As a teacher, when you receive your class list and see the many varied learning needs of the students in your care for the year, it can be pretty daunting. Especially when project-based learning is the primary mode of instruction. In addition to the usual requirements for differentiation for often vastly varied literacy levels and academic abilities, PBL throws up some distinct challenges for teachers (and the students themselves!). The requirement to work as a team can typically be daunting to many students with Autistic Spectrum Disorder, the noise levels of an active classroom can also be distracting. Meanwhile, students with anxiety may struggle with standing up and presenting to the class or other experts.
Join us to understand how students with diverse learning needs can be supported by teachers to thrive in the PBL classroom and become confident, active members of their team.
At New Tech Network Australia, we are committed to revolutionising teacher professional development. Starting in 2021, we’re excited to announce our brand new Graduate Certificate in Project and Problem-Based Learning. Project and Problem-Based Learning teachers across Australia will finally be able to get the recognition they deserve for their unique skills in curriculum design and student-centred learning from Term 3 2021 onwards. The twelve month course will be online and self-paced , designed with busy teachers in mind.
Project-Based Learning is a student-centred approach to learning that provides students with a real-world context for their learning and enables teachers to think more creatively about the syllabus and how it might be learned.
In the traditional unit, teachers will often lead a series of lectures, activities and quizzes before some form of assessment or end of unit test, followed by a fun project at the end. Project-Based Learning makes the project front and centre and is what drives the learning throughout the unit of work. The schools in our Network report that their students are more engaged, active participants in their work, they report improved academic results in Year 12, and ex-students report being snapped up by top universities and enterprises due to their experience in Project-Based Learning.
With people around the world taking to the streets to protest racial inequality, the Black Lives Matter movement is a hot topic amongst many of the young people we teach. A light has been shone once again on Aboriginal deaths in custody and our students watched with horror, as we did, the brutal restraint of George Floyd and far too many other African Americans in the US.
In divided and uncertain times, it’s the classroom teacher that will so often be at the coal face of these discussions: fielding questions, privy to our students inner thoughts and acting as a key contributor as they shape their opinions and view of the world. It’s an important time for self-reflection and some fantastic tools exist for helping us check for subconscious-bias in our relationships with students. Following a summer of self-reflection with our partners at NTAC in the US, we’ve
Specialised Assistance School for Youth, Adelaide is working hard to create meaningful projects that help their students see growth not just academically, but also in the key skills they need for success in life. In partnership with young adults and their community of support partners their mission as educators is to provide a safe and supportive learning environment to facilitate the development of well educated, responsible and resilient citizens.
What is Problem-Based Learning and how does it work for Maths?
PrBL is the abbreviation for Problem-Based Learning and is the recommended pedagogy for mathematics within the New Tech Network. PrBL is a pedagogy in which the teacher starts the lesson with a real world problem, ideally authentic to a student's life. Tim Woodbine, Maths Coach for New Tech Network shares his vast experience of designing and implementing Problem-Based Learning into Maths Classrooms and tells you how to get started.
The current moment has required the education community to reflect on what we value, and to ponder the significance of what falls outside those bounds. The response to COVID-19 has forced students, families, and educators to take action outside the traditional school experience. This has put a spotlight on the role of K-12 education, whose past entails policies, procedures, and teaching practices that don’t meet the needs of students in today’s world, and often catalyses inequities that harm learning and development.
As we persist through this crisis, we must resist the urge to put the pieces of an obsolete past back together again. We must imagine beyond, and see this moment as an opportunity to put what we value at the core of our practice…
At New Tech Network Australia, we focus on outcomes that matter. Not only do our schools report improved academic success at Year 12, but NTNAU graduates emerge from their schooling as effective communicators, critical thinkers and agents of their own learning. In addition, the fostering and assessment of collaborative skills has always been a key focus for teachers across our network. However, as our students return post COVID-19, how can we ensure we also return to a student-centred learning environment with collaboration at its heart?
