A take on the current politically inspired changes. A modern myth

Measurement mad technocrats, ivory tower academics, and limited vision politicians have far too much influence in education - time we all woke up! A satirical view from my friend Mac from Auckland.

A Bunch of Nasty Statistics

A small tear in the time space continuum had seen the beginning of a new era in the land of Edu Ka Shun. Patrician Anatoly had been replaced and in schools all around the land there had been great anticipation as to the direction that the incoming Patrician would take.

The first action taken by the new patrician had been the calling together of all the Bureau Rats with an explanation demanded of them about the state of education and the expectations of student outcomes on a national basis. The new Patrician had caused much whispering and incredulous looks when holding up a publication that all but a few had forgotten about over the preceding years. This publication it seemed was one the new Patrician intended to ensure was implemented in schools as he felt its intent was such that it would provide students across the country with the basis of a life long education based on the acquisition of thinking skills and using approaches that favoured and supported creative learning opportunities. The older Bureau Rats of course remembered this document - the revised NZC- and the time of its intended implementation namely around the same time as Patrician Anatoly had taken the reigns of power.

Initially it had seemed the revised NZC was to be the saviour for Edu Ka Shun, which for many years had been tied up with approaches based on educational minutiae and an expectation that all learning was linear in its outcomes. The new approach that favoured inquiry and allowing students to set and pursue their learning goals was welcomed as a means of allowing creative and thoughtful teachers the ability to provide programmes of work that were student centred and interesting. However, the expectation had not become the reality.

In a short space of time Patrician Anatoly had launched a bunch of Nasty Statistics on schools throughout the country and as these settled new outcomes began to become evident. The Pointy Hats, who remained well removed from classrooms, continued to provide an on going source of Nasty Statistics and these regularly invaded schools by means of media statements and publications from the Bureau Rats. Consequently, and in spite of various opposition from concerned parents and school leaders, the Nasty Statistics and their sidekicks the League Tables had subsumed the revised NZC. So a great despondency settled on the land of Edu Ka Shun as schools evaluated, assessed, graphed, reported, assessed some more and reported some more as was expected by the Pointy Hats and the Short Term Acolytes who provided the Patrician with the necessary “public support” for the continuing infiltration of Nasty Statistics.

It would be true to state however that there had been pockets of dissent and defiance in some places throughout this time because a group named the Creative Pedagogues had continued to ply their trade and enable students to be involved in a range of curriculum areas that included The Arts. These Creative Pedagogues while recognising the importance of Reading, Writing and Maths had also continued to expose students to the full range of curriculum through programmes that in fact mirrored the expectations of the revised NZC. They had been encouraged in their endeavours by the writings and statements emanating from Bryce Hambones and his able lieutenant Nug Backstop. It was speculated that these statements and their creators, originated from a hidden location in the shadow of Mt Taranaki however this was never substantiated. Suffice it to say that the statements gave much support to those embattled Creative Pedagogues and it is speculated that without this support many may well have begun to question their beliefs and could well have withered and vanished in the overwhelming mass of Nasty Statistics that had become the norm. Even as the dreaded Performance Pay lapped the shores of the land, in the wake of the attacks by the Nasty Statistics and the scourge of the League Tables, these Creative Pedagogues continued to recognise the talents of students even to the extent of providing for Dance and Drama, and Art and Music on a regular basis. Thankfully, the Pointy Hats had not yet found a way of launching their Nasty Statistics at these and the Patrician saw no merit in doing so while schools remained up to their ears in documentation already.

Much incisive, investigative writing published by Bevin Scythe, of Awa Waikato, also contributed to the challenges that were made from time to time against the reported comments made by Patrician Anatoly. Scythe’s comments served to provide the basis whereby leaders of schools could examine their own school's assessment practices and counter in some way the on-going attacks by the Nasty Statistics. This became even more important in those schools where the Nasty Statistics and the ever-present League Tables highlighted the gaps caused in no small part by the economic conditions prevailing in school communities. Consequently, and thankfully, Scythe’s stance also did a great deal to ensure the practice of labelling students with an L on their forehead remained in place for only a short period of time. This practice, which applied generally in places where the Nasty Statistics were most prevalent, was only used for those who had not measured up to the Pointy Hats expectations in terms of their learning and as it was done with felt tip pen it was not seen as a cause for on going concern. Scythe’s writings constantly challenged those of the Pointy Hats, with their simplistic approaches to learning, and provided a more realistic and student based philosophical approach.

Yet the accepted view, continually reiterated through the media and from the Short Term Acolytes, was that Edu Ka Shun was on the right track and improvements were just around the corner. It is disappointing that this stance was also the one often adopted by the Philosophically Challenged brigade who sought to enhance their own status by recourse to published comment that supported the bleakness that the Nasty Statistics wrought even though this stance ran counter to the mainstream view of educationalists around the world. Inevitably though change would happen.

It was now some years later and as earlier noted the new Patrician was ready to change the face of Edu Ka Shun. Yet it was not quite as simple as that as the Patrician needed some research to show the Bureau Rats that the long-term answer was in fact the revised NZC. He therefore instructed senior members of the Erroneous Reporting Officials to prepare reports that in fact showed the advantages of his new approach and if no sound evidence was available they were to use Executive Summaries or other such obscuration to enable positive press statements to be made. To highlight the importance of this reporting the new Patrician reminded the Erroneous Reporting Officials that a spell in the classroom for all of them was a distinct possibility and this certainly had the desired effect on the resulting research outcomes. By now too the Bureau Rats had fallen into line and were regularly agreeing with the new Patrician and so the future for Edu Ka Shun land looked bright.

It needs to be remembered however that changes elsewhere seem inevitably to impact on Edu Ka Shun and just when teachers seem settled and meeting the expected outcomes of the current Patrician……….


With thanks to the contribution made by the writings of Terry Pratchett who noted in his book “Moving Pictures”:

'You get just one chance. You live for maybe seventy years and if you're lucky you get one chance. Think of all the natural skiers who are born in deserts, Think of all the genius blacksmiths who were born hundreds of years before anyone invented the horse. All the skills that are never used. All the wasted chances.'

Our kids deserve every chance let’s not waste any on disproved ideologies.

Inquiring into Anzac Day

After exploring, students 'prior ideas' and questions about ANZAC Day, class discussions, and researching articles and pictures, students drafted out, and wrote up, their own thoughts. The challenge included appropriately illustrating the topic. A range of skills ( 'literacies') need to be in place to complete such a task.


Alert teachers ( we need more of them) are always on the lookout for inspirational ideas to introduce to their class - ANZAC Day is one such opportunity.

ANZAC Day is an ideal way to develop inquiry skills to your children while at the same time developing some important ideas about what it is to be New Zealander.

Such a study could be introduced before ANZAC Day and concluded after Anzac Day is over.


The 'new' New Zealand Curriculum asks schools to develop: 'Students who are competent thinkers and problem solvers (who) actively seek, use and create knowledge.They reflect on their own learning, draw on personal knowledge and intuition, ask questions, and challenge the basis of assumptions and perceptions.'


To do this it is important for students to be motivated by 'real life', meaningful challenges from across the curriculum that make use of whatever Learning Areas( disciplines) are required.

It would seem obvious that literacy ( and where possible numeracy) programmes should be integrated with current class studies. Students need, the curriculum says, to be able to , 'critically interrogate texts', and to, 'receive, process and present ideas or information'.

Students need both to 'make meaning' of ideas or information as well as 'creating their own meanings' from such information.

A close read of many current student research presentations would show that this is not being achieved. There is little of the tentative , 'I think', 'it could be', 'this suggests'; phrases that show students own 'voice', rather than 'cutting and pasting'.

Students need to be taught stages in research writing following their investigations.

They need to be able to focus their research on a few key questions, and to take notes about ideas they feel relevant to their queries. They also need to be shown a organisational format to assist them present their ideas - essentially, their study question, possibly their current thinking or 'prior ideas',their research, and data and finally conclusions and references.

