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Greystone Teachers Get Fired Up After CEA Calgary Conference
Comments Off on Greystone Teachers Get Fired Up After CEA Calgary ConferenceThis content has been re-posted from Carolyn Cameron’s Blog at: http://www.psdblogs.ca/greystone/2013/10/26/whats-standing-in-the-way-of-change-in-education/
I love this question! I love it when a great question like this gets me thinking. I am assuming that many other educators from around the country likely feel the same way and perhaps, that’s what drew so many of us to the Canadian Education Association’s“What’s Standing in the Way of Change in Education?” Conference in Calgary last week.
What inspired me from the day and a half that I spent with a number of stakeholders from the Education community (educational researchers, professors, superintendents, school board trustees, administrators, teachers and most importantly – students) was the opportunity that the teachers from Greystone had to share practical examples of what change in Education looks like based on their experiences in our school. These teachers were empowered to share their stories of looping, team teaching, collaborative inquiry, assessment as learning and innovation. Their stories are a reminder of what’s possible in Education when we remove barriers and have the courage to “do school” differently in order to get it right for today’s learners.
Another highlight from this conference, for me, was hearing a teacher from the Calgary Science School, Deidre Bailey, share her story of change with all of us. Recognizing that it is the teacher, in the classroom, who has the power to make a difference in student learning, was a message I shared with my entire staff during our Professional Development Day – which took place a few days after our Greystone team of nine returned from the conference in Calgary. I read Deidre’s story to the Greystone staff – here is part of her message:
This change in our classroom environment was a product of co-designing learning tasks in which student voice had space and validity. Kids are so innately curious and creative. All that is left to us, is to foster an awareness of the possibilities that surround them, to let them ask questions, make decisions and make things different.
Following up from Deidre’s story, I asked staff to reflect privately on their own practice and in particular, what was the evidence they had that they were getting it right for our learners and what could they do to grow? I encouraged staff to share their reflections with each other. They blew me away with their willingness to engage in thoughtful, honest conversation. The staff did not want to stop talking! Several teachers openly admitted to taking a step backward this year in their instructional practice due to some challenges they are experiencing (including a “boxed up” schedule that was implemented to deal with additional homeroom classrooms that were added at each grade level).
So, I asked them this great question from the CEA Conference: “What’s standing in the way of changing this?” They were fired up! The dialogue and debate created more questions, more ideas and a commitment to find a better way to provide our students with more time for deeper learning through cross-curricular inquiry.
We haven’t got this all figured out yet, but I know one thing for sure…our Greystone teachers feel empowered, supported and capable of removing anything that’s standing in the way of doing what’s best for our students. I am looking forward to seeing where this takes us. In the meantime, thank you Canadian Education Association, for the great question which is going to continue to keep our school moving forward in the way we “do school”.
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Educating Our Schools
Comments Off on Educating Our SchoolsThe following is the first in a series of entries inspired by CEA’s What’s Standing in the Way of Change in Education event, held October 21-22 in Calgary. As a member of the facilitation team, I did not have the opportunity to fully participate in all of the rich and engaging conversations that took place around the room, but I am looking forward to using the vision statements, table reports and artifacts collected from the event to offer one perspective on the question that inspired so many to participate.
JEAN BRODIE: To me, education is a leading out. The word education comes from the root “ex,” meaning “out,”and “duco…”I lead.”
To me, education is simply a…a leading out…of what is already there in the pupil’s soul.HEADMISTRESS: I had hoped there might also be a certain amount of putting in.
JEAN BRODIE: That would not be education, but intrusion…from the root prefix “in,” meaning “in,” and the stem “trudo…” “I thrust.”
Ergo, to thrust a lot of information into a pupil’s headThere’s an important nugget of truth in this bit of dialogue between the young, creative heroine and her principal in Muriel Spark’s 1961 novel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. It’s a truth that, no doubt, resonates with many of us who actively participate in conversations about school change. And it’s a truth that was certainly winding its way through many of the table group discussions that took place this week when the Canadian Education Association convened over 300 educators, students, parents, political leaders, system administrators and members of both related profit and not-for-profit groups from across the country in Calgary. For me, it’s a truth that directs our attention to one of the most essential points around which the question that inspired the event turns: What’s Standing in the Way of Change in Education?”
I”m not suggesting that we need to take a this or that approach to the conversation about the purpose of schools, but I do think that Miss Jean is right in pointing out that we need to be careful about how and when we use the term education. I would go even further by predicting that, if Miss Brodie were to visit a typical Canadian public school next week, she would be forced to observe that much of what is happening there is more intrusive than it is educational. In fact, I would argue that our schools aren’t designed to honour the fact that students—and, increasingly, teachers, bring much of anything to the table.
Consider, for example, the way that curriculum is designed and organized. The lock-step set of expectations that become the law of the classroom for most Canadian educators doesn’t leave a whole lot of space for drawing out the interests, talents and passions that lie deep within the souls of students or teachers. Think about the way that physical space is arranged. The one-teacher-to-many-students classroom, complete with standard seating, relatively small space allocations are accompanied by the underlying belief that real teaching should be centered on instruction rather than construction. It becomes a challenge to imagine many alternatives. Oh, some have been successful in accepting that challenge, (Read the story of change that Calgary teacher, Deirdre Bailey shared at the CEA event) but, to a large extent, they are considered outliers.
The reality is that practically every aspect of schooling has been designed for putting in rather than leading out. And that is why I think that this could very well be where our conversations about change need to turn. The most basic assumption that we make about the educational quality of our schools is not one that we’re accustomed to having. But I would be willing to bet my pension on the fact that, unless we’re willing to grapple with it in all of its depth and thorniness, we’re not going to get very far.
What would it look like if a school were deeply committed to valuing what its students and teachers brought into the building every day? What would it sound like? What would it feel like? How might it be organized in terms of time and space? What new roles and relationships would be necessary if this commitment were going be supported? What assessment practices might find a home in this place of leading out? How would long- and short-term planning be different? What new alliances might be formed with the community? What would the role of parents be?
These are all questions that you’ve likely heard before, but how might the responses be different if we turned our attention away from the strategies and processes designed to filling minds rather than divining what might already be there in the lives, minds and, as Miss Jean suggests, the souls of all learners, both young and old(er)? What might the results be if our schools became more…well…educated? Instead of thinking of what additional things we can put into the system, how can we build a vision for our schools that somehow enabled what is there in terms of human capital and capacity to be drawn out in a way that enlivened learning?
Over the past several years, the Canadian Education Association has joined others in pointing to strong evidence that we need to think about schools differently. We heard from students in Imagine a School and What Did You Do in School Today? We heard from teachers in the Teaching the Way We Aspire to Teach initiative, and we’re beginning to hear from school administrators in Leading the Way You Aspire to Lead. This past week, over 300 passionate and informed Canadians gathered in Calgary to begin moving to take what we’ve learned to the next level.
It is relatively easy to identify the things that stand in the way of change in education. It is more difficult to zero in on the reasons why these barriers seem to be so stubborn. The opening snippet of dialogue from Muriel Sparks points to one way to deepen the conversation even more. For me, it represents that central core of the discussion around which everything else turns!
I have a feeling that we’re about to move closer to that centre!
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Let’s Ban the Binder
Comments Off on Let’s Ban the BinderHas your hand ever cramped up while copying notes into a binder? Do you remember the days when you had to create title pages? Did it matter whether you neatly underlined the date on each page? Can you recall having to study from handwritten notes in preparation for an exam? While binders, refill paper, and writing utensils have comprised the standard learning toolkit for many decades now, these very tools are among the most significant barriers to the change that will one day modernize our schools.
Has your hand ever cramped up while copying notes into a binder? Do you remember the days when you had to create title pages? Did it matter whether you neatly underlined the date on each page? Can you recall having to study from handwritten notes in preparation for an exam? While binders, refill paper, and writing utensils have comprised the standard learning toolkit for many decades now, these very tools are among the most significant barriers to the change that will one day modernize our schools.
