Future Oriented Learning - POGIL - What do they mean for me?

I decided that the long weekend was the perfect time to do a reading (as well as go to the beach and see friends) and so I did some research to find readings that weren't POGIL related but focussed on similar themes!  I came across a report by the NZCER titled 'Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching – A New Zealand perspective' and thought that that sounded interesting.  The following notes are insights that I gained from this reading that also connected with principles behind the POGIL style of teaching and the writing in italics is how this can, or already does, apply to my classroom.

Knowledge

• ·      Need to adopt a much more complex view of knowledge that incorporates knowing, doing and being
• ·      Knowledge – currently our views are underpinned by two different epistemologies of what counts as knowledge.  These are: knowledge as content, concepts and skills from the selected disciplines – and – knowledge as creating and using new knowledge to solve problems and find solutions to challenges as they arise on a “just-in-time” basis
• ·      A new view of knowledge and the implications for schooling – We can no longer predict exactly what content specific knowledge students will need as they move through life in the
• 21^st century.  But we do know that they need: opportunities to build their sense of self, challenges that will develop them into becoming self-reliant, critical and creative thinkers, the ability to use their initiative, the ability to become team players and the drive to engage in ongoing learning throughout their lives
• ·      In order for students to remain engaged in the long term they must be able to actively interact with knowledge rather than just reproduce it – they must be provided with the opportunities and skills to understand, critique, manipulate, create and transform it.
• ·     21^st century learning literature argues that today’s students need to engage in knowledge-generating activities in authentic contexts – we need to move away from formal contemporary learning to the messiness of real world situations in which the answers and outcomes are not known, or predetermined by the teacher, but rather where teacher and student work alongside each other on a learning journey.

In my classroom - knowledge is shifting from knowing to incorporating doing - I have not yet discovered how to get to the being stage with my students yet.  I have found that with the students using POGIL styled activities they are working with activities that are much more engaging, hands on, and higher level thinking.  With the two different epistemologies I think it is important that both play a place within my classroom - and this is evident through the way that I teach - students both understand knowledge in regards to content and skills and create their own knowledge in order to problem solve in a range of situations.  Hugely within my reading and maths sessions students are provided with opportunities to understand, critique, manipulate, create and transform knowledge thanks to the POGIL style of learning.  Within reading at the moment students are completing challenges that at first made me uncomfortable largely due to the fact that they are higher order Blooms creative styled challenges - these children are going to be creating work where their answers cannot be predetermined because what they are doing is authentic knowledge building.

Learning

• ·      Requires that all of those involved in education are involved in continuous learning
• ·      Focus in future oriented learning needs to be on equipping people to do things with knowledge
• ·      What we know about learning:

o   Learning involves thinking

o   Experiences are critical to learning

o   Learners need to be encouraged not to search solely for the right answer but also for the right approach to solving a problem

o   To learn, people need to be actively engaged.  They need to be doing something, thinking something and or saying something that requires them to actively process, interpret, and adapt an experience to a new context or use.

o   Learners have to want to learn the material – both in the short term and in the longer term they need to see a purpose to learning it.

o   Learning has to be personalized – they need to feel that they know what they are doing, and that they can control the pace of their learning

o   Learning often needs some kind of structure

o   Learning involves interaction – testing out and trying ideas with others.

• ·      In order for captivating learning to occur there is the idea that the learner ought to be transformed in some way through their learning and the idea that the world can be transformed by the learner – that what they are learning can impact their world almost immediately.

I like the idea that all of those involved in education are involved in continuous learning.  I know that through my own professional and personal learning I develop as teacher every day and that if I was the same person that I was at the start of the year even, and if I taught in the exact same way then the learning of my students would not be enhanced.  Future oriented learning does indeed need to be focussed on equipping people to do things with knowledge.  With knowledge being so easily accessibly through the internet these days it does not become so much the content of the knowledge that will drive the future of our students so much as what they do with this knowledge - how they manipulate it and use it to enhance the lives of people around them.  Within my current reading programme at the moment students are experiencing a variety of experiences that involve them relating what they are reading about directly to the world that they live in - with this, the activities that they are doing do not have a single right answer, but rather a variety of correct answers and what matters is the way that they get there - I would like to further incorporate this idea within my maths programme also.