What are your students prior ideas about what ANZAC Day stands for?
How could they find out more about the day?
How could they express what they have found out.

Teachers need to gather ANZAC resources to share or display in the class.

They also need to be taught a range of design and presentation formats suitable for the students ages. If a booklet is to be produced of their findings, each page needs to be thought through carefully, including any illustrations and graphical data.

Such design skills are best taught by means of student exercise books which offers a means for each students to observe their growth, both in presentation and content.

That teaching such information gathering and interpreting skills are important is reflected by a recent Nationwide survey that showed that the current workforce is lacking in such skills. The lack of interpretive literacy and numeracy skills suggest a greater emphasis on the applied use of them in the school system. And the earlier the better.

Literacy and numeracy are integral to ensuring students are their own users, seekers, and creators' and to create schools as 'communities of inquiry'; tapping the intellectually curiosity of students.

And developing exciting student studies is the key to achieving this. The 'new' curriculum wisely suggests that students need to do 'fewer thing well' so as to develop this, all to often missing,in-depth thinking.

Autumn - a chance to develop inquiry skills

Many schools seem to have got into the habit of collaboratively planning one major ( often school wide) study a term. While this may have some advantages it often means that the idea of introducing small seasonal studies, or current events like volcano eruptions, are overlooked.

Autumn is too good not to take advantage of.


All too often the results of Autumn studies seen in many classes ( usually Junior rooms) are superficial, to say the least, but this need not be the case.

If there are deciduous trees in, or near, the school grounds what a brilliant opportunity to develop a small integrated study.

The study could be prefaced with the provocation, 'Why do some trees lose their leaves?' Such questions introduce an inquiry approach to the students.

A good idea is to listen to the students' answers to the question and for these to be recorded and displayed as, 'Our prior, or first, ideas'.

The teacher could start the thinking process off by bringing along a few leaves to show to the class followed by a walk to visit trees in the school ground or nearby park. This is a chance to get the students to develop skills of sensory awareness - skills all too often lost in today's busy world.

Get the students to throw leaves around, to kick them with their feet, to select a range of leaves, or to collect leaves in different stages of colouring ( a good idea is to use a digital camera to collect stages of change). Children could be asked to write a few thoughts about what they can see, hear and what they are wondering about - these thoughts can be tidied up back in class and new questions to research added to the display. On idea is to do a three line poem: one thought about leaves on the tree; one thought about a leaf falling; and one thought about the leaves on the ground. After refining these thoughts make up a simple haiku.

Back in class students could do detailed observational drawings -this will be more impressive if students are instructed to look carefully for patterns and to draw what they see with care - continually looking back to the leaf they are drawing to collect accurate visual data. If drawn in black ink they can be coloured in and added to the wall display. While drawing student's can be asked what thought have come to mind.

At this stage students could head to reference books or to the computer to research what it is that makes some trees lose their leaves and why. Their answers could be added to the display. Innovative teachers could get their students to digitally record the stages of leaf colouration. Another idea is to count the number of leaves in a defined strip from the base of the trunk to several metres away from the tree and graph the results.

During literacy time poems could be introduced and selected lines used for handwriting. How to write up report or thoughts could be drafted during this time.

Students could also choose a particular tree to study - perhaps one in their own garden or street. Interesting vocabulary could be added to the display.

Teachers usually have range of creative ideas to call upon but one idea is for students to draw /paint/crayon 'magic' Autumn leaves to make a composite Autumn tree for the class wall.

If teachers were to really study Autumn leaves with such an intensity then the results would be anything but superficial.

We all love seeing the colour of Autumn - it is a sign of the end of Summer and the beginning of Winter.

Creativity or standardisation - the choice we face.

It seem a given that schooling is a good thing but is it? Schooling has both the power to open learners to new horizons or restrict them to past thinking; the reactionary ‘new’ national standards are case in point.

From Homer Simpson: ‘How is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides anytime I learn something new it pushes old stuff out of my brain. Remember when I took that course on home winemaking and I forgot how to drive.’

Let’s hope that the exciting new New Zealand Curriculum isn’t sidelined by an unhealthy emphasis on National’s standards which are more political than educational. An emphasis on standardized ‘best practice’ teaching (which morph into ‘fixed practice’) has been growing since Tomorrows Schools and, as a result, an emphasis literacy and numeracy has crowded out other equally important learning areas. There is all too often a terrible sameness in many classes I visit. Who really wants to see classrooms full of ‘standardized’ charts, language and paintings? Too many schools have overdone ‘teaching intentions’, ‘success criteria, ‘scaffolding’, and ‘feedback’ to the detriment of creativity. National standards are the last straw in this managerial approach to teaching.

We desperately need a return to the creative teaching best exemplified by the writing of Elwyn Richardson in his wonderful book ‘In the Early World’. The teachers I have admired over the decades always believed that it is vitally important to establish classrooms where students’ experiences, voice, questions, and points of view are valued, celebrated, and expanded by thoughtful teaching.

My advice is not to be hoodwinked by the standards but to focus on developing classroom as creative learning communities that value the reality of the students. We need to escape from current trends towards standardization and move to a more personalized approach. In a creative future all students need to have their gifts and talents developed and their desire to learn kept alive and well.

Thankfully there are still teachers in our schools with valuable insights to share about how to develop creativity. The challenge for us is to find such teachers and develop informal networks to share their ideas. In the past teachers could look to the advisory services but this is no longer the case; in the future schools will be swarming with ‘best practice’ literacy and numeracy advisers.

Now is the time to focus on what is known about establishing success orientated learning environments. The politicians like to talk about ‘achievement tails’ ( created by their collective inaction about facing up to the well research effects of poverty) and offer simplistic solutions no matter that they have failed when applied in other countries. Those who understand how people learn know better.

David Perkins, along with others, suggests that the key is for students to be involved in realistic whole tasks and to learn appropriate skills (such as literacy and numeracy) in context. Creative teachers have always known this but all too often schooling is fragmented, particularly as students move through the system.

Eliot Eisner, Howard Gardner and Sir Ken Robinson all believe in creativity and that students need to interpret and express their ideas by tapping a range of talents, or intelligences. Creative teachers have always appreciated such individual differences and reject a standardized ‘one size fits all’ approach

From people like Art Costa and Guy Claxton we gain insight into the importance of developing positive ‘habits of mind’ or ‘learning power’ – the ‘key competencies’ of our sidelined New Zealand Curriculum. Once again this is nothing new for creative teachers who have always understood the importance of developing positive attitudes.

There is a vital need to return to the neglected research of the 1980s Waikato University ‘Learning In Science Project’ (along with the more recent research of Graeme Nuttal). Both illustrate the importance of valuing students’ prior ideas and skills in any area of learning. Personal constructivism is the essence of creativity.

And we need to look to Kelvin Smythe who has long believed in the power of creative teachers rather than technocratic solutions. Smythe writes about the importance of developing in students a ‘feeling for’ whatever they are learning; when students become so involved they are transformed in the process. This is about learning by doing fewer things well. Mihaly Csikskentmihalyi calls this ‘flow’; hard to measure but vitally important to experience for failing learners.

Daniel Pink’s latest book, ‘A whole New Mind: Drive’, subtitled ‘the surprising truth about what motivates us’, is truly exciting. He writes that for too long school have relied on an extrinsic ‘carrot and stick approach’ (or ‘name and blame’). The three things, he writes, that motivate us all are: autonomy, mastery and purpose. Real learning is achieved when the joy of learning is its own reward We need to help our students ‘direct their own lives’, to ‘learn and create new things’ and to continually ‘better themselves’ and his challenge to us is apply this to education. Students need clear purposes, immediate feedback and challenges well matched to their abilities Creative teachers, like Elwyn Richardson, have long appreciated the power of personal purpose.

