Derek’s Blog, launched in 2003, serves as a platform for sharing thoughts and reflections related to his work. It offers over 20 years of searchable posts, categorized by the tags below. Feel free to comment, as your feedback contributes to ongoing reflection and future posts.

Empty Seats

A toolkit for strategic resilience planning

REVISED VERSION AVAILABLE – after several requests from and conversations with educators following the release of the original paper in January 2023, I have revised the document to include the topic of extreme weather events and natural disasters as another area to be considered as we plan strategically to make our schools more resilient in the face of disruption.

What if the disruption we experienced in 2022 continues into 2023? What if there are more of those empty seats? Will we cope?

This paper identifies six key areas of strategic focus for schools striving for resilience in their day to day operation. These ‘signals’ provide an opportunity to consider the scenarios that may play out if one or more of them were to eventuate.

A basic risk assessment framework is used to assist educators to consider the challenges they may face in 2023, and provides some practical steps to plan for how these might be addressed. Whether it is none, one or even all of these things that eventuate, it is our responsibility as educational leaders is to ensure our learners can continue with their learning with the least amount of disruption or disadvantage – not just for our students, but for our teachers as well.

This paper provides a toolbox approach with practical activities designed to guide whole staff and/or community gatherings through the process of determining the appropriate steps to take in your context.

The video below provides a brief introduction and a download link for the full document follows that.

Empty-Seats-Revised-compressed Download

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Resilience Required NOW!

Photo by Wang Whale on Unsplash

What if 2023 is more disrupted than 2022? What if there are more of these empty desks? Would we be prepared?

Most who know me regard me as an optimist, someone who looks on the ‘bright side’ of things. Certainly, throughout my career I have had the privilege of being involved in a wide range of innovative and ‘hope-bringing’ initiatives. Some may say it’s a result of how I’m wired, and there’s bound to be truth in that. But another reason is that I’ve always had a fascination with emerging ideas and innovations, and have always been scanning the environment to keep abreast of trends and new thinking. – so my actions have generally been inspired or motivated by the things I see coming.

Right now, however, my sense of optimism is feeling ‘dented’. This time last year I wrote a blog post in which I outlined my concerns about the difficulties I foresaw in the coming year (2022), and introduced a paper titled Resilience Planning for Schools which outlined a series of things I believed schools could and should be considering in order to cope with the disruption that I believed we’d experience in 2022. At that time I was becoming agitated by what I perceived as a lack of real engagement with what so many ‘signals’ were saying, and a lack of forward planning based on the sort future they foretold.

Fast forward to February 2022 and suddenly these things began to impact schools and classroom teachers. My resources on resilience planning and hybrid learning were downloaded hundreds of times, the MoE began providing 25 hours of PLD for schools to prepare themselves for hybrid learning, various webinars and forums were established to share ideas and the MoE also added a section with advice on hybrid learning on their learning from home website.

Then, just as quickly as the interest in hybrid learning ramped up, by the second half of the year it waned, to the point that, by the end of the year it’s now hardly mentioned. In fact, in speaking to many of my friends who are parents and grandparents of tamariki in schools, the end of year messaging appears to have focused on the expectation that things will be able to ‘return to normal’ next year.

But what if that’s not the case? What if we’re failing to look up (again) and some of these signals actually manifest in more disruption in 2023? How prepared are we as educators, as schools and as a system to avoid this taking us by surprise? What strategies and approaches have we developed during 2022 that will ensure our resilience under such circumstances?

In the table below I’ve selected just a few of the things I’ve been reading about and pondering their possible impact on schools in the 2023 school year…

Now, I’m not wanting to paint a ‘doom and gloom’ picture at all here. We can be certain of none of these things, and the optimist in me hopes for the best. However, it’s a bit like making plans for the Summer camping trip. I always consult the weather forecast – both short term and long term, and consider the options that are presented from the forecasting modelling that is carried out. On that basis I go prepared for the conditions that I may encounter.

That’s what my plea is here. It may be that only some, none – or all, of these signals manifest themselves in 2023. But our responsibility as educational leaders is to ensure our learners can continue with their learning with the least amount of disruption or disadvantage. And the same applies to our teachers.

So there it is, my reflection here is; “have we fully taken advantage of the opportunity we had in 2022 to develop the levels of resilience in our schools and system to be able to withstand another year of disruption in 2023?” I fear not.

