Education - a new year - a time to reflect

Mount Taranaki reflected in mountain lake

It is a long time since I posted a blog.

The last was to share a new book written about pioneer educationalist Elwyn Richardson.. Elwyn developed his creative teaching philosophy in the 1950s a time not noted for innovative ideas but changes were in the air following World War Two.

Elwyn's book is worth a read as it represents the importance of valuing the views of classroom teachers - more relevant than ever in today's increasingly standardised teaching environment.

Educationalist John Dewey once commented that it is all too easy to forget to take advantage of  retiring experienced teachers . Sharing creative classroom teachers' ideas , past and present, is what this blog is all about - and it is, as mentioned, more important than ever as top down solutions are imposed on schools.

So ,before I lose the habit of blogging, I thought I would contribute a few personal  reflections I have had over the holidays.

I have   been reflecting on the need to continue with the blog as my own teaching experiences fade into the distance.  At heart I believe it is important for everyone to have something worthwhile to contribute and, as one gets older , more important than ever to still feel relevant. Learning is a lifelong

 adventure and I am always impressed with my older friends who continue to learn and be involved in worthwhile things. In particular I admire the small group of retired educationalists who continue to fight for a creative education system - one that values the voice and experience of teachers and students  rather than distant 'experts' or, worse still, populist politicians.

So blogging is my way to express my own thoughts and hopefully be of some use to those who read the blog.  I believe it is important to provide an outsiders point of view because it is all too easy for busy teachers to come to accept as 'normal' current expectations.

 I like the idea of being a 'critical friend' whose role is to ask questions; to ask does it have to be this way; and , what would happen if we tried new ways of doing things? Sometimes it seems that many teachers, overwhelmed with imposed requirements, find it a lot easier not to face up to alternatives to current practice or to  simply take on board imposed directions without question. It is always easier to 'go along to get along'! Unfortunately  this results in many teachers  becoming oblivious to alternatives. I have always liked the phrase that 'fish are the last to discover water'. It seems it is all too easy to become blind to the obvious.

Avoid 'silo' thinking

Teachers at all levels are trapped in 'silo thinking'  more so at the secondary level with fragmented subject thinking but primary teachers an't see past the unquestioned use of ability grouping.

At the end of last term the current local principals always invite retired principals to join them for breakfast. At this breakfast a newly appointed secondary principal talked to us. His appointment ( coming from the business world) had been a bit controversial and he was keen share with us his views and to emphasize that most of his 'business'  experience had been with non profit organisations. He made the point that schools like his have to ensure that they have the responsibility to ensure all students leave positive about  and equipped for their  future lives. Schools he said should  not just to focus and celebrate those who go on to university. He also thought that students working with multi disciplinary teams of teachers worth trying.

Out of the box thinking

Mind you I am well aware that catering for all students rather than just the 'academic' is the current directive from the Ministry


I left the breakfast feeling his appointment was a positive move. Maybe too many current principals have been captured by the status quo and appointments outside of teaching may provide fresh thinking?

At this breakfast meeting it was  enlightening to be told by the chairperson   that some of the innovative ideas being currently considered had been implemented by some of us older  members years ago and were only now being revisited! Consider, for example, the 'new' idea of Modern Learning Environment (MLEs) which simply are a return to the the open plan schools of the 70/80s. They will only be successful if underpinned by a strong student centred educational philosophy, positive relationships between all involved and well informed and skilled teachers..

While holidaying in Melbourne during December I met a young Australian  secondary school teachers who told me that she had resigned from her position working for the Victorian Education Department.  Her role had been to help teachers implement the Australian testing system ( NAPLAN) but  as she felt uncomfortable assisting teachers implemente a system she didn't believe in she had to resign.  She felt that her job was to make teachers conform. I would've like to have learnt more.

Testing isn't learning

I attended  ( as a guest) a Ministry social function in December and  briefly was critical of current education, particularly secondary education. In my opinion, I said too many students still leave alienated from learning.  This was refuted by those whose job is to assist schools develop pathways to employment. Thought it best to focus on small talk! Maybe this was an example of rhetoric not matching reality? Something I would like to learn more about - maybe things are changing?