Pink writes to develop creativity teachers need to focus on introducing their students to interesting, challenging and absorbing tasks that, by deepening learning and by doing ones best, are reward in themselves. An obsession with goals ( implicit in our governments standards) and extrinsic rewards are problematic to Pink as they narrow focus, reduce risk taking, encourage dependency, replace intrinsic motivation, and crush creativity.

Quoting Deci and Ryan (experts on intrinsic motivation) Pink writes that, ‘If there is anything fundamental about our nature it’s the capacity for interest. Some things facilitate it. Some things undermine it.’ It is this inner drive to follow interests that must be protected all costs. As Jerome Bruner wisely wrote many years ago, ‘teaching is the canny art of intellectual temptation.’

What creates failure is something as simple as what Pink calls lack of ‘grit’ – the ability to persist and not give up. Young children, he says, are born curious and self directed but all too this is lost because formal schooling has ‘flipped their default setting’. Students need to learn to make choices over what they do and how they do it .We are all born to be players not pawns and we all resent compliance.

Pink writes enthusiastically about the research of psychology professor Carol Dweck who believes that the ability to learn or fail is in our heads. What we think shapes what we learn, or fail to learn. If kids believe they are born ‘smart’ (or ‘dumb’) learning is difficult. Smart people don’t like new learning that involves risk and ‘dumb’ kids just don’t even try. In contrast, if students see learning (working towards mastery) as a result of their continual effort, they find learning easier and take setbacks in their stride.

Developing positive mindsets in our students would be preferable to wasting time and energy implementing doubtful standards.

Principals ought to keep these well researched ideas about teaching and learning in mind and focus on creating ‘flow friendly environments’ ; motivating environments for both teachers and students to achieve autonomy, personal mastery and a sense of purpose. Unlike Homer Simpson we must not let the distraction of ‘new’ standards cause us to forget what education for a creative age is all about.

Motivation - the drive to learn.

Daniel Pink’s latest book, ‘A whole New Mind: Drive’, subtitled ‘the surprising truth about what motivates us’, is truly exciting.

He writes that for too long school have relied on an extrinsic ‘carrot and stick approach’ (or ‘name and blame’). The three things, he writes, that motivate us all are: autonomy, mastery and purpose. Real learning is achieved when the joy of learning is its own reward We need to help our students ‘direct their own lives’, to ‘learn and create new things’ and to continually ‘better themselves’ and his challenge to us is apply this to education.

Students need clear purposes, immediate feedback and challenges well matched to their abilities. Creative teachers, like Elwyn Richardson, have long appreciated the power of personal purpose.

Pink writes to develop creativity teachers need to focus on introducing their students to interesting, challenging and absorbing tasks that, by deepening learning and by doing ones best, are reward in themselves. An obsession with goals ( implicit in our governments standards) and extrinsic rewards are problematic to Pink as they narrow focus, reduce risk taking, encourage dependency, replace intrinsic motivation, and crush creativity.

Quoting Deci and Ryan (experts on intrinsic motivation) Pink writes that, ‘If there is anything fundamental about our nature it’s the capacity for interest. Some things facilitate it. Some things undermine it.’ It is this inner drive to follow interests that must be protected all costs. As Jerome Bruner wisely wrote many years ago, ‘teaching is the canny art of intellectual temptation.’

What creates failure is something as simple as what Pink calls lack of ‘grit’ – the ability to persist and not give up. Young children, he says, are born curious and self directed but all too this is lost because formal schooling has ‘flipped their default setting’. Students need to learn to make choices over what they do and how they do it .We are all born to be players not pawns and we all resent compliance.

Pink writes enthusiastically about the research of psychology professor Carol Dweck who believes that the ability to learn or fail is in our heads. What we think shapes what we learn, or fail to learn. If kids believe they are born ‘smart’ (or ‘dumb’) learning is difficult. Smart people don’t like new learning that involves risk and ‘dumb’ kids just don’t even try. In contrast, if students see learning (working towards mastery) as a result of their continual effort, they find learning easier and take setbacks in their stride.

Principals ought to keep these well researched ideas about teaching and learning in mind and focus on creating friendly motivating environments for both teachers and students to achieve autonomy, personal mastery and a sense of purpose.

We must not let the distraction of ‘new’ standards cause us to forget what education for a creative age is all about. Developing positive mindsets in our students would be preferable to wasting time and energy implementing doubtful standards. Personalisation of learning by developing every students' passions , gifts and talents , rather than standardisation and conformity, are the future.

Daniel Pink's book is a must for all those schools and teachers who value creativity .It is an ideal antidote to the current imposition of conforming educational standards

Highly recommended.

Wrong 'default' position?

A lot of people students still know lived their formative years in the 1940s and such individuals would make a great primary source to research to note similarities and differences between then and now. Such topics make authentic, or rich, research studies for children in upper primary and middle schools and would to help such students get a 'feeling for ' life in such times as well as reinforcing inquiry mindsets.

When visiting primary and middle school classes it is not hard to see the 'default position' of most teachers.Literacy and numeracy times take up the 'prime time' during the day - study topics and the creative arts are all too often a 'tack on'.

This is the opposite to my own position and the creative teachers I have worked with over the years. For 'us' the current study topic played a central role and provided the 'energy' for much of the rest of the day - particularly the language block ( now called by the narrower term the literacy block).

If I were to ever be a teacher again ( not very likely as it all looks too hard to me) I would place inquiry central to almost all learning and make use of a language arts or experience based approach to develop students deep understanding. Language time needs to be integrated with the afternoon inquiry programme. I know this happens but it is the emphasis that worries me; the lack of emphasis on the study content in literacy time.

Maybe it is times to give up literacy and numeracy almost ruling supreme.


I was pleased to read recently of how a research based organisation that had outlined how their innovative strategies could be applied to learning ( ironic because this was once the case for many teachers).

The 'default' position to achieve this would be to place student creativity at centre and see literacy and numeracy as means to achieve in depth learning - a change of emphasis; a 're framing' of literacy.

The problem solving research model suggested was:

1 Start with project brief - the set of challenges and questions that give the class a framework to begin and some benchmarks by which they can measure progress. The final results , class, group, and individual, become authentic assessments of the learning that has been achieved. At this stage it is important to gauge the current understandings ( 'prior knowledge')and skills the students have. Some of the outcomes will also include aspects of creative language and the arts.


2 Ask 'How might we..?' Well crafted inquiry questions will drive the process. If answers can be provided by 'google' they're the wrong questions! By requiring such things as similarities and contrasts such superficial learning can be avoided. It is at this stage the language arts time can be used to introduce content and to teach necessary inquiry and expressive skills. A range of resources that contribute to the study needs to be gathered as primary resources to sift and sort through requiring real information gathering skills. The classroom walls can begin to show the inquiry process and be added to as ideas are developed. Displays can be set up to motivate thinking.

3 Form research teams. All good projects require both individual and team effort. Such teams in business are typically small, focused and interdisciplinary. Groups will be working to research different aspects and requires considerable teacher input to see tasks chosen are focused and suitable.

4 To begin teams might start with brainstorming to develop ideas to follow up. To work well rules need to be in place - defer judgement, encourage wild ideas, stay focused on the topic and , most important of all, build on the ideas of others. Such brainstorming and idea clarification make ideal language time tasks.

5 Embrace the mess. Nothing in real life works out as planned.New ideas and directions will emerge and may need to be followed up. This 'emergence' is at the heart of real research. Design thinkers learn how to embrace the mess - such research is a creative process not one of following pre-set plans. Students need to be helped to see the patterns and relationships as they present themselves and a creative teacher is great asset to assist students draw things together.

6 'Go with the flow and learn to let go'. As the project unfolds ideas will come together to produce finished pieces of research, art , language or whatever media students have settled on. There are range of media available for students to present their idea to each other (and to their parents and the wider community). The classroom walls need to show progress, completed artifacts and work in progress. Keeping all the 'stuff' visible is important to assist students see patterns and possibilities. It also gives students opportunities to see and talk about each others work.

