What will we need tomorrow?

I haven't posted in a while, partly due to the lack of time and partly due to a changing perception on how my thoughts can be received by others... but more on that in a later post...

For now... The following two videos have been on my "to watch.." list for some time and they both speak volumes about the unteachable aspects of education - unteachable as in the skills and attributes that fall outside of our National Standards and are too seldom squeezed out by a busy curriculum. The first video is a little hard to summarise, but I found Quinn Norton inspirational in her ability to  see what will be needed in a true Future Focused work space. The second video speaks about the Wisdom that was needed 100 years ago and will be needed in 100 years time... - so they are on a similar train of thought...

A short post for now - but if you have an hour spare - watch the clips!

Parent Agency...

With election year almost in full swing and the various political parties vying for every vote; once again Education seems to be at the forefront of many political parties' agendas. 

This should be great… but from my perspective the policy makers seem to have a disconnect from educators and are more interested in pandering to the voting public than focusing on the precise needs of students using up to date and valid pedagogical research.

Recent media coverage has only exacerbated this trend with ‘journalists’ listening as much to home viewers as educationalists that they have invited on to their programme. I don’t have problems with the questions and comments from the home viewers, the problem that I had when watching was that the educationalists didn’t have the chance to respond and that equal weighting was given to the uninformed comment as to the informed comment. I don’t want to get onto a rant about the media, but it would be good to expect that political parties could be open to scrutiny from nationally recognised educationalists and the media/public made this scrutiny happen.

This does bring me to a common theme that I have encountered over the past few terms - agency. We have looked as a staff into Student Agency and created plans for how to increase student voice, student empowerment and engagement in their learning. We have a common understanding and are keen to develop this area as we see it as vital in preparing our students for their futures. 

What is not discussed is Parents/Whānau/‘Aiga agency. We have just as much variance in agency in this group as we do with our students. Some of our parents/whānau/‘aiga are engaged in their sons/daughters' learning, they know that they can have an impact on the learning and development that happens both in and out of school. These parents feel that they have a voice and use it, they are empowered to act for the betterment of their son/daughter and are engaged in the learning process. 

Then there are other parents who don’t have this level of engagement, empowerment or knowledge of their own ability to impact on learning. I do not feel for one second that this second group aren’t as good or well meaning as the first group outlined. I am yet to meet a parent that doesn’t want the best for their children. It is just a matter of understanding where learning is going, the current state of our schools and society in general.

How can we help parents/whānau/‘aiga to develop in their agency, their propensity to get involved with school and make a positive impact on the learning of their children?

I am not sure I have the answer/s - but it is an area that we need to develop in each of our learning communities. We need to start with the question as a collective in order to get solutions and answers that come from the communities that we serve.

Bringing all of the above together
I think we are at a critical juncture in education in New Zealand where educators are looking at 'future focused pedagogies' and true engagement with their communities in order to set and achieve a real curriculum (while at the same time balancing the National Standards). 

What we (as a collective of educators across the country) are yet to do successfully is educate our parents/whānau/‘aiga on the principles behind the future focused pedagogies so that we can get not only buy in, but informed buy in. 

We want the general public to be asking questions and critiquing our schools in the media and in policy creating offices in Wellington. But we want these questions to come from current information, utilising NZ educational experts and current research/identified best practice…. not based on what happened 30 years ago 'when I was at school'.

Innovative Learning Environments

This is an interesting sound bite from Radio NZ - Christian Long - an expert in classroom design. Check it out....
Instead of a student to a desk to a laptop looking at the front of the room, a better option is multiple spaces, directions and ways that students can access information  and collaborate.
"If we get the culture right, and we know how to empower young people to make good decisions and we know how to empower teams of teachers to work off of each others, and we have communities that believe in those inherent skills, then its much easier to focus and execute, and also to be creative and innovative and embrace ubiquity"

A Little clip I made to share my thoughts and hopefully help teachers understand a bit more about the LCN Philosophy...

