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welcome to texas

Texan approaches to learning — Aotearoa applications

Posted on June 14, 2018 by Amira Aman

Ten years ago, Māori students confirmed for us the central importance of teachers establishing whānau (extended family-like) relationships, Whanaungatanga, to their successfully engaging and achieving at school… Whanaungatanga is necessary and foundational. Bishop, R & Ladwig, J & Berryman, M. (2013).

texas-nz

In October 2017 I was Austin bound to peek in the doors of four schools who held reputations for offering ‘disruptive’ education, inclusive education, and/or high academic achievement.

In my introductory blog, Destination Texas: Disruptive education as a means for student agency and inclusivity, I summarised the schools I was afforded to visit by CORE Education:

  • two private schools offering an alternative entrepreneurial approach KoSchool(middle and high School) and Acton Academy(elementary, middle and high school);
  • Magnolia Montessori for All, a public elementary school created to address the achievement inequities experienced by some children; and
  • LASA East Austin, a selective public magnet high school for liberal arts, science, and mathematics.

In my second blog Student agency and inclusivity: 4 Texan schools I discussed the four key themes that emerged from my visits. Primarily how the schools viewed:

  • inclusivity
  • learner agency (assessment and reporting)
  • the role of $ money — private versus public
  • physical environments and the connection to teaching pedagogy.

So, what does all of this mean for teachers and leaders in Aotearoa, New Zealand? What did I learn about inclusivity, parental expectations around assessment and reporting in disruptive education, and the impact of the physical environments on teaching pedagogy?

Considerations for senior leaders

Inclusivity

In visiting these four schools I could see clear parallels between Texas and New Zealand with regards to lower achievement levels of certain ethnic groups compared with white students. Public schools like Magnolia Montessori for All genuinely focused on key competencies to support their students’ social and emotional needs (as we would say in Aotearoa — whanaungatanga). Private schools like KoSchool ensured that students were wrapped in support from many areas: teachers, school leadership, parents, outside agency support, outside vocational interest businesses. Michael Strong, founder of KoSchool, didn’t want an ‘either/or’ approach. They worked in deliberate ways so that both social/emotional needs and learning needs were addressed concurrently.

What was most apparent was that schools that genuinely put students at the heart of their learning and connected with the cultural, learning, social, and emotional needs of their students, did challenge the low achievement statistics. These students were not seen as the failing ‘tail’ in a bell curve of student achievement that needed to be fixed. These students were viewed as capable of learning like all students, and the teaching methods and curriculum reflected ways to engage and support their learning. The students’ cultures were celebrated and interwoven into the school curriculum and teaching pedagogy. It was part of the fabric of their schools. As a New Zealander visiting these schools, Russell Bishop’s research, Te Kōtahitanga, sat on my shoulder as I walked the corridors of each school, which was working hard to challenge the low achievement statistics of certain ethnic groups.

These ‘successful’ schools didn’t offer this support on their own. Parents were closely connected to their children’s education in the ‘disruptive’ education schools. For example, at the Magnolia Montessori for All learning was considered a priority for parents as well as their children, and they provided regular sessions where parents connected with educators and discussed relevant issues. This level of connection provided a tightly woven community around a student where they felt a sense of belonging. Who they are as individuals was celebrated. So, what could that look like in Aotearoa? I imagine a first response would be concerns about teachers spending time in evening meetings with parents. And it’s a valid concern. At the very least this level of parental involvement is a shift away from a twice-yearly parent-teacher interview where, at some schools or kura, a parent is ‘told’ how their child is performing.

From the experiences I had in Texas, a few of the questions that I’d recommend we continue to ask ourselves are:

  • How we can blur the boundaries between home and school?
  • How can we include a student’s culture so that they bring their identity with them rather than leaving it at the school gate to fit into a Pākeha world?
  • Do we need to look at taking small steps, such as looking at the clothes/uniform students’ wear, so they can come to school feeling comfortable and connected with their culture (as Fraser High School has done)?
  • What other inclusive measures can we take so that students are ready to learn?

 Assessment and reporting

 “This is a story about … whether an entire generation of kids will fail to make the grade in the global economy because they can’t think their way through abstract problems, work in teams, distinguish good information from bad, or speak a language other than [their own].” TIME magazine, How to Build a Student for the 21st Century, Wallis and Steptoe (2006)

I was fascinated to see how these schools reported achievement to parents and whānau. Would they report using traditional modes of using subject grades or would they take a different approach?

At times I could see there was a disconnect between attitudes of learner agency and a focus on inclusivity and the traditional grade reporting system that the schools followed. This was explained by most schools as providing what the parents requested. It’s an important point. We are often defined by our experiences and it is comforting for parents to see familiar reporting methods when wanting to understand the progress of their children. However, the world has changed dramatically since these parents were at primary or secondary school. The competencies our children and students require are vastly different to those their parents were schooled in. If you take a glance over the 2017 Ten Trends you will see highlighted the need for young people to develop competencies in cultural, technology, structural, economic and process areas. Likewise, the OCED in 21st Century Skills: How can you prepare students for the new Global Economy? looks at the capabilities our students’ need for their future (not ours).

