CPb: Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy [4]

July 2, 2023

Place Based Learning
Funds of Knowledge and Funds of Identity
Tataiako and Tapasa

2. The Arts: Drama

2.2. Drama Warm-ups

Warming up is a widely accepted and used pedagogy across many learning areas. In mathematics it is a cognitive forerunner of coming attractions, in Hauora/PE it is enactive and cognitive, warming the body through movement and orientating thinking. In drama, the warm-up instantly establishes the world of imagination and experience in the moment in which drama occurs.

2.3. Techniques of Drama

Voice: pitch, pace, pause, projection, volume, tone, emphasis, articulation, silence, expression

Body: facial expression, posture, gesture, body awareness, stance, gait, mannerism

Movement: timing, direction, energy

Space: (inseparable from movement and the body)

Paper Cups

Aim: to use voice and body powerfully to communicate emotion

Groups of 4, a table, 3 seated at the table with down-turned cup, 1 standing in front of a table
Person standing in front says “There’s not enough Ice cream”
First turn Happy, second turn Sad, third turn Angry. One performance per person then swap
For each performance audience of 3 turn the cup over if they really get it

Trying out drama:

I’m not sure that I would use paper cups within a classroom until productive working relationships and trust were established. Students would need to know exactly what this activity is for or they may lose the plot. Some of your students will be outrageously self-expressed and others may be deeply withdrawn.

I introduce it here for an adult class as a way of developing the use of body and voice, an avenue to more powerful expression, and shifting boundaries and limitations. In other words, to loosen you up.

2.5. Integrating Drama: A question of Identity

Conventions of Drama

Chorus of movement
Chorus of voices
Flash forward/back
Defining space
Freezeframe
Hot seat
Mimed action
Ritual Mantle of Expert
Overheard Conversations
Role on the wall
Slow motion
Teacher in role
Soundtrack/soundscape
Speaking thoughts aloud (in role) Thought Tapping
Voices in the head (not in role)
Corridor of thought
Whole group role play
Telephone Conversations

Corridor of Thought (or Conscience Alley)

In setting this up in your class have volunteers to play Mata and Matatuhi, the kuia, and at least one bystander who will ‘hot seat’ Mata.

Poupou in a corridor (two parallel rows) practice their frozen pose and their moment of action.
Mata walks slowly along the corridor. As Mata passes by each sculpture comes to life briefly and speaks to her.
When Mata reaches Matatuhi at the end of the corridor, Matatuhi will speak this line from the text: “Whakrongo mai e ko…I speak to you from the past, my mokopuna, your name is the same as mine, Matatuhi!”
Present with Taonga Puoro playing to build atmosphere. Explore stillness and silence to enhance the mood. Stay in role.

Hot Seating

Ākonga interview someone in role, for example, a character from a story or a person from history. This convention is used to deepen understanding of role and builds understanding and belief in this role. Children can be hot-seated in role in small groups or in front of the whole group. Teacher-in-role may also be hot-seated to find out information about their characters or events that will assist the drama work to develop.
Bystander: Hot seat Matatuhi to find out what is going on.

References

Cody,T-L (nd) Arts, Hauora & Learning Languages: Drama Course Notes Massey College of Education: See Topic 2Dinham,J. (2016) Delivering Authentic Arts Education. Cengage, South Melbourne. (available online from Massey Library)Drama in the Classroom Learning Media 2001 Booklet and Video (search online)Fitzgerald, D. Drama: the first lesson in 2D Drama and Dance, Winter 1990http://dramagames.info/Playing Our Stories Learning Media 2007 Booklet and DVD (search online)www.childdrama.com/lessons.html

3. Social Sciences

3.1. The focus of history learning

Teaching students factual information (dates, names of people and events) is not the goal. Rather, much like what you have being seeing for Social Studies, the focus of history learning today is developing conceptual understandings and also developing inquiry skills. In historian jargon, we call this current approach ‘historical thinking’

‘historical thinking’ is the emphasis on developing students’ historical literacy (how historians ‘do history’) rather than just traditional factual memorisation of content (the ‘stuff of history’)

Promoting ‘historical thinking’ has become a popular pedagogical approach across the Anglophone world (think USA, UK, Australia and South Africa). New Zealand is no exception. Teaching disciplinary processes and concepts (how historians ‘do history’) beyond factual information has been probably more self-evident to senior history teachers, who have become used to designing their history programs lessons in fine tune with the expectations of NCEA.

