Archive

• A Modest Proposal – Let’s Flip the Class

  June 5, 2011 9:45 PM Comments Off on A Modest Proposal – Let’s Flip the Class

  In his June 5th Blog, Larry Cuban comments: “Lecturing is performing, a way of conveying knowledge in a fresh way, a way of bridging oral tradition and visual culture that teachers, professors, and so many others have continually adapted to new media … With all of the concern for student-centered inquiry and using tougher questions based upon Bloom’s Taxonomy, one enduring function of schooling is to transfer academic knowledge and skills (both technical and social) to the next generation. Social beliefs in transmitting knowledge as a primary purpose of schooling remain strong and abiding . So lecturing and questioning will around for many more centuries.”

  Perhaps this is true, but it still leaves open the question of how the “lecture” portion of instruction is provided.  One promising practice is to “flip the class.”  This phenomenon seems to have originated with the Khan Academy, but it does note merely mimic that limited – some say flawed – approach and takes several forms.

  For example, a teacher (or a department or a district or a province) can present the lecture portion of a course – in whole or in part – as a series of podcasts and require students to view the lecture outside of class as their “homework.”  The individual activity that students would traditionally have done at home then becomes a class-based tutorial in which students work together in groups to complete the assignment while the teacher circulates to assist as necessary and perhaps to interject with a brief comment to the class if a common misconception or difficulty emerges.

  This is a good example of using digital innovations to create more personal contact time between student and teacher as well as creating cooperative learning time.  For students, it eliminates that sinking feeling that comes when one starts the homework and  suddenly realizes it does not make sense.  That’s when the phone lines heat up.  Wouldn’t it be better to make this discovery in class when there is a friend or teacher immediately available to talk about it.  For teachers, it eliminates the hours spent outside of class with students who come in desperately seeking help (and who then probably do their Chemistry homework surreptitiously in French or while they gulp down their lunch).

  There is also an additional task for the teacher, which is creating the podcast.  However, this is now technically trivial so anyone can do it with ease and it is a task that could be shared with other teachers of the same subject, each taking their favourite topic and perfecting their lecture on it.  There is no need for it to be a polished production with multiple takes and so on.  After all, lectures aren’t.  Students just want the goods, not another music video.  And once a podcast is “in the can” there is no need to change it unless some improvement can be made.

  The lectures themselves can be posted to a Youtube or Vimeo channel so that students can view them, and review them as often as necessary, at a time convenient to them.

  It would be foolish to suggest that video lectures are sufficient as instruction or that they replace teachers, but that does not mean that we cannot do them in a better way.  Flipping the class has been shown to have many benefits and its one more way for teachers to merge onto the high-tech highway.

• Canadian Education Wire – Thinking About a New Way to Rate School Performance

  June 2, 2011 8:18 PM Comments Off on Canadian Education Wire – Thinking About a New Way to Rate School Performance

  How Good Is My Kid’s School? – The Tyee
  David Chudnovsky feels for the parents who wonder, “How good is my kid’s school?”“We in education often answer, ‘The Fraser Institute sucks, and standardized testing doesn’t tell you much about how the school’s doing.’ And that’s true, we’re right about both of those things, but we haven’t answered [their] question,” says Chudnovsky, a public education advocate and former New Democratic Party MLA.

           Related publication:
           The Great Schools Project – How good is our school? How can we know? 
           Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

  What news am I missing? Can you recommend some education blogs for me to follow? Please tweet me at @max_cooke, e-mail me at mcooke@cea-ace.ca or better yet, use the comment box below to suggest additional articles happening in your region so that others can check it out.  

  OTHER EDUCATION NEWS
  
  The job of principal is becoming too focused on paperwork, report says
  Globe and Mail

           Related report: 
           People for Education’s Annual Report on Ontario’s Publicly Funded Schools

  History suggests all-boys schools don’t help with academics: study – National Post
  
  Don’t sweat teacher strikes: The kids are alright – Globe and Mail
  
  Wait lists for special education double for low-income students – Toronto Star
  
  Looking for solutions in the classroom – Chilliwack Progress
  
  Parents start campaign for more school funding – CBC Calgary
  
  Mental health top issue facing schools, coalition says – Toronto Star

  Suit opposes Quebec ban on teaching religion at subsidized daycares – Montreal Gazette
  
  Teachers bargaining for some respect – Similkameen Spotlight

  INTERNATIONAL NEWS

  When should you teach children, and when should you let them explore? – The Economist
  
  EDUCATION BLOG HIGHLIGHTS

  So what is it about Finland’s schools? – 2 Cents Worth
  Big question — and it’s probably a big answer. But several days ago, Swiss educator, Vicky Loras started a conversation with Finnish School Principal Esa Kukkasniemi. You can read the entire interview here in her blog as well as opportunities for you to talk with educators in Finland. But here are some statements from Esa that I highlighted in Diigo, as he ticked off major important points that have led to success in Finland’s education system.        

  CEA Video: Pasi Sahlberg – What is next for Finland? 
  Pasi Sahlberg, Director General of the Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation in Helsinki, Finland, shares seven things that you need to know about Finland’s exceptional education performance and what the future holds for this country’s education system in the ongoing pursuit of social fairness and equality.
  

  New Documentary: The Finland Phenomenon – Inside the World’s Most Surprising School System

  Teaching to the test is malpractice – Joe Bower

  Testing is not teaching. If you want proof of why, you need not look any further than this: Learning is messy. Real learning is really messy. Testing is, if nothing else, orderly. See the problem? Talk to any test-maker or psychometrician, and they’ll tell you the tests were never devised to make large sweeping, all-encompassing inferences. Even those who speak in favor of using test scores in moderation in low-stakes contexts understand that tests are merely a small sample of a much larger domain that we want to know about, and that great caution must be made in making inferences based on these tests.

  The Fabric of Community- The Key to Transforming Education – 21st Century Learning 
  I have been thinking a lot about how to manage the needed change process in education. Looks like a lot of folks have been playing with that idea as well. ISTE released their new NETS for ADMIN framing it as having the potential for  

  Transforming Education– Administrators play a pivotal role in determining how well technology is used in our schools. The NETS for Administrators enable us to define what administrators need to know and be able to do in order to discharge their responsibility as leaders in the effective use of technology in our schools.
  
  And take a look they are NOT too shabby when thinking about the characteristics leaders need to reform education in today’s fast changing world. The rub for me comes in when I try and look at these and other efforts to “transform” education and wonder if we aren’t really just talking about reform- small principled changes that look at change as we always have – through the lens of problem solving.

• Isolating public education from the shifting winds of politics

  1:54 PM Comments Off on Isolating public education from the shifting winds of politics

  Over the past few weeks, I have argued that the publicly funded schools in Canada and the U.S. are not doing well in terms of educating youth for citizenship in a democracy. The nub of my argument is that the graduates of our public schools, with outstanding exceptions, fall short of parental hopes and expectations – specifically in their too-frequent lack of readiness to take on the responsibilities and accountability of adulthood.

  A reliable measure of that shortfall is the explosive growth of private and home schooling over the past generation. There are now about 3,000 private schools in Canada and as many as 80,000 kids or more being home schooled. The consequent loss to the public schools of some of their most promising students raises the spectre of a public system, in the not too distant future, beggared of quality staff and resources. Already in some big cities in the U.S., the public schools are populated mainly by underprivileged youngsters under the eye of teachers, many of whom hate their work. A doleful picture.

  There are impressive records of community-based education changing the climate of public schooling in the direction of civic mindedness and away from mere careerist ‘self-centredness’. On the dark side of the ledger is the history of political reaction against progressivism in public education dating back to the 1980s. The reactionary forces have easily carried the day – more prescriptive curriculum, standardized tests, penalties for under-performing schools, merit pay for teachers, austerity in funding, enthroning of accountability for school boards and schools. As the saying goes, the natives are restless. Proposed major changes include isolation of public education from the shifting winds of politics, greater autonomy for school boards as education agents, official encouragement of professional status for teachers, involvement of community bodies both private and public in the education process.

  My preference leans to the last one of the list, which, in turn, depends heavily on all of the above for realization.  This will be hard sell. A good place to start without upsetting too many apple carts would be the engagement of service agencies and private entrepreneurs in the education process — in limited ways but with potential for major impact on the maturation process of teenagers. I shall return to this next time.  

• Big school infrastructure funding announcement shines media spotlight on Alberta

  May 27, 2011 5:57 PM Comments Off on Big school infrastructure funding announcement shines media spotlight on Alberta

  The Government of Alberta made a big education announcement this week.  It will spend $550-million over the next several years to build 22 new schools to address the significant population increases in various areas of the province.

