E Educational Research and Innovation d u c a t io n a l R The OECD Handbook e s e ar for Innovative Learning c h an Environments d In n o v a t io n T h e O E C D H a n d b o o k f o r In n o v a t iv e L e a r n in g E n v ir o n m e n t s Educational Research and Innovation The OECD Handbook for Innovative Learning Environments This work is published the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the OECD member countries. This document and any map included herein are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area. Please cite this publication as: OECD (2017), The OECD Handbook for Innovative Learning Environments, OECD, Publishing, Paris, http://dx.doi.org/9789264277274-en. ISBN: 978-92-64-27723-6 (print) ISBN: 978-92-64-27727-4 (PDF) Series: Educational Research and Innovation ISSN: 2076-9679 (online) ISSN: 2076-9660 (print) DOI:10.1787/20769679 Photo credits: © skynesher/iStock Corrigenda to OECD publications may be found on line at: www.oecd.org/publishing/corrigenda. © OECD 2017 This is work is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 IGO license (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo/deed.en, you are free to copy and redistribute the material, provided the use is for non- commercial purposes, under the following conditions: Attribution – Please cite the work as follows: OECD (2017), The OECD Handbook for Innovative Learning Environments, OECD, Publishing, Paris, http://dx.doi.org/9789264277274-en. License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO. Third-party content – The OECD does not necessarily own each component of the content contained within the work. 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FOREWORD Foreword Over the last decade, the OECD region has seen a 20 percent rise in spending per school student but yet little significant improvement in learning outcomes. When other sectors see flat-lining productivity they look to innovation. In many fields, people enter their professional lives expecting their practice to be transformed by innovation. This is still not widespread in education. When the OECD conducted its first international survey of teachers, teaching and learning (TALIS), an average of only just over a quarter of teachers responded that more innovation in their teaching would be valued, never mind rewarded, in their schools. Governments can help to open up systems to innovation. They can create an innovation- friendly climate that encourages transformative ideas to flourish on the ground, both by fostering innovation within the system and by creating opportunities for outside innovations to come in. They can help strengthen professional autonomy and a collaborative culture where great ideas are shared and refined. Governments can help to make great ideas real by providing access to funding and non-financial support to lift those ideas into action. Not least, governments can build incentives and signals that strengthen the visibility and demand for what demonstrably works. But governments can only do so much. Silicon Valley works because governments have created the conditions for innovation, not because they do the innovation. Similarly, governments cannot innovate in classrooms. If there has been one lesson learnt about innovating education, it is that teachers, schools and local administrators should not just be involved in the implementation of educational change but they should have a central role in its design. They need robust frameworks and sound knowledge about what works if they are to be effective innovators and game changers. The OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation has devoted considerable energy to building such a knowledge base about innovative policy and practice over recent years. This Handbook now translates that knowledge base into practical tools for teachers and for leaders, whether in schools or at other levels of education systems. We hope it will empower them to educate children for their future, not for our past. Within the OECD Secretariat, the author and editor of this volume is David Istance. Matthew Gill and Rachel Linden have been responsible for handling the logistics in finalising the report. The layout was undertaken by Design Media. Andreas Schleicher Director for Education and Skills Special Advisor on Education Policy to the Secretary-General 3 THE OECD HANDBOOK FOR INNOVATIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS © OECD 2017 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Acknowledgements Many have contributed to this Handbook, far more than can be acknowledged by name; this is to extend an inclusive thanks to all who have been involved with Innovative Learning Environments (ILE) from the beginning. Numerous experts and innovative sites have engaged with us in the project’s different stages; our thanks to them and to the organisers of the many events in different countries which have served to hone the approaches presented in this Handbook. ILE would not have been possible without much careful work done in the different participating systems. We extend thanks especially to the project system co-ordinators who have led and co-ordinated project activities in their different home settings. Five systems stepped forward in ILE’s latter stages as “Laboratories of Learning Change” - Belgium (French Community); Canada (British Columbia); New Zealand; Peru (Innova Schools) and South Africa (KwaZulu-Natal) – testing different approaches (especially Tool 4.1) and giving financial support. We are indebted to others who contributed financial support throughout ILE, including the Jaume Bofill Foundation. The tool on the “Spiral of Inquiry” (Tool 1.2) was written by Judy Halbert and Linda Kaser. Anthony Mackay co-authored the teacher scenario tool (Tool 4.4). They each provided extensive comments on final drafts of the Handbook, gratefully received. Our thanks too to Lorna Earl and Helen Timperley who wrote the OECD Working Paper on Evaluative Thinking which was the exclusive basis for the tool on evaluation in Chapter 3 (Tool 3.2). Very useful feedback on the Handbook was offered through organised events among education leaders. In summer 2016, Judy Halbert and Linda Kaser in British Columbia organised discussion through a programme of education leaders in UBC, Vancouver. At the end of October 2016, a workshop of Flanders inspectors and principals in Brussels also gave detailed attention and discussion to an earlier draft. Particular thanks to Katrijn Ballet, Hilde Lesage and Micheline Scheys. 5 THE OECD HANDBOOK FOR INNOVATIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS © OECD 2017 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Jackie Talbot and Rose Carpenter, who were among the New Zealand “Laboratory of Learning Change” team, made valuable suggestions on the learner agency tool (Tool 1.3). We are particularly grateful for the expert guidance provided by Valerie Hannon and Anthony Mackay throughout ILE and related innovation events, which sharpened significantly its concepts and approaches. Mariana Martinez-Salgado, formerly the ILE project officer, made an invaluable contribution on many aspects of this Handbook and provided extensive feedback and design inputs. Emily Heppner, formerly project administrator, also provided useful feedback and detailed editing, as well as important logistical support. We are grateful for the active encouragement and advice of the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) Governing Board in the development of this resource. At the suggestions of two Board members [Helen Ängmo (Sweden), Gábor Halasz (Hungary)], two new tools were added - on learners and partnerships. We also wish to thank our colleagues in CERI, in the EDU Communications team and in PAC, in particular Anne-Lise Prigent for her helpful editorial advice. 