Elwyn Richardson a creative voice from the past and a challenge for schools today

The other day an old friend of mine brought me a tape cassette from a seminar we had been involved in in 1976. The keynote talk at the seminar was given by ElwynRichardson who we all regarded as the most important creative educator in NewZealand. Elwyn had developed his ideas about teaching in the

Elwyn Richardson

1950s and in thelate 60s authored his inspirational book 'In the Early World' which has beenrecently reprinted.

Once we found a cassette tape recorder a group of us (all who had been influenced by Elwyn) sat down to listen. My old friend and I were both recorded on the tape and we were interested to hear what we all said in 1976.

One thing stood out. We were all focused on tapping into the child inner world and helping them explore and express ideas about what was of interest to them.

And at the end of our listening we all agreed that this emphasis has been lost in classrooms today and that schooling, by demeaning the personal world of the learner, had failed too many students. Until children enter formal schooling their interests dictated their learning but on entering school it is the school’s curriculum that determine learning and those than can't cope with teacher determined curriculum begin their unfortunate road to alienation from education.

Only a creative education, such as one demonstrated by Elwyn, can provide an environment where all students can realize their innate potential. A creative education needs to reproduce the environment young children are exposed to before formal schooling and this is all  the more important for students whose early life experiences has not provided whose early life experience has not provided such a  positive learning environment The kindergarten ( child's garden) movement was established to do just this.

One of Elwyn's students artwork

Elwyn's presentation was all about contrasting the child centred curriculum he followed with school curriculum. Elwyn expressed concern about teacher determined learning objectives. He would be appalled by current standardised approaches to learning with  the emphasis on such things as  learning intentions, success criteria 

 Any experience a child has ( and this includes teacher presented ideas aimed at capturing student curiosity) he said can be expressed through words, talk, writing, drawing , art , movement, drama and clay. A look at any current classroom, particularly the art work, shows how much children’s creativity has been massaged by the heavy hand of the teacher.

New book about Elwyn

The language arts are at the core of all learning said Elwyn but that the teacher has a responsibility to ensure whatever is expressed exhibits personal growth. Teachers need to come alongside the learner to help then refine and define what they are trying to say. Without such refinement student work can be ‘undisciplined squads of emotion’ Elwyn, I think, was trying to distance himself from those who believed teachers just need to motivate students and then leave it up to them to do whatever they like. Helping students to achieve work of quality is in itself a form of art and depends on the experience, confidence and skill of the learner. Respecting the ‘voice’ and identity of each learner is the essence of ‘personalised learning’. One example given was the tendency for junior teachers when scribing children’s thoughts to rewrite it to make it more acceptable and in the process devolve it of imagination and vitality. Children, he said , soon learn to comply to teachers expectations; for some this is the beginning of the end..

Elwyn made the point that when the year begins creative teachers will inherit students who have been mismanaged. Advice Elwyn gave was to focus on a few students at first to help them achieve quality results and to see what can be achieved. To get children to be more expressive encourage them to go back and reconsider some of their ideas and to resist giving ‘false praise’. In writing, for example, give credit to ‘minor excellences’.  When student achieve work beyond their expectations in any area of learning the work said Elwyn quoting Jerome Bruner ‘startles’ – it is this ‘surprise’ that expresses creativity.

Take advantage of such things as a child bringing a dead bird to class – Elwyn made reference to a set of very different drawings of a kingfisher on display. With such an experience what are the children’s questions and responses. Some might want to write thoughts, some might want to draw or paint while

Republished by NCER

other might want to research about kingfishers.  As the year progresses a curriculum will 'emerge' but this does not preclude ideas being introduced as challenges by the teacher.   Our own project in Taranaki in the 70/80S introduced studies by means of motivating displays that, as the studies progressed, were complimented by students expressive and research work and classroom walls were used to display finished work.

An important point made by Elwyn was that   if learning is not ‘felt’ by students it is not really learnt and not seen in action. He was particularly critical of much of is imposed on learners. All learning, if it is to be successful, requires affective and sensory dimensions.

After listening we all agreed that so much has been lost in past decades and that the problem of students being disengaged in learning stems from their voices, ideas and questions being ignore and this is not helped by school curriculums that fragment learning or place undue emphasis on such things as narrowing effect of  National Standards and the destructive use of ability grouping on the sense of self of the very children who need to develop positive learning identities..

