Posted 02/12/2009 at 3:46PM

This year has been an exciting year for Educating NZ, with several new clients welcomed, ongoing work for existing clients, and our expansion into the Middle East market.

Probably the most emotional highlight for us this year, despite the tragic circumstances in which it occurred, was when a 10-year old girl on holiday in Samoa recognised the signs of an impending tsunami from the lessons she had learned during What’s the Plan Stan, the disaster education resource we developed for the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management.

We began 2009 with some of our team heading to Cambodia on a mission funded by NZAID to scope a project for reducing the impact of flooding and other natural disasters. 

We later visited Tonga to scope disaster risk reduction education, a need subsequently highlighted by the ferry-sinking and tsunami disasters.

Back in New Zealand, our first project of the year was for a new client, the Department of Internal Affairs, to develop an education resource for schools to tie in with the 60th anniversary of New Zealand citizenship.  

Our expertise in sustainable transport came to the fore in revising an education resource for Environment Canterbury to help students develop active transport plans for their schools.

Meanwhile, we continued working with New Zealand Trade and Enterprise to promote enterprise education in Wellington schools.  For example, we helped one school to develop a community garden and another to take on the protection and enhancement of a local stream.

Other highlights included extending the successful piloting of a school personal financial education framework for the Retirement Commission as the basis for the Ministry of Education’s new Financial Capability website, and developing a set of drug education guidelines for the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education.

Sadly, this year we will be saying farewell to RoadSense, the road safety education strategy we have delivered to over 1,500 schools for the New Zealand Transport Agency.  RoadSense was cancelled in the 2009-2012 National Land Transport Programme, and finishes up at the end of the year. 

Finally, this year saw us opening up in a new market: the Middle East.  Operating under the name Educating Global, we have set up offices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi to export our educational knowledge and show that New Zealand is in the forefront of the industry on the world stage. 

Posted 02/12/2009 at 3:39PM

After a year or so in charge of the education system I wonder how Minister Anne Tolley is feeling about what has been achieved and what is achievable? The budget cupboard is pretty bare and that means trying to extract improvements with little or no new resource.

Getting the sector to make trade-offs is not an easy job and prioritising effort will be crucial. National Standards for reading, writing and maths are clearly the current priorities, but there is also the little matter of the new national curriculum coming into force next year. The clamour for professional support for these major policy changes will no doubt become deafening as time passes and the Minister’s response that she has given the sector what it asked for may not hold up for much longer.

There is no doubt that too many students are not reaching their educational potential and Minister Tolley has been totally unapologetic about the implementation of the National Standards as a lever for improvement. The problem is she has been a little thin on evidence for their effectiveness. One would think that she will be feeling somewhat anxious about their introduction despite the confident talk.

The new national curriculum has taken a bit of a back seat to the National Standards of late. The New Zealand Curriculum is generally well regarded by the profession, but it too is a significant system change that will be implemented with varying degrees of enthusiasm and fidelity.

With all of these things, it is about the way they are carried out as much as what is intended. If the new curriculum promotes and supports high quality teacher practice and helps engage all students in learning, and if the information provided by the National Standards is used effectively to inform teachers’ work and help build stronger partnerships with families and whanau, then these major structures on the landscape could cement Minister Tolley’s legacy of educational improvement - but these are pretty big ifs.

 

Posted 02/12/2009 at 3:37PM

If your organisation has resources for schools, do they align with The New Zealand Curriculum (NZC), which is being implemented in 2010?   Schools will be much more receptive to them if the assessment, learning activities and content match and support the learning objectives of the NZC.

So here are ten tips to help your organisation make sure its educational resources align with the NZC. 

1. Be clear on what you are aligning by using the actual NZC document during the process of developing or revising your educational resources.

2. Ensure the curriculum’s principles (NZC, p9) underpin the learning and are seen in practice through your teaching and learning activities.

3. Provide opportunities to encourage, model and explore the curriculum’s values (NZC, p10) through your teaching and learning activities.
 
4. Make sure your resource identifies and demonstrates the curriculum’s key competencies (NZC, p12) in a range of authentic contexts, and supports students to develop them.
 
5. Ensure your resource is consistent with the curriculum’s learning area statements (NZC, p18–33).
 
6. Make the learning areas the focal point for deciding important learning outcomes relevant to the needs of students.
 
7. Check the assessment of student achievements in your resource relate to the learning outcomes.

8. Understand that the achievement objectives in the curriculum provide useful guides to aspects of learning that contribute towards major learning intentions or goals. “They are not a starting point, and they are not a sufficient basis for programme development or assessment of student learning.” (Education Gazette, 4 February, 2008, p23).

