Changing the Culture for Teaching and Learning

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Changing the Culture for Teaching and Learning

• AASB
• October 21, 2007
• Cathy Gassenheimer

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Objectives

• To deepen understanding about what students need
  to be successful in today's and tomorrow's world
• To learn more about 21st Century Learning and why
  it is important to schools and to Alabama's
  future
• To explore and learn more about Professional
  Learning Communities and why they are essential
  to improved teaching and learning.

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A Look Into the Past...1940s

• In 1943, a social studies test was developed and
  administered to seven thousand college freshman
  nation-wide.
• Only 29 knew that St. Louis was located on the
  Mississippi.
• Only 6 knew the thirteen original states of the
  Union.
• Some thought Lincoln was the first president.

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A Look Into the Past...1950s

• A proficiency test given in 1951 to
  eighth-graders found that more than half could
  not calculate an 8 percent sales tax on an 8
  purchase.

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A Look Into the Past...1960s

• A 1961 report by the Council for Basic Education
  claimed that a third of ninth graders could only
  read at a second or third grade level.

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Who Is the Net Generation?
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Characteristics of Millenials

• Connectedness
• More Team-Oriented
• More Consensus Driven
• Preferred to be Part of a Pack

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Characteristics of Millenials

• Everything on Demand
• Need for Immediate Feedback...in Digestible and
  Entertaining Soundbites
• In the Workplace They Expect to Move Up Rapidly

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Characteristics of Millenials

• Free to be
• More Involved Parents
• Seeking Balance in Their Lives
• More Adaptable
• Require More Feedback
• Want to be Engaged

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Implications for Learning

• They have changed the dynamics of the
  classroom. Stephanie Dupaul, Director of
  Admissions for the Cox School of Business

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Implications for Learning

• They are very consensus-driven and supportive
  of each other, which creates harmony, but you do
  have to push them to speak out more often.
  -Stephanie Dupaul

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Implications for Learning

• They expect their classroom experience to be
  more fast paced, inclusive and discussion
  oriented.

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Implications for Learning

• Traditional lecture styles have become less
  desirable.

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Implications for Learning

• They can multi-task...they manage a case
  discussion and CNBC simultaneously, apparently
  able to use multiple channels in their brains.
  Stephanie Dupaul

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Education and the Economy

• Since WWII, worker productivity has grown more
  slowly in the U.S. than in other industrialized
  countries.
• National Center for Education
  Statistics, Education and the Economy
  An Indicators Report,
• (1997).

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Education and the Economy

• High Paying Jobs Will Continue to be
  Knowledge/Innovation Based
• 2004 Engineering Grads China-500,000
  India-200,000 US-70,000
• 2003 US granted patents Of top 10 companies
  receiving patents, only 3 US

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Education and the Economy

• The sky is not falling nothing horrible is
  going to happen today. The U.S. is still the
  leading engine for innovation in the world...But
  there is a quiet crisis in U.S. science and
  technology we have to wake up to. The U.S. today
  is in a truly global environment, and those
  competitor countries are not only wide awake,
  they are running a marathon while we are running
  sprints. If left unchecked, this could challenge
  our preeminence and capacity to innovate.
  Shirley Ann Jackson, President of Rensselaer
  Polytechnic Institute

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Education and the Economy

• Children need a broad education that is strong
  in math and science and equally strong in the
  liberal arts. In the current economy, innovation
  and synthesis are supremely important. "You never
  know where that inspiration is coming from,"
  Friedman said. Music, art and literature "are the
  rivers of inspiration, and we don't want them to
  dry up."Thomas Friedman, Author of The World Is
  Flat

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Workforce Readiness

• High School Graduates
• Over 40 of employers rate new entrants with a
  high school diploma as deficient in their
  overall preparation for entry-level jobs.
• Are They Really Ready to Work? (2006).

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Workforce Readiness

• College Graduates
• 65 of employers rate new entrants with a 4-year
  college degree as adequate in their overall
  preparation for entry-level jobs.
• Are They Really Ready to Work? (2006).

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Schools have to prepare every child...

• What does that mean?