  In boom-and-bust Alberta, it’s feast or famine for schools – Globe and Mail
  As Alberta’s population spikes and shifts with a booming economy, its education system has become a tale of two realities – one with hundreds of millions in new spending and a glut of students, and another facing hundreds of teacher layoffs, empty classrooms and budget shortfalls. The province, facing a baby boom in some areas that will add another 100,000 students to its enrolment by 2020, on Tuesday announced that it will spend $550-million over the next several years to build 22 new schools and renovate another 13.

  School promised $550M – Critics worry new facilities will lack teachers – Calgary Herald
  
  Airdrie residents cheer additional schools
  Prototype schools to fill gap for now – Calgary Herald

  Crowded Beaumont schools to get relief – CBC
  Province promises two new K-9 schools for fast-growing community

  What news am I missing? Can you recommend some education blogs for me to follow? Please tweet me at @max_cooke, e-mail me at mcooke@cea-ace.ca or better yet, use the comment box below to suggest additional articles happening in your region so that others can check it out. 

  OTHER EDUCATION NEWS
  
  Jordan Manners shooting death led to school safety changes – Toronto Star

  Toronto public schools slow to adopt JUMP math program – Globe and Mail
  
  Teaching grads are set to face grim future – Metro Edmonton

  Financial literacy: The kids weigh in – Globe and Mail

  U.S. Reforms Out of Sync With High-Performing Nations, Report Finds – Education Week
  
  Margaret Wente – We’ve institutionalized teacher abuse – Globe and Mail
  Related Education Canada feature article:  False Accusations: A Growing Fear in the Classroom

  CEA IN THE NEWS

  Some ideas on improving the school system in rural Yukon – CBC Radio Whitehorse Podcast

  EDU-BLOGOSPHERE HIGHLIGHTS
  
  Best day, everyday – The Principal of Change (George Couros)
  My Kindergarten teacher asked me if I was interested in taking one of the students around for a project that she is doing with all of the students in her class where the “Dragons Backpack” from our school goes on adventures.  I enthusiastically said yes as I have been bombarded with paperwork and finishing up things for the school year.  So at about 1:30 today, I got to walk around with an awesome Kindergarten student (Ethan) and followed his lead.  The first thing that he asked me was, “Where do you want to go?”, and I told him wherever he wanted to take me.

  The Honour Role – Webb of Thoughts (Kyle Webb)
  Right now, my younger brother, Kent, is on the final stretch of his high school career, and set to graduate at the end of June.  Just like anyone in his shoes, he couldn’t be more excited to be done and is counting down the days.  I remember how slowly those final few months seemed to go by.  As Kent’s older brother, I am extremely proud of him. Kent is profoundly deaf which, as you might imagine, has made his education a struggle over the years. 

  A Different Kind of Technology Integration – Thinking in Mind (Neil Stephenson)
  The vast majority of schooling is about epistemology – the transfer of stuff. Knowledge is usually broken down, detached from its historical or real-world contexts, sanitized from the messy arguments, issues and controversies that surround it’s creation, and presented in formulaic text books and hand outs. School presents a type of knowledge external to the knower – most of the time it doesn’t require any change in ‘being’ of the student. I’d like to see more schooling based around ontology – or the “being and becoming” of our students. 

   

   

   

   

• A Modest Proposal – Online Requirement for Graduation

  May 26, 2011 3:42 PM Comments Off on A Modest Proposal – Online Requirement for Graduation

  Online courses and pro-d programs have expanded rapidly and will continue to do so.  The ability to learn in an online environment will be an important life skill in the foreseeable future, and arguably is already.  So, why don’t we make completion of at least one such course part of every student’s graduation program?

  OK, let’s just skip the “yabbuts” for now.  That’s always an easy response/excuse, but these are problems to be solved not reasons to stall.  If this is a good idea, let’s do it.  But what makes it a good idea?

  The benefit for students seems clear to me.  Assuming a good quality course, which I will address in a moment, the experience of learning online in a supportive environment is good preparation for a world in which this will be increasingly common and expected in all careers, and also important for personal fulfillment.

  There are also benefits for the school system and for teachers.  This policy would be a lever that would force change in the system as it addressed the need for instructors capable of providing the course, providing access for students who require it and whatever policy and technical issues that are lagging and in need of update to support this change.  For individual teachers, it provides an opportunity to develop understanding and comfort in the online environment that is inexorably bearing down upon them.  School systems would need to provide support for this learning, the benefits of which would extend beyond the particular course to the more general need to incorporate new technologies into instruction.

  Imagine that a particular course in the graduation years were to be converted to online only provision.  In British Columbia, for example, it might be the Planning 10 course, which is intended to “enable students to develop the skills they need to become self-directed individuals who set goals, make thoughtful decisions, and take responsibility for pursuing their goals throughout life.”  Rather than just point students at a web site and wish them luck, the course could be organized as a hybrid; that is, face-to-face meeting with students from time to time (more at first and less later in the course) and the balance of the learning activities conducted asynchronously by students individually or in groups on their own time.  This would enable teachers to provide supportive scaffolding as students learned to be increasingly self-disciplined and self-regulating.  For those students who wish or require it, computer access could be available through the school library or computer lab.

  The school system would have to establish an appropriate hardware and software environment, and also provide support for teachers in learning to employ it.  Teachers would need to accept responsibility for this learning and thus for increasing their proficiency in the online environment.  Reluctance to accept this challenge is understandable, but, I would suggest, no longer acceptable for either school systems or teachers.

  The first attempts at such instruction might be somewhat primitive imitations of traditional instruction.  It takes time to learn to exploit the potential of the technology but every journey begins with a single step, and this one is over due.  There is no advantage to further delay.

  There are also many organizational issues to resolve.  Should students be required to be in a classroom during the scheduled time for this course even if its not a face-to-face day?  Do students have to be in school at all during at such times?  How will computer access be organized for those who require it?  Teachers for this course will need to have their own computer for planning and for student interaction.  Will they then be expected to respond to student inquiries outside of traditional instructional hours?  Should they establish email contact with students?  What about Twitter or Facebook?

  Yes, there are lots of questions and they are perfectly valid ones, but these are the questions that must be resolved for schools to move ahead with instructional use of technology and it is no longer acceptable to use them as an excuse not to do so.  The time has come to stop cutting bait and start fishing.

  
  

• The Education Reform Movement

  May 25, 2011 9:14 PM Comments Off on The Education Reform Movement

  Earlier blog postings at this website have roamed widely over the field of needed changes: Teacher training and compensation, student assessment, community engagement by students, teacher-student relations, standardized testing, innovation, creativity, digital learning, discovery learning, etc.

  Some of the blogs have obliquely referred to the obsolescence of the school model. As I see it, schools are indeed dysfunctional places – fertile seed grounds for bullying, e-mail hate mongering, smoking, doing drugs, engaging in unsafe sex, negative peer pressure about nearly everything, competition as a prime value, materialism, cliques and gang codes of behaviour, the iron bands of teen conventionalism in dress and language – any of which can be factors in teenagers’ mental and physical health. In the worst cases, schools are hellholes of classism (see the movie Waiting for Superman). Fortunately for some, schools are happy places – for the winners on the playing field and in the high marks game.

  Historically, teenagers and many pre-teens worked side by side with adults in ugly circumstances. Liberal democratic societies invented public schools in the 19^th century or earlier as models of social advancement. In the evolution of the schoolhouse cocoon, we have by and large ended up with what is written above. We seem to be at a historical crossroads with a chance to turn the corner.

  To break the mould, it will be necessary to re-engage students with the adult world as part of their formal education, at least for those in their adolescent years. Done successfully, most school graduates, will have the benefit of adult role models to steer them in the direction of good citizenship – engaged, tolerant, open-minded, curious persons.

  This is not a pipe dream. There are examples of high school students involved in the life of their communities as pre-apprentices, job shadowing, carpentry assistants, personal support for institutionalized persons of all ages, hands-on work to beautify parks and school grounds, etc. There are stories of community-engaged students putting in as much as two hours daily within the school timetable in addition to their schoolwork. Less glamorously, to do this will be hard work for everyone concerned. But the result will be worth the effort if it enhances our democratic citizenship as a benefit for both the most and the least advantaged. I view this as the primary purpose of public education. All the rest is secondary.

• Rethinking School Design: Part Two

  May 23, 2011 11:39 AM Comments Off on Rethinking School Design: Part Two

  If I were to walk in through the front doors of your school, what message would I receive? Would I feel welcome there? Would I be encouraged to stay for a while, or would I be more inclined to complete my business and get the heck out? Would I be able to get a sense of the vision and purpose of the school?

