Why skills matter

I've just returned from a school evaluation visit.  One of the things I most enjoy about these visits is having time with schools to discuss their programme development plans.  In the case of my recent visit, the plan was about the ATL skills.

Many schools recognise that learning skills is essential - but the question remains WHAT skills - in a recent article I read that 35% of current key skills are projected to change.  This implies to me that the most important skills are those that transfer to what is needed outside of school - in life and work.

The Future of Jobs Report 2025 considers skills that will be needed by 2030 given projected changes in global employment, rapid technological advances, and economic instability.  The forecast is that 170 million new jobs will be created, but 92 million will disappear - as a result almost 60% of workers will require reskilling over the next 5 years - and this of course has a huge impact on what schools need to teach.

Jobs that require routine skills are declining, whereas jobs that involve digital, analytical and design thinking skills are on the increase.  A lot of this is being driven by technology such as automation and AI.  Another area of rapid expansion is the "green economy" with a focus on sustainability.  These jobs are linked to environmental science, clean energy and sustainable design, requiring skills of systems thinking and ethical reasoning.  And in this world of shifting economics and geopolitics, collaboration, strategic thinking and resilience are all called for.

There are demographic shifts driving these changes too - as the world's population is aging there are more demands for healthcare and caregiving - these require more interpersonal skills such as empathy.  

In IB schools we have long recognised that it is not enough to master content - skills need to be explicitly taught and practiced, and woven into learning experiences.  Pedagogical approaches such as project-based learning and teaching through transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary units will help students develop transferable skills.  And perhaps most important of all, teachers also need to engage in continuous professional learning to keep pace with all these changes.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Well-being in IB schools: connecting the IB mission, the learner profile and the ATL skills

One of the things I have always loved about the IB mission statement is that it goes beyond the academics.  The aim of all IB programmes is to develop internationally-minded people who help to create a better and more peaceful world.  IB schools realize this mission through the learner profile, which provides students and teachers with personal attributes and goals: qualities that are worth fostering and developing for both personal and intellectual growth.

At the same time, an essential component of all IB programmes is the approaches to learning - a set of skills that help students learn how to learn.  Developing these skills (thinking, communication, social, self-management and research skills) also help develop the learner profile.  These skills also contribute to well-being.

Skills that are necessary for social and emotional well-being can be taught and practiced.  For example, the thinking skills emphasise analysing and evaluating issues and ideas, as well as considering new perspectives, research skills help students to find and interpret information, and communication skills help students to express their ideas and views.  The ATL skills also recognise that learning is an active and social process, so collaboration and working effectively with others is important.  Self-management skills also help students to take responsibility for their own behaviour and well-being.

Personal well-being can also be fostered through the development of character strengths.  The Positivity Project considers 24 character strengths that can also be grown.  They are connected to a person's thoughts, feelings and behaviours.  We can make students aware of these strengths and that everyone has them.  Developing these strengths will enhance students' self-awareness and confidence as well as their understanding and appreciation of others - which will strengthen their relationships.  See the graphic below and visit the link to find out more about these strengths.

Focusing on character strengths as well as developing the learner profile attributes and the ATL skills, can help students to become happier, healthier and more social connected, which in turn can help them do better at school.

Image by Syeda Saira from Pixabay

Well-being: the importance of autonomy, competence and community.

So I was talking to an educator today about the fact that it is impossible to have student well-being if we don't first consider teacher-wellbeing.  All too often in schools the focus is on supporting the students, but this can be at the expense of teacher well-being.  In fact the two need to go hand in hand - with well-being being built into our relationships within the groups that we belong to (for example in the classroom, division of the school, or school as a whole).  We need to consider what are the norms and rules (written and unwritten) of the groups to which we belong - it is connected with how we experience the culture of these groups and our place within them and how our needs are being supported.

First of all we need to consider a sense of belonging and engagement in the way we related to others - which is fostered by the authentic connections we make so that we feel safe and accepted for who we are, and it's also to do with how competent we feel and whether we feel we can move forwards.  Safety is also about whether people feel they can speak up and advocate for their own needs, whether they have autonomy, and whether they have peer support, or support from leadership.  All too often, teachers can feel unsure or anxious about their performance, especially if they feel they are not keeping up with an overcrowded curriculum.  It's also to do with a sense of equity.

