Archive
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Putting a Sustained Focus on Equity in Education
Comments Off on Putting a Sustained Focus on Equity in EducationThe recognition is growing in both Canada and the U.S. that educational equity is critical to our collective future. Although Canadian education systems perform much better in terms of both equity and quality, gaps in student achievement and educational opportunity remain.
What is the biggest challenge in ensuring more equitable outcomes among students? What is the most important or promising thing that schools can do to advance equity? What is the most important or promising school board or government policy to advance equity?
We have an impressive list of policy experts, researchers, educators, parents, and students to share their informed perspectives to help answer these questions. Our blog will showcase a two-week focus on equity in education from November 21st to December 2nd featuring guest bloggers who are from the inclusive education, First Nations, LGTBT, racialized minority, and parent engagement communities, as well as researchers specializing in urban schools and marginalized students – all sharing their ideas on how we can ensure that all learners have equitable opportunities.
This initiative is a follow up to a 2010 international symposium on equity and innovation co-hosted by CEA and the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy (SCOPE). A newly released special equity themed issue of Education Canada builds on the provocative presentations and discussions that took place at that event, with a particular focus on how to achieve greater equity by moving local innovations to effective practices across the education system.
So please visit our blog often for the next two weeks. We hope that you will enjoy reading the Education Canada articles, the daily dose of equity information resources on our Twitter feed, and the blog commentary and encourage you to get involved and contribute your thoughts and opinions to this important information campaign.
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All Are Welcome…but then what?
Comments Off on All Are Welcome…but then what?I’m writing this blog on the eve of a very large undertaking on the part of my school district. In a few hours, more than 2800 secondary school teachers will descend upon the Toronto Congress Centre to listen to a robust roster of rather well known speakers, writers and public figures. Gathering under the banner, “All Are Welcome”, participants will have the opportunity to spend their day with the likes of, among others, writer, speaker and passionate arts advocate, Sir Ken Robinson; novelist, Lawrence Hill; adventurer and National Geographic contributor and Massey Lecturer, Wade Davis; Differentiated Instruction expert, Karen Hume and “drama queen”, Kathy Gould Lundy.
At first, I thought the theme, “All Are Welcome” was a little too light when you considered the major challenges faced by public education these days. But, when I was approached to help capture a video record of the day, I suddenly found myself trying to create a narrative frame for the event. As I sat with the speakers’ bios and tried to find the threads that connected their messages, using the overall theme for the day as a backdrop, I began to realize that the claim that “All Are Welcome” is really just the beginning.
After all, public schools have a legislative mandate to allow anyone, regardless of gender, socio-economic status, academic ability, or learning style, to take advantage of what is being offered. Physical exclusion is not an option. For me, however, the more powerful challenge is this: Once we allow everyone to enter through our doors, then what? What do we do with them? What is our moral obligation in terms of how we develop our educational programs and opportunities to meet the needs of those that we claim to serve?
Until very recently, we have approached the students in our systems as a type of monolith. We’ve talked about best practice, standard curriculum, rigorous teaching and learning environments as if all students would respond to and benefit from the same approach. In a sense, our focus in terms of educational practice has really been about what we will do TO our students. But tomorrow’s speakers promise to challenge that teacher-centric, “one-size-fits-all” approach in a large way.
Sir Ken, in his keynote address, will bring his now-familiar message: schools should be a place where the individual passions of our students are nurtured and supported. Lawrence Hill and others will, no doubt, remind us of the power of our diverse stories. Wade Davis will stir up the need for educators to develop a sense of curiosity and wonder in the natural world. Karen Hume will speak passionately about the need for differentiation in our classrooms and in our programs. Kathy Lundy will ask us to consider how well we really know the students that are placed before us each day. The challenge of “All Are Welcome” is really not about opening the doors of the schoolhouse to anyone who knocks. That vision has already been legislated into reality. No, the real challenge relates to how willing we are to see every student who crosses the threshold as a unique individual, with their own story, their own dream and a right to be educated in a place where the two might somehow connect.
We’re willing to spend the money to bring these rich and vibrant voices to the stage of the Toronto Congress Center tomorrow. I wonder whether we will be willing to spend the time and effort necessary to carry the messages that we hear back to our schools on Monday morning and beyond.
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Cdn EdWire – Toronto Ball Ban Kerfuffle Makes National Headlines
Comments Off on Cdn EdWire – Toronto Ball Ban Kerfuffle Makes National HeadlinesStudents revolt: “We want our balls back!” – Toronto Star
Toronto school bans hard balls – CBC
Parents cry foul after elementary school bans balls over playground safety – National Post
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ConnectED Canada: Building a National Network for Change
Comments Off on ConnectED Canada: Building a National Network for ChangeI think it’s an exciting time to be involved in the world of education.
Across our country, school jurisdictions are rolling out plans and policies with the hopes of making school a more engaging place of learning for students. As our profession makes this foundational shift, I get excited imagining classrooms that are places of vibrant, technology-supported, hands-on learning where all learners are supported and find success. As I read these various visions I hope that all students are able experience a learning environment buzzing with discussion, activity, and engagement as students invent, share, refine and improve their own and each other’s ideas.
To support these visions, I think we also need to shift what teacher learning looks like. Many 21st Century frameworks for student learning (for example here and here) revolve around skills such as collaboration, networking, creativity, communication and innovation, and I believe teachers need opportunities to learn and grow in similar learning environments. I believe teachers need opportunities to see compelling images of contemporary teaching and learning being lived out in classrooms with opportunities to share, discuss, collaborate and learn from others. We need professional development that is built on teacher engagement, networked learning and collective improvement.
