3. Conclusion
Education researchers must identify evidence-based practices that can enhance students’ learning. Randomized controlled trials (RCT) is a highly recommended method of investigation to warrant valid evidence of instructional practices. Researchers also recommend other, alternative methods of investigation.
On the other hand, it is teacher educators’ responsibility to guide the use of such evidence-based practices. Methods that align well with the phases of learning should be selected and used for UDL. Thus, for unit planning, a teacher can make a matrix illustrated in Table 2, which is likely to 47
accommodate classroom diversity appropriately. In teaching with this design, the teacher must assess students’ learning and document the instructional effectiveness. Based on the data, the practices should be further adjusted or revised to meet unique individual learning needs.
Binder, C., & Watkins, C. L. (1989). Promoting effective instructional methods: Solutions to America’s educational crisis. Future Choices, 1(3), 33-39. Gersten, R., Fuchs, L. S., Compton, D., Coyne, M., Greenwood, C., & Innocenti, M. (2005). Quality indicators for group experimental and quasi-experimental research in special education. Exceptional Children, 71, 149-164. Heward, W. L. (2006). Exceptional children: An introduction to special education (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson. Horner, R. H., Carr, E. G., Halle, J., McGee, G., Odom, S., & Wolery, M. (2005). The use of signle-subject research to identify evidence-based practice in special education. Exceptional Children, 71, 165-179. Lewis, R. B., & Doorlag, D. H. (2011). Teaching students with special needs in general education classrooms (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson. Mastropieri, M. A., & Scruggs, T. E. (2010). The inclusive classroom (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill. Meese, R. L. (2001). Teaching learners with mild disabilities (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Mercer, C. D., & Mercer, A. R. (2005). Teaching students with learning problems (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Polloway, E. A., Patton, J. R., & Serna, L. (2004). Strategies for teaching learners with special needs (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall. Stenhoff, D. M., & Lignugaris/Kraft, B. (2007). A review of the effects of peer tutoring on students with mild disabilities in secondary settings. Exceptional Children, 74(1), 8-30. Vaughn, S., & Bos, C. S. (2009). Strategies for teaching students with learning and behavior problems (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.
1. Key Aspects of Educational Reform in Finland: Equality, Equity and Teacher Professionalism Gunilla Holm (University of Helsinki, Finland)
2. The Place of School Review in Educational Innovation: The Case of New Zealand Carol Mutch (Education Review Office, New Zealand)
Key Aspects of Educational Reform in Finland : Equality, Equity and Teacher Professionalism
Educational reforms in Finland are closely connected to other welfare reforms. Hence, the system and the individual students are treated as a whole. Reforms tend to be executed systematically and with a long-term perspective. Equality, equity and teacher professionalism are some of the key aspects in the educational reform work.
This paper starts with a brief background to the educational system we have in Finland today since the foundation for the policies and reforms were laid about forty years ago. Policies in Finland tend to be long-term and not quick fixes to acute problems. Then I will move on to examine why the reforms have worked well. Finally I will look at what changes are happening and what kinds of challenges we are facing.
First, it is well known that Finland has done very well in PISA. So we can ask how we got there from being a poor country with not a particularly good educational system still in the 1960s. Which policies and reforms took us to where we are today?
First an overview of the Finnish school system.
The educational system in Finland was changed in the 1970s. We used to have an eight year school with a five-year parallel grammar school after fourth grade. The grammar school was the path to the upper secondary school. This track was more for middle class students since it was not free. This also meant substantial achievement differences between schools and students.
The single track comprehensive school (grades 1-9) was instituted in the 1970s. This reform was strongly centrally directed in order to get it established but later in the late 1980s the system became more decentralized. Now there is a national core curriculum guiding the schools and teachers in establishing their own curricula, but there is no detailed national curriculum. Likewise 52
the principals are now responsible for the school finances as well as leadership. Teacher expertise is heavily emphasized and since 1978 all new teachers have been required to have a Master’s degree in teacher education. There is compulsory education in Finland since 1921 (which actually was very late compared to other countries) but not compulsory school attendance (Simola, 2005). There are no standardized tests for each grade. Assessment criteria for good performance are developed for each subject in ninth grade. After ninth grade the education divides into general upper and vocational upper secondary school.
General upper secondary school is academically oriented and can be structured to emphasize math, physics and chemistry or languages depending on the student interests. The instruction is centered on courses not age-based classes. The education ends in the matriculation exam which is a national test. General upper secondary school is free except for that students pay for their books.
Vocational school is three years and also gives eligibility for polytechnics or university.
From pre-school to university, education is free in order to maximize the opportunity for students to participate independently of their socio-economic status. In the comprehensive, upper secondary and vocational school all kinds of instruction and support service (like remedial and special education) are free. In addition students receive a free lunch and free dental as well as health care. (Finnish National Board of Education 2009)
Beyond the right of all children to a basic education everybody is also guaranteed equal opportunity to an education after the comprehensive school. Everybody should be able to obtain an education independently of economic resources. Therefore even university education is free of charge. Hence, a fundamental principle of Finnish education is an equal opportunity to education. Equity as well is important. Therefore, among other things, special and remedial education has to be provided to all who need it.
Equity and equality provide the foundation for the comprehensive school system. In practice it means, for example, that all students proceed more or less at the same speed. So far there is no ability grouping and therefore no special education for gifted students. Everybody takes the same courses with the exception of some elective courses in the upper grades.
The equity and equality principles are also visible in that there are no major differences between schools. Maximizing the opportunities for learning also meant minimizing the differences between students which used to correlate strongly to students’ socio-economic background. Now the difference between schools in poorer and richer areas is minimal (Darling-Hammond, 2009). In other words students will get a similar quality education independently of where they live. Hence, there is no need for parents to move to wealthier areas in order to obtain a better education for their children like, for example, in the U.S. Therefore the schools usually have a mix of students from different social class backgrounds. Interestingly the schools are supposed to compensate for social class differences. In other words schools are expected to minimize the achievement gap due to the social class background. The achievement gap between students is small. Socio-economic class, gender, ethnicity and mother tongue are not crucial factors for success. Policy changes with regard to special education have also played an important role in decreasing the achievement gap. 53
Attention is paid already in early childhood education to the difficulties children experiences. Schools provide special education, special education assistants, and counseling for children in need of special assistance. (Sahlberg, 2009)
Since a long-term goal has been to raise the educational level of the general population it is crucial to get all students into the system and to minimize the drop-out rate. Almost all children (99.8%) are enrolled in preschool. Preschool is a maximum of 4 hours a day and focuses on the child’s active learning and on being a team member. There are no single subject lessons but the activities are play-based and children’s enjoyment is emphasized. However, preschool teachers are educated in different subjects but integrate them into general play and learning activities.
Today only 0,5% do not graduate from compulsory education and 96% complete either the academically oriented upper secondary school or vocational school (Finnish National Board of Education, 2009). Overall three fourths of the working population has graduated from either one of the two types of secondary schools and a third of the population has a higher education degree. In other words, education is highly valued in society at large.
Likewise the child is looked upon as a whole not just with regard to academic achievement. Free school lunches, health care and dental care are provided. Being physically active is also important and an increase in the number of class hours for physical education is proposed. Interestingly also there is recess between each lesson where students can move and socialize; thereby can excessive socializing and moving around be avoided during class time.
1. Teachers and teacher education
Teachers command a fair amount of respect in Finland. Contributing to this is the fact that it is very competitive to get accepted into teacher education. On the average 15% are accepted. At the University of Helsinki only 10 % of the applicants are accepted into teacher education. Teachers are trusted as professionals who know how to best educate the children. However, more parents are taking an active role in their children’s education and therefore question the teachers’ decisions more often. Teachers are well educated and get a Master’s degree from a university since the reform in 1979.
The trust in well educated professional teachers shows in, for example, that there is no external standardized testing. Teachers assess students for the purpose of improving student learning. Often the assessments are open-ended problem solving exams. These tests are school based and part of the curriculum, not imposed externally. The core curriculum provides criteria for what students should know in each grade, but it is up to the teacher how they teach and assess the students.
Overall the national core curriculum provides guidelines but does no longer specify detailed information about content, materials, pedagogy or assessment. The central system trusts the schools and teachers to do what is needed and to adjust the curriculum and teaching to the local 54
situation. “All traditional forms of control over the teacher’s work had, for all practical purposes, disappeared by the beginning of the 1990s. The school inspectorate, a detailed national curriculum, officially approved teaching materials, weekly timetables based on subjects taught and a class diary in which the teacher had to record what was taught each hour – all these traditional mechanisms were abandoned.”(Simola, 2005, pp.464.465)
The teachers get a research based education in order to be and learn to keep up-to-date with the latest knowledge about teaching and learning. They also get a good foundation in research methods in order to be able to consume and evaluate research but also to be able to study their own teaching. They get their practical training in special schools affiliated with the universities. Teachers in these schools serve as model teachers as well as models for conducting research on their own practice.
A current example of how policies and reforms are infused into teacher education is a project on gender issues in teaching, which is financed by the Ministry of Education and includes teacher education programs at many universities. The goal of this reform is to increase research on gender issues in teaching as well as on infusing a gender perspective into teacher education and teaching. The point is that it is not mandated as a top down policy but given to the universities to work on how to infuse a research based gender perspective into teacher education.
Laukkanen (2008) summarizes the Finnish view on teachers by saying that they should have room for teaching innovations and that they are professionals, not technicians. Hence, teachers should be educated not trained.
2. Challenges
Education is considered a basic right. Hence, municipalities have to make sure that everybody has equal access to education independent of the students’ background, gender, age, social class, mother tongue, nationality or where they live.
Students do perform well in school as can be seen, for example, in PISA studies, but that does not mean that there is not room for improvement. For example, recent studies indicate that students do not like school much and that they are tired and overworked. In other words, the enjoyment emphasized in early childhood education is forgotten in upper comprehensive and secondary schools.
One of the major challenges facing Finland with regard to educating all children fairly and well is the increasing immigration. Finland has experienced increased immigration the last 20 years, but the issue has been debated more recently because of the increasing number of immigrants as well as the economic downturn. Students with immigrant background do less well on PISA than ethnic Finns (Hautamäki & al., 2006), but comparatively better than immigrant students in other countries. The policies and the national core curriculum are very supportive of providing support for immigrant students to maintain their own language, culture and religion while simultaneously becoming integrated into the Finnish society and learning Finnish. However, few teachers are
educated in multicultural education practices. Especially secondary school subject matter teachers get very little preparation for culturally diverse classrooms. Overall practicing teachers tend to be very supportive of multicultural education on a rhetorical level but reluctant to change their own classroom practices (Mansikka & Holm, forthcoming). Will teacher education and teachers in- service education be able to infuse multicultural education fast enough into teacher education in order to prepare teachers for this new situation? While Finnish reforms usually take a long-term view, in this case immediate action is also needed.
Recently the new public management approach with its emphasis on efficiency and productivity has led to, for example, a lot of small schools closing and larger class sizes. Traditionally only 4% of the comprehensive schools have more than 500 students. The small schools mean that teachers know all students (Sahlberg 2009). It could be argued that this is one of the reasons for the low drop-out rate in Finnish schools. In the entire comprehensive and upper secondary system only about 5% drop out. Will Finland be able to continue to integrate marginalized youth and immigrant students well enough to maintain this low level of drop-out?
So far all politicians (from the left and right) and policy makers are in agreement that free and high quality education starting in day-care institutions all the way through adult education is a basic right of every person. In times of economic downturns it might be difficult in the future to maintain a completely free high quality school system. However, so far it has been the priority of all involved, but will we be able to maintain, for example, a free university system?
There is a need to stand up against certain kinds of reforms. Can Finland withstand external standardized testing? So far the only external exam is the matriculation exam from high school. Will Finnish teachers be able to continue to focus on student learning instead of test preparation like in the U.S. in the wake of the No Child Left Behind legislation (see also Berry & Sahlberg, 2006)? Will Finnish teachers be able to maintain their independence and professional authority?
There is an increasing demand for paying more attention to gifted students. Special needs children receive attention in the educational system and a new law shifting more of the responsibility for special education to the regular teachers is being implemented next year. One of the goals is for special needs students to be as integrated as possible into the regular classroom activities. The special education teacher will serve more as a consultant and support to the classroom teachers. However, currently there is not much space for gifted students to be challenged and to grow in the Finnish school system. This also leads to the question of school choice. In Finland most children attend the neighborhood school, but in Helsinki 10% of schools are now schools with a special emphasis that children and their parents have chosen to attend. However, Finland has only a handful of religious schools. Will equity and equality continue to be core principles also in a system that allows some school choice and some ability grouping?
Overall one can say that the there is nothing magical about the reforms in Finland, but they are very purposefully implemented with long-term goals. In addition, it is recognized that reforms in education alone will not provide all the necessary conditions for a good education, but educational
reforms have to be connected to reforms in other areas concerning family support, economic and social welfare policies.
Berry, J & Sahlberg, P. (2006). Accountability effects the use of small group learning in school mathematics. Nordic Studies in Mathematics Education, 11(1), 5-31. Darling-Hammond, L. (2009). Steady work: How Finland is building a strong teaching and learning system. http://www.annenberginstitute.org/vue/pdf/VUE24_Darling.pdf Finnish National Board of Education (2009). www.oph.fi/english/education Hautamäki, J., Harjunen, E., Hautamäki, A., Karjalainen, T., Kupiainen, S., Laaksonen, S., Lavonen, J., Pehkonen, E., Rantanen, P., Scheinin, P. with Halinen, I. & Jakku-Sihvonen, R. (2006). PISA 06 FINLAND. Ministry of Education Publications 2008:44. Laukkanen, R. (2008). Finnish strategy for high-level education for all. In N.C. Sognel & P. Jaccard (Eds.). Governance and performance of education systems, pp. 305-324. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer Mansikka, J.-E. & Holm, G. (forthcoming). Teaching minority students within minority schools: Teachers’ conceptions of multicultural education in Swedish-speaking schools in Finland Intercultural Education. Sahlberg, P. (2009). Educational change in Finland. In A. Hargreaves, M. Fullan, A. Lieberman & D. Hopkins (Eds.). International Handbook of Educational Change, pp. 1-28. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Simola, H. (2005). The Finnish miracle of PISA: historical and sociological remarks on teaching and teacher education. Comparative Education, 41, 4, 455-470.
1. Introduction
Many countries have looked to New Zealand for examples of successful educational innovations. The argument that I want to make here is that the ability to experiment with innovation has been made possible by a set of unique historical, geographical and cultural factors. In order to make sense of these factors I first want to put New Zealand’s education system development into a theoretical context. I will then outline some of the factors that have supported educational innovation. I will use the development of school review as an example of how these factors support innovative practices. I will conclude by outlining a strengths-based approach to innovation that could be adapted by other systems when considering which innovations to implement or adopt.
2. Theorising education system development
In a recent comparative study of the development of education systems in developing countries (Ninomiya & Mutch, 2008), we proposed a conceptual framework to help understand how systems evolve. We identified two key tensions. One was between autonomy and control within the system; the other was between inward-facing and outward-facing processes. Figure 1 shows these as two intersecting continua. At any time, a country could be plotted on the grid in relation to where they are positioned in relation to the two concepts. The intersecting lines also divide the model into four quadrants.
When a country is rebuilding its education system after war, civil unrest, disaster or newly-gained independence it often displays high levels of local autonomy and takes an inward-looking focus but this has a very fragmented distribution (Quadrant 1). The next phase is often one of a continued process of inward-looking examination leading to more centralised control as the country rebuilds its identity and infrastructure (Quadrant 2). Over time, the system becomes stabilised and embedded. At some point, the system may become inert and inflexible. It is often at this time that there are calls for reform. As a system undergoes revitalisation it often looks outwards at other systems for inspiration and examples of good practice (Quadrant 3). At the high end of autonomy and outward-facing processes, we find systems with self managing school models and lighter central control within a high-trust self-actualised environment (Quadrant 4). 58
In a more recent presentation (Mutch & Ninomiya, 2010) we used examples to highlight the possible scenarios that could be derived from the quadrants and attempted to find countries that were representative of the quadrants. Our examples were: Fragmentation – Burkina Faso; Contextualisation – Viet Nam; Revitalisation –Japan; and Self-actualisation – New Zealand.
I begin my presentation with this model because it helps countries locate themselves on this model and consider their readiness to undertake educational innovations. One of the key findings of our study was that care must be taken in moving too quickly from quadrant to quadrant as the appropriate conditions for implementing successful change might not necessarily be in place. Another finding was that transplanting ideas, policies or programmes from one system to another needs to be done with full awareness of the assumptions on which the system has been built and how the proposed changes align with local visions, values and practices.
3. From revitalisation to self actualisation
In this presentation, I want to focus on how New Zealand reached a stage where it was able to implement radical educational change in a successful manner. In New Zealand’s case, the progress from quadrant 1 to quadrant 4 was a long process. From AD 800 to 1870s the education system was localised – tribally-based for the indigenous people, and with small pockets of formal 59
schooling set up by the European colonisers. From the Education Act of 1877 to the 1960s, New Zealand forged a “free, compulsory and secular” education system and a new national identity. Following economic downturn in the 1970s, many calls for education reform were to culminate in the policy document Tomorrow’s Schools and the 1989 Education Act. This provided the legislation for de-centralisation of educational administration and for schools to become self- managing. Schools would be governed by parents, who were elected to individual school Boards of Trustees, and managed by principals and their leadership teams.
What were the conditions that enabled New Zealand to meet with success in this highly devolved education system? Let me outline what I would consider some key factors:
1. Long term political stability. Although different political parties might be in power at any one time, there has been a remarkable degree of consensus over the years. 2. The size and location of New Zealand. The population is only four million. It is a small, relatively isolated, self-governing country with a single education system. This means that policy changes can be enacted swiftly and comprehensively. 3. New Zealand’s culture and history. With a history of racial tolerance and social equality New Zealand society is stable and cohesive. It is free from civil strife, major racial tension and extreme poverty. New Zealand is resource rich and people have learned to find innovative and create ways to solve problems. 4. A strong tradition of education as a profession. Teachers and school leaders have long had high degrees of autonomy and professionalism. For example, there are not, and have never been, mandated textbooks. Teachers select and design their own resources and teaching programmes. 5. High regard by the public. In a recent poll (UMR Research, 2009), teachers ranked third behind doctors and nurses in terms of occupational respect. The public is also used to being engaged in consultation about educational matters from parliamentary select committees to local school decision-making. This increases their awareness of and involvement in educational matters. 6. Localised decision making. Apart from teacher s’ salaries, schools and their Boards of Trustees make their own decisions about the allocation and distribution of their operational funding. 7. The curriculum is aspirational rather than prescribed. The latest national curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007) sets out the visions, values, principles, learning areas and key competencies but gives schools the freedom to design a school-based curriculum that meets the needs of their students and the wishes of their communities within the overall expectations. 8. A history of educational success. New Zealand has always performed well in international comparative assessments (TIMSS, PISA, PIRLS) and many of its educational programmes are highly regarded overseas, for example, reading recovery. 9. A willingness to learn from others and accept critique. The Best Evidence Synthesis iterations (see www.educationcounts.govt.nz/themes/BES) and programmes such as Te
Kotahitangi (Bishop, Berryman, Kavanagh & Teddy, 2007) aim to redress disparity and focus on good practice.
4. The development of school review
School review provides a useful example of the ability to implement, evaluate and develop innovative educational practices. This was possible because of many of the factors already outlined. For example, there was a long history of external evaluation of schools which led to an acceptance of the usefulness of such critique. Following the adoption of the British schooling system, school inspectors became part of educational life in New Zealand. The role, however, evolved into one that provided supportive advice as well as critical judgement. With the reforms of the 1980s, came the establishment of a new agency, independent of the Ministry of Education, whose sole responsibility was to evaluate and report on the quality of education in New Zealand schools. Although, when it was established, there was a strong emphasis on evaluation as an accountability function, the Education Review Office (ERO) has come to balance this with a school improvement function.
When discussing the development of the schooling effectiveness movement, Cheng and Mok (2008) likened it to three waves – an improvement wave, an accountability wave and a sustainability wave. This metaphor has parallels with the development of the current school review process in New Zealand (see Figure 2). The first wave, beginning with schooling effectiveness and schooling improvement movements and making the first calls for self managing schools, appeared in the 1970s and 1980s. While there was an inspectorial system in place in New Zealand, it focused on evaluating and grading individual teachers rather than contributing to school-wide review. If schools wanted to get a full picture of their own effectiveness, they did this with little external input. In the later 1980s and through the 1990s, improvement was still important but, following the market-driven education reforms, the notion of accountability gained more urgency. It was at this time that schools were seen as having multiple accountabilities to their many stakeholders – students, parents, communities, government agencies, taxpayers, and so on. The language shifted from effectiveness to efficiency and there was an increased focus on compliance. With the new millennium, other priorities have emerged. New Zealand has established a strong research base that identifies good practice over a wide range of educational activities. There has also been considerable consultation around what schooling should do to prepare children and young people for the future. In order to sustain good practice and provide a fertile environment for problem-solving and innovation, the Education Review Office needed to refocus and adapt its review approach.
Purpose Effectiveness Compliance Good practice Societal goals Efficiency Future preparedness Equity Outcomes Responsibility Schools Government and its Balancing external and agencies internal Style Mainly internal with Mainly external with Complementary – little external little credibility given combining both internal perspective to internal and external perspectives
Focus Leadership Achievement data Evaluation capacity Schools as Variance reports building organisations Systems & processes Decision making Effective teaching Stakeholders capability
[Figure 2] The changing emphasis of school review in New Zealand (Adapted from Cheng and Mok, 2008)
5. Current innovations in school review
The current differentiated review approach is based on the theoretical concept of complementary evaluation (Mutch, date) and is more responsive to the context of each review. The approach allows for flexibility and brings together what the school has discovered in its own self review and what experienced evaluators from the Education Review Office find as they gather and analyse a wide range of evidence during the review process.
In order to reach this model of differentiated reviews, the Education Review Office undertook a large-scale development project. The Building Capacity in Evaluation project had two phases. The first phase had an internal focus and required ERO to conduct a needs analysis, determine priorities and put a strategy in place. The first priority was to expand the ability of reviewers, not just to conduct reviews, but to add value to the process by building evaluation capacity in schools. This would result in a better evaluative partnership. This phase involved intensive professional development for reviewers, selecting and disseminating examples of good practice, trialling innovative practices, and finally, designing the differentiated review methodology. Once this phase was well underway, a parallel process engaged external participants (schools, school leaders, Boards of Trustees, teacher unions, principals associations, parent organisations, and other education agencies) in understanding the reasons for the changes, the body of literature
underpinning the changes, and how to improve school self review so that schools could work with ERO in a complementary manner.
The differentiated approach is based on the following principles: It will follow an inquiry and evidence-based process; be responsive to the history and context of each setting; the process will be transparent, collaborative and constructive; and ERO will include an evaluation capacity building function, in varying degrees according to the school’s needs, alongside its review process.
The first step in the development of the differentiated approach has been to determine the return time. In general, ERO has returned to every school on a three year cycle. In order to be more responsive, schools that are struggling to provide a high quality education to all their students and whose self review is limited will receive a return visit from ERO in 1 year (or 2 years if the school has begun to set improvements in place). The majority of schools, those that are catering well for their students and whose self review is effective, will receive their next visit on the regular on three year cycle. Schools that have a sound review history, whose students are performing well, and whose self review is rigorous might only be returned to in 4 or 5 years. The percentages of schools over the past 12 months to fit each category have been: 1 year return (9%), 2 year return (11%), 3 year return (70%) and 4-5 year return (10%). The following diagram (Figure 3) shows how the complementary process responds to the different capabilities of the schools.
Schools sustaining high quality performance and continuous Schools operating well with improvement Schools experiencing established processes of through effective self difficulties with very self review limited self review review
The next step in the development of the differentiated approach is to do things differently when ERO returns to a school. Each of the return categories has its own review process. When ERO determines that a school will receive a 1 or 2 year return, this signals that it will become part of the longitudinal approach. The first step is to arrange for an action planning workshop. ERO will
facilitate this workshop and invite the local Ministry of Education team (as they will provide funding and on-going support), the school leadership team, the Board of Trustees, and other school staff or community personnel, as is appropriate for that school. The workshop participants will work through the review report from ERO, articulate the priorities, determine the best approach, request support, allocate responsibilities, plan the timeframe and determine the success criteria. The school will report regularly to ERO and receive visits as necessary until the timing of their next formal review. ERO’s role is to facilitate only. The school needs to be responsible for developing its own self review processes so that it can monitor its own progress, clarify any future problems and develop the capability to address them.
For schools that are on the 3 year return cycle, the process is more focused on co-constructing the review design and focus. The school sets the scene and together the ERO reviewers and school leadership determine the data sources and data gathering strategies, build the evaluative evidence, and synthesise the findings. To prepare schools for this approach, ERO has run a series of self review workshops around the country. They have been well-received and schools report being better prepared for and more confident in engaging with the ERO review teams.
We have not yet returned to a 4-5 year return school but we are planning an approach that has the school prepare an case which highlights the analysis of the achievement of their students, the rigour of their self review, the evidence-based nature of their decision making and their programme of continuous self improvement. ERO’s role will be more about digging deeper into the claims the school makes to see if these stand up to scrutiny and whether ERO feels confident that the school can sustain these achievements, developments and improvements over the long term.
6. A strengths-based approach
One aim of this presentation was to use the case of New Zealand, and self review in particular, to illustrate a strength-based approach to educational innovation. New Zealand’s ability to enact educational innovations swiftly and with little resistance is because of the size of the population, a single education system, no intermediate layer between the Ministry and the individual schools, a general consensus about the goals of education and how these can be achieved, a high level of trust between the parties, and a history of innovation, flexibility, responsiveness, and localised decision making.
Each education system has its own unique history and features. A strengths-based approach begins by analysing the existing conditions then strategising how to maximise leverage from the features that support innovation. Here is a possible set of questions to guide such analysis:
1. What are the features (values, beliefs, assumptions, histories, traditions, events, policies) that policymakers, educators and the general public in this country see as key to underpinning the current state of education? 64
2. How is the system viewed from outside? 3. What are the strengths of the system? 4. Where could improvements be made? 5. What are the priorities? 6. Which features support innovation? 7. Which might hinder innovation? 8. How could innovations be adapted to build on the identified strengths? 9. Which are the features of the system that must be maintained at all costs? 10. Which features could be changed without disturbing the overall integrity of the system? 11. What are some important innovations that have already been put in place? 12. Why were these successful? 13. What conditions that made these successful are still in place or could be reinstated easily? 14. What can be learned from situations that were unsuccessful? 15. What mechanisms are already in place that could enhance innovation? 16. What ideas and experiences from other countries can make a useful contribution to this analysis? 17. Who are the innovators and change makers? 18. What can be gleaned from their knowledge and experience? 19. Who needs to be informed, consulted and/or engaged? 20. What will success look like?
7. Conclusion
In this presentation, I have put educational innovation into a theoretical context and used the case of New Zealand to illustrate some key points. The theoretical framework highlighted that school systems are at different places in their development. In order to move from an inequitable, fragmented system to a self-sustaining autonomous one, countries tend to move through a series of stages – from fragmentation to contextualisation, revitalisation and self actualisation. Moving too quickly between stages or missing stages altogether could result in limited success because the right conditions might not be in place. Systems at the revitalisation and self-actualisation stages are best placed to embed further educational innovations. Analysing the conditions for implementing these innovations is best undertaken from a strengths-based approach that aligns with the unique and successful features of the current system. This all takes time and careful consideration but ultimately the benefits go far beyond education to make our countries and our world better places.
Bishop, R., Berryman, M., Cavanagh, T., & Teddy, L. (2007). Te Kotahitanga Phase 3 – Whanaungatanga: Establishing a culturally responsive pedagogy of relations in mainstream secondary school classrooms. Report to the Ministry of Education. Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Education.
Cheng, Y. & Mok, M. (2008). What effective classroom: Towards a paradigm shift. School Effectiveness and School Improvement 19 (4), 365-385. Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Author. Mutch, C. (2009, December). Complementary evaluation. Paper presented to the Aotearoa New Zealand Evaluation Association. Manukau City, New Zealand. Mutch, C . & Ninomiya, A. (2010, May). A conceptual framework for exploring educational system development. Paper presented to the Pacific Circle Consortium Conference, Ashland, USA. Ninomiya, A. & Mutch, C. (2008). Editorial. Journal of International Co-operation in Education 11 (1), 7-22. UMR Research. (2009). Annual review: Mood of the Nation. Wellington, New Zealand: Author.
1. Infusing 21st Century Skills into the PreK-12 Curriculum Peter J. Noonan (Fairfax Country Public Schools, USA)
Peter J. Noonan Fairfax County Public Schools, USA
“Children in this country must be provided an education that more than adequately prepares them for citizenship in the society and world they will soon inherit." (Schukar, 1993)1
Global education is essential to students developing the knowledge and skills necessary for college readiness, future employment, and successful relationships in an increasingly interdependent and pluralistic society. The challenge is to establish this 21st century understanding while still appropriately preparing students for high- stakes state testing in the core subject areas. Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) has met this challenge by incorporating technology into meaningful and authentic classroom learning experiences, using an instructional framework known as the Global Awareness Technology Project (GATP). This framework allows teachers to foster students’ understanding of the interrelationship of countries, cultures, and people globally, while integrating student work in such areas as reading, writing, and the geo-sciences. The design of the project is intended to prepare students to participate meaningfully as global citizens, both while they are in school and after graduation. The present paper summarizes how FCPS met this challenge by integrating technology, student teamwork, global awareness, and core subject learning into a unified instructional strategy.
1. Background – Responding to 21st Century Demands
In 2006, the Fairfax County School Board adopted a set of Student Achievement Goals (SAGs) intended to reflect the values of the community and to prepare students for the 21st century. These goals included student accomplishment in core academic areas, essential life skills, and experiences demonstrating responsibility to the community. The goals also reflected recent research into the preparation children need today for success in the emergent global community.
The Partnership for the 21st Century, for example, has stated that today’s students need to be able to:
1 Schukar, R. (1993, Winter). Controversy in global education: Lessons for teacher educators. Theory. Into Practice, 32(1), 52-57. 69
z Know when it is appropriate to listen and when to speak z Conduct themselves in a respectable, professional manner
Work Effectively in Diverse Teams z Respect cultural differences and work effectively with people from a range of social and cultural backgrounds z Respond open-mindedly to different ideas and values z Leverage social and cultural differences to create new ideas and increase both innovation and quality of work2
Other research points to the importance of establishing students’ “perspective consciousness.” Perspective consciousness in the context of global education means that each student has an awareness of, and appreciation for, the worldview that they bring to a situation. They also understand the worldview of others they encounter. Moreover, with that perspective students understand that individual viewpoints are not universally shared, but are created from a “complex puzzle of conscious and subconscious opinions, ideas, evaluations, and conceptions … shaped by the ethnicity, religions, differences in ages and sexes, and even social status of the person.”3
2. The Challenge
However, the accountability movement – the associated state of Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) testing and federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) sanctions – have resulted in a laser-like focus on the tested curriculum, that is on English and mathematics. The resulting “high-stakes” environment has led to:
“…the failure of some global educators to provide balance in instructional strategies, and the failure of some global educators to provide balance in curriculum development, the selection of resource material, and classroom instruction.”4
This concern can also be articulated as an obsolete mindset where compartmentalization of the curriculum leads to a narrow set of student competencies. It is at odds with the notion of an integrated and interdisciplinary approach to thinking, work products, and accountable outcomes. Teachers are thus allowed to believe that if they integrate science and technology, for example,
2 Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (2010). Retrieved October 2, 2010, from http://www.p21.org/route21/index.php
3 Van Reken, R. & Rushmore, S. (Winter 2009) Thinking globally when teaching locally. Kappa Delta Pi. 60-68
4 Schukar, R. (1993, Winter). Controversy in global education: Lessons for teacher educators. Theory. Into Practice, 32(1), 52-57. 70
they will have less time for teaching English literacy. This leads to the suggestion that educators must make a choice between developing academic excellence in the traditional core curriculum versus fostering the critical thinking, reasoning, and technological competencies known as 21st century skills.5 Consequently, global education initiatives in FCPS have been challenged by staff for many of the same reasons locally as nationally.
In FCPS we believe that teachers need professional development to learn innovative and effective strategies for integrating a global education encompassing 21st century skills within the mandated state curriculum. To that end, technology offers a myriad of possibilities for accomplishing this goal across all disciplines, particularly in the content of social studies.6
3. The FCPS Response
FCPS’ response to the challenge was to develop an instructional strategy fostering students’ understanding of the interrelationship of countries, cultures, and people globally, while integrating student work in such areas as reading, writing, and the geo-sciences. The Global Awareness Technology Project (GATP), developed by the FCPS Social Studies team, scaffolds and supports students’ thinking to promote a rich and dynamic understanding of the larger and interconnected world. This project is now part of the 5th grade curriculum and has fundamentally taken our division out of the dichotomous debate outlined above. “It's not a question of content versus skills—it's about creating challenging, profoundly engaging, and authentic educational experiences that produce lifelong learners.”7 This notion has been exciting to our schools and also has created an experience that we may leverage into the future.
4. The GATP
Elementary Social Studies Specialists worked with division administrators and teachers collaboratively to create student project choices that will enable students to meet the School Board goal to demonstrate global awareness. This project also requires the use of information and communication technology to create, access, and distribute the information learned. While it is difficult to predict what specific skills will be required for the future, it is already clear that the new economy requires skills embodying all manner of information and communications technologies.
5 Reimers, F (September, 2009) Leading for global competency. Educational Leadership. 67, (1).
6 Crawford, E. & Kirby, M. (January, 2008) What is global awareness education and why is it important. Journal of Curriculum and Instruction, 2,(1). 7 Hersh, R. (September, 2009) A well-rounded education for a flat world. Educational Leadership. 67(1). 50- 53 71
Appropriate essential questions were developed, and projects were designed to focus student work on addressing them. A number of choices were created allowing students to select projects that matched their interests, multiple intelligences, and learning styles. Unlike multiple choice assessments, these projects do not limit a child’s ability to show knowledge learned or to exceed expectations. While not explicitly stated in the project, students are encouraged to explore and complete projects individually or in small groups of up to four students. The belief is that fostering group process skills is yet another way for students to develop 21st century skills.
Project support, in the form of graphic organizers, supplemental resources, and added information suggestions, are posted for teachers as part of their web-based professional development plans. Teachers have flexibility on the timeline for project implementation. Many select completion during the second school term, with the expectation that all projects will be finished by the end of each school year.
The GATP is driven by eight essential questions that focus students on their work and encourage them to integrate multi-disciplinary thinking. The questions also require students to develop both content knowledge and specific skills, integrating both seamlessly.
Question #1- How has one culture’s relationship to the world changed over time? (with a focus on interrelationships)
Question #2- What impact does geography have on a culture? (with a focus on interdependence or interrelationships)
Question #3- What can you learn about cultures based on their art? (Alternate Version: How has one culture’s art forms changed over time, how has the present art form been impacted by the ancient art form?)
Questions #4- How do leaders of yesterday and today compare? (Alternate Version: How does the leadership impact the culture’s relationship with the world?)
Question #6- How have governments changed over time? (Alternate Versions: Why do cultures create governments? How does the government of a culture impact the relationship with the rest of the world?)
Question #7- How does “literature” demonstrate the similarities and differences of cultures? (Alternate version: What conclusions can you draw about cultures based on their literature?)
Questions #8- How have mathematics and/or science achievements of classical cultures affected your life today?
Students choose and answer an essential question about cultures of the world and complete a project showing knowledge gained about how the selected countries and cultures are interdependent with each other. Technology is be used for research, gathering data, and/or communicating the information. Projects are assessed using the criteria shown in Table 1 - below.
z Ancient cultures depended on each other (interdependence). z How different ancient cultures gained ideas and innovations from each other (interrelationships). z How modern cultures learned from ancient cultures (interrelationships).
z Researching one of the eight essential questions and present their understandings. z Choosing any culture from the 5th grade POS or a culture of interest to demonstrate their knowledge.
z Using software-based organizational tools to capture, organize and analyze information. z Using internet based resources to find information. z Using technology-based presentation tools to prepare a final presentation. z Patterns of Thinking Research Questions: z After completing the research, the students will be able to answer the 3 guiding research questions to draw conclusions about the interdependence/interrelationships of countries and cultures around the world. z Using the culture(s) the student studied, students should be able to appropriately articulate the following though a presentation: 1. How is ______similar to/different from ______? 2. How were ______and ______related? 3. How does ______influence ______/modern culture?
5. Conclusion
At the end of a four- year process of development, implementation, and assessment it is evident that project based learning that integrates 21st century skills with state mandated curriculum 73
creates the notion of the beauty of “and” vs. the tyranny of “or.” Our teachers, through quality professional development, have learned skills through the content of social studies that can be extrapolated and transferred to other content which will allow us to successfully build curricular structures to ensure our students effectively communicate, problem solve, think critically, and be competitive in the global world which they live.
(3) (2) (1) Understands -Defines in detail the -Defines the characteristics - Attempts to or does Relationships characteristics of the chosen of the chosen subtopic(s) not define the subtopic(s) characteristics of the chosen subtopic(s)
-Explains similarities and -Identifies similarities or -Attempts to or does
differences of the chosen differences of the chosen not identify subtopic(s). subtopic(s) similarities or differences of the chosen subtopic(s). -Identifies and analyzes -Identifies multiple factors -Attempts to or does multiple factors that that influence not identify factors influence interdependence interdependence or that influence or interrelationships interrelationships interdependence or interrelationships Draws -Summarizes by stating the -Summarizes by stating a -Attempts to Conclusions central idea and including central idea or including summarize or does supporting details supporting details not summarize
-Formulates and defends a -Formulates a judgment -Formulates a judgment based on evidence based on evidence judgment without evidence or does not make a judgment
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Session 6 Innovations in Technology & Learning II
1. The Four-C Model of Creativity James C. Kaufman (California State University at San Bernardino, USA)
2. Frontier in Education: Fostering Potential for Highly Able Students Kyungbin Park (Kyungwon University, Korea)
The Educational Innovation for 21st Century: Sharing Visions and Experiences
8 The Four-C Model of Creativity
James C. Kaufman California State University at San Bernardino, USA
Currently, most investigations of creativity tend to take one of two directions. The first direction is a focus on eminent creativity. The goals are often to learn about creative genius and discuss which creative works may last forever (e.g., Simonton, 1994). Creative greatness may be studied by analyzing the lives of well-known creators, or interviewing renowned individuals, or by studying people who excel at high levels on creativity measures. These types of studies and theories are typically referred to as studying Big-C creativity. The other predominant thrust of work in the field looks more at everyday creativity (Richards, 1990), such as those creative activities in which the average person may participate each day (e.g., creatively arranging family photos in a scrapbook; combining left over Italian and Chinese food to make a tasty, new fusion of the two cuisines; or coming up with a creative solution to a complex scheduling problem at work). Most studies that use college students or children as participants focus on everyday creativity. The theories and studies along this line of thinking is usually said to focus on little-c.
On one hand, Big-little distinctions are helpful for understanding and appreciating the remarkable and lasting contributions made by mavericks in some domain while also recognizing the more incremental (but still important) contributions made by everyday people. It is certainly preferable to have this distinction (as opposed to grouping all studies of creativity together without acknowledging these differences). Still, even with Big-little distinctions, the more nuanced levels of creativity remain. For instance, elsewhere we (Beghetto and Kaufman, 2007) have argued that the Big-C / little-c distinction used in creativity research has impeded studies aimed at examining the more intrapersonal (and developmental) nature of creativity. In an effort to address this limitation, we developed a new category of creativity called mini-c creativity.
The mini-c construct (discussed in more detail later) highlights the personal (Runco, 1996; Vygotsky, 1967/2004) and developmental (Cohen, 1989) aspects of creativity. The inclusion of mini-c creativity in our model is aimed at addressing the problem of lumping non-eminent forms of creativity into the little-c category. For example, the traditional Big-C / little-c dichotomy would classify into little-c both the 8th grade art student (who learned a new and personally meaningful use for a particular shadowing technique, albeit one that may already be well-known in the art world) with the more accomplished amateur artist (who has won a local competition for her unique and adaptive shadowing techniques that build on traditional uses of the technique). The construct
8 Condensed from: Kaufman, J. C., & Beghetto, R. A. (2009). Beyond big and little: The Four C Model of Creativity. Review of General Psychology, 13, 1-12. 77
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of mini-c is useful for recognizing and distinguishing between the genesis of creative expression (mini-c) and the more readily recognizable expressions of creativity (little-c).
Similarly, as will be discussed later, the gap between Big-C and little-c creativity often is obscured in conceptions of creativity that rely on the Big-C / little-c distinction. Consequently, highly accomplished (but not yet eminent) forms of creative expression are (mis)categorized into the little-c (or even Big-C) category. For instance, the accomplished jazz musician who makes a living playing jazz (but clearly is no John Coltrane) might be put into same category as the high school jazz student who plays (passable) jazz in school concerts and the occasional birthday party, wedding, or family gathering. We believe that a further distinction needs to be made to account for what we call professional creativity (or Pro-c). A model of creativity is needed that takes into consideration the divisions, gradations, and gaps between Big and little-c.
1. Eminent Accomplishments: Big-C approaches
Big-C creativity consists of clear-cut, eminent creative contributions. Simonton’s works on creative genius (e.g., 1994, 1999, 2004) are an example of studying Big-C creativity. Typical creators who might be studied are eminent classical and opera composers whose works have lasted centuries (e.g., Simonton, 1977, 1998). A qualification for study might be the winning of a prestigious award or being included in an encyclopedia. Examples of Big-C creativity might be winners of the Pulitzer Prize in fiction (such as Robert Olen Butler, Michael Chabon, Oscar Hijuelos, Toni Morrison, and Anne Tyler) or people who have entries in the Encyclopedia Britannica longer than 100 sentences (such as Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Franklin Roosevelt, Leo Tolstoy, and Queen Victoria).
2. Everyday Innovation: little-c approaches
The other predominant approach to creativity is more focused on everyday activities, such as those creative actions in which the non-expert may participate each day (e.g., Richards, Kinney, Benet, & Merzel, 1988). The theories and studies along this line of thinking usually are said to focus on little-c. Areas of research that focus on little-c creativity often are aimed at illustrating how creative potential is widely distributed (see Runco & Richards, 1998; Kaufman & Baer, 2006; Sternberg, Grigorenko, & Singer, 2004, for reviews). Some examples of this type of research include investigations of layperson perceptions of creativity. Layperson theories of creativity tend to de-emphasize analytical abilities, which are usually associated more with IQ tests, and emphasize such characteristics as unconventionality, inquisitiveness, imagination, and freedom (Sternberg, 1985). Eastern conceptions, much more than Westerners, value the characteristic of “goodness,” including “moral goodness,” “contribution to the society,” as well as the “connections between old and new knowledge” (Niu & Sternberg, 2002; Rudowicz & Yue, 2000; Wu, 1994). According to standard Chinese traditions, a great person must not only satisfy his or her own needs as a human being but must also be devoted to other people and the interests of the society as a whole (Niu & Sternberg, 2006).
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3. Transformative Learning: mini-c creativity
Although recent conceptual and empirical work on little-c creativity has focused on expanding the awareness and acceptance of everyday conceptions of creativity, many ambiguities remain. As we have discussed, people who are very creative but not at the Big-C level are considered to be at the little-c level. People who score high on the Torrance tests might also be considered high on little-c, just as those people who produce works judged as more creative than their peer groups. Yet where does that leave the creative insights and interpretations involved in the learning?
Unfortunately, the creative insights experienced by students as they learn a new concept or make a new metaphor is overlooked in the world of little-c. This is why we proposed a new category, a “little-c” for the little-c category. This category, which we called mini-c (Beghetto & Kaufman, 2007), was designed to encompass the creativity inherent in the learning process.
Mini-c is defined as the novel and personally meaningful interpretation of experiences, actions, and events (Beghetto & Kaufman, 2007). This concept follows Runco’s (1996; 2004) description of “personal creativity;” it is also similar to Niu and Sternberg’s (2006) notion of “individual creativity,” as well as developmental conceptions of creativity (Beghetto & Plucker, 2006; Cohen, 1989; Sawyer et al. 2003; Vygotsky, 1967/2004)). Central to the definition of mini-c creativity is the dynamic, interpretive process of constructing personal knowledge and understanding within a particular socio-cultural context.
4. Professional Expertise: Pro-c creativity
In the previous section we discussed how the inclusion of mini-c in the traditional little-c and Big- C dichotomy helps to resolve the issue of little-c being too general a concept to account for the genesis and development of creativity. Still, the issue remains that there is not an appropriate category for individuals who are professional creators, but have not reached eminent status. For example, although the little-c category is useful for the everyday creativity of the home cook who can creatively combine ingredients to develop unique and tasty meals and the Big-C category is appropriate for chefs who have revolutionized the profession (e.g., James Beard, Marie-Antoine Carême, Ruth Graves Wakefield), what about the professional chef who makes a living developing creative entrées (clearly surpassing the creativity of the innovative home cook) but has not yet attained (or may never attain) Big-C status?
The need for posthumous evaluations and historical contexts creates a great problem in research: It is nearly impossible to conduct a study of living people in Big-C. There are certainly people who would seem to qualify (Bob Dylan, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Stephen Hawking, Margret Atwood), but it would still be a guess. The element of posterity in most conceptions of Big-C is too strong. A theatergoer in the 1930’s, for example, would have been able to see a variety of Pulitzer Prize-winning plays, such as You Can’t Take It With You, Men in White, Our Town, and Alison’s House. The first and third places have become standards, performed more than 70 years hence by school and community theaters across the country. The second and fourth 79
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have been mostly forgotten by history. Yet by the day’s standard, they were all considered outstanding. We simply cannot be certain which works are “merely” of the day or are for all time.
It is these types of scenarios that have led us to therefore propose an additional category, which we call Pro-c. Pro-c represents the developmental and effortful progression beyond little-c (but that has not yet attained Big-C status). Anyone who attains professional-level expertise in any creative area is likely to have attained Pro-c status. Not all working professionals in creative fields will necessarily reach Pro-c (a professional actor, for example, may make a good living on soap operas but may not necessarily be Pro-c level creative in his or her craft). Similarly, some people may reach Pro-c level without being able to necessarily quit day jobs; some areas of creative expression may not provide enough monetary sustenance to allow financial freedom from other responsibilities. Yet many “amateur” artists are being creative at the Pro-c level, even if it is not their primary means of support.
The concept of Pro-c is consistent with the expertise acquisition approach of creativity (Ericsson, 1996; Ericsson, Roring, & Nandagopal, 2007). This approach suggests that prominent creators require 10 years of preparation in a domain of expertise to reach world-class expert-level status.
The level that takes (at least) 10 years to reach is not the level of Big-C. This level, which requires (usually formal) training and some specific achievement (such as a published article or performed play or exhibited painting), can be reached by hundreds and hundreds of people in a given domain. You can spend hours in PsycInfo reading perfectly good and important articles written by psychologists who would not come close to reaching Big-C creativity. The Big-C/little-c not only shortchanges burgeoning creators; it also fails to truly acknowledge a solid, professional creative contribution. In much the same way that little-c standards are too demanding for mini-c level creators, so too are they not demanding enough for Pro-c contributions.
5. The Four C Model
We see the Four C Model as representing a developmental trajectory of creativity in a person’s life. We are not suggesting that the model represents a “lock-step” developmental progression in which Big-C creators necessarily pass through each category (or “stage”) on their journey to becoming an eminent creator. Indeed, there are numerous examples of Big-C creators who, after developing the necessary domain relevant skills, spent very little time or even skipped the Pro-c level of creative accomplishment (e.g., Einstein was not a professional physicist, but rather working in the Swiss Patent Office, when he made some of his most profound, Big-C contributions to Physics). Instead, the model offers a framework for conceptualizing and classifying various levels of creative expression and points to potential paths of creative maturation. For instance, early in life, a typical creator might be beginning to play with his or her creativity and exploring mini-c as he or she discovers new things. Although we do not see any specific age restrictions, most people will first experience mini-c early in life. Mini-c can be encouraged by teachers, parents, and mentors to help creativity grow.
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After repeated attempts and encouragements, the creator might then reach the realm of little-c. Some people may happily remain at the little-c level for their entire lives; others may advance in some areas and remain at the little-c in other areas (e.g., an accomplished chef who has advanced to the Pro-c level of cooking may enjoy a little-c level of writing poetry or landscaping his garden). As part of this process of enjoying creativity in everyday life, the creator may stumble upon the domain that he or she feels an initial pull of passion. With years of acquired expertise and advanced schooling, the creator may move onto the stage of Pro-c. Although he or she will still have mini-c insights, the creator has now achieved professional-level status and is capable of working on problems, projects, and ideas that affect the field as a whole. The creator may continue to create at the Pro-c level throughout her or his entire life, with specific peaks occurring at different ages based on the domain (e.g., Simonton, 1997). After many years have come and gone, the creator may achieve a lasting Big-C contribution to a field (e.g., the Nobel Prize) or the creator may have passed away, and history will make the final judgment as to whether he or she has entered the pantheon of Big-C or is long-forgotten.
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Frontier in Education : Fostering Potential in Highly Able Students
Kyungbin Park Kyungwon Universlty, Korea
1. Why Gifted/Talented Education?
Regardless of political and economic systems, in highly developed and industrialized nations and societies, it is necessary to develop the underlying talents and nature of the people. To do this leaders and appropriate programs for training are required. Such leaders' visions decide not only the destiny of the nations but the future of mankind.
Taking such a point of view, education of the able students is not merely an educational problem of the nation, but is one of the most important issues facing our society. Many countries educate their highly able students under the title of gifted/talented education. The gifted are considered as a valuable human resource that help enhance the standard of living and promise better life for the majority of the citizens. Currently many countries worldwide are concentrating their efforts on maximizing the potential of their gifted and talented children.
What do we mean by giftedness? Giftedness is a complex of intelligence(s), aptitude, talents, skills, expertise, motivation, and creativity that lead the individual to productive performance in areas or domains or disciplines valued by the cultures and time (Feldhusen, 1997).
The attitude towards gifted children during the earlier years was molded by the false notion that they required no particular attention, and they would excel in what ever they are good at all by themselves. The most famous example often cited is Einstein, who experienced considerable difficulties during his grammar school days, but showed his talent eventually.
But currently, challenging and promoting the highly able has become an increasingly important topic of educational policy in many countries.
In this presentation, gifted education in Korea will be explored along with discussions for future educational directions.
A gifted child is defined as a person who possesses extra ordinary talent and requires special education that will nurture his/her innate abilities. (Clause 1, Article 2 of the Gifted Education Development Law)
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This definition also includes children who do not show immediate signs of giftedness but do show the potential for accelerated development if placed in a special education program.
The purpose of gifted education is to develop the productivity, morality and self-directed learning abilities of children who show extraordinary potential, thereby giving them a better sense of self and ultimately helping them to become exemplary citizens who contribute positively to society. Like handicapped children, gifted children deserve the right to be educated in a way that accommodates their unique ability levels and psychological characteristics. To be educated according to one’s ability and aptitude is a fundamental human right.
Each citizen has the equal right to be educated based on his/her abilities. (Clause 1, Article 31 Constitutional Law)
Gifted education can offer children with exceptional ability from disadvantaged circumstances, the chance to maximize their potential and build their characters in the educational mainstream, no matter what their socioeconomic backgrounds. Therefore, we must make an effort to identify and educate gifted children as soon as possible if we are to enable our children to realized their potential to the fullest and live a fulfilling life and to compete with other advanced countries in this increasingly globalizing world.
2. Gifted Education in Korea
2.1 Gifted Education Policy and Laws
In 1999, the Gifted Education Development Law was established for two reasons: 1) to provide individualized education to exceptionally talented children and allow them to fully develop their skills, and 2) to nurture excellent minds that will add to Korea’s strength as a global competitor.
The law contains recommendations regarding the gifted education selection process, methods of instruction, administration procedures, and so on.
2.2 Development in Gifted Education
2.2.1 The Quickening Period (1980's) Test for identifying gifted students is created, and a school specializing in the sciences is founded. ▫ Schools experiment with gifted education: general high schools start offering advanced level classes in each grade for foreign languages, science, and other subjects (1981) ▫ Gyeonggi Science High School opens (1983) ▫ Office of Gifted Education is established at the Korean Educational Development Institute (1987)
2.2.2 The Settling Period (1990's) Specialized high schools emerge, and gifted education basically takes a form of acceleration. ▫ The Korean Society for the Gifted is founded (1991)
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▫ Local offices of education oversee the administration of acceleration programs for the gifted (1996) ▫ Gifted students are able to skip grades and graduate early (1996) ▫ The Center for Gifted Education is created at the Korean Educational Development Institute (1996) ▫ Universities adopt gifted science programs for pre-college students (1998)
2.2.3 The Stablizing Period(2000's) Gifted education becomes more structured, and a national comprehensive developmental plan for gifted education is launched. ▫ The Gifted Education Promotion Law is passed (2000) ▫ Gifted Classes are offered at some school sites as extra classes, and local offices of education operate gifted education centers (2002) ▫ The Comprehensive Plan (2003-2007) for the Gifted Education Development Law is established (2002) ▫ The Busan Science High School is converted as a School for the Gifted (Korea Science Academy) (2003) ▫ The Gifted Education Development Law is amended ▫ The enforcement ordinance of the Gifted Education Development Law is amended ▫ The Seoul Science High School is converted as the Gifted School (Seoul Science High School) (2009)
Gifted education in Korea can be characterized by a variety of approaches: Special High Schools for the Gifted and Talented, after-school enrichment programs in elementary and junior high schools, acceleration, enrichment programs by gifted education centers affiliated with schoolboards and universities, and cyber gifted education system. The subject areas in gifted education was centered mostly on mathematics and the sciences (approximately 80% in 2009). Recently, attention is being paid to further develop programs in foreign languages, arts, social sciences, and other subjects. Currently movement for creative - character education is launched, with the vision for enhancing a well rounded, high achieving individuals for leading the society in the future.
3. Measures for the Promotion of Highly Able Students
3.1 Public Awareness
1) One of the most urgent tasks is to achieve public awareness of the justification and nessecity for education of the gifted, particularly among parents and teachers and policy makers. Gifted education is not against equality of educational principles but is based on the idea of "education according to one's ability" which underlies the educational philosophy of democracy.
2) Clarification that early intellectual education (given in early childhood), preparatory education for entrance examinations to upper level school or universities, are different from gifted education by it's nature. 84
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3.2 Schools
The right place for challenging and promoting highly able students is in the public education sector, namely the school system. Offering differentiated curriculum in terms of teaching methods and performance demands can raise the motivation and aspirations of the students. Gifted students are reported to spend more than half of their time "waiting" for others to catch up (Clark. 2008).
The schools must be convinced of the necessity of gifted education as well as be willing to recognize special talent at an early stage and to develop this in a professional manner.
3.3 Research Efforts
Decision makers and experts in all fields of society must be aware and willing to do scientific research and implement practical measures in the area of promotion of the gifted education. Related research must be conducted, such as in identifying, program planning and implementation, teacher training, counseling and guiding the highly able students so they can realize their potential. High ability cannot grow by itself, but need to be nurtured. Effective methods and accurate results from various areas in education need to be adopted in the gifted/talented area.
It is the task of all professionals in the field of education to look into the state of affairs in gifted/talented education, as well as education in general, and work together to better the educational climate of our able youngsters. There is much work to be done in this field. Experts in the field of education can help in establishing a standard in philosophical orientations, target populations and identification processes, planning and developing programs, clarifying needs and conditions of all those involved, administrative mandate and leadership, program models, curriculum differentiations, selecting and training teachers, in-service training, funding and financial issues, formative and summative program evaluations, and much more.
4. Looking Forward in Education for the Highly Able
Talents emerge from general ability as a confluence of genetic dispositions, home and school experiences, and student's unique interests and learning styles. We as educators have an obligation to formulate the best environment for our students as we possibly can. Many issues need to be addressed in the area of gifted education such as expansion of the number of students to be provided with enrichment programs, specialization of gifted education programs for the gifted, expansion of fields for gifted education, securing strong connections of educational programs between high schools and universities, promotion of qualified teachers for the gifted, programs, and provision of financial and administrative support for research and development in gifted education.
It is a well known fact that the revenue from one movie made by such gifted artist as Steven Spielberg is more than that of 1,000,000 exported Hyundai cars. Korea is also known for parent's high interest and aspirations for their chid's education. By establishing quality programs geared 85
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toward various levels of ability, it could be possible to stream the flow of interest and funds from private sector into the public education sector.
In addition it is worth noting that programs and concepts originally developed in gifted education programs are adopted and adjusted to benefit the general education curricula. An example of such a phenomena is creativity. Research in the are of gifted education is not limited to just that area, but rather works towards advancing other areas of education.
Another point worth noting is the movement toward confluence. It is not difficult to see instances where more than one subject is integrated into one program, and recently, the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Creativity has launched a project to increase art time into various subjects in the schools, and also integrate arts and sciences in our gifted programs. In short, research in the area for the highly able can benefit not only the gifted and talented, but also the education in general.