  In my last entry, I started to do some thinking out loud about architectural design and, in particular, how values, vision and purpose can be expressed and affected by the physicality of this place we call school.

  For many educators, the physical design of their schools are a given, inherited and already determined. Often the only opportunity to change design features is through a retrofit or renovation process.

  But let’s start doing a little blue-sky thinking and imagine that, as a parent, a teacher, an administrator or a community member, you were invited to be part of the planning team for a brand new school in your district. What design aspects would be important to you? What architectural features would help to reflect your school’s values and vision?

  And let’s begin by making a grand entrance!

  Entrances are powerful places, possessing the ability to communicate so much about what goes on beyond the threshold. But I would also argue that what goes on in the rest of the building can be greatly affected by the design of the entrance.

  One of the “mantras” that I use to remind me of the vision for my own dream school is, “Let’s turn this school inside out”. This involves the idea of drawing the outside community into the life and work of the local school, and allowing students to engage in more frequent learning activities out in the community.

  So how could that vision be reflected in my school’s entrance?  One idea would be to dedicate electronic display space in the front foyer. A photo and video feed displaying recent school trips to local businesses, facilities and learning centres would help to underscore the importance of that connection to the immediate neighbourhood and wider community. The multimedia pieces would be student-designed and part of the curriculum-based follow-up to each excursion.

  Another design related to this same inside-out principle would be an established and jointly sponsored studio area, along one side of the foyer. Studio spaces for dance, drama and visual arts would allow local artists to “take up residence” in the school, have a place to work, and act as an on-site resource for teachers, students and the rest of the community.

  Another learning principle that should be reflected in my school’s entrance involves a commitment to the environment. An indoor garden area is a simple and sustainable project idea that could involve students, teachers and the local community.

  Important to both the life of the garden and to the sense of openness that I wish to inspire in my school is a substantial amount of natural light. Ground level window space might be impractical and pose some threats to security, but skylight and overhead window spaces would do the trick!

  A couple of final design features that would help to establish an inviting atmosphere.

  First, comfortable furniture! Nothing says, “Come in and stay awhile,” more than soft, comfortable furniture arranged in ways that invite dialogue and conversation. Coffee tables with copies of the latest school and parent council newsletters, as well as student-produced books and magazines would help to communicate what is happening in the school.

  Finally, background music can go along way to offering a subtle invitational quality to any open space. I’m not talking about loud or intrusive music, but something that complements the atmosphere created by other design elements. 

   

  Entrances represent more than a way to get to other spaces in a building. They are a type of calling-card for visitors and a reminder to residents and employees of what it means to be in that space. I’ve been to many schools where it is obvious that time and thought have gone into the design of the entrance space. I’ve also been to others, however, where the entrance is rather dull and uninviting. 

  But entrances can also help to inspire and influence the life of what goes on in the rest of the building. By making design elements interactive, dynamic and open to the input of students and teachers as well community members, it is quite possible that curriculum activity within classrooms will change to take advantage of the opportunities provided. 

  So, now it’s your turn. Tell us about the grand entrances that you’ve seen in some of the schools that you’ve visited. Perhaps your own school has a particularly engaging design feature. Or maybe you would just like to join me in some blue-sky thinking about the school of your dreams. 

  As always, I look forward to your input! 

• Education Media/Blogosphere Roundup

  May 20, 2011 3:26 PM Comments Off on Education Media/Blogosphere Roundup

  There were a lot of education-related stories in the media this week covering a wide range of issues, from curriculum reform to cellphones in the classroom to the extinction of school librarians, and homophobia in the hallways.  Get caught up on what’s happening by clicking through the stories during this nice long weekend.  

  What news are we missing? Please e-mail me at mcooke@cea-ace.ca or better yet, use the comment box to suggest additional articles happening in your neck of the woods so that others can check it out.  

  Curriculum reform results not positive so far – Montreal Gazette

  Discrimination in the hallways – Slurs a daily school occurrence: report – Winnipeg Free Press

  Librarians fight for a role in a digital world – Globe and Mail

  Black Students to get roadmap to success – Halifax Chronicle Herald

  Battle over exemption from Quebec religious course reaches Supreme Court – Montreal Gazette

  Toronto school board lifts cellphone ban – Toronto Star

  University students fare better with interactive learning, study finds – Globe and Mail

  EDU-BLOGOSPHERE HIGHLIGHTS

  A Discussion With Education Minister George Abbott  – The Wejr Board (Chris Wejr)
  A few weeks ago, a teacher whom I have come to know very well and whom I highly respect, David Wees, sent me a message on Twitter that he had an exciting opportunity to share.  The following day, we caught up on the phone and he asked me if I would like to help moderate a discussion on Twitter with the Education Minister George Abbott!  What a fantastic opportunity for people to engage Mr. Abbott in dialogue around education in British Columbia.  I want to thank David for this opportunity and encourage all you to follow along on June 13th at 4:00pm PST on Twitter (hashtag #bced).

  The special momentum of the status quo – Joe Bower
  Have you ever noticed how little schooling has changed since your parents or even grandparents’ classroom days? I’ve often wondered how a classroom in 1985 Communist Russia would differ from one in 2011 Canada or America. Oh sure, there would be nuances with what kids were learning, but I fear how they were expected to do so would look freakishly similar. Regardless of time, place and political affiliation, behavioral conformity, worksheet completion and pre-test memorization would be the name of both games.

  Kids Are Learning…Just Not in Ways We Want Them To – User Generated Education
  Kids are learning . . . just not in the ways expected of them through formal education.  Young people have always engaged in informal learning based on their interests and passions.  Kids have found and initiated these opportunities in the past through school clubs, reading, local community centers, and neighborhood kids’ ballgames and performances.  These informal learning opportunities have taken an astronomical metaphorical leap due to social networking and ease of access of interest-based information via online means.  I am that not sure if those involved in the institutionalized education of young people are unaware or choose to ignore that young people are often learning more outside of the school than within that learning environment.

  So…What do you do for a living? The Clever Sheep (Rodd Lucier)
  For me, the most apt time for me to use a short, engaging presentation, is in introducing myself. Whether meeting educators for the first time, or striking up a conversation with fellow golfers on the tee block, I’d prefer to pitch myself as something more than ‘teacher’. I just don’t appreciate the baggage that sometimes comes with the job title, especially when I’m not sure about the other person’s past scholastic experience. Maybe that’s why my most recent name badge listed my job title as ‘Education Change Agent’.

   

   

• Necessary Disruption (Part 7: Making the Change)

  May 19, 2011 5:06 PM Comments Off on Necessary Disruption (Part 7: Making the Change)

  21st Century Learning that animates the 3 R’s through the soft skills of communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking requires us to tackle the difficult challenges of removing curricular bloat, deepening learning through inquiry and refocussing time and attention from summative evaluation to formative assessment.  What will it take to make this happen?  Is it inevitable, impossible or conditional?

  There is always lots of change in schools but traditional behaviours are amazingly durable and, in the end, schools seem, for the most part, much more similar than different over the 56 years since I entered Kindergarten.  Perhaps the biggest change I have seen is greater inclusion of students with exceptional needs, but this change has been more of an addition to schools’ services than a change in their fundamental nature – and even in this case inclusion in secondary schools has been seriously hampered and limited by traditionalism.  The transition to 21st Century Learning is even more radical than inclusion.  It involves not only new services but different behaviours, not only refinements but also substantive changes,not only incremental improvement to the way things are done but also entirely new ways of doing them.

  In addition, these fundamental changes must occur relatively rapidly to avoid weakening of the public education system by private schools and for-profit institutions that move more decisively to restructure their services for the new era.  We could be easily left behind in this transition – sort of the Nokia of public service if you will.

  Frances Westley, J.W. McConnell Chair in Social Innovation at the University of Waterloo, suggests in her interview with CEA on the landing page for this site that schools are inherently conservative because experimentation is dangerous and “we followed all the rules” is the best defense when you are being held accountable for many things over which you have no control.  Perhaps that’s why innovation usually occurs in isolated pockets and seldom spreads throughout the school system.

  Disruptive innovation that seeks to install a new pattern rather than merely enhance an existing pattern cannot succeed through grassroots enthusiasm alone.  Mind you, like all innovation it cannot succeed without it either, but bottom-up energy is not sufficient.  It also takes top-down initiative to create an environment that is hospitable to the innovation in the first place and, when innovation proves to be effective, it takes top-down intervention to recognize, enable and promote the innovation if there is to be broad adoption.  School systems have generally been inconsistent on the first count and failed outright on the second.

