Real-life learning lessons from an article about the Intel Science Talent Contest #WhatIfWeekly

Posted on March 12, 2013 by boadams1

First, a few quotes:

“The program, said Valerie Holmes, one of its teachers, encourages students to find a subject with which they have a personal connection.”
“At Stuyvesant she continued to explore what she describes as “how interdisciplinary science can be.””
“Part of what the research program teaches students, Ms. Holmes said, is tenacity; Dan and his advisers approached 30 to 40 potential mentors before finding one who would take him on.”
“From there she taught herself cellphone software coding and electrical engineering techniques, using “breadboards” and a soldering iron. “Engineering is the field that worships impact,” she said of her choice to enter it, “and to have the greatest impact, it has to be in the developing world.””

[All emphasis mine.]

From “A Laboratory Grows Young Scientists,” By ETHAN HAUSER, NYTimes.com, Published: March 11, 2013.

When students are encouraged and empowered to engage in real-life learning, for which they can see the relevance now, strong progress and achievement is made. And not just for the students, but for the larger world of which they are a part.

From the quotes above, one can see five key components of “real-life learning,” something I write about often here. These traits make for some great education. Schooling could be enhanced to facilitate more of this kind of learning.

personal connection
interdisciplinary
tenacity
taught herself
to have the greatest impact

What if school possessed more of the characteristics of scientific research, investigation, and exploration? And I don’t just mean that school should “do more science.” I mean that the very culture and foundation of school could look more like the culture and foundations of science – observing, questioning, hypothesizing, experimenting, reflecting, repeating with additional insights from testing, etc. Sounds a lot like innovating, too.

I’ve rarely (never) been to a lab where the scientists spent most of their time in rows and columns of desks receiving content for much of the day, day after day.

#MustRead Shares (weekly)

Posted on March 10, 2013 by boadams1

To Place Graduates, Law Schools Are Opening Firms – NYTimes.com

A great example of the intersection of corporate practice, social entrepreneurship, and education. Law schools are opening law firms to serve graduates and low- and moderate-income clients. Also a great example of “outside perspective” – law schools borrowing catalyst from teaching hospitals.

tags: #MustRead Education3pt0 law schools
At South-by-Southwest Education Event, Tensions Divide Entrepreneurs and Educators – Wired Campus – The Chronicle of Higher Education

“Who should lead innovation in education—teachers or entrepreneurs? That key question was in the air here at this year’s South by Southwest Edu conference, which brought together a mix of entrepreneurs and educators for four days of panels and a competition for education start-ups.”

ME: What if we stopped seeing school change and ed transformation as a competition and we worked together? Education should be everybody’s business, and ALL efforts should begin with inviting in the voices and expertise of educators. But if we started by thinking of business, social entrepreneurship, and education as parts of the same team, we would do better for our learners – from cradle to grave.

tags: SXSWedu #MustRead
How Leaders Mistake Execution for Strategy (and Why That Damages Both)

“When discussing strategy, executives often invoke some version of a vision, a mission, a purpose, a plan, or a set of goals. I call these “the corporate five” (see exhibit, below). Each is important in driving execution, no doubt, but none should be mistaken for a strategy. The corporate five may help bring your strategy to life, but they do not give you a strategy to begin with.

Nevertheless, they are often mistaken for strategy—and when that happens, real damage can ensue. If the corporate five are the cart and strategy is the horse, leaders who put the cart first often end up with no horse at all.

Before they get to the corporate five, companies need to address five much more fundamental, and difficult, questions. Let’s call them the “the strategic five”:

1. What business or businesses should you be in?
2. How do you add value to your businesses?
3. Who are the target customers for your businesses?
4. What are your value propositions to those target customers?
5. What capabilities are essential to adding value to your businesses and differentiating their value propositions?”

tags: strategy vision purpose goals mission plan #MustRead
The Open Classroom : Education Next

Since children differ in their motivations, interests, and backgrounds, and learn at different speeds in different subjects, there will never be a victory for either traditional or progressive teaching and learning. The fact is that no single best way for teachers to teach and for children to learn can fit all situations. Both traditional and progressive ways of teaching and learning need to be part of a school’s approach to children. Smart teachers and principals have carefully constructed hybrid classrooms and schools that reflect the diversities of children. Alas, that lesson remains to be learned by the policymakers, educators, and parents of each generation.

tags: open-classroom progressive education student centered #MustRead
Our 1% Problem

“The subject of independent schools and inequality is rife with contradictions. In some ways, independent schools work to ameliorate inequities. In other ways, they reinforce and exacerbate them. Those in independent schools who work on social justice, equity, and diversity issues deal with these contradictions every day. Most believe, most of the time, that the good done by independent schools outweighs the bad, but sometimes it is not clear this is the case.”

