Schools for All Kinds of Minds E-Book

Mary-Dean Barringer

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 371

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

This book shows how schools can--and must--develop expertise in "learning variation" (understanding how different kinds of minds learn) and apply this knowledge to classroom instruction in order to address the chronic learning challenges and achievement gap faced by millions of students. Barringer shows how using what we know about learning variation with a focus on discovering learning strengths, not just deficits, can help schools create plans for success for those students who often find it elusive. The book specifically addresses how school leaders can incorporate this knowledge into instructional practice and school-level policy through various professional development strategies. Schools for All Kinds of Minds: * Provides a readable synthesis of the latest research from neuroscience, cognitive science, and child and adolescent development as it relates to understanding learning and its many variations. * Links this information to strategies for understanding struggling learners and adapting school practices to accommodate a wider array of learning differences in a classroom. * Demonstrates how this understanding of learning variation can change the way teachers and others help students succeed in various academic and content areas and acquire necessary 21st century skills. * Includes discussion questions and facilitator guidelines for staff developers and teacher education programs; downloadable forms that accompany exercises from within the book; an action plan for schools to implement the ideas found in the book; and more.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Praise

Title Page

Copyright Page

Foreword

References

Dedication

Acknowledgements

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Introduction

One Educator’s Story

One Organization’s Mission

An Invitation

Chapter 1 - Understanding Learning as the Core Business of Schools

What’s Today’s School Leader to Do?

Lead with a Bifocal Lens to Transform Learning

Resist the Pull of the Past

Shift from a School Leader to a Learning Leader

Create a Series of “Small Wins” for “Big Change”

Key Ideas

Chapter 2 - Bringing the Science of Learning into the Classroom

The Science Behind Using a Neurodevelopmental Lens

The Science Behind Focusing on Strengths and Affinities

The Science Behind Promoting Self-Insight

The Science Behind Empowering Students Through Alliances

Beliefs About Teaching All Kinds of Minds

Key Ideas

Learning Leadership in Action

Chapter 3 - Key Ingredients of Learning

Attention

Higher-Order Cognition

Language

Memory

Neuromotor Function

Social Cognition

Spatial Ordering

Temporal-Sequential Ordering

Metacognition

Comparing the All Kinds of Minds Framework to Other Frameworks

Key Ideas

Learning Leadership in Action

Chapter 4 - Digging Deeper Knowing Students as Learners

A Portrait of a Student

Keys to Knowing Learners

Knowing More Through Kid Watching

Tools of the Trade: Describing Phenomena Versus Using Labels

Establishing a Trust Fund

Learning Leadership in Action

Chapter 5 - Building on Student Assets

Assets as Part of the Data Portrait

An Assets-Based Approach to Teaching and Learning

Valuing Students’ Assets

When Student Assets and School Demands Differ

A New Approach to Learning Plans for Struggling Students

Keys to Effective Learning Plans

Learning Leadership in Action

Chapter 6 - Looking Deeper A Fresh Perspective on Behavior

Neurodevelopmental Suspects

Preventing Behavior Problems

Learning Leadership in Action

Chapter 7 - Boosting Writing Achievement Through the Science of Learning

Role of Writing

A Neurodevelopmental Approach to Writing

Neurodevelopmental Suspects

Learning More from Student Work

Improving Writing in Your School

Assessing Student Writing

Strengthening Writing Instruction

School Practices and Writing

Learning Leadership in Action

Chapter 8 - Getting Started Creating Schools for All Kinds of Minds

Introducing Learning Strategies Is a “Small Win”

One Elementary School Is Determined to Teach Children How to Learn

Learning About Neurodevelopmental Constructs Can Strengthen School ...

One Learning Leader Can Be a Catalyst for School Transformation

Learning Leaders Are Adopting New Roles in Schools

Ongoing Commitment to Faculty Learning Supports Ongoing Focus on Student Learning

Revisiting School Practices and Policies

Confronting Current Challenges in Practice While Creating Stories of Optimism

APPENDIX A - Glossary of Key Terms

APPENDIX B - All Kinds of Minds Schools of Distinction

APPENDIX C - The Effects of the Schools Attuned Program: A Snapshot of Research Results

APPENDIX D - Programs from All Kinds of Minds

APPENDIX E - All Kinds of Minds Web Site Resources

NOTES

INDEX

“When students don’t ‘get it,’ teachers (and parents) need a better answer than ‘try harder!’ This book gets teachers pointed in the right direction by asking and answering the questions: What is the underlying brain process that needs to be strengthened to help a particular student progress? And how can I do that?”