Parents who sent their children to ‘disruptive’ schools were less likely to insist on traditional means of reporting, but even they voiced their fears of not understanding how their child was achieving. They were more comfortable in less traditional forms of reporting if it was evident that they:

  • saw value in what their child was studying (and they were heavily involved in the school to view this)
  • they could see tangible progress through set programmes
  • they were aware that their child’s social/emotional needs were being met by the school (and they hadn’t elsewhere).

Clearly, a shift in teaching pedagogy is a major shift for parents and whānau, not just students. Some questions for us to consider include:

  • How do we include our communities in understanding that shift?
  • How do we engage in their understanding of what skills their children need for their futures?

The role of $ money — private versus public:

LASA - Technology workshop
LASA – Technology workshop
LASA -high academic achievement
LASA – high academic achievement

While I could see that it was easier to be inclusive in private schools, with flexible curricula and money for resources, it was also possible in public schools that made it their business to do so. These schools recognised the importance of employing teachers and leaders who represented the students they taught. This was not an uncomplicated undertaking, but it was a stance that Magnolia Montessori for All overtly considered when employing new teachers to reflect the ethnic diversity of their school. It was also an important consideration for LASA, who choose teachers who were outstanding in their fields and later retrained as teachers. They saw these individuals as having the passion and expertise to inspire the interests of specific students, particularly in STEM subjects. The principal, Stacia Crescenzi, spoke of a teacher who had a Masters in Physics and who had worked outside of education. She sought him out after he retrained as a teacher. She chose him specifically to connect with those students who were hugely passionate about physics. Unsurprisingly, Stacia didn’t come from a secondary background either. She taught Psychology at a university prior to being appointed to the prestigious school and was comfortable looking outside of education for teachers who would be able to meet the needs of her students. Likewise, Michael Strong, founder of KoSchool, was careful to choose teachers who showed experience or willingness to teach using Socratic dialogue and support the diverse emotional and social needs of their students.

These schools certainly gave me pause for thought about the tendency of New Zealand schools and kura to ‘advertise the position and wait to see who applies’. These Texan schools were very strategic about hunting for teachers who would support their vision and meet the culture of their schools and specific needs of their students.

Considerations for teachers

As Hattie (2017) has highlighted, the most important factor in student achievement is the teacher; it’s all about our relationships with our students. To a certain extent, the building of a relationship that genuinely celebrates students’ cultural, learning, social, and emotional needs is ‘easier’ in a primary school where teachers spend most of each day with their students. However, that doesn’t let us secondary teachers off the hook. I ask myself:

  • What do we do as ‘ordinary’ teachers to really know the cultural backgrounds of our students, their interests, their ways of learning?
  • How do we challenge their ways of learning within the constraints of our school’s structures?
  • If we have some influence on the number of NCEA credits our students are completing, the length of teaching periods and the structure of the school day, then fabulous, but if we do not, what can we influence once they are in front of us for a period?
  • What deliberate actions do we take to create learning programmes that are about learning rather than NCEA assessments?

If we value learning agency, what does it look like in practice in a traditional secondary school?

The structure of a traditional secondary school doesn’t really enable us to see ourselves as teachers of learning, given that even the timetable states that the students are coming to us for an hour or 45 mins to learn ‘English’, ‘Maths’, or ‘Social Studies’. It is tempting to dismiss the importance of getting to know our students, their needs, and their interests, as we have so many assessments pending. How many schools give their teachers the flexibility to co-construct student assessment programmes with their classes? How many schools put the learning first and treat assessment as a bi-product, rather than a driver of that learning? It’s not an easy task. Teachers have senior leaders, BOTs, and the school community measuring student success through NCEA achievement data. However, I was struck by parental attitudes in the four schools I visited. They wanted their child’s social and emotional needs met, as well as achieving highly academically. And the correlation was right in front of me — students who felt like they belonged because of the efforts of their schools, did achieve well and contradicted the national statistics for their ethnic group(s). The research is undeniable also; students whose social and emotional needs are met achieve better academically (Sparks, 2013).

So, how does our teaching pedagogy reflect that we value student agency? If we are talking about NCEA requirements of students’ creating original, perceptive, and insightful ideas yet we are teaching ‘chalk and talk’ with a few token groups work activities, then I feel we have a disconnect. While the practices of Socratic discussion would take time to evolve, this is a means by which to genuinely give students the time, space, and belief that they can discuss the bigger issues of their learning.

KoSchool - timetable
KoSchool – timetable

The power of goal setting in creating learner agency

Goal setting was an integral part of learner agency in some of the schools I visited. The schools that did this well spent considerable time on supporting the students to form realistic goals guided by the parameters of grade level expectations. Schools like Acton Academy celebrated goal setting at the beginning of a semester by inviting the community to come to a signing ceremony where each student signed their plan for the semester, which demonstrated a high level of support from both within the school and from their whānau. These goals were referred to on a daily, weekly, sessional (the school ran for six weeks of learning at a time before breaking for a week), and semester basis. Meeting goals were recognised and applauded. Students genuinely chose their own pace of working and did not move up to the next grade level (step of their Hero’s journey) until they met the requirements.