  This may be due in part to Ms. Westley’s observation, but I think it also the result of a flawed understanding of Professional Autonomy.  Teachers actively defend their right to decide how to provide instruction and assessment in their classes, as they should.  This autonomy is the flip side of their responsibility to do whatever it takes to enable the learners in their charge to succeed.  Without Professional Autonomy schools cannot be responsive to the needs of learners and Canadian students would never have achieved such impressive world-class results.  That, however, does not mean that there is no place for systemic expectations, and even insistence, on occasion, that individual teachers change their pedagogy to include necessary innovation and to be compatible with system-wide changes.  This may mean something simple like doing away with textbooks, or something slightly more complex like providing a web page for students and parents, or something quite fundamental like “flipping the class” to provide instruction on-line and tutorial assistance in class.

  When there is a demonstrable need and a proven response, it is ethically and professionally irresponsible to ignore it.  I do not mean to suggest the existence of a silver bullet – there are no such panaceas in education – but it seems clear to me – as argued in the six previous blogs in this series – that there is a need for change and that there are clear examples of successful responses that have been demonstrated in pockets of innovation around the world.  Isolated excellence, however, will not do in this case.  Effective practice needs to become the common practice.

  Therefore, I believe that the innovators cannot be left to convince their colleagues on their own.  Systemic forces must also be applied in order for disruptive change to occur.  These include provincial, district and school-level actions to enable change (for example, by addressing curriculum bloat and regressive assessment practices), to insist on teacher participation in change (for example, by deeply embedding assessment for learning in every teacher’s practice) and to support teachers in making the change (for example, by supporting professional learning with time and resources).

  Perhaps I am wrong.  Perhaps, as Peter Hennessy says in his blog, “school reform is seriously underway and,like termites in the woodwork, cannot be easily stopped,” but I doubt it.  The change has clearly begun and it has momentum, but whether it will spread far enough, fast enough and deep enough is conditional.  Perhaps it won’t stop but it may drift rather than surge ahead as it should.  The forces of preservation run deep in all organizations and certainly in school systems.  I fear that they are set to once again buffer, isolate and minimize the forces of innovation.  Good, as Jim Collins tells us, is the enemy of great and complacency is its faithful sidekick.  Can the moral commitment to maximizing the life chances of our students and the courage to step outside our comfort zone defeat them?  We’ll see.

• “Reforming Education”

  2:49 PM Comments Off on “Reforming Education”

  My last blog ended with the cri de coeur “How To Do It?” i.e., how to bring about fundamental reform of public education. Despite a minor flood of books, articles, and speeches over the past 40 years addressed to the reform question, the system, like an ocean liner under moonlight, sailed serenely along, its 19^th century design largely immune to progressive forces.

  Nevertheless, there are reform termites deep within the woodwork. In Ontario, the Emmett Hall/Lloyd Dennis Report of 1968, Living and Learning, challenged many of the basic assumptions about traditional schooling. For instance, the Report stated “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.”, and a little later “… we must relate the learning experiences in our schools to the real needs of young people.”

  No surprise, there was a strong right wing reaction against Hall/Dennis and all that it stood for across Canada and the United States exemplified by standardized testing at four or more points in the child’s school career.  The companion pieces of government testing – more explicit government control of curriculum and textbooks, system-wide codes of conduct and standard report cards; such reactions cast a pall over teacher professional independence and parental pleasure with the schools. In the process, many school boards sunk to the level of handmaidens of the central authority. In New Brunswick they disappeared altogether.

  But the reform train had left the station and could not be stopped. Typically, a school system under pressure to reform itself would gain approval for an experimental school or set of schools where innovation would be the order of the day, – without losing public funding. A few examples: The Calgary Girls School where the teachers are exempted from compulsory membership in the Alberta Teachers Association and where they are evaluated for merit pay. The Seven Oaks Met School in Winnipeg features “advisors” rather than teachers.  It may not sound like much but can have a huge impact on teacher-student relations in a society ready for some democracy in the schoolhouse. In the Greystone School near Edmonton, standardized test results are treated as a necessary evil with little relationship to the higher values of the school. Finland, leading the world in international student achievement tests, has abandoned standardized testing at home!

  These random recollections encourage me to believe that school reform is seriously underway and, like termites in the woodwork, cannot be easily stopped.

   

• How Effective is Sex Education?

  May 16, 2011 9:40 PM Comments Off on How Effective is Sex Education?

  Most research on sex education targets teenagers, a group that wants and needs accurate, complete and unbiased information about sexual activity given that a significant proportion of adolescents engage in sexual activity. In 2005, 43 percent of Canadian teens aged 15 to 19 reported that they had had sexual intercourse at least once. Eight percent of teens reported having had sexual intercourse before they were 15 years old.

  The effectiveness of most sexual health interventions is not evaluated. The research also has relatively weak research designs, such as poor use of control groups.

  However some conclusions are:

  • Adolescents who receive comprehensive sex education have a lower risk of pregnancy than those who receive abstinence-only or no sex education. Comprehensive sex education includes information on birth control and on prevention of sexually transmitted diseases as well as abstinence messages.
  • Programs that focus on abstinence without discussing safer sex behaviours do not seem to reduce HIV risk. Some abstinence-only programs can decrease teens’ sexual behaviors, although the effects are modest and short term.
  • Sex education programs often ignore youth with non-heterosexual orientations (i.e. homosexual, bisexual, transgendered).
  • Many students with disabilities receive poor sex education services or may be excluded entirely.
  • Studies have found that self-esteem and adolescent’s sexual behaviour and attitudes are not related, so self-esteem should not be the main focus of sex education.
  • Using peers to deliver sexual health education to young people does not seem to increase condom use or reduce the odds of pregnancy or of having more partners.

  Parents can support their children at home through open discussion of information about sex, and by reinforcing messages about condom use and other forms of birth control as well as around the risks of and social pressures related to sexual behaviour. Role-playing hypothetical situations can be a useful strategy. If the child is not comfortable talking to his or her parents or vice versa, finding someone the child can talk openly with would be a good alternative.

   

  Additional Resources For ParentsManitoba Healthy Schools:

  This website gives advice to parents, teenagers and teachers on the realities of sexual health. It outlines a section on how parents can talk to their children about sex.http://www.gov.mb.ca/healthyschools/topics/sexual.html

  The Sex Education and Information Council of Canada: SIECCAN is a Canadian non-profit education organization with the mission of informing the public about all aspects of human sexuality. This website links to a resource page with articles on sexual health.http://www.sieccan.org/resources.html 

  Alberta Health Services: This link provides a guide for parents on sexuality and developmental disability. The document was prepared by the Calgary Health Region and includes information for parents, tips on ways they may to talk to their children and a list of further resources. http://www.calgaryhealthregion.ca/programs/sexualhealth/pdf/sdd.pdf

  The Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada: This webpage includes a focus on information and tools for parents to guide their children to be sexually healthy. There are also hypothetical scenarios for parents to discuss and role-play with their children.http://www.sexualityandu.ca/en/parents

  PFLAG Canada: PFLAG Canada is a national organization helping Canadians struggling with issues surrounding sexual orientation and gender identity.This link provides information for parents trying to understand their children, links to useful websites and a list of readings that may be of interest.http://www.pflagcanada.ca/en/index-e.asp 

  Research References Informing this IssueBennett, S.E., & Assefi, N.P. (2005). School-based teenage pregnancy prevention programs: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Adolescent Health. 36(1), 72-81.Duke, T. (2011).

  Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth with disabilities: a meta-synthesis. Journal of LGBT Youth. 8, 1-52.Goodson, P., Buhi, E,. & Dunsmore, M.S. (2006).

  Self-esteem and adolescent sexual behaviours, attitudes, and intentions: a systematic review. Journal of Adolescent Health, 38, 310-319.Harden, A., Oakley, A., & Oliver, S. (2001)

  Peer-delivered health promotion for young people: A systematic review of different study designs. Health Education Journal, 60(4), 339-353.Kim, C., & Free, C. (2008).

  Recent evaluations of the peer-led approach in adolescent sexual health education: A systematic review, Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 40(3), 144-152.McKay, A., Fisher, W., Maticka-Tyndale, E., & Barrett, M. (2001).

  Adolescent sexual health education does it work? Can it work better? An analysis of recent research and media reports, The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 10(3/4), 127-136.Oakley, A., & Olive, S. (2001).

