Supporting future-oriented
learning & teaching —
a New Zealand perspective
Report to the Ministry of Education
R Bolstad & J Gilbert
with S McDowall, A Bull, S Boyd & R Hipkins
New Zealand Council for Educational Research
If you haven't already, then I strongly recommend you download a full copy of this report and read it cover to cover. This publication has been our 'go to' book and reflects the vision we have for all our students. It challenges traditional teaching practice and calls for new initiatives that better reflect the ever-changing world our students are moving into.
Why change is needed. For much of the last century, there was a good fit between the education we provided and the education that was needed—by individuals, society and the economy. We used the best means possible (modern schools, professional teachers and formal exams) to deliver the kind of education needed for a relatively stable economy made up of large hierarchical organisations. However, it is widely argued that some key developments in the world have changed things so much that there is no longer a good fit between the education we are currently providing and the education we need. p 11
We now know so much more about the way people learn. Knowledge is acquired and used in different ways. We are facing a world full of 'wicked' problems (climatisation, pollution etc). We are so easily connected and jobs are becoming more global. Jobs our children will be applying for, haven't yet been invented. Technology is becoming an extension of us. Surely, we need to be doing something different in the classroom?
The 'blue bible' covers the following 6 themes:
3. Personalising learning Why does personalising learning matter for the 21st century? The idea of “personalising learning” is simple and familiar “in the sense that it is about trying to build learning around the needs of individual pupils, something that has been practised by many good teachers for years”.36 However, it is much more complex when interpreted from a 21st century perspective. Here, the emphasis is on a major systems-level shift. It calls for reversing the “logic” of education systems so that the system is built around the learner, rather than the learner conforming to the system
4. New views of equity, diversity and inclusivity Why does this idea matter for the 21st century? Discussions of equity, diversity and inclusivity and “21st century learning” tend to draw on two quite different sets of ideas. First is the idea that producing educational engagement and success for all learners is an important priority for 21st century schools. Underpinning this is the recognition that certain major social groups have not been well served by the education system in the past; that this has contributed to current social inequities; and that this is a problem that—if it is not solved—has major implications for New Zealand’s social, political and economic future.
The second idea that commonly comes up in discussions of equity/diversity and 21st century learning is that 21st century citizens need to be educated for diversity—in both the people sense and the knowledge/ideas sense. The changing global environment requires people to engage—and be able to work—with people from cultural, religious and/or linguistic backgrounds or world views that are very different from their own.
5. A curriculum that uses knowledge to develop learning capacity Why does this idea matter for the 21st century? One of the biggest challenges for education in the 21st century is that our current ideas about curriculum are underpinned by two concurrent, but quite different, epistemologies, or models of what counts as knowledge: the “20th century” idea of knowledge as content or “stuff”, and the 21st century view of it as something that does stuff.
6. “Changing the script”: Rethinking learners’ and teachers’ roles Why does this idea matter for the 21st century? Just as curriculum needs to be reconceived in ways that reflect 21st century ideas about knowledge and learning, there also needs to be shifts in the “traditional” roles or “scripts” followed by learners and teachers. If we believe that the main role of education is not just to transmit knowledge but also to cultivate people’s ability to engage with and generate knowledge, then teachers’ roles need to be reconsidered
7. A culture of continuous learning for teachers and educational leaders Why does this idea matter for the 21st century? Most adults today have been socialised into various educational ideas and practices that were implicit to the 20th century education systems that they experienced. It is argued that educators (not to mention the wider public) will need to re-examine many implicit and taken-for-granted assumptions about teaching and learning, since future-focused practice will require teachers to work in ways that are very different from the models they experienced during their own years of school.
8. New kinds of partnerships and relationships: Schools no longer siloed from the community Why does this idea matter for the 21st century? Greater “connectedness” between schools and other organisations, groups and individuals in the wider community is a key part of 21st century education.
Supported by:
9. The role of new technologies In many people’s minds, new technologies are synonymous with future-oriented education. Rapidly evolving technologies open many exciting opportunities for learning in the 21st century. However, research in schools suggests new technologies only enable transformation when they are supported by ideas and social contexts that enable transformative practice.
10. Supporting and sustaining innovation Charles Leadbeater157 argues that there is a need “for a wave of more systematic and radical innovation in education and learning”. Such innovation, he argues, “should take place simultaneously, at different levels and in different settings, from the daily practice of teachers and learners, through organisations, systems and platforms, to the social movements and ideologies that inspire them”. He further suggests that a key task for an educational innovation strategy is “to create the demand for innovation and the conditions in which it can thrive”.
NZC Update 26
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