Liberating Learning in Lithuania – Renkuosi mokyti!

Empowering every pupil to create a better future is the aim of a teaching programme dedicated to bringing change to Lithuania. Roberta Žižien and Coleen Jackson report on its activities.

female teacher teaching something to kids using tablet computer inside the classroom.

Liberating Learning is the second of three articles about education in Lithuania. Having gone through many years of occupation, once liberated, those in government saw the importance of education. Over recent years there has been a focus on leadership; and the Centre for School Improvement based in Vilnius has been influential in spearheading innovative ideas in schools. This article charts the growth of a Teach First Programme with a twist that has captivated the imagination of school leaders who have made significant changes in their schools to improve the learning outcomes for students.

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Learning Spaces

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16 Jul 2019

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      string(5150) "month from October to June,with a whole day conference in July as an importantend point. The project started with a consideration ofvalues, establishing shared commitment and discussingsome of the complexities and tensions that inevitablyarise for situated professional selves. Further sessionssupported the development of areas of focus andplanning of enquiry projects. These quickly coalescedinto collaborative groupings with common themes.Teachers’ research questions included ‘Do we talktoo much in class?’, ‘How can we use carpet timeeffectively?’ and ‘What are the issues for summer-born children coming into Reception class?’ (seethe How to…’ sections in the last issue of PDT fordetails – Durrant, 2013a). Support for action researchconcentrated on integrating enquiry with practicaldevelopment, with an emphasis on exploring learningand experience from the children’s point of view.Teachers made some forays into the research literatureand found validation for approaches that focussed oncreative, verbal and visual methods that got to the heartof children’s experiences and views (Clark and Moss,2001; Balshaw and Ainscow, 2002).Large scale surveys and interviewing schedules gaveway to dialogue, experimentation and judicious use ofI-pads and sticky notes, with teachers gradually learningto embrace the ‘messiness’ of action research (Cook,2009). Wider research was sought out and shared, notat the behest of the University facilitators, but at theinstigation of teacher researchers who wanted theirquestions answered. An important part the facilitativerole was to protect space for teachers’ talking, planningand decision making, trusting their leadership andenhancing their agency. Every teacher was engaged,even though this was a non-accredited whole-schooldevelopment programme, therefore there was noextrinsic motivation for the sake of qualification andno choice as to participation.Reflecting on progress and sharing outcomesA pivotal stage was the sharing of work in progress asthe central part of a whole school development dayin February at a local conference centre. The sessionwas given over to project teams talking about whatthey had done to small groups from the wider schoolcommunity, including support staff and governors,and creating a poster gallery to share with everyone.As well as capturing the learning, the group and gallerydiscussions enabled teams to set out next steps. At thispoint teachers were realising the potential, in termsof children offering their own unique perspective onlearning and beginning to shape it themselves.The research was opening eyes to this viewpoint ofclassrooms and the school experience. Overwhelminglythe research evidence underlined that ‘our childrenare brilliant’, garnering new respect and appreciationfor what they themselves had to offer in the learning57……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Researchprocess, with children and teachers as collaborators ina learning journey rather than simply as recipients andimplementers of an imposed curriculum. Teachersalso started to realise there might be a greater scopefor experimentation and choice in pedagogy and thelearning environment, prompted by their reading andtheir own research evidence, which might increaseleaning effectiveness, building on the foundationof improvements already made. Colleagues wererecognising their strengths and creativity individuallyand in teamwork and stated commitments to adoptinga learning mindset, being receptive to ideas, workingtowards change and taking responsibility for impact.They asked difficult questions and puzzled overissues and conundrums in their evidence. Reflectingon the action research process itself, everyone wasrealising that it was generating more questions thananswers at this stage. It might be important to ‘expectthe unexpected’, look for unintended outcomes andallow for serendipity and creativity in research, just asin teaching. The activity started to branch out in alldirections and some ‘drop-in’ sessions were arrangedin school lunchtime to talk through how to proceed,focussing and re-focussing on the children, thepedagogy and the learning. This work of Blean Schoolwas featured in the HOW TO section of the last issueof Professional Development Today (Durrant, 2013a).These showed that sometimes the process was complex(e.g. there was no easy answer to how group learning isbest configured) and sometimes it was liberating (e.g.sharing and learning from our mistakes). Above all,teachers came to a collective realisation that ‘childrenthink differently from us’, therefore understanding theirindividual perspectives is vital in order to support theirlearning effectively.As the year progressed, ownership of the"
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Professional Development