Nothing says 20th century learning like the 3-ring binder. For decades, this tool has been the cornerstone of learning. Even dressed up as a cross-curricular ‘Trapper-Keeper’, the purpose of a notebook has been to collect and organize the static knowledge and information deemed most important by the teacher. Whether used to maintain notes, to organize photocopied handouts, or to collect assignments, the state of one’s binder has commonly mirrored a learner’s eventual academic achievement.
In the 1960’s and 70’s the essential aspects of a course were copied from the chalkboard; in the 1980’s and 90’s critical points were copied from the overhead projector; since the turn of the century, keynotes have been copied from slideshow presentations. Primarily meant as an aid to learners preparing for the written test, the act of recording notes on paper by each student in a classroom is a time vacuum that anchors us to arcane paradigms of learning. It’s time to take such past practices to task. (Can you say that five times fast?)
If we value design thinking, project-based learning, and co-construction, then an investment in multimedia portfolios should replace the act of recording notes.
If we care about rich tasks, multimedia products, and digital footprints, then the exploration of modern tools ought be emphasized beyond time spent reviewing notes in preparation for unit tests.
It we wish to honour students with a curriculum guided by choice, challenge, and collaboration, then we need to abandon the practice of recording identical notes into each student’s three-ring binder.
If we believe that creativity is more important than regurgitation, that inventiveness is of greater value than memorization, that learning is more experiential than observational, then we must engage students in thinking beyond pen, ruler and paper.
The future of education is unbound. Modern learning cannot be captured on a page, between the covers of a binder, or within the walls of a classroom. If teaching and learning are to reflect the shared, open, hyper-connected nature of learning, then the retirement of the binder could be the first brave step towards modernizing our practice.
While the removal of traditional tools like notebooks, binders and pencils might be seen as disruptive, I see the replacement of these tools with collaborative practices and digital tools as ‘eruptive’. By leveraging handheld devices, cloud tools, and collaborative learning practices, the modern ‘wiki-fied’ notebook has the potential to change school-based learning as we know it.
It is our comfort with the past is that delays us from making advances in learning. Older siblings, parents, grandparents, and practically every teacher on the planet will recognize the school binder as the prime artifact of learning. Because of that, it will be the intrepid among us who will are the first to retire the binder. The experiences of contemporary learners in newly unbound learning spaces will be remarkable – unrecognizable to past generations of learners. The time has come. Let’s ban the binder.
This blog post is part of a series of thoughtful responses to the question: What’s standing in the way of change in education? to help inform CEA’s Calgary Conference on Oct 21-22, (#CEACalgary2013) where education leaders from across Canada will be answering the same question. If you would like to answer this question, please tweet us at: @cea_ace
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Let’s Be Honest: One Maguire Moment and 26 Teacher Voices
Comments Off on Let’s Be Honest: One Maguire Moment and 26 Teacher VoicesFor educational change theory, you can open a book and read up on the theorists, but to accomplish change, you really need to be comfortable taking risks individually as a teacher or collectively as a class or school community (students and parents included). Adrenaline junkies are okay not touching something solid. They like to skydive, catch air skiing or boarding, or feel the vibration of a bicycle wheel going down a mountain. The majority, however, like to touch something solid.
teacher-made assessments, I was told, had a reliability of 0.4 which meant … throw it out. Why selectively ignore that? It was comfort and solid and worked for me… until I had children… and now, daily, I ask why there are grades given in schools? If measurement doesn’t support it in the classroom… if the grades can cause anxiety, create competition, and make students feel depressed or lack confidence when they have pure potential?
In systems, solid can be the rules or policies we build to keep order, but in creating these, we create solid walls around ourselves. This has created familiarity and order for some, but it has also boxed us in and given us false comfort. I recently had my Jerry Maguire moment (“The things we think and do not say… Let’s be honest”) when I gave a keynote at the TLT Conference held at the University of Saskatchewan on The Four Movements in Education. In it, I admitted to my atrocious attendance record in high school, the suffering of my brother with learning disabilities during the 70s and 80s, and how I walked out of a Biology class with the teacher yelling at me that it was not my prerogative to suggest an alternate assignment for inquiry during a dissection for a course that I was required to take.
Somehow, I crossed over into ‘system-ville’ though during my university studies. I admit to drinking the test theory kool-aid from the CRAME group during my doctoral degree, working for the 9 GPA, and the scholarships, but forgetting throughout that much of my grades weren’t reliable scores given the assessment practices used… teacher-made assessments, I was told, had a reliability of 0.4 which meant … throw it out. Why selectively ignore that? It was comfort and solid and worked for me… until I had children… and now, daily, I ask why there are grades given in schools? If measurement doesn’t support it in the classroom… if the grades can cause anxiety, create competition, and make students feel depressed or lack confidence when they have pure potential?
We need to face the reality that our job in education is to SUPPORT the learner. These are CHILDREN and should be honoured as such. Their job is to play, be happy, and learn in ways that inspire them. We know they learn better that way anyway. I was told by a senior Ministry of Education official that there was no curriculum police. I have seen new schools that have started learning at the student’s personalized interest level and mapped outcomes UPWARD to curriculum and not the other way. I have seen professional development go viral when it moves UPWARD and not down. I have heard innovative teachers and an entire district say they weren’t following curriculum and were applauded for supporting their learners… by the Ministry. I have heard of science teachers covering Grade 12 curriculum ask for permission to go into the more time-intensive inquiry approaches, which meant they were not going to be able to cover all of the curriculum, and they were approved. If there was ever a time for change in Education, IT IS *NOW.*
I have had the privilege of working with many great educators over the years and this term. I would like to share some amazing blog posts on this very topic. I have to admit that I spend much of my career in the higher education classroom as opposed to the K-12 classroom, although I feel connected in every way. I learn from the teachers I meet and especially from those who share publicly via social media tools like blogging and Twitter. I would like to draw your attention to 26 amazing teacher voices and you can read their syndicated blog posts here.
I have seen professional development go viral when it moves UPWARD and not down. I have heard innovative teachers and an entire district say they weren’t following curriculum and were applauded for supporting their learners… by the Ministry. I have heard of science teachers covering Grade 12 curriculum ask for permission to go into the more time-intensive inquiry approaches, which meant they were not going to be able to cover all of the curriculum, and they were approved. If there was ever a time for change in Education, IT IS *NOW.*
I heard someone say how we are fish in water and cannot see the water around us unless we’re out of it. Time for everyone to go get a towel to dry off. While at it, grab a device to tweet, take pics or video, and blog about it in the open to make sure the movement spreads faster and so we build up a community to support each other through this change. We have lots of aquariums to drain! I look forward to the conversation at #CEACalgary2013. Bring a towel!
This blog post is part of a series of thoughtful responses to the question: What’s standing in the way of change in education? to help inform CEA’s Calgary Conference on Oct 21-22, (#CEACalgary2013) where education leaders from across Canada will be answering the same question. If you would like to answer this question, please tweet us at: @cea_ace
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As Past Students, We Think We’re ‘Experts’ in Changing Education
Comments Off on As Past Students, We Think We’re ‘Experts’ in Changing EducationOne little discussed obstacle to changing the public education system in this country is that most Canadians feel they are experts in the field.
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Academics. What’s it good for?
Comments Off on Academics. What’s it good for?Academics. Most of our current school system revolves around it, and yet, I think it falls miserably short of what our kids need. To be honest, I think our academic system of education is highly overrated, at best. At worst, it destroys a number of our kids. Now hear me out. I’m not saying that our kids shouldn’t learn to read, or do math, or even a number of other valuable skills. But too often, the focus of our kid’s school day is on content with little connection to why it matters or even with each other. Instead, many of our students spend hours filling in worksheets or copying down lecture notes that they could Google in 30 seconds. Too often what they listen to is boring and irrelevant to their lives. And from my experience, most of this content is simply memorized, spewed out for an exam and then quickly forgotten. But beyond this, there’s often only one right answer, which frequently cultivates in our students a fear of failure.
