traction within different societies, subject areas, contexts, and even individual lessons.

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‘talk to teach’ or a maths teacher might be overrelying on an example and drilling through a repeated exercise model. Any singular teaching approach has its limits. More practical subjects frequently lead the way, or naturally lend themselves, to a greater variety of methods: explanation (the theory), demonstration, drills, sketching to reinforce, experiential involvement, practise, and questions throughout.

Some developing cultures may emphasise rote learning—which may be appropriate at particular times of their educational development. Western schools, however, now use a combination of (adjusted) direct instruction, inquiry, and questioning, with a strong inclination towards inquiry-based learning (or any of the other names that this movement goes by).

Below is a brief explanation of the four approaches, along with a list of positives and negatives. As inquiry-based approaches have been predominant in Western education we have provided a more extensive explanation of these.

Rote Learning The rote learning approach is not particularly popular or widely used in Western education. However, there are some areas, (e.g. ,the times tables in maths, the periodic table in chemistry, or perhaps spelling lists), where drills and repetitive memorisation techniques might be helpful. + Some knowledge areas simply need to be ‘drilled’.

- Not that effective for understanding, extension, further inquiry, and problem solving.

Direct Instruction

Inquiry-Based Learning

Direct instruction is also called explicit instruction.

Direct instruction is a more traditional form of teaching which is teacher-dominated and uses a highly scripted pre-written program. These programmes tend to be sold as complete packages with the instruction that they need to be followed word for word. Lessons tend to follow an established plan from beginning to end. Direct instruction is a methodology where the teacher, teaches the students and then checks on what students have learned. Gaps in understanding can then be followed up.

History

Direct instruction gives emphasis to commencing with a foundation that says, “There can be no learning first, until there is teaching first”. Direct instruction doesn’t exclude inquiry, or questions, but says that these methods follow on from the teacher first teaching the relevant content or the ‘answer’. + Lends itself to clear learning objectives + Useful when introducing a topic, or where there is no previous knowledge about the topic. + Useful for students struggling to achieve via other methods (quite popular in some Indigenous communities). + Some areas of learning require direct teacher instruction.

- Lack of flexibility and freedom to adapt to teacher style or to the different needs of students.

- The onus of responsibility for directing the learning is singularly on the teacher.

- Has its limits; teachers can talk too much and dominate the teaching and learning process.

- Natural opportunities for inquiry can be missed.

- Where there has been too much reliance, students find it hard to be weaned off it.

The inquiry-based or discovery learning movement developed in the 1960s. It was a response to the limitations in the traditional approaches of direct instruction and rote learning (the didactic approaches), and with the ‘factory model’ of schooling with its assembly line or ‘sausage machine’ approach.

Word alert Didactic learning: focuses on the prior baseline knowledge that students have and then it seeks to build on that. The teacher is the authority figure instructing and providing the theoretical knowledge required by the receiving or passive student. It is particularly effective for students who require a high measure of guidance and who depend on the teacher to organise their work. It’s commonly used for the teaching of basic skills like reading and writing.

Didactic learning is a teacher and content-centred method of teaching.

The philosophical roots of the inquiry movement were largely founded in the constructivist school of thought: Jean Piaget (1896-1980) being seen as its founder.

The constructivist movement grew out of reaction to the obvious weaknesses in previous contentoriented, teacher-centred, student-passive educational approaches where all the responsibility rested with the teacher instructing and on the student passively playing a receptive and compliant role.

Already at the turn of the 20th century, John Dewey (1859–1952) was challenging the world of educational philosophy when he argued that students should be more active in their own learning and that students thrived best when they were allowed to experience and interact with the curriculum. Through this period of educational change, the teacher’s role shifted from being the ‘out the front’ expert and instructor, to being an occasional instructor, facilitator and guide.

Many Movements The influence of inquiry-based learning remains strong today, and thankfully so. Many new labels and emphases keep emerging. Inquiry-based models are also known, or closely associated with, a number of other similar approaches such as: action, active, collaborative, cooperative, deeper, discovery, expeditionary, experiential, exploratory, inquisitive, open, problem-based, project-based, and service learning. Each of these capture differing emphases.

See the section that follows for a short explanation of the major movements.

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Positive Aspects We can see that significant aspects of inquiry-based learning are reflected in what God has built into the creation to inspire student inquisitiveness into His curious and complex creation. “Learning is dynamic, rather than passive. So students are not just passive agents in whom knowledge is banked, but active initiators and participants in their learning” (Burggraaf, 2014, p. 95).

Most inquiry-based learning has a character that is organic and involves well-crafted inquiry and investigation, immersion in rich experiences, engagement with the real world, invention, making meaning and sense of aspects of God’s creation, discovery in a communal context, encouraging curiosity, open-endedness, problem posing, questioning, reflection on how learning best happens (metacognition) and what has been learnt, taking responsibility for one’s own learning, playfulness, and dedication. It involves apprenticeship with a mentor teacher who provides guidance, structure, support, discernment, and wisdom (Burggraaf, 2014).

Learning that immerses students in rich and wellcrafted inquiry and investigative learning experiences is a powerful teaching and learning methodology.

Students come to recognise the power of discovery and inquiry as they are actively engaged in their own learning.

Critique While there are so many positive reasons for schools to embrace inquiry based leaning, one weakness has been when schools jump on the bandwagon of one particular model and claim that they’ve found the right approach.

One the one hand this is understandable as school leaders are desirous to clearly encapsulate a particular a pedagogical or methodological style as their ‘brand’ - a way to project a unique and marketable learning character. Even though there is great value in inquirybased learning, we recognise here that the wholesale adoption of any singular model has its limitations.

Research (Hattie, 2015) into the impact of inquirybased learning has informed us that this methodology is only significantly effective after students have

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built up sufficient knowledge, understanding, and vocabulary. If students are pushed into ‘inquiry’ at too early a stage, without the foundational basis to engage further, the learning impact is low. Therefore, the craft for teachers involves the question of timing and appropriateness. Teachers need to find the appropriate balance between teaching, guidance, and inquiry. + Employs a wide variety of creative teaching and learning strategies. + Allows flexibility for various groupings and settings. + Can be pitched at each student’s ability. + Recognises that learning isn’t simply about establishing facts with all students following a singular path to gaining the knowledge. + Places high expectations on student agency and active engagement.

- When used as an exclusive or dominant model, it can lack the provision of prior knowledge and understanding which leaves students floundering.

- Directionless exploratory learning can realise the worst of what social-constructivism has to offer.

- Where the approach becomes self-led learning it is possible that the lack of a sound basis of knowledge and the lack of clear guidance can lead to ineffective learning.

- Can rely too heavily on high student intelligence and motivation, which is unrealistic in the average classroom.

- Whilst the colour and movement of exploratory learning are endearing, at times the projects and performances (rich tasks) that result remain as students simply expressing what they know rather than reflecting learning progress.

- The exciting and wide field of innovative options within inquiry-based approaches lends itself to the problem of faddishness.

The Questioning Approach The questioning approach is also called the Socratic method. It is a powerful mode of teaching where there is an intentional, cooperative, instructional, and argumentative dialogue between the teacher and students. Some research claims that almost 40% of classroom time is spent in a question-response mode (Johnson, Markle, and Haley-Oliphant, 1987).

The Socratic method is based on asking and answering questions; listening closely to others; articulating your own thoughts and responses; seeking to stimulate critical thinking; looking out for evidence to support claims; seeking to understand others’ perspectives and the implications of those perspectives; and digging in behind, under, and around the focus topic. When done well, this method shows the skills of a very talented teacher working the learning context so that students’ interest is piqued. Socratic Questioning requires practice, reflection and refinement to get the most out of it. Teachers start asking the questions and then begin making decisions about the learning pathway.

One of the great benefits of the questioning approach is that the learning pathways may become more open and lead, therefore, to thematic learning that stretches over subject boundaries.

One of the limitations is that this approach requires significant content knowledge from the teacher and finely tuned pedagogical skills so as to adequately draw in a classroom populated by a diverse range of students. These are very strong demands. Some claim that the questioning approach works more effectively when undertaken in one-on-one, or small group teaching contexts. + Questions can keep the lesson moving and pursue variations (interesting and relevant ‘rabbit holes’).

students staying with the teacher’s line of thought, or the interested student seeking to discover where the teacher intends to head.

- Teachers too easily default to asking questions without having adequately planned the direction and intent of those questions, e.g. Who knows this?

What do you call this? Who can tell me why?

- Questioning can be an easy default that gives the appearance that the teacher knows where they’re going when they are simply unprepared.

- Direct instruction advocates claim that students should not be asked questions before they’ve been taught the answer. They claim that the lesson is not a quiz, or a test to work out who is naturally smart, or who has prior knowledge thanks to learning that has come from other sources.

Reflection When visiting other classes in your school: • Which of the main approaches to teaching do the teachers tend to use?

• What can you learn from watching an effective teacher who shows outstanding teaching skills?

Why did it work?

The Socratic method is based on asking and answering questions, listening closely to others, articulating your own thoughts and responses, seeking to stimulate critical thinking, and digging in behind, under, and around the focus topic.

+ Good questioning can be targeted at students’ intellectual abilities. + Smart question technique can draw out unknown knowledge and presuppositions from students. + Questions can be used to activate prior knowledge and orientate students as to where the lesson is going.

- Those not using the method well can fall into trap of ‘guess what is in my head?’. Can rely too heavily on

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Gaining Clarity How do we make sense of all these learning approaches and movements, each seeking to explain how education should best be undertaken? Christian schools understand that the office or task of the teacher is a calling to lead in learning. The office or task of the student is a calling to serve as learners, to strive for the best learning outcomes that they can achieve.

We do not advocate a teacher-dominated or a studentdominated approach. As Plantinga (2002) states, the Scriptures clearly tell us neither teacher nor student is at the centre: Without the lens of scripture to correct and enlarge our vision, we see the world with self-referential bias. We can’t help it. Peering out from the two sockets of our skull, we perceive, understand the world from our own point of view. We are therefore tempted to think of ourselves as centres . . . our own creators and providers. (p. 10) We frequently use the mantra “Christ-centred, student-oriented”. Christ-centred because we believe all things hold together in Christ—meaning that there is a Christ-coherent transcendent context and purpose for all knowledge, learning, and schooling.

Student-oriented because students are at the heart of the educational enterprise. It is their nurturing, their effective education, that is the very point of schooling.

Rote learning, direct instruction, and questioning are all helpful in certain contexts.

Without the lens of scripture to correct and enlarge our vision, we see the world with self-referential bias. We can’t help it.

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There is no doubt, too, that in seeing students as image-bearers of God, full of potential and capacity to take shared responsibility for their learning, there is much that is worthwhile in constructivism/social constructivism and inquiry-learning models that grew out of these schools of thought.

However, where these theories have sought to place ultimate authority or meaning in independent human rational thought, or individual human experience, we would say they have misplaced that ultimate authority and source of meaning. Championing free human decision making that is unconstrained by laws, norms, or principles not chosen by the individual, encourages students to arrive at their own version of the truth.

Christian schools recognise that Christ is at the centre of all things, and Christian teachers are called to lead and guide students to understand that all knowledge is founded in, and related to, Christ who holds all things together. Further, in its openness to people-formed meaning, constructed learning can be directionless and subject to every form of influence. Paul the apostle suggests: Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ (Ephesians 4:14,15)

Learning for Appreciation

Learning for Understanding and Mastery

Learning for Responsive Action

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Diagram 6.1. Approaches, purposes and qualities of formational teaching and learning.

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Inquiry-Based Models Inquiry-Based Learning

Cooperative Learning

We’ve used inquiry-based learning as an umbrella term to cover the many inquiry-based learning approaches.

Others have used the term discovery learning in the same way. The inquiry-based movement primarily developed in the 1960s in reaction to the teacher/ direct instructional/informational-centred and didactic approaches prevalent at that time. The roots of this movement go back earlier in the 20th century to the work of educational philosophers like John Dewey whose progressive and constructivist theories questioned rote and direct content-centred knowledge approaches.

Cooperative learning, whilst similar to collaborative learning, gives greater emphasis to structuring positive interdependence. Specifically designed student work groups are tailored to best realise the specific learning goals.

Deeper Learning

Inquiry-based learning emphasises the practice of thinking skills and the posing of questions, problems, and scenarios rather than the simple provision of known and relevant knowledge. The influence of inquiry-based learning remains strong today and has been expanded on through many new movements and labels.

Deeper learning is a broader term that has come into vogue over the past decade. It emphasises the myriad ways in which learning can be taken to deeper levels of understanding. Common to deeper learning proponents is their aim for students to apply prior and new knowledge, and to develop necessary higherorder thinking skills so they can engage with real-life problems. Deeper learning, in contrast to surface-level learning, engages the learner sufficiently to realise that the greater the learning depth, the greater the ability to master all types of learning situations that extend beyond the school.

Action Learning

One of the reasons why deeper learning is so popular with Christian schools is that it:

Action learning emphasises the solving of real-life problems. It proposes a learning cycle where a real and relevant problem is identified and then a team of inquirers, using curiosity and reflection processes, work towards a solution. Lastly there is a reflection on what has been learnt in the process. As an instructional technique it is used in much wider circles than just educational ones.

Active Learning Active learning emphasises greater student involvement in the learning process. It criticises the notion of students passively listening and encourages students to be doing things and thinking about the things they are doing, particularly through the use of problem-solving techniques. It incorporates the higher-order thinking skills of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

Collaborative Learning Collaborative learning, as the word directly suggests, emphasises communal and cooperative approaches to learning. It uses the collective resources and skills of the group to build knowledge and share experiences.

As the group works together, it searches for understanding and solutions, or creates a project piece that reflects the learning.

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• Seeks to unfold and weave a biblical perspective into prescribed curricula.

• Encourages students to ask deeper formational questions.

• Requires an unpacking of complexities and roadblocks to learning.

• Incorporates a range of learning experiences.

If it has a weakness, it is that it frequently doesn’t state its bigger picture goal, outside of going deeper.

Discovery Learning Discovery learning emphasises learning by doing.

The learner draws on their own experience and prior knowledge to address learning problems.

Strongly steeped in the constructivist movement, discovery learning can de-emphasise the teacher’s leadership and intended learning goals over against the importance of the student-focused ‘discoveryoutcome’. Bruner (1961), one of the early discovery learning proponents in the 1960s said, “Practice in discovering for oneself teaches one to acquire information in a way that makes that information more readily viable in problem solving” (p. 26).

Expeditionary Learning (EL)

Open Learning

Expeditionary learning, which has recently been branded as EL education, is a relatively new educational movement that has emerged out of a partnership between the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Outward Bound, USA. It has an emphasis on using project-based learning expeditions where students engage in “interdisciplinary, in-depth studies of compelling topics, in groups and in their community, with assessment coming through cumulative products, public presentations and portfolios” (EL website). The bigger goal of EL is to challenge and resource schools with an alternative curriculum approach and to change the learning culture of school communities. EL believes that students are best not assessed by their schoolbased performance in tests but by the quality of their work and character.

Open learning is the most liberal of all the inquirybased approaches with its emphasis on the needs of the learner as they are understood by the learner.

Even though similar to experiential learning, with open learning students do not require guidance and could learn in an unstructured manner. This movement claims that student engagement is enhanced when students are able to follow their own interest topics.

We have drawn from the EL education work and expanded on it in Chapter 3 and Chapter 5, where we look at one of the EL proponents, Berger’s, focus on high quality work (also termed “beautiful work”). We have termed this ‘communicating and celebrating learning’.

Experiential Learning Experiential learning moves beyond the classroom and gives emphasis to learning through experience and reflecting on doing. A branch of experiential learning is the commonly used phrase ‘hands-on learning’ (which doesn’t emphasise student reflection on the learning).

Kolb, developed an experiential learning model which incorporated a cycle of: concrete experience; reflective observation; abstract conceptualisation; active experimentation. Even though experiential learning highlights the meaning-making process of the student’s own experience, and claims that knowledge is gained as a natural, inherent process, according to Kolb it still requires certain fostering elements (Kolb, 2018). These are identified as student interest and reflection, the use of analytical skills to conceptualise, and the use of problem-solving skills to harness the new ideas gained from the experience.

Exploratory Learning Exploratory learning is similar to discovery learning and other investigatory qualities found in many of the inquiry-based approaches. It gives emphasis to students taking control of their own learning by investigating and studying new information and problems with the intent of finding the relationships between what they already know and that which is new and unfamiliar.

Problem-Based Learning Problem-based learning gives emphasis to students learning through the experience of unravelling an open-ended problem that gets its launch from trigger material. It doesn’t focus on the solution to the problem but rather on learning and skills that are built up through the process. It seeks to encourage team-based ongoing learning. Problem-based learning identifies students’ prior knowledge, what they need to know, how they can access the necessary new information, and the skills that are needed to move towards resolution-finding. The mantra “problembased, purposeful responding” has been used in a number of Christian schools.

Project-Based Learning Project-based learning is popular in the Western world, and gives emphasis to students acquiring deeper knowledge through a lively exploration of real-life problems and the growing of a classroom culture that is curious and dynamic in character. It is not dissimilar to active learning, and has also been referred to as immersive learning (shows connection to real-life ideas, scenarios, and choices through exposure to reallife experiences). It encourages students to engage in depth with an area of learning (through a specific project) by investigating and responding to a complex question, challenge, or problem. Whilst a wonderful methodology, not all learning lends itself to projectbased learning, and for some learners this is not the best way for them to learn.

Service Learning Service learning gives emphasis to making connection between learning goals and community-based service programs. It aims to meet societal, or even global, needs in pragmatic ways whilst drawing out (often times unknown or unarticulated) learning outcomes through the experience. At its best, service learning involves students applying learning that has occurred in the classroom to external agencies that exist for the greater social good.

Inquisitive Learning Inquisitive learning (not dissimilar to inquiry-based learning) places the key emphasis on learning that is intrinsically motivated (through the use of natural curiosity and inherent student interest) in contrast to extrinsically motivated learning (through the use of rewards and competitive test scores).

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Chapter 7

Formational Teaching and Learning Practices How do we design and plan for the practice of formational learning?

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Summary Framing Statement: Formational learning develops the mind, captivates the heart, and equips the hand, encouraging curious and courageous learners to explore God’s world and live out the hope of Christ.

Main Idea/Deep Hope

Enduring Understandings

Our deep hope is that teachers will be inspired to intentionally discern, design, and create effective crafted teaching practice for their students.

• There are many approaches to designing and delivering formational learning.

Essential Questions • Is it possible to design and plan for formational learning?

• What is the link between a teacher’s deep hope for their students and the practice of their teaching?

• No methodology is neutral in its outlook. In a fallen world, educational practices have both signs of the Creator and also the fall.

• Teachers must adapt, adjust, and transform every area of pedagogical practice in response to the biblical story.

• What criteria should a teacher use to select strategies and resources for learning?

• Teachers must know their students and the right time, place, and way to challenge, and move learners to a deeper, more connected response.

Further Questions to Ponder

• Teachers need a versatile repertoire of teaching and learning strategies and resources.

• How will the Probing Questions Template assist me to adopt, adapt, and transform my pedagogical choices?

• Which of the ten considerations (or other) are important in my design of this unit/topic?

• Which strategies are most effective for teaching this unit to my class and its context?

• What are the characteristics of my most successful teaching moments which allowed my students to create works of beauty; opportunities for worship, action, response, and meaningful connections?

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Introduction This chapter aims to guide the design and planning of teaching and learning elements that are used throughout a topic/unit of work—the activities, assessment considerations, materials, resources, strategies, and methodologies.

As we consider the array of teaching and learning practices available, we realise again that the choosing of practices is not formulaic or prescriptive. There is no one approach or single set of steps to follow as to how a teacher should design or plan or implement their pedagogical practice. We also are reminded that a critical part of the teacher’s job is to make use of the best resources and practices to facilitate a maximum amount of learning growth. Robinson (2015), in the documentary film Most Likely to Succeed, suggests that: Education is a complex human system. It’s about people. And people are organic creatures. We grow, and we change. If you have an industrial metaphor in your head, then you’re led into the sort of language that we now use about standardisation.

The thing is [education] is much more like gardening than engineering. If you’re a gardener you don’t make it grow, the plant grows itself. You don’t attach the leaves and paint the petals and screw in the roots. The thing grows itself if you create the right conditions. (Robinson, 2015)

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Every context demands a different response. It’s like asking how do I be a disciple? There is no single set of answers. A teacher in an Indigenous school will have a completely different set of responses compared to a teacher in a middle class, urban setting. Both teachers will challenge deeply embedded dysfunction, and both will celebrate unique ways God’s coming Kingdom is being revealed, though the teaching and learning journey they take may be significantly different.

Every teacher brings their own flair and unique context.

Every teacher and every school leader needs the assistance of the wider Christian education network and a set of helpful guiding tools. This chapter presents and explores these guiding tools.

Every era has its own influences. At the time of writing, visible thinking, protocols, explicit learning intentions, student agency, STEM, place-based learning, data, and authentic project learning are key trends. None of these should be uncritically adopted or rejected. Every learning theory, textbook series, instructional practice, and education fad will, in part, reflect aspects of God’s goodness and also aspects of sin’s corruption.

Ineffective Designing and Planning

• Limiting rich and creative options—because it can be more work, or there’s no time in the context of prescribed content pressures.

Ineffective teaching results from ineffective designing and planning. It’s often expressed as activity-focused teaching and coverage-focused teaching. The first approach is ineffectual because there is no linkage to the big picture or purpose of the learning. In the second, the teacher has become more concerned with covering the content rather than thinking about rich understanding and learning formation.

All of these distortions should be avoided. As Christian teachers align their educational practices with the way God has structured things—the way the world, human nature, the teacher, the student, the learning process, and knowledge interrelate—such distortions will diminish.

Other ways that teaching may become ineffective are: falling back on the comfortable and familiar, simplistic pragmatism (does it work?), getting caught up in the latest innovative movement or fad, finding interesting ‘fillers’ which have little real connection to the purpose of the learning.

It is important for teachers to understand where many of these practices or methodologies come from and which worldview may be shaping them. Christian teachers understand that no methodology is neutral in its outlook. In a fallen world, educational practices have both signs of the Creator and also the fall.

Many methodologies promote a distorted view of God’s good design. For example: • Over-reliance on competition—techniques that reward one person at the expense of another.

• Overly student-centric—making the learning only about the student finding their own meaning or positive self-image.

• Providing no direction—leaving the student on an aimless discovery journey as they seek out their own meaning.

Tools to Help Us Choose God has created a good world where every square inch of pedagogical practice is inside the scope of His grace and sovereignty—even despite the corrupting effects of the fall. The following three tools are designed to assist you make intentional, Kingdom-orientated, discernment-rich choices regarding the wide array of practices available.

1. Asking probing questions for the practice of formational learning—striving for a faithful, biblically-framed approach.

2. Pondering considerations for the practice of formational learning—weighing up the key shaping influences of different practices.

3. Choosing strategies for the practice of formational learning—choosing from the most appropriate instructional approaches.

It is important for teachers to understand where many of these practices or methodologies come from and which worldview may be shaping them.

• Fragmenting knowledge—removing the learning from a wider narrative that provides coherence.

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Asking Probing Questions We offer the Probing Questions Template as a helpful discernment tool to reflect on your educational practice. The template is intended to lead to explicit change by examining your practice through guided probing questions. The template can be completed individually or with other teachers in a communal setting.

Whatever pedagogical practices you adopt, it is vital they are chosen because they offer worthy responses to the set of probing questions in the Probing Questions Template. These questions connect the big picture of the biblical narrative with your own pedagogical choices.

The Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Renewal Schema Christian teachers have found it helpful to summarise the big picture biblical story by using the terms creation, fall, redemption, and renewal. These four words capture the biblical narrative and are a useful schema for understanding God’s story.

Creation: We identify with biblical discernment how each practice may be used to facilitate formational learning. Before implementing any pedagogical practice, you should ask questions such as: • How does ……………… resonate with the creation, fall, redemption, renewal schema?

• How does ……………… enhance the response Threads you are focusing on?

Redemption: Jesus’ death enables the reconciliation of all things. His followers bring the grace and power of God’s Kingdom to the here and now of pedagogy. We adapt, adjust, and transform every area of pedagogical practice to submit to the Lordship of Jesus. We ask questions such as: • How can ……………… be transformed so that it announces and facilitates God’s Kingdom?

• How can ……………… be transformed so that it promotes the response Threads you are focusing on?

• How can ……………… be transformed so that it authentically advances formational learning?

Renewal: As we increasingly receive the power of Jesus’ redemption in our lives and work, our pedagogical practice will be renewed by what God is doing through our (and our students’) teaching and learning. We ask questions such as: • How can ……………… facilitate the coming of God’s Kingdom, transforming real problems with Godhonouring solutions?

• How can ……………… provide opportunities for students to enact the response Threads in meaningful, visible ways?

• How can ……………… ensure formational learning leads to explicit action in the way students live in relation to God, others, and the world.

You can use the Probing Questions Template to take a reflective and discerning look at any area of school life, for example:

• How does ……………… enable deep, formational learning?

• Events such as assemblies or parent interviews.

Fall: Sin has affected every area of this world.

There is, therefore, no pedagogical practice which is either neutral or without the corrupting effects of the fall. We identify with biblical discernment how the practice reflects the dominant scripting of culture. These include the ideological idols of empire, scientism, certainty, individualism, pleasure-seeking, violence, technology, and consumption. We ask questions such as:

• Learning structures such as academic groupings.

• How does ……………… reflect the dominant scripting of my society?

Each of these examples could be the [blank] in the probing question in the template. You can apply these questions to the 101 pedagogical issues that you need to focus on.

• How does ……………… suppress or work counter to the focus Threads?

• How does ……………… hinder deep, formational learning?

142 • Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning

• An area of the school such as the canteen or library.

• An item of infrastructure such as electronic whiteboards.

• An instructional approach such as direct instruction.

• School policies such as uniforms or bullying.

• Learning considerations and strategies such as knowing your students or using stories.

Reflection

• The way the content is delivered.

There are so many elements which occur in teaching, and each of these need to be submitted to the transforming power of the Lordship of Jesus. It is suggested, however, that each term, a teacher reflects on just one particular aspect in the following four areas:

• The classroom cultural habits.

