Compliance in itself is not a bad thing. It exists to ensure school systems and schools function within the rules and regulations set out by governing bodies. Just like when driving your car, everyone is very aware of the rules and regulations established to ensure driver and pedestrian safety. In a similar way, compliance helps … Continue reading Compliance And Accountability Do Not Need To Be Dirty Words
The employment of staff can make or break a school. The wrong person, whether it be a teacher or leader, can have a massive, negative impact on learning and school culture. An adjustment in mindset can help you get it right when it comes to employment. Generally, when employing we tend to focus on filling a … Continue reading Changing Employment Mindset: Employ People Who Are Better Than You
Some may assume that our Organic Learning Cycle is another version of an inquiry model. The truth is that it is purely a 'learning model'. Indeed the cycle is designed to help pose, find and solve problems in an inquiry sense, but the model just as brilliantly aligns itself with explicit/guided instruction, and in particular, … Continue reading Successful Literacy/Numeracy Instruction using Organic Learning
There are so many structures and processes in schools today that directly connect us to the old 'factory model' of education. Even with the construction of new schools, the model is still pretty much the same. There are some innovative practices in flexible learning spaces and methodologies for individualising learning, but our schools are still fundamentally … Continue reading It’s Time for Education to Let Go of its Autocratic Accountability Mindset
Innovation is a highly prized ingredient in any high performing school system. I find it interesting then, when government and/or school systems mandate school participation in 'innovation projects' and expect a significant impact on school-wide learning. Contrary to this approach is the idea of ground up innovation, where innovation occurs naturally based on an observed need … Continue reading WeLearn: By Teachers for Teachers (An Organic, Ground Up Innovation)
I have not collected any hard data on this as yet, but since implementing Organic Learning across our school it is becoming increasingly obvious that our students are in fact more inquisitive. Is this as a result of Organic Learning or something else? There are a number of contributing factors to consider in this observed growth in curiosity. Firstly, as part of our … Continue reading Do Inquisitive Teachers have more Inquisitive Students?
We believe the key to eradicating ambiguity in school-wide learning is to align the learning process for all stakeholders. In our community, this is achieved through the Organic Learning Cycle. The cycle has been developed so that it can be utilised for every aspect of learning in the school whether you are a student, teacher, parent or leader. Our aim … Continue reading Eradicate Ambiguity in Learning by Aligning Processes Using an Organic Learning Rubric
Our Organic Learning Cycle has been evolving since 2015. We attribute a lot of our thinking to our learning in Design Thinking. Significant staff changes and participation in system/government improvement projects led us to uncover tensions and ambiguities in our school-wide structures and processes that required critical discernment and creative thinking 'outside the box'. This became an opportunity to create a school research project and 'shake … Continue reading Organic Learning Cycle
We are all aware of the dependency on the quantitative collection of student learning and the high stakes associated with it - externalised testing which results in funding, which is tied to further data collection. The cycle continues and grows moss along the way. What about the emotional connection to learning? Can we put a … Continue reading Student Metacognition: Using a Competency Rubric to Assess Deep Learning
Learning is a lifelong journey, no doubt about it. If ever you get to a point in life when you believe your learning has come to an end, then you may as well lay down in bed and not bother getting out. When you stop learning, you stop living. Covey talked about 'keeping the main … Continue reading Why Self-Determined Learning Should Be The Main Thing
Organic Learning 