Developing the creative habit.

Students need in depth experiences to learn the creative habit.

All creative artists know that creativity is the result of good work habits; that to achieve success requires discipline and practice.

One of the hardest aspects is starting, says creativity expert Robert Fritz, 'this is where we are most at peril of turning back, chickening quit, giving up, or going the wrong way.' Successful artists often develop strict routines to avoid putting creativity to one side.

There are moments of inspiration no doubt but most creativity is not a product of inspiration but what Fritz calls, 'a state of mind'. What really counts, he says, ' is the habit of creating when you don't feel like it, creating when the circumstances are not quite right, creating no matter what else is going on in your life.'

When Robert de Niro was asked what makes a great actor he replied, 'You've got to practice.' He goes on to say it takes real work to 'become' the part you are to play. So it is evident that the creative process takes practice rather than something one tries from time to time - it is more a way of life. 'Creating begets more creating', and, 'it doesn't matter what the subject matter is, be it a dance, a dramatic performance, or a life,' says Fritz.

If we really want to develop creative talented citizens with minds open to new ideas then schools would need to change dramatically and place developing a disciplined creative habit in all students at the centre of all they do. Creative people are able to live with a creative orientation rather than simply responding to prevailing circumstances.

The so called basics are obviously important but they must only be seen as important foundation and not the total focus of schooling. Someone ought to pass this idea on to John Keys , the Leader of the Opposition in New Zealand, whose latest plans to focus on testing literacy and numeracy seem to be leading us to the anti creative 'league tables' of the UK and testing mania of the USA.

Creativity is also required in mathematics and literature but it cannot be developed by an emphasis on a judgemental comparative testing programme. More worrying are the side effects ( seen in both the US and the UK) of such testing regimes leading to formulaic teaching and a narrowing of the curriculum which usually meaning a pushing out of creative subjects. As we enter a creative era this would seem a stupid step.

Creativity is an ideal way to help students learn to deal with failure and to learn from it. Mastery of any process takes time and we only get better as we practice our talents.

Creativity also 'teaches' that we are all different ( whereas testing compares everyone against the norm) and schools, if they were creative, should help each person find his or her own way of learning. This must be what is meant by 'personalised learning'?

Creative people don't get sidelined worrying about process ( another emphasis seen in too many of our schools). Creative people want to create something. They are always in some sort of 'creative tension' trying to realise what it is they are setting out to achieve using whatever circumstances come their way. They are in, what Fritz calls, 'a learning mode, ready to take failure and success as experiments to use as the foundations for future creating'. They are both detached and involved - immersed and able to step back to see how things are going. The ability to step back is the product of true involvement and is focused on tine creation not the creator.

It would be great if politicians appreciated that this creative learning habit is what learning is all about - not students achieving achievement levels or passing tests. But I guess it gets votes appealing to those who like simplistic answers to complicated problems.!

No wonder I can't think of any schools that are truly based on talent development and creativity.

'Triumph of the Airheads'

Author: Shelley Gare

It does seem these day that no one is very interested in serious issues and are only to happy to reduce serious arguments to black and white - anything to avoid thinking about an issue.

Consider the simplicity of either the Cambridge or the NCEA issue. The simple pass fail exam model is easier to understand than a model dedicated to giving all students a degree of success.

Or the current 'smacking bill' issue - a name developed by its opponents to stop thinking in its tracks.

After listening to author Shelley Gare this lightweight thinking makes sense - she calls it 'airhead thinking'.

She believes that we are creating a world of superficial airhead thinking. This, she believes, is a result of our education system, the flood of information technology, shallow lifestyle magazines, reality TV and uncontrollable consumerism. All these lead to a, 'look at me', or a, 'me first' society that refuse to take responsibility if things go wrong.

Two major trends have created the 'airhead problem'. One is the economic market rationalism of recent decades that makes financial wealth the ultimate mark of success. Everything has been reduced to simple measurement and accountability - if it can't be measured then it can't be important. The other trend is what has been called 'post modernism' . Old certainties have been replaced by a 'grab bag of values' - no value being more important than any other. This retreat into frivolity is compounded a general feeling of powerlessness to make a difference that many people feel.

The development of the 'triumph of airheads' is supported by neuroscience research which indicates as our brains are continually bombarded by information our ability to reflect is being eroded away. Our society is literally 'shaping our brains', what is not being used is 'pruned', and neural pathways develop to cope with the rush of information being developed. As a result we don't think deeply and are attracted to novelty and triviality. Gare calls this the 'Paris Hilton effect' or the 'Big Brother cult' where superficial attractiveness is almost all there is. Light entertainment is the name of the game; 'the attraction of the simple and the silly'. Narcism - too much about 'me', 'my' self esteem and a corresponding casualness, or empathy, about people in need.

As a result important issues are given little thought - often until it is too late. Climate warming, water shortage, the growing gap between the rich and the poor and the sustainability of the planet are all such issues. There is even, she believes, a dislike of the serious.

Education comes in for criticism as well. Gare believes that the eduction children get is to shallow as a result many students leave with poor communication skills particularly literacy and numeracy and with no real feeling or understanding of other people in the world.

I have sympathy with her view about education although I am not a 'back to basics' person , unless, that is a love of learning is seen as basic. Teachers have had to implement complicated technocratic measurable curriculums where what is really important (or basic) is all too often lost. It has become a game of trivial pursuits or achieving targets and has contributed to the 'dumbing down of our society'.

What is required to stop this drift into 'airhead- ism' is an education system that encourages students to study rich topics in real depth to avoid shallow thinking. And, to please people like Shelley Gare, students who have the ability to write , speak, read, do basic maths and, most of all, to think.

This shouldn't be too hard to do if the technocrats and their endless new answers to solve the problems that have they have created would get out of the way.

It is only in schools dedicated to quality in depth learning that students minds can be shaped, to develop the reflectiveness required, to face up to the important issues that threaten to overwhelm us.

In the meantime it seem as a society happy to play the fiddle while Rome burns.

Our brains , she says, have been forced underground while gullible 'airheads' rule supreme.

As Gare says, 'Certainly, I can't remember a time in my life when society seems to have been more willfully delighted by ignorance, more stupendously spendthrift, more mind-blowingly uninterested in anything but the self gratification possible in the next five minutes.'

Lets start doing fewer thing well in our schools and making thinking viable again.

Making a real difference!

Poutama, the 'Stairway to learning' tukutuku pattern.

Te Kotahitanga Project

While the general population is being distracted by conservative schools claiming that old fashioned Cambridge pass/fail exams are the way to the future rather than the new national Certificate of Education ( NCEA) where all students are able to gain credit for their learning, there are more important issues to focus on.

The focus ought to be on about how best to teach so all can learn - particularly the so called 'achievement tail'.

So it was great to hear Russell Bishop, University of Waikato, talking on national radio about the Te Kotahitanga project which is clearly demonstrating Maori student achievement; students who, all too often, make up the poor achievement tail.

If I were a secondary school principal, with students who are failing, I would be learning as much about this project as I could and not just for Maori students but for everyone.

And their is plenty of material to read. A good start would be the book 'Culture Counts' by Russell Bishop and Ted Glyn. What 'counts' is the culture of the students, their life experiences and their existing knowledge; what 'counts' is involving students and their parents in the learning process; what 'counts' are the relationships between teachers and their students; what 'counts' are the teaching strategies teachers use in their classrooms and what 'counts' is the total culture of the school.

