Stephen Harris is the principal of Northern Beaches Christian School and director of the Sydney Centre for Learning Innovation, in New South Wales, Australia. The topic of his keynote was, "Factories No More: They key role design and furniture has in enabling teachers to change pedagogy." Stephen discussed how education innovation breaks through disengagement and re-engages students into learning. His keynote was thought provoking and challenged the audience's preconceptions and ideas. The important ideas that will stay with me from this presentation are: School buildings will probably be out of date in twenty years. Architects should not draw furniture on their plans. This starts to set the pedagogy. Key questions for learning spaces - "How do I learn?","How do I want to learn?", "Where do I want to learn?" What implications does mobile technology have for education? How do you keep technology as the pedagogic tool, not the driver? How will economies affect learning? For example, will it be feasible to maintain and operate educational facilities like universities at the current level we have now? We need to unlearn and relearn pedagogic design. We need to disrupt our mental models, or teachers will revert to what they have always done, not relearn. The end product of education has to have a purpose. This could be social cohesion, community development or job creation. This means our designs need to have purpose and meaning, be future oriented, sustainable and allow for growth. School designs need to be agile, perpetual blank canvases, that can be continually reconfigured. Wondering: There are buildings less than ten years old, that are already requiring modifications and alterations to meet purpose. How can we minimise this? Stephen had some recommended reading for educators: Check out " Michael Barber discusses his essay, "Oceans of Innovation" about the rise of the Asia Pacific region. (Available free from Amazon.) A great resource for inspiration and tools to walk educators through the design process: Design Thinking for Educators.
Also check out the website for the World Innovation Summit for Education. The resources section has some great information about current educational topics and best practice.
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At Clearview Primary, we have two different types of buildings. We have our Stage 1 build, which opened in 2010 and our Stage 2 build, which opened in 2013. Today I spent some time in the Stage 1 classrooms. These blocks consist of 6 classrooms, with small breakout rooms between each class. There is also a full length learning studio, which runs beside the classrooms. There is a teacher workroom, wet area and technology area. The teachers in these blocks are experimenting with collaborative teaching methods. Our school this year is working towards pedagogical changes, to enhance the learning experiences for our students. The teachers are working either in teams of 2 or 3. They are very much trialing differents pedagogical approaches, and constantly refining to see what works best for their students. I spent some time with two of our Year 2 teachers, observing the way they are running their reading programme in a collaborative way. There was some amazing learning taking place. The setup: These teachers are using their 2 classrooms, learning studio area and breakout room. The students are grouped for reading according to ability. One teacher works in a classroom, taking reading groups. The next day the other teacher takes the reading groups. One teacher roves. Students might be working on follow up activities, literacy games, reading or other word study type activities. They have Interactive White Board games and reading eggs to access on the student laptops. The teachers plan for their reading groups together. Benefits: The teachers running this programme are noticing many benefits for their teaching and student's learning. They both know the students really well, as they take turns with group teaching. This has meant excellent professional discussions about student progress and intervention plans. When making overall teacher judgements, they can discuss a student confidently, and have support with their assessment. The teacher who is roving is able to interact and question students about what they are learning. They are on hand to provide support and immediate feedback and feedforward. The teachers feel that independent activities have become so much more purposeful and are reinforcing the learning, rather than just being fillers while the teacher takes reading groups. I definitely noticed how engaged the students were in these classes. They were focused and on task. I also noticed students teaching each other. The set up for reading is also being replicated in Maths, so I look forward to observing that session also. In the Year 3/4 block, they are getting underway with team teaching in Maths. Although just getting started, I could already notice how well the different spaces are being used, with students selecting work areas based on the learning styles and preferences. It will be interesting to see how this develops over the term. Reading some of the work by Dr Kenn Fisher has been truly inspiring this week. I came across these excellent diagrams that he presented as part of his work with the Education Department in the state of Victoria, Australia. I thought they summarised information about space and pedagogy in a very effective way. I especially liked how Dr Fisher had matched pedagogical activities with a spatial icon. Reading over the linking of principles to place, I was pleased to see that our MLE design at Clearview Primary provides opportunities for the pedagogical approaches and activities that Dr Fisher describes. To read the full article click here.
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AuthorMy name is Ngaire Shepherd-Wills. This website is a record of my TeachNZ sabbatical, Term 2, 2013 and then I have continued to share my wonderings and discoveries about Innovative Learning Practices. I now work for CORE Education. Views are my own. Tags
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