  Peer-delivered health promotion for young people: A systematic review of different study designs. Health Education Journal. 60(4),339-353.Oakley, A., & Fullerton, D., &Holland, J., & Arnold, S., & France-Dawson, D., & Kelly, P., &McGrellis, S. (1995)

  Sexual health education interventions for young people: A methodological review. British Medical Journal, 310(6973), 158-162.Rottermann, M., (2008).

  “Trends in teen sexual behaviour and condom use.”, Health Matters. Statistics Canada Catelogue no. 82-003-XPE • Health Reports, 19(3). http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/82-003-x/2008003/article/10664-eng.pdf ( accessed April 24, 2011).

  Underhill, K., Montgomery, P., & Operario, D. (2007).

  Sexual abstinence only programmes to prevent HIV infection in high income countries: systematic review. Retrieved April 10, 2011, from http://www.bmj.com/content/335/7613/248.fullWainwright, P., Thomas, J., & Jones, M. (2000).

  Health promotion and the role of the school nurse: a systematic review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 32(5), 1083-1091. 

• Schooling for Democracy

  May 11, 2011 9:00 PM Comments Off on Schooling for Democracy

  A lot of persuasion is needed to make the case for community engagement by students as the best way to enhance future citizenship. For many reasons, it’s a very hard sell:

  • most parents are comfortable with the status quo;
  • school officials and their lawyers worry a lot about safety and security issues;
  • unionized teachers are opposed to para-professionals and “ordinary” citizens engaged in any teaching role;
  • the central education authorities in the provinces and territories insist on full control of the curriculum as the condition for grant support of school boards;
  • businesses, community agencies, and citizens are often uninterested in having kids around to complicate their busy lives;
  • school graduates can learn what they need to know about citizenship from the school of “hard knocks ” after they graduate.

  These arguments for keeping students wrapped in the schoolhouse cocoon until age 18 are not persuasive. Let’s concede that most children younger than age 15, with exceptions, are not ready for organized community learning. For that large segment of students at or after Grade 10, the case for planned learning experiences outside the school is overwhelming:

  • the burgeoning of private schools in Canada (more than 3,000) attests to the dissatisfaction of many parents with the character development of their children in the public school milieu;
  • private school education tends to exacerbate the inequality of social classes in our multicultural country;
  • democracy is a tender reed best served by excellent, inclusive public education;
  • many publicly-supported-school students and their parents deplore education by numbers; (e.g., the overwhelming value placed on marks, the unseemly scramble for higher marks, standardized test results, percentages of diplomas granted, admissions to post-secondary education). None of these numbers is inherently bad. They simply over-emphasize numerical records that have very little if anything to do with readiness for democratic citizenship which should be first and foremost a matter of character development. School sports can be helpful but cannot be a substitute for broad community involvement;
  • students on the cusp of adulthood are able to contribute substantially to the improvement of health services, the mentoring of younger children, the sprightliness of life in private homes where domestic skills can be passed on, where the idea of service in the company of adults can become ingrained.

  As I see it, reform of public education is overdue but not likely to be achieved by the interested parties now in charge. How then to do it?

• Rethinking School Design

  May 9, 2011 9:40 AM Comments Off on Rethinking School Design

  The transformation of the space we call school to the place we call school is neither innocuous nor unintentional. Instead, each time a new school facility is planned, built and furnished, it is infused with a set of values, expectations, assumptions about children, about teachers, and about the way that the relationship between the two should develop.

  To be sure, new school buildings stand in anticipation of the future, but they also carry with them the practices and traditions of the past—elements that are so ingrained in our thinking that they have become part of the DNA of the institution.

  When we talk about school change from the perspective of reform, the physicality of schools is not really an issue. After all, much of today’s reform agenda is grounded in the idea that our current model of doing school is fundamentally sound. We just have to tighten up our approaches, batten down the hatches, and get back to the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic. Major architectural revisions are not part of the reform blueprint.

  But if we want to talk about transformation—and I believe we do—then we need to be bringing our teachers, students and administrators to the planning table even before shovels go into the ground. The educational ideas that are part of transformational thinking need to inspire the conversation between architects and school officials. The schools that are newly built or renovated in this 21^st century need to speak unequivocally about the principles of learning to which we adhere.

  If differentiation and universal design for learning is being inscribed in our policy documents, then flexible space and multi-purpose areas need to be available. We can no longer expect that the traditional classroom can be the locus for these approaches.

  If we are holding up collegial collaboration as a leading indicator of school quality, then we need to rethink the predominant designs where individual cells (classrooms) empty onto fairly narrow hallways. Instead, common learning and meeting areas that invite conversation and sharing are needed.

  If we really believe that the schools can foster a love of learning in both children and adults, then our design cues might well be taken from other places in our community that have been forced to consider the needs of those that come to learn: art galleries, museums and science centers are all good examples of spaces that have been transformed into places of real, interactive learning.

  If we recognize the fact that play and leisure are wonderful opportunities for deep and valuable learning, then outside spaces and designated indoor places for this to easily and effectively occur are essential.

  And if we are really committed to the vision of schools as community hubs, then places for welcoming the community must be built in to the design. It is no longer acceptable that visiting parents are relegated to hallways and crowded foyers. Instead, multi-purpose resource rooms for waiting, for meeting and for interacting would provide a more invitational atmosphere to the vision.

  These are just a few of the ideas that have been swirling around in my mind of late. Many educators want to offer programs that are committed to and reflective of the type of interactive, investigative and engaging approaches to learning that inspires transformational thinking.  Unfortunately, much of this thinking is not supported by basic elements of physical design. To be sure, those committed to new approaches to learning have done their best to be flexible, spending many hours attempting to recreate space so that it becomes the place that reflects their values, but this is time consuming and sometimes a little daunting.

  I believe that a sense of place is created as soon as physical space is imbued with value, belief and a sense of purpose. In the case of schools, this takes place well before the end users have any real chance for input. In the case of most schools, the traditional principles and approaches that hold back the work of transformation are inscribed in nearly every aspect of their design.

  I believe that a conversation needs to be opened up around this transition from space to place, and it is a conversation that needs to occur between all with a stake in school-based education.  I would like to begin some of that conversation here by inviting you to share your stories, your resources, and your ideas about school design?

  Are you part of a school community that has had the opportunity to rethink the physical design of its learning space?

  Have you altered existing space to create a different type of place for learning?

  What are the aspects of current design that best support your beliefs and values about teaching and learning?

  Have you encountered any examples of creative and innovative school design—examples that have caused you to say, “Woah, I would love to live there?”

  I’ve included a few references here as a starting point for some shared thinking on this. Why not take a look and weigh in with some of your own?

  As always, I look forward to the conversation!

  Some initial resources

  Ethical School Design

  An Education Canada article by Ken Klassen on the planning and design of a new middle school in Steinbach, Manitoba.

  Design Share 

  A set of resources dedicated to the exploration of designing for the future of learning. In particular check out the Language of School Design Tab

  SchoolDesigns.com

  This site features that architectural details of some of the most innovative elementary, secondary and post-secondary designs in the United States. Each year exterior and interior design contests are held and featured in the annual architectural digest. Worth a look!

• Partage d’expertise pédagogique

  May 7, 2011 1:28 AM Comments Off on Partage d’expertise pédagogique

  Voir ce qui se passe ailleurs me semble toujours enrichissant. Cela permet de situer l’ampleur de l’innovation que nous tentons de soutenir à l’école. Ainsi, grâce au soutien de la commission scolaire de la Pointe-de-L’Île et de la direction de l’école Wilfrid-Bastien,  j’ai eu la chance de participer à cinq conférences en un an : SITE 2010 et 2011, ISTE 2010, edcamp et TEDx New York.

  Ce que je retiens c’est que l’échange d’expertise entre enseignant(e)s peut s’exercer de différentes manières dans tous les types de rencontre consacrés aux échanges pédagogiques. Toutefois, ce sont les non-conférences comme la formule edcamp ou encore l’utilisation de réseaux sociaux professionnels tels Twitter qui me permettent de participer à des échanges immédiats et concrets. En fait, Twitter et la participation à une non-conférence permettent à chaque enseignant de se créer facilement un réseau professionnel de développement personnalisé. Ainsi, il a moins le sentiment de travailler seul et trouve réponse aux questionnements qui jalonnent sa pratique.

  Le site Zoom sur l’expertise pédagogique  est un autre moyen d’amener une réflexion sur sa pratique pédagogique. Il contient des centaines de vidéos de pratiques innovantes commentées. Il est fondé sur le principe de pratique réflexive par vidéo (appelé cercle pédagogique). L’idée est simple ; les rencontres sont informelles, conviviales, et les questions posées par un animateur-enseignant lors d’un cercle pédagogique ressemblent à celles-ci :

  Quelle est votre intention ?

