You have an existing school and feel pressed by problems of teacher attrition and/or student disengagement. Funding is scarce. Perhaps your school facility could be put into service to address your challenges, without incurring unaffordable construction costs. These engagement opportunities address facility-based contributions to your issues: they put your very expensive building to work, addressing issues of teacher effectiveness and student engagement.
Research Studies
Research Question: How do your teachers react to a school model that gives them professional workspace in communities of practice instead of a private classroom?
Participant Criteria: Teachers currently employed by your school.
Time commitment: 25-30 minute anonymous survey administered electronically on-line. Following the survey, up to three hours of focus group conversations with up to nine representatives of your school.
Benefits: The results of this study will offer you both quantitative and qualitative insight into how your teachers feel about Communities of Practice and the Educational Ecosystem. Do your teachers appreciate the advantages of this approach? Is there resistance, and what are the concerns that need to be addressed? Results specific to your school are processed and also compared for context to the National Teacher Survey. Schools are eligible to receive a 20% discount on all study materials, including a detailed workbook demonstrating how to implement the educational ecosystem at your existing school.
Participatory Design Workshops
Research Question: How do stakeholders in your school re-imagine their existing school facility using Communities of Practice and the Educational Ecosystem?
Participant Criteria: Stakeholders (students, parents, teachers, administration, district staff, and school board) with a wide spectrum of experience and years in education.
Minimum group size: 50
Time commitment: This is a three day, in-person, community event:
Day 1. Administration interview and walking tour of the school (2 hours).
Day 2. Teachers & Administration Participatory Design Workshop (2 hours).
Day 3. Students, Teachers & Administration Participatory Design Workshop (2 hours)
Benefits: Your community receives a galvanizing 3-day master class in collective re-imagination. A complete report of the proceedings will summarize findings and detail concrete next-steps responsive to the results. By offering an innovative perspective, this study may be of particular interest to schools in legacy 20th century buildings, schools already faced with renovations and additions, and school districts considering new construction.
Design Studies
Objective: Understand the potential of Communities of Practice and the Educational Ecosystem to transform your existing school.
Approach: Working from emailed building plans and an on-line interview, we will come to understand your values and goals and then identify approaches to re-organizing your school as Communities of Practice in plan form. A second plan will then identify how the Educational Ecosystem offers transformative opportunities to support teachers and engage students. A final on-line presentation offers the opportunity to engage with this potential transformation, ask questions, and receive feedback on the challenges and opportunities presented by this set of ideas in the context of your school. A report summarizes the process and the results, positioning you to further engage your community in considering the suitability of this approach.
Time Commitment: 2-3 hours in two on-line sessions with up to six representatives of your community.
Benefits: Especially for schools embarking on renovations, this small investment offers you a powerful document to begin conversations with stakeholders, architects, contractors and the community at large. It is a useful programming tool, helping you to consider, as a community, how to maximize the advantages your facilities afford. Because it offers a new way to imagine your school, it will help you to transcend the banal clichés of 20th and 21st Century educational facilities. Your very expensive building can do much, much more than you might imagine.
Consultations
Services: Introductory conversations are always complimentary. Should you be interested in more detailed conversations specific to your school and your circumstances, consider scheduling an in-depth consultation on a one-time or recurring basis. We are available to engage with you and your community to discuss Communities of Practice, the Educational Ecosystem, implementation issues and procedural approaches. We are also available to partner on or review and comment on feasibility studies, building programs, and design proposals.
Benefits: This approach ensures that your resources are focused exactly on those issues or concerns of most importance to you. Put our decades of experience and our unique perspective to work for you and your community.
All of our interactions are executed with transparency and accountability to your values and goals.
Please contact us at roel@futureofschools.com to request our current and complete pricing sheet or a more formal proposal.
If the transformative potential inherent in these innovative ideas interests you, please consider scheduling an introductory conversation:
Book an Appointment
We’ll give you a brief overview of the study you are interested in, answer any questions and confirm your interest in receiving more detailed explanatory information via email. We have reserved Friday afternoons for these conversations. After you select a time below, please answer a few questions to make our conversation more substantive.
The following pamphlets give you an overview of the ideas that anchor our research.
Click on the image to read the document with our compliments on Issuu:
