Time - The finite resource

Ask any teacher what they wish they had more of and the most common answer is likely to be time. Schools are inherently busy places and there is always much to be done. We all want to meet the needs of every student, add value to their education with breadth and depth, ensure adequate coverage of the curriculum and include aspects of play and discovery. Add up all that is done in a day over and above face-to-face teaching and you can only wonder at how we manage to fit it all into the time we have. So is there an answer to this dilemma, is there a secret method to finding more time in our schedules to achieve all that we want to?

It is not surprising that time is one of the eight cultural forces that Ron Ritchhart (2015) identifies as contributing towards a culture of thinking. In his book ‘The Eight Cultural Forces’ he describes the importance that time plays in signaling what we value. As time is such a valuable resource its allocation to particular aspects of teaching and learning signifies their value. If we give time to content and memorisation of facts, we signal to our students that this is what we value. Likewise, if we remind our students that time is short and work must be completed quickly we should not be surprised when our students see tasks as work to be done rather than learning to be mastered. A more effective distribution of our time will see students being given time to think deeply and truly engage with the problems they are asked to solve.

While much is made of the triad of signaling systems in schools (pedagogy, curriculum & assessment) time and its distribution is often ignored in this role. For our students how we locate time sends important messages about what constitutes important learning. Unsurprisingly maths and English top the billing for time distribution in schools. Down the list come other subject areas and towards the bottom are those which can be pushed aside as schedules fill up. The bottom of this list may also include the development of so called soft skills, those which are difficult to assess and are not directly seen in assessment results. The importance of these soft-skills including important aspects of socio-emotional learning, creativity and even critical thinking are often not given the time they deserve.

For students the time they are given to think and reflect on their learning is critical to the quality of their learning. Ritchhart (2015) quotes research that reveals the power of wait time and thinking time with the quality and quantity of student thinking increasing by 300% to 700% when additional time is given to thinking within class discussion. Wait time or thinking time combined with strategies such as those from ‘Making Thinking Visible’ signify to students that what is wanted is not a speedy response but a well considered one. Wait time and thinking time according to Ritchhart combat the habit many students develop of guessing what the teacher wants as a response. While most frequently considered an approach to improving the quality of class discussion the use of effective and appropriate wait time is also shown to increase the quality and quantity of students' written responses which reinforces the notion that teaching and encouraging our students to think will improve their exam results along with the overall quality of their thinking with resultant benefits for their quality of life.

For teachers, time in the day is always short and there are many things to be done before the lights are turned off and the door closed at the end of the day. Often, the workday follows us home in the form of marking and emails disturbing family and personal time. Within our busy days we find that there are elements which drain our energy reserves and others which leave us enthused and looking for the next challenge. Mindfulness and reflective practices that allow us to identify which parts of our day give us positive energy compared to those that do not is a step towards achieving balance. Self-determination Theory (SDT) as described by Ryan & Deci (2000) and as discussed in Daniel Pink’s (2009) work on motivation reveals three drives that help us engage and maintain enthusiasm. Autonomy or a sense of control is a part of this triad and although we may not be able to decide which tasks we complete or not we can probably determine the order they are approached. Scheduling tasks which give us a boost of energy early in the day might help us move through the challenging middle period while finishing with a task we enjoy can be a positive ending. Putting off the tasks we enjoy least, those which offer the leas rewards until the end of the day is a recipe for disaster.

The other two drives identified by SDT are purpose and mastery. These too are linked to time and shape our perception of a task as a positive or negative experience. The perceived purpose of a task, the degree to which a task is important to us, the intrinsic enjoyment that a task has play an important part in how we value the time we spend on it. If a task is closely connected to our core purposes it is likely to be valued and time spent on is hardly noticed. The opposite is true and it is tasks that seem to block us from achieving important goals which will be most grudgingly assigned time. Stepping back from such negative tasks and looking for their connection to our grander goals may shift our perception. Within SDT the desire to master a task is the third drive. Mastery in most instances takes time and situations which prevent us from achieving mastery can lead to negative feelings. Being realistic with our mastery goals and recognising that true mastery is only achieved after significant time may reduce feeling of anxiety when confronted by situations where mastery is the goal but success is difficult to achieve.

Time management and the identification of which tasks are most engaging and uplifting is addressed effectively by the work of Stephen Covey. His time management matrix shows a correlation between a task's perceived importance and its urgency with tasks deemed important but not-urgent being the ones which allow us to produce our best work. This concept is similar to the idea of wait time or thinking time and the ideas are linked together in Ritchhart’s writing. Unfortunately in schools tasks which should be in the quadrant of not-urgent but important end up due to scheduling and poor time distribution in the important/urgent box that results in reactive and low quality thinking. Collaborative planning, reflection, problem identification and solution are areas that demand our best thinking but are not always given the time they demand. What this reveals is that the problem many schools face is not one of quantity of time but rather allocation of time. By identifying the aspects of a school’s life that most require our best time and with that our best thinking we may achieve more effective results but also avoid creating many of the negative situations which then rob us of even more time.

Our best work occurs in quadrant two, Important/Not Urgent. 

Perhaps what is most needed in schools is the inclusion of time as an agent item. By talking about how we use time, where we need more time, how we may better distribute our use of time to signal importance and provide opportunities for students and teachers to achieve their best with the time they have we begin to move things forward. Being open to new solutions, breaking with tradition and valuing time as we value money are steps towards a better model for time management in schools, one that has benefits for all.

Covey, S. (2015) The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Interactive Edition. Mango Media inc.

Pink, D. (2009). Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. New York, NY: Riverhead Books.

Ritchhart, R. (2015) Creating cultures of thinking: The eight forces we must truly master to transform our schools. SanFrancisco: Josey-Bass

Ryan, R., & Deci, E. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68-78

A healthy dose of scepticism

I want my students to be sceptics. I believe that in the present age scepticism is more important than ever. Easy access to information, ease of publishing, scams and confidence tricksters combine to create a climate where blind trust is dangerous for our security, our finances and our knowledge bases. For students of all ages a healthy dose of scepticism is much needed not just so they may reveal falsehoods but to allow them to discover new truths.

One way that I encourage scepticism is by teaching my students about the dangerous and life threatening chemical Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO). An annual lesson on the topic has become a tradition for Year Six students. DHMO is described as a threat to life n the planet, a chemical used as frequently in the production of nuclear and chemical weapons as it is in agriculture. It is found in our foods, our rivers, our oceans and is the most significant contributor to global warming. It is found in the bodies of patients with all manner of serious diseases, is linked to the spread of malaria and the plague. DHMO is described as an unregulated chemical that like Chlorofluorocarbons should be banned or at least regulated. Students are shown websites such as http://www.dhmo.org/ and Ban DHMO along with a slideshow of facts. They are encouraged to take action and use their political voice to regulate this dangerous chemical. At this point they are not invited to conduct independent research and interestingly none ask for time to do this, they believe what they have been told and what they have read on two websites. Within thirty minutes they are preparing campaigns and drafting letters to politicians.

Before things go too far we reveal the truth. We unpack the chemistry - Di means two, hydrogen is an element, mono means one, oxide is a name for oxygen. After some thinking time and some questions it dawns on a few that indeed DHMO is water (H2O). The realisation quickly spreads. Some realise they have been tricked, others worry that they may never drink water again. The information is reviewed and the truth of each claim is addressed but now in a new light. Indeed DHMO is used to make weapons and is used in agriculture along with its use in almost every industry, after al it is water and water is commonly used in many processes. It is found in our foods and in in our bodies. It is found in very large quantities in rivers and oceans and yes fish are literally swimming in it. It does cause deaths due to inhalation, we even have a name for it as it is so common - drowning. As a gas (steam) it causes severe burns and in the atmosphere as water vapour and clouds it contributes to global warming.

At this point the students want to understand why they were lied to. Some get it on their own, others need to be told. We want you to be sceptical, we want you to question information, to look for truth and to check every source of data. We don’t want you to be easily fooled by information that is wrong, false or deliberately misleading. We don’t want you to be fooled by scams and tricksters who will use every tool they have available to convince you to trust them. Some of the students get it others need some more time. We look at other frauds and false websites, we look at internet memes such as bottle kittens and the strangely beautiful and mysterious tree octopus. We consider the benefits of dehydrated water and why this might be slightly impossible. By now most are getting the idea but I need to check their understanding so I ask one more question and discover that some are still not getting the message.

I ask the class can you trust information you find in a book. The answer from most is 'yes'. Books are trusted sources of information they have editors and publishers. That editors and publishers may be biased, might make mistakes, use unreliable sources of information, does not occur to these students. That books might be out of date, that the information may have changed, that the facts could have evolved since the book was written does not occur to the students. They have been taught not to trust Wikipedia but take as truth anything published in a book. This trust extends to other media too. If it is in a documentary on television it can be trusted. If it is on the news it can be trusted but it might be biased if it is political. Encyclopaedias are like dictionaries, never wrong. They need to become sceptics. They understand somewhat the need to uncover falsehood in certain places but do not yet grasp the need to question accepted wisdom, to ask, as it were 'how do we know the world is flat?'

My hope is that, from this discussion and the follow up that goes with it the students understand that they must check their facts and do so carefully; always. Trusting multiple sources alone is no guarantee. Using their instincts for what seems truthful and what seems far-fetched may help somewhat but not entirely. Asking questions that seek to uncover the truth or otherwise in the facts presented to them is a step in the right direction. Extending their use of tools for collaboration to making contact with experts can help. Knowing how to filter search results to specific sites, to universities, to specific countries or domains (e.g. .gov) are all useful strategies for students to use.

What begins to emerge is an understanding that with access to all of the world’s information, comes a responsibility to use it wisely and to use this access to check the validity of everything. To avoid the dangers that come with living in an information rich world we all need to be much more sceptical.

by Nigel Coutts

Assessment A Powerful messaging system

Teaching and subsequently learning can be seen as a consequence of key messaging systems such as curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. For organisations charged with the provision of education, management of these systems is essential. While other factors such as culture play a role in setting the final shape of the learning that occurs in our schools, the big three of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment are most open to manipulation. Quality teacher frameworks and teacher evaluation methods influence pedagogy and governments have increasingly taken charge of curriculum with many countries moving towards national or common core curriculums. The role of assessment has always played its part but it is a role that is changing in the present global climate and understanding this shift is important for educators.

National assessment programmes are one mode of control used by governments and are commonly cited in the media to support initiatives that shape education. In Australia, NAPLAN (National Assessment Programme, Literacy and Numeracy) plays a significant role in establishing particular aspects of Literacy and Numeracy as a priority for educational programmes. Although broadly criticised as narrow in focus and lacking the finesse required of a diagnostic tool, NAPLAN results are used to inform curriculum design, focus teacher efforts and evaluate schools. As a strategy towards constructing a market place for education and for encouraging parental choice in schools NAPLAN has become a powerful force in Australia. NAPLANs design can be seen as a response to a ‘back to basics’ and fundamentals approach to teaching, which has been cyclically popular in Australia, as much as policy shifts may be described as a response to the data it produces. NAPLAN if nothing else reveals something of the political imperatives which shape education as it reveals what those who shape policy consider important to measure.

