Imagining Possibilities

Recently I presented a keynote at the State ACEL conference. ACEL is the Australian Council for Educational Leaders. I am working with a cluster of schools focused on Numeracy. One of the questions that is a focus of the work is how leadership can influence learning.

The conceptual model for the project draws on the work of Vivianne Robinson and Helen Timperley from Auckland University.

To support leaders in exploring their leadership we are working with the ACEL Leadership Capabilities. These capabilities provide a comprehensive framework for reflecting on and developing leadership as an individual, as a group (such as principals) and as a team at school or system level.

The presentation (see below for movie format of powerpoint) were my reflections and learnings from engaging with the framework. It has only been a few months but the potential is great. The challenge I am finding (drawing on Pfeffer and Sutton, and DuFour etal. is moving from KNOWING to DOING!

I'm more than happy to provide further information or answer questions people may have.

Bring on the Learning Revolution

Many people would be familiar with Sir Ken Robinson's 2006 TEDTalk, Do schools kill creativity? This is the "follow-up" 4 years later at the 2010 TEDTalk.

Some key points from this TEDTalk are:

• Education dislocates people from their natural talents.
• Reforming education systems is of little use because it's trying to improve a broken model.
• What is required is a revolution that transforms the system into something else.
• Innovation is fundamental to the required transformation.
• We need to challenge what we take for granted.
• The Tyranny of Common Sense works against transformation.
• The Narrative of Linearity in education (ie. it starts here and finishes here) is an example of what is taken fro granted.
• "A three-year old isn't half a six-year old!"
• Education results in conformity through a fast food model.
• Passion is what excites the spirit and gives energy.
• Does education feed people's passions?
• Human flourishing is organic not mechanical.
• "Tread softly because you tread on my dreams." -W.B. Yeats
• Everyday, education treads on children and young people's dreams.

The video of the talk is below.