• The way the students are assessed.

• The pedagogical philosophy being enacted.

The Probing Questions Template Probing Questions Template I want to think in a God-honouring way about ……………………………………

Probing questions

Responses/notes

Implications for practice

Creation

How does [ ] resonate with the creation, fall, redemption, renewal schema?

How does [ ] enhance the response Threads being focused on?

How does [ ] enable deep, formational learning?

Fall

How does [ ] affect the dominant scripting of my society?

How does [ ] suppress or work counter to the response Threads being focused on?

How does [ ] hinder deep, formational learning?

Redemption

How can [ ] be transformed so that it announces and facilitates God’s Kingdom?

How can [ ] be transformed so that it promotes the response Threads being focused on?

How can [ ] be transformed so that it authentically advances formational learning?

Renewal

How can [ ] facilitate the coming of God’s Kingdom, transforming real problems with God-honouring solutions?

How can [ ] provide opportunities for students to enact the chosen response Threads in meaningful, visible ways?

How can [ ] ensure formational learning leads to explicit action in the way students live in relation to God, others, and the world?

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 143

The Probing Questions Template: Example 1 Probing Questions Template I want to think in a God-honouring way about child-oriented learning.

Probing questions Responses/notes How does childThe idea of the individual is important in oriented learning the biblical narrative. Personal sin, personal resonate with choice, and personal destiny are woven into the creation, fall, the biblical idea of salvation. redemption, renewal Every individual person has a unique role to schema? play in God’s story.

Implications for practice This means I need to cater for and honour (as God does) the fact that we are all on a different part of the spiritual formation journey. I need to allow my students who don’t have a personal faith to have a genuine and respected voice in my class.

I find it difficult to allow doubt (which is something we all experience) to be expressed and I will make efforts to create space for doubt to be expressed without the felt need to bring certainty or resolution.

Child-oriented learning can enhance This will mean I need to allow a safe EMBRACING DIVERSITY by honouring classroom that encourages authentic students’ different experiences, attitudes, and expressions of individuality. This can help beliefs. our class learn empathy and also strengthen our learning as multiple ways of ‘being’ are Child-oriented learning can enhance expressed.

REFLECTING CREATIVITY by honouring the various creative gifts of each person in the This will mean I need authentic opportunities class. for students to use their creative gifts to demonstrate their learning journey. I can also invite students to be co-facilitators as we unpack the content of this unit in creative, meaningful ways.

Child-oriented learning honours each Rather than having generic group responses individual student’s response to the learning. to authentic learning, I must allow each student to respond to the needs we learn Child-oriented learning incorporates an about in ways that are authentic to each individual student’s character growth in the child. learning journey.

I must expect each child to be on a different journey and to respond differently as I will to them.

The right to individualism seems to be the As a teacher there are some things about most important thing to many people. TV ads schooling that I cannot control that are scream, “It’s all about you!”. We see our self about individual effort, attainment, and primarily in terms of individuality, rather than award (think NAPLAN). There are other as part of a family, or tribe. What matters is things which I can change. In my teaching my happiness, my rights, my body, my future. this term, I am going to prioritise celebrating the successes of our class rather than individual. I’m going to highlight the benefits of teamwork and cooperation. I’m going to engage students in conversations that critique society’s deep framing of individualism.

Child-oriented learning can distort the I am going to incorporate group tasks in EMBRACING of DIVERSITY by prioritising the the unit and explain that the point of the importance of the individual over the welfare group task is not so much the outcome, but of the whole and give a warped importance the need to submit our individual creative on emphasising differences over the need to strengths to the good of the whole group. submit our personal differences to others.

Creation

The Scriptures honour individual journeys of faith.

How does childoriented learning enhance the response Threads being focused on?

How does childoriented learning enable deep, formational learning?

Fall

How does childoriented learning affect the dominant scripting of my society?

How does childoriented learning suppress or work counter to the response Threads being focused on?

How does childoriented learning hinder deep, formational learning?

Child-oriented learning can distort REFLECTING CREATIVITY by framing it exclusively on individual creativity, individual expression, and individual desires.

Formational learning cannot reach maturity in me-centredness but must be responsive to, and informed by, the needs and desires of others.

144 • Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning

In this unit I will ask students to explain how their learning journey has been helped by others and how their personal character growth will enable them to be responsive to the needs of others.

Redemption

Probing questions How can childoriented learning be transformed so that it announces and facilitates God’s Kingdom?

How can childoriented learning be transformed so that it promotes the response Threads being focused on?

Responses/notes Too often my teaching focuses on the middle of the ‘bell curve’ and my classroom operates in-line with a factory model of education in which people serve the system. The gospel announces good news to the oppressed and reminds me that both systems and people must be liberated by His grace.

By welcoming each student’s individual giftings and frailties in the context of the class community’s welfare, my classroom demonstrates the beautiful diversity, mutual submission, and nature of God’s family which rejects uniformity, seeks unity, and celebrates God’s call to every tribe, nation, and tongue to be a new creation.

Before using this template, I had planned to focus on the differences of each student. I was thinking about each child as a singular disconnected entity.

Renewal

How can childoriented learning be transformed so that it authentically advances formational learning?

Implications for practice I want to acknowledge the success/ struggles of all students. I’ll structure independent learning time to facilitate 1:1 conferencing.

On my pinboard, I will create a tapestry wall where students can use coloured bits of paper to provide their insights to the guiding question of the unit. Students will be given time to respond to each other’s comments.

Where possible, I will allow flexibility in forms of expression while achieving the deep hope and content descriptors of the unit.

I will now focus on the differences and celebrate how these differences can enhance and support the welfare and learning of the whole learning community.

I will also proactively seek ways to bring flexibility into the organisational elements of class routine to support expressions of diversity.

I will not give or accept easy, shallow answers.

Acknowledging individual strengths and weaknesses can assist me to effectively tailor learning opportunities that ensure formational I will provide students with the time and learning occurs for each student. tools to journal their personal learning By considering each individual student as I journey using growth mindset language. plan my teaching program, I become more aware of the need to provide opportunities for personal expressions of ‘Aha!’.

How can childI want each individual student to use their In response to (and as part of) the unit, each oriented learning new knowledge to address real needs and child will identify an issue in our school/town facilitate the coming make a positive difference. I also want them to which they believe they could do something of God’s Kingdom see that by seeking the assistance of a wider about. They will work with three other transforming real network (than themselves), they are able to students using the ‘tuning protocol’ to assist problems with God- be more effective. them in this response. honouring solutions?

How can As students individually respond to their I will hand agency of the choice to the child-oriented identified need (above), demonstrating students, asking them to consider the learning provide competence in their new learning, they will be inevitable usual classroom constraints opportunities drawing from and displaying their individual (timetable, OH&S, cost, etc.). for students to differences (I’m imagining they will come up Students will be encouraged to identify and enact the chosen with a wide range of needs based on their use their creative outlet to bless others. response Threads in personal interests, backgrounds, etc.) meaningful, visible ways?

How can childI understand that anything outside the usual I will ‘sell’ my vision for this unit to my dept oriented learning 50 min class requires the assistance of others head and fellow teachers so they can see the ensure formational and the correct accountability (OH&S, parental benefit from the ‘messiness’ which studentlearning leads to communication, permission from head, etc.). led projects often cause. explicit action in I also understand that me lecturing to my I will invite the students into the redeeming the way students student’s brains is ineffective in ensuring work of our Father and the reality that each live in relation to formation learning and that real learning leads person has a responsibly to use their unique God, others, and the to action. and personal background to bless others as world? we pray that His Kingdom come and His will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Thanks to Daniel Clarke, QLD, for this template example.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 145

The Probing Questions Template: Example 2 Probing Questions Template

Creation

I want to think in a God-honouring way about data and statistics in Year 9 mathematics.

Probing questions How does data and statistics resonate with the creation, fall, redemption, renewal schema?

How does data and statistics enhance the response Threads being focused on?

How does data and statistics enable deep, formational learning?

Fall

How does data and statistics affect the dominant scripting of my society?

How does data and statistics suppress or work counter to the response Threads being focused on?

How does data and statistics hinder deep, formational learning?

Responses/notes We can use data and statistics collected to analyse trends, highlight where things are going wrong or right, and enable future planning to solve problems.

Implications for practice Recognise that data and statistics can give a ‘picture’ to particular issues that in the end will require a response from students that will reflect their worldview.

Whenever talking about and working Encourage students to question their ‘prewith data and statistics it is important to judged’ stance and to ‘walk in someone remember that they are about people, often else’s shoes’. highlighting people who require support, empathy, and compassion.

Often, we are required to respond to the situations.

Looking at data and statistics on homelessness will enable students to focus on a specific issue which is relevant to our area in Australia.

Enable students to question their preconceived ideas and realise often we respond out of ignorance or fear.

Our society often encourages us to ‘look after myself’ so I will get good grades and keep well. It implies that people who are homeless are lazy, drunks, and drug addicts and if they just got on with life and put some effort into things all would work out.

The dominant thought that, ‘if you work hard and make good decisions, then all will work out,’ implies that the homeless get what they deserve and therefore they are not my responsibility nor deserving of my time.

When data and statistics is reduced to numbers and graphs and there is no thought about finding solutions or ways forward.

146 • Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning

Students will have an opportunity at the beginning to complete a survey on homelessness and redo it at the end of the unit of study. They will then be able to reflect on how their understandings have changed or deepened.

Students will have an opportunity to gather their own data of society’s attitudes and values through conducting their own surveys with the public of Melbourne.

Watching particular parts of Filthy Rich and Homeless.

Homelessness is a very large issue with no easy fixes.

What can our responses as individuals and a class be? Empathy and compassion are the first step.

Analyse the data. Recognise some trends, common themes, and remember you are talking about people’s lives.

Renewal

Redemption

Probing questions How can data and statistics be transformed so that it announces and facilitates God’s Kingdom?

Responses/notes Data and statistics is about people and their issues, therefore just analysis of graphs and tables without that lens will reduce people to just numbers.

Implications for practice Recognise what compassion, and empathy are and the difference between sympathy and empathy.

Recognise that compassion and empathy Each person is made in the image of God and require courage—both physically and therefore is valued by Him and therefore by emotionally—and so some students will us. need to be supported as they look at situations from another point of view.

How can data Often, we do not understand or grasp Give students an opportunity to role play and statistics be another person’s situation as it is far from being in situations homeless people are transformed so that our own experiences. often in. E.g., finding somewhere safe to it promotes the sleep, where and how to get food, not response Threads being acknowledged. being focused on?

How can data Look at other data and statistics and Give other examples of data and statistics and statistics be recognise the humanness of the numbers that could be interpreted as just numbers transformed so and graphs. and graphs but are about people. E.g., that it authentically guest speaker from the Justice Dept. advances formational learning?

How can data and It is important for students to recognise Compassion and empathy are best statistics facilitate that the value of each human being is not developed as a response to students’ the coming of just because we are good citizens but rather relationship with God. If it is just because God’s Kingdom stems from the compassion and empathy we want to be good citizens, then we do it transforming real that God first showed us. in our own strength and this will wane and problems with run out.

God-honouring solutions?

How can data and It is sometimes easy to just jump in and do Give opportunities to respond as a class, statistics provide something and then life moves on. I want i.e., make up food or hygiene packages. opportunities to encourage students to carry a mantle of Brainstorm and encourage students to for students to compassion and empathy wherever they go. volunteer somewhere regularly that is not enact the chosen about any gain for them but service to response Threads in others, e.g., food bank, soup kitchen, etc. meaningful, visible ways?

How can data Recognise the value and courage of being Encourage students to ask God for and statistics compassionate and empathetic and how it is opportunities and have the courage to ensure formational the overflowing of God’s love for us to others show compassion and empathy wherever learning leads to and a response to our faith in God. they find themselves. explicit action in the Regularly encourage students to share way students live stories where they have continued to show in relation to God, compassion and empathy in their family, others, and the friendship circle, volunteering somewhere, world? or as they are going about their usual activities.

Thanks to Andrea Metcalfe, VIC, for this template example.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 147

Pondering Considerations 3. The Learning Cycle Does my planning reflect the learning cycle?

What are the key considerations that you should keep in mind as you plan and design your practice? The 10 considerations we have outlined all drive towards formational learning. They have high impact, actively facilitate, or are intrinsic to, a formational learning approach.

4. Doing It Differently Am I having a go at something new?

5. Flexibility, Innovation, and Creativity Does my teaching utilise flexibility, innovation, and creativity?

These considerations are not exhaustive or prescriptive. Many others could have also been chosen. We recognise that God’s Kingdom will have its own flavour in different communities, and each school/teacher may well ponder their own set of considerations. For example, the set below does not include the critically important role of positive teacherstudent relationships (because this is already covered in Chapter 3).

6. Present and Future Skills Am I preparing my students’ critical contemporary and future learning skills?

7. Deeper Learning Does my planning allow students to move towards deeper learning?

8. Expectations for All Do I have high and attainable expectations for all?

Under the central heading in Diagram 7.1 is a generic set of probing questions that is useful for all 10 considerations. This set of questions, along with the specific list provided at the end of each consideration section, are prompting tools. The aim is not to burden teachers with an extra load of list-checking, auditing, or unnecessary documentation. Only questions that are relevant and useful for exploration should be thoughtfully addressed.

9. Intentional Selection Am I intentionally selecting activities and resources to achieve my learning goals?

10. Diversity Does my planning recognise and respond to diversity?

Overarching Probing Questions • How does this consideration support the learning goals that I’m working towards?

Ten Considerations

• What considerations have worked/not worked for me/others in similar situations in the past?

Crafted teaching can be enhanced by reflecting on the following considerations:

• Why is this consideration more pertinent for this specific area of study?

1. The Big Picture Do I have a clear big picture?

• How does this consideration assist my students’ understanding and use of the enduring understandings, Threads, and/or biblical response to the learning?

2. The Knowledge of Students Do I have a deep knowledge of who my students are?

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Diagram 7.1. The considerations for formational learning.

1. The Big Picture

2. Knowledge of Students

Do I have a clear big picture?

Do I have a deep knowledge of who my students are?

Effective planning occurs when the teacher has a clear big picture in mind (knowing the purpose of the learning) and a clear understanding of the desired learning outcomes and acceptable evidence of learning (having a clear view of what success looks like as described in the visible learning material). An example of a clear big picture might be, “My main hope is that my students can explain to me not only what my learning intention was for the class, but can articulate the biblical response and thinking in ways I hadn’t even thought of. I plan for formational learning, and my hope is that students reach the depths and go beyond where I thought I could take them.”

You need to know your students. Knowing your students is not collecting more data about them.

It involves understanding who they are, their prior knowledge and outlooks, and their dispositions and motivations. In an interesting mnemonic (memory aid), Hattie (2016) suggests knowing the skill, will, and thrill is helpful to encapsulate what we should know about our students:

Being able to articulate—even for each lesson—the key learning outcome is an essential teaching skill. It shows that the teacher knows where they are going.

As this is modelled by the teacher, the student has the opportunity to clarify their understanding of what is expected. “The decisions teachers make,” suggests Schoenfeld (as cited in Marzano, 2007), “. . . about the focus of units of instruction, the lessons within those units and the segments within each lesson, provide the infrastructure for effective or ineffective teaching” (p. 176).

Specific probing questions you might ask are: • Do I have a clear big picture understanding of my overall formational learning goals and of my more specific desired learning outcome?

• Am I spending time across the unit explicitly teaching the big picture learning outcome?

• How will my students express their understanding of, the desired learning outcome, enduring understandings, and a biblical response to the learning?

• How will my students achieve the depth of learning that I am expecting?

• Prior knowledge and faith—the skill/s, knowledge, experiences, interests, and faith that a student brings.

• Disposition—the will and attitude towards learning that a student brings.

• Motivation—the thrill that a student brings to the learning.

Prior knowledge and faith What do your students already know? It is crucial to plan learning with an understanding of the knowledge base that your students have. What are their prior achievements, skills, and understandings? To assist both teachers and students in assessing their prior learning, it can be a useful exercise before launching into the topic for teachers to provide time and space for students to reflect and articulate their initial thoughts and understandings on the topic.

Apart from their knowledge and skill base, students bring other influences to the classroom, including their working memory, beliefs, family support and expectations, and different cultural backgrounds.

Students also come to their learning with prior biblical understanding, faith experiences, and worldview, all of which influence their attitude and responses to the learning. The wide variety of beliefs that exist within the class group can be a challenge for you to navigate.

Your consideration of the biblical knowledge and faith understandings within a class group needs to be done in a safe and respectful way that recognises diversity, difference, and doubt.

Disposition to learning

Effective planning occurs when the teacher has a clear big picture in mind (knowing the purpose of the learning) and a clear understanding of the desired learning outcomes and acceptable evidence of learning (having a clear view of what success looks like as described in the visible learning material).

What are your students’ dispositions to learning?

Dispositions include student resilience, confidence, emotional strength, resourcefulness, mindset, and learning temperaments.

One of your roles is to enhance students’ learning dispositions and to seek to engender a positive and engaged approach to learning. You assist students to see that learning isn’t a fixed thing and that their dispositional outlook has a significant impact on their learning outcomes.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 149

Motivations for learning

3. The Learning Cycle Does my planning reflect the learning cycle?

The learning cycle can be an effective way to develop research, problem-solving, and thinking skills. Diagram

150 • Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning

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• What are my students’ prior biblical understandings and faith experiences concerning the questions and topics to be explored?

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Specific probing questions you might ask are:

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In my early years of teaching, I was “the fun teacher” bursting with confidence and more than a bit of hubris. I kept my students entertained. They liked me. They liked my class. Whatever was to be covered became an object of knowledge that I, as the expert, would deliver by way of gimmicks and glamour to my students. Consequently, I judged my teaching by the ease with which I was able to transmit information along a linear, one-path of knowing. My idea of good teaching was to focus on the creation and delivery of palatable, handson, though not necessarily minds-on, activities.

Becoming a good teacher meant mastering a set of delivery techniques and knowing all the answers to my students’ questions. In those years, it had not yet occurred to me that good teaching hinged upon what I knew and understood about the learners themselves and about how learning happens. However, it was not until I really examined the issue of what is understanding and how does it develop that I actually began the process of becoming a teacher. Only then did I recognise that work and activity are not synonymous with learning.

(Ritchhart, Church, & Morrison, 2011, pp. 9-10)

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Why do your students want to learn? Do they want to learn? Do they want to really master a topic or just pass the test at the end? Do they know the difference?

Teachers want to ensure that students are motivated to make deeper connections and perhaps to challenge what they already know. Rewarding effort more than short-term test outcomes can revitalise student motivation for learning. The following quote from Making Thinking Visible is illustrative:

Diagram 7.2 Two ways of considering the learning cycle (based on Kolb and Kolb 2018).

7.2 shows two ways of considering the learning cycle, as suggested by Kolb and Kolb (2018). A growing number of learning theories have incorporated their own set of labels for a learning cycle, though the basic core elements tend to be consistent: experiencing, reflecting, thinking, acting.

The learning process is not linear. It includes opportunities for experience, thinking, reflection, action, and evaluation—all based on timely feedback and guidance along the way. When you plan through the deepening cyclic spiral of learning, you are considering how best to facilitate student learning.

Within the learning cycle for students, you are expected to:

• Provide timely, insightful, and robust feedback, to assist students to self-monitor, self-adjust, and selfevaluate.

elements of the learning cycle: learning through doing, experimenting, stepping off, and having the boldness (using godly wisdom and discernment) to have a go.

• Provide adequate and appropriate measures of time to increase the depth of understanding and allow an opportunity for response.

The Teaching for Transformation program from the Centre for the Advancement of Christian Education refers to this notion with the phrase, “Commit to try”. This phrase wonderfully captures the need for a teacher to make a commitment to themselves (and others for accountability) to try out a new idea.

• Adjust and guide students throughout the learning process to move students’ learning forward.

In your own professional development learning cycle, you will engage in a personal and school-based process of reflective and evaluative practice, involving timely appraisals, structured self-reflection, and reviews.

Reflective and evaluative practice helps you craft your teaching. This leads to formational learning practices that respond to student needs.

Students will come to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the main idea or the biblical Thread(s) of a topic when they have the time to explore, test, and revisit at increasingly deeper reflection levels. As Kolb and Kolb suggest, “In the cycle of learning, learners receive information through concrete experiences and transform it through reflection and thinking and then transform it again through their actions to change the world” (2018, p. 8). Burggraaf (2014) suggests, “Students are immersed in experiencing an aspect of God’s world, then withdraw to pose questions, reflect, draw connections and finally return to explore deeper insights” (p. 96).

Specific probing questions you might ask are: • Am I providing opportunities to experience, reflect, think, and respond to the formational learning (the learning cycle)?

• Have I given sufficient time for students to experience, think, reflect, and respond to the learning?

• How is progress being monitored during learning events? How will students get feedback about that progress?

• How have students been given the opportunity to articulate (and give feedback about) what their learning has been?

4. Doing It Differently Am I trying new things?

Courage and boldness are great qualities of effective teaching. These qualities reflect our image-bearing of our courageous, bold, creative God who charges us with the cultural mandate. His instruction to us is to become co-creators with Him: creating in His image, building His Kingdom, and spreading His shalom.

This is the opposite to merely delivering content or becoming staid in our practice. It involves using the

Specific probing questions you might ask are: • What has stirred within me that has prompted the idea of having a go at something new?

• Have I checked out my fresh idea against considerations 1 and 2?

• What review mechanisms am I setting in place to learn from the ‘commit to try’ or to build on it?

5. Flexibility, Innovation, and Creativity Does my teaching utilise flexibility, innovation, and creativity?

Suggesting that effective learning requires you to be flexible, innovative, and creative is stating the obvious. This consideration builds off the previous two considerations—‘the learning cycle’ and ‘doing it differently’. However, we make special mention of these qualities because many mainstream learning models, coupled with a mandated curriculum, can inhibit your flexibility, and creative potential. The same restrictiveness can occur when a teacher gets locked into following one particular movement or model.

Effective teaching, by its very nature, is dynamic and creative. It reflects our image-bearing of the creative God who charges us to develop and delight in all things. Therefore, Christian schools should seek to nurture a culture of flexibility, innovation, and creativity where “teachers are encouraged to be adventurous, pursuing new ways of doing things, expanding their repertoire of teaching frameworks, strategies and tools and exploring experiences that enrich the learning of students” (Burggraaf, 2014, p. 35).

Flexible, innovative, and creative teachers will be modelling the virtues of curiosity, inventiveness, imagination, resourcefulness, initiative, independence, and inter-dependence to their students. Jacobs and Alcock (2017), suggest that, “The ability to generate fresh ideas, think boldly and invent creatively requires a learning culture that supports generative and playful thinking, fluid collaboration and design opportunities” (p. 22).

Inherent to the craft of teaching is the need for

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 151

teachers to be flexible. Teachers have to manage and make real-time decisions about multiple variables every day. Marzano (2007) points out that experienced teachers can anticipate situations and generate contingency plans based on those possibilities. This can run counter to the expectations articulated within a lesson plan or perceived expectations of covering the syllabus content. Teachers must hold the creative tension between their well-planned intentionality and the need for flexibility.

As is frequently mentioned in this resource, Christian educators need to discern, use, test, and critique from the wonderful array of educational innovations and strategies that are available. A rich collection of innovative ideas and theories are on offer for teachers to investigate, particularly those within inquiry-based learning (see Chapter 6): metacognitive reflection, PEEL strategies, habits of mind, building learning power, learning muscles, taxonomies of learning, multiple intelligences, thinkers keys, graphic organisers, and interesting methodologies like simulation, role play, multimedia, etc.

While we are encouraging teachers to maximise flexible, innovative, and creative qualities, we do not believe that all the qualities of good teaching come from the flamboyant or adventurous end of the spectrum. They don’t. Crafting teaching is making choices as to what methodology is appropriate for the learning context. While there are many times when effective learning is simply a knuckle-down program that demands grit, self-discipline, determination, and hard work, teachers should continue to look for creative ways of impacting learning. As Burggraaf (2014) reminds us: Educational methodologies should stimulate a rich range of learning responses from the ‘aha’ experience of discovery, curiosity and discernment, to the ‘ah’ experience of awe, wonder, delight, admiration and praise, to the ‘haha’ experience of playfulness, laughter, celebration, fun and aesthetic delight, to the ‘ha’ experience of action, enterprise, service and industry. (p. 35)

Specific probing questions you might ask are: • Can I label the inhibitors to being more flexible, innovative, and creative? What may be holding me back from trying with a new methodology?

• What (different) methodologies would an observer of my teaching say that I use?

Stealing like an artist Kleon (2012) in his book Steal Like an Artist, presents a set of norms for the way one might work with, use, and build on others’ ideas. The Centre for the Advancement of Christian Education, refer to these norms when encouraging teachers to steal ideas and innovations from others. By comparing good theft and bad theft the list below presents Kleon’s norms.

We acknowledge that very few ideas are original and that there is little that is ‘new under the sun’. It is important that while we encourage freethinking, innovation, and creativity, in the main, this arises from being prompted by others’ ideas.

Therefore we also encourage collaboration, appropriate borrowing (expressed in a tongue in cheek way as ‘theft’), and acknowledgement.

6. Present and Future Skills Am I preparing my students with critical, contemporary, and future learning skills?

For most of human history, education has focused on transmitting knowledge and content with the implication that the more you know the better equipped you’ll be. The main mechanism for the acquisition of this knowledge was through the teacher.

Today, knowledge is ubiquitous. It’s free and available on every Internet-connected device. It’s changing constantly and growing exponentially.

In this new technological and data age, learning needs have changed. The students who will engage effectively with their learning are those who: • Will experiment and fail with creativity and courage (interestingly non-cognitive traits).

• Develop critical thinking/discernment skills.

• Can my curriculum be organised/grasped differently to allow for some innovation?

• Develop communication (including new media) skills/expertise.

• Because brainstorming occurs more successfully in groups, what group processes are in place for me to brainstorm well?

Two comments about this reorientation. First, this flies in the face of providing an ever-increasing contentheavy prescribed curriculum. Interestingly, load reduction theory points towards that old adage: less is

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more. It suggests that the learner needs less content and breadth of focus to go deeper (Martin, 2016).

