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