MySchool

The MySchool website is still making news as the media herald it as the single source of educational truth. It is a great hit with parents and the broader community.

For me, the obvious flaw of the MySchool website is that it focuses our attention individual schools and not on the work of teachers as a whole.

We know from research that the greatest variance often lies within schools not between schools.  Naturally, parents will take the data on face value but it is afterall one part of a much broader data set.

Removing a child from an under-performing school does not guarantee a consistent level of teaching across grades in one school.  That is the challenge school and system leaders face – how do we ensure a high standard of teaching in every classroom and every school?

Michael Fullan in Motion Leadership:

In terms of the link between a principal’s action and student learning, there is one finding that stands out in time as more powerful than any other, and it is this: the ‘degree to which the principal participates as a learner in helping teachers figure out how to get classroom and school-wide improvement.” (p36)

At the end of the day – teacher learning transforming student learning is what we are accountable for.

What makes a great teacher?

I’ve just read an illuminating piece by Amanda Ripley in The Atlantic called ‘What makes a great teacher‘. Although the article details the American experience, the message about teachers and teaching is universal.

For more than a decade, Teach for America has been looking at the data on what makes teachers successful – that is the difference between the teachers who improve student learning gains and those who can’t. This article is compulsory reading for parents and teachers because it is referenced back to data not opinion and perception.

As parents arm themselves with MySchool data, ready to tackle principals of low performing schools, the paragraph below should be signposted at the front of every school in Australia:

Parents  have always worried about where to send their children to school; but the school, statistically speaking, does not matter as much as which adults stands in front of their children. Teacher quality tends to vary more within schools-even supposedly good schools-than among schools.

But we have never identified excellent teachers in any realiable, objective way. Instead, we tend to ascribe their gifts to some mystical quality that we can recognise and revere – but not replicate. The great teacher serves as a hero but never, ironically, as a lesson.

I asked some of my colleagues what they believe makes a great teacher – their responses are below. Interesting to see how it compares with Teach for America’s findings.

• passion / fun
• engagement
• compassion
• patience
• knowledge
• personality
• relentless
• relationships
• learner
• collegial

Leading learning

I’ve just finished reading Tom O’Donoghue and Simon Clarke’s ‘Leading Learning: process, themes and issues in international contexts’ – a great book for reflective practioners.

O’Donoghue and Clarke map the territory for learning and leading with brief descriptions of the significant themes, trends and innovations from around the world.

The real strength of this book is its bibliography -  an invaluable resource of work from leading practioners and academics.

The chapter on teachers leading reinforces (again) the fundamental link between teacher quality and student learning outcomes.  It is what drives our system agenda and our work with system leaders.

Teachers, therefore, need to be powerful learners if  they are to maintain a high level of professional performance in an occupation that has become increasingly difficult.  They also need to be powerful learners so that they are able to present role models to their students as well as the community as a whole. In this sense, a teacher’s capacity to learn constitutes an important form of leadership in itself.

And therein lies the challenge we face - the re-education of teachers who ‘eschew professional learning because they have been ‘done’ on completion of their initial training’. (p93)

Learning doesn’t end after four years of university – it just begins as a classroom practioner.

Out to pasture

In 2010, we find ourselves peering over the edge of a great chasm that has to be crossed tif we are to get to a world of new potentials. We move forward with a sense of excitement and possibilities

Technology has given us a window into the future.  Just look at the hype and excitment around Apple’s release of the iPad.  Who knows what technology we will be using in five years from now?  At this point in time anything is possible and there is a sense of excitement in that.

Contrast this with current discussion and publicity of ACARA’s MySchool website and the use of a narrow data set to form judgements on school performance and student learning.  As the world continues to open up new ways of doing things, there are countervaling forces using reductionists approaches that may stifle innovation

The point we are at in education reminds me of the beginning lines in Dickens’  A Tale of Two Cities, “it was the best of times it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness”.

We seem to be in an in between period in education. There is so much possibility yet little consensus on ways forward, there is confidence in schools as institutions yet there is a lack of trust in the teaching profession. How do we make sense of it all and determine our way forward?

I was thinking about this yesterday and realised that we are currently working in an in-between space: a place of ambiguity and opportunity – it is the convergence of the past and future. The word I coined to make sense of this space is Pasture - a blend of both the past and future.

I see pasture as a wide fertile space for learning and innovation - full of potential, optimism and opportunities, open to anyone who wants to create the future by taking the best of what we know.

In meeting the challenges of schooling today, we should never lose sight of what we are striving to do overall. A national website comparing NAPLAN results should never be the driving catalyst for improving schooling. That responsibility lies squarely in the hands of good teachers.

Art of precision

Professor Helen Timperley from the University of Auckland was working with our school leaders last week. It was a great professional learning experience and builds on the work we have been doing for some years now on how continuously improve student learning outcomes. Helen has such a sharp and pragmatic focus.

For me, it is about teachers learning about the art of teaching.  They do this best by engaging in substantive conversations with colleagues at every level on what students are actually doing not on what teachers think they should be doing. It requires precision on the language and nature of learning and a daily focus on professional learning and teacher practice.

As Helen says, teacher learning is powerful and schools are places for both student and teacher learning.

The role of schools

If there is any institution needed by modern societies to guarantee its future, it is education.

