School - Then and Now

I spent most of my schooling years at a tiny Christian school in the town of Castlemaine in central Victoria. It was called Olivet Christian College, and my parents were founding members of the school. The curriculum was American and known as 'Accelerated Christian Education' or A.C.E.

We sat in individual 'cubicles' working through booklets of information called PACEs, then we marked ourselves at a central marking station situated in the middle of our large classroom (we only had one!). This marking station contained answer booklets for each of the PACEs. At the end of each PACE we had a test, for which we needed 80% to pass. These tests measured how much we remembered from the information we had just studied.

The curriculum at the school was set - we all had to do the same work. There was no differentiation, except in the time it took for each individual student to work through each PACE. If we needed a teacher's assistance, we placed a flag above our cubicle to attract the teacher's attention. Learning was self-paced and required rote memorisation - in short, if you had a good short-term memory, you could do well, accelerate through the PACEs and finish your 'work' early, or in some cases, a year ahead of your peers.

I would like to think I have remembered a lot of what I learned at school, but the reality is, there is much I have forgotten. Rote memorisation of facts to pass a test might help in the short-term but doesn't necessarily develop the skills necessary for deep learning to occur. Having to sit and work through set booklets by yourself in a cubicle didn't really allow for the development of curiosity, collaboration, or critical and creative thinking. While it suited a self-motivated child with a good short-term memory like me, my siblings struggled in that learning environment.

I wonder how our learners will reflect on their own experience of schooling. 

I would hope much has changed, at least in response to experiences like mine. As educators we now know so much more about 'how' learning happens and develop our curriculum and tailor our teaching practices with this in mind. 

Building capacity in areas such as collaboration and critical thinking has become a crucial aspect of educational practice. Fostering metacognition and self-regulation skills and providing a range of extension, enrichment, and extra-curricular activities (as outlined on our Impact Learning Portal) enables our learners to have agency over what, when and how they learn.

While much has changed in our approach to education since my time at school, there is one thing that is remarkably similar. Though my little school was likely under-resourced and under-funded, the teachers were enthusiastic and passionate about Christian education - just like our own teachers here at DCC.

It is my hope that our learners will remember many things from their time at DCC and will develop the skills necessary to navigate an increasingly complex and volatile world, knowing how much their teachers cared about them as individuals.