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Available as a paperback and eBook on Amazon here. “The very best outcome we can hope for—from anything—is to make people’s lives, and the world, better.” — from The Depthvale Detectives and the Great Education Crisis, by Joanne McEachen and Matthew Kane “This book marks a true meta-moment for schools, a chance to consider what […]
By Mary Coverdale, Director of The Learner First, Australia. By questioning and so challenging the assumption that an exam or test gives us the truth of what a child knows and understands, we dislodge belief systems and practices of 100 or so years. In dislodging these we challenge deeply held values and so enter the […]
By Mary Coverdale, Director of The Learner First, Australia. When you drive at night your vision is limited by the scope and quality of the car headlights. You can see an arc in front of you that guides you along the road. At the edges of the light, shapes are hard to discern. Sometimes, they […]
Click here to be notified when the book is available. Education is in crisis, but there is a way out. Schools can commit to contributive learning, so that all students learn how to add to the world. The Depthvale Detectives and the Great Education Crisis: A Guide to Contributive Learning in Schools is a story […]
Mary Coverdale, Executive Director of The Learner First, Australia, has written and recorded an Audio Companion Guide to Measuring Human Return: Understand and Assess What Really Matters for Deeper Learning (Joanne McEachen and Matthew Kane, 2018), out now and available for listening and download from The Learner First. The Audio Companion Guide is a free […]
By Kym Amor, Foundation Principal, Foxwell State Secondary College. Originally published by Queensland Association of State School Principals (QASSP). The morning of 19 February 2020 is a day I will never forget. Sitting in my office with my school’s Guidance Officer, I was in the process of submitting a heartbreaking ‘Report of Harm’ when my […]
By Mary Coverdale, Director of The Learner First, Australia. Educational change strategies tend to be a bit like throwing darts at a dartboard. We know what we’re aiming for, and we hope for the best. The intention is there––the desired outcome often isn’t. Investment in education has largely been short term, highly accountable, and expended […]
Late January 2020 saw the final countdown to the opening of the newest State Secondary College for the Gold Coast region of Australia, Foxwell State Secondary College. It had been a nine-month journey since my appointment as principal when I experienced the very first spark of a dream for an innovative, new school in Queensland. […]
By Mary Coverdale, Director of The Learner First, Australia. At the moment, I’m reminded of the way the city of Troy was invaded by the Trojan Horse. The invasion succeeded because of subterfuge and deceit––tactics that preyed on the misplaced trust that the leaders of Troy placed in prior experience. We see something similar with […]
The impact of COVID-19 on education means schools as we know them will never be the same. All of us––children, educators, parents, and communities globally––have learned a valuable lesson: not everyone’s experience of learning is the same. While schools as we know them may work well for some, they don’t work as well––or at all––for […]