With that in mind, a group of educators from across the country have created ConnectED Canada – an annual gathering of teachers, students, parents and other stakeholders, each coming with a similar goal of making school more relevant and purposeful for students. The goal of ConnectED Canada is to provide a platform for discussion and idea generation – all situated within a school community striving to live out the best of 21st Century Teaching and Learning.
ConnectED Canada is open to teachers, administrators, superintendents, and ministry representatives in additional to students and parents. We want to bring together engaged professionals from across the country gathering to talk about what’s currently working , what’s emerging and where we might go next.
The first year of ConnectED Canada is taking place May 25-27th 2012 at the Calgary Science School, a school of 600 students focused on inquiry-based, technology-supported and outdoor education-enriched learning. You can see examples of our approach to teaching and learning here on our school blog.
As a staff member at the Science School I am so pleased we are hosting this first event. While we feel we have some great things happening at our school the idea of opening up our classrooms to 300 outsider visitors is both thrilling and nerve-wracking! As the first day of the three-day event will be a normal day at the school, our teachers welcome the opportunity to share their ideas, questions and struggles with a wider audience. Also, we are eager to provide our students opportunity to share their experiences with a national audience.
The second and third days of the event will be built around conversations and discussions. We are currently looking for facilitators willing to host and lead 90 minute discussions. Topics of discussion can range from technology implementation to policy development to assessment practices – all framed around how we might better the needs of learners in the modern world.
We hope you’ll consider bringing forth a topic for sharing and discussion – the deadline for proposals in Dec 8th, 2011. You can submit a proposal here.
Our hopes for ConnectED Canada are many. We hope this event will give participants a chance to engage in rich and timely discussions about meaningful topics and innovative ideas in education. We hope that participants will initiate new relationships and deepen existing ones. We hope that the student and parent voice will play a significant role in the discussion. We hope participants will experience engaging learning taking place in real classrooms. Overall, we hope that ideas will be shared – and that participants will leave invigorated and excited about the wonderful work that is teaching and learning in the 21st Century.
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Pssst… Have I got a program for you
Comments Off on Pssst… Have I got a program for youI experienced many powerful moments while attending the Arts, Science and the Brain Conference last week in Toronto. The gathering, convened by Artssmarts, sought to engage participants in questions about how learning in the 21st century could be informed and enriched by current understandings of brain science.
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The 21st Century Personalizing Teacher
Comments Off on The 21st Century Personalizing TeacherPersonalized, learner-centered pedagogy is all the rage these days. There is a great deal good about that when it works but it scares me to think about what it could mean when it is done poorly. Inquiry learning can be powerful, but if it is taken to just mean doing projects it is probably little more than busy work. However, it also might be educational malpractice. Uncritical enthusiasm for thinly conceived and shallowly implemented versions of potentially empowering practices could take us back to the worst abuses of Whole Language – another excellent idea when done well and a mess when done poorly.
In the good old days, the teacher knew and the students needed to know. The process was pretty simply. Teacher talks. Students listen. Teacher tests. Grade and move on. That’s how it was when I went to school and its still quite common. Of course, nobody wants to admit to such a caricature of transmissive teaching, and there are plenty of examples of much more sophisticated practice, but teaching as telling followed by summative assessment is still, in broad strokes, the underlying conception in many classrooms.
As we move towards more student-centered practices in which the teacher shares responsibility for the learning with students, and becomes a co-learner (partly in terms of the discipline being taught but primarily in terms of understanding his/her particular students’ learning and the profession of teaching) it is important to do so with equal measure of ingenuity and skepticism. Good is the enemy of great and the good of the past is not sufficient for the future so we have to get better, but as we change we have to be sure we also improve and that we don’t lose anyone in the transition. How can we be sure of that? Standing pat with traditional methods is not the answer, so how do we learn our way into superior practices?
In Visible Learning professor John Hattie of New Zealand reports on his survey of 8500 meta-analyses of educational research related to student achievement. Many have seen his book as another list of “what works” but Hattie warns specifically against cherry-picking research results and presents an entirely different message about teaching and learning – it needs to be more visible.
He says, “It is critical that the teaching and learning is visible … The teacher must know when learning is correct or incorrect; learn when to experiment and learn from the experience; learn to monitor, seek and give feedback; and know to try alternative learning strategies when others do not work. What is important is that teaching is visible to the student, and that the learning is visible to the teacher. The more the student becomes the teacher and the more the teacher becomes the learner, then the more successful are the outcomes.” (p. 25)
To make teaching and learning visible there has to be lots of formative assessment and feedback in both directions. Learning to build such ongoing assessment and reflection into the teaching-learning process is essential if we are to personalize learning in order to generate the deeper engagement that will enable achievement of the transformational goals of 21st Century Learning. You can’t just try something and hope for the best. Every innovation must include an ongoing assessment strategy that provides continuous feedback to both students and teachers. Trying things out and looking at the results after a year is not professionally responsible. Quality control and adjustment has to be continuous.
The superior instructional practices and school organizational patterns that will be required to better prepare students for an increasingly complex and dynamic world cannot be copied from Finland or Australia or anywhere else. They have to be developed through innovative practice right here at home, and as they are developed we also have to make sure that what is happening within our innovation is made visible so that we can actually learn from it and avoid any harm in the process.
