Category: Blog Posts

It seems with each episode of the Shift Your Paradigm podcast, we have the opportunity to see and explore new facets of learner-centered leadership. In Episode 12 and Episode 13, we had the opportunity to discuss learner-centered learning environments and learner-centered leadership with leaders and learners from the Portfolio School in New York City. We had the opportunity to learn along side co-founder and CEO, Babur Habib; Founding Lower School Director, Dr. Shira Liebowitz; Founding Director of Project Based Learning; Nancy Otero, Founding Director of Project Based Learning; and Lucas, a young learner at Portfolio School.

Key Competency

Regardless whether you are starting a new school design such as our guests or transforming a school-centered model to one that is learner-centered, there is a lot of work to do in terms of shifting mindsets. Learner-centered leaders exhibit characteristics of an entrepreneurial mindset. What are these qualities?

• The willingness to consistently stretch your learning and a willingness to adapt as you reflect upon and process your learning. This is the iteration process – constantly iterating.
• The ability to work collaboratively with others. No one person has all the knowledge and skills to transform an organization to learner-centered. Build the team, identify strengths and adapt to the needs of the work. Parents, students and teachers are important members of the transformation team.
• The openness to feedback and the mindset that feedback is not critical. It is designed to improve the work, find the best solution to challenges. Feedback from learners, teachers and other stakeholders is how we create the conditions for a better learner-centered learning environment.

Key Takeaways

Technology has a role to play in the transformation of education, but first and foremost transformation is about a powerful vision for learning – learning focused on passions and interest. A vision for powerful learning lets go of traditional notion of classrooms, disciplines, schedules, grades, and grade levels.

While we identify strengths in learners, it is equally important that we identify weaknesses. We need to raise the ceiling and the floor.  Portfolio school encourages learners to embrace challenges and find their passions. Learners develop passion projects and personal goals – based on interest and choice.

The team focused on transformation should be diverse in experiences, but unified in one area: passion for learner-centered education. Learning spaces and subject areas look different now. Portfolio school let go of the idea of classrooms. Instead they are taking cues from artist’s studios and other design centers.  In learner-centered environment there is a “radical” notion of interdisciplinary learning. Learners participate in 3 units per year. Each unit will last approximately 2-3 months. Learning is broken into two main blocks, AM and PM.  Embedded between the learning blocks is lunch, recess, and physical education.

For example, one current project relates to ecosystems and the domestication of plants and animals. A fish tank was donated to the school, and learners quickly became interested in filling the tank with fish.  Teachers designed a multi-disciplinary unit around this student interest. Once the unit commenced, the students determined they wanted to have a guinea pig in school. An artist in residence –  an expert in woodworking – assisted students in designing the habitat for the guinea pig. Students are writing about the process and their learning while preparing for their public exhibition.

The role of the teacher is one of co-learner in a learner-centered environment; teachers are no longer the keeper of the knowledge.  Even grades and assessment look different in this mixed-age (based on skill level, emotional maturity, or even a combination of both) grouping environment. Portfolios and exhibitions afford teachers and learners the opportunity to celebrate accomplishments and failures along the way. Showcasing their communication skills during public presentations (or exhibitions), learners take the stage to share their learning for an audience of 20-50 people.

Throughout the iterative process barriers exist and develop, but prototyping and reflection are two strategies to overcome barriers. The greatest barrier is translating educational research around learner-centered into formal learning environment. Team members and leaders working in this environment need to have an ability to stretch continuously and learn from iteration; an ability to work collaboratively w the team, students, and parents; and the ability to give and receive feedback.  This is where the heavy lifting occurs! 

Connections to Practice

In our context, more and more stakeholders in our organization are stretching themselves with new ideas and new thinking. Each year, this group grows. This has occurred due to formal professional learning opportunities, informal exposure to content/learning experiences, collegial inquiry in professional learning networks and teacher/leader supervision conversations. When will we hit a tipping point that transformation accelerates?

We have seen a shift in organizational conversations over the past several years: from technology being the dominant element to learning being the dominant element.  Years ago, when we began our 1:1 teaching and learning initiative, we focused on the technology and learned about the SAMR framework.  Our conversations no longer focus on the use of the technology; instead, they focus on the learning. From what experiences could our learners benefit?

We have spent a lot of time planning the vision. How much is too much? Babur shared, “Start as soon as possible.” Do we try too often to get it right on the first try and work too hard to limit the messiness? Are we emotionally attached to any one idea? Are we over-designing?

We do a good job of celebrating along the way. We believe people feel valued. This year’s Superpower focus will help this.  Stakeholders may nominate any staff member for demonstrating a superpower (collaboration, gap detection, risk-taking, energy, etc.)

Constant reflection has played a significant role in getting our organization to where it is.  Having colleagues to connect and reflect with has been critical to our iterative process.  How do we engage more people in the reflective process.

Questions Based on Our Context

• What can transformers learn from the start-up, entrepreneurial mindset?
• Portfolio school is a different context. What can we learn from transformation that occurs in contexts different than ours?
• How are we modeling continuous learning in our organization? What do others see from their formal leaders and peers?
• How has continuous learning propelled us to where we are at this moment in time?
• What are the qualities of entrepreneurial thinking, and do we exhibit them? How do will build this skillset in our younger learners?
• How open are we to feedback? How often does ego play into a feedback session? What are examples of feedback profiling us forward to a better solution?
• What traditional notion can we work on removing from our context this year? In the next year? In the next five years? What are the barriers? How do we overcome them?
• How do we do a better job of investing in the voices of learners, leaders, teachers and community members?
• How do we record reflections across the organization?  What structure could we develop to capture this important data along our journey?
• How could we do a better job of prototyping? If we did, how would our transformation process change?

