A comment from Mark Treadwell

kia ora (greetings) Karen

The paradigm shift in education we are currently experiencing requires both an understanding of the fundamental reasons that are driving it and the ability to predict the changing role of educators and what constitutes an effective curriculum. The implications for change we have been talking about in the sessions in Adelaide require systemic change that need to be strategically directed through the leadership of the school in a manner that is well planned and is based on multiple changes happening concurrently within the school. Managing change on this scale requires a new sense of vision for education and a discrete set of capabilities in order to implement those changes within a system that has undergone little substantive changes in hundreds of years.

We now understand much more about how the brain learns and we have a good idea about what competencies are now required for students to be effective learners but those same competencies are also the key capabilities for all members of a society where change is endemic and everyone has to become an independent learner. The competencies/key capabilities can be categorised under the headings of thinking, communication, managing self, collaboration and engagement. These competencies/key capabilities are required to be taught explicitly via a suitable set of cognitive developmental sequences.

Concurrent with this is the need to leverage the power of the internet via the wide range of devices that now serve to deliver those services. The technology is not the chasm that everyone needs to cross in order to enter this new paradigm but rather it is having the competencies to appreciate the learning process and be able to engage in an inquiry approach to learning that allows learners to learn Just In Time (JIT) rather that Just in Case (JIC).

The JIC model worked fine when most people were told what to do and when they worked in mechanistic and highly controlled work and societal environments but when both society and the workplace demands initiative, creativity, innovation and ingenuity, everyone almost needs to be able to learn new understandings on demand. School is where these new capabilities need to be learners and practiced. School is the place where learners need to increasingly hold greater agency (control) over their own learning and to do that they need to be taught how to learn.  Mark Treadwell www.marktreadwell.com

ka kite ano (farewell)

Mark Treadwell

Curriculum, concepts and competencies- connect the dots!

Mark Treadwell (Whatever next? marktreadwell.com ) NZ educator, consultant, researcher, keynote speaker, businessman and author, has been working with a group of educators from Catholic Education SA on leading our schools (baby steps) toward whole school change. In workshops over the past two days we have been looking at the concepts and competencies that students and teachers need to engage in quality learning and how we can map these to the Australian Curriculum. Some great readings on Mark’s website, and if you are really interested in Concept Based Curriculum, instruction and learning, Lynn Erickson has some fantastic, teacher friendly books.

 

We have been challenged to take a closer look at the General Capabilities within the Australian Curriculum, link these to the competencies and concepts we have looked at in Mark’s valuable work (Whatever school 2.0, Whatever next- The Concept Curriculum, and Whatever were we thinking?) over the past 18 months , and try to implement 1 or 2 of these into our practice.

The participants in these workshops, and indeed the project itself, are at various stages in their journey of change. The value has really been that we have all been challenged to think, reflect and share our understandings, highlight our confusion and concerns, and move forward in a safe and professional learning environment. We have also been given the precious luxury of time to be able to do this. Perhaps we need to give our students that same ‘luxury’.

We ask our students to be critical thinkers, reflective learners, learn from failure, be innovators, be creators, be self directed life long learners; but when do we give them the skills or opportunities to practise and utilise these skills?  We need to stop feeding them a curriculum that lets them robotically  move through a series of topics and subjects that simply requires them to fill out a bi annual standardised test of multiple choice questions and de contextualised texts that supposedly is the true measure of a student’s (and school’s)success. Perhaps it is time that we expected, advocated, and provided an education system that values more than ‘I choose C’.

What are your thoughts?

‘Smarter schools’ campaign diminishes hard work of great educators

This week I have been reading my favourite blogs and I am always inspired and encouraged by the work being done by great teachers in our schools. Not only are they doing innovative and engaging learning in their classrooms, they are sharing their intellectual property with us to encourage us all on our own journeys. Blogs are almost like an online staffroom, creating a ‘dream team’ to have professional and critical conversations with passionate teachers.

I meet or engage with great teachers everyday either in person or online in connected learning networks all over Australia. ‘Education is undergoing one of the greatest paradigm shifts since the invention of the printing press’ (Mark Treadwell 2012 Catholic Education Conference), and there are new ways of knowing and doing that are impossible to ignore if your motivation to teach is to engage, inspire, and nurture people, young or old, to be critical and active citizens in a global community.

