Developing the BC learning agenda: innovation and improvement

Part 3: Practice

Valerie Hannon and Tony MackayInnovation Unit, UK

BCSSA:FALL CONFERENCE 2010Victoria, BC 18/19 November

What do we know about learning?

Which next practices hold most potential?

OECD: research-derived principles

An effective learning environment is one that: 

1. Makes learning central, encourages engagement, and learners increasingly understand themselves as learners (‘regulation’)

2. Is acutely sensitive to the individual differences among the learners including their prior knowledge, and is demanding for each learner but without excessive overload

3. Is highly attuned to the learners’ motivations and the key role of emotions

4. Uses assessments that are consistent with its aims, with strong emphasis on formative feedback

5. Promotes horizontal connectedness across activities and subjects, in- and out-of-school

6. Is where learning is social and often collaborative.

The Nature of Learning: using research to inspire practice (OECD 2010)

A new scientific paradigm emerges “when a small group of pioneers makes a breakthrough sufficiently unprecedented to attract adherents away from competing modes of scientific activity – but sufficiently open-ended to leave all sorts of problems to be resolved….”

Thomas Kuhn The structure of scientific revolutions 1962

Case Study 1: High Tech High Schools San Diego County

A new yardstick

in education?

Origins

• Frustration of culture of

state schooling

• Dissatisfaction with existing metrics

• Desire to create radical new model

• Charter school movement allows freedoms to determine to success criteria

• 1 - > 9 small schools in San Diego County

video

Charter Schools

• No selection - postcode ballot

• Socially mixed intake

• Charter renewable

• Autonomy in staffing, curriculum and budget

Three Axioms of Schooling

A new yardstick in education?

•Separate students according to perceived academic ability

•Separate hands and minds and disciples

•Separate school from the world

Three Integrations at HTH

• Integrate students – no tracking

• Integrate the curriculum- technical and academic- academic disciplines

• Connect school with the world

AND NOW.....

• Integrate K-12 with Graduate Ed

HTH Design Principles

• Personalisation

• Common intellectual mission

• Adult world connection

• Teacher as designer

Personalisation

• Limit grade size and teaching load

• Teaching Teams

• Advisory groups

• Home visits

• Students pursue passions via projects

Common Intellectual Mission

• Common core learning goals

• Habits of heart and mind

• No tracking

• Promotion and graduation linked to purpose

Adult World Connection

• Internships and field studies

• Community projects

• Visiting professionals

• Mentor relationships

• Online connections

Teacher as Designer

• Hiring bonanza

• New teacher ‘odyssey’

• Credential program

• Daily morning meeting time

• Mentoring, collegial coaching

• Planning and study groups

• Graduate programs at HTH GSE

• Total adult learning community

Results to Date

• 100% qualify to apply to Ucal

• 100% college admission

• 82% college retention, higher for first generation

• 38% major in STEM fields

A Different Standard

• What matters?

• Completion of secondary schooling

• College/University admission

• Community service

• Students help set the criteria for effective learning – and assessment

Distinguishers (from UK)

• Open culture (physical, intellectual, social/personal)

• 60% of curriculum project-based, located in ‘real work’

• Commitment to: staff development; human scale; integration; ‘beautiful work’; community and parental support

• Judge quality of teaching by quality of student work produced, publically presented

• Engagement precedes learning – get that right, results look after themselves.

Compared with State

• 35-45% of HTH students become first-in-family to go to college

• High spread of income & ethnicity

• 37% of CA students complete SATs/95% @ HTH

• SAT scores well above state/national averages

• 80% have graduated from college/university

Project-led, Cross disciplinary, Public Judged

• Economics illustrated

• San Diego Blood Bank

Project

• San Diego Bay

Project

Video (4)

At your tables…….

• What struck you as powerful elements of practice evidenced at HTH?

• Where are there in your district similar examples? What might make them stronger?

• What would you like to learn more about?

Chain of Independent Schools with a Common

Educational ConceptFounded in Sweden 1999

The Vision

“An outstanding school where

every student, through

personalised learning and

clear goals, will stretch their

boundaries and learn more

than they thought possible”

The Vision

25

Independent Schools in Sweden

• Voucher system introduced in 1992

• License from the National Board of Education

• Voucher payment from local municipalities

• Tuition fees not allowed

• In 1996/97:29,000 students

In 2006/07: 135,000 students

• 10 per cent market share

700

600

500

200

100

0

Number

Number of Voucher financed schools for students age 7 to

18

1992/93

Source: The National Agency for Education, Sweden

400

300

2006/07

800

900

26

Kunskapsskolan Today

Enköping

Västerås

Norrköping

YstadMalm

ö

Landskrona LundHelsingborg

Gamleby

Nyköping

Göteborg

Falun

KistaSpånga

Skärholmen

Nacka/Orminge

Enskede

Hägerstensåsen

TyresöBotkyrka

Globen

Fruängen

Täby

Saltsjöbaden

• 21 Secondary Schools (ages 12-15)

