Microsoft UK Innovative Teachers Forum (4 of 5): The Keynote (Guy Shearer)

The highlight of the UK Innovative Teachers Forum for me was the keynote by Guy Shearer (worth following on Twitter). Guy is Innovation Coordinator at the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust leading on Deep Experience (Curriculum Design and New Technologies) and coordinating the work of the Futures Vision Group. Without a doubt Guy seemed to be the right man for the job – his passion for education and his enthusiasm were infectious. I was also really reassured that some of the things that Guy was talking about fit nicely within my own vision for curriculum design, education and schooling.

Initially Guy talked about how easy it was to ‘innovate on the fringes’ by this he meant that there were lots of examples of innovative practice in the UK but ‘How do you change the mainstream’. He is of course right and as an innovative teacher I can think of lots of good projects that I have been involved that have made a real impact in my classroom but have failed to send a rippling affect across the school or education authority.

However, from personal experience the first steps to changing this was maintaining and keeping this learning log. I have realised over the years that really innovative teachers are not just concerned with influencing their own schools but should be happy with anyone picking up, using their ideas and globally collaborating. Ultimately by publishing your ideas on-line you will have an influence, start to change the mainstream and better the lives of children. Unfortunately, it’s a slow process.

I would also like to think that one of the reasons that our Guitar Hero Transition Project Virtual Classroom Tour did so well in this years awards is because we have now demonstrated that we can scale things up. All East Lothian Schools with have an opportunity to participate in the project this year and globally people are downloading the lesson plans and re-creating their own versions of the project.

Guy also stated that ‘kids have changed’ - I couldn’t agree more. I often use the below slide in my own presentations to parents, teachers and education leaders.

Children are not the same as they used to be. I believe that one of the reasons for this is to do with the fact that most children in the UK now have access to unlimited information and responsible adults are no longer the gatekeepers to this knowledge. As a result some children come into contact with material and opinions that they are not mature enough to understand or critically evaluate. This can have a damaging affect on young minds and again I would argue that it is one of the reasons for increase social immaturity in our schools.

Nest Guy tackled the National Curriculum and used Wordle really well to illustrate his point.

He compared the 1998 curriculum:

To the 2008 curriculum:

The two Wordle images are obviously very different reflecting he new philosophy and thinking behind the new KS3 Curriculum in England. But then he asked, despite the change in philosophy, ‘what has actually changed in the majority of classrooms around the UK?’

Guy then talked about the ‘default setting’ of a school and the ‘default setting’ of teachers. Suggesting that too many schools and too many teachers continue to operate within their comfort zone, particularly when put under a little bit of pressure. He linked this nicely to the perceptions of pupils and teachers of modern day schooling.

Then he moved on to some co-construction theory and suggested how schools may now start to change.

I won’t go over all of the changes that Guy suggested – but they were all very similar to my own thinking and most of them common sense. Particularly, the idea of teams of staff working together to deliver elements of the curriculum – I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve suggested this idea within my own senior management team and it was heartening to hear someone else sing from the same song sheet!

He also talked about collaboration with outside agencies. At Musselburgh we work well with education authority partners – but will still need to do more. All of our partners need to be 100% involved in creating a timetable and contributing to personalised learning models to best suit the 21^st century needs of our students.

The final term that Guy used that I really liked was the term ‘Disciplined Innovation’. In recent months I have started to get fed up with some teachers suggesting that the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence is in danger of just being a set of ‘happy experience’ and ‘fun activities’ for children. These people have missed the point. I think that the emerging Curriculum for Excellence should have the same opportunities for rigor, deep learning and assessment as its predecessor. But there will also be more opportunities for fun and creativity. As Guy suggests as long as long was we are disciplined, adaptable and keep children at the centre we should be able to come up with a pretty good curriculum model.