Reimagining Education

Addressing the 2022 PISA findings, the podcast discusses a global decline in math and reading scores among 15-year-olds, attributing it to the pandemic, decreased parental engagement, and increased technology distractions. In top countries, such as Singapore, success emphasizes the significance of high expectations and resource alignment. The podcast stresses the need for responsible technology use and a culture of ongoing learning.

Top 10 Takeaways

1. PISA Overview: PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) is an OECD test assessing 15-year-olds globally in math, reading, and science. The 2022 results, involving 81 countries and economies, indicate a significant drop in performance, with over 20 score point declines in math and reading for some countries.

2. Impact of the Pandemic: While the pandemic is a factor, it's not the sole cause of the decline. The last four years have seen challenges beyond COVID-19, such as reduced parental engagement, increased technological distractions, and declining teacher support.

3. Concerns about Math and Reading Scores: Math and reading scores have dropped globally by more than 20 points in 2022. This decline, equivalent to a year's worth of education, raises concerns about the future capabilities of 15-year-olds and their long-term development.

4. Importance of Mathematics: Mathematics is crucial in today's world, influencing various aspects like climate change debates and understanding pandemics. The decline in math proficiency is worrisome as it widens the gap between what economies need and what schools are providing.

5. Singapore's Success: Singapore, along with other East Asian countries, excels in PISA scores. Factors contributing to their success include high expectations, rigorous instruction, focus on important concepts, attracting top talent to teaching, aligning resources with needs, and avoiding the commodification of education.

6. Teacher Quality Over Pay: Teacher pay doesn't necessarily correlate with PISA scores. The focus should be on creating attractive conditions for teachers, including interesting career prospects, collaborative culture, and involving teachers in solutions.

7. Effectiveness of Increased Spending: Increased spending on education does not guarantee positive outcomes. Changing the education model is necessary to see better results, as demonstrated by varied outcomes in countries with similar spending levels.

8. Optimizing Spending: Beyond a threshold of $75,000 per pupil, additional spending shows diminishing gains. The key is not reducing spending but using resources more effectively, aligning them with needs, and investing in areas that improve the quality of education, such as teacher quality.

9. Class Size vs. Teacher Quality: Smaller class sizes may offer marginal benefits, but the cost is high. Investing in teacher quality, including better pay, interesting career prospects, and collaborative culture, can have a more significant impact on outcomes.

10. Technology's Impact: Properly managed instructional technology can enhance learning, but leisure use of digital devices, especially during classes, can be detrimental. The addictive nature of technology needs responsible management, and addressing this requires collaboration between schools, teachers, parents, and students.

A Few Links

• PISA 2022 Results: The State of Learning and Equity in Education

• PISA 2022 Results: Learning During – and From – Disruption

In this Backwards Podcast episode, A.J. Juliani sits down with author, professor, and speaker John Warner to discuss all things artificial intelligence (and how it impacts our current and future education system). John Warner is the author of "Why They Can't Write" and "The Writing Practices" where he discusses the need for a more creative and authentic approach to teaching writing. ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence tools have completely changed the landscape of writing for schools and work - this episode tackles those changes head-on.

A Few Links

• John Warners article: Freaking Out About ChatGPT—Part I.

• In a World of AI, Our Students Need Project-Based Learning - blog + video by John Spencer

• 7 Ways Teachers Can Harness the Power of AI for Learning - video by S.J. Juliani

• The Future of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Education: Should Educators Be Concerned? - Article by Paul Ketko

• What is ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence text bot that went viral? - ABC article

• Watch A.J Juliani’s video: ChatGPT and AI in Education - What is going to be eliminated? What opportunities will be created?

• Creative Learning Solutions in a ChatGPT World - Article by A.J. Julian

• Try out ChatGPT

• Try out Perplexity Ask. Perplexity Ask, a new search interface that uses OpenAI GPT 3.5 and Microsoft Bing to directly answer any question you ask. Inspired by OpenAI WebGPT, instead of displaying a list of links, Perplexity Ask summarizes  search results and includes citations so that you can easily verify the accuracy of the information provided.

