Margot McKeegan

Over the past few years an increasing number of New Zealand schools have become involved in New Pedagogies for Deep Learning (NPDL). NPDL is a global collaboration of more than 1,400 schools in seven countries, seeking ways to transform teaching and learning approaches, and provide the conditions that will facilitate deep learning.

The challenge of making learning relevant, engaging, and sustainable in the modern world is one that is confronting to all schools. The NZ schools in the NPDL project represent a variety of contexts, with their own priorities and challenges, and each is using the NPDL tools, frameworks, and support to develop a coherent, school-wide approach to achieving their aspiration for deep learning.

Deep Learning Competencies

At the heart of it all are the Deep Learning Competencies, better known as the Six Cs. These are the skill sets each and every learner needs to achieve and excel in, in order to flourish in today’s complex world. These competencies form the foundation for the New Measures. NPDL teachers use the Deep Learning Progressions to assess learner’s current levels in each of the six Deep Learning Competencies. They combine this with information about learner achievement, interests, and aspirations to get a clear understanding of what each learner needs.

This is illustrated in the video below where Tracey Scott, Visual Arts teacher from Bream Bay College, shares her story of using the 6Cs in her senior NCEA classroom.

Also from Bream Bay College, Gwyneth Cooper has been using the NPDL frameworks to establish strong connections between Cultural Competencies and Deep Learning. How can we weave the 6C learning competencies into learning experiences which are socially and culturally located?

Deep Learning Lab

Participating schools gather each year at a Deep Learning Lab (DLL), where they come to be inspired and informed about the ways they can deepen learning in their schools. The 2018 DLL was held in Auckland, which included inspiration from CORE’s Rosalie Reiri on the significance of local context and the development of cultural narratives and global NPDL team member, Mag Gardner, sharing her expertise on building collaborative cultures.

After attending the DLL in Auckland the teachers from Hawea Flat School in Otago gave feedback on what they’d learned from attending the Lab:

“We had a team of people come to the Deep Learning Lab in Auckland that ranged from teachers presenting workshops, lead teachers in other areas of the school as well as teachers new to our school who had little understanding of NPDL. The keynote speakers are critical and there was something there for everyone. As a team we connected strongly with Rosalie and her place-based keynote address and also with Mag Gardner. It’s great to hear from international speakers as well as those from NZ. The workshops catered well for the different places we’re all at on our NPDL journey. We came away feeling energised, inspired and everyone motivated to go ‘deeper’. Everyone on board our waka is paddling in the same direction. It affirmed a lot of what was happening back at our school and showed us how we could go further. We felt confident to ‘let go’ and follow the children’s lead while at the same time engaging more with our parent community and what they felt was important for their children to learn. We hadn’t in the past found that out from parents during the ‘planning’ phase and after the Deep Learning Lab we followed multiple times with our parent community. One of the biggest impacts has been us realising how important it is to show our parents what ‘deep’ learning is as many of them have come through a system where test outcomes have been the main priority for learning.”

Cultural narratives

Building on what they had learned at the DLL, teachers from Hillpark School and Clevedon School in Auckland decided to put into practice the ideas they’d gained from Rosalie regarding creating a cultural narrative relating to their local context. They identified that a number of their teachers didn’t actually live in the same area as their respective schools, so set about creating an “Historical hikoi” to help build an appreciation of the cultural histories of their local areas that they could then integrate more effectively into their classroom programmes. Their story is shared in the video below.

Wellbeing and literacy

The NZ schools involved in NPDL are demonstrating a variety of ways to implement the frameworks available through being a part of the NPDL project. A recent article in the Education Gazette records the story of Cobden School near Greymouth that has used a wellbeing focus to improve boys’ literacy.

Learning partnerships

Providing opportunities for immersive, trans-disciplinary approaches to learning that involve close links with the local community are a key focus of what schools in the NPDL programme seek to achieve. In the video below, Janis Sandri from Holy Family Catholic school in Wanaka shares her school’s story of how they formed learning partnerships with key members and organisations in their local community to support learner driven passion projects.

As each of the stories of impact in this post reveal, the NPDL programme is not a ‘recipe’ to follow. Rather, it provides a robust set of frameworks and tools, together with the support of experienced facilitators and a broad community of educators, that can be used to augment and further develop the work you are doing in your school already. The challenge of how we meet the needs of each individual learner while creating a localised curriculum and ensuring that the learning is deep is not an easy task, but with the support of a local and global community, and with the tools to help us plan for and measure deep learning, it does become more achievable.