I was  also interested to read about a local entrepreneur who had just opened a new hotel in town. In an article about the opening  the developer said that he had found school irrelevant but that he had still done well. My thought was that he obviously had the skills and attitude to get on with

Schools don't suit all brains

life's challenges. Maybe this is a clue for those who want to transform our current education system?

I recently had an interesting conversation with a young teacher on holiday from a position in an international school. International schools follow an American curriculum which does not allow the intellectual freedom she was used to when teaching in NZ.I have had considerable experience presenting at international school conferences and appreciated her situation. It would be shame if we were to go any further down the standardised  test orientated American approach.

Passion, effort and skill

My most recent thought comes from watching artists at the local stone carving symposium held on our cities  coastal walkway. I really admire the passion the artists show and the range of skills required to complete such a difficult task. It will take the artists several days of hard dusty work to complete one piece.

When people do what they love they are prepared to put in the hard work required. I also reflected that with practice artists over the years get better at what they do. Reminds me of educationalist Jerome Bruner saying, many years ago,  that 'people get good at what they get good at'.

I had the thought that if schools spent more time identifying and amplifying the innate talents of their students and then set up opportunities for every student to work towards achieving their potential then all students would leave ready for whatever the future holds for them. Such a personalisation of learning would change the roles both both teachers and students.


This personalised creative approach to learning  was the philosophy that Elwyn Richardson implemented in his small rural school in the 1950s and what has driven all my work since I became aware of such teachers as Elwyn all those years ago. Elwyn saw his students as 'a community of artists and scientists exploring their environment'.

Once you think about the requirements for a 21stC education the answers seem obvious.

This means we need to transform schools

 .


.

New Zealand’s all but forgotten science research about valuing the both the views students hold and the process of learning to clarify their thinking – The Learning in Science Project. (University of Waikato Science Education Research Unit 1985)

What are students ideas about scientists. science. any concept?

I am in the process of trying to clear out the books and notes I have collected over the decades. A very distracting task but one that has to be faced up to.

For most of my career (now receding into the distance) I worked with  schools as a science adviser

and was later a teacher, an art adviser, a school principal and finally an independent educational adviser. Now I am happy just to think about education and limit my involvement to writing a regular blog.  I still find educational issues interesting.

From my early years I believed strongly in an education system that focussed on helping all students develop their gifts and talents making full use of the immediate environment. My own beliefs came from working with creative teachers I came in contact with –backed up by reading educationalists that supported student centred learning. I still think creative classroom teachers are where all the bes ideas come from - not distant experts who have little appreciation of the reality of classroom teaching.

The problem is, as I see it,is that student centred/creative learning is now under threat by a narrow instrumental education focussed on ( in New Zealand)  achieving arbitory National Standards. I  hope that there will always be a few creative teachers will  will be able to survive in such an environment.

In the 80s, along with the other Science Advisers, I was involved with the Learning in Science Project based at Waikato University School of Education.

The project arose when Dr Osborne a physics lecturer at Waikato University came to the conclusion that his students entered his class lacking understanding he thought ought be in place. After working with secondary science teachers however he found they were being taught appropriate physics but without real understanding. From this beginning Dr Osborne became interested in the often naive views students held – even after teaching.

The project starting in secondary schools was extended to the primary level and we were  involved in

How are voices made?

collecting data on students view about a range of science concepts. Around the world other researchers were also exploring the prior views students’ hold and how they modify and construct their knowledge and how , even after explicit teaching,  why students still hold on to their original view.

Common sense when you think of it. We are all involved in modifying our views through experience – and often refusing to give up on ideas we had before the experience. This makes teaching but interesting and challenging.

Knowing what students’ think before they enter a learning experience would seem sensible – and respectful. This was the basis of the Learning in Science Project ( LISP) extending into the kinds of teaching that help children change their minds.

The LISP research was focussed ‘on investigations to determine what learners bring to the classroom by way of word meanings, and explanations for why things behave as they do.’ It also focussed on how to help teachers assist their students in helping them construct ‘more scientific’ concepts.

How to shadows change?

The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum and recent research continues these understandings now referred to as ‘constructivist learning’ – or better still when working with teachers ‘co-constructivist learning. 

In the 60s a visiting educational physiologist to NZ David Ausabel said ‘first find out what the learners knows and then teach accordingly’. Good advice but by and large ignored by class teachers.

