Learners are individuals. Schools were developed on a “one size fits all” approach to teaching. 21st century learning seeks to individualise learning wishing a learning community context. Greg Whitby, Executive Director of Schools for the Catholic Diocese of Parramatta gave the keynote address at the national conference on Formation and Mission in a Digital World, part of “Reimagine Faith 2016.”
Greg identified six new mindsets for teaching and learning in schools.
- Diversity is the norm
- Learning is student-led not teacher-controlled
- Change starts from within
- Collaboration beats competition
- Schools are still relevant
- Faith formation is everyone’s business
We were invited to consider what these mindsets might mean for formation and education in churches. In an era of online content, Greg stated that teacher-student interaction and communities of learning were still vital. However the shaping of learning within those learning communities is changing profoundly with student-led learning.
There is no way to re-enchant our lives in a disenchanted culture except by becoming renegades from that culture and planting the seeds for a new one. Thomas Moore
Greg reminded us that Christian education is a subversive, counter-cultural endeavour aimed at forming Christians as “missionary disciples” who have encountered the love of God.
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