New term – New job…
Posted by: mimanifesto on: June 29, 2009
It’s been a really intense school year, what with the onward march of GLOW, a couple of research projects, ACfE, and the ‘BrainBoosters’ primary/secondary games-based learning project. Lots of interesting work so the feeling of moving slowly towards the summer break was really kicking in last week big time. Add to this another knee operation, and the recovery, as well as a job interview and you have a recipe for exhaustion. So it was really a great feeling to get a phone call to let me know that I’d been successful at interview been offered a new job.
So, from the start of the new school session in August, I will be the Principal teacher for the Cathkin learning community. Its a new flexible PT post with quite a wide remit. Some of the key tasks and duties of this post are…
1. To contribute to raising attainment and achievement through the dissemination of good practice within establishments and across the Learning Community.
2. To facilitate the delivery of In-service training as required.
3. To ensure that the work undertaken is compatible with current educational thinking e.g. A Curriculum for Excellence.
4. To focus mainly although not exclusively on the P7-S1 interface.
5. To be flexible and adaptable in promoting current innovative practice.
6 . To support a culture and promote a range of strategies to raise attainment and achievement within establishments and across the Learning Community.
I’m really excited about this new job, as it means I can carry on much of the work I’ve been doing on a small scale over the last couple of years, still keep grounded in my own classroom, and continue to support colleagues with their own development, particularly with ICT and the use of games to enhance learning, but in a more ‘formal’ capacity. I sure that my own progress from completing probation in 2005 to this promoted post has been due in no small part to my own professional learning network, and all the advice, help, and ideas that such an extended community of practice can bring to career development.
I’ve always been a big supporter of the learning community concept as a way of supporting a seamless journey through a learning program for our children and young people that’s holistic, skills-based, individual and appropriate, and as far as possible, uninterrupted by the somewhat artificial and constructed ‘stages’ our education system currently throws up as potential barriers to learning – we label them as ‘transition’ stages. I believe the joins between these stages need to become much less visible, and hopefully, I can help the process of smoothing some of them down in my new role.
Of course, the learning community is good for staff development as well, and over the past few years, as I’ve worked in the different establishments, I’ve felt a real sense that the Cathkin Learning community is coming together as an important and very real community of practice – people with shared aims and visions coming together to further their individual and shared learning journeys. Many of these establishments feed into our high school and we owe it to the young people to ensure that they have a positive learning experience which continues the good work done by their primary schools, is free from fear and uncertainty, and that’s appropriate for their own individual needs, both in the academic and emotional/social aspects of their time at school and teachers can play such a significant and influential role in this journey. . I look forward to further supporting colleagues through promoting innovative and cutting edge practice, and developing this aspect of our work in the learning community over the next few years.
Seth Godin on Tribes and leadership
Posted by: mimanifesto on: June 27, 2009
I know many have read Seth’s latest book ‘Tribes’….there’s a great TED talk he gave in February here..
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/seth_godin_on_the_tribes_we_lead.html
Professional learning networks…but personal too…
Posted by: mimanifesto on: June 20, 2009
- In: PLN| networking
- 2 Comments
This was going to be my second post on the Islay Education 2020 unconference, but that’s going to have to wait a little. I’ve just come out of hospital after having an operation on my knee. It was one of those not-too-serious ops, but one which has a reputation for being quite painful during recovery. And as I lie here on my couch under the influence of some serious players in the painkiller rankings, its a reputation which is certainly true, but if it allows me to put off a knee replacement for another couple of years than I guess it will be worth the couple of weeks of suffering.
Now the real point of this short post, I guess is on social networking. Many of us use networks such as Twitter as a large part of our professional learning networks. Many even proclaim it to be their ‘Google’. All justified, and of course, I use it in this way as well, but that I also use it as a social network for chat and conversation, and its a great addendum to my face to face social life. It was this on-line support that really came into its own earlier this week as I was about to go into hospital. Having a strong reliable support network is vital to everyone’s health and well being, particularly in the ever stressful jobs many of us in education do, and my twitter network is a significant part of my own support system. I’d like to think that we all recognise the need for a good support network in life and furthermore, realise how effective our on-line networking can be in contributing to this. Those who decry on-line networking ( as a few misguided souls did during the unconference) as a poor substitute for face to face contact are missing the point somewhat, I think. In this increasingly global environment in which we live and work, face to face meeting can be very rare, limited by much more than geography. Strong relationships can and are established on-line, something which was very apparent on Islay last weekend as even those who had never met face to face established an ease of conversation that would normally have only happened amongst close friends who might meet face to face many times. research is increasingly backing this up, and I can certainly attest to how powerful this support has been to me on quite a few occasions over the past year or so, and in particular this week.
So a big thank you to all who tweeted and DM’d their best wishes. I hope you know I’m there for you should you ever need this type of support. 
Education 2020 and Islay High School 09
Posted by: mimanifesto on: June 16, 2009
Arriving at Islay High School early last Friday morning in the glorious sunshine, it was easy to forget the 0400hrs start from Glasgow. Some great company and conversation in the car with David Noble, Maureen Park and driven by Katie Barrowman and so the journey up to Kennacraig passed by through some amazing scenery in a relative flash. Gorgeous sunshine for the sea crossing as well as whale spotting and we were soon there.
