Science
Updated: Feb 2000
 |
| ||||||
|
Case Studies - Leonora District High School Factors Enabling Integration The teachers described several factors that enabled the integration process at Leonora District High School over the past three years - a collective vision, concrete strategies and a student outcomes-based approach.
  There was a clearly perceived need for change by the school staff in 1994 and a collective decision was made to utilise an outcomes-based and integrated approach to the curriculum. The teachers were involved in the decision to make the change and their opinions were valued in the subsequent planning. A collective vision to improve the approach to teaching and learning in the school was a result of this collaborative process.
There was a common understanding that the students were the most important component of the school and the teachers, at that particular time, worked well as a team, promoting a positive atmosphere of collegiality and camaraderie. Each teacher had an area of responsibility for designing the program from the expected outcomes which gave a sense of ownership towards the new curriculum.
Not only was there a collective vision for change, but the teachers saw their Principal and the Education Department as being supportive and encouraging.
A number of concrete strategies facilitated the integration process by providing time and physical space for teachers to plan, share, and reflect on their experiences. In 1994, the teachers participated in breakfast and dinner meetings in order to plan the new approach to curriculum. In 1995, three half-hour, shared planning sessions were incorporated into the timetable and an area separate from the common staff room for secondary staff called the "secondary planning area" was established. This was easily achieved because of the district high school structure and the small number of secondary teachers.
In 1997 the shared planning time was reduced to one half-hour session per week and the teachers no longer had access to the secondary planning area. Teachers commented that these changes made it more difficult to communicate and plan with the other members of the secondary team. As a consequence of these difficulties, the timetable was altered so that all the secondary teachers could be together at one time to facilitate the collaborative approach to curriculum.
A more flexible timetable resulting from the changes in the school also facilitated communication between the teachers and integration between the learning areas. Teachers from the school were involved in professional development on language, student centred approaches and team approaches for staff and students, motivation, learning styles, ERICA (a literacy program) strategies, strategies leading to higher order thinking, learning difficulties and self esteem. Education Department personnel also visited the school to support, encourage and facilitate the change a student centred, outcome-based approach. The most successful professional development that teachers talked about was a visit to Ballajura Community College which involved the staff in observing an integrated model in practice and sharing ideas, programs, and strategies for open ended assessment tasks with other teachers.
An outcome-based approach was found by the secondary teachers at Leonora to facilitate integration across the curriculum largely because it is not content driven.
The teachers conveyed a sense of liberation, at leaving the unit curriculum structure behind. No longer were they required to teach prescribed content, the focus was more on skills and processes and they could choose suitable content that was interesting and motivating for their students. Teachers also mentioned that a focus on pastoral care encouraged an holistic approach to a student's education and hence a more integrated way of seeing the curriculum.
| |||||||
