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Archive for the ‘Personalized Learning’ Category

Reasons for Learning

Posted in Change, Parents, Personalized Learning, Teaching and Learning on October 26, 2012 | 1 Comment »

another view of learning

 

“The 21st Century skills are essentially an updated version of the belief that education can actually make a big difference to the quality of life that our children will have, some from increased capacity but much coming from social contribution, near and far.”

     -     author unknown

 

I recently had the opportunity to participate in a series of dialogues providing feedback to the Ministry of Education on future graduation requirements. Participants included students, educators, parents and community partners. The orientation was to build on the strengths of our system and expand on the key elements of the BC Education Plan in providing our input.  The key elements of the plan include:

  1. Personalized learning for every student
  2. Quality teaching and learning
  3. Flexibility and choice
  4. High standards
  5. Learning empowered by technology  

From my perspective it was interesting to listen to the various responses.  The responses were not that different from those articulated by organizations such as (SETDA)  the State Educational Technology Directors Association who believe that the key to a productive life in the globalized and digitized 21st century includes:

  • core subjects (English, reading or language arts, languages, arts, mathematics, economics, science geography, history and civics) 
  • 21st Century themes  (global awareness, financial, economic, business and entrepreneurial skills, civic literacy, health literacy)
  • Leaning and Innovation Skills  (creativity and innovation skills, critical thinking  and problem solving skills, communication and collaboration skills)
  • Information, Media and Technology Skills  (information literacy, media literacy and ICT literacy)
  • Life and Career Skills  (flexibility and adaptability, initiative and self-direction, social and cross-cultural skills, productivity and accountability, leadership and responsibility) 

It will be interesting to hear whether our input results in a similar framework that is BC made, and BC developed.  My hope is that the orientation to the framework will come with a distinct connection to the educated citizen.  Will we all be clear that the reason for teaching and learning will be directed at the “dream” of a literate and socially motivated citizen.  Such a citizen should be able to inquire, continually build on natural talent, and nourish the ability to build ideas.  I would hope that the intention of our plan would be to sustain and further develop what is good in our society. 

Any change process should begin with a compelling story.  Let’s hope that once we complete this important work of retooling our education system there is clarity  as to our intended purpose.

 

“  Students learn skills by seeing them, understanding them, and practicing them until they become an integrated part of the students’ repertoire.  Thus, the models of teaching that fit the requirements of our time are in the inductive, cooperative, and inquiry-complex.”              -Joyce & Calhoun

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Lessons from Louis Pasteur

Posted in Change, Leadership, Personalized Learning, Teaching and Learning on October 12, 2012 | 1 Comment »

doctorsHeidi Gable, our DPAC President, recently forwarded a blog posting to me describing the author’s response to a Turner Classic Film on the life of “Louis Pasteur”.   The movie described the 40 years it took Pasteur and his colleagues to convince the world’s doctors to wash their hands prior to surgery.  Once this tiny action was  adopted by doctors the rates of infections was reduced and the mortality rate following surgery dropped significantly. 

 

The author suggested that it took so long because doctors had a view of their profession and the strategy of hand washing threatened their self-image as doctors.   According to the movie doctors had to come to grips with the fact that accepted practice was not effective in saving patients and doctors were not quite the ‘healers’ they thought they were.

 

An interesting  thesis which the author extends to our educational world.  As educators are we caught in the same trap that suffocated medical practitioners in the 19th Century?  Are we open to or ignoring instructional practices that would improve the learning opportunities for students?  Like the doctors in Pasteur’s time    are we blind to the possible changes to school organization that would enhance teaching and learning in the 21st Century context?

 

educatorsAs I   engage with the professionals in our district I feel that I can honestly say that we are moving forward in our support of learners.  We see many experiments  and new directions where the staff are reflecting on practice and finding ways to support the learners of our schools.  The question remains however, “Are we adapting quickly enough to our new historical context?  Are we as a district and profession incorporating the best and highest yield strategies to support the learners in our district?  Are we helping each other become better teachers so that we have better learning environments for learners?

 

My sense is yes to all these questions but I am sure we can do better and quicker.  My faith in the professional of this district is immense.  Through our reorganization of the CommunityLINK hubs , professional learning opportunities, invitation to parent and student voice, commitments to our Dream, and a knowledge and understanding of the possibilities of programs such as the Learning Improvement Fund we are becoming clearer on what works and how to help each other attain the inherent skills of our craft.  When I see us discussing and  reengaging around fundamental principles such as inclusion, professional learning, Response to Intervention or “Teaching Content to All”, Universal Design for Learning, Backwards Design, Inclusive Instructional practices and Assessment for Learning , and how to collaborate effectively to support  student learning I am more positive than ever that we are more like Pasteur than we are like the doctors he tried to influence.

