FutureSight: Schooling for Tomorrow

FutureSightJane Creasy, Assistant DirectorNCSL

Tony MackayDfES

FutureSight

Using Futures Thinking

• Not prediction– to see new possibilities– to reassess assumptions

• New approaches to risk and leadership– promote diversification– embrace complexity– use all information– sustain creativity

• Moving beyond past successes– experimentation– process as product

FutureSight

The Learning Structure in FutureSight

Module 1: A Stone RollingExploratory

Module 2: Making it RealExperiential

Module 3: Towards a Preferred FutureAnalytical

Module 4: Re-engaging with the PresentReflective and action orientated

FutureSightValerie Hannon, Director

Innovation Unit, DfES

International Schoolingfor Tomorrow

The UK Partnership

FutureSight

PROFESSIONAL PROFESSIONAL JUDGEMENTJUDGEMENT

NATIONAL NATIONAL PRESCRIPTIONPRESCRIPTION

KNOWLEDGE POORKNOWLEDGE POOR

KNOWLEDGE RICHKNOWLEDGE RICH

2000s Informed

professional judgement

1970s Uninformed professional judgement

1990s Informed

prescription

1980s Uninformed prescription

The Reform Dynamic

“Our goal is to improve the quality of teaching & learning throughout the system. We will do this by building

capacity and providing flexibility at the front line, backed by an intelligent

accountability framework and by targeted intervention to deal with

underperformance”

“We need a new relationship between DfES,LEA and schools that:

• strips out clutter and duplication• aligns national and local priorities• releases greater local initiative and energy”.

David MilibandJanuary 2004

A learning organization is a place where people are continually discovering how they create their reality and how they can change it.

Peter Senge, 1990

It will take powerful, proactive forces to change the existing system. This can be done directly and indirectly through system thinkers in action. These are leaders who work intensely in their own schools, or national agencies, and at the same time connect with and participate in the bigger picture.

Michael Fullan, 2004

School

ImprovementPersonalised

Learning

System Wide Reform

Teach

ing and

Learn

ing

The Five Components of Personalised Learning

.

Effective Teaching and Learning

Curriculum Entitlement and Choice

Organising the School for Personalised Learning

Beyond the Classroom

Assessmentfor Learning

During the past forty years, people have changed more than the institutions they rely on. As a result, a chasm of mistrust and unmet need now separates people and organizations.

Last time there was such a chasm (100 years ago) it resulted in mass production, Fordism, and the current

model of public services. We face another major paradigm shift.

Maxmin and Zuboff

Change Forces: The ‘Perfect Storm’

New markets/new customers/new demand

New enterprise logic

Newtechnology

Copernican Inversions…

Concentration

Distribution

Distribution

Distribution

Distribution

DistributionDistribution

Distribution

Manager/ Manager/ professionalprofessional

Institution-centred

Copernican Inversions…

Person-centred

Charles Leadbeater

“It is only possible to assemble solutions

personalised to individual need if services work in

partnership”

Schools should be gateways to networks of public provision

Schools as solutions assemblers, helping children get access to the mix and range of learning resources they need.

Schools sharing resources and becoming centres of excellence

FutureSight An iterative, experimental process-tool developed through seven seminars with:

• Senior policy-makers

• Leaders of schools facing challenging circumstances

• Year 9 and 12 students

• Leaders of ‘Leading Edge’ schools

• Leaders of schools developing personalised learning

Towards ‘Futures Literacy’?

• Incorporated into national ‘Standards for Headteachers’

• Development of vocabulary, concepts, knowledge and disposition

• Capacity to articulate coherent vision of the future

• Engage in informed debate about the future of learning

Future Plans• Materials launch (September 2004)

• Enable continued use for developing leadership capacity (school networks; LEAs)

• Support schools/LEAs to use FutureSight in local contexts

• Use FutureSight to support practitioners involved in policy development; e.g. Building Schools for the future (£2bn p.a. to renew secondary school stock)

• Use modifications of FutureSight in a range of other policy contexts: e.g. personalisation

• Address an appropriate methodology for policy makers –with generative potential

FutureSight Chris Williams

King Edward VII SchoolMelton Mowbray

FutureSight Elaine Wilmot

West Grove Primary SchoolLondon

FutureSight Graham Silverthorne

Gordano SchoolPortishead

FutureSight Di Beddow

Hinchingbrooke SchoolHuntingdon

FutureSight Luke Abbott

Essex LEA

FutureSight

Module 4: Re-engaging with the PresentReflective and Action Oriented

• Module 4 now offers structures and processes to move from analysis through reflection to purposeful dialogue.

FutureSight

Module 4

Reconnecting with the present

• Living the preferred future – not the idealised present

• Identifying lead indicators

• Understanding the direction of travel

FutureSight

Module 4: Re-engaging with the present

FutureSight

Module 4: Mapping Tool

FutureSight: Schooling for Tomorrow