Learning Stuff About Stuff

I'm currently reading Theories in Practice by Argyris and Schön. It is a remarkable, thought-provoking work, exploring the inconsistencies between the things people claim to value and the things they actually value; between the theories they claim to have about how changes occur and the theories they actually use to direct their actions. It is easy to reflect on how these inconsistencies are evident in the words and actions of others - much harder to see our own inconsistencies.

As school leaders, we say we seek to increase the effectiveness of our schools. But what do we mean by effectiveness? Do the things we claim to care about improving match the things we actually demonstrate caring about by our actions - the things we actually care about improving? And how do we claim to be going about effecting improvement - what are our espoused theories of improvement? Do we use these espoused theories to guide our actions, or do we actually operate according to different theories, of whi…

Fearghal has asked on his blog if we should be doing something collectively in Scotland to re-energise the Teachmeet movement.

I've attended and presented at several Teachmeets over the years, and found them uplifting, energising experiences. I don't think, hand on heart, that I have adopted long-term very many of the good practices being presented by others. This isn't because I didn't consider them worthwhile. It's just that they didn't quite match my context, or I just forgot about them in the daily maelstrom of the classroom.

I suspect that most participants would say the same, or something close to it. Now maybe the point of Teachmeet is to embed the good practices in the classroom of the presenters themselves. This seems more likely. I think that might apply to me. If so, we should return to the principle that Teachmeets are for presenting, not for listening.

If we want the audience to get something out of Teachmeet that will lead to positive impacts on t…