Designing engaging and rigorous learning experiences

Yesterday I led an online workshop for Toddle at the Inquiry Educators Summit (TIES).  It was amazing, even though there was a Zoom outage in the UK and eastern USA during the time of my presentation.  Thanks to the amazing support in India, I was still able to deliver my presentation - and it was really odd because I could not see either my slides or the audience.  Although my intention is to provide a fuller account of this workshop, including a downloadable resource that Toddle can add to their Learning Library, I'm going to give a few brief reflections here.  First of all here were the intentions of the workshop:

• Learn how to incorporate higher order thinking skills into student learning experiences and assessments
• Consider how to get students to think and dive deep into their inquiries
• Understand the importance of giving students voice, choice and ownership in how they show their understanding

I'm always amazed at the wonderful notes that participants take using sketches.  It's a really creative way of taking notes and I'd like to share a couple that were made during my presentation and then shared on Twitter.  Obviously Sketchnotes done live over an hour's presentation cannot cover everything, but for me looking at these later it was interesting to see the main points that were seen as important during my session.  This first one is from Lucy Elliott, a PYP Coordinator in China.

Looking at this one I can see the message that comes up clearly is that teachers are the designers of learning.  I can see references to Bloom's taxonomy and the importance of designing so that students are using higher level thinking skills.  In particular that creating involves new and original work/thinking.  I can also see the reference to the SAMR model.  Again I see lots of verbs being used to provoke higher level thinking and reference to the importance of asking open-ended questions.

This one is from Shailja Datt, a PYP Coordinator in India.  This also mentions Bloom's and the SAMR models, and the verbs that can raise thinking.  This one also includes the other "R"s that I feel are important:  rigour, redefining the task and return on learning.

I'm very grateful to both these that were shared on Twitter as it helps me to reflect on my presentation.  I hope to receive the chat (which I also couldn't see) later and at that point I will write a blog post to answer any outstanding questions.

Master the coaching cycle

A couple of days ago I posted my first response to the social medial challenges for coaches designed by Eduro Learning. Today I had a look at Resolution #2 which is about the coaching cycle.  In this downloadable resource there is an infographic showing the 4 phases of the coaching cycle. 

Our question was what area of the coaching cycle we would like to develop further.  I decided I'd reflect on Step 2, identifying a goal.

In my experience as a coach I've noticed that often teachers come into a coaching cycle thinking they want to “do something” for their goal. What I have discovered as a coach is that often the “do” part of the goal is just the tip of the iceberg: there is a lot going on under the surface and through careful questioning a deeper goal may emerge. For example, the real goal may be that a teacher wants to feel a valued member of the school community, or they may want to be more creative and reflective in their teaching, or they may want to be more effective, resourceful and successful. Identifying these deeper goals will often be necessary in order to coach effectively in Step 3 which is supporting a teacher’s professional growth.

If you would like to participate in the Eduro coaching resolutions this is available as a free digital download here.

Concept-based curriculum and instruction

I'm in a 2 day workshop with Lynn Erickson on concept-based curriculum and instruction.  For our "homework" tonight we are in groups of 9, each of us reading a chapter from Lunn's book Transitioning to Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction.  I was happy that when we numbered off, I ended up with number 8, thus having to read Chapter 8 which is about what principals and coaches need to understand about implementing concept-based models in schools.

Now, I have to say that for over 20 years I've worked at schools that already have a concept-based curriculum - the PYP.  However I've also consulted with schools that are moving from a more traditional way of teaching as they have decided to take on the PYP.  As with any new curriculum, change is hard - and those leading the change need to consider up-front what they can do to both to avoid the stresses and failures that might be associated with change, and to sustain any changes that do take place.

In Chapter 8, Lynn writes about how to set the stage for curriculum implementation.  This falls into 3 main steps:

1. Examining the hidden impediments to change - for example principals who do not provide the necessary support will certainly make change less likely to succeed.  Some people embrace change (the early adopters) and others are reluctant to move out of their comfort zones. Coaches and principals need to consider the different personal characteristics of their teachers to help them to successfully implement change.
2. Setting up the learning team - some schools know they need to change because students are struggling, yet teachers in these schools may be reluctant to change because of past failures. Conversely, schools that are experiencing success may not see the need for a change towards a concept-based curriculum.   In both cases, setting up a school learning team made up of teachers and instructional coaches is important before implementation.  This team should have members that are well respected by their colleagues, have diverse perspectives and be committed to a concept-based curriculum.  It's really important that there are teachers on this team, as they are the ones dealing with the change and can help anticipate and resolve the problems, as well as help mobilise the buy-in of the rest of the teaching faculty.
3. Shaping a shared vision - it's really important to show teachers what a concept-based curriculum looks like in practice.  The teachers who are the ones implementing the changes are often not the same ones that were part of the decision making and curriculum development process.  Many teachers who are expected to change their practices experience anxiety and fear of failure, so support, modelling and coaching are vital. 

When adopting a new curriculum teachers go through fairly predictable developmental stages:

• Self-oriented - wondering what it is and how it will affect them
• Task-oriented - wondering how they do it 
• Impact - questioning how the change is working for students

Coaches need to recognise what stage their teachers are at and design differentiated job-embedded PD to address the level of concern that individual teachers have.

When adopting a concept-based curriculum it's also important to consider student assessment. Traditional assessments measure knowledge and skills, but often don't provide much data about student understanding.  Assessments will need to be redesigned in order to focus more on conceptual understanding.

I have had an absolutely brilliant time today and can't wait to get back to school tomorrow to continue the learning.

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A meeting in Bahrain

I was really excited to be invited to be part of the NESA (Near East and South Asia) Ed Tech Leadership collaborative.  This 5 person team from Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Israel and India met in Bahrain last Sunday.  Our task to was to plan and lead professional learning for the NESA community.  Although this was only our first meeting I felt we got a lot done.  Below you will find our purpose statement along with the strands we identified as priorities for professional learning.  I felt a great rapport with the other members of this collaborative and look forward to working with them all again as we move forward.

