John+Gardner

__**Are We Asking? Are We Listening?**__ Presented by: John Gardner

- improve student learning - effective leadership - make wise use of the tax dollar
 * What are we trying to do?**

According the the OECD Report, Canada Ranks #12 in overall well-being and #2 with regard to educational well-being - we're doing well as a country, but we could learn some lessons from the Scandanavian countries

- the students - paying attention to what's missing in schools today - the realization that schools aren't doing a good enough job in society today
 * What's missing?**

View the McKinsey Report (2007) that addresses all of the solutions to fix these problems ;-)

United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC, 1989)
 * only two countries haven't signed it... Somalia and the US
 * //the No Child Left Behind// program in the US defies logic... they're taking the money away from students

The Democratic School setting Students are consulted and are allowed to express views on: - curriculum - teachers and teaching - physical and affective environment - assessment

We still tell our students what to learn through curriculum:

[|QCA] (The UK's Qualifications and Curriculum Authority) - team work - independent inquiry - self management

[|Eva Baker] - adaptive - problem solving - changeable roles - self-management - managing distraction

Why not consult students more wisely? - we have deeply rooted 'Adultist' perspectives

Gilbert Highet's [|The Art of Teaching] What are students like when they're really learning? - boys are like dogs - girls are like horses

We must change our perceptions of schooling - we don't want our students to think of our schools as patronizing, controlling and aloof... - kids have to stop seeing our schools as factories - students should not see schools as prisons - and kids views of assessment need to be changed

A new model for student voice:

[|Jean Rudduck] was a pioneer in the area of developing student voice.

Who Should Ask? Who should listen?
 * The story of everybody, anybody, somebody and nobody

Listen to a portion of John Gardner's presentation at the Engaged Learner conference:

media type="file" key="Engaged Learner - John Gardner.mp3"