Increasingly education is a global market. As Ken Robinson points out, there is a trend towards comparisons of national education systems that was neither desirable nor possible but a short time ago. This trend towards international educational comparisons reveals winners and losers on a global scale. Finland was the darling of this global market, now Asian markets such as Shanghai-China, Singapore and Korea are topping the lists according to the data produced by PISA, the Program for International Student Assessment. A quick search on Google will return a sorted list of countries with scores indicating their comparative performance on this test and not on education sites but on Business Insider Australia. Education is important to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) and its global assessment programme is one way that it demonstrates this and plays a part in shaping educational reform.

A host of testing programmes are increasingly shaping education and the use of their results in reporting on education and in pseudo-educational research as reported in the media is difficult to ignore. PISA may have the dominant place but TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) and PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) have parts to play. What is rarely reported is how these assessments are implemented, what they actually assess, who and how many are assessed and what measures are used to ensure validity across years of implementation. While TIMSS and PIRLS are by name focused on specific aspects of learning PISA is a more open assessment and while its results are reported in terms of performance on Mathematics, Reading and Science its scope is wider and varied across implementations. In each case it should be noted that only samples of students are tested and that as is the case with all assessments delivered on such a large scale the results are not intended for identification of individual learning or even learning within a particular school. National results rising or falling do not indicate a similar trend within any one school and a single score can only reveal the broadest strokes of what may be occurring within a country. After slipping on the PISA ranking Pasi Sahlberg, the popular face of education in Finland indicated that 'the discussion is about how Finland can improve the system as a whole and increase enjoyment in learning.  It is not just about how to improve our performance on PISA.’  An approach not copied by other systems less confident in their methods.

The shaping of PISA by the OECD reveals the priorities it has for education within a view of international economic development driven by market forces and and neo-liberalism. Interviewed by EdSurge recently Andreas Schleicher, the director for the Directorate of Education and Skills at the OECD revealed how PISA responds to market pressures. 'We look very carefully at the evolution of skills demanded in our society. Many of the skills that schools have traditionally emphasized—memorizing things and then recalling them—are becoming less and less important for the success of people. In contrast, creative thinking, collaborative problem solving and social skills are becoming more important. We look very carefully at how the world and the skills that people need are changing and then we try to reflect that in our measure.’ This style of evolution within PISA in response to external demands for graduate skills shifts the focus of thinking within education systems. In this way the OECD is able to direct policy at a national level and in response to a very particular world view on the role that education plays in meeting the demands of economic development.

Sahlberg states that 'Schools need to help many more people find out what their strengths are, what they are curious and passionate about. The school system should be designed to inspire students and to enable them to lead happy, fulfilled lives both at work and outside of the workplace.’ Much of this falls into categories which are difficult to assess and build systems to achieve. PISA is looking to include measures of resilience and motivation in their tests which is a positive sign but will this be reflected in the reporting of the results given the existing trend to condense the breadth of data available to score on limited measures.

There is a divide here between what our students need from school and what schools and nations need from their students in terms of positive test results. As long as the emphasis is on a limited set of scores and while the international testing scene is driven by market forces for economic development a full and broad education for all seems like an increasingly distant goal.

by Nigel Coutts

Learning from the journey

There is much to be learned from journeys. From stepping out of our doors and by placing one foot in front of the other making progress towards a planned destination. Journeys are a great metaphor for the challenges we face in our day to day lives and the parallels we draw may allow us to set a goal and achieve it despite the obstacles.

Some journeys teach us more than others. They require more from us on a physical and mental level. A journey to a popular tourist destination is all very nice but the lessons to be learned will be somewhat limited. The Overland Track is a seventy-eight kilometre trek through the remote wilderness of Tasmania. It starts at Cradle Mountain and winds its way through alpine terrain, cold climate rainforest and eucalypt forest to finish at Lake St Clare. It typically takes five to six days to complete and walkers carry packs weighing close to twenty kilograms. The track’s combination of natural beauty, its physical demands from the ups and downs of crossing mountains and descending into valleys forms a special bond between those who complete it. It is an adventure from which many lessons can be drawn.

Every journey should begin with at least the idea of a destination in mind. Naturally plans change and the point that you finish at or the route that you take is not always the one you originally intended. When the journey involves a group of people and requires them to function as a team greater clarity of purpose and direction will be required. Purpose and direction is what allows a team to form and the degree to which they commit to the team’s goals will be largely influenced by their understanding of and commitment to that purpose. The goal of the group’s leadership should be to clearly communicate the team’s purpose and why it may matter to the team. Passionate leadership that reveals a strong belief in the purpose of the group or organisation is essential.

A key component of effective leadership is the communication of a passionate belief in the organisation’s purpose. In his book 'Talk Like TED' Carmine Gallo details the importance of the capacity to communicate one's passion for a purpose to those who will make it happen. Finding and sharing what makes you passionate about a goal by answering the question 'what makes your heart sing' according to Gallo is an important strategy towards effective communication of a goal and one element that all successful TED presentations share. If the goal is not as clear and apparent as making it back out of the wilderness alive then it will rely on effective and powerful communication to ensure commitment from all. Sadly, too often the passion that leaders have for their organisations purposes is not shared and those down the chain of command get caught up in doing the duties of their tasks with no understanding of the bigger picture to which their efforts are contributing.

Having fixed on a destination or a goal the tricky questions of how it will be reached must be considered. Having set the destination and clearly communicated the purpose of the journey, the process of planning the path towards the goal should be a collaborative one. In 'From Good to Great' Jim Collins uses the metaphor of a bus to explain the significance of the people selected to move an organisation towards its goal. According to Collins the aim should be to get the right people on the bus and then make sure they are in the right seat. Assuming that you have the right people joining you for your journey and that you have identified how to best utilise their strengths, now is the time to let them play their part. The alternative is to micromanage people. This approach is flawed in multiple ways; it denies ownership of the process, achievements and missteps, it robs the organisation of the advantages of its collective wisdom and depends entirely on the expertise of the leadership team and their ability to respond to every need. The demoralising effect of micromanagement is well documented as are the benefits of giving staff agency and discretion to make decisions in response to changing circumstances. In his book 'Originals', Adam Grant describes how even Steve Jobs, the reportedly domineering leader of Apple, benefitted from listening to subordinates. When planning a reorganisation of Apple's supply chain Steve Jobs initial solution was found to be inferior to an alternative proposed by a staff member. By being open to suggestions from within the team and ensuring methods were in place for these ideas to be put forward Apple found the most effective solution.

It is often said that the hardest part of any journey is the first step. There is a degree of truth in this. We become skilled in producing explanations for why we can't start. Perhaps the timing is not right, perhaps we are too busy, too entrenched in our every day demands to make changes or the imagined risk might be too large. Having the courage to set out on the journey requires belief that the potential rewards outweigh the risks. In the end stepping out of our comfort zones and into the wilderness (real or metaphorical) will put us on a path towards our goal but also towards the inevitable obstacles and set backs that are a part of any journey.

If the first step is difficult, overcoming the first significant obstacle is even more challenging. When the first obstacle is reached it is too easy to stop and go back to where we we were. Our commitment to the journey is small and the path back short, the path onwards too far. The temptation will be to cut your loses and go home. Reviewing the goal and reminding our selves of the advantages to come will help. So too will having found the right people to share the journey with; people who will help you overcome the obstacles. If the first obstacle you encounter is the only one then most likely the scope of your journey is too small, a grander vision is perhaps what you are seeking.

At some point along the way a combination of fatigue, looming difficulties and doubts is going to cause you to question the merits of your journey. On a trip into the wilderness this moment is likely to come when yet another steep uphill climb confronts you out of the mist and each step forward puts you further into the rain. Logic in this scenario will tell you that as tempting as it might be to lie down in the mud and surrender, this is not an option. Such an imperative to keep moving towards a goal should carry us past these difficult phases in our working lives but too often grand plans are abandoned or watered down to a point where they fail to achieve the success we had imagined. Groups that manage to work through such tough times while keeping to their goal are more likely to achieve great success. The capacity that is created out of confronting genuinely difficult challenges allows teams to achieve heightened levels of success in their futures.

At the end of the journey comes the time to both reflect and to celebrate. Having survived the wilderness and returned to civilisation you are likely to perceive things a little differently. Strengthened by the journey and taking pride in what you have achieved, the day to day should be easier to manage, the hills less steep, the mist easier to see through. As a team you should be ready to take on new challenges having discovered the true depths of your collaborative powers. In having achieved one goal the next should be easier to achieve and the lessons learned from the hard won victories will be there to guide you. Now is the time to look towards a new and even more audacious goal, one with real meaning and purpose that will fuel your passion and put you back into the wilderness.

by Nigel Coutts

The danger of teacher burnout

Teaching is by nature a high energy profession that demands a lot and while there is much to celebrate there is a real danger of burnout. Taking some time to relax and de-stress is important as is noticing the signs that you are reaching your limit. For all teachers understanding that a break and a change of schedule benefits not just you but your students too can be the catalyst for granting yourself permission for a genuine break.

One way to understand the load that teachers face is to consider the multitude of roles that we are called on to fulfil at any given time. Educator, consultant, guide, counsellor, nurse, coach, art director, accountant, statistician, researcher, manager, leader, author, technician the list seems to have no end. I have found that comparing teaching to the workload of musicians and actors a useful point of reference. In common with performance artists, teachers are ‘on show’ performing their act to an audience. The usual pressures are there; timing, awareness of audience, knowing the script well enough to adapt it at a moments notice, working with small children and dangerous animals (often the same thing) delving into the performers emotional grab bag, knowing the stage and understanding how each act fits into a larger performance. The difference is at the end of the performance the actors go home, the teachers just move on to the next gig and we do this day after day for months on end. Most of the performers I know do one or two gigs a week while they tour and have months off in between.

When our act slows down and we find ourselves lacking energy for the next performance we are seeing the signs that it is time for a break. Our students sense this too and pounce on the opportunity. Smelling weakness, they will seize the moment and push our buttons to explore our snapping point, or so it seems at times. Photocopiers and computer technology seems equally able to sense when we are close to our limits and it is those days when you regret having dragged yourself out of bed that they decide to break, or jam or develop a strange bug that even the IT Department has never seen.

Fatigue brings with it genuine dangers. The biggest risk is the damage you can do to carefully constructed relationships with students and even colleagues. Having made a long string of perfect moves with a child, having said and done the right thing at the right time all term and finally seeing signs of a positive shift in the dynamics between you both, only to undo it all in a haze of fatigue can be shattering. The same danger exists with our relationships with colleagues, family and parents and being able to spot the signs of fatigue is important.

For each of us the signs will be different; trouble getting moving in the morning, a short temper, finding little things overly annoying, putting off routine tasks, shifting your diet towards the cake and chocolate end of the spectrum, clock watching or checking the number of days to the next vacation are all common signs. Knowing yours is the key, the first step towards maintaining your sanity and protecting those you care about. Having a close friend or colleague who knows your danger signs and can point you towards the metaphorical couch of downtime that you need can be a saviour.

Putting a break from work off to the much beloved end of term may not be an adequate solution. A better more sustainable result may be achieved by structuring small doses of downtime into your routine. A walk off campus, some quiet meditation, reading something unrelated to school or engaging with a project of your own design can all help relieve stress. The right solution will be personal and relevant to you, what works for one may not work for others. Understanding that this downtime is not a sign of laziness or work avoidance but a tool you use to maximise the results you achieve when you are ‘on’ avoids any guilt associated with caring for yourself. It is the same line of thinking that makes it ok to put your oxygen mask on before you help others ‘including children’.

