One of the Principles of the New Zealand Curriculum is  Learning to learn:

“The curriculum encourages all students to reflect on their own learning processes and to learn how to learn.”  

Most of us in our Primary and Secondary schooling will remember little about learning to learn. We will most likely remember being told what we had to learn as the” what” or “content” was the most important.  Memorising was a highly praised skill and in order to pass exams, those who could memorise and regurgitate successfully often did very well.!

In society we have moved from an Industrial Age model (in which memory was highly valued) to a “knowledge age”  or “knowledge economy” in which innovation is highly valued. Learners need to be able to deal with new situations and environments, learn to problem solve, to create new knowledge and deal with uncertainty and greater complexity. We know that people learn better by doing -being active participants-  rather than by watching- being passive recipients.

We have a challenge in our schools, all of which have been set up under the Industrial Age model e.g. knowledge delivered by an expert; classrooms with rows of desks resembling a factory; bells being rung for beginning and end of day and lunch breaks; even the recent addition of standards reflects that model to a degree.

Although we have modernised our approach and are in the process of modernising the environment with the introduction of furniture that can be used more flexibly, we are challenged to truly develop our systems and practices so that we do prepare our children for the knowledge age in which we are living and working. 

Over the next year, our staff will be building on knowledge we already have and  learning more about changes we need to make in our thinking and practice in order to better reflect what is happening and what is expected for people living in the 21st Century.

Within the next year,  a replacement and refurbishment building programme will begin at our school and the style of accommodation for learning will be radically different from what we have now. If you are interested in this topic I suggest you Google Modern Learning Environments to see some of the ideas that are already in place in schools in New Zealand and other parts of the world. Stonefields is one example in Auckland.  http://www.stonefields.school.nz/