Experiential education the focus of EDC talk

Joey Duffield, Principal Sandra McDuffe and John Taylor

• Experiential Week to return to Matthew Halton High School
• Local businesses asked to participate

Toni Lucas

The Pincher Creek Economic Development Committee (EDC) hosted three speakers at a meeting on Thursday, January 30, to speak about education. Educator John Taylor spoke about upcoming changes in the Alberta education and curriculum, Matthew Halton High School Principal Sandra McDuffe spoke about the successful Experiential Learning Week the school piloted in October 2013, and student Joey Duffield attended to talk of the course he took during Experiential Learning Week.


Taylor explained that some changes that are upcoming in education will be taking the focus off of knowledge and putting it on the ability to learn and adapt. "The Canada Conference Board identified that employers want employees with the soft skills of team building, problem solving, being able to communicate with people. The focus is going to shift to those kinds of skills, so that students can adapt and fit into any environment when they come out of the education system," Taylor explained.  "It won't be about what a student knows content-wise, but about the skills they need to be successful citizens in the community, and successful lifelong learners."

Taylor said he has been very aware of a document released by Alberta Education Department on June 10 of last year titled "The New Directions in Inspiring Education" and what changes it heralds. "It indicated that the Albertan in the year 2030 will be an engaged thinker, an ethical citizen, with an entrepreneurial spirit. Those are what they called the 3 E's," he said, referring to one aspect of the report.  He said the core subjects will still be taught, but a higher value than currently exists will be placed on students directing more of their own learning.

According to Taylor, the shift will be from a content based school system to one that will attempt to build competencies within  students that will serve them throughout their life. How to find and manage information, critical thinking, identifying and solving problems will be more the focus, replacing rote learning. Demonstrating good communication skills, having a global and cultural understanding and being able to identify and apply career life skills are going to be emphasized.

"There's a lot going on. Teachers, instead of being knowledge experts or authorities, they are going to be changing their role to more of a facilitator, or what they call a learning architect, " explained Taylor. He said another large change will be the replacement of the current Provincial Achievement tests with student learning assessments, to be administered at the beginning of the year rather than at the end of the year to help identify strengths and weaknesses in the individual, to help build skills. Taylor commented about Experiential Week at Matthew Halton High School.   "I think the students are starting to feel that they are empowered, that they can design their own educational programs."

Matthew Halton High School Principal Sandra McDuffe spoke about Experiential Learning Week, piloted at her school in October, 2013. According to McDuffe the week was designed, "To provide opportunities for students to engage in high interest and authentic learning experiences where students gain practical knowledge, skills and/or credentials to help better prepare them for the workforce, career interests, post-secondary learning/education, and/or skill acquisition in a hands-on learning environment."

Some of the courses offered were hosted inside the school, some were a combination of in-school school and off-school, and some were completely off school grounds.  Participating students focused on one course for the entire school week.

Polling the students to find out what they would be interested in was an eye opening experience for McDuffe. With all the students in the gym, the students seemed to her to be surprised that anyone would like to know what they were interested in learning about. "It was a totally foreign concept to the students, and they weren't sure how to respond to that," she said.

McDuffe explained the process.  Staff at the school took the poll information and made an inventory of interests.  Then the task was to find a way to teach those interests.  "Lo and behold, we found a plethora of expertise in the community," she said.  Businesses and community members were approached to help provide teaching opportunities during one week in the semester.

"I cannot put to words the opportunity it put to some of our kids that are not as fully engaged as we would like. The response was tremendous," said McDuffe

"The 13 courses provided last October included a wide range of interests to choose from including cosmetology, hunter training, first aid, mechanics and creative baking. There will be changes in this curriculum from the first semester, and future components of the course may include drivers education, meat cutting, and oil field skills training."

Student Joey Duffield took the hunter training course during Experiential Week. "I want to say that this was a really great experience,"  he said.  "I wish I had more time to experience a lot more courses. I'm in grade 11, so I will only be getting four courses out of this. I wish I had the same opportunity that the grade 7's, and 8's have." He said he earned his hunter training certification by the time the week was ended. "It opened my eyes to the outdoor life."

Duffield said that before this he had never shot a gun before or considered a career that would involve being outdoors. Now he is considering a career path in conservation. "It was an amazing experience, and something that I would say should keep on happening."

Following their presentations the three guest speakers accepted questions from those in attendance.

A concern was raised about insurance for students during the time that they are off of school grounds and working for a  business. According to John Taylor, the insurance is covered by Alberta Education.

One man identified himself as a retired teacher who taught high school math for 34 years. With five days taken out of the curriculum for Experiential Learning Week, then an additional 5 days due to snow days during the semester, he said that he would find it difficult to prepare students to their best potential for the end of the semester. "There is no way those kids did as well as they should have on their diploma exams," he said.  He thought the idea of Experiential Learning Week was good, but he was concerned about students losing that much class time who might already be struggling with the curriculum.

McDuffe said that having 5 snow days in a single semester (as happened last December) was an unusual occurrence.  She said assemblies and other non-scholastic activities have been cut since December's storm to help offset that lost classroom time.

Livingstone School Board Trustee Shannon Scherger talked about some of the overall changes coming up for educations. "No longer are children going to just be receivers of information, but they are going to help create the learning environment that they need. That personalized shift in learning is happening, and it is kind of scary. What became very obvious out of years of engagement across the province was that if we continue to educate kids the same way that we all were educated, we are not preparing them with the tools they need for a global world, and to be successful."

McDuffe said that there will be another Experiential Week at Matthew Halton High School during this current semester, and if any business owners or citizens have new experiences for the students to try they can contact the school at 403-627-4414 for information on how to become involved.

Related stories:
Experiential Learning Week begins Oct. 21 at Matthew Halton High School

Halton School Experiential week: Boxcar Mechanics

Halton School Experiential Week: Construction project

Experiential Week wrap up

Related links:

Rural Experiential Learning Initiative

Experiential Learning Inventory

The New Directions in Inspiring Education