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CREATING THE FUTURE
Perspectives on Educational Change
Compiled and Edited by Dee Dickinson
Looking Forward
Dee Dickinson
Robert Sternberg describes intelligence as "not only the ability to learn and apply what has been learned in order to adapt to the environment, but the ability to modify the environments, or seek out and create new environments." That is creating one's own future and that is what education should equip all students to do.
But that is not all. Human ingenuity and technology have solved complex problems and created breakthroughs in every field; however, without the ability to anticipate the consequences of our actions, other, more complex problems may result. We live in a world in which the thinking and decisions of human beings have resulted in stockpiling nuclear weapons, destroying or polluting the environment, causing social catastrophes, and doing physical violence to others.
Many of the people responsible have been awarded high degrees in education and have accumulated a great deal of knowledge and experience. What is really important, however, is the quality of that education and the ability to apply that knowledge and to learn from experience.
In today's world we can no longer ignore the critical responsibilities of all educators to instill in the young the values and ethics that will equip them to make not only wise but humane and moral decisions. Children must be given opportunities to develop such higher order thinking skills as altruism, empathy, and human understanding-to develop self-esteem and the capability to love-to be able to plan ahead and foresee the consequences of their decisions and actions.
The responsibility for instilling or teaching these greatest of all human capacities cannot lie in the home alone at a time when many families are fragmented, do not have or take the time, or may not value the importance of such principles. Although parents must certainly be given opportunities to learn how to create positive environments and teach these values, none the less every social institution must now also share in the responsibility if the planet is to survive.
And so we have no choice except to intensify the painful dialogue about educational change that reflects a new world view, beginning with a new understanding about the unlimited potential of the individual human brain and mind. What we experience, what and how we learn, what we think, and how we behave all have an effect on the mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual capacities that we will make use of-and, it is to be hoped, continue to develop-for the rest of our lives.
Parents, caregivers, teachers, and we ourselves all carry a responsibility to make the most of our possibilities. In order to do so, we must continue to learn all we can from cognitive and educational research. We must learn from studies in human development that offer strategies we can use to enrich our lives and that will also affect the lives of those with whom we live and work and play.
Each of the foregoing writers has a specific insight to offer, but it is the complementary power of all their ideas that is helping to bring about positive change in every educational setting. These ideas are making a difference in the learning that takes place in homes among both parents and children; in schools, universities, and adult education programs among both teachers and students; in workplaces among both trainers and employees; and in centers for the elderly among both caregivers and senior citizens. And these ideas are also being recognized by policy makers and school administrators in their planning and budgeting.
Following is an attempt to integrate some of the key concepts presented in the foregoing articles:
Belief systems are changing about what is possible in human development at every age and ability level. It is essential to acknowledge and implement what is already known, much of which is not new. Stories of successful teachers abound, from the ancient times of Socrates and the great leaders of all religions, to great teachers such as Maria Montessori and Annie Sullivan, and to the many fine, often unsung, teachers of our own times. Research abounds, yet often lies unread and ignored. Successful projects that have led to unexpected success with students perceived as being less than able have been documented and shelved. Many new theories, including Dr. Reuven Feuerstein's Theory of Structural Cognitive Modifiability, are transforming the world of education and are laying the foundation for the fullest possible human development of each individual. It is not news that it is possible to find a way for everyone to learn, yet too often we fail to act on that truth.
With the increasing diversity in the population of every country in the world, individual differences are being recognized as strengths through which to learn. Often culturally-based, these include perceptual differences, differences in personality and learning styles, and differences in the kinds of intelligence described by Drs. Gardner, Perkins, and Sternberg. It has been recognized as well, by such researchers as Drs. Diamond and Feuerstein, that cognitive levels are affected not only by heredity but opportunity.
The emotional context of learning, as noted by many of the authors, is now well recognized as having a critical effect on either facilitating or inhibiting learning and human development. The studies of both Drs. Diamond and MacLean point to the importance of creating positive, nurturing, and stimulating environments, and offering much opportunity for interaction. Motivational factors are also at the heart of the "deep learning" described by Dr. Entwistle.
Basic to any successful teaching method that involves and develops higher order thinking skills is the Mediated Learning Experience, as developed by Dr. Feuerstein. Various forms of this method involve interaction between the students and teacher and are the opposite of systems in which the student is the passive recipient of facts and information.
The polarities that have resulted from pendulum swings throughout educational history are now beginning to come together. Many schools and classrooms are recognizing the importance of integrating mind, body, and spirit. And many schools are integrating different subjects through such methods as thematic curriculum and team teaching.
At a time when school administrators, parents, and business people are demanding that teachers cover more content and equip students with greater proficiency in the basic skills, it is crucial to recognize that high content and high process must go hand in hand. It is essential to identify the most important knowledge and skills that students need in order to survive and thrive in today's and tomorrow's world. Then the most appropriate, efficient teaching and learning strategies must be employed to help all students to be successful in learning what they need to know. As Colin Rose points out, these strategies can be integrated into a variety of effective methods that all teachers and all students can learn easily. These methods lay the foundation for successful educational systems, successful students, and successful adults.
The use of technology is becoming increasingly widespread and is now an essential skill for students of every age. In addition to accelerating learning, it offers opportunities to explore and expand intelligence, quick positive feedback, access to unlimited sources of information, international communication, distance learning, and the possibility of in-servicing large numbers of teachers simultaneously.
