Kaser - Leadership mindsets

The four foundations of a global education framework include:
-          Learning to live together – when learners develop an understanding of other people, culture and values an appreciation of diverse perspectives and connectedness is created.
-          Learning to be – to counteract the impersonal nature of technology, every student needs opportunities to enjoy the freedom of thought, judgement, a range of feelings and imagination
-           Learning to know – students need to develop skills in learning to know – the acquisition of structured knowledge as well as cognitive learning tools.
-           Learning to do – gaining the competencies needed to deal with a variety of situations – most of which are unforeseeable
-          5^th – suggested more recently is Learning to respect the natural world – this is becoming more critical due to the complexity of environmental issues currently in the world
-           Students are more engaged in schools that are more innovative, personalised and use technology.  Reimagining quality requires leaders to reconsider what is valued in their schools.  How do we recognise learners for their contribution to the learning culture?  In a knowledge based society (as opposed to a manufacture/consumer based society) we can no longer use education to sort learners into pass or fail – young people need to develop a sense of belonging, a sense of well-being, and engagement with their community. (Kaser & Halbert, 2009).

Kaser, L., & Halbert, J. (2009). Leadership mindsets: Innovation and learning in the transformation of schools. London: Routledge.

Senge - Education for an interdependent world

Students today are aware of the global changes that are taking place.  Education can no longer perpetuate the industrial age values of economic consumerism.  The re-creation of education is dependent of communities that are committed to a future that has a future, not just educators.  Foundational changes include:

• -          Systems thinking
• -          Authentic youth engagement
• -          Rethinking schools as learning communities, and
• -          Education for sustainability

The process of education needs to be re-contextualised, by teaching children to be more responsible for their own environment, developing awareness of interconnectedness, and tackling complex real-life community issues.   Schools need to re-construct themselves into a learning community, where learning isn’t constricted into an isolated classroom.  This encourages the view that educators are not restricted to the classroom teacher, but to all adults that the child interacts with.  The need for education to evolve is apparent, and that cannot happen alone.  This however is impeded by the demand from society that school remain familiar to their childhood experience.     (Senge, 2010)

Senge, P. (2010). Education for an interdependent world: Developing Systems Citizens. In A. Hargreaves, M. Lieberman, Fullan, & D. Hopkins (Eds.), Second international handbppk of educational change, Part 1 (pp. 131-151). New York: Springer.

Hargreaves - A decade of educational change

Hargreaves (2009) states that as the economic and social constructs of the world are changing, so too must education change.  How education is changing however is of mixed success.  Large scale reform imposed from a top down approach has proven to have mixed results at best, even when based on successful innovations from other areas.  Teachers can only really learn when they are in their own classroom, connecting with other teachers.  The introduction of test based success for schools has shown focus on achieving acceptable scores results in the neglect of curriculum and pedagogy developments to meet the new needs of students.  Over-testing deteriorates child well-being, deters innovation and creativity, and the exploration necessary for child development.  Data should be used as a basis for setting goal, but within reason and in consultation with anecdotal evidence.  The biggest influence on student achievement comes from outside the school.  Supporting children through their families and community, as well as schools could have a bigger effect on student achievement than in school innovation.  Leadership within school needs to change from manager to leaders capable of inspiring innovation and creativity in the classroom. 

Hargreaves, A. (2009). A decade of educational change and a defining moment of opportunity:an introduction. Journal of Educational Change, 10(2/3), 89-100.

The more I read the more the connection with community is an obvious common thread - But I am wondering how to establish this in a community where parents are largely happy with current practice and perhaps are less likely to see the need for changing?  and how to establish this in families that already feel pressured for time and energy  ... A question I should put out there to my community, perhaps my assumptions are not correct.

Reggio Emilia Video

This is a video from CNN about the Reggio approach.  While it doesn't cover all aspects that are key to Reggio, it gives a good overview.  It also emphasizes an important point.  In an interview with Howard Gardner, a question is posed regarding the ability to transfer such a programme to another area.  In response, Howard notes that you can't, but you can take the aspects of most importance to your community and develop those.  This is what we are hoping to do at our school.

 

Modern learning in Edtalks

Our school is developing similar pedagogy - it is great to see another school moving in the same direction.  It is also great to see how this can work in a larger school.



Modern-learning-practice from EDtalks on Vimeo.

Learning to Learn

Learning to Learn: by Guy Claxton

I found this video while looking for some supporting papers for my assignments.  I thought it encapsulated all the leadership and curriculum learning I am currently focusing on very effectively.

Click here for video - the code for embedding was incorrect :(