Second, an emphasis on new skills still requires key worldview framing (as previously outlined), and basic necessary content.

Christian education should: • Value students having inquiring and critical minds— minds that continually seek to renew their thinking to engage, critique, and transform the world.

7. Deeper Learning Does my planning allow students to move towards deeper learning?

Hattie (2012), in his influential book Visible Learning for Teachers, discusses what is needed for students to move through the different learning or curriculum levels. Hattie states the importance of teachers and students needing to know:

• Actively promote the search for godly wisdom.

• The learning intentions and the criteria for student success in their lessons (Where are you going?).

• Develop the skills of truth discernment, critical thinking, and shrewd inquiry.

• How well they are attaining these criteria (How are you going?).

• Develop the skills of media analysis and criticism— assisting students in producing quality products using various media through being knowledgeable, technically proficient, and aesthetically skilled.

• Where they should go next if there is a gap between students’ current knowledge and understanding and the success criteria (Where to next?).

• Expound on the given interconnectedness of knowledge across the subject fields.

In an increasingly distorted ‘post-truth’ information age, 21st century skills are vital for the continued engaging in life-long learning, and crucial if students are to make meaningful links with their culture.

Christian teachers should seek to model this outlook and skills.

The skills of critical thinking and new communication are just a number of what educators are calling ‘soft skills’. Other skills include design thinking, out-of-thebox thinking, fresh idea creation, confidence building, collaboration and teamwork, working alone, learning from criticism, perseverance through trials, time management, positive work ethic, problem solving, and solution generation.

Hattie and Donohue’s (2016) research presented in Learning Strategies: A synthesis and Conceptual Model proposes that various learning strategies are powerful at certain stages in the learning cycle. They suggest that teachers often focus more on surface learning and don’t move onto deeper learning or what they term “transfer learning”. They suggest that: Teachers need to move from the single idea to multiple ideas, and to relate and then extend these ideas such that learners construct, and reconstruct knowledge and ideas. It is not the knowledge or the ideas, but the learner’s construction of this knowledge and ideas that is critical. (p. 19) It is easy to get lost in content knowledge and only cover surface level learning because of pressure to cover content, time restraints, or simply running with activities because it’s easier. When this happens, learning isn’t formational and it can fail to get below the surface—deeper learning.

Specific probing questions you might ask are:

The key crafting skills that you need to employ:

• What opportunities are there to bring discernment into the places where cultural voices impact learning?

Sequencing – carefully planning the sequence of activities, themes, and assessment across the unit of work. Consider how to align the strategies and activities used to each phase of learning (finding the appropriate time and place).

• What parts of the curriculum need to increase my students’ critical thinking and communication skilling?

• How have I equipped students with proficiency in IT and digital skilling for the purpose of creating, manipulating, and unpacking topical issues, formats, and products?

• How does my learning plan provide students with the opportunity to be discerning media critics, design thinkers, and complex problem solvers?

Scaffolding – building students’ learning over time, with a learning plan that is designed with appropriate instructional strategies for layering the learning.

Scaffolding assists students to move from an introduction stage (with its surface level understanding and the provision of foundational knowledge and basic skills) to a deeper stage (with its consolidating, in-depth analysis, higher cognitive strategies, and deepening of the learning). Scaffolding also assists students to move to an ‘owned’ stage (where students can ‘transfer’ their deeper understandings and apply them to new situations—or show how formational learning has resulted in action or changed attitudes, understandings, or behaviour). Once the student has

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 153

mastered the task, the scaffolding support can be removed as the student should be able to engage in new tasks on their own.

While formational learning seeks to go deep, it can only do so based on a solid foundation of necessary preparatory knowledge and skills. Hattie’s research established that learning is only significantly deepened after students have built up sufficient knowledge, understanding, and vocabulary. In light of this, there has been a renewed interest in more explicit approaches to teaching and learning: like direct instruction.

It is important to recognise that the surface learning stage is still a crucial building stage where students are provided with multiple opportunities (rehearse, model, practise, revise) to scaffold before consolidating and then building on their learning and moving to higherorder thinking and levels of metacognition. Scaffolding holds the structure while students are assisted to make their own links to prior knowledge. The key is scaffolding the learning and knowing when learners are ready to move forward to deeper levels of learning.

continually about their impact on all students, modifying their teaching in light of this evaluation, and joining in the success of truly making a difference to student outcomes. (p. 60) It is vitally important that teachers communicate and expect high achievement from every student, irrespective of their academic starting point. The best teachers are those who can relate, challenge, and move every one of their students forward in their learning progression.

Van Brummelen (2002) asks, “Do the activities encourage the learning of enduring understandings, worthwhile skills, important values and high level thinking skills at a high but attainable level of achievement?” (p. 188). He is ensuring that this focus isn’t directed just at the ‘academic’ end of the student cohort when he includes the label “attainable”.

Specific probing questions you might ask are: • What are the expectations that I have for my students?

Specific probing questions you might ask are:

• How will I communicate my (high) expectations for all of my students?

• How does my sequencing encourage deep formational learning?

• Can students articulate the learning expectation?

• How will I scaffold the key learning goals across the unit?

• Have I identified the low and high achieving students?

• How will I identify when students are getting to the formational learning I am after?

• Am I treating the low-achieving students differently in terms of expectations?

• Where can I implement higher-order thinking activities in the unit of study?

• Am I letting the high-achievers coast?

9. Intentional Selection 8. Expectations for All Do I have high and attainable expectations for all?

Learning should be full of academic challenge and rigour that stretches every student to grow from their starting point. Indeed, the teacher’s expectation of high and attainable outcomes has a most significant influence on the learning outcomes of the student.

Marzano (2007) has even gone as far to say that the measure of expectation that the teacher has towards the student “is perhaps one of the most powerful hidden dynamics of teaching because it is typically an unconscious activity”(p. 162). Hattie (2012) also suggests that: Accomplishing the maximum impact on student learning depends on teams of teachers working together, with excellent leaders or coaches, agreeing on worthwhile outcomes, setting high expectations, knowing the students’ starting point and desired success in learning, seeking evidence

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Am I intentionally selecting activities and resources to achieve my learning goals?

Of all the aspects of planning, teachers are most confident with, and find the most enjoyment from, planning the actual learning activities. Indeed, the average teacher’s filing system is full of learning resources, research, ideas, and strategies that they have collected over time. How can these broad collections, and the overflowing inbox of new ideas and resources, be tapped into effectively?

The craft of teaching is most evident when the selection of resources used is: • Matched with a particular learner group.

• Appropriately placed in the learning process.

• Making a valuable contribution to the realisation of the desired learning goal.

Specific probing questions you might ask are: • How will the selected activities and resources affect the head, heart, and hand of students?

• What resources most effectively realise the main idea for the topic?

• How do I evaluate the effectiveness of a resource?

• How might I adapt the resource material to best meet student needs and respond to the context of the learning?

Differentiation is based on the understanding that the interests, needs, abilities, backgrounds, strengths, and weaknesses of students will be different. Wellcrafted teaching takes these differences into account as the learning is shaped and planned. Tomlinson and McTighe (2006) highlight the need for diverse learning responses: Learning happens within students, not to them.

Learning is the process of making meaning that happens one student at a time. . . . However impressive curriculum design is, it will have to be implemented in diverse ways in response to diverse learner needs. (p. 22)

10. Diversity

Specific probing questions you might ask are:

Does my planning recognise and respond to diversity?

• How do I know my students are actually learning the desired learning outcomes?

There is growing pressure on teachers to differentiate their learning plans to meet the learning needs of all their students. Many curriculum planning templates will include a separate space where teachers are required to articulate these plans.

This is a worthy recognition of natural diversity found within the creation and, as such, is a justice and equity fairness issue for all students. On the other hand, this expectation should not be overemphasised to the measure that teachers feel they need to generate detailed, individual learning plans for every student.

This is an unrealistic expectation and is likely to result in meaningless box-filling.

• What am I doing for the students that aren’t ‘getting it’?

• What am I doing for the students who already understand and are in need of extension?

• What differentiation strategies have I used to reflect my understanding of how this group of students learn?

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 155

Choosing Strategies Teachers love to have a collection of practical ideas and activities to enrich their teaching and learning.

Even the most experienced teacher is typically open to regularly expanding their repertoire of strategies.

Marzano (2007) reminds that it is somewhat selfevident that effective teachers choose more effective learning strategies. He reassures us that, “In short, research will never be able to identify instructional strategies that work with every student in every class.

The best research can do is tell us which strategies have a good chance (i.e., high probability) of working well with students. Individual classroom teachers must determine which strategies to employ with the right students at the right time.” (p. 5)

These strategies are not exhaustive or prescriptive, and you may well have other strategies that you consider using. Christian teachers need to discern, use, test, and critique from the wonderful array of educational strategies that are available.

The 10 strategies we’ve chosen to highlight are:

When we speak of strategies, we refer to the myriad of decisions we make in answer to questions like, “How do I best teach . . . ?”, and, “What strategies best support formational learning?”. Therefore, our criteria have focused on crafting teaching for formational learning.

The following 10 strategies have been included in this resource as they: • Help teachers use a variety of effective ways to realise learning outcomes.

• Enhance student engagement in their learning.

• Have been tried and tested in enhancing formational learning.

Hook

Launching into the topic area

Clash

Contrasting ideas and charitable debating

Collaborate

Empowering the student voice within the learner community

Connect

Connecting to life and other audiences

Experience

Immersing students in significant learning experiences

Question

The skill of questioning and challenging

Story

Using stories to open up the learning

Reflect

Building an understanding of how students learn

Think

Fostering critical thinking, discernment, and wisdom

Act

The response action that flows from learning

Clash

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Coll a

Strategies for Formational Learning

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Think

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Diagram 7.3. Strategies for formational learning.

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Probing Questions The following probing questions are prompting tools.

They can be asked of all 10 strategies. However, they should only be used where relevant. You should not have to go through responding to each of these questions— only apply them as is helpful to you as a curious and courageous teacher aiming for formational learning.

You can ask: • What has worked for me/my colleagues previously?

• What has not worked for me/my colleagues previously?

• Why am I choosing this strategy?

• How have I been discerning in this choice?

• Does the strategy support the learning goals/ student understanding that I’m working towards?

• How does the strategy enhance the opportunities to understand and use the enduring understandings listed?

• How does the strategy enhance the opportunities to engage and explore the biblical story (Threads)?

After each of the following 10 strategies, three examples are provided and one other teaching/ suggestion which includes visible thinking and understanding routines, protocols, and norms.

Protocols Protocols have been used since the 1980s to bring structure to professional conversations between teachers. Protocols have become a key tool for building professional learning communities in many places. As teachers have experienced the benefits of bringing structured protocols to professional discussions, many have begun using them in the classroom to help students have deeper, more participatory, group dialogue as part of the learning process.

Protocols provide: • Processes during dialogue that focus discussion.

• Structures for groups that facilitate deeper learning.

• Guidelines that have been agreed upon that make discussions safe, effective, and accessible for all (the processes, structures, and guidelines ensure everyone participates, and dialogue is not dominated by individual personalities).

Visible Thinking Many educators would agree with the goal of their students becoming critical thinkers; and in doing so, become curious, reflective, empathetic, problem solvers or even people who can critique and challenge ideas, assumptions, or worldviews presented to them.

Students can then go on to use these skills effectively in the appropriate contexts.

By creating opportunities for students to document their thoughts, questions, and perspectives teachers will add value to those ideas and engage students in thinking more deeply. Harvard University’s Project Zero has explored these ideas and suggests that the easiest way to make learning more visible is to get started by documenting thinking through the use of Thinking Routines. Their website has many suggested routines that have been designed to capture different types of thinking (see the Thinking Routines Matrix).

Visible thinking recognises that when most students are faced with too much information they tend to shut down, and that students learn best when they can see, hear, note, and capture/draw their own ideas. Therefore, they suggest that teachers need to make thinking visible through the use of simple structured routines that assist students in the process of learning.

Teachers have found these helpful to shape a culture of thinking and promote deeper connections from every student according to their varying abilities. As the website suggests: The idea of visible thinking helps to make concrete what a thoughtful classroom might look like. At any moment, we can ask, “Is thinking visible here? Are students explaining things to one another? Are students offering creative ideas? Are they, and I as their teacher, using the language of thinking? Is there a brainstorm about alternative interpretations on the wall? Are students debating a plan? (Visible Thinking in Action, para. 5) For further information on visible thinking routines and a list of examples: visiblethinkingpz.org

• Opportunity to practise grace-shaped conversations and to develop a biblicallyshaped culture.

For further information on protocols and a list of examples: schoolreforminitiative.org/protocols/

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 157

Ten Strategies 1. Hook Launching into the topic area.

How a teacher introduces a topic is a pivotal teaching moment. Teachers need a ‘hook’ that sets the scene, engages thinking, sparks curiosity, and motivates the learners. The hook (also called a ‘launch lesson’) is an inspiring and memorable introduction to a unit and typically needs creative thought and extra preparation to capture student imagination and engage students with the new area of learning.

Not only is the start of a unit/topic a key moment of engagement, but it also allows you to reframe the content covered through a biblical narrative lens. You have the opportunity to shape the key questions and concepts to foster thinking about how this topic fits in God’s big story and the broader formational goals. This allows you to make the occasional reference back to the biblical perspective of the launch lesson even when the following lessons might not have obvious biblical perspective opportunities (e.g., continuing on an art project, or doing drill exercises on a mathematical skill).

The hook can also access students’ prior knowledge and provide opportunities for them to think about their initial ideas, beliefs, thoughts, and understandings.

Throughout, and at the end of the topic/unit, students can see how their thinking and responses have changed.

The hook (also called a ‘launch lesson’) is an inspiring and memorable introduction to a unit and typically needs creative thought and extra preparation to capture student imagination and engage students with the new area of learning.

E.G. 1. Year 11 Religious Studies: Refugees in Australia (Threads: Seeking Justice; Shaping Culture) A number of newspaper headlines, photographic images, figures, and facts about the topic of refugees in Australia (from varying points of view) are printed and presented placed around the classroom as a ‘gallery’ of information. Students are asked to enter the room in silence (could have appropriate background music playing) and spend 20 mins viewing and reading the materials presented.

On a screen, a media clip of a refugee telling an aspect of their story is also played on a loop.

At the end of the gallery viewing time, the teacher asks students to brainstorm in small groups all the ‘facts’ they remember about the topic of refugees. They then list emotions and adjectives that are connected with the topic of refugees. These are collected and displayed for the next lesson as a basis for going further in understanding the complexity of issues involved.

Fiona, SA E.G. 2. Secondary Science: Introduction to Chemistry (Threads: Pondering Creation; Discovering Patterns) In this strategy, students are ‘hooked’ through the use of Lego to engage learners into an introduction of chemistry. Students are given Lego to build in groups a short construction task. A PowerPoint is then used with engaging images and prompting questions to take students on a journey to consider how God created elements that make a significant impact on the world. Elements are often described as the 92 building blocks of matter. If you like, they are God’s Lego. Take a look at how interesting carbon is. He uses the elements to make a vast array of molecules and then fashions them together into His own creations.

Jim, NSW

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E.G. 3. Year 10 Physical Education: Hockey (Threads: Celebrating Life; Understanding Vocation) This unit is a different start to the normal PE unit. Ordinarily we start with a few drills, explain the game for those who need instruction, and then work up towards a game. This unit on hockey begins with students being placed into three working teams and being told they need to apply for particular roles including: statistician, photographer, coach, news reporter, and umpire. Initially they don’t know why their teams need to ascribe job roles, but once this task is completed they are introduced to the idea that they will be running the unit, or their team will rotate through until it is their turn.

Each week students are involved in playing, or planning and leading drills, umpiring games, scoring, reporting, and uploading all this and photos to a class website. Their effort and involvement is recorded and celebrated with each new week. This student-oriented unit affords the teacher time to mentor and see students rise to the challenge of leading. The unit ends with a self and peer assessment which consistently sees students responding favourably with increased involvement and appreciation for their physical fitness. It is fabulous to see such learning giving students confidence to take up coaching and umpiring roles beyond school. In this unit, students contemplate the question: What does it look like to be faithful to my God-given physical capabilities? Within this 5-week part of the Sport Education in Physical Education Program (SEPEP) students take on a whole new dimension of leading and running the lessons.

The main idea is for students to think more deeply about what it is to be stewards of their bodies and to increase student engagement in sport.

Will, VIC

2. Clash Contrasting ideas and charitable debating.

Humans make meaning of the world around them by generating a schema to explain how the world works. When something occurs which reveals a deficit in the existing framework, questioning can lead to the incorporation of new knowledge and a new (and hopefully better) understanding. Effective teachers provoke students’ existing knowledge structures by intentionally creating a clash.

The following are situations where a clash is required for learning to occur: My young son ‘knew’ he could read because he had been ‘reading’ his favourite books with us since he could talk. Imagine the Kindergarten teacher’s surprise when my four-year-old announced with conviction that he didn’t need to be taught to read—he already could. Before effective teaching could take place, he needed to have his concept of reading challenged.

In Year 10, a student who ‘knows’ the earth is flat can survive very effectively in daily life. In order to learn about Copernican heliocentrism, new information needs to clash with his mental model highlighting defects in his pre-existing view, causing questions leading to genuine learning.

New Response Threads Something interesting occurred as we collected and edited the examples of the use of strategies that we present in this resource. We found that the 23 Threads within Transformation by Design: The Big Picture did not incorporate all the ‘threaded’ responses that arose out of the examples. In keeping with the suggestion (Thread 24) that there is always room for the development of additional Threads, we provide the following list of those that arose during this exercise: • Activating Action • Being Generous • Commemorating History

Other Teaching Ideas: The ‘See, Think, Wonder’ Routine

• Cultivating Compassion

The ‘see, think, wonder’ routine can be used for any year level from ELC to Year 12.

• Engaging Challenges

This is a routine to introduce an activity/topic—even for Kindergarten—where a picture is shown and students describe what they SEE, what they THINK is happening in the image, what they WONDER about, etc. It is a great stimulus for students to stretch their ideas and think outside the box, even at a very young age. (visiblethinkingpz.org)

• Growing Gratitude

• Distilling Truth • Fostering Forgiveness • Honouring Parents • Nurturing Empathy • Sharing Stories • Taking Responsibility

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 159

The clash may also be described as cognitive dissonance, a psychological term describing the uncomfortable feeling experienced when pre-existing understandings cannot explain new phenomena, or personal actions are not consistent with held beliefs.

This state of tension, of unease, of discomfort, can be leveraged to seek new answers. Typically, this strategy is employed early in the learning journey and then subsequently throughout the unit to continue to deepen comprehension.

How can I create the clash? You can create the clash in several ways: First – New Information

Third - Counter Viewpoint Providing a counter viewpoint to the ones held by a student creates a clash. A class debate can present information in ways that challenge students’ views and cause them to consider new possibilities.

This strategy comes with a word of caution. Current public discourse frequently deteriorates into polar opposite ideological positions more concerned with ‘winning’ than finding the best solutions. This cultural story doesn’t belong in our classrooms. We must equip our students to be seekers of truth rather than adversarial wordsmiths. We must encourage our students to treat others with dignity and respect. The adversarial taking of sides encourages:

Presenting students with new information that cannot be explained with existing knowledge creates a clash.

• The language of opposition and adversity.

Teacher:

• Success being only seen through the lens of winning.

Places a lit candle in a jar and puts the lid on.

Student: Sees the flame go out without anyone blowing on it. “Wow! I thought flames needed to be blown out . . . what is going on?”

Teacher:

“Well, what do you think is going on? What hypothesis/claim might you make? Do you have evidence to support your claim?”

Second – Probing Questions Asking probing questions that reveal internal inconsistencies in existing knowledge creates a clash.

The Socratic method relies on the teacher’s questions to expose gaps in students’ understanding, making learning both immediately relevant and desirable.

Student: “I believe the economic free market is a great way to deal with wealth distribution.”

Teacher:

• Little space for nuance or subtlety.

The adversarial taking of sides discourages the means to find middle ground and the negotiating of ‘grey’ areas.

Another skill that the clash strategy should draw out is that of ‘charitable debating’. See the example below: Student A:

“Our group thinks that mining coal is a great idea because it will provide lots of income and the money can be used to do lots of good.”

Student B:

“Well, our group thinks that mining coal is a terrible idea because the burning of fossil fuels is directly contributing to global warming.”

Student C:

“Our group thinks that it is not good to mine coal, but if we don’t do it someone else will, so we might as well do it and try to put regulations in place to limit the damage.”

“Do you believe a ‘great way’ would/should include are of the weak and vulnerable?”

Student: “Yes, I suppose any system should look after all people.”

Teacher:

• Not having sufficient time to hone and refine understanding.

“How does the economic free market align with the reality that more than 3 billion people live on less than $2.50 a day, and more than 1.3 billion live in extreme poverty?”

Student: “Well, how else can wealth be distributed?”

Teacher: “That’s a great question, let’s have a look at what is going on . . .”

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Students A, B, C: “Can you provide more information on your position to back up what you are saying?”

The What If Learning website (whatiflearning.com) helpfully suggests, “Including contrasts and dissonance in our teaching can raise awareness of certain issues and challenges learners to rethink, perhaps by considering the spiritual and relational riches of some past cultures in contrast to modern cultures.”

E.G. 1. Charitable Debating - Living Observantly, Not Combatively (Threads: Expressing Words; Challenging Distortions) As an alternative to the traditional adversarial debate technique, I’ve used the charitable debating approach to unpack contrasting ideas and opinions and to get students to listen to others and think through all the ideas presented. It is best to use a provocative issue where there are strong opinions. In this example, we asked the question, “Should Australians be allowed to cull possums when they are in large numbers on their property?”.

Students were seated in a circle or U-shape (to reflect listening and everyone contributing), one student was presented with the ‘speaking stick’ (any tool; one person speaking and everyone else listening) and asked to start the discussion by responding with one argument either for or against. Students were then invited to indicate that they’d like the speaking stick and to respond to the first speaker by using one of the following prompts: • I can see the strength of that viewpoint but/ if . . .

• I hear you, however, have you thought about ...?

• Interesting. Have you considered . . . ?

• I wonder if that works when . . .

If the student uses a different starting line to commence, the teacher asks the student to pause and then writes up the first four or five words the student uses. The idea here is teaching students how to argue well and how to do response/use conjunction. The teacher discerns when a fruitful number of points have been made.

Several interesting options exist for the lesson direction hereafter (teacher to make up). One option is, based on the arguments presented, students could stand on either side of a line (use chalk on the carpet, it comes off), and the teacher could suggest adjustments to the original question and see if students move in their position.

Martin, TAS

E.G. 2. Year 9 Commerce/Business: Has McDonald’s Made a Positive or Negative Impact?

(Threads: Transforming Thinking; Challenging Distortions) How can organisations and companies positively and negatively shape the culture we live in?

How should we conduct ourselves in business in order to bring honour and glory to God? How do our actions build community?

Students were preparing to open their own cafe and needed to make decisions about how they conducted their business. The film, The Founder, and the study of the issues contained within were a wonderful way to introduce these big picture conversations. The movie is about McDonald’s. The students related to this and were interested in the story of how it came to be such a dominant force in fast food around the globe. After watching the film, the class discussed some of the good that McDonald’s had done/was doing in the world, and also the negative influences that McDonald’s had/has on the community. Students examined how the McDonald brothers set up their business and conducted themselves and compared this to the way in which Ray Kroc conducted his business.

Ray Kroc was a hard worker and donated a lot of money, but the ethics of how he gained control of McDonald’s is dubious at best.

Jane, VIC E.G. 3. Year 11 Legal Studies: Who Deserves the Liver Transplant?

(Thread: Getting Wisdom) In this strategy, students are introduced to the clash of viewpoints that exist and that choices must be made that seek out the best possible responses. However, those choices are based on assumptions that need to be ‘teased out’.

Students are given a scenario of various potential transplant recipients and who should be at the top of the recipient list. Details of the potential recipients cover their age, occupation, wealth, family background, and faith. Students discuss what considerations should be used and what shouldn’t be used, on what basis should a decision be made, and how an ethical framework to guide the decision could be developed. The skills of listening and humility, debating with graciousness and consideration, and struggling with complex issues are also important.

John, WA

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Other Teaching Ideas: Four Corners Protocol This technique stimulates student learning through movement and discussion, and it can also be used as a formative opportunity. Students are presented with a controversial statement or are asked a question.

In each of the four corners of the classroom, an opinion or response is posted. Students express their opinion or response by standing in front of one of four statements, and then talking to others about why they have chosen their corner. Four corners promotes listening, verbal communication, critical thinking, and decision-making. (theteachertoolkit.com)

3. Collaborate Empowering the student voice within the learner community.

Christian teachers have frequently shown great skill in the use of collaborative learning as it reflects a broader view of the importance of living and learning in community. Collaborative learning occurs when students listen, share, and work together on a meaningful task. They learn from each other, broadening their appreciation of different ways of learning and differences between themselves and other students. It involves students honing numerous skills: negotiation and listening, deciding about when and how to take responsibility, building on the ideas of others, teamwork, clear communication, debate; forgiveness, and caring for each other.

Teachers should note that: • Collaborative tasks are often more successful when students are consolidating their learning and can share what they have learnt, rather than in the beginning phase of learning new content material.

• Some learning tasks naturally lean towards collaborative learning, while others do not.

• Many different collaborative learning approaches can be used.

Refer to the “Shapes of Learning” section within Chapter 8 for further information about collaboration.

E.G. 1. Year 7 and 8 Art: Walking in Unity (Threads: Showing Mercy; Cultivating Compassion [new Thread]) Year 7 and 8 completed a clay unit in art titled, “Walking in Unity”. This unit’s overarching questions were, “How do we walk in unity with each other?” and, “Who is our neighbour?”.

Through the story of the Good Samaritan told

by Jesus in the gospel of Mark, students were challenged to think about different people groups as well as their treatment of others.

Just as Jesus challenges people to look beyond themselves to the needs of others, students were challenged to consider different people groups and what it might be like to walk in their shoes. Using clay as a medium, students selected a shoe to use as a model for creating their own shoe out of clay. As well as techniques in this medium being developed, students responded by writing a parable of the person who would wear the shoe they had created. The unit concluded with the shoes ‘walking’ together in a collaborative artwork displayed in the school.

