Archive
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Twitter and Canadian Education – The danger, and benefits, to developing Top 10 lists
Comments Off on Twitter and Canadian Education – The danger, and benefits, to developing Top 10 listsI’m delighted to launch Canada’s Top EduTweeters Version 2.0
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How to Provoke Innovation in Your School – A Teacher’s Blueprint
Comments Off on How to Provoke Innovation in Your School – A Teacher’s BlueprintIt was quite an honour to have our App Project selected for the Ken Spencer Award, particularly given the exceptional work occurring across Canada that quietly goes unrecognized. I’m still quite astounded to find my students and myself in this position and am grateful because this award will allow us to further develop innovative practices that match the possibilities of today. Many educators and parents have posed a similar question about our trailblazing work. It is often phrased as, “How were you able to get away with this?” This question suggests that those in education are feeling highly constrained and limited in their ability to develop innovative practices. I think what people are really asking is: “What needs to be in place at a system level that would allow an attitude of innovation to become the foundation of our education system?” So I’d like to take this opportunity to share how something such as our App project could occur.
Many educators and parents have posed a similar question about our trailblazing work. It is often phrased as, “How were you able to get away with this?” This question suggests that those in education are feeling highly constrained and limited in their ability to develop innovative practices.
There is no doubt that education in Ontario has undergone tremendous reshaping over the past ten years, and while much of what has been introduced has improved our teaching practices, there have been weaknesses in the implementation of the vision. One of the frustrations has been micromanagement. Use of class time became determined by those from above and focused primarily on how to improve standardized test scores. Many teachers felt disempowered and unable to use their expertise and professional judgment to develop appropriate programming for students. For a while, we focused on formulas rather than teaching thinking and creativity. This was highly frustrating and led to increasing disengagement by students and a feeling of powerlessness by teachers. While this may not have been the intention of administrators and decision makers, it was how many of us experienced the process. I will say that the Teaching-Learning Critical Pathway (TLCP) process has improved the situation, but these were conditions that existed at the time I began to innovate. My decision to become innovative was really a survival mechanism. I had reached a point where I felt I could no longer continue working in these conditions and would need to leave the profession. My other option was to take the useful elements of these new approaches to teaching and find ways to implement them that allowed richer learning experiences for my students. One of the first things that need to be in place – if innovation is to occur – is for frontline teachers to find the courage to begin doing things differently.
My decision to become innovative was really a survival mechanism. I had reached a point where I felt I could no longer continue working in these conditions and would need to leave the profession. My other option was to take the useful elements of these new approaches to teaching and find ways to implement them that allowed richer learning experiences for my students. One of the first things that need to be in place – if innovation is to occur – is for frontline teachers to find the courage to begin doing things differently.
But there were elements in place that allowed me to become innovative. Our school did have openness to technology that was teacher-driven and supported by the administration. We also had – and continue to have – a strong culture of sharing knowledge and resources amongst staff members.
My curiosity about what I might do with technology grew out of observing one of my colleagues, Jared Bennett, who has since gone on to become the 21st Century Fluencies consultant for our board. Jared was an early adopter of technological innovations including becoming an early user of Twitter when people were still figuring out how this tool might be used. Jared’s students in the gifted program were Podcasting and blogging and using Web 2.0 tools. The level of student engagement was high. I began to experiment in my own program. The lesson in this for administrators is to hire technologically skilled educators and those willing to experiment and take risks. Creating time for staff members to mentor and train each other is another system practice that would allow innovation to occur.
Staff became the drivers of technological advancement in our school. When we needed equipment to develop our programs, we did what we had to do to make things work. Our school administration was very supportive of using school funds to purchase technology. And when funds weren’t available, teachers found ways to get equipment. Scott Varady and Robert Bell became experts at securing grant money. Scott also made effective use of the Scholastic Book order program to purchase equipment. When I expressed frustration to my husband about the limited number of computers in my class, he arranged for seven discarded units donated from Humber College and then wired my classroom with a closed, but stable network. Other teachers also installed necessary equipment, including routers and cable. (Not recommended, and I’ll explain why later) I also purchased my own laptop with a built-in camera that allowed us to Skype. Indeed, many innovations in schools are funded out of teachers’ pockets. A provincial commitment must be made to adequately equip classrooms, if we are to allow all students to participate in this learning revolution.
A provincial commitment must be made to adequately equip classrooms, if we are to allow all students to participate in this learning revolution.
Going out on our own did cause huge problems for the Board. They began to experience failures in the system and had to make many service calls to our school. Rather than shutting us down, however, they made an enlightened decision. They decided to wire our school appropriately to enable Bring Your own Device (BYOD). They saw the innovation and found a way to support it. Another decision they made that was key was not to block Web 2.0 tools such as Twitter and YouTube. This gave me access to the global community driving change and innovation. I could see what others around the world were doing; I could read research as it was released; I could find new tools to enhance my program. My learning accelerated and I could connect my students with professional from outside of education such as Ian Chia, Esa Heltulla, and Cynthia Jabar, which led to our App Project.
One of the barriers to innovation is the hierarchy of communication that exists within our school systems. This means that teachers do not speak directly with decision makers. Superintendents and directors filter communication through principals and vice-principals. Messages typically travel from the top down, and rarely the other way. Those most in contact with students have the least powerful voices in our systems. Many teachers, in fact, are frightened and intimidated about expressing how they feel or sharing their innovative ideas. A wealth of knowledge and expertise and ideas sit untapped because no one has thought to ask, “What do you think?” Clearly, if we are to move forward, this must be addressed.
A wealth of knowledge and expertise and ideas sit untapped because no one has thought to ask, “What do you think?” Clearly, if we are to move forward, this must be addressed.
When I began blogging and documenting the transformation of my practice, I decided to break down the communication barriers. I sent links to my blog to my Principal, VP, Cluster Principal, Superintendent, and even our Director. I began to seek connection and two-way communication. This did not happen right away. I kept many things to myself until I felt confident enough about what I was doing to share with them what was happening in my program. This led to interest. As my work became more developed and began to receive recognition outside my board, I began to receive visits and was able to show what I was doing and how it was effective. This included visits from our cluster principal, our superintendent, principals of other schools and members of the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat. My willingness to breach communication protocol was key to the evolution of my innovative work.
