Design Challenge: Human Factors & Your Ideal Learning Space

This year I've been taking a course from HarvardX: GSE2x called Leaders of Learning.  One of my favourite professors from the Instructional Rounds program I did at HGES was Dr. Richard Elmore.  He is the main facilitator of Leaders of Learning, along with teachers' and principals' voices from the field, and guest speakers such as Prakash Nair, a renowned architect of schools for the 21st century.  My final project is to design a learning space based on my theory of learning, and my experiences over the past 27 years in public education.  

Interestingly, in our designs we are tasked with considering aspects of being human that are  similar to the domains that Stuart Shanker uses to organize his ways of describing factors that can influence a persons ability to self-regulate.  These are the biological, social, pro-social, cognitive and emotional domains.  

I'll also try to incorporate the OECD Principals of Learning and the First People's Principles of Learning.

To these seven principals have been added three more dimensions for Innovative Learning Environments.  Powerful learning environments innovate at the pedagogical core, become "formative organizations with strong learning leadership" and are open to partnerships with community, higher education, businesses and cultural organizations.  (Schooling Redesigned: Toward innovative learning systems, p. 24-25.)

The First People Principles of Learning add an important cultural dimension for Canadian learners, not inconsistent with the OECD principles, but adding the recognition of generational, spiritual and place-based knowledge.

Margaret Paxton

Vancouver, BC, Canada

June 12^th, 2019

My ideal school would be in a setting that allowed exploration of the natural environment as well as outdoor spaces that could be cultivated as gardens, meeting places, a mediation labyrinth, and places for sitting, reading and writing, conversing.

There would be a school building for shelter, safety, and learning together.  It would be seismically sound, energy efficient, and built with sustainable materials.  The colours would be neutral, with some soft pastel tones, and textures would vary – smooth surfaces, rougher grains, fabric in places, few hard edges.

Many windows would be strategically placed to maximize natural light.  No fluorescent light would be used and most rooms would have doors opening to the outside. Garage doors, sliding doors, awnings for shelter in the sun or rain, would decrease the barriers between inside and out.

The foyer of the building would be welcoming and warm. Off of the foyer would be a comfortable large group meeting area with tiered seating like an amphitheater for presentations of learning, performances, assemblies, and so on.

The rest of the building would have different kinds of spaces for larger and smaller group meetings, to allow for both learning circles and quiet conversations.  There would be comfortable furniture for sitting, standing, relaxing or being alert and focused.  Resources would be organized, but not subject specific.  Many loose parts and supplies for creative representation would be available as well as tools, both electronic and manual.  Books would still be relevant and valued and used with all ages.

Teachers would be responsible for building relationships with all students, but directly responsible for a a number that would vary, perhaps fifteen for children under 10 and 25 for children between 11 and 16. They would meet every day, giving themselves an agreed upon mutual name that connected them to place.  The Dogwood group, the Salmonberry class.

Students would learn literacy, numeracy, communication, thinking, and social/emotional skills in small groups with peer and teacher support.  Part of everyday would involve some students demonstrating mastery by teaching other students – not necessarily older teaching younger.  Parents, grandparents and other adult mentors would be welcomed in this community of learning.  

Beyond the instruction of core competencies, learners would have the opportunity to participate in authentic and purposeful, cross curricular projects.  In fact, there would be little subject specific instruction.  Rather, learners would develop and recognize expertise in different areas when needed.  Projects would have real-world applications, be subject to critical assessment and feedback, and would be celebrated by the whole learning community.

Arts, culture, physical literacy and ecological impact would be woven into every project.  Learners would be allowed time to prototype, fail, persevere and reflect on their learning.  

Regular rituals and traditions would be a hallmark of this school, and a strong sense of belonging cultivated and enhanced with displays, photographs, and other multimedia representations.

Teachers would meet daily, weekly and monthly in order to discuss learner development, problem-solve, brainstorm, share samples of student learning, and reestablish relationships, trust, shared purpose and collective efficacy with one another.