A good starting place for schools is to consider what they are doing well, and even to consider what an ideal school looks like.  In most schools there are pockets of great things happening, but often they are not given priority or seen across the school as a whole.  Rather than considering all the barriers or challenges there might be to well-being in terms of problems to be solved, it could be better to consider what is working to meet the needs of students and staff and how to broaden this.

One advocaate for well-being in schools is Dr. Helen Street, who has written extensively about positive schools.  Helen describes wellbeing as "something to do with embracing life proactively, but we are aware too that it is also about the acceptance of things we can’t control.”  In her book Contextual Wellbeing, Helen explains that no well-being programme can be implemented without healthy and engaged staff.  She also discusses the importance of parents being "fellow educators", collaborating in the students' lives.  The relationship with parents is an important one to consider.

Well-being should not rely on extrinsic motivation (rewards, praise).  These are prevalent in many schools but it is more important to foster intrinsic motivation.  Schools should not be promoting competition - which focuses on outcomes - as this simply breeds obedience and conformity.  We cannot base our wellbeing on external rewards because at the other end of the spectrum is depression and anxiety that results from a never-ending pursuit of improvement and the feeling that you are never good enough.  Celebration is important, but so is equality and inclusion.

There is an excellent TEDtalk about this by Dr. Helen Street, which I am linking to below (click on the image to go to the video)

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Leadership when times are difficult

Being present for all is probably the key for school leaders when their school is facing a time of crisis.  This can include a number of different challenges such as natural disasters, pandemic, political upheaval and war, which can lead to trauma throughout the community resulting from stress and a loss of security.  All these events can lead to feelings of helplessness, upsetting emotions and memories, and anxiety.  Trauma can also lead to people feeling disconnected, isolated, overwhelmed and unable to trust others.  This interferes with learning, engagement and academic performance.

Schools that offer safe and supportive environments may be able to buffer some of the negative impacts of trauma and to foster resilience. School leaders can do the following:

• Anticipate that staff, students and parents are struggling as they deal with stress and anxiety. Be aware that this will manifest in behaviours in school.
• Ensure that the school has a process in place to support everyone impacted by the crisis.
• Be flexible in exploring individual needs and support for those who are struggling.
• Provide training to teachers on how to support students - while at the same time recognise that teachers may also have mental health issues.
• Act collaboratively will all members of the school community.

Leading well-being in difficult times requires leaders to be mindful, creative and compassionate in recognizing and serving the needs of the community.

Image by Joachim Schnürle from Pixabay. Image free for use under the Pixabay Content License

How school leaders can support student and teacher well-being

As I get ready to lead this month's online workshop for the IB, I'm reading a lot about the support that school leaders can offer to their community.  With students this falls into 4 main areas:

1. Creating a positive culture and learning environment: students most appreciate kind teachers who listen, care and respect them.  This can include a quality pastoral care system.  Basically this is all about the relationships between the teachers and the students.
2. Teaching social and emotional skills:  this can include resilience, mindfulness, promoting learner agency and helping students to become more self-directed, and a focus on restorative justice.  In IB schools much of this can come through the explicit teaching of the ATL skills (social, communication, self-management, research and thinking skills), which are seen as equally important as developing cognitive skills and content knowledge.  Reports show that student mindsets have more influence on academic achievement than home environment or demographics.  These skills help students both in and out of school.
3. The development of character strengths:  attitudes such as kindness, curiosity, fairness and so on.
4. Mindfulness:  helping students to become more aware of what they are thinking and feeling.  Mindfulness can improve well-being, as well as physical and mental health.