Many teachers currently use aspects of such an inquiry model but to work well it needs to be the 'default mode for' all teachers. Learning is an 'emergent' activity and not one that can be planned in advance as is all too often the case.

It is how some of us used to work in the past.

Big ideas about school leadership

At a early New Zealand Principal's Conference I heard Australian educator Hedley Beare say the an ideal 'leader' principal would be a customised Indiana Jones - ready and able to take risks and happily cut through red tape but aways on the side of righteousness.

Such 'leadership' is not part of the DNA of many principals who prefer to play it safe and comply with imposed regulations. I see schools going along , to get along, with National Standards.

Recently I read on the Internet list of ten big ideas of school leadership written by a Middle School Principal of the Year.They seemed to make sense to me So I have picked them over to share with whoever reads this.

1 The focus of 'your' school must be on the success of kids 100% of the time. All too often, it seems, we try to fit kids into our expectations and in the process ignore the ideas, questions, points of view, and talents the students bring with them. And we see any conflict with students as a problem rather then as a means to work out a mutual better solutions.

2 Leaders need to create a vision,write it down,and start implementing it. It is important not to put your vision in drawer and forget about it and hope for the best. Every decision must be aligned against the vision and beliefs that underpin it. The whole school community is watching when you make a decision so consistency, by referencing decisions against the vision, is important.

3 It's the people stupid. The secret of managing is to keep the people who hate you away from those who are undecided. Hire people who support your vision, who are prepared to learn and who like kids.

4 Keep the paddles in the water. When navigating dangerous rapids in raft the only way to succeed is for everyone in the boat to sit on the edge and paddle really hard even though everyone would rather sit in the centre where it is safer. In times of school crisis everybody must be involved.

5 Find time to think and worry during the day. You are never always going to have a good days so it is OK to stare at the wall, reflect on the vision, and think about how to make necessary changes. Value input from other but ask those who provide it to provide possible solutions as well.

6 Take responsibility for the good and bad. The solutions to problems are almost always right in front of you; the genius of the school lies within the school. Imposed solutions have their consequences. Don't give away your responsibility.

7 You have ultimate responsibility. Have very clear expectations derived from the school vision and beliefs and then make sure people have the knowledge, resources, and time to accomplish expectations. Autonomy is the goal but actions need to be within the bounds of the vision.

8 Have bias for yes. The only progress you ever make in life involves risk.Ideas that teachers and others may suggest may seem a little crazy but try to makes such requests into a yes. Use the vision as a self reference and encourage others to do so.

9 Consensus is over rated. Twenty percent of the people will be against anything. When you realize this you avoid compromising what really should be done because you stop watering things down.If you always reach consensus you are being led by the 20%

10 Large changes need to be done quickly. If you wait too long to make changes to a school culture you have already sanctioned mediocre behaviour because you are allowing it.That is when change is hard. Define with the staff the behaviours required by the vision and belief and hold people accountable to them.

Seems like good advice if principals want to be real leaders!

A lesson from the UK re Standards

Our Government is determined to going ahead with imposing of National Standards against the advice of teachers and reacted New Zealand educators. Only John Hattie is with them (I think) .His organisation is setting itself up to provide ( distort) the future direction for education in New Zealand with its obsession on 'objective' testing.

The technocrats, fragmenting and measuring learning bits, are wining over those with a holistic progressive educational beliefs.

In the meantime the standards experiments are being shown to fail in the UK and the US while the most successful country, Finland, wins the literacy and numeracy race without them.They have put their faith on trusting a well educated teaching profession! Ironically New Zealand is well ahead of of the UK and the US.

I received the following message to one of my recent blogs and thought it worth sharing.

'I have been reading and using parts of your blog for a couple of years and it has inspired me to change how I teach.

However, when I read of what is happening in New Zealand I despair.

Here in the UK the system of standards, top down curricula, league tables has failed.The profession - at the grass roots, teachers and heads - have lost confidence in the government but appears to have no influence on policy makers.

In New Zealand you should be very sceptical of this political dogmatism. It will paint your system into a corner over the next decades.Politicians should have nothing to do with curricula, standards and testing - this should be purely a professional matter.

Strike!
Campaign!
Protest!'

A lesson for Mrs Tolley?

Education is all about changing your mind when facing new evidence. Mrs Tolley ( NZ's shrill Minister of Education) by this definition fails relying on simplistic sound bites to answer all critics. She would , however, do well to read about Diane Ravitch's astonishing about face before it is too late and we all head down the American failed way to a standardised McDonald's approach to learning.


Diane Ravitch has long been a passionate advocate of injecting greater competition and accountability into the US education system but she realized, three years ago, that her ideas had evolved to a point that she had changed her mind. In her latest book 'The Death of the Great American School System; How Testing and Choice are undermining Education' she makes it clear she no longer supports market orientated reform strategies in education and the current national testing regime.

Diane Ravitch may not be well known in New Zealand but she gained a formidable influence in the Republican -dominated 1980s becoming assistant secretary of education in the 90s and since then has become a much sought after policy analyst and research scholar. In the nearly 20 books she had previously written she has weighed in against progressive education focusing on free market solutions to educational problems.

Her turnaround has become the buzz of school policy circles; lets hope it can be heard as far away as our beehive!

Ravitch, who once supported requirements for testing in maths and reading, now writes that this emphasis has squeezed out other vital subjects and has encouraged teachers to narrow their curriculum by teaching to the tests. This emphasis , she now believes , is undermining public education.


This is ironic because no one has done more in the past than Ms Ravitch to drive home the messages of accountability and testing. She now knows the testing agenda has not raised student achievement and now sees that testing has became not just a way to measure student learning, but an end in itself.

'Accountability', she writes, ' was not raising standards but dumbing down the schools'. 'Accountability has turned to test cramming and bean counting, often limited to reading and maths'. She told a convention of school superintendents that the accountability programmes were ' ill conceived, compared with those nations with the best performing schools. Nations like Finland and Japan..we are on the wrong track'.

Mrs Ravitch traces the start of the deterioration from the effort to introduce top down balanced literacy approaches to reading - it became a formula that was replicated in increasingly heavy handed ways. When such an approach was tied to accountability ( 'league tables') she began her turnaround and her criticism of such a narrower approach. A scenario that is being replicated in New Zealand - and one that has already failed in the UK.

She writes, 'School reform is like a freight train, and I am out on the tracks saying, you're going the wrong way!'

How can we ignore such a revelation in New Zealand?

Along the way she also skewers much of President Obama's agenda for improving the nations schools with the president's keenness to introduced national standards ( an improved version on No Child Left Behind testing) and the growing emphasis on using test school data to guide educational decision making. Standards based reform is a 'formula for incoherence and obfuscation'. It is she says, 'A high jacking of public education'. 'You can't have a rich and full education by teaching only basic skills'.

It is not often that one of the fields most influential thinkers publicly reverses themselves. But it does show that Ms Ravitch has the courage to do so .She now believes that a collaboration and trust model would work better than a market and competitiveness model. She now appreciates that the previous competitive model was a threat to the traditional public neighbourhood schools and democracy itself. We need reform that supports the professional wisdom of teachers. One of the worst ideas Mrs Ravitch now believes is to make our schools work like a business' That trend, she says, 'threatens to destroy public education' - 'Who will stand up to the tycoons and politicians and tell them so'?

Mrs Tolley,and her Ministry apologists, cannot write off Mrs Ravitch's new position as 'mischievous' as she has sidelined those who have dared criticize her within New Zealand

Ravitch's epiphany needs to be taken seriously before it is too late in New Zealand.

Is Mrs Tolley up to it?I fear not but we have been warned


Post script: an extract from Diane Ravitch's blog 6th March 2010.

' My hope for the book is that it will provoke a counteroffensive against misguided policies.These misguided policies...have the support of the most powerful people in our society, including our best known pundits and editorialists'.

