Here's my burning question for you in 2019: What are you going to do to change the experience that your students have in school to reflect more compellingly what you believe is the right thing to be doing for kids and learning? It's a loaded question, I know. It suggests that as an educator, you're currently employing practices that you don't really believe in. It suggests, also, that you are choosing to do that. Are you? I figure the beginning of the year is as good a time as any to lay this conversation around change squarely on the line. (At least it'll be all downhill from here, right?) And while I'm obviously trying to provoke, I'm also summing up a lot of what I'm leaving 2018 with in my head and in my gut. It's a feeling borne out by conversations with thousands of educators across about 150K miles of air travel this year, conversations that helped paint a complex if yet unclear picture for me of a turning point of sorts. That turn is this: … [Read more...]
The Unpleasant Truth About Equity
Equity is a topic that takes center stage in many education conversations, and rightly so. It’s about every child being given a “fair go." We often voice our concerns about the plight of the underserved in our communities, and as educators, we always strive to address their disadvantage within the resources we have available. At times, it can seem almost pointless when faced with the barriers and handicaps that society has placed in front of so many of our young people, yet as educators, our moral compasses guide us to try and give every child equal opportunity. It’s not easy. Whether you are dealing with disability, cultural or demographic limitations, or probably the most challenging, financial disadvantage, every day schools across the globe seek to offer a leg up to the less fortunate in our communities. It can be as minor as funding books or technology or lunches, or as major as comprehensive welfare support programs such as those that are now common place in many … [Read more...]
Choosing Progressive Education for Modern Learning
While it's hard to count the number of profound thoughts and insights that frequent Timeless Learning, the absolutely powerful new book from Ira Socol, Pam Moran, and Chad Ratliff that's coming out next week, this one particular passage had my inner and outer edu-activist pumping his fist: Adults may argue about this – they do argue about it – but despite the historical victories of industrial education, the fundamental utility of school has now firmly shifted to the progressive educational ideal, what John Dewey wanted” (97). Finally, some well-respected voices who categorically state that for this modern era, for the sake of today's kids living in today's world, we must choose Dewey over Thorndike, not the other way around. To be sure, I know many progressive educators in classrooms and schools right now. Heck, there are actually a smattering of fully functioning and fully committed progressive schools where absolutely amazing things are happening with kids and teachers who are … [Read more...]
Willing to be Affirmed
I'm pretty sure I've written this before in this space, but one of my favorite essays relevant to the whole conversation around school change is Margaret Wheatley's "Willing to be Disturbed." It was first published 16 years ago as a commentary on how confusing the world seemed to be post 9/11, and I've always found it to resonate with the confusion many struggle with when it comes to this current moment of uncertainty both in education and in the world writ large. The whole piece is important read, but a couple of weeks ago, I used the following to close our first Modern Learners' Lab in Chicago: We weren’t trained to admit we don’t know. Most of us were taught to sound certain and confident, to state our opinion as if it were true. We haven’t been rewarded for being confused. Or for asking more questions rather than giving quick answers. We’ve also spent many years listening to others mainly to determine whether we agree with them or not. We don’t have time or interest to sit and … [Read more...]
#47: Dr. Beth Holland discusses Learning, Language, and Leading
Could it be that one of the biggest barriers to change is that we rarely have any real shared understanding of the language we use around learning? That's one of the many interesting conclusions that Dr. Beth Holland arrived at while doing her recently published dissertation from Johns Hopkins University. And it's one of the many topics we discuss in this great conversation about the intersection of learning, language and leading in today's modern schools. Among some of her conclusions: That leaders really need to embrace models of learning that may be foreign to their existing mental models. That great systems around the world share a language of pedagogy. That the role of the leader now needs to shift to be more about brokering relationships and helping people navigate the different layers of their organizations. That trust and collegiality are the most important parts of culture when change is in the offing. And that we're going to have to get beyond "symbolic … [Read more...]
Is it About Teaching? Or is it About Learning?