NZ NPDL Deep Learning Lab 2021 – registrations open now

A two-day New Pedagogies for Deep Learning hybrid event. Be a part of the action!

Attend in-person or virtually 22-23 July – Find out more

If you’re interested in knowing more about how your school or cluster could become a part of the NPDL programme in NZ please contact:
Margot McKeegan margot.mckeegan@core-ed.ac.nz or
This blog post was written collaboratively by Margot and Derek.

As schools think about working together as groups, clusters, or communities, I reflect on the power of collaboration experienced by 7 schools from the Kahukura cluster during their deep learning journey on the New Pedagogies for Deep Learning (NPDL) project. Their journey began as a Learning Community Cluster established following the quakes in Christchurch in 2011, and continued when they joined the NPDL project at the end of 2014. The NPDL experience has enabled the cluster to build a unique collaborative approach to educating students in their community.

Collaboration helps to develop a deep learning community of schools

NPDL is a global project that connects hundreds of schools across 7 countries, and encourages the development of deep learning pedagogy for all learners. The Kahukura cluster has experienced the power of collaboration as they have developed a deep learning community of schools. The principals and lead teachers from each school have worked alongside one another to build capacity and develop school-specific learning progressions based on globally shared rubrics that align very well with the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC). Strong professional relationships within this cluster have grown to the extent that teachers leading curriculum developments (for example, numeracy) now plan together across the schools.

In this video teachers share the strengths and support they have experienced.

View video on Vimeo

Six Deep Learning competencies

In this diagram the deep learning design incorporates four dimensions: learning environment, learning partnerships, leveraging digital, and new pedagogies. Each school focused on one of the six deep Learning competencies — known as the six C’s — Collaboration, Critical thinking, Creativity, Citizenship, Communication and Character. Teachers used rubrics based on these competencies to evaluate the design of their deep learning task to ensure students extend their learning skills.

Pedagogies for deep learning

NPDL provides a framework for change management

Leaders within this cluster have found the rubrics covering School Conditions, Teacher self-assessment, and Learning progressions (6 Cs) to be powerful tools for supporting effective measures for new pedagogies. Global feedback highlights the fact that these measures help schools to know where to start and supports them to implement deep learning changes across their schools, systems and communities. This framework can be applied to local contexts and aligns beautifully with the key competencies of the NZC. Preparing teachers for collaborative teaching practices, the focus on pedagogy as a community of schools has helped teachers to change their mindsets and adopt learning progressions that support deep professional learning.

The changing role of teachers towards activators of learning

Recently, lead teachers from the cluster were interviewed via a webinar for Connected Educator Month. In that webinar — Kahukura Cluster | New Pedagogies for Deep Learning — the lead teachers shared their passion and the learning experiences they have enjoyed whilst working on the NPDL project. They identified the benefits of having a shared deep-learning language that supports both students and teachers in collaborative teaching teams. These teachers reported on the ways deep-learning design encourages student agency, and even accelerates the opportunities for students to connect and share their projects globally. They highlighted the Deep Challenge series as one way this acceleration occurs. Here, students from across the countries (and across a variety of ages), solve challenges that engage them in a rich learning experience where they create new knowledge to solve a real-life problem.

Teachers driving their own professional learning

Schools and teachers in this cluster have role modelled what Michael Fullan refers to as “a bias for action”1. They have developed attitudes for change, and have worked “from practice to theory” to deepen the learning for all. The NPDL project has supported whole system change — which requires schools to work collaboratively to affect change for learners. The teachers have deepened their understanding of teaching and learning and the pedagogy that is important for 21st century learners. The scaffolding within the project has supported a collaborative approach to teaching where leadership from the middle has been celebrated and encouraged. NDPL represents a networked organisation for schools to connect and collaboratively benefit from the collective wisdom of teachers globally.

The “right drivers” for change (Fullan 2014) 2 identified as Capacity building, Collaborative work, Pedagogy, System-ness are all strongly represented in the NPDL project, and have support this cluster of schools to develop their community of learners across their schools.

Interested in how your school could drive your own professional learning and find out more about NPDL for NZ schools? See Clusters — Take charge of your PLD.

References:
1. Michael Fullan's keynote from the 2015 NPDL Deep Learning Lab, held in Seattle, WA from October 13-15. Keynote video: https://youtu.be/mTANNnej4oM

2. Michael Fullan post : Choose the Wrong and Right Educational Drivers

CORE Blog