Knowledge Building Partnership:
An Ontario Story
2014 Knowledge Building Summer Institute, Quebec City
August 12, 2014
SUNG
The power of School, University and Government partnerships
School
University
KB
Government
Government:
Ontario Ministry of Education
Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat (LNS), Student Achievement
Division (SAD):
• Bruce Shaw
Director, Leadership and Implementation Branch, LNS
• Elaine Hine
Student Achievement Officer, LNS
• Denis Maika
Consultant to the Ontario Ministry of Education Knowledge
Building Project
University:
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education,
University of Toronto (OISE/UT)
Institute for Knowledge Innovation and Technology (IKIT):
• Dr. Marlene Scardamalia
Director, IKIT
• Dr. Monica Resendes
Research Coordinator, IKIT
Schools:
The Three Ontario Principals Associations
Leading Student Achievement Project
• Ginette Huard
LSA Coordinator, l’Association des directions et directions
adjointes des écoles franco ontariennes (ADFO)
• Mary Cordeiro
LSA Coordinator, Catholic Principals’ Council | Ontario
(CPCO)
• Linda Massey
LSA Coordinator, Ontario Principals’ Council (OPC)
Ontario’s Story
Student Achievement Division,
Ontario Ministry of Education
Our “K-12 Journey” for the past
10 years: A Small Number of
Ambitious Goals
• High levels of student achievement
o 75% of students with high level of literacy and
numeracy skill by age 12
o 85% of students graduating from high school within 5
years of starting grade 9
• Reduced gaps in student achievement
• Increased public confidence in education
Elementary Outcomes:
Achievement Results
150,000 more students at provincial standard
4 key levers for
elementary
reform:
1. Improving
classroom
teaching and
learning
2. Improving school
effectiveness
3. Leadership
capacity building
4. Research and
evaluation
Levers to successful
improvement systems
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
A small number of ambitious goals
Leadership at all levels
High standards and expectations
Investment in leadership and capacity building related to
instruction
Mobilizing data and effective practices as a strategy for
improvement (internal/external research)
Intervention in a non-punitive manner
Reducing distractions
Being transparent, relentless and increasingly
challenging
Achieving Excellence: A Renewed
Vision for Education in Ontario
Our renewed goals for education are:
• Achieving Excellence
• Ensuring Equity
• Promoting Well-Being
• Enhancing Public Confidence
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/about/renewedVision.pdf
Knowledge Building Principles and
Ontario’s Renewed Vision for
Education
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Real ideas and authentic problems
Improvable ideas
Idea diversity
Rise above
Epistemic agency
Community knowledge, collective responsibility
Democratizing knowledge
Symmetric knowledge advancement
Pervasive knowledge building
Constructive uses of authoritative sources
Knowledge building discourse
Concurrent, embedded, and transformative assessment
University:
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education,
University of Toronto (OISE/UT)
Institute for Knowledge Innovation and Technology (IKIT):
• Dr. Marlene Scardamalia
Director, IKIT
• Dr. Monica Resendes
Research Coordinator, IKIT
Institute of Knowledge Innovation and
Technology (IKIT)
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE),
University of Toronto
• Researchers
• Graduate students
• Programmers / Developers
• Visiting scholars
• International Network
Partnership - Dr. Eric Jackman
Institute of Child Study
• Administration
• Teachers
• Students
• Student-teachers
Leading Student Achievement (LSA),
Tri-Board projects
Participation in:
• LSA webinars
• Regional sessions and symposia
• School site visits
o Meet with teachers & principals in schools
 One-time or repeatedly, if more support is requested
o Work with regional student achievement officers
o Support with Knowledge Building and Knowledge Forum
 Provide resources for Knowledge Building; introduce
Knowledge Forum; support early experimentation
with KB/KF
o Engage with students around their experiences (one or
two cases)
• Interaction with school board research team
Goals For The Next Year
• How can we better support teachers, students and
principals involved in the LSA project?
o e.g. — Development of professional learning
resources and networks
• How can we engage participants as co-designers in
teacher/student—researcher—development teams to
improve KF?
o e.g. — Networks to support addressing user needs,
testing tools, refining designs.
• What theoretical advances can help inform the adoption
and spread of Knowledge Building?
o Conceptual models - from Collaborative Inquiry to
Knowledge Creation
From Inquiry to Knowledge
Creation
• 1 – Simplistic to complex questioning
• 2 – Single source to explanatory coherence
• 3 – Teacher-directed to student agency
• 4 – Individual inquiry to collective responsibility of
community knowledge
• Etc…
2005-2015
Our Story
Schools:
The Three Ontario Principals Associations
Leading Student Achievement Project
• Ginette Huard
LSA Coordinator, l’Association des directions et directions
adjointes des écoles franco ontariennes (ADFO)
• Mary Cordeiro
LSA Coordinator, Catholic Principals’ Council | Ontario
(CPCO)
• Linda Massey
LSA Coordinator, Ontario Principals’ Council (OPC)
Partnership and Leadership
• Association des directions et des directions adjointes des
écoles franco-ontariennes (ADFO)
• The Catholic Principals’ Council of Ontario (CPCO)
• The Ontario Principals’ Council (OPC)
• In partnership with and funded by the Student
Achievement Division, Ministry of Education
• Supported by Curriculum Services Canada (CSC)
ADFO, CPCO and OPC
Participation
Districts
Principals and
their schools
Year 1
2005-2006
Year 9
2013-2014
22
57
925
3,333
Leading Student Achievement:
Networks for Learning
SCHOOL
Professional
Learning
Communities
INSTRUCTIONAL
LEADERSHIP
LEADING
STUDENT
ACHIEVEMENT
INSTRUCTIONAL
LEADERSHIP
DISTRICT
Principal
Learning
Teams
INSTRUCTIONAL
LEADERSHIP
PROVINCE
LSA STEERING TEAM
(ADFO, CPCO, OPC, EDU, CSC)
Project Research and Evaluation:
Dr. Ken Leithwood
Professor Emeritus, OISE/UT
“The Leading Student Achievement project is unique
among efforts across developed countries, at the present
time, in approaching leadership development as directly
and extensively as it has.”
(Leithwood, 2013)
LSA Theory of Action
Four Paths of Leadership Influence
on Student Learning
Principal Learning Teams (PLTs):
A group of school leaders in a district, usually including at
least one system leader, as well, with same purposes as
professional learning communities but with a focus on
improving their own leadership. PLTs often also help guide
district as well as school-level decisions.
Northern Districts Pilot
• Purpose
Moving concept of Knowledge Building to Principal Learning
Teams (PLTs)
• How
Invitational to those interested in exploring this work with
colleagues
• Supports
LSA District Facilitator(s)
o Knowledge Forum/Technologies
o Ministry and District Resources
o Participation in LSA PL Sessions
Northern Districts Pilot
• Involvement
o Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board
o Keewatin-Patricia District School Board
o Lakehead District School Board
• Who
o Principals/Vice Principals (Team Leaders/Members)
o Teacher Leaders
o LSA System Leaders
• Next Steps
Success Stories and Differentiation
Conseil scolaire catholique franco-nord
Real story in an elementary school
• Collaborative Inquiry in literacy for grade 2 to improve
students’ reading performance
• Collect data to improve reading
• Analyse data and make decisions regarding winning
strategies to improve reading
• Using collaboration as a tool to ensure student success
Success Stories and Differentiation
(cont’d)
Conseil scolaire catholique franco-nord
Real story in a secondary school
• Developing the emotional path in a secondary school to
improve student motivation, commitment and the
graduation rate
• Use strategies that enhance emotional well-being and
contribute to strong involvement in school work
• As a result, student attendance and graduation rates have
improved significantly
Partnership with « École en réseau »
• Collaboration with Dr Thérèse Lafernière and her team to
facilitate the use of KF and the philosophy of KB
• Participation in virtual sessions and symposium
• Sharing French material with the French school boards of
Ontario
• To ensure a collaborative relationship between small
French schools in Ontario and establish pilot projects to
implement KB an KF
Development of a KB Community
by a District PLT (cont’d)
“Our work has included both cross-curricular and
cross-panel development of strategies and supports for
teachers to enhance practice centred around asking
students to explore deep and meaningful questions
connected to curriculum and the world around us.”
“Our story features the principal learning team and our lead
teacher’s interactions with teacher learning teams
connected to Knowledge Building.”
Development of a KB Community
by a District PLT
Upper Grand District School Board
In their own words from:
More Real Stories: How LSA Participation Has Improved
Leadership, Teaching and Student Achievement (May, 2014)
“This story is about the journey that our teams have
undertaken to introduce and develop Knowledge Building
communities in three secondary schools and one
elementary school.”
For further information:
LSA Web Network (NING)
• http://lsanetwork.ning.com (English)
• http://reseautagedre.ning.com (French)
LSA Website
• www.lsaontario.org (English)
• www.dreontario.org (French)
Curriculum Services Canada
• www.curriculum.org
(Click on Leading Student Achievement or Diriger la
réussite des élèves)
Tri-Board Pre-Pilot Project
• This project emerged out of collaborative work being done
since 2013 between researchers at the Institute for
Knowledge, Innovation and Technology (IKIT) at
OISE/University of Toronto, Leading Student Achievement,
staff in the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat (LNS), and
principals/teachers and researchers in several school
districts.
• The purpose of this collaboration has been to support
teacher and principal professional learning relating to the
principles of knowledge building (KB) and to introduce
Knowledge Forum.
Tri-Board Pre-Pilot Project (cont’d)
• Activities for educators relating to this work have included:
o Face-to-face and webinar learning sessions
o Use of Knowledge Forum (KF) knowledge building
software
o Support for instructional planning and development
These activities took place throughout the 2013-14 academic
year, and culminated in a sharing opportunity in May, 2014.
What Did This Project Look Like?
Tri-Board Pre-Pilot Project
• March – June 2014
• 3 district school boards
o 10 elementary schools
o 2 secondary schools
• 2 face-to-face sessions
• 3 webinars for capacity building and sharing of
ideas/school support visits/KF support
• Ongoing research component (internal and external)
What Did We See and Learn?
• 3 big trends coming out of the work…
High Engagement and Excitement
• Moving to co-design
• Activating Knowledge Building Principles
• Activating Knowledge Building Circles
• Using Knowledge Forum software…a space where ideas
and curiosity live
• Sharing thinking and ideas
• Improving ideas in a very respectful manner
• Contributing to the community knowledge
Sharing of Ideas
• Students, teachers and administrators using Knowledge
Forum in classrooms and in Principal Learning Teams to
share and spread thinking and ideas
SPREAD
Students influencing…
Principals influencing…
• Students
• Teachers
• Parents
• Principals
• Teachers
Teachers influencing…
• Students
• Teachers
• Principals
• Parents
Knowledge Building –
Inquiry Based Learning
Website
http://learnteachlead.ca/en/projects/knowledge-building
• Resources
• Digital Stories
• KB Principles
• Case Studies
• FAQ
• A place for people to share and meet
Please Help Us!
Our burning question for you….
What advice can you give us as we move forward with the
Tri-Board Project and think about our next steps?