Just ask the kids

Who is school for?

An easy enough question on the face of it - but if your answer is - "for the students of course" then my next question is - so how do we know it is working for them? Mmmm....

It was asking ourselves these questions that led us out to one of our local schools. And so....

Two weeks ago a couple of us met with 12 students from Hutt Intermediate. We decided we needed to ask the students how they were using e-devices and digital materials to assist their learning. Great kids.

Of little surprise was the ubiquity of the cell phone and it's place as number one gadget for texting and music. Magazines and newspapers seemed to be off the diet (although this group was still reading books), largely replaced by liberal doses of on-line face-booking and to a lesser extent games.

As a result of this meeting we invited the students and their teacher and principal to Learning Media. We were keen for them to have a look at some of the resources we had created and think about how they could be enhanced digitally to support their learning. The students worked in small groups and then shared their thinking with the whole group at the end.

As a result of the students feedback it became clear that they wanted the digital enhancements to do at least 3 things:

- amplify the meaning embedded in the resource through use of video, audio, diagrams, and games

- clarify the words or phrases of the text or diagrams through audio and links to dictionaries or definitions

- support the use of the resources (or parts thereof) in other work the students were involved in (such as projects or presentations)

Now there is nothing here that would possibly stun you as incredibly new or different.But what it is is authentic. It is real. Real in that it represents the actual thoughts and voices of the students.

And so my challenge is for us to consider how, when, to what extent, and in what ways are we engaging with students to understand their perspectives and lived experiences of learning, school and the classroom. Great initiatives, such as Te Kotahitanga, have emerged from such humble beginnings.

the three laws of performance

Transformation in education will require some new ways of doing things. We will need to be open to looking at old problems in new ways.

An old Sufi parable (told by Zaffron and Logan in their book 'the three laws of performance') describes a man searching for his keys one night. A friend of his arrives to find him on his knees under a streetlamp. The friend joins him and starts searching. After a while the friend turns to the man and asks him where exactly he dropped the keys. The man points into the darkness and responds "over there". To which the friend asks why he is searching here. "Because this is where the light is."

This certainly rang a few bells for me. How much time do we spend searching for new solutions in the same old places? Hoping that we will get to a new place while walking the well trod path?

The three laws of performance sheds some light on how we can address some of the old leadership challenges in new ways. In particular it suggests that we (as individuals and organisations) get tied up in 'language knots' that need to resolved and replaced with future based or generative language. The three laws are:

1. How people perform correlates to how situations occur to them

2. How a situation occurs arises in language

3. Future-based language transforms how situations occur to people

According to Zaffron and Logan the challenge for leaders is to listen for what is not being said. To be willing to explore the 'unsaid'. In this way you shed light on areas often left in the dark. Organisational blind-spots.

It also provides leaders with a framework for thinking about their own or their teams performance. Taking the time to consider how the team is perceiving situations becomes time well spent, as does listening to the type of language that is being used. Is the team stuck in descriptive language of how things 'have always been around here', or is future based language transforming perceptions and releasing hope and motivation?

Why is this important? 

Because as leaders we are only as good as our teams. And our teams deserve work-places that draw out the best from them in order to give the best to our young people.

So.... how are you using words to shape your organisation's future?

The Power of Feedback

Last fathers day my kids gave me a heart rate monitor. As per usual I thanked them for their thoughtfulness. The fascinating thing (since I started wearing it!) has been the impact it has had on my exercise regime. Once I was aware of my heart rate I was able to adjust the intensity of my exercise to keep it within my target zone (go here for a cool little target heart rate calculator). As a result my exercise has been more focussed and I have got fitter faster.

Feedback is critical to anyone (or any group) who seeks to improve or change.

Hattie and Timperley in their paper The Power of Feedback provide a model of feedback for student learning. Their model suggests that there are 3 questions central to effective feedback:

• Where am I going? (a goal focus)
• How am I going? (progress)
• Where to next? (feedforward or next steps)

These questions work at four levels:

• task level (how well are the tasks performed or understood)
• process level (the processes required to achieve the tasks)
• self-regulation level (my growth as an independent learner)
• self level (personal evaluations of my worth in relation to the above)

The level at which feedback is applied is critical to its effectiveness. In general the best feedback moves from task to process to self-regulation level, and praise at a self level is often of little effect and sometimes has a negative effect on improvement. Other factors for effective feedback include timing, clarity, amount, compatibility with students prior knowledge, and level of threat (best when low) to the students sense of self.

