The document discusses trends in education including collaborative learning, mobile learning, social media, and shifting teacher roles. It provides perspectives from experts on how space shapes learning and engagement. Key themes discussed are the importance of relevance, authenticity, and depth in learning; competency-based curriculums focused on thinking, communicating and social responsibility; and transforming learning spaces and classrooms to support different learning styles in the digital age.
2. Schools face one such important question:
What is a great learning environment in
the Wikipedia age?
Bruce Mai
3. How does space shape
how we learn, work & engage with others?
4. Mobile learning
The New Electricity
Web 2.0
21st Century Learning
Teacher as Co-learner
Social Media
Shifts Impacting Education
5.
6. I am entirely certain that 20 years from
now we will look back at education as it is
practiced in most schools today and
wonder how we could have tolerated
anything so primitive.
John W. Gardner
7.
8. Kids Are Wired Differently
And Therefore Learn Differently
10. The issue here is that a lot of people talk
about getting back to basics, but they’re
basing this argument on the old economy.
The future economies, and the present
economy, absolutely depend on innovation
and creativity.
Doorley & Witthoft, Make Space (2012)
16. The Message Has Been Clear
…students do not want learning made easy,
they want it to mean something. They want
to feel something, to be moved by what they
learn; they want to connect deeply with
things that matter to the world and matter to
them; and they want the chance to make a
difference.
From Imagine a school… Design for Learning
Wilms, Friesen & Milton (2009)
17. What are these big 3 core
competencies?
• Thinking Competency
• Critical thinking
• Creative thinking
• Reflective thinking
• Personal and Social Competency
• Positive personal and cultural identity
• Personal awareness and responsibility
• Social awareness and responsibility
• Communication Competency
• Use of language and symbols
• Digital literacy
B.C. Ministry of Education
Curriculum
Transformation &
Assessment
18. Making the Shift
• Covering curriculum
• Subjects and courses
• Learning outcomes
• Measuring & assessing
student work
• Evaluation and grading
• Engaging students in deep
learning
• Interdisciplinary, relevant &
meaningful learning experiences
• Big ideas, learning standards
• Descriptive feedback, developing
competencies
• Learner profiles, communicating
student learning
From… To…
20. Common Competencies and Content
• Reduced in scope
• Balance with personalized
content
• Old: binders with unending
learning outcomes
• New: simple one page
overviews of
competencies, big ideas,
learning standards,
concepts and content.
21. Core Competencies
• Thinking, Communicating,
Personal & Social Responsibility
Big Ideas:
• Patterns represented in various
ways show repeated
regularities.
Learning Standards:
• Students will be able to
problem-solve:
• Representing: Develop
mathematical understanding
through concrete, pictorial, and
symbolic representations
Concepts & Content:
• Student will know and
understand the following
concepts and content
• repeating patterns with two or
three elements
23. Marshall McLuhan in
What did you do in school today?
Learning is now driven through student inquiry
“Education must shift
from instruction
to discovery-
to probing
and
exploration…”
24. What Matters?
Three critical ingredients: Relevance, Authenticity, &
Depth:
• Relevance: How do we ensure learning provides
opportunities for real-world problem solving?
• Authenticity: What opportunities do we provide for
outcomes to be showcased or recognized by a local
& global audience?
• Depth: Do we offer ways to extend learner
engagement beyond the curriculum & school day?
From What Matters Now? Michael Furdyck (2014))
25. Collaborative learning,
according to experts on the subject,
unleashes a unique intellectual & social energy.
TheThirdTeacher: 79 Ways You Can Use Design
To Transform Teaching & Learning (2010)
27. Doorley & Wittholft,
make space (2012)
Collaboration & creation aren’t
bound to designated areas;
they evolve throughout a
space, absorbing different
people, places, and
perspectives.
28. Doorley & Wittholft,
make space (2012)
…think of space primarily as
a way to change behavior,
not as a facilities project or a
showpiece for our brand.
29. Doorley & Wittholft,
make space (2012)
Make space is a tool for using
space to shape the culture &
habits of a creative community.