tags: income gap 1% problem equity #MustRead finland
ParkDayTom: The Children’s School – Chicago

“I lunched with the faculty of The Children’s School and they stressed the importance of emergent curriculum that is developmentally appropriate for students. Three years ago I visited the school and observed an extraordinary unit on Shakespeare in Kate Miller’s fourth grade classroom. When I returned, I was hoping to go back to Kate’s class and learn more about the unit. But, when I asked Pam if the Shakespeare unit had begun yet, she answered, “No, the kids have not yet decided what they want to study.” Instead of repeating a successful unit year after year as so many teachers do, TCS faculty listen, wait patiently, and develop units arising out of the current interests and passions of their students. It is teaching at its most challenging and, in my view, very progressive.”

tags: progressive education emergent curriculum PBL Kohn #MustRead
ParkDayTom: Toward a Definition of Progressive Education

tags: progressive education #MustRead
Collective Impact | Stanford Social Innovation Review

“large-scale social change comes from better cross-sector coordination rather than from the isolated intervention of individual organizations. Evidence of the effectiveness of this approach is still limited, but these examples suggest that substantially greater progress could be made in alleviating many of our most serious and complex social problems if nonprofits, governments, businesses, and the public were brought together around a common agenda to create collective impact. It doesn’t happen often, not because it is impossible, but because it is so rarely attempted. Funders and nonprofits alike overlook the potential for collective impact because they are used to focusing on independent action as the primary vehicle for social change.”

tags: collaboration education impact #MustRead social_change
Future Forecast

“This forecast previews five disruptions that will reshape learning over the next decade. Responding to them with creativity rather than fear will be critical to preparing all learners for an uncertain future.”

HT to Mark Hale for sharing this KnowledgeWorks Forecast 3.0 and the work of Andrea Saveri

tags: future forecast Knowledgeworks #MustRead
8 talks about learning from failure

tags: learning failure TED #MustRead #MustSee
Tara Subramaniam: Everybody Truly Wants to Learn

tags: Independent Project PBL #MustRead
Should Designers Fear Design-Thinking MBAs? | Co.Design: business + innovation + design

“It is not about a world where designers do their thing and MBAs do theirs, but rather where both recognize and value the power of a successful collaboration, built on solid communication, that brings the strengths of business and design thinking together to drive business innovation by design.”

tags: design business innovation #MustRead
Guest Post: @braddo on Digital Footprints and the Brand of Me – The Tempered Radical

“Instead, we talk about the “Brand of Me” and coach our kids on proactively managing their online identity and on becoming good digital citizens, for the reasons Will Richardson talks about.”

tags: brand digital citizenship digital_citizenship Online_learning #MustRead

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Reflections on #NAISAC13 – Part II. The message was clear. Now we must act.

Posted on March 8, 2013 by boadams1

After a few days of reflecting on #NAISAC13 (the National Association of Independent Schools’ Annual Conference 2013), I am hopeful!

From the general sessions that NAIS curated, I cannot imagine that there could be much confusion about core message – schooling and education are experiencing a grand revolution, and NAIS schools can be leaders or left behind in this revolution. It’s a choice.

Jim Collins reprised his strong thoughts on Good to Great and Great by Choice. He was clear that level 5 leadership builds “enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will.” He reminded us that mediocrity comes more often from chronic inconsistency than resistance to change. He implored us – new initiatives piled on are not the answer. Rather, knowing who you are, discerning with creativity what you can do of greater value than anyone else, and remaining disciplined about marching to that highest trajectory of yourself are the x factors of great success. Finally, Collins stressed that organizations must preserve their core values while adapting their practices on the march to greatness. The big problem, though, is that many organizations confuse their values and their practices. So, clarity of purpose and identity and character is a must.

Heads of school such as Nishant Mehta (soon to be a head of school at The Children’s School in Atlanta; currently at Alexandria Country Day School), Bill Taylor (St. George’s in Memphis), Matt Glendinning (Moses Brown School in Rhode Island), Jonathan Martin (former head at St. Gregory Preparatory School in Tucson), and Brett Jacobsen (Mount Vernon Presbyterian School in Atlanta) shared their stories with us about the work that school leaders must do to innovate school cultures and to reposition the practices of schools so that we are immersing learners in experiences that will help them grow as communicators, innovators, creative contributors, critical thinkers, collaborators, and solutions finders. Along with acclaimed journalists, consultants, and educators like Suzie Boss, Ken Kay, Chris Thinnes, and Grant Lichtman, the messaging in the workshops was as consistent and clear as that in the general sessions – the world is changing at an ever quickening rate, and we must re-imagine schools and implement transformation so that our learners can be in more project-based, design-oriented, community-engaged, and world-relevant organizations.