All the above challenges the current traditional approaches of many schools.

For progressive, or creative teachers, little will seem new. Even though the focus is on Maori students the ideas are relevant for all learners. And it is in line with the idea of 'personalising learning'. It is all about changing the power relationships in schools.It is all about the importance of respectful relationships and placing the learner at the centre of his, or her, own learning.

Most of all it has been shown to be successful. Students are succeeding, teachers , who once might have felt overwhelmed, are seeing positive results; it is a 'win win' situation for everyone.

And at heart it is all very simple ( even if it is hard to change both teachers and students mindsets).

It comes down , according to Bishop, to the following points.

Teachers who demonstrate they care for their students.

Teachers who hold high expectation of all their students.

Teacher who are well organised and prepared.

Teachers who have changed the way they interact with their students; who provide commentary and feedback to learners; who work with students to co-construct learning; who value students prior ideas; and who introduce relevant learning experiences.

Teachers with an expanded range of teaching strategies - who have developed an informed teaching practice. Maori students prefer small group or one to one involvement.

Te Kotahitanga is an approach based on respectful relationships.

The role of the teacher is vital - all too often teachers hold, what Bishop calls, 'deficit theories' about their Maori students leading to poor performance. Teachers involved in the project, given appropriate support, have had no problem adapting. The problem of low achievement has been in the performance of the teachers rather than the students.

Rather than being distracted by the Cambridge or NCEA 'debate' we ought to be putting into practice the ideas as outlined by Bishop and his co researchers. And it is not that the ideas are in themselves new ( although their emphasis on Maori learning is ) but it is the proven results that 'count' the most.

For information check out Te Kotahitnga material on the Ministry of Education site and the Te Mana Korero 2 kit available in all schools called ' Teachers making a difference for Maori students.

It would be a shame if such great ideas were to be sidelined because they are seen as suitable only for Maori students.

About learning from John Cleese

Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind


John Cleese once spent ten enjoyable years, earlier in his life, as a history teacher but he says , 'today's educational trends which focus on specific metrics of accountability, represents a fundamental change in mindsets that demands some pretty outstanding creativity on the teachers part.'

Cleese writes that he has been interested in what makes people creative for over forty years. His first discovery about creativity was when he went to bed with a problem unsolved he would find that in the morning the solution had mysteriously arrived and, often, he couldn't remember what the problem had been in the first place. He thought this was, 'very strange.'

He then came upon research in the 30s about what makes people creative by Donald McKinnon, from Berkeley University, which found that most creative people had two characteristics . The first was a great facility for play.They would play with problems out of real curiosity not because they had to. And the second characteristic was they were prepared to ponder longer before resolving it. The more creative people had a 'childish capacity' to become timelessly absorbed in play when they were intrigued.

Cleese found this fascinating but counter intuitive as, he says, our current ethos dictates that the only real kind of thinking is quick, logical and purposeful. Any other kind being seen as sloppy, amateur, self indulgent and wasting time.

Cleese agrees that there is a time to do things quickly but feels hurrying has become a mind set. The assumption that the kind of thinking we should be using all the time is fast, purposeful, logical, computer type thinking is, in his, words, 'poppycock'

'We don't know where we get our ideas from', he writes, 'but it certainly isn't from our laptops.They just pop out of our heads somehow, from out of the blue.'

Cleese believes we all know this slower thinking works but we don't quite trust it so he was, 'overjoyed' to find a book 'Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind' by academic psychologist Guy Claxton. Claxton use the phrase 'hare brain' to to refer to the deliberate conscious thinking we do when we apply reason and logic to known data.'Tortoise mind', on the other hand, is more playful, leisurely, even dreamy. We ponder a problem rather than earnestly trying to solve it, by bearing it in mind as we watch the world go by.

Why Cleese asks, 'has the tortoise brain become neglected?' One reason he continues, is because the hare brain is articulate.It can explain itself because it is consciously aware of is own capacity. It can show the working as in a maths problem. The 'hare brain' can always justify itself.

Cleese believes we ought not to distrust the 'tortoise mind' because simply because it is not articulate, 'we must be willing to give it time to find ways to express itself before we let our articulate hare brain in to analyze it'.

He concludes by saying, 'when we are stuck, when we see we're just digging the same hole deeper, that's when we need to use our tortoise mind.I promise you, it will aways produce new ideas.'

Makes sense to me.

We can't measure or rationalize everything - certainly not the really important things. I have always believed that education is far to important to take seriously. Lets have some serious fun for a change.

Don't forget teaching!

Inspiring learning - the forgotten challenge

Recently we have seen schools appoint new Boards of Trustees. Boards of Trustees were introduced as the key element of 'self managing schools'. Democracy in action - appointed to represent the wishes of the local community they seem to have been lost the last decade or so in administration, finance, buildings and complying to endless compliance demands.

Any idea of influencing the direction of school philosophy and programmes has been well and truly lost. Some would say thank goodness.

Whatever, the emphasis now needs to be placed on teaching and learning - and responding to the particular needs of each individual student A new phrase has entered the educational ring - 'personalised learning' but, for those with long memories, it will sound very familiar. For those who have been 'colonised by managerialism and rational 'one size fits all' curriculums it will be either a challenge or an intellectual problem.

Schools never should have been distracted from their only important function - inspiring all children to retain and extend their natural love of learning.

Forget about how to run the school ( give BOTs the some administrative help to do this ) and for goodness sake get school to work together! A recent report on BOTs said the biggest issue in our schools was 'a lack of connectivity'! Self managing has become stand alone - or apart.

To develop inspirational schools BOTs ought to work with their teaching teams, students and the parent community to develop schools that really attract and engage all their students. It seems, at present, we know how to extend the more capable but have no idea about how to solve the long lack of achievement tail.

Creative teachers know how to inspire even the most reluctant students and always have but they need the trust and freedom to do so. Inspirational talented teachers are the key to future success. They need to be valued and put in touch with each other, other teachers and other schools so as to spread their wonderful ideas. We have had enough of education by distant committee, contracts, targets, audit cultures, imposition of incoherent curriculums and endless compliance requirements.

Up until now we have been busy re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic - worrying about weather antiquated Cambridge exams or complicated technocratic modules will win the day when the ship is sinking. It is obvious exams fail half the students ( that was their point - to sort the wheat from the chaff) and the module system, as it is currently implemented, is not inspiring many students who see it as a grab bag of bits and pieces.

Inspiring students , of any age, in tasks that really engage them and give them a chance to both develop their competence and their talents is the answer. The trouble is students can't be measured using old ideas of assessment - they can only be measured by what they can do, perform , create,and demonstrate and by their attitudes toward further learning.

The real challenge for BOTs is to create 'their' schools as creative learning communities for both 'their' teachers ( to attract and keep the best) and for students ( to develop each individuals set of talents) and they will have to work with other schools both to share and to gain new ideas.

Inspiring all learners to learn for learning's own sake is the real challenge or problem. As H L Menken , the American journalist once said, ' 'Serious problems often get easy solutions and the easy answers are always wrong.'

Time for some new thinking at the BOT level?

Accountability or 'Accountabalism'

Accountability is destroying creativity.

