It is no secret that schools are a microcosm of society. Shouldn’t schools therefore be the place where young people are prepared, adequately, for the rigours and requirements of life beyond the classroom? This is the challenge that all schools and schoolteachers face today. Parents have a role to play here too. This is because, this type of real-life learning is a challenge that all adults, supporting the learning of our young people, need to embrace. After all, learning is not just confined to school and the classroom – it extends to every facet of a young person’s life – sure at school yes, but also to every moment, every experience and every interaction that makes up a young person’s life.

I was recently reading an article entitled “How Deeper Learning Can Create a New Vision for Teaching.” The crux of the aforementioned paper was that quality, future-focused 21st century teaching and learning is teaching and learning that embraces a forward-thinking, student-centred approach. In this approach, students are given opportunities to develop skills and competencies that they will need to succeed, post-secondary school (Martinez, McGrath & Foster, 2016). Skills that they can and will use to thrive. So, what are these skills and competencies? What is it that young people need from school and from the formative years of their life, in order to thrive in the macrocosm that they are thrust into, once they leave the microcosm of the schooling system? According to the Hewlett Foundation (2013) and Martinez, McGrath and Foster (2016), these six essential skills and competencies are:

• Mastery of core academic content (knowledge of core areas is important).
• Thinking critically to solve complex problems (asking questions, being curious, being analytical, being evaluative).
• Working collaboratively (learning and working with others).
• Communicating effectively (in myriad ways – writing, speaking, representing etc).
• Learning how to learn (being metacognitive, self-regulatory and self-evaluative).
• Developing an academic mindset (valuing life-long leaning, knowledge and ideas).

According to the Hewlett Foundation (2013), cited in Martinez et al. (2016), these six areas need to be facilitated across the three domains of the:

• Interpersonal – with others by exercising the social and emotional skills needed for life.
• Intrapersonal – regulation of the self and one’s own learning, feelings and emotions.
• Cognitive – thinking and the mastery of content and ideas and why these ideas are important.

And so, how do we, as teachers and as parents support a “forward thinking, student-centred approach” (Martinez, McGrath & Foster, 2016) to learning, for life? Put simply, six ways that all who support young people on their learning journey can nurture this way of learning are:

• Empowering young people as learners (give them autonomy).
• Contextualising learning so that it’s relevant and coherent (link to prior knowledge, where does this learning experience fit now?).
• Connecting learning to real-world experiences (makes sense – make it real life!).
• Extending learning beyond the classroom (fostering a culture of life-long learning, always).
• Inspiring students by customising learning experiences (differentiation, scaffolding).
• Purposefully incorporating technology to enhance (not automate) learning.

This is our challenge, as teachers and as parents, to put our young people at the centre of learning experiences – both inside and outside of the classroom. This is not an easy challenge, but one that, if met, is sure to place our young people in excellent stead for the future.

Kirk Thomas - Director of Teaching and Learning