More and more in my leadership growth journey I have come to realise the importance of wellbeing in learning.
It began with delving into the principles of restorative practice and realising that all behavioural issues harm a relationship so the focus, when there has been misbehaviour, should be on repairing the harm to the relationship rather than on punishing the wrongdoing.
Then my involvement with the Te Kotahitanga programme exposed me to the thinking that for teachers to be effective, particularly for Maori but therefore all students then they need to demonstrate on a daily basis that they care for their students as culturally located individuals and that they have high expectations of the learning for all students. Such thinking placing the importance of relationships at the centre. And, of course, positive relationships depend on the wellbeing of all involved in the relationship to be nurtured.
The combination of exploring relationship-based behaviour management with the Te Kotahitanga inspired pedagogical approach got me thinking of what makes an effective relationship-based approach to curriculum and pedagogy.
I settled on a framework built around the concept of effective teachers being both warm and demanding at the same time. By this I meant that students had to see very clearly that their teachers cared for them as learners and that those teachers not only had high expectations for them as learners but that they also had high expectations of themselves as teachers to support all students to learn. Such a construct requires a clear focus on the wellbeing of both student and teacher.
I have blogged before on Bishop's book, Teaching to the North East, which captures wonderfully that combination of warm and demanding. He talks of teachers and schools developing a family-like context for learning. And, of course, such a context requires a focus on wellbeing.
Belief in such principles have played a key role in the development of Hobsonville Point Secondary School. Structures and processes such as our Learning Hub structure and dispositional curriculum, as represented by our Hobsonville Habits, have relationships and wellbeing firmly at the core. This is one reason why when the pandemic struck we didn't have to pivot too far to ensure our approach around learning progress, student engagement and qualification preparation was based on focusing on the wellbeing of students and staff.
In between the 2 Auckland lockdowns I received a copy of Michael Fullan's The right drivers for whole school system success (CSE, Feb 2021). In this he talks about 4 "right drivers" to replace 4 "wrong drivers". The right drivers (with the corresponding wrong driver in brackets) are:
- Wellbeing and Learning (Academics Obsession)
- Social Intelligence (Machine Intelligence)
- Equality Investments (Austerity)
- Systemness (Fragmentation)
So far, I have only read the section on Wellbeing and Learning vs Academic Obsession. It has really resonated with me as I reflect on the first 3 days of our new Alert Level 3 and realise everything I have done since the Saturday night announcement has been focused on ensuring the wellbeing of students (delivering and issuing laptops and other resources) and staff (clear and, hopefully, compassionate communication re doing our best). Here is my summary of the main points:
Academic Obsession
He begins by arguing that the focus entirely on academic grades and degrees is damaging for learning and learners. He argues this focus results in narrow learning "that severely distorts what people learn and need in the 21st century." He says that despite the privileged students who succeed to gain the high grades there are no winners. He labels these students as 'wounded winners' and quotes research which concludes:
"In spite of their economic and social advantages, they experience among the highest rates of depression, substance abuse, anxiety disorder, somatic complaints, and unhappiness of any group of children in this country."
He then moves onto his case for arguing why Wellbeing and Learning is a more appropriate driver and starts with:
"In our ever-complex and contentious world we can no longer afford to separate wellbeing and learning. For one thing wellbeing is learning. As complexity in the world has evolved, Wellbeing and Learning represent an integrated concept. You cannot be successful in one without the other."
He also shares a definition of wellbeing:
"People become good at life when they feel safe, valued and have a sense of purpose and meaning. There is a need to be engaged in meaningful activities that contribute to the wellbeing of others. In the face of adversity, being able to navigate to the resources that you need to get out of the situation - known as resilience - is an essential component. To get there one needs to identify values, goals and needs as well as personal strengths. The competencies you need to achieve this, I think are the 6 Cs [Character, Citizenship, Collaboration, Communication, Creativity and Critical Thinking] as long as compassion and empathy are emphasised."
In exploring this driver he concludes that there is a huge gap between how schools are organised and how young people learn so fall well short of ensuring the wellbeing of these young people.
He proposes a Learning Design Model which combines 4 elements that lead to deep learning and incorporates Wellbeing and Learning as an integrated concept.
This model builds on what is known about the neuroscience of learning such as:
- student as inquirer and knowledge builder
- learning connects meaningfully to student interest and voice
- connects students to the world with authentic problem solving
- making mistakes and learning from them strengthens learning
- collaboration and other forms of connecting with other people and ideas
More detail on how this model operates, particularly in relation to the global competencies, in a way that a model focusing on Academic Obsession cannot is included on pages 17 - 19 of the publication.
Note: no one is arguing that there is no focus at all on academic success. If the main driver is Wellbeing and Learning then academic success which supports young people to thrive in a complex world is more likely to occur.
I'm looking forward to reading and blogging on Social Intelligence vs Machine Intelligence.
Kia kaha. Kia ora.
