Interactive Innovations:

1
Interactive Innovations Literacy the Essence
of Learning
Fred Renihan Simon Fraser University, British
Columbia
2
Developing a Framework for our Provincial
Conversation
Providing learning in a continuum from rural to
urban context
Connecting curriculum, instruction and assessment
Literacy
Early Learning
Compelling learning is constructed in community
powerful communities connect learning and the
most successful communities extend their learning
into the future
Secondary Learners
Extending community connections
Equitable Futures
Creating healthy environments
Shared Leadership
Using technology as an invisible, seamless support
3
Examinerby Frank Scott
The routine trickery of the examination Baffles
these hot and discouraged youths Driven by who
knows what external pressure They pour their
hated self analysis through the nib of
confession On to the accusatory page I who have
plotted their immediate downfall I am entrusted
with the divine categories ABCD and the hell of
E The parade of prize and the backdoor of pass
4
Examiner cont.by Frank Scott
In the tight silence standing by a green grass
window I watch the fertile earth graduate its
sons with more compassion Not commanding the
shape of stem and stamen Bringing the trees to
pass with increase of sunlight Or decrease of
rain But for each seed the whole soil For the
inner life the environment receptive and
contributory
5
Examiner cont. by Frank Scott
I shudder at the narrow frames of our text book
schools In which we plant our so various
seedlings Each brick-walled barracks cut into
numbered room Black-boarded, ties the venturing
shoot to the masters stick Shapes the new to the
old in the ashen garden Shall we open the whole
skylight of thought to these tiptoe minds Shall
we give them the frontier worlds of literature
And to the fields of art for their realms of
growth
6
Examiner cont. by Frank Scott
Or shall we pass them the chosen poems with the
footnotes Ring the bell on their thoughts period
their play Make laws for averages and plans for
means Print one history book for the whole
province And let ninety thousand reach page ten
by Tuesday As I gather the inadequate paper
evidence I hear across the neat campus lawn The
professional mowers drone Clipping the inch high
green
7
Stewardship What Influences Learning?

• Wang, Haertal and Walberg (1994) in a
  meta-analysis of 11,000 statistical findings over
  the past 50 years of research, identified the
  following as the most powerful influences on
  student learning

• Classroom management 64.8
• 2. Meta-cognitive processes 63.0
• 3. Cognitive processes 61.3
• 4. Home environment/parental support 58.4
• Student-teacher social interactions 56.7
• 6. Social / behavioural attributes 5.2

8
Stewardship What Influences Learning? cont.

• 7. Motivational affective attributes 54.8
• Peer group 53.0
• 26. State-level policies 37.0
• 27. School policies 36.5
• 28. District demographics 32.9
• M.C., Haertel, G.D., Walberg, H.J. (December
  1993). Leadership.
• Scores from several sources standardized then
  weighed according to effect sizes ratings and
  content analyses.

9
Interaction in Teaching and Learning The
Research

• The Learner
• recognizes need to learn
• is motivated to succeed
• is interested in topic
• finds instruction useful
• sees personal relevance
• is secure in environment

• The Teacher
• prepared
• directs instruction
• high expectations
• consistent feedback
• caring
• positive

• The Task
• is achievable
• can be broken into manageable units
• is useful and relevant
• is dynamic not passive
• is challenging

10
Teacher-Learner Reciprocity

• There is an urgent need for reciprocity in our
  schools and classrooms.
• Without such reciprocity, without some form of
  mutual emotional satisfaction between teacher and
  taught, the curriculum remains simply an idea in
  the mind of the teacher
• it lacks relevance even though the teacher
  teaches and the students go through the motions
  of scholarship activity.
• Michael Marland

11
Learning Conditions MEMBERSHIP
Preconditions for School Membership

• Attachment
• Commitment
• Involvement
• Belief in school norms

12
Learning Conditions MEMBERSHIP
Schools Commitment to Membership

• Positive, respectful and caring environment
• Strong communication
• Active assistance in helping students meet
  school standards
• Active help in assisting students make the link
  between school and society
• Attachment to and positive relationships with
  adult professional role models outside of formal
  classroom interaction

13
Learning Conditions ENGAGEMENT

• Includes all of those actions and interactions
  which enable students to become focused on
  academic pursuit

14
Learning Conditions ENGAGEMENT
Preconditions for school engagement

• Strong academic focus
• Commitment to improved student learning
• Commitment to results
• Commitment to evaluation