References
Clark, B. (2008). Growing up gifted: Developing the potential of children at home and at school (7th ed.,). Pearson Education, Inc,. Feldhusen, J. F. (1997). Educating teachers for work with talented youth. In N. Colangelo & G.A. Davis (Eds.), Handbook of gifted education (2nd ed.,). Boston:Allyn & Bacon. Constitutional Law (1948, revised in 1987) Gifted Education Promotion Law (2000). The Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (2009). Gifted Educational Statistics.
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Session 7 Innovations in Curriculum
1. Curriculum Management in Decentralized Schools in Japan Tanaka Toji (University of Tsukuba, Japan)
2. The 2009 National Curriculum: Can it Change Korean Education? Chaechun Gim (Yeungnam University, Korea)
The Educational Innovation for 21st Century: Sharing Visions and Experiences
Curriculum Management in Decentralized Schools in Japan
Toji Tanaka University of Tsukuba, Japan
Abstract
The main purpose of this research is to analyze the concept of curriculum management against the background of decentralization of school curriculum decision-making in Japan. In this paper, curriculum management with an emphasis on the education scene is examined, the necessary transition from the Plan- Do-Check-Action (PDCA) cycle to the Check-Action-Plan-Do (CAPD) cycle is discussed, and hypostasis of school curriculum innovation is investigated. Special emphasis is given to the important role that curriculum evaluation has for the improvement of teaching standards through educational practice.
Keywords: Curriculum Management, School-Based Curriculum Development (SBCD), Plan-Do-Check- Action (PDCA) Cycle, Check-Action-Plan-Do (CAPD) Cycle, Curriculum Evaluation
1. Introduction
Several previous reforms of the school curriculum in Japan have paid close attention to and stipulated the relevant requirements for curriculum management, a concept that first emerged in a deliberation report published by the Japanese Central Council for Education (中教審) in January 2008. In terms of school curriculum development in Japan, this concept has a far-reaching significance.
When we consider children’s capacity and willingness to learn, course teaching in Japan’s schools needs to be improved, and therefore the meaning and method of developing curriculum management should be cognized and clarified. In the 1990s, Japan carried out education reform that had deregulation and decentralization at its core, which called for “self-managing schools”. However, in secondary education, because teachers lacked experience in curriculum innovation and because the teaching goal was defined as “preparing students for high school and even university”, such reform was out of favor with secondary education teachers and implementation did not go well. In fact, the negative attitude to curriculum development held by teachers in Japan is similar to that held by teachers in schools in China and Korea. Thus, education reform cannot simply impose curriculum innovation on teachers, but should begin with altering their negative attitude towards it.
In the early 1970s, the Center of Education Research Innovation (CERI) attached to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) put forward the notion of
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School-Based Curriculum Development (SBCD). Although there are some limitations regarding the implementation of SBCD in the East Asia region which operates a centralized administrative system, the innovative ideas of SBCD (e.g., that teachers in schools should be involved in curriculum development as a main task) are of value. From the latter half of the 1970s onwards, the Japanese government acculturated an SBCD educational pattern and put it into practice, completing the outline of curriculum standards in Japan.
To develop the curriculum, there needs to be improvement in teacher training (including on-the- job training; OJT) as well as innovation in the format and content of professional education practices. Under the influence of SBCD, curriculum management is the new educational notion by which curriculum development can, in actuality, be achieved by teachers in Japan. However, if curriculum management is to be implemented in schools, special emphasis should be given to curriculum evaluation.
2. Features of the Deliberation System for New Curriculum Standards in Japan
Before discussing the features of the deliberation system in detail, the definition of the system should be provided. In Japan, school curriculum (教育課程) means in general the schedule of educational activities for the year (年間指導計画), and more specifically, it refers to the National Standards of the course of study (学習指導要領) in Japan. In academic terms, curriculum (カリキュラム) has a broader meaning in that it is a consequence of total learning experiences, and the term is a pedagogical concept in curriculum studies. An understanding of the process of the National Standards of the course of study is also meaningful to any research in curriculum management. In January 2001, the Ministry of Education and the Science and Technology Department merged to create the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), which has come to be one of Japan’s most important central executive bodies.
MEXT
Suggestion Present Research Outputs Formulate “Course of Study” Operation of Council Research for improvement of curriculum
Offer Details Research Center for School Offer Details Central Council for Education, Curriculum Subdivision on Primary and Secondary Education,
Curriculum Council
[Figure 1] National Council and Administrative System on Curriculum reform in Japan (2003) 90
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A shown in Figure 1, various curriculum reform administrative organizations has been established with the following features and functions.
(1) The Central Council for Education, Subdivision on Primary and Secondary Education, Curriculum Council comprise a permanent organ. From the viewpoint of organizational structure, there is the Curriculum Council in the Elementary and Secondary Education Division. The major function of the Curriculum Council is deliberation and investigation of important affairs concerning the school curriculum.
(2) The Elementary and Secondary Education Division of MEXT has set up a specialized School Curriculum Section which now oversees the general affairs that used to be administered by the Primary School Section and the Junior-High and Senior-High School Section attached to the former Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (MESC). This newly founded Curriculum Section manages all of the items related to the school curriculum with full authority.
(3) The National Institute for Educational Research evolved to become the National Institute for Educational Policy Research, within which the Research Center for Curriculum was established to reinforce research and investigation into the school curriculum.
(4) To advance curriculum development and research, a limit to number of the pilot schools and special regions designated by MEXT was relaxed. The deregulation policy for curriculum experiments facilitates the development of various curricula at local level.
It is this system that has carried through decentralization up to the present in Japan. However, due to the recent change in political leadership from the Liberal Democratic Party to the Democratic Party of Japan, this system may undergo further changes in the future.
After 2001, the operations of the Curriculum Council have attached importance to the collection and analysis of data. In the face of criticism over a decline in students’ learning capabilities, MEXT implemented a new method to investigate “students’ learning situation and learning capabilities” in order to understand the situation objectively and to make timely and appropriate changes. In April 2007, MEXT investigated students in Grade 6 (primary school) and Grade 8 (junior-high school) on a national scale. Survey statistics provided MEXT with a thorough understanding of the circumstances in which the Curriculum National Standards were being implemented in Japanese schools. To advance the discussion on the contents of school curriculum, especially for the improvement of the Science, English, and National Language curricula, the Curriculum Council set up specialized sections (see Figure 2). With specialist researchers and teachers as members, the system of collective deliberation is spreading.
Through the above-mentioned survey of students’ learning situation and learning capabilities, MEXT crystallized the situation in schools, and then completed an “output performance evaluation” which advanced the development of curriculum management in each school. On the one hand, this output oriented approach to education is said to have a positive effect by ensuring students’ basic academic achievements, while on the other hand, critics argue that this approach creates excessive competition among schools. To understand the concept of curriculum management in a 91
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decentralized context, we will next look at the major theories and practices of curriculum management that Japanese schools are pursuing.
中央教育審議会 初等中等教育分 科会 教育課程部会:Central Council for Education, Subdivision on Primary and Secondary Education, Curriculum Council 小学校部会 Primary School Section
中学校部会
Junior-High School Section
高等学校部会
Senior-High School Section
教育課程企画特別部会 Special Section of School Curriculum Planning 国語専門部会 National Language Specialized Section
小学校・中学校社会専門部会 Primary and Junior-High Social Studies Specialized Section 高等学校地理歴史・公民専門部会 Senior-High Geography, History and Civics Specialized Section 算数・数学専門部会 Primary and Secondary Math Specialized Section 小学校・中学校理科専門部会 Primary and Junior-High Science Specialized Section 高等学校理科専門部会 Senior-High Science Specialized Section 外国語専門部会 Foreign Language Specialized Section 芸術専門部会 Arts Specialized Section 家庭、技術・家庭、情報専門部会 Home Economics, Technical Arts and Home Economics, and ICT Specialized Section 健康体育教育専門部会 Health and Physical Education Specialized Section 道徳教育専門部会 Moral Education Specialized Section 生活・総合的な学習の時間専門部会 Life and Comprehensive Learning Time Specialized Section 幼稚園教育専門部会 Kindergarten Education Specialized Section 特別支援教育専門部会 Special Support Education Specialized Section 産業教育専門部会 Industry Education Specialized Section
[Figure 2] Specialized Section of the Curriculum Council (2008)
3. Innovation Created by the Concept of Curriculum Management
The relationship between school management and the curriculum is akin to the relationship between hardware and software. The purpose of school management is to provide a suitable environment for implementing the curriculum. The Recommendation Report by the Central Education Council pointed out that in order to “give an assurance of quality in school education, it is very important to set up the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Action) cycle. Every school should put into 92
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effect the notion of curriculum management, which will keep improving the curriculum and teaching methodology through utilizing various types of teaching conditions sufficiently and appropriately, thereby clarifying effective teaching activities”.[1]
In Japanese education circles, the term “curriculum management” is not written in Chinese characters(教育課程経営), but is written in katakana(カリキュラムマネジメント). The concept of curriculum management is much broader than the meaning conveyed by the Chinese characters. The term “curriculum” was first used by the European university managers about 400 years ago; the original meaning was as “a course” in 1633 (etymological origin: run, Latin). Mainly Calvinists, they emphasized the strict standards of university courses. Management is a general- purpose concept in organizations. Essentially, in management, leaders help the organization’s members to achieve self-realization. Therefore, curriculum management in schools not only aims at promoting the self-realization of students, but also that of teachers.
Curriculum management used to be regarded as a paperwork exercise in educational administration in Japan, mainly working to make the documents submitted to the local education board on the schedule of educational activities for the year. Although this old type of curriculum management was necessary for making of documents, it caused the dysfunction in the school organization, such as that the connections between teachers working in different grades and subject departments were not tight enough.
To overcome the problems in school education and improve school performance, the Japanese government carried out education reforms in the 1990s. These reforms advocated the decentralization and deregulation of education, highlighted creative educational activities, and emphasized the notion of self-management in schools. The innovative idea of curriculum management from the perspective of its emphasis on the education scene became popular in Japan. Through the development of curriculum management in the 2000s, special emphasis has been placed on collaboration and cooperation between teachers, which is considered to be the original purpose behind the concept.
Especially in the local educational reform from the year 2000 which has tried developing the continuous curriculum for 6-15, the curriculum management between primary and junior-high school is the key to prompting teamwork among teachers. For example, in the case of education reform in Shinagawa Ward Tokyo, OJT in curriculum management was introduced from 2009. Mr. Wakatsuki Hideo, the Superintendent of Education of Shinagawa Ward and a well-known leader of local education reform, has been trying to spread curriculum management skills among teachers who are mid-level leaders. He believes that the innovative idea of curriculum management will change the long-established culture of schools and teachers in Japan.
4. Curriculum Management Emphasizes the Concept of “Organizational Innovation”
Why are schools so difficult to change as organizations? Why is it so difficult to advance education in the school organization? The reason is more than just the negative effect carrying 93
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over from the old educational system and school culture in Japan. When we undertake curriculum management in school, it is deemed important to analyze the surrounding context objectively and in detail. Close attention has therefore been paid to the notion of organizational innovation, to predict the likelihood of completing change.
The subdivisions existing in schools in terms of grades, classes, and academic subjects has meant that building mutual understanding and consensus among teachers has been hard to achieve. The teachers’ culture is a unique occupational culture created in school organizations. The negative effect of such culture leads to rigidity and confinement in an organization. Therefore, it is necessary to transform it, creating a positive perspective through effective measures. Success or failure of curriculum management is determined by how such measures are implemented and how teachers’ culture can subsequently be improved.
In my action-research, I found some cases that the teachers changed their old attitudes toward teaching via the students’ positive reactions to improvement in class and curriculum. This could be change commonly experienced by teachers worldwide. If this is indeed the case, it is important that curriculum management can be explained not only through theory but also evidence that improved teaching has a positive effect. In Japan, the evaluation results of the integrated learning curriculum provided verification that curriculum management is feasible in actual practice. As teachers can recollect teaching problems and confirm changes in their students’ learning capabilities, it is more realistic to improve the school curriculum by beginning with improving the quality of teaching.
Curriculum Management attempts to improve the curriculum through group instruction of teachers. Consequently, besides improving teaching practices, it also improves the performance of each unit and the plan for the academic year. From the perspective of classroom teaching, besides tackling teaching techniques, relevant research covered in curriculum management includes goal setting, content development, time organization, and other aspects of related to teaching plans.
The above points are confirmed with the findings by the joint case-studies of Dr. Shimizu Kokichi, Professor at Osaka University, regarding the interrelated organizational characteristics of the “Effective Schools” [2]. He pointed out the following “seven keys to raise the learning capability of students in the tough schools”: (1) stop the rough behavior of students, (2) constitute groups with mutual support and encouragement, (3) highlight the power of teamwork in curriculum management, (4) create a positive school culture which pays more attention to practice, (5) associate operations of the school with the community, (6) structure the educational system to give prominence to basic learning ability, and (7) emphasize systemic and efficient education administration in schools.[2] Generally speaking, the purpose of curriculum management which emphasizes “innovation” is to create a school culture that includes a strong and active teachers’ culture.
5. The Essence of Curriculum Management
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In the Dr. Nakadome Takeaki’s pioneering research on curriculum management, he defined it, “…activities to achieve the educational goal by maintaining the dynamic improvement cycle of the curriculum, which involves the educational content, teaching methods, and all the resources provided to schools. It is actualized under the decentralization movement in educational policy, and a positive school culture as the medium of organizational changes”.[3] He regarded curriculum management as an innovation process involving the curriculum, school culture, and organization management, and proposed the autonomous cycle of PDCA in schools.
The limits of school research in the U.S primarily emphasizing “effectiveness” gave rise to the theory which emphasizes “improvement”. The reason for the transition from “effects” to “improvement” in school research is because of the current situation in which the impact of school education on pupils’ academic achievement has proven to be disappointing; indeed, family factors have had a greater positive effect. Therefore, education researchers and administrators have come to realize that, compared with pursuing effective school education as a whole, it is more beneficial and is of greater consequence to explore ways in which to improve educational quality from inside the schools.
In recent years in Japan, after the results of National Students’ Achievement Tests became known, the guarantee of teaching quality and schools’ responsibility has again come under the spotlight. The main function of curriculum management is to improve the curriculum and teaching practices substantially. To observe the substantial aspect of curriculum, we need to realize the essence of the concept of curriculum.
The word “curriculum” derives from the Latin word currere means “run”, which was extended to mean “track”, then “learning course” and later “unity of learning experience”. From the perspective of the individual, “curriculum” primarily denotes a learning experience. Beyond that, the term has implications for standardization. The genesis of the term “curriculum” as it is known today occurred in European Protestant universities during the latter half of the 16th century and was used to define the requirements for graduation by making “prescribed courses” definite, and at the same time highlighted the rational and strict standards of curriculum that expressed the ideology of the organization.[4] Now once again, the term “curriculum management” denotes the organizational requirements for making substantive changes to the curriculum.
Starting as early as the late 1960’s, the concept of “hidden curriculum and experienced curriculum” which means the consequence of learning in school and classroom life has provided the basis of the new type of curriculum study. As a result, currently in Japan Society of Curriculum Study (JSCS), we set the four aspects of curriculum (system, plan, practice, and experience).[5]
(1) National Standards of School Curriculum: Course of Study in Japan (2) Schedule of educational activities for the year in local schools (3) Unit plan, syllabus, and teaching plan that teachers implement in practice (4) Students’ learning experience and the hidden curriculum
6. Curriculum Evaluation of the Check-Action-Plan-Do (CAPD) Cycle
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The PDCA cycle is used not only to improve the quality of an enterprise’s products and services, but also to instruct teachers and improve teaching in schools: the former is implemented through market research and customer satisfaction investigation, while in the latter teachers have to analyze the relative merits of the current curriculum through the data on the consequence and process of that curriculum.
Through such analysis, we could determine that CAPD is more important than PDCA in curriculum management. Firstly, in terms of current curriculum, it was found that the Check (C) and Action (A) stages were needed most, and secondly, any new curriculum is not developed from scratch, it generally involves the renewal or version up of existing curriculum, and as such, an evaluation of the current curriculum may be a pre-requisite for next curriculum change. The relationship between the C and A stages in curriculum evaluation is especially important. The reason for emphasizing the CAPD cycle is to elucidate how the learning environment influences the outcomes of learning. In this way, the pre-requisite of curriculum evaluation become clear. There are two key points in any evaluation of the curriculum: one is to establish goals that can be achieved and tested, the other is to investigate the level of attainment periodically.
There are two types of curriculum evaluation: goal-based and goal-free. While the former is a familiar concept, not much is known about the latter. Goal-free curriculum evaluation is also known as “third-party curriculum evaluation” which, for example, keeps a distance between the views of insiders, is not bound by goals, and pays attention to the satisfaction of education needs and the guarantee of suitable resources and learning environments; basically constituting curriculum evaluation undertaken from multiple perspectives.[6] To improve the objectivity of curriculum evaluation, the combination of goal-based and goal-free evaluations is indispensable. Therefore, it is crucial that adequate information and the data required for such evaluation is collected according to the plan.
Curriculum evaluation that is focused on the aspect of student experience advances curriculum management on the basis of objective data. Evidence-based evaluation is now required in many fields, and it is necessary in the evaluation of schools in Japan in order to regain the public’s trust in public education. Despite such a clear need however, the evaluation of curriculum management efforts remains inadequate in Japanese schools.
To improve the curriculum through the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data, the idea and method of “needs assessment” in the Special Needs Education is very suggestive. It suggests the methods through “assessment” and “observation” of the educational needs (i.e., the gap between the attainable goal and the current situation). In the Normal Education, many of teachers’ grasp on the needs such as conditions of students’ interest and attention is inadequate to improve the curriculum. The objective curriculum evaluation combined with “needs assessment” will be useful method in curriculum management.
7. Collecting of Evaluation Data and Improvement of Curriculum
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Investigation of curriculum evaluation is vital before educational activities can be properly assessed. However, there have been very few actual cases in which appropriate data has been used to improve the management of Japanese schools. One notable exception is the case of Hojyo Elementary School in Tateyama City, Chiba Prefecture. In Hojyo Elementary School, a specialized Curriculum Management Office was established more than 40 years ago to collect and store curriculum data. The original purpose of this Office was to ensure teaching standards, but it later came to help teachers to develop curriculum evaluation strategies. Data pertaining to all units of every academic primary subject can be found in the Office, and as a result of the teachers exploring ways to improve the curriculum on basis of the original data, they created the “Teaching Plans Practice Testing System ”[7] (Figure 3).
New Teaching Scheme
Data collected by the “Curriculum
Management Office”
Teaching Plans C.A (Check. Action) Practice Testing System P (Plan) AAAi )
D (DO)
[Figure 3] “Teaching Plans Practice Testing System” of Hojyo Elementary School.
This system established by Hojyo Elementary School can be seen to reflect the CAPD cycle, with managerial staff organizing and sharing evaluation information through periodic meetings. Curriculum evaluation is the activity of evaluating curriculum: the teachers and developers can not be the objective valuators of their curriculum, so to guarantee the objectivity of the evaluation, the “third-party” evaluation mentioned above is needed.
Teachers at the school find the following order of curriculum evaluation acceptable: class evaluation → unit evaluation → academic year teaching plan evaluation → course evaluation→ school evaluation. Besides the assessment of teaching courses, the evaluation of extra-curricular activities is also considered indispensable.
What teachers expect is an objective evaluation of the effectiveness of their educational practice, and thus attention is centered on an “effectiveness assessment” in curriculum evaluation. The reason that researchers are invited to provide guidance in schools partly concerns the expectation that they will confirm the effects of the teaching being undertaken there. But the role of researchers is to tell that the purpose of curriculum evaluation is not to make an “effectiveness assessment”, but to deepen our understanding of the real situation in the school and curriculum. 97
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At present, curriculum management is one of the hottest issues in decentralized schools in Japan. With consideration of the actual conditions in which students learn in the school setting, this paper expounded the need for and the significance of curriculum evaluation in relation to improving teaching in Japan, and may also be applicable to the current situation in Korea.
References
【1】http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/shingi/chukyo/chukyo0/toushin/1216828.htm(2010/09/20) 【2】Shimizu Kokichi (2005),To develop the learning ability, Iwanami Shinsyo. 【3】Nakadome Takeaki (2005),The process of becoming established curriculum management, Kyoiku Kaihatsu Kenkyusyo. 【4】D.Hamilton(1989),Towards A Theory of Schooling, Taylor & Francis. 【5】Tanaka Toji (2005),”Educational Research and Curriculum Study”, in Yamaguchi Mitsuru(ed.), Modern Curriculum Study 2nd,Gakubunsya. 【6】Netsu Tomomi(2006),Method of Curriculum Evaluation, Tagasyobo. 【7】Tanaka Toji & Netsu Tomomi(2009),Introduction to Curriculum Evaluation, Keisousyobo.
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The 2009 National Curriculum: Can it Change Korean Education?
Chaechun Gim Yeungnam University, Korea
1. Introduction: The context of National Curriculum revision
In Korea, centralized government has existed for a long time. The Goryeo Dynasty, which emerged in the tenth century, strengthened the power of the centralized authoritarian government within an intimate relationship with the local powers called hojok of the time. This period may be compared to the feudal ages of the West in that the centralized power coexisted with the local hojok powers. The Chosun Dynasty, which emerged in the late fourteenth century, established a powerful and centralized political, economic, and administrative system under the idea of Confucian rule. In this context, it may be said that Korea’s centralized system has a tradition dating back more than 600 years.
The modern Korean government, which was formed after the Second World War, was, as anyone would expect, centralized. The Park Jeong-Hi regime of the 1960s, which is thought to have provided the foundation for Korea’s economic success today, prepared the basis for a more powerful centralized government by implementing a government-led series of five-year plans for economic development. Due to the existence of a centralized government in politics, economy, and administration, it was inevitable that education also needed to operate under the powerful control of the central government.
As a case in point, the current Seventh National Curriculum, which, at the time it was implemented, was considered relatively lenient compared to other official policies, is nonetheless restrictive. With the intention of increasing school freedoms and honoring students’ right to choose, this policy allocated a few hours of discretionary activity time (three hours per week) to schools and adopted a selective curriculum for the 11th and 12th grades. However, a centralized system similar to previous ones is still being maintained. First, in this system, the central government sets detailed terms for classroom hours for each grade and subject. Second, it sets detailed terms for the lesson content and achievement standards for each grade and subject. Over 10,000 elementary, middle, and high schools nationwide are required to follow the classroom hours, lesson contents, and achievement standards for each grade and subject as set by the central government in the national curriculum.
One advantage of such detailed attention on the part of the government is that the same number of education hours is guaranteed to students of all schools. The uniqueness of this move is that it facilitates greater parity of education between urban and rural areas, among different regions, and among different schools. Furthermore, education can be carried out in all schools in an orderly fashion according to the central government’s policy, which can, in turn, improve the uniformity 99
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and efficiency of education. However, such uniformity and efficiency of education has been achieved at the cost of freedom and diversity, and it has complicated the delivery of education that is unique to the region or school.
A system of education that emphasizes low cost and high efficiency, which has been implemented in Korea for the last sixty years, was made possible through the active intervention of the central government, and it is assessed to have significantly contributed to the advancement of Korean school education and to the improvement of national competence. Such an educational system may be interpreted as having significantly contributed to a culture of education that fosters a relentless pursuit of first-place rankings, a so-called “education of pursuit.” But it is difficult for pursuit- oriented education to be seen as high quality education in that it can obstruct rather than contribute to the creation of higher values through new knowledge or through greater production. In sum, it is not easy to produce the creative global talent required by societies of the future through an education that emphasizes uniformity and efficiency. (Presidential Advisory Council on Education, Science ＆ Technology , 2009).
The Lee Myeong-Bak administration, inaugurated in February 2008, became aware of this problem and made the “advancement of education” the basic direction of its education policy. One part of this general directive was to implement what was called “the advancement of curriculum,” and the result was announced as “The 2009 Revised Curriculum.” Can the 2009 Revised Curriculum change education in Korea? Will it contribute to the advancement of Korean education, or will it only bring a whirlwind of confusion?
We will examine the main features of the 2009 Revised Curriculum in Part Two, and in Part Three, we will examine the main features of the improvement plans for the 2014 College Entrance Exam, which will administered to the students who will have been educated under the revised policy. In Part Four, we will analyze the main problems and limitations of the 2009 Revised Curriculum and the plan for improving the 2014 College Entrance Exam.
2. Main features of the 2009 Revised Curriculum
After its inauguration in February of 2008, the Lee Myeong-Bak administration developed the so- called “Future-Oriented Curriculum” as part of its directive for education advancement, and announced it on December 23, 2009, under the title, “The 2009 Revised Curriculum.” Having been revised around the operating system of the general discussion as its core, the revised curriculum included much noteworthy content from the history of Korea’s national curriculum. The 10+2 system, which had been in place for a long time, was revised to the 9+3 system, meaning that students would be required to spend nine years in the common curriculum and three years in an elective curriculum, instead of ten years in the former, and only two years in an elective curriculum. In other words, the common curriculum for grades 1 thru 10 (high school year 1) was abridged to grades 1 thru 9 (middle school year 3), and the elective curriculum for grades 11 thru 12 (high school year 2 and 3) was expanded to grades 10 to 12 (high school year 1 thru 3). In sum,
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it was revised so that the common curriculum was taught in elementary and middle schools, and the elective curriculum in high school. There were also many changes in the common curriculum applicable to elementary and middle schools. First, class hours, which were specified in detail for each grade and subject course, were now specified by units of grade group and subject course group. Second, the ten basic subject courses defined by the national curriculum, which were taken repeatedly each grade and semester, were changed so that students could focus on taking eight or fewer courses per semester. Third, in order to increase the freedom of unit schools, the system was changed so that class hours for grade groups and subject course groups as specified in the national curriculum organization could be freely increased or decreased by twenty percent.
Similarly, there were many changes in the elective curriculum for high schools. First, government- designated core courses, which all high school students nationwide had to take, disappeared. Instead, a minimum number of units that students needed for the completion of each course was specified. Second, courses that high school students had to take were reorganized into the categories of basic courses (Korean, math, English), inquiry courses (social studies/ethics, science), physical education and arts (physical education, music, art), and life skills (technology, home economics, second and foreign languages, Chinese characters, general education).
The 2009 Revised Curriculum, due to the fact that it only includes changes in the general discussion that are related to the operating system, is different from previous national curriculum revising methods, which simultaneously pursued the revision of general guidelines and the subject guidelines. Korea’s national curriculum consists of the general guidelines and subject guidelines. The general guidelines address basic courses, hours of classes for each course and grade, and curriculum organization and operation. Subject guidelines pertain to the course curriculum, addressing education content and achievement standards for each course. The revision of the national curriculum in Korea follows the order of first determining the main revision direction and principles for the general guidelines, and then revising the subject guidelines. When research and development is decided, the general guidelines and the subject guidelines are simultaneously announced, and these are applied to schools. But in the case of the 2009 Revised Curriculum, only the general guidelines were researched, developed, and announced, and these are expected to be applied to schools starting in 2011. Subject guidelines resulting from the 2009 Revised Curriculum will be announced at the end of 2011 and applied to schools starting March 2014.
In this chapter, using a two-section format, we will briefly examine the main features of the common curriculum and the elective curriculum.
2.1 Main features of the common curriculum
In the 2009 Revised Curriculum, an emphasized feature was that it gave the option of increasing or decreasing of class hours for each course by twenty percent. Another characteristic of the 2009 Revised Curriculum is that new concepts such as grade group, course group, and focused completion are adopted. In the following, these are examined in more depth.
2.1.1 Adoption of the concepts, “grade group” and “course group”
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In the 2009 Revised Curriculum, by adopting the concepts of grade group and course group, a change was made from a system in which class hours were defined for each grade and course to a system in which class hours are defined by grade group and course group. In the 2009 Revised Curriculum, grades 1–2, grades 3–4, grades 5–6, and grades 7–9 were grouped into four grade groups, and the ten basic courses were reduced to seven course groups by coupling social studies and ethics, science and practical studies, and arts (music and fine arts). With the adoption of the concept of grade groups and course groups, the government’s intervention has decreased and the freedom of unit schools has increased in the management of the curriculum. The following is a comparison between the curriculum of 2009 with the incorporation of grade groups and course groups and the curriculum of 2007.
School Elementary School Middle School Grade 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
23 20 Korean 204 204 170 136 136 Korean 8 4 210 238 Ethics 34 34 34 34 68 68 34
Social Studies Math 120 102 ㆍ 68 Social 10 136 102 102 102 Subjec Studies 2 History t ㆍ 102 68 Upright Living Math 60 68 136 136 136 136 136 136 102
10 Science 102 102 102 102 136 136 2 Wise Living Technology/Hom Practical 90 ㆍ ㆍ 68 68 e Economics studies 102 68 102 102
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Physical Joyful 10 102 102 102 102 102 68 Education Living 2 180 Music 204 68 68 68 68 68 34 34
Visual Art 68 68 68 68 34 34 68 We are in the First Foreign Grade Language 34 34 68 68 102 102 136 ㆍ (English) 80
Discretionary 60 68 68 68 68 68 102 102 102 Activities Special Activities 30 34 34 68 68 68 68 68 68 Total Class Hours 85 95 95 1,05 1,05 1,12 830 1,122 1,122 Per Year 0 2 2 4 4 2
※ The annual total of class hours for grades 3 thru 6 shows decreased hours based on a bi-weekly repetition of the 5-day-school-week. [Figure 1] The 2007 Revised Curriculum: elementary and middle school
School Level Elementary School Middle School Grade Course Group Grade 1–2 Grade 3–4 Grade 5–6 Grade 7–9
Korean Korean 408 408 442 448 Social Studies/ Math 272 272 510 Ethics 256 Upright Math 272 272 374 Living 128 Course Science/ Group 204 340 646 Practical Studies Wise Living 192 P.E 204 204 272 Joyful Art(Music/Visual Living 272 272 272 Art 384
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English 136 204 340
Creative Experiential 272 204 204 306 Activities
Total Class Hours 1,680 1,771 1,977 3,366 Per Year
*The class hours for practical skills are only counted towards science and practical skills for grades 5 and 6. [Figure 2] the 2009 Revised Curriculum: elementary and middle school
As noted in charts 1 and 2, governmental intervention on curriculum organization has clearly diminished. In the previous national curriculum (chart 1), unit schools fulfilled their duties by loyally adhering to class hours as defined for each grade and course by the government. But in the new national curriculum (chart 2), although unit schools respect the outline set by the government, it may freely decide class hours by grade and course, taking into consideration the educational policy of the school and characteristics of students. In this context, it can be said that the 2009 Revised Curriculum, by adopting the concept of grade group and course group, truly expanded the freedom of the unit school in managing its curriculum.
2.1.2 Guideline to organize the course load within the 8-courses-per-semester range through focused completion. It can be seen that one of the essential concepts of the 2009 Revised Curriculum is focused completion. Even the concept of grade group and course group mentioned earlier is means adopted to support focused completion. The 2009 Revised Curriculum requires schools to schedule eight or less courses per semester for middle and high schools for focused completion. In order to schedule eight or less courses a semester, at least four or more among the ten basic courses need to be alternately scheduled by grade or semester for focused completion.
What does it mean to reduce the number of courses per semester students need to take through focused completion? The benefit from focused completion can be summarized in the following three points. First, by reducing the number of courses students need to take per semester, their burden of study can be reduced. Second, as the number of courses taken per semester is reduced, the average class hour per week for each course increases. Accordingly, students will be more likely to receive an education truer to the essence of the courses, such as experiments, practice, practical skills, and courses more centered on activities and experiences. Third, in the case of focused completion, the number of students per teacher will decrease so that the teacher will be able to teach and guide students by fomenting a closer relationship.
The fundamental reason focused completion is emphasized in the 2009 Revised Curriculum is in order to provide students with the opportunity to learn less courses but in a more in-depth manner. Korean education has the chronic problem of teaching contents “an inch deep, a mile wide.” In Korea, middle and high school students must repeatedly study every semester a few more additional elective courses on top of the ten basic courses. In this kind of situation, it is not easy to deprive any one of the ten core subjects of their status as core subjects. Therefore in order to 104
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decrease the number of courses needed to be completed each semester, focused completion is the only option.
Within this context, the government has grouped courses of similar content together. It grouped social studies and ethics together, science and practical studies together, and arts (music and visual art) as another group. Grade group can be seen as a means for supporting focused completion in that it supports completion of courses across grades and hints at the fact that courses included in the course group are the primary courses that are reinforced for focused completion.
2.1.3 Flexibility to increase or decrease the number of class hours up to twenty percent Korea’s national curriculum had defined in detail the number of class hours that needed to be fulfilled for each grade and course. As a result, all elementary and middle schools were able to have the same number of class hours for each grade and course, even if there were differences in location as in cities and rural areas, in economic status as in rich and poor, and in gender as in male or female. As such, a nationally unified class hour system can be seen to have contributed to equality of education among schools.
But there have been suggested many problems in making all elementary and middle schools have the same class hours for each grade and course despite differences in region, school, and students. Especially, it has been pointed out that each school, considering the accomplishment level of students, should be able to increase class hours for those courses with low accomplishment level from students and decrease class hours for those courses with high accomplishment level from students proportionately. In this context, due to the government policy that emphasizes freedom of school, in the 2009 Revised Curriculum the unit school is allowed to freely increase or decrease class hours for grade group and course group up to twenty percent. The following is an example of how much a middle school can freely increase or decrease class hours.
National Standard Number Range of Free Increase or Course/Activity of Hours Decrease (±20%)
Korean 442 354–530
Social Studies/ Ethics 510 408–612
Math 374 300–448 Course Science/ Practical Group 646 517–775 Studies
P.E. 272 218–326
Art 272 218–326 (Music/Visual Art)
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English 340 272–408
Elective 204 164–244
Creative Experiential 204 306 Activities Total Class Hours for Middle 3,366 3,366 School [Figure 3] Standard class hours by course and range of free increase or decrease in 2009 Revised Middle School Curriculum
2.2 Main features of elective curriculum
The 2009 Revised Curriculum emphasized a career-oriented approach to education through the expansion of high school students’ right to choose courses. For this, it has attempted several large changes in the curriculum. First, it has expanded the range of grades to which the elective curriculum is applicable from grades 11 thru 12 to grades 10 thru 12. Second, it has changed the regulation from requiring the completion of one or more courses in each course group to designating a minimum number of unit needed for the completion of each course. The following is a comparison between the previous high school curriculum and the organization of 2009 revised high school curriculum.
10th grade 11th Grade 12th Grade Course group course
Korean 136(8)
Ethics 34(2)
Humanities/Social Society More than one course Science Social 102(6) Studies Course History 102(6)
Math 136(8)
Science/Technology Science 136(8) More than one course Practical Technology/Home Studies Economics
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102(6)
Physical Education P.E. 68(4) More than one course
Music 34(2) Arts Visual More than one course 34(2) Art Foreign Foreign Language More than one course in Language 136(8) (English) second foreign language (English) Chinese character/ Liberal arts ‧ More than two courses Liberal arts Discretionary Activities 102(6) ‧ ‧
Special Activities 68(4) 68(4) 68(4)
Total Class Hours Per Year 1,190(70) 1,190(70) 1,190(70)
*The number before parentheses means class hours for the respective class and the number in parentheses indicates the unit where one unit is seventeen classes of fifty minutes. [Figure 4]Organization chart of 2007 Revised High School Curriculum
Core Completion Unit Course School Course Group Area Course Course Electives Group Area
Korean 15(10)
Basic Math 15(10) 45(30) Organize English 15(10) d in consideration Course Social Studies(Including of student’s 15(10) Group History/Ethics) talent and Inquiry 35(20) career Science 15(10)
P.E 10(5) P.E./Art 20(10) Art (Music/Visual Art) 10(5)
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Technology/HomeH Life/Liberal Economics/Second 16(12) 16(12) arts Language / Chinese Characters, Liberal arts
Sub-total 116(72) 64
Creative Experiential Activities 24
Total Completion Unit 204
① One unit is seventeen classes of fifty minutes each. ② It is recommended that the number in parentheses for core completion units is the number to be completed by a school certified for freedom of curriculum organization or operation, such as arts schools and special schools [Figure 5] Organization chart of 2009 Revised High School Curriculum
As can be seen from the above chart, in the 2009 Revised Curriculum, grade 10, which was previously organized for the common curriculum, is now organized for the elective, so mandated courses and class hours have disappeared from grade 10. Instead, in the 2009 Revised Curriculum, the eight course groups are designated as the unit for minimum completion. In the inquiry section, which consists of social studies and science, five additional units for the section are suggested, so that, aside from the fifteen minimum units for social studies and fifteen minimum units for science, a student can take five additional units in his or her choice of either social studies or science.
The unique feature of the 2009 Revised High School Curriculum is that schools and individual students my select from among the subjects determined by the national curriculum. First, it is defining 7–12 courses for each field of study, excluding life and liberal arts area. Second, each course is organized as 5 units. Third, courses that will be on the college entrance exam will be decided by the exam policy separate from the national curriculum.
3. 2014 College Entrance Exam revision plan
Although in Korea the national curriculum exists, it can be seen that the college entrance exam has a greater influence on school education than national curriculum. The college entrance exam influences not only high school education but also middle and elementary school education. Hence the college entrance exam, which has a decisive influence on college entrance, becomes a matter of national interest.
Along with the 2009 Revised Curriculum, a revision plan of the 2014 college entrance exam, which will be taken by students educated under the 2009 Revised Curriculum, 2014 College Entrance Exam Revision Plan, has been announced on August 19, 2010 in the form of a public hearing. It can be seen that the revision plan, even after the adoption of the college entrance exam 108
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in 1994, includes the greatest change. Because of much negative reaction of the media and teachers regarding the draft proposal of 2014 College Entrance Exam, currently the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology is collecting suggestions again and continuing the revision of the proposal. The revision proposal is planned to be decided in late 2010.
In this chapter, we will examine the main features of the proposal for 2014 College Entrance Exam reform, and analyze the problems and limitations of the revised proposal. In order to do this, first the current college entrance exam system will be briefly explained, and then we will examine the revision proposal for 2014 in comparison.
3.1 Features of current (2011) college entrance exam
Currently, the framework of the 2011 college entrance exam students will take on November 18, 2010 is as follows.
Number of Range of Subject Area Division of Area Hours Notes Questio (Elective Course) ns
Includes 5 Integrated questions from Language(Korean) 50 80min listening entire textbook content questions
30 MathⅠ+MathⅡ+ Elective (Math I: (differential and integral 12, Math Type A calculus, probability and Includes 30% Science II:13; 100min statistics, discrete math short-answer (choose one) Elective (choose 1 among 3) questions 5)
Type B 30 MathⅠ
Includes 17 Integrated questions from listening and Foreign Language(English) 50 70min entire textbook content speaking questions
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Ethics(Ethics and Thought + Traditional Ethics), Korean History, Korean Geography, World Geography, Social 20 30 min/ Economic Geography, Studies per sub. per sub. Modern Korean History, Inquiry World History, Law and Society, Politics, Economics, Society and Social Culture Studies/Science/Occupa (choose up to 4 among 11)
tion Inquiry (choose 1) Physics I, Chemistry I, Biology I, Earth Science I,
Science 20 30 min/ PhysicsⅡ, ChemistryⅡ,
Inquiry per sub. per sub. biologyⅡ,
Earth ScienceⅡ (choose up to 4 among 8)
Occupa- Choose up to 1 among 4 20 30 min/ tion computer related subjects per sub. per sub. Inquiry Choose up to 2 among 13
GermanⅠ, FrenchⅠ,
SpanishⅠ, ChineseⅠ,
Second Foreign Language/Chinese 30 JapaneseⅠ, RussianⅠ, 40min Characters per sub. ArabicⅠ, Chinese Characters (choose 1 among 8)
[Figure 6] 2011 College Entrance Exam System
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The features of the college entrance exam shown above may be briefly explained as follows. First, most students take four tests comprising of Korean, math, English, and inquiry. Second, math is taken in either type A or B, depending on level. Third, in the inquiry segment, students choose from social studies, science, or occupation. In general, students in the humanities choose social studies, those in science choose science, and those from occupational high schools choose occupation. Fourth, in social studies and science inquiry, students can choose up to four subjects, and in occupational inquiry, up to three. Fifth, the test time for Korean is eighty minutes; for math, a hundred minutes; for English, seventy minutes; for inquiry subjects, thirty minutes each (assuming a student chooses four subjects from social studies or science, for a total of 120 minutes each); and second language or Chinese characters, forty minutes. Sixth, the test is taken on one day, and it is taken once a year toward the end (generally in November) of the 12th grade year.
3.2 Revision proposal for the 2014 College Entrance Exam system
Highlights of the revision proposal for 2014 College Entrance Exam, which will be taken by students educated under the 2009 Revised Curriculum, are as follows.
Division of Area Range of Subject Area Notes
Language Type A Type A: 10 units (2 subjects) Integrated questions → (choose1) Type B Type B: 15 units (3 subjects) questions per course
science Type A Type A: 10 units (2 subjects)
(choose1) Type B Type B: 15 units (3 subjects)
English Type A Type A: 10 units (2 subjects) Integrated questions → (choose1) Type B Type B: 15 units (3 subjects) questions per course
Geography, General Social Social Studies, Korean History, Social Studies World History, Economics, Studies/ Inquiry Ethics Science/ (choose 1 among 6) Occupa- Physics, Chemistry, Biology, tion Science Earth Science Inquiry Inquiry (choose 1 among 4) (choose1) occupation Inquiry Job related courses
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(choose 1 among 5)
Second Foreign Review proposal for deleting Language/Chinese or separating from the exam
Characters
[Figure 7] 2014 College Entrance Exam System
Proposals for the improvement of 2014 system are as follows. First, level tests, which were taken only in math, are expanded to Korean and English. Second, it decreases the number of tests by merging test subjects in inquiry (social studies inquiry is decreased from choosing 4 out of 11 to 1 out of 6, and science inquiry from 4 out of 8 to 1 out of 4). Third, it reviews a proposal of developing a standardized test for second foreign language/Chinese characters by dropping it from entrance exam or separating it. Fourth, it reviews the plan of administering the entrance exam on two separate occasions in the month of November with a fifteen-day interval between the two.
4. Critical discussions regarding the revised curriculum and reform of college entrance exam
In this chapter, we will critically analyze the main problems and limitations of the 2009 Revised Curriculum and 2014 College Entrance Exam introduced in chapters II and III.
4.1 Problems and limitations of the 2009 Revised Curriculum
The limitations and problems of the 2009 Revised Curriculum can be analyzed from various perspectives. Here, we will examine a theoretical limit of the curriculum and a problem that is expected to occur in the practical aspect.
4.1.1 The problem of limiting students to eight courses per semester The motivation for the 2009 Revised Curriculum was to improve the diversity of the curriculum through the reorganization of school curriculum and granting of freedom. Only when the curriculum diversifies will an education that considers the different levels, interests, and career goals of the students be possible. As we have examined already, because the government has been intervening to a great extent in the school curriculum, the expectation of schools and the educational field regarding granting curriculum flexibility can be generally seen as positive.
The concept of grade group and course group and the option to exercise twenty percent increase or decrease of class hours for each course in the 2009 Revised Curriculum are the representative examples of granting freedom. Away from regulating class hours for each grade and course, the government has offered class hours to grade groups with two to three grades each and course groups with merged subjects, thereby extending flexibility to schools in their management of 112
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curriculum. It also has expanded the freedom in curriculum management by allowing voluntary increase or decrease of class hours within the twenty percent of the specified range in the areas of overlap between grade groups and course groups.
But the “coercive” regulation that requires the student to take eight courses is, from the perspective of freedom, a backward policy proposal. In the previous middle school curriculum, there was no regulation regarding the required number of courses per semester. In high school, although the national curriculum directed that no more than ten core courses be required per semester, the final decision on the total number of completed courses was left to the metropolitan and provincial superintendents. As a result, in most Korean middle schools, ten core courses and one or two electives were organized so that students would complete eleven to twelve courses a semester. But the 2009 Revised Curriculum maintains the previous ten core courses and one elective, all the while regulating students to take eight or less courses per semester, and coercing individual schools to abide by this regulation.
Such policy proposals of the 2009 Revised Curriculum are not consistent with the overall direction of granting freedom of curriculum choice. A regulation that states middle schools, which previously freely scheduled number of courses per semester, to schedule eight or less courses per semester has been added, and contrary to the previous high school curriculum in which the decision of required courses per semester was entrusted to the metropolitan or provincial superintendent (although it implies less than ten courses if possible), in the 2009 Revised Curriculum the government is directly coercing schools to schedule eight or less courses per semester. In summary, the 2009 Revised Curriculum, at least with respect to required number of courses per semester, has decreased the individual school’s freedom in scheduling its curriculum and operation rather than increasing it.
Setting aside the difficulty and complaints occurred due to regulation to decrease required number of courses, the regulation of less than eight courses per semester “in order to improve effectiveness of education” in the 2009 Revised Curriculum seems to need additional analysis and review. From a formal viewpoint, at least in the case of a conflict between the individual school’s freedom and educational effect, it can be seen as a curriculum that prioritizes educational effect over freedom. In other words, it can be seen that the policy chose the limitation/abandonment of freedom; that is, in a situation of conflict between freedom and educational effect, it has chosen a coerciveness of regulating courses to less than eight per semester in order to pursue educational effect. Accordingly, the justification for such decision-making depends on whether decreasing the number of required courses per semester really does bring about educational effect. But unfortunately, there is no way to confirm what kind of effect is meant by educational effect, and whether it is true that there is such an effect. Rather, many teachers in the field argue that focused completion for less than eight courses per semester will reduce educational effect rather than improving it. Further, because the government curriculum still maintains ten basic courses and 1 elective group and at the same time coercing the completion of eight courses per semester, in the middle schools of Korea conflict and disharmony are brewing among teachers of different subjects. In summary, the coercive regulations of the 2009 Revised Curriculum that limits required courses per semester to eight is problematic in that it does not have enough evidence that focused completion increases educational effect, second, many teachers in the field are opposing it, third,
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conflict and antagonism are occurring due to focused completion. This guideline needs to be suspended or deleted.
4.1.2 The problem of a voluntary twenty percent increase or decrease of class hours for each course As pointed out already, the permission/encouragement of twenty percent free increase or decrease of class hours for each course is consistent with the basic spirit of the expanding of freedom in curriculum in that it allows for the discretion of individual schools regarding increasing or decreasing class hours. But the problem here is that it does not seem it has sufficiently reviewed how this kind of guideline will work in Korea, a country that has educational ‘uniqueness,’ and what influence it will have on Korean education.
It is needless to say that everyone knows that in Korea, Korean, English, and math are the essential subjects. Supplementary classes (classes given at school after regular school hours at the expense of the student), private institutes or tutoring outside of school are all mostly on these three subjects. In Korea, they play an important role in advancing to the next level of schooling or to prestigious schools. That is why most students, parents, and teachers not only take Korean, English and math seriously but focus too much on them.
It seems rather clear what will happen when the voluntary twenty percent increase or decrease of class hours for each course meets with Korea’s social context of skewed educational emphasis on the subjects of Korean, English, and math. According to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology’s analysis on schools’ curriculum operation plan for 2011, most middle schools increased English and math hours and decreased ethics, technology/home economics, and physical education hours. In other words, there has been the phenomenon of expanding hours for the main subjects of Korean, English, and math, and proportionally decreasing hours for other subjects. It should be reviewed whether the option of voluntarily increasing class hours up to twenty percent, which will worsen the phenomenon of education heavily focused on Korean, English, and math is the appropriate choice for a nation like Korea which is the unmatched No. 1 in the world for education reliant on these three subjects. When one considers that at least elementary and middle school education, as common education, cultivates basic abilities as a citizen, forms basic life habits, and fosters qualities as a democratic citizen, it seems a reconsideration or a review of the voluntary increase or decrease of class hours for each course, which causes excessive inclination toward Korean, English and math in elementary and middle schools, is needed.
4.2 The problem and limitation of 2014 College Entrance Exam revision proposal
As previously shown, the 2014 College Entrance Exam system, which will be taken by students who studied under the 2009 Revised Curriculum and which will be taken in 2013 to enter college, will be significantly revised. The 2014 College Entrance Exam revision proposal, which was announced last August, is causing many controversies in Korea. The essence of the controversy is the argument that the revision proposal additionally strengthens Korean, English, and math, and that it weakens other subjects, especially social studies. If the 2009 Revised Curriculum leads to the difference in status between Korean, English and math and other subjects, the 2014 College
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Entrance Exam revision proposal saves Korean, English and math and strikes a blow that would kill all other subjects.
Issues relating to the 2014 revision proposal are first, the test of Korean and English created for different levels, second, the adjustment of test subjects in the discipline of inquiry, and third, the multiple test dates for the college entrance exam. Regarding the problem of testing for different levels, considering that first, that a problem was suggested whether it is appropriate to have all students who have different abilities and careers take the same Korean and English tests, second, that math is already taken as type A and B, and third, that level differentiated-classes have already been operated for the past ten years and that accordingly, there had been much requests for testing for different levels, the proposal of testing for different levels is expected not to have much resistance if only operational and technical problems are solved. For these reasons, in the following we will focus on the problem of adjusting test subjects in the inquiry segment and the proposal of having multiple dates for administering college entrance exam.
4.2.1 The problem of adjusting test subjects in the inquiry segment of the exam After the announcement of the 2014 College Entrance Exam revision proposal, there has been much resistance by the people who have stakes to the inquiry segment of the exam. These people argue that the inquiry segment, which will be weakened anyway due to the 2009 Revised Curriculum, will be further weakened as a result of the 2014 College Entrance Exam revision proposal. Then what differences are there in the inquiry segment between the current policy and the 2014 revision proposal?
Let us examine as an example the social studies inquiry segment, in which the most resistance against the 2014 revision proposal exists. There are 11 test subjects in the social studies inquiry segment and students can choose 4. But in the 2014 revision proposal, there are 6 and students can choose 1. This is expressed in the following chart.
Current System 2014 Reform Proposal Area (Range of Subject Area) (Range of Subject Area)
Ethics (Ethics and Thought + traditional Ethics), Korean History, Korean Geography, Geography, General Social Social Social World Geography, Economic Studies, Korean History, Studies/ Studies Geography, Modern Korean World History, Economics, Science Inquiry History, World History, Law and Ethics (choose1) Society, Politics, Economics, (choose 1 among 6) Society and Culture (choose up to 4 among 11)
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Physics I, Chemistry I, Biology I,
Earth Science I, Physics, Chemistry, Science Physics Ⅱ, Chemistry Ⅱ, Biology Biology, Earth Science Inquiry Ⅱ, Earth Science Ⅱ (choose 1 among 4) (choose up to 4 among 8)
[Figure 8] Comparison of exam subjects in social studies and science inquiry segment (current policy and 2014 revised proposal)
Researchers of the revision proposal argued that by decreasing students’ test from 4/11 to 1/6, they can reduce their burden of studying for the test. Such an argument, when considering the difference between 24/66 and 11/66, can be interpreted to be able to significantly reduce students’ burden of studying for the entrance exam.
This revision proposal is expected to halve study burden numerically, but seems to have serious educational problems. A review is needed on at least three problems. First, in the subject of social studies, is it desirable to have students to focus on completing only one sub-subject? Second, is it more desirable for students facing the test to have classes that prepare them for it or classes that have no bearing on the test? Third, is the educational content or weight of study similar among test subjects? Evaluation on 2014 revision proposal can differ depending on the answers to these questions. Let us first examine the problem of whether it is better for students to take sub-courses in the social studies segment evenly or to focus only on one. The current policy stipulates that students take 4 out of 11 courses, and as a result students generally choose general social studies (society and culture), history (modern Korean history), geography (Korean geography), and ethics (ethics). In other words, students generally choose one course from the 4 sub-courses on social studies. But since students have to choose only one course under the 2014 revised proposal, students will no longer have the chance to study the various sub-courses in the subject area of social studies. It seems there needs to be a wider investigation, research, and review on whether it is better in high school to study various sub-courses in social studies more evenly or to study one sub-course in depth.
Let us examine the second problem of whether it is desirable for students facing the college entrance exam to focus on classes that prepare them for the exam or to focus on classes that are irrelevant to the exam. Let us estimate how many social studies inquiry courses students complete under the current system. Generally, the humanities students who take the social studies inquiry segment complete about 5 courses that are related to social studies inquiry, including social studies in grade 10. And in ethics, they usually take three, including ethics in grade 10. In this case, in social studies, students take 40 units (ten units in grade 10 social studies, three electives worth eight units, and 1 elective worth 6 units), and ten units in ethics (2 units in grade 10 ethics, two electives worth four units) for a total of about 50 units. Among the 50 units, courses that are taken in the entrance exam are 4 that are worth about 30 units (three electives worth eight units and 1 elective worth 6 units). Among the courses related to social studies inquiry that were studied for
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three years of high school, the weight of courses taken in the entrance exam is 30/50, which is 60%.
Let us examine the case of the 2014 revised proposal. Units to be completed for three years of high school have been decreased by 12 units (6.3%) from 192 units stipulated by the 7th Curriculum to 180 units stipulated by the 2009 Revised Curriculum. If it is assumed that in the 2009 Revised Curriculum the current rate of completion of courses related to social studies inquiry is maintained, students will complete about 47 units. But since only one course is taken from social studies inquiry, students will take about 5-10 units of courses that will be taken in the entrance exam. Even if it is assumed that students will complete ten units of courses related to social studies inquiry, the weight of courses related to social studies inquiry that will be taken in the entrance exam is 10/47, which is only 21%. This means that 79% of courses related to social studies inquiry will be irrelevant to the entrance exam. In this case, most schools will schedule their curriculums dualistically and there is the possibility that they use expedients so that actual courses will be centered on courses to be taken in the exam, or during non-exam-related-classes they would have students study exam-related courses. We should also note that most advanced countries including England, Germany, and Singapore, during the last two years of high school when students are facing a high stakes exam, their study focuses on exam-related courses. In sum, the 2014 revised proposal contains the possibility of leading school education to destruction by having students complete courses irrelevant to the exam right before a high stakes exam, which will decisively affect their future.
Third, let us examine whether the education contents or the weight of learning between the exam courses in the social studies inquiry segment are similar. In order to have students choose 1 out of 6 exam courses and take it, it must be presupposed that the educational content or weight of learning between the 6 exam courses are similar. Do the educational content and weight of learning between the 6 social studies inquiry exam courses in the 2014 revised proposal seem similar or appropriate?
In order to judge the similarity or appropriateness of educational content and weight of learning between the six social studies inquiry exam courses, we must first compare the number of units between electives in social studies inquiry according to the 2009 Revised Curriculum and the exam courses according to the 2014 revised proposal. Between the exam courses proposed in the 2014 revision there is a difference of 5-10 units. The exam range of Korean history and economics is one course worth 5 units, but the exam range of geography, general social studies, world history, and ethics is two courses worth 5 units each. It seems there needs to be a reconsideration of whether it is appropriate to differentiate the educational content and weight of learning in exam courses. Although it is argued that the 2014 revised proposal was revised by researchers in consideration of the purpose of the 2009 Revised Curriculum, it is seriously detached as shown.
The seriousness of the problem of appropriateness of educational content and weight of learning between the 6 social studies inquiry exam courses becomes clearer when we compare the 2014 revised proposal and the current exam courses of the entrance exam. Especially 2014–2016 students who will take the entrance exam will be under the ‘general discussion’ of the 2009 Revised Curriculum, but due to the lack of time to develop new textbooks, they must study with ‘textbook’ developed according to the 7th Curriculum and the 2007 Revised Curriculum. Setting 117
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aside that different curriculums and textbooks are applied to students, students who will take the entrance exam 2014–2016 are put in a bind in which they have to prepare for the entrance exam revised by the 2014 revised proposal by studying with ‘textbooks’ developed according to the 7th Curriculum and ‘textbooks’ developed according to 2007 Revised Curriculum. In this case, students who will take the general social studies test have to study with the three textbooks of law and society (6), politics (8), and society and culture (8) for a total of 22 units, but students who will take the economics test only have to study with one textbook (6 units). The comparison between the current exam courses of the entrance exam, electives of the 2009 Revised Curriculum, and the exam courses of 2014 entrance exam is as follows.
Division Current College Entrance 2014 Reform Revised Curriculum 2009 of Area Exam Subjects Proposal
Korean Geography, World Korean Geography, Geography, Economic Geography World Geography Geography
Law and Society, Politics, Law and Politics, General Social
Social Society and Culture Society and Culture Studies Studies/ Korean History, Modern Korean History Korean History Science Korean History (choose 1) World History, History World History World History of East Asia
Economics Economics Economics
Ethics and Thought, Living and Ethics, Ethics Traditional Ethics Ethics and Thought
[Figure 9] Comparison of exam courses in social studies and science inquiry segment
In sum, the social studies inquiry exam courses of the 2014 revised proposal, when compared with current exam courses, have the problem that its education content and weight of learning have changed too much. Further, no explanations, discussions, or reasons are offered for the change of weight between exam courses. It seems a review of the similarity and appropriateness of educational content and weight of learning is needed.