It was truly impressive to see students taking ownership of their learning, supported in a multi-level classroom and their guides (teachers) and whānau. This is, I believe, a far cry from a casual attempt to get students to set goals at the beginning of the year, perhaps a loose attempt to refer to them during the year, and then a check in how they got on at the end of the year. In this elementary school, the goal setting was made tangible by individual programmes for Core Skills, so that students could meet their own goals in Maths, Reading etcetera.

The challenge for me was how this could look in practice in Aotearoa — especially in a secondary school. Often, a form of goal setting is a ‘task’ given to a form teacher or similar. The key to success is the frequency by which the students are held accountable to their goals and the support that is wrapped around them. Clearly, there is room for robust discussions around how individual teachers could support students regularly to revisit their goals and their action steps to achieve them. A key question is, how can whānau be involved in this process? You might find it worthwhile reading Rebecca Sweeney’s blog on Beyond Goals | Scrapping Goals in a Complex, Fast-changing Environment where she explores a definition of goal setting by David, S., Clutterbuck, D., Megginson, D (2013). While this blog focuses on cluster/Kāhui Ako goal setting, it still holds relevance for student goal setting too.

Acton Academy ‘Hero’s Journey’
Acton Academy ‘Hero’s Journey’
Goal setting at Acton Academy
Goal setting at Acton Academy
Contract signing celebration at Acton Academy
Contract signing celebration at Acton Academy

 

What is the connection between physical environments and teaching pedagogy?

Because of the opportunities presented by the Canterbury quakes and the rebuild, the idea of MLE and collaborative teaching opportunities emerged, and this has been surrounded by controversy for some. On my trip to Texas, I was, therefore, interested in the teaching pedagogy I would witness and how schools would make use of physical spaces.

One of the things that stood out to me when visiting these four schools was how little the physical buildings affected student achievement in comparison to teaching pedagogy. While schools like Magnolia Montessori for All made a bold and conscious effort to design their buildings like homes rather than classrooms, it was their approach to teaching and learning that stood out in making tangible differences to student success. Even in private schools such as KoSchool, where the buildings and classrooms looked very familiar for any teacher teaching in a ‘regular’ school, again it was the student-centred approach to learning (especially Socratic dialogue) that produced independent, original thinkers.

Classroom at KoSchool
Classroom at KoSchool
Acton Academy classroom
Acton Academy classroom
LASA classroom
LASA classroom
Magnolia Montessori for All classrooms
Magnolia Montessori for All classrooms

Conclusion

It was a privilege to visit, witness, and reflect on the work that these four Texan schools do in Austin. These experiences will sit with me for a long time and influence the work I do with leaders and teachers in Aotearoa, New Zealand. These key themes stand out to me:

  • Relationships matter — if we really want to address the disparities of student achievement for Maori and Pasifika in New Zealand, then this is the first place we must pour our energies. I don’t mean token efforts to ‘know’ our students, but to really know them and build a sense of Whanaungatanga. I can see that these relationships do not just start and end with the student sitting in front of us, but include whānau and community too.
  • Learner agency — is a huge shift in mindset for parents, and we have to lead the way. While it is comforting for parents if we present them with a familiar approach to teaching pedagogy, it is not going to prepare their children for the world they are going to live and work in.
  • School structures support change — while it is possible for individual teachers to embrace a teaching pedagogy that is inclusive, student-focused, and responsive to individual needs, it is certainly easier to do so when a school’s structure also supports that vision.

If you would like to discuss any of the aspects I have mentioned, or questions I have raised, I would be keen to talk with you. So, please feel free to contact me at amira.aman@core-ed.ac.nz

 

Image credits:
Feature image — Greetings from Austin, Texas by chefkeem on Pixabay under CC 0
Map of Texas, by GDJ, on Pixabay under CCO
Map of NZ, by cmccarthy2001, on Pixabay under CC0
All other images by the author

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Student agency and inclusivity: 4 Texan schools

Posted on April 12, 2018 by Amira Aman

usa

“In a world where young people exercise
personal choice over matters as trivial as the
ring tones of their cellphone, or as far
reaching as the learning pathways they
pursue, denying them opportunities for active
involvement in important learning and
assessment decisions is likely to promote
Disengagement”

Absolum et al., 2009, page 8

In October 2017, I was Austin bound to peek in the doors of four schools with reputations for offering ‘disruptive’ education, inclusive education, or high academic achievement. In my introductory blog, I summarised the schools I was to visit: two private schools offering an alternative entrepreneurial approach KoSchool (Middle and High School) and Acton Academy (Elementary, Middle and High School); along with Magnolia Montessori for All , a public Elementary School created to address the achievement inequities experienced by some children; and LASA East Austin, a selective public magnet high school for liberal arts, science, and mathematics.