• Try out PhotoMath + PhotoMath Promo

• Teachers Fear ChatGPT Will Make Cheating Easier Than Ever - Forbes article

•  Artificial Intelligence (AI) Literacy [Crowdsourced] 

Sparked by a quick exchange with Dr Nick Jackson, I created this collaborative document to outline some of the emerging dispositions, skills, knowledge and tools related to AI Literacy. Here's a little more from the document.

This document aims to outline the facets of AI literacy for students and educators. We all rely on these emerging competencies as we explore and interact with these tools. The audience is curious educators, teachers and students. The problem we are solving with this documentation is How educators and students can leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools as assistants and coaches in the learning and creative process.

• Stumbling With Their Words, Some People Let AI Do The Talking - [The Washington Post]

The article from Drew Harwell, Nitasha Tiku and Will Oremus shines a light on an actual application of ChatGPT to support written communication. The story is about how Ben Whittle, with help from Danny Richman, uses AI with his business emails.

"Now, when Whittle dashes off a message, the AI instantly reworks the grammar, deploys all the right niceties, and transforms it into a response that is unfailingly professional and polite."

This cuts through all the hype and experimentation we are wading through. This is an excellent story of how technology improves access!

• Collaborative Creative Writing with OpenAI’s ChatGPT [Andrew Mayne]

The article by Andrew Mayne, who works for OpenAI as a Science Communicator, offers some essential nuances in how we might work with an AI assistive technology like ChatGPT. Here's the prompt:

Let's write a science fiction story together. Ask me for input about characters, plot etc.

This initial setup means the ChatGPT asks questions rather than spits out text reams. This style of interaction is much more helpful for younger students.

The chat interface makes it easy to converse with the model and work towards a goal, like learning something new or playing a game. I’ve found that it can be beneficial for brainstorming. 

• New Modes of Learning Enabled by AI Chatbots [Social Science Research Network]

I loved this work by Ethan and Lilach Mollick from the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School, exploring three different instructional design challenges and how AI can help. Here is the abstract:

Chatbots can produce high-quality, sophisticated text in natural language. The authors of this paper believe that AI can be used to overcome three barriers to learning in the classroom: improving transfer, breaking the illusion of explanatory depth, and training students to critically evaluate explanations. The paper provides background information and techniques on how AI can be used to overcome these barriers and includes prompts and assignments that teachers can incorporate into their teaching. The goal is to help teachers use the capabilities and drawbacks of AI to improve learning

Hosted by James Manion: This episode features a conversation with Harry Fletcher-Wood, who has written an absolutely fascinating book called Habits of Success: Getting every student learning.

In Habits of Success, Harry applies insights from the world of Behavioural Science to the problem of how to help students build helpful habits for learning effectively, while breaking one or two unhealthy habits along the way.

About half-way through the podcast there’s a section where James asks Harry some taxing questions about the book, and his responses were really impressive. Harry has an enviable gift for expressing complex ideas in a really engaging, accessible way.

A Few Links

• Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard - Book

• Thinking, Fast and Slow - Book

• Nudge: The Final Edition - Book

Hosted by James Manion: Geraldine Rowe is an educational psychologist and former teacher, and a specialist in Parent Partnership and Behaviour and Attendance. She has taught in Primary and Middle Schools and been a member of the Senior Leadership Team of an alternative provision secondary school. Her 30-year career has taken her into 100 schools, and Geraldine is a really good example of someone who is outside the teaching profession, but who has immense experience and insight to share.

Geraldine recently published an absolutely fascinating book called It’s Out School, It’s Our Time: A Companion Guide to Whole-School Collaborative Decision-Making. The book is a highly readable account of Geraldine’s doctoral study, which features three case studies of teachers in mainstream schools who make decisions with their pupils, rather than for them.

The importance of choice and agency and autonomy in human development comes up again and again in this podcast. It looks at what collaborative decision-making (CDM) can look like within mainstream settings - and there is no shortage of ways in which we can include children in making the decisions that affect their lives.

This is a conversation that goes right to the heart of the what James Mannion sees as the main problem with the mainstream model of education - coercion isn’t good for kids, even if it gets results in the short term - and Geraldine offers lots of practical advice for teachers who want to move in a more collaborative, consent-based direction.

Links

• BOOK: It’s Our School, It’s Our Time: A Companion Guide to Whole-School Collaborative Decision-Making 1st Edition by Geraldine Rowe

• WEBSITE: Geraldine’s list of further reading for teachers

Hosted by James Manion: Michael FD Young, Emeritus Professor of Education at the UCL Institute of Education, has been a towering figure in the field of Sociology of Education for over five decades. He has written and edited many books throughout his career, including Knowledge and Control (1971), Bringing Knowledge Back In (20080) and Knowledge and the Future School (2014) - to name just a few. You may have noticed a theme in those book titles - Michael writes about knowledge a lot. Hence the title of the podcast.

As always, this was an absolutely fascinating conversation. It’s also a conversation that I think many people will find surprising - both the hard-line traditionalists and the hard-core progressives among you. You know who you are. I look forward to hearing what people make of it - please do let me know what you think.

A Few Links:

• MIchael’s 2018 article in Impact: A knowledge-led curriculum: Pitfalls and Possibilities

• The Nature article MIchael mentions, by Paul Nurse - ‘Biology must generate ideas as well as data’

• Mighty Network Welcome Video

• Rethinking Education Campfire Conversations playlist

This is a cross-post of an episode of the podcast 'From Page to Practice', featuring the book Fear is the Mind Killer: Why Learning to Learn deserves lesson time - and how to make it work for your pupils by Dr James Mannion and Kate McAllister.

James and Kate reveal a recipe for success rooted in three key concepts: metacognition (reflecting on learning); self-regulation (taking ownership over the learning process); and oracy (developing high-quality speaking and listening skills). The book and the podcast wonder: how and what would we teach, if there was no one watching? On the other side of fear is the teacher you want to be, and the children you'd like to teach.

A Few Links

• Problem-Based Learning (PBL)

• Genius Hour

• Release of Responsibility

• Approaches to Learning (ATL)

• Learner Agency

Hosted by James Manion: Andy Sprakes, the co-founder of XP school in Doncaster, England and two students from the school, Declan and Guraaj, describe what it is like to learn at XP school. While the content in the podcast id mostly focused on High School, many of the ideas can be applied to primary education with some modification.

There has been a lot of interest in XP school, partly following a very complementary profile of the school that was published in the Sunday Times magazine.

In case you haven’t heard of XP school before, it’s a free school that was set up in 2014 by two teachers - Andy Sprakes and Gwyn Ap Harri - who were inspired following a visit to some innovative schools in the US - notably, High Tech High in San Diego, and Ron Berger’s Expeditionary Learning schools.

They do things very differently at XP. The curriculum is organised into cross-curricular ‘expeditions’. Their pastoral system is second to none. And their results are astonishing. And they are rated by Ofsted as being outstanding in every category.

A Few Links

• XP School Website

• Free e-book - How we XP

• High Tech High Website

• Expeditionary Learning Schools Website

Hosted by James Manion: Donald Clark is a man of many hats. He’s an EdTech entrepreneur who was formerly the CEO and one of the original founders of Epic Group, a pioneering company in online learning, and he is now the CEO of Wildfire Learning, an AI company. He is a Visiting Professor at the University of Derby. And he is the author of at least two books - Artificial Intelligence for Learning, and Learning Experience Design.

In this podcast, James speaks with Donald about a different writing project. Over the last 20 years or so - and gathering pace in recent months - Donald has been collecting learning theorists. He has written an incredible series of blogs on 2500 years of learning theory - from the Greeks to the Geeks.

Helpfully, Donald has created an index, where you can see a list of all 200 learning theorists grouped under different headings - the behaviourists, the assessors, the vocationalists and so on. There’s a link to this index below - you may find it useful to refer to it now and then as you listen to our conversation.

This is an episode that will make you think harder than you've had to do in a long time. 

Links

• The index to Donald’s series of blogs on 2500 years of learning theorists

• Donald Clark's Blog: Donald Clark Plan B

Traditional teaching methods may or may not be good for helping all students get good grades - but do they run the risk of cultivating unfortunate attitudes towards learning? World-renowned cognitive scientist and emeritus Professor of the Learning Sciences at the University of Winchester, Guy Claxton, claims that in a global job market that needs and rewards independent and adventurous thinkers, some schools are still turning out compliant, test-taker dependent. Over the last few years, new ideas about pedagogy have been emerging simultaneously in dozens of research and development groups around the world. In this presentation, Claxton shares his ideas about how to help our children get good grades in a way that also develops them as confident, powerful lifelong learners. This new way of teaching is called The Learning Power Approach - and anyone, in any school, with any kind of students, can make it work.

