Mark Treadwell Consultancy

See below for the lecture/seminar/conference presentations. These sessions are all customisable into keynote presentation, seminars or 1-2 day long teacher development programs and are suitable for international audiences.

Mark has been lecturing, providing teacher seminars, workshops and speaking at national and international conferences for over fifteen years. Mark gave a key note address and workshop at the 2007 International Confederation of Principals conference and he is the Australian Council for Education Leadership (ACEL) Travelling Scholar for 2008. Mark also sits on the New Zealand, Ministry of Education (MoE) Curriculum Review Group and is one of four Curriculum Commentators appointed by the MoE on the new curriculum.

Mark addressed the Irish Secondary Schools Conference in Oct 2007 and the Hong Kong 21st Century Educator Conference in April 2008 and he has upcoming tours of Asia (Oct 2008) and Europe/UK/Ireland (May 2009).

Mark has released the first of two substantial works in Feb 2008 entitled Whatever! The Conceptual Era & the Evolution of School v2.0. The book is a synthesis of all the education issues within one overarching theoretical and practical framework. The text provides a rationale for the exponential changes that lie ahead in education and then deals with each of the issues one by one addressing curricula, assessment, inquiry learning, the role of technology, professional learning, the teaching and learning transitions, an updated theoretical and practical model for how we think and how the brain works, as well as speaking on the role of attitudes, values, principles and wisdom. In an era of exponential knowledge growth which values innovation and creativity we need a new comprehension of school; welcome to School version 2.0. The text is available from http://www.schoolv2.net  

Mark's notes and resources are available online at http://www.i-learnt.com  and http://www.teachers.work.co.nz

Contact Mark at mark@work.co.nz

Seminars/Conferences/Lectures: Topics

1.“Whatever!”

The conceptual age and the evolution of School v2.0

Global communication and knowledge sharing capabilities made possible via the internet has resulted in the world being on the cusp of a second Renaissance period; “Nouvelle Compréhension” [The New Understanding].  The capability of being able to instantly share knowledge and understanding with peers around the world propels the potential for creativity and innovation to unheard of levels. With over 80% of all researchers who have ever lived being alive today, combined with the ability to work with each other across the now “flat earth”, heralds new opportunities for educators and indeed ushers in a new paradigm around teaching and learning, setting the platform for School v2.0.

This paradigm shift, made possible by the internet, offers educators the chance to radically change their teaching and learning pedagogy/andragogy to focus on an outcome of understanding and wisdom rather than the historical end-point of knowing and remembering. This will place new stresses and strains on how education is perceived in the community and it fundamentally changes its purpose. Changing education practices which focus on transforming disengaged learners to engaged learners will hopefully remove the phrase “whatever” from our leaner vocabulary; forever.

“Nouvelle Compréhension” will not be confined to several tens of thousands of wealthy people as in the historical European first renaissance context but rather it will be global and will include billions of people. “Nouvelle Compréhension” will have a profound effect on education and if educators can transition their practices to focus on teaching for understanding and lifelong learning, the creative economy will blossom and more people will be engaged in fulfilling occupations. As a consequence of this more people will be able to centre their workplace around their passion; what they are naturally good at; what they would do even if they were not being paid.  Those countries that make the necessary infrastructure and pedagogical/andgragogical changes and facilitate environments that foster creativity and innovation will provide the world with the creative workforce which will power economies and societies for the next 20-50 years.  

In order to achieve lifelong learning capability for learners, educators need to form understandings around the numerous new terms that are now being talked about via  curriculum, assessment and e-learning tools. In this session mark will introduce the paradigm shift that is transforming education and how each of the elements relate to each other and make a seamless new education frontier.

2.The New Role of ICT’s in School v2.0
   Technology Revisited

 The role of Information and Communication technologies within schools is changing; morphing into a more service orientated architecture. The increasing dependence on the internet is merging with the realisation that for many schools technical help is expensive, hard to access and it is difficult for the non-technical management team to assess the quality of the technical advice and help they receive.