Four key themes emerged from my visits — how schools viewed:

  • inclusivity
  • learner agency (assessment and reporting)
  • the role of $ money — private versus public
  • physical environments and the connection to teaching pedagogy.

Interpretations of inclusivity

I really wanted to see how the schools I visited viewed inclusivity, particularly in a city that had obvious racial tensions. I wanted to know how these schools addressed the needs of their priority learners and strove to improve outcomes for them. Magnolia Montessori for All was the most explicit in promoting inclusivity of students. They openly state in their school name and vision that their school was created to serve all members of society and, as a result, their student ethnicity is more diverse than in most schools in Austin (40% Hispanic, 30% white, 20% African American). To support their purpose, Magnolia Montessori for All use Panarama, a set of social and emotional competencies to focus on the development of their students’ self-regulation (Conscious Discipline), and they see this as a key reason that they outperform other public schools academically. The emotional and social well-being of students was promoted in various ways, such as the careful organisation of students’ learning to ensure consistent and calm routines. Pets were also housed in every classroom, and these provided students with emotional comfort and a sense of responsibility.

In contrast to Magnolia Montessori for All was LASA, a public Magnet school whose school population is dominated by white gifted and talented students (White 52.48%, Latino 19.56%, African American 2.02%, Asian 19.48% and Native American .08%). Their focus of inclusivity was interpreted as a need to support the wellbeing of individual students because they recognised the strain put on them through high academic expectations. All students were required to study at a grade level higher than their age level, and the students had no choice in the subjects studied. They offered support in the form of three different counsellors — Academic counsellors (initial concerns; time management, scheduling etc), and Wellness Counsellors, who are licensed professional therapists (for more serious issues), or students are referred outside of the school for support.

Interpretations of learner agency

Learner agency was a term used by all of the Austin schools we visited. Their interpretations of what that looked like varied considerably.

KoSchool students lived and breathed learner agency through individual goal setting, which moved far beyond a tokenistic attempt. They focused on the use of the Socratic method of dialogue in their Socratic Humanities class. Students led their own investigations, dialogue, and evaluation of the dialogue without teacher facilitation. The high level of engagement of the students was astounding to say the least. Watching 30 students fully engaged in discussing Confucius, redefined my expectations of ‘perceptive understanding’ for Level 3 English assessments back in New Zealand. While teacher facilitation occurred in the junior class, by the time the students were in the senior school, they were autonomous in their ability to lead themselves.

KoSchool student brainstorming
A student at KoSchool brainstorming ideas with her group about issues which concern them.

LASA offered a varied approach to teaching pedagogy. Some classes were chalk and talk with the teacher as the expert. The rationale for this was that students would experience this style of learning at college. They also offered Inquiry-based learning to support learner agency. Initially, all students completed Signature courses, a 90-minute semester long engineering/physics class, where they were supported to work collaboratively to complete an impossible task. The focus was on learner agency and making social and emotional connections with their peers.

Technology classroom at LASA
Technology classroom at LASA

Acton Academy, like KoSchool, reinforced learner agency through individualised goal setting, which drove their curriculum. Students would take complete responsibility for the completion of learning activities. There were very high expectations of what needed to be achieved for each stage of the ‘Hero’s journey’, but the students decided how often and when they worked through these expectations (using programmes such as Khan Academy, Spelling City, DuoLingo, etc.,).

At Magnolia Montessori for All, learner agency was interpreted as giving students choice in the activity trays they selected for completion of tasks. Each classroom had its own garden, which the students were responsible for tending. In years 1–3, there was an individual learning focus to build an understanding of fundamentals (literacy and numeracy) and in years 3–6 learning occurred collaboratively.

KoSchool, LASA and Acton Academy all made strong connections with community to engage the students in their areas of interest. Business contacts were utilised, particularly for STEM interests. This was also reflected in the choice of teachers at LASA who were often highly successful in their STEM or Humanities fields, then retrained as teachers. Their expertise was used to connect the students with ‘real life application’. Acton Academy, in its entrepreneurial approach to learning, culminated with market days where students had designed, created, and marketed products, which were then sold to the school community. Learning celebrations were also an important milestone in their curriculum. The leadership and teachers at Acton Academy also believe that learning is to be shared with others; led by the students themselves. It made traditional parent-teacher interviews look archaic and irrelevant.

Both Acton Academy and KoSchool offered multi-leveled classrooms for their students. This provided the opportunity for growing leadership, socialisation of methods of working (e.g., Socratic dialogue) on a daily basis. In both of these schools, there was a clear message that learning was neither linear nor hierarchical. Their programmes supported the notion that there are not certain knowledge or skills sets for each age level. Learning was viewed as an evolving concept that occurred at different rates, in different areas, for each student. Each child was treated as an individual and could work at their own pace.

Connections with whānau (family) were highly valued at Acton Academy and KoSchool. Parents were encouraged to read and reflect on a number of titles before applying for a place for their child at Acton Academy. Once their child won a place at the Academy, parenting sessions were held regularly to support parent learning and to support the learner agency approach to education that their children were experiencing. This was a true community approach to learner agency. All stakeholders, students, whānau, business community, and teachers were genuinely unified in their pursuit of students leading their learning.