The morning’s activities started with coffee in the school library. It was great to catch up with some familiar faces and to finally meet, face to face, some others. It’s amazing how well you feel you know someone even though all contact has been online through blogs and twitter. Twitter, in particular has a been a boon to those of us who make connections all over the world with educationalists who we would otherwise rarely, if ever, get the chance to meet. All those who decry social networking really need to get off their clouds and give it a go. They’d be amazed at the level of informality which exists between folk at all different levels in education as well as the depth of these on-line friendships and the ease in which they translate into face to face relationships, certainly for the forty or so folk who had journeyed to Islay last week.
Presentations followed on the curriculum and leadership structures at IHS as well as their use of technology. Some of the senior students spoke to us about their experiences of the curriculum, which had a blend of academic and vocational courses. The other notable characteristic was the removal of age-stages, with the S3-6 years being treated as one stage with all these students opting for 5 courses per year. All the young people who spoke were articulate, confident and able to vocalise their opinions and feelings about their high school experience. Indeed the confident aplomb with which they explained their choices and experiences spoke volumes about the success of this particular curriculum model as well as the ownership of learning by the students and commitment and willingness of the staff to go the extra mile on behalf of their youngsters.
It was a similar story from the students (about confidence and success) with whom we spoke whilst on the school tour, visiting classrooms, workshops, hospitality suites and the hairdressing and beauty salons. The walls of the school were covered with examples of young people’s learning, and it was absolutely clear just what this school is about: celebrating its young people’s success and declaring a vision of just where the school wants to be.
The morning was rounded of with an excellent lunch, produced and served by the hospitality students. A break of a couple of hours followed to give us time to check into accommodation before the afternoon and evening activities (distillery tour and Education 2020 unconference). More on these later…
Education2020 and the Islay iPhone convention 09
Posted by: mimanifesto on: June 14, 2009
I’ve just returned from a really great weekend away. I’ve been in Islay, where as well as the Education2020 unconference (much more about that in my next post) they were holding this year’s iPhone convention. The streets, bars and hotels were packed full of folk extolling the virtues of their little slabs of black plastic and shiny but slightly greasy screens. Feverish tapping and sliding of fingers across the slick black flashing interfaces was the order of the day…and indeed, the tip-tapping continued well into the night. Of course, not everything was all sweetness and light as the much talked about and dreaded ‘App envy’ swept through the most popular of the local watering holes on the Island. Frantic comparisons of the number of these apps took place (“my app screen is bigger than yours” was definitely the phrase that pays) and the sheer mind-blowing number some people had managed to cram onto their screens defied belief, with some having to scroll through five screens to find all their apps. New app development was discussed over copious amounts of the local brews, including an app to assist in the ordering of large rounds. The iPhone really got put through it’s paces as the full extent of its functionality was revealed and taken full advantage of. Some funky choons were played by people blowing into their phones whilst others applauded using a clever little twist on the classic holding up of a ‘cigarette lighter’ flame to express one’s appreciation of certain musical events – an app displaying a flickering flame. Other apps were used to tell the time, check that the bar and tables were indeed level and the walls were plum, find the way to the toilet, checking for food particles between teeth, ordering the mornings’ breakfast, remembering which way to walk to the bar, and a clever little one which kept a record of whose round it was. Some even managed to use their iPhones to scratch itches, strum iGuitars, play ping-pong, zip up their morph-suits, and create a cunning mini crazy golf course amongst the empty glasses on their tables. Discussions, having turned to important skills acquisition, were livened by the opinion, expressed by one iPhoneophile that a ‘Mac preference’ was vital to future success in life. Sage nodding of heads spread around the room like the ripples which might be caused by the dropping of one of these black uber-phones into the bath (useful if the owner had the bubble-bath maker app of course). Many blurry pictures were taken with the powerful 37 pixel camera’s, but for some strange unexplained reason, no video footage was able to be recorded by the iPhone owning hordes (this was left to those rebels with their Nokia n96’s) However, the proper balance was restored with an exhibition of fixing an iPhone to each shoe, and then performing fine feats of daring-do such as walking across the water from one side of the bay to the other in front of the favoured bar in Bowmore that night, thus proving the almost divine status and miracle working powers accorded these wonderfully versatile machines by their fanatical followers.
And as the iPhones tweeted, and the macs pinged on through the night, the tales continued, of wondrous new apps, and a new more powerful 39 pixel camera, someone brought silence to the revelry by expressing the hope that one day hopefully sooner rather than later, their iPhones would be blessed with the power to actually make regular phone calls ….
Political integrity ? – it’s not all bad news if we look back…
Posted by: mimanifesto on: June 7, 2009
- In: Equality| homophobia
- 1 Comment
All the recent negative publicity about the dubious integrity of our politicians has really got me thinking, as I guess it has everybody else, about our political system and the type of people it attracts, as well as the type of behaviour it appears to encourage in our elected members.
And I’ve had a lot of time to think, having been a little ill and contemplating yet another knee operation (in a weeks time after Education 2020). I think we tend to tar all politicians with the same brush, but they’re not all like that. Some try to do good, act in the best interests of the country and put personal gain or advantage to the back whilst they tackle often thankless tasks. Wendy Alexander was in such a position ten years ago when she was tasked with the job of removing from the statute books a nasty little piece of legislation known as Clause 2a. Many will remember this as the ‘law’ which prevented the ‘teaching’ of homosexuality in schools pushed through by the Thatcher government, and many more will remember the disgraceful comments by so many at the time, including Archbishop Winning and his sidekick, Bishop Joseph Devine as well as the attempt to buy public opinion by stagecoach magnate Brian Souter.