—Bill Jackson, president, Great Schools

“The notion that educational administrators should first and foremost think of themselves as learning leaders is reason enough to explore this book. In the fast-moving world of educational reform, this work stresses the importance of putting the science of learning front and center in the current debate about how to improve schools. I highly recommend it to a wide audience of those committed to the maxim that effective teaching results in higher student learning.”

—Michael Spagna, Ph.D., dean, Michael D. Eisner College of Education, California State University, Northridge

“Schools for All Kinds of Minds is for all kinds of teachers. There’s more than one way to learn and more than one way to teach, but only one way to have high expectations for the students in our schools. This book helps teachers with high expectations turn that thought into action.”

—Mike Feinberg, co-founder of KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program)

“This book provides school leaders with a framework and strategies that will help them move beyond an ever-growing list of accountability mandates to a focus on all students as learners that can reach their true potential.”

—Eric Hirsch, director of special projects, New Teacher Center

“Schools for All Kinds of Minds is a book for the present and the future. In the present, it provides tangible steps to better understand how different students learn and what to do about it. As we seek to transform our education system into a student-centric one for the future, this book should be a vital part of the conversation around what that system should look like and how we get there.”

—Michael B. Horn, executive director of education, Innosight Institute, coauthor of Disrupting Class

“This book shows educators that there is a way to make schools work for the benefit of all students. It inspires teachers to think about learning in a way that successfully supports and accommodates the wide variety of learners in today’s classrooms.”

—Mary Mannix, learning specialist, Indian Creek School (Crownsville, MD)

“All educators who are genuinely interested in improving student success, and their own knowledge about learning, will benefit from the research and practical suggestions in this book.”

—Ian Adamson, retired superintendent of Alternative Programs, Curriculum, Instruction and Special Education Support Services, Peel District School Board, Ontario, Canada

“The perfect book for dedicated and committed leaders who struggle in a woefully imperfect educational system.”

—William Broderick, head of school, Fort Worth Academy, U.S. Department of Education National Distinguished Principal

“For more than a decade, All Kinds of Minds has led the way in translating neuroscience into educational practice. Codifying this impressive body of work, this book is a must-read for any educational leader who is truly committed to helping every child become a successful learner.”

—Paul Yellin, director, The Yellin Center for Student Success, associate professor of pediatrics, NYU School of Medicine

“A book for any school or district leader who believes data-driven decision making involves more than end-of-year test scores, Schools for All Kinds of Minds is a very accessible review of using the science of how children learn to support and spur dramatic learning gains.”

—JB Buxton, principal consultant, The Education Innovations Group, Former Deputy State Superintendent, N.C. Department of Public Instruction

“Students everywhere deserve principals, district leaders, and teacher leaders who have not only read this book, but who have taken the ideas in it to heart—and who have worked in partnership with students and their families to create schools and classrooms that teach to all kinds of minds.”

—Gene Thompson-Grove, director, Professional Development and Special Initiatives Public Schools of Brookline, national facilitator, The School Reform Initiative, Inc.

“This essential book puts the customization of school-based learning opportunities front and center with accessible descriptions of how our brains work and concrete tools for maximizing their full potential. A must-read for educational leaders at all levels.”

—Sandra J. Stein, chief executive officer, NYC Leadership Academy

“This book is valuable for educators, policymakers, and parents who wish to implement an improvement-oriented learning culture in our schools. If the recommendations in the book are implemented, there will be a breakdown of barriers between special and regular education and an acceleration of the transformation of analog schooling into new, evidence-based digital learning systems.”

—Susan Tave Zelman, former superintendent, Ohio Department of Public Instruction, senior vice president, chief advisor and system consultant for education policy, Corporation for Public Broadcasting

“If you are looking for practical, researched ways to improve student attitudes or increase student achievement, this is a great book to read. It is clear, comprehensive, and compelling.”

—Joe Nathan, director, Center for School Change, Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota

Copyright © 2010 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Barringer, Mary-Dean, 1953-

Includes bibliographical references and index.

eISBN : 978-0-470-60948-4

1. Educational psychology. 2. Learning, Psychology of. 3. Educational technology—Study and teaching. I. Pohlman, Craig. II. Robinson, Michele, 1968-III. Title.

