Reading Library

This library curates key readings from Leading for Authentic Learning, organized by theme. Each reading includes a brief note on why it matters for leaders, so you can prioritize based on your context and goals.

Authenticity

Everything Changes When You Ask Students, “How Did Your Work Help Someone Else?”
Ron Berger
Why it matters for leaders:
This piece clarifies what makes work truly authentic and challenges leaders to design learning experiences that connect students to real users and purposes beyond school.

Using Teachable Moments
Ron Berger
Why it matters for leaders:
Highlights how leaders and teachers can leverage moments of struggle, confusion, or missteps to deepen learning rather than rushing to correction.

Learning as a Cultural Process
Etienne Wenger
Why it matters for leaders:
Reframes learning as participation in a community, helping leaders understand how school culture, norms, and relationships shape what learning becomes.

Assessment

What Feedback Is Really For
Dylan Wiliam
Why it matters for leaders:
Clarifies the difference between feedback that improves learning and feedback that merely evaluates, helping leaders support assessment practices that drive growth.

Exhibition Planning Template (Example)
PennPBL / PennGSE
Why it matters for leaders:
Shows how assessment can be embedded in public exhibitions of learning, aligning accountability with authenticity rather than compliance.

Disciplinarity

A Pernicious Myth: Basics Before Deeper Learning
Jal Mehta & Sarah Fine
Why it matters for leaders:
Challenges the belief that rigor must come before inquiry, helping leaders rethink how disciplinary depth and conceptual understanding develop together.

Preparing Teachers for Project-Based Teaching
John Larmer & John Mergendoller
Why it matters for leaders:
Provides insight into the instructional knowledge teachers need to design high-quality disciplinary projects—and what leaders must prioritize in professional learning.

Collaboration

The Real Lord of the Flies: What Happened When Six Boys Were Shipwrecked for 15 Months
Rutger Bregman
Why it matters for leaders:
Disrupts assumptions about group behavior and human nature, encouraging leaders to rethink collaboration, trust, and student capacity.

Adam Grant on Mixed Teams and Brainwriting
Adam Grant
Why it matters for leaders:
Offers research-backed strategies for structuring collaboration in ways that surface diverse thinking and reduce dominance or groupthink.

Liberating Structures (Menu)
Henri Lipmanowicz & Keith McCandless
Why it matters for leaders:
Provides practical collaboration protocols leaders can use with both students and adults to democratize participation and improve collective problem-solving.

Adult Learning

Adult Learners Overview
gcLi / PennGSE
Why it matters for leaders:
Grounds leaders in how adults learn best, reinforcing the need to design professional learning that mirrors the experiences we want for students.

7 Exemplary Adult Learning Experiences to Cultivate AI-Era Educator Skills
gcLi
Why it matters for leaders:
Illustrates what strong adult learning design looks like in practice, supporting leaders as they design signature learning experiences for teachers.

Change Management

Why Won’t They Simply Do What We Tell Them To?
Barry Schwartz
Why it matters for leaders:
Explains why compliance-driven change efforts fail and why autonomy, purpose, and trust are essential for sustainable improvement.

Building Trust in Schools
Bryk & Schneider
Why it matters for leaders:
Demonstrates how relational trust underpins school improvement and why leaders must attend to trust as a core leadership responsibility.

What Makes Education Innovation Succeed?
OECD
Why it matters for leaders:
Identifies conditions that allow innovation to take hold, helping leaders distinguish between surface-level change and systemic transformation.

Getting Unstuck on the Path of Organizational Change
Heifetz, Grashow, & Linsky
Why it matters for leaders:
Supports leaders in diagnosing adaptive challenges and navigating resistance without reverting to technical fixes.

Rapid Redesign vs. Slow Growth: Two Well-Worn Paths to School Transformation
Transcend
Why it matters for leaders:
Helps leaders think strategically about pacing change and choosing transformation strategies aligned to their context.

Exercising Leadership (Optional)
Ron Heifetz
Why it matters for leaders:
Offers a foundational framework for leading adaptive change, particularly when solutions are unclear and stakes are high.