Of course, the problem with Clause 2a was not only it’s intent, but also that it was an extremely badly-written piece of legislation which was so misunderstood that it made most teachers frightened to address all issues surrounding sexuality in their classrooms. Many young people were stigmatised and cut adrift from any type of support mechanism, and teenage suicides amongst LGBT youngsters were ten times higher than amongst their straight counterparts. ‘Keep the Clause’ became a playground taunt in many schools resulting in an upsurge of homophobic bullying (thank you Brian, Thomas, Joseph et al. for that) when all this could have been avoided with a little examination of just what exactly the legislation said. This was that Local authorities should not promote the acceptability of homosexuality as a ‘pretended family relationship’. Very confusing, but really, there was no problem with this. All we had to do was talk about actual family relationships. My own situation was certainly not a pretended family for me and my partner, my children, and the many single-sex family units across the country. So all we had to do in classroom discussions was to talk about same sex partnerships as actual family relationships that are just as valid as any church or state-sanctioned marriage. So where’s the problem? In schools unfortunately, where many of the prejudices in today’s society are learned and encouraged. While we rightly clamp down on racist bullying, where are the initiatives to deal with homophobia in the playground and, for that matter, in the staffroom? I have lost count of the times I have heard slang words for gays and lesbians being used as insults and I am fed up with having my relationships reduced to the status of break time cat-calling. The recent LTS toolkit put together to help schools reduce homophobia is a start, but how many schools have just filed it away, I wonder, rather than fulfil their statutory duty in this respect ?
Now Wendy Alexander steered the repeal of this legislation through the teeth of a force ten storm whipped up by the catholic church leaders, some of the more rabid mouth-foaming free churches, and assorted fools like Souter and his acolytes whose campaign to keep prejudice and bigotry enshrined in law was the moral equivalent of the business-funded campaign to maintain racial segregation in the Deep South of the USA in the 1950s and 60’s. She had nothing to gain personally or politically. She was just doing what was right. Time has proved her actions correc. Who can forget that episode of question time when Boy George took Brian Souter to pieces over his campaign. Even Cardinal Winning recanted before his death (after his disgraceful comments about LGBT folk not being fit and proper persons to be teachers) but Bishop Devine is still preaching homophobia from the pulpit in Scotland.
Wendy Alexander’s actions and conduct ten years ago are an example, I think, ( as we approach the ninth anniversary of the final repeal of Clause 2a) to many of today’s politicians (particularly the SNP whose fence-sitting on this issue was very suspect indeed) who would do well to look upon Wendy Alexander’s conduct all those years ago as an object lesson in how to act with integrity for the greater good of society.
As I look back over the years and remember the small part I played in the campaign to repeal clause 2a, I ask myself, are we any further forward ? the recent arguments in the Church of Scotland, and the conduct of the Archbishop of Canterbury over Gene Robinson’s visit last year do give me cause for concern. But overall, I think there has been much progression in the last ten years. I see more and more young people in schools coming out and being upfront and confident about their own sexuality and much more acceptance by their peers. What they need now are more of their teachers to not be afraid to do the same and act as positive role models for LGBT young people in their schools.
Interactive voting systems and the how and why of multiple choice questioning…
Posted by: mimanifesto on: May 28, 2009
- In: AiFL| CPD| GLOW| GTCS| ICT| Research| Teacher-researchers| games-based learning
- 3 Comments
I’m using the Turning Point interactive voting system with a first year class at the moment. Were just trying it out and getting used to working with it, but I plan to do some classroom-based research during the next session. The plan is to use the voting systems with two first year classes (and with another class acting as a ‘control’) and see if higher-order questioning can be used to raise attainment. Many multiple choice-type questions used with such systems are pretty basic, just testing recall of facts rather than deep learning and understanding. My intention is to use questions which, rather than asking…is the name given to such and such a process…? followed by four choices of answer, instead using a question such as…process x is called such and such…it works by….and then four explanations. You get the drift…higher order questioning testing understanding rather than memory.
I’m going to start lessons off by using the questions as a form of learning objective starters, with the aim of engineering a Vygotskyan Zone of Proximal development over which the students’ learning can progress, and utilising peer-assisted learning to provide ‘scaffolding’ (a construct of Bruner and Wood) to help them bridge the gap and facilitated by the teacher at least at the start of the lesson. Dr Steve Draper at Glasgow University wrote a paper last year in which he proposed the idea of using questions in this way as a catalyst for learning (he calls this Catalytic Questioning). Full copies of this paper are available from Steve on request
I have been using peer assessment with my current first year classes this term along these lines, trying to help them learn how to construct higher order questions which they then enter into Turning Point slides. The reaction when one group’s questions come up for voting is evidence of how engaging this type of activity can be, and again, the intention is to develop learning and recall which is deeper and long-lasting and promotes understanding rather than just shallow memorising of facts which may be quickly forgotten once a topic test has been taken.
Together with the continuing work on the ‘Will the lights stay on - Using ICT/GLOW to raise attainment’ project ( More on phase 2 of this in September with some quite significant findings which we’re just working on at the moment) as well as the ‘BrainBoosters’ games-based learning project report and paper (here and here) the next school year is shaping up to be one very much focussed on using classroom pedagogies to raise attainment and achievement across both primary and secondary sectors and the application of cutting edge research and innovative practice to the everyday learning and teaching in our classrooms.
In the feeding-frenzy that is GLOW and A Curriculum for Excellence at the moment, it’s sometimes all too easy to forget that any classroom approach to learning or set of tools to deliver such approaches must be founded on the rock of well researched and thought out pedagogical theory as well as existing good practice. I hope that my work over the coming year can contribute to this process as well as impacting upon achievement in my own school.