Lia, VIC E.G. 2. Year 10 History: American Civil War (Threads: Building Community; Expressing Words; Nurturing Empathy [new Thread]) This class had just studied the American Civil War. At the end of that war the country had to rebuild. The class held a Reconstruction Congress where they were placed in groups representing different groups in society, (southern freed slaves, plantation owners, freed-man’s bureau, northern businessmen, Congress, President Johnson). They had to argue how they wanted to rebuild the nation and what bills they would present to Congress.

Each group had to negotiate roles and collaborate within their smaller group and work out their proposals and then draft a bill.

This activity stimulated debate, brought competing groups together, and allowed students to analyse the complexities of rebuilding a divided community/nation. It enabled students to listen and try to understand alternative perspectives—each group with their competing agendas, deep-seated biases, different amounts of power, and differing visions for the future. The Congress that followed was entirely student-directed and highly successful in terms of the application of knowledge, depth of understanding, and heightened student engagement and motivation.

Alice, WA

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Other Teaching Ideas: Working Together Norms E.G. 3. Year 8 Mathematics: Celebrating Pi Day (Threads: Discovering Patterns; Relishing Play) Mathematics rarely gets the chance to party, and students love a challenge. In the context of a unit on terminating and recurring decimals, students came across pi—this rare decimal that goes on forever without any pattern. Why does it go on forever? What’s the relationship between the area of a circle and pi?

Various pi problems were posed, and teams had to work out solutions within a given time limit on Pi Day (Albert Einstein’s 138th birthday).

Groups rotated around eight pi-based activities with a given time limit to complete each activity. Teamwork, mathematical thinking, as well as an appreciation of this special decimal were required to engage with the pi challenges. As Pi Day approached, students stretched their memories to remember as many digits of pi as they could. Pi Day was celebrated with an afternoon of many pies, some Einstein’s birthday cake, and with a visit from the very special Professor himself, who looked surprisingly young for his 138th birthday.

He shared some interesting facts from his life as well as his perspective on the order of the universe: “When we look at the world and the cosmos, we are like a little child walking into a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages they are written in. The child only suspects the mysterious order they are written in but doesn’t know what it is. This is the attitude of intelligent people towards God. We see the universe marvellously arranged and obeying certain laws, but we only dimly understand those laws. We know someone must have arranged them.”

Emma, NT

Connecting can be on a small scale such as inviting a parent to speak, working on a project for an organisation, or engaging an expert in the field from whom students can gain new insights and feedback on their work. Connecting can also involve a larger audience or a big event where students prepare a specific project that meets a particular need in the community that has been identified during their learning.

It can be helpful to capture our intentions for working together and what we can explicitly expect from each other: • I can proactively seek and consider diverse voices, ideas, and perspectives.

• I can embrace a mindset that promotes my own and others’ learning.

• I can take care of myself, others, and creation.

• I can seek opportunities to show gratitude and celebrate with colleagues. (eleducation.org – search for “creating and using norms”) Darryl and Justin, Canada

4. Connect Connecting to life and other audiences.

Have you ever been asked, “Why do I need to learn this?”? While this question may at times be asked to derail the lesson, it is always a great question. It is useful for providing the opportunity to show the purpose and use of the learning. Learning becomes more meaningful when it relates to obvious world contexts, involves real people and their stories, and provides opportunities to explore real needs in the community and beyond. You can make these connections through explicit strategies and tasks as provided below.

You might look for appropriate opportunities within a unit/topic where students can engage with an audience outside the classroom. Connecting can be on a small scale such as inviting a parent to speak, working on a project for an organisation, or engaging an expert in the field from whom students can gain new insights and feedback on their work. Connecting can also involve a larger audience or a big event where students prepare a specific project that meets a particular need in the community that has been identified during their learning. See Chapter 5 for further explanation.

Connecting can also occur by considering whether there is an audience for learning that is beyond the immediate student-teacher relationship or the classroom. Student motivation is vastly enhanced when there is an opportunity to share their work with an authentic public audience. Berger (2014) suggests that, “An authentic audience demonstrates for students that their work is real and important and increases their motivation and engagement” (p. 215).

De Boer (2017) helpfully refers to this connection when he describes Christian education as students engaged in real work, to meet a real need, with real people.

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E.G. 1. Year 9 Maths: Applying Maths and Pythagoras’ Theorem

E.G. 3. Year 1 Art: Service Workers in the Local Community

(Threads: Building Community; Being Generous [new Thread])

(Threads: Building Community; Growing Gratitude [new Thread])

In this example, students connect and engage with an expert in the field. Prior to the introduction of this unit of work, a guest speaker from Habitat for Humanity will be invited to come and share with the students about their work in building homes for lowincome families and enabling them to own their own home. Students will hear from the guest speaker about their organisation; in particular, their work as a builder and the mathematical skills that are required to undertake this work.

Students will be invited to ask questions.

Students will watch the YouTube video, “Good Work Matters: The Surprising Story of the Oxygen Mask”. The story highlights that people’s work helps to make life easier for people and blesses them. We serve our neighbours with our work and our ‘hands on’ and mathematical skills like Pythagoras’ theorem. It is important to do well in our work and bring glory to God by using the initiative, knowledge, and external expertise we have been equipped with/exposed to.

During a unit on “People in Our Community”, Year 1 art students were learning about the ‘help’ people in their community and why they were important. Students were asked to brainstorm who were their favourite workers serving in the local community. Bakers, police, ‘firies’, vets, and doctors were all listed. Cardmaking and communicating thanks was the target skill, with students sending expressions of gratitude for their service. Charming and unique pieces of card art were produced and sent off. To the class’s surprise, they received an unexpected visit from the local constabulary who spent some time chatting about the service of the police.

Emily, SA E.G. 2. Year 10 English: Educating in the Community (Threads: Expressing Words; Building Community) In this example, students engaged with an outside audience. Students read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Through the text, further discussions, YouTube, and research, they developed a greater understanding and awareness around autism.

Students then broke into small groups and developed some further learning or research about autism. This was followed by organising an autism awareness event, where students invited parents and others and showcased their new awareness and understandings and their presentation skills. Students felt that their new awareness required a response of spreading their insights to a wider audience.

Student exhibits included models, interviews and speeches, poetry performance, research on and examples of toys for young children with autism, and lists of activities for a family with an autistic child. A guest speaker was invited to address the guests—an ex-student who had autism. Students provided afternoon tea.

Jeannie, VIC

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Anita, VIC

Other Teaching Ideas: Thinking Routine - 3-2-1 Bridge This routine asks students to uncover their initial thoughts, ideas, questions, and understandings about a topic and then to connect these to new thinking about the topic after they have received some instruction. This routine can be introduced by having students do an initial 3-2-1 individually on paper. For instance, if the topic is democracy, then students would write down 3 thoughts, 2 questions, and 1 analogy. Students then receive new information on democracy, (e.g., an article, a video, an activity, a problem within a democracy). Provocative experiences that push student’s thinking in new directions are best.

Whenever new information is gained, bridges can be built between new ideas and prior understanding.

After the experience, students complete another 3, 2, 1. Students then share their original and new thinking, explaining to their partners how and why their thinking shifted. (visiblethinkingpz.org)

Experiential learning tends to maximize discovery-type experiences and can occur both inside and outside the classroom.

Experiential learning frequently includes action and service projects, camps, excursions, field trips, in-class simulations, adventure experiences, outdoor settings, and opportunities for the demonstration/display of learning.

5. Experience Immersing students in significant learning experiences.

While experiential learning has a variety of meanings, we use the term in a specific way to denote exposing students to experiences that are outside the familiar.

Experiential learning sparks curiosity and wonder, challenges what the student already knows, causes inquisitiveness (even positive ‘alarm’), and can jolt or shake the learner out of a complacent learning lethargy.

Experiential learning tends to maximize discovery-type experiences and can occur both inside and outside the classroom. Experiential learning frequently includes action and service projects, camps, excursions, field trips, in-class simulations, adventure experiences, outdoor settings, and opportunities for the demonstration/display of learning.

Experiential learning experiences are designed to: • Encourage students to take a more active responsibility for their learning.

• Gain new insights and perspectives.

• Jolt students’ thinking, challenge understanding, and critique viewpoints, beliefs, and attitudes.

• Help students expand their understanding and appreciation of God’s world and encourage them to reflect upon what they believe about that world.

• Provide opportunities to see the learning cycle in action: experience, act, reflect, and rethink.

• Make use of the appropriate Thread.

You need to choose when experiential learning can be most meaningfully used. Not all teaching readily lends itself to such experiential type approaches. As Burggraaf (2014) suggests: . . . learning is organic. It involves well-crafted inquiry and investigation, immersion in rich experiences, engagement with the real world and invention. . . .

Students are immersed in experiencing an aspect of God’s world, then withdraw to pose questions, reflect, draw connections and finally return to explore deeper insights. (p. 95)

E.G. 1. Year 6: Making Mini Toastmasters (Threads: Expressing Words) In this example, students experience what it means to be a speech-maker. Students are given the challenge of preparing three speeches—each between 2.5-3 minutes long—over an eight-week course (1 hour a week). The first is called an ‘ice breaker’ where students speak about their family and hobbies.

The second is called ‘in earnest’ and is about an area of passion. Their final speech is on a topic of choice and is delivered at their Toastmasters Night (it can also be a Graduation/Celebration Night exercise). Each speech is accompanied by a prop or PowerPoint with photos so that audience members can connect with each speaker. They are taught by a Toastmasters expert (there are local speech craft experts; Toastmasters’ societies are willing to help) about what is involved in crafting a speech, its key elements, how to build the speech, and the skills of confident delivery. The length of the program gives adequate time to learn and develop confidence in communication skills.

Students celebrate their learning by making their presentation to an external broader audience (parents and grandparents): a very exciting and nervous experience.

Janita, VIC E.G. 2. Junior Secondary Horticulture: Experiencing and Meeting a Real Need (Threads: Caretaking Earth) Our Sunny Patch Garden was planned to support a practical horticulture/agriculture program for Years 7-10 as well as for the study of plants and animals in the science program for primary classes. The garden is comprised of a half-acre where fruit trees provide fruit and shaded working spaces for classes to use. The no-dig vegetable plots provide a place to grow in-season vegetables that are eaten by the students and also cooked to provide meals for families in need. A chicken run provides eggs for cooking or sale. The students experience and learn about organic practices which include, composting, mulching, recycling, and using animal manure; looking after animals and taking responsibility for their care; and working cooperatively with, and helping out, others. Students put what they learn in the classroom into a real context with real results and make the connection between learning and practice.

Sue, VIC

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E.G. 3. Year 10 Aboriginal Studies: Reconciliation (Threads: Seeking Justice) As part of Aboriginal studies focusing on reconciliation, one of the activities during the course offers students an opportunity for reflection on the history of the land they inhabit by simulating the impact colonisation has on culture and existence. The ‘land simulation’ game is part of TEAR’s resources where students imagine being a member of an Aboriginal tribe and mark out on a piece of paper their camp, water sources, areas of food sources, places to hunt and gather, birth places, where family members died, etc. The activity then proceeds to have a new tribe come along and take 10 percent of the land for farming sheep, etc., then the activity continues with more stages and eventually 60 percent of land taken for the new tribe’s sheep. This simulation activity encourages empathy and is an immersive experience to think through the complexity of land ownership and the impact of settlement on Aboriginal people. Resource: TEAR Reconciliation Action Kit Natalie, VIC

We are living in, and out of, a big picture story of the world that has a beginning and end, and a rich array of story-formed responses in the middle for the people of God.

6. Question The skill of questioning and challenging.

Posing probing questions is one of the most powerful ways that teachers and students interact in the classroom. Astute questions from the teacher help define what is valued in learning. When they come from the student, they reflect strong interest and engagement, the construction of understanding, the clarification of thinking, and sophisticated inquiry skills.

You should want to ask great questions. The kind that stop students in their tracks, stimulate deeper thinking, and drive the learning. Because great questions can set the culture and tone of the class, you need to make sure you are asking the right questions in the right way and at the right time.

An important dimension of questioning is students being encouraged to form and pose their own questions. Teachers need to take time and listen carefully to student questions. Students should be encouraged to be courageous, to ponder, and to ask deep questions. Linda Elder, the president of the Foundation for Critical Thinking, states, “The quality of our thinking, in turn, is determined by the quality of our questions, for questions are the engine, the driving force behind thinking . . .” (Elder, 2010, p. 4).

There is a clear difference between simple questions that reflect a basic comprehension (those that involve factual recall requiring little thought), and great questions that require reasons, call for the support or refuting of arguments, explore possibilities (“What would happen if . . . ?”), draw out lines of thinking, or that even suggest possible responses.

Great question techniques include: • Keeping the learning goal (the main idea) in mind.

• Longer pausing (not filling in the silence).

• Asking flow-on probing questions.

• Adjusting the initial question.

• Helping students to reformulate their own questions.

Ritchhart et al. (2011) summarised the main types of questions teachers ask, and suggests they go from surface level to deeper: • Review – recalling and reviewing knowledge and information.

• Procedural – directing the work of the class.

• Generative – exploring the topic.

• Constructive – building new understanding.

• Facilitative – promotes the learner’s own thinking and understanding. (p. 221)

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We consider how we can use—and encourage our students to use—more generative, constructive, and facilitative questions to push for deeper learning. We also realise that the person generating and asking the question is usually the person doing the thinking. How might that change the way we use questions in our teaching?

E.G. 1. Year 10 Science: What Can Science Answer?

(Threads: Challenging Distortions; Distilling Truth [new Thread]) Concept: Science is in every aspect of life, but science can’t inform us about every aspect of life.

Students take part in an experiment and write down their observations of those involved.

Students are split into two equal groups. One goes on a run (or any activity that will give them need of a drink and keep them out of the classroom) while the teacher organises cups (different sizes, materials, colours, etc.), water, and ice cubes. The other group of students make observations of the runners and their situation when they return.

Upon their return, the ‘hot’ students are served cups/glasses of water by the teacher. Each cup has an ice cube in it. Observations—both scientific (the ice cube floated) and nonscientific (the teacher served the students) from the moment the students walk back into the lab—are made.

The board is divided into two columns. One column is headed Observations, and the other Problems. Fill in the observations column and then translate the observations into problems, e.g., “The ice cube floated,” and, “The teacher served the students,” becomes, “Why did the ice cube float?” or, “Why did the teacher serve us?”. Students make their own list of questions about the experiment.

Then pose the question, “Which of these problems can be solved by science?”. Having allocated responses, students will need to explain their choices. Note that questions like, “Why did Jane get the blue plastic cup?” or, “Why did the teacher serve us?” cannot be answered by science or at least by using the scientific method, whereas the question, “Why did the ice cube float?” can be partly answered via the scientific method. Using essential questions can encourage a discussion about the use and limitation of the scientific method.

Roger, VIC

E.G. 2. Year 5/6: Nation Builders (Threads: Building Community) Questioning plays an important part in students learning about parliament and how a bill is passed. The overarching theme of the unit “Nation Builders” is godly governance. A class parliament which involves a class social and sleepover is organised. The outcome/ activity involves critical and creative thinking and problem-solving and increases students’ ownership of the learning. It causes students to wrestle with questions such as, “What does it mean to be a member of a community?”, “How do I make a good decision for everyone?” and, “How can I make a difference?”. From these broader questions, students then explore and respond to the complexities of organising this event for their own class community.

The Year 5/6 parliament starts with students taking on various portfolios (according to their interest) including music, decorations, theme, food, drink, games, and movie. Once portfolios have been applied for, students survey peer choices and prepare their first bill for the class parliament. Within parliament, bills that have been submitted are read and debated. This can often get heated as explanations, evidence, and justifications are required. The speaker (often the teacher though not always), or sergeantat-arms, deals with rowdy parliamentarians.

The speaker also is highly dependent on the clerk for managing amendments. The mace (usually a metre ruler), sits at the head of the table. Each session always begins with walking in and reading the Lord’s Prayer. Most portfolios present bills (each team member has an opportunity to lead), and votes, with amendments, are undertaken until a majority is found. The idea for the social is also a bill.

Who would have thought that deciding on drink flavours and whether to have spiders or milkshakes could be so involved? The positives from this unit include students considering ethical choices with food, drinks, and suppliers, as well as considering what appropriate song and movie choices for the community were. As part of the process, letters are written to the head of primary and parents for permission in relation to some of their choices.

The learning that takes place is rich and varied with all students stepping up to the challenge, growing in their confidence to share their ideas, and representing the ideas of their peers honestly. Personal compromise and teamwork are other benefits that strengthen the class community. The culmination is the social that is a real highlight of the senior primary calendar.

Janita and Stephanie, VIC

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E.G. 3. Secondary PE: Reflecting on the Game (Threads: Relishing Play; Engaging Challenges [new Thread]) In this example, the teacher uses probing questions to enable students to reflect on their experience. Frequently after a game and before all the lesson time is used up I’ll get the students to sit down and catch their breath.

I’ll first comment on some of the things that were happening in the game, and then I’ll use a series of questions to open up reflection and discussion on the things that were fairly easy to draw out of the game. For example: Which skills did you use to better effect in this game? How did you feel you improved? Did the game help you do that or was it your skill development?

What role were you playing in the game? Did that work for you, or not? Would you want a different role? Were there any leaders who stepped up? How good/not so good was the job they did? What encouraging thing would you want to say to the opposite side? Was everyone engaged or not? What’s the purpose of playing the game? If we glorify God in everything we do, were we glorifying God in this game? How? Paul, VIC

Other Teaching Ideas: Visible Thinking Routine -Question Starts This routine creates thought-provoking questions.

Brainstorm a list of at least 12 questions about the topic, concept, or object. Use these question-starts to help you think of interesting questions: Why . . . ? How would it be different if . . . ? What are the reasons . . . ? Suppose that . . . ? What if . . . ? What if we knew . . . ? What is the purpose of . . . ? What would change if . . . ?

Review the brainstormed list and star the questions that seem most interesting. Then, select one or more of the starred questions to discuss for a few moments.

Reflect on what new ideas you have about the topic, concept, or object that you didn’t have before. (visiblethinkingpz.org)

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7. Story Using stories to open up the learning.

We are story-formed people with a story-formed faith.

We are living in, and out of, a big picture story of the world that has a beginning and end, and a rich array of story-formed responses in the middle for the people of God. God has chosen to reveal Himself to humanity by word in the form of a rich story of His people and place. The climax of this story is God entering into the creation as an embodied story in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Throughout this resource, we have frequently referred to living in God’s big story—a story that provides us with an understanding of who we are, where we live, and what our role is in God’s big story.

Our story-formed nature means that storytelling is powerful during learning. It can greatly assist students in understanding their world. Smith (2013) presents the power of stories when he says, “we learn through stories because we know by stories. Indeed, we know things in stories that we couldn’t know any other way. . . . Story is the lingua franca of incarnate significance” (p. 160).

You can use the tool of storytelling to show students how different the layers of stories (God’s big story, society’s story, a school’s story, your story, and students’ stories) relate to each other. You can explain that God’s story shapes all the other stories. You can (appropriately) use their and your stories to illustrate and model to students how stories help us make sense of life and its complexities. The value of each student’s story can be recognised and, when appropriate, shared with the class.

Stories work so well because students can relate to them. Stories deal with human intentions and emotions, they assist students to rethink their beliefs and ideas, they reflect real life, and they draw students towards response. Kornelis (2018) describes this well with the phrase, “See the story; live the story” (para.

6). It’s a fantastic challenge to students to live out the story that helps them make sense of their lives.

Metacognitive strategies can be selfawareness tools that give students the ability to understand their own learning strengths and weaknesses and to challenge them to take greater ownership of their learning.

E.G. 1. Year 10 Science: The Dangers of Treating Scientific Evidence as Truth (Threads: Challenging Distortions; Seeking Justice) Concept: A study of the Stallings case demonstrates the tragedy and injustice that result from science being treated as absolute truth.

In July 1989, David and Patricia Stallings’ 3-month-old son Ryan was admitted to hospital (St. Louis, USA,) by his mum and diagnosed (by a qualified toxicologist) as suffering from ethylene glycol poisoning. This diagnosis (using high pressure liquid chromatography) was confirmed by two laboratories (the hospital’s and an independent). Ryan was taken away from his parents by the authorities and was placed in a foster home. However, following a visit by his mum where she had briefly been left alone with him, Ryan got sick again and subsequently died. Patricia was arrested, charged with first degree murder, and held without bail in custody.

However, Patricia was pregnant when jailed.

After birth, the child David (Jr.) was immediately placed in a foster home but within two weeks developed symptoms identical to his brother Ryan. He was diagnosed as suffering from methyl malonic acidaemia (MMA), an autosomal recessive condition. Symptoms of MMA are almost identical to those of ethylene glycol poisoning. The Missouri State Court wouldn’t allow the MMA diagnosis of David (Jr.) to be introduced as evidence. In January 1991 Patricia was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon and sentenced to life in prison.

Two scientists (Dr. Sly and Dr. Shoemaker) re-tested Ryan’s blood and found no trace of ethylene glycol. Dr. Piero Rinaldo, a metabolic disease expert tested Ryan’s blood samples and confirmed the presence of high concentrations of methyl malonic acid. In September 1991, Patricia Stallings was released, free of all charges after nearly two years in custody.

Sources: The Age, Sept 15, 1991. Science, Vol. 254, p. 15

Some of the teaching questions used: • What is a recessive gene disorder?

• If the symbol for the gene for this recessive condition is ‘n’, give the genotypes of: (1) the boys Ryan and David; (2) the boys’ parents.

• How could two labs get this so wrong?

Essential question: • In what ways has science been misused in this legal case? Why do you think this happens in our society?

• How can you, as the next generation, guard against this (probing students’ understanding of the limitations of science)?

Roger, VIC E.G. 2. Year 3/4: The School Story (Threads: Building Community; Commemorating History [new Thread]) Overarching the unit, “Different Places, Different Faces”, is a big idea that all nonindigenous people living in Australia have come from other countries in the world and have contributed to the rich history and heritage of Australia. Understanding our history helps us to embrace and celebrate our diversity. Australia was created by God and it is our responsibility to treat our neighbours with respect.

Students unpack the main idea of “Different Places, Different Faces” through considering a number of essential questions: “How have other cultures influenced and shaped the development of Australia?”, “Why has God made us all different?” and, “How can we learn from others?”.

Even though this wasn’t the original intention of the unit, we found that students began asking about the school’s history. Interest was naturally sparked as the school celebrated 40 years of operation and God’s faithfulness.

A class project titled, “How God Made Our School Awesome”, led students to become historians to investigate the school’s origins and development. The project used a GRASP assessment task with students being given a specific goal, role, audience, situation, and product. The task was to create a booklet for students in the younger years. The students enjoyed piecing the school’s history together as well as making connections with people, buildings, and important celebrations and events/stories that have happened over the past 40 years. Students finished off the unit by sharing their findings with the broader school community.

Tracy, VIC

• List the possible genotypes and phenotypes of the children that these parents could produce. You may use the ‘punnet square/ checker-board’ method if you wish.

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E.G. 3. Year 1/2: Family Storytelling (Threads: Building Community; Honouring Parents [new thread]; Sharing Stories [new Thread]) Family stories in the first years of school are an important opportunity to know students and help them feel like they belong not only in their personal family, but in the school family/ community. Students were invited to bring in a personal item (a drawing, artefact, photograph) to share a story of their life. Each week students were given guiding instructions as to what appropriate area of family life to share about.

Areas covered were their parents, extended family, favourite toy, family celebrations/ commemorations. This began to create a history box about their personal family. The feedback from families was overwhelming, with other family members feeling included in their child’s learning. Home conversations were stimulated and lots of stories told while photos were investigated and memories recalled.

Classes celebrate their learning with a morning tea to share these box/bags.

Stacey, NT

Other Teaching Ideas: Thinking Routine - Unveiling Stories 1. What’s the story? 2. What’s the human story? 3.

What’s the world story? 4. What’s the new story? 5.

What’s the untold story?

This routine invites students to unpack the layers of meaning in a work of art, an image, a text, or a media story. It promotes the habit of slow reading and deep interpretation of the studied material. Each layer (the questions selected from the above list) addresses a dimension of the way the story helps us understand our and others’ lives and the way in which the story speaks into bigger global issues. Students will have interpreted it as a ‘story’ that explains something, and they will also interpret it themselves as the story told by the item. (visiblethinkingpz.org)

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8. Reflect Building an understanding of how students learn (metacognitive strategies).

The term metacognition comes from the root word meta, meaning beyond. Metacognitive insight provides students with skills to understand how they learn best and how to be critically aware of their own thinking and learning. Learning about learning is a powerful teaching and learning strategy and one that engages students at a much deeper level.

Metacognitive strategies can be self-awareness tools that give students the ability to understand their own learning strengths and weaknesses and to challenge them to take greater ownership of their learning.

Metacognitive strategies include self-verbalisation, self-questioning, self-monitoring, self-explanation, seeking help from peers, tutoring, collaborative learning, evaluation, reflection, problem-solving, and critical thinking techniques.

One metacognitive skill with great benefit to formational learning is reflection. Students need regular times to reflect on their learning—to stand back and wonder and be amazed at their learning, to think about what sparks their curiosity and inquiry, to evaluate their preconceived ideas, to clarify and articulate their areas of confusion, and to evaluate and self-reflect on what has been learnt. Reflection needs to be planned throughout the topic with opportunities afforded at multiple times (pre, during, and post), and not just limited to the end of the course. You can focus student reflection towards the biblical Threads and enduring understandings for the unit as a means of stimulating and deepening reflection.

E.G. 1. Year 8: Social Issues Course (Threads: Seeking Justice; Nurturing Empathy [new Thread]) In this example, students use a series of reflective exercises to build a cause project and gain understanding into how they best undertake the project. Firstly, students selected a cause and chose their own mock agency (choice of international and local agencies) for which they would advocate.

Secondly, students reflected on how to build the case for their cause. They designed publications and decided how they would communicate their need and the organisation’s purpose. Thirdly, students prepared and then showcased their agency to their parents.