9. Make sure the context of your resource is meaningful and relevant. The more meaningful and relevant it is to the interests of students, the more motivated they are likely to be to learn and achieve.

10. Use Educating NZ’s skills to help your organisation ensure that its resources for schools align with The New Zealand Curriculum.  We can also arrange for teachers to trial your resources in the classroom.  

Besides helping organisations with their educational resources, we have also developed a website for schools to help them implement the NZC next year: www.curriculum.co.nz  

 

Posted 02/12/2009 at 3:32PM

The term ‘enterprise’ is now commonly used to describe a set of attributes that has as much to do with creativity, being willing to think and act laterally, and taking initiative, as it does with entrepreneurial risk-taking and business opportunities.

“Students who manage themselves are enterprising, resourceful, reliable, and resilient. They establish personal goals, make plans, manage projects, and set high standards. They have strategies for meeting challenges. They know when to lead, when to follow, and when and how to act independently.” (The New Zealand Curriculum, p12). 

Enterprise is embedded within the key competency of ‘managing self’, as well as being a future-focused issue which The New Zealand Curriculum encourages students to explore. 

Educating NZ, in collaboration with New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, has been working with schools in Wellington to develop enterprise education.  The focus has been on using authentic contexts for learning and making links with the local and business communities.  This has enabled students to make the important connection between learning and ‘real life’.  Identifying and valuing the enterprising attributes they have developed has been a key to the success of the project.

Students said:

“We are not just ‘pretending’, we are actually ‘doing’ it.  So we have more motivation to do something because we know it is actually going to happen … it makes you heaps more attached to what you are learning … it is more personal, it affects us … you get more involved in it all. There is so much more you can do.”

“It just gives you such an advantage … it is such a plus to be an enterprising person because you are the kind of person who just gets in there and thinks of all these different ways to get things done … finding ways to do the stuff you want … if you can’t do something one way you can do it another. It puts people in a position to take charge.”

All those involved in the project have commented on the:

• positive impact on the students’ level of engagement and ownership of their learning
• cross-curricular opportunities that the enterprise theme presents
• students’ growing understanding of the language of enterprise and their ability to recognise enterprising behaviours and attributes in themselves others
• overwhelming support from community organisations and the business community.

For more information on enterprise education see http://education-for-enterprise.tki.org.nz

Posted 02/12/2009 at 3:16PM

Educating Global, Educating NZ’s associated organisation, is based at the NZ Technology Oasis in the United Arab Emirates, following our acceptance on the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise’s Beachheads programme for emerging companies.

Educating NZ started exploring the market in March following a NZTE Trade Mission. Educating Global now has started working with individual schools and government Ministries.
 
Educating Global is targeting road safety education, obesity awareness and entrepreneurial education. For example, we are working with the Taaleem group of schools to promote road safety at the forthcoming Building Schools Exhibition and Conference in Abu Dhabi.

An area of particular concern in the UAE is school bus safety. Educating Global directors David Murray and Janelle Grady recently conducted training at Emirates International School and started a strategic planning process at the school for developing a road safety vision. It has entered the Dubai Awards for Transport Sustainability with a local company.

Educating Global is seeking work with other clients in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar, and over time plans to work in other Gulf countries as well.

Posted 02/12/2009 at 3:04PM

Do you consider yourself a professional? What is your thinking style? This quiz, which we borrowed from www.creativityatwork.com who borrowed it from www.accenture.com, will help you understand your thinking style.

Scroll down the page to see the answer to each question and move onto the next one.

 

1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Correct answer: Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe and close the door.

This question tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated way.

 

2. How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wrong answer: Open the refrigerator, put in the elephant and close the refrigerator.

Correct answer: Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door.

This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your actions.

 

3. The lion king is hosting an animal conference. All the animals attend except one. Which animal does not attend?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Correct answer: The elephant. The elephant is in the refrigerator.

This tests your memory.

OK, even if you did not answer the first three questions correctly, you can surely answer this one.

 

4. There is a river you must cross, but it is inhabited by crocodiles. How do you manage it?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Correct answer: You swim across. All the crocodiles are attending the animal conference!

This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.

 

According to Accenture, around 90% of the professionals they tested got all questions wrong. But many preschoolers got several correct answers. They say this conclusively disproves the theory that most professionals have the brains of a four-year old.

How did you do?