The 21st Century Personalizing Teacher has to be, above all, a self-regulating learner, not just a follower. To adapt a well-worn phrase, you have to be the change you want to see in your students.
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The Dream World of the 1968 Hall-Dennis Living and Learning Report is alive and well in the story of transforming public education
Comments Off on The Dream World of the 1968 Hall-Dennis Living and Learning Report is alive and well in the story of transforming public educationThe visionaries on the Hall-Dennis Committee, the ones who carried the day with their 1968 report Living and Learning, set out their aims a few of which are worth repeating for their relevance in 2011:
- To serve the needs and aspirations of the people, there should be an advisory body of citizens to keep education policy and practice under review with power to report to the Legislature.
- The fixed position of student and teacher must give way to a more relaxed relationship, which will encourage discussion, inquiry, and experimentation and will enhance the dignity of the individual.
- Given an increased measure of professional freedom and inspired by a philosophy which puts foremost the needs and dignity of the child, our teachers will provide the education we envisage.
There is more between the lines of these selected statements than in them. The first one directly challenges the Czarist power of the Minister of Education about which I commented in my blog Bossism in Public Education. The picture of a citizens’ advisory body voicing their wishes before the Legislature would surely cause heartburn among the bureaucrats who enjoy primary access to the ear of the Minister. Further, some would argue that it would be contrary to the tradition of responsible government achieved by dedicated effort in Queen Victoria’s time.
Still, citizens/parents/teachers are relatively powerless in the structure and conduct of Canadian public education. By degrees, they have turned it over to the experts. Elected school boards, which have steadily grown in size and complexity in my lifetime are, to an increasing degree, mere handmaidens of the Ministry. New Brunswick tackled this problem by abolishing the boards some years ago and replacing them with a parent advisory structure. After more changes, there are now District Councils to manage the schools much as the school boards used to do. At the provincial level, the Minister is legally bound to consult with citizens on a regular basis. It seems apt to observe Plus ca change, plus c’est la même chose. But give New Brunswick credit where it’s due – they have recognized a problem and tackled it seriously.
Ontario has mandated parent councils for every school but they have not changed by one iota the hierarchical nature of public education. The councils typically are busy with fundraising and fancying up the playground. Any really significant features of education policy and practice are beyond the purview of the councils. Nearly ten years ago when I questioned the capacity of a school council to examine and comment on the curriculum, a spokesperson for the council responded “Oh dear, we don’t want that kind of responsibility”.
So, the Hall-Dennis dream of parental engagement in policy making in education has remained a dream. Officialdom in education resist with the argument that there must be system-wide standards. In the digital age, I prefer the idea of system-wide ferment within a framework of generalized system aims.
The second of the Hall-Dennis aims quoted above has been realized to some degree. When the report was written in 1967-68, male teachers wore shirt and tie and females a skirt or dress. Males were often called “Sir”. If casualness is part of the ambience for good education, then the few surviving advocates of the Hall-Dennis philosophy can relax.
The third aim above remains an unfulfilled dream. As I explained in my Oct 12th blog, professionalism has largely eluded the teaching profession in North America. Many teachers, trapped in the no-man’s land between unionism and professionalism, are inhibited from offering leadership in education innovation and transformation – inhibited also by the all-powerful ministries of education, which continue to monopolize curriculum change.
Let me conclude this brief retrospective on the Hall-Dennis era by recollecting a few of the mess-ups of the 1970s that doomed the report to ridicule and rejection. The brief flush of excitement in Ontario resulted in a slew of experimental stuff – team teaching, audio-visual instruction, movies for social studies and language study, field trips galore. Complaints piled up about functional illiteracy and lack of readiness for the discipline of the work place or post-secondary education. The politicians seized upon the complaints so that by 1980 Hall-Dennis was breathing its last.
For me at least, Hall-Dennis is alive and well in the story of transforming public education. Here is a quotation from the report that is more current than when it was written: Unless a people is on its guard, the economic demands of society can be made to determine what is done in education. The society whose educational system gives priority to the economic over the spiritual and emotional needs of man defines its citizens in terms of economic units and in so doing debases them. There is a dignity and nobility of man that has nothing to do with economic considerations. The development of this dignity and nobility is one of education’s tasks.
Amen!
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Threatening the Status Quo
Comments Off on Threatening the Status QuoRecently I was listening to Michael Campbell’s radio show “Money Talks” and he or one of his guests referred to a quote attributed to German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer: “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”
My breath caught – here’s why.
- In my second year of teaching I stopped giving marks and started giving feedback. The parent community watched in silence (perhaps, in light of the next two bullets, some of them imagined that this crazy no-marks business was isolated to my one classroom and was therefore non-threatening).
- In my third year of teaching, a science teacher and a social studies teacher joined me in using assessment as learning and a loud portion of the parent community erupted. One threatened me with a lawsuit. One reported me to the admissions department of the University of British Columbia. Many called angry meetings with our principal and us. My colleagues and I faced verbally violent opposition.
- In my fourth year of teaching, my colleagues and I continued to work as we had been and were invited to share our approach with hundreds of teachers around the province, country, and several other countries. This continues to be the case.
My experience echoes Schopenhauer’s stages of truth.
While the second stage was indeed difficult for my colleagues and I, it isn’t images of my endurance, exhaustion or stress that remain with me; it is what one parent said and others nodded at. During a meeting meant to explain the process of assessment, to assuage worries, and inspire confidence with some upset parents, my colleagues and I explained, with visuals,
- why using feedback helps students deepen and extend their learning;
- why marks stopped rather than encouraged learning;
- how we went about using criteria;
- how students engaged with one another around ideas and skills rather than competed against one another for status;
- and that this approach helps to differentiate learning so that in a classroom of 30 individuals students are challenged in personalized ways.