To provide an equitable and Just In Time (JIT) service and technology provision the infrastructure is increasingly moving to a web architecture. Student Management Systems, Online Learning Environments, e-Portfolios, Diagnostic Assessment tools and “Office” systems can all be provided via an Internet service, remotely hosted and managed. Educators can make use of Creative Commons, reduced copyright materials to create rich multimedia courses and resources quickly and easily. The advantages of a web based service are that educators and learners resources, assignments and teaching materials are available 24/7 from any internet enabled device. Learner’s files are always available to them and they are not constantly saving to CD’s, disks and pen drives and security risks are reduced considerably. These resources can be integrated with communication tools, Web 2.0 tools and learners can be provided feedback quickly and easily. Internet based assessments can be accessed by parent/caregivers from home and work and they can keep up with what is happening at school, what homework is being provided and what expectations are in place around the work habits of learners.

The “Office” era, where all the ICT programs were about learning to use a particular product, is quickly coming to an end and schools are now focusing on using ICT’s to improve teaching and learning outcomes rather than making the work look pretty. Creativity is now one of the key outputs and the use of multimedia and the ability to easily publish the learner’s multimedia material online where they can get great feedback provides a great incentive and driver for the learners.

The teaching and learning practices will be based on a media saturated world where discernment and critical thinking are essential capabilities. In the 21^st century we live in a communication rich world, one where our nodal networks (communication networks) are extensive and span the world.

In this world the Creative Commons (http://www.creativecommons.org/) revised copyright provisions provides educators and learners millions of resources which they can use without payment and without violating copyright law. We can bring this resource together, edit them and add clever, rich, open and high order thinking questions to provide a rich context within Online Learning Environments (OLE’s).

3. School v2.0

What the new paradigm will look like through the eyes of the 21st century learner 

The world of the 21st century learner will be

• Online

• Focused on Competencies and a Concept-Based Curriculum

• Making use of e-Plastic Books

• Authentically Assessed

• Involve Parent/Caregiver/Whanau more actively

• About Personalised Learning

• Based on Neuroscience not Folklore

• Inquiry-based 

• Values and Principles Based

Education is undergoing a paradigm shift on a scale not seen since the invention of the printing press. We are in the midst of witnessing education transforming from a book based system to an internet-based system with profound implications for classroom pedagogy and andragogy and entirely new community expectations. The purpose of school is being rewritten, requiring a new vision, mission and education goals. This in turn is requiring us to rethink almost every aspect of school. This session will look at what the implications of the emergence of school v2.0 will be for schools and why we seeing a shift to concept based curricula, and an emphasis on competencies and dispositions of learners.

The teaching and learning practices will be based on a media saturated world where discernment, citizenship and critical literacy are essential elements. In the 21^st century we live in an information and communication rich world, where innovation and creativity are more highly prized than memorization for tests.  

Online Learning Environments (OLE’s) will be at the core of schools technology infrastructure providing educators with the ability to make use of creative commons resources (with reduced copyright implications) that will enable educators to ask the clever, rich, open and high order thinking questions that enable learners to build understanding and as a consequence, develop creative and innovative applications and solutions. 

Personalised education programmes for learners will increasingly be based on a revised understanding of what intelligence is and how we synthesise there vast communication and information resources within the OLE resulting in a completely different approach to facilitating learning and thinking within schools. Welcome to the 21^st century and School v 2.0.

4. A New Curriculum [Personalised]

Transitioning [What:How:Why:Who] we teach to [Who:Why:How:What ]

Personalising learning is about transitioning the order of what, how, why, and who we teach to focusing on the new order of who, why, how, and what we teach. While this may sound like a very simple process, the truth is that the reordering of these components completely redefines what education will focus on and what it considers to be the key outputs. 

The new curriculum forms the basis of what we consider to be good teaching and learning practices and as such needs to focus on building effective competencies in the 21st century. In the previous education paradigm, education was about what we taught and measuring what had been remembered, but in the new education paradigm we are refocusing our priorities around whom we are teaching and whether what we are teaching is appropriate.  But before we even begin to ask whether what we are teaching is appropriate, it is imperative that we know how our learners can best learn. But before we focus on how our learners best learn, we have to be quite clear in our own mind as to why we want our learners to learn what we encourage them to pursue.