A new addition to our workload is the always connected nature of our modern lives. Much has been said about the effects of our constant availability but this connected technology comes with an often overlooked off button. Knowing how to switch off your availability or set time limits is a skill all teachers need to develop. The answer can be as simple as turning off notifications on your phone outside of set hours and leaving the laptop in its bag when you arrive home. The extreme solution is to holiday in wilderness, an option I will be taking this break, as a result there will be no posting to this site next week.

By Nigel Coutts

Why banning technology is not the answer

There is something about human nature that draws us towards dichotomous patterns of thought; an all or nothing, us or them style of thinking in which an option is either good or it is bad. In such a model complexity and subtle nuance with multiple possible outcomes and routes towards a goal are ignored. The field of educational technology is one where such a pattern is evident and recent ban on technology by a Sydney school shows how this style of analysis can have a significant impact on student learning.

A ban on technology is an approach that is guaranteed to draw a response. Fortunately, perhaps most have quickly derided this move labelling the decision antiquated and out of touch with reality. Sugata Mitra tweeted ‘Here is how to get things completely wrong.’ and Julie Lindsay’s response is well worth reading.  Others have agreed with the decision and pointed towards student distractibility, online bullying and results on standardised assessment tests as indicators that such a ban is warranted. Beyond the hype of a ban on technology such a decision reveals a disappointing approach to education and learning that goes beyond the use of technology, a belief that learning is something that is intolerant of distraction.

Within the debate there are aspects of Dr Valance’s argument that have merit even if his response is misguided. Education is a social activity, driven by conversation and communication. Discussion, debate, argument, questioning and provocation are powerful elements of learning and an important part of what contributes to a dynamic and engaging learning environment. Where the argument falls down is when it is associated with a belief that the inclusion of technology in this mix will be to the detriment of a positive learning environment. The assumption is that access to ‘devices’ will be such a distraction that real learning will not occur.

To make this assertion a number of premises must be agreed to. Firstly, the face to face component must be seen as of lesser worth and be less engaging to the individuals than is the content delivered by their devices. It must also be accepted that it is not possible for content delivered by the device to be integrated with the face to face component and that it is not possible for this integration to add value. It must be accepted that other distractions such as a notepad, book or events taking place outside a window are significantly less than that presented by a device and that while we have developed strategies to manage other competing distractions we are incapable of managing distractions from devices.

Each of the premises upon which Dr Valance’s ban is predicated seem rather flawed. Surely high calibre teachers are capable of engaging students in discussion of topics so compelling that distractions of any nature are ignored. Our aim should be to build learning environments which are highly engaging, relevant and valued by all involved, if the learning is only relevant to the teacher then perhaps it should be changed or its significance to the students made clear. Understanding how our connected devices bring new opportunities to make connections beyond the four walls of our classrooms is an essential understanding to be developed. Effective teachers will show their students the power that such connections offer and encourage students to make full use of all of the tools at their disposal. As David Perkins of Harvard argues in ‘Future Wise’ digital tools should be included among the tools we use for learning. Connected devices should inject new opportunities, knowledge, data, influencers and thinking into our debates and add value not distraction.

The question of student distractibility is worth further exploration. The reality is that students have always found ways of distracting their attention from learning experiences that they have not valued. Passing notes, gazing out the window, doodling in the margins, reading a novel secreted under a desk, allowing the imagination to wander are past times every student has engaged in. Should we ban notepads in case students use the paper to pass notes? Do we ensure desks are clear of books which may cause distractions, walls clear of displays, windows covered by blinds all so that the students have no choice but to focus on us and to ensure that our lessons have nothing to compete with?

Much of this debate is centred around what has emerged as traditional uses of computers. This model sees our devices as replacements for existing modes of communication and as tools for accessing information. Texting, messaging, internet access and social chat are the limits of such a model. All of this has value and brings new opportunities for connectedness and collaboration on a global scale. But this model is limiting and limited in its understanding. Tracing back to Seymour Papert’s vision for computers within learning we see new opportunities for us to think about how we learn, how we think and how we construct knowledge. With the rise of algorithmic thinking, machine learning, artificial intelligence and an increasing need to understand how computers and networked data influences our decision making students need to move beyond using computers for content consumption or even creation and shift towards understanding how they function. As Papert asserts in Mindstorms ‘learning to communicate with a computer may change the way other learning takes place.’ (read more about ‘Computational Thinking')

Technology does not need to be a part of every aspect of our lives. We need to learn when it is the best tool, when it plays a part on the sidelines and when it is best left out of the equation. We need to see it as the tool that it is and understand how we may best use it to extend our capabilities. As teachers we need to reveal to our students how technology can assist their learning, how it can empower them and how it can if used inappropriately hinder. We need to understand the affordances of technology and utilise this knowledge to our student’s advantage allowing them to extend their learning beyond the classroom as they become connected learners. In doing these things we maximise student learning and ensure our students are prepared for the world beyond school. Blanket bans and oversimplifications of the debate around technology’s place serve no one except those fearful of a world where they as the teacher are no longer the centre of attention.

By Nigel Coutts

The purpose of education

Behind the rhetoric and politics, education is about the outcomes it achieves for its learners. More than being about the nuances of technology, learning space design, curriculum structures and pedagogical practices schools should have effective answers to questions that focus on what they hope to achieve for their learners. How we answer this question should then dictate the measures we utilise to achieve these goals and it is to these ends that we must apply our efforts.

The prime goal of educational institutions is not as clear as one may consider. Many will point towards preparation for the future as a key goal and this is what drives much of the educational policies we see at present. Certainly calls for a STEM or STEAM based curriculum is linked to notions of preparedness for a future in which the economy and industry will require graduates with these dispositions. Much of the criticism levelled at historical models of education relates to the manner in which school prepared young people for jobs central to the needs on an industrial age. The command and control structure of schools, the focus on discrete disciplines and rote learning of essential knowledge served the needs of industry throughout the past century and only now is the validity of that model being questioned. If schools are to learn anything from the rapid changes occurring within industry at present it is that our students will require no one set of skills but the ability to learn, unlearn and relearn skills on demand. Preparation for industry is one model for what schools should hope to achieve for their students but it is a model fraught with danger if the focus of that preparation is too narrow.

An alternate perspective to preparation for participation in the productive processes of society, its economic life is one that sees the early years of education as preparation for an academic life beyond school. In this view Primary School prepares students for High School which in turn prepares students for University which prepares students for a life as an academic. The obvious dilemma here is that society needs a limited set of academics and at some point education must do more than prepare students for a more academic study. There is an element of this view present in much of the mechanics of learning that we focus on with school and beyond school in University where correct detailing of referencing systems as dictated by a specific faculty seems to more important than the learning that occurs or does not occur in a broader sense. Preparation for a life of academia is right for some but not for all but learning does have value and knowing how to learn seems to be a valuable use of our time.

Preparation for a life of learning may be a more appropriate foundation. If students leave schools equipped with the skills they will require to be self directed learners then they may well be equipped to adapt to a changing world. The life-long learner goal is a common one and it does have merit as the ability and desire to continuously learn new skills and knowledge is a worthwhile goal. Such a model may not be the complete answer as the learning that is linked to such a model may not always include the learner becoming actively engaged in the creation of new knowledge. Mastery of a broad set of skills and knowledge has value but we will require people who are seeking answers to questions not yet asked or not yet answered. The life-long learner model does not guarantee that the learner will have a disposition towards problem finding only that they will when required endeavour to learn the new skills identified for them by others. Such an approach was once  valid, when knowledge had value acquiring more of it made sense. Academics pursued this model and an individuals success was closely linked to the number of books and journals they had read and the obscurity of the knowledge they could recall. This model has been squashed by the internet and with ready access to all of the knowledge the question is not what do you know but what can you do with what you can find, what problems can you solve with your wit and your unlimited knowledge resources.

So perhaps preparation for a life as a problem finder and solver is most appropriate. If our students leave school with a belief in their ability and capacity to identify problems and find solution to them, then maybe they are prepared not only for what ever the future may bring but possess the capacity to shape that future. Design thinking and problem based learning become the preferred methodology and students engage frequently in a search for problems. Multidisciplinary approaches seem to have value here and proponents of STEM and STEAM will indicate that their approach is built upon a problem finding model even if that is not a necessary condition for such a programme. But problem solving alone may not be enough. If the problems we find serve the needs of those who have power and freedom in society then education has failed to produce learners with the capacity to empathise with those less fortunate. The reality of the world we live in, where money and power results in educational advantage, where industry and economic rationalism dictates what problems get solved and where those with the greatest need have difficulty accessing equitable outcomes through the educational system, dictates that some thought to how our learners will understand and relate to power be included.

Problem solving with empathy might be the desired goal then. The design thinking process can and should include empathy as a starting point and a reflection point throughout the process. If our students learn to ask questions about who their ideas will impact, whose needs most require a solution, what the real or economic cost of their actions will be they may shape a world where not only are the problems of the privileged solved. Teaching for empathy within the power structures and politics of educational systems can be challenging and requires a considered approach if teachers are not to be labelled activists but this is a goal worth achieving. Understanding that education is a part of a political process, that it is gendered, racialised and interwoven with power structures is essential.

But all of this ignores the aesthetic beauty of learning for the sake of learning, of art, literature, music and wonderment. Education for utility and purposeful application towards the betterment of society should not occur without suitable acknowledgement of human activity that adds to the aesthetic worth of humanity. As Robin Williams said while playing John Keating in ‘Dead Poets Society’ 'We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.’ So perhaps the answer is to prepare our students for a world that will require them to learn continuously, to find and solve problems, to act with empathy so as to bring hope and equity to many and strive to live a life full of a passionate pursuit of beauty and wonderment, to live and learn today as da Vinci might have done.

by Nigel Coutts

The Power of Teams

Sometimes it is worth stating the obvious, giving time and thought to what we easily take for granted. In doing so we name the things we value most and give them the value they deserve. The value of teams is one such ideal, we know that teams have value, we probably even know what it feels like to be a part of a great team but too often we take this feeling as understood and don’t stop to consider what makes it worth chasing.

Presently I have the pleasure of working with a great team of teachers within a strong Junior School. A team of teachers who inspires and challenges each other towards success and growth. We are a core group of five teachers with strong connections to a team of amazing specialists who work together to prepare our Year Six students for the challenges of Senior School while ensuring the students' experience of their final year in the junior School is memorable. We are a diverse set of individuals with varied backgrounds, strengths, interests and personalities. As a team we are able to act as a cohesive unit with a shared understanding that allows us to take differing patch to the same destination.

Collectively we are united in a love of learning. We each enjoy the opportunities that new situations bring to us and we know that we have much to learn. We also understand that we each have things that we can teach each other and this ensures a mutual respect that is genuine. This love of learning and valuing of our collective wisdom is evident in our approach to problem solving and planning. No one person has the answer, no one voice need dominate, the best answer is the one that emerges in response to the problem. Daniel Wilson, of Harvard describes this as ‘Emergent Leadership’ where the wisdom of the group is the key to solving complex problems. This property of an effective team is perhaps the one most frequently missing and one that is most required if education is to transform itself to meet the challenges of a post-industrial revolution era.

As a team we also understand that there is a job to be done and that it can be no single person’s responsibility to do it. A week at camp showed how this value within a team can triumph even when things don’t quite follow the game plan. Working within a team where everyone is accountable and everyone understands the importance of their actions allows for distributed leadership to take hold. Tasks no longer need be assigned because the team will identify the needs and take the appropriate actions. For this to happen every member of the team needs to have agency to take action and not feel they need to play a game of 'guess what the boss wants’. Agency within teams is critical for their success.