My willingness to breach communication protocol was key to the evolution of my innovative work.
By making my practice transparent, administrators were comfortable allowing me to continue. I was allowed the freedom to take risks and was never interfered with. Openness and transparency also led to serendipitous opportunities and recognition. This has given me even greater latitude and encouragement to further transform my practice, so that today, rather than being a classroom teacher working in isolation, I now feel that I am a professional with a voice of influence within our system. This is powerful. Every teacher should feel this.
Finally, my willingness to stop resisting change, to release control of the learning process with my students by bringing in outside voices, and allowing them to become innovative was necessary. I dropped every preconceived idea I had about teaching and learning because the world is different now. I think for innovation to occur, educators need to look at what habits and attitudes we have that prevent us from embracing new possibilities.
I hope that this helps create a picture of what went on behind the evolution of our App project. It was gradual and experimental and involved a great deal of willingness on everyone’s part to sit back and simply observe as it unfolded. In sharing this process, I hope that administrators, parents, educators, and learners can see how some of these decisions and practices might transform their own classrooms, schools and boards into centres of innovation.
Please, if you have more questions, contact me. Let’s broaden the conversation on how to bring innovation into our schools.
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Engaging Teachers, Engaging Learners: The 2012 Pat Clifford Award
Comments Off on Engaging Teachers, Engaging Learners: The 2012 Pat Clifford AwardIt is my honour to serve as Chair of the CEA Awards Selection Committee and to announce the call for submissions for the 2012 Pat Clifford Award for Early Career Research in Education.
CEA’s Pat Clifford Award recognizes the work of emerging researchers – their promise, research contributions, and commitment to breaking new ground, to challenging commonly held assumptions in education policy, practice or theory in Canada. As a classroom teacher and faculty researcher, Dr. Pat Clifford saw no difference between practice and research. Pat strongly believed that teaching was at the heart of research, and that research was at the heart of teaching.
Deadline for submissions: Thursday, May 31, 2012, 5 p.m. EST
The Pat Clifford Award has personal significance for me. As a Galileo Doctoral Fellow, I learned alongside Dr. Pat Clifford and Dr. Sharon Friesen in their Grade 6 classroom. As a new professor, I taught with Pat and Sharon at the University of Calgary. Together, we published papers about engaged learning and teaching with technology and presented our research at conferences. Pat and Sharon’s unwavering commitment to student learning inspired and shaped me as a teacher; their dedication to disrupting commonly held ideas about teaching and leadership molded me as a researcher. Pat and Sharon’s belief in my promise and their investment in this new researcher enabled me to build visibility for my research on engaging learning with technology.
The Pat Clifford Award is an enduring commitment to supporting and mobilizing the work of new researchers whose ideas and scholarship will change education. I encourage new researchers to apply for this award, for the formal recognition and promotion of your scholarly work, for the opportunities to network and to develop additional mobilization strategies with CEA, to maximize the impact of your work in practice, and for the invitation to submit a feature article about your research to Education Canada magazine. In the past two years, CEA has recognized the research contributions of Dr. Jessica Toste and Dr. Carla Peck with the Pat Clifford award. If you are in the process of completing a Masters or Ph.D. OR have completed a Masters or Ph.D. in the last two years, then you may qualify for this award.
In the coming year, the Canadian Education Association’s strategic orientation will concentrate on these two areas:
- Engaging Learning: research that furthers ideas, knowledge and practices that deeply engage students in learning with a particular focus on transforming learning environments for adolescent learners. Research that broadens and deepens current understanding of learning as the basis on which educational policy and practice should be built.
- Engaging Teaching: research that furthers knowledge of how teaching and learning reinforce each other as reciprocal processes; how teaching can be engaging for both teachers and students; how teachers can be supported to teach the way they aspire to; and how teachers understand their own learning.
New researchers whose research and scholarship furthers knowledge and impacts practice in the areas of Engaging Learning and Engaging Teaching, who are making a promising contribution to improving educational policy and/or practice in education, who are conducting innovative research that opens up new areas of research or extends research in existing areas, are strongly encouraged to submit an application, or seek out a nomination, for this award.
As a teacher, Pat Clifford was steadfast in her belief that every child had the right to succeed brilliantly, and brought to them her own love of literature, writing and history. Pat’s questions for Grade 1 learners to graduate students were, “What drives you? What is your passion? What work calls to you? What bugs you? And, how can you make this the focus of your work?” New researchers who are passionate about improving learning and teaching should learn more about this award.
Learn More: http://www.cea-ace.ca/awards/clifford-award
Education Canada Magazine article from 2010 Pat Clifford Award Winner Dr. Carla Peck: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt Me: Diversity, Accommodation, and Citizenship Education in Canada
Deadline for submissions: Thursday, May 31, 2012, 5 p.m. EST
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Motivation and Mastery – The Problem with Deferred Data
Comments Off on Motivation and Mastery – The Problem with Deferred DataA sense of emerging mastery is one of the factors that motivate, and thus engage, teachers but the only hard data they have to gauge their success is both inadequate to fully represent their goals and deferred until after the end of the unit, term or year.
Summative data is necessary for credentialing and accountability, and it does provide useful information for improving curriculum and for policy development, which are part of mastering the craft of teaching, so it is an important part of a balanced assessment program that can help a teacher, or a school system, to learn from experience. However, because it comes “after the fact” of learning, it has little value for supporting student learning and also little value for supporting teacher engagement.
Moreover, because most summative data is used in aggregated form, information about individual students is lost. There may be some minor disaggregation (e.g., by gender or school), but summative data is generally useful only in revealing overall trends. If it is broken down into groups that are too small (e.g., individual classes) the standard error of measurement tends to become so great that although the data remains “valid’ it is no longer “reliable.” Thus, in addition to being deferred, summative data just doesn’t relate strongly to any individual. It is a conceptual abstraction with little emotional or motivational impact.
Unfortunately, summative data is what gets the most attention. Somehow it has gained an unwarranted reputation for objectivity and certainty. This is perhaps the biggest problem with it; we treat it with too much naive respect, forgetting that it comes from instruments that may or may not be well designed and that it has no meaning until it is interpreted, which may or may not be done well. As Mark Twain remarked, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics” so lets not forget that all those precise numbers are a house built on sand.