I am sure that this model does not only apply to students. It is a useful model for all of us regarding the feedback we give and receive. The big idea is that are energised when we are able to identify the discrepancy between our performance and our target and know how to close the gap (or at least a part of it). We get hooked on improvement. Feedback is that critical piece that enables us to 'grasp' the discrepancy and put pressure on it.

Doing the basics well is a critical part of sound leadership. Providing and receiving effective feedback to and from members of our team is one of those basics.

So....when did you last give or receive some effective feedback?

Using your brain

"Use your brain!"I do recall my Dad giving me this instruction on the odd occasion (usually the message being that I was not!) However, the difficulty (as with many other things in life) is that the brain does not come with an instruction manual. It does not have a help menu that you can search, or an 'Idiots Guide' that helps you solve your latest problem quickly and efficiently. Rather, you find yourself drawing upon a series of strategies that you have imported from youth, which may or may not be relevant to the problem at hand.

But things have changed.

Last week I attended the ULearn conference. During the conference I listened to Mark Treadwell who was speaking on brain research and the light it sheds upon teaching and learning. It was fascinating to learn about our different memory systems and how they interact together.

But what captured me the most was Mark's notion of a conceptual curriculum. A curriculum that focusses upon the 'big ideas'. One that builds on the way the brain works and is explicit in supporting learners in understanding and applying these big ideas across a range of contexts using relevant and engaging content. A curriculum that has the potential to accelerate students learning, and support enhanced self-regulation, engagement and creativity.

The Ministry of Education is doing something similar. It is developing a series of Secondary Teacher and Learning Guides. These guides are / have been developed by experienced teachers and subject experts. They have been written to support teachers to develop quality teaching and learning programmes at levels 6 - 8 of the New Zealand Curriculum. An important part of these guides is pulling together the 'big ideas' or key concepts of each subject area. A great example of this is the key concepts for physics.

So why should leaders be interested in brain research? My reason is simple. We need to accelerate the progress and achievement of our young people. And particularly those who have consistently struggled in our classrooms.  Such acceleration will require innovative ways of teaching and learning drawing upon the best evidence and research available to us. Brain research provides a potentially 'rich vein' of knowledge for achieving these ambitious goals. Organising knowledge around concepts (rather than disconnected facts) appears to be another high potential area for further exploration.

P.S. Turns out there IS an idiots guide to the brain!!

Artist's rendering of neurons. (Credit: iStockphoto)

sciencentechnologyupdates.com

Leaders matter

There is no doubt in my mind that leaders matter. 


They matter to the organisation they are in, to the people they serve, to the goals they are seeking to achieve. And while this may be a 'truism' at a general level, there is clear evidence that this is true in schools. Schools need leaders (both those in formal and informal roles), and schools with good leaders are better places for our young people. In fact, certain leadership practices have been linked to better outcomes for young people from all backgrounds.


For leaders to be effective they require access to a toolkit of understandings, skills, resources and supports that is fit for the context they are leading in. Many of these 'tools' are carried in leaders heads, or are on the end of the phone, or on their bookshelves, or a part of their online support network. But one of the greatest of these tools (if you can call it that) that leaders have at their disposal are the relationships they are able to form with those around them. These relationships form the 'glue' that takes them through the good and the bad, the times when things are going smoothly, and when they are not.


The Leadership Best Evidence Synthesis (BES) written by Robinson, Hohepa and Lloyd call this aspect of leadership relational trust (see chapter 8). Relational trust can be strengthened or weakened. Gained or lost. And the effects of high or low trust have a real impact on teacher and community engagement / motivation, and ultimately students' academic outcomes. The BES delves into the qualities and leadership practices required to strengthen relational trust. But it is no surprise that the integrity, competence and skills such as listening and problem solving of leaders are critical. The diagram below comes from the BES and illustrates how relational trust works.

I believe in leaders and the important role they play. 


We need to find better ways to support our leaders and the changes they are seeking to lead for the good of our young people. We also need to find ways of better spreading ideas and innovations that are taking place in our schools. In this way our leaders will have access to an even broader toolkit to foster learning environments focussed on growing the confident and connected students we all seek.