Education is constantly evolving and in this rapidly changing world, students are required to adapt their learning as teachers are required to adapt their teaching. We are often reminded that we are educating and preparing students for jobs that have not been thought of yet - a very difficult task! So what are the attributes and skills of today’s learners? They have to possess curiosity and imagination, initiative and entrepreneurialism, demonstrate critical thinking and problem-solving skills in addition to effective oral and written communication skills. They must exhibit agility and adaptability, grit and resilience and teachers must foster their curiosity and imagination as well as developing their empathy for others and the tools needed to be ‘global citizens’.
In the Middle School we challenge students across a wide variety of learning areas to develop the skills and attributes we think they will need as they become the employees and employers of the future. When students enter the Middle School they are, at 11 and 12 years of age, concrete thinkers, who can usually only cope with a limited number of variables; having an ability to describe situations, but not to explaining them. In comparison, older adolescents are more likely to use formal operational thinking, which can handle multi-variable problems, and allows them to provide explanations for events. In Science, we have, for the last three years, been following a program called ‘Thinking Science’, which is all about accelerating the development of thinking from concrete to formal operations. The students work collaboratively to solve problems then reflect on their thinking patterns. Based on the work of eminent psychologists, Piaget and Vygotsky, this approach has proven to increase cognitive ability in all learning areas.
For further information about the ‘Thinking Science’ program, please contact the coordinator, Mr Gerard McCann gmccann@pmacs.wa.edu.au
Ms Alison Grey