Is the finish line that important..?

An article I read recently in the June edition of Runners World magazine, by Michelle Hamilton, ['Beyond the Mantra'] highlighted the importance of being 'process oriented', rather than 'results-oriented'... 
The author was writing from the perspective of a runner [not surprisingly] in pursuit of a particular goal - in this case a specific time goal for a marathon. Her experience in working with a sports psychologist to overcome her "pre-occupation with time" [the end result], holds some reminders for education... 
You don't control the end result [grade / test score / summative assessment judgement... ] - "You can only control the steps that improve your chances of hitting that... " 
From an education standpoint, zeroing in on [desired] end results can too-often see these goals take on disproportionate importance, causing anything that doesn't appear to directly-relate to the achievement of the goal to be sidelined and neglected. For example, if a school wants to improve their literacy and numeracy results [novel, I know... ], overemphasising this end goal could see subject areas, knowledge and skills that don't appear to directly influence these end results, have their resources stripped, or be banished altogether.
Of course there is the other factor about how these goals, targets, etc. are actually measured - how well somebody is learning is certainly a lot harder to measure than how well somebody is running!

Another obvious side-effect of focusing too heavily upon the end result, at the expense of the ongoing process that leads up to the result, is that the learning is far more likely to happen [or should be] in the 'training runs' students are doing every day in classrooms, rather than the test or assessment task at the end of the journey. The runner / author wrote about the important mindset change she went through when she started using her performance information from her regular training [her kilometre splits... ] as feedback about how she was feeling, whether she needed to push harder and up her pace, or pull back to reserve energy, etc. Each kilometre, each training run, each week in the training program - all became information about how well or otherwise she was progressing towards her big goal [the specific time goal in her marathon race]. Grant Wiggins defines this concept of feedback in a lot of detail here - well worth a read.

So in schools, instead of feverishly chasing targets and goals that may not necessarily be the best measure of quality learning, we need to focus upon using the information we gather along the way about how students are performing and progressing, so that we can give good, timely feedback to them about their progress towards their own learning goals, as well as give them support, guidance and advice about how to continue to progress and improve.  

ICP 2013

A word cloud of my notes from the conference... 

I've just left Cairns where I went along to the ICP (International Confederation of Principals) Conference, held over three days for leaders in various education settings... 

There was some great (and consistent) messages that came out of the various presentations, much of which was very encouraging - it is reassuring to know that there is a growing strength in numbers in support of progressive ideas regarding educational leadership, at both the school and system level.

Peter Cosgrove provided one keynote, focusing upon courageous leadership and, in particular, the 'moral courage' required of school leaders (as distinct from the physical courage more often required on the battlefield!), who often have to navigate stressful situations or difficult decisions... He stressed the importance of leaders setting a good example. It is not always possible to single-handedly carry a team forward using a 'follow me' approach - often we need to model the desired behaviour / approach and support people to follow this example or image...

Tim Costello spoke of the vital role teachers play in the 'forming' of young people. He distinguished between the 'ladder of career' - the default path most people tend to follow - and the 'ladder of calling', where people pursue their "calling", or - as others have defined this concept - their flow or their passion...

I really liked Andy Hargreaves' notion of "The Goldilocks Principle". There are so many dichotomous views about educational issues - The Goldilocks Principle avoids the binary positions which are either too little or too much, instead aiming for that which is just right.

For example, too little assessment makes it hard to ascertain what is and isn't working, as well as to be precise about where students are and what the next steps in their learning journey should be...

Too much assessment can result in overemphasising the importance of assessments and results, distorting the teaching and learning process so that it is more about training and preparing for short term results, at the expense of considering the bigger picture and the best interests of long term learning. 

Just right use of assessment would ensure that teachers gather and use information about student learning to inform their practice in an ongoing fashion, but that there is not so heavy an emphasis upon these assessments that quality teaching and learning is compromised. ie. assessment results are used to inform, not to reward and punish... 

Hargreaves also spoke about the importance collaboration is / needs to be playing in scaling the good practice that is already in existence within our systems, citing the Singaporean system's approach of 'giving away our best ideas, so that we have to keep inventing new ones'... 

He also offered advice on how to innovate within a relatively conservative system - an issue that was bubbling beneath the surface throughout the conference. His advice was to start small, demonstrate success, learn from the process / trial, then share and spread the new ideas and learning... 

Mark Treadwell, speaking from a neuroscience perspective, noted the growing acceptance that we should be granting increasing agency to students over their own learning, but that there has been far less said about the seemingly-obvious condition of this change in approach - that "we need to teach them how to learn". He also caused us to ponder about the long-term significance of reading and writing - for so long the cornerstone skills learnt at school, but possibly having their usefulness eroded thanks to the emergence of video and other modern communication technologies... 

Andreas Schleicher showed us how the demand for skills has changed in the last 50+ years - another theme that was referred to a few times throughout the conference. He also - somewhat unsurprisingly, given his role with PISA - held up Finland as a model for the rest of us on several occasions... 

