Sir Ken Robinson - Creative Schools
National education systems worldwide are being reformed to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. As a respected adviser to governments in Europe, Asia and the United States, Sir Ken argues in this powerful presentation that many countries are pushing reforms in the wrong direction and that the dominant culture of standardization and testing is stifling the very capabilities that our children, communities and economies need most. Drawing from his groundbreaking books, Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative, and Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution that's Transforming Education, he explains why too many are locked into a model of education shaped by the Industrial Revolution and a narrow idea of academic ability. Urging schools and colleges everywhere to rethink their basic assumptions about intelligence and achievement, Sir Ken focuses on the vital questions: Why is it essential to promote creativity?
Is everyone creative or just a select few? Why do so many adults think they’re not creative? Can creativity be developed? If so, what changes are needed in our schools and education systems and how can they be brought about? Sir Ken argues for radical changes in how we educate all students to meet the extraordinary challenges of living and working in the 21st century.
Takeaways include:
• How education wastes more talent than it saves
• The three core objectives of 21st Century education
• Why we’re all smarter than we think
• Why we need to move from an industrial to an organic approach to education
• What educators, parents and employers should do and how policy makers should help
Conditions for creativity - culture of school environment critical.
Book: Creative Schools - The Grassroots Revolution that’s Transforming Education. Three themes:
- We are living in dangerous times - Technology and Demography (popn growth) are transforming the way we live and work.
- Compare 1950s to today… record player, party line telephones, tv
- Today - smartphones in last ten years, etc.
We need to discover what we’re good at - get fulfilment - need to develop these talents, abilities. Encourage, set people off on a course, discover our talents, capacity is what we have and ability is what we make of it.
Standardisation and Competition tend to stifle what are most important in education
- Conformity/Standardisation - But what we need is encouragement of talent.
- Compliance - Intense pressure from high stakes exams - but we need to encourage innovation. Creativity is what sets us apart as a species.
- Linearity - predictable life paths - but we need to acknowledge the multiple possible pathways for our chn - organic development needs to be recognised in our schools.
Learning - Kids love to learn (we all do). Intuitive. Acquire new skills and understanding. Natural to learn. A lot of learning does not need to be taught. Eg. talking is largely learnt through exposure.
Education - An organised programme of learning.
Schools - A community of learners. Most have institutional systems many of which are not necessary. (eg organised into age groups)
Ken Robinson Leading a school culture of Innovation
Education should address both of the worlds we live in.
The world outside of ourselves and the world of your private consciousness/ feelings/ imagination (the world that exists only because you exist).
When kids get disengaged from learning it is often because there is tension between these two worlds.
Educators need to help students connect with the world around them and the talents within them so they can become fulfilled individuals and active, compassionate citizens.
The Economic Agenda - education is to get students to become economically responsible and independent
Employers are looking for SOFT skills now, not simply qualifications. Who are you? What are you about?
Govt policy and what businesses are looking for do not line up.
The Cultural Agenda- education should enable students to understand and appreciate their own cultures and to respect the diversity of others.
The Social Agenda - education should enable young people to become active and compassionate citizens. **KEY COMPS. **Front part of NZC.
Social and Emotional Learning has become paramount as our students leave school and enter the world.
THE BIG QUESTION … What type of education do kids need to help them flourish in the world they will now live in?
The Personal Agenda - education should enable young people to engage with the world within them as well as the world around them.
This has implications for how we think about our schools.
- Imagination - where the thinking comes from
- Creativity - putting imagination to work
- Innovation - it’s personal, it’s about collaboration (it often happens best in teams), about the culture of the organisation.
Promoting Greater Creativity
Personal - recognising individual differences in talent, the school equally valuing all kinds of strengths and talents (not just academic) Broad curriculum
Example from the US - Mind Drive
MINDDRIVE is a Kansas City-based, 501(c)3 organization with an educational, STEM focused perspective that serves high school students from around the Kansas City Metro.
Mind Drive video link here
“These were kids who were not succeeding because the system they were in would not allow them to.”
BIG QUESTION What are the conditions that enable students to flourish with learning?
- At the heart of education is the relationship between teachers and learners.
- Curriculum design is important - including equal presence of humanities, arts, science and tech, physical education, maths and english
- The importance of play - unsupervised, outdoor play
- Collaborative learning communities - blended learning, flipped learning, etc
- Flexible timetables
- Meaningful assessment
How to make Changes in Schools
1 Make changes within the system as it is ie Mind Drive
2 Make changes to the system ie Australian initiatives
3 Get out of the system ie online, homeschooling, unschooling
The Culture of a School
Habits - patterns of behaviour that people become used to
Habitats - the physical environ that people live and work
(both of these above can be changed)
Examples from Ken Robinson worth checking out -
- Summit Sierra - Seattle, Washington (PBLearning, online mentoring, unconventional use of space)
- Orestad Gymnasium - Copenhagen, Denmark (open place, digital teaching, no classrooms at all, no formal age structure)
- Big Picture Learning - Providence, Rhode Island (paired with commercial companies dissolving the barrier between the school and the world of work)
- Egalia Pre-School in Stockholm, Sweden (gender free environment)
- AltSchool - San Fran (personalised tech, digitally driven, personalised and collaborate)
- Sra Pou Vocational SChool - Sra Pou village, Cambodia
- P-Tech High School - Brooklyn New York (dissolving barriers between high school and tertiary)
- Steve Jobs School - Amsterdam, Netherlands (work at their own pace, own timetables)
- Brightworks Schools - San Francisco, California
- Carpe Diem School -
- Innova School - Peru (blended learning, no formal classrooms)
- Blue School - New York (blue man group involved, Reggio School)
In summary, we need to move to a more organic (rather than industrial) approach to education. Emphasis needs to be on conditions in which people will be able to flourish.
Get the culture right. The balance right with the curriculum. Engagement and achievement will go up.
Links to some clips from Sir Ken’s website
Comments
Post a Comment