Finnish First - an insightful analysis

"We need to care about what has happened in a lot of places that have turned their education systems around in the last 30 or 40 years.."
In just 30 years, Finland transformed its school system from one that was mediocre and inequitable, to one that consistently produces some of the world's best students, while virtually eliminating an achievement gap. And they do it without standardized testing.
Linda-Darling Hammond is the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, where she launched the School Redesign Network, the Stanford Educational Leadership Institute, and the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education. Her work focuses on school restructuring, teacher education, and educational equity. She was education advisor to Barack Obama's presidential campaign and was reportedly among candidates for Secretary of Education in the Obama administration (Wikipedia).
In her book "The Flat World and Education", she looks at the roots of the American modern education system and how the skills required for the 21st century global economy can not be learned in traditional education systems, which have been in place since the early 1900s when the majority of students were expected to become factory workers. She identifies an “opportunity gap” that has evolved as new kinds of learning have become necessary - a gap where low-income students, students of color, and English language learners often do not have the same access as others to qualified teachers, high-quality curriculum, and well-resourced classrooms. She then offers a coherent approach for effective reform, focusing on creating successful systems, inducting and supporting quality teachers, designing effective schools, establishing strong professional practice, and providing equitable and sufficient resources.
The following interview is excerpted from Dan Rather Reports' show on Finland's education system, Finnish First.
Please take the time to watch.

What Testing Has Done To Schools

"Is testing the same as education?..No...What the testing emphasis has actually done to American schools has been to narrow the curriculum..." 
According to Diane Ravitch, professor, former advocate for charter schools and No Child Left Behind, and author of "The Death and Life of the Great American School System", constant testing hurts students, narrows curriculum, and doesn't improve learning.
-- Read "Ravitch: Standardized Testing Undermines Teaching"

More on design thinking and education

Rinat Aruh is the co-founder of award winning design and strategy firm, aruliden. With her non-traditional approach to design and brands, Rinat has led industry-provoking projects for companies that include PUMA, BMW Group, Microsoft, Lacoste and Motorola Solutions. Rinat’s passion lies in introducing design into early education as a process for problem solving. In 2007, Rinat began collaborating with The School at Columbia and in 2010 the studio introduced Tools at Schools, a non profit designed to introduce students and faculty to the value of design thinking as a creative problem solving tool.
-- watch Rinat's talk "Interjecting Design in Early Education" at (co)lab summit 2013
-- watch more videos on Tools at Schools

The Benefits of Music Education

The Royal Conservatory of Music (Canada) has published a summary of the recent neuroscience research proving that music education is a powerful tool for attaining children’s full intellectual, social and creative potential. “The Benefits of Music Education: An Overview of Current Neuroscience Research” highlights studies offering compelling insights into the potent, long-term value children gain through music training. This initiative is part of our ongoing commitment to advancing the transformative effects that music and the arts have on individuals—and ultimately, society. For more than 125 years, The Royal Conservatory of Music has been using the power of music and the arts to inspire people to set their sights high and be the best they can be.
-- download “The Benefits of Music Education”
-- go to The Royal Conservatory of Music website

The Art of Leadership

“Commit yourself to a passion that moves you.”
-- Bill Strickland, Make the Impossible Possible: One Man's Crusade to Inspire Others to Dream Bigger and Achieve the Extraordinary
As president-CEO of Manchester Bidwell Corporation and its subsidiaries, Bill Strickland builds partnerships to help the disadvantaged build a better future. He is nationally recognized as a visionary leader who authentically delivers educational and cultural opportunities to students and adults within an organizational culture that fosters innovation, creativity, responsibility and integrity. He's also the author of Make the Impossible Possible, which includes his story of how a kid from Pittsburgh's ghetto would go on to lecture at Harvard and serve on the National Endowment of the Arts board.
Very inspiring.
-- talk given at "A Collaborative Leadership Summit", Atlanta, September 2013