He spoke about equity - "what distinguishes education systems is how they leverage the performance of underprivileged children" - as well as the importance, regardless of location and context, of valuing and respecting teachers and the profession of teaching: "(It is important to) keep teaching intellectually attractive"... "The better a country's education system performs, the more likely that country is working constructively with its unions and treating its teachers as trusted professional partners"... "Knowledge workers simply do not like to work in hierarchical organisations"... 

I got a lot out of the Steve Francis session on sustaining change - he distilled a lot of research and theories, including from Jim Collins, Ken Blanchard and Daniel Pink, in order to communicate some practical tips and advice for us to leave with... Some of the biggest takeaways for me from this session included:

• The importance of building and sustaining momentum.
• Don't focus upon any more than three projects / initiatives / priorities at a time (less than three is good!)
• The Situational Leadership Model (Ken Blanchard), focusing upon differentiating your leadership style based upon the individual and the situation:

Despite all of that great learning throughout the three days, without doubt the highlight and greatest privilege for me occurred in the very first session of the conference! Yong Zhao gave the initial keynote, focusing mainly upon the fast-growing importance of developing creativity and how traditional, conservative models of schooling are in conflict with this need. His messages about why it is so important for us to move towards system, school and classroom structures and approaches that promote and encourage creativity, entrepreneurship and other essential skills for now and into the future, set the scene for the remainder of the conference.

As I said at the start, it is heartening to know that there is so much acknowledgement of the sorts of progressive ideas discussed through this conference, but I'm perhaps a little apprehensive about how well and easily these ideas will make it through to education departments, who's direction is inevitably set by what is politically popular... 

From the coach's box to the principal's office..?

OK, full disclosure here - I am a fairly... ahem... avid fan of the Geelong Cats in AFL...
However, I really don't think I'm being biased in seeing lessons from this article - by Geelong coach, Chris Scott - for staff and leadership groups in schools!!

Clearly defined roles and responsibilities

Who does what..? Who is good at what..? People need to know what is wanted / expected from them, in order to perform the role that the organisation desires from them. It's also so important to identify and utilise the individual strengths of team members - unleash the unique talents within the group and motivate people by letting them practise their areas of strength regularly.

Individual team members driving their respective areas of responsibility

One person cannot do everything - whether they are a coach of a football team or a principal of a school. Others with leadership responsibilities need to drive their respective groups, projects, initiatives, ideas, etc.

Avoid rushing into 'snap' judgements / reactions

When pressure and tension is high, when time appears to be short, it is easy - even natural - to react hastily and rush into decisions / actions, in a bid to 'set standards', be seen to be doing something, or to simply provide an outlet for frustration and stress...
Often, it is more useful to stay calm and take a little extra time, in order to make decisions that are rational, considered and balanced. Easier said than done sometimes!

Trust the process

"... we are really clear in our box on who should be commenting in pressure situations and who shouldn't... I always want to take some extra time to first hear properly from the person whose area the issue relates to."
Having clear, pre-planned processes reduces the potential for emotion and stress to influence decision-making - establishing and continually refining processes and systems will help ensure decision-making is consistent, as well as free from the heightened emotions that can often accompany stressful situations.

Collaborative decision-making

It is so easy for an individual to be 'blind' to a particular perspective / point of view / etc. This makes the discussion of complex issues and significant decisions vital - the range of viewpoints and perspectives need to be aired and considered, in order for informed decisions to be made.

Focus on making good decisions

Where possible... remove emotion, take the time to gather and consider all available information, then make rational, consistent decisions.

Delegation and Accountability

To paraphrase Peter Parker... 'with increased power comes increased responsibility'... 
Delegating influence over and responsibility for decision-making, needs to be accompanied by scrutiny and analysis of errors and under-performance, to ensure that decision-making processes and systems, as well as the performance of individuals and teams, are continually being refined and enhanced.


So maybe I am a little [or maybe a lot... ] biased, but I definitely think there are some lessons from Chris Scott and the Geelong coach's box for other leaders and teams!

Winners and Losers

Interesting article out of Western Australia - some schools are shunning the awarding and celebrating of individual achievements, instead focusing upon recognising all that participate. Going even further than this, some schools are not even keeping score in school sporting games, in a bid to move away from focusing upon competition and, instead, towards an emphasis upon participation and enjoyment.

I can almost hear the huffing and puffing from people ridiculing these sorts of actions...

"Political correctness gone mad!!"
"Competition didn't do me any harm as a youngster... "
"Winning and losing is part of life and kids need to get used to it."
"Why should the good players be denied opportunity to be celebrated?!?"
"How will we ever develop hard-nosed, win-at-all costs footballers for the AFL / NRL / ARU / A-League, if kids don't play this way at school?!?"

I actually think the principles behind these sorts of decisions and policies are sound and admirable - although I am sure I am not in the majority in thinking this way!

