Modern classrooms

Stuff reports:

Convincing parents their children learn better in open-plan classrooms with dozens of pupils and multiple teachers can be a tough sell for schools, a Christchurch principal says.

At Pegasus Bay Primary School all 420 pupils were part of shared teaching and learning spaces and principal Roger Hornblow said about 80 per cent of parents understood it.

The school’s new approach to teaching has been heralded as the way of the future by the Government – in direct contrast to the Labour Party’s education policy announcement at the weekend of smaller class sizes.

“The same skills are still being taught but the way they’re being taught is different,” Hornblow said.

“Bringing ratios down to one teacher to 23 kids would be great but it’s not the world we’re working in.”

He said it was more than just three teachers working with 75 kids.

“It’s three sets of eyes picking up on any negative or off-task behaviour. It’s more help to answer questions, and the collaboration between staff is going on 24/7.”

This is very true. The future will not be one teacher with one class. It is about shared teaching and learning spaces. Teaching will be very different in the future to how we traditionally knew it. That is why the focus should be on training teachers better.