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Help me get to know you by taking a moment to answer these 5 questions before the workshop. Thank you!

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Workshop description:
In this workshop, heads of school are challenged to think about the process of leadership differently, to base their decision-making and actioning on a foundation of deeper understanding of the complex nature of their own

particular context as well as being immersed into the IB ecosystem. Building on this understanding, leaders—together with the IB—will consider the ways in

which their school community (all stakeholders) will place learning at the centre of their IB programme, through the thoughtful development of purpose, culture and environment, in alignment with the IB's mission and philosophy.

Working with each other and the workshop leaders, participants will:

-embrace their role as a leader of a learning organization in  an IB global context

-become familiar with the IB’s philosophy and requirements, including the specifications relevant to the programme(s) for which the school is seeking authorization

-prepare to inform and engage their school community

-plan their school's IB journey through authorization and beyond, including the identification of a potential leading learners team.

During the workshop, leaders will begin to develop their school's IB action plan to meet the IB's requirements for authorization and a vision for ongoing implementation.

REQUIRED FOR:

The head of school, who may be the head, executive head, owner, principal,

governor, superintendent. Heads will be encouraged to consider who they should send to Leading the learning category 1.

Required prior to submission of Application for Authorization Form A.

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The revised Programme Standards and Practices and the IB authorization process

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Guide to school authorization 2010 - PYP

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Guide to school authorization 2010 - PYP

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IB Abstract - Peter Senge Systems thinking

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IB Abstract - Peter Senge Systems thinking

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Workshop Conceptual Understandings and Lines of Inquiry

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Workshop Conceptual Understandings and Lines of Inquiry

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Workshop conceptual understandings and lines of inquiry:

• analyse the philosophical, pedagogical and operational implications (staff structure, budget, etc.) of becoming an  IB world school

• consider the impact of local school-wide policies that align with IB philosophy

• connect the local school context with an IB world school approach through a global network
• reflect on the importance of developing lifelong learners who can construct meaning and make sense of our  world.

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Educators around the world keep professional portfolios. Note taking, journaling and reflection are important methods to process new learning.  I invite you to use digital and/or physical reflection journals throughout this workshop to build on your professional portfolio and evidence your professional growth in leadership.

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Make sure you bring a laptop and charging cord. A cell phone is not an optimal tool for accessing and completing workshop learning engagements

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Guidelines for developing a school language policy

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Guidelines for developing a school language policy

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Learning diversity and inclusion in IB programmes

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Learning diversity and inclusion in IB programmes

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Academic honesty in the IB educational context

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Academic honesty in the IB educational context

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Learning Engagement 2.1   Top Tips to develop the agency of people on your team

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Learning Engagement 2.1   Top Tips to develop the agency of people on your team

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Learning Engagement 3.1 Investigate How Policy defines culture

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According to the Richard Lewis model of cultural differences, it is possible to divide all the world´s cultures into three parts: linear-active, multi-active and reactive. These three clearly distinctive cultural groups form a triangle that is known in the world as the Lewis model.

The Lewis model has been successfully used in the development programmes designed to get to know cultural differences already over 30 years and over 70 000 people have participated in a special training programme based on that model. The Richard Lewis bestseller "When Cultures Collide" has sold over 1 million copies.

The reason of the huge popularity of the Lewis cultural differences model is its practicality. By just thoroughly getting to know these three main cultural groups it is possible to navigate and understand quite well most of the world´s cultures.

It is also important that the Lewis cultural differences model focuses mainly on the communication patterns of the people from different cultural background. This is the basis of every international business, because if the communication does
not flow smoothly, it prevents the creation of trust and hence reaching successful deals.
Knowing the Lewis cultural differences model helps to communicate with the
representative of each culture smoothly since the very beginning.

In the following video the author of the model - a living legend Richard Lewis -
shortly introduces it by himself:

Hea Koolitus OÜ manager Veiko Värk, who is a licensed partner of Richard Lewis Communications, can deliver those efficient and practical development programmes that are popular all over the world also in Estonia.

As one part of the development programme every participant can fulfil a detailed questionnaire in a special online environment (CultureActive) and get to know what his or her individual cultural profile is - where he or she is located at Richard Lewis cultural differences triangle, according to his or her cultural preferences. It is also possible to compare his or her values and preferences with the ones of other cultures. This is a very powerful database due to the fact that it consists of over 100 detailed analyses of the world cultures! It is also possible to compare one´s own values and preferences with one´s home country - some people may be quite different compared to their home country average. Being aware and getting to know these differences may help to create better relationships.

