Are Schools still Relevant Keynote Presentation to The Modern Education Desert Lecture Series The Ro

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Are Schools still Relevant?Keynote
Presentation to The Modern Education Desert
Lecture SeriesThe Royal Geographical Society,
London, Tuesday 10th June 2008
Professor David HopkinsHSBC iNet Chair of
International Leadership
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• Universal education through schooling is not
  feasible. It would be no more feasible if it were
  attempted by means of alternative institutions
  built on the style of present schools. Neither
  new attitudes of teachers toward their pupils nor
  the proliferation of educational hardware or
  software (in classroom or bedroom), nor finally
  the attempt to expand the pedagogue's
  responsibility until it engulfs his pupils'
  lifetimes will deliver universal education.
• The current search for new educational funnels
  must be reversed into the search for their
  institutional inverse educational webs which
  heighten the opportunity for each one to
  transform each moment of his living into one of
  learning, sharing, and caring.
• Illich, I. (1971) Deschooling Society

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KNOWLEDGE POOR
1970s Uninformed professional judgement
1980s Uninformed prescription
PROFESSIONAL JUDGEMENT
NATIONAL PRESCRIPTION
2000s Informed professional judgement
1990s Informed prescription
KNOWLEDGE RICH
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OECD Trends

• The nature of childhood and extended
  adolescence
• The knowledge economy
• Inequality and exclusion
• Changing family and community life
• And more broadly
• Alarming increase in the inequalities between
  rich and poor countries
• Patterns of population growth

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Why Scenarios?

• Scenarios translate trends into imagined probable
  futures, helping us to
• understand more about our current direction of
  travel, our values and our principles
• imagine the preferred future we hope to shape
  together
• explore how school leaders and policy makers can
  work to make this a reality.

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Six OECD Scenarios

• Maintaining the Status Quo
• 1. Bureaucratic school systems continue
• 2. Teacher exodus, the meltdown scenario
• Re-schooling
• 3. Schools as core social centres
• 4. Schools as focused learning organisations
• De-schooling
• 5. Learning networks and the network society
• 6. Extending the market model

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1. Bureaucratic School Systems Continue

• strong pressures towards uniformity.
• schools as distinct institutions, knitted
  together by complex administrative arrangements.
• media commentaries frequently critical in tone,
  but radical change is resisted.
• fear that change will not address fundamental
  tasks of guardianship socialisation, alongside
  cognitive development equality of opportunity.

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2. Teacher Exodus - Meltdown Scenario

• crisis triggered by a rapidly ageing profession,
  exacerbated by low teacher morale and buoyant
  opportunities in graduate job market.
• large size of the teaching force makes
  improvements in relative attractiveness costly,
  with long lead times for tangible results.
• disparities of the crisis by socio-geographic, as
  well as subject, area.
• creates vicious circle of retrenchment conflict.

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3. Schools as Core Social Centres

• schools enjoy widespread recognition as the most
  effective bulwark against social, family and
  community fragmentation.
• extensive shared responsibilities exist between
  schools and other community bodies, expertise and
  institutions of further education, shaping, not
  conflicting with, high teacher professionalism.
• generous levels of financial support meet
  demanding requirements for quality learning in
  all communities, elevating the esteem of teachers
  and schools.

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4. Schools as Focused Learning Organisations

• schools are revitalised around strong knowledge
  agendas (rather than a social agenda), in a
  culture of high quality experimentation,
  diversity and innovation.
• new forms of evaluation and competence assessment
  flourish.
• ICT is used extensively alongside other learning
  media, traditional and new.
• knowledge management moves to the fore, and the
  very large majority of schools have extensive
  links to tertiary education and other
  organisations.

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5. Learning Networks - Networked Society

• dissatisfaction with institutionalised provision
  diversified demand leads to the abandonment of
  schools in favour of multiple learning networks.
• networks are founded on extensive possibilities
  of powerful, inexpensive ICT.
• deinstitutionalisation of school systems becomes
  part of the emerging network society.
• various cultural, religious and community voices
  come to the fore in the socialisation and
  learning arrangements for children.

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6. Extending the Market Model

• governments encourage diversification in a
  broader environment of market-led change,
• many new providers are encouraged by reforms of
  funding structures, incentives and regulation.
• flourishing indicators, measures accreditation
  arrangements start to displace direct public
  monitoring and curriculum regulation.
• Innovation abounds, as do painful transitions and
  inequalities.

