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This discussion forum is being moderated as an expression of servant leadership in teaching & learning. As a collaborative tool for brainstorming enriching experiences for students, teacher learning groups, and district learning teams, we can inspire and build experiences to help empower each of us to personal leadership in learning. Thank you, in advance, for your contributions and leadership to realizing outcomes for improving student achievement, equity and well-being.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

inspiring insights towards innovative teaching practices

7/10/2019

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Welcome back to Flipping the Focus.

As suggested by the title of today's post, ...
  • What inspires you towards being innovative in your teaching (or leadership) practice?
  • How do you come by inspiration?
  • And better yet, what do you do to move yourself and others FROM insight TO implementation TO staying the course?
Artist's blank canvas and paint brushes
A) Sources of Inspiration
This Spring and Summer, I've had the privilege of contributing my experiences in Education as a course instructor for Intermediate and Senior Math ABQs through the University of Windsor's Centre for Teaching and Learning. And I must say that this has and continues to be a source of inspiration for my own pedagogical practice and instructional leadership. I am both thankful and grateful for my students' leadership in learning for and on behalf of one another.

Of the many discussions and assignments that students engage in, most recently students completed some background research on gap-closing in Mathematics and shared and discussed their perspectives with one another. What came out of that discussion for both students and their instructor (me) was a deepened sense of learning for all--all of it made possible by the authentic engagement of each contributor. And the discussion went well beyond working to close gaps: the conversation guided us towards planning the actions we could take to prevent gaps from being created and widened over time.

Below is a response that was shared with students as general commentary and feedback to the insights evoked from their contributions--A Letter to Students: Gap-closing in Mathematics. At this time, I'm sharing it with you for your consideration and commentary.

B) A Letter to Students: Gap-closing in Mathematics

"Hello Everyone. What a lively discussion around why gaps occur, what to do when they do, and most importantly how to address closing them! From what I can see, as the conversation evolved, is a theme of pro-activity. Thanks so much for your contributions.

A number of keywords 'lifted' off the page for me, as I spent time thinking about your posts. Perhaps, this highlighting bears some implicit bias as per my experiences, but I hope that you don't mind me sharing. These words included the following:

LIST: diagnostic, extra support, learning styles, school/district support, SES, student engagement, novelty (interpreted), assessment (formative; interpreted), confidence & teacher efficacy (interpreted).
Interestingly, if other educators were to look upon this list without context, I'm not altogether certain that "gap-closing" would be the first response. So what does this mean? I'm going to refer back to a term/adjective that <student> has been using in some of their posts--and that term is "dynamic".

If you have a moment, perhaps you can scan the following Capacity-Building Series document on "Dynamic Learning" (2013) and see how the ideas presented there either square with your thinking, leave you wondering, and/or give you takeaways to apply to your pedagogical practice. The monograph aims to connect student learning with teacher learning--i.e., what it means to be a dynamic learner (either from the student or educator perspective). I think that you'll find it both inspiring and thought-provoking.

After I took time to scan the monograph and do some further reflection, I thought about re-grouping the terms into an overarching theme and sub-groups. 

RE-GROUPING: Over-arching Theme: Student Engagement | Group 1: diagnostic, learning styles, novelty | Group 2: assessment, learning goals, backwards design | Group 3: extra support, school/district support, SES, individual & collective teacher efficacy

Essentially, our role is to help students engage in learning--learning that is relevant and meaningful, as well as learning to becoming more assessment-capable over time. This is the over-arching theme I'm proposing.

Groups 1 & 2 refer to those aspects of pedagogical practice that fall within the domain of educators and groups of educators. Group 1 aspects focus on getting to know students early on, and the term "novelty" (interpreted from one of the posts) relates to getting to know our students, as uniqueness in the experiences we cultivate are paramount to student engagement. There is a fair amount of cognitive/brain science that relates to novelty and its importance in students transferring their learning to long-term memory and/or having facility in retrieving information. For additional reading, I'd like to suggest the following:

Book: How the Brain Learns Mathematics (2015) by David A. Sousa.

If you have the opportunity to purchase (or borrow) the book and study it with colleagues (e.g., a book study with a school learning team), I think you'll find some wonderful benefits there. Chapters 5 & 6 deal with the concept of novelty and learning for both the pre-adolescent and adolescent brain. It's a great resource to have in your professional library.

