The new curricula – from text to classroom practice

Teacher training workshop

The new Finnish curricula came into effect at the beginning of August. It’s been a three year process including endless discussions, commenting rounds, writing regional and local contents, teacher training and coordination of the local process. However, at the moment, I only see half of the process accomplished.

550 pages of the national core curriculum + additional 300 pages of regional and local content is not an easy task for any teacher to read, think through, comprehend and put into practice. Only the volume of it is overpowering. And when each sentence is loaded with multi-layered meanings, it becomes a mission impossible. For the ordinary teacher the natural solution is to go on as nothing had changed and hope that nobody will notice. The final source of confidence are the text books. To rigorously follow text books equals following the curriculum, or does it?

One of the basic changes in the new school culture (defined in the core curriculum) is to strengthen students’ engagement in and ownership of their own learning. In practice this means more individual learning paths instead of the old way of everybody trying to learn the same content the same way and at the same pace. Students search, produce and present texts, photos and videos that they find interesting and valuable. They become conscious of their strengths and thus build their confidence. The ultimate goal being a self-sufficient and self-regulated learner, who can set realistic goals for her/his learning, works responsibly towards them and is willing to take on challenges. I’m afraid text books or exercise books or rigorous anything are really not a way to go.

Students creating "dream school"

In the new curricula the emphasis is not in the “what” but in the “how”. If learning skills, achieving competencies and learning to learn are the main objectives of learning processes or activities, student-centered learning methods are admittedly superior in efficiency. This often requires cross-curricular and real life approach. So, instead of dividing the learning content into 45 minutes long subject based units in which things are learned separately (and chronologically), real world problems or phenomena are studied in their natural environment from many different perspectives. This way, many skills and contents are learned simultaneously and in such context that is natural and comprehensible to the students.

As for the students, even the very young, teacher has to trust and appreciate their creative abilities and own way of seeing things and help them to recognize and use their talents and strengths.

To put the 800 pages of curriculum into a nutshell:

• from what to how
• from performance to interaction, team work, and collaboration
• from assimilation of knowledge to critical analysis of, constructing and presenting knowledge
• from text books to authentic materials and problems and phenomena in real life context
• from isolation and alienation to engagement, active citizenship, global networks and connectedness
• from tests, (sticks and carrots) to continuous feedback, self-assessment, learning to learn, self-regulation

For the majority of teachers this means a giant step outside their comfort zone and a leap to unknown. It won’t happen without the unconditional support of the head teacher and the cooperation of the whole school community. And, fortunately, in black and white in the core curriculum, we are all, both teachers and students, given the right to make mistakes and learn from them. Experimenting and failing are inherent parts of a learning process.

Salute!

UN's Sustainable Development Goals and Transformative Education

The United Nations’ new Sustainable Development Goals were approved at the UN 2030 World Summit of Sustainable Development at the end of September. These objectives include ending poverty and hunger, as well as promoting health and welfare.

The fourth goal deals with education.The most important thing is to ensure that all girls and boys get completely free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes (4.1). Goal 4.7 is aiming to change the curricula and learning goals and contents both in developed and developing countries: 

By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development.

According to the general theme of sustainability seven out of the total 17 goals deal directly with sustainable development and global responsibility from the environmental point of view. These goals are regarded as major challenges in respect with the quality of life and the future of our planet. Failure to reach these development goals would hinder achieving the other goals as well.

In the new Finnish Core Curriculum of Basic Education it’s stated that

The global education within basic education creates, for its part, the foundation for equitable and sustainable development in line with the United Nations development goals. p. 16

The UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals are perfectly suited to be used as authentic learning material. For example, in learning English as foreign language they offer current vocabulary and lots of support material for discussions and for presenting one’s own opinions. In cross curricular learning projects the goals can be divided to be studied in different grades and school subjects. Learning outcomes and created guidelines to promote sustainable development are shared and brought into use. Everybody at school work together to achieve the goals and implement the guidelines in the spirit of active citizenship and transformative learning.

In Finland UNESCO ASPnet schools work in the vanguard in implementing the UN goals in local curricula. The aims of the ASPnet school network focus on two themes: Global Citizenship Education and Education for Sustainable Development. GCE deals with human rights, education for peace and global responsibility. It’s transformative and empowering and its goal is to give learners the opportunity and competencies to realize their rights and obligations to promote a better world and future. ESD aims at reorienting education worldwide, so that it provides everyone with the opportunity to acquire the values, attitudes, skills and knowledge that are needed to contribute to sustainable development.

