Disciplining and drafting, or 21 st century learning? Rachel Bolstad and Jane Gilbert New Zealand...

Disciplining and drafting, or Disciplining and drafting, or 2121stst century learning? century learning?

Rachel Bolstad and Jane Gilbert

New Zealand Council for Educational Research

R. Bolstad & J. Gilbert (2008) Disciplining and drafting or 21st century learning? Rethinking the New Zealand senior secondary curriculum for the future. NZCER Press: Wellington

© NZCERMetaphor 1: A forked river

R. Bolstad & J. Gilbert (2008) Disciplining and drafting or 21st century learning? Rethinking the New Zealand senior secondary curriculum for the future. NZCER Press: Wellington

© NZCERMetaphor 2: A braided river

R. Bolstad & J. Gilbert (2008) Disciplining and drafting or 21st century learning? Rethinking the New Zealand senior secondary curriculum for the future. NZCER Press: Wellington

© NZCERMetaphor 3: A braided river with campground for “drowning” students

R. Bolstad & J. Gilbert (2008) Disciplining and drafting or 21st century learning? Rethinking the New Zealand senior secondary curriculum for the future. NZCER Press: Wellington

© NZCERMetaphor 4: A networked campground

R. Bolstad & J. Gilbert (2008) Disciplining and drafting or 21st century learning? Rethinking the New Zealand senior secondary curriculum for the future. NZCER Press: Wellington

© NZCERMetaphor 4: A networked campground

21st century learning – what does it look like?

20th century learning

Industrial Age

21st century learning Knowledge Age

Learning = instruction

acquiring information,

building knowledge (bit by bit),

‘filling up’ with knowledge;

Accumulation of knowledge-based credentials

– basics first (literacy, numeracy);

One size fits all;

Disciplined, passive learners;

Screening and sorting;

Building learning capacity, learning dispositions, lifelong learning, learning how to learn (L2L);

Competencies;

Doing things with knowledge;

Personalised learning;

Active, engaged learners;

Everyone must achieve – we can’t keep allowing the system to produce “failures/rejects”

21st century learning – what does it look like?

20th century learning

Industrial Age

21st century learning Knowledge Age

Independent work on teacher-generated tasks;

Ritualised solving of teacher-generated problems;

Teacher main source of knowledge;

General intellectual skills developed implicitly via exposure to the traditional disciplines;

Teachers and students generating new knowledge together;

Real-world, authentic, learner-generated learning tasks;

Real world problem-solving;

Foregrounding of general intellectual skills

- analysing, synthesising, creative thinking, practical thinking, ethical thinking;

21st century learning – what does it look like?

20th century learning

Industrial Age

21st century learning Knowledge Age

Separate subjects /disciplines;

Emphasis on ‘left brain’ thinking - logical, analytic, detail-focussed; disciplined rule-following, respect for authority;

knowledge in ‘bits and pieces’

The “independent scholar”

Interdisciplinary focus;

‘Left brain’ thinking necessary but not sufficient;‘Right brain’ thinking - aesthetic, synthesising, big picture, contextual, simultaneous thinking,

thinking ‘outside the square’;

People, relationship, teamwork skills & EQ;

21st century learning – what does it look like?

20th century learning

Industrial Age

21st century learning Knowledge Age

Deep knowledge of a few authoritative sources;

Understanding the views of others;

Producing clones;

Preparing for a known future.

‘International-mindedness’, cross-cultural knowledge, knowledge of more than one language;

Ability to access, process, manage, and evaluate large amounts of information;

Ability to form and defend views (intellectual adulthood);

Producing ‘clades’;

Preparing for an unknown future.

R. Bolstad & J. Gilbert (2008) Disciplining and drafting or 21st century learning? Rethinking the New Zealand senior secondary curriculum for the future. NZCER Press: Wellington

© NZCERMetaphor 4: A networked campground