Next Steps for Us

• Continue to focus on the learning conversation and weaving in ideas connected to technology. How can technology fuel the transformation?
• Develop mechanisms to engage the full gamut of stakeholders in this work, being open to feedback and using it to re-norm the vision. Remember, we cannot be wed to any single idea as it goes through iterations and development.
• Find areas we can do rapid prototyping.

In Episode 11, we had a conversation with Salem City School (VA) superintendent, Dr. Alan Seibert and learner, Alayna Johnson. We talked about the complexities of bringing a learner-centered mindset to a system at scale, how internships and externships break down the walls of learning, and how learner-centered environments put less focus on grades and fixed response assessments and more focus on learning.

Key Competency

Learner-centered leaders approach transformation as a design challenge. Leaders “honor the complexities of our profession.” Analyzing all of the pieces of the complex puzzle, they determine how they best fit together to meet the needs of all learners. To do this, leaders need to model a growth mindset so they can engage in conversations and experimentation, but also get out of the way.

“We don’t have a people problem. We do have a design problem. We have people with a heart for children….We need a system to unfold the unique human potential of every child.”  ~Alan Seibert

Key Takeaways

Transformation is a journey of scale, moving entire systems to transform. If the goal is to personalize the learning experience for every learner K-12 in each of the schools, we need to help our policymakers and industry leaders understand personalization and competency-based learning.

Internships and externships are a common thread in transformation, representing the “open-walled” element. For example, in the early childhood program, some students have the opportunity to support learners in their previously completed courses, and others can actually work in elementary school setting.

Curriculum can be organized around the 16 nationally-recognized career clusters to help the learning become authentic.  Students begin academic career planning in 6th grade, and they begin to build their program of study.  Because children are interested in more discrete learning opportunities, the school is developing smaller unit, online elective courses  (with eDynamics) like The Holocaust, Women’s Suffrage, etc.

Transformation is slow and messy.  The people in a transforming system have a growth mindset – leaders and learners. Leaders have to shift mindsets and engage resources. For example, Salem engaged leaders in the Chamber of Commerce.

Transformed systems give up age-old thinking around grading and standardized, fixed-response systems of assessment. There is more focus on learning and competency. To do this, we need to think critically about some of our practices.  Using formative assessment, providing feedback, and attacking power standards will assist in the movement of the system towards transformation. We need to rethink grading practices and adjust procedures and policies for varying content areas and grade levels. Instead of working on policies, we need to reshape grading philosophy. Salem even revisited its class rank policy. There is no longer class rank in Salem; instead they honor every distinguished scholar who earned a 4.0 GPA or higher.

Thinking about ideas as tiles in a mosaic, some will need to be popped in an out. Tiles might include technology, grading practices, professional learning communities, and project-based learning. Technology can help to systematize – improve efficiency and communication or personalize. For example, at the middle school, there is a math teacher who has redesigned instruction to include individualized computer lessons coupled with conferring and self-paced assessments.  Each learner sets the pace of the instruction.Project-based learning can help students gain voice and choice in their learning.

Connections to Practice

As a small school district, the size of many schools, we feel that we can transform the system, given the time and resources. Transforming an entire system is challenging since there are many more moving parts than in a classroom pocket of innovation.

We really connect with the idea of creating authentic learning opportunities within and beyond our school walls. We are thinking critically about how we can design these learning experiences. How can we create internship opportunities for our learners?  We know we will need to navigate some of the same barriers that Salem experienced – time and logistics.

Questions Based on Our Context

• What are the common challenges of changing an entire system and changing pockets of the system?
• What are reasonable expectations for the first year of an externship/internship program? How will we involve our learners in defining these opportunities?
• What are the particular challenges to internships/externships within our context?
• How do we better engage with our Chamber of Commerce?
• In what ways do we model a growth mindset? Are their fixed mindset practices we need to eliminate?
• In what areas do we continue to view education as the transmission of information? Where do we need to focus our efforts an enrollment?
• Why is transformation slow and messy? Have we identified explicit reasons or factors particular to our context? How can we address them?

Next Steps for Us

• Engage in conversations with leaders, learners, and teachers to explore the above questions.
• Have we clearly articulated the components of the system we need to transform? Which components, once shifted, will unlock other parts of the system to move us more rapidly toward an authentic learner-centered environment?
• Engage students in designing internship/externship programs. Also, tap into our Chamber of Commerce.

In Episode 10, we had a conversation with Mesa County School District 51 superintendent, Steve Schultz. We discussed engaging community to design the “what” and “why” of system transformation, the importance of providing the space and time for community to shift mindsets, and the value of “walking the talk.”

Key Competency

The idea of community ran as a thread through the conversation. Steve includes what we would traditionally call “stakeholders” in the community – students, teachers, leaders, board members and community representatives such as newspaper reporters and Chamber of Commerce leaders. Learner-centered leaders leading a system transformation, effectively engage community. In Mesa’s work over the past 18 months, community has been engaged to develop a model of proficiency-based learning that best serves the unique context and needs of Mesa County.