The main purpose of school sporting activities and most out-of-school youth sport is not to search relentlessly for the next potential sporting superstar, brushing aside the many who are not physically gifted, talented or coordinated enough to be sporting high-achievers. Instead, sporting activities for children, particularly those occurring at school, should focus upon the participation and learning of all students. i.e. We should not glorify the achievements of individuals - which invariably are more due to natural talents and abilities, rather than any extra work or effort compared with many of their peers - whilst casting the rest of the students to the shadows...

Yes, 'winning' and 'losing' happens to everyone in one form or another as they progress in their lives, but people just as surely will experience situations where they or others will need to demonstrate co-operative, sharing, equitable behaviours. In order to be a successful participant in an increasingly diverse society, it is more important than ever to be able to act cooperatively and harmoniously with people from a range of backgrounds. These are the skills that we need to be focusing upon developing in all students - much more so than combative, winner / loser mentalities.
'Good' players will invariably have an intrinsic sense of their... 'goodness'... In a lot of cases they will tend to have their egos boosted by way of regular praise and acknowledgements of their achievements from their peers, their families, their clubs [if playing sport outside of school], etc. - we don't need to fan these flames with extravagant awards and singling out for recognition, any more than we need to do so for celebrating the academic achievements of children who are 'naturals' at Maths, Writing, etc... It is not big heads that are the major cause for concern here - rather, the marginalising and diminishing of the efforts of all other participants.
As for any reduction in the quality of sport we watch on Friday night, Saturday, Sunday, etc, the ultra-competitive mindsets and playing styles required for top-level sport will be honed as young people move through talent-identification systems, junior development squads, representative teams, etc. There is lots of time and opportunity for the individually-brilliant, hard-nosed competitor to develop and be celebrated - let's just remember everyone else whilst they are in primary school...

The Good, The Strange, The Fascinating...

We are all but finished with the heavily-emphasised [publicly] national tests for literacy and numeracy, with just a handful of 'catch ups' to be conducted later today for students that were absent earlier in the week.
It has all has gone relatively smoothly for our school, but there have been a few things that have stood out over the course of the week... 

The Good

Kids were calm, teachers were organised and staff helped eachother out, with front office staff helping to monitor which students would require 'catch up' tests due to being absent for one or more of the assessments, teachers helping eachother with the setting and resetting of classrooms, as well as staff being flexible with adjustments to normal timetables and routines.

The Strange

It is oft-quoted that greater variation exists from classroom to classroom within the same school, than it does when comparing schools with other schools... I think this notion of intra-school variation receives a turbo charge during NAPLAN Week!!
During the testing times this week, I would find myself walking through non-testing classrooms where furniture was arranged in a variety of ways to cater for a range of different learning preferences and purposes, where children and teachers were talking animatedly about what they were doing, working on a variety of tasks and generally enjoying themselves. I would then turn a corner and find myself in a classroom doing NAPLAN and find tables split up into individual islands, all facing the front of the room in linear rows, with students sitting and working by themselves in utter silence, with no assistance from peers, from their teachers, from any environmental print, technologies or other resources that the class next door was using furiously to help with their learning... Even more puzzling, these starkly-contrasting classrooms seemed to flourish back to life post-recess! Both the physical environment and the way students and teachers worked 'reverted' to active, hands-on, collaborative learning experiences, once the tests were completed each morning... 

Classroom One

Classroom Two

The Fascinating

The highlight of the week for me happened yesterday, when I was helping supervise [well I couldn't call it teaching... ] the numeracy test. As we neared the end of the test that sought to determine how much numeracy knowledge and skill students could demonstrate in 50 minutes [... ], I noticed one of our students making extensive notes all over a blank page that students had for working out. Curious at both the fast pace she was annotating at and the intensely focused look upon her face, I hovered over her shoulder and watched her work like this for probably three full minutes. 

This was the problem that she was attempting to solve:

Ten people share a prize of $8750.

They keep $850 each and give the rest to a charity. 

How much money in total do they give to the charity?

• $7900

• $790

• $250

• $25 

This was how she went about it [red annotations mine]:

1. She wrote the beginning total to be shared in the centre of the page.
2. She wrote the ten lots of 850 around the the central starting number, in a mind-map fashion.
3. She subtracted 500 [all ten lots of 50] from the original starting number, leaving her with 8250.
4. She individually subtracted ten lots of 800 [she'd already accounted for the extra 50s... ] from the remaining 8250, eventually calculating the answer of 250. 

Phew! Talk about laborious and painstaking!! 
However, despite her relatively inefficient method, she did get the correct answer!
More importantly for me though [and for her Maths teacher, who I caught up with afterwards to relay my observation], was that I had some useful information about this student's level of mathematical understanding and skill, which could then be used to teach the child a more efficient and effective strategy and, thus, improve the child's mathematical understanding and skill.
What made this information particularly useful, however, was that I had it almost immediately after the child's performance, putting us in a great position to address and improve the child's mathematical knowledge and skill in a very timely fashion.

