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The Tri-Association of American & International schools in Central-America, Colombia, Caribbean and Mexico held its  36th Annual Educator's conference in Costa Rica from Oct 2 to 6, 2017.  Amongst the list of key note speakers the renowned author, researcher and practitioner Michael Fullan lead four days of learning embedded in the conference's theme: What matter's most?  Leading Learning in an Era of Change.  Below are 20 definitions shared by Fullan this week! 

  1. EXCITING NEW LEARNING: (1) Irresistibly engaging, (2) Elegantly efficient, (3) Technologically ubiquitous, (4) Steeped in real life problem solving, (5) Involve deep learning.
  2. Deep Learning: Connects to passion, is team related, it sticks, it has human significance and involves higher order cognitive processes.
  3. If you want to change the group, use the group to change the group, people influence each other laterally. Enable and foster collaboration.
  4. Coherence: The shared depth of understanding about the nature of work.
  5. Impressive empathy: empathy for people who are against you!
  6. Collaborative cultures are organic and yield more & better results than teacher appraisal and traditional PD.
  7. Initiatives need to be VOLUNTARY but so good that they are INEVITABLE.
  8. Find your own Finland! Read this blog
  9. Autonomy is not Isolation: Autonomy means you can think for yourself but not be isolated because when you come to the group you will collaborate based on your thoughts.
  10. No accountability is not the solution, a different accountability is! Group accountability is more important than authority’s accountability.
  11.  Indelible Leaders: leaders who self-consciously focus on deep change and do so by mobilizing other leaders at all levels of the system, thereby building capacity for today and tomorrow. Leaders need to be Influential without being prominent.
  12. We haven't found the lower age of a student as a change agent. #TeachLessLearnMore
  13. 6 c’s:  creativity, communication, citizenship, critical thinking, character, collaboration.
  14. When it doesn't work it means people are having more problematic than good experiences with your new plan.
  15. In order to enjoy success with change we have to experience it in a non-threatening environment with sufficient help.
  16. Simplexity: get something complex, identify patterns into smaller numbers and then make it gel!
  17. If you want to kill an idea prescribe it if you want it to stick develop a really good idea, make it available and people will use it!
  18. Talk the walk, what are you doing? and, why are you doing it? It is clear when a guest talks to four-five people in the same school and they all have the same clarity about what they are doing and why.
  19. Leading from the Middle: A deliberate strategy that increases the capacity and internal coherence in the middle as it becomes a more effective partner upward to the state and downward to its schools and communities.
  20. Shifting to the right drivers in order to lead change: capacity building (instead of accountability), collaborative work (instead of individual teacher and leadership quality) , pedagogy (instead of technology),  and systemness (instead of fragmented strategies).