LB1051.B2494 2010

370.13—dc22

2009046310

HB Printing

FOREWORD: AMERICA NEEDS ALL KINDS OF MINDS

In May 2002, I found myself staring at the cover of Fortune magazine. The lead article was “Overcoming Dyslexia” and inside was my story. The author noticed a strange and common theme as she talked to the world’s most successful CEOs and other high achievers. Many of us seemed pretty hopeless as kids, labeled dyslexic or “learning disabled.” Yet, all of us have been enormously successful in our careers. Our different ways of learning, thinking, and seeing the world have energized America’s entertainment industry, launched successful companies and brands, won Nobel Prizes and Olympic medals, and designed diverse creations from famous works of art to Nerf balls. As Dr. Sally Shaywitz of Yale University said in that article, “Dyslexics areoverrepresented in the top ranks of people who are unusually insightful, who bring a new perspective, who think out of the box” (Morris, 2002, p. 56).

The recognition of my learning differences came early. I failed second grade and spent part of my third grade year in a class of children regarded as “mentally retarded,” which goes to show how little was known of individual learning differences at that time. My school years were distinguished by invitations to leave practically every high school in Los Angeles. My parents painfully watched their child struggle to learn and tried everything they could think of to help me read, hoping my self-confidence would not completely disappear. My teachers were also frustrated. They worked hard, but too few people understood dyslexia or ADD in those days. A well-meaning educator told my mother to enroll me in trade school so I could become a carpet layer.

Learning differences are far more prevalent than most people think. About one in seven kids struggle in school because of known “disabilities,” and that translates into millions of kids. Without help, the outlook is often grim. Many of these kids will be branded as intellectually inferior, and never get close to realizing their full capabilities—a. major loss to themselves, their families, and our country.

I was fortunate to have parents who knew I was capable of so much more and convinced me that once I was out of school, I would succeed. I got through college because my dyslexia and ADHD fostered risk taking, problem solving, and resilience. I somehow figured out my own strategies to deal with my learning difference. I also learned that I saw things others didn’t. Working on a collaborative project with fellow students at USC’s Marshall School of Business gave me the idea that led to Kinko’s. As the group’s “gopher,” I had to make copies in the library’s reserved book room. The long lines and inconvenience triggered my entrepreneurial instincts.

For over a decade, the Orfalea Foundations have encouraged parents and schools to see all children as distinct learners with unique profiles of strengths and weaknesses. We’ve also worked tirelessly to change the public perception of specific learning conditions like dyslexia and ADD. We know that a struggle with learning does not mean you’re disabled; it means you learn differently. The goal of my autobiography, Copy This (Workman Publishing, 2005), was to provide hope and optimism to kids and their families who are feeling as frustrated in their classrooms as I did in mine.

My wife, Natalie, and I hold this fundamental belief: When faced with a child who learns in very different ways, you first work to discover and emphasize strengths. As I’ve learned firsthand, it is your strengths that are the foundation of a successful adult life. I’ve learned to love how my mind works and firmly believe it is the reason for the success I’ve enjoyed.

This book describes an approach that will help school leaders transform our schools into learning centers for all kinds of students. The key to this approach is helping educators really understand how to prevent students from needless struggle, while building on their strengths and assets. Science and brain research are helping us all understand how people vary in their learning. All Kinds of Minds has put this knowledge into programs and resources for teachers, parents, and students. The result is a better understanding of how each of us learns and an approach to teaching that provides hope and optimism for all students, building confidence that they can learn and faith that their schools can help them.

Our world faces increasingly complex challenges every day. Yes, we need our students to graduate with the twenty-first-century skills and knowledge that will keep our economies sound, our democracies stable, and our communities thriving. But more than ever, America needs the kinds of minds that generate new perspectives, seek solutions, and discover emerging opportunities. Those are the minds of many of the students in your schools today who, at first glance, look a lot like the struggling student I was in school. I invite you to take a second look at the individuals who walk through your school doors. Join us in helping as many kids as possible become more aware of their unique talents and more confident in their learning abilities—and help us rescue the wonderful potential that may otherwise be lost.

January 2010

Paul Orfalea

References

Morris, B. “Overcoming Dyslexia.” Fortune, 2002, 145(10), 54-70.

Orfalea, P., and Marsh, A. Copy This: Lessons from a Hyperactive Dyslexic Who Turned a Bright Ideainto One of America’s Best Companies. New York: Workman, 2005.

