Something interesting is happening in education-land.  People are starting to ask the kinds of questions that haven’t been asked before. If students can get report cards with a spring term that virtually disappeared, how relevant -- or important -- are those report cards in the first place? If some kids actually learned more in COVID isolation than they did in schools, how do we account for this? If children can now attend schools on a hybrid schedule --  with part of their week in-school and the other part online -- what does that tell us about the sanctity of classroom instruction ..read more

It used to be that the predominant method of educational delivery came by way classroom teachers teaching in brick and mortar schools. Then came the “DL” schools -- an extension of “distance learning” into “distributed learning”, wherein students access their entire curriculum online.  And then came the Covid-19 pandemic. Teachers and school divisions scrambled to create an emergency version of DL learning that would get them through the year. While there were heroic efforts here to be sure, by and large it wasn’t pretty. Many practitioners regarded this digital intervention as a tempora ..read more

It is remarkable what students are interested in themselves, and what they can do when properly supported to pursue a passion. I know this because, for over 20 years, I got to watch 14 year old grade nine students demonstrate their curiosity and creativity in their annual “Masterworks” presentations at Island Pacific School in British Columbia, Canada. The Masterworks process goes like this: students select a topic of interest, research it for six months with the help of adult advisors, write a 15-25 page paper, and then stand up and publicly defend their work by way of a presentation followe ..read more

Sometimes the best way to see what might be coming is to have a close look at what has come before. In the Spring, 2020 edition of Historical Studies in Education, independent scholar Reesa Sorin published an article entitled Sputnik’s Children: History of the Major Work Program in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Schools 1954-1972. The short story is that, partially in response to the worry that intellectually advanced students were not being sufficiently challenged in mainstream classrooms, Winnipeg School Division No. 1 created a series of separate “Major Work” classes for gifted students in the hopes ..read more

One thing that the Covid-19 pandemic will eventually offer educators is an opportunity to rethink what we are doing in schools, and why.  I say “eventually” because the current focus is on delivery triage. Educators across the land are hustling to figure out how to transpose what they do in the classroom into learning experiences that can be delivered by way of a digital platform. Some schools were well-placed to make the transition -- particularly those who were already using online learning management systems like Google Classroom, Canvas, Moodle, Kiddom, or Edmodo or discrete content provid ..read more

Looking forward to Nov 25th "Education Reimagined" presentation in Vancouver with Louise Clark (parenting expert) and Judy Duncan, the Principal of Rockridge Secondary School. A great opportunity for parents and teachers to think about the future of education ..read more

The Gateway Community Charter Schools have an interesting way of setting the larger context for their 500 teachers, support people, and administrators at the beginning of each academic year. Every fall, just before school starts, CEO Cindy Petersen gathers together all her staff to identify a central overarching focus or theme that will carry them through the academic year and beyond.    Over previous years, for example, they adopted the phrases “be brave” and “ignite positive change” as their pole stars to guide what they do. This year, they embraced the theme of “Ubuntu” which in Bantu rough ..read more

The philosopher Otto Neurath once offered a beautiful metaphor when he compared the evolving nature of knowledge to a boat that must be repaired at sea: “We are like sailors who on the open sea must reconstruct their ship but are never able to start afresh from the bottom…”. This image has been used to describe the dilemma, and opportunity, of those who are attempting to make changes within an already-moving enterprise. The idea is that -- absent the luxury of a dry dock -- teachers and educational leaders need to make changes one plank at a time. My own sense is that we must do both things: r ..read more

On Saturday, September 14th the Vancouver Sun ran a two-page spread entitled “New Curriculum Stirs Excitement” which dealt with changes to the BC high school program. (A12-13) Reporter Lori Culbert explained that high schools are now putting more emphasis on project-based learning and much less emphasis on narrowly-focused assessments that would have students cram for exams by memorizing facts they will soon forget.  Parents, teachers, and students themselves might not yet recognize what a wonderful and profound sea-change that this represents. The educational literature, and the BC Ministry’s ..read more

In the “School Life” section of the Summer 2019 edition of Education Next, Martin West interviews Seth Andrew, the founder of Democracy Prep Public Schools. These schools are explicitly designed to enhance citizenship and civic engagement in students with a view to fuller participation in the democratic process as adults. Education Next cites some preliminary research to suggest that they are achieving some success in this regard. (Q&A Seth Andrew, EducationNext, Summer 2019) Three things strike me as promising about Mr. Andrew’s approach -- i.e. as gleaned from the edited excerpt of Marti ..read more