The Six Learnings Curricular Framework and Disciplinary Intuitions: Designing for

Learning in Immersive Environments and Game-based Worlds

Kenneth Y T Lim

National Institute of Education

Scope

• Designing for learning in immersive environments– Why?• Disciplinary Intuitions

– How?• Six Learnings curriculum framework

• Examples of how immersive environments are being used in schools in Singapore

• Examples of places you can visit to learn more

• 2009 – 2011 using immersive environments to learn Geography

• 2012 – 2013 translation of pedagogical approach to Design & Technology, and to Literature

• 2014 – 2016 scale-up to other schools, and to more subjects

Alignment

• Many education systems in East Asia and the Nordic countries have been held up as success stories– High stakes national examinations

• The alignment of curriculum with respect to the everyday lived experiences of students, and formal assessment

• What results when lived experience and formal assessment do not cohere?

Discussion point #1

What results when the everyday lived experience of students, and formal assessment, do not align?

• The everyday experience of children growing up in Singapore does not give them many opportunities for developing intuitions about geographical processes in nature

• Yet they are assessed on their understanding of these processes in the national examinations

Discussion point #2

In your own area of specialisation / subject discipline, what intuitions might some novices have, and how might these intuitions have come about?

• Since 2009, the Six Learnings curricular design framework has helped teachers design immersive environments within which their students can express their emerging conceptual understandings.

• In this way, students’ thinking and intuitions – which would otherwise be largely tacit (hidden) – are made visible and can be dialogued around with peers.

• Learning is thus more enduring as first-principle understanding is built.

Disciplinary Intuitions

• Intuitions are, by nature, tacit• They inform behaviour and decision-making, and

play a greatly overlooked role in how students approach any given curriculum

• If teachers can be more aware of and unpack these intuitions, they can design for more effective learning environments

The Six Learnings framework for curriculum design in immersive environments

• Learning by exploring• Learning by collaborating• Learning by being• Learning by building• Learning by championing• Learning by expressing

“… by terraforming, it really helps us understand the properties of a landscape.”

“… this is much more believable, much more impactful.”

Discussion point #3

What ideas about the possibilities of using immersive environments in learning would you like to share?

Site visits

• The Field Studies Centre at Bowness– Different stations at the Centre allow you to

experience each of the Six Learnings

• The Abyss Observatory at Farwell– Collaboration with colleagues from the Agency for

Marine-Earth Science and Technology in Japan (JAMSTEC)

Points of discussion

• What results when the everyday lived experience of students, and formal assessment, do not align?

• In your own area of specialisation / subject discipline, what intuitions might some novices have, and how might these intuitions have come about?

• What ideas about the possibilities of using immersive environments in learning would you like to share?