A week on the stump…
Posted by: mimanifesto on: May 17, 2009
………..Pushing GLOW and ICT across the curriculum.
I seem to have spent most of the last week involved in staff training and development. As GLOW gathers pace, colleagues are taking advantage of examination study leave to get to grips with their own development. Six colleagues are hoping to attend the various subject ‘Building Communities’ events run by RM/LTS @ Stirling management centre over the next few months. These events look to be very interesting and based, as they are, on classroom practice, should be a very useful professional development opportunity for all involved. The Stirling event I attended over a year ago now was certainly incredibly useful for my own practice development. The training and facilitation expertise of the national teams from both RM and LTS never fails to help make events such as these a huge success, inspiring delegates to go back to their schools, get cracking with GLOW and build up their own PLN’s to help their own future practice and networking skills.
Of course, such events are also important to the national team as it perhaps gives them a chance to work with folk who are trying to use GLOW in their classrooms day in day out. Useful for a national team to absorb current hands-on experience of using GLOW regularly in a classroom as a part of everyday practice with students, (as opposed to training others to use GLOW) with all the challenges and potential that this entails. Whilst a major function of the LTS/RM team is the training to facilitate the LA roll-outs, extending the practice of recent ‘trainees’ is becoming more and more important in my view as the end of the beginning of GLOW (according to Laurie O’Donnell) hoves into view, and this perhaps would benefit significantly from the presence of experienced classroom GLOW practitioners. The review of the literature and research on the issue of adoption of ICT into regular classroom practice which I did last year as a part of my GTCS-funded project certainly repeatedly threw up this issue of credibility and prior experience of the trainer. Maybe this is an issue of balance which could to be addressed by future recruitment programmes. It would be good to see at least some folk in the national team who have experience of using GLOW in their own classrooms to supplement this training and technical knowledge, particularly on the back of successful roll-outs and examples of excellent classroom practice by teachers from many areas of the country.
I also did a couple of workshops. The first was for student teachers. We had a virtual walk-through some useful ways of adopting ICT into secondary school subjects. Use of photo-sharing sites as lesson starters and revision, GLOW, social networking (thanks to the Twitteratti for contributing live on the morning , by the way). I love doing these sessions each term for our visiting students – the passion for teaching is so fresh and we usually end up turning an hour into two or even more as the questions lead to more ideas and examples of good practice. I always find myself learning so much from working with the student teachers as they talk about their experiences of life, ICT and practice in different schools they’ve visited as a part of their courses of study.
The second was a workshop for Biology teachers, organised by the development team from my own LA. This had a group of Biology teachers from different schools in the authority come together for an afternoon to explore how GLOW might be useful to them in their own schools departments and faculties. We’ve set up an authority GLOW group and plan to have regular get-together of some sort to move this project forward into becoming a real community of practice, sharing expertise, advice, and a move in the right direction in sharing resources between schools and colleagues. Huge potential for development work, saving time and duplication of resources, and CPD, both subject-specific and general. A really great example of LA advisory service colleagues targeting and organising appropriate training activity for specific user-groups and bringing in focussed classroom practitioner experience to help when necessary, to seed future training and development, building capacity and knowledge transfer within the LA. In time, I’m sure this model could be extended to other subject areas…
Quite a few events coming up over the next month or so…both professional and personal so I’m not sure how much more writing I will be able to do. One thing stands out though, and that’s the Education 2020 unconference on Islay in June. I’m really looking forward to this – it’s the first part of my CPD programme for 2009/10 and it will be really great to put faces to the names and conversations we so often have through web 2.0 and catch up with those who I see far too rarely.
A beautiful place which I’ve always wanted to see as well. I think it’s testament to the high regard in which Ian and Andy and Islay HS are held nationally that nearly 50 folk are making the journey to Islay on June 12th….
Student teacher seminar links
Posted by: mimanifesto on: May 11, 2009
School Science Summit
Posted by: mimanifesto on: May 6, 2009
I was invited to take part in the Scottish Government School Science Summit earlier this week. Thought-provoking questions, some great discussions, and very good to see all stakeholders engaging in the debate on a change agenda for science. Interesting speech from Fiona Hyslop and some great stuff from Jack Jackson. And great to network, and catch up with some old friends
Check the LTS blog for a fuller precis…
http://ltsblogs.org.uk/glowscotland/2009/05/05/schools-science-summit-2009/
One thing did make me think a little though. When Sir Andrew Cubie showed the ‘Wordle’ pictures based on the discussions we had around the three ‘Big Issues’ up for debate on Tuesday, I was very surprised and not a little disappointed, I have to say, to notice what I believe to be a glaring omission on each of the three…
Have a look and see if you spot it as well…
1. CPD
2. Pupil’s learning
3. Teacher training
Whilst you might expect to see the word ‘Teacher/s’ writ fairly large, I’m disappointed at the almost total lack of what I consider should have been the biggest word in all three…
Over to you…
Assessment shift for the 21st century
Posted by: mimanifesto on: April 22, 2009
This is a big topic of debate at the moment. On both the Education 2020 and ACfE wiki’sthere is some very reasoned and cogent argument about the construction of both new models and new concepts for assessment. I think the form that this takes is vital to the success, not only of ACfE, but also to the education system we build for this new information age. The assessment we define will play a big part in shaping the change agenda. I’ve spoken at conferences about this change agenda on a number of occasions and draw very much on the work of Charles Leadbeater and Stephen Heppell to set the scene. I find this slide from Stephen particularly helpful in directing my own thinking on this, as, to me, it suggests a shift away from 19/20th century models of knowledge transmission (teaching) on the left of the slide towards a much more learner-centred approach shown on the right.
