What have we learned from the Lockdown?

At the end of March 2020, New Zealand went into Lockdown which meant that we have had to deliver the curriculum in an online environment. This is titled @homelearning by our Principal who has also decided on a shorter school day for all. Our day begins at 9 am with learners coming online at 10:45…

Choice! Challenges, and Workflow in Lockdown

We have now completed one week of @home learning in Level 4 of Lockdown and it seems to be going well for most people. So what is going well and what is not going so well? Choice! I'm seeing learners who find it difficult to engage at school, engaging in their learning as they are…

MCE Symposium Presentation

  On Thursday 23rd January, I completed the final requirement of The Mind Lab's Master of Contemporary Education. This was a presentation to a panel of supervisors and other cohorts completing the MCE. This is my presentation: Our school model has remained mostly unchanged since the 19th century but the world has changed greatly. According…

Contemporary approaches to learner engagement

At Whangaparaoa College in 2019, a pod of 26 year 11 learners and 1 year 9 learner was selected to learn through self-chosen projects. As we wanted our learners to develop an agentic disposition, we chose a heutagogical environment combined with Design Thinking, Agile, and Project-based learning approaches. These are our findings. To what extent…

The challenge of NCEA and PBL

The year 11 Project-based Pod is a class that utilises a mash-up of Project-based learning, Agile processes, and Design Thinking. Our teaching is also informed by Hase and Kenyon's writing on Heutagogy/self-determined learning. This class provides flexibility for learners to personalise their learning by choosing what they would like to learn about. They also select…