“Reinventing” Teaching

1. “Reinventing” Teaching Tony Wagner, Co-Director Change Leadership Group Harvard University, Graduate School of Education tony_wagner@harvard.edu www.gse.harvard.edu/clg

2. “The formulation of the problem is often more essential than the solution.” Einstein What is the “crisis” in American public education really all about—what’s the “problem”? High School reform is just another fad. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! Their schools are the problem, not ours! Incremental change is the only way to go

3. The New Educational Challenges: “The Rock & The Hard Place” • The Rock: NEW SKILLS for Work, Continuous Learning & Citizenship in a “knowledge society” for ALL STUDENTS • Convergence of skills needed for work, citizenship, & further learning: (e.g. communication, analysis, problem-solving, ability to work collaboratively) • Students lacking skills relegated to marginal employment & citizenship • The Hard Place: Students less motivated by traditional incentives • Less fear and respect for authority • Less belief in delayed gratification & hard work=success • Kids multitasking in a multimedia world—everywhere except in school • Kids growing up “home alone:” Increased isolation from adults • Re-Framing the Problem: Reform vs. Reinvention • We do not know how to teach ALL students NEW skills. This is a new education challenge and societal aspiration that requires development of new professional knowledge, new school structures, and new ways of working together.

4. The “Basics” Perception Gap

5. A “Theory of Change” • Students’ will not meet the performance standards for success in college and work unless and until teaching improves. More academic contentstandards, more testing, smaller schools, etc. do not, by themselves, improve teaching or students’ skills. • Teachers working alone, with little or no feedback on their instruction, will not be able to improve significantly—no matter how much professional development they receive. • The challenge of change leadership is to create a “system” for continuous improvement of instruction and supervision—rooted in a common vision of effective teaching.

6. Teaching Video Discussion • How would you grade the quality of this lesson (A—E) • What is your evidence for this assessment?

7. Excellent Instruction: A Point of View Excellent instruction is less about what a teacher does (inputs) and more about what students know and can do as a result of the lesson (results). • The Purpose of the Lesson: Coverage versus Competencies • The Assessment: Content Standards versus Performance Standards • The Challenge: Defining and “Benchmarking” the Critical Performance Standards for Our Students

8. Re-Defining “Rigor”:Discussion Questions • What is your definition of rigor? • How might the definition of rigor be changing in the “Age of Google?” • What are teachers doing in a more rigorous classroom? • What are students doing? • What kinds of student work would be evidence of rigor?

9. Benchmarking Rigor: Work/College SkillsPublic Agenda Foundation “Reality Check” 2002 http://publicagenda.org/specials/rcheck2002/reality5.htm Percent of Employers & Professors giving high school grads “poor” or “fair” ratings on:

10. Benchmarking Rigor: College View of What is Needed College professors’ views of the skills students lack: 70% say students do not comprehend complex reading materials 66% say students cannot think analytically 65% say students lack appropriate work and study habits 62% say students write poorly 59% say students don’t know how to do research 55% say students can’t apply what they’ve learned to solve problems 2005 Achieve Inc. http://www.achieve.org/files/pollreport.pdf

11. Recent Grads Summary of What They Need • Writing skills • Study skills and time management • Research skills • Study group experience What would your graduates say?

12. Benchmarking and Assessing Rigor: Foundational Skills for College • Writing • Reasoning • Analytic Thinking • Problem-solving http://ceprnet.uoregon.edu http://ceprnet.uoregon.edu/cepr.samples.php *** The Collegiate Learning Assessment http://www.cae.org/content/pro_collegiate.htm#

13. Rigor in The Classroom: 5 “Habits of Mind” Learning to Ask The Right Questions • Weighing Evidence • How do we know what’s true and false? What is the evidence, and is it credible? • Awareness of Varying Viewpoints • What viewpoint are we hearing? Who is the author, and what are his or her intentions? How might it look to someone with a different history? • Seeing Connections/Cause & Effect • Is there a pattern? How are things connected? Where have we seen this before? • Speculating on Possibilities/Conjecture • What if? Supposing that? Can we imagine alternatives? • Assessing Value—Both Socially and Personally • What difference does it make? Who cares? So what? From www.missionhillschool.org

14. Teaching Video Discussion 2Calibrating Rigor • How would you assess the level of rigor in this lesson (low, medium, high)? • What is your evidence for this assessment?

