The Third Teacher

THE THIRD TEACHER

My Favourite Quotes:

Education must shift from instruction to discovery to probing and exploration

If you really want to shift a culture, it’s two things: its habits and its habitats- the habits of mind and the physical environment in which people operate

Most of today’s clasrooms are designed with the teacher at the centre, But if the classroom is focused on the learners instead, then learning becomes paramount

We use a guideline for all our school furniture: Educators and students have to be able to adjust or reconfigure it themselves without calling in a facility manager, and they have to be able to do so within three minutes

The rich cultural traditions of a school’s students offer design opportunities. Embracing them is a mark of respect that tells students that where they come from matters as much a where they’re going to.

Children of all ages need places where they can learn by touching, manipulating, and making things with their hands

Open the doors- give students places to exhibit their work as it it were in a public gallery

Universal design- creating an environment for all learners

We introduced a cafe into each of the four academies, so the students can take a break and go get a snack when they are hungry or thirsty, rather than when the bell rings

Survey students about what they would like to study, then design spaces that let them learn what they want to learn

Make sure each classroom has the capacity to link into learning opportunities beyond its four walls- even beyond the Earth

Main Ideas:

• DREAM BIG AND BE BRAVE
• Incorporate cultural traditions into learning design
• Changing the physical environment helps people to change their habits
• The number 1 priority for furniture is that it is flexible
• Learning environments and learning space (classrooms) need to be learner centred not teacher centred. Resources learners need shouldn’t be gate-kept by adults.
• Making is an important part of learning for ALL ages.

How it Relates to Haeata- Learners- Community

• DREAM BIG AND BE BRAVE
• Move learning design into a base of probing and exploration rather than discovery
• Learning centred-learning communities. Putting learning and learners at centre
• Flexible furniture- adults prepared that furniture is constantly being reconfigured by themselves and students
• Build nests- soft, quiet areas- within larger spaces
• Use culture and cultural tradition as an integral part of designing learning not an add on
• Reveal how stuff works- Sensing Schools??
• Making stuff is important for ALL ages
• Think, pull apart, the need for things like set eating breaks and bells. How can we organise for learnig wihtout these tools that schools have alway relied on?

How it Relates to Haeata Values

Alofa-

Learner Centred all the way- schools are for learners and learning, not the comfort of teachers

Service-

Manaakitanga-

Cultural identity integral- design incorporating it rather than as an ‘add-on’

Hanga Whare-  

Hook into learners natural curiosities and design from there

Success-

Dream Big. Be Brave. What are all the definitions of success we could/should consider?