modern learning environments - where's the innovation?

www.core-ed.org

MODERN LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS:

WHERE’S THE INNOVATION?

ISNZ Annual Conference, Auckland, 20 June 2014

www.core-ed.org www.core-ed.org


CHANGING SCHOOLS… “Schools may be the starkest example in modern society of an entire institution modelled after the assembly line. This has dramatically increased educational capability in our time, but it has also created many of the most intractable problems with which students, teachers and parents struggle to this day.

If we want to change schools, it is unlikely to happen until we understand more deeply the core assumptions on which the industrial-age school is based”

Peter Senge


TESTING ASSUMPTIONS…

1996, Prof. Hedley Beare

“egg crate” classrooms set class groups based on age

period-based timetable linear curriculum

division of all human knowledge into “subjects”

division of staff by “subject”

allocation of most school tasks to teachers

assumption that learning is geographically bound notion of stand-alone school

limiting ‘formal schooling’ to years 0-13

9-3 school day


Practices

Principles

Moral purpose

WHY?

HOW?

WHAT?

Derived from values/beliefs. Captured in policy statements.

What you stand for. Mutually agreed and owned by the school community. Shared beliefs/values. Made explicit in mission/vision statement.

Lived expression of your values.


Practices

Principles

Moral Purpose

WHY?

HOW?

WHAT?

Learning is a individual activity. Tradition. Competition. Independence.

Academic success is the focus of schooling, and is achieved through personal discipline and effort.


Practices

Principles

Moral purpose

WHY?

HOW?

WHAT?

Learning is a individual activity. Style, ergonomics and technology must be considered.

Academic success is the focus of schooling, and is achieved through personal discipline and effort.


Practices

Principles

Moral purpose

WHY?

HOW?

WHAT?

Collaboration. Interaction. Social participation. Flexibility. Choice. Aesthetics.

Children are social beings. Knowledge building is the result of social interaction.


Practices

Principles

Moral purpose

WHY?

HOW?

WHAT?

Collaboration. Interaction. Social participation. Flexibility. Choice. Aesthetics. Informality.

Children are social beings. Knowledge building is the result of social interaction.


SOME BIG QUESTIONS…

•  What aspirations do you have for your children? •  What skills, knowledge, qualities will they require/ •  What role school school play in this?


WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO LEARN…?

Using language, symbols and text

Relating to others

Thinking

Participating and

contributing Managing self


HOW IS IT IMPORTANT TO LEARN? Student autonomy

and initiative accepted and encouraged.

Students engage in dialogue with teacher

and each other

Higher level thinking is encouraged Class uses raw data, primary

sources, physical and interactive materials.

Knowledge and ideas emerge only from a situation in which learners have to draw

them out of experiences that have meaning and importance to them.

Teacher asks open-ended questions and allows wait

time for response

Students are engaged in experiences that

challenge hypotheses

John Dewey – Constructivist Pedagogy, 1916


WHERE DOES LEARNING TAKE PLACE?

At home At my friend’s house

At the library

At school


WHO DO I LEARN WITH?

With friends in a group

At the computer

On my own in a quiet place

With my teacher


http://ingvihrannar.com/14-things-that-are-obsolete-in-21st-century-schools/


1.  Computer rooms

2.  Isolated classrooms

3.  Schools that don’t have WiFi

4. Banning phones and tablets

5.  Tech director with an admin access

6.  Teachers that don’t share what they do

7.  Schools that don’t have Facebook or Twitter

8.  Unhealthy cafeteria food

9.  Starting school at 8am for teenagers

10. Buying poster, website and pamphlet design for school

11. Traditional libraries

12. All students get the same

13. One-PD-workshop-fits-all

14. Standardized tests to measure the quality of education


REPLIES


HORIZON REPORT - 2014

•  Rethinking role of teachers •  Shift to deeper learning

approaches •  Increasing use of OERs •  Increasing hybrid learning

designs •  Rethinking how schools work

http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2014-nmc-horizon-report-k12-EN.pdf


MODERN LEARNING PRACTICE


3rd place

COMPETING AGENDAS?

