School change: Would we rather fail conventionally than succeed unconventionally?
You hear it all the time, “we need school change”, but as I watch school leaders grapple with what to do about declining resources, it has become clear to me that they would rather fail conventionally rather than succeed unconventionally. Over the last many weeks I have watched three panels discuss viable alternatives to what we have traditionally done in schools, each of which could provide substantial financial savings, and at the same time educate our children as well, or possibly even better.
The first panel discussed moving to a four-day school week. A compelling case was made for the advantages of a four-day school week. Yes, it took some adjustments on the part of educators and community alike, but the educators and community members all survived, and in fact would not abandon the four-day week unless forced to.
The second panel made up of past and present employees of the Erie school district discussed how they had redesigned the delivery model for education in their district. Specifically, they are migrating to a project-based learning approach. While most of their discussion centered around the dramatic improvement in learning on the part of the students, they also discussed the significant savings they can be incurred in a project-based learning system.
The third panel discussed virtual learning.Online learning has improved dramatically and is rapidly becoming a viable solution as an alternative to traditional education. While significant strides need to be made in figuring out how to more authentically engage students in virtual learning, virtual learning isn’t any less engaging than most of what goes on in our classrooms, and can lead to significant financial savings.
What all of these alternatives have in common is that they require leadership to actually lead the change process. As I watch this process it is clear that most superintendents have decided that the safest path forward is to simply do what everyone else is doing, hope that the legislature finds more money. When we are talking about school change I fear that educational leaders would rather fail conventionally rather than succeed unconventionally. It appears to be less politically risky. – Steve Wyckoff
Online learning: Will school change happen as a result?
Online learning hasn’t led the school change in K-12 schools. But it seems to have had a tremendous impact everywhere else. I really thought with the financial crisis we would see a rapid escalation of online courses for high school kids. They just haven’t happened. At least not in my state.
When I analyze how I learn today is much different than it was in the past. When there is something I need to know in order to do something, these are the steps I follow.
1. The first thing I do is google it. I look at the results “above the fold” to see if the brief descriptions that Google returns to me cover what I am looking for. I will typically click on two or three of these descriptions and look over their websites to see if I found what I need.
2. My second step is to go to Wikipedia, especially if I am just looking for information. Actually, sometimes this is my first step simply because I know what a vast amount of information is available. Interestingly, while the accuracy of Wikipedia used to be questioned I don’t hear that much anymore. In fact, Wikipedia has turned into perhaps my most trusted resource.
3. If I really want to see how to do something, then I go to YouTube. I’m always amazed that you can find a video that demonstrates how to do some of the most obscure activities.
The reason I talk about these three steps is what we do in schools looks nothing like this. I think the main reason is that we really don’t want kids to learn how to do things, we only want them to memorize things. When teachers are simply giving kids information and the task for the student is to remember it for the test, and then forget it, there is no need for the student to practice behaviors that help them become self-directed problem solvers.
So as we look at school change educators look at online learning as just another way to deliver information and they don’t see it as any better than just standing in front of the room and telling students. What they should be doing is helping the students become self-directed and able to use the resources that are available to solve meaningful problems.
If teachers in their classroom were focused on helping students prepare for the 21st century rather than memorizing information for tests, especially standardized tests, they would see the need for students to be using online resources which in turn would increase the value of online courses. So right now online learning is the solution to a problem that doesn’t exist in the mind of our educators. – Steve Wyckoff
