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The next big thing in school improvement
This is a book about educational fads, why they arise, and how we might learn to live with them.
Those working in schools are subject to perpetual waves of novelty in the name of school improvement. And yet, in the long term very little actually changes. Big ideas come and go, leaving only faint clues as to their existence. The trouble is that the appealing stories that take hold will never solve the fundamental problems of modern schooling. The school system is too complex, too diverse, and too uncertain to be fixed by any Big Idea. Before too long, the Next Big Thing replaces the Last Big Thing.
’The Next Big Thing in School Improvement’ brings together the unique perspectives of a policy analyst, a headteacher, and a classroom teacher, to explain why it is that the school system often resists our attempts to improve it. Drawing on the recent history of English education policy, a variety of disciplinary traditions, and the emerging field of complexity science, the authors present a new take on why the school system behaves in ways that defy our attempts to change it.
This is a book about finding a better way to improve our schools. It is not the Next Big Thing, but it does explain why there will inevitably be one, and what to do when it arrives.
Those working in schools are subject to perpetual waves of novelty in the name of school improvement. And yet, in the long term very little actually changes. Big ideas come and go, leaving only faint clues as to their existence. The trouble is that the appealing stories that take hold will never solve the fundamental problems of modern schooling. The school system is too complex, too diverse, and too uncertain to be fixed by any Big Idea. Before too long, the Next Big Thing replaces the Last Big Thing.
’The Next Big Thing in School Improvement’ brings together the unique perspectives of a policy analyst, a headteacher, and a classroom teacher, to explain why it is that the school system often resists our attempts to improve it. Drawing on the recent history of English education policy, a variety of disciplinary traditions, and the emerging field of complexity science, the authors present a new take on why the school system behaves in ways that defy our attempts to change it.
This is a book about finding a better way to improve our schools. It is not the Next Big Thing, but it does explain why there will inevitably be one, and what to do when it arrives.
198 pages, Paperback
Published October 22, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 31, 2021
This is an excellent book which outlines the challenges of school improvement by drawing upon the lenses of complexity theory and sensemaking. School improvement initiatives are often blighted by oversimplified surface-level reductionist thinking on the part of all involved (none of us are insulated from these issues regardless of our position or expertise). Rather, school improvement initiatives could be better understood as emergent properties from the interconnected systems in which our schools are placed.
Part of the wider concern regarding school improvement as highlighted by the authors is that education suffers from two fundamental problems: (1) learning is invisible and often understood by poor proxies, (2) the need to structure education around similar age groups in ‘lock-step’ with defined bodies of knowledge and finite timelines even though groups of students have different starting points and capabilities (the ‘lock-step problem). Recent ‘big things’ in school improvement (data, personalised learning) are discussed to elicit warnings when considering implementing new initiatives and their unintended consequences. The latest ‘big thing’, i.e the curriculum, is also considered so that it does not potentially succumb to the same naiveties of previous trends which have fallen by the wayside in the ‘The Last Failed Thing’ warehouse.
Advice is plentiful throughout the book for school leaders and policy analysts alike to reframe the problems they encounter using refreshing metaphors (e.g. foxes and hedgehogs, shadow boxing, the ‘imagined school’, hill climbing). Each chapter contains ‘complex advice’ columns to look beyond the surface level simplicity (this is not to say that everything should be overcomplexified*) as well as lists of reflective questions designed for the reader to think more wider about their own contexts.
*In order to overcome surface level simplicity, we need to embrace the complexity, but this does not mean that school improvement is about making things more complex all the time. Once we understand the nuance and the emergent conditions of the system, we can then take discrete, concrete, actionable steps. This argument of simplicity and complexity reminded me of the old saying from the Zen philosopher Dōgen: “Before one studies Zen, mountains are mountains and waters are waters; after a first glimpse into the truth of Zen, mountains are no longer mountains and waters are no longer waters; after enlightenment, mountains are once again mountains and waters once again waters.” i.e. simple -> complex -> simple
Overall, an excellent read for anyone in education looking at improving their own educational context or a larger chunk of the system within which they operate.
