Scaling Out and Scaling Up Innovation

What do we, as leaders, need to do to scale innovation?

From the C21 Canada ~ Shifting Minds 3.0 document, ‘Redefining the Learning Landscape in Canada’:

As stated above, “The transformative view is that learning is a social process…” Later in the document,

“There is no doubt that innovation is disruptive. But the disruption can uncover the policy or practice that needs to change to enable an innovation to flourish. Social innovation concepts and complexity theories can help to frame the problems and point toward workable solutions. Frances Westley, a leading Canadian scholar, defines social innovation this way:

“Social innovation is an initiative, product, process or program that profoundly changes the basic routines, resource, and authority flows or beliefs of any social system. Successful social innovations have durability and broad impact.”

What are we doing to Scale Up and Scale Out? 

By nature of what needs to happen, we will need to embrace experimentation and embrace multiple iterations and an acceptance that some things we try will not work. Trying new ideas, embracing self, peer and outside feedback, and being flexible and responsive will be key to scaling out and scaling up. 

A model like this explicitly places expectations that leadership, and support by leaders, is key in developing sustainable transformation through innovative practices. Innovation can happen in pockets, but it won’t scale without a system level effort to support, and remove barriers from, innovative practices happening on a larger scale. 

Transformation is a social process and being innovative involves co-designing our new practices at all levels. More than ever, leaders at all levels need to be collaborative and create a climate of support that encourages an openness to challenging practices (and policies) that may not encourage iterations, and learning from mistakes. How do we spread innovation that is desirable? How do we encourage and support useful system-wide changes?

What are we doing to scale out and scale up? 

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Get the basics right..and let the rest follow! Admin goals for 17-18!

Our Wolves came back to school this week. Ain’t no tired like first week of school tired…but ya’ll. Today is Wednesday and it was SO smooth. Like kinders could handle lunch today smooth. We spent two days working on names, and hugs, and relationships. We went over the “essentials” of being at Whitt, and I [...]

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PMP:078 How To Respond to Resistance

The other day, a principal friend emailed me this question: >>Will, I’d like your thoughts on something I grapple with: that is the importance I place on staff approval of what I do or present…the need to be liked I know is crazy and irrational, but how do you deal with the knock back, hearing […]

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PMP:078 How To Respond to Resistance

The other day, a principal friend emailed me this question: >>Will, I’d like your thoughts on something I grapple with: that is the importance I place on staff approval of what I do or present…the need to be liked I know is crazy and irrational, but how do you deal with the knock back, hearing […]

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Using Technology Doesn’t Make You Innovative

If a classroom gets iPads, a question you will often hear immediately is, “What apps should I download?”  In our concern for machines taking over education, we often do things that encourage machines to take over our teaching.  I have been privy to seeing many educators use “flashcard” apps with students, not because they see it as a better process, but because they feel they need to justify iPads in their classroom by using them (the device) in some way with their students.  This is often because devices are thrust onto educators without much thought and support on what is possible to do with them and how this aligns with the vision of the community.

I always ask educators to think, “What could you create with this iPad that you couldn’t create before?”  Focusing on what we can “create” versus what we “consume” only, is a great starting point. It is not that consumption and content isn’t important. It is just that both consumption and creation should be evident in education for true deep learning.

Technology accelerates everything, including bad practice in education. Have you ever heard of scantrons?  To me, they are often accelerated bad practice.  Now if you use a scantron to mark some assessment here and there, I do not think that you are a bad teacher. If you use it all of the time for everything you do, I would be concerned.  While we are asking kids to think deeply and critically in schools today, if what they are doing can be summarized in a bubble sheet, then I think we are missing the mark.  Again, there are no absolutes, but we should always look at how what we do and what we say corresponds in our classrooms and schools.

I created this image after I wrote, “The Innovator’s Mindset“, and it is meant to spur on conversations on where innovation in education really starts:

If you notice where the process begins, with the question, “What is best for this learner?” Starting backward from there helps us move forward from the student, not necessarily the teacher.  I have encouraged people to understand that every “best practice” in education was once an innovation. Someone said, “What we are doing is not working for our students”, and subsequently did something different that worked for students.

This is NOT to say that you shouldn’t use technology with your students. Technology allows us to do things that we couldn’t do without it.  It is just that we should be asking, “What would best serve our students?”, not “How do I work this device into my classroom setting?” Using technology in your classroom does not make you innovative; what your students do, create, and learn, because of the work that happens in our schools and classrooms, will always be the measure to which we should determine if we are truly moving forward to successfully serve our students.

Using technology in your classroom does not make you innovative; what your students do, create, and learn, because of the work that happens in schools and classrooms, will always be the measure to which we should determine if we are truly moving forward to successfully serve our students.

• April 30, 2017 3 Misconceptions About Innovation in Education
• March 9, 2017 An Idea to Innovation to Best Practice
• October 22, 2016 Technology does not equal innovation, but using technology is often crucial to innovation.
• September 13, 2016 It is your thinking that creates solutions, not any technology.
• December 20, 2016 Surface Level can be a Starting Point, but not the End Goal

Source: George Couros

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Using Technology Doesn’t Make You Innovative

If a classroom gets iPads, a question you will often hear immediately is, “What apps should I download?”  In our concern for machines taking over education, we often do things that encourage machines to take over our teaching.  I have been privy to seeing many educators use “flashcard” apps with students, not because they see it as a better process, but because they feel they need to justify iPads in their classroom by using them (the device) in some way with their students.  This is often because devices are thrust onto educators without much thought and support on what is possible to do with them and how this aligns with the vision of the community.

