Transitioning from “Old school” to a Contemporary Learning Environment

Marie Alcock - Learning Systems Associates, President

How do we transit to remarkable learning environments? How do we lead that process?

We need to look at the following elements:

• Physical & Virtual Space
• Time & Scheduling
• Grouping Children
• Grouping Personnel

There are some things we need to STOP because they are antiquated, but we need a plan. We don’t change something because it’s easy because it might be something that’s classical that is working and therefore it needs to STAY. We also need to think about what we should engage with and START DOING based on research. How do we make changes while still keeping quality learning happening?

Step one is to draft a contemporary mission. This is the why! We need it to have actionable steps. Will we embrace innovation, best practices, etc? Does the mission need to be reassessed periodically – like we do with other aspects of the school?

When might we rethink the mission statement in light of 21CL where we keep the classical – those grounded in enduring solid core values - and rethink the contemporary? Then, let the mission statement guide us. The mission statement isn’t an advertisement, it’s a call. It must be worthy.

Physical & Virtual Space

We need to consider the exterior spaces and the use of such materials as glass.The physical space needs to be motivational. We want students and faculty to want to be there! We want schools to be safe, inviting, and more - because learning can happen in many ways, spaces, shapes. We need to design spaces for learning – and for flexible learning. But how? Teachers can sign up for different spaces and it can be fluid. The idea of ‘my classroom’ needs to go. We need to make sure we have the space and availability of different spaces as needed. We need spaces designed for interaction with movable elements. We need movable walls, elevated spaces, and opportunities for personal control. We need the media production lab available for all teachers to use. We need to consider brain-based learning designs. We need to have adjustable furniture to suit different learning needs. What’s the brain research say about this? Modern learning environments foster a sense of purpose and a sense of belonging.

How might we lead our school to reimagine existing spaces? What are our plans for new spaces in the future?

If we want something new – we should reach out to architects who are not used to designing for schools – traditional schools. How do we design our spaces for 21CL? Look at…Fielding Nair International http://www.fieldingnair.com/

How many spaces in our buildings do students want to be in?

• Motivational spaces
• Inspirational spaces – color, shape, à focus the brain

o   If there’s too much going on in the classroom, it stresses our brain because there’s too much going on. The brain learns to shut out, so students look elsewhere to get ‘quiet’ spaces to think.

o   Clean, empty spaces helps the brain to focus.

o   There’s a time and place for text. But we need at least one wall or space that’s calm.

Time & Scheduling

Should time be synchronous or asynchronous? The bigger question is ‘what type of learning do we want?’ Some research points to literacy needing a longer block, some learning of applications needs only 20 mins. The question is ‘how much time do you need?’ What do we/students do with ‘unscheduled’ time? How do we help our students use their time wisely? Why do ‘some’ of them not focus unless they have some ‘adult’ looking over their shoulder? Students need time to network as well as other things...

Research shows that f2f time doesn’t improve performance. Sometimes more f2f time with professionals impacts student learning (providing this time isn’t used for administrivia or complaining!) How effectively are students and teachers using their time? We need to teach students to be effective self-managers of their time – it’s a critical 21CL skill. We need students to not function in a obey-state, but a toward-state where they are meta-cognitively managing their learning. How are parenting practices and instructional methods impacting this?

Time as currency: Don’t start off looking at what we do out of habit! Start with what can you do with time. Ask ourselves: What can be done in 20 mins, 40 mins, 90 mins, 3 hrs, 1-day, 1-week? How might we design space that can achieve this? Only an asynchronous schedule can achieve this. But – does the schedule always have to be asynchronous? No – not at all. We can have different ‘day’ designs. We can also consider different ways of scheduling literacy and numeracy?

What about graduation? We need to rethink our 12-year compulsion! Maybe getting college credits is just marking time. Perhaps we need to let them go when they meet the criteria. Could we have competency-based graduation? Perhaps allowing others to stay an extra year shouldn’t be seen as a penalty, but a necessity for their learning pace (but this would be a costly decision for HK families).