MaLE - Modern [affordable] Learning Environments

Summary:

Having now finished this post - and realising its length I thought a brief summary would be of use to clarify:

I have transformed a standard classroom into a MLE through the purchase of a range of 'trademe' furniture. This has been done with the following rationale:

• To provide flexibility of learning spaces and the maximisation of space
• To create a more culturally resonant environment at school that reflects 'home'
• To create a space that could be personalised to enhance ownership
• To create a space that would be distinct from the rest of the school so students can develop new behaviours easier regarding student agency

FULL TEXT

A confluence of ideas and inspiration led me to develop my very own MLE earlier this year....

Namely a few questions:

• 1. We were to have 35 intermediate age students in one class (to be taught by 1.6 teachers) - We've had this in the past and had mixed successes - How could I develop a programme where - in such a large number - the individual was still valued and accommodated for.

• 2. As part of our Learning and Change Network (LCN) I interviewed students from a range of levels last year about 'How they learn best' - How could I make these students thoughts and ideas come to life?

• 2a. One of our LCN change priorities was Student Agency - this has been a focus of mine in recent years and I have struggled to develop a sustained change in student behaviour when they move into the Intermediate class. There are lots of pros and cons of Intermediate Schools - I think one Pro is that students get to reinvent themselves should they wish to. Year 7s can be immersed in a completely new environment and teachers can mould behaviours from the outset. While I have the acute advantage of already knowing the students as they come into the Intermediate class, often the ability I have to change student behaviours (in terms of agency/ownership/accountability) is minimal despite a focus on this area. How could I make the students have a shift in focus, allowing some students to have a fresh start and all students to realise that expectations were different in the Intermediate school?

• 3. As part of my postgraduate study I became more and more aware of the dissonance between home and school for the majority of our students. How could I help students feel at home at school, understanding that they need to buy in to 'school' before they buy in to 'learning'?

I have been looking at the evolution of the MLE for the past few years and was sure that a MLE of my own making could be the solution to many of the questions raised above.

Origins

By tapping into the Edu Twittisphere, I was able to mould my own thinking from the plethora of knowledge and ideas out there - Especially the programme of "My Learning" from Emma Winders - http://my-learning.me . I thought of how individualising the classroom programme could possibly work with 1.6 teachers and 35 kids - Students would need to know their learning next steps and know how to problem solve, they would need to develop accountability and agency - or perhaps this would come as a result.

Students need their own timetables where they can pick and choose to attend learning sessions with either teacher - teacher tracking and monitoring must be tight to ensure that a) students know their next steps and b) reporting to parents could be accurate.

From there I decided I needed a place where students could select where they work and how they work in order to have a sense of self determination.

I had already asked our kind and capable caretaker to build a standing desk and some individual partitions as a result of my LCN interviews with students (where an overwhelming amount of students wished to work in a quieter less distracting environment). PHOTO

I sketched up a few plans and the end result was a classroom with these features:

• Bar stools and a make shift bar leaner - 

(Bar stools - very cheap from trademe, leaner was made from partitions (trademe) and an old used desk top cut in half, with some brackets ($3 @ mitre ten)

• A range of different shaped desks - to encourage collaborative learning

(very cheap from trademe)

• A set of carpet steps

(made from pallets (free), sheets of packing MDF ($5 from mitre ten) and free carpet (seconds from Parmars Flooring Centre, Petone) 

• A dining table 

(very cheap from trademe)

• Individual desks and some moveable partitions 

(exisiting and made by from cheap thin mdf, painted by students)

We also have access to a small break out room next door - this has been turned into 'The Lounge'  and features tables at one end for group work.

So....

1. Have I made a programme and environment that allows for individualisation?

Due to Technology (off site), school camp coming up,  tennis and swimming I decided to hold off on the student directed timetable - We are spending the entire term focusing on getting set up so we can start in Term 2. We are covering different aspects of the programme in depth (Including how to complete each week's 'Individual Learning Tasks', developing a culture of learning, and taking 100% ownership for everything we need to. We are working hard already to make this happen - I know that we have the facility to make this work - It will just be a case of pressing the Go button - I usually like to jump straight in the deep end,  in this instance I have chosen a more cautious approach in order to diminish the amount of students who may at first struggle with such a programme. The environment is set up - but I know that the environment matters little compared to how teachers use the  environment, We are now thinking about how best we can use the environment in order to make it as effective as possible in order to make accelerated student progress.