The aims of ASPnet schools are to integrate GCE and ESD in the school curricula and learning processes as well as to experiment innovative approaches and learning methods in global education. This implies strong commitment to implementing the new curriculum in the spirit of the UN 2030 Development Goals.

As the UN's Climate Change Conference starts today, I think we all share the same concerns and fears and hope that decisions will be made for a better future for all.

Authentic Learning and eTwinning

Authentic learning is, in many ways, inherent in eTwinning.

1. eTwinning and learning foreign languages

eTwinning projects and cooperation between schools, classes and individuals from different countries entail communication in foreign language. This happens even if the project theme is dealing with something completely different. Planning and working together, sharing ideas and experiences are at the core of eTwinning. At the same time your foreign language knowledge and communication skills develop significantly in an authentic learning environment, using foreign language to communicate with people who don't speak your mother language.

2. eTwinning supports project-based learning

Learning in eTwinning is almost always project-based. When learning together across borders, you learn to know each other, create confidence, share and, finally, collaborate. This forms a project structure that is based on shared goals and collaboration, student engagement and learner-centered learning, which are also core elements of authentic learning.

3. eTwinning is multidisciplinary and cross-curricular

In eTwinning, the perspectives to the studied topic are diverse and multiple. They vary according to the different learning and school cultures and established cultural interpretations. They also change when studied in their real life context instead of the text book context. More variables are brought in this equation by involving learning ICT, communication, team work and multi-literacy.

4. eTwinning supports exploration and inquiry

In eTwinning, as there are no ready-made learning materials and text books, students explore their surroundings and search information. They experiment, collaborate, document the process and share the information/knowledge they have produced. They use diverse techniques and multimedia creatively and in a personalized manner.

5. eTwinning and authentic assessment

In eTwinning, you can't use standardized tests to assess learning. During the learning process, you apply continuous assessment and reflection to monitor the project. Typically, the teacher may have a different idea of what direction to take and what to produce, but she/he is open to learner generated ideas and personal solutions. At the end, everyone involved in the project assess what you have learned and achieved and reflect on the process.

6. eTwinning, curriculum and real world relevance

The first thing to do when you start a new eTwinning project, is to check which competence development and content areas in your curriculum the project covers. Usually you realize that in one project you can learn much more effectively and develop simultaneously many more skills than in any ordinary textbook based learning.

When students study phenomena in the real world context and when they try to solve real world problems, learning becomes meaningful. Students get more engaged and become owners of their learning. At best, real world relevance will make students change their own way of life for better and act against injustice.

Towards authenticity - major trend and challenge in learning

One of the main transversal themes in the new Finnish Core Curriculum of Basic Education (FCC) is the opening of school doors and classroom windows to the surrounding community and the world. Learning can be linked to real life in many different ways.

When authentic learning approach is applied, instead of reading textbooks the students go out of the classroom to explore the surrounding nature, the built environment and their own local community or visitors from local organizations, businesses and other stakeholders, and local artists and experts in cultural heritage are invited to the classrooms to share their knowledge and experiences. A school that supports and strengthens lingual and cultural awareness appreciates and makes visible multilingualism and cultural diversity represented at the school and in the local community.

Students are roused to take the interest in linguistic and cultural diversity of the school community and the world around and they are encouraged to communicate in authentic environments. FCC p. 134

In authentic learning, phenomena and problems are studied in their real context in which they actually occur in nature, the surrounding community and in the world, where local and global overlap and merge. They are explored as they are, extensive and diverse from different and changing perspectives, crossing the borders of different school subjects. Authentic learning is an alternative approach to the learning of facts and skills disconnected from their true context and to cramming pre-chewed and, in the worst case, outdated information. Many of the world problems, such as extreme poverty, climate change, inequality and war, worry and distress children and young people. To discuss these problems together, search for solutions and act locally to promote sustainable solutions, is an important part of learning, prevention of social exclusion and the new school culture.