For the most part, kids who we consider “academic” tend to be good hoop jumpers. They’ve figured out the system and can jump through the hoops. But rarely are they engaged. Rarely are they transformed by their learning. They’re going through the motions. Research shows that some of the least engaged students are the high achievers. They do well because they know how to “do school”. Is this really the best we have to offer them? Or worse, what if you’re not “academic”? Most of these kids live too many years of their young lives feeling like they don’t measure up. Feeling stupid. And for some, it radically alters their trajectory of their lives. Unfortunately, too many students have to recover from school once they graduate. Is this really the best we have to offer them?
In all honesty, I have to admit that I used to believe in this system. For too many years my students sat in straight rows. I asked the questions. I had the answers. I controlled the learning. But the truth is I did this because it’s what I knew. It’s how I’d been taught. It’s what I saw replicated in university and in other teacher’s classrooms. I sincerely believed that good grades mattered. I’m an English teacher, and I subscribed wholeheartedly to the belief that the pinnacle of success in English was the ability to write “the essay”. But I’ve radically changed my position. To be honest, I’ve come to believe it’s one of the most useless things we teach our students. Recently, I’ve started to ask people I know, “Do you ever write an essay?” I’ve never had one person say yes. I wonder how many teachers, except those who are taking university classes, ever write essays. If I may be so bold, I wonder how many English teachers frequently write essays.
In all honesty, I have to admit that I used to believe in this system. For too many years my students sat in straight rows. I asked the questions. I had the answers. I controlled the learning. But the truth is I did this because it’s what I knew. It’s how I’d been taught.
I’m not saying our kids shouldn’t be able to write. On the contrary, I think our students should be able to argue gracefully, and persuade powerfully. And know what they believe and why. I simply think the essay is a medium that has outlived its usefulness, at least in high school.
I’ve come to realize that being academic doesn’t tell you much. It tells you you’re good at school, which is fine if you plan to spend your life in academia, but very few of our students do. It doesn’t indicate whether or not you’ll be successful in your marriage, raising your kids, managing your money, or giving back to your community. Things that matter much more than being good at school.
Instead, school should be a place where kids can discover what they love. They should be able to ask the questions that matter to them and pursue the answers. They should discover what they are passionate about, what truly sets their hearts and souls on fire. They should discover they can make a difference now. But above all, they should leave school knowing what they are good at. And at this point, I think most kids graduate only knowing if they’re good at school or not. Often our students have many talents; they just don’t fit in our current curriculum because they’re likely not considered “real knowledge”.
Yet, oddly, in the Biology curriculum that I’ve taught for the past several years, one of the objectives that my students need to know is earthworm reproduction. Really? Out of all the things we could be teaching a 17-year-old about biology, someone decided earthworm reproduction was essential?
I’ve come to realize that being academic doesn’t tell you much. It tells you you’re good at school, which is fine if you plan to spend your life in academia, but very few of our students do. It doesn’t indicate whether or not you’ll be successful in your marriage, raising your kids, managing your money, or giving back to your community. Things that matter much more than being good at school.
We are born curious. Babies explore their environments to learn; they do it naturally without being told. Three-year-olds constantly, at times annoyingly, ask, “why?” And yet, by the time I get my students in Grade 10, my students have all but lost their curiosity. Consequently, when I get a new class of students, we start by unlearning. We need to begin to imagine what school could be, instead of what they’ve known for ten years. Only then can we begin to do the work that will help them become lifelong learners who truly enjoy the search for answers, rather than the mark on the top of their exam.
Recently I’ve been reading Amanda Lang’s The Power of Why. In it she states:
Curious kids learn how to learn, and how to enjoy it – and that, more than any specific body of knowledge, is what they will need to have in the future. The world is changing so rapidly that by the time a student graduates from university, everything he or she learned may already be headed toward obsolescence. The main thing that students need to know is not what to think but how to think in order to face new challenges and solve new problems (p.14).
Our school system doesn’t need to create kids who are good at school. Instead, we need to create an environment that engages learners, fosters creativity, and puts responsibility for learning where it belongs – with our students. Instead of rote learning, teachers need to use content to teach skills. We need to build environments that allow our students to get messy and build things. Where students learn how to learn, and know how they learn best. Where students engage in significant research, and learn how to identify credible resources amidst a plethora of information that, at times, may seem overwhelming. Furthermore, our students need to be able to problem-solve, innovate and fail over and over again. Throughout all of this, our kids should be collaborating with each other, as well as virtually with students across the globe. They need to be able to communicate powerfully using the mediums of print, photography and video.
As I’ve worked with my students, we’ve come to realize they need to be able to answer three questions, regardless of what we’re researching: What are you going to learn? How are you going to learn it? How are you going to show me you’re learning? How they get there is often their decision. And what they come up with never fails to surprise me.
Our school system doesn’t need to create kids who are good at school. Instead, we need to create an environment that engages learners, fosters creativity, and puts responsibility for learning where it belongs – with our students.
My classroom hasn’t always looked like this. But over the past three years we’ve shifted to a constructivist pedagogy that has transformed not only my thinking, but my students as well. Now we learn in an inquiry, PBL, tech-embedded classroom. The journey at times has been painful and messy, but well worth the work. The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that my students will often exceed my expectations, if only they’re given the chance.
This blog post is part of a series of thoughtful responses to the question: What’s standing in the way of change in education? to help inform CEA’s Calgary Conference on Oct 21-22, (#CEACalgary2013) where education leaders from across Canada will be answering the same question. If you would like to answer this question, please tweet us at: @cea_ace
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Brave Educators Possess an Inquisitive Nature to Pursue Change
Comments Off on Brave Educators Possess an Inquisitive Nature to Pursue ChangeOur traditions characterize our lives with meaning and structure, providing a foundation on which we can depend. We treasure the security they provide because we know what to expect. They also provide opportunities to build memories that begin to define us and bring us closer to others. Of course, this is an ideal situation; some traditions make us cringe when we anticipate certain gatherings and the memories that are just waiting to be made.
When we think of our childhood and adolescent years, where are most of our memories made? I would challenge you to think back to your own experiences of school, your day-to-day lessons, your difficulties and successes. I would also challenge you to think of the advice you received from your parents before you went to school. Was their advice based on their own experiences? Do you now have children, and is your advice based on your memories at school?
Technology is captivating the attention of many brave educators, and is beginning to upset the balance in the world of school. Our established tradition is starting to become unsettled as it begins to evolve, as small pockets of ‘teacher learners’ take a second look at the system in which they nurture young minds each day.
Have our memories and expectations of school begun to define it as a tradition? If so, the tradition of school has achieved a status that is difficult to question simply because of its hallowed perception within our society. So many people have experienced the very same lessons year after year, resulting in a mass understanding of what school should be.
Most people don’t change unless they have to. If we’re not given a reason why we have to disrupt our daily routine, sometimes we’ll put it off until it’s absolutely necessary. To counter this, I want to be sure to mention those who don’t wait – those who are curious. Curiosity is distracted from normality and is captivated by something new. Brave people not only possess an inquisitive nature, but they also pursue new possibilities with a fervour that may upset the balance of what is ordinary and expected.
Technology is captivating the attention of many brave educators, and is beginning to upset the balance in the world of school. Our established tradition is starting to become unsettled as it begins to evolve, as small pockets of ‘teacher learners’ take a second look at the system in which they nurture young minds each day.
To allow for this change to continue, support must be provided to those who are willing to follow their curious nature. It is difficult for a teacher to explore new possibilities in education without having a team to provide guidance and reassurance. In fact, an educator who questions the norm may feel like they’re sticking their neck out, risking their pride for the sake of their questions, experiments and attempts to work in a new way.
Change is well within reach if enough support is provided for those who search for new possibilities in education. Bit by bit, they will be driven to share their discoveries with others, building on new knowledge, making new memories, and challenging the traditions and expectations of the past.
