Learning about Learning

I took a good deal from what May Sweeney had to say in her presentation to the conference on Friday.  To summarise, the message I got (feel free to correct me if you were there and I’m wrong!) was that the curriculum is opening up to allow activities previously viewed as extra curricular becoming an integral part.  For example, clubs and interest groups, tying in with the ideas of personalisation and choice.

Literacy, Numeracy and aspects of the Health curriculum are very clearly the responsibility of all teachers, not just subject specialists.

In new ACE ‘levels’ 1 to 4, breadth is the key element, organised through curricular areas: Health and wellbeing, languages, mathematics, sciences, social studies, expressive arts, technologies and Religious and moral education.  Specialisation comes after levels 1 to 4. (There is debate as to whether the word ‘level’ will be used because of the connections to 5-14)  There is to be consultation over the structure of Standard grade and Higher still this summer.

Pupil voice = co-creation of the curriculum :  Leading to more personalisation and choice.

Building resilience in to the ‘pupil’s toolkit’ is seen as essential.  The ability to meet novel situations with confidence and stick at any given task.  Quick to say but perhaps on of the biggest challenges.

Assessment is for Learning techniques should be more than ‘using traffic lights’ in classrooms.  Deeper consideration of AiFL is needed.

A study of interdisciplinary learning (by Siskin?) has suggested that interdisciplinary learning is vital in helping young people to connect to more specialised, discrete learning.  I think that we are organised in almost the opposite manner in secondary schools at the moment.

Deliberately mixing age groups is encouraged for some activities, with a view to challenging negative peer group influences and encourage leadership roles amongst students.

Opportunities for reflection, both personal and collective, are built in to the teaching and learning experience.

There are still many questions to be answered in all of the areas mentioned above, not least how achievement is recorded and progression is ensured within the more flexible learning structure. 

It was clear that in East Lothian there is certainly action taking place.   In my experience, initiatives like Extreme Learning, cross-curricular projects like those happening at Preston Lodge High School (more about our most recent, The Rhythm of Life, coming soon) and new curricular structures are beginning to be tested and are presenting an early picture of how ACE is developing.

While reading Michael Fullan’s excellent book Leading in a culture of change I have come across some very sound, practical advice and information, as well as some great quotations.

Here are two of my favourites:

Attributed to a superintendent from a 1996 study of Leadership, 

“Ten years ago if I had a vision they’d have locked me up, now I can’t get a job without one.”

And from Pascale et al 2000, an insight into how we might think about, organisations, leadership and social change (Fullan’s words)

“Living systems cannot be directed along a linear path. Unforseen consequences are inevitable.  The challenge is to disturb them in a manner that approximates the desired outcomes.”

The second quote in particular struck a chord.  The idea of control in leadership (and living for that matter) is in many ways an illusion because we are at the mercy of so many variables in our ”living system”.  Therefore what matters, according to this train of thought, it seems to me, is the values that are driving the “desired outcomes”.  If the values are sound then any “disturbing” of the system towards those outcomes should beneficial in the long run,even if not immediately so because of fluctuations in the system.

So if we are driven by a core set of values, the chances of us approximating our “desired outcomes” are increased.  This may not be true for all systems, but I’m thinking in relation to my own circumstances as a school teacher and my life as a whole.

I’m doing a lot of reading at the moment about leadership. Both from the point of view of trying to understand myself better but also to understand the preferred styles of those around me and the effect they have on the community they inhabit.  It has given rise to some enlightening conversations with colleagues around the subject.  It seems to be one thing everyone has an opinion on.   I’d recommend Micheal Fullan’s Leading in a culture of change if you are interested in a discussion of the issues.

The interesting thing for me is that both our own preferred style of leadership and the style that we perceive from those around us in daily interactions can(if we allow it) heavily influence our job (and life) satisfaction.  (Think of your parents’ style of ‘leadership’ with you if you don’t believe me!)  One style may work briliantly in a particular context but fall flat in another or we may inspire some people and at the same time ‘turn off’ others.  Is there a perfect leadership style that works in all situations or is the perfect leader someone who can adapt their style intuitively to suit the context? 

What does distributed leadership actually mean in the school context and can we really dismantle the hierarchical model.  I think we are engaged in interesting times in East Lothian at present on that front. I am keen to see how this ‘virtual’ hierarchy-free model could translate to a physical entity like a school.  People take initiative in this environment and to a great degree do so unsupervised or directed.  If this happened in school would we have anarchy or unbridled creativity?  A Curriculum for Excellence may begin to ask, and answer, that question.

I’ve been neglecting the blog a bit recently, a number of factors have combined to cause this, not least the excellent weather!  I’m also doing a great deal of drumming now that we move into the summer so something has to give somewhere. 

Now it is SQH unit 4 time in earnest I think my brain has returned to something like being able to function in relation to educational thinking.  I am currently considering the implementation of change in the school context.  Specifically in relation to the ALPs programme. 

I made a short presentation to staff on our progress so far at the in-service day yesterday.  As with every new venture there have been ups and downs and there are many issues that have arisen, both with the provision and the organisation of the programme.  I am happy to say however that at this stage, 12 weeks into the programme, that there has been a significant impact on the number of incidents some of the students have been involved in.  

Three of the participants have reduced the number of incidents (detentions and exclusions) by half as compared with the preceeding 12 week period.  It is still very early days but I am encouraged greatly by this.  These are youngsters who have significant difficulty in accessing much of the mainstream curriculum so any progress in terms of changing patterns of behaviour is a real success.

I am going to be meeting with parents over the next fortnight to discuss progress, careers input and targets for the coming year.  It is very pleasing I will have some excellent news to report. I think once again it shows the commitment of all concerned beginning to pay off.  Watch this space for news of the interim report in June.

I had the good fortune (initially) to be taking a flight from Glasgow on Thursday.  I rose at ridiculous o’clock (4.45am) to make my 8.30 flight and ensure Edinburgh and Glasgow traffic were safely negotiated.

I left my car at Glasgow airport and went off and had a very productive day, returning into Glasgow at 7pm.  After paying for my car parking I went to collect my car, only to find my keys were missing….

After frantically searching through  my bag around 5 times, I finally admitted defeat.  BA helped me establish that there was nothing found on the plane and suggested lost property……which was closed.

My wife was supposed to be meeting friends for a very rare evening out and was obviously delighted when I called to tell her the keys were lost.  I finally rolled home at 10.30pm with no car and no keys! 

Car has now been reclaimed, via a hefty £26 parking fee, although keys still evade detection.  I’ve contacted every place I went to on Thursday but no joy.  Life throws the most wonderful ‘curve balls’ at you sometimes.