Key Takeaways

Mesa County was strategic in how it engaged community. Board members were engaged in the question, “What does personalized learning look like?”

Community members visited model programs around the country. After being inspired by what they saw, Mesa County community members engaged in conversations about what it could look like in their own unique context. In a large system of 22,000 students, buildings have been given autonomy in terms of implementation and time.

Mesa County listens to the community to inform the change. This can be a challenge because everyone is an “expert” in the system by having merely processed through it. Encouraging others to suspend previous opinion about what school school be can be a challenge.

Transformation takes time and close attention to pacing. It cannot be forced. Leaders need to provide the time for community to struggle through the shifts in mindset required. Not everyone understands the detail, but people are asking constructive questions. The transformation is growing throughout the system through engagement and transparency.

Implementation of the vision is through demonstration schools across the system. Mesa County is hiring people with experience in the work and creating the infrastructure of tools necessary.  Mesa County has had to push back on aspects of the traditional system: organization of central office (learning to be a more agile and responsive organization). High school has been the most challenging. Grade levels will not be abandoned until the system is ready.

Although the demonstration schools are implementing specific components of the vision (piloting a LMS, etc), all stakeholders across the organization (and even community organizations) are focused on development and growth mindset through this process.

Leaders need to shift their practice: practice what you preach; realize there are many ways transformation can happen – be open to listening to others; developing partnerships in the community is necessary and a long-term investment; transformation requires courage.

Connections to Practice

We followed a similar process of developing a shared vision. We engaged multiple sets of stakeholders and are now working to shift mindsets as we implement the transformation. We have also realized that this takes time. We had hoped to spend 2016-17 building a common understanding of language, but now realize this was not enough time to engage everyone and to build the understanding.

We have begun to identify areas of the system that need to be challenged: grades at some levels, agency as ownership, and use of time. Additionally, we understand we need to enroll our stakeholders in conversations about what is possible, and why we need to shift our thinking.

Questions Based on Our Context

• How does what we have learned in the Pioneer Lab help us manage those of a dissimilar mindset?
• How can we look at community differently? What can we do when engagement and commitment is low?
• How do we help our board understand the distinctions of personalized learning?
• What are the behaviors/competencies we need to articulate for each grade span/level? When is appropriate to begin this work?
• What structures of “school” will we need to re-evaluate and change for better implementation? Are there areas that need support but don’t currently have enough?
• As leaders, what personal areas of development can we focus on to fuel the transformation?

Next Steps for Us

• Help our leaders, teachers, board members and students understand the processes shared in the Pioneer Lab to engage community.
• Make engaging students in the conversation around transformation a greater priority this school year.
• Engage in conversations around behaviors/competencies for teachers, leaders and learners.

In Episode 9, we had a conversation about developing a positive student-centered learning environment with Dr. Cederick Ellis, Superintendent in the McComb School District in McComb, MS.

Key Competency

McComb School District “empowers students to change the world.”  Most of all , leaders in a learner-centered environment need to set an audacious vision. To work towards that vision, the leader needs to be invested, have a future-focused mindset for building something that cannot be seen at the moment, and plenty of patience.  Relationships with other leaders, teachers, students, and parents are critical in this journey. Learner-centered leaders need to rely on others and build passionate people around them to ensure everyone is on board for the journey to a learner-centered environment together.

Key Takeaways

McComb school district has an audacious vision and mission. The mission of the McComb School District is to become a premier, world-class school system where student success is inevitable and each student is cultivated to become a fierce competitor in a global society.

Learning spaces matter. Classrooms have been transformed into learning laboratories, and traditional grade levels have been eliminated. Each student has a personal learning plan. The teaching and learning environment also looks different. McComb has dynamic furniture so learners can feel comfortable and ready to learn where it is most appropriate. All students have a mobile device which is utilized to enhance instructional delivery.

What does a learner-centered environment look like at McCombs?  Student-centered teaching and learning is centered on 6 pillars. Students are grouped by readiness, assume ownership for their own learning, work at their own pace, show evidence of mastery, receive continuous feedback. In this model, teachers serve as teacher practitioners.

McComb knew the model they had was not working for students. The collective community wanted to personalize learning for every learner so that learning was more meaningful and authentic.

Learner-centered education affords McComb learners possibilities. Learners, or scholars as McComb calls them, can have more authentic opportunities to show what they know in various formats. Educators can provide importance to the students’ cognitive and non-cognitive for human behaviors. The scholars can develop an interest and motivation to learn.  This is more than differentiated instruction or blended learning. Learner-centered education also provides equity across the system – they system truly meeting the specific needs of all learners.

When transitioning to this learner-centered environment, the leadership has had to reflect and rethink some of its practices. Principals, or lead learners as McComb calls them, need to rethink how they allocate resources. The team has had to rethink how to administer professional development. Central office has needed to rethink how it serves the lead learners. That means the superintendent needs to meet with lead learners more and listen. All leaders need to reflect on what has been done and modify as needed.

Connections to Practice

Learners need to feel comfortable and safe in their learning environments. Some of our teachers have requested additional furniture to provide learners with some options. For example, some teachers requested standing desks. Our middle school staff spent a year researching and piloting a flexible learning space in order to better meet instructional needs.

