Term 2 2021 at St Luke’s, teachers for professional learning were given the choice as to what they would like to do.  I chose to attend 3 workshops conducted by Stephen Harris.  The topic Stephen was covering the skills and capabilities our students need for a rapidly changing world.

As with our Project walls at St Luke’s Stephen provided:

If

the focus is on the skills and capabilities our students need for a rapidly changing world,

then

we need to think through what those skills and capabilities might be,

which will lead to

working out how to integrate these into existing learning experiences and curriculum programs

This has provided me with some serious reflection on my practice as a teacher. 

As an RE teacher using the Inquiry process initially I would have said that YES we are moving in the right direction, are we perfect?  NO, far from it.  However, this would have been said without any thought as to Learner Agency.  In this situation I would say that learner agency is the power to act.  So my initial thoughts have been slowed as now I am thinking about how to make this jump from:

Control To Agency

Compliance To Choice

Mandated To Created

Given To Discovered

I will go into Term 3 trying to somehow let go of the control in the classroom, handing the learning more to the students – student Need to Knows will be my starting point!!

The challenge that Stephen set us will be in the back of my mind going forward as I can see the power for students to act on their learning.  I can try this in my practice but a further challenge will be to see this practice in collaboration with other teachers – as all of our teaching is collaborative it will be an added layer.

Stage 6 2022 – how can we apply 21st century skills to the already painful HSC.  Honestly, I do not look forward to coaching students as to how to write a response.  The HSC needs to provide Agency, Choice, Creativity and Discovery to make the learning more relevant for the students!