HKIS World Cafe Summary Report

World Café Summary Report

Hong Kong International School

May 2012

Prepared by:

Transformation Systems, Ltd.

49-­‐C Creekside View Drive, Ashville, NC 28804 Phone: (647) 348-­‐0516 Email: pam@tslteam.com

HKIS World Café: Summary Report

Introduction The Hong Kong International School (HKIS) has embarked upon an initiative to plan for the long-­‐term future and success of the school. As part of the process, HKIS held a series of World Cafés on the following dates and at different venues: • • • • •

Wednesday, May 2 -­‐ 8:30 -­‐ 10:30am at LP gym Wednesday, May 2 -­‐ 3:30 -­‐ 5:30pm at LP 4B Annex Thursday, May 3 -­‐ 3:30 -­‐ 5:30pm at HS cafeteria Thursday, May 3 -­‐ 7:00 -­‐ 9:00pm at HS cafeteria Friday, May 4 -­‐ 8:30 -­‐ 10:30am at MS Seminar Rooms

The purpose of the World Café was to engage students, staff, parents and community members in conversations, providing them an opportunity to share their thoughts on what qualities and skills will empower students to be successful, what adjustments HKIS might need to make, what the school community values, and what challenges and opportunities lie in the future.

Approximately 350 individuals (students, staff, parents and community members) attended the World Cafés and they discussed four questions: What qualities and skills do our students need to be successful in the world today?

What adjustments would our school need to make in order to help students achieve what is described in question #1?

What do you really value about our school that you would not want to see changed?

As our school moves into the future, what do you believe will be our greatest challenges and our greatest opportunities?

It is important to recognize that although 350 individuals attended, each person had the opportunity to give multiple responses to each question. Notes recorded on tabletop and chart paper were also included in the analysis of the responses.

Major themes emerged in the responses to each question and they, along with miscellaneous responses are reported in the summary of findings. Themes are presented in order of magnitude. Rounding is used in the display of percentages, so totals may fall within +/-­‐ one (1) percent of 100.

Following the summary of themes for each question, a sample of responses that reflect the majority of comments for that theme, is included so as to provide a “flavor” of the many comments that were received. A full listing of all comments can be found in the appendix.

These data will be included in the school’s Baseline Data Book, which be given to the members of the Core Planning Team prior to the strategic planning meeting in September 2012.

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HKIS World Café: Summary Report

Summary of Findings

Question one asked participants what qualities and skills they thought the students need to be successful in the world today. Ten (10) themes emerged from a total of 1836 responses. One (1) percent of the total number of responses was not categorized into a theme.

Practical knowledge and skills

17%

Self-­‐confidence and belief in one’s ability to be successful

15%

Effective interpersonal skills – communication and collaboration

14%

Sense of character

11%

Ability to think critically and creatively

10%

Balanced, healthy attitude Resilience and flexibility to change

10% 8%

Global perspective and respect for diverse cultures

7%

Desire to learn and intellectual curiosity

5%

Multilingual

2%

Miscellaneous Responses

1%

Some verbatim examples of the responses to each question follow.

Practical knowledge and skills (17%) ✤ Strong academics and knowledge skills ✤ Core skills (math, English, Science, arts) ✤ Technologically adept ✤ Organizational skills: time management, prioritize ✤ Practical life skills – include financial smarts ✤ Broad skill set with expertise in select areas (broad and deep) ✤ Diligence, hard work ✤ Responsibility/taking responsibility ✤ Ability to apply knowledge in the context of the real world

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HKIS World Café: Summary Report

Self-­‐confidence and belief in one’s ability to be successful (15%) ✤ Sense of self (who am I?) ✤ Be able to identify what success means to you ✤ A strong sense of identity with an ability to be clear about goals and achievement ✤ Confident/belief in themselves (academic, social, your own strengths/challenges) ✤ Leadership skills ✤ Persistence; determination; initiative; risk taking; passionate; self-­‐motivated ✤ Ability to deal with failure; ability to face challenges and adversity Effective interpersonal skills – communication and collaboration (14%) ✤ Ability to interact with others, develop meaningful relationship ✤ Ability to converse/communicate/express themselves in a compelling way with clarity and confidence ✤ Good listening skills – actively listen ✤ Work well with others/teaming/collaboration – putting together multiple perspectives/ideas/skills, etc. ✤ Good networking skills ✤ Effective communicators – know when not to communicate Sense of character (11%) ✤ Honesty; respect; tolerance; humility; empathy; compassion; caring ✤ Integrity, not compromising your personal values – maintaining academic integrity and spiritual integrity ✤ Strong belief system/moral center – make good judgments, knowing when to part from crowd/stand up for beliefs ✤ Values – know right from wrong – social conscience, social justice ✤ Doing the right thing, even when no one’s around Ability to think critically and creatively (10%) ✤ Be able to have a critical stance when processing information ✤ Critical thinking (analysis/synthesis/application), problem solving – transferability of skills ✤ Innovative -­‐ think outside the box ✤ Creative, imaginative approach to all tasks ✤ Free-­‐thinker -­‐ creativity Balanced, healthy attitude (10%) ✤ Balanced approach to life (have a balanced life) ✤ Emotional stability/self-­‐care ✤ Self-­‐awareness; ability to self-­‐reflect and use gifts ✤ Mentally and spiritually and physically strong ✤ Healthy lifestyle (manage stress, enjoy what you do) 4

