Guidance in the Junior Cycle Student Award

Institute of Guidance Counsellors AGM Workshop

22nd March 2014

Mark Fennell

Place of Guidance in Junior CycleWhose responsibility?

What does guidance mean? Who delivers guidance? What is the role of the Guidance

Counsellor? What other pastoral structures are

involved? What is the role of the Guidance / Care

team? Do key skills mediate aims that are central

to guidance?

The Meaning of Guidance in JCSA

Themes

JCSA roll out from Autumn 2014

Capacity Building• 1-2 years• Bridge

Knowledge gap

Transition• 6 years• Balance tips

by 2017

Embedding• 3 years +• Transformed

learning practice & culture of AFL

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Key Changes in JCSA

8-10 ‘examined’ subjects (0-4 short courses) 60% exam & 40% Schoolwork component Other learning experiences (including guidance) New subject specifications 24 statements of learning (focus on outcomes) 8 Key skills (including literacy & numeracy) Breadth Depth and more higher order thinking Greater choice at school level on provision Assessment for learning in a balanced pedagogy

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The deeper meaning of JCSA reform

Wider pupil outcomes and key ‘skills’ determine curriculum design and delivery

Assessment for and as learning embed key skills in teaching and learning

Reframe how summative assessment relates to learning and teaching

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A Framework for Junior Cycle: ‘Other educational experiences…’

In particular, schools will continue to make provision for guidance for students. This will relate to the provision of a range of learning experiences in a developmental sequence that will assist students to acquire self-management skills so as to make effective choices and decisions about their lives. Provision for guidance will also continue to encompass the three separate but interrelated areas of personal and social development, educational guidance and career guidance. Framework principles such as Continuity and Learning to Learn, key skills such as Managing myself and a number of the statements of learning, especially those linked to making decisions, will be useful in informing guidance provision. In accordance with current policy, schools will continue to have flexibility in deciding how they will make provision for guidance (P16)

Situating guidance within the JCSA…where???

o Other learning experiences explicitly focused on guidance or guidance related themes?

o Short course(s)?o Supporting subject choice within new

programme?o Curriculum focus on ‘well being’ (SPHE, RE…)?o School wide commitment to guidance related

goals across the curriculum?o Key skills and selected learning outcomes?o Guidance and diagnostic testing?o Continuity with primary / senior cycle?

Selected Statements of Learning closely linked to ‘Guidance’

(5) Has an awareness of personal values and an understanding of the process of moral decision making

(6) Appreciates and respects how diverse values, beliefs and traditions have contributed to the communities and culture in which she/he lives

(7) Values what it means to be an active citizen, with rights and responsibilities in local and wider contexts

(11) Takes action to safeguard and promote her/his wellbeing and that of others

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Core cross cutting aims in JCSA:Self-efficacy / Well being:

- sense of being safe

- awareness of own competence

- confidence

- resilience

- social skill

- communicative confidence

- affirmation of own identity

- disposition to learn

- capacity to seek help when needed

Key Skills and Assessment for Learning: Making Learning Explicit…

Key Skills:

Learner outcomes Managing myself Staying well Communicating Being creative Working with others Managing information

and thinking Literacy Numeracy

Assessment for Learning:

Classroom interaction Learning aims Success criteria Formative feedback Questioning for

dialogue and higher order thinking

Self evaluation Peer evaluation Cooperative learning

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Making it Happen:Model of Classroom Learning…

Junior Cycle Student Award

Junior Certificate

Active (Inquiry driven and deeply thoughtful)

Passive (Teacher driven and overly receptive of pre-packaged content)

Related to prior knowledge, wider curriculum and life experience

Discrete units of learning and impersonal ‘school based’ understanding alone

Social / dialogic - cooperative learning and expanded, increasingly higher order literacies

Solitary, teacher voice predominant and competitive environment quells pupil voice

Self regulative (Learning How To Learn – emergent transferable research skills)

Dependent / compliant with methods of organisation dictated to pupil only

Participative Acquisitive

Learning v Performance Orientation Self-Efficacy

Learning Orientation Performance Orientation

A dimension of learning which we all have as learners

Believe that effort causes success Believe that ability causes success

Believe in ability to improve and learn; ability is not fixed

Concerned to be seen as able and to perform well in others eyes

Prefer challenging tasks whose outcome reflects our approach

Seek satisfaction from doing better than others

Get satisfaction from personally-defined success at difficult tasks

We emphasis competition, public evaluation

Talk to ourselves; when engaged in a task we talk ourselves through

When a task is difficult we display helplessness; ‘I can’t do it’

A concern for improving one’s competence

A concern for proving one’s competence

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SummaryKey Skills and Learning Outcomes

Formation of a resilient and resourceful learning disposition

Understanding thinking and learning as cognitive and affective activities

Seeks to connect school based learning to wider personal and social experience

Is concerned with ethical and civic values Sees such learning as embedded across

subject domains

Guidance and Key Skills…

Will key skills be taken seriously?

What can Guidance Counsellors do to help colleagues do so?

Can key skills mediate ‘guidance values’ in junior cycle (Where? How? Who?)

Structures and Roles

How will guidance be influential within Junior Cycle?

Five implications for Guidance across curriculum

Use of key skills as intentional learning aims to promote self-efficacy (including LHTL)

‘Well being’ focus across the curriculum (including SPHE, CSPE or equivalent, RE and PE)…(’intentionality’ – 240 hrs)

Role of Learning Outcomes in assessment criteria (5,6, 7 & 11)

Function of Guidance planning / care team as influence upon curriculum planning, delivery and evaluation

Advocacy and ‘voice’ of Guidance Counsellor

Subject Teachers

ISM / YH / Pastoral

roles

Guidance Team

Guidance Counsellor

Guidance themed module as a Short Course?

NCCA guidelines and template for short course design on website (http://www.juniorcycle.ie/Planning/Short-Course-Development.aspx

Structured around key skills and learning outcomes

NCCA will develop 8 short courses:Chinese language and culture

Programming and Coding

CSPE (from 2015) PE

SPHE Digital media Literacy

Artistic Performance Personal project for caring for animals

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Guidance Counsellor in Organisational Structure & Culture

of School?

Definition of what guidance means for you in junior cycle

Re-orientation of Guidance planning Formulating and putting guidance aims on

the agenda for planning and discussion Relationship and perceived role / status of

Guidance Counsellor to wider staff and school management

‘Solo player’ model of GC

The Challenge

Guidance values are potentially embedded across the curriculum though the key skills

Can we establish a closer connection between pastoral care (e.g. anti-bullying, inclusion, guidance per se…), pastoral specific subjects (SPHE, RE…) and the wider curriculum?

What forum would enable and lead the conversation that is needed to make ‘guidance’ developmental aims intentional, conspicuous and valued?

Dr Mark FennellEducational Consultant & Facilitator

Mobile: 087-967-8832

Email: markfennell@eircom.net

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