What students need, and what teachers would find most informative, is an ongoing dashboard of information about learning as it is occurring. That’s why there is so much emphasis on formative assessment these days. Feedback (aka formative assessment) trumps evaluation (aka summative assessment) if your interest is in supporting learning rather than merely sorting students.
The strength of formative assessment is its immediacy, but its weakness is a lack of precision and the complex task of understanding what it means. The evidence drawn from ongoing observation of student behaviour is best viewed not “scientifically” but through what Eliot Eisner has called “connoisseurship” or “the enlightened eye;” that is, through professional wisdom. Of course, simply being certified as a teacher does not automatically impart the enlightened eye necessary to divine the meaning within the evidence of classroom life. One has to develop this professional capacity through experience and earn the trust of students and parents in one’s ability to “see” what is going on for students and to use this “insight” to support learning. Many—probably most —teachers do, but some do not.
Formative assessment is complex, but no more so than summative assessment and it is of far more importance in the teaching and learning nexus, not only for students but also for teachers. Perhaps the best source of feedback for teachers themselves is students. The student voice, as subjectively biased as it must necessarily be, may offer the greatest hope for monitoring one’s emergent mastery as a teacher and thus for providing motivation that carries one through the exuberantly arduous turmoil of teaching. In terms of teacher engagement, this is the data that counts.
Previous Post in This Series: Motivation and Mastery – The Problem with Grand GoalsNext Post in This Series: Motivation and Mastery – Listening to Student Voices -
Twitter and Educators in francophone Canada: quite the buzz!
Comments Off on Twitter and Educators in francophone Canada: quite the buzz!Last week, I intercepted a link from my Twitter timeline to the Education Canada article, Twitter and Canadian Educators . It really caught my attention, for all the right reasons: “An emerging group of leaders in Canadian education has attracted thousands of followers. (…) to accelerate the transformation of our Canadian education systems.”
The folks interviewed in that article are all part of my personal learning network (PLN) and I try to read most of their blog posts. They inspire me. They educate me. They each make a difference and I’m fortunate to count them in my PLN. Naturally, I was curious to see the francophone EduTweeters included in the longer PDF list included in the article and I was initially surprised to find only one name (but what a name!), which I then signaled in a tweet. But then, I had to remind myself of the original intent of this CEA post: Firstly, to show non-tweeters in education all the value and power to network with educators passionate about learning, and secondly, to enable everyone to expand their own PLN’s by adding people who share similar interests.
That is the underlying reason why I generated a list of francophone Canadian edutweeters the following day.- so that francophone educators can extend their learning networks and so that our English-speaking colleagues and friends can appreciate all the ‘edubuzz’ happening « dans la langue de Molière ». And also so that hashtags such as #ClavEd, #Clair2012, #inno2012, #TEDxWB will be more familiar to English-speakers as they cross their Twitter timelines. Essentially, we all share the same ambitions (and challenges, and success stories) of truly transforming education and learning in this 21st century, where schools should be much different than what they typically are today. I see nuances, different colours and traits between the francophone and anglophone edutweeters. I will not try to explain such a generalization (remember, perception IS reality) but I can tell you that reading about all these “colours” is to my greatest professional benefit.
In an effort to bridge the two Canadian Twitter solitudes, I offer to my English-speaking colleagues a sample of very worthwhile edublogs from the francophone community:
- Les jobineries by Gilles Jobin, Gatineau QC, writes about literature, math and visions of a renewed education system and effective professional development
- Relief …contre la planéïté, by François Guité, from Quebec City. Great penmanship, where quality is greater than quantity.
- Cyberportfolio de Roberto Gauvin: As principal and leader of a very innovative K to 8 school in Clair, NB, Roberto is a key actor in francophone Canadian education. Under his initiative, his teachers and students have been blogging since 2004.
- In scholam, by Sébastien Stasse, Montréal QC. Presently a principal in an Armenian community school, Sébastien describes himself as an eternal learner and has a special interest in learning assessment.
Hopefully these suggestions will help you develop a more complete picture of Canada’s active Twitter scene in education. It belongs to each of us, and it’s up to us to get the most out of it.
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Educational Transformation: What’s so Virtuous about Virtuosity?
Comments Off on Educational Transformation: What’s so Virtuous about Virtuosity?There’s a new video clip featuring Sir Ken Robinson posted on the CEA splash page. If you haven’t seen it yet, go take a look now. And then come back, because I would like to know what you think.
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Cdn EdWire – It’s all about the B.C. Teachers
Comments Off on Cdn EdWire – It’s all about the B.C. TeachersB.C. teachers’ contract bill set to become law – CBC
Opinion: B.C. Liberals want nothing less than a makeover of the education system – Vancouver SunB.C. teachers begin pulling out of extracurricular activities – Globe and Mail
School Dispute: Just the Facts, Please – The Tyee
Ministry of Education and teachers’ union debate whose facts are more factual.B.C. teachers to strike Monday to protest ‘arrogance’ and ‘cynicism’ of government – Vancouver Province
Special-needs, low-income kids hardest hit: advocate – Vancouver Sun
Parents may have to take time off work, often without payCrosscheck: How B.C. teachers rank in Canada – Globe and Mail
OTHER NEWS
Want to buy into a ‘top’ school? Real estate company ranks areas by test scores – Toronto Star
Across Canada, cash-strapped governments target education – Globe and Mail
‘Weekend Warriors’ battle for higher EQAO test scores – Toronto StarPeterborough doctors, psychologists say closing high school will affect student health, and mental health – Toronto Star
Gay parents take issue with how Catholic schools handle homophobia – Toronto Star
Home-schoolers force amendment to Bill 2 – Calgary HeraldTeach all kids about residential schools: report – Vancouver Province
Ignorance of harrowing history hampers solutions to First Nations’ current problems, says TRCParents fight for Arabic program – Calgary Herald
Board says no teachers availableCoalition vows to ‘continue the fight’ – Montreal Gazette
More pressure on province’s politicians and school boards needed, group saysMandatory religion course doesn’t infringe on freedoms, top court rules – Globe and Mail
INTERNATIONALTelling students it’s okay to fail helps them succeed — study – Washington Post
EDUBLOG HIGHLIGHTSEmotional Labour – at the Heart of Teaching – Shannon in Ottawa
This labour of digging deep with students holds in it the most robust potential for realizing true change in education. Engaging with individual students and relentlessly seeking the learning opportunities and connections that will bring their passions, curiosity and motivation to the surface creates learning spaces where tomorrow’s leaders are born….Read MoreEvery Education System Gets the Union It Deserves! – Teaching Out Loud