HKIS World Café: Summary Report

Resilience and flexibility to change (8%) ✤ Flexibility – ability to think on feet ✤ Resilience – cope with ups and downs of life ✤ Adaptability to new environments, different challenges ✤ Ability to manage change, to adapt in today’s society Global perspective and respect for diverse cultures (7%) ✤ Cultural sensitivity and awareness ✤ Understanding of global culture, issues (shrinking world) ✤ Able to understand and accept other people’s cultures/religion – “global thinker” ✤ Open to new cultures and world view Desire to learn and intellectual curiosity (5%) ✤ Questioning nature – intellectually curious ✤ Find the joy in learning – believe and follow your passion ✤ Learning because you want to, not because you have to Multilingual (2%) ✤ Foreign language skills ✤ Knowledge/use of multiple languages

Question two asked participants what adjustments HKIS would need to make in order to help students achieve the necessary qualities and skills to succeed in the world today. There were a total of 1078 responses recorded for this question. Eight (8) themes emerged and one (1) percent of the total responses was not categorized into a theme.

Educational program – scope and focus

22%

School culture – values, relationships and communication 18% Approach to learning

16%

Enrichment programs and extra-­‐curricular activities Collaboration and consistency throughout school

13% 11%

Physical environment – facilities, schedule, size and resources Faculty

8% 6%

Management of technological advancements

5%

Miscellaneous Responses

1%

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HKIS World Café: Summary Report

Some verbatim examples of the responses to each question follow.

Educational program – scope and focus (22%) ✤ Balance of depth versus breadth ✤ Age-­‐appropriate education to address goals according to life stage and age groups ✤ Balance – dealing with learning needs of gifted/enriched students as well as students that are challenged (each level of students should be stretched) ✤ Integrate thematic curriculum/project-­‐based learning, challenge/problem based system ✤ Structure a curriculum that fosters more curiosity and risk taking ✤ Change focus from formula (theory) to experiential (practice) in the classroom ✤ Integrate character development, social-­‐emotional development into the curriculum so that it makes sense for kids ✤ Stronger integration of Chinese program ✤ Inter-­‐cultural competence – navigate multiple cultures with deeper understanding, fundamental absence of judging acceptance of universal truths ✤ How do we encourage creativity and adaptability when our kids’ lives are so programmed?

School culture – values, relationships and communication (18%) ✤ Emphasize things we value (reflection, problem-­‐solving) ✤ Conversation and contact ✤ Create a stronger bond between parents-­‐kids-­‐school ✤ Parent education, about our curriculum – our practice; encourage open communication between kids and parents regarding stress, cheating, pressure ✤ Generate more community spirit/involvement ✤ “Slowing down” a bit for reflection/thought – less is more, focus on quality; fostering sense of balance ✤ Community wide definition of success, broad enough to include all stakeholders Approach to learning (16%) ✤ Helping student body become more active participants – not silent bystanders ✤ Inquiry-­‐based learning (structured and open-­‐ended) ✤ Give kids the opportunity to grow their own learning opportunities ✤ Targeting individual talents/passions/potential for sparking kids’ creativity and skills and enjoyment = ability to make a positive difference in the world ✤ Keep it focused on the learning process, not only the end goals ✤ Emphasize the learning journey – give students the opportunity to make mistakes they can learn from ✤ To help kids identify their own sense of success, success beyond careers 6

