My most memorable learning experience and the questions that has raised.

I am currently part of a Leadership Development Initiative in which I need to lead a project or process in my school plan.  The leadership process needs to be linked to the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.  My project is about leading the implementation of project based learning in my school and Community of Schools. There are 5 references to research-based learning at Lead level of the Standards so I have bee doing some research on Project Based Learning and let’s just say, they educational research jury is still out. But the contradictions got me thinking, particularly after I watched a video shared by Bianca Hewes who introduced me to Project Based Learning several years ago through the generous sharing of her work and expertise through her blog and social media.

Bianca shared Innovative Teaching and Learning:  Lessons from High Tech High’s Founding Principal.

At 6:47 Larry Rosenstock  discusses How We Learn. He talks about an exercise he has done called with large groups of people called, The Most Memorable Learning Experience Exercise.

In these exercises Rosenstock asks participants to write down the 2 most memorable learning experiences from their high school years. They are then asked to discuss their answers in a group and come up with the the key characteristics that defined these learning experiences to be shared with everyone.

From his experiences, he is certain that the group will come up with the following characteristics: It was a project, it involved community, it included a fear of failure and recognition of success, it had a mentor and a public display of work.

Rosenstock then respectfully asks if these are the components of our most memorable learning experiences, are we providing these to our students?

So this made me think of my most memorable learning experiences and to be honest, the learning experience that defined my future career choices had nothing to do with anything I did at school.

Yes, it was the Curiosity Show. My experience in Science at a Queensland  High School, in Years 7 to 10, was not great. We were only allowed in a laboratory once a fortnight. The Curiosity Show was my link to practical science. This was in spite of my high school experience. These learning experiences were purely project based, inquiry-based and self-directed. I did the experiments at home because my interest was piqued.

As teachers, we can not under-estimate the value of personal interest projects to stimulate curiosity and build a love of learning in our students. It is what inspired me to pursue a career in science education.

My reading about project based learning, educational research, effect sizes and what this suggests about what works and what doesn’t has just begun but has created some big questions for me. Hattie suggest that this type of learning has little or no effect size. The linking of educational activities to short-term outcomes does not sit comfortably with me and I think it is because of the Curiosity Show. My learning was problem-based, inquiry based and 100% student centred but according to articles like this, those things have no impact. I understand that I am 1 person and Hattie’s work is a meta-analysis but my engagement in this TV show and trying to replicate the puzzles and projects created a life long learner and an enthusiastic Science Teacher but it made no difference to anything that was measured at school because it was not measured and I don’t think it could have been in the short term.

As a teacher and school leader, how do I balance my need to encourage those things that I see as important but cannot be or are difficult to measure in the short term with the need to justify what I do in a classroom with the widely accepted research? How do innovative teachers develop new ideas if they have to justify what they do in terms of what has already been done? My research and reading continues.

 

#28daysofwriting What can you learn about becoming a good leader from observing not so good leadership?

It rained last night. It rained the night before. Rained is probably not a descriptive enough term, bucketed, poured cats and dogs may be better descriptors. Whilst this may be great for the garden it plays havoc with weekend sport.  Especially when the days are clear but the sky opens up all night. My kids play baseball. They play or train 6 days a week and on Sunday Mr 13’s game begins at 8.30am. We have to be at the ground by 7.45 for warm up … on a Sunday.  I know this does not read like a post about leadership but bear with me.

They play on a reclaimed swamp. It does not drain well. I knew last night that baseball would be called off but when my alarm went off at 6.30 and I checked the council website, the baseball website and the Facebook page, there was no indication that grounds were closed. I turned the radio on (we’re regional so they do sports cancellations) and nothing was announced.  I kept checking all social media outlets but alas no announcement.