Assessment and reporting

One of the things I was curious about was what these approaches to learner agency meant for reporting on students’ achievement. While parents sent their children to school to experience a ‘different’ way of learning, and with an expectation that their child’s individual needs and interests would be nurtured, I wanted to know how this was balanced by reporting on assessments. As a secondary teacher I was keen to understand how these ideals sat with the expectations that their children were ‘learning’ and that this learning was measured accurately, especially if they had expectations that their children would go on to college.

Magnolia Montessori for All, who were proud to demonstrate that their students achieved higher than most public schools, used traditional assessment methods for reporting to parents. As noted, LASA supported inquiry learning for part of their students’ learning but Stacia Crescenzi (principal) noted that “Some parents really struggle with the reporting of the inquiry learning, therefore grades are what are reported”. KoSchool is not currently accredited and they view other disruptive education schools as losing their level of innovation by becoming accredited as they are then compelled to adhere to state requirements. Michael Ko (principal) is confident in that “Colleges don’t care where the students come from. [KoSchool does] SATs (Scholastic Aptitude Test) and ACTs (American College Test), which is what the colleges want. Our students do well on these”. They satisfied their parents’ interest in academic rigour by such means as the types of texts the students were studying (Confucius). Acton Academy reported on their students’ achievement on their ‘Hero’s journey’ and how well they had met their own goals, as well as the Academy’s expectations and their scores on various programmes (such as Khan Academy). Celebrations of learning occurred regularly to demonstrate to parents and the community what they had been working on in the semester (as well as other community events such as market days).

The report from staff at ‘disruptive’ schools and some parents I spoke to personally, was that parents were nervous, especially initially, whether their children would achieve at a school that viewed education differently. These concerns were usually alleviated by seeing their children enjoy learning through a sense of belonging at the school. They could see their child’s progress academically, even if it was not reported in a traditional manner with test scores. Perhaps not surprising, many of these parents were entrepreneurial themselves and, therefore, valued a ‘disruptive’ approach to education.

The role of $ money — does it make a difference?

So, is it all about the money? Both KoSchool ($17k per year) and Acton Academy ($10K per year) are private schools. From my vantage point, I’m not convinced the $ was the key differential for the experiences of these students. The view of what education should look like and who should drive a student’s learning were far more powerful determinants of inclusivity and student agency. Public schools, such as Magnolia Montessori for Al,l achieved success through a focus on the social and emotional needs of their students, much like the private school, KoSchool. By focusing on the building blocks of independence, and the capabilities these students need for their futures, these schools have made the students the focus rather than traditional subject-based learning.

Physical Environments and teaching pedagogy

One of my initial foci for visiting these schools was to note how their physical environments shaped their pedagogical approach. I reside in Christchurch and innovative learning spaces are a hot topic of discussion for any school approaching a rebuild/renewal.

Schools like Acton Academy looked and felt different from traditional schools. Their physical environments were open spaces with various multi-purpose spaces. Despite being the most expensive school to attend, KoSchool did not offer the most modern buildings. The classrooms were relatively small, devoid of any fancy furniture or breakout spaces like those being designed in New Zealand innovative learning environments. It was the view of what education looked like that shaped their pedagogy, not the furniture.

Classroom at KoSchool
Classroom at KoSchool

In fact, the public school, Magnolia Montessori for All , offered the most novel approach to their classroom buildings. The school was designed by an urban architect who created a series of buildings that looked like warm, inviting houses, rather than sterile classrooms. This was a deliberate act to further their purpose of providing an environment that supported the social and emotional needs of their students.

Magnolia house-type classrooms
Magnolia classrooms

While I found it fascinating to see these key themes played out in each of these schools, I was always thinking about how these ideas could support improved practice in New Zealand. In my next blog, Texan approaches to learning — NZ applications, I draw on my experiences in Austin to make recommendations for a New Zealand context for both primary and secondary sectors.


Image Credits:
Map USA from Pixabay by DGJ under CC0
All other images are by the author.

 

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Destination Texas: Disruptive education as a means for student agency and inclusivity?

Posted on April 5, 2018 by Amira Aman

usa

Students have a sense of agency when they feel in control of things that happen around them; when they feel that they can influence events. This is an important sense for learners to develop. They need to be active participants in their learning.
 The New Zealand Curriculum Online

Like many teachers, I believed I worked hard to be innovative in my teaching and to connect with my students as individuals. As an English teacher, I used engaging texts and created impressive resources for novel ways of learning. I reassured myself that I was meeting their individual needs through differentiated learning activities and by giving them choice in what they were learning. But then there were the NCEA assessments — internal and external — I knew they were driving most of what we did. Isn’t that the definition of senior secondary school? Twenty years of teaching experience had led me to believe so. My students achieved really well in NCEA so did anything really need to change?

I took a number of years to complete my MEd while teaching full-time and the more I read, the more I felt disillusioned by traditional forms of teaching. I kept looking for ways to meet individual student needs, engage my priority learners, and put students at the centre of their learning. However, I felt like there were limits in what I could change as a teacher — even as the head of a large English department. Where would I start with more systemic changes; what could it look like anyway?

During a period of maternity leave, I took the opportunity to teach at a small primary/intermediate school for a year, and I experienced a less traditional approach to learning. This was a school where they had the freedom to design their own curriculum. They designed a way of learning, which truly put students at the centre, and individualised students’ learning programmes. I met many students who had not fitted into traditional school structures. They had felt largely ignored because they did not fit the mould. At this school, I was able to experience a pedagogical design that valued children as individuals who learn in different ways and at different paces.

An opportunity to explore

With an MEd under my belt in leadership and mentoring, I exited full-time teaching and took a position at CORE Education as an Accredited Facilitator, uChoose Mentor, and Expert Partner. Here, I found myself working alongside many other educators in various contexts, who were grappling with the same issues. This new role at CORE Education afforded me the opportunity to explore further alternatives to traditional education by travelling to Austin, Texas in October 2017. I planned to visit schools who advertised themselves as offering ‘disruptive’ education, individualised learning, or high academic achievement. I wanted to know what they were doing and how. More importantly, what could we learn from their experiences for a bicultural New Zealand? What could the ‘ordinary’ teacher in a traditional school do differently?

What I wanted to find out

I had a few aims for my visits. I wanted to investigate how these schools:

  • viewed and actioned inclusivity of students (to meet the students’ cultural, learning, physical needs)
  • balanced parental expectations of what learning/assessment looks like alongside student-driven inquiry learning
  • designed their physical environments to suit their approach to pedagogy and learning.

I had watched the film, Most Likely to Succeed, so I was hoping to be inspired by a High Tech High disruptive model for learning. I knew what token attempts at student-centred learning looked like, but what does it look like when it’s more than tokenism? I had high hopes.

The schools

So, where was I planning to go? Four schools welcomed my visit. Two can be grouped under the ‘disruptive’ education label: KoSchool (Middle and High School) and Acton Academy (Elementary, Middle and High School).* They are both private schools offering an alternative entrepreneurial approach to education through the use of Socratic discussions. Magnolia Montessori for All differs in that it is a public Elementary School created to address the achievement inequities experienced by some children. The last school is a selective public magnet high school for liberal arts, science, and mathematics — LASA East Austin, which boasts outstanding academic results.

These four schools describe themselves in the following ways:

KoSchool
KoSchoolKoSchool is a private middle and high school of approximately 60 students who are taught in multi-level groups. This school is described as providing education for the next generation of thinkers, creators, leaders.

This following video gives a good overview of their pedagogy — Ko School Incubator video (7 minutes).

They describe themselves as:

“From the beginning, KoSchool seeks to empower its student body with our core disciplinary focus on Authentic Leadership and Personal Development, Socratic and Writing, and Math and Problem Solving. Through these courses, we are supporting students in becoming innovators, disrupters, leaders, and fulfilled human beings. Using our core classes as a lens, students are guided towards finding and exploring their own passion to learn and lead in an ever-changing world.”

Acton Academy
Acton AcademyActon Academy in Austin is one of several, internationally. Like KoSchool, Acton Academy is a private school, but for approximately 90 elementary, middle, and high school students. They also teach in multi-level classes and describe themselves as offering a revolutionary learning experience. Their mission is to inspire each child and parent who enters their doors to find a calling that will change the world.

The following video discusses the origins of Acton Academy and the premise of their pedagogy — Rethinking Education: Geniuses and Heroes (19 minutes).

They state that students at Acton Academy will:

  • begin a Hero’s Journey
  • learn to be a curious, independent, lifelong learner
  • develop a deep respect for economic, political, and religious freedoms
  • cherish the arts, wonders of the physical world, and the mysteries of life on Earth
  • discover his or her most precious gifts and learn to use them to solve difficult problems.

Montessori for All
Magnolia MontissoriThe Magnolia Montessori For All, which serves approximately 380 pre-kindergarten and elementary students is one of the few public (charter) Montessori schools in America.

This video — Start Up! (2 minutes) — shows the beginnings of the school in pictures.

This video — Austin’s First Public Montessori Opening in East Austin (2 minutes) — shows the launch of the school in East Austin. It opened in 2014 and its mission is to cultivate tomorrow’s leaders through inclusive practice.

Montessori For All endeavours to open and lead free, high-performing, authentic Montessori schools that partner with families to help children in diverse communities reach their extraordinary potential intellectually, emotionally, socially, creatively, and physically, so that they can pursue lives full of meaning and joy.

Their programme offers:

  • hands-on materials to tap into the strong connection between the hand and the brain
  • multi-age classrooms, which give all children both the chance to have mentors and the chance to be mentors
  • a 100% differentiated curriculum, which means that every child works at their own level in every subject.