Competency is a merger of the capacity of metacognition and the concepts that need to be understood. Through the TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) research curricula based on concepts and where teachers explicitly state the learning intention have shown that learner develop clear understanding at a rate far exceeding those that are based on outcomes based curricula. So where from here?

Assessment is increasingly being managed electronically and e-portfolios are showing they are the way forward by having learners reflect on their own learning and combined with conferencing with the teacher it is showing to be a great way to develop a far more formative assessment process.

The new curriculum provides a framework for the development of a new local curriculum which reflects the needs of the 21^st century learner in your school. How is this achieved and how do we implement change on this scale? These issues will be addressed by Mark during this workshop session.

 5. “Inquiry Learning”

Developing an inquiry learning programme that is realistic and powerful.

Year 0-8

A “one size fits all” approach to inquiry learning has left junior school teachers struggling to make this process work and under pressure to run three week units when learners at this age struggle to remember yesterday let alone plan 3 weeks ahead! Inquiry learning needs to be a developmental process with realistic language, cognition, research and time expectations. In this session Mark will develop the understanding around asking clever, rich, open, high order thinking questions that have the appropriate scope and intellectual challenge for the age you are teaching and the time frames the concept you wish the learner to develop understanding around. This time frame may vary from an hour through to several days/weeks. Setting the task of “global warming” and have seven year olds find a solution in three weeks is asking for trouble (tens of thousands of scientists with unlimited time, money and resources are struggling with this and as much as I admire the innovation of our young learners this task may well be a bit of a stretch to complete in three weeks!). Too often poorly set questions, no clear learning /concept intentions and unrealistic expectations result in frustrated and overworked teachers; something we would like to eliminate.

Mark will also look at how inquiry presents itself in a number of contexts throughout the disciplines

• In Social Science and Health & Wellbeing we refer to the Social Inquiry process

• In Technology we refer to the Technology Process

• In Science we refer to the Scientific Process

• In the Arts we talk about the Creative Process

• In English/Languages we talk about Creating and Making Meaning

• In Mathematics we describe the Problem Solving Process

Year 9-13

Inquiry learning is the perfect learning vehicle for developing the key competencies for the 21st century and developing the necessary lifelong learning capabilities. Inquiry learning needs to be a developmental process with realistic language, cognition, research and time expectations. In this session Mark will develop the understanding around asking clever, rich, open, high order thinking questions that have the appropriate scope and intellectual challenge for the ages you are teaching and time frames you have available. Inquiry is the key process for developing solutions to needs and opportunities that present themselves on an almost daily basis.

Once the inquiry learning process is understood and can be applied both collaboratively and independently then the learner is empowered to manage the large amount of decision making, synthesis and problem solving the 21^st century is asking of almost everyone. This process also allows and encourages the ability to be creative and innovative, opening up new opportunities for taking part in fulfilling occupations and lifestyles.

6. Assessment

Assessment as a form of learning

 Assessment can be divided into three major categories and these categories are defined well by the University of Bradford

·         Diagnostic Assessment provides an indicator of a learner’s aptitude and preparedness for a unit or programme of study and identifies possible learning problems.

·         Formative Assessment is designed to provide learners with feedback on progress and inform development, but does not contribute to the overall assessment.

·         Summative Assessment provides a measure of achievement or failure made in respect of a learner’s performance in relation to the intended learning outcomes of the unit or programme of study.

These approaches to assessment need to be reconciled with the purpose of assessment and the practical management of assessment in the classroom. It is also necessary to develop an “assessment architecture” for assessment/reporting that will provide a framework for the formative assessment processes within the classroom and throughout the school.

Shirley Clarke describes feedback as the central theme of formative assessment and notes “yet it is the element most laden with a legacy of bad practice and misguided views”. Then comes the difficult part; how to authentically assess the learners capability. Assessment once again is being subjected to a paradigm shift and for the first time ever we can now start to authentically assess and report on a learner on a 24/7 basis, providing each stakeholder with a unique view of the learners capability taking into account summative, formative and diagnostic assessment tools, and do this without adding to the workload of the educators.

