I promised a week ago to point to a range of useful websites that one of the keynote speakers recommended and here it is!

At the NSW Conference on Engaging Learners Through Innovative Practice one of the keynote speakers was Dr Curtis Bonk (you can follow his blog here http://travelinedman.blogspot.com/). He spoke about the wide range of internet resources that are now available to motivate and engage learners.

Curtis generously sent me his new book The World is Open which expands on his talk about how the web is revolutionising education.

The main thrust of the book and Curtis’s talk is that technology and the availability of information and resources is now at the point that

“Anyone can now learn anything from anyone at anytime”

Let me quote some sections from the text”

“… Thomas Friedman argued that our world had been flattened by many technologies, most significant of which is the Internet, with its ability to find nearly any piece of information we might seek in the exact moment of need. As he showed, the commerce-related implications of this premise are enormous”

“In the twenty-first century, education trumps the economy as the key card to participation in the world. It is education, after all, from which robust economies are built.”

“We are living in a time period of the most monumental changes and challenges to arise in education since Plato held his first classes at his famed academy, Hekademeia, later known as Akademeia. Even in those days, learning in different locations and times was facilitated by technology as teachers and learners were shifted from exclusive reliance on oral traditions to instruction that included the written word. This, of course, was a historic transformation for the people of the planet because learning could now take place beyond a singular geographic location and moment in time.”

Curtis goes on to not only point to how we are now at a similar transformational period in human history but gives a range of examples. Here are some resources for you!

1. Notschool.net: is an international ‘online learning community’ offering an alternative to traditional education for young people who are unable to engage with school or other complementary provisions such as home tutoring or specialist units.

2. CALM Chemistry: a free web tool to assist learning chemistry

3. Jing: A simple way to add visuals to your online conversations. Teachers can use it to explain processes online.

4. WolframAlpha: a computational knowledge engine that is quite remarkable! It gives you access to an extraorindary range of facts about anything in the world.

5. Geothentic: Geospatial technologies plus Authentic Learning. Geothentic provides an online environment for teachers and students to solve complex geography circumstances. Brilliant!

6. Nautilus Live: Follow along as Dr. Robert Ballard and his team undertake an exciting expedition on the E/V Nautilus to map the sea floor and study underwater volcanoes. Be there in real time.

7. Virtual Tours of the Louvre: go for a tour through the museum (many museum sites have these functions now!)

8. Turning the Pages: turn the pages of historical documents in the British Museum

9. ARCHAVE: the ARCHAVE system is an immersive virtual reality environment for archaeological research.

and many more. Check out more by downloading Curtis’s presentation here sydneykeynote – curtis bonk.

Two items I want to end on:

1. While the technology and resources are here to make classrooms more engaging and have the students drive their own learning, few teachers take it on. This article shows some research into this (Research-dispels-common-ed-tech-myths).

2. Third world countries are becoming the source of innovation that will drive the future. Don’t believe me? India has come up with a $35 tablet computer that they hope will be used throughout their school system. (India unveils $35 tablet computer) And we complain about getting netbooks in schools and politicians are trying to end the computer in schools program!

What great websites for learning do you know of and would like me to speak about?

Recently in preparing to talk at the NSW Department of Education and Training Conference I thought about what would be necessary to think about if we are preparing young people for the 21st Century.

One of the topics that came up for me was school architecture. I visited Rowellyn Park Primary recently and had a walkthrough of their new school building with the principal and teachers. One of the conversations that came up was about thinking about using the new space. What a number of the teachers had discovered upon visiting other schools with open learning spaces, was that some teachers had begun to block off areas to limit the space. It brought up the point that we really need to rethink how we use space and how we develop students to respect and be responsibile for the way the space is used.

Given this and further discussions I have discover an article which i thought I would share with you from ESchoolnews.com on design recommendations that American Architects are making to school designers and school districts. This article si 4 years old but highlights the importance of thinking about school design and use!

Here is the article in full:

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2006/10/01/eight-key-school-design-recommendations/?ast=41

Here are eight key principles for effective school design in the 21st century.

The National Summit on School Design, convened by the American Architectural Foundation and Knowledge-Works Foundation, recently brought more than 200 participants from around the country to Washington, D.C. After discussing several school-design topics, summit participants agreed on eight key principles for effective school design in the 21st century. These are:

1. Design schools to support a variety of learning styles. Not all students learn the same way, studies show. In designing new schools, stakeholders should reexamine the idea of the traditional classroom setting and focus instead on new kinds of environments that can support student achievement. This requires greater flexibility to accommodate a range of learning scenarios, both inside and outside of school.