This is also an excellent tool for team building - it enables to see the whole team together and the location of each representative of the team according his or her preferences at the cultural differences model. It is also possible to compare the values of the team members, see the whole picture of the values of the team, commonalities and have meaningful discussions on these topics. The programme enables to get 360° feedback from the colleagues and compare one´s own values and preferences with the perceptions of these by other team members.

The development programme can be delivered by using a specially designed interactive tool (Cross-Cultural Dialogue Mat) that enables the participants in the groups of around 4 people under the guidance of the trainer, to discuss cultural differences and complete interesting tasks.

All the main fields from the point of view of the cultural differences like presentations, meetings, negotiations, management, teamwork and trust are covered.
You are most welcome to contacting us!
Let´s discuss together which solution suits you the best.

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Richard Lewis - Hea Koolitus / Good Training

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Richard Lewis´e kultuurierinevuste mudelil põhinevad tõhusad, praktilised ja kogu maailmas ülipopulaarsed arenguprogrammid nüüd võimalikud ka Eestis

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Cultures around the world are getting more and more interconnected and the business world is becoming increasingly global. For managers this means that they should be able to work with a large variety of people from different countries and cultural backgrounds. However, since most people are so strongly immersed in their own culture, they often fail to see how it affects their patterns of thinking or their behavior. To overcome this, researchers suggest some kind of tools or mechanisms with which to compare countries on cultural similarities and differences. A number of attempts have been made to combine these cultural differences across borders (e.g. the GLOBE study, Trompenaars' cultural dimensions and Hall's cultural dimensions). However, the most-used and best-known framework for cultural differences is Geert Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions. Over the years, his study led to six cultural dimensions on which countries can be ranked: Power Distance, Individualism/Collectivism, Masculinity/Femininity, Uncertainty Avoidance, Long-term/Short-term Orientation and Restraint/Indulgence. Each dimension will be elaborated on below:

Figure 1: Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions

This dimension expresses the degree to which the less powerful members of a society accept and expect that power is distributed unequally: beliefs about the appropriate distribution of power in society. The fundamental issue here is how a society handles inequalities among people. People in societies exhibiting a large degree of Power Distance accept a hierarchical order in which everybody has a place and which needs no further justification. In societies with low Power Distance, people strive to equalise the distribution of power and demand justification for inequalities of power. China and Saudi Arabia are countries with a high Power Distance index.

The Individualism/Collectivism dimension is about the relative importance of individual versus group interests. The high side of this dimension, called individualism, can be defined as a preference for a loosely-knit social framework in which individuals are expected to take care of only themselves and their immediate families. Its opposite, collectivism, represents a preference for a tightly-knit framework in society in which individuals can expect their relatives or members of a particular in-group to look after them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty. A society's position on this dimension is reflected in whether people's self-image is defined in terms of "I" or "we." The USA is considered as one of the most individualistic countries in the world.

The Masculinity/Femininity dimension is about what values are considered more important in a society. The Masculine side of this dimension represents a preference in society for achievement, heroism, assertiveness and material rewards for success. Society at large is more competitive. Its opposite, femininity, stands for a preference for cooperation, modesty, caring for the weak and quality of life. Society at large is more consensus-oriented. In the business context Masculinity versus Femininity is sometimes also related to as "tough versus tender" cultures. Japan is considered to be a very masculine country, whereas Scandinavian countries such as Norway and Sweden are considered highly feminine.

Uncertainty Avoidance

The Uncertainty Avoidance dimension expresses the degree to which the members of a society feel uncomfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity. In addition its impact on rule making is taken into account. The fundamental issue here is how a society deals with the fact that the future can never be known: should we try to control the future or just let it happen? Countries exhibiting a high Uncertainty Avoidance maintain rigid codes of belief and behaviour and are intolerant of unorthodox behaviour and ideas. These countries often need many rules to constrain uncertainty. Countries with a low Uncertainty Avoidance index maintain a more relaxed attitude in which practice counts more than principles, tolerance for ambiguity is accepted and the need for rules to constrain uncertainty is minimal. South American countries such as Chile, Peru and Argentina are highly uncertainty avoiding countries.

Every society has to maintain some links with its own past while dealing with the challenges of the present and the future. Societies prioritize these two existential goals differently. Countries that score low on this dimension, for example, prefer to maintain time-honoured traditions and norms while viewing societal change with suspicion. They are past and present oriented and value traditions and social obligations. Countries with cultures that scores high on this dimension on the other hand take a more pragmatic approach: they are future oriented and encourage thrift and efforts in modern education as a way to prepare for the future. Asian countries such as China and Japan are known for their long term orientation. Morocco is a short term oriented country.

