Good teaching is like good cooking!

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With a background as a sociologist whose scholarship and research focuses on the ways in which schools are influenced by social and economic conditions as well as by demographic trends in local, regional and global contexts, Pedro Noguera was an inspired choice of keynote to open day two of the uLearn20 (virtual) conference. He didn’t disappoint!

pedro-reflection

Beaming into us from his base in California, Pedro captured the essence of what had been emerging through the conference to that point with his opening challenge to the participants, asking, “How can we make our schools and early learning settings more responsive to learners?” A simple question, but one for which there is no simple answer. Instead, it invites a deep engagement with a wide range of issues, and the exposure of many of the assumptions that underpin how we currently work in schools and as a system.

pedro-barriers

In his presentation Equity, Empowerment and Deeper Learning Pedro traversed a number of the key issues facing educators today. His emphasis was always on what is best for learners, highlighting that we cannot disconnect education from the cultural context and influences on our learners. Excellence, according to Pedro, should be achieved through equity. We must start by affirming the language and identity of the individual learner, and address any interpersonal or institutional bias as it is exposed. We must learn to move past the barriers to equity that we face on an almost daily basis – complacency, racial bias and a punitive mindset – and seek to embrace new ways of working, being and relating to others.

Historically, education has been used as a tool to assimilate learners into a common culture to prepare them for taking their place in the industrialised workplace. Our current model and approaches, according to Pedro, have been focused on control and compliance, and logistical and technical changes have dominated the conversations about how learning communities should operate. This was highlighted in the responses from schools, early learning services and systems to the recent COVID-19 lockdowns.

pedro-essential-ingredients

Pedro’s message was clear. To create the educational settings we need we must shift the paradigm. It won’t happen simply by introducing new programmes or changing policies. We need to start at the very core of our beliefs about what is important and what matters for our learners and their futures. We’ll know we’re there when our attention is on developing talent in all of our learners, rather than trapped in deficit thinking that leads to remedial actions.

So what was the call to action I heard from Pedro? Simply this – we need to re-capture the ‘delight’ in seeing all of our learners succeed and flourish. This won’t happen if we continue to focus only on trying to ‘fix’ problems. Instead, we must reorient our efforts to recognise and respond to the needs of each learner, acknowledging their culture, language and context in the programmes we design.

A final comment from Pedro sums it up well for me… “Good teaching is like good cooking. They always come back wanting more!” Imagine our educational settings and system where we could genuinely say that is the case?

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Online conferences: an in-depth example of getting value for you and your team

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Derek Wenmoth, Principal Consultant, CORE Education
With Dr Wendy Bamford, Principal at Wānaka Primary School

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Used with permission from Wānaka Primary School

CORE Education’s Deep Learning Lab (DLL), held during the recent school break, provided many New Zealand educators with their first opportunity to experience a fully online conference.

Normally a two-day event in a physical location somewhere in New Zealand, this year the decision was made to take the event online, given the concerns about travel in a COVID-19 environment.

One of the schools in the New Zealand New Pedagogies for Deep Learning (NPDL) project is Wānaka Primary School (WPS). While staff had been a part of DLLs before, travel and accommodation costs from Wānaka to the venue often meant that only a small team could afford to attend.
This year Dr Wendy Bamford, principal of the school, saw an opportunity to involve more staff. In this interview she describes how this worked for her and her staff.

Derek: Kia ora Wendy, thanks for taking the time to chat about your experiences of the virtual Deep Learning Lab this year. Describe for me a little of what you thought when you heard this year’s event was going to be held online?

Wendy: Well, it would be fair to say that the Wānaka Primary School staff, especially the very ancient principal [smiles], approached the whole thing with a degree of skepticism. We’d enjoyed being a part of the previous Labs, and got a lot from them. With this one being online we were wondering how could an online conference work so that we were able to network, share ideas, interact with presenters and have our pedagogical beliefs challenged, so that we got the most out of it that we could?

Derek: And what was the verdict?

Wendy: The very ancient principal has eaten her hat! It was amazing and thoroughly worthwhile was the WPS verdict. And given it was two days of inversion layer and a max temperature of two degrees, I for one was glad I could benefit from quality PLD without leaving my fireside chair.

