Students in School District 71 will have a "very different" system of learning in a few years, according to superintendent Sherry Elwood.
"Kids in Grade 6 and 7 will, in all likelihood, walk into a secondary system that looks very different than it does (now) when they hit Grade 8 and Grade 9, and for little ones in K-7, that their experiences in their classrooms will evolve over time," said Elwood.
The district has been researching the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) Project, which is happening in the U.S. MET learning looks at new styles of teaching which give students more choice about what they learn, and moves the teacher's role more towards a guide or adviser, and away from the expert "talking head," according to Elwood.
Students "don't need us for facts and figures — they've got everything in their cell phone today — so we have to change our relationship with learning with them," said Elwood. "We need to be facilitators of knowledge."
In fact, Elwood said the biggest change will probably be the role of teachers.
"The role of the teacher for being the talking head, the subject-based expert who stands in front, to the person who facilitates learning," she said. "That's a big shift."
Because the Ministry of Education has done away with provincial exams, Elwood said school districts have more flexibility in what students need to be taught, and that means more flexibility in how they are taught.
She said the style of memorization-based learning being taught today is mass produced, and that it hasn't changed significantly for five or six decades.
"We have had historically, for all kinds of reasons that were well-meaning, we have had this whole sale need to mass produce education for students," said Elwood. "Much of what was getting in the way of learning for kids and kids feeling good about school was this industrial model that hadn't changed for a very long time.
"We were putting round pegs in square holes, and sometimes shaving off some of the very best parts of those kids becuase they didn't fit the square hole."
Although she said the current teaching model is "fine," she wants to add more flexibility to the system to inspire students to learn more deeply in areas they are naturally interested or talented in.
Core skills like math, English, science and social studies will still be taught to students, but kids will be given freedom to learn more about things they like and less about things they don't.
Elwood said some district staff members are going to Washington State at the end of the month to find out more about MET learning, and will bring back ideas to apply to schools in the Comox Valley.
The district is already a provincial leader in 21st-century learning, which is similar to MET learning, according to Elwood. New courses and programs have already been implemented in schools here over the past couple of years.
Also, she said the changes coming over the next few years will be gradual, with some more pilot programs planned for this September.
While Elwood said she doesn't know exactly what the new education system will look like, the district will consult students, teachers and parents during the "renovation" process.
"There's no map; no one's done this before," said Elwood. "My hope is that over the course of the next two to three years, we rebuild and renovate our system. We keep the things that are really meaningful and work, so it's not throwing everything out, but by looking at everything, we reaffirm why we're doing what we're doing."