Accountability has gone terribly wrong says David Weinberger, a marketing consultant, whose latest book is named 'Everything is Miscellaneous'.

'Accountabalism' is the , 'practice of eating sacrificial victims in an attempt to magically ward off evil.'

Weinberger says we have been, 'lured by the myth of precision'. Accountabalism 'suggests there is a right or wrong answer to every question' and that we can measure all results exactly.

'Accountabalism' has well and truly spread to schools where compliance and the need to measure selected achievement targets to prove success is the name of the game.

Accountabalism, according to Weinberger, is premised on two seductive myths.

1 Systems go wrong because of individuals

2 The right set of controls will enable those who know best to prevent individuals from creating disasters.

The real problem of accountabalism is that accountability measures allow us to live in state of denial about how little control we as individuals have over our environment.

Accountabalism believes that when things go wrong the answer is to impose yet another level of accountability; more forms, more compliance. The trouble is this imposition is at the sacrifice of creativity , innovation and adaptability.

Schools will be well aware of the above problems.

Accountabalism assumes perfection. The trouble is organisations are not machines and even machines break down. Schools are not capable of anything near perfection so things 'go wrong' a lot. This is natural and does not mean the system is broken and does not require heavy handed compliance processes, or schools trying to self delude themselves by pretending all is well.

Accountabalism ignores human nature and, 'underestimates the twistiness of human minds and motivations.' Accountabalism refuses to 'acknowledge how people think and work differently' vital if creativity and initiative is to be encouraged.

As a result of all this mono cultures are created ( a 'one size fits all mentality') that are disastrous for innovation and, as well, it 'makes work no fun'.

So accountabalism, while it claims to increase individual responsibility ( the so called 'self managing' schools) , drives out professionalism and human judgement creating in the process low trust cultures with policies and procedures to follow for everything.

Accountabilism Weinberger says, 'has squeezed centuries of thought about how to entice people towards good behaviors' . Morality and professional judgement have been bureaucratized to the point that too many of us now believe we can exert any control at all.

As we move into a creative era our organisation, particularly schools, are encouraging a seriously dysfunctional compliance mindset.

What we need to do is to put pressure on those who have subverted our creativity and start to develop our schools as learning organizations capable of organic growth able to respond to the needs of their communities and students.

Down with accountability - up with creativity!

PS We have had enough of Ministry C.R.A.P. - Ministry continually revising all procedures.

It's about who can tell the best story.

The power of telling authentic stories -spreading an 'idea virus'.

The power of storytelling is now being recognised .

Rational sensible people believe that if you can produce enough, data, facts and information about anything people will believe whatever you are trying to convince them is the right course of action.

Not so, writes Seth Godin, author of an interesting book called"All Marketers are Lairs'. People are attracted by those who can tell the best stories and that this has always been the case. As our ancestors noticed things they invented stories to explain them . Real facts have little to do with such beliefs.

Such stories are seen as shortcuts when we are too overwhelmed with data. Believing stories make our lives easier even if stories can never tell the whole truth. To make things more interesting, Godin writes, some people cannot handle the truth. No one , he says, buys facts they buy a story. So if you want to sell, or spread, an idea you need to appreciate and respect what people believe no matter how irrational it may seem to you.

So success depends on telling great stories to capture people's imagination. Such stories are not necessarily true or factual but they need to be trustworthy, authentic, credible and consistent. And the less spelt out the better - stories are appreciated as first impressions matching the 'voice' of the listener and appealing to all the senses. Stories however will not appeal to everyone - they need to agree with the worldview of the listener and if they do will make the audience feel smart and secure. Once people believe in a story they then work hard to make them true.

If you are interested in telling, or marketing ideas, understanding the power of storytelling is vital. Children are educated, politicians elected, religions thrive, jobs gained and goods sold by stories believed ( for better or worse) .

Stories, once believed, are then hard to change no matter the truth. Sometimes there is almost no connection between what is actually there and what we believe. People , it seems, do not like changing the world views; this is the reason why the emperor got away with wearing no clothes! People hate admitting they're wrong.

Godin's book is all about how to tell great mind changing stories. The point he makes is that you are not in charge of people's attention - people will not listen unless it resonates with their and beliefs and biases. Even if they do listen to your story it will be distorted in the process to fit their beliefs.

So getting your story right is the issue - not the facts and figures.

The key is to understand people's 'world views', or 'frames of reference', and to appreciate you can't change a persons 'word view' by insisting on them understating the facts. The best way, Godin's writes, is to build on and amplify what people currently believe. Thankfully, even though we are all individuals, people 'clump together' into common worldviews that the story teller can build on - and to appreciate that each group wants to hear stories that support their own worldview.

The best story tellers are artists who are skilled on building on what people want.

There are messages in this book for a wide range of people from politicians to teachers - and it is important that story telling can be powerfully misused. Success depends on who tells the 'best' stories. Stories fail when the people, who once believed in it, decide it fails.

Godin's advice is to tell the best stories you can to the people at the 'edge' and not to aim to capture everyone - the rest will take care of itself. Once an idea becomes believed it will spread , Godin writes, like an 'ideavirus' in a fertile environment.

Without powerful stories old stories die hard. People don't like changing their minds. Godin's advice is to 'hook' ideas onto an old story.

If stories people believe are everything what is your story?

What is your school's story?

Do they need building on?

Learn to think the opposite!

The wrong way might be the right way!

While waiting to catch flight at Singapore Airport earlier this month I picked up a small book to fill in time called ,'Whatever you Think -Think the Opposite' by Paul Arden. Arden is the creative director at Saatch & Saatch in the UK.

The book is all about the benefits of making bad decision, shows how risk is your security in life, and why unreason is better than reason; how the wrong way to think is the right way to win.

'Original ideas', Arden writes, 'are created by original people, people who either through instinct or insight know the value of being different and recognise the commonplace as a dangerous place to be'.

Too many people try to make decisions based on facts and evidence but the trouble with sensible decisions is that everybody else is making the same decision. If you aways make the 'right', or the safe decision, says Arden, everybody else is also making the same decision and you will end up the same as everybody else.

Making the same decision is dull, predictable and leads nowhere new.The unsafe decision he says,'causes you to think and respond in a way you hadn't thought of', and in the process, 'will take you to a place where others only dream of being.'

Arden believes you ought to be in charge of your own life and that you ought to learn to, 'rock the boat.' Unfortunately in the process of 'growing up' we reach the 'age of reason' and begin to think in more adult ways - risk then becomes something that must be carefully considered.

Being unreasonable is required to thrive, says Arden, quoting George Bernard Shaw, 'The reasonable man adapts himself to the world.The unreasonable man adapts the world to himself.All progress depends on the unreasonable man.'

Knowledge makes us play safe, the secret he says, is to stay childish - I prefer childlike.

Too many people spend too much time gathering data before they actually do anything. Arden's advice is 'to run with what you have got, and fix it up as you go'. So much for all this nonsense about evidence based teaching if you want to develop imaginative and creative students.

It is all about how you present yourself. 'Most people are other people, their thoughts are someone elses opinions, their lives a mimicry', says Arden, quoting Oscar Wilde.

So , he asks, what is your point of view? Advances in any field are built upon people with a personal points of view. The prevailing point of view is what the majority think. Having the courage to stand up for your own point of view in the face of public opinion is what makes you a winner.

