Bold Moves for Schools

How We Create Remarkable Learning Environments

Heidi Hayes Jacobs, Marie Hubley Alcock

• Publisher: ASCD
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781416623632
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Bildung Allgemein

What will it take to create truly contemporary learning environments that meet the demands of 21st-century society, engage learners, and produce graduates who are prepared to succeed in the world? What skills and capacities do teachers and leaders need to create and sustain such schools? What actions are necessary?

Bold Moves for Schools offers a compelling vision that answers these questions—and action steps to make the vision a reality. Looking through the lenses of three pedagogies—antiquated, classical, and contemporary—authors Heidi Hayes Jacobs and Marie Hubley Alcock examine every aspect of K–12 education, including curriculum, instruction, assessment, and the program structures of space—both physical and virtual—time, and grouping of learners and professionals. In a new job description for teachers, Jacobs and Alcock highlight and expound on the following roles:

• self-navigating professional learner,
• social contractor,
• media critic and media maker,
• innovative designer,
• globally connected citizen, and
• advocate for learners and learning.

With thought-provoking proposals and practical strategies for change, Bold Moves for Schools sets educators on the path to redefining their profession and creating exciting new learning environments. The challenge is unprecedented. The possibilities are unlimited.

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Chapter 1

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Refreshed Pedagogy for the Contemporary Learner

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contemporary (adj.)—1630s, from Medieval Latin contemporarius, from Latin com- "with" (see com-) + temporarius "of time," from tempus "time, season, portion of time" (see temporal (adj.)). Meaning "modern, characteristic of the present" is from 1866.

—Online Etymology Dictionary

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What do we cut? What do we keep? What do we create? What does learning look like now? How does the contemporary teacher determine what to hold onto from the past? What experiences do we create to keep learning fresh and vibrant, resonating with the times in which we live? How does a teacher manage a range of learning environments both physical and virtual? How can leadership transform the previous versions of school into new, dynamic learning systems? To begin our exploration of these questions, we look at modern roles and responsibilities that should inform relevant pedagogy. In this chapter we do the following:

• Explore the nature of pedagogy by considering three classifications: antiquated, classical, and contemporary
• Consider the remarkable impact of global access, digital tools, and technology breakthroughs on learning and learners
• Declare new roles for contemporary learners and discuss the implications for educators and our institutions

Meaningful Pedagogy to Inform Practice

A fundamental issue in modernizing our approach to teaching is to consider a meaningful pedagogy that informs practice. The roles of teacher and student and the relationship between the two are the heart of the learning experience and classroom life. Consciously or not, how teachers perceive their purpose will be the backdrop for all the decisions that follow. If the "job" is to disseminate, then the teacher is a disseminator and the student a receptacle. If the "job" is to encourage innovation, then the teacher must delve into what motivates and reaches the hearts and minds of learners and create environments ripe for risk taking. The learner's response is to take risks and create. Pedagogy results in actions.

The original pedagogues of ancient Greece sharply contrasted their roles and responsibilities from those of the subject teachers (didaskalos). According to Young (1987), pedagogues were slaves and frequently foreigners whom wealthy families would trust to mentor their sons by walking them through the streets, sitting with them in "classes," and sharing meals. The pedagogues were devoted to their charges from age 7 through adolescence and were dedicated to teaching them what it takes to be a man.

This idea of nurturance has been sustained throughout history as an overlay to the teacher-student connection, in stark contrast to the notion of teacher as pedant, with the students as passive vessels taking in information. It is noteworthy that presently in Denmark the term "pedagogue" is actively used to describe early childhood educators. According to Matheson and Evans (2012),

The aim of a pedagogue's work is to enable the children, young people and adults they work with to contribute to society in an active, responsible and constructive way. The focus on the whole person means that practicing pedagogues require a very broad understanding of the individual and their relationship to others and their community.

They also need a wide range of skills to support their role in caring, nurturing and learning. In Denmark, for example, trainee pedagogues study an array of areas that reflect what is valued in their culture.

• Educational theory (including psychology, anthropology, sociology, philosophy and health sciences)
• Danish language, culture and communication
• The individual and society
• Health, body and movement; expression, music and drama; or crafts, nature and technology
• Practice-based training
• Practice and theory in: children and young people; people with physical and learning disabilities; or people with social and behavioural difficulties
• Inter-professionalism (p. 4)

We find it noteworthy that the Danish approach examines education theory in disciplines related directly to the human condition, with a strong focus on the individual in a society and the need for communication skills. All areas of human endeavor are significant, whether academic, physical, or aesthetic, and these are connected directly to studying the implications for teaching individuals of great diversity and with special needs. We find the "inter-professionalism" tenet a critical and engaging phrase that points to the formal examination of modes of teaming and collaboration with other adults, educators, parents, and the learners. This teacher-preparation example underscores the belief that if roles are clear in a pedagogical commitment, then resulting programs will have equal clarity in actions.