Group 2 is the "heart-and-soul" or "art of teaching" that we engage in daily, and from a macro-level, we spend significant amounts of time in terms of designing assessment plans that flow from the big ideas and curriculum (call this "Point A") to students identifying what's important to their learning (these very ideas; call this "Point B"). Although simply put, there's so much that happens between these points in time and is consistently influenced by the Group 1 aspects you've brought to light. And let us not forget the importance of students being a part of co-designing the assessment process (this has also been mentioned (interpreted from) several of your comments in different posts).

Group 3 elements are primarily directed from the domain of instructional leaders--be they teacher-leaders, administrators, supervisory officers or a combination of all three. The formalized, extra support examples in our discussion were tied to also boosting parent confidence in the supports being made available to their children. Certainly in these times (and historically), it's key that we are growing public confidence in public education, as "we're all in this together"--parent engagement...not just involvement...is important to student and school success.

As per the research of Dr. Ken Leithwood, adherence to school improvement, with a predominant focus on parent confidence and engagement  (what is referred to as the "Parent Path") will not effectively yield the sought improvements in student engagement and achievement, but it is one of several contributing factors. The greatest (most influential) factor upon a school's improvement is a focus on the teaching and learning that educators and their students do on a daily basis--teaching, as I identified earlier, being driven by student need. This is well-documented in the research literature (e.g., Viviane Robinson, University of Auckland) and is a key aspect of any leader's approach to school improvement. 

The mechanism for these improvements lies in what we refer to as Collaborative Inquiry--i.e., investigating a shared problem of practice that relates to pedagogical practice. For example, at the elementary level, we might focus on unpacking a continuum of additive or multiplicative strategies for operating on numbers. In the secondary panel, we might focus on formative assessment practices--i.e., what the use of conversations, observations and products looks like for both teachers and their students.

These shared problems change over time, as educators, schools and systems evolve with new student and societal challenges being identified as urgent needs. The collaborative study (as done by learning teams) is also a source of increasing both individual and collective teacher confidence and efficacy towards improving student engagement and achievement.

This brings me back to the theme mentioned at the outset of my response: pro-activity. Throughout this post, I haven't been referring to and/or using the term, "gap" or "gap-closing". This is not intentional: it's a product of what you've presented along the way. This, in no way, implies that gap-closing is not going to be addressed. Veritably, there are times where we need to provide tiered supports to students to help them draw closer to the goals of the curriculum they're working towards attaining--absolutely. My point, here (as you've inspired), is that which we do in preparation for (i.e., our own learning...as determined by student need), during (based on ongoing, formative assessment), and after (reflecting upon the monitoring of students' learning and our own) working with our students over specific intervals of time can and will go a long way to help close learning gaps (i.e., for students) and achievement gaps (for groups).

As for mitigating factors--SES, parent engagement, supports from districts and other sources, etc.--we will always be working alongside these (sometimes urgently, persistently, flexibly or a mixture of all of these modes), but amazing things can be accomplished with our most challenging students when they are motivated to learn--cared for, challenged and championed by the adults in their school.

Lastly, in addition to the resources I've suggested earlier (Dynamic Learning, David Sousa, and the work of Dr. Ken Leithwood), you might find the following helpful in your journey. I've included links to make them more accessible.

-Ontario's "Achieving Excellence" document (2014)
-Learning for All (Ministry of Education, 2013)
-Focusing on the Fundamentals of Mathematics: Teacher's Guide (2018)

I hope that you've found this post helpful and that you've been as inspired by your peers' contributions as I have been. Thanks again for your contributions...so appreciated. If you have any further comments to share to this thread, and/or have additional questions/comments you'd like to share with me, please feel free to do so.

All the best, Chris."

C) Inspiring Insights Towards Innovation in Teaching
Outside of accreditation being a source of external inspiration, what are the primary, internal drivers for a group of professional educators to generating insights towards innovation? Our purpose and intentions--to improve the conditions for both teaching and learning--are supported because our own learning involves the following drivers:
  • Relevant curriculum and meaning-making supported
  • Collaborative and supportive learning environments
    • Relational trust links being established
  • Building knowledge from places of strength and experience, as well as being research-informed
  • Accountability to learning on behalf of others
  • Autonomy through the group, as well as respect for individual choices, contributions, and self-pacing
These are but a few sources that come to mind, and perhaps there are more and/or specific examples of these drivers influencing innovation. If you are inspired by this post; that is, if you find yourself drawing nearer to the example and perspectives shared through this post, I would like to encourage you to comment to this forum by responding to the prompts shared at the outset:

  • What inspires you towards being innovative in your teaching (or leadership) practice?
  • How do you come by inspiration?
  • And better yet, what do you do to move yourself and others FROM insight TO implementation TO staying the course?

