Information » The story so far
Karen is an educational consultant based in Melbourne, Australia.
The electronic Unit Planner (eUP) was designed as a solution to a problem I was encountering as an educational consultant. My consultancy began in the area of gifted education after many years in a variety of teaching and senior administration roles in primary, secondary and special education. Gifted education became a passion after attending a workshop about underachieving gifted students.
As a trained teacher of the hearing impaired, I had worked with special needs students for some time and was always curious to know what made learners tick. Hearing about underachieving gifted students lead me down a path to further study which culminated in a Master’s degree and provided me with a base from which to set up a gifted education program in a school in which I was working.
My decision to work as a consultant came as a result of being asked to speak at a conference. I enjoyed the opportunity to share my passion about the needs of gifted students who are often a misunderstood group in school communities. As I built up a repertoire of workshops around provision for gifted students I was increasingly being approached to assist all teachers to teach thinking to all students, not just the gifted.
I then began working with teams of teachers in both primary and secondary schools, guiding them with ways to embed thinking tools and strategies into their curriculum planning. The teachers I was working with seemed OK with most suggestions but I noticed that most of them didn’t have a clear idea regarding which thinking tool to use in which context. It was then I realised that if they were able to link the tools to a type of thinking they would get better results from their students. It was also around this time that the Thinking Processes in VELS had been published and teachers were facing the dilemma of not just ‘teaching’ thinking but they had now also been charged with the task of ‘assessing’ thinking as well. Although very interesting, my work began to take on another layer of complexity. The issue around assessing thinking remains a difficult issue for most teachers.
My work expanded to working with teachers in designing entire units that spanned a term and integrated discipline-based knowledge as well as generic skills and processes. I found that despite teachers willing attempts to embed all aspects of ‘best practice’ into their planning, they were time poor and in many cases unaware of what really great curriculum needed to include.
It was then that I saw a structure such as Bloom’s Taxonomy as a way for teachers to better understand the major difference between higher and lower order thinking. I also recognised a need for teachers to take on the philosophy of ‘backward design’ where if they could identify an end point for a unit of work, they were more likely to develop higher-order rigorous thinking opportunities for their students.
Although there had been attempts by other educators to demonstrate ways to apply different thinking tools and Multiple Intelligences strategies according to which Bloom’s Taxonomy levels they best matched, I started thinking that if I could match up a larger repertoire of effective strategies against Bloom’s I could develop a helpful resource for teachers who by and large were struggling with their role as curriculum designers.
It was at this point and at a time of immense frustration that I mentioned to Mark, my elder son, one day that my job was too difficult and I would never be able to provide enough support to teachers with my trolleys of resources that I was bringing to every session. Often teachers would disappear into the ‘Bermuda Triangle’ of resource hunting and they would reappear an hour later triumphantly waving the book or graphic organiser they had searched for. Mark suggested that perhaps what I was doing could be developed into a website. He wanted to know more about the planning sessions that I conducted with teachers and what things, other than thinking tools, needed to be included. I shared with him a template I had developed as a word document that I was using to show teachers what needed to be included in every unit of work. This document had been developed because most schools did not have a consistent template for planning curriculum and this meant that any attempt to develop a coherent scope and sequence of units, designed around concepts and structured as inquiry based curriculum was nigh on impossible.
This word document became the underpinning structure of eUP. I went to great pains to point out to Mark that curriculum planning is not always linear and teachers need to be able to move fluidly in and out of various sections of any planning tool.
Mark set about trying to develop a web site based on what I had explained to him. Fortunately for both Mark and I, my younger son Danny had just begun his web design business and was able to come on board and work on this ‘family project.’
The first attempts at developing a user friendly based curriculum planning tool were clumsy and didn’t quite meet the standard I was trying to achieve. I became an excellent ‘tester’ of the usability of the program as I kept explaining to my sons that if I couldn’t navigate my way around the site they were building that it was doubtful that other teachers of my age would be able to either.
Once we were able to identify exactly what needed to be included in the online template I began to see the power of using the internet to do this work. All of the help required to support teachers could be provided by the click of a button. I could amend and add to ideas and in a short amount of time my newest ideas could be shared with teachers using eUP. As more and more feedback became available from a growing number of users, we were able to modify the functionality as well as the content.