This, of course, also highlighted one of the biggest and most obvious drawbacks of NAPLAN - yes, there is some good, useful information that teachers and schools receive from these tests, but we have to wait five months for it!! 
It would be impossible to predict what level of mathematical knowledge and skill the student that I observed will have in five months time... Unfortunately, however good the information we ultimately get is from these tests, its usefulness is quite significantly watered-down due to its sheer distance [time-wise] from the dates that the assessments were actually conducted... 

Are you 'good at what you do'..?

We all intuitively know and appreciate the value of feeling good about our work and our own performance at work - self-confidence in performing a particular task generally contributes to the successful performance of that task, or, as a related saying expresses - 'success breeds success'...
In 'The Progress Principle', Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer delve into why it is so important for people to feel as though they are making progress in their work, as well as detailing the other contributing factors that are significant in determining the quality of people's Inner Work Life.

Amabile and Kramer argue that people's Inner Work Life - their sense of happiness and enjoyment with their work - can be measured through observation of three traits: their perceptions (thoughts) about their work environment, their emotions (feelings) about their work environment and their motivation (drive) to perform their work.
Whilst these elements enable us to gauge the relative happiness and enjoyment people are experiencing from their work, the interesting part is how we can contribute (or otherwise... ) to how positively people feel about their work.

The influences on Inner Work Life

'Nourishments' are triggers / actions that are related to the person (interpersonal). The four major nourishments identified are: respect, encouragement, emotional support and affiliation.
The opposite of Nourishments are 'Toxins', examples of which could include not being treated respectfully by a colleague / leader, not having one's emotional needs acknowledged, or antagonistic behaviour from colleagues.

'Catalysts' are triggers / actions related to the work itself. The seven major catalysts identified are: the setting of clear goals, autonomy, provision of resources, giving adequate time, providing support with the work, focusing upon learning (from problems and successes) and facilitating a flow of ideas.
The opposite of Catalysts are 'Inhibitors', examples of which could include a lack of clarity about the purpose / direction of one's role, micromanagement, or not being given adequate resources to do the job.

'Progress' refers to the improvements and gains people are making in their work and leads into the sense of self-efficacy that is very closely related to a key plank of intrinsic motivation - one's sense of competence or mastery. ie. If we feel as though we are making progress towards mastery or improved competence in our work, then we will have a greater intrinsic sense of happiness and joy when doing this work.
A stand-out point about this Progress Principle is that people need to know (as it occurs, or as close as possible to it... ) when they are making progress in their work - the resultant positive effects on perceptions, emotions and motivation can build momentum to the point where they become self-perpetuating.
The opposite of Progress are 'Setbacks', examples of which could include failing to solve a problem, making errors / misjudgements, or running out of (time, money, resources, etc... ).


Lots of interesting ways that this could (should..?) impact upon how we measure the progress of teachers, how we provide performance feedback and the working conditions we seek to create in schools...


The book is well worth a read, but so is this talk by behavioural economist, Dan Ariely, where he expresses similar sentiments about the importance of making (and knowing that we are making) progress in our work:

Observations

I recently read this interesting article re. Teacher observations, discussing some of the pitfalls of observation processes, in the context of broader evaluation procedures.

Some food for thought for me, as this (watching teachers teach) is something that I value highly as a means for improving everyone's practice, but is perhaps an example of something that can have negative results if used in the wrong way, or for the wrong purposes...
For example, it is important for school leaders to be observing teachers in action on a regular basis, so they have credibility and can have informed discussions with teachers about teaching. We also need to be better at having teachers observe each other, exposing people to different ways and ideas, as well as building platforms for quality professional discussions.

However, like a lot of broad-brush, top-down mandates, observation processes that are rigid and focused upon compliance can end up crowding out professional engagement, instead becoming a chore that is - to quote the article - "viewed as something to check of (sic) the list of "to-do's" for the day".

So, any performance-related processes need to have observations of the practitioner in action as a significant component. We wouldn't judge or discuss the performance of a footballer without seeing them play... 
It is the purpose of teacher observation processes that needs to shift - from one that relies on potential punishments and external rewards (eg. performance pay initiatives.. ), to instead focusing upon helping and supporting teachers to improve their own capacity and to be better contributors to their school - tap into the internal desires to get better at what we do and to contribute to a shared goal with other people.

NAPLAN - is it a race and should we focus upon winning..?

NAPLAN is just around the corner for all Australian schools and, given its universal implementation (for years three, five, seven and nine), all schools need to decide how to approach these tests (albeit with some 'direction' provided re. this by Ed. Department policies and mandates... ).