Parents were given fake money and students had to explain to the parent group why they should donate to their organisation. Fourthly, students reflected on the questions, “Why am I passionate about this cause?”, “How could I appeal to a broader audience?” and, “What did I learn about research, communication, and organisational skills in applying it to my project?”. Across the course, the purpose was to build empathy and an understanding of how to be involved and take action to seek justice in local and global communities.

Natalie, VIC E.G. 2. Primary Art: Eye to Eye Reflections (Threads: Pondering Creation; Discovering Patterns) A primary art project used Graeme Base’s book Eye to Eye, to study and reflect on the creation of animal eyes. The author/illustrator presents amazing eye pictures and leads students to guess what creature it is as they turn the page.

Each year level studied a different animal, and at the end of the lesson in a pair-share reflection, students discussed some of the following questions (the questions growing in complexity according to the primary levels).

Pair/share questions: • How easy was it to identify your animal from looking just at the eye?

• What amazing fact did you find out?

• After studying your amazingly created animal, what would you like to thank God for?

Anita, TAS E.G. 3. Year 11/12 English: Why Do Christians Sometimes Get It Wrong?

(Threads: Discerning Truth; Fostering Forgiveness [new Thread]) The Crucible is a play by Arthur Miller that is set around 1692 and depicts the very real Salem witch trials in a terrifying light. When a mysterious illness cannot be explained, long-held grudges turn to violent disputes, humiliating secrets are exposed, and the line between truth and pretence becomes increasingly blurry. The story follows a group of ‘Christians’ who believe they were following the Word of God, but were tragically misinformed in their beliefs, and led to the deaths of hundreds.

The protagonist is John Proctor, a Christian who is trying to protect his family from the endless accusations of witchcraft, but he has the challenge of his past being full of sin.

As we studied this play that strikes fear, shock, and emotion into its audience, our discussions focused on the distortion of truth and how we can discover and understand what is true.

We came to the conclusion that, as humans living in a sinful world, the Salem residents had created a distorted version of Christianity. They were swept up in a popular ‘myth’ because they stopped faithfully listening to God. While they got it wrong, we discussed our belief that God’s truth is dependable and knowable. We also discussed parallels in Miller’s play to the present-day and were reminded of what can happen when society is put under pressure to conform to popular opinion, and what can happen when people lose faith in God and become too afraid to stand up for truth.

Our essential questions were, “Why do Christians sometimes get it wrong?”, “What is the impact of crisis on a community?” and finally, “How can fear and hysteria lead to a distortion of truth?”.

Judy, VIC

• What characteristic about your animal’s eye did you discover that was special or unique?

• How important was the eye to this animal?

• How would you feel if you could see like your animal?

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Other Teaching Ideas: Visible Thinking Routine - I used to think . . . , but now I think . . .

• Know when and how to think deeply, creatively, and ‘outside the box’ (or triangle).

I used to think . . . but now I think . . . routine is a helpful reflective tool to use at the end of a lesson or topic area. It is a routine for reflecting on how and why our thinking has changed. This routine can be used whenever students’ initial thoughts, opinions, or beliefs are likely to have changed as a result of instruction or experience. Remind students of the topic you want them to consider. It could be an ideal like truth or fairness, or it could be the unit being studied.

Have students write a response using each of the sentence stems: I used to think . . . but now I think . . . (visiblethinkingpz.org)

• Engage with higher-order thinking—occurring when students can transfer knowledge from one context into another and think deeply with complex analysis and evaluation.

9. Think Fostering critical thinking, discernment, and wisdom.

Our culture is rapidly changing. While some core skills remain constant, many other new skills are required to adequately engage with an increasingly complex and constantly changing world. Engaging and preparing your students for this brave new context requires a high level of critical thinking, discernment, and wisdom. Being well-equipped is not building up a bank of new skills for supposed preparation, but rather to value thinking as an integral part of developing understanding. Note that in the earlier section, “Pondering Considerations”, future learning skills are already addressed. Therefore, this section will not repeat those reflections.

Paul reminds us to, “Examine everything carefully, to hold fast to that which is good and to throw out that which is evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:21). Your students need this type of wisdom and discernment to renew their thinking. This type of thinking allows our students to be involved in partnering with God in engaging, critiquing, and transforming the world (Clarke, 2010). These skills of discernment, critique, and wisdom-building are a part of God’s renewal program for the creation as He works through students to offer inspired responses that seek to build a better society.

In a challenging and rapidly changing world, with all of its uncertainty, students need to have the tools that assist them, including to: • Know what is good and right, what is of God and what is not, and what is wise and useful.

• Know what information and skills are needed in each context.

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In junior years, we could call this skill set “learning muscles” (Claxton, 2002) and it could be pitched at managing distractions, being confident active learners, asking good questions, and providing opportunities for critical reflection, etc.

As students develop, higher-order thinking skills include: • Critical thinking (e.g., developing biblically-informed thinking; developing viewpoints and decision making; analysing, discerning, and challenging ideas and information; providing for intellectual flexibility).

• Problem-solving (e.g., working through extended problems; deliberating on complex problems; building up justified solutions).

• Slowing down (e.g., looking closely; taking time to consider and build understanding; reflecting, contemplating, and pondering on God’s wisdom).

• Creative thinking (e.g., initiative and enterprise; applying new ideas; identifying alternatives; making new linkages).

• Communication (e.g., forming reasoned arguments; effective oral and written communication; sharing ideas with diverse audiences; using symbols and texts).

• Collaboration (e.g., interacting with others; recognising and using diverse perspectives; community connections).

• Personal and social skills (e.g., adaptability; selfmanagement; leadership and citizenship; ethical and moral understanding).

• ICT skills (e.g., accessing and analysing information; being productive users of technology; responsible digital citizenship).

As God chooses to partner with humanity in expressing His redemptive grace, so you can partner with your students, allowing them to be the visible hands and feet of Jesus in their community.

E.G. 1. Secondary PDHPE: Addictions

E.G. 2. Year 7/8 History: Ancient Civilisations

(Threads: Transforming Thinking; Getting Wisdom)

(Threads: Shaping Culture)

The use of thinking routines and protocols have been used to assist students in slowing down and looking closely in order to develop a better understanding of addiction and how it affects people. Students watched a short, animated film called Nuggets, and at the completion were required to write down at least 10 things they noticed in the film. They needed to be specific in naming them, e.g., “I saw a nugget being ignored,” or, “I noticed changes in the music”.

As a class, they shared these and noted them on the board. As they watched a second time, they had to write down at least 10 new things that they noticed. Again, students shared and noted. Students were then asked to make inferences about the storyline of the film using the observations to provide evidence. This time the teacher heard students saying things like, “I think addiction takes the joy out of life as was reflected in the change of music from happy and cheerful to dark and moody”. If a student shared what they were thinking without evidence, the teacher would usually ask, “What evidence do you have from the film to support that thought?” in order to push the students to justify their thinking. Students were also asked what questions they had that may have surfaced as a result of the different ideas people had shared. Students questioned, “I wonder where the bird’s friends were and why they didn’t step in?”.

The time that was provided to look closely and identify what they saw before sharing their thinking allowed the students to form opinions based on evidence rather than just jumping in with the first thing they had thought of. It caused students to understand more about addiction, its risks, and how they can support others caught up in addiction.

Romeo, NSW

This ancient civilisation unit was rewritten after some work around differentiation, promoting higher-order thinking, and using Bloom’s taxonomy. The outcome was an inquiry unit shaped by three essential questions, “How has Roman culture shaped our world today?”, “Is it possible to shape the culture you live in?” and, “How are you contributing to the culture around you?”. Overarching these questions is the main idea that history shapes culture and we are a part of history and all play a role in God’s story.

The objective of the student inquiry is to prepare a multimodal presentation on a Roman history mystery. Guidance by the teacher ensures students stay on track and meet weekly milestones set out in a student workbook.

In the planning phase, students use Bloom’s taxonomy to design a broad inquiry question.

Further research questions are then developed to investigate the main inquiry. In the next phase, students locate, use, and evaluate sources: two of which must be books. This is followed by analysing and using those sources which are tabulated in a grid using their own words. Finally, using a presentation organiser, students prepare how they will deliver and communicate their multimodal presentation.

This unit allows all students to engage according to their level of ability and gifting.

Having a variety of presentation styles (PowerPoint, website, portfolio, or information report) appeals to students. Students develop their questioning techniques and challenge their thinking about people and power and how nations are built. It is our deep hope that students see themselves as part of the culture they are a part of and feel empowered to make a positive contribution as God’s people in His world.

Will and Evonne, VIC

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E.G. 3. Year 5/6 Mathematics: Geometry (Threads: Caretaking Earth; Reflecting Creativity) Students investigate problem-solving and geometry through a four-week (one hour a week) unit called “The Architect’s Puzzle”. In this unit, students learn about God’s design for His creation and our call to be good stewards.

Students initially problem-solve four possible housing block designs before drawing them onto isometric dotted paper. A costing schedule is then added, and students personalise buildings with roofs, windows, and paint. The homes are then placed onto a town plan where consideration for perspective and infrastructure also made.

A folded A3 presentation is designed: Page 1 Title; Page 2 - Costings; Page 3 - Advertisement and Plan of the Home. These are displayed in the class for other students to enjoy and become part of the student’s portfolio.

Students love being presented with real-life maths problems to engage with. As well as understanding design elements, students grapple with living expenses and thinking about sustainable futures. Being a steward of resources challenges students to think about what matters to them.

Janita, VIC

Other Teaching Ideas: Visible Thinking Routine The 3 ‘Ys’ Present learners with an issue, image, or problem that has large-scale implications. Ask learners to consider the following questions: • Why might this topic/question matter to me?

• Why might it matter to people around me—family, friends, city, nation?

• Why might it matter to the world?

This thinking routine helps to discern the significance of a situation, topic, or issue keeping global, local, and personal connections in mind. (visiblethinkingpz.org)

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10. Act The response action that flows from learning.

The God-honouring school, and God-honouring teacher, call their students to be signposts of God’s Kingdom, to be active agents of change, to respond to what they’ve learnt, and to then make use of that knowledge and its accompanying responsibility for the renewal of this world.

Throughout this resource, there is a strong emphasis on ensuring that all learning has a big purpose, that students’ lives are impacted by their learning, and that this purposeful learning cannot help but cause head, heart, and hand responses. We therefore critique the reductionist view that learning is simply about building up knowledge and honing students’ skills. Remember, your planning must build in opportunities for, and drive towards, student responses. Van Brummelen (2002), when reflecting on the need to design opportunities for student response suggests, “Meaningful learning allows students to transcend content transmission and skill dexterity and to respond by developing, giving and finding themselves. . . . We aim to plan diverse learning activities to encourage students to respond in unique ways” (p. 109).

All too frequently within the pressure cooker situation of the classroom—the burden of the crowded curriculum and the need to fulfil a range of external expectations—the action response is compromised.

You should give robust attention to student responses and desired learning outcomes to ensure they are fulfilled before the topic area gets a final ‘wrap up’.

As one common adage puts it, “Impression without expression leads to depression”. Education is not just about preparing our students for a future real life. Students are alive, in the here and now of our classrooms. As you teach, allow your students to identify real, meaningful issues in their world, which they care about and where the information/skills learned can be used to provide real solutions.

As God chooses to partner with humanity in expressing His redemptive grace, so you can partner with your students, allowing them to be the visible hands and feet of Jesus in their community. There is no more powerful expression of meaningful learning than seeing the students identify and solve real problems. There is no more meaningful expression of faithful discipleship than the act of loving one another. Combining meaningful learning with faithful discipleship compels you to allow students to act. “It is nothing but a pious wish and a grossly unwarranted hope that students trained to be passive and noncreative in school will suddenly, upon graduation, actively contribute to the formation of Christian culture” (Wolterstorff et al., 2002, p. 31).

For the Christian teacher, many learning outcomes and student responses will either use the direct language of the biblical perspective and chosen Threads, or have a strong connection to them. The section in Transformation by Design: The Big Picture on “Teachable Moments” and “Perspectival Opportunities” (p. 55) might be of assistance.

E.G. 1. Prep/Foundation: Looking After a Pig (Threads: Pondering Creation; Taking Responsibility [new Thread]) One of our Foundation classes requested to learn about pigs and to have a pig for their stall in our annual Agriculture Show. They believed (and showed that) they could care for the pig in the four-week ‘lead up’ to the show. A pen and house were constructed by our VET senior agriculture students. Feed was purchased and FM (short for Foundation M—that’s the pig’s name) was purchased. It was a very exciting day when FM arrived. The class took the action steps of taking on responsibility for feeding and watering FM, for her handling, and for learning about the raising of pigs. The aim was that FM, come show day, would be happy to be patted and take food from small hands. The Agriculture Show afforded our young students the opportunity to teach other students and families about FM—what they had learned about pigs, how to look after FM’s needs, and how to be responsible for her. FM has now moved to a farm and has quadrupled in size. She is still friendly and gets very excited when children turn up to visit. Our Foundation students have learnt what it means to raise and care for an important farm animal.

Sue, VIC

E.G. 2. Year 10-12 Science: Why Recycle Aluminium Cans?

(Thread: Caretaking Earth; Activating Action [new Thread]) Concept: Students study the processes involved in producing aluminium cans from alumina versus recycling the aluminium cans leading to a more faithful use of resources and a reduction in CO2 production.

Strategy example: Students calculate the amount of energy required as well as the amount of CO2 produced in making an aluminium can through the twin processes identified above.

• Calculation 1: How much energy is required to melt one empty can (14.00 g)?

• Calculation 2: How much energy is required to produce the same mass of Al from Al2 O3 by electrolysis?

• Calculation 3: How long can you run your TV set (look at the back for its wattage) with the extra energy required by the electrolysis process? Wattage measured in watts tells you how much energy in joules is used by the appliance per second, e.g., a 100-watt TV uses 100 joules/second.

• Calculation 4: Calculate the CO2 produced when melting the empty can (from 200C) using the electricity produced from burning brown coal in a power station at 40% efficiency.

• Calculation 5: Calculate the total CO2 emitted in order to produce the same mass of molten aluminium (14.00 g) by electrolysis. This includes the CO2 emitted by the browncoal-fuelled power plant in producing the electricity for the electrolysis process as well as the CO2 produced by the reaction at the graphite anode in the electrolysis of Al2 O3 .

Essential question: What have we ignored in this calculation which should be considered in answering the key question above?

Other discussion questions to prompt action “So what have we learned?” and, “How can we increase aluminium can recycling rates in our local community and beyond where we claim to worship the God who not only made the Earth but also loves it so much?”.

Roger, VIC

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E.G. 3. Year 9: Larapinta Trail Camps and Explorations (Threads: Pondering Creation; Engaging Challenges [new Thread]) The Larapinta Trail camp, in the centre of Australia, is our annual and greatly anticipated camp for Year 9 students across NT Christian Schools. The students head off into the wilderness for two weeks and are ‘unplugged’ from their devices. The camp is carefully planned with specific trails to walk each with a ‘challenge’ in mind. Students overcome physical and mental challenges. They grow—in relationships with one another and with God, as leaders, and in how to serve each other in community. A highlight from a previous year was hearing students encourage others through leading devotions and sharing their personal faith journey. Here are some reflections from students: “The Standley Chasm walk and climbing Mt Sonder really pushed my limits . . . Going into almost every walk thinking I can’t do it was challenging, but I was able to do all the walks and I put more trust in God . . .

The genuine chats you could have with mates were great . . . I liked the overnight walks . . .

My highlight was completing all the walks and not giving up . . . I enjoyed sitting around the fire and talking to people I don’t usually talk to, walking up the mountains, and looking at the awesome view.”

Amber, NT

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Other Teaching ideas: Visible Thinking Routine - The ‘If’ This routine is for generating potential actions from one’s principles and convictions. Students often study and learn about the world but find it hard to action, or they may think their actions are too little or too small to make a difference. After the study of an issue, students can use the ‘if’ routine to begin thinking about courses of action based on their convictions.

Choose a relevant issue to consider on each or some of the four fronts below: 1. If I take this ideal/principle seriously, what are the day-to-day implications for how I live my life? What might my personal actions and behaviour look like?

What might I choose to do differently? When and where might I find myself speaking out?

2. If my community takes this ideal/principle seriously, what are the implications for our collective action and behaviour? What new actions would we take on? What current actions or behaviours might we need to change?

3. If our nation takes this ideal/principle seriously, what are the implications for our country? What current and future policies and proposals are needed? What wrongs need to be righted?

4. If I/we don’t do anything, what will happen? (visiblethinkingpz.org)

Reflection

• Teaching for Understanding (Project Zero)

• Using the Probing Questions Template, which of my current pedagogical practices could I unpack further to help me teach in a way that glorifies God?

• What If Learning

• Of the 10 suggested considerations to ponder which one challenges me the most and what am I going to do about it?

• Of the 10 suggested considerations to ponder which area am I doing well and how can I share my success with others?

• Of the 10 suggested strategies which one could I implement/improve in my repertoire that would assist my students?

• Of the 10 suggested strategies which one am I doing well and how can I share my success with others?

• High Impact Teaching Strategies (HITS) • Teaching for Transformation Overview Helpful books: • The Art and Science of Teaching, Marzano, (2007) • Leaders of Their Own Learning, Berger, Rugen, and Woodfin, (2014) • Transformational Education, Burggraaf, (2014) • Teaching Redemptively, Graham, (2009) • Leading Learning and Teaching, Dinham, (2016) • The Differentiated Classroom, Tomlinson, (2014) • High Impact Instruction, Knight, (2013)

Further Resources As mentioned previously, the range of resources teachers can tap into is large. We’ve chosen to highlight a few extras as they have proven useful in a number of Christian school contexts. Whichever resource is used, teachers should always ask whether the resource is supportive of the broader goals of formational learning.

Helpful websites: • Expeditionary Learning (EL) • Cultures of Thinking Resources or Thinking Resources Matrix (Ritchhart)

• The Craft of Christian Teaching, Van Dyk, (2005) • Letters to Lisa, Van Dyk, (1997) • Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design, Tomlinson and McTighe, (2006) • Classroom Instruction That Works, Marzano, (2001) • Understanding by Design, McTighe and Wiggins, (2005), • On Christian Teaching, Smith (2018) • Creating a Culture of Thinking, Ritchhart (2015)

• Visible Learning (Hattie) • Visible Thinking Routines (Harvard University, Project Zero)

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Chapter 8

Learning Community, Culture, and Space The

Where are our students learning?

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Summary Framing Statement: Formational learning develops the mind, captivates the heart, and equips the hand, encouraging curious and courageous learners to explore God’s world and live out the hope of Christ.

Main Idea/Deep Hope

Enduring Understandings

The culture, community, and physical space of the classroom either hinder or assist formational learning and teachers are empowered to curate these three essential aspects of the classroom.

• Creating a climate of relationship, value, and gracious love in a classroom primes a student to receive, learn, and respond to the revelation of God’s Kingdom.

Essential Questions

• Ensuring the vision is owned by others has more benefit than enforcing outward compliance of expectations.

• What is culture, and what shapes it?

• How does a collection of individuals gathered in a classroom differ from a learning community?

• How might class culture, community, and physical space impact formational learning?

Further Questions to Ponder • What major cultural forces play a role in shaping my class culture?

• How can I intentionally build a community with a shared vision of formational learning?

• Actively shaping a class culture that supports formational learning is an important aspect of the teacher’s role.

• The physical classroom space/layout enhances or detracts from formational learning and can be modified by thoughtful teachers to enhance learning.

• The community of learners can be a vibrant, flourishing, and harmonious community when it shares a common vision of formational learning and together works towards the same goals.

• What can I do if a student works against the class culture I’m building?

• What aspects of the physical layout of my classroom enhances/hinders formational learning?

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Introduction Structures, practices, routines, and language all tell a story and convey meaning. It is hard to overstate the influence the story your class community, culture, and space have on your students. The

It is hard to overstate the influence the story your class community, culture, and space have on your students. The three elements of community, culture, and space, may be either advancing or hindering formational learning.

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three elements of community, culture, and space, may be either advancing or hindering formational learning. The teacher’s role has traditionally been understood as passing on knowledge. While this is obviously important, another critical aspect is that of intentionally crafting community, culture, and the layout of the communal space. Smith (2009) highlights this by suggesting that: An education, then, is a constellation of practices, rituals, and routines that inculcates a particular vision of the good life by inscribing or infusing that vision into the heart (the gut) by means of material, embodied practices. (p. 26)

The Class Community A helpful definition of community is given by Fowler, “A unified human organism with a distinct identity characterised by a shared life in which all its members participate” (Hanscamp, 2018, p. 18). A class conceiving itself as a learning community over and above being a mere collection of competing individual learners, is crucial in developing class culture and formational learning. Nurturing community encourages a culture that celebrates cooperation over competition, connectedness over individualism, mutual submission over individual rights, and a shared vision of group success over individual comparison. Learning within such a culture becomes deeply and holistically formational.

Thinking of the class as a community should not conjure images of sameness where everyone achieves at the same level without the recognition or celebration of individual achievements, gifts, or needs. The apostle Paul, when describing the church community (1 Corinthians 12), paints the image of a community with beautiful diversity. It is a community where members are distinct individuals but share together in a common purpose, sharing in the successes of some and the disappointments and frustrations of others.

This shared life of wonder and worry is one of the strengths of belonging to a community. Blomberg and Stronks (1993) describe the diversity in community: Christian schools help students to unfold their gifts so that they “shine like stars in the universe as [they] hold out the word of life” (Phil. 2:15-16).

They encourage teachers and students to be willing sharers of joy and bearers of burdens, looking to the interests of others (Phil. 2:4). And schools as learning communities seek and celebrate shalom as the participants are called to continue to work out their salvation with fear and trembling in and through their learning and teaching (Phil. 2:13). (p. 17)

Organisation or Organism Sadly, rather than function as flourishing communities, “most schools typically function as social organisations rather than communities” (Hanscamp, 2018, p. 17).

Schools are highly structured environments. Many people coming together necessitate organising to ensure effectiveness, safety, clarity, etc. While a school is an organisation, the Christian school community is more helpfully described by Fowler through the metaphor of an organism. The “. . . unified human organism with a distinct identity characterised by a shared life in which all its members participate” (Hanscamp, 2018, p. 17). A comparison is helpfully seen by comparing the focus of each: Organisational focus:

Organism focus:

• Budgets

• Life

• Efficiency

• Growth

• Quantitative data

• Relationships

• Appraisals

• Shared vision

• Timetables

• Identity

• Productivity

• Wellbeing

• Audits

• Mutual support

• Meetings

• Long-term connections

• Titles • Equality

• Genuine care • Equity

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Formation of Community

• How frequently are textbooks, smartboards, etc. used?

Classroom communities have patterns of behaviour that define how the individual members see their value and place. As the teacher, you allow certain practices to shape the type of community that flourishes in your classroom. Hence the need to be conscious of what story is being told. The following three common practices demonstrate how classroom community is shaped.

• Do they dominate and facilitate all the learning?

First, the example of a teacher who spends the start of the lesson marking the roll, handing out the equipment, and discussing rules that need reinforcing.

Students may interpret—even subconsciously—that this teacher sees compliance with the organisation of the classroom as the most important thing. While we have acknowledged that a certain level of organising needs to occur, is this the best story to tell during the first interaction of the day? Compare the start of this lesson with the class next door. Here, the teacher greets each student individually as they enter, then greets the first student on the roll publically, this student then greets the next child, who then greets the next. At the end of the roll marking, another student is chosen to come and read the daily notices to the rest of the class.

Positive Relationships Build Community

Can you see how the two teachers have accomplished the same organisational requirements while honouring and creating very different cultures?

Second, consider how assessment pieces are handed back. Ponder the following questions: • What impressions do students gather from the way you return assessment pieces?

• Do students know the grades from the order in which pieces are returned?

• What does your body language tell?

• What feedback accompanied the return? Are any verbal comments given?

• Are there awards that accompany the marked assessments?

• What about timing? Have promises been fulfilled?

How long did it take?

• How are they used?

• Are they the source for all answers?

• Do your lessons start with, “Take out your textbooks and turn to page xx where you’ll find all the work that we are covering during this lesson”?

Supportive class communities need quality relationships between teacher and student, teachers and colleagues, students and other students, and even those outside the classroom—like parents and other staff. Beech (2015) suggests, “Quality education may be said to be heavily influenced by the informal contract teachers have with students within the social contexts of their classes” (p. 107).

An effective learning community occurs when there are healthy relationships of trust and respect, and each person is encouraged to exercise their particular talents for the welfare of the community. This requires a committed partnership of mutually supportive relationships and a relationally nurturing environment in every aspect of the classroom. May practices and routines in your class support relationships that are characterised by justice, mutual respect, compassion, honesty, trust, grace, authenticity, and love.

We seek positive relationships because: • God calls us to a covenant of love with Himself and with each other.

• We are all equal before God. • We are all image-bearers of God. • We all live corem deo (before the face of God).

Nurturing concern and interest in your students promotes and sustains healthy and positive teacherstudent relationships.You can do this by:

Each of these small practices/routines associated with the return of student work forms part of the storytelling. While you may say one thing, do your practices undo your message? As the teacher, you have many opportunities to adapt your daily practice to promote a more healthy community—by being aware of the possible messages your students might be ‘reading’ and being willing to consider alternative ways of doing things.

• Taking the time to get to know each student.

Lastly, your use of key resources such as textbooks conveys powerfully shaping messages which influence the formation of your class culture. Consider the following:

• Seeking opportunities for personalised, genuine encouragement.

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• Having genuine interest in each student.

• Acknowledging and valuing each student as an individual.

• Bringing students’ interests into the learning content.

• Personalising learning activities when possible.

Students are astute at detecting inauthenticity; they have finely tuned radars to measure teacher genuineness. Students can be acutely aware of

your love and interest, or lack thereof, to others and themselves. Feeling warm towards students is easy to write about but isn’t always easy to achieve when students are disengaged with the learning and behave in ways that put them at odds with the class community. You need to remind yourself that the troubled student is still an image-bearer and ought to be treated with the dignity and respect that comes with this status.

The Importance of Shared Vision A collection of people does not a community make.