LASA – East Austin
[IMAGE LSA-East Austin] The Liberal Arts and Science Academy (LASA) is a four-year public advanced academic magnet high school of 1,191 students. It was launched in 2002 as an amalgamation of The LBJ Science Academy and The Liberal Arts Academy at Johnston High School. It boasts exceptionally high student achievement, ranking in the top 10% of schools in America by recruiting, “the most academically advanced students from public and private middle schools in Austin”. Their goal is to nurture innovation and curiosity.

This video — The LASA video (6 minutes) — summarises the LASA experience from students’ perspectives.

LASA’s aims are described further in their mission and vision descriptors:

Mission

  • The Liberal Arts and Science Academy cultivates responsible leaders, problem solvers, and thinkers by offering a nationally recognized, rigorous, innovative, evolving curriculum.
  • The School stands at the forefront of the nationwide effort to produce graduates with exceptional knowledge and skills in English, other languages, mathematics, science, social studies and technology.
  • An outstanding high school education at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy of Austin (LASA) prepares students for higher education and at the same time encourages them to make a significant contribution to community, state and nation.

Vision

  • RIGOR: The curriculum for every course — Math, English, Science, Social Studies, and Art- is written to go above and beyond state and district standards.
  • COMMUNITY: Students take courses with teachers who are experts in their field and attend classes with students who enjoy the challenge provided by those teachers.
  • INQUIRY: Many of our courses rely heavily on discussion and seminar style delivery of the course information. Other courses rely heavily on the use, interpretation, and delivery of research.
  • EXCELLENCE: Teachers, students, and parents recognize that these four years are extremely important. Discussions of college selection, admissions, scholarships, letters of recommendation, and financial aid enter into conversations in the classroom beginning the freshman year.

Next steps

With research into each school complete and my bags packed, I set off with great expectation and anticipation. With each of the contacts I established with the four schools, New Zealand’s reputation for having one of the top education systems in the world proceeded me. As a practitioner within our system, I could see room for improvement and I hoped that I might find a few answers.

I was planning to look for these answers in a fascinating place — Austin, Texas. It certainly is an interesting place to visit. The racial tensions of the ‘past’ are palatable in the present. Suburbs seem clearly delineated for different cultural groups, and religion plays a strong role in regulating society. I was keen to see how some schools attempted to address these tensions.

In my next blog post, Student agency and inclusivity: 4 Texan schools, I look at what I discovered at each of these schools, and I explore the key themes which emerged. This second blog is followed by a third, Texan approaches to learning — NZ applications, where I look at New Zealand applications from the learnings I took away from my experiences. Look out for my next blogpost soon.

* Elementary school is kindergarten through 5th grade (ages 5-10), middle school is grades 6-8 (ages 11-13), and high school is grades 9-12 (ages 14-18).


Image Credits:
Feature image: map USA on Pixabay by DGJ under CC0
All other images by the author.

 

 

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Madlove Wellcome

Learning from mental health: innovation in inclusive environmental design

Posted on April 6, 2017 by Chrissie Butler
Madlove wellcome - vacuumcleaner
The Vacuum Cleaner and Hannah Hull’s Madlove – Designer Asylum, 2016, Design by Benjamin Koslowski and James Christian. Image credit – Wellcome.jpg

At the end of 2016, I bumped into an art project that shook up my ideas about how we collaborate with our communities to build inclusive environments.

The project was called Madlove: a designer asylum. It was conceived by artists the Vacuum Cleaner and Hannah Hull who brought together “people with and without mental health experiences, mental health professionals and academics, artists and designers – and everyone else on the spectrum” to dream a new landscape for mental health.

The project resonated with me on many levels. But I particularly loved the innovative way the project leaders:

  • supported people to deeply reflect on needs and aspirations
  • facilitated the sharing of diverse ideas
  • used the arts to convey meaning and build understanding
  • created a design that was informed by an acute sensitivity to individual differences.

For example, here’s an outline of the community workshop process:

How to re-design the asylum
Ist half of workshop process from The Vacuum Cleaner and Hannah Hull’s Madlove – Designer Asylum, 2016, Design by Benjamin Koslowski and James Christian. Image credit – Wellcome.jpg
  1. Find experts by experience: Search out people to participate in the workshops with diverse first-hand experiences and diverse perspectives. Also welcome their friends and supporters.
  2. Remove barriers to these people sharing their ideas: Seek to remove barriers both to participation and barriers in mindset; offer flexible options and supports.
  3. Stimulate imagination: Use real objects, textures to stimulate participants’ senses so that they can think about what supports wellbeing, reduces anxiety, and encourages focus and attention or connection.
  4. Consider emotional qualities: Explore what conditions will impact and influence emotional states.
  5. Create a sensory palette: What does good learning and wellbeing look, smell, taste, sound, feel like?
  6. Decide what personal qualities you need: What people and attributes will you need around you to enable you to thrive?
  7. Find out what activities and facilities help: Brainstorm all the things people would like to do in the space.
  8. Build a team to develop the design: Find an illustrator to visualise all these amazing ideas. Collaborate with a designer and an architect to create the design.
How to re-design the asylum
Second-half of workshop process from The Vacuum Cleaner and Hannah Hull’s Madlove – Designer Asylum, 2016, Design by Benjamin Koslowski and James Christian. Image credit – Wellcome.jpg

When I reflect on the above, I really like the way in which participants are supported to use all their senses to think about the design of a new space. I also like that participants are offered multiple approaches to reflect on what it is they need and what can help. It is much more than an academic exercise or a presentation and discussion. It is an in-depth inquiry into what is needed and provides real guidance for designers around what must be included in a design.