Part of the wider concern regarding school improvement as highlighted by the authors is that education suffers from two fundamental problems: (1) learning is invisible and often understood by poor proxies, (2) the need to structure education around similar age groups in ‘lock-step’ with defined bodies of knowledge and finite timelines even though groups of students have different starting points and capabilities (the ‘lock-step problem). Recent ‘big things’ in school improvement (data, personalised learning) are discussed to elicit warnings when considering implementing new initiatives and their unintended consequences. The latest ‘big thing’, i.e the curriculum, is also considered so that it does not potentially succumb to the same naiveties of previous trends which have fallen by the wayside in the ‘The Last Failed Thing’ warehouse.
Advice is plentiful throughout the book for school leaders and policy analysts alike to reframe the problems they encounter using refreshing metaphors (e.g. foxes and hedgehogs, shadow boxing, the ‘imagined school’, hill climbing). Each chapter contains ‘complex advice’ columns to look beyond the surface level simplicity (this is not to say that everything should be overcomplexified*) as well as lists of reflective questions designed for the reader to think more wider about their own contexts.
*In order to overcome surface level simplicity, we need to embrace the complexity, but this does not mean that school improvement is about making things more complex all the time. Once we understand the nuance and the emergent conditions of the system, we can then take discrete, concrete, actionable steps. This argument of simplicity and complexity reminded me of the old saying from the Zen philosopher Dōgen: “Before one studies Zen, mountains are mountains and waters are waters; after a first glimpse into the truth of Zen, mountains are no longer mountains and waters are no longer waters; after enlightenment, mountains are once again mountains and waters once again waters.” i.e. simple -> complex -> simple
Overall, an excellent read for anyone in education looking at improving their own educational context or a larger chunk of the system within which they operate.
June 5, 2022
I had myself agreeing with a lot of what was written in this book. Having been in education for more than a decade, I've seen the constant changes and the amount of wasted resources in state schools due to these unnecessary "bright ideas". Teaching staff become exhausted, disillusioned and made to feel like robots with very limited autonomy.
For a system to work, you need to give it time to settle and revise it as and when necessary. Unfortunately, in this education system, very often, we have the "out with the old; in with the new" mentality and change always means progress - which the book clearly disagrees with. The book gives many poignant examples to highlight changes that totally missed the mark, and in the end, only served to make the system more deflated, complicated and ineffective.
For a system to work, you need to give it time to settle and revise it as and when necessary. Unfortunately, in this education system, very often, we have the "out with the old; in with the new" mentality and change always means progress - which the book clearly disagrees with. The book gives many poignant examples to highlight changes that totally missed the mark, and in the end, only served to make the system more deflated, complicated and ineffective.
March 27, 2022
A really important book for school leaders.
Well-written and researched
Thought-provoking with good reflection questions
Put together in a way that draws on three types of voices (policy analyst, headteacher, expert teacher)
Only think I’d say is that it skirts over pretty complicated ideas that are at the heart of its criticism of the way we ‘do’ school improvement with minimal explanation.
Deeper engagement with the nature of the ideas that they draw upon to argue against current school improvement practice might have been helpful to those engaged in it so that they can understand it better.
Helpfully, there are plenty of notes and webpages to go look up including glossaries.
Well-written and researched
Thought-provoking with good reflection questions
Put together in a way that draws on three types of voices (policy analyst, headteacher, expert teacher)
Only think I’d say is that it skirts over pretty complicated ideas that are at the heart of its criticism of the way we ‘do’ school improvement with minimal explanation.
Deeper engagement with the nature of the ideas that they draw upon to argue against current school improvement practice might have been helpful to those engaged in it so that they can understand it better.
Helpfully, there are plenty of notes and webpages to go look up including glossaries.
February 22, 2023
I really enjoyed this book, and was very pleasantly surprised to find that much of it is based on systems thinking. the complexity of schools is acknowledged and the book looks deeply into the constraints of trying solve every problem the system has. Fads come and go rapidly in education, but what is the cost of top-down fad implementation? This book explores it, and, in my opinion, every leader in education should read it.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews