New Zealand Schooling - The case for transformation

The J R McKenzie Trust CEC team were pleased to have the opportunity to attend and facilitate the inaugural Philanthropy New Zealand Network Education Funders Network which took place in Auckland on April 11.

The day provided a great opportunity for conversations around what the future of education could look like in Aotearoa New Zealand. There was a clear willingness from all in the room to identify common interests that may lead to sharing knowledge and resources, which may even lead to collaboration on future projects.

We were delighted to hear from Rob McIntosh on the subject “Future Directions in New Zealand Schooling: The Case for Transformation.” Rob looked at the challenge for our current education system in how best to equip young people to develop the capabilities that allow them to thrive in a transforming world. He argued that the dominant model of teaching and learning which primarily involves the transmission of knowledge is no longer enough to meet either the needs of learners, or of our changing world.   

Instead, learning should:

1. Be highly personalised and highly collaborative.
2. Respond to the needs of the learner.
3. Recognise that learning doesn’t just occur at school, it also occurs outside of school in a range of contexts.
4. Integrate knowledge and competency development to tackle authentic real-world problems that are meaningful to the learner.
5. Involve project-based learning which focusses on the production of a tangible output.
6. Recognise the critical role of technology.

How well is this done in our schools at the moment? Perhaps the easiest way to find out is ask a 15 to 17-year-old to tick off the items on that list that currently occur at their school (and if they tick off even one of these please leave a comment as we would love to hear about it!).

There are pockets of innovative learning in New Zealand where some of these things do occur. But the wholesale change that is needed to equip our children and young people for the new work order and the future challenges we face is not happening widely or fast enough.
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Click here to download a copy of Rob’s presentation.