We need to provide learners with opportunities for choice and voice, not only in what they learn, but how they learn it, and how they demonstrate their learning.

We have been thinking about developing our own lexicon.  McComb was very intentional about its vocabulary. The community is a community of learners. Teachers are teacher practitioners, and classrooms are learning labs. Using this vocabulary is important because it more accurately reflects the work and encourages people to shift their mindsets. The teacher practitioner needs to diagnose the needs of every scholar, and provide the proper prescription.

Many schools are using software which is designed to personalize learning. When selecting software, we need to be critical about what it does to enhance the teaching and learning. Does it provide for individualization? Does it differentiate for students? Does it personalize?  McComb uses Compass Learning to personalize learning for its scholars.

This process will take time and many iterations. We need to understand we will make mistakes, and we will improve as we move along this journey.  We need to be patient and engage our community in this meaningful process.

Questions Based on Our Context

• How often do our students have choice in content and/or path for their learning? Choice in showing mastery of learning?
• How could we group by readiness? Where do we already use that practice?
• How often do our students receive feedback? What does that feedback look like, sound like, and feel like?
• Is our system meeting the needs of all of our learners?
• How do we do a better job supporting our lead learners (principals)?
• How are we future-focused in describing/communicating our vision?

Next Steps for Us

• Look at aspects of the organization through the lens of learner agency. And ask the questions outlined above.
• Intentionally schedule time with learners to talk about the above questions.
• Talk to principals about the supports they need. Add an agenda item to our monthly principal meetings.
• Develop our own lexicon.

 

In Episode 8, we had a conversation with Dr. Suzanne Freeman, Superintendent of Pike Road Schools, and Ryan Kendall, a K-6 principal. We discussed developing a culture of learning grounded in the community’s vision.

Key Competency

Leaders create the conditions for those in the system to learn. They do this though a strong understanding of a vision, mission and beliefs about learning as articulated by the community.

In order to develop this vision as well as a shared understanding, leaders need to be open-minded and anchored in the school’s beliefs. What is right for the community? What is best for our students? Who are our students? Leaders need to ask, “Who is my ‘who’?  How do I design experiences that are both intellectual and for the heart?”

Leaders need to realize each other’s talents and leverage those talents for the greater good. Through openness and humility, the leader needs to engage in candid conversation to figure out what is best for students.

Key Takeaways

Leaders must engage the community when developing a vision and mission. Pike Road conducted eleven meetings with community members. During the meetings, leadership worked to help community members understand the possibilities. They asked, “What if…” questions. “What if your child experienced….?”  Teachers and leaders were also brought into the conversation, and they all worked together to breathe life into the vision.

Language matters. Pike Road Schools has changed its language to reflect a more learner-centered environment. Teachers are now lead learners, and classrooms are learning communities.

The school is developing lifelong learners where children own their learning. Students are encouraged to pursue their interests and passions and learn beyond their school community. A group of 6th grade students used donated sewing machines and learned how to sew. They used the sewing machines to make Bags of Love. Kindergarteners made homemade lip balm while they studied bees, and the lip balm was added to the Bags of Love.  The students then took the bags of love to a homeless shelter and helped serve a meal. Facebook posts and phone calls from parents to the school convey enthusiasm and excitement for these passion projects.

Learner-centered leaders acknowledge when things aren’t going so well. Dr. Freeman and Mr. Kendall shared that last year many classrooms were more teacher-driven, and this year there is more student voice. They have conversations about failure – everyone in the system is a learner. Leaders acknowledge that everyone has something to contribute and value. They celebrate both “mountaintop moments” – Wow! This is great! – and “valley moments” – This is messy, and not going right! Leaders have to keep each other going when things get tough through those valley moments. It’s not about being right – it’s about getting it right.

Conversations are characterized by candor with empathy.  While these conversations are often difficult, they are needed to determine what to do for the learners.

Connections to Practice

• We are progressing along this journey. We need to affirm our successes and embrace our failures.
• Visioning needs to occur with the full community (leaders, teachers, learners, parents, community members). We all need to be clear about direction and ensure everyone understands and embraces the beliefs.
• Sometimes we have to go slow to go fast. We spent a year developing a vision, and a year building a shared understanding.  We now know we need another year to continue to build a shared understanding.
•  While we know our learners, we need to better understand them so we can design experiences which will engage students’ hearts and minds. Learning more about personalized learning and understanding our learners will help us design more powerful experiences for our learners.

Questions Based on Our Context

• How often do our parents get excited enough to call the school or post about their child’s learning on Facebook/social media?
• Do our teachers and learners discuss failure?
• What is our language? How do we want to re-shape our language about teaching and learning?
• Do we have learners who are “obsessed” with their learning?
• How do we work together to find opportunities for our students?
• Are we planning or designing?

Next Steps for Us

• Engage in conversations about agency, student choice, and student voice with the leadership team.
• During monthly principal meetings, participate in walk-throughs where the conversation centers on the learning beliefs and the concept of agency.
• Engage in conversations about failure and progress with teachers, leaders and learners.
• Encourage principals to talk to students during observations. “What are you learning?”

 

In Episode 7, we had a conversation with Carrie Bakken, Program Coordinator and teacher at Avalon School in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Riley Molitor an 11th grader at Avalon. Avalon School is a project-based learning environment.

