Time to call it a day?
Readings
week 2 July 2019
Our
Leading-Learning blog has a long history.
It began as Primary Arts Magazines set up by
Wayne Morris and Bruce in 1980. Over 25 editions were printed. They were hand compiled and posted and when subscribers got over 500 it was all too much.
The premise of the magazine was to share the ideas of creative teachers – teachers who were developing student centred programmes with an emphasis on using the local environment, the importance of the creative arts and develop stimulating room environments featuring student work.
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| Some of the 25 Primary Art Magazines |
The premise of the magazine was to share the ideas of creative teachers – teachers who were developing student centred programmes with an emphasis on using the local environment, the importance of the creative arts and develop stimulating room environments featuring student work.
Wayne
and Bruce then developed a website in the 90s with an associated e-zine which
was sent out to 4000 members – this worked well until, with a change of web master the
e-zines were rejected as spam by many schools.
At
this stage Bruce established the Leading–Learning blog in 2004 and in later
years Allan Alach joined him in this. 1569 blogs have been posted with a total
of 2 million visits.
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| Let's do it! |
Tomorrows
Schools have had a corrosive effect on school collaboration
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| End of sharing |
We
now feel that it’s time to call it a day as we no longer have any real contact
with schools and we also feel that schools have been hi-jacked by standardised
teaching, an over emphasis on literacy and numeracy (nine years of National Standards
has all but killed real creativity in primary schools). We wrote about this
sharing Professor Peter O‘Conner’s view in our last blog.
The last straw.Above a impersonal school report with a antiquated narrow focus from a large school. The sign of a system gone terribly wrong. What gifts and talents have been developed? What key competencies have been identified and amplified?
The last straw.Above a impersonal school report with a antiquated narrow focus from a large school. The sign of a system gone terribly wrong. What gifts and talents have been developed? What key competencies have been identified and amplified?
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| Matt Damon teacher mother - see report above!!! |
It
is an interesting challenge to reflect on the influences that have contributed
to your educational philosophy - this would make an interesting staff meeting topic?
Bruce’s creative education journey
Bruce has had a long career as a school adviser beginning in the 60s – first in science then in art. Bruce and Allan Alach were both influenced by philosophy expressed in the inspirational book In the Early World written by Elwyn Richardson. Thankfully the book has been recently reprinted by the NZCER and we recommend all schools buy a copy.
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| Some of Bruce's publications |
TheArt Advisers, established by Dr Beeby, assumed an important role in spreading the
ideas of creative teachers. The art advisers ran related arts programmesthroughout New Zealand, one of which Bruce attended. The arts are vital to
ensure students a positive sense of self – through art, language, music and
dance.
Teachers
in rural schools introduced the first integrated programmes moving away from
the heavily timetables programmes, with an emphasis on literacy and numeracy, of the
day. Schools, under the pressure of National Standards, have move back to these
programmes.
Four
other influences.
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| The Taranaki Findings |
The
second influence was the open education movement from the United States which had a
similar student centred inquiry philosophy and led to the development of open
plan schools. John Holt’s books HowChildren Learn and How Children Fail were key books and more relevant than
ever.
The third influence came from the lateKelvin Smythe and his holistic developmental approach. Kelvin believed
strongly in the importance of the affective in education and deplored
the current fetish of objectivity.
The
final influence was Bruce’s involvement with the University of Waikato School of Education Learning in Science Project – essentially an inquiry model
that valued students’ prior ideas and set out to challenge them.
It
was an amalgam of the above ideas that Bruce developed as a classroom teacher,
school principal and later working as a school adviser for Massey University
School of Education and then independently throughout NZ and internationally. At this point Bruce
met up with Allan Alach, then a school principal, who shared similar ideas.
The
centrality of the creative classroom teacher.
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| John Holt gives up on schools |
In the late 70s one of our open education ‘gurus’John Holt, (author of How Children Learn and How Children Fail),
disappointed us by giving up on schools ever being transformed in his book
‘Instead of Schools’.
It
didn’t deter us them but we have now almost reached the same conclusion. Almost, because we know
there are still teachers out their battling on, and with the change ofgovernment, maybe the spirit of the 2007New Zealand Curriculum will be implemented. Maybe? We have done our best.
What has really changed the past three decades - not much in our opinion - that is if you ignore the false promise of modern technology which is no 'silver bullet' and more often a distraction an also the recycling of open plan schools of the 70s with modern learning environmnts.
What has really changed the past three decades - not much in our opinion - that is if you ignore the false promise of modern technology which is no 'silver bullet' and more often a distraction an also the recycling of open plan schools of the 70s with modern learning environmnts.
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| Not Literacy and numeracy and not tiresome assessment |
The
other day Bruce was asked what would he do
if he had a magic wand to transform schools?
Bruce
has always believed the challenge of schooling was to identify, develop, amplify and
enhance to gifts and talents of all students.