If ideas are fresh and new you can't expect others to like them straight away - ideas have to be applied before they are recognised as good ideas. Oddly, Arden says, the people who struggle most are often the ones who eventually become the most successful.

Going to university, he says, is all to often a delaying tactic. Go to work, is his advice, and do your learning in the school of life. Solving problems is the exciting part, not knowing the answers. Good marks will not secure you an interesting life - only your imagination will.

Arden concludes his stimulating book by asking readers to simply change their lives. The world, he says, it what you make it. So think different and your life will change.

A good read for schools and Ministry technocrats who seem determined to destroy the idiosyncratic talents and imagination of their most creative students by their obsession with sensible planning and obsessive accountability.

As we enter an age of creativity it is time to be unreasonable I think.

If you think you can - you can!

It's all in the mind!


As Henry Ford once said. 'If you think you can or you think you can't - you're both right.'

Recent research by Stanford Professor Carol Dweck and her colleagues , published in her book ,'Mindset: The New Psychology of Success', recommends that students need to become aware of how their brains work.

She suggests:

• That we teach our students to think of their brains as a muscle that strengthens with use forming new connections every time they learn.This certainly fits in with those who hold a constructivist view of learning.
• That we teach students appropriate study skills and convey to them that by using these methods it will help their brains learn better.
• That we should discourage using labels ( and streaming) that convey to students that their intelligence is fixed.
• That we should encourage students to appreciate that there is wide range of ways of being intelligent - schools that are aware of Howard Gardner's research on multiple intelligences will be aware of this. Schools that focus on narrow literacy and numeracy targets will be giving students the wrong message.
• Teachers ought to focus more on student's effort, strategies and progress rather than praising their talent or intelligence . Students need to see mistakes as positive rather that negative events - something to learn from and not to fear making
• Most of all teachers need to give students relevant challenging work that students see as fun.

Everybody ( including teachers) should be seen as capable of growth - that everyone has their own mix of strengths and weaknesses. Everyone should be rewarded for their love of learning ( a phrase originally in our NZ draft curriculum but removed - to hard to measure?). All learners should be rewarded for making an effort and for asking for help.

This brain friendly teaching also requires that teachers learn to 'do fewer things well' so as to allow students to value the need to learn in depth. And it requires projects that are open ended, even messy, to match the kind of learning that brains are stimulated by in 'real life'.

If we take this advice then, Dweck believes, we will change the metal model of our students ( and their teachers) and allow students' brains to learn better, learn more, and make more connections.

This is the kind of learning behavior we will need for a creative era.

Imagine

Imagine by John Lennon.

Imagine if we could start from scratch to really design a school system for a creative age.

All too often 'reforms' are attempts to sort out problems created by previous reforms and are akin to trying to patch up the Titanic!

What if schools weren't organised in traditional ways?

Take a look at a nearby secondary school - consider they were designed to produce students for an industrial era and owe much of their thinking to a past factory age mentality.

Consider why are school holidays and hours are organised as they currently are? Why is learning fragmented and timetabled the way it is?

Why is there such a difference between primary and secondary school approaches - and need this be so? Why do schools work independently of each other and in isolation from their communities?

In the United Kingdom such questions are being asked by the Innovations Unit of their education department and outlined in their booklet 'Next Practice in System Leadership'.

It would seem that we need to merge the expertise and pedagogy of primary and secondary teachers and to develop a more unified years 1-12 approach.

In the UK a range of scenarios are being attempted. In one village a school has been established combining a primary and a secondary school with a whole village leadership structure. In another area a secondary school and its feeder schools are establishing a whole town delivery of of educational services.

The landscape of school leadership is changing. Headteachers are taking on the responsibility of leading more than one school in forms of partnerships and federations. By doing this they are able to provide a diverse range of integrated services to their students.

Such developments might be a glimpse of a future in where the whole idea of 'school' might be 're-imagined'.

Such developments would need centralised support and encouragement. Pilots groups could well be established in an attempt to pioneer more effective models for the future.

Once educationalists start to think of new models all sorts of ideas would emerge some of which might provide exciting alternatives to the current traditional system - a system which is obviously currently failing too many students.

Those who are interested in such ideas ought to download a booklet by Michael Fullan on System Thinkers . In this publication Fullan writes that in the future school heads have to be as concerned about the success of other schools as that are about their own school. He believes that sustainable improvement of schools is not possible unless the whole system is moving forward. Over the years he has come concerned with: developing networks to share better practice; the radical concept of personalising learning ( fitting the curriculum to the learner and not vice versa) ; and now he is thinking about wider developing systemic changes as outlined above.

He believes that most current initiatives amount to adjustments to the current system rather than a new and more fundamental way of working necessary if we are to move beyond success gained by imposing 'informed prescriptions' on schools - the success of which is now plateauing out due to lack of ownership of the schools themselves.

The role of the centre ,writes Fullan, is to set up the conditions for cultivating the wisdom of the system - to mobilize that the ingenuity and creative resources of the whole system to develop a 'collective commitment'.

He says we have an ingenuity gap - and that we can't rely on whatever 'wisdom' is able to rise to the Ministry levels! Fullan is asking for a return of moral purpose to our system. Solutions he writes can only be solved locally but not independently.

Tapping and sharing the wisdom of schools and teachers will not be easy as politicians prefer short term ad hoc solutions. If collective wisdom can be tapped a new creative commitment could be developed to achieve system transformation.

Such a transmission of our antiquated system would be exciting.

Creative leadership at all levels will be vital.

As John Lennon sang - imagine if!

India's Active Learning Vision

India - a country on the move.

India, writes Richard Hanzella ( President of the ascd) is a democratic country on the move (only China is growing faster). India is becoming an economic force to be reckoned with.

India, he says, may be a messy chaotic country but it is progressing on all fronts including education. Education is being seen as a way of developing an India with one 'voice'.

Rather than worrying about test scores and achievement data as in the West ( and NZ) Indian educators are most concerned with developing students who are able to face future challenges as active learners says Hanzella. India has a National Curriculum with interesting guiding principles : the need to connect knowledge to life outside school; an avoidance of rote methods; enriching curriculum challenges rather than textbooks; and nurturing an over-riding identity informed by caring concern within the democratic policy of the country.

The Indian framework is all about enhancing children's natural desire and strategies to learn. It is all about meaningful and inclusive learning respecting each learner, including a strong emphasis on the arts at all stages as an important way to build a sense of one's self.

Social justice and equality are seen as vital as is the ability to respond to new situations in a flexible and creative manner with predispositions towards participation in democratic processes.

I may look an impossible ask but, according to Hanzella, the Indian will is strong and the spirit engaged. He saw in all the diverse schools he visited similar goals being articulated.

He concludes by stating the Western emphasis on testing and achievement competence is taking us away from basic needs of learners. India's emphasis on learning, Hanzell writes, can encourage us all.