To support teacher well-being school leaders can focus on:

1. Systemic leadership: with clear and manageable goals for teachers.  This can include clear job descriptions, clear policies and procedures, expectations around feedback to students and setting clear limits to ensure a work-life balance.  Leaders need to be open to feedback themselves and to include teachers in important decisions.
2. Creating a positive and non-judgemental culture where all teachers feel valued.  This is especially important when designing a staff evaluation procedure, and includes supporting professional development and growth.  A good way for schools to create this culture is through coaching and mentoring programmes.
3. Peer support and collaboration.  To do this leaders need to be aware of the meeting calendar which allows all teachers to work collaboratively.  Peer support can also include coaching and the sharing of expertise so that all can learn from it, as well as celebration of successes.

As I spend a lot of time in schools leading evaluation visits, teacher support and student support are big items on our agenda that we tend to devote a whole meeting to when we discuss the school environment.  My feeling is that over the past 5 years these areas have become increasingly challenging - in particular many schools note seeing a huge increase in the number of students who need support following Covid.  As we think about how schools deal with various crises they face (conflict, illness, natural disasters and so on) leaders deal with particular challenges in supporting well-being.  I will deal with these in my next post.

Image free for use under the Pixabay Content License

Well-being in schools

Next month I'm leading an IB workshop on well-being.  It's an important issue, and as this workshop is a new one for me, I decided to write several blog posts about it.  Well-being is sometimes hard to define, but this is what I'm learning:

• well-being is about both the emotional (positive emotional states and the absence of negative emotions) and cognitive (life satisfaction).
• it's connected both with happiness and with quality of life
• it's about feeling good and also about functioning well
• it's about balancing the following:  physical well-being (lifestyle choices, what we eat, active living),  psychological well-being (how we think and feel about ourselves), social well-being (a sense of belonging, the quality of our relationships and communication), spiritual well-being (a sense of meaning and purpose in life),  cognitive well-being (the ability to expand our knowledge and skills),  and economic well-being (being able to meet our needs and to feel a sense of security).

The UN now produces a World Happiness Report and ranks countries by how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be.  According to the most recent data, Finland has been top of this ranking since 2010, and Afghanistan has been at the bottom - and is getting worse.  The OECD also publishes a Better Life Survey index which ranks countries on many scales (income, housing, health, safety, work-life balance, environmental quality and so on).  You can drag the sliders and see how the countries move relative to each other as the data is visualized.  In this index Norway rates the highest and South Africa the lowest.

Well-being has been an important element of many educational models such as Montessori and Waldorf and today about half of all international schools have well-being policies.  Well-being is also being seen now more in school mission statements, and parents as well as teachers are realizing that often too much pressure is put on children to "succeed" (get good grades) which is why in IB schools it's important to go beyond the academics in a school's mission.  And it's not just students who need more of a focus on well-being - teachers need it too!  It's important to prioritise staff well-being because it's only when teachers feel valued and cared for that they are able to flourish and give their best to their students.  And yet all too often teachers feel stressed and burnt out and this leads to high rates of sickness, turnover and low retention.  

Over the next few posts I'm going to explore what school leaders can do to foster a sense of well-being in their school community.  This will include both student and teacher well-being.

Image by John Hain on Pixabay

Why teachers should engage in inquiry

Last month I led two leadership workshops for the IB and one of the things we discussed was the benefits of teachers engaging in professional inquiry.  This could be an individual teacher who wants to focus on a particular aspect of pedagogy, or it could be something that is done school-wide or even across schools.  Teachers engaged in this sort of inquiry are curious and ask questions in order to critique and develop their practice - it is a form of professional development and it places the teacher in the role of a learner.  

In many ways a Programme Development Plan, which is now required by all IB schools as part of the evaluation self-study process, is a great example of professional inquiry.  This means that inquiry is a fundamental approach at the centre of learning for both teachers and students.  We are all learners and this should be an important part of the culture of an IB school, so that teachers reflect on their practice, collect evidence, try new things that may challenge existing views and practices, and then consider the impact on student learning.  Time is needed for this, as well as for collecting and sharing the results.  One thing we often ask about in school visits is who was involved in programme development - and whether there are benefits from greater involvement of students, parents, the board, or even outside experts,  in this process.

Image by Gerd Altmann on Pixabay