Traralgon College has started a new project at Year 10 foucssed on teaching students to become young entrepreneurs - building their skills in an area they are passioante in and using these skills to provide value with others. We have been working with Professor Yong Zhao from the University of Kansas and author of "World Class Learners".
Our project is based on the core idea that school is set up to equip students with a traditional 'employee mindset' - learning a set of skills and knowledges and learning to do what you are told! Unfortunately, we do not know what jobs our students today will end up making their career out of - many do not even exist yet. Many students are disengaged from this system and many others are ritually engaged - going through the motions without feeling connected to what they are learning and doing.
To help them be successful, we need to help our students develop 'entrepreneurial mindsets' - identifiying the needs of others and using their skills and knowledges to meet these needs. This requires getting really good at a few things, at the expense of being average at many things as is currently the case.
What is this?
Aden Wyers
The head teacher of the independant student learning program.
Yong Zhao currently serves as the Presidential Chair and Director of the Institute for Global and Online Education in the College of Education, University of Oregon, where he is also a Professor in the Department of Educational Measurement, Policy, and Leadership. He is also a professorial fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Health and Education Policy, Victoria University in Australia. His works focus on the implications of globalization and technology on education. He has published over 100 articles and 20 books.
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For more information go to;
Yong Zhao
Yong Zhao currently serves as the Presidential Chair and Director of the Institute for Global and Online Education.
Logan Alexander
The absolute legend who single-handedly created this website.
I am just another student trying to persue the dream of having a successful life and job that I enjoy.
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I currently am studying coding, programming and algorithm, in future I intend on using these skills to be a scripter and game designer.
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Outside of school I just play games on Steam, exercise and eat.
Aden Wyers has been a teacher at Traralgon College for the past 9 years.
He is currently the Teaching and Learning Leader at the Senior Campus and CreatIF… program director.
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Aden’s main areas of work involve ongoing teacher professional learning and implementing newprograms designed to improve the learning of students at Traralgon College.
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Recently, this has involved introducing the ‘Understanding by Design’ method of planning for student learning and
helping teachers to use ‘Formative Assessment’, where the teacher regularly checks to monitor the learning of students and modifies the lesson accordingly, which research has shown to be the most
effective teacher strategy for improving student learning.
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Aden has always believed in the idea that students and people want to learn, and do so by actively constructing their own learning and meaning from the world around them.
It is difficult for this to happen in a formal school setting where so much of what students do and how they do it is
predetermined by others.
He is excited at the opportunities of the CreatIF… program to allow students the opportunity to learn what they want to learn.
Have a question or suggestion? Let us know below!