Well-functioning learning environments promote dialogue, participation and collaborative knowledge construction. They also enable active cooperation between the school and the communities and experts outside school... Learning environments have to provide opportunities for creative solutions, as well as the examination and exploration of issues from different perspectives. FCC p. 27

Authentic learning environments can be and very often are virtual. For authentic learning it’s essential that the sources of information are authentic and interaction takes place in real life (even if online), not drills, materials and simulated situations created for learning purposes. During a learning meaningful authentic texts (i.e. pictures, videos, podcasts, multimedia, articles, essays, presentations, cartoons) in which new ideas and innovative visions emerge are both studied and produced by students.

process

As for learning foreign languages, an authentic environment and genuine interaction across language boundaries inspires and motivates the students to express themselves and take part in real life conversations. Information and communication technology offers excellent ways to create a language learning environment that is appropriate for teaching and that supports interaction between students. All you need is a partner class for any part of the world and you can start face-to-face real-time interaction  using user-friendly free apps like chats, forums and video conferencing (e.g. Skype, Google Hangout, FaceTime).

Information and communication technology offers a natural way to implement language learning in authentic situations and meet students' communication needs. This way of learning supports student active engagement and ownership of learning. FCC p. 131

Authentic learning emphasizes students’ engagement and experience of authenticity in relation to their own learning. The student’s own ideas and strengths are exploited throughout the learning process from planning to assessment. In authentic learning the students is the owner/subject of her/his learning, not the object. Thus, learning becomes meaningful and relevant and the school as learning environment supports individual growth and the development, interaction and learning of the whole community.

New Finnish Core Curriculum, international cooperation and eTwinning

The new Core Curriculum for Basic Education (approved on December 22, 2014) strongly supports the idea that school is closely connected to the community,  society and world around it. Finland is becoming culturally more diverse and global and local continuously mingle and overlap in our everyday life. This should be visible at school and inherent in teaching.

At school we work, if possible, together with schools and developers of teaching and learning from other countries. Basic education is a positive and constructive force for change in society, nationally and internationally. CCBE p. 16

eTwinning offers an excellent and easy way to co-operate with the developers of teaching. For registered teachers, the eTwinning portal offers a wide variety of ways to network and develop professionally. In different thematic groups (eg. Creative Classroom or Language Teachers groups) teachers can share their knowledge and get tips for teaching. If you want to exchange ideas and experiences on a specific topic, you can look for a Teachers Room. If you cannot find one, you can set up a room yourself. 

eTwinning also provides continuous professional development opportunities. Learning events and webinars are offered on many different topics, particularly the ones relating to student-centered pedagogy, ICT in education and 21st century competences. These are also included in new Finnish core curriculum and there referred as transversal (cross-curricular) competences (L1-L7).

The Core Curriculum for Basic Education brings up international co-operation combined with ICT.

During the basic education, students will have experiences of using ICT in international interaction. CCBE p. 21
Contacts with schools in different countries increase students’ skills to operate in a globalized world. CCBE p. 26

Twinspace (eTwinning’s virtual learning environment) has been designed and made just for this purpose. It offers students an opportunity to interact and learn together with their European peers and partner classes. Students can chat, write messages on forums, share photos, videos and a variety of files created by themselves or together with their peers in a safe and protected learning environment. This way they can enhance their intercultural and cooperation skills as well as communication and ICT skills.

An international project is well suited for multidisciplinaty, cross-curricular and phenomenon-based learning. In eTwinning projects foreign language and ICT learning are integrated in different subject- and content areas. At the moment, projects dealing with STEM subject areas (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) are especially popular. Global education, cultural heritage and cultural diversity related themes are also quite common. They encourage students to reflect on the state of the world and the future, engage them in making the world a better place and, thus, develop creativity and problem-solving skills. They also enhance "cultural knowledge based on respect for human rights, respectful interaction and diverse ways to express oneself and one's views." CCBE p. 19

International cooperation and eTwinning partnerships have, of course, a very special role in language teaching and learning.

Opportunities are created for students and groups of students to network and communicate with people all around  the world. Information and communication technology offers a way and an environment to implement language learning in authentic situations following students' communication needs. CCBE p. 243

I started my first eTwinning projects 10 years ago just because I wanted to create possibilities for my students to use English language in authentic communication situations. It was quite another thing to tell about oneself, one’s own school and hometown

to a young European partner, who is genuinely interested in exchanging ideas and experiences, than to tell these same things to a classmate you know since kindergarten. The active use of language on discussion boards and collaboration when carrying out project tasks increased students’ motivation and significantly improved their language skills.

