Australian learning strategist Louka Parry will tell school leaders at the upcoming Independent Schools Queensland (ISQ) State Forum that contemporary schooling needs a critical rethink to break the “engagement epidemic” turning students off learning.
The founder of The Learning Future – a global strategy and knowledge translation organisation – Parry said Australia’s education system needed to overcome its obsession with high stakes examinations that focus on such a narrow view of human potential.
“In a shifting digital world we must focus on the dimensions that make us truly human. Our collective opportunity is to better converge the social, emotional and academic domains of learning in order to inspire and equip young people (and ourselves) for today and tomorrow,” he said.
“We can better empower and equip young people to build a life they love by accelerating the shift toward truly human centred-design in schools, this will necessarily mean a shift away from the grammar of school to the more expansive language of learning.”
Parry is among a thought-provoking line-up of speakers addressing the theme Celebrating Change at the biennial ISQ State Forum.
Forum speakers include: Michael McQueen, Felicity Furey, Paul Kelly, and Deborah Terry.
ISQ executive director David Robertson said the biennial forum was a signature event that brought independent school leaders together with big-picture thinkers, social researchers and education entrepreneurs.
In addition, the forum will also see ISQ launch its latest Our Schools – Our Future research paper by University of Melbourne academics Natasha Ziebell and Lucy Robertson.
“The paper will present reflections on teaching and learning in Queensland independent schools during COVID-19,” he said.
