Prof Erica McWilliam Presentation @ IB

Erica McWilliam 25 th IB Annual Conference, Convention Centre, Melbourne, 16 March, 2011

sage on the stage
guide on the side
meddler in the middle

‘ A sage steers by the bright light of confusion and doubt’
Chuang Tzu – Taoist, 4AD

In three sentences or less, explain your educational role to others at your table.

Simple Complexity Complex Short-term Time Long-term

Complexity Time
Trainer
Build routines and habits
Drilling
Template applications
Simple rules
Repetition and memorisation
Testing basic knowledge and skills
Procedures manager
Curriculum supervision
Programme leadership
Credentialled and experienced
School-wide responsibilities

complexity Time
Crisis leader/manager
All other quadrants +
Good judgment
Quick action
Sound monitoring
Capacity to adapt
Innovative Leader
Creative generative thinker
Lead learner
Ruthlessly curious
Calculated risk-taking
Active Networker
Creative broker
Trainer
Build routines and habits
Drilling
Template applications
Simple rules
Repetition and memorisation
Testing basic knowledge and skills
Procedures manager
Curriculum supervision
Programme leadership
Credentialled and experienced
School-wide responsibilities

How has your professional work changed in this century? What is good or bad about these changes?

Learning and Performing: The Difference

Performance goals
winning positive judgment of their
competence and avoiding negative ones
Learning goals
a desire to acquire new skills, master new tasks or understand new things
Learning, performing or both?

judgment on achievement of performance goals is made by others
while
learning goals require meta-cognition & self-regulation
Learning or Performing ?

A 50/50 ratio of attention to learning and to performing is ideal

Too much performing, too little learning?

Do the schools in your group have the learning/performing balance right?

Everyone finds 3 individuals from 3 different countries and reports the main points of their discussion.
One-to-one reporting for 5 minutes, then change.

Need to talk about what learning is (it is not just preparing for exams!)
Can be done through goal setting with students and with staff (eg, in staff appraisal)
Students can and should monitor both sets of goals by editing and evaluating their own progress at key intervals
Can be available to parents and be the basis of parent-teacher meetings
A template for the student to customise is a useful start
Can be stored on-line as a word document

Silent singular reader Reading as a team sport Reading for enlightenment Reading for belonging Books Vooks Page-turning Key-tapping In-depth reading Power browsing Linear texts Linked fragments Single focus technologies Interruption technologies Oasis of bookish tranquillity Space of digital interactivity Correct answers Better questions

‘ Coverage’ culture
Content-driven
Test-oriented
Packaged in advance
Pencil and paper
Imitative routines
Credential is the prize
Learning culture
Capacity building
Personalised
Self-managed
Focus is on the journey
Virtual and ‘real’ have equal status
Open-ended
Creative

When was this picture taken?
1960s (1 finger)
1970s (2 fingers)
1980s (3 fingers)
1990s (4 fingers)
2000s (5 fingers)

Mandated Knowledge
certain
agreed
evidence-base strong
largely an individual process
social context largely irrelevant
Dynamic Knowledge
tentative
often contested
evidence-base is weak
collaborative in production
social context is relevant

Knowledge is an accumulation of known facts and concepts
Facts are best organised through disciplines
Instruction is the most promising strategy
Memory and imitation are useful
Answers are right or wrong
Test results measure success
Best evidence of learning = exam results

Taking play seriously

What is this idea good for?
What does it do and fail to do?
Does it have a future?
How could it be improved?
What is the value-add?

Discuss in your group (3 minutes):
Consider the idea of cutting the legs off a table.
What is this idea good for?
What does it do and fail to do?
Does it have a future?
How could it be improved?
What is the value-add?

High cognitive demand environment
Clarify and share explicit learning intentions
Obligatory engagement – no opting out, no ‘hands up’ except to question
Questions/statements that ‘cause’ thinking
Practise designing tests, not just doing them
Formative assessment to feed forward
Students work harder than teachers
Broad and deep learning tasks – e-portfolios

High cognitive demand environment
Clarify and share explicit learning intentions
Obligatory engagement – no opting out, no ‘hands up’ except to question
Questions/statements that ‘cause’ thinking
*Practise designing tests, not just doing them
*Formative assessment to feed forward
Students work harder than teachers
*Broad and deep learning tasks – e-portfolios

If the Answer is 27, what is the question?
Design one star question, then a two star question, then a three star question

an extended, transdisciplinary investigation of a topic of interest
student-led by negotiation with teacher - involves active engagement with peers and experts
unfolds as a series of responses to initial questions and the development of new questions prompted by that knowledge – evidence of a student’s capacity to develop new questions is as important as the capacity to respond
each response moves from the known to the unknown – begins with a brief statement of what the student already knows about the question without reference to any source (this statement is not assessed – it is a reference point for the learning that follows)
allows incorporation of mandated learning into larger whole.
a tightly edited documentation of the learning journey that demonstrates growing complexity of thought and skills of editorship – not a simply repository, nor a folio of internet downloads
amenable to assessment/evaluation.

Students are told they are Rangers for a National Park experiencing a dramatic increase in the population of hares that threatens the ecology of the park. They are asked to decide whether or not to introduce more lynx into the system, and if so, how many?
Students:
receive, respond to, and initiate simulated communications with other Rangers who are working on the project, and have specialised knowledge of the situation;
search the WWW to find relevant information on both hares and lynxes;
organise and analyse this information and evaluate its quality;
make predictions on the basis of this analysis, test their predictions with modeling software;
analyse the results, as represented in graphs, tables and charts.
integrate these findings with information from other resources and create a multimedia presentation in which they make and defend recommendations, and communicate these to others.
(from Quellmalz and Kosma, 2003)

What sort of pedagogy would best equip students for doing this 21 st century assessment task?

Less Rote Memorisation Mandated Curriculum Compliance Imitation Teacher-driven activity Control and command Competitive individualism More Problem-solving Learning to learn Co-creation Risk-taking Self-management Direction and support Dynamic team-based activity

‘ [The 21st century]…is a world in which comfort with ideas and abstractions is the passport to a good job, in which creativity and innovation are the keys to the good life, in which high levels of education – a very different kind of education than most of us have had – are going to be the only security there is.’
US National Center on Education and Economy Report 2007

Vision
Mental Models
Systemic Organisation
Behaviours
Events
( Bill Martin, 2007)

Vision
Mental Models
Systemic Organisation
____________________
Behaviours
Events
(Bill Martin, 2007)

What adjustments do you need to make to your attentional economy as a leader?
How might you go about doing this?

Final Questions and Comments

Prof Erica McWilliam Presentation @ IB

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