Purpose Statement
The Ed Tech Leadership collaborative is designed to meet the needs of educational leaders by:

• Providing a variety of sustainable professional learning opportunities; 
• Nurturing innovative leadership; 
• Fostering collaborative partnerships; 
• Identifying and sharing best practices; 
• Aligning and contextualizing policies and procedures; 
• Defining areas and direction for professional growth;
• Inspiring purposeful pedagogical change. 
• areas of professional learning will your plan focus on?

Strands (the areas of professional learning we will focus on):
1. Technology leadership and coaching
2. Using data
3. Innovation and change
4. Personalizing learning
5. Technology and standards
6. Digital citizenship

I will be attending the NESA Spring Conference in Bangkok in March to be presenting on coaching and using data to personalize PD for self-directed learning.  I'm really looking forward to this!

Photo taken at the Bu Maher Fort, Bahrain

Thinking about the thinking hats: creative and critical thinking

This weekend it was another TTP at school (Teacher Training Programme - which we offer to teachers who work at local NGOs).  I always love doing this because it's great to work with such a dedicated group of educators, especially as many of them are working in extremely challenging situations.  This Saturday's TTP was especially great for me, however, as we had a morning workshop on the 6 Thinking Hats, run by one of our parents who is a trainer in this method.

Philip started his session with a 1 minute exercise - to look around the room and write down what you can see.  I managed to write down 16 things.  He then changed the directions - we would be still looking around the room for 1 minute but this time we would do it in 15 second chunks - to look at the front of the room, the ceiling, the back of the room and the people in the room.  This time I managed to jot down 27 things.  It was clear that when we were channeled and targeted that we were able to get more out of the exercise.

Philip then went on to explain the principle of parallel thinking and explained that the idea behind the 6 thinking hats is to all be thinking in one direction at a time (like train tracks).  Generally, without direction, we adopt one of four thinking preferences:

• Clarifier - making sure everyone knows what we are trying to solve.
• Ideator - someone who comes up with expansive and often wild ideas
• Developer - someone who takes the ideas and refines them
• Implementor - the person who takes action.

Edward de Bono's research into the mind in the 1960s led him to develop an interest in creative and lateral thinking, which in turn led him later into developing his model of parallel thinking.  He pointed out that critical thinking is great for a career in parliament or the law courts, but not great if we are trying to encourage creativity.  Critical thinking is related to only 2 of the 6 hats.

• White Hat - this is the information hat.  When wearing this hat you look for information and assess how accurate and relevant it is.  You can also consider other points of view.
• Red Hat - this is the feeling hat and covers perceptions, intuition and emotions.
• Yellow Hat - the first of the critical thinking hats - looks for the logical positive value of something - why an idea has value and how it can work.  This is the most difficult of the hats.
• Black Hat - this is the second critical thinking hat - looks for logical negatives such as the problems and risks associated with an idea.  This is the hat of caution.  Philip said that the black hat can be the most useful hat - but it is also easy to overuse it.
• Green Hat - this is the creative hat that encourages you to ideate and consider alternatives, possibilities and choices.
• Blue Hat - this is the hat that helps you frame the problem and it's worn by only one member of the group.  Philip likened this to the air traffic controller or the conductor of an orchestra.  The role of the person wearing this hat is to look down on the whole process and at thinking as a whole.

Another great analogy for the 6 Thinking Hats is that of a set of golf clubs - you deliberately choose which one you will use for a particular shot.  Without the different golf clubs (hats) it's like just using one club for all the different shots.  Alongside this is the idea that creativity can be learned - we all have the potential to be creative and we can learn to be more skilled to maximize our potential.

Which hat do you use first?  Well mostly you would start with the white and the red hats and then move onto the yellow and black.  However the order does vary depending on whether or not the topic under discussion is a controversial one.  If you use the black hat first you may be getting rid of ideas that would work if the green hat was then used to work on them.  In those situations it's better to start with the yellow hat so that you immediately recognize all the good points about the ideas.  In fact De Bono said that the yellow hat was his favourite.  However if the subject is a controversial one it might be better to start with the black hat - but be sure that what is discussed is black hat and not red hat thinking!

With the red hat, it might be useful to do a group check on feelings.  We did this with a quick "love it or hate it" continuum.  If the feeling is spread across the whole continuum then the group is not ready to make a decision.  The red hat can be used several times throughout the process, for example to do a personal or group check or to get feelings about a decisions (parallel thinking).  The green hat can also be used in different ways.  It can be used for designing and brainstorming new ideas or it can also be used to overcome issues, for example to fix some of the black hat issues or difficulties (lateral thinking).  Philip explained about lateral thinking being like a roundabout - there are many different options and if one way isn't working you can come back to the roundabout to choose a different route.

Philip spoke a lot about creativity.  He said that creativity is the best and cheapest way to get added value from your exiting assets.  It's a logical necessity.  As time passes we get more, new information and we have to make use of this new information.  Being right at each stage is not enough - you have to go back and redesign or recreate when new information comes in.  The order information comes in will determine the outcome.  You don't know the future so you can't arrange for the future.  With creativity it is logical only in hindsight - so we don't need better logic we need more creativity and we must learn the skills of creative thinking.  He explained that the 6 Thinking Hats are a way of "designing accidents".  For example here in India we frequently experience roads being blocked during the monsoon season.  This necessitates us having to search out new routes.  Sometimes as we do this we make happy discoveries - maybe a new restaurant that we would not have found had we stuck to our regular route.  What De Bono's thinking hats do is to design these "accidents" to generate ideas.

There could be 2 reasons why you want to use the Thinking Hats for ideas - these could be "active" to design something, or "reactive" in response to something.  The blue hat person will design the sequences which might look like this:

Active:  Blue - White (info) - Red (feelings) -> Green (ideas) - Red (feelings about ideas) - Yellow (value of ideas) - Black (risks of the ideas) - Green (overcoming the risks) - Red (new feelings about the ideas) -> Blue

Reactive:  Blue - Red (feelings) - White (info) -> Black (if controversial) or Yellow (value) - Black (risks) - Green (ideas) - Black (risks based on new ideas) - Green (ideas) -Red (feelings) -> Blue

This week in India we have been faced with most of our currency (the 500 and 1000 rupee notes) being abolished.  We used this as a case study.  We started with our feelings (most in my group were fairly negative) but after going through the process we were able to generate many ideas as to how we could make the best of the situation and reduce the impact on those people who are most struggling (those small businesses who rely on the cash economy).  We ended this session feeling much more positive about the currency changes and the reasons behind the government's decision.

