The changing face of education

There have been a few things coming up in the media lately around the changes in education in New Zealand. Two have really caught my eye in the last week. One of them I kept reading and going, yes, yes, and one of them got me riled up about what people think we should and shouldn't do with education. That one inspired me to write this and put my own personal thoughts out there in the public forum.

Learning Revolution or Pathway to Ignorance?
Insight Article- link
Podcast link

I took a few notes while listening to this podcast. After reading the article I felt the real disconnect between many schools about where education is heading. There certainly is a divide and I'm glad I am on the side I am.
Hobsonville Point 
Most learning in 2 subjects done in modules of 2 learning areas together.
Deep understanding comes from links between subjects. Students and teachers co-construct contexts. Most schools the teacher decides the contexts. Can engage students more. They don't do NCEA Level 1. Some parents don't understand about what they are trying to do.
One student found it was a shock to do this style of learning, but was loving it. "Instead of just doing work for the sake of a grade and then get ranked, I was doing stuff that I was interested in and that meant something to me and my future".
It doesn't work for everyone. Lots of talk about why it doesn't work. It's up to the student to make it happen.
It's hard for parents to get their head around.

Haeata Community Campus
Working towards a model of students developing their own learning
Want the passion for learning, rather than being credit driven

Teachers have to be a facilitator of learning. Students need to have control of their learning.
Modern approaches in learning are widespread in Primary Schools but not so much in Secondary. Some have adopted the changes and some have not. Some think they shouldn't be moving this way.
Schools need to do more than just teach subjects to get students through NCEA
NCEA review results will be out next April - looking at having a project at Level 1 NCEA.
I think all schools would agree that involving students in designing learning, collaborating and use of technology are important factors in education.

Some comments made in the podcast that I want to say something about:
Teachers can't teach all those subjects in a transdisciplinary way
This is where collaboration between teachers is so important. We have strengths, we have areas of knowledge that are stronger so we need to team up with other staff to help our students get the depth and knowledge around areas we might not be so strong in. We also need to model that we don't know everything. This is an opportunity for us to upskill and learn new things and be passionate about learning. We need to facilitate learning, rather than be the fount of all knowledge.
Revolutions in technology have changed schools a lot
I am not sure many schools are using technology to change education. I see many just swapping the textbook for a pdf and pen and paper for a doc. I'm wondering how many are at M or R in the SAMR model. Perhaps this is something all schools should look at as an overview for use of tech.
You can't show a video or have open debate about things in the new Modern Learning Environments 
I would argue that, as we have breakout rooms and spaces if you need an ecnclosed space, plus we are often using our open spaces in small groups having debate and discussions and teachable moments. We often have debates and show videos, even in our open spaces.
Secondary schools are for learning specialised knowledge not for play
See my blog on Lifelong Kindergarten. I believe that we should be playing - we should be doing projects and that the specialised knowledge will be learnt as required. The old style of passing on knowledge from teacher to student is no longer applicable - the students can learn pretty much anything online if they want to. We need to be teaching them how to access that knowledge, then guiding them through projects into more depth.
Universities are finding huge gaps in knowledge I agree this will be happening - it has happened for a long time. From my own experience I know that in music, many students don't do the aural and theory externals (chosen by teachers to not sit them), but still go to Uni to do Music. There will be gaps in this area. What is needed is for the Universities to rethink how they are also delivering their courses and what they are expecting their students to do. We have so many graduates coming out of Uni not getting jobs. Why? Jobs are changing (check out this infographic). Employers are wanting more than content. They are looking for skills. Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Creativity - the list goes on. Having a degree with purely content is not enough anymore. Workplaces have had to adapt - so does the education system.


The Futures of Learning
Education  Research and Foresight Working Papers by Cynthia Luna Scott
Report link

I read this and highlighted lots of things that I really believe in. I found it really inspiring and affirming that my beliefs about education are on the right track. It's a long document but worth a read if you are really interested in the future of education. Even if you just skim read the headings, it will give you an overview. This paragraph (taken from Pg16) sums it up for me:

"What adaptations can be expected in education in the near future? Teachers will remain, but their roles will be extended as mentors, mediators and guides, facilitators, learning coordinators, assessors, and designers and compilers of learning tools. Testing will most likely continue, but assessment will become more individualized and formative. Learning will become more personalized and customized to reflect students’ individual needs and interests, and informal learning opportunities will become recognized alternatives to traditional formal education. Transformed learning environments will encompass customized learning for each student, wider availability of diverse sources, and collaborative group learning (students will learn together as they work collaboratively on authentic, enquiry-oriented projects). Real-world experience will permeate learning activities. Most likely, schools will remain but classrooms will become more open to diverse learning experiences and instruction will likely move out into the community. Education providers will still offer face-to-face learning, but this will be supplemented by informal and virtual opportunities. Self-responsibility for learning will be essential and learners can expect to determine what their learning profile will look like. New tools for learning will be developed. Technology will support personalized learning processes and facilitate inclusion and equity."

This is what we are heading towards. This is what I believe in. This is why I am at Haeata.

Haeata - Week Three

It is a short week this week due to Labour Day here. Having a long weekend was good to take stock of everything that has happened so far at Haeata. It was time to reflect on new ideas, cement names and faces, and then relax and get some gardening done!  It has been a tiring couple of weeks, even though we do not have students and classes to teach. The amount of new learning has really been challenging and I think as you get older it takes longer to sink in.

Day One

Today we had a few new staff arrive. They were thrown in the deep end very quickly with our workshop on the Essential Agreements which Karyn took. The focus today was on transdisciplinary learning and we started to unpack what this looks like. We started with some statements on interdisciplinary learning which we then discussed with a range of staff, arguing our points where needed. We looked at the difference between multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary and watched this short clip which explained it very well.
In our hapori we had some time to look at what this approach would mean to use as a group which can be very challenging for secondary school teachers as we are often very siloed in our approach. My work with both the School of Music and the School of Apps meant that I am on the right track in this direction but there are still things I could improve on to really make my teaching really transdisciplinary.
This afternoon was Mai time and I spent the time working out how to navigate Google Classroom, as well as writing in my blog and keeping up my reflections.

Day Two

We spent the day out and about today, looking at some of the amazing resources we can tap into in Christchurch. Our first stop was at the Ministry of Education where we were introduced to a large team of people who are supporting our school and our community. It was good to put some faces to names and to make contact here.
Second stop was to Te Pūtahitanga. What an amazing place. This space was full of a range of people who worked on innovative approaches to creating solutions for and with whānau. The design group that has been working with Haeata comes from here and it will be great to work with the Digital Native Aotearoa team in the future. I loved the skills and passions here in all areas and can certainly see many links being formed and fostered with Haeata.
Next stop was Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu (TRONT) where we were given an insight into their education programme. They talked about their digital initiative and also about the work being done to support te reo in the community by Kotahi Mano Kāika (KMK). Our normalisation of te reo in our kura will be a great support for this and I can see links happening here as far as supporting our staff and whānau.
The Ministry of Awesome was just that - awesome! What a great space for a start, where people can work on projects, and then to have the support and connections that the MoA can provide to help out. I loved the sound of the coffee and jam sessions and hope to get to one of these soon. This is a great step for people wanting to start businesses or continue with a great idea. One problem they have had with connecting with schools was the timetable restrictions which we will not have at Haeata so I am looking forward to seeing how this might fit with some of our students. They have also compiled an innovation ecosystem guide, bringing together organisations that offer support for entrepreneurs.
The afternoon was spent at Waitākiri School  which started on a new site this year, bringing Burwood and Windsor schools together. It was good to see classes in action and to have the opportunity talk to students about how they found the new environment, which has large open areas called Studios, and overwhelmingly they said they loved it. Students loved being able to mix with a larger number of students and many said they had a lot more friends. The only negative from a student was around the noise and it will be interesting to see how this works out in our new environment. You can see a flythrough of our Haeata spaces here. The challenge for us will be to plan our learning to really make use of our spaces and to try not to just transfer the traditional classroom into a collaborative space. Neill O'Reilly, the Principal suggested we have a read through "Clever Classrooms' which is a study done by Salford University in Manchester, England. I will say I haven't read the full 52 page report as yet, but the 4 page summary was really interesting. It amazed me that naturalness, which includes light, temperature and air quality, accounted for half the learning impact in this study. As many of the students were using iPads, I also found myself thinking of the SAMR model and putting this over how they were using them. Why and how do we use technology and what are the benefits? Where are we on the SAMR model and where do we want to be?
One of the great things about having this time to explore is having conversations with other staff. I was told about Sudbury Valley School today, which I hadn't heard of before. This school has a really interesting philosophy and the students take part in the governance of the school as well. Well worth reading about.

Day Three

We started with mai time today where I got a large amount of my blog written. It was good to do this reflection on our edutour and it set me up for our hāpori time where we shared these reflections. We also started to share our own thoughts around pedagogy. I felt we were all very much on the same page with the student as the centre of learning. The afternoon was once again around our cultural narrative. We had our first look at the plans of the school and it was good to see the spaces so we can try and imagine what learning might look like within them. We then were told the names of all the spaces and what each space was named for or about. Each hāpori then put together an entertaining presentation about the origin of their hāpori name. Ours was the Year 11-13 hāpori which is named Ihutai after the estuary. We had a lot of discussion about the history and the uses of the estuary and came up with a short skit.

Day Four

The day started in our hāpori with a new karakia that I really liked - Ka haea te ata. For some reason this resonated with me and it is one I would like to learn by heart. We then finished up our pedagogy presentations and then had discussions around some of the more mundane and process issues such as uniform, teacher names and managing of students. Many of these discussion raised even more questions, some of which were put on the wonder wall for clarification by the SLT. We then moved on to writing some narratives around what learning might look like in our hāpori. We have three different blocks of time during the week, kaupapa ako, puna ako, and mai time. Each has a focus from large group to individual and we have been working around possible scenarios for this. Sharing these means building up ideas together as to what learning may look like for our ākonga and once again it is really great to be able to share our ideas and have input into the bigger picture.
Mai time I spent writing blogs and playing with Quiver - a 3D Augmented Reality app that brings pictures to life. I have seen this used as a tool for storywriting and would love to get into it further in the future. One of the staff had organised for us to purchase a lunch from Fill Their Lunchbox. This is a great initiative that gives a lunch to a disadvantaged school student for each one we purchase. Great lunch and a great cause. I wish this happened in every city, not just Christchurch!
After lunch we had reading and viewing time where Andy gave us the results of the survey we did last week on relationships. We looked at what makes good relationships and the main points for me were honesty, openmindedness and communication. He then went on to introduce us to the Ladder of Inference which outlines the way we sometimes jump to conclusions and don't always have the facts we need. This then led to the Ladder of Feedback which we can use to make sure we have good communication and clarify our ideas without going off on the wrong track. When things get tough we revert to type so we need a structure to get us through those times and we can use this ladder to be respectful to others. We need to get the full story from the person who said it and we need to be aware of how we operate so we can be honest and open. This tool is a way of doing that.

Another week gone. Time is flying and the year is going fast. We are learning so much and growing as a team which is really exciting. I am looking forward to the next week and our next steps in creating this wonderful school - Haeata.