Conflicts between learners (including adults) would be resolved with conversation, sometimes mediated, always respectfully and without blame and shame.

My ideal school would be a home away from home, or an extension of home.  I cannot imagine a future way of learning for children that does not involve a physical building, adult mentors, and certain structures that demand some compliance. Is that possible or necessary?  If one aim of school is to prepare children to be contributing members of a democratic society I am not sure we can without a way to group them and teaching them about human interdependency and our relationship to the whole planet, not just the place we inhabit.  

So what does a school staff do when they have a building and want to tear down walls, but cannot.  At my current school we began to look at how we couple repurpose rooms and create micro environments within rooms.  We wanted to give students choice in how and where they worked, read, learned.  We also removed all of the school bells from the day, only keeping those to call students in off the playground after recess and lunch.  We ourchased noise-cancelling headphones for students who wished to use them. We bought lamps for classrooms to reduce the need for the overhead fluorescent lights.  We got rid of about 200 desks, and bought tables, high and low, with flexible seating, or places to stand and work.  We invested money and time in our outdoor classroom to make it a useful learning space.   

                                         

In conclusion, we have found that giving students options and providing them with more comfortable ways and places to work, increases their ability to self-regulate, their stamina for work and their engagement in the task.  In Canada, we do not use standardized tests to measure achievement.  However, from teacher observation and students’ own self-reporting, we feel that there is a different kind of thinking and problem-solving going on – more so than before.  And we think it is the kind of thinking that could not be measured on a standardized test at all. A sharp decrease in office referrals of the past four years has proven to be another result of our efforts.

In all, we think that we have demonstrated that a total rebuild is not necessary to create a space for teaching and learning that is like a home away from home.

Presence, Participation and Place: A reflection on Short Course II

Margaret Paxton

Reflections on Short Course II Experience

May 2019

Before writing about this past year of learning, I wanted to reflect back on our shared experience, at UBCO and in the community of Kelowna during the BCPVPA's Short Course II.

 

The Water Ceremony – Courage and Clarity

On our first day, we gathered on the shore of Lake Okanagan to take part in a Water Ceremony with Chief Roxanne Lindley.  There was circling, smudging and offering of tobacco and water brought from many places around the province to share.  This moving ceremony required presence, participation, and understanding the purpose and the place.

Building Connections as a Summit Family

After the ceremony, our Table Groups met in smaller circles, during which we shared our “Gifts of the Four Directions.” What emotional, spiritual, cultural and intellectual aspects of ourselves do we bring to share with others?

This: 

·      Took time

·      Required deep listening

·      Required us to be vulnerable – able to share our struggles, not just our successes

·      Was not about what we do or have done, but about who we are and who we can become.

Learning from David, David and Amelia

Back on campus over the next few days, we learned from David Istance, Amelia Peterson and David Weiss.  We wondered:

·      How could the OECD Principles of Learning enhance our schools?

·      How to help our students, teachers and other staff members flourish in a VUCA world (volatile, uncertain, chaotic and ambiguous)?

·     How can we learn from other regions about how to create new kinds of schools with human-centred systems design?

Field Experiences

During our visits to local, innovative businesses, we learned from people creating their own occupations, niches in the world. It was as if they we saying: 

“Here is something you didn’t even know you needed, 

and it’s going to change your life for the better.”

We began thinking about how we could infuse our schools with this energy and entrepreneurial spirit.

As the week drew to a close, participants made connections, shared ideas and made plans for the next steps in their learning journey. We committed to connecting with our table groups and supporting one another through the school year.

My Year of Learning

I began my first staff meeting with the story of meeting those young entrepreneurs.  I told my staff how inspired I had been to hear their stories, especially how school had influenced their development.  I confessed that the word “entrepreneur” to me connotes a business focused on making a profit.  I hoped that our students would be inspired to have the same imagination, creativity, growth mind-set and perseverance, but also a drive to make the world a better place. Our school’s inquiry has been around increasing student engagement and flexible learning spaces.  I wondered, how we could now use those flexible learning spaces to accelerate learning and build learner stamina.