Given the challenges it is timely to ask these questions: What roles will we assume as our learners are making significant shifts in the ways they learn? How will these shifts affect learning settings, and what are the teaching responsibilities aligned with those roles?

Three Clusters of Pedagogy

The values of a culture have a direct impact on the values of an educative setting. Throughout history the opportunities and resources available or directed to educators shaped the conditions for learning. The zeitgeist of time and place—a society's beliefs about what matters most—has governed the definitions of pedagogy. Classrooms with four walls, intended to hold a certain number of students and featuring a chalkboard at the front, dictated the types of relationships that might be possible between learner and teacher in the agricultural and industrial eras.

Clearly it is different now. Through global connectivity, a Skype session with an expert teacher on the other side of the world is just one example of shifting opportunities. When a question arises requiring a search for information, a student searches the Internet, opening up hundreds of sources. In creating a video documentary project for review or commentary, the use of social media expands the sources of feedback. The "classroom" is a web page that Johnny can peruse late at night to review a lesson using Khan Academy videos as much as it is Room 206 in Wheaton Middle School. Multiple platforms and portals are now available, explicitly changing the actual and possible roles for all of us engaged in the formal educative process. We need new pedagogy for a new time.

To help clarify the discussion, we propose three overarching pedagogical clusters, which we label as antiquated, classical, and contemporary. In her book Curriculum 21: Essential Education for a Changing World (Jacobs, 2010), Heidi raised three questions regarding curriculum decisions: What do we cut? What do we keep? What do we create? Each question corresponds to one of the pedagogical clusters and can assist in an examination of them.

Antiquated pedagogy: What do we cut?

Antiquated pedagogy refers to dated approaches to teaching and learning that are not designed to engage the learner—the teacher as pedant expounding knowledge in a space shared with students. When the teacher spews information at students with no intent to engage them, the learner is not only passive but a passer-by. Students will bypass the content because there was never a real desire to bring them into the study. The underlying belief system suggests that the role of the student is to simply be in a room absorbing information, whether the material is relevant or not and whether it is designed to be engaging or not.

Sometimes we confuse the nature of the classroom space with the notion of antiquation. The stereotype is that the large lecture hall is notoriously boring and unengaging, and yet many of us can recall being enthralled by a teacher's presentation. In fact, the design of a lecture hall is based on the ancient Greek notion of the amphitheater as a structure to focus the group—the point being that antiquated approaches can appear in a boring, low-level online course as much as in a vapid, older-style classroom.

A description often associated with antiquated instruction is "the teacher covered the lesson," as opposed to "discovered" or "uncovered." The description suggests no intention directed at the learners; their role is to be a receptacle. As Paulo Freire wrote in Pedagogy of the Oppressed, the traditional antiquated approach is a "banking model" because it treats the student as an empty vessel to be filled: "Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor. Instead of communicating, the teacher issues communiqués and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat" (1970, p. 72).

The antiquated approach is explicitly out of date, irrelevant, and a precise response to the question What do we cut? The following are descriptions of roles for the learner that we would identify as antiquated:

• Learner as receptacle
• Learner as placeholder
• Learner as robot
• Learner as obedient receiver
• Learner as follower
• Learner as nonentity

These roles should not be confused with classical pedagogical approaches, which have place and purpose in our teaching.

Classical pedagogy: What do we keep?

Classical pedagogy responds to the question What do we keep? To be classical is to be both timely and timeless. When we consider meaningful traditions and practices in our education as teachers, we would do well to highlight what we want to keep. Classical definitions of pedagogy point to the fusion of the ancient Greek notions we mentioned earlier of the pedagogue, or paidagōgos, the slave who looked after his master's son (from pais, "boy," and agōgos, "leader") with the discipline specialist or teacher. This role includes being a guide to cultivating knowledge based on the training and readiness of the "nurturer." Arguably these roles are continually fused in today's classically trained teachers. Such teachers are sensitive and adept at communicating effectively with the individual and the groups of students in their care. They are skillful in making instructional decisions related to pacing of presentations, knowing how to sequence material, determining when to encourage the student to work independently, grouping learners to match the task whether in pairs or small groups, creating dynamic ways to engage a large group, using analogies, and making use of the learning spaces available. Classical pedagogies support and help students to become more confident, self-directed learners.