 

In Andy Hargreave’s words and borrowed from our LIF training session;

“Teaching like a pro is about improving as an individual, raising the performance of the team, and increasing quality across the whole profession.  It is about developing, circulating, and reinvesting professional capital.  Together these things define what’s worth fighting for as a teacher and in teaching.

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GREAT TEACHING – ANY CENTURY

Posted in Change, Leadership, Personalized Learning, Teaching and Learning on April 13, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

“Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
Being willing is not enough; we must do.” – Leonardo da vinci

Tony Wagner in his book The Global Achievement Gap (Basic Books, 2008) articulated Seven Survival Skills for students learning in the 21st Century. They include:
• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
• Collaboration Across Networks
• Agility and Adaptability
• Initiative and Entrepreneurialism
• Effective Oral and Written Communication
• Accessing and Analyzing Information
• Curiosity and Imagination
His list is similar to many reported in books, articles and frameworks. If we accept his, or develop our own framework our challenge becomes one of implementing instruction and assessment to support the framework.

Focusing teaching and learning on a thinking framework will involve a different professional approach. We will need less standardization of curriculum and assessment and more reliability on collaborative approaches to instructional pedagogy, active engagement of learners and better formative assessment.

Each school in our district is committed to improving the learning condition for each student. That is the basis for our Dream of “Learning Without Boundaries”. Annually we review and prepare our school Codes of Conduct designed to ensure safe environments for students. As we move forward with our Dream and the Ministry’s Education Plan is it time to review and make explicit our habits of learning or as in Reggio philosophy our image of learners and their abilities? We should actively commit to habits such as inquiry, collaboration, active involvement and self reflection as parts of our commitments to our students and ourselves. This commitment should be in reference to how we reflect on our practice and how we organize activities and interactions with learners.

What do classrooms committed to habits of learning look like?

Anne Reeves in her book Where Great Teaching begins (ASCD, 2011) provides some guidance and articulates a student and learning centered instructional design for classes, units and courses. She lists the following as questions to be answered as part of instructional design.
1. What will students learn?
2. To what degree will they learn? To what depth and breadth?
3. How will they acquire their learning?
4. How will they demonstrate this learning?
These questions are similar to many other frameworks.

She also suggests that our intentions or objectives need to be developed or evaluated with the following in mind. Objectives should be:
• Clear and specific
• Focused on thinking
• Measurable
• Aligned with standards
and
• Their mastery can be demonstrated

Reeves clearly articulates a need to shift our focus on teaching that is designed for learning in the 21st Century as we continue to grow as professionals and further enhance our skills in a 21st Century context. We would be wise to remember that as we reflect on and adopt new pedagogical approaches we are involved in a change process.

Michael Fullan in his book Motion Leadership: The Skinny on Becoming Change Savvy (Corwin Press, 2010) reminds us of the “Ready-Fire-Aim” metaphor with its change savvy ideas.

The elements of the strategy include:
• Relationships first
• Honour the implementation dip
• Beware of fat plans
• Behaviours before beliefs
• Communication during implementation is paramount
• Learn about implementation during implementation
• Excitement prior to implementation is fragile
• Take risks and learn
• It is okay to be assertive

The learned lessons for me continue to be that we need to focus our teaching on the development of learning and thinking skills. We do so by sharpening our pedagogy and implement collectively our approaches. Great teaching continues to support and develop great learning, no matter what century we teach in.

“The nature of relationships among the adults within a school has a greater influence on the character and quality of that school and on student accomplishment than anything else.” – Roland Barth

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BEGINNING A NEW YEAR

Posted in Change, Leadership, Personalized Learning, Professional Teams, Teaching and Learning on January 6, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

  • “The secret is to work less as individuals and more as a team. As a coach, I play not my eleven best, but my best eleven.” – Knute Rockne

Happy New Year and welcome back from your vacations.

As we begin a new year I thought it would be interesting to reflect on my recent aha moments as a professional. This will be a random review of some memorable items I have read or heard. I hope they have some use for you the reader.