2. How could I make these students' [who I interviewed] thoughts and ideas come to life (regarding how they learn best)?

Many students wished to work independently - more than I would have thought. They also said they needed to be fully aware of the task requirement/learning that was to take place before they could work independently. Some students also knew that their peers often knew more than they did and while this meant that they weren't working independently, they were able to continue to receive help without having to go to the teacher.

I decided to get the above furniture in an attempt to create more flexible spaces - places where students could determine for themselves where they sit and with who, depending on their confidence and understanding of a given task.

Our existing class had standard tables for 4 or 6 persons, Students couldn't really choose to be alone even if It was the norm to move about freely within the class. By having a range of seating options, students will learn to make good choices about where they need to sit for specific learning tasks.

2a. How could I make the students have a shift in focus, allowing some students to have a fresh start and all students to realise that expectations were different in the Intermediate school regarding student agency?

Again, by using the above furniture, we have a different environment to any other in the school - this superficial change is helping (so far) to have shifted the students mind set around behaviour and as we progress through the year the aim to increase student agency will be made easier by students both being aware that they can change behaviours and not having to worry about as many behavioural issues distracting from learning.

Another advantage of having our 'own' furniture is that it can be personalised - over the course of the next term, some of our trademe furniture is to be painted by the students. We will give the students free licence (with the hope that some tables will have words like 'collaboration' written on them while others may have words like 'determination', 'focus' and 'discipline' - Well that’s the HOPE! It will be what ever our students wish it to be...)

3. How could I help students feel at home at school, understanding that they need to buy in to 'school' before they buy in to 'learning'?

The idea of having a dining table in class is entirely intentional, most students would be more familiar with working on a dining table at home than they would be a standard desk. This is hopefully bridging the gap between home and school for some of our students.

The lounge is another intentional decision to bridge the home-school gap - for 15 -20 minutes each day, most students silent read in the lounge area. This is the most 'silent' reading that we have had in recent years with relatively little teacher direction - this comes down to the changed environment leading to a change in personal expectation on behalf of the students. 

It is also hoped that the act of having a lounge at school will push some 'school' habits into the home and more students may feel comfortable reading on their couch at home (instead of watching the box).

As with any MLE - I am aware that it is not the furniture that is important but how the space is used, we will be working hard to ensure that we challenge the students to tell us how they believe the space can be used best for the individual learning of each student. 

It is set to be an interesting and innovative year! 

Thanks to the following for helping make the space possible:

Kath, Merv, Parmars Flooring Centre, & Mitre Ten


Annecdotal feedback (via email)

"Firstly, I have heard many kids talking excitedly about it (the MLE) and sharing it with their parents"

Hackschooling

Another posting based on an interesting clip - this one focuses on a TED talk by a 13year old boy who discusses the goals and ambitions of the youth of today.  

As our own school year draws to a close, I have been discussing the question "What goals or ambitions do you have for one year or ten years?" with many students who are setting off to college. Not one has mentioned the ambition of "Being Happy", although maybe some were saying this in a more ambiguous way "make friends", "have a good job" etc.

As educators, we do constantly focus on preparing students for the next step in education. ECC educators getting 4 year olds ready for college, Primary Educators getting students ready for college and college educators preparing teens for university and onward to a job / career. 

While I know that this ambition and goal setting is essential, I do wonder if we have to make sure that our students aged from 3-23 are enjoying what they are doing in the process. Not all learning can be 'fun' and nor would I want it to me but the unmeasurable and unquantifiable happiness within each student needs to be developed and fed to prepare our future generations to live in an increasingly competitive society....

Anyway - if you have eleven minutes;

 

John Hattie - Expertise of teachers is the most powerful impact on student achievement that we can control...

The Black Bruins

Powerful Clip.

1. What makes this clip sound familiar to issues faced in this country?
2. Why are these issues worldwide?
3. Who is getting it right?
4. Why aren't we doing that?
5. Why does the majority of the dominant majority fail to grasp the fact at 4:10 above?
6. How can we give students the experiences and confidence to be able to share their personal voice with the passion shown above?