The Indulgence dimension is a relatively new dimension to the model. This dimension is defined as the extent to which people try to control their desires and impulses, based on the way they were raised. Relatively weak control is called Indulgence and relatively strong control is called Restraint. Cultures can, therefore, be described as Indulgent or Restrained. Indulgence stands for a society that allows relatively free gratification of basic and natural human drives related to enjoying life and having fun. Restraint stands for a society that suppresses gratification of needs and regulates it by means of strict social norms.

Figure 2: Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions Framework

Further Reading:

Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture's Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations Across Nations. Second Edition, Thousand Oaks CA: Sage Publications.

Steers, R.M. et al. (2013). Management Across Cultures: Developing Global Competencies. Cambridge University Press.

Geert Hofstede Country Comparison Tool: https://www.hofstede-insights.com/product/compare-countries/

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Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions EXPLAINED with EXAMPLES | B2U

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Geert Hofstede's Cultural DImensions are used to compare countries based on national cultural differences and similarities. The six dimensions are Power

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13 min read ⌚

The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization

Do you want to know why your company faces specific problems? Even more importantly, do you want to know how to avoid them?

Well, you are in the right place!

We present you "The Fifth Discipline" the book which will open your mind and guide you to finding the success you strive for.

Are you ready to become a manager that will be able to notice and adequately fix problems?

Then, let's begin.

Who Should Read "The Fifth Discipline"? and Why?

The latest technologies carry with them an increased set of options available for the companies to operate more cost-effectively.

"The Fifth Discipline" challenges businesses to change their old-fashioned manner of organizing activities, projects, and events.

Economy Students- (especially those studying management and accounting ) would find this book quite thrilling and amazing where clear, concise and unique organization methods and techniques are presented, that may come in handy very soon.

Open-minded Businessmen are quickly able to grasp why all businesses need an organizational change and improvement, Senge's point of view is not some personal agenda, It is a long-term plan for a company to optimize its so-called operations.

About Peter Michael Senge

Peter Michael Senge was born in 1947 Stanford, California. He studied philosophy and received a B.S. from Stanford University.

As an American-born scientist, analyst, and organizational expert he gradually became a Learning Organization consultant and the founder of the Society for Organization Learning.

The Center for Organizational Learning developed under the patronage of Peter M. Senge where he currently has an executive role as a director at MIT's Sloan School of Management.

Peter M. Senge is also the founding partner of consultancy services in Massachusetts - USA, Toronto - Canada and many others.

Book Summary

Peter Senge is one of the greatest thinkers of the contemporary corporate world. His theories help companies clarify their goals, challenge the odds and find new opportunities.

He believes, in the long run, the only difference an organization can have is to make you learn faster than the competition. In this book, he teaches you how to do this in your company. Read on!

The Era Of Learning Companies

In an increasingly competitive world, where companies strive to create their competitive edge and win by using competitive academic strategies, Peter Senge brings a different vision.

Companies that will win and have a competitive edge in the future will be "learning companies," companies that are capable of exploiting the collective experience and the ability of people to succeed in a team.

The learning organizations are those people who continually improve their ability to create the future they would like to see emerging.

They use collective learning practices and are always prepared for the future, as they know they can assimilate the knowledge they need to succeed.

Learning companies know that their profits come from their ability to continue learning.

And this is not just for companies. In the contemporary world, the learning process has already become continuous and not a part of a professional's career.

The Learning Companies Differential

Learning companies focus on uniting the capabilities of their entire staff to produce audacious results.

With the rapid pace of change taking place in today's world, companies that can adapt have a big advantage.

To do this, they need to develop their learning capacity. Most companies fail to create a learning and adaptation process. This is because:

Employees may be attached to their current positions and their knowledge, and this causes changes to bring friction and conflict;

People focus on business problems rather than coming up with solutions together to solve them;

People look at what is happening in the foreign market and do not realize the gradual changes that occur in the company itself;

People are more attached to their previous experience, and there is a long cycle of response between an action and its outcome. It causes people to take the old way because they do not feel the effects and results in a new way;

A company that does not learn is only reacting to events in the outside world.

Learning companies, on the other hand, can transform the context in which they are inserted to control and create their destiny.

What Is A Company That Learns?

Learning companies share many common characteristics.

They focus on progress, always seeking continuous improvement, and always striving for precise results.

They are dynamic, and people work together to improve learning all the time;

They are productive, and people are able to exploit their strengths to compensate for their weaknesses;

They create their own future, always knowing where they want to go and what skills they need to develop;

To become a learning company, Peter Senge proposes the use of a model with 5 disciplines that must be developed by companies.

The 5 disciplines are complementary skills that need to evolve together to create a learning organization. They are:

Personal Domain: Companies are only able to learn if they have people who learn on their team.

Therefore, personal development and the constant effort to become fitter are the pillars of the first discipline. People with a high level of personal mastery live life in constant learning mode.

