I received an invitation in my inbox a few weeks ago from The Canadian Education Association asking if I'd be interested in meeting, along with a few other Ontario teachers, a delegation from Sweden to discuss Ontario education. Of course I said yes. It was an honour to be asked and so, on Tuesday I found myself along with Aviva Dunsinger, Stephen Hurley and Brenda Sherry sitting at a table discussing education with politicians, bureaucrats, school administrators, a journalist and a Microsoft representative from Sweden. I hadn't met with my colleagues in a while and it was lovely to have the chance to hear as they shared their expertise and insights. Ontario teachers are exceptional and I was in awe listening as they shared their thoughts, practices and current projects with the guests from Sweden.
The Swedish education system is under the microscope at the moment as their PISA scores continue to fall. Part of the purpose of the visit was to explore how technology is being used to enhance learning in Ontario. We soon diverged from that topic and entered into a much deeper one on pedagogy, thinking, creativity, and of course .... standardized testing. It was a singular opportunity and one that I am grateful to have had.
That delightful afternoon was followed by a scheduled meeting at Rotman IThink. RIT is in the process of developing Tier 2 Integrative Thinking training for educators and over the winter I along with a number of educators have been meeting with the IThink Team to assist in that process. This has been like no other planning method that I have ever experienced. I've tasted bits and pieces through the work we've been doing in integrative thinking but what I've been able to witness through this think tank is how those who are deeply immersed in the practices of integrative and design thinking, use them to generate innovative solutions. I've seen abductive reasoning at work!
On Tuesday evening the team revealed their key insights uncovered from all the 'thinking made visible' that we undertook. I have to say it wasn't what I expected. Their insight dealt with what would have to be addressed and what their training would have to be developed around for it to be truly meaningful. Their insight was so human-centered and simple that I wondered why I hadn't seen it myself previously.
It is not, however, my place to reveal what the team has uncovered through their months of work. I will say this though: when I was first introduced to solving problems through integrative thinking, I remember hearing that because we don't know how to frame complex problems, we often end up developing solutions for the wrong problems. We waste a great deal of money, time and resources doing so. In education we spend billions of dollars trying to improve our systems. It struck me on Tuesday that there is an enormous gap in how we purpose those dollars and there is an area of teacher education that is not being addressed. Because of that we've been developing solutions to the wrong problem. We bring in new curriculum and methodologies but never fundamentally address what is at the heart of effective teacher training. If this aspect of teacher training was addressed systematically, I think we'd see the kind of transformation we've been looking for.
The Swedish education system is under the microscope at the moment as their PISA scores continue to fall. Part of the purpose of the visit was to explore how technology is being used to enhance learning in Ontario. We soon diverged from that topic and entered into a much deeper one on pedagogy, thinking, creativity, and of course .... standardized testing. It was a singular opportunity and one that I am grateful to have had.
That delightful afternoon was followed by a scheduled meeting at Rotman IThink. RIT is in the process of developing Tier 2 Integrative Thinking training for educators and over the winter I along with a number of educators have been meeting with the IThink Team to assist in that process. This has been like no other planning method that I have ever experienced. I've tasted bits and pieces through the work we've been doing in integrative thinking but what I've been able to witness through this think tank is how those who are deeply immersed in the practices of integrative and design thinking, use them to generate innovative solutions. I've seen abductive reasoning at work!
On Tuesday evening the team revealed their key insights uncovered from all the 'thinking made visible' that we undertook. I have to say it wasn't what I expected. Their insight dealt with what would have to be addressed and what their training would have to be developed around for it to be truly meaningful. Their insight was so human-centered and simple that I wondered why I hadn't seen it myself previously.
It is not, however, my place to reveal what the team has uncovered through their months of work. I will say this though: when I was first introduced to solving problems through integrative thinking, I remember hearing that because we don't know how to frame complex problems, we often end up developing solutions for the wrong problems. We waste a great deal of money, time and resources doing so. In education we spend billions of dollars trying to improve our systems. It struck me on Tuesday that there is an enormous gap in how we purpose those dollars and there is an area of teacher education that is not being addressed. Because of that we've been developing solutions to the wrong problem. We bring in new curriculum and methodologies but never fundamentally address what is at the heart of effective teacher training. If this aspect of teacher training was addressed systematically, I think we'd see the kind of transformation we've been looking for.
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