Hannah Ferns UWS ITE ePDP

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October 7, 2017
by Hannah Ferns
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Learning Log: Climate Change

This week’s subject and directed study task focused on climate change, in what I found to be quite a complicated topic. The nuances of negotiating climate policy and how much there is to consider in attempting to find equal footing on a global level was certainly taxing to try and understand in such a short period of time. Nevertheless, I found the session to be crucial in developing my understanding of different perspectives on climate change, and how global and national policy with regards to climate change and cultural adaptation are developed.

Politics and Climate Change

The politics and climate change workshop was interesting, as it encouraged us to consider the subject from circumstances outwith our own. It involved research into our given stance – my group was asked to consider to point of view of an MSP. As I am not a politician, it was enlightening to read about the factors they would have to consider, not just in terms of implementing and developing policy, but on maintaining their position in order to be able to do so. It also enabled me to better understand why perceived changes in national attitudes to climate change and action to mitigate it seem to take so long, when you consider how many different parties need to be on board, accommodating and adapting to new policies and approaches. The reading of Staying On Track From Paris: Advancing The Key Elements Of The Paris Agreement (2016) was also useful in terms of highlighting the scope of what must be considered on a global level, as well as highlighting the main areas of focus in climate change policy.

This task also encouraged me to consider how I will teach climate change – I believe it is important to stress that while it exists, opinions on the cause and how best to approach it differ. If, through our teaching, we can encourage and nurture critical thought and analysis in our students, I believe we can set them on a path where they are able to parse through the available information, and reach their own conclusions and courses of action. At a primary level of course, it is crucial that we begin to develop these skills in children – not to the degree that we were expected to reach in our workshops, but facilitating discussion and sharing of opinions will sow the seeds of what will become developed critical analysis skills in time.

Science Skills

I particularly enjoy our practical sessions in this module. I find them to be fun, engaging, and crucially for me, useful in terms of expanding my understanding of how to teach and engage my future students.

The importance of making concepts visible for children was highlighted again in these sessions. Science is a fantastically engaging subject when presented properly, and the practical element of our activities seem to me to be an excellent way to encourage children to take an interest in it. Presenting climate change through activities such as those we carried out, I think, makes concepts real to children, enabling them to relate small-scale experiments to their learning about concepts at large.

The biome activity was particularly interesting for me as a research activity. In our groups we were given a biome and placed in a situation where we had crashed with a limited amount of resources. The focus on the activity was learning about the biome we were given and coming up with solutions as to how we would survive the terrain. While I would not use an exact version of this in a primary 5 class, as it was quite extensive, a pared-down version would be a great group activity for a class.

I also found the experiments using water engaging and fun, something I would definitely use with a class. The first experiment involved a tank of room temperature water, and two cups – one with warm water and one with refrigerated water. Food colouring was added to each cup to represent warm (red) and cold (blue) air. At the same time, both cups were dropped into the tank, and we were able to observe as the warm and cold fronts interacted. Using this experiment with a class would provide a good opportunity for class discussion, finding out what the children already know, and using questioning to develop higher order thinking skills.

The second water experiment involved a lidded jar of water, containing a few drops of detergent and food colouring. Visualising the water as air, the jar was shaken to produce a “tornado”, demonstrating how actual tornadoes are formed in the air. Again, this would provide a good opportunity for class discussion and higher order thinking skills.

When teaching climate change, we were advised to focus on weather, as it is a tangible aspect of the subject that children can engage with. To that effect, these experiments would be ideal to use to support learning, and could form the basis of a fact-file or ongoing project in the subject of climate change. It would also tie in with other aspects of learning for sustainability – learning why we have eco-schools and what we aim to accomplish from them, changes we can make in our lifestyles and asking why they are necessary. An important part of teaching this subject for me is not simply teaching facts and information, I aim to teach in such a way that fosters an inquisitive and involved approach to science and sustainability.

Directed Study Task

The directed study tasks was enlightening and thought-provoking, in terms of encouraging me to consider my own behaviour and impact on the environment. Since moving to Ayr I have been more proactive in some changes such as how I travel, but I can always afford to make further changes in other areas of my life. I don’t believe that living in an environmentally-friendly is necessarily difficult, perhaps just that the changes that need to be made in order to do so are not always immediately apparent, and perhaps require some consideration.

As I mentioned in my directed study post, there are small changes I could make which would lend themselves to more environmentally friendly behaviour, such as changing my eating habits, being more proactive in recycling, and generally becoming more conscious of the impact that my actions can have. There may be further changes I could make, but I consider these as reasonable stepping stones on the way to more environmentally-friendly behaviour.

In terms of my teaching, my main consideration from these tasks is that I present information to children in a way that encourages them to be open-minded and ask questions about these subjects, while facilitating discussion and development of higher order thinking skills.  Science as a curricular area is ideal for developing these skills, and teaching them through experiments in weather would make the learning relevant, tangible and the knowledge gained transferable to further learning.

 

References

Staying On Track From Paris: Advancing The Key Elements Of The Paris Agreement. (2016). World Resources Institute.

September 22, 2017
by Hannah Ferns
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Sustainable Development: Environment Learning Log

Last week’s input and this weeks directed study task had a focus on the Environment, both natural and urban. It’s crucial to note that while we covered both aspects, the inter-related nature of the two was also impressed on us throughout the inputs.

I can already tell that this sustainable development module is going to be an integral part of what I take from this course as a future teacher, and will inform the decisions I make in and out of the classroom, from the subjects I teach, to how I teach them, and how my own practice will enable me to model an environmentally-responsible worldview to the students I will teach.

 

Lecture and Workshops

Last week, we looked at what “sustainability” means. The One Planet Schools defines it as “using resources at a rate which can be replenished and is equitable between nations and generations” (Learning for Sustainability Report, 2010) It is clear to me, then, that teaching for sustainable development is much more than simply teaching children about the impact of human activity on the environment and what governments are doing to promote change, but about their impact on their own local, national and global communities and what they can do to change it for the better.

One of the most important things I have taken from last week’s input, I think, is the idea that we need to encourage our children to “look up”. As someone whose childhood spanned the 1990’s and early 2000’s, where I was actively encouraged to go outside, to play and explore, I think it is easy to forget that this is not necessarily the dominant attitude today. Not to decry new technologies or parents’ fears of the current social environment, these are both valid aspects of raising children today, but there seems to be much less encouragement for children to go out and experience the environment for themselves. In that respect, it is possible to find that often, children and to a degree, adults, are somewhat disengaged from the world around them, whether due to disinterest, the feeling of being politically disengaged, or simply unable to comprehend the impact of human activity on the world around them. I believe this is where outdoor learning and teaching for sustainability can intervene.

Alessandra Orofino, in her 2014 TED Talk (It’s our city. Let’s fix it.) talks about the necessity for human engagement, not only with their urban environment, but with their community on a local and national scale. Human engagement with the world around them is a necessary component of sustainable development, providing relevance and empathy for their environment and each other. Using outdoor learning as part of teaching for sustainability can encourage pupil engagement with the local community and urban environment around their school, but can also encourage them to take what they have learned and understood home with them to their own communities. Outdoor learning provides the engagement with their surroundings that children need to develop the empathy and understanding required to develop their own sustainable practices and care for their environment.

About engagement, in last year’s Mathematics for Understanding module we were taught that an important aspect of teaching maths is to make it relevant for children, to apply what we are teaching to familiar concepts and scenarios. I think this applies to other areas of the curriculum too. There is a plethora of ways in which the local environment can be used to aid understanding and while understanding of mathematics can certainly benefit from using outdoor learning as a teaching method, the outdoor environment can be used to inspire in other areas of children’s learning such as literacy and creative arts.

A useful part of the face-to-face input last week was the outdoor activities, getting to engage with the space around the university and trying to approach them from the mindset of a child – what they might notice, how I could use these activities in teaching, and what the potential risks and benefits were in using outdoor teaching methods.

In the first workshop, we undertook a few activities related to outdoor learning: looking for lichen and investigating what their colours mean, searching for insects and a scavenger hunt of sorts, trying to identify types of trees using their leaves. These activities were particularly useful in informing my own potential teaching practice and cause me to consider options for teaching about the natural environment outside a traditional classroom setting and allowing children to explore aspects of the natural environment around them in a practical, relatable way.

The snails and the tree rubbing activities were probably my personal favourites of the activities in the second session: Science Skills. The snails were interesting and a potential idea to take into a classroom partially because of the practical nature of the exercise, which I think would greatly appeal to children as getting to see and handle animals up close is generally more interesting than learning about them from a slideshow, as I personally found. It makes the learning relatable and frankly more enjoyable, which again was my experience. I thoroughly enjoyed handling the snails and talking about the ones I was holding, and it is an activity that will stick with me, as I hope it would for children.

The tree rubbing exercise was enjoyable too, but in a different way. It was fun working in a group, getting to explore and look around parts of the university space that we had never been to before, and having something to show for it at the end. It also inspired me to create a lesson plan for a potential group of science lessons that I would like to teach while on placement, if I am given the chance to. The lessons revolve around experiencing and learning about scientific methods and are framed around an experiment based on the exercise. It aims to combine learning about science skills with aspects of mathematics, literacy and art, again highlighting the interdisciplinary nature of outdoor learning.

I do not believe that my thinking around this area has changed, per se, rather that my knowledge and future practice has become more informed through engaging with the lecture, workshop and directed study task.

 

The directed study task has caused me to become more aware of my own urban and natural environment, and how the people in my local community engage with that environment. It has again made me more aware of how to bring learning for sustainability into the classroom, and how I might encourage children to engage with and reflect on their own environment and their impact within it. It has also encouraged me to reflect on my thoughts about what I want my teaching practice to be, and how I aim to model sustainability values in my classroom and daily life.

As part of the directed study task, we were asked to consider three questions:

How does increasing urbanisation impact on the world (positively and negatively)?

What other factors do you think are related to this increasing urbanisation? e.g. what factors drive the need for it, and what factors are influenced by it?

From what you’re learning, to what extent the political process can combat the challenges faced by urban environments?

Urbanisation has had a major impact on the world, particularly in recent years. The positive aspects relate towards interconnectedness and towards greater opportunities in terms of the creating and sharing of ideas and creation of new jobs as certain industries change and grow (notably those of a technological nature). Conversely, the negative impact of rapid urbanisation can be felt in areas where it has occurred too quickly, without the necessary structures and support in place to help it develop securely. This impact is felt in younger generations where rapid urbanisation coupled with a lack of work, social structures designed to support, and lack of access to education for all.

It is not simply the fault of urbanisation alone, however. Urbanisation merely implies growth and change of an urban nature, but it does not occur alone. It is accompanied by a myriad of social factors which will be encountered during the process: housing, unemployment, the changing nature of industry, and education. These factors both influence and are influenced by urbanisation, and for it to occur at a sustainable pace which does not negatively impact the population affected by it, human engagement with their communities on a local and national scale is imperative. Whether this is through use of technology, engagement on a face-to-face level, or both, it must take place.

As Alessandra Orofino said, “It is up to us to decide whether we want schools or parking lots, recycling projects or construction sites, cars or buses, loneliness or solidarity.” Those factors which impact negatively on urbanization and the people affected by it can be mitigated through people recognizing the impact it can have and taking steps to actively change the outcome, through social programmes, political engagement and taking steps to ensure that they have the power to influence their own outcomes, whether it is at a personal, local or national level, whether through their own ability to reach out, get involved in their local community and make their voice and the voices of others heard through advocating for themselves and others.

Those who possess the power to make those necessary changes at a policy level have a responsibility to do so to help develop an inclusive, progressive society that considers and supports everyone, not just a fraction of the population. Several aspects at a political level need to be considered in order to facilitate this. Whether this is through environmental policy or social policy, the political process can play a major role in combating the challenges faced by urban environments. Through my own personal experiences, I have witnessed a rise in online activism and inclusion (accompanied by some parties who hold opposing, negative views), which proves to a degree that people are willing to get involved with their local and global communities if given a chance, and the political process can provide them with that chance by taking on the views of their constituents, the people who rely on them to operate fairly and in their best interests.

If the political process provides the means for people to get involved with their community and support each other (e.g. through social programmes such as recycling, education and opportunities for work), then I believe that people will take that chance and use it to great effect. The real issue is in changing minds from a general sense of political disengagement – perhaps through the feeling of a lack of power outwith elections – to becoming more willing to get involved with their political environment as well as their urban and social environments.

 

Useful resources or links

https://www.ted.com/talks/alessandra_orofino_it_s_our_city_let_s_fix_it

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Education/Schools/curriculum/ACE/OnePlanetSchools/LearningforSustainabilitReport

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

February 14, 2017
by Hannah Ferns
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At Risk Behaviours

The Glasgow Effect

This weeks input focused on risk behaviours and how the impact on society and lifestyles. The first aspect we were to take away from this input, was to read the Glasgow Effect Document.  The Glasgow Effect was a study which aimed to look more closely at what has been termed “The Scottish Effect”, the increased levels of poor health and mortality which can be found in Scotland, moreso than can be explained by socio-economic environments. The term “Glasgow Effect” comes from the fact that this seems to be concentrated in the west of Scotland.

The document analysed information taken from 3 similarly deprived cities: Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester, gathered through income data, mortality data and historical census. Despite their basically identical deprivation profiles, overall mortality rates in Glasgow are 15% higher, and premature death rates are 30% relative to Liverpool and Manchester. This “excess mortality” can be found across almost the whole population – male and female, deprived and non-deprived areas, and across all age groups, with the exception of the very young.

It states that deprivation is a fundamental factor of health and mortality, but stresses that it is only one aspect of a more complex picture, and that it dose not explain the levels of excess mortality encountered in Glasgow, when related to its two counterparts.

The study found that approximately 50% of premature deaths (those under the age of 65) were directly linked to alcohol and drug-related causes. It also found that income-deprived communities in Glasgow which experience significantly different health outcomes, relative to identically income-deprived communities in Liverpool and Manchester. Child mortality rates were actually found to be lower than in Liverpool and Manchester, and mortality rates were found to be generally higher amongst males than females.

An important aspect of the study to note was that while income deprived areas in Glasgow experienced higher rates of mortality than in the comparative cities, so too did more affluent suburbs of Glasgow, with an approximate difference of 15% between Glasgow and it’s comparative cities. Some statistics which linked risk behaviours to premature mortality were:

  • 27% Increase in incidences of lung cancer.
  • 32% increase in external causes (accident, injury, assault, medical accidents or surgical care)
  • ~70% increase in rates of suicide (exception: females in Glasgow 2x higher than in Liverpool and Manchester)
  • 2.3 x increase in alcohol-related causes
  • 2.5x increase in drug-related poisonings

The question that needs to be asked here is: what impact does society and lifestyles have on rates of mortality? Looking at this document, it cannot be quantitatively stated. However, the fact that increases in causes of mortality are incidences of lung cancer (linked to smoking), external injury (e.g. by assault), suicide (possibly linked to mental health provision and the cultural attitudes surrounding mental health), and drug and alcohol use, it can be seen that the lifestyle choices that people make may have a bearing on future health and mortality rates. The problem now is finding ways to tackle these issues and counteract the problems that are lasting and effective.

 

Are Scottish people healthy?

This question was raised near the end of class, and I am firmly in the ‘maybe’ camp. It is a very broad question, and not one that I feel can be easily answered with a simple yes or a no. Some Scottish people are healthy, and some are not, but to say that all Scottish people are or are not healthy seems to me to speculative and somewhat generalising. Scotland has been described in the past as the “sick man of Europe”, and while we do seem to experience poorer health outcomes and lower life expectancy comparative to other UK cities, and in Europe, it is unfair to judge a whole country of individuals based on speculation.

For me, health is dependent on a myriad of factors: income, a good physical environment, access to healthy food, opportunities for physical activity, good social and emotional health, and mental health, in additional to a good work/life balance and good education. These factors work in conjunction with each other to form a healthy individual, and if enough of these factors are inadequate or not appropriately met, then a person’s health can be impacted adversely. It based in my belief in this complexity of health that I feel that it is unfair to say yes or no to this question.  The World Health Organisation lists some other determinants of health here: http://www.who.int/hia/evidence/doh/en/

As we are a nation of individuals, we all possess individual levels and combinations of the factors I have previously mentioned, and those stipulated by the WHO. Due to this, we all possess individual health backgrounds, and may be healthy or unhealthy in different ways and for different reasons. It is fair to state, and it has been stated in the Glasgow Effect, that Scotland experiences poorer health outcomes than other cities within the UK and other European countries. This document, published in 2003, looks in further detail at Scotlands ranking in Europe in terms of health at the time of the study.

While this is true, it does not enable us to categorically state whether Scottish people as a whole are healthy or not, without breaking the statistics down further and looking at the cultural and socio-economic factors which interlink with health, and the part they play on our health and mortality rates.

February 14, 2017
by Hannah Ferns
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Inclusion and Equality: Focus on Disability

This input looked a little closer at inclusion and equality through the lens of disability. We were encouraged to consider how inclusion and equality relates to disability and how the areas covered would also relate to other protected characteristics. Disability was defined as a significant long-term physical or mental impairment which impacts on an individual’s participation in the usual educational, social and economic activity within their community, and approximately 10% of the global population are classed as having a disability.

An important distinction to note is that the term additional support needs, as used following the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004/9 does not just refer to disability, but includes individuals who are vulnerable for other reasons than disability. It was impressed on us that disability is an acquirable characteristic, that some individuals are born with a disability, but through other factors, those who are born able-bodied can become disabled. We were presented with two varying models of approaching disability: medical and social. The medical model views disability as a problem which needs to be solved, whereas the social model approaches disability as an inherent part of human diversity and that it should be accomodated and considered.

This led us to considering Universal Design. This term is architectural in origin and refers to the act of designing buildings and structures so that everyone can use them. An example of this would be designing buildings with ramps instead of stairs, as they are easily accessible to everyone, and removes the “us or them” aspect of providing both. It maintains that diversity is the norm, and that we should be designing and producing our physical environment in such a way that they suit the common denominator, rather than forcing certain individuals to find other ways to access their physical environment. I totally agree with the idea of universal design, I have been a long-term believer that to force certain people to have to choose how to access areas, or to have the only disabled access be completely separate from the main access route to be completely unfair, and something that needs to be changed in our society.

In terms of disability awareness, the social model carries implications for the Scottish education system, in particular for primary and secondary schools. In terms of my role as a future educator, it is important to begin by challenging attitudes towards discrimination in schools and setting a good example for the children, not just in my own class, but in the school as a whole. Part of this will come from the ethos created by myself in the classroom, and through Health and Wellbeing education. There is no way to change attitudes towards discrimination without education, and being a future educator myself, I find it incredibly important that I begin to set a good ethos and approach to disability and other protected characteristics within my classroom.

One of the theorists we looked at today who I found particularly interesting was John Rawls. He put forward theories of social justics, and he proposed that we approach a situation from the perspective of the least advantaged in our society. In doing so, we should be able to formulate a solution which will be suitable for everyone. The metaphor used in class was “behind the veil of ignorance”, which I found to be particularly appropriate. It suggests that decision makers do not know who will be accessing services, and that it is important for them to consider the least advantaged when making their decisions.

 

February 5, 2017
by Hannah Ferns
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Inclusion and Equality

This week’s input aimed to look at inclusion and equality, and the differences between them.

Inclusion pertains more to the idea that everyone has a right to belong, and to be included, on a societal, cultural and individual level, whereas equality refers more to fairness and equal footing for all. The way in which equality is viewed and written about in a legislative context seems more like the definition of equity to me, as it is not about making sure everyone “gets the same” so to speak, but that individual needs are accounted for and supported as appropriate to that individual.

I found this subject to be somewhat less heavy than the inputs on religion, partially due to the fact that they were an integral part of my HNC and my support worker role prior to starting university. Inclusion and equality are both crucial aspects of education, and society in general, and it is important to consider how they impact on society and lifestyles.

The most interesting part for me, I think, was looking back at the work of Peggy McIntosh. Through my own personal reading and interest in the last few years, I was familiar with the term ‘privilege’ as it was applied by McIntosh, and specifically white privilege. I think it’s a difficult concept to accept at first sometimes, the idea that purely by virtue of being white and abled, that you have access to certain privileges and advantages that others do not. Some examples of these privileges can be found here: https://www.deanza.edu/faculty/lewisjulie/White%20Priviledge%20Unpacking%20the%20Invisible%20Knapsack.pdf

I think it can be tempting to become defensive at the revelation – to reiterate that you are not racist or ableist, or homophobic, for example – to affirm to yourself that you do not consciously take advantage of the societal benefits laid before you. This may well be true, as white privilege includes unconscious or unnoticed advantages that we simply take for granted because it does not occur to us that they are benefits, but that is not what confronting the idea of your own privilege is about.

It is about recognising that society has shaped itself in such a way that lends itself to your benefit, and acknowledging that the societal odds are often stacked against those who do not fit the white, abled criteria.  It was an important acknowledgement to make, although difficult, and I have come to recognise and understand that I will be seen in a certain, beneficial way by society due to the colour of my skin, and that the environment I live in is more advantageous to me than others in my community. The crucial point here, is that I build on this understanding and support those who do not experience that privilege, through listening and taking their perspectives on board.

In a professional context, it is also about recognising  and understanding that some of the children and parents I will be working with will have encountered disadvantages or difficulties due to the nature of white privilege. It is then on me to create a classroom ethos of equity and support, to ensure that all pupils are included and valued, and their parents and carers too.

Another interesting aspect of the input, in the guided study task, which I found interesting, was reflecting on the influences that have shaped my views on equality and inclusion. This was fairly easy to parse out, as I know that my parents, my mother in particular, and my friends have been large influences on my views. We are a reasonably diverse group, and many of us work or are training to work in the fields of education and social work, which has led to a reasonable amount of commonality in our views towards inclusion and equality.  In addition, my prior HNC in Additional Support Needs and placement in an Additional Support for Learning family centre had led to my deeper understanding of inclusion and equality in a more legislative and educational practice context.

 

I feel that I understand today’s concepts more thoroughly than I did before, and will endeavour to keep learning and developing my understanding and awareness of the issues surrounding equality and inclusion in order to improve myself as a person, and to improve my practice as a future teacher.

References

White Priviledge unpacking the invisible Knapsack (no date) Available at: https://www.deanza.edu/faculty/lewisjulie/White%20Priviledge%20Unpacking%20the%20Invisible%20Knapsack.pdf (Accessed: 5 February 2017).

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