Derek: How about the programme – how did that compare with the face to face conferences you’d attended previously?

Wendy: We were delighted with the quality of presenters, both national and global, who presented at the DLL. We were also delighted that the DLL catered for all levels of understanding and experience around NPDL. There was something for everyone and as the insights and live presentations were recorded, teachers could go back and look at all of the keynotes and workshops if they needed to.

Derek: How did you choose which teachers could attend this year?

Wendy: We didn’t have to choose – everyone who wanted to attend could! Usually we can only afford to send three to four teachers to the DLL and uLearn because of the high costs involved in travel…usually flights for us…and accommodation. We were able to encourage staff to attend as they had access to the DLL with only the registration fee as the cost and in the holidays so no reliever costs involved. We had a large number register.

Derek: What about those with family or other commitments who may have wanted to attend but couldn’t?

Wendy: One of my teachers was unable to attend the Thursday/Friday of the actual conference but hopped in and out as she could prior to and after the actual online date.

Derek: So the flexibility of online really opened it up for everyone?

Wendy: It certainly did! A number of my staff have young families and that is another benefit of accessing the conference online from their homes.

Derek: As principal, what were the big benefits you saw in having the event available to your staff like this?

Wendy: After attending the DLL, staff have high expectations of fabulous PLD at their fingertips without the hours in airports and staying away from the family. Bringing high quality global presenters in remotely allows greater numbers and greater varieties of insights and keynotes. It’s also more affordable, as the costs of hosting the speakers – their flights to NZ, accommodation etc. must be a lot less as well, meaning registration costs and the costs to CORE are reduced.

Derek: Tell me more about how your staff actually participated – did you all just sit at home in front of the fire and go online?

Wendy: There were a number of ways staff attended the DLL. We had a group of staff who were able to gather together at school, either in the staffroom or as a pod group, but we also have staff who live up to 45 minutes from school and they loved the option of not having to travel and to watch it from home. There was lots of communication between staff whether it was conversations held at school or digital means.

Derek: That sounds awesome – something in there for everyone! And I love the way you have used the conference to create a sense of ‘connectedness’ among your staff – regardless of how they participated.

Wendy: Yes, that was very intentional. On the first week back after the DLL all of the WPS staff gathered together and talked about the ideas and pedagogical practices that resonated with them. This stimulated further discussions and many are now keen to go back and look at presentations again as teams etc. as well.

Derek: So being online really suited you and your staff?

Wendy: Indeed – the major benefits I see are that more staff can be involved, a greater number and variety of presenters can also be involved and you can interact in a space and at a time that suits you.

Derek: So this experience has really changed your thinking about online conferences! Do you think your staff will be interested in participating like this again?

Wendy: Absolutely! Before the Deep Learning Lab I had only one teacher interested in attending uLearn and to be honest our PLD budget could only afford to send three or four. Now that staff have had a taste of the online DLL and the fact that it ran so smoothly, people could opt into sessions at times that suited them. There are a number who would like to be involved with the online uLearn conference.

Derek: What was it about the experience that made it so engaging for your staff? It sounds like it was much more than simply a series of ‘talking heads’ providing online keynotes and workshops?

Wendy: That’s it exactly. The opportunity to engage in the online forums, in breakout rooms, interact with the keynote presenters, insights and live presenters and the ability to revisit these at any time or enter into another insight and consequent forum ensured there is lots of thinking, discussion, rigorous questioning. We found at the DLL that staff newer to DLL revelled in the practical classroom ideas, resources and speakers, while the more informed and experienced practitioners looked for something to challenge their thinking and disrupt their beliefs.

Derek: So they’re keen to get to uLearn now?

Wendy: I can’t wait for uLearn … and I can bet on the fact there will be a large number of WPS staff as well. If uLearn is set up like the DLL it will be the ideal portal for everyone from beginning teachers to experienced school leaders!

Derek: Thanks for your time, Wendy. I’ll look forward to catching up at uLearn online.

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Future Ready – bringing your graduate profile to life!

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graduate-profile

Beginning the year provides a great opportunity to ‘start fresh’ with our thinking, individually and as a staff. It’s a time where we can take a moment to reflect on what’s really important and what the key drivers are for our work.

