Building Capability

I am so keen to adopt these new practices but feel like it would be almost impossible to adapt without the required technology. It would require significant investment and I feel would reinvigorate many teachers’ careers. I seek out new approaches and try flexible learning and it does require significant relationship development with your class. I enjoyed the role of questions and always makes me rethink and redirect my approaches. The four barriers to the shift I think could be minor hurdles if change comes from every level of schooling. I am desperate to shift but need the technology to… Read more »

One of the biggest implications is that some teachers would make the shift from the lecture style to a more free flipped method, while others might not. Student could be feel lost and unsure of how to react for the outcomes they want. Also the compliance methods (assessments) around measuring a successful student would have to altered significantly to ensure this re-think would work properly. As it should not just be a rote learning, memory and test. it should be learning and then seeing how they can apply what they have learned in a new situation that will actually equipment… Read more »

Making the shift towards building capabilities is needed to meet the goals of the Melbourne Declaration and prepare students for life in the 21st century. Practicalities such as resources including professional learning, time constraints and funding, create challenges from moving towards this shift in teaching pedagogy. Constructivist methods of teaching will provide opportunities for students to gain the skills they require to succeed, perhaps more professional learning is required to support teachers in adopting these pedagogies, whilst also acknowledging the important role of explicit teaching.

As educators, our role is always changing to maximise learning outcomes for students.

I think as teachers we are continually trying to re-think our classroom pedagogy and the learning intentions of lessons.

But to what capacity are our thoughts becoming actions?

I am open to rethinking my role as a teacher and feel that I have adapted my teaching strategies with time. I do think that the fear of losing control is there for some teachers and therefore they are not willing to give up the traditional teaching methods that have worked for so long.

I am open to re-thinking my role and am old enough to have made changes throughout my teaching career more than once. The environment in which i teach however has never had much of a change as there has never been the money to fund this in a way that would make a dramatic change. I find the goal of learning for students is different for each one and trying to meet all these goals and needs can be quite challenging.

one of the largest implications for those who are eager to make this shift is finding the balance between making it work for the students and still meeting the regulatory requirements….and hence the implication of issuing qualifications that aren’t seen as “valid” however may be more useful than a “valid” qualification.

As teachers, I think it’s easy for many of us to re-think our roles, the dynamics of the classroom and even the goals of learning and adapt to the needs, but there are other factors that have to be taken into consideration. In the first place, we have actually lost the essence of the ideology of teaching, leave alone that of facilitating cognitive and meta-cognitive approaches to learning, deep thinking and capability building. Very often, teachers are expected to teach to the assessments and getting the students across the line s as to be able to attract funding and more… Read more »

Rethinking the teacher role I see as an easy adjustment for the teacher but a little surprising for the student. The classroom organisation would be dependent on what you are teaching and in my case it currently involves PC on fixed desk tops. So to change this as suggested would mean the use of laptops – who would provide these? Many of the students have laptops with varying capability and software. The idea of being trained at a TAFE institution generally means the equipment will be provided for the students. With the connected learning that has taken place due to… Read more »

I am struck that the central problem in the VET space space with these concepts is that our funding bodies and compliance arms are all developed around the “traditional” concepts, making these changes, directly impacts on our ability to fund ourselves. A circular problem. As a librarian I feel that this is what we have always done in libraries, the mantra of ” show a patron the answer, they have the answer, show them how to find the answer, they have a life solution”. I do however love the concept of flipping the classroom, and can see how this can… Read more »

The concept of getting students to think and find answers for themselves is spot on, it works. They actually try and give an answer to a question.

Implications such as the fear of moving out of our comfort zone and what we know would be hard shift to make. Many teachers have been teaching ‘their way’ for so long that its difficult to break habits, patterns and change their thinking and practice.
I love the idea of a flipped classroom (function and form) but many schools do not have the funds to purchase elaborate and expensive furniture to create these awesome spaces- What can we do to utilise what we have already?

It is definately a re-think in terms of curriculum planning and what the expectations are from above us in terms of what we need to teach in terms of assessment and reporting.

It is a scary thought, having to relinquish control in the classroom! However, I really love the idea of allowing students to take more control of their learning – for them to become the ones who both ask and answer questions. I think, again, the success of this type of new, contemporary approach to teaching and learning could be hampered by our current content heavy, assessment based curriculum.