The Indian Curriculum Framework opens with a quotation from India's greatest poet Rabindranath Tagore:

'When I was a child I had the freedom to make my own toys out of trifles and create my own games from imagination...One day in this paradise of our childhood, entered a temptation from the market world of the adult. A toy bought from an English shop was given to one of our companions; it was perfect, big and wonderfully life like. He became proud of his toy and less mindful of the game; he kept that expensive thing carefully away from us, glorying in his exclusive possession of it, feeling superior to his playmates whose toys were cheap....One thing he failed to realize in his excitement ....that this temptation obscured something a great deal more perfect than his toy, the revelation of the perfect child. The toy merely expressed his wealth, but not the child's creative spirit, not the child's generous joy in his play, his open invitation to all who were his companions to his play-world.'

Is this what we are missing in New Zealand - the joy of learning with others for its own sake? Of the importance of imagination and creativity - all impossible to measure but easy to see.

Perhaps the new 'buzz phrase' of 'personalising' learning will put us, in the materialistic West, back on the right track?

It's ironic that while Asian countries are valuing the creativity and imagination they admire in the West the West is trying to compete with the Asian countries success in basic learning!

The Big Picture

An interconnected world.

It's been a while since I wrote a blog!

For the past three weeks or so I have been travelling in Vietnam. To fill in the flights and the various long bus trips I bought a book by Jared Diamond called 'Collapse', subtitled 'how societies choose to fail or survive', to amuse myself.

It turned out to be an ideal book to read in a 'third world' country because many of the points he makes were illustrated during my travels.

It has become apparent to me that there is no guarantee that the world as we know it will be sustained if we do not make some real choices. Civilisation as we know is at risk of collapsing - the thesis of Diamond's book.

He introduces his book by taking a close look at one of America's 'green' states Montana and shows that all is not well. The chapter is a warning for those in New Zealand who are complacent about our so called 'green clean' reputation. The water is not as clean as it should be and the soil not as pure ( due to mining) - Montana's case is model for the world.

The fate of Easter Island is a worse case scenario. The various chiefs competed for resources to build the famous heads in the process clearing all the trees and in turn their society - Easter Island is a powerful metaphor for the rest of the world.

Diamond outlines the failures of a range of cultures, big and small, ancient and modern, who have failed to survive for a variety of reasons as well as societies that have made better choices and have survived even in the most difficult of environments. Trees and water conservation lie behind success or failure of most societies plus the ability of people to learn from their experiences, other cultures, and not be blinded by beliefs and practices that are no longer appropriate.

The point he is making is that today, due to globalisation, (unlike earlier societies like Easter Island) all societies are connected and interdependent on each other. He believes there are lessons we can learn if we have the imagination to do from the success or failures of other societies otherwise we will all suffer the fate of Easter Island.

Vietnam represents a country with aspirations to becoming a 'first world' country . Add the giants China and India to the mix and 'we' will have pressure on resources that until now only the first world has been able to take advantage of. Deforestation and water pollution are two problems I observed but most obvious was the desire of a growing population to acquire all the material goods the West takes for granted - motor bikes and increasingly cars.

Diamond points out that: we are destroying our natural habitats at an increasing rate; wild foods especially fish are increasingly are at risk; that we are losing genetic diversity; that land is being washed away by erosion and ruined by salinisation; that the world energy sources and reserves are being depleted unwisely; that the chemical industry is providing unintended toxic consequences; that introduced 'alien' species are out of control in many parts of the world; that human activity is producing greenhouse gases contributing to global warming; and finally that the human population, although slowing, is still growing but worse still demanding resources and life styles once restricted to the West.

All these issues are apparent in Vietnam.

Sustainability will be become the only issue of real importance in the future but unfortunately it is a complex multi- dimensional problem. Unfortunately there are still many who believe that a faith in progress and technology will solve all our problems

Jared finishes his book with cautious optimism. There are positive examples worldwide, big and small, top down and bottom up, that provide inspiration for us all.

He also believes we can learn lessons from past and present cultures but only if there is a collective facing up to reality and a moral desire to achieve the best for the common good. National self interest and 'privatisation' will prove, as always, to be destructive. He draws attention to the fact that the world 'trouble spots' ( that involve 'first world' interventions) are all areas where there are environmental stress, over population and destabilisation of governments.

His cautious optimism results from the fact that most of out problems are caused by our own actions and that, if we can develop a new consciousness, we can solve most of them. We will need international political will to cooperate and that this will result from the pressure every individual puts on leadership in all societies and communities.

We all need to develop long term thinking about the sustainability of our world and the courage to make painful decisions and even sacrifices. Values such as materialism and particularly consumerism, will have to be replaced with values that will lead to a sense of a world wide community based on sustainable practices to protect, sustain and use resources wisely.

He believes if we all act wisely 'we can make a difference' that will benefit us all.

By the way I loved Vietnam.

Out of Our Minds

A book to read for all who believe in creative education. 'Out of Our Minds' by Sir Ken Robinson. Introductory keynote speaker at the 07 NZPPF Conference to be held in Auckland.

See an earlier blog October 30 for a review of the book. And also Feb 14th

This will be my last blog until about the 8th March as I am off for a holiday in Vietnam. I have become slightly addicted to writing my blogs so I will miss the discipline of posting them.

I couldn't think of a better blog to leave you with ( I guess the odd person actually reads them!) than this one about Sir Ken Robinson. I highly recommend you read his book or at least view his amazing video talk.

The video talk will have you laughing as well as seriously reflecting that our education system as currently structured is harming far too many creative students. Decide for yourself after viewing. If you go to the TEDTalk site ( you can 'google' this phrase) and then look for Sir Ken's video clip

Below are a few thoughts from one of his talks I tracked down.

Sir Ken believes that today businesses have to be competitive by developing innovative ideas and continually adapting to constant change. Increasingly such businesses are finding it hard to find creative people. The reason for this ironically, according to Sir Ken, is our current education system. All over the world , he believes, education suppresses creative thinking and creativity . National strategies to raise standards are making maters worse because they are rooted in an old economic model and a narrow view of intelligence, focusing too much on literacy and numeracy. He strongly believes that creativity should be promoted systematically at all levels of education.

I couldn't agree more.

National systems, he goes on to say, were designed to develop conformity and developed out of the 18th and 19th centuries to meet the needs of the industrial economies which typically needed workforce that was roughly 80% manual and 20% professional. Such schools prioritized the subjects they felt most important for the professional students who went on to secondary education; focusing on maths,literacy and the sciences.The system worked well enough in its day.Those students who had manual jobs received a very basic education premised on values of tidiness, punctuality, and obedience.

While the world has changed out of site little has changed in our our schools.

Two factors demand that schools change, he says, the emergence of the knowledge economy and the demand for creative intellectual labour. And it is not that there are not enough graduates to go around as students stay longer at school to gain qualifications - it is that they too many of them can't communicate,work in teams, or think creatively.

When you visit a secondary school you can see why - student work individually gaining credit by regurgitating knowledge transmitted to them by their teachers.

We need to challenge three misconceptions passed on to us by schools, says Sir Ken.The first is the myth that only special people are creative when it is now believed that we all have profound creative abilities. The second is the myth that creativity is restricted to the creative arts when it is now believed that creativity is part of every aspect of our lives. The third is that you are either creative or you are not when it is now believed everyone can be helped to develop their creativity.

Creativity, Sir Ken continues, is the process of having original ideas: innovation is putting them into practice. Human creativity is complex and dynamic.'That is why',he says, 'the world is full of music, dance, architecture,design, practical technology and values. Different people have different creative strengths- in music,or mathematics, or working with clay, or software, or images, or with people.'

