MTL ~ Module 1 ~ Later Years Students

Characteristics of Later Years Students

What do you think are the most definitive characteristics of later years students? Identify these in five words (or less). Then add one sentence to describe each characteristic.

1. Capable:  Intellectually, their capacities for abstract reasoning, ethical considerations and general intelligence is blooming; Physically their capacities for "doing" in the real world are strong, possibly exhibited through sport, adventuring or work outside of school, and in general they are able to take care of their own physical needs to a large extent;
2. Social:  Highly aware and interested in the social realm, popular trends, mass media and wider socio-cultural influences, including an ethical perspective on "state of the world" issues;
3. Individual:  While highly engaged in this social realm, later years students are also working inwardly on their sense of self, building up their own individual identity by interacting cognitively and physically with the world around them;
4. Sexuality Developing:  With significant hormonal and physical shifts occurring throughout adolescence, some level of maturation is settling in in the later years students - both their individuality and their sociality is affected by their increased sexual interest and awareness, and it can become a great distraction to schooling or other endeavours;
5. Looking forward:  Later years students are approaching a threshold in their lives - the leaving of school - and while they are still firmly anchored in daily life, they are beginning to plan and imagine what their life after school may hold.

Video Notes

Julia Savage:

• Still as broad a range in maturity, literacy, skill level etc as in any other age group, but with more at stake;
• This can increase anxiety levels in the students yet they don't necessarily have the maturity to manage that anxiety;
• Strong structures and guidelines can assist to reduce the anxiety and aid the students coping abilities.

Ian Bentley:

• Young adults - physically, emotionally, relateably;
• Still novices of subject matter, yet require relating to on a more adult level;
• Generally motivated, there to do as well as they can.

Dorothy Smith:

• Responsibility of yr 11/12 students, increased maturity;
• Capable - to do/think/bring ideas/initiative;
• Can assume too much & forget that they are kids;
• Need structure to rely on / boundaries;
• Need flexibility to allow them to tackle tasks in their own way;
• Risk taking - we don't want them to take risks that could jeopardise the outcomes of their schooling.

Oki Gardener:

• Maturation over the years 10 through 12;
• Excitement of entering into a "brave new world";
• Personally - separate from parents but not yet adults;
• Attendance can be an issue particularly in year 10, "somewhere cooler to be";
• Yr 11 cognitive leap - writing with purpose, ability to take constructive criticism and work with it.

The Later years Learner

What implication/s will this have on your teaching of later years students?

"greater freedom and independence in order to promote their personal development and growth." MTL-M1-P2.

• Provide clear structure: outcomes and expectations;
• Allow for flexibility in approach to given tasks;
• Relate to the students in a more adult-to-adult manner;
• Keep lessons and subject matter engaging;
• Give students a sense of the purpose of the work for their life after school;
• Provide opportunities for students to "bring" something of themselves to their work - opinion, inspiration, personal interest;
• Provide opportunities for "safe"/supported risk taking;
• Acknowledge that they are highly capable yet still novices of life and of the learning areas.

Teaching in the Later Years

• Thorough planning;
• Resources including current and topical information/sources to increase relevance/engagement/challenge/innovation, complimentary to any textbook resources;
• Large range of strategies;
• Exam preparation and teaching exam strategies;
• Multiple layers of subject matter, depth and breadth of student understanding and experience;
• Big picture of learning area;
• Not just note taking and q & a format;
• Encourage problem solving approaches and group discussions;
• Challenging/stretching tasks;
• High expectations;
• Opportunities to develop decision making, problem solving, leadership, self reliance, independence, responsibility.

What are two things you can do in your teaching to actively encourage lifelong learning?

• Develop student curiosity and methods of inquiry in presentation of all subject matter;
• Actively assist later years students in goal setting in all spheres of their lives and in planning pathways to achieve these goals;  

Support for Teachers

• Within school;
• PD opportunities;
• Professional organisations for specialist teaching areas;
• Connecting with peers;
• Sharing ideas/resources/struggles/successes.