‘Children see differently from us’ – A fresh perspective on school improvement

6 Feb 2014

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      string(5611) "were more important for primary respondents, finding the right partner and competition were more salient challenges for secondary respondents in free-text responses.   Additionally, there appeared to be a perceived power imbalance between primary and secondary phases which cross-phase collaborations would need to overcome in order to operate successfully.  Other areas of challenge to ISC included dominant personalities and egos, parity in financial capacity, maintaining trust, and retaining autonomy.  Tensions and paradoxes inherent in ISC or arising as a result of the current educational environment also presented challenges. These included the competition verses cooperation paradox, the potential for vulnerable schools to be shunned by those seeking partners to collaborate with, insufficient systems to effectively hold MAT executive teams to account, schools ‘losing’ or not admitting vulnerable pupils in order to protect their performance data, and real-term budget cuts which may mitigate the financial benefits of collaboration.Professional development guidance on inter-school collaboration The research attempts to shed some light on the reasons for, and challenges inherent in ISC.  If schools are considering ISC or re-evaluating current ISC, and wanted to use the findings to stimulate discussion, the key areas for consideration seem to be:clarifying your vision;making connections and building bridges, and building capacity and freeing up time for work on collaborationThese areas of focus could form the basis for exploratory and preliminary activities in preparation for ISC.Clarifying your vision is important because being clear about your reasons for ISC may be useful as a reference point when making difficult decisions.  A strong shared vision may also provide the resilience required to withstand times of uncertainty and challenge.  Finally, anticipating challenges may prevent the development of unsatisfactory scenarios, and assist forward planning.  So in considering inter-school collaboration schools may find the following prompts for discussion useful:What are your reasons for ISC?What are the anticipated benefits of ISC for your school?Are your reasons for collaborating ‘pessimistic’, ‘optimistic’ or ‘realistic’ (Chapman, 2015)How ‘deep’ or ‘shallow’ (Hargreaves, 2014) would you like your collaboration to be?  Will it be collaboration by ‘association’, through ‘cooperation’, project-based, or will you aim for ‘collegiality’ (Chapman, 2015)?Is your dominant reason for collaborating educational or financial?Anticipating your key challengesWhat key tensions and paradoxes do you anticipate you will encounter, and how do you plan to address and overcome them?What is the realistic profile of schools you would consider collaborating with?:Similar schools, or schools that would result in a hierarchical collaboration?Schools across phases?Local schools or schools with a similar ethos/specialism?Schools in an existing MAT, or would you want to form your own MAT?Making connections and bridging the gaps are important tools for information gathering.  Networking can also be used to strategically identify schools to approach for collaboration on exploratory mini-projects. Increasing familiarity with other school leaders and deepening your understanding of their practice and organisations may help to build trust and reciprocity.  This is particularly important if you are considering a cross-phase collaboration.  Mistrust is often a symptom of perceived inequalities (Wilkinson & Pickett, 2010), and so building and strengthening relations with school leaders in other phases may temper dominant personalities and egos, and increase trust and cooperation.  Here prompts for discussion could be:Are there any joint mini-projects you could consider collaborating on with other schools, e.g. joint CPD or extra-curricular activities?  Are there opportunities to work with a school in a different phase to exchange ideas and gain a deeper understanding of each other’s practice?  For example,Moderation/assessment activities (particularly across KS2/KS3)Specialist secondary teaching to KS2 e.g. mathematics, English, physical education, Modern Foreign LanguagesUse of primary phase expertise to support under-achieving/SEND secondary phase pupilsAre there opportunities that could be explored in current or former collaborations, e.g. Teaching School Alliances, former Education Action Zone partners, Professional Learning Communities.Building capacity and liberating time: ISC is a time-consuming process, and this cannot be under-estimated.  It is important to make time where there seemingly is no time.  It is likely that all of the time in your working day is already allocated, and all the jobs that you do need to be done.  Therefore, it will be necessary for you to decide what you are not going to do to make time for what you want to do, what you are going to do differently to free up more time, or who you are going to enlist to help you. Possible strategies to free up time for ISC are to:Identify colleagues who may be ready to take on further responsibilitiesWhat training would they need?How long would it take before they are ready?How will you encourage them to stay at your school once trained?Can you effectively distribute leadership?Streamline current activitiesDo you need to have all the meetings in the diary?Can administrative tasks be completed more efficiently?Do you need to"
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Professional Development

To collaborate or not collaborate

18 Apr 2018

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      string(5387) "aims?These questions proved to be very powerful in helping leaders at all levels in a school to reconceptualise the process of curriculum making. They enabled schools to move away from simply ensuring everything that was ‘covered’ through a timetable to evaluating and setting out what they wanted their learners to achieve and then exploring ways of achieving these aims. It brought about a discussion of cause and effect – the impact of curriculum design, pedagogy and assessment on learners development as young people and the standards they achieve.nnnWhat the process did was to provide the focus needed to start making changes. It ensured that leaders were able to be open about the wider benefits of the curriculum and to focus more on what they had always considered important: the personal development of their pupils and the development of the skills they needed in the world outside and beyond school. 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Instead of focusing on timetabling and narrow school improvement targets alone, conversations were held about how to make the most of precious resources of time, people and space to make learning more engaging and effective. In some very effective innovations this involved learners as part of the leadership of curriculum change.One example of using learners as part of the leadership of curriculum change is from Stratton Upper School, where students have been increasingly involved in the co-construction of their learning. The school’s ‘Students as learning partners’ initiative has been developing for a number of years and many have been trained to work with teachers and other students in assessing the success, or otherwise, of lessons and feeding back student views to teaching staff.Making people responsible for success rather than accountable for failure Over the last 20 years of the curriculum there has been a move towards accountability. This has manifested itself more and more in the identification of and focus on what can be measured. One consequence of this is a loss of a sense of responsibility for the quality of pupils’ engagement with learning. One of the most liberating aspects of the reform was developing the notion of local determination. This meant using the National Curriculum framework as a starting point and then tailoring it to meet the specific needs of learners and the community. While remaining (rightly) accountable for what is achieved, the change in message has allowed people to feel a greater responsibility for what they choose to do with the curriculum as well as what is achieved.Responsible Intake High School worked on making its learners more responsible for their achievements in qualifications by setting targets about an overall points score through qualifications rather than a fixed number of qualifications at level 2. This changed the attitudes of learners, who felt more in control and who now had the courage to raise their aspirations as they began to see that achievement was possible. In many cases the width of accountability has increased as schools have chosen to take responsibility for quality and achievement in non-statutory elements of the curriculum such as skills, attitudes and aspirations.In summary, then, leadership of the curriculum is changing for the better. The new secondary curriculum provided opportunities for leaders to emerge from a pre- dominant culture of management. The greatest successes come from a ‘distributed’ leadership that focuses more on the quality of curriculum design and pedagogy in order to support the achievement of improved standards. Good leaders have the conviction to provide the impetus for change and the courage to make change possible. 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Leadership

Reach for the stars

18 Dec 2009