Other time possibilities are virtual learning and we already do some of this including online learning, flipped classroom pedagogy (but not all things can and should be flipped), virtual oral reporting (rather than taking up class time), etc.

How do we differentiate for our students? One possibility is to invite networking partnerships that are going on in your classroom – and the space to provide it. How might we offer career-mentoring times by partnering with institutions? How can we help students to develop their passions?

We need to break the mental models of ‘my’ classroom time. Might we consider flexible starting and stopping times? We also need to wrestle with well-being and time to rest the brain or switch off.  

How might students look at the issue of time in a different way. It’s not about the furniture – it’s about how the brain works. Perhaps you can look at the tasks that are to be done in the week and allow the students to choose. Time becomes available when students are passionate. When we offer spaces for learning, some students choose to learn even outside of the schedule. How might we tap into this?

What types of time frames would best support our range of learners? What types of learning experiences are needed for our learners that are not supported now?

Grouping Children

How might we have flexible use of adults who are available for the learning at any given time?

Multi-age classes is a concept from yesteryear.

We need to consider formal and informal groupings for learning. Of course, we know that learning isn’t only happening formally! Can we leverage ‘free time’ for learning (like current long lunches in the HS???). Many teachers find they don’t have time to give feedback, so how would it be to set up spaces where feedback can be given during school time. Could we create spaces for this to happen?

Personalized learning for students needs to be purposeful and meaningful. It needs to be out of 'my' design, and needs to be co-created and at the same time safe, ethical, and efficient. How can we have students partner with safe people outside of the school because we can help students access amazing professional learners. We need to socially contract with professional learners formally throughout the world. We need to coach students on self-monitoring for independence. Also, how are our learners currently pre-grouped as an institution?

Grouping Personnel

Safety, security, and access to information is critical. We need to consider multiple affiliations. How do we ‘define’ our role(s) in the organization? Can we stretch our roles and affiliation because we tend to fill our role rather than stretch ourselves? We want to be more than just our role. We need to challenge our definitions of what might be possible. We need to view our role by talent and interest.

We can consider collaborative course design, internships, etc.

Marie suggests 6 benchmarks of data for review teams per year:

·        Standardized assessment data

·        Curriculum data – It’s important to talk about the following: What actually happened (how did the students do on what I actually taught, not what I intended to teach? How can I compare with what I intended to teach with what I actually taught?

·        Perception data – survey all stake holders

·        Environmental data

·        Research data – what are other people doing, not that you will be following it, by know why you do or don’t?

·        Student data

How are we using our data?

Marie suggested these design stages for creating new learning environments. They are not linear.:

•  Set up a question (not a design team) – How can we make learning more successful for more students? What’s standing in our way? Who can help us?
•  Set up fluid planning teams – to explore the research, examine current practice
•  Establish a pedagogy and mission – who are we? What are we going for and what’s our mission? Can we have different mission statements for different parts of the school? Can we have submissions?
•  Create visual planning tool – such as mind-map
•  Invite feedback and perspectives (local to global)
•  Include learners – this is critical, have them involved in the planning committees, have them involved in the learning design.
•  Draft scenarios that match mission – perhaps we’ll have plan A, B, and C (that’s ok), differentiate the PD for all adults, differentiate implementation
• Move to implementation plan –

Have an innovative design team

·        Beware of habit – encourage teachers to advocate for change

·        Imagine and investigate possibilities – join in the discussions

·        Ongoing sharing of findings – tweat, blog, propose and dream with those who make decisions

·        Expanding menu

·        Engage stakeholders

I'm wondering if we might be willing to dive deep into this investigation? It means being bold and investigating the possibilities together as a learning community. The essential question is: How might we provide the best learning for our students? What needs to stay? What needs to go? What needs to be changed?