Abnormal teaching!

The remainder of the tape outlined a simple but innovative class unit on snail starting with a display of sea shells and covered students questions, current and researched ideas, observational drawings, maths based on spirals and science experiments involving snails pulling weighted carts. Such a unit was in line with Elwyn’s point of making use of the rich immediate environment and for students to be seen as artists and scientists.

Quality work Taranaki 76

The tape concluded with teachers attending expressing how difficult it is to develop such creative curriculums in their own schools – a problem that is even more difficult today.  Those presenting (including myself as I had been central to establishing group of teachers to implement such programmes) suggested solutions. Teachers trying out new ideas need to be encouraged and to be able to learn through trial and error – the scientific method in practice. It is important to support each other to combat the conformist climate of most schools. Many teachers felt the pressure from senior teachers to conform – a problem that is even more the case today. Teachers mentioned that inspectors visiting failed to even notice the quality work on display and focused on administrative requirements.; imposed conformity of ‘best practices’ is worse today.

The thought of selected ‘best’ principals and teachers to work collaboratively with clusters of schools is fraught with problems. The collaboration we experienced in the 70s often went against current school ‘best practices’ and those in authority from within and without the school.

Elwyn's students making drums

Elwyn developed his philosophy in an isolated school in Northland and was given ‘permission’ to experiment. He also had access to visiting art advisers who played vital role in developing and sharing ideas about creative and integrated education.  There were other teachers, all in rural schools away from authority, developing similar programmes but Elwyn’s work remains the most important and, due the publication of his book, still available to teachers today.

The developments we established in our own province still can be seen in local schools today and were in past times times recognised by those in authority.  In contrast to Elwyn’s isolated approach we developed whole school approaches.

That was until the educational reforms known as ‘Tomorrows Schools’ in the 80s when collaborative approaches were replaced by schools competing with each other.

Taranaki work 1976

The creative ideas Elwyn was central in developing based on valuing the students’ interests and personal ideas, and ensuring all students achieve work of quality, are more relevant than ever.

Snail art Taranaki 1976

If schools suppress or ignore individual student creativity then many students ( those without appropriate backgrounds or ‘cultural capital’  that school cater for reasonably well) are swallowed up in our conformist school system. Students who lose their sense of creativity or self-worth will end up by making their mark on society all too often in a destructive way. We need all schools to ensure all students ( and not just the academic)  gain pride in and confidence from personal achievement and rewarding accomplishment.

For inspirational ideas to transform school teachers just need to listen to any number of Sire Ken Robinson’s videos on u-tube or acquire and read his latest book ‘Creative Schools – Revolutionizing Education from the Ground Up’.

Anything else is simply rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic to get a better view!

John Holt

In the 70s a number of books were available to give creative teachers courage and confidence and possibly as important as anybody was John Holt.

In 1970 he was asked:

‘If American schools were to take one giant step forward this year towards a better tomorrow what should it be?’

‘It would be to let every child be the planner, director of his own education, to allow and encourage him with the inspiration and guidance of more experienced and expert people, and as much help as he asked for, to decide what he has to learn, when he is to learn it, how he is to learn it, and how well he is learning it. It would make our schools, instead of what they are, which is jails fort children, into a resource for free and independent learning, which everyone in the community, of whatever age, could use as much or as little as he wanted.’

‘True learning- learning that is permanent and useful, that leads to intelligent actions and further learning- can only arise out of the experience, interests, and concerns of the learner.’

Tested to oblivion!!

‘Education is something a person gets for himself, not that which someone else gives him or does to him.’

It was thoughts like the above that underpinned the work of Elwyn and our local group that followed on from Elwyn’s work.

An education that creates the conditions and provides the necessary help and resources to develop the gifts and talents of all students should be the purpose of a twenty-first education system.

We have a long way to go. The answers are there. All we need is the wit and imagination to put them into practice. We need to ask how something that begins so well can end so badly for far too many students resulting in too many students ill equipped for life in our society.

Elwyn’s taped talk give us an insight to possible solutions  And in our times Sir Ken Robinsons book ‘Creative Schools’  echoes and elaborates the need to transform our education from the bottom up.