The culture of a great team is infectious and will be naturally inclusive of new members. For our camp the team grew from five to over twenty and yet the culture of the core team remained and spread. Our enthusiasm caught on and the team was able to incorporate new members without effort because we all knew where we were going and how we would get there. Culture triumphs policy and a strong team culture based on trust and respect is supreme.

When working in a great team, leadership can almost disappear. Observe a group of people working together and if it is clear who is in charge you are most likely watching a manager at work. In great teams where the value of every member is equally respected the leadership is distributed, the team is able to function towards its goal with little direction and the results are phenomenal. With a great team the productivity will far exceed what a well managed team can ever hope to produce as every individual contributes their very best and no one is waiting for the next set of instructions.

Great teams value each others success and share responsibility for mistakes. Effective teams understand that mistakes happen as a part of the learning process and the only way to avoid them is to never try anything new; clearly not a viable option. Great teams also acknowledge the success of individuals and understand that when a team member achieves success it reflects well on the whole team. If your team members are doing well it is a sure sign of a healthy team, celebrate the success.

Effective teams understand that team members have lives beyond the team. Empathy and understanding are the cornerstones of great teams and supporting each other with the challenges that life throws your way is essential. Every team member will have differing needs and understanding that and respecting the complexity of our modern lives allows teams to be supportive of each other beyond the confines of the workplace. It is not always about the job, sometimes a team needs time to stop and talk about life, the conflicts the craziness and the things that make us human.

Lastly and perhaps most difficult, teams build the capacity of their members and that means sometimes creating the conditions that allow team members to move on to new and bigger challenges. Learning and personal growth is important and part of the process that all tams go through and the eventual result is that team membership will change as members seek new experiences and challenges beyond the team or their present situation. In a great team the need for a change of scenery is lessened by the opportunities inherent to the teams functioning but building the capacity of individuals members and the collective capacity of the team are essential elements.

If you are part of a great team cherish it and take the time to name and value what makes it great. Amazing teams do not happen by accident and maintaining their spirit is the responsibility of every member.

By Nigel Coutts

Beyond consumer based ICT

There is a change taking place in how schools approach ICT, one that has been coming for some time but is at the point of moving into the mainstream. A subtle but powerful shift that sees ICT build connections with the Maker Movement as a tool for solving what Bronwyn Moreton speaking at the ICT Educators of NSW conference describes as the ‘I wish it would . . .’ moment where a learner discovers that their technology doesn’t do everything they wished it would.

For a long time, ICT in the classroom was a mix of internet based information tools, some desktop publishing and for the adventuresome multimedia design, video and photo editing. This placed the user for the most part as a consumer of content or a user of software packages and more recently Apps. The skills required of these users would be found in user manuals and tutorials and revolved around learning the particular idiosyncrasies of various pieces of software. Skill with Microsoft Office, internet browser and Apples iLife suite of tools for video and photo management would suffice for the majority of users. With the rise of tablet computers such as iPad, Android tablet and Microsoft Surface the App economy has driven the required skill set down further as ICT moves firmly into the consumer device market.

This was not always the case. In computing’s early days when Steve Wozniak was a member of the ‘Homebrew’ computing club it was about problem solving to get the hardware and software to do what you wanted it to. Computer Geeks blended the skills of electrical engineers with software developers to get the early machines to power on. Computing at this time involved manipulating the core components of breadboards, processors, inputs and outputs all of which is well hidden from view in modern machines which are tightly focused on a pleasing 'out of box' experience. But as attendees at the ICTE NSW conference saw repeatedly a change is coming, we are moving back to tinkering with the hardware. Coding and electrical engineering are opening new opportunities.

Recognising the need for young people to understand computer coding and seeing a gap in the available software MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) developed Scratch. The aim is to provide a simple coding environment that allows students to literally assemble blocks of code in a digital environment in much the same way that they would assemble wooden blocks in the physical world. The drag and drop nature and friendly block design makes coding readily accessible and the user gets immediate feedback on their designs. Many students have been introduced to coding thanks to Scratch and others have followed a similar path with tools becoming available for all major platforms. The trouble with Scratch is that at some point learners will need something more and traditional response is to move on to more involved coding solutions such as Python.

There is an alternative route however. Move the students on from Scratch to using it to programme physical devices that they create using Arduino. The beauty of Arduino is that it allows low cost access to hardware that encourages user developed code. Arduino boards are a system on a chip meaning that the whole computer is on one board and to this you can connect other components such as lights, sensors, motors and speakers to give the system additional functionality. With Arduino the students are not just using a computer they are making and programming it. Arduino is just one of the ways that physical computing is making a come back. Other players include Raspberry Pi which was one of the first system on a chip type computers to grab the attention of the mainstream thanks to its low price point and functionality that matches many computers from as little as five years ago. Raspberry Pi gives its users access to fully functioning operating systems from the Linux environment and the latest versions will run Windows 10. The low cost and bare bones nature of the Raspberry Pi encourages tinkering in ways that laptops and desktops don’t.

Another way into this world of physical computing is through robotics. This is an area where the benefits are coming from increased consumerisation of robots and the availability of ready to go robots. This removes barriers to entry and allows younger users to experience what is possible with a programmable robot. Children in Prep Schools can use Apps like Scratch and Blockly to programme a robot and see immediately the effects that their code has on the robot’s movement. At more advanced levels students are able to design complex code that integrates feedback from the robot’s sensors with logical operators. As student expertise moves beyond the capabilities of consumer robots there is cope for them to use combinations of Arduino and Raspberry Pi type computers with sensors and motors to create bespoke robots of their own design.

As is the case with the whole Maker Movement the spirit of sharing and collaboration ensure that a rich support network has evolved. For those with a passion for tinkering with computers this support network is bound to answer your questions. Having spent a Sunday learning with some of the ICT educators of NSW this willingness to share expertise and learn collaboratively was most evident in everyone I spoke with. For teacher and learners beginning their journey into physical computing and coding there is no need to be alone.

By Nigel Coutts

Reflections from Project Zero Melbourne Day Two

Day two of Project Zero Melbourne commenced with a challenging session led by Daniel Wilson the director of Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The nature of leadership within schools was the focus and we were challenged to recognise the need to shift our thinking about the form that this takes as we are increasingly faced with ‘Complex’ problems. The need for this shift arises from the demands of reimagining education for the 21st century. Education is battling against an entrenched image in which education is about the transfer of knowledge. To overcome this and transform education we need to disrupt these deeply ingrained notions of what education is about and ultimately that relates to perceptions and consequences of power relations between teachers, students, society and knowledge. 

Traditional models of leadership are very much top down with an expectation that the leaders within an organisation are all knowing and have the answers to the challenges the organisation are likely to confront. Daniel divided these challenges into two categories and by explaining the differences between the two types led us to the realisation that a new model of leadership would be required. The first and traditionally most common type of problem described are those that are ‘Complicated’. Complicated problems are not easy to overcome but they are understood and we are able to find or identify solutions. Complicated problems are of the type schools deal with on a daily basis and involve the mechanics of running organisations with many individuals, multiple pressures for time and resources and legislative demands and pressures from external organisations. ‘Complex’ problems on the other hand are those which we do not understand and the solutions are unknown. It is the complex problems which schools present a challenge to traditional leadership models as it is not possible for even a ‘hero’ leader to rise to these challenges alone. Complex problems require a distributed model of leadership in which the collective wisdom and problem solving capacity of an organisation is utilised and the role of the leader is to establish a culture that enables this collaboration. In this model leadership is not a characteristic of an individual but the process of social interactions of influence, direction and action. 

Daniel identified three roles for leadership and outlined how each role differs depending on the nature of the challenges faced.  
1.    Creating Vision - when dealing with complicated problems this involves defining and communicating the vision but when dealing with complex problems requires co-creation and for leadership as a change agent
2.    Developing People - when dealing with complicated problems this involves skill building and evaluation but when dealing with complex problems will require stimulating people towards growth and a culture that encourages experimentation. With this culture of experimentation must come a tolerance of failure.
3.    Designing structures - when dealing with complicated problems involves establishing conditions for cooperative progress but when dealing with complex problems requires collaborative innovation.

Daniel left us with the provocation that expertise is the pathway to solving complicated problems but emergence is the pathway to solving complex problems in that the solutions to these problems will emerge or bubble forth from the collaborative efforts of an organisation as they collectively engage in the process of identifying challenges and opportunities. A noteworthy observation made by Daniel was that designers tend to deal effectively with complex problems, a hint that the design thinking process might offer an appropriate framework for schools to apply as they approach the challenge of reimagining education for the future. 

The second session was led by Caitlin Faiman of Bialik College in Melbourne. A passionate mathematics educator and facilitator of student thinking, Caitlin demonstrated the power that well designed questions coupled with thinking routines can have. Participants were led through a process of applying the thinking routine ‘Peeling the Fruit’ to the analysis of an artwork as an introduction before being shown how the same routine may be used to deepen student understanding of mathematical concepts. 

The final Special Interest Session was led by Daniel Wilson and asked participants to consider the part that our language plays in our professional learning conversations. Daniel revealed that research by Harvard indicates 80% of our professional learning comes from our informal conversations. This realisation led to a research project that sought to understand what parts of our professional conversations about teaching resulted in specific types of understandings. The essential elements identified were the sharing of stories, a strong provocative point of view, a puzzle or something you wonder about, a probing question and the elicitation of ideas. An interesting component of this research was that it was able to reveal the type of learning each action resulted in. Full details of the research are described in the Journal of Workplace Learning as cited below and more information Learning Innovations Laboratory is available online at http://www.learninginnovationslab.org/ 

Wilson, D. G., & Hartung, K. (2015). Types of informal learning in cross- organiza6onal collegial conversa6ons. Journal of Workplace Learning, 27(8), 596 - 610. 

Reflections from Project Zero Melbourne Day One

This weeks posting comes from Melbourne and the Project Zero Conference. With one day down things are looking very positive for an outstanding learning opportunity. With session from David Perkins, Edward Clapp, Edna Sackson and Ron Ritchhart accompanied by engaging conversations with many colleagues it has been a wonderful way to spend a Saturday.

Project Zero is a series of research projects within Harvard Graduate School of Education. As a group they are clear thought leaders responsible for many significant research projects which are having a real impact on education. From Teaching for Understanding, and Making Thinking Visible to Cultures of Thinking and emerging projects linked to agency and the Maker Movement the Harvard team is having a big influence. Key researchers include Howard Gardner, David Perkins, Ron Ritchhart, Daniel Wilson and with connections to the likes of Art Costa and Edward de Bono, Project Zero has been able to leverage the understanding of many evangelists for an education system that places the learner at the centre and builds for them the disposition and habits required for success.

David Perkins delivered the opening plenary session with a presentation linked to his book ‘Future Wise’. A key concept within this is how we make decisions about what we teach. Much of the standard curriculum experienced by our students can be traced back to the earliest days of formal education. It is based upon a bias towards teaching academic disciplines in silos and with an emphasis on the conveyance of knowledge considered essential for future progress within each area of learning. Perkins refers to this model as one that prepares students for future ‘Junior Expertise’. He questions the value of this model and asks that we consider the ‘Lifeworthiness’ of what we teach. Learning that is ‘Lifeworthy’ is that which is likely to be useful in the lives learners are likely to live. Sadly against such a benchmark much of the learning that the traditional disciplines hold sacred is found to be lacking.