The personal domain is based on your skills and abilities. It also engages in personal growth and a strong sense of belonging and purpose demonstrating the commitment to the company.

A person who works well with his personal domain focuses on the journey and learning, not the final destination.

Hence, she is able to develop continuous learning. Personal domain is greater than skills and abilities, but they are a key part of it.

Developing your personal domain means understanding life as creative rather than reactive work.

To develop your personal domain, follow the following practices:

Create a personal vision: Personal vision is the image of the future that you want. Everyone has it, but people with a greater personal domain focus continually on what they want for the future and work to get there.

Use creative tension in your favor: Creative tension is born of the difference between your vision and reality, it is a force that develops your creativity and curiosity. You need to use this tension in your favor as it helps you to grow.

Escape Structural Conflict: When you feel unable to change things, this is due to structural conflict. To overcome it, you need willpower and positivity, always wanting to change the status quo.

Commit to the truth: Question theories and try to understand the nature of events and what is behind them.

Use the subconscious: Develop good communication between normal and subconscious consciousness, program your brain in the right way. Thus, you release your subconscious from the ordinary tasks to focus on personal vision. Learning companies work to help their people develop their domain, creating space for honest feedback, self-development and creating long-term visions.

Mental Models: The second discipline is based on the empirical knowledge of the organization: its mental models.

They are beliefs that are in our unconscious and therefore influence the way we behave.

Learning companies can create their mental models to encourage innovation and change.

Mental models are nothing more than real-world simplifications that operate in your subconscious.

They permeate your passive thinking, profoundly influencing your actions.

To develop your company's ability to adopt mental models, you must:

Develop Reflective Ability: Reflections motivate people to understand their thinking process and to become more aware of the implicit mental models in use. , People can change their mental models by being more aware.

Check how to shape acts and decisions: Create a mental model to shape the way the organization learns and operates.

Review mental models and adjust them to reality: You have to understand the mental models under which the company operates to change them. To do this, you should encourage people to look at situations differently from the status quo and think about how to adapt them can give rise to new, more efficient mental models.

Learning companies stimulate their team to improve organizational models used mentally.

They look for practical ways to change the mental models in use to create positive changes in the learning environment.

Shared View: The third discipline exists when there is an identification between the people of the organization and a common sense of destiny.

The power of shared vision comes from a shared interest among the members of the company.

In learning companies, people create shared visions that connect them to the purpose of their work. To create a shared view, you must:

Develop personal vision: Shared visions derive from personal visions. If people do not have their own vision and adopt the vision of another person, they will have an atmosphere of conformity and not of commitment. Learning companies should not invade individual freedoms, but rather stimulate individual vision to strengthen the shared vision of the company.

Understand that it takes time for a common vision to appear: common visions are never imposed, they evolve as people participate and engage. Shared visions gradually emerge in an intelligent organization.

A good common vision records the ideas of the people in the organization: When there is a common vision, it can capture what the individual elements of the organization aim to achieve. It simply communicates the purpose and direction to which the company seeks to address itself collectively.

Expressing the vision in positive terms: Negative visions are harmful, and all organizations always try to avoid. It is necessary to speak of aspirations and not of fears. Learning companies build powerful common visions. They organize and concentrate their efforts according to the common visions of their people.

Team Learning: Team learning is based on aligning the company's actions and capabilities towards its vision for the future. Team learning has three dimensions:

The need to understand complex issues;

The need for innovative and coordinated action;

The need to share new practices and skills;

To develop team learning, you need to:

Promoting dialogue and debate: Learning companies use discussions and conversations among staff to multiple team knowledge and ensure that content is multiplied.

Use conflict constructively: Different people have different ideas about how to achieve the company's vision.

When these differences are exposed, the team's creativity and learning evolve rapidly.

Team learning is essential for the company to continue learning in the long term, maintaining the quality of its employees as a whole.

Systemic Thinking: All four previous disciplines are essential, but it is more important that they are operating together.

Therefore, systemic thinking is the fifth discipline, and it integrates all others into a coherent set of theory and practice. It is the discipline that allows you to see things as a whole, understanding your relationships.

Today, this discipline is necessary because of the complexity of everyday life.

Today, perhaps for the first time in history, humanity can create more information than it is capable of assimilating. The problems no longer have a simple or explicit cause.

Therefore, systemic thinking is the solution to this sense of impotence felt by many people. To apply systemic thinking, one must understand that:

The current problems come from the solutions of the past: Short-term solutions often only take the problems from one part of the system to another;

More pressure does not produce better results: More than more effort, you have to find the obstacles that prevent the system from working better.

