Page 137 - Microsoft Word - The Future of Learning April 2017.docx

Implementation of the Learning Process
For the Learning Process to be implemented successfully, there are some essential infrastructure and policy initiatives required. These include the following:
• ensuring there is an effective and efficient online formative assessment environment that allows for feedback and feed-forward commentary and questioning to, and from, all stakeholders
• the adoption of a concept-based approach to curriculum
• a high-speed internet connection coupled with learners bringing their own devices to
school each day, or the school to supply these
• qualitatively and quantitatively assessing the learner, requires the development of efficient data collection that is dynamic, ‘Just-In-Time’, personalised and available to all stakeholders
• software that allows learners to map their learning progress against the concept curriculum.
We are not just making a slight modification to educator and learning practices but rather a systemic change to how students and teachers each become educator- learners and learner-educators.
One of the drivers of these transitions is ensuring learners are successfully able to transition into very different societal, work and social places than would have been experienced last century.
Introducing the Learning Process by ‘lead’ educators in schools requires project, strategic and change management processes and systems to be in place and each of these systems will need to be monitored. The transition from existing school practices concerned with learning to the ones outlined in this resource usually requires a three-year implementation process.
The adoption of a concept curriculum is central to the increased efficiency of learning. Having a clear understanding of the concepts that are needed to be understood focuses both educator- learners and learner-educators on specific knowledge, and this provides the underlying foundation for building ideas and concepts.
The historical 3–4–5–10 week long units of work used by school systems often have vague outcomes and learning intentions that lack clarity. Once the concepts that need to be understood are articulated, it is not unusual for the 3–4–5–10-week long unit of work to be completed in 1–2 weeks or less. This approach frees up the time required to build learner’s competency and apply the Learning Process to be innovative and ingenious as learners follow their passions.
Via the application of effective questioning and reflection (Reflect-Review-Revise), as well as applying synthesising and distilling processes during the Learning Process, learners build knowledge, ideas, concepts and concept frameworks ‘on the fly’. The Learning Process is dynamic, and can appear chaotic and messy, but there is an underlying structure that guides the learner to develop deep understanding and apply that understanding creatively.
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