Who has already gone there?

All schools, colleges and universities are different, yet what are the success factors needed for deep sustained change? Just as there is a wealth of literature discussing “21st Century Skills”, there is also a range of emerging examples where educational reform is addressing the current and future demand for work ready skills at local, national, and international levels. Immerse yourself in the work of progressive giants and innovators as they lead the way.

Case Study One

What is worth learning?

New Tech Network (NTN) Schools

With approximately 85,000 students across 214 member schools in 2018-2019 and 5,000 teachers, NTN has been able to achieve a 94% graduation rate (as compared to the national average of 85%). Lydia Dobyna, president and CEO of the New Tech Network, states that “New Tech Network’s mission is to co-create schools that ensure all students regularly engage in authentic, complex thinking and problem-solving and experience a learning environment that is safe, inclusive, and emotionally supportive” . NTN schools have focused on the beliefs and mindsets of staff, building capacity to transform the learner experience through high quality project-based learning (PBL). Their model, alongside a supportive culture of extensive, tailored coaching, has created an eco-system for staff and students to become more innovative. In collaboration with the Stanford Centre for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE), NTN developed a set of rubrics to facilitate the assessment of specified outcomes linked to college readiness: knowledge and thinking; oral communication; collaboration; written communication; agency. Their learning management platform (ECHO) supports project-based learning and captures the deeper learning skills students are developing as well as providing exemplar resources and PBL assignments. NTN has created an environment which has positively impacted student learning, helping graduates become more work ready. xvii

Case Study Two

How can it best be learned?

High Tech High

Originally started as one small public school with 450 students, High Tech High is now a network of sixteen charter schools in the U.S. and espouses a philosophy of learning around productive activity through project-based-learning. Projects are designed to support industry and the community. The buildings have been designed to reflect the methodology championed by the schools, with collaborative open spaces, effective use of glass to make spaces visible to others. This design resonates with their project-based learning approach.

By research and discovery, students can integrate their learning into real world projects, seeing immediately the relevance of their studies and experiencing interactive, hands-on learning opportunities. Personalisation of the curriculum is a partnership between teacher and student, allowing projects to be modified to reflect the students’ interests. This focus on relationships and the autonomy teachers have to design the curriculum and assessment has been empowering. Students are able to present their ideas, work collaboratively and take the initiative. These wider skills are important as learners prepare for life and work. Traditional boundaries between curriculum areas are less apparent and the curriculum more integrated. The purpose of technology in High Tech High is not for consumption, rather for production. Students are assessed on e-portfolios where they showcase their developing skills alongside their contribution to group activities and their presentation of learning (POL) where they explain how their learning has been applied to real life. 100% of High Tech High graduates are accepted to college.

Case Study Three

How can you get taught that way?

South Eastern Regional College (SERC)

SERC has made a significant shift from the traditional industrial era approach to education, to a new model designed to meet the shortages and gaps identified by the NI Skills Barometer. They designed a Project Based Learning (PBL) model based on Stanford’s CDIO initiative and the challenge-based learning model in the Basque Country VET network. The SERC PBL model provides a context for all learners to work in multidisciplinary, collaborative projects, preparing students for the experience they will have in industry. The projects start from questions and are designed to develop the skills, attitudes, behaviour, experience and qualifications learners need to succeed in the world of work.

Investment in Continuous Professional Development (CPD) was a key component in the implementation of PBL college wide. CPD enabled staff to unlearn some of the deeply engrained habits they had developed and to relearn new PBL, planning and collaboration skills. Curriculum managers have become learners as they developed and improved their own skills and practice, demonstrating perseverance and the mindset needed for a project-based world. Initially having been trained in PBL, they trained over 350 staff. This approach built the capacity of teachers and managers to become leaders in the process. Staff have also been supported through SERC’s Learning Academy pedagogy mentors, empowering them to take risks and be creative and innovative in their approach to learning and teaching. The mentors model the approaches being advocated by teaching their mentee’s classes while being observed and designing a personalised training programme for their mentee.

Where a more sustained approach was needed to help a curriculum team,

Figure 1: SERC's 12 stage PBL model

intensive training is provided over eight days, working with an assigned mentor to plan their PBL projects for the year ahead. Staff prioritise PBL planning and mentors encourage curriculum teams to expand their project scope. During this intensive training, staff engage with stakeholders, to create real-world projects which are meaningful, engaging, and linked

to tangible outcomes. Scaffolded support is provided by the mentors to help staff as they implement PBL. Mentors taught, team-taught and peer observed over 500 mentees as they implemented these new approaches, working alongside curriculum teams, challenging and encouraging the iterative redesign of the curriculum. SERC have developed several strategic systems to help embed PBL and monitor its progress. The mentors trained staff in a range of digital technologies to support the wider skills development of students and to make collaboration, tracking, monitoring and review of PBL and curriculum assessment easier.

All programmes have adopted a cloud-based e-portfolio which allows greater collaboration and the capturing of naturally occurring evidence. Staff development days have focused on developing the critical skills associated with implementing a project-based learning approach and include opportunities to further develop digital skills, collaboration and communication between curriculum teams on multidisciplinary projects. There has been a lived ethos of development amongst staff. Colleges are inherently about relationships. In shifting away from the factory model of education, SERC have embraced more collaborative, interdisciplinary working.

Case Study Four

How do you know it has been learned?

Mastery Transcript Consortium

he Mastery Transcript Consortium (MTC) is a network of more than 120 public and private schools who have introduced a digital high school transcript to capture the unique strengths, abilities and interests of each student. Currently most US schools use the Carnegie transcript as a means of communicating students’ High School achievements to Universities. Aware of the wider skills needed by students when entering the workplace, the Mastery Transcript Consortium redesigned how the transcript evidences the learner profile beyond the grades they have achieved. The idea behind the Mastery Transcript is that students can evidence their wider skills and their personalised development as “whole learners”. Courses provide students with an opportunity to master a range of skills that prepare them for life and work. This mastery approach is organised around helping students develop essential transversal skills such as communication, critical thinking and decision making. Students can develop artefacts that evidence these skills.

This change in emphasis has influenced pedagogy because students are encouraged to engage in deeper learning, collaborative projects, skill and valued based activities, rather than just exams, developing the skills students will need to thrive in work and life. This is a shift in focus from the content of a course to the skills being developed through the course and has implications for teacher professional development as teachers adapt their teaching to reflect these values.