'Real creativity comes from finding your medium, from being in your element'. And by seeing connections between different fields - hard when they are taught separately!

It is all about finding your passion - hardly what are current achievement orientated school are all about! No wonder so many students leave feeling failures - when it should be the schools who ought to be seen as failing.

If schools want to develop creativity in all their students and staff they need to consider three factors according to Sir Ken. Habits how people relate and work with each other; habitats - the physical environments in which they work; and the operating systems - the management processes that support the school. Each , he says, can inhibit creativity and each can be changed to promote it.

The lack of creative individuals entering our workforce, he sees, relates to the lack of creative confidence and capability originating in our schools.

The challenges of reforming education, he concludes, are profound and need long term collective action; the stakes are high and the need urgent.

This revolution is comparable to the industrial revolution and it is hardly begun. The changes, he says, are essentially cultural and impact on every aspect of our lives and how we relate to one another. We need to expect that education will give people the skills and qualities they need for this new world. This cant be , he says, be just about raising standards - this is no good if they are the wrong standards.

What we need , he feels, is a national and international debate on education to inform long term strategic vision. The best companies do this but to few schools.

Education, he reminds us, is often said to be the key to the future but keys can be turned in two directions - turn the key one way and you lock yourself in the past; turn it another way and you face an exiting future.

It is no longer enough to read, write and calculate . We won't survive the future by doing better at what we have done in the past.

In the future we must learn to be creative.

I couldn't agree more! It is not our students who are failing- it is our 'one size fits all' academic education system

To get his message, with humour, view the video clip.

In The Early World

First published in 1964 this book, the result of eight years of teaching in a small isolated Northland school, has been republished by the nzcer. All creative teachers - or teachers who believe in personalizing learning should have a copy. Available from nzcer.

Recently I have been in communication with a post graduate student who is doing her thesis on the value of arts in education and, in particular, the work of pioneer New Zealand educator Elwyn Richardson.

As I a result I have re-read my copy and I am still stunned by the quality of the creative work that illustrates the book - I see little of such quality in schools I visit today. Maybe it is time to go back to see what was achieved a way back then and see what we can make use of today - even as an antidote to the soulless technocratic documents the Ministry of Education has sent out to schools the last decades

The following thoughts have been extracted from the insightful forward to Elwyn's book written by John Melser - well worth a read in itself.

'Education is the greatest adventure mankind has yet undertaken', John writes, 'and that so far it is only in the uncertain beginnings of what will be along evolution.' Elwyn's book he believes is a vital experiment in this evolution and is a 'vivid picture of of a school full of vitality in pursuit of values deeply rooted in the children's lives'. Elwyn's school, he writes, was a ' community of artists and scientists who turned their frank and searching gaze on all that came within their ambit. Curiosity and emotional force led them to explore together the natural world and the world of feelings.' The students learnt to , ' esteem each other's explorations, discoveries, and records...so that a fine collective strength was developed, a strength depending on each child making an individual search and bringing to the group what only he could give'.

Who wouldn't want this said about their school or class today?

Elwyn's students' studies, 'grew naturally out of what preceded them. New techniques were discovered and skills practiced as each achievement set new standards. In such an 'integrated' curriculum the integrity of persons is preserved even more that the integrity of topics.' 'From their paintings, their prints and their pottery they learnt answers to the question 'who am I''.

Elwyn's school functioned as, 'a community of artist scientists' .... 'because of the individualism of its members - each person counted and was expected to make his own contribution to its life. Personal views, even eccentric views, were welcomed', and there was an, 'affectionate acceptance' of the strengths and limitations of of each member of the group,'

One of the most important aspect of Elwyn's school was, 'to see how aesthetic standards were established and maintained.' In this process, Melser writes, the teacher's role is a delicate one, 'with the teacher leading and directing and at the same time humbly ready to learn from the students'. The learning community that grows out of this relationship between the teacher and the students allowed each new achievement to become a, 'springboard for later leaps in imagination and understanding'.

Children will grow, Melser states in his forward, 'in imaginative and aesthetic insight only in a classrooms where high standards prevail and where work will be tested by the critical insight of others, so both strengths and weaknesses are revealed.' At the beginning. Melser writes, such discrimination comes from the teachers but eventually the 'weight of feelings becomes a community one', if it remains with the teacher it will produce 'imitative performances' - a feature of many classrooms today overly influenced by imposed exemplars and criteria.

I loved Melser's description entering Elwyn's room to , 'be dazzled by a riot of colours, shapes, and textures. Drums , pots, mobiles dangling from the ceiling, masks, paintings, printing gear, a small electric kiln - all the disorder of a dozen simultaneous workshops was pent up in this small room.But there was a recognizable pattern, or perhaps a series of patterns, the kind of patterns children can feel at home in, where organisation is sometimes the minimum amount necessary for efficient working.' With the students present an absorption the students in their tasks was seen as the students, as artists and scientists, went about their work.

We could do worse in New Zealand tha to acquire a copy of this book and see what we can learn from Elwyn's teaching. As Melser writes, Elwyn gave , 'children the opportunity to reach their full heights as artists, as craftsman, as scientists, and as students, through the establishment of a community where self respect demanded this generosity of giving and receiving. In this sense every classroom can uniquely express its own mode of of co-operative individualism.'

Future generations of students need to be given similar respect.

Read the book to see what has been missing these past decades.

The importance of creativity

My new 'guru' - sharing ideas some of us have held for decades: Sir Ken Robinson.

'Brilliant' - John Cleese

It has been great to discover Sir Ken Robinson. I bought his wonderful book'Out of Our Minds' last year but the icing on the cake was watching a small video clip of one of his presentations.

A must for everyone . Access his short video clip by going to TEDTalks - scroll down to Sir Ken.

Sir Ken talks about the importance of nurturing innovative solutions in the classrooms - indeed in every aspect of life. Sir Ken is now senior adviser to the Paul Getty Trust and was knighted in 2003 for his commitment to the creative arts and education in the UK.

Creativity is set to become the 'buzz' word of the future. Sir Ken sees creativity as essential for students as they seek jobs in the future.

The world is changing so quickly that promoting creative thinking he says will be essential. Sir Ken reminds us that kids starting school this year will be retiring in 2066 and that we don't have a clue about what the world will be like then.

The trouble is, Sir Ken says, is that the education system isn't designed to promote this kind of innovative thinking.The current system is designed to promote standardization, conformity and a certain type of narrow skill set. NZ teachers will recognize them as their current 'targets'. Creativity, he believes, is as important as literacy and numeracy.

Sir Ken defines creativity as the process of having original ideas and that there are several steps.The first step is imagination- the capacity to see something in the mind's eye. Creativity is using that imagination to solve problems - he calls it 'applied imagination'. Innovation is putting that creativity into practice as 'applied creativity'.

It seems simple enough but he outlines a number of things that get in the way. The first is the belief that only some people are creative - we are creative. The second is that creativity is restricted to the arts - creativity is applicable to every aspect of life ( the idea of 'multiple intelligences'). The third is you are either born with it or you are not - we now know it can be cultivated in everyone.

Educational Sir Ken believes , is currently focusing too much on literacy, maths and science. It is not that they are not important but that we need students with creative power in all fields.