Of course, there have been many initiatives taken by schools around the motu, some of which have been documented on the MoE’s Learning From Home website, as well as the schools such as those in the Manaiakalani network which have been using digital technologies to enable seamless home-school learning for some years now. More recently I’ve had the privilege of working alongside a fabulous group of teachers who have explored a range of innovative ways to connect learners with their learning regardless of location which have just been published on the Tai Tokerau Hybrid learning Project website.

Despite all of this, I remain concerned about the lack of any real movement forward as a system to engage with the level of transformed thinking required to ensure the degree of resilience required. Sadly, with an election year coming up, it’s likely that many of these concerns, as legitimate as they are, will become weaponised as individuals and political parties appeal for support for their particular ideologies.

Rather than succumb to this, let’s build on the great work already done and the success stories we have access to – in NZ and internationally. There’s so much that individual schools can do to build a resilient approach and I encourage school leaders to embrace this challenge as they head away to a well-deserved break. Otherwise it’ll be my grandkids who again are left to ‘catch up’ as if it’s their fault there’s been such a lack of continuity in their learning.

For holiday reading I’ve listed below the resources that many schools found helpful in the early part of 2022 – perhaps they’ll be found useful again. In particular I’d recommend the one titled Being Resilient: Characteristics of Resilient Schools as a useful start point for conversations with your staff at the beginning of the 2023 school year, to evaluate how well your school, your systems and processes etc, are designed to meet this challenge.

Simply click on the image below to access the resource, or visit my Hybrid Learning page where these and other resources are linked.

Tags educational transformation, environment scan, hybrid learning, leveraging digital, school leadership

Pivot

Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash

“The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence – it is to act with yesterday’s logic.”
Peter Druker

The announcement of the closure of the Ministry of Education’s head office in Wellington, Mātauranga House, due to earthquake risk came as a big surprise to everyone – in particular, the 1000 employees for whom that is their regular place of work. They were given just a few days to retrieve what they need and prepare to work from home for an unspecified period of time.

Déjà vu the 2020 lockdown! We all remember the sudden changes in our lives at that time which required us all to immediately find new ways of working. A new word was added to our vocabulary as we learned to pivot from one way of doing things to another.

The idea of pivoting isn’t unfamiliar – it’s likely that most of us have had some sort of experience in life that has caused us to do so, a change in career, a redundancy, birth of a first child etc. Each of these experiences forces us to ‘change direction’ in at least some way as we adapt to and embrace the change we’re in.

The sudden closure of Mātauranga House is a salient reminder that disruptive events are increasingly likely to impact our ability to continue as we have. The OECD identified this in a table titled Potential future shocks and surprises, plausibility and impact taken from their Trends Shaping Education 2019 document (pre-COVID!) as illustrated below (cited in their more recent publication on scenarios for the future of education).

More recently McKinsey published an article titled The resilience imperative: Succeeding in uncertain times, in which they demonstrate a number of ways in which disruption is becoming more frequent and more severe, including a dramatic 300% increase in reported natural disasters over the past 40 years.

Such evidence must inform the thinking we are doing about how best we prepared ourselves for this highly disrupted future. Being unprepared is without doubt a significant cause of stress and decline in wellbeing as we continually find ourselves ‘reacting’ to what is happening rather than having a resilience plan in place for the increasingly likelihood of such events occurring. A pro-active response is always best.

Which has me reflecting on the current situation as we navigate our way through the uncharted waters of change in what some refer to as the post-COVID times. Much of the rhetoric reflects an assumption that we’re only have a short time to persevere here and that there’s a time coming when COVID will be ‘over’ and we’ll be able to get back to normal.

The concept of post-COVID could be further away than we think according to a report released last week by New Zealand’s former chief scientist, Professor Sir Peter Gluckman titled Unprecedented and Unfinished.

In the report an international group of researchers outline the drivers and possible outcomes of the pandemic over a five-year horizon. The team used over 50 ‘vectors of uncertainty’ to identify three scenarios for the future illustrated here.

Long story short – the current pandemic situation isn’t going away any time soon, and the degree to which its impact is felt depends entirely on the extent to which we see a global collaboration around vaccinations and putting in place preventative measures.

“It’s fair to say that it’d be very foolish of governments within the multilateral system to see this pandemic as a single, exceptional event.”
Sir Peter Gluckman

So what does this mean for education? Sir Peter Gluckman’s quote above could apply equally for our education system and its leaders – at the national, regional and local level. We have to see this as more than simply a single, exception event that we can simply ‘get through’ and come out the other side. We see this sort of response so often – a school and community impacted by flooding, an earthquake, or other natural disaster for example. We respond as if we hadn’t expected it, and each time we’re challenged to find ways of catering for our learners while they can’t attend school – always as a short-term measure until they can return to school and ‘get back to normal’.