The use of online e-portfolios is now making this possible. Learners reflecting on their own learning and taking a lead role in managing their learning to become lifelong learners is key to 21^st century education. The challenge ahead is find the new balance between each of the assessment approaches and which types suit which intended outcomes.

7. Thinking - Learning - Teaching

So if Thinking comes first then where should we start?

 Before we can embark on a teaching program we need to understand quite clearly what it means to be a good learner, and to understand what it means to their good learner requires us to understand how the brain works. How the brain works has gone through a complete overhaul over the past two years and many of the anecdotal and urban myths associated with thinking and learning have been cast on the scrapheap. You can’t see pictures in your head, there is no such thing as multi tasking and women and men speak about the same number of words each day!

We need to re-look at what neuroscience tells us about brain functionality and how we can use this to a craft a teaching and learning pedagogy/andragogy which focuses on building appropriate knowledge bases, encourages the development of conceptual frameworks of understanding and apply these creatively to develop innovation and creativity throughout and across learning areas in an effective and efficient manner.

In the new model for thinking we are starting to realise the implications of how we understand the brain to work. This includes how we create conceptual models of understanding in our brains and how we store and retrieve memory. We are the only species with sufficient astrocytic cells in our brains to create new conceptual frameworks and make the connection “therefore this implies” to develop creative and innovative applications and solutions.

We need to understand the default nature of the human being is not that of being sensible, rational and logical but rather than we are passionate and non-rational. Our expectation is that everybody sees the world the same way we do but the reality is that we see the world via our own unique worldview and we expect everyone to respond in a manner which is rational, sensible and logical and we wonder why we are disappointed!

8. Values, Attitudes & Wisdom

The role of wisdom in the 21^st century and why it is more important than ever!

Increasingly administrators, the community and educators are talking about values, ethics, morals, attitudes, principles, qualities, standards, virtues and wisdom. Each of these terms have different meanings and implications and each has a place within education. Each of these terms is unique in its meaning and application and if we are going to prepare our young people for the 21st century we are going to have to provide them some assistance and guidance in developing a thinking architecture which has a moral spine.

Understanding that each of these terms is unique and has a place in the education system provides a framework to apply these terms appropriately and powerfully in a world which is increasingly looking for people who can be profoundly insightful and demonstrate wisdom based on core virtues, attitudes, qualities and principles.

Wisdom is accepting that the default nature of the human being is not that of being sensible, rational and logical but rather than we are passionate and non-rational and knowing when to be comfortable in the default state and when it is imperative that we operate from a position of being sensible, rational and logical. 

9. Critical Infrastructure!

What we need in school and at a national level.

There is now a wealth of resources and communication tools within the Internet which can enhance teaching and learning dramatically. In particular, there are millions of high quality, Digital Learning Objects/Resources which educators can cut, paste and then edit within Online Learning Environments.

Learners require access to these resources and communication tools. Our present paradigm includes the use of desktop and laptop computer technology as the main tools used to access these resources. However, the cellular phone and the PDA have the capability to access these tools and there are new technologies on the horizon such as the "plastic book" which will revolutionise how we interact with the online world.  When do all of these tools fit into our perceptions around 21st century teaching and learning? What infrastructure within a school is required and what should we be encouraging young people to learn in relation to Information and Communication Technologies?

In order to be truly useful online learning environments need to be interoperable with other education systems such as learning management systems, accreditation systems, assessment systems, e-portfolios, sequencing software, professional learning, library systems . . . The list is endless but unless we make these interoperable we will for ever duplicate data and get frustrated by the inefficiencies. What are the national infrastructures that are required? How will we provide access to the internet as the demand on uploading and downloading
                                                                                           increases at an ever increasing rate?

10.  Competencies for the 21st c

establishing the competencies as the central core of the new curriculum

The competencies sit at the core of the new curriculum but how can this be achieved in "real terms"?  In the past skills and attitudes were simply bolted onto the curriculum whereas in the new curriculum the competencies should form the core. When the ecology of competencies is examined the competency of thinking stands out as being the critical competency which underpins the other four competencies.  The teaching of thinking within the context of New Zealand education has often been about "thinking programs".  However the thinking that is required by the competencies is established around "the nature of being human".