4.2.2 Proposal for administering the entrance exam on multiple dates Korean colleges are strictly hierarchical, and the school from which one graduates becomes the guarantor of that person’s social status and position for a lifetime. Accordingly, the entrance exam, which is decisively influential in entering college, is the object of interest of all Koreans. There has been much criticism that such a high stakes exam that decisively affects the future decisions of a 118
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student can only be taken once a year. There has been much demand for the multiple test dates of the entrance exam on the basis that a test-taker cannot take the test if he or she gets sick or is involved in an accident and that the test-taker’s condition or mistake can greatly influence his or her grades. Because of these reasons, in 1994 when the entrance exam was first adopted in Korea, there was more than a single test date.
In 1994, the entrance exam was executed twice, once in August and once in November. Although there were efforts to maintain the consistency and difficulty of each section, they failed. The November test was more difficult than the August test, and the grades of the November test was lower by 8.2 on a 200 scale. Since at the time the exam grade was in raw scores and not standard scores, the failure of maintaining consistency between the two tests was strongly criticized by the media and parents. Ever since, the testing has maintained in such a way that 12th grade students could take the test only once in November toward the end of the semester.
Current exam scores are standardized scores and not raw scores, and since the scores can be equated harnessing many methods, even if multiple execution of the exam is realized, it is expected that there would not be any confusion as in the 1994 exam. Therefore we think it is appropriate at this point to review the adoption of multiple administration of the exam.
But the multiple administration of the exam offered in the 2014 revised proposal seems to need review with regards to the period of implementation. According to the revision, the exam will be taken twice in November, the second semester of the 12th grade, with an interval of fifteen days between the two. Contrary to the 1994 multiple administration which was taken in August and November with an interval of three months, the 2014 revised proposal is suggesting an interval of only fifteen days in November.
This proposal seems to have the following problems. First, in the case a student takes the same exam, it is more educationally effective to have the student study the course for a certain period of time before taking it again. To have such an important test taken again in fifteen days is a policy that prevents the opportunity for additional study of that subject. This perhaps is a last resort borne out of the fear of the possibility of increasing private education or tutoring for retaking the exam. It seems a review is needed regarding whether it is indeed desirable to approach a policy so important to students from a perspective of merely preventing private education. Second, it has the problem of reducing the effect of the multiple administration of the exam. In the case that the exam is given only once a year as in the present, students who could not take it due to sickness or an accident had to wait another year. But in the case the test is executed twice a year, these students should be able to take the exam without waiting out a whole year. But if multiple exam dates are executed with an interval of only fifteen days between them, many of those students, despite the multiple administrations, may not be able to take it again. That is because there will be many cases in which they cannot become completely free from sickness or accidents. Third, there is the practical problem of whether the exam, a ‘national event,’ for example, for which even airplanes are preventing from taking off and touching down and working hours of people are changed, can be appropriately administered again in only fifteen days. There can be many unexpected problems when trying to execute such an important exam twice in a span of only fifteen days.
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In sum, although it is meaningful to review the adoption of multiple testing dates, the proposal to execute it with a fifteen day interval, is first not desirable educationally, second, cannot sufficiently live up to its purpose, and third, there can be many unexpected problems in practical aspects, and for these reasons, it needs to be reviewed.
5. Conclusion: Can the 2009 Revised Curriculum change Korean education?
It can be seen that the 2009 Revised Curriculum has the possibility of effecting the greatest change in Korean education since the liberation of Korea in 1945. Its efforts to expand the freedom of individual schools in organizing and managing their curricula are especially notable. But it has many problems and limitations nonetheless. And it is expected that the 2014 revised proposal, which purportedly reflects the purpose of the 2009 Revised Curriculum, will have the effect of amplifying these problems. Overall, although the 2009 Revised Curriculum has the potential to education in Korea, unfortunately the possible change is more negative than positive. The reasons for this prediction are as follows.
First, although the success or failure of the positive factors of the 2009 Revised Curriculum, such as the adoption of the concept of grade groups and course groups, hinges on successive policy support, negative factors such as students’ completion of less than eight courses per semester through focused completion, or the proposal of a voluntary twenty percent increase or decrease of class hours for each course will immediately cause serious problems in Korean education. In particular, the complaints of school teachers regarding focused completion or a voluntary increase or decrease are serious enough to invalidate the positive factors of the 2009 Revised Curriculum. Considering that without the agreement and voluntary participation of teachers, no curriculum reform can succeed, this problem needs to be more seriously reviewed. In order to expect positive effects by expanding the freedom of individual schools to organize and manage their curricula, there is a need to revise or delete focused completion and the voluntary option to increase or decrease class hours up to twenty percent, which are educationally problematic and are receiving much resistance from teachers.
Second, despite researchers’ explanation that the 2014 revised proposal attempts to reflect the purpose of the 2009 Revised Curriculum, there is a possibility that it will amplify its own problems and make Korean education defective. The exam courses in the sub-courses of social studies inquiry have the problem that, first, it makes students study only one sub-course; second, it compels students to study subjects irrelevant to the exam, especially when it is so close to the exam date; and third, the disparity in education content and weight of learning between exam courses is great. Further, the proposal of administering the exam on multiple dates with an interval of fifteen days between them is, first of all, problematic because it does not provide the test-taker enough time to study; second, due to an excessively short interval; it does not live up to the purpose of multiple test administration; and third, it can cause unexpected problems by creating a national event twice over a short span of time. As with the 2009 Revised Curriculum, the 2014 revised proposal has the problem that positive factors can seem insignificant due to negative factors such as adjustment of exam courses in social studies inquiry or in the multiple execution of the exam. Therefore, in order for the 2014 revised proposal to bring about positive changes in 120
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Korean education, it seems there is a need to make readjustments so that exam courses in social studies inquiry can reflect similar number of units or weight of learning, and readjust the fifteen day interval to a longer interval.
Educational reform, especially curriculum reform, is difficult to succeed without the agreement, cooperation, and voluntary participation of school teachers. For this reason, the ability to share vision among the constituents of the school presents itself as a precondition for a principal’s leadership profile if he or she wants to bring changes to school education (Fullan, 1982). But Korea’s national curriculum and the revised proposal for the college entrance exam is being met with strong resistance by teachers. The resistance of teachers against the 2009 Revised Curriculum and the 2014 revised proposal seems to be based on two concerns. First, it is the teachers’ complaint that, at a point in time where a new curriculum mandated by 2007 Revised Curriculum is about to be put into effect, curriculum is being revised once again at the whim of the political agenda. Schools are suffering from confusion and reform fatigue due to a series of revisions of the national curriculum (2007 and 2009) at a time when the Seventh Curriculum is still supposed to be in effect. As pointed out, in 2014-2016, high school students have to study with textbooks from the 7th Curriculum and textbooks from 2007 Revised Curriculum, and have to take the exam mandated by the 2014 revised proposal, which in turn was mandated by the 2009 Revised Curriculum. How frustrating is this? Second, even if the reorganization of national curriculum and entrance exam were to happen frequently, the confusion and fatigue due to reform will remain at a tolerable level if they sufficiently took into consideration the realities and demands of the field. But as pointed out previously, the 2009 Revised Curriculum and the 2014 revised proposal do not reflect the situation and demands of the Korean education field, and their educational logic and rationale remain very weak. This may be interpreted as the outcome of uncritically incorporating into policy the unverified ideas of a few policy developers or decision makers.
There is a possibility that the 2009 Revised Curriculum and the 2014 revised proposal will bring upon education in Korea a storm of great impact. There is a possibility that if these proposals are applied to the education field, Korean education as a whole will undergo a great change. Unfortunately, the direction of that change is mostly negative, rather than educative and positive. It is not too late, however. I wish for the improvement of the 2009 Revised Curriculum and 2014 revised proposal that would be made possible through a detailed analysis and review of foreseen problems.
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Session 8 Innovations in Early Childhood Education
1. Learning from Listen to the Voices of Young Children: Education and Sustainability in Early Years of Life Mari Mori (Japanese National Committee of OMEP, Japan)
The Educational Innovation for 21st Century: Sharing Visions and Experiences
Learning from Listen to the Voice of Young Children : Education and Sustainability in Early Years of Life
Mari Mori Japan National Committee of OMEP, Japan
1. Introduction
The presentation explores practice to develop from listening to and observing children. In other words, this presentation aims to develop high quality practice from children’s perspectives which relates to guarantee children’s rights and sustainability. The presentation is consisted of three parts; 1) current situation and issues of early childhood care and education in Japan, 2) importance of carrying out practice based upon the pedagogy of listening, and 3) the relationship between high quality practice and education for sustainable development in early years of life.
2. Overview of Current Situation and Issues of Early Childhood Care and Education in Japan
In June, 2010, the Japanese government announced “Kodomo・Kosodate Shin System no Kihonseidoan Youkou (Plan for Basic Policy Guidelines of New System for Children・Childrearing). According to the plan, the main purposes of the plan are to construct society 1) to guarantee good environment for all children to develop, and taking good care of children; 2) to realize the balance of giving childbirth, childrearing, and engaging work; 3) supporting parents to enable work and housekeeping at the same time; and 4) becoming a full of vitality by creating new job opportunities, and promoting women in work force. The intentions of the plan could be approved since the government stresses the importance of young children, and proclaims for making an environment for every child to develop given the good quality of practice. However, when we read the plan thoroughly, we find that it is rarely seen how the government would embody for constructing high quality of practice. Rather, the government tries to decrease the low birthrate (1.37 in Japan in 2009, compared to 1.94 in Sweden, 1.99 in France in 2009, and 2.09 in the United States in 2008), and to stop the long lines of waiting list for children to enter Hoikuen (day care nurseries).
The one of major initiatives of the government is to construct “Kodomoen (literally means “children’s land” as facility of children).” Main function of the facility is to combine Yochien (preschool/kindergarten) and Hoikuen (day care nurseries). From 2006, third practical facility called “Nintei Kodomoen (licensed facility of children)” has opened in nationwide. Though, the number of Nintei Kodomoen has not grown as the government had initially expected since there exists the differences between Yochien and Hoikuen in terms of jurisdiction, historical background
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of facilities, license of teacher/caregiver. Instead, the function of Kodomoen (facility of children) is to combine the strength of both facilities according to the government. For families (especially mothers) and corporations would be happy for the establishment of Kodomoen since Kodomoen may respond to the needs of families (mothers) who could not work due to the limitation of number of available licensed Hoikuen. Though, many researchers and practitioners are highly anxious about the development of Kodomoen since the government may vanish Yochien and Hoikuen. Moreover, they lament that the voices of young children are not included as well as the government does not discuss how high quality of practice would be guaranteed for protecting children’s rights and early childhood care and education to be sustainable for future.
3. Practice Departing from Listening to the Voices of Young Children
In terms of practice, the question of high quality practice has been discussed in the field of early childhood care and education. According to the study done by OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), it shows that there is a relationship between perspectives of children and practice. In the book “Starting Strong II (2006)” published by OECD, clearly shows that there are two perspectives of children and practices. One perspective is identified early childhood education and care facility as “Preparation for School” type; it perceives young children as “blank slate,” “investment for labor in future,” “obedient citizen in future.” Therefore, the contents of practice tend to pre-planned, and practice is to enhance re-production of status quo.
The other perspective is indentified early childhood education and care facility as “Basic Life (holistic)” type; it perceives young children as “acquiring autonomy,” “having human rights,” “full of potentials, possibilities, and curiosities.” Therefore, every child is respected, and recognized. The contents of practice are to be developed from listening to and observing children’s interests. It is clear that this perspective is to guarantee children’s rights, and to be sustainable for future. The practice is based upon the pedagogy of listening. Pedagogy of listening has been emphasized in practice in Reggio Emilia, Italy. G. Dahlberg and P. Moss (2010) illustrates pedagogy of listening is identified as follows;
“･･･where the learner develops theories, shares them with others, redevelops them in a pedagogy that emphasizes the importance of relationships, listening (‘one of the foundations of our work is the careful, respectful, tender “listening” with solidarity to children’s strategies and ways of thinking’), and avoiding predetermined results” (Vecchi, V. (2010). p. xvii).
Actualizing practice based upon the pedagogy of listening is essential for guarantee of the rights of every child. In the Convention, it is clearly stated that the children have rights to;
Express feely the views of the child (Article 12) Be educated, to learn and to be conveyed culture (Article 28) Engage in play and to participate freely in cultural life and arts (Article 31).
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We, as being advocates and spokespersons of every child, develop and carry out practice departing from children’s interests and concerns are necessity. When we carry out practice from listening to the voices of young children, it would be promoting sustainable in future. The idea of sustainable development as;
“…meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (Siraj-Blatchford, J., etc. (2010). p.7).
We believe that it would be innovative practice in future.
4. High Quality Practice and Education for Sustainable Development in Early Years of Life
Akasaki Hoikuen (day nursery in Tottori Prefecture, JAPAN) has been focused the children as the agents for developing a sustainable society in future through a project called “the River.” The practitioners believe that young children are full of curiosity wanting to know about and to participate in their surrounding society. Therefore, the teacher/caregivers provide the children to meet many aspects of life from real experience (see the pictures: various experiences with a pond at the day nursery). The project, “the River” had started from the children’s curiosity about a river nearby Akasaki day nursery. The children’s interests of ocean and river made them to carry out the project, such as exploring the river in scientific way, making a fantasy story of river, collecting folktales of rivers in local communities and imaginative living thing called kappa, investigating the pollution of river, and so on. The investigations of the river have heightened the children’s awareness of clean up the river. The children had engaged in cleaning up the river. The project empowers the children to become agents for developing a sustainable society not only by books, but actions.
z The children learn from experience, and heighten awareness of nature. z This experience has lead to develop a project, “the River” for 3 to 5 years children.
References
Oda, Y. & Mori, M. (2006). Current Challenges of Kindergarten (Yochien) Education in Japan: Toward Balancing “Child Autonomy” and “Teachers’ Intention.” Summer Issues on “Childhood Education, USA: ACEI. OECD. (2006). “Starting Strong II: Early Childhood Education and Care.” Paris: OECD Publishing. Siraj-Blatchford, J., Smith, K. C., & Pramling Samuelsson, I. (2010). Education for Sustainable Development in the Early Years. Sweden; OMEP
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The Japanese National Committee of OMEP (2010). The device for popularization of “Convention on the Rights of the Child” in Japan. “Fact Sheet on Early Childhood Care and Education in Japan. No. 9. Tokyo: Japan Vecchi. V. (2010). “Art and Creativity in Reggio Emilia: Exploring the role and potential of ateliers in early childhood education.” London: Routledge
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Session 9 Country Reports on Educational Reform Policy: USA
1. An Assessment-Based Innovation: Balanced Assessment System to Improve Student Academic Achievement Seock-Ho Kim (University of Georgia, USA)
2. Professional Development as a Reform Strategy for Improving Teacher Effectiveness Kwang Suk Yoon (American Institutes for Research, USA)
3. Closing the Minority Student Achievement Gap in Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia Ilryong Moon (Fairfax County School Board, USA)
The Educational Innovation for 21st Century: Sharing Visions and Experiences
An Assessment-Based Innovation: Balanced Assessment System to Improve Student Academic Achievement
Seock-Ho Kim Amanda Ferster University of Georgia, USA
Abstract
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB, 2002) requires assessment-based innovations. Student academic assessment data derived by NCLB requirements can be an informative resource in helping classroom teachers and school administrators diagnose student learning needs. The current NCLB accountability policies implicitly assume that the availability of student academic assessment data will inform teachers, administrators, parents, as well as policy makers about student performance and initiate changes in educational practice. The present paper addresses the issue of using academic assessment results and presents an example based on the balanced assessment system as an assessment-based innovation.
Keywords: assessment-based innovations, balanced assessment system, NCLB
1. Introduction
The main purpose of the present paper is to discuss a balanced assessment system in the age of NCLB accountability as an assessment-based innovation. The paper depicts an innovative approach, based on assessment results taken by one state department of education, to bridging the gap between formative assessment and high-stakes summative assessment to enhance student academic achievement.
1.1 Historical Background
In the United States, throughout the decades, assessment practices have come in and out of favor. At times, policy makers and the public scream for comparative measures; at others the pendulum shifts towards criticism. The first assessment boom period was seen during World War I from 1914 to 1918 with the creation and mass administration of the Army Alpha (i.e., a revision of Examination $\alpha$) and Army Beta (DuBois, 1970). These were verbal and non-verbal assessments, respectively, that were utilized to identify officer candidates and eliminate intellectually inferior individuals from military service. The tests were the first administered on a large-scale and included item formats of multiple-choice, true-false, constructed-response, and binary-selection (e.g., DuBois, 1970, pp. 153-159). The ease of administration, scoring, and 131
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classification soon led the public to demand similar assessments for alternate fields. Quite rapidly, assessments were developed to depict personality, vocational interest, and capacity in numerous civilian domains (Anastasi & Urbina, 1997; Beck & Molish, 1959; Cronbach, 1984). To name but a few, assessment results dictated offers of employment, career focus, and educational placement (Guion, 1965; Thorndike, 1949).
During this boom period of the roaring twenties, tests were viewed as infallible; users believed they produced only correct classifications. Many consumers did not consider test characteristics such as bias, reliability, validity, or the need for multiple measures to adequately inform placement decisions. Subsequently, substantial abuses occurred (i.e., rank ordering of ethnic groups according to intellectual superiority, labeling specific groups as likely criminals; see Gould, 1981). Rightly so, numerous critics rebuked verdicts based on these assessments. Over the next decade, a national awakening occurred--over and above economics. The general public was no longer naive to the limitations of a single unscrutinized assessment score; fascination with assessment declined. Thus the first pendulum shift, or period of assessment criticism, was born.
In the 1930s, psychometricians such as L. L. Thurstone and J. P. Guilford worked to improve the state of assessment. Thurstone advanced measurement via the conception of factor analysis. Similarly, Oscar Buros acted on his discontent; he originated and edited the Mental Measurement Yearbook, a publication dedicated to reporting the technical adequacy of psychological instruments (DuBois, 1970). While public assessment demand had waned, experts produced marked improvement to the field (Thorndike, 2005).
With the advent of World War II, the armed forces again courted the psychological community. Assessments were needed to place military candidates into appropriate service roles. Due to the urgency as well as the changed face of assessment, criticism dissipated. Thurstone's (1947) factor analysis advanced unidimensional measurement into test batteries, assessment capable of generating a more complete picture of individual capacity within multiple domains. The success of multiple ability testing ``led the measurement field into a period of emphasis on test batteries and factor analysis. For next 25 years, until about 1965, efforts were directed toward analyzing the dimensions of human behavior by developing an increasing variety of tests of ability and personality'' (Thorndike, 2005).
Assessment progressed without much controversy until the late 1960s albeit the the race and intelligence was a never-ending debate (Block & Dworkin, 1976; Jenson, 1969; Herrnstein & Murray, 1994; Zigler & Seitz, 1982). The advent of the civil rights movement spurred questions into the individual high-stakes nature of assessments with regard to educational and occupational placement and entrance into elite programs. The performance discrepancy between races and genders was seen to be a result of the development process engineered by white upper-class males (Coleman, Campbell, Hobson, McPartland, Mood, Weinfeld, & York, 1966; see also Mosteller & Moynihan, 1972). Moreover, educators raised ethical concerns regarding testing non-English- speaking students and students with disabilities. This phenomena was not limited to a particular region or state. Instead, it appeared as a sign of the times--emerging simultaneously across the nation. This is best illustrated via the landmark court cases of the era (see ERIC, 1985, and references therein); Hobson v. Hansen in 1967 determined that IQ instruments utilized to classify 132
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students into educational tracks were culturally biased. The court's ruling stemmed from their norming methodology, that is, the tests were standardized on a white, middle-class sample. Similarly, Diana v. the California State Board of Education in 1970 served to refute the social inequities of testing practice. Here, non-English-speaking Hispanic students were subjected to IQ tests for placement into special education. It was proven that if students were afforded an opportunity to take the test in their native language, they scored an average of 15 points higher; many would not be identified as possessing an intellectual disability. It can be noted that these and other court cases were based on two education acts, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) that was enacted to provide money to help low-income students and the Bilingual Education Act of 1968 that was added to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
The socially initiated reform movement led to significant improvements over antiquated test development procedures. The queries of the sixties led to representative norming samples, evaluation of bias, and overall improved technical documentation (e.g., increased demonstration of concurrent and predictive validity). The questions of the sixties and early seventies did not instigate complete abandonment of assessment. Instead, with technical improvements and better educated assessment-consumers, testing regained its standing as an educational tool (Berk, 1982). Moreover, with the publication of A Nation at Risk (The National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983), an education reform movement began (e.g., see Baker, 1994, for educational reform through national standards and assessment). In the 1980s and 1990s, educators and the public became preoccupied with the results of international assessments and the inevitable reality they depicted, that is, American students were falling behind (Caboni & Adisu, 2004; cf. Berliner & Biddle, 1995).
To summarize the history of assessment in the United States up to the new millennium, public support periodically shifted towards and against the use of assessment. Trends appear to mirror the larger political atmosphere of the day. Prior to progressing into current policy and its unique impact on assessment, practitioners should consider why the historical swings occurred. This examination may assist in clarifying the contemporary atmosphere. Specific questions may guide the evaluation: Did support shift due to the fields' limited capacity to handle economic demand? Did the measurement community abandon professional practice based on emergent policy? Did assessment experts not possess adequate political or commercial strength to combat the misuse of assessment, either by lack of power or deficient number of practitioners? Or is measurement similar to so many other fields, one that is in a continual state of evolution and adaptation? Hamilton, Stecher, and Klein (2002) and Koretz and Hamilton (2006) presented detailed explications of such issues on educational assessment and test-based accountability systems that attach high stakes to standardized test results.
1.2 Types of Assessment
The current atmosphere surrounding assessment in the United States has been fueled by two significant events. First and foremost is legislation of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB, 2002) which is explored in detail below. The second is important in the context of this writing: It is a set of publications by Black and Wiliam (1998a, 1998b, 2004a, 2004b). In their 133
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review article as well as its summary, Black and Wiliam (1998a, 1998b) demonstrated that formative assessment unequivocally has a positive impact on student achievement. Although the articles were written in 1998, these flourished in the United States after the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Educators were in search of cost effective proven practices that raise student achievement.
In this accountability era, formative assessment ranks high on the educators' lists of instructional tools for reforming and improving eduction. Formative assessment enhances student learning by making learning goals clear, indexing where students lie with respect to the goals, and revealing a gap between the present status and what is desired. Formative assessment provides teachers with the knowledge of the gap and the opportunity of giving timely feedback to students. Black and Wiliam's (1998a) review of formative assessment studies found that, if carried out successfully, formative assessment produces moderate to large learning gains compared to regular instruction. It should be noted that long ago and well before the current formative assessment movement, researchers demonstrated the importance of the formative assessment in the context of mastery learning (e.g., Bloom, 1984; Bloom, Hastings, & Madaus, 1971; Bloom, Madaus, & Hastings, 1981). Black and Wiliam's review, nevertheless, seems timely and compelling (Shavelson, 2008).
Formative assessment according to Black and Wiliam (2004a) is “assessment for learning, any assessment for which the first priority in its design and practice is to serve the purpose of promoting students' learning. It thus differs from assessment designed primarily to serve the purposes of accountability, or of ranking, or of certifying competence.” It is assessment, then, to affect learning through progress monitoring, change in instructional style, or focused review of a standard or element. These modifications take place prior to end-of-unit or end-of-year assessments; modifications occur during instruction. They are not high-stakes for students, and grades, promotion, or placement are not assigned with formative assessment (Bloom et al., 1971; Gronlund, 2006).
Summative assessment, in contrast, does lead to final inferences. It is meant to describe overall performance across a unit or an entire curriculum. The results can be utilized for evaluating broad comprehension or instruction. Moreover, the inferences can be employed for intended judgments of grade assignment, placement, or promotion. It is assessment, hence, ``whose purpose is to make a final success or failure decision about a relatively unmodifiable set of activities'' (Popham, 2005; see also Bloom et al., 1971; Morris & Fitz-Gibbon, 1978).
The divergent definitions have led to confusion among educators at all levels. On one hand, accountability legislation calls for a reliance on summative assessment. On the other, it is formative assessment that has been proven to be effective in increasing student achievement (Hamilton, Halverson, Jackson, Mandinach, Supovitz, & Wayman, 2009). As educators become more concerned with the escalating and compounding consequences of accountability measures, they wish to provide students formative assessments based on the summative end-of-year test blue print. This is a novel phenomenon; educators are calling for tests that include objectives that have yet to be addressed through instruction. The students have not had the opportunity to learn the material. Therefore, only part of the assessment should be defined as formative (e.g., the items that correspond to covered objectives). The remainder of the test must be characterized as 134
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test practice. Some experts deny this type of test the formative label. Instead, they demand a more appropriate distinct title of interim or benchmark assessment (Bernhardt, 2003, 2006).
Another point of confusion rests in educators wish to portray summative assessment results in a formative manner. The definitional dichotomy, in this instance, is blurred if state or system level policy dictates that students have multiple opportunities to display proficiency (i.e., if retest opportunities exist). Debate concerning the use of summative assessment in this fashion relates to the item and objective sampling inherent in summative test development. Summative test blue-prints sample from numerous objectives. Few items may correspond to each domain, making a proficiency label impossible and inferences based on domain scores unreliable.
Irrespective of the blurred definitions and appropriate reporting that corresponds to formative and summative assessment, several assessment experts have sought the positive characteristics of both. They call for a balanced assessment system. This approach simply asserts that both formative and summative assessment should be included with equal emphasis in a complete assessment system (see Bloom et al., 1971, for the inclusion of diagnostic assessment). Moreover, state education agencies should concentrate efforts on improving the assessment skills of educators utilizing the approach. According to a report by the National Education Association (NEA, 2003), it should be a national, state, and local priority to provide current and future educators training in assessment literacy and best classroom assessment methods.
1.3 The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
The reference of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB, 2002) in the American Psychological Association Style (APA, 2010) is as follows:
No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Pub. L. No. 107-110, 115 Stat. 1425 (2002).
It indicates that the act was the 110th public law enacted by the 107th Congress. The text can also be found in the official compilation of uncodified session laws, called United States Statues at Large (abbreviated Stat.) at volume 115, page 1425. Volume 115 of the United States Statutes at Large was published in 2002. In fact, the Act can be found in the United States Statutes at Large on the pages 1425-2094 (i.e., a total of 670 pages). The full title of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is “An Act to close the achievement gap with accountability, flexibility, and choice, so that no child is left behind.”
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 was signed by President George W. Bush on January 8, 2002. Since the law's inception, public perception regarding the directive has evolved from one of apathy to deep concern and political activism. Perception amongst politicians and educators can be characterized as polarized (Hess & Finn, 2007; Koretz & Hamilton, 2006; Rebell & Wolff, 2008). General public opinion is beginning to shift towards condemnation (e.g., Guilfoyle, 2006; Meier & Wood, 2004; Darling-Hammond, 2007; Popham, 2006a). Those that currently support the tenets of the law advocate for additional formative assessment resources (Forum on Educational Accountability, 2007; Kimmelman, 2006; Sunderman, Tracey, Kim, & Orfield, 2004; Wiggins, 2010). However, at times the request comes without a comprehensive understanding of 135
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the limitations of a summative assessment program (Hess & Finn, 2007). Those in opposition have transformed their dissatisfaction with this specific policy to discontent towards the general practice of student assessment; the pendulum is beginning to swing. To better understand these phenomena, or unintended consequences of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the tenets of the law and the particulars of implementation must be explored.
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 was constructed around four key tenets; accountability, educational reform based on scientific research, extended educational options, and local control and flexibility (see also Bush, 2001). The law mandates that all children must be proficient in key content areas. Each state is responsible for constructing annual proficiency benchmarks commensurate with this goal. If agency aggregate or sub-group student performance persistently does not meet annual targets, called ``adequate yearly progress'' (AYP), the agency is labeled as needing improvement. If designated as needing improvement, the agency receives resources to facilitate improvement yet is subject to escalating consequences (i.e., offering school choice, adhering to an improvement plan, restructuring staff and administration; see The Council of Chief State School Officers, 2002). At face value, the general tenets rarely facilitate debate. Instead, measurement issues, participation requirements, and goal attainment (i.e., the particulars of implementation), drive contention.
Test characteristics are developed based on the purpose of assessment. The purpose dictates the questions that need to be answered or the inferences one wants to attain via a test score. If states had assessments in place in 2002, for the content areas and grade levels prescribed by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the assessment system may not have been developed with accountability in mind (see e.g., Stevenson & Waltman, 2005; The Council of Chief State School Officers, 2007). At this very basic level, the validity of an needing improvement designation is called into question. According to sound measurement practice, to ensure accuracy of an accountability inference, school classification must be compared to an alternate data collection method (Linn, 2006). A second validity concern rests in the NCLB requirement that assessments must provide diagnostic information. As described above, this is not an inherent characteristic of a summative assessment. Being that the test samples an entire grade level curriculum, there are rarely enough items at the domain level to provide a reliable score (Berk, 1984; Popham, 1971). The standard error of measurement surrounding domain performance is wide (e.g., Bock, Thissen, & Zimowski, 1997); hence, inferences made at this level are untenable.
In addition to a lack of validity evidence, test characteristics optimal for an accountability measure may have been lacking at the time of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 implementation. These include a vertical scale to measure student growth over time (Kolen & Brennan, 2004), an adequate item bank to create numerous forms or to release items, and equating processes necessary to disseminate scores in a timely manner (Kolen & Brennan, 2004). These were considerable concerns for state administrators. As responsible professionals, officials lobbied the United States Department of Education for transition time and flexibility (see e.g., Erpenbach & Forte, 2005; Forte & Erpenbach, 2006). By 2006, most state assessment programs had undergone significant redevelopment in order to comply with the legislation. Both lobbying and redevelopment required expansive resources. Moreover, recommendations were not always accepted and redevelopment work did not ensure a successful Peer-review. Thus, even after 136
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extensive modifications, the assessment program may still have been deemed unacceptable by the U.S. Department of Education.
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires that all children or students in K-12 participate in the assessment system. Champions of the legislation feel this is a crucial component (National Center for Learning Disabilities, 2003; Neill, 2005). It ensures that marginalized students, such as children with disabilities and limited English proficient students (i.e., English language learners) have access to the general curriculum. However, adversaries believe that it places undue stress on students and fringes on an ethics violation. Most children with disabilities are not on grade level. Their individualized education plan dictates their appropriate curriculum. English language learners are exempt from the assessment for a limited time, but not after they have been deemed proficient in English. Therefore, these student groups are subjected to a testing experience where accurate individual achievement inferences cannot be made. To contradict supporters, foes argue that it is not the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 assessment, per se, that grants access to the curriculum. Rather it is a consequence of the assessment that may be better demonstrated via an alternate performance indicator.
Goal attainment is a contentious debate for several reasons. First, not many educators accept the NCLB goal of 100% student proficiency in key content areas by 2014. Next, the definition of proficiency has been called into question. State curriculum and proficiency standards differ markedly among the 50 states. This is apparent when one considers the discrepancy between the proficiency levels used for the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Reauthorization activists of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 are calling for a national curriculum and adherence to the National Assessment of Educational Progress as the achievement indicator that is required by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. This runs contrary to the primary tenet of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, that is, greater flexibility and local control (Davis, 2006).
While the above review of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 highlighted a negative perspective, it was necessary to detail the impact that the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has had on shifting public perception of assessment over the past several years. Stakeholders have seen a dramatic increase in funds allocated towards assessment without complete confidence in the decisions based on the assessments. In 2002, the age of accountability was welcomed with bipartisan support of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Now the pendulum seems to have shifted toward the need for a balanced assessment system (e.g., Hamilton, Stecher, Marsh, McCombs, Robyn, Russell, Naftel, & Barney, 2007; Wiggins, 2010). Considering historical trends, if educators and policy makers do not act accordingly, both formative and summative assessment may be abandoned. As the overseers of the state assessment program, this urgency applies directly to state educational agencies.
2. Balanced Assessment System
2.1 Stakeholder Demands
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As evidenced above, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 places emphasis on end-of-year or summative assessment. Under this pretext, assessment results are utilized to judge an educational agency. Due to the consequences of not meeting adequate yearly progress, local educational personnel demand numerous support systems and resources. State educational agencies must evaluate each request with an eye towards what is commensurate with the federal and state laws and good measurement or assessment practice (e.g., Crocker, 2006; Lai & Waltman, 2008; Millman & Pauk, 1969; Popham, 1991). Practical implications must be considered as well. Officials must not disregard system wishes, yet the appropriate response must be feasible, cost effective, and most importantly-advance student achievement.
For those that are concerned with the school classification consequences of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, demands for resources include test preparation material, practice tests, and instruments to predict student performance. On the other hand, staff that champion formative assessments desire instructional tools and professional development with regard to classroom assessment. Needs expressed by both ends of the continuum include affordable data analysis software, increased reporting capabilities (i.e., instant results, disaggregated reports, and item response analyses) and benchmark assessments. It should be noted that the impact of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 can be assessed based on many different levels (e.g., curriculum, instruction, classroom practice, etc.; see McMurrer, 2007; Stecher, 2002; Stevenson, Waltman, Middleton, & Croft, 2005). The current discussion deals with only the use of assessment results and assessment tools in the context of classroom practice. For a more complete use of assessment data, readers should consult with Bernhardt (2003, 2006), Boudett, City, and Murnane (2005), Boudett and Steele (2007), and Wayman and Stringfield (2005)..
2.2 State Education Agency's Response
James Popham (2006b), an established expert on classroom and formative assessment, warned educational agencies to beware of phony formative assessments and the numerous corporations attempting to cash-in on the public demand for them:
More than one test company official confided in me that companies affixed the “formative” label to just about any test in their inventory. The companies sensed that the term would sell tests and appeal to many pressured educators, who would in desperation, grasp at any score-improvement straws they could find. (p. 86)
Marketers contact local systems at a record pace. Companies promise assessments that can predict, diagnose, remedy, and instantaneously report student performance. Of course, they too, all are presented as formative measures that will help drive instruction. While the Georgia Department of Education has no influence over what systems choose to purchase, state education agencies should be proactive in offering a resource that has the capacity to manage multiple needs. Moreover in this instance, the nuts-and-bolts of the resource were already in place. It merely needed expanded and better communicated to districts.
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One of the central purposes of this review is to present an example for informing other states and international agencies that are now embarking on accountability of a possible method to manage multiple stakeholder demands. According to The Council of Chief State School Officers (2007), it is of central concern to establish how demands for formative assessment should be met as well as establishing the role state agencies should play. They are currently focusing on this issue through annual specialized meetings and conference proceedings. Olson (2006) indicated:
One of the big questions for the chiefs' council is what role states can play in promoting formative assessment, given that most such activity is at the classroom and district levels . . . those (staff) suggested a range of options, from supporting professional development for teachers to providing model curriculum units that include high-quality formative assessments. (p. 12)
Georgia's primary resource for answering the demands of its stakeholders is the Georgia Online Assessment System (OAS). The OAS can be seen as an innovation based on assessment. It utilizes academic assessment results to improve student academic achievement. Its uniform resource locator is:
www.georgiaoas.org
It was originated in 2003, as an online item bank for the Georgia Criterion Referenced Competency Tests which are administered in grades 1-8 in reading, English language arts, and mathematics and in grades 3-8, in the additional content areas of science and social studies. It was formerly known as the CRCT Online System. In 2005, the system was expanded to include items corresponding to the Georgia High School Graduation Test that is a cumulative assessment including the content areas of language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. Students must pass the Georgia High School Graduation Test in order to receive a high school diploma. Both assessments, the Criterion Referenced Competency Test and the Georgia High School Graduation Test, serve as the adequate yearly progress or the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 measures. Adequate yearly progress allows the U.S. Department of Education to determine how every public school and school district in Georgia is performing according to results on standardized tests and secondary indicators (i.e., graduation rate, attendance, and school safety).
3. Online Assessment System (OAS)
3.1 Features
OAS is web-based and contains released items from prior operational forms of the state assessments. Therefore, every item contained within the bank is a reasonably good item. They have all passed the rigor of item review (i.e., evaluation of the performance and statistical properties of the items). Moreover, each item has been deemed to align to specific standards and elements of the Georgia curriculum. Every item in the bank corresponds to an assessment blue 139
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print. These two characteristics may not seem extraordinary. However, they must be viewed in light of Popham's (2006b) warning. Many of the assessment and technology vendors soliciting school systems do not have in-depth knowledge of a specific state's curriculum. The items contained within an outside vendor program may not correspond to what students need to know and be able to demonstrate to meet proficiency. Alternately stated, the outside vendors' objectives may not correspond to the accountability measure. In addition, many other commercial, outside- vendors systems are web-based platforms. Note that platforms do not contain items. A platform is a web-based portal (i.e., web-space) for uploading and exporting previously generated items. Teachers within an educational system may upload their individually created items. Subsequently, assessments are built from the uploaded options. While the platform does offer flexibility and a manner by which teachers can share items and create common assessments, it does not guarantee that the items are good or reasonable. They may be poorly written, may not contain plausible distracters, or may be biased. To summarize the issue, the items have not been field tested and their statistical properties are left unexamined.
OAS protects against these concerns and adds flexibility in alternate ways. Each characteristic will be examined in light of its formative, summative, and dual purposes. There are multiple levels to the item bank in OAS. The first level is open access. It allows students preparing for either a specific grade level Criterion Reference Competency Test or the Georgia High School Graduation Test to log on and take practice tests. The practice tests are generated by OAS. They are not uniquely password protected; anyone with internet access may view the tests. This level primarily functions in the summative sense for test preparation. Students and parents may review the tests to get a feel for the types of questions that will be on the operational administration.
Level two of OAS is unique to Georgia educators and its students. Within level two teachers log into the system and, either manually or automatically, select items that correspond to a specific grade level, content area, standard, and element. They have the capability to build assessments based on their particular objective or unit of study. Once a test is created, a teacher has the option of printing the test for paper and pencil administration or may assign it to students as an online assessment. If the online mode is chosen, a teacher has numerous administration options. First, administration may be set for an entire class or for specific students. This is critical when considering differentiated instruction; not all students may benefit from a similar assessment. Other options consist of including student demographics, setting an administration time-limit, positioning items in the same order versus random order, and determining the type of feedback students receive. Moreover, teachers may incorporate proficiency categories according to specific performance cut scores. The test generated by OAS, hence, may be a standard-based one (Koretz & Hamilton, 2006; see also Cizek, 2001). Unique messages or assignments may be sent to students according to their functioning in relation to the cut-score. Once students complete an assessment, OAS automatically scores it. This is, in fact, instantaneous feedback. Available reports include individual detailed student performance records, a class summary of overall performance, class domain performance report, an item response analysis that depicts the percent of students that answered the item key and each foil or distractor, and a skills gap report that depicts where students struggle across domains.
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The flexibility of level two allows OAS to be utilized in a formative or summative manner. Teachers can create assessments according to any instructional duration, a day or a semester; OAS will accept testlets of any length (see Wainer, Bradlow, & Wang, 2007). The instantaneous results allow for immediate feedback to adjust instruction quickly in the context of formative use, while the option of adding proficiency labels provides students with information regarding their understanding of a unit of study in conjunction of summative use.
Level three of OAS was implemented in 2006. This level is considered restricted; only specific system and regional educators have access. The items contained within level three are secure items. It is reserved for the administration of benchmark or interim assessments. As alluded to above, benchmarks are assessments created to meet stakeholder demand. They were built by Georgia Department of Education personnel and follow, as closely as possible, the end-of-year summative assessment blue-prints. They are released to system test coordinators at four points during the academic year. At each point, a system manager determines whether their schools will participate in the assessments. If administration is elected, system personnel assign the appropriate grade level benchmarks to all students in their jurisdiction. A testing window is specified; after which, system staff have the opportunity to download applicable performance reports.
The state developed benchmarks can be viewed as a resource for local agencies that wish to participate with caveats. Districts are explicitly advised to use results only in the formative mode. They must not carry consequences for students, teachers, or schools within a district; students have not had the opportunity to learn all of the objectives included on the benchmarks. Additionally, while a general improvement trend should be seen between administrations, benchmark assessments are not equated, and, hence, the observed general trend is a function of both exposure and instruction to learning objectives. Absolute performance from one administration to the next cannot be considered equal unit growth in student achievement. As a result of the benchmark limitations, the only valid inference is for classroom teachers to review item performance, determine which were covered during instruction, and evaluate corresponding response patterns to alter their instructional methods.
Another level three OAS option is based on system administrator use. Within a local agency, curriculum may be mapped in order to complete a specific instructional sequence by a precise date. The state education agencies released frameworks that organize standards into nine-week units. Systems have the option to follow this resource. If a system follows a unique map or the state's recommendations, a system administrator may access secure level three items and create nine- week interim assessments. The interim assessments, therefore, correspond only to the covered units of study. All performance reports have meaning for students within a respective district. This eliminates the opportunity-to-learn limitation and assists educators in the identification of students who may need remediation at the end of a nine-week period.
3.2 Communication to Districts
One major barrier for Georgia was communicating the current functionality of OAS as well as the intentions for future enhancements. Moreover, the message needed to be delivered that the state
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education agencies ware listening to stakeholder demands regarding formative and summative assessment. The state education agency supported a balanced assessment system. OAS was a primary response to stakeholder demands.
If the Georgia Department of Education did not act quickly and judicially, systems would not have all the information necessary to make an informed decision regarding outside vendor products. Therefore, several resources were put into place to train and to further disseminate information regarding OAS and how it fit into the scheme of balanced assessment.
The state education agencies took every opportunity to disseminate information about OAS in 2007. There is a stand-alone web-site dedicated to OAS. It contains the history of the system, instructions for use, training manuals, downloadable presentations, and contacts for in-depth system maintenance and support.
OAS has been featured in several alternate tangible resources. This was instituted to help bridge the connection between the system and balanced assessment. The first is the Data Utilization Guide: A Resource for Georgia Educators, it was an electronic manual that was distributed to every system and school in the state. It contained a section detailing balanced assessment and creating effective classroom assessment through the use of a table of specifications, item writing guidelines, and reviewing item and test statistical characteristics. Furthermore, OAS was highlighted in the guide as an integral component of the balanced assessment system. Step-by- step instructional screen shots were included to guide educators in the use of levels 1 and 2 of the bank. Furthermore, the locations of the state developed benchmarks were shown at level 3. At all points, OAS was referenced as a tool to help meet the needs of systems looking to further their formative assessment practices.
The state education agencies also distribute annual and periodic newsletters to its stakeholders. The annual publication, the Testing Newsletter, is a user-friendly guide regarding test development. It describes the background measurement procedures that merge to produce each operational assessment. The OAS section reviews the technical aspects of the system in a user-friendly language as well as its characteristics that lend it to formative assessment. It is a publication that communicates the mission of a balanced assessment system through available resources. Quarterly newsletters were disseminated by the state education agencies (i.e., Office of School Improvement). The periodic publications communicated information and updates specific to the benchmark assessments. This was critical as schools on the `Needs Improvement' list were encouraged to participate in either the state-developed benchmarks or unique system interim tests. Participating schools required benchmark release dates as well as information on unforeseen complications or modifications to this aspect of the system. The quarterly newsletter was posted online and distributed to all school improvement staff working directly with needing improvement schools.
3.3 Training
Since OAS inception, basic system-use training existed. This has continued without disturbance. However, in order to keep consistent with the recommendations put forth by the National 142
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Education Agency and other educator groups, several state-wide training initiatives based on assessment literacy and implementing a balanced assessment system were developed.
A train-the-trainer balanced assessment module was created by the state education agencies. The module included the following components: assessment literacy, creating effective classroom assessments, technical aspects of OAS, and utilizing OAS as a balanced assessment resource. Regional education agencies were provided with a \$25,000 grant to attend initial training and subsequently re-deliver the module to systems within their jurisdiction. The training occurred in August 2005. While the funds were a one-time allotment, redelivery was to continue until the needs of local systems were met.
State-wide training was also conducted for the data utilization guide. Here the state education agency partnered with local educational technology training centers to meet regional needs. Within the training, participants were made aware of the balanced assessment and OAS components of the resource. Furthermore data analysis techniques, available within OAS, such as item response analysis and disaggregating data were explored in detail.
Another significant state education agencies resource is the state-level staff dedicated to OAS. One state education agencies assessment staff member is responsible for OAS customer support. This professional answers unique calls for training, responds to software issues, resolves educator concerns, and implements system improvements. An additional School Improvement staff member is dedicated to the implementation of the state-wide benchmark assessments; this position handles the logistics of the benchmarks by organizing the alignment of items to the test blue-print, communicating release dates to systems, conducting specialized training on the benchmarks for needing improvement schools, and responding to stakeholder concerns regarding the assessments.
4. Discussion
The Online Assessment System (OAS) is an ambitious, innovative project that is based on a balanced assessment system in the age of accountability to bridge the gap between formative assessment and high-stakes summative assessment. Empirical research for program evaluation purposes (e.g., Rossi & Freeman, 1989) is called for assessing the effectiveness and impact of OAS. An earlier report indicated that statistically significant and practically meaningful relationships (i.e., correlation coefficients ranging from .63 to .80) were obtained between the CRCT Online System usage and improvement measures (i.e., percentage of students at the meets and exceeds) were found for every content area of the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (Komatsu, 2004).
One earlier, potential problem of OAS was its use of the retired, actual test items. According to Popham (1991) and Crocker (2006) such a test-preparation practice may not be appropriate if it increases pupils high-stakes achievement test scores without actually increasing their knowledge of the domain tested. Such an earlier problem has been solved later by adding items from other state assessment offices and by adding unique OAS items aligned to the Georgia performance
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standard. In addition, the development and implementation of OAS for English language learners and other students in special education may be an important future issue.
A test that is an assessment tool can be defined as a device for obtaining a sample of behavior of the individual tested (Lord, 1980). The test in general consists of a number of items and, hence, items are the building blocks of the test (Baker, 1985). Each of the items measures some aspect of the particular ability or latent trait that supposedly governs the observable behavior. One problem in mental measurement is that we cannot use the same set of items repeatedly. Using unequated items in OAS may invoke a problem of making potentially incorrect standard based inference. In this sense a more detailed item analysis than the traditional methods (Coffman, 1971; Henrysson, 1971) may be necessary. The item analysis can be based on the performance contrasted with the adequate yearly progress classifications (i.e., does not meet, meets, and exceeds). Note that use of informative graphics can also be implemented in OAS (e.g., Wainer, 1989)
In sum, the Georgia Online Assessment System together with its implementation can be viewed as a good example of utilizing high-stakes assessment results to improve student academic achievement in the context of classroom practice. Note the data and results from high-stakes assessment for the purpose of accountability can be used in many different ways (e.g., program evaluation, teacher training, teacher evaluation, curriculum alignment; see Lindquist, 2001; Bernhardt, 2003, 2006; Boudett et al., 2005; Boudett & Steele, 2007; Wayman & Stringfield, 2005). Unlike OAS, many of them can be seen as activities that do not have direct impact on classroom instruction. Although OAS is an excellent instructional tool, only thoughtful use can increase the quality of the curriculum and instruction, as well as the quality of students' learning.
According to the ESEA Blueprint for Reform (U.S. Education Department, 2010), the Obama administration is preparing a blueprint to overhaul the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. It indicated that the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) will use rather fair accountability system that measures student growth and progress instead of focusing on absolute scores. State education agencies may need to develop an efficient and effective way to use the assessment results and data for the renewed accountability system. The balanced assessment system, nevertheless, will continue to be used in the new age of accountability.
Although NCLB was viewed as a positive driving force that consequently produced OAS in Georgia, many researchers including Hess and Finn (2007); Meier and Wood (2004); and Nichols and Berliner (2007) argued that the use of high-stakes assessment demanded by NCLB is intellectually, morally, and practically wrong. Although NCLB accrued some positive innovations hereto mentioned (e.g., OAS), there exist other perspectives with negative effects on educational practices. The evidence include that (1) NCLB didn’t produce expected gains on the National Assessment of Educational Progress or other achievement tests that can be used to audit a state’s performance; (2) it didn’t change dropout rates of high school students; (3) it didn’t close the achievement gaps for various student population groups (see Nichols & Berliner, 2007).
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Nichols, S. L., & Berliner, D. C. (2007). Collateral damage: How high-stakes testing corrupts America’s schools. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press. No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Pub. L. No. 107-110, 115 Stat. 1425 (2002). Olson, L. (2006). Chiefs to focus on formative assessments. Education Week, 25(42), 12-14. Popham, W. J. (Ed.). (1971). Criterion-referenced measurement: An introduction. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications. Popham, W. J. (1991). Appropriateness of teachers' test preparation practices. Educational Measurement: Issues and practice, 10(4), 12-15. Popham, W. J. (2005). Classroom assessment: What teachers need to know (4th ed.). Boston: Pearson. Popham, W. J. (2006a). Assessment for learning: An endangered species? Educational Leadership, 63(5), 82-83. Popham, W. J. (2006b). Phony formative assessments: Buyer beware. Educational Leadership, 64(3), 86-87. Rebell, M. A., & Wolff, J. R. (2008). Moving every child ahead: From NCLB hype to meaningful educational opportunity. New York: Teachers College Press. Rossi, P. H., & Freeman, H. E. (1989). Evaluation: A systematic approach. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Shavelson, R. J. (Guest Ed.). (2008). Special issue: Formative assessment. Applied Measurement in Education, 21(4). Stecher, B. M., (2002). Consequences of large-scale, high-stakes testing on school and classroom practice. In L. S. Hamiltin, B. M. Stecher, & S. P. Klein, (Eds.), Making sense of test-based accountability in education (pp. 79-168). Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation. Stevenson, E., & Waltman, K. (2005, December). The impact of NCLB on instructional changes; A consequential validity study. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Iowa Educational Research and Evaluation Association. Stevenson, E., Waltman, K., Mideleton, K., & Croft, M. (2005, April). Using test scores for school-level accountability: Analyzing the impact on curriculum and instructional practices. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, Canada. Sunderman, G. L., Tracey, C. A., Kim, J., & Orfield, G. (2004). Listening to teachers: Classroom realities and No Child Left Behind. Cambridge, MA: The Civil Rights Project at Harvard University. The Council of Chief State School Officers. (2002). No Child Left Behind Act: A description of state responsibilities. Washington, DC: Author. The Council of Chief State School Officers. (2007). Developing student achievement tests under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) accountability requirements: A policy maker's primer. Washington, DC: Author. The National Commission on Excellence in Education. (1983). A nation at risk: The imperative for educational reform. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Thorndike, R. L. (1949). Personnel selection: Test and measurement techniques. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Thorndike, R. M. (2005). Measurement and evaluation in psychology and education (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Thurstone, L. L. (1947). Multiple-factor analysis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 148
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U.S. Department of Education. (2010). ESEA blueprint for reform. Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development. Wainer, H. (1989). The future of item analysis. Journal of Educational Measurement, 26, 191- 208. Wainer, H., Bradlow, E. T., & Wang, X. (2007). Testlet response theory and its applications. New York: Cambridge University Press. Wayman, J. C., & Stringfield, S. (2005, April). Teachers using data to improve instruction: Exemplary practices in using data warehouse and reporting systems. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, Canada. Wiggins, G. (2010). Why we should stop bashing state tests. Educational Leadership, 67(6), 48-52. Zigler, E., & Seitz, V. (1982). Social policy and intelligence. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), Handbook of human intelligence (pp. 586-641). New York: Cambridge University Press.
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Professional Development as a Reform Strategy for Improving Teacher Effectiveness
Kwang Suk Yoon American Institutes for Research, USA
Improving teacher and principal effectiveness to ensure that every classroom has a great teacher and every school has a great leader is one of the top priorities of the current Obama administration’s educational reform policies as documented in its blueprint for reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (US Department of Education, 2010).9 Such a policy is in part grounded on some research evidence demonstrating that top-performing teachers can make a dramatic difference in the achievement of their students, and suggests that the impact of being assigned to top-performing teachers year after year is enough to significantly narrow achievement gaps (Gordon, Kane, and Staiger, 2006; Hanushek, Kain, O'Brien, & Rivkin, 2005; Sanders & Rivers, 1996). For example, Gordon, Kane, and Staiger (2006) found that students who had teachers in the top quartile of effectiveness gained 10 achievement percentile points relative to similar students who had teachers in the bottom quartile of effectiveness. Based on this estimate, they concluded that having a teacher in the top quartile for 4 consecutive years would be sufficient to close the black white achievement gap (34 percentile points).
For the last fifteen years, teacher professional development (PD) has been used as a key educational reform strategy, specifically targeted to improve teacher effectiveness10 (Cohen & Hill, 2000; Corcoran, Shields, & Zucker, 1998; Darling-Hammond & McLaughlin, 1995; Kennedy, 1998; Little, 1993; National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, 1996). As Desimone (2009) pointed out, “education reform is often synonymous with teachers’ professional development” (p. 181). For example, under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, states are mandated to provide teachers with high quality PD, which is defined as being (1) intensive, sustained, and content-focused to have a positive and lasting impact on classroom
9 Other priorities include: Providing information to families to help them evaluate and improve their children’s schools, and to educators to help them improve their students’ learning; implementing college- and career-ready standards and developing improved assessments aligned with those standards; and improving student learning and achievement in America’s lowest-performing schools by providing intensive support and effective interventions.
10 In this paper, teacher effectiveness is conceived broadly to encompass not only value-added as measured by standardized test scores but also in-depth content knowledge and pedagogical skills; use of best practices in classroom management, instruction, technology, and assessments; professionalism; and contributions to students’ academic and non-academic outcomes (e.g., social, behavioral, and attitudinal domains) (c.f., Goe, Bell, & Little, 2008). 150
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instruction and teacher performance, (2) aligned with and directly related to state academic content standards, student achievement standards, and assessments; and (3) designed to improve and increase teachers’ knowledge of the subjects they teach. By one count, the federal government spent about $1.5 billion on PD for teachers, most through Title I and Title II Programs (Birman, et al., 2007).
The Study of State Implementation of Accountability and Teacher Quality Under NCLB (SSI- NCLB) and the National Longitudinal Study of NCLB (NLS-NCLB) – two federally mandated and funded studies – indicate that while almost all states reported to have provided high quality PD for their teachers, a relatively small proportion of teachers reported taking part in content-focused PD related to teaching reading or mathematics for an extended period of time (Birman et al., 2007). For example, only 13 percent of elementary teachers participated for more than 24 hours in PD focused on the in-depth study of topics in reading, and only 6 percent received more than 24 hours of PD on the in-depth study of topics in mathematics.
Professional development in the US has also long been criticized for the lack of its relevance, usefulness, and effectiveness for improving teacher practice and student achievement. For example, teachers often admit that the PD they receive has little application to their everyday experiences in the classroom. Many teachers complain about the prevalence of single-shot, one-day workshops that often make PD “intellec¬tually superficial, disconnected from deep issues of curriculum and learning, fragmented, and noncumulative” (Ball & Cohen, 1999, pp. 3–4). In addition, due to the lack of coherent infrastruc¬ture, PD activities are often regarded as a “patchwork of oppor¬tunities—formal and informal, mandatory and voluntary, serendipitous and planned” (Wilson & Berne, 1999, p.174). Lately, the effectiveness of PD on improving teacher learning and student achievement has been questioned. For example, based on their comprehensive and systematic review of empirical studies on PD impacts, Yoon et al (2007) indicated the scarcity of rigorous, research-based evidence for the effects of PD on student achievement in reading, math, and science.
Further, PD has often been accused of misuse or mismanagement of valuable resources (Jerald, 2009; Odden & Kelly, 2008). PD system “essentially stops paying attention beyond making sure teachers consume the requisite number of professional-learning hours” (Mizell, 2010). Despite substantial investments in PD, many PD programs have not been monitored or evaluated for the quality of implementation, not to mention returns on teacher and student outcomes.
Imploring the current status of reform efforts in teacher quality and effectiveness, Secretary of US Department of Education Duncan (2009) recently pronounced that “No area of the teaching profession is more plainly broken today than that of teacher evaluation and professional development. In district after district, more than 95 percent of teachers are rated as good or superior, even in schools that are chronically underperforming year after year. Worse yet, evaluations typically fail to take any account of a teacher’s impact on student learning.”
In the remainder of this presentation, I report a number of approaches that have been suggested in the US to overhaul the “broken” system of teacher PD as a key mechanism for improving teacher effectiveness. We need to build on what works and fix what’s broken. First, I will present a conceptual framework for designing effective PD. Second, I will address PD implementation issue. 151
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Lastly, I will touch on the strategic management of PD. In doing so, I stress that PD and teacher evaluation – two critical human capital (or talent) management components – can inform and reinforce each other in such a way to increase teacher effectiveness.
1. Designing Effective Professional Development
Based on the results of the national evaluation of Eisenhower Professional Program, a group of researchers at American Institutes for Research and their colleagues (Garet, Porter, Desimone, Birman, & Yoon, 2001) presented a conceptual model of effective PD. They suggested that six key features may account for effective PD in increasing teachers’ knowledge and changing their practice. The first three core features are characteristics of the substance of the PD activity: (1) the degree to which the activity provide active learning opportunities for teachers, (2) the extent to which the activity has a content focus on a given subject, and (3) the degree to which the activity promotes coherence in teachers’ PD by incorporating experiences that are consistent with teachers’ goals and aligned with state standards and assessments. The other three features are characteristics of the structure of the activity: (4) the type of the activity—whether it is a reform type such as a study group or teacher network, in contrast to a traditional workshop or conference, (5) the duration of the activity, including the total number of contact hours and the span of time over which it extends, and (6) the extent to which the activity has collective participation of groups of teachers from the same school, department, or grade.