There were countless connecting threads emphasizing the importance and power of networked approaches to school transformation. Ken Kay explained the professional learning community EdLeader21, composed of 111 school districts and independent schools. Suzie Boss recapped her research, in her book Brining Innovation to Schools (see here, here and here), on the stellar models across the country of schools transforming for the demands of our times. Grant Lichtman shared his findings from visiting 64 schools in 12 weeks, looking for exemplars of school innovation. He detailed that schools that struggle with change tend to grapple with anchors, dams, and silos. Schools that embrace innovation model dynamism, adaptability, permeability, relevance, self-correction, and creativity. Grant challenged the notion that school innovation was just about looking forward, and he said that his findings could be summarized on one word – Dewey. The essence of school transformation calls on the tenets of the progressive education movement. Outgoing president of NAIS Pat Bassett echoes similar chords every time he speaks, too. Just look at his TEDx talk on the “Big Shifts” and paste those up next to a synopsis of progressive education.

Terarai Trent inspired us to never give up on a mission to help all people connect with the education that they deserve as human beings.

Cathy Davidson closed the conference with a final keynote that reinforced several pillars holding up an overarching theme: kids today know that there is a significant mismatch between school and the way we learn in real life. In more detail, she emphasized five main ideas:

Rethink liberal arts as a start-up curriculum for resilient global citizens.
Move from critical thinking to creative contribution.
Make sure what you value is what you count.
Find creative ways to model un-learning.
Take institutional change personally.

At least for my experience at #NAISAC13, there was great consistency and conviction in the messages. In fact, to me, the different voices were essentially singers in the same chorus.

To help me reflect this week, I reviewed ALL of the tweets from #NAISAC13. I packaged my own story of those tweets in a Storify. [View the story “NAISAC13” on Storify]

I’d be interested to hear other people’s primary take away, but mine was clear: schools must change, and in ways that empower students to be creative contributors and interested innovators and caring citizens.

The printed theme of #NAISAC13 was “Revolutionary Traditions: Think Big, Think Great.” But I believe we’ve been thinking about this stuff long enough. Revolutions require more action, move movement, more doing. The theme was not “resolutions,” but “revolutions.” The place was Philadelphia.

In reality, I think NAIS and the leaders gathered there communicated an even more powerful and hopeful theme: “Act Big, Be Great.” I’m so grateful for those who are DOING so.

= = =

And this from an email sent by NAIS after the conference:

Dear Colleague,

Thank you so much for joining us in Philadelphia for the 2013 NAIS Annual Conference. The spirit and great attitude of everyone in attendance will certainly spark our imaginations to revolutionize our schools – and the future of education.

Looking for more information to continue learning and brainstorming? Here’s just a sampling of what you’ll find on the NAIS Annual Conference website as we continue to update it during the next two weeks:

JPGs of the graphic recordings that the artists illustrated during the general sessions and featured workshops;

Interviews with many of the conference speakers;

Workshop handouts/presentations;

Articles about the general session and featured workshop speakers;

Videos of Sekou Andrews, Danah Boyd, Soumitra Dutta, and Alexis Madrigal;

And more!

Check the site regularly as we continue to add new materials.

How might we hack school to more closely resemble good education? #MustSee Logan LaPlante

Posted on March 7, 2013 by boadams1

We don’t seem to make learning to be happy and healthy a priority in our schools. It’s separate from schools. And for some kids it doesn’t exist at all. But what if we didn’t make it separate? What if we based education on the study and practice of being happy and healthy? Because that’s what it is – a practice. And a simple practice at that.

– Logan LaPlante, 13 years old. TEDxUniversityOfNevada

When I think about what I want for my own children, and when I think about what I want for all children, my list includes the attributes and ideals and realities that LaPlante shares and demonstrates in his profound talk: “Hackschooling Makes Me Happy: Logan LaPlante at TEDxUniversityofNevada.” It may be one of the best TED/TEDx talks I’ve heard.

Also this week, I am immersing myself in Tom Little’s tour of 50 progressive schools during the months of February and March. (Thanks, @GrantLichtman!) As I read @ParkDayTom’s posts, I dig into the school websites and links that Little provides about “emergent curriculum,” PBL, and progressive education. I am struck by such things as…

Learning
We believe that learning should be joyful, active, open-ended, project-based, and collaborative in order to foster children’s independence, accountability, intrinsic motivation, and intellectual curiosity.

Engaging
We believe in cultivating a community of civically-active learners, where everyone’s voice can be heard, as decisions are democratically determined through discourse.

Unfolding
We believe in allowing the time, patience and unpressured environment necessary to support the individual developmental unfolding of each child – academically, socially, and emotionally.

