Gwen discusses educational vision in the light of the 'new curriculum' and in reference to Bruce Hammonds comments on the Ministry's vision (or lack of it) for education in NZ.
Gwen defines vision as "being able to see clearly:
- why we want learners to learn in our schools,
- how we want learners to learn in our schools,
- what we want them to learn to equip them for life now and later,
- how we want them to be taught.
She argues passionately that the WHAT of children's learning is very important and has been neglected by those who think that simply learning to learn is the most important thing regardless of topic or context. Gwen encourages us not to wait for the MOE to drop their vision on us but to "Simply articulate and share your OWN school vision of learning, focus your own school curriculum, and work to achieve it."
Yes i agree with her it's not rocket science, just do it, but i wonder in how many of our schools that are developing their own vision for learning (talking the talk) how much of this translates into practise in the classroom (walking the walk). And how many of our schools have not even begun to talk the talk let alone walk the walk.
1 comment:
Think Gawith and Hammonds miss the underlying problem - unless we make some attempt to find out what we think "learning" is, none of the other questions will make a jot of difference for what happens with kids in schools - for unless we are "singing from the same hymn sheet" wrt learning we will continue talking past one another throughout the 21st, 22nd and 23rd Century learner's experience of institutionalised learning.
Still I guess the plus side is that it ensures we will have plenty to blog about in the future
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