Theme 6: New kinds of partnerships and
relationships: Schools no longer siloed from the community
Learning for the 21st century, it is
argued, should support students to engage in knowledge-generating activities in
authentic contexts. Students must learn to recognise and navigate authentic
problems and challenges in ways that they are likely to encounter in future
learning situations. However, today many learners encounter learning situations
in which the “messiness” of the real world is simplified as contrived learning
tasks with answers or outcomes already known to the teacher.
This implies that learning will require
additional resources/support/expertise/input from a much wider range of people.
Teachers ought not to be the only people from whom young people learn. As
already argued (under the themes of personalising learning and
equity/diversity), learning needs to be more connected with the community.
Teachers still need strong pedagogical knowledge, but they also need to be able
to collaborate with other people who can provide specific kinds of expertise,
knowledge or access to learning opportunities in community contexts.
A final argument associated with this
theme is that education and learning systems will not have traction to shift
towards more 21st century approaches if this shift is not supported by the
wider community. Public education is a collective good in which everyone has a
stake. To be legitimate it must build our collective social and economic
capacity and meet individual needs—immediate
(and/or perceived) and future. To do both
requires community understanding of, support for and contribution to what is
being attempted. This “buy-in” could be achieved by engaging community members
in authentic educational activities that draw on their expertise.
R Bolstad & J Gilbert (2012, pp. 5-6) Report to Ministry of Education, "Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching — a New Zealand perspective"
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