Creating the Classrooms we Need

"Our schools are so stuck in the model of control and compliance that when you actually try to propose something that is innovative and creative, the mentality around it, the structure that controls it is of control and compliance and you are never gonna get there."
Another great talk by Diana Laufenberg, educator. Over the past two years, she has been invited to work with teachers throughout the United States and the world on project based learning, inquiry in the classroom, modern teaching methods, and structuring modern learning ecosystems. Her current endeavors have her serving as Lead Teacher and Managing Director of Inquiry Schools, a non-profit focused on creating schools that are authentic, vigorous and empowering for all members of the community.
-- talk given at "A Collaborative Leadership Summit", Atlanta, September 2013

How to learn? From mistakes

"We deal right now in the educational landscape with an infatuation with the culture of one right answer that can be properly bubbled on the average multiple choice test. I am here to share with you, it is not learning."
Diana Laufenberg has taught all grade levels from 7-12 in Social Studies over the past 15 years. She most recently taught at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, an inquiry-driven, project-based high school focused on modern learning. Her practice has deep roots in experiential education, taking students from the classroom to the real world and back again.
-- read On Being Resilient and Embracing Failure
"Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes." – John Dewey

Transforming Education - Will Richardson

"We can't be creative if we refuse to be confused. Change always starts with confusion."
-- Margaret Wheatley
A parent of two teenagers, Will Richardson has spent the last dozen years developing an international reputation as a leading thinker and writer about the intersection of social online learning networks and education. He is an outspoken advocate for change in schools and classrooms in the context of the diverse new learning opportunities that the Web and other technologies now offer. Will has authored four books, most recently Why School? How Education Must Change When Learning and Information are Everywhere (September, 2012) published by TED books and based on his most recent TEDx talk in Melbourne, Australia. A former public school educator of 22 years, Will is a co-founder of Modern Learner Media which is dedicated to helping parents and policy makers develop new contexts for new conversations around education. He also co-founded Powerful Learning Practice, a unique professional development program that has mentored over 10,000 teachers around the world in the last six years.
"In times of change learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists."
-- Eric Hoffer, The True Believer
Please take the time to watch, excellent presentation.
-- talk given at "A Collaborative Leadership Summit", Atlanta, September 2013

From Outlaw to International Hip Hop Artist

Another great example of the transformative power of the arts and of the potential life changing role of teachers.
"Art changed my life, and now I know it can change other lives."
David Garibaldi is a performance artist with a calling. Garibaldi dances on a drop cloth while two DJs and drummer play hip-hop music. Compact and energetic, he grabs paintbrushes as he moves. Holding one in each hand, he starts making brush strokes on a life-size canvas board. As he dances, a portrait slowly emerges before your eyes: Martin Luther King Jr., Jimi Hendrix, Madeleine Albright. He calls the piece "Rhythm and Hue." He frequently performs at schools. And during the show, he tells the students his story urges them to stay in school. He was failing in high school; he was more interested in painting graffiti late at night in rail yards and back alleys. That was true until his junior year: "That’s when I walked into the classroom of . . . Mr. Sullivan..." Over the next few years, Garibaldi learned animation, taught himself formal painting, and began creating his hip-hop performance show. He’s toured with the Blue Man Group, performed during halftime at sporting events, and took his act to Europe. A documentary about his work, Walking Dreams, has been released in 2009
-- from Edutopia

How Design Thinking Can Empower Young People

"When you think about applying and teaching design thinking to really anyone, and especially kids, it's again kind of getting to the heart of empowerment in my mind. And giving them tools and processes internally that they can use to impact the world around them. And instead of running into a wall and deciding that they can't go any further, because they don't have that brainstorming tool, or that problem solving tool, they can think of different ways that they can move past that hurdle, move past that obstacle, and kind of get on to the next thing in their life."
Minneapolis-based People Serving People is a non-profit whose mission is to provide services to assist families experiencing homelessness in becoming self-sufficient and reconnected with their community. People Serving People established a D3 Lab (Dream It, Design It, Do It) in 2012 for teens. The D3 Lab challenges young people to be problem solvers, innovators, risk-takers, and makers as they develop projects that are meaningful to them. Very interesting.
"You need to challenge students because they'll rise to the occasion. They'll rise to the challenge you set forth. And by putting students in the context of a business environment, or real world, you are requiring them to rise to the challenge and you're setting a high expectation of how they're going to perform, how they're going to behave. The output that they're going to produce."
-- from Edutopia