15
Learning Conditions ENGAGEMENT
Impediments to educational engagement

• Non-motivating course work and instruction
• Dissonance between learning and
• teaching styles
• Unremitting preoccupation with course coverage

16
Equitable Futures ACHIEVEMENT FOR ALL

• What one child can learn, any child can learn
  providing attention is given to necessary
  preconditions for learning.
• Benjamin Bloom

17
Learning Theory and Technology

• Although the schools are embedded in our culture
  and reflect its values, the technological
  changes that have swept through society at large
  have left the educational system largely
  unchanged
• In the course of 20 years, a dramatic rift has
  opened between the process of teaching and
  learning in the schools and the ways of
  obtaining knowledge in society at large

18
Learning Theory and Technology cont.

• The result is an escalating estrangement of the
  schools from society, and from the children who
  live in it
• The earliest uses of computers based their
  instructional models on the work of
  behaviourists such as B.F. Skinner. Computers
  were able to provide drill and practice on
  previously learned skills
• Strommen (1992)

19
A Community of Leaders by A. Strombe
One hot summer day, while lying in my yard on my
back With only the drone of some distant train on
some far off track I saw a sight which to this
day I had never seen Anything quite like
before At about five thousand feet, the leader
of the V The head goose, suddenly veered out to
the right His space was immediately filled by the
goose directly behind The formation kept growing
wider Until he found a place at the back of the
line They didnt even miss a beat
20
A Community of Leaders cont. by A. Strombe
So thats how I found out how the goose can
fly From way down south to way up north and back
again But he cannot do it alone you see That is
something he can only do in community Its a
wonderful notion and people swell with emotion
and pride To think of themselves on the eagles
side Solitary, self-sufficient and strong But we
are what we are That is something that we cannot
choose And though many would like to be seen as
the eagle I think that God made us more like the
goose.
21
Staff Development

• Stages of Development and Degree of Positive
  Transfer

• Awareness / Information 10
• 2. Demonstration / Modeling 10
• 3. Practice / Feedback 20
• 4. Peer Coaching in the Classroom 70 80
• adapted from Joyce and Showers (1982)

22
Cornerstones of Support
Six indicators of collaboration

• Teachers sharing in frequent, continuous
• and precise talk about teaching practices
• Frequent observations of teachers together
• with detailed and candid critiques of their
• teaching
• Teachers planning, designing, preparing
• and evaluating teaching materials together

23
Cornerstones of Support
Six indicators of collaboration cont.

• Teachers teaching each other the
• practice of teaching
• Norms of collegiality which are prevalent
• in the school
• A norm of continuous improvement
• J. Little (1982)

24
Reflective Questions

• How can we clarify and communicate the purpose,
  vision and values of our schools and school
  district?
• How can we initiate, implement and sustain a
  successful change process?
• How can we provide strong leadership at the same
  time that we empower those closest to the
  action?
• How can we shape organizational culture and
  provide structures that support the culture we
  seek?

25
Reflective Questions cont.
5. How can we widen the circle of responsible
actors in our drive to keep learners at the
center? 6. How can we create collaborative
processes that will result in individual, group
and organizational learning? 7. How can we
foster an environment that is results oriented
yet encourages experimentation?
26
Teacher by Rabbi Zev Shostak
I am that most fortunate of men for I am
eternal Some people live in the world of today.
I live in the world of tomorrow Some feel
meaning in the temporal and transient I find
purpose in the eternal and the enduring and the
eternal For I am charged with that most sacred of
missions To transmit all that our parents lived
for and loved for and died for to the next
generation
27
Teacher cont. by Rabbi Zev Shostak
I span the generations Making the wisdom of the
past live now so that the future will have
meaning I make wisdom live For I am no mere
bearer of knowledge I do not simply teach the
mind -- I reach the heart And when I reach the
heart I touch the soul.
28
Teacher cont. by Rabbi Zev Shostak
To those who say two generations hence what shall
I be if but a distant memory, I respond Though
the mind fades, memories linger Though the body
fails, the spirit prevails Though the scroll
burns the letters dance in the air.
29
Developing a Framework for our Provincial
Conversation
Providing learning in a continuum from rural to
urban context
Connecting curriculum, instruction and assessment
Literacy
Early Learning
Compelling learning is constructed in community
powerful communities connect learning and the
most successful communities extend their learning
into the future
Extending community connections
Equitable Futures
Secondary Learners
Creating healthy environments
Shared Leadership
Using technology as an invisible, seamless support