1. Wednesday 7th December 2016, 4.00pm EST
AAEE Learning Circles
Learning Circles
Wednesday 7th December 2016, 4.00pm EST
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2. AAEE Learning Circles Learning Circles Learner centred pedagogies
Benefits and challenges - discussion
Sustainability Action process – a scaffold
Solutions for practitioners - discussion

3. Learner-centered pedagogies
Learner-centred pedagogies
Student project based learning
Students as leaders of their own learning
Learner centred
Student centred
Inquiry learning

4. Research
Student-centred schools encourage students to become active, engaged participants in their own learning–with the learning process guided by, rather than centred on, the teacher.
These schools encourage cooperation between students, provide forums for students to express their views and ideas, and connect learning to the wider community outside the school
(Black 2006, p4).
The idea of student centred schools draws on constructivist theories of learning, advanced by experts such as Dewey and Piaget.
This approach positions students not as passive recipients of knowledge, but as active participants in the learning process, who connect new information to their existing knowledge, experiences, and ideas.
Black 2007; Dix 2012; Vavrus, Thomas & Bartlett 2011).

5. Benefits – the upside shift the focus of instruction from the teacher
develops learner autonomy
skills and practices that enable lifelong learning
independent problem-solving
still includes explicit instruction (skills and knowledge)
more reflection on tasks and reflection on the learning (meta-cognitive)
encourages collaboration
supports extended investigation and deep learning
(and importantly student do more of the work than the teachers)

6. Challenges – the down side
challenging to manage the direction or ‘contain’ the learning, it can appear messy and hard to track progress of multiple groups/projects
individual student learning progress harder to track
challenging to have all knowledge to support different student inquiry
time – learner centred practice can be more time consuming
hard to sequence the teaching of explicit skills and knowledge to accommodate all students / projects
lack of supporting scaffolds or methodology
faculty / leadership do not support implementation

7. Discussion – your experience
Does or would this pedagogical approach work for you/your school?
What barriers do you find and what are the solutions?
How is sustainability suited to a student centred / project based / inquiry approach?

8. Sustainability Curriculum Framework
Sustainability Action Process
making a case for change
defining the scope for action
developing a proposal for action
implementing the proposal
valuating and reflecting
Knowledge of Systems
ecological
human
Repertoires of Practice
world viewing
systems thinking
futures & design thinking

9. Sustainability action process – a scaffold
Climate Clever Energy savers (NSW)
Funded by NSW Climate Change Fund
Evaluated by UTS 2011 and 2014
Developed into learning resources across 7 sustainability areas: Energy, Water, Waste, Biodiversity, Transport, kitchen gardens, thermal comfort
Biodiversity (Years 3–6) Biodiversity (Years 7–10)
Learning resources
Sustainable futures involve students as motivated, active and key decision makers in identifying and
managing key sustainability challenges in their schools and communities?
Connecting as learners at the centre of learning has shown to be effective at developing content knowledge,
learning methodologies and approaches and builds student capabilities as described in the Australian
Curriculum.
The Sustainability Curriculum Framework emphasises the significance of Sustainability Action processes as
a learner centred, action research methodology with students.
Learning centred pedagogies can be challenging for teachers in regard to their own level of understanding of
sustainability and sustainable learning and their level of comfort with student investigations that can take
very different pathways and produce very different results.
This session will present new Australian Curriculum linked resources for: Energy use and efficiency, water
use and efficiency, waste and materials, biodiversity, sustainable transport, food gardens and thermal
comfort for both Primary and Secondary school students and then discuss both the learner benefits and
practical, and professional learning challenges in delivering this style of learning.
The following resources will be referenced during the Leaning Circle.

10. What do teachers say……
‘we have used this scaffold to keep us on track through this extended investigation’
‘the sustainability action process is now embedded in our science program for future teachers of this topic’
‘the steps have helped us plan our research… we have used the headings to display our work’
‘a great model to support the development, implementation and evaluation of student ideas’
‘my students found it their thought processes and guided them.. Nothing was missed’
‘my students could see this through to completion, something very tangible happened’

11. Discussion – solutions
 Can you include sustainability action process in your teaching programs?
What opportunities and barriers are there currently?
Is it an issue of educational/pedagogical leadership, evidence or will?
How might you as a practitioner reduce the barriers?
What may we learn about our own professional learning?

12. References / Reading
Australian Government Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, 2010 – Sustainability Curriculum Framework: A guide for curriculum developers and policy makers
Baeten, Kyndt, Strruyven, Dochy: Using student-centred learning environments to stimulate deep approaches to learning: Factors encouraging or discouraging their effectiveness, Educational Research Review, Volume 5, Issue 3, 2010, Pages 243–260
Cornelius -White: Learner-Centered Teacher-Student Relationships Are Effective: A Meta-Analysis, Review of Educational Research, Vol. 77, No. 1, March 2007, pp