HKIS World Café: Summary Report

Enrichment programs and extra-­‐curricular activities (13%) ✤ Try to expose kids to more learning opportunities outside of the classroom ✤ True genuine service learning; focus on long-­‐term committed service-­‐learning ✤ Aside from competitive sports, offer more opportunities for varied levels of sports – sportsmanship for everyone ✤ Engaging arts and creativity ✤ Exposure to people who are living/expressing their passion Collaboration and consistency throughout school (11%) ✤ Integrate and build on learning throughout all divisions ✤ 4 divisions – more harmony of continuity ✤ More cross-­‐divisional conversations about learning and teaching – to see what we all value – not just about academics ✤ Consistent expectations from division to division, teacher to teacher ✤ More opportunities for students to care for each other in school/to celebrate/connect/build bridges across divisions Physical environment – facilities, schedule, size and resources (8%) ✤ Space/facilities – need to match teaching/learning needs ✤ School have more common places to gather, during and after school ✤ Flexible school schedule and time-­‐tabling ✤ What is the right number of students? What is the right size of the school?

Faculty (6%) ✤ Continue to employ and support passionate teachers ✤ Enhance professional development – to become more of a learning community ✤ Exposure to different teachers and teaching styles Management of technological advancements (5%) ✤ Smart use of technology, prevent over-­‐reliance – make sure it’s balanced ✤ Guardianship on technology and the use of it. Learn to be the master, instead of being reliant upon it or worse, addicted to it

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HKIS World Café: Summary Report

Question three asked participants what they value about HKIS that they would not want to see changed. Ten (10) themes emerged from a total of 1283 responses. One (1) percent of all the responses was not categorized into a theme.

Sense of community

18%

Varied enrichment and extra-­‐curricular activities

17%

Commitment to excellence

12%

Physical environment – facilities, schedule, size technology and other resources

10%

Safe and nurturing environment that inspires learning Service learning

9% 9%

Challenging educational program

8%

Dedicated and qualified faculty

6%

Diversity

5%

Spirituality and religious tolerance

5%

Miscellaneous Responses

1%

verbatim examples of the responses to each question follow.

Some Sense of community (18%) ✤ Lots of opportunities for parents to get involved (inside/outside) classroom ✤ School sees parents as a partner in education ✤ Communication between school and families, keeping parents informed about what is going on and open dialogue to influence school direction ✤ Opportunities for building relationships with parents, students, colleagues ✤ Positive intent – value people, value colleagues, value students ✤ Community feel, not just a school ✤ Strong alumni connection ✤ HKIS created a very strong and closely tied community with great parent, student and teacher involvement ✤ Sense of community, especially with constant change

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HKIS World Café: Summary Report

Varied enrichment and extra-­‐curricular activities (17%) ✤ Well rounded system – sports, arts, music ✤ Range of extra-­‐curricular -­‐> develop interest/exposure/skill/passion ✤ Athletic program is very versatile and inclusive/sportsmanship, play the game the right way ✤ System of making clubs in the HS: student lead/not teacher lead, gives opportunities for students to display leadership and have voice ✤ Mandarin/Chinese program ✤ Humanities in Action – learn about global issues and what can and can’t be done, develop presentation skills, ties in well with SLR’s ✤ Opportunities – camp, field trips, visiting authors ✤ Dynamic learning – the fact that the students are allowed to miss class and attend World Café is fantastic. Affirms that learning doesn’t just happen inside the classroom Commitment to excellence (12%) ✤ Clear mission and educational philosophy without be forceful or “pushy” in its ideals ✤ Professional development that enables and encourages teachers to grow and change; commitment to best practice and professional development ✤ Open-­‐door policy between administration and parents – accessibility to parents and staff, hear ideas and opinions ✤ School’s continuous focus on improvement ✤ Energy/drive/commitment to excellence ✤ HKIS embraces change thoughtfully/systematically – stays open-­‐minded Physical environment -­‐ facilities, schedule, size, technology and other resources (10%) ✤ Great facilities; facilities management/long-­‐range facilities planning ✤ Schedule variation, alternates ✤ Maintain size (or make smaller) ✤ 1:1 computer system ✤ Materials/resources are readily available, we never have to “fight” for things for teaching/budget items Safe and nurturing environment that inspires learning (9%) ✤ Fosters love of learning, love going to school, kids can’t wait to go to school ✤ Focus on “whole child” ✤ Students feel emotionally safe to explore new things ✤ School’s emphasis on students being able to develop self-­‐confidence and self-­‐ esteem; student-­‐focused environment 9