It is with great disappointment then when I log on the the Smarter Schools website http://www.betterschools.gov.au/ (with all that saturated advertising on television and radio I became a little suspicious- some may say cynical) that I am left feeling that the professional integrity of all teachers is being called into question yet again.

I am in total agreement that education should be held to high standards, and I wholeheartedly agree that Federal and State funding should be equitable for all students across all sectors. Extra funding for children that have traditionally been marginalised and forgotten by mainstream schooling is also welcome and necessary.

What raises the most concern for me is that funding will be tied to more national testing, standardised curriculum, imposed programming and instruction for Literacy and Numeracy, data driven pedagogy, and a one size fits all policy implementation. The onerous (and growing) list of ‘subjects’ that is expected to be delivered in the primary school setting is bordering on lunacy.

The proposed hoops that practicing and beginning teachers will be expected to jump through in  order to ‘prove’ their worthiness and their professionalism diminishes the hard work, long hours, and great work that is already being done in Australian classrooms to support students to be successful. To have to pay for the ‘privilege’ of gaining accreditation for your efforts which often go way beyond the walls of a classroom and the job specification, is to devalue and undermine the integrity of all educators.

To all the great teachers out there please keep doing what you are doing- the kids need you not to give up.  Ultimately the society of the future will have more to do with the social and emotional work being done in our classrooms today, than by some conservative government body who believes that data and testing will improve results.

Plato’s Cave- finding the exit!

When I was in my late 20’s, I was blessed with two beautiful children who were the centre of my universe. I considered myself to be a good and loving parent, and I spent many hours talking to them, reading to them, playing in the park, going to the zoo and the beach, encouraging questioning and honesty, and teaching them about life and all the wonderful things around them. I took them to playgroup and Kindergarten, had friends over to play,  taught them to be respectful to adults and other children, and show compassion for people who were not as fortunate as we were. I then sent them off to school with all the hopes and dreams of any parent: that their teachers would care about them and help them to learn and be successful, while valuing their unique little personalities.

I soon became somewhat disillusioned with an education system that could not identify a learning disability, yet was quick to label a child ‘a lazy learner’ at age 6. I became frustrated and angry with an education system that dismissed prolonged bullying as a natural part of growing up and that it would help build character for life.  These were my children; they were hurting and I felt so disempowered.My mum always said don’t whinge about a problem-get off your backside (I have modified my mum’s more colourful terminology) and do something about it. I couldn’t change my children’s experiences with school, but I could try and make sure that it would be a far different experience for someone else’s child. And so began my journey in 1998 when I resigned from my job in the finance industry and enrolled in a Bachelor of Education at Flinders University.

I am not suggesting for one moment that I imagined I was going to be an education superhero and ‘change the face of education’ but I had so much drive and passion to make a difference that I knew if I worked hard, researched widely, engaged in deep, and sometimes personally challenging conversations, and learned from those whose practice I valued, then surely I could be a good (hopefully better than good) teacher.

I must say that 12 years on I still have drive and passion, I work harder, research more, still engage in critical conversations with my peers, students and parents, and learn from colleagues and kids every day. Teaching is as much about learning as it is about teaching, and I have so much to learn!

I know that as a parent I was very quick to judge my children’s teachers without having any background as to their experiences, their beliefs or their practice; however I still believe that my children should have expected and deserved a whole lot more. This was my ‘call to action’ back then, and it still drives me now. It will be time to hang up my hat when I no longer feel that passion.

End note: The problems that my children faced in their formative years of education had a lasting impact throughout their schooling in various ways. School was not a good fit for my son and he didn’t last beyond Year 10, and while my daughter did extremely well at high school completing Year 12 and topping her class in 2 subjects, her ongoing issues with anxiety became quite debilitating at times. My children are now adults, both working in personally rewarding, if not always satisfying jobs. They have travelled overseas, had many life experiences, have a fantastic network of friends, and are independent and active members in their communities. I am infinitely proud of the people my children have turned out to be- I just wish that I could say that their school experience had helped shaped their lives in a more positive way.