D) Final Remarks
In closing, I can't help but to think of the conversations that can be inspired when we take collective action to improving student learning. As this blog is a means for readers to network and gradually change the context for how they teach and learn, we all benefit by drawing nearer to the perspectives shared here and shared beyond with our professional learning networks.
​
I am more than happy to collaborate with you and make our learning visible, here. If at any time, you have questions or comments, please feel free to reach out to me at Flipping the Focus. 


Sincerely,

Chris Stewart, OCT
Education Leader at Flipping the Focus
CONTACT CHRIS
LET'S COLLABORATE!
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developing through Assets: Initiating the School-based Flip to supporting Pl in mathematics

3/22/2015

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Welcome back to Flipping the Focus

In the last post, I shared some additional thoughts regarding digital leadership by sharing my developing experience with using the web-based, story-telling platform, Storify.  Also, mathematics teacher, Kyle Pearce (Ministry-funded 1:1 project, Tap Into Teen Minds) shared his experiences with the pdf annotation tool, GoodNotes.  You can access Kyle's comments, along with those made by others regarding other digital technology tools for the classroom, using the button provided (see right).
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Today's post takes us into the realms and intersections of educational leadership, teacher professional learning, and of course, flipping our role from teacher to facilitator-collaborator.  Throughout, I've inserted some prompts to consider information and/or to engage in reflection.  If there are parts of this post which you're connecting with, are curious about, and/or have challenged your thinking/beliefs, please feel free to help build our community of professional learning by leaving a comment (comment button located at the end of this post). 
TECH TOOLS


A) Taking Action: A Plan for Improving Mathematics Education
To get things started, let's consider the recently-released A) 2014-15 Mathematics Action Plan (Ontario Ministry of Education, January 2015) for improving Mathematics education in Ontario, some factors that have been identified as contributing to B) gaps in students' developing mathematical understanding, as well as some facets of C) educational leadership.  Altogether, these works might lend themselves to helping frame our thinking around how we can be further D) innovative to helping derive student-centred learning that impacts engagement in school and achievement.

1-TRY THIS
If you haven't yet had a chance to take a look at the Action Plan, I've posted it below for your perusal.
  • Take Action: Having reflected upon the plan, consider sharing what has resonated with you and/or connections you've made to practice by commenting to this post. 
According to Ontario's Deputy Minister of Education, "...increasing mathematics achievement will remain as the Ministry of Education's first student achievement priority."  Deputy Zegarac also asks that each school board in Ontario continues to work with the Ministry to "...go deeper with ... shared efforts through the ... Action Plan."

If you've been a part of system- and/or school-based collaborative inquiries, then we might be able to connect readily to one of the three areas of support listed:
increased in-service supports and professional pedagogical learning.  And as far as the various practices that can be used to provide such supports, it is recognized that there is no single, best practice to support the plan for improving student achievement.  In more detail, the increased professional pedagogical learning can be broken down into the following aspects: mathematics content knowledge for teaching, pedagogical knowledge, effective assessment, and deep knowledge of the mathematics curriculum.

Among the various conversations that I have had with other educators around the topic of professional learning in mathematics, it seems as though we are working towards deepening our shared understanding of the four aspects
through problem solving and communication in mathematics, as they are "central to doing and learning mathematics" (EduGAINS).  


Case Study: Junior Mathematics Study, Upper Canada DSB

For example and representative of Foundational Principle #4 (Support Collaborative Professional Learning in Mathematics) in the Upper Canada DSB, the Junior Mathematics Study serves to help focus professional educators' learning largely through the lens of what occurs 'at the student desk.' By supporting teacher learning through classroom inquiry, we are deepening our content, pedagogical, and curriculum knowledge concurrently.  Let's consider what activities constitute one cycle* of support for professional learning.

As schools gather together for a co-facilitated study day**, the day generally begins with a sharing of what inquiries are being explored and/or questions that have been arising within and across school teams to build in 'flow' from one cycle to another and to help the family of schools build capacity and strengthen relationships.