Neuroscience and Learning

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore TED Video:

• MRI tracking of changes in both structure and function of the brain;
• Radically changed the way we think about brain development - not all over in early childhood, the brain continues to develop right through adolescence and continuing into the 20s and 30s;
• Adolescence starts with the hormonal changes of puberty and ends when the individual takes on a stable and independent role in society;
• Pre-frontal cortex undergoes dramatic changes during adolescence - significant in decision making, planning, inhibiting inappropriate behaviours, social interaction, understanding others, self-awareness;
• Grey matter volume within the brain increases until around 14 and then begins to slowly decline, signifying synaptic pruning (synapses that are used are strengthened and others that are not needed/used are reabsorbed);
• Instinctive/automatic/culturally relevant socio-emotional responses;
• Medial PFC:
• more active in adolescence than in adulthood;
• decreases in activity over the course of adolescence;
• utilising different cognitive strategies during adolescence than in adulthood in (social) decision making processes;
• assessing with behavioural tasks can see the difficulty in taking other people's perspectives into consideration;
• Risk taking:
• take more risks than children or adults;
• take more risks with friends/socially;
• drive to become independent from family and impress one's friends;
• LIMBIC SYSTEM - emotion processing, reward processing, hypersensitive to the rewarding feeling of risk-taking behaviours during adolescence;
• PFC - stops us from taking unreasonable risks, still developing during adolescence;
• Adolescence as a period of PROFOUND development;
• environment including teaching can and does shape the adolescent brain;
• fantastic opportunity for learning and creativity, education and social development.

Dr Judy Willis' "The Current Impact of Neuroscience on Teaching and Learning" (2010)... As you read, note down ideas that you may be able to incorporate into your teaching of later years students:

• "Although what we see in brain scans cannot predict exactly what a strategy or intervention will mean for individual students, the information can guide the planning of instruction.";
• Plato "a freeman ought not to be a slave in the acquisition of knowledge of any kind";
• Vygotsky's (1978) ZPD;
• Krashen's (1982) "Language acquisition does not require ... tedious drill. The best methods supply comprehensible input (a bit beyond the acquirer's current level) in low anxiety situations, containing messages that students really want to hear.";
• Incremental, achievable challenge!
• Variable challenge, based on the student's level of ability;
• Experience of achievement creates the feeling that further challenges are achievable, increasing motivation and building mastery;
• Awareness of creating a learning space that is neither boring or overwhelming/frustrating, pitched just right for the students' capabilities;
• "Opportunity for students to see effort-related improvements along the way to an ultimate goal";
• Powerful dopamine-reward effect in the brain as intrinsic reward system for accomplishment;
• "Research now supports recommendations to avoid high-stress instructional methods such as use of fear of punishment and to incorporate appropriate environmental, social, emotional and cognitive considerations into instruction.";
• stress = filters on cognitive input;
• Reticular Activating System (RAS) a survival mechanism in brain stem filters input via an involuntary selective process, prioritises changes in the environment perceived as possible threat, once threats are identified sent to lower brain for fight/flight/freeze response, other cognitive input is not selected/sent/available for higher brain processing;
• RAS particularly receptive to novelty and curiosity triggered by interesting/positive change in the environment (change in room layout, colour, display, posters advertising upcoming units, costumes, music, anything that triggers a desire to investigate);
• Note to self - examples being used referring to computer gaming and media style triggers to human curiosity and learning/skills practice;
• Increase RAS receptivity by: 
• variations in voice volume tone etc; 
• marking key points on an information board or chart in a different colour; 
• varying font size in printed materials; mixing up seating arrangements periodically; photos on bulletin boards; 
• advertise an upcoming unit with curiosity-provoking posters, adding clues or puzzle pieces each day, get students guessing what the unit/content may be, this can get the students' RAS to select/prioritise the content of the new unit when it is presented; 
• playing music as students enter the room to trigger curiosity and focus, particularly with key words in the song that relate to the following learning tasks;
• Behave in a novel manner! Walking backwards when explaining negative numbers, overfilling a glass when introducing the idea of estimation;
• getting students to engage in predictions;
• random cues - a radish on each child's desk... can lead into investigating shape, colour, size, differences and similarities, investigations with magnifying glass, microscopes, dissecting and tasting, mathematically measuring and charting qualities and characteristics, artistic exploration, writing a piece on it etc etc can be made entirely age and topically relevant;
•  RAS admits pleasurable stimuli, we seek to learn and repeat behaviours/actions that result in pleasurable outcomes as a survival instinct (eg/food) so are engaged to learn when enjoying the experience of learning;
• Also more likely to retell the lesson if enjoyed, and engaging in the retelling revises the learning material and can stimulate further discussions in other contexts;
• Amygdala and associated neural networks also act as affective filters, reducing successful learning when the learner is stressed;
• Pre Frontal Cortex (PFC) regulates cognitive and executive functions (judgement, organisation, prioritisation, risk assessment, critical analysis, concept development, creative problem solving);
• Negative emotional state = Amygdala redirects input to the lower brain (fight/flight/freeze);
• Positive emotional state = Amygdala directs input to the PFC;
• Dopamine (neurotransmitter - pleasureable experience) can be activated by certain environmental influences and teaching strategies, increased levels will result in increased focus, memory and motivation;
• Nucleus Accumbens increases dopamine release when a prediction, choice, decision or answer is correct and less when the brain becomes aware of a mistake;
• Intrinsic positive value on being correct, memory/information pathways reinforced;
• Valuable modification of a network that gave an incorrect prediction as the brain strives to avoid future decreases in dopamine production, however this relies on timely (immediate) corrective feedback;
• Neuroplasticity - reorganisation of neural networks through pruning/strengthening/reorganisation/extension of neural networks;
• Making predictions means taking the risk of being wrong, and fear of this can inhibit participation: "The goal is to keep all students engaged and participating because only the person who thinks, learns.";
• Risk taking = benefit from the dopamine pleasure fluctuations;
• "Frequent formative assessment and feedback are powerful tools to promote long term memory and develop the executive functions of reasoning and analysis.";
• Your awareness of students' understanding ... allows you to respond and adjust instruction accordingly...";
• "keep students' amygdala pathway open to the PFC and reduce their fear of participation. When students are in this low-anxiety state, they remain engaged, participate, and learn from feedback provided in a non-threatening manner.";
• "obtain frequent assessment of individual students' understanding throughout the class period without calling on specific students. For example, ask whole-class questions with single word or multiple choice (by letter) answers, and then have students respond by writing on individual whiteboards. Students need only hold up their whiteboards long enough for you to see their responses and nod to signify you have seen them ... This will allow you to prompt students whose responses demonstrate understanding to move on to pre-planned higher challenge activities while you work with those who need further explanation or practice. The students at mastery level are no longer stressed by the frustration of  repeated explanation, grill, and drill on information that they already know";
