“Activity 2: A Change in My Practice Towards Future-oriented Learning and Teaching”

             Changes in Education

In our changing global climate, education reform is inevitable as the demands of the information technology age have created a whole new culture. The old education model is already obsolete, though granted a lot of current theory and pedagogy is still relevant in these initial stages of this paradigm shift.

I have come to teaching as a mature adult and have been trained in the first wave of future focussed education. When I got my first teaching position as a BT, I naively thought all schools were well underway with 21^st Century learning skills. I began to realise the size and scope of the huge educational wheel beginning to turn its cogs towards change. I have seen teachers in resistance to the change, and I began to be afraid I would be left behind in a school system that had not yet embraced the changes needed.

The Influence of Mindlab

Mindlab has upskilled me and replaced this growing fear with excitement and knowledge. I am passionate about deeper approaches to learning and engaging students in critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration and self-directed learning. The way that students engage with these 21^st Century skills is astounding, they are hungry for this new model of teaching and learning.

Our current catch phrases of diversity, student led, lifelong learners and digital classrooms are the new vocabulary that is helping to shape the pathway forward.

One of the themes I have incorporated into my classroom from my experiences with Mindlab is “Changing the script” (MOE, 2012).  I enjoy sharing knowledge with my students as much as any teacher, but I also understand they have access to instant knowledge at their fingertips, therefore understandably this role needed to change from teacher directed.

Self-Regulated Learners

I began to utilise student voice in my classroom last year before this course, and realised how informative it was to guide my practice and make the students feel valued. I had also been an advocate of collaborative classrooms, creating a community of learners. However, the Self-regulation 21^st CLD learning activity rubric (ITL Research, 2016) made me aware that a barrier to actual self-regulation in my classroom was that I was still providing the structure and follow up to their lessons. There was not opportunity for the students to plan their own work.

I began to trial this with a group of students and was immediately able to see the depth of response from my students. Initially I scaffolded through this transition, offering ideas for guidance, but the students quickly adapted and created their own learning goals and follow ups. This has led the students to feel greater freedom and yet more ownership of their learning, to engage their critical thinking skills and collaborative learning, and to problem solve together.

Freedom in the Classroom

The majority of my students moved quickly away from teacher directed into independent learning. I have found this has freed my time to be able to engage and tune in with all my students in a lesson, rather than be tied to a guided group in a fixed rotation model. Both me as a teacher, and my students feel more in control in this rethinking of learner’s and teacher’s roles style of learning.

This is most definitely a knowledge building learning environment, as we learn from each other on this journey. Teachers no longer need to know everything, as we too have access to it all at our fingertips, and students are the richest resource available to us.

ITL Research. (2012). 21CLD Learning Activity Rubrics. Retrieved from https://education.microsoft.com/GetTrained/ITL-Research

 Ministry of Education. (2012). Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching: A New Zealand perspective. Retrieved from https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/schooling/109306