I always ask educators to think, “What could you create with this iPad that you couldn’t create before?”  Focusing on what we can “create” versus what we “consume” only, is a great starting point. It is not that consumption and content isn’t important. It is just that both consumption and creation should be evident in education for true deep learning.

Technology accelerates everything, including bad practice in education. Have you ever heard of scantrons?  To me, they are often accelerated bad practice.  Now if you use a scantron to mark some assessment here and there, I do not think that you are a bad teacher. If you use it all of the time for everything you do, I would be concerned.  While we are asking kids to think deeply and critically in schools today, if what they are doing can be summarized in a bubble sheet, then I think we are missing the mark.  Again, there are no absolutes, but we should always look at how what we do and what we say corresponds in our classrooms and schools.

I created this image after I wrote, “The Innovator’s Mindset“, and it is meant to spur on conversations on where innovation in education really starts:

If you notice where the process begins, with the question, “What is best for this learner?” Starting backward from there helps us move forward from the student, not necessarily the teacher.  I have encouraged people to understand that every “best practice” in education was once an innovation. Someone said, “What we are doing is not working for our students”, and subsequently did something different that worked for students.

This is NOT to say that you shouldn’t use technology with your students. Technology allows us to do things that we couldn’t do without it.  It is just that we should be asking, “What would best serve our students?”, not “How do I work this device into my classroom setting?” Using technology in your classroom does not make you innovative; what your students do, create, and learn, because of the work that happens in our schools and classrooms, will always be the measure to which we should determine if we are truly moving forward to successfully serve our students.

Using technology in your classroom does not make you innovative; what your students do, create, and learn, because of the work that happens in schools and classrooms, will always be the measure to which we should determine if we are truly moving forward to successfully serve our students.

• April 30, 2017 3 Misconceptions About Innovation in Education
• March 9, 2017 An Idea to Innovation to Best Practice
• October 22, 2016 Technology does not equal innovation, but using technology is often crucial to innovation.
• September 13, 2016 It is your thinking that creates solutions, not any technology.
• December 20, 2016 Surface Level can be a Starting Point, but not the End Goal

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Supporting students and supporting teachers – a delicate balancing act

An old colleague of mine used to say, “Happy teachers means happy students.” There is some truth to this statement but upon closer examination, it quite often does not hold true.

Leaders, indeed, do need to work hard at supporting teachers. Most importantly, leaders need to strive to create the conditions in schools where teachers can focus on teaching students with minimal distraction. Things need to be organised: timetable correct at the beginning of the year, resources available and the calendar set, so teachers know what is going on in a school from one day to the next. There is also the provision of conditions that support the building of teacher morale. The creation of a staff room / lounge that is inviting for teachers to come together and talk, refreshments at meetings and planned collaborative planning time. Some teachers would also say that if leaders are providing them with the professional learning opportunities that they want goes along way to assisting them in being more happy in their job.

Sadly, giving teachers what they want does not necessarily mean we get better teachers. Certainly, we can have less frustrated teachers when teachers feel that they are being provided for, however, this does not always translate to better learning for students.

For example, if school leaders were able to increase the number of teachers on faculty and subsequently reduce teaching loads, this may give more planning time to teachers. The question, then to ask is: How many teachers, if given less contact time with students, would use this time effectively to plan for student learning? The answer probably depends on the motivation of teachers and their willingness to work collaboratively.

What about giving teachers the professional learning opportunities they want? Unless the professional learning opportunities are a good match with the needs of students, then the level impact a teacher can have on their students may not be as high as it could.

It is this last point that leaders must really focus on. What do the students in your school need and what do teachers wish to focus on? While many of us may claim to have the student’s best interests at heart, when push comes to shove, do we? We may well be in full support of our students when it is convenient, or when the conditions are ‘right’. What do we mean by the ‘right’ conditions? Possibly those time when we are not being challenged to do some of those things we do not want to do.

This is where the fine balancing act comes in for school leaders. It is important that school leaders show teachers that they are supported and that much is being done to create the conditions they need to thrive as teachers in the classroom. At the same time, teachers must be challenged to improve, especially in the areas that students need support. Improving schools involves change and change should be mildly uncomfortable to a point where you like to do more of it.

That said, one of the problems associated with supporting students in schools, is that teachers can be made to feel guilty about what they are not doing. While it needs to be understood that teaching is a service and selfless profession, it should not come at the detriment of the well being of teachers. Well being can also be used by teachers to push back against the requests of administrators too. This is why it is such a difficult balancing act. No doubt, we need to have teachers fit and health to perform the job asked of them but at the same time, some teachers must be challenged to avoid complacency and ineffective use of time and resources. We forget, or conveniently ignore, that the latter really can impede how much teachers can have a positive influence on student learning.

So, yes, support teachers and be their biggest advocate but challenge teachers to make that difference to student learning in the areas that students need their support.

Originally posted on the Ed Leader blog

Connect with me @richard_bruford

 

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