NZPF Conference: Dr Tony Wagner
Session One: Creating Innovators
Business no longer wnats children who KNOW - now they want what they can DO (that computers can't)The longer kids in school, the fewer questions they ask.
- what can we do differently to prepare for active citizeonship? Creative problem-solvers?
Teach Creative Problem-Solving Skills
The world demands that you take initiative, and challenge authority.
Rewarding and celebrating individual strengths V/s Team work, leads to Failure
Failure
- Fear of failure comes from school
- Graded on basis of numbers of mistakes
Innovation demands students to:
- take risks
- make mistakes
- fail (growth mindset)
Human beings learn most of our important things through trial and error (eg - learn to walk)
Motivation
Higher grades, more money V/S Intrinsic MotivationThat most motivates? A deep desire to make a difference. Parents and teachers encourage succesful learners, in relation to:
- play
- passion
- purpose
As learners are older:
- they should be encouraged to try more, in order to experience more
- they will understand the importance of pursuing real interests, and staying curious
Passions evolve into a deep sense of purpose.
We are not here on this earth just to serve ourselves. we have some responsibility to give back and make a difference
Citizenship (needed to be a life-long learner)
active and creative leadership:- Critical thinking
- collaboration
- problem-solving
There is more at stake than helping kids to have job-related skills.
Early educators, worth remembering:
- Elwyn Richardson "In The Early World"
- Silvia Aston-Warner "One Look World"
"Most Likely to Succeed" - Teams of teachers teaching groups of kids.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhoWYZN2_Rg
Making, building, doing, shaping
Communities of Practice - solving problems of practice, is the way forward.
Making work public - "I made this and everyone's coming to see it"
Session Two: 7 Habits of Successful Change Leaders
Frame the problem, don't offer answers
Create ownership, not mere "buy-in"
Use evidence, not just data
Focus on improving instruction (learning)
Create communities of practice
Prioritize
Incent Motivation
1. Frame the problem, don't offer answers
The formulation of the problem is more useful than the answer- understanding and urgency for change
- national standards movements - made things worse (all about the answers)
- there is more risk in not changing than in changing
- what's at stake?
- Reasons?
- Risk for kids if we don;t change?
2. Create the ownership, not mere "buy-in"
- not selling solutions
- ask the right questions - provide the rigth evidence
3. Use evidence, not just data
Supplement data with qualitative evidence (listen, ask), student voice- what is good teaching? (create shared criteria)
- of all of yh different teachers you have had - what are their scores, rated against this criteria?
- Engage parents - nature of era
- our job is to bridge conversation gap - show video, panel discussions with students, etc
- help our shareholders (in contrast to "stakeholders") hear the voices they don't ordinarily hear - bring evidence to our shareholders what were you most prepared for? what were you least prepared for? (about finding out highest priorities for graduates)
- help people work through an understanding of "Why change?"
4. Focus on improving instruction (learning)
getting into classrooms, observing to understand more deeply:- what are our teachers' challenges?
- what are the teachers dealing with?
- what are the most important interventions that would help teachers
- engage teachers in conversations
- learning walks - looking for patterns, not reviewing performance of individuals
- eg: quality of teacher questioning / learning discourse / collaborative practice / learner agency
- engage teachers in "what is good questioning?', etc
- revisit to observe change
- taking a risk
- have to have a theory of change (eg "critical thinking and communication are the 2 most important skills")
5. Create communities of practice
- Isolation is the enemy of improvement
- teams of educators to work and talk together
- solving problems of practice together
- work together to solve a learning problem
- Japan example - team of teachers collaboratively designed a series of lessons to solve learning problem. Video - watch eachother, plan, watch improvement.
- We don't talk enough about improving lessons - feedback on eachother's practice
- lessons studied
- face to face - reciprocal - relational accountability
- collectively we have to worh together to get better
- eg - every classroom has one glass wall - no hiding
- (re walk-thrus) - ask teachers to invite you - tell them - looking for evidence of innovative practice.
- Walk thrus - " I am learning about the challenges teachers are facing"
- allow teachers the same amount of time to debrief as to observe
6. Prioritize
- If you have 10 priorities, you have none
- Stick to prirority - don't change each year
7. Incent Motivation
- innovation fund - teams of teachers apply
- A TEAM who has done their research, can't fail
- don't allow the "f-word" to be used, as it will kill innovation
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