St Paul’s Primary School has been on a learning journey to build a Culture of Thinking for over six years. Have we made it? Will we ever be there? What does the journey look like?
This is our Cultures of Thinking learning journey. What is culture? Culture was described by prominent organisational consultants Terry Deal and Allan Kennedy in the 1980s as ‘the way we do things around here.’ It is also described, as Sir Adrian Montague, former Chairman of Aviva, says, “Culture is the glue that binds an organization together.” The greatest influence on culture is the organisation’s leadership. In schools, that would be the principal and his/her leadership team. Cultures of Thinking come from the work of Ron Ritchhart and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. In essence, Cultures of Thinking is an approach to teaching and learning that values and promotes thinking, as learning is a consequence of thinking. It is not a program or something extra to do in the classroom, but a way to get children more involved in their learning, and therefore, learning more effectively. Why did I believe that St Paul’s should become a Culture of Thinking? I had attended a professional learning day with Ron Ritchhart back in 2015. I had worked in a school as assistant principal with a principal who played with the ideas of Cultures of Thinking. And I had done much reading. I could see the benefits but wanted to take it much further. Few teachers have time to explore overarching philosophies or theories of action, like Cultures of Thinking, Fullan and Joanne Quinn's Deep Learning, Trevor Mackenzie and Kath Murdoch’s Inquiry Learning and Michael McDowell’s Rigorous Learning. Teachers are so busy with lesson planning, assessing, reporting, marking, meeting with parents and learning new curriculums that they don't have the time or energy to be looking at the big picture. They often “can’t see the forest for the trees.” It is up to principals and system leaders to read current research, best practice and overarching pedagogies, synthesise them and champion them in their schools. Gerard Mowbray, former Director of Schools for the Maitland Newcastle Diocese coined the phrase “our forever work” when he referred to the use of Lynn Sharratt’s Clarity approach. Of course, it can only be ‘forever’ until current research says that there is something better or that proves this approach incorrect. But the commitment to see an idea through is paramount! It’s not about committing to the ‘next shiny thing’ that comes along. “This stability of commitment is rare in the churning waters of public education, and it had permitted the work to become gradually sewn into the fabric of the work happening within schools, helping... to prevent the “this too shall pass” ethos that frequently characterizes reform efforts.” (Fine & Mehta p.7) I was committed to implementing Cultures of Thinking and seeing it through. I started with the leadership team. In 2017 we used leadership team meetings to read Ritchhart’s book, Creating a Culture of Thinking. We discussed, digested, and wondered, and at the end of that year I asked if they were committed to moving forward with the ideas and engage the whole staff to build a culture of thinking. They were. The next year we introduced the concept to the whole staff. Each year, discounting the Covid years, we have engaged the Cultures of Thinking specialists Simon Brooks or Ryan Gill. Simon is an independent education consultant based in the UK who “works with schools and educators around the world interested in building cultures of thinking, where children delight in their learning and develop deep, meaningful and lasting understanding through the process of becoming critical and creative thinkers.” Simon has visited St Paul’s at least half a dozen times to work with teachers and our leadership team. Ryan is Deputy Principal and Head of Senior School at Masada College in Sydney. Ryan has visited St Paul’s twice. Both educators are passionate about building a Culture of Thinking. They have facilitated powerful professional learning with St Paul’s teachers. Over the years we have taken one of the Eight Cultural Forces as focus for the year. So far, we have concentrated on time, environment and expectations. At least one professional learning staff meeting per term is dedicated to continuing to build a culture of thinking. Following the publication of Ron’s latest book, Cultures of Thinking in Action, 10 Mindsets to Transform our Teaching and Student Learning, our current focus for this year is one of those mindsets, ‘Questions’. In 2020, Simon led an action research group of four of our teachers. While COVID made this a challenge, Simon met with the teachers to set goals. The four teachers met regularly that year, honing their practice and improving student outcomes. An important part of building a culture of thinking is the modelling I do as principal. I consciously avoid using the word ‘work’ when referring to what children do in the classroom and make sure we use the word ‘learning’. Most days at morning assembly, I send the children off to class with the sign off, “Have a great day of learning!” As a leadership team, we try to use thinking routines in our weekly staff meetings. As Ritchhart says in The Power do Making Thinking Visible, teachers will ‘mirror’ the culture of the leadership team. It is important that we model to our teachers the thinking that we want to see in our classrooms. We are conscious to bring parents on our journey as they are integral to the culture we create. We inform parents both in newsletters, kinder orientation days, open days and other opportunities when we interact with parents. We want parents to value the thinking of their children. We encourage parents to ask their children what they learnt today at school, not what they ‘did’ or what work they did at school. Creating a culture of thinking is never a complete task. But it needs a ‘champion’ to continue to promote it. Ideally this should be the principal, otherwise it must be a key person on the school’s leadership team. After a recent professional learning day with Simon Brooks, I asked the teachers of St Paul’s to reflect on our culture of thinking journey. Are we a culture of thinking yet? Is your classroom a culture of thinking? This is some of what they said:
But the clincher for me that we are on course was this comment from an assistant principal from another school who attended the professional learning day:
The real test will be when I eventually move on to another school. It is my hope that St Paul’s will remain a Culture of Thinking. References and Further Reading: Church, R. (2020). Power of Making Thinking Visible: using routines to engage and empower learners. S.L.: Jossey-Bass Inc ,U S. Morrison, K., Ritchhart, R. and Church, M. (2013). Making Thinking Visible: how to promote engagement, understanding, and independence for all learners. San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass. Ritchhart, R. (2015). Creating Cultures of Thinking: the 8 forces we must master to truly transform our schools. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Wiley. Ritchhart, R. (2023). Cultures of Thinking in Action. Jossey-Bass. Sarah Fine & Jal Mehta A “Big Tent” Strategy for System-Wide Transformation. Seeking Deep Learning in Ottawa New Pedagogies for Deep Learning - A “Big Tent” Strategy for System-Wide Transformation.pdf - Google Drive [Accessed February 11, 2024]
1 Comment
Maree
21/3/2024 01:09:47 am
Thank you for your inspired work! It’s truely a fun day of learning every day at Gateshead.
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AuthorGreg Cumming is a Primary Principal in the Diocese of Maitland Newcastle, NSW Australia Archives
March 2024
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