The uLearn18 programme is structured around three key conference strands with the ākonga/learner at the centre:
Āheinga | Capability
There is increasing global concern about identifying and developing the capabilities our learners will require to learn and thrive into the future. This can be seen in the development of the OECD's Learning2030 framework and other international frameworks, including the NZC work on Competencies, and the emergent cross-disciplinary work around the digital technologies curriculum.
- How do we get a system shift, from focus on content to capabilities?
- What are the transdisciplinary and/or cross cultural approaches that we should be exploring?
- What are the new ways of measuring progress/success?
- What new skills/literacies are required, in an increasingly technological world?
- What does curriculum look like for Arareo Māori (Māori Medium)?
Hapori | Community
The main idea for this conference strand revolves around the notion that we must make learning a lifelong and lifewide endeavour, and that schools can no longer operate as isolated silos of activity. It’s about the idea of taking a village to raise a child, and creating opportunities for multiple agencies, parents and whānau to work collectively and collaboratively to create new learning partnerships and new learning ecologies.
- How can we build better learning partnerships with parents and whānau?
- How might we include business and other agencies (ie health, welfare, councils, etc) in wider learning partnerships (eg with iwi, churches, social communities)?
- What is effective collaboration and how do we achieve this?
- How can we leverage the opportunities through Communities of Learning | Kāhui Ako to build dynamic, community-centric responses to raising achievement for all learners?
- How can we best develop meaningful pathways for learners through all parts of the formal education system and through their lives?
Hurihanga | Change
The significant challenges associated with the pace, scale, and complexity of change is inarguably the most pressing issue for education today. The key thing is that the change we face is exponential in nature, and that our traditional, linear approaches to coping with change are no longer sufficient.
- How do we prepare for exponential change in a traditionally linear world?
- In an age of increasing technological change, how do we remain true to our humanity and address the moral and ethical concerns that arise?
- What sorts of approaches are required to lead change effectively?
- How do we encourage innovation and entrepreneurship in our students and in our system?
- What place do design thinking strategies have in this change process?