There’s nothing at all wrong with considering our young people attending a physical setting called school as the ‘normal’ we might aspire to. The problem is that this ideal is likely to be disrupted all too frequently, and we should be doing more to reconceptualise how we might operate as centres of learning so that each time such a disruption affects us, we are not thrown into a tail-spin, with systems and processes designed only for the on-site, in-person settings we’re used to. We need to pro-actively plan how we might pivot when the need arises.

This is where the focus on hybrid approaches is so important – not as an end in itself, but as a strategy for building resilience in our schools and our education system. Working to design and implement the elements of a hybrid teaching and learning approach is an effective way of ensuring that when the next disruption occurs, we’re better prepared to respond pro-actively, with strategies and mechanisms in place that can actioned as required.

Of course, there are lot of other benefits of putting the time into designing and implementing such hybrid approaches, besides being prepared for future disruption. These include:

Achieving greater coherence across a school and the system
Addressing systemic issues re equity and inclusion through learning design that is focused more intentionally on meeting the needs of all learners
Increasing transparency of systems and processes – for teachers, students and parents/whānau
Increasing professional collaboration to focus on what is important for student learning
Increasing the focus on developing learner agency and self-management
Improving links with parents/whānau and community as partners in the design of learning and support of learners
Reviewing what counts as success in learning, with more transparency in the assessment process
Taking a ‘systems’ view of our use of digital technologies to support and enable quality teaching and learning that is truly boundary-less

If the challenge of responding to disruptive events isn’t motivation enough for us to be exploring the hybrid learning alternatives, then surely the outcomes in the list above are?

Designing an effective experimental PLD approach

Over the past few months I’ve spoken with a number of educational leaders who are looking at how they can best implement some of the changes they believe should be happening in their schools as a result of COVID-19 and the introduction of hybrid learning approaches.

The start point for such efforts must be on working with staff to include them fully in the process and to ensure they have the appropriate level of support and access to professional learning and development to enable them to participate.

Building, sustaining and leveraging the capability of staff should be high priority for any organisation. Research shows that within any group there will be a range of learning needs that exist, each requiring a different response. The CBAM[1] research identifies three key areas of need:

Personal – “What are the new skills, knowledge and capabilities I need?”
Task – “What do I need to do/know to be make this work in my context?”
Impact – “How do I know it’s working? What new things could I try? Who can I work with to make this happen?”

While the first two phases are important in terms of ensuring staff develop the capability and capacity to contribute effectively to the work of the organisation, the focus in the third phase is where an organisation builds the capacity to grow, to innovate and to remain future focused in their practice.

While the needs of staff in the first phase can be addressed by providing access to and passing on existing knowledge and skills, the need for more adaptive, inquiry-led and exploratory approaches increases through the next two phases.

Experimentation: the key to achieving transformation through PLD

Ultimately, PLD should be seen as the key strategy in achieving any form of change or transformation within the organisation as a whole. This is where a culture of experimentation is required.

A culture of experimentation involves:

Permission-giving leadership – means letting go and empowering staff to perform their own experiments, not telling them what to do or presenting pre-determined actions to follow.
Organisational commitment to an agreed vision or purpose– provides the focus for testing any hypothesis and for understanding where the impact must be seen.
Appetite for risk – many education organisations are too conservative in their approach to transformation. Need to ‘think big’ and regard failures as ‘first attempts in learning’.
On-demand resource and support – available to support experiments as required. Must allow for variability here and the emergent needs/demands/opportunities that occur.
Collaborative effort – staff working in teams to provide support, feedback, critical oversight etc. Requires commitment to mutually agreed ways of working and accountabilities.
Short accounts – pursuing short cycles of experimentation, pursuing well-defined hypotheses and reflecting on results on regular basis.
Focus on impact – a commitment to data-informed decision-making – use of data must trump opinions. Be prepared to stop things that don’t work.