For schools and kura this thinking is revealed in mission and vision statements.. These make explicit the aspirations they, and their community, have for learners in their care.

A really good mission and vision statement is grounded in beliefs about teaching and learning that are held by the staff and the community. These in turn reveal a lot about what they believe to be the purpose of schooling, what is expected of it by the community and society more generally.

I’m writing this as I reflect on three recent experiences:

  1. A camping holiday with my entire family during which we spent time sharing some of our dreams and thoughts about what’s happening in our lives and the hopes we have for the six grandchildren in particular.
  2. A day working with the staff of a large primary school in Auckland where we explored the implications of a ‘future focused’ perspective on all aspects of the school’s planning and activity, and how this is reflected in their statement of intent, vision and mission.
  3. The release earlier in the week of a new report from the OECD on Teenagers’ Career Aspirations and the Future of Work, and the headline in local papers telling us that half of Kiwi 15-year-olds expect to work in one of just 10 occupations.

The questions about ‘What is school for?’ and the ‘purpose of education’ are the common thread in these experiences. Whether a parent making decisions about a place of learning for their child; an educator making curriculum planning decisions for the year ahead; or a national or international policy body researching these things, we can’t avoid the reality that the most significant measure of success of our endeavours is the ‘product’ at the end of the line – in education’s case, the confident, connected, life-long learner who is able to thrive in a world where the future is uncertain and changing.

Considering how well school contributes to the preparation of our young people as future citizens, and how well they then contribute to society in the workforce is a key indicator of success. The journey towards this goal starts well before they get to the senior secondary years when the careers guidance programmes kick in.

The foundations that prepare young people for their futures, including work, are established early in life when parents and whānau begin asking “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Once they make their way to school or kura our children and tamariki encounter the curriculum with an initial emphasis on literacy and numeracy, gradually expanding to other domains of knowledge and the skills associated with them. The design of the curriculum is influenced by our beliefs (as society, communities, educators) about what they need to be able to know and do that will prepare them for what they do in the future.

All good so far, except that when it comes to what actually happens in school, it appears (in some cases at least) that this connection isn’t made. According to a 2018 article in Stuff, while we may consider our school graduates to be educated, tech savvy and enthusiastic, only half of 16- to 23-year-olds feel their education has prepared them well for the future. In that article, Massey University Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Paul Spoonley, is reported as saying that there has been a disconnect between employers’ expectations and the secondary and tertiary curriculum for some time.

The more recent OECD findings reinforce this earlier report, with the list of ten occupations identified through their research looking very similar to the list I would have made when I was at school, more than 40 years ago. None of the occupations identified in the World Economic Forum’s list of top ten skills you will need to thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, appear in the OECD list for example.

However, I’d suggest that the ‘disconnect’ should be considered more widely than simply being between what employers expect and the what is in the school curriculum – or perhaps more correctly, how it is taught.

Many schools and kura have made explicit the aspirations they have for their learners, in the form of a graduate profile. In almost every case, these profiles describe a wide range of competencies and dispositions that places of learning want to see developed in young people during the time they are with them. These are based on beliefs about what is important in terms of character, including the ability to adapt and cope with change, and not narrowly defined in terms of specific skills or knowledge outcomes.

Again, this is a really valuable exercise and one that I’d strongly support. Once developed, the graduate profile must remain a ‘living document’, not something that is filed away and used as a point of reference for achievement when learners reach their final year.

As the new year begins, I encourage you to revisit your graduate profile (if you have one) and reflect on the extent to which the programmes, themes, activities and topics planned for this term or year will provide opportunities for your learners to develop the characteristics you’ve identified. What measures will you take to so that you can confidently say these things are being or have been achieved? Moreover, as the characteristics described in a good graduate profile likely to develop, what strategies and measures do you have in your school, kura or centre to monitor and track this development over time?

Let’s make 2020 the year we shift our emphasis to be truly ‘future focused’, and take steps to ensure that there is no longer any gap between what we say we aspire to see learners achieve and what they report as their experience when they leave you to participate as contributing members of society – including in the world of work.