  Que voulez-vous faire ?

  Quels types de résultats voulez-vous obtenir ?

  Quel est votre projet ? Quels sont les résultats ?

  À quoi avez-vous abouti ? Les résultats correspondent-ils à vos objectifs ?

  Qu’auriez-vous voulu faire autrement ? Pour quelles raisons ?

  Comment pourriez-vous progresser ? Si c’était à refaire ?

   

  La technologie est un bel apport pour faciliter les échanges entre professionnels de l’éducation. Il suffit de trouver la formule qui nous convient le mieux et de faire confiance à notre instinct pédagogique.

   

  Pistes de réflexion :

  Avez-vous déjà participé à une non-conférence ? Quel serait le niveau de participation de vos collègues ?

  Que pensez-vous des journées de formation habituelles ? Qu’en retenez-vous en général ?

• Citizenship Education is More About Process than Content

  May 2, 2011 9:36 PM Comments Off on Citizenship Education is More About Process than Content

  A piece in The Globe and Mail, April 29, 2011, featured advice from five smart people about how to get more citizens out to vote, thus to improve the health of our democracy. In light of my work on citizenship education since the 1950s, I avidly read their offerings.

  One of them suggested adoption of the American system of primary elections as a means of ensuring that candidates for public office are tested in advance for their popularity. Another argued for digital involvement at the grassroots level. That is, leaders at all levels from the Prime Minister down to the Mayor would regularly engage citizens in digital conversation about everything from staying in Afghanistan to building that new bridge. That way, more ordinary folks would become engaged in politics and policy. Still another said that students should be required to pass a civics test as a condition of high school graduation A fourth one thought that giving everyone ten dollars for voting would improve turnout and be a powerful incentive for low income people.

  These suggestions all have some merit. They declare in their different ways that citizen participation in the political process is seriously deficient in our democratic country. Only one of them directly involves the schools which came as a surprise to me since civic sensitivity is powerfully affected by the school experience.

  Let me explain. Becoming aware of the obligations of citizenship is much more than the cumulative effect of supper table conversation and genetic inheritance. More significant is the atmospheric effect of a dozen years in the schoolhouse, six hours a day. Fixed in a seat most of that time amidst two or three dozen seat mates, all passively ingesting information to be regurgitated later is no way to encourage active citizenship. Indeed, it has a powerful dampening effect.

  That is to say: Citizenship education is more about process than content; more about daily life experience than about subjects of the curriculum. One of the five contributors to the Globe article believed that a compulsory course in Canadian history before graduation would help. Maybe. Canadian history poorly taught to passive students would more likely be destructive of the intended aim.

  The key to student civic sensitivity is in the community, not the schoolhouse. In 1982, I spent a day at Miami Central High School in the heart of Little Havana. The school had a full-time staffer who coordinated the community work of the students where they helped in hospitals, schools for disabled children, homes for the aged, social service agencies, to name a few. Most of them volunteered for 200 hours or more each year in contrast to the token 40 hours required over four years before graduation in Ontario.

  Miami Central was one of scores of schools in North America where community engagement was the forerunner of social responsibility in adulthood. Isn’t that the essence of citizenship education?

• Teacher Compensation in Canada I

  April 29, 2011 6:54 PM Comments Off on Teacher Compensation in Canada I

  As a middle school teacher, I’ve always loved beginning the school year by reading Jerry Spinelli’s classic, Maniac Magee.

  If know the story, you’ll remember the image of Cobble’s Knot. At one point, Jeffrey “Maniac” Magee, a young outsider who has literally “run into” the town of Two Mills in an effort to escape the cruelties of his own life, accepts the challenge to unravel a very old, tightly wound knot that has been confounding visitors to Cobble’s Pizza Parlor for years. With some patience, perseverance and a seemingly intimate knowledge of tangled spheres, Jeffrey solves the knot, adding to the level of mystery and respect building around him in the racially divided town.

  Cobble’s Knot is not only a powerful metaphor for the social problems that plague this fictional town, but it provides a sobering reminder that many of our social institutions and practices have become complex knots of ideologies, attitudes and beliefs. In fact, one of the greatest challenges of the 21^st century may very well be to patiently unravel some of the complexities that have been handed down from previous generations, take a good look at the contributing threads and begin to weave together some new stories and some new possibilities.

  The latest episode of the Teaching Out Loud podcast series represents an attempt to begin to work at the complex knot attached to thread of conversation around teacher compensation in Canada. The current practice of paying teachers according to years of experience and level of education is not really that old, but it is one for which teacher associations across the country fought in an effort to raise the standards for the profession and ensure that a stubborn male bias around teaching assignments and compensation was addressed. This took place in a postwar Canada that was facing a baby boom, the birth of the suburbs and a rather serious teaching shortage.

  It was a time when the treatment of teachers was unequal, unfair and unpredictable. Our current practice of paying teachers according to years of experience and level of education was negotiated by teacher organizations as they became larger and developed a stronger voice. It was a response to what have now become foundational principles within the profession: excellence and equity!

  The teaching profession has changed substantially over the past several decades. The threads of professionalism and equity have been joined by concerns over student outcomes, contractual requirements, test scores and the way that students stand in comparison to the international community. There is a sense in which, education systems around the world are more attuned to visible outputs than any other indicator of quality, and the profession has been forced into a way of being that is much different than in previous generations.

  Two things became quite clear from the very beginning of my conversation with Joe Bower and Lou D’Amore. First, teachers don’t speak on any issue, including merit pay with a single, unified voice. On the one hand, Lou argues that our current compensation model is, in fact, a form of merit pay. Whenever we pay teachers for their education and experience, that represents a type of performance incentive. Lou feels that the money spent on pay grid increases could be better spent recognizing teachers who improve their professional knowledge and abilities.

  On the other hand, Joe reminds us that when we talk about merit pay, we’re not talking about rewarding teachers for bettering themselves. Instead, it’s really about encouraging higher test scores. For Joe Bower, this is completely unacceptable.

  Second, it became clear that it is virtually impossible to have a simple conversation about teacher compensation. There are no straight lines here. You start to talk about rewarding quality teaching, and you automatically open up a conversation about the criteria for quality. You start to talk about value-added assessments based on test scores, and you’re automatically drawn into a heated discussion about the inherent value of testing.

  It’s a knotty issue, to be sure, and this may prevent discussions about merit pay ever really get much traction here. But I still believe that it’s worth trying to untangle the knot a little more.

  I’m hoping that you will take the time to listen to Episode 4 of Teaching Out Loud and join in the conversation. This is certainly a discussion which warrants more than twenty minutes. 

  Here are some of the questions that emerged from my conversation with Joe and Lou—ones that, I believe, are worth some discussion.

  1. Is the current experience/education model the most effective way of compensating teachers for the work that they do?
  2. Is it fair that experience allowances for teachers end relatively early on in their careers? As Lou D’Amore asks, why do we pay a 10 year teacher more than we pay a five year teacher, but a 20 year veteran doesn’t receive more than a teacher with 10 or 15 years experience?
  3. Other than test scores, are there other manageable ways of measuring teacher quality or effectiveness?
  4. Does the current model of compensation actually stand in the way of professional growth?
  5. Should teachers be compensated for the extra things that they do in their professional lives: coaching, clubs, drama and music productions, etc.
  6. Would a model that sought to pay all teachers, regardless of years of experience or education, the same amount be fair and equitable?
  7. Are there non-monetary incentives that would encourage ongoing professional growth and development?

  You may have want to tackle one or two of these questions, or you may have a couple of your own. I’m hoping that the Teacher Merit Pay episode will open up some rich conversation around this somewhat confounding knot! Working together we might be able to unravel it a little more, address some of the underlying issues and move towards a compensation model that met the needs and demands of all who are committed to transforming public education in Canada!

• How Best To Motivate Students?

  April 20, 2011 4:32 PM Comments Off on How Best To Motivate Students?

  Students’ interest and desire to participate actively in the learning process is central to their success at any level of education. All students are motivated by some activities; in schools, student motivation is deeply affected by what happens in classrooms. Research drawn from several fields suggests ways we can improve students’ engagement and motivation:

  • Relevance – Building on students’ interests and making the lessons relevant to students’ lives and what they already know are good practices.
  • Choice – Giving students more choices in their learning, both about what to study and about how to present what they know and can do, makes learning more interesting and heightens curiosity.
  • Recognizing Effort – Success is a big spur to further effort. Students’ motivation increases when their efforts and contributions are consistently valued.
  • Feedback – Timely and specific feedback tells students what their strengths and weaknesses are. Feedback must be given so that students understand what they need to do in order to improve. Multiple opportunities to demonstrate learning are also important.
  • Teaching Methods and Tools – Students learn best through a variety of teaching techniques and strategies that challenge them and encourage them to explore ideas. The use of technology, such as computers, and SMART Boards, can also help to motivate students.

