The World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) has just concluded in Doha. Policy makers, educators, politicians, academics and NGOs discussed a broad range of educational issues with a focus on how education can bridge global inequality.
The website features short interviews with leading thinkers and innovators such as Lord David Puttnam – Chairman of Futurelab UK. Lord Puttnam makes the point that education is not simply about producing smarter graduates but innovative and responsible global citizens.
One of my former colleagues sent me a great example of how you can change people’s habits by turning something seemingly tedious into something fun.
On the same day, I also received an email from the principal of one of our secondary schools who wanted to share photos of some of their new learning space (below).
These spaces are not a response to the high cost of building and refurbishment but to careful planning and reflection by teachers on how to improve student learning.
Students working in teams on integrated, rich and diverse tasks require freeing up how teachers work as well. So new possibilities are emerging (try spotting the teacher – she is definitely there and working purposely with all the students!).
What struck me is that the stair and umbrella example are simple, practical and appeal to our imagination by making existing infrastructure (and learning spaces) interesting. It’s low cost for high returns.
As we respond to crafting relevant learning experiences for today’s world, we must continue to remind ourselves there are simple and effective ways to inspire and challenge learners.
Imagination is key. Does anyone have similar examples to share?
It’s interesting to watch Twitter move from just another social networking tool to a powerful tool for professional conversations, social commentary and in some cases social change.
I started using Twitter this year and am amazed by the number of educators who are reflecting on their practice, expounding ideas and seeking answers to challenging questions.
Clif Mims recently shared a link in his tweet: letters page from the NY Times on “What Makes a Good Teacher”. It was a great piece that I would have missed and which may have only ever reached a handful of readers if not for the universal reach of Twitter.
On the subject of the ubiquitous nature of social technologies – I recently attended a dynamic event in Scotland arranged by a great colleague, John Connell called GregMeet.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but it turned out to be two and a bit hours of intellectually stimulating discussion connecting educators around the UK using video conferencing and twitter.
Within hours of the event, one of my colleagues in Australia was watching excerpts of GregMeet on YouTube.
The potential for schools to link up via the web with other exemplary schools here and overseas is enormous. It is a great medium for teachers and leaders to collaborate and share their practice very simply and easily. I like the way you can listen, engage in side discussion, tag certain items and share resources – all at the same time.
Yet, we still face a major challenge – how to encourage schools to establish their own networks and share expertise locally across K-12 and across education sectors.
I still see resistance at a local level around having broad conversations on data and evidence. We need to be having those collective conversations on what is working, what isn’t and why, what does it look like elsewhere and what can we learn from our own and others’ experiences.
How do you increase the amount of time teachers spend talking about teaching?
Stephen Heppell suggested setting up a web-cam in school libraries so that teachers and students could be continually interacting with another leading school.
It’s a simple, low-cost initiative aimed at de-privatising practice on a global scale.
How many of us have fond memories of Year 9 science? I suspect most of us don’t unless we had a natural aptitude for the subject.
The reality is it probably had something to do with the way the subject was taught – a one size fits all approach to science that was far removed from our lives and yet integral to understanding the world around us.
For John Hattie, a good teacher is able to turn on the challenge of physics, chemistry or Year 9 science for every student.
Greg Whitby and Year 9.3 Science at Parramatta Marist
Last week, I was invited into a Year 9 science class and saw young men challenged and engaged in their learning. Their teacher, Br Anthony is using a project-based learning (PBL). Click here to listen to Br Anthony on PBL.
I found it an engaging experience to watch two students (whom I later discovered have been struggling) stand in front of their peers and deliver a presentation on “Energy and Ecology”.
The subsequent class discussion of which I was a part, on global warming and alternate energy sources was lively and well-informed and it’s encouraging to know that these students see themselves as part of the solution!
I saw a science teacher who was passionate about his subject and committed to using PBL to engage and challenge students in a real-world context and showcasing their work.
Teaching is a science and good teaching is about the continual examination of the evidence of what you are doing and how it is impacting on learning outcomes. At its very core is a fundamental understanding of the learner.
There are many more examples like this – we just need to share them.
If you haven’t bookmarked the website Edutopia, you are missing out on some terrific educational resources and stimuli for classroom and staffroom discussions.
I know many teachers are getting their head around the use of technology in classrooms but if you ever needed convincing of the benefits of video games in education – spend 10 minutes listening to Professor James Paul Gee of Arizona University.
Michael Fullan recently addressed 100+ of our aspiring leaders in the context of leading change and learning in their schools.
This was a marvellous experience for leading teachers to be exposed to someone of Fullan’s calibre – armed with research and case studies on what makes an effective school leader.
It is evident that one of our greatest challenges as a system is how we continue to recognise leading teachers, how we develop their leadership and more importantly connect them with similar cohorts to expand the depth of talent across the profession.
Part of the process of challenging and empowering teachers is ensuring that core messages around instructional practice, collaboration, effective use of data and feedback etc are being disseminated across all levels. As one of the principals of Fullan’s ‘turnaround schools’ explained – you need to know the message is getting past the usual bottle-necks. To ensure teachers are across the agenda requires constant…… ‘feedback’.
I know many leaders and educators are uncomfortable with the ‘f’ word but it is critical to how we lead and plan. It begs the question of how we encourage principals in every school (large, small, primary, secondary) to seek honest feedback and evidence of their own school improvement strategies? Why do we too often feel uncomfortable getting and giving feedback?
For Fullan, building strong communities of practice comes from building communities of trust. As a system, we need to continually measure the temperature of trust and progress if we are to see what is working and what needs to be done next. This is the way to overcome this “uncomfortableness.” Learning becomes the focus of the work not individual performance.
In raising the bar, we need to be rigorous in our approach to gathering feedback and presenting evidence. It requires not only a common language of learning but as John Hattie recently said ‘a common indicator of progress that is applied across every school’. This ‘common’ but sharply focussed lens provides schools, systems, parents, governments with an honest snapshot from which we can understand, monitor and promote good learning rather than judge school performance.
Taking this approach builds the credibility of the profession as well, and will place the profession in the centre of developing education policy – not at its margins
The task we have set ourselves of building a high performing system has been challenging but our work has been enriched by the ideas and input of great educational change agents like Michael Fullan, Stephen Heppell and most recently, John Hattie.
On 19 October, more than 600 educators came to hear John Hattie deliver the 2009 Ann D Clark lecture in Penrith. It was a tremendous opportunity to hear John talk about his seminal research, Visible Learning.
John’s message is practical and powerful: focus on feedback especially student feedback of teachers. John says that if you ask students they’ll tell you when their teachers aren’t up to scratch. So why are many teachers so afraid of hearing the truth? Is it too difficult a challenge to change what we have been doing?
Further he says that we set the bar too low for student learning therefore we’ll never really know what students are capable of. Despite how this may seem, it is not a criticism of teachers – it’s just that it is time for an honest look at the evidence of student achievement and action on that evidence. We have to see the urgency for action and act now!
Hattie affirmed our strategic direction but cautioned about the need for an unrelenting focus on the evidence. As he said it is about two key questions, “show the evidence and then do what needs to be done as a result.”
We’ve had the pleasure of welcoming Stephen Heppell back to the diocese. Stephen spent three days during the last week of term 3 at one of our secondary schools to challenge teacher thinking and deepen student engagement.
It’s always engaging to hear someone as passionate as Stephen talk to teachers about the opportunities and challenges of learning in today’s world. Ask Stephen and his response is that students can do anything if they are challenged, engaged, inspired etc. Ask many secondary teachers and they will tell you how constrained they are by rigid timetables and syllabus requirements.
These are the realities faced by teachers everywhere and until governments change the policy from testing and assessing to learning and teaching it will stay the same. This is a clarion call to stop playing the game – to develop our own policies and use the expertise, experience, and professional judgement to look beyond what has always been in schooling.
We don’t need excuses, we need action. The government wants an education revolution then let’s give them a real one. As someone once observed, a crisis is a terrible thing to waste! And let’s start with teachers sharing their own practice of what is good learning and teaching. This has to be our policy framework.
I am not sure why there is still such trepidation to change schooling – perhaps it is the fear of not having all the answers or a single road-map! The good news is we have the tools, the experience of innovative teachers and the voices of students to forge our own paths.
As Stephen says the curriculum requirements are just one corner of the classroom so what is happening in the other three? I believe the greatest challenge for systems and leaders and the profession itself is giving teachers the green-light; supporting them to take risks and to experiment with new learning tools.
There is great liberation in realising that you don’t have to be an expert in IT to be a good teacher. Good teachers will continually look for new ways of improving learning outcomes using the tools available including the design of learning spaces.
Stephen told our teachers that the only way to move forward is to work in partnership with students – to involve them in decision-making; to challenge them to set (and reach) their own targets and to see what is possible rather than what is expected.
Innovation expert, Charles Leadbeater was in Australian recently sharing his ideas on why we need better models of schooling to improve social cohesion.
In moving towards greater efficiency, Leadbeater believes that our societies have focussed not on people but on processes, systems, structures and yes, technology.
The work of public institutions like schools is not simply to provide a service but to build and nourish relationships in which people feel valued; are motivated to do well, have opportunities to work collaboratively and in doing so feel they are making a positive contribution to their community.
History shows that throwing more money at education doesn’t solve the problem of student disengagement. We know that at risk children and their families need greater support before starting school and during the early years of schooling.
Leadbeater suggests two new approaches: finding ways of schooling that is motivational and bridging the gap between school, family and community.
Both Leadbeater and Stephen Heppell see the dismantling of large secondary schools as the first step in creating smaller, personalised learning environments in which students are recognised and feel comfortable within their space.
This is what the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development has aspired to with their massive redevelopment of the Broadmeadows site.
Under the old model, Broadmeadows was facing a dim future: high youth unemployment, schools seen as 9-3pm institutions, parents not involved in the learning.
After a significant period of planning and redevelopment, the Broadmeadows site has become a contemporary educational village. Students learn in smaller hubs connected by communal resource areas. Parents are invited to use the facilities.
Sometimes those of us in education are at risk of forgetting that improved learning outcomes are a result of our investment in people not our systems.
The great American pedagogue, John Dewey is as relevant today as he was one hundred years ago:
When the school introduces and trains each child of society into membership within such a little community, saturating him with the spirit of service, and providing him with the instruments of effective self-direction, we shall have the deepest and best guaranty of a larger society which is worthy, lovely and harmonious.
@islayian had more than one! Back in Oz and still drinking it. 1 week ago
Gregmeet outstanding experience blogging tweeting posting sharing collaborating in real time across the globe very powerful prof learning 2 weeks ago
Life post Hattie gr8 powerful discussions on learning teaching in staffrooms. Teachers engaged on significant issues leads changed practices 2 weeks ago
On the subject of the ubiquitous nature of social technologies – I recently attended a dynamic event in Scotland arranged by a great colleague, John Connell called 
It’s always engaging to hear someone as passionate as Stephen talk to teachers about the opportunities and challenges of learning in today’s world. Ask Stephen and his response is that students can do anything if they are challenged, engaged, inspired etc. Ask many secondary teachers and they will tell you how constrained they are by rigid timetables and syllabus requirements.
When the school introduces and trains each child of society into membership within such a little community, saturating him with the spirit of service, and providing him with the instruments of effective self-direction, we shall have the deepest and best guaranty of a larger society which is worthy, lovely and harmonious.