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My Preferred Scenario

• Breaking with the past Preferred future
• Transmission model Learning focussed
• Jack of all trades Supported professionalism
• Islands of excellence Networking
• Secret gardens Social centres

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Moral Purpose of Schooling
I get to learn lots of interesting and different
subjects
I know what my learning objectives are and feel
in control of my learning
I can get a level 4 in English and Maths before I
go to secondary school
I know what good work looks like and can help
myself to learn
I know if I need extra help or to be challenged
to do better I will get the right support
My parents are involved with the school and I
feel I belong here
I can work well with and learn from many others
as well as my teacher
I know how I am being assessed and what I need to
do to improve my work
I can get the job that I want
I enjoy using ICT and know how it can help my
learning
All these . whatever my background, whatever my
abilities, wherever I start from
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The G100 Communique

• A group of 100 principals from fourteen
  countries (G100) met at the National Academy of
  Education Administration (NAEA) in Beijing, China
  16-19 October 2006 to discuss the transformation
  of and innovation in the worlds education
  systems.
• They concluded their communique in this way -
• We need to ensure that moral purpose is at the
  fore of all educational debates with our parents,
  our students, our teachers, our partners, our
  policy makers and our wider community.
• We define moral purpose as a compelling drive to
  do right for and by students, serving them
  through professional behaviors that raise the
  bar and narrow the gap and through so doing
  demonstrate an intent, to learn with and from
  each other as we live together in this world.

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The need for a systemic response

• We aspire to a society that is not merely civil
  but is good. A good society is one in which
  people treat one another as ends in themselves.
  And not merely as instruments as whole persons
  rather than as fragments as members of a
  community, bonded by ties of affection and
  commitment, rather than only as employees,
  traders, consumers or even as fellow citizens.
• The vision of a good society is a tableau on
  which we project our aspirations, not a full
  checklist of all that deserves our dedication.
  And the vision is often reformulated as the world
  around us changes, and as we change.
• The Third Way is a road that leads us toward the
  good society. However, it should be acknowledged
  at the outset that the Third Way is indeed fuzzy
  at the edges, not fully etched.
• Amitai Etzioni The third way to a good society

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Every School a Great Schoolas an expression of
moral purpose

• What parents want is for their local school to be
  a great school.
• (National Association of School Governors
  Education and Skills Select Committee 2004).
• Test of resolve
• A stress on moral purpose and social justice in
  order to equalise life chances
• an educational system that enables every
  individual to achieve their potential and enhance
  their learning skills
• enhance teaching quality rather than structural
  change
• commitment to sustained, systemic change since a
  focus on individual school improvement distorts
  social equity.

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The Key Question - how do we get there?

• Most agree that
• When standards are too low and too varied
• some form of direct state intervention is
  necessary
• the impact of this top-down approach is usually
  to raise standards.
• But when
• progress plateaus - while a bit more might be
  squeezed out in some schools , and perhaps a lot
  in underperforming schools, one must question
  whether this is still the recipe for sustained
  reform
• there is a growing recognition that to ensure
  that every student reaches their potential,
  schools need to lead the next phase of reform.
• The 64k dollar question is how do we get there?

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Towards system wide sustainable reform
Building Capacity
Professionalism
Prescription
National Prescription
Every School a Great School
Schools Leading Reform
System Leadership
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Four key drivers to raise achievement and build
capacity for the next stage of reform

• Personalising Learning
• Professionalising Teaching
• Building Intelligent Accountability
• Networking and Collaboration

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(i) Personalising Learning Joined up learning
and teaching

• Learning to learn
• Curriculum choice entitlement
• Assessment for learning
• Student voice

My Tutor Interactive web-based learning
resource enabling students to tailor support and
challenge to their needs and interests.
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(ii) Professionalising Teaching Teachers as
researchers, schools as learning communities
The Edu-Lancet A peer-reviewed journal
published for practitioners by practitioners
regularly read by the profession to keep abreast
of RD.

• Enhanced repertoire of learning teaching
  strategies
• Evidence based practice with time for collective
  inquiry
• Collegial coaching relationships
• CPD to tackle within school variation

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(iii) Building Intelligent Accountability Balanc
ing internal and external accountability and
assessment
Chartered examiners Experienced teachers gain
certification to oversee rigorous internal
assessment as a basis for externally awarded
qualifications.

• Moderated teacher assessment and AfL at all
  levels
• Bottom-up targets for every child and use of
  pupil performance data
• Value added data to help identify strengths /
  weaknesses
• Rigorous self-evaluation linked to improvement
  strategies and school profile to demonstrate
  success

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(iv) Networking and Collaboration Disciplined
innovation, collaboration and building social
capital
Autonomous Federations Groups of schools opt
out of LEA control but accept responsibility for
all students in their area

• Best practice captured and highly specified
• Capacity built to transfer and sustain innovation
  across system
• Greater responsibility taken for neighbouring
  schools
• Inclusion and Extended Schooling

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4 drivers mould to context through system
leadership
Personalised Learning
Networks Collaboration
Professional Teaching
SYSTEM LEADERSHIP
Intelligent Accountability
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System Leadership A Proposition

• System leaders care about and work for the
  success of other schools as well as their own.
  They measure their success in terms of improving
  student learning and increasing achievement, and
  strive to both raise the bar and narrow the
  gap(s). Crucially they are willing to shoulder
  system leadership roles in the belief that in
  order to change the larger system you have to
  engage with it in a meaningful way.

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System leaders share five striking
characteristics, they

• measure their success in terms of improving
  student learning and strive to both raise the bar
  and narrow the gap(s).
• are fundamentally committed to the improvement of
  teaching and learning.
• develop their schools as personal and
  professional learning communities.
• strive for equity and inclusion through acting on
  context and culture.
• understand that in order to change the larger
  system you have to engage with it in a meaningful
  way.