Reclaiming the Freedom to Learn

"If we realize that the real world is the best classroom, that we should not have a separation between living and learning, then I think we could move towards a much better school system, a much better society where creativity, curiosity and passion are the most important things that we look to."
Nikhil Goyal is the author of One Size Does Not Fit All: A Student’s Assessment of School, by the Alternative Education Resource Organization. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and more. For his efforts in education, Goyal accepted the 2013 Freedom Flame Award. Past winners have included Dr. Martin Luther King and John Lewis.
Very passionate and clever for his young age.

Transforming Education - Sir Ken Robinson

"Education is the way in which we invest in our own future and the future of our children..It's education that we depend upon to cultivate the sensibilities, the talents, the abilities, the outlook, the attitudes on which we all depend, both our children, ourselves, it is the way we pass on our traditions, our history, it is the way we engage in the the present and we prepare for the future"
Sir Ken Robinson is an internationally recognized leader in the development of education, creativity and innovation. He is also one of the world’s leading speakers with a profound impact on audiences everywhere. The videos of his famous 2006 and 2010 talks to the prestigious TED Conference have been seen by an estimated 200 million people in over 150 countries.
This is another excellent talk that summarizes Sir Ken's vision on education reform and humanity as expressed in his older presentations. This is so enlightening and entertaining at the same time.
"The real shift is in changing metaphors. The industrial metaphor has dominated education since the middle of the 19th century. The industrial metaphor has given us the current system. I believe we need to shift to a different type of metaphor, to an organic metaphor. Culture is an organic term. Schools are not like mechanisms, they are like organisms, they are living breathing communities of people, who have reciprocal hopes dreams and possibilities. I have yet to find a kid that can't be educated. I have yet to find a school that can't be improved if the capacity of innovation is given to the schools, the principals and teachers that do the work."
-- talk given at "A Collaborative Leadership Summit", Atlanta, September 2013

America’s educational failings

Extracts from Washington Post column by Fareed Zakaria.
"The tests demonstrate that people everywhere develop skills at a young age, peak in proficiency at age 30 and then begin to decline. So, if people start out with bad education and low skills, those disadvantages are likely to persist and grow throughout their lives.""
"What we learn from this study is really just an extension of what we have discovered in the PISA results. The biggest force behind falling American rankings is not that the United States is doing things much worse but that other countries have caught up and are doing better. The U.S. system of education and training is inadequate in the new global environment."
"“The principal force for convergence [of wealth] — the diffusion of knowledge — is only partly natural and spontaneous. It also depends in large part on educational policies,” writes Piketty. In other words, if we really want to reduce inequality, we need to reform the system, spend money where needed — such as early education — and get to work at it now."
-- read article on Washington Post

The science of learning

Judy Willis is an authority on brain research regarding learning and the brain. With the unique background as both a neurologist and classroom teacher, she writes extensively for professional educational journals and has written six books about applying the mind, brain, and education research to classroom teaching strategies, including an ASCD top seller, Research-Based Strategies to Ignite Student Learning.
Here she talks about the science of boredom, how to get students' attention, and the most important lessons for 21st-century learning.
-- found on Edutopia



Also she discusses the Video Game Model as a Learning Tool - We are not big fans of video games in general but this is interesting..

