Can we really expect students to take responsibility for their own learning?

Do we really trust that students can navigate with personal accountability for their own learning and navigate their progress and providing us with evidence of learning - sometimes out of the box?

Education is schools was designed to have a curriculum, an assessment strategy, teaching or instruction, data, and if there is time, schools my address the issue of how students think or learn – usually by chance! Right?

Collaboration in classrooms is now being recognised as a more effective way of giving every student the opportunity to learn cognitively and creatively being challenged by peers and teachers, using digital technology and social media to enable asynchronous collaboration, allowing students to access learning objectives at their own pace, adding their own thinking, and being able to observe, sit back, internalise,?and then offer strategic ideas according to what they know and when they are ready.?

Teachers are finding that all learners definitely have something to contribute if allowed to work at their own pace as this allows them to develop more self-confidence and self-belief when they are empowered and challenged but not forced to learn. They begin to internalise and develop their own true meaning and relevance of the learning and why!?

For the majority of the time in many schools the focus is on covering the curriculum rather than than what kinds of things students are going to be thinking about and how they’ll prove to you that they understand the concepts. 21st-century, media, information-rich (digital and non-digital) environments now makes knowledge available instantly so why spend our time regurgitating what is in the book?

As the class is allowed to become more creative, more student led, more about students developing their own projects around the intended learning objectives, recalling, defining, analysing, creative thinking, critical thinking, communicating and asserting their points of view, challenging - the real 21st century skills become more prevalent. The skills that will help them succeed in this unpredictable post COViD era which many are still blaming for lost learning

Dare we increase flexibility of the curriculum so that it is not age related?

Increased curriculum flexibility is essential if every student is to learn effectively and meaningfully.??Learners can now learn at any time and any place and progress at their own rates irrespective of their age. Students do not and cannot learn at the same pace. And therefore, I suggest cannot all be measured by one tool - the terminal test or examination.

All teachers are aware of this. They know the A grade students - and they also know their F students however much support the give them. But they also know that their F students might be the most enthusiastic, make the most progress, have wonderfully positive attitudes and personalities - great communicators, spatial thinkers - until it comes to this final 'test".

Universities have moved on - yet they are still looking for the grades to enter - or at least some of them are, correct me if I am wrong please.

Curriculum references are still important and should still be in place ( essential ) so that individuals are challenged at their level, however there is nothing wrong with students of different ages working at with different curriculum levels.??

Every student progresses over time through using same of curriculum objectives.?

?Students are assessed against the progress they make regardless of their starting points.

Every student is expected to make above expected progress – ideally with feedback every 6 weeks. Allow them to celebrate and reflect on their learning....!

The way to maximise learning is to challenge learners in a way that is achievable and improves their self-esteem and confidence because they can enjoy success.??If they are not ready or motivated – how can they succeed?

Its like being asked to jump a 2 metre high jump when you have just enthusiastically reached one metre through small increments - because your age says you must be able to!

The good news is that many countries are structuring their curricula??into “steps” through which all students progress and using learner evidence to measure progress. The future is about learning and versatility using 21st century skills to develop core competencies such as collaboration, digital literacy, critical thinking, and problem-solving that will help students thrive in today's world rather than holding students??to the same age-based expectations??

However there is still a strong argument that we should treat all students equally irrespective of their individual differences except the same from all and work with each student’s current learning needs to help them 'catch up"

Transverse competencies

Seven transversal competences have been identified in Finland that are seen as especially essential for participating in today’s and tomorrow’s society. If we use these in every day learning tasks, they will become second nature. Even by the process of peer and self assessing....as they recognise their own strengths and ... appreciating themselves.

Vilhelmiina Harju ja Hannele Niemi suggests that:

"With transversal competences, education aims to support students’ growth as human beings, enhance competences needed for participating in democratic society, and support the development of a sustainable way of living. It is also essential to support students in recognizing their own strengths and developmental possibilities and in appreciating themselves."

Can students becoming involved in creating their own projects / learning environments become a reality ....

"Students are encouraged to join the planning and creation of teaching and different school projects, and their viewpoints are taken into account in developing schools’ learning environments".

The transverse competencies include, for example, critical thinking, creativity, collaboration skills, cultural competence, and information and communication technology (ICT) skills.

Finnish student teachers’ perceptions of their development of 21st-century competencies

"The best-achieved competency was ‘Collaboration’ and the least well-achieved was ‘Global connections.’ The study illustrated student teachers’ perception of their success in applying 21st-century competencies to their teaching at schools. Answers to open-ended questions produced convincing evidence that courses involving collaborative and interactive learning, high quality, sufficient support, related 21st-century competencies, certain pedagogical methods used by teacher educators, and integrating theory and practice can contribute strongly to the development of student teachers’ 21st-century competencies."

We have a lot to learn from the approaches to learning in Finland

Binkley, M., Erstad, O., Herman, J., Raizen, S., Ripley, M., Miller-Ricci, M., & Rumble, M. (2012). Defining twenty-first century skills. In P. Griffin, B. McGaw, & E. Care (Eds.), Assessment and teaching of 21st century skills (pp. 17–66). Dordrecht: Springer.

Anywhere you look the proof doesn’t seem to lie, yet how exactly is the Finnish Education system achieving such greatness? Their students outperform students in the US and the UK in most, if not all areas and their teachers enjoy a much better work life balance.

Dr Tassos Anastasiades

IB Principal at Genesis Global School. Genesis Global School, Noida is one of the best Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and International Baccalaureate (IB), schools in India