At our school, I was asked to lead the NAPLAN 'preparations' for this year, having had nothing to do with this previously. I haven't been very comfortable with some of the effects NAPLAN has had / is having on education, so this was a bit like asking the vegetarian to cook the barbeque!
I knew my views conflicted with how our school had approached this process previously, so I was a bit apprehensive and initially wanted to 'baulk' this responsibility by handing it to someone else - I didn't want to halfheartedly push something I didn't believe in...
I wrestled with this for a bit, but then thought, if I'm not altogether happy with how our school has gone about this previously, then this is an ideal opportunity to change how our school approaches and prepares for NAPLAN. I discussed all of this with my principal and was encouraged by her support for me to change the way we have gone about this from recent years, although I did have to make some minor 'compromises', to satisfy systemic requirements...

What we needed to remove / stop:

• Excessively 'prepping' students in the formats and conventions of NAPLAN tests.
• Using resource books full of worksheets and activities specifically designed to familiarise students with NAPLAN formats and conventions.
• Incorporating NAPLAN into teacher programs.
• Incorporating NAPLAN into teacher Performance discussions.
• Teachers completing a nine-week block of NAPLAN preparation with their classes, including sitting practise tests and use of NAPLAN resource books.
• Teaching test taking skills.
• Giving students '10 hot tips for students' documents...
• Printing NAPLAN preparation activities in school newsletters for parents.

What we kept / amended:

• NAPLAN meetings, which previously focused upon incorporating NAPLAN-like questions, formats, conditions, etc. into normal teaching and learning programs (ie. preparing for the upcoming tests... ), this year focused upon using the information gleaned from last year's results to inform our planning. ie. We were focusing on identifying the specific knowledge and skills that our cohort of students were 'weak' in and discussing ideas for potential learning experiences that would help students develop these aspects of knowledge / skills. As with other assessments, we were using the data in a formative fashion to make our ongoing teaching and learning programs more precise, rather than training students for a shallow, short-term goal.
• Incentive program to reward participation in the tests during the testing week. This is something that has been used in recent years and, although very much focusing upon extrinsic motivators, is probably OK for this sort of scenario, where the task (doing the tests... ) is mandated, is single solution and is not inherently motivating for most students.
• Introducing students to testing formats. We have spoken about using two - three lessons to familiarise students with some of the formats of the NAPLAN tests, but with the purpose being to help avoid the 'freak out' factor some students may experience when confronted with the unfamiliar conventions of the tests, particularly for year three students who would not have experienced NAPLAN before. We have emphasised that more time than this should not be spent on this, as we don't want to take time away from our trusted, core programs and what we value and believe to be quality teaching practice.
• Information for parents. Alongside the Department-issued information brochures that schools were required to send home to parents, we sent a letter explaining how NAPLAN 'fitted' with the myriad of other assessments we do at our school and with the message that we (school and parents) should be avoiding a competitive mindset towards NAPLAN... Extending further this desire to be open and 'upfront' re. NAPLAN in our school, we are soon to hold a face to face information session for parents, going into more detail about what NAPLAN is, the benefits that can be derived, the potential pitfalls and 'side effects', how it 'fits' at our school and how we are looking to approach these tests - given parents will tend to only be exposed to the very surface-level information about NAPLAN (and other edu. issues... ) via mainstream media, door-stop quotes from politicians, etc, we considered it important to be 'on the front foot' re. communicating with and educating our parents about this.

So that is where we are at ATM re. our approach to NAPLAN - it is not an Olympic event that requires arduous, isolated training and coaching for... It is a (further) useful source of information about how students are achieving in English and Maths and, as such, can help inform our teaching in those areas, but without taking away or taking over from good pedagogy and rounded, comprehensive learning experiences at school.

What Works..?

PISA [Program for International Student Assessment] is an OECD initiative that occurs triennially. PISA focuses upon assessing the capacity of students to problem solve, as well as apply their knowledge and skills in new ways. PISA also differs from many mass-produced tests that are administered by national or state jurisdictions, as they do not seek to assess the learning of any one particular curriculum.
Given these traits, it is a little more difficult to artificially improve PISA achievement via sheer familiarisation with test formats, conditions and content, as can be the case with many mass-produced tests... 

A significant point about the information derived from PISA is that it shines a light on equity, putting it on equal footing, in terms of importance, with actual achievement. This tends to be another point of difference with most standardised tests, which don't usually put as much emphasis or do as good a job of measuring how equitable our schools and education systems are.

Probably the main purpose of PISA is to enable analysis of how different countries structure their education systems and, importantly, to help identify some of the practices, structures and policies that show up as common among the systems that demonstrate high achievement and high equity. In the clip below, Andreas Schleicher goes into detail about this:

So what are the common traits of high-performing, highly-equitable education systems..?