This is going to be a difficult time for teachers to adapt to the new concepts and loss the of control as a teacher.
Its very hard to get the current student to research the information needed, I will try to use some of these techniques learnt to enable to student.

In the current environment with online learning and a relook at the teaching role, expectations and resources we are poised to move in a different direction or to do the same as always. Those who resist change will be left behind. We need to release control and learn with our students. It is scary!

The three keys to building capability can certainly help our students acquire best learning. However, it is a very difficult task for teachers to complete the volume of learning and the number of assessments in the limitation of course time. If there is not a change in the curriculum design, it is hard to shift the goal of learning or our facilitator role.

I really enjoy using class time to discuss and complete tasks and group work related to the content that students have access to via the online platforms. However, getting students to complete the pre reading is the challenge as many still just want the answers

Teaching in the VET sector i have sound some teachers are willing to just give the students the answers as opposed to helping them find the answers. Therefore making colleagues look bad. re thinking the role of the teacher will help this.

With online learning as our future classrooms, some of the concepts put here may need to be relooked.

I enjoyed the concept of trying to get students to think and find answers for themselves – asking them a question when they ask a question.

We will need to ensure we are equipped and ready with new skills to deliver/teach/assess in new and creative ways. We need to carefully consider how we differentiate to meet students needs in the way we present material and we will need to be ever so careful to maintain access and equity.
We need to ensure that we educate our stakeholders in recognising the shift in paradigm too.. so that learning is still respected , regardless of the methods used to achieve a goal of skill and knowledge development.

Although classroom discussions are beneficial, it is often the same kids that participate and it can be hard to encourage the quieter ones, who would much prefer the old system of learning from the teacher.

Some great questions to think about – and really like the respond to a question with a question – encouraging students own capability. Great presentation again!

Teachers who are not willing to make the change. Teachers who are used to teaching students using the teacher-centered model are a massive implication towards building capabilities.

Students often still want to have their learning in quantifiable terms. When you open things up to a building capabilities model students won’t always give the learning the dedicated time needed to develop those skills. This is especially true if they are developing soft skills and if they can’t be recorded in some easily measured way.

What learners perceive learning to be? I remember students in my 1993 Psychology uni class – all mature age, complaining about a lecturer who gave us an assignment to do by discovery learning. Yes, it was uncomfortable at the time. However, with time and reflection, it was a great learning experience. Thanks Bob!

I have tried to work with students within a flipped classroom and have found that many students (adults) don’t do the preparation so are not able to participate in the classroom discussions, i wonder how i could restructure our timetable so that this could be included into lesson time, as such.

I think the implications are only positive for both teachers and students.
The biggest we have always had and will continue to have is the lack of resources and funding. The obsession with measurement of success by some arbitrary mark set by a bureaucrat in a cubicle is what stops every single attempt at modernisation and change.
There will be old school teachers who will need to adapt or leave because the new world will leave them behind.
We need to stop expecting “Listen-Remember-Regurgitate” because it does not demonstrate understanding.
I can’t wait!

I have no doubt that flipping the classroom is what we need to do. But, and maybe it is part of the control aspect, how do I cater for the needs of children who are easily distracted and/or need emotional/behavioural support? There are some kids who I believe would really struggle being in free flow enviroment with 2 classes and huge windows. Would I be spending twice as much time with them, and therefore lose my time to properly facilitate other children?

Exciting concepts to play with and think about – hard to implement in practical terms. That doesn’t mean they are not worth doing!

Building capability will require more resources and more training. Parents and students will need to be convinced that the required amount of learning is still taking place even if students aren’t sitting in rows and listening attentively!

It is difficult to rethink our role and lose control – we try to manage behaviours and teach at the same time. We need to have control but in a different way by leading and facilitating rather than controlling the answers that our students give. The new look classrooms would be a great environment but I would need to think about the distractions through the glass windows and ask – Is it important for students to stay focused in our classroom or should they be able to day dream and look into other classrooms and see what the other learners… Read more »

As a teacher in both early childhood and vocational learning, I see my role varies depending on cohort. In early childhood, our philosophy is very much around facilitating learning, co-collaboration with children, exploring together, hypothesising, researching – dispositions for learning. As a vocational teacher, it really depends on the individual student at times, many want the answers given to them and I do worry about what they have actually learnt, whilst ome love that debate, discussion and application in the simulated workplace. Its about a balance to meet all needs as this is something that cannot be changed overnight –… Read more »

Working in vocational education, the role of teachers is very much facilitators of learning. Questioning, problem solving and evaluating learning experiences are everyday tools and the classroom is often a simulated workplace. Students straight out of school are excited by this, but their expectations are clearly that the learning will be teacher led – they want the answers given to them rather than working in groups to problem solve and find solutions: they need to learn how to do this. The implications of rethinking roles and building capabilities is that the students will be more workplace ready – including a… Read more »

Certainly it is challenging learning how to move from a teaching to more of a facilitating role. We need resources, structures, systems & training that help us as teachers develop these skills & feel confident in making the changes to benefit our learners.

