Innovative Learning Environments - Mary Chamberlain

Modern Learning Pedagogy

Mā whero mā pango ka oti te mahi.
With red and black the work will be done.

Real learning from teachers and students only happens if you are ready to take that risk and be in that unconfortable space. Into that uneasy space.
Most people need a reason to go to that place.

What benefit for us all?
 - choice
 - independence
- collaboration
- connections

When the rate of change outise the organisation is greter than the rate of change inside it, the end is in sight. - Jack Welsh

Visible learning pathways for MLP and personalised learning:
1. Literacy
2. Numeracy
3. Learning to learn skills

Are these pathways visible, talked about and used? Do parents see this in action.

• I now what I my learning?
• I know how to build stamina in my learning muscles?
• Do I know the big picture - why I am learning this?
• Do I know where this little step fits in?
• Can I explain the pathway I need to take?
• Do I know the AKO kids in my class?
• What does ____ look like, sound like, feel like?
• Pathways evident in the playgrounds and coherence accrooss the school.
• Notice, recognise, respond to my pathways for learning.

Expressive and evaluative responses:

Drawing out their ideas of he big idea. 

What suppport did they get, do they need? Who did they help? 

How do they see themselves as a learner? 

Kids taking control of sharing their pathway and progress. 

Connections:

When we work with others we are more effective.

Vygotsky co-consstrction and learning more in a team.

What does good collaboration look and sound like?

• Partnerships between staff and parents
• Teachers show themselves as learners that sometimes get stuck in the pit
• Students look to a wider range of teachers - share the knowedge
• Recognise when a task is not suitable for collaboration
• Teacher model collaboration
• Teaching how to give good feedback - not just doing it for them
• Student progress is the responsibility of the group not one teacher
• Recognise that 'explaining' a task requires a deeper thinking from the more able child
• Learners show evidence of achieving a target
• Everyone knows what to do next

Transformational Roles: (Future Oriented Learning)

• Teacher is no longer the holder of the knowledge
• What is the role of the teacher and learner?
• Teachers and students monitoring ans supporting each other.
• The invisible learner will ask for feedback - the indicator of success!

Key people in this area:

Carol Dweek - Growth Mindset - see previous blog post

Guy Claxton  - Building Learning Muscles 

Feedback:

 - well done you are clever or well done you used the strategy we learned and focussed on the task.

- let's look for somethig a bit more challenging.

The buildings, technologies need to be used to connect students and extend the boundaries of the classroom. SAMR Model 

Always ask - how can we use this building, ICT ... in the service of learning?

Space, Energy and Agency

CPPA conference, Richard Newton - St Claire School, Dunedin

School Design:
New Zealand...
Awhina - classrooms built around a central quad - could become a learning space or store room.
Learning Street - mezzanine - wide space collaborative space to link one and two story buildings.
Boulevard Design - big open space but the kids saw it as a walkway.
Diferent spaces, open space and breakout areas.
Multiple tables and work areas - seminar opportunity.
Teachers as activators and worshop leaders.
Strong element in NZ is glass - coveys connectidness, interaction, transparency...
Colour is a critical part in design.

UK...
Supersize classrooms - big spaces even in old buildings.
Innovative definition of space using sheets, fabric etc. for a cave.
Scaled furniature and bathrooms for little people.
Learning street - blocked off and private practice - no glass.
Learning commons - curved corridoors, data projector, little areas like a kitchen or work spaces.
Soft, noninstitutional furniature.
Rooms outdoors - discovery, inquiry, multipl intelligences outdoor play.
Willow domes and teepees to define space.
Lots of iPad activities that reflect paperbased tasks - really just worksheets.

Learning Theory:
David Hargreaves: Beliefs we hold, modles of how the world works

Teachers:
Lion tamer: control, do this now, keep kids busy, stuff

Entertainer: focussed on relationships, make school fun, will they like this - manipulation, busy, managed

New Romantic: unconditiondal positive regard for the ;learner and learning, student agency.
Teachers us a few of different styles - especially in an emergency e.g. fire alarm.

Michael Absolom - Clarity in the Classroom:
Control: control by power - busy, managed
Caring: control with good intention
Learning Focussed: learning at the centre, child agency

Teacher as New Romantic:
In charge of process and programme
Manage emotional well being.
Managing quality learning activities.

Self managing Learner: clarity of purpose, aware of choices making, make choice, purpose, articulate their decisions.

