ICSEI: Day 2 - some thoughts

A very stimulating and provocative day!

Some of the key themes emerging included:

• the development of school cultures focused on learning at all levels of the school.
• the importance of trust and building relationships.
• the significance of practitioner inquiry, and creating cultures of inquiry. The place of appreciative inquiry and the need to develop skills to do so.
• the role of networks in building innovation and professional learning.

More later ...

ICSEI Day 1

Day 1: Some random thoughts (sent from my iPod touch).

Usual suspects:

• raising standards
• improving teacher quality
• assessment and accountability
• principal leadership.

Emerging suspects:

• early years and pre-schooling
• establishing curriculum standards for early years and pre-schooling
• distributed leadership.

Of interest:

• Do we measure school effectiveness based on school effectiveness of previous years, rather than for contemporary learning?
• Are we working towards sustainability of obsolete models of schooling?
• Are policy makers adequately trained to do their work?
• Is the Fourth Way more about the need to think and act both globally and locally in improving schools?

Empowering Schools for Learning: From Improvement Policy to Effective Practice.

The 23rd International Congress of School Effectiveness and Improvement takes place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (5th January - 8th January). The theme for the congress is Empowering Schools for Learning: From Improvement Policy to Effective Practice. I particularly like this cross-cultural aspect of this conference.

I have chosen to attend the following sessions throughout the conference:

• Signposts: Research points to how Victorian Government schools have improved student performance (Elizabeth Hartnell-Young, Dahle Suggett)
• Transformation through innovation and networks: Structural change for school improvement in the most challenging settings: Rhetoric or reality? (Daniel Muijs, Mel Ainscow, Christopher Chapman)
• The role of the "knowledgeable other" in improving student achievement, school climate and teacher efficacy: Case studies from a Canadian and Swiss perdspective and experience (Lyn Sharratt, Giorgio Ostinelli, Angela Cattaneo)
• Networking schools for learning - going deeper (Louise Stoll, Lorna Earl, Steven Katz, Judy Halbert, Linda Kaser, Helen Timperley, et. al)
• Data-based decision making around the world: Challenges and opportunities (Stuart McNaughton, Lorna Earl, Steven Katz, et.al)
• Innovating leadership development for system transformation (Tony McKay, Valerie Hannon, David Jackson)
• Leadership development that makes a difference: The research and the experience (Tony McKay, Graham Marshall, Barbara Waterston)

I will post a summary of the conference upon my return.

If teaching and learning are relational how come I can’t use social networks at work?

We are coming towards the end of the first decade of the 21st Century.

What has changed in schooling over the last decade?

I’m not sure if that much has really changed.

I work at the educational authority/system level. My own experience is that I can’t even get a del.icio.us button added to my desktop because it is a social networking site.

The fact is that del.icio.us, along with twitter, facebook and LinkedIn have become tools that I have used in my work. They allow me to connect with other professionals.

Unfortunately, the bulk of my professional social networking occurs outside of my work place and official work hours. Yet it is a powerful professional tool and reflects new ways of working and learning.

In school education the practice of erring on the side of caution is very strong. I feel at times that we are still tinkering around the edges.

For me it reinforces that education authorities, school systems and schools continue to be at risk of being obsolete - a point I blogged about over 2 years ago.

Ewan McIntosh recently blogged about Why backward social network banning education authorities are wrong. It is an interesting read and highlights the frequently overlooked professional benefits of social networking.

At the recent World Innovation Summit for Education, Lord David Putnam, the Chairman of FutureLab talks about possibilities for education in the next decade. I love his story of the teacher directing the class to copy the set homework from the blackboard (or perhaps an interactive whiteboard) and the student who used a mobile phone to take a photo of the board.

Is it a case of "the more things change the more things stay the same in schooling?" I hope not.

Images:

Interactive whiteboard: http://static.guim.co.uk/sysimages/Environment/Pix/pictures/2007/08/31/classroom1.jpg

Blackboard: http://www.easygraphics.com/images/uploads/Polyvision/TS_Classroom-Teacher.jpg