Have you used the Six Thinking Hats?  I'd love to hear about your experience.

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Coaching, collaboration and professional learning

Last weekend we started with the 4th cohort of our Teacher Training Programme at ASB.  At the same time, as I have some workshops planned both for the PYP and for tech integration and coaching, I thought I'd have a good think about the sort of professional learning that is most meaningful for adults.  Over the past couple of months, I've also read posts that have been shared on Facebook by teachers I used to work with in previous schools.  These are mostly about the type of professional learning that is most meaningful to adults, in particular coaching and collaboration.

The first article, published earlier this month by Chalkbeat, is about how the majority of professionals, when asked about how they became good at their jobs, talk about having a mentor. You almost never hear someone remark that they became great at what they do by attending workshops or training, by being observed by a boss and then getting feedback, or by analyzing data that measured their results.  Despite this, the vast majority of teachers do rely on these as the most common forms of professional development.  In particular this article talks about the value (or lack of value) of using data:  pre-assessments, goal setting, reassessments.  The authors write, "We are losing hours, days, weeks of valuable time when students could be doing engaging work and teachers could be collaborating on improving their craft.  Other professions recognize that data is not, itself, a mechanism for improvement."

The article goes on to discuss what it calls "adding a Band-Aid".  This involves weekly training sessions after school, and weekly meetings to discuss data.  The argument is that adults sit together to do this and it is often labelled as "collaboration" yet it rarely involves any lesson planning.  Instead, the authors argue, "We foster greatness everywhere by working closely in small groups that include someone whose work is great."  They conclude that "Schools need to stop adding more work for teachers to do in newly created groups and partnerships in an artificial attempt to create "collaboration" and instead reorganize the real work teachers already need to do every day, creating authentic teams."

The second article, which appeared at the end of June, is written by Karen Johnson and sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  This article is about what PD should look like.  In summary teachers want professional learning that is:

• relevant and personalized
• interactive, applying learning through demonstrations, modeling and practice
• delivered by someone who understands their experience - someone who is still in the classroom
• sustained over time - for a semester or a year
• treats teachers like professional

The two forms of professional learning that most fit with these criteria are coaching and collaboration.  However although teachers values these types of professional learning the most, experience shows that most PD in schools lacks engagement and is poorly planned and executed, so ends up feeling like a waste of time.

I feel proud to work in PYP schools that seem to get the combination right which have strong models for collaboration.  These schools have collaborative planning time built into their schedules, shared responsibility for instructional planning, and grade level or subject area teams that work well with each other.   In these schools coaching and collaboration combine to produce really impactful professional learning.

(Thanks to Rebecca and Lesley for sharing these articles that started me thinking about adult learning)

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Leaving a trail

I'm finishing up my 4th year at ASB and moving into my 5th.  It occurred to me today that I've been at ASB longer than any other school now, with the exception of ISA.  It's great working here - I love the vibrant atmosphere, the can-do attitude.  I am happy to be working in the only school I know that has an R&D department and I believe that I have had so many opportunities to grow and develop here.

When I left Switzerland 4 years ago I was given this card by a colleague (I just found it again today as I was moving offices). I hope I have lived up to his expectations!  Thinking about this, I decided that I would take stock of some of the new trails that we have started at ASB over the past 4 years.

• A Bring Your Own Device Program for teachers and students in grades 4-12 was initiated in 2012 to support personalized learning approaches for students.
• Beginning in 2012-13, all teachers started to collect student artefacts of tech-integrated learning and note which ISTE-S tech standard was addressed, the type of artefact and quality of learning. The data we have collected shows that technology is increasing used to promote higher-order thinking.  We have also used the data from the Tech Audit to determine teachers’ strengths and areas for growth and developed PD to target this growth based on the ISTE-T standards.
• Based on the data collected from the Tech Audits, we have written books on tech integration and digital citizenship which have been distributed to parents. The books contain information about ASB’s program, questions parents may wish to ask and parental guidance for home technology use.
• ASB is the only school in India to host a Google in Education Summit and we have hosted four of them since 2012.  As a GAfE School, this provides wonderful PD for our teachers and TAs at different levels.  
• From 2013 - 2015 ASB educators have presented at the annual ISTE Conference. Last year 13 presentations were from ASB, reinforcing the school as a world leader in the field of educational technology.
• In 2013-14 - 39 teachers and TAs took part in a year long prototype to study the impact on mobile devices on teaching and learning.  Nine further teacher prototypes took place in 2014-15.  This year 25 teachers have prototyped mobile devices with their students.  Following the successes of these prototypes, a mobile device is now a required tool for PE teacher throughout the school and for academic support teachers in secondary.
• Tech integration coaches were appointed in 2014 to support colleagues in integrating technology.  Currently there are 4 tech coaches in elementary school, 5 in middle school and 2 in high school.

When I think back to how some of these trails started, and what they are like now, it makes be realize that some of these initiatives are no longer trails - they seem like highways.  What started as small prototypes in R&D have become mainstream in teaching and learning throughout the school.

Evaluating the impact of tech coaching on teaching, learning and assessment

This is our second year of tech integration coaching at ASB, and currently we have 10 teachers who have taken on the additional responsibilities of coaching their colleagues.  To be clear about this:  all our tech integration coaches (TICs) are full time teachers, who have applied for this additional role. They are not given time off to do this, as most of them are coaching the teams they are actually a part of, but they do get an extra PD stipend to enable them to grow into the role.  Many of our TICs have used this stipend for the Foundation Training in Cognitive Coaching and for attending the annual ISTE Conference.

