Growing Thinking Schools From the Inside Out

SO WHAT IS SCHOOL FOR?

To…. Develop potential Increase potential Maximise potential Create potential Develop skills for life long learning. Develop skills for the 22nd century. Educate the ‘whole child.’

Potential Having or showing the capacity to develop into something in the future. Latent qualities or abilities that may be developed and lead to future success or usefulness.

Capacity The maximum amount that something can contain. The ability to receive, hold or absorb The power to learn

CAPACITY Magnitude Amplitude Extent Scope Aptitude Capability POTENTIAL Embryonic Budding Unrealised Inherent Likely Prospective Talent Flair

Good school: Thinking school Beliefs about capacities and potential Relationships that are generative and facilitative Visions that are clear and unambiguous Values that are genuinely inclusive Strategies knowing what to do about critical, collaborative, creative and caring thinking

Sara Hennessy Supportive Respectful Collective Cumulative Trusting Co-construction of new meaning Muliple viewpoints Critical thinking Building ideas Reasoning Interthinking

What if we all held the belief of Raleigh Hills Elementary School, Oregon, that: “The brain knows no boundaries regarding the economic or cultural background of the learner.”

We believe that ….. Intelligence grows through effort.

Cohen & Prusak describe social wealth as: “The stock of active connections among people, the trust, mutual understanding, shared values and behaviours that bind members of human networks and communities and make cooperative action possible.” International Journal of Entrepreneurship Education Senate Hall Academic publishing

The expected collective benefits derived from the preferential treatment and cooperation between individuals and groups.

The tangible assets that count for most in the daily lives of people. OECD

Good will Fellowship Social intercourse

Charles Leadbeater defined social enterprise as: “doing business that is animated by social purpose.”

Social entrepreneurs People who establish an enterprise with the aim of solving social problems or effecting social change. They are ambitious and persistent, tackling issues and offering new ideas.

Can schools develop social entrepreneurs? Can schools show people how to create social capital?

Alexandra High School, Tipton. Now the ACE Academy.

Ken Robinson wrote: “Too many people are displaced from their own true capacities. They do not realise their own potential because they do not know what it is. They are out of their element and out of their minds in that specific sense.”

Daniel Goleman: Successful people have a high degree of: “emotional and social intelligence and the ability to impact positively on others.”

Our personal iceberg Skills Knowledge Social roles Self-concept Traits Motives

Traits (IQ,EQ,SQ) Where you prefer to get and focus your “energy” or attention. What kind of Information you prefer to gather and trust. What process you prefer to use in coming to decisions. How you prefer to deal with the world around you. Your ‘lifestyle.’

Social entrepreneurs People who establish an enterprise with the aim of solving social problems or effecting social change. They are ambitious and persistent, tackling issues and offering new ideas.

Creativity Daniel Goleman describes how creative insight is a cognitive act but realising its value calls upon emotional competencies such as confidence, initiative, persistence and persuasion.

Creativity Teresa Amabile’s research points to three components of creativity in an individual - expertise, flexibility and imagination, and motivation, both extrinsic and intrinsic.

Connections The inherent requirement to understand and manage one’s own thinking and subsequently self - what Ken Robinson might have called “being in one’s mind.” The resulting competencies and skills required to build productive relationships in one’s communities. The ambition to inspire change. The aspirations of thinking schools. School wide values and models.

Two connections, connected.