The Busyness of business... and student motivation

The last few months have seen a lag in my own posting on this blog. It was something I was keen to avoid - the inconsistent blog is almost as frustrating as the forgotten blog.

I have made several posts but none have got past the draft stage as when I have finally got around to editing and revising my post I am no longer in the same line of thinking - other priorities have taken over my thinking.

The last post which is still as yet unpublished had at is focus the dilemma of working in the business instead of working on the business (or is it vice versa...).

It is a constant struggle for many teachers and principals - especially the non walking DP at a small primary school. It is impossible to find the time to keep abreast of latest professional readings, fully analysing teacher performance and planning appropriate professional development for myself and colleagues, working on latest school initiatives etc. while still maintaining an effective class programme, completing standard managment tasks and having a Life!

It was a subject that I explored with various Principals last year during the NAPP programme - ensuring that you have time to lead as well as manage. At this stage of the year and term, my priorities have unfortunately pushed leading and learning about leading to the rear as there is too much management to do.

Student Motivation

Another topic that I have wished to explore in more detail is the importance of child centered and stimulating content for students - especially so in the Intermediate years. This term my students have started to debate with great fervour (Topics such as "Are Zoos ethically wrong?""Should SPARC have given $36 mil to Team NZ?"and "Should all tap water contain Fluoride?"). It has been quite a while since I have had the complete student led intrinsic motivation in learning that matches our debate work. Student have got indepth and passionate about their subjects - the standard Intermediate indifference is not good present.

Students have also been looking at the Bob Dylan song - The Hurricane and African American Spirituals a spart of our Story Telling inquiry unit. They have got intensely focused and keen during these lessons also. undertaking own research after school hours, impressive!

So why?
Why are these topics capturing their attention so well?

I think it comes down to fairness. Children have a strong sense of fairness - and combined with students reaching an age where they are keen start to form and express their own opinion means students are motivating in these areas.

I am keen to keep exploring how Fairness can be brought into other curriculum areas or content knowledge and used as a motivator.

Education...

I found a link via twitter to a school in AKL called Willow Park School, I was in email contact with the principal about a tweet when he sent me to http://my-learning.me/ - A website and pedagogy being developed by a young teacher at his school. It has sent me on a continual train of thought about the current state of education and its government led direction. The website is well worth checking out - I have browsed several times and am always left thinking.
I also rewatched a Ken Robinson talk which calls for a paradigm shift in education.


I am not entirely sure that I have my thinking sorted on what I think I think I think about any of this - so in the interim I will complete a small task that I have been asking my own students to do lately - See, Think, Wonder.

I see an educator who has a completely different perspective on education than most educators. I see an educator who has a strong vision and understanding for what education should be about.

I think that most educators would agree with at least 80% of what is being said by Sir Ken. I think that most educators lose sight of what is important in the day to day busyness of the job. I think that is quite sad.

I wonder how parents and communities would respond if a drastically different education was given to their children (I am not wondering about charter schools!). I wonder how teachers could reignite passions that would be required to create and deliver a different educational experience for their children. I wonder how it would be possible for this little country in the south pacific to take a step into the unknown and lead, instead of follow global trends for a change...

Writing this brief post has forced me to think about education from a higher perspective - It has convinced me that i need to find out more about pedagogies such as My Learning and create something new for my tamariki...

ma te wa!

Technology and Teachnology

I recently read an article that stated technology in education is useless without up-to-date and evolving pedagogy that suits the current century. 

I agree with about 60% of this statement. Ideally, technology will open doors within classrooms to ensure that teachers have new ways of teaching and collaborating with students in innovative and creative ways. Ideally, teachers will have the skills in using technology and the confidence in their own knowledge (and self) to adapt to current pedagogies. Ideally, technology will evolve every classroom in overnight. (Ideally technology will work first time, every time!!)

Technology in education has the capacity to transform the way in which we teach and subsequently the way in which learners (teachers and students) learn.

For technology to be helpful to the curriculum and to teachers in general, firstly teachers must have an awareness of how to use technology and secondly, see the benefits of pushing the boundaries and trying new things.