Across the world, the move from face-to-face to online teaching has put entire school communities under incomparable pressure. The “industrial era” of education which Gonski identified as still existing in many Australian classrooms was overhauled practically overnight. Teachers were forced to embrace technology in ways they hadn’t conceived of previously and in many schools, students were expected to work independently of the rigid timetable that previously governed their lives.
Amongst the social isolation, the frustrations, the overwhelming number of student emails, there have indeed been many bright spots and positives to take away from this experience.
After teaching shifted online in response to the global coronavirus pandemic, we reached out to our schools to find out how we could help. In a survey of around one thousand teachers across our Network, how to keep the learning student-centred online came up time and time again.
We surveyed teachers across our Network and continuing to foster collaboration in an online environment came up as the number one concern. Online teaching and learning presents us with many challenges, but we think it’s a very positive sign that teachers are raising collaboration as a priority. It’s a reflection of the great work happening right here in Australia as students become more active in their learning and teachers facilitate collaborative student-centred learning environments. We’re all missing that productive buzz in the classroom that leads to collaborative decision making and high quality evidence of learning.
How can we get something like this ‘buzz’ online? Watch the video to find out more.
We know you're working hard right now. In fact, teachers across the Network are telling us they've never worked harder. We know you've had to be very resilient and develop a Growth Mindset to many things in recent weeks and we salute you.
With teachers taking the reins to bring the best learning opportunities they can to their students we thought a discussion about Fostering Student Agency (online and beyond) would be timely.
Project-Based Learning puts the ‘why’ into every teachers’ favourite question: “why are we doing this, Miss?“
Before Project Based Learning, I often struggled to answer this question (other than “it’s on your exam”). Why should a group of teenagers more interested in almost anything other than ‘past participles’ or ‘adjectival agreements’ commit to learning this when so often a visit to the country of the language they’re learning is something that may never eventuate?
This week we’ll be diving into the unique challenges of language teaching in the project-based learning classroom
As a former School Principal in Washington, DC, Jim now works for New Tech Network (NTN) as Chief Schools Officer. Jim’s focus is on supporting the implementation efforts of over 175 schools in 29 states and Australia that make up the Network. Working to ensure that every NTN school has the support it needs to become…
We’re so excited to welcome to the Network Kingdom Culture Christian School in Arncliffe, NSW. This rapidly growing K-10 Christian School was founded by educational futurist and business consultant, Ben Irawan. In their own words they are developing the skills and talents of their students “to be exemplary leaders of integrity and character. The school adopts 21st Century learning methods such as blended learning & project based learning. It is a self paced, student centred learning…
We’re very excited to announce that the date has been set for the first ever New Tech Annual Conference Australia and we’d love to invite you, your School Leaders and teaching colleagues.
NTAC Australia 2020 will be held on Tuesday 14th April 2020 at St Joseph’s College, Geelong. This will be a fantastic opportunity for school leaders and teachers to come together and learn from educational experts from across Australia and the United States.
Crafting projects that address real-world problems, that encourage students to work with and present to meaningful external partners and that make learning RELEVANT to the lives of the many students we teach is no mean feat. With our upcoming Virtual Workshop on ‘Authenticity in PBL’, we thought some of you might be interested in this articl
The NTN Model of PBL and Student-Centred Learning, which started over 20 years ago in Napa, California, has landed in Australia! With over 46 hours of powerful professional development that is now also accredited by the NSW Education Standards Authority. We offer both Proficient and Lead Teacher level courses with many more accredited hours to come.
In the spirit of Carol Dweck’s work, it is essential that schools question the effectiveness of their Growth Mindset principles and practices. For teachers to foster a Growth Mindset in their student, key Growth Mindset skills such as ‘Growing from Setbacks’, ‘Seeking Feedback’ and ‘Tackling and Monitoring Learning’ are skills that must be explicitly taught…
Keeping it real can be a definite challenge in any subject. Not every project you design will solve a real world problem and be useable by real people the day after students hand it in. That said, authenticity plays a key role in student motivation and engagement, in their ability to find personal…