  Parents are valuable partners in the learning process. They can support their child’s learning by suggesting strategies to teachers that they have observed to be successful at home. This will help teachers meet the child’s learning needs.

  Teachers and parents support their children’s learning when they praise effort and hard work rather than intelligence. There is growing evidence that children’s intelligence is not fixed, and the children who do best are those who develop “growth mindsets” so that they are prepared to put in the effort to succeed.

  ---

  Additional Resources For Parents

  Canadian Education Association: This article from Education Canada Magazine presents ways to engage students through effective questioning. Parents can try these strategies at home with their children.

  http://www.cea-ace.ca/education-canada/article/engaging-students-through-effective-questions

  Concordia University: This website provides links to detailed tips that parents and educators can implement to encourage children to improve in their academics.

  http://teaching.concordia.ca/resources/teaching-strategies/motivating-students

  Scholastic: Scholastic provides information on children’s learning styles and a short quiz to help you determine your child’s needs.

  http://www.scholastic.com/familymatters/parentguides/backtoschool/quiz_learnstyles

  Scholastic: Scholastic provides practical suggestions that parents can implement to motivate their children to succeed.

  http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=1304

  Ontario Ministry of Education: This website provides a link to a report entitled “Me Read, No Way” with practical strategies on motivational strategies to improve reading among boys.

  http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/brochure/meread/index.html

  Research References Informing this Issue

  Brophy, Jere. (2004). Motivating Students to Learn. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

  Hidi, S., & Harackiewics, J. (2000). Motivating the academically unmotivated: A critical issue for the 21^st century, Review of Educational Research, 70 (2), 151-179.

  National Research Council Institute of Medicine (2003). Engaging schools: Fostering high school students’ motivation to learn. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.

  Palardy, Michael. (1999). Some strategies for motivating students. NASSP Bulletin, 83, 116 -121.

  Perry, N. E, Turner, J. C., & Meyer, D. K. (2006). Classrooms as context for motivating Learning. In Alexander, P. A., & Winne, P. H. (Eds.), Handbook of educational psychology (327-345). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

• Necessary Disruption (Part 6: Assessment and Evaluation)

  April 19, 2011 9:11 PM Comments Off on Necessary Disruption (Part 6: Assessment and Evaluation)

  21st Century Learning that animates the 3 R’s through the soft skills of communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking requires us to tackle the difficult challenge of removing curricular bloat and deepening learning through inquiry – but that is not enough.  Traditional assessment and evaluation practices are also in need of an extreme makeover, which is the focus of this penultimate entry in the Necessary Disruption series.

  Evaluation is traditionally used only to assign grades for the purpose of reporting to parents and outside agencies.  This does nothing to improve learning or teaching.  Of course, students deserve to know where they stand in relation to curricular expectations, and it is perfectly reasonable for the public to ask for some reassurance that the school system is working, so evaluation has valid purposes, but supporting learning is not one of them.  Evaluation is an afterthought tacked onto the learning process rather than an integral and contributing element.  That is unfortunate, but what is more troubling is that in its current form evaluation can actually be harmful in two respects.

  For students, an exclusive diet of summative evaluation tends to focus their sense of accomplishment on the marks that others provide as surrogates for their learning rather than the learning itself, which discourages them from taking on difficult learning tasks and is therefore antithetical to attempts to engage them in inquiry.  This focus on the end product rather than the process through which it is achieved is akin to a company focussing on profits rather than the quality of the goods, services and business practices that result in the profit.  It directs attention to the wrong things while neglecting the core business.  There may be short-term results in some cases, but in the long run its a losing strategy that fails because it does not enhance learning.

  On the other hand, for the public, summative assessment is a reasonable way to provide a measure of accountability in one of the largest, and most expensive, arenas of government activity, but problems arise here also because of the breadth and complexity of the intended outcomes.  Simple, clear measures are understandably preferred and often they are provided despite the fact that they neither accurately nor completely represent either intended or achieved learning.  There is nothing inherently wrong with such measures – assuming they are based on the curriculum and are technically sound – but simple answers to complex questions often lead to false conclusions and misguided responses.

  Would one find it appropriate to rank order the parents in a neighbourhood according to their proficiency in child rearing?  Perhaps the average of a child’s percentile score on a social skills index, an athletic proficiency test and the GPA on the school report card would tell us who is the best parent in town.  I suspect that most people would find this suggestion ridiculously naive and quickly point out its fallacies and limitations, if not its dangers.

  And yet, the Fraser Institute is seen as credible when it does this for schools using an essentially meaningless statistical mishmash of a narrow range of outcomes.  This misleads both individual parents and the general public.  Another example – mercifully not practiced in Canada – is the use of standardized test results for high-stakes decision-making about school funding and teacher pay.  Standardized testing is not the villain here; it is the assumption that it can capture what is most important about learning and the misinterpretation and misuse of the results it provides.

  So, while valid and potentially useful, evaluation is problematic because of the way it is sometimes used.  However, summative evaluation is not really the important issue for 21st Century Learning so I will leave it there.  It is formative assessment that is essential and that’s what I want to talk about.  First, however, let’s be clear about the distinction.  Assessment is the gathering of evidence of student learning to help a teacher understand what a student knows, does not know, is beginning to know, thinks s/he knows but has actually misconstrued, wonders about, is interested in and so on.  Assessment data can be used in many ways.  One of them is to compare what has been learned to expectations or standards in order to judge its quantity and quality in relation to what the curriculum intends.  This second step is evaluation.

  The difference is far more than semantic since these two related processes have fundamentally different purposes.  Assessment is necessary to enable evaluation, but this is not its most powerful use.  What a teacher comes to understand about a student’s learning enables two much more important teaching functions.  The first is to give helpful,descriptive feedback to the student within a coaching relationship that provides acknowledgement, direction and encouragement.  The second is to determine what the teacher can do next to most effectively respond to the learning success, needs and interests of the student.  (This use of assessment to inform instruction and enhance learning is commonly referred to as assessment for learning, in contrast to assessment of learning, which is intended to provide data for summative judgments.)

  Assessment of learning should continue, although it could be accomplished without consuming as much time and attention as is currently the case, but assessment for learning is the more important function and its elevation is key to 21st Century Learning.  This, I hope, sounds logical, but it is also complex and requires significant change by teachers and school systems.  Some of the change involves teachers learning new procedures and developing new skills, but the really hard part is for teachers – and equally importantly, for parents – to surface long-held assumptions and change those that have locked us into an almost exclusive focus on summative evaluation.  Unlearning of habits is very difficult at the best of times.  In this arena, the change is additionally vexing because it raises fears for many adults about loss of rigour based on subconscious attachment to flimsy views of teaching as telling and learning as listening.

  Assessment for learning (AFL) must become an integral part of classroom life, but it need not take additional time.  Unlike summative evaluation, which occurs outside of instruction and thus robs time from it, formative evaluation is embedded in the learning.  Of course, this means that curriculum must be designed to incorporate it and that teachers must learn to do it, but AFL represents a change in practice rather than yet another addition.

  The observations that are made and the feedback provided deal with the content of the learning but also with the process, thus helping learners to become conscious of their styles, strengths, challenges, preferences and habits.  This self-awareness is necessary for developing metacognitive control over learning behaviour (aka self-regulation) and one of the essential foundations not only for maximizing achievement in school but also for lifelong learning.

  Unfortunately, other than in the primary grades, students generally get very little feedback.  What they get is marks.  These marks are “earned” through compliance, diligence and replicative performance.  They are not intended as a mirror that illuminates learning but as the“ just desserts” for students’ work that lets them know “where they stand.”  The entire ritual of reporting, and the accompanying ceremonies of recognition and reward, reinforce the idea that the purpose of schooling is for students to get good marks so that the adults can be happy and proud.  In this pseudo-economic exchange, the most grievous sin is error, and this sin is detected through evaluation, which makes students understandably nervous about a process that they have learned to see as hostile inquisition. 

