On Monday 7 August, 350 Victorian educators flocked into the Victor Smorgon Hall to attend a seminar delivered by Prof David Perkins from the Harvard Graduate School of Education: Project Zero on the topic 'Learning that Matters'.

As parents and educators, we all want learning that matters, learning that makes a deep difference in our childrens’ lives. While much of what our students learn from kindergarten to university does matter, Prof Perkins asserts that much of it doesn’t because it’s too peripheral, too piecemeal, or simply too forgotten.
In his presentation, Prof Perkins noted that it’s a persistent educational paradox that some of the best models of learning often appear least, in many schools, in the teaching of the core curriculum. By way of contrast, Prof Perkins pointed out that, on the soccer field, in the art studio, in certain kinds of clubs, or certain activities around the home, students generally undertake the holistic endeavours that make learning meaningful, engaging and lasting; but that, in the core curriculum, students rarely get to ‘play the whole game’ of building mathematical or scientific models, of interpreting events in a historical perspective, or of facing up to the complexities of globalization.

Prof Perkins provided the seminar registrants with his ‘7 principles of whole game learning’, noting that such ideas find technical justification in learning theory, already show up in many classrooms and programs, and can have transformative power for the heart of the educational undertaking.