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Auahatanga | Innovation

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innovation

When Māori first made their way to Aotearoa they used a variety of innovative ways to navigate to places they’d not previously visited. Once on land, their challenge came in finding ways to meet their everyday needs using what was available in this new landscape. Over the ensuing years Māori became adept at using the local flora and fauna to build shelter, make clothing and provide food and medicines to sustain themselves.

Centuries later, the European settlers came, bringing a post-industrial approach to building a life in this new land. These early settlers also had to adapt and improvise to meet their needs – including finding ways of fixing and maintaining the industrial age tools they’d brought with them. Number 8 wire, brought with them for fencing, was readily available and often used as a substitute for the parts that were missing or not working well. Out of this grew the myth of the Number 8 Wire mentality; otherwise known as Kiwi ingenuity.

From these early times both Māori and Pākeha have been identified as practical, problem-solver types, able to invent, fix and create solutions, often through improvisation and clever thinking rather than having access to the level of resourcing available to others. New Zealanders are recognised on the global stage for this number 8 wire mindset, from Rutherford’s work towards the splitting of the atom to Rocket Lab’s launching of a rocket into space.

While we may have grown up thinking of ourselves as the nation with the Number 8 Wire mindset, in our modern world we have become increasingly accustomed to having our problems addressed for us by others who have the knowledge, skill and resources to do this. The Number 8 Wire may have been useful in fixing a mechanical tractor or milking shed machinery, but it’s unlikely to be of use on one of today’s electronically controlled cars or ‘smart’ building systems for example.

Reimagining Aotearoa’s future will require us to innovate in different ways. We will need to connect and strengthen our communities; to disrupt what we’ve known and innovate to find solutions that meet new challenges and effect change. This will be a challenge in a world of increasing complexity and exponential change where our problems won’t only be about how to address our immediate physical needs, but will extend to how to address issues and concerns that affect the way we live and survive as a society, locally and globally.

In the modern world, education becomes even more important for developing the next generation of innovators, problem solvers and creative thinkers. It can ignite a passion for learning and provide students with the tools they need to thrive and succeed in the innovation economy.

Innovation in education requires:

  • Risk taking – valuing the ability to push the boundaries, to think outside the square and to try things even when there’s no guarantee of success.
  • Failure – giving learners permission to fail, to learn from failure and to persist with ideas.
  • Open-mindedness – not limiting one’s thinking to the conventions that exist, but being prepared to embrace new ideas and new thinking.
  • Collaboration – while individuals may be acknowledged for their original ideas and creativity, bringing new thinking to the fore requires the effort of a team.
  • Support – learners need to know that their efforts are supported, that they won’t be penalised for something that doesn’t work but instead encouraged to try again.
  • Resources – innovative activities will require things to get messy at times, with learners requiring access to things that will enable them to experiment with their ideas. Often these resources will exist outside of the school, kura or centre, so community relationships and global connections will become important here.

Innovation is one of the CORE uLearn conference themes this year, The focus questions developed for this strand provide some provocations for participants to consider how they create a climate of innovation in their educational communities:

  • How can we prepare our young people to be innovators and change agents?
  • How might we intentionally teach in ways that promote creativity, innovation, wonder, joy, and a passion for learning.
  • What is the role of inquiry in learning? In teaching? How does this lead to innovation?
  • How do we bring new ideas to fruition in our schools/kura/organisations?
  • How might innovation look and occur from different perspectives and through different cultural lenses?

edSpace is CORE Education’s online network for educators to connect with others, discuss strategies, and share information – join edSpace here. Once you’re there, head to our uLearn discussion forum, and join the discussion about Innovation.

As young people around the world begin to mobilise in response to the growing concerns they have about the problems they see looming on the horizon, we need to think about how we prepare this generation of learners, through developing an innovator’s mindset, so that they become the solution builders.

References
The Genius of Kiwi Ingenuity https://www.motovated.co.nz/genesis-kiwi-ingenuity/
Innovation in the Classroom: Why Education Needs to Be More Innovative  https://philmckinney.com/innovation-classroom-education-needs-innovative/

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It’s better to be on the bus than on the road!

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“If you feel overwhelmed and confused by the global predicament, you are on the right track. Global processes have become too complicated for any single person to understand. How then can you know the truth about the world, and avoid falling victim to propaganda and misinformation?”

Yuval Noah Harari, introduction to part IV of 21 Lessons for the 21st Century

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In response to my indecision about how to face a particular challenge in my career, an old friend of mine once suggested, “it’s better to be on the bus than on the road!” I took that to mean that it is better to be a part of the change than simply allow it to ‘run over’ me and be overwhelmed by it all. An unfortunate consequence of the current state of relentless, exponential change, both locally and globally, means many of us feel we’re ‘on the road’ at times, simply watching everything pass us by and feeling helpless in what to do about it.

Being ‘on the bus’ holds much more appeal for me than being on the road – for a start, from the bus you get a different perspective of the challenges you face. You get to see more of the other things going on – from the various sights you’re passing to a view of the horizon. In addition, you do all of this with others – realising that you’re not alone in facing these challenges and that together, you’re in a better place to both appreciate the good and to find solutions.

In times of accelerating change it’s easy to fall victim to a ‘stable state’ mentality, thinking that if we simply wait a while everything may return to a state of ‘normal’ again. In a world where developments in technology, climate change, threats of war and political uncertainty all contribute to feelings of anxiety and indecision, it is more important than ever before that, as educators, and as responsible citizens of the world, we need to understand a return to ‘the stable state’ isn’t a likely scenario. We need to see ourselves as being ‘on the bus’, engaging our collaborative and critical thinking capabilities to help us make sense of it all, and to find solutions to the challenges we face.

Being ‘on the bus’ doesn’t imply a physical place to be – it’s a mindset. It involves resilience, fore-sight and critical thinking. Resilience because we need strategies that will allow us to cope with the feelings of uncertainty and threats to our personal comfort and security. Fore-sight because we need to be able to see beyond the present and be aware of what is on the horizon, and of the actions that are likely to make these things a reality. And critical thinking because we are living in a ‘post truth’ world, where what we are being exposed to through the media and other channels, requires us to be able to exercise the ability to critically examine and evaluate the factual evidence to form views and change our behaviours based on that.

Fundamental to this is ensuring we are well informed, that we have access to the information required, and that we view it from multiple perspectives. It doesn’t require too much searching in the popular media to find that for every opinion claiming a certain ‘truth’ or certainty, there is an equal and opposite point of view. Our view of foresight shouldn’t be based simply on what the latest guru or ‘influencer’ tells us we should believe. Our response requires us to draw on our ability to delve beneath the headlines and their simplistic message. We must take a critical stance that weighs multiple perspectives and tackles issues of complexity with an appropriate response.

There’s another benefit of being ‘on the bus’ – we are with other people. This is critically important, as our journey into the future must increasingly be regarded as a collaborative one, not something we’re left on our own to contend with. The strength of the collaborative group is that we’re able to debate and discern things as a collective – to challenge the status quo and at the same time, be there for each other as the change impacts us differently. Of course, this will work best if our ‘team’ doesn’t consist solely of like-minded individuals forming a sort of ‘echo chamber’ that reflects simply what we want to hear and what we feel comfortable with. Authentic change will require us to learn to work collaboratively in settings where we feel uncomfortable, and where a part of the solution will lie in being able to resolve differences and work through multiple perspectives.

Engaging with resources such as CORE’s Ten Trends provides a useful way of starting this journey. They have been developed with the intention of providing information about some of the things that are currently challenging educators and the contexts they work in, providing some insights into the things that are driving these changes and offering prompts to begin the process of reflection and action at the local level. Importantly, the trends link back to a central core of five key themes that apply across the whole of society, so that these changes and their impact can be seen in a wider context than simply education.

My challenge to readers of this blog is to use the Ten Trends as a way of ‘getting on the bus’, to understand more of the things that are impacting the work we do, and combine with others to critically engage in forming a response that is appropriate in the contexts in which you work, in particular, a response that will ensure you are preparing the learners you are working with for their future, not just as ‘workers’ but as citizens who themselves will be able to influence and shape what happens in this world we all inhabit.

CORE’s Ten Trends 2019 have been released.

Read them online or download the document now!

 

Photo by Pau Casals on Unsplash

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