• Government and society value education, schools and teachers.
• A growth, rather than fixed mindset, permeates through the system - policy makers, parents, teachers and students believe that all students are capable of learning, rather than lowering expectations based upon demographics and stereotypes... 
• Schools and teachers in such systems "embrace diversity with differentiated pedagogical practices... and they personalise learning... "
• "Nowhere does the quality of an education system exceed the quality of it's teachers" - teachers, themselves, as well as systems, value and prioritise ongoing Professional Learning.
• "Teachers work together".
• Teachers have professional autonomy - they are clear about where they need to go and what they need to aim for, but they are trusted to choose the ways and methods of pursuing these standards and goals, in order to best meet the needs of their unique local contexts. They are not robots on a production line and they do not 'follow' heavily-prescribed programs and curriculum documents.
• Further to the above point, high-performing systems have moved away from past goals of standardisation and compliance, to empowering principals and teachers to be inventive, innovative and creative.
• Honing in on the equity aspect, systems with low disparity between their highest and lowest achievers "invest resources where they can make the most difference, they attract the strongest principals into the toughest schools and the most talented teachers into the most challenging schools."

What [if any... ] are the excuses for not prioritising these traits of high-performing and highly-equitable education systems..?

 

Innovation Project

At the beginning of term four last year, I approached my Principal with a 'proposal' regarding facilitating the development of more innovative teaching approaches within our school.
The underlying principles of this proposal included:

• The way children learn is changing.
• Education is [needs to be] changing.
• Schools and teachers need to be constantly evolving their practice in order to effectively meet the needs of modern learners - We need to be learners, too.
• Innovation is more likely to develop ‘at the margins’, rather than when applied from above en masse.

More of the 'why' included:

Whilst how we learn and our resultant views about education have been [gradually... ] evolving over time, the modern rate of change is greater than it has ever been before, due to the 'digital revolution' and, in particular, the rise of the Internet.

The resultant changes in society are increasing exponentially and are affecting a range of different aspects of our lives, including how we access information, how we communicate, what we do for leisure purposes, the jobs that we have [and will have], as well as how we learn.

As usual, my Principal was very supportive and willing to try something new in a bid to improve the capacity of our teachers.

In terms of the process we were looking to implement, the plan was to work with one or two teachers who were keen to try a new idea / initiative / approach / etc. in their teaching. A point that we wanted to stress was that it wasn't especially important 'what' the idea / initiative was, but more that the teacher was looking to take a risk, try something new and adopt an innovative mindset. 

To support and help facilitate this, we would schedule some extra release time [one hour per week] for the participating teacher/s, support relevant Professional Learning opportunities and provide ongoing coaching. 

When considering how to best 'sell' this idea to staff, I had worked on a hunch about how our school tended to be perceived... 

Our school is very organised, very structured and very detail-oriented. I was pretty confident that the perceptions held of our school [both internal and external] would reflect this notion, so we did a 'word association' asking for respondents to nominate five words that they most strongly associated with our school. The words available to choose from came from two categories, borrowing from some left-brain, right-brain theory:

Sure enough, we were clearly perceived to be 'safekeeping', rather than 'experimental':

Not sure if my analogy was the best... but I tried to explain it in the context of us having one 'wheel' spinning very well [the green, safekeeping one... ], but we needed to start paying some more attention to getting this other 'wheel' [the yellow, experimental one... ] spinning... 

Anyway, we had two enthusiastic teachers take the bait and decide that they wanted to be a part of this project. Both did a great job in researching and implementing two very different projects in their respective classrooms [one focusing on Learning Spaces and the other upon Yoga and Relaxation Strategies].

This week, the two teachers completed the final aspect of their 'projects' when they shared their learning journeys with our whole staff. Both were very pleased with the outcomes of their respective projects, sharing student surveys, photographs and their own observations.

We have now invited other people to nominate to participate in a similar process [one has already committed] and we are hoping this more future-oriented, innovative type of mindset will spread to more of our staff and that this sort of initiative will allow us to 'build in' a structure and process for innovation and continuous professional learning to be occurring at our school.

Closing Gaps...

Interesting policy initiative coming out of England (whose edu policies, along with the USA's, we tend to mimic... ): Schools told to narrow pupil gap 

My first reaction was that it was good to see equity of outcomes being valued and prioritised... However, the devil is probably in the detail - how will "attainment" be measured..? Will a broad range of assessments be taken into account, or will a single test that only focuses upon a narrow range of knowledge and skills be the tool of choice..?

How will this affect schools and teachers..?

If the former method is used (multiple and varied sources of data to inform judgements about attainment), schools and teachers would be more likely to focus their energies on teaching and learning that addresses the full range of curriculum areas, as well as see less benefit in 'training' students in the formats and conventions of one particular assessment type....

If the latter method is used (single, large-scale test that excludes many areas of the curriculum), it would seem more likely that schools and teachers would narrow their own focus towards that which is tested, that which they are going to be measured upon... 
i.e. Poorer, less-privileged students get a narrower education, with far less opportunity for experiencing concepts, discussing with peers, making stuff and learning in modern ways... 