• Strategies to increase PFC input overlap with those that also increase dopamine production;
• Allowing periodic movement as a part of learning activities - ball toss to review content, pantomime to guess vocabulary words;
• Reading to students or paired student reading;
• incremental progress feedback building intrinsic reward, evoking feelings of satisfaction along the way and not just upon completion of achieving larger goals;
• Humour good, sarcasm bad;
• Structure positive peer interactions;
• Well-planned collaborative group work;
• Some opportunity for student choice in projects or assessments.
• Neuroplasticity:
• adding or pruning synapses and dendrites;
• producing insulating layers of myelin around axons;
• stronger more efficient networks = faster recall, greater transfer;
• practice makes permanent - long term memory activated by repetitive use of neural networks;
• teaching students their "Brain Owner's Manual" ie/ that their brain networks and memories are strengthened by the neural activation of review and practice;
• Student knowledge increases by pattern recognition, by associating patterns with memory, expanding and strengthening neural connections and pathways, in line with Piaget's theories of accommodation and assimilation;
• Patterning as the meaningful organisation and categorisation of information;
• Once sensory input reaches the hippocampus it is available for consolidation into memory, for consolidation to occur prior knowledge must be triggered and brought to the hippocampus to bind with the new information... strategies include:
• making analogies;
• pointing out similarities and differences;
• brainstorming what students already know and what they want to learn in a new unit of work;
• administering self-marked assessment tasks pre-unit (or otherwise) for corrective feedback and to trigger interest/awareness of lacking areas;
• class discussions of topically/socially relevant matters that tease out the existing knowledge base of the class and create interest in the learning material of a new topic, students can relate new information to prior knowledge;
• ball toss activities where students say what they think they know or give a prediction in relation to a unit of work or a book they are reading etc etc;
• cross-curricular connections, looking at the content in one subject area from another perspective in another learning area;
• practising pattern recognition (such as asking children wearing blue shirts to stand up one by one until the pattern is guessed correctly, give examples and exclusions of a category until students guess the connection correctly, or give a category and ask for predictions of inclusions in the category);
• using graphic organisers - non-linguistic pictorial cues for category formation;
• multisensory learning increases brain stimulation and broadens pattern formation, increases speed of recall as more neural networks are firing;
• when new information is connected to prior experience it is then available beyond the context in which it has been learned and can be applied in problem solving contexts outside of the classroom;
• Significance of student awareness that they can change their brains and increase their abilities through study, review and practice, especially for those with low self-efficacy;
• Even patients with paralysis due to neurological damage can build the necessary neural pathways, beginning with visualisation of the desired movement;
• Intelligence as the measure of students' ability to make accurate connections between new input and existing patterns of stored information;
• "Through practice, experience and mental manipulation, we develop intelligence by extending, correcting and strengthening neural networks.";
• Student understanding of how they can choose to strengthen their brain to reach their own goals as a great positivity-building tool;
• "Your own mental efforts in all types of higher thinking, practising and reviewing, as well as making conscious choices to delay immediate gratification, working to achieve goals, and evaluating the strategies that you used when you were most successful actually build your brain to be a more efficient and successful tool that you control."
• Students writing lesson summaries called "Dend-Writes" and discussing how neural networks are strengthened by the growth of new dendrites when we review learning material;
• Teaching new learning to someone else is strong memory cement;
• Discussing physical practical experience that students have with improvements that come with practice - sports, musical instruments etc;
• Significance of sleep in brain strengthening;
• "The most rewarding jobs of this century will be those that cannot be done by computers.";
• Need for: conceptual thinking and problem solving skills, critical thinking skills, communication skills, confidence with evolving technology, cultural awareness, adaptiveness, open-mindedness and good judgement;
• Collaboration between teachers, resource specialists, administration, developing learning communities that share knowledge and resources and strategies to help each other to meet the needs of learners;
• Research based strategies, investing the self in the science of learning;
• Most significant impact on the improvement of education is to be gained by improving the effectiveness of teachers - time, PD and supportive learning communities - in order to increase the level of preparation, optimism, and outcomes of students;
• Help students to become lifelong learners by embracing the neuroscience of joyful learning!;
• "Through ... collaboration (between classroom teachers and researchers) the seeds planted in a single classroom by a creative, resourceful teacher may be analysed, replicated, expanded, and disseminated to benefit students worldwide." 

