Working At The Edge

Make School Different: Digital leadership & Transformation

Learner-centered leaders explicitly redefine the role of teacher [#ShiftYourParadigm]

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This post is part of a series connected to the podcast Shift Your Paradigm: from school-centered to learner-centered. Lynn and I will be sharing our learning and thinking along the way and cross-posting to the Shift Your Paradigm site.

In this episode, we focus on leadership and a conversation with Big Picture Learning Co-Executive Directors, Dr. Andrew Frishman and Carlos Moreno. Our conversation dives deeply into how Big Picture Learning represents the five elements put forth by Education Reimagined and the key role of leadership in educational transformation. We also discussed a reframing of the term “relationships,” the power of giving up control, policy and mindset barriers and the shifting role of the teacher.

Key Competency

Learner-centered leaders explicitly redefine the role of the teacher. Teachers are no longer the sole keepers of the knowledge. Instead, as advisors, they develop deep relationships with learners and their families to co-create meaningful, personalized learning experiences.

Takeaways

Big Picture Learning (BPL) works to maintain integrity of its brand through intentional leadership. The engagement continues beyond the initial implementation. The BPL schools remain connected as a network. Those within Big Picture schools collaborate and learn with one another. Leaders, practitioners, and students connect with one another to share learning experiences with their own communities. This provides continuous growth and improvement in BPL schools.

Much of the work of transformation begins with the school leaders. They assist in providing “high touch” professional development for the school community. BPL encourages current school leaders to consider internal succession planning as well as develop their own talents. Veteran leaders are often tapped for additional leadership roles. Distributed leadership is employed to build capacity.

What does the learning look like in BPL schools? BPL seeks to lay out an approach to learning which encourages deep connections to learning and to each other as learners. Before students enter the school, they are connected with an advisor (redefined role of the teacher). An advisor works with the student to explore several questions – Who are you? What are you passionate about? How do you want to go out into the world? How can we help you design learning experiences to get you there? Advisors meet with the student and his/her parents outside of school in their community. The advisor seeks to understand the student as a learner and a person. They learn about the students’ interests, hobbies, challenges, etc.This connection goes far beyond academic content and technical skills.

Students are also connected to other students through advisory. A group of fifteen to twenty-five students stay with one advisor over the course of 2-4 years.  The combination of the deep individual relationship and getting to know students in advisory benefits the learners. 

Regarding relationships – the value is in the relationship itself. By placing the advisor/student relationship at the center of the learning, the advisor can work with the student and his/her family to co-create learning experiences.  For example, If a learner is interested in architecture, how would they find 5-10 places in the community where that is occurring? How can they set up a research interview? Who works there? How could they get that career? What does the day-to-day job/work look like? The students complete informational intervews to answer some of these questions. Then the work wth the advsor continues. How can we craft with you and your family an individualized learning plan? The advisor supports and scaffolds students experience in internships and helps students think about authentic projects and assessments.

BPL embodies the five elements put forward by Education Reimagined. The learning is open-walled, going beyond the walls of the school with internships and connections as shared above.  Learning at BPL is highly socially-embedded both in and out of school. Because it is student interest-driven, there is a tremendous amount of learner-agency. By defintiton, the work is highly personalized by each learner. Learners are developing and demonstrating competencies and skills. The competencies and sklls are deeply contextualized to the work the learners want to do.

Relationships in a school-centered environment look different from relationships in a learner-centered environment. In the learner-centered environment the deep, strong relationships are used as the foundation to co-design learning experiences. The connectons go beyond developing academc rigor; instead, the value is in the relationship itself. Buildng relationships and connections is important work.

In order to create this learnng environment BPL, does not completely abandon traditional elements of education. BPL sees the value in the concept of teachers, students spending some time in a school with peers, and some time with other experts, many of whom have more knowledge than the teacher. Teachers have to let go of control and the notion that they are the center of the room with all of the power and knowledge. Instead of transferring content, the advisors identify that each learner has a set of knowledge which the teachers do not have. The role of the teacher has shifted, and often that person may not be recognized upon immediate entry into a classroom. Voice and choice are distributed beyond the advisor to the learners.

BPL is a new form and design of a student learning experience that requires different cultures and structures in order to provide the most powerful experience. It requires a shift in mindset beyond the regularities of school. A key barrier to implementation of personalization can be a lack of resources – both human and financial. This system works across the country and around the world – 25 states in both rural and urban settings.

What competencies do leaders in this space need?  Leaders need a clear purpose for being in this work. Ideally, they are reflective practitioners with a continuous growth mindset. They care about students in very deep ways and believe in learner-centered education very deeply. How are leaders visionary? What is their vision 10-15 years ahead for their school? Leaders need to be distributive in leadership – not the keepers and holders of everything, instead sharing the leadership with others including students and staff.

What nugget of advice could you offer us and our listeners? Just do it! If you wait for conditions to be perfect, you wil be waiting forever. You will never have all the perfect technical skills. Get a group of people together and get excited! Start doing it? Make mistakes and learn. Iterate to get better. As you get into it, you will make more and more beautfiul things. Leaders need to embrace the messiness, and lean in as learners.

Connections to Practice

  • We have advisory in our middle school and high school.  How can we better utilize this time?
  • Change is loss, and that can be scary for our teachers and leaders. How are our teachers and leaders feeling about our vision?

Questions Based on Our Context

  • How can we develop a family-like structure with our learners?
  • Are our learners all deeply connected to an adult?
  • On a regular basis, do we ask students where they want to be in 5, 10 or 15 years?
  • Do our teachers believe they are the center of all content knowledge? If so, how can we shift that mindset?
  • How would we redefine the role of the teacher? How can we best think about this question?

Next Steps for Us

  • Evaluate our current advisory programs
  • Talk with our learners in superintendent advisory council about whether or not they feel connected to an adult in school.
  • Work with school leaders to plan with intentionality how we can support our learners to think about the world of work beyond high school.

Connect with Randy on Twitter, the TLTalkRadio podcast, and the Shift Your Paradigm podcast!

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