The ISTE-Cs contains a number of coaching rubrics that we used at the start of the year as part of a calibrating coaching conversation.  Do our coaches see themselves as approaching, meeting or exceeding the standards?  Since some of our coaches were new this year (and did not yet have any PD in coaching at that point) we expected that some would be approaching the standards and others would be meeting them.  Approaching the standards, in essence, is being able to identify and explain strategies and tools for tech integration. The new coaches are already applying what they know when using technology in their own classrooms, which is what we would expect as a prerequisite to becoming a tech coach, but probably at this point have not yet actively started modelling this for other teachers.

A coach who is meeting the ISTE-C standards is likely to be applying their knowledge and classroom experiences and modelling and coaching others.  To exceed the standards, a tech coach would need to analyze and evaluate the support they have given in order to provide evidence of helping colleagues achieve new skills and be able to show the impact that this has had on student learning.

The standard that I would encourage most of our coaches to focus on in their first year as a coach is Standard 2:  Teaching, Learning and Assessment.  To do this our TICs need to help their colleagues to use technology effectively - which is why we have found it vital to have coaches that are already part of teams and who are knowledgable and skillful in both their curriculum and in technology.  In Standard 2 the emphasis is on coaching and modelling to address both the content standards and technology literacy, while at the same time transforming the classroom into a  student-centred environment that meets the diverse needs and interests of all students.  During the 18 months since we have had tech coaches, I've observed the TICs trying out new ideas and tools in their own classrooms and then introducing them to their colleagues (for example using blogs as ePortfolios in Kindergarten, and using different formative assessment tools such as Kahoot, Padlet, Socrative and TodaysMeet in Grade 5), and I've seen several of them reaching out with their classes to other schools and experts around the world to collaborate in new ways, for example publishing their students' work to a wider audience (using Book Creator in Grade 5).

Much of what our TICs have been involved in is moving learning engagements and assessments away from a repackaging of facts, to tap into more higher-order thinking that support creativity, critical thinking and problem solving.  A good example of this was the recent unit our 5th Graders did where students first used online simulations to build an understanding of running a small business, then moved on to another simulation about world trade, and finally set up and ran their own small business for a morning.

At ASB we are really good at grouping and regrouping to differentiate and pesonalize the learning. We use many strategies that meet students' readiness and learning styles.  We also use a number of electronic resources for this such as Khan Academy, IXL and Mathletics in math, and Tumble Books, RazKids and Quizlet in literacy.  In Kindergarten and Grade 1 the students have "Dailies" where they move to different stations such as Listen to Reading, Read to Self and so on, where they are working independently and at their own level using some of these online resources.

Our TICs also work with teachers to create resources that can be used with students.  This could be a resource website or something as simple as a Google Form to collect in feedback.  We expect our TICs to have a strong knowledge of instructional design so that they can give good help and advice when coaching their colleagues to create learning engagements and evaluate student work.

Assessment and data analysis is becoming increasingly important for our TICs.  I've seen an increase in tools being used for formative assessments that have given feedback to teachers and allowed them to adjust their instruction.  As well as this I've seen technology being used to construct online forms and surveys, make rubrics for self and peer evaluation, and to give feedback directly onto the students' products.  Over the past 4 years, we have had an annual tech audit where we have collected and analyzed student artefacts, both by ISTE-S Standard and according to Bloom's Digital Taxonomy.  The TICs have assisted teachers in adding their artefacts onto the Google Site where the evidence has been visualized, analyzed and interpreted, and then used by the TICs as part of their initial coaching conversations with teachers to help them set their goals for the year. The data collected has been used to determine teachers' strengths and areas for growth, and we have been able to target the growth with personalized PD.  Evidence from the tech audits in the elementary school shows a change in the way technology has been used over the past 3 years. In 2013 the majority of artefacts collected indicated that technology was being used for tasks that involved lower-order thinking (62% of artefacts collected in 2013 were characterized as remembering and understanding). By 2015 the number of artefacts showing lower-order thinking had dropped to 27%. Conversely, artefacts characterized as applying, analyzing and evaluating, which accounted for 20% of the total number collected in 2013, are now in the majority: in 2015, 51% of artefacts submitted were tagged by teachers as applying analyzing and evaluating. There has also been a small increase in the number of artefacts categorized as creating - from 18% in 2013 to 22% in 2015.

To meet the requirements of the ISTE-C our TICs have had to becoming knowledgeable about more than just technology - as you can see they need to develop their expertise in teaching, learning and assessment.  They need to be able to help their colleagues to use technology for effective teaching, and they need to be able to provide evidence that they have brought about positive changes that have led to improved student achievement.   Looking at the evidence from our Tech Audits, it would seem that our "full-time teachers, part-time coaches" have exceeded expectations.

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Future Forwards Volume 5 - from shining stars to connected constellations

Today ASB published the next volume of Future Forwards. The online edition is available at this link. Future Forwards is a collection of thoughts, hypotheses, discussions, and reflections on practices, research and ideas that are relevant to emerging new paradigms of teaching and learning.  Previous volumes of Future Forwards have focused on how ASB's R&D has built a culture of active innovation at the school.  However we are aware that to effect transformation across education worldwide, we need more schools to "move past being distinct and shining stars of innovation, to become connected constellations of innovation."  Volume 5 of Future Forwards therefore contains explorations of the frontiers of education from 3 other schools around the world.

Paradigms - Looking to the Future
These chapters are about paradigm shifts - different approaches that radically challenge established conventions. Here you will find chapters on professional development, design thinking, multi-age classrooms and social entrepreneurship.

Ideas - The Next Step
These chapters are about how current research is changing or impacting existing practices or established norms. In this section you can read about ASB's partnership with a local school, research into digital wellbeing and social media use among third culture kids, the future of higher education, gender equity and meeting the diverse needs of language learners.

Practices - Innovating in the Now
These chapters describe the application of an instructional practice in a completely novel way or the successful mash-up of different practices. In this section you will read blended learning, student leadership in technology, curiosity projects in art, Maker, using sensors in the classroom and creative coding.

These eBooks are completely free - enjoy and please consider sharing them with others in your professional network.