As I pulled up at the ground, I was informed that the game had been cancelled. The committee had arrived at 6.30am and sort of made the decision at 7.00am but then changed their mind, then made the final decision at 7.30 but did not let anyone know. Not surprisingly there were a few disgruntled sleep deprived parents who expressed their frustrations at not being informed before arriving at the ground. The team who travel an hour from home were particularly disgruntled. This was not the first lack of communication or protracted decision making. Parents were already frustrated. The parents pointed out to the committee all the ways in which they could have communicated their decision. The committee then proceeded to make excuses and argue with the disgruntled parents.

Which brings me to leadership. After venting (yes, I was one of those disgruntled, sleep deprived parents), calming down and thinking, I reflected on why I was frustrated and the lack of leadership displayed. I thought about the excellent leaders I have worked with in the past and those I currently work with now and how they avoid situations like this. So here are my take aways from today.

1. Make a decision and make it quick. If you need to take it to a committee, lead the discussion, seek the opinions of others and then make a decision in a timely fashion.  Hand wringing and hypothesising are not going to help.
2. Communicate this decision in as may ways possible. In the era of social media, smart phones and the internet it is very easy to reach a large number of people in a short period of time. And don’t rely on one avenue for communication. Use them all.
3. Have systems in place for issues or road blocks that are likely to occur AND USE THEM. This way there is not need for hand wringing and vacillating. Everyone knows what to do and how to do it.
4. Be accountable. When things go wrong, take responsibility for them and apologise for any inconvenience caused. Arguing and making excuses with those impacted is only going to antagonise the situation.
5. Don’t engage with people when they are upset. When things don’t go to plan, people get upset. Listen to their frustration, empathise with them, think about how you could avoid the frustration in the future, learn from it. Don’t try to explain why you are right and they are wrong. It only makes people more frustrated because they feel they have not been heard and they honestly believe (as you do) that they are right and you are wrong.
6. Learn from your mistakes. Make a plan for next time. Create better systems. Find better ways to communicate.
7. Never, ever, ever reply with “if you think you could do a better job …” Self explanatory really.

When things go awry, people will always be upset and everyone has an opinion on how things should be done. Good leaders try to avoid these situations by making decisions and acting on them. They are then accountable for those decisions. I am fortunate that this is the environment I work in. I can see what went wrong this morning because I have watched great leaders work. It is easy to be critical of bad leadership because a negative emotional response is very powerful. We are less likely to praise good leadership because these frustrations are avoided and a neutral or happy feeling is usually elicited by good decision making and communication. So when you are presented with not so good leadership, give a shout out to all those great leaders you know. (Carol Marshman, Carol Bridge, Trina Meredith, Bob Aston, Marian Grant, Ellie Donovan, Jenny Conway, Nicole Sherry, Virginia Cluff, Joshua Westerway, Max Woods, Doug Hearne and these are just the ones I’ve worked with in person, the twitter peeps I take inspiration from are too numerous to mention here). They are the reason I can recognise what went wrong and hopefully apply what I have learned to the way I lead.

#28daysofwriting day 3 It has a name – Shared Leadership

Today I read an article that landed in my inbox from Teacher ACER’s online magazine. I had not heard the term shared leadership before but it is what I have done instinctually.

I am not a micro-manager. This is often difficult for people who have been micro-managed to come to terms with. But by devolving responsibility for tasks you give people ownership over their work. You empower them. Which is why I did it before I knew there was a label for it.

As a head teacher, I put 2 staff in charge of a year group. They are responsible for everything relating to this group. Scope & sequence, programs, assessment tasks, report outcomes, excursions and so on. The team is usually a senior teacher and a early career teacher. The senior teacher mentors the other.

It worked beyond my expectations. Staff were more engaged, more satisfied with their work and keen to develop further. Results improved, student outcomes improved, morale improved and senior class enrolments almost doubled. Students noticed the difference. Best of all is staff started to take risks with new ways of doing things. They tried PBL, ITC, student choice and new literacy and numeracy strategies.

I highly recommend shared leadership as a model for empowering staff, building morale and freeing the load of school leaders.