After a couple of hours we had gotten nowhere. These parents’ faces still shone red, mouths still pulled tight, and foreheads still furrowed.
Finally, a man near the back said this: You mean to tell me that if my son gets an A at the beginning of the unit and keeps getting an A at the end of the unit will get the same mark as a kid who comes in with a C and then gets better and gets an A on the stuff by the end of the unit? They both leave the unit with an A?
My colleagues and I looked at one another, unsure if we were missing something. Yes, we said. That’s what we mean.
That is total crap, said the man, to the nods of others.
Oh.
Oh, we get it now. Some parents (not all!) don’t want all children to achieve success. Some parents must enjoy the status quo, a status quo where it’s okay if other children always do badly if their sons or daughters always do well. In fact, it’s preferable.
How absolutely sad.
Fortunately, this realization deepened our commitment to using assessment as learning. Actually, that man’s anger at our approach tells me that we’re on the right track.
*Please note – while I am referring to real events the dialogue is the dialogue as I remember it; I am not working from a transcript of the meeting.
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Cdn EdWire – A diverse array of serious education issues play out in the dailies
Comments Off on Cdn EdWire – A diverse array of serious education issues play out in the dailiesCYBERBULLYING AND TEEN SUICIDE
The tragedy of teen suicide: can schools stop it? – Toronto Star
Time to bring controversy, politics into classroom, experts say – Postmedia
A MOVE TO ABOLISH QUEBEC SCHOOL BOARDS
School boards dodge budget cutback bullet – The Suburban
Quebec school boards fear budget-cut proposal – Montreal Gazette
School boards have to go, says Coalition de l’avenir’s Legault – Laval News
School boards in the crosshairs – Montreal Gazette
Keep them? Kill them? For the anglo community, it’s a sensitive issueFAILING FIRST NATIONS STUDENTS
Former PM calls education ‘absolute key’ to improving aboriginal life – Postmedia
Canada failing First Nations kids with education system, UN told – Postmedia
Ottawa accused of failing aboriginal children – CBC
CONFRONTING THE PERSISTENT DROPOUT ISSUE
Child immigrants over 9 more likely to drop out – CBC
Anti-dropout program is working, report card shows – Montreal Gazette
B.C. TEACHER LABOUR UNREST
In B.C. school wars, the pupils are the losers – Globe and Mail
Gov’t orders B.C. schools to prepare report cards – CTV
BCTF gives failing grade to new education plan – CBC
OTHER NEWS
Have schools ‘professionalized’ the role of parent? – Toronto Star
From $3,000 to zero, fees vary wildly for prestigious high-school program – Globe and Mail
Education Act put on hold – CBC Alberta
Parents fear sex-crime gap in school safety net – Montreal Gazette
Pardoned pedophiles can teach; Police say they’re unable to do same checks done for staff at daycares, hockey teamsImmersion review not welcomed by everyone – Moncton Times & Transcript
Parents uneasy with French immersion reforms – CBC NB
Cheating policy can work, consultant says – CBC Newfoundland
EDUBLOG HIGHLIGHTS
How to Stop Good Ideas from Getting Shot Down – Culture of Yes (Chris Kennedy)
I was listening to Canadian Education Association CEO, Ron Canuel, recently and he referenced John Kotter, a professor at the Harvard Business School. It was a name I knew, but I hadn’t previously been exposed to his work. Canuel shared Kotter’s list of the four strategies people use to help kill good ideas.- Fear mongering involves creating infectious anxiety, scaring others into believing a good idea is far too risky to pursue
- Death by Delay entails stalling an idea with never-ending questions, straw polls, and meetings—until the idea eventually loses momentum and fizzles out
- Confusion consists of peppering a conversation with a stream of irrelevant facts and convoluted questions, making it near impossible for the innovator to keep the discussion on track
- Ridicule is a direct attack on the character of the person who proposed the idea, creating indirect doubts about the idea itself (read more)
Flipping It – Webb of Thoughts (Kyle Webb)
I’m currently 7 weeks into my student teaching. Recently, I have drastically changed things in my classroom. My classroom used to look like the classroom I had when I was a high school student. Students would sit in their desks and take notes (maybe) as I stood up front speaking to them or worked through a problem on the board. A few students would give me their undivided attention and build a decent understanding of the concept. A few students wouldn’t pay any attention at all and secretly text under their desk or have Facebook pulled up on their tablets. And most students would pay attention for as long as they could, lost attention for just a moment or two, and be lost the rest of the lesson. I would employ all sorts of classroom management strategies to keep my students quiet and paying attention. Then I would wrap things up, maybe give them a few minutes to try some problems, if I had finished things quicker than planned. Most of the time, however, I sent them home to try to tackle problems that they should have learned about during class (and some beyond that). The result? (read more) -
From Paradigm Shift to Narrative Shift
Comments Off on From Paradigm Shift to Narrative ShiftI remember clearly the first time I heard the phrase Paradigm Shift. I was sitting in an after-school staff meeting and my principal had just returned from a conference, inspired by the idea that education was about to undergo a substantial re-think.
“We’re making a move”, he declared, “And our whole way of thinking about school is about to change. We’re about to undergo a paradigm shift!”