If you missed the earlier volumes, here are the links:

• Future Forwards Volume 1
• Future Forwards Volume 2
• Future Forwards Volume 3
• Future Forwards Volume 4

Making and the Learner Profile

Over the past couple of years I've written several posts about the Maker Movement at ASB.  I attended an ISTE pre-conference workshop in 2013 on Maker with Gary Stager and Sylvia Martinez, and both Gary and Sylvia came to ASB to help us empower students through making.    We launched Maker Faires and Maker Saturdays at ASB and currently have these every month.  We have also incorporated Maker into a number of PYP units of inquiry, for example in Grade 4.  In Kindergarten we have an entire unit of making.  In their How the World Works unit, KG students explore the central idea "The way materials behave and interact can determine how people use them."  This is a PBL unit with the driving question "What do makers need to know?"  Our key concepts are form, function and change and our lines of inquiry are the behaviour and uses of materials, the changing properties of materials and manipulation of materials for specific purposes.  Students are assessed on their understanding through the creation of a Maker Studio - they explore the materials and create an end product that shows their understanding of the types of materials used and how they functions in their new state/version.

Yesterday at our faculty meeting it was time for the teachers to have a hands-on experience of Maker - our task was to design ScribbleBots.  Scot Hoffman, our R&D Coordinator, then shared several ways teachers could take this further.  The idea is not that the Re.D Studio team come into classrooms and lead Maker activities, but that they provide professional development, consultation and guidance so that teachers are supported to empower their own students to become makers.  Scot shared several other ideas (PrimeTime and the Curiosity Project which will the be subject of an upcoming blog post).  However one of the things that I found really interesting is how our Re.D Studio has looked at making together with the IB Learner Profile, making it a perfect fit for several of our PYP units of inquiry.  Here are a few examples of what teachers can look for in maker activities that support the Learner Profile:

Risk-Takers

• tries something new
• approaches uncertainty with forethought and determination
• takes intellectual risks

• transforms failure into new insights or approaches

• offers explanation(s) for a strategy, tool, or making outcome

• displays motivation or investment in learning through making

Reflective

• shares experiences and insights from making
• reflects on learning strengths and needs during making

Inquirers

• strives to understand
• persists to achieve goals
• expresses and uses curiosity
• inspired by new ideas or approaches
• inspires others with their making

Are you teaching at a PYP school?  Have you started to include Maker in any of your units of inquiry?  If so please leave me a comment as I'd love to learn more.

Click here for more posts about Maker at ASB

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A year of professional learning

This is my final blog post as I reflect back on the things I’ve been thinking and learning about in 2014. My biggest learning last year came in the area of coaching, which I have found to be truly transformative. Other ideas that I’ve been exploring over the past year include flipped learning, global trends, technology trends in education and leadership. This post is about professional development and how we have moved forward with professional learning at ASB.

This year in R&D I was part of the task force looking at PD 3.0. We were charged with developing a new model of professional growth and development for schools for the future. The task force began the year by reading about PD and collecting data on what was the current situation with PD at ASB. We did surveys and interviews of our own teachers and leaders, as well as those working in schools around the world, about successful and effective PD practices. During the year we also prototyped a PlayDate model as one form of learning that could be incorporated in a new model. A PlayDate is an unconference where teachers and assistants can get together to explore and play with new technology tools with a view to exploring how to use it with students. We held our first PlayDate in the Elementary School in February and prior to this sent out a survey to find out what everyone was interested in exploring. We came up with 8 different tools or types or technologies and found 8 volunteers to facilitate the learning spaces. The participants were free to choose where to go and when to move between the spaces. They were also able to go to a break-out space with colleagues if the 8 options offered didn't meet their needs. At the end we sent out a survey which resulted in excellent feedback: 98% responded that they had learned something new and 96% said that they want to explore another tool that they did not have time for during the PlayDate. About 40% of our faculty said that after this session they are confident to use at least one app or tool that they have never used before. 74% said it was more engaging than most other PD experiences and 26% said it was the most engaging PD format they have ever experienced. We were very encouraged that many of the responses asked for more - as there are many more tools they wanted to explore. Based on the success of the PlayDate we have held further PlayDates in the Middle and Secondary Schools this year.

In September we presented our PD 3.0 report. One of the things that was central to our proposal was a change of wording: from professional development to professional learning. We also strongly believed that professional learning needs to be personalized. The Professional Learning 3.0 model is a flipped model in which the individual “owns” his or her learning. Learners keep their own records of personal learning throughout the year in the form of blogs, journals, portfolios, videos or other forums to record and reflect upon professional growth. We also felt it is important that each learner develops and maintains a flexible professional learning network. This may include colleagues at their school and others outside the school. These flexible PLNs would naturally change over time along with the learners professional learning needs and pursuits.

One of the suggestions for improving PD is that it needs to be focused around the 4Cs: critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity. These are not really skills that are focused on by colleges of education/teacher training and so the chances are that many teachers have not had much training in these 21st century skills. One of the things we did over the last year was to review and refigure the roles of our personnel to make them more focused on PD, and this also included the appointment of 10 tech integration coaches. During the 2013-14 school year we had already started to personalized PD based on our previous year’s tech audit. We collected and analyzed student artifacts in order to examine the rigor of technology use, and then we shared this information with our teachers in order to create a PD plan personalized to the needs of each of them. This has been further developed during the past year with the tech integration coaches, who meet individually with each teacher to discuss progress towards goals with the aim of helping them achieve the goals they have set. Peer coaching is something that has proved so far to be very successful. Rather than hiring new personnel, we identified teachers who have the most potential for serving as peer coaches and then trained them as coaches. Generally these coaches have strong communication and collaboration skills and know about best practices in tech integration. We did not expecting them to be experts, they are collaborators and facilitators and most important of all they are co-learners.

This year we have also been talking about ASB as a center for lifelong learning. We pride ourselves on being a center of learning for students, educators and thought leaders from around the world, in an environment where all members are constantly in pursuit of personal and professional growth and development. In addition we have continued to build global communities of learners and researchers through sharing data, content, tools and ideas with colleagues and schools around the world. ASB also hosts a range of educational conferences and learning events, from our Maker Saturdays, TRAI Summits, Global Social Entrepreneurship Summits and TEDx ASB events for students, to conferences such as ASB Un-Plugged, Future Forwards, InspirED and the Google Summits for educators from India and around the world.