Key Competency

Avalon School develops learner agency in both learners and teachers. Carrie said, “All students have these really incredible gifts in some areas, and things they are working on in others. Everybody is on their own plan.”  Learners are encouraged to learn about themselves as learners, and then design the work they want to complete throughout their education. While learners complete this work, teachers are learning alongside them.

Key Takeaways

Avalon engages learners in the teaching and learning process from start to finish. At Avalon, all of the work is tailored to the students’ interests by the students, demonstrating a commitment to learner agency. Students examine standards and determine how they will meet them. For example, students might design a project, take a class, or read a book. In our conversation, Riley shared some of the projects she developed. “Everybody’s experience is unique at Avalon,.” she shared.  Learners identify the standards, set goals for the standards, and evaluate their work. In addition, learners write a reflective narrative about their work and the process they engaged in to complete it. Through the completion of these projects, Riley learned about herself as a learner. She learned she is more of a “doing” learner.

Sometimes the learners are actually harder when assessing themselves than when the teachers lead the assessment process. Riley identified that self-assessment can be “kind of difficult”.  While some of the components of the assessment are what we might typically expect (on time, readable, proper grammar, etc), others require more thought and consideration about what the student has completed and how he/she has completed it. Learners also reflect on the question, “How will this impact your next project?”

Different from many other learning environments, Avalon is run collaboratively. There is no principal, and teachers’ roles evolve over time. The teachers are operating with agency and autonomy as they are both leaders and learners. Learners also have the autonomy to create programs, clubs, and internships. Through Avalon Congress, the learners develop rules for the school and operate as the legislative branch; the teachers are the executive branch; and the peer mediators are the judicial branch. The community shares the leadership across the organization.

Other competencies learner-centered learners need: (1) ability to collaborate with learners and teachers;, (2) curiosity, (3) being able to ask for and accept help, (4) manage time and distraction; (5) talk to community members and network outside the Avalon School.

It is expected teachers will  learn from the school’s learners. For example, Carrie indicated as a history teacher, she learned how to put together a computer! It is important that teachers be comfortable with not knowing everything, and be willing to ask questions. Teacher retention at Avalon is 95%. Carrie attributes this to the fact that teachers always have the opportunity to learn something new!  

Avalon is aware that it needs to fit into the framework for meeting the expectations of higher education, and students do receive a transcript. Additionally, learners are graded and complete state-mandated standardized tests.  

Connections to Practice

• Every person in the organization is a learner in the learner-centered environment.  Teachers model this through their daily interactions with learners.
• This conversation shows that learners need to be involved in planning, implementing, and assessing their learning. Reflecting on the process of completing the work is as important as doing the work!
• A learner-centered environment creates relationships within and across the organization. In addition, learners need to develop the knowledge and skills to connect with community members. Through an advisory model, the Avalon teachers loop and advise learners for the years in which they attend the school. Working with the same learners each year helps teachers develop strong relationships with the learners and their families?  
• Teachers need to be empowered to create experiences for learners and differentiate.  Providing autonomy to teachers keeps teachers fresh and motivated to learn.
• Leadership needs to be shared between leaders, teachers, and learners. Creating structures for these opportunities develops a stronger learning community.

Questions Based on Our Context

• Do our teachers and leaders model the way as learners?
• What opportunities do our students have to network outside of school? Are they developing the skills to communicate and collaborate with community members?
• How do our students tailor projects to their passions?
• How do we engage student voice to the level of the Avalon Congress?
• How do we develop more agency in our teachers?  What knowledge, skills, and dispositions do our teachers need to develop?

Next Steps for Us

• Look at aspects of the organization through the lens of learner agency. And ask the questions outlined above.
• Identify strategies for engaging learner voice.
• Develop action plans to increase opportunities for real-world projects connected to learner passions.

In Episode 6, we had a conversation about competency-based learning with two leaders and a learner from Regional School Unit 2 (RSU 2) in Maine –  Bill Zima, Superintendent; Mark Tinkham, principal; Bryce Bragdon, learner.

Key Competency

In Episode 2, Allan Cohen describes transformation as a letting go of the past and creation of something entirely new -breaking from what has been done, not just improving it. In RSU 2, the leadership team has provided the space for teachers and learners to thrive in a competency-based system where diplomas are awarded based on proficiency. They’ve done this through a focus on building the mindsets and skillets of all stakeholders.

Bill suggests the role of leadership in this transformation: “My job is to set the right conditions in the right context. As superintendent, I’m trying to set conditions so the principals can work with the teachers to create what needs to happen inside the building.” Learner-centered leaders build mindsets and skillsets in ways that model the expectation for learning in the classroom. Bill later shared the “right conditions” include resources (budget, professional development time and structure) and mindset (supporting innovation and dialog, embracing a rigid philosophy but flexible thought).

Key Takeaways

Teachers and leaders in RSU 2 believe it is important to teach learners how to take advantage of a proficiency-based system. Learners are in contol of the pace of their learning – they can move faster or slower than their classmates. Learners have a tremendous amount of choice and voice. The capstone project was shared as an example of high quality learning in this competency-based system.

In RSU 2, all teachers and leaders are focused on cultivating hope in learners. Agency is defined as “the perceived ability of the individual based upon their capacity to shape their own future.” “Perceived ability” is the mindset. “Based upon their capacity,” is the skillset. RSU 2 believes in building both the mindset and skillset of every learner so they ultimately have the capacity (agency) to do whatever they hope to do. Students feel confident as learners because they have cultivated agency supported by strong mindsets and skillsets.

