Enriching the "Who Knows Best?" Story in Education

I know that many kids hate school because they have no say, but sometimes there is a world of experiences outside the student, the family, the teacher and the principal - that the education community, district or governmental group need to be more aware of...before making decisions about what is best for a school. In an ideal sense, we want students to take responsibility for their own learning, but there is much out there for all partners in education to consider before making decisions about school improvement. I will use the TV show "Father Knows Best" as a trigger for hopefully a lively conversation about enriching this ‘who knows best’ story in education.

Most large-scale districts/boards set the curriculum, so broad and so vast - that it is a challenge for educators to ensure that all students will demonstrate a high level of mastery. The evaluation schemes that measure "assessment of learning" (ie. A, B, C. D, and F's or 1-2-3-4 rubrics or 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 in IB) cover or expose students to curriculum, but few students are expected to learn what is taught, in a deep way. In a sense, you can squeeze in more content, because fewer kids are expected to use the skills, knowledge and understandings in expert or 'like expert' ways. If we think about it, these four or more tiered sets of assessments might be viewed as excuses for the accepted reality that not all students will master everything. I would call this scenario - "The District or Board Knows Best" approach to teaching and learning. 

The reality, however, is that the control of the content and context is in the hands of the teacher (even when resources are heaped upon them at the board/district or governmental levels). When that classroom door closes - it is the teacher who makes the call to select what and how the curriculum will be taught. They may make the call to differentiate or use a one size fits all model - or not. When I've asked many teachers how they meet the needs of the all the kids and the massive number of expectations - the response is typically "I pick and choose and do my best"... In this case the learning story is "The Teacher Knows Best". 

The popular Reggio and Montesssori Methods, that tends to exist more in the kinder and primary years, speaks of giving children the reigns, and letting the teacher follow their interests, passions and pursuits. Student-directed approaches are sometimes supported in upper elementary and secondary - when students have opportunities to work on integrated projects that they design and drive. In these cases, I would use the title "The Student Knows Best.". While this sounds as if this approach leads to enhanced student engagement, it remains the least common road taken JK-grade 12 in North America. How many schools or districts invite student participation in curriculum design?

I also worked in a community charter school where families and interested community members did much more than bake cookies. They were part of the school management team and were trusted with many responsibilities including the development of the vision and action teams to carry out specific goals and targets (school handbook, ‘mural-ing’, signage, parent education Ted Talk events, co-teaching and more). This "Community Knows Best" Model was quite effective when all the partners: students, staff, families and community members - trusted and supported one another.

When it comes to making priorities for strategic planning and school improvement, satisfaction surveys emerge that usually tap the input of parents and teachers (rarely students). Policy-makers, outside the classroom, typically make up the survey questions. If these administrators are not open to new ideas, or seek out best practice beyond the walls of their schools, districts, states and countries, then their data will be limited to only what they know. There may be serious changes proposed at the policy level, but only when the teacher ‘buys’ in – will they be implemented behind closed doors.

There is an important step many schools leave out before their surveys leave the 'starting gate'. This step is what I call the 'learning inside and outside the box' experience. In addition to clarifying how our current practices were addressing best practice, I also wanted all community members to be aware of great practices that we were doing – AND NOT doing. In this way students, staff and parents could weigh in on more possibilities we could consider moving forward in our quest through continuous improvement of building an ideal school. We organized a Vision Quest morning where families were given passports to visit 35 laptops that were set up with examples of innovative schools (ie. High Tech High, The Blue Man School; the Kindness School, the Bali Green School, 'maker space' programs, coding programming, benefits of daily physical education, media and traditional arts programming, robotics, local and global service learning opportunities, e-pals, Model UN, sitting on balls verses chairs....). The community members, teachers, and students (grade 3 +) put a green dot on laptops they wanted to promote right away, a yellow dot for programs/experiences they wanted to learn more about and a red dot sticker on laptops to indicate they did not support a particular idea. We did notice there was some alignment with parents, staff and students needs, but in several cases, they were polarized about their preferences. After everyone had a chance to view what was invited to discuss what they learned, what surprised them and what they might want to recommend for our school.

After seeing the stickers, listening to conversations, and giving community members a chance to learn about a broader range of possibilities, we then generated questions for a school survey that provided feedback about our current direction while proving insight into a larger bank of ideas for making future recommendations. Our students, staff and family members then completed the surveys that yielded a rich supply of ideas for moving forward - and reshaping our vision that helped shape a fresh new direction for the school.

So often we have scenarios where the teacher may indicate they follow the student's lead, but you we expand the student’s experience so that their ‘lead’ can lead to exceptional learning experiences. Many students will lead where their experience has been, and if we want to educate, we do need to find ways to expand their horizons, so they can choose from a larger repertoire of possibilities.

For years, I had viewed feedback from surveys assuming all community members had access and were viewing the same kinds of educational innovations I was reading about, but without an 'educating about and beyond component', there is a tendency to return to the age old, "Teacher Knows Best" story. Teachers, students and community members need time to think about options, be responsible for and have ownership over moving a school towards the best possible action.