Of course, this is representative of a general cultural shift in society(patient centred medicine, the modus operandi of today’s health care system is another example) perhaps reflecting the shift from a strict hierarchical system where information and knowledge were the preserve of the privileged few to today’s more egalitarian environment where nothing is really more than a few clicks away. Paulo Freire in his seminal work The Pedagogy of the Oppressed made this point when he wrote about dialogue and communication leading to real education. Perhaps Freire could not have predicted the immense paradigm shift we have seen over the past ten years or so as the world has embraced the digital age, and the effect this has had not only on the way we all communicate but on how much communication we do compared to just a few short years ago. And with this in mind, it follows that the purpose of education has to change also to one which equips everyone, not just school pupils, with the skills to search for and handle information appropriate to our individual and collective needs. How we assess the efficacy of this education will determine, I think, the shape of society for many years to come as the culture of assessment, for good or ill, pervades any education system or approach both directly and indirectly.
I’ve been firmly of the opinion that this needs to be school-based, at least in compulsory education. I even wrote about this (based on a study visit to Finland last year) in TESS. Discussion, debate, and reading over the course of the past year or so has better informed my own viewpoint, and I do agree with both Joe Wilson and Gordon Brown that the impetus for change has to come from the bottom up. Teachers in schools do need to be convinced, sold on, persuaded, etc etc that this shift away from structured exams and rushed courses is a good, even desirable thing. This takes people out of the comfort zones of the arrangements document dominated world which we perhaps have inhabited for far too long and it’s not going to be an easy shift to make.
Maybe there’s a sort of halfway house then ? Could we structure exams to test content in subjects which are based on skills of information and knowledge retrieval, analysis and evaluation of this information, and the coherence and relevance of its use in relation to the subject being examined? These might be open-book tests where laptops/net books, texts and even mobile phones and Twitter could be used perhaps. These are, after all, the ways in which we access information in everyday life. Could not examinations reflect this ? Yes, this would need work on a set of course arrangements documents with more emphasis on sources of information and search and analysis skills, as well as careful restructuring of questions, but the SQA are ideally placed to undertake these reforms in conjunction with colleagues nationwide.
A move towards e-assessment is going to have to look at innovative ways of demonstrating the 21st century skills. This will maybe involve our students doing such things as hosting on-line or discussion forums, maintaining a web-log, managing a collaborative Wiki, filming and editing a video or scripting and recording a series of podcasts, recording interviews, creating animated storyboards, organising a web-conference, and maintaining an on-line e-portfolio containing referencing and links as well as evidence of learning. The Random Activity Generator created by the amazing and inspirational John Davitt is an excellent and creative way of assessing students which I’m using more and more in Biology and Science. And yes, again, the exam body would be ideally placed to provide guidance to schools on assessing this work and exemplars of good practice. The portfolio of evidence if maintained on-line is ideal for moderation, suggestions and advice, creates a progression through assessment tasks and more to the point, demonstrates real contextual learning rather than good memory as the current exams are slanted towards by their very nature.
It’s going to need a collective will to achieve this, all or in part, and it won’t be an overnight happening. Teachers and schools as well as learners need to be convinced of the merits and the fairness of the changes. Issues of inclusion need to be addressed, but surely the terror and inappropriateness the annual examination system holds for many (including those with special educational needs) is a good starting point.
The change agents in this process have to be educators who believe in the changes, and who have made them work in classrooms up and down the country. They need to be able to get out and about to work with colleagues demonstrating the benefits of the changes and the whole continuous and e-assessment ideas/exemplars.
This approach could work. Small islands of excellence around the country would soon become continents of good practice. Peter Gabriel put it very well in the words to his song about Steven Biko. He wrote…
You can blow out a candle
But you can’t blow out a fire
Once the flames begin to catch
The wind will blow it higher
Lots of candles of course, soon make a fire.
The song finishes with another message very apt for this issue…
And the eyes of the world are
watching now….
Mass communication in the digital age means that the eyes of the world are indeed watching. This offers unparalleled opportunity to engage with stakeholders more easily and more often than ever before. Scotland can be a world leader in 21st century assessment given the collective willpower and actions of those who are committed to reforming education to make it fit for purpose for a modern and dynamic changing society.
Percy comes to Cathkin Nursery…an update
Posted by: mimanifesto on: April 17, 2009
- In: GLOW
- Leave a Comment
The recent GLOW meet of Percy the Puffin’s homecoming storytelling which our community nursery was involved in has had some good local press coverage..here is the link
The original blog post is at….
http://mimanifesto.wordpress.com/2009/03/21/percy-comes-to-cathkin-nursery/
A great first for our nursery- and a great introduction to GLOW for the children.
Subject specialism and ACfE
Posted by: mimanifesto on: April 17, 2009
A few weeks ago, TESS published an article by Prof. Lindsay Paterson of Edinburgh University in which he argued that one of the main threats to ACfE was a lack of subject specialist knowledge in secondary schools.
