Big Ideas from Hop, Skip, Leapfrog: Opportunities to Shift from a “Teaching” Profession to a “Learning” Profession

Kristi Ransick is an education consultant with over 25 years experience working in school and curricular innovation. In the wake of initial pandemic-related school closures, Kristi supported work with the Chief Council of State School Officers to develop a “Restart and Recovery” playbook for system leaders and supported members of TLA’s Strategy Lab as they explored redesigning towards resiliency and equity during COVID-19.

As part of our Hop, Skip, Leapfrog interviews with subject-matter experts across the K-12 field, we asked her to weigh in on education innovation opportunities in a post-pandemic world. Read on for three big ideas from our conversation, in Kristi’s own words.

Takeaway 1: Implementing high-quality curriculum helps focus teachers on areas of highest impact, provided we give them the ability to make professional decisions.

“Instructional materials could be one way we think about how to help teachers identify places that can have the most impact. Over the last five or six years, there's been a shift away from the idea that fidelity to the curriculum means implementing as designed, [and instead] towards giving teachers ideas about how best to adapt materials for the students that are in front of them. Classroom-level adaptation is hard for instructional materials developers to do because they're having to design for everybody and all implementations.

Instructional materials developers also have a responsibility to be thinking about how to help teachers make professional decisions and to ensure materials are culturally responsive. Teachers know the students in front of them best, so including information in instructional materials that enables teachers to differentiate for the students in their class while understanding the potential impact of their choices – [and this] helps [them] implement programs with fidelity. There are good materials that teachers can make work for their students if we provide them with the knowledge to make professional decisions.”

Takeaway 2: Getting clear on hybrid learning offers a unique opportunity to put the focus back on “learning” rather than modality.

“I think hybrid learning offers an opportunity to design activities in ways that allow for multiple access points for engaging students. It’s a mindshift towards creating opportunities to engage in learning that reflects the range of ways in which people learn – and that’s separate from “where” the students who are doing the work are. For example, if we design an activity where students are collaboratively writing together, if they do that work in a Google Doc, it doesn’t matter whether they are sitting at the same table, all virtual, or if some students are in-person and others in the group are remote. Right now, we’re seeing the ‘where students are’ drive the rethinking of what learning activities take place, but the potential is that if we anchor on activities that are engaging [and] consider all the strategies we could use with students, then we can find the ones that work well no matter where students physically are. There is some momentum [around this], especially in schools that are already rethinking school design and working on personalized learning.”

Takeaway 3: We need to “shrink the change” to help educators take their next steps forward.

“There is so much that feels uncertain and overwhelming right now, and I think many educators recognize that there is opportunity to rethink schools towards a vision that might actually serve all students better. But what’s required to get to this big vision may seem daunting. If we can find the small steps that move us towards a change that puts students at the center, it might be easier (and more realistic) to do. For example, [it could be] putting an emphasis on relationship-building in our classrooms, the school community, and the wider community, or learning more about using technology for instructional purposes. It’s different to be a consumer of technology and to use it to drive learning. Each of those steps is important and will take time. We are part of a learning profession, [and that] includes the adults in our school communities, too."

This blog is one in a series describing interviews from TLA’s Hop, Skip, Leapfrog project. Explore more resources.