• 9 Upper Secondary Schools (age 16-18)

• 9,200 pupils

• 700 staff

Internationella

Trelleborg

Uppsala

27

New Structures

We replace the structures of the tradititional school which had limited means for a personalised education…

… with new structures for coaching and supervising each student individually

28

Static

National

Common fram of reference

Limited options

Collektive

Homogene

Hierarchical

Predictable

A constantly fast accelerating change

Globalisation

Individualisation

Unlimited options

Heterogeneity

Increased complexity

A ”hurricane” of information

Unpredictable

29

Personalised Education:Towards explicit learning goals

• Student focus• Goal-oriented learning• Variety of study forms• Individual tutorials every

week• Personal timetable• All learning materials and

goals accessible through a web-portal

Semester goal

Goal year eleven

Goal for the week

Personal Goals and Strategies

Individual Tutorial

Curriculum Design

RESOURCES

ELEVENS

MÅL OCH

STRATEGIER

Individual tutorial

PERSONAL GOALS AND

STRATEGIES

The Curriculum

32

Individual Tutorials: For coaching and follow-up

Performance appraisal Logbook

Individual tutorialsIndividual

study plan

33

Logbook

34

Knowledge Portal

TASKS

March 2008 36

March 2008 37

A normal day in Kunskapsskolan Kista

The morning

Meeting: 8:30 to 9:10

In the morning we have a meeting with our class, the class is only together at the meeting and some lectures. At the gatherings we first watch the news and discuss them. After that we make our own individual schedule for the day, we also plan our goals for the day. On mondays we plan the goals for the week.

The studying

Social Science: 9:10 to 11:15 (with a break at 10:00)

When I work with Social Science today, I work in a small room with computers. Up to three people can work in a room like that. There are rooms in all sizes here and there in the school. From the size of one person to big rooms for up to 25 people. In the big rooms we have the gatherings and sometimes lectures.

We eat lunch 30 minutes between 10:45 and 12:30. Every student chooses which time he or she wants to eat each day. You adjust the time for lunch if you have a lecture or something else important you most go to.

On the way to the dining room.

Lecture

Lecture about Social Science: 12:00 to 12:45

Lectures are in a room or in the room we call the arena. The lecture on the picture is in the arena. About 50% of the lectures are there. In the arena there is a computer and a projector, so the teacher can show Power-Point presentations or Word-documents. So he or she doesn’t have to use a white-board.

English lesson

English: 12:45 to 13:45

I work with English on one of these many computers. We use computers instead of books, the school has its own website with all facts and tasks we need to finish the job. We get different tasks depending on how good you are in the different subjects. In some subjects we work with steps, step one is the easiest and step 35 is the hardest. You are on the step that the teacher thinks is right for your knowledge in that subject.

Afternoon meeting

In the afternoon we have a second meeting. The only thing we do there is to write an evaluation of the day. Then you can write if you worked good on the day, and why you worked so good etc…

We don’t finish the school-day at 14:00 every day; it differs between 14:00 and 15:00.

Meeting: 13:45 to 14:00

The Logbook

In the logbook we write our schedule for the day, and our goals and evaluations. We use it a lot! We write one goal in each subject for the week, and one goal for every lesson on the day-goals. One day-goal can look something like this:

Maths: Today I’m going to learn about volume in a cylinder.

The logbook:

At your tables…….

• What were the strengths, in your opinion, of the practice in Kunskapsskolan?

• Where are there similar examples in your district?

• What might make them stronger?

• What would you like to learn more about?

Learning Futures:a UK program featured by OECD

•Focused on learning designs which promote ENGAGEMENT•Exploring powerful innovative pedagogy•Supported by the Innovation Unit, financed by a philanthropic foundation•More than 40 schools involved across 15 sites

15 sites

40 Schools

Goal:More young people engaged actively and positively with their learning, achieving better outcomes and retaining a commitment to learning beyond school.

Phases:

Year 1:Seek innovatorsScan horizonFrame practice

Year 2:Support innovation Reflect practice

Year 3:Create practitioner toolsBuild composite model of ‘Learning Futures’ schools

Learning Futures:a UK program featured by OECD

The Learning Futures definition of ‘Deep Engagement’

Beyond compliance to commitment

A learner is deeply engaged when s/he:

1. cares not just about the outcome, but also the development, of their learning

2. takes responsibility for their learning

3. brings discretionary energy to their learning task(s)

4. can locate the value of their learning beyond school, and wishes to prolong their learning beyond school hours.

• Prof. John Hattie’s 2009 analysis of 205 studies of EBL found that it was shown to:

• produce transferable critical thinking skills • significant domain benefits• improve achievement• improved attitude toward the subject

• Robert Geier and colleagues at the University of Michigan examined the impact of adopting EBL in Detroit public schools and found significantly higher standardised test pass rates.

• A study of Maths teaching in English secondary schools found that students doing EBL influenced group projects outperformed their peers in their GCSE’s and scored better on conceptual questions.

