Models of Change
Change is always difficult but with the new BC curriculum, teachers also need to evolve their educational practices for the 21st century. Two ways to evaluate new innovations or changes are the Concerns-Based-Adoption-Model (CBAM) and Substitution Augmentation Modification Redefinition Model (SAMR). These are progression models for initiatives and technology. They move along a spectrum of no personal change and concern to constant collaborative change and innovation.
Change is always difficult but with the new BC curriculum, teachers also need to evolve their educational practices for the 21st century. Two ways to evaluate new innovations or changes are the Concerns-Based-Adoption-Model (CBAM) and Substitution Augmentation Modification Redefinition Model (SAMR). These are progression models for initiatives and technology. They move along a spectrum of no personal change and concern to constant collaborative change and innovation.
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| CBAM retrieved from http://www.sedl.org/cbam/ |
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| SAMR retrieved from https://sites.google.com/a/msad60.org/technology-is-learning/samr-model |
The CBAM has 3 diagnostic dimensions,
which include Innovation Configurations, Stages of Concern, and Levels of Use. The Innovation Configuration has 2
components. There are 7 Stages of Concern
and 8 Levels of Use.
The Science Program Innovation Configuration Map for CBAM (Retrieved from http://www.sedl.org/cbam/innovation_configurations.html)
| Component 1: The teacher groups students for learning. | |||
| (a) Assigns students to groups that vary over time based on instructional objectives and students’ ability. | (b) Assigns students to small permanent groups for lab assignments and other group work. | (c) Assigns students to groups during lab activities only. | (d) Provides whole group instruction exclusively. |
| Component 2: The teacher emphasizes science process and program content. | ||||
| (a) Emphasizes science process and program content equally. | (b) Emphasizes the science program content exclusively. | (c) Emphasizes the science process exclusively. | (d) Emphasizes science recall and memorization of facts from a variety of sources. | (e) Emphasizes recall of science facts from previous science textbook. |
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| Chart created by Ferdi Serim |
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| Chart created by Ferdi Serim |
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| Chart developed by Kathy Schrock. |
School Environment
Before I discuss the two teachers
to help evolve their practice, it would be good to have an insight of the elementary school's culture and environment.
For the last year and half, the school has been going through a change
in their teaching and learning philosophy with a new principal. The new principal seems to be on the pulse of
innovation since he has been writing a weekly blog with school information, links, and
initiatives. His blogs contain
words like “creative problem solvers”, “21st learners”, “intellectual
risk takers”, “collaboration”, “exemplary practices”, “responsible
citizenship,” and “innovative technological tools and resources.”
There are initiatives and
committees to evaluate and implement iPads and apps in learning. Parent surveys were sent out on iPad
availability and funding. There is
also an inquiry grant for implementing Fresh Grades, an “evaluation and student
portfolio creating” software. About
a third of the teachers are starting to experiment and evaluate with Fresh Grades in their classroom practices. Students and parents are also using and
evaluating Fresh Grades themselves.
In addition, the school also has some staff interested in an inquiry
project for software that will support the new BC curriculum. The Teacher Librarian also provides
initiatives for the school by providing support for the school wide inquiry
projects such as the Heritage Fairs and Science Fairs that
require good reference resources.
As a whole, the school on the
CBAM model is on Refinement for Levels of Use and Behaviours. For Expression of Concerns, the school
is on Consequences. The school is
going through change but a lot of the new initiatives are at the introductory
phrases and the teachers need time to learn, experiment and integrate new
initiatives. In terms of the SAMR
model, the school is on Augmentation.
Since the school is going through change and looking for new ways to
teach students, the teachers are generally more receptive to change.
Teacher 1
Ms. B is a grade 3 teacher. She has been at the school for 10 years
and has been teaching for 15 years.
She is an excellent and experienced teacher who cares about each individual
student. She collaborates with 2 other teachers for school assemblies such as during
Remembrance Day and Christmas concert.
She also runs a Global Citizen Club for students to raise awareness of
global issues. This year they
raised money for a sister African school and collected non-perished good for
Christmas hampers. There isn’t
much technology utilized in the classroom except emails to the parents. For research project, the students
research online at home or go to the library for reference resources. For CBAM, she is at the Management and
Routine. In terms of Innovation
Configurations, she is at the highest level for Component 1 and Component
2. For SAMR, she is at
Redefinition.
