Learning what’s worth learning

WHAT is really worth learning? This is the question two Harvard university professors asked Beaconhills students recently.
The professors visited as part of a four-year project between Independent School’s Victoria and Harvard’s educational research group, Ground Zero.
Professor David Perkins from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Dr Daniel Wilson, current director of Project Zero, will visit 12 Victorian schools to examine the question, ‘what is really worth learning?’
Beaconhills is one school which took part in the leading Learning That Matters project which will look at today’s teaching and learning practices which are relevant to current and future students.
Professor Perkins said he hoped the project would inspire schools to think about the question at hand, ‘what is really worth learning?’
“It’s a fundamental question in education,” the professor said.
“What is really worth learning – what fits in and empowers students’ lives that they are likely to live.”
Professor Perkins used an example about teaching children the skills to play sport, and said they have to play the whole game to understand why they are learning those specific skills.
Professor Perkins is the author of the book Making Learning Whole, which described how teaching any subject at school can be made more effective if students are introduced to the whole game, rather than isolated pieces.
Professor Perkins said he was impressed with Beaconhills’s inclusiveness of parents and students, as well as teachers, in the conversation about Learning That Matters.
Beaconhills College headmaster Tony Sheumack said the college had an online survey running which invites the college community to put forward ideas about Learning That Matters, with the aim of shaping the future of education at the college.
“Across the globe, schools are trying to shift the quality of learning and school leadership to better address changing workforce and community needs in the 21st century,” Mr Sheumack said.