We hear constantly about how information is at our fingertips, a few keystrokes away. As a result, we embrace the myriad of positive changes towards great education that has shifted and evolved over the past few decades. Educators are challenging both the structures that have driven formalised learning, and consequently, curriculum. These important changes enhance student voice and choice and personalised and authentic learning, designing opportunities for students to be agile and creative. In the enthusiastic and often topsy-turvy R&D of this transformation, sometimes the focus on curriculum is purposeful; sometimes it appears to be relegated as insignificant or irrelevant.
At Nanjing International School, we’ve been part of an exhilarating shift among agile international schools that are rethinking students’ learning experiences for a largely uncertain future. This shift has embraced the vital elements of inclusion, creativity, international-mindedness, and personal excellence, the four pillars that drives learning at NIS. We have seriously revamped our structures to really focus on big ideas in student learning. Our Heads of Section are pedagogical leaders, and we no longer subscribe to the silos of department heads. Under the guidance of Ewan McIntosh from NoTosh, we clarified two Big, Hairy Audacious Goals (aka BHAGs): ‘Burst the Bubble’ and ‘Student Voice & Choice’, known to all NISers as ‘Strategy’. Our Strategy is realised through 8 cyclical projects, without a restrictive timeline. These projects are driven by colleagues who have exciting, insightful ideas with purposeful outcomes, and are support by a newly created seven-member Strategy Team whose the sole purpose is to support colleagues in prototyping forward-thinking learning both in and beyond school. Last year’s prototypes were diverse, ranging from pedagogical approaches, learning spaces, and changing mind-sets about topics that traditionally may have been seen as outside of the purview of schools. The excitement behind the prototypes is contagious, and in and of itself offers authentic professional development for teachers. Our journey towards our Strategy is conveyed in The Little Book of Nanjing International School (available on iTunes).
One area of learning in a Strategy-driven school is the evasive role and implementation of ‘curriculum’. In the next few posts of this series, I’ll clarify what I mean by curriculum, will use Sinek’s Golden Circle to dig into the WHY, HOW and WHAT of curriculum, and challenge the Googleable paradigm shift.
Why the views of our leading educationalists on the curriculum don’t add up