Education Reform - teachers perspective

The Center for Teaching Quality (CTQ) is a non-profit advocacy organization based in North Carolina. They are dedicated to improving education by advancing the teaching profession through targeted research, outreach to policy-makers, and fostering teacher leadership.
Barnett Berry, President and CEO of the advocacy organization Center for Teaching Quality lays out a roadmap for reforming our education system and improving the school environment for "teacherpreneurs." - Edutopia
"We need more highly adaptive solutions on how to help a variety of children reach these high standards. There can be no more top down one size fits all approach to school reform."
-- read "Turning the Tide: Taking Competition Out of School Reform"

The Evolving Classroom

David Thornburg is an award-winning futurist, author, and consultant whose clients range across the public and private sector, both in the United States and in Brazil. As the founder and director of global operations for the Thornburg Center, he conducts research and provides staff development. His educational philosophy is based on the idea that students learn best when they are constructors of their own knowledge -- found on Edutopia
-- read David's blog

Dedicated to all teachers

We already spoke about this guy. Taylor Mali is one of the most well-known poets to have emerged from the poetry slam movement and one of the few people in the world to have no job other than that of poet. He became famous thanks to his poem "What teachers make" which talks about what it really means to be a teacher.
-- get his book: What Teachers Make: In Praise of the Greatest Job in the World
-- Taylor Mali’s List of 1,000 Teachers

"The child shall have full opportunity for play and recreation"

"The child shall have full opportunity for play and recreation, which should be directed to the same purposes as education; society and the public authorities shall endeavour to promote the enjoyment of this right" -- DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD Adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 1386 (XIV) of 10 December 1959
For children, play is a fundamental need just like eating, sleeping or drinking. It is an essential part of growing up and enables children to develop skills for life. Yet despite its recognised benefits, play is increasingly under threat. We need to ensure that children have better and more opportunities to play.
In the following video Toy Industries of Europe (TIE) teamed up with Early Childhood Ireland to ask children what they think about play. Let's forget all the economic interests that might be connected to this...We think that the message is important.
-- go to The Importance of Play website



On the occasion of World Play Day on 28 May, Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Anna Maria Corazza Bildt hosted an event in the European Parliament entitled 'Taking play seriously: investing in Europe's future' to enhance understanding of the unique role of play in supporting children's development. The event was kick-started by Fredrik Härén, a leading expert and author on creativity, who presented his thoughts on how play and creativity benefit society. This event was supported by Toy Industries of Europe (TIE).

Connected Learning: Playing, Creating, Making

The Institute of Play, a not-for-profit design studio, founded in 2007 by a group of game designers in New York City, pioneers new models of learning and engagement.
The meaning of knowing today has shifted from being able to recall and repeat information to being able to find it, evaluate it and use it compellingly at the right time and in the right context. Education in the early part of the twentieth century tended to focus on the acquisition of basic skills and content knowledge, like reading, writing, calculation, history or science. Many experts believe that success in the twenty-first century depends on education that treats higher order skills, like the ability to think, solve complex problems or interact critically through language and media.  Games and the related attributes like play naturally support this form of education. They create a compelling need to know, a need to ask, examine, assimilate and master certain skills and content areas. Some experts argue that games are, first and foremost, learning systems, and that this accounts for the sense of engagement and entertainment players experience.
-- read on Institute of Play website

Learning through play

"When kids fail during the creation of Rube Goldberg and then they iterate, they are really learning to take risks"
"Failure is really bad, but I guess if you have a good attitude, then you can always make it what you wanted it to be and not to get frustrated. So failure's not so bad if you know how to fix it"

What if instruction could actually engage students and get them excited about learning? What if school could foster student creativity and support their expanding imaginations? What if educators around the world had the tools to provide students with the 21st century skills to imagine and create their own futures in our ever-changing global society? At New York City's game-based learning school Quest to Learn, sixth graders take risks in the process of designing a Rube Goldberg machine, which enables more creativity, innovation, and engagement.
-- go to Reframing Failure as Iteration Allows Students to Thrive on Edutopia
-- go to Boss Level: Collaborative Student-Led Learning at Quest to Learn on Edutopia
-- go to Institute of Play
-- watch more videos here


Failure is Reframed as Iteration / Rachelle Vallon from Institute of Play on Vimeo.



It Kinda Feels Like Play / Leah Hirsch from Institute of Play on Vimeo.