As we look at increasing “personalized learning” in British Columbia, we have been encouraged to look over the fence and see what are neighbours are doing.  It is not a local, provincial, or even national trend to evolve schools to better embrace “21st century skills“, the movement is happening around the world.

For the past two days, Ontario has hosted Building Blocks for Education:  Whole System Reform and featured big thinkers from around the world including Michael Fullan, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Timo Lankinen the Director General of the Finish National Board of Education.   The conference is connected to the  Ontario government’s education plan:  Reach Every Student – Energizing Ontario Education.

With thanks to those tweeting from the Conference, and some late-night viewing of the keynotes that were webcast, here are some of the more interesting insights I found looking over the fence:

Ng Eng Hen, Minister for Education and Second Minister for Defence, Singapore:

• the first building block to success is the principals
• the role of politicians is sometimes to get out of the way
• 20% of Singapore’s government spending goes to education
• recognized that performance art can help promote 21st century skills

Timo Lankinen – Director General, Finish National Board of Education:

• In Finland grade 1’s spend only 3 hours in school a day
• Focus is moving from literacy and numeracy to arts and physical activity
• Teachers salaries are not higher, but it is a very valued profession
• 21st century skills are a key part of Finland’s success
• All teachers in Finland hold a Master’s Degree

Michael Fullan, Special Advisor to the Premier of Ontario:

• Transparency is here to stay
• Relevant and personalized curriculum is helping grad rates
• Role of central government in education is strategy, manage evaluation, explain to taxpayers what is happening
• clamour for autonomy occurs with bad policies and bad leadership
• not acceptable in definition of professional teacher or principal to say “leave me alone” – it is a balance between autonomy and integration

Arne Duncan, US Secretary of Education:

• “the fight for education is a daily fight for social justice”
• Department of Education needs to be an engine of innovation and not a compliance office
• Interesting – 2000 high schools produce 1/2 of US dropouts – call them “dropout factories”
• US is in the midst of a quiet revolution in school reform
• Courage not resources will transform education in the U.S.
• In the U.S. the kids that need the most help get the least

Andreas Schleicher, Special Advisor on Education Policy, Directorate for Education, Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD):

• once you remove the influence of social background, public schools do better than private schools
• use statistical neighbours and interrogate data
• technology enables non-linear learning
• best systems attract great teachers and give access to best practices and quality
• schools need to focus on the things that our kids will really need to know – learning how to learn and collaborating with others

There is some reassurance in knowing so many jurisdictions are having the same conversation. Many of our conversations in West Vancouver and the directions we are moving sound similar to those being implemented around the world.  The challenge, though, when we look at Finland, or when others look at us, is to take the ideas and apply them to what can be very different local contexts.