I am attending the EARCOS Adminstrators Conference this weekend in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia this weekend with over 200+ administrators and presenters from international schools all over Asia. There are some big names here this weekend including Alan November, many heads of schools, and some high-paid consultants. Wow! I am really looking forward to meeting some colleagues and learning about what challenges they are facing at their schools and some ideas they might have that I can take away with me from the conference.
Right now I am sitting in a workshop on changing schools. The presenter is very knowledgeable and has experience that I know I can learn from. However, as I sit here typing away I am completely awestruck by the craziness of this whole conference.
What do I mean by this? Here we are, supposedly the leaders of top-level international schools, sitting in a traditional “classroom-like” atmosphere with the “teacher” at the front, speaking TO us the entire time, as we sit here passively listening. (This is no knock on the presenter- she is excellent- I am just using her as an example of what’s wrong with the whole system).
Sure this is the kind of learning we grew up with, but if we are “charged” with leading 21st century schools, why are we accepting 20th century learning?
And- we keep asking (and being asked by the likes of Alan November) how can we meet the needs of 21st century learners, change schools, make schools more engaging? And we put up with a classroom of all chairs in a row, facing the front, the lecture style delivery of content?
WHY???
Why are we not changing our own practice to reflect the changes our students need? Why are we not having interactive, inquiry-based learning workshops? Why aren’t we sitting at round tables with 4-6 other learners, discussing ideas and questions, problem-solving the problems that are facing our schools today?
The theme of the EARCOS Adminstrators’ Conference this year is “Learning to Lead in a Challenging World” and yet we are still holding traditional, lecture-style conferences?
C’mon people! Take the chance to change the room-set-up you inherit! Make everyone stand up, move the chairs to a circle, order round tables and chart paper so we can doodle our great ideas. Have a blog going during your workshop so people can respond to your ideas and have a conversation in real time. Give us two minutes to reflect on our learning every ten minutes. Don’t lecture to us the entire 70 minutes! Dare to be different!
Can we really say we are learning to lead in a challenging world if we continue to accept traditional learning for ourselves? We need to be talking the talk AND walking the walk!
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November 3rd, 2008 at 7:08 am
Ah….traditions.
Three things:
1. This is the way conferences are. This is how the look, feel, smell. It’s what we know and people would be upset if we change them….so we don’t. (Play to lowest common denominator)
2. We know it’s broke, who’s job is it to fix it? We complain, but do we act?
3. History…..plays such a big role. This is what admin want in a conference. How much money could EARCOS save if they did not feed us every night? What if we had no history? History is powerful, and very hard to over come.
At Learning 2.008 I want the whole conference to be an unconference, but we can’t because others believe it would be too radical of a change for people. Me, I see it as only gettng the people to come to the conference that I truly want to learn from. I want only the radicals.
Traditions…..how do we over come them? History…….how do we move on from it?
At some point an administrator needs to stand up and say “This is our school….either be with us or get out of our way.”
Only then will we be able to move forward. But we won’t, because we’re educators, we are nice people, and we don’t want to upset or make people feel like they don’t have the skills anymore. So instead, we put the chairs in rows, we put a person on the stage, and we talk…..because that is very comfortable. We are educators, we are suppose to know it all!
Hope day two continues your thinking, keep pushing, it’s how change happens.
November 4th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Before we can move forward with new ideas for “conferences” (is that really the best title for these gatherings?) we need to have clarity of purpose. Why are there 200+ leaders here at Kota Kinabalu this week? What are they looking for? Inspiration? Networking? Learning? Once we more fully understand the needs of our leaders, then we may be able to create an appropriate response. Lots to think about- who will think with me?