Building a space is tough, but
shaping culture is
an absurd act of daring.
32. Space is the “body language”
of an organization.
Chris Flink in
Doorley & Wittholft (2012),
make space
33.
34. Art and science need each other.
Discoveries-great and small-happen
when the two come together;
so give students places for cross-disciplinary work,
and who knows what
creative genius
will flourish.
TheThirdTeacher:
79 Ways You Can Use Design
To Transform Teaching & Learning (2010)
35. Make Peace with Fidgeting:
Think of it as brain development,
which it is.
Then think of how to make room for it in
the classroom.
TheThirdTeacher:
79 Ways You Can Use Design
To Transform Teaching & Learning (2010)
36. Give students furniture
that lets them twist &
learn safely.
The movement will
increase their ability to
concentrate.
ThirdTeacher:
79 Ways You Can Use Design
To Transform Teaching & Learning (2010)
37. A learning space that can be
reconfigured on a dime
will engage different kinds of
learners and teachers.
TheThirdTeacher:
79 Ways You Can Use Design
To Transform Teaching & Learning (2010)
38. Who said playgrounds had to be at ground
level?
Locate play space anywhere and
everywhere,
from rooftop terraces
to indoor atriums.
TheThirdTeacher:
79 Ways You Can Use Design
To Transform Teaching & Learning (2010)
39. Life is full of choices. Prepare kids
by giving them a say at school.
40. Alcoves and furniture in hallways
discourage high-speed traffic and create
places of pause.
TheThirdTeacher:
79 Ways You Can Use Design
To Transform Teaching & Learning (2010)
41. Children of all ages
need places where
they can learn by
touching,
manipulating, and
making things with
their hands.
TheThirdTeacher:
79 Ways You Can Use Design
To Transform Teaching & Learning (2010)
42. Give students places to exhibit their work
as if it were in a public gallery, then invite
the public to come and have a look.
TheThirdTeacher:
79 Ways You Can Use Design
To Transform Teaching & Learning (2010)
43. Injecting a learning
space with playfulness
and humor creates a
warm and
welcoming
atmosphere.
TheThirdTeacher:
79 Ways You Can Use Design
To Transform Teaching & Learning (2010)
44. Make sure a classroom has the capacity to link
into learning
opportunities beyond it’s four walls
- even beyond the Earth itself.
TheThirdTeacher:
79 Ways You Can Use Design
To Transform Teaching & Learning (2010)
So, what do we know?
We know that students are largely disengaged from their learning. The line chart shows the drop off really deepens by grade 5 and comes to its lowest between grade 9 & 10 before leveling out again.
Interestingly enough, I live this chart. I have four boys in grade 2, 5, 10 and 12. I am witness to this loss of enthusiasm and find it upsetting both as a parent and an educator.
How many of you have seen this loss of enthusiasm in your own children?
The other things is that we know that kids are all different and they learn differently
There is a need to honour that difference with a more personalized approach to learning
Image: Bankofnaturalcapital.com
Photo Credit The Nick Page
When students were asked what they wanted from their school and how they wanted to learn they were quite clear.
They want it to: mean something, feel something, be moved by their learning, connect deeply with things that matter and have a chance to make a difference.
This is really a bad news—good news story.
There are no shrink-wrapped binders, no bank of release time, not actual timeline and no strategic plan for implementaiton coming our way from the MOE.
You may be waiting for them. Your teachers may be waiting for them. But it is just not happening.
That maybe bad news but truly it is good news. It allows teachers as professionals to create and reinvent their practice based on what we know can best prepare our students for the future, what might truly engage them and how we might motivate them to become lifelong learners.
In a way, this is a Do-It-Yourself curriculum that will find its expression as teachers investigate, explore, play and try out the new ideas.
So, what will we do in tonight’s session? And how can we help move this transformation forward?
There will continue to be some common learning that all students must acquire in order to graduate. While the specifics have to be determined, this common learning would encompass both core competencies and limited discipline-specific content.
The common learning component is expected to be reduced in scope from what is currently the case, in order to make room for personally meaningful transition preparation and community learning experiences.