To Roch HillenbrandChair, Board of TrusteesAll Kinds of Minds Institute

Your support and leadership enables us to continue the work to ensure that all kinds of minds find all kinds of success.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Our first thank you goes to you, the reader. Purchasing this book helps our not-for-profit organization in two ways. You are willing to consider how our approach to helping all students who struggle with some aspect of learning might work in your school. With the proceeds from this book going to All Kinds of Minds, you are also supporting our organization as we continue our efforts to equip educators with a science of learning so that all students are ensured success in school and life.

If we could have five authors on the title page, you would see the names of two of our colleagues who made major contributions to this book. Dr. Cynthia Crenshaw designed professional development exercises for learning leaders as well as brought greater texture and depth to our school case studies. Susan Gallagher is the most amazing project manager a team could have. Her depth of knowledge of our work combined with her extraordinary editing and management skills were truly the backbone of this effort. Susan brings a spirit of adventure and a disposition for tolerance to any task.

We are blessed to have dozens of “All Kinds of Minds” family contributing to this work. Within our organization, Melanie Mason and Julie Schmidt helped with the visual support for the book, from the cover design to graphics. They also lent their critical guidance to earlier drafts of the book. Darla Iuliucci, Adrianne Gilbert, Andrea O‘Neal, Lisa Fox, Mary Jo Dunnington, Katie O’Neal, and Sharon Kepley all contributed research, insights, writing, and helping hands at critical junctures. As the three main authors, we wish that every collaborative project we engage in could embody the attributes of this writing effort: respect, critical friends, skillful organization and time management, flexibility, humor, and high energy. Any author will tell you it takes a village to produce a book—and the “villagers” at All Kinds of Minds certainly picked up a great deal of work for us while we embarked on this endeavor. Thank you all for juggling myriad things that we might have let slip through the cracks.

Over the years, we’ve worked with many schools, organizations, and institutions that have helped to bring our programs to nearly 50,000 educators. We owe a debt of gratitude to those who have served as professional development providers and lent the talents of their staff to this work: Bank Street College (New York), Cattaraugus-Allegany BOCES (New York), Children’s Health Council (California), Christian Learning Center (Michigan), Dunn Institute (Rhode Island), Etta Israel Center and California State University at Northridge (California), Forsyth Country Day School (North Carolina), Holland Hall (Oklahoma), Houston Independent School District (Texas), Learning Center of North Texas, New York City Board of Education, Peel District School Board (Canada), Oak Hill School (Switzerland), and Old Trail School (Ohio), along with our state contracts with the departments of education in North Carolina, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. The stories and vignettes in this book all spring from the efforts of these organizations to bring All Kinds of Minds programs to schools and educators.

An all-star cast of professionals provided feedback and guidance at different stages of this book. We are grateful for their wisdom on so many fronts: Ian Adamson, Sara Ankrapp, Barnett Berry, Janet Boucher, Julie Brothers, Ann Byrd, Bill Broderick, JB Buxton, Barbara Freeman, Eric Hirsch, Michael Horn, Kathi Howard, Mary Mannix, Arlene Mullin, Shari Nickle, Michael O’Brien, Stacy Parker-Fisher, Marshall Raskind, Marcey Regan, Max Roach, Pat Sinelli, Michael Spagna, Sandra Stein, Liz Swearingen, Gene Thompson-Grove, Glenda Walker, and Claire Wurtzel. A special “shout out” to Margie McAneny at Jossey-Bass, who first conceived the idea that this book was an important contribution to helping all children learn.

Nonprofits don’t survive over a decade without extraordinary guidance and support from trustees and donors. All Kinds of Minds is no exception, and we are indebted to the dozens of individuals who have served in these roles since 1995. In particular, Sally Bowles has supported this organization at key junctures in its evolution.

Last, we must thank our cofounders. Working with AKOM’s first CEO, Mark Grayson, Charles Schwab led the charge to build and fund a world class organization. The genius of learning expert Dr. Mel Levine provided the neurodevelopmental framework and philosophy that is the foundation of the work at the All Kinds of Minds Institute.

Since 1995, hundreds of employees have contributed to building this organization from the initial groundbreaking efforts of a few visionaries, including pioneering learning specialists Ann Hobgood and Martha Reed. We hope that this book honors the many contributions of these individuals to our knowledge base, programs and outreach, and advocacy to ensure that no child has to struggle needlessly to learn.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Mary-Dean Barringer is the Chief Executive Officer of All Kinds of Minds, a nonprofit Institute that translates ground-breaking research from neuroscience and other disciplines on how children learn—and vary in their learning—into a powerful framework that educators can use in their schools.

