Education stands at a crossroad caught in the lights of market forces ideology which
blinds all but a few to beginnings of a new era some call the Second Renaissance
– a new creative era.
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| The freedom to learn. |
In his 1980
essay ’The World of Tomorrow and the Person of Tomorrow’ psychologist Carl
Rogers contemplated the kind of people that would usher in the new era as
people with the capacity to understand , bring about and take part in a
paradigm shift.
It surely is
over to educationalists to take a positive part in fleshing out Rogers' vision?
The problem is that schools are constrained by reactionary compliance
requirements that emphasize an emphasis on literacy and numeracy that are being
reinforced by arbitrary National Standards and comparative ‘league tables’.
Unfortunately this emphasis has side-lined the positive future emphasis of the
2007 New Zealand National Curriculum which focussed on the bigger picture of
developing the competencies in all students of being lifelong learners –
learners able to ‘seek, use and create their own knowledge’.
The current
government is undervaluing such competencies and this must change. It will be
over to ‘persons of tomorrow’ to take the lead. It will not be easy but the
current all-powerful corporate competitive market forces model will not solve
problems beyond their comprehension.
There is no shortage of thinkers to show the way although those who become involved will
have to ‘make their own paths’. Contrary to Mark Twain’s advice that ‘you can’t
play an uncertain trumpet’ future thinkers will have to learn to play an
uncertain trumpet.
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| Galileo is forced to recant. |
There is a
parallel to the beginnings of the first renaissance. At this time the Catholic
Church defined the beliefs that were to be seen as the unquestioned truth. The first to question the church faced the
inquisition, were tortured and then burnt alive at the stake. This torture was
seen not as punishment but as a means to bring the truth to the surface.
They may have
painful beginnings but paradigm shifts have a life of their own. Galileo, working in the liberal court of the
powerful Medici family in Florence, challenged the views of the church by
writing his dialogues about the observations that the earth went around the sun
and not vice versa. He also paid the price and after torture recanted – the
church even refused him a proper funeral.
Even Michael
Fullan, long an ally of top down literacy numeracy reform, seems to have seen
the light and recanted now believing that innovative educational progress
depends on identifying and sharing the work of ‘deviant teachers’. To value the
input of creative teachers and share their ideas do this requires the
establishment of a new educational environment.
It is not
easy to go against a system that was designed for past industrial age
conditions that required mass education focusing on the ‘three Rs’; a system
that used standardised approaches, based on measurement to sort out students
for their predetermined place in life.
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| Standardised learning making a comeback!! |
A visit to
any school, except for early education centres, will show how old thinking
permeates how the school is run and structured. In most schools, as one
commentator has said, ‘it is as if literacy and numeracy have gobbled up the
whole curriculum’. Increasingly what is to
be tested will become the default curriculum and diversity and creativity is
all but being crushed. Standardisation of teaching sorting students by ability
is, unintentionally or otherwise, devaluing the very competencies and the
individual creativity the future requires.
Standardisation,
conforming to imposed beliefs, and teaching to the tests leads us back to the
past. The future is about valuing creativity, diversity and requires personalising
learning.
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| Personalising learning - talent development. |
David
Hargreaves and several others have pointed out that institutional change comes
in two forms .The first is change that does not depart far from existing
practices. This gradual change he calls reformation . This is where schools
are placed today.
The second
form of change is more a paradigm shift and departs considerably from existing
practices can be called ‘transformational’.
While our
Ministry, following direction from the government, is pushing schools into the
test oriented environment of the UK, the US and Australia there are those who warn that such a narrow curriculum will destroy the possiblity of a creative economy.
Yong Zhao, a respected American educationalist, has research to show
while American students might not score highly in International ‘league tables’
they score the highest in confidence, creativity and innovation. Yong points
out that Americans still develop the most patents, the most Nobel Prizes and that
the Chinese education system will never produce a Lady Gaga or a Steve Jobs!
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| Lady Gaga:Not possible in a standardised system |
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| All about democracy and trust. |
A recent
Guardian article features the development of Lumiar Schools in Brazil, founded
in 2003 by Ricardo Semler a radical businessman who had previously turned his
huge family firm over to its workers. Semler believes that students learn best
when they have a say in what they are learning. Students choose to involve
themselves in project based learning through which students pick up life skills
by osmosis. Semler was encouraged by University of Chicago statistics that
showed that 94% of what is learnt at school is never used in later life. ‘We
are trying to prove that by giving kids freedom,’ says Semler, ‘ they will end up better educated…that they can have a much better
existence and be more prepared for life if we don’t teach them the stupid
things that traditional schools do’. Having satisfied himself that his adult
workers thrive on responsibility he set out to show children would react the
same way. Semler, a Harvard graduate, says that for children ‘learning is what
they do best. We kill it for them…everything we do is a learning experience.