This struck a rather dissonant chord with me, I have to say. I blogged about this a few months ago and it’s clear from this post that I disagree with Prof Paterson. As a classroom teacher I have come to conclude that a very real threat to the success of ACfE is this continuation of compartmentalised knowledge transmission that is attempted day in day out in most of our secondary schools, where departments jealously guard their perceived specialist status. As Sir Ken Robinson puts it so well, we still have this hierarchy based on subjects where the big three of English, Maths and Science dominate (depending on the make up of the SMT and the force of personality of each particular PT) followed by the social subjects and PE, with the creative and aesthetic subjects usually at the bottom of the hierarchy. ACfE is, to me, anyway, all about changing the way we work so that the old model based on teaching is replaced by one which focuses on learning. For this to happen, the traditional hierarchy needs to be flattened out so that all subject areas interact, perhaps as ‘themes’. Darren Frearson, from Djanogly city academy, Nottingham takes such an approach. he says…
“We’ve abolished the year 7 curriculum and gone for a thematic approach, where the students work in four pods, studying four rich tasks — an approach we have taken from Queensland. The tasks are British national identity, buildings and structures, performance and science and ethics. The students make decisions about when to use devices; for example, for British national identity, some put together a video, some use movie clips, or posters, blogs or pod casts”
This type of holistic approach doesn’t have to stop in S1. With some vision, good communication and willpower, it could continue through to S3…It’s ACfE in action and needs good teachers to facilitate the learning. Teachers rather than subject specialists.
Whilst there is probably much in what Paterson says about the need for more training for primary school colleagues in science teaching, I think he is way out of touch with the situation in the secondary sector. TESS have today published a letter from me which sets out my own take on this…
http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6012025
I think this is one of the many important issues which are acting as an undertow to the free-flow of ACfE, and a dangerous undertow at that. Assessment is another such issue. More on that one in my next post…
Johnny Bunko and Mark’s Gospel…
Posted by: mimanifesto on: April 16, 2009
It’s often said that ‘what goes around comes around’. I think this was bought home to me this week after the Easter Sunday Eucharist service sermon, preached in Glasgow’s Episcopal cathedral by the Provost, Kelvin Holdsworth. In his sermon, he talked about how Mark’s gospel just sort of ends – no real revelation, message or grand plan. It just peters out with a man telling Mary that Jesus had gone ahead to Galilee and that he would see the disciples there…
There you will see him, just as he told you Mark says.
The jist of the sermon was, I think, that faith is enough. Just to go on and see what happens, there being no need for some big master plan or dramatic revelation. Although others have tried to add a better ending to Mark’s Gospel, biblical scholars generally tend to agree that Mark’s really does finish in this way. Just follow your faith and your beliefs…
And when I was thinking about this message, during the choir singing the beautiful and hauntingly piercing Agnus Dei from Schubert’s setting of the mass in G (which I’ve not sung for many years) it suddenly struck me that this is of course, lesson one from Dan Pink’s Adventures of Johnny Bunko. There is no plan, says Diana….talking about doing things for instrumental (the plan) or fundamental (valuable) reasons. Fundamental, because you enjoy things, are good at them, and they have value, no matter where or what they might lead you to….And this was the message, I think, from Sunday’s Easter sermon. Believe, have faith, and that’s enough to make good stuff happen.
Incidentally, the Provost usually podcasts, video’s and pdf’s his sermons. Just follow the link (his name) above if you’re interested, I think it’s well worth a listen. The music from the service was outstanding, as always at St Mary’s.
I’m sure Dan Pink didn’t link the two as I appear to have done when he wrote JB….but then again, you never know. What goes around comes around…..
Think the unthinkable – what if ?
Posted by: mimanifesto on: April 10, 2009
How often in education (or the public sector as a whole for that matter) is planning a matter of one issue=one solution via one distinct journey?
I’ve stood on the sidelines and watched with a curious interest so many school, authority and national education initiatives, projects, systems and policy changes take place, with varying degrees of success or failure. As an ex project manager (I worked in the retail and property sectors) I often wonder why these change projects are managed by people with a background predominantly in teaching or education and often with no management training. This is never more apparent than in interviews when experience outside of education counts for little or nothing when set against time in a classroom or already being in the job in some form or other. Why is it that when, say, an establishment or organisation needs to make an appointment involving extensive change and project management would they not look for experience of those environments from the successful candidate? perhaps because of a complete lack of any experience (and perspective) outside of the education sector on the part of the ‘establishment’ management itself maybe…Is this not going to lead to a very introspective, inwardly focused and even nepotistic management structure and process?
Now, we live in a fast moving and ever changing environment where the conference presentations from the change guru’s tell us that today’s school children will be doing jobs which don’t exist at the moment. This may be true, and if so, surely education needs to be positioning itself for the inevitable changes which will need to take place. I’m not just talking about the curriculum and the way we teach (ACfE and GLOW are a start but may be hamstrung by a dismal failure by national government to properly resource either) but in the way current education management structures plan for future change…
When Alexander Bell invented the telephone, he took his idea to Western Electric, who turned him down. They considered that their business was in the telegraph. perhaps if they had tried to look a little forward into the future they might have envisaged a scenario involving a change in the way people communicated over distances, and they might still have been in existence competing with the current digital communications companies. Scenario planning should also be a major part of current education management structures, as assuming one future and planning towards this can no longer be regarded as adequate in this day and age as the pace of change accelerates. We need to try and look forward far enough into the future so that we don’t fall into the trap of simply extrapolating from where we are today, and so that solutions are free from vested interests and empire-building (the assumption being that planners won’t be in their current posts that far into the future) and avoid simply formulating ‘good’ and ‘bad’ or ‘one-off’ scenarios. Outsiders should be brought into this process to provide a little perspective which is not linked to an organisation’s inevitable internal politics.
The process of scenario planning should include:
- a review of the nature of the current environment, auditing influences and identifying change drivers and agents. This might lead to possible future scenario situations.