One of the most interesting online debates I've come across lately is this one from the NAIS blog about the Mastery Transcript Consortium (MTC) which is trying to "reimagine the high school transcript." (If this is your first introduction to the Mastery.org folks, you may want to spend some time digging into their site and listening to the great podcast we did with organizer Scott Looney a couple of months ago.) While I think the idea of getting rid of grades is a much needed one, I also understand that the process is fraught with all sorts of disruptions, not just to the transcript but to narratives of education and schooling, our value as educators, the importance of higher ed, and much more. The conversation between John Gulla and Rand Harrington is important and interesting, and the whole thing is worth the read. But I want to pick out (or maybe pick "on") one particular response from Harrington as he attempts to discredit the efforts that Gulla and the Mastery group are making. … [Read more...]
#37: Revolutionizing Education Through Student Empowerment
Templestowe College, or TC as we call it in Victoria, Australia, was built to accommodate 1,000 students. At the start of 2010, those numbers had dwindled down to just over 200. Peter Hutton took on the challenge of rebuilding the school, despite severe challenges. Today, you will get to hear the story of the past 7 years, and how Peter revolutionized one school by testing assumptions and changing the way they thought about education. TC desperately needed a new brand and a new vision. Peter was longing to see how a school could actually nurture their students while also instilling in them the skills and knowledge they will need to succeed in life. Peter will describe for you today how those logistics play out for TC students today. We will also discuss how the students, parents, and staff have all responded to the changes over the past 7 years. TC is producing committed, happy students with impressive work ethic and a thirst for learning. Peter claims that culture was built from … [Read more...]
#36: Changing Educational Norms That No Longer Serve Us
It’s time to get a little existential. In this episode, my friend an colleague Bruce Dixon and I are discussing the profound artistry of teaching. Fueled by our mutual love of the works of Seymour Sarason, Bruce and I are going to weigh in on some of the topics mentioned in our last Shifting Conversations blog post. Namely, we want to discuss how the line we’ve been fed about learning is damaging our students and no longer serving them. We also want to discuss why it is so difficult for schools to change, and the kinds of cultural and societal biases we will face when changes happen. Above all else, educators want to create conditions that will make kids want to learn. Currently, educators spend a lot of their time engaging their pupils around content they have no interest in and no context for. Sarason and other thought leaders like him know that productive learning happens when they are taught prescriptively. We need to be on the frontlines encouraging schools to shift their focus … [Read more...]
#29: The Value of Teaching
If you've enjoyed being pushed by the conversations between me and Bruce in the past, you'll definitely enjoy our latest podcast that digs into the value of teaching, not just in the modern world, but in general. After a couple of weeks of scintillating interviews with Joel Pelcyger and Conrad Wolfram, this week we spend about 40 minutes this week discussing Bruce's latest Shifting Conversations column and the tension between teachers being learners as much as they are teachers. And I read a quote from Carl Rogers' book Freedom to Learn (from which I stole the title of my latest book) where he grapples with the role of the teacher and, to get really heady, whether anything can actually be taught. It's a sentiment that I've been mulling over for quite some time. (Bruce is already there.) If agency for learning resides with the learner, what can the teacher actually "teach" if anything? It's more about the adults in the room creating the conditions under which kids can learn most … [Read more...]
#28: Rethinking Math Class With Conrad Wolfram
Why is the current state of math education not suited for the modern world of computers and phones and other devices? That's the bigger question that Conrad Wolfram answers in our 28th Modern Learners podcast. Bruce and the founder of the amazing Wolfram Alpha have a wide ranging conversation around the state of current math instruction, the impact of technology on learning, and what we need to do to move in a more relevant, engaging direction for our students. Some of the highlights from the conversation: Wolfram talks about the four parts of using math in real life: Define the problem Can we turn it into a symbolic representation? Take the question to an answer What does it mean? Is that right? He points out that Step 3 is where technology can be most useful, yet we spend 80% of our math time in schools on that step by teaching hand calculating. Instead, he says, we should be focused on steps 1, 2, and 4 which are what people really need to be good at … [Read more...]