Innovations Within Education With Simon Holzapfel | E250

PBL Simplified for Administrators by Magnify Learning

Simon Holzapfel, the CFO and Co-founder of Leaf Lab, joins the podcast to share his experience in education, leadership, and business, describing himself as a "PBL fanboy". Simon asserts that PBL was the heart of education because it caused the learning to bond to something other than just the head, such as the body or heart, making the subject matter truly matter. He clarifies the crucial distinction between progressive education—which offers specific forms of scaffolding and flexible structure—and the dangerous lack of structure found in permissive education. Simon offers insights on avoiding leadership mistakes, managing burnout, and the sustainable implementation of Project-Based Learning (PBL). He details how Leaf Lab partners with schools to use real-world problems from local companies to provide students with a digital portfolio and two professional certifications.

Main Points

• PBL is Foundational Learning: Simon has been a PBL supporter since watching his dad teach project-based inservices in the eighties. He states that PBL was the thing and that PBL is actually how humans just learn best because it lets the "full spectrum bulb" of humanness be necessary to the learning.
• Defining Progressive Education: Simon notes that the progressive ed movement in America now is still not totally clear on the difference between progressive and permissive. Progressive education involves building young people for the future by providing specific forms of scaffolding targets and a structure that's flexible. PBL, in contrast to the permissive fear that it means "whatever, man," requires structures, processes, and instructional models.
• The Leaf Lab Model: Leaf Lab is a highly structured but flexibly scaffolded environment. The lab's PBL model is designed specifically for local companies to bring small back burner problems to their school's lab. This directly helps capacity-constrained companies by having smart college students work with young entrepreneurs in their twenties or thirties.
• Student Outcomes and Professional Life: The lab rejects the idea that an outdated standard of care should affect any kid's path to a professional life. Each kid exits the lab with precisely that digital portfolio and two professional certifications to show employers they solved a project using specific tools.
• PBL Sustainability and Vision: Leaf Lab partners with public schools, high schools, and college universities globally to bring PBL to life. For sustainability, the partnership model focuses on building up the school's own people and systems. The work is how educators have "always wanted to lead". Simon believes there is a very specific wellness case to be made for PBL, as it stops school from "sucking" for kids and makes it relatable.

Takeaways

• Leadership Team is Non-Negotiable: A school leader must understand how much a good leadership team is the only thing that's going to make it work. It's about the team. The mistake is thinking you can be the only leadership team.
• Avoid Key Implementation Mistakes: Simon lists mistakes he made that are common: going too fast, and not building the team first (or not aligning the team). If you don't have a team when trying to do something different, "you're toast".
• Measure Success by Community Values: Innovation efforts should be measured using metrics dependent upon what the community values. A specific metric is asking parents, "Has your kids smiled yet in going to school?" and taking pictures of the child smiling as evidence that something is working.
• Lead with Service and Integrity: If you are going to be an authentic service leader, serve your opponents harder than your fans. Additionally, do not allow other people's feelings and comfort to be the bottleneck to your student's future.
• Communicate Change Effectively: When speaking to the board, leaders should anchor their arguments in local economic development and should prioritize speaking about child well-being to overcome antiquated mindsets.