At the recent Ontario Education Research Symposium, OECD’s education front man, Andreas Schleicher surprised the audience by his response to Michael Fullan’s question about union efficacy around the world: ”In one way, I think that every education system gets union they deserve.”Schleicher went on to suggest, ”If you have an education system…twentieth century…an industrial environment… where basically you have a big production factory, you tell teachers what to do, you put them into the classroom, you tell to them to work in a standardized way, then what you’re going to get is an industrial union that is very good at defending the rights of those kind of people.”...Read more
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Increasing Teacher Engagement: What’s Good for Students, Is Good for Teachers
Comments Off on Increasing Teacher Engagement: What’s Good for Students, Is Good for TeachersIt is certainly no secret that one of the keys to student success is academic engagement. If we can just hook students into deeply thinking, analyzing, enjoying and applying new information, they will increase their learning. So, as teachers spend much of their days pondering the idea of student engagement, I too, spend much of my days pondering the same, with one difference. How do we engage teachers? If engagement is good for students, engagement is good for teachers. If teachers are engaged, students are engaged. Teachers need to be engaged, the question is, “How does teacher engagement happen?” To answer this question, let’s take a look at what engagement is. Dr. George Kuh defines engagement as:
“The engagement premise is straightforward and easily understood: the more students study a subject, the more they know about it, and the more students practice and get feedback from faculty and staff members on their writing and collaborative problem solving, the deeper they come to understand what they are learning and the more adept they become at managing complexity, tolerating ambiguity, and working with people from different backgrounds or with different views.1″
One of the challenges we face as educators and administrators is taking the “what” and knowing the “how.” Dr. Kuh gives us what engagement is, but how do we do that? How do we increase teacher engagement? In analyzing the definition, possible answers arise:
- ” …the more students study a subject, the more they know about it…”
From my point of view, and in substituting the word “students” for “teachers” this speaks to professional development; increasing the study of the subject of teaching. To work on this, we get our staff together for weekly professional development. Often times teachers are asked to read an article or view a video before we get together but with this weekly professional development we have committed to time set aside each week to learn more. Additionally teachers are encouraged to attend face to face or web-based learning opportunities. The administrative team currently participates in weekly professional development webinars.
2. ” …the more students practice and get feedback from faculty and staff members on their writing and collaborative problem solving…”
We began this work with our staff in Professional Learning Community discussions. Each week, teachers would meet to discuss teaching and learning. The role of their team partners was to provide feedback. This year we have been able to kick it up a notch. Teachers observing teachers has become part of our daily practice. Every day, you will find a teacher in a colleague’s classroom observing for task design and student engagement. Following these observations we meet together for “feedback.” Work is analyzed, questions are answered and problems are solved. The key component of this work is the discussion following the observation.3. “… the deeper they come to understand what they are learning and the more adept they become at managing complexity, tolerating ambiguity, and working with people from different backgrounds or with different views…”
In supporting teachers in deepening their understanding we look for demonstration of their new learning. When we go from the discussion to the practice or doing stage, we know teachers are managing, tolerating and working with. More than that, we know teachers are finding success.Exciting new ways of demonstrating this understanding have become evident.
- Teachers are advertising and asking for other teachers to come into their classrooms, “Come and observe me when I am doing this, then you will see how I am doing it.”
- Teachers are blogging. Sharing, analyzing and drawing connections to their classroom practices.
- Teachers are video-taping their work with students to use during our professional development sessions.
- Teachers are connecting during their out-of school time, either face to face or virtual networks to search for answers to their questions.
As we continue further into this work, more teacher engagement is becoming more evident. The outcomes of this work are absolutely rewarding! Student engagement has increased significantly; less office referrals, more project-based learning, and more collaborative learning opportunities. Energy and involvement from teachers has also increased. There has become a purpose and a sense of achievement. As I was talking to our International Teacher who is here for one year on an exchange his words were like music, “This school is different, teachers talk to each other. This place has a great atmosphere.”
- George D. Kuh, “The National Survey of Student Engagement: Conceptual and Empirical Foundations,” New Directions for Institutional Research, vol. 2009, no. 141 (March 9, 2009), pp. 5–20.
Lori blogs at www.attheprincipalsoffice.com You can follow her on twitter @lorilynnecullen
- ” …the more students study a subject, the more they know about it…”
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Please take the CEA/Ipsos Attitudes Toward Public Education Survey
Comments Off on Please take the CEA/Ipsos Attitudes Toward Public Education SurveyIt’s my pleasure to launch the 2012 CEA/Ipsos Public Attitudes Towards Public Education Survey. Over the years, CEA has explored different questions with Canadians through our national surveys. This year, we want to examine your views on innovation and change in public education.
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Motivation and Mastery – The Problem with Grand Goals
Comments Off on Motivation and Mastery – The Problem with Grand GoalsTeacher engagement, which is the key to student engagement, is fueled by autonomy, mastery and purpose according to Daniel Pink’s review of the research on motivation.
Fortunately, teaching offers abundant opportunity for autonomy, mastery and purpose. Clearly nurturing the development of young people is a significant purpose worthy of a teacher’s commitment and I believe most teachers feel that way about their work. Although some teachers in senior grades feel burdened by a bloated curriculum and boxed in by standardized testing, there is generally also a lot of autonomy. In fact, the “cellular” nature of teaching is so autonomous that it can tip over into an unhealthy isolationism, but at least there is lots of room for individuality. The fly in the ointment may be mastery—not because there is not a lot to master or because it cannot be mastered, but because there is so little consensus on what constitutes success. Is it high scores on tests within the disciplines, transferable thinking and communication skills, responsibility and citizenship, confidence and identity or all of these—and if these are all part of the grand goal then what takes priority?
Opinions vary on how best to gauge student, and thus teacher, success—which leads to disagreement. This frustrates the quest for mastery and thus undermines motivation. Of course, there are many other reasons that teachers may feel frustrated, overwhelmed or under appreciated, but the shimmering mirage of a noble but nebulous vision is a significantly unsettling factor for at least two reasons. First, it can never be fully achieved (which is an invitation to guilt), and, second, both priority and success are continuously contested (which is an invitation to insecurity and defensiveness).
