Thinking About Professional Learning

If you were not able to join us live this evening,  the session recording is now available [here].  A summary of some of the thinking we shared, and some of the questions that arose from the discussion are captured below.  Please feel free to continue the conversation in the comments.

I’m not sure we answered any of the questions we used as provocations this evening, but the discussion was rich, and it led to more questions.

We began with this question:

“How does a shift occur from a mindset where learning is provided to a culture where learning is sought?”

This applies to students and teachers.  It’s a big shift!  But we are seeing a critical mass now believing that this must go forward.  Consider this link shared this evening: http://mltsfilm.org/

Or, consider this story about China telling its students to quit school: http://zhaolearning.com/2015/01/22/china-encourages-college-students-to-suspend-study-and-become-entrepreneurs-and-innovators/ .

Raghava KK spoke eloquently on this very topic last weekend at #Educon.

Agency, or ownership of learning, is a powerful concept when we consider both student and adult/educator learning.

We know that parents need to be involved in the shift.  They are products of a system built in the 1800’s, but it is the system they trust.  How do we bring them into the conversation of what education needs to look like in the year 2015?  How do we address their concerns about “preparation for high school” and “preparation for university”?

Is the inertia of higher education a brick wall preventing change? Is the focus on marks as the filter for higher education opportunity stifling learning?

What is the importance and impact of “tradition” on the work we are doing in trying to change to a culture of learning?

Student teachers exist in the higher education system.  How does this affect their thinking about what education can be?

We hear university professors complain that students don’t have the critical thinking skills they expect, yet the entry filter into university is a two digit number that may have nothing to do with critical thinking skills.

Will our elementary students in Ontario today be the drivers of change?  Will they stand up for quality opportunities for inquiry over memorization and test taking?  Will they resist a system that forces them to memorize answers instead of encouraging them to ask questions?

How much curiosity will they be able to retain?

How can we disrupt the thinking around professional learning.  Do we need a new name for PD days?  What might that look like?

PL (Professional Learning) Day? SD (Self-Directed) Day? PLC Day?

Do you believe that all educator professional learning should be directed by what knowledge and skills the data indicate that students need to succeed (i.e., that all professional learning is based on student learning needs)?

Can professional learning be based on the passions of the educator?

Are you working in an environment where your colleagues challenge your practice to make you think deeply about what you are doing?

Are we valuing professional capital (Fullan and Hargreaves) enough?  Sal Khan says that the nations who will be strong in the future are those who have nurtured innovation and creativity among their people, as we shift from and industrial to an information society (http://mltsfilm.org/).

Do you think that “Professional Development” creates a culture of learned helplessness? Have we taught educators to wait for someone to teach them?

Have we done the same for our students?

Is this the only PD really needed: “The opportunity to learn where to find something when we need to learn about it”?

If we want kids to explore and learn, why would we sit back and wait for someone to teach us?

Should schools create a culture of teacher-learner agency?

(From Wikipedia, “In the social sciences, agency is the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices”.)

We’d love to hear your thinking about this.  Feel free to comment, and please join us live next Tuesday at 8 p.m. EST for more thinking and learning on this topic.  More details will be posted here.

Advertisement

January 27, 2015: Thinking About Professional Learning

The OSSEMOOC Tuesday Night Open Mic session (January 27, 8 p.m. EST) will focus on some of the key conversations from Educon on the topic of Professional Learning.

Click  [here]  to join the meeting room anytime after 7:30.

If you check the #hackpd hashtag and the #Educon hashtag, you will see some of the rich conversations that happened this past weekend at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia.  We want to bring your thoughts on this topic into the conversation.

Here is our key question (originally posed by David Jakes and Kristin Swanson at Educon 2.7):

 “How does a shift occur from a mindset where learning is provided to a culture where learning is sought?”

 

To dig into this, we will focus mainly on the role of the educator.

 

Here are a few of the questions we are posing for this week:

 

1. What do well-designed learning experiences for adults look like?

 

2. Do you believe that all educator professional learning should be directed by what knowledge and skills the data indicate that students need to succeed (i.e., that all professional learning is based on student learning needs)?

 

3.  Should school and system leadership support teachers in the design of their own learning experiences?  If so, how can they do this?

4. Should schools create a culture of teacher-learner agency? (From Wikipedia, “In the social sciences, agency is the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices”.)

5. Do you think that “Professional Development” creates a culture of learned helplessness?

 

6. A conversation around this provocation:

 

 

We hope you will join in the synchronous conversation, and continue to add your thinking to the #hackpd , #ossemooc , and #ontedleaders conversations online. Resources:
1. Solving the Professional Learning Crisis
2. What Counts as Professional Learning?
3. Effective Professional Learning

 

We’re Back! Tuesday Evenings are for #OSSEMOOC in 2015!

Tuesday night online discussions are back!

We welcome all educator leaders to join in our synchronous (live) conversation each Tuesday evening at 8 p.m. EST to share their thoughts and experiences.

This week (January 20), we are talking about the #onewordONT choices for 2015 – both our personal choices and the common choices that have been shared.  Come and share your story, and hear what is influencing and motivating other educators in their practice.

Join the OSSEMOOC meeting room [here] any time after 7:30 EST.

Follow this blog (top left on this page) for email updates whenever there is a new posting.  “Join” OSSEMOOC  to be on our email and blog list.

What is Your #oneword for 2015?

Instead of a resolution, we asked what your one word would be for 2015.  What word will drive your professional practice this year?

We wondered what Ontario education leaders would answer.

Thanks to Julie Balen for collating the responses.  You can still tweet them or read them on twitter using #onewordONT