Sunday, March 6, 2016

John Hattie and Deb Masters at Seisen

On Friday and Saturday 4-5 March, Seisen had the privilege of hosting JASCD's Spring Conference. JASCD is the Japanese affiliate of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development

The presenters for the conference were Professor John Hattie and Deb Masters. Professor Hattie's research and meta analyses have had a profound impact on schools and he works, together with his Visible Learning team, with governments and policy makers around the world to positively impact student learning.

Ms. Sheila, Deb Masters, Ms. Sandra and Professor John Hattie 
On Friday teachers from international schools across Japan worked together to explore Hattie's Model of Learning to guide planning of teaching and learning to ensure students progress from surface to deep levels of understanding.
Participants from international schools across Japan came together during the JASCD Conference

On Saturday Professor Hattie gave a Keynote on the ranking of influences related to learning. He talked about the reasons underpinning these influences and what we can be doing in our schools to measure our own impact on student learning and progress. We then explored the SOLO taxonomy as a way of planning for surface-to-deep learning.
Professor John Hattie delivering a Keynote at Seisen
We are excited to apply what we learnt at the workshop to our own practice and to measure our own impact on student learning. We would like to extend our thanks to JASCD board members (including our very own Mollie McAllister) for organising such an engaging event. Thank you also to John Hattie and Deb Masters for this inspiring professional development session.


Thursday, March 3, 2016

Modelling Success

The Grade Four students have been inquiring into the central idea Exploration can lead to discoveries, opportunities and new understandings.  As they come to the end of their unit we will be asking them to create a 'live museum exhibit' of a chosen explorer and use the SOLO Taxonomy to guide their research and presentations.  To give the students an example of what success looks like in this task, Mr. Hughes, Ms. Sandra, Ms. Mollie and Mr. Peto chose their own explorers and demonstrated what the task could look like.  Students assessed the four teachers using the SOLO Taxonomy and looked for evidence of them connecting ideas and going further.  Look out for the Grade Four blogpost of the students' final exhibits!

You can read more on the explorers chosen by our four teachers by clicking the links below.

Henry Worsley (Mr. Peto)
Chang Ch'ien (Ms. Mollie)
Isabella Bird (Ms. Sandra)
Sylvia Earle (Mr. Hughes)

The SOLO Taxonomy will help students plan their research and think deeply about their explorers
From left to right:  Henry Worsley (Mr. Peto), Chang Ch'ien (Ms. Mollie), Isabella Bird (Ms. Sandra) and Sylvia Earle (Mr. Hughes)