The LISP research showed that many primary teachers were insecure about teaching science for a variety of reasons – a situation that still exists today. Teachers' views about what science is was a variable as was their role in teaching science.

Today science, along with other learning areas, is being neglected as schools programmes concentrate on literacy and numeracy  to ensure their students do well on achieving  the counterproductive National Standards.

The concerns uncovered from teachers was that students might not learn much from activity based programmes ( added to by  problems of equipment and organisational issues) particularly since transmission teaching had been shown not to transfer knowledge to students.

The research showed dilemmas facing primary classroom teachers resulting from the lack of confidence about teaching science; many simply avoided taking science a situation that remains common today.

Not only  were student beliefs an issue but also the beliefs  of the teachers . Teachers beliefs about any learning area area, as stated ( in the LISP findings) by Postman and Weingartner , ‘The beliefs , feelings and assumptions of teachers are the air of a learning environment, they determine the quality of life within it.’

Teachers needed help  to develop positive beliefs about science teaching and this was the role of the  primary science advisers - disbanded  following the introduction of Tomorrows Schools in the 1980s.

What ideas do students hold?

Our current New Zealand Curriculum provides direction  for today's' teachers but the problems of implementation  still remain. 

Students need to be given  opportunities to raise questions and undertake investigations to find answers to their questions. The view of learning expressed in the curriculum is that  ,’learners construct meanings for themselves  by 'seeking, using and creating their own knowledge'  The 'construction of personal knowledge begins at birth and continues throughout life' (LISP).

Whatever students do in primary schools  LISP research shows they do not enter secondary education with blank minds  in respect to science concepts but unfortunately these intuitively constructed children’s ideas can have severe limitations. This, of course, applies to all areas of learning.

Science teaching in primary classrooms cannot be ignored or forgotten. Primary schools need to provide worthwhile challenges to stimulate and challenge children’s’ present ideas as well as  

How is lightning and thunder made?

providing  opportunities to 'learn how to learn'. Primary science, above all else, needs to encourage children to take an interest in their environment and their own learning, explore ideas, and seek and develop understandings about their world.

The process LISP encouraged was to present challenges to the students, to uncover and value the ‘prior’ ideas, help them explore the ideas of others (to challenge their current understandings) and  that scientists’ ideas should not be forced on students. Teachers need to help students clarify their ideas and if exposed to scientists' views at least will see that others hold different views

This ought to be the basis of all teaching.

This approach has come to be known as ‘interactive ‘teaching. An interactive approach combines providing the scientists views  at an appropriate stage( if known) and  an inquiry / activity model  to uncover and challenge student views.

Obviously children cannot be simply lefty to learn by themselves, neither can scientific explanations be simply transmitted. The real issue is one of valuing the students’ role in their own learning. An interactive approach is a good example of personalised learning. Students, it has been shown will only share their ideas if there is a supportive environment; and conversely some class environment inhibit students questions and  the expressing their views..

Lots of question, theories and things to try

Some of the ideas explored  by the LISP research to discover children’s questions, and prior views were identified by asking them for their ideas about : seeds, native plants, trees, hatching chickens; fruit, earthworms, wind, water, waves, floating and thinking, dissolving, melting; keeping things cold; keeping humans warm; shadows; mirrors; musical instruments; falling things; seasons.

.

Identification of such students' questions and ideas, and how learning experiences has clarified and modified their ideas, ought to be a feature of modern classrooms

An amazing finding  from research at the time was that students from around the world hold similar views about such things such as: rocks,  what causes the wind, or how electricity works and also that there was a developmental process - ideas being modified with age.

What was important was the process developed to uncover such ideas and how explore such science topics ( or topics from any Learning Area) As in the 80s here is a need to find ways to ensure children’s’ questions have a more central role in primary school science ( or any area of learning).

The LISP research developed  a model of learning.( basically an inquiry learning model) that is relevant in today's' classrooms.

Step One:  put children into an interesting situation which stimulates the children to ask questions.

Step Two:  Gather and record students’ questions. Questions and prior ideas will arise throughout the study. Students will need help to refine /combine questions for research. It was found that students initial questions were often superficial and more valuable questions crystallize as the study progresses.