The awareness  of how to use technology only comes about through use. This is where I depart from agreeing with the other 40% of the original statement. Teachers need to be encouraged to use technology. This will have two positive outcomes

1. Student engagement in the short term will increase
2. Teacher knowledge and confidence in using technology will increase 

These two benefits will happen regardless of pedagogy model. I do not believe that we can shift to current pedagogies without having the teachers on board and competent in using technology first.

So while I agree that technology enables an open and expansive curriculum and style of pedagogy - teachers are still the ones in charge of the class programme to varying degrees. teachers themselves need to see the value and options created by using technology.

My revised statement:

Curricular and pedagogy can be greatly enhanced using modern technology, teachers must lead this change through developing their own knowledge of and confidence with using such technology.

Musings from the 'Naki...

I picked up the Taranaki Daily news on Monday morning and was a little disgusted in the opinion page:

Teachers' wrath at charter schools off the mark

It infuriated me on a number of levels - for the first time in my life I wrote a letter to the editor. (in the end I wasn't very happy with my letter as I had to try and constrain myself to 250 words - and I can be verbose at the best of times)

Two days later I can now see the opinion article for what it is, an attempt to rile teachers on their first day of the school break, a time when they would have time to write letters and discuss the opinion piece in more depth. Opinion writers obviously do try and get a reaction from the readership and in this case - the author was successful with me.

To summarise the article very briefly - It touched on many points:

1. Teachers are angry as they dont like Hekia; are annoyed that National Standards are uncovering poor teaching practices; and, 'have it in' for charter schools
2. The current system is failing its Maori and Pasifika learners
3. 1/5 students are failing
4. Teachers should want to try something new
5. Unions and Education departments are in cahoots all over the western world to bring down expectations of achievement to ensure that teachers are not uncovered as abysmal failures
6. Charter Schools have been successful overseas
7. His wife's insitution (Taranaki Educare) is already acting as a Charter school and is the Gold mine for what success should look like.

And now to summarise my response(s)...

1. I feel that teachers are angry with Hekia for some fairly decent reasons - poor communication, poor performance and poor consultation to name a few. For someone in her position - we expect more. I am aware that a Minister needs to make tough calls and not everyone is going to be happy - however, I am sure that many current ministers could have handled the issues with far more integrity that Hekia.                                          I feel that teachers are annoyed with National Standards - but not for uncovering poor teaching practices. Teachers are annoyed at the time and effort that has gone into introducing and reporting on National Standards that has little educational benefit for the students in our care. I do like aspects of the National Standards, but the New Zealand Curriculum (2007) in all of its vast open opportunity did not intend our curriculum to be shrunk down in order to produce nice graphs for the MoE and BoT's.   Thirdly, I would dare say that most teachers do not know a great deal about Charter schools - the limited amount of research that I have done has been fed from colleagues and others in my PLN that are anti charter schools. So all of the research that i have done personally has yielded negative results - It is also disconcerting knowing that the faith that this Government has in teachers is so poor that Charter school teachers will not necessarily be required to have any teaching qualifications. Schools have to jump through certain hoops for the MoE - most of which is good practice. We expect the same for Charter Schools.
2. I dont disagree in the slightest that Maori and Pasifika students are being under-served in the current education system. I have spent the last three years researching this and have a 30,000 word thesis that shows that I do care about this inequality. This inequality is happening in more places than just schools - it is happening in health care, the justice system, and all vital social indicators of a good life. What is happening in society that we allow groups of peoples to face so much inequitable outcomes? This is not to say that Schools are not at fault at all - schools are places that should be dynamic and reflect the communities to which they serve, too often this is not the case. There needs to be a systemic change in the way that every school operates in order to cater to the needs of its individual community. I believe the NZC encouraged that change away from Eurocentric schools with a top down hierarchy to schools as communities of learners who share knowledge and collaborate for the best interests of the students.
3. 1/5 students are failing - I am unaware of where these statistics come from but they are repeated frequently. I do not doubt them but am aware of the question - Failing What? Are the 1/5 failing in social indicators of Character that I wrote about here? Are the 1/5 failing Eurocentric standards of education? I am currently reading about work by Lyn Sharratt - who is focused on putting faces to the data. The students are the most important factor here - not the statistics (while i do not doubt the importance of the stats). If the government wants to invest in our future, it needs to put qualified educators on the ground with appropriate resources so that we can work with the faces of these stats - not just the stats themselves.
4. Teachers are constantly trying something new - this is where I realised that the author didnt know much about education and schooling. If there is not much movement toward something new- then leaders within schools should be pushed and led to be more welcoming of change. The issue here lies with conformity to MoE Negs and Nags while not wanting to make the job of Principal or leader within a school bigger than it already is. Change is not easy and is only made harder by the media who inform the general public that schools are not to be trusted.
5. I am unsure as to the basis of this claim. I will leave it at that. What educators and what politicians want can be vastly different things. I think I want my daughters' education in the hands of educators as opposed to politicians.
6. I still havent found this research? If someone knows,                                                             can they please direct me to it?      
   
