PQ : Using All Six Mindsets

While there are 6 distinct mindsets that characterise the way a successful, learning oriented leader operate, I am wondering how these leaders master all of them and put them all into practice. Other than have these mindsets, do these leaders also have other qualities that make them sucessful as well? If there are, what might they be?

PP : How Do You Help Educators Overcome Discomfort With The Use of The Inquiry Approach?

Earl and Timperley states that " Educators may not be experienced or comfortable with these inquiry process of questioning, reflecting, seeking alternatives and weighing consequences to promote the 'transparency' of what might remain unobservable facets of practice, making tacit knowledge visible and open to scruitiny'.

In an Asian setting, educators will experience discomfort adopting this approach as they find it uncomfortable to question many things. How then does a school leader help his/her teachers overcome this discomfort?

Moving From Sorting to Learning

In Kaser and Halbert's chapter on moving from sorting to learning they discuss the importance of providing student with appropriate context to their learning so that they can be more engaged. They discuss a shift in the teacher's pedagody to make this happen. In the research I have been conducting on parent involvment in schools, I see that it is not enough for teachers to make a shift in educational pedagogy. Parents and community members must also change their view about the purpose of education. Its sole purpose is no longer to move up the social scale. Society is still today in a sorting mindset. I wonder when we will witness a societal shift to truly understanding a knowledge base society? Can the shift only be representative at the school level?

How do leaders promote Powerful Learning?

PP

Linda Darling-Hammond in Leadership Mindsets (Kaser & Halbert) states, "Schools that redesign their work around student learning spend a great deal of time thinking through what they value, how they will know if they have achieved it and what they must do to create connected learning experiences that enable students to achieve their goals."

Do we see this in our schools?

What do leaders do if they do not see this?

Appreciative Inquiry Engagement

I had the benefit of being taken through an appreciative inquiry exercise through work. I liked the possibility thinking but found addressing existing problems left unresolved. This seemed to result in members of the team to lose confidence in the process and no longer support the focus of envisioning a new possibility. How could one avoid this pitfall?

Leaders in Education: Linda Darling Hammond

Linda Darling Hammond is a professor at Standford who has built a career on calling for social justice and equity of opportunity in American education. She is now an advisor to Barack Obama. She wrote a groundbreaking book, The Right to Learn, about a decade ago and her latest book is *The Flat World and Education . In this clip, she talks about how nations that perform well on PISA, an international test, have assessments that emphasize higher order thinking and inform teaching. Her talk signals a shift, in American education, from testing for accountability to assessment as part of the teaching process for developing 21st Century Skills. Notice that Darling-Hammond highlights some key differences between American systems and others, including ours - particularly the equity or inequity of school funding. This is important to consider when we read American authors and we need to decide whether their criticisms apply to teaching in Canada. However, Canada's high performance on international tests should not make us complacent: Darling-Hammond's work inspires us to ask whether our enviable education system is working as well as it could for impoverished and culturally marginalized students.

The Flat World and Education offers an eye-opening wake-up call concerning America's future and vividly illustrates what the United States needs to do to build a system of high-achieving and equitable schools that ensures every child the right to learn.

My Portfolio

FYI:
My portfolio is going to be set up like the PLO's with the observed behaviors (or my evidence) in a right column and the goal in the left column. I have changed the wording in some of the standards but most of the ideas still exist. I have also added two categories, Yamas and Niyamas and Servant Leadership. In terms of style, I am using paintings on overheads with the title in the background and then another 'layer' for the definition. All of the paintings nod to trees in some way.