- An analysis of resources which currently exist (including a skills audit involving all staff).This might also examine the capability of an organisation or establishment to cope with change, including strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. A TROPICS/PEST test could be used to assist this part of the process.
- Stakeholders with involvement or influence need to be considered within an overall cultural context which examines both internal and external values and assumptions.
-Evaluation of options for suitability, feasibility and acceptability to all stakeholders internal and external to the organisation/establishment. Force-field analysis could be useful in helping to evaluate thinking here.
- Finally, action planning for the identified scenarios needs to be undertaken which should then become an integral and embedded feature of an organisation’s culture so that the whole process of scenario planning becomes a feature of strategic planning.
Perhaps if this had been a feature of the GLOW project, then the current IPR/QA issue, which is threatening to have a serious impact on the national roll-out might not have arisen.
After all, if the big bad wolf had thought a little about scenarios involving the three little pigs, he might have realised that ignoring or even worse, blowing at brick walls was not a good way to achieve his particular ends or desired outcome….
Chapter 8 of A digital Fairy Tale – The end is in sight
Posted by: mimanifesto on: April 6, 2009
After a wee spell of writer’s block , and some extreme self-censorship, I’ve finally done chapter 8. You can find it on the education 2020 wiki as usual… As the Islay Unconference draws ever nearer, the fairytale is getting closer to reaching its explosive climax…
And the unconference is looking to be really good, something special, with a fabulously eclectic mix of undelegates from all corners of the educationosphere. If you’ve not confirmed your attendence, I think Ian and Andy would be greatful if you could do this ASAP. Booking accomodation should perhaps be done sooner rather than later, if you don’t want to be roughing it in the sand-dunes with a couple of cans of special brew and a roll and sausage !
Self-evaluation – a wider purpose ?
Posted by: mimanifesto on: April 4, 2009
There’s a lot of this going on all over the country at the moment. The new HMIE-lite inspection regime relies upon schools undertaking rigorous internal quality assurance where the concept of using self-evaluation to inform and enhance both the learning and teaching and just as importantly the life and ethos of a school. I blogged about this last year (here and here) and I’m pleased to say the on-line self evaluation tools that I saw at SLF08 and that I wrote about in these posts are now being introduced for use in my own school, and with great effect that’s already impacting on the process of school improvement.
But it’s important to remember that self-evaluation and indeed the quality indicators against which the process is benchmarked ask us to reflect on much more than just the formal curriculum. The informal curriculum of a school, its character and ethos, particularly how all young people and staff are nurtured and supported has to be an integral part of this examination process. This was particularly brought home to me with a bang recently when I was involved in school with an issue concerning equality and prejudice, in this case, homophobia. The gender equality toolkit for education staff produced by the Scottish government is a good starting place for a real examination of a school’s attitudes, policies and procedures for dealing with such issues. This document (Scottish Executive, 2007) indicates how schools might address these issues, and is based on the understanding that it is necessary to address homophobia alongside sexism to work effectively for gender equality and it does so by linking issues of equality and inclusion to the quality indicators against which we as a school are currently self-evaluating (it also does this against the four capacities of ACfE).
LTS produce a very helpful toolkit for schools all about handling incidents involving homophobia and homophobic bullying including some great lesson ideas (thanks to Bill Boyd at LTS for this). This was sent out to all schools in Scotland last year. I wonder how many actually have used it to examine just where they stand on this issue. To put it into some context, in a school with a roll of 1000 students, there may well be at least 80 students and staff who identify as gay or lesbian, as well as many many more who are perhaps struggling with this. Together, these two excellent resources provide schools with the means to really get to grips with equality issues, placing them firmly on the agenda of every part of a school’s daily life. Too often, this is brushed under the carpet with schools either failing or even worse, refusing to take any responsibility for the damage this kind of prejudice can do to peoples self-esteem and dignity at work. I remember doing a review of the curriculum for homophobia during my time on teaching practice whilst a student and being dismayed at the complete lack of focus on this issue. How much, I wonder, has this situation changed? I was moved and angry enough to write a piece in TESS at the time.
All of us working in schools have a clear and specific duty to challenge this kind of behaviour whenever it occurs and to be proactive in preventing any such occurrences through education and support. How many schools are so proactive ? not enough, I suspect. The government is quite clear on this, advising in the toolkit that..
Challenging homophobia and homophobic bullying is the responsibility of everyone who wants to be part of the school community in which all young people are supported and included. It is the responsibility of teachers and other members of school staff under the leadership of school senior management and the local authority.
These two documents provide a useful starting point and link directly to the self-evaluation process by clearly stating the links to the quality indicators. If ever here was an argument for self evaluation and quality assurance, this is it.
Young gay and lesbian pupils are between six and eleven times more likely to attempt suicide than their other classmates and a complete lack of support from many of their schools and teachers and homophobic bullying contributes to this appalling statistic. How long are we going to let this continue in Scottish schools ?
More on GLOW and organic growth
Posted by: mimanifesto on: March 30, 2009
The QA debate over GLOW learn has been interesting for me, and prompted some reflection as well as revisiting previous blog posts. One in particular appears to be very relevant to this topic, from just under a year ago
http://mimanifesto.wordpress.com/2008/06/14/glow-future-directions-just-keep-the-faith/
The comments are also very interesting from a variety of folk, including Andrew Brown and John Connell, both very much involved with GLOW although at different times…interesting that the same fears of top-down control were very much to the fore then as now..
