Edutouring - evolving self-direction at Thomas Haney

Thomas Haney was the last school visit on our US/Canada whistle stop tour. It was also the last of the four Canadian schools we have visited that are part of the Canadian Coalition of Self-Directed Learning. Whilst the previous three schools represented a kind of progression along the continuum from self-paced to increasing self-paced and self-directed, Thomas Haney represented a bit of a detour, as a school who had revised the self-paced model to suit the needs of their learners.

Thomas Haney is a co-educational public school in Vancouver, Canada. It is 21 years old, having been founded in 1992 and designed and built to meet the demands of a self-directed school. This means it has a number of large open learning commons, referred to as the "great halls", each housing a different learning area. Around these are a number of more traditional classrooms. For many years I believe the school followed a similar model to that of Westmount, Mary Ward and Bishop Carroll, where by students checked in with Teacher Advisors but then spent their school days working in the space they chose, on the subject of their choice at a pace that suited. This was enabled by a series of Learning Guides that provided detailed instructions and resources. This however was changed in recent years, in response identified needs of the learners at Thomas Haney.

Enter Sean Nosek, the passionate Principal who has been leading the school for four years. Sean greeted us on arrival at Thomas Haney, and took us through to a meeting room to introduce us to the school and to share his powerful vision for learning at the school. Sean, who has been at the school for a number of years as an English Teacher and leader before stepping up as Principal, has a clear view of 21st Century Learning and can clearly and persuasively articulate how Thomas Haney has evolved to become a leading school in the province. They are the only school in the area with a climbing roll, with students travelling from around the province to attend the school. Sean spoke of the principles behind self-directed learning - teacher advisory, flexible scheduling, personalised programming, collaborative teaching environment, authentic assessment, continuous progress and an interactive learning environment. He stressed their desire to be self-directed rather than simply self-paced. He acknowledged that they did not want to be a correspondence school where students simply take the package and go (this had been something we identified as a potential issue at earlier school visits). He also stressed that he wanted them to enjoy class and form a relationship with each teacher, not just the teacher advisor.

So how did they achieve this?

Basically, (let me know if I get this wrong!) Thomas Haney has revised the original model and has now put in place a structure that facilitates a gradual move from structured to unstructured, from inflexible to flexible as the student progresses through the school years. The school time table consists of five blocks a day with the students meeting with their Teacher Advisor (TA) at the beginning and end of each day, on Monday the TA is a bit longer. Each TA group is vertical (Grade 8-12) with up to 22-23 students. Siblings are placed in the same TA and students stay in that TA throughout their time at Thomas Haney. In Grade 8 classes are fully scheduled, except for one single block, referred to as Y block. This gives the first years a taste of flexibility and gives the students time to prepare for future flexibility. In Grade 9 - eight blocks are unscheduled, turning over one third of the school schedule to students to make their own decisions. In Grade 10, 11, 12 - 2/3s of the schedule is turned over to student. One period of each subject and each elective are locked down each week. Students are expected to use their time to visit teachers. The hybrid model allows freedom as well as the time for building relationships with subject teachers. The aim is to deliver increasingly personalised learning - with the what, when, where, being increasingly controlled by the student.

There is some interdisciplinary learning, with some formal organisation by teachers and students definitely encouraged to construct links for gaining credit from a number of subjects through a single project. There is room in timetable for events to sprout - such as Haiku death match or poetry slam. 125 of the 1050 students even have agreements that allow them to work at home - but this is formally arranged and approved.

What are the pros?

This definitely sounded like the perfect blend, and it definitely offered, I believe, a great model that could be adopted by traditional schools that want to make the shift. You could see that this model offered students more hands-on support, and also provided subject teachers more opportunity to connect with their learners. They also seemed to be the least dependent (of the four schools) on Learning Guides and therefore did not feel like a correspondence school inside a school.

At this point I do have to acknowledge some of the great authentic learning we experienced, with lunch being catered by Grade 9 students, hats off to Sean and his team as it was nothing short of divine - stuffed chicken breasts and salad, followed by apple cobbler and divine homemade spiced apple ice cream. Delish!

And the cons?

There is no question, I loved Sean's passion and vision for learning at Thomas Haney and I do believe the redeveloped model was created to meet the needs of the learners in this community. The school is succeeding both academically and in terms of student numbers - both a reflection of strong leadership. The downside, I did suspect, is that in adding structure back into the mix, freedom and flexibility had been lost and somehow the students seemed a little less in charge of their learning, particularly compared to the schools we had visited previously. Also, in enhancing the role of the subject teacher, the Teacher Advisor seemed to fade a little into the background. The past three schools seemed to have a lot more structure around TAs and used these as a means for linking with home in a way that didn't seem as prevalent or as regular at Thomas Haney. But then again, you can't deny a school's responsibility to change to meet the needs of their learners, and from what we heard from students and staff alike, this change worked for them.

In summary, it was great to see yet another iteration of the Canadian self-directed school movement. Each school has provided inspiration and real insight into how we might deliver learning in a way that better meets the needs of our 21st century learners. Each school has impressed us and challenged us in different ways.

Now for the tough part - bring it all together and working out what should be added to the mix at Honsonville Point Secondary School!

At this point I also want to acknowledge Maurie Abraham our Principal, who worked hard to set this all up, this trip was MASSIVE, but so worth it. Thanks also to our BOT who supported our edutouring.

Over the next week or so I will be sharing further reflections from the trip, snapshots from Ignition 13 and the BYOD conference to be held at Albany Secondary High School. In May I head off with TTS on the Apple schools tour, so standby for a bit of Edutouring 2.0.

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Edutouring - the journey from traditional to self-paced and beyond atWestmount

Canada greeted us with most unfriendly weather, zero degrees and snow on the ground. This however could not have been further from the warmth and generosity we were greeted with on arrival at Wesmount.

Westmount is the first of four Canadian schools that we are visiting, all of whom are part of the Canadian Coalition of Self-directed Schools. These schools range from Catholic to secular, old to new, high decile to low decile, large to relatively small, all however are defined by their desire to deliver self-paced and increasingly self-directed learning programmes for students. This means students, by and large, are free to design each school day, choosing where and when they complete their school work through a system of daily or weekly planning under the watchful eye of a learning advisor and then work through units of work at their own pace in the space that best suits them. Having seen two of the four we are visiting, I suspect each school sits in a slightly different place on the continuum from more structured, self-paced learning to genuinely co-constructed student developed and self-directed learning. Westmount being a long established traditional co-ed public school probably sits closer to the self-paced end of that continuum, and because of this actually offered an excellent example of how any traditional school in very traditional spaces should not use this as an excuse to not develop 21st century learning models that challenge students to genuinely lead their own learning. Westmount was also fabulous in the way they clearly demonstrated what they were doing was a long and tough journey. They had come a long way from anything I have seen in NZ, yet they were nowhere near content to settle on where they had got to, with teachers actively seeking out ways to develop the model from a self-paced model to a truly self-directed one.

So what did we see there?

Due to the unseasonably unreasonable weather, we were a little late to arrive, meaning we missed experiencing the day in its entirety, this coupled with the fact that it was the day of the state wide literacy test, meant Juniors were locked down for the morning and some seniors had chosen to work from the warmth of their own homes. Still, on reflection, we saw and learned a huge amount.

On arrival, we were greeted at the door by the passionate and charming Principal, Rick Kunc. You could see immediately that his relaxed, open and honest nature had gone a long way in establishing an open, friendly and genuinely reflective team of teachers who were willing to admit shortcomings, share practice and take positive risks to ensure their model was forever evolving and developing in a way that met their learner's needs. Rick and one of his senior leaders, Greg, welcomed us in and gave us a brief introduction to what the school was trying to achieve and some of the successes they had enjoyed so far.

Basically (and apologies if I get this wrong Westmount!) how the school works is by offering what looks like a normal weekly timetable, with teachers allocated to each class, however teachers did not necessarily lead the learning (unless a skill or concept needed to be directly taught), instead students picked up a learning guide for a unit that they worked through at their own pace, meaning they could "fast track" their learning if they wanted to, or could take longer if needed. This meant they could also work pretty much independently if they preferred, or could work more closely with peers or teachers as needed as well. In addition to this, students were free to sign out of their classrooms to work where they thought best met their needs, so if they they needed to work on something in another area, they could do so. Teachers continued to maintain a level of control in that they were could veto student requests to move about if they were seen to be falling behind or taking advantage of their relative freedom.

Students who then took us on a tour gave us insight as to how they used the system, but also were candid enough to share how at least one of them really struggled with it, having to manage her time from Grade 9 she clearly took several years to refine the art of managing self-paced learning, learning the hard way by initially procrastinating and then cramming in a way most of would find familiar if reflecting on first year at Uni. That said, she had got to Grade 12 (equivalent to our Year 13) and she now had worked out how to use her time wisely and avoid panic setting in. I couldn't help but think how much better she was equipped for dealing with post school life, these students were definitely confident and in control by they time they graduated.

The way they managed the fast tracking did rely on pre-written Learning Guides, so if a student competed their first Learning Guide, they let their teacher know they were ready to be tested, they could then go to an Examination Centre in the library to complete the assessment, and if they succeeded they could then pick up their next Learning Guide. Each Learning Guide represented approximately a week's work (I think), students could complete a maximum of two a week (this helped to manage work flow of both teacher and student). This meant a student could potentially fast track some courses and free themselves up to complete other courses at a more leisurely pace. Students sat down with a Learning Advisor at least once a fortnight to go over grades, track progress and ensure students were doing what was best for them.

In the afternoon when we sat down with a team of of their teaching staff we got to hear their perspective. What was most heartening was their revelation as around how they struggled with, but ultimately enjoyed their transition from "sage of the stage" to facilitator and how they really did see that you could in fact "teach less" and see students "learn more" as a result. They also shared how they were trying to now move from simple sequential programmes that were paper heavy (this system involved a lot of paper!) to integrating blended approaches to begin offering multi-modal and more differentiated programmes. They were incredibly honest about the pros and cons and how they were learning and had a long way to go to become truly self-directed. One teacher shared his Media programme that had become a more buffet style course, where some units were compulsory, whilst others were their own choice selected from a wider range of units. Teachers were also working hard to give students choice about the means and modes by which they demonstrated learning. In this way I felt a huge connection with where NZ teachers are in their exploration of blended learning and differentiation.

There were some short comings, this approach does not suit all learners, it was at present paper heavy, and in parts felt like distance learning at school. But on the other hand they had achieved a spectacular shift away from what we presently do, giving the opportunity for students to become self-advocates in a way that will set them up for life. It was lovely to see such a passionate group of educators so happily sharing their journey.

If you are looking for models that demonstrate how a traditional school can genuinely shift the educational paradigm I would suggest Rick and host team offer a great place to start!

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