re: Changing adult behaviour in schools

owensj01 — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 12:53:15 GMT

Actually I am not necessarily thinking of just teachers when I refer to "adults". It is clear that adults other than teacerhs are and will play an increasingly important part in the learning that happens in schools.

However some teachers will prove to be some of the more tricky hurdles to overcome and carry forward in our process towards a focus on learning and learners in the personalised world, rather than - as has been the case to a great extent, the teaching and teachers.

re: Changing adult behaviour in schools

AlanDay — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 15:52:29 GMT

A prosaic piece! You are of course being slightly evasive, as you leave no doubt that you are indirectly referring to teachers, ('educators' if we include the shift towards the use of teaching assistants who seem to work just as hard, are just as professonal and are paid considerably less!).

Are teachers not the progeny of an education system that has delivered them personal success? Is it then a surprise that some may consequently be conservative in their outlook to changing the system that gave them their success? The recent whiteboard report by Becta made indicates that it typically takes between 18 months and two years of 'practice' for a classroom teacher to embed a simple and relatively evolutionary technology and start to explore it further, ... something of an indictment? I think not. The real issue is that technology plays little part in formal assessment, and it is that by which schools are measured and compared.

http://clusterweb.org.uk/CS/community/kcc_digital_curriculum/archive/2007/10/25/i-whiteboards-the-benefits-are-clear.aspx

Children form social networks, and teachers will never be part of their network, so we need peer review and authentic audience as motivators. As long as assessment of learning is based on teachers as sole arbiters, little will change. Worse still, autonomy in these circumstances will be seized by children as an opportunity for laziness and avoidance.

The Kent Secondary Strategy is brave; to succeed educators have to change the nature of their interaction and provide genuine audience and meaningful assessment based on inclusive moderated real world activities and good quality simulations. The web provides opportunities in abundance, connecting people, countries, issues, and ethics.

We also need to get out of the misery of assessment by paper. How can an ICT rich curriculum be left at the door of the exam hall, and revert to paper and memory. Many of the 'vocational' portfolio based courses of recent years have been a sham exploited by schools to raise results. I am heartened by places like the Thanet Skills Studio though ... real vocational courses delivered by experts, not a 2D represntation of how to file vocational sounding statements and exercises.

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re: Changing adult behaviour in schools

re: Changing adult behaviour in schools