7. I have no information about this institution.                 I encourage research to be done based on what is happening here - so that it can be rolled out in Schools across the country.                                                       This is the only point that the author and I agree upon.

RANT OVER - I can now get back to picking Mushrooms...

Fail Forward....

A link via twitter pointed me to an article from last October in Forbes Magazine about the importance of failure and its role in success.

I have always been an admirer of people who can rise from failure. I seek to be honest in my self assessment and critique my own practices with a keen eye. I know that through this honesty improvements can be made.

After teaching in four schools in NZ and relieving in various schools in the UK, I believe that schools can be breeding grounds of comfort (read complacency). Failure is the nemesis of comfort - indeed it is uncomfortable (If it isn't then there is something seriously wrong!). 'Failing forward' is even more uncomfortable, as it involves facing failure head on and focusing on the reasons for failure as a means to evolution. 

Although 'failing forward' is learning, and should come naturally for teachers, too often teachers can confuse their professional identities with their own beliefs of self worth and identity. This makes confronting professional failure all the more difficult.

If teachers were to be honest, we fail daily in our classrooms, and we can always be improving our practice. This is hard work and confronting, it is challenging and difficult. If it undertaken, it is worthwhile.

Another article read recently that focused on teacher observation as a form of PD. See it here on Luke Dyer's blog. At this school, all teachers were released on one day to teach a lesson infront of their peers (ie: each teacher takes a specific lesson infront of all other teachers in the school, before answering questions about their lesson, then repeat for each teacher). I think this is an amazingly effective way to both use the 'knowledge in the room' and to honestly improve (by failing forward) in a hopefully friendly and collegial environment. As was evidenced in Luke's blog, he seized the opportunity to be honest, to embrace the uncomfortable and learn, grow, develop - including effectively falling forward. 

I know Reading Recovery teachers use a similar practice with their own peers each year, they describe the difficulty and reward involved in this process.

While some schools may not have the correct structure in place to run whole day PD sessions as described above, where all colleagues observe and question one another, I do think that school leaders have a huge responsibility to act in the right direction.  

The right direction is striving to establish an environment where all staff develop the habit of honestly critiquing their own professional practices, observing and providing feedback to peers and embracing failure as a means to grow, develop and learn. Failing forward.

Grant Lichtman -

This was quite an insightful video for me... I found it very interesting and thought provoking. I encourage you to have a look.

A favourite quote of mine:

"Our students should be asking questions more than giving answers"

Half way through the video, I had to go and complete some researching on John Dewey - an educational theorist from the turn of the 20th century. If I had encountered him before, I had unfortunately forgotten this educational visionary. A quote that I uncovered could have easily been from the latest twitter feed, but was written in 1897:

The teacher is not in the school to impose certain ideas or to form certain habits in the child, but is there as a member of the community to select the influences which shall affect the child and to assist him in properly responding to these. Thus the teacher becomes a partner in the learning process, guiding students to independently discover meaning within the subject area. This philosophy has become an increasingly popular idea within present-day teacher preparatory programs.

I was of the opinion that the reform (for want of a better word), that I thought I was part of (the movement from "sage on the stage" to "guide on the side") was a movement away from teaching practices of the mid 20th century, toward a 21st Century model. How wrong was I? John Dewey was espousing such theory 100 years before I left secondary school and had no idea of the knowledge sharing and collaboration potential of the world wide web.