The Renaissance was flowering on all fronts - education today, he says, is focusing on a piece of the problem. Another issue is to develop creative teaching. The trouble is that it has not been a good time for creative teachers in this era of standardized teaching. We need, he says, to create an 'environment for curiosity' to get the best out of teachers and students.

Creativity needs to be cultivated if we are to build a talent pool. Just as a sports person develops his or her skill so should any student with a talent. It can't be left to chance. We ought to be doing better, he states, and in particular the education system needs to do a better job.

Moves to personalize learning he sees as a positive step as with moves to develop a problem centred interdisciplinary learning approach which allows students and their teachers to share their individual talents. Modern information technology, integrated into a creative learning environment, he believes, offers exciting possibilities.

Schools need to be broken into smaller units and individual schools need more autonomy. Standardization may be OK for MacDonalds but it demoralizes teachers and students. Standardization, he continues, is based on making education 'teacher proof' when we need to do the reverse.

The secret of creativity, he believes, is looking hard at teachers and students to help them realize and share their strengths. Creativity is helping people, teachers, students and employees to find their talents.

Watch the video clip on TEDtalk and share with anyone who has an interest in the future.

And don't expect the Ministry to be creative - its not in their job description.

Learning from Leonardo

If creative thought is the new capital of the21stC it is important to develop and capture it!

Our creative thinking often comes to us at odd times making it hard for us to record our thoughts. There are nights when I can't get to sleep for thinking - just can't turn my mind off!

And when we become involved in thinking we become so absorbed that we lose our sense of time, entering into what one writer calls 'flow'. The ideas generated at such times are to valuable to lose

If, at such times when ideas are 'streaming', you can tune into thoughts you can create something of real value. It is important to take advantage of such times because you can't force creative thinking.

It seems we need to think like Leonardo da Vinci who always carried a notebook at all times. I find myself writing notes to myself , sometimes late in the night, in attempt to capture ideas my mind throw ups at such inconvenient times.

Great minds like Leonardo's go on asking questions with an intensity that continues throughout their lives. If we want to develop this faculty in our students we need to retain their sense of wonder and their inborn curiosity. Unfortunately, as a result of an education system based on transmission of knowledge, this sense of wonder is all too often lost.

Not only ought we encouraging students to value their own thinking but we need to assist them to reflect on their thoughts and capture them by jotting them down in 'thinking journals'. We need to encourage them to question accepted knowledge. Curiosity is the wellspring of all learning. We can encourage this creative thought by encouraging and using students question, by allowing students to explore what attracts their attention, and by allowing them to follow their trains of thought.

Very little of this creative teaching is to be found in our schools - even in the best of primary classes where the teachers' agendas, no matter how liberal, holds centre stage. We need to develop an 'emergent' curriculum based on what attracts our students' curiosity.

As we enter, what some are calling a 'creative era', it is important that schools change with the times - or better still lead the change by creating environments for students to develop creative thought.

Schools have a great opportunity to become focused on creative thinking - talk of personalising learning would seem to be start.

Schools in the 21stC ought to be championing those who challenge he status quo.

Are you a creative thinker?

Some people are simply excited by ideas.

Some people become excited by the prospect of new ideas? They are expert in sensing new trends and embryonic thoughts that slip below the radar of their more pragmatic or practical friends.

Original and different ideas attract them but it takes time to be accepted by others and to gain a reputation for having something of value to say.

I guess this acceptance depends on how far away from others your ideas are.

In today world ideas are at a premium and workplaces are continually searching for talented people who have ideas to share. Ideas are the new capital, or intellectual resource, in a world that increasingly values creativity and innovation. By sharing ideas some individuals gain a reputation for being an 'ideas person'. They are what is being called 'knowledge workers', or better still, 'knowledge creators'

Schools ought to be about fostering creativity of all students rather than focusing on academic achievement. If they were to foster creativity they would value their students curiosity, passions and talents and to assist them push the boundaries of their own personal discoveries.

It is not aways necessary to come up with original thoughts. It is equally a sign of intelligence to be able to recognise the potential of original thought no matter where it comes from.

Organisations, including schools, need to learn how to manage and develop such creative intelligence. This is difficult to do in organisations designed for the industrial age. If organisations don't change such people will leave, taking their ideas with them!

Developing a culture to attract and keep top talent will be the challenge of future leaders in any organisation.It is about keeping the entrepreneurial spirit alive; anything that stifles creativity and initiative needs to be changed.

Flexibility, a culture that values sharing across disciplines , the valuing of mistakes, and the 'swiping' of ideas from anywhere, will be the key to attract such individuals.

Unfortunately schools, as they are currently structured, couldn't have been planned to destroy talent and creativity if they had been designed to do so.

Who are the 'ideas people' you value?

Are you seen as an 'ideas person'?

Does your school focus on developing all your students' talents and creativity?

A model for Strategy Planning

Directing and producing a movie is an ideal model strategy planning metaphor.

It is a depressing task to read school strategy plans. Complex and long winded with endless strategic goals - many of them difficult to demonstrate their achievement.

The best strategy is to have a clear strategic intent ensuring all involved know what it is they are creating.This , along with creating the conditions and training to allow staff to get on with the job, is the role of school leadership.

All to often strategic planning degenerates into managing the status quo and not focusing on where the school wants to go - the whole point of strategic planning.

Another problem is strategic planning being left to leadership to develop. Strategic planning is so important to leave to one person , or even a small select team.

Film making is, by contrast, a collaborative affair and, as such, is a good model for strategic planning. When a director looks at a script he, or she, develops a vision of the story they want to tell. They may have the initial vision but, as every director knows, the plan is worth nothing if they are not able to engage talented writers, set designers, actors, and producers to further shape and mold this vision so to bring it to life.

This is exactly the essence of strategic planning.

Effective school leaders cannot be lone visionaries or top down managers but must sell the intent or excitement of what the school wants to become. To make things a little more complicated they must enter into dialogue about the 'story' with everyone involved so everyone the school feels 'ownership' for what evolves. As well as defining the vision with all stakeholders they must also set about identifying tasks that need to be done and who ( usually in action teams) is to take responsibility for them.

If everybody does not buy into the agreed direction then little will be achieved . And, equally importantly, little will be achieved if everybody does not hold themselves accountable to completing the agreed tasks.

A great strategy plan is like a great screen play - a great story to in which everyone know their role. And like a great film it can only be appreciated when the ideas are achieved.

School leaders ought to keep these thoughts in mind when becoming involved in strategic planning.

No one want to be known for taking part in a dud movie.

Summer has arrived - time to go outdoors.

They have taken their time but the cicadas are now in full song.

It is always the way. As soon as the summer holidays have past summer actually arrives.

Teachers and their students, who have up to now had little experience of real heat, are now feeling it, but now confined to their classrooms.

Lets hope teachers have decided to vacate their rooms and do their learning in the cool shade outside.

Teachers who have not forgotten that environmental literacy is as important as book literacy will no doubt be really enjoying themselves. The big issue of the coming decade is not a literacy crisis but a climatic one. The sooner students develop an awareness of their environment , and in the process learn to love and respect it, the sooner they will see the need to sustain and protect it. As the future generation they will need to see it as the number one world problem.