Focus on causes, not symptoms: Good short-term results can lead us to believe that a problem has been solved. However, systemic thinking must be focused on the long-term causes and never on the symptoms alone.

The known is not always the answer: We get more comfortable with known solutions, but often the efficient solutions are not so obvious and require research.

The fastest can be the most time consuming: Any system has an acceptable rate of growth. When growth is excessive, the system itself tries to compensate for this, evolving more slowly and this comprises the organization's ability to learn.

Cause and effect are not as close as you can imagine: there is a time lag between an action and its results. The more complex the system, the longer the interval between action and reaction.

Small changes can bring great results: Focused actions often produce permanent gains.

Splitting an elephant in half does not give you two small elephants: It takes a global view of the system to understand the problems associated with each solution. Fragmentation hides processes that are fundamental to understanding any problem.

Do not blame others or externalities: We can never blame circumstances or other people for our problems. There is not only an external cause. The cause of our problems comes from everyone because they are part of a single system.

Understand The Feedback Cycles

The central idea of systemic thinking is that every action causes a reaction. This reaction is called feedback. There are 2 types of feedbacks: reinforcing feedback and balancing feedback.

Often feedback or reaction does not occur immediately.

The same action has dramatically different long-term and short-term results and also distinct consequences in different parts of the system. Therefore, obvious interventions often have surprising results.

Traditional planning and analysis models are not ready to deal with such complexity.

The essence of systemic thinking ability is based on the ability to see the interrelationships between things, rather than linear chains of causes and effects, and also change processes(patterns), rather than isolated events.

Causal relationships are not linear or unidirectional.

A systemic perspective finds causality through feedback cycles. Feedback is any flow of reciprocal influence.

Reinforcing feedback speeds up a trend in a given process. If the trend is positive, positive feedback accelerates growth. If it is negative, the decline is accelerated.

An avalanche, for example, is a reinforcing feedback loop. The feedback balancer will work if there is a goal.

It tends to reduce the distance between the current state and the desired state.

The feedback balancer adjusts the current state to the desired state. An example of balancing feedback is the process of staying balanced when riding a bicycle.

Discover The Leverage Principle

The key to systemic thinking is the use of the lever. It is based on finding the point where structured actions and changes can bring meaningful and permanent improvements.

With punctual thinking, there is a tendency to make changes to low leverage. This type of change tends to have short-term results and not be lasting.

See The Trees Without Seeing The Forest

Systemic thinking does not ignore complexity, but it organizes it logically, highlighting the causes of problems and permanently solving them.

Nowadays the fundamental problem is that we have too much information.

It is, therefore, necessary to distinguish between the important and the irrelevant, as well as the priority variables of the non-priority ones.

Challenges And Problems

Learning companies tend to be experimental laboratories where answers to many problems and practical issues are constantly being solved. That can generate some problems, such as internal policies.

When there are internal policies, and it is believed that the originator of an idea is more important than the idea itself, the potential for results for the company will quickly decline.

To prevent this from happening, we must always reinforce shared vision, promote participation, sincerity and finally recognize that there are no unique answers.

Give People Autonomy To Act

People learn more when they feel responsible for their actions.

If they have no influence over decision making, their learning ability will drastically diminish.

Learning companies establish corporate governance systems where most decisions are made locally rather than at the top of the command chain.

To allow decisions to be made locally and to maintain some control over them, you need to train your company's staff across the 5 disciplines and turn your managers into apprenticeship program designers.

Focus On The Future

Managers should focus on the opportunities of the future, rather than focusing on the problems of the present.

They should design learning systems for the future because doing so will make the company truly successful.

Also, learning companies know how to differentiate clearly between action and learning.

Balancing Family And Work

Traditional businesses tend to create a conflict between work environments and families. Learning companies need a good work-family balance.

To achieve the appropriate balance, learning enterprises should give individuals freedom and recognize that family subjects should be treated with the same seriousness as professional matters.

Personal balance must be part of group strategy and philosophy, and no one can feel that their professional opportunities are being limited by the time spent on family commitments.

Also, the organization should help people get support, so that family time is well spent and effective.

Leading A Learning Company

To drive a learning company, you must become a systems designer, always seeking to redesign and integrate all elements of the organization.

For this, you need to explore your creative tensions and know how to draw the path from the current scenario to the shared view.

You should also be able to be a mentor. A guide focused on getting the organization to achieve success through clear goals and focus on results.

Key Lessons from "The Fifth Discipline"

1. Become an Individual Expert2. Developing mental models3. Share a Common Vision

4. Team learning atmosphere

Become an Individual expert

A person should continuously be clarifying and reorganizing its visions and ambitions.

Learning organization must have employees that are familiar with tolerant behavior, harmony, and egoless relationships.

