Food for Thought

Dear all,

As you know Simon and I were away last week in Singapore working with other Cognita Heads on compliance and child protection programmes for schools and the region. the meetings were very productive. They took place at the new multi-million dollar Stamford campus. The trip reminded me of something that I have learned from doing accreditation and evaluation visits across the world; that very often trips away make you appreciate what you have back home even more. And this was very much how I felt on returning to ISHCMC on Friday, hearing, seeing and feeling the enthusiasm and passion for learning that you are generating across our school. It is something very special and we should not underestimate how powerful the work we are doing is for our students and families.

On a similar theme this week's Food for Thought returns to one of my favourite sources for sharing educational thought, Mind/Shift. This article is useful for reminding us about our Learning Principles and in particular:

·    All learners are capable of achieving their goals in a guided environment where there is an appropriate balance of standards, challenge and support.

It is expected that all students will make the effort to progress in their learning and achieve their goals. Clear learning goals and performance objectives will be set for and by students. These objectives and goals involve meaningful performance criteria and answer genuine questions that challenge students to make an effort to attain their goal.  A growth mindset will be purposefully developed by teachers in the classroom as they nurture curiosity and higher order thinking in their students. Students will be provided with exemplars, models and formative rubrics to support their learning.  

·  Learning builds on prior knowledge and experiences and is contextual, meaningful and social.

Students do not learn isolated facts and theories in an abstract state of being separated from the rest of their lives: they learn in relationship to what else they know, what they believe, their prejudices and their fears. Learning should be purposeful, age appropriate and personal to the students, drawing on and valuing their prior knowledge and experiences. The more students know, the more they can learn. Prior learning provides a context to new learning whilst at the same time providing a degree of ownership of the learning process.  It is expected that students use what they already know to construct new meanings. Teachers will model effective questioning routines for and with students to construct meaningful, trans-disciplinary learning experiences in order to guide the student to see the value of what they are learning in the wider world and ask students to demonstrate their understanding through “real world” applications that genuinely use the knowledge and skills that have been acquired in an authentic setting.

Although we will not be taking on Deeper Learning as a whole school project it is something that through our Learning Principles we should all be reflecting upon for our classroom pedagogy and planning.

Enjoy,

Yours

Adrian

Steps to Create the Conditions for Deep, Rigorous, Applied Learning

Many school administrators, teachers and parents want the education provided to children to be high quality, rigorous and connected to the world outside the classroom. Teachers are trying to provide these elements in various ways, but a group of schools calling itself the “Deeper Learning Network” has codified some of what its members believe are essential qualities of deep learning (check out how students lead parent teacher conferences in this model). Some of the goals include learning designated content, critical thinking, communication skills, collaborating effectively and connecting learning to real-world experiences.

To better understand what schools in the Deeper Learning Network were doing differently, Monica Martinez and Dennis McGrath visited several schools and wrote a book about what they found: “Deeper Learning How Eight Innovative Public Schools Are Transforming Education in the Twenty-First Century.” They’ve also put together a guide to help interested educators create the conditions necessary to make this model thrive. As the infographic below shows, the model requires a big shift from traditional school and rests on positive school culture and collaborative professional teams of teachers who are committed to the vision of the school.

The introduction to the guide makes the immensity of the task clear: “The Guide offers a framework for planning that addresses the reality that school transformation is an incredibly challenging task that will not work as a top-down mandate and requires time, collective effort, and a shared focus on vision and goals.” The authors hope it will be a resource for educators looking to start this type of transformation, but who are uncertain how to get started.

http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/02/steps-to-creating-the-conditions-for-deep-rigorous-applied-learning/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kqed%2FnHAK+%28MindShift%29