Looking back at 2014 I feel that we have come a long way in both our understanding and implementation of professional learning at ASB, and with more PD already planned for 2015, I’m excited that the learning is going on and on.

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Flipping Professional Learning

On Thursday at school we had a professional learning day.  It was a great day and a lot of very relevant learning happened, but since then I have thought about the flipped learning and how it can apply to PD.   Around the world there are millions of teachers who have to attend PD sessions which are basically low-level instruction/information delivered to large groups - many are not engaged or are even passive-resistant to these sessions.  How can we flip PD so that it is more individual and self-directed?

This year at ASB we introduced a tech coaching model.  There was a gap of 4 months between the start of the school year and the visit of cognitive coaching trainers Bill and Ochan Powell, where our 10 new tech coaches needed to start developing their coaching skills in order to have goal setting meetings with their teachers.  In the summer we decided to add a new coaching course onto our Haiku LMS that would cover some of the basics of coaching, and that our coaches could use as a starting point for their own learning.

Flipped PD is also addressed in the book Flipped Learning:  Gateway to Student Engagement. Kristin Daniels and Mike Dronon write about how flipped PD has transformed the role of tech integration specialists into "technology and innovation coaches" - people who encourage and support innovative and transformative teaching practices.  They started with the aim of providing teachers with effective PD so that they could use technology to change the way they taught.

ISTE has also released a white paper on effective PD that involves 3 factors:  a coaching model, online communities for collaborative idea sharing and a fully embedded use of technology.  Daniels and Dronon used this framework in order to flip PD.  They made videos and rather than organizing them by tool, they grouped them into 2 areas:  communication, collaboration, creative media and presentation.  As a result, they were able to create a different work environment where the technology and innovation coaches were able to motivate teachers to create, improve and innovate.

As Jon Bergmann and Aaron Sams point in in their book, the question of what is the best use of face-to-face time is not simply directed at teachers.  Administrators need to consider it too as they consider the best use of time in staff meetings.  They write:

What if administrators flipped their faculty meetings?  Instead of faculty meetings being used to disseminate information, what if they were rich discussions about best practices?  During those meetings are teachers disengaged?  Are they checking their email or grading papers?  Could technology deliver content so that your face-to-face time is rich, rewarding and powerful.  A number of administrators who have implemented flipped learning tell us their faculty meetings are now deeper than ever before, and make much better use of the most valuable resource a school has:  the creative minds of amazing professional educators.

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A Center for Life-long (Transdisciplinary) Learning

This week at ASB we hosted 2 candidates for the Assistant Superintendent position for next school year.  One of the areas that will fall under the new position is to imagine and create a center for life-long learning.  This will involve the development of alternative and innovative educational paths for anytime-anywhere learning.  ASB has already started on this journey.  We already have service learning programmes, year round educational experiences such as internships and intersessions, and online learning for students, teacher and parents.

In his book Twenty-One Trends for the 21st Century, one of the issues Gary Marx writes about is the depth, breadth and purposes of education in a fast-changing world.  He, like the leadership of ASB, asks "What are the purposes of education?"  At a recent State of the School meeting with parents this question was raised by our Superintendent.  Traditionally we say that education should prepare students for the future.  The question that Craig Johnson asked was "What future?"  Are we preparing students for their future here at ASB?  For their future in another school, as our students' families are highly mobile?  For their future at university?  For their life?

Gary Marx points out that when asked this question, John Dewey's response was that a teacher should provoke "a continuous interest in learning throughout a student's life" and yet what we find today around the world is national curriculums with narrow standards and high-stake tests that mean that what is important to learn has been whittled down to the things that are easily testable.  The impact of this is that many key, creative, subjects such as music and art as well as foreign languages, science, social studies and PE are getting less and less time.  Marx writes, "We are too often faced with the prospect of preparing our students for the future - constrained by a mentality and infrastructure that emerged from another time." and proposes 5 different purposes for education:

• Citizenship - creating good citizens
• Employability
• Interesting lives
• Releasing ingenuity that is already there
• Stimulating imagination, creativity and inventiveness.

Yesterday and today our Twitter PYP chat was about transdisiplinary learning.  As always it was great to have a discussion with so many educators about this.  Reflecting on our conversations, I noticed that Marx is also a proponent of learning across disciplines.  He writes, "It's in those multidisciplinary white spaces, in the connective tissue, that we are likely to discover new knowledge.  Teaching and learning across disciplines should be considered part of how we operate."

Is this how the new center of life-long learning is going to operate at ASB?  Looking at ASB's website we already pride ourselves on being a center of learning for students, educators and thought leaders from around the world, in an environment where all members are constantly in pursuit of personal and professional growth and development.  In addition we are building global communities of learners and researchers through sharing data, content, tools and ideas with colleagues and schools around the world.  ASB also hosts a range of educational conferences and learning events, from our Maker Saturdays, TRAI Summits, Global Social Entrepreneurship Summits and TEDx ASB events for students, to conferences such as ASB Un-Plugged, Future Forwards, InspirED and the Google Summits for educators from India and around the world.  

Last weekend I was involved in the Teacher Training Program at ASB.  Our Mission calls on us to "enhance the lives of others" and this is one way I feel I can give back to the Indian community.  The TTP is a 2 year program for Indian teachers who are working in partner NGOs.  The program is taught by ASB staff and introduces to Indian teachers new ideas and critical skills for teaching in the 21st century. 

Our journey towards becoming a center for life-long learning has begun.  I'm interested to see who is the person who will be taking us forward.

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Professional Development -v- Professional Learning

Before I start this post I first want to explain a little about R&D and about how important R&D is to ASB.  I have written before about how there are two "operating systems" at ASB:  T&L (teaching and learning) and R&D (research and development).  T&L is what executes and delivers our mission every day, whereas R&D focuses on rapid and sustained innovation for learning.  R&D studies, prototypes, researches and scales new teaching and learning approaches, practices and systems that advance learning in an accelerating change environment.

R&D is made up of task forces that come together once a month to share our learning.  For the whole of last year I was on the R&D PD 3.0 task force.  Our aim was to redesign PD for the future of schools, being very aware that we need to constantly reexamine and change what we do in order to meet the needs of a rapidly changing world.  Staying current or ahead of the curve is one of the things that ASB does best, and our task force was charged with coming up with a proposal to make ASB a professional learning center that would attract world-class faculty through increasing PD opportunities, re-examining roles and establishing teacher-choice in their own professional growth.

The task force began the year by reading about PD and collecting data on what was the current situation with PD at ASB.  We did surveys and interviews of our own teachers and leaders, as well as those working in schools around the world, about successful and effective PD practices.  During the year we also prototyped the PlayDate model.  On the basis of our findings, we constructed a vision for the future of PD.

One of the things that was central to our proposal was a change of wording: from professional development to professional learning. We also strongly believe that professional learning needs to be personalized.The Professional Learning 3.0 model is a flipped model in which the individual “owns” his or her learning. Learners will keep their own records of personal professional learning throughout the year in the form of blogs, journals, portfolios, videos or other forums where teachers can record and reflect upon their professional growth. We also feel it is important that each learner develops and maintains a flexible professional learning network. This may include colleagues at their school and others outside the school. These flexible PLNs would naturally change over time along with the learners professional learning needs and pursuits.

Read the report about PD 3.0 proposals

Read about other things we are doing in R&D in our Findings blog

Flipped Classroom -v- Flipped Learning

In preparation for my upcoming IB workshop on flipping the classroom, I've been reading everything I can about the benefits of the flip on student learning.  One of the best arguments in favor of making the flip has been an article that appeared in the May edition of ISTE's magazine Learning and Leading with Technology by Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams.  I'm summarizing parts of this article here as I think it will provide a useful starting point for our workshop participants.

To start with Bergmann and Sams argue that the flipped classroom is not simply a new fad - teachers have always assigned reading to be done at home, followed by class periods discussing and developing the understanding of the ideas in the reading.  The flipped classroom using video or podcasts is simply an extension of this, so that the media is used as a pre-teaching tool that learners can build on in class (in other words teachers are using an old method but with a new tool that allows them to quickly create and distribute video content in a way that was not possible 10 years ago).

Bergmann and Sams argue that it is not the flipped classroom itself that is the goal, but that this is simply the path that leads to more powerful teaching and learning, which they refer to as flipped learning.  The flipped classroom is one way of getting teachers to flip learning as it moves direct instruction out of the "group learning space" (classroom) into the "individual learning space" (through teacher created videos that students can view individually).  This allows the group space to be "transformed into a dynamic, interactive learning environment where the educator guides students as they apply concepts and engage creatively in the subject matter."   Basically flipped learning means that class time is spent on richer and more meaningful learning experiences since direct instruction to a whole group is not the best use of class time, considering the variety of student learning styles.  With the flip, the classroom focus is more on learning (and less on teaching).

Bergmann and Sams write that introducing flipped learning is a first step that teachers can take towards a learning-centred classroom, that the flipped classroom is in fact a "gateway to flipped learning".  Flipping the classroom by itself doesn't change anything - a lecture in class or a lecture watched at home is still a lecture - therefore the goal of flipped learning for teachers is not simply to create and use video but to plan what is the best use of face to face class time once the direct instruction is moved to the individual space.  They argue there are 3 main elements:

• Relationships:  students who have positive relationships with teachers do better on standardized tests and get better grades.  A better use of time than preparing for standardized tests can be spent connecting meaningfully with students instead, becoming mentors and coaches of students instead of simply being the content experts.  Part of this involves seeing each learner as an individual who needs specific nurturing and guidance.
• Content:  In the flipped learning model students have the time to explore the things they are curious about when learning the key concepts and content that all students should know.  Flipped learning can allow students to inquire deeper into the content.  Many teachers spend a lot of time helping students to remember and understand, while less time has traditionally been spent on the higher order thinking skills of applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating.  Flipped learning can allow more class time to be spent on the higher levels of Blooms's Taxonomy.
• Curiosity:  Flipped learning can enable students to take their learning further and explore their passions.  Once the lower order thinking skills have been shifted to the individual, then flipped learning gives educators the flexibility to provide time for students to explore their own interests (genius hour, golden time, curiosity projects, 20% time etc.).  Project-based learning can fit well at this point too.

The article also provides insight into how the ISTE standards support flipped learning.  At ASB all teachers have set personal goals based on the NETS-T Standard 2.  Specifically Standard 2 supports the flipped learning model in the following ways:

Standard 2C:  Customize and personalize learning activities to address students' diverse learning styles, working strategies and abilities using digital tools and resources.

Standard 2D:  Provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform teaching and learning.

My work with the flipped classroom and flipped learning models over the past few months have given me new insight into how to personalize learning and have more student-centred classrooms.  Do you have experience of using the flipped classroom model?  I'd love to hear how are you using class time to flip learning.

Read the full article in Learning and Leading with Technology.

Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams have written a book, published by ISTE, entitled Flipped Learning:  Gateway to Student Engagement which can be pre-ordered here.

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More thoughts about PD and coaching

With interviews for our new tech coaches being held at the end of this week and the start of the next, I have been thinking a lot and reading a lot about the type of professional development that is most needed in schools today.  I've been looking at a book that was left for me by my predecessor entitled The Leader's Guide to 21st Century Education by Ken Kay and Valerie Greenhill, in particular looking at Chapter 4 that deals with building professional capacity.  There are 2 suggestions here that I think pertain to what we are about to embark on.

One of the suggestions for improving PD is that it needs to be focused around the 4Cs: critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity.  The idea behind this is that these are not really skills that are focused on by colleges of education/teacher training and so the chances are that many teachers have not had any training in these 21st century skills.  The chapter goes on to outline different ways to doing this, including reviewing and refiguring the roles of current personnel to make them more focused on PD.  This list can include merging the responsibilities of tech coaches, 21st century skills coaches, librarians, curriculum specialists and PD specialists.

Peer coaching is also something that is recommended.  Rather than hiring new PD personnel, the suggestion is to identify teachers who have the most potential for serving as peer coaches and then training them as teachers are likely to turn to trusted colleagues for professional guidance (this is basically the idea behind what we are hoping to do next year).  Generally these coaches have strong communication and collaboration skills and know about best practices in tech integration.  We are not expecting them to be experts, they are collaborators and facilitators and most important of all they are co-learners.

When we invited teachers to apply for the position of tech integration coach we asked them what appealed to them about this role.  A number of responses were that they have experienced being coached themselves and know what a difference it has made to them, and now want to help, encourage and support their colleagues.  Many wrote about the satisfaction they get from working with other teachers and helping them to develop skills and confidence.  Of course they do - this is why they became teachers in the first place - because they wanted to help students to become they best they could be.

I am really looking forward to the interviews this week and next week.  I'm really looking forward to hearing more about what our teachers can offer as we develop our coaching and PD programme.

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I'm starting a new MOOC on coaching

At ASB we are in the process of identifying tech integration coaches for next year.  We are fortunate that so many great teachers have stepped forward to apply for these new positions.  I'm also excited that it will be part of my new role next year to coach the coaches.  This summer I'm doing a cognitive coaching course with Bill and Ochan Powell, but I decided to get a little ahead of myself by enrolling in a 5 week coaching MOOC through Coursera at the end of this school year too.

We do already have a literacy and maths coach at ASB this year and I have heard many positive things about the impact of these coaching rounds.  The MOOC is specifically looking at how a coach can encourage lasting changes in teaching practice.

Effective teacher-coaches are not just knowledgeable about instruction; they’re also highly strategic in their approach to changing teachers’ behaviors. That starts with preparing teachers to receive critical feedback, and then continues with a careful selection of goals and scaffolds to ensure that feedback is implemented with fidelity.

This year every teacher, teaching assistant and classroom assistant at ASB has set a tech goal based on the NETS-Ts, and we have attempted to provide and support a personalized professional development plan for everyone.  During the year I have met individually with each teacher to discuss progress towards goals with the aim of helping them achieve the goals they have set.  Suggestions for such PD have involved webinars, online courses, prototyping and in some cases simply trying new things out.  My role has not been to evaluate whether or not they have achieved their goals, but simply to walk alongside them and help them to move forward.  The TAs and CAs have had the support of one of our educational technology specialists to achieve their goals and they have made spectacular progress this year following targeted sessions after school each week.  In fact our TAs and CAs have been so empowered with technology that they have felt confident enough to lead training sessions at school for both teachers and for assistants and to present at international conferences.

While I feel our approach to date has been extremely successful, I'm also aware that I have never had any formal training in coaching teachers.  I think that I have done a good job, but I think that I could probably do better.  I was interested to read this statement about the upcoming MOOC:

Even teacher coaching that’s described as “good” can sometimes fall short of resulting in meaningful change. The coach might see and say the right things, and the teacher might be very appreciative of the feedback. But unless the coaching drives true changes in behavior, the “good” in this case could actually end up being the enemy of effective.

The MOOC identifies 5 principles of effective coaching:

• Permission-based coaching - teachers must want to be coached and want to change their practice.  They must be open to receive critical feedback following observations in order to grow.
• Shared vocabulary and vision - there needs to be a shared vocabulary and vision about what excellent teaching looks like.
• Setting measurable goals - teachers need to be able to prioritize the next steps they need to take to improve their instruction so that they can set a meaningful goal.
• Directive feedback - teachers need to be clear about the steps they need to take to achieve their goals - coaches need to be clear about the direction that teachers need to move in order to successfully implement the feedback.
• Opportunities to practice - coaches need to give teachers the opportunity to rehearse or apply the action steps in the presence and with the support of the coach before the teacher tries to do this in the classroom.

I'm looking forward to learning more about all these during the 5 week course starting in May.  Are you also interested in learning more about effective coaching?  If so this MOOC might be for you too.
Coaching Teachers:  Promoting Changes that Stick

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Rigor and Relevance

During this month I've started meeting teachers to check-in on how they are doing with adding student artifacts into the Tech Audit based on the NETS-Ss.  We started this last year - collecting and analyzing artifacts in order to examine the rigor of technology use, and then using this information to create a PD plan personalized to the needs of each of our teachers.  Last year we categorized each artifact according to Bloom's Digital Taxonomy, however this year we are starting to consider a new model and whether this might be more appropriate.  This model, called the Rigor/Relevance Framework, which was developed by the International Center for Leadership in Education, has two dimensions.

Knowledge:  This continues to use Bloom's Taxonomy of low and high order thinking skills.  The lower end of the continuum involves acquiring knowledge and being able to recall or locate that knowledge, while the higher end is concerned with the more complex ways that knowledge is used.  At this end of the continuum students can combine knowledge in new and creative ways - this is called the assimilation of knowledge.

Application:  Looking at artifacts through this lens involves considering action or putting knowledge to use.  This continuum was created by Dr Willard Daggett and has 5 levels:

• knowledge in one discipline
• apply in discipline
• apply across disciplines
• apply to predictable real-world situations
• apply to unpredictable real-world situations

In the diagram below knowledge is the vertical continuum, and application is the horizontal.

Here is how this model could potentially be used to assess the student artifacts collected during the Tech Audit:

• Acquisition - these artifacts would be those that demonstrate inquiry and the gathering and organizing of knowledge and information in one discipline.  This would correspond with remember and understand on Bloom's Taxonomy.
• Application - these artifacts would exemplify problem solving across disciplines and would show knowledge being applied to new situations.  The skills involved would be mainly comprehension and application.
• Assimilation - artifacts would be demonstrating analysis and problem solving in order to create a new solution.  The skills we would be looking for would be analysis, synthesis and evaluation.
• Adaptation - these artifacts would show that students are able to use their knowledge and skills in creative ways in order to take action.  The artifacts would demonstrate the skills of evaluation and creativity.

Would you like to know more about the Rigor/Relevance Framework?  Click here to read the full article.

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