'I do not agree that our schools are overrun with terrible teachers.Part of the goal of my book is to discredit the current knee jerk reaction of editorials and public officials, who blame teachers for everything that goes wrong with the schools. Blaming the teachers lets everyone else off the hook: families, the media, the popular culture, policy makers, and the students themselves. The overwhelming majority of our nation's teachers are doing the best they can under difficult circumstances with not enough support from society, parents, the media.'

Wish there was the moral courage for some Ministry people I used to admire to speak with such honesty - but then they would lose their jobs.

Weighing the Pig -an exercise in national Standards testing

Another fable from my guest presenter Mac. It is obvious that the idea of each school working out each kid's standard will be become a nightmare of data collecting and inter school moderation and that, sooner or later, a national test system will be imposed. And then on to league tables...


It was Wednesday 9.30 a.m. the 5th week of Term 3 and in all classrooms, in all schools throughout Aotearoa, children were preparing to commence their National Standard test in Writing. Teachers were now able to open the sealed instructions and start their children on the test taking care of course not to give any instruction.

Janice read through the instructions and rolled her eyes skyward as she realized what her class would be writing about “What I Did Last Night.” “How absolutely pathetic”, thought Janice, “after all the interesting writing we have completed this year to ask my kids to write about this. Well Johnny will be OK he will just write -‘keeping out of Dad’s way’. Wonder what level that gives him when it’s marked? Nathan will be fine too he will make up a wonderful story about last night, most of it untrue yet very readable. He has the makings of a politician or a real estate salesman!! and the majority of the girls will be fine. Oh well let’s get this over with.”

George was thrilled when he started his class on the writing task. “Great, we’ve been practicing this all year”, he thought to himself,“the class should do well and their results should help the school’s overall scores. I’m sure my class will remember the stuff I’ve shown them for completing a test like this and the boss will be thrilled with the outcomes.”

“You poor kids,” thought Leanne. “All year we have worked on your creative writing, using your wonderful ideas and expressing yourselves in a lively and colorful style and now you are asked to write this boring stuff. Oh well I’m sure you have remembered enough of the work we did on adjectives and such like to be able to handle this task. If only those who implemented this sort of time wasting had come and asked me I could have provided them all the information they needed on the achievements of my class including those for a range of competencies in addition to just Writing.”

Meanwhile in an office far removed from the classrooms of Aotearoa, both physically and philosophically, the Minister with Responsibility for Eliminating Creative Teaching was discussing with her colleague the Minister with Responsibility for Lowering Unemployment the outcomes of the surveys both their departments had just completed. “Its easy for you,” stated the MRECT. “If your results come in worse you just issue a statement that says it’s because there are less jobs and the public accept this. The results of the testing we have done so far show that the achievement tail is still sitting at 5% with another 20% somewhat below expectations and it doesn’t matter how I spin it the outcome has remained the same over the last two terms. I wonder if we introduce two tests a term if this would help? I will go back to the experts in my Ministry and ask them.”

Janice headed off to morning tea sombre, but not distraught, about what she viewed as a farcical waste of a morning in terms of kids’ learning yet by the time she had finished her coffee was thinking about the Maths lesson after play and how she would make it interesting for the class and cheer up herself, and them, by making it a fun time.

George was careful to sit next to the principal at morning tea time and told her how well his class had handled the Writing test. In his usual “eager beaver” manner he was looking forward to getting on to Maths after play and giving the kids the necessary skills to handle the Maths test later in the term. It was no surprise that after play when the principal visited his room the class were all working quietly from the same page in the Math's text book practicing algorithms that could possibly appear in the next National Standard test.

Leanne whistled as she quickly planned the rest of her day. Natalie bringing the baby rabbit to school gave her the ideal motivation to fill the rest of the day with some child-centred activity. Onto the whiteboard she wrote the outline of activities for the class so that they could work at their own pace on research, observational drawing, creative writing, music, dance and other forms of presentation. I’ll catch up with the Maths tomorrow she thought this is too good an opportunity to miss and will give me the chance to work with those who need some additional help- the help my own assessment indicated. She sipped her tea and added her planning notes into her planning folder just in case someone wanted to see why she had not followed her original day’s plan.

Meanwhile in an office far removed.…

Kids from Chaos - our achievement tail?

In education we are often quick to label students with the intention of assisting them but all too often labels end up as an excuse for not helping such students by placing the blame outside of the teaching learning process- deficit theory. One writer has added another group to the list KFC kids( kids from chaos). Kids with no boundaries - like living in spaghetti!


I have always thought that it is the lack of authenticity about our programmes that all too often create the various categories of failing students in our society. Such students do not fit into 'our' preplanned programmes - success being assessed as students going along with what is offered. 'One size fits most of the students' - the rest are sacrificed; standardization only suits standard kids!

Even so called child centred primary classrooms , as friendly as they look, are strongly teacher determined as a result of imposed formulaic 'best practices'.

Students of chaos have their own definition. Like other 'at risk' students kids from chaos suffer but they have some important differences. They are frequently from poor or historically marginalized families but in addition to this they came from where chaos reigns.

In such homes adults are often absent busy working at low paying jobs, unemployed, or simply emotionally struggling to survive. As a result such students miss out on substantive relationships with powerful adults. Their lives are full of turmoil and unpredictability.

Such students struggle academically ( not having acquired the pre-requisite literacy skills schools demand of them) ; they have no experience at self organising skills gained through positive parental routines; as a result they feel alienated from school and all to often fall back on their default behaviours of acting out or withdrawing; they relate to similar peers for approval; rarely experience school success and, when all is added together, have little vision of a positive future and live for the moment.

If teachers reflect back to the needs of students, as outlined by William Glasser and others, some ideas of how to help such students succeed might come to mind. Whatever is decided a personalised approach to learning will be required - one that really values the experience each students brings the learning experience.

Glasser outlines five basic needs that all students need to be able to learn: power, mastery, belonging, safety, and fun. Unfortunately 'kids from chaos' ( KFC) all too often satisfy such needs with behaviours that are counter-productive to school learning.

When students behave inappropriately, as defined by the school, such students are labelled as 'at risk' and begin their career of school failure. From a personalisation perspective it is the schools that fail.

To ensure such children succeed teachers need to appreciate the circumstances that have created 'the areas of concern' and then to do everything they can to hep the KFC students gain the learning attributes that other students already have in place before they even enter school.

These students (all students) need benign routines to help them structure their day and any learning tasks. It helps such students to break down complex tasks into 'bite sized bits' ( 'scaffolding' or modeling learning) and for teachers to interact with them providing specific and immediate feedback.

Any such help needs to value each students 'voice' and point of view. If this is not a focus students can lose their individuality and creativity, a mark of a standardised programme.

The best studies will be those that come form the students own interests and questions (an 'emergent' curriculum) , so that, with appropriate help, students can feel their views are valued. This is important for all students and is the essence of personalised learning.

To gain involvement in class studies, or explorations, students need to be encouraged to make use of all their senses as, through such experiences, missing oral,and language pre-literacy skills can be developed. This is far preferable to remedial work using disconnected phonics approaches.

Such studies are a means to teach KFC students the basic research approaches that underpin discovery learning. With appropriate teacher assistance students will be able to produce work that they are proud of and that will inspire them to do better next time. This also applies to the various expressive activities that 'emerge' as possibilities . Students need to be reattached to the idea that they are their own 'meaning hunters and makers'. Displaying the work they have achieved will further reinforce the idea that they are all creators.


Such a personalised programme, combined with positive teacher assistance and benign routines, will provide the opportunities for KFC students to develop their own set of unique gifts and talents and help then see learning ( and school) as positive experience affirming their sense of self.

Such teaching, important for all students, is particularly vital for KFC students so as to fill the gaps that their chaotic lives have developed.

For me this is a validation of the discovery type programmes that were once a feature of our schools in 60/70s before the imposition of the standardised curriculum of the 80/90s.

We need to return to such powerful pedagogy - a pedagogy that values the 'artistry' of the teacher and the real lives of the students. If we do this we can make classrooms powerful learning environments for all students - but especially for 'at risk' and neglected kids.