In his classic 1975 book—Schoolteacher: A Sociological Study—Dan Lortie noted the challenge of finding valid, reliable and accepted indicators as a significant problem for the profession. He reported that a common response to this conundrum was for teachers to derive their pride and satisfaction primarily from strong personal relationships with their students. Many have subsequently decried this soft, indirect measure of success and urged teachers to use student achievement data as their touchstone instead. Few would disagree that hard data is important, but no hard measure(s) have yet been proposed that capture more than a thin slice of the goals of education. There is no comprehensive data set. Consequently, what is easy to measure is sometimes used. However, by mistaking precision for accuracy and availability for significance, one can settle on random bits of easily generated numerical data that diminish and distort the noble purposes of public education. All manner of misdirected energy and erroneous inference has ensued from this error.
Finding valid and reliable measures that adequately reflect the complexity of human development is a worthy challenge that we must continue to pursue, but there is no solution on the horizon. Moreover, the most enduring and enabling outcomes for students seem to be precisely those that are the hardest to define and assess.
So what might we do about this? Our aspirations for students are broad and inherently complex, but for developmental work we can choose to focus on a SMART subset (i.e., Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely). This makes it possible to collaborate with others, to have demonstrable success and thus to foster confidence and pride that motivate and energize. (One caveat must be noted however. The “Measurable” dimension of the familiar SMART acronym can narrow the range of objectives in ways that trivialize learning if it is taken to imply only test results and to exclude qualitative measures.)
Focusing on specific aspects of the work at various times enables demonstrable success in developmental initiatives, which helps to sustain confidence and commitment in striving for a larger goal that can be discouragingly ethereal and elusive in its fullness.
Previous Post in This Series: Teacher Engagement is the Key to Student Engagement
Next Post in This Series: Motivation and Mastery – The Problem with Deferred Data
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What is the question?
Comments Off on What is the question?Note: I wrote this a few nights ago but posted it this morning.
It is Saturday night and it is my husband’s turn to be out with friends while I stay home with our baby. Life has changed and I’m contented (and yes, at times thrilled, overwhelmed, excited, terrified, and challenged) with this new reality. I have a glass of wine in one hand and a book I picked up at the library in the other: Hot Spots.
About an hour ago I read a page about igniting questions, questions which cause an immediate combustion of creativity, curiosity, innovation, and commitment in a group of people. Despite me having read past that page my mind won’t leave it. I’m wondering about the question.
We need a question here in BC, in my union (we are on strike), in my government (which is in the midst of legislating our contract). We need a question that will ignite those who care about education to work together in a flurry of mutually dependent innovation and collaboration. And we should all care about education.
It is time to stop with the rhetoric. Rhetoric sells papers and wins elections but it does not serve education. It does not serve our students. It distracts from them – from that deeply personal, vulnerable, exciting and complex state of learning.
Today my husband and I took our little girl to the Vancouver Aquarium, introducing her to the most amazing variety of marine life. I saw her learn, as I see her learn everyday because everyday she does something or sees something for the first time.
Today I also saw something for the first time. A small boy with Tourette’s syndrome and Autism hit another child; his mother apologized for him explaining his challenges. The other mother, in what I imagine was a blind protectionist rage, spat out, “What did you do to make your kid have Tourette’s and Autism?!”
Such cruelty. Ignorance. Fierceness. And I wonder about this mother’s education, this mother’s challenges. For the other mother, I felt so sad, and – although I have no right to feel anything on her behalf – I felt angry. I wonder what kind of experience she lives. And I see a situation which could have been different had there been less ignorance, more learning. And I see this scene as a microcosm of the larger world and the potential for education of quality and equity to shape it.
When we talk about education we are talking about people’s children: the most precious, most amazing, most important people. There is too much at stake for us to be playing politics.
I don’t know what question will ignite us to engage with one another in a mindset of collaboration and committed curiosity, but I sure hope we ask it soon.
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So What Do We Really Mean by Engagement?
Comments Off on So What Do We Really Mean by Engagement?I’m hoping that my blogging colleague Bruce Beairsto doesn’t mind me walking alongside him as he teases out questions of motivation and engagement. As it turns out, both of these areas of reflection are pretty constant companions for me these days and hooking up with a traveling partner that actually talks back may be helpful.
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the question of engagement and what I really mean when I use the term. Most often, I have used engagement as a substitute for involvement. Other times, I’ve used it to refer to my participation in a more intense conversation or a debate. In other instances, it has signalled the existence of a strong commitment to someone or something.
Engagement. It’s a complex word, and when we use it in the context of a complex system like school, then that complexity multiplies!
But I would like to suggest that there is a fundamental difference between involvement and engagement and it’s precisely that difference that has occupied some of my thinking lately. Simply looking at the roots of both words might give us a clue as to the difference.
Involve is rooted in the Latin verb meaning “to roll“. To involve is, quite literally, to get “rolled up” in something. Engagement, on the other hand, has the French verb “gage” as its root, which refers to a pledge or a commitment. Hmm…
I’m thinking that the difference is significant when we’re talking about the approach to school that we want to foster in both students and teachers. I’m also thinking that the terms involvement and engagement aren’t opposites, but two points on a continuum of participation.
It’s easier to get people involved in something; its more difficult to move to the level of engagement where folks are actually committed to the idea and the action required to move forward. Plenty of examples come to mind. I’m getting my son involved in minor league baseball, but I’m reluctant to commit to coaching a team. I’m involved as a substitute musician at a couple of local churches, but I’ve turned down an offer to be engaged as full time music director. I was involved with the fun fair at my son’s school, but I don’t have time to be engaged in the planning or leadership of next year’s event. You likely have quite a few personal examples of your own.
Some of you may be rolling your eyes and asking the “so what” question, but I’ll throw out a few questions of my own that will force me to follow up on this thinking over the next few weeks.
When we talk about student, teacher and parent engagement, are we using involvement and engagement synonomously? In other words, do you see an important difference between the two ideas?
If there is a distinction to be made between involvement and engagement what is that we are really seeking in the relationships that we develop within our schools?
Is there something qualitatively different about a student that is involved in her school, as opposed to one that is engaged?
Is it possible for a parent to be actively involved in the life of the school, but not really engaged in their child’s education?