Perkins identifies six areas within education that require action and are the point around which education is changing. He describes these as the ‘Six Beyonds’:

- Beyond Content - Moving towards 21st Century skills, competencies etc
- Beyond Local - Bringing to education global perspectives, problems, studies - moving beyond the narrow perspective of the past thanks to the affordances of a connected world
- Beyond Topics - Content becomes a tool for action and thinking
- Beyond the Traditional Disciplines - Including areas of study and thought that have significant on what we do - an emphasis made here is the inclusion of statistics
- Beyond discrete disciplines - Moving towards integrated learning where students use their skills and dispositions in unison on projects that cut across traditional lines
- Beyond academic engagement - An education that includes personal choice, significance, commitment and passion

With these six beyonds and the concept of ‘Lifeworthy’ in mind Perkins offered a strategy for evaluating our units and teaching programmes. By creating an ‘Opportunity Story’ we are able to identify the learning that a unit makes possible and reveal the big ideas that it will potentially engage students with. An ‘Opportunity Story’ centres about four key ideas: Insight, Action, Ethics and Opportunity. A great unit will reveal important insights about the world, engage students with ethical questions and dilemmas, include a call to action or a chance to take action and bring opportunities for students to extend their learning beyond the classroom and be of value to their futures

As proof that ‘Project Zero’ is maintaining its relevance ‘Agency by Design’ is a project that is exploring the utility of the Maker Movement. Early research has revealed that the core elements of a successful Maker programme is its ability to enhance student agency and build character. Such a perspective takes making beyond building stuff to building a disposition to make the world a better place. This session was presented by Edward Clapp whose excellent definition of the Maker Movement is worth considering: 'A sensitivity to the designed dimension of objects and systems, along with the inclination and capacity to shape one’s world through building, tinkering, re/designing, or hacking’. An important insight from this session is that the Maker Movement is much more about the dispositions, the collaborations and the community that it builds than it is about the tools and the spaces. The current trend towards the development of Makerspaces without careful consideration of what will happen in them and how they might construct the conditions required for quality ‘Maker Centred’ learning should be avoided.

The third session of the day was centred on how we may become globally connected educators and learners. Our classrooms need no longer be isolated from the world and our students are able to learn alongside students from across the globe. In a session that included many opportunities to share ideas and for attendees to discuss and unpack the concepts Edna Sackson shared her experiences of connecting her students globally. Edna uses tools such as Twitter, Google Docs, Skype and blogs to provide her students with access to experts from around the world while ensuring their learning has a real audience. The session allowed for an in-depth discussion of the ethics of sharing with a global audience, issues of privacy and the need for students to learn how to manage their online identities through supported learning experiences. Those who attended this session left full of ideas to try when they return to their schools and a better understanding of what is possible.

The final session of the day was led by Ron Ritchhart and presented us with an understanding of the role that our language plays in how we analyse our teaching. Ron Ritchhart is best know for his research linked to the ‘Eight Cultural Forces’. In this session he revealed how the cultural forces may be used to provide us with a language and framework to use when we are analysing our observation of our teaching practice. Ritchhart cautioned against the use of the term feedback for lesson observations. Feedback caries with it an expectation of evaluation and judgement. Analysis of a lesson observations directs us towards a value free account of what occurred, how it influenced the learning and an understanding of why it may have been included. Ritchhart provided a series of prompts to be used when analysing lesson observations:

I noticed . . . (an aspect of the lesson linked to one of the cultural forces) and I think the teacher made that choice because . . .and I think that supported students learning and thinking by . . .and I think that sent a message to students that . . .

The session included opportunities to observe a range of lessons with time after each to analyse what was seen and to share our ideas with neighbours. Discussion after each viewing encouraged us to identify similarities and differences in the language we used while analysing a sample lesson. The final lesson was observed and analysed using the framework of prompts described above. A clear improvement in the quality, focus and value of our observations was evident with the use of this and we left with an understanding of how the language we use to talk about our teaching is important.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the conference so far is that so many educators are willing to give up their weekend to engage in learning. This speaks volumes to the quality of teachers and shows that our nations future is in good hands. We were encouraged by Daniel Wilson in his opening remarks to be 'Voracious and courageous learners’ and from what I experienced, so far we have risen to the challenge.

By Nigel Coutts

The right conditions for creativity

According to Ken Robinson schools kill creativity. Since his 2006 TED talk in which he asks ‘Do schools kill creativity?’ many teachers and thinkers have pondered this question and vowed to bring creativity back to their classrooms. Amongst the 21st Century skills that we aim to develop with our students, creativity ranks high and is listed as one of the ‘Four C’s that also include collaboration, critical thinking and communication. Understanding and identifying the barriers to creativity and the conditions which are essential for it to thrive is an important step in the process of ensuring our students leave school with a capacity for creativity at least equal to that which they arrive with.

Perhaps the most essential condition for creativity is permission. Our students need to be given permission to be creative, to experiment and play with ideas. Explicit permission to be creative includes acknowledgement that this process will at times involve silliness, immaturity, mess and mistakes. Not all of the ideas our students pursue will be world changers. Many of their ideas will be dead ends and many will be heading in the wrong direction. When we give our students permission to play with their ideas, to share their most playful ideas we encourage them to retain the youthful creativity that allows them to imagine countless new solutions and options.

A condition for creativity closely linked to permission is acceptance of failure. Einstein puts it well ‘Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new’. The danger is that creativity inherently involves making mistakes and yet so much of the school system is about avoiding mistakes. Assessment and testing is an important part of education but they are a messaging system that acts against creativity. Risk taking is discouraged by assessments where students are more likely to receive positive results by taking a safe route. Generally speaking, in assessments there is a known correct answer even if that correct answer is only known by the teacher. The student’s goal is to present a response that closely matches that correct answer and thus risk taking and creativity are discouraged. Shifting how we think about assessments and their role within learning may allow us to identify where this part of the process is stifling creativity. Reimagining our assessments may allow us to encourage and reward creativity and allow students to achieve the level of success they deserve even when their responses do not match a preconceived image of what a correct response is.

A third condition for creativity is time and it is this that is perhaps most difficult for schools to provide. The creative process is one that is ill served by fixed durations and schedules. It is an iterative process in which ideas sometimes come together quickly and sometimes multiple attempts are required. Unfortunately, most schools are such busy places that time to do something over when it doesn’t work the first time is hard to find. Creativity is a process that can rarely be kept to a distinct timeframe or schedule. Inspiration does not always arrive in the first five to fifteen minutes after commencing a project. Ideas need time to germinate, time to take a walk and let things bubble away, time to sleep on it and see what comes the next day. The time that the creative process requires is difficult to show on a detailed teaching programme and as a result we tend to stick to the times we allocate and move students on to the next task even if the creative potential of the first has not been fully explored.

Creativity requires choice. A creative process must involve students making choices about what they will do and how they will do it. Too often in schools the creative process is stolen from the students by the teacher who uses their planning time to imagine how their children will be creative. The tasks that the students engage with produce pretty results but all scope for creativity has been planned out of the task before the students get near it. Creativity can not result in a class set of near identical artworks, or stories, or songs or mathematical solutions. For teachers giving students choice can be frightening. Some students may not engage with the desired outcomes. Some students may require resources that were not planned for. Some students may not finish at all and some will produce results that are not as visually pleasing as the teacher had imagined. The question is, are we preparing our students for a future in which creativity is required and valued or for one in which they will be process workers accurately following directions? Undoubtedly choice will be messy, hard to plan for, difficult to assess, complex to schedule and yet the results will reveal more about the students and their learning than tasks planned for them.

Creativity deserves a structure that promotes it and scaffolds its development. Divergent thinking is a wonderful thing but at some point students need to be able to move from many ideas to the one they will bring to fruition. Convergent thinking is an essential part of creativity and it is in this process that students and teachers often struggle. Students have difficulty evaluating their ideas and fine tuning them to one that has the best chance of fulfilling their needs. Teachers are too quick to intervene and make the decision for their students. Utilising a structure such as a ‘Design Thinking’ provides a way of moving forward and experience with the application of such models allows students to identify times where divergent thinking is required and those that require convergence. This process needs to be one that occurs individually and as part of a collaborative process such that students learn to share their ideas with a group and accept when the group makes choices that do not include their ideas.

Creativity needs an audience. Too often students develop their ideas for an audience of one; their teacher. The creative endeavours of our students deserve a larger audience, an audience that will celebrate and critique the results while providing multiple perspectives. Providing a real audience for student creativity lifts the stakes and encourages students to see their efforts as a contribution to something bigger than a class assignment. The risk taking that comes with sharing creative ideas widely can at first be intimidating but students who experience this regularly and from an early age are more likely to embrace this experience and benefit from the rich feedback it provides. Real audiences in today’s connected world can be global and opportunities for dialogue and engagement with a global audience brings new opportunities. Real audiences can and should include experts from the field that students are learning in and these connections may extend learning far beyond the expertise available to students through the classroom.

Creativity is best served by a culture that values it. Ultimately the sum total of our beliefs, attitudes and behaviours will define our cultural valuing of creativity. Encouraging creativity begins with what we say and what we do to support it but the ultimate success of our endeavours will be measured by the degree to which creativity becomes a part of the culture of a school.

Hold your ideas lightly

The history of teaching is littered with ideas that have come and gone. In their day each was the new bright hope, set to transform what we do as teachers and how our students learn. Each new idea had its supporters and detractors and each in turn was replaced by an alternative or simply disappeared from view. Those who have experienced this ebb and flow of ideas have learned to approach the shiny and the new with caution and yet we have all encountered ideas that are so compelling it is difficult to ignore. How might we approach new ideas and innovative practices in ways that ensure our students benefit?

Effective schools and teachers engage in a process of action research even if it is not thusly named. It is a process that can be as simple as identifying a need, imagining or identifying a solution, putting it into action and observing the results. Applied as a methodology for improving practice through cycles of research, implementation, evaluation and reflection it can provide valid research data. A key benefit of action research is that it is closely linked to practice and involves practitioners as researchers ensuring a close connection between the research and its implementation. In action research it is very likely that those implementing the new strategy will have a solid understanding of its research basis, the problem it aims to address and the result it should achieve.

Action research fits nicely into a design thinking approach. There is much in common between the two methods and one could see design thinking as a structure for action research. At the core of both approaches is the identification of a problem the development of a planned response, the implementation of the plan and deliberate reflection. Both should include opportunities to adjust the plan at various points and when looked at as a cycle it should be clear that the process need not be linear or have a set end point. Fluid movement between action, evaluation, planning and questioning phases allows both action research and design thinking to respond to discoveries mid cycle and for adjustments to be made.

For the evaluation of new ideas both models hold real advantages. Thinking outside the box is all very well but thinking is best when it has a degree of structure and some level of organisation and it is this that action research and design thinking provide. For collaborative efforts the structure provided and the labels attached to various phases of the process can help team members identify where they are in their endeavour and where they are headed next. A key ingredient is that in these models the process is highly iterative in nature and the ideal solution or even the clear articulation of the problem is not likely to occur with the first cycle. Understanding the iterative nature of action research or design thinking is critical for success and a contributing factor for long term group cohesion.

The sharing of ideas with colleagues is for many a process not undertaken lightly. The more of our individuality, passion and effort that is invested in the idea the harder this process of sharing can be. We want our ideas to be understood, appreciated and accepted. When we contribute ideas to an action research process it is natural to hope that they will be included in the groups planning. Feelings of disappointment when they are not are natural but this is not a productive response within an iterative process. We need to hold our ideas lightly.

