Metamorphosis 9

The world of education has been undergoing significant changes in the last decade that have asked educators to look at teaching and learning from different perspectives. In British Columbia, the Ministry of Education recognized this by redesigning curriculum to allow for more personalization and student choice, as well as school-led initiatives that best respond to the future world of work. “We can’t know for sure what skills children will require for the future, but what we can be confident of is that change, and thus the need to adapt, will be an ongoing and increasingly important aspect” Peter Twining, Professor of Education Futures, The Open University. Our challenge then, as an educational institution, and as parents, is to provide opportunities for students/children to explore possibilities without necessarily knowing what the ‘right’ answer is. At the same time, we need to ensure an excellent understanding of ‘the basics’ to provide the foundation upon which to build curiosity and risk-taking. At Brentwood, we are embracing the new curriculum documents in order to provide meaningful learning opportunities for our students. This is happening at different scales. One large program delivery change being implemented in September is for our Grade 9 students who will be grouped together as a complete cohort every other school day along with six teachers. The students will be learning the curriculum for Science 9, Social Studies 9 and Applied Skills, Design and Technology 9 in an integrated program. A smaller yet equally impactful change is the addition of a variety of senior social studies courses to better reflect student interests; Social Justice 12, Human Geography 12, Comparative Cultures 12, Political Studies 12, etc. The required course of Social Studies 11 was replaced with these and many other options. Going forward, we have the ability to combine curriculum competencies to offer a variety of learning opportunities that are credit-bearing.  The implementation of the Grade 11/12 curriculum begins this September which means that we have work and learning to do. Given the many talents and passions of our faculty and students, it is exciting to think of what learning opportunities will arise from this. We are seeing increased use of the Makerspace to allow students to demonstrate their learning in more ways, as well as student-directed research into questions that have personal meaning and may be linked to post-secondary paths.  As we look to design and build a new academic building, questions around how we create physical space to support learning for current and future Brentonians guides our work. The conversation around the future of learning is provocative. There are many articles, blog posts, podcasts, etc that address the subject. Here is an example that is by no means the authority yet summarizes much of what is being proposed on the topic.