Is engagement an indicator of teacher quality or will involvement serve just as well?
I have some ideas percolating around the movement from involvement to engagement. While I’m certainly not the first to be thinking about this, this is the first time that I’ve considered it myself. Teacher and writer Larry Ferlazzo has done some lively thinking about this and I smile everytime I think about the fable that he references in an introduction to one of his related blog entries. It goes like this.
A Pig and a Chicken are walking down the street. The Chicken suggests, “Hey Pig, I was thinking we should open a restaurant!”. The Pig replies, “Hm, maybe, what would we call it?”. The Chicken responds, “How about ‘Ham-n-Eggs’?”.
The Pig thinks for a moment and says, “No thanks. I’d be committed, but you’d only be involved!” (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chicken_and_the_Pig)
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Teacher Engagement is the Key to Student Engagement
Comments Off on Teacher Engagement is the Key to Student EngagementThe necessary precursor to high levels of student achievement is deep engagement in learning, and the teacher’s own engagement is the key to achieving that. Curriculum counts and technology can help, but it is teachers who inspire students, and enthusiastically engaged teachers do that best.
But what engages teachers? Another way to ask that question is, What motivates them? Daniel Pink (and before him Alfie Kohn) has told us that although traditional motivation theory—the carrot and stick approach—is widely accepted as “common sense,” research has shown it to be ineffective except for straightforward tasks that require application of well-understood processes to well-defined problems. Well, that certainly doesn’t describe teaching, which is a complex task that requires creative insight. So much for merit pay and Fraser Institute report cards!
So what does motivate teachers? Its the same thing that motivates everyone else according to Pink’s summary of the research—autonomy, mastery and purpose. Respect, fair treatment and adequate compensation are necessary but not sufficient. In addition, people want to have reasonable control over what they do, to do it well and to feel that it is meaningful because it contributes to a larger purpose. This creates a virtuous circle of increasing vocation, contribution and fulfillment.
In the case of teachers,however, there is another powerful factor—the intimate ongoing relationship they have with their students. When that relationship is healthy and when students respond positively to the teacher, the motivation derived from it overwhelms all other factors. Physical facilities and learning resources may be poor, politicians may play football with the system, and the circumstances of students’ lives may be disheartening but if the teacher’s relationship with those students is strong the bond motivates like no other factor. This, of course, can be good or bad—an issue to which I will return in my next post—but the strong connection teachers feel with their students creates a highly reciprocal relationship in terms of motivation.
But where does this begin? Is student engagement the chicken or the egg? In some ways it doesn’t matter because once the cycle of mutual motivation begins it is self-sustaining, and it is probably the case that it can begin with either the teacher or the student. However, while there is a mutuality in this relationship the teacher is the adult and has the most power and thus bears the primary responsibility for initiating and developing it in constructive ways that serve the school’s purposes.
So, if the student outcomes that we seek begin with student engagement and teacher engagement is its necessary counterpart then a good place to focus our attention is on the best ways to engage teachers. That’s the key to student engagement—not the whole story, of course, but the key to animating learning and realizing the potential benefits of all the other factors that can contribute. Without it, those factors, as beneficial as they may be, won’t get the job done.
Previous Post in This Series: Engagement, Learning, Achievement – That’s The Necessary Order of Things
Next Post in This Series: Motivation and Mastery – The Problem With Grand Goals
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Location! Location! Location!
Comments Off on Location! Location! Location!I spent a few years teaching in the Initial Teacher Education Program (ITEP) at OISE/UT. It never failed that, despite the almost universal sense of anxiety that preceded students’ first practicuum experiences, there was always a resounding feeling of loss on the part of the candidates when they returned to the University to carry on with their coursework.
During the two- or three-week in-class experience they had forged relationships and connections with staff members, with students and with the community. Most returned having left a little of their teaching selves behind. As instructor, I was more than a little offended when candidates returned the first couple of times and openly declared their desire to be back in their school, claiming that they had learned so much more there than they were learning in the psychology or methods courses at the University. As my three year assignment progressed, however, I learned to expect the response and prepare activities designed to acknowledge and respond to the very emotional bond that was created while out in the field.
Since returning from the ITEP experience, I have hosted many teacher candidates from a variety of Universities in my own classroom and I have come to understand that the desire to be in schools during initial preparation is almost universal. The sense that the on-the-ground experience, in all of its contextual glory, is somehow more valuable than the workshops, seminars and lectures held back in the academy is worth noting and worth talking about.
I know that there are some teacher education faculties that are moving towards centering their programs in elementary and secondary school communities. Some are motivated by space availability and the ability to offer prospective students a site closer to their home. Others may actually be trying to create a more “nested” approach to program, with candidates actually taking classes and completing their practicum requirements at the same school site.
So a couple of questions to start the conversation.
What is the current relationship between the Field and Faculties of Education across Canada? What is happening now? Is it satisfactory, or could a shift in that practice make for a richer, more contextualized initial teacher preparation program? What essential aspects of teacher education need to remain grounded in the University setting? Could schools effectively replace the academy as the hub of the Initial Teacher Preparation Program?
What shift in attitudes would be necessary on the part of the University in order to create more of a field-based approach to teacher education? On the part of School Districts?
I think that there is room for some lively discussion here. Care to wade into the waters a little?