This blog post is part of a series of thoughtful responses to the question: What’s standing in the way of change in education? to help inform CEA’s Calgary Conference on Oct 21-22, (#CEACalgary2013) where education leaders from across Canada will be answering the same question. If you would like to answer this question, please tweet us at: @cea_ace
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Another Brick in the Wall
Comments Off on Another Brick in the Wall
It is not a simple answer. Nor is it a simple question!
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Avoiding the Parable of the Boiled Frog
Comments Off on Avoiding the Parable of the Boiled FrogI think that I have lost count of how many school closure consultations I have been involved in. Not all schools closed during these contentious events, but the processes unfold in similar ways: The “system” presents its case; a small, passionate segment of the public listens, voices their discontent, and then, over time, final decisions are made. I would say that meaningful dialogue gave way to divisive debates from staunchly held and well-fortified positions.
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Stop Asking For Permission to Change
Comments Off on Stop Asking For Permission to ChangeOften the things that we believe to be obstacles before us actually lie within us. This is an idea I’ve wrestled with for much of my career in public education and rests at the core of my belief about why change is such a difficult process in our field.
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Change in the Trenches
Comments Off on Change in the Trenches“You were great, you treated us with respect!” a colleague told me a few months after I had participated in a professional development day. I had been the last presenter in a series and had to change the mood since the previous speakers talked AT the audience and were called on it.
“Thanks so much.” I said. “Do you remember what my portion of the day was about”?
“No.” she said somewhat sheepishly. (It was about the power of formative assessment).
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Culture Re-Booot: Reinvigorating school culture to improve student outcomes by Leslie Kaplan and William Owings
Comments Off on Culture Re-Booot: Reinvigorating school culture to improve student outcomes by Leslie Kaplan and William OwingsA reveiw of Culture Re-Booot: Reinvigorating school culture to improve student outcomes by Leslie Kaplan and William Owings, Corwin, 2013. ISSN: 9781452217321
What can principals and teachers do to generate collective action and transform school culture in efforts to improve student achievement? How can the collective capacity of leadership teams revitalize well-established instructional and leadership practices and learning processes?
Using the analogy of re-booting a computer or application to start afresh, experienced instructional leaders Kaplan and Owings argue that the school environment is an established culture undergoing rapid social and technological change, and that a culture re-boot is possible through transformation of all parts of the interconnected system. Re-boot is defined as “rethinking, redesigning, and enacting new practices in leadership, teaching, ethics and relationships. It means readjusting the student learning environment, working with parents and community in ways that reshape the school culture, and restarting a cycle of positive dynamics that result in improved student outcomes.”
Each chapter begins with focus questions, followed by a discussion of topics with practical action-oriented strategies for developing collaborative school cultures. Relevant research and additional resources complement each chapter. The first chapter provides the framework for understanding the complexity of school culture and change, including the characteristics of a learning organization. The next five chapters are organized around elements of school culture necessary for school improvement: school leadership; ethical behaviour and relational trust; professional capacity for shared influence; a student-centred learning culture; and strong parent-community ties. An entire chapter is devoted to improving relationships with parents in culturally diverse communities and developing school-community partnerships to benefit student learning. The final chapter presents a road map for a five-year plan of action for redesigning school culture.
Despite the authors’ narrow view of technology as a tool to facilitate personalized learning, and the limited discussion of the implications of the digital age on instructional leadership and culture transformation, this is an excellent handbook offering practical strategies for school leadership teams to collaboratively initiate, enact and sustain a culture re-boot.
First published in Education Canada, September 2013
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The Teacher I Dream of Being
Comments Off on The Teacher I Dream of BeingEngagement has become a key thread in current educational discourse across Canada and, indeed, around the world. The understanding that the deepest learning occurs when participants are highly invested has led many educators, policy-makers, researchers and parents to become more attuned to what it is that excites, animates and holds the attention of our young people, as well as those things that have quite the opposite effect. Over the past several years, engagement has become an appealing theme for keynote addresses, journal submissions, blog entries, podcasts, professional magazine articles and books. All over the world, we have become truly engaged with the idea of engagement!
And for very good reason. Taking seriously the implications, effects and demands of creating engaging environments and compelling learning tasks for our students could very well be pushing us closer to a tipping point when it comes to the growing desire to see change and transformation in public education.
To be sure, the vast majority of energy around the engagement conversation has focused on the student.[1] It is energy well-spent – important, as far as it goes. The truth is, however, that our conversations about engagement need to go further if they are going to allow us to capture a fuller sense of the dynamic of what actually happens in an engaging learning environment. It was this drive to go further and to understand the challenges and opportunities more deeply that inspired the Canadian Education Association (CEA) to begin shining a light on teacher engagement. Conceived of as an attempt to explore the space between the teacher I dream of being and the teacher that I’m sometimes expected to be, the Teaching the Way We Aspire to Teach initiative was developed in an effort to raise the voices of Canadian teachers around the hopes and dreams they have for the work that they do.
For the past two years, the CEA, with the generous support of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation and its affiliates, has crossed Canada leading a series of focus groups designed to get to the heart of engagement from an educator’s perspective. Using an “appreciative inquiry” approach, each of our conversations with teachers began by inviting them to remember the story of a time when they felt they were teaching at their best – a time when they felt strongly connected to that motivational ideal and passion they have for their work. We were looking for times when they felt that they were working in the zone described as flow by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.[2]
Encouraging participants to explore their stories in a variety of ways, we asked them to consider the conditions that had allowed those experiences of peak performance to take place. In addition to working with them to explore the contributions made by students, colleagues, parents and school leadership, we led them to consider the personal attributes that helped to animate and inspire their stories. Finally we engaged in deep conversations about what might happen if those conditions were in place more often.
Not only did the process, itself, turn out to be extremely engaging, but what we have learned from teachers across the country complements the insights gathered from students in CEA’s What Did You Do In School Today? research, and from other educators in our related professional development sessions. They are insights that can only help to deepen our conception of what it means to be highly engaged.
Rereading classroom context
One powerful insight coming from the Teaching the Way We Aspire to Teach project has to do with the idea of context. Quite often when we think of context, our minds shift to the physical environment or the socio-political conditions that might have an impact on what happens in that space. Reflecting on the etymological roots of the word, however, we’re brought to a much more intimate understanding of the term.
Derived from fabric production, the word text originally referred to something that has been woven together. Thus context, quite literally, describes something joined together by weaving.
Classrooms are places of interwoven identities, beliefs, values and practices, and as students and teachers work together in the classroom space, there is a real sense in which context becomes created and recreated, the result being a strong and intimately woven fabric.
In fact, one of the most resounding themes emerging from our work with the Teaching the Way We Aspire to Teach focus groups is that the relationship between teacher and student is not only something that takes place in a context, but that, in fact, it is the context that lives at the heart of the teaching and learning dynamic. At its most intimate level, the classroom is a place where individual student lives are interwoven with that of the teacher, creating a mysterious and rich context for learning. The stories of deep engagement that we heard, and the vision statements that we read, revealed a deep moral investment in finding ways to create learning spaces that both honour and nurture this powerful element of the work to which educators aspire:
In the teaching to which I aspire everyone works with the understanding that students will always surprise you with their dedication and enthusiasm when you allow them to extend past the typical assignments… When students learn you are always building toward something, they will believe in the process and engage.[3]
Towards a richer definition of engagement
Most often, definitions of engagement tend to focus on the degree of commitment that an individual makes to a particular context. Our conversations about engagement usually focus on strategies to get someone to make a stronger and more intentional investment in a particular task or role. In this way, our work on engagement often takes place from the outside looking in.
Through the Teaching the Way We Aspire to Teach project, however, we developed a more nuanced understanding of the term. The teachers to whom we spoke identified a deep dedication to the work that they do – a commitment that became active and visible as they told the stories of their most aspirational moments. As we encouraged them to take a closer look at their current teaching situations, imagining the conditions that would enable them to feel that way more often, we felt called to rethink our concept of teacher engagement. Instead of focusing on the investment that teachers could be convinced to make in their work, we began to take more of an inside-out perspective: how much of themselves – their knowledge, experience, strengths, talents, passion, humour, curiosity and love for the profession – did their working conditions encourage and permit teachers to bring to the context?
