Learning for the 21st Century- “Now Thinking” Schools

Heidi Hayes Jacob’s recent book “Curriculum 21- Essential Education for a changing World” pub. ASCD.  starts with this paragraph

“What are you preparing your student’s for? 1973? 1995? Can you honestly say that your school’s curriculum and the program you use are preparing your students for 2015 or 2020? Are you even preparing them for today?”

So many schools are taking on this question with help from organizations like Partnership for 21^st Century Skills and Curriculum 21 and staff who are excited about change , sadly so many are not. We as educators need to be constantly asking questions not just but the future, but the needs of our students now. You only need to visit websites of schools such as International School Bejing, to see the kind of work is being done regarding forward thinking, or as I like to call it ‘now thinking’ schools. Too many schools are locked into the 20^th or even 19^th century model of education. At my present school Berlin Brandenburg International School, we are working on a technology strategy which involves hiring a member of staff who is devoted to I.T Learning across the school, as well as devoting staff inservice time to try to mee the needs of our students.

When we think of 21^st century learning we often think in terms of technology . Tools for learning; computers, overhead projectors, smart boards etc. These are essential, but equally as important is curriculum, the learning environment, quality assessment, key skills and of course quality teaching.

Schools that embrace Inquiry based learning strategies have the best chance of serving the needs of their students in the 21^st century. Our students are entering a world with vast amounts of information at their fingertips, complex problems, technological break-throughs in a fast paced global context. They need to be equipped with the skills, not when they graduate but NOW. Inquiry based learning encourages questioning. It fosters collaboration skills. It considers multiple intelligences. It encourages students to seek the truth and discover knowledge. In essence it encourages a passion, motivation and desire for learning which continue throughout life.

Teaching these students requires a shift away from traditional 19^th century techniques such as lecturing, giving facts, right/wrong answers, text book driven curricula, final summative testing and rote memorization and practice, towards student centered inquiry and direction, multiple solutions to a variety of strategies, multiple resources, practical collaborative activities and reasoning.  Teachers also need to be given the tools for the 21^st century as well as the training to use them. Training on how to use these tools and applications, computers, podcasts, social media applications such as Twitter and Facebook, weblogs, wikis, video, pictures and so on. Quality teachers are coaches. They guide, analyse, point, and most importantly know when to stand back. Maria Montessori once said “ The greatest sign of success for a teacher…is to be able to say The students are now working as if I did not exist” She also said “Free the child’s potential and you will transform the world”

The learning environment should not be thought of as the classroom, but rather the whole school. When you enter a school you should feel that learning is all around you, that the staff, students and visitors are all learners. I like to see open spaces being utilized in schools for learning, collaborative design, open access internet, social/learning zones, displays, in short, a buzz of excitement and a space full of energy.

Curriculum frameworks that encourage backwards design; thinking about what we want students to know and be able to do, asking guiding questions and promoting exploration and discovery will help students continue their curiosity and desire for learning throughout life.  Curriculum mapping helps keep track of connections between traditional subjects in schools which offer these. Schools need to integrate technology into their curricula to enhance content and quality assessment. Assessment is simply a means to show knowledge and insight into content, skills and proficiencies. Some educators have focused too much on summative, end of unit/year tests. There is a place for summative assessments but quality teachers explore a multitude of formative options to help them and importantly their students, understand where they are. We need to replace some assessments with more relevant 21^st century approaches. For example, power point presentations have become an important tool for presenting ideas and learning, but teachers can also explore film, podcasts, websites,  performances, rap, song, blogs and many more tools for showing, sharing and presenting knowledge.  Technology needs to be integrated across all subjects.

I have talked about quality teaching, quality environments, quality curriculums and assessment but what are the key skills which our students need to be prepared for lifelong learning in the 21^st century? Partnership for 21^st Century Skills talk about fusing the traditional 3 Rs (Reading, Writing and Arithmetic) with the 4 Cs (Critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration and creativity). There’s no doubt that the world in 2010 is drastically different to the world even 10, 20 or 30 years ago and that the students in our schools are likely to travel more, have many more jobs and meet many more people (both real and virtual). Professor Stephen Heppell describes 21^st century learners as ambitious, collaborative, reflective, embracing individuality and as having the ability to stand back and look at a global horizon. He also says “This is not the information age, it’s not the mechanical age, it’s the learning age”

So what do schools need to do if they want to change?  I believe schools need to have 21^st century learning central to their mission. They need quality learning environments, quality curriculum and quality teachers. Yes, the change will in some cases mean a large outlay of money. 1 to 1 lap top schemes (or even 1 to 1 ipad schemes!) cost money. Redesigning learning environments costs money and training teachers costs money, but getting excited about technology, getting excited about change, getting excited about the idea of 21^st century learning costs nothing.

Ted Sizer 1932-2009

Coalition for Essential Schools announcement

You Get What You Give

This is one of my favorite phrases/proverbs/maxims. I use it a lot at school to explain the importance of being caring, respectful and encouraging to all around. I was wondering how many other similar phrases there are. I thought of “Give a little love and it all comes back to you” and “You reap what you sow”.

Older readers may remember the song with this name by the band ‘The New Radicals’ in the 90s.

Unconditional Teaching

We all went into education because we care passionately about kids. We want to help them to grow and gain experiences which help them to understand themselves and where they fit in to the world around them. Teenage kids are on a path of discovery. They are becoming more and more reliant on personal relationships with friends outside their family and they are continuing to learn about relationships with adults in terms of effective ways to communicate.

It is vital that kids know and understand that we care about them. That we as educators have their well being and success at the forefront of our minds during our daily interactions. As soon as they know we care, we have a chance that they might learn something.

