Over the holidays I spent 3 weeks with the family at the beach, in fact two beaches Point Leo and Lorne. The slideshow in the right column has various pictures taken on the walks.
Time went quickly as it does for most people on holidays and by the fourth week, after lots of walks, a few red wines and time on the beach I was ready to start reading the pile of unopened journals I had stacked up over the last few months.
One article in the ASCD October edition of Educational leadership caught my attention “Rigour Redefined” by Tony Wager. I first met Tony at the Change Leadership Group at Harvard University. In the article he talks about the seven skills that define a rigorous 21st century curriculum. :
” identified seven “survival skills” that 21st century students need to succeed as workers and citizens: (1) critical thinking and problem-solving; (2) collaboration and leadership; (3) ability and adaptability; (4) initiative and entrepreneurialism; (5) effective oral and written communication; (6) accessing and analyzing information; and (7) curiosity and imagination. His observations in highly regarded schools led him to conclude that even honors and AP classes rarely incorporate these skills into the curriculum. He advocates a new definition of rigor, defined according to 21st century criteria.”
Systems, parents and teachers often measure the quality of a schools curriculum in terms of scores on tests but some of these skills are difficult to measure on standardised test.
This year for the first time the Victorian Government changed the regulations on the timing of the 4 statewide pupil free curriculum days with three of the four statewide curriculum days at the start of the year. One of the challenges we are tackling over these three days is this idea of curriculum rigour not always being defined by national test results
We have Kath Murdoch, a well known educator in the pacific area, working with us to plan our inquiry focused curriculum which includes, again for the first time, a school wide learning to learn unit for the first four weeks. The learning to learn unit includes several of these survival skills and sets the context for establishing the classroom norms or codes of behaviour for the year [ie: we behaviour in ways that promote learning for all].
One point previously raised by staff was the marketing of this curriculum to parents so they appreciate its rigour. A challenge for 2009.
PS: By the time we had climbed this hill on one of walks at Lorne I was thinking about different survival skills – breathing and drinking lots of water as soon as possible.