Extreme learning

What does it mean to be an extreme learner? In my role as a teacher educator I get to observe some interesting lessons. During my time working in post-compulsory education I went to some amazing places and observed some unconventional lessons.

From watching outward-bound and outdoor education teachers while sat in a canoe, or from over the edge of a cliff; standing in surgical greens and mask, watching operating nurses teaching their students while a patient lay unconscious during open heart surgery; observing chefs flambé, footballers kick, hairdressers bleach and bricklayers build; watching one of my students teaching a belly dancing lesson in a garage. You could say I've seen it all! Not quite, but my time doing teaching observations was quite eclectic and in some cases you could say - extreme.

Far more extreme is the high workload some students take on to achieve their goals. Sadly, some students put in minimal effort, and they often fail to achieve their full potential. Others work extremely hard, giving up their sleep and sacrificing their comfort to ensure they secure the best possible outcomes. I see this happening all the time as a university lecturer. But I can only speak authoritatively about my own learning experiences.

While I was studying for my first degree, I knew that the clock was ticking. My job was coming to an end and I knew that I needed a good degree to be able to advance my career in the right direction. I had a young family with three small children at the time, and they were constantly in the back of my mind. So I enrolled on an Open University degree, studying psychology. OU degrees are usually part-time at a distance, completed while students are working and/or caring for others. It's not the easiest route to a degree, but for those with no other option, it's the University of the Second Chance. I decided I was going to complete my degree, part time, in just 3 years. This meant simultaneously completing two full courses each year. I spoke to my tutor, who told me it couldn't be done. Several of my colleagues who had completed OU degrees also advised me it was impossible. Doing an OU degree part-time, while holding down a full-time job (and my evening job teaching 3-4 nights a week at the local college) was not conducive to good health, I was warned.

So I took all their advice into consideration. And I went and did it anyway.

When someone tells me something can't be done, it's in my nature to do it at least once, just to prove them wrong. So I worked all the hours I could, giving up sleep, forgetting to eat, sometimes working around the clock, to manage the huge workload of a part-time degree programme. I was completely out of my comfort zone. And I was enjoying it. I caught up with sleep when I could. I ensured that all my reading was done ahead of time, and that when it came to writing my assignments, I focused completely and utterly on achieving the highest possible grades. I ate, slept and breathed psychology, and probably became a huge bore to all those around me. 'Look, there's that psychology bloke' - people would say, pointing me out (usually while I snoozed standing up in the lunch queue). In its own way, it was extreme learning, and I put my body and mind (and my relationships) through a lot of stress to achieve my goal.

I achieved a first class honours degree in three years from the Open University, and almost immediately walked into an academic (research) post at the university. Extreme, but necessary. I was highly motivated and it paid off. It just goes to show - if you want something badly enough, you'll do almost anything to get it. You can learn anything if you want to. What about your students? What motivates them to extreme learning?

Photo by Laura F on Flickr


Extreme learning by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Peer assessment

In my previous post Learning from each other I discussed the idea of peer learning, where children are encouraged to teach each other. While exploring peer learning I also raised the question of peer assessment, and wondered whether some teachers might think this would be a bridge too far. Here are some further thoughts...

Peer assessment is clearly a more complex proposition than peer learning. In peer learning, children all know something and can impart these ideas to each other through sharing, collaboration and team working. In peer assessment, a certain amount of additional prior knowledge is required, and where assessment is based on a specific set of criteria that knowledge would need to be domain relevant. To be fair, most of the forms of peer assessment witnessed in a classroom are completely informal and don't rely on specific criteria.

Those who formally assess keep in mind what is good, acceptable and poor in terms of performance or knowledge reproduction. Is it therefore fair or reasonable for children to be expected to act as peer assessors? Some would argue no, that the children are there to learn, and are not equipped with the skills and knowledge required to assess the learning of their peers. The issues of authenticity and validity arise, and there are questions over the negative psychological impact of having to give and receive feedback about poor performance from friends.

Yet some might argue that if children are knowledgeable enough to peer teach, they should also be in a good position to ascertain if their peers have sufficiently learnt the content. Moreover, many teachers extol the benefits of peer assessment, claiming that those who assess the learning of others are also able to more deeply learn the processes that underlie learning, and also become more aware of what makes a good piece of work. Being exposed to this process, they become stronger learners as a result. Clearly there are several benefits as well as risks in peer assessment and learning. So - peer assessment for children - is it a good or a bad idea?