15. “Reinventing” How We Work Together: Creating “Communities of Practice” • For Teachers/Counselors: • Work in small groups to analyze “problems of practice” ie. looking at individual students, student work, teacher work and case studies • Developing lessons collaboratively • Observing one another teach/advise and peer coaching • For Principals • Share and critique draft School Improvement Plans • Discuss “problems of practice” and real “case studies” of teacher supervision; role-play supervision conferences with teachers • Plan “problem-solving” faculty meetings and seek feedback from teachers • For Central Office • Discuss “problems of practice” and real “case studies” of school and principal supervision; role-play supervision conferences with principals • Plan “problem-solving” Admin meetings and seek feedback from principals and other staff on meetings as models of good teaching/learning

16. Possible Action Steps • Discuss and define “rigor” with your faculty, students, and parents • Do “Learning Walks” to “calibrate” your assessment of rigor • Conduct focus groups with your recent grades to determine ways in which they were most and least well prepared • Consider administering the Collegiate Learning Assessment to a sample of your 12th graders to assess “college and work-ready” competencies

17. Some “Learning Walk” Purposes • Professional Development for administrators: gaining greater clarity and consistency in observing teaching (reminder: communicate to teachers that this is not a form of individual teacher evaluation!) • Auditing the overall level of instruction in a building • Developing system or building-wide Professional Development priorities • Monitoring impact of Professional Development and progress towards agreed-upon goals for teachers i.e. “evidence-based” professional development!

18. Implications for Change Leadership We do not know how to teach “all students new skills.” The problem of “reinvention” requires the development of a “knowledge-generating” culture and new leadership skills. New Roles for School Leaders: • Ask the right questions, instead of having to have all the answers: POWERFUL QUESTIONS DRIVE LEARNING AND DEEP LEARNING DRIVES CHANGE • Resist being ‘reactive’: Stay focused on improving teaching! 3) Model the behaviors you want to encourage, such as seeking feedback, trust, & respect 4) Create “communities of practice” for improving teaching, leadership and collaborative problem-solving

19. Sources/Resources/Further Readings • Tony Wagner, Change Leadership: A Practical Guide for Transforming Our Schools (JosseyBass, 2005) and Making The Grade: Reinventing America’s Schools (New York: RoutledgeFalmer, 2001.) See also: www.schoolchange.org and a video on focus groups: “Creating Community Consensus: Dialogues for Learning & Engagement” http://www.seattleschools.org/area/ibc/tw.xml and “Listening to Student Voices: What Schools Must Do To Succeed” http://www.smallschoolsproject.org/index.asp?siteloc=resource&section=gatesv *** • Anthony S. Bryk and Barbara Schneider, Trust in Schools: A Core Resource for Improvement (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2002) • John Kotter, The Heart of Change (Cambridge: HBS Press, 2002) • Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Reed Larson, Being Adolescent: Conflict and Growth in the Teenage Years (New York: Basic Books, 1984) • Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence (New York: Bantam, 1995.) • Ron Heifetz, Leadership On The Line (Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press, 2002)

20. Sources/Resources/Further Readings (cont.) • Deborah Meier, The Power of Their Ideas (Boston: Beacon Press, 1996) & In Schools We Trust (Beacon, 2002) • Richard Murnane and Frank Levy, Teaching The New Basic Skills, (New York: The Free Press, 1996,) & The New Division of Labor (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004) • Public Agenda Foundation, “Where We Are Now: 12 Things you Need to Know About Public Opinion & Public Schools” (www.publicagenda.org) • Robert Putman, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000) • James W. Stigler & James Hiebert, The Teaching Gap, (New York: Free Press, 1999) • Wenger, E., & Snyder, W.M., “Communities of Practice: The Organizational Frontier,” Harvard Business Review, January 2000 • Urban Academy Videos--Ann Cook, Series Editor http://www.teacherscollegepress.com/teachertoteacher.html