The biggest challenge for teachers is letting go of control. Teachers are no longer the sages on the stage, but rather facilitators, supporting students to build hope, deep thinking and agency connected to their passions.

RSU 2 supports teachers in shifting to the “letting go” mindset by providing proficiency-based professional development. Strong mentoring for teachers new to RSU 2 is also provided. Professional learning models learning throughout the system.

Another challenge shared by the leaders of RSU2 was shifting the mindset of parents. It’s important to meet parents where they are. Parent groups provide the opportunity to re-induct parents into the mindset. Parents begin to see proficiency-based learning as more constructive than the traditional model.

Connections to Practice

• Agency is such a keystone in transformation. Who owns the control? Once again, we hear from our friends at RSU 2 that giving up that control to the learner is one of the greatest challenges. We wonder how much agency we are giving to our learners and our principals.
• Many aspects of our professional development are proficiency-based. Certainly, they reflect the learning beliefs in many ways. Teachers and leaders provide feedback that supports this kind of design for professional learning.
• From a leadership perspective, we feel we model the kind of learning we want to see in the classroom – active, engaged.

Questions Based on Our Context

• How do we intentionally focus on agency as a key lever of transformation? What happens when learners and leaders resist agency? How do we overcome that?
• What are our mindsets?  How do we need to help build the mindset for powerful, deep learning experiences in teachers?
• How often do our teachers confer with individuals or small groups? Or is most of the instruction whole group?
• While our professional learning models good learning practices, does it provide the opportunity for learners to embrace agency? To what level are they ready to do so?  How does our professional learning build and re-shape mindsets?
• How do we create the conditions for more agency among our leaders?

Next Steps for Us

• Engage in conversations about agency with the leadership team.
• During monthly principal meetings, participate in walk-throughs where the conversation centers on the learning beliefs and the idea of agency. How does the conversation during the walk-throughs model and highlight the kinds of learning we would like to see in the classroom?
• Engage in conversations about agency and mindsets with teachers, leaders and learners.

In episode 5, we had a conversation on learner agency, real-world projects, community, impact, leadership and much more with leaders and learners from Iowa BIG. We spoke with Trace Pickering, Executive Director and co-creator of Iowa BIG, Shawn Cornally, lead teacher and co-creator at Iowa BIG, and Jemar Lee, a junior at the time of the podcast recording.

Key Competency

The thread that travelled through the entire conversation was that of learner agency. In fact, Trace describes its importance this way: “Learner agency is that secret ingredient, that secret sauce that unlocks the other four elements – competency, personalization, open-walled and socially-embedded.” Learner-centered leaders have a clear understanding of learner agency and the role it plays in shifting the paradigm from school-centered to learner-centered. Notice the “learner-centeredness” in these words used to describe learning at Iowa BIG: passion-driven projects, learning adapts to the learner, not driven by time, relentless about giving ownership to learners.

Key Takeaways

At the center of learning at Iowa BIG are projects tied to learner passions. Iowa BIG has strong connections to the community, and students have a pool of projects to pull from – more project opportunities than can actually be adopted by learners. (The school is located in an entrepreneurial/co-working space in Cedar Rapids, IA.) Jemar spoke of several projects connected to his passions of literature, US history, architecture and education.

Failures are not uncommon and expected as learners are learning. When encountering failure, learners pick themselves up, pivot and learn how to be better next time. If a project isn’t working for a learner (if it’s not a “Saturday project” – Would you get up and care about this project on a Saturday morning?), the learner will work with the advisor to find one that is more closely connected to a passion.

Why is learner agency so important? We paraphrase Shawn: Currently, students in school believe in their ability to act on their ideas 0% of the time and our ideas 100% of the time. Learners are being robbed of their agency in order to receive our content knowledge, much of which is useless to them. This needs to be reversed. The first step? Identify learner passions and interests.

Learners come to Iowa BIG with different ideas of agency. Some learners know they have it, and school hasn’t previously honored it. There are also learners who actively dislike or are afraid of agency. “It’s a really awkward feeling to have agency,” Shawn shared. Mentors at Iowa BIG struggle with students who are afraid of owning their own agency. There are several ways, systemically, that the school creates a culture of learner agency: (1) get rid of classical structures that “control” (i.e. grades, schedules, testing, traditional curriculum and standards); (2) alter language to minimize control structures – teacher becomes mentor; class becomes meeting time; lecture becomes seminar; (3) develop strong staff/student relationships and engage in 1:1 conversations with students about interests, passions, and projects; (4) create conditions for staff to experience agency so they know how to create conditions for learners to experience it.

The above are examples of how leaders at Iowa BIG are challenging assumptions about schools, rejecting those they can, and giving the freedom to those in the system to reimagine new assumptions. Some powerful questions learner-centered leaders ask: (1) What parts of the old system have merit? (2) What can they look like in a new learner-centered paradigm? (3) How do we rebuild meaningful structures around learner agency? These questions have a “design thinking” flavor to them. How would leaders, mentors and learners respond to these questions?