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Just Supposing…
Comments Off on Just Supposing…Just supposing a province or territory decided to conduct a major study of its public education system, a ‘thorough airing of the bedclothes’ so to speak. And just supposing it announced in predictably prosaic language the title of the study: Education for the 21st Century. Then imagine the number of other projects both private and public with the same title. So, to be taken seriously, it would be essential to set out terms of reference that would elicit some excitement among the taxpaying public. Tough assignment considering that most people, though they care about public education, are at a loss when it comes to changing it substantially. As things stand now, school offers security, qualified teachers, more or less competent instruction in the basic subjects, approved assessment practices, predictable reporting to parents, regulations for the care and management of needy and undisciplined children. Isn’t that adequate?
No, not really. There is still a wide gap between the emerging realities of life as represented by the high flyers of all ages in the web world and what actually goes on inside the schoolhouse. The authors of a recent work, Teaching the Digital Generation (Kelly, McCain, Jukes), 2009, argue persuasively that education must be brought in line with the current situation where kids are “exposed to new kinds of input from digital experiences for sustained periods of time on a daily basis.” Most of that input is beyond the purview or control of parents and teachers. And, I believe, most of it renders the schoolhouse obsolete in the minds of its young clients – who still crave learning as much as ever. A checklist of emerging or real obsolescence would include: the textbook, the print oriented library, compulsory attendance until late adolescence, standardized testing for information recall, assessment of progress based on mastery of print information, age-grade lock-step progression. Of course there is nothing inherently wrong with any of these traditional education practices except that they are in varying degrees obsolete, that’s all. They are out of sync.
The book mentioned above proposes asynchronous learning instead of everything synchronized with the textbook, the school timetable, the exam-test schedule etc. Some features of the new learning would include stronger emphasis on visual learning both artistic and practical, generous use of community resources, assessment of pupil progress based on teacher-pupil initiated projects, school architecture for individual or small group instruction, teaching as a largely advisory process. Farewell pedanticism as we’ve known it.
As I suggested in my last blog, the emerging education paradigm for the 21st century would highlight individualism, singularity, and selfhood. These need not be seen as menacing signs of civic irresponsibility or self-centredness running amok. Rather, they simply recognize and embrace the digital reality, which is all around us all the time. Education within such a paradigm would, on the contrary, foster the kind of citizenship compatible with a democratic society – intensely knowledge-based and emotionally satisfying. As for terms of reference for this new study, I would be happy with those set down in 1967 for the Hall-Dennis Report:
- Identify the needs of the child as a person and as a member of society.
- Set forth aims of education for the province.
- Outline objectives for the curriculum.
- Propose means of realizing those aims and objectives.
That is to say, the terms of reference do not matter so much as the people who relate them to the facts that confront them. Look again at the first one above. An authoritarian reactionary sort of person would respond “Teach the little _______ to behave and work hard” while a more liberal-minded person might say “Our students are young citizens; treat them accordingly”. Either point of view would have profound implications for educators not the least of which would be unsettling questions like: What is the practical meaning of citizenship in a democracy? Should school life be a model for democratic citizenship? If so, how is that to be done?
The Hall-Dennis Committee wrestled with such questions for a couple of years before publishing their coffee table book Living and Learning, a best seller. Next time, I’ll recall some of the Hall-Dennis fall-out relative to the second decade of the 21st century.
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Equity of Output Must Become the Next ‘21st Century’ Objective
Comments Off on Equity of Output Must Become the Next ‘21st Century’ ObjectiveIn my first year as CEO of the CEA, I’ve had the pleasure of sharing our vision and mission with so many educators across Canada. I’ve realized that the courage it takes to provoke a shift among deeply entrenched mindsets of traditional teaching and learning is long overdue. We can all agree that we want all our young people to be ‘21st Century’ problem solvers, critical and creative thinkers, collaborators, and great communicators, but our vision for how we get there ranges from a little tinkering to a massive makeover, and most innovators face roadblocks when they push the envelope for the latter. This is why it’s time to move beyond 21st Century rhetoric and build strategies that will nurture innovation and not deter it. CEA is working hard to convince you that this transformation needs to happen.
At the 2011 CEA Council Meeting, 21st Century Learning: From Rhetoric to Reality, participants will have the opportunity to hear from three speakers who have a first-hand knowledge and experience with innovative pedagogy internationally, in a Canadian school, and in a Canadian classroom. Following presentations, speakers will explore the barriers they face in moving their innovative thinking towards more systemic transformation.
This Council meeting is not about simply assembling experts in the field of education and from the private sector together to look at what innovative practices can be. It’s about developing a deeper sense of commitment amongst the participants to finally move the discussions and debates to more pragmatic realities. Pilot projects in education have been the easiest means to demonstrate that innovation and transformation of education can occur, but rarely have these projects become systemic.
For decades, education has placed a considerable amount of resources and energy into establishing equity, especially at the student entry points. However, education stops the application of this fundamental principle and an increasing number of children leave education, either disillusioned or seriously questioning the pertinence of what they have learned. Equity of Output, ensuring that all children achieve their potential, must become the next ‘21st Century’ objective. Ensuring Equity of Output obliges all education stakeholders to focus on the establishment of new learning/teaching environments that meet the needs of all children and not only a minority of them.
This Council meeting will bring this principle to the forefront and provide a critical platform for exchange and debate on how to truly meet the needs of ALL children.