– The Children’s School (Chicago) Core Beliefs

And…

Though educators have been challenged in agreeing upon a single definition for progressive education, consensus builds around these defining principles:

Education must prepare students for active participation in a democratic society.

Education must focus on students’ social, emotional, academic, cognitive and physical development.

Education must nurture and support students’ natural curiosity and innate desire to learn. Education must foster internal motivation in students.

Education must be responsive to the developmental needs of students.

Education must foster respectful relationships between teachers and students.

Education must encourage the active participation of students in their learning, which arises from previous experience.

Progressive educators must play an active role in guiding the educational vision of our society.

– Progressive Education Network

When Grant Lichtman and I talk, and when I am privileged enough to hear Grant speak and facilitate with bigger audiences, he often says that his own tour of 64 schools in 12 weeks, exploring what innovation in education looks like, could be boiled down to one word – Dewey.

How might we work and take action to help transform schools so that more of them possess these core characteristics? Theses core values?

How might we hack school to more closely resemble good education?

How are pedagogies acting like species in the school ecosystem? #PedagogicalMasterPlanning

Posted on March 6, 2013 by boadams1

by Jennifer Parks as seen in Sean Gourley’s talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V43a-KxLFcg

Do you ever wonder about the various ways that schools are working to transform their teaching and learning practices? I wonder about this all the time. In fact, thinking about school transformation and working for school transformation define my educational career, especially the past decade and current next chapter of my career.

I’m convinced that schools are complex ecosystems. Within those ecosystems, in efforts to enhance education and forward schools, I wonder how our developing practices are acting like competing species in a natural ecosystem’s food or energy web.

In the screen grab above, we can see a diagram of an ecosystem energy web. I’ve seen this image used in a number of presentations and talks. The colored species are thriving and dominating, and the grayed species are declining and disappearing from the ecosystem.

I wonder how project-based learning, design thinking, inquiry-based instruction, formative assessment, standards-based grading, performance-based assessment, e-portfolios, etc. are interacting in transforming schools. I wonder how these Dewey-progressive and 21st-century-skills approaches are behaving like reinforcing and competing “species” in the school ecosystem. I wonder how they are interacting with more traditional practices and methodologies, and I wonder how they are interacting with each other. The interactions with each other really fascinate me.

For those who know me or read this blog, you understand that I am a strong believer in PBL (project-based learning, problem-based learning, passion-based learning, etc.). Yet, I often worry when I imagine a middle school student taking six or seven departmentalized courses, and her teachers somewhat or entirely adopting PBL… as independent practitioners. Even thinking about half of them adopting PBL as independent practitioners can cause me some concern.

I start to imagine that seventh grader trying to manage four large-scale projects that are not coordinated or integrated across the departmentalized subjects. I start to wonder if the PBL will be the “dominant species” in the ecosystem, or if the departmentalized subject species will devour and crowd out the PBL species. Will the 55-minute time slot for class be the predator or the prey? Or could they become symbiotic species, if the other system characteristics were thoughtfully re-examined and redesigned? How might “flipping the classroom” become a symbiotic or predatory species? (If folks aren’t careful, can you imagine those poor parents at home managing four independent projects with their over-stretched children? Yikes!)

I wonder how the teachers’ assessment practices (species) will complement or compete with the PBL species. I wonder about design thinking being integrated into a course whose teacher is moving intentionally toward PBL. Then, I start to wonder how the traditional content grading will fit with a species that depends on iterative prototyping and rapid failing to conceptualize enhancement and reach eventual success. I wonder about the report card or progress report species trying to capture the elements of this system – elements that are better understood disaggregated rather than smashed into a single number.

I wonder about students designing for perceived problems and struggling to interact with “real” community members because of the online policy species that was introduced to the school ecosystem. I wonder about the level of access of the students and teachers to the surrounding community, and then I think back to those departmentalized subjects and students trying to manage four sets of discovery-and-interview phases in their silo-ed project work.

Which species will prove dominant in the ecosystems of our schools? Are we thoughtfully designing these ecosystems with collaborative and integrated thinking, so that the parts of the system harmonize with instead of cannibalize each other?

Are we designing and nurturing and sustaining the ecosystem from a learner UX point of view? (“UX” is short for user experience.)

#PedagogicalMasterPlanning

—

Thanks to @MarkCHale, head of Greensboro Day School, for putting me onto “Recombinant Education: Regenerating the Learning Ecosystem,” which is KnowledgeWorks’ Forecast 3.0 and the work of Andrea Saveri. Exploring this resource led me to “TEDxNewWallStreet – Sean Gourley – High frequency trading and the new algorithmic ecosystem,” all of which significantly helped me think more deeply about the interplay of the current and coming changes in schooling and education.