Reconceptualising 21C curriculum: From segregated subjects, ad hoc themes, and ‘covering content’ to holistic, integrated learning Dr Julia Atkin Education.

Reconceptualising 21C curriculum: From segregated subjects, ad hoc themes, and ‘covering content’ to

holistic, integrated learning

Dr Julia AtkinEducation & Learning Consultant

“Bumgum”Harden-Murrumburrah NSW 2587

[email protected]://www.learning-by-design.com

Integrating new technologies to empower learning and transform leadership

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.learning-by-design.com/

The New Zealand Curriculum provides a coherent macro framework for a 21C curriculum.

Working with this curriculum framework requires considerable curriculum design work in your school.

Key questions are:• For our students, what is it essential that they learn? What is desirable? • How do we ensure powerful learning? • How do we map our curriculum in a way that ensures depth and breadth?

This interactive workshop will engage you in developing understandings, processes and strategies for developing your school’s curriculum.

Breakout Description

Philosophical FrameworksWhat & Why?

Beliefs Understandings

Values

Strategies &StructuresThe ‘how’.

Community & Culture

The ‘human spirit’ and learning culture

© Julia Atkin, 2009

EFFECTIVE, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Effective, sustainable development depends on an iterative interplay between each of these domains. Like a ‘three legged stool’ balance

requires equal emphasis and growth

in each ‘leg’.

Effective & Sustainable DevelopmentPhilosophical FrameworksWhat & Why?

Beliefs Understandings

Values

Strategies &StructuresThe ‘how’.

Community & Culture

The ‘human spirit’

ICT

Powerful le

arning?

Ope

nmin

dedn

ess

Col

labo

raat

ive


© CORE Education and Julia Atkin, 2009

The EPS survey is a lens for leading learning - a school self

review tool. It holds a ‘mirror up’ to a school community to help it see

where it is on the ‘map’

It represents the community’s perception of the extent to which each key element of sustainable

development is being lived out and thus helps pinpoint areas for focus

and development.http://eps2.core-ed.net

http://eps2.core-ed.net/

. . . education is at the cross roads.

Choosing one direction will lead efforts to lift performance within traditional educational models.

Choosing the other will see radical changes in education that will shift the way we think about learning…

Steve Maharey

Educators’ choice

The NZ Curriculum describes WHAT it is essential for all young NZers to learn and challenges you to interpret this for your learners in their context but HOW you design the learning experiences is your choice, your responsibility.

The origin of the term ‘curriculum

Cur•ri•cle

noun historical

a light, open, two-wheeled carriage pulled by two horses side by side.

ORIGIN mid 18th cent.: from Latin curriculum ‘course, racing chariot,’ from currere ‘to run.’

Reconceptualising ‘curriculum’

Are we still advocating curriculum as a ‘narrow

track to be run as a competition’ pulled along by

teachers?

What is it powerful to learn?

Education Design & DevelopmentKey elements & Shapers

WHY school?What is your educative

purpose?


purpose?

WHAT shouldstudents learn?What is essential?What is desirable?


CONTEXT

CONTEXT

values&

beliefsshapes &informs


21st century education is increasingly driven by a desire to develop young people who are adaptable, creative, collaborative, responsive, self directed and capable of being self managing in networks and less hierarchical settings and communities than experienced by their parents at the same age.

Educative Purpose for 21C


How do the nature & challenges of 21C inform the

design of learning experiences?


What perspective do you bring to the NZ Curriculum?

What lens are you looking through?

Perspective and Pedagogy the powerful agents

Before considering pedagogy, let’s first view

curriculum for 21C in light of our past.

CoreLatin

GreekMathematics

1870

KLAsEnglishMaths

ScienceSocial SciencesPE/Health/PDDesign & Tech

Visual & Perf ArtsLOTE

1990’s

CoreEnglishMathsLatin

ScienceHistory

1962

Arts

Geography

CommercialStudies

French

PE

Craft

Key Competencies

Essential Skills/LearningsNew Basics

Essential Learning

Development of self & self for society

2007+

Learning Areas

SECONDARY SCHOOL CURRICULUM EVOLUTION

ValuesKey

Competencies

The NZ Curriculum represents an ‘inversion’ of curriculum in which the ‘core’ task of education is the development of self and self for society.

The key challenge is to design curriculum so that the ways of knowing of the Key Learning Areas, the Key Competencies and Values contribute to the development of the whole self.



The ‘Essence’ of the NZ Curriculum

‘confident, connected,

actively involved and lifelong

learners’

VALUESKEY

COMPETENCIES

LEARNINGAREAS

The Vision of the NZ unequivocally states your

educative purpose.

What is powerful learning?What is it powerful to learn?

Education Design & DevelopmentKey elements & Shapers


purpose?


purpose?



HOW do students learn?Principles of Effective

Learning

HOW do students learn?Principles of Effective

Learning

CONTEXT

CONTEXT

values&

beliefsshapes &informs

LEARNING

THEORY

LEARNING

THEORY

informs


When we have determined what we believe it is essential and desirable to learn, how do we ensure that it is learned powerfully??


WHAT is the ‘essence’ of powerful learning?

What are the implications for pedagogy?

What are the implications for curriculum design?

Perspective and Pedagogy the powerful agents

• journey

• growth

• construction- reconstruction creation - recreation

• transformation

• enlightenment enlightenment

• empowerment

• enrichment

The dominant analogies that have emerged from asking

>200,000 people: “What is human learning like?”

The Nature of Human Learning


I think at last I understand why my English teacher was so pedantic about not mixing metaphors.

Look at the tensions and confused agendas that arise when we mix our metaphors – when metaphors underpinning practice are not congruent with the nature of learning…..

Un-mixing our metaphors


Underpinning metaphor of the Industrial Era


Quality Control:

Efficiency

Uniformity

Meets standard specification

No waste

Industrial era quality control is fine for inanimate objects and machines but what actually

constitutes quality control for a living system?

• journey• growth• construction- reconstruction creation - recreation• transformation• enlightenment enlightenment• empowerment• enrichment

Appropriate underpinning metaphors for the Knowledge Era and learning: - organic, dynamic, holistic

What constitutes qualitycontrol:

- for a journey?

- in a garden?

- in a creation?


Terms that spring to mind are:

VitalityBeauty

DiversityMeeting individual needs

PersonalisedSuccess for all

Cur•ri•cle

noun historical

a light, open, two-wheeled carriage pulled by two horses side by side.

ORIGIN mid 18th cent.: from Latin curriculum ‘course, racing chariot,’ from currere ‘to run.’

How do we reconceptualise ‘curriculum’

Our challenge is to move from…

a narrow path to be run as a race

to…a rich field to explore with treasures to discover

Educators of Primary age children have always leant towards a holistic,

personalised pedagogy. Your challenge now is to uphold that

approach and strengthen it – not to succumb to the potentially minimising

effects of external pressures.


Educators of Secondary age children have always leant towards a subject driven pedagogy. Your

challenge now is to become a teacher of the person using your subject expertise to enrich the

learning of colleagues and young learners

Educare – means to form, mold or trainwhile…

Educere – means to nurture, grow, lead out

Inherent tension in the term ‘education’

Which way do you lean? Or do you successfully

integrate both?


The task of the educator is not to put knowledge where knowledge does not exist but rather to lead the mind’s eye that it might see for itself. Plato

The ‘essence’ of constructivism and powerful pedagogy

What is powerful learning?

How do we design for transformative learning?


World 1 is my inner world, the world insidemy skin - my very inner psychological world.

World 2 is the world of my direct experience, the world of things I’ve done, people I have met, places I have been - this, with my inner world are the worlds of my mental models - my “knowing” of the world.

World 3 is the world I know about, have read about or heard about - I do not know it directly.

World 4 is the world of infinite possibilities.I haven’t heard about it nor imagined it - itis the world of my ignorance; it is the world I don’t know that I don’t know!

World 4

World 3

World 2

World 1

The Nature of Learning - John Holt’s model of the worlds we live in adapted from “What do I do Monday?”


World 4

World 3

World 2

World 1

World 4

World 3

World 2

World 1

World 4

World 3

World 2

World 1

• personally meaningful• integrated• coherent• transformative• transferable

Natural, Powerful Human Learning – driven by purpose, desire, interest, curiosity, need – holistic growth not linear accretion or addition.


World 4

World 3

World 2

World 1

Unnatural Human Learning - ‘knowing about’ and ‘knowing about what other people know’ but NOT KNOWING! - driven by outside pressure – little personal impact.

World 3 • non-meaningful• disconnected• incoherent• non-transformative• not transferable

World 3

World 2

World 1

World 2

World 1

They work to pass and not to know.Alas they pass and do not know!

Bertrand Russell


Knowledge in Education

‘I have been convinced for some time that the “learning outcome” of ….education should be more than what thewestern world typically means by “knowledge”;that it is to engage the whole “being” of people, their heads,hearts and life-styles, and is to inform, form and transformtheir identity and agency in the world.’

Thomas H. Groome, Sharing Faith, p.2


World 4

World 3

World 2

World 1

World 3

World 2

World 1

transformative• personally meaningful• integrated• coherent• transferable

NOT

non-transformative• non-meaningful• disconnected• incoherent• non-transferable

What is IMPORTANT learning?


World 4

World 3

World 2

World 1

World 3

World 2

World 1

What are the factors that contribute to learning being…

transformative

OR

non-transformative


Intrinsic motivation learner purpose not teacher purpose relevance/interest challenge curiosity

Direct experience practical application vicarious experience; simulation; role play

Crisis/catastrophe

Sharing, having to teach someone else, dialogue

Teacher/mentor passion

Strategies which connect at the point of personal experience/story

Strategies which stimulate emotions

Strategies which connect with, or challenge, inner belief system

Metacognition - self knowledge as learner; repertoire of learning strategies; disposition to make meaning; reflection; next steps

Factors which promote meaningful, transformative learning:


Achievable challengeProblem to solveIssue to exploreDesire to perform, createQuestionWonderingChoiceNegotiationCollaboration

‘RICH TASKS’

Transformative learning

Key design elements

Learner purpose & intrinsic

motivation

Problem based learningInquiry ModelAuthentic performance

Authentic or simulated real world context

Openness

Assessment of process

and product

Learner self reflection &

self direction

Appropriate support

Form of expressionDifferent pathwaysAble to be extendedPersonalised level of achievement

Scaffolding of processAccessible resourcesExpertiseFormative feedbackStimulate metacognition

Goal settingIdentifying level of support neededReflection

Self(Peer)Expert

HolisticMulti-sensory

is enhanced by

which haveensuring

involve

provision ofincluding

involve

includes


INSTRUCTIVIST vs CONSTRUCTIVIST PEDAGOGY

Direct, explicitInstruction

Learner initiates, chooses, directs

Teacher facilitates

OR


In recent years, approaches to teaching have

become caught in an ‘either - or’

conceptualistion of pedagogical

approach rather than a ‘both-and’

approach.

A true ‘constructivist’

approach focuses on ensuring meaning and understanding are constructed in

the learner’s mind.

At times, for certain students in certain contexts this might

demand direct, explicit instruction or it might mean

open exploration or it might require

some approaches in between.

Reframing . . . going beyond ‘EITHER-OR’ to ‘BOTH-AND’

CONSTRUCTIVIST PEDAGOGY

Direct, explicitinstruction

Modelling Providing ‘scaffolds’

Nudging, promptingGiving formative feedback

Complex, holistic, authentic tasksLearner initiates, negotiates, chooses, directs

Teacher facilitates


WHAT directs my teaching approach?

Knowledge of learners

Intentionality-desired learning -strategies to achieve- make explicit to learners

Responsiveness

Learner self direction- learner self reflection

- identification of need

FORMATIVE ASSESSSMENT

• If we are to prepare all students for ‘lifelong learning’ what learning is essential in the compulsory years of education?

• With regard to the Learning Areas, we must be able to answer ‘WHY’ learn in these Learning Areas?

• Given the rapid growth of knowledge we must also be able to identify: 1. the BIG IDEAS/UNDERSTANDINGS, and 2. the POWERFUL KNOWLEDGE MAKING AND KNOWLEDGE SHARING PROCESSES inherent in each Learning Area

. . .if we are to define a foundational curriculum for the DEVELOPMENT OF SELF AND SELF FOR SOCIETY and to enable lifelong learning.

Julia Atkin © 2009

Moving from topics and themes to concepts, processes and enduring ideas

PROCESS to explore WHY the Learning Areas?

Group staff according to areas they ‘love’ (Primary) or teach (Secondary).

TASK: What is the essence of your Learning Area?WHY learn Science? English? Social Sciences? The Arts? Health PE? Technology? Languages? Maths?

PROCESS: Re-imagine a great learning experience in the Learning Area you are considering. Relive the experience…relive the feelings.Using your non-dominant hand, jot down some words and/or phrases that capture the feelings. What does learning in this area mean to you personally? What does it add to your life?

Share your learning experience with others in your group.

How can you convince others of its worth?Capture and express WHY learn …. Draw on your stories and feelings to communicate its worth.Design a way of sharing this with the whole group.

Julia Atkin © 2009

PROCESS to share and refine

When each group reports back ask the others if their school learning in that learning area led them to value the Learning Area in the same way?

What would it have taken for them to have experienced the ‘essence’ of the learning area?

REFINEEach group the refines their own ‘essence’ statement for the Learning Area.

Julia Atkin © 2009

Reference against the NZ Curriculum essence statements for the Learning Areas.

REFINE your own statement as needed.

Julia Atkin © 2008

The next step is to identify the BIG IDEAS/UNDERSTANDINGS/CONCEPTS and the POWERFUL

PROCESSES in each Learning Area.

It is important that individuals do their own thinking on this before referring to the Curriculum document. Use the document to refine and extend your thoughts.

Having established the BIG IDEAS in each Learning Area…

What BIG IDEAS are common to all Learning Areas?

BIG ENDURING IDEAS as the organiser for a spiral curriculumEg from one school’s work – Interdependence, Change as two of their five

What CONCEPTS/UNDERSTANDINGS have strong overlap in two or more Learning Areas?

Julia Atkin © 2010

LocalCONCEPTS -WAYS OF WORKING –WAYS OF EXPRESSING

CONCEPTS -WAYS OF WORKING –WAYS OF EXPRESSING







Designing our way forward

KE

Y C

OM

PE

TE

NC

IES

BIG

EN

DU

RIN

G ID

EA

S

VA

LUE

S

Languages

The Arts

TechnologySocial Science

Science

Health/PE

Maths

English

Principles: High Expectations, Treaty of Waitangi, Cultural Diversity, Inclusion, Learning to Learn, Community Engagement, Coherence, Future Focus


GLOBAL

What Learning Experiences are necessary for each learner to grasp the big UNDERSTANDINGS and the

POWERFUL PROCESSES?

What are the issues, questions, curiosities, desires of the learners that could drive learning experiences through

which these BIG IDEAS can be developed?

How can the learner’s local context serve as the basis for authentic learning?

How will you ensure that what is important is learned powerfully?

Julia Atkin © 2008

Reconceptualising 21C curriculum: From segregated subjects, ad hoc themes, and ‘covering content’ to holistic, integrated learning Dr Julia Atkin Education.

Documents

curriculum framework

c curriculum

reconceptualising curriculum

nz curriculum

schools curriculum

learning culture julia

leading learning

learning experiences