This was a really interesting session that made me reflect on my own school and where we are on our journey. Erica talked about how schools should be inviting students to break the rules in their learning – letting students know when they can do it and how it will be assessed. She talked about how there is a tension and challenge for education between ‘coverage’ culture and ‘learning’ culture. ‘Coverage’ is content driven, test orientated, pencil and paper and credential is the prize. ‘Learning culture’ is capacity building, personalised, self-managed, open ended and creative. Schools talk about their ‘learning culture’ however do they actually revert back to ‘coverage’ culture because it is safe and because the systems that assess us focus on this? Education is more important than ever, they need to get qualifications but there is a real tension between getting qualifications and working creatively.
It is good practice to encourage a zone of discomfort for both teachers and students but changing teacher culture is not easy. This is particularly true for more experienced teachers as they are unconsciously competent, they have become comfortable and at ease with their performance. It is interesting that teachers who have stepped out of the classroom for a year or more when they return they realise that things are different, teachers there day in day out don’t necessarily notice the change.
Good ‘meddlers’ in schools are those that:
Encourage teachers to be designers not just delivering packages
They make learning goals explicit
They set up experiments that might fail (welcome error)
They help students fail without shame
They are smart with technology to enhance learning
They invite hands on, minds on, plugged into teamwork.
If you are a teacher then look down that list and reflect on whether is this the culture and climate that you create in your classroom? For senior leaders is this the type of culture you are striving to create in your schools? What are the challenges with this?