ABSTRACT
In 1993, Wooranna Park Primary School became a Gifted and Talented Resource Centre. The school initiated a program of workshops for talented students that were quickly oversubscribed. The school realised, however, that even our own students attending the workshops returned to classrooms where little attention was given to differentiating the curriculum, or providing opportunities for students to negotiate their learning. In response, the school established the Autonomous Learning Unit for Year 5 and 6 students in 1997. Since that time, the school has sought to create a paradigm shift in education for all our students.
In 2017, this paradigm shift is characterised by the following underpinning practices: Team Teaching; Next Practice Pedagogy, Student Agency; Building a Thirst for Learning; Personalised Learning; Interdisciplinary Studies; Real World Challenges; Global Citizenship; Leveraging the Digital World; Entrepreneurialism; Learning Mindsets and Redesigning the Learning Environment as the ‘Third Teacher’.
In creating a paradigm shift, the school has had to address three central issues: Why change? What are the underlying principles of such a change? How will our teachers implement this change? In addressing all of these issues, this chapter highlights the amalgam of best and next practice pedagogy introduced by the school.
