Conference Agenda

Learning is varied and so are learning outcomes, some deliberate and some accidental. There are various ways of classifying and conceptualising learning approaches and outcomes: surface and deep (Entwistle & Waterston, 1988); convergent and divergent (Torrance & Pryor, 1998); acquisition and participation (Sfard, 1998); from knowledge through creative to belonging (James & Brown, 2005). Most educational systems focus on knowledge and understanding, partly because they are easy to measure and enforce accountability for public funds. However, they also give some attention to qualities and skills prized in employment especially in the later years (Mourshed et al. 2015). However, there is increasing concern for less predictable and diffuse outcomes from educational environments – such as lack of engagement (Lawson & Lawson, 2013), social vulnerability and exclusion, poverty and relative failure in educational assessments (DfE, 2019). Mental health is of particular concern, given that there is a steady rise in the number of young people being referred to mental health services in England.

PBL belongs to family of pedagogical approaches. Barron & Darling-Hammond (2010, p.201) argue that inquiry-based approaches ‘includes project-based learning, design-based learning and problem-based learning’. Thomas (2000, p1) concludes ‘projects are complex tasks, based on challenging questions or problems, that involve students in design, problem-solving, decision making, or investigative activities; give students the opportunity to work relatively autonomously over extended periods of time; and culminate in realistic products or presentations’. Leat & Whelan (2023) characterise such pedagogical approaches as having divergent outcomes, in that some learning is not readily predicted and furthermore much learning in PBL is very personal and thus varied between individuals.

For teachers managing PBL (or indeed inquiry) is a considerable challenge in a system which demands that outcomes are stated in advance and assessed to measure progress. This can be understood as when to lead and/or instruct and when to allow students to take control and responsibility. Teachers need to lead or instruct both to guide students but also to provide subject knowledge that will inform understanding and decisions. Such subject knowledge may be detailed declarative knowledge and/or related to recurring patterns or concepts or indeed the epistemological foundations of the subject. This has led to the elaboration of the concept of orchestration of inquiry (ref) which gives some sense of the subtlety required.

In this paper we use evidence from a variety of PBL projects, including its use in alternative provision sites (for students not in mainstream education for whatever reason) to investigate what is or indeed might being learned in PBL (what is going on?). Our objectives are to use this evidence to discuss a generalised Theory of Change (Laing & Todd, 2015) in PBL classrooms, whilst recognising that classroom context does matter and that there will be a need for contingent variation in applying such a theory. We are also interested in the markers of the development of appropriate learning environments in order to inform practice, where the educational potential is high but the impediments to success are considerable (Menzies et al. 2016). Our research questions derived from these objectives are:

1. What is the theory of change for outcomes in good PBL practice – what is going on and why?

2. What are the pedagogical markers for practitioners aiming to take advantage of the potential learning benefits of PBL?

Education systems across global contexts continue to fall short of providing equitable education for First Nations children, and broadly children of diverse cultural backgrounds. As an example, in the Australian education system an ongoing challenge is the inability to alleviate the socio-cultural and economic inequalities experienced by First Nations school students (Morrison et al., 2019). In this paper we detail one practice-research project that brings together Community Elders and educators, with school leaders, teachers, and researchers working to improve schooling for First Nations students and their non-Indigenous peers. Known as the Culturally Nourishing Schooling project (CNS), a foundational premise is that if education systems are to achieve improved outcomes and experiences for learners, then this will require fundamental changes to the dominant practices of schooling. We contend that a crucial element in this transformation of practice is meaningful involvement of local First Nations communities and parents in school decision-making. A basic principle is that teachers and students, parents and families, schools and systems, are all located within particular communities, places, histories – and all situated in and on ‘Country’. Fundamental to this understanding of the interconnections between peoples and places is the knowledge that connections to Country, language and culture, community involvement in decision-making, and quality teaching are all critical elements in the pursuit of educational success for First Nations learners, parents and communities (Moodie et al. 2021). While CNS is focused on Australian First Nations education, concerns with the schooling experiences of learners and communities that are marginalized and minoritized continues to be a major problematic for education systems globally, and as such what we have learnt in the CNS project is relevant to diverse international education contexts.

The CNS project is organised around five intertwined professional learning strategies: Learning from Country; Curriculum Workshops; Professional Learning Conversations; Culturally Nourishing Pedagogies; and Cultural Mentoring. This paper focuses on the second strategy, Curriculum Workshops, analysing data collected during workshops run with teachers. During the Curriculum Workshops, participating teachers, local First Nations Cultural Mentors and researchers used three complementary analytical frameworks to appraise existing, and develop envisaged, curriculum materials. Teachers were encouraged to engage with a ‘relationally responsive standpoint’ (Yunkaporta & Shillingsworth 2020) as a way of centring First Nations Peoples’ values, knowledges and practices, and unsettling dominant colonial narratives in the development and delivery of curricula.

To frame this dimension of the research, we ask: What professional learning practices support teachers to re-envisage their curriculum to centre First Nations ways of understanding and being, and to take account of the local context or Country upon which they are teaching? The theoretical framework utilized draws on the work of Warren et al (2020), who suggest that there are three intertwined political and ethical commitments required of education and educators: to critique/refuse ‘settled’ disciplinary knowledges, to delink from the colonial matrices of power, and to imagine, articulate and enact alternatives. It is with this in mind that they offer the three sensibilities. Firstly, Multiplicity, is premised on the understanding that multiple knowledge systems are circulating, and attempts to impose or (re)establish a knowledge hierarchy is unhelpful and indeed harmful. Secondly, Horizontality, accepts that learning occurs across multiple systems simultaneously, so that ‘learning is infinitely deeper and broader than school’ (p. 280). Hence, learners and learning require drawing on the cultural and linguistic resources that students bring to school. Thirdly, Dialogicality, which is grounded by the principle that learning is relational, and requires an understanding that culture, life and language are socially and politically saturated.

Health care needs are complex, particularly in diverse communities within developing countries. Practitioners need to have the ability to function in unfamiliar contexts yet be competent in their duties. Innovative teaching methods are required to promote these skills. Inserting arts into a health science curriculum have shown to inculcate critical thinking, problem solving skills and improve teaching and learning (Haffejee, 2021). The author previously used a photovoice assignment, where students, situated in their own societies, photographed environmental conditions involved in causing disease. At an oral presentation, students clearly depicted how adverse environmental conditions affected health (Haffejee, 2021). The students depicted slum development, overcrowding, pollution, lack of piped water and sanitation as social determinants of health.

Teaching also needs to have a broader societal impact which incorporates community engagement in the career path. This will provide a more holistic view of the problems faced by society (Morin et al., 2016). Low socio-economic societies have higher morbidity and mortality rates than high socio-economic societies as the former may be disempowered and unable to access health care for various economic and other societal reasons (Srivarathan et al., 2020). Hence student’s working within these marginalized communities could potentially be exposed to a larger variety of health care problems compared to working within the general population

It is however, unknown whether placing students in unfamiliar marginalized environments would enhance their learning. It is also unknown whether adding a compulsory community engagement component to an assignment in a public health module would augment their knowledge. The objective of this study was to explore the experiences of students in a community engagement project, as a medium of learning.