If teachers do take their students outdoors they might begin to see that it is through rich sensory experiences that their students develop real insights and in the process expand them their all important vocabularies. They might even understand that in the beginning was not 'the word' but that in the beginning was 'the experience'.

So teachers ought to take this hot weather as an opportunity to go outside and let their children explore the environment through their senses. If it was good enough for Leonardo da Vinci; it is good enough for their students. Like Leonardo they need to see and interpret their experiences as, artists , poets mathematicians and scientists.

Outside children can sit under a tree and let their minds go for a walk. They can be taught to educate their senses - each sense introducing information for their growing minds to process. Listening bring in dimensions of sound, smelling will remind them forever of environmental experiences, touching opens the world of textures, and sight the world of movements, colours, and shapes.

Teachers who understand how brain grows will help their students expand on their ideas by encouraging students to see connections, to use language metaphorically , or to get them to simply describe what they can see. Teachers who appreciate the power of observation will encourage their students to draw what they can observe - encouraging them to focus on something of particular interests. Digital cameras assist in this process by bringing images back into class to further process.

In rooms ,with teachers who are environmentally aware, the evidence of students curiosity will be all around to see.There will be three line nature poems ( simple haiku), drawings , imaginative paintings, exciting phrases in their written language, and studies developing out of their reawakened curiosity.

Such teachers appreciate that by building on students questions and ideas about the immediate environment there is no need for imposing teacher planned curriculums on their captive students. By developing environmental awareness both teacher and students can learn to be co-explorers.

This is 'authentic' learning - building on how our brains were developed to work.

For environmental idea visit our site www.leading-learning.co.nz

Surfing the waves of change

Are school riding the waves of change or building defences against them?

Waves of change are effecting every aspect of our society, changing forever how we see and interpret our world.

Schools, if they are to future orientated organizations , ought to be at the forefront, riding the waves of change.

Unfortunately, in most case schools, are to preoccupied solving immediate problem to scan the horizons to see opportunities coming their way. Or, worse still, so self satisfied with their past successes, that they prefer to rest on their traditional laurels, watching at the breakwater , seemingly believing that all is well and that there is need to change . Sadly middle class parents seem to agree with this later prognosis and rush to enrol the students to get what might have been appropriate if we were still in 1950.

Governments are loath to make too many waves and all to often are unduly influenced by the powerful reactionary forces that keep waves of change at bay.

Thankfully there will aways be those who have the courage of their convictions to seek new challenges. There are a few principals who constantly ask questions of themselves and their teachers about current practice and are aways encouraging everyone to search out new waves to ride.

These principals share three things: a healthy disrespect for the establishment; the confidence to try out new things ( and to learn from their mistakes) ;and the power to inspire others to join them in the quest.

Timid principals, tied to historic views of teaching, end up by watching as waves of new ideas are dissipated on the breakwaters they have helped build. By remaining linked to the defined foundations of what is to be taught and measured they inevitably limit the capacity for creativity and innovation so prized in their rhetoric.

When school leaders come out from behind their breakwaters and embrace the new opportunities ( risks and all) new paradigms of teaching and learning will evolve redefining historic power relationships and in turn fuelling the thirst for learning of their, staff, students and parents.

It is all about leadership. A leadership that makes 'its' intentions clear - waves are to be ridden; ;risks are to be taken; catching waves is the future.

Such leaders are dissatisfied with the status quo and continually question the purpose of education and then they go about creating the conditions to develop such a capacity to learn in all those involved in the school. They support, trust, and provide whatever resources that are required - including coaching for beginners.

In such schools everyone feels empowered. Parents are empowered to become involved. Teachers are empowered to find new ways to engage their students. Students are empowered by example and are encouraged to seek out waves of their own. In such a school learning is for everyone - they are true 'learning communities' - communities of enquiry. There is a constant thirst to find better ways and, at the core, is action research - where ideas are developed that in turn generate waves of creative energy. Learning by doing applies to teachers as well as students - and more often than not without a clear definition of where that learning will take them. It is this uncertainty that drives learning - not following prescriptions set by others.

The major source of creative energy is a feeling of dissatisfaction with how things currently are; the need to change 'how it is' to 'how it could be'. Leaders do not have to be charismatic but no doubt they will be seen as 'mavericks' , or eccentric, by their more conservative breakwater dwellers locked into conformity and convention.

Real leaders are continually scanning the horizons to predict what might happen and build in all learners ( teachers, students and parents) the capacity and capabilities that will enable them take advantage of future trends.

It will be over to such learners to develop the world they are going to live in and it will demand considerable courage to combat the forces of the status quo. Our society needs such pioneering people who who understand the interconnected world they live - that small waves can develop into major changes if ridden well.

Leaders of such creative schools need to be valued and not pilloried. They are the 'future shape shifters' who will lead the way into new insights by having the courage to leave the safety of the shore and ride the waves of opportunity. Many will not succeed but without their efforts we will all lose out.

So who are they in your community? Search them out - go surfing with them- you will have your minds changed.

Better still search out and make your own waves.

Developing creative secondary schools.

To develop creative students we need to change a model designed for mass education into a personalised one

It was interesting to read, in an 'advertorial' for the University of Auckland, about the importance of developing interdisciplinary creativity.

They have combined several of their 'schools' to create the National Institute of of Creative Arts to encourage such creative diversity to flourish.

The article goes on to say that, 'creativity does not occur in silos. Creative solutions are born when different skills and perspectives come together within an interdisciplinary framework. As we interact in our communities and attempt to find meaning in our experiences, we become empowered by connectivity. Such a creative, connective approach - loosely dubbed "thinking and linking" - can facilitate innovative partnerships that overcome the limitations of traditional boundaries and allow diversity to flourish.'

It is a shame that secondary schools don't have the insight to do something similar for their students. The trouble is heads of the various subject departments prefer to protect their intellectual 'turf' rather than face up to the fact that they are trapped in fragmented organisations designed to produce students for a past industrial age. And, of course, the parents who have scrambled to enrol their children at the best of these traditional schools are not keen to see any changes.

All is not lost.

Their are some newly designed schools that do feature interdisciplinary studies and who value helping their students appreciate 'connectivity'. These schools place the emphasis , not on memorizing content, but in developing each students' special talents and research skills or 'learning power'. Led by principals with strong philosophies, such schools 'attract' an innovative staff.

These schools are the beginnings of the future of education at the secondary level. By exposing their students to range of integrated learning experiences their students develop an appreciation of their heritage, culture and environment. More importantly they provide an environment to develop each students unique talents and gifts.

In such schools what the students have learnt is to be seen by what they can do, demonstrate , perform and exhibit - often in multi media performances. Written exams are of little use to assess what students can do! . Such innovative schools, by integrating the diverse elements of the National Certificate of Education ( NCEA) into cohesive courses, are leading the way.

Hopefully the idea of this 'personalised learning' will spread until all parents demand it for their children having slowly learnt that the 'one size fits all' traditional school is no longer appropriate.

Students, in the future, will need to be aware of what they can contribute to any project and how to pool their collective intelligences. To do this they need to experience the power of collaborative and interdisciplinary learning at school.

Future schools will need to be seen as creative 'learning communities', rather than 'school factories', if they are to assist all students contribute to a creative society.

There is a lot of talk about this 'creative economy' but it will only 'flower' when schools themselves become 'creative communities'.