This is a presentation for the Australian College of Educators in Sydney and Adelaide in May 2010.

1. Educating for Lifelong
Learning
Ruth Deakin Crick
Graduate School of Education

2. Draft Australian National
Curriculum Capabilities
• Literacy • Teamwork
• Numeracy • Intercultural
• ICT understanding
• Thinking skills • Ethical behaviour
• Self management • Social competence
• Creativiy

3. English National Curriculum
Personal Learning and Thinking Skills
• independent enquirers
• creative thinkers
• reflective learners
• team workers
• self-managers
• effective participants.

4. European Council 2006
• Communication in mother • critical thinking,
tongue
• creativity,
• Communication in foreign
• initiative,
languages
• problem solving,
• Mathematical competence and
basic competences in science • risk assessment,
and technology • decision taking
• Digital competence • constructive management of
• Learning to learn; feelings.
• Social and civic competences;
• Initiative & entrepreneurship;
• Cultural awareness and
expression.

5. OECD Competences
(DeSeCo)
• The ability to use language, symbols and text interactively
• The ability to use knowledge and information interactively
• The ability to use technology interactively
• The ability to relate well to others
• The ability to cooperate
• The ability to manage and resolve conflicts
• The ability to act within the big picture
• The ability to form and conduct life plans and personal projects
• The ability to assert rights, interests, limits and needs

6. Haste Meta- Competencies
(2001)
• Adaptively assimilate changing technologies
• Deal with ambiguity and diversity
• Find and sustain community links
• Manage motivation and emotion
• Moral responsibility and citizenship

7. A perfect storm
all these lists
suggest that we
are in the middle of
a paradigm shift
and our education
systems need to
catch up

8. “It is time to hold up our hands and
admit that our education system just
isn’t working well enough.
Our emphasis needs not to be on
proving the residual value of outdated
curricula, tests and league tables, but on
inspiring and challenging children so that
they in turn can inspire and challenge
us.”
Lord David Puttnam
Chancellor, Open University.
Introduction to Learning Futures Programme

9. Learning Past ……curriculum as
prescription
• Delivery of outcomes – top down
• Students as performers
• Teachers as experts
• Factory model of schooling
• Impoverished language for learning
• One size fits all (more or less)
• National Curriculum as cage
• Values as ‘add ons’

10. Learning Futures ......curriculum as
narration
• Students as authors of their own learning journey
• Authentic inquiry – authentic pedagogy
• Co-construction of knowledge
• Teachers as facilitators of learning
• Learning as an ongoing journey
• Rich language for learning
• Local diversity – place based
• National Curriculum as common framework
• Values and citizenship are integral

11. Learning Futures…what should we give our attention to?
Self Competent
agent in the
world
Identity Personal Learning Competent life
qualities Outcomes long learner-
Desire citizens,
Motivation Dispositions Skills Mechanics,
Story Attitudes Knowledge Artisans, nurses
Relationships Values Understanding Engineers etc
Personal Public

12. Seven Dimensions of
Learning Power
• Changing & learning* • Being stuck & static
• Meaning making* • Data accumulation
• Critical curiosity* • Passivity
• Creativity • Being rule bound
• Learning relationships • Isolation & dependence
• Strategic awareness • Being robotic
• Resilience • Fragility & dependence

13. Changing & learning /
being stuck & static
I see learning as something I can get better at,
and myself as an improving learner. This often
reflects a more general interest in ‘self-
improvement’, and faith that this is possible. I
have a sense of history and of hope. I tend to
take ownership of my own learning, and like to
be responsible for what I’m learning and how I
go about it. I’m usually quite ready to ‘sign up’ to
learning tasks that are presented to me

14. Critical curiosity
/ passivity
I like to get below the surface of things and see what
is really going on. I like to work things out for myself,
and to ask my own questions. I tend to go looking for
things to understand better, rather than just
responding to problems that come my way. I am
usually excited by the prospect of learning, and have
a good deal of energy for learning tasks and
situations. In general, I’m attracted to learning and
enjoy a challenge. I value getting at the truth.