Maybe I'm being cynical, but this approach seems a tad short sighted to me, when longer-term, more strategic initiatives are required to fully address the inequities in educational attainment in our schools.
Is this an example of Government policy 'washing its hands' of responsibility for inequitable outcomes and passing the onus wholly onto teachers and schools..?

When is it OK to fail..?

I read this interesting article recently about the benefits of failure.

Some good advice regarding the mindset we should adopt towards failures... Here are some interesting quotes that resonated a bit with me:

• embrace and foster a culture of experimentation... 
• failure is acceptable... 
• don't go on repeating the same failures over and over again... 
• most companies have "low tolerance for failure culture" - no room for experimentation... 
• failure... can mean different things to different people.
• honourable failure... and incompetent failure... 
• we learn through experimentation... 
• it's not the failure [that's important]... but rather the learning.
• failure in organisations most often happens on two levels: the failure to anticipate and the failure to execute. 
• the fast pace of change we experience today actually seems to happen much faster outside organisations than inside. It takes time to adapt to changes... 

Takeaways... 

We need to adopt and value experimental ways of thinking and working. 

We need to 'budget' for failures to occur, when we are trying new ideas, initiatives, etc. 

We need to learn from failures that we inevitably experience from time to time, rather than continuing to fail in the same way. 

Failure to change, evolve and improve is a failure in itself - if we don't actively pursue new ways and innovations, we are guaranteed to fail. 

Change is happening in 'the real world' at an increasingly rapid rate, whether we like it or not - better to to be proactive about keeping pace with this than to bury our heads and have our practice become irrelevant.

How do you want to work..?

Just read this interesting piece on introverts and work spaces.
The gist is that modern work environments, with their emphasis on open-plan spaces, 'incidental' meetings, high collaboration, etc, are not as effective as many people think they are and, in fact, actually have a negative impact upon those with introverted preferences.

I am a bit conflicted by this notion that open, collaboration-focused work environments are negative for introverts... I understand some of the discomfort felt by introverted types in such environments, but I believe strongly in the importance of people exploring diverse perspectives, accessing the knowledge and skills of many (rather than one),working together to solve complex problems, etc, etc... I also think schools need to be preparing students to be good at working with other people and communicating well, in preparation for living and working in a world that places growing emphasis on these skills...

We all have to act out of preference at certain times, so that we can get along with people that are different to ourselves, as well as tailor our behaviour to the situation and context we find ourselves in. The key to 'coping' with this need to act out of preference is to know how and when you can meet your own needs - the article has some techniques that are useful [and very familiar to me!] for - in this case - introverts. 

So should introverts continue to 'push back' against the growing emphasis on collaborative work practices, or should they 'put up', shelving their discomfort in the interests of the greater good..?

Back to the Future

This is a video of American author, Isaac Asimov, where he discusses how computer technology will change the way people learn and the role of schools:

In this 1988 interview, Asimov shares his predictions for the future of learning. What a visionary - he discusses many of the changes that education is still grappling with and aspiring towards, 25 years later!

• The end of information scarcity - computers [particularly the Internet] have 'changed the game' regarding access to information. We no longer need to seek out a rare expert / master / [teacher?] to access information.
• Prescriptive curricula - not necessary when people have access to abundant information in their own homes, via computers.
• Personalisation of learning - people are increasingly able to use technology to choose what, when and how they learn, rather than having little choice over any of these elements, as has typically been the case in traditional school systems.
• One-to-one learning - before formal education was opened up to the public, the wealthy and powerful would access learning via a tutor / master / etc [one-to-one for a few... ]. The invention of schools enabled access to education for many, but in a less-personalised, one-to-many relationship. Computer technology sees an opportunity to return to a one-to-one learning arrangement, but this time for many, rather than just the privileged [one-to-one for many... ].
• Life-long learning - we shouldn't 'finish' learning at school. It's not prison, where the aim is to 'get out'... 
• Digital Divide - it won't be possible to supply all children with computer technology initially, but we should embrace the learning potential of new technologies, anyway, whilst working towards equality of access.

So, a quarter of a century on, should we be happy with the progress schools and education systems have made towards this vision, or is there still lots of work to do to realise this "revolution" in learning and the role of schools..? 

Reforms worth fighting for

Popular viewpoints about what systemic education reforms should be aiming for have evolved over time. The 'Fourth Way' builds upon previous movements that have had some differing foci and features:

1. First, we had the [relatively] high trust of teachers, but low accountability and collaboration, resulting in the 'silos' mentality and greater potential for a lack of awareness of current theories, research, innovations, etc... 
2. Then we had the zealous drive for consistency - pursued via standardisation, high accountability, prescriptive curricula and programs, narrower [that which was tested... ] learning experiences for students, etc. Many of these elements are still popular [often increasingly so!]. 
3. Building upon the previous movement was the collection, analysis, comparison and use of DATA - to measure, to assess, to inform, to justify, to group, to 'target', to personalise, to differentiate, to report, to determine salaries, etc, etc... Surely the more information we have about our students, the better..? Right..???

