Workshop 4: Creating the culture of innovations

Audience: All staff and any wider stakeholdersDeliverable: Capacity ladder for each core aim

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Prerequisites for this workshop

• From the introduction workshop – key features of this workshop such as the ‘Parts’, ‘Suggested Agenda’ and ‘Overview’ are described in the introduction to the workshops which is a general guide to the workshop series.

• From workshop 1 – this workshop should be part of your annual planning including who you use it with and how it contributes to your continuous improvement cycle. It is expected that you will use these materials to meet your needs whether for full training events or a series of small meetings.

• From workshop 3 – your school’s implementation plan for discussion and agreement. Your plan describes which innovations will take place this year, what impact they are expected to have and the measures that will be put in place to support them.

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Workshop 4 of 8: Creating the culture of innovation

• There are eight broad workshops in the Innovative Schools Toolkit.

• Each workshop provides ideas, activities, links to other resources, strategies and frameworks.

• Please use the resources and PowerPoint called ‘Introduction to the IST workshop series’ for detailed guidance on the workshops.

• Consider your local context to select the most appropriate strategies offered in these workshops.

On-going Continuous Improvemen

t

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Overview

• In the previous workshops you decided on the innovations that your community will be engaged in this year.

• Although these innovations are large scale they require action by everyone – in this workshop participants propose those actions.

• These proposed actions are arranged in ‘capacity ladders’ starting with small and easy to carry out actions to transformative large actions.

• This range of suggestions means there will be something for everyone and all individuals in the workshop will emerge with ideas suited to their own current capacity.

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Guiding Questions

• What do you see as the challenges in engaging all stakeholders in a culture of innovation?

• How do you engage all teachers to actively move the vision forward?

• How do you engage all learners to help achieve the vision?

• What practical steps can you take to make the vision become reality?

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Progression towards a culture of innovation

Level Description

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Ubiquitous – multi-agency co-ordinated transformation towards the vision. • Capacity ladders are used as a way of co-ordinating the efforts of numerous agencies around common

goals by making explicit how stakeholders can contribute actively towards progressing the community vision.

• The school is an active member of the worldwide culture of innovative practice.• The school is networked on multiple levels with innovators and educational thinkers globally and

locally.

7Integrated – learners are also actively involved innovators working to shared core aims • Either separate capacity ladders are devised by learners or they co-develop ladders with the teachers.• Learners plan projects as teams or within teacher teams. They are advocates for the vision of the

school.

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Defined – teachers agree collectively how they will contribute towards the vision• Capacity ladders are produced in a form that names specific outcomes but is generic for whole school

use.• All teachers and some other stakeholders are involved in producing the ladders and planning personal

actions. • Teacher projects are diverse and personally owned yet clearly linked to the whole strategy.

3Developing – the workshop results in all teachers planning actual contributions• Teachers’ contribution may be linked to their PDR (Professional Development Process). • The interpretation, degree and scale of contribution is left to departments or individuals to define.

1Aware – the concept of ‘ladders’ is shared and used for debate • There may be numerous targets already in the school and little appetite for more. • Targets tend to be umbrella summaries such as ‘to raise achievement’.

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Suggested Agenda for the workshop

Aims Suggested Approaches ResourcesSign off the deliverable document from workshop 3

1. Discussion of the implementation plan

The implementation plan and proposed innovations are discussed in groups then fed back.

Printed copies of the implementation plan to discuss and agree

Part 1 Clarify expectations of stakeholders

2. Debate and agree – minimum expectations for all participants.

Printed proposal for teacher expectation

Part 2. Build ‘capacity ladders’ for each of the school’s core aims

3. Presentation – from aim to action: capacity ladders.

Presentation to explain the concept of a ‘capacity ladder’ using specific examples.

4. Collaboration - staff construct the ladders

Then spend considerable time debating each rung.

Blank templates for ‘capacity ladders’

Post-it notes to capture suggestions

Example capacity ladders such as the one provided in the slide deck

Part 3 Discuss the homework task for beginning to use the ‘capacity ladders’

5. Homework – create ideas for actual projectsEach member of staff should come up with ideas for projects that can be done at any level and shared at the next workshop.

