A must read for educators |
While schools are distracted by ensuring they are seen to do
well in achieving / improving their National Standards and NCEA data they are
creating the very hyper-accountability conditions that make it difficult for
creative teachers.
It seems that improving education now depends on what
politicians think is right and what is popular with the voters. Now National Standards are in place (although we
wait for National Tests, League Tables and teacher Performance agreement based
on the data produced) schools now are going to be sorted out by a system of
collaboration ( reminds me of WW2 France) led by ‘super’ teachers and principals. On
the surface this is another populist policy but essentially it is all about
bringing schools into line with government policy.
Sir Paul Callahan |
We will have to wait until a future government wakes up to
the fact that our survival depends on tapping the talents and passions of every
learner. As the late Sir Paul Callahan said we need to keep and attract all the
talent we can if we are ever to be an innovative country.
A new book ‘Creating Innovators- the Making of Young People
who will Change the World’ by Tony Wagner provides a real alternative if
schools are really going to develop an innovation-driven economy.
His book moves us away from current reform (really
tinkering with a failing system) and leads us into thinking about educational
transformation. Few of Wagner’s innovators associated their success with their
formal schooling but all valued the encouragement of a mentor and their parents
who gave them ‘creative confidence’.
In his book he profiles some of America’s young innovators
and reveals the conditions that nurtured their creativity and sparked their
imagination while teaching them to learn from failures and persevere.
Wagner
identifies patterns that educators could emulate in their classrooms. The
innovative individuals all had a childhood that involved creative play and the
fostering of deep-seated interests which eventually blossomed into deeper
purpose for career and life goals. Play, passion and purpose are the forces
that drive such innovators.
Ann Marie Murphy |
Although a book focussing on secondary education Wagner
writes that the best model for schools are creative kindergartens before
schools begin to grade, test, measure and
sort and, in the process, consign many students to educational failure.
Current reforms focussing on standardisation is not the answer. The challenge is to set up systems that allow students to follow their interests – something Ann Murphy writes passionately about.
Wagner challenges schools to emulate this knowledge to
compensate for poor schooling.
He believes America needs to create an education system that will create the next generation of innovators. Finnish education is one that Wagner admires – the Finns 40 years ago transformed their education system.
He believes America needs to create an education system that will create the next generation of innovators. Finnish education is one that Wagner admires – the Finns 40 years ago transformed their education system.
Wagner identifies the vital features of innovative schools
and workplaces:
He asks, ‘what are the capacities that matter most for innovation and how are they best taught?’ And he worries that currently we do not measure any of the skills that matter most. We need a different answer – a system to create ‘a hyper-imagination- enabling society’.
- have developed cultures of collaboration
- based on interdisciplinary problem solving
- and intrinsic motivation.
He asks, ‘what are the capacities that matter most for innovation and how are they best taught?’ And he worries that currently we do not measure any of the skills that matter most. We need a different answer – a system to create ‘a hyper-imagination- enabling society’.
Wagner quotes Sir Ken Robinson who describes how curiosity
and creativity are ‘educated out of us’ and that we need schools to develop
such attributes – attributes that are the default ways the very young children learn. It seems it is all too easy to stifle innovation Read what Alison Gopnik has to say about how the very young learn – in one word through play ( children she writes are true scientists.)
.
Those few creative teachers who value students’ natural way
of learning ought to be the ones we ought to look to – instead they all too often are ignored even within their own schools.
New Zealand has a long history of, all toooften ignored, creative teachers to gain inspiration from – Elwyn Richardson being one such individual. Teachers who focussed on creating a innovative student centred
culture: learning through discovery, through enlightened trial and error,
through focusing on children’s; interests and through the provision a balance
of freedom and structure.
The innovators Wagner studied had all learnt the most important skill of all ‘the ability to learn on their own’. All couldn't stand the tedium of school.
The innovators Wagner studied had all learnt the most important skill of all ‘the ability to learn on their own’. All couldn't stand the tedium of school.
Transforming the classroom experience at every level is
essential to develop the capacities of young people to become innovators.
We need to ‘give them rich experiences and develop their confidence to explore, question, test, experiment, and push on the boundaries of relevance.’ Things not valued in our current school system – and this applies to teachers as well.
We need to ‘give them rich experiences and develop their confidence to explore, question, test, experiment, and push on the boundaries of relevance.’ Things not valued in our current school system – and this applies to teachers as well.
We need to create a movement to combat the current press for
standardisation and accountability and create the conditions to empower creative teachers – teachers who can integrate learning with the power of information
technology and create a new system based on the personalisation of learning.
And if you want to learn more about how schools are failing
our students – particularly those form impoverished backgrounds listen to Geoffrey
Canada’s impassioned TED talk.
Canada
asks why school systems look so similar to how they looked 50 years ago?
Students were shown to be failing then. He believes it is because we cling to an
industrial age model that clearly doesn’t work. He is asking for systemic shifts
in order to help a greater number of kids excel.
Take the time to listen to two powerful inspirational TED talks by Sir Ken Robinson if you are still not convinced
Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving
case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines)
creativity.
Sir Ken believes that current education dislocates students from
their talents and to transform education we need to challenge what we take for
granted. His advice is similar to Tony Wagner and Karen Olsen and the kind of
education seen in kindergartens and in the rooms of creative
teachers. .http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativityThe talk above has been watched by over 29 million views.
Below is his poignant, funny follow-up to his fabled 2006 talk, Sir Ken
Robinson makes the case for a radical shift from standardized schools to
personalized learning — creating conditions where kids' natural talents can
flourish.
Sir Ken asks teachers to question what teachers take for
granted. Such things: as the use of ability grouping, sorting and streaming ofstudents; fragmented subject provision, obsessive testing and assessment; and a
focus on literacy and numeracy to the exclusion of the arts, technology and creativity; and the side-lining
of students interests, talents and passions
Kirsten Olsen author of the book ' Wounded by School-recapturing the Joy in Learning and Standing up to
the Old School Culture' brings to light the devastating consequences of an
educational approach that values conformity over creativity, flattens
student's' interests, and dampens down differences among learners. Olsen's book
shows that current schooling does not favour all students and tends to shame,
disable and bore many learners.
We need to consider how schools need to be changed based on
new conceptions of learning assisted by the potential of new
technology. Schools ought to models of learning organisations not monuments to
past thinking
Let's get back to implementing the 2007 New Zealand Curriculum and ensure every student leaves school 'a seeker, user and creator of their own knowledge'.
1 comment:
Let's hope the NZ Labour Party returns the emphasis back to the enlightened 2007 New Zealand Curriculum and gives schools ( at all levels) the challenge to encourage and foster their students talents.
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