Developing mental models

Conduct a research and have your assumptions that would help you develop a realistic picture of how the world evolves since these practical activities and events are shaping your business.

Share a Common Vision

Requires a motivational group of employees that share the same goals, vision, and mission."

Companies must enforce a subtle message something like a slogan that would invite the staff members to share their opinion openly not only as a statement.

Team learning atmosphere

As the name indicates, Team Learning promotes a healthy working environment, an air filled with friendly atmosphere that motivates people to progress as one.

Good teams are made- they aren't born. For a group to achieve magnificent results, first it must learn to grow and mature collectively and hopefully, this union and friendly surroundings would generate a better long-term outcome.

Like this summary? We'd Like to invite you to download our free 12 min app, for more amazing summaries and audiobooks.

"The Fifth Discipline" Quotes
Courage is simply doing whatever is needed in pursuit of the vision. The most effective people are those who can hold their vision while remaining committed to seeing current reality clearly. Reality is made up of circles but we see straight lines. In the presence of greatness, pettiness disappears. In the absence of a great dream, pettiness prevails. It is not the absence of defensiveness that characterizes learning teams but the way defensiveness is faced. Click To Tweet Click To Tweet Click To Tweet Click To Tweet Click To Tweet
Our Critical Review

"The Fifth Discipline" is a must-read for everyone who is or strives to take a leadership position. It does a great job explaining why so many organizations face problems.

The only drawback is that it is not an easy read, but if you don't have a problem with your focus, pick up this management bible and take the first step towards improving your organization.

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The Fifth Discipline PDF Summary - Peter Michael Senge

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13 min read ⌚ Do you want to know why your company faces specific problems? Even more importantly, do you want to know how to avoid them? Well, you are in the right place! We present you "The Fifth Discipline" the book which will open your mind and guide you to finding the success you strive for.

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Create an elevator pitch to share the specialness of your IB school to a potential staff recruit or community leader. Consider the IB mission, and the why and what of an IB education.Deliver your elevator pitch.Group Critique: (a) identify words or phrases that were powerful, and (b) evaluate how it could be improved.

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Create an elevator pitch to share the specialness of your IB school to a potential staff recruit or community leader. Consider the IB mission, and the why and what of an IB education.Deliver your elevator pitch.Group Critique: (a) identify words or phrases that were powerful, and (b) evaluate how it could be improved.

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Skip to content

"Having agency as a learner is now becoming a default expectation to meet learning needs." (21st Century Learning Reference Group [21st CLRG], 2014, p.36).

What's it about?

Learner agency is about having the power, combined with choices, to take meaningful action and see the results of your decisions. It can be thought of as a catalyst for change or transformation. Within a school context, Learner Agency is about shifting the ownership of learning from teachers to students, enabling students to have the understanding, ability, and opportunity to be part of the learning design and to take action to intervene in the learning process, to affect outcomes and become powerful lifelong learners.

What's driving this?

Moral imperative - drivers for agency or agentic practices

Learner agency is not a new concept, but it is something that has come into the spotlight and quite rightly needs attention in our education system.

Agentic children turn into agentic adults. We have all heard the words "Successful people, act on their beliefs" and this is true in the light of agency. Therefore, the moral imperative lies not just in the social and emotional wellbeing - it is an innate characteristic that must be acknowledged and addressed.

As explored by Zhao (Zhao, 2015) the world is faced with two paradoxical crises: massive youth unemployment and equally massive talent shortage. These must not be allowed to continue - they are both dangerous. Massive youth unemployment leads to personal poverty, psychological trauma, plus social unrest. Inequality thrives as talent shortage drives up the incomes of highly talented workers, which in turn results in even bigger income gaps.

The traditional education model that prepared employment-minded job seekers does not address either of these paradoxical crises. In this fast-paced world of change, knowledge is now a central driving force, and agentic learners are critical for addressing talent shortages and massive youth unemployment.

Research shows that the more successful an educational system is in the traditional sense, the less likely it is to cultivate entrepreneurs. PISA scores, for example, have been found to be negatively correlated with nations' entrepreneurial confidence and activities (Zhao, 2012). The new economy needs learners and entrepreneurs who have adaptive expertise to be innovative, flexible, and creative in a variety of contexts.

What examples of this can I see?

Embedding learner agency in school systems, curriculum

While it is innate for us to have agency, our current mental models of school systems often limit agentic practices. Developing agentic learners is more than offering a list of choices and seeking student voice. This is a tokenistic or watered down version of authentic agency.

To avoid tokenism and embed a culture of agency we must provide the conditions that shift the ownership of teaching and learning and place it in the hands of the learners themselves. This is also about involving students in the key aspects of decision making so they can fully experience the messiness of a real-world project, complete with the unexpected changes in direction, opportunities, and challenges that can arise.

