Editorial: Lessons from a modern classroom

Teacher Tracey Kuba (right) with one of the students making full use of new technology at The Gardens School in Manurewa. Photo / Peter Meecham

EDITORIAL

The "Modern Learning" series in the Herald was a learning experience indeed for grandmother Denise Mills.

She agreed to accompany senior reporter Simon Collins on an exploration of classroom practices and was frequently surprised by the levels of innovation and engagement going on.

It's uplifting to see ways are still being explored, especially to bring disengaged students 'into the room'.

As the 67-year-old pointed out, much has changed since her time behind a wooden desk, gazing at a blackboard as chalk writing was scratched up for the classroom to repeat over and over again until the phrases or sums were ingrained.

In some cases, in fact, the classroom itself has disappeared. At The Gardens School in Manurewa, the learning space is an open-plan, three-level school for 600 children.

"The biggest change is that there are no desks," pointed out Mills, whose two granddaughters attend the school. "[In my day] the teacher was at the front of the school room with a big stick and the chalk, and that's where you would talk from."

Some of the innovations being deployed in today's classrooms may well prove to be less effective than tried methods of the past, but it's uplifting to see ways are still being explored, especially to bring disengaged students "into the room".

This school has embraced self-directed learning, devices and team-teaching. Evidence has it that some kids, as a result of this approach, are more likely to develop a motivational relationship with a teacher and less likely to fall through the cracks in a single-teacher classroom. What remains is a child's relationship with the teacher as the most crucial factor in a child's learning.

Things have changed but somehow remain the same.