Learning Futures:a pedagogy of engagement

AISNSW workshopSeptember 2012

valerie hannon

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The Problem: Disengagement

Disengagement is a bigger problem for the most disadvantaged children

What do we mean by engagement?

Engagement in Learningvs.

Engagement in School

Engagement in School:

• Attendance• Attentiveness• Conformity• Exam Results • Behaviour

• Energetic and enthusiastic• Learning all the time, everywhere• Taking responsibility for learning• Achieving a wider set of learning

outcomes

Engagement in LearningEngagement in Learning:

Placed - The activity is located, either physically or virtually, in a world that the student recognises and is seeking to understand.

Purposeful - The activity feels authentic, it absorbs the student in actions of practical and intellectual value and fosters a sense of agency.

Passion-led -The activity enlists the passions of both students and teachers, enhancing engagement by encouraging students to choose areas of interest which matter to them.

Pervasive - The activity enables the student to continue learning outside the classroom, drawing on family members, peers, local experts, and online references as sources of research and critique.

Learning that fosters engagement is:

From Learning Futures to Engaging Schools

Design Principles

• Great schools evolve around clear, non-negotiable principles

• Values-led school designs clearly prioritise and enact their design principles

• Intelligent designs draw inspiration from a range of other models – they integrate great ideas

Introduction

Private sector Third sector

Apple iPad - personalisation

McDonalds - standardisation

For example…

• Focus on the user and all else will follow• It’s best to do one thing really well• Fast is better than slow• Great just isn’t good enough• You can be serious without a suit• The need for information crosses all borders

Whose principles are these?

Private sector Third sector

• The primacy of the quality of student work• Teachers as designers

High Tech High

The whole school campus is an exhibition centre for great work – a walk-round archive of their core principle of generating great student work.

Projects always end with an exhibition of students’ work.

Their maxim is to view project outputs as installations.

Imagine that you have been invited to design a new school – from scratch.

Design principles capture what you believe in. You want your school to be a manifestation of those principles – for them to be visible in both the way that the school is organised and the way students (and staff) learn.  

1. Our school will be committed to rigorous project-based learning

2. Our school will rebalance student enquiry and transmission teaching

3. Our school will maximise time for deep learning by simplifying the timetable

4. Our school will use authentic real world assessment

5. Our school will integrate curriculum subjects within student projects

6. Our school will actively involve parents and volunteers as tutors, experts, mentors and coaches

7. Our school will have a curriculum that integrates ‘head and hand’ – knowing and doing

8. Teachers in our school will plan, design and teach in teams

9. Teachers in our school will really know their students as individuals and the students will feel known as learners

10 Students in our school will feel a sense of ownership and take responsibility for their learning

11 Our school will persuade local organisations to provide authentic locations and opportunities for learning

12 Our school will work in partnership with parents and respect them as the primary educators of their children

Delta 6

Our support