The toughest thing to let go of in a learner-centered environment is the belief the written curriculum is the only way learners achieve competency. “It’s arbitrary,” said Shawn. There is no one way that learners come to an understanding. Shawn shared, “Competency-based is not about focusing more on the standards. By not talking about standards, you unleash agency. All we care about is that they become passionate about a project.”

How does this work? Mentors have the standards in mind. When they see a connection to a learner’s project, proficiency is documented. Once learners understand how agency works, they are introduced to the appropriate standards. At the conclusion of every project, the mentor and learner hold a “wake” where standards are back-mapped.  After standards are backmapped, students are allocated credit towards their transcript.

Regarding college transcripts: These leaders believe this is largely a made-up barrier. They have spoken with some regional colleges who want self-actualized learners. The question focused on at Iowa BIG: How can we help learners develop a resume that represents their deeper learning?

Other competencies learner-centered leaders need: (1) Embrace a complex/adaptive perspective driven by a vision for learning. Practice. Refine. Adjust. (2) The default answer is “yes.” Leaders create the conditions for mentors and learners to exercise the power they already have. (3) Recognize that each learner has a purpose.

Connections to Practice

• This conversation shows that the process of change is not perfect. There are challenges along the way, nothing is perfect, and agency requires a lot of work.
• Learner agency applies to everyone across the entire organization, not just learners in the classroom but leaders and mentors as well.
• Focus on learner agency can be a high-leverage point for changing to a learner-centered school environment.
• Leadership needs to be collaborative. When challenges arise, we need to support each other and view ideas from multiple perspectives.

Questions Based on Our Context

• How are we creating the conditions to embrace ownership of learning – for older and younger learners alike? How do we identify passions and interests in our learners, mentors and leaders?
• What command/control structures are squashing agency (in learners, leaders and mentors)? (i.e. grades, schedules, testing, curriculum and standards)
• How are we as leaders creating space for learner agency for principals and mentors?
• How does the notion of language changes fit into the context of our organization?
• How would leaders, mentors and learners respond to these questions? (1) What parts of the old system have merit? (2) What can they look like in a new learner-centered paradigm? (3) How do we rebuild meaningful structures around learner agency?
• What is the relationship of agency and trust? Without accountability systems will people feel the system has no expectation and fall into a routine of producing low effort? If so, what does this say about culture? Is agency more work? How do leaders demand a high level of agency?
• How are we moving our mentors to let go of the notion that the written curriculum (or even the textbook) is the one and only way to achieve competency?
• Are our students doing “Saturday” projects? If not, are they able to “join another team?”
• How are we helping students develop “more than a transcript?”
• If we want learning to be more social and more open-walled, what mechanisms do we need to put in place to generate a pool of real-world, community-based projects?

Next Steps for Us

• Look at aspects of the organization through the lens of learner agency. And ask the above questions.
• Develop a dialog around changing vocabulary in the organization.
• Focus on creating the conditions for agency in school leaders for 2017-18.
• Develop action plans to increase opportunities for real-world projects connected to learner passions

 

In episodes 3 and 4, we had the opportunity to learn about learner-centered environments and leadership at Alamo Heights Independent School District in Alamo Heights, TX. We spoke with superintendent, Dr. Kevin Brown, and assistant superintendent, Dr. Frank Alfaro in Episode 3. In Episode 4, we spoke with Erick Castillon, a graduate of Alamo.

Key Competency

It was clear from our conversation with Kevin and Frank that learner-centered leaders engage the voice of the learner. We learned how Alamo Heights has created their Profile of a Learner and how students were involved extensively in this process. Learner-centered leaders treat learners as individuals, then design coursework that lays out a path to success aligned with the Profile. We heard this in Erick’s story.

Key Takeaways

Kevin and Frank spoke extensively on how they have focused on engagement. For quite a few years they have worked with the Schlecty Center to deepen their values around engagement. In order to design compelling learning environments where learners want to do the work, it’s important to understand the learners as individuals. This is done through learner panels and focus groups. Practicing close listening, qualitative data is gathered and used to design and redesign learning environments based on the individual needs and interests of learners.

This leadership stance goes beyond the classroom. Kevin and Frank shared that while initially the learner profile was focused on the classroom and listening to learners, they soon realized it applied to everyone in the organization. All stakeholders are valued as learners, engaged as learners and listened to as learners. This reminds us of an important component of design thinking – empathizing with the user. Design thinking is an important framework through which to deepen our understanding of learner-centered environments and leadership.

Along with gaining a deep understanding of stakeholders (learners) comes a flat organizational hierarchy. While there are formal titles, everyone is an individual with talents and strengths that can be tapped into when designing solutions to complex challenges. Everyone is a learner in the organization. Differences are valued as strengths.

Leaders in a learner-centered environment shape the conversations of the organization. At Alamo Heights, the conversation is focused on learning and the things they care about as communicated in the Profile of a Learner. Conversations around compliance occur (i.e. state accountability mechanisms), but they are overshadowed by conversations about learning and experiences for children.

Learner-centered leaders, through engaging stakeholders, have to learn to give up control to others. Building relationships requires vulnerability and an openness to letting ideas come from within the organization – this reinforces a culture of agency. Learner-centered leaders do not have all the answers.

At the classroom level, Erick’s story provides an example of engaged learning. Erick was successful in the rocketry program because it connected to his interests. He also shared that working on real-world projects was motivating, especially when he was expected to do most of the work of learning with support from his teacher as needed. The teacher provided the “what” for learning, but Erick was in control of the “how.” The classroom was a motivating and compelling environment for Erick because he needed to learn how to learn. That has served him well in two internships at NASA and in engineering coursework at the college level.