I also really like Step 8, where an illustrator is employed to distill the brainstormed ideas into a graphical representation. These graphics are then used to support the understanding of the architect and the designers and together a prototype model is developed.

Another way an illustrator was usefully employed was in the development of “Day in the Life” graphics. These were developed from interviews with participants and were again used to build the understanding of the designer and architect.

Gary's perfect day
Gary’s Day in the life from The Vacuum Cleaner and Hannah Hull’s Madlove – Designer Asylum, 2016, Design by Benjamin Koslowski and James Christian. Image credit – Wellcome.jpg

I think the “Day in the Life” idea is something we could also explore with students and whānau.

Finally, it is worth taking a close look at the key for the 3-D model which outlines the specific function of each area. Although the model surpasses our budget constraints in an education context, there is something about the way the designers are able to articulate their rationale for the design that makes me wonder if we could do the same in education.

Madlove Key
Madlove key from The Vacuum Cleaner and Hannah Hull’s Madlove – Designer Asylum, 2016, Design by Benjamin Koslowski and James Christian. Image credit – Wellcome.jpg

Example of text from the Madlove key above:

  • Topography: The landscape offers natural changes in levels of privacy, from the vibrant hubbub of the valley floor, to the solitary serenity of the hilltops. The decision of whether to join the action or get away from it all can be made at every busier location – it’s always possible to retreat from an active space, but not miss out on what’s going on”.
  • Library of good mental health: Quiet study and group learning in a library carved into the hillside. A wide selection of books to support or distract. Each book is recommended by a fellow mad person, with a note on how it helped them.
  • Tree houses: Individual ensuite bedrooms that can be adapted and personalised, with views down the valley.

 

I hope there is something in the Madlove story that captures your imagination. Right now in education we are:

  • investing millions of dollars and thousands of hours in building new schools and flexible learning spaces
  • talking a lot about how to support student wellbeing
  • called to design learning environments that are “acutely sensitive to the individual differences of learners” OECD (2013), Innovative Learning Environments, Educational Research and Innovation, OECD Publishing
  • required to strive to “promote the physical, emotional, social, intellectual and spiritual wellbeing of learners”? Draft Code of Ethics, Education Council 2017.

Let’s do the best we can to make sure these new spaces are optimised to support the learning and wellbeing of every student. Working with the diverse perspectives of learners and whānau is a strong place to start.


Credits:
Huge thanks to the Madlove team and the Wellcome Collection for their kind permission to share these images and ideas.

Want to learn more about designing inclusive environments?

If you interested in how to design respectful, inclusive environments where everyone is learning and achieving and you want to learn more about how our diversity can be a source of strength, come and join us at:

Changing Spaces

Stonefields School, 81 Tihi Street, Auckland
Friday 28 April 2017
8.30am – 3.00pm

FIND OUT MORE

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tamaki students

Creating an innovative learning environment in a single-cell classroom

Posted on September 13, 2016 by Jane Armstrong

Not all schools have a budget to rebuild or make big changes.

What can you do in a single-cell classroom to develop an innovative learning environment?

An ILE is:

  • learner-focussed
  • emphasises learner valued outcomes
  • flexible – allowing the needs of a diverse range of learners to be met
  • enables collaboration and inquiry

Ministry of Education, ILE website

Recently, I visited Noelene Dunn’s classroom at Tamaki College and talked to her and some of her students about:

  • the changes they had made in their classroom
  • the reason for those changes
  • the difference it made for student learning.

Noelene began with her students’ comfort. She thought about how her students preferred to learn, what furniture was needed to create a comfortable environment that enabled flexibility and collaboration, and what she could do in her room on a tight budget.

She then involved her students in creating a flexible space that worked for them.

“You do more work when you’re comfortable”
Taylor, Year 10 student Tamaki College

Creating a physical space that enabled collaboration was the first step. Noelene then developed systems to encourage and facilitate collaboration. Students in her classes can collaborate physically and virtually. They can sit and work together, or use the online tools available, such as Google docs, to work together.

Noelene developed a Google site, Mrs Dunn maths, to flip the learning in her classroom. It provides flexibility for when and how students learn. Students can personalise their learning and work at their own pace. There are a wide variety of resources to meet the different learning needs of each student.

These changes may look small from the outside, but they have made a significant difference to the students and to Noelene’s teaching approach. I saw three different classes of students who were all very focused, experiencing success, and had complete control of their learning.

You can create a successful ILE on a small budget!

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