The utility of this conceptual model has later been validated in subsequent empirical studies and research syntheses (Blank & de las Alas, 2009; Fishman et al., 2003; Gallimore et al., 2010; Lockwood et al., 2010; Penuel et al., 2007; Yoon et al., 2006; Yoon et al., 2007). For example, Gallimore et al’s study (2010) demonstrated that participation of teachers in grade-level teams in intensive and sustained PD focused on an academic problem helped them significantly improve their students’ achievement. These positive outcomes were more likely when teams are teaching similar content. In light of its utility, Garet and his colleagues’ (2001) model of six key features of effective PD was proposed to be used as a common conceptual framework for future PD research (Desimone, 2009).
Other quality features have been suggested to be associated with effective PD. For example, it has been suggested that PD should be ongoing, job-embedded, and differentiated to the needs of teachers. Further, collaboration among inclusive groups of school-based staff has been highly recommended as a key feature of high quality PD (Fullan, 2000; Wei et al., 2009). As specific approaches to collaboration, joint planning, lesson studies, peer observations, and peer coaching have been recommended. In addition, a few forms of PD have been recommended to enhance the quality of PD; they include coaching, study group, and professional learning community. However, as Garet et al. (2001) suggested, it may not the form per se that matters; these forms of PD (i.e., reform type) may be more likely to provide intensive and sustained opportunity for active learning, content focus, follow-up supports, and collaboration among participants than traditional forms (e.g., workshop).
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2. Implementation Issue
However, when a number of rigorous evaluation studies were conducted to test empirically the effects of the key features of high quality PD, disappointing results emerged in the last few years (e.g., Boreman et al., 2009; Garet et al., 2008; Garet et al., 2010; Glazerman et al., 2009). With a few exceptions (Lockwood et al., 2010; Sanders et al., 2010), these impact studies show the lack of evidence for the significant effects of PD on student achievement gains.
Such disappointing results reminded researchers that translating PD into positive outcomes is a daunting task (Loucks-Horsley & Matsumoto, 1999; Supovitz, 2001; Yoon et al., 2007). Even if a PD program is designed to be potentially efficacious or effective, it does not automatically translate to positive outcomes unless the program is fully implemented as planned and with high fidelity. It is especially difficult to implement potentially efficacious PD programs at scale in challenging settings such as urban schools with high rates of turnover among principals, teachers, and students (Wayne, Yoon, Zhu, Cronen, & Garet, 2008).
3. Strategic management of professional development
In addition to challenges of designing and delivering effective PD programs and implementing them with high fidelity, districts face other obstacles. Districts do not generally build an understanding of PD needs, map and measure current investment in PD, or create a multiyear PD strategy (Shields & Miles, 2009). Instead, district management of PD is generally conducted within “silos” defined by the source of funds, the type of PD, and the purpose of the PD (Spillane, 2000). Further, districts are unable to carefully monitor resources allocated to PD and track PD effectiveness. With a few exceptions (e.g., the District of Columbia Public Schools), in almost all districts PD is not aligned with teacher evaluation and other components of a district’s human resource management systems.
To address these shortcomings and challenges, the Gates Foundation, in particular, has played a leading role in promoting strategic management of PD by aligning it with district and school improvement goals, standards, and assessments as well as with other human capital components such as recruitment, retention, teacher evaluation, compensation (Jerald, 2009; Odden & Kelly, 2008). In the same vein, the Obama administration’s blueprint for the ESEA reauthorization recommends that teacher evaluation should be used to provide meaningful feedback to teachers and principals to improve their practice and inform professional development.
“All of school system’s functions, including professional development, should align to improve teacher effectiveness and student learning. Too often, though, teachers have no stake in or commitment to their PD, resulting in little or no meaningful impact for them or their students” (Mizell, 2010). Teachers should feel responsible for their own learning as well as students’ learning. This sense of internal accountability is more like to be healthy in the long haul than the external accountability (Elmore, 2002). It is after all not just teachers’ skills but their will that matters in making differences in children’s lives.
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References
Ball, D. L., & Cohen, D. K. (1999). Developing practices, developing practitioners: Toward a practice-based theory of professional development. In G. Sykes & L. Darling-Hammonds (Eds.), Teaching as the learning profession: Handbook of policy and practice (pp. 30–32). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Birman, B., LeFloch, K. C., Klekotka, A., Ludwig, M., Taylor, J., Walters, K., Wayne, A., & Yoon, K. S. (2007). State and local implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, volume II—Teacher quality under NCLB: Interim report. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, Policy and Program Studies Service. Blank, R. K., & de las Alas, N. (2009). Effects of teacher professional development on gains in student achievement: How meta-analysis provides scientific evidence useful to education leaders. Washington, DC: Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). Borman, G.D., Gamoran, A., & Bowdon, J. (2008). A randomized trial of teacher development in elementary science: First-year achievement effects. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 1, 237-264. Cohen, D. K., & Hill, H. C. (2000). Instructional policy and classroom performance: The mathematics reform in California. Teachers College Record, 102(2), 294–343. Corcoran, T. B., Shields, P. M., & Zucker, A. A. (1998). The SSIs and professional development for teachers. Menlo Park, CA: SRI International. Darling-Hammond, L., & McLaughlin, M. W. (1995). Poli¬cies that support professional development in an era of reform. Phi Delta Kappan, 76(8), 597–604. Darling Hammond, L., Wei, R. C., Andree, A., Richardson, N., & Orphanos, S. (2009). Professional learning in the learning profession: A status report on teacher development in the United States and abroad. Dallas, TX: National Staff Development Council. Desimone, L. M. (2009). Improving impact studies of teachers’ professional development: Toward better conceptualizations and measures. Educational Researcher, 38, 181–199. Desimone, L., Porter, A.C., Garet, M., Yoon, K. S., & Birman, B. (2002). Effects of professional development on teachers’ instruction: Results from a three-year study. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis,24(2), 81-112. Duncan, A. (2009). Elevating the teaching profession (in NEA Today and American Educator). Retrieved January 22, 2010, from http://www.aft.org/pubs- reports/american_educator/issues/winter09_10/duncan.pdf Elmore, R. F. (2002). Bridging the gap between standards and achievement. Washington, DC: Albert Shanker Institute. Fishman, B. J., Marx, R. W., Best. S., & Tal, R. T. (2003). Linking teacher and student learning to improve professional development in systemic reform. Teaching and Teacher Education, 19, 643–658. Gallimore, R., Ermeling, B., Saunders, W., & Goldenberg, C. (2009). Moving the Learning of Teaching Closer to Practice: Teacher Education Implications of School-Based Inquiry Teams. The Elementary School Journal, 109(5), 537-553.
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Garet, M., Porter, A., Desimone, L., Birman, B., &Yoon, K.S. (2001). What makes professional development effective? Results from a national sample of teachers. American Education Research Journal, 38(4), 915-945. Garet, M. S., Cronen, S., Eaton, M., Kurki, A., Ludwig, M., Jones, W., Uekawa, K., Falk, A., Bloom, H., Doolittle, F., Zhu, P., & Sztejnberg, L. (2008). The impact of two professional development interventions on early reading instruction and achievement (NCEE 2008 4030). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance. Garet, M. S., Wayne, A. J., Stancavage, F., Taylor, J., Walters, K., Song, M., et al. (2010). Middle School Mathematics Professional Development Impact Study: Findings after the First Year of Implementation. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance. Retrieved October 11, 2010 from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pubs/20104009/ Gersten, R., Dimino, J., Jayanthi, M., Kim, J.S., & Santoro, L.E. (2010). Teacher study group: Impact of the professional development model on reading instruction and student outcomes in first grade classrooms. American Education Research Journal, 47(3), 694-739. Glazerman, S., McKie, A., & Carey, N. (2009). An evaluation of the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) in Chicago: Year one impact report. Final report. Washington, DC: Mathematica Policy Research. Goe, L., Bell, C., & Little, O. (2008). Approaches to evaluating teacher effectiveness: A research synthesis. Washington, DC: National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality. Gordon, R., Kane, T. J., & Staiger, D. O. (2006) Identifying effective teachers using performance on the job (Hamilton Project Discussion Paper). Washington, DC: Brookings Institution. Hanushek, Kain, O'Brien, & Rivkin, 2005; Guskey, T. (2004). What makes professional development effective? Phi Delta Kappan. Jerald, C. (2009). Aligned by design. Washington, DC: Center for American Progress. Kennedy, M. (1998). Form and substance in service teacher education. Madison, WI: National Institute for Science Education. Little, J. W. (1993). Teachers’ professional development in a climate of educational reform. Educational Evaluation & Policy Analysis, 15(2), 129–151. Lockwood, J. R. , McCombs, J.S. & Marsh, J. (2010). Linking Reading Coaches and Student Achievement: Evidence from Florida Middle Schools. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 32(3), 372–388 Loucks-Horsley, S., Hewson, P. W., Love, N., & Stiles, K. E. (1998). Designing professional development for teachers of science and mathematics. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Loucks-Horsley, S. & Matsumoto, C. (1999). Research on professional development for teachers of mathematics and science: The state of the scene. School Science and Mathematics, 99(5), 258-271. Mizell, H. (2010). The misuse of professional development. Education Week. September 22, 2010. National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (1996). What matters most: Teaching for America’s future. New York, NY: Author. Odden, A., & Kelly, J. A. (2008). What is SMHC? Madison, WI: Strategic Management of Human Capital. Sanders, W., & Rivers, J. (2009) Choosing a value-added model. In T. Hershberg & C. Robertson- Kraft (Eds.), A grand bargain for education reform (pp. 43–58). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press. 155
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Saunders, W.M, Goldenberg, C.N., & Gallimore, R. (2009). Increasing Achievement by Focusing Grade-Level Teams on Improving Classroom Learning: A Prospective, Quasi- Experimental Study of Title I Schools. American Educational Research Journal, 46 (4), 1006–1033. Penuel, W. R., Fishman, B. J., Yamaguchi, R., & Gallagher, L. P. (2007). What makes professional development effective? Strategies that foster curriculum implementation. American Educational Research Journal, 44(4), 921–958. Shields, R. A., & Miles, K. H. (2008). Strategic designs: Lessons from leading edge small urban high schools. Watertown, MA: Education Resource Strategies. Spillane, J. P. (2000). District leaders’ perceptions of teacher learning (CPRE Occasional Paper Series OP 05). Madison, WI: Consortium for Policy Research in Education. Supovitz, J. A. (2001). Translating teaching practice into improved student achievement. In S. Fuhrman (Ed.), From the capitol to the classroom: Standards-based reform in the states. National Society for the Study of Education Yearbook (Part II) (pp. 81-98). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Supovitz, J. A. & Turner, H.M. (2000). The Effects of Professional Development on Science Teaching Practices and Classroom Culture. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 37(9). 963-980. US Department of Education. (2010). A Blueprint for Reform: Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education. Author: Washington, DC. Vescio, V., Ross, D., & Adams, A. (2008). A review of research on the impact of professional learning communities on teaching practice and student learning. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(1), 80-91. Wayne, A. J., Yoon, K. S., Zhu, P., Cronen, S., & Garet, M. S. (2008). Experimenting with teacher professional development: Motives and methods. Educational Researcher, 37, 469–479. Wilson, S. M. & Berne, J. (1999). Teacher learning and the acquisition of professional knowledge: An examination of research on contemporary professional develop¬ment. Review of Research in Education, 24, 173–209. Yoon, K. S., Garet, M., Birman, B., & Jacobson, R. (2006). Examining the effects of mathematics and science professional development on teachers’ instructional practice: Using Professional Development Activity Log (PDAL). Washington, DC: Council of Chief State School Officers. Yoon, K. S., Duncan, T., Lee, S. W. Y., Scarloss, B., & Shapley, K. (2007). Reviewing the evidence on how teacher professional development affects student achievement. (Issues & Answers Report, REL 2007 No. 033). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Regional Laboratory Southwest. Retrieved from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/regions/southwest/pdf/REL_2007033.pdf
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Closing the Minority Student Achievement Gap in Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia
Ilryong Moon Fairfax County School Board, USA
Abstract
The presentation provides examples of Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) and U.S. national data illustrating that FCPS’ student achievement gaps are a local reflection of a nationwide concern. The research cited discusses the origins of this gap and outlines the economic, moral, and societal reasons for intervening. A resulting district objective is to eliminate gaps between the highest performing subgroups (white and Asian) and those lowest performing (black and Hispanic).
FCPS has developed a plan specifying three major strategies to close the gap: Best Practices for Teaching and Learning; Needs-Based Staffing; and Professional Learning Communities. A division-wide formative assessment system – eCART – aids in determining what content students know (and don’t know) throughout the school year. In addition, FCPS implemented this year a Priority Schools Initiative to identify and provide focused support to schools requiring further assistance to close the achievement gap. Measures of success include formative (eCART) assessments of student performance, state reading and mathematics test data, and reductions in the overall achievement gap.
1. BACKGROUND:
Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) is the 12th largest school district in the U.S., enrolling about 175,000 students in 196 schools. Its current year operating budget is $2.2 billion, with an annual capital budget of $155 million. Fairfax County is located adjacent to Washington, DC – the nation’s capital. Many of its 1.1 million residents work for either the federal government or firms that do business with it. It is one of the wealthiest counties in the U.S., with a median 2010 household income estimated at $105,241.00.11 Its residents are highly educated – 91.4% of those 25 years or older are high school graduates. Almost 60% have Bachelor’s or higher degrees.12
11 2010 Estimates, Fairfax County Department of Systems Management for Human Services
12 U.S. Census Bureau, 2008 American Community Survey 157
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However, the county also has its challenges. The incomes of 4.9% of its residents are below the federal poverty guideline, and about 33% of the population speaks a language other than English at home.13
FCPS has a diverse student body. The racial breakdown for the 2009-2010 school year was 45.3% white, 18.9% Asian, 18.8% Hispanic, 10.4% black, and 6.6% others. Students on fee waiver for free or reduced-price meals comprised 23.3% of membership.14
FCPS also is a highly successful school district. More than 91% of its students graduate on time, and nearly 95% of those graduates advance into post-secondary education. The average SAT score for the Class of 2010 exceeds the national average by 155 points and the Virginia average by 143 points.15 The number of AP/IB exams taken by students during the 2010 school year exceeded 35,000.16
Despite its high achievement, FCPS is challenged by academic performance gaps among several of it racial/ethnic groups. White and Asian students generally outperform black and Hispanic students. The 2007-2008 through 2009-2010 pass rates on Virginia’s Standards of Learning tests in reading and mathematics show a steady increase for all student groups, but they also reveal achievement gaps of 16 to 12 percentage points in reading and 19 to 12 percentage points in mathematics. SAT test scores for the Class of 2010 reflect gaps in the range of 200-300 points out of a possible total of 2,400 points. These gaps, however, generally are narrowing.
Although these gaps are a serious FCPS concern, they are the local reflection of a nationwide issue. Year 2009 U.S. national average scaled scores for Grade 4 reading revealed a gap of 25 points out of 500 comparing white with black and Hispanic students. The scores for 8th grade math showed a similar gap.17
Research indicates that the achievement gap is associated with limited language proficiency, low family income, and insufficient exposure to a variety of background experiences such as books, art, music, people, places, situations, etc.18 These factors result in students lacking the background
13 2010 Estimates, Fairfax County Department of Systems Management for Human Services
14 Fairfax County Public Schools, Department of Information Technology
15 A Profile of SAT Program Test Takers and the District Profile Report by the College Board
16 Fairfax County Public Schools, Department of Information Technology
17 National Center for Educational Statistics
18 Murphy, J. (2010), Understanding and Closing Achievement Gaps. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, pp. 83- 203; Magnuson, K.A. & Duncan, G.J. (2006). The role of family socio-economic resources in the Black- White test score gap among young children. Developmental Review, 26 (4), 365-399; Brooks-Gunn, J., Klebanov, P.K., Smith, J., Duncan, C.J., & Lee, L. (2003). The Black-White test score gap in young children: Contributions of test and family characteristics. Applied Developmental Science, 7 (4), 239-252; 158
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context for properly interpreting and integrating new knowledge. Without intervention, many such students will never catch up, and there will be a high cost to society if students are not all educated appropriately.
The remedy requires targeted, consistent action by schools. An objective of utmost importance to FCPS is to reduce the achievement gap to a point where there are no significant differences in the academic accomplishment of the highest and lowest performing subgroups. FCPS wants all groups of students to meet the School Board’s high performance goals, but the current focus is on assisting the lowest achieving subgroups (black and Hispanic students.) With large numbers of FCPS students on fee waiver or with limited English proficiency, FCPS has implemented several focused initiatives to help these students overcome their barriers.
2. FCPS STRATEGIES:
In order to tackle the achievement gap issue, FCPS has developed a plan specifying three major strategies to close the gap: Best Practices for Teaching and Learning; Needs-Based Staffing; and Professional Learning Communities. Best Practices include immediate intervention during the school year when students are not learning, access to advanced academics, and parent engagement. Supplemental Needs-Based Staffing is provided to schools with high incidences of students eligible for free and reduced-price meals. Strong Professional Learning Communities in schools is a philosophy that promotes both collective responsibility for every student and collaboration among teachers to best remedy student learning deficits.
An important initiative supporting Best Practices has been the development and implementation of eCART (Electronic Curriculum Assessment Resource Tool). A major component of eCart is support for the “formative” (or “real-time”) assessment of current student academic accomplishment. It aids in identifying throughout the school year what content students know (and don’t know), providing a roadmap for individualized instruction as needed. It also is a repository for FCPS-developed and owned curriculum materials which any teacher or administrator can use. Teachers can also post their own best practices to share with other teachers. Finally eCART produces a variety of reports, both standard and custom, enabling teachers and administrators to track the performance of each student and student group. FCPS seeks to eliminate achievement gaps by helping each individual child reach his/her full potential.
A second strategy FCPS has implemented is allocating supplemental Needs-Based Staffing. Needs-based staffing is provided to schools with high incidences of students eligible for free and reduced-price meals (FRM) and those who are ESOL students (English for Speakers of Other Languages). FCPS is investing more than $32 million in Needs-Based Staffing for school year 2010-2011. To exemplify: one elementary school of 571 students, with 2.5% of students on
DuBois, D.L. (2001). Family disadvantage, the self, and academic achievement. In B.J. Biddle (Ed), Social class, poverty, and education: Policy and Practice(pp. 133-174). New York, Rutledge. 159
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FRM and 1.8% in ESOL classes, received 22.5 classroom teachers; whereas, another elementary school of 570 students, but with 70% of its students on FRM and 38% in ESOL instruction, received 35.5 classroom teachers. Schools that are allocated additional staffing generally reduce class size or provide special resource teachers (e.g., reading specialists) to address a specific area of need or a special project.
A note to add about Needs-Based Staffing is that the allocation formula FCPS uses is not linear. The weight assigned to a student on FRM or in ESOL classes is not constant. FCPS firmly believes that the degree of challenge facing a school with large percentages of students on FRM or in ESOL classes grows exponentially rather than in a linear progression. Formula weighting reflects this belief.
The third FCPS strategy is the district-wide implementation of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). PLCs embrace a philosophy promoting both collective responsibility for every student and collaboration among teachers to best remedy student learning deficits. They seeks to: (1) achieve shared understanding of individual student needs using eCART assessment data and other information; (2) have all teachers use consistent instructional approaches best suited to individual student needs, applying recognized best practices and aligned curriculum; and (3) jointly monitor individual student and subgroup progress, making shared decisions to adjust instruction as needed. PLCs cultivate collaborative cultures through the development of high- performing teams. The approach results in individuals, teams, and schools that seek relevant data to promote continuous improvement.
FCPS’ PLC implementation is not limited to just schools. Among central departments it promotes active intra- and inter-departmental collaboration to mobilize, direct, and coordinate delivery of the resources most needed by schools to address achievement gaps. Among resources included are talent, required supplemental materials, and facilities adjustments. “The PLC process plays a vital role in improving schools across a district. People who work collaboratively in PLCs go beyond mere support groups. They require group members to reflect honestly and openly about their own practice, intentionally seeking ways to do their work better.””19
Finally, FCPS has implemented a Priority Schools initiative to identify and support schools requiring further assistance to close the achievement gap. This is a new three-year pilot involving 30 low-performing schools selected on the basis of improvement in SOL results (or a lack thereof), meeting “Adequate Yearly Progress” requirements under the No Child Left Behind Act, and results of a newly created School Support Composite Index (SSCI). The SSCI consists of two components: the school’s student achievement “Gap”, and “Student Need”. The Gap component is the percentage point difference between the white and Asian SOL pass rates on reading and mathematics SOL tests, versus those of black and Hispanic students. The Student Need component considers the number of reading and mathematics SOL tests not passed by students in a school.
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The School Board has allocated $4.3 million this school year for this initiative. These funds will be used to: provide leadership training for administrators and team leaders; marshal and focus resources from the district’s departments; provide extended teacher contracts; deploy added instructional coaches; and provide before- and after-school programming. Additional support also includes funding supplemental “jump start” instruction during summer vacations, priority staffing when Priority Schools can recruit experienced and highly qualified teachers, and first preference for early teacher hiring and professional development. Assistance in developing parent and community partnership will be also provided, as will partnerships with institutions of higher education and appropriate agencies of county government.
3. MEASURES OF SUCCESS:
The success of FCPS’ strategies to close the minority student achievement gap will be measured by: monitoring individual student progress according to formative assessments and other test results delivered through eCART; annual review of each school’s achievement gap data provided in conjunction with the SSCI; and annual reporting of overall student performance relative to the School Board’s current Student Achievement Goals.
4. SUMMARY:
FCPS strategies to close the minority student achievement gap are based on three emphases: focus, equity, and teamwork. Focus on individual student needs is being achieved through continual assessment and intervention. Equity is accomplished by providing additional resources to those schools and students having the greatest socio-economic and academic challenges. Teamwork is being established and maintained through PLCs, ensuring collaboration in sharing information and best practices toward the realization of common goals.
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Session 10 Preparing for the Future of Education- International Case Studies
1. ICT as the Basis for Innovation: The Dutch Approach Leo Plugge (SURF Foundation, The Netherlands)
2. Future School 2030 Project in Korea Bokyung Kye, Eun Hwan Lee (KERIS, Korea)
The Educational Innovation for 21st Century: Sharing Visions and Experiences
ICT as a Basis for Innovation: The Dutch approach
Leo Plugge SURF Foundations, The Netherlands
1. About SURF
Since 1985, SURF20 is the national cooperative information and communications technology (ICT) organization for higher education and research institutions in the Netherlands. SURF is owned by the institutions and its mission is to operate and innovate a joint advanced ICT infrastructure, fully utilizing the possibilities of ICT as a basis for innovation.
[Figure 1] Governance of the ICT infrastructure and services
SURF is responsible for one of the world's leading national network infrastructures and cost- effective application providers. Within SURF, higher institutions cooperate to improve the quality of higher education and research, especially in situations where collaborative efforts exceed the possibilities of individual approaches. Ninety-nine percent of the Dutch higher education institutions and academic, science, and research institutions are members of SURF. Government grants, membership fees, and payment for network services allow SURF to conduct a range of programs to innovate the use of ICT for education and research.
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The Dutch Higher Education and Research in Context ~41.500 km² (half size Korea) with ~18% water and 27% below water level ~16,5 million, 397,7 per km2 (487,3 per km² in Korea) 14 research universities >50 universities for professional education 20 academic, science and research institutes >550.000 students European Union compliant bachelor-master system Focus on collaboration and internationalization Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX) The world 2nd largest internet exchange NetherLight Open Lightpath Exchange (GOLE) in Amsterdam
2. The European context
The collaboration in SURF is of growing importance as the direction of Dutch higher education and research is strongly influenced by European policies in creating one European Higher Education Area and one European Research Area.
This means that forty-seven European countries jointly work toward harmonizing their national education systems and toward creating one European research infrastructure. This process stimulates coordinated actions within each EU country. For the Netherlands, SURF is such a coordinating actor on the subject of ICT.
3. The SURF method
The Dutch have a reputation for collaboration against the constant threat of the sea. The constant threat forces us to innovate in order to sustain our way of life below sea level. It resulted in a magnificent infrastructure for the defence against the sea and the management of the water that surrounds us. This constant struggle has also given us a pragmatic view on collaboration:
Work together on those issues you cannot solve alone and where there is no one else who can solve it for you.
This view on collaboration has been the basis for what is now known as the SURF innovation method to control demand pull and supply push.
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[Figure 1] Managing demand pull and supply push
In SURF the institutions work together with the government in aligning their views on the future. Given this alignment, the government financially supports the innovation and the institutions decide on how to realize this shared view through SURF.
The Scientific Technical Council21 provides SURF with recommendations on the strategic topics for innovation. These recommendations are based on developments in technology, education and research, the views of the institutions and the goals set by the government. The recommendations are converted into a strategic four year plan for which SURF seeks a final approval of all its participants.
Recently, for example, SURF received a government grant to create a national infrastructure for testing and assessment. The goal of this national infrastructure is to create a central technical facility for test item banks and test services, and to establish a virtual centre for testing and assessment expertise. The ambition is to reduce the workload of teachers by working together in creating tests and test items, to increase the quality of tests, and to reduce the costs.
The creation of such a national infrastructure for testing and assessment is supported by the national government. After the national facility is established, the institutions pay a fee to use the service. The institutions stay in control of the facilities through their membership in SURF.
Implementation of funded projects is directed and coordinated by SURF, but they are carried out close to the source of expertise and use: at institutions of higher education and research. SURF sets up the programme, invites tenders, ensures independent quality assessment and monitoring, and makes the project results available to all participants.
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4. Seventh Strategic plan ‘Excelling together’22 Recently SURF’s members approved the seventh strategic plan 2011-2014 ‘Excelling together’, based on the trends in infrastructure, education and research. The starting point for the strategy is the continuous development of an innovative and state of the art national network infrastructure; the backbone that supports our collaboration.
Some of the trends influencing the strategic plan are:
• The opportunities of cloud computing and the continuous growth of computer pow er, storage, and networking. • Everything wants to be connected and works better when connected.23 • The Internet is changing from a conduit for information to a global platform for s hared activities and a source of services. • Boundaries between ICT use for private activities, work, education, research are in creasingly fading. • Users expect services at educational institutions that are similar or better than thos e offered by the free market. • ICT can support education, but it remains ‘people work’. • Monolithic educational or learning management systems limit users (students and f aculty) in how they would like to support their activities.
These trends have a large impact on the views how to use ICT for education, research and logistical purposes.
5. Towards a new study and working environment
Given the trends described above, the Scientific Technical Council proposed a new definition for the digital learning and teaching enviroment:
A Digital Study and Working Environment (DSWE) is a combination of digital services organised by an institution to support activities by students, staff, and guests at/of an institution for higher education and research.
This definition refers to “activities” and not to “learning”, “teaching”, or “researching”. The hope and expectation is, for example, that a student will learn and that the digital services will help him or her to do so. Whether that is actually the case remains uncertain and difficult to demonstrate.
22 SURF seventh strategic plan 2011-2014 ‘Excelling together’ http://www.surffoundation.nl/en/publicaties/Pages/SURF'sStrategicPlan2011-2014.aspx
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The definition therefore refers to the broader concept of ”activities”. This includes looking up class timetables, scheduling appointments, sending and receiving messages, collaborating on an assignment, and so forth. Another reason for the broader definition is that as students make progress in their programme, the boundary between learning and research, for example, becomes blurred. The generic activities carried out by a student who is working on an assignment or conducting research for a graduation project do not differ all that much from the generic activities carried out by a member of staff, for example researchers.
These main generic activities are:
• Communication (text, voice or video); • Sharing data and/or documents; • Collaboration on documents and data; • Storing, searching and retrieving data/information.
Although every user group will continue to perform specific activities, and therefore will continue to require dedicated ICT facilities, there are a growing number of ICT services that are no longer specific to just a single group (communication by e-mail, chatting, video-conferencing, collaboration on documents, information and data-sharing, word-processing, presentation of results or progress reports, etc.). Each group uses these generic facilities to process different types of content and employs them for a different purpose, but the functionality remains the same. The facilities themselves are content and purpose-neutral. The mobile phone went through a similar evolution; at first, mobile telephony was a solution used only by specific groups, but in the end it became part of everyone’s life.
6. A paradigm shift in the use of ICT for education
For education the trends mentioned before, culminate in three fundamental changes:
1. From an emphasis on using ICT for didactical24 purposes to an emphasis on ICT facilities for supporting (logistical) processes to lighten the organisational and admi nistrative burden, thus allowing instructors and students to focus on teaching and l earning. 2. Giving users (students and staff) more freedom to decide for themselves which fac ilities they will use, in what way, when, and on which devices. 3. A reassessment of the facilities and functionalities that are needed to better serve users, and a reconsideration of who should produce these services: external service providers or the institution’s IT department.
24 In Dutch and in German there is a clear distinction between didactics, i.e. a teaching method or an educational style, and pedagogy which is about leading children in their growth toward adulthood. 169
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[Figure 2] A growing number of services are not supplied by the institutions
A growing number of generic facilities can be organised centrally. However, in many cases it is no longer obvious that it is the institution that should produce them or make the necessary arrangements. In many cases users can use facilities that are provided by the market to support their activities.
Undoubtedly, institutions will continue to provide some generic educational services and facilities, for example timetabling. Much of the technical work can, however, can be outsourced, provided that there is a proper information infrastructure for data-sharing between systems.
7. Towards better skills in using ICT
One of the largest obstacles in the use of ICT in teaching and learning is the skill level of both teachers and students. According to the students, there are still too many instructors who fail to make effective use of ICT in their teaching. Too many instructors still have technical problems when using new facilities, for example smart boards, and/or are unable to use facilities in the most effective manner, for example creating a good electronic presentation. In the first example, the problem lies in the user’s technical skills; in the second, it is related to presentation and teaching skills, i.e. what is called didactics in the Netherlands.
However, it is not only instructors who lack the necessary knowledge and skills. Contrary to popular belief, many students also have only a limited (i.e. one-sided) knowledge of new ICT facilities. Students are usually very familiar with facilities popular in their age group, such as Skype, MSN, Facebook, Twitter, Hyves, Gmail, Hotmail, etc. They are much less familiar or even entirely unfamiliar, however, with information sources that are generally available, for example iTunes-U for open courseware. Describing young people as “digital natives” is a generalisation that overestimates their knowledge and skills.
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In its recent report25 , the Scientific Technical Council advised SURF to focus its innovation on:
• better support of logistical processes, to create an environment that enables a focus on what really matters: teaching and studying. It gives users the freedom and flexibility in org anizing their core activities. • improvement of the knowledge and skills of users (teachers and students) to mana ge the growing variety of new ICT facilities.
8. Final remark
There is one thing we have learned the hard way: we cannot take achievements for granted. The environment changes continuously and sometimes rapidly. This certainly holds true for the use of ICT. We need to be prepared to constantly readjust and collaborate to innovate to be prepared for new challenges, or we will get our feet wet.
25 Scientific Technical Council, Recommendation on Digital Study and Working Environment, 2010 171
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Future School 2030 Project in Korea
Bokyung Kye Eun Hwan Lee Korea Education & Research Information Service, Korea
[The paper will be presented at the conference.]
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Session 11 New Trends in Education
1. The New Learning Culture of Personalized Learning and Portfolio-enrichment: A Critical Reflection on Europe’s Way to Dynamize Lifelong Learning with RPL(Recognition of Prior Learning) Ruud Duvekot (INHolland University, The Netherlands)
The Educational Innovation for 21st Century: Sharing Visions and Experiences
The New Learning Culture of Personalized Learning and Portfolio-enrichment : A Critical Reflection on Europe’s Way to Dynamize Lifelong Learning with RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning)
Ruud Duvekot INHolland University, The Netherlands
Abstract
The interest in Europe in the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is growing rapidly. RPL is seen as a useful instrument in the context of lifelong learning, employability and social inclusion. The underlying principle of RPL is that initial education is no longer enough for the whole of an individual’s working & learning life. The acquisition of knowledge per se is becoming less important – it is now more a matter of developing competences.
The question remains whether RPL can fulfil its promise and act as the bridge between modern working and learning processes. In this way it might be the single most important instrument for guiding individuals in the modern learning society.
1. Introduction
People should be aware that they are always learning everywhere, but not always in a conscious or self-chosen learning situation. The degree in which individuals consciously build on this is still strongly under-utilized. The focus should be more on the individual learning process. A complicating factor in dealing with this is that formal procedures of teaching, training and assessment comprise only a limited part of individual learning potential. Competences acquired informally and non-formally are essential for optimal performance in society. Lifelong learning, however is mainly implemented as a top-down strategy aiming at adaption to new circumstances by the learning-system and on the labour market. Lifelong learning better be put to work on a bottom-up strategy by taking account of the individual potential! This means, not exclusively focusing on economic functions of learning but more on autonomous development of competences of people. In this way The Learning Society comes to full bloom: a society in which real learning potential of people is valued and utilized.
This already takes place in part, since more formal educational pathways can be followed in the school system during certain periods in life. More non-formal and informal pathways are followed at other times in life. The recognition of prior learning (RPL) is intended as the instrumentation for 175
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dealing with the diversity of these pathways and in this way acting as the protagonist of the new learning culture..
But how does Europe activates RPL as an effective instrument for facilitating lifelong learning that appeals to the citizens and other stakeholders? With this question in mind, I present a model for describing and analyzing the roles and responsibilities of the main stakeholders in achieving their goals in the lifelong learning-arena. In this model RPL functions as a matchmaker between the learning needs of the individual, the learning system and the labour system.
2. Three learning modes
The understanding grows that the role of the learning system changes from an institutionalised learning system with uniform learning paths and little room for personal input, into a learning system characterized by flexible and more personal steered learning (Duvekot & Klarus 2007). In England this is referred to as ‘personalized learning’ or the tailoring of pedagogy, curriculum and learning support to meet the needs and aspirations of individual learners (Hargreaves 2004-2006). The same goes for the labour system in which the general norms on the functioning of workers are focused more and more on facilitating their further development instead of controlling labour top- down.
It’s this context of transition where the rise of RPL as a vision and tool for linking learning and working processes should be understood. The starting point of RPL is that initial training for a career no longer suffices. It is important to acknowledge that competences (knowledge, skills, attitude, aspirations) are constantly developing. This means recognizing that someone always and everywhere - consciously and unconsciously – learns through:
z formal learning, which occurs in an organised and structured context (in a school/training centre or on the job) and is explicitly designated as learning (in terms of objectives, time or learning support). Formal learning is intentional from the learner’s point of view. It typically leads to qualification or certification. z non-formal learning, which is learning embedded in planned activities not explicitly designated as learning (in terms of learning objectives, learning time or learning support) but with an important learning element. Non-formal learning is intentional from the learner’s point of view. It typically does not lead to certification. z informal learning, which results from daily work-related, family or leisure activities. It is not organised or structured (in terms of objectives, time or learning support). Informal learning is in most cases unintentional from the learner’s perspective. It typically does not lead to certification.
To be able to recognize these forms of learning, two questions are relevant: (1) is the learning intentional and (2) is it programmed as a learning activity? These questions can be captured in the following matrix:
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Learning is intentional → Yes: Learning is No: Learning is not intentional intentional Activity is planned & program- ↓ med as a learning activity Yes: the activity has one or more Formal Learning - learning goals No: the activity has no learning goals Non-formal Learning Informal Learning Source: Werquin 2007
In linking the competences acquired in these three modes of learning, a learner might be able to design a personal development path that fits with one's learning style and is in line with his labour or social context.
3. Three modes of RPL
RPL features three main actors, organised in the LifeLong Learning triangle (the ‘L3-triangle’): the learning individual, the learning system and the labour system. RPL is the matchmaker between these three actors. This inter¬action is based on the recognition, accreditation and further development of an individual's potential, with respect to perspectives and contexts of learning and labour systems. The macro-level of governmental authorities and social partners facilitates the interaction with laws, regulations and seed money.
The ‘L3-triangle’ highlights learning processes with a summative and/or formative intention. The relationships between the actors determinate the mode of RPL. These modes relate to the roles of the actors on content and structure of the learning processes, ranging from initial education to human resource development in the workplace (Duvekot 2006).
The RPL-systematic helps out when it comes to flexibilising and personalising learning and making use of personal contexts for further (lifelong) learning. RPL works in three modes:
1. the generic mode focuses on systematically linking competences embedded in national standards with competences embedded in function profiles of human resource management at organisation levels. This leads to conversion-tables of the exchangeability of competences in professional (VET and HE-standards) and functional competence profiles (function-descriptors). 2. the summative approach of RPL offers a direct and formal procedure for accrediting all learning experiences of an individual to a professional level and a specific standard in a national qualifications structure. It aims at an overview of competences for purposes of recognition and validation. Its focus is on certification or qualification where individuals seek this goal. 3. when RPL goes one step further than validation and includes further learning, this is the formative mode, aiming at time- and cost-effective personal development within someone’s working context. RPL links competences from function profiles of 177
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organisations with the competences from personal profiles. RPL formative is a more informal procedure for accrediting learning experiences of an individual in relation to a specific functional level within a human resources management-system of any organisation active in the labour-system: profit, not-for-profit, civil society or voluntary work. Making formative steps entails especially updating, upgrading or side-grading trajectories.
In order to be able to describe and analyse on the one hand the different modes of RPL in practice and on the other hand the roles and responsibilities of the three main stakeholders in achieving their goals in the lifelong learning-arena, it is essential to capture the reality of RPL in its different modes. For this reason the following research model is presented. In this model RPL functions as matchmaker between the learning needs of the learning individual, the learning system and the labour system. Working with the model will provide the material for analysing and explaining the social phenomena that occur when RPL is used as a link between the aims and the normative frameworks of these three stakeholders. Questions regarding the support and promotion of effective learning and personal development, instrumented by the RPL-modes can be answered and turned into interventions into the ways of working with RPL as a matchmaker in one of the modes.
Lifelong learning in the ‘L3-triangle’
The learning system
2. summative 1. generic
3. formative
The learning The labour individual system
The model is based on three assumptions:
1. the awareness of the learning individual that he/she already learns lifelong. This awareness leads to personal empowerment and the articulation of personal learning needs for the sake of personal development, qualification or employability. The personal profile in a way is the reflection of someone’s personal normative framework; it should answer questions like ‘who am I?’, ‘what am I up to?’, ‘how to reach my goals?’ and ‘which lifelong learning-strategy suits me best?’. 2. the awareness of the organisation that it’s vital to be able to articulate its (changing) need 178
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for competences in order to reach its goals. This articulation is embedded in the description of competence based function-profiles; these profiles are the organisation’s normative framework and reflect the state of the art of competences within the organisation. Lifelong learning-strategies from the organisation are focused on how to update, upgrade or upskill the already available competencies to be able to safeguard the future of the organisation by further developing this stock of competencies. The main perspective of the organisation in this context is the employability of the personnel. 3. the understanding in the learning system that it has to be receptive for the learning needs of (adult) learning individuals and their organisations. The learning system should fill in these learning needs in a customer- or demand-steered way by being able to offer flexible and personalised learning or learning-made-to-measure. The main perspective of the learning system is grounded in certificates and qualifications that are embedded in national standards of professional competence-profiles.
The aim of the model is to contribute to the understanding of social transitions in general and the role of the individual learner in the learning society more specifically. It helps to show the pitfalls in the integration of top-down facilities (quality-assurance, financing learning and legislation) in bottom-up steered RPL practices.
4. In conclusion
This presentation-paper is about the ways to activate RPL as an effective instrument for facilitating lifelong learning that is beneficial to all stakeholders in society and acts as the protagonist of the new learning culture. With this in mind, I formulated a model for describing and analyzing the roles and responsibilities of the main stakeholders in the lifelong learning-arena. In this model RPL is used in three different modes in order to be the matchmaker in the Lifelong Learning Triangle.
The aim of the model is to show the potential of RPL as a matchmaker between the stakeholders. In this way the critical success factors for developing and implementing RPL in a diversity of contexts become more clear. It also shows the interlinkage of the actions of the different stakeholders in using RPL-systematics. This will help in demonstrating how and where to set up interventions for strengthening RPL as a matchmaker for the sake of creating time- and money- effective and - above all – efficient lifelong learning-strategies on a win-win-win-basis for ‘me’, ‘my organisation’ and ‘my learning provider’. Crucial in this however remains acknowledging the self-managing role of the ’empowered’ learning individual in making lifelong learning work! In this way we might acknowledge that ‘the age of RPL’ is here to stay.
References
Duvekot, R.C., G. Scanlon, A. Charraud, K. Schuur, D. Coughlan, T. Nilsen-Mohn, J. Paulusse & R. Klarus (eds.) (2007). Managing European diversity in lifelong learning. The many perspectives
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of the Valuation of Prior Learning in the European workplace. Nijmegen/Vught/Amsterdam: HAN/EC-VPL/HvA Duvekot, R.C. & R. Klarus. EVC: een beknopte geschiedenis. In: Develop 2007-3, pp. 6-15. Rotterdam: HRD-fonds. Hargreaves, D. (2004-2006) Pamphlets on Personalising Learning. Londen: Demos. Werquin, P. (2007) Terms, concepts and models for analyzing the value of recognition programmes. EDU/EDPC (2007)24. Paris: OECD.
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Session 12 Innovations in Evaluation
1. Using EPAS to Measure Student and School Growth: Issues in Scaling, Equating, and Accountability Models Deborah Harris (Measurement and Reporting Services Education Division, USA)
2. Self-evaluation of Wrong Answers (SEWA): A New Learning & Instruction Strategy Sung-Hoon Kim (Dongguk University, Korea)
3. 2009 NAEA Results and Implications: Toward a 'Below Basic' Zero Plan? Sungsook Kim (Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, Korea)
The Educational Innovation for 21st Century: Sharing Visions and Experiences
Using EPAS to Measure Student and School Growth : Issues in Scaling, Equating, and Accountability Models
Deborah J. Harris Measurement and Reporting Services Education Division, USA
The purpose of this paper is to describe ACT’s EPAS® (Educational Planning and Assessment System), and some of the ways it can be used to measure student and school growth.
1. EPAS
ACT’s EPAS® (Educational Planning and Assessment System) is designed to assist students, and their schools, districts, and states, in their efforts to ensure students are ready for life after high school, whether that includes college or work-related training.
EPAS components are coordinated in a unified, comprehensive system for measuring and monitoring student achievement over time, and provide a longitudinal approach to educational and career planning, assessment, instructional support, and evaluation. EPAS results, which are reported on a single score scale per content area, are designed to inform students, parents, teachers, counselors, administrators, and policymakers about students’ strengths and weaknesses.
The EPAS components I am going to focus on are EXPLORE® (for eighth and ninth graders), PLAN® (for tenth graders), and the ACT® (for eleventh and twelfth graders). Every few years, ACT conducts an ACT National Curriculum Survey®, in which more than 20,000 educators nationwide in grades 7–14 are asked to identify the knowledge and skills that they think are important for students to know to be ready for college-level work. This data, along with state objectives for instruction and state-approved text books, is used to refine the scope and sequence for each section of each EPAS component, to ensure EPAS represents a consensus among educators and curriculum experts about what is important for students to know and be able to do.
2. EPAS Content across Assessments
The content of the assessments across grades within a subject area follow a progression. For example, the EXPLORE Reading Test is a 30-item, 30-minute assessment that comprises three prose passages that are representative of the level and kinds of text commonly encountered in middle-school and junior-high curricula; three passages on topics in the social sciences, prose fiction, and the humanities are included, and each passage is accompanied by a set of multiple-
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choice test items that focus on the complex of complementary and mutually supportive skills that readers must bring to bear in studying written materials across a range of subject areas.
The PLAN Reading Test is a 25-item, 20-minute test that includes three prose passages that are representative of the level and kinds of text commonly encountered in 10th-grade curricula; passages on topics in the social sciences, prose fiction, and the humanities are included. Each passage is accompanied by a set of multiple-choice test items which again focus on the complex of complementary and mutually supportive skills that readers must bring to bear in studying written materials across a range of subject areas.
The ACT Reading Test is a 40-item, 35-minute test that consists of four prose passages that are representative of the level and kinds of text commonly encountered in first-year college curricula; passages on topics in the social sciences, the natural sciences, prose fiction, and the humanities are included. Each passage is accompanied by a set of multiple-choice test items that focus on the complex of complementary and mutually supportive skills that readers must bring to bear in studying written materials across a range of subject areas.
The three reading assessments form a progression, requiring students to derive meaning from several texts and to answer items using referring and reasoning skills to determine main ideas; locate and interpret significant details; understand sequences of events; make comparisons; comprehend cause-effect relationships; determine the meaning of context-dependent words, phrases, and statements; draw generalizations; and analyze the author’s or narrator’s voice or method.
The EXPLORE, PLAN, and ACT tests in English, math, and science are developed in a similar manner to form a progression across the assessments.
3. ACT’s College Readiness Benchmarks
ACT’s College Readiness Benchmarks are the minimum ACT test scores required for students to have a high probability of success in entry-level, credit-bearing college courses, namely English composition, social sciences courses, college algebra, or college biology. In addition to the Benchmarks for the ACT® test, there are corresponding EXPLORE® and PLAN® Benchmarks for students to gauge their progress in becoming ready for college in the eighth and tenth grades; the Benchmark values are provided in Table 1. These Benchmarks can be used in measuring student achievement throughout high school, as will be demonstrated below.
ACT’s College Readiness Benchmarks Test EXPLORE PLAN ACT English 13 15 18 Mathematics 17 19 22 Reading 15 17 21 Science 20 21 24 184
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4. EPAS Scales
In addition to relating student scores to the Benchmark scores, student achievement can also be measured by comparing the reported scale scores across EXPLORE, PLAN, and ACT, as they have been placed on a vertical scale.
Studies have looked at measuring educational progress without the use of a vertical scale (e.g., Yen, Lall, & Monfils, 2007), or under what circumstances a vertical scale may be appropriate (e.g., Ferrara, Johnson, and Chen, 2005). Huynh and Schneider (2005), without strongly endorsing any particular vertical scaling procedure, discuss that while vertical scales are often used for reading and math, vertically moderated standards may be preferred for subjects like science or social sciences, because of potential multidimensionality across grades. The impact of using vertical scales, or different vertical scales, in calculating indices of growth have been examined, and it has been shown that different conclusions regarding the effectiveness of schools can be reached based on different scales or different indices applied to a single scale (e.g., Ho & Magda, 2008).
The ACT tests are reported on a 1 to 36 score scale, the PLAN and EXPLORE tests are shorter and less difficult than the ACT tests, and therefore the maximum scale score on each is less than 36 (32 and 25, respectively); the rationale for the maximum scale score on the PLAN tests being 32, rather than 36 as it is for the ACT tests, was to leave room in the scale for assessment of educational development that occurs between the 10th and 12th grades. Because the ACT assessment contains more difficult items which the PLAN assessment does not, it was determined the maximum scale score achievable for PLAN should be less than the maximum score achievable for ACT. A top of 32 was arrived at empirically, from examining data, test specifications, and scale characteristics.
The scores reported for the four PLAN tests are approximately “on the same scale” as the scores on the corresponding tests of the ACT (e.g., PLAN Reading is on the same scale as ACT Reading). The ACT is intended for use by 11th and 12th graders, whereas PLAN is intended for use by 10th graders. Both assessments have similar (although not identical) content specifications. As such, PLAN is intended to be a shorter and less difficult version of the ACT. To facilitate longitudinal comparisons between PLAN scores for 10th graders and ACT scores for 12th graders, the score scales for PLAN were constructed with the consideration that they be approximately “on the same scale” as the ACT scores, where being “on the same scale” means that the PLAN test score obtained by an examinee can be interpreted as approximately the ACT test score the examinee would obtain if that examinee took the ACT test at the time of the PLAN testing.
If this property were exactly achieved, the mean PLAN and ACT scale scores would be the same for any group of examinees that took the two assessments at the same time. The PLAN score scales were constructed such that the means of the PLAN tests and the Composite would be approximately the same as the corresponding means on the ACT among students at the beginning of 12th grade, nationwide, who reported that they plan to attend a two- or four-year college after completing high school. EXPLORE was scaled to PLAN in a similar fashion; details of the scaling
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of each of the assessments may be found in the technical manuals for the three programs (see ACT 1999, 2006, and 2007).
5. General Issues in Vertical Scaling
The fact that different testing programs use different methods to create vertical scales, and that the literature has shown different scales may result in different estimates of student achievement, and therefore to different educational decisions, is troublesome. Vertical scaling is design-dependent, group-dependent, and method-dependent, and there is no consensus on the best way to create and maintain a vertical scale. Most of the literature on vertical scaling is related to methodology, such as classical versus IRT methods. However, the most important issues may be in determining the test specifications for the tests at different levels, as these functionally define the nature of growth as measured by the assessments (see Harris, 2007). There is a need to understand how the content and statistical specifications overlap across levels in multi-level assessment, as it seems unlikely that the overlap between levels would be constant across levels, or across subjects. The whole nature of growth across time (such as growth in Reading across grades 8 through 12), needs to be considered, and is one of the reasons EPAS test specifications rely so heavily on educator input. Test specifications make concrete some of the assumptions regarding growth, for example, the inclusion of “plane geometry” in both PLAN and ACT math specifications indicates this is a topic that one expects to be covered at both levels, whereas trigonometry is in the ACT specifications only.
In contrast to the more curriculum-related issues above, the technical issues in vertical scaling have been frequently addressed in the measurement literature, though there has been little consensus on best practices that apply generally to a multitude of situations. There are many studies looking at, and contrasting, IRT and classical methodologies and different data collection designs, but there are relatively few on the impact of different reported scales, such as changing the number of score points. There is also a lack of meaningful criteria with which to judge which set of designs/methodologies work best in a particular situation.
6. Equating
Maintaining a vertical scale over time is another issue that may be difficult for a generalized solution. Periodic stability studies should be considered to examine if a scale is retaining its properties over time. For PLAN and ACT, for example, new forms of each subject test are equated horizontally (ACT Reading to ACT Reading, PLAN Reading to PLAN Reading), but the vertical scaling was checked with a different methodology and data collection design than was used originally in a special study conducted seven years after the scale had been introduced; monitoring of the test results for drift is on-going.
7. Accountability Measures Using EPAS
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Table 2, taken from Allen, Bassiri, and Noble (2009; p.6), lists four types of accountability models, as well as an example, the minimum data requirements for implementation of the model, and whether the model is currently in compliance with NCLB.
Types of Accountability Models Example Used for Type of Model Data Requirements Accountability Measures NCLB Proportion of 10th graders Assessment results from a Status Yes proficient in mathematics. single year. Year 2014 projected Assessment results from Improvement proficient of 10th graders in multiple years on different Yes mathematics. cohorts of students. Proportion of 10th graders Assessment results from projected to become multiple years on the same Yes (Growth Growth proficient in mathematics by cohort of students. Model Pilot) 12th grade. Number of mathematics Assessment results from score points attributed to a multiple years on the same Value-Added school, above or below cohort of students. No what can be attributed to schools on average. The authors found that status, improvement, growth, and value-added models could lead to different conclusions about school effectiveness. Using a sample of over 73,000 students in almost 500 high schools across the United States, four different accountability measures were computed. The examples below are based on a single high school, referred to as “Eastville High School, and are reported in ACT (2009b).
8. Status Measure: Percentages of 10th-Grade Students on Target to Be Ready for College-Level Work by High School Graduation
A status measure is an aggregated assessment result from a single test administration, so called because it is one indicator of the status of the school at that time. For example to construct status measures for proficiency at Eastville High School, the College Readiness Benchmarks for PLAN were used as cut scores. Table 3 provides the proficiency rates and percentile ranks for 10th- graders in Eastville High School, showing that 84% of the students were on target to be ready for first-year college English coursework by the time they graduated from high school. The percentile ranks show that the Eastville cohort’s status was about average in English (percentile rank of 54 among all the cohorts in the sample), slightly above average in Reading (percentile rank of 67), and below average in Mathematics and Science (percentile ranks of 32).
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Status Measures for 10th-Grade Students at Eastville High School Subject % Proficient Percentile Rank English 84 54 Mathematics 31 32 Reading 65 67 Science 17 32 9. Improvement Measure: Predicted Percentages of future 10th-Grade Students on Target to Be Ready for College-Level Work by High School Graduation
The improvement measure results in Table 4 are predicted assessment results for students in grade 10 in 2013-2014, based on the results in grade 10 from prior school years. In essence, improvement measures use two or more past status measures to predict future status. The predicted proficiency rates and percentile ranks for the 10th-grade Eastville High School students in the academic year 2013–14 are shown in Table 4. The zero percent proficiency rate in mathematics is based on the fact that the mathematics proficiency of Eastville High School 10th graders decreased from 2000–01 to 2003–04, to such an extent that extrapolating this decrease ten years into the future led to a negative result. This result occurred for 29 percent of the schools in the sample, hence the percentile rank of 29 associated with a percent proficient of zero.
Predicted Status of Eastville High School 10th-Grade Students in 2013-14, Based on 10th-Grade Results from 2000-01 and 2003-04 Subject % Proficient Percentile Rank English 82 51 Mathematics 0 29 Reading 50 38 Science 2 33 The current requirement is that there be 100 percent proficiency among all students in all subjects by 2014; however, it is clear from Table 4 that Eastville High School is not making adequate yearly progress (AYP) with respect to its 10th-grade population. And while the percentile ranks show that Eastville High School is below average in three of the four subject areas compared to the other schools in the data, only 3 percent of all schools were projected to reach full proficiency in all four subject areas at grade 10.
10. Growth Measure: Percentages of 12th-Grade Students Expected to Be Ready for College-Level Work by High School Graduation, Based on Their Performance in Grades 8 and 10 188
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A growth measure is a predicted assessment result for students in a future school year based on a set of results for those same students in two or more prior school years, so called because it accounts for the growth these students made during the prior school years. Growth measures differ from improvement measures in that growth measures predict results for a set of students based on their own past performance, whereas improvement measures predict results for a school at a particular grade based on the performance of its students in that same grade in previous years. To construct growth measures for proficiency in the four subject areas among a group of students at Eastville High School, their proficiency at grade 12 was predicted based on their assessment results at both grades 8 and 10. The predicted proficiency rates and percentile ranks for 12th-grade Eastville High School students are shown in Table 5. Interestingly, the predicted 2005–06 results were highly correlated with the actual results of the students in Eastville High School in 2006 (correlations of 0.85 for English and Mathematics, 0.80 for Reading, and 0.79 for Science).
Predicted College Readiness of Students in Grade 12 (2005-06), Based on Their Degree of Progress toward College Readiness in Grades 8 (2001-02) and 10 (2003-04) Subject % Proficient Percentile Rank English 80 68 Mathematics 23 32 Reading 54 56 Science 14 40 11. Value-Added Measure: School Contribution to Student ACT Score
A value-added measure is an estimate of the number of score points by which attending a particular school increases students’ test scores in a given subject (beyond the average expected increase associated with attendance at a typical school), based on two or more years of assessment results at the school for these students. To construct the value-added measures for Eastville High School a method that estimates the school’s effect on its students’ ACT scores, explicitly controlling for student factors (annual family income, race/ethnicity, and incoming performance level as represented by the same students’ EXPLORE scores in grade 8) and school factors (enrollment, proportion of students tested, poverty level, and proportion of racial/ethnic minority students) was used. The estimated school effect shown by this measure can be interpreted as an estimate of the school’s contribution to students’ academic performance, adjusted for the controlled factors.
Table 6 shows the value-added results for Eastville High School. The figures in the second column represent not absolute score points but the differences between the average number of score points attributed to Eastville and those attributed to a typical high school in the sample. The results in Table 6 suggest that Eastville High School has an above-average effect on its students’ English, Reading, and Science scores, and a below-average effect on their Mathematics score. The
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percentile ranks indicate that Eastville’s effects on the other subjects are well above average, at the 92nd, 95th, and 83rd percentiles, respectively.
Estimates of School Effects on Students’ ACT Scores (2005-06) Effect on ACT Score Subject (Deviation from TypicalSchool) Percentile Rank English + 1.2 92 Mathematics - 0.3 32 Reading + 0.9 95 Science + 0.4 83 In addition to illustrating that data from EXPLORE, PLAN, and the ACT can be used with the different accountability measures, these four examples highlight how different accountability measures can lead to different conclusions about school effectiveness, including how the value- added measures better isolate and measure the school’s effect on its students’ academic achievement.
Similarly, in ACT (2010), Li looked at the relationships between some basic statistical measures of student achievement, such as gain score, status score, residual gain scores, and hierarchical modeling of individual grow trajectories, at both the student and school level, using EPAS English data. Based on almost 135,000 students in over 1400 schools, Li found that the rank ordering of both individuals and of schools could be quite different depending on whether they are evaluated on the EXPLORE to PLAN or PLAN to ACT change. The correlations between the measures examined in the study ranged from -.30 to .99
12. What Is Reasonable Growth in High School?
In ACT (2009a), Allen and Sconing looked at approximately 150,000 students who had taken all three EPAS assessments. Average scores are given in Figure 1.
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Figure 1: Average Growth in Achievement between Eighth and Twelfth Grades
36.0
31.0
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EXPLORE PLAN ACT
Using the Benchmarks, the sample was divided into three groups: those who were on target in eighth grade (i.e., who met or exceeded the EXPLORE College Readiness Benchmarks), those who were nearly on target (i.e., who were within 2 or fewer score points of meeting each EXPLORE Benchmark), and those who were off target (i.e., who were more than 2 score points from meeting each EXPLORE Benchmark). The average scores on each test for these three groups are given in Figures 2a through 2d.