21st Century Learning

Soule, Helen "Healthy Revision: Defining Learning in the Modern Age". Retrieved from http://www.educationandcareernews.com/learning-tools/healthy-revision-defining-learning-in-the-modern-age

• "Bringing hands-on learning opportunities into the classroom through personalized and project-based learning makes content knowledge come alive. It also empowers students to be creative problem-solvers who take risks and are able to learn from successes and failures. Not only does this kind of learning create meaningful connections to the real world; it also builds exactly the kinds of skills that future employers are after, such as the four c's—communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity.";
• "Personalized learning lets students follow a tailor-made curriculum path that meets them where they are and evolves with their growing abilities, interests and aspirations. It’s centered on competency...";
• "teachers are using project-based learning and student interests to guide curriculum choices, engage community partnerships and connect students back to the community.";
• "Bringing these kinds of learning experiences to the classroom are nothing short of transformative. This kind of learning opens up new doors for a culture of lifelong learning. It’s a powerful tool for learning that tells students and teachers they matter, that they have an important contribution to make and that students who own their learning own their future."

"P21's Framework for 21st Century Learning" Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/about-us/p21-framework

• "Mastery of fundamental subjects and 21st century themes is essential for students in the 21st century... (english/reading/language arts, world languages, arts, mathematics, economics, science, geography, history, government and civics) ... In addition to these subjects, we believe schools must move beyond a focus on basic competency to promoting understanding of academic content at much higher levels by weaving 21st century interdisciplinary themes into curriculum (global awareness, financial/economic/business/entrepreneurial literacy, civic literacy, health literacy, environmental literacy)"
• Learning skills, creativity, problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration and communication;
• "To be effective in the 21st century, citizens and workers must be able to create, evaluate, and effectively utilize information, media, and technology."
• Socio-emotional competencies;
• "21st Century Skills Assessment A Partnership for 21st Century Skills e-paper" http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/21st_Century_Skills_Assessment_e-paper.pdf
• Significance of assessment of student ability to apply what they know in new situations, not simply input/output of data;
• Summative & formative assessment strategies;
• "Complicated, multi-dimensional, real-world solutions rarely require mastery of a single, isolated skill or understanding of a single subject matter. Thus, a 21st century assessment must be able to measure or observe a student’s mastery along several different axes."
• "Students need to hone the ability to apply content knowledge to critical thinking, problem solving, and analysis tasks throughout their education, as well as understand that successful learning is as much about the process as it is about facts and figures. In addition, tasks should mirror real-world situations as much as possible, so that students gain valuable training that will prepare them for success in their future endeavors."
• "Teachers need to be able to understand what the assessment can reveal about the student’s thinking in order to adapt their teaching to meet students’ needs."
• Both teacher and student need to be able to learn via assessment tasks;
• Balance direct instruction with project-oriented teaching methods;
• Identify students' individual learning styles, dominant intelligences, strengths/weaknesses;
• Human support and appropriate physical environments;
• Community connections.

"The 4Cs Research Series" Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/our-work/4cs-research-series

• 4Cs:
• Communication
• Collaboration
• Critical Thinking
• Creativity
• Briefs available on each one provide a table of application recommendations - follow links.

Shaw, A. (2014) "3 Compasses to Guide You to 21st Century Schools" Retrieved from http://www.21stcenturyschools.com/uploads/2/1/5/4/21542794/3_compasses_to_21st_century_education.pdf 

• Critical Attributes:
• Integrated/interdisciplinary;
• Global classrooms/globalisation;
• 21st century skills;
• Relevant/rigorous/real-world;
• Adapting/adaptable;
• Project based, research driven;
• Student centred;
• Technology/multimedia.
• Multiple Literacies:
• Arts/creativity;
• Ecoliteracy;
• Cyberliteracy;
• Physical health/fitness literacy;
• Global/multicultural literacies;
• Socio-emotional literacy;
• Media literacy;
• Financial literacy.
• 7 Survival Skills:
• Accessing and analysing information;
• Curiosity and imagination;
• Effective oral and written communication;
• Collaboration across networks, leading by influence;
• Initiative/entrepreneurialism;
• Agility/adaptability;
• Critical thinking/problem solving.