Sir Ken Robinson-Leading a Learning Revolution

Sir Ken Robinson – Bio

To give you a head start on Robinson’s presentation:

Robinson refers to the Plowden Report early in his talk.  The Plowden Report and Its Impact on School Curriculum  Here is the complete report:  Plowden Report 1967 – Full Text Online

Robinson states that:

Educators need to connect practice with theory with policy.  Time rarely permits that.

Technology is connecting the world with information systems.

Reference: The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil   See:   Technological singularity

Educational change is not linear.  Social change can never be linear because it involves people, feelings, and culture.  Social change is unpredictable and dynamic.

Education is :

• economic – well-educated people are economically engaged,  invested, buoyant, and sustainable.
• cultural – global not local
• personal – the central core of what this educational revolution must address.  Learning is personal.

Is there anything any one of us can do to change today’s educational systems?  Absolutely.  By doing what we think is right as classroom teachers, we are leading change at the grassroots level.  We, as teachers, ARE the educational system for our students.  Therefore, we can change the educational system for our students immediately.

Curriculum:

• Accelerate shift from subjects to discipline.  A discipline is about skills, processes, and procedures.
• Curriculum must be open and dynamic.
• The heart of education is teaching.
  -  Change the process of our teaching and learning from a solitary to a collaborative process.  We shouldn’t just teach students in
  groups; we must teach students as groups that learn from each other.
  -  The process of learning must shift from passive to active.
  -  Assessment must move from judgment to description, from empowering to disenfranchizing

We do not have to start the revolution in education.  It has already started.  We must have confidence that we are already part of the movement, and not just waiting for someone else to start it for us.  The process is moving forward, and we must make sure we are part of the solution, not the problem.

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From Rita:  I hope that when you finish listening to this presentation, you recommend it to your colleagues.  Then together you and your colleagues can discuss how you view yourselves as part of the educational or learning revolution that Robinson speaks about.  Food for thought and nourishment for our profession.

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