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Figure 2a: English
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English Test Score Test English 12.9 13.0 11.0 11.6
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Off target (N = 9,839) Nearly on target (N = 21,898) On target (N = 117,148)
Figure 2b: Mathematics
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11.0 12.3 Mathematics Test Score
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Off target (N = 38,791) Nearly on target (N = 39,753) On target (N = 70,556)
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Figure 2c: Reading
36.0
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18.9 16.0 16.6 15.8 14.2 13.6 Reading Test Score Test Reading 11.0 11.0
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Off target (N = 32,056) Nearly on target (N = 32,387) On target (N = 84,525)
Figure 2d: Science
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Science Test Score 11.0
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1.0 EXPLORE PLAN ACT
Off target (N = 79,923) Nearly on target (N = 41,910) On target (N = 26,927)
[Figure 2] Average Growth in Achievement between Eighth and Twelfh Grades, by Degree of College Readiness
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Individual students’ growth goals can be set using the Benchmarks and the growth trajectories in Figures 2a through 2d as a yardstick. For students who are off target in eighth grade, a challenging yet reasonable goal on successive tests is to reduce by half the difference between the student’s score in a given subject and the corresponding Benchmark. Students who are on target in eighth grade should aspire to above-average growth by both tenth and twelfth grades; above-average growth expectations from EXPLORE to PLAN can be set at 3 score points for English, Mathematics, and Reading and 2 score points for Science, while for students who were nearly on target, the goal is to get to the benchmark. For those who were far from the target the goal was to cut the distance in half.
An alternate way to set growth goals is by first measuring the average growth at high-performing high schools (i.e., schools showing the greatest growth) and then setting goals for students at lower- and average-performing high schools according to what is considered normal growth at the high-performing high schools. This approach would also set the bar for growth at a higher level than that indicated by the average growth shown in Figures 2a through 2d.
13. Summary
The goal of this presentation was to introduce ACT’s EPAS® (Educational Planning and Assessment System) program, and to illustrate how EPAS scores can be used to measure student and school-level growth, either through a vertical score scale, various accountability measures, and/or in relation to the College Readiness Benchmarks.
References
ACT. (2007). PLAN Technical Manual. Iowa City, IA: Author. ACT. (2006). The ACT Technical Manual. Iowa City, IA: Author. ACT. (2007). EXPLORE Technical Manual. Iowa City, IA: Author. ACT, Inc., (2009a). How Much Growth to College Readiness is Reasonable to Expect in High School? Iowa City, IA: Author. ACT, Inc., (2009b). Using ACT Data as Part of a State Accountability System. Iowa City, IA: Author. ACT, Inc. (2010). Relationships among selected measures of individual and school performance based on EPAS data. Unpublished research report. Allen, J., Bassiri, D., & Noble, J., (2009). Statistical Properties of Accountability Measures Based on ACT’s Educational Planning and Assessment System (ACT Research Report 2009-1). Iowa City, IA: ACT, Inc. Ferrara, S., Johnson, E., & Chen, W-H. (2005). Vertically articulated performance standards: Logic, procedures, and likely classification accuracy. Applied Measurement in Education, 18, 35-59.
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Harris, D. J. (2007). Practical issues in vertical scaling. In Neil J. Dorans, Mary Pommerich, & Paul W. Holland (Eds.), Linking and aligning scores and scales, pp. 234-251. New York, NY: Springer. Harris, D. J. (2009). Practical Issues in Vertical Equating 2.0. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA. Ho, A. D. & Magda, T. (2008). The dependency of growth models on proficiency standards. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Council on Measurement in Education, New York. Huynh, H. & Schneider, C. (2005). Vertically moderated standards: background, assumptions, and practices. Applied Measurement in Education, 18, 99-113. Yen, W. M., Lall, V. F., Monfils, L. (2007) Evaluating academic progress without a vertical scale. NCME, 2007, Chicago
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Self-evaluation of Wrong Answers (SEWA) : A New Learning/Instruction Strategy
Sung-Hoon Kim Dongguk University, Korea
Abstract
This paper is to argue that 'self-evaluation of wrong answers(SEWA)', a new way of feedback of achievement test results, is worthy of practicing as a learning and/or instruction strategy. Based on the findings mainly of Kim(2007) and Kwon(2010), the worthy of SEWA was discussed in four regards. SEWA enables a maximum use of the information of a test, a learning from errors in a unique way, a learning with multi-tasking with meta-cognizing and expressing, and a mature motivation.
This paper is to argue that 'self-evaluation of wrong answers' ('SEWA' hereafter)', a new way of feedback of achievement test results, is worthy of practicing as a learning and/or instruction strategy. The SEWA has been studied very recently by Kim(2007, 2009), Kim et. al.(2009), and Kwon(2010). The former three evidenced that SEWA was effective for the achievement of subject matter objectives and for a self-evaluating ability, and the last one did that SEWA provided more various information for understanding the students’ problem solving than former studies on error analysis. The argument is provided in three sections, SEWA's definition, research findings, and discussion on its worth.
1. SEWA, what is it?
SEWA is to have students figure out and report in written the reasons why and/or how they made the wrong answer to each of the incorrectly responded items of an achievement test. It assumes a classroom assessment setting. It is done right after the teacher's explanation of right solutions to all of the test items. So, SEWA consists of a set of three consecutive activities as follows.
First, teacher marks right or wrong on each item response of the students, and returns the marked test sheets to them.
Second, the teacher provides the students the right answers with proper solution processes. Third, the students are to figure out and report in written the reason(s) why they made the wrong answer to each of the items they incorrectly responded. 196
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While SEWA, in a strict sense, is the last procedure, it includes the previous ones. The last procedure itself cannot be properly executed without the previous ones. Without those preceding activities, students may identify the reasons of wrong answer still based on wrong answers.
SEWA on an item consists of four kinds of student’s operations. They are the cognition on which items he/she missed, cognition on what are the right solutions, reflection to identify the reason of wrongness, and expression in written the reasons. The former two operations are done in first two procedural activities of SEWA, and the last two operations are done in the third procedure.
Among three procedural activities of SEWA, the former two can be seen frequently in practice under the name of feedback of test results. But the last one is unique to SEWA. The uniqueness consists of two aspects. One is the students' reflection to figure out the reasons of wrongness, and the other is to express the reasons in written. These two features, which the conventional feedback lacks, make the SEWA a unique feedback. In that sense SEWA is a new way of feedback of achievement test result.
Since SEWA requires additional activities differently from conventional feedback, it is somewhat cumbersome. It requires students and teachers as well to spend more time and effort. Teachers have to squeeze class-time out to introduce students to how to reflect and write down the reasons. And students also need extra time and effort to reflect and write down the reasons of wrong answers.
The time may not be so much a problem as does the mental effort. The students are not usually trained to figure out and write down the reasons of the wrong answers. They are usually taught not to commit the same error again without much further investigation of the reasons of the errors. And teacher also must be more carefully prepared for SEWA. The teacher has to precisely prepare the right solution, which may be the pathways for the students to find the meaningful reasons of wrong answers. The right solutions must include the attributes of the test items. An attribute is the bases of right answers, without which one cannot reach a right answer. It takes various forms such as sub-skills, prior knowledge, core concepts, or problem solving procedures. Being preparedness of the attributes burdens teacher's job of item development.
Being cumbersome, SEWA has studied in order to make achievement test be used for an enhancement of students' learning. SEWA is a feedback system that is tailored to each student. Given that students may eagerly participate, SEWA would help them with more effective learning than before.
2. Studies on SEWA, what was found?
SWEA has been very recently studied in two ways. One was on the effects of SEWA (Kim, 2007, 2009), and the other was on classification and characteristics of reasons of wrong answers (Kwon, 2010). The findings are briefed below.
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2.1 Effects of SEWA (Kim, 2007) Kim(2007)’s study titled 'the effect of self-evaluation to identify causes of wrong answers' was to empirically test the effect of SEWA in compliance with a quasi-experimental design. The study had three research questions: First, did the SEWA affect achievement? Second, as the SEWA went on, was the self-evaluation ability advanced? Third, how hard and helpful was the SEWA to students?
An experiment with a non-equivalent group pre-post test design was done. SEWA was repeated 6 cycles, once a month from March to July in a semester and September. Experimental group (212 person, 4 classes) and control group (106 person, 2 classes) were chosen from the 9th grade Science classes taught by a teacher in a middle school.
First cycle done in March was considered as a pre-test, and each of the other cycles was regarded as a post-test. For the achievement test in each cycle, the teacher made and used a paper and pencil test. And in order to gather data on difficulties, accuracies, and helpfulness of self-evaluation, a questionnaire was used.
For the first question, ANOVA of the value-added score of each cycle against the pre-test was applied to test the effect of SEWA, and significance of correlation coefficients between ratios of each type of causes of wrong answers and achievement scores were tested to test their relationships. For the second question, the ratios of each type of causes of wrong answers were compared for each cycle. For the third question, distribution of frequency ratio of each type of causes of wrong answers was tested by a chi-squared test.
Finding1: Effect on the achievement of the subject matter: It was found that SEWA had positive effect on the students' achievements. SEWA’s effect was tested with the value-added score, which is the residual of target month’s score when it was regressed to the pretest score. The value-added scores of experimental group were significantly higher than those of control group with the type I error rate .01 - .10. The only exception was with the test in May, when a new subject matter was tested. The SEWA’s effect was more significant especially in the last test in September, which was a delayed test. Such result was not significantly different between sexes except in the last test, where the effect was more salient with females.
ANOVA of value-added score to test group and sex effects April May June July September Group 17.72**(.00) .07(.79) 3.64(.06) 3.37(.07) 60.43**(.00) Sex .00(.99) .02(.90) .25(.62) .05(.83) .88(.35) GroupⅹSex .21(.65) .00(.94) .80(.37) .00(.96) 7.22*(.01)
MSE 4866.05 4693.98 6264.99 5391.30 8281.76 |df |314 |314 |314 |314 |314 **p<.01 , *p<.05
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[Figure 1] Value added score means for each group and month
Finding2: Effect on SEWA ability: Student's self-evaluation ability was enhanced. A student’s self-evaluation ability was defined as the ratio of the substantial reasons to the total reasons that he/she reported. The reasons of wrong answers were divided into two exclusive types, trivial reasons (such as ‘didn’t know the answer’ or ‘made a mistake’) and substantial reasons (including mechanical or computational mistakes, and reasons related with knowledge of the subject matter). The ratio of substantial reasons was (in both sexes) increased from April right after the beginning of SEWA in March, and then maintained as a plateau or slightly increased with one exceptional case (in June). The only exceptional case in June was interpreted as that the test of the month was too difficult for the students to figure out substantial reasons. Additional findings were that the self-evaluation ability was positively correlated with achievement score, and that the ratio of mechanical or calculation errors, which might due to carelessness, did not show a clear trend.
Percentages of substantial reasons in each month’s SEWA Mary Apr May Jun Jul total 87.58 92.56 92.76 85.55 93.86 male 88.04 91.98 91.98 81.80 93.45 female 87.13 93.17 93.57 89.35 94.30 [Figure 2] Ratio of substantial reasons for each month and sexes
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Finding3: Effect on the affections: The majority of the students who participated in the experiment reported that SEWA was not so easy but was helpful. As the cycles went on, difficulty of reporting the causes of wrong answers was decreased, while accuracies were increased. It meant that SEWA could be learned.
Mean difficulties of SEWA early later difference total 3.73 2.62 1.11 male 3.74 2.73 1.01 female 3.73 2.52 1.21 * The mean varies from 1(the least) to 5(the most difficult). [Figure 3] Mean difficulties of SEWA
2.2 Classification of reasons for wrong answers (Kwon, 2007)
Kwon(2010), for her doctoral dissertation titled as ‘an analysis of the students' self-evaluated reasons for the wrong answers from the mathematics tests in a high school,’ studied a utility of SEWA. Her study was to classify and characterize the reasons for the wrong answers earned by SEWA. The research questions were(Kown, 2010: abstract):
First, how are the students' self-evaluated reasons for the wrong answers from the mathematics tests in a high school classified and structurized? Second, what are the differences between self-evaluated reasons for the wrong answers and those in the studies on error analysis? Third, what are the gender- and achievement level-differences in students' self-evaluated reasons for the wrong answers?
Kown(2010)’s study was an extension of Kim(2007)’s in two regards. First, the research problems were different. As shown above, her interest was not to test the effectiveness of SEWA but to find utility of the information that SEWA produced. Second, target group and subject matter was
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different. She used 10th graders’ Mathematics class (without control group), while Kim(2007) used 9th grader's science class. But she followed the same three-step procedure of SEWA.
Finding1. SEWA provided a subject-matter oriented classification Kwon(2010) classified the reasons into five sub-types. They, as shown in
, were the reasons related with knowledge (of the subject matter), those with cognitive process, those with guessing strategy, those with mistake and carelessness, and trivial reasons. They were similar to Kim(2007)’s classification (as shown in ) in that knowledge-related reasons, trivial reasons, and technical mistakes were included. But Kown(2010)’s classification was different from Kim(2007)’s in three aspects. First, knowledge-related reasons were not in taxonomy types as was in Kim(2007) but in content units. Prior knowledge included expressions, factoring, numbers, and so for forth, and knowledge currently learning included sets, statements, real numbers, and so forth. Second, among newly added types of reasons were cognitive process-related reasons and guessing strategy-related reasons. Cognitive process-related reasons consisted of Mathematical interpretation, application/transformation, understanding relationships, comparing elements, and reasoning of procedures. And guessing strategy-related reasons consisted of using specific values, using the alternatives, and others such as insight. Third, technical mistakes and computational mistakes, which were separately classified in Kim(2007), were combined into the same classification.
Kwon(2010)’s classification was more keenly calibrated for specific subject matter of specific grade than was Kim(2007)'s. Kwon(2010)’s data was collected from the 10th graders’ Mathematics classes. So, the knowledge-related reasons and cognitive process-related reasons looked after a structure of 10th graders’ Mathematics content units. Even the computational mistake and technical mistakes were not necessary to be differently classified.
Classification of reasons of wrong answers Subject Knowledge-related reasons Prior Knowledge Knowledge learned currently Cognitive Process-related reasons Mathematical interpretation Application/transformation Understanding relationships Comparing elements Reasoning of Procedures Guessing Strategy-related reasons Using specific values Using choices Others Technical Mistake Trivial Reason Source: Kwon(2010: pp.70-71). 201
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Classification of reasons of wrong answers in Kim(2007) Knowledge-related reasons Factual Knowledge Conceptual Knowledge Procedural Knowledge Technical Mistake Computational Mistake Trivial (Invalid) Reason Source: Kim(2009: p. 42). Finding2. SEWA revealed guessing strategy, a student’s test performance SEWA resulted in a new understanding of guessing, a students' test performance, in addition the previous understanding of cognitions and errors in mathematics subject.
'Subject knowledge related type' was similar to the "Knowledge" domain in the "Revised Taxonomy of Educational Objectives" and "Subject Knowledge category" in the "Error Type Research" on mathematics subject. 'Cognitive Process related type' was similar to the "Cognitive Process" domains in the "Revised Taxonomy of Educational Objectives". However, there was no 'Guessing Strategy related type' in the existing mathematics subject error researches (Kwon, 2010, abstract).
Last type was possibly identified because the data was the self-reported reasons of wrong answers, which is hardly found with former studies. Such a type is quite helpful in understanding how the students guess or solve problems when they have incomplete knowledge or understanding.
Finding3. SEWA was related with achievement level and sex Kwon(2010) also found that SEWA was related with achievement level and sex. As shown in
, high achievers tended more likely commit the technical mistakes but less likely the trivial reasons than low achievers. It was explainable with two regards. One was that high achievers tended to make less wrong answers than low achievers did. And the other was that they reported more substantial reasons, which was also found in Kim(2007). ANOVA of ratio of reasons to test the achievement level effect Type of Achievement M (SD) F Scheffe reason Level (N) post-hoc Subject High(17) 0.3 -0.12 0.478 ․
Knowledge Mid(49) 0.29 -0.1
Low(15) 0.26 -0.11
Cognitive High 0.23 -0.13 1.615 ․ process Mid 0.21 -0.08
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Low 0.17 -0.07 Guessing High 0.03 -0.05 0.003 Mid 0.03 -0.04 Low 0.03 -0.04 Technical High 0.3 -0.16 4.457* H > M, L mistake Mid 0.21 -0.1 Low 0.19 -0.1 Trivial High 0.15 -0.16 6.389** H, M < L
reasons Mid 0.27 -0.17
Low 0.35 -0.14
Source: Kwon(2010: p. 85). *p<.05, **p<.01
Sex effect was only with subject knowledge-related reasons and trivial reasons. Females tended more likely to report the subject knowledge-related reasons and less likely the trivial reasons. Such finding seemed related with Kim(2007)’s finding that SEWA was more effective with females.
ANOVA of ratio of reasons to test the sex effect 유형 Sex N M (SD) T Subject Knowledge Male 41 0.26 (0.11) -2.219* Female 40 0.31(0.10) Cognitive process Male 41 0.19 (0.09) -1.643 Female 40 0.22 (0.09) Guessing Male 41 0.03 (0.04) 0.162 Female 40 0.03 (0.04) Technical mistake Male 41 0.22 (0.15) -0.117 Female 40 0.23 (0.07) Trivial reasons Male 41 0.30 (0.19) 2.363*
Female 40 0.22 (0.14)
Source: Kwon(2010: p. 79). *p<.05
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3. SEWA, why worth?
3.1 Maximum utilization of the information of a test
Achievement test scores are used for important judgments. They are used to diagnose student's readiness to learn, to form an instruction, and/or to summarize learning outcome. The summative test scores are of the matter of concern to the majority of occasions in social settings because they are the main screening criteria for educational and/or social advancement. Nonetheless test scores for diagnostic and formative evaluation are not less important than those for summative one in educational setting. Even test scores produced originally for summative evaluation still are to be used for diagnostic and/or formative judgments for further instructions. The latter is of interest of this study, which seeks a way to maximize the utility of information of a test. SEWA was motivated from a reflection that the information contained in achievement tests had not been fully used for the learning and/or instruction. An achievement test belongs to the psychological test "characterized by the use of samples of behavior in order to assess psychological construct(s) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_test)."
An achievement test, by definition, is a set of items sampled from a population of items. The population can be defined as all items to measure the targeted area of cognitive functioning in some area of competency or educational objectives. The population items are innumerable since they do not exist as concrete or apparent form but as abstract or latent form. So, a test can be made as many or more ways as are there test developers.
It is evident that an achievement test is a condensation of information. It is developed by making a finite number of items out of innumerable potential items, and that test scores play a crucial role in making our educational decisions on instruction and learning. In order to make our decision successful, it is required to develop a test which enables a valid interpretation. Given that achievement test for educational purpose is to be developed to evidence what and how much educational objectives was achieved, test developer(s) would rely on content-related validation to make a good test. The rule of thumb to make a content-related valid test is to make the test items the most representative of the coverage of the contents. To let the test items be representative of the contents, they should cover all of and nothing but the contents to be tested. When a broad content area has to be covered, like in midterm or final semester examination, test items as a whole contain a condensation of the contents. It means test items contain a condensation of educationally important and uncontaminated content information. A good item, therefore, has a mixture of content information structured in educationally important way. Such a way, test contains much more pieces of information structured or non-structured than the number of items.
A student’s test score contains the total information that he/she put onto the items of the test. The score is an index of how much the student achieved in the area to be tested. Technically, it is a location on a numerical continuum. It shows how far he/she is above or below than a standard or others. It is not a structure of cognition but a location. That is to say that the score does not mean which items, why, and how he/she missed. So, a test score does not say much to guide what and how to teach or learn.
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When we talk about how to teach or learn, not the scores or correctly-responded items but the incorrectly-responded items deserve our attention. Teaching and learning is basically the activity to make changes occur such as; ignorant to sophisticated, illiterate to literate, or unstructured to structured. Learning, by definition, can occur when we have something that is to be changed. In that sense not the right answers but the wrong answers leave room for learning.
We assume that, the students’ learning would occur by their exposure to an explanation of the right solutions to the items, which is the second procedure of SEWA. In general classroom practices, students all together are exposed to an identical explanation. A teacher provides right solutions to all of the items to all of the students at the same lecture or with one set of written material. Will such procedure sufficiently provoke new learning related with the items they responded incorrectly? Would students give right answers for sure to the same or similar items to which they committed errors before?
The answer to the above questions are negative unless the right solution is transferred from a short-term to a long-term memory(Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968). In order for the transfer of the memory and its recall some additional conditions must be met. The teacher’s explanation of right solution must be rehearsed (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968), impressively organized (Mandler, 1967), distinctive (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1980), effort-demanding (Tyler et al., 1979), or implicit procedural learning (Anderson, 1976) as to be recalled later on. Otherwise teacher's explanation does not guarantee a new learning.
[Figure1] Atkinson & Shiffrin(1968)'s multi-storage model
Above discussion emphasizes two things, one is that wrong answers are the opportunities for a new learning, and that the learning from wrong answers requires some activities in addition to the teacher’s explanation on right solution. SEWA meet both of the conditions. SEWA lets students focus onto the items they made errors, and do several mental processes with those items. In SEWA students remember how they made the incorrect answers, rehearse the right solutions that their teacher explained, and evaluate to identify what were the reasons of the wrongness. These may suffice the conditions for the long-term memory and its recall.
SEWA is a way maximum utilization of the information a test has. SEWA make students confront again their own incorrect responses, reflect themselves why they was wrong, and express the result of the reflection. SEWA does not use a test score, a summarized location information, but use item-level information tailored to each student's. The information is directly linked to diagnosis of inability and of and further learning.
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3.2 Learning from errors in a unique way
Making a wrong answer can be seen as committing an error or a mistake. "In human behaviors, an error is a deviation from accuracy or correctness. An error or a mistake can sometimes be dispelled through knowledge (knowing that one is looking at a mirage and not at real water doesn't make the mirage disappear)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Error)". So, as discussed in the previous section, SEWA is one way of learning from/with errors. Learning from/with errors is not new.
Learning from errors has various approaches. Let’s cite the homepage of 'Human Error Consultancy', which is an organization to try to reduce cost of failure and accidents in social settings, to taste 'learning from errors'. It says:
People make errors and you can learn from errors. But that doesn't happen all the time. Very often errors are repeated, which results in high costs of failure and the amount of accidents in an organization...
The main reasons for this are: - We don't realize that other people can make the same error. - We are ashamed of an error and try to hide it from others. - We are afraid of the reaction we get from colleagues or the staff. - The lacking knowledge of why people make errors. - We use wrong methods for analyzing and learning from errors (http://www.learningfromerrors.com).
While above citation is for social organization setting, it still makes sense for school education setting. Students may overlook incorrectly answered items, make the same errors with other examinations, lack knowledge why they make errors, and/or may not know how to analyze and learn from errors.
SEWA is a way of learning from errors uniquely in that it uses students' self-evaluation to identify the reasons of errors and to report them in written. SEWA makes students directly confront the errors they committed. Students are requested to reflect themselves to figure out and report why they made errors. Such request was not what they used to. It involves reminding the solution processes what he/she actually followed and what the teacher explained as right solution, and evaluating the actual process against the right solution. It is then assumable that such reflecting and reporting activities may, being time and effort taking, unfamiliar, difficult, and cumbersome, enhance further learning.
3.3 Learning with multi-tasking: meta-cognizing and expressing
SEWA, a self-evaluation, requires multi-tasking, including meta-cognition and writing at least. Self-evaluation is the way a person views him/herself. An on-line site provides following definitions of self-evaluation (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_self_evaluation).
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Being able to estimate extent of one's own learning, progress and development is imbued within self evaluation.
Self evaluation is a way of scrutiny where a person delves deeper within him/her and reflect answers to gauge and progress further.
Looking through where you were, where you have arrived and from where to and where on. In a way you expose to the core reality well known to you and are being specific to facilitate personal and professional development.
Being self evaluation, SEWA delves deeper within him/herself on firstly how he/she incorrectly solved the item, secondly how to correct the wrongness, and thirdly what caused wrong answers. While such inner operations might occur concurrently or in a different order, they are not on a same layer of mental process. In order to figure out the reason in the third operation, he/she has to know what he/she did, and what is the right solution. So, the third operation is a higher one over the previous ones. It is to say that SEWA is a meta-cognition(Flavell, 1976, 1979; Metcalfe & Shimamura, 1994). In addition, students are requested to report in written the reasons of wrongness resulted in a meta-cognitive reflection. SEWA is a multi-tasking mentally and physically as well.
3.4 A mature motivation
Self-evaluation motivates learning. Dauenbeimer, et. al.(2002) argued that self-enhancement, self- verification, and self-assessment are the intricate roles of trait modifiability in the self-evaluation process. Such a self-evaluation is on the competency or achievement level.
SEWA, however, does not focus on the achievement level but on the reasons of wrong answers. That is not a estimation of ability but a reflection of inability. Not to show others his/her capability but to confront his/her own the incapability and the reason is a mature way of behaving. Montessory(1949) argued that a mature individual does not resent correction, for he identifies himself more with the long range self that grows through correction than with the momentary self that is being indicted.
References
Anderson, J.R. (1976). Language,memory and thought. NJ: Erlbaum. Atkinson, R.C.; Shiffrin, R.M. (1968). "Chapter: Human memory: A proposed system and its control processes". in Spence, K.W.; Spence, J.T.. The psychology of learning and motivation (Volume2). New York: Academic Press. pp.89–195. Dauenbeimer, D. G., Stablberg, D., Spreemann, S., and Sedikides, C. (2002). Self-enhancement, self-verification, or self-assessment: the intricate role of trait modifiability in the self- evaluation process. Revue internationale de psychologie sociale, 15(3-4), 89-112.
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Flavell, J. H. (1976) Metacognitive aspects of problem solving. In L. B. Resnick (Ed.), The nature of intelligence(pp.231–236). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Flavell, J. H. (1979). Meta cognition and cognitive monitoring: A new area of cognitive- developmental inquiry. American Psychologist, 34(10), 906-1011. Goble, N. (1977). The changing role of the teacher: International perspectives. Paris, France: UNESCO. Kim, S-H. (2007). Effect of self-evaluation to identify causes of wrong answers. Research Report supported by 2007 Basic Research in Liberal Art and Social Science Fund, National Research Foundation. (In Korean) Kim, S-H. (2009). Effect of self-evaluation to identify causes of wrong answers on achievement test. Journal of Educational Evaluation, 22(1), 29-56. (In Korean) Kim, S-H., Kim, K-J., & Kwon, H-J. (2009), On a competency of 'self-evaluation to identify causes of wrong answers. Journal of Educational Evaluation, 22(2), 291-309. (In Korean) Kwon, H-J. (2010). An analysis of the students' self-evaluated reasons for the wrong answers from the mathematics tests in a high school. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Dongguk University. (In Korean) Mandler, Jean M., and Mandler, G. (1964). Thinking: From Association to Gestalt. NewYork: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Metcalfe, J., & Shimamura, A. P. (1994). Metacognition: knowing about knowing. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Tesser, A. (1988). Toward a self-evaluation maintenance model of social behavior. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology, Vol21,(pp.181-227). New York: Academic Press. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self- evaluation_maintenance_theory) Tyler, S. W., et al., (1979). Human Learning and Memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 5(6), 607-717. Human Error Consultancy(2010). Learning from errors. Oldenzaal, the Netherlands(http://www.learningfromerrors.com/). http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_self_evaluation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Error
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2009 NAEA Results and Implications : Toward a 'Below Basic' Zero Plan?
Sungsook Kim Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, Korea
I. Introduction
In 2009, the government administered the NAEA (National Assessment of Educational Achievement) to all-inclusive students for the target grades from elementary to high school. Those changes expanded the goals of academic achievement assessment from "providing information to improve the curriculums and teaching-learning methods and controlling the quality of education" to "diagnosing the academic achievement levels of individual students and checking the accountability of school education.
The purposes of this study were to analyze the all-inclusive results of 2009 NAEA, examine the academic achievement levels of the sixth, ninth, and tenth graders in five subjects (Korean, social studies, math, science, and English), and provide their implications for policy making. To be more specific, it would investigate the students' academic achievement levels according to school levels, regional sizes, municipal and provincial educational agencies (or local educational agencies), and subjects, offer descriptive information about the background variables with the responses of the newly developed student and school questionnaires in 2009, and analyze relations between academic achievement of each school level and student and school background variables.
2. Overview of NAEA
The design for performing the NAEA in 2009 is shown in Table 1.
2009 NAEA Design Types of Students Areas Scope Time Period Evaluation tools items 40 minutes The entire ·Exam paper for for each curriculums each subject Grade 6 Korean subject October 13 from 4th to Multiple- : Two types(A and Social studies Survey: 15 and 14 6th grade choice and B) Math minutes (13 for Constructed- Science 70 minutes vocational The entire response ·Questionnaires English for each high curriculums items for student and Grade 9 (Survey) subject schools) from 7th to schools Survey: 15 9th grade minutes . 209 KERA International Conference 2010
70 minutes Generalc The entire for each Grade curriculums subject 10 of 10th Korea, math, Survey: 15 Vocational grade English(survey) minutes
3. NAEA Results
3.1 Overall Results
• Grade 6
• Grade 9
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• Grade 10 (General)
3.2 Progress in Achievement Levels (Sample results from 2003 to 2009)
• Grade 6
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• Grade 9
•Grade 10
3.3 Background Variables and Achievement
The school context variables for elementary and middle school included school SES(percentage of alienated classes), school climate, and interest of parents. Organizational characteristics were added to them for high school context variables. The student context variables included types of family living together, school life, attitude in class, types of learning after school, and after school education. In Table 2. the scale score mean within the quartile of the percentage of the alienated
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classes, which represents school SES, was compared among the subjects. As a result, the higher the percentage of the alienated classes was, the lower achievement scores were across all the subjects. The higher the school climate scores were, the higher academic achievements were with small differences among the subjects. When the parents took great interest in school, provided much support for it, and made lots of demands to it, they had positive influences on higher achievement scores. The only item that asked the students about student SES on the student questionnaire was the types of family living together. They attained great academic achievement when living with the parents, single parent, and grandparents(without the parents) in the order. The higher they scored in school life and attitude in class, the higher academic achievement they demonstrated across all the subjects. As for after school study, those who only watched the public channels like EBS and those who received only private education such as private academic institutions and tutoring were compared. As a result, the latter scored higher achievement scores in math and English. Since elementary school provides very few subject programs after school, it is difficult to relate after school education to achievement in subjects.
Mean of scale scores of achievement in the subjects according to the school and student context variables(6th grade) Social Questionnaire variables Category Korean Math Science English studies First quartile 165.31 164.35 166.91 170.67 171.90 Second quartile 163.72 162.50 164.52 169.19 168.58 Student composition Third quartile 162.58 161.29 163.10 168.24 166.21
Fourth quartile 162.06 160.78 162.05 167.86 164.56
Low 161.55 160.07 161.77 167.11 164.32
School School High 162.94 161.73 163.46 168.57 166.82 context climate Very high 163.85 162.70 164.76 169.39 168.70
Very low 160.39 159.19 161.44 166.13 164.53
Low 161.68 160.39 161.97 167.49 164.38 Parent' interest High 162.84 161.59 163.34 168.47 166.70
Very high 164.29 163.19 165.33 169.78 169.49 Parents 163.80 162.71 164.61 169.38 168.51 Single parent 160.55 158.46 160.48 166.00 162.16
Family Grandparents 159.62 157.72 159.35 165.15 160.73 living Student Siblings 163.63 162.43 164.35 169.22 168.02 context Single children 161.91 160.75 162.66 167.32 166.18 variables Not at all 156.24 156.20 159.14 161.76 161.16 School life Never 159.73 158.77 161.48 165.16 163.74
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So 162.72 161.40 163.45 168.32 166.72
Very much so 164.11 163.02 164.79 169.66 168.82
Not at all 153.29 152.22 155.81 157.18 157.05
Attitude in Never 159.07 157.18 160.21 164.41 162.05 class So 163.20 161.79 163.79 168.73 167.54
Very much so 166.73 166.78 167.75 172.60 172.00
After EBS 163.21 161.93 162.02 168.70 165.53 school Private academic 163.84 162.71 165.14 169.48 168.89 study institutes
After No participation 163.44 162.19 164.36 168.95 168.02 school Participation 160.19 158.08 160.65 168.12 166.61 education
4. Conclusion and Suggestions
Those research findings led to the following implications:
First, the overall results of academic achievement assessment show that the percentage of the 'below basic' level differed according to the school levels and subjects; it was 1.2%～2.3% in the sixth grade, 4.6%～10.9% in the ninth grade, and 2.3%～8.9% in the tenth grade(general). As for achievement according to the genders, the girls were low in the percentage of the 'below basic' level overall. However, there were differences between boys and girls among the subjects as the school levels went up. The boys particularly excelled in math and science, whereas the girls in Korean and English. As for achievement according to the size of the area where the school was located, the percentage of the 'below basic' level was the highest across all the school levels and subjects except for social studies in the ninth grade.
Secondly, municipal and provincial educational agencies that recorded 'advanced' achievement levels differed according to the school levels. In elementary school, Chungbuk, Daejeon, and Seoul attained 'advanced' academic achievement, whereas Gyeonggi and Jeonbuk attained poor academic achievement with some differences among the subjects. In middle school, Jeju recorded a high percentage of the 'advanced' level in Korean, social studies, math, and science, and Seoul did in English. Jeonnam recorded a high percentage of the 'below basic' level in all the subjects except for social studies. In the tenth grade, educational agencies with a high percentage of the 'advanced' level or a low percentage of the 'below basic' level widely varied.
The study made the following suggestions to help the all-inclusive results of academic achievement assessment be used in a more meaningful way:
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First, a reflux channel should be created to form a systematic organization and reflect analysis results so that the results of academic achievement assessment can be actively analyzed by municipal and provincial educational agencies and local educational agencies.
Second, school status indexes should be developed to consider when interpreting improvement of individual schools in academic achievement based on the yearly progress of all-inclusive evaluations.
Third, an information sharing system should be built about school, teacher, and student background that are educational context variables to explain academic achievement. While surveys have been administered to collect information about various kinds of background variables to affect academic achievement, there has been no justification of data accuracy. It will be a good idea to set up a database system to connect with academic achievement through the School Statistics Database of KEDI, academic achievement questionnaires of KICE, School Announcement Data Set of KERIS, and NEIS.
Fourth, the ways individual scores are reported should be improved so that the results of academic achievement assessment can be put to meaningful uses by individual students.
Finally, in-depth analysis should be conducted for each subject to provide feedback for the achievement criteria of each area and improve the teaching and learning methods in school by advancing the questioning plans. The strengths and weaknesses of content and behavior area of each subject should be analyzed systematically and directions for the next curriculum revision should be offered by highlighting the characteristics of subject researchers as much as possible.
References
Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2010). 2009 National Assessment of Educational Achievement and Press release. The Act on Special Cases concerning the Disclosure of Information of Education-related Institutions (Act No.8492, proclaimed on May 25, 2007) Bosker, R.J., Witziers, B. (1996), “The magnitude of school effect or does it really matter which school a student attends?”, paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Education Research Association. Kim, S. S., Sang, K. A., Lee, S. H. (2009). A Study on Improving the National Assessment of Educational Achievement. Korea Institution for Curriculum and Evaluation, Unpublished research report. Lee, H. N., Lee, S. H., Oh, B. H., Kim, K, S., Kim, S. H. (2008). Development Plan and Implementing Strategies for Educational Information Disclosure system. Korean Educational Development Institute, RR 2008-27. Madaus,G., Russell, M., & Higgins, J. (2009). The Paradoxes of High Stakes Testing. IAP,Inc. Park, J., Kim, K. H., Kim, S. J., Son, W. S., Song, M. Y., Jo, J. M. (2006). National Assessment of Educational Achievement Study-Technical report-. Korea Institution for Curriculum and Evaluation, research report RRO 2006-4. http://www.kice.re.kr/en/resources/achievement.jsp 215
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Session 13 New Models of Educational Leadership
1. Leadership Opportunities at a Small, Public University Charles H. Casey (University of Minnesota, USA)
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Leadership Opportunities at a Small, Public University
Charles H. Casey University of Minnesota, USA
Thank you very much for your most gracious introduction. I’m honored to be asked to make a presentation at this very important conference. Discussions like you are sponsoring are occurring at colleges and universities around the world in response to the current financial realities. How we develop strategies to meet the financial challenges as individual institutions or systems will be critical to students and to our future. What we discuss and learn at this conference will be important as we move forward.
I will talk about four things in my presentation. First, I will talk about my background. Second, I will talk about the University of Minnesota, Crookston and how we are part of the University of Minnesota System. Third, I will make comments about characteristics of leaders. Last, I will talk about my approach to providing leadership at the University of Minnesota, Crookston.
With your concurrence, let me tell you about me, my first topic. I am a graduate of the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. I practiced veterinary medicine for 27 years in a small rural community in Minnesota. During that time I was interested in education and served on my local school board for twelve years. In our country, public schools are governed by local boards of education who hire administrators to hire teachers and manage the operation of the school.
Serving on a local school board gave me the experience to seek a position on the governing board of the University of Minnesota, the Board of Regents. I served on the Board of Regents from 1979-1991, and was Chair of the Board the last two years of my service. Those 12 years taught me a great deal about higher education, including finances and governance. For several years we dealt with reductions in funding that were difficult. I was able to observe administrators manage the challenge, and I learned a lot to help me manage current challenges.
I left my veterinary practice and began work at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine in an administrative role in 1992. From 1999 to 2005, I served as Dean and Director of the University of Minnesota Extension. Both of these positions helped me mature as a leader. I enjoyed hiring people and helping them succeed. I learned how challenging it is to plan for change and implement change strategies. In 2001, the University faced a serious financial situation. In response, we reorganized and downsized Extension. It was a very difficult period, but many now agree it was a reasonable response to fiscal reality while maintaining a valuable public service.
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On September 12, 2005 I became Chancellor of the University of Minnesota, Crookston. The Crookston community is approximately 8,000 people in Northwest Minnesota 300 miles from the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul. It’s a very rural area with strong agricultural production. The Red River Valley has very productive land with crops of sugar beets, wheat, corn, soybeans, sunflowers and several small grain crops. Farms are quite large, some with several hundred acres. You can see for miles and miles. I hope you can imagine how different it is from your wonderful city of Seoul.
My second topic is the University of Minnesota, Crookston and how we are part of the University of Minnesota System. The University of Minnesota, Crookston is small – about 1,450 students. Our academic programs include Agriculture and Natural Resources, Biology, Software Engineering, Communications and Business, to name a few. About 25% of our credit hours are delivered online. We have about 600 students living on campus with others living in Crookston or the surrounding area. We have about 250 employees with 60 full time faculty. We don’t have summer classes on campus but do have online classes all year.
Crookston is one of five campuses in the University of Minnesota System. Others are Morris with a liberal arts mission, Rochester with a focus on undergraduate health sciences, Duluth which is a comprehensive university of 11,000 students, and Minneapolis/St. Paul which offers undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees serving about 52,000 students. All campuses provide a University of Minnesota Diploma. Minnesota also has another system of public two- year technical colleges, two-year community colleges and four-year Universities. To make things more complicated Minnesota also has several strong private colleges.
As part of the University of Minnesota System, I report to a Senior Vice President. He in turn reports to a President who reports to a 12 member governing board – The Board of Regents for the University – the same Board I chaired 20 years ago.
I work with my campus administration team to set academic program priorities, develop a budget, hire faculty and staff, and manage daily operations. We and the other campuses all follow a common set of University Policies which works well. I have authority and responsibility for the Crookston campus, but also must be accountable to University system-wide priorities and policies. On a daily basis, I have the opportunity to interact with faculty, staff, students and other administrators to create an exceptional teaching and learning environment and a great place to work.
At the University of Minnesota shared governance is very important. Shared governance is the norm for colleges and Universities in the United States. While the Board of Regents sets policy, the administration is responsible for implementing policy in consultation with faculty, staff and students. At Crookston we have a faculty union, which means that we negotiate a contract agreement every three years. Shared governance essentially means that faculty, staff, and students have input in major decisions for the campus.
This introduction provides some context of the situation on my campus. It’s a place where I find great opportunity to use my leadership abilities and experience. 220
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My third topic is leadership, a very broad subject with many definitions. Everyone seeks good leadership in government, education, business, military, and all organizations. A leader can mean success or failure.
There are countless books, articles and presentations on leadership. I’ve read many of them over the years. The number one thing I have learned from reading and from experience is this: successful leaders have a relationship of trust with others. Other leadership characteristics are important, but none matter if a leader isn’t trusted.
A leader builds trust by communicating a vision for the organization in clear simple language. Members of an organization need to know what is expected of them and what goals they are working to achieve.
One of the books on leadership that I have learned the most from is TRUE NORTH by Bill George, former chairman and CEO of Medtronic, a world leading medical technology company and Peter Sims who established “Leadership Perspectives,” a course on leadership development at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. The Medtronic company was started by a graduate of the University of Minnesota and the company is headquartered in Minnesota, so the authors and the book have special meaning to me.
The authors interviewed 125 top leaders. They stress the importance of:
z Knowing your authentic self z Defining your values and leadership principles z Understanding your motivation z Building your support team z Staying grounded by integrating all aspects of your life (True North, by Bill George with Peter Sims, 2007 Jossey Bass)
There is no single way to be a leader. That’s why it is important to find the leadership style that matches who you are. That’s what we mean by knowing your authentic self. At the same time, it is essential to be clear about what you value, for me the words trust, loyalty, hard work, honesty, commitment, mean a lot. These are words that I live by and that I appreciate in others.
It’s important to understand what motivates you. What makes you happy to get up in the morning and go to work. For me and for all of us in the business of education, this can be easy when we remember that our mission is to provide quality education for our students.
In my language, English, there is no I in the word team. I remind myself of this everyday. No matter how good I want to be, no matter how hard I work, no matter how much I want our University to succeed, it will not happen with out a team of people wanting what I want. This can be challenging. Many people can agree on a goal, but have different ideas for how to achieve the goal. A good leader figures out ways to build a team of people working together to achieve a goal they share.
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One more idea from the book TRUE NORTH is to stay grounded. I wonder how that translates, so let me put the concept in other words. Staying grounded is a way to describe leaders who can succeed even when the situation is difficult. Staying grounded means a leader is able to look in the mirror, admitting a mistake and moving on. Staying grounded means a leader is always focused on going forward, no matter what happens. Staying grounded means trusting yourself, trusting others, and building a trusting workplace where people work together toward common goals. Staying grounded is what I meant when I said that trust is the most important leadership characteristic.
My fourth topic today is my leadership at the University of Minnesota, Crookston. I became Chancellor at a challenging time for the campus. Many leaders can say this, so I am not alone. The Crookston Campus has had excellent leadership during its history. But, there were problems just prior to my appointment. There were concerns about the future of our small campus. It was a difficult situation. At the same time it was a situation that offered a unique opportunity to be successful.
It was important, immediately, to establish a strong relationship with campus administrative leaders, faculty, staff, and students. I established a task force to develop a strategic plan for the campus and selected campus representatives and community leaders, including a former political leader to serve.
I did all I could to focus discussion on how the campus could move forward. We worked hard for almost a year to identify six ways to move forward.
We agreed to:
1. improve the way we work together on campus, what we call our campus culture 2. explain our identity and a brand associated with the University of Minnesota 3. improve our efforts to recruit and retain students 4. increase international enrollments and programs – including Korea 5. focus on value added learning to ensure our graduates are prepared for success 6. partner with the region, where we are located, to move toward prosperity
I will talk now about how we moved forward.
Working together as a team was important. There were people who had worked on campus for many years, and others who were hired recently. We wanted everyone to have an opportunity to contribute their ideas. It is no surprise that intelligent people can have different ideas even when they share a common goal. It has taken us a lot of time and effort to work together, and we have some work yet to do, but through communicating and sharing our ideas more openly, we have made progress.
Branding is an important concept for business and for education. Just as Coca-Cola is recognized across the world for its distinctive soft drink, so too is Samsung, a Korean company, known for quality electronics. 222
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The University of Minnesota, Crookston needed a solid brand. Our campus started as a high school. In 1966 we became a two-year technical school, and in 1993, we became a four-year university campus.
People were confused and this made recruitment difficult. It took some time and a lot of people working together to explain our identity and establish a University of Minnesota brand. We developed a line, Small Campus - Big Degree to convey that we are small in ways that allow us to give personal attention to our students, but big when we award a University of Minnesota diploma. This has been a very effective marketing strategy, and students can easily understand what it means to them.
We also made plans to develop new academic programs that would meet current demand for majors and jobs. Over the past five years the campus has added majors in Biology, Communication, Criminal Justice, Computer Software Engineering, Organizational Psychology and Environmental Science. Online majors have been added as well, including Accounting, Marketing, Manufacturing Management, Business, Applied Studies and Quality Management.
To increase recruitment and retention of students, we hired a new director of admissions and enrollment management, and we increased the recruitment and marketing budget. Increased resources have been directed to retention efforts including advising, academic assistance and tutoring.
We adopted a similar strategy in an effort to internationalize the campus by hiring a director of international programs and an international recruitment professional. Plus, we established an English as a Second Language program, and we developed articulation agreements with Universities in Korea and China. The results have been a threefold increase in the number of international students on campus and an increased opportunity for professional development for faculty and staff.
While we are pleased with this as a recruitment strategy, it is more important than that. We know that for graduates to succeed, they must be able to understand and work with people from other cultures. All students, no matter what their country, will do better at work and in life when they have an international experience. We are pleased to welcome students from 27 other countries, and we aspire to increasing that number. We also encourage students from our country to participate in study abroad programs.
Let me talk now about value added learning. This is a very important element of the educational experience at the University of Minnesota, Crookston. We emphasize what we refer to as hands- on, experiential learning with a rich technological background. By hands-on we mean learning by doing as well as a classroom experience. Students take the concepts and theories they learn in class and apply them to real world situations through field trips, group projects, laboratories, community projects and internships which are all part of the curriculum of a degree program.
In 1993, the University of Minnesota, Crookston was the first four-year university in the United States to provide a laptop computer to each student. All faculty integrate technology into their 223
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teaching. Technology infrastructure is funded by a student fee that supports a broad array of services to students, faculty and staff. All students receive a computer when they graduate. The technology background students receive during their time at Crookston is a significant advantage as they seek employment.
One of the advantages of being part of the University of Minnesota System is the opportunity to leverage resources from other offices or campuses. We receive strong support from the Office of International Programs on the Minneapolis campus. They provide assistance with professional development for faculty and staff, coordinating study abroad, updates on best practices, and other ongoing initiatives.
We have developed a very strong partnership with the Zhejiang Economic and Trade Polytechnic (ZJETP) in Hangzhou, China. Crookston faculty have traveled to ZJETP to develop curriculum and teach courses. Students complete part of their course work at ZJETP and then transfer to Crookston for their last two years of course work ending with a degree from the University of Minnesota. A group of 19 students arrived in late August and now are enrolled in a Software Engineering and Agricultural Business programs. I will be traveling to Hangzhou to meet with ZJETP officials and students next week to continue our collaboration.
Crookston faculty have also worked with ZJETP officials to develop an English as a Second Language program. The relationship with ZJETP has resulted in the opportunity for many faculty and staff to travel and have an international experience. UMC students are also traveling to ZJETP.
My campus is in a rural area that is sparsely populated. This situation has disadvantages, and advantages. We can provide opportunities to serve people in different ways. For example, we have focused efforts on online learning to serve individuals who currently have a job, are a distance from our campus, or need a small number of courses to complete a degree. This is an example of our partnership with the region to help improve prosperity.
Our Center for Adult Learning serves this population by connecting individuals with campus courses using technology (the internet) to deliver courses. This has grown from 1 major in 2005 to 7 in 2010 that now has about 500 online learners. While this may seem a small number, it represents a significant part of our enrollment and has the potential to continue to grow and serve many more learners in the region and beyond. A number of our on campus students also take an online course.
Another example is our success in obtaining an Economic Development Agency center and a Rural Entrepreurial center with funds from the federal government. These centers establish the University of Minnesota, Crookston as a hub for economic development in the region, and bring additional resources to our campus.
In closing, with commitment and hard work of our faculty and staff and support from students and community members the University of Minnesota, Crookston has experienced very significant growth. 224
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z Student enrollment has increased from 1052 in fall 2006 to 1462 in fall of 2010 – almost a 40% increase z Many new faculty have been hired with terminal degrees (Ph.D.) z Five new on campus programs and six new online programs have been developed z International student enrollment has tripled z Online enrollment has increased from 5% to 25% of credit hours delivered z Research and grant activity has increased z Numerous investments have improved classrooms, laboratories, and other space z Student involvement in community projects has increased z A new environmentally conscious apartment style 128 bed residence hall was constructed z Community support is increased
Each of these achievements is an accomplishment in its own right, but taken together, they add up to a very significant change in the ability of the Crookston campus to provide and educational experience that is exceptional and that has positioned us for the future.
I appreciate the opportunity to talk about my experience, my ideas about leadership, and our progress at the University of Minnesota, Crookston. It means a lot to me and I thank you for your attention.
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Session 14 Country Reports on Educational Reform Policy: Korea
1. The Educational Reform Policy of Korea: Focusing on the Characteristics of Educational Development Process and Successful Reform Cases Tae-Wan Kim (Korean Educational Development Institute, Korea)
The Educational Innovation for 21st Century: Sharing Visions and Experiences
The Educational Reform Policy of Korea : Focusing on the Characteristics of Educational Development Process and Successful Reform Cases
Tae-Wan Kim Korean Educational Development Institute, Korea
1. Introduction
1.1 The Role and Significance of Education Policy in Korea's National Development Process
○ The history of Korea for the past 60 years has been a tremendous success with few parallels in modern world history. Having accomplished industrialization and democracy by the late 20th century, Korea is now on the verge of joining the ranks of advanced countries.
○ Korea's current economic scale is the 15th largest in world, with a GDP of 930 billion dollars. The country's national prestige has been raised as well. Korea became an OECD donor state from an aid recipient in 2009, and has been selected to host the G-20 Leaders Summit this November.
○ The driving force behind this remarkable development is the efficient planning and pursuing of a national development strategy, and the education system led by policy structures contributed greatly to the process.
○ In addition to actualizing the universalization of education and equal opportunity for education in a short period, Korean educational policies contributed to supplying the country with appropriate human resources for each stage of economic growth.
1.2 The Importance of Education in National Development
○ The process of Korea's national development has evolved following the course of 'modernization→democratization→and advancement'. Today, mobilizing human capital based on the country’s previous experiences of achieving economic growth and democracy in a compressed period is highlighted as an urgent national goal. To reach the objective of becoming an advanced country, Korea is greatly emphasizing the continuous formulation and implementation of a systematic education policy, the main cause of individual and national development.
○ With regards to quantitative expansion, the last 60 years of Korean education is considered to have made substantial progress as a result of universalized access to education and the equal 229
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educational opportunities policy (OECD, 2010). Despite having later beginnings on the public education policies compared to other advanced countries, Korea's current graduation rates for high school(79%) and higher education(37%) are both higher than the OECD average - in the younger generation ages 25 to 34, the rates are 98% and 58% respectively, higher than any other OECD country. The college admissions rate in Korea is one of the highest in the world (at 82.8% in 2008).
○ Examining other areas in addition to wide spread access to education, such as the aspect of academic achievement, Korean students are demonstrating academic competency through high scores on international academic competitions. According to the TIMSS 2007 results, the average math and science scores of Korean students were among the highest in the world, with Korean students placing second in math and fourth in science. In PISA 2006, Korea ranked first for reading literacy, and third in mathematics.
○ In regards to sustaining the development of national competitiveness, Korea is faced with the task of improving the general competitiveness of education, along with constructing a new educational system for developing human resources suitable for the future, based on the experience of quantitative growth in the history of Korean education.
○ There are specific problems visible on the education index that are in need of attention, such as parental dissatisfaction with the public education system (among the lowest in OECD countries,) and the deepening reliance on private tutoring. The poor educational condition and low competitiveness in higher education, which are seen in the IMD educational competitiveness rankings are also being pointed out as issues in Korean education.
○ As seen from above, Korean education is currently in need of evolutionary measures from an innovative educational reform policy in order to effectively cope with the challenges of globalization in the 21th century and the information technology age.
1.3 Purpose of the Study and the Contents
○ This study aims to share information about the formulation, establishment and implementation of Korea's education policy with the international society. The research focused on the characteristics and possible implications of Korea's educational development process, which has been the basis of economic growth in the past, reviewing successful cases of educational reforms, and introducing the current government's educational reform policy.
○ Morever, the act of sharing Korea’s past and present educational development experiences and introducing successful cases is anticipated to be useful as basic information in forming the vision and strategy of education policy.
○ The content of section II is about the government-led educational development strategy and its implementation, which was a core characteristic of Korea's educational development in the past. Section III discusses Korea's past educational reform policy models and their results. Section IV introduces the governmental educational reform policy presently being implemented by the 230
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Korean government. Section V evaluates the overall results of the current reform policy along with other successful reform cases and discusses their limits.
2. National Development Strategy and Education Policy
○ This chapter examines the relationship between Korea’s national development strategy and education policy as a salient characteristic of its educational development process within the past 60 years. First, a general development plan was constructed, consisting of an educational framework that would be closely connected and would advance of Korea's level of industrialization; this collaboration led to extensive economic development and educational progress for the nation. Another characteristic in the educational development process became apparent, as education began to be utilized as a primary means of achieving national and economic development. As educational development began to adhere to this national development strategy under the president's strong leadership. Acting in accord to the overarching objective, a national education plan was established and promoted, and in 1985 a presidential education advisory committee was formed.
2.1 The Cooperative Relationship Between National Development Strategies and Education Policies
○ Education policies were promoted under the national development strategy known as the '5-year Plan for Economic Development'. From the 1960's to mid 1990s, industrialization was also promoted the step by step through the '5-year Plan for Economic Development'. It first focused on the labor-intensive light industries in the 1960s, to the capital-intensive heavy-duty chemical industry that was developed selectively in the 1970s until the 1980s, when the skills, knowledge, and information-intensive developments began to be promoted.
○ The educational development strategies and policies were established and promoted in the same context as the industrialization, economic, and social development strategies. During the period of the 1st and the 2nd plan, regulation of compulsory education in elementary school took effect, and in the period of the 3rd and the 4th plan, secondary education was universalized and vocational education began to be promoted. The effects of the higher education expansion policy, after the 3rd and the 5th plan, were associated with technology, information, and knowledge-oriented industrialization strategies. The country’s economic development was achieved through a export- oriented industrialization,, and during this process, an education policy focusing on national development strategies was implemented.
○ The same was true after the early stages of industrialization. To ensure national competitiveness, following the progress of a globalized, liberalized, information-oriented and knowledge-based society, was the introduction of a general educational reform plan, announced in 1955 along witha policy enhancing the informatization of education, university research projects, and lifelong education and in 2001, the National Human Resource Development (NHRD) policy was introduced.
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The Relationship Between Korea's Economic Development and education policy Development Phase Economic Development Education Policy Agricultural society, Reconstruction of Construction of basic educational 1st Phase (1945~1960) postwar Korea, Import alternative infrastructure, Universalization of industrialization compulsory education Industrialization based on labor- 1960s intensive light industry Expansion of secondary education, 2nd Development of heavy and chemical Expansion of technical vocational Phase 1970s industries, Promotion of large education & training companies 3rd Phase Knowledge and information intensive Expansion of higher education (1980~mid 1990s) industrialization Universalization of higher education, Entrance to the globalized, 4th Phase Informationalization of education, informationalized, knowledge-based (mid 1990s~present) Lifelong education, Human resource economy development
Lee, S. J.(2008). National Development Strategy and Education Policy. Korean Educational Development Institute
2.2 The Planning and Systematic Execution of Government-led Education Policy
○ Korea's development strategy was initiated by the president's strong leadership. High economic growth was the result of a 'big push' from the top, based on governmental executive decision making. The same was true of the education sector (Lee, S. J., 2008).
○ The educational system, policy and the educational administration were government-led. Korea has a school-education system that is managed by the government. Although by law, a private foundation (private schools) or a local government (public schools) can also serve as the founders and administrators of a school, the assumption was that schools would operate according to the national curriculum standards and managed by teachers who are also considered government officials. Private schools are under similar legal and administrative regulations, having been incorporated under the government educational system. The same stands for matters such as teacher employment and training, textbook use, and education environments and institutions(Huh, 2008).
2.3 The Presidential Advisory Committee
○ One characteristic of the planning and systematic execution of government-led education policies was the introduction of the presidential committee for educational reform in the mid 1980s. 232
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Since the Fifth Republic (from 1981 to 1988), a presidential committee for educational reform was established for nationwide planning and executing of education policy. It has been responsible for planning and initiating various educational development plans (Kwak, 2008)
○ Kim Young-Sam’s Government (1993~1998) established the Presidential Committee for Educational Reform (1985) to devise solutions for current educational problems, and to establish a comprehensive, long-term plan for educational reform. Subsequently, the following Roh Tae Woo's Government (1987~1993) created the Presidential Advisory Council on education policy (1989) to follow through with the reforms drafted by the Commission for Educational Reform. Developments of education committees continued, as President Kim Young-Sam’s Government formed the Education Reform Committee (1994), and the Kim Dae-Jung Government (1998~2003) established the Presidential Commission of the Educational Reform in 2000. The Roh Moo Hyun Government (2003~2008) started the Presidential Committee on Education Innovation (2003), and most recently, the Lee Myung Bak Government instituted the Presidential Advisory Council for Science & Technology (2008).
3. Successful Cases of Educational Reform Policy
○ Here we consider the characteristics and results of five educational reforms from the development process that have been evaluated as successful.
3.1 The Universalization of Primary and Secondary Education
○ Main policies that contributed to the universalization of primary and secondary education are the introduction of democratic school system (establishment of a single system), the formation and implementation of the 6-Year Plan for compulsory education completion, the development of a national curriculum, textbook certification, and no entrance exam for middle schools, and the encouragement of private schools (Huh, 2008).
○ First, the introduction of a democratic school system (establishment of a single system) served to lay groundwork for the universalization of primary and secondary education. Secondly, the 6-Year Plan for Compulsory Education Completion was the principle reason elementary education could be universalized in such a short period after liberation. Thirdly, because the government enforced a single national curriculum in conjunction to a textbook certification system and established a uniform process in compilation, development and dissemination of textbooks, the quality of education could be maintained. Also, since supply costs were lowered, the universalization of elementary education accomplished. Fourthly, the entrance exam for middle schools was abolished following the universalization of elementary education, in order to ease the burden of entrance exams and tutoring fees for students and parents. This policy systematically ensured admission to into middle school. Last is encouraging establishment of private schools. In order to universalize secondary education, the government loosened the conditions for the founding of private schools. If we recall that by 1980, when the universalization of secondary education was completed, private schools accounted for 35.7% of the whole, a greater portion than before. It is clear that the universal access to secondary education would not have been as easily 233
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attained without the encouragement of building private schools and the eager participation who established the schools (Huh, 2008).
3.2 The Universalization of Higher Education
○ Here we discuss an open higher education system, mainly focusing on the Credit Bank System and the Korea National Open University as policies that have contributed to the universalization of higher education.
○ The Credit Bank System policy aims to realize a society with open education and lifelong learning. Under the laws of 『Act on the Credit Recognition』, various qualifications and forms of learning which occur beyond school hours are now recognized as credits, and it is possible to accumulate credits towards a degree if certain criteria are met. This law was enacted in 1997, and the Credit Bank has been in operation since 1998.
○ Korea's National Open University: The purpose of this policy was to provide opportunities of higher education for the following situations: people who had finished, or were unable to finish a certain level of education, those interested in research and polishing academic or professional knowledge and skills. Notably, the university has exceptionally low tuition fees, and provides opportunities a university or college level education through various methods such as broadcasting, modern technological communications, and class lectures. Since the KNOU aims to assist those who have encountered difficulties in receiving higher education for economical or geographical reasons, along with those who have exceeded a normal school age, the KNOU can be called an ideal educational institute, faithful to the ideology of lifelong education.
3.3 Technical and Vocational Education and Training
○ The promotion and specialization of vocational high schools: The policies for promoting vocational high schools, specifically those fostering growth of specialized, technical high schools were implemented in the 1970s. The introduction and implementation of the「2·1 system」for technical high schools (1980) and the plan for introduction and expansion of specialized high schools (1998) exhibited a positive effect in enhancing the adaptability of technical high school graduates to the current industry. Most significantly, The 2·1 system disseminated the awareness of the importance of fieldwork in the industry. Because of the rising number of excellent applicants in specialized high schools as well as the high levels of student and parent satisfaction , the educational results have been evaluated as successful (Lee Y. H., 2008).
○ Developing junior colleges for core technical personnel training: Junior colleges began to be strengthened from 1979, when entry requirements were raised, education content was specialized, and lab and practical training facilities were expanded. Despite only 2-3 years of attendance requirement for graduation, these various improvements transformed the colleges into major tertiary education institutions that are responsible for training core technicians.
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○ Strengthening vocational education through industry-school cooperation: Various efforts have been made to strengthen vocational education by increasing its efficiency and relevance through cooperations between businesses and schools (industry-school cooperation). Industry and school partnerships allow schools to provide vocational training to personnel who play a critical role in today’s society. Businesses provide students with on-site practical training, developing future workers who are able to adjust to the workplace and possess relevant skills. Since the introduction of the Industrial Education Promotion Law in 1963, the government has been continuously reformed the law system to vitalize industry-school cooperations. From 2004, the government began expanding industry-school cooperations by supporting university-based enterprises with four government ministries (Lee Y. H., 2008).
3.4 Informatization of Education
○ Education informatization in Korea, which started with computer education after the mid-1980s, has achieved visible change since the government declared the establishment of an E-government in 2000. Here we examine the National Education Information System (NEIS) and EDUNET as successful policies which have contributed to building the Korean e-government.
○ National Education Information System: NEIS is a system that operates either from a single or group of servers with 16 regional units, and manages diverse administrative and academic affairs of all the nation's schools and students through the internet. Moreover, it provides other services such as educational statistics, customized statistics services, Home-Edu civil services (issuing online education related certificates), university application support services, parent services, etc.
○ Implementing and operating EDUNET: EDUNET, launched in 1996 as a comprehensive education information system, established a venue for maximizing the development and distribution of educational information. It effectively served as a teaching and learning resource following the "Cyber Home Learning Support System" established by the government. Later on, regional offices of education and related agencies encouraged its cooperation which, in turn, enriched teaching and learning services.
3.5 Efficient Management of Education Finance
○ Education finance has always been a continuous issue in the educational world, and the government has made various efforts to maintain stable expansion. Here we discuss the characteristics and outcomes of Korea's education finance policy, focusing on the local education subsidy and the school accounting systems.
○ The Local Education Subsidy system: Korean government enacted the Local Education Subsidy Act, it means that the government is legally required to support educational finance. Therefore, local education subsidies act as statutory grants that contributed greatly to the stabilization of education finance (Ban, 2008).
○ School accounting system: The school accounting system was introduced in order to enable individual schools to autonomously manage their budgets. This system integrates expenses
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managed from several accounts by installing individual school accounts in public elementary, middle, and special schools. The total budget is distributed according to the minimum required expenses for performing normal educational activities, while the municipal and provincial education offices have secured standard educational conditions (e.g. the number of school employees, teaching aids, facilities, equipment, etc.) in correspondence to the size of schools.
4. Current Government's Core Educational Reform Policy
Here we describe the core educational reform policies implemented by the current government as an effort to join the ranks of advanced nations in knowledge-and-information-oriented societies of the 21st century.
4.1 Policy for Autonomy and Diversity in the School System
○ Strengthening parents' and students' rights to choose schools (High School Diversification 300 Project) - In view of the idea that "various forms of schools must be established for students to be able to choose the type of education that suit their aptitude and ability", the current government is promoting the 'High School Diversification 300 Project‘(Henceforth, High School Diversification Project)' in order to enable all students to choose high schools that suit their aptitude and ability. The project includes the establishment of 150 boarding public high schools, 50 Meister high schools, and 100 autonomous public high schools. According to “The Plan for high school diversification”, schools that are not included in the High School Diversification Project are asked to develop and provide unique and specialized educational programs (Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs et al., 2009).
○ School Autonomy - In April 15, 2008, the Lee Myung Bak government announced ｢The Policy of School Autonomy｣ step 1 and 2, which had aims of improving school autonomy and stabilizing the self-governing structures of local education. In June 11, 2009, the government issued the "School Management System for Promoting School Autonomy." - The objective of the school autonomy policy is to promote diversification centered on the consumers of education by granting select options, including personnel management and education programs directly within each school, and also improving the competitiveness of public education through fair competition with the diverse and unique management of schools. - Several main tasks for school autonomy policies are as follows: First, expand the autonomy of each schools relating to the operation and organization of education programs, and ensure that each school can operate unique educational programs suited to their conditions. Second, strengthen the personnel management rights of each school, ensure the flexibility of school curriculum and support the responsible management of schools. And third, expand independent schools to create various models of school management.
4.2 Teacher Evaluation for Professional Development
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○ The current Lee Myung Bak Government is implementing the teacher evaluation system as a method to solidify the systematic foundation for strengthening the accountability of each school.
○ The teacher evaluation system, mainly aimed towards developing teacher professional abilities, has been fully enforced at all schools nationwide this academic year, after pilot tests were conducted in model schools. The purpose of teacher evaluation is to improve the quality of public school education and to build the people's trust in public education by encouraging teachers to continuously develop their abilities through the evaluation of their professional abilities. The teacher evaluation system is a multi-dimensional evaluation model involving several of evaluation categories, such as the assessment of teaching performance, student-guidance, and school management abilities, including the evaluations of principals' as well. Students and parents, along with fellow teachers participate in the assessment process of each teacher. The principals are evaluated for their school management abilities, while the deans are evaluated for how well they take on their middle manager role. Each semester, teachers are evaluated based on the quality of their open classroom observations by principals, teachers, colleagues, parents, and students.
4.3 Policy for Reducing Private Tutoring
○ The Lee Myung Bak Government's mitigation measures on private education can be summarized as: 1) the identification and support of "Schools without Private Education" 2) the invigoration of after-school classes, and 3) restricting operating hours and stabilizing the fees of private educational institutes.
○ The policy, "Schools without Private Education" is representative of initiatives which aim to absorb the demand for private education into public education. "Schools without Private Tutoring" provide excellent after-school courses, personalized according to students levels. Select schools are provided with consultation by experienced teachers and outside instructors to ensure the substantiality of public education, and high-quality education (http://www. schoolup.go.kr/). According to the 2009 'Operating Performance and Analysis of Schools without Private Education' recently issued by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, the average expenditures in private tutoring per student affiliated to a 'School without Private Tutoring' was reduced by 16%, and their rate of participation in private tutoring decreased by 14.7% (Daily Economics, 2010, 7, 15). It is apparent that the policy contributed significantly to reducing the amount of money spent on private education.
○ In 2005, The Roh Government had carried out the “after-school classes” policy, which serves to mitigate the education gap and to realize the educational welfare. The MB Government recognized the impact of the policy and is continuing its implementation. Having moved beyond the stage of quantitative expansion, the “after-school classes” policy is now in the process of continuous investment to the stabilization and enhancement of the quality of educational programs. Additionally, it is making continuous efforts to ensure the effectiveness of the after-school classes policy. For example, the government is encouraging the involvement of external contractors in the operation of after-school classes, along with parental involvement in program planning and operations to provide the schools with high-quality and diverse programs.
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○ Unlike past governments, the current administration is not only endeavoring to ensure the substantiality of public education, but is also pushing for tough measures to regulate private tutoring institutions. In early 2009, the government began to impose uniform regulations on the number teaching hours in private tutoring institutes, which are defined differently in each ordinance, depending on the region. The 'financial reward system for reporting illegal private education operations' transpired in 2009. Since July 2009, the online 「Illegal Fee Report Center」 has offered financial rewards for valid reports of excessive private tutoring fees, teaching hour violations, and exaggerated advertisements. Despite of some regional differences, the 'financial reward system for reporting illegal private tutoring operations' is thought to contribute to the exposure of illegal private tutoring institutions.
4.4 Policy for Strengthening the Competitiveness of Higher Education
○ In this section we take a look at the two major policies for strengthening the competitiveness of higher education - the "Brain Korea 21", and the "New University for Regional Innovation". Even though these projects started before the establishment of the MB Government, we chose to analyze them because they have been acknowledged by the MB Government as model cases of Korea's university reform projects and are thus being continuously implemented.
○ The Brain Korea 21 Project: The Brain Korea 21 Project (Henceforth, the BK21 Project) aims to 'Foster World-Class Graduate Schools' with the ability to generate creative knowledge, and is centered on areas directly related to national competitiveness. Another goal is to develop 'Outstanding Local Universities' for fostering high-quality labor forces fit for local industrial demand by ensuring relevant content of undergraduate courses and industry-school co-operations. The strategies are as follows: 1)providing support that follows the principle of 'Selection & Concentration', 2)fostering the next generation of creative studies to prepare for the knowledge- based society, 3)providing support for the improvement of the system, and the enhancement of the universities' education research powers, and 4)improvement of the labor-force fostering by industry-school cooperations and international exchange programs. According to many empirically based studies, the evaluation of the BK21 Project shows it has fostered many MA and Ph.Ds, cultivated the research skills and job skills of graduate students who participated, and contributed to increasing the research achievements of professors (Kim, 2008)
○ The New University for Regional Innovation (NURI): This project began with the objective of fostering local talents and promoting regional development to improve the competitiveness of regional universities. The goal of the project was to create specializations in regional universities and promote their competitiveness, the economic, social and cultural development of the regions by attracting and cultivating talented minds, and laying the foundation for a regional innovation system with a focus on universities. As a result of this project, the competitiveness of the specialized fields of regional universities has improved, leading to an increase in student recruitment rates and teacher employment rates in the specialized fields. Another result was that the improvements in specialized education were highly suitable to the special fields and the competition for employment led to an increase in the rate of employment in specialized areas. The rate increased from 60.2% in '04 to 68% in 2006. The project has also been assessed to have 238
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heightened the competition and the image of regional universities, along building regional development following the rise of the employment rate of local students (Kee, 2008).
4.5 Student Loan Scheme Policy
○ The system of government-guaranteed student loans, introduced in 2005 and remains in operation, is problematic because debt must be paid regardless whether students generate any income. Observations pointed out that by June 2009, the number of debtors has reached 13,804, due to the student loan policy. To remediate this problem, the government announced the Income Contingent Loan Scheme in July, 2009 (Press release from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, 2009. July.30).
○ The Income Contingent Loan Scheme lends the total amount of money needed to cover university tuition so students can focus on their studies without being concerning with loan payments. They are to begin paying the principle and interest after they begin to earn income. According to the government, students and parents will be temporarily freed from the burden of tuition fees, since repayment doesn't start until the student has graduated and begins earning an income above a certain standard. The system is also beneficial to the government, since even though a large amount of finance would be needed initially, the system would act as a social safety net to prevent people from becoming credit delinquents. The student loan system is currently being operated in two ways - through a government-guarantee, and an income contingent method (http://www.kosaf.go.kr/).
4.6 The Educational Information Disclosure System
○ In the case of elementary and middle schools, schools have been publicizing information regarding their managements and conditions since the 「School Information Disclosure System」was passed, which was intended to strengthen each school's sense of responsibility. From December 1st, 2008, various information relating to schools such as the students and teachers, the study environment, academic achievement levels, and "School Info(Hackkyo Alimi)”, the portal site about school information, were publicized on the web pages of elementary and middle schools.
○ By December 2008, The MB Government started implementing the 'University Information Disclosure System' as groundwork for reinforcing the competitiveness of university education. After the 2007 enactment and proclamation of the ｢Act on Special Cases Concerning the Disclosure of Information by Education-Related Institutions｣, the enforcement decree was confirmed in November 2008 through the Cabinet council after a legislative notice, with the establishment of a legal and systemic basis for enforcing the Act. Centering on 4-year universities, publications containing significant information regarding each higher education institution, with the exception of national defense and the national police, were publicized according to standardized forms and instructions. The purpose of the University Information Disclosure System lies primarily in ensuring the rights of higher education consumers, by providing knowledge of the conditions, programs, and achievements of higher education institutions. At the same time, it also aims to supply policy makers with key information needed for policy formulation and diagnosis. 239
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◌ Students, parents, and general public now have easier access to the major information about schools, thanks to the implementation of the "School Info” service. Evaluations show that the information disclosure system has caused school officials to be more aware of the accountability for school management (KIHASA, 2009). In addition to being meaningful on its own, the information publicized through the University Information Disclosure System may be used as basic data for the analysis of major policies related to universities, and prompt the overall enhancement of the educating capacity, thereby contributing to the strengthening of the competitiveness of universities (Shin, 2008).
5. Proposal
5.1 A Synthetic View of Successful Cases of Educational Reform
○ The following are the merits and demerits of each policy from the aforementioned educational reform policies.
○ The importance of the universalization of primary and secondary education lies in the fact that it is the cornerstone for improving public education levels by progressively expanding opportunities for education. When implementing the policy for the universalization of primary and secondary education, it is imperative to note the effectiveness of an aforementioned policy - the 'admission without examination' system for secondary schools, which is an open-door policy for entering advanced schools. In Korean society, this policy caused a drastic expansion in all areas of education, including higher education. It has been observed that this expansion led to various social problems related to the 'university entrance' process (Huh, 2008). Therefore, the merits and demerits of the Korean case should be given full consideration when deciding whether to implement this system.
○ This section scrutinized the Credit Bank System and the policy of fostering Korea's National Open University as representative examples of policies that have helped universalize higher education. An institutional base for the realization of a lifelong education system, the Credit Back System fairly evaluates and recognizes not only the results of school education, but also the learning results outside the school system. Among the many countries that have implemented the Credit Bank System, Korea's operation of the system is assessed to be efficient. The assessment of the Korean National Open University model shows that it contributed to the expansion of higher education opportunities within a short period and at low costs, by offering opportunities of higher education to people with low incomes or low levels of education.
○ Korea's vocational education policy was structured in the 1960s, when the government needed to provide manpower to carry its economic development strategy into practice. The vocational education system has been successfully reorganized to meet the rapidly changing demands of the labor market in the process of industrialization. At the initial stage of industrialization, the government implemented a policy for the promotion and specialization of vocational high schools, as well as a policy for the development of vocational colleges for core technical personnel training, 240
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that would take the lead in developing an effective administrative enforcement system of vocational training. The assessment of this policy is that the reforms successfully met the needs of the constantly changing industry.
○ As successful examples of the ICT project which began in 2000, the National Education Information System and EDUNET were introduced. NEIS set the record of being the world's first national educational administration information system on the web. This system is a subject of interest in various countries such as Japan, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Taiwan and Lebanon (Son Byung-Gil, 2008). EDUNET, a Korean online educational information system, conducts services of linking and integrating educational information and resources. Specifically, the easy-to-use teaching materials, research/training materials, and assessment questions are collaborated and made available to teachers. For students, the Cyber Home Learning System, the SAT TV, and self- learning support services with outstanding private content are provided, and contribute to Korea’s jump up towards becoming a leading country in ICT education.
○ The Local Education Subsidy Act, presented as the best policy related to educational funding, is a noteworthy legal institutional strategy which has the purpose of securing stable funding for primary and secondary education. The Local Education Subsidy Act has been evaluated as performing positively. Its functions include securing stable funding for education, maintaining a certain level of educational services, and equalizing educational standards among local governments (Ban, 2008).
5.2 A Comprehensive Examination on the Currently Promoted Educational Policy
○ Other than successful cases of educational reforms which have assisted the country’s development, we examine the major policies promoted by the MB Government for sustainable development. The major policy stance in the area of primary and secondary education is the liberalization of individual schools along with the diversification of high schools. To account for the responsibilities that follow liberalization and diversification, the teacher evaluation system and the school information disclosure system are being carried out. Moreover, to reduce private tutoring, the policy to strengthen the competitiveness of public education and policies designed to reduce dependence on private tutoring by direct regulation of private tutoring institutions are being practiced. In the area of higher education, policies such as the Brain Korea 21 Project which strengthen the competitiveness of tertiary education, the New University for Regional Innovation, and the University Information Disclosure System were introduced and implemented.
○ To lead the development of Korean education in the 21st century, the MB Government is responding to new challenges of Korea's position in the developed world with principles of consumer-oriented education and autonomy. In order for the abovementioned educational policies to achieve their desired performance, the main agents of autonomy - schools, universities and the local communities - would have to create communities that exhibit autonomy, participation and responsibility, and furthermore create a healthy educational ecosystem through the diversity of education to help all students realize their full potential capacity.
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References
Ban, S. J. (2008). Efficient management of education finance. Korean Educational Development Institute. Center for Research on Supplemental Private Educations webpage: http://www.schoolup.go.kr/ Huh, K. C. (2008). Universal Access to Elementary and Middle School Education. Korean Educational Development Institute. Kee, Y. S. (2008). A symbiotic development program through cooperation between region and university: an interim evaluation of the new university for regional innovation program. The Journal of Korean Public Management 22(4), 155-182. Kim, Y. C. (2008). Universal access to higher education. Korean Educational Development Institute. Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, Korean Educational Development Institute, Korea Labor Institute, Korean Women's Development Institute(2009). Sixty Years of Korean Economic History. Korea Institute For Health and Social Affairs. Korea Student Aid Foundation webpage: http://www.kosaf.go.kr Kwak, B. S. (2008). Economic Development and Establishment of Basic Education: from 1945 to 1960. Analysis on the Korea' Achievement of Educational Development(II). The Second Policy Forum. Article for Discussion. Korean Educational Development Institute. Lee, S. J. (2008). National development strategies and education policy. Korean Educational Development Institute. Lee, Y. H. (2008). Industrialization and vocational education training. Korean Educational Development Institute. OECD (2010). Education at a Glance 2010: OECD Indicators. Paris: OECD. Shin, H. S.(2008). Higher education reform policy in Korea. Seoul: Hakjisa. Son, B. G. (2008). Education Informatization. Korean Educational Development Institute.
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Session 15 Philosophical Groundwork for Education
1. The Future and Transformation of Pedagogical Authority Roland Reichenbach (University of Basel, Switzerland)
2. A Vision for Future Education: Education for Life Eunsook Hong (Sungkyul University, Korea)
The Educational Innovation for 21st Century: Sharing Visions and Experiences
The Future and Transformation of Pedagogical Authority
Roland Reichenbach University of Basel, Switzerland
Commands are older than speech. If this were not so, dogs could not understand them. Elias Canetti (Crowds and Power, 1960, p. 303)
1. Sources of pedagogical authority
Personal authority is generally viewed as an expression of recognition (Sofsky & Paris 1994), and it has often been said that recognized authorities do not need to use authoritarian behavior as disciplinary instruments (Arendt 1994). Rather, so it is stated, recognized authorities can expect "obedience" (in the field of action and behavior) and "belief" (in the field of knowledge). The acts of recognition, however, are fragile, and, in part, results of rather subtle and mutual adaptation strategies. This seems to be true, especially in social settings in which democratic values are highly regarded. As a consequence of democratic communication ethos pedagogical practice is led by maneuvers of dominance that are most often concealed by using more or less subtle communication strategies in order to make submissions gestures possible.
The interest in the role of authority and the meaning of discipline has - after some decades of rather low attention - increased again during the last years. Pedagogical authority is a complex phenomenon which can be understood - as Foray (2007) pointed out - first, as source of the power and possibility to get the students to work in the classroom as intended by their teacher (to give a school example); second, authority can also be seen as the power to define limits of acceptable behavior and attitudes; third, pedagogical authority is often linked to specific social status and functions which themselves do imply a nexus of competencies and responsibilities; and finally fourth, pedagogical authority may have a source in the domain of the impersonal, in the authority of "culture".
Many or maybe even most authors do agree that the sources of recognized and legitimized authority are manifold, but few authors have tried to systematize theses sources. One of them is Alexandre Kojève (2004) who distinguished in La notion de l'autorité, a book published in 1942, four types and prototypes of authorities and sources of authority: (1) the father (or mother), (2) the boss (or chief), (3) the leader, and (4) the judge. These "types" and "sources" of authority are 245
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linked to the time dimension in a specific manner: (1) the father to the past (he was already there when I was born…); (2) the boss (or chief) to the present (he tells me what I have to do…); (3) the leader to the future (he shows us the way…), whereas the judge (4) is timeless or "quasi-timeless" (above time, eternal: he knows what is right and what is wrong…).
The four types and sources of authority Kojève highlights in various ways, are linked to four philosophical traditions, namely to the (1) scholastic tradition, (2) to Hegelian thought, (3) to the Aristotelian and (4) the Platonic tradition. One can argue that pedagogues represent at times one or more or even all of the four types of authority to the child or the student, also in modern societies: Pedagogues obtain credibility and recognition from their (1) past experience and experience with the past, they gather credibility and recognition from their (2) capacity to deliver smart judgments to solve concrete problems and cover the needs of children and students in the present; (3) they have a source of authority in their possibility and power to make a difference and change the future (of the child): to promise rewards, to give and to forgive, that means to give a new chance for a better life or personal embetterment, and finally (4) sometimes pedagogues know what is good for all persons and all times (or they think they know or they are thought to know…).
The attempt or desire to avoid such expectations towards the role of authority and to shift responsibility for the development and learning of the child and the student to the child and the learner - in an apparently progressive way - is indeed neither pedagogically progressive nor is it psychologically realistic or morally noble. This whole contractualistic talk - „educational contracts“, „learning contracts“ and the like - is a more or less subtle way to withdraw from the duty of pedagogical authority or, at least to conceal the necessity of pedagogical authority. This phenomenon seems typical for our cultures of disguised dominance, which one may just have to accept in the age of political and educational correctness.
However, the view that personal authority is based on recognition (Sofsky & Paris 1994), and that recognized authorities usually do not need to use authoritarian behavior as disciplinary instruments (Arendt 1994) is widely accepted (Brüggen 2007) - and with good reasons. Recognized authorities - so the implicit arguments - can expect "voluntary "obedience" of others in the field of action and behavior and they can expect "voluntary belief" in the field of knowledge - as if it were that clear what voluntariness means in the field of asymmetric relationships.
The notion of authority being a phenomenon describing various types of asymmetric relationship – as a descriptor of an interpersonal relation - rather than a personality trait or attribute of a person is sympathetic to perspectives which try to show that the differences between the notions of freedom and authority or democracy and authority are not necessarily contradictory (see f.i. Hannah Arendt).
However, it seems that approaches considering recognition, consent, agreement, understanding, voluntariness and the like as the only legitimate base of authority miss the very point of pedagogical authority from the very start, as Egon Schütz (1971, p. 13) pointed out. Such quasi- symmetric models of or approaches to authority have their pedagogical significance, without any doubt, since they come in to play in later phases of the educational relationship. But the very point and original source of pedagogical authority is more likely to be located in the vital dependence of 246
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the newborn or small child from the adult who cares for the child. Newborns, exactly like toddlers or other youngsters are nevertheless far from having representations of authority by nature – rather these representations are results of learning processes in early childhood socialization, the social interaction between young and old. William Damon (1983) convincingly showed in Social and Personality Development: Essays on the Growth of the Child (1983) how children construct representations of authorities (parents and peers) and how these cognitive representations usually are subject to transformation processes during childhood and adolescence. From Damons perspective it is not quite true that young children are more obedient or submissive to authority than older ones (as one hypothesized in the tradition of Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg). Older children, let's say between 7 and 11 years, understand authority very much in terms of exchange and power relation. They develop a rather complex understanding of the asymmetric and symmetric aspects of educational relationship. With regard to such empirical findings, the notion "recognition of authority" is a more ambivalent and "subtle" affaire, also because the distinction between structurally superior and inferior positions does - at least empirically - not necessarily coincide with the distinction between socially powerful and powerless positions.
2. Pedagogical Authority and Pedagogies of Autonomy
The notion of authority seems to be problematic especially for pedagogies focusing on autonomy as mean and goal of education. There are good reasons for but also good reasons against the discrimination or, if you will, dichotomy of educational strategies which aim at social control and the ones aiming at personal autonomy: “pedagogies of autonomy” versus “pedagogies of control” (Hügli, 1999). However, what makes these easy to confuse is that, when they succeed at least, their effects on behaviour are for all intents and purposes indistinguishable. Where they are crucially different, however, is in the means employed to achieve those effects and in particular the moral status of those means.
Pedagogies of autonomy are an expression of a modern perspective on the morally legitimate and socially desirable aims and means of education. From this perspective, the aim of education is personal and moral autonomy which seems to come down largely to a person’s ability and disposition to reflect upon and judge her own inclinations and desires. By contrast, pedagogies of control are mainly intended as interventions that are supposed to more-or-less guarantee socially desirable behavioural outcomes. The decisive educational question of pedagogies of control is not, “How can we help children become morally autonomous or moral selves?” but rather, “How can we arrange things so that children behave as they should behave?”
Unless one admits that the internalisation of certain moral norms is also in some sense an educational necessity moral autonomy is not a particularly attractive aim of moral education, at least if one cares to maintain a certain basic level of social stability. At the same time, the internalisation of moral norms is not evidence of moral heteronomy any more than it is proof of moral autonomy. It can in fact be a result of either autonomous moral reflection on morally desirable ends in life or the result of mere social control achieved either as part of an organized regime or as an accidental fact of socialization.
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There is little doubt that pedagogies of control are much more effective than pedagogies of autonomy and their effectiveness may even render services for the good. However, from the perspective of pedagogies of autonomy, they are morally precarious. If they were fully effective, if an education system could produce the “morally good person” designed and shaped exactly according to plan, its product would be heteronomous agents—i.e., human beings that fail to possess what is unquestionably the central characteristic of moral agency in the Kantian tradition in ethics (Hill, 2000). Pedagogies of autonomy do not try to directly act on the child but are characterized instead by their expression of requests or reason-based appeals to change in one way or the other.
It seems to be no wonder that pedagogies of autonomy do have a structural problem of disingenuousness or falseness in the very educational practice. This uncandidness is an unintended but probably necessary consequence of modern morality: the concealment of power structures in asymmetric relationships, typical for the educational domain.
3. Nothing to promise
In what follows, I will focus on the ethos and normativity of concealing maneuvers of dominance by using subtle communication strategies and actions of speech and, in this way, the ethos of making submissions gestures possible in a comparably subtle manner. One can, as mentioned above, provide an interpretation of pedagogical authority by means of social exchange theory (Blau 1964; Buschmeier 1994) as well as moral theory. From this perspective, the power of pedagogical authority stays on the power to give promises and rewards (also the power to intimidate, threaten and punish). The thesis to be discussed would be something like this: Missing power to convincingly "promise (a desirable) future" is "the end" of pedagogical authority - both personally and institutionally. "Nothing to promise" is both, a dialectical approach to the authority of future and to the future of authority.
However, the ethos of democratic symmetry is in conflict with pedagogical authority just under circumstances that would have to be specified more clearly. There were little attempts - to my knowledge, at least - to analyze these culturally and morally relevant circumstances. It can be expected that these circumstances could be highlighted in a rather complex way by referring to German (Brüggen 2007, Pongratz 1995), French (f.i.Foray 2007, Kambouchner 2007, Kojève 2004, Renaut 2004, Revaul d'Allonnes 2005) and Anglo-Saxon (f.i. Baier 1994, Peters 1960, Sennett 1985) authors and their views on the future of authority...
To be more simple and understandable, I will just focus on one point. Many years ago, social exchange theorist Peter Blau has given a great description of the structural problem of stable leadership - the goal of many authorities in modern societies: “Stable leadership rests on power over others and their legitimating approval of that power. The dilemma of leadership is that the attainment of power and the attainment of social approval make somewhat incompatible demands on a person. To achieve power over others requires not only furnishing services that make them dependent but also remaining independent of any services they might offer in return. To legitimate a position of power and leadership, however, requires that a leader be concerned with earning the 248
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social approval of his followers, which means that he does not maintain complete independent of them” (Blau 1964, S. 203).
However, pedagogical authority is not here to stay, in the specific or particular relation between educator or teacher and child or student, it is a temporary phenomenon. Modern pedagogical thought lives from the idea that the termination of pedagogical authority is a major goal of education. In this view, the future of pedagogical authority is - in each the particular educational relationship - always annulment of authority. This topos of educational thought has not always been seen clearly. Pedagogical leadership is - to put it in some opposition to the interpretation of Peter Blau or social exchange theory - not a stable leadership but an unstable leadership and it has to be an unstable leadership in modern times (but it remains to be a relation of leadership).
I can't focus on that point in this paper because of time constraints, but the cultural emancipation from tradition, religion and authority - to name the "Roman trinity" according to Hannah Arendt - lead to a change or transformation from vertical and personal types of authorities to horizontal and impersonal types of authorities: money, media, formal constraints in the educational systems, scientific modes and fashions and many others… Such horizontality seems more rational, more democratic, and legitimate for its apparent symmetry. It is a situation in which the future of the concept of authority dissolves as a whole, which reminds us of the illusions of emancipation described by Horkheimer and Adorno more than half a century ago.
The future of the concept of pedagogical authority would probably profit by further analysis of concepts that are seen in opposition or in accordance with authority. Maybe such analysis would evoke that: yes, there is an affinity between authority and power; yes, there is an opposition between authority and violence; yes, there is a compatibility between authority and discipline; and no, there is no opposition between authority and autonomy and also no opposition between authority and democracy; and finally: yes, there is a pseudo problem between authority and morality.
References
Arendt, H. (1994). Was ist Authority? In dies., Zwischen Vergangenheit and Zukunft. Übungen im politischen Denken I. München & Zürich: Piper (Original 1968), S. 159-200. Baier, A. (1994). Ethics in many different voices. In dies., Moral prejudices. Essays on ethics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, pp. 294-312. Blau, P. M. (1964). Exchange and Power in Social Life. New York: Wiley. Brüggen, F. (2007). Authority, pädagogisch. Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, 53(5), 602-614. Buschmeier, U. (1994). Macht and Einfluss in Organisationen. Göttingen: Cuvillier. Canetti, E. (1985). Masse and Macht. Frankfurt a.M.: Fischer (Original 1960). Foray, Ph. (2007). Authority in der Schule. Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, 53(5), 615-626. Hügli, A. (1996). Philosophie and Pädagogik. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft. Hunyadi, M. (2005). Statement dans le débat à la suite de la conférence de George Steiner. Vgl. Steiner, G. (2005). L’autorité? In XLes Rencontres Internationales de Genève 2005.
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G. Steiner, H. Mottu, A. Garapon, Ph. Meirieu, A. Ehrenberg, S. Ebadi, K. Pomian & M. Revault d’Allonnes (Contributeur(e)s): Le Futur de l’Autorité. Lausanne: L’Age d’Homme, pp. 21ff. Kojève, A. (2004). La notion de l’autorité. Ed. et présenté par F. Terré. Paris: Gallimard (Original 1942). Reichenbach, R. (2007). Kaschierte Dominanz - leichte Unterwerfung. Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, 53(5), 602-614. Reichenbach, R. (2007a). Führen and sich führen lassen: Zur Qualität schulischer Austauschprozesse. In D. Benner (Hrsg.), Bildungsstandards. Instrumente zur Qualitätssicherung im Bildungswesen. Chancen and Grenzen – Beispiele and Perspektiven. Paderborn: Schöningh, S. 227-237. Renaut, A. (2004). La fin de l’autorité. Paris : Flammarion. Revault d’Allonnes, M. (2005). L’autorité du futur. In XLes Rencontres Internationales de Genève 2005. G. Steiner, H. Mottu, A. Garapon, Ph. Meirieu, A. Ehrenberg, S. Ebadi, K. Pomian & M. Revault d’Allonnes (Contributeur(e)s): Le Futur de l’Autorité. Lausanne: L’Age d’Homme, S. 173-185. Schott, T. (2003). Authority – Überlegungen zu ihrer Struktur, ihrer Unentbehrlichkeit and ihre Gefahren in Erziehung and Bildung. Pädagogische Randschau 57 (2003), 283-298. Sofsky, W. Paris, R. (1994). Figurationen sozialer Macht. Authority – Stellvertretung – Koalition. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp. Steiner, H. Mottu, A. Garapon, Ph. Meirieu, A. Ehrenberg, S. Ebadi, K. Pomian & M. Revault d’Allonnes (Contributeur(e)s): Le Futur de l’Autorité. Lausanne: L’Age d’Homme, pp. 13-20.
Appendix
"Nothing to promise": the future of pedagogical authority
Commands are older than speech. If this were not so, dogs could not understand them. Elias Canetti (Crowds and Power, 1960, p. 303)
1. Sources of pedagogical authority 2. Pedagogical Authority and Pedagogies of Autonomy 3. Nothing to promise
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Foray (2007): Authority is 1. a source of the power and possibility to get others do as intended; 2. the power to define limits of acceptable behavior and attitudes; 3. social status / functions; 4. the impersonal, "culture".
Kojève (2004/1942): 1. the father (or mother…) past 2. the boss (or chief) present 3. the leader future 4. the judge "timeless"
1. Scholastic 2. Hegelian 3. Aristotelian 4. Platonic
“Stable leadership rests on power over others and their legitimating approval of that power. The dilemma of leadership is that the attainment of power and the attainment of social approval make somewhat incompatible demands on a person. To achieve power over others requires not only furnishing services that make them dependent but also remaining independent of any services they might offer in return. To legitimate a position of power and leadership, however, requires that a leader be concerned with earning the social approval of his followers, which means that he does not maintain complete independent of them” (Blau 1964, S. 203).
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A Vision for Future Education: Education for life
Eun-Sook Hong Sungkyul University, Korea
Abstract
We try to teach valuable things in education. However, education sometimes brings negative results. Why is it so? I distinguish 'the explicit content of education' from 'the underlying content of education', arguing that we have to analyze the underlying content of education, and restructure educational content for better education. As an example I explain the case of 'epistemology of objectivism'. As a vision of education I suggest 'education for life': education for respecting life, finding and forming self-identity, restoring or reviving life, and sustaining or developing life. We are dreaming of education for truly good life. In order to realize it, we have to continuously think about what is a truly good life, what should be taught, and how we can produce it.
1. What do we teach in education?
Education pursues a person's happiness and quality life as well as the development of society. Conceptually, education implies the transmission of valuable content(Peters, 1966). Thus we try to teach valuable things in education. However, education does not always bear good fruit. Education for a better life sometimes hurts students, even leading to death. It is sometimes 'like whitewashed tombs' (Matthew 23:27). There was shocking news a couple of years ago where a fifth-grade boy killed himself because of the stress of studying. Why do we sometimes have deformed and problematic education in spite of our sincerest efforts to practice good education? Is it true to say that we really teach valuable things in education but we unfortunately get bad results? Didn't we teach something wrong although we took it for right? We have been ardently trying to teach something valuable to our future generation. However, do we really teach what we have to teach?
Nowadays there are many problems in the world such as an economic crisis and inequality, natural disasters due to the destruction of the environment, problems of multicultural education due to globalization, conflicts among different religions as well as different races. What kind of educational innovation do we need for the future of our country? When we think about educational innovation, we usually think about innovations in technology or skills. However, prior to technological innovations pursuing efficiency, we need to deliberate what we really teach, as the reconceptualists of curriculum argue (Giroux, Penna & Pinar, 1981). We need to think about what kind of educational innovation is asked? If a student kills himself because of the stress of education, what kind of education is it? It is like a proverb, 'to burn one's house to get rid of the
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mice.' Now let's explore a vision of education by analyzing what we really teach under the explicit content of education, in order to lead the educational zeal of Korean people in the right direction.
2. 'Explicit content of education' vs. 'Underlying content of education'
We teach various social practices such as language, mathematics, science, history, etc. as subject- matter at school. When we teach subject-matter, we teach some explicit contents such as propositions, skills, etc. However, we could teach different underlying contents of education with the same explicit materials. For example, although students may learn explicitly the same mathematical formula, they could acquire different degrees of positive or negative 'backgrounds of learning psychology' such as mathematical interest, motivation, confidence, and anxiety, as shown in the 2003 OECD PISA results. The same medical knowledge or skills could transmit different messages to students according to the purpose of learning as well as teaching methods.26 Thus I try to distinguish 'the underlying content of education' from 'the explicit content of education.'
By 'the underlying content of education' I mean the deep epistemological structures, views of the world, views of human beings, views of our values, ways of existence, etc., which create the forms of life. The underlying content of education, which is more influential to one's character and life, could involve both the good and the bad. Some negative results of schooling may be due to some negative underlying content of education. Thus we need to analyze and correct the negative underlying content of education which are transmitted unintentionally under the explicit valuable content of education, providing a vision of education for the future.
What kinds of wrong underlying content of education is taught in schools? We cannot enumerate all the mistaken underlying contents of education which leads to bad education. Here I exemplify some cases which give strong influence to education. Above all, I want to analyze 'the epistemology of objectivism', which was proposed by logical positivism. Almost nobody accepts logical positivism entirely nowadays. However, knowledge education in schools still presupposes the epistemology of objectivism as the underlying content of education, resulting in the distorted concept of self-identity, worldviews, value systems and human relations.
In the 18th century, an enlightenment project and Rationalism27 based on human reason argued for 'objective knowledge'. Logical positivists, who accept only logical and experimental propositions, interpret 'objective knowledge' as 'impersonal knowledge,' in which all judgements by the subject are eliminated and the subjects are regarded as spectators who are distant from the
26 One could learn medical knowledge for the explicit values such as money and social status, or for the pure academic purpose, or for the moral, social and religious purpose of treating the patients with love like Dr. Schweitzer.
27 Oakeshott(1991) used the capital 'Rationalism' in order to refer to the narrow mistaken meaning of the 18th century, in contrast to 'rationalism' in the wide ordinary sense.
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objects. In order to distinguish it from 'objective knowledge' in the ordinary sense, we may call it 'objectivist knowledge'.
Let me explain the epistemology of objectivism briefly. On the one hand, the knower, distant from the known, manipulates, dominates, and owns the objects as he likes. On the other hand, the known, the inert passive impersonal thing located out there, is manipulated, dominated, and owned by the subject. Thus, the knower and the known, far from each other, have an alienated hostile relationship, by which the subject manipulates, dominates, and owns the object (Palmer, 1983; Refer to 홍은숙, 2010).
The epistemology of objectivism presupposes value-neutrality of knowledge, producing the instrumental view of knowledge. Knowledge is regarded as value-free facts, which could be either good or bad according to the way how they are used. In fact a knowledgeable person is not necessarily moral; on the contrary, a person with much knowledge could cleverly do an evil, using knowledge as a tool for dominating others and the world for one's own sake. Therefore, whatever subject-matter we teach explicitly, when we teach it according to the epistemology of objectivism, we may inadvertently teach some negative underlying content of education, which can distort and destroy the true relations among an individual's own good life, other human beings, objects, nature, and even the spiritual world.
To put it more specifically, first, an individual could lose one's true self, alienated not only from the world but also from the self. At first glance, one seems to get the power to rule the world and get profits by manipulating and exploiting other people. But Palmer(1983) illustrated how one comes to be conquered by the arrogant power of knowledge, which ultimately leads to the destruction and the death of all the people including oneself. Second, human relationships are distorted and destroyed because other people fall into objects of dominion and exploitation. The human relation becomes, what Buber(1958) says, the instrumental 'I-It', rather than the personal 'I- Thou'. Third, nature and ecological systems are also the object of manipulation and exploitation, becoming destructed under the name of development. Temporarily one could gain profit, but in the long run the whole world may suffer from its backlash. Fourth, we could lose our relationship with the eternal or spiritual world which cannot be proved by reasoning, the dominant criteria of judgement after the Enlightenment Age. Thus we may lose our way to eternal true life.
We can add other cases of underlying content in education. To give another example, we can think about education which emphasizes liberalism. Our society is called liberal democracy, which is characterized by individual's freedom and equality. Because different values should be respected and protected, schools rather teach public procedural principles instead of comprehensive ethical values (Rawls, 1993). However, when public procedural principles are exclusively emphasized, and when the comprehensive values are forbidden to be taught in the public sphere, we are faced with 'the paradox of liberalism'(Galston, 1998: 54; 홍은숙, 2007: 348): In the process of protecting comprehensive values, we destroy various values themselves, having only hollow procedural principles. Due to the influence of liberalism, schools rather teach value-free instrumental contents. Here we can think of some positive and negative underlying contents of education, which needs further analysis. 254
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3. A vision for future education: 'Education for life'
What kind of education do we have to do for an individual's better life and a better society? In the above section, I distinguished 'the underlying content of education' from 'the explicit content of education'. And I argued that we have to put our educational focus more on the former, thinking critically what we really teach for a better life. For our educational effort for a better life sometimes bear negative fruit. In order to solve this problem we need to clarify the meaning of 'education for life'. By showing its meaning, we can later use it as criteria for analyzing the underlying content of education whether it leads to life or death.
Life is the most basic and important element for existence (이금만, 2008: 182-186). Thus, education should be basically 'education for life' (Refer to Groome, 1998). When we talk about education for life, we immediately think of some practical or utilitarian education. Indeed we should satisfy the basic desires of eating and living. However, when we are concerned only with eating and living, it is like 'rearing' animals. Beyond 'rearing', we need 'education' which pursues human dignity and realization of one's true self. For this we need to form self-identity by finding one's vision and purpose of life. We also need to heal the wound, restoring the various broken relationships among different parties based on their dignity. By 'education for life', I mean education for respecting life, finding and forming self-identity, restoring or reviving life, and sustaining or developing life.
First, 'education for life' implies 'education for respecting life'. Nowadays the rate of suicide and murder is increasing. So we need to teach more positively why each one of us is special and important. We also need to teach how to respect oneself, others, society, nature, and the whole world, which provides us with living environments whether they are physical objects, cultural heritages, or the spiritual world. In order to teach decency of life, we have to think critically about what is the negative underlying content of education which hinders it.
Second, 'education for life' implies 'education for discovering one's purpose or vision of life and for forming one's narrative self-identity'. Only when one finds one's vision, one can live a meaningful life with hope. In order to find his vision of life, he has to understand various traditions which have given influence to himself. In order to help to develop one's own life story with proper vision, we have to get rid of any negative underlying content of education which hinders it.
Third, 'education for life' means 'education for restoring or reviving individual life'. Sometimes many aspects of students such as interests, creativity, talents, individuality are suppressed; they lose hope; they get hurt feelings. There are many things to be restored. 'Restoring or reviving' implies that there is a certain ideal, original, and potential shape and order, created by God or determined in some ways. Education should empower students. Thus, we need to consider what are the negative content of education which discourage students. And we need to change it into positive one and teach it explicitly.
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Fourth, we need 'education for restoring the whole world', including communities, society, nature and even the moral and spiritual world. That is, not only the human beings, but also the whole world needs to be restored by realizing its ideal shape. In order to restore the world which provides our living environment, we need to emphasize the restoration of relationships among different parties. Thus we have to explore what is the original shape, and examine what is the negative underlying content of education which destroy the desirable relationships.
Fifth, 'education for life' also means 'education for vitality and sustainable development of life'. When students are restored from their wound, they need to sustain or develop their happy lives. In order to develop the ability to internalize and apply what they learn, we need to motivate them and give the chance to practice. Students have to live good and happy lives. For this, we have to analyze the positive and negative underlying factors in education.
4. Conclusion: Dreaming of education for truly good life
Education pursues a better successful life filled with happiness. Although we try to do such education, we are sometimes deceived by ourselves because of the whitewashed wall outside. Now we have to see the inside of education, looking for what is actually going on there. We should not be deceived any more. In order to explain it, I distinguished 'the explicit content of education' and 'the underlying content of education', arguing that we have to look through what is really taught underneath the explicit content. I illustrated this idea by analyzing the example of 'epistemology of objectivism'. However, we need to examine and check continuously all the practice of education and its explicit content whether there is any negative underlying content of education.
I explained also the meaning of 'education for life': education for respecting life, finding and forming self-identity, restoring or reviving life, and sustaining or developing life. We are dreaming of education for truly good life. In order to realize it, we have to keep thinking about what is real success in life, what is a truly good life, what should be taught in education, and how we can produce it. It might be a never-ending job.
References
이금만 (2008). 생명을 살리는 기독교교육의 성격. 「 기독교교육논총」 18. 179- 202. 홍은숙 (2007). 「교육의 개념: 실천전통에의 입문으로서의 교육」. 서울: 교육과학 사. 홍은숙 (2010). 교육과정에서 지식교육의 신화에 대한 기독교적 대안. 「종교교육학 연구」 32. 23-43. Bruner, J. S. (1960). The process of education. Mass.: Harvard University Press. Buber, Martin(1958). I and Thou. trans. by R. G. Smith. N. Y.: Charles Scribner's Sons. Galston, W. (1998). Civic Education in the Liberal State. Hirst, P. H. and White, P.(eds.). Philosophy of Education. London: Routledge. 44-56. 256
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Giroux, H. A., Penna, A. N. & Pinar, W. F.(1981). Curriculum & instruction: Alternatives in Education. California: McCutchan Publishing Co. Groome, Thomas (1998). Educating for life. New York: Crossroad Pub. Hirst, P. H. (1993). Education, knowledge and practices. R. Barrow and P. White(eds.). Beyond liberal education: Essays in honour of P. H. Hirst. London: Routledge, 184-199. Oakeshott, M. (1991). Rationalism in politics and other essays(new and expanded ed.). Indianapolis: Liberty Press. Palmer, Parker J. (1983). To Know as We Are Known: The Spirituality of Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc. Peters, R. S. (1966). Ethics and Education. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd. Rawls, J. (1993). Political liberalism. N.Y.: Columbia University Press.
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Session 16 Distinguished Invited Lectures
1. Facing Multiculturalism’s Challenges in Korean Education and Society Michael Olneck (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA)
2. Use of Simulation to Measure 21st Century Skills Harry O'Neil (University of Southern California, USA)
The Educational Innovation for 21st Century: Sharing Visions and Experiences
Facing Multiculturalism’s Challenge in Korean Education and Society
Michael Olneck University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
1. INTRODUCTION
Originating several decades ago in Anglo-American countries like Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, “multiculturalism” in education, and in broader society, has now become a worldwide norm (Kymlicka, 2005; Bromley, 2009; Meyer, Bromley, and Ramirez, 2010). Recognition, even affirmation, of, and respect for, diversity are now expected of nations who claim to adhere to international standards of human rights and modern education. In Korea, since the mid-2000s, references to “multiculturalism” have proliferated in the media, in academic scholarship, and in policies for newcomer incorporation and for education (Han, 2007; Cho, 2010; Hong, 2010; Lee, Jae-Boon, 2010). Yet, multiculturalism as a policy remains confusing, problematic, and, often, controversial wherever it is adopted. This is because its meanings can vary, its implementation is difficult, and, even in its most limited forms, it reflects and advances unsettling social change. Moreover, multiculturalism is always pursued in the context of specific social divisions and conflicts that characterize particular national societies.
In this paper I will address several endemic challenges which Korean multiculturalism faces or will inevitably face. My analysis will be informed by my understanding of multiculturalism in the United States, though I hope to avoid simplistically applying the American template to the Korean. I summarize these challenges as: (1) Dilemmas of difference; (2) Variable terms of inclusion; and (3) Legitimacy of multiculturalism. I will conclude by arguing that even when the outcomes of multicultural education for students are uncertain and limited, the significance of multicultural education for society is high.
2. DILEMMAS OF DIFFERENCE
One kind of “dilemma of difference” is that however we respond to difference - whether we take it into account in our policies and practices, or whether we ignore it on the grounds that treating people equally requires that we treat everyone the same - we may recreate the stigma and inequality associated with differences among groups (Minow, 1985;1990). An example of this kind of dilemma arises in American schools which try to respond to the fact that many children of immigrants cannot speak English when they start school. Ignoring this, and teaching them in classes with children who already speak English, with teachers instructing in English, means that the immigrant children will fall behind other children in their achievement, and will have to stay 261
silent, even when oral participation is called for, or they will have to reveal their difficulties in speaking English. In short, their language difference will turn them into classroom failures, and subject them to ridicule from other students and negative attributions by their teachers.
On the other hand, separating these students into “bilingual” classes in which their own languages are used, along with English, can stigmatize both students, and their teachers, as being somehow inferior, and unable to be included in “regular” or “normal” classes. This can happen especially when such classrooms are placed in a separate part of a school, as they have been in some schools (Olneck, 1993, 2004).
Already, Korean educators have faced this dilemma of difference. Support for “multicultural” children (damunhwa janeo) includes special after-school programs (Hong, 2010). But, as Kang, Soon-Won (2010, p. 8) has noted, these programs are, for the most part, conducted “separate from those designed for ordinary Korean children. These programs give them another stigma signaling that ‘we are different from you.’ Thus the children of multicultural families do not know why they have to study alone without their friends, and do not like attending these separate programs.” Apparently, the Korean Ministry of Education, Science, and Technolgy (MEST) has recognized this problem, and since 2008 has shifted its emphasis toward a student-centered focus that attempts to avoid collectively isolating and stigmatizing a category of students (Lee, Min- Kyung 2010, as summarized by Cho, Sungk-Yung; see also Park and Jung, 2009, p. 5 on policies promoting “school-oriented, customizable education”).
MEST had, at some point, considered creating bilingual education programs for the children of “multicultural families” (Kwak, 2008; Park and Jung, 2009), although the programs apparently have not been undertaken (Moon, 2010). If bilingual education is adopted for “multicultural” children, and not for children whose parents are both native Koreans, the program, and its participants, will likely incur the stigma to which the first dilemma of difference refers.
But, notice that this kind of difference dilemma arises because of what is taken for granted about the schooling of those classified as “regular” or “mainstream” students. In the American example of bilingual education, the dilemma of difference arises because students who already speak English are not expected to be in classrooms that use any language of instruction other than English. Nor are they expected to use any language other than English when they interact in classrooms with students who are learning English. This means that students who already speak English are confronted with less challenging educational tasks than non-English-speaking students, and are placed in a favored position to succeed academically. Moreover, the idea that a“normal” American speaks solely English is institutionally reproduced. While using English to teach in American classrooms may seem entirely “natural” and not unfair, it is decidedly not neutral. It is, rather, an example of what Frederick Erickson (1987, p. 352) calls a “hegemonic practice,” or “routine actions and unexamined beliefs that are consonant with the cultural system of meaning and ontology within which it makes sense to take certain actions, entirely without malevolent intent, that nonetheless systematically limit the life chances of members of stigmatized groups.” It is to what Erickson calls “hegemonic practices” that Hong (2010) refers when he discusses established conventions of Korean schooling that have been based on ethnocentrism and monoculturalism, and which impede changes in classroom environments, curricula, student
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attitudes, and teaching styles. But, genuinely multicultural education challenges hegemonic practices by endeavoring to make the experience of schooling equally affirming for all groups of students, and ensuring that no groups be disproportionately alienated from or stigmatized by the school’s routine practices ( Minow, 1985; Olneck, 1993).
This first dilemma of difference is entailed even at a linguistic level. To address the problems that people make of difference requires referring to the groups whose differences are at issue. Yet, the very terms used to refer to groups may well reinscribe unequal relationships in which particular groups are represented as normative and other groups are represented as deviations from the norm. The very categories “multicultural families” and “multicultural children” signal “difference,” much as the category “ethnic,” which white or European-Americans apply to African-Americans and Latinos does, marking them as “Other,” while claiming, themselves, to lack “ethnicity” (Perry, 2001, 2002). Examples of this from Korean sources include Park and Jung’s (2009) reference to programs intended to “establish positive relations between multicultural and mainstream Korean families” ( p. 5; emphasis mine), as well as their juxtaposing “[m]ulticultural family students” and “general students” (Park and Jung, 2009, p. 3; emphasis mine). The Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology in 2006 defined a “multi-cultural” family as ‘a family organized with people of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds from Koreans” (Lee, Jae-Boon, 2010, p. 74; my emphasis). Lee, Jae-Boon (2010) also refers to schools intended to “make general children and children from multi-cultural family understand and accept each other” (ibid., p. 86; my emphasis). Finally, the president of the Korea Multicultural Congress, founded in March of 2010 to “bring harmony to Korean society that is fast becoming multicultural” (Kwon, 2010a), described multiculturalism as including “all minority cultures outside the mainstream one,” and he asserted that “[y]oung children need to understand that we live with people who might look different and being different is a sign of diversity, not a bad thing” (Kwon, 2010b).
A second “dilemma of difference,” for multiculturalism is how to represent and incorporate very different kinds of groups. In the United States, certain minority groups were incorporated into American society against their will, by enslavement or conquest. These “involuntary” minorities (Ogbu, 1987), include African Americans, Puerto Ricans, American Indians, and some Mexican Americans. These groups were not only incorporated involuntarily, they were “racialized” for periods of their history in the United States as inherently inferior human beings. Other groups entered the United States voluntarily, as immigrants, and, while experiencing distinctive trajectories of “segmented assimilation” (Portes and Zhou, 1993), some approximating the experiences of involuntary minorities, most were ultimately accepted into the American national family more readily than were involuntary minorities. Despite the fact that multicultural education in the United States originated in the demands of involuntary minority groups for recognition and inclusion, prominent examples of nominally “multicultural” curricula in American textbooks recast African Americans and other involuntary minorities as “immigrants” whose saga of coming from elsewhere, beginning at the bottom, suffering from discrimination, prejudice, and hardship, but ultimately succeeding, was no different from the story of immigrants from Europe (Sleeter, 1995; Olneck, 2001). Not only did this representation falsify history, and obscure the very distinctive experiences of different minority groups, it, paradoxically, reproduced the assumption that sameness is a prerequisite for inclusion (Wynter, 1992; Olneck, 2001).
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The “dilemma of difference” that arises here is that the differences which multiculturalism must recognize to be credible, must, at the same time, be suppressed if multiculturalism is to contribute to symbolizing a unified nation. This is because a credible multiculturalism cannot simply take note of cultural differences, but must acknowledge “the persisting relations of dominance and hierarchy that underlie the very difference supposedly being recognised” (Olneck, 2001, p. 342). But, if these relations of dominance and hierarchy are acknowledged, claims of unity are contradicted, presuming, of course, that unity requires equality of membership. It is this dilemma that leads Stratton and Ang (1998) to conclude that multiculturalism is inherently unstable and endemically controversial (Olneck, 2001).
