Dear all,
Hope you are all having a good Easter weekend. This not an April fool's day Food For Thought although there have been some great ones over the years. I think there are still people who believe this one from Google.
Last week I spent four days at the World Edu Learn
conference listening to some of the leading Educational Thought Leaders in the
world. The common theme from all speakers was that it is time for a revolution
in education and that there is plenty of evidence that shows this needs to take
place sooner rather than later.
This year rather than writing lots of notes about each
speaker I have decided to write a sentence or two about what each of them spoke
about at the conference and provided links to their work if you think you might
like to learn more about them and their thinking.
Will Richardson: His big
question revolved around this quote, “ Are we trying to do the wrong thing
right in schools?” What is the cost of this? Finally, the ultimate and most
worrying thought that originates from Russell
Ackoff in his book Turning Learning Right Side Up, “ the righter you are at
doing the wronger thing, the wronger you will become.” Does this thinking apply
to exams, traditional grading systems and tracking through value added? The
answer from the conference was a categorical, yes.
Ron Clark: Shared
his story online about how he realized education was failing so many students.
He wrote a successful book and used the royalties to build his own school, the Ron Clark Academy which is visited
by 1,000’s of educators every year, to provide a platform for low income
families to have their children educated in a way that will create
opportunities for them to go to university and get good jobs.
Sylvia Martinez: She talked inspiringly
about the maker movement and the need for a global community of people learning
to solve problems with modern tools and technology. Her master class was
attended by Libby and she has returned enthused by the things she learned. Sylvia
certainly walks the talk and believes that educators can adopt the powerful
technology that exists today and “can do” maker ethos to revitalize
learner-centered teaching and learning in ALL subject areas. Here Sylvia talks about
her book invent to Learn.
Dr Peter Gamwell: This session
was very interesting because it reinforced the importance of allowing student
inquiry to flourish in our classrooms. He talked about a Wonder wall in a classroom and that encourages deeper
learning through students following their interests. Here is a 13 min video
of Peter Gamwell talking about the concept of Wonder Walls at another
conference exactly as he did in his 45 minutes at EduLead
Ian
Gilbert: Ian’s work was around thinking. It was very similar to the
work of Philosophy for Children that we have been working on this year. He
believes that all classes should start with a mental limbering up exercise. Here is a link to a pdf that has some questions and guidance that you might
find interesting for incorporating Thunks into your classes.
Howard Gardner: This is a name that I’m
sure you are all familiar with because of his work on Multiple Intelligences. In
this video link speech he did not talk much about this work but his latest
research on creativity, the big C as he calls it, and how it will be essential
for the future. He stressed that creativity needs defining and that “ if we
want to think outside the box, we need to understand the box first.” His
interesting conclusion was that his research has shown that it is rare to find
innovation/ creativity and entrepreneurship in the same person. In general
creative people aren’t motivated by money and this is why many great ideas that
become startup companies very often fail. He said that it generally needs a partnership/
teamwork to make a good idea flourish as a business.
Dr Douglas Reeves: His key
question was why do schools make progress from good to great and then stop
improving. A very good question for us at ISHCMC to ponder. His work is deeply
enshrined in academic studies of schools from all over the world. Much of
the thinking that he shared in both his plenary speech and his masterclass is
essential for the development of our Studio 5 and 6. Hoa attended his session
and walked out deep in thought and brain challenged. His work will help us
overcome pushback as we create institutional and organizational change through
our thinking.
Dr Debbie Silver: The most animated
and humorous speaker was left to the last. Debbie gave a hugely entertaining
speech and workshop about how we can engage all our students in our classrooms.
She shared her own teaching experiences and it was clear that she walked the talk in
ensuring that all students should be given the chance of being successful. Much
of what Debbie talked about was based around her book, Drumming to the Beat of
Different Marchers-Finding the Rhythm for Differentiating Learning. He speech was
humorous and very similar to this extract on youtube.
My biggest take a ways from the four days were that
education is very complex, ISHCMC is definitely aligned with the thinking of educational
thought leaders and researchers and that we need to read more deeply writers
like Dewey, Montessori, Costa, Freire, Csikszentmihalyi and Piaget to search
for a deeper understanding of learning that will help us navigate the years of change
that lay ahead.
Have a lovely Easter Sunday,
Yours
Adrian
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