To Learn from Within

As the school year begins to wind down, and time has become slightly less a commodity for me, I begin to contemplate the many issues spinning around in my head to explore. The past several weeks have been yet another growing period for myself professionally. I completed a leadership course (although I still feel SO UNPREPARED!), completed my first university subject in almost 10 years, and now find myself preparing to lead many educators in 2010 within the organisation in which I am employed. But where I am leading them? This is the thought process I had whilst I was sitting listening to the last speaker at the “Growing Tomorrows Leaders Today” course. As I was sitting there listening about how we can progress and lead within our organisation, and presumably make a difference and build our career, two things occurred to me: Firstly, I see my career as being more than working for this organisation, and secondly, I am more interested in creating a greater change within the educational field beyond this organisation (although including it!).

So then the questions started firing from within me…. How do we change the system? How do move the profession to a place where all teachers are motivated to be the best in their field and people become educators because they want to make a difference in a child’s life? How do we help the people in the job of teaching who are not in their element, to find their element elsewhere (is that too forward??) How do we move the profession to a place where the focus in education is the developing the whole child, where we meet standardised test requirements through engagement not drills? How do we ensure that standardised test results are a by-product not an end-product? Is this change achievable in such an age-old system? Is it possible to change the hierarchal approach to delivering education to our future? Is it possible to change the perspectives of the past, so we can engage the future? Is it possible to take the political spin out of education so we can focus on the core of our business – the students – the leaders of tomorrow?

Okay I’m going to give this a burl!

Changing the system is a massive challenge, and I am certainly not suggesting that it can be done by one magic wave of the educational revolution wand! Where should we start the change? At the top? On the floor? I think certainly from my point of view, change needs to come from within each one of us, so I believe it needs to happen on the floor initially from within the teachers themselves. I would like to think that all teachers in our education system, studied, learnt, listened and applied all those hours at university so that they could make a difference in a child’s life. So they could assist the future generations to explore, discover, investigate, and question the world within which they live. That these teachers then actively advocate that their students collaborate, discuss, propose, create and test theories to change the present and develop the future. Although these teachers do exist in our educational organisations, are they the majority or the minority? I would suggest that currently the latter would be true, although I would love it to be the former.

Some would argue that this situation exists because of the pressures put on teachers from the organisation itself and political parties which govern it. Teachers are instructed to include so many different politically driven programs plus have a set amount of time focused on certain key learning areas and this is all true. In todays educational climate this is just some of the responsibilities of us as teachers. We are now more than any other time in history responsible for more than just educating children. We are also asked that we teach them skills beyond academia, such as the importance of being active and having a healthy lifestyle; emotional resilience and self-esteem; social morals within our community; how to work cooperatively, just to name a few.

Now how all of this information is interpreted is solely dependent on how you view it — You could look at this and say teachers are being asked to deliver an overcrowded curriculum, or you could say that teachers are being asked to teach the whole child. My catch phrase has always been – It is all in the marketing! And I truly believe that we as teachers can meet all requirements of us (and more), if we approach it the right way with the right motivation. Our students need to be engaged and focused on learning – but can this be done if they physically do not have the stamina? Or if they do not have a nutritiously balanced diet? What about if they have had a situation occur in their home life that is devastating? What if this is the norm for their home life? Are they still expected to learn if we are not addressing the whole child? By catering for the whole child we are working towards creating a learning environment which encompasses all the learning senses which when engaged will enable deeper understandings of experiences and knowledge gained from within.

Our teachers must see their role as more than just imparting knowledge to a younger generation. The younger generation no longer needs a teacher to feed them the knowledge they will require to be informed in the world. The teachers role, like the world within which we live has changed. Marc Prensky (2009) stated at a recent conference held on the Gold Coast, that “there is so much separation between how students think and how teachers think.” This is a theory that has long been voiced by Don Tapscott, who in 1997 stated in his book “Growing Up Digital” that “because of their access to the digital media these young people learn, work, think, shop and create differently than their parents.”  That was over ten years ago, yet I believe that this is true, and that teachers need to shift their thinking in relation to how they teach the citizens of the future today.

