Accelerating Change In Schools

This book presents major findings from a research study exploring the leadership needed to enact rapid change – defined as three years or less – in various school contexts, overtly including the perspectives of leaders, teachers, students, parents, community members, and district leaders.

This book presents major findings from a research study exploring the leadership needed to enact rapid change – defined as three years or less – in various school contexts, overtly including the perspectives of leaders, teachers, students, parents, community members, and district leaders.

We live in turbulent times, our world is changing at accelerating speed. Information is everywhere, but wisdom appears in short supply when trying to address key inter-related challenges of our time such as; runaway climate change, the loss of biodiversity, the depletion of natural resources, the on-going homogenization of culture, and rising inequity. Living in such times has implications for education and learning. This book explores the possibilities of designing and facilitating learning-based change and transitions towards sustainability. In 31 chapters contributors from across the world discuss (re)emerging forms of learning that not only assist in breaking down unsustainable routines, forms of governance, production and consumption, but also can help create ones that are more sustainable. The book has been divided into three parts: re-orienting science and society, re-connecting people and planet and re-imagining education and learning. This is essential reading for educators, educational designers, change agents, researchers, students, policymakers and entrepreneurs alike, who are concerned about the well-being of the planet and convinced of our ability to do better. The content and related issues can be discussed on the blog by editor Arjen Wals: Transformative learning. 'We are living in times of incertitude, complexity, and contestation, but also of connectivity, responsibility, and new opportunities. This book analyses the consequences of these times for learning in formal, non-formal, and informal education. It explores the possibilities offered by the concept of sustainability as a central category of a holistic paradigm which harmonizes human beings with Earth. To change people and to change the world are interdependent processes - this book contributes to both.' Moacir Gadotti, Director of Paulo Freire Institute, São Paulo, Brazil 'I hope you share my excitement about the innovations for sustainability that this book catalogues and analyses. While the ecological news is grim, the human news is not. Even in a time of accelerating change, people are showing their enormous capacities to learn, adapt, restore and protect.' From the Foreword by Juliet Schor, author of ‘True Wealth: how and why millions of Americans are creating a time-rich, ecologically-light, small-scale high-satisfaction economy’ 'This book implies a ‘culture of critical commitment’ in educational thinking and practice - engaged enough to make a real difference to social-ecological resilience and sustainability but reflexively critical enough to learn constantly from experience and to keep options open in working for a sustainability transformation.' From the Afterword by Stephen Sterling, Professor of Sustainability Education, Centre for Sustainable Futures, Plymouth University, United Kingdom

Isn't acceleration just for gifted kids? This is a common assumption when we think about who benefits from efforts to accelerate student learning. For generations, students identified as gifted have been separated from other students and provided enriched learning opportunities many adults believe would be wasted on other students. More recently, in response to failed efforts to remediate low-achieving students, the term has been extended to efforts to reverse the negative effects of grade retention for many low-achieving students. The most promising application of the term involves efforts to extend the curriculum and instruction usually reserved for gifted students to all students.Accelerating the Learning of All Students: Cultivating Culture Change in Schools, Classrooms, and Individuals explores the multiple applications of the term "acceleration" and the assumptions that shape schools, classrooms, and individuals that encourage and discourage efforts to accelerate the learning of all students. This book begins with an exploration of the multiple definitions of acceleration, examining the social and historical context that led to an emphasis on labeling and sorting students. Descriptions of exemplary programs geared to each group of students provide useful ideas for addressing special needs of students. These descriptions also illustrate the wisdom of providing a rich, challenging learning experience to all students rather than focussing on separating them for special instruction. The book proceeds to explore the conditions in schools and classrooms that facilitate or hinder efforts to accelerate learning of all students. Focusing on the importance of changing individuals' assumptions about students, adult roles in schools, acceptable educational practices, appropriate communication patterns and the value of change, the book ends with a challenge to all of us to assume responsibility for making schools a better place for all students. Written by authors who bring a wealth of experiences to this topic, Christine Finnan and Julie D. Swanson draw on their own research and experience and on current research to provide a much-needed exploration of issues surrounding efforts to effectively educate all students. Accelerating the Learning of All Students provides hope to all citizens and educators that the dismal history of educating low-income students can be turned around, and that all students can be provided the rich, engaging educational experience that has historically been reserved only for those identified as gifted.

Tomorrow’s best physicians will be those who continually learn, adjust, and innovate as new information and best practices evolve, reflecting adaptive expertise in response to practice challenges. As the first volume in the American Medical Association’s MedEd Innovation Series, The Master Adaptive Learner is an instructor-focused guide covering models for how to train and teach future clinicians who need to develop these adaptive skills and utilize them throughout their careers. Explains and clarifies the concept of a Master Adaptive Learner: a metacognitive approach to learning based on self-regulation that fosters the success and use of adaptive expertise in practice. Contains both theoretical and practical material for instructors and administrators, including guidance on how to implement a Master Adaptive Learner approach in today’s institutions. Gives instructors the tools needed to empower students to become efficient and successful adaptive learners. Helps medical faculty and instructors address gaps in physician training and prepare new doctors to practice effectively in 21st century healthcare systems. One of the American Medical Association Change MedEd initiatives and innovations, written and edited by members of the ACE (Accelerating Change in Medical Education) Consortium – a unique, innovative collaborative that allows for the sharing and dissemination of groundbreaking ideas and projects.

In this revolutionary book, a renowned computer scientist explains the importance of teaching children the basics of computing and how it can prepare them to succeed in the ever-evolving tech world. Computers have completely changed the way we teach children. We have Mindstorms to thank for that. In this book, pioneering computer scientist Seymour Papert uses the invention of LOGO, the first child-friendly programming language, to make the case for the value of teaching children with computers. Papert argues that children are more than capable of mastering computers, and that teaching computational processes like de-bugging in the classroom can change the way we learn everything else. He also shows that schools saturated with technology can actually improve socialization and interaction among students and between students and teachers. Technology changes every day, but the basic ways that computers can help us learn remain. For thousands of teachers and parents who have sought creative ways to help children learn with computers, Mindstorms is their bible.

A school leadership model for surviving hyper-change From social media to evolving safety issues to constant school reform, today’s school leaders face unprecedented disruption. How can educators prepare students for a globalized world when many institutions are not ready for the constantly changing 21st century? In Leading Schools in Disruptive Times, Dwight Carter and Mark White draw the blueprint for adaptation. Through the Coping, Adjusting, and Transforming (CAT) strategy, administrators will learn vital methods for keeping pace in the age of hyper-change. • A comprehensive history of disruption in American schools as a lens for understanding accelerated change • Practical exercises and real-life examples for reshaping education in the 21st century • A grounded examination of radical disruptions schools will face in the years to come. If our schools are to survive, it is essential for educators to understand and anticipate disruptions, and use them to maximize education and prepare students for an ever-changing world.

UNESCO pub. Study of the process of Innovation in education - defines types and degrees of educational reform, describes three models of the change process and includes a chapter on the evaluation of innovations. Bibliography pp. 95 to 99.