Personally, I am excited about making changes and also interested to give it a go. I like the idea of a flipped classroom but worried that students won’t do the pre-work then come to class and miss the important content that others have done? I would also like to hand control over to the students but would be a bit nervous in doing so.

Implementing these three keys for building capability is going to introduce flexibility. This would give rise to deep thinking and hence build the capability among learners.They would not feel threatened in the classroom where the answers to problems is not expected in a time frame and also not limited to set of resources.

Certainly it is challenging learning how to move from a teaching to more of a facilitating role and re-defining the measurement of demonstrating learning.

I was heartened to read the ‘curriculum’ review released a few days ago. Stepping towards a skills, attitudes and cooperative learning based curriculum and away form time-limited goals will be transfroming.

This kind of reminds me of the Robin Williams’ teacher character in Dead Poets’ Society. There can be a lot of resistance towards the idea of breaking teaching traditions in order to “seize the day”. For it to work I would think it would need the cooperation of the whole school community not just one teacher.

Going back to basics…when planning a lesson. Rather than having an end result in sight we must allow flexibility. Rather than being “in control” and having to cover a certain amount of content we should allow the lesson to evolve based on student input. This doesn’t work for every lesson of course but these classes are often the best!!

Some of the implications of making the shift include rethinking our role as teachers and the time required to planning how the new role of a teacher will look. As McWilliam mentioned, when we think about guiding our students it often results in teachers taking a passive role on the sidelines. Both teachers and students will struggle with the change in role, as everyone is “comfortable” with how things are. Getting everyone on board with the change of the classroom teacher’s role will be met with resistance from many. But it will be exciting when we see it working.

The barriers to change weigh so heavily on a school and the implications of change on the prospects of the students make it all very scary! The money to make changes obviously inhibit the modifications / improvements to physical environments that we all agree are necessary. You wouldn’t shop in a store that was as poorly fitted as a classroom but we expect students and staff to do amazing things in those spaces. The quote from Alexandra Trenfor resonated with me – ‘the best teachers are those who show where to look but don’t tell you what to see’.

Extensive funds needed to build modern class room and extensive training needed for the teachers how to teach in extensive challenging environments.

The quote about “mobile phones being the most powerful learning tool any student has ever had” really resonated with me here. Our school is only just now broaching the topic of BYOD (and yes we know we are well behind many) and there is still so much hesitancy about the students phones. It most definitely seems to stem from the ‘control factor’ that was presented.

I can understand why so many teachers feel more comfortable to ‘stick with what they know’ but I don’t think there are any teachers who genuinely believe that this is the way it should be or will be in the future. I agree that the ‘professional pride’ concept seems to be holding a lot of us back. It is a fear of redundancy that I see expressed most often. Almost all of us feel that what we do is important and I think there is a real fear of that being undermined.

There is no doubt in my mind that making these shifts will be transformational.If we put into practise the changes which lead to both system and individual changes that build the capacities discussed then we better educate our students for the lives they are likely to live. The challenge is how we bring this about given the inherent interests we have in keeping the system the way it is. For example in Australia we now have an approach to universities which places an emphasis on building capacity for job skills rather than academia. If we are really to be successful… Read more »

While our end products HSC results, ATARS , Ato E Grades still exist and the system directs success with these things we are constrained by it. The big shift will happen when these things change. I think right now giving students and parents their own choice to choose a traditional pathway or a more creative, capabaility building, open ended thinking pathway should exist

Flipped classrooms, open learning spaces, integrated curriculum areas, coteaching are all ideas which have been thrown around for all of my lengthy time in this business. We were shown examples of these when we were at uni, Canberra schools being a real eye opener at the time. It has taken many years for these ideas to be more of a focus in schools rather than just a concept. It is challenging for many but we are now experimenting with these ideas in our school. We need to be creative and approach these techniques with positive outcomes in mind. If it… Read more »