Let us be honest with ourselves, the title Teacher is outdated. The term “Teacher” conjures up images of a person that is the giver of all knowledge, and we already know that in our digital world currently, that the knowledge of one is not enough.  Now and in the future there should be no teachers in schools, instead there should be facilitators of learning, guides of discovery and coaches to develop skills – all using a range of resources and tools available which suit the individual learner needs to develop the whole child to become all that they dreamed of and beyond. In his book The Element, Sir Ken Robinson (2008) promotes that creating learning environments in our schools where every student is inspired to grow creatively, we can enable them to discover their passion and their extraordinary potential for growth and development. We as educators need to engage and motivate our students, and schools will need to do this by embracing, discussing, and interacting with technologies that our students are actively using – the staff do not need to be experts in them they just need to be aware of the advantages/benefits of using them in the classroom and assisting students in selecting the best tool for the task at hand.

This is great for the educators and schools that have an open mind and a willingness to shift not only their own thinking and perspectives, but also make a fundamental shift in approach to their  practices. However, for educators who are not in their element, this shift can seem impossible and almost frightening. For them to think about leaving behind their structured perceptions of the relationship between teaching and learning, to move into the unknown area of building a school culture of connectiveness, consideration, cooperation, creation and collaboration is too much to deal with. These are often the educators we see as the idea assassins, the vocal ones at our staff meetings that refuse to acknowledge a need for change and prefer the industrial model of schools. I do not believe they do this because they passionately believe that this model is the best for educating the students, rather they react this way because they are not in their element. They do not find passion in learning. They may enjoy teaching, but their passion is not learning (both with and from the students) which is the core business of schools. I am truly not sure how these educators without passion, can be redirected to a career where finding their passion can be achieved, but it is certainly a situation which must be remedied and addressed.

When the educators themselves have made the shift, then the focus in educational middle management within the organisation will also begin to shift to focus on developing the whole child. When educators are supported to take a more collaborative, cooperative and connected approach to the exploration, dissemination and discussion of information with their students, then true learning can occur for all stakeholders. The standardised tests that have so many educators stressed and working so hard to meet through drill lessons and experiences, will become secondary to the learning process. Yes they will always exist as a way of collecting data and assessing our progress as educators, but they will not be (and should not be) the end product of the students learning, which sadly is so often the case at the moment.  I believe that through student engagement, ubiquitous learning, collaborative and connective learning environments which are supported by great faciliators, guides and coaches, these standardised tests will addressed and expectations exceeded through deeper understandings and immersement of knowledge. The tests will become the by-product not an end-product, a snapshot in time so we can visually see the students growth in knowledge and skills from one point in time to another.

Educational settings in their design at a fundamental level have not changed. Historically the role of schools was to prepare students for the employment market where following instructions and being able to gain expertise in a given area was crucial if one was to be successful. However, the future employment market no longer requires this. So what is the motivation for schools and learning to occur between nine in the morning and three in the afternoon each day? What is the motivation to keep learning within these four walls and only within this time frame? Learning can no longer be confined to these constraints in our changing world. It is the time now for educational organisations to change the hierarchal approach to delivering education to our future. Is it possible to take the political spin out of education so we can focus on the core of our business – the students – the leaders of tomorrow? It would be ideal if politics did not play a role in the way that the educational systems are structured, but I believe this is an unachievable change at this stage, when keeping in mind educational organisations struggle without government funding and government funding is tied to politics.

The key to all this change is us, the educators on the floor working with our students. We can change the perspectives of the past, so we can engage the future, if we lead by example. So where am I leading others? Hopefully towards change and the understanding of the need for change. Our vision as educators must be strong, dedicated and have authenticity. The goal for us must be to actively engage the future today, so they can be well equipped to take on the challenge of an unknown tomorrow.

References

Prensky, M. (2009) TURNING ON THE LIGHTS – Why Schools Must Compete and How To Do It – Keynote @ Leading a Digital School Conference. Gold Coast Australia.

Robinson, K. (2008). The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything. Viking: London.

Tapscott, D. (1997). Growing Up Digital. http://www.growingupdigital.com/archive/thebook.html