Part C:Student Action Teams: In Practice

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Part C Student Action Teams In Practice

• Local initiatives
• Choosing a topic
• Curriculum placement
• Common steps and elements

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Local implementation 1 2003-6

• Darebin northern Melbourne suburbs - Preston to
  Reservoir
• Working class, cultural diversity - concern about
  low aspirations
• Cluster of primary and secondary schools around
  SRC/JSC issues since about 1989 (10-15 schools)
• Traffic Safety (2003) Environment (2005-6)

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Local implementation 2 2005-6

• Manningham outer NE Melbourne suburbs -
  Bulleen-Doncaster-Templestowe-Donvale
• Relatively well-off area fairly mono-cultural
• Cluster of six Catholic primary schools with some
  recent history of working together around SRC
  support
• Values Education grant from Australian Government
  (2005-6)

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Value of a cluster

• Increases shared resources
• Provides external events that are exciting and
  special
• Enables students to summarise and present to
  other students
• Persuades community groups extends impact
• Forums can drive in-school work both in terms
  of ideas and in deadlines
• Professional development of staff

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Problems of a cluster

• Cluster priority - an extra layer of work
• Commitment needed to cluster self-management
• Extra funding required for student travel
• Need for trust and shared vision
• Competition, ownership, egos

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Choosing a topic

• Traffic Safety approach from TSE consultants to
  schools
• Environment initiative of schools
• Values cluster application to Australian
  Government program
• Possibilities for initiatives
• From community approach schools with issue
• From schools identify issue and set up team
• From students concern (eg SRC) or search
  process within broad program constraints

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One teachers view

• If theres a community issue to be tackled, our
  normal approach is now to set up a Student Action
  Team to deal with it.
• Secondary school teacher, Melbourne, 2001

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Location within school

• Increasingly within a class versus cross-school,
  ad hoc or SRC
• Identification of interested teacher/s and
  appropriate subjects
• Reasons
• Time provides students and teachers with
  timetabled space
• Recognition as curriculum - a way of meeting
  curriculum objectives
• Sustainability.

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Overall Structure

• Engagement Event (Forum 1)
• Research Phase what is the issue? what do we
  know about it?
• Research Reporting Event (Forum 2)
• Action Phasewhat will we change? what will we
  do?
• Action Reporting Event (Forum 3)

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SAT Flow Chart
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Role of community or external body

• Challenging commissioning real work
• Resourcing providing ideas, material, people
• Partnership working on common issues together
• Audience receiving student reports

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Step 1 Teacher Preparation

• Development of a shared commitment to the
  approach, definition of a broad topic,
  constraints, funding, management structures,
  partnerships
• What issue?
• What are the external expectations?
• What are our views of students roles?
• Who will be involved?

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Step 2 Engagement

• First investigation of the issue by students
• Students acknowledge that the topic is important
  to them and to others
• What is this issue all about?
• Is it important? Why? To whom?
• Do we want to do this? Why?

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One Students Response

• When I saw these figures, I was first of all
  surprised, then angry, then determined to do
  something about them!
• Primary school student, Preston, 2003

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Step 3 Research Questions

• Usually two areas for research
• What is the important issue in our community?
• What do we know about it and want to know about
  it?
• What do we know already about this?
• What do we need to find out?
• How will we do this?

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Step 4 Research Planning

• Setting up a structure for data collection and
  defining methods such as interviews, surveys,
  observations, measurements etc
• What sort of research?
• Who? How? How many? When?
• What instruments? What questions?

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Step 5 Conducting Research

• Carrying out the research reflecting on its
  progress
• How is it going?
• Are we keeping to the timeline?
• What gaps in our research?
• What changes are needed in our approach?

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Step 6 Analysing Research

• Looking at the research results and asking what
  they mean analysing by population groups,
  location etc
• What is it like now? (describe)
• What are we finding?
• What differences/diversity exists within our
  results?

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Step 7 Presenting Research Results

• Reporting on findings - often to an external
  audience, including commissioning body
• What did we do (summary)?
• What did we find out?
• Who do we need to tell?

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Step 8 Need for Action

• Reflection on research and a comparison of what
  is with what should be possibilities for
  dreaming or visioning
• What surprises us?
• What concerns us? (makes us angry, annoyed,
  worried?)
• Why?
• Do we all agree on this?

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Step 9 Setting Goals

• From the vision, specifying some outcomes or
  objectives
• What should it look like?
• What do we want to see happening?
• What needs to change to make it like that?
• What are the barriers to change?
• What is needed to overcome these? To bring about
  change?

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Step 10 Defining Action Needed

• With the objectives in mind, designing the forms
  of action that will be appropriate, achievable
  and effective
• What can we do to bring about these changes?
• What forms of action can we take?

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Forms of Action

• Education providing information, telling or
  training people
• Encouragement rewarding positive behaviour,
  praising, good examples
• Enforcement punishing negative behaviour
• Engineering building things, structural changes

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Ways in which students take action

• Taking action themselves things that student can
  do directly
• Asking others to act demands or requests
• Sharing in decisions about action collaboration
  and partnerships in decisions and implementation

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Step 11 Planning Action

• Details of the action developing an action plan
  with timelines and commitments
• What to do?
• When?
• Who will do it?
• How?
• What is needed?

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Step 12 Taking Action

• Carrying out the action plan, but also monitoring
  it and adapting it where necessary
• How is it going?
• What do we learn as we do this?

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Step 13 Assessing Action

• Comparing the situation before and after the
  action this might involve more data collection
• What has changed? Why?
• How do we know weve made any difference?

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Step 14 Presenting Outcomes

• Reporting on the action taken, including
  accountability to the body commissioning this
  work effective means of presentation
• Who do we need to tell?
• How?

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Step 15 Celebrating Reviewing

• Reflection on the journey and celebration of
  achievements evaluation also setting new tasks
• What have we achieved?
• Where to now? Why? How?
• What did we learn?
• How could we improve next time?

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Resources

• Connect magazine - several issues reporting on
  these Student Action Teams
• Student Action Teams Implementing Productive
  Practices in Primary and Secondary School
  Classrooms - forthcoming, 2006 - available from
  Connect (approx. 30)

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Changing teachers too

• I have always held as sacrosanct the need to put
  students at the centre of all I do that I must
  ensure I dont teach them just knowledge, but
  teach them the skills to understand the
  knowledge that good curriculum allows for this
  to happen while superficial curriculum allows
  students to regurgitate facts I know
  involvement in the Student Action Team project
  has made me a better teacher. It has made the
  students believe they have a valid and important
  voice.
• Leesa Duncan, St Clement of Rome School, Bundoora

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Changing teachers too

• Children who were not achieving started to
  really shine The children now really believe
  that they have a voice and can make a difference.
  I now believe that too.
• Geraldine Butler, St Charles Borromeo School,
  Templestowe