The article above features two professors who, in analysing education systems around the globe, have identified and synthesised the best elements of these respective systems that need to be spread and incorporated globally. Some of the points that jumped out to me as important and worthy of aspiring towards were:

• Decentralised governance - schools need to be able to adapt and target the unique local communities that they serve.
• Broad, flexible curricula - allow teachers and schools the freedom to follow unique, localised pathways towards curriculum goals. i.e. Give them the destination and let them determine the course that best suits their students, rather than prescribing directions that are written for the masses.
• Principals who focus on maximising and improving the performance of teachers, rather than 'administration'...   

What do you think? Are these some of the right 'ways' for education to be reformed..?

The Big Question

This week, we introduced a concept we are calling 'The Big Question', where we elect a single, complex question or problem that we as a staff will 'ponder' for a number of weeks, before revisiting the nominated question / problem down the track for thorough discussion.


There were a few reasons why we wanted to try something like this...

Environmental

Schools tend to be notoriously busy places, often with little time and opportunity for deep thought, reflection and discussion about issues. The sheer quantity of decisions and tasks we have to deal with often leads to an efficiency mindset - useful for completing a high number of tasks and decisions, but perhaps less so for dealing with complex tasks and decisions in a quality fashion. 
We wanted to provide time and space for deeper, more thorough thought, reflection and discussion.

Individual

Whilst many people are inherently suited to fast-paced, instinctive decision-making and are naturally confident about airing their views in group settings 'on the spot', many others prefer time for reflection, often in quiet, individual settings. 

Improved decisions

Big, important questions and problems deserve well considered responses and decisions, rather than 'snap' judgements. 
Providing time and a suitable context for all people to develop and flesh out their views will better-enable the full range of perspectives to be considered and lead to more informed and more democratic decisions.

How?

So, how we are trialing this is by having staff 'vote' for one of a selection of 'potential' big questions, then giving time [the duration of this first school term] and space [probably an online, forumish space... ] for their individual viewpoints to 'percolate', before revisiting the question early next term for thorough discussion.

If being realistic, not everybody will engage with this and drag themselves from the busyness of day-to-day school life, but hopefully we will get a few people to 'lift their eyes' and spend some time thinking about the bigger picture...  

And We're Back!

Today was 'officially' our first day of the 2013 school year, although our students don't resume until tomorrow - so it doesn't quite feel like 'real' school yet... 

Given it was the first time we had all been back together since the end of last year, there was obviously some reuniting, some holiday small talk and just general catching up to be done... 
In reality, though, there wasn't a huge need for these sorts of pleasantries, as most staff had been in and out of the school for the past two weeks preparing for the new school year! 

Once we got into our full day of PL, it was typically busy, fast-paced, full of information and detail, but also good fun.
Starting the day with some creativity exercises to 'energise' ourselves for the day, we followed with engagement announcements (!), welcomes for new staff, the detailing of key messages for 2013, a session on our approach to teaching Reading, a session on our approach to teaching behaviour, Skyping with a consultant for a Grammar and Spelling program that we use, a session on Professional Learning and Innovation, the work-shopping of some potential Mandatory Reporting scenarios, a Phonics session, then some general 'housekeeping' and 'need to know' stuff [timetabling, budgets, etc.]... 

At one point during the day, we had to write down something we were looking forward to in 2013... I wrote something like "working with motivated colleagues"... 
Admittedly, I didn't think long about it at the time, but, upon reflection, this is one of the absolute best and most rewarding aspects of working at my school [and many others, I'm sure]. 

We are all anxious for the students to start tomorrow and everyone is focused on doing what we can to make the first day, then the first week... as smooth and positive as possible for students and teachers - particularly our new teachers.

Bring on tomorrow! 

Desegregate and Diversify

In this video, a US Professor explains the benefits of desegregation policies on education in America:


Not only did black children benefit from their improved access to education, but - despite commonly-held fears at the time of these policies being enacted - white children's education did not suffer and there were significant inroads made into some of the education and later life disparities that had been in existence between blacks and whites.


Obviously, in America, there is work still to be done to make their country more equitable, but, in Australia, too, this is an important issue and education has a significant role.

What are we doing here to actively pursue 'desegregation' and diversity in out schools..?
What are we doing that contributes towards the segregation of people..? 
Such segregation plays out not just on the basis of race, as professor Rucker focuses upon, but also occurs in Australian schools through the division and separation of children based upon income, religion and other factors.

What would have happened if the US had not actively pursued desegregation policies..? What would their educational achievement 'gap' look like..?
We talk lots in Australia about such 'gaps' - the importance of 'closing' them, but also their growing nature... 

If we are serious about a more equitable society with reduced variation in educational achievement, social problems, occupational achievement, etc, then we need to not only discourage policies and structures that 'segregate', but also actively pursue higher levels of diversity in our school environments.