From Steven Johnson who wrote “Where Good Ideas Come From” I was reminded that innovations are rarely a result of a solitary imagination at work. Most of the time innovations are the result of a slow hunch, influenced by many others and lots of ideas that percolate over time.

From Michael Fullan through presentations and his recent books I have been reminded that our work as educational leaders is very complex. He always so clearly articulates the work of leadership for me. As he suggests we need to identify the few things that matter most; know how to leverage our skills in ways that benefit our entire organization and how to act with purpose and empathy. In observing our district at work, I can clearly visualize his thoughts in the way we organize professional learning, motivate each other and learn by doing.

From the work or of “Strong Classrooms, Strong Schools” project I observed the power of intense collaboration and the importance of leaders participating as learners. I hope to help others learn of the work of these terrific educators.

From our collaborative work with Principals, Vice Principals and District Leaders who are working on a Professional Growth Plan Model, I am again reminded that good ideas need to be implemented properly. However I must always be aware of the implementation dip. Through deliberate practice and resolute focus on our ultimate aim of developing this process properly, we will have impact on learning and teaching.

From our collaborative work on “Learning Without Boundaries” I am always struck by the power of our work. Our focus on learning success for every learner, every day, and without exception is the basis for our successful collaborative efforts. Our outcomes as a learning organization that has achieved a student completion rate of 91% is testament to the power of capacity development and the harnessing of potential as learners and teachers.

From some very innovative teachers I have observed that you get better through practice, you provide opportunity for learners to make their learning public, provide opportunities to excel, and reap greater outcomes for students.

Building collaborative cultures is so important as we communally develop a school system focused on learning. Our leaders, coordinators, support staff, teachers, parents and students work together on precise goals. In Kindergarten I learned the value of working together and I sincerely hope that we continue to apply these collaborative skills on a daily basis.

From McKinsey in his study ( http://www.mckinsey.org ) “How the World’s Most Improved School Systems Keep Getting Better” I was again reminded of interventions that lead to success. Capacity development, flexible and thin plans that guide others, communication, a focus on learning, and collaboration are all important aspects of our work as a good organization working to excellence.

Christopher Doyle surprised me with his suggestion that educators make bad prognosticators of the future. His argument suggests that much of our zeal for 21st Century Learning is fueled by business and political leadership . According to Doyle we would do better by asking artists, psychologists, environmentalists and physicists to be part of the debate on where we are headed and how to get there.

I was intrigued by the white paper written by Valerie Hannon and others for Cisco. In “Developing an Innovation Ecosystem for Education” they reminded me that there are contextual pressures on education as we enter the 21st Century. Their framework suggests that we respond to the pressures by re-engaging in learning and not just with and through school, that we mine our present landscape for successful innovations, find new innovations to support learners and develop networks to share and learn from each other. I feel we are moving in the right direction in Coquitlam.

I would like to finish this blog with a reference to the strategy I learned from my examination of Reggio Emilia philosophy. Prior to organizing a Reggio influenced classroom, program or school, the community must come together and make explicit their “image of the learner”. This strategy helped me to better frame my individual orientation to schooling and learning. By a public expression of a view of the positive elements of children and learners, we are better able to focus on our Dream of “Learning Without Boundaries”.

“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” – Winston Churchill

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CHANGE DRIVERS

Posted in Change, Leadership, Personalized Learning, Teaching and Learning on November 10, 2011 | 2 Comments »

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters in the end.” – Ursula K. Le Guin

Have you ever wondered how a single conversation can start you on a journey that pushed you to consider a more and deeper response to an issue than you had previously held? I have had an interesting journey since talking to John Talbot, a facilitator who we have the good fortune to work with in our district on the change process.

John was working with some administrators on the issue of change. His premise was that leaders need to have a personal understanding of their change process prior to implementing any change in their context. While his argument may seem completely logical I am not sure that we have always considered our complete understanding of a change process as a prerequisite to the implementation of initiatives  in our schools and our districts.

A review of change theory has taken me back to many authors and researchers from my past.

Hattie (2009) articulates the critical change agents from his perspective. These include:
- Knowledge and skills
- A plan of action
- Strategies to overcome setbacks
- A high sense of confidence
- Monitoring progress
- A commitment to achieve
- Social and environmental support
- Freedom, control or choice

There are many other processesand theorists to consider. Some that you might recognize include:
- Bill Moyer’s “Four Roles of Social Movements”
- The 4-D Process of Appreciative Inquiry
- The Kuebler-Ross Model of Change
- John Kotter’s Change Model
- The Change Journey

Michael Fullan has again forced me to think more critically and deeply about educational change. In his recent article “Choosing the Wrong Drivers for Whole System Change” Fullan forces us to look critically at the elements of change and which ones work in our present context and in our present circumstances. He clearly articulates that there are many elements of change and that at times all have influence on large scale change. However he cautions us that if used alone or as central drivers, they may get us to a better place systemically but not as far as we think we need to go.