I aspire to be the best I can be, to bring all my knowledge, creativity and commitment to my students – to give to them but also to gain from them – satisfaction, a sense of success and the feeling that what I do matters in the life of a child.
Conditions for engagement
So, what have we learned about the hopes and dreams that teachers have for the work that they do? What did we hear about the conditions that participants believed would enable them to bring more of themselves to their role as teacher?
Prominent among the themes that emerged from our research was time. Teachers longed for more uninterrupted time to spend exploring the curriculum in deeper and more meaningful ways. Class timetables that allowed limited flexibility often bumped up against a daunting number of curriculum expectations, leaving many feeling rushed and struggling to meet the demands for quality teaching assessment. For many, their stories of deep engagement recalled an experience when they were able to spend the time required to slow down, differentiate instruction for a wider selection of learners, or simply feel that they could take the time necessary to develop stronger relationships with their students and to be fully present to them.
Time resources and the ability to be flexible in the process would foster the sense of continual inquiry. When the roadblocks of standardized testing and static expectations are removed, teachers are free to release their creativity in order to reach every student and empower the whole child.
I am part of a collaborative team. Each member is driven to learn and improve and develop. I have time to learn, time to discuss, time to plan.
The theme of time spilled over into another condition that was explored by many. Teachers told us of the importance of having opportunities to work more closely with their professional colleagues and how this could contribute to their feelings of connectedness and confidence. Having the time to plan, assess and reflect with teaching peers was an important element in the aspirations they had for their work. While some envisioned contexts where integrated forms of curriculum teaching and co-teaching would inspire deep levels of collaboration and collegiality, others mused about the importance of having the opportunity to meet with grade or subject level partners on a regular basis. Flexible teaching schedules and agile organizational structures were seen as ways of enabling and supporting new types of professional relationships and were presented as ways of enhancing the work done in the classroom context.
My ideal teaching environment is full of energy and life. It is a place that fosters true collaboration on multiple levels. Teachers are working together to share ideas and improve their programs, always with the best interests of their students in mind… In addition to this, there is also true collaboration between teachers and administrators. Just as teachers value the ideas of their students, principals also value the ideas and expertise of teachers.
Many teachers highlighted the desire for greater autonomy in their work. Responding to an increase in the standardization of various aspects of teacher practice, many participants aspired to a teaching context where their own professional judgments, personal strengths, and knowledge of their students were valued, respected and trusted. The freedom to create learning experiences based on the “here and now” of the classroom emerged as an important theme, while rules and protocols that did not resonate with the needs of their students were seen as unhelpful:
I am a professional who can make decisions about what my students need based on my understanding of them and what they tell me. I am able to do what’s best.
The theme of trust also emerged when participants spoke of the need for supportive leadership. In addition to the familiar forms of hierarchical leadership, many teachers imagined how distributed responsibility right across the school could serve to engage both teachers and students in new and interesting ways. Many teachers described schools where the classroom context was seen as the centre of the organization; it was a vision where top-down control gave way to an authentic culture of caring and attentiveness for their students:
[In the teaching to which I aspire] it is common protocol to view every rule, every lesson, every routine, every decision through the lens of ultimate care: concern for the students.
Why should we care about teacher engagement?
We know that teachers come to the profession with different images of what their ideal work would look and feel like. Although these images are naturally tempered and tested by the authentic experiences that teachers have throughout their careers, it was inspiring for us to recognize that most of the vision statements that we collected were written with the same level of passion, heart and aspiration that one would expect from someone just starting out in the profession.
The relationship between teacher and student… is the context that lives at the heart of the teaching and learning dynamic.
Beyond being inspired, however, our conversations with teachers have led us to a deeper understanding of just why it is so important to take seriously the idea of teacher engagement. Teaching is one of the few professions where client and professional (for want of better terms) are involved in almost constant daily contact, with the relationships that emerge forming the vital core of the teaching and learning dynamic. In this sense, teacher engagement is intimately linked to student engagement and vice versa. As we read through the data collected from our focus groups, we discovered that the conditions that allowed teachers to teach at their best were also the conditions that encouraged students to learn at their best.
Clearly, high levels of committed involvement on the part of teachers can have a significant effect on the way that students approach their work. But the Teaching the Way We Aspire to Teach project called us to look beyond the single thread that connects teacher engagement with student progress and achievement. While the relationship between student and teacher is the central context around which everything else moves and takes on meaning, it is a context deeply embedded in a myriad of conditions that profoundly affect the texture of classroom life.
By framing the engagement conversation in terms of how much of themselves educators are permitted to bring to the teaching/learning context, we can begin to see the profound impact that factors outside of this immediate context can have on both teachers and students. The engagement conversation is really a conversation about change and transformation – a conversation that, if it really took root, could have a tremendous effect on this place we call school. In the words of one of our participants from Newfoundland:
In the teaching to which I aspire, teaching has developed into an honourable profession… Teachers have the tools (resources, skills and attitudes) to facilitate learning for all young people – regardless of level of need. All students are seen as capable and worthy. Teaching is a science (requiring specific skills and methods as a basis for facilitation) but is also an art (teachers have the public trust to adjust their facilitating to ensure that all students are authentically engaged in their learning).
An engaging vision, to be sure!
First published in Education Canada, September 2013
EN BREF – Au cours des deux dernières années, l’Association canadienne d’éducation a entrepris d’importantes recherches pour compléter son travail d’avant-garde en matière d’engagement des élèves. L’étude Enseigner selon nos aspirations était destinée à écouter des enseignants d’un bout à l’autre du Canada et a exploré avec eux les anecdotes qui illustraient le summum de l’enseignement. L’article rend compte de cette recherche, se concentrant sur la salle de classe en tant que lieu où les identités et les pratiques des élèves et des enseignants sont tissées ensemble pour créer un contexte réel d’apprentissage. C’est dans ce contexte que nous trouvons les éléments essentiels de l’engagement tant pour les élèves que pour les enseignants. Si toutes les conditions que nos enseignants considèrent importantes dans les contextes d’enseignement auxquels ils aspirent existent effectivement, il est impossible de rompre le lien entre la réussite des élèves et un enseignement reflétant ces aspirations.
[1] CEA’s flagship research project, What Did You Do In School Today?, suggested that student engagement can be observed through three different lenses: social, institutional and intellectual engagement. This multi-dimensional perspective has enabled us to better appreciate the rich opportunities and complex challenges involved as we strive for high levels of engagement in schools throughout Canada.
[2] Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The psychology of optimal experience (New York: Harper & Row, 1990).
[3] All quotes are CEA focus group participants, from locations across Canada.
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Leading Towards Engagement
Comments Off on Leading Towards EngagementThe role of the principal involves supporting both staff and students, and these tasks are not mutually exclusive. In fact, Robinson states that principals can have the greatest influence on student learning by focusing on teacher development.[1] As a principal myself, I recognize the challenge of helping teachers grow in ways that encourage them to develop their individual passion and engagement. We have many forms of development for systematic movements in schools, but few with the goal of fostering an actively engaged, passionate and innovative teaching staff. Two questions have emerged from my practice: How can I as a school principal support teachers’ intellectual engagement? How can I lead in a way that nurtures the passion of teachers in the school?
During the 2012-2013 school year, I worked with a group of principals on a design-based research project aimed at answering these questions.[2] Our group wanted to understand our role in the process of engagement. We wanted to help teachers to grow in deep and meaningful ways that brought them closer to their vision of great teaching. Our team met initially and set the goal of taking actions throughout the school year that we thought would support teachers’ intellectual engagement. Our understanding of intellectual engagement emerged from the work done by Willms, Friesen and Milton,[3] and we talked about helping teachers experience flow[4] in their work.