15. Meaning making / Data
accumulation
I tend to look for patterns,
connections and coherence in what I am
learning, and to seek links between new
situations and what I already know or am
interested in. I’m on the look-out for ‘horizontal
meaning’ I like to make sense of new things in
terms of my own experience, and I like learning
about what matters
to me.

16. Creativity /
Rulebound
I like new situations, and will sometimes
create novelty and uncertainty ‘just to see what
happens’. I’ll spice things up to stop them being
boring. I like playing with possibilities and imagining
how situations could be otherwise. I am able to look
at problems from different perspectives. I like trying
things out even if I don’t know where they will lead. I
sometimes get my best ideas when I just let my
mind float freely, and I don’t mind ‘giving up mental
control’ for a while to see what bubbles up. I often
use my imagination when I’m learning, and pay
attention to images and physical promptings as well
as rational thoughts.

17. Learning relationships
/ Isolation or Dependence
I like working on problems with other people, especially
my friends. I have no difficulty sharing thoughts and
ideas with others, and find it useful. I am quite capable of
working away at problems on my own, and sometimes
prefer it. I don’t feel I have to stick with the crowd for fear
of being lonely or isolated, when I’m learning. I have
important people at home and in my community who
share with me in my learning. I am ready to draw on
these when it seems helpful. I feel that I live within a
supportive social context.

18. Strategic Awareness
/ Robotic
I tend to think about my learning, and
plan how I am going to go about it. I usually have a
fair idea how long something is going to take me,
what resources I am going to need, and my
chances of being successful.
I am able to talk about the process of learning –
how I go about things – and about myself as a
learner – what my habits, preferences, aspirations,
strengths and weaknesses are.

19. Resilience / dependence
and fragility
I tend to stick at things for a while, even when they are
difficult. I don’t give up easily. I often enjoy grappling
with things that aren’t easy. I can handle the feelings
that tend to crop up during learning: frustration,
confusion, apprehension and so on. I have quite a high
degree of emotional tolerance when it comes to
learning. I’m not easily upset or embarrassed when I
can’t immediately figure something out. I don’t
immediately look for someone to help me out when I am
finding things difficult, or when I get stuck. I’m usually
happy to keep trying on my own for a while. I don’t mind
if there’s nobody around to ‘rescue’ me.

20. Seven scales in a self report,
online questionnaire, designed to
measure learning power and to
stimulate change
Four types of feedback:
• Individual
• Group or class
• Organisation
• System wide

21. Changing and Type One
learning ELLI Profile
Critical
Curiosity
Learning
relationships
Meaning
Making
Strategic
Awareness
Creativity Resilience

22. Type Two ELLI
Changing and
learning Profile
Critical
Curiosity Learning
relationships
Meaning
Strategic
Making
Awareness
Creativity Resilience

23. Type Three
Changing and ELLI Profile
Critical learning
Curiosity
Learning
relationships
Meaning
Making
Strategic
Awareness
Creativity Resilience

24. ELLI - an assessment event
a framework for a coaching conversation
that moves between the person and
identity of the learner and a particular
negotiated learning outcome
Trust, affirmation and challenge

25. Critical Curiosity

26. ELLI profiles shown as bar
graphs

27. ELLI profiles shown as pie
charts

29. Study 1
Learning Power
seems to get weaker and
more fragile as children go
through school
N = 6045 Schools = 116

30. Cronbach Alpha Co-efficients by age group n= 10496
KS2 KS3 KS4 KS5 Adult All
Changing & learning .69 .77 .75 .72 .76 .75
Critical Curiosity .69 .76 .74 .78 .77 .76
Meaning making .69 .74 .74 .73 .71 .75
Creativity .75 .78 .79 .81 .84 .79
Strategic awareness .82 .85 .84 .86 .84 .85
Learning .67 .72 .73 .74 .81 .72
relationships
Fragility and .81 .83 .82 .81 .81 .82
dependence