Teacher 2
Ms. H. is a grade 7 teacher and she is
also a very excellent and knowledgeable teacher. She has been at the school for 20 years. Ms. H. is a passionate, hardworking and devoted teacher that
provides plenty of enrichment for her students. Her class is currently using Fresh Grades as a way of evaluating
and communicating with her students and parents. Also, she has a Smart Board in her class that she uses Safari for
PowerPoint presentation of photos for art projects. Therefore, she is more keen to try new technology. The
students use the school set of iPads in her classroom for research or go to the
library for reference resources. She
also volunteers for every Grade 7 boys sports team as the manger and has been
to every afterschool game. She
also attends school activities that her students are involved in afterschool,
evenings, and weekends. Her classroom
opens at 8:00 am and after school till 4:30 pm for students to work collaboratively
on projects. During the pass month
she has been to the evening district Science Fair and Destination Imagination
contest on the weekend with her students.
In terms of CBAM, she is at Consequence and Refinement. Ms. H. is the same as Ms. B. for Innovation
Configurations. For SAMR, she is
at Modification.
Moving to a Higher Level of CBAM and SAMR
Before working individually with
each teacher, I would ask the principal for an hour presentation during a
school meeting or Pro-D Day to focus on how to present the different fairs (Science and
Heritage) in a more interactive way and provide reference resources that might
be helpful for their classes. All
the teachers in the school have their students present their fairs on cardboard
for other students to see. But after
the fairs, all that great information at the fairs are taken home and not seen
again. It would be great to keep
the learning going.
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| How to share these great Science Fair ideas after the fair? |
Thus, I wanted
to introduce the teachers to use electronic means for them to have their student’s
fairs shown and saved electronically perhaps by using their own private classroom Youtube channel with parent consent and without ads. They could also share videos on Fresh Grades. For the younger grades, I would film the students talking about their scientific discovery from hypothesis to conclusion that they have shown on their cardboards. If they have hands on experiments, demostrations, or interviews, those
could be filmed too. For the upper
grades, it would be great to create classroom blogs with images, links, and
embedded videos filmed through iMovie related to their Science and Heritage Fair topics that other
students can access and comment on.
I would show the staff on the Smart Board an example
of my son's Youtube channel on Heritage Fair. In the video, my son is carving his own soapstone bear with explanation as well as talking about the traditions, tools, and types of soapstones used by the Inuits.
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| My son's soapstone bear carved for Heritage Fair. |
I would also bring in new printed reference
materials, encyclopedias, atlases, and non-fiction books related to science,
and Canadian topics that can be introduced and used by the students. It would be good to categorize the books by topics and grades in
tubs so that the teachers can borrow the tubs when teaching about the different
fairs.
I would also show them the following graphic from Blue Valley Education Technology about SAMR and
iPad Apps (http://itunesu.bluevalleyk12.org/handouts/samr_and_ipad_apps.pdf).This would be helpful
to all the teachers as well as the committee exploring iPad Apps and the new
curriculum.
Also, on the smart board I can show
them websites that could be used by their students or themselves. There is the online library reference
resource that students can use called Webcat. On Webcat, there are on-line reference materials like World
Books, Gale Canada in Context, Gale Science, Canadian Reference Center, World
Book Science Power, Encyclopedia of BC, National Geographic, Dictionary of
Canadian Biography, Learn Now BC, and BC Stats.
Other electronic reference sites that I would mention to the teachers about the science process are:
These are more sites that I would mention to the teachers for the Canadian Heritage Fair:
After the presentation at the staff meeting, the hope is that
the teachers would be much more receptive to collaboration and using reference
resource support in the classroom and library with me and others. This follows
the direction that the principal would like to move the school towards in terms
of technology, inquiry learning, and new learning initiatives.
Since Teacher 1, Ms. B., is not using much
technology in her class and her students are younger, I would have her try-out
Fresh Grades with her class since it gives her students an opportunity to
upload their videos there if they are filming a hands on science experiment at
home. A disadvantage with Fresh Grades is that it is really
slow to upload videos. Once the videos are uploaded though from home or
school, the teacher can share each video with the whole class. I could
also set up a private classroom YouTube channel if Ms. B. isn't concerned
about using Fresh Grade currently. This would move her up towards
Modification and Augmentation for SAMR. For CBAM, Ms. B. would be moving
towards Consequence and Refinement.