Conditions required

Creating the conditions for an effective, experimental PLD process requires thinking differently about the way programmes and support are established. The table below illustrates what some of the most effective strategies are:

Focus	Most effective	Least effective
Participation	Collaborative teams Democratised participation	Individual focus Selected participation
Motivation	Pursuing communally-agreed goals and purpose	Pursuing individually identified goals or purpose
Leadership	Permission giving	Directive
Resources	Allocated to meet identified needs/opportunities Able to provide for time, purchase of specific resources Rapid access on the basis of application based on agreed purpose	Allocated to individuals in the form of release or salary increment Centrally decided provision of resources and/or support
Support	Allows for use of internal and external expertise – building collective efficacy Personal and team mentoring support included Ability to access support with specific expertise as required	Relying exclusively on internal expertise/support Relying exclusively on external expertise/support
Timing and accountability	Ongoing, short cycles of experimentation with regular review and sharing	Pre-set timeframes determined by project schedules or deadlines. End-of project reporting/celebration only

Conclusion

Experimentation is a powerful strategy for achieving transformational change in an organisation. When the intent is to explore new ways of working or to pursue innovative ideas, traditional forms of PLD won’t be sufficient when it comes to balancing the need for building capability alongside releasing the creative energy and ideas of staff.

To achieve this requires thinking differently about the traditional structures, systems and processes used to support professional learning and development. The key here is agility, providing the ability for teams to achieve their goals with the provision of support (time, resources, expertise) that is ‘just in time’ rather than ‘just in case’.

Participation in a culture of experimentation should involve everyone, with the allocation of resources being available based on needs that are identified and which align with the agreed purpose and shared vision of the organisation.

[1] https://www.air.org/resource/cbam-concerns-based-adoption-model

Tags education leadership, educational transformation, hybrid learning, PLD, school leadership

Learner engagement

Image source: https://www.goguardian.com/state-of-engagement

When my students know that I care about them as a person, far beyond what score they get on a reading test, they see themselves through my eyes and my eyes see endless possibilities.
Middle School Teacher, US – quoted in GoGuardian Report

Learner engagement is one of the ten areas of teacher practice that are the focus of a recent paper I published titled Codifying Teacher Practice. In that paper I write, “All students need to be engaged in learning—not just the interested students, not just the ones who are obedient. In our familiar in-person settings we are apt to confuse engagement with attendance – the very act of being present. But in remote settings this becomes a bigger challenge.”

A recent report from GoGuardian supports this view, providing strong evidence for developing practices that improve learner engagement.

The report is based on a survey of of more than 2,000 educators from across the US, and identifies instructional practices that enable student engagement, no matter the learning environment.

Not surprisingly, a key finding is that the foundation for effective learning experiences is a strong and meaningful relationship with their students. Once that relationship is formed, engagement becomes much more achievable.

The report identifies six teacher practices that impact on learner agency:

Forming Teacher-Student Relationships:
Forming teacher-student relationships was highlighted as the top instructional practice for driving engagement across teachers of all grade levels and subjects, with a third of all teachers identifying it as the single most-effective practice.
Communicating Clear Expectations
When students understand what they need to do and aren’t afraid of forgetting directions, they are more likely to take risks in their explorations, which can lead to tremendous growth.
Linking New Information to Prior Knowledge
When a student can see new learning as an extension of something they already know, they feel empowered and motivated in their learning.
Making Course Content Relevant to Students
Making course content relevant to students shifts the focus to the student and what energises them to learn, rather than simply relaying information from a textbook.
Practicing Hands-On Learning
By giving students the opportunity to apply their knowledge in a tangible manner, practicing hands-on learning can provide a deeper learning experience.
Facilitating Student Participation
Be it verbal, written, or through another method, teachers emphasise that this instructional practice first and foremost requires intentionality, ensuring that students understand that their participation is both desired and important to the topic at hand.

The report also identifies five key impacts of these practices on learner engagement:

Creativity & Self-Expression
Academic Engagement
Curiosity & Lifelong Learning
Critical Thinking
Social-Emotional Well-Being
Conceptual Understanding

Given how important these learner qualities are as an outcome of our education system, and in terms of preparing young people for their future, giving emphasis to the teacher practices as outlined above becomes very important.

The role of teachers in all of this is critical. In their blog post the importance of trust in nurturing student engagement online, Rebecca Bennett, Cathy Stone & Ameena L. Payne argue that while teaching is inherently relational, models of “good teaching” must include trust to acknowledge that learning is not simply a cognitive process, it also has affective elements. While their work draws from research at a tertiary level, the findings are equally as applicable in the compulsory sector. They say;

The importance of nurturing trusting relationships between students and teachers is even more important online, as the teacher-student relationship often becomes a proxy for the social, pastoral and cultural support that campus-based students access outside of class. Online students do not usually ‘hang out’ on institutional websites; thus, their online subjects and teachers are their primary experience of ‘university’ itself.

Plenty here to think about when it comes to being more intentional about improving learner agency – particularly in a hybrid environment where the ‘normal’ ways of providing support and building relationships aren’t there.

Tags codifying teacher practice, hybrid learning, learner engagement

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