Sustainable Learning and Teaching
"Sustainability is one of the guiding principles underpinning Macquarie's graduate capabilities framework. Sustainable learning and teaching is an inclusive concept that emphasises participation, resource sharing, mentoring, collaboration and lifelong learning. The Sustainable Learning and Teaching project demonstrates ways of embedding the principle of sustainability and associated graduate capabilities in the curriculum.
The project consists of a series of short videos produced and directed by Mark Parry featuring Macquarie University staff, students, alumni and the broader community. The videos are underpinned by research-based resources developed by Anna Rowe, including an annotated bibliography and teaching strategies for sustainable learning outcomes and assessment tasks. The project was led by Agnes Bosanquet and funded by Macquarie University Sustainability."
(Macquarie University)
[An interesting initiative -despite the overzealous use of video transition effects and music wallpaper.]
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Personalising learning: learner-centred and knowledge-centred
"Personalising learning is... ...learner-centred and knowledge-centred: Close attention is paid to learners’ knowledge, skills, understanding and attitudes. Learning is connected to what they already know (including from outside the classroom). Teaching enthuses pupils and engages their interest in learning: it identifies, explores and corrects misconceptions. Learners are active and curious: they create their own hypotheses, ask their own questions, coach one another, set goals for themselves, monitor their progress and experiment with ideas for taking risks, knowing that mistakes and ‘being stuck’ are part of learning. Work is sufficiently varied and challenging to maintain their engagement but not so difficult as to discourage them. This engagement allows learners of all abilities to succeed, and it avoids the disaffection and attention-seeking that give rise to problems with behaviour.
...and assessment-centred: Assessment is both formative and summative and supports learning: learners monitor their progress and, with their teachers, identify their next steps. Techniques such as open questioning, sharing learning objectives and success criteria, and focused marking have a powerful effect on the extent to which learners are enabled to take an active role in their learning. Sufficient time is always given for learners’ reflection. Whether individually or in pairs, they review what they have learnt and how they have learnt it. Their evaluations contribute to their understanding. They know their levels of achievement and make progress towards their goals. Stimulated by How people learn: brain, mind, experience and school (Bransford, J. D., A. L. Brown, et al.)."
(Teaching and Learning in 2020 Review Group, 2007, p.6)
Bransford J.D., Brown A. L. and Cocking R. (eds.), How people learn: brain, mind, experience and school, National Academy Press, Washington DC, 2000.
1). Teaching and Learning in 2020 Review Group (2007). '2020 Vision: Report of the Teaching and Learning in 2020'. Department for Education and Skills.
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Republic of Rwanda Vision 2020: transforming from an agrarian to a knowledge-based economy
"How do Rwandan envisage their future? What kind of society do they want to become? How can they construct a united and inclusive Rwandan identity? What are the transformations needed to emerge from a deeply unsatisfactory social and economic situation? These are the main questions Rwanda Vision 2020 addresses.
This Vision is a result of a national consultative process that took place in Village Urugwiro in 1998-99. There was broad consensus on the necessity for Rwandans to clearly define the future of the country. This process provided the basis upon which this Vision was developed. ...
Even if Rwanda's agriculture is transformed into a high value/high productivity sector, it will not, on its own, become a satisfactory engine of growth. There has to be an exit strategy from reliance on agriculture into secondary and tertiary sectors. The issue, however, is not simply one of a strategy based on agriculture, industry or services, but rather, identifying Rwanda's comparative advantage and concentrating strategies towards it. For instance there is a plentiful supply of cheap labour, a large multi-lingual population, a strategic location as the gateway between East and Central Africa as well as its small size, making it easy to build infrastructure (resources permitting). The industries established would need to address basic needs, for which there is a readily available market, as these products can satisfy local demand and even move towards export."
(Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning for The Republic of Rwanda)
Fig.1 vvkatievv, 15 July 2009, 'OLPCorps Kenema, Sierra Leone 2009', Flickr.
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Design in the knowledge economy 2020
"By 2020 the UK must create a balanced and sustainable knowledge economy with design as a critical and central part. There is no other option. ...
In 2010, as we emerge from one of the most severe economic crises of the last century, it is clear that the balance of the economy must change. The country, brutally, is going to have to work and innovate to make its living. There are no more easy pickings off the back of a credit boom. Britain is going to self-consciously create a national innovation ecosystem to drive new growth sectors and companies - and design must be a critical part of that effort. Successful companies will be those which develop innovative products and processes, so creating new markets and reputations for themselves.
New ways of intervening have to be found. Public spending commitments or tax concessions - the traditional ways of achieving public policy goals - are going to be extremely constrained by the necessity to reduce Britain’s budgetary deficit. The quest is on for policy levers that can deliver changed behaviour as effectively but more cheaply. ...
Design is the bridge between the consumer questing for the experiential and the company trying to meet that appetite with an offer that presents the new in a user-friendly and innovative way."
(Design Council, UK)
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Simon PerkinsSHARE