Centralised De-centralised

Connected

•  Self-managing •  Autonomous •  Customised •  Competitive •  Agile •  ‘Local’

•  Bureaucratic •  Compliant •  Equitable •  Aggregated •  Cumbersome •  ‘National’

•  Federated •  Networked •  Collabetition •  Complexity theory •  Ecosystem •  ‘Disruptive’

Cluster

Improvement agenda

Improvement •  Quality •  Achievement •  Equity •  Standardised •  “Same but better”

Tran

sfor

mat

ion

agen

da

Transformation •  Paradigm shift •  Complete, major change •  Renewal •  Metamorphosis •  “Different and better”


Students in physical school, instruction

and assessment predominantly on-

site

Students access formal learning via

the network, instruction and

assessment provided online

Students learning through their online personal learning

network, incl. social networking

environments

Students at home, library or other

space, pursuing own interests individually

or collaboratively

FORMAL

INFORMAL

PHYSICAL

VIRTU

AL

Location

Purp

ose


•  Strong support for creating and sharing

•  Some type of informal mentorship

• Members believe that their contributions matter

• Members feel some degree of social connection with one another

• Relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement

Participatory culture…


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11274007


Play the capacity to experiment with one’s surroundings as a form of problem-solving

Performance the ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery

Simulation the ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real-world processes

Appropriation the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content

Multitaskng the ability to scan one’s environment and shift focus as needed to salient details.

Distributed cognition

the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental capacities

http://www.newmedialiteracies.org/files/working/NMLWhitePaper.pdf


Collective Intelligence

The ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a common goal

Judgment The ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sources

Transmedia Navigation

The ability to follow the flow of stories and information across multiple modalities

Networking The ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate information

Negotiation The ability to travel across diverse communities, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms

http://www.newmedialiteracies.org/files/working/NMLWhitePaper.pdf


UNPACK

•  How adequately do our learning spaces cater for the type of learning we are wanting our children to experience?

•  Do our current spaces work against the things we’re trying to achieve?


MODERN WORK SPACES

•  ASB building, Auckland waterfront •  Open, shared spaces •  Visibility at all levels •  Connectedness throughout •  Collaborative approaches

prominent •  Are our schools preparing young

people to work in these sorts of environments


INNOVATIVE LEARNING PRINCIPLES

•  Make learning and engagement central •  Ensure that learning is social and often collaborative •  Be highly attuned to learning motivations and

emotions •  Be acutely sensitive to individual differences •  Be demanding for each learning but without

excessive overload •  Use assessments consistent with learning aims, with a

strong emphasis on formative feedback •  Promote horizontal connectedness across activities

and subjects , in and out of school

Educational Research and Innovation Innovative Learning Environments OECD Publishing , 24 Oct 2013


MODERN LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

•  Albany Senior High School •  Whole school in one building •  Learning commons – 130

students, five teachers •  Designed with/by students in

mind •  Flexibility – small group/large

group •  Lots of technology evident


Image credit: JISC 'Designing Spaces for Effective Learning'

Outdoor learning Increases social cooperation, creativity, engagement and achievement

Prototyping & experimentation Active learning, learning by doing, develops spatial and mathematical awareness

Collaboration space Increases learning faster than competitive or individualistic learning.

'One-to-many' space Direct instruction, reciprocal teaching, not lectures

Multimedia studio Digital creation increases cognitive growth, multimedia increases retention

Peer tutoring space Increases learning for both parties

Independent practice space Short to long-term memory

Reflection space Improves creativity, analysis and prediction skills; raises achievement

Choices in learning Choice & agency increases engagement, learning, creativity & graduation rates.

Informal learning space Play can increase attention span, making mistakes increases creativty

LEARNING SETTINGS:

www.core-ed.org www.core-ed.org http://www.core-ed.org/professional-learning/mle-matrix


EDUCATIONAL POSITIONING SYSTEM

http://eps.core-ed.org

•  Provides a ‘map’ of where your school is ‘at’ in terms of:

•  Philosophical frameworks (incl. moral purpose)

•  Strategies and structures

•  Community and culture

•  Builds on input from staff, students and community

•  Provides key insights to inform strategic decisions.


Derek Wenmoth [email protected]

Twitter - dwenmoth