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Cdn EdWire – French Immersion Program Review in New Brunswick – Part Deux
Comments Off on Cdn EdWire – French Immersion Program Review in New Brunswick – Part DeuxEx-ministers review early French immersion program – CBC NB
French immersion reform ‘won’t be easy’ – CBC NB
Tory plan to review immersion panned – Fredericton Daily Gleaner
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The EdCamp Movement
Comments Off on The EdCamp MovementI returned from the very first EdCamp Toronto event last Saturday afternoon somewhat weary, more than a little excited and a whole lot intrigued!
Months of planning, combined with an early alarm on the day of the event accounted for the weariness. The positive energy and feedback that organizers received before, during and after the day inspired the excitement.
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Shaking the Education Tree
Comments Off on Shaking the Education TreeA previous blog written on October 5 was on the eve of the Ontario election that returned the Dalton McGuinty Liberals, one seat shy of a majority. The province’s second most expensive public service, education, was never really debated during the entire campaign. There was an occasional glimpse of McGuinty slapping himself on the back that Ontario had the best of all school systems. His opponents’ platforms offered only unchallenged verities. Too bad!
There is much that might have been said. It is 16 years since there was a thorough discussion of public education in the most populous province of the country. I refer to the five-volume report For the Love of Learning, 1995, Gerald Caplan and Monique Begin, which fulsomely addressed the principles and practices of Ontario schools. Two such progressive-minded persons should have paid more respect to the liberating idealism of its predecessor report, Living and Learning, 1968, Hall/Dennis. I, for one, hoped that the 1995 report would propose ways to increase the professional autonomy of teachers, open doors for students seeking more freedom to make choices, break down the subject rigidities of the curriculum, engage the community in the teaching-learning process, empower parents as auxiliaries rather than as bemused bystanders, advance the idea of children actually enjoying school – as the title of the report claimed.
But 1995 was not a time for visionaries. It was post-recession, belt tightening time. Time also to be worried about international test results (1991), which revealed Canadian 13-year-olds in ninth place in science and mathematics in a set of fifteen industrialized countries. Thus the Caplan/Begin Report (unintentionally) slammed the door on liberal thinking in the public schools and implicitly authorized the test-and-remediate style of education. The apparent need for more rigour and discipline in the classroom was such an uncomplicated concept that the politicians could grasp it with enthusiasm. Thus we are burdened with the Ontario Education Act, 1,200 pages long in fine print. http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_90e02_e.htm
All across North America public school teachers struggle to get their scores up based on standardized tests in reading, writing, science, mathematics, etc. Even a slight improvement in the scores is celebrated at the board offices, in the local newspapers and within the central bureaucracies even though a quarter to a third of pupils remain stubbornly below the mediocre standard set for their jurisdiction. In this numbers game, mediocrity has become the icon on the flag flying over most schools. This gloomy assessment does not do justice to all the points of light in some public schools in different parts of the country. But the bright spots , I believe, are the exception rather than the norm.
In the outcome, private schools have blossomed. According to my best estimate there are six million pupils in Canadian publicly- supported schools, a number that is falling. Meanwhile rising private school enrolment in Ontario approaches 130,000. Multiply that number by four for a rough estimate of private school enrolment in Canada as a whole, i.e. about half a million. (Stats Canada seems not to keep private school enrolment figures).
It is time for a change. What is needed is a paradigm shift in keeping with the groundbreaking social/economic/psychological drama playing out since 1995. Central to this seismic rumbling is, of course, the computer and the digital revolution. This technology has put in jeopardy the negative and out-dated hallmarks of public education – uniformity, standardization, centralization and bureaucratization. The new paradigm, on the other hand, heralds individualism, singularity and selfhood. Like death and taxes, this revolution cannot be stopped even though most schools in their structure and governance pretend not to be affected by it. Private schooling burgeons, among other reasons, either to defy the revolution or embrace it. Public schooling, at the very least, needs a major investigation into this historic, cataclysmic process now under way.
Next time, I’ll lift my head above the parapets and offer some terms of reference.
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Has teacher professionalism been over-shadowed by unionism?
Comments Off on Has teacher professionalism been over-shadowed by unionism?Once upon a time, when knights were bold, there were three professions: divinity, medicine and law. Now there are hundreds, possessing intellectual rigour ranging from high to low. They all boast professional accreditation and/or certification: engineers, hair dressers, realtors, opticians, brewers, surveyors, librarians, photographers, road builders, early childhood educators, teachers, etc., etc. They display framed diplomas and certificates and spend riotous hours at annual conventions. In this proliferation, the meaning of professionalism has too often been debased to mere technical know-how.
Historically, professionalism stood for intellectual independence derived from university and private study and buttressed by exemplary moral character. As things stand now, some elite professional people are very richly rewarded and some are not. It is the rarity of some professional fields that mainly accounts for high income. Sixty years ago, Dr. Alan Klass wrote a paper under the title What is a Profession? In explaining the concept of “going the extra mile” (beyond the terms of the contract), Klass wrote: “It is in this subtle area of private endeavour that a profession, in its totality, achieves greatness”.
Teachers in the public system, generally speaking, display some of the hallmarks of a modern profession – explicit academic standards, certification requirements , rules of membership, a code of ethics with a mechanism for enforcement and, not least, work contracts bargained under provincial labour codes. But a devilish fuzziness hangs over these hallmarks. Has professionalism been over-shadowed by unionism? Is it mere quibbling to ask? Does it matter one way or another to students in school and their parents?