2. Enhance learning by integrating technology. Besides the use of technology tools in classrooms, recent advances also allow schools to better control heating, cooling, air flow, and noise and to improve communications with stakeholders. Consult students about what kinds of learning technologies they’d like to use in school, summit participants recommended–and don’t forget to train educators in their use.

3. Foster a “small school” culture. Though the size of a new school should be determined within the framework of a community’s needs, vision, academic goals, traditions, and economics, there are important benefits to developing a “small school” culture that fosters close relationships, participants said.

4. Support neighborhood schools. Look for ways to preserve neighborhood schools whenever possible, participants urged. Neighborhood schools allow many students to walk to school; strong neighborhood schools boost property values for nearby homeowners; and preserving neighborhood schools reinforces the link between the school and its community.

5. Create schools as “centers of community.” Many school districts are building schools that serve as the hub, or central resource, of the entire community. In these cases, the facility is used not only as a school but as a location for other community services, such as recreational centers or performing-arts spaces–fostering greater public support and playing an important role in the community’s health. If you choose this route, however, make sure you consider policies and design elements that will ensure the safety of students.

6. Engage the public in the planning process. This process should start early, participants said, allowing for community feedback long before final decisions are made. The process should include all school and community stakeholders, recognizing minority opinions as well. It might help to start with a “visioning process,” in which stakeholders agree what the school’s role in educating students and serving the community should be.

7. Provide healthy, comfortable, and flexible learning spaces. Summit participants overwhelmingly agreed that school leaders should strive to improve the quality, attractiveness, and health of their buildings. Research and experience have shown the impact of spatial configurations, color, lighting, ventilation, acoustics, and other design elements on student achievement. Far from luxuries, these elements can affect students’ ability to focus, process information, and learn.

8. Consider non-traditional options for school facilities and classrooms. Explore options for employing underused civic, retail, and other adaptable, non-school spaces, participants urged. Many cities have community assets such as museums, colleges, research labs, and other institutions that offer the potential for experiential learning and real-life applications of lessons.

What gets students engaged in a topic?

It is a constant question that many educational consultants get from teachers.

The answer is both simple and complex at the same time! In some ways it is two questions – “how do I get the students interested and engaged in what we are covering” and “how do I keep them engaged

According to neuroscience what causes engagement is novelty. Something out of the ordinary. Something .. novel that the brain hasn’t seen before or rarely experiences. Novelty electrifies attention. Why? Our brains are designed to constantly constantly scan for danger because its prime mission is to keep the body healthy and safe. The limbic system within the brain is the oldest part of the brain and it controls memory, emotions, smell and hunger. It also controls the flight or fight function of the brain. You can consider the limbic system is the foundation of our operating system. So if you can create something that grabs the attention of the brain it will engage your students.

Emotion is also a key factor in engagement and learning. If you can connect through to what matters for students and they can connect to the rest of their knowledge (in their day to day life). If you are not concretely connecting to what the students know or are too abstract then this is where students become disengaged. This is where domains such as mathematics really struggles. One of the strengths I created for myself when teaching engineering at university was to ensure that the students realised that all the mathematics had a practical and real world application and derivation mostly in their day to day life.

Interestingly enough … what embeds knowledge is rituals. The ritualising of actions, or repetition, will create the deeper neural connections. Sports organisations are brilliant at this. In Australia the Auskick program (associated with the Australian Football League and funded by the National Australia Bank) does a remarkable job of engaging kids and doing the rote drills (rituals) to embed the learning. You can see how successful it is by the skills development of the game at both junior and senior levels. Senior AFL players are much like Formula One drivers in their ability to react and interpret the game.

We can ritualise activities and templates and role modelling as teachers. Use graphic organisers in your classes consistently and ritually. Model the behaviour you want to achieve. If we do the thinking about how we are going to develop skills in our students then there will be a range of approaches you can use. Key to all of this is to ensure that students are connected to the context of the learning. If it is something that is not connected to what matters for them then their brains will automatically tune out.

