As Richard Elmore once said, the greatest barrier to change in education is teachers and leaders’ inability to relinquish control. I would also add to that, a misguided belief that with control comes greater certainty. The ghost of Frederick Winslow Taylor still looms large on current business practice. By no means is command and control … More Command is no longer the name of the game
My position on technology, especially mobile phones in schools has not changed in a decade. In fact, as technologies become increasingly sophisticated, the worst school systems can do is flee from the overwhelming impact of the digital/knowledge age. I firmly believe that technology isn’t the biggest challenge in schools today. We operate in an environment … More Powering education through AI
As you may know, I spent the end of the 2017 school year visiting schools in the UK and Scandinavia. Their challenges are the same as the ones faced here: concern over the quality of schooling, overall relevance of schools in a rapidly changing world and the absence of a coherent educational policy. Nonetheless when … More Transformation is the global agenda
In 2012, John Coleman wrote an article in the Harvard Business Review titled ‘For those who want to lead, read’. Coleman observed that business professionals were reading less despite their being wide-ranging benefits to leadership. According to Coleman, deep and broad reading habits have been the ‘defining characteristic of our greatest leaders’ catalysing ‘insight, innovation, empathy, … More Leaders as readers
According to a recent Victorian study, many assistant principals aren’t prepared to take on the role of principal because of the associated work stress. Responding to the survey, Dennis Yarrington, president of the Australian Primary Principals Association (APPA) was quoted saying that many states and territories were already looking at “innovative practices around principal development” to provide the skills and knowledge … More A new lens
I have just returned from two days at the third annual Leadership for School Improvement Colloquium. The passion and pride for Catholic education is always evident at these gatherings; it reinforces the importance of taking time to reflect collectively on the how and the why. I have to say however I left feeling a little flat … More Improvement is no longer the challenge
According to Yong Zhao one of the biggest flaws of PISA is that it “directs the world’s attention to the past instead of pointing to the future.” Yet education systems and policy makers rely on international assessments such as PISA to gauge student performance in maths, science and reading. In World Class Learners, Zhao admits … More The speed of things
Our system and school leaders gathered last week to reflect on past achievements and to focus on the work ahead. Over the next two years our system’s strategic focus will be to ‘renew and adapt’. It is not about changing course or increasing the workload but reflecting on our practice; renewing our skills and … More Renew and Adapt
In my experience, the education sector can only benefit from the innovations and ideas from other sectors and industries. I think we should be examining the underlying philosophies, principles and practices that make an organisation successful in a knowledge age and how schools can learn from or even adopt similar practices. Yet there is still … More Is experience overrated in a knowledge age?
I’ve just finished re-reading Jeff Howe’s 2008 book Crowdsourcing. It struck me as I reached the end of the book that many of today’s digital natives will become tomorrow’s teachers. The question then becomes what impact or influence will digital natives have on shaping the role of teachers and the nature of teaching. I’ve been … More Crowdsourcing teaching
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