Flourishing communities require a shared vision. A shared vision unifies, gives purpose, enables, and defines a community. The shared vision provides a reference point for the individual members to find their place as part of that community. When the personal vision and the communal vision are misaligned, the community becomes unstable, and the potential for formational learning is threatened. The lack of common vision results in a collection of individuals gathering for purely pragmatic, utilitarian reasons.

A culture with a shared vision for learning in the Christian classroom still recognises the unique individual differences of students. However, the communal vision of learning together about God’s world, will celebrate difference while minimising competition and comparison. A vision that desires the whole class community to be learning together, unified in a shared vision, is captured in Diagram 8.1.

The shaping of a shared vision within a class requires you to facilitate the specific and frequent framing of the vision in ways that are meaningful to your students.

Achieving a Shared Vision The shaping of a shared vision within a class requires you to facilitate the specific and frequent framing of the vision in ways that are meaningful to your students. This is facilitated by ensuring ongoing liturgy, language, and learning (classroom routines) are in harmony with the vision. This won’t be achieved by making a classroom poster and pointing to it when individualism is expressing itself. The shared vision needs to be internalised and lived by the class community. Learning in this context is so much deeper and rewarding for all community members. As Antoine de Saint-Exupéry suggests, “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the people to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”

Building Community Community building is an ongoing process. Having a class camp or a lesson at the start of the year to focus on community building is unlikely to achieve the desired results. Community building requires consistent, articulate, passionate dedication, and a love for the community you are leading. Do you believe in the community you are building? Do you continually reinforce the importance of community and align practices with expected cultural norms? Do you model a love and commitment to the community? Do you pray for the community of your class or classes (as well as the individual students)? Through God’s strength, you have a powerful opportunity to shape a class community that is God-honouring and grace-shaped which appreciates the individual image-bearer status of each member—this is to be relished. You have a chance to contribute to the culture you teach in—we encourage you to relish this aspect of your role.

Shared vision

Individual vision Diagram 8.1. A classroom with a shared vision compared to a classroom of gathered individuals with their own individual visions for learning.

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The Class Culture How does my class culture advance or hinder formational learning? By the sharing of habits, practices, expectations, customs, language, roles, hopes, and values, each community has its distinctive culture.

The culture of a class community has the potential to significantly influence formational learning—for good or for ill. Class culture does not develop in a vacuum.

The storylines of society, parental expectations, and even the culture of your school, will impact the culture of your class. As you are part of a school community— and teaching team—you will participate in shaping the culture of the whole school community. However, the place you have the greatest potential to influence and make positive cultural change, is your own classroom.

You have the opportunity to focus on the internal elements that affect culture: the patterns of class communal life, the language used, the teaching and learning practices, the routines, the cultural habits, the language that is nurtured, and the physical space.

Community Practices Shape Culture In the same way that assumptions and perspectives in curriculum are not neutral, the elements that affect class culture are also not neutral—this is often underappreciated. Christian teachers seeking formational learning will give the same level of attention to integrating faith with teaching that they give to integrating faith with the practices that shape the culture of their classes.

An example of the way in which practices, habits, and routines can shape culture can be seen in the way that

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church services are planned. Careful attention is given to each aspect of the service recognising that it can shape culture, and therefore shared belief and vision.

Examples of those decisions include: • Which songs are chosen (singing songs in the first person, “You saved me from . . . ” compared to corporate expressions, “You saved us from . . . ”).

• Applauding the musicians after a well-played song.

• Limiting the use of the word ‘worship’ to refer to the singing within the service.

• Standing for the Bible reading when it is from one of the Gospels.

• Providing the text for Bible readings on paper (or on screen) therefore facilitating Bibles not being brought to church.

In these examples, each decision weaves together to tell a story—sometimes an unintended one. This is no less the case in our classrooms. The choice, arrangement, and frequency of the elements, and practices, of a church service can be referred to as liturgy. In this way we can speak of the liturgy of our classrooms with the associated choice, arrangement, and frequency of the elements and practices. The liturgy of your classroom will have a shaping influence on your class culture and ultimately your students by telling a cultural story about purpose, success, worth, and relationships, etc. Just as a church service leader must reflect on their deeply held assumptions and values when designing a service, a Christian teacher also reflects on their deeply held assumptions and values as they create a class liturgy that will shape their students and their learning.

Elements Influencing Culture While many elements influence your class culture, we draw your attention to seven routines, rituals, or patterns that are particularly influential: 1. Technology 2. Hierarchy of worth 3. Equity over equality 4. Failure and struggle 5. The reward for learning 6. Collaboration 7. Age-based groupings

1. Technology Digital technologies, and their associated devices, have become part of the air we breathe. We are now weaving these technologies into the fabric of everyday functioning, communicating, thinking, and relating.

Our classrooms are also experiencing this impact as the following list indicates: • Creative opportunities for producing student work has substantially increased.

• The potential audience for student work, through publishing online, has expanded exponentially.

• Student access to a world of information from a multitude of sources without having to move from their desk, is available at a click.

• Barriers to communication and resource sharing between student and teacher, have been significantly reduced.

• Potential student access to the teacher is becoming 24/7.

• The multimedia-based gamification of learning seems limitless.

• The flipping of classroom instruction and homework consolidation due to the ability of teachers being able to record their instruction, is being explored.

• The augmentation of face-to-face lesson content with a parallel online course via a learning management system, is being increasingly embraced by schools.

What impact may this technological integration have on class culture? When a class culture integrates technologies like the above, it is not the same class with added tools. It may be the same class but with quite a different culture.

McLuhan (1964) famously suggested, “The medium is the message”. He was recognising the non-neutral status of information and communication technologies.

Learning apps, networking tools, educational games, and learning management systems are all designed by technologists who hold assumptions about the student, the nature of learning, and the purpose of education. Their worldview is then woven into the technologies such that even when we are using them well—even in God-honouring ways—they will be shaping us, our students, and the culture of our class.

For example, bring your own device (BYOD) policies in secondary schools—with the notion that every student must have a device during learning—may subtly (and sometimes powerfully) impact class community and culture. The device can become a focus point of learning interaction while diminishing the learning and relational interaction with the teacher and fellow students. It may be argued that the students are more connected through the ‘chat’ and ‘sharing’ facilities on their devices, though this connection is now mediated by the device and its apps. Perhaps the students are becoming more connected, but with less connection?

One commentator suggests that these technologies don’t bring increased community but in fact foster networked individualism (Wellman, 2000).

The possibilities and opportunities are rich and deep for integrating technology into learning. What follows is an example of such integration. What impacts on formational learning and class culture might be evident?

Our class was discussing the negatives/benefits of various types of governments. I had set up a chatroom using our Moodle site. Students were asked to provide their thoughts and comments on others’ responses. The classroom became quiet (apart from the sound of frenetic typing) as the students passionately expressed their points of view and probed others’ opinions. I was fascinated to note that students who were often reluctant to join in on class discussions were very actively sharing ideas.

Some students who were usually ‘loud’ and quick in their answers offered little content. The use of this technology altered the way the class discussion occurred. I felt it allowed greater participation and more thoughtful responses. Daniel, WA

Digital technologies, and their associated devices, have become part of the air we breathe. We are now weaving these technologies into the fabric of everyday functioning, communicating, thinking, and relating.

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Christian educators will recognise technology as a creational blessing that God has woven into the cultural creation. However, they will do so while being ever attentive to the shared vision of the class community, and discerning of the potential impacts on class community and culture. Before integrating gamification technologies into learning they will be critical of the competitive storyline that may impact the class culture. While facilitating the student collection of information from community driven sources (e.g., Wikipedia), they will consider how to ensure a storyline that believes truth comes through consensus, does not pervade the class culture. Before they encourage students to ‘post’ their work to large unknown online audiences, they will assess the storyline of narcissism that is designed into social media technologies and be ever-discerning of its tendency to pervade class culture and significantly work against community.

Reflection • Can you think of ways in which devices, apps, and the Internet could be embraced to increase community and nurture grace-shaped class culture?

• What are the factors to consider to ensure that technology facilitates formational learning rather than having learning being controlled by the technology?

• Some educational movements don’t embrace any information and communication based technologies until well into secondary school. What might be some of the benefits of this?

• Are you naturally an early adopter of information and communication technologies? Why? • Online communicating is not increased community but networked individualism. Discuss this statement with a colleague.

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2. Hierarchy of Worth Power struggles between those who are perceived as powerful or less powerful characterise many classrooms—between teacher and student, teacher and teacher, or student and student. These are likely to hinder formational learning. Christian classroom culture should tell the biblical story that all members of the community have equal worth. All are imagebearers, and all are one in Jesus—whether Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female, student or teacher (Galatians 3:28).

This equal worth does not lead to a view that all have equal authority. Each member of the community has a God-given role to play: or office. The office of the teacher, student, principal, parent, lab assistant, teacher aide, or classroom cleaner comes with certain responsibilities that have associated authority. In the Christian class community it is always recognised that the authority comes via the God-given office being fulfilled, and never from a differential of worth or importance.

Liturgies such as lining up, class seating, and how conversations are held, should tell a story that there is no hierarchy of value, merit, or importance between teacher or student, better speller or average speller, more witty or less witty, more extroverted or more introverted, faster or slower runner, charismatic leader or the quiet servant, male or female.

• What unhelpful power imbalances are evident in your class?

• Do any of the words, actions, routines, or rituals in your class imply that some people are more important than others?

• What is one thing you could change this week to celebrate the worth of all members of your class?

3. Equity Over Equality We are sure you have had a student say, “But that’s not fair!”. Our students are immersed in a society fixated on fairness, rights, and equality—these words are value-laden and bring a significant influence on class culture. A Christian class culture is one that will nurture equity over equality. It understands that all members have the same worth but they don’t all have the same needs. Equity means that each member will receive what they need for the communal vision of the class to be realised.

The difference between equality and equity can be shown in the following table:

Culture of Equality

Culture of Equity

In the culture of equality, being equal means being the same.

A culture that promotes equity recognises that members are equal in value and unique in identity.

A culture of equality promotes the idea that everyone is equal (the same) and must, therefore, receive equal (the same) help, equal (the same) resources, equal (the same) adjustments, etc.

To maintain equality, if something is given to one student, it must be given to all students.

It is within class cultures shaped by notions of equality that claims of ‘It’s not fair; why do they get that but I don’t!’ can be heard.

Equality emphasises competition and comparison.

A classroom embodying a culture of equity supports each member to flourish.

What is provided to one student to help them succeed does not have to be given to every student. Students are celebrated as equal image-bearers, unique in the way they learn.

In class cultures shaped by notions of equity, not only will claims of, “That’s not fair!” be dampened, but students will be more likely to actively participate in the differentiation required by their fellow learners.

Equity reflects a graceshaped community.

Use the following questions to ponder whether your class culture tends towards equality or equity: • Do your classroom practices reflect notions of equality or equity?

• Describe why equity is more sympathetic with a worldview shaped by the Bible.

• Describe why equity is also important for enhancing formational learning.

• What changes to practice can you make to reflect equity in your class?

4. Failure and Struggle As you mould the culture of your class, it is essential that the storyline associated with failure and struggle is considered. Failure and struggle are both an inevitable part of formational learning. We are not referring to moral failure or deliberate sinful decisions, but the courageous trial and error essential to growth and learning. God’s big story does not see human worth related to the erring that may result when we try things—the gospel of grace gives us significant space to try, fail, and struggle because we are in Christ, independent of our performance. Our Christian class cultures will tell the good news of this space to fail, and nurture the benefits of growth and learning that result.

Dweck (2012) suggests that a healthy place and space for failure is crucial for formational and sustained learning. In advice to parents towards shaping their child’s attitudes to learning, she suggests: If parents want to give their children a gift, the best thing they can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning. That way, their children don’t have to be slaves of praise. They will have a lifelong way to build and repair their own confidence. (pp.

179-180) A class culture that is open to failure is described by Dweck (2012) as a place where learners don’t see their learning capacity as fixed but rather as dynamic.

A growth mindset is one that sees failure as merely an opportunity to learn. It is characterised by seeing struggle and failure positively. It says, ‘this is hard; this is fun’. Learning sometimes requires perseverance, struggle, sacrifice, and grit as well as hurdles, failure, and knockbacks.

The opposite of a class culture that makes space for failure and struggle might be one where individual visions for learning result in competition and comparison. This results in a fear of failure and hesitancy to take learning risks—both for those at the ‘bottom’ and from those at the ‘top’—as students feel their worth depends on not having their positions downgraded or that the flow of rewards might be jeopardised.

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Your classroom liturgies can either support a culture in which students develop a fixed mindset or growth mindset. Both views interpret failure differently.

Ponder the following questions: • Do you allow your students to fail?

• What response do you give students when they fail?

• What response does the class collectively give when someone fails?

• How can grit and perseverance become celebrated virtues in your class?

• How can failure become a transformative event in your classroom?

5. The Reward for Learning It may be your unquestioned practice to have a competitive culture that uses rewards to motivate your students. The use of external awards creates a culture that inhibits formational learning.

When our classrooms are shaped by a culture of competition, there can be an unquestioned tendency to use the promise of reward to motivate students to engage with learning. The reward may be kudos and higher position in the notional ranking or worth, or it may be the promise of an external reward (e.g., early mark, sticker, award, chocolate frog, relief from a certain class chore, free time, etc.). The promise of rewards for learning engagement may significantly inhibit the aim of deeper formational learning as the engagement might dissipate at the point of struggle (“This isn’t worth a sticker, I give up.”), or dissipate when the reward is no longer available (“My reason for persevering is now gone, I give up.”).

From the seminal work by Kohn (1993), Punished by Rewards, to more recent collations of psychological and educational research, such as Drive by Pink (2011), teachers have cause to question the educational efficacy of extrinsic, decontextualized motivators. It is not that their use isn’t formational—it unequivocally is—the question is the nature of the formation.

It is a widespread practice in Western society to motivate people using unrelated, artificial rewards—liturgies that shape in this way are everywhere. Employers, parents, and teachers in many classrooms use them daily.

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Awards and rewards have the potential to counter deeper formational learning by: • Diverting students from developing sustainable intrinsic motivation.

• Short-changing students from developing the deep joy of discovery.

• Hindering the development of curiosity and the internal drive to explore other fields of learning (that are not rewarded by the decontextualised motivators).

This must ring alarm bells for teachers interested in deeper formational learning. The importance of considering external motivators is highlighted in this account by Parker and Wheaton (2007): An American fast food chain entered into an arrangement with a school district in the US with the publicised aim of improving student reading.

Fast food vouchers were offered to students for each book they read. You might not be surprised to learn that reading rates soared. It was suggested that this non-related, contrived reward was a successful motivator and there was much patting of backs and warm feelings of success. However, a more thorough analysis showed that children were choosing shorter and shorter books and testing indicated that comprehension scores substantially decreased during this period. It was also found that student reading outside of school, which was not rewarded, also decreased (Grille, 2002). Would the provision of more interesting books coupled with a promotion of the value and richness of reading have been a more effective motivator? (p. 15) It is a widespread practice in Western society to motivate people using unrelated, artificial rewards— liturgies that shape in this way are everywhere.

Employers, parents, and teachers in many classrooms use them daily.

When our civilization moved from largely agrarianbased to industrial, during the Industrial Revolution, a way of motivating a workforce to persist in the demeaning monotony of production lines became apparent. Incentives for output, speed, and quality were used. This use of motivators coincided with influential work in the science of behaviourism.

Influenced by research observing animals’ response to a stimulus, motivating by extrinsic rewards became an important aspect of industrial relations. This cultural feature soon flowed into the fabric of society and into a variety of spheres of life—including school classrooms.

While it may be fair to claim that this account suffers from significant oversimplification, it is reasonable to expect you to discern the effect that behaviourism, as a “pattern of this world” (Romans 12:2), has on formational learning.

If there is no expectation that effort or results will achieve an external reward, the class community is free to celebrate learning successes. This celebration may randomly include stickers, or praise, or the teacher shouting the class hot chips—being careful that it wasn’t set up as a motivator in the first place and won’t be used as a motivator for engagement in the future. The class community with a shared vision will tend to want to celebrate as a class when all have learned or achieved. However, in the noncompetitive class culture there is also the freedom to celebrate and honour individual students. We don’t hesitate to take opportunities to celebrate a success.

However, the Christian teacher will be discerning about the storytelling that may result from the way this celebrating is unfolded and the language that is used.

A culture of honouring and celebrating may assist in building a formational learning community.

While this section is not addressing the effective use of competition, it is important to state we do not believe that competition is wrong. There are many contexts in the life of a school and class community where competition can be richly enjoyed. However, for competition not to tell an unhelpful cultural story it will be limited to contexts where competition is intrinsic to the task or activity. In learning or character formation, competition will rarely be intrinsic to the task, unlike it is in a volleyball game, running a race, or in a board game. Individualism is harmful to community and competition tends to pit the welfare of ‘me’ against the flourishing of the community.

• Do you speak of giftedness in ways that result in students approaching learning tasks with the primary motivation of gaining your affirmation and approval?

• Do you use labels like ‘gifted students’ or ‘special needs students’? Aren’t all students gifted in multiple ways?

• Are the results in assessment tasks returned to the class in ranked order with public affirmation to the achievers and a challenge to others to have the same reward next time if they choose to be motivated by the successes of the ‘winners’ this time?

• Are rewards (in the form of stickers, stamps, positions on charts, certificates, special mentions, trophies, awards) given as unexpected celebrations or as contractually obliged expectations?

• Can you think of other elements of your class liturgy that tell a story of individualism and behaviourism— maybe even in ways unintended?

6. Collaboration Having a culture that celebrates and utilises teamwork is a critical aspect of a healthy learning community.

Teamwork reflects the nature of the body of Christ and enhances learning.

For some teachers, the pinnacle of the teaching profession is seen as working as an independent, highly competent individual. This is not the view shared in the Christian school. No single teacher possesses all the required knowledge, skills, and gifts needed to meet all the learning needs of all students. Many of the challenging tasks of building and documenting curriculum, and developing teaching/learning plans and practice require the assistance and help of others.

You show your commitment to teamwork by actively working with other staff, contributing your areas of strength, and seeking assistance from others in your areas of weakness so the team can achieve the school’s vision.

Teamwork builds up the body. It takes time and effort and requires each person to: • Be mutually supportive, reliable, and dependent.

• Share resources, gifts, and insights.

• Be accountable to fellow team members.

• Support the addressing of any problems.

• Speak a shared language.

• Incorporate collaboration techniques.

• Nurture a culture where it is safe to critique each other.

• Recognise that failure is a welcome part of learning and growth.

We model the teamwork that we expect of our students and the type of culture that typifies a healthy class community. It is important that individual giftedness is not suppressed by teamwork, and each person is encouraged to express personal flair, initiative, and creativity. Some questions to ponder follow: • How do I encourage meaningful collaboration in my lessons?

• When was the last time I collaborated effectively with other staff?

• What is something I could benefit from working collaboratively on with someone else? What can I do to initiate this?

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7. Age-Based Groupings While the way classes are structured is not something a teacher can decide, the powerful influence of this structure on the development of culture is worth considering.

Since the commencement of mass compulsory education, the predominant structure that schools have adopted has been age-based grouping. Will this be the case in the future? The Australian report commonly known as Gonski 2.0 stated, “To accelerate individual learning growth at scale . . . the Review Panel believes it is essential to move from a year-based curriculum to a curriculum expressed as learning progressions independent of year or age” (Commonwealth of Australia, 2018).

Should we rethink the assumptions of age-based grouping? Burggraaf (2014) suggests that: The great complexity which God has created in humanity means that in any age-based group of children there will be a very wide range of capacity for learning. . . . Learners and learning are complex entities. No one method of grouping learners can account for such complexities. The Christian school needs to be flexible and creative in the way in which it groups learners so that the variety of abilities, interests and needs is celebrated and served justly. . . . The Christian school should seek to avoid situations in which age-based expectations are made so central that more able students are endangered by arrogance and the less able liable to self-loathing as a result of unwarranted comparisons being highlighted. (p. 87) Addressing the negative impacts of age-based grouping on desired class culture is quite a challenge and is not possible in isolation. The following questions may assist you to find creative expressions of diversity within the current restrictions: • What is the rationale for the way your school has grouped students?

• Within existing class structures, can you include other classes in your teaching/learning programs?

• Can you work with other teachers to support cross-age learning relationships and collaborative learning?

• How can you support existing ways the school fosters intentional cross-age community (buddy systems, assemblies, camps, excursions, performance, etc.)?

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When a Student Rejects the Culture Harmonious relationships are not always easy to establish and maintain. Positive grace-shaped class cultures are not always easy to establish and maintain.

Sometimes students will push against the culture and reject the class community. What do we do when this occurs?

As the adult and professional, it is ultimately your responsibility to ensure effective relationships are established and maintained in your class and for you to redirect the student back into the community. For relationships to be most effective, commitment from both yourself and the student is needed—but you have been called to seek after the lost sheep and bring them back into the flock.

Christian schools and their classrooms, which should be marked by grace, self-sacrifice, and a shared vision for positive growth and learning, will never fully express community perfectly. Although its members are all image-bearers, they are also fallen, and this will evidence itself in every classroom. While you are purposefully forming a particular class culture, students can show passive disengagement, quiet subversion, or wilful outward hostility.

This impacts not only the culture you are fostering but also the quality of learning, the welfare of yourself and other students, and the quality of relationships.

For many parents (and some teachers and students) this is a difficult topic to raise and address and is one of the key reasons that parents give for why they shift schools.

When students bump against the classroom culture, one way to love the student is to guide and direct them, with patience and clarity, back into the community and healthy relationship. Grace and love shape our response, but always in concert with forthright expectations—gracious love will always include clear boundaries and communication about the behaviours and attitude required for community membership. The class community, led by you, seeks to redirect the student back to the shared vision rather than react with simplistic, mechanistic, or punitive punishments. This also requires the class community to bend and stretch to welcome the student, who is pushing against expectations, within its loving boundaries.

Although it is outside the scope of this resource to explore classroom management in detail, some of the key ideas that Christian teachers and schools might have at hand to respond to students who are out of alignment with a positive learning community include:

• Understanding that quality relationships are the foundation of positive classroom culture and effective classroom management.

• Responding consistently within a known, clear, and fair behaviour management framework.

• Establishing a culture of restorative practice.

• Including parents as part of the process.

The redirecting teacher seeks to nudge the student back into the class community and back in harmony with the class culture and its shared vision for learning.

It is not possible to make this happen by formula or technique as this is ultimately God’s work. As an agent of God’s love, grace, and justice, the Christian teacher will put in place disciplinary and restorative structures that are committed to ‘discipling’ in a fair and graceshaped way.

• Using language and strategies that seek to redirect rather than react.

Restorative Practice

Redirecting or Reacting

A restorative approach emphasises restoration over punishment. Students are taught to forgive and seek the restoration of relationships, just as God does.

Bandstra (2014), offers helpful advice on establishing a heart-centred classroom culture and discipline in his book Beyond Control. He states the importance of reflecting on the difference between redirecting and reacting when disciplining (or should we say ‘discipling’?) and responding to unruly behaviour that sets the student outside the community vision.

Bandstra suggests that: Redirecting teachers do not content themselves with merely getting the wrong behaviour to desist.

Instead they want to help wrong-doers to see things differently and behave differently as a result.

Ultimately they seek a change of heart as they nudge students closer to the path of what is right or good. (p. 77)

Reacting

Redirecting

• focuses on the past

• focuses on the future

• makes the student pay • considers what students deserve • draws the teacher into contention • often driven by emotions • limited to threats and punishments • scrutinizes only behaviour

• encourages students to think • considers what students need • allows the teacher to guide and disciple • driven by the mind (ultimately heart) • employs a repertoire of strategies

The principles of restorative practice involve: • Students respecting themselves and others—their fellow students, teachers, and parents.

• Students understanding that relationships are damaged by poor behaviour or poor choices.

• Students knowing that issues can be negotiated in ways that result in forgiveness, healing, and restoration.

• Students learning to take responsibility for their actions, and understand that there are consequences for their behaviour.

• Students being encouraged to return to a restored and healthy relationship with those who have been ill-affected.

• Students making sincere restitution (if appropriate) and seeking forgiveness and reconciliation with the person who has been harmed.

• Students knowing that there will be an acknowledgment of each person’s perspective. This helps to build relationships and helps students work towards resolving the problem. The school ensuring the expected process of response to a problem is clear.

As an agent of God’s love, grace, and justice, the Christian teacher will put in place disciplinary and restorative structures that are committed to ‘discipling’ in a fair and grace-shaped way.

• reflects on deeper issues

(Bandstra, 2014, p. 76)

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Restorative practice responds to discipline incidents (typically where there has been a breakdown of relationship) by having a ‘restorative discussion’ using the following four questions: 1. What is the problem? a. Students are helped to identify what went wrong. b. Students are helped to recognise that relationships and trust have been damaged. c. Students are helped to appreciate that the person is not the problem, but that the problem is the problem.

2. Who is affected? a. Students are helped to identify who was hurt by these actions. b. Students are helped to identify how they were hurt.

3. How can we fix the problem? a. Students are helped to see the likely need for an apology and for them to ‘put right’ the relationship and things that have gone wrong.

4. How can we make sure this doesn’t happen again? a. Students are helped to identify why the problem has occurred and what underpinned the action that caused the problem. b. Students are helped to accept that the consequences being applied are there to consolidate their understanding and set right the broken relationship.

For restorative practice to be effective, teachers, students, and parents must work together as most behavioural issues are much deeper than the incident or surface-level symptom being expressed. It is important that there is an alignment of expectations between the parents and the school. Both parties should give and expect mutual support for healthy disciplinary practice. You can assist in partnering with parents with things like:

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• A timely phone call, email, or meeting for serious incidents.

• Keeping parents in the loop as the incident is worked through.

• Inviting parents to keep teachers informed about any stresses or changes their child is experiencing.

• Ensuring that students know that all the adults in their lives are working toward their growth and wellbeing.

Reflection • In which ways are my behaviour management practices focused on being restorative or punitive?

• How well do I give encouragement/validation when students are doing well?

• Are students challenging inconsistencies or what they see as unfair practices?

• Is the school approach to behaviour management understood by myself, my students, and parents?

How do I articulate it? Am I an ambassador for it during interactions with parents?