Those of us empowered by a growth mindset are perhaps more open to sharing our ideas. If our idea is not what the group is looking for we are able to move quickly on to the next idea without a negative reaction. Our ability to let go of our ideas decreases as our commitment to them increases and this commitment is directly related to the time, effort and emotion we have invested. To this end Ewan Macintosh urges us to share our ideas early, before we are too committed to them to listen to constructive feedback. If we share early, at a point where the idea is developed sufficiently to be understood by others who can provide us with feedback we may be more open to incorporating these new perspectives into our thinking.

Sharing early requires more than individuals who are open to the idea, it must be backed by a culture that accepts ideas should be shared before they are fully baked. Such a culture accepts that ideas might have rough edges, missing details, errors and imperfections. Such a culture is a natural fit with action research as it is one that encourages ideas to be tested and worked on without fear of failure. If the culture of a place is not accepting of failure in its action research efforts, it is not possible to try truly innovative ideas and efforts at safe innovation are unlikely to produce significant changes worthy of the effort. Fear of failure amongst individuals on action research will produce other negative consequences such as group think where divergent ideas are kept private and staff fall into patterns of trying to guess what their supervisor wants them to contribute.

One effective strategy for action research within larger organisations can be to trial multiple competing solutions at once with teams testing different approaches to a common problem. This connects nicely to an iterative process and can accelerate the research process as multiple options are tested and understood in parallel. It can also unlock our competitive natures when the ideas are compared and evaluated. A clear understanding, that it is the idea being assessed and not the individuals who researched its application, is essential. In cases such as this teams must hold their ideas lightly and accept that ultimately not all ideas will transfer into policy or future practice.

A willingness to hold our ideas lightly may also help avoid the scenario where the ultimate solution is a hybrid of multiple ideas formed not for its best fit to the problem but as a compromise between divergent groups. A willingness to let go of parts or all of our idea and accept that it may not offer the best solution is not easy but a necessary step towards maximising the benefits of action research. Perhaps hardest of all is letting go of our ideas when we are the ones who must make the decision. For leaders this is part of the job; a willingness to accept ideas from all channels will allow us to respond in the best possible way and to select the right path even when it is not the path we had envisioned. The capacity of an organisation’s leadership to share ideas early, listen to feedback and respond accordingly will have a powerful effect on the organisation’s culture and ability to innovate.

In the spirit of holding my ideas lightly I invite comments or feedback on how this article may be improved or why it should be deleted. I look forward to the discussion.

By Nigel Coutts

Between the sprint and the marathon

The start of a new school year brings with it great excitement and just a little sense of panic and chaos. We have new students, new classes, new teachers and new challenges. We spend time getting to know each other and building trust. The first few weeks seem to fly by and despite our best efforts we never seem to achieve quite everything we imagined we might. Watch the start of a marathon and you see a similar scenario as runners jostle position and endeavour to gain an advantage in the first few hundred metres. The start is an explosion of adrenalin and colour as the planning and preparation that has led up to this moment is finally tested. But just like a marathon the school year is long and the initial panic of the start is soon forgotten as we enter the second phase between the sprint and the marathon proper.

While the start is important and we all like to make a positive first impression it is the accumulation of our efforts and the little things we do every day that matters most. In this early stage as we set up the patterns and routines that will see us through the rest of the year it is valuable to keep the ‘long game’ in mind. These early days are the time when we begin to understand our learners more deeply and gain a more complete picture of their needs. This is a process that is worth giving time to. Taking a slower more relaxed approach ensures we make the right choices and ask the important questions.

For our students this is the time when they learn to trust us as the guide they will require for the year ahead. Across the days and weeks at the start of each year they are told what to expect and what is expected of them. Promises are made and exciting opportunities for learning are outlined. In the coming weeks they will judge the reality of the promises that have been made and see if what we claim to value in our welcome speeches is evident in our actions. Handled well the result will be students who feel known and trust that their teachers will meet their learning needs; handled poorly and the damage can be hard to undo.

For students new to a school the next few weeks may be very important. The initial celebrity that comes with being new wears off and fresh friendship circles are rapidly forming about them. Some will negotiate this space with ease but many will find challenges here. This is the time when our pastoral care programmes earn their keep and a culture of acceptance and inclusion pays off.

The initial weeks of term are likely to be largely teacher directed as routines are set in place, although there is great advantage in giving students voice and choice early on. If we claim to value student agency in our classrooms we must give them a say in the management of our shared spaces. With this behind us we can consider the opportunities to ensure the learning that occurs in our classes is owned by the students. The classroom by now will be showing signs of occupation and the pretty store bought posters give way to items produced by the students. Evidence of the learning process will start to show through and students should be able to have a say in how their learning spaces are constructed and used. Choice in learning is something discussed previously on this site and it should extend to the way that students interact with the physical reality of their classroom.

Slowing the pace at this point in the year is essential too. The initial panic at the beginning of the year is often a construct of our fear that we have so much to achieve and so little time to do it. Compared to the students who have just left us this new group naturally seems to be in need of so much work; after all they are a full year behind but it is easy to forget this. The desire to bridge that gap as quickly as possible is natural but will not benefit our students. Taking a step back and identifying each little step towards our collective goals for the year is important. This is also the ideal time to remind ourselves that learning should be more about the journey than the destination. Our students might need to be ready for high school or final exams or even University in just twelve months time but they also need to enjoy where they are now with their learning.

For us as teams of teachers the start of the year also brings new challenges. We arrive back at school refreshed and renewed. Some of us will be new to the school, others will be in new teams and some will be renegotiating well known connections. At the start of the new year a period of ‘storming' within our teams is typical as relationships are tested and negotiated. Beyond this phase comes a somewhat dangerous period of ‘norming' where team cohesion appears. This can be a time of calm as much of the stress of the initial weeks is put behind us and the teams natural rhythm surfaces. The danger is that too much cohesion can lead to 'group think’ where divergent thinking disappears. Effective teams should be able to shift back and forth between divergent patterns of thinking where new ideas explode into possibility and convergent patterns where the best of those ideas are put into place. Throughout the marathon that is a school year including opportunities to shake things up with some quality divergence keeps teams fresh.

It might be the start of the term that gains headlines but the coming weeks as we shift into marathon mode are just as vital to success at the end of the year. How we use this time, what we value from our students in these weeks, how we engage them in the process of learning and how we put our philosophies of teaching and learning into practice will set a tone that will carry us though the long weeks to come. This year’s journey has begun, now is the time to settle in and enjoy it.

By Nigel Coutts

Developing and Maintaining a Growth Mindset

For educators, parents and learners Carol Dweck’s research on the benefits of a Growth Mindset is naturally appealing. Those who have a growth mindset achieve better results than those who don’t, are more resilient and accept challenge willingly. In response schools have embraced the notion and classroom walls are adorned with posters identifying the characteristics of growth versus fixed mindsets. Teachers make efforts to shift their students towards a growth mindset and parents consider how they may assist in the process. After two years of incorporating a growth mindset philosophy we are finding that the reality of shifting a student’s disposition away from a fixed mindset and then maintaining a growth mindset is significantly more complex than at first imagined. Numerous forces and influences play a role and progress is unlikely to match a linear curve.

Where schools have made steps in the right direction, is in raising awareness of the two mindsets. In this regard the placement of posters and discussion around the role that our mindset has in our learning are steps in the right direction. Demonising the fixed mindset is perhaps an unnecessary step and our students may be better served by understanding that we all have times when we fall into a fixed mindset. Education of how we may recognise such times and apply strategies of mindfulness and metacognition would avoid shifting already vulnerable learners on to the circle of shame. Awareness is however far form the end of the journey towards reaping the benefits of a Growth Mindset.

Much of Carol Dweck’s research relates to the giving of praise and the manner in which we give and receive feedback. The fixed mindset is associated with beliefs that our ability is a fixed quantity and that effort is a sign of weakness. If I must try hard at something I am clearly not talented in that area. This mindset is reinforced by much of the praise adults give to children. The message we give is that they are intelligent, smart, artistic, sporty and this is interpreted as recognition of static, innate talents they possess. Children with a fixed mindset learn to crave this sort of praise and it becomes attached to their imagining of their self worth and secure feelings of attachment to those important to their emotional security. Sudden shifts to praise of effort can result in students questioning their self image and feeling that they have lost the confidence of those they relied on for signals of affirmation.

For some students a shift from praise of talent to praise of effort can be devastating. They do not understand that the change in language does not mean that they are viewed as having slipped in ability. They fail to recognise that their success has always been a result of effort as in many cases the reality is that they have achieved adequate success based on underlying ability alone; they have not had to try hard to succeed. Faced with new challenges and more complex tasks they now face learning situations where they must take risks and apply greater effort towards success. Failure along this journey becomes inevitable and with a mindset fixed by past success that came easily they lack the metacognitive process to push through these times. This realization is for many likely to occur at the time they enter adolescence where feelings of self worth, body image, socialisation pressures and physical and cognitive shifts place young people most at risk. Empowering young learners with a deep understanding of how fixed and growth mindsets interact and enabling a metalanguage for them to use as they describe their interpretation of their shifting mindset may help but will not be sufficient.

The cognitive disconnect that accompanies a sudden shift in language from praise of ability to praise of effort may be minimised by initially providing both. A student may be given feedback something like this; ‘You did very well on this writing task, you used your talent for writing well and you clearly worked very hard to include effective language and took some interesting risks with your word choices.’ Praise presented in a mixed form with traditional recognition of ability but with a gradually increasing emphasis on the actions which led to success and the effort applied to a task may ease the transition and avoid a decline in self esteem. Ultimately the goal is to move away from having to praise ability but doing so immediately after reading Carol’s books is not recommended.

Much of the difficulty experienced as we make efforts to change to and then maintain a growth mindset results from the mixed messages we send students. Ideally students will consistently receive feedback that points towards the things they have done well and things that they could do more of. Praise linked to actions rather than attributes allows the learner to focus on doing more of what leads to success and actions unlike personal attributes can be changed. The more consistently that feedback provides these cues the more effective it is likely to be and our students are more likely to inhabit a growth mindset as a result. Praise for ability is however, somewhat like candy, a little bit has a big impact and the work to shift students towards a growth mindset is easily undone. Kind words from adults give children with a fixed mindset the hit they have been looking for and causes them to question the growth focused feedback they have been given.

These mixed messages are reinforced further by the manner in which we formally assess and report on student achievement. Tests which present students with a single measure of their achievement do much damage to a growth mindset. A test score or report grade is too easily interpreted by a student as a measure of their fixed ability. No indication of the actions that led to the mark or grade is provided and no pointer towards future success is offered. More useful is a rubric that provides students with clear advice on what they did well and what they may do more of. As useful as Rubrics may be their ultimate success as a tool for learning requires careful design and considered choice of the language used. Rubrics are also of no value within a culture that translates indicators on a rubric into a single score by totaling marks across indicators. Use of Carol Dweck’s highly valued term ‘Not Yet’ is beneficial if students understand that this illustrates a belief that with continued effort they will be able to achieve the desired result.