At the first meeting, we decided on the actions that would be taken in the schools and planned to meet a few weeks later to evaluate our work. The team took many different actions to meet the needs of the teachers in their schools. We actually could not decide on a single action that would work in every school. Principals were adamant that one size would not fit all; their actions had to suit their respective school. Our team was able to meet a number of times over the five months we carried out the study. Meeting in the midst of the busy school year was, however, one of the greatest challenges for our group of principals. To stay connected, principals wrote and submitted reflective journals throughout the process. The team and I also sent emails, talked on the phone, completed questionnaires and did interviews. Our goal was to continually evaluate how our actions were influencing the school by connecting our experiences. Our process was not only research, but also professional development. We searched for innovative actions that made a difference and shared our collective stories.
As I concluded the research and sorted through the messiness of the process, a number of insights emerged that formed the basis of an engaging leadership framework. I recognized that our personal characteristics, the culture of the schools and specific actions we took had an impact on teachers’ intellectual engagement. By forming a team of principals with the clear goal of supporting teachers through thoughtful and calculated actions, we made a difference. In this article, I share some of the things that worked for our team.
Walking the talk
Although our group of principals wanted to influence teachers, we quickly realized that we had to look in the mirror first. At our first meeting, while setting our direction, it became clear that there were a plethora of potential actions. Some of the actions suggested seemed comfortable for a few principals, but unnerving for the others. One principal suggested a book club would be great for her school, but not everyone felt comfortable with it. Another principal wanted to create a forum for discussion for teachers on staff, but not everyone was encouraged by this strategy. What we discovered quickly was that principals could only confidently support teachers’ intellectual engagement with strategies that they used themselves. For example, a principal who does a tremendous amount of professional reading would be able to support teachers in this area, but might not feel comfortable doing presentations at conventions. This doesn’t mean that principals need to master every form of development – rather that areas of strength for a principal relate to possible development for teachers.
What emerged for our team was the important role of the principal as a role model. One of the principals led a small team of teachers in a process of collaborative planning. The group set goals for the planning, tied them to student need, collected resources, co-taught the material and reflected regularly. The principal communicated values through the process and led the team in a deeply engaging process of designing a learning task.
Another principal identified a need for the school to develop strategies for classroom management. He led the staff in a presentation about effective classroom management, including tools that worked for him. He then invited teachers throughout the year to present their management tools to the staff. The result was not only improved management, but also a school strategy for mobilizing knowledge.
Walking the talk also meant demonstrating a sense of self-efficacy about the potential influence the principal could have for teachers. At the outset of the project, principals wondered how much influence they might have. But by our second meeting, it was evident that they had a great deal of influence. Their actions created change and built momentum that led to future actions. The catalyst for the actions throughout the process was the belief that principals could, indeed, make a difference.
The conditions for engagement
At heart, we were trying to create a culture of engagement in the school. Principals will not be directly involved in every experience of engagement for teachers, but they can work to create an atmosphere in which teachers are more likely to experience engagement and practise engaging teaching. During the study, we identified five key conditions for engagement.
1. Relationship building
Healthy relationships form the foundation of an engaging school culture. Teachers need to feel valued, respected and supported in their work as teachers and as individuals. Our group of principals found that relationship building was critical in their efforts to support intellectual engagement. Clearly teachers can experience engagement without the principal; however, the principal must have developed a relationship if he or she is going to offer any support. Our group of principals found the stronger their relationship with teachers, the greater impact they were able to have. Conversely, if the principal did not interact regularly with the teacher, there was very little direct influence. The value of relationship building came not only from the positive atmosphere in the school, but also from the opportunities to collaborate, have discussions and problem-solve together.
2. Opportunities for collaboration and professional dialogue
Our team quickly recognized the connection between the inherently social nature of many of the teachers we worked with and intellectual engagement. The social element of engagement became one of the cornerstones of our actions. One principal even wondered if the best action he could take was to bring teachers together and get out of the way. This dialogue instigated teacher collaboration, which was strongly connected with positive outcomes. It was often while discussing how to teach a literacy skill, co-planning a unit or debating the merit of a school program that teachers experienced intellectual engagement.
One of the most successful actions was taken early in the project by a principal who created an opportunity for a group of teachers to come together and discuss a new school intervention program. The teachers produced so much energy at the meeting, along with a lot of good ideas, that the group ended up meeting regularly for the entirety of the project. The team was invested in the process and their ideas and collaborative efforts created meaningful change in the school. The principal simply brought the team together and let the process unfold. A core belief of our group was that when a group of teachers have the opportunity to share ideas with others, the growth, development and engagement is remarkable.
3. Time
Our group also found that when a culture of collaboration is realized, it requires formal support – with the most important support being time. It is more difficult for teachers to experience deep engagement at the end of a long day, during the evening or when coming back on the weekend. Teachers spend many extra hours preparing, but our team tried to build time into the school day to collaborate and work on individual passions. We created this support by providing prep time, using administration time to cover for teachers, scheduling professional learning communities during the school day, creating time for discussion at staff meetings and using portions of professional development days to bring teachers together. It was clear to the team that if we wanted to encourage teachers’ intellectual engagement, we should try to support them with the time to do it.
4. Resources
Directing resources to specific areas became a requirement for the group of principals. Although budgets are limited and needs are great, there are ways of using resources in a strategic manner that can make a difference. Principals found it was very effective to allocate a portion of their budget for needs that arose through the year. As they recognized passion and areas of growth, they would provide funding to buy professional books on the topic, send the teacher to a conference, buy the teaching material for the new idea or help individuals gain access to the tools or personnel they needed. Resources were seen partially as responsive to the needs of the school at a specific time.
5. A climate of growth and innovation
It became apparent to us that intellectual engagement tended to thrive in spaces where teachers were excited about possibilities, able to be creative and willing to try something new. This was coupled with a culture of growth that encouraged teachers to strive to better themselves and the school. An inspiring example of this came when a teacher came to the principal with the innovative idea of transforming the outdoor education program at the school. The teacher had a personal passion, a vision of change and a plan to get there. The school principal embraced the opportunity and the two created a proposal to be taken to the superintendent and potentially the board of education. The process of developing the proposal was one of the deepest experiences of engagement that occurred. The teacher wanted to grow and be innovative and the principal nurtured the experience. Although not every engaging experience went to the board level, many of the experiences were rooted in the goal of improving and innovating.
The actions taken by the principals were beneficial for both teachers and principals. Principals reported that teachers in the schools they worked in were having engaging experiences. They saw teachers planning collaboratively, reading professional literature in book clubs, considering graduate work, discussing literacy strategies, presenting to the staff and designing innovative learning experiences for students. What is notable about these experiences is that they were connected with the actions of the principals in creating conditions for engagement in the school. They emerged from the principals trying to lead in an engaging way. Principals found that by carrying out a thoughtful plan, they could support teachers.
The principals also found the research process to be a tremendous professional development experience for themselves. They had the opportunity to be self-reflective while working with a group of other leaders. They were able to work closely with teachers and analyze the influence they had. Perhaps the most welcome result was being able to focus on creating engaging conditions for teachers in school. Making school a wonderful place to work is surely a goal that resonates with many leaders as a worthwhile pursuit.
Characteristics of Effective Actions
As principals planned and implemented specific strategies aimed at leading teachers toward engaging experiences, the group identified a number of characteristics that increased success.
Effective engaging leadership is:
PERSONALIZED: Leaders take actions that respond to the needs of teachers in the school and match their skill set. A variety of tools are necessary for principals to connect with teachers in the school.
RESEARCH-BASED: Leaders take actions that are based in research and tied to a body of literature. The research basis provides a common language and focus to the actions.
LONG TERM: Leaders take actions that are carried out over a period of time. Time enables the action to fully develop and allows teachers to enter deeply into the process.
RELEVANT: Leaders take actions that address the needs and experience of teachers at the given time. Matching actions with the cycle of the school year ensures the action supports the current needs of the teacher.
TIMELY: Leaders take actions in response to opportunities that are presented. There are key times when a principal can respond to teachers’ needs that are neither planned nor predictable.