The arts are being recognized as languages that speak to cultural and individual differences, that increase the repertoire of skills for communication and understanding, that present opportunities to exercise higher order thinking skills, and offer avenues for self-expression and enhancement of self-esteem. The schools in which they are being taught not only as separate subjects but are integrated throughout the curriculum, and which devote a significant part of each day to the arts, are among the highest achieving schools academically. This is true not only in the United States but in other countries as well, including Hungary, the Netherlands, and Japan-the three nations producing the highest student achievement in science today.
New methods of assessment are being implemented as it is recognized that when tests focus on memorization and recall, they do not encourage teachers to emphasize such important results of learning as practical application, problem-solving, analysis and synthesis, and metaphorical thinking. These new tests include the assessment of a wider range of intelligence as described by Drs. Gardner and Sternberg, and the assessment of student learning through essays, portfolios of student work, projects, and other means of observing the student's ability to comprehend and apply what has been learned.
New methods of giving recognition to successful teachers and schools are being implemented, as there is recognition that intrinsic motivation is usually more powerful than extrinsic rewards, aside from adequate compensation, of course. Often successful teachers and schools have gone unnoticed or have been demeaned and put down by their colleagues in dysfunctional systems. Some schools have actually lost funding as students have overcome their learning disabilities. Appreciative recognition in ways that reinforce and help to replicate success include offering mini-grants for special projects, leadership roles, positions as in-house consultants, or opportunities to be teacher trainers.
Restructuring is a word that is on every educator's lips, but it means different things to different people. As described by Dr. McCune and others, it is being applied to reformulating curriculum, methods of teaching, use of time and facilities, reallocation of staffing, and the exploration of new roles for teachers and new ways of preparing them. Restructuring is responding to a new world view that demands that students be equipped to think internationally, to cope with rapid change, and to develop all their capacities as fully as possible.
Collaboration has become a major theme in the school reform movement, as site-based management becomes the norm. As Dr. McCune points out, it is clearly essential, in order to meet student needs that are not being met through any other source, for teachers and school administrators, social-service, health, welfare, and other community agencies, parent groups, and businesses to work together in this most important of all social enterprises. The skills of working collaboratively are most easily developed early in life. It is often difficult for adults to learn interpersonal skills if they have not had an opportunity to work cooperatively as students. For this reason, as well as the fact that for many students cooperative learning is faster, longer-lasting, and a more positive experience than either individualized or competitive models of education, this strategy has become standard practice in a growing number of educational settings.
An international, multicultural context for education is now recognized as essential, as all parts of the world can be immediately connected electronically and as the speed of air travel increases. Many of the strategies previously described are being used to meet the needs of culturally diverse student populations in every setting. The pluralistic world view referred to by Drs. Costa and Hilliard is not being learned from most textbooks, but rather from personal experiences in the classroom, reinforced by real or electronic pen pals and either real or electronic, often interactive, field-trips to sites in other countries.
Community learning centers, as foreseen by Dr. Knowles long ago, are multiplying in a variety of forms throughout the United States and in other countries as well. In the United States, one form was instituted with the "lighted schoolhouse" model in Flint, Michigan thirty years ago; another variation was developed as community colleges were created. Today many schools are running nearly "around the clock," providing schooling during the day for children and also offering programs for day-care and early childhood, adult literacy, and senior citizens, who also provide effective models for lifelong learning. Many of these centers offer social, health, and welfare services on-site. After school, such centers offer adult education and worker training and retraining programs.
The traditional closed system of education, in which standardization has been the norm, and in which the same material has often been taught in the same way year after year, must now give way to a truly open system and all that implies.
As Malcolm Knowles suggests, "We must become able not only to transform our institutions in response to changing situations and requirements; we must invent and develop institutions that are 'learning systems,' that is to say, systems capable of bringing about their own continuing transformation."
As information doubles yearly in many fields-in the sciences often in a matter of months-many textbooks are obsolete before they are printed. Teachers must now rely upon more current sources of information not only through new publications, but through the vast array of databases. The diversity of students necessitates a variety of teaching methods and technology, constantly expanding. Teachers who were isolated from the rest of the world in their own classrooms are now able to collaborate with other local teachers and resource personnel, as well as having access to electronic support systems of other teachers and resource personnel elsewhere in their own country or others.
Educational systems, unlike other large businesses or professions, have rarely had research and development centers to guide their work. There is now an unequivocal need to create a research and development system to support the groundswell of change happening in thousands of classrooms. These are often the sources of the most exciting educational innovations, born out of desperate need to find a better way to help all students to learn.
A prototype of an interactive, electronic research and development system was developed by the Mastery in Learning Project described by Dr. McClure, linking NEA schools to the Boyer, Sizer, and Goodlad networks. Another has been developed under the leadership of Jay McTigh at the state Department of Education in Maryland, linking all schools electronically to a multi-media database to which teachers have both access and input.
Just a step away is the creation of a global, interactive, multi-media database to make the most current information available to all teachers anywhere in the world. This database could indeed facilitate the development of the long-needed research and development system for education wherever it takes place.
The technology is now available to link networks and databases not only as sources of information on well-researched educational strategies and programs, but on incipient models as well. Program planners and teachers could have immediate access to a support system of the most current information, could ask questions, share their own work, and receive quick feedback from others working in similar areas.
Such a system will surely become the driving force in educational change, built on the current grassroots revolution occurring today in classrooms throughout the world. The human race can no longer afford the individual egotism, institutionalism, and national territoriality that have prevented valuable information on education and human development from being shared. Self- and system-imposed limitations will dissipate as educational systems come into their own as creators of the future. Dr. Sternberg's definition of intelligence may then apply to such systems that will lead humanity forward to an era of the "global learning society" in which everyone will have the freedom to learn. Nothing less would be worthy of the most important natural resource on earth-the human mind.
About: Dee Dickinson
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