My question to you as a reader of my blog is … how are you creating novelty and rituals in the class? I coach teachers on how they can do this in my Practical Inquiry Based Learning Workshops (http://www.intuyuconsulting.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3&Itemid=9).

As a final piece to this blog, Charles Leadbeater, quite a world reknown speaker about creativity and innovation, presented the following talk at a TED conference earlier this year from research that he did into Innovation in Education around the world. He not only found that enormous innovation is occuring in the slums around the world but many of the principles that we talk about around Inquiry Based Learning (espeically about engagement). Enjoy the presentation!

His name is David Dixon. Her name is Chantelle Baxter. They are 25 years olds and co-founders of a non-profit organisation called Project Eight (http://projecteight.com.au/) . They are considered amongst the Brightest Young Minds in Australia (http://www.bym.com.au/home). Chantelle has just been asked to present TEDxYouth Conference in Perth. Remarkable people!

For the last two years they have been finding ways to empower and enable young people to become socially responsible leaders and active citizens. They have been mainly working in Africa, but now they have just launched a global contest for primary school students in Australia that will contribute to changing one billion lives worldwide.

What is it?

Its called the Worlds Largest Design for Change School Contest.

How does it work?

Students across the globe are given a challenge. They must take a problem from their community and over the period of one week, they must design, create and implement a solution.

The Design For Change contest is aimed at students aged 10-13 years. It’s teacher-friendly AND flexible. Each participating school gets to implement the contest in their own way, to fit in with school terms, holidays and other curriculum demands and requirements. You may choose to spend 30 minutes a day for 5 days on Design for Change – you can create a schedule that will work best for you and your classroom.

The toolkit will guide you and your students through a simple four step process and your classes project can be as small or as big as you like. Each school is asked to record their stories of change using video or photos. Your schools’ story will be uploaded onto a global website. The best stories of change from around the world will become part of a worldwide curriculum that will be presented at the United Nations.

Who else is doing it?

Over 32,000 schools in India participated in the contest in 2009. In 2010 the contest has gone global, and 18 countries around the world are now participating. Its estimated that over 250,000 children across the globe will participate this year, making this contest the largest social movement of young people EVER.

The contest was designed by the Head Teacher of the Riverside School in India – Kiran Bir Sethi. We highly recommend that you watch the short and inspiring video (http://www.designforchange.com.au/teaching-kids-to-take-charge) to get a powerful insight into the contest and what it makes available for the children who participate.

How do I get involved?

Currently, they only have enough space for 30 primary schools across Australia who would like to take part in the Design For Change Contest in Term 3 or early Term 4 (2010). The contest will meet essential learning standards (VELS, K6 etc.) for grade 5 and 6 curriculums across Australia. It also is perfect for inquiry approach.

For more information go to http://www.designforchange.com.au, or alternatively, contact either David Dixon on 0401 123 123 or Chantelle Baxter on 0407 804 412. Program availability is strictly limited.

It is the mid year school holidays and I finally have the chance after a week to sit down and to collect my thoughts and publish some of the fabulous technology and presentations I have seen just in the last week of working in schools.

Perhaps the most special for me was the work I saw at Our Lady of Sacred Heart in East Bentleigh Victoria. I had coached a group of teachers over term one to produce a unit for their Year 9 students. The students would be doing an intensive 5 days of inquiry learning and the teachers wanted to get quite creative and empower the students to develop their skills. Naturally, as with taking on anything new within a school, there were MANY challenges! Perhaps one of the biggest challenges was that the students had to learn how to be responsible for their own learning.

I went to the presentation day at the end of the intensive at witnessed a fabulous range of ideas and thoughts. The students had various questions to answer about Westfield Southland, a regional shopping centre that is continuing to grow and grow (it is now apparantly the fourth largest in Victoria). Along the way I saw some great software that I hadn’t known.

Prezi (http://prezi.com)

This is an alternative presentation software that is remarkable in showing non-linear thinking as well as having ideas displayed in a mappoing environment. I have included an example of  a teacher talking about maths not being linear.

ScrapBlog (http://www.scrapblog.com/)

The following is a ScrapBlog produced by the marketing group of Year 9 students. Remarkable production given they only had 3 days to put it together and meet the rest of their presentation needs!

Animoto (http://animoto.com/)

Finally, the year 9 Leadership group created a reflection piece using Animoto to present to the entire Year 9 body about their experience over the previous week. OIne the main things that struck the girls was that they were in school preparing for jobs that had not been invented yet. This really grabbed them and gave them a context for the week and the presentation.