One of the things I have been practicing as a school leader is how to find each individual’s entry point – personalizing and differentiating support for my staff.  One way I did this was by providing choice and “going with” teachers’ personal passions.  Thus, we have a working wood shop, an atelier for math/science/art exploration, and a very versatile outdoor classroom space. We also created micro-environments within classrooms.  They feel now more like family rooms.  

We believe that we have seen an increased stamina for learning, and an increase in collaboration and cooperation, both for teachers and students.  We’ve seen an increase in creativity and critical thinking – prototyping, working through many iterations, working with a growth mindset – not just “keep trying” but try different things. We’ve seen students inspiring each other.

The journey continues.  There are always more bridges to build, more obstacles to roll out of the way.  I am grateful to the colleagues and friends I met during Short Course II for inspiring me to “nudge with love,” both staff and students, and to be a “Possibility Broker,” a co-learner saying, “Yes!” to great ideas.  The best part of being a Short Course II facilitator was the reassurance that I am part of a community of educators who are highly invested, thoughtful and reflective about the craft of leadership and the quality of education in their schools and districts. 

Nuance

I've just finished reading Michael Fullan's new book Nuance. Here are three connections I made.

First:

"Joshua Cooper Ramo's (2016) Seventh Sense shows in detail how networks have become ubiquitous, shelter-skelter, impersonal and unpredictable....The "seventh sense" consists of the ability to connect with networks to see and feel 'forces that are invisible to most of us.'" p. 6

This reminds me of Margaret Wheatly’s description of the current time as VUCA:  volatile, uncertain, chaotic and ambiguous.  Nuanced leaders, Fullan says, have to be “experts in both networks and humanity.”  I think this points to a need for all of us to practice using our intuition and emotional literacy in all of our human interactions.

Second:

Sticky Change Process (p. 79)

1.     Use the group to change the group

2.     Precision over prescription

3.     Feedback: collaboration, candor, and autonomy

4.     Trust and interact vs. trust and verify

5.     See the forest and the trees

6.     Accountability as culture

When you use the group to change the group, the principal “creates a climate for all to learn including him or herself.”  Be a learner.

“Specificity matter.”  Be a clarifier.

“”Autonomy and collaboration are not mutually exclusive.”  Be a collaborative professional.

“You have to invest in trust before people have earned it.”  Act as if.

Be on the balcony and the dance floor.

Be coherent.Coherence is “the shared understanding of the nature of the work. Collective efficacy.

Third:

“Empathy for context is an essential requirement for making change with the people who live the context every day.” p. 114

This make me think of Dylan Wiliam’s reminder:  nothing works everywhere or all the time.  Everything is contextual and in the messy, human work of schools’ we can learn all the “best practices”, but still need the adaptive expertise to create the conditions for student success, one student at a time.

Learning for the 22nd Century

Yesterday, our staff attended a day of professional development with Apple Educators.  

For those of us that “grew up” using Microsoft products like Excel and Powerpoint, it was a big shift to begin to navigate Apple programs like Numbers and Keynote.  However, the more we practised the more comfortable we were, and I am motivated to spend time becoming more proficient.

At times during the day, however, I got a glimpse into the world of the struggling learner.  As I was given new tasks and introduced to unfamiliar language, I sometimes felt uncomfortable, embarrassed, frustrated and tempted to “shut down” and give up.  “This is too hard!”

I thought about our students and wondered who among them might experience these same feelings every day at school and what can we do about it.

Some thoughts for teaching:

Slow down.  We do not need to instantly absorb content and expect instant mastery.  Learning comes from having patience and time.  Give lots of practice time.  Promote experimentation.

Allow students to learn with a classmate. When I was sitting by a supportive colleague, my anxiety lessened and I learned more quickly with their gentle guidance.  Learning is a social process.

Wherever you are, that’s ok. Let’s teach students where they are, not where we think they should be. This means differentiating and personalizing learning.  It’s not a hard thing to do.  It’s just different from what we are used to.  One approach does not fit all.

