The Curiousity Classroom

CULTIVATING CURIOUSITY

Wendy L. Ostroff sets out in her book Cultivating Curiousity in K-12 Classrooms to "...make the case that students' curiousity coupled with teachers' own wonder and experience can guide students into deeper learning." (2)

The author begins by explaining that curiousity "jump starts" deep learning in that it provides the intrinsic motivation for students to want to learn.  From the standpoint of physiology, curiousity causes a surge in dopamine - the so-called "pleasure-producing chemical." (4)  Since dopamine secretion allows the hippocampus - the part of the brain responsible for memory - to function with increased effectiveness, curiousity can thus be said to improve memory of learning experiences.

Ostroff acknowledges, however, that transforming schools such that curious classrooms are the norm will not be an easy process.  Indeed, she contends that "Curiosity is by nature subversive to the traditional, top-down classroom." (6)  Further, she states that a fundamental shift in the role of the teacher "...from one who asks and answers questions, to one who elicits them." (7)

The first step in the process of creating the curiousity classroom is the promotion of exploration and experimentation.  The author explains that active exploration is an optimal means by which young children learn.  She adds that "The way that teachers feel about curiousity directly influences the way that their students explore and inquire." (17)  A specific strategy Orstroff recommends is Choose Your Own Adventure style lessons, which she argues can be adapted for any subject area.  For instance, she writes "In biology, ...a lesson on cells could lead students to six or seven different paths depending on their interests." (20)

The next ingredient in the formation of a culture of curiousity in schools is "autonomous and effortless learning". (22)   The author alludes to Sugata Mitra's well-known hole-in-the wall experiments, in which unschooled children in countries throughout the developing world learned to use computers to access the internet without any assistanc,e as "...resounding evidence that children can learn autonomously and effortlessly." (24)   Effortless learning will occur if students are permitted to work collaboratively, particularly with "more advanced peers". (27)  As well, effortless and autonomous learning will take place when teachers provide unstructured time during the school day. The simplest way to provide unstrucrured time is "...to protect and preserve recess." (30)  The author also recommends both student choice and voice in learning content and methods.  She goes so far to say that "...every single school day must include at least one block of time in which students decide individually what to do." (35)

Ostroff offers several "Curiosity Techniques", as she calls them, in the chapter on autonomous and effortless learning.  One example is action research projects, which connect "...learning to students' current passions and interests." (38)  Another is electronic portfolios that allow students to showcase their learning.  Use of collaborative digital technologies such as TodaysMeet (a chat room that allows students to communicate with each other during classroom lessons) is a particularly good recommendation.

Instrinsic motivation must be embraced in order for a culture of curiousity to thrive.  According to the author, neither rewards nor praise will result in genuinely motivated students; rather, they will create merely compliant students who are focused on "pleasing others" and on "playing the game of school". (46)  Ostroff writes that "Sincere wonder and interest, plus a degree of freedom, is the recipe for keeping students intrinsically motivated." (49)  She adds that an important scaffold for cultivating intrinsic motivation is to embrace mistakes throughout the learning process. Indeed, part of the learning should be "...learning how to handle failure". (57)  An equally important component is a focus on metacognition. " - If students learn how to control their thinking they become more autonomous and self-regulated learners." (59)

Bolstering imagination and creativity is also an important consideration.  The author identifies a number of benefits of imaginative play, particularly in relation to how it supports curiousity.  For one thing, "...pretend play provides great practice in being flexible." (67)  As well, it is linked to vocabulary development and can help children "...understand ideas from another person's point of view". (68)  Imaginative play also has socio-emotional benefits such as helping children learn to be cooperative and helpful and learn to "...better regulate their emotions and feel empathy". (68)  The author recommends storytelling as a means of developing students' imaginations - including collaborative and even math storytelling.

