Preparing Students for a Knowledgebased Economy: An Examination of Perspectives of Public Education

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Preparing Students for a Knowledge-based
EconomyAn Examination of Perspectives of Public
Education Stakeholders
Dr. Marlene Asselin University of British
Columbia Presented at the Canadian Library
Association Annual Conference, Building
Communities of Learners A Multi-perspective
Research Forum June 16 2006, Ottawa
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Purpose of the Study

• To examine how different stakeholders in a large
  urban school district view
• Competencies students need for their future in
  the knowledge-based economy and society
• How schools currently address the teaching of
  these competencies teachers
• Imagined conditions for schools to better prepare
  students for the future heads
• Challenges and opportunities facing schools to
  actualize these imagined conditions

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Research Questions

• What are the current perceptions held by members
  of various communities of educational practice
  about essential competencies for employability in
  a knowledge-based economy?
• What are the present conditions that are in place
  for learners to gain the ICT skills necessary for
  employability?
• What do stakeholders see as the ideal conditions
  needed for schools to prepare students for
  employability in a knowledge-based economy?
• Within these imagined conditions, what structures
  need to be in place to actualize them?

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Wikis
Expanding
Critical Thinking
Meta
Multiple New
Information Literacy
Traditional
PodCasting
Cellular Surfing
Reading
Visual
Languages
Writing
NewTechnologies
Critical Thinking
Blogging
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Research Design

• Sample Five groups of K 12 educators (5 7
  per group) in a large urban school district
• Classroom teachers
• Adminstrators/department heads
• Teacher librarians
• ICT teachers
• Literacy mentors (district level)
• Recruitment Request for participation circulated
  through district listservs and district
  coordinator for each group. First respondents
  were selected.

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Research Design

• Procedures Interviews with each focus group
  conducted in spring 2005 approximately 60-75
  minutes per group. Participants received packages
  of consent forms and interview questions in
  advance. Interviews took place in schools or in
  district meeting rooms.
• Data analysis Interviews transcribed and
  analyzed for recurring themes using NVivo version
  7.

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Results Essential Skills

• Critical thinking/Interpretation
• Knowing how to access information (physical and
  intellectual)
• Communication (all modes and types)
• Collaboration
• Life long learning/learning how to learn
• Ethics
• Literacy skills
• Basic reading/literacy skills
• Computer/ICT skills
• Visual literacy

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Essential Mindsets

• Creativity
• Flexibility
• Problem solving
• Confidence
• Reflectivity
• Curiosity/open mindedness
• Multi-perspective taking
• Process of developing these competencies must
  start earlier than ever now.

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Current Conditions

• Some competencies embedded in subject curriculum
• Not consistently taught dependent on teacher
  choice and comfort with ICT
• Difficulty of teaching critical literacy
• Some teachers use
• Resource- and problem-based learning
• Learning technologies

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Imagined Conditions

• Acknowledge different types of learning
  experiences (real world and in school)
• Make curriculum relevant, purposeful
• Develop listening/empathy/multi-perspective
  taking
• Focus on process not just product/information
• Shift from transmissionism to constructivism/enact
  ivism
• Integration of ICT
• Cross-curriculum/integrated, problem-based
  approaches to learning
• Build student background knowledge as foundation
  of critical thinking
• Teach ethics and social responsibility issues of
  information
• Teach how to evaluate and interpret information
• Use meaningful assessment methods and foci
  (should be tied to KBE competencies)

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Requisite Structuresfor New Schools for the
Future

• Revision purpose of schooling
• Beyond preparing for postsecondary
• Test-driven teaching complex interrelationships
  of universities, high school, and students
  expectations of what counts
• Conflicting epistemologies of learning and
  teaching tests, students, KBE goals
• Teacher education issues
• More effective leadership and more informed stake
  holders
• Skill level difference between teachers and
  students, and different groups of students
• Re-focus curriculum Too expansive/crowded so
  pressure for coverage limits any meaningful
  learning
• Large diverse classes are challenges
• Equipment issuesequity of access and quality

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Conclusions

• Agreement across stakeholders
• New literacies as extension of basic literacy
• Education system in transition
• Major shift in view of purpose of schooling
  needed
• Walk the talk

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Discussion.