Too often we teach thinking in a manner which tends to imply that humans are rational and logical and that this type of thinking is the preferred thinking approach. In truth human beings are non-rational and passionate in most of their thinking activity and it is important to understand thinking from this perspective. What is also important is our new understanding of how the brain works.

Thinking is required in order that we can manage self, relate to others, participate and contribute as well as use language symbols and text.  Sitting within the competencies are embedded attitudes, values, principles and dispositions.

Each of the competencies is underpinned by key concepts.  What is required is that educators have a framework for which of these concepts can be taught at which level, and to what depth.

What is also important is establishing how these competencies can be taught through powerful contexts. The session with Mark will explore what competency is, how they can be integrated into the curriculum while at the same time explicitly taught and encouraged and how we can effectively assess competency without adding an additional burden to the already overworked educator.

11. Professional Learning Programmes

Making change an action outcome

Professional learning (PL) encompasses a range of different elements in order to be effective. One of the key aspects is that people many not like change but they do like action, so by making the professional learning in your school more focussed on actions you will have more chance of success. The focus of successful professional learning is around “action research” which is a very similar process to that of inquiry learning.

Accompanying an action research programme are time frames that are contained within the normal constraints of school life and are also focussed on a specific date when, regardless of capability, all the educators will adopt the transitions as best as they are able.

Professional learning requires a change in culture for many teachers as most associate professional learning with doing courses on their subject area (mathematics, science, drama . . .) or classroom focus (reading, writing, “global warming” . . . . ). Our focus is on to facilitate learning better as in the main most teachers know enough (and in many case know too much!). We will base our “action” model on the work of Howard Gardner and Reuven Feuerstein and for success schools will require a good technical infrastructure.

12. 21^st Century Libraries

What we need in school and at a national level.

Before we begin this section visit this site http://msdewey.com/, and then resume reading.

Okay so now resume reading keeping in mind Ms Dewey. The role of the school library in the School v2 model for schools is at a crossroads. Whether libraries will increase in significance or decrease into obscurity is a source of concern and debate amongst librarians, library organizations, schools, and Ministries/Departments of Education, all of whom are struggling to identify the role of the library in this radically changing information and communication landscape. One of the central issues here is that school libraries have traditionally been structured around a scarce information landscape which needed to be managed so it could be equitably accessed. Historically the main task of a librarian was to manage the information “diet” of each learner, providing equitable access to a limited resource. The diet consisted of two books every two weeks to be consumed carefully and slowly.

“More simply, an information ecology is a system of people, practices, values, and technologies in a particular environment. The word ecology is important here because it conveys the sense of urgency about the need to take control of information systems—as Nardi and O'Day explain, "to inject our own values and needs into them so that we are not overwhelmed by some of our technological tools.”[1] Educause

In the not too distant future (three to five years) “conducting polymer technologies” will be commercially available and we will see the technology of book and laptop replaced with the “virtual book” with wireless connectivity to the internet. The pages of this book are “plastic” and would be the equivalent of laptop computer screens but they are flexible so they can read and write any information to and from the internet. This virtual book will be able to access the internet and download books, magazines, blogs, podcasts and any digital information onto its pages. Personalising the plastic book is simply a matter of placing the right index finder print on the top right hand portion of the front “page”.

The librarian and the services of the library are now facing up to a raft of new challenges and librarians have a distinctively different role where they are now opening the information valve and increasing the information flow rate while at the same time there is an immeasurably greater demand for them to manage the information conduit so that it is safe, academically appropriate, media appropriate and more easily searched to find appropriate information. At the moment the internet is like a giant library except some madman has ripped off all the covers of the books and thrown all the books into a pile in the middle of the virtual floor. There is a need now for a new management ecology based on this emerging tidal wave of information, and librarians, if they can adapt within this ever increasing environment, have a significant role to play.

This half day session will look at the revised role of libraries in the 21^st century and the librarian within a completely new teaching and learning paradigm. How will the transformation happen and what are the new roles and opportunities that these new technologies will open up? Mark will address this topic and provide some insights into how this critical transformation may possibly be managed.

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