My Favourite Learning Trend

Reflective Teaching 30 Day Blog Challenge

Day 24: Which learning trend captures your attention the most and why?

I like this prompt today because it made me actually go and research the learning trends as I wasn't immediately able to identify which trend I was in interested in. The trend that I was the most excited about, although not new, was the focus on being creative maker and problem solver rather than a passive learner of facts.



There are so many trends, especially with the advances in the use of technology in the classroom but this trend is what makes me really excited and passionate about being a teacher and made me want to become a teacher in the first place. For me, in education this means that we are teaching children to be the creators of things rather than the passive consumers of things. We are giving them skills for life over concrete knowledge about certain things. Education is being approached from a more creative and innovative standpoint and this is reflected in our inquiry learning. Despite being led by a government whose focus is economy (productivity and accountability) we are realising that to move forward as a country is to strengthen the creative and innovative side of our learners rather than have a generation of learners that test well. The New Zealand Curriculum framework which is a creative curriculum supports this so well!

AND in addition to this we are encouraging the children to learn through play and exploration. These are the natural building blocks of the inquiring mind and they are often underestimated. This forms the foundations of skills such as questioning, analysing and experimenting that can teach kids to look at things in different ways. This kind of thinking is important once we reach adulthood and have to survive in the world.