Personalised learning in the post mechanical age

The purpose of this paper is to describe and offer for discussion an approach to learning and teaching that is structured as a ‘project-based context-driven inquiry’. It is positioned at the interface between knowledge generation and use and it is grounded in a generic notion of responsibility for the future of bodily life. The intention is to move the debate beyond the exhausted language of rigid oppositions between the academic and vocational, the universal and contextual. The purpose is to identify and nurture a personal portfolio of competences responding to the contemporary material condition of humanity. It is expressed in terms of the student’s learning power, a manifold of new assessment criteria and methodological steps constitutive of what a student could achieve having progressed through a given course. This is an approach in which the competencies are the outcomes supported rather than led by subject knowledge. The course structure combines more traditional instruction with innovative project and assessment components and also provides a natural opportunity for the student to get acquainted with a worthy employment niche. The practical applications of this approach at degree and secondary school levels have so far led to encouraging results for both staff and learners. Keywords: Experimental curriculum; Student centred curriculum; Sustainable development and assessment; Knowledge society; Lifelong learning;