His thesis is that there are certain drivers that will get better results than others. He suggests we should focus on four systemically related big drivers that work.

1. The learning-instruction-assessment nexus
2. Social capital to build the profession
3. Pedagogy matches technology
4. Systemic synergy

For me he is reminding us that we are about teaching and learning and the more we focus on that as a system the better will be the results for learners and for the system. He reminds us to build capacity of all learners and members of our community. He reminds us that it is the pedagogy of teaching that is important and that the use of technology should be viewed as an important support but cannot replace good pedagogy. He finally reminds us that change should include everyone. We need to find ways to include, motivate and support all in the organization.

Fullan’s belief that whole system change is the name of the game and that the four drivers above have the greatest impact is much appreciated.  He has coerced me into an analysis of what works in certain situations and not in a check list approach to change.   When I examine these in relation to our district I think we have great promise for continued support of the learners we serve and can be a compelling  example of “Learning Without Boundaries”.  Our approach, as Andy Hargreaves continues to articulate must be about whole system growth and improvement and not about individual schools.  Fullan’s essay has helped reinforce that lesson for me as an educator.   

“Show class, have pride, and display character. If you do, winning takes care of itself.” – Paul “Bear” Bryant

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21st CENTURY SKILLS

Posted in Change, Personalized Learning on October 28, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

“The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the others willing to let them.”

In previous articles we have reviewed influences on education which may change the way we organize schools and schooling. We will see changes on the way we organize curriculum, instructional grouping and teacher learner relationships. Fundamental to these changes a sense of what skills we are trying to teach and learn. I provide for your consideration a listing of some others’ articulation of the skills students will need to be successful in the 21st century.

EMPLOYMENT SKILLS (The Conference Board of Canada)
Fundamental Skills – You will be better prepared to progress in the world of work when you can:
• Communicate
• Manage information
• Use numbers
• Think and solve problems
Personal Management Skills – You will be able to offer yourself greater possibilities for achievement when you can:
• Demonstrate positive attitudes and behaviours
• Be responsible
• Be adaptable
• Learn continuously
• Work safely
Teamwork Skills – You will be better prepared to add value to the outcomes of a task, project or team when you can:
• Work with others
• Participate in projects and tasks

THE NEW BASICS (Andy Hargreaves, 2009)
Old Basics
• Literacy
• Numeracy
• Obedience
• Punctuality

New Basics
• Multi-literacy
• Creativity
• Communication
• Technology
• Teamwork
• Lifelong learning
• Adaptation and change
• Environmental responsibility

SEVEN SURVIVAL SKILLS (Wagner, 2008)
• Critical thinking and problem solving
• Collaboration across networks and leading by influence
• Agility and adaptability
• Initiative and entrepreneurialism
• Effective oral and written communication
• Accessing and analyzing information
• Curiosity and imagination

21st Century Skills – Partnership for 21st Century Skills
Learning and Innovation
• Creativity and innovation
• Critical thinking and problem solving
• Communication and collaboration
Life and Career
• Flexibility and adaptability
• Initiative and self direction
• Social and cross-cultural skills
• Productivity and accountability
• Leadership and responsibility
Information and Technology
• Information literacy
• Media literacy
• (ICT) information, communication and technology literacy

As we continue the evolution of our profession and our schools it will be important for us as a district to build on our “Dream” and articulate for ourselves what we see as the requisite skills for our immediate future.  This clarity in purpose and the skills we wish to develop in all our learners will be important.

“The future is here. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.” ~ William Gibson

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ELEMENTS OF 21ST CENTURY LEARNING

Posted in Change, Parents, Personalized Learning, Teaching and Learning on October 12, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

“A teacher tells, a good teacher explains, a better teacher demonstrates, a best teacher inspires”   -  author unknown

In future blogs I will discuss various versions of 21st Century Learning. In this version I will report and summarize a current version of 21st Century Learning that I read in the recent ASCD book Teaching 21st Century Skills an ASCD Action Tool by Sue Beers.
The book itself is well organized in that it presents a “Framework for 21st Century Learning” and then follows up with instructional planning tools and classroom tools for teachers. I would highly recommend the book for any teacher wishing to examine and/or improve their own practice.
The diagram below is a reproduction from the book of the framework that connects various elements of an instructional orientation into a compact and easily understood framework.

