Interactive Innovations:

Literacy the Essence of Learning

Fred RenihanSimon Fraser University,British Columbia

Compelling learning is constructed in

community; powerful communities connect

learning; and the most successful communities

extend their learning into the future

Developing a Framework for our Provincial Conversation

Connecting curriculum, instruction and

assessment

Providing learning in a continuum from

rural to urban context

Extending community

connections

Creating healthy

environments

Using technology as an invisible,

seamless support

Examiner

by Frank Scott

The routine trickery of the examinationBaffles these hot and discouraged youthsDriven by who knows what external pressureThey pour their hated self analysis through the nib of confessionOn to the accusatory page

I who have plotted their immediate downfallI am entrusted with the divine categoriesABCD and the hell of EThe parade of prize and the backdoor of pass

Examiner cont.’by Frank Scott

In the tight silence standing by a green grass windowI watch the fertile earth graduate its sons with more compassionNot commanding the shape of stem and stamenBringing the trees to pass with increase of sunlight Or decrease of rainBut for each seed the whole soilFor the inner life the environment receptive and contributory

Examiner cont.’

by Frank ScottI shudder at the narrow frames of our text book schoolsIn which we plant our so various seedlingsEach brick-walled barracks cut into numbered roomBlack-boarded, ties the venturing shoot to the master’s stickShapes the new to the old in the ashen garden

Shall we open the whole skylight of thought to these tiptoe mindsShall we give them the frontier worlds of literature And to the fields of art for their realms of growth

Examiner cont.’

by Frank Scott

Or shall we pass them the chosen poems with the footnotesRing the bell on their thoughts period their playMake laws for averages and plans for meansPrint one history book for the whole provinceAnd let ninety thousand reach page ten by Tuesday

As I gather the inadequate paper evidenceI hear across the neat campus lawnThe professional mower’s droneClipping the inch high green

Stewardship: What Influences Learning?Wang, Haertal and Walberg (1994) in a meta-analysis of 11,000 statistical findings over the past 50 years of research, identified the following as the most powerful influences on student learning:

1. Classroom management 64.8*

2. Meta-cognitive processes 63.0

3. Cognitive processes 61.3

4. Home environment/parental support 58.4

5. Student-teacher social interactions 56.7

6. Social / behavioural attributes 5.2

Stewardship: What Influences Learning? cont.’

7. Motivational affective attributes 54.8

8. Peer group 53.0

26. State-level policies 37.0

27. School policies 36.5

28. District demographics 32.9

*M.C., Haertel, G.D., & Walberg, H.J. (December 1993). Leadership. *M.C., Haertel, G.D., & Walberg, H.J. (December 1993). Leadership.

Scores from several sources standardized then weighed according to Scores from several sources standardized then weighed according to effect sizes ratings and content analyses.effect sizes ratings and content analyses.

Interaction in Teaching and Learning:

The Research

The Teacher:

•prepared•directs instruction•high expectations•consistent feedback•caring •positive

The Learner:

•recognizes need to learn•is motivated to succeed•is interested in topic•finds instruction useful•sees personal relevance•is secure in environment

The Task:

•is achievable•can be broken into manageable units•is useful and relevant•is dynamic not passive•is challenging

Teacher-Learner ReciprocityTeacher-Learner Reciprocity

There is an urgent need for reciprocity in our schools and classrooms. Without such reciprocity, without some form of mutual emotional satisfaction between teacher and taught, the curriculum remains simply an idea in the mind of the teacher – it lacks relevance even though the teacher teaches and the students go through the motions of scholarship activity.

Michael Marland

Learning Conditions

MEMBERSHIP:

Preconditions for School Membership:

• Attachment

• Commitment

• Involvement

• Belief in school norms

Learning Conditions

MEMBERSHIP:

School’s Commitment to Membership:

•Positive, respectful and caring environment

•Strong communication

•Active assistance in helping students meet school standards

•Active help in assisting students make the link between school and society

•Attachment to and positive relationships with adult professional role models outside of formal classroom interaction

Learning Conditions

ENGAGEMENT:

Includes all of those actions and interactions which enable students to become focused on academic pursuit

Learning Conditions

ENGAGEMENT:

•Strong academic focus

•Commitment to improved student learning

•Commitment to results

•Commitment to evaluation

Preconditions for school engagement:

Learning Conditions

ENGAGEMENT:

•Non-motivating course work and instruction

•Dissonance between learning and teaching styles

•Unremitting preoccupation with course coverage

Impediments to educational engagement:

Equitable Futures

ACHIEVEMENT FOR ALL

What one child can learn, any child can learn providing attention is given to necessary preconditions for learning.