First published in Education Canada, September 2013
EN BREF – Lors d’une étude réalisée selon l’approche de la recherche-design, un groupe de directions d’école a voulu répondre à la question suivante : « Que pouvons-nous faire, en tant que directions d’école, pour appuyer l’engagement intellectuel du personnel enseignant des écoles où nous travaillons? » En soutenant l’engagement intellectuel des enseignants, les directions d’école favorisent leur développement. Pour ce faire, les directions peuvent mettre l’accent sur leurs pratiques de leadership, engendrer dans l’école des conditions favorisant l’engagement et prendre des mesures soutenant le perfectionnement des enseignants. Les directions doivent également savoir combler les besoins des enseignants au fur et à mesure qu’ils se manifestent pendant l’année scolaire.
[1] Viviane Robinson, Student-Centered Leadership (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011).
[2] Davin Hildebrand, “The Influence of Interventions Used by Principals on Teachers’ Intellectual Engagement” (doctoral dissertation in progress, Calgary, AB: University of Calgary, 2013).
[3] J. D. Willms, S. Friesen and P. Milton, What did you do in school today? Transforming classrooms through social, academic, and intellectual engagement (First national report, Toronto: Canadian Education Association, 2009).
[4] M. Cskiszentmihalyi, Flow: The psychology of optimal experience (New York: HarperCollins, 1990).
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Placing Value on Citizenship Education in a Dog-Eat-Dog World
Comments Off on Placing Value on Citizenship Education in a Dog-Eat-Dog WorldMy prejudice on the question: What’s standing in the way of change in education? can be plainly stated. When all is said and done, good citizenship amounts to the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would be done by”. That’s foolproof, I think, though it’s too preachy for some, too self-congratulatory for others, too idealistic, and too impractical in a dog-eat-dog world.
I believe that public education here and throughout much of the industrialized West has never come to grips with schooling for good citizenship as a prime value. Most folks think that good parenting and good teaching of skills are sufficient unto the need thereof. That’s not good enough.
Education for citizenship should be education for living in a democratic society – where cooperation and good will are just as important as numeracy and literacy. The typical counter argument is that it’s a hard world out there and schooling to please taxpayers should not be compromised by soft-headed semi-socialist twaddle. Old-timers still argue that the Hall-Dennis experiment in soft education of the 1970s is a warning never to go that way again.
I believe that public education here and throughout much of the industrialized West has never come to grips with schooling for good citizenship as a prime value. Most folks think that good parenting and good teaching of skills are sufficient unto the need thereof. That’s not good enough.
Let me refer to Finland. The educators of that country steer kids away from dog-eat-dog competition in the classroom – unlike Canadian educators. How do they do it? I Googled “Finnish Education” for a partial answer. First and above all, they select superior persons for teacher certification. Second, the government gives teachers and municipalities a lot of independence in running the schools (within national guidelines). For instance, teachers have freedom to select textbooks! Can you imagine the cries of Chicken Little if that were the case in Canada?
Finnish early childhood educators encourage the little ones to pay attention to other people’s needs and interests, to care about others. Older students are taught to participate in society as active citizens. By contrast, the record of voter participation by Canadian youth (approximately 25%) is a disgrace. There are no standardized tests in Finland by which schools and students are measured as they are in Canada and the U.S. The testing habit to which we are addicted is called high stakes testing, which means that above average schools by test results get the best teachers while ambitious real estate agents roam the neighbourhood.
The Education Index published recently as part of the United Nation’s Human Development Index lists Finland among the highest in the world, tied for first with Denmark, Australia and New Zealand. Furthermore, the highly respected PISA tests (Programme for International Student Assessment) conducted every three years in 40 countries with the participation of half a million 15-year-olds world-wide show Canada near the top in literacy and science, trailing somewhat in math, but behind Finland in all three.
The Finns are exceptionally high achievers in education whilst teaching their children the arts and science of living peacefully and democratically. They have rejected the autocratic tendencies of educators in Canada and more broadly across North America.
Let me repeat my main point. The Finns are exceptionally high achievers in education whilst teaching their children the arts and science of living peacefully and democratically. They have rejected the autocratic tendencies of educators in Canada and more broadly across North America. They understand, it seems, that there is a lot more to democracy than voting every four or five years, having well trained judges on the bench, obeying regulations based on public statutes, paying taxes to maintain essential services. Most of those same benefits are enjoyed by the citizens of authoritarian states like China. Going the extra mile to full blown democracy calls for a school system operating by democratic principles from the opening bell in the morning till dismissal time in the afternoon.
Achieving such a goal calls for a lot of hard work. It will be necessary to start with teacher training founded on principles of democratic citizenship – contentious but worth the effort. A world without war is a potential reward.
This blog post is part of a series of thoughtful responses to the question: What’s standing in the way of change in education? to help inform CEA’s Calgary Conference on Oct 21-22, (#CEACalgary2013) where education leaders from across Canada will be answering the same question. If you would like to answer this question, please tweet us at: @cea_ace
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2013 Ken Spencer Education Award – $15,000 in Prizes
Comments Off on 2013 Ken Spencer Education Award – $15,000 in PrizesRon Canuel, CEA CEO, invites educators to apply for the 2013 Ken Spencer Award.
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Everyone has an excuse for not wanting to change
Comments Off on Everyone has an excuse for not wanting to changeWhen thinking of the challenges to change in education, I’m reminded of a recent story about the CEO of Myers, one of Australia’s largest and oldest department stores. It’s comparable to the Bay, or Macy’s in the U.S. He has a problem. For the past five years, his profit has been dropping, yet each year his rationalization of that has been different.
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What’s standing in the way of educational change?
Comments Off on What’s standing in the way of educational change?You know who is one of my favourite teachers of all time?
Jamie Sommers.
That’s right. Jamie Sommers. The Bionic Woman.
Now, that’s not because she could write notes on the board at super-sonic speeds with her bionic arm, nor because she could hear the whispers at the back of the class with her bionic hearing. But because she was the first educator to show me the potential and simplicity of educational change.
Perhaps I should backtrack for those of you who may either be too young to remember or who came from populated enough centers to have had more than one channel to choose from and missed this particular televised gem. The Bionic Woman was a show that ran in the 70’s about a former tennis star who had several parts of her body replaced by robotics after a sky diving accident. It was a spin-off of the earlier TV series “The Bionic Man”, which followed a similar premise. And although the main character of that series, Steve Austin, was a full-time agent for the covert O.S.I. (The Office of Strategic Intelligence) Jamie Sommers had a much less glorious career.
In between tackling top-secret missions, she worked as a grade school teacher.
To this day, I can not remember one single “Bad Guy” The Bionic Woman defeated. Nor can I remember the plot of a single, solitary episode. However, I distinctly remember the way she changed my view of education forever.
In one of the episodes she arranged the desks in her class in a circle.
A small change, arguably. And granted, one instituted in an imaginary classroom surrounded by a ridiculous premise. However, I recall thinking, as a student at the time, that this was radical teaching, a new approach to the old standard. It represented a newer, younger, hipper way of schooling.
And I also remember very clearly how the next day everybody in my school wanted their classroom desks arranged in a circle too.
Change is an ever-present topic in the field of education. People are seemingly always a) calling for change, b) implementing change or c) resisting change. Conversely, people are seemingly always asking a) why so many others are calling for change, b) why so much change is being implemented or c) why so many are resisting change. The very topic of change, it seems, is probably one of very few constants in our field.
But there is a tension within change. Teachers, as a whole, are often blamed for being anti change, mired in their chalk and talk routines, rolling their eyes at “the next new thing”. However, it’s not that we are anti-change. Teachers, are, on the whole, some of the most innovative and creative people I have ever met. It is not the change that is the issue, it is the ownership and implementation of that change that remains the sticking point.
Consider the past twenty years of educational activism that originated anywhere but in the classroom. From whole language to standardization, from “No Child Left Behind” to Obama’s “Race to the Top”, time after time, initiative after initiative has failed to “get it right”. Not because they were necessarily bad ideas, (although if NCLB was not idea I have never seen one), or underfunded, or under-resourced. They failed to “fix” education because their approach was all wrong. Education can not be “gotten right” from outside of the classroom. Getting education “right” is inherently an inside the classroom event.