While many influencers and forces play a role in forming an individuals mindset three agents are perhaps most significant for schools to consider. Central to any discussion of mindset is the individual themselves. Empowered by an understanding of fixed versus growth mindsets the individual may begin to consciously reflect on how they interpret and attribute their success. Recognising the mindset they bring to a task, understanding how they react to challenges and how this varies across learning scenarios gives agency to individuals and protects them against external influences that may shift them towards a fixed mindset. Teachers have vital roles to play in the development of growth mindsets but must do more than advocacy. Providing our students with the reflective and metacognitive skills required to modify their mindset is an effective use of our time. Analysing the nature of our feedback and praise across all interactions with students combined with sensitivity for those presently locked in a fixed mindset is essential. This analysis should include all processes and systems that exist around praising student success. Parents and carers have significant roles to play and collaborations with schools are likely to maximise the benefits of any mindsets programme. Consistent messaging around the controllable factors which lead to success is essential.

Research and classroom experience show real value in efforts to shift students towards a growth mindset. The simplicity of the idea however hides a greater complexity experienced as teachers and parents design and implement programmes deliberately targeting a change in mindset. As with all aspects of education there is no easy fix here and results will unsurprisingly take effort and understanding. Consistent, considered approaches that recognise the many factors and involve all agents which shape our mindset are likely to bring the best results.

By Nigel Coutts

Connections:

A 'Habits of Mind' recipe  for a Growth Mindset - Persistence + Open to Continuous Learning + Taking Responsible Risks + Metacognition

Constructing a positive classroom culture

With the start of the year and a new group of students it is natural to consider the year ahead and what we might hope to achieve individually and collectively. As we build connections with our new students and build an understanding of their needs we begin to imagine the many strategies we will employ to support the learning. Beyond getting to know the individuals we also start to form a picture of what our classes are like and this brings us to questions of culture. What will the culture of our class be? How might we shape that culture and how will we understand the many forces at work? Understanding the culture of class or perhaps even a school is an important element of our teaching but realising the complexity of this task must come first.

We all have in our imaginations a picture of what our classroom culture will be like. More than likely it is embodied in sets of values displayed proudly on classroom walls and shared with parents through letters home and information evenings. We imagine a culture built upon mutual respect, honesty, a love of learning and questioning attitudes. Through the values that we identify and describe we make efforts to bring this culture to life. All of this is essential to the construction of the culture we hope for and yet none of it guarantees that our imagination will match reality. There exists within any group of people at least two cultures; that which is imagined and that which is lived.

As teachers we play an important role in establishing the culture of our classroom. What we name and value are likely to become parts of the lived culture but our interpretation of this and its expression in the real world can differ widely. Ultimately the culture of the classroom will be the sum total of the lived experience of its members. Every experience, every individual’s action and responses act to shape this and with a full class of empowered actors participating in its construction, culture quickly becomes a messy field.

Our first task needs to be understanding the culture that comes to our class with the students. Their history with schooling will frame how they begin to engage as a group. The particular mix of personalities, dispositions, beliefs, values, norms and attitudes present will begin to emerge. This is the clay with which we must begin to shape that classroom culture we imagine and just like an artist we must understand the material we have to work with. This idea of working with the already present culture of the class is critical, efforts to impose a culture on any group through authority is doomed to fail. A culture of respect can not be constructed on a foundation of fear.

The point at which we imagine we have understood the culture already at play is also the ideal time to stop and look again. Culture is not easily read and the danger at this early stage is that our initial impressions will prove false. Sociologists understand the difficulties of reading a culture form a privileged position of power or authority and who is a more privileged reader of classroom culture than the teacher. Exploring what the students have to say about the culture of the classroom and learning to truly listen to what they have to say with both their voices and their actions is critical. So to is understanding how the students read us by what we say, what we value and what we do.

A good example of how our words, our valuing and our actions combine is seen in the measures required if we desire to build growth mindsets. Carol Dweck’s concept of a growth mindset is alluring and easy to get wrong. Giving students positive feedback is not the answer. To be clear students need to be told what they have done well but they must be shown with every turning that their success is a result of their actions and of actions they might control. This message is all too easily undone by kind words that reinforce a belief that talent is a personal quality. If growth mindsets are the goal, then having this entrenched in the lived culture of the classroom through every action and reaction is a must. It is a difficult goal but one worth the effort.

Talking about the two cultures of a classroom is one strategy that might bring the desired results. If culture is partly what we name then doing this allows discussion of those areas where the lived culture may not match the imagined culture. If all members are able to describe the imagined culture of the classroom and understand how making it real brings benefits for their daily lives they are more likely to adopt behaviours that are supportive of the desired model. This assumes rather optimistically that our students are able to translate ideal values into behaviours. Where students are able to identify the values but not the behaviours that accompany them, opportunities for teacher intervention may be found.

Circle time is one effective strategy for discussions of culture. In ‘Circle Time’ the structure of the circle and its simple rules for open sharing without negative reactions encourages students to speak about the culture of the classroom. Deliberately making this discussion an agenda item and taking time to share what culture is are important first steps. Students too often see culture as something that happened long ago or is something they were born into. Helping them to understand that culture is the word we use to describe our day to day lives and interactions with each other will help them to make sense of the topic. Letting them know that we all have a place to play in constructing the culture of the classroom can be a strategy for empowerment.

Although culture is complex it behoves us to take action to construct a culture in our classrooms that is close to what we desire it to be. Understanding that it is a construct of multiple actors is crucial and that as such we must allow each to play a part. Many have said that culture trumps policy and it is true too that culture will trump class rules. By all means take time to imagine the ideal classroom culture but then take the time and effort required to make it real for every member of the class, for it to become a culture that all involved own and value.

By Nigel Coutts

The new concrete materials for mathematics

Since the time of Cuisenaire rods or before that counters and buttons students have benefitted from the use of concrete materials in their mathematical learning. The combination of strong visuals and the ability to physically manipulate groups of objects has allowed students to move from purely physical representations of number concepts to increasingly abstract representations. This pattern of first experiencing a concept in the physical world before shifting towards symbolic representations has allowed countless students to grasp the fundamentals of mathematics. Effective teachers have always been able to maximise the benefits of this pattern ensuring that their students can not only produce the right answer but have a solid understanding of the mathematics behind it. 

In the age of computers and now tablets there have been many efforts to transfer this effective learning pattern into the digital world. Skeuomorphic representations that take digital renderings of real world objects and place them onto screens for manipulation through the computer interface have had some success in this area but an additional layer of abstraction is added that purely physical manipulations lack. Shifting the physical objects into the digital world may bring new affordances to the devices used but fail to transform the learning that was already possible with concrete materials. What was needed was a relationship between the digital and the physical that would enhance the quality of learning possible. With new tools such as easily coded robots, augmented reality and 3D printing this is a possibility that is beginning to emerge. 

One interesting option is the iPad system and related Apps made available by ‘Osmo’. In this the camera on the iPad is reconfigured to capture images from the area immediately in front of the device as it sits in a stand. The software allows for virtual objects on the iPad screen to appear to interact with objects placed or drawn in front of it. One of the Apps available presents the challenge of manipulating the trajectory of a virtual ball using objects placed or drawn in the real world space in front of the device. Students learn through an iterative process of altering angles of incidence and by adding or removing objects how the trajectory of an object can be altered. The software allows for complex interactions to be simulated and tested with immediate feedback provided on the screen. Other Apps allow students to manipulate Tangrams with added benefits occurring as a result of the augmented reality. Another App bridges the gap between the physical and the abstract by allowing students to manipulate real objects while the device reveals the associated abstract representations. Osmo brings an added dimension compared to purely digital Apps that attempt to do the same thing as its physical dimension invites collaboration. Students will want to sit and play with the physical objects and though the manipulations of these experience gradually increasing levels of engagement with symbolic representations.  

Learn more about Osmo

Sphero is another interesting way to take mathematics out of the digital world and allow it to blend with the physical. Sphero is a small spherical robot that can be controlled directly using a phone or tablet, can be programmed or can be used as a controller or interactive object with augmented reality games. Beyond the fun that comes from using Sphero like a remote controlled toy is the potential to use it to explore concepts within mathematics. This process is likely to begin with lessons that require students to programme their Sphero to complete a maze. Constructed on the floor with tape, cardboard or with a mixture of made and found obstacles mazes allow students to explore aspects of measurement of length, area, angles, time and speed. Unlike purely digital solutions that target these concepts Sphero brings a real connection between the code and the movement of the robot. Students engaging with Sphero will take measurements in the real world with traditional tools such as metre rules and protractors (preferably oversized ones), use that information in the digital code environment and then make adjustments based on the path taken by the robot. Again success is supported through an iterative approach with immediate and natural feedback. These feedback loops where the students are quickly shown what works and what does not are judgment free and ensure continued engagement with the problem and with each failed attempt revealing something new about the task while allowing the students to laugh at their robots misadventures. That students are learning to code while they are developing their understanding of mathematical concepts is further bonus. Beyond the maze activities are options for an exploration of how the robot may be programmed to complete artistic pieces that combine its movement and ability to change colours into robotic ballets that could include collaborations with other robots.  

Learn more about SPHERO

You can’t mention links between digital worlds and physical reality without mentioning 3D printing. For explorations in STEAM the increasingly affordable 3D printer brings the opportunity to design objects in a physical world and then print a real model that the students can hold. So many mathematical concepts from mass, volume, capacity, scale, ratio, and 3D shape can be explored in this way and links across key learning areas can be readily explored. For design thinking tasks the potential to have a physical prototype of an idea brings a tangible dimension that reveals ideas in new ways showing how imaginings in the virtual world translate into the real world. Increased accuracy of 3D printers is allowing for objects with great precision which means it is possible to print parts of machines with moving and interlocking cogs. Software is available now that will show how these moving parts will interact in a virtual world thus enabling testing of designs in this space prior to printing.  

In each case here there is a linking of learning in a digital space with the manipulation of creation of real world objects. instead of moving further away from the use of concrete objects blended environments suggest that mathematics teaching may be most successful when a mix of digital and physical is enabled. It may not be time to throw away those Cuisenaire rods and oversized set squares just yet, they may have a new part to play in the emerging terrain of mathematical learning.  

By Nigel Coutts

Trust No Sources - Books vs Internet

A question that is repeatedly faced by educators and students is how can we know whether to trust a source of information or not and what sources should we value. I wonder if at some point not long after Gutenberg’s invention of the press if educators debated the merits of printed works over handwritten. Were students admonished for ignoring scrolls in favour of books and was paper derided as an inferior source to wax tablets? Such is the dilemma faced in the digital age as we struggle with the question of books versus the web or libraries versus the internet.  

It is a question with perhaps no clear answer for the moment and yet a sense of inevitability that the future will be dominated by the delivery of information in digital formats. With the convergence of mobile devices and ubiquitous access to the internet just a short promise away it seems that the potential to carry entire libraries worth of books and reading matter in a pocketable device should send printers out of business. The ease of purchase and wide selection of books available online is already making it most difficult for bookstores that are not able to value add to their customer’s experience. For larger stores unable to offer a bespoke shopping experience to a community of readers this has already occurred, remember Borders? But beyond books the internet places at our fingers a wealth of information and resources that few but the largest of libraries may ever hope to match and across formats and media. Why then do Libraries and with them books persist? What is it that makes books continue to appeal not just to a few as may be the case with vinyl records but to many? 