31. Changing and learning across the
age range
70.00
68.00
Mean of chnglng
66.00
64.00
62.00
2.00 3.00 4.00
KeyStage

32. Critical Curiosity across the age
range
60.00
57.00
Mean of curiosity
54.00
51.00
48.00
45.00
2.00 3.00 4.00
KeyStage

33. Meaning Making across the age
range
62.00
Mean of meaningmaking
61.00
60.00
59.00
2.00 3.00 4.00
KeyStage

34. Creativity across the age range
62.00
60.00
58.00
Mean of creativity
56.00
54.00
52.00
50.00
48.00
2.00 3.00 4.00
KeyStage

35. Strategic Awareness across the
age range
60.00
57.00
Mean of strategic
54.00
51.00
48.00
45.00
2.00 3.00 4.00
KeyStage

36. Learning Relationships
across the age range
64.00
62.00
Mean of lngrelation
60.00
58.00
56.00
2.00 3.00 4.00
KeyStage

37. Study 2: Ecology of learning
N=851, 5-9, 2004
• Learning power is associated with:
• Attainment (except creativity!)
• Students perceptions of: teachers ability to
create positive interpersonal relationships, to
honour student voice, to respect students and
to stimulate higher order thinking
• Organisational emotional literacy

38. Teachers whose students’
have high levels of learning
power are characterised by:
Self efficacy; reflective self-awareness;
high autonomy support (as opposed to
highly controlling) learner-centred beliefs
about students.

39. Study 4
Exploring the Learning Profiles of
Underachieving Students
N=900 14 year olds
We identified the underachievers and
compared their learning power with
their achieving and ‘over’ achieving
counterparts

40. Significant differences
between groups (ANOVA)
• Changing and Learning • .003
• Meaning Making • .002
• Critical Curiosity • .001
• Creativity • .345
• Learning relationships • .691
• Strategic awareness • .011
• Fragility and dependence • .099

41. Tentative findings….
• Underachievers are characterised by
• Passivity in learning dispositions
• Accepting things at face value
• Lacking strategic awareness – of thinking,
feeling and planning/doing
• Not looking for meaning and sense making in
their learning
• Being ‘stuck and static’ in their sense of
themselves as learners.
• Being unable to ‘tell their story’

42. Studies 5 & 6 (N=600 & N=45)
• Learning power is positively related to
students’ positive social values, spiritual
development and political engagement
• We identified young offenders in prison for
violent offences by their learning power
profiles. Learning power is negatively
related to violent behaviour.

43. So what works?
• Creating a shared language for learning
including metaphors, stories and image
• Coaching for learning - awareness,
ownership and responsible self-direction
• Authentic, active inquiry – bottom up
• Scaffolding the construction of knowledge
• Extending places and partners for
learning

44. Intervention studies
Study 7
Learning Outside the Box
Impact of self assessment of learning
power on highly achieving sixth formers in
a Malaysian college

45. Pre post changes
• N=184 17 year olds Paired T Tests
• Interventions were coaching conversations
with tutors responding to ELLI profiles
• Significant change pre to post on six out of
seven dimensions

46. 17year old – gains in 6
dimensions
• I have changed so much
in my learning ability and
this makes me feel a bit
more confident in myself.
Apart from just learning
whatever I need, knowing
why should I learn them
is an important part for
me and then analysing
them.

47. Study 9 Parkview School
Learning in the Outdoor
Dimension
• Introducing learning power dimensions
through professional actors

48. INTERVENTIONS
• Coaching and mentoring conversations
• Significant use of modelling and imitation
and use of metaphor and imagery to
introduce the language and concepts
• Self assessment and target setting