Step Three:  Gather /record children’s suggested answers to their questions- their ‘prior’ ideasStudents may well change or modify their ideas during this process

Step Four: Develop children’s; research proposals. Students work individually or in groups to develop research proposals – how they plan to go about finding answers. Proposal will need teacher approval before embarking. Teachers found that best student planning occurred  after teacher discussion. Some children/groups will need more guidance than others.

Step Five: Children undertake their research activities – using experiments or by consulting other sources. At this point teachers need to interact to guide and challenge students. Teachers might find it valuable to have students  discuss  their research plans ideas with the whole class  As required or groups could  report their progress  to the  class.

Step Six: Completed  Research Reports. These to be shared with class and may include further ideas to investigate. It is important to avoid ‘cut and paste’ answers in reports. Reports ought to include phrases such as ‘what I thought before’ ,’ what I found out’, ‘what I think now’ ’,’ I am uncertain about and further questions to think about. A good model for teachers' to hold in their minds are the exhibits student develop for science, technology or maths fairs. Students need to be able to explain and defend their findings.

Completed studies could be  loaded up to an ongoing electronic portfolios.

The LISP approach relieves teachers of having to have the ‘right answers’ before undertaking the study – they have the opportunity learn along with their students. Teachers  no longer have to see themselves as ‘experts’. which was a problem with traditional/transmission teaching.

The LISP research developed material for teachers to use that showed for selected topics the kinds of questions and prior ideas students had been shown to have. Such resources would be valuable today.

Ideally teachers would 're frame' their literacy time (and where appropriate numeracy time) to ‘frontload’ appropriate inquiry/literacy /numeracy skills to be used during  content study time.

Creative teachers see the inquiry topics as central to their class programmes – with literacy and numeracy providing the ‘foundation ‘skills.

Such classrooms are true communities of inquiry.

Today there are moves to develop communities of schools to share ‘best practices’ but it would seem that current proposal  will result in conforming ( to Ministry targets)  rather than sharing  the ideas of creative teachers.

.

The best ideas in education most often come from teachers working at the edges and could  be at risk in this proposed way of schools working together. They key is tapping into and haring the ideas of  creative outliers.

Education Readings - technology/ boys educ/ 'growth mindsets' and creative teaching.

By Allan Alach

I welcome suggested articles, so if you come across a gem, email it to me at allanalach@inspire.net.nz

  

This week’s homework!

How Technology is Changing the Way Children Think and Focus

“There is also little doubt that all of the new technologies, led by the Internet, are shaping the way we think in ways obvious and subtle, deliberate and unintentional, and advantageous and

detrimental The uncertain reality is that, with this new technological frontier in its infancy and developments emerging at a rapid pace, we have neither the benefit of historical hindsight nor the time to ponder or examine the value and cost of these advancements in terms of how it influences our children’s ability to think.”

http://bit.ly/1EYRbcf

Thomas Markham

Redefining Teachers with a 21st Century Education ‘Story’

“At a time of great transformation in the world, there are no shortages of themes to pick from. But teachers have special opportunities to tell a magnificent story about themselves and their profession:” Thomas Markham

http://bit.ly/1JbzXyQ

Schools of the future must adjust to technology needs

Professor Stephen Heppell - if you ever get the chance to attend one of his presentations, take it!

“Teachers – and increasingly students – are realising that schools need to be places in which difficult, exciting, challenging, engaging, complex learning happens, rather than being where

Big challenge for schools to adapt to!

uniform education is delivered. And they need spaces that encourage that learning and help develop the sorts of skills demanded by employers. Spaces for concentration and collaboration, spaces to make and to mash-up, spaces to celebrate and exhibit, spaces to excel and spaces to share.”

http://bit.ly/1AvH8ee

Noam Chomsky on the Dangers of Standardized Testing

“The assessment itself is completely artificial. It’s not ranking teachers in accordance with their ability to help develop children who will reach their potential, explore their creative interests. Those things you’re not testing.. it’s a rank that’s mostly meaningless. And the very ranking itself is harmful. It’s turning us into individuals who devote our lives to achieving a rank. Not into doing things that are valuable and important.”