Our Lady of Sacred Heart Year 9 SL9 Animoto

What are your students creating? Please share and I’ll put them up on the blog!

I love new ideas and technology! Given how quickly the world is changing I thought I give you two new ideas or tools you can use in your classrooms to improve thinking and to create novelty in your sessions.

Wordle (http://www.wordle.net/)

Wordle is a tool for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like.

It is a great tool to hightlight the importance of certain ideas and words that may be used in a text or even in a discussion. For example, the wordle below was one I generated by entering my blog url in and the Wordle program generated the word cloud to highlight the most frequently used words.

ScreenHunter_01 Jun. 09 11.11The following is a wordle I use in my inquiry programs of what teachers say are the most important 21st century skills

21st+Century+Word+Cloud

Xtranormal (http://www.xtranormal.com/)

Xtranormal.com is a web-site powered by Xtranormal’s text-to-movie™ platform—a web-based application used to create short 3D animated movies from simple text-based movie-scripts.
If you can type, you can make movies.  The characters in the movie speak the dialogue in the script, and react to performance triggers—icons that are dropped directly into the script, just like smileys in IM/chat.
Movies can be shared through e-mail, blogs and online video sharing and social networking sites such as YouTube™, MySpace™ and Facebook™.

ScreenHunter_02 Jun. 09 11.24

Have a go … they are both fabulously easy to use!

I just returned from running workshops in Queensland and the group of teachers and I had a fantastic discussion around safety, connection and learning.

Let me tune you in to how we got into it by reproducing a bit of the morning of the Advanced Inquiry Workshop.

Our brain is designed to to ensure the safety and survival of our bodies. So it is always scanning to ensure that the body is safe. Given that survival and safety is paramount for the brain … the learning environment must be safe.

But .. are our learning enviroments safe for the brain?

Fear is the foremost inhibitor to learning and growth. The brain, however, cannot distinguish between fear of failure /getting things wrong / making a mistake in a peer environment vs fear of dying or suffering injury. Research has shown that the physiologically they produce the same body reaction. This is understandable because the environment that we exist in has evolved from the dangers of survival out in the wild to the dangers of survival in the modern world.

What this points to is that we must go beyond looking at physical saefty issues like bullying or many of the overt factors that create an unsafe environment for learning. We need to also look at the systemic structures that the brain will interpret as a danger or survival issues.

One of the unfortunate byproducts of a content focussed traditional school environment is that we have created an environment of wrong / right, good / bad  … a breeding ground for fear. Students over time adapt by unconsciously becoming passive learners as a way of mitigating this fear as they haven’t yet learnt the skills to mitigate the fear using their pre-frontal cortex or reasoning part of their brain to reframe their perception. By the time we become adults many of us have not developed the capacity to mitigate the emotions and feelings that fear drive up – notice how public speaking is still feared more than death!

When I shared that with the teachers that I had a face to face example of the passivity that our education system breeds with a large group of first year pre-service teachers only last week … they began to share about their experiences of students from year 8 onwards and how they developed themselves to overcome the fear suppressor with the students.

Social networking research indicates that unless the individual has very strong self-confidence and wherewithal to go against group behaviour (the fear of speaking up and being wrong or humiliated) they will be passive and go along with the beliefs of the groups they are in. A simple example of this is how we can be chameleon like when we are in different groups of people. Fitting into a group is a survival technique that is fundamental to design of the brain in most species.

So a learning environment must be safe and develop the self-confidence of the child to question, to challenge, to develop their own place in the world. Young people must learn how to fail and learn from those experiences without fear of consequences for failing (e.g embarrassment, teasing, bullying, etc).

How do we create this?

Well the very best teachers practice it all the time. They know that they must be connected on a deep level with the students. They actively build a safe environment. They share their lives and create mutual respect. They honour their word. They consistently role model behaviour and relate to the students as their learning partners. They create environments where it is Ok to fail and make mistakes. They sometimes ask the students for feedback so they can improve their ability to deliver lessons that are more inspiring or have the students learn better.

Even more than this … why inquiry learning is becoming a more spoken about learning approach is that it is not about right or wrong, good or bad … but it allows students to discover and voice opinions and try different things out in an environment of discovery.