HKIS World Café: Summary Report

Service learning (9%) ✤ Service groups and opportunities in all divisions ✤ Promotion of social awareness and service mindedness (and service projects) ✤ The focus on service and community impact ✤ Culture of service – Habitat for Humanity, service Interims, PEAK, etc. ✤ Spirit of helping the community and others who are less fortunate; getting beyond privileges and advantages of our world Challenging educational program (8%) ✤ Maintain academic strength ✤ Well-­‐rounded education; diversified curriculum – different subjects ✤ Chinese program ✤ Education prepares us to go into the world Dedicated and qualified faculty (6%) ✤ Faculty who are enthusiastic and experienced – relationship with teachers more than purely academic ✤ The genuineness of the teachers and how they really care about students ✤ Faculty – everybody always trying to improve; passionate about what they teach ✤ Value excellent faculty – experienced, qualified; keep investing in teachers – get quality teachers to commit longer term Diversity (5%) ✤ Diversity of people, cultures, religions; value the international community/diversity ✤ Multicultural awareness, integration ✤ Learning tied to: cultural awareness and global awareness Spirituality and religious tolerance (5%) ✤ Spirituality of the school – respecting different beliefs ✤ Providing opportunities for students to gain spirituality, regardless of faith ✤ Spirituality – people come from different faiths, opening minds and hearts

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HKIS World Café: Summary Report

Question four asked participants what they believe are HKIS’s greatest challenges and greatest opportunities. Of the 1073 responses, 663 were categorized as challenges. Nine (9) themes emerged and one (1) percent of all the responses was not categorized into a theme.

Comprehensive educational program

17%

Communication and collaboration

16%

Mindset and attitude towards change

12%

Living the school’s mission and values Technological advancements

12% 11%

Facilities and resources

11%

Chinese program Continuity and qualification of faculty

8% 7%

Competition with other schools

5%

Miscellaneous Responses

1%

Some verbatim examples of the responses to each question follow.

Comprehensive education program (17%) ✤ Unification of curriculum expectations across divisions ✤ Curriculum models – true integration for benefits of kids – vertical alignment ✤ Evaluating critically new educational opportunities that contribute to holistic learning but does not become “watered down” ✤ Helping kids who learn differently; differentiated learning st ✤ Balancing 21 century skills and traditions skills; balance overall (academics arts, music, personal, technology, health/wellness) ✤ Balance college preparation vs. developing passions ✤ Keep curriculum international ✤ Understanding the process – strong foundation; connecting back to the skills – making learning authentic ✤ Teaching subjects with more practical life skills to produce more “able” children with a holistic approach ✤ Constructing a curriculum that prepares students for an uncertain future, for jobs that don’t yet exist

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HKIS World Café: Summary Report

Communication and collaboration (16%) ✤ Communication among school; align communication ✤ Maintaining social relationships – face to face contact ✤ Transparency of decisions ✤ Balance between what parents want and what teachers know is best practice when they conflict; educating parent community, expectations ✤ Getting the community involved in service – more support of the pursuits of students ✤ School-­‐wide cooperation on certain activities ✤ Cohesion amongst/within staff from different campuses; maintaining consistency in core curriculum ✤ Unifying the 4 divisions ✤ Transitions – between grades, courses, etc. integrating new people Mindset and attitude towards change (12%) ✤ Open attitude to change – parents, teachers, administration ✤ Help parents, students and teachers see themselves as part of creating a whole child (everyone, not just the school is responsible for raising a child) ✤ How to maintain high standards but willing to take a risk and perhaps be wrong ✤ Look out for the future, plan and educate accordingly ✤ How to meet everyone’s expectations when the community is so diverse ✤ Slowing down – taking time. Recognizing that reflection and thought takes time Living the school’s mission and values (12%) ✤ Define who we are ✤ Focusing on mission and SLRs in reality and actually following them ✤ Sense of purpose ✤ Does our school culture reflect our values? ✤ The school needs to make decisions of what to pursue and what not to pursue ✤ Being able to articulate what makes HKIS different Technological advancements (11%) ✤ Using technology appropriately ✤ Efficient and appropriate use of technology – need for balance ✤ Balancing technology innovation and technology restrictions ✤ Technology – keeping up with generations of technology – addressing student computer use/focus/balance/filtering information – impeding on social skills (EQ) ✤ Can we keep up with the cost of technology?

