Moving from Traditional to future-focused teaching and learning: A visit to two schools
Background Current context - Operating within a traditional NZ school model (single-cell classrooms, mainly teacher planned and directed, desks / tables, book work, well-organised and routine-based, subject-based teaching and learning, traditional forms of assessment, traditional 'balanced' timetables, etc). Traditional = the same as in 1990, when I began teaching. However, many of these traditions have remained relatively unchanged since my memory of primary schooling in the 1970s - 1980s. Since this time, there have been three significant changes to education in NZ - the introduction of self-managed schools (1989), the implementation of the New Zealand Curriculum, which changed dramatically in 2007. The introduction of National Standards in 2010. Some questions I've had: Are we really embracing the changes that we were introduced to in 1989 and 2007? Has our professional learning focus on 'assessment for learning', 'effective pedagogy', '