Page 85 - Microsoft Word - The Future of Learning April 2017.docx

C. The second approach is to apply the same concept to several or all learning domains/subject domains as they are appropriate (an integrated approach). Learners apply that concept to several contexts (red) to build the concept of cause and effect across a number of learning areas/domains. The more contexts the concept of ‘for every effect that we observe, there is one or more causes’ is applied to, the more accurate learners become at predicting contexts they may never have experienced before.
Resource 34: The Cross-Discipline Approach
By working on the concept of ‘for every effect that we observe, there is one or more causes’, each group of learners applies the Learning Process to meet the learning statement for the concept. The learners initially discover knowledge that is demanded by the questions they are asking, rather than accessing and remembering knowledge Just-In-Case they might need it. Each group then applies the Learning Process (this is unpacked in the upcoming chapters) to develop a conception of how ‘cause and effect’ is played out in the context(s) they have been provided or they have chosen.
By initially applying the Learning Process to a specific context, learners build an idea of how cause and effect applies to their specific context. This context may be ‘plastic in our oceans’, habitats fitness, or ‘over fishing our oceans’ or any one of the other contexts in the red circles. To develop an idea into a concept, learners will need to be exposed to additional contexts. To achieve this, each of the groups take turn at being the educators and educating their peers about the context that they chose for the same concept of cause and effect.112 By seeing how the concept applies to a range of contexts the learners take their idea and gradually start to see the pattern of cause and effect across each of the different contexts they and their peers are presenting.
In this way, each of the learners is exposed to several different contexts for the concept of ‘cause and effect’ and the learners build an understanding of that concept. They can then apply that concept to predict how it might play out for the other contexts (the orange circles). In this approach, learners are not limited to one learning area/domain.
73
predictable
limitless
storms
FaceBook
feeding world population
fitness
health
dinosaurs
weather
genetic engineering
predictable context
Concept: Cross-discipline Cause & Effect
kindness
speed limits
safety
plastic in the ocean
over-fishing the oceans
increasing population
plastic in the ocean
genetic engineering
learned context