A Few Links

• Guy Claxton on the Learning Power Approach - Aug 26, 2020 - Run Time: 1:13:54

• Learning for Life: Guy Claxton and The Learning Power Approach - Jan 24, 2020 - Run Time: 10:31

This informative webinar hosted by Kath Murdoch with Guy Claxton discusses his new book - The Future of Education and much more:

• 0:00 - Introduction about Guy Claxton

• 8:00 - Why did he write his book?

• 13:30 - What is the purpose of school?

• 27:30 - What is going on with the polarized stance between progressive and traditional teaching?

• 45:30 - What does research and science have to say about progressive and traditional teaching?

• 53:30 - How do we invite informed teachers into the progressive and traditional discussion?

• 57:00 - Cognitive load theory

• 1:11:30 - Pedagogy must embrace a culture that is safe to be a learner - what does inquiry-based learning look like.

• 1:18:00 - Ideas of future curriculum design

• 1:23:30 - Controversial claims and responses

A Few Links

• Guy Claxton's Books

• Book - Future Wise by David Perkins

This episode is from Toddle's "School Leadership Project"

Kevin Bartlett discusses his work on reinventing education to create a more systemic and simplified learning experience. He explains that schools are not broken, but rather highly efficient at doing the wrong things such as killing off curiosity, using low-level grading systems, and killing off conversation in classrooms. He believes that schools need to give children one connected learning experience and create a learning continuum pre-K through 12. 

Keven introduces the CGC (Common Ground Collaborative), a pre-K through 12 learning system that uses inquiry-based methodology. The CGC is based on five questions that he believes are essential to creating a learning system. The first question is "What is learning?" and more specifically, "What is the learning process?"

He defines the learning process as developing learners with deep conceptual understanding of ideas that matter, high levels of competency in key skills, and strong positive moral character. To develop each of these types of learning, Keven has developed a simple pedagogy. He believes that leadership is fearless inquiry and that leaders need to find the right questions to bring to their community to lead them towards consensus on the answers.

** Related resources connected to the podcast

Key Ideas

• Kevin Bartlett is working on reinventing education to create a more systemic and simplified learning experience.

• Schools are not broken, but highly efficient at doing the wrong things such as killing off curiosity, using low-level grading systems, and killing off conversation in classrooms.

• Keven Bartlett believes that schools need to give kids one connected learning experience and create a learning continuum pre-K through 12.

• Keven Bartlett explains the CGC, a pre-K through 12 learning system that uses inquiry-based methodology and is based on five questions that he believes are essential to creating a learning system.

• The first question is "What is learning?" and more specifically, "What is the learning process?"

• Keven Bartlett defines the learning process as developing learners with deep conceptual understanding of ideas that matter, high levels of competency in key skills, and strong positive moral character.

• Keven Bartlett believes that leadership is fearless inquiry and that leaders need to find the right questions to bring to their community to lead them towards consensus on the answers.

• Keven Bartlett's work focuses on bringing simplicity and system to the learning game, and he is proud of his attempt to bring simple systems to schools.

This episode is from Toddle's "School Leadership Project"

Kevin Bartlett and Jay McTighe discuss their collaboration and their work in education. They discuss the gap between theory and practice in education and their efforts to bridge that gap. They are currently working on a project to improve assessment systems and are focused on providing practical tools for teachers to improve student learning. They also talk about the importance of keeping things simple and deep, so that ideas never lose their value.

Their conversation highlights the importance of collaboration and practicality in education. They emphasize the need for educators to work together to create meaningful change in the education system. 

They also stress the importance of providing teachers with practical tools that they can use in their classrooms to improve student learning. Overall, their conversation is a testament to the power of collaboration and the importance of practicality in education.

** Related resources connected to the podcast

Key Ideas

• The importance of collaboration in education

• The value of simple, deep ideas that never lose their value

• The gap between theory and practice in education

• The need to bridge the gap between theory and practice

• The importance of providing practical tools for teachers to improve student learning

• The power of weekend chats and informal discussions to generate ideas and solve dilemmas

• The value of learning from others and being open to new ideas

• The importance of keeping things meaningful and relevant in education

• The need for educators to work together to create meaningful change in the education system

• The value of having a mentor or colleague who can provide guidance and support in one's career.