6 THE OECD HANDBOOK FOR INNOVATIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS © OECD 2017 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of contents Acronyms and abbreviations .........................................................................................9 Executive summary ......................................................................................................11 Introductory overview ..................................................................................................15 1 I The principles of learning to design learning environments ...................................................................21 1.1 The ILE Learning Principles in brief ......................................................................22 1.2 The principles reformulated around educators ...................................................26 To find out more ............................................................................................................27 The principles of learning to design learning environments: the Tools ..................28 Tool 1.1 How well do we embed the Learning Principles? .............................29 Tool 1.2 Building on the Learning Principles through a Spiral of Inquiry ....32 Tool 1.3 Learners at the centre – what do they think? ..................................36 Tool 1.4 Teacher-focused to be learning-centred ...........................................38 2 I The OECD “7+3” framework for innovative learning environments ..........................................................41 2.1 The ILE “7+3” Framework ........................................................................................42 2.2 The multiple roles of technology in innovative learning environments ...........46 To find out more ............................................................................................................47 The OECD “7+3” Framework for innovative learning environments: the Tools ......48 Tool 2.1 How well are we implementing the ILE framework? .......................49 Tool 2.2 How can we innovate our pedagogical core? ...................................54 Tool 2.3 Getting the most from our partners ..................................................57 Tool 2.4 Tapping into the multiple possibilities of technology .....................59 3 I Learning leadership and evaluative thinking...................................................................................63 3.1 Leadership as integral to innovative, powerful learning environments ...........64 3.2 Evaluative thinking and educational innovation ................................................67 To find out more ............................................................................................................70 Learning leadership and evaluative thinking: the Tools ...........................................71 Tool 3.1 Towards shared and formative learning leadership ........................72 Tool 3.2 Evaluating educational innovation ....................................................75 7 THE OECD HANDBOOK FOR INNOVATIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS © OECD 2017 TABLE OF CONTENTS 4 I Transformation and change in learning ecosystems ....................................................................................79 4.1 Re-thinking learning ecosystems ..........................................................................80 4.2 Features of the ILE strategies and initiatives .......................................................81 4.3 Depicting networked learning ecosystems ..........................................................82 4.4 The future of the teaching profession ..................................................................85 To find out more ............................................................................................................86 Transformation and change in learning ecosystems: the Tools ..............................87 Tool 4.1 Explaining why our initiative will work ............................................88 Tool 4.2 How advanced is our system towards the “7+3” framework? .........91 Tool 4.3 How horizontally connected is our system? ....................................94 Tool 4.4 Teachers in learning futures ..............................................................96 Figures Figure 1.1. Grid for locating the application of the ILE principles .......................30 Figure 1.2. The “Spiral of Inquiry” ............................................................................32 Figure 2.1. Innovating the elements of the pedagogical core ...............................43 Figure 2.2. Innovating the dynamics of the pedagogical core ..............................44 Figure 2.3. Partnerships enriching and extending the learning environment ....45 Figure 2.4. The ILE Learning Principles permeate the entire learning environment ...........................................................................................45 Figure 2.5. Innovating the elements of the pedagogical core ...............................50 Figure 2.6. Innovating the dynamics in the pedagogical core ..............................50 Figure 2.7. The learning leadership formative cycle .............................................51 Figure 2.8. Learning-focused partnerships .............................................................52 Figure 2.9. Questions on innovating pedagogical core elements .........................54 Figure 2.10. Questions on innovating pedagogical core dynamics ........................55 Figure 3.1. Learning leadership and the formative cycle ......................................65 Figure 3.2. The learning leadership formative cycle for schools and learning environments ...................................................................72 Figure 4.1. A weakly-connected learning system ..................................................83 Figure 4.2. A strongly-connected learning system ................................................83 Figure 4.3. Cards for building the diagram of a strategy’s “theory of action” .....89 Figure 4.4. Broad indicators for charting progress towards the ILE framework ..................................................................................91 Figure 4.5. Weakly- and strongly-networked learning systems ...........................95 Figure 4.6. The future teacher scenario set ............................................................97 8 THE OECD HANDBOOK FOR INNOVATIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS © OECD 2017