Our assumptions about human beings – is that they are basically honest and
interested and ready for gratifying work –were not wrong…we have the same
assumptions about schools and what we’ve seen so far corroborates what we
thought’.
Many early
education centres make use of the similar ideas of the Italian Emilio Reggio
approach and the American ‘Big Picture Company’ extends a similar philosophy
for secondary students.
Such developments
are the work of creative deviants and are spread by the strength of their ideas.
We need to return to an environment that trusts teachers and allows for
‘deviant teachers’ to ‘emerge’. New Zealand has always had such creative
individuals, Elwyn Richardson the most notable, but in recent times teachers
have been captured by approved ideas spread by contractual advisers. The
Ministry and the Education Review Office (and sadly some school principals)
have much in common with the Catholic Church and the Inquisition of Galileo’s
time!
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| An ERO team! |
Jay Allard,
one of Microsoft’s vice – presidents, was right on the mark when he said in
Business Week (Dec 2006) ‘the only way to change the world is to imagine it
different than the way it is today. Apply too much wisdom and knowledge that
got us here, and you end up where you started. Take a fresh look from a new
perspective and get a new result.’
Galileo knew
this!
Human
beings, Lumiar thinkers believe, are capable of defining their own life
project. Ones life’s project specifies what one wants to do with one’s life.
Babies are born with an incredible capacity to learn. That is what makes
education possible but schools have to be transformed in line with this
principle.
Learning is
not something given to students through predetermined teaching - it is being able
to do something you couldn’t do before. It is an active doing approach – something
achieved by individuals making feely a conscious decisions to accomplish something,
not by themselves but by interacting and collaborating with their teachers and
other students.
On one hand
there is depth of content understanding to gain and at the same time the schools
needs to ensure all students develop the competencies to learn. Students will leave with
their unique content learning but all need to be equipped with competencies to
learn. This is the essence of personalised learning.
Students
learn while doing things – they involve themselves in projects in which they
see as important. Educationalist Jerome Bruner has written the ‘teaching is the
canny art of intellectual temptation’. Students learn, as do scientists and
artists, by enlightened trial and error – helped sensitively by adults.
It is
important to appreciate that not all learning is fun. What it does mean is
that, as Guy Claxton has written, children need to see the point of learning,
that it is something they want to achieve, reach for or do. With this in mind
students will involve themselves in difficult, even painful, learning tasks.
Anyone who has seen a student learning to ride a bike, swim, or skateboard,
or play a musical instrument cannot but conclude that children are capable of
incredible learning feats that are difficult and hard.
Contrary to
the current focus on intentional teaching project based learning can lead
individual students to explore unplanned content to their advantage. In this
respect students are learning like artists – new ideas unfolding as
opportunities arise. Every study undertaken provides opportunities for students
to follow up their areas of interest – to personalize their learning while at
the same time working with others as required.
Current
assessment is constrained by learning objectives and criteria and increasingly
by an emphasis on summative National Standards in literacy and numeracy. With
personalised learning, or project based learning, assessment is seen by the
depth of understanding and creativity of the students, by what they can do,
demonstrate, exhibit or store in their portfolios. Constant feedback and assessment is part of
the teacher’s role.
Like Galileo
we need to imagine new ways to interpret the world and break free of
politically imposed dictates.
Schools need
to re-imagine to respect the freedom to learn that is innate in all students,
to value and build on their own set of interests and passions and to expose
them to experiences that will challenge their imaginations.
It is time
for ‘deviant teachers’ to stand up for their beliefs, better still whole
schools and best of all networks of schools.
At least it
is no longer the practice to burn people at the stake for challenging outdated
authorities – at any level of the system.
The future depends on such people. Roger's 'tomorrow people'
Madness is contagious.
‘A
brand-new study on the academic effects of homework offers not only some
intriguing results but also a lesson on how to read a study -- and a reminder
of the importance of doing just that: reading studies (carefully) rather
than relying on summaries by journalists or even by the researchers
themselves.’
