Leading Innovation: Better Thinking about Teacher Learning

1. Leading Innovation: Better Thinking about Teacher Learning Peter G Taylor Adjunct Professor QCRC, Griffith University QSSPA Conference - 8 June, 2012

2. Experience and research tell us that … traditional PD practices are an ineffective means to achieve substantial and sustainable change in teachers’ pedagogical practices

3. Suggested reasons for this include: • lack of leadership • lack of time • lack of resources • lack of a culture of professional learning • the resilience of the existing worldviews and cultural practices, based on deeply held beliefs and well-honed pedagogical habits and routines (Good & Brophy 2007, Sarason 1984)

4. Why is it so? Recent research in neuroscience provides a useful additional explanation – our brain functioning makes changes in well-honed pedagogical habits and routines very difficult – Eagleman (2011); Kaheneman (2011); Lehrer (2009)

5. A second (related) reason: Recent work on organisational adaptation provides a second additional explanation, in several layers. • In complex settings we need to learn through trial-and-error, rather than ‘instruction’ • However, we are very poor at learning from failure • we tend to ‘defuse’ and/or not see failure • we fear failure, and fear shuts down higher order thinking Harford (2011)

6. This suggests two types of teacher learning are needed: • incremental learning towards desired improvements. This implies that we already know this ‘desired practice’, and we want to make this ‘common practice’ • disruptivelearning that involves relatively significant, even, ‘leaps’ to achieve outcomes that we know only in terms of broad goals. The strategies and tactics need to be developed.

7. Two aligned approaches to PD • learning through ‘smart borrowing’ of already known practices • learning through radical experimentation to develop new practices

8. Leading learning through smart borrowing It can be site specific, and involve • Smart borrowing • Structured sharing • Intentional adaptation This helps develop a site-based culture of professional collaboration and learning.

9. Leading learning through radical experimentation • Establish broad, yet indicative, goals • Attempt to set criteria / targets for monitoring / evaluation • Encourage diverse approaches • Make failure survivable • Systematically monitor outcomes • Use independent and credible agents to monitor • Close down unproductive trials asap • Promote adoption of successful experiments through smart borrowing

10. Pause and Process As a ‘big picture’, does this make sense to you?

11. Our ‘systems’ of mental activity Daniel Kahneman (2011) Thinking, fast and slow • System 1 • Fast, intuitive • System 2 • Slow, basis of rationality

12. System 1 • Fast – intuition (recognition) – cognitive ease – emotion • ‘Works’ without conscious awareness, based on associative memory – links present to past • Contains our model of the ‘normal’ world – default – constantly monitors without intention, generates basic assessments, expectations and coherent self-narratives

13. System 2 • Slow – cognitive strain • Lazy – biased to believe and confirm, apologist for System 1 – rationalises System 1 ‘decisions’ • Allows for self-control – monitors and controls thoughts and actions ‘suggested’ by System 1 • Requires effort (deliberate attention) and takes energy

14. Classroom Routines Are central to the classroom practice • They are built/developed • They embody expectations and assumptions • They express a ‘culture’ – they are shared • They make teaching and learning possible • They are based on System 1 ‘processing’

15. Developing expertise(Bransford 2007) Innovation Corridor of Optimal Adaptation Experience

16. Developing expertise Innovation Experience

17. Developing expertise Innovation Experience

18. Developing expertise Innovation Experience

19. Developing expertise Innovation Experience

20. Unsuccessful innovation Innovation Experience

21. Unsuccessful innovation Innovation Experience

22. Reflection • How reliant are your PD practices on System 2?

23. What makes borrowing smart? • Recognition that teachers’ expertise is based on the use of routines • Recognition that teachers’ learning is based on borrowing • Recognition that teachers’ learning should have personal significance • A sustained focus!

24. What gives a structure to sharing? Intentionality • Annotated video clips of different approaches to specific practices – making reasoning visible • Protocols for sharing and borrowing

25. Annotating video clips – making pedagogical reasoning visible • Context – subject, year level, time (term, day, unit ..) • What am I doing – name the practice • Why am I using it rationale / purpose / value to the students’ learning • How I developed this practice • When it doesn’t work for me

26. What makes adaptations deliberate? • System 2 • Explicitness • attention • language • negotiation • Building new routines • Time and repetition to embed in System 1

27. Building new routines • Awareness of current routines • Image of the new practice in terms of behaviours • What capacities does it require • For me • For my students • For how we talk about our roles • For the use of time • For the use of other resources • Engage in an ongoing review process

28. Implications for …. • pedagogical practices • changing pedagogical practices • leading innovation

29. Thank you! peter.g.taylor@live.com.au

30. Some references Bransford, J. (2007). Preparing people for rapidly changing environments. Journal of Engineering Education 96 (1): 1-3. Eagleman, D. (2011). Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain. Melbourne: Text Publishing. Good, T.L. & Brophy, J.E. (2007). Looking in Classrooms (10th Ed). New York: Longman. Harford, T. (2011). Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure. London: Little, Brown. Hattie, J. (2009). Visible Learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. London: Routledge. Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. London: Allen Lane. Lehrer, J. (2009). The Decisive Moment: How the Brain Makes Up Its Mind. Canongate: Edinburgh. Sarason, S.B. (1982). The Culture of the School and the Problem of Change (2nd Ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon, Inc.