This is a presentation by Keven Bartlett who is the founder of the Common Ground Collaborative (CGC) and one of the forefathers of the IB PYP. He discusses the purpose of school as developed by the CGC. Lots of food for thought about the WHY, the WHAT and the HOW of teaching and learning.

A Few Links

• CGC website: Common Ground Collaborative

• CGC's Mighty Network Community: CGC CONNECT 

For decades, countries around the world have been testing the hypothesis that the only thing that matters in school is how well students perform on academic tests. The results of this vast social experiment are in, and they are not good: Focussing narrowly on test scores is a dumb idea that destroys’ creativity, well-being and initiative in children. Employers want to hire young people who can demonstrate creativity, initiative, and social skills. In fact, everyone wants young people to demonstrate these “nonacademic” outcomes. What are the alternatives? What can parents, teachers, and others who care about children do? What can we do now to prepare children for the uncertain, complex, and challenging future that they face? Dr. Steve Hughes is a pediatric neuropsychologist and Director of the Center for Research on Developmental Education, a social business that guides organizations seeking to document the unique, wide-scope outcomes that result from experiential, non-traditional, and growth-oriented programming. Dr. Hughes’s areas of expertise are assessment of cognitive, social, emotional, and moral development, and is a strong advocate for educational approaches that foster human development. He serves a chair of the Association Montessori Internationale Research Network, and is the coordinator of AMI’s Global Outcomes Project.

This video is an intriguing and provocative watch about a new model for teaching and learning. Together, Rosina Dorelli, Zach Reznichek and Farhaan Mir, have built the Da Vinci Life-Skills curriculum and assessment model, supported by young people, teachers and academics. It is a vision for the future of education, a new model in which a polymath like Leonardo Da Vinci could flourish. Da Vincian Learners are insatiably curious, take risks and learn through all their senses and from their mistakes. They appreciate the interconnectedness of all things and nurture their intuition, creativity, relationships and practical abilities as well as their academic critical thinking skills.

Rosina Dorelli is the Co-Founder and Director of Da Vinci Life-Skills. She has a background in furniture design, portraiture painting and 20 years experience in teaching creative expression, art and design technology to learners of all ages in schools, colleges and beyond. She has dedicated her life to making education more creative, inclusive, ethical and sustainable.

This is very though-provoking video by Susan Engel. A striking quote from her research is: "many children are spending hours a day in school without asking even one question" ~ Children’s Need to Know: Curiosity in Schools. And, no, "can I go to the bathroom" doesn't count as a question in this context. She explains what teachers need to do to ensure curiosity is alive and well in the classroom.

You might want to check out Susan's book - The Hungry Mind: The Origins of Curiosity in Childhood - which offers educators practical ways to put curiosity at the centre of the classroom and encourage children’s natural eagerness to learn. 

This informative webinar with Kath Murdoch (inquiry stance) and Ron Ritchhart and Mark Church (Visible Thinking Routines) discusses the following:

• 0:00 - Introduction - How their passion toward their educational beliefs developed.

• 9:00 - How their work connects to one another - inquiry to visible thinking and vice versa.

• 20:00 - What their core ideas/principles connect to.

• 38:00 - Visible Thinking routines and inquiry cycle.

• 45:30 - How their work connects to what teachers and students should be doing?

• 51:00 - How to work with peers who find it challenging to embrace change.

A Few Links

• Inquiry-Based Learning

• Before You Go Further, Listen to this Podcast by Kath Murdoch to Learn About the Power of Inquiry

• Designing a Journey of Inquiry: Kath Murdoch

• Visible Thinking Routines

This is a stunning essay is recommended by Kath Murdoch.  She says it is a "long read but such a powerful one. If you and your team/staff need something to help re-invigorate your thinking about the nature of childhood, then I suggest this essay as an excellent provocation for conversations about our ways of seeing and being with the children in our care each day."

Child prodigy Adora Svitak says the world needs "childish" thinking: bold ideas, wild creativity and especially optimism. Kids' big dreams deserve high expectations, she says, starting with grownups' willingness to learn from children as much as to teach.

When 13-year-old Logan LaPlante grows up, he wants to be happy and healthy. He discusses how hacking his education is helping him achieve this goal.