While there are many ‘historical thinking’ pedagogical frameworks, this session will familiarise you with one of them: the Canadian Historical Thinking Project (HTP).

3.2. Historical Thinking Project

As mentioned, the effective pedagogy of ‘historical thinking’ is inter-related with other topics you have covered so far in Social Studies (particularly, the discussions about concept-based approach to teaching social sciences and also social inquiry).

Historical thinking has been popular among history educators since the 1990s and is associated with prominent writers such as Peter Seixas and Sam Wineburg. But only in recent years has it entered the consciousness of historians and teachers of history here in New Zealand.

How do Seixas and Morton define “historical thinking”?

Historical thinking is defined as the creative/critical way in which historians work and think as they interpret evidence of the past and construct from this evidence narratives about the past. Historians have developed certain principles of historical thinking as they have responded to the fundamental problems of history, such as how do we know what we know about the past?

…Historical Thinking Project Website (https://historicalthinking.ca/) and explore its vast and free resources for teachers.

The six big historical thinking concepts

Morton and Seixas have identified ‘big six’ historical thinking concepts which they say will help students think about how historians transform the evidence from the past into histories and to help students begin constructing history themselves. These concepts do not function independently, but rather they work together as various aspects of the thinking process.

The concepts are:

· Historical significance

· Evidence

· Continuity and change

· Cause and consequence

· Historical perspectives

· The ethical dimension

What-is-historical-thinking_-Seixas-and-Morton Download

Morton and Seixas argue that each of these historical thinking concepts reveal the problems, tensions and complexities inherent in constructing histories and that in tackling these problems students can progress towards competency in historical thinking. Each concept is a strategy that historians use to respond to a key problem in constructing history.

The Historical Thinking Concepts (HTC) graphic organiser below, from the Historical Thinking Project website founded by Professor Peter Seixas, is also useful in helping students to understand these concepts and gives ideas of how the concepts can be taught/developed.

3.3. ‘historical thinking’ in the new NZ history curriculum

Historical inquiry encourages learners to develop discipline-specific thinking concepts and skills . These history-specific ways of thinking and “doing history” like historians are often known as ‘historical thinking’ or ‘historical literacy’.

When teaching history (NZ or global) , teachers should model, scaffold and guide students in developing their own historical thinking concepts (significance, perspective, cause and consequence, and change and continuity) and skills (analysing primary and secondary sources, sequencing, annotation, close reading, essay writing, writing history for digital media, etc). Arguably, there is no better way of doing this than through the use of historical inquiry.

The three ‘Do’ historical inquiries are:

1- Identifying and using sequence

2- Identifying and critiquing sources and perspectives

3- Interpreting past decisions and actions

3.4. Tiriti-led historical thinking

This planner is deliberately intended to help Massey’s kaiako pitomata like you (the majority of whom have no history-specific training), to plan your first history learning experiences in purposeful alignment with the new curriculum. The admittedly ambitious goals are to provide you a planner that:

honours the mana ōrite mo te mātauranga Māori and bicultural principles inspiring current educational changes;
is aligned with the Aotearoa NZ’s histories curriculum’s new strands (do, understand, know);
encourages teachers to explore and use history-friendly pedagogies (historical thinking, Te Takanga te Wā, BES findings, concept-based teaching, and others.);
is appropriate for teachers of Years 1 to 10;
and flexible enough for teachers to plan either 5min starter activities, lesson plans or multiple-week unit plans.

The making of this planner has been collective and iterative journey. I held several group and peer-to-peer hui to get feedback on how to improve it. Thanks to valuable input from many Massey’s Māori scholars (all of whom have previously taught at primary and secondary schools), we were able to find an elegant ‘triple M’ (Mārama/Mātau/Mahi) translation to the current English-only three elements (Understand/Know/Do) of the curriculum

…‘historical thinking’, that is, a focus less on content (the ‘stuff’ of history: names, dates, events etc.) in favour of helping students how to ‘do history’ by developing their historical skills and concepts.

4. Computational Thinking for Digital Technology

4.1. What is Computational Thinking?

Defining Computational Thinking

Wing’s definition, that this is “CT is about humans’ mental problem-solving and is regarded as a cluster of problem-solving skills that connect to principles of computer science ” (Curzon et al, 2009). This definition has been chosen as the New Zealand curriculum advocates for applying CT in computerised and non computerised contexts.

Components of Computational Thinking?

Unfortunately, there is also no consensus in literature on what components (or list of CT skills) that are use when carrying out computational thinking. Hence, there are varying lists of CT skills/components available in literature (Cansu and Cansu, 2019). There are however common themes between these that we can use to guide our teaching. The video below describes the following CT skills as:

Decomposition,
Pattern Recognition,
Abstraction, and
Algorithmic Thinking

Optional Reading

Cansu, F. K., & Cansu, S. K. (2019). An Overview of Computational Thinking International Journal of Computer Science Education in Schools, 3(1), 17-30.

4.3. The Pedagogy behind Teaching Computational Thinking

it thought that unplugged activities that build on relatable ideas and contexts such as stories, magic tricks, or dances are more likely to develop interest and transferable skills in computational thinking later in schooling (Grover, 2021).

Decomposition: Breaking down Maui’s journey into small tasks or chunks by getting to each flax bush and then the sun.
Algorithmic Thinking: Creating a set of instructions, testing this algorithm, and debugging (or fixing) any errors in this algorithm
Abstraction: developing abstract symbols for your instructions
Pattern Recognition: Considering the efficiency of the sequence of this algorithm and looking for patterns that might be repeated.

Next, have a go at this computerised task on Google Coding. Give the bunny instructions using block coding to collect the carrots.

Optional Reading

10.4324_9781003102991-2_chapterpdf Download

4.4. Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy in Technology Education Learning from Hangarau Matihiko

Hangarau Matihiko is the Digital Technology Curriculum designed for Māori Medium education. This document is not a translation of the English Technology Curriculum as many might think it to be. Instead, its foundations are centred around te ao Māori, and so it incorporates Māori contexts, language, and perspectives, and it was created through guidance and knowledge from tūpuna (Lemon et al, 2020). The Hangarau Matihiko curriculum content strives to connect traditional Māori practices and knowledge with the skills and capabilities that students need to confidently live in the digital world (MoE, 2022). While you might not end up teaching in a Māori medium education setting we can learn a lot about how to better cater for ākonga Māori in our classrooms from this document.

Digital Technology Learning Areas for Mainstream Education:

Computational Thinking for Digital Technologies: Students will develop an understanding of computer science principles that underlie all digital technologies. They will learn core programming concepts so that they can become creators of digital technology, not just users.
Designing and Developing Digital Outcomes: Learning how to design quality, fit-for-purpose digital solutions.

In the Hangarau Wāhanga Ako of Te Marautanga o Aotearoa:

Te Whakaaro Rorohiko (Computational thinking): Includes using te reo Māori to express problems, formulate solutions and solve them using algorithms, programme and data representation.
Tangata me te Rorohiko (People and computers): Includes designing and developing digital outcomes while considering their role and responsibility as digital citizens.

(TKI, 2017)

5. Planning and Teaching Investigations in Science

Science investigations could feature at multiple stages of an inquiry based model like the 5Es model but are most likely to be situated in the Engage, Explore or Elaborate phase (Primary Connections, 2023).

Through teaching investigations that are situated in the world around us and value the cultural capital of the diverse groups represented in society, we can rewrite the narrative and challenging biases about who can be a scientist and what Science careers might look like (Science Learning Hub, 2023).

5.1. Mātainuku | Creating a foundation

Mātauranga Māori and Science

Mātauranga Māori is a contemporary term referring to Māori knowledge, Māori ways of knowing, and associated practices. The term takes many forms, many that are relevant to science teaching and learning such as traditional environmental knowledge (taonga tuku iho, mātauranga o te taiao), traditional knowledge of cultural practice such as healing and medicines (rongoā), and sustainable fishing practices (hī ika) and cultivation (mahinga kai).

Te Mātaiaho

Placing Mātauranga Māori is at the heart of our planning and teaching is one of the seven key components encompassed in Te Mātaiaho | The Refreshed NZ Curriculum. This is captured by the whakataukī relating to Mātainuku: “Mātai ki te whenua, ka tiritiria, ka poupoua. | Ground and nurture the learnings.” This is elaborated on further later in the doc (p. 12) as educators creating a foundation through emphasising that “other knowledge streams are important for both informing and understanding our individual and collective worlds. They help us to know who we are as a nation and to appreciate our regional identity within the Pacific, and they guide how we in Aotearoa can give effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and its principles” (Te Mātaiaho, 2023 p.12).

The table below compares some big ideas in science according to the Western Scientific Worldview and the Māori Worldview:

Comparison of Māori and scientific world views according to five operationally defined categories (Melanie Cheung, 2008). MAI Review

Category	Western Scientific worldview	Māori worldview
Origins of the universe	The Big BangThe universe is still evolving in time and space	3 processes bought the world into existenceTe Āo Korekore, Te Āo Pō, Te Āo Marama
Origin of species	Different species evolved through genetic mutations and survival of the fittest	The children of Ngā Atua
Views on spirituality	Does not take into account the spiritual, mainly because it is not measurable	Spiritual and Physical worlds are not separate, but continuous
Views which are upheld	Objectivity, Scepticism, Rationale, truth	Whanaunagtanga, Kaitiakitanga, Manaakitanga, Wairuatanga, Kotahitanga, Aroha, Tika, Pōno
Behaviours	The scientific method: Systematic measurable investigation of phenomena	Rules of tapuTikanga Māori

5.3. Introducing Scientific Investigations

The term investigations is often used in Science as a catch all term to cover a wide range of practical science related activities. This term can more accurately defined as “an activity in which ideas, predictions or hypothesis are tested and conclusions are drawn in response to a problem or a question” (Skamp and Preston, 2021 p. 147). Scientists might decide to carry out an investigations for many different reasons: they may want to explore or understand a new concept, collect information or evidence or prove a hypothesis or disprove previous finding.

Types of Scientific Investigations that could be used in the classroom

Exploratory Investigations:

Observations (qualitative or quantitative. This might take the form of making notes, drawing diagrams or taking photos. Consideration needs to be given to organisation and regularity rather than just one off observations e.g. Jane Goodall observing chimpanzees in their natural habitat to identify that they have emotions, personalities and use tools)
Classifying and identifying (organising and making sense of the world around us through grouping things with similar characteristics and naming groups e.g.grouping materials by their properties, or invertebrates by their body structure/features).

Student Planned Investigations:

Fair Tests (students follow a process to ask questions, decide on what can be tested, collected, analysed and how to evaluate data – we will look at this in more detail shortly).
Pattern seeking (observing, measuring, collecting and interpreting data in situations where variables cannot be controlled. e.g. observing various areas of the school such as grass, hedge, tree, wild flower area to find which has the most snails then applying this to draw conclusions identify the needs of snails in these areas such as food or light etc)
Modelling (creating representations and small scale models to test ideas or show various concepts. e.g. creating a model of the solar system on Minecraft)
Secondary Data Investigations (research investigations about aspects students are not able to interact with in a hands on way. e.g. finding information from multiple soureces including books, videos, interned to understand concepts and facts about planets)

(Science Learning Hub, 2023; Skamp and Preston, 2021).

5.4. Paper Helicopters: Fair Testing Investigation

Background information: The following learning experience is an examples of a fair test investigation that could be carried out in a classroom. This fair test is strongly guided by the teacher, but could be modified to be more student directed. This is based on lesson 7 from the Primary Connections Unit called: Push-Pull to be taught at the Elaborate part of the 5Es Model within this unit overview (unit overview shown below):

5.5. Data Analysis: Connections to Statistics

Planning for a Connected Curriculum Lesson

High quality planning across curriculum areas while teaching in a connected curriculum is important for ensuring explicit teaching that meets the needs of your learners. A specific learning focus for all learning areas represented in your lesson needs to be developed and carried through each part of your planning. This means that for each subject areas including AOs, LIs, SC, and a clear lesson sequence or part of a lesson sequence that aligns with these. While templates might vary depending on the the expectations and guidance of your future schools (e.g. each curriculum area might be combined onto one document, or teased out into two or more separate plans) these aspects need to be evident to ensure that learning occurs at the appropriate curriculum level for your learners.

For more information Read Chapter 20: Developing Concepts of Data Analysis in the course text Van de Walle et al. (2020) pages 543-567.

Alison