While I was thinking about what to write for this blog, I re-read the blogs I have written during GAW in the past. My 2016 blog, Getting education right for gifted and talented students - Imperative for the survival of humanity sparked an idea because thankfully, due to a change in government in New Zealand, some of the suggestions I made in that blog have come to fruition since then!
In that blog, I bemoaned the negative influence National Standards and GERM theory was having on gifted students' ability to succeed but now, in 2018, the New Zealand education system is moving out from under their shadow and forging a new future with the scrapping of National Standards and an Education Conversation initiated by the government, as they review and rejuvenate our education system so it meets the needs of our students now and in the future.
To me, the new Digital Technologies curriculum, released at the beginning of this year indicates the direction that education is going. Not just because digital technologies are an integral part of our students' lives, but the way it is designed and the assumptions it makes about learning. One of the strands of the curriculum centers around a way of thinking. This takes the emphasis away from learning content related to a subject and supports students in developing a way of thinking that increases their understanding about the "principles that underlie all digital technologies, and learning how to develop instructions, such as programming, to control these technologies.” (TKI)
I have been using this new curriculum with my students from Years 7 - 11 and it has definitely proved to be a catalyst of success for several of my gifted students. Two students in particular who, through this curriculum have been successful in ways they may not have experienced otherwise.