It is an imperative that we move the level of engagement of learners from non-participation through tokenism to learner empowerment. Amplifying agentic practices gives permission to all learners, teachers, and students alike, to embrace new possibilities for learning and educational systems. If nothing else, children should leave school with a sense that if they act, and act strategically, they can accomplish their goals. Johnston (2004), pg. 29

A lead thinker in education noted that teachers do not create learning, learners create learning, and it is the teachers that create the conditions to promote learning (Wiliam, 2006). This is further empowered by parents and whānau who help to inspire and focus a sense of agency. As top rung of Arnstein's ladder of participation states, agentic learners initiate agendas and are given responsibilities and power for the management of issues and to bring about change.

Technology enabling, enhancing, supporting these processes

Digital technologies have changed how teachers and students approach learning. Knowledge is no longer constrained by the physical boundaries of the traditional classroom. In today's learning environments, access to limitless information rests at the fingertips of learners and their devices. Teachers can draw on these enabling technologies to move towards becoming a co-constructor of learning, who builds knowledge alongside their students. In this sense, everyone is a learner and has the power to act in the agentic classroom.

Digital technologies enable learners to connect with, interact with, and build on knowledge in ways otherwise not possible. When teachers scaffold, support, and guide students through their use of digital technologies, students are empowered to drive their own learning.

Learners can use digital technologies to:

transform information and make something new

recombine information to solve a problem

link information to show relationships

modify information for personal preferences

connect with others locally and globally

discover solutions collaboratively and independently

track, share, and reflect on their learning, for example through e-portfolios.

Adapted from: Future-focused learning in connected communities, May 2014

How might we respond?

Some questions to act as a stimulus with your colleagues include:

How will you develop and deepen students' engagement with and responsibility for their own learning?

How will your school connect young people with peers, teachers, and other adults? How will they use technology to connect with the wider world around them?

How can we support students to learn through authentic, relevant, real-world contexts, where their interests, skills, and the issues and opportunities within their own communities can form the basis for learning?

How can we involve students in the key aspects of decision making so they can fully experience the messiness of a real-world project, complete with the unexpected changes in direction, opportunities, and challenges that can arise?

Continuum of Voice: What it Means for the Learner
An adaptation of the Continuum of Voice chart. The chart describes the three stages of personalised learning environments: Teacher- Centred Environments, Learner-Centred Environments, and Learner-Driven Environments.
Shifting the Ownership of Learning
This document, created by Derek Wenmoth, outlines the differences between existing teaching practices and agentic practice.

Strategies to develop student agency
This resource is the result of a literature scan and a series of conversations with students and teachers from three New Zealand schools. The schools involved in this resource feature innovative learning environments (ILE). Students and teachers were asked similar questions about agency, and reviewed one another's responses. Our approach identified ten conditions that foster agentic learners to support teachers, leaders, and learning communities to shift the ownership of learning.

We hope you will use these conditions to:

explore new ideas, communicate challenges, and prompt learner focused discussions

use the 'shifting the ownership of learning review tool' to "take the temperature" of learner agency within your school or community

identify priorities and implement practices or systems that enable learner agency.

Shifting the ownership of learning
This resource is a practical tool for teachers or learning teams, leaders, educators, and learning communities to support the process of change and shift the ownership of teaching and learning, placing it firmly in the hands of the learners themselves.

CORE professional learning solutions: Primary

At CORE we understand the richness of Te Marautanga o Aotearoa and The New Zealand Curriculum. We design products and services that support teaching and learning for year 1-8 learners in both Māori medium and English medium settings.

CORE professional learning solutions: Secondary

At CORE we understand the richness of Te Marautanga o Aotearoa and The New Zealand Curriculum, the intent of NCEA, and vocational pathways. We design products and services that support teaching and learning for year 9-15 learners in both Māori medium and English medium settings.

CORE professional learning solutions: Curriculum

Designing a curriculum that is adaptive to local contexts and learners' strengths and needs is complex. We work with you, aligning your curriculum and student learning experiences with your vision for student success.

CORE professional learning solutions: Learning with digital technology

Offering valuable tools for effective learning environments, digital technology supports personalisation, cooperative learning, and inquiry-based learning, as well as assisting with managing assessments.

CORE professional learning solutions: Assessment

The foundation for learner agency is teaching and learning, which is grounded in assessment for learning practices. We help you strengthen assessment for learning practices, so learners are active in all learning decisions.

