Educational Leadership Crisis

CRISIS – “an unstable or crucial time or state of affairs in which decisive change is impending” Miriam Webster Dictionary A headline in yesterday’s newspaper read: The article quotes NZEI Te Riu Roa president Mark Potter who says; “… it’s clear that New Zealand has an imminent problem with a shortage of school leadership. Even new leaders in the profession are facing burn out and ultimately, it’s the children who will suffer if we can’t attract people to the role and retain them.“ I was particularly captured by the use of the word ‘crisis’, not so much in the headline … Continue reading Educational Leadership Crisis

The Four ‘Cs’ of Transformational Leadership

Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people. J D Rockefeller Transformational leadership goes beyond the conventional transactional leadership approach. It inspires people to achieve unexpected or remarkable results by focusing on creating a shared vision, empowering individuals, fostering innovation, and inspiring others to achieve higher levels of performance and personal growth. Being a transformational leader begins with being transformed personally, shaking oneself free of the patterns of leadership experienced in the past and ‘becoming’ the sort of person you need to be to lead in transformational ways. In my keynote presentation at … Continue reading The Four ‘Cs’ of Transformational Leadership

Implementing Micro-credentials

I’m personally a fan of micro-credentials and see them as a disruptive innovation set to transform our whole approach to measuring success in learning. But we’re currently in the early phase of their adoption, where there’s much to be learned and to understand about how they can be used effectively to achieve the promise of transformation potential in our assessment approaches. Here are a couple of papers that I came across today in one of my feeds which has prompted me to think more on this. The first is A Strategic Institutional Response to Micro-Credentials: Key Questions for Educational Leaders by Mark Brown, … Continue reading Implementing Micro-credentials

Time to re-think?

Photo Credit: Derek Wenmoth School buildings should be opened and used twenty four hours a day.  Nikki Giovanni Question: What do schools and shopping malls have in common? Answer: We’re still building them based on an outdated premise. The image at the top of this post was taken on the door of a store in a shopping mall I visited during my trip to the US recently. The mall was the size of some of the larger ones we have here in New Zealand, and more than half of the shops inside were like this one – closed. There were … Continue reading Time to re-think?

Recombinant Education

As disruption continues to impact our education system, are we prepared to make the tough calls and make the significant and bold steps required to operate as an ecosystem? Or will we continue to shift the deck-chairs on the titanic and put our faith in yet more cycles of ‘back to basics’ campaigns that will continue to fail our kids and their future? Continue reading Recombinant Education

Hybrid Learning and ChatGPT

Photo by Rodion Kutsaiev on Unsplash In my previous post I shared the responses made to five questions asked by my friend and colleague, Nick Billowes, about hybrid learning as he was pondering the future for schools in 2023. I can now reveal the truth behind these responses… they were 100% generated by the AI, ChatGPT Having read much about ChatGPT over the past two months, Nick and I decided to actually give it a go and see just how easy to use ChatGPT is, and how accurate the information provided is (particularly given the many reports about the limitations of this technology). … Continue reading Hybrid Learning and ChatGPT

Hybrid Learning pt.1

Photo by Rodion Kutsaiev on Unsplash My friend and colleague, Nick Billowes, recently asked five questions about hybrid learning as he was pondering the future for schools into 2023. Here are his questions and responses: What is the potential of applying practices of hybrid learning within a schooling educational context as we look to new ways of rekindling learner engagement? Hybrid learning, which combines in-person and online instruction, has the potential to rekindle learner engagement in a schooling educational context. By utilizing online resources, such as videos, interactive activities, and virtual simulations, students can have more control over their learning … Continue reading Hybrid Learning pt.1