• How does my school’s approach to behaviour management support my classroom learning culture?

For restorative practice to be effective, teachers, students, and parents must work together as most behavioural issues are much deeper than the incident or surfacelevel symptom being expressed.

The Physical Space Space Shapes Culture The physical space incorporates everything physical in your learning environment including: architecture, room layout and orientation, room size and shape, furniture and décor, furniture placement, desk arrangement, and location of windows, walls, and pinboards. The physical space plays such an important role in creating classroom culture, it is often referred to as the “third teacher” (Darragh, 2006).

How you curate your classroom shows a particular view of teaching and learning. The space may prohibit or support various pedagogical choices. The space tells a story to the students about what is of value. Just as a home lounge room, where all the couches face the TV, may tell a story about the family’s values and vision for family life, so a classroom space can reinforce unspoken expectations about education and learning.

For example, all the desks individually arranged and facing the teacher may tell a particular story about learning, authority, community, and even a view of the purpose of education.

The following list of questions stimulates reflection on the arrangement and design of the physical space where your class learns: •

How are the desks set out?

• Are students able to choose where to sit, or what type of desk/table/pod/bench to sit at?

• Does the classroom layout promote small group collaboration?

• Is there a variety of spaces accessible for individual students?

• How do the spaces work for students who have unique needs?

• Are the products of learning (posters, notes, art, etc.) displayed? How often are they refreshed?

• Where do you primarily operate from when you are teaching?

• Where do you work from when not directly engaging with students?

• Where do you place your desk and what message does its placement give?

• Do students have easy access to shared learning materials?

This question list could keep filling this page. The curated class space needs to support the formational learning goals of the class. The space needs to meet the ever-changing aims of education and support the vision for the classroom culture.

Reflection • How would you describe your classroom environment?

• Use 12 descriptive words to capture your classroom environment.

• You may like to use the prompting list below to get started.

• Then, invite your students to do the same exercise.

• You could collate the 12 most commonly used terms that the student group come up with.

• To assist the students, put up a starter list in two columns; one side with positive words, the opposite with negative words, e.g., cold vs warm, friendly vs hostile.

• Comparing the two lists would be an interesting exercise.

• Are there points of agreement or malalignment?

• Why do you think that is the case?

Academically robust/academically sloppy, accepts diversity/wants sameness, achievement for all students/achievement for the select, adventurous/ tedious, approachable/individualistic, behaviour is well managed/poorly managed, biblical insights are shared/not shared, clear/confused, cooperative/ competitive, critical thinking/sameness thinking, excitement/dullness, encourages/discourages responses, expects high standards/mediocre standards, fair marking/favouritism, faith is integrated into the learning/not integrated, friendly/unfriendly, great devotions/poor devotions, individually known/‘a number’, interested in me/hardly knows me, inviting/ uninviting, just/unjust, learning growth is noticed/ not noticed, open/closed, ordered/ disordered, respectful/disrespectful, responsibility fostered/ hindered, secure/insecure, teacher’s faith is evident/ not evident, Threads are meaningful/not meaningful, ‘trusty’/uncertain, values/doesn’t value opinions, warm/cold, welcoming/closed.

• Does my class space invite curiosity, creativity, and exploration, or does it enforce rigidity and compliance?

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Shapes of Learning Certain arrangements of the learning space may be more conducive to particular learning strategies being embraced. This may include the arrangement of the community within the learning space—the students and teacher. A helpful resource that explores the link between learning strategy and arrangement of the space is the Shapes of Learning website (shapesoflearning.com) which details how one Christian school explored the way in which they shaped the learning. This was firstly in response to a changing classroom/building project, and secondly in seeking to match the shapes of learning with learning goals. This journey took a group of teachers through a process of critically looking at: • What shapes can be created to match up with learning goals?

• What shared meaning can be found in different shapes?

• How do relational spaces work?

• What is dialogical meaning making?

Shapes of Learning is a wonderful example of how one group of Christian teachers, responding to the call to transform (not conform) to the patterns of this world (Romans 12:2), undertook a creative rethink of the ways in which they approached the ‘shape of learning’ and the freedom they had to be flexible in their choices.

Opening up the discussion on shapes causes teachers to expose their learning assumptions and to consider questions of learning effectiveness for all students.

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With the question, “What story is the classroom shape telling?” in mind, we can walk into any classroom and interpret, or attach meaning to, the story of learning being told. For example, having a teacher’s desk near the front of the class tells a story. How often does the teacher sit at that desk? Opening up the discussion on shapes causes teachers to expose their learning assumptions and to consider questions of learning effectiveness for all students. Critiquing and reshaping practice empowers teachers.

The strength of the Shapes of Learning notion is the simplicity with which it pictures and captures the learning shape that the teacher or student chooses/ desires. Learning shapes are tangible, concrete, and physical expressions that teachers and students can readily understand and picture. Teachers who are familiar with the tool can readily use the symbol to match up with the learning task.

Students who have been instructed and are familiar with the shapes can readily orient themselves into the right ‘shape’. Shapes of Learning has had remarkable success in assisting: students to understand more about how they learn (metacognition); teachers to create meaning together by naming what effective learning looks like; and teachers and students in their relational growth as they work and learn with others in shared learning relationships.

Reflection Perhaps the learning shapes suggested won’t lend themselves well to your particular stage/age or specialty subject area. In what ways could you modify the schema to adapt it to your learning settings? Are there new shapes you could develop for your learning context?

Shapes of Learning is a helpful paradigm that can enrich and transform your learning environment. It can be used across the F-12 spectrum and is designed to help make learning more accessible, adaptable, and applicable. Shapes of Learning is a concept devised by Alistair Coffey and a primary team from Mt Evelyn Christian School. This material is adapted from shapesoflearning.com and is used with permission.

• Students benefit as they can anticipate what skills and responsibilities they will require in each stage of the lesson according to the type of shape. It is particularly beneficial for students with learning needs as they prepare to work with others in a short task. Frequently they can struggle to work collaboratively and this helps structure and prepare for what is to come.

History of Shapes

What Are the Shapes?

The idea of Shapes of Learning originated out of the context of needing to move classrooms during a building project and our teaching team’s desire to maintain effective learning while minimising the level of disruption. We also wanted to teach our students independence and the need for flexibility.

1. CIRCLE LEARNING

We looked at a series of shapes that cover the different types of learning that take place. Through critical discussion we have been able to identify six key Shapes of Learning. We also identified four points of information, namely: • Type of Learning - What type of learning does the shape enable?

• Looks Like - What would learning look like within this shape?

• Sounds Like - What would learning sound like within this shape?

• Student Responsibilities - What are the rules/ responsibilities of each student within this shape?

How to Use the Shapes • A teacher’s knowledge of different Shapes of Learning helps them prepare lessons that are varied and accommodating to a range of learning styles.

• Initially, students are taught how to operate in, and practise, using each shape of learning effectively. As they become more proficient and confident, they can begin independently choosing an appropriate shape to complete their learning task or project.

Type of Learning – This learning shape facilitates collaborative discussion and sharing to take place. Here everyone is equal in their learning. There is no ‘one leader’. This can be a whole class or a small group of students.

Looks Like – Everyone is sitting at the same level either on the floor or on chairs in a circle. Each person is part of the circle with no one sitting in front or behind someone else. This is important as everyone is included.

Sounds Like – One person is speaking at a time and everyone else actively listens with their whole body.

The noise level is calm as there is only one voice.

Student Responsibilities – Each member of the circle is responsible to the whole group and to engaging with the collaborative task. Not everyone has to speak but everyone has to listen. Problems are to be shared, ideas are to be collaborated on, and solutions found together.

• The language of the shapes will be incorporated into the lesson explanation, e.g., “We will begin the lesson with a short U learning time and then you will rotate around two activities. One of these will be Venn learning working on your spelling words, and the other will be a dot learning task where you will attempt to solve the problem on the board.”.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 195

2. DOT LEARNING

Type of Learning – This learning shape requires independent thinking and learning with the student being focused singularly on the work task. Students do not collaborate with others and they will need to problem solve by themselves. The individual can choose where to work and how to approach the task.

This is useful for testing and assessments.

Looks Like – Students can choose where to sit or work based on their most effective learning environment or ‘sweet spot’. Once they are there, they stay put. They are focused on their task and have all the resources they will need with them before they begin.

Sounds Like – A settled stillness and ‘quiet’ as students are not collaborating with each other.

Student Responsibilities – Students will need to make sure they choose a sweet spot to work where they can stay for the duration of the task and not be distracted by their surroundings. They will also need to have everything required to help them engage fully with the learning task. Once they have settled, the student will need to be silent and think, independently problem solve, and rely on their own understanding of the learning task.

3. VENN LEARNING

Sounds Like – Only one person should be speaking at one time, and everyone else will be actively listening with their whole body. The noise level is calm as there is only one person speaking at a time.

Student Responsibilities – As there is no leader, students take turns to share and listen as they work collaboratively. Everyone is responsible to the others, to engaging with the collaborative work task, and to contributing in order for the learning to be effective.

4. U LEARNING

Type of Learning – This learning shape allows space to collaborate and discuss but it is led by an individual at the front. Commonly, this leader is the teacher, but it might be a student. Learning is directed, or work is shared, by those standing up and not in the U. This can be done either as a whole class or in small teaching groups.

Looks Like – All individuals sit on the same level (either floor or seats) in a U shape with a presenter/ teacher standing. Each person is part of the U with no one sitting in front or behind someone else. Students are looking towards the ‘opening’/leader focus for direction or towards each other if indicated by the leader. Students are listening with their whole bodies and are taking it in turns to speak, as directed by the leader.

Sounds Like – The presenter or teacher speaks to the group. Those in the group might be asked to contribute. Speaking can be taken in turns. The noise level will be calm as there will only be one voice at a time or the leader might allow for the class to make more noise as they discuss with the person next to them.

Type of Learning – This learning shape sees two individuals or two groups working collaboratively with each other. As is symbolised in the Venn diagram, students will need to talk to each other, finding where their ideas agree and disagree. This is also known as ‘pair-share’. Students are equal in their views and take it in turns to listen and share.

Looks Like – The two individuals or two groups sit either facing each other, or sit side-by-side addressing the task in front of them. Because they are equal in their sharing they will not have anyone sitting in front or behind.

196 • Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning

Student Responsibilities – Each member of the U looks to the presenter/teacher for direction. Individuals might be asked to speak but everyone has to listen.

Students listen closely to the direction of the leader as well as the responses of their classmates in discussions.

5. ADVENTURE LEARNING

Type of Learning – This learning shape is dynamic, organic, and responsive. Learning can take place with or without others and can begin either with the students’ or the teacher’s intuitive. The trail of learning is discovered and direction is determined by what is found.

Looks Like – Adventure Learning can appear messy as students might be indoors or outdoors, working in groups, in pairs, or by themselves. There can be internal flexibility and a mixture of different shapes of learning incorporated, according to students’ needs, learning goals, and/or teacher preference. Commonly, there is no one person leading, though the teacher can mix and match instructions according to how things are unfolding, and would be responsible for overseeing all learning.

Sounds Like – The internal rules still apply for each shape of learning that individuals or groups choose.

However, the overall noise level is high as there is a mixture of shapes occurring at the same time.

Student Responsibilities – Students must understand the task and select a shape or shapes of learning that they feel would help them achieve the goal. The individual then must adhere to the responsibilities of their chosen shape so that the learning is effective.

Sounds Like – There tends to be a general nondisruptive buzz (some noise) as there are lots of students in one space and they might be fidgeting.

However, there is still only one person speaking at a time. When the teacher is explaining or directing, they can readily achieve the level of quiet needed for all students to hear and listen attentively. The noise levels may become high only when students are asked to turn to talk to each other.

Student Responsibilities – Students sit where there is space and listen closely to the teacher(s). They will also have to ignore distractions around them that result from being all together in one space and because they are unable to choose their own sweet spot. Students are required to give close attention to the teacher(s) to receive directions. When individuals are asked to speak everyone has to listen and will also have to speak louder to be heard by everyone. When in subdiscussion groups (within the blob) students take it in turns to speak and listen to the responses of their classmates.

Shapes of Learning began as a scribble on scrap paper in my mother-in-law’s kitchen. It was honed and refined with my teaching team and now has been used in various ways across our school. Good ideas do that; they grow, develop, and improve as others join in.

Because others were interested we decided to make it available on a website (shapesoflearning.com) and we invite feedback and contribution. I want to track how it changes and see it develop as an accessible and effective way for teachers to be able to label and describe the shapes of how they see effective learning flourish. I bet there are more shapes out there or more examples of how it can work. Please join the journey.

6. BLOB LEARNING

Type of Learning – This learning shape sees the whole class (or group of classes) come together and learning is directed by the teachers. The shape and style of learning is dependent upon the space available and the task required. The shape and style can change internally (e.g., small discussion groups within) while the shape remains a central mass. This is commonly used for gatherings such as assemblies or direct teaching.

Looks Like – A large number of students in one space. Students are oriented towards the leader(s) for direction, though when directed they might talk to each other or share with the group.

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Appendix 1

Summary of Transformation

by Design: The Big Picture A

198 • Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning

Introduction This summary of Transformation by Design: The Big Picture includes the key summary pages as a quick reference mechanism for use as it relates to this resource. Transformation by Design: The Big Picture dealt primarily with the design of the learning plan or what we call the curriculum content. This resource, Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning, deals with the design and planning of teaching and learning practice. However, a quick reference guide to the earlier companion resource can act as a helpful reference tool.

Excerpt from Transformation

by Design: The Big Picture

Explaining the Icons This resource provides a framework which outlines the overall transformational direction and a model for Christ-centred transformational curriculum. The model presented provides a guide to developing the big picture for a curriculum unit—as such it acts as a starter guide. A full teaching and learning plan will have additional details including assessment and learning activities.

Within Transformation by Design there are four parts that provide direction:

A TRACK that provides a directional pathway for understanding the task and purpose of Christian education.

A BIG PICTURE MODEL for curriculum development. The model consists of 7 elements that join together (like a jigsaw) to shape a ‘curriculum big picture’.

A BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE in the form of a set of explanations and tools that assists teachers to understand the unit in the light of the biblical story.

A selection of THREADS, which are biblically-guided responses to the area being studied.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 199

Excerpt from Transformation

by Design: The Big Picture

A TRACK TO FOLLOW The direction to head The acrostic T.R.A.C.K. explains five key terms that provides a directional pathway for understanding the task and purpose of Christian education.

TRANSFORMATIONAL VISION

Our comprehensive framework for ‘seeing’ the world and seeing it transformed.

The emphasis here is on a worldview framework that is based in a biblical faith. The framework is like a pair of spectacles through which we understand our purpose and the purpose of Christian education. We call this worldview ‘transformational’ because, as Christ-followers, we have the honour of being agents of redemption and renewal in all things we do, including our educational practice.

RESPONSIVE DISCIPLESHIP

The responses to learning that we are looking for.

The emphasis here is on how disciples are called to respond as they learn. Schooling for responsive discipleship effectively captures an essential goal and purpose of Christian education.

ALL THINGS

The central core and cohesive force—in and through Christ—around which all things move.

The teaching of ‘all things’ captures two essential truths about life: all things in the world belong to and are upheld by God and at the centre of all things, at the heart of Christian education, is Christ. All things ensures we don’t fall for the dualistic and simplistic ‘Where does God fit in?’ approach.

CRAFTED TEACHING

The way we go about teaching and learning: our pedagogical practice.

The way we go about teaching is frequently ignored for supposedly more important matters like worldview, perspectives, or content. This is a mistake. Christian teachers should create vibrant classrooms that foster faith and life growth.

KINGDOM BUILDING

The biblical-directed goal for all we do.

The emphasis here is on the overall purpose, goal, and direction that Christian education and its curriculum have.

Kingdom building, based in the biblical story, guides students and teachers to be transformative, responsive disciples who seek to build the Kingdom of God.

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Excerpt from Transformation

by Design: The Big Picture

THE BIG PICTURE MODEL Summary 1

MAIN IDEA

Summarising the Main Idea

5

The Main Idea is what focuses and holds together the unit. It is a single sentence, the big summary that captures the overall Main Idea.

2

BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE Articulating the biblical story

6

4

Bringing the responses alive

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS

Identifying the enduring understandings This is an opportunity to identify those more specific and Enduring Understandings that flow out of the Main Idea and which we wish students to grasp as a result of studying the unit. Enduring Understandings shouldn’t be confused with simply listing key knowledge and content.

KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS Noting the key knowledge and skills

Teachers are all too familiar with the task of compiling a list of Knowledge and Skills for a unit. Careful consideration of prescribed Knowledge and Skills should be merged with an understanding of the thinking that has already occurred in sections 1-5. This is not simply a cut and paste of knowledge and skills lists. Teachers wisely choose and reframe the list using clear, user-friendly language. It is likely that extra knowledge and skills will emerge from the overall process. This section is a significant intersection/collision point between what’s above and what’s below.

THREADS

Threads are the responses that we wish to draw out after understanding God’s revelation as articulated in the Biblical Perspective.

Threads assist in drawing the unit together and provide students with opportunities to live out their new learning.

Shaping the essential questions

Essential Questions are questions that are created to help focus and capture the Main Idea of a unit and that stimulate deeper student thinking about the topic.

The Biblical Perspective is an articulation of where the topic fits into the biblical story and where the biblical story specifically speaks into the topic area. The key framework of: creation, fall, redemption, and renewal (CFRR) is a helpful tool.

3

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

7

PRESCRIBED CURRICULUM Listing the content and descriptors

The Prescribed Curriculum section is a useful reference point and audit tool. A critical review of the Prescribed Curriculum’s list and a careful selection from it is made in the light of all the other design elements within the Big Picture.

“Learning is learning only if it is remembered and repeatable, if it leads to changes in the way we act” (Stronks and Blomberg, 1993, p. 194).

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 201

Excerpt from Transformation

by Design: The Big Picture

A BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE TO UNDERSTAND The CFRR Schema The following is an easy to use CFRR master template. Teachers can brainstorm or reflect and enter responses to the key questions, building up a set of notes that can be re-worked into a Biblical Perspective statement for the unit. Please remember a Biblical Perspective statement should not be disjointed or an eclectic list of brainstormed points. It needs to be carefully written into a structured, cohesive, and wellinformed statement.

THE CREATION - FALL – REDEMPTION – RENEWAL SCHEMA CREATION

FALL

God has created all things

All things have fallen as a result of sin

• What is God’s created intention for (this area)?

• How has sin distorted God’s intention for (this area)?

• Because God is the creator of the universe and all that is in it, think about the topic for your unit.

• Why did God create (this area)?

• What form did it take in the beginning?

• What is God’s purpose for (this area)?

• How have humans been involved in this creation?

• Considering the fall and that the whole creation has fallen and that humans have messed up God’s plan (distortion and rebellion) for this area of study, think about the topic for your unit.

• What has humankind done, or what have we done, to mess up, distort, and misuse (this area)?

• How do the consequences of sinful rebellion in this area contrast with God’s original intention?

REDEMPTION

RENEWAL

Christ came to earth to redeem all things

In response to Christ’s redemption we are called to work in partnership with God so all things are renewed

• What has the cross achieved in confronting brokenness (in this area)?

• Considering that Christ’s act of redemption laid the foundation for the restoration of creation, think about the topic for your unit.

• How has Christ redeemed (this area)?

• How has the cross brought new life to our understanding of this part of God’s creation?

• How do God’s people express their desire to be Christ’s hands and feet in bringing renewal to (this area)?

• Considering that we can partner in God’s renewal plan, think about the topic for your unit.

• Because we know Christ, what hope for this topic can we experience now?

• Being conscious of God’s original purpose/ design for this area, what actions can we take to help renew (this area)?

• What does an obedient response to (this area) look like?

• How does the coming restoration of all things affect the way we think about (this area)?

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Excerpt from Transformation

by Design: The Big Picture

A SELECTION OF THREADS Learning action steps that follow Key Threads of the scriptural story can be woven through the curriculum and thereby ‘draw together’ meaning and purpose in learning. This summary list of 23 action-response Threads covers a wide range of the possible student responses to their learning. This list is organised alphabetically, with the exception of the first, which is foremost.

1. LOVING GOD

Students respond to God’s love by loving God in return and their neighbour as themselves.

2. BUILDING COMMUNITY

Students are active contributors and encouragers of others as the community is built up.

3. CARETAKING EARTH

Students actively respond to God’s call to carefully manage all of creation.

4. CELEBRATING LIFE

Students embrace the full suite of God’s provisions in life and live in such a way that all may flourish.

5. CHALLENGING DISTORTIONS

Students identify and critique areas impacted by sin and then discern God’s purposes.

6. DISCOVERING PATTERNS

Students explore and discover God’s patterns and designs for delighting in and/or using for the benefit of all.

7. EMBRACING DIVERSITY

Students respect and celebrate the built-in differences between cultures and peoples given for the enhancement of all.

8. EXPRESSING WORDS

Students use words to build up, make choices, and express life.

9. GETTING WISDOM

Students can go deeper than understanding and knowledge to seek the insight of God.

10. IMAGINING INNOVATIONS

Students innovate and renew for good purposes and thereby praise the master designer.

11. IMITATING HUMILITY

Students gratefully accept God’s grace and respond by humbly serving Him.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 203

Excerpt from Transformation

by Design: The Big Picture

12. OVERCOMING SETBACKS

Students overcome setbacks through the strength of the Spirit and live in hope and faith.

13. PONDERING CREATION

Students contemplate both the Creator and His handiwork and respond in delight and praise.

14. PRACTISING HOSPITALITY

Students welcome and accept others, and use their gifts to embrace others into community.

15. PURSUING PEACE

Students bring healing and restoration to people and areas of brokenness.

16. REFLECTING CREATIVITY

Students praise God by reflecting their Creator in making expressive and inspiring things and ideas.

17. RELISHING PLAY

Students have an attitude of joy-filled play as they respond to what God has provided and Christ has restored.

18. SEEKING JUSTICE

Students act as agents of change by identifying and responding to injustice.

19. SHAPING CULTURE

Students understand their cultural context, discern its errors and its virtues, and seek to ‘shake and shape’ it for the Kingdom.

20. SHOWING MERCY

Students respond to God’s mercy by likewise being merciful to others.

21. TRANSFORMING THINKING

Students let every thought be captive to Christ so that their thinking is transformed by the renewing of their minds.

22. UNDERSTANDING

Students discover the vocational task in which God has called them to serve.

23. UNWRAPPING GIFTS

Students enrich their and others’ lives through developing and using their gifts.

(OTHERS)

(Teachers may choose to investigate other discipleship responses and create their own Thread)

VOCATION

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Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 205

Appendix 2

Working with Prescribed Curricula 206 • Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning

The attitude towards, and the way in which teachers work with, a prescribed curriculum has a significant impact on their teaching and learning practice.

Therefore, it is imperative that teachers understand the structures of a prescribed curriculum and the potential flexibilities and freedoms they have in working with it.

Case Study: The Australian Curriculum Teachers who view the Australian Curriculum as a prescribed curriculum that must be delivered in full with little variation, will tend to give less emphasis to designing and developing their practice. Teachers who, more correctly, see the Australian Curriculum as a curriculum framework with inbuilt flexibility, will more likely view themselves as curriculum developers and designers and be more likely to hone their practice accordingly.

The following assists Christian teachers to understand the context of the Australian Curriculum and how they can engage with it.

Summary: 8 Key Points 1. Understand the Australian Curriculum is a tool or a map, not a destination. It doesn’t need to dictate your school’s educational philosophy.

2. Engage with it positively and critically. Neither wholesale adoption nor rejection is beneficial.

3. The Australian Curriculum does not explicitly identify the worldview position it perpetuates.

It states that the content for each subject area should form “the basis of what is taught in schools for that learning area”, but does not address the framework or context within which that teaching plan is to be constructed or interpreted. It makes many assumptions about the purpose of school and knowledge. This curriculum, like all others, is an encapsulation of the knowledge, skills, and values necessary to perpetuate a specific philosophy.

4. It is helpful to identify and name the embedded, unstated worldview voices so that they can be appropriately critiqued in your local curriculum responses.

5. The Australian Curriculum anticipates, and allows for, 20% of local content and distinctive pedagogical practices. Take full advantage of those freedoms.

6. There must be compliance with the implementation of the mandatory content (achievement standards).

However, there is also the opportunity for nonmandatory content and reasonable flexibility. Make choices that work for your school context.

7. The guidelines allow for teachers to develop their own depth treatments, knowledge entitlements, big ideas (essential for deep understanding), distinctive lenses, general capabilities, and cross-curriculum priorities. Through staff discussion, determine what further general capabilities your school would want to use across the whole framework of your school’s curriculum; for example, the use of Threads. Ensure that your biblically-informed perspectives are a part of your cross-curriculum priorities.

8. Achievement standards inform much of the Australian Curriculum. Christian schools take a much broader and more holistic approach to what is stated in the achievement standards. Do not let a limited number of assessments influence your holistic scope of teaching and learning.

Historical Context It is helpful to understand the genesis of the Australian Curriculum and why the state has increased its role in prescribing curricula content. Before the Australian Curriculum each jurisdiction had its own set of curriculum requirements. Increasingly over past decades, Australia, as a nation, has focused on its place in the world as a middle-power nation and has sought to advance its goals of economic growth and strength. In this context, it has seen a high-functioning educational system and high standards as key ingredients in the realisation of that aim.

The Australian Constitution specifies that state governments have the residual power or jurisdiction over the domain of education. In the mid-2000s, during a period of increased ‘cooperative federalism’, the state and federal governments took their goals for education and curriculum to a new level. The Council of Education Ministers agreed to many harmonised policy actions.

Since the 1980s, a crucial new declaration regarding education has been made every decade. These are commonly known as The Hobart Declaration (1989), The Adelaide Declaration (1999), and the Melbourne Declaration (2008). Significant changes to education policy and mandated curricula have followed. However, even though the average life of a new approach to state-based prescribed curricula lasted approximately ten years, the longevity of the present Australian Curriculum in its current version is unknown.

Teachers who, more correctly, see the Australian Curriculum as a curriculum framework with inbuilt flexibility, will more likely view themselves as curriculum developers and designers and be more likely to hone their practice accordingly.