The diagram below is a reproduction from the book of the framework that connects various elements of an instructional orientation into a compact and easily understood framework.

  

 

The framework takes the three R’s and four C’s of the original work published in 2003.  The Partnership for 21st Century Skills identified elements of 21st Century Learning.  This iteration blends context, skills, and good pedagogy into a useful framework.

Inside the triangle are the Three R’s of literacy: reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic.  New literacies; the four C’s are also included.  These being

  • Creativity and innovation
  • Critical thinking and problem solving
  • Communication
  • Collaboration

The good teacher will find the appropriate way to teach these skills through engagement with subject area content.

The three elements within the triangle are supported by elements that we need to consider in our individual frameworks.  These include

  • Learner Attitude and Motivation to Learn
  • Thoughtful Engagement
  • Effective use of Technology
  • Life and Career Skills

While the framework makes real sense I am left with the reinforced sense that 21st Learning is best served by great instruction from knowledgeable and capable teachers.  What makes this district so good is that we have professionals making appropriate and energizing decisions about how to teach on a daily basis.

“Don’t be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated; you can’t cross a chasm in two small steps”     -     David Lloyd George

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GREAT INSTRUCTION

Posted in Personalized Learning, Teaching and Learning on September 23, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

“This time, like all times, is a very good one if we but know what to do with it.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

I recently attended two significant activities held in our district. At the “New Teachers” Induction and at the “Retired Teachers, Principals and Vice Principals Reception” , Teresa Grandinetti, our CTA President spoke in support of teachers in our district and the contribution they had made to the teaching profession. Her talk was both stimulating and interesting. Teresa spoke of the wonder of teaching and took time to review the responsibilities we as teachers assume when we become teachers. From her perspective teachers have the responsibility to themselves as professionals who need to continually grow and develop as teachers. She also indicated that teachers must support their union and the profession as a whole. A terrific frame of reference for practitioners. Recently I talked with Kris Magnusson, Dean, Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University. His orientation to teacher responsibility is similar. He maintains that we have a responsibility to ourselves as learners, to our colleagues as members of a learning community and also to the profession as a whole. Both, I think maintain that we are teachers and learners who are governed by a sense of passion in supporting public education.

Their words and thoughts prompted me to review some of the thoughts of others on teaching and learning. As an educator, I often asked myself and others what are the components of effective instruction. I recently read a book called Turning Average Instruction Into Great Instruction by John O’Connor and forward my summary of the contents for your consideration. According to the author GREAT instruction should be:

• Guided by curriculum
• Rigorous with research-based strategies
• Engaging and exciting
• Assessed continuously to guide instruction, and
• Tailored through flexible grouping.

I use his elements as a framework to review some personal thoughts.

Guided by the Curriculum

Classroom instruction should be aligned to the performance standards articulated in our curricula. We should not rely on curricula as defined in textbooks or publishers packages. We should have a deep knowledge of skills and competencies that students are expected to master at the end of a course or school year. Doug Reeves argues for teachers to focus on the “power standards” evident in each curriculum. He suggests we refine and focus on those major standards that connect to previous learning and that allow success in subsequent courses or grades. We should also know how we expect students to demonstrate the skills and competencies contained in these power standards.

Rigorous with Research-Based Strategies

We need to provide students with the instruction they need. This includes students who are farther ahead of their peers and those that need to catch up with their peers. We must however be cautioned that rigorous does not necessarily mean harder. Rigor must be interpreted with relevant, complex and engaged learning and not a menu of work sheets. Strategies inherent to Universal Design (UDL), Response to Intervention (RTI) and Individualization need to be understood and applied where appropriate.

Research-Based Instructional Strategies

We need to have a palate of instructional strategies that we as teachers can select from in our particular situations. Marzanno, Pickering and Pollock (2001) reported on their meta-analysis of instructional strategies and recommend nine practices that impact student learning. Those strategies are:

1. Identifying similarities and differences
2. Summarizing and note taking
3. Reinforcing effort and providing feedback
4. Homework and practice
5. Nonlinguistic representations
6. Cooperative learning
7. Setting objectives and providing feedback
8. Generating hypothesis
9. Questions, cures and advance organizers

Educators must be critical consumers and select strategies appropriate to differentiation.