Typically, and following this opening exercise, with problem solving and communication in mind (as they relate to the lesson prompts being shared with students that day), educators take some time to read and/or view videos (research/expert-based), dialogue and discuss connections of research to practice.  With a broadened perspective coming from external frameworks, it's time to 'try on' some of the mathematics for ourselves.  During this time, educators reflect upon how they have tackled the problem (various ways) and to anticipate how their students might approach such a problem.  

Prior to any classroom experience, we review the rationale and importance of remaining within a descriptive mode of observation (City et al., 2009)--taking time to sit with pairs of students, documenting and allowing students some space to think mathematically.

The classroom experience, as facilitated by mathematics resource teachers, provides students and teachers an opportunity to consider the complexity of teaching and learning mathematics. Instructional moves, student voice, classroom community, assessment for learning, questioning, responsiveness, and helping students to consolidate their thinking to forming new knowledge and developing problem solving skills are a variety of pedagogical factors under consideration.


Following one or more classroom experiences on the study day, classroom experiences are debriefed--describing observations of student thinking, co-planning consolidation of student thinking, anchoring into curriculum, resources, and/or external frameworks. And as the end of the day of study draws to a close, the day is summarized and the group breaks into their school teams to reflect upon the day.  School teams will also think about their first follow-up half-day*** and consider what their 'in-between' work might be (e.g., consider how the group's study can be aligned with school-based practices) leading up to the their second, half-day*** of collaborative study.

Graphic: The Upper Canada DSB Junior Math Study Cycle
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Definitions:

*Cycle = One cycle is composed of one, full day of group study; followed by two half-days*** of study in each of the schools that form the group.  There are 6 cycles of study over the course of a year.

**Study Day (co-facilitated) = 4 to 5 schools meet at a host school site ((average of 3 teachers + administrator)/school).


***Half-days (co-facilitated) = Each school receives two, additional half-days of support for math study in their respective schools. The first half-day allows the school to engage in the group lesson from the Study Day. The second half-day is differentiated to provide opportunities for schools to engage in additional activities to help support professional and student learning in mathematics.


B) Factors Contributing to Gaps in Practice and Student Learning
The sustained support of collaborative professional learning in mathematics, as exemplified across nine district school boards (EOSDN: Eastern Ontario Staff Development Network), is critical to transferring learning into teacher practice (Professor Don Klinger, Queen's University).  

As a part of a presentation made to the Council of Directors of Education (i.e., on the day following the release of the
2014-15 Action Plan), Mary Jean Gallagher (Chief Student Achievement Officer, Assistant Deputy Minister, Student Achievement Division), brought forward "...hypotheses and supporting evidence regarding the causes contributing to declining mathematics performance, as measured by EQAO assessments in grades 3 and 6." The information provided was submitted by 110 knowledgeable others invited to share their expertise.  Based on 44 submissions, five themes emerged from an analysis made by Ministry staff.  The themes or "gaps" are as follows: Approach, Conceptual/Contextual, Engagement/Confidence, Measurement, and Curriculum/Resources.

2-TRY THIS
a) Take a moment to scroll through the following set of slides to familiarize yourself with the five themes ("gaps").
  • E.g., Upper Canada Connection: As evidenced by the success of the first year of our network of collaborative professional learning, I believe that we are engaging in a form of learning that has the potential to help professional educators work with/counter each of the gaps mentioned (above).
b) Try scrolling through the slides a second time. Think about how the professional learning and practice you're engaging in works to minimize these gap factors.
  • Take Action: Contribute your thinking by sharing through commenting to this post.
3-CONSIDER THIS
Alternatively, ...

  • is it possible that we might be able to see these factors as descriptions of assets...of partially-grasped ideas/plans in action? 
  • Through sustained professional learning and transferring learning to practice, do we see these factors as themes for the development of the "instructional core?"


C) Educational Leadership
Thus far, much has been said about system-directed professional learning in mathematics, but as indicated in the 2014-15 Action Plan and in Paying Attention to Mathematics (K-12), the "instructional core" is also strengthened when instructional leadership, at the school-level, helps to foster high-quality teaching and learning. Through effective leadership, aligning school goals with systemic direction can further support a professional learning model that can counter the "gaps"/move learning forward by describing assets gained working through these themes.

As of late, something that I've been wondering about is what it takes to effectively lead strengthening of the instructional core.  
  • What practices have the greatest impact on its improvement?  