Throughout her path in education, Mary-Dean has dedicated herself to keeping America focused on learning—making sure schools are the most effective learning environments for all children. She was a founding board member of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and then served as Vice President of Outreach and Mobilization from 1990-2000. Her core responsibilities and achievements involved working with state policymakers and national organizations to develop financial and other incentives to encourage teachers to seek National Board Certification. By 2000, 38 states and 200 districts had embraced the program that grew in volume from 200 in the first year to 14,000 six years later.

Mary-Dean started her career as teacher of exceptional needs students in Michigan. As a special education teacher for 13 years, Mary-Dean received numerous awards and recognition for her innovation and advocacy, including the 1985 Council for Exceptional Children’s National Teacher of the Year award and induction in 2008 into the Eastern Michigan University College of Education Hall of Fame.

Craig Pohlman, Ph.D., is the Director of Mind Matters at Southeast Psych, a learning assessment and consultation program in Charlotte, North Carolina. The mission of Southeast Psych (www.southeastpsych.com) is to put psychology into the hands of as many people as possible to enhance their lives. Craig began his career teaching science to elementary and middle school students in New York City. He later earned his doctorate in school psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), where he trained at The Clinical Center for the Study of Development and Learning, University of North Carolina School of Medicine. After an internship in the Dallas Public Schools, he returned to UNC-CH for a fellowship, later earning appointments as Clinical Assistant Professor and as Clinical Scientist. Prior to joining Southeast Psych, he was Senior Clinical Scholar at All Kinds of Minds and Senior Neurodevelopmentalist at the Success in Mind clinic in Durham, North Carolina.

A licensed psychologist, Craig has conducted or supervised thousands of assessments of struggling learners and has trained thousands of professionals on assessment techniques. He also has designed systems and tools to help others integrate neurodevelopmental assessment into their work with students. His previous books are Revealing Minds, a hands-on guide for professionals who assess students facing learning challenges, and How Can My Kid Succeed in School?, which describes a process for parents and teachers to better understand a child’s strengths and weaknesses.

Michele Robinson has dedicated the past decade to the work of All Kinds of Minds, serving in a variety of roles to support and advance the mission of the Institute. She has developed program curricula, trained facilitators, supported research, translated the knowledge base, and personally taught thousands of educators the All Kinds of Minds approach. Her recent work has been focused on schoolwide application of this model. Michele’s use of the AKOM approach transformed her own teaching practice and inspired her to join the revolution led by this visionary organization. Prior to her work at All Kinds of Minds, Michele earned her master of education degree in elementary education from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and taught students in grades 1-5 for nine years.

INTRODUCTION: AN ENDURING DILEMMA

Millions of students will struggle in school today. Just as they do every day.

In classrooms in your school, these students will feel discouraged, misunderstood, and alone. Not because they can’t learn, but because the way they learn doesn’t align with the way they are taught.

Thousands of teachers will struggle today. Just as they do every day.

In your school and district, these teachers will feel discouraged, inadequate, and alone. Not because they can’t teach, but because they have not been able to target their teaching strategies to the varied learning profiles of their students.

Too many of our schools are unequipped for the diversity in learning that unfolds in classrooms. District policies are hampered by traditional notions of ability and unvarying approaches to meeting the high standards of curriculum, instruction, and required annual standardized testing. Educators often lack the know-how that’s emerging from the latest research on the mind, brain, and learning to adequately respond to individual student needs.

When students are taught in a way that is incompatible with how they learn, the natural strengths of their minds are neglected. This failure to reach a student’s abilities is too often portrayed as a deficiency of the individual, resulting in low self-esteem, high levels of anxiety, and disengagement with learning and school. Or we point to the inadequacy of the teacher and local schools, driving many promising educators from a profession that needs their dedication and commitment at this unprecedented time for education in our nation.

Without effective and nurturing intervention, both student and teacher may give up on school—and learning—altogether. The resulting loss of productive individuals who contribute to our society is unfathomable.

One Educator’s Story

My career in education began in 1975 as a teacher of “exceptional needs” students. These were individuals who had struggled mightily in their previous classrooms or had been considered to have handicaps to such an extent that new special education classrooms were the first stop for their free and appropriate education.

Every year, children and adolescents came through my door accompanied by data and numerous other descriptors designed to help them obtain an array of special support and to help me figure out the kind of instruction they needed. Gregory, at age twelve, had not spoken words, leading me to begin to design alternative communication strategies. This provided a starting point, but our journey together as teacher and student progressed successfully when I concentrated on finding answers to one simple question: I wonder how he learns?

What I loved about that challenging period of my teaching career was that this simple question drove everything I did in the classroom. I became an astute observer of each of my students, looking for clues as to what made them tick when they were successful at something and how they were different at home than in a school environment. Paula never spoke in the classroom and led me to believe that she was nonverbal, but she answered the phone when I had to call her home. James understood humor—from the physical play of clowns to the more sophisticated wordplay of jokes—revealing a level of conceptual understanding I may have missed by simply looking at his work or relying on his expressive language weakness. Shack could not do simple mathematical procedures in a workbook but could point out recurring mathematical patterns found with numbers and shapes in the physical world.

I sought a variety of perspectives, always hoping someone might see something that I missed. I thought of myself as a combination ethnographer and archeologist. I was pulling pieces from my “dig” into a child’s life and trying to understand a new culture of learning so I could create the right script for very unique roles that each student and I as teacher would play in our educational journey. The only way I knew to approach this unfamiliar range of learning differences was to think about using science in its richest sense—embracing wonder, a culture of inquiry, the quest for rich data and evidence-based practice. It worked. Searches yielded observable phenomena leading to patterns that led to insights into how students’ minds worked.

I was not to become an expert in a subject matter area during my education career (although I have developed a strong background in literature and social sciences). But I did become a “learner” expert, developing the know-how and tools to figure out how to successfully reach some of the most complex and puzzling students who attended the schools where I worked.

One Organization’s Mission

I lead All Kinds of Minds to continue this work on a large scale. I am driven by a belief that our nation will not achieve the results we desire in stopping the persistent and chronic underperformance and disengagement of so many students unless we build expertise in our education workforce to better understand the variety of ways students learn. Currently this knowledge about learning and its normal variation is primarily the domain of the clinical and scientific communities. While there have been recent efforts to broadly communicate the benefits brain research can bring to learning,1 it is unacceptable that we have not figured out how to move this body of knowledge into the world of education.

That is what All Kinds of Minds does. Since 1995, this organization, working with renowned learning expert Dr. Mel Levine, has translated the latest research from multiple disciplines into a framework to understand learning and its variations. We have shared that knowledge and how to use it to target specific teaching strategies to learners with thousands of educators through our programs and resources. With twenty-three independent studies to date that have investigated what happens when educators use this approach, we’ve gathered evidence that more students, teachers, and schools are finding success in the core business of education: learning for all kinds of minds (see Appendix C: The Effects of the Schools Attuned Program: A Snapshot of Research Results).

All Kinds of Minds seeks to work with others who realize that by harnessing these new insights from the sciences on how people learn to the tools, processes, and strategies used by expert practitioners, we can make two critical contributions to education. First, we will prevent needless struggles in school for thousands of students hoping to find success at learning and life. Second, we will be the leaders who seize the opportunity to do what many national voices are suggesting America must do: create the future of learning. There is a growing and powerful argument that we must transform the educational landscape from a world of schooling to a world of learning. Educators in today’s schools need to have learning expertise in addition to content knowledge. They need this expertise not only to reach the students slipping through the cracks in schools today but to transition into the new roles that will emerge as the teaching profession becomes a learning profession in this twenty-first century.

Getting from here to there requires that those of us in current education leadership positions—principals, district administrators, coaches, mentors, and teacher leaders—reshape our role to that of a “learning leader.” It is a role that requires a dual focus of school leadership, nurturing the student and teacher struggling within today’s classroom while laying the building blocks for a new way of education that creates the personalized, customized learning journeys students and parents are beginning to demand. Learning leaders model the characteristics of this role for their faculty and make creating the conditions for teacher learning on behalf of student learning a high priority.

This book introduces an approach that today’s school leaders, in a new role as learning leader, can use to help greater numbers of students find success while shifting education to a learner-centric enterprise. I refer to it as the All Kinds of Minds model, which involves these components:

• Expertise in the science of learning, based on the understanding of eight constructs that form the mind’s ingredients for learning and the belief that differences are variation, not deviation

• Evidence gathered from multiple sources, including using a phenomenological approach as part of the data necessary to understand how specific students learn

• A problem-solving model that uncovers the complexity and richness of how a child learns, identifying learning assets as well as weaknesses and discovering passions and affinities that can drive scholarship, careers, and other life choices

• A set of five core beliefs about how all students are treated

• A commitment to align school and educational practices and policies to the way students learn and vary in their learning

