Build Capacity

Coaches guide coachees on applying the ISTE standards to real world situations, or ones with contextual relevance, involving active participation, and encourage feedback to be used to feedforward.

ISTE explains: ‘Coaches should build the capacity of educators, leaders and instructional teams to put the ISTE standards into practise by leading professional learning that engages educators in authentic simulated activities such as design challenges, problems of practise and reflection, and providing feedback that is specific, actionable, and results in improvements or changes to practise.’

The answer to the age old adage of pupils asking ‘what is the point to learning that’ is to make teaching reflect real-world problem solving. Design challenges are when people are set real-world problems to create solutions for, and then they are asked to reflect and improve their work. Reflective practice can be of benefit to coaches, teachers and pupils alike. The likelihood is that a real-world problem is solved by input from multiple sources. Real-world problem solving involves communication and collaboration. In teams, people can play to their strengths and can benefit from the strengths and also perspectives of others. The reviewing and improving of ideas will come from feedforward communications.

Coaches may choose to support educators in departmental/ subject groups. This might allow subject specific design challenges that could be practised with educators and then rolled out to pupils. This might include using Minecraft Education to design a sustainable development for geography lessons; the maths department to create a banking platform using Power Bi and Microsoft Excel; a design and technology department to create a modular temporary shelter for disaster victims using computer aided design software; or using Flip to record audio that can be shared as learning material for visually impaired people.

UK Schools also have a requirement to teach Careers to pupils in Years 7 and above. Real-world problem solving can be addressed by creating activities that are career related and coaches could encourage staff to collaborate on designing careers based activities using technology in their own subjects.

A shared OneNote is a useful tool for educators to then share their learning experiences and to comment on then benefits of putting the ISTE standards into practice.