Getting Unstuck – Cultivating Curiosity

Fundamental to changing schools so that they're more beneficial to a student's future is understanding how students learn. Neuroscience researcher Melissa Hughes Ph.D. explains.

Innovating in education just to innovate is pointless. Ideas on how to change education abound. The key, according to veteran principal Evan Robb is to align everyone around a vision of student success.

Whether you're a parent, an educator, or just a concerned citizen, you have a big stake in what happens in our classrooms – the incubators of our future. If you listen to education transformation advocates, we need to change those incubators by recognizing that we're in a post-industrial society and build an educational system that better prepares children for it. To support that discussion, we welcome four school leaders from the Mesa, Arizona Public Schools who are leading the change effort now.

Today we welcome Mike Oliver, Principal of Zaharis Elementary School in Mesa Arizona. Mike and his team have shaped this extraordinary school over the past 18 years. It brings to life many of the principles of change called for by the transformation advocates: agency for students and teachers; real-world problem solving; opportunities for collaboration and innovation; social and emotional development; and curiosity. And one of its hallmarks is no test preparation beyond the daily school activities.

Whether you're a parent, an educator, or a concerned citizen, you have a big stake in what happens in our classrooms – the incubators of our future. If you listen to education transformation advocates, we need to build an educational system that better prepares children for our post-industrial age. The problem is most school systems are still rooted in competition, the status quo, and trying to make what already exists more efficient. Author and transformational change advocate, Richard Gerver, explains.

Today we're joined by professors Mark Smylie and Karen Seashore Louis. Mark and Karen along with Joseph Murphy are the authors of Caring School Leadership and Stories of Caring School Leadership, two books that speak to the need to develop caring leadership in schools. We'd think that "caring" in schools would be a given, but as the authors have seen, it's not always the case. Here we'll find out why caring has ebbed away in many schools and what can be done about it.

Today we are joined by author Ted Dintersmith. Ted's LinkedIn profile reads "change agent" – and the changes he's focused on are at the intersection of "education, innovation, and democracy." He is the author of What Schools Could Be, which details the trip he took across the U.S. in 2016, visiting some 200 schools in all 50 states. Listen as he asks and answers his own question: "Is thinking about what's going on in schools nice or imperative?"

Today, educational leaders and schools are barraged with suggestions and directives to do "this" and "that" to improve student performance and outcomes. But the problem is that we don't really have agreement on what we mean by "performance" and "outcomes." This special series seeks to turn up the volume on that much needed discussion. Someone who is uniquely qualified to give us a broad perspective on this topic is Mike Soules, President of Corwin.

Here, we welcome Dr. Lynne Pierson, an experienced educational professional with successful leadership achievements in urban, rural, suburban and international schools. In 2007, Dr. Pierson was asked to lead an effort to overhaul the educational system of the United Arab Emirates. Her six-year effort was a lesson in patience, understanding, and collaborating. Ultimately, coordinating the comprehensive school reform plan was as much an exercise in leadership as it was in educational development.

Anthony Kim, consultant and author of The New School Rules, is an advocate of embracing new management practices that allow continuous adaptation in today's rapidly changing environment. As he writes in the book, "Schools that are working – and there are many – always create, early on, environments designed for evolution, responsiveness, continuous learning. A new approach to the management, organizational practices, and work of schools is an essential component to the success of students in our schools."