Other benefits of planning electronically include the transparency of the process where units can be viewed by all personnel within a school. Specialist teachers can gain a much better understanding of the learning occurring in the classroom, thereby providing even greater opportunities for genuine integration. Leadership teams and curriculum coordinators can go on line to see the quantity and quality of the curriculum being planned. Principals who wish to go into classrooms are able to read about the ‘big picture’ sitting behind a unit of work as well as the scaffolded tasks that have been taught before a scheduled visit to a classroom. This holds true for colleagues who are providing feedback to peers in a collaborative team feedback process. Teachers can plan a unit of work, divide up the various steps within eUP and plan simultaneously either locally or remotely. eUP consultants are able to provide assistance remotely and in ‘real time’ as teachers are planning.
For the past 3 years we have facilitated 4 eUP Conferences per year (one per term). Representatives from schools with an eUP subscription attend these conferences and are able to work together with colleagues from other schools in exploring the various elements of the program. Participants are guided through the process of unit design based around a concept such as Change or Courage.
They begin with a focus on inquiry learning with subsequent conferences focusing on the inclusion of graphic organisers, Multiple Intelligences and Habits of Mind into the unit. This ‘train the trainer’ model has been a successful way to up skill teachers in best practice, while at the same time creating a professional network with a cross fertilisation of ideas. Many of our attendees have been given the role of eUP coordinator in their school and attend planning sessions with colleagues to offer support and guidance.
One of the schools in which I was working 5 years ago was happy to trial the very first version of eUP. I was still trying to find out if this type of planning would work and as fate would have it, I met an inspiring teacher who seemed to understand everything I was trying to do. Amanda Dressing had been a Leading Teacher at the school, after two previous career incarnations, one in the army and one at Centre Link. I watched Amanda pick up the ins and outs of eUP and before long I suggested that she may like to work as a consultant.
Amanda took a leap of faith by leaving her teaching position and starting her own consultancy practice based around the use of Habits of Mind, thinking tools, cooperative tools and reflective journals. She also works extensively in eUP schools guiding them through the planning process. Amanda’s input to the ongoing development of eUP has been invaluable.
A colleague of Amanda’s, Coby Beatson, was also keen to take on a consultancy role and began working with eUP schools, while simultaneously developing her expertise as an Interactive Whiteboard specialist. Coby now works as one of the eUP team as well as travelling Australia and sharing her extensive ICT knowledge.
When the e5 Instructional Model was released by DEECD in April 2009, we became excited about the links between eUP (the written curriculum) and the e5 Instructional Model (how to best teach). In 2009 Amanda and I facilitated a series of conferences and created Teaching Without Telling. We facilitated training around the e5 Instructional Model delivering it to over 1000 leaders and teachers across Victoria.
The next step is to provide teachers with exemplary curriculum that can be adapted to suit their students. Amanda and I have decided to provide the much needed support to teachers by writing a 28 unit curriculum using eUP, for students in Prep to Year 6. The 2 year scope and sequence of units is being written around the eight concepts of Sustainability, Identity, Community, Necessity, Change, Curiosity, Social Justice and Creativity. These units of work are comprehensive, providing an in-depth coverage of all mandated learning areas.
Teachers are able to edit and adapt the pre-written units online through eUP as they see fit. We are encouraging teachers to use their planning time to differentiate the curriculum to cater for the full range of students within their classes. Built into eUP is the flexibility to differentiate for higher and lower achieving students, and the ability to manipulate any elements of the curriculum when required.
The launch of Inter@ct is on October 13 and we are looking forward to sharing it with the wider educational community. A trip to Singapore in September will provide an opportunity to share eUP and Inter@ct with another large group of school leaders and curriculum coordinators. The applications of eUP and Inter@ct are universal and I am excited about the possibilities.
The journey to date has been an unexpected yet exciting one. Having the right people to work with has made this project possible. Keeping a sense of humour has made it far more probable. Most importantly it’s belief in what you’re doing and having the persistence to keep going.
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