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HKIS World Café: Summary Report

Facilities and resources (11%) ✤ Physical constraints of school and physical layout, therefore difficult to expand, constraints scheduling and access; facility re-­‐development – how to be “smart” about it ✤ Size of school; having 4 very large schools ✤ Resources and space; building/structures ✤ More options with food Chinese program (8%) ✤ Chinese learning program ✤ Continuity of Mandarin program, strengthening Mandarin ✤ Instituting a strong Chinese program without losing the integrity of the rest of the curriculum ✤ Chinese language/culture – age-­‐appropriate/developmentally appropriate Continuity and qualification of faculty (7%) ✤ Quality teachers – retain, recruit, grow ✤ Consistency with teaching quality ✤ Maintaining faculty – high quality teachers ✤ Keeping high quality teachers that represent a wide range of ages, cultures and family composites; faculty from different backgrounds/countries/faith Competition with other schools (5%) ✤ Maintaining competitive standard relative to other HK international schools and US private schools; IB schools ✤ Maintaining our reputation ✤ Are we “losing” out to other schools?

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HKIS World Café: Summary Report

Question four asked participants what they believe are HKIS’s greatest challenges and greatest opportunities. Of the 1073 responses, 410 were categorized as opportunities. Nine (9) themes emerged and one (1) percent of all the responses was not categorized into a theme.

Educational program – comprehensive, aligned and with real-­‐world connections Community communication, support and outreach

24% 18%

Global perspective and multicultural diversity

12%

Leadership and vision

12%

Technological advancements

11%

Facilities and resources

8%

Chinese program

6%

Faculty

5%

Location

3%

Miscellaneous Responses

2%

Some verbatim examples of the responses to each question follow.

Educational program – comprehensive, aligned and with real-­‐world connections (24%) ✤ To develop each child's potential ✤ To better highlight achievements beyond academics in a whole child manner ✤ Best practices from each perspective to create best curriculum i.e. IB critical thinking ✤ Interdisciplinary education ✤ Collaborate across grade levels; network across divisions ✤ More interaction with students among divisions; more mentoring -­‐ students with students ✤ Experience base; project base learning ✤ Integrating into education, skills that are relevant to post academic life ✤ Teach kids life skills to handle conflicts. Teachers should be teaching children how to deal with conflict and resilience ✤ Ability to connect our students to experiences in field or relevant experiences globally

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HKIS World Café: Summary Report

Community communication, support and outreach (18%) ✤ Strong community support – diverse parent body ✤ Improve communications; accurately communicate what the school does and believes to parent community ✤ The alumni body -­‐ harness the power and support ✤ Using parents as school resource – career guidance, internship opportunities, professional advice ✤ School exchanges – integrate with community; integration with local HK community, cultural opportunities ✤ Build community through service ✤ Recognize achievement in students beyond the academics; celebrate the children in different ways Global perspective and multicultural diversity (12%) ✤ Global mindedness in students; opportunity to address – the current world – become more globally minded ✤ Availability of multi-­‐cultural environment for children to learn diversity ✤ Exposure to world religions ✤ More opportunity for language learning skills and cultural skills ✤ We could learn from other cultures – academically and socially ✤ Continue to learn – be exposed to multiple cultures – to make a difference Leadership and vision (12%) ✤ A board and school administrators willing and eager to evaluate and improve school practices ✤ Align what we do with the mission statement – talk with students and parents overtly and regularly to make the connections. Use it to be a goal-­‐driven community ✤ Identify our strengths and invest/supporting in developing the areas ✤ What we could and what we are ✤ Be a school that people want to aspire to attend or recruit from or hire from – reputation and student life “HKIS brand recognized” ✤ A chance to adapt to this ever changing world; be on the cutting edge of the type of education we want to see in the future Technological advancements (11%) ✤ Leveraging technology – getting the most out of it ✤ Advancement in technology, the 1:1 laptop ✤ Great opportunities for e-­‐learning; online learning ✤ Technology base – open to new learning situations; maybe not always in the classroom (e.g. online learning) – allows for different types of learners 15

HKIS World Café: Summary Report

✤

Technology helping to build communities and reach out to others

Facilities and resources (8%) ✤ To develop new schools (as the need to re-­‐build arises) that accommodate light and space to meet their play and creative needs; new buildings to reinvent ourselves physically ✤ Opportunities to maximize the sports facilities without too much additional changes that are very costly (e.g. field, pools) ✤ Building and structures and creating a space that fits us ✤ Very strong financial foundation – stability Chinese program (6%) ✤ Develop a stronger awareness of the local culture / language – host country studies ✤ Integrate Chinese culture with rest of curriculum ✤ Enhance school’s Chinese curriculum to be more competitive with other international schools Faculty (5%) ✤ Quality of teachers ✤ Teacher retention ✤ Faculty – expansion Location (3%) ✤ Location is great – worldwide center; being in an international setting and having the ability to develop a world view ✤ Take advantage of being in HK, incorporate with local community, integration with Hong Kong and its many opportunities

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