You might realise my point by this time. Unless we move from a content focussed paradigm which is all about passing the test, getting things right, etc .. we will not be preparing students for a world that is profoundly changing.

If we want our students to be self-confident, risk-taking thought provokers who adapt to an ever changing social and technological environment then we need to shift OUR paradigm of education.

The leap isn’t large … but it is becoming more and more urgent.

Rubric (noun): “perscribed guide for conduct or action”

One of the most significant challenges that teachers are experiencing at the moment in the Australian education system is shifting the paradigm of how they approach delivering education. Most schools suffer the schizophrenia of knowing that the development of essential skills and capacities is as critical as content knowledge but being driven by the need to deliver content knowledge via NAPLAN testing at Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 and the exams for year 11 and 12. A number of schools are now teaching to the tests with the aim of raising their test scores and thus being seen as schools that are performing.

The problem with this is that it is a destructive approach to developing young people being prepared for the 21st century. Students do not predictably come out of such a system as active learners with a curiosity and drive to want to continually learn. In fact what we are witnessing is students becoming more and more passive and failing to adpat to a world that is changing very quickly (and will continue to do so for generations to come).

One approach that I have started to use with teachers as a way of systemising the progression of skill development throughout the years of schooling is to design formative rubrics appropriate to the cohort of students. These rubrics would be student centred and in the language of the age group.ScreenHunter_01 Apr. 26 21.18

Most rubrics that I have seen in schools have been assessment rubrics (see example). These rubrics are designed so that the students are clear about the level and quality of work required to achieve particular marks.

Whilst this rubric is important for the students to deliver material that the teacher can assess it is a poor vehicle for developing the skills of the students.

Much like the assessment (or summative) rubric gives a guide to the student as to what to provide to achieve the best marks, the formative rubric is an explicit guide to how a student can adapt or modify their behaviour or skills to perform and act at a higher level.

In the workshops I run with schools I have the teachers articulate not only the skills they would love their students to have but also to explore and articulate what would demonstrate a student having those skills at differing levels. Part of this process is moving the teachers from “teacher speak” to age appropriate language. What teachers discover is that it requires a very thoughtful process to “unpack’ the skill and to then design practices, templates, modelling and short classroom activities to develop the skills.

ScreenHunter_02 Apr. 26 21.23

What many teachers and schools become aware of in this process is the necessity to develop a bank of formative rubrics for each year level within the school. Another way of saying this is … if you aren’t explicitly defining the skill development progression then you are living in hope (and the skill development is all teacher dependent … not systemised).

One of the side benefits of having formative rubrics such as these is that teachers now have a tool with which they can discuss with both students and parents that will allow for REAL partnership in developing student capacities.

I’d really love to hear back from you about this process and what you see is possible?

In last week’s blog we begun a discussion about developing leadership whilst student’s are learning. This week we explore, what John Maxwell calls “the quickest way to developing leadership“.

F.F. Fourneis, in his wonderful exposition Coaching for Improved Work Performance, CoachingImprovedWorkdiscussed four common reasons why people do not perform the way they should:

  1. They do not know WHAT they are supposed to do
  2. They do not know HOW to do it
  3. They do not know WHY they do it
  4. There are obstacles beyond their control

Despite that this was originally written about work circumstances it is apparent that this can also be said about students in a school situation.

The first two reasons are normally dealt with reasonably well within a classroom environment. We provide excellent explicit teaching on the WHAT and the HOW of doing specific tasks. Having well designed assessment rubrics go a long way to providing students with what they need to show that they have develop knowledge as well as skills and capacities.

Reason three, the WHY, is sometimes not addressed well in classes but can be developed with well designed “tuning in” sessions and linking to the students’ understanding in other areas. A strong WHY will have the students engaged, passionate and enabling strong transference of skills AND knowledge.

Reason four, however, is poorly dealt with by many schools, and in fact most people rarely develop the wherewithal to overcome the obstacles that life throws at them unless their survival is at risk!

[Interestingly, a social psychologist at a conference once shared with me how in a survey he performed of his clients he discovered that 6% changed their unproductive habits from advertising, 17% from an emergency (e.g. heart attack, cancer) while over 70% because a close friend or family member nagged them until they changed!].

One can consider that one major aspect of leadership is the ability to overcome obstacles to achieve the goals you set out to achieve. You look at any successful individual and you will find that they failed many times before they succeeded and what made them successful and leaders in their areas was that they learnt how to overcome or get around obstacles (the youtube video below gives some examples of this).