How do you get started? The first step is to continue reading. Chapter One provides a larger context supporting the need for the approach presented throughout this book. Chapters Two and Three will help you introduce your faculty to an overview of the science of learning developed from findings from neuroscience, cognitive science, and behavioral science. The research has been translated into insights to help generate understanding about how the adults and students in your school are wired to learn. These findings are synthesized into neurodevelopmental knowledge that creates an overarching framework for diagnosis and informing instruction. The strategies, tactics, and examples described in Chapters Four through Seven demonstrate how to apply these insights so that the adults in your school have a better understanding of themselves as learners and can then use the approach to make personalized and successful learning plans a reality for those students that your school and district have always had trouble reaching.

We’ve designed this book to help you at the very beginning stage of implementing this approach. Specifically, you’ll find ideas throughout the book for the following:

• Acquiring and processing new information. Boxes are included throughout each chapter, and professional development activities conclude each of the chapters. These items are intended to help learning leaders process the concepts presented, reflect on their own practice, and discover alignment with the All Kinds of Minds philosophy and approach. Once you become familiar with the questions and activities, you can consider how to utilize them in your educational setting.

• Embedding this approach to learning practices into your existing professional development structures. We assume you have existing professional learning communities, Critical Friends or Lesson Study groups, and other well-established processes around professional development in your school. (If not, that is a critical success factor to put into place before any school-level professional development can start.) The content of this book can easily be part of a formal book study, particularly when supplemented by other resources that provide deeper engagement with the neurodevelopmental constructs. Or, specific activities could be selected to assist faculty in reflecting on their own learning profiles as well as educational practices and school. By using these tools, you will assess the alignment of your current environment with the All Kinds of Minds approach.

• Testing strategies with selected students who are struggling to learn. Help teachers try applying strategies with students in your school who are struggling. Consider using the ideas in Chapters Four and Five as an additional component to your Response to Intervention program. Chapters include real-life stories of how this approach has been used by educators as well as a detailed look at how the learning framework and assessment approach is used to improve writing instruction and evaluation. With this basic foundation, faculty can acquire a deeper insight about individual learning needs and become more adept at understanding and managing learning challenges and opportunities. The result? Over time, with continued pursuit, you will have a school filled with both learning experts and subject matter scholars.

• Continued learning and advocacy. As you read through this book, make a personal commitment to embrace the “small wins” approach by identifying your first few actions. Share what you learn with colleagues. Go to the All Kinds of Minds Web site, www.allkindsofminds.org (see Appendix E for a list of resources available on the Web site). In addition to a multitude of resources, you’ll find ways to stay abreast of our growing knowledge base and to connect to other people who are energized by using this approach to support teachers as they help students who learn differently find success.

An Invitation

We hope that because you are reading this book, you are willing to be part of this powerful movement to bring the science of learning to the art of teaching, rescuing those students who are struggling to learn right now while transforming education for generations to come. Leaders know that what matters in learning is what happens in class, in those moments when teacher meets students. Such leaders—like you—find themselves waiting for the larger transformation to learning-driven schools while pursuing the many daily small wins that address the urgency of the struggling student.

Arthur Levine, former president of Teachers College in New York City, stated this eloquently when he wrote that “today’s reformers have one foot in the old world and one in the new, inchoate world of education. Experimenting and pushing, they must sustain our schools until they can be replaced by the ones we need for the future.”2 While the large, systemic change desired may be beyond our immediate grasp, learning leaders who embrace a science of learning to show that it is indeed possible to match pedagogy to a student’s learning profile will achieve something equally important for our times. They will save the lives of the far too many children we continue to lose in the industrial era, factory-inspired model in many of today’s schools.

Today’s school leaders, willing to work with a foot in each world, are in the best position to harness bring the energy of these pioneering new ideas from the science of learning to the realities of classrooms. They can better meet the needs of today’s students so vulnerable to school failure while accelerating this transformation. We’re inspired by the exciting visions for student learning that so many of you are generating. All Kinds of Minds hopes to harness your genius and enthusiasm and share your stories through our Web site to spark a much larger dialogue that can move the nation from an education agenda to a learning agenda.

We are well aware of the enormously challenging work of changing school culture and practices and are not so naive to think that picking up a new book is sufficient support for leaders engaged in these efforts. This book is not about leadership nor is it a detailed approach for a school improvement effort. Rather, it is a framework to help all learners—teachers and students—understand how they learn and how they can learn better. It’s a critical first step to discovering how to personalize learning. To that end, this book is intended to provide some starting points for this dialogue for the future, as well as some immediate actions you can take to use this knowledge about learning with some of the different kinds of minds in your school.