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Applied Skills Needed for Todays Work Environment

• High School Graduates Need Skills In...
• Professionalism/Work Ethic
• Teamwork/Collaboration
• Oral Communications
• Ethics/Social Responsibility
• Critical Thinking/Problem Solving
• Written Communications
• Diversity
• Creativity/Innovation
• Lifelong Learning

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Public Opinion Strategies National Poll

• 88 of voters say they believe that schools can
  and should incorporate 21st century skills into
  the curriculum.
• 66 of voters say they believe students need more
  than just the basics of reading, writing, and
  math schools also need to incorporate a broader
  range of skills.
• 53 say they believe schools should place an
  equal emphasis on 21st century skills and basic
  skills.
• Public Opinion Strategies and Peter D. Hart
  Research Associates (2007)

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21st Century Skills Are Vitally Important

• Providing all students with 21st century
  skills and making education relevant to todays
  world are critical to closing both the
  achievement gap and the global competition gap.
• -Public Opinion Strategies and Peter D.
  Hart Research Associates (2007)

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Framework for 21st Century Learning
www.21stcenturyskills.org
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Grid for 21st Century Learning
Source enGauge 21st Century Skills
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Paradigm Shift!
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Shift 1

• Shift focus from TEACHING to LEARNING

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• School mission statements that promise learning
  for all have become a cliché. But when a school
  staff takes that statement literally when
  teachers view it as a pledge to ensure the
  success of each student rather than a politically
  correct hyperbole profound changes begin to
  take place.
• Rick DuFour, On Common Ground, pg. 32

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Shift 2

• Shift focus from INTENTIONS to RESULTS

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• Of course, this focus on continual improvements
  and results requires educators to change
  traditional practices and revise prevalent
  assumptions. Educators must begin to embrace data
  as a useful indicator of progress. They must stop
  disregarding or excusing unfavorable data and
  honestly confront the sometimes-brutal facts.
  They must stop using averages to analyze student
  performance and begin to focus on the success of
  each student.
• Rick DuFour, On Common Ground, pgs 41-42

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3 Levels of Curriculum (Marzano,2003)

• The Intended Curriculum what we intend for each
  student to learn
• The Implemented Curriculum what is actually
  taught
• The Attained Curriculum what students actually
  learn

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• A school that is truly committed to learning
  for all would take steps to address all three
  levels. Every teacher would be clear on what
  students are to learn. Procedures would be in
  place to guarantee that every student has access
  to that intended learning...Every students
  attainment of the intended outcomes would be
  carefully monitored.
• Rick DuFour, Whatever It Takes, pg. 25

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Shift 3

• Shift focus from ISOLATION to COLLABORATION

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• Despite compelling evidence indicating that
  working collaboratively represents best practice,
  teachers in many schools continue to work in
  isolation. Even in schools that endorse the idea
  of collaboration, the staffs willingness to
  collaborate often stops at the classroom door.
• Rick DuFour, On Common Ground, pg. 36

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Professional Learning Communities Four Critical
Questions

• What do we want each student to learn?
• How will we know when each student has learned
  it?
• How will we respond when students dont learn?
• How can we accelerate the learning for all
  students?

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PLCs Require Two Types of Change

• Structural Change Changing policies,
  procedures, programs and rules of a school.
• Cultural Change Changing the assumptions,
  beliefs, values, expectations, and habits that
  drive the day-to-day work of the school and shape
  how its people think, feel, and act.

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• Which Is Most Important?

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• Structural change that is not supported by
  cultural change will eventually be overwhelmed by
  the culture, for it is in the culture that an
  organization finds meaning and stability.
• -Phil Schlechty

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• Through New Eyes
• Putting a Professional Learning
• Community into Practice

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Part 1 Questions

• How does the school respond when it becomes
  apparent that the student is not succeeding?
• What message is the school sending to Johnny?
• How would you describe the schools culture? What
  are the assumptions, beliefs, expectations,
  habits and values that seem to drive its
  day-to-day work?

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Part 2 Questions

• What is the same in Part 1 and Part 2? What is
  different?
• How does the school respond when it becomes
  apparent that the student is not succeeding?
• What message is the school sending to Johnny?
• How would you describe the schools culture? What
  are the assumptions, beliefs, expectations,
  habits and values that seem to drive its
  day-to-day work?

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Table Discussion

• As Board Members, what should be our response to
  our schools when students are not succeeding?
• As Board Members, what can we do to help district
  and school leaders discuss these 4 critical
  questions
• What do we want each student to learn?
• How will we know when each student has learned
  it?
• How will we respond when students dont learn?
• How can we accelerate the learning for all
  students?

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• The true mission of a school is revealed by what
  people do, not by what they say. Therefore,
  educators committed to bringing their mission
  statements to life in their school are relentless
  in examining every practice, procedure and
  decision and in asking, Is this consistent with
  our mission of higher levels of learning for all
  students?
• On Common Ground

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• When educators learn to clarify their
  priorities, to assess the current reality of
  their situation, to work together and to build
  continuous improvements into the very fabric of
  their collective work, they create conditions for
  the ongoing learning and self-efficacy essential
  to solving whatever problems they confront.
• Learning By Doing