• self confident
• know how to learn
• self regulation
• interdependent
• in control of their own learning
• learning aware
• engaged through mixed level workshops
• able to make choices

E-Tools: 
Agency - power to act, be informes, enable learners.
Connectivedness - opportunity to connect around the worls
Ubiquity - can use it anywhere, any time.

Pedagogy - SAMR model - are we just doing worksheets on a device?  Re-define the task!
Google tools - free resources - use Hapara and the cloud.

Modern Learning Environment:
It is all about learning
-  enagagement, agency, teacher
- impossible to have three kion tamers in the same classroom

As teachers we have become settles and are collecting stuff. We need to be nomads, always looking forward to the next challenge.

Greenland in 1480AD
Metal model - as the climate changed...
We are farmers - animals brought inside, fed kelp and seaweed.
We are traders - not much spare to trade with.
We are Europeans - 

They ignored the wisdom of people surviving beside them and as a result their population collapsed. The Inuits survivied - changing their approach as the environment changed.

As schools we need to adapt to this massive acceleration of change or we will become a relic.

Have a think:
What is the mental model that guides your practice?
How are these serving your learners?
How well will they serve your learners tomorrow?
Adaptability is critical.

Growth Mindset - Carol Dweck

Ted Talk

What type of person are you as a teacher or the kids in your class? 

If we are asking students to have this positive Growth Mindset then we need to be looking first at ourselves and how we model it in class and daily life.

Fixed Mindset: 

• spend time trying to prove their ability
• see success as a result of ability
• avoid challenges or risk for fear of failure
• want friends who would make them feel good
• think that mistakes or failure reflect on their self worth
• crash and burn after failure
• sees criticism as an attack on self worth
• compare themselves to others
• feel tense and nervous about exposing their weaknesses
• say "This is too hard, I'm giving up."

Growth Mindset:

• believe they can develop their ability
• see success as a result of effort
• know their strengths, weaknesses and next steps for learning
• actively taking steps to improve their character, relationships and learning
• see failure as a chance to learn 
• selects friends who would encourage them to get better
• look for opportunities for challenge 
• bounce back after failure
• sees criticism as a learning tool
• compare themselves to past attempts
• take a risk and try new things
• say "I don't get this, can you help me?"
• say "This is really hard and it is fun."

There are some things that stood out for me as an educator and learner. 

More of them are incorporated in to my action based on the headings in Matt Bromley's Blog.

To me as the Teacher:

1. Praise for effort not ability.

2. Teacher belief, mindset, negative labels or stereotypes powerfully affect learning - developing a Growth Mindset helps us combat this negativity.

3. Honest constructive feedback promotes growth.

4. A disciplined and nurturing environment is essential.

5. Teach learners how to learn or improve - demystify the process.

6. Growth Mindset teachers are always learning themselves.

Matt Bromley Blog:

So What!  How could this look in my classroom for 2015?

1. Use frequent formative feedback

• Teacher and peer conferences with constructive comments - one positive, one next step
• Knowledge of personal targets and next steps - unpack the 'How to' or 'Looks like'
• Students can select learning activities according to target - Daily 5 activities, Maths Google Site
• Personal evaluation on daily targets tracked in Learning Journal / Planner
• Build up a picture of the student from many different sources.

2. High levels of challenge for every student

• Class chart: Work harder, grow smarter!
• Expose kids to challenging vocabulary, concepts and literature. They can't learn about what they have never experienced.
• Students opt into a range of needs based workshops.

3. Explicitly welcome mistakes

• Speech bubbles around the class: What went wrong? What can I learn from it?
• Constantly take the time to model how to unpack mistakes and look for the learning. 

4. Engaging in deliberate practice

• In Waka Stride we are becoming….. kids to shout out all the things we are becoming like: fast at my 3x tables, accurate at editing my writing, a kind and 'bucket filling' friend.
• Activities are clearly sorted so learners can select the one that supports their own target - Maths Google Site.
• To start Daily 5 reading, writing or maths sessions learners will state their target and the activity they will do to help achieve it to a buddy or teacher.

5. Reward effort not attainment

• Daily round up - kids and teacher recommend people for effort, showing Independent Learner skills, trying again - being resilient…. A great opportunity to use the language of learning.
• Class reward system is collaborative and based on co-constructed criteria which will include: be resilient, use AKO - other students as teachers, use different strategies etc.