And every single classroom is different. As is every educator. There is no “right”. There is no “fixed”. There is only different.
Recently, I came across a piece in the Leader-Post out of Regina. The headline read “Changes on Backburner: Focus Needed” and it was all about how the government of Saskatchewan was “putting the brakes on curriculum and programming changes” for the time being. Instead of continuing to implement new initiatives around such important issues as anti-bullying and student achievement, Deputy education minister Dan Florizone has decided to take a moment and discuss with the school districts exactly what is working for schools and what is not. Florizone states that he recognizes far too many of these changes are coming from the top down. After all, he stated “If everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority.”
This is the type of statement which makes classroom teachers stand up and cheer.
True educational change is happening. It is happening daily. It is happening in ways both high-tech and low-tech, both obvious and subtle. It can not be canned, it can not be forced. It can not be brought down from on high. But change is happening in our classrooms. In technology integration, in engagement, in assessment. Change is occurring. And as long as teachers feel that they are the ones in control, as long as they are given the freedom to adopt what works for them, and as long as they are supported when they try what does not, then positive change will continue to happen for students.
There are no actual barriers to educational change unless you consider barriers thrown up by a system that insists change must happen in a very limited, very specific, and very systemic way.
Speaking of how education is changing, I was actually interrupted in the middle of writing this piece by the ringing of my home phone. It was my daughter’s 3rd grade teacher calling to introduce herself and ask if I had any questions about the upcoming year.
At 9:00pm.
On a Sunday night.
I find myself wondering if the desks in her classroom are arranged in a circle, too.
This blog post is part of a series of thoughtful responses to the question: What’s standing in the way of change in education? to help inform CEA’s Calgary Conference on Oct 21-22, (#CEACalgary2013) where education leaders from across Canada will be answering the same question. If you would like to answer this question, please tweet us at: @cea_ace
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So, what’s standing in the way of change in education?
Comments Off on So, what’s standing in the way of change in education?As we usher in the back-to-school season, a growing number of parents will have already begun to ask why we still have chalkboards, and desks in rows with the ‘sage on the stage’. Are we able to agree on how we would answer their concerns? Our responses may contain conflicting myths and misconceptions – an indication that no matter what the research says about 21st century learning, many educators still rely on the longstanding assumptions in public education to justify maintaining the status quo – simply because this is how we have always ‘done school’.
In my work, I have the opportunity to meet with many educators developing exciting pilot projects – with tremendous transformative potential – that are sadly never brought to scale as district-wide initiatives. There are thousands of brilliant well-intentioned leaders in Canada pushing the edges of innovation in their schools, but they are working within a system that continues to value conformity, compliance, and control over creativity, risk-taking, and critical thinking. Collectively, we should be forging ahead, but our eyes are too often fixated on the rear-view mirror.
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Think back ten years ago… even five years ago. Are you using the same tools to work and to learn now as you were then? I used textbooks and a pencil when I grew up, as do most students in 2013! Why aren’t we providing our teachers and students across-the-board with the tools they need for 21st century learning?
Is the actual structure of education an impediment to innovation? Does the educational system demonstrate signs of organizational wisdom? Does it allow for innovation and risk-taking to occur systemically?
Throughout its history, the Canadian Education Association has served an important role as pan-Canadian convener of education leaders and our conference title/key question – What’s standing in the way of change in education? (#CEACalgary2013) – has clearly struck a chord based on our growing attendee list of teachers, administrators, Ministry of education representatives, and other stakeholders. The unprecedented response has forced us to move to the larger venue to accommodate demand.
CEA wants to build a plan moving forward on how you, in your work, can eliminate the barriers to change in education. How do we collectively transcend old-school thinking? What is really getting in the way of the change that we need to see in Canadian public education? What are the barriers that limit us to change our mindsets about the way we deliver education? What assumptions about teaching and learning are we holding on to? CEA doesn’t have the answers for you. You do though, and we will be collecting your ideas on our blog and on our Twitter feed (@cea_ace) in the next few weeks, which will serve to kickstart conversations leading up to our Oct 21-22 Calgary Conference.
So let’s get the conversation started. Share your perspective from where you sit in the education spectrum about what’s standing in the way of change. And remember; start first by looking at your basic assumptions about education!
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‘Twas the Night Before School Starts and All Through the House
Comments Off on ‘Twas the Night Before School Starts and All Through the HouseFor most Canadian students, teachers and parents, the Labour Day weekend is a mix of emotions. As the calendar is—reluctantly, for some— flipped from August to September, this three-day weekend is often filled with attempts to tie together the experiences of the preceding couple of months: family trips together, that summer romance, that summer job, playing outside until after dark, those special adventures that are made possible by the extended hours of relative leisure. All of this suddenly bumps up against the reality that, on the other side of the weekend, lies the First Day of School. In many households, the Night Before School Starts has all the markings of a religious vigil. There may be a special meal, special clothes laid out for the next day, some special storytelling and even a special bed time. And accompanying these external signs that mark the occasion, there are often internal cues as well. For many students excitement, anxiety, fear, hope, and anticipation are combined in various ratios to create a soup of emotion that is hard to explain but very easy to recognize. And if you happen to be part of a household led by one or more teachers, then the wonder of this weekend is even richer!
Labour Day has always reminded me of the highest elevation on a roller coaster—that point where everything seems to stop for a very brief time. It’s a moment of anticipatory exhilaration. Although in that tiny moment in time, you’re able to get a brief glimpse of some of the ups and downs, the curves and the loops that lie ahead, you also know that there is so much about what is going to take place that is out of your control. Physicists will tell you that this brief pause occurs just before the potential energy that has been stored during the coaster’s long climb up the hill is tranlated into the kinetic energy that drives the thrilling descent that is about to occur! There’s a rather ironic sense in which Labour Day represents that mystical transition between building energy and putting it to work!
For the Hurley family, we try to keep as much of our Labour Day to ourselves, resisting those invitations for dinner, a swim or a visit that were so freely extended and accepted during the rest of the summer. We have a special breakfast, try to get out into the woods for a walk, go and see a movie (it’s Planes, this year) and head home for a simple dinner and a bath before heading for an early bed. The early bed is important because we know that at least one of us will be awake during the week with the First Day Jitters. (In the past, that has usually been me!)
But just like you rarely look behind you on a roller coaster, Labour Day is mostly a time of hopeful anticipation. As I drag my body to bed, after a day of trying to squeeze that make the most of the last remnants of summer, and as my head finally hits the pillow, the sugarplums that dance through my head are almost always sweet. Tonight, they will be thoughts of the many educators that I have met over the past year in my travels across the country. They will be dreams of renewed conversations about transformation and change in our schools, of more powerful forms of engagement for both students and teachers. They will be hopes for strong connections between community and school. They will be inspired by SIr Ken Robinson’s continued plea for imagination and creativity and Ron Canuel’s consistent message of courage and conviction.
And just before I nod off to sleep, my final thoughts will likely be of Merrill Mathews, Mary Marshall and the staff of Irma Coulson Public School in Milton, Ontario. They have been working tirelessly all summer to get a brand new school ready for tomorrow’s opening. And they’ve spent their entire Labour Day weekend putting the final touches on the place where my family and I will be living, learning and growing for the next several years! On the one hand, it’s a rather personal example, but it’s also a metaphor for what I have come to understand about Labour Day: a time to think about brand new starts, new hopes and new challenges.
‘Twas the Night Before School Starts and All Through the House…
I would love to hear about your Labour Day rituals and some of the things that may be going through your mind as you and your family begin another school year? What are your hopes and dreams for 2013/2014? As an educator, are you using any new approaches or strategies this year? As a parent, is there a new program or initiative that you’re interested in tackling? As a student, is there a new challenge that you’re planning on taking on?
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