Highly innovative and creative contexts can be challenging in the day-to-day, so success for the long haul depends on a strong foundation of policies and practices that provide the scaffolding for change, innovation and creativity occur. We all sit somewhere along the innovation and change continuum. At one end, some thrive in a free-fall andContinueContinue reading “Making change stick: The important ‘unseen’ in a culture of innovation”
Category Archives: Change
Why do we continue to use 20th Century spaces for 21st Century learning/working?
The classroom is a relic, left over from the Industrial Revolution, which required a large workforce with very basic skills. Classroom-based education lags far behind when measured against its ability to deliver the creative and agile workforce that the 21st century demands. This quote is from Prakash Nair in a commentary in Education Week*. InContinueContinue reading “Why do we continue to use 20th Century spaces for 21st Century learning/working?”
Making change stick: Is your school a learning community?
The question almost sounds ridiculous. Is your school a learning community? Students may be learning, but is it a community learning? This is significant for schools in a couple of ways: 1. Students are immersed in an environment where learning is modelled as a key value at every level. There are numerous lists of skillsContinueContinue reading “Making change stick: Is your school a learning community?”
Making Change Stick: The Power of Language
Can you impact culture through adopting new terminology and ditching the old? Does the language of your school point to the future of school education or the reinforce times past? What do these words have in common? Headmaster/Headmistress, Teachers/Masters, Period, Subject Head/Master, Classroom, Timetable, Homework, Year/Grade, Bells, Detention. These are the highly recognisable words ofContinueContinue reading “Making Change Stick: The Power of Language”
Changing a culture is hard work
This headline caught my attention “Jennings could hardly talk at 4.30pm”. The story is about a wellknown Sydney rugby league player who was under the influence of alcohol when he came to afternoon training and when it was 24 hours to their next game. The club, in their defence, took strong action against the player,ContinueContinue reading “Changing a culture is hard work”
My top 10: Building a Culture of Teams
I presented a workshop today about building a culture of teams at a workshop at the CSA National Leaders Conference. We put the ‘work’ into workshop. We talk about the 21stC skills that our students need to navigate the future, yet who are they going to learn them from? If schools expect to prepareContinueContinue reading “My top 10: Building a Culture of Teams”
Making Change Stick: Five priorities of an effective team
Build a Culture of Teams The team is always going to be greater than the sum of its parts. We all benefit from PD in action all day every day. (Teacher at NBCS) Creative and innovative organisations value strong team culture. Quality key relationships reinforce a culture of teams throughout the entire school – when a school’sContinueContinue reading “Making Change Stick: Five priorities of an effective team”
My Top 10: Making change stick
Implementing and then maintaining lasting change in your school occurs by design, not by default. We want to transform our education system into one that can effectively prepare young people for the many opportunities that await them. To do this change and innovation must become an integral part of the corporate DNA. Transforming schools isContinueContinue reading “My Top 10: Making change stick”
What if school nurtured the passion and interest of every young person?
School systems everywhere inculcate us with a very narrow view of intelligence and capacity and over value particular sorts of talents and ability. Some of the most brilliant, creative people I know did not do well at school. Many of them didn’t really discover what they could do – and who they really were – until they’dContinueContinue reading “What if school nurtured the passion and interest of every young person?”
What’s the difference between the ‘Open Classroom’ of the 1970s and ‘Open Space’ learning today?
Students working in multi-age groups Teachers as coaches Teams of teachers worked collaboratively with one another Spaces reconfigured to for large and small group projects and individual work Architects commissioned to design schools without walls. Teachers given discretion to create new academic courses Students direct their own learning. This sounds like the types of learningContinueContinue reading “What’s the difference between the ‘Open Classroom’ of the 1970s and ‘Open Space’ learning today?”
culture | learning | design 