Winter 2007

Careers and transition

Just in time learning

Ron Hoenig reports that state of the art pedagogy and career education in advanced manufacturing have come together with spectacular success in a northern Adelaide high school.

Doing maths and physics from a book in class is one thing, but learning and using maths, physics, technology and presentation skills to design and promote, say, a doorbell for a deaf person, that’s something else.

That’s what teachers and students at seven northern Adelaide high schools have learned, with some unusual supporters: the chief executive officers of 17 of the advanced manufacturing industries in Adelaide’s industrial north—companies such as Holden, Dana Australia, Tenix and BAE Systems Australia.

Recognising the shortage of workers with employability skills, applied learning and a strong grounding in maths, physics, electronics, technology and communications, the companies have developed a partnership with local schools to stimulate interest in advanced manufacturing among local secondary students.

Concept to Creation (C2C)

The partnership, called Northern Advanced Manufacturing Industries Group (NAMIG), developed ‘Concept to Creation’ (C2C), a program which encourages students to name a real-world problem and then develop, design and promote a prototype to solve it.

Students have designed and built: a prototype for a doorbell that triggers flashing lights for people with hearing problems, a solar boat, a go-kart and crafted a range of high quality jewellery. One group organised and catered the annual Expo for some 300 students, staff and industry visitors.

The C2C concept fits the most advanced educational thinking around student engagement and deep learning.

Principal Liz Mead of participant school Valley View Secondary School says using the learning from theorist Stephanie Pace Marshall, the school is engaging staff and students in a structure that transforms teaching from ‘teachers telling’ to ‘students doing’.

One day a week for 20 weeks, small teams of about six students set up a business team and choose a project. Teams decide members’ roles and responsibilities and seek outside expertise when needed—from teachers, school support officers, tertiary students and volunteer engineers, physicists and other experts from the partner industries.

Students mind their own business

The teams record their weekly progress, manage their ‘business’ and record the process for an Expo at the end of the project.

In preparation, students and staff do web-based research of advanced manufacturing, tour plants, hear guest speakers and explore employment, career opportunities, training and education requirements, and product development in the sector—all with the blessing and support of the industry members.

‘I have never been part of something where there are 17 industries who are so involved,’ said Ms Mead. ‘Students have been able to work shadow, interview and survey, be mentored and tour facilities they did not even know existed.’

Throughout the process students ask regular questions about who would have the knowledge to help and the trade or profession which does these things in the workforce.

Groups have begun to recognise each other’s diverse skills and have ‘contracted’ other students with skills to work with them. For example, the group working on the go-kart realised that they did not have the design and presentation skills they needed so they ‘head hunted’ a student with design and public speaking skills who helped them to produce the prototypes working from their specifications and ideas.

At an Expo at the end of the 20-week project, students create a pamphlet and publicly present their learning journey and a prototype for the product.

Students are keen to talk about their learning to people at all levels—from their parents and other guests to the CEOs of huge companies. ‘They can talk authoritatively about the maths principles, the scientific and technological principles,’ said Ms Mead.

Because students chose their own topic and do their own planning, there is a strong sense of ownership and commitment.

Ms Mead said school attendance among year 10s on C2C days has been 15 per cent more than other days.

‘The C2C process recognises that significant learning taps into a student’s inherent drive to learn, capability to do work, and the need to be taken seriously,’ she said. ‘The outstanding projects that are showcased at the Expos demonstrate this level of student engagement and learning.’

Spreading the word

In 2006, Valley View received Career Education Lighthouse funding for the ‘Spreading the word’ program, in which year 11 students mentored 90 years 6–7 students at Para Vista Primary School to run a similar project in the primary school.

Ms Mead said: ‘We know that young people learn best by teaching others. They have had an experience themselves and they then can share it.’

One project aim was TAFE certification in ICT for both the primary and secondary students with 20 per cent of years 6–7 students achieving TAFE Certificate 1 in ICT and 75 per cent of year 11 mentors achieving competencies towards Certificate 2.

Valley View Maths and Science Coordinator Bob Haskard said the year 11s took a short while to fit into their new mentoring role but once the groups started ‘they stepped forward in various ways, especially communication’.

The primary students, like their student mentors, found the new learning style in which they took full control ‘a bit overwhelming at first’. But once the plans started to bear fruit their enthusiasm flowered.

As mentors, the school chose two particular cohorts of students—the ‘academic’ ones and the most disengaged.

‘The hands-on tasks appeal to kinesthetic and visual learners. Students with strengths in those areas are being valued,’ Mr Haskard said.

Gender issues

‘Students’ confidence and self-esteem has grown as their peers appreciate their strengths,’ he said. ‘The reports indicate student achievement at a far higher level than normally expected. This is equally true for the disengaged, at-risk boys.’

Girls have challenged gender issues about certain jobs. ‘Some girls were initially reluctant to pull a generator apart for fear of breaking it or not being able to reassemble it. Now they are doing this confidently and modifying the design,’ Mr Haskard said.

‘The collaboration and cooperation are of a high order, beyond what we normally see,’ Mr Haskard said. ‘This is in an area identified by employers as essential skills in the workforce.’

Students have expressed interest in careers they now know more about. Many Valley View students involved in the project last year are now pursuing physics and chemistry directly as a result of C2C.

This year the school established an electro-technology course, engaging some of the formerly most disengaged students, who are now on target to complete their SACE, South Australia’s year 12 certificates.

Conclusion

C2C is now an integral part of the curriculum for all year 10 Valley View students. Students achieve curriculum outcomes for technology, science and maths and Stage One SACE Integrated Studies unit.

Bob Haskard said: ‘Students see the connections in this kind of learning. They have a need to know.’

Retired engineer and NAMIG volunteer David Wilkinson says C2C is ‘opening the students’ eyes to the whole notion of the possibilities for young people in the industry’.

‘C2C broke down the technical barriers by enabling students to undertake a project they loved to build, which brought electronics, physics and design skills into prominence. Students are exposed to careers in industry, and employers and industries are able to identify students who may be suitable candidates for employment.’

He calls it ‘just in time’ learning.

‘They can learn a certain amount of maths, science and electronics in a class during the term, but when they design their own project and want to learn how to design the program and write the software for their project, the complex learning—whether its maths or physics—suddenly becomes clear and useful.’

Liz Mead says C2C brings together learning for a career and learning for life. ‘The outcomes of the students’ learning process are neither predetermined nor fully predictable,’ she said. ‘However, through this real world inquiry and the subsequent applications, students have developed the skills and intellectual capacities needed for success in the workplace, in civic life and in personal affairs. What more could we hope for our young people?’

Ron Hoenig is the public relations officer, Curriculum Services in the South Australia Department of Education and Children’s Services.

The author owns the copyright in this article. For information related to the reuse of this work in any form please contact the publisher denise.quinn@curriculum.edu.au