Future Focused Learning Research


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What I did today...

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Today I went into a classroom as a reliever and ran my own programme. It was with year 7 & 8 students and I set them up to do a one day project. I said to them that today was going to be a little different than their normal school day. They could pick one topic to research, and they could do it all day. Step 1: We completed a brainstorm on our topic answering three questions: What do you already know about your topic?  What would you like to know about your topic?  How is you, finding out this information going to help you, or someone else?  The students came up with some great topics, some decided to focus on helping elephants, some helping endangered turtles, some decided to improve their drawing skills, and others made a vortex air cannon. They were really keen to get stuck straight into finding out more about their topics as soon as they had brainstormed but I made them move on to step 2.  Step 2: Make a plan. We used this sheet, which is one that we developed at m
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The Learning Trap

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Learning. Many educators see it as something we need to stuff into learners. As some information that the learner is a vessel to be filled with. Many look at teachers as the shovers of stuff into the vessel, or the crafters of learning to hit the most targets at once.  I don't.  I look at learning as something that students need to love. That students will love if just the right combination of environmental elements are met.  If the environmental elements are just right for learning to occur, then it will happen in a much more meaningful and fun way than if it is poured into someone.  Teachers are the creators of the environment. Their purpose in school is to create the traps of learning that students will fall into. Take an example we discussed today as a group. A toy baby is left lying around almost haphazardly in a junior classroom with a towel, and a bowl of water. Play will inevitably lead students towards a discussion of bathing a baby. This is the environmenta
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Knowledge

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Knowledge. What is it? The oxford dictionary states it as "The sum of what is known." School's job historically has been to impart knowledge to it's students. To continue to build on humanities' knowledge by understanding what has gone on before. Until around the 1900's, the sum of human knowledge was doubling every century.  After the first world war, knowledge was doubling every 25 years.  Now knowledge doubles every 18 months, and IBM predicts in the future to double every 12 hours. ref.  http://www.bostoncommons.net/knowledge-doubling/?doing_wp_cron=1479671423.9828670024871826171875 The curve is exponential, and shows no sign of slowing down. So now education stands at crisis point.   We have two options going forward. Either 1. We keep teaching the small portion of knowledge that we can in the 13 years we have students for, whilst letting them miss out on the huge array of knowledge that presides before them, or 2. We offer students
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