Photo source: Flickr


Peer assessment by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Learning from each other

There has been extensive work around the concept of students teaching each other - otherwise known as peer learning. This approach to pedagogy has its roots in Vygotskiian Zone of Proximal Development theory, where a more knowledgeable other, whether teacher, adult or simply a better informed peer, can extend someone's learning experience beyond what they might achieve alone (Vygotsky, 1978).  But peer education can also be reciprocal. In terms of Corneli and Danoff's (2011) and Corneli (2012) approach - paragogy - anyone can teach anyone else, because everyone knows something, but no-one knows everything. Students can even teach their teachers, in an extreme form of flipped learning I mentioned in a previous post.

It all sounds very democratic, but exactly how might it work?

In paragogy, students can exchange knowledge and can be learning from each other simultaneously. This is not something ZPD theory explicitly takes into account. Whenever I have seen this kind of reciprocal learning occur, it has emerged during intense discussions or more commonly, during collaborative learning, where a small group solve a problem or address a complex issue. Some of the best reciprocal peer learning I have witnessed has been around group production of artefacts such as video production.

The original ZPD concept was intended to be asymmetric - that a novice would be extended in their ability, knowledge or competency by the more knowledgeable other, but only in one direction. It was a formal pedagogical principle. However, the more one teaches, the more it becomes apparent that such lines of demarcation are notional at best, and that peer learning can readily occur informally across small groups, or even entire networks of individuals.

Peer learning is rarely asymmetric, and is not restricted to dyads.  But what about peer assessment? I'll develop that question further in my next post...

References
Corneli, J. and Danoff, C. J. (2011) Paragogy. In: Proceedings of the 6th Open Knowledge Conference, Berlin, Germany.
Corneli, J. (2012) Paragogical Praxis, E-Learning and Digital Media, 9(3), 267-272.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978) Mind in Society, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Photo by Primary Source on Flickr


Learning from each other by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Reaching Out to Learn

Whitley and Lauren are doing a 20% Time project that entails developing a desalination device and water purification system. They have been busily researching and working on this idea for several weeks. Their Pitch Day presentation knocked the socks off of the Pitch Committee and we expect great things from them this semester. Yesterday, as part of their research, they contacted an organization, Water Is Life, through a Google Hangout.  The girls spoke to Ken Surritte, the President of Water Is Life. Ken was at his office in Oklahoma and the girls were in the technology lab here at school. Through the use of technology, the kids can learn from anyone anywhere in the world.

Because of their contact with Ken, Whitley and Lauren were able to learn about the pressing need for drinkable water, gain access to resources that they never knew existed, and chart a more solid course for their project. The girls had their idea validated by one of the world experts on water. They returned to class more confident, more excited and more passionate about their project than ever before. Events like these, where students learn from others around the world, are extremely valuable for the information they learn as well as the confidence they gain by seeing themselves as independent learners.

Each of the girls is blogging their learning. The blog links are here: Whitley's Blog; Lauren's Blog.

Whitley and Lauren getting ready for their GHO with Ken Surritte of Water is Life.

Lauren and Whitley showing the items they received from Water is Life.

Tablets: The correct prescription

A recent meta-study commissioned by the Commonwealth of Learning confirms what many teachers already suspected. A total of 27 quantitative studies on the use of tablets in schools dating from 2010 were analysed and the major finding was that the tools are most effective when used in student centred learning, rather than within teacher controlled environments (Tamim et al, 2015a). These findings are supported by another, larger meta-study of 41 qualitative reports from the same period, which showed that tablets and mobile devices are most effective when used in student-active contexts (Tamim et al, 2015b).

Clearly tablets and mobile devices were designed to be used as personal tools, and as such can be best used for personalised learning, where students can work at their own pace, and in a place and time that suits their needs. What makes these findings so interesting are the implications for pedagogy. If teachers wish to maximise the power of tablets and mobile devices, they should create contexts in which students are encouraged to be proactive in their study, and to stand back and facilitate rather than dictate the process. As with any learning resources, it's not what they are, but how tablets are used that is important.