Engaging and Exciting

Students need to be pulled in, engaged, and involved in making magic. As Sir Ken Robinson so ably articulates we need to help students find and learn in their “element”. We must be energetic, enthusiastic, professional. As teachers we need to find the balance between “substance and style” that excites students to academic excellence.

Tailored Through Flexible Groups

I am not suggesting a return to the placement of students in one group forever. I am suggesting as does the author that we need to differentiate and tailor instruction through “flexible” grouping. Grouping can occur as learning strategy, as virtual instruction and as learning style flexibility. Teachers can apply differentiation as stations in their classroom or as choice in either application of learning or assessment. Properly applied differentiation can support student learning.
I thank John O’Conner for reminding me of how difficult teaching can be but also how invigorating it can be when we get it right in support of the children we serve.

“The only thing we have to fear is when, as a species, we don’t believe in the future anymore.” Yves Behar, Brandjein, 2007

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21st CENTURY SKILLS FOR SCHOOL AND DISTRICT LEADERS

Posted in Leadership, Personalized Learning, Professional Teams on June 28, 2011 | 1 Comment »

“There are two ways of spreading light;  To be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”      -     Edith Wharton

Minister Abbott recently visited our district and I was so proud of our educational community. The active engagement of the Minister with our community in professional dialogue was exciting and productive. Teachers, students, support staff, parents and administrators discussed our intentional and articulated approaches to “Learning Without Boundaries” and outlined their own core beliefs and orientations in helping find success for every learner. Part of the discussions focused on the future of education, particularly the role of “leaders”,  broadly defined, in our district  and its importance in the outcomes of our “Dream”.

In a recent book on Educational Leadership, NASSP has published a very prescriptive and articulated set of skills for leaders in the 21st Century. The book divides skills into four themes and describes the associated skills and behaviours of each theme. The authors  discussion of each skill is further organized into four subsections.

• Definition of term
• Behavioural indicators
• Personal development tools and activities
• Examples from other school leaders
The breakdown is clearly articulated and well laid out for self analysis and selection of areas of growth should a leader be looking for such growth strategies. (more…)

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PERSONALIZING LEARNING

Posted in Leadership, Personalized Learning on June 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

We have begun the process of implementing our Coquitlam version of Personalizing Learning and truth be known many of us have been implementing Personalized practices into our teaching for a long time. Where did the original call for Personalized Learning come from?
In July, 2005, the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust and Secondary Heads Association held a conference in Leicester and London, England to discuss the injunction from government to make changes to current educational practice in England.
The term Personalized Learning was defined by David Miliband when he was Minister for Schools: ‘Personalized learning demands that every aspect of teaching and support is designed around a pupil’s needs…’
According to David Hargreaves, the term personalizing learning is more preferable as an educational construct. Personalizing implies a product to be delivered rather than a process or journey. Teachers have always sought to do this though they know that they do not in practice succeed in meeting every need for every student.
The plea from Government in England is for educators to meet more of the needs of more students more fully than in the past.
David Hargreaves has organized the thoughts and ideas of the conferences through nine gateways. His series of six pamphlets explains in detail the discussions and suggestions for change required to meet this request. The gateways are listed below:
• Student voice
• Assessment for learning
• Learning to learn
• New technologies
• Curriculum
• Advice and guidance
• Mentoring and coaching
• Workforce reform
• Design and organization
The overall impact of the gateways on students can be understood as a sequence of core themes that capture or characterize the student for whom learning is being more personalized:
• Engagement of the student in learning and school
• Responsibility assumed by the student for learning
• Maturity in relationships with staff and peers
• Co-construction by students of their education and the design of teaching and learning
The case studies reported by the author illustrate how these themes constantly appear as a kind of trademark of successful personalization.

Over the next while Coquitlam will articulate its own version of Personalizing Learning and will clearly articulate the pillars we have/will continue to build as part of our district. A design Team has been struck that will continue to guide and lead us through the process of clear direction setting and approaches for district and school learning opportunities in support of our Dream. I look forward to the discussion.

For more information on the gateways and their implementation in various settings refer to Personalizing Learning, David Hargreaves, 2007 iNET (International Networking for Educational Transformation) ASCL (Association of School and College Leaders).

“In order to have a winner, the team must have a feeling of unity; every player must put the team first – ahead of personal glory.” – Paul “Bear” Bryant

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