Change - how?

A driving question in my work is how to effect change. Change is so fundamental to our life, it really does seem obvious to me that in order to be a better teacher, husband, painter, drummer, dad - anything really - you need to embrace the idea that you will need to make changes. For some people this is challenging.

In my work I see teachers who are are in a comfort zone where they have refined their craft so they know exactly what students need to do and when and which assignments to give and how to present a certain topic. They are presenting material the same way they did 20 years ago and have an internal mantra that goes something like "this has worked for me for 20 years, my students get good results, why should I change?"

This is dangerous thinking for a number of reasons.

• Students have changed - every class, every person is different and the difference between today and 20, 10 even 5 years ago is stark. The flood of digital in our lives has rewired students brains so they actually think differently. We need to adapt every year.

• The greatest thing we could give students when they leave school is a growth mindset. They need to see that we, as teachers, are still growing and learning. We need to model learning for them! Who told teachers that they had to know everything and be the master of all knowledge? I must have missed that memo. I love the moments when I can learn together with students, this really unleashes their potential as they are not just waiting for me to tell them the answer or look at it from the back of the book.

• Students can tell when teachers are on auto-pilot. They need to know we are excited and passionate about what we do and what we are learning! Going through the same lessons every year is going through the motions and students know.

So back to change. I believe that three fundamental ideas underpin successful change:

1. We need to DESIRE change

2. We need to have a VISION for where change is leading us

3. We need MARKERS along the path that reduce the gap between where we are and where we want to be

If we don't know what "better" is or we are satisfied with our current performance, we will never change. Reflection is vital - great change leaders ask themselves often "how could I do that better?", "what could we do better next time?", "Why do we do it this way?"

Without vision, there is no motivation. In Dan and Chip Heath's book "Switch: How to change when change is hard" they use the metaphor of a rider on an elephant to explain the process of successful change.

Notice the importance of broad goals to point people towards the destination. Creating a "destination postcard" - a vivid image from the near-term future that shows what could be possible, is a great way to create vision. A great idea about soldiers in battle complements this - a specific "intent" guides individual soldiers in battle without prescribing their exact actions. Similarly, we need not micro-manage and define every move along the path of change if the goal is clear. In one school I worked the motto was "the best all-round education it is possible to obtain". All actions and plans related back to this goal. Without smaller steps along the way, however, that final destination may seem just too far away. Markers along the path are important so we know we are on the right track.

This post was inspired by a friend who watched a video on Finnish education from Michael Moore:

There is some ideas here that challenge our current education paradigm in Australia. Including:

• No or very little homework

• Shorter school days (20 hrs per week for junior students)

• Shorter school years - they do better by going to school less

• No standardised testing

• A student-centered system that prioritises student happiness over compliance

• A high quality teaching force that is paid at the level of doctors

• A common standard among schools with no private schools

Other challenges include the idea that students have to learn from 9 - 3, with people their same age, in 50 minute blocks, with a different teacher every class, memorising facts rather than understanding ideas, in the same physical space at the same time as everyone else.

Technology can underpin and support a move away from these practices.

I told my friend, who wished that her kids school was like the Finnish school, that change starts with awareness of what is possible and sharing her ideas with others is great start. If more parents were aware that there actually was an alternative to the way they experienced school, they would demand the kind of change that is possible.