When it comes to advice for teachers in helping students develop their creative capacities, Orstroff recommends "...as many diverse, visceral experiences as possible". (77)   She also points out that teachers "...must be willing to indulge distractions" in the classroom. (79)  She stresses that "The most powerful way to develop creativity in your students is to be a role model." (82)

Supporting questioning and inquiry by students is a powerfully important aspect of the curiousity classroom.  "By asking questions", notes the author, "students become more actively engaged in learning, stimulating cognitive processes and revealing their thinking frameworks." (91)  In short, "questioning pedagogies ...promote deep learning'" (92)

The unfortunate reality, however, is that children's natural tendency to inquire and ask questions is too often stifled at school with, instead, the classroom norm too often being what is termed "banking education", which is "...the transmission of information by the teacher to passive students who receive and are expected to regurgitate that information." (99)

No small consideration in cultivating curiousity is ensuring that students are afforded the luxury of time.  Ostroff states that "...we need to change our rushed-for-outcomes model [of teaching and learning] and begin listening to our students' own rhythms in order to help them grow ...rushing is not the path to deep learning." (111)  As evidence of the value of slowing the frantic pace of learning, the author offers the following: "A quarter of a century of research on literacy ...has shown that reading levels skyrocket when students are given choices of books and the time to get lost in them." (111)  By easing off the accelerator pedal when it comes to learning, teachers will create time and space for students' ideas of interest to emerge.  In order to allow students to experience an optimal state of learning flow in classrooms, teachers must re-think their "relationship to time". (122)  Concludes Ostroff, "It is a grave mistake to prioritize content over intellectual hunger." (125)

Author Wendy L. Ostroff 

Classroom learning environments "...should accommodate varied paces, postures, configurations, and displays." (135)  With respect to displays of student work, teachers should not just show finished work but rather "...exhibit student work in various stages of completion". (129) Movable and comfortable furniture is also needed to support both collaborative and individual learning and various learning paces.  Standing work stations and beanbag-style chairs are examples of furniture for varied postures.  Attention should also be paid to sound and lighting choices.  Good acoustics are needed when there is classroom discussion, and there are many creative ways music can be used to engage students and support their learning.  Likewise "nuances in lighting and color" (139) and plenty of natural lighting can support the curiousity classroom.

Michael Fullan's Indelible Leadership

Book Review: Indelible Leadership

Michael Fullan’s Indelible Leadership is all about teaching and learning innovation that sticks .  Specifically, it explores, “six interlocking tensions” which, if educational leaders rigorously attended to and balanced through a dialectic of sorts, will create innovative school and school district cultures in which deep learning will flourish.

The first theme is moral imperative and uplifting leadership, with the essential tension being that “…moral imperative is sometimes uttered without mobilizing people to enact it. Or people get active without firm goals.” (1)  According to Fullan, the key is to mobilize the collective “…concentration of the group on the moral task [or vision] at hand’ while “reducing distracters”. (4)  The latter may involve reining in the unbridled enthusiasm of some teachers and local educational leaders.  Fullan adds that “…the allure of the 6Cs [global competencies] of helping oneself and humanity” is the moral imperative that will shake teachers out of the current unfulfilling status quo. (5)

Fishbowl 'leap of faith' representing early adopter teachers
who, driven by a moral imperative, embrace the 6 C's 

With respect to balancing the second tension – mastering content and process, Fullan writes, “Leaders have to be equally at home in content and process and in their merging.” (9)  By “mastering content”, he means that leaders must engross themselves in revising good ideas in order to develop even better ideas.  These good ideas or refinements need not come from the leader; in fact, Fullan argues that they should emerge from the interaction of open-minded group members.  He quotes some great advice on this point from David Cote, the CEO of Honeywell, “Your job as a leader is to be right at the end of the meeting, not at the beginning of the meeting.” (11)   In terms of process, the leader’s task is to facilitate skilled participation by all stakeholders.  The product of balanced and relentless focus on content and process is change for the better.

In a statement that will, no doubt, surprise (and even infuriate) some educators and leaders, Fullan contends that the current theory that suggests that if a principal acts as an instructional leader, student achievement will increase is “a dangerous half-truth”. (12)   Rather, in reference to the research of Viviane Robinson (2011), he maintains that the role of the principal should be to lead teaching and learning development by personally participating in network learning.  In other words, the principal is most effective when he/she is a lead learner.