Recently, our team of mathematics facilitators was reviewing some of Viviane Robinson's (Academic Director, University of Auckland Centre of Educational Leadership) work (pictured below) regarding leadership practices that impact the quality of teaching and learning.

The graphic, below, indicates 5 dimensions of student-centred leadership--"leadership that makes a difference to the equity and excellence of student outcomes."  Each of these dimensions impacts the development of high quality teaching and learning in schools. The second graphic depicts the effect size of each of these dimensions.  Readily observable is the relatively larger e
ffect size for "Leading teacher learning and development."  Viviane describes this dimension as "[l]eadership that not only promotes but directly participates with teachers in formal or informal professional learning."
  • A Note on Effect Size:  0.4 is representative of the average impact/effect that one would expect to occur from one year of schooling.

As per this definition, "Leading teacher learning and development" has a significantly greater impact on student learning outcomes than any of the remaining dimensions.


4-CONSIDER THIS
  • Is this what you would expect? Why or why not?
TRY THIS
  • Have you had experiences that confirm this or otherwise?  Consider sharing your expertise by commenting to this post.
  • For further reading about leadership that participates with teachers in professional learning, consider Principals as Co-learners: Supporting the Promise of Collaborative Inquiry
Graphic: Leadership Dimensions
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Graphic: Effect Sizes for the Five Leadership Dimensions
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Five Dimensions of Student-Centred Leadership (Robinson & Emstad)

D) Innovating Practice that Cultivates Student-Centred Learning

Giving consideration to going deeper with the provincial mathematics action plan to address the "gaps" identified and to the impact that leadership can have when leaders are not only promoting but directly participating with teachers, ...
  • What is it that we are doing/could be doing differently in our schools to help improve students' educational experience and achievement?
  • What can we innovate to meet the demands of transitioning to a practice that supports student-centred leadership and learning?  And these demands are real and important to pay attention to.  In fact, upon examination of a listing of Hattie's effect sizes, student-centred learning approaches (e.g., self-report grades, 1.44; acceleration, 0.88; meta-cognitive strategies, 0.69) seem to have an impact relatively greater to a variety of other approaches--approaches that we might categorize as being more teacher-driven. 

In a September 2014 interview with Professionally Speaking, Professor Emeritus at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education/University of Toronto, Michael Fullan, made a statement how project-based and flipped learning are strategies that could help students to further deepen their understanding.


In fact, there is a growing number of educators who are sharing their perspectives as to how flipped learning is not only transforming their practice but is resulting in increased student engagement, and in some cases, achievement (Bergmann & Sams, 2014; Flumerfelt & Green, 2013; Horn, 2013; Kim et al., 2014; McEvoy et al., 2014).
_______________________________________________________________________________

QUESTION
What is it about the flipped learning strategy that has educators and their students pushing the boundaries of teaching and learning and resulting in greater engagement and achievement?

________________________________________________________________________________

I believe the answer (as you might find through the references listed at the end of this post) lies in the manifestation of a shared and social endeavour (collaborative, purposeful learning)...a learning strategy that puts learning into the time and space of the student (autonomous, mastery learning)...and described by the Flipped Learning Network as ...


  • "... a pedagogical approach in which direct instruction moves from the group learning space to the individual learning space, and the resulting group space is transformed into a dynamic, interactive learning environment where the educator guides students as they apply concepts and engage creatively in the subject matter."  

The dynamic and interactive nature of this learning environment is supported when students and teachers blend on-line with face-to-face learning components.  The on-line component can involve video delivery of content and/or instruction; the face-to-face component, discussion feeding into and resulting from students engaging in collaborative problem solving. 

Ultimately, flipped learning has the potential to reinforce student-centred learning—learning where students can interact with content at their own pace, in their own place and time, and work towards deepening their understanding.  In my professional experience as a classroom teacher, I designed, implemented, sustained, and measured the outcomes of a flipped classroom model in a senior mathematics course (2013). Through the co-learning experience (i.e., with students), we refined the model so that it helped them to best meet their expectations of learning. For example, shortening instructional videos and providing templates for creating summaries were students' suggestions used in refining and renewing the process we were following.

E) Getting Started with Innovation
Alright.  Where to begin?  

The beginning or initiation might be to consider our own efficacy regarding planning and implementing a flipped classroom approach to differentiating the learning process for our students.