The word education comes from ‘to bring the gifts out’. This view is
reflected by Sir Ken Robinson’s quote ‘creativity is as
important as literacy and numeracy’ and also Guy Claxton who has said
‘learnacy is as important as literacy and numeracy’.
Making certain
students’ developed positive attitudes towards all areas of learning would need
to be assured.
The
role of school is to create those conditions that make students want to learn;
not have to learn but want to learn more about self, others, and the world. The
teacher’s role is to help the learner
forge connections between what he or she
wants to know and what a learner wants to learn.
What
if we started with the premise that school could be the most interesting place
in a young person’s life? The challenge is to create experiences
and contexts in classrooms where students can discover things they don’t know
they love by implementing project that spur creativity, ownership and
relevance.
Learning
experiences would need to feature real experiences
through the senses and that
information technology can be integrated in such learning but that it is no
‘silver bullet’ in itself.
Projects
would be based around students’ questions, value their current theories, and
challenge
them to consider new views. This does
not leave studies to students to decide – the teacher’s role is best summed up
by Jerome Bruner ‘teaching is the canny art of intellectual temptation’.
Literacy and numeracy would be learnt through real contexts and help given as an when necessary.The current emphasis has not improved our reading scores on international tests and maths still creates a feeling of maths anxiety. So much current teaching is based on the premise that without teachers students wouldn't learn - time to create the conditions and trust students do what they do naturally - learn!
Literacy and numeracy need to be re-imagined as foundation skills best learnt in real contexts .
The artistry of a creative teacher.
Bruce believes that the feeling from completing an excellent piece of learning - exceeding ones personal best - in any Learning Area is the most powerful motivation of all. Helping students who exhibit lack of ability/interest achieve a sense of pride in any activity is the artistry of a creative teacher - a teachers who is able to slow the pace of work to allow positive interactions
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| Valuing student questions and theories |
Literacy and numeracy would be learnt through real contexts and help given as an when necessary.The current emphasis has not improved our reading scores on international tests and maths still creates a feeling of maths anxiety. So much current teaching is based on the premise that without teachers students wouldn't learn - time to create the conditions and trust students do what they do naturally - learn!
Literacy and numeracy need to be re-imagined as foundation skills best learnt in real contexts .
The artistry of a creative teacher.
Bruce believes that the feeling from completing an excellent piece of learning - exceeding ones personal best - in any Learning Area is the most powerful motivation of all. Helping students who exhibit lack of ability/interest achieve a sense of pride in any activity is the artistry of a creative teacher - a teachers who is able to slow the pace of work to allow positive interactions
Bruce
also believed we do not have an ‘achievement gap’ but more an ‘opportunity gap’ – the school’s role is to
create the conditions to give every learner the opportunity to learn through
having positive experiences (this would mean the banning of ability
grouping).
The
teachers appointed would need to align all their interactions with their
students behind such ideas. Teachers would be selected also for their diverse set of
interests because Bruce believes that we learn from the company we keep areas of learning would need to be assured.
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| An exciting room |
The
total environment is the ultimate teacher.
Bruce
sees the total culture developed as the best teacher. Establishing a
‘tempting’ environment to attract students’ curiosity is the challenge for
teachers. To achieve this the schools
needs to be envisaged as an amalgam of an artist’s studio, a
science/technology lab, a media centre, drama and music areas, and plentiful
areas to exhibit and display student creativity – an educational Te Papa
– where students and teachers work together in teams solving problems and
displaying their results for all to see.
And
as for assessment – just check out the portfolios of the students’ involved.
The concept to be valued is for every student to better their own ‘personal
best’.
Imagine
how schools would be transformed if such ideas were implemented?
Bruce
Hammonds
Allan Alach
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| Current education |
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| Display of work |
This week's Readings
Professor
Peter O’Connor’s article about the killing of creativity.
Educational
Transformation.
The importance of the arts in the development of the self
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| Most important question |
Helping
the students answer the question who am I?
How to organize the school day in a
21st Context
The
need to slow the pace of work the key to quality
It's
our responsibility to keep the creative arts alive
Schools
must ensure that the creative arts aren't squeezed out and that the temptation
to narrow the curriculum doesn’t win
Schools
are rethinking classroom design to encourage collaboration, creativity
In
which Pooh looks for a 21st Century Education Part 3
Another
instalment from Kelvin Smythe’s ATTACK series that he completed just before he
died:
‘The pure, uncomplicated
expression of education values that follows has its origin deep in our
culture.
But, particularly from the mid-thirties, there was a coming together of events,
ideas and people including the depression, the election of a Labour government,
the political education leadership of Peter Fraser, the ideas of John Dewey,
progressive education thinkers from England, the influence of New Zealand
educationists like Clarence Beeby and, tellingly for what follows, Gwen
Somerset, a New Zealand-born primary teacher and infant mistress.’
http://bit.ly/2XEC2QF
Maybe, one day, all schools will truly be student centred and creative - developing the gifts and talents of all students.
