Barriers+Discussion

Barriers & constraints keeping change from happening in your district or organization?

• Kids have come through first six years with common method of instruction, comfortable practice. New formats challenging, cause resistance. Answers aren’t easy, can’t be copied. Parents are also resistant. Not as obvious or directed. Prior practice/experience with education is a barrier. Prepared for game of school. Challenge when depart from memorizing capitals. • Instructors can be obstacle. Learned a certain way and that’s the way we did it. Struggle to let go of need to control, responsibility for lesson. Let there be failure, ambiguity, questions. Let it be okay for there to be failure. Control is barrier issue. • Fear of failure is barrier. Conditioned to try to get an A. Teachers used to being sage on stage. • Administrators don’t place priority. Netbook initiative example. Making it easier for teachers NOT to leave comfort zone. Rather have classroom teachers fall in line. • Much interest and buy-in in district, but too many initiatives prevent focus on any one. Spread thin, can’t do any one thing well. • Skill level in students (innovation, creativity) is barrier to inquiry-based learning. Teachers not prepared to do it well, bring kids up to speed. Parents and admins resistant, too. Too much inquiry can be a disaster. • Mindset. Of state leaders, district leaders, and teachers. Standards are not part of mindset that embraces change. • Courage. Leadership. Can do many things without technology. Craft of teaching, artistry of teaching. Lack of courage & leadership, especially at district and system level, is barrier to change. What is behind lack of courage? Fear of losing job, of tough questions from board. • Implementation dip. District leadership so fearful of change not having immediate impact in face of high stakes tests.

1. What barriers or constraints are keeping this from happening in your district, school, organization? ++teachers are the biggest barrier- resistant to change- fear of giving up control- fear that kids may know more- willingness to try something new ++teachers are fearful of the change- professional development is necessary for them to change- fear of the future- looks differently than it was for them- scared of the outcomes- what if the kids say something inappropriate ++money and/or the admin is not providing the tools to make it happen- slow laptops- have to write grants that are sometimes denied -core knowledges movement- only data driven- people may doubt on student directed and how it will impact on the tests- how will it translate into higher test scores? - organic learning may not be fast enough for the people watching- assessment- what should they know - how should we get there?- parents can sometimes be a barrier ++philosophical barrier- ideological paradox creates a cognitive dissidents- do you do a unified experience of individual experiences- unity vs. diversity; control vs. freedom; paralyzes the teacher from moving forward; more freedom of movement is there but the educator may not see it, comfort level to try multiple activities at once; may not be sure of the outcome ++choosing to infuse the technology, but state mandated tests may cause projects to be set back and basics take the front seat; existing culture and changing cultures; self imposed barriers; how to keep this going ++administration drives changes administration may drive something in and/or something out- administration holds the purse strings- waiting to get something that administrators have promised- ++helping people to change is the barrier- support and training is needed to get there- can't get over the fear without help ++again- professional training is needed- frequent and sustained coaching models are needed- own building and cross building- more collaboration, new teacher training is sporadic ++lack of urgency on the part of administration and staff- time is a barrier- busy in personal lives and professional lives- what am I going to give up to make the changes needed? ++lack of support

What barriers or constraints are keeping change to student directed inquiry, passion-based learning and generative technology use from happening in your district, school, or organization?

Prior practice/experience...for teachers and students. They come w/ common method of instruction and when put into a format like this, they can be uncomfortable. Some are resistant because the answer isn't right there. There are parents that are resistant as well. Students are trained by the method prior to this point that makes them more resistant. Their training doesn't prepare them for this. Parents expect the old model too!

Instructors can be the obstacle. We're brought up in a system where the teacher had control. To be the teacher you must put together a responsible lesson. Hard to embrace the fact that things won't work sometimes.

Fear of Failure is the barrier. Students are conditioned to "How do I get an A?" Teachers are used to giving them the answers so they can get that A. Sage on the stage rather than facilitator.

Our administrators don't seem to be making this a priority. No push for administrators to change how this works. We're making it easier to keep kids in their comfort zone. "Why would you want to do things differently?" from Administrator, colleagues and parents

A lot of other initiatives. I'm spread out and can't focus on doing a good job on any of them. I'm spread too thin.

Skill level of teachers and students is a barrier. The system has beat it out of them. Too much inquiry is a disaster! If it's too open, I can see no learning come out of it. I can also see no learning come out of me having all control.

Fallacy of authority in my institution. Fear, spread too thin are all barriers, but many say "We don't have anything to learn from K-12." "We don't have to be the authority"

Mind-set of state, district leaders and teachers. We need to get the mindset that it's happening, and we need to embrace it. Standards don't seem to embrace this type of learning. We all end up being judged on the MCA's

Lack of Courage and Leadership. There are many things we can do without technology, and lots of things we can do with it. If we're advocating for a new type of art, it takes a large push from teachers as well as superintendents and administrators. "Why change now?" Do I really want to tap that courage now? The new digital divide is those that get it and those that don't. I might lose my job. Parents not getting it.It's hard to be and find really good leaders to lead through very difficult situations.

Implementation Dip. Can't afford it due to AYP, Maintaining high scores on AP tests.

What barriers or constraints are keeping this from happening in our district?

We are already successful- why change what's already working? Our move isn't happening because "we are already successful." They are not looking 10-20 years ahead. Infrastructure issues with the technology. It's not the technology; it's the pedagogical shift. Teachers think the change is about technology, but that keeps changing. It's really about the pedagogy. Need to stop the top-down approach. Resources and time. So many new initiatives and obligations that people at the top want to happen, but teachers are burnt out on all these things. So many initiatives leave no time for new learnings. Teacher burnout. Too much to do and not enough time. Increases in class size. Many new initiatives are included in PLP, but it doesn't seem like it. It's a culture piece. Seems like the culture is traditional and old-school. "If you try something new, the resistance... comes from parents questioning." "Why are you changing?" "Why do students need to be on the compute to learn this?" Pressure to meet AYP and close the gap. We've lost sight of engaging students- "it's all about results, results, results." "We don't have much support at all, or even understanding, from administration." They don't understand technology, especially 21st Century technology. Faculty have been burnt out. They've been through a lot of changes. "I think there's a pretty strong sense, particularly among elementary folks, about their insecurity, especially in science and technology instruction." There's a sense that "I need to know everything" before I go on this adventure with students. "Can we go on this adventure with kids with the end result in mind, but co-leading and co-learning?" It takes a fair amount of trust in this process. Initiative fatigue. Too many new things. Getting confused with technology vs. a different way of learning/teaching. Culture- "What I've been doing works fine." Even if it really isn't working fine, they don't want to try something new. A hard thing for teachers is to try something and fail. It's hard for them to try something and learn along the way. They feel like they are supposed to know everything. Parents- we think parents will be supportive because we are preparing students for their future. "We realize that lots of our parents don't really know what [21st Century skills] is." Teachers think they teach critical thinking or evaluation, but they really aren't. Need to educate the community so they know what we are doing. "Schools are not set up to change." The systems themselves are not set up to change. We are trying to change the system that is set not to change. We have a school board who is not educational professionals, who are asking teachers to do things. A lot things we do in education is based on what America was like at the turn of the century. Entrenched systems, e.g. an agricultural calendar. "We hear things like this [PLP] and we like it, because it looks good for our school, but it's mainly window dressing." We say we do it, but are we really doing it? Can we even define it? Example: online learning- we now have it, though it's outsourced. One class has online learning and is really easy. We are selling something without everybody being committed. Lack of a unified vision of what online learning is. We think students like change, but they don't always like change. Kids know how to play the game.