Sometimes, we need to have a variety of different types of experiences to feel that we can really impact student engagement and achievement by trying something new.  As described by Bandura (1977), there are certain kinds of professional learning experiences that we need to experience to help impact student learning (and our own).  These include vicarious, social persuasion, affective feedback, and mastery experiences.
  • vicarious experience = an experience that includes observing teachers and/or students 'trying on' something that is new to the observer
  • social persuasion = believing that one can try something new because others  are trying it and experiencing some success (builds collective efficacy)
  • affective feedback = experiencing positive and encouraging feedback from students and/or colleagues (e.g., a student describing how helpful a particular technique was to their learning)
  • mastery experience = an experience where, having had an opportunity to practice/develop (possibly) a particular pedagogical strategy, an educator senses that there is 'flow' to a lesson, students are engaged and learning.

Co-pioneer of Flipped Learning, Jon Bergmann, hosts a radio show called "The FlipSide."  Through the interviews that Jon conducts, various aspects of the flipped classroom are explored through the experiences of educators working through the model in their practice.  


5-CONSIDER THIS
Below, I've included links to three podcasts and excerpted descriptions of each of them.  This is but one way that we might readily, through this forum, gain some 'experience' (vicarious and/or social) with flipped learning.  For instance, you might be wondering about the successes and/or challenges associated with the strategy.

Take Action: 
  • Listen to any or all of the podcasts provided.
  • Having reflected upon these educators' experiences, consider sharing what has resonated with you and/or connections you've made to practice by commenting to this post.  
  • Consider commenting about mindset also.  Do you feel like there are some 'hurdles' that you'd have to clear before trying a flipped lesson, or do you feel like you'd be clearing 'hurdles' through the process of trying a flipped lesson? 

Podcast: http://www.jackstreet.com/jackstreet/WFLP.Kirch.cfm
  • "Crystal Kirch is a high school math teacher from Southern California who has transformed her classes with a flipped learning model over the last three years. She enjoys sharing her journey with other educators through her blog, Flipping With Kirch (flippingwithkirch.blogspot.com) handle is @crystalkirch."

Podcast: http://www.jackstreet.com/jackstreet/WFLP.Meyer.cfm
  • "Amanda Meyer has been teaching High School students in rural Minnesota for over ten years. She employs aspects of project-based learning, inquiry, and flipped learning in her Biology, Anatomy, and College Biology classes." 

Podcast: http://www.jackstreet.com/jackstreet/WFLP.avon.cfm
  • "Nicole Avon, twitter handle @AvonPhysics, teaches a Flipped Physics Class at Mars Area High School (site of FlipCon14), where she has been a teacher for 11 years."


In the "Take Action" activity (above), I provided a reflection prompt regarding how we might consider addressing challenges/clearing 'hurdles' with flipped learning.  Recently, I got together with a few colleagues who are currently teaching Intermediate Mathematics (Grades 7 to 10) and who had expressed interest in learning about the strategy of flipped learning.

During the course of our discussion, we covered such themes as pedagogical approach, engagement, measurement, and curriculum/resources--these themes just so happen to be ;) the gap factors associated with the Provincial Action Plan and/or, if you like, themes/assets to guide improvement of the "instructional core."

You can see these themes in the first column of the table that I've provided below--"Innovating Towards Student-Centred Leadership: Learning through the 'Flip.'" The table summarizes the discussion, next steps, and lead change agent(s) for each next step.

Table-Innovating Towards Student-Centred Leadership: Learning through the 'Flip'
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Upon examination of the discussion details (table, above and below), you can see that there are pedagogical and logistical challenges being highlighted.  Under "Next Steps," resolutions or next steps have been proposed to seeing that the achievement factors are able to further impact student learning.  Lastly, the final column lists those individuals who might have the most change influence to starting to move the learning (flipped) forward.  For example, if we consider student engagement, then there is a shared leadership amongst teachers, administrators, and parents to helping create, implement, and sustain a successful flipped learning model.
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6-CONSIDER THIS
If you take a second look at the final column of the table(s) above, you'll notice that teachers, administrators, and parents have a proposed role in helping to move learning forward.  But...we're missing one critical element, or rather 'group' element, to more fully understanding the complexity of teaching and learning--our students!


