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NCEA: A Curriculum in Disguise?

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Today I thought I would share my thoughts on education and learning in New Zealand. With the general election coming up it seems that our national assessment NCEA is the punching bag de jour with recent articles from the NZ Herald suggesting it is no longer fit for purpose as a Level 1 curriculum. However, I think the principals advocating for this change and their reasons behind it are flawed in their understanding of what NCEA actually is. So, is NCEA Level 1 a curriculum or an assessment? For those readers who are not familiar with NCEA, it stands for National Certificate of Educational Achievement, and it is the main qualification system for secondary school students in New Zealand. NCEA Level 1 is usually taken in Year 11 or tenth grade for my American friends, and it covers a range of subjects and standards that students can choose from. But what exactly is NCEA Level 1? Is it a curriculum that guides what students should learn and how they should learn it? Or is it an assessmen
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Branching Out in Physics Lessons with Decision Trees

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One area where my level 2 NCEA physics students commonly struggle is in the topic of kinematics, in particular, projectile motion. The problem usually comes with them struggling to choose which of the four equations of motion they should use to solve these types of problems. Recent developments in artificial intelligence , in particular, Chat GPT-4, a powerful natural language processing tool could be used to generate decision trees and flowcharts that can help students solve these types of problems. A decision tree is a diagram that shows the possible outcomes of a series of choices, while a flowchart is a diagram that shows the steps of a process or algorithm. Both can help students visualize and organize their thinking and guide them to the correct solution. So, in order to create these decision trees, students had to develop an effective prompt. The model they used was based around the work of Brad Weinstein . He uses the PREP model, where each letter in the acronym represents Prom
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The Rise of the Machine Learning

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In recent weeks we have seen the advancement in the field of artificial intelligence, in the form of an open AI model called ChatGPT which interacts with the user in a conversational way . As with all developing technology it's natural to speculate about the potential consequences of creating intelligent machines. While some people imagine a utopian future in which AI helps us solve some of the world's most pressing problems, others fear a dystopian future in which AI turns against us and seeks to destroy us. One of the most well-known dystopian depictions of AI comes from the Terminator franchise. In the movies, machines known as Terminators are sent back in time to kill the human resistance leaders before they can rise to power and challenge the machines. The machines are cold, ruthless, and completely devoid of compassion, making them a formidable enemy for the humans. Of course, the reality of AI is likely to be somewhere in between these two extremes. The outcome of AI d
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I am not a number

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Last month, I attended the National hui for our countries Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts (MIE Experts) in Auckland. Apart from the excitement of meeting fellow educators face to face again after the tribulations of COVID, it was also a time to reflect on what we had learnt from the pandemic. One of those reflections was from Australian educator and part time ukulele player Pip Cleaves  who asked the question why do we need grades? Variability in our students is the norm, yet we do not build upon this uniqueness. Instead, we teach to the average and manage expectations. But as number six in one of my favorite series while growing up, the Prisoner would say: I am not a number; I am a free man! So why do we define our students by the grades they get? and what could be an alternative? Take Tim. Tim is a boy in my junior science class. He is a very sweet and caring boy; he is always the boy when a new student comes into the class, he immediately includes them. He is the boy who thank
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Tehei Mauri Ora!

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As part of ongoing personal development at my school, I have been exploring the introduction of Te Ao Māori (the Māori world) into my educational practices. In Te Ao Māori, the development of the learning environment is about nurturing mauri ora .  The concept of mauri is complex, but in simple terms can be considered a vitality of life. There are multiple types of mauri and like a spider's web each type has many threads and I shall only touch on a few here, as I am still learning. Mauri  can be considered a metaphysical aspect of Te Ao Māori and could have useful practical application to our teaching practice. When the mauri  of your students is at its peak, the students are flourishing in your classroom – with alert and inquiring minds and mutually beneficial relationships between students and teachers and between students themselves, this is known as mauri ora . T his view of the learning environment is part of the  mauri ora model, as explained by Sir Mason Durie. The model
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Assessing on the Blockchain.

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This year I am again teaching junior science and one thing that I reflected on last year was the nature of assessment. Most assessment I used last year was in the form of a written test at the end of units, essentially I was seeing how they understood the scientific concepts I had taught them over the unit.  Two things concerned me when I considered these assessments, first, is knowing stuff about science the only thing that is worth measuring when it comes to assessing scientific ability and second, I had a large number of neuro-divergent learners in my classroom and was this the best way to even assess their understanding?  Over the last 20 years, there has been a  marked change in the direction of students learning about science and about how science works (the processes, practices and people of science) as well as learning science content (the products of science). Due to the enormity of the task, I cannot as a science teacher provide all the science knowledge that they will need,
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I give up, sir.

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This year, I have been given the opportunity to teach a number of senior science lessons. I have also noticed that for these classes, students are struggling with the concepts being taught. One of the fine balancing acts between junior and senior science is the desire for engagement yet also providing those students who move forward in science with sufficient content so they can succeed at these higher levels. Learning is unique in humans as we learn from each other. We have developed complex systems of communication to exchange ideas. So when it comes to senior science lessons. instead of starting from scratch, students can build on what has come before.  Though, I am finding with my present cohort that this is a problem. Looking at my year 12 physics class as an example, complex concepts like projectile motion are already hard enough without the extra problem of not having the sufficient skills in algebra and calculating vectors. So initially, I was having to teach this content expli
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