Plus a change, plus c’est la meme chose
QA, IPR, and GLOW Learn
Posted by: mimanifesto on: March 28, 2009
Lots of discussion about the sharing of resources through Glow learn going on at the moment. I raised this during a twitter conversation a couple of weeks ago and I have real concerns about the possibility of a top-down LA-imposed QA process in many parts of the country on the work and resources a teacher might wish to share nationally through the tagging mechanism in Learn. To me and many others I’ve spoken to, one of the big attractions of using GLOW has been the potential to share resources and ending the cycle of continually reinventing the wheel in each different LA throughout the country. A lot of money could be saved here in development time and on commercial resources, the quality and relevance of which can be dubious.
Personally, I think this issue should have been spotted long before now. The application of some basic project management technique would have flagged up this matter of LA’s being a potential barrier to sharing. A simple SWOT analysis could have indicated that QA was a weakness of the use envisaged for Glow Learn and also a threat to it’s widespread take-up by teachers and schools. Perhaps if this had been carried out, the issue could have been dealt with by prior negotiation with the LA’s signed up to and using Glow, rather than becoming apparent after introduction and training
Bob Hill has started a wiki to host discussion and debate on the whole issue of IPR and the QA of resources created by teachers for use in Glow Learn for sharing nationally. I’d encourage participation in this debate as it’s bound to affect all of us working in Scottish schools at some point.
http://glow-qaandipr.wikispaces.com/
I will be posting my own thoughts over on the wiki soon. Somebody has really taken their eye off the ball on this one and it’s of real importance to the eventual success of Learn that the whole ethos of sharing is protected and encouraged.
The jigsaw classroom, Glow, Assessment and a Curriculum for Excellence in secondary schools…
Posted by: mimanifesto on: March 22, 2009
from www.jigsaw.org
This is an approach I’ve been using with one of my S5 classes following an Intermediate 2 course. Those of you familiar with our system in Scotland will be all too painfully aware of the 9 month ‘dash’ through the course to the May/June examination diet. It’s the same in the rest of the UK, and indeed the UK system as exported worldwide (a real living breathing relic of the British empire, our exam system). And of course it sits totally at odds with the aims of a Curriculum for Excellence, in my view, anyway. Anthony Seldon writing in today’s Times online agrees. He says..
The lifeblood of British schools has become choked by a regime that frogmarches children through exam after exam, leaving them bereft of the skills they need to get on in the world beyond the school gates. No other country in the world is as obsessed with the external exam as Britain
He makes many more good points – one which resonates with my own views again is where he says…
Teachers no longer teach history: they teach history GCSE. No longer biology but biology AS-level, and no longer French, but French A-level. Many teachers know only too well that the current mix of GCSEs and A-levels is profoundly inadequate but few have the freedom they need to do anything about it
So I’ve taken one unit of the Biology Int 2 course (it’s got three such units) and divided it up into four sub units. Each of these units has been given to a group of students (selected by me to mix up abilities and attitudes). These groups were then given the task of constructing a GLOW group and putting together four lessons on their given topic. The lessons consisted of a mixture of didactic teaching, work on ICT using multi-media through GLOW, practical activities (including dissections) and quizzes. They had to build in assessment tools as well as deliver the lessons to the rest of the class. It’s a version, I suppose, of the Aronson Jigsaw Classroom approach
It was really interesting to watch how they went about this task. Many were uncomfortable with the task. They are used to being spoon-fed through these courses, being given notes and handouts full of the facts and learning outcomes lifted from the arrangements documents (helpfully supplied by the SQA). What they are not used to is having to think, research, evaluate material, and then present this in an understandable and interesting format to their classmates. So many struggled and the results have been variable so far. But we are making progress and some have commented on having enjoyed the chance to look at an area of Biology in more detail. Their GLOW groups are full of very interesting material, animations, quizzes, games, video and audio bites, and yes, even the dreaded PowerPoint’s ! Many of their ‘lessons’ have been very well constructed. This class have only been using GLOW for a few months. My S4 class, who have been using it for their whole standard grade course would have taken to this task like ducks to water (and I will maybe try it with an Int 2 class next session when many of this class will be taking Biology at this level).
So where’s the link to ACfE ? I think its quite obvious where the links to the four capacities are with this so I’m not going to expand further, except to say this – shouldn’t we not be building assessment of this kind of project into the overall examination of the course. Surely the skills gained and demonstrated by the students on this project could count towards their eventual award? there is evidence on discussion boards, lesson plans, GLOW group content and video/podcast material and peer evaluations of each other’s contributions. And surely it’s much more of a true indication of their ability in the subject in the spirit of ACfE ? It’s just the kind of assessment which is the norm for students following the IB courses and it develops independence of thought as well as of learning.
I had some development officers from the LTS ACfE team in the classroom last week to observe this in practice as well as GLOW being used at this level in learning and teaching. I think they got a good flavour of how GLOW can be used as the lynchpin of this kind of learning as well as a repository for the many different evidence from formative assessment gathered by the students. GLOW has the potential to form part of an eventual e-portfolio for assessment of learning I think. This needs further consideration and may be another way of embedding ICT skills into learning across the curriculum.
And surely it’s evidence of the creative subversion I like to talk about in my use of GLOW; evidence of how it is possible to marry ACfE to the current curriculum. It does take somewhat of a leap of faith though – and perhaps one of the challenges in education today is how to encourage colleagues to make the jump, to not just play safe and teach to the exam, to make the move from the 20th into the 21st century where learning rather than teaching should be the modus operandi….
Recent Comments