The Korean approach to the diversity of kinds of groups has apparently been to circumscribe the groups to whom “multicultural” education policies apply, limiting the reach of those policies, for the most part, to families with Korean fathers, non-Korean mothers, and their “multicultural” children (Han, 2007; Kim, Hui-Jung, 2009; Doucette and Prey, 2010). In this approach, migrant workers’ families and children have been effectively excluded, despite official policies that include them. As Lee, Jae-Boon (2010) has observed, “[t]he definition of multicultural family in the existing Multi-cultural Family Support Act ([which] took effect September 22, 2008 is very limited, and actually the contents can be seen as ‘marriage-based immigrant support act’” (p. 74). Ethnic Chinese are excluded. Amerasians are excluded. And, for somewhat different reasons than others, North Korean defector families and their children are not included. The differentiated application of multicultural policy in Korea points us to the issue of unequal“terms of inclusion.”
3. VARIABLE “TERMS OF INCLUSION”
Multiculturalsim is, above all, a framework for inclusion, for expanding the boundaries of who belongs within a national community, and for raising the status of those presently marginalized or subordinated (Olneck, 1993). Multiculturalism rejects the idea that belonging requires identity of racial and ethnic descent. The premise of multiculturalism is, as Timothy Lim has stated when posing the question “Who is Korean?,” “most simply... the acceptance and embrace of diversity” (Lim, 2009, p. 10). This central principle has been recognized in recent Korean curriculum standards which are said to have “replaced mono-ethnicism with the notions of cultural diversity and multiculturalism” (Moon, 2010, p. 5; see also Kim, Nam-Kook , 2009; Lim, 2009; Hong, 2010). However, rejecting exclusion, and rejecting “mono-ethnicism” as a criterion for belonging, do not resolve the question of on what terms diverse individuals and groups will be included.28
28 Indeed, the imperative of reunification motivates some education officials to express caution about entirely eliminating references to Korea as a “homogeneous” country. In a discussion at the end of 2008, Kim, Yoon- Ki, a researcher at the Ministry of Education, was quoted as saying “We will correct expressions against immigrants in textbooks, but when it comes to reunification, we need to emphasize that Korean people share the same blood” (Kang, Shin-who, 2010). This implies that while immigrants might be tolerated in Korean society, official policy does not anticipate that they might ever come to be regarded as “Koreans.” Rather, official policy appears to envision a tolerant society that is no longer homogeneous because it includes non- Korean, not because it has expanded its definition of what “being Korean” means. This reflects the “confused and complicated state of multicultural education in a divided nation” (Yang, 2010a).
The Educational Innovation for 21st Century: Sharing Visions and Experiences
There are distinct modes of incorporation, and these align with different kinds of multicultural education.
One inclusionary mode of incorporation is often referred to as “creedal” or “civic” (see Olneck, 2006), in which national identity, and, thus, membership in the national community, is grounded in commitment to particular principles and ideas. Because principles and ideas carry with them templates of ways of living, there is no purely creedal national identity that can be separated from shared culture (Karst, 1989; Olneck, 2006). Nevertheless, the idea of a creedal or civic national identity is more fitting in some cases than it is in others. It fits best where a nation-state’s founding is associated, as in the cases of the United States, the First French Republic, and the Soviet Union, with explicit ideological promulgations. I do not see how this mode of incorporation would be applicable in the Korean case, and Kim, Nam-Kook (2009) has observed that this is not the direction in which Korea is tending.
Another mode of incorporation which expands the boundaries of national membership, but does not significantly change the criterion of membership may be called “ethno-cultural” (Olneck, 2006). This is a mode of incorporation that recognizes that “a real nation is a concrete historical community, defined by a common language, common folkways, and a common vernacular culture” (Lind, 1995, p. 5). In the United States, for example, speaking English, and living according to the “American Way of Life” are expected of “true” or “real” Americans. What a country’s “way of life” is may be determined by the dominant ethnic group, in which case cultural conformity and assimilation are expected. On the other hand, a country’s way of life may, to a greater or lesser extent,, be syncretic, a blend of cultural elements drawn from diverse sources, symbolized, in the American case, by the famous “melting pot.”
To date, most Korean multicultural education policies and programs appear to have assumed an ethno-cultural mode of incorporation in which diverse elements of the population will be accepted only insofar as they adopt the Korean language, as well as ways of living that are determined by the majority native Korean population to be appropriate. Policies and programs have been “multicultural” largely in the sense that they are directed toward families and children who are designated as “multicultural,” namely those with Korean fathers and non-Korean wives / mothers. Thus, Cho (2010) defines “multicultural education” as educational efforts “to provide multicultural students with equal opportunities for achievement” ( p. 185) and “to help multicultural children and their families to learn Korean language and culture, and thus facilitate integration of multicultural students into schools” (p. 192). Moon (2010) has characterized the main goal of recent citizenship education as “[k]eeping the Korean national identity and educating ‘Other’ people about the ‘Korean-ness’” (p. 7). Hong (2010), Lee, Jae-Boon (2010), and Kang, Soon-Won (2010) all concur that the direction of Korean education, despite adopting the rhetoric of multiculturalism, has been largely assimilationist.
If multiculturalism is to apply only to the families in which the father is native Korean and the mother is from outside Korea, an assimilationist orientation might be defensible and viable. This is true, in part, because close to half the brides from outside of Korea are ethnically Korean, or at least were so in 2005 (calculated from Kwak, 2008, Figure 1, p. 4). Were ethnically Korean mothers and their children to be acculturated to the Korean language and majority Korean ways of living they would not visibly stand out. A second reason to possibly accept an assimilative 265
approach is that “multicultural” families do not form distinctive cultural communities, hence the collectivities that multiculturalism might address and recognize are, for this part of the population, at best, ill-defined. As Kim, Hui-Jung (2009) has so importantly observed, while immigrant families and individuals in countries like Canada and Australia form cultural communities or groups, and these communities “are the building blocks of multiculturalism discourse and practice,” the circumstances in Korea are very different. “...[I]n Korea immigrants become a member of a Korean family and it is these multicultural families that are the unit of Korean multiculturalism. Multicultural families exist in Korea, but cultural communities do not” (p. 47; my emphasis).
There are, however, at least three reasons to reject an exclusively assimilative approach even for “intermarriage” families. First, a strictly assimilative approach does not address the racial prejudice and discrimination directed toward the children of mixed marriages. In particular, it does not address the challenges to their “Korean-ness” to which these children are subjected, as evidenced in derogatory terms like “Kosian,” “mixed-blood,” and “half-Korean” (Chosun Ilbo, August 21, 2007). Second, it does not address the oppressive patriarchal norms to which wives and mothers are subjected within the traditional Korean household that assimilation reproduces (Han, 2007; Kim, 2007). Indeed, the Philippine Korean Wives Association (PKWA) was founded in 2004 to challenge the prevailing norms that wives must follow their husband’s culture, and be required to forget their own culture (Lim, 2010). Third, assimilation fails to address the needs of both mothers and children for affirmation of their non-Korean heritages, and their desires to contribute to creating a more blended Korean culture. Programs, like the Multicultural Library Modoo in Imun-dong, Seoul, that welcome immigrant mothers to display and share their home countries’ literature and other contemporary cultural productions have been reported to raise mothers’ self-esteem, and to instill pride among children in their mothers’ homelands (Kwon, 2009).
However, the decisive reason to reject an assimilationist approach is that Korean society includes diverse elements well beyond those who are presently called “multicultural” families. Most obviously, and of greatest consequence, there are approximately 640,000 migrant workers in the country (Kim, Nam-Kook, 2009, Table 1, p. 7). In 2005, there were over 17,000 children of school age whose parents were foreign workers. Approximately 8,000 of them attended “international schools,” while only approximately 1,500 of them attended Korean schools (Kwak, 2008, p. 6). This means that 7,500 were not in school at that time. More may be out of school now, as the number of children of foreign workers in Korean schools fell to 1,270 by 2009 (Lee, Jae-Boon, 2010, Table II-2, p. 76), a period during which the number of foreign workers was increasing (Kim, Nam-Kook, 2009). While migrant worker parents may want their children to leave school and work once they pass compulsory school age, the likelihood remains that there will be an increasing number of younger children of migrant workers whose schooling should not be neglected.
Numbers alone are not the issue. The growth of non-Korean-origin communities within Korea is very likely going to accelerate, and parts of Korea may well become settings for distinct, relatively strongly bounded ethnic communities, rendering Kim, Hui-Jung’s (2009) conclusion quoted above that “[m]ulticultural families exist in Korea, but cultural communities do not” obsolete. Already there is evidence of ethnic community development with markets, businesses catering to immigrants, community centers, newspapers, particularly among Chosonjok in Seoul, where
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Karibong in Kuro, Seoul, has become known as Seoul’s “Chinatown,” and there is also an established Filipino community’s “Little Manila” (Lim, 2008). Whether the residents of such communities will eventually be accepted as immigrants, or whether they will simply remain as denizens, it is unlikely that they will be forcibly deported because large-scale coerced deportations would place Korea in a bad light in the eyes of the international community, and would violate its commitments to human rights. Like the Turkish communities in Germany, these communities will very possibly become large, permanent, and multi-generational (Lim, 2008).
Moreover, these communities are unlikely to remain static or quiescent. Rather, they are likely to demand forms of recognition and rights in the names of both multiculturalism and membership within Korean society. (Indeed, multiculturalism is a framework for membership.) Migrant political and cultural activism is already generating new group formations and identity constructions (Doucette and Prey, 2010). These represent assertions of “cultural citizenship” (Flores and Benmayor, 1997), or insistence of respect for distinctiveness and full membership in Korean society, as well as the right to participate in remaking Korean culture, identity, and society. As an official of the Migrants’ Trade Union told the Korea Times, “Korean society should also change its attitudes toward migrant workers and treat us equally and fairly because we are now an integral part of Korean society” (Lim, 2008, p. 49; my emphasis). Representatives of distinct ethnic communities have joined together to form a Migrant Voters Alliance (Lee, Tae-Hoon, 2010b). When, earlier this year, as part of a campaign to remove all street vendors, Seoul’s Jongo District officials ordered the Filipino community to stop holding its Sunday outdoor market in Hyehwa-dong, the local church’s priest argued that “[The outdoor market after church is] a Philippine way of life. We go to church, then go to the market to buy provisions and meet friends. It’s an expression of Philippine culture., The national government has a policy about supporting multiculturalism in Korea, but there seems to be a contradiction with the district office’s plans” (Kwon and Garcia, 2010).29
What is interesting about the Philippine market episode is that it is an example of an accommodation that permits an exception to the application of an ostensibly neutral rule, intended to be applied uniformly,, and, thus, it violates an important presumption of certain versions of liberal political theory (Barry, 2001). While it is an example from outside of the education sphere, it is easy to imagine education policies that would raise parallel controversy, as they have in the United States. Now only Korean and English are permitted as “official” languages in Korean schools (Kim, Nam-Kook, 2009). How might Korean educators, officials, and citizens respond to requests for “maintenance” or “developmental” bilingual education, which would aim to develop fluency and literacy in both Korean and students’ non-Korean community languages?30 How might they respond to requests for public funding for ethnically separate schooling? Is such a
29 For the time being, the market has been allowed to stay open (Garcia, 2010).
30 I do not mean to suggest that immigrants necessarily will assign high priority to bilingual education. Historically, immigrants in the United States have wanted their languages respected, but they have given highest priority to their children learning English as rapidly as possible (Olneck, 2009).
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request plausible, for example, from the ethnic Chinese community in Korea?
While the established Chinese community in Korea (not “international” brides, or recent economically motivated workers) is much diminished from its numbers fifty years ago ( Kim, Hui- Jung, 2009), it is nevertheless more than negligible, and numbers around 22,000. Historically, as Kim, Hui-Jung (2009) has noted, the Korean state has taken a “hands off” or laissez-faire stance toward the education of ethnic Chinese students. Such students have attended separate schools funded by either the ethnic Chinese community or the Taiwanese government. But, today the Chinese schools are in dire financial straits, and more and more ethnic Chinese students are attending Korean public schools (ibid.). Even though at present ethnic Chinese reject multiculturalism because it is associated with newcomers who are unfamiliar with Korean ways, and, in some sense, needy (ibid.), it is imaginable that they, too, will advance claims under the banner of a stronger kind of multiculturalism than current policies embody or contemplate.
While demands such as those I have outlined here may not yet have been forcefully asserted, they are incipient and can be expected to rise and grow. This is an expectation that Kim, Nam-Kook (2009) shares, and I agree with his assessment that “[t]he current Korean situation is not fully aware of possible tensions and conflicts that controversial multicultural principles would bring about” (Kim, Nam-Kook, 2009, p. 27).
My discussion here of migrant workers’ families and communities, and of ethnic Chinese communities, supports not only the conclusion that an assimilative version of ethno-cultural incorporation is undesirable and, very likely, impossible, but, also that a “melting pot” version of ethno-cultural incorporation is unlikely, at least in the foreseeable future. Labor market stratification, restrictive immigration and citizenship policies, and the sharp distinctions that native Koreans make between themselves and others (Lee, 2008) will continue to “brighten” ethnic boundaries, rather than to blur them.31
If civic and ethno-cultural modes of incorporation cannot adequately fit Korea, what modes of incorporation can? Another inclusionary mode of incorporation is one that I call “pluralistic- individualistic,” referring to a polity and society of culturally diverse individuals (Olneck, 2006). In this case, individuals are left free to choose the extent to which they will identify with their ethnic group or groups. The extent to which ethnicity matters in their lives is voluntary, not imposed by members of one’s own groups nor by others. Nor are boundaries between members of diverse groups sharp or impenetrable. Because ethnicity is voluntary, and interaction among diverse individuals is prevalent, ethnic cultures are fluid. This is the model that Nathan Glazer (1975) has idealized as the “American Ethnic Pattern.” For Glazer (1975), there is, ideally, a sharp boundary between private spheres of life in which ethnicity is freely expressed, and public spheres, in which common values and common culture govern.
31 On “bright” and “blurred” boundaries, see Alba, 2005.
The Educational Innovation for 21st Century: Sharing Visions and Experiences
The kind of multicultural education that is compatible with the individualistic-pluralistic mode of incorporation is what Cornbleth and Waugh (1995) have termed “additive.” In additive multicultural education, heroes of diverse backgrounds and contributions of members of diverse groups are integrated into the dominant national narrative which the school curriculum constructs. In the American case, this entails, for example, telling the story of ethnically diverse individuals who participated in the American War of Independence, were among the pioneers during the “Westward movement,” or contributed important inventions (Olneck, 1993, 2001). Previously excluded groups are included insofar as they participated in landmark historical events or exemplify dominant national values. In Korea, such dominant values, invoked to justify multiculturalism, include global competitiveness (Kim, Hui-Jung, 2009; Lee, Min-Kyung, 2010).
Additive multicultural education subsumes what Margaret Gibson has termed “Education About Cultural Differences or Cultural Understanding” The purpose of this approach to multicultural education is “to teach students to value cultural diversity, to understand the meaning of the culture concept, and to teach students to value cultural differences” (Gibson, 1976, p. 9; see, also, Sleeter’s, 1995, description of the “Human Relations” approach to multicultural education, which overlaps Gibson’s “Education About Cultural Differences or Cultural Understanding” ).
It is apparently the individualistic-pluralistic mode of incorporation, and “Education About Cultural Differences or Cultural Understanding” that, in principle, enjoy popularity in the Korean media and in officially sanctioned multicultural education. The individualistic paradigm is evident in news accounts with titles like “Multicultural Celebrities Succeed Against Huge Odds” ( Chosun Ilbo, November 26, 2009), and the depiction of diverse individuals happily interacting with one another, as on the homepage of the Korean Association of Multicultural Education (http://kame.or.kr/eng), or in photos of students playing at schools specially designated for multicultural education (Korea Times, May 4, 2010). Public celebration of cultural “sharing” and “exchange,” aimed to promote understanding and warmer relationships between Koreans and non- Korean residents is evident in observance of “Together Day” (Chosun Ilbo, May 21, 2009; Korea.net, 2009), and provincially declared months of cultural exchange, such as in Gyeonggi in May, 2009 (Choson Ilbo, May 12, 2009).
Official education policy, which, as noted above, has shifted toward an emphasis on individual “multicultural” students’ academic and social needs for integration (Lee, Min-Kyung, 2010) is evidence of an individualistic orientation. In policy analyses and official policies, repeated refrains of, and references to, expanding “awareness” and “understanding” of immigrants and of multiethnic conditions among native Koreans express commitments to “Education About Cultural Differences or Cultural Understanding” (Park and Jung, 2009; Cho, 2010; Hong, 2010; Lee, Jae-Boon, 2010).32
32 The tendency of multicultural education in Korea to be characterized by an emphasis on cross-cultural understanding may be traced to the adoption of the term “multicultural education” by educators and academics grounded in the field of education for international understanding (Yang, 2010b).
269
I said above that the “individualistic-pluralistic” mode of incorporation enjoys favor “in principle.” The reason for my caveat is that it is not at all clear how popular the “pluralistic” side of “individualistic-pluralistic” is. As discussed earlier, numerous Korean scholars have concluded that Korean “multiculturalism” is largely assimilative (Hong, 2010; Lee, Jae-Boon, 2010, and Kang, Soon-Won, 2010) . They have reached this conclusion because of the disproportionate investment in teaching the Korean language and Korean ways to the wives and mothers, and children, in “multicultural” or “intermarriage” families, and, despite rhetorical support, the relative paucity of investment in other aspects of multicultural education. This suggests that what I have called above the “ethno-cultural” mode of incorporation predominates in Korean multicultural policy.
However, an individualistic-pluralistic mode of incorporation can be a form of assimilative ethno- cultural nationalism if behavioral and value differences among members of different groups are progressively muted, or the expression of difference is consigned to private realms (Olneck, 2006), while in the public realm, at most, tolerance and respect of differences are expected, but accommodations to difference, and affirmation or recognition of distinctive identities are kept to a minimum. The limitation of Korean multiculturalsim to promoting tolerance has led Mary Lee (2008) to conclude that multiculturalism, as now practiced in Korea, “will continue to minoritize mixed-race people” (p. 81). Tolerable recognition may extend to sporadic occasions when ethnic identities are displayed in “safe” conditions, like festivals, and through traditional, rather than contemporary, culture, e.g., costume, dance, and song. The problem with this form of multiculturalism is that it may well fall short of what is required to enable diverse groups to participate fully in national life on terms of parity and equality.
4. LEGITIMACY OF MULTICULTURALISM
In the United States, demands for multiculturalism emerged from protests against exclusion on the part of involuntary minorities (Ogbu, 1987), especially by African Americans (Sleeter, 1995). In Korea, multiculturalism was initiated by the government, and taken up by organizations which work on behalf of immigrants and migrant workers, but it was not initiated by immigrants, migrants, or ethnic Chinese themselves (Han, 2007; Kim, Hui-Jung, 2009; ). But, if multiculturalism is to advance the cause of equal participation in society it must incorporate and heed the voices of those on behalf of whom the policy is adopted. As Christine Sleeter (1995), one of the pre-eminent scholars of multiculturalism in the United States, has insisted, multiculturalism in education defines “a process of school reform that is based on reciprocal dialog among diverse sociocultural groups and on genuine power sharing among groups” (p. 164).33 In the United States, some of the sharpest conflicts in multicultural education have arisen over the
33 Sleeter has recently presented her views in Korea. See “Multiculturalism, immigration, and schooling: Preparing immigrants for leadership in multicultural societies.,” Ansan International Multicultural Forum, Ansan, South Korea, 2009; “Perspectives on multicultural education.” Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea, 2009; and “Multiculturalism, Globalization, and the Politics of Knowledge,” Conference of the Korean Society of Curriculum Studies. Seoul, South Korea, 2008.
The Educational Innovation for 21st Century: Sharing Visions and Experiences
ways in which white authorities have defined what counts as “multicultural” and what is precluded, and over the exclusion of committed multiculturalists from official bodies constructing and selecting “multicultural” curricula (Ladson-Billings, 1992; Cornbleth and Waugh, 1995 ).
The legitimacy of multiculturalism in Korea is in doubt because, apparently, immigrants and migrant workers have not embraced officially-initiated multicultural projects. They resent and resist activities that are crafted for them, but not with or by them, and which accentuate their difference or otherness. In writing about the 2006 Arirang Festival, Han, Geon-Soo (2007) reports that “[t]he inability to identify representations of migrant cultures that were acceptable to both the Korean government and the migrants led to discussion of who should determine the content of a multicultural society and to which end. Unfamiliar cultures are selected, interpreted, and internalized using Korean society as the standard, often in conflict with migrant residents in Korea who insist on different representations of their cultures” ( p. 44). The band, Stopcrackdown, which has since been deported (Doucette and Prey, 2010), boycotted the Festival because the sponsor demanded that it play only traditional Nepalise music. While officials wanted migrant workers to display only their “traditional” cultures, at least some migrants wanted to “expose their real living conditions in Korea” (ibid., p. 43). Kim, Hui-Jung (2009) comments similarly on migrants’ objections to native Koreans’ control of events like Migrants Arirang festivals, and to being limited to exhibiting exotic cultures.
Looking closely at the broad sweep of multicultural policies and initiatives, Kim, Hui-Jung (2009) has concluded that migrants themselves “are silent, indifferent, or even critical of, this multicultural explosion”( p. 3). She found that migrant activists believe that multiculturalism “actually perpetuates negative classification of migrants as less than full members of the Korean nation-state” (p. ???), so that refusing to embrace it is a kind of resistance to being negatively classified. “Not only are voices of immigrant underrepresented [in public discourse about multiculturalism],” she writes, “their attitudes toward multiculturalism are quite different from ethnically Korean authors...[I]mmigrants (guestworkers, ethnic Chinese, marriage migrants) are either indifferent toward or critical of, the multicultural explosion in Korea” (p. 49). At root, their objection is to being acted upon, and depicted as dependent and lacking agency.34
If multicultural education in schools is as suspect in the minds of diverse communities in Korea as apparently multicultural projects are in other spheres, its success might well founder on the opposition of those whom the general approach is intended to most benefit, as well as on reservations from native-Koreans who question “special” programs for “them.” 35
34 The paternalistic approach may possibly also be illustrated by reference to the Korea Multicultural Congress, which appears from English-language news accounts to have only token representation from non- Korean members of Korean society. I have not been able to determine the extent of migrant or immigrant participation in the Congress beyond the appointment of the “mixed-race” singer Insooni (Kwon, 2010a).
35 The degree to which native Koreans support or, at least, accept multiculturalism is uncertain. Often news accounts of survey results do not report the population sampled, or or the degree of randomness among respondents, so the representativeness of results cannot be assessed. My impression is that the majority of 271
5. CONCLUSION
In this paper, I have tried to explicate what I see as endemic challenges multiculturalism in Korea faces. These I have termed dilemmas of difference, variable terms of inclusion, and legitimacy. Rather than summarize these here, I want to discuss the significance of multicultural education even when desired education outcomes fail to materialize.
If the findings of decades of research in the United States are at all applicable to the Korean case, it is very likely that social science evaluations of multicultural education programs will prove disappointing. Efforts to isolate and demonstrate the impact of education interventions on academic and non-academic “outcomes” have often reached the conclusion of “no significant differences” (Gamoran, Secada, and Marrett, 2003). Whether this conclusion is warranted or not, let us assume it is correct.36 If this proves to be the case with multicultural education in Korea, I want to argue that this in no way would justify the conclusion that multicultural education had “failed” or “made no difference.” Rather, multicultural education is part of an unfinished, profound transformation in how Korean society is conceived, imagined, understood, and created.
As I have pointed out in analyses of various education movements in the United States, education movements contribute to reconfiguring what Joseph Gusfield (1963, 1981) calls the “symbolic order” (see e.g., Olneck, 1989, 1990, 2001). The symbolic order refers to “the realm of rhetoric and ritual in which collective identity is depicted, status recognized, and normative orthodoxy expressed and sanctioned. The power of the symbolic order lies not only in its capacity to sanction a status order by endorsing the norms and qualities of dominant groups but also in its capacity to organize perceptions and fix meanings...It is within the symbolic order that social phenomena are authoritatively defined and interpreted. The power to determine social definitions and interpretations, in turn, entails the power to limit the field of legitimate action and choice” (Olneck, 1989, p. 399). Similarly, Murray Edelman (1971) observes that symbols “organiz[e] a repertory of cognitions into meanings" (p. 34), and that government, through its public pronouncements and policies, ‘shap[es] the cognitions of large numbers of people...It helps create their beliefs about what is proper; their perceptions of what is fact; and their expectations of what is to come” ( p. 7)”
Koreans are increasingly acceptant of non-Koreans living in Korea, but whether they are open to interaction with them on equal terms (e.g., as prospective in-laws, neighbors, or friends), will regard non-Koreans as becoming “Korean,” or whether they support policies of multicultural education is unclear (Chosun Ilbo, September 6, 2007; Chosun Ilbo, August 21, 2007; Chosun Ilbo, June 20, 2008; Cho, 2010; Lee, Tae-Hoon, 2010a). Yoon, Song, and Bae (2008) interpret 2007 Korean General Social Survey data as supporting the tentative conclusion that “South Koreans think civic factors more importantly than ethnic factor as qualifications of Korean national identity” (p. 331). However, their data show that “ethnic” factors are equally important as “civic” factors. More significantly, their data show that “ethnic” factors became more important to respondents between 2003 and 2007 (Table 4, pp. 331-332).
36 For sources reporting modest effects of variations in school resources, or of education interventions, see e.g., Borman and D'Agostino, 1996; Greenwald, Hedges, and Laine, 1996.
The Educational Innovation for 21st Century: Sharing Visions and Experiences
(cited in Olneck, 1989, p. 400). “Doing” multicultural education changes discourse, and provides new “vocabularies of public life” (Wuthnow, 1992) which, while carrying no determinant meanings, and subject to contestation, are integral to changes in social relations and national identity.37
Already, Timothy Lim (2009; 2010) has recognized the importance of the discourse of multiculturalism in Korea. In contrast to Han, Geon-Soo (2007), who dismisses the terms “multicultural society” and “multiculturalism” as “merely...rhetorical concepts or political slogans,” rather than “analytical concepts reflecting the reality of Korean society” (p. 36), Lim (2009, 2010) recognizes that changes in discourse are anything but “mere.” Lim is not naive, and he recognizes that within current debates, there are impulses to reproduce, albeit in alternative forms, existing exclusionary, oppressive, and marginalizing attitudes and practices against non- Korean. Nevertheless, he argues that “the public debate on multiculturalism should be viewed as a first but critical step, one that marks the beginning of a profound discursive shift within Korean society...[S]uch shifts signal the possibility and viability of large-scale social change” (Lim 2010, p. 53; original emphasis). “Discourse,” Lim (2010) observes “provides an often-essential normative and intersubjective foundation of social practices and eventually social transformation” (p. 53). The discourse of multiculturalism, Lim (2010) argues, and I emphatically concur, opens up possibilities for inclusion, whereas prior discourse of Korean homogeneity made possible “near- total exclusion of ‘non-Koreans’ from membership in Korean society” (p. 53). Rather, it has become “distinctly possible” for South Korea to “make the shift from a self-defined ‘mono-racial’ and ‘mono-ethnic’ society to a multicultural or multiethnic one” (Lim, 2009, p. 3).38
37 Like Gusfield, Edelman, and Wuthnow, Pierre Bourdieu has recognized the importance of discourse as a stake in political struggle. Bourdieu writes that “[w]hat is at stake in symbolic struggles is the imposition of the legitimate vision of the social world and its divisions, that is to say, symbolic power as worldmaking power ... the power to impose and to inculcate principles of construction of reality, and particularly to preserve or transform established principles of union and separation, of association and disassociation already at work in the social world such as current classifications in matters of gender, age, ethnicity, region or nation, that is, essentially, power over words used to describe groups or the institutions which describe them’ (Bourdieu, 1987, pp. 13-14, original emphasis; cited in Olneck, 2001, p. 347). Elsewhere Bourdieu has observed that “[t]he categories of perception, the schemata of classification, that is, essentially, the words, the names which construct social reality as much as they express it, are the stake par excellence of political struggle” (Bourdieu, 1989, p. 20; cited in Olneck, 2001, p. 333). Securing “multiculturalism” as the discursive terrain on which the social relations governing a pluralistic Korean society will be debated is an important accomplishment, no matter the results of education evaluations.
38 Lim (2009, 2010) and I are not the only academics to have argued that the discourse of multiculturalism represents an important change in Korea. Mary Lee (2008) has analyzed how multiculturalism has provided new juridical categories, and a language for talking about “mixed race” people in Korea in ways that provide a counter to gender oppression. “With the advent of the multicultural family,” Lee writes, “the relationship between race and patriarchy is currently being remapped by the positive citation of mixed-race people in policy” (p. 75). Kim, Hui-Jung (2009) has also credited multiculturalism for providing novel way of imagining a national community in which “multiple cultural communities can peacefully coexist within the territorial boundaries of the nation-state” (p. 18).
273
While I am in strong agreement with Lim (2009, 2010) concerning the importance of the discourse of multiculturalism for Korean society, I do not agree with him that we would do better to ask “Who belongs to Korean society?” than to ask “Who is Korean?” At a minimum, I believe that we must ask “Who can become Korean?,” I believe that belonging to Korean society ultimately requires being regarded as being Korean. This is because I believe, along with David Miller (1995), that for a nation-state to exist with a common national identity, “[t]here must be a sense that the people belong together by virtue of the characteristics they share” (p. 25). This raises the question of what being “Korean” will come to mean in the absence of reliance on homogeneous ethnicity. Miller (1995) advocates “common membership in a nation where the meaning of membership changes with time” through a process of change that entails a “collective conversation in which many voices can join,” and in which “[n]o voice has a privileged status” (p. 127). Multiculturalism provides the discursive ground on which such a collective conversation can occur.
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Portes, Alejandro, and Min Zhou. “The New Second Generation: Segmented Assimilation and Its Variants.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 530 (1993): 74-96 Sleeter, Christine E. “Curriculum Controversies in Multicultural Education.” In E. Flaxman and A.H. Passow, Changing Populations, Changing Schools: Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education v. 94, pt. 2 (1995), pp. 162-185. Stratton, Jon, and Ien Ang, I. (1998) Multicultural Imagined Communities: cultural difference and national identity in the USA and Australia, in D. Bennett (ed.) Multicultural States: Rethinking Difference and Identity (London: Routledge, 1998). Wuthnow, Robert (ed.), Vocabularies of Public Life : Empirical Essays in Symbolic Structure (London, Routledge, 1992). Wynter, S. (1992) Do Not Call Us ‘Negroes’: How Multicultural Texts Perpetuate Racism (San Francisco: Aspire Books). Yang, Young-Ja. Personal communication. E-mail dated September 7, 2010 (a). Yang, Young-Ja. Personal communication. E-mail dated September 8, 2010 (b). Yoon, In-Jin, Song, Young-Ho, and Bae, Young-Joon, “South Koreans’ Attitudes toward Foreigners, Minorities, and Multiculturalsim.” Paper prepared for presentation at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, August 1-4, 2008.
The Educational Innovation for 21st Century: Sharing Visions and Experiences
Use of Simulation to Measure 21st Century Skills
Harold F. O’Neil and Donna Ayala University of Southern California, USA
At CRESST we use the terms 21st Century Skills and Cognitive Readiness as relatively interchangeable. The term 21st Century Skills is used in the civilian sector and the term Cognitive Readiness is used in the U.S. military sector. The purpose of the study was to access the cognitive readiness (A.K.A. 21st Century Skills) of sailors who would be using the Multi-Mission Team Trainer. The Multi-Mission Team Trainer was adopted as the simulator due to its feasibility. Cognitive readiness is defined as the mental preparation and individual needs to establish and sustain competent performance in the complex and unpredictable environment (e.g. modern military operations) (Fletcher, 2004).
Moreover, the specific definition that was used for this research is that of O’Neil, Perez, and Baker (in preparation). Cognitive readiness denotes the mental preparation for effective changes in response to altered situations in this fast- changing world. The term readiness denotes in the military a preparation or readiness to be effective in mission. We view cognitive readiness through knowledge, skills, and attributes (KSA) lens, i.e., knowledge is domain specific, skills are domain specific and domain independent, communication, decision-making, adaptive problem-solving, adaptability, and situation awareness, but attributes are relatively domain independent, adaptive expertise, creative-thinking, metacognition, and teamwork.
Furthermore, simulations are important in both the civilian and military sectors because they have the advantages of increasing safety, economy, and reducing environmental impact. Schools and organizations, and job training are finding that simulators are effective in reducing educational and training costs (Rifkin, 1994).
O’Neil (in preparation) modified Fletcher’s model. The O’Neil Cognitive Readiness Model provides a comprehensive framework for understanding, training, and evaluating cognitive readiness (O’Neil, Perez, and Lang, in preparation). This paper will focus on four competencies that specifically apply to the navy simulation setting: problem solving, decision making, creativity, and teamwork.
Method(s):
Our study focused on a specific task (surface warfare scenario) to test the cognitive readiness of sailors before and after the Multi- Mission Team Trainer. The design involved measures before and after the Multi-Mission Team Trainer. All students took a set of questionnaires that were given to assess the environment, the feasibility and understandability of the procedures for participants and instructors. The questionnaire included three constructs of cognitive readiness. The three 279
constructs were problem solving, teamwork, and creativity. The number of participants in the study was fifty-four.
In addition, three expert instructors were also given open- ended questions that tested retention and transfer knowledge. The questions specifically pertained to the cumulative surface case scenario
Results:
The measures were divided into two categories domain independent (which included the problem solving, teamwork, and creativity) and domain specific (which included retention and transfer questions). It was hypothesized that post test scores were going to be higher than the pre test scores. The mean for each subscale (pre and post test) showed that they were approximately the same and not significant. The domain independent problem solving measure was composed of five subscales. The subscales were: self-efficacy, elaboration, worry, control strategies, and effort and perseverance. In addition, the relationship between the domain independent problem solving strategies and the retention and transfer questions indicated that there were no significant relationships. The alpha reliability for problem solving ranged from .68 to 93, which indicated that most of the problem solving, domain independent measures were reliable, greater than .70.
The teamwork measure consisted of six subscales. The six subscales were coordination, communication, decision-making, interpersonal, leadership, and adaptability. Two subscales were statistically significant. Teamwork interpersonal and leadership were statistical significant. The measure for interpersonal and leadership subscales were statistically significant. Thus, interpersonal dealt with interacting with other team members and leadership dealt with providing direction for the team (Marshal et. al, 2005) which increased after exposure to the Multi Mission Team Trainer. Unexpectedly, teamwork and decision making was not significant.
The alpha reliability for teamwork consisted of the following: the reliability ranged from .48 to .79. Some of the measures showed to be below .70 and thus need revision. The creativity subscales included flexibility, elaboration, originality, and fluency. All of the subscales with the exception of creativity- elaboration were not statistically significant. Thus creativity-elaboration increased after exposure to the MMTT. Creativity-elaboration meant the abilities to fill in the details (Abedi & Schumacher, 2002), which approach statistical significance (P=.05).
The correlations of all subscales and the transfer question (post-test) ranged from -.34 to .08, showing that fluency (-.29) and flexibility (.-34) were statistically significant but unexpectedly negative. It may be that the specific education focuses on “school solutions” and does not reward fluency and flexibility. The correlation between retention and transfer was .12, showing no statistical significance.
In summary the hypothesis stated that there would be an increase of scores between the pre and post cognitive readiness questionnaire due to simulation intervention. This hypothesis was partially confirmed. The results consisted of teamwork- interpersonal and leadership and creativity-elaboration were statistically significant. Creativity- elaboration was approximately statistically significant, p=.05. Further some cognitive readiness attributes were significant, i.e. self-efficacy and retention (.27), and creativity flexibility (-.29) and fluency (-.34) and retention.
The Educational Innovation for 21st Century: Sharing Visions and Experiences
The relationship with transfer was not unexpected given the data, i.e. the average performance was .096 compared to experts and 24 individuals out of 52 received a score of zero. The presentation will provide a more extensive discussion on how simulation may be used to measure 21st Century Skills.
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Session 17 Special Session: National Quality Framework in England
1. A History of the English Curriculum. Where We Are Now and Where Next? Mark Orrow-Whiting (Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency, UK)
The Educational Innovation for 21st Century: Sharing Visions and Experiences
A History of the English Curriculum. Where We are Now and Where Next?
Mark Orrow-Whiting Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency, UK
1. Introduction
Curriculum is a complex concept. However, a common understanding of the term by policy makers, teachers, parents and others is essential in the current climate of development and reform. If we don't define the curriculum how, for example, how can we talk about using it as a tool for school improvement? This paper looks at the history of the curriculum and considers if differences in understanding have implications for communicating about, engaging with and implementing the curriculum in schools.
2. The history of the National Curriculum
2.1 The curriculum before 1979
Curriculum studies (debating what was to be learnt, how it was to be planned and the relationship between the curriculum as planned and as received) flourished in the 60's and 70's with many pockets of school and Local Authority successes, innovations and development. However, in the latter half of the 70's, with a Labour Government in financial trouble, criticisms about progressive education leading to failing schools and the William Tyndale Affair the Prime Minister, James Callaghan, launched the 'Great Debate' at Ruskin College, Oxford on the school curriculum.
There followed various DES and HMI curriculum initiatives. Callaghan said the curriculum 'paid too little attention to the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic' and that schools were 'out of touch with the fundamental need for Britain to survive economically in a highly competitive world'. Education in schools: a consultative document acknowledged the rapid growth of the "child- centred" approach to teaching, and that Primary schools had a much wider curriculum than used to be considered sufficient. However it also suggested that few teachers had enough experience to make the new approach work and concluded that the challenge was to restore rigour without damaging the benefits of the "child-centred" approach or the breadth of learning.
Many teachers were uncomfortable with the Ruskin speech as they felt that they should be free to decide what should be taught, and how.
2.2 In preparation for 1988 285
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In 1979 Margaret Thatcher came to power and the conservative government continued the 'Great Debate' started by Callaghan.
It published LEA Arrangements for the School Curriculum which required local education authorities to publish their policies on curriculum. This was followed by A Framework for the School Curriculum, A View of the Curriculum, The School Curriculum, The Curriculum from 5 to 16 and many others.
This series of publications was followed by the 1986 Education Act which introduced a ban on political indoctrination (through such subjects as 'peace studies'), increased governors' responsibility for the school curriculum, mandated governors to generate sex education policies within 'the moral framework of the family' and instructed every school to publish curriculum statements (with Heads charged with determining and organising the curriculum).
Other developments in this period included the publication of 3 reports - the Cockcroft Report (1982) Mathematics counts and the Kingman Report (1988) on the teaching of English.
2.3 The Education Reform Act, 1988
This work paved the way for the 1988 Education Reform Act which introduced the first National Curriculum in England - written by panels of subject experts. This was followed by a government commissioned report on Primary education Curriculum Organisation and Classroom Practice in Primary Schools: A discussion paper (1992), which argued that:
z there was evidence of falling standards in aspects of literacy and numeracy; z Piaget's notion of 'learning readiness' was dubious and the progress of primary pupils had been hampered by the influence of questionable dogmas; z the teacher should be an instructor rather than a facilitator; z there should be more use of whole class teaching, more specialist teaching in the upper years of KS2 and more emphasis on National Curriculum subjects; z the National Curriculum should be regularly reviewed to ensure that it made appropriate demands on pupils and that it was manageable.
Other developments in this period included the 1993 Education Act which legally defined special educational needs; the Rumbold Report Starting with Quality which investigated the educational experiences of 3 and 4 year olds; and the 1993 Dearing Report The National Curriculum and Its Assessment - the first review of the National Curriculum. It recommended reducing its content.
2.4 New Labour and the New Century
New Labour won the 1997 election and published Excellence in Schools, proposing at least an hour a day in primary schools on English and maths. In 1999 the Moser Report Improving Literacy and Numeracy: A Fresh Start then set out the National Literacy Strategy and introduced National Learning Targets. 286
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In 2001, Schools - achieving success proposed a more diverse 14-19 curriculum with more early entries for GCSE and more choice of vocational and work-based courses. These formed the basis of the 2002 Education Act. In the same year Excellence and Enjoyment clarified the statutory curriculum requirements and reminded schools of their existing flexibilities; whilst the government's strategy for foreign languages Languages for All: languages for life was published.
Other developments in this period included Tomlinson's 14-19 Curriculum and Qualifications Reform (2004) report recommending replacing GCSEs, A Levels and vocational qualifications with a new single modular diploma including 'functional' subjects and 'wider activities'. The government decided to introduce diplomas for vocational courses whilst also keeping GCSE and A Level exams.
2.5 The last few years of curriculum reform
In 2006 the Government announced a review of the Secondary curriculum and followed this, two years later, with a review of the primary curriculum. Both reviews took, as the starting point, the need for a foundation of aims on which the curriculum should be built. These aims, of developing successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens had been developed after extensive consultation with teachers, headteachers, parents and children. The overall proposals were designed to give schools greater flexibility over what to teach and improve the balance between knowledge and skills through a coherent skills framework.
The proposals were largely supported because large numbers of practitioners, parents, children, employers and others in the education community had been consulted. The proposals built on the QCA Big Picture of the Curriculum - an attempt to bring together all the curriculum initiatives - and encouraged users to think of the curriculum as the entire planned learning experience. This followed ongoing work with the QCA curriculum network of nearly 1000 schools and their curriculum experiences. It also built on international experiences (in New Zealand, Scotland, Finland and elsewhere) as well as other developments (such as Building Learning Power, Philosophy for Children, Opening Minds).
Other developments in this period included the 2006 Education and Inspections Act which required governing bodies to promote well-being and community cohesion; the Independent Primary Review (2006-2009) which stimulated debate about the purpose of primary education; and a shake-up of foreign language teaching (in 2007) with schools being allowed to teach Mandarin and Urdu.
3. Key issues:
Throughout the development of the curriculum there have been several recurring issues:
3.1 What is the purpose and scope of the National Curriculum? What are the aims and values that should underpin it? What does it mean to have a curriculum that is broad and balanced? 287
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The first National Curriculum, in 1988, was heavily content-based with numerous 'Attainment Targets' in each subject. It was not underpinned by aims or values (these were added later – for the 2000 review). The choice of subjects was based on one view and experience of education (that of Kenneth Baker). Later reviews kept the same premise, but attempted to 'slim down' the content of the curriculum. The most recent reviews began by asking questions about the purpose and scope of the curriculum.
3.2 How does a curriculum provide sufficient autonomy, power, encouragement and flexibility for teachers to feel ownership to develop and interpret the curriculum to meet the needs of learners in the local community whilst also ensuring that children receive the same entitlement across the country?
The Conservative government had told teachers what to teach through the introduction of the National Curriculum. New Labour then told teachers how to teach through the 'Literacy Hour' and 'Numeracy Hour' which spelt out teaching methods. Some claimed that this had the effect of increasing the focus on mathematics and English, with other subjects such as geography, history and religious education, being neglected. It also encouraged schools to move away from being curriculum innovators to curriculum deliverers thus reducing teachers' power and desire to localise. More recent curriculum initiatives have recognised local and regional strengths in curriculum development and harnessed these through co-development networks to help create a more flexible National Curriculum which can meet national, and local, demands and remain coherent.
3.3 How can a curriculum ensure that children experience the knowledge that society feels is important whilst also developing the hard (literacy, numeracy and ICT) and soft (personal and emotional, social and learning and thinking) skills that they need to thrive in society?
The introduction of the National Curriculum saw the division of learning into discrete subjects, making integrated project work more difficult and therefore reducing the opportunities for broader skills development.
In addition, early reviews focused on what should be taught without any underpinning rationale, or aims. More recently, primary and secondary reviews have asked what a curriculum should be. Should it only contain that which we as a nation believe to be essential and worthwhile for all our children to learn? Or must it also instil children with a love of learning for its own sake and with an insatiable appetite to go on learning? How far should it teach worthwhile knowledge and skills directly whilst providing opportunities for children to apply and use their knowledge and skills in cross-curricular studies? And what about developing good attitudes and dispositions?
3.4 How do we compare with our international neighbours?
According to Tomlinson, England has a poor record of keeping teenagers at school, low skill levels in numeracy, literacy and ICT and a poor status of vocational qualifications. In the OECD 288
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PISA comparison tables, this view seems to be supported with children in England achieving only average English and mathematics scores in 2006. Perhaps surprisingly, however, those same children achieved significantly higher than average science scores. There are clearly a number of different factors that affect our performance in relation to our international neighbours and the curriculum is one part. However, QCDA's recent survey of 20 INCA countries found that there was no link between a country's curriculum structure (nor the degree of prescription, the quantity of tests nor the school starting age) and its performance in international comparison tables.
3.5 What is the relationship between content of the curriculum, the pedagogy used in delivering it and the assessment of its success through children's outcomes?
In the earliest incarnations the curriculum, pedagogy and assessment were seen as separate. Initially, by defining the curriculum as a series of extensive volumes of subject content it was thought that children would improve. Soon afterward, however, assessments were introduced to test this improvement (be that through end of key stage tests or the introduction of the Office for Standards in Education). After a further period the National Strategies were introduced when it was realised that the 'how' was as important as the 'what'. More recently, with the development of the 'Big Picture of the Curriculum', based around the 3 questions of "What are we trying to achieve?", "How do we organise learning to achieve those aims?" and "How do we know that we have met those aims?" there has been more coherence in the relationship between content, pedagogy and assessment and therefore better understanding by practitioners of the purpose of change.
3.6 How does a curriculum grow, develop and change in response to a changing world and changing understandings of how children learn?
The curriculum cannot remain static. It must develop continuously to reflect the changing needs of society, the economy and our changing understanding of how children learn and how their brains develop. It is therefore expected that the curriculum will be reviewed on a periodic basis (and indeed this has happened). However, the school workforce needs to constantly reconsider its approach to curriculum in the light of this information (and the changing nature of the cohort in front of them) and so the curriculum needs to be written in such a way that it provides sufficient flexibility for teachers to adapt it without the need for a full scale curriculum review.
3.7 How do we ensure the widest possible audience engages with curriculum design and development to ensure there is buy-in and therefore effective implementation?
In previous reforms, change was often imposed on the workforce leading to a lack of understanding, a lack of ownership and ultimately a low or lacklustre take up. As our understanding of curriculum reform has grown, so we have developed a more sophisticated model of engagement with stakeholders – and not just with the school workforce but also employers, academics, the wider education community, parents and even children themselves. This has led to improved understanding of change and therefore an increased likelihood of success.
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4. Conclusions:
As can be seen from this brief history, the curriculum has attempted to change to meet the demands of the time. Certainly perceptions of the curriculum have changed over this time. In a recent sample of educators involved in curriculum implementation, and education specialists in government, national organisations and academia, for example, four clear themes emerged:
z The majority viewed the curriculum as planned learning in and out of the classroom – so there seems to be some convergence about the definition of the curriculum z There was agreement that curriculum was much broader than the national curriculum – which was only part of the picture – and that it should be based on a clear set of aims z There was a strong sense that schools should take ownership of the national curriculum and, working with the community of teachers, parents, children and employers, should adapt it to suit their local contexts. z There was a perception that more needed to be done to help teachers to broaden their definition of the curriculum
The most recent reviews of the national curriculum have begun with a set of aims and underlying principles. They have taken time to gather evidence from a broad range of stakeholders. And they have debated and discussed the links between content, pedagogy and assessment. This has resulted in broader support for the reviews, more coherence and flexibility in the outcomes and a perception that the reforms would have greater impact. Clearly, these conclusions have significant implications for current, and future, curriculum reform, communication and implementation.
References
Alexander, R., Rose, J. and Woodhead, C (1992) Curriculum Organisation and Classroom Practice in Primary Schools: A discussion paper Alexander et al. (2010) The Cambridge Primary Review (available at http://www.primaryreview.org.uk/index.html) Baker, K. (1993) A lesson for us all: the making of the National Curriculum Boyle, B. and Bragg, J. (2007) What a waste of money (available at http://www.fm- kp.si/zalozba/ISBN/978-961-6573-65-8/037-052.pdf) DfES (2003) Excellence and Enjoyment: a strategy for primary schools (available at http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/node/85063) Gillard, D. (2007) Education in England: a brief history (available at www.educationengland.org.uk/history) HMI (1982) The Curriculum from 5 to 16 Curriculum Matters no. 2 Kelly A. V. (2009) The curriculum: Theory and Practice Orrow-Whiting, M (2009) What is the Curriculum? QCDA (2007) What young people want from the curriculum (available at http://www.qcda.gov.uk/curriculum/434.aspx)
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QCDA (2008) Interim reports to the Independent review of the primary curriculum (currently unavailable) QCDA (2009) Primary curriculum review - Curriculum reform consultation report to the DCSF (available at http://publications.education.gov.uk/default.aspx?PageFunction=productdetails&PageMod e=publications&ProductId=QCDA/09/4355) QCDA (2009) A big picture of the curriculum Rose, J (2008) Independent Review of the Primary Curriculum: Final report (available at http://publications.education.gov.uk/default.aspx?PageFunction=productdetails&PageMod e=publications&ProductId=DCSF-00499-2009) Rose, J (2008) What is the purpose of the national curriculum (currently unavailable) Sheerman, B. (2008) The House of Commons select committee report on the National Curriculum (available at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmchilsch/344/344i.pdf)
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Session 18 The Future of Work and Creative Talent
1. How Ideas Shape Innovation and Reshape Education Lynn Ilon (Seoul National University, Korea)
2. The Future of World of Work and New Paradigm of Career Development for the Youth Misug Jin (KRIVET, Korea)
The Educational Innovation for 21st Century: Sharing Visions and Experiences
How Ideas Shape Innovation and Reshape Education
Lynn Ilon Seoul National University, Korea
Abstract
This paper outlines the emerging theories which underlay the incorporation of innovation into substantially different conceptualizations of education – into learning societies. School represents only a part of the total learning that must take place during a lifetime. Workplaces, for many, will become places of learning. Thus, education will need to focus on learning-to-learn skills. As social and industrial problems become more complex, learning to innovate within a collaborative environment will become an important skill. Incorporating innovation within education demonstrates how it changes the entire nature of how education is structured, produced, and even defined. This transformation is far from happenstance. This paper outlines the framework of an emerging global learning system which is defined by learning linkages and moves away from infrastructure and institutions. The paper describes four major shifts that underlie the dynamic links of education and economy: movement from an economic-driven system to one of dynamic learning; movement from education as “capital” to learning as innovation and exploration; movement from industrial production to human development; and, movement from schools to lifelong learning societies.
The framework espoused by Porter famous work in 1990 (Porter, 1990) posited that it national competitiveness spanned far beyond natural resources and was, in fact, a product of the human ability to innovate within a specific context, that determined national wealth. Even this relatively new idea has been eclipsed by the notion such innovation crosses borders, industries and sectors. It requires collaboration, learning networks and cooperation across and between industries as a means of staying competitive – of being able to innovate successfully. Yet, while the notion is becoming more widespread (Tsai, 2002; Nalebuff, & Brandenburger, 1993; Loebecke, Van Fenema, & Powell, 1999), industrial researchers have yet to explore much of the implications for education. Since much of this literature is coming from the industrial sector, it also neglects the real “value- added” to societies of social innovations. Such innovations, at the present time, have a difficult time being valued within a market framework, but their contribution to societies can be measured and is large.
This article demonstrates that innovation emphasis leads to a substantial change in the way that educational systems will be structured, funded and how learning will be delivered. To understand the longer-term consequences of this trend, one must begin with an understanding of the new thinking of how value is created within societies. That new value is thought to be shaped by ideas – innovations. The emerging theory, still in its infancy within the field of economics, has far-reaching implications for education. The paper begins by linking new emerging literature and trends between innovation and learning. 295
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1. Innovation and Learning
The most profound change in education occurs as a response to new need within industries and countries. Schooling has patterned industry in that it requires mastery of skills and rewards individual high achievers. But the new importance of innovation reshapes these parameters of industry and so will, in turn, reshape education. It requires collaboration and cooperation. It requires diverse thinkers who can work together. Also, economic gains from innovation are not all industrial in nature.
“Coopetition,” a relatively new word in the English language, captures the notion that competition requires cooperation. That trend implies that the means of staying competitive is, at least in part, done through collaboration with other firms (Luo, 2007). Patel & Pavitt (1994), among others, link this trend to a new emphasis on innovation systems which they underlie the ability of businesses to innovate. Innovation, they suggest, requires national systems which support innovation and involve “learning activities that promote and manage technical change” (p. 78). Manley (2002) ties this in with educational institutions by emphasizing that “[i]nstitutions are the 'rules of the game' which govern how knowledge moves between system participants and the way in which subsequent learning and innovation takes place” (p. 98). She lists both education and training institutions as central to the institutional framework that supports the learning and innovation potential of a country. Yet, the substance, shape, and delivery of education is not dealt with throughout this literature. Patel and Pavitt (1994) show that diversity among countries is not uniformly helpful in coopetition. When the human resource potential of countries is too divergent, the country with the lower level of education and learning can drag down the innovation potential of their counterparts in a more learning-oriented setting. Although this literature is important and begins to frame critical issues – a systems approach, institutional policies, human resources and the importance of learning – it does not touch on the changes this will foster in education.
Other literature is beginning to frame the importance of another set of innovations – social innovations. Among the many issues faced today which challenge productivity, human potential and social well-being, are social issues. These include, at a global level, disease, environment, security, disaster response, gender rights and civic participation. Within any given locality, equally compelling issues affect lives fundamentally – often far more than the small market participation of local areas. If innovation and ideas shape the ability of society’s to improve their lives, then it is likely that social innovations will begin to rise in importance and will, thus, impact our expectations of education.
An innovation which helps to control the spread of malaria is one example of how social innovations can impact a society’s well-being and improve lives. Every year, about one million people die of malaria. Yet, its spread and control are entirely in human hands. In order for malaria to spread, a mosquito must bite an infected person. It passes on the parasite when an uninfected person is subsequently bitten. When existing malaria cases are reduced, so are future cases. For the cost of less than five US dollars, a net can protect a group of children or spouses from these mosquito bites which generally occur during sleeping hours. Yet, each year in Africa, 296
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some 300 to 500 million cases of malaria occur each year ("Malaria: What is Malaria?," 2009). Malaria can be treated with drugs and largely prevented with mosquito nets, but the method of choice for prevention and reduction of malaria by organizations worldwide is education – learning communities. The United Nations cites education as their primary strategy in reducing malaria in Africa ("Insecticide-treated mosquito nets,"). The MACEPA Learning Community was established by a global health organization to exchange information among African countries on how to educate communities and use local knowledge to get mosquito nets in wider, more consistent use ("MACEPA Learning Community," 2009). Doctors Without Borders uses its own learning community to spread the word on how effective malaria prevention strategies (Carroll, 2003).
Another example of an innovation that adds value to lives without going through a market is the “recipe” for rehydration of small children who have diarrhea. Until the medical research was done, such children routinely died if they couldn’t be transported to a hospital and given intravenous drips to rehydrate their bodied. Today, a simple solution of salt, sugar, potassium (found in raw sugar or bananas and other fruits) and water saves, by one estimation, over a million lives a year (Rehydrate.org, 2009). Although the idea was a result of substantial research, 39 once discovered, it could be used throughout the world to save lives. The idea itself has value for improving lives.
The formula for rehydration is freely available and, unlike a good or service, can be used simultaneously by anyone. A frying pan, in contrast, may make some people’s live better, but any given frying pan can only be used by one cook at a time. This difference – between goods (and services) that are inherently privately owned and controlled and those are inherently usable across a wide spectrum of people without any one person’s use detracting from another is the difference that economist generally use to divide public from private goods. The fact that ideas can generally be distributed without cost and can be used to improve the lives of many simultaneously makes ideas not only a primary source of innovations in our lives, but also is inherently public good – not a market good.
Industrial notions of innovation are beginning to bleed into areas that appeared “social” in nature only a few years ago – equity, collaboration, learning, policy and systems. Social innovation is rising in importance and demonstrating it substantial impact on the quality of lives. Education will respond to these changes not just because money and value are embedded in them, but because the define and shape the parameters of a linked, global and dynamic world which we share. We can accept these new realities, but in order to be participants in directing them and, as educators, to take responsibility for the education response, we need to know the forces behind these systemic, linked changes.
39 “THE discovery that sodium transport and glucose transport are coupled in the small intestine, so that glucose accelerates absorption of solute and water, was potentially the most important medical advance this century.” (Lancet, 1978)
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2. An Economic Revolution
In 1992 Paul Romer addressed the World Bank’s Annual Conference on Development Economics and introduced a new theory of economic growth (Romer, 1993)40. The theory posited that “ideas” were the fuel of economic growth. The idea of vaccines had allowed human populations to eliminate polio and other devastating diseases. The idea of electricity had spawned a revolution in how products were moved and produced. Typewriters, internal combustion engines, computers, rehydration salts and water pumps radically changed the ways that people live and their quality of life (Bresnahan & Trajtenberg, 1995). The theory challenges some of the primary tenants of older theories of economic growth. It moved the focus from “what is known” to “what can be learned.” It questioned the notion that the world grows primarily by consuming resources (natural resources and labor) to a notion that the world primarily grows by creating resources (new ideas). It challenged the notion that education best results in “human capital” owned by individuals to the notion that education best results in “ideas” that are often created by people working together, across borders and often with fluid rules of ownership.