Check it out:

How Children Succeed: grit, curiosity, and the hidden power of character... A Summary

The book 'How Children Succeed' provided a great means to reflect on the purpose of education and my own thoughts on what is important, not only in education but also in society. To help my recall of the book i made some notes as I was reading - these notes are in the post previous to this. For a slightly more indepth read - check out that post. 

The main learning that I took from the book was the importance of early nurturing and care as key factors on success later in life. While much of the book was focused on children and families overcoming the barrier of poverty in order to attain academic and life success, there was much learning that could be carried over for all children. 

A key aspect of the book, as the title would suggest is the role of character as important in providing the skills and attitudes that would outlive the mere knowledge that is attained in schools. While I would never doubt the importance of a sound base in educational skills, (everyone needs to be fully numerate and literate and have cognitive ability to problem solve) the book to raise my own consciousness of the need to foster character (in my own children and the students in my class/school).

While some of the americanisms in the book proved a little off putting, the need for students to be self regulating, resilient, determined, goal oriented young people was clear in its delivery.

The questions that have now been floating around in my own head since finishing the book a week ago - 
How can i provide authentic experiences for children to develop such character?
How can i provide the support and guidance for children as they make mistakes, and learn to stand up and keep going without being overbearing and controlling myself?
How can i share the importance of character development with fellow staff members and the wider community

The final question has provided much thought and i am keen to share ways with the parents of the preteens in my own class that they can start to support what we are working on in class - ownership, self control, organisation, self regulation, critical and conscious thinkers etc!

Thats all for now...

If you are keen to read / view a bit more about the book check out some of the links below.

For a brief summary provided by Bruce Hammonds - check out this link.
A Video of Paul Tough (Author) talking about his book: Check out this link or this link.
There are a few more good sites I've found on the topic here and here.

How Children Succeed by Paul Tough - A Summary

This book was brought on a whim, I heard about it thanks to Bruce Hammond's weekly leading learning e-mail. It is the first book that I have brought digitally.

The following is a summary, I will upload my own personal thoughts on the topics raised in another post.

It started off reading much like a scholarly text book, filled with references and dropping names I have never heard of. However a few vignettes started to appear that quickly caught my eye and grabbed my attention with the 'hit you in your face common sense' sensation. In order to retain meaning and keep a track of what i read i started ro create this summary.

I will not go into these vignettes and minor examples at the moment - but instead split the book into a few parts (the book itself is in five main chapters, however, I will split it up as I see necessary).

PART ONE
The beginning of the book looks at the single perspective that pervades our education system - and is coming more and more into the fore with the acceptance and reliance on National Standards - the single perspective being that cognitive ability is the sole purpose of schools. While we, as teachers have moved away from transmission model teaching in most instances - the focus in the media and from the government still ensures that schools are places to go and fill that pretty little head.

The second half of part one brings to the fore the role that poverty plays in affecting educational achievement. A number of blunt stats were raised, including:
A. The average number of words a 4 year old not born into poverty has heard is 40 million. The decreases to only 10 million words by 4 years for a child born into poverty.
B. The amount of stress that is faced by children born into poverty is exponentially greater than those born into more stable situations.

These facts outlined the role that stress plays in raising anxiety levels, increasing health deficiencies and decreasing the amount of time and attention that can be given to school.

Te answer that comes from Part One is the need to focus on developing character within students and families more than just academic knowledge.

PART TWO:
Part Two starts by looking at a study on rats where scientists noticed the differences in nurturing tendencies of mother rats. Mother Rats who licked and groomed their young when they returned to the nest were seen to be more attentive and caring - their young were more emotionally balanced and secure (they behaved more confidently in a number of rat situations!)
They measured parts of the rats brains and found that they had increased activity in certain areas.

This was correlated to humans with a focus on attachment theory. Children who were reassured and openly encouraged, given positive feedback by a parent or other adult with whim they had a strong relationship were more balanced and secure and More Likely To Succeed At School!!!

A second focus was on the evidence behind children who were able to delay gratification and the links between this habit and success at school and in life.

A third focus was the discussion about motivation and volition. While aspects of motivation can be taught/trained, volition is a harder beast to train. Both are needed to succeed.

