Summer 2006

Innovation in education

Community, capacity and innovative learning

Maree Bredhauer and Liz Veel describe innovative strategies used to build community and develop capacity amongst staff, students and parents in two schools of diverse Indigenous and non-Indigenous composition.

TRIBES TLC© is a step-by-step process to help achieve specific learning goals. It has four agreements: mutual respect, the right to pass, attentive listening and appreciations/no put downs. These agreements underpin school values about teaching, learning and behaviour and are used across all curriculum areas. The TRIBES TLC© process was used in our schools because it facilitates student-centred practice and creates conditions for positive expectations. It actively encourages student self-management to sustain a positive learning environment. This pedagogy linked in well with the four EsseNTial Learning domains in the Northern Territory Curriculum Framework (NTCF), which are Inner, Collaborative, Constructive and Creative.

The TRIBES TLC© process and EsseNTial Learnings have a constructivist approach as they focus on facilitating learning and the inextricable links between teaching, learning, student and society. Students are active in learning, inquiry and teams, and develop interdependency rather than dependency on the teacher. Peer tutoring, problem-solving, resolving conflict, social skill development, reflection, celebration and assessing improvement are part of the everyday classroom experiences that allow the student to move to and between being co-managing and/or self-managing learners.

At both NT schools, staff and students now demonstrate the TRIBES TLC© agreements in interactions with each other and use the language of these agreements in their every day conversations concerning students, teaching, learning and community interaction.

Mutual respect

The development of shared understandings from students, staff and parents about ‘mutual respect’ has built capacity in both school communities. Mutual respect entails understanding and sharing beliefs about trust, inclusion, recognition of diversity and varying values and beliefs. Given the diverse Indigenous and ethnic composition of our schools, the establishment of mutual respect across our school communities has enabled much safer classrooms and schoolyards. The following strategies have resulted in reduced bullying and teasing incidents:

• scaffolded student discussion and role-playing of what ‘respect’ means in class community circle
• student role-plays acting out what respect looks like, sounds like and feels like in terms of their classroom and school environment
• student discussions about body language when respect is being observed.

Reflective feedback was sought from staff, students and council on what respect meant and how it would work inside the classroom and the schoolyard. Whole school planning detailed explicit teaching and learning strategies about mutual respect, which were then developed and resourced. Y-Charts are on display throughout the schools as a visual framework.

The right to pass

Inclusion or a feeling of connectedness is the backbone of relationship and capacity building in any community. The ‘right to pass’ is essential to develop capacity and to recognise differences in personal qualities of extraversion and introversion.

Right to pass means that in a community circle, you are not expected to participate just because it is your turn. Each person has the opportunity to choose the extent of their involvement at any point by remaining quiet and observing. While the ‘right to pass’ does not excuse one from responsibility or accountability, it provides a control point in which the student, teacher or community member is able to be responsible, inner-directed and self-determining as they momentarily stand back from a situation or peer-led discussion in which they are uncomfortable. In a school community, respect and right to pass work together to build community by providing opportunities for members to have space to reflect, to listen and to learn and to use teaming skills including the ability to supportively draw the more passive into more active participation.

Attentive listening

‘Attentive listening’ underpins the importance of reflective thinking and inner-cognition in developing mutual respect and relationships. It also addresses the tension between the individual and the collective in developing community, because each person is acknowledged by the group as having been heard, appreciated and welcomed. Each person can express hopes, expectations, issues and possible solutions.

At staff meetings, attentive listening has been modelled and encouraged as a way to share resolution of issues and to include people with diverse belief structures that surround the complex nature of teaching and learning.

TRIBES TLC©-trained teachers in the schools use the learning experience model to structure lessons. This includes:

• starting with a community circle and an inclusion activity, question or energiser
• identifying and explicitly teaching both the social skills and curriculum outcomes for the lesson
• forming TRIBES TLC© groups, pairs or triads to learn in a series of self-managed and explicitly taught learning sequences
• using peer mentors to reflect on achievement of individual and group learning goals
• concluding all lessons with reflection and appreciation. This time provides opportunity for group members to describe and analyse their use of specific skills, academic learning, helpful/unhelpful actions, experience alternative views about situations, events or problems and to make decisions about future actions and learning.

Observers to these classrooms have noticed more engaged learning, individual accountability, visible listening and respect occurring as more TRIBES TLC© strategies are used. The capacity of these classroom learning communities is growing as more learning outcomes are achieved. The learning processes have become more purposeful in intent, active and social.

Appreciations and no put downs

Implementing ‘Appreciations, No Put Downs’ has been significant in providing safe and supporting school communities. The whole school implementation of this agreement has resulted in reflection on interactions with each other (both staff and students) and using the language of the agreements to identify and name behaviours. Plans are formulated to deal assertively with negative behaviours and to reward desired behaviours. At the more formal level, these agreements have been translated into the school wellbeing and anti-bullying policies.

The use of appreciations has been significant in developing quality teaching practices. Peer praise and sharing of stories of what has worked are explored at staff meetings and three way parent–teacher–student conferences. At the classroom level, appreciations are given by teacher and peers to recognise quality learning by each individual child.

TRIBES TLC©: A vehicle for development

For the schools involved, TRIBES TLC© has provided a vehicle for development in the community and with it capacity and innovation. It has taken time and as with all learning communities there has been an element of creative tension caused by a gap between people’s skills, aspirations and the realities of implementation.

Along the way it has been easy to forget the impact and extent to which certain old behaviours are embedded in our personal, group or community actions. On reflection, we have had to remember that skills and new behaviours develop slowly and require considerable planning, scaffolding and time to reinforce. Our aim has been to put TRIBES TLC© strategies and the NTCF EsseNTial Learnings at the centre of the school community so that they operate naturally, in harmony and are visible in curriculum, policy, process and ethos.

Find out more about the TRIBES TLC© initiatives at www.tribes.com

Reference

Gibbs, Jeanne (2001). TRIBES TLC©, A New Way of Learning and Being Together, Center Source Systems, Windsor, California.

Maree Bredhauer is principal of Girraween Primary School in the Northern Territory.

Liz Veel is acting principal of Wulagi Primary School in the Northern Territory.

The author owns the copyright in this article. For information related to the reuse of this work in any form please contact the publisher denise.quinn@curriculum.edu.au