49. N=171 Age 11
Mean Std. Deviation df Sig. (2-tailed)
Pair 1 changing and learning - -3.07018 23.68942 170 .092
changing and learning post
Pair 2 critical curiosity - critical -3.33550 20.64347 170 .036
curiosity post
Pair 3 meaning making - meaning -5.68087 21.89085 170 .001
making post
Pair 4 creativity - creativity post -4.65887 20.50818 170 .003
Pair 5 strategic awareness - -4.84330 21.42476 170 .004
strategic awareness post
Pair 6 learning relationship - -4.12606 18.24338 170 .004
learning relationship post
Pair 7 fragility and dependence - 2.33206 15.08077 168 .046
fragdeppost

50. Student voices
• If we didn’t have the ELLI animals, we
wouldn’t know other ways to learn and if
we always learned the same way we’d get
bored with it. Now we can choose a way
that’s best for you (sic).
• That’s the same for me because I used to
sit quietly and think it out for myself but
now if I’m stuck I ask questions

51. Study 11
Foundation Years: Language
for Learning Project
Language of learning through
music and movement – using animal
metaphors as a vehicle for modelling and
imitation and conceptual understanding

52. Music
Web weaving spider
Had a silky thread
Connected all the thoughts
To make ideas in his head.

53. Learning power in the community

54. Focusing in on….
Some key areas for further exploration and development

55. Communication through
metaphor, imagery and story
• All of the studies involve teachers and
learners accessing complex ideas through
image and metaphor.
• “It’s useful; you can BE that and then try
and BE that” (an 11 year old from Cumbria)

56. Elli Presentation
Childhood is the first step of learning for each and individual student.
When Elli program was introduced to Gapuwiyak school Sally invited
me to see what she and the school has planned. We went out together
into the community to discuss with our elders what was happening in
the school.

57. • After long and strong discussions with
leaders and elders of community we
chose six birds from our song lines to
represent six of the learning
dispositions. The seventh bird, the
bower bird is not in our song lines but
was chosen because it is a creative
bird.

58. • I then created seven paintings of the birds.
During the painting I decided to have the
process photographed so that we would
use them in teaching the children the
learning dispositions.

59. • The next step was introducing Elli to the
community. The principal called a meeting.
Everyone attended the meeting. Elders,
community members , parents, all staff
and older students.

60. • This was the first time we had an evening
meeting for a long time. It was a positive
feeling and everyone felt something new
was happening in the school. It was a new
beginning for the community to come
together within the school. Learning was
not just Balanda way but we’re building a
strong relationship between the two
cultures.

61. At this meeting I drew the graph
of the learning dispositions on the
whiteboard to explain about Elli.

62. • I explained the meaning of the graph.

63. • I was able to describe the spider graph
because I had completed the online
survey. The story from my spider graph
showed me that I was strong in some
learning dimensions but weak in resilience
and strategic awareness. I am working on
these by being more confident in asking
questions.

64. Study 12 Learning, Place and
Identity NSW

65. Naming the animals
• CHANGING & LEARNING: SNAKE
• Sheds his skin
• Dislocates his mouth/ jaw to fit in food
• Uses venom & constriction to capture its prey
• Changes shape to adapt to its environment
• CRITICAL CURIOSITY: EMU
• Always looks up to see what is around its
• environment
• Curious
• Explores and is adventurous
• Stares
• Proud and strong

66. MAKING MEANING: PLATYPUS
Builds its own burrow
Uses many resources from its environment
CREATIVITY: WILLY WAG TAIL
Proud, fun and playful
Individual and challenges others, or takes
on anything it encounters
Not scared, fast, likes to show off.

67. • RESILIENCE: ECHIDNA
• Digs into the ground when
faced with danger
• Tough, smart, tricky
• Camouflages in the tall grass
• STRATGEIC AWARENESS:
WEDGED_TAIL EAGLE
• Spirals high in the sky to look
for prey
• Patient, strategic, smart,
stealthy, big, strong and proud
• Uses aerodynamics
• LEARNING
RELATIONSHIPS: ANTS
• Work together
• Each have a different job,
scout and travel
• Can predict rain

68. Taranga Zoo Break Out
This is a story about some animals that lived in a zoo called Taronga
which is in Guringai country. Most of these animals came from
different nations that were all over the land that is now called
Australia. All the animals would dream about the time when they
could return to their own country, hear the stories from the elders,
learn the laws, know the ways of their land. At night when all the
people were gone they would gather in their language groups and
talk about the old ways, the good ways, when there were no fences
and captivity. One group of animals were from the Wonnaruah
nation and had their own names in the language. A willy wag tail or
didijiri, the emu or kungkurung, the snake or ta nipa tang, the eagle
or ka-wul, the echidna or kuntji kukan, the platypus or pikan and
some ants or yunrring that were nearly always too busy to stop and
talk. Always the talk would turn to their dreams and of the country
that they all wished to return to.

69. • For the first time since Willy Wagtail told
him about his dreams, Snake felt a stirring
of excitement wriggle all the way down his
coils. He was beginning to get it. He
started to feel himself grow and change.
He was already learning to ask questions
and be curious, like Emu. Now he was
learning how important it is to be patient
and stick at things, like Echidna. His skin
felt tight, all of a sudden.

70. A shape flashed across the light of the moon and its shadow fell momentarily on
the scene. All the animals fell silent. The Eagle landed, a little higher up the
leaning gum tree, spread her wings magnificently and folded them away with a
shake of her feathers. No one spoke. They were all curious to hear what the
Eagle was going to say.
‘The moment has arrived. We have anticipated it. Now, everything is in
place. Under the full moon, I have called you together to combine your
strengths, summon the power of all your learning and fulfil your dream. I have
planned for this night. I see everything, from the smallest ant to the whole zoo,
the city and the vast bush, stretching out West as far as the eye can see. I see
each moment: how it arrived on the wings of the past and how it will launch into
the great sky of the future. Learn from me as you have learned from each other.
I give you your purpose, your direction, your focus and, most important of all,
your readiness to accept your responsibility to yourself to achieve your dream.’
All the animals breathed a deep breath of the midnight air and solemnly
vowed to accept their responsibility to themselves and the group. They knew
that, before the night was over, if they all played their part, they would be free.

71. One day, they got together again and agreed that they
should leave the bush. One dream had been fulfilled.
The city children had been sad to lose them. The bush
would always be there when they needed to go back to it.
They had learned how to travel. They had all survived
crossing the F3 the busiest road in their world, to get back
to country. It had taken skill, determination and courage to
do it but together they had made it, and had learnt
together how to do it.
Now, they knew they would go on learning for the rest of
their lives. They would never go back to the zoo. They
had returned home to the Hunter Valley, home to the
Wonnaruah people, their home. Today the animals are
working around the schools of the Singleton area, helping
children and students to grow and change by passing on
their truths and being everlasting symbols of what they
discovered on their adventure.
Ratified by the
Wonnaruah elders

72. The iconography of learning
The symbol mediates
between experiential
knowing (community and
tradition) narrative knowing
(big, medium and little
stories) and propositional
knowing. All ways of
knowing are crucial for
learning how to learn and
to co-create and use
knowledge in the global
information age

73. Creativity
• Or ‘springboard zone.’
• Thinking around things
• Coming up with new
ideas, sometimes a bit
crazy!
• Trusting your hunches

75. RESILIENCE
LENNY
Hello, I’m Lenny and my
learning strength is
resilience. I love to
challenge my thinking and
learning. I don’t give up
easily – even when things
are difficult.

76. CURIOSITY
GERARD
Hello, I’m Gerard and
my learning strength
is curiosity. I love
asking my own
questions to find out
what’s really going on.

77. Focusing in on……
Learning power and the re-
sequencing of the curriculum
• All of the studies have involved teachers
re-sequencing the ways in which students
encounter the content of the curriculum
• From the middle outwards and
• From top down to bottom up

78. ELLI facilitates authentic
inquiry
• Connects with the PERSON
• It matters in their life – significance and
engagement
• The challenge for teachers is to facilitate
the movement from personal choice to
public outcome

79. The dynamics of authentic inquiry
1. Personal Choice : concrete place/object
2. Observation - description
3. Generating questions
4. Uncovering narratives
5. Knowledge mapping
6. Connecting with existing funds of knowledge
7. Interface with curriculum requirements
8. Assessment - validation
9. Application in the real world

80. Thinking and Learning capabilities
developed through learning power
• Choosing/deciding
• Observing/describing
• Creativity
• Wondering/interrogating
• Discovering/storying • Meaning making
• Navigating/mapping • Critical curiosity
• Spanning/connecting, • Resilience
• Interacting/incorporating • Strategic awareness
• Reconciling, validating
• Changing and learning
• Acting in the world
• Learning relationships

81. Sonny’s choice – my dog
• My dog and why he means a lot to me
• Why do animals end up in shelters?
• Why do they lock people up?
• Does locking people up make a
difference?
• How have they got the power to lock
people up?
• What are their rights?

83. Shawanda’s choice
• My tangible object of
choice was a picture
of Anansi the
spiderman.
• I chose this object
based on my intrinsic
drive to explore my
ancestral heritage in
regards to the West
African connection

84. Why is Anansi important to
me?
• He inspires me.
• He exemplifies survival.
• He reminds me of the fact that my ancestors were not
’slaves’ but were instead a powerful ethnic group
befallen through the evils of slavery.
• He reminds me that my ancestors have heavily
contributed to the wealth of many powerful countries
• He reminds me that christianity is not the end all of
spirituality
• He reminds me that poverty is a state of mind
• And he reminds me to stay strong in the face of
adversities

85. Values and Learning
The stories
My own and values in
story and what and
values how I am
learning
The stories and
values of my
community and Powerful Learning
tradition

86. Idea-Spinning!
in the….
Springboard zone Jigsaw zone
and the
(Creativity) (Meaning Making)

87. Jess’s choice:
Cheddar Gorge
• ‘I chose this person and place because it was
the time in my life when things were just normal
at home and it was just me, my mum and my
brother and we were all happy. It makes me a bit
sad because we don’t have times like that any
more but also happy because we had a good
day’

89. Questioning
in the….
Pilot zone
Detective zone
and the
(Critical Curiosity) (Strategic Awareness)

90. Jess’s questions
• What will be there in 15 years?
• What was there before?
• How many people have been there?
• How was the gorge made?
• Have any famous people been there?
• What kind of people used to be there?
• Why do relationships matter?

91. Reflecting
Jigsaw zone in the….
Gritty zone
and the
(Meaning Making) (Resilience)

94. • ‘It’s made me not so scared
to learn other things,’ ‘It
was a tiny little project and Jess
it spiraled into all these
other things that were
connected.’
• ‘I didn’t think I could learn
any more but now I believe
you can.’ It’s not just about
Cheddar Gorge, it’s about
life stuff.’

95. 16 year old voices
• “Learning how to tell your own story
would make it easier to do all the
other things you have to do – learn
subjects, get grades etc”
• “We’re all programmed in a way that
makes our experience invisible”
• “More measurable things are given
far more attention than the less
measurable”

96. Danny – a ‘NEET’ Learner with profound learning difficulties
– targeted Critical Curiosity and Learning Relationships
“It’s changed what I think I can do.”

97. Finally…..
• Let’s listen to Daniel tell his own story of
how he has changed as a result of ‘My
World’ (an authentic inquiry, including
ELLI)

98. The class were ‘LOST’ on an island and had
to find ways to survive…..

99. While I visited the school, the BNP were canvassing for
members – outside the school - Daniel lives in a socially and
economically challenged area of Manchester.

100. Meaning making
– connecting my
story with my
learning in school

101. Daniel is able to
describe his journey
from ‘messing about’
to hope in the future
through the use of
metaphor and
imagery which has
been provided as part
of the school’s
language for learning
and the authentic
active inquiry of My
World.

102. The gift of hope and the
development of resilience

103. Learning futures – 3 ideas to
take away............
Authentic inquiry
Integration
Engagement