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The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians (2008) is a foundational, farreaching, and visionary document and is worth reading.

It speaks of a commitment “to supporting all young Australians to become successful learners, confident and creative individuals, and active and informed citizens and to promoting equity and excellence in education.”

Within our understanding of common grace, we can say that many of the Melbourne Declaration explicitly stated goals resonate with the goals of Christian education. At a broad level, the Melbourne Declaration foundational statements express ambitious and some noble goals that Christian teachers could readily support.

The Melbourne Declaration was also foundational for the implementation of the nationally mandated curriculum. It led to the creation of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), the body charged with implementing the Australian Curriculum.

ACARA claims that the Australian Curriculum is a good architectural foundation on which to build a world-class education.

The Australian Curriculum website overview states: The Australian Curriculum . . . is designed to help all young Australians to become successful learners, confident and creative individuals, and active and informed citizens. Presented as a developmental sequence of learning from Foundation - Year 10, the Australian Curriculum describes to teachers, parents, students and others in the wider community what is to be taught and the quality of learning expected of young people as they progress through school. The three-dimensional design of the Foundation – Year 10 Australian Curriculum recognises the importance of disciplinary knowledge, skills and understanding alongside general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities. (para. 1 and 2)

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While the Australian Curriculum arose in a period of harmonisation, state governments have been reluctant to give up their constitutionally guaranteed independence and authority over education. So, although all states and territories have agreed to implement the Australian Curriculum, some larger jurisdictions (NSW and VIC) have adopted their own versions that either align or work in conjunction with the Australian Curriculum. Where we use the term Australian Curriculum or prescribed or mandated curriculum, a state equivalent can be read into that place.

In summary, a singular Australian Curriculum model has arisen out of a context of greater global cooperative consciousness, increased standardisation, desire for centralisation, harmonisation, and the thinking that greater accountability will lead to improved outcomes.

Within our understanding of common grace, we can say that many of the Melbourne Declaration explicitly stated goals resonate with the goals of Christian education. At a broad level, the Melbourne Declaration foundational statements express ambitious and some noble goals that Christian teachers could readily support.

The Factory/Industrial Model Out of the context of modernism, and the move from an agrarian to an industrial society, there was a need for workers to be transformed from disorganised farm labourers into trained efficient factory workers. The school—with its 40–50 minute periods; bells ringing; the timetable shuffling students from one subject, room, and teacher to another one—became the organisational device that not only resembled a factory culture but also prepared students for that world of work.

If we were running a factory we’d need workers who would know the same sort of things. A wide range of different knowledge and skills would not prepare workers for the factory. It required a standard set of subjects and skills that every student would know.

Interestingly, the promise of a good schooling that would automatically result in a job at the end of the school production line is no longer guaranteed. The new information age no longer needs human muscle power (manufacturing jobs) and even mental powers (being replaced by digital technology and AI). Thomas Friedman, a New York Times columnist, said of the era when manufacturing reigned supreme, “You could drop out of high school get a perfectly average job, earning a perfectly average wage which in time you get a perfectly average mortgage to buy a perfectly average house to have 2.0 perfectly average kids who go to a wonderful perfectly average public school. You could have a perfectly average retirement and have a perfectly average funeral. That is no longer the case.”

Even though the world has undergone such significant change into the information age, schools still resemble the factory or industrial model.

The key characteristics of the factory model were: hierarchical top-down management; strict regimes of authority; emphasis on management and centralised planning; uniformity over innovation; a standardised curriculum that was organised around testing, class sizes, time periods, and learning rates; outcomes designed to meet societal economic needs; efficiency in producing results; and separation from the community.

The key pedagogical approaches within the factory model were (1) learning by rote—copying and memorisation, and (2) direct instruction—with the teacher drilling information into the class. Students were then tested on the information presented to them.

Architecturally, schools were shaped by a modern style of architecture typified by efficiency and uniformity.

The school tended to resemble a factory building with long, labyrinth-like corridors and a series of processing stations running either side. It all said ‘production line’. The critique alleged these learning spaces were designed to create docile subjects and factory workers.

Critics had a strong case to prosecute. The approach was depersonalised and unfair, educationally uninspiring, and inflexible. The learning environment was stilted and uninviting. Many students fell between the cracks and did not get to the finish line. Teachers were mere deliverers(also called the ‘sage on the stage’ method), even if quite knowledgeable in their subject areas and there was little emphasis on teachers honing their craft or developing diverse or creative learning approaches.

Even though schools are quite different today, some of the residual aspects of the ‘factory’ remain, though it is more likely to be referred to as the ‘industrial model’. Contemporary critiques of the industrial model of schooling highlight issues of treating most children the same and claiming this restricts all students from achieving their maximum learning growth every year.

These views are a continuance of the drive towards a more individualist and child-centred approach.

The Gonski 2.0 Review (2018) said, “Teaching curriculum based on year or age levels rather than levels of progress leaves some students behind and fails to extend others” and, “Reporting against yearlevel achievement standards hides both progress and attainment for some students” (Findings 4 and 5).

The problem of the residual aspects of the industrial model being in stark contrast to the insights gained from improved and fairer approaches to schooling is that there are two drivers both pulling in different directions. One driver continues to push for increased standardisation (national curriculum, national testing, increased compliance) coupled with the ongoing architecture of the industrial model, and the other driver offering much advice about catering for students’ differences. As teachers we find ourselves squarely in the middle of this tension trying to manage conflicting forces. Our schools need clear formational learning meta-narratives in order to handle such confusion. It is hoped that this resource goes some way to offering that directional advice.

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 209

From Framework to Curriculum Compliance Giant When the Australian Curriculum was first conceived, it was projected as a framework of learning detailing the broad learning expectations in the specified knowledge areas. This broad ‘frameworks’ approach has been adopted in many other Western nations, allowing Christian schools to put their own stamp, identity, ethos, and flavour within the overall set of expectations that the prescribed frameworks have outlined. A good example of this character flexibility is the British Columbia Curriculum in Canada.

With the Australian Curriculum, however, the more that the development and consultation process rolled on, the more prescriptive and content-heavy

Achievement standards

it became, despite what the shaping paper and its principles had initially stated. The Australian Curriculum became dense, over-crowded, and overlyprescriptive.

The Requirements The Australian Education Act 2013 stipulates that all schools (except those who have been given a special exemption licence, e.g., Steiner, International Baccalaureate) must teach the Australian Curriculum.

The question becomes what exactly is required by the Australian Curriculum? To answer this, we need to understand the parts of the Australian Curriculum.

• At the end of the year, teachers report student achievement against these standards.

• They “describe what is to be taught and what students are expected to learn”.

Content descriptors Subject specific

• They “include knowledge, understanding and skills, described at a year level or band of years”.

• Teachers use these to inform their planning to ensure they will provide the content enabling students to meet the achievement standards.

• Schools can use these to map and audit.

Elaborations

General capabilities

Cross-curriculum priorities

• These provide optional practical examples of the way the content descriptors may be taught.

• Seven general capabilities are addressed inside the content of the eight learning areas.

• Teachers are expected to teach and assess the general capabilities to the extent that they are incorporated within learning area content.

• The three areas: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia, and sustainability, have priorities across the eight subject areas. These are not subjects of themselves.

The following questions arise when trying to work out how flexible this mandatory regime is: • What do we do when we can’t fit in all the content descriptors within our syllabus?

• How free am I to audit against the content descriptors?

• Will I get into trouble if I’ve taught to the achievement standards but have not fully enacted all the content descriptors?

Accompanying the Australian Curriculum (with its standards and heightened expectations) a bevy of other inter-connected requirements (reforms) were rolled out: • A language of standardised benchmarks.

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• Tightening the requirements of formal reporting with standardised A-E and quartile cohort comparative reporting (see Chapter 5).

• National testing and reporting mechanisms (NAPLAN).

• Web-based transparency (MySchool) – an accountability stick.

• Consolidation of international OECD testing through PISA. It was logically understandable that accompanying a mandated national curriculum were other elements of standardisation. If schools are going to report against standardised benchmarks then for that to be done fairly (apples against apples), standard approaches were necessary—standard benchmarks, standard curriculum, standard testing, standard reporting.

Responses and Consequences Every new curriculum has its challenges for teachers— learning new content and language and rewriting existing unit outlines. For Christian teachers, additional challenges include understanding the broader philosophical drivers and responding in a way that is faithful to the school’s Christian ethos and vision. All of these factors influence our attitude and response.

The adoption of the Australian Curriculum has given rise to a range of attitudes and responses across Australian schooling.

1. Wholesale Adoption In the main, the Australian Curriculum has been understood as a prescribed package that needs to be implemented, in full, as a block of ‘deliverables’. This is most unfortunate. The natural consequence of the style, measure of detail, overall size, and ‘roll out force’ of the Australian Curriculum has resulted in an overly prescriptive curriculum.

Wholesale adoption has been far more prevalent, given the combined compliance contextual forces at work.

These include registration and accreditation processes that appear to require compliance, the availability of a complete package with multiple support and assessment resources, content-heavy outlines, and teachers believing that failing to adopt would hinder their students from achieving the expected standards.

A further driver of wholesale adoption has been the alignment of national testing with the Australian Curriculum. Linking national assessment frameworks with testing regimes leaves teachers with the impression that all content must be covered or otherwise students will be disadvantaged within national testing. However, it can be noted that while NAPLAN is based primarily on knowledge, understanding, and skills gained from the prior year, it is also more competency-based than content-based.

2. Local Flavour and Christian Distinctiveness To deal with the problem of over-prescription and a lack of space for localised content, ACARA implemented an 80:20 principle—80% mandatory content and 20% for local content.

Section 75d of The Shape of the Australian Curriculum Version 4.0 says, “For any year of schooling, Foundation to Year 10, the Australian Curriculum is written so that it should not take up more than 80 per cent of the total teaching time available in schools, with this proportion peaking in Years 7 and 8, and reducing significantly in Years 9 and 10 as core expectations are reduced” (ACARA, 2012, p. 26).

While this sounds reasonable, any view of the overall content descriptors within the Australian Curriculum readily leads to the impression that this would require well in excess of 100% of a school’s available classroom time. There are simply insufficient hours in the school day to adequately cover this set of supposed mandatory content descriptors.

Sadly, as a result of the wholesale adoption of the mandated curriculum, and due to lack of understanding of available flexibility, many significant school-based programs and syllabi have been discarded.

Schools have the freedom/licence to protect their 20% of local content before they choose how to fit the eight learning areas into the remaining time.

As schools may well find much content within the Australian Curriculum they can use, 20% is quite a reasonable margin to work with.

Any prescribed curriculum cannot be rigidly imposed because large numbers of schools in all sectors are not in a position where they can be fully compliant.

Small schools, rural and remote schools, composite arrangements, staffing shortages, timetable aberrations, and many other local context issues cause schools to make choices that fall, with varying measure, outside a hard definition of curriculum requirements. The most classic example is that of teaching a language other than English (LOTE) which, while compulsory up to Year 10, has mixed exposure in all sectors, particularly outside of the major cities and in smaller schools. No government instrumentality would be able to force full compliance in the light of these realities, nor has any ‘big stick’ been taken to this problem. In the light of these realities, we believe it would be unjust for a government to force full compliance using the big stick of registration.

A compliance culture disempowers local syllabus expression and therefore limits each school’s expression of its Christian character. It shifts the emphasis away from teachers as syllabus shapers/developers to being curriculum deliverers to the detriment of quality teaching and learning.

ACARA’s stated frame of flexibility provides options of choice-making, shaping and adjusting, and opportunity for local context and content in how we deliver content (see The Shape of the Australian Curriculum Version 4.0, sections 16g, 16j, 25, 47, 59, 75d, 79c, and 77).

This stated aim is at odds with the implied expectations of the Australian Curriculum and the way in which it has been perceived and structured for ‘total package’ adoption. ACARA would have been better advised that ‘less is more’. We encourage teachers and teaching and learning coordinators to be alert to the issues of wholesale adoption and over-compliance.

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3. Choice and Diversity By its very nature, a national curriculum demands compliance and the greater the measure of standardisation, the less the diversity. Adoption of one curriculum model consequentially entails a greater measure of curriculum uniformity across schools, no matter which sector they are a part of. It means that diversity and choice are lessened and differences are shrunk by stealth.

If everyone must teach the same thing, what’s the point of choice in schooling? We contend that diversity of schooling options is good for Australian education and society as it presents real choices. Parents should be able to choose the educational approach that best suits their values, and this requires a diversity of expression from which to choose. Many Australian parents have chosen a faith-based school because of its distinctiveness and faith outlook—its framework of beliefs and understandings that shape its educational character.

Compliance requirements build a compliance culture where schools are less empowered to develop their own syllabus that reflects their stated vision. In this, it reduces the expression of independent schooling.

The Positives Despite this critique of the consequences of the Australian Curriculum, this should not be understood as being dismissive of many of its fine features or resources.

Firstly, it is quite reasonable that a certain measure of compliance exists that requires schools to deliver a quality curriculum. Testing also has its place. Secondly, schools are provided with the freedom and flexibility to express ‘local flavour’. The problem of them not doing so, is somewhat of their own making.

In summary, the Australian Curriculum is: • A useful and readily accessible (web-based) curriculum tool. There is a ‘gold mine’ of excellent resources to be found.

• Best used as a curriculum framework, rather than a mandated whole package.

• An expression of a particular philosophy and shapes the view of those using it. The structure and inclusion/exclusion of content tells a compelling story about how to view the world.

• Open to including 20% local content and localisedlevel ‘adjustments’ to occur.

• A tool that presents many opportunities to engage meaningfully to plan and program what is taught.

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Biblically-Informed Response Distinctiveness, Faithfulness, and Common Grace Scripture charges us to acknowledge that God has gifted all His creatures with understanding and an ability to contribute. This is referred to as common grace. The differing perspectives of the following verses demonstrate the need for a discerning tension.

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

(Colossians 2:6-7) He, after all, loves each of us—good and evil, kind and cruel. He causes the sun to rise and shine on evil and good alike. He causes the rain to water the fields of the righteous and the fields of the sinner. (Matthew 5:45, The Voice)

Christian teachers find themselves with the dilemma of working with curriculum outlines and resources that contain many great pearls. These pearls (educational practices and curriculum resources) are likely to have been written by those who are shaped by a set of assumptions/presuppositions about the purpose of schooling and how education works that are different to those held by the Christian educator. In this sense, we say that no curriculum is neutral.

Compliance requirements build a compliance culture where schools are less empowered to develop their own syllabus that reflects their stated vision. In this, it reduces the expression of independent schooling.

Attitude A Note About Common Grace The Christian theology of common grace means that we understand that humanistic approaches to education still capture good things, they still have insight into aspects of truth. Christians understand that all human endeavour, though tainted by sin, still reflects something of our God-shaped humanity.

Therefore, we can learn much from those who do not acknowledge the Lord, but we do that with discernment. Our eyes are particularly alert to ‘who is being served’.

Some other theological insights also inform our discernment here.

• Understanding, critiquing, and discerning is not easy. Christians cannot be across everything all the time. We cannot do the hard work of critical discernment alone and we need the assistance of the broader Christian community.

• Christians are not the sole bastions of truth.

We are called to humility and to put our confidence in the Lord.

• In our critical discernment, Christians shouldn’t be overly-reactive in response to the subtle yet pervasive sinful influence of humanistic thinking.

• Christians do not need to do the work that ultimately only God can do. We do not have to defend God’s territory at every moment.

It is important to remember that the “Earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof” Psalm 24:1. Christians are agents of his Kingdombuilding, but it is God who builds the Kingdom.

• Each Christian teacher serves out of their context in the use of their gifts and insights.

Each is called to be faithful in this. Each Christian cannot have an answer to every question or be capable in all things.

• The key point of difference between what happens down the road at other (secular) schools, is not the question of difference for its own sake (as if there is a uniquely Christian way to teach everything differently—there isn’t). Christian teachers understand that their distinctiveness, perhaps better described as their faithfulness, stems from their heart of service to the Lord.

What attitude should Christian teachers adopt in response to this prescribed curriculum? The Australian Curriculum is neither a disaster, nor is it a savior. The extremes of wholesale adoption or wholesale rejection are not seen as helpful options.

As has been captured in the initial summary, Christian teachers should adopt an attitude of positive engagement rather than an attitude of overly cautious apprehensiveness or of totally subservience. Teachers are encouraged to engage, discern, and critique— neither being overwhelmed nor indiscriminately adopting it in its totality. As in all parts of creation, the Australian Curriculum reflects both God’s good created order and also signs of the fall. Where the curriculum tells a story counter to the one presented in the Bible, teachers must choose wisely so that a biblicallyinformed worldview is clearly presented.

The Australian Curriculum is both a threat and an opportunity for Christian educators in the development of their teaching and learning practice. It becomes a threat when it is adopted in a wholesale, uncritical, and inflexible manner—reducing teachers to mere deliverers of curricula packages. It is an opportunity as a tremendous resource that allows for a common language across all areas of Australia, enabling meaningful collaboration by Christian teachers.

Choosing between mandatory and non-mandatory parts requires active teacher engagement and clear direction from school curriculum leaders.

Discernment and Leadership Because there is confusion about the measure of prescription and compliance that accompanies the Australian Curriculum, it is important curriculum leaders: • Articulate how the school’s philosophy aligns or contradicts that of the mandated curriculum.

This critical issue needs to be answered before curriculum documentation models and templates are adopted.

• Provide their staff with clarification about expectations. The Australian Curriculum is not as prescriptive as it might look. Sometimes the ‘mandatory edict’ gets equated to ‘wholesale adoption’ and is a lame excuse for not undertaking the hard effort of localised syllabus development work.

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• Provide guidance about the measure of flexibility.

Leaders should understand that a significant measure of flexibility is allowed for. The Shape of the Australian Curriculum Version 4.0 says, “ . . . schools will be able to implement the Australian Curriculum in ways that value teachers’ professional knowledge, reflect local contexts and take into account individual students’ family, cultural and community backgrounds. Schools and teachers determine pedagogical and other delivery considerations” (ACARA, 2012, p. 11).

• Understand that the ACARA’s guidelines facilitate a measure of local content. Locally developed programs (particularly distinctive ones) which encourage curriculum writers and teachers to express the school’s own identity, values, and ethos should be protected.

• It should be noted that some well-resourced independent schools have not adopted a wholesale adoption approach and used the freedom to audit against the Australian Curriculum. It is also acknowledged that different state jurisdictions take differing flexibility attitudes/approaches within their school registration and inspection regimes.

• Understand that copying and pasting content descriptors into learning plans/work units is not a helpful starting point in curriculum design. Rather than starting with the subject content descriptors and allowing these to shape the unit, the Big Picture Template makes use of the content descriptors but develops the overall syllabus plan in a far richer manner.

• Shape the school’s particular learning culture. This will fundamentally determine how it engages with a prescribed curriculum. Effective Christian schools will seek to maximise options and stretch the boundaries of their own syllabus development.

Worldview Voices It is rare for major curriculum documents to acknowledge that there are theories of knowledge embedded within. The Australian Curriculum indicates that the content for each key subject area should form “the basis of what is taught in schools for that learning area” (ACARA, 2012, p. 26). The assumption is that knowledge simply exists and the teacher’s task is to work out how to teach and communicate that knowledge.

That being said, the Australian Curriculum does acknowledge the existence of a ‘lens’ through which we understand the world.

The Australian Curriculum is designed to ensure that students develop the knowledge and understanding on which the major disciplines are based. Each discipline offers a distinctive lens through which we interpret experience, determine what counts as

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evidence and a good argument for action, scrutinise knowledge and argument, make judgments about value and add to knowledge. (ACARA, 2012, p. 22)

Subject-Based Knowledge The development of knowledge into disciplines or subjects as a way of organising and learning knowledge is readily accepted and easy to implement in a school.

This subject or discipline-based approach to education proposes that knowledge is an objective body of facts, concepts, and theories (the two key Australian Curriculum goals are the acquisition of knowledge and skills).

Most Christian schools organise their learning structures in this mainstream, fairly easy-to-structure, subject/discipline-based manner. This structure assumes that knowledge has always been arranged into subject disciplines along with their given hierarchy of importance. By adopting this form of knowledge organisation, the school is restricted by the parameters of this approach.

While some structural organisation of knowledge is necessary, artificially dividing knowledge into distinct, separate domains (subject areas), places restrictions on learning. Subject disciplines are not structured to benefit from learning connections between subjects.

Such obvious connections are rarely pursued. The separation of academic disciplines causes knowledge to become fragmented and lack cohesion.

The development of tight bodies of independent knowledge has tended to create silos. Subjects can get ranked in importance. Subjects with firm textbooks can be seen as ‘serious’ subjects and the knowledge that really needs to be learnt. The heads of particular faculties gain a higher rank in the pecking order. It is not unheard of that certain subject masters will assume authority when it comes to the prime spots on the timetable or in the allocation of resources.

We wonder how splitting knowledge into separate subjects and ranking their importance reflects the given created cohesion of knowledge and meaning and the value of all of God’s good creation. We encourage schools to think courageously about making the deep structures of schooling align with beliefs and reflect the character and nature of God’s created world. The organisation of knowledge supports or frustrates the vision that God is the coherent and sustaining force at work in the whole world.

Dualism and Holism The Australian Curriculum is steeped in a worldview of dualism. Dualistic thought confines God in the sphere of the religious/spiritual and seeks to limit the secular parts (such as academic subject, pedagogy, etc.) from coming under His rule. This false divide of separating things into sacred and secular spheres is often labelled the ‘sacred-secular dichotomy’.

The Scriptures’ declaration that God’s concern is for ‘all things’ has informed this resource. It is written from a theological holistic (not dualistic) position. It affirms that Christ’s redeeming work impacts every part of creation, including every nook and cranny of the schoolyard—all of education.

Christians recognise the coherence and integrity of knowledge drawing from Paul’s words: For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

(Colossians 1:16-17)

Finding Cohesion Secularists have recognised problems are associated with splitting knowledge into discrete categories or failing to make connections. Many ways of seeking greater cohesion have been attempted. John Hattie’s solution is the idea of ‘schemata’. He says, “it is at the level of the schema that deeper meaning occurs, and the grasp of an ‘overall big picture’ becomes possible.

Schemata provide the necessary frames we need to make sense out of ideas and facts that would otherwise exist as isolated islands of knowledge” (Hattie & Yates, 2014, p. 130).

The Australian Curriculum uses cross-curriculum priorities as a mechanism to straddle across subjects.

Even though these priorities may be seen as expressions of ‘political correctness’, the structural feature is sound. The Shape of the Australian Curriculum Version 4.0 says: The learning areas and the disciplines from which they are drawn provide a foundation of learning in schools because they reflect the way in which knowledge has, and will continue to be, developed and codified. However, 21st century learning does not fit neatly into a curriculum solely organised by learning areas or subjects that reflect the disciplines.

Increasingly, in a world where knowledge itself is constantly growing and evolving, students need to develop a set of knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions, or general capabilities that apply across subject- based content and equip them to be lifelong learners able to operate with confidence in a complex, information-rich, globalised world.

(ACARA, 2012, p. 15) Christian educators contend that all things hold together in Christ. We could readily apply biblical perspectives or Threads as cross-curriculum priorities.

The critique of the weaknesses of a pure subjectbased epistemology/discipline-based approach does not deny the need for knowledge specialisation. Even schools that use an integrated or integral approach to curriculum organisation use the specific insights

gained from the specialised knowledge that is part of particular subject disciplines.

Historically, mainstream schools (Christian and not), have used a subject-based approach to organise their curriculum and timetable. The specific organisational features and details varied widely. English and maths are standard features across all schools. Science, usually of a general nature, has increasingly been taken up in primary schools. For the balance of subject areas—the humanities, the arts and music, manual and industrial arts, PE and health, and languages—all sorts of arrangements have occurred. These choices are dependent on context and school ethos, resources, and priorities. However, the arrival of the Australian Curriculum has resulted in a greater measure of consistency of subject-based teaching as schools have adjusted their labels and their subject and timetable allocations.

A critique of dualism and the subject-based approach to organising knowledge recognises that life never fits neatly into firm, singular categories. We encourage learning communities to courageously explore creative, enabling ways of organising learning that better captures the inherent cohesive character of knowledge. How can better use be made of crosssubject, integrated, integral, and thematic approaches?

Here a faithful approach can be seen as celebrating the way things work together in their inherent integrality.

The integral curriculum starts from a part of God’s world, or a slice of life, with its given integrality in the way learning is organised.

Conclusion Teachers required to work with the Australian Curriculum benefit from an understanding of the context in which it has arisen and options regarding implementation. Christian schools and teachers must engage, discern, and critique the Australian Curriculum. When teachers understand the broader structures of the Australian Curriculum and the worldview voices within, they can grow in their confidence to positively engage. They can also ensure that it is the school’s faith and mission that drives the shape of the local syllabus and a teacher’s own teaching and learning practice rather than mandated curriculum.

Engaging, discerning, and critiquing are far more rigorous tasks than simple rejection or wholesale adoption. Teachers need to use the built-in flexibility and latitude that the Australian Curriculum guidelines allow for and to retain locally-grown, faith-shaped expressions of ethos and character in the use of curriculum. This task is assisted by tools such as the Big Picture Template.

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Chapter 6 Arslan, M. (2006). The role of questioning in the classroom. Hasan Ali Yitcel Egitim Fakiiltesj Dergisi. Sayi, pp. 81-103.

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Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning • 219

Transformation by Design: Crafting Formational Learning is for Christian teachers working with any age student and at any stage of their career. It is a practical resource—laced with examples—intended to stimulate teachers to reflect on their classroom practice. It highlights that a teacher’s practice is formational, and that a teacher’s calling to craft lessons, learning activities, assessments, and a classroom culture, significantly impacts the outcome of all teaching and learning. It builds on the previous resource Transformation

by Design: The Big Picture in highlighting the importance of not only intentionally designing curriculum for student transformation, but also in designing teaching and learning that has the end in mind: the transformed student.

This resource offers a planning framework for designing a holistic, crafted, and formational approach to teaching and learning—shaped by the biblical narrative and recognising Christ as Lord of all.

ISBN 978-0-6480643-5-0

9 780648 064350 >