  Assessment for learning, on the other hand, sees students as partners rather than subjects, even co-learners in many respects, and error as a natural part of the learning process that occurs when one ventures out into the personally unknown.  In this worldview, a teacher’s primary assessment task is not merely to assign and correct, but also to provide constructive feedback that enables and encourages.  It takes time for teachers who were themselves students in schools where the summative evaluation model reigned, and who may have re-enacted that model in their own classrooms with the most sincere and positive of intentions, to reconsider it.  How much harder is it for students to believe that the ground has truly shifted and that it is now safe for them to openly share their questions and uncertainties without fear that all will be noted and held against them in the star chamber of evaluation?

  In addition to being willing and able to receive feedback from a teacher, students need to learn to provide feedback to each other and to themselves.  Peer evaluation, enabled through supportive curriculum design and instruction in reasoned judgment, helps to develop critical faculties and lays the foundation for self-evaluation.  Empowering a student with the inclination and ability to self-assess, and thus to self-evaluate, is another essential step in developing the self-regulation that is required for lifelong learning.

  Thoughtfully and constructively conducted, formative assessment (i.e, AFL) also helps students to develop a realistic but positive sense of self-efficacy that increases internal motivation and self-awareness that enables them to maximize their abilities by working to their strengths, knowing how to compensate for their weaknesses and skillfully selecting strategies to help them persist when they encounter challenges.  Thus, AFL is a strength-based approach (Theory Y if you like) that stands in stark contrast to the prevailing focus on remediating deficiencies (which is much more Theory X).  Both Theory X and Theory Y have their place, but 21st Century Learning puts Theory Y squarely in the foreground.

  The shift from a primary focus on summative evaluation to an emphasis on embedded formative feedback is both complex and difficult, but also essential.  It is a fundamental part of the disruptive innovation that will be required in the transition to 21st Century Learning.  Therefore, it is important to think about how disruptive innovation occurs and what it will take for existing systems to engage in it – which is the subject of the seventh and final installment in this series of blogs.

• CEA Research Awards Program – Important Updates

  April 14, 2011 6:30 PM Comments Off on CEA Research Awards Program – Important Updates

  CEA proudly celebrates the innovative work of school and classroom practitioners, and researchers, through the Pat Clifford, Ken Spencer, and Whitworth Awards.  These awards recognize their contributions, their promise, and their commitment to breaking new ground and revisiting commonly held assumptions in education policy, practice or theory in Canada. 

  Deadline for Pat Clifford Award Nominations – May 31, 2011

  The Pat Clifford Award recognizes the work of emerging researchers.  Applicants must be in the process of completing a Masters or Ph.D. OR have completed a Masters or Ph.D. in the last two years. To nominate a candidate, or apply for this award, please visit: www.cea-ace.ca/cliffordaward

  Next Whitworth Award for Education Research to be presented in 2013

  The Whitworth Award recognizes individuals who have made a sustained and substantial contribution to educational research.  It will now be presented once every three years.  This change will provide the time required to continually replenish the field of candidates while heightening the profile and prestige of the awards recognition activities.  Nominations information will be distributed in the spring of 2013 and more detailed information about this award can be accessed at:

  www.cea-ace.ca/whitworthaward

  Stay Tuned for Application Deadline Announcement of the Ken Spencer Award

  Now in its third year, the Ken Spencer Award for Innovation in Teaching and Learning  recognizes and publicizes groundbreaking innovative work unfolding in schools.  To read about previous winners and to find out how your school can apply for this award, please visit:  www.cea-ace.ca/kenspenceraward

• Self-Efficacy and Self-Control in the Teaching Profession

  April 9, 2011 1:20 AM Comments Off on Self-Efficacy and Self-Control in the Teaching Profession

  I’m not who you think I am, I’m not who I think I am, but I am who I think you think I am.

  We don’t have a teacher quality problem in this country. Canada is fortunate to be home to some of the most dedicated, energetic and highly educated professionals that you’re going to meet anywhere. Our faculties of education do an excellent job of preparing candidates to assume roles as thoughtful, reflective and well-trained professionals, nationally and internationally. Our teacher associations have a highly developed infrastructure dedicated to the ongoing development and support of their members.

  No, I think it’s safe to say that the teaching profession in this country is of high quality and has contributed a great deal to Canada’s standing as one of the finest education systems in the world.  

   It’s not a teacher quality problem that concerns me. Instead, I’m concerned these days about self-efficacy among our teachers.

   Psychologist Albert Bandura defines self-efficacy as a person’s belief that they can be successful in a particular situation. One’s level of self-efficacy will affect how they think about, and behave towards particular tasks.

   According to Bandura’s thinking, people with high self-efficacy will

  • see challenging problems as things to be explored and mastered
  • develop a deeper sense of interest in the activities related to a particular role
  • be more strongly committed to their interests and activities
  • recover more easily from setbacks and disappointments

  Although Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy is most often used to describe individual behaviour, I think that it also has some validity for talking about group and organizational behaviour as well.

  I would argue that one of the casualties of the accountability movement in education has been the self-efficacy of teachers, both individually and collectively. In order to legitimize the centralization of power and control over schools that has characterized and, in a sense, defined this movement, it has been necessary to substantially alter the educational discourse and related messaging about teachers.

  For the past 15 years or so, a constant stream of top down “school improvement” initiatives, data collection protocols, large-scale testing and teacher evaluation processes have been accompanied by the implicit message to professionals working at the school level: “You’re not really doing a good enough job. We’re going to have to fix that.”

  And attempt to “fix” it they have. As it currently stands, teachers in many Canadian jurisdictions are not only required to follow a very prescriptive, grade-based set of expectations, but the strategies and day-to-day processes that were once controlled at the school level, often by individual teachers, are now handed down from above as best practice ready for universal implementation.

  Now, while I don’t have any hard scientific evidence to prove it definitively, it is my sense that the shift that has occurred has had a huge impact on the way that teachers feel about themselves, talk about themselves, and carry out the work that they have been trained to do. And for many of my colleagues, this effect has been discouraging and more than a little demoralizing.

   I, for one, think that it’s time for a change. In my last entry, I mused about how difficult it would be to recapture a sense of professionalism once it had been stripped away. Unfortunately, professionalism is not like a light switch: it’s not something that can be turned on and off at will. It takes a long time to devalue it and it takes even longer to restore it.

  Yet, I firmly believe that true transformation in Canadian schools is only going to take place once we have begun the process of re-energizing and re-valuing our teaching profession. And I believe that one of the important effects of this process will be a greater sense of self-efficacy.

  As usual, I don’t pretend to have all of the answers as to how this might happen. I’m not even sure whether I have all the right questions yet. But there are three dimensions of my life as a professional teacher that I think might be a good starting point for conversation.

  First, a greater sense of freedom to make decisions about teaching strategies and approaches must be returned to the local school and classroom level. Classrooms and schools need to become a place of dynamic innovation and creativity. Educators at the grassroots level need to be invested with a sense of trust they are capable of planning and implementing programs that meet the needs of their particular students. They certainly need to know about the strategies and approaches that others have found to be successful, but they also need the freedom to adapt professional practice to local context. The language of the profession needs to be more steeped in the spirit of responsiveness than it is in the spirit of accountability. And that requires a type of on-the-ground flexibility and professional freedom.

   Second, responsibility for personal and large-scale professional development needs to be given back to the profession. For too long, a great deal of teacher development has been appropriated by centralized priorities and initiatives. This has served to drastically alter the way that teachers engage in professional learning and the way that they enter into collegial and collaborative relationships. Teachers need to be given the opportunity to learn about and master new and effective approaches to their work, but more of the impetus and initiative for this learning needs to come from within the profession, and not mandated from outside.

  Third, a two-way flow of knowledge and understanding about teaching and learning needs to be nurtured and supported. Instead of coming to teaching professionals with pre-developed ideas and initiatives, the process of curriculum and program development needs to be more dialogical in its approach. Teachers need to begin to see the insights and understandings that they develop as part of their practice as somehow contributing to the overall

  It’s an interesting time to be a teacher. On the one hand, our efforts and successes are celebrated on the world stage; on the other hand, the gradual de-professionalization  of teachers on the home front has left many feeling frustrated and unfulfilled.

  Call it a perfect storm. Call it a tipping point. Call it what you will, but I think that we’ve reached a point in the story of education in this country where its time to engage in some serious conversation about self-control, self-efficacy and the future of our work in this place we call school. 

  Much more to explore here, but I would be interested in knowing how you perceive the level of self-efficacy among your own teaching colleagues. Have you noticed a change in teacher’s beliefs about their abilities to do the work that they are being asked to do. If so, what is at the root of that change? Is self-efficacy something about which we really need to be concerned?

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