References
Tamim, R. M., Borokhovski, E., Pickup, D., Bernard, R. M. and El Saadi, L. (2015a) Tablets for Teaching and Learning: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Commonwealth of Learning: Burnaby.
Tamim, R. M., Borokhovski, E., Pickup, D. and Bernard, R. M. (2015b) Large-Scale, Government Supported Educational Tablet Initiative. Commonwealth of Learning: Burnaby.

Photo by Marcus Kwan on Flickr


Tablets: The correct prescription by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

2016 and all that...

There are always predictions at the start of a new year. Many of them are about new technologies. The Horizon report has a monopoly on this for educaion, using a virtual round table of 'experts' to whittle down all the possibilities into one or two trends that they think will be prevalent in education in the next one year, 2-3 years and 4-5 years. The problem with this approach though, is that you get predictions based on what that small group of experts in really interested in. Predicting the future is fraught with difficulty because the future hasn't happened yet. It's imaginary. But it's on the way...

Imagine if Darryl F. Zanuck, the famous movie producer, had been on an expert panel in 1946. He remarked: 'Television won't be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.' So, television was a doomed technology that wouldn't last for long.

What would Thomas Edison have said if he had been on an expert panel in 1913? This: 'Books will soon be obsolete in public schools. Scholars will be instructed through the eye.' He went on to clarify this prediction: 'It is possible to teach every branch of human knowledge with the motion picture.' Not a bad prediction. It is likely he was correct, but it didn't really turn out that way. People still go to the movies, but it's a special occasion rather than the norm. Most of us watch TV, use the Web to find content, and we still read - whether it is paper based books or e-books, the main question is 'do you like books or do you like reading?' We still read and we still watch. There is room for every technology, all build on each other, and none ever fully supplants.

Even farther back in 1876, William Orton, then President of the Western Union believed that the newly invented telephone would fail because it had 'too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication.' He had a vested interest in promoting mail and telegram services. He was looking at the telephone through his own personal lens.

For what they are worth, my predictions for the future of learning are listed below. Some of you might argue that these are already happening. Yes, they are (and there's the secret of successful prediction!) but they will happen in new and previously unforeseen ways. We will be surprised at how this will occur, and we'll also be amazed at the speed of progress. (NB: remember these are seen through the lens of my own personal interests and experience):

1) Learning will become increasingly personalised. We will have more choice over what we learn, how we learn it, when and where we learn it and over the pace of our learning. MOOCs won't be the end. They are just the start of a huge wave of democratised learning, but that won't stop large corporations trying to muscle in to exploit the surge of interest in 'free content'.
2) Technology will become more embedded in our every day lives. It will be more pervasive, and at the same time it will become less visible, blending into the fabric of our environments (see number 3)
3) We will carry the means of our learning around with us. Our mobile phones (probably the name 'phone' will be replaced by another label - the Germans already call it a Handy) will become cheaper, more powerful and indispensable, and will connect with other technologies seamlessly, probably built into the fabric of our clothes or jewellery (see number 2).
4) Schools will connect more with outside communities and may even blend in with them. They will become places where the entire community can access learning, and where anything can be learnt.
5) Students will generate more of their own knowledge. Formal learning will involve knowledge production as well as knowledge consumption.
6) The 'knowledge experts' as we know know them will assume less importance, because all of us will have the opportunity to become expert in our own specific areas of interest. Teachers, researchers and academics will increasingly become curators and brokers of knowledge rather than simply conveyors.
7) Knowledge and skills we have previously taken for granted will become less important to learn. This could be the last generation who will need to learn to drive a car, operate a computer using a keyboard, clean the house or even visit a store to shop for food.
8) We will find new things to do with the extra time at our disposal - it won't all be leisure based though. Instead there will be even more learning to be able to do your job better. It will be just in time, just for me, and just enough learning.
9) Meetings and other work will increasingly be conducted from where you are in the world, using your personal technologies. Many will be visually oriented, and will have haptic and kinaesthetic capabilities.
10) We will all wear spacesuits and live on Mars. (OK, this last one is unrealistic, because we all know that a Mars diet is not the healthiest option - but if the UK government introduces a chocolate tax, I predict I will leave the country).

There are other things I could 'predict', but I've run out of steam (anyone remember that? No? Just me then.) Go on, make up the rest yourself....

Photo by Mario Klingemann on Flickr


2016 and all that... by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.