I’d like to talk about two teachers I had in the past. I studied the flute at Music college in London and then in Berlin. Both professors were renowned flute players and highly respected in their field, so I consider myself very lucky to have had the opportunity to study with them.

My teacher in London had a quiet demeanor and spoke to me calmly. She showed through the questions she asked, that she cared about me as a person. My teacher in Berlin had a different approach. A more straightforward-in your-face approach I suppose. A particular example of how the two differed was the task of memorizing music, which, quite frankly I wasn’t very good at. If I arrived at a lesson having not memorized the music, my teacher in Berlin would get angry, tell me that I was wasting his time and stomp around. In stark contrast, my teacher in London would ask questions. “Did you have difficulty learning this piece?”, “How can we make things easier?” etc.

O.K. sometimes I just didn’t do the work that week.  If this was the case, my teacher in Berlin would accuse me of wasting his time, stomp around etc. My flute teacher in London would say “Ben, I’m worried that if you can’t find the time to practice, you’re not going to be able to reach the standard I know you are capable of”

What effect did these two approaches have on me? The teacher in Berlin tried to instill fear into me. The teacher in London shared her feelings with me. I really feel that because I know that she genuinely cared about me, it had a much bigger impact on my learning. When she spoke to me calmly about her feelings of disappointment, it hit me in the face like a sledge hammer. Because I really cared about her and I knew she really cared about me. It made me think. The Berlin approach just got me angry.

In my opinion, shouting at students doesn’t achieve very much except showing them that the teacher can shout. It’s a way of showing dominance over a student and it doesn’t teach them a very caring way of interacting with others. In my experience, simply listening and talking to students about their actions, their feelings and your feelings goes a long way to help them to understand and change.

This is one of my favorite quotes about education:

“ In education, it is my experience that those lessons which we learn from teachers who are not just good, but who also show affection for the student, go deep into our minds. Lessons from other sorts of teachers may not. Although you may be compelled to study and may fear the teacher, the lessons may not sink in.

Much depends on the affection of the teacher.

The XIV Dalai Lama

What Would Alfie Kohn Say?

Funny clip looking at the issues of rewards in the classroom.

Alfie Kohn and The Office

From this excellent blog:

http://blog.mrmeyer.com/

Gender Inequality

Following Larry Summer’s (President of Harvard University) comment that biological differences could explain why fewer women become proffessors of Maths, this new report says that gender inequality is to blame.

Gender Inequality Study

Sir Ken Robinson on Creativity

Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

TED talk Creativity

UK Primary Schools on Right Track

Primary teachers call for homework to be scrapped

Are You Feeling Sleepy?

One of the most common issues middle school parents face is that their kids have trouble getting up in the morning during the week and stay in bed a long time at the weekend. There is also a common assumption that teenagers find it easier to concentrate in class in the mornings than in the afternoons.

Well it will be a surprise to some parents to learn that scientific research into the brains of your teenage kids show that their natural biological sleep pattern at this age shifts toward later times for both sleeping and waking, meaning it is natural for a teenager not to be able to fall asleep before 11pm. Research also shows that adolescents need approximately 9.5 hours sleep, which creates a problem for parents. If a parent tells their child to go to bed at 9pm, there is a good chance that they may not be able to fall asleep until 11 or 12pm. If they then rise at 06:30am, they certainly have not had enough sleep.

Schools could also take note of this research. Many people think that lessons that require more writing or ‘thinking’ should be in the morning and other lessons such as Art and PE should be in the afternoons. But in fact many teenagers feel more tired in the morning because they are actually in the middle of their natural biological sleeping pattern.

Also, ideally, school for middle and high school kids based on research, should start at 10am or 11am. Not possible at the moment but interesting nevertheless!

What can we do to help our teenagers get through the school week more effectively?

Here’s some advice for teenagers from the American National Sleep Foundation:

• Take Naps.
• Keep your bedroom cool, quiet and dark
• Try to establish a routine which you try to keep to it as much as possible at weekends
• Eat and drink and exercise
• Don’t drink caffeine (esp. within two hours of bedtime)
• Eat a good breakfast and don’t skip lunch.

Have a look at the following website for more information:

http://www.sleepfoundation.org

Other interesting news articles:

School Day Starts Later

Head Teacher Urges Lie in for students

Cook Eat and Learn!

Homework. You either love it or you hate it. Most students you talk to hate it.

Avid readers of this blog will already know my views of homework for middle school students. If it is Relevant, Interesting and Personal then there’s a good argument for it. If it’s Boring, Repetitive and Impersonal then it can be painful and probably is not helpful to your child. (Not just my opinion. See Alfie Kohn, Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish and others)

Here’s an activity you can try at home with your child which is Relevant, Interesting and Personal and it’s not homework. It’s called cooking. Yes cooking. Usually the role of the parent is to provide meals for their hungry teenagers, how about encouraging them to take part in the process?

The process of cooking uses some of Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences and can lead to many of the components encouraged in an inquiry based education programme.

Start with a recipe. Ask your son or daughter to look at the recipe, get the ingredients together and follow a process. This will presumably involve measuring, weighing, and mixing. It may also involve converting. Whilst doing this, you can be talking to him about nutrition and diet etc.

Laying the table and coming together to eat is also an important part of the process.

As your son or daughter becomes more used to the idea of maybe cooking once a week or fortnight, why not then introduce the design cycle into the process?

• investigate
• design
• plan
• create
• evaluate.

Look in your fridge and investigate what you have in terms of ingredients. Design a meal for the family. Plan the process, create the meal and then, very importantly evaluate the meal!

Now what better way to spend a chunk of the evening with your children? Admittedly you might get some resistance to the idea at first, but I bet they’ll end up enjoying being sociable and learning at the same time!