During the keynote speech, one of the Apple Educators talked about the need for our students to become entrepreneurial in their thinking and habits.  The world is changing at such a rapid pace that we do not really know what future we are preparing them for.

I  looked up the definition of an entrepreneur:

A person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so.

Personally, I am not really interested in educating a generation of business people.  Not that we don’t need business people, but there are many other ways to make a living that are vital to society, such as teaching.  I want to teach children to make the world a better place, to thrive and flourish in whatever work that they choose. 

We do agree with the Apple Educator who said that the Core Competencies of communication, critical and creative thinking, inter- and intrapersonal skills, and social awareness are the survival skills of the  21st century.  In fact, some of our students will be around to see the advent of the 22nd century.  We need people who are agile, reflective, inventive, and yes, empathetic.

Looking around our school, I see many of the conditions that will help students become citizens of the 22nd century.  We are allowing time, conversation, and personalized learning with an emphasis on kindness and curiosity.  Teaching and learning are not exact sciences: they are hugely contextual.  If we keep an ethic of care and a commitment to seeing each learner as an individual at the core of all we do, we will succeed in our goal of fostering a love of learning in each student, which will certainly help them navigate the rapidly changing world.

Happy New Year

Today McNeely students learned who their 2018 - 2019 teacher would be.  No doubt about it - there was some anxiety and trepidation!

Even our teachers were nervous:  Will my new students like me?  Will parents be happy?  Will I be able to meet the needs of all of my learners?

Our students also felt anxious:  Will I have friends in my class?  Will I fit in?  Will it be too hard/too easy?  Will my teacher like me? If I am staying with my teacher for a second year, does that mean I failed? (No, it means your teacher loves you, and believes that he or she has more learning to share with you.)

Parents felt anxious, too:  Will my child be happy?  Will my child be challenged? Will my child be supported?

Change is hard. More and more, I wonder why, in Canadian public education, we are still following the agricultural calendar that has determined school schedules for over 150 years.  We spend all of June winding the whole thing down, only to spend much of September winding it all up again.

I dream of a day when schools can be more flexible, responsive, practical for families, with reasonable breaks in the school year, without the learning loss that results from the eight weeks off.

Every single McNeely teacher has gifts to share with every child in our school. We are lucky.  All of our students are cared for, loved, celebrated for their talents and supported in areas in which they need to grow.  I hope our families feel the same confidence as I do - in our ability to provide a strong foundation of learning, an emphasis on social/emotional development, and a desire to foster the characteristics of global citizenship.

We are all Mustangs.

Team Courage

This summer I had the privilege of learning with a group of inspiring educators from around BC.  These committed principals and vice-principals gave up a week of their summer to take part in the BCPVPA's Short Course II Summit, held at UBCO.

Leading parts of our learning:  Dr. David Istance (retired from OECD), Amelia Peterson from Harvard, Dr. Sabre Cherkowski (UBCO) and Dr. David Weiss (author of Innovative Intelligence).

Facilitating our conversations and organizing us all:  Jessica Antosh, Liz Bell from the BCPVPA, Terry-Lee Beaudry and Jamie Robinson (SD#23).  Kevin Reimer (Executive Director) and David DeRose (President) of the BCPVPA were also in attendance.

We also heard from the Ministry of Education through Scott MacDonald (Deputy Minister) and Pat Duncan (Superintendent of Learning).

In the course of the week, we had many rich discussions about innovation in schools and how we can empower our students to be thriving, contributing global citizens.  We were excited to meet with local business leaders who are creating their own occupations by recognizing needs and filling gaps.  They spoke passionately about the growing need for employees who are hard-working, committed, loyal, flexible, inventive, creative, able to take risks, create prototypes, and pivot when necessary.  In essence, they want people who know how to fail well and rebound with vigour.

The small group of leaders with whom I worked amazed me with their courage and dedication to public education in BC.  Each member of our group was able to articulate a gap in their own practice and commit to working together to support one another in the coming year, using a spiral of inquiry framework.

I am proud to be an educational leader with such smart and caring colleagues and excited about the learning journey ahead.