Benjamin Bloom

Learning Theory and Technology:

•Although the schools are embedded in our culture and reflect its values, the technological changes that have swept through society at large have left the educational system largely unchanged

•In the course of 20 years, a dramatic rift has opened between the process of

teaching and learning in the schools and the ways of obtaining knowledge in society at large

Learning Theory and Technology cont.’

•The result is an escalating estrangement of the schools from society, and from the children who live in it

•The earliest uses of computers based their instructional models on the work of behaviourists such as B.F. Skinner. Computers were able to provide drill and

practice on previously learned skillsStrommen (1992)

A Community of Leaders

by A. Strombe

One hot summer day, while lying in my yard on my backWith only the drone of some distant train on some far off trackI saw a sight which to this day I had never seen Anything quite like before

At about five thousand feet, the leader of the V The head goose, suddenly veered out to the rightHis space was immediately filled by the goose directly behindThe formation kept growing widerUntil he found a place at the back of the lineThey didn’t even miss a beat

A Community of Leaders cont.’

by A. Strombe

So that’s how I found out how the goose can flyFrom way down south to way up north and back againBut he cannot do it alone you seeThat is something he can only do in community

It’s a wonderful notion and people swell with emotion and prideTo think of themselves on the eagle’s sideSolitary, self-sufficient and strongBut we are what we areThat is something that we cannot chooseAnd though many would like to be seen as the eagleI think that God made us more like the goose.

Staff Development

Stages of Development and Degree of Positive TransferStages of Development and Degree of Positive Transfer

1. Awareness / Information 10%

2. Demonstration / Modeling 10%

3. Practice / Feedback 20%

4. Peer Coaching in the Classroom 70 – 80%

adapted from Joyce and Showers (1982)

Cornerstones of Support

• Teachers sharing in frequent, continuous and precise talk about teaching practices

• Frequent observations of teachers together with detailed and candid critiques of their teaching

• Teachers planning, designing, preparing and evaluating teaching materials together

Six indicators of collaboration:

Cornerstones of Support

• Teachers teaching each other the practice of teaching

• Norms of collegiality which are prevalent in the school

• A norm of continuous improvement

J. Little (1982)

Six indicators of collaboration cont.’

Reflective Questions

1. How can we clarify and communicate the purpose, vision and values of our schools and school district?

2. How can we initiate, implement and sustain a successful change process?

3. How can we provide strong leadership at the same time that we empower those closest to the action?

4. How can we shape organizational culture and provide structures that support the culture we seek?

Reflective Questions cont.’

5. How can we widen the circle of responsible actors in our drive to keep learners at the center?

6. How can we create collaborative processes that will result in individual, group and organizational learning?

7. How can we foster an environment that is results oriented yet encourages experimentation?

Teacher

by Rabbi Zev Shostak

I am that most fortunate of men for I am eternalSome people live in the world of today. I live in the world of tomorrowSome feel meaning in the temporal and transientI find purpose in the eternal and the enduring and the eternalFor I am charged with that most sacred of missionsTo transmit all that our parents lived for and loved for and died for to the next generation

Teacher cont.’

by Rabbi Zev Shostak

I span the generationsMaking the wisdom of the past live now so that the future will have meaningI make wisdom liveFor I am no mere bearer of knowledgeI do not simply teach the mind -- I reach the heartAnd when I reach the heart I touch the soul.

Teacher cont.’

by Rabbi Zev Shostak

To those who say two generations hence what shall I be if but a distant memory, I respond:

Though the mind fades, memories lingerThough the body fails, the spirit prevailsThough the scroll burns the letters dance in the air.

Compelling learning is constructed in

community; powerful communities connect

learning; and the most successful communities

extend their learning into the future

Developing a Framework for our Provincial Conversation

Connecting curriculum, instruction and

assessment

Providing learning in a continuum from rural

to urban context

Extending community

connections

Creating healthy

environments

Using technology as an invisible,

seamless support