What is the True Face of Contemporary Education
Russell John Cailey
The stone in the shoe of education: Partnering with frontier organisations worldwide. CEO & Founder
In the modern era, education is brimming with statements of revolutionary transformation and fostering a new generation of self-directed learners. Yet, a deeper dive beneath the glossy fa?ade of school brochures often exposes a contrasting narrative: a gap between lofty rhetoric and the reality within our schools.
Today, many schools pose as champions of learner autonomy, pledging an educational paradigm shift that promises students agency and controls over their educational journey. As John Taylor Gatto, the eminent education critic and author of “Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling,” often underscored, the traditional schooling system frequently falls short of these ambitions, reverting to rote learning and rigid educational models that restrict the very freedom they vowed to foster. Describing education's lack of ability to pivot, Louka Parry once insightfully told me, it’s “like a magnetic force, often repelling change.”
This paradox isn’t a matter of deliberate deception, but more a symptom of deeper systemic issues. Among these issues is teacher training. A meaningful shift in teaching styles requires educators to be suitably equipped for such a transformation. However, as education policy and practice expert, Linda Darling-Hammond has noted, traditional teacher training often lacks the requisite depth to thoroughly prepare educators to embrace and implement these progressive, learner-driven methodologies.
Regulatory bodies, too, often contribute to this chasm with a disproportionate focus on test scores as the gauge of a school’s success. This heavy dependence on quantitative measures bypasses the transformative learning journeys that students undertake. Our past Lead Educators at THINK Global School, Jarret Voytilla and Chung Man Chan, along with their teams, have recently developed the PROP (Process Portfolio) in response to this shortfall, offering a more comprehensive representation of student achievement and development.
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Existing education inspection systems also pose a challenge. They frequently need to appreciate the benefits and transformative potential of Project-Based Learning (PBL) or Universal Design for Learning (UDL). These progressive methodologies embrace failure and iteration, facets that traditional inspection systems may misconstrue as disorganization rather than integral aspects of these learning approaches. It takes a truly brave educator to showcase this pedagogy under the scrutinizing gaze of an inspection team.
As we forge ahead in our educational endeavours, it’s crucial that we frankly acknowledge what our schools genuinely are, and, importantly, what they are not. This open dialogue will enable a genuine transformation, assisting our transition from traditional to progressive education with sincerity, authenticity, and a clear vision for the future. Parents and stakeholders will understandably escalate their frustration at being sold one notion of schooling, only to receive another.
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A note on AI –
Reflecting on my past articles, such as when I discussed the emergence of artificial intelligence in education, it’s clear that honesty in education is not a new theme for me. The reception of AI, as anticipated yet stunning for many educators, echoes the underlying theme of this article – that we, as an educational community, need to face the realities within our system. It’s not merely about embracing the future, but about doing so with integrity and realism.
Otherwise, we risk finding ourselves perpetually in a state of shock and resistance when faced with the inevitable changes, much like the struggle some schools continue to face with integrating new technologies like mobile phones or even AI-driven tools like Chatbots, and ChatGPT. Education’s future lies in our hands, and we owe it to our learners, to be honest about where we stand.
Executive Principal, British International School of Tunis
1 年Training teachers to analyse their pupil needs and address these should be essential to all teacher training qualifications. Without being true lifelong learners themselves the world of education will stagnate, changes are essential if we truly believe our pupils are central to all we do.
What a very insightful post Russell John Cailey . It’s about embracing the future of AI with education but integrating it with integrity. With a progressive approach to modern education, teacher training is very essential as you put it. Yet still government policy on regulation must change to factor in the new pedagogy of education.
L&D Design and Implementation Specialist | Director of Nexus Learning Culture
1 年There are educators and schools that are already embracing contemporary education; teaching our learners HOW to be learners, HOW to self monitor, self regulate, self assess, discern and set learning goals. Learners need to know what progress looks like and be taught strategies to reach their goals. At what point will government bodies address their archaic assessment and achievement expectations????
Co-Founder Making Space | Integrative Design & Strategy, Hayball, RAIA | Co-Author Integrative Briefing for Better Design | GANSW State Design Review Panel Member |
1 年Beautifully written????
Innovative teaching and learning / Action research as professional development
1 年Yep. I’ve been thinking of the status quo of Ed as a strange attractor. Spin too far from its center and you are either sucked back in, tail between your legs, or you indeed fly off on the tangent, alone into space. We need to be able to catch those on the tangents with new strange attractors strong enough to create a different Ed world view.