We invite you to use the information and strategies in this book to bring success to all the learners in your school—teachers and students-and add to the growing portraits of possibility for educational change.

MARY-DEAN BARRINGER, CEO,

ALL KINDS OF MINDS

1

Understanding Learning as the Core Business of Schools

If you think our future will require better schools, you’re wrong. The future of education calls for entirely new learning environments. If you think we will need better teachers, you’re wrong. Tomorrow’s learners will need guides who take on fundamentally different roles.1

—KnowledgeWorks Foundation and Institute for the Future 2020 Forecast: Creating the Future of Learning

Jan Stewart was attending an introductory networking dinner with some colleagues, a cohort of principals who had joined a professional network of school leaders that had agreed to work in targeted district schools to increase student achievement. They were enjoying this time to get to know each other and learn about their individual school cultures and challenges. Jan had been the principal of Eastville Middle School for several years and smiled as she listened to the spirited talk. The conversation began with broad ideas about new theories and ways of addressing individual needs and learning diversity through approaches like differentiated instruction, universal design for learning, curriculum mapping, and the like. The principals talked about needing new ways to deliver instruction and debated online learning, smaller classes, looping, and modifying use of time.

Typically conversations drifted toward district policies that the principals were unhappy with, but tonight was different. Jan’s friend Brian Thomas, the new principal at Marshall junior High,began sharing a story about an individual student he was concerned about. Darren, a bright eighth grader, was generally a strong student, although he’d had some recent difficulties. In particular, he’d received poor grades on writing assignments, especially on essays and research papers. His state writing test had just come back, and he had barely scored a 2 within the 1 through 4 ranking, putting him at below grade level.

Darren did well on multiple choice tests and his handwriting was fine, but his papers, reports, and essays were returned to him with the same messages: “Highly disorganized,” “Needs more elaboration” and “Incomplete.” The continued negative feedback on writing assignments frustrated Darren and he felt humiliated about it. “I don’t get it ” he had said when Brian asked what was going on. “I rewrote that essay twice and it still came back with marks all over it.”

His teachers thought highly of Darren, noting that he participated in class discussions and was well liked by his peers, but they had exhausted their ideas for strategies to help him. Darren’s language arts teacher said she’d taught him the 6+1-trait writing process and showed him the state writing test rubrics that described the difference between a score of a 2 and the acceptable 3. His social studies teacher had introduced a writer’s workshop as part of her class. These hadn’t produced a change in Darren’s writing. His teachers shrugged and said Darren might be going through a rebellious period and not putting effort into his assignments, or he was just lazy. One teacher firmly believed that Darren had learning disabilities that should be addressed in a resource room and not her classroom, pushing to send Darren through the referral process.

Brian worried that he likely had dozens of Darrens in his new school and wondered how he would be able to help the teachers reach those students while also trying to inspire them to transform education for all the students that attended—and would attend—Marshall in the future. Darren was a particular risk, but Brian asked, “Won’t we let down all of our students if we keep doing business the same old way?”

This chapter will explore

• A model of education centered around learners and learning

• The rationale for embracing the science of learning

• The role of learning leader versus school leader

• Use of a “small wins” strategy to support change in school practices

What’s Today’s School Leader to Do?

Anticipating the future while attending to the here and now is the work of all school leaders who are devoted to educating all learners. At its core, education is a future-oriented enterprise, charged with preparing the next generation of workers, citizens, and leaders. For decades, political and policy conversations about education have been centered on the knowledge competencies determined to be essential for students to compete in a twenty-first-century work environment and to thrive in a democracy. The ultimate measure of success is documentation that students have acquired skills and competencies at acceptable levels and graduated from high school ready for postsecondary life. Every May, communities celebrate milestones of graduation: kindergarten, fifth grade, eighth grade, and high school.

And every May and June, teachers and principals are haunted by the faces that have disappeared. Was there something else that could have been done to increase engagement and stem the dropout rate of students who struggle to learn and find success in our schools? Communities of educators across the country engage in such debates. They hope and plan for grand educational change and reform to address the systemic issues that are part of the chronic problem of poor school performance for so many children. Individually, principals and teachers aspire to save as many of these children as they can.

“The reality of schools is that the tyranny of the urgent drives what happens in classrooms every day.”