Science Learning Area - Case Studies - Clarkson Community High School

Science
Updated: Feb 2000

Teaching & Learning | Case Studies of Integrated Teaching | Clarkson Community HS |
Obstacles

Case Studies - Clarkson Community High School High School
Obstacles

Limited Specialist Professional Support
Pre-Requisite Content Knowledge
Heavy Workload for Teachers
An Innovative Program

Obstacles - Limited Specialist Professional Support

One of the difficulties that teachers perceived with the integrated, learning community system at Clarkson Community High School was the lack of interaction with other specialist teachers limiting the specialist support, camaraderie and professional development in subject areas. This was seen to be more of a problem in 1996 when the school staff consisted of 12 teachers, three in each of the four learning communities.

The system is working probably better [in 1997] than it did last year because last year... you were very isolated in your subject area. I was the main science leader and there were only 2 people who did science only as a minor area and I felt like I was doing all the work. Whereas this year I liaise with Mitch a lot who is another science person. So the more staff you get, as a major science area, the more collaborative it becomes.

Similarly, teachers commented that teaching outside their subject speciality areas limited their capacity to integrate because they felt they didn't have the content knowledge necessary to be able to plan and teach the program at an optimal level.

Obstacles - Pre-Requisite Content Knowledge

Another aspect of integrated teaching and learning within the new curriculum that one teacher mentioned as a problem was students' pre-requisite content knowledge. She said that as a teacher she particularly couldn't rely on the foundation students having studied particular content in other areas that may be a pre-requisite to the teaching of particular content in her subject. Communication and collaborative planning in the learning communities goes a long way to address this issue, however the teachers found situations where this became an issue.

You just assume they have that background and you don't know. You go to speak to the maths teachers and they will say we tried to go through that but the kids were just missing huge chunks even from grade 7. I think that these kids just don't have all of the basic maths to fall back on, even a simple formulae for force/distance. If students can't grasp the concept of cross multiplying then it will be very difficult as they move on to more complex problems.

Obstacles - Heavy Workload for Teachers

The large amount of work required for the teachers to plan, develop and implement the new integrated, outcome-focused curriculum was mentioned by nearly all the teachers as a factor that made integration difficult. The resources were not readily available and teachers had to spend a lot of their own time preparing material that could be used in the classroom.

The amount of work. Over the holidays I think I had two days that were mine and every other day was two, four, six hours of school work.

The system gave no additional staffing support for new schools, so that the school had no flexibility to provide additional time support for teachers to plan, develop and implement the new curriculum.

However, the Principal said that a modest amount of money had been used to contract teachers to prepare material, and they would be looking to do more of this in the future.

Obstacles - An Innovative Program

Because of the limited number of schools in Western Australia that have implemented such an integrated outcome-focused curriculum, the access to people who have a similar approach to teaching and learning is not readily available.

We had one day this year where on a Wednesday afternoon, anyone who wanted to went over to Ballajura Community College and just talked to their teachers and that was good. We had someone in common that we could meet somewhere.

One teacher suggested that the approach to curriculum at Clarkson Community High School could be seen as an experimental approach. Students and parents don't always like to be different because there is a certain amount of security in more traditional methods and attitudes.

One teacher mentioned that although the care ethos had resulted in individual students being monitored in a more personal way, there were still limited additional staff in the centrally determined staffing allocation who were able to provide help for students who were not coping with the work. Another teacher suggested that not all students like to spend a lot of time with a limited number of teachers, sometimes he felt the students were seeing too much of him.