John C Maxwell in his book Developing the Leader Within You suggests that there are only two things that allow for powerful problem solving and leadership: the right attitude and the right action plan.

Given the importance of attitude to being a leader, next weeks blog will go in depth about the right attitude. At this point I just want you to consider that in a content focussed curriculum and school environment the right attitude of students is to give what the teachers want and what the assessments ask for that will give them the best marks. This does not naturally develop leadership.DevelopingLdrWithin

With respect to the right action plan John Maxwell outlined the following process to develop the problem solving approach that will give people the ability to tackle the obstacles they face

  1. Identify the problem – quite often we attack the symptoms not the cause. Identify the real issues that lie beneath the symptoms
  2. Prioritise the problem – quite often we become stopped because we seem to have too many problems or things to deal with. Being able to list the issues and them prioritise them will allow students to grapple with the reality of the situation and learn how to deal with what is most important first
  3. Define the problem – defining what is the problem you will tackle (e.g. a critical question the students will tackle in an inquiry learning project) gives direction to the solution process. Maxwell discusses 4 steps to this aspect
    1. Ask the right questions
    2. Talk to the right people
    3. Get the hard facts
    4. Get involved in the process
  4. Select people to help you in the process – I have observed that many people try to solve problems on their own and get stuck. What I have found is that the answers always lie in community. Consulting as widely as possible will allow for solutions that you, as an individual, have never thought of.
  5. Collect problem causes
  6. Collect possible solutions
  7. Prioritise and select the best solutions
  8. Implement the best solution
  9. Reflect on and Evaluate the solution

You have probably noticed by now that this process IS the process of project-based inquiry learning. Pure inquiry learning, where the students choose a critical question to research and then go about in a discovery approach to answer their question, requires the skills and capacities I have just outlined.

What I ask you to reflect on is … how are you developing your students in the above process EXPLICITLY? Do you have rubrics that the students fill out to train them? Do you have particular practices you use in the class to do this? Do you have specific templates where the students can ritualise this process?

Feel free to comment on the blog!

Next week .. developing the right attitude!

OneMinManIt is interesting when you start reading out of your field how many interesting ideas one discovers that are applicable to education.

Ken Blanchard is one of the world leading experts on management and leadership. He is the author of a series of books called the “One Minute Manager”. He, and his team, have sold millions of books and empowered managers and leaders in a range of industries worldwide in simple and effective approaches to developing leadership and managing their organisations.

In “Leadership and the One Minute Manager” I discovered an interesting table (see Figure 1 below) where the One Minute Manager discusses “Situational Leadership”. The principal behind the approach reminded me greatly of how inquiry–learning, project-based learning can be designed to empower and develop skills in young people. It actually reflects the essence of what Bertram Bruce from the University of Illinois pointed out about the stages that teachers must go through to develop skills in leading inquiry learning (Figure 2).

Figure 1

Figure 1

The table outlines the relationship between four developmental levels and the four leadership styles that a manager / leader would use with the person in that developmental level.

  1. Directing – for people who lack competence but are enthusiastic and committed. They need direction and frequent feedback to get them started.
  2. Coaching – for people who have some competence but lack commitment. They need direction and feedback because they are relatively inexperienced. They also need support and praise to build their self-esteem, and involvement in decision making to restore their commitment.
  3. Supporting – for people who have competence but lack confidence or motivation. They don’t need much direction because of their skills, but support is necessary to bolster their confidence and motivation.
  4. Delegating – for people who have both competence and commitment. They are able and willing to work on a project by themselves with little supervision or support.

So if one was going to develop independent learners who are responsible for their own learning teachers would need to use a variety of leadership styles. Teachers would also need to ensure that the students develop competencies and skills. They need to have the basic knowledge as well as the skills to use that knowledge.

Figure 2

Figure 2

However, how many teachers become stuck using one leadership style? Some are all about directing. Some are all about supporting or coaching. If a teacher does not use the appropriate leadership style to the student (and it gets even more complicated because students can be in different developmental levels for different subjects … and the One Minute Manager actually shares a story about this) then we can actually be counter-productive to learning.

What do you see? Tell us in the comments section of the blog.

Next week we will discuss another aspect of leadership … how do you actually set up your teaching to develop leadership.

Subscribe via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.