Indeed, the third aspect of indelible leadership is to lead and learn in equal measure.  Fullan states, “In complex situations, leaders listen and learn so that they can lead better.” (17)  He then identifies, for leaders, three tensions within the leading and learning dynamic.  The first is to both respect and reject the status quo. The second is expertise and apprenticeship, which means that “…the leader has expertise in some domains, but she or he must also be a learner (apprentice to those who know more in other respects). (24-25)  Finally, experimentation and commitment should be balanced such that leaders commit to learning from and building on carefully designed experiments and “…consolidate commitment to the good practices and ideas…” that emerge. (25) 

    

Educators are asked to view students as both change agents and “protégés”. (31)  Regarding students as the latter – as individuals requiring support or assistance - is the norm for most teachers; however, Fullan maintains that students should also be viewed as enablers in the learning process: “…Our secret ingredient for transforming the teaching profession toward professional capital is the student as change agent! (37)  By professional capital, Fullan means the ability for all stakeholders in education to “…make expert diagnoses and identify corresponding solutions based on experience and expertise.” (35)  According to the author, students represent the “additional ‘tipping point’ that will serve as a catalyst for professional capital.” (37)  He further describes students as “the saving grace” in innovation of teaching and learning because they “…seem to have little trouble staring the status quo in the face.” (38)

Fullan identifies three specific areas in which students can be agents of change:

1. In changing teacher pedagogical practice;
2. In organizational changes in schools; and,
3. In altruistic societal change.

In a confident and hope-filled statement regarding the transforming power of student agency, the author writes, “Students, deeply involved in meaningful and sophisticated learning projects, represent the most powerful fuel for teachers and administrators, individually and collectively, to radically shift their practice and the conditions that surround it.” (40-41) His summary point on the topic is prophetic: The notion that “…finding better teachers and having them work together will save students …[is] misplaced.  We need students to save students, liberated by enabling teachers and administrators.” (44)

Indelible Leadership concludes with two strategies that focus on systemness.  The first strategy addresses the tension that exists between feeding and being fed by the system.  Fullan believes the best strategy for balancing these tensions and creating system coherence is leadership from the middle (LftM).  Indeed, he contends that “LftM has become the best and most promising hope we have for system transformation.” (49)  With reference to Hargreaves and Ainscow (2015), he identifies the following “virtues” of LftM:

·         Responds to local needs and diversities;

·         Takes collective responsibility for student and staff success;

·         Encourages initiative-taking;

·         Integrates local efforts with broader system priorities; and,

·         Creates transparency of practices and results. (51)

There are several things system leaders in education can do to support LftM and maximize its effectiveness.  First, they should permit local groups “…a degree of freedom from the top (like us but don’t run us)…. (54)  As well, they need to provide opportunities for teachers and local leaders (ie. principals and vice-principals) to connect both laterally and “upward to the next levels.” (58)  Most importantly of all, system leaders must adopt the “revolutionary idea” that the “bottom feeders [teachers, rank and file] are actually not bottom feeders …they are the source of transformation.” (57)  

  

The second strategy for developing a system mindset involves “…leaders developing other leaders who focus on the work and on each other.” (61)  This approach, maintains Fullan, will help leaders find the sweet spot between being essential and becoming dispensable.   Lamenting that the pattern for many educators is that they “…get better in their first years of experience and then stagnate”, and arguing that “…no amount of traditional professional development” improves their performance, Fullan emphasizes the importance of “…job-embedded practice over time, with a coach, mentor, and critical, specific feedback…” that only an experienced leader can provide. (65-66)   

With a play on words derived from the George M. Cohen song “Always Leave Them Laughing When You Say Good-bye”, Fullan concludes this book with this great piece of advice for indelible leaders: “Always leave them learning so that they, in turn, can always leave others learning!” (69)

Although a very short book, Indelible Leadership contains many key points and strategies that will help leaders in education make long-lasting and profound changes that will lead to a dramatic transformation of teaching and learning.  The Action Step questions at the end of each chapter provide great discussion topics for system and school leaders.  Among my favourites are:

• Reflect on the question “Why should anyone work here?” (7)
• Do you believe students are and can be agents of change? (45)
• Name specific things you could do to “liberate” or give more freedom to those immediately below you in the organizational hierarchy. (59)

The 6 Tensions of Indelible Leadership