Grammar Gazette- Issue 2, 2011

grammar gazette SPRING 2011

project saw students envisioning a ‘School for Year 2030’. One of the designs was based on the concept of an airport, with students ‘checking in and out’ through a series of ‘gates’, or different places of learning located both in the proposed school and beyond its walls. Harvard Ed.L.D. student Michele Shannon explained that “some of the gates lead out into the real-world because we actually want our kids, as they get older, to do a lot of learning offsite and have real world applied learning experiences” (Walsh, 2011). Students can make an immediate start on participating in these real world experiences to enhance their life-wide learning by becoming involved in the School’s numerous enrichment opportunities in either the curriculum or co-curriculum. With over one hundred opportunities on offer, there are many exciting avenues for students at Girls Grammar to become part of a connected community of learners who are able to access, edit and process information that comes from myriad sources. These experiences will allow them to contribute confidently to society and be prepared for whatever challenges come their way. The School looks forward—as an organisation devoted to the education of young women—to initiating and promoting new ways for our students to not just have an expectation of lifelong learning, but to be developed more deeply through life-wide learning.

Similarly, the many curriculum enrichment endeavours and study tour options available at Girls Grammar provide life-wide learning opportunities for our students, perhaps none so much as the Antipodeans Programme. This programme provides an opportunity for Year 12 leavers to participate in community service activities and a personal challenge in an international location that will push the boundaries of their comfort levels and past experiences, comparable to the opportunity available to Harvard undergraduates. A reflection from a participant on the 2010 Cambodia Antipodeans programme describes the impact of this experience “I think that I have come out of the trip with a greater self confidence and self awareness. I learnt invaluable people and leadership skills by travelling with a large group of people. I also discovered that I am a lot tougher and more adaptable to situations than I previously thought” (Amy Birchall, alumna 2010). All of the areas of the school’s co-curriculum—sport, music, drama, community service initiatives, special interest clubs and study tours – provide arenas in which students can learn beyond the classroom and gain experiences that teach them more about themselves and how they interact with the world, and how the world interacts with them. The concept of life-wide learning links elegantly with another organising principle in the School’s new strategic design – contemporary learning places. A ‘place’ is a ‘space’ with ‘people’ in it—collaborating, debating, working separately and together. Future successful and relevant learning places will encourage and enhance critical thinking, imaginative interactions and problem-solving across systems (Bell & McConaghy, 2011). A recent Harvard design

Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself. John Dewey

n 1972, UNESCO released the report Learning To Be —The world of education today and tomorrow, that outlined its vision for lifelong learning, a concept many of us are familiar with, and one that has been embraced by nations and educational institutions for the last four decades. Lifelong learning describes what an individual learns through the dimension of a lifetime—a linear and sequential view. However, life-wide learning represents the breadth of learning that also occurs in the present time frame in a range of environments and contexts, both formal and informal, real and virtual, and is not limited to learning through a regular academic curriculum. Barnett (2010) states “If lifelong learning is learning that occupies different spaces through the lifespan, ‘from cradle to grave’, life-wide learning is learning in different spaces simultaneously ”. In fact, the knowledge and understanding gained in the life-wide learning process can be acquired through work, social and family life, and may not necessarily be intentional learning, or even actually recognised as learning at the time. So how does this relate to Brisbane Girls Grammar School and our new Strategic Design? Our goal is to educate our staff, students and community to recognise the scale and Life-wide learning

diversity of learning opportunities and experiences available to them, and to not only be open to engaging with these opportunities and experiences, but to develop the capacity to reflect and learn from these experiences. In our young women we want to develop citizens who will be prepared to take informed and considered positions on issues and ideas and to then grow from these experiences. We are also looking to the future to prepare our students for careers that at present do not exist, using technologies that have yet to be invented. David Cutler, Professor of Applied Economics at Harvard University, has initiated an international research experience for Harvard undergraduates in countries such as Botswana, Uganda and Bangladesh. Cutler states, “For many students, this is the single most transformative experience in their lives. It will change who they are as human beings and what they do in the world” (Powell, 2011).

MRS JUDITH TUDBALL, DEAN OF CO-CURRICULUM

REFERENCES Barnett, R. (2010), Life-wide education: a new and transformative concept for higher education? , retrieved 8 August 2011 from http://lifewidelearningdocumentsforsceptreportal.pbworks.com/f/e%20proceedings(2).pdf Bell, A., & McConaghy, M., (2011), Guiding Principles for Strategic Design II Dewey, J., Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself , retrieved 2 September 2011 from http://www.ntlf.com/ html/lib/quotes.htm Faure, E., Herrera, F., Kaddoura, A-R., Lopes, H., Petrovsky, A.V., Rahnema, M., Ward, F.C., (1972), Learning to be – The world of education today and tomorrow , retrieved 8 August 2011 from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0000/000018/001801e.pdf Powell, A., (2011), Expanding student learning abroad , Harvard Gazette, retrieved 22 July 2011 from http://news.harvard.edu/ gazette/story/2011/05/expanding-student-learning-abroad Walsh, C., (2011), Schools of the future , Harvard Gazette, retrieved 8 August 2011 from http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/ story/2011/06/schools-of-the-future/?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

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