Time is used differently by learner-centered leaders. Kevin shared that leaders need to “get out where the game is being played.” This is a shift from traditional leadership paradigms where leaders spend much of the day in the office, behind a desk. Learner-centered leaders also make time to think and have enriching dialog around a vision for learning and how to translate that vision to reality. This often involves creating prototypes, gathering data and creating the next prototype rooted in the vision.

Connections to Our Practice

• Listening to stakeholders – We seek out formative and summative feedback from a variety of stakeholders in the form of focus groups, surveys, conversations in professional learning sessions, coffee and conversation meeting, etc.
• Our Profile of a Graduate has helped anchor our conversations around learning more frequently than before. Evidence of this is in the work with Leading #YourSalisbury.
• Our organizational hierarchy in Salisbury is flat. As Kevin and Frank were describing what this looks like in Alamo Heights, we were making connections to what ours looks like.
• We have also minimized the conversation outside of learning. While we complete tasks of compliance, we and our board do not hold them as the highest need. Those things that are valued most are indicated in our Profile of a Graduate.
• We use our time differently than school-centered leaders. We are frequently out of the office and in our schools. We also engage each other in enriching dialog around vision and how to best translate that into reality. We are also learners – connecting with like-minded colleagues through state/national organizations, reading and producting two podcasts.

Questions Based on Our Context

• How do we define enagagement? How do we use the engagement of learners to fuel change? How are our teachers, learners and students engaged?
• How do we use feedback from stakeholders to redesign the map for change or redesign the next iteration?
• Would a better understanding of the design thinking process deepen our understanding of the learner-centered paradigm?
• What would it be like if we had more classrooms focused on real-world, authentic projects such as those described in these podcasts?
• What if our leaders were more engaged in enriching dialog around learning? How can we better foster that?

Next Steps for Us

• Engage in personal learning around engagement and design thinking.
• Develop further opportunities to more deeply engage stakeholders in this work.
• Determine how PBL can fuel our transformation and bring vision to reality.
• Find formal and informal opportunities to engage our leaders (and all stakeholders) in conversations around learning (i.e. collaborative classroom walkthroughs, classroom spotlight segment on SFN-TV, community programs around the Profile of a Graduate on SFN-TV).

This post is the first in a series connected to the podcast Shift Your Paradigm: from school-centered to learner-centered. My colleague, Lynn Fuini-Hetten, and I will be sharing our learning and thinking along the way and cross-posting to the Working At The Edge site.

In the first two episodes of Shift Your Paradigm, our guests (Kelly Young, Allan Cohen and Anya Smith) helped lay the foundation for future conversations by helping answer the questions: What is learner-centered? and What is learner-centered leadership?

One of my takeaways from the conversation was the importance of language and the words we use to describe our practice. In Episode 2, Allen helped clarify the idea of “transformation.” Allan piqued my curiosity and challenged my own thinking when he described transformation as a kind of change where the form of something is altered. Transformation occurs when we let go of the past and create something entirely new. It’s about breaking from what has been done, not just improving it. (Go ahead, read those last two sentences a few times and think deeply about how they resonate with your current thinking about change in education.)

You may be thinking about some of these questions: How are we transforming education? How is the paradigm shift from school-centered to learner-centered leveraged to bring about transformation in education? What is the evidence of a transformation? What are the learners (young and old) saying about the learning? The “how” of the paradigm shift and the transformation of education is what we will be focusing on starting in Episode 3. 

Once we’ve shifted our mindset, there is the actual work of transformation. And it is challenging! Leadership up and down the organization is critical, and we explored this topic in Episode 2 with Anya and Allan. Formal leaders working to transform learning first have to manage the dominance of the existing school-centered paradigm. Leaders can begin to cause something new to happen by introducing the new learner-centered lens into the culture of the school or district. Initially, they may sound crazy to those speaking the language of the dominant school-centered paradigm, and may not initially be heard because it’s disruptive to the dominant paradigm. Allan offered some valuable advice:  listen more than you speak. Find the best opportunities to share the new paradigm. Then ask the question, “What are your concerns? What are you curious about?” The shift – and subsequent transformation –  requires time, careful conversation and listening, not speeches. 

In Episode 1 Kelly offers this advice to leaders embarking on the transformation journey and the paradigm shift : (1) be a learner; (2) approach it as a mindset shift; (3) listen and find your own answers relevant to your own community; do not try to replicate what others are doing. “There is no one way to be!” What will you need to rethink in your context? What will you need to let go of? And in Episode 2, Anya reminds us that our greatest untapped resource in this work is our learners. How do we see everyone in the organization as a learner and a leader?

Ready for the work of transformation – breaking from what has been done and creating something entirely new? If you haven’t listened to Episode 1 and Episode 2, head on over to ShiftYourPardigm.org or iTunes and join us on the journey! Come back soon for Episodes 3 and 4 where we begin uncovering the “how” of transformation in specific contexts, speaking to leaders and a learner from Alamo Heights Independent School District in Alamo Heights, TX.

What is your vision for learning? What does it let go of from the past? What does it create that is entirely new?

Connect with Randy on Twitter and on the TLTalkRadio podcast!