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Cdn EdWire – Drummond Report Dominates Canada’s Education Discourse
Comments Off on Cdn EdWire – Drummond Report Dominates Canada’s Education DiscourseEducation cuts ‘misguided’ and ‘shocking,’ say experts – Toronto Star
Drummond report: Sweeping education reforms recommended – Toronto Star
Drummond Report: School boards fear loss of independence – Toronto Star
An argument against $$ for smaller classrooms – Vancouver Sun
Blunt Drummond report urges tough cuts to eliminate Ontario’s deficit – Postmedia
OTHER NEWS
Quebec law targets bullying – Postmedia
Schools required to establish partnerships with police, social agencies in their areaComputers in classrooms don’t guarantee better education: report – Canadian Press
Reconsider Wi-Fi in schools, Ontario’s Catholic teachers warn boards – TO Star
Using technology in the classroom requires experience and guidance, report finds – Globe and Mail
Planning a school for the future – Regina Leader Post
Girls more likely than boys to feel depressed, survey finds – Postmedia
Female adolescents struggling with loneliness and isolationChildren ask Harper to ‘Have a Heart’ and improve education on reserves – Postmedia
Ottawa expected to argue it’s not responsible for services deliveredAlberta’s proposed Education Act targets schoolyard bullies – CBC
Aboriginal struggles at elite school reveal stark realities in Canadian education – Globe and Mail
N.S. to import Alberta’s math program – Halifax Chronicle Herald
EDUBLOG HIGHLIGHTSDifferent Perceptions – Doug — Off the record
It was perfect timing, I suppose. It’s the day that the Report “Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public Services” on cost savings ideas in Ontario. The Huffington Post posted this article about how students see budget cuts affecting them. It’s not directly comparable as the survey data is from the US but it is interesting to see perceptions. The article is an interesting read – take the time – and at the end, a survey from students asked them where they thought that cost savings could be made in education…Read moreDriving Innovation in K-12 – The Culture of Yes
Some assumptions for the next 5 years:• Teachers and schools are status quo (sense of community/social-emotional learning)• Learning, not technology, is the driver• Good writing (and what we often call “the core” curriculum) still matters• Complex problems often have a simple solution• External inventions (like the iPad) will continue to impact what we do, and we have no control over this!• Teachers need to know where to begin: “personalization” and “digital literacy” are broad and ambiguous terms, so we need to narrow the framework• We can’t wait for the decisions of others. It is ”go” time…Read moreWhat Your Rules Say About You – At the Principal’s Office
Rules, rules, rules, everyone knows the key to success in school is to follow the rules.Unfortunately, this belief persists in many of todays classrooms and schools. Next time you are in a classroom take a look at the posted rules. Are they rules such as “no talking while the teacher is talking, stay in your desk during work time, raise your hand if you need help?” If so, I think these rules say a lot about the teacher, the work environment and the level of meaningful engaging tasks. They imply that the teacher is the only one who holds the knowledge, the teacher will give you great wisdom and knowledge if only you will listen and the work you undertake will be solitary and designed to measure how well you listen..Read More -
Visiting a life-skills classroom
Comments Off on Visiting a life-skills classroom(Note: What can a high school English teacher learn from a special ed life-skills elementary teacher? I asked Jane Wiltse at Cedar Grove Elementary on the Sunshine Coast if I could hang out for a day in her life-skills program aptly called “Shine” – a place where she works to provide opportunities to let students show how brightly they shine.)
When Ms. Wiltse enters her room each morning, she stands at the door – a door which today opens onto a field touched with frost and morning sun – and surveys the scene. She moves around, deftly manipulating the space, readying it to greet each of her students. One student needs his chair set up in a space reserved just for him. Ms. Wiltse ensures his white board sits ready on the chair’s ottoman. Today she places an orange marker on the spot where he expects a black marker to be. “We want him to branch out a bit, so I’m trying an orange marker,” she smiles. “We’ll see how he copes and help him through it.”
As she readies the students’ personalized activity cards (aka their Picture Exchange Communication System) so they each know that “first this, then that,” I ask about the coloured panels of cloth over each fluorescent light panel. She tells me that it calms the space – makes it less difficult for those sensitive to stimulation.
Ms Wiltse moves over to the visual day plan and arranges it to reflect the day, which includes time with their peer-aged classmates for purposeful integration times in select subjects. She has just enough time to organize the agenda before her students rush to greet her as they arrive in the classroom. She greets each of them, asking one about the weekend, another about his cold, and another about the trip he went on with his parents last week. Each student gets attention. Each one glows at the conversation.
One girl runs over to me, out of breath from her eager sprint to the classroom. She smiles at me and I introduce myself.
“Wow, eh?!” she says, pointing to the doll she carries in her arms, introducing me to her companion.
“Wow!” I say.
The girl gets herself settled after hanging up her coat and pulling out her printing book. Actually, every student gets him or herself settled. Routine a soothing balm.
I know about the lessons in store for each of these students in Ms Wiltse’s life-skills class. I understand that each lesson is part of a greater plan. I get that the lessons spring from a deep understanding of each student’s struggles and strengths. However, I don’t notice the lessons all day – and that is my lesson.
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Out of sight, out of mind?
Comments Off on Out of sight, out of mind?I grew up in a family where, as children, our opinions or perspectives were seldom sought. As I became more educated (and more opinionated) I was often frustrated that conversations were shut down before my voice could be fully heard. I can remember a time when our extended family had gathered for a summer afternoon around the pool. Aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters and parents were sitting around after supper and my father tried to animate the conversation by making a rather provocative statement about public education. My eyes immediately started to flash in response, but I said nothing. At one point in the conversation, my dad turned to me and said, “Stephen, don’t you have an opinion on this?” I calmly replied, “Oh I have an opinion…I’m just not used to being asked.” After a few seconds of awkward silence, the entire table burst out in supportive laughter. Everyone knew what had just taken place!
In a passionately written introduction to their recently released CTF report, The Far Side of Educational Reform, Andy Hargreaves and Dennis Shirley observe, quite rightly, that teachers are often found at the end of the road when it comes to conversations about school reform:
Apart from students and parents, they are often the very last to be consulted about and connected to agendas of what changes are needed in education, and of how those changes should be managed. Educational change is something that government departments, venture philanthropists, performance-driven economists and election-minded legislators increasingly arrogate to themselves. Even when these policy-setting and policy-transporting bodies speak on behalf of teachers, teachers often have little or no voice. Teachers are rarely asked to speak on their own account. (page 1)
The result is that teachers often find themselves trying to support, justify and implement policies and initiatives that they have had no hand in helping to form. This doesn’t mean that teachers have no desire to be part of the conversation. Nor does it mean that they have nothing of value to add. Quite the contrary! Walk into any social gathering that includes teachers and what are you likely to hear? Talk about schools, students, curriculum and a strong vision of how all three can work more effectively for everyone. Teachers, for the most part, are passionate voices for authentic and transformative change, and system leaders would do well to consult them if they hope to see their policies supported and actualized.
I don’t think that policy makers and system leaders intentionally sideline teachers from discussion about change; I just don’t think it occurs to them to include them on the guest list. I’m convinced that one of the main reasons for this stems from a lack of regular contact with the places and people for whom their decisions will have the greatest impact. In my own professional life, I’ve had the opportunity to assume a variety of roles within the system and I know that you don’t have to be out of the classroom very long to lose touch with the day-to-day subtleties and nuances that make school life what it is: complex, unpredictable and dynamic! Seldom do new policy statements give any indication that those that have crafted them understand just what it will take to make them come to life in the classroom.
There are those who will argue that educators are consulted before policies are introduced. Some teachers are invited to be part of curriculum focus groups. Others are seconded to positions at faculties and ministries of education. Teachers are sometimes part of local and provincial writing teams. We know, however, that the main decisions affecting education in Canada are made many kilometres from the bricks and mortar of the schoolhouse.
But it wouldn’t be difficult to change that, but it would require getting our noses out of the local, national and international statistics and hauling our bodies off to the where policy really matters.
I would like to see more folks from various ministries, faculties of education and district offices spend more time in our schools, and in our classrooms. And I’m not talking about a quick walk through prior to a PR announcement, photo opportunity or graduation ceremony. I’m talking about losing the jacket and tie and coming in to work with real live teachers and real live kids in a real live school. I’m talking about staying around long enough to see what really happens on a daily basis in the very communities that their decisions will affect. I’m talking about meeting the actual students and teachers that will be responsible for implementing their policies and the results of their research. I’m talking about spending enough time in schools so that they walk away knowing some of our names, and some of our stories.
Come in and teach a grade five math lesson or a grade ten civics class. Come in and spend a couple of days with a struggling grade two student or a grade seven “gifted” class. Have lunch with a few teachers trying to motivate and respond to a group of teenagers who have somehow become lost in the system. Better still, have lunch with the students, themselves.
It might be a little uncomfortable for everyone at the beginning, but I think that the insight and understanding that could be derived from this type of “contact” would have a great impact not only on the types of decisions and programs that are developed to move our systems of education forward, but also on the way that they are received on the ground. It’s easy to pretend that we know; its more difficult to prove that we understand.
What would happen if it became a matter of policy to investigate where policy matters the most?
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Cdn EdWire: “Respecting Differences Clubs” = Gay-Straight Alliances
Comments Off on Cdn EdWire: “Respecting Differences Clubs” = Gay-Straight AlliancesGay-straight alliances become Respecting Differences clubs – Toronto Star
Catholic schools fail to support gay students with their new club policy – Toronto Star
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We Are An Arts-Based School!
Comments Off on We Are An Arts-Based School!I think that an inordinate amount of our hand wringing around the issue of student engagement takes place well after the proverbial horse has left the barn. In fact, in many jurisdictions, a good deal of time and money are being spent contacting teenage students who have chosen to leave the system early, and exploring with them ways that they could come back and earn credits towards their graduation diploma.
I have a better idea.
Instead of trying to coax students back into a system that, in many cases, has failed them as much as they have failed it, why not concentrate our efforts on making sure that engagement and resonance are part of the way we think about school, program and curriculum design right from the very beginning? If we’re really serious about addressing the engagement dilemma, let’s begin at the earliest stages of a child’s schooling experience and build from there.
Our current obsession with test scores and graduation rates as the real measures of both school and student success will pass. And when we finally wake up to the fact that these statistical sirens have really been false idols, we’re going to have to do some rethinking.
I would suggest that when that time comes, we begin to rebuild by carefully observing our children. Look at our youngest children. Watch what they do when they’re given the freedom to choose. Look at how they explore the world, how they express themselves, how they interact with each other at their earliest stages of social development. Most often, when left to their own devices, we’ll find our children singing, dancing, colouring and role playing their way through the world. It’s not because they need a break from the other stuff in their life. It’s because this is their life and these are things that come so very naturally to them.
Walk into any daycare or pre-school facility and you’ll know what it looks and sounds like when you allow this understanding of human development to permeate the work that you do. Easels, drums, costumes, puppets, and space (!) are the hallmarks of any good early childhood education program. Spend a day in a kindergarten class and notice which activity centers are the most popular. You’ll probably find that the kitchen/house center, the art center and the music center are more populated than any other. (Some kindergarten teachers reading this may comment that these are the only centers that they have!)
And it’s not because these activities give children a break from the demands of real learning. It’s because this is where they do most of their real learning. The finger painting easel allows them to freely explore colour, shape and movement. The house centre gives them the opportunity to work out social relationships and practice some of the conversations that they hear in their own home. It is a place where conflict emerges and gets worked out (most of the time!). Rhythm instruments enable children to connect with something so deeply human that we may have lost sight of its importance in our lives.
Yet, something curious and more than a little disturbing happens after the early years of schooling. We package these activities up, call them “the arts” and, in so many cases, push them to the edges of our school communities. We build walls of curriculum around them to legitimize them as “real learning”. And in order to ensure that a teacher assigned to “the arts” doesn’t get off too easy, we demand that they be assessed and evaluated with the same tools and strategies as mathematics, science or language.
But in the process, we lose sight of the power of the arts to teach, to connect and to engage. It’s a power that is sitting right in front of us, staring back at us in the faces of our students. It’s a potential that is, quite literally, embodied in every child and young person that walks through our doors everyday. And you know something? It’s also embodied in every adult walks through the those very same doors!
So what would happen if we began to honestly and openly explore the role that the arts play in our schools? What would happen if our children had opportunities to sing, dance, act, and draw every single day? What would happen if school plays, dances and glee clubs became part of our school timetables instead of something seen as taking up valuable instructional time? What would happen if all schools were able to fly a banner on their outside wall declaring, “We are an arts-based school”?
I really believe that quality arts-based teaching and learning should be the right of every child. For me, the reason is quite simple. By nature, human beings are artistic creatures. The rhythm of music courses through our veins; imagination and creativity are hallmarks of every human invention. We are currently struggling with a vision of school that actively denies this, and we are losing our more and more of our students hearts and minds.
With your help, I would like to explore some of these questions more deeply. I would love to hear from teachers, administrators, parents and students who have an opinion on the role of the arts in our schools. You don’t have to agree with me; in fact, contrary opinions are always welcome here. If you have research or media articles to share that might support your viewpoint, tell us about them. If you have been part of an arts-based school initiative, your stories are welcome. If you’re struggling to put arts back on the radar in your district, tell us about that! Write a reply, draw a picture, sing a song. However you choose to respond, your perspective is welcome.
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