It is often convenient to ignore the importance of schools in the development of humans and society as we argue over the nature of the curriculum.

Since their inception, schools have transmitted society’s values and culture, been repositories of shared wisdom and knowledge and powerful agents of change.  

At times individuals, organisations and governments have sought to use schools to further their own particular agendas and purposes and at others, allowed schools to carry on the work they do – free and unfetted from external influences and pressures.  Regardless of the approach, schools have still maintained their centrality of being an important part of the development of society and the common good.

If schools are to serve their communities and the wider society, they must be relevant to today’s learner.  This is a very different view from past generations.

Schools exist to contextualise the nature of the world in which young people live.

Certainly, it requires an understanding of the past and the forces that have shaped the world. The platform on which we base our curriculum for today’s schools should challenge and open the mind rather than constrain knowledge into discreet subject boxes.

I believe this is why we struggle to find an appropriate curriculum.  It requires a philosophical discussion on the purpose and nature of schooling before we can move towards a national curriculum.

The Saber Tooth Curriculum

Nothing like a good holiday to refresh the brain cells and to allow for some solid reflection.I came across an interesting article by Kent University sociologist Frank Furedi on why education in the West is no longer working.

Furedi makes some valid points –  namely that education systems are risking losing the ‘intellectual legacy of the past’ by following educational fads that are responding to rapid social and technological change.

He claims abstract thought and knowledge are viewed by contemporary curriculum engineers as outdated.  The curriculum for the new generation of digital learners with its focus on devices and access to rapidly expanding information sources therefore requires learners to be ‘trained’  not ‘taught’. This is a very different curriculum focus!

What is an appropriate 21st century curriculum and what needs to change/adapt to today’s world?

The curriculum cannot be reduced to a preoccupation with courses, content and accountability. The curriculum should be holistic – designed to develop the mind, imagination and character of students.  It is grounded in values and strengthened by supportive relationships. It is built upon the bedrock of schooling: literacy, numeracy and socialisation.

When we teach children to read, write, add and subtract we give them the tools to think, critically reflect, act and adapt to a constantly changing world.  It is the the moral of the satire, Saber Tooth Curriculum by HRW Benjamin and the argument Furedi makes:

The discussion of the relationship between education and change is frequently overwhelmed by the fad of the moment and with the relatively superficial symptoms of new developments. It is often distracted from acknowledging the fact the fundamental educational needs of students do not alter every time a new technology influences people’s lives.

Students inevitably become the casualties as teachers attempt to respond to these fads: changing curricula, increasing government accountability, parental expectations etc.

Teachers need to teach not train.  It requires a continual reminder of the purpose of schooling and where the effectiveness of teachers’ work lies.

Good and relevant pedagogies personalise learning, enable the learner, highlight the interpersonal nature of learning and contribute to building the learning community.

Reading the Saber Tooth Curriculum reminded me of the Grain in the Stone chapter in J Bronowski’s Ascent of Man.  

According to the author, one of the most important developmental steps man has taken – the move from techicnal to intellectual…”the distinction between the moulding action of the hand, and the splitting or analytical action of the hand.

Bronowski explains that the splitting of wood and stone becomes an act of discovery about the world and the nature of things.

The notion of discovering an underlying order in matter is man’s basic concept for exploring nature.  The architecture of things reveals a structure below the surface, a hidden grain which, when it is laid bare, makes it possible to take natural formations apart and assemble them in new arrangements.  It is as native to the way man conceives his own communities as it is to his conception of nature. (p 95)

This insight supports Furedi’s point that education should help students understand the ‘influence of the legacy of human development on their lives’.

It is only then that we can look to the future.

Happy New Year.

Space Unlimited

Space Unlimited is a great concept that brings together students, educators and industry to solve real-world problems. 

Schools should be a microcosm of society – not an isolated experience but part of communities and open to the input and experience of other educators whether it be parents, professionals or experts.

Reflections – part III

As another school year comes to completion, I think it appropriate to leave the last word to one of our secondary teachers, Jill Harrington.

Jill’s reflection on her role as a team-member and on her own professional journey as a maths teacher exemplifies a new understanding of student-centred learning and teacher-learning.

Without good teachers who can reflect on practice, mentor one another, work collaboratively, interpret feedback and data and change strategies when necessary, we will not achieve the learning outcomes that every student deserves.

It is disheartening to read on the day the HSC results are published that our highest achievers and brightest students have not chosen to pursue studies in education.

Teachers are the greatest ambassadors for the profession - it is time to raise the status by encouraging teachers to talk about the rewards of a profession that directly impacts on the lives of young people.

Are we too protective?

Are we stifling creativity and expression in schools by being over protective of children?

Of course there is a duty of care to protect but at what cost to deep learning, imagination and self-expression?  Are our rigid regulations the reason why there is such a deep disconnect between school and home?

Valby Skole Denmark

In wanting to do the best for children, we have forgotten that their first learning environment is the home: kitchen, garage, backyard etc.  It is the communal dimension of learning with and from others.

Many schools are beginning to design learning spaces that support and enhance student learning but it is not as pervasive as countries with a strong design research base.

In Australia, there is great work being undertaken by Clare Newton from the University of Melbourne and designer, Mary Featherston.

The challenge is how we expose classroom teachers to the research and then how we engage them in the process.