Person nominated to support in the homework task as it is essential for the next workshop

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Implementation plans

• In groups, take time to read through the implementation plans that were drawn up following workshop 3.

• Each group suggest three improvements to the plans and one clarification question.

• These are collected on post-it notes or on flip charts to be added later.

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Part 1. Clarify expectations of stakeholders

Minimum requirement for all Teachers• A culture of innovation can only be established if it is part of the

continual annual cycle of expectation for all teachers.• This section helps to define the exact shape of this expectation

and agree this as policy.

Minimum requirements on other stakeholders• A true culture of innovation should spread to all learners, parents

and the wider community served by the school over time.• The methods chosen in this section can be used in these contexts.

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A reminder of the core aims (workshop 2)

Core aim 1For all learners to

improve

[enter core aim 1 here]

Core aim 2 For all learners to

improve

[enter core aim 2 here]

Core aim 3 For all learners to improve

[enter core aim 3 here]

Some activities the school does this year will impact on all

three of these core

aims

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Proposed expectations of all participants

Please use this proposal as the basis of debate:

• All participants should personally devise and carry out a series of projects.

• They select a group of learners who will be the focus of their project.

• They select one of the school’s core aims as the focus of their project.

• They collaborate with others who have designed similar projects.• They measure the impact before and after their project (see

workshop 6).

For example, if a school had only one core aim of ‘improving learners enquiry skills’ , all the projects would be based on improving this outcome.

For this proposal, a ‘project’ is defined as:

‘Any planned action designed to improve a specific outcome (core aim) for a specific group of learners at some time over the next ten weeks’.

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Example of where a project may sit

A project may address a number of school aims

Core aim 1

improving outcomes in: Literacy

Core aim 2 improving

outcomes in:Creativity

& entrepreneurshi

p

Core aim 3 Improving outcomes in:

collaborative skills

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Some common whole school core aims - improving the number of:

Confident Individuals who are successful learners and responsible citizensPossessing competencies that enable them to be effective in a global knowledge economy probably without oil.

Self-managers

Effective Participators

Creative Thinkers

Reflective Learners

Independent

Enquirers

Team Workers

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End of Part 1. Clear and agreed expectations for all [insert

stakeholder group]

Minimum requirement for all [insert stakeholder group i.e. teachers]• (Draft proposal) All [insert stakeholder group] will devise and carry

out a project designed to help progress one of the school’s core aims. This could just involve one lesson with one class or greater challenges depending on the decision of the [insert stakeholder group] themselves.

Minimum requirements on other stakeholders• By the end of this year it is suggested that ____ teams of learners

will have been involved in running their own projects to help advance at least one of the schools core aims.

• By the end of this year a project by one of the following companies / agencies / stakeholder groups will have contributed.

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Part 2. Build ‘capacity ladders’ for each of the school’s core aims

• Whichever stakeholders are involved there will be a range of skill and capacity for innovation.

• How do you allow all stakeholders to contribute effectively when some are experienced innovators but others have limited time to commit or experience to contribute?

• The following slides describe a process that has been tested extensively with stakeholders in many contexts.

• In this process, stakeholders collectively identify the minimum and maximum expectations to define a scale or ‘capacity ladder’ from which all can contribute.

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Additional guidance notes

• The connection between innovation projects and the core aims:

Capacity ladder 1(e.g. suggestions at

various levels for how to improve collaboration).

Capacity ladder 2

Capacity ladder 3

Large scale innovation that has been planned in order to address one of this year’s priorities for action (e.g. the introduction of one laptop per child).

Some projects will use this innovation to improve core aim 1(e.g. projects that use the laptops to improve collaboration).

Some projects will use this innovation to improve core aim 2

Some projects will use this innovation to improve core aim 3

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Activity 1: Building a capacity ladder

• Here are step by step instructions for starting the capacity ladder:• Choose one of your school’s core aims for this year, for example

your school may have the following focus ‘to improve collaboration skills’.