Examining a few examples of classical approaches clarifies their timeliness. Consider the Reggio Emilia approach to learning, which originated in Italy after World War II and now has adherents worldwide. The founder, Loris Malaguzzi, working with teachers and community members in the villages in the area of Reggio Emilia, developed an approach that would create "amiable schools" and support productive and useful lives deliberately integrated thoughtfully with family and community. In The Hundred Languages of Children, Malaguzzi elaborates:

[W]e know it is essential to focus on children and be child centered, but we do not feel it is enough. We also consider teachers and families as central to the education of children. We therefore choose to place all three components at the center of our interest. Our goal is to build an amiable school, where children, teachers, and families feel at home. (Edwards, Gandini, & Forman, 1998, p. 64)

In the last hundred years, we have seen a steady effort to develop instructional strategies that stimulate creative and critical thinking in our learners. To this day we see the influence of research by Paul Torrance (1970) from the University of Georgia on creativity. The following criteria, which he used to define creative behaviors in children and adolescents, continue to shape our understanding and principles of teaching:

• Fluency, the production of a large number of ideas
• Originality, unusualness, or uniqueness of ideas
• Abstractness of titles, verbally synthesizing elaborated drawings
• Resistance to quick closure, maintaining an openness to new information and ideas permits the emergence of original solutions
• Colorfulness of imagery
• Humor in titles, captions, and drawings (p. 358)

Certainly models and approaches developed through the early 21st century to promote critical thinking are considered classical and timely, informing our current discussions on teaching for innovation. Educators commonly accept the notion that we must support higher-level thinking, critical analysis, and synthesis. For example, the work of David Perkins and Howard Gardner through Harvard's Project Zero and their productive team have had a profound effect on instruction for decades, with groundbreaking research on cultivating critical thought in everyone from our youngest learners through adults. Certainly Robert Ennis's work at the University of Illinois on the nature of reasoning and on the actual design of reasoning tasks is built into the fabric of curriculum planning (Ennis, 2001, 44–46). Just as the cognitive aspect of critical thinking is a classical and respected pillar of program planning, so, too, is the complementary element of social and affective development. Art Costa and Bena Kallick's Habits of Mind continue to be a mainstay in our classrooms. They identified 16 habits (http://www.artcostacentre.com/html/habits.htm) that remain timely, if not more essential than ever, whether a child is developing the habit of responding with wonderment and awe or the habit of taking responsible risks.

The relationship among the cognitive, the affective, and the physical is articulated in a well-known classical phrase, "education of the whole child," which is basic to our field. Can we imagine discussing the education of "part of the child"? In short, every educator can identify key thought leaders and models reflecting the timeless and timely notion that classical pedagogy must be prized, preserved, and sustained in planning for the modern learner.

To clarify the difference between antiquated and classical roles for students, the following is a list of possible classical roles:

• Learner as critical thinker
• Learner as collaborative team member
• Learner as project-based planner
• Learner as creative thinker
• Learner as researcher
• Learner as knowledge organizer

These skills and many others are of continuing value. We don't want to lose them because of "technology"; rather, we hope to sustain them. Yet the tools we have available to us now as educators have changed learning dramatically. What are new roles and responsibilities that have evolved from the classical? What is this new pedagogy?

Contemporary pedagogy: What do we create?

Contemporary pedagogy responds to the question What do we create? The word "contemporary" is appropriate for the purpose of developing a refreshed look at pedagogy because its definitions, "belonging to the present time" or "characteristic of the present time," imply that contemporary pedagogy will always be evolving. Without formal deliberation, the roles and the relationship between teacher and student were being launched in new directions in the last century, taking a sharp trajectory into our present century.

The timeline in Figure 1.1 highlights particular technological inventions that have had a direct impact on teaching, learning, curriculum, assessment, and school institutions. The cumulative impact has been so seismic that the word "shift" seems inevitable. Indeed, the effect of these developments on education is nothing short of breathtaking, and we are all still trying to figure out the implications for our field of practice. With the anytime/anywhere search capabilities of Internet browsers and the availability of digital media and tools for sharing power, the notion of classroom walls has been disrupted. The implications for a deliberate pedagogical shift in roles and responsibilities are glaring, yet the system holds fast to past models. If we educators think in terms of an individual child in our care at any age from toddler to grad student—be it Sara, Keisha, Dan, José, Abdul, Raymond, or Rosie—the choices become immediate and real. How do we prepare our learners for right now and into the future?

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Figure 1.1. Timeline of Key Technology Developments in Education

1950—Univac 1101 was the first computer developed and released by the U.S. government with the ability to store and run a program from memory. The implication for education was immediately evident, given the storage capacity.

1967—Logo was developed by Seymour Papert and others as a programming language focused on student learning and gained widespread use.

1980—Namco released Pac-Man in Japan, and it immediately became a worldwide sensation as electronic gaming transcended language and acquired mass appeal.

1989—The World Wide Web was invented by Tim Berners-Lee about 20 years after the first connection was established on the Internet. The impact on education was seismic, as knowledge sharing and building could be immediate and open to millions.

1994—Netscape, the first graphical web browser, forever changed what it means to “look up” information.

1994—BellSouth released what w...