A fourth focus shows the compelling link between conscientiousness and life success, more so than pure iq. From cradle to the grave people with high conscientiousness scores are healthier, wealthier and happier. Although, self control as part of conscientiousness has to be strong without behind dominant, an excess of self control creates bland sheep with limited creativity.

A list of seven characteristics were finally selected as representative of Character and predictors of success and happiness:

grit
self-control
zest
social intelligence
gratitude
optimism
curiosity

The discussion led into a split between values based character (respect, tolerance) and success based character (conscientiousness, self control). Both aspects being vital, but the second occasionally forgotten in lower years education.

There is a need for parents to encourage and foster high expectations of both types of character as well as academic success. Tough points out that many well off parents who provide pressure for their child to succeed academically will not provide the same pressure to develop any sort of character. It is a toxic mix, 'helicopter' parents who will save their child from failure (a necessary part of character learning) but expect their children to display character when in the face of academic adversity. These parents are putting the pressure on for academic success without understanding that character is an important part of success.

Whether academic or character development is the goal, people (including students) normally form one of three approaches:
1. Optimistic. See the end, enjoy the sensation of what life will be like when goal is reached. Not actually very useful in itself.
2. Pessimistic. See all the obstacles. Not very useful.
3. Mental contrasting. Both of the above combined. Also involving implementation elements- if/then statements that allow students to overcome obstacles and focus on the reward at the end. The only effective way of planning toward a goal

Identity and self efficacy obviously play a role in success. Tough discussed a number of studies that focused on students getting identity cues before sitting tests. Students who believed their cultural group was good at a task raised performance whereas students who believed that they were part of a group who were not good at a task lowered performance. This only proves to reinforce stereotypes.
The way to get around this as teachers/ parents is to constantly reinforce the idea of intelligence malleability before tests. Everyone can improve their intelligence.

PART THREE:
Part three brings in a couple of anecdotes about a charter school 'franchise' called KIPP. The state of students and their families is brought into focus and the role that character development plays in success. Parallels to the KIPP Anecdotes are given about an underprivileged Chess team. The chess team are unrivaled in their success and the teacher in charge is an unlikely guru who unknowingly utilizes many of the character aspects above when coaching her students.

Links are made between the brain analysis description early in the book and the learning that can be found in the chess anecdotes as well as in the description provided of 'One Goal' (an intervention programme run for at risk youth to help them perform at college).

“Noncognitive skills like resilience and resourcefulness and grit are highly predictive of success in college, And they can help our students compensate for some of the inequality they have faced in the education system.”
Jeff Nelson - CEO 'One Goal'

Nelson identified five skills, "Leadership Principles" that he wanted One Goal teachers to emphasise: Resourcefulness, Resilience, Ambition, Professionalism, and Integrity.

Students need to be aware that intelligence can be improved (Children who had this message alone drilled in to them prior to test taking achieved greater than peers who did not receive the same message) and likewise, character (in all of its forms) can be manipulated and developed, it is not static.


PART FOUR

• Character can and should be developed from infancy. Protect children from serious stressful trauma and provide them with at least one nurturing relationship with a parent.
• Toddlers need to develop the ability to calm down after a tantrum or scare - this occurs when a child feels safe and secure. Children on edge, are not in a position to develop their character (have their character developed?).
• All children need to be taught how to manage failure, front up to it, own it and LEARN FROM IT
• Teacher quality is important in education and child development - second only to a stable, nurturing and loving home life. The impact of quality teachers (and as a result, less quality teachers) is not to be taken lightly. In any given year, teachers can spend up to 800 hours with a child - quality teachers use the time to develop relationships, foster personal growth and master academic achievement.
• BUT... it can be a distant second to that secure, stable, nurturing home life when the home life is none of the above. Government and Society a a whole needs to address issues that are facing our young people who grow up in some families in order to both save these children and minimise the negative impacts that these children have on society when they grow up.
• The statistics of American socio economic based interventions show that the success is again largely dependent on wealth. That is, even within the band of peoples described as "poor" the more well off in this band have the desired outcomes, where the poorest of the poor seldom have success at such interventions.
• Tough acknowledges that talking about the influence of family on the success and failure of poorer children is an uncomfortable proposition but one that needs to be addressed at a societal level.