• Split into groups small enough so that each member can engage in debate and first set the activity of writing ‘rung one’ of the ladder.• For ‘rung one’ agree the minimum that each individual could do personally over the next 10 weeks ‘to improve the collaboration skills’ of at least 30 learners (number of weeks, number of learners and focus are examples).

• Next ask the group to write ‘rung two’ by thinking of something slightly more challenging and with greater expected impact or numbers.

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L Opportunities to improve outcomes for learners in collaboration skills

9 The ten week team project my group does will involve learners from different countries and cultures and will be presented as an example of international collaboration in all schools involved. A quality outcome will result.

8 The ten week team project my group does will include learners from different schools and states. It will result in a public outcome that will be presented to parents. Learners will create the networks of learners themselves using web tools.

7 The ten week team project my group does will include input from people in different classes and the community. This will be arranged by the teams themselves and will involve a public presentation.

6 During the next ten weeks the group will work in teams on a project. The teams will manage their own time and organise their own groups. Their classmates will assess them when they present their report.

5 Once in the next ten weeks I will set my class a problem that they need to work on in teams for at least an hour and present their findings back to the whole group. They will need to organise the teams themselves

4 Once a week for the next ten weeks I will set my class a problem that they need to work on in teams.

3 Once every two weeks I will give one of my classes a problem to solve. They must decide on their roles and how they will solve the problem.

2 Once a week I will include an activity in which learners have roles in their team; leader, manager, coach, reporter etc. Teams will rotate roles for the tasks.

1 Once a week I will include an activity which allows learners to work in teams of four. For example ‘take 5 minutes in your teams to decide the answer to this question’.

Here is an example capacity ladder for one whole school focus, constructed after debate between teachers in a school:

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Further guidance for building capacity ladders

• The detail of each capacity ladder will differ from school to school, year to year. The most important element is the debate that leads to the capacity ladders being created.

• Check that each ‘rung’ is generic so as not restrict ideas for projects.

• Capacity ladders are a deliverable of the Innovative Schools Program so they can be shared with other schools who might find them useful.

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End of Part 2. Deliverable: Our ‘capacity ladders’ for

each core aim

By this end of this section there will be one ladder for each whole school core aim.

‘Rung’ one will be a sufficiently minimal challenge so as not to prevent anyone in the group from contributing regardless of their level of expertise, training or available time.

‘Rung’ nine will represent a significant challenge that sets out the highest possible impact imagined by any one member or collaborating group.

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Part 3. Discuss the homework task for beginning to use the ‘capacity

ladders’ • Everyone must now choose the ‘rung’ they wish to use as the

basis of their project for the next ___ weeks (e.g. 10).

• For homework, everyone must provide one idea for a project they could actually complete with their chosen group of learners – these ideas will be shared in the next workshop.

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Support for homework activity – an example

1. Imagine you wanted to do a project from ‘rung’ six of the ladder shown earlier as an example.

2. Imagine you are a science teacher doing a topic on the planets.

3. Your idea could be to provide each team with a planet to research and present back to the whole group.

4. You could plan to use the rubrics on www.pbyp.co.uk to assess their teamwork skills.

L Improving Collaboration

9

8

7

6

During the next ten weeks the group will work in teams on a project. The teams will manage their own time and organise their own groups. Their classmates will assess them when they present their report.

5

4

3

2

1

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Summary diagram of how projects work

+Control group?

Which Group

of Learner

s?

What is the

expected impact

on learners

?

L Improving Collaboration

9Best imaginable outcome

8

7

6Teacher chooses a challenge at this level

5

4

3

2

1 Minimum expectation

Project

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End of Part 3. All participants will bring a project idea with them to the

next workshop

This idea will:• State the large scale innovation it is making use of• State the core aim ‘capacity ladder’ it is contributing to• State the which rung on the ‘capacity ladder’ the project will come

from• State the minimum and maximum size of group it will work with• Be describable in presentation of two minutes (maximum).

The idea may also:• Be something the teacher has previously used and found to work• Be related to a particular lesson or subject area• Be one of a number of ideas the teacher wants to share.

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© 2011 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.