Since Teacher 2, Ms. H., is already using Fresh
Grades and her students are older, I would encourage them to use blogs. I
can model with her class their first blogs together. Then they can use
the blogs to share their knowledge about their scientific and Canadian discovery with the class using links, illustrations, and videos. The
class can also respond with comments too. This would move Ms. H. to
Augmentation in SMAR. For CBAM, she will be towards Collaboration and
Integration.
References:
BC’s New Curriculum. Retrieved
from https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca
Bloom, B. S.; Engelhart, M. D.; Furst, E. J.; Hill, W. H.; Krathwohl, D. R. (1956). Taxonomy of
educational objectives: The classification of educational
goals. Handbook I: Cognitive
domain. New York: David McKay Company.
Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM). (2017). American
Institutes for Research. Retrieved
Huang, Po-Sen. Concern-Based Adoption Model (CBAM): Levels
of Use. Retrieved from
Introduction to the SAMR MODEL. (2017). Common
Sense Media. Retrieved from
Leading Learning:
Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada
2014.
Puentedura,
Ruben R. SAMR: A Contextualized
Introduction. Hippasus [Blog]. Retrived
from
Managing the Changing Process – the Concerns – Based
Adoption Model (CBAM). (2017).
SAMR and Bloom’s.
(2014). Kathy Schrock’s
Guide to Everything.
Retrieved from
SAMR and iPad Apps.
Retrieved on from
SAMR Model in 120 Seconds. Retrieved from
Technology is Learning: SAMR Model.
Retrieved from
The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM): Model for Change in Individuals. (2005).
National Academies.
Retrieved from
Technology is Learning. (2014). Retrieved from
VSB’s Webcat. (2017)
Retrieved from
4 comments:
I really liked how you imbedded links and included pictures, of the models we have been reading about. What a great idea – I wish I thought of that! I forget that if you want your blog to be read by others not in this course, they would of course want more information about the models we are referring to. I also ofund your school culture paragraph helpful to give us an idea of where your school is at in terms of innovation, information literacy, and collaboration. Great idea about presenting to the entire staff during a Pro D day. I think if you are including all staff about the online resources available to them, you might inspire other teachers to branch out of their comfort zone if they are inexperienced, or to help others with these resources, if they are experienced. The SAMR model that explains where each App fits is SO useful. I have definitely already saved (and printed) this. I am not sure what all of the Apps are though, so I wonder if blue valleys website provides that information? Seems like you are off to a really organized start to present at your Pro D day. Thank you.
Hi Sally - Like Bronagh, I really liked the background you gave on your school and the changes it has been going through with a new principal and a technology, 21st century learning, focus. Our school has been going through a similar refocus on inquiry, design based learning, led in part by our new STEAM Coordinator. I was a bit confused by your plan to have the Grade 7s use blogs. Isn't that what FreshGrade is? We are just beginning to use Seesaw and I was told it was quite similar to FreshGrade. But Seesaw is essentially a blog; students upload evidence of their learning and other students can comment. Is FreshGrade different? I really liked the CABM subtitles "Me?, It?, Us!" shown in the graphic you provided. Sums up the stages nice and simply. Good luck with your plan to move away from poster boards to a longer lasting legacy of learning. The environment will thank you too! I always dread sending the poster boards home as I know that the majority of them will just end up in the garbage.
Hi Rogan and Karen,
In my references section that says Video Curriculum, there are links and names of the SAMR iPad APPS at the following website:
http://edtechteacher.org/tools/multimedia/video-classroom/
Since Fresh Grades is still quite new to the school, the kinks are still be worked out. My kids don't really like using Fresh Grades as they find it very slow to upload videos and typing. Once all the teachers are on board, it would good to have an electronic portfolio of the students each year. Also, since the students are in Grade 7, I wanted them and their teachers to have other alternatives to show their learning so it would be good for them to learn how to use other learning tools like blogs, Youtube, and iMovie since they probably won't be using Fresh Grades in high school. Seesaw sounds interesting too to try out!
Hi Sally,
From your descriptions, I have a clear idea of where you school is headed and how the teachers in question teach. This is an effective foundation to explore the issue. The visuals you embedded were also useful.
You engaged me by including your son's science project.
I'd love to know more about French Grade. More of my colleagues use SeeSaw, but I am intrigued by Fresh Grade.
From your post, you seem well versed in technology and the various ways students can share their learning, which is essential. YouTube is everywhere and why not use it in the classroom!
Some great ideas that I will also be exploring.
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