Take Action: Alright...please share a few, final thoughts.
  • One more time, take a look at the themes, discussion, and next steps for any or all parts of the table. Where would you/how would you incorporate student voice/choice/input/leadership/etc so that you could list "students" as a group responsible for leading/influencing change?  
  •  If there doesn't seem to be a part of the table that fits your thinking about incorporating student leadership, what 'part' would you devise and why? Explain how you incorporate student leadership.  

F) Some Concluding Thoughts
As this post has developed, we've had an opportunity to reflect upon improving the "instructional core" from a variety of perspectives--provincial-, system-, school-, and classroom-based perspectives--only to see the innovation of flipped learning fold back on/fold into where we started--an action plan for improving achievement in mathematics.  I believe that the development of this post and the mention of using a blended model of learning (i.e., flipped learning) is consistent with this plan: "...as far as the various practices that can be used to provide such supports, it is recognized that there is no single, best practice to support the plan for improving student achievement" (2014-15 Mathematics Action Plan).

So what will it take to move us forward? Even if it's just one of us?

There is a shared responsibility around leading the 'charge,' but it appears as though building momentum can come from the following:
  •  "increasing in-service supports and professional pedagogical learning" (Action Plan)
  • Let's add that the pedagogical learning is done through the lenses of problem solving and communication in mathematics (EduGAINS)
  • identifying and working with learning assets from the five themes: approach, conceptual/contextual, engagement/confidence, measurement, and curriculum/resources (Mary Jean Gallagher, Action Plan)
  • focusing leadership initiatives around teacher learning and development (Viviane Robinson)
  • To the leadership aspect, let's add that teacher learning and development is done through collaborative inquiry (Principals as Co-learners; sustained support to transfer learning into practice, Don Klinger-Queen's University)
  • Through effective leadership, let's cultivate innovation that puts student learning not only at the forefront but makes learning student-centred (Robinson, Hattie)
  • For culturing innovation, let's try a variety of approaches--inquiry-based, project-based, and flipped learning (Michael Fullan)
  • To see that flipped learning has an impact on student learning, we need to build our own efficacy...best done through collaboration and with support from others.  And as part of the group of 'others,' let's not forget our most important audience and contributing collaborators--our students
 
Thanks, in advance, for your participation with Flipping the Focus.


Sincerely Yours,


Chris Stewart, OCT
Program Resource Teacher-Mathematics
Upper Canada DSB, Brockville, ON



G) References & Further Reading
Bergmann, J., & Sams, A. (2014). Flipped learning: Gateway to student engagement (1st ed., pp. 21-38). Eugene: ISTE

City, E. et al. (2009). Instructional rounds in education: A network approach to improving teaching and learning. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Education Press.  

Flumerfelt, S., & Green, G. (2013). Using lean in the flipped classroom for at risk students. Educational Technology & Society, 16(1), 356-366. Retrieved January 27, 2015, from Academic Search Complete.

Hamdan, N., McKnight, P., McKnight, K., & Arfstrom, K. (n.d.). The flipped learning model: A white paper based on the literature review titled "a review of flipped learning". Retrieved from http://researchnetwork.pearson.com/wp-content/uploads/WhitePaper_FlippedLearning.pdf

Horn, M. (2013). The transformational potential of flipped classrooms: Different strokes for different folks. Education Next, 78-79.

Kim, S., Park, N., & Joo, K. (2014). Effects of flipped classroom based on smart learning on self-directed and collaborative learning. International Journal of Control and Automation, 7(12), 69-80. Retrieved January 27, 2015, from Academic Search Complete.


McEvoy, C. S., et al. (2014). Use of medical students in a flipped classroom programme in nutrition education for fourth grade school students. Health Education Journal, 1-9. Retrieved February 21, 2015, from hej.sagepub.com


Self-efficacy defined. (n.d.). Retrieved March 21, 2015, from http://www.uky.edu/~eushe2/Bandura/BanEncy.html 

What is Flipped Learning? (2014, March 12). Retrieved March 14, 2015, from
http://flippedlearning.org//site/Default.aspx?PageID=92



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    I am passionate about leadership for learning and teaching and learning through inquiry. Through collaborative exploration of high-yield, pedagogical strategies, I have been able to further engage students to deepen their learning and fellow educators in continuously growing their practice--Flipped Learning, Thinking Classrooms, and culturing Student Voice as examples.  I hope that this site serves you well in your educational journey through teaching and learning by moving professional learning into your time ... your space. If you have questions or feedback, please feel free to contact me. Sincerely, Chris Stewart (OCT).

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