Key Competencies

• ·      Learning that is future oriented is closely linked and connected with the Key Competencies.  This article states that ‘deep learning’ involves self managing, being creative and critical thinkers and learning with others.
• ·      The Key Competencies are so important to how we teach – when we have developed the understanding and application of these effectively in students is when students are able to transfer the knowledge and skills that they are learning about to whatever context they find themselves in.

Whilst my WALTs may not match directly with the key competencies the students are required to fill out an evaluation at the end of each task that is directly related to their key competencies - there is a focus on each of the key competencies but these are written in student speak.  When the students arrive to teacher time with me we discuss what they need to work on next time and through this discussion we focus on what is important for allowing them to learn and grow effectively.  It would possibly be effective for me to discuss these evaluations in the terminology of the Key Competencies and this is something I may explore doing.

Diversity/Authentic Learning

• ·      Diversity is key for learning that supports children in the world that they will be a part of tomorrow – this calls for greater engagement of learners in co-shaping their education to address their needs, strengths, interests and aspirations
• ·      Diversity encapsulates the current focus on developing strategies to ensure learners from all backgrounds can achieve success in ways that are meaningful to them.
• ·      The goal with education today is not simply to find better ways to raise every person’s achievement to an identical view or standard – which is a tricky concept with national standards saying the opposite – but rather to support each individual to reach their full potential.
• ·      Deep expressions of the practice of personalizing learning occur as listed below:

o   Learners have genuine input into shaping what happens in their learning, not only how they learn but also what sorts of learning activities occur within their class.

o   Learners (not just their teachers) believe that students have input into how things happen in their classroom or school.

o   Learners can link their schooling to other aspects of their lives, or see connections with their goals or aspirations for their lives beyond school

• ·      In regards to authentic learning opportunities – it is not enough for the learning to seem as though it is relevant, engaging and connected to student interests. Rather, we as educators, need to provide opportunities and strategies that support students themselves to feel engaged with, connected to and invested in the work that they are doing.

I believe that developing authentic learning within a classroom is an ongoing thing that changes continually with what you are teaching and how you are teaching it.  Developing an attitude and practice that allows students to engage quickly with authentic learning is a different thing.  This is something that I am working on in both my reading and maths programmes at the moment.  In writing we have set genres that we have to cover at certain times, however students get input into what they write about.  In reading - on a Friday afternoon, students are provided with journals that have articles in them that may capture their interest about the current topic of study.  Each group usually has about three or four choices each week.  From here, the students are able to decide what they want to learn about within this topic and choose a verb from the three higher levels of BLOOMs taxonomy that relate to what they are wanting to learn.  Within Maths the students sit a eAsttle test that provides them with next steps within their current subtopic and from their they direct where they want their learning to go based on both needs and interests.

Roles of teacher and student

• ·      The idea of personalizing learning call for reversing the logic of education systems so that the system is built around the learner rather than the learner being required to fit in with the system
• ·      We need to rethink the role of the teacher and students – as it is no longer the teacher’s job simply to transmit knowledge and the student no longer has the main purpose of absorbing and storing up knowledge to use in the future.  We need to consider about how we are structuring roles and relationships in way that draw on the knowledge and strengths of both teacher and student in order to best support learning.
• ·      Classrooms need to not be labeled as student centered or teacher driven whilst these terms are still being loosely thrown around but rather should involve teachers and students working together in a knowledge building environment,
• ·      Students are most engaged with, and get the most out of, learning that allows them a degree of choice, flexibility, motivation and self direction in their learning.