Students need to acquire the knowledge, master the skills, and develop the attitudes that will enable them to succeed in the 21st century. But we should not think of school as being solely about preparation for the future; it must also be about building a community of work and learning, a productive place where today matters because every day matters.
For example, my good friend Peter Hyman has set up a beautiful free school in the East End of London.
The simple, profound purpose of the school is to produce beautiful work — each piece of work the students produce, whatever the subject and whatever its nature, is important in and for itself. Peter does not advocate this because he doesn’t care how well the students do in traditional exams. It is true he would like to see an assessment revolution — which is indeed required — but in the meantime, he fully expects his students to succeed in traditional exams because of, not in spite of, the emphasis on beautiful work.
I want to draw out two implications of Peter’s philosophy. First, the thinking is based on that of a craftsperson — and craftspeople have always valued precision and data. Also, for a craftsperson, precision and measurement on the one hand and creativity and inspiration on the other go together. Why in education do we so often see them as in contradiction?
Second, the leadership for the kind of change Peter is bringing about can come only from among educators, not government. Government can create the circumstances in which this kind of leadership is more likely, but it cannot make it happen. Unless bold leaders from within education systems step forward, as Peter and many others around the world are doing, the necessary transformation will not occur.
WWhat might transformation look like from a student’s perspective? Simon Day and I described the high school of 2030 in our 2014 report on the future of education in Massachusetts.
In our predicted school of the future, data is ubiquitous. Progress is measured not just on academic performance but also on wider skills and attributes, such as leadership and teamwork, that we know are becoming vital to future success and fulfillment. The report might have also mentioned grit and resilience, the qualities required to persist when the going gets tough.
There would be totally transformed classrooms — or maybe we should say learning spaces — that are open and flexible and equipped with the latest technology. In spaces such as these, students are sometimes working alone (perhaps at sophisticated educational games or simulations), sometimes in small teams, and sometimes in a whole class or even bigger group.
The teacher is no longer just a transmitter of knowledge, but neither is she or he a mere facilitator. The role is that of an “activator,” using John Hattie’s evocative term: someone who injects ambition, provokes thought, asks great questions, challenges mediocrity, and brings passion and insight to the task at hand.
At the same time, teachers would draw on excellent data to have a clear, personalized picture of every student in the class. As a result, the teacher is in a position to have an informed conversation with each student about where they are, where they want to go, and how they might get there. Many schools now keep excellent precise records on student progress, which they share and discuss with the student and their family. This has the power to unlock potential in ways that were never possible before.
Moreover, teachers will have access to data from far beyond the school that will enable them to answer questions such as, “Has anyone successfully taught this sequence of geometry to a group of Turkish boys who are in danger of falling behind, and, if so, how did they do that?”
The teachers who solve such problems won’t have to wait to be asked how they did it; they will be posting lesson plans and videos in easily usable formats for their fellow professionals to draw on. They will receive a royalty every time their solution is downloaded, just as an artist does on iTunes.
All this, of course, has implications for school leadership. That we will want instructional leaders goes without saying; our school leaders will need to be capable of recognizing and inspiring excellence while also challenging and questioning mediocrity. They will need to spark innovative thinking and decide when to unleash a radical experiment — or when to hold back!
But this will not be enough. They will also need to think strategically. As Michael Fullan and Katelyn Donnelly argue in Alive in the Swamp, school leaders will need to understand that the digital revolution will bring a transformation in learning outcomes only when they simultaneously change pedagogy and school organization. Finally, school leaders will need to engage parents and communities in a dialogue about education and its implications for individual learners and society as a whole.
All this amounts to an exciting vision — but one that won’t happen by itself. We need more pioneers like Peter who create learning environments where beautiful and excellent work is embraced as an end in itself. We need school leaders to think strategically about the use of technology in learning and use wisely the opportunities that are available to rethink everything from pedagogy to how the classroom is organized.
Let’s make a start.
This article was taken from the Australian Learning Lecture, Joy and Data. The Australian Learning Lecture is an initiative of the Koshland Innovation Fund and State Library Victoria.
