 In Western culture, approaches to teaching and learning have shifted over time. While it's not a very tidy timeline, in very broad terms compulsory and universal public education was largely a product of the industrial age. Prior to that, education was largely reserved for the privileged, nobility, wealthy landowners and clergy for instance. But new technology, the printing press, trains, electricity and so on meant that more people had access to knowledge and also that people needed new kinds of knowledge and skills. So new approaches to education developed in response. What we often refer to as traditional mass schooling was designed to prepare people to take their places in this new society. This approach to education aimed to produce compliant and punctual workers. The teacher was the sage on the stage, the holder of the knowledge and the ultimate authority figure. Students were viewed as empty vessels waiting to be filled with knowledge. Certain knowledge, of course, not of their own choosing. The physical environment was one of hierarchy and control. Desks in rows, children facing their teacher who controlled subject matter, talk and activities from the front of the room. The focus was on rote learning and correctly recalling information. Across time this has shifted mercifully. That's not to say that teacher directed learning episodes don't have their place. Indeed they do. Nor is it to say that the chalk and talk model is extinct or always undesirable because it isn't. But we no longer live in an industrial age. 21st century life is very different and it isn't effective to keep on trying to pump out students like a production line. We live in what is sometimes called the information or digital age. The kinds of skills that students need if they are to thrive in this contemporary world are quite different from the past. I'm not simply referring to the kinds of skills we associate with digital technology although of course technology has contributed significantly to the changed educational landscape we now occupy. As a result approaches to education have shifted from a teacher or knowledge centered approach to a student or learner centered approach. The contemporary pedagogical frameworks such as constructivism encourage learners to construct their own knowledge individually and collaboratively by making connections with prior knowledge and experiences. We might even say that in the past surface learning was sufficient memorising facts, selecting the correct answer and so on. But to be equipped for today's world surface learning is not enough. Today's facts may not be facts next year. Today's skills may be obsolete within a decade. The kind of approaches associated with deep learning approaches that develop higher order skills encourage critical thinking and the capacity to be agile, flexible and adaptable These skills are not optional or reserved for a small percentage of learners. They are critical for all students. Now teachers know this and I think want to be the kind of teachers who design learning experiences that equip learners with these skills. But of course the question is how?