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Seven Strong Claims about School Leadership

• School leadership is second only to classroom
  instruction as an influence on student learning.
• Almost all successful (school) leaders draw on
  the same repertoire of basic leadership
  practices.
• It is the enactment of the same basic leadership
  practices not the practices themselves that
  is responsive to the context.
• School leaders improve pupil learning indirectly
  through their influence on staff motivation and
  working conditions.
• School leadership has a greater influence on
  schools and pupils when it is widely distributed.
• Some patterns of leadership distribution are much
  more effective than others.
• A small handful of personal traits explain a
  high proportion of the variation (such as being
  open minded, flexible, persistent and optimistic)
  in leader effectiveness.

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Leadership for Learning

• Setting direction 
• Total commitment to enable every learner to reach
  their potential 
• Ability to translate vision into whole school
  programmes
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• Managing Teaching and Learning
• Ensure every child is inspired and challenged
  through personalized learning
• Develop a high degree of clarity about and
  consistency of teaching quality
•  
• Developing people 
• Enable students to become more active learners
• Develop schools as professional learning
  communities
•  
• Developing the organization 
• Create an evidence-based school
• Extend an organizations vision of learning to
  involve networks

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Powerful Learning

• Is the ability of learners to respond
  successfully to the tasks they are set, as well
  as the task they set themselves In particular,
  to
• Integrate prior and new knowledge
• Acquire and use a range of learning skills
• Solve problems individually and in groups
• Think carefully about their successes and
  failures
• Accept that learning involves uncertainty and
  difficulty
• All this has been termed meta-cognition it
  is the learners ability to take control over
  their own learning processes.

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I wrote (with Bruce Joyce) some time ago that

• Learning experiences are composed of content,
  process and social climate. As teachers we create
  for and with our children opportunities to
  explore and build important areas of knowledge,
  develop powerful tools for learning, and live in
  humanizing social conditions.

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Teaching Models

• Our toolbox is the models of teaching, actually
  models for learning, that simultaneously define
  the nature of the content, the learning
  strategies, and the arrangements for social
  interaction that create the learning contexts of
  our students. For example, in powerful
  classrooms students learn models for

• Extracting information and ideas from lectures
  and presentations
• Memorising information
• Building hypotheses and theories
• Attaining concepts and how to invent them
• Using metaphors to think creatively
• Working effectively with other to initiate and
  carry out co-operative tasks

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Effect Size of Teaching
Student Performance
McKinsey Company, 200711
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The Dialectic between Curriculum, Learning and
Teaching
Role Playing
Group Investigation
Synectics
Curriculum Development
Evaluation
Concept Attainment
Simulations
Curriculum Development
Synthesis
Concept Attainment
Inductive Thinking
Analysis
Models of Learning Tools for Teaching

Concept Attainment
Inductive Thinking
Application
Comprehension
Inductive Thinking
Mnemonic
Inductive thinking
Mnemonic
Knowledge
Simulations
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Act as a Community Leader
Work as a Change Agent
Managing Teaching and Learning
Developing Organisations
Personal Development
Partner another School Facing Difficulties and
Improve it
Moral Purpose
Lead a Successful Educational Improvement
Partnership
Strategic Acumen
Developing People
Lead and Improve a School in Challenging
Circumstances
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System Leadership Roles

• A range of emerging roles, including heads who
• develop and lead a successful educational
  improvement partnership across local communities
  to support welfare and potential
• choose to lead and improve a school in extremely
  challenging circumstances
• partner another school facing difficulties and
  improve it. This category includes Executive
  Heads and leaders of more informal improvement
  arrangements
• act as curriculum and pedagogic innovators who
  develop and then transfer best pracatice across
  the system
• Work as change agents or experts leaders as
  National Leader of Education, School Improvement
  Partner, Consultant Leader.

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Networking and SegmentationHighly
Differentiated Improvement Strategies
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Governance and Segmentation System
transformation is both complicated and
facilitated by the high degree of segmentation
within the secondary school system.
Autonomous Federations Groups of schools opt
out of LA control but accept responsibility for
all students in their area

• Greater responsibility taken for neighbouring
  schools
• All failing schools in Federations
• Significantly enhanced funding for students most
  at risk
• Rationalisation of national and local agency
  functions

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Coherent System Design
U N I V E R S A L H I G H
High quality personalised learning for every
student
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Complementary Policy Framework for System Reform
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Every School a Great School Framework
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The Logic of System Leadership
Learning Potential of all Students
Repertoire of Learning Skills
Models of Learning - Tools for Teaching
Embedded in Curriculum Context and Schemes of Work
Whole School Emphasis on High Expectations and
Pedagogic Consistency
Sharing Schemes of Work and Curriculum Across and
Between Schools, Clusters, Districts, LEAs and
Nationally
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Paulo Freire once said

• No one educates anyone else
• Nor do we educate ourselves
• We educate one another in communion
• In the context of living in this world

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Professor David Hopkins HSBC Chair in
International Leadership