Evidence of success for Enquiry Based Learning

We know it works - why isn’t it more mainstream?

• It works best when it becomes project-based

• It becomes purposeful, when linked to real, community need

• It needs to be scaffolded

• It is most powerful when publicly presented

Enquiry based learning

Traditional transmissive

pedagogy

• Focus on ‘What’ you learn

• Narrow skill set: Listen; Memorise; Repeat

• Learning as an activity done to students

Enquiry Based Learning

Enquiry based learning

• Focus on ‘How’ you learn as well as what.

• Wide skill set: formulating questions; researching, evaluating

• Learning as an activity shared with students

Enquiry based learning is a pedagogy that focuses on turning students into ‘expert learners’ by challenging them to develop their own responses to open ended questions and problems.

The 7 Essentials for Project-Based Learning

1. A need to know 2. A driving question3. Student voice and choice4. 21st-century skills 5. Inquiry and innovation 6. Feedback and revision 7. A publicly presented product

John Larmer and John Mergendoller 2010

• Enquiry-led Projects: (Purposeful learning) learning driven by questioning; learning by seeking out and evaluating information, often within an extended project

• School as Basecamp: (Placed learning) school as a base to take students into their communities (and further) not the final destination

• Extended Learning Relationships: (Pervasive Learning) reciprocal relationships that support learning - lateral (peer -to-peer) as often as hierarchical

• School as Learning Commons: (Principled learning) school as ‘common ground’, with all users sharing resources and responsibility

Four key approaches of an Engaging School

The Learning Futures Model

school as basecam

p

enquiry-based

learning

extended learning

relationships

school as learning commons

Placed

Perv

asi

vePu

rpose

ful

Principled

School as Base Camp

Student

Workplace

Home/family

Online

School

Community

• Four roles: Tutor, Expert, Mentor, Coach

• Enlarged cast: Teachers, Parents, Adults, Peers

• Three characteristics: Autonomy, Frequency, Quality

• Necessity of a shared language for learning

Extended Learning Relationships

Three cultures:

• Co-construction

• Collaborative enquiry

• Democratic community

School as ‘Learning Commons’

After Learning Futures interventions with 840 students between the age of 11 and 16, there was a statistically significant increase in:

creativitymeaning makingchanging and learningcritical curiositystrategic awareness engagement in learning beyond school

-University of Bristol Learning Futures Evaluation

Impact of Learning Futures so far

Impact of Learning Futures so far

Achieving students were significantly more likely to be:

• Confident in their ability to learn and change• Likely to make meaning in school• Strategically aware of their own learning• Engaged in learning in school

.... and “more resilient and independent than their under-achieving counterparts”

• Positive relationship between engagement outcomes and student attainment outcomes

-University of Bristol Learning Futures Evaluation

Impact of Learning Futures so far

At your tables…….

• What resonates with you in the practice of the Learning Futures approach?

• Where are there in your district similar examples? What might make them stronger?

• What would you like to learn more about?

Ways to get involved:

www.learningfutures.org

Further information

http://www.edutopia.org/

and, connecting is now so easy….

http://www.hightechhigh.org/

http://www.learningfutures.org/

http://www.bie.org/

Symposium on Designs for Personalised Learning: Boston,

August 2010

www.siia.net/pli/

• Priority areas selected on the basis of

more than 70% respondents indicating “rarely, never or occasionally found in the system”

The 5 categories:1: 21C curriculum, pedagogy, assessment

1. 21stC curriculum, pedagogy and assessment

2. High quality infrastructure and ICT3. Policies, governance and partners4. Leadership, people and culture5. Leading transformation

Headlines from the diagnostic:Indicators of priorities for action

• Learners’ experience of control over their own learning

• 21st C skills, curriculum and assessment• Enquiry/project/collaborative approaches to

learning

Addressing learners’ capacity for self-regulationAddressing depth and rigor

Headlines from the diagnostic1: 21C curriculum, pedagogy, assessment

• Flexible and engaging learning environments reflecting students’ interests and promoting collaboration

• Well designed learning spaces with access to high quality ICT

Headlines from the diagnostic2: high quality infrastructure and ICT

• Mechanisms for abandoning failing models• Education partner groups’ involvement in

design and delivery of learning• Widely owned and valued accountability

standards for all

Taking the initiative – roles and responsibilities of education partners, including parents and Trustees

Headlines from the diagnostic3: policies, governance and partners

• Relatively – not a priority for action

The professional challenge of personalised learning?

Overcoming existing inequalities?

Headlines from the diagnostic4: leadership, people and culture

• Understanding and owning the need for system transformation

• Need for a transformation strategy to address scale and sustainability

• Need for a transformation partnership with those outside the formal learning system

Maintaining the momentumFunding, industrial relations and accountability – the politics of educationImmediate next steps: conversation starters (“co-construction”)

Headlines from the diagnostic5: leading transformation

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

Margaret Mead