Romer (1993) followed the early work of Solow (1957). He speculated that the ability of humans to think of new ideas and change their world based on those ideas went far beyond human capital theory.
Ultimately, all increases in standards of living can be traced to discoveries of more valuable arrangements for the things in the earth’s crust and atmosphere . . . No amount of savings and investment, no policy of macroeconomic fine-tuning, no set of tax and spending incentives can generate sustained economic growth unless it is accompanied by the countless large and small discoveries that are required to create more value from a fixed set of natural resources (Romer 1993, p. 345).
The speculation was based on particular characteristics of knowledge. First, knowledge can be used cheaply, even freely, once it is developed. This stands in contrast to physical goods which require raw materials or processed goods to create. When materials are required to produce a good, then its production depends upon using, ultimately, resources that become increasingly scarce. Over time, the demand for scarce resources, raises their price and makes their availability and stability decrease – a rather poor way to build a stable, happy society. Knowledge, on the other hand, once developed, takes few or no resources to be used again and again.
The centerpiece of New Growth Theory is the role knowledge plays in making growth possible. Knowledge includes everything we know about the world, from the basic laws of physics, to the blueprint for a microprocessor, to how to sew a shirt or paint a portrait. Our definition should be
40 Although he had posed the idea some years earlier and first formally published it in 1990 (Romer, 1990). See Warsh (2006) for the history of the development of the theory. 298
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very broad including not just the high tech, but also the seemingly routine. (Cortright, 2001, p. 4) An important difference between ideas as economic goods and human capital is that ideas are generally “non-excludable.” That is, it is easy to distribute ideas and hard to keep others from using them. Workers, however, can only labor at one thing at a time – usually for someone who pays them or an activity that sustains them. Also, ideas are “non-rival.” That is, my community’s of the idea of recycling garbage does not exclude your community from adopting the same idea or even improving on it. The concept behind human capital theory was that it was invested in, one human being at a time. The educated person “owned” their knowledge, could sell it (for higher wages) and could choose when and how to use it. Ideas can be owned, but they are difficult to own – through patents and copyrights. But most ideas are adopted freely and become widespread if they have general utility. Even copyrighted and patented knowledge has a difficult time being owned and controlled in today’s digital world although, at least nominally, it is possible to have some control.
These differences are not trivial to the field of economics nor to how we understand and organize our world. The formulas by which economists have traditionally tested theories do not apply when a good is created freely – does not generally have the characteristics of scarcity. The underlying assumptions of free markets – that supply and demand will take care of distribution and growth (the invisible hand of economics) – may not apply to ideas. If ideas are expensive to create (say, pharmaceuticals or better batteries for cleaners vehicles) but cheap to adapt once they are formed, then some kind of public intervention is required in order to balance between assuring that there are incentive for expensive research but also that society can benefit from the widespread use of the ideas once they are fully developed. Market mechanisms, in other words, cannot be left to themselves to regulate production and distribution.
The theory is not yet fully articulated41. But the broad brushstrokes of the theory are being widely used to develop strategies, explain growth and guide sectors (see for example, Archibugi & Lundvall, 2003; Cortright, 2001; Kahin & Foray, 2006; Kim, 1999; Kennedy & Li, 2008). The theory of innovation economics is far-reaching, fundamentally changes how we understand economics and repositions the field of education.
The theory is new enough that it is still in the process of acquiring a consistent name.
Fortunately within the last decade a new theory and narrative of economic growth grounded in innovation has emerged. Known by a range of terms – “new institutional economics,” “new growth economics,” “evolutionary economics,” “neo-Schumpeterian economics,” or just plain “innovation economics”: – collectively, this new economics reformulates the traditional economic growth model so that knowledge, technology, entrepreneurship, and innovation and are now positioned at the center... (Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, 2009, p. 2)
41 In fact, it remains controversial. As Warsh (2006) concludes, there is a general acceptance that knowledge plays a central role in development but traditional neo-classical theorists are unlikely to fully embrace the theory because it challenges their primary methods and tenants. Mirowski (2009) does an excellent job of explaining this impass. 299
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Lundvall has also used the term “learning economy” to characterize the phenomenon (Lundvall & Johnson, 1994; Archibugi & Lundvall, 2001). Initially, the theory was called the “endogenous growth model” within the field of economics because it included innovation as a key component of an economy (endogenous) rather than external to that economy or irrelevantly located. Many now use the term “knowledge economy” synonymously with this theory. But, for purposes of this article, the theory will be called “innovation economics.”
3. The Interplay of Economics and Education
The Economics profession is in a quandary with what to do with “ideas” as a good that produces value. The problem is not that economists cannot conceive of an “idea” as a good. Such concepts have been proposed for some time – generally traced to the work of Robert Solow (Solow, 1957). The problem is that the characteristics of ideas are so fundamentally different from goods or services where resources are consumed with each unit of production (land, labor, machinery, materials) and ideas which can save resources (witness the power of cell phones versus yesterday’s mainframe computers; solar energy or recycling of garbage) and, once developed, are free to spread and can be used by lots of people at the same time. Philip Mirowski’s exception review of these epistemological, methodological and theoretical challenges concludes, after reviewing several aspects of information as an economic good that “one must relinquish any commitment to the neoclassical orthodoxy.” (Mirowski, 2009). He goes on to say:
“Everyone seems to believe that knowledge is the key to economic success, and yet our most developed schools of economic thought are mired in the most frightful muddles when it comes to modeling knowledge in an economic setting.” (Mirowski, 2009)
Joseph Cortright (and many others) have similar observations. When economist tried to model the economic characteristics of ideas, “the equations blew up, leaving the greater part of mathematical economics in wreckage” (Cortright, 2001, page 4). These mathematical problems are indeed vexing for the Economics profession but might be potentially solvable if they did not lead, inevitably, to the conflicts with assumptions underlying neo-classical theory that Mirowski (2009) refers to. So, even as the world accepts the notion of a “knowledge economy,” and the importance of innovation, it struggles to find a cohesive theory of how it works to improve lives. Agreement is reached only that learning is importantly throughout life and that “schooling” is now secondary to this lifelong learning thrust.
Ideas, however, are not inherently owned and controlled by individuals even if such ideas derive from an individual. Witness music today. Although it derives from the creativity of an individual or group, once invented, it can be used simultaneously by many people without cost of replication and one person’s use does not detract from the pleasure of another person’s use. The value produced through of these ideas, while sometimes captured as wages, profits or government
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influence, is largely with the contribution they have for improving the lives of people. The value of education is moving away from the private ownership of knowledge42 towards the public value of building on ideas.
This does not mean, however, that investment in human capital (by individuals, families, communities or nations) not longer has returns. Fortunately, it does such that individuals and collectives will still choose to make the investment and increase educational levels. What is does mean is that simply holding the information no longer is the highest value that education can be put to. Rather, information (or knowledge) needs to be used creativity in order for a society to reap the benefits of its creative resource. This substantially changes the way we think about education. Keith Sawyer outlines the older vision and new vision of learning:
Knowledege is a collection of facts about the world and procedures for how to solve problems…. The goal of schooling is to get these facts and procedures into the student’s head… This traditional vision of schooling is known as instructionism. Instructionism prepared students for the industrialized economy. (Sawyer, 2009b) page 1
Comparison of efficiency and innovation goals of education Education as Efficiency Education as Innovation
Student master facts and skills Students use core competencies to build new ideas and analyze existing situations
Students follow instructions Students work collaboratively toward a goal of discovery or invention
Teachers provide materials Teacher organize learning environment
Lessons are planned Learning processes are defined and tentative starting point is provided
Curriculum changes infrequently Learning direction changes occur frequently and naturally in response to what is learned and what is known
Outcomes are measured through tests Student groups and teachers are engaged in constant feedback on progress with knowledge shared each direction
Students have no say in setting learning Students help redefine learning environment constantly as processes or goals they find successes and constraints
Fear of failure on tests or for school Fear cripples learning environment, limits options and dominates schooling environment detracts from learning process. Fear in minimized
42 Success A mid-point if measured in development through of teststhis notion was the idea Success of knowledge is measured manage throughment or contributionknowledge creation to learning (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995). Knowledge value was stillprocess assumed and to groupbe privately success held in and creating the goal new of ideas and corporations was to extract that privately held knowledgeexploring and make existing it more widely frameworks. available for the corporation (tacit versus explicity knowledge).
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He goes on to explain the types of learning that will need to take place in an innovation economy including the abilities to work creatively to build new ideas, to critically evaluate what is read, and to take responsibility for learning throughout their lifetime (Sawyer, 2009b). Page 2. Table 2 contrasts the goals of education under an industrial model (efficiency) and under an innovation model (creativity). The table demonstrates that the entire approach to learning is changing. Regardless of the impetus behind the changes, few educators would deny that the resultant learning goals are substantially improved over that of today – more creative thinking, evaluating and integrating information and collective design of new ideas. One fundamental requirement will be that learners “understand the process of dialogue through which knowledge is created, and they examine the logic of an argument critically” (Sawyer, 2009b) page 4. These types of educational approaches have been long advocated by prominent educators such as Paulo Freire (Mayo, 1999). Sawyer has edited a book out of Cambridge University on what is called “The New Learning Science” which speak to this improved method of learning and to which is links directly to innovation (Sawyer, 2009a). He emphasizes the need for students to work collectively and among people who do not have the same background as themselves. Diverse thinkers understand complex problems better and bring more creative ideas to the learning process. This stands in contrast to the thinking of educators during the industrial era when the needs of the economy (rote memorization, homogeneous thinkers, prescribed procedures) were in conflict with at least some of the social goals of education which derived from dialogue, reflection, collective design, creativity and exploration.
Yet, there is a temptation to view the future through the eyes of the previous logic:
Making the case, at the outset of the industrial revolution, that agriculture would become a marginal activity was probably impossible. Even at the beginning of the 21st century our agrarian past still lies heavily on our thinking, school calendar, nursery rhymes and political map. It is therefore not surprising that it is difficult to get our institutions and imaginations beyond the much more recent memories of an economy and society dominated by mass-production and mass- consumption.(OECD, 2003)
It is not clear that educators and economists are on their way to a happy marriage. What is clear is that the economics behind some of the worst educational practices that supported industrial production are giving way to educational practices that support creativity. What is clear is that the worst practices of educational systems today may be incompatible with the needs of future societies and an innovation economy. OECD assesses these oldered educational practices as one of Korea’s primary weakness in meeting an innovation economy:
High school curricula place too much emphasis on preparation for the national university entrance exam and rely heavily on rote learning. This leaves little room for creative thinking and the emergence of an exploratory spirit. Page 14 (OECD, 2009). Producing students who know a lot of information, have integrated knowledge but who do not know how to build new ideas, work collectively, learn from dialogue and know how to use learning skills throughout their lives may have worked in an industrial economy, but needs to be rethought as innovation becomes a primary means of improving the lives of people – a major 302
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source of value.
4. “Value-added” moves to the public arena
Nobel prize winning economist Amartya Sen maintains that one of the bases of social welfare43 is the ability of the society to create new knowledge around the complex problems it faces. The theory was developed around the structures of the poorest societies and long before it there was a capability of broad-scale creation and dissemination of knowledge through technology-aided networks. Nevertheless, he maintained, that if a society could build collective understandings of complex problems and then take action on that knowledge, its overall welfare would be increased. “May of the more exacting problems of the contemporary word – varying from famine prevention to environmental preservation – actually call for value formation through public discussion” (Sen, 1995, p. 18).
Sen’s work has focused on the need to develop human capabilities – “on creating human potential and showing how this leads to greater well-being in society and within the household. He has viewed the development of human capabilities as the real end of economic growth and the real goal of economics” (Pressman & Summerfield, 2000, p.102). Given that collective knowledge creation is viewed as central to social well-being, far from traditional views of economic productivity, a central question emerges. Will the new focus on learning and collective “value creation” (in Sen’s words), in turn, change the way in which societies are structured. Could an innovation economy lead to a social transformation?
While Sen’s work focused on how particularly poor nations gained initial ground in economic growth and emerged from the bottom of international economies, his work provides some insight in how innovation may lead to economic growth vis-à-vis ideas and innovation. He knew that people can produce new ideas, given the right environment. But, how do ideas generate actual economic value?
It has entirely different economic characteristics that make it cheap, easy to have large impact, and broadly available. Unlike raw materials, machinery, electricity and other utilities, transportation or even labor, knowledge is relatively free to reproduce. In other words, once it exists, it can be used again and again and again with little or no cost. When electricity was discovered, that knowledge could be applied in Einstein’s lab, in metropolitan New York City and in rural Mali. There is a cost of infrastructure but no cost for the knowledge. When the research was completed on a re-hydration formula which mitigated deadly dehydration due to diarrhea, the formula could be applied everywhere for no cost and save thousands of lives. Although many new ideas can and are patented or copyrighted and may have a cost associated with their use, in fact, the reproduction of that idea is essentially free. The cost is in the development of the idea.
43 “Social welfare” is the term economists use to mean that well-being of a society. It derives from the notion of maximizing total society happiness. Since not all “happiness” factors can be measured, the classic notion is that the “happiest” society is the one where wealth has been maximized. Thus, old growth theory is built on the notion of maximizing economic growth. 303
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The second characteristic that sets knowledge apart from other economic goods is its ability to be used by many people/ communities/ societies at the same time without degrading the quality of the usage (Cortight, 2001; Warsh, 2007) If electricity, jet planes or watermelons are in demand by too many people at the very same time, either someone will go without, the price will rise until fewer people want it or the quality/quantity available will be degraded. Knowledge, on the other hand, can be duplicated again and again and used simultaneously by many, perhaps millions of people, and still have the same quality as its first use. The knowledge contained in this article can be shared by hundreds or thousands of people without any one of them getting a poorer quality of article. The same is true for music, software, medical advice, development technologies, understandings about our universe.
For economics, these two characteristics are difficult to handle – both theoretically and mathematically.44 Most notably, it sets it apart from Human Capital Theory which is based on the notion that knowledge is embodied in individuals – its use controlled by the people who “own” the human capital45. It does mean that knowledge, once developed, acts more like a public good and a private good. That is, it can and should be broadly shared for the good of a society.
The conundrum lies in how it is developed for the development is often expensive. In the current economic system, development is generally rewarded with “ownership” (copyrights and patents) – at least for a time. This allows for an economic incentive for development. But that system is breaking down as knowledge, by definition, can be digitized and its spread is fast and easy. If there are wide-spread benefits then it behooves a government to find a balance between development incentives and public benefits of knowledge use.
This government “balance” is one of the most important features of innovation economics. Unlike industrial-age economics (or knowledge economy applications), the notion of social benefits lies with government policies rather than private profit-motives. The “invisible hand” that is assumed to guide the economy towards its optimally socially-beneficial point (i.e. minimum government interventions) gives way to guidance from government policy. Even development of knowledge is not (economically as well as socially) best left to the private sector. Take sustainable, green growth. In the huge, broad spectrum of where to put creative thinking energies, green technologies could be a high priority, for example. The researchers, communities, school children and learning networks that could be directed toward knowledge’s ever broadening range of topics, could choose to direct their energies toward this green, sustainability. Government policies are likely to define the incentives that guide knowledge growth.
Thus, a final important characteristics of innovation economics is that, while it is a system, much
44 Thus, its traditional exclusion from growth theory (exogeneity). See Mirowski (2009), Cortright (2001) and Warsh (2007).
45 An clear distinction between “knowledge economy” approaches and the theory of “innovation economics.” 304
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like that of neo-classical, industrial economics, it is a system that is best shaped by government policies46. The system characteristics of innovation economics means that it develops from a complex set of linkages and networks that mutually reinforce eachother and build systemic strength and resilience. That is, it is not going away any time soon. But systems can be shaped by policies and innovation economics, given its public goods aspects, can and should be shaped (through policies and incentives) by collectives of people (governments, world bodies, social movements) (Lundvall & Borras, 1997; Cortright, 2001).
5. Schooling Infrastructure Gives Way to Learning Societies
The fact that the system of economics influences education was not something that policy makers or educators got to vote on. Rather, it was enforced by legions of parents worldwide who are directly their money, energy and influence toward what they view as the lifetime welfare of their children. Later, the children direct their own resources with the same goal in mind. Such parents and students (along with policy makers and educators as parents and, formerly, as students) pressure politicians, create public debates and make independent decisions on educational expenditures that are in line with their view of the future economy and their child’s life chances within that economy.
This impetus is a central link in a growing global system of learning which is shaping itself to encompass all ages, all professions, all communities and all regions. This system of learning is as diverse as a rural teacher hired through international donor funds, a father looking up a recipe on the internet for a healthy meal or a bio-technology researcher sharing ideas with a researcher across the globe whom he has never met in person.
As schools, universities, learning networks and informal groups increasingly become the source of new ideas (not just the consumer of existing information), then education, broadly conceived and define more in terms of lifelong learning rather than schools, not only is a primary producer of social value, the work of these institutions actually expands the resource base for society. New ideas become the means by which societies improve their lives whether it is through the idea of a new way to decrease our use of fossil fuels or whether it assists a community to conceptualize of learning systems that help it grow.
Two aspects of innovation economics have particular meaning for education. First, the emphasis on learning means that education becomes much more than simply a producer of “human capital.” It is no longer a producer of an industrial input, it is, rather, the very essence of how a society learns. Second, what we know about learning means that culture and, in particular, cultural diversity moves from a “constraint” of human capital production to a resource for creative learning.
46 Amartya Sen would argue that such policy needs to be shaped by collective ethnics and value formation. Thus, innovation economics begins to dovetail with his theory of social welfare more seamlessly than it links with neo-classical economic theories of social welfare (Sen, 1995). 305
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The progression away from knowledge (what you know) to learning (your ability to think creatively) moves innovation economics away from the knowledge economy view that knowledge is an instrument of production. Rather, the ability to learn and create, while contributing to productivity, has broad implications for social change. For example, it may well mean a different view toward diverse thinkers – including people who put their logic together in a culturally specific way. Even within a work environment, mixing people with diverse thinking is now viewed as central to the creative process47 (Finegold, 2006; Mohrman, Cohen & Mohrman, 1997). Kim (1997) attributes much of Korea’s rise to a global competitor in innovation to special cultural characteristics. “How have Koreans acquired knowledge so quickly… [and] why have Koreans worked so hard?” (Kim, 1997, p. 59). His work attributes the first to the education system and the second to sociocultural factors
Lin (2007) emphasizes that notions of a knowledge economy are still mired in the thinking of industrial production. “Both the Austrian analysis of the knowledge subject and the mainstream exposition of the knowledge economy have been grounded on the concept of market competition.” He proposes, instead, that diverse cultural views are the base from which social innovations occur. “Indigenous knowledge is… particularly abundant in the knowledge of the natural environment and is critically important to the sustainable use of resources and balanced development.” (Lin, 2007, p. 584).
Sawyer (2006) and Florida (2002) take this a step further and assert that the innovation economy is really about the rise of creativity. Yet, it is rarely linked to changes in education. Sawyer, a learning psychologist in the field of education, views the changes implied by an innovation economy as far broader than productivity of industry. “The most pressing problems that face our world are large in scale and complex in nature, far out of the realm of any one person to resolve— poverty, pollution, hunger, disease, armed conflict. The creativity that matters in today’s world is the creativity of teams and organizations with the capabilities to make a difference (Sawyer, 2006, pg. 42). His leap, in a single paragraph from the needs of industry for innovation to the social implications of a broad spectrum of people who are diverse and good learners demonstrates a crucial link between education and innovation. The innovation process, albeit being spurred by industrial and national desires for growth, require sets of skills that have broad applicability for social progress – often aimed at the reduction in use of scarce resources and in cooperative knowledge building.
The question, then, needs to be asked whether a theory that, in and of itself, challenges basic tenants of neo-classical growth theory, does not lead to changes in the way society organizes itself. If Sawyer is to be believed, creative thinking by a broad spectrum of people (not just a few “knowledge workers”) is necessary to tackle large-scale global problems. From an economic perspective, tackling these types of problems leads to large-scale value creation. What, then, leads? The economy or education (learning)?
47 Finegold also emphasizes the need for diversity of curriculum, higher education institutions and higher education students and faculty. 306
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6. Conclusion
Education serves an increasingly central function in today’s societies. It is the main vehicle by which the society advances itself and through which members seek their own growth. As such, it is part of a larger social system that is national, regional and global in nature. As the larger world changes in and around the individual and the country, education changes in response. These changes in education, in turn, change the way that individuals and groups interact with their society and environment and, thus, education shapes its own environment. It reshapes the very context in which is exists and adapts.
The emergence of ideas as a primary force in advancing societies and defining social progress is a fundamental shift in the larger social context. Although the notion that ideas shape social progress is not entirely new, the emergence of knowledge as a primary economic force moved the notion of ideas (innovations) from the backwaters of thinking to the forefront. (Hence, the first name for the theory was “endogenous” growth theory – implying that ideas could no longer be “outside” of growth theories).
Initial thinking about the role of ideas has centered around how industry competes and creates value. The fact that there is no final consensus on the theory that underlies innovations is because industry requires an understanding of how to (practically) move forward even before economists can agree on how innovation and knowledge work in an economy. Hence, it is useful to follow industry’s thinking as it foretells likely parameters of a final theory. It emphasizes, diverse thinking, collective and collaborative work, networks of knowledge and learning rather than education. In effect, industry is reshaping how we think of education – from schooling to lifelong learning.
But industry’s view is, necessarily, narrow. It defines only what is needed in today’s competitive environment. The contextual changes implied by a focus on ideas goes much deeper and the bare outlines are beginning to be revealed. The challenges within the Economic’s profession imply that productivity itself is being redefined. The nearly universally accepted measure of a society’s standing is gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. In a world where ideas shape social progress, GDP has meaning only as a measure of “old industrialization,” not “new knowledge productivity.” OECD’s attempt to find an alternative measure, despite the challenges and nearly impossibility of such a measure as currently conceived, demonstrates how central this issue is to wealthier countries.
Sen’s work concerning development appeared first as a challenge to existing development theory. His singular insight into where the theoretical problems lay, provided legitimacy to his views even when it threatened conventional economic theory. Despite his Nobel prize award for this work, his ideas have, up until recently, only impacted the subfield of Development Economics. But the rise of ideas as a primary economic force creates the need to rethink social progress – away from conventional notion of counting industrial value-added (GDP). In so doing, his theory that it is the capability of humans to create and recreate their environments that informs new growth theory.
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How this capability works vis-à-vis education is the subject being tackled by a new strain of learning psychology work – new learning theory. That theory stems from a careful read of the economic trends and begins to delineate how groups, learning networks, diversity and collaboration shape our ability (our capability) to create, build new ideas and innovate.
Finally, the very notion of innovation is being rethought. Once largely the province of industry – specifically technology – its impact on a social world is being redefined. Since people own their ability to create and innovate they can and will carry forward this ability into their personal, social, spiritual, and political worlds even as they (sometimes temporarily) apply their abilities for employers. This shifts the focus from industry to the society because, using the older views of human capital theory, employers “bought” their labor forces’ productivity and it largely stayed within the work environment. The central focus of neo-classical economics, “value added” now applies across human lives and society. The ability of ideas and human capability to reshape society covers the full spectrum of human existence – from birth to death, from poor to rich, from social to economic, from personal to collective. And so, its initial emphasis apparently emerging within industrial circles, is only the leading edge.
While schooling systems take modest steps to adapt to new technology, to incorporate knowledge networks such as the internet and to build new structures using privatized incentives, the world of learning is being fundamentally reshaped around them. People are learning to learn, build new understandings through vast global, social, community and cross-disciplinary networks. Industry is rethinking learning in terms of collaboration and new knowledge is being generated before even the first author can develop a new book outline. Children are teaching adults and professors are scrambling to learn faster than their students. New online classes reshape the structures of schooling even as they reshape how knowledge is delivered and, more importantly, how it is created. Vast, sophisticated computer systems learn from our very online inputs and reshape knowledge faster than we can request it by typing into a keyboard.
Ideas shape innovation. Education is reshaped. Now, the challenge for the education profession is, how does education reshape society?
References
Archibugi, D. and Lundvall, B.A. (2003) The Globalizing Learning Economy. Oxford University Press. Bresnahan, T. and Trajtenberg, M. (October 1995) General Purpose Technologies "Engines of Growth?" . NBER Working Paper No. W4148. National Bureau of Economic Research. Carroll, R. (2003, 18 December 2003). How rice farming and refugees brought malaria to vulnerable corner of Burundi. Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/. Cortright, J. (2001) “New Growth Theory, Technology and Learning: A Practitioner’s Guide.” Impressa Inc.: Portland, Oregon. Dave, R. (1976). Foundations of Lifelong Education. UNESCO Institute for Education. Finegold, D. (2006) “The Role of Education and Training Systems in Innovation.” Chapter 17 in Jerald Hage and Marius Meeus (eds.) Innovation, Science and Institutional Change. 308
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Oxford University Press pp. 391-412. Florida, R. (2002). The rise of the creative class and how it’s transforming work, life, community and everyday life. New York: BasicBooks. Hunnam, E. and Buchmann, C. (2003). The Consequences of Global Educational Expansion. Occasional Paper Series. Cambridge, Massachusetts. American Academy of Arts and Sciences. http://www.amacad.org. Kahin, B. and Foray. D. (2006) Advancing Knowledge and the Knowledge Economy . MIT Press. Kennedy, K. and Li, Z. (2008) Changing Role of Schools in Asian Societies : Schools for the Knowledge Society. London: Routledge. Kim, L (1997) Imitation to Innovation: The Dynamics of Korea's Technological Learning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business Press. Kim, L. (1999) Learning and Innovation in Economic Development. Edward Elgar Publishing. Lancet (1978) “Water with Sugar and Salt.” The Lancet. 312(8084): 300-301. Lateef, S. (1995) The Evolving Role of the World Bank: The First Half Century. Washington, D.C. The World Bank. http://www-wds.worldbank.org. Lin, B. C. (2007) “A new vision of the knowledge economy. “ Journal of Economic Surveys. 21( 3): 553-584. Loebecke, C. Van Fenema, P.C. and Powell, P. (1999) “Co-opetition and knowledge transfer.” Data Base for Advances in Information Systems. 30(2): 14 – 25. DOI: http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/383371.383373 Lundvall, B. A. and Johnson, B. (1994) “The Learning Economy.” Journal of Industry Studies, 2(1): 23-42. Mayo, P. ( 1999). Gramsci, Freire, and Adult Education: Possibilities for Transformative Action. New York: ZED Books. MACEPA Learning Community. (2009). Retrieved 20 August 2009, 2009, from http://www.macepalearningcommunity.org/whatwedo.php. Malaria: What is Malaria? (2009). Retrieved 20 August 2009, 2009, from http://www.cdc.gov/Malaria/faq.htm. Manley, K. (2002) The Systems Approach to Innovation Studies. Australia Journal of Information Systems. 9(2):94-102. Mirowski, P. (2009) “Why There is (as Yet) no Such Thing as an Economics of Knowledge,” in The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Economics. Harold Kincaid and Don Ross (eds.). Oxford University Press. Pp. 99-156. Mohrman, S., Cohen, S. and Mohrman, A. (1997) Designing Team-Based Organizations. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. Nalebuff, B.J. and Brandenburger, A.M. (1993) "Co-opetition: Competitive and cooperative business strategies for the digital economy", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 25 Iss: 6, pp.28 - 35 OECD. (2003). Schools and the Future: OECD Forum on Schooling for Tomorrow. Paper presented at the International Futures Programme. OECD. (2009). OECD Reviews of Innovation Policy: Korea 2009. Geneva: OECD. Patel, P. and Pavitt, K. (1994) 'National Innovation Systems: Why They Are Important, And How They Might Be Measured And Compared', Economics of Innovation and New Technology, 3(1): 77-95. Porter, M. (1990) The Competitive Advantage of Nations. New York: Simon & Schuster. Pressman, S. and Summerfield, G. (2000) “The Economic Contributions of Amartya Sen.” 309
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Review of Political Economy, 12(1):89-113. Rehydrate.org. (2009). Rehydration Project. Retrieved 4 October, 2009, from http://rehydrate.org/ors/# Romer, P. (1993). “Two strategies for economic development: using ideas and producing ideas.” Proceedings of the World Bank Annual conference On Development Economics, 1992. http://www-wds.worldbank.org/. Sawyer, K. (2006) “Introduction: The New Sciences of Learning.” Chapter 1 in R. Keith Sawyer (ed.) The Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences. Cambridge University Press. Sawyer, K. (2009a). The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Sawyer, K. (2009b). Introduction. In Keith Sawyer (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences (pp. 1-16). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Sen, A. (1995) “Rationality and Social Choice.” American Economic Review. 85(1):1-24. Solow, R. S. (1957). “Technical Change and the Aggregate Production Function.” Review of Economics and Statistics 39(3): 312-20. Tsai, W. (2002) “Social Structure of ‘Coopetition’ within a Multiunit Organization: Coordination, Competition, and Intraorganizational Knowledge Sharing”. Organization Science. 13(2):179-190. Warsh, D. (2007) Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations: A Story of Economic Discovery. W.W. Norton & Co.
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The Future of World of Work and New Paradigm of Career Development for the Youth
Misug JIN Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training, Korea
1. The Future of the world of work
1.1 Jobless Growth
Since industrial revolution, the world economy has achieved rapid growth and number of jobs has increased rapidly. Among countries, Korea has one of the fast growing economies. In 21st century, we are facing jobless growth
z Advanced scientific knowledge and technology increased the productivity rapidly. z Increased productivity requires fewer people than before z IT, robots, etc, have taken away jobs from people. z Along with educational expansion, mismatch of labor force supply and demand has been increased and the educated unemployment has increased too.
1.2 Diversification of the occupation: New and emerging occupation
Global society has experienced the change,
z Demographic change(low birth late and the aging population), z Globalization(global mobility of people, capital, products), z Advancement of science and technology z Greening economy.
Along with socio-economic and environmental change, number of new and emerging occupation will be increased. * number of occupation, 3,300 in 1980, 18,000 in 2004(Korea); 13,800 in 1950, 22,500 in 1980(USA)
1.3 ‘Change is constant’ and ‘Atypical is typical’
No longer life-time job but life-time employment. People will have to change their jobs and occupations several times during their life time. The work activity may be very diverse in terms of work pattern, places, work method, etc. There will be no typical work activity. And also, the serial life pattern based on life stage, learning->working->leisure/volunteer will be no longer 311
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predominant. Instead, people should adopt the integrative, flexible matching among life activities.
2. Traditional Career Development Paradigm
2.1 Person-Environment Fit (PEF) Paradigm
The typical and widely adopted model for career development has been the PEF paradigm. Holland’s RIASEC model is the best example of PEF. PEF tries to classify people and the occupation and to try match the two based on the similarity or closeness. In this paradigm, career development is to focus on figuring out the characteristics of people and occupations and on the matching and the decision making process.
2.2 The Limit of the paradigm
The traditional paradigm is based on the optimistic perspective on the relationship between economic growth and job increase. It assumes that there are enough jobs which people can choose. It is also based on the status quo assumption. That is, it depends based on the analysis on the existing occupation and simple career path. It does not pay attention to the dynamics of the world of work. Thus, the traditional paradigm can help only a limited group of people who can have resources or ability to choose.
3. New paradigm for Career Development Paradigm : Creative Career Development
Jobless and dynamic world of work needs a new paradigm for career development. The new paradigm should help people to create their own occupations or career path or seek alternative careers. We can call the new paradigm as “Creative Career Development (CCD)”, as it focuses on creating new alternatives instead of fitting people into existing framework. .
CCD emphasizes ’.
3.1 Creativity and Entrepreneurship
Creative career development is focus on creating and thus it naturally meets with entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship includes not only simple sets of skills and knowledge to open stores or company. More importantly, it refers to the generic skills and attitude, perspective on the work life. Entrepreneurship includes
- creativity, passion, resilience, the perspective on the work and future - change and future sensitive attitude - positive and self-directed perspective toward work life - practical knowledge on business 312
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Develop student’s awareness and positive attitude toward change and taking risks by touching their mind and providing opportunities to attempt new things
For entrepreneurship and creative career, creativity is the most important competence. Creativity comes from critical thinking, working along with diverse people, positive self concept.
3.2 Alternative career paths
Creative career development supports to explore different and alternative career path or occupations as it tries to broaden the world of work. Alternative career path is working in the third sector such as NGO or social enterprise. Social enterprise is important alternative work place.
3.3 Core competency
To cope with the changing world, the youth must have strong core competency such communication skills, interpersonal skills, problem solving, self-control, global competency. With strong core competency, the youth will correspond with the changing society creatively and effectively.
3.4 The social and cultural support system for creative career development
In order to develop a creative and alternative career, it is necessary to have social and cultural support system,
- to allow new attempt and the failure - to provide new opportunity to the failed - social safety-net to the creative youth
Government must implement the positive policy of creating jobs.
Faced with jobless growth, government must put the first priority on creating jobs. Government should implement the employment policy to encourage creative careers, such as entrepreneurship venture capital, support for social enterprises.
For career development which reflects the real world of work, cooperation of the world of work is necessary. Especially for CCD, the cooperation becomes more important as it deals with the present and future change and the world of work provide the changes vividly.
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Session 19 Country Reports on Educational Reform Policy: Singapore and Japan
1. Teacher Appraisal in Singapore Schools Lee Ong Kim (National Institute of Education, Singapore)
2. Wither Japanese Schooling? Neo-liberal Education Reform and its Impacts on Teaching, Learning and Educational Opportunity Hidenori Fujita (Rikkyo University, Japan)
The Educational Innovation for 21st Century: Sharing Visions and Experiences
Teacher Appraisal in Singapore Schools
Lee Ong Kim National Institute of Education, Singapore
Abstract
All schools have goals to achieve. The appraisal of teachers is only one small part of the larger Performance Management System that can be developed by schools or a system of schools in order to facilitate an effective delivery of their set targets each year, recognize strengths, identify areas that need improvement, and take measures to develop individuals professionally so as to achieve incremental improvement after each cycle of the implementation of the performance management. To be effective, a performance management system requires clear definitions of roles and functions for each level of staff (e.g. teachers, senior teachers, heads of departments, vice-principals, and principals). Well defined roles provide clarity of functions and should at the same time be sufficiently flexible to allow for ad hoc activities and programs that can benefit students and the school, to be implemented without role ambiguities. Another important component of the performance management system would be the collection of statements of competencies needed to fulfill the roles at the level of excellence. Statements of competencies enable each job holder within the school to gauge their relative standing in terms of existing skills and the required skills. The third component in the system is the work reviews that will very often take place twice a year, once in the middle of the year as a mid-term review to determine of work progress, modifications that may be necessary on work targets, and the setting of new targets if required. The fourth and very important component is the professional development of staff through the identification of areas for improvement, and the negotiation between job holder and the reporting officers, as to what kind of professional development program that the job holder may attend when. This paper describes how Singapore schools implement their performance management systems as a developmental tool, where appraisals are not seen only as work evaluations alone, but more as an opportunity for incremental improvement and capacity building of the job holder through proper identification of the required professional development programs, which incrementally works towards school excellence, along with rewards for good performance, with each cycle of the implementation of the performance management system.
1. Introduction
Teacher appraisal is a subset of the larger Performance Management System for any organization and should be implemented within such a context rather than in isolation. The context of most performance management systems are the provision of incentives including monetary rewards and promotional opportunities, and professional development that is continual. That is, it is also 317
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focused on the developmental aspect. The development is that of the teachers knowledge, skills and attitudes. Incremental improvements over time raise the performance level of the school and leads it towards excellence.
2. Teacher Performance Appraisal
It is a well known fact that one direct and important factor that affects student outcomes is the quality of teaching. Hence for a system of teacher appraisal to be helpful it should provide opportunities for professional development and individual growth. This will not only help to maintain standards but also improve such standards incrementally with each cycle of the teacher appraisal process. It makes the school an organization that practices lifelong learning. The process involves the setting of targets negotiated between the teacher and the reporting officer who may be the head of department, the vice principal or the principal. Generally, the reporting officer will be the person that is the immediate superior of the teacher who may be the subject head. The subject heads in turn has the head of department as the reporting officers and the reporting officers for the department heads will be the vice-principal. For systems where there are too few teachers under each subject head, it may be more efficient to have all the teachers in a given department, which is normally categorized by subject, to report directly to the department head. For appraisals, the subject heads can help give inputs on the teacher's performance to the department heads.
How does the capacity building and professional development come about? This is to be seen within the full cycle of the performance management system. At the end of each school year, teachers and reporting officers plan for their work in the coming year. They start with a discussion and negotiation between job-holder and reporting officer, as to what their targets are that are to be achieved. This is step 1 in figure 1. These targets are of course to be within the context of the teacher's expected roles and functions which the performance management system will have to have to specify clearly. Shinkfield and Stufflebeam (1995) teacher evaluation is defined as the “systematic assessment of the teacher’s performance and/or qualifications in relation to the teacher’s defined professional role” and hence the importance of having such roles clearly laid out and documented. For teachers who have just reported for work in their first year, this target setting meeting ends here, with the agreement on targets. Generally this agreement is documented in a form will have to be signed by both the teacher and the reporting officer, using a specified form where the job scope (work tasks) are stated and along with it the achievement targets for the coming year. Figure 2 shows and example of this form.
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[Figure 1] A cycle of the Performance Management System
3. Major components of a Performance management System
Helm (2007) stated that “thinking of performance management as a complete system that encompasses goal alignment, education, communication, and continuous feedback can lead to recognition of top performers” (p. 49) and that this recognition is important to the organization. In order to effectively complete the cycle shown in Figure 1, the holistic package of the performance management should minimally consist of the following important components:
1. A well-defined organizational structure of the organization; 2. A description of roles and functions of each level of job-holder within the organization; 3. A set of competencies required to fulfill the roles effectively; 4. An appraisal system complete with the required forms and implementation plan; 5. A plan for professional development opportunities.
3.1 Teacher Career Tracks and Organizational Structure
An example of a defined organizational structure is the three-track career path for teachers as shown in Figure 2. The figure shows that a beginning teacher may climb up the ranks remaining a classroom teacher after each promotion, all the way to being a Master Teacher Grade 2. There are always teachers who may not wish to be a teacher leader in school or the district office or the divisions of the education ministry. This teaching track would be what they would choose to remain on. On the other hand, teachers may also wish to be teacher leaders, moving on to the leadership track at some point during their career and continue to be promoted on the leadership 319
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track. They may rise all the way to be the Director-General of Education. These promotional opportunities fit well into the reward structure of the appraisal system.
SENIOR SPECIALIST TEACHING TRACK LEADERSHIP TRACK TRACK
Director-General of Education
Director and above Chief Specialist
Principal/Dep Director/ Principal Specialist Cluster Supt.
Principal Lead Specialist
Master Teacher 2 Vice Principal Senior Specialist 2
Master Teacher 1 Head of Department Senior Specialist 1
Senior Teacher Subject Head / Level Head
Teacher
Teacher
Teacher
Beginning Teacher
[Figure 2] Example of a Three-Track Career Path for Teachers
Similarly, there are teachers who may wish to be specialists in what they do. For example, they may wish to specialize in educational research, or testing and measurement, or a guidance counselor. These teachers may switch to the specialist track doing their work at the specific division of the ministry that deals with the specialized work that they are doing. Teachers who switch tracks should not be forced to stay on that track until they retire. There may be instances when they may wish to change back to another track and if that is for exigency of service, it would be prudent to allow such a change.
3.2 Clearly Defined Roles and Functions
Every job-holder at every level of the hierarchy in the structure should have their roles and duties clearly stated so that both the job-holder and the reporting officer are clear on the expectations. 320
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Such roles and functions are defined for every domain of work that the job-holder is to be involved in. The domains are such that they cover areas that will develop the child holistically. These include, development of the child’s cognitive domain, affective domain (including behavioral, social and citizenship values), the physical domain, domain of school improvement including those affected by collaborations amongst staff and with parents, and the domain of self- development such as taking responsibility for one’s own professional development. Clarity of roles and functions makes it easier to communicate across different levels of staff, and also for the setting of targets during the negotiation between reporting officers and job-holders. Expectations become shared-understandings. Similarly, such role clarity facilitates the appraisal process during work reviews.
3.3 Competencies
To perform well on a specified role, appropriate competencies are required. These competencies are also specified for each of the levels and categories of job-holders. It can be made clearer if the competencies are domain specific. The list of competencies also provide the job-holder with an understanding of areas to focus on when they plan their professional development programs.
3.4 The Appraisal System and Work Review Process
The work review process is part of a three-phase cycle of the performance management system. The performance management system starts with the performance planning where the key result areas, and targets for achievement in the coming year are discussed and agreed upon. It should be remembered that goal setting must follow certain priorities and not to be the detailing of every minor target so that they are documented for the sake of having them documented that the process becomes a daunting task that teachers do not look forward to (see Poster and Poster, 1993). Along with it, competencies and the development plans are also discussed and finalized. This is also in the context of an appraisal of the performance in the previous year, so that the professional development plans for the job holder are also discussed. In Singapore, each teacher is given 100 hours a year for professional development programs. This includes in-house workshops that may be organized from time to time, courses and conference that they may attend, as well as group discussions conducted formally between the teachers and their heads of department or with an invited guest for specific areas of expertise.
Once the targets are set and agreed upon, teachers receive continuous coaching from their seniors who make observations of their work (both formally and informally), reinforce their behavior, provide feedback up to the time of the mid-year review. After the mid-year review, the coaching continues up to the time for end-of-year review, when the teachers are appraised for their performance for the year, and the appropriate rewards or otherwise, are decided upon. At his juncture, the professional development programs are discussed again and the cycle for the year is done.
Figure 2 is an example of a form that may be used to show the job description of the teacher (roles) being specified, and the targets set of the coming year, aligned with the school’s own targets,
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vision and mission. The agreement between job-holder and reporting officer is formalized by signing the form at the spaces provided.
SERVICE PARTICULARS OF JOB-HOLDER Appraisal for the Period of: 02 Jan - 31 Dec 2009 Name of Job-holder: I. D. Number: Age: Current Job Title: Teacher Current Substantive Grade:
Job Description:
1. Teaching Duties:
2. Research Duties:
3. Service Duties:
Performance Planning (State targets to achieve for next year):
1. 2. 3.
Teacher’s Agreement:
Having discussed with my reporting officer, I hereby agree to the targets set out above and I declare my commitment to do my best to achieve them and to go beyond them wherever possible.
______Teacher’s signature and date Reporting Officer’s Agreement:
Having discussed with the teacher, I hereby agree that the targets set out above are realistic, in line with the school’s Annual Work Plan, and are sufficient to move the school towards excellence. I accept the teacher’s declaration of commitment.
______Name Designation Grade Signature and date [Figure 3] Example of agreement Form for Targets
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Figure 3 shows an example of items in an appraisal form on one of the domains the teacher is being evaluated on. The form of course continues with all the other domains being covered. When the mean scores have been computed, the reporting officer will have to decide on the final grade for the teacher.
Key Competency Domain: Development of students’ cognitive domain Please indicate your rating by circling the number on the scale and entering the score in the space provided Specific No Rating at Competencies Rating at Descriptors End of Mid-Year Year 1. Leads, assists, and 1. Ability way exceeds teaching level. 1 1 guides assistant 2. Has strong skills in influencing teachers to enhance their 2 2 headmasters and knowledge for teaching at this level. teachers in 3. Just meets requirements. 3 3 enhancing their knowledge of 4. Has some difficulties in leading teachers to enhance 4 4 subject content knowledge. within the 5. Unable to lead teachers in developing content knowledge 5 5 curriculum. Score: 2. Leads, assists, and 1. Highly skillful in leading teachers to be innovative and 1 1 guides assistant creative. headmasters and 2. Leads teachers in being creative and innovative. 2 2 teachers develop 3. Encourages teachers to use different teaching approaches. 3 3 innovative teaching approaches to suit 4. Rarely encourages teachers to use different teaching 4 4 students’ needs. approaches. 5. Unable to influence teachers to develop and try out different 5 5 teaching approaches Score:
[Figure 4] Example of items in a Rating Scale for Appraisal.
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Mean Grade Description Score 1.0 – 1.5 A • The Headmaster or Senior Headmaster has performed beyond what is expected in all areas of his or her work, and has contributed positively over and above his or her responsibilities and works with a quality that is above his or her grade level. • The Headmaster or Senior Headmaster has the highest and most positive personal qualities such as attitude towards work, and is exemplary to others. • The Headmaster or Senior Headmaster has an excellent understanding of his or her task in leading, assisting and developing teachers under his or her care and excellent support for the District Head. • The Headmaster or Senior Headmaster constantly and actively seeks to improve on his or her leadership skills and teaching skills.
1.6 – 2.5 B • The Headmaster or Senior Headmaster has done beyond what is expected in most areas of his or her work and can achieve at levels that are above his or her own grade level. • The Headmaster or Senior Headmaster shows very positive personal qualities with positive attitude towards work and develops teachers to be the same. • Supports the Senior Headmaster and/or the District Head effectively. • The Headmaster or Senior Headmaster seeks to improve in his or her teaching skills and leads teachers by example.
2.6 – 3.5 C • The Headmaster or Senior Headmaster has performed well as expected and has made more positive contributions than shortcomings. • The Headmaster or Senior Headmaster possesses positive personal qualities and contribute the normal work expected of him or her. • Supports the Senior Headmaster and/or District Head as expected. • The Headmaster or Senior Headmaster tries to improve himself or herself when there are opportunities and encourages staff to do the same.
3.6 – 4.5 D • The Headmaster or Senior Headmaster has performed somewhat below what is expected of him or her but clearly has the capacity to do better. • The Headmaster or Senior Headmaster is not too positive about his or her work and is contented with the minimum effort and average work quality and shows little support for the Senior Headmaster and/or the District Head. • The Headmaster or Senior Headmaster shows very little interest in improving his or her leadership skills and teaching skills.
4.6 – 5.0 E • The Headmaster or Senior Headmaster is not able to perform what is expected of him or her at his or her grade level. • The Headmaster or Senior Headmaster exhibits a negative attitude towards his or her work and hardly supports the Senior Headmaster and/or the District Head. • The Headmaster or Senior Headmaster has no interest in making improvements in anything that he or she does and has no interest in helping to develop teachers.
[Figure 5] Example of Descriptors of Grades
3.5 Professional Development Opportunities
The discussions at each work review stage already give the job-holder an idea of what kind of professional development program to go for. The job-holder can either identify on his or her own where such programs may be offered and makes plans to attend it, or reporting officers or higher superiors may help identify such programs for them.
4. Effective Performance Management Systems
There are important characteristics of performance management systems that help make them effective. The performance management should help meet the professional needs of the teachers. It is about facilitating achievement, improvement and success of teachers, equipping teachers with the necessary skills, knowledge and competencies to accomplish their targets. This invariable brings about school improvement. Appraisal of teachers can help stake holders make more informed decisions that will in turn help improve the school’s performance. The system should be able to:
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4.1 Show teachers the value and importance of their work:
The focus of the whole system is ultimately the students. The performance management system will make it increasingly clear to teachers how their performance affect students outcomes, and hence realising the importance of the role they play. Indeed what teachers do is nothing less that moulding the future of their nations through moulding the hearts and minds of the students.
4.2 Reduce uncertainty about expected performance achievements through providing clarity of expectations, requirements and responsibilities:
Since roles and functions are laid out and the expectations of achievements each year are discussed and negotiated, such clarity is built even before the beginning of the performance of the tasks. It establishes a shared understanding between reporting officers and their teachers on what needs to be achieved.
4.3 Motivate, guide and help teachers to fulfill their targets and achieve outstanding performance:
The performance management system expects the more experienced teachers to continuously assist younger or newer teachers to perform better. rather than being competitive, there will be better teamwork. The mid-term review is also meant for the reporting officers to give further pointers. Teachers will be consistently reminding themselves of the rewards that will come along with good performance these rewards do provide strong extrinsic motivation. Montemayor (1996) reported that for businesses, if the firm’s business strategy is aligned to the reward structure, then the firm’s effectiveness increases. Intrinsically, it cannot be denied that there are teachers who will derive satisfaction from seeing the good outcomes of their efforts. The evaluation of teachers’ performance is to recognize their strengths, achievements and contributions as well as help them understand and overcome their weaknesses and be assisted in their areas for improvement.
4.4 Develop on-going communication and improved coaching relationships between reporting officers and teachers:
The fostering of collaboration amongst teachers is encouraged through the coaching provided by the more experienced teachers to their younger colleagues.
4.5 Promote climate and culture of outstanding individual, department and school achievement.
Substantive goals are set for professional development. The professional development efforts are done continuously within the school through coaching by the more experienced to the newer teachers. Teachers are also expected to take responsibility for their own development by identifying what kinds of programs they would like to attend that can help them improve certain skills they need to improve on. They are encouraged to self-reflect and plenty of opportunities are provide for this. 325
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5. Ranking Exercise
Teachers in every school is ranked from top in the school to the last. The ranking begins with the department. If there are 12 teachers in the department, they will be ranked from 1 – 12. All the other departments heads will have to do the same for their teachers. The heads of departments will then have ranking meeting with the principal and vice-principal to collectively decide the rank order of all teachers school-wide. Finally, the school principals within a cluster of schools will meet with the cluster superintendent to decide either to endorse or change the rankings given by the school, in case the superintendent has information that may or may not support such rank positions of the teachers. If necessary, the superintendent may also veto the rank and grade given to a teacher.
6. Estimated Potential and Promotions
Every teacher in a school will be given a certain estimated potential as to what position he or she will likely be able to attain by the time the teacher reaches the age of 45. For example, if the first reporting officer estimates that the teacher can potentially become a principal of a certain grade by the age of 45, then we say that his estimated potential is principal of that grade. The teacher’s promotion will have rules and these are affected by his or her estimated potential. For example, the teacher cannot be promoted to a position higher that the estimated potential unless the estimated potential has earlier been revised with strong justifications. The system also does not allow teachers graded lower that “C” to be promoted within the next two years.
References
Helm, C., Holladay, C. L., & Tortorella, F. R. (2007). The performance management system: Applying and evaluating a pay-for-performance Initiative. Journal of Healthcare Management 52(1). Montemayor, E. (1996), Congruence between pay policy and competitive strategy in high performing firms. Journal of Management 22(6) pp. 889-908. Poster, C. D. & Poster, D. (1993). Teacher appraisal. London: Routledge. Shinkfield, A. J. & Stuflebeam, D. L. (1995). Teacher evaluation: Guide to effective practice. Massechusetts: Kluwer.
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Wither Japanese Schooling? Neo-liberal Education Reform and its Impacts on Teaching, Learning and Educational Opportunity
Hidenori Fujita Rikkyo University, Japan
Educational reform for excellence, efficiency and accountability has been a global concern since the 1980s. This reform movement is largely initiated by reform-oriented political leaders and mass media, and dominated by neo-liberal ideology and ideas of new public management (NPM), restructuring many aspects of schooling: the system of school management and educational administration, the evaluation schemes of schools, teaching and student performance, the culture of teaching and learning, and the structure of educational opportunity and its associated mode of socio-cultural reproduction.
Ironically in Japan, various survey data and observations show or suggest that some of those major reforms are not successful. It is argued that those reforms brought about negative consequences and will undermine the foundations of good features and functioning of Japanese schooling and teaching.
Some of the critical issues are centered on the following interrelated reform measures: (1) styles of teaching and learning and ability formation; (2) educational evaluation scheme and the roles/functions of schooling; and (3) educational opportunity and the mechanism of socio- educational reproduction.
(1) Since the 1990s, new approach to teaching and learning as opposed to the classical one has been induced, and expanded along with the cut down of school lesson hours and the expansion of ability grouping practices in Japan. This reform seems to be responsible for the decline of academic performance and unconscious neglect of low school achievers.
(2) Outcome-based evaluation of schools and student performance as well as meritocratic teacher evaluation and rewarding scheme has been advocated and introduced, under the emerging socio- cultural circumstances that invent a variety of new words with “power” as a suffix that indicate some kind of competence and advocate developing those competences for success and survival in business, job market and social life. This reform can be argued critically as distorting the good and sound culture of teaching, learning and schooling in general, and in particular, damaging and undermining the comprehensive nature of schooling, holistic approach to teaching and caring and the collaborative culture of teaching and learning. Furthermore, it tends to elevate academic performance scale to the superior status as if it is omnipotent, and thereby to make academic performance superior and all other activities and efforts less valuable.
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(3) With such a catch phrase of “Choice, Competition, solidarity and effective schooling,” school choice plan has been introduced at elementary and lower secondary education level in some urban cities including most of the Tokyo Metropolitan wards. This reform, above mentioned outcome- based education policy and national assessment test for all 6graders and 9th graders that started in 2007 combine to have intensified a concerns about test scores among media, local politicians, parents and the public and thereby the competition for test scores and ranking among localities. It has also intensified again the concerns and competition for the success in entrance examination for senior high schools among junior high schools, being accompanied with various deteriorating phenomena and moral hazard.
In the above mentioned context, Japanese education now stands at a critical crossroad. Which direction should we choose to go?
(1) Regarding the curriculum and teaching/learning style, should we move further toward new approach or continue to practice classical approach, or take a mixed approach and seek to develop some appropriate combination for enhancing the quality of teaching and learning. The current author’s answer to this question is the last one. Both approaches are rational and important, and we should seek developing an appropriate combination. It is partly because classical approach is more effective for basic training, especially in the subject areas in which the systematic knowledge accumulation is important and for those students whose cultural and learning experiences have not been rich. On the other hand, new approach is often more effective in some subject areas in which advanced or creative learning is expected to take place and for those students whose cultural and learning experiences are rich enough to cope with it. [See Tables 1 ～ 4]
Comparison between Classical and New Approaches to Teaching and Learning Classical Approach (objectivism) New Approach (constructivism) Functional Literacy Generative ability Discipline-based knowledge Generic skills and competences Subject-based knowledge Critical thinking ability Knowledge accumulation Creative thinking ability Mastery Learning Exploratory Learning Transmission and accumulation Child-centered participatory learning Repetition and Memorization Interdisciplinary learning Top-scoring Nations on International Achievement Tests: PISA 2006 (15-year-olds) and TIMSS2007 (8th-graders) PISA/Math 1 Taiwan, 2 Finland, 3 Hong Kong, 4 Korea, 5 Netherlands, 6 Switzerland, 7 Canada, 8 Macao, 9 Lichtenstein, 10 Japan, 11 New Zealand PISA/Science 1 Finland, 2 Hong Kong, 3 Canada, 4 Taiwan, 5 Estonia, 6 Japan, 7 New Zealand, 8 Australia, 9 Netherlands, 10 Lichtenstein, 11 Korea TIMSS/Math 1 Taiwan, 2 Korea, 3 Singapore, 4 Hong Kong, 5 Japan, 6 Hungary, 7 England, 8 Russia, 9 United States, 10 Lithuania, 11 Czech Republic TIMSS/Science 1 Singapore, 2 Taiwan, 3 Japan, 4 Korea, 5 England, 6 Hungary 328
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7 Czech Republic, 8 Slovenia, 9 Hong Kong, 10 Russia, 11 United States
Correlation between Scores on Type A and Type B Tests (Ministry of Education National Test) Japanese Mathematics 2007 2008 2009 2010 2007 2008 2009 2010 Sixth graders 0.670 0.741 0.630 0.725 0.715 0.717 0.720 0.712 (elementary) Ninth graders 0.709 0.706 0.784 0.754 0.827 0.830 0.846 0.843 (junior high) Note: 2007- 2009 all students ; 2010 sample survey (30％) Type A test is assumed and designed to measure the mastery level of subject-based knowledge, while Type B test to measure the competence to apply acquired knowledge and to comprehend and solve the problems. Comparison of PISA Results for Japan, Korea and Finland：Percentages of Students Scoring at the Highest and Lowest Proficiency Levels 2000 2003 2006 Lowest Highest Lowest Highest Lowest Highest Mean Score Level Level Level Level Level Level Science Japan ― ― ― ― 12.1 2.6 531⑥ Korea 11.2 1.1 Finland ― ― ― ― 4.1 3.9 522⑪ ― ― ― ― 563① Math Japan ― ― 13.3 8.2 13.0 4.8 523⑩ Korea 9.6 8.1 8.8 9.1 Finland ― ― 6.8 6,7 5.9 6.3 547④ ― ― 548② Reading Japan 10.0 9.9 19.0 9.7 18.4 9.4 498⑮ Korea 5.7 5.7 6.8 12.2 5.7 21.7 Finland 6.9 18.5 5.7 14.7 4.8 16.7 556① 547② The reforms of above mentioned (2) and (3) combined to have brought about or strengthened the following consequences and tendencies:
(a) Skewed concerns with school performance and excessive competition among schools and among localities---For example, some governors and mayors or local assemblies directed their local board of education to release the district-based results of Ministry of Education National 329
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Tests and/or pushed schools and teachers to make serious efforts for improvement.
(b) Many local board of education and schools started to devote more time and efforts for improving test scores. Some junior high schools started to invite teachers of private cram school and let them give special lessons at school.
(c) There is now a glowing tendency