It is these kids that will eventually contribute to the so called 'achievement tail' - one created by the impoverished teaching our schools provide, and one that will not be solved by further standardised teaching.

All students need to be helped to develop strong learning identities though such enriched experiences.

The push for standards continues!

A satirical story from a guest writer. See his Sione story



National Standards Extended

In a press conference at which she appeared today the Minister of Education, Anne Tolley, announced the extension of the Government’s National Standards’ policy. Anne Tolley was without the support of the Prime Minister, John Key, when providing the details of the soon to be introduced policy.

The Minister referred to the outstanding success, and the universal acceptance, of the introduction of National Standards into New Zealand primary schools and described the improvement already apparent in the achievement of students in the nation’s schools. She noted that the embracing of this key initiative by teachers, parents and boards of trustees members was only surpassed by that of leading editorial writers across the country. In spite of the narrowing of the curriculum Anne Tolley said it was quite clear that if we wanted to catch up economically with Australia it was important that students were able to read, write and do maths at the levels expected by the national standards. When asked about the need for students to be able to undertake thinking type activities and to be able to build on their talents to become life long learners Ms Tolley stated that it was this type of woolly thinking that had seen New Zealand students only performing in the top 10% of school’s world wide when they could have been doing even better.

The new standards will be applied to pre-school children where the Government will set up a range of assessment criteria to check that all children are walking and talking by an age appropriate time. When questioned about the criteria to be used to undertake the required national testing process the Minister said that the leading New Zealand academic Professor John Hattie, who already advises the Government, will be developing the necessary criteria and has in fact already set up a team of academics to assist him in this process. The Minister noted that this group had all the required qualifications to guide the pre-school sector and that none of those involved were in fact practicing pre-school teachers as this type of reference group had proved to be so effective in the primary sector.

It is intended that all pre-school facilities, excluding kohanga reo, will implement the required testing next term and that the plain English reporting of results will be given to parents once testing is completed. For those children not attending a pre-school facility the Government has signalled that Plunket Nurses will visit homes on a regular basis to undertake the testing and ensure that children are meeting the relevant walking/ talking objectives at the appropriate age. When questioned about those parents who do not support this policy the minister stated that she has had talks with the Minister of Social Welfare and that it was possible that the Government would examine all cases where parents refused to co-operate and would consider stopping any benefit payment or Working for Families supplements should this be necessary.

“The importance of children walking and talking by the correct age cannot be over- emphasised,” said Anne Tolley, “and we as a Government intend that this shall be the case.”

When asked about other developmental skills such as running and catching a ball and social skills such as politeness and co-operation the Minister said she had no plans yet for these to be assessed however it was clear from the work being done by the academic group that these areas could be included in the future. The community’s support for this policy was overwhelming stated the Minister and she was determined to address the achievement tail which sees children entering our primary schools still unable to undertake quality physical education and/or talk clearly and confidently. “These standards and the related testing will solve these problems,” said Anne Tolley.

“The on going change implemented by the Government and its driving of this change through appointed groups who have no immediate involvement in the day-to day educational provision of education continues to reflect the enlightened policy for which this Government will be remembered,” said Anne Tolley.

At the time of publication no response had been received from the NZEI, the union representing a large number of pre-school teachers, nor from any other pre -school organisation although it is expected that these groups will oppose the proposed changes purely on a philosophical basis as they threaten the protected status these teachers enjoy.

press release ends

The suprising truth about what motivates us.

Daniel Pink, author of the New York Times best seller 'A Whole New Mind', latest book 'Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us' is a must read for educators who want to ensure all their students learn. This is a book that focuses on the importance of respectful relationships between the adult and the learner. Not only is it a powerful book it is written in an entertaining way.


Daniel Pink’s latest book, ‘A whole New Mind: Drive’, subtitled ‘the surprising truth about what motivates us’, is truly exciting. He writes that for too long school have relied on an extrinsic ‘carrot and stick approach’ (or ‘name and blame’).

The three things, he writes, that motivate us all are: autonomy, mastery and purpose. Real learning is achieved when the joy of learning is its own reward

We need to help our students ‘direct their own lives’, to ‘learn and create new things’ and to continually ‘better themselves’ and his challenge to us is apply this to education. Students need clear purposes, immediate feedback and challenges well matched to their abilities Creative teachers, like Elwyn Richardson, have long appreciated the power of personal purpose.

Pink writes to develop creativity teachers need to focus on introducing their students to interesting, challenging and absorbing tasks that, by deepening learning and by doing ones best, are reward in themselves. An obsession with goals ( implicit in our governments standards) and extrinsic rewards are problematic to Pink as they narrow focus, reduce risk taking, encourage dependency, replace intrinsic motivation, and crush creativity.

Quoting Deci and Ryan (experts on intrinsic motivation) Pink writes that, ‘If there is anything fundamental about our nature it’s the capacity for interest. Some things facilitate it. Some things undermine it.’ It is this inner drive to follow interests that must be protected all costs. As Jerome Bruner wisely wrote many years ago, ‘teaching is the canny art of intellectual temptation.’

What creates failure is something as simple as what Pink calls lack of ‘grit’ – the ability to persist and not give up. Young children, he says, are born curious and self directed but all too often this is lost because formal schooling has ‘flipped their default setting’.

Students need to learn to make choices over what they do and how they do it .We are all born to be players not pawns and we all resent compliance.

Pink writes enthusiastically about the research of psychology professor Carol Dweck who believes that the ability to learn or fail is in our heads. What we think shapes what we learn, or fail to learn. If kids believe they are born ‘smart’ (or ‘dumb’) learning is difficult. Smart people don’t like new learning that involves risk and ‘dumb’ kids just don’t even try. In contrast, if students see learning (working towards mastery) as a result of their continual effort, they find learning easier and take setbacks in their stride.

Developing positive mindsets in our students would be preferable to wasting time and energy implementing doubtful standards.

Principals ought to keep these well researched ideas about teaching and learning in mind and focus on creating motivating environments for both teachers and students to achieve autonomy, personal mastery and a sense of purpose.

We must not let the distraction of ‘new’ standards ( or even that technocrats who have made us worry about literacy and numeracy details) cause us to forget what education for a creative age is all about.

Learning is about personal meaning making; developing Pink's autonomy, mastery and a sense of purpose for all students.

Schools, with their genesis in a mass produced industrial age, are not good at this.

Personalising learning is the real challenge. One that creative teachers have always tied to do against the 'scientific' best practice tide.

Personalising the school experience to gain success for all learners

Personalising the High School Experience for Each Student by Joseph DiMartino and John Clarke, published by ASCD 2008, is a highly recommended book for schools with year 7 to 13 students who want to ensure all students succeed.

Well worth a study by any Intermediate or Secondary school concerned with disengaged or unmotivated students.


It is not be possible to give a full picture of all the ways various schools mentioned in this book have personalised learning for their students.

Everyone , it seems, is concerned with students ( some 20%) who leave our schools failing to gain much for their time. Conservatives seem to think the answer is to focus on basic skills ( literacy and numeracy) by establishing standards and measuring progress against them.

The current emphasis of the standards approach is to lay the blame for failure on students early primary schooling ( ignoring the factor of difficult home circumstances and the three or four years of secondary teaching).

This is all too simplistic and as approach has little evidence to show it works - quite the opposite. It is a reactionary, populist and political answer to the wrong problem - unmotivated students.

When it comes to attitudes toward learning it seems that disengagement occurs with greater intensity from years 7 to 10 - those who 'survive' are those would've succeeded no matter the schooling.

DiMartino and Clarke's book takes a different stance.

Rather than standardizing learning they see the answer as personalizing learning experiences for all learners. Although the book focuses on high schools personalising learning starts from birth and is only interrupted by formal schooling creating, from an early age, the seeds of failure.

The authors believe that high schools, as structured, are obsolete; that the basic design is over a century old and is no longer apprpriate to educate all students. They however are not critical of high school teachers and say it is only the dedication and superhuman effort of teachers that schools, originally designed to meet the needs of 5%, work reasonably well for about one third of current students.

The philosophy of the authors is that schooling needs to put students at the centre of their learning. This is the premise of the 'new' New Zealand Curriculum which is currently at risk of being sidelined by the standards agenda.

To meet the needs of all students teachers need to work towards designing new high schools. How schools have gone about this is covered in the book. To try to fix a broken system, the authors state, is just not possible if all students are to gain success. Too many students, the writers, say are bored, feel invisible, are isolated, or see little relevance in what they are asked to do.


The vision they write about seems simple but for anyone involved in secondary school change knows it is profoundly difficult.This book provides evidence of success and inspiration for schools really concerned about disengaged learners -at any level.

Chapters in the book are full of examples based on six promising practices which contribute to a new vision for schooling. Together they allow students to plan and develop their own pathways through school based on their talents, interests and aspirations.

Guided Personalised learning; teacher as advisers.

Teachers act as advisers to small groups of students over two to six years to review personal learning plans,assist in course selection and discover learning opportunities to suit individuals. Students, through 'advisories', feel that they aways have someone in their corner. Learning to be an adviser is a challenge for some teacher but is a vital aspect of personalising learning. Such 'advisory' teachers help students with their choices and keep them informed about how they are going and what they need to do next. Advice is given to assist teachers develop skill in this new role.

Personal Learning Plans.

Students meet regularly with parents advisers, mentors to plan and review progress. Few students have compelling vision of the own learning needs.Many students have learnt ways to avoid involvement. Students have to be helped to appreciate that it their responsibility to learn; to develop their own Personal Learning Plans (PLPS). PLPs need to value, recognise and celebrate their own voice and content learning.

Personalised Teaching.

Teachers work with students tailoring learning to allow students to explore different aspects of subjects and to produce unique authentic work that shows their understanding. This is an antidote for student disengagement.Personalising learning changing the power structure between teacher and students and is not easy for both teachers and students. To succeed it requires authentic learning projects that require teachers and students to work together - how to give and take advice or feedback. Personalising learning is an inquiry approach to learning, it is about valuing students voice,choice and freedom to succeed or fail as in real life. There are a range of competencies that need to be in place for personalised learning to succeed. As experience is gained , by both teacher and students, greater responsibility can be passed over to the students. Personalisation is dynamic process. Respectful relationships are vital.Several examples are provided for schools to consider as well as ideas about how to cope with inevitable problems.

Community Based Learning.

Helping students become actively involved in the community to assist them gain appreciation of possible successful adult roles.

Personalised Assessment.

Rather than tests and exams students are assessed by their performances, portfolios and student led conferences about what they have learnt. Assessments are based on quality of questions , research, understanding and presentation of ideas. A range of rubrics are provided to assist teachers with authentic assessment.

Personalising School Systems.

Moving away from set subject teaching to various forms of 'block' timetabling and team teaching. Changing to personalised school is a gradual and evolutionary process one one that requires 'buy in' and leadership at all levels. The authors believe you can't reform schools you have to rebuild them. Once again examples are provided.

Personalised learning is essentially active learning where students research and present answers to their own questions. Students will need skills to 'seek , use and create their won knowledge' ( NZC) and teachers interactive skills to help students achieve their personal best.

With a shared vision and all wiling to try it can be done. All students can be engaged and succeed. As progress is made, and problem solved, a shared language is developed. Smaller schools,it seems, have the best chance to succeed - or for bigger schools to develop schools within schools.

Personalising learning is a creative 21stC way to solve the problem of school failure. It is a better answer than reaching back to the standardisation of a past industrial age that politicians favour.

Creativity or compliance that is the issue. Students future success depends on teachers' intellectual courage combined with a new vision of what education could be.

It is an exciting educational answer to the problem of 'school' failure.

Creative education for the 21stC.

A collection of ideas for creative education - somethings old and somethings new.


As our government has it eyes firmly fixed on the past standardized ideas it is important to reflect on what could be. And the amazing thing is that the alternative, creative teaching, is not new.

In the early 1900s writers like John Dewey were writing about that children learn from the environment they are exposed to and through worthwhile experiences they have. It was Dewey who said 'childen grow into people as they live today'.

The environment ( or culture) teachers create is vitally important. As Russell Bishop says, writing about the experiences Maori students in the Kotahitanga Project , 'culture counts'. Many students, in low decile schools, enter school ill equipped to cope with formalised impersonal education they experience - no matter how friendly it all looks. At school it is the teachers world that 'counts'.

What teachers need to do, from the earliest years, is to create an environment that captures children's interests; students need to be seen as active agents not recipients of teacher's curriculums. Students' interests, and their immediate environment, should be capitalised on. As Jerome Bruner wrote 'teaching is the canny art of intellectual temptation'. Bruner saw children as 'scientists working at the edge of their competence'. The current idea of pre-planning students activities is all too often counterproductive.

How teachers 'see' students is important.

In America Dewey's ideas were widespread but were eventually supplanted by an approach owing its genesis to scientific management -an approach being found successful in 'modern' factories as they introduced mass production. Schools today,particularly secondary schools, owe more to Henry Ford than John Dewey. Standardisation replaced potential diversity and individuality.

After World War Two in the UK and later in New Zealand child centred education regained centre stage at the primary levels. Elwyn Richardson's inspirational book, 'In the Early World ' was published during this time.In the 1970 an 'open education movement' continued the trend but eventually, by the 1980S, they were all replaced by more traditional programmes.

It seemed, with the introduction of the New Zealand Curriculum in 2007 student centred learning things were changing.

Then along came the standards and creativity once again is now at risk.

Standardisation is to replace personalisation.

Creative educators place great emphasis on assisting students to interpret their own and class experiences through their senses and their imagination and, following any experience, to express what they have discovered. The concept of valuing student's 'voice' and identity is vital - standardisation asks the opposite as students are measured against imposed standards.

Such creative teaching is already rare in our primary schools.

In creative schools students learn how to interpret any experience through a range of frameworks ( learning areas) - as in their preschool years all learning is integrated.

Literacy and numeracy are seen as important but as a means to an end. Today Primary classrooms focus almost all their energy on these two areas and the introduction of standards will just cement this bias. Any idea of multiple intelligences is bi and large ignored. Students succeed or fail on their ability in literacy and numeracy only .

How to interpret experiences using a range of frameworks - to see as an artist, a scientist, a poet, a writer , a mathematician, a musician, a dancer, a historian - all must be taught. It is such areas that students will find their passions ; area of exploration that those involved feel deeply.

By doing 'fewer things well', with the assistance of 'teachers as creative coaches', students learn the importance of effort and perseverance, the to and fro of the creative process, and the intrinsic satisfaction of 'doing things well'. Creative teachers believe that through such intrinsic success students attitudes can be transformed - with sensitive teaching all students can gain a 'feeling for' whatever they are doing.

Standards will tell teachers nothing about students' attitudes -and they are to be limited to reading, writing and mathematics. Learning cannot be limited to water tight compartments.

Creative teacher value imagination over conformity and the work on display illustrates this idiosyncrasy. Many classrooms celebrate formulaic conformity -even in such a creative area as art. All too often 'best practice ' teaching has trumped student creativity. Students are limited to working at the edge of the teachers competence. Students need to be helped to judge how successful they have been by referring to past efforts not teacher tests or standards.

This illusion of certainty is no way to equip students for an evolutionary future. Students need to develop faith in their own ideas, to value their intuition, to be spontaneous and to see possibilities, not to looking over their shoulder for teacher approval.

This dealing with uncertainty is the essence of creativity and it at odds with the misguided certainty of standards. Learners are boundary breakers.

Creative teachers see, when students are truly engaged, students inventing their learning identities through the tasks they undertake. The tasks we involve our students in must be chosen with care if we want to avoid students disengaging from their own learning and be coming part of the 'achievement tail' of lost learners.

It this vision of creative education that has inspired me over the decades. When creative teachers network with each other such creativity will become contagious. Standards may be having their turn in the sun but they are too fragile to last as they will destroy the creative spirit which is the basis of learning and life.

Each student desires to be recognised as an individual because of their own unique backgrounds and each student needs to learn how to contribute to their community - this is what teaching is all about. Or ought to be. We don't want 30 plus identical products - school are not factories.

Learning is process of discovery for both teachers and their students and it is as much about feeling and relationship as it is about thinking or knowing.

John Dewey had it right all those years ago. It time for Henry Ford and his modern day 'one size fits all' standard followers to move over. Students have amazing potential if placed in nurturing and challenging environments.

It is a respectful environment and quality experiences, not standards, that are needed, if the joy of learning is not to be crushed.

National's Standards - 'to be or not to be'?

'Good golly' says Mrs Tolley, '150000 failing children are asking us to save them by testing them to oblivion and branding them as below average'. Sir John Charmalot believes that, 'with big business and Auntie Herald on our side we can replace the nanny state with big brother know best. Working together we can destroy creative education once and for all'.


The truth of what is happening in schools to help all children achieve is being lost in by a cynical publicity campaign led by the government and assisted by the Auckland Herald and editors throughout the country. Read Kelvin Smythe's latest for more detail. Teachers are being told to do as they are told or else and are being unfairly scapegoated for school failure of students who enter school with little 'social capital' to take advantage of what is being offered. Teachers do their best. The system is the problem and standards are not the answer.

For an excellent crit of Auckland Herald see this blog by Russell Brown
The argument is really about if schools should be personalised to help all students achieve their talents and gifts, in the process of self realisation developing the competencies that they will require to thrive no matter what life throws at them, or should our system become more standardised so the products can be measured and blame apportioned for any failure.

The sad thing is that for two decades the powers that be have imposed formulaic 'best practices' on schools and required more and more testing. Creativity is already at risk. Managerialism has all but crushed teachers initiative and independence. National standards are the last straw.

Even testing guru John Hattie ( is for or against standards?) writes that 'applied uniformity across every school is a hopelessly crude way of raising student achievement and will result in teaching to the standards and narrowing of the curriculum'. What he says is the important thing 'is for children to be able to self assess their own progress and for teachers to give focused feedback. Most of all, he writes, 'students need a level of trust in classroom to admit out loud that they don't misunderstand something.'

It is respect and trust that is missing in the Minister's hard lined attitude as she happily discounts any contrary advice as 'mischievous' or 'taken into account'. Education is about working together and results in the building of 'social capital' of all involved - students, teachers and parents. Creative education builds on and extends the interests of the students and cannot be limited to success in literacy and numeracy as important as they are.

You get the impression it is either impose national standards or put up with no decent teaching of literacy and numeracy. Anyone who has visited a primary school would see the falseness of this position. Creative education is already being squeezed out by the current emphasis on literacy and numeracy.

The question we ought to ask about 'failing students' ( we know who they are) is why they can't read write and do maths at 15? Simply put they can't see the point of what is being offered. Why is this? How can we engage them? How can we make schooling more relevant? Why do so many children start so far behind at 5? When do students disengage? How important is the distressing home circumstances of the failing students? National's standards are a distraction to solving such issues and are more about a return to 'market forces' ideology.

Solving such problems requires a whole system approach not simplistic standards and blaming and shaming ideas that have already failed in other countries. Although New Zealand does have a a long 'achievement tail' it is important to appreciate that this is also the case in socially unequal countries particularly those that went down the market forces approach to politics and schooling.

It seems John Key see education as putting things into kids heads and then measuring what sticks - this is a 'banking' metaphor and appropriate for person who sees capital as something that can be accounted for. As for Ms Tolley she only has two or three programmed standardised answers which she repeats predictably. The complexity of teaching and learning is beyond her. Teaching is to be reduced to simplistic standardised ‘plunket’ graphs but with no farex available to fatten up kids only measuring them twice year. Maybe she should get management advice from McDonald's to assist her in developing this uniformity?

It does seem strange that the government happily overlooks the connections between the 20% of children living in poverty, the 20% failing in schools and the 20% ending up in prison?

This unfairness is where we ought to be paying attention?

If we follow the imported failed standards agenda we will see our school disintegrating under the triviality of measuring what we already know - akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. And, like the Titanic the rich and poor alike will pay the price if we don't place some real innovative thinking into the debate.

We need some real future thinking not a return to past failed ideas.

National's standards are well below average if judged educationally and not by populist politics!.

Who will want to a teacher in such a standardized future?


And an excellent contribution by Alfie Kohn debunking standards

Read this story about the damage of national testing.

And a short story about national standards from NZ

The Treaty of Waitangi - what do your students' know?

This weekend we celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. This is a great chance to learn more about the Treaty, to develop an inquiry attitude and how such a Treaty might work in the class.




A wise teacher should take advantage of important events in New Zealand history such as the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.

As the celebration comes early in the year it is a good opportunity to introduce the students to how they will be expected to learn in the class; how to work together to develop critical thinking; how to value their own ideas; how to deepen their understandings and how to apply lessons learnt to their own class.

The message teachers need to give is that in all learning students need to follow up their own questions, to learn how to make use of whatever resources are available and, as a result of their efforts, to gain a deeper understanding.

Such a study could begin before the day and conclude the days following.

The first thing is to ask the students what important New Zealand event is happening over the weekend. Some students will be aware of the Treaty.

When the Treaty is in their minds the next thing is to ask them what they know about the Treaty.This can be done individually, in small groups ( that could report their combined ideas back to the class) or done as a whole class discussion (with the teacher writing up their thoughts). From such activities the teacher can then help the class write up all their 'prior' knowledge , misunderstandings included. Older students could write out their own 'prior' ideas - when such ideas are read by the teacher the range of understandings will be apparent.

At this stage teachers need to introduce some resource material for the students to study - most schools have facsimile copies of the Treaty to display and there is a range of pictorial and written resources that can be studied as part of the literacy programme as guided reading. A map of Northland would valuable to introduce focusing on the Bay of Islands. A chronolical tiem line of events might be drawn up to clarify the happening before and during the signing. This is the time for some old fashioned teaching about the facts about the Treaty.

During the afternoon inquiry time the information gained from resources available can be used for students to answer key questions. Early in the year it is possibly best for teachers to help students define a small range of 'thinking' questions. Question should encourage comparisons and ask for students' opinions and feelings and not just be copied out as is often the case. It is a good idea to encourage students to list the resources they have made use of.

A range of outcomes could be negotiated with and developed by the students.

The teacher might take the opportunity for the class to develop a set of class rules and this could be written out on a suitable piece of paper to look like the original Treaty.

Students could study some of the main characters in and observers to the signing of the Treaty and write accounts from different peoples' perspectives - how such people might be feeling about the Treaty. Students would need to call on the knowledge gained during literacy time.

Junior teacher could write a 'big book' by scribing students thoughts about the Treaty.

Older students could complete a study chart or booklet following guidelines from the teacher.

The whole scene of signing the Treaty could be acted out with students dressed in suitable clothing ( which will involve condesable rearch). Students could compose some thought poems about the happenings of the day. Perps thay could compose dary enrty for the day -as no doubt people would have done ( thosewho could write that is)>

Each student could choose an element of the signing that appeals to draw and later enlarge to paint or crayon. Once again this requires visual research and assistance from teachers to ensure the painting has some dramatic focus. In such times artists would have recorded the events by drawing - students could consider how such event would be recorded today.

To conclude the study parents might be invited to look at the work at the end of a school day or students ideas gained written out and sent home.

At the least students could copy into their study books their prior thoughts and what they now know with suitable illustrations.

An event such as the signing of the Treaty provides an opportunity to bring history alive for the students as well as introducing ideas about how they will be expected to learn in the class.

Worth a try?