“With everyone in the world-wide net system having the same access to information, it follows that a decentralised curriculum development and accountability process allows more people and institutions to quickly develop creative solutions to rapidly occurring changes”
It is generally agreed that we are living at a time not only of rapid change, but one where systems change with such an amazing speed, that to keep oneself abreast demands the ability of immensely quick adaptation to kaleidoscopic scenarios. Hence all of us who are still in the world of work together with those who are preparing for it, cannot afford the old luxury of set curriculums, standardised examinations and all the paraphernalia based on a world assumed to be standing still while a person finishes secondary and possibly tertiary education and then starts looking for work. Between kindergarten class and graduation, the world will have changed many times over.
With everyone in the world-wide net system having the same access to information, it follows that a decentralised curriculum development and accountability process allows more people and institutions to quickly develop creative solutions to rapidly occurring changes. As a first step in this decentralised approach, each school must identify a paradigm, an ethos, or a theme that it believes guides the functioning of reality. The school then selects a set of values, creates a mission statement based on those values, and designs a curriculum that flows out from those values. Finally, schools must hold themselves accountable for their students’ success in that curriculum.
Moreover, rather than attempting to impose standards developed using a paradigm appropriate for this day, this week or this year, education needs to facilitate the networking and systematic reporting of successes and failures based on a clear and well-articulated set of values and standards that flow out from each thematic approach. While the standards will differ both within and across these paradigm groupings, it is expected that each set will be based on the most current research available.
I keep harping on this subject because the more I see of business here and abroad, the more I worry that our education systems are not on a par with the demands of the ever changing world beyond our shores. An analogy can be drawn with business production and accounting systems. Every individual business decides on a product or service that it believes meets the needs of a particular group of consumers. It builds a business model based on that product or service and hires professional managers to produce and market it. The business also hires accountants to develop and implement an accounting system that represents its unique circumstances. The system is developed using accepted accounting practices, but it is not expected that every business will use exactly the same ones. Bookkeepers are hired to collect data that will be analysed using that system. Auditors annually validate that the bookkeeping and accounting systems are working properly.
In the present top-down, hierarchical schooling system, outside auditors – meaning departmental standardised tests – have taken over control of the curriculum or the service being offered. As schools focus on preparing students for these standardised tests, there is little debate about the desired outcomes for the children and young people that are the focus of schooling. Additionally, there are few, if any, school or college accounting and bookkeeping systems that provide accepted information on student success for auditing purposes. Class work and grades are accepted as measures of success by students and parents; they would not be accepted by any auditors. This is the reason why I am concerned that our education system is too cut off from the real world of business.
Data collected to affirm success to a particular set of standards focuses activity by using the concept What You Measure Is What You Get. This suggests that if the internal accountability system does not address the complete set of values and standards, related schooling practices are unsustainable. Continued reliance on centralised governance and accountability systems will result in the rapid abandonment of any attempt to implement a broader focus on competencies more aligned with the requirements of the very transient world we have to share with others who also constitute our competitors.
In the business world, it is a recognised truism that middle managers are becoming increasingly important for institutional and organisational leadership. Because of an increased access to information at all levels of the organisation and decentralised decision making, middle-level managers must provide leadership in setting direction for their units and the corporation as a whole. A result is an increased need for leadership skill-development and communication among units. A corresponding insight would recognise that school principals and team leaders must be provided with opportunities to make independent decisions and try out systems in an attempt to cope with fast-paced changes. This requires more than just teaching. It requires a profession that has been exposed to, or at least has some knowledge of, the world of industry, business and commerce. After all this is supposed to be the world awaiting all students as they finally emerge from their classrooms or lecture theatres. If their educators have no knowledge of this world, how on earth can they prepare their charges for it?
Preparation of children and young people for the rapidly changing twenty-first century deserves all the attention it is receiving. However, the context is shifting so rapidly that eras or ages of human activity previously lasting hundreds or thousands of years, now exist for only decades. In fact there are researchers who believe that decisions made within the next decade will move humanity either to a breakdown in the environmental, economic, governance, and other systems, or lead to a breakthrough towards more sustainable levels and types of activities.
Reliance on pre-determined programmes to determine needs and curriculum standards leads to a centralised, standardised approach that is inadequate to meet these demands. It is impossible for the top-down, hierarchical schooling system to keep up with the pace of change necessary to move our society towards the latter reality.
What is needed is an approach to schooling that matches the best thinking about human development as well as the rapid changes in the ecology of that development. The demands of the present shifting time require a decentralised approach to educational reform that balances creativity with a need for accountability. And any honest headteacher will tell you that creativity is hardly our strongest claim to fame.
There are five key elements to an orderly rather than chaotic approach to an efficient and effective reform of schooling:
• Have a clear, articulated international paradigm that guides how one thinks about issues and focuses attention on facts and concepts as well as relationships among them.
• Have as clear an understanding as possible of the core elements of the changing environment both inside Malta and more so outside.
• Have a clear, well-articulated vision of the domains of human potential that needs to be addressed, identifying those most relevant to successful interaction with the needs of the immediate future.
• Develop and implement a corresponding curriculum with a site-based accountability system that is reviewed by outside auditors on at least an annual basis. Each school and faculty must recognise the need to make constant, small changes that will keep the school and students on track towards the vision.
• Provide a continuing education programme for educators, parents, and community members so that all parties have the requisite knowledge of facts, concepts, and principles necessary to make important decisions quickly.
It is likely that transitions will include wrong turns, convulsions, and unforeseen opportunities. Significant transitions and transformations are never smooth as anybody in business will tell you. Nevertheless, despite the chorus of doom with which all change is greeted in Malta, including the business community, the long-term change is somewhat predictable. Research suggests that people overestimate the amount of change that can occur in the short term, but underestimate the amount of change that can occur in the long term.
The consequence of this error is that when change does not occur as quickly as predicted, there is a belief that change is not going to occur at all and suggestions for a logical and holistic approach to preparing for what then seems just a lot of hype are tossed aside. People and social institutions are then caught off-guard and have to scramble frantically to make adaptations that could have been made in a more orderly step-by-step fashion. This occurs with nauseating predictability in Malta and then government is accused of shelving plans that do not reach fruition inside the hallowed five years that constitute its term of office.
The world is rapidly changing and schools need to be leading the way into the future rather than constantly reacting in a limited way to the ever-increasing complex demands made by students, parents, business and industry leaders, community organisations, and other stakeholders. We live in unprecedented times that demand extraordinary action.