There is something magical about opening a physical book. The mystery that is exposed and unpacked with each turning of the page. The feel of the pages, its weight and its shifting balance as you progress page by page towards its ending. Time in a well stocked library is like a walk in a forest of potential ideas, you feel their possibility through your skin and breathe in their vapours. On my shelf I have two volumes from 1886 written by James Martineau and titled ’Types of Ethical Theory’. Perhaps not as prestigious as the copy of Freud’s ‘Interpretation of Dreams’ that lies in its modern cover beside them but more special partly for their age and partly as they hold the handwritten notes of their previous owner (Frederick Wearne)  from 1945. These are books with a history of their own and I like to imagine why they may have been selected reading at such a significant time in world history. 

Lately I have been reading books more frequently, it was habit I had moved away from relying instead on podcasts for ideas. At first I relied on audiobooks and still do but often I wanted to read a piece over and over to parse its meaning and at other times I wished to quote from what I had read. Often I would supplement my listening with the purchase of a digital copy of the book for reading on a device; a routine I am sure the publishers and online sellers appreciated. Increasingly I found I wanted to share my reading with colleagues and while sharing is becoming a possibility with digital books it relies on a degree of tech savviness not all have and of course access to an appropriate device. For ease of sharing a physical book has digital licked and so I have been purchasing some books in old fashioned paper version such that they may be handed on and have their ideas spread. Maybe this why books are not going away. 

What is interesting is the debate that occurs around the choices young people apparently make around their sources of information. ‘They just ignore the books’ is one often repeated claim or “they just go straight to Google and find the answer’. Not always but often the underlying message is that by not using books they are at great risk of being misinformed and led astray by poorly sourced information from the likes of Wikipedia. There is a reality that students are often poorly equipped to use the information available to them on the internet, rely too heavily on the first results provided by their favourite search engine and rely too much on a small selection of sources. They make poor use of the tools available to them and even when they do stumble upon the best sources use them poorly. I see many students skip away from an excellent source because it fails to answer their question with a snappy graphic and requires some detailed reading. But then did we not do the same thing when all we had were books? Were we all highly capable users of the Dewey system with well honed skills for skimming and scanning pages of information? As Alan November states our goal should be to equip students with skills to find and use the very best information available to them, not to advocate for use of one media over another with no good reason.  

At the core of the issue is one of trust. Can I trust this source of information over another? On the surface level this too frequently becomes a discussion of the media used for the information. The internet versus books. The questions should go much deeper. Can I trust the research methods used? Is this author reliable? Is the information accurate and a true reflection of some version of reality? Does it relate to my inquiry? Has the research been repeated and if so by whom? Is there a bias in this writing or is it politically motivated? So many good questions to ask about every source of information we rely upon and ones that have little to do with how we access it. In a time when journalism, publishing and advertising go hand in hand these are questions we should ask often. There is much more to be explored here than a question of books versus the internet and our students deserve to be provided with the skills and dispositions required to ensure they can and do make use of the very best information available to them. 

By Nigel Coutts

Revealing our Lifelong Learning

Few would argue that life-long learning is an unworthy goal without real benefits for our long term mental health and happiness. Engaging with new ideas, concepts and ways of doing things is the ideal strategy for a healthy mind and a disposition towards better understanding the world and challenging our entrenched beliefs. According to many life-long learning is also an essential disposition for coping with a rapidly changing world. As teachers the notion of life-long learning has an additional element as it is both a personal goal and one that we set as an outcome of our teaching. We hope that our students will leave school with a desire to continue learning long after we have said our farewells. Perhaps the best way we may achieve these goals is to allow our students to see us as learners who seek new learning and enjoy the challenges that this brings.

During the summer holidays I enjoy taking on a project. With long days and free time available a project has been the perfect way to keep productive while learning a new skill set. A chance to do something I would not normally do as part of my teaching routine. This break I have been constructing wooden workbenches and even though it has been a project for school it is one that has challenged my minimal carpentry skills. I have mastered the shaping of mortise and tenon joints (having cut eighty of them), developed an appreciation of applying repeatable processes and enhanced my understanding of the properties of different timbers. I have aimed to make each workbench slightly different and this has led to some creative re-purposing of materials and storage containers. Each bench has something that it makes a little bit unique and quirky and each includes elements that should make it a functional combination of storage and workspace. Hopefully when they are placed into classrooms the students enjoy using them and they encourage some effective making. I also hope that over time the students adapt them to their needs and add ideas of their own.

Part way through this process I read an article by John Spencer on his Blog in which he argues that ‘Teachers need a genius hour, Too’. Such a concept is an ideal way to tackle the challenge of being a life-long learner amidst the business of our lives. The key is that it is time set into our schedule and it is for us to achieve learning important to us. John stipulates that this time is not to be used for anything work related, that it is time dedicated towards personal learning not professional development. John describes how his family has been able to make adjustments to accommodate this time and ensure it is a part of their schedule. Just as for students the choosing of what this time is used for is an important element of its success. It is interesting that an idea that started with adults working in industry has migrated into schools and is now being appropriated by teachers in their personal life.

Spending time on Twitter reveals a small ocean of people who are engaging with their personal learning and sharing its benefits through their networks. The value of our personal learning networks is a combination of avenues for sharing our learning and for engaging with the learning others have undertaken. Social media has opened new realms of shared experiences around and through learning but much of it occurs away from where it may be spotted by our students. There is a danger our well crafted personal learning networks serve to reinforce the notion that we are experts who know the right way to solve any challenge we face in the classroom without the need to learn. If only our students saw how hard we work behind the scenes to learn and enhance our craft.

If we want our learning habits to rub off on our students then we need to ensure they catch us in the act of learning and that we describe our processes for learning to them. Metacognitive reflection on our teaching practice is all very nice but it is more likely to influence our students if we share the process with them. For this to happen we need to move past the fear that if we are not seen as experts with all the right answers chaos will ensue. This challenge extends to school leaders who should be encouraged to share their stories of learning with their teams without fear that they will be viewed poorly for admitting they are continuing to learn and develop.

In an environment that encourages a growth mindset it may be essential that students see their teachers struggling to overcome challenges. Talks about the need to embrace failure and to see obstacles as a learning opportunity seem hollow unless they are linked to personal experience. Bringing stories of our personal learning into the classroom adds a new dimension and honesty to our discussion of how we may best attack challenges. Letting our students see us struggle with a challenging problem takes this to a higher level, allowing them to offer suggestions goes even further to sharing the reality of a shared learning environment.

Google is widely cited as starting the trend of giving staff time for personal projects. Their ‘20% Time’ model has been copied and borrowed widely as a way of encouraging people to pursue projects they are passionate about but not at the core of their responsibility. In schools this type of personal learning could be the way to allow students to see their teachers learning and problem solving. Just as we may model reading habits during quiet reading times, taking on a Personal Passion Project in parallel to our students may bring new opportunities for shared learning and a greater appreciation of the benefits of life-long learning.

By Nigel Coutts

Predictions for Education in 2016

The start of a new year brings the perfect opportunity to consider the time ahead and make some predictions for what might be the next big thing. With change as inevitable as taxes a new year is likely to see new ideas bubble to the fore and some old ways of doing things shift into the background. The danger with making predictions is the unpredictable nature of change in education coupled to the pace of technological evolution that continues to bring new opportunities.

On the technology front much of what has been important to our implementation of ICT should be disappearing from view. Creating Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, webpages and even video will remain a part of the educational landscape but the maturity and simplicity of modern computing platforms and particularly tablet computing should mean these skills require little direct attention in the classroom. What was once a cutting edge use of technology can now be taken for granted. With this can come a focus on how these and other technologies for presenting ideas can empower learning. What should become more prevalent is an emphasis on collaboration beyond the walls of the classroom. A spin off the increase in ‘connected educators’ will be the opportunities for global collaborations between classes. For this to happen schools will need to look to the potential for sharing of ideas across cultural boundaries and with flexible approaches to time and place of learning.

With the increased popularity of ‘MakerSpaces’ and an understanding of the learning power that making unlocks this is a trend that is set to go mainstream. With close connections to creativity and innovation making allows students to realise their ideas in three-dimensional realities and engage with a whole new set of problem solving opportunities. Making supports integrated problem based learning scenarios where students combine STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art & mathematics) with their imagined solutions to real world needs. The ‘MakerSpace’ is core to this approach as it is the place that unlocks the imagination and encourages exploration and play. 

The modern ‘MakerSpace’ will be nothing like the old wood-shops many of us remember. Making today is a blend of hands-on tooling with digital production methods enabled by 3D Printing and CNC devices. 3D printing has been a growth area for a number of years now but until recently cost was inhibitive and the machines required a dedicated user to keep things on track. With costs stabilising at an affordable level and sophistication increasing to a point where machines can be described as reliable 3D printing is another trend that should be mainstream by the end of 2016. What we need now is an affordable option for laser cutting to emerge in a form suitable for use in schools. Current costs for this sort of machinery puts it out of reach of all but large secondary schools, lower costs could put this on the budgets of primary schools and increase the size of the market and thus bring further cost reductions.

Growth Mindsets has emerged in the past two years as a significant trend and one that continues to grow favour. The danger is that it is a seemingly simple concept that hides degrees of complexity. It is not enough to say a school is going to develop a culture that promotes growth mindsets and then do little other than put up the posters. Understanding the power of the subtle messages we send through our feedback, reporting measures, assessments and praise takes time and careful consideration but are essential elements of a culture that genuinely supports a growth mindset. We need to raise awareness of how our thinking about our success and failure impacts our future learning. We are also seeing increased discussion of ‘Mindfulness’ as a strategy for reflection and self-awareness. Mindfulness and Growth Mindsets could become a merged field during 2016 as individuals seek to better understand how their mental states can be influenced and shaped by the way we think about our thinking. 

Thinking about our thinking or metacognition is by no means new and yet despite years of good research into the benefits of learning to think the evidence is that we continue to have deficient models for thinking. Perhaps a personal hope is that in 2016 thinking gains more of a focus in schools and we begin to aim at producing students who are intelligent as described by Jean Piaget because they 'know what to do when they don’t know what to do’. This will require attention to teaching students more than just content but the skills and dispositions required to do something useful with what they know. Maybe 2016 will be the year when we realise that filling the minds of young people’s heads with information they can readily locate using the devices they carry with them everywhere is not an efficient use of our time or theirs and we begin to focus on what can be done with the knowledge we have ready access to. Why teach thinking?

2016 is likely to be the year where ‘Innovation’ becomes the new buzz word. Schools have been innovative for years now but in the past that innovation was about what the teachers and faculty did. Innovative schools were the ones that tried new ideas and emerging technologies to achieve largely the same goals traditional schools were achieving. Now ‘Innovation’ moves from being about how we teach to becoming what we teach. Thanks to Sir Ken Robinson creativity has been on the agenda for some time now but it was an idea that often needed some clarification as to what it meant. Combine creativity (the development of ideas in our imagination) with innovation (the implementation of ideas into real solutions) and students have a process for problem finding and solving that can be implemented beyond their school years. All this creative innovation is going to need a process to help students track their progress and ‘Design Thinking’ is likely to emerge as the preferred structure for this sort of thinking.

As we continue to develop our understanding of how we learn. Informed by brain science we are moving towards a point in time where we are able to base our teaching on a clear and accurate picture of how the brain functions for learning. With an awareness of neural diversity and cognitive architecture brain science offers an opportunity to bring a new level of scientific efficiency to our teaching that should allow all students to reach their potential. 2016 is not likely to be the year where we gain and implement perfect knowledge of how we learn but a growth in teacher and student awareness of the factors behind our learning should help.

by Nigel Coutts