The power of working together to find solutions
Action learning sets are common across business and other areas of the public sector, but their use in education settings is rarer. Action learning is a potentially powerful form of professional learning for teachers and school leaders, as a small trial with a group of teachers in Slough, England indicates.
For our purposes, action learning is defined as ‘a collaborative problem-solving approach where professionals work together to find solutions to real-world challenges they face. By doing and reflecting on the results, they address these challenges, learn from each other, and improve practices and outcomes.’
It is worth noting that action learning is very different from action research. Whilst the terms have some principles in common, they should not be used interchangeably.
The soul of teaching
'If thou of fortune be bereft, and in thy store there be but left two loaves, sell one, and with the dole, buy hyacinths to feed thy soul.'
'If Thou Of Fortune Be Bereft' - John Greenleaf Whittier
The late, great educationalist Sir Tim Brighouse often recounted the old Persian tale of the Hyacinth and the Loaf. His message was that, while school leaders and teachers must of course focus primarily on the immediate learning needs of their pupils, they also need and deserve to nourish their own intellectual curiosity – giving themselves space to explore themes that may not have an immediate impact on school improvement or classroom practice, but will ‘feed their souls’ in less instrumental but potentially more impactful ways.