Well, yes, it does make a difference. Witness the pell mell explosion of private schools, (private school enrolment in Canada, 1960 to 2005, grew by 357% compared with public school enrolment by 52.5%), a phenomenon partly explained by unionism in the schools. Witness the large number of persons, some now middle-aged, whose lives were messed up by a school strike. Before proceeding further, let’s be clear on one point. Teacher associations operating as unions under local labour law serve to ensure fair play, equal treatment in work assignments, promotions and pay scales. These assurances and protections contribute to good morale on the job and, therefore, to a friendly learning atmosphere in the classroom.
But there is a catch. Many teachers, trapped in the no-man’s land between unionism and professionalism, are inhibited from offering leadership in education innovation and transformation. The need for such initiatives is greater as the digital revolution envelops us. Additionally, teachers are inhibited by the all-powerful ministries of education. For example, there is almost no hope for a teacher or a group of teachers who believe they can do a better job of educating their students without the “benefit” of government standardized testing. Premier Dalton McGuinty of Ontario has treated government test results as a political talisman through the recent election campaign.
The sovereign power of the Minister goes back a long way — to the very earliest days of public education. I remember the struggle to get Ministry approval in 1961 for a pilot project in teaching history (Grades 11 and 12) without using THE textbook. The results of that project were overwhelmingly positive but fifty years later history textbooks are still with us, as with most other subjects. In the early 1970s, I listened to David Clee, head of the Curriculum and Textbooks Branch of the Ontario Department of Education announce in a speech before the Ontario Education Association that Circular 14 (the listing of approved textbooks) would be phased out within a year. David Clee was phased out instead.
New life and spirit have indeed been injected into public education in some jurisdictions,- Alberta and Quebec come to mind. And there are pockets of excellence everywhere. But the termites are deep into the woodwork everywhere, the termites in question being the stand pat effect of centralization and standardization with their deadening effect on professionalism. In an upcoming blog, I will argue the need for a major enquiry into Ontario education, one that might be a signal light for other jurisdictions.
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An assessment shift in practice
Comments Off on An assessment shift in practiceWhen Allison Penner (from Urban Academy in New Westminster, BC) made it down to the staff room after ushering out the last of her Grade 4 and 5 students, she was flushed and carrying an armload of paper. She looked at me, eyebrows raised.
“Let’s get started!” I said.
We started by spreading her students’ assignment logs on the table and sorting them into groups according to similar “Areas of Focus”: conventions, introductions and detailed ideas.
Next we discussed how she could best teach them how to fill out specific and detailed plans for improvement for each of those areas. The idea is that each student chooses an aspect of writing he or she wants to improve and then articulates a plan for achieving that improvement. The next time the student writes, he or she enacts the plan and, with each effort, improves the quality of his or her writing.
Before arriving at this point, Allison had made a decision to shift her teaching so that assessment would drive her students’ learning. This mindset led her to use a series of lessons to guide her students in writing a class Writing Rubric.
“They actually did really well coming up with clear criteria,” Allison reflects. By allowing students to articulate the criteria she and they would use to give feedback on their writing, Allison began shifting ownership of the learning onto her students.
“Okay, wait,” Allison said, her cheeks flushing a little. “So this means that I’m not going to be doing formal lessons all the time.
“Right. I mean, sometimes you might – when everyone needs to know something. But when everyone needs to know or work on something different – like with writing – then they’ll all be doing their own thing. You’ll be working with them one-on-one and in smaller groups.” This is the definition of differentiated learning.
During our entire meeting, Allison smiled. Despite already being a good teacher, she challenged herself to be better than she was the day before. Allison personifies the growth mindset; in using assessment the way she plans to, she will inspire the growth mindset in her students as well.
With plans to keep in touch, Allison and I parted ways. She reminded me of how exciting the classroom can be (I’m 6 months into my maternity leave). Her enthusiasm and bravery at trying something new made me eager to try some of the things I’ve been learning about these past months (I often joke about my maternity leave being something akin to a sabbatical). But most of all, I felt a deep sense of shared satisfaction: her students successfully created clear criteria to drive their learning; they were a day or two away from using that criteria to plan for their own individual improvement; and they were a short time away from feeling that sense of achievement that comes with accomplishing something they set out to learn. And Allison gets to see that happen.
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Cdn EdWire – Should poor students receive financial incentives?
Comments Off on Cdn EdWire – Should poor students receive financial incentives?School board to mull rewards for at-risk students – Toronto Star
Experts support rewards for at-risk students – Toronto Star
Photo by John Steven Fernandez http://www/flickr.com/photos/stevenfernandez/2370347860
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How is a School System Like a Modern Automobile?
Comments Off on How is a School System Like a Modern Automobile?I had a fascinating conversation today with my mechanic. I had brought my 2005 Toyota in for a 70 point inspection in order to help me decide whether I should hang on to it for a few more years, or whether it might be better to dump it and take advantage of the peace-of-mind offered by driving a newer model.
Tom was in a talking mood and I took advantage of his enthusiasm and knowledge. As a result, I came away with a deeper appreciation of the technology that drives the modern automobile. In particular, our conversation focused on the complex set of computer modules that are used to control almost every aspect of functionality. We spoke of body control modules, ECM’s, oxygen sensors, emission and fuel controls. For me, the discussion really became interesting when Tom explained how each of the system controls “talk” to each other, adjusting functionality and performance based on the information received from other components. I came away thinking of my car as this perfectly synchronized ecosystem, complete with a finely-tuned feedback loop designed to respond to a series of quality controls and performance indicators.
If something happens in one control system, a component somewhere else will either respond or refuse to respond. This, in turn, may trigger a response from another module which will either adjust its performance or begin a series of pre-determined tests. The final result of this process may result in the activation of an indicator light on my dashboard which, when investigated, will provide a full report on what has gone on as well as a code that can be used to find a plan of action to correct the problem.
Now, it just so happens that, while waiting for Tom to complete the inspection, I was reading our Ministry of Education’s School Effectiveness Framework (really, I was!), a support document that identifies evidence-based indicators of successful practice in a number of components of effective schools. The SEF document encourages educators at all levels of the system to use these indicators as a way of building coherence and aligning practices across an entire school.
Ontario’s SEF outlines six components ranging from assessment practices, leadership at various levels of the system, quality of classroom instruction, programs, and partnerships between school, parents and community. A great deal has been written on this site and elsewhere about each of these components, but the SEF does a nice job of bringing them together into a unified whole. But the SEF goes further by offering a series of indicators and observable points of evidence that make quality within each of the components visible and, as a result, actionable.
This is a process that is to be carried out with integrity and transparency for the purpose of promoting reflection, collaborative inquiry and ultimately improved student learning.
—Mary Jean Gallagher and Raymond Théberge(Introduction to the Ontario School Effectiveness Framework, 2010)
Just like my automobile, I came away from reading our SEF with a sense that our school systems are another type of ecosystem, made up of component parts that, when they are running smoothly and effectively, are a thing of beauty.
The School Effectiveness Framework that is now part of the drive toward quality and accountability in Ontario presents a vision for integrated, evidence-based planning and practice. It has something to say to folks working at every level of the system.
In the long term, the SEF has the potential to drive the transformation agenda for years to come. In the short term, it forces us to look beyond the political darlings that currently drive our planning agendae—large-scale assessment scores and graduation rates— and focuses our vision on the actual components that ground these narrow indicators.
Beyond that, however, the School Effectiveness Framework invites us to look at how each of the components within our modern education system is interconnected and interdependent. It’s a complex way of thinking, to be sure. At the same time, by placing our role in the system within the larger context of a tool like the SEF, our school systems become a thing of immense beauty—a marvellous type of ecosystem!
Over the next few weeks, I would like to take a closer look at Ontario’s School Effectiveness Framework, exploring each of the component parts in a little more detail. But I would also love to hear about your experience in working with this type of process in your own district, in your own province. Have you been exposed to a similar tool for effectiveness planning? Are you involved in similar conversations at the school, district or community level?
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The Space for Imagination in Our Schools
Comments Off on The Space for Imagination in Our SchoolsIt’s one thing to agree that more imagination is needed in our 21st century schools. It’s another thing to actually step aside and make room for that imagination to live and grow. Creating a model of school that will encourage, honour and nurture imagination on the part of both students and teachers will take vision and it will take courage.
It will take a vision that values dreaming about the future just as much as learning about the past. It will take a vision that understands that creativity and innovation are not cheerleaders chanting from the sidelines for some pre-established truth, but important catalysts on our journey to explore and discover what can be known about the world. And it will take a vision that is grounded in the belief that schools can and should be places of deep engagement and engaging depth!
One practical way to begin to make this type of vision a reality is to establish imaginative spaces within our schools, both physically and conceptually.
A complaint that I’ve heard from a number of my colleagues, especially the ones that have recently moved into new school buildings, is that classroom space is getting smaller and less functional. Many comment that the physicality of their classroom is preventing them from developing the type of program that they dream about running. Alternative groupings, teacher-student conference areas and claiming spaces for physical movement and artistic exploration is all very challenging.
Imaginative work is both inspired and supported by physical environment, and if teachers and students don’t have access to spaces that invite a certain degree of “spreading out” then it is unlikely that creativity is going to take flight!
Beyond physical environment, conceptual/temporal (!) space is also important for imaginative work to be taken seriously. Currently, I would suspect that most school days are subject to a set of fairly rigid timetables, with very little space for thinking beyond the borders established by traditional curriculum.
But, what would happen if we were to set aside an extended portion of each day to step outside the traditional curriculum boundaries and the accompanying instructional strategies and allow for some imaginative freedom? This could involve work in the Arts, design projects, work outside of the school building, or outside the school firewalls! What would happen if, each and every day, students and teachers and members of the larger community had the opportunity to collaborate on ideas that mattered to them and had that work matter to others.
We can talk about imagination and creativity all we want, but the reality of the schools that I know these days leads me to believe that things are becoming more and more defined for us on every level: curriculum expectations, teaching strategies, timetable allotments and our ability to bring a sense of individuality to our work as teachers.
Imagination, by its very nature, defies boundaries and borders, and until we decide to give teachers and students the ability to re-imagine what time and space could look like in our schools, then there’s not a great deal of chance that transformation will occur.
But, I believe we can do it. I believe that there are enough educators and parents who have a different sort of vision of what this space called school could look and feel like. I believe that there is a growing energy and sense of courage building around the need to make room for imagination in our schools and in our communities.
Schools are currently locked into a way of thinking that claims that if our work as teachers is well-planned, well-defined and well-executed, then students will be more successful. The spirit of imagination challenges that notion.
Consider what might have happened if Martin Luther King had stood up and declared, “I have a plan.” Do you think he would have been able to inspire an entire nation into action. Instead, his words were, “I have a dream”. And dreaming, my friends, is what imagination is all about!
So, let’s continue to dream about the education that we want for our children, and let’s continue to push for more dreaming and imagination in the work that we do in this place and space called school!
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