Key Ideas and Resources

Key Ideas & Resources in The Education We Need for a Future We Can’t Predict

            Links to references and resources mentioned in the discussions of key ideas in the book are provided here. Updates and links to new resources are discussed and shared periodically through blog posts at https://thomashatch.org/

The Grammar of Schooling

page 37

The “grammar of schooling” refers to enduring structures and practices including a schedule of courses divided into discrete subjects, taught in a “teacher-directed” manner in “egg crate” buildings that group students of similar ages in different classrooms. These conventional structures and practices are reinforced by beliefs about what “real school” looks like and by institutional structures, routines, and incentives that make it difficult to achieve quick, dramatic, large-scale changes in schools.

Collections of “Innovations” in Education

page 53

High Leverage Problems 

page 61

            High leverage problems provide a particularly promising focus for improvement efforts. They concentrate on issues widely recognized as central to the development of more equitable educational opportunities and outcomes; present opportunities for visible improvements in relatively short periods of time; and establish a foundation for long-term, sustained, systemic efforts that improve teaching and learning.

Micro-innovations

page 75

Micro-innovations yield practices and products that are new to the contexts in which they’re developed. The concept builds on the philosopher Nelson Goodman’s question “when is art?” by shifting the focus from determining whether an idea, product or service is innovative to thinking about when new developments are innovative and how to create the conditions to support and sustain them. Concentrating on micro-innovations highlights that developing new products and practices that solve problems in specific situations and contexts can be a crucial foundation for broader reforms.

Niches of Possibility

page 91

“Niches of possibility” are places within and outside conventional schools where more powerful learning experiences can take root.  Identifying niches of possibility and developing micro-innovations depends on understanding the affordances in different situations and settings. Affordances arise from the characteristics and constraints that encourage and inhibit different behaviors.  The power of niches of possibility emerge with the discovery of affordances and opportunities for developing more powerful learning experiences that were initially unanticipated (what Gould and Lewontin called Spandrels).

Capacity-building

page 121

            Capacity-building is one of the primary tools that policymakers can use to pursue improvements in school systems (along with others like mandates and incentives).  In general, capacity refers to the resources and abilities needed to achieve a particular goal (such as improving instruction in reading or achieving more equitable educational outcomes). My work on higher-performing education systems highlights that improving schools depends on investments in technical capital (money, materials, technologies, facilities etc.), human capital (skills, knowledge, and dispositions of the people involved); and social capital (relationships, social networks, trust, and collective commitment). These investments build the infrastructure for teaching and learning that supports the instructional core – the relationship between students, teachers and content – central to learning in schools and classrooms.

Collective Responsibility

page 145

            Collective responsibility, along with coherence and common understanding, plays a central role in systemic efforts to create more powerful education systems. Collective responsibility reflects the belief that individuals and groups should be held account­able for living up to and upholding norms of conduct and higher pur­poses that are often ambiguous and difficult to define in advance. It serves as an important counterpoint to answerability which reflects the beliefs that individuals and groups should be accountable for meeting clearly specified and agreed-upon procedures and/or goals.