It is clear that in basic education all students won’t be able to participate in student exchange or mobilities and, environmentally, it wouldn’t be very sustainable. However, eTwinning offers everyone an opportunity for encounters and friendships across borders free of charge and without carbon footprints. It is Internationalization At Home (IaH) at its best.

Rethinking BETT show 2015

This year´s BETT hype was computing, robotics and different kinds of little gadgets you can program to do different things. So far I’ve been thinking very positively about coding and even attended a couple of courses to understand a bit more about what it’s all about – especially as coding is now included in the Finnish school core curriculum. At BETT I started to get increasingly concerned about engineers taking over education.

It’s clear that the big businesses are mainly interested in selling (actual) things: tablets, laptops, mobile devices, robots, 3D printers, screens (the bigger  the better), smart boards etc. A few years back everybody was talking about serious games and gamification of learning. Well, it proved to be something teachers found exciting and full of possibilities, but the schools had/have no money, so the interest in developing serious games slowly expired. No big bucks in that line of business. Now, we've come to the point where teachers and students are encouraged to create learning games themselves. It develops creativity and problem solving skills. Yippee! And your hard work will be recognized by a cute digital badge, if you share your game with the rest of the world.

In the light of sustainable development and solutions for the future, I’d like to see more open learning solutions, less to do with different devices and more to do with thinking and problem solving. More BYOD-based and 1:2-4 learning, prioritizing collaboration and team work skills, communication and creative inquiry.  For me the idea of the internet of things in which I have to update my washing machine (and all other home electronics) once in six months and change it for a newer model every two years is a horrible nightmare. Perhaps, it’s not a surprise that WALL-E is one of my all-time film favorites.

However, contrary to the show of things, I did enjoy the show of thoughts at BETT. Dr. Ashley Tan questioned the conventional way of flipping. It shouldn’t just be teachers working overtime making videos and students doing their homework in a bit different way than usual. Flipping entails rethinking of teaching and curriculum. In true flipping the conventional classroom roles are flipped, students are learning content creators and teach each other. For me that’s an inspiring idea and supports students engagement and them taking ownership of their learning. It shows way towards more personalized learning and design learning.

After spending three days looking at devices, gadgets, things and stuff, it was very refreshing and absolutely fascinating to listen to Sir Ken Robinson talking. He hardly mentioned technologies, but talked very critically about education. “I’m criticizing school culture and standardization, not teachers.” he said. Human mind is inherently creative. Creativity, imagination and innovation should form the corner stones of education. Education should support diversity instead of conformity. I totally agree. But how do I convince the decision makers, as creativity and diversity are difficult to measure and convert into Big Data. Blimey!

Curriculum development - towards 21st century skills and literacies

Schools and learning worldwide are challenged by globalization and digitalization. New skills and literacies are required from the 21st century citizens. With people travelling more and more freely across borders to work and study, intercultural and communication skills will make an essential part of the new literacies. When using new technologies, we can travel anywhere and meet anyone (virtually) anytime. Digitalization and global networks are bound together in a way that is changing the world faster than we can imagine.

Instead of what, general education will have to be about how. How to find relevant information in the world in which new knowledge is being built constantly and its amount is growing exponentially? How to collaborate and work together in different kinds of teams, communities and networks that can be global and multicultural? How to find and use the best ICT tools and applications for a wide range of tasks and how to use audio, video, pictures and diagrams to present and express our ideas in the most appropriate way?

To cope with the constant changes, besides communication and ICT skills, citizens of the future will need flexible intellectual capacity to think creatively, learn to learn and reflect on their thinking/learning. But being a global citizen is not only being connected and move smoothly from one network to another. It’s also about feeling responsible for the well-being of the world, making choices that support sustainable development and fostering peace, equality and human rights.

To educate a new generation capable of meeting the challenges of the 21st century, the school culture (the way we do things at school) has to be radically changed. In the future, the learning process will be characterized by asking questions, finding answers and building knowledge (rather than transferring information). Teachers and students will collaborate and work together in flexible teams and classes. Students will design their own learning and exploit their strengths in project-, problem- or inquiry-based learning activities. They’ll learn by doing, playing and discussing.

The learning environments will be diverse and open in many different ways.  A lot of learning takes place in real-life or virtual environments. Textbooks are used as any other sources, not guiding the learning process or defining its content. Students build and create their own eBooks and learning materials and share them with other learners. Students can consult experts and work together with their peers in other countries around the world and share knowledge and ideas.

Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? Hopefully, building communities across borders and making friends around the world will also make us gradually understand the true essence of global citizenship and this globe of ours a bit better place to live.

Sharing - at the heart of the new way of learning

We had a two-day seminar for 80 teachers and HTs interested in global education. The central issue and focal point of the meeting can be characterized by one word “sharing”. How does the internationalization of schools and global education support the culture of sharing and working together and help pulling down the barriers between different school subjects and the walls around schools? How can we gradually change the way of working and learning at schools so that, in August 2016, teachers and students are ready to start implementing and carrying out the curriculum-based learning of the new era?

The teacher's role has traditionally been to act as the guardian at the gate of knowledge. She weighs and chooses the information to distribute to her students at the appropriate dose of chunks. Knowledge moves in one direction from top (teacher) to bottom (student).

In a networked system information flows in all directions. Students and teachers form a network in which information, messages, and knowledge flow according to individual needs and interests. Self-interest and concealment of information will soon backfire. In a networked school, you are what you share. The teachers are learners alongside the pupils.

Knowledge sharing has not been part of the traditional school culture. Students that have been punished for sharing (= cheating). Textbook based teaching culture doesn’t encourage teachers to share (= extra work). But in printed educational material information becomes obsolete very quickly and the contents don’t tend to support the acquisition of skills needed at work and in life today and in the future. They need to be complemented and replaced by learning materials produced collaboratively by students applying the key phases of knowledge construction process: search, critical evaluation, constructing, presenting and sharing of knowledge. It's about learning to lean differently.

International projects have long been applying new ways of learning. It’s natural and meaningful to combine the learning of foreign languages, communication and ICT skills with culture, geography, natural sciences, history or any other school subject for studying collaboratively hands-on. The projects cannot rely on the information provided by textbooks, but the information is searched by students and constructed into presentations, quizzes, photo galleries and videos that are shared with a partner classes and students. Students meet on Skype and at forums, learn by discussing and chatting, asking questions and telling stories, in short, sharing.

The school will develop into learning community in which teachers and students work together sharing knowledge and experiences across class boundaries. Students can share what they’ve learned and experienced in the project by visiting other classes or at morning assemblies, by organizing exhibitions and creating photo galleries (online or real-life), writing in a blog, creating eBooks, giving workshops or organizing theme days, and by inviting parents, supporters and other stakeholders to visit school and the project website. Sharing is a skill that is learned by doing. It is a way of learning that empowers equally the sharer and the receiver. It will increase your responsibility and appreciation of your own work and the respect of others’.

I sometimes wonder if there was a special significance in that my project, which almost 10 years ago won the eTwinning competition in the series of pedagogical innovation, was called "Learning and Sharing"?

Thinking 2013

In November, the Finnish National Board of Education published the first draft of the national curriculum framework of basic education. This started a nation-wide discussion on the future of education which will, hopefully, continue all through the year 2013 and which all teachers and students and other stakeholders will take part in.

To stay up-to-date schools will need to be increasingly connected with the surrounding society locally, nationally and world-wide. International contacts and networks, partner classes and different kinds of learning projects will provide our students with the skills they’ll need as citizens of the global world.

Learning in an authentic context in collaboration with one’s peers makes learning meaningful, creates a feeling of involvement and enhances commitment. Authenticity is also at the heart of the phenomenon-based learning. Creative ideas are born and thinking skills develop in an open environment in which different cultures, languages and points of view meet.

As the world is changing and technologies are developing at an accelerating pace, many of the ‘good old’ practices need to be questioned. Teachers can’t be experts in every topic and individually responsible for the student’s development. Instead we need collective responsibility and shared expertise, co-teaching and team work.

To integrate the use of new technologies in learning we need the students to bring their own devices (BYOD) to school and the informal learning of the students to be recognized and made use of. The students will learn more and more outside school. When they bring their knowledge and skills to the classroom, they'll enrich the learning process and promote thinking outside the box. The school must be ready to take advantage of this. Learning contents can’t be so narrowly defined that the developing technologies and approaches, innovative ideas and individual learning paths won’t fit in.

I hope that the New Year 2013 will lead us towards the school of the future. I hope the discussion on the new curriculum framework will spread to every corner of Finland and changes of learning culture will start to take place. I hope we teachers open our hearts and minds and welcome the world in our classrooms. I wish you …