Choice Words: How Our Language Affects Children's Learning
Choice Words shows how teachers accomplish this using their most powerful teaching tool: language. Throughout, Peter Johnston provides examples of apparently ordinary words, phrases, and uses of language that are pivotal in the orchestration of the classroom.
A World at Risk: An Imperative for a Paradigm Shift to Cultivate 21st Century Learners
In this essay, Yong Zhao argues that popular education reforms in the United States which have focused on fixing the past have been misguided attempts. Zhao argues for a new education paradigm to address the challenges that are brought about by globalisation and technological changes.
World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students
Yong Zhao outlines his new book, World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students. Zhao says "The book is about preparing global, creative, and entrepreneurial talents. It is my attempt to answer a number of pressing questions facing education today".
Arnstein's Ladder of Citizen Participation
The Ladder of Citizen Participation describes participation and the power relationships that this gives way to.

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Within a school context, Learner Agency is about shifting the ownership of learning from teachers to students, enabling students to have the understanding, ability, and opportunity to be part of the learning design and to take action to intervene in the learning process, to affect outcomes and becom…

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Building a Strong School Culture Leah Shafer

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Building a Strong School Culture Leah Shafer

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With foresight, intentional action, and reflection, principals can shape the shared values of their school

Building from an understanding of what makes a good school culture, the next question a leader will ask is, How do I get started in this work? With connections and consistent messaging in mind, principals have a unique power to shape their school's culture. Ebony Bridwell-Mitchell, an expert in education leadership and management, has articulated six areas of focus for principals - guidelines that can support you as you try to sustain, or change, the culture in your building.

Six Steps to Shaping a School's Culture

1. Look in the mirror. The leader is the main role model for an organization. Everything a leader does - her statements and philosophy, reactions to key events, energy and interaction style - influences culture in a powerful way. If you want a collaborative staff, ask colleagues for advice early and often. If you want teachers to hold students to high expectations, reaffirm your own belief not only in young people but also in your staff.

2. Select staff wisely. The teachers and administrators you hire will enter your school with their own beliefs about education and expectations about what it will be like to work at your school. When hiring and mentoring, ask questions that help reveal whether those beliefs and expectations align with the ones you want your school community to hold. Those beliefs and norms will only grow stronger in a tight-knit community.

3. Teach what you'd like to see. Create formal trainings and space for honest conversation about the attitudes, norms, and practices that are core to being a member of your school community. Use those trainings and other professional development to model the beliefs and behaviors you desire. Offer rewards (praise, written notes, community celebrations) for students and staff when they demonstrate those behaviors.

4. Broadcast your vision. Every formal communication you have with your community should reflect and reinforce the culture. In every memo to staff, letter to parents, or address to students, make sure to:

highlight the future and what your school has the potential to achieve;

use data and facts to reduce ambiguity about your vision;

appeal to people's emotions, values, and the deeper needs that motivate them;

stay positive, grateful, and idealistic, which is an important counterweight to any negative messages students or staff might receive;

use collective statements ("we are," "we will") to increase a feeling of belonging and collective identity.

5. Make your vision tangible. Mottos, symbolic objects, special traditions, and the design of physical space can all help reinforce your cultural vision, especially when the meaning of these tangible artifacts is consistently communicated. For example, regular celebrations of student and staff success is a reminder of what's important. It also inspires continued commitment to shared values.

6. Restructure social networks. Culture is spread through connections. So figure out which people or groups are isolated from the community and figure out how to encourage greater interaction with others who are committed to the school culture. This way, everyone - not only you - helps your positive message spread more quickly and clearly.

Everything a leader does - her statements and philosophy, reactions to key events, energy, and interaction style - influences culture in a powerful way.

Questions Every School Leader Can Ask

As a leader, ask yourself: What fundamental beliefs do you want community members to hold about the work they do?

As a leader, ask yourself: What do you want community members to value as being right or wrong, good or bad, just or unjust about the work they do?

As a leader, ask yourself: What expectation should everyone have about the appropriate or desirable way of operating; what agreed upon rules should guide behavior?

As a leader, ask yourself: What actions and attitudes do you expect to consistently observe?

As a leader, ask yourself: What will be the tangible evidence of beliefs, assumptions, values, norms, and behaviors?

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With foresight, intentional action, and reflection, principals can shape the shared values of their school Building from an understanding of what makes a good school culture, the next question a leader will ask is, How do I get started in this work?

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It's hard not to be aware of cultural differences, and most of us need to be aware of these differences with students, colleagu...

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Appreciative Inquiry Action Plan Template

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Appreciative Inquiry Action Plan Template

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Appreciative Inquiry Action Plan Template

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Make sure you bring a laptop and charging cord. A cell phone is not an optimal tool for accessing and completing workshop learning engagements. You may find it helpful to have pencil/pen, sticky notes, some blank sheets of paper as well.