http://bit.ly/1waGc0j

Children Educate Themselves IV: Lessons from Sudbury Valley

“The Sudbury Valley model of education is not a variation of standard education. It is not a progressive version of traditional schooling. It is not a Montessori school or a Dewey school or a Piagetian constructivist school. It is something entirely different.”

http://bit.ly/1vqAS8r

Why reading and writing on paper can be better for your brain

“Add to this the help that the physical geography of a printed page or the heft of a book can provide to memory, and you’ve got a conclusion neatly matching our embodied natures: the varied, demanding, motor-skill-activating physicality of objects tends to light up our brains brighter than the placeless, weightless scrolling of words on screens.”

http://bit.ly/1DLMo0Z

No wonder boys struggle!

Why schools are failing our boys
“Boys today aren’t fundamentally different than the boys of 150 years ago. Yet today, they’re confined to classrooms, expected to remain still for the majority of the day, and barely allowed to tackle meaningful labor or the real world until they reach the magical age of 18. Is it any wonder our boys are struggling?”

http://wapo.st/1AEO6NS

Why Preschool Shouldn’t Be Like School

Schools should be like pre-school.

“Adults often assume that most learning is the result of teaching and that exploratory, spontaneous learning is unusual. But actually, spontaneous learning is more fundamental. It's this kind of learning, in fact, that allows kids to learn from teachers in the first place.”

http://slate.me/1DPCdHf

How to spot if you or colleagues are stressed: tell-tale signs for teachers

“It goes without saying that there is a direct correlation between teacher workload and stress levels, and both are currently unprecedentedly high. It’s also no coincidence that over the past few years hundreds of good teachers have been signed off with long-term sickness or quit altogether.”

http://bit.ly/1uNNpNw

This week’s contributions from Bruce Hammonds:

Back to basics - quality creative learning

The power of art

Bruce’s latest article is a must read for all creative and innovative child centred teachers.

“All the above ideas point out the vital role of a teacher to assist all students work towards their potential - to ensure that all students have the ability to 'seek, use and create their own knowledge' as it wisely says in the 2007 New Zealand Curriculum.”

http://bit.ly/1C341cF

8 Signs You Should Become a Teacher

What’s your take on this list? What changes would you make?

“Are you thinking about becoming an elementary school teacher? If you possess all or most of these personal qualities, I think you could contribute a lot to children, the community, and the field of Education. While there is no static formula for what makes an excellent educator, these personality traits form the essential foundation for succeeding in the classroom as an instructor and as a leader.”

http://abt.cm/1Gs7xOW

Developing a Growth Mindset in Teachers and Staff

“However, in my work, I have found that the notion of developing a growth mindset is as equally applicable to staff and teacher performance as it is to students. This article begins with a brief discussion about the difference between the two mindsets, what that means for education, and concludes with some ideas for how school leaders might seek to develop a growth mindset amongst their staff.”

http://bit.ly/17YYbeT

Playtime Isn’t Just for Preschoolers—Teenagers Need It, Too

Bruce’s comment: The importance of play at all levels of learning – seems blindingly obvious.

“Giving students occasions to learn through play not only fosters creative thinking, problem solving, independence, and perseverance, but also addresses teenagers’ developmental needs for greater independence and ownership in their learning, opportunities for physical activity and creative expression, and the ability to demonstrate competence.”

http://ti.me/1BcnLIH

Project-based program innovates at Springs' Parkside Elementary

Maybe someone gets it!

Bruce’s comment: And to continue the obvious – the power of integrated project based learning. Some day someone in the USA will discover John Dewey!!!

"What we teach fits into the curriculum, but we try to make it as interesting as possible for the kids. The focus is on helping them acquire real-world skills and become problem solvers. Nobody works in isolation these days. You need to learn how to work with others.”

http://bit.ly/1wcqrFP

A New Approach to Designing Educational Technology: Is the biggest learning disability an emotional one? 

Bruce’s comment: Valuing the emotions in learning – well it seems obvious to me. Engaging students who no longer engage in learning by using ICT wisely.

‘And now, Rose and his team have concluded that the most pervasive learning disability in schools, and the No. 1 challenge for UDL, isn’t physical or cognitive, it’s emotional—turning around kids

Positive attitudes or' mindsets' are everything!

who are turned off by school.

“We’ve seen that technology can do a lot of stuff to support students, but the real driver is: Do they actually want to learn something?” says Rose. “If they do, kids will go through a lot of barriers to learn it. Creating the conditions that turn on that drive has become the major function of our work.”’

http://slate.me/1Fnek8O

From Bruce’s oldies but goodies file

Back to the future.

Bruce’s comment: An oldie but goodie.

 The very with it views of a long retired  innovative principal teacher. Good reading to learn about quality creative teaching – might be useful even for those in a modern learning environment (MLE). The teacher taught before the introduction of computers – now in his 80s

Bill - a very creative teachers from the 70s - now in his 80s.

he is a whizz on his Apple (computer). One wonders what wisdom we have lost.

“As a group we were disillusioned with the traditional pre-packaged approach ...largely adult conceived....including ability grouping. Attributes such as co-operation, understanding and sharing were largely given lip service. We believed that learning should stem from the natural but vital curiosity of children and it should centre around real experiences.”

http://bit.ly/1KzIEUx

Personalising learning – what does it mean? How does it relate to Modern Learning Environments?

Are modern learning environments the answer or more an opportunity?

A stimulating environment

Once ‘child centred’ was commonly heard phrase but it  now seems dated . ‘Student centred’ seems more relevant –is this personalised learning? If students are helped individually some might call this personalised but , if it is moving through a pre-determined curriculum at the students pace this is simply a more an extreme form of ability grouping than personalising learning.

Even the development of ‘modern learning environments’ (flexibleschool structures that allow groups of teachers and students to collaboratewith the aid of modern technology - MLEs) do not automatically result inpersonalised learning. A look at a range of small videos illustrating the advantages of such environments seem to feature no real evidence of in depth inquiry work reminding me of the failure of the open plan schools of the 70s. They however, with the appropriate pedagogy, obviously have great potential.

Valuing kids' theories

Personalised learning is about accepting students for whothey are, what they bring with them and helping them extend and deepen theirinnate abilities.  If this were the case one ought to be more impressed with the quality thinking and presentation of student work across the curriculum to be seen rather than the architecture and the availability of modern information technology. Unfortunately it is far too easy to be impressed with what is superficially to be seen – one really has to look hard at what students are achieving and how their work is showing improvement - all too often the Emperor has no clothes.

John Holt said it best when asked what would  be the one thing that would improve schools(1970) replied, ‘It  would be to let every would be the planner, director and assessor of his own education, to allow and encourage him, with the inspiration and

guidance of more experienced and expert people, and as much help as he Asked for, to decide what it is he is to learn, when he is to learn it, how he is to learn it, and how well he is learning it .It would be to make our schools….a resource for free and independent learning..’

'The young child', Holt writes, 'is continually building what I  like to call a mental model of the world, the universe and then checking it against reality as it presents to him, and then tearing it down and rebuilding it as necessary..' We are Holt continues, 'obliged to live out our lives thinking, acting, judging on the basis of the most fragmentary ,uncertain  and temporary information.' In this respect Holt is expressing a constructivist model of learning - the teachers role is to assist the learners clarify their ideas not replacing them with imposed learning objectives.  Ideally the teacher works alongside the learner in a co-constructivist style respecting each learners  unique thinking. It is evidence  of such thinking that should be seen in  creative classrooms. It is this uniqueness  and individuality that is missing in modern classrooms

 More recently AlfieKohn has written, ‘Personal learning entails working with each child to createprojects of intellectual discovery that reflect his or her unique needs and interests. It requires the presence of a caring teacher who knows each child well.’

There was a time when creative teachers were working along such quality educational thinking lines based on assisting students achieve such personal in depth thinking but now such teachers are hard to find.

If schools were to move towards a quality personalisedlearning approach what would you expect to see?

The best example available is to be found in the book ‘In theEarly World’ written by pioneer New Zealand teacher Elwyn Richardson in the 1960s. Thankfully is has recently been reprinted by the
NZCER. This book describes one teacher’s effort to develop a curriculum based on the personal concerns, interests of his students and through exploring their immediate environment. Elwyn developed his classroom as a community of scientist and artists – a community focused on developing the individuality and creativity of each learner.

This, to me, captures the essence of personalised learning.

If you were to visit a personalised learning environment (modern learning environment or not) you ought to see on the wails, in the student books, or in their electronic portfolios examples of the unique ‘voice’ of each learner – and it would be obvious how individual students had been helped to deepen their understandings. The teacher’s role in creating the conditions for individual creativity is as important as ever.

In such a creative environment teachers are concerned with the student’s experience – what they bring to any learning situation and what unique talents and interests that can be taken advantage of, amplified, or uncovered. This is not to say that the curriculum is to be totally determined by the students. Teachers need to provide learning opportunities that studentswill want to find out more about. As educationalist Jerome Bruner has written, ‘teaching is the canny art of intellectual temptation’. Such a learning environment might feature provocative displays (focussing on, or integrating Learning Areas) to ‘attract’ student’s curiosity. By such means the ‘emergent’ curriculum will expose students to the various strands of the official curriculum.

Teachers in such environments need to appreciate that all students have an innate desire to make meaning of their experiences and, by capitalising on this innate need, all students can develop and extend their learning strategies. Whatever the students choose to do provide opportunities for teachers to capitalise on, to strengthen students’ insight, to develop greater

Goethe - a most important quote about creativity

awareness, to deepen their understanding, and to encourage imagination and, in the process ensure their students learn to value the need for perseverance and effort required if their students are to improve on their personal best.

Teachers, if they are to help all students continually challenge their personal best, need to have the ‘artistry’ to know when to intervene and when to leave students to work on their own. Teachers act, as guides, instructors if required, or merely involved as an interested adult. To do this requires teachers to become expert observers of their students so they can help individuals (or small groups) as needed. They will also have to negotiate with their students work patterns and organisations to provide the space and time so students are able to achieve what they have agreed to do. This is best done at the beginning of the day and planning for tomorrow during an end of day reflective time. In such an environment students will need to appreciate that there will also be times when choices are limited.

It is through the qualities of an artist a scientist,  a writer or a craftsman that students learn the discipline involved in any learning.

Perhaps the most noticeable features of a truly personalisedlearning environment is the absence of ability group in such areas as readingand maths. This is not to suggest such areas are unimportant but more that they need to be ‘reframed’ as ‘foundation skills’ necessary for students to complete their individual, or group, inquiry tasks. Language and maths can also be transformed in research tasks as well as being integrated as and when needed. Reading to learn and Information technology, in this respect, is also another equally important ‘foundation skill’.

Importance of real experinces

learning to read go hand in hand.

As students produce work their learning tasks room displayswill reflect the quality personal and descriptive language, science, design,maths and technology challenges, along with a range of expressive andimaginative art. 

Personalised learning places real responsibility on students for their own learning.

How to develop such a personalised environment needs to be seen as an evolving process – the important thing is to keep the ‘end in mind’ of how the class will look in term four. As confidence of both teachers and students grow set routines can be relaxed passing more responsibility over to the students to plan their own tasks. As success is achieved, and as students take more self-responsibility, the vision of personalised learning will be realised.

To help every learner achieve their personal best in this age of fast information creative teachers have found that it is important  to encourage students to ‘slow down the pace’ of their work so as to develop a sense of craftsmanship allowing, in the process, time for teachers to come

Value student 'voice'.

alongside learners to assist those in need. ‘Slowing the pace of work’ also encourages students to develop appreciate the need for perseverance and effort to counteract the need to finish first which all too often  spoils so much of students work.

Such a quality personalised learning approach could well be the basis of learning in a flexible ‘modern learning environment’ but can equally be found in a single classroom.

The concern of a personalised learning is with the experience of each individual learner and content, while still important, is to be seen as a means to the end of each students develop a positive learning identity; it is also about developing the individuals sense of control of his, or her, own learning adventure - for them not only to take responsibility for their lifelong learning but also for the welfare of others in their learning community.

This the ‘point of school’ –  for every student to be their own ‘seeker, user and creator of their own knowledge’ as it says in the New Zealand Curriculum - schools to develop the passions and talents of every learner.

No better advice on personalising learning than John Dewey's beliefs about learning

The difference between personal and personalised learning - Alfie Kohn

John Holt provides great advice

Schools to focus on students' gifts and talents ( Daine Ravitch)

James Beane  - a democratic curiculum