Welcome to our views on teaching and learning. A defining difference between Maungaraki School and other schools is our commitment to the Ecology of Learning. In our classes we believe that there is value in providing children with the skills to 'unpack knowledge' and that there must be a reason for teaching what we teach. As a school we focus heavily on Literacy and Numeracy and are proud of our achievements. Because of our strength in these areas we are able to explore in greater depth the elements that define us as learners.

Key to all our teaching is our understanding of Constructivism. Use this link to find out more about this topic.

Click on the link below to find out more about the elements of our approach to the Ecology of Learning.

Use this link to read more about the 2nd Paradign of Teaching. This is a website by Mark Treadwell that links provides information that assist in the understanding of why we have our Ecology of Learning.

Linked closely with this is our views of Teaching Through ICT's (Information Communication Technologies). Visit this area of our Website for more information.

Keys to Teaching and Learning

Identify Student Needs
In order to create effective teaching and learning it is crucial to identify individual student needs.
These needs then become integrated into the foundation that opens up a pathway for exciting teaching and learning.

Essential Learning Areas, Skills, Attitudes and Values
We need to equip our students with the skills to be successful life long learners. Our teaching focuses on essential learning areas, skills, attitudes and values within the New Zealand curriculum framework. For us knowledge of content is not as important as the desire to learn, the ability to compare, contrast, synthesize and evaluate and to foster a love for learning and the willingness to set goals and work hard to attain them.

Assessment
We believe assessment and evaluation should be planned in, not bolted on. Assessment should evaluate the effectiveness of teachers teaching and students learning. We use a wide variety of assessment tools and approaches.
 
Information & Communication Technology Tools
Technology alone does not necessarily improve teaching and learning. Effective learning begins with a strong philosophy, an appropriate method of teaching and learning based on the needs of the students and the curriculum framework. ICT can enhance learning in a number of ways. We ensure that we use the information and communication technologies that make a difference. A wide variety of resources are used. View other areas of our website to see some examples. Within our school we have an internal network that is increasingly having examples of high end, inspirational work. Applications that we value include: iMovie, Inspiration, KidPix, Hyperstudio and QTVR (Quicktime Virtual Reality).

Philosophy For Childrenn - The New Zealand Website Lesson plan ideas for teachers

Philosophy taps children’s natural curiosity and sense of wonder. It engages them in the search for meaning and enriches and extends their understanding. It strengthens thinking and reasoning skills and builds self-esteem. It helps to develop the qualities that make for good judgment in everyday life.

WHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT PHILOSOPHY FOR CHILDREN?
Philosophy for Children is often described as a thinking skills programme or a course in critical and creative thinking. While it is true that philosophy for children does improve students’ critical and creative thinking skills, calling it a “thinking skills” programme does not do it justice. It does much more as well.

Philosophy for children builds on the students’ own wonder and curiosity about ideas that are vitally important to them. The subject matter of Philosophy for Children is those common, central and contestable concepts that underpin both our experience of human life and all academic disciplines. Examples of such concepts are:
Truth, reality, knowledge, evidence, freedom, justice, goodness, rights, mind, identity, love, friendship, rules, responsibility, action, logic, language, fairness, reason, existence, possibility, beauty, meaning, self, time, God, infinity, human nature, thought.

The central pedagogical tool and guiding ideal of Philosophy for Children is the community of inquiry. In the community of inquiry, students work together to generate and then answer their own questions about the philosophical issues contained in purpose written materials or a wide range of other resources. Thinking in the community of inquiry is critical, creative, collaborative and caring.

In the community of inquiry students learn to respect, listen to and understand a diverse range of views. The process of philosophical exploration in this environment encourages students to take increased responsibility for their own learning processes and to develop as independent and self-correcting learners. Students develop the confidence and intellectual courage to put forward their own views in a group. Participation in the community of inquiry develops higher order thinking skills in the context of meaningful discussion.

Outcomes of Participation in the Philosophical Community of Inquiry:
higher order thinking skills
independent thinking
excitement and motivation
increased reading comprehension
maths and science achievement
increased co-operative skills
better relationships with peers and parents
personal development and self esteem
transfer of skills to other areas of study

Skills learnt in the community of inquiry are transferable. Philosophy for children enables students to make bridges between the various things they learn, thus making the curriculum more meaningful to them. Both the co-operative skills and the thinking skills developed in Philosophy for Children contribute to improved social interactions and greater social responsibility.

THE SKILLS DEVELOPED BY PHILOSOPHY FOR CHILDREN
Philosophy for children improves critical, creative and rigorous thinking. Participants develop their higher order thinking skills and the attitudes and dispositions necessary for good thinking. They improve their communication skills and their abilities to work with others. Specifically these include:
Cognitive Skills
Evaluating reasons and arguments
Exploring and analysing concepts
Drawing inferences
Identifying underlying suppositions and assumptions
Making distinctions
Seeing connections
Identifying fallacies
Testing generalisations
Formulating questions
Clarifying ideas
Constructing arguments
Refining and modifying arguments in response to criticism
Recognising implications: theoretical and practical
Finding examples and counter examples
Finding analogies and disanalogies
Seeing broader perspectives
Formulating and testing criteria
Being consistent
Sticking to the point
Self correction

Co-operative Skills
Listening to others
Open mindedness
Treating others views with respect
Building on others ideas
Confident self expression
Being willing to offer criticism
Being willing to accept and respond to criticism
Becoming committed to inquiry
Valuing reasonableness
Developing intellectual courage

“The students become accustomed to asking each other for reasons and opinions, to listening carefully to each other, to building on each others ideas” Dr. Matthew Lipman

Philosophy For Children description comes form NZ Philosophy For Children Material.

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Habits of Mind
"A habit of mind is knowing how to behave intelligently even when you do not know the answer" Costa and Callick 2000
Visit this site for more information on Habits of Mind

Visit this website for all the information on Habits of Mind

Teachers: Visit this site for lots of ideas on how to incorporate this programme into your classroom/school.

Each week at school we introduce one Habit of Mind. This is firstly discussed with all teachers as party of our weekly professional development, then shared at assembly and discussed in class. At the end of each week each student completes a brief reflective sheet outlining how they have demonstrated this habit, and their feelings.

The 16 Habits of Mind are:

6 Thinking Hats at a Glance

The six hats represent six ways of thinking about an idea, or six kinds of question that can be asked about it:

	Feelings	What are my feelings about this?
	Strengths	What are the good points?
	Weaknesses	What is wrong with this?
	New Ideas	What is possible?
	Information	What are the facts?
	Thinking about thinking	What thinking is needed?

Bloom's Taxonomy
The Taxonomy of Educational Objectives was created by Benjamin Bloom in the 1950's as a means of expressing qualitatively different kinds of thinking. Bloom's Taxonomy has since been adapted for classroom use as a planning tool and continues to be one of the most universally applied models across all levels of schooling and in all areas of study. The taxonomy listed below is from the revised model developed in the late 1990's and underpins the way we create our units. Verb examples that represent intellectual activity on each level are listed here. Visit this link to find out more about the Revised Taxonomy.

In our lessons and units we endeavour to develop the student's skills in the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. We also provide opportunities to link this to Gardner's Multiple Intelligences. Reaching the Creating stage is highly rewarding for students and teachers alike.

Mind Mapping

Most people think in pictures and then need to transfer these to words. Mind mapping is a powerful tool to assits students to gain understanding. We are increasingly finding this a very powerful tool for our students. Click on the image to the left to visit Tony Buzan's website.

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Brain Based Research
As learners it is beneficial to know more about how our brains work. This research links closely with Learning Styles and Multiple Intelligences. Visit Research on Brain-Based Teaching and Learning. or just type these words into Google, or another search engine, for more information.

Can you answer these questions?

1. What does the "reptilian brain" do?
2. Name 3 main parts of the human brain?
3. Draw a diagram of a neuron, axon and synapse and label these parts.
4. Name 2 famous "great brains".
5. Explain in a couple of sentences how pain killers actually work.
6. Name the part of the brain that controls smooth movement.
7. Name one disease which results from damage or disease of this area of the brain.
7. Describe 4 physical responses of the body to the emotion FEAR.
8. The Left and the Right sides of the brain perform different functions. List at least two functions for each.
9. Is the long-term memory function in the front or the back of your brain?

Learning Styles

Everybody has a preferred learning style. Knowing and understanding our learning style helps us to learn more effectively. What are Learning Styles.?  Want to know what is your dominant Learning Style? Complete this survey online survey. Take the MI Test.

Table taken from Hawker Brownlow- Thinking to Learn, 2000
Complete this online survey. to determine your dominant intelligence/learning styles

Multiple Intelligence's

Information Literacy
This is another important skill for teachers and students. We believe students do not just learn these skills through osmosis. As teachers we need to develop the skills necessary for our students to be successful in today's information rich world.

Information Literacy as defined by Digital Horizons (New Zealand Ministry of Education, 2003) states that “Information Literacy is the ability to locate, evaluate, manipulate, manage and communicate information from different sources” .   With this as our basis, it is clear that we needed to teach these skills to our students at a young age so that they can continue to refine and develop them through their education. 

As Bereiter states "what the knowledge society requires is: (1) Just-in-time delivery of knowledge that is up-to-date and appropriate to the task in hand.  (2) Skills in knowledge search and retrieval. (3) Thinking skills and creativity. (4) Life long readiness to learn and unlearn". We need to teach Informatin Literacy Skills. To do this we have aschool wide modle that is the basis of our enquiry learning units. We have included some additional information on some of the main Information Literacy models.

The Big 6 The Big 6 Skills provide a systematic approach to information problem-solving that relies upon critical thinking skills. The Big Six Skills can be used by librarians, teachers and information specialists to help learners attain information literacy.

Jamie McKenzie and The Tesearch Cycle 7 steps in an information nliteracy model

Inquiry Learning

Inquiry is an investigation into an idea, question, problem or issue. It involves gathering information, building knowledge and developing deep understanding.

Maungaraki School's Inquiry Learning Model

As teachers, we use many different strategies to help students learn.

One of the most common strategies is teacher exposition. This is a teacher-centred approach because knowledge is presented to students in a more or less final form. Often these lessons (or parts of lessons) are supported by chalkboard summaries, diagrams and posters and the textbook. In expository lessons, the task of students is to understand and remember the information.

Inquiry learning is a more student-centred approach. Inquiry learning involves students in the active and careful analysis of a situation or problem - in the light of the different sorts of information available to them. In enquiry learning, students use their own thinking skills to make their own generalisations or conclusions - and thus are actively involved in generating 'knowledge' in forms that are meaningful to them.

There are many different approaches to inquiry learning, depending upon the subject area or topic, the background skills of students and the learning objectives of the teacher. This generally means that no teaching is wholly teacher-centred or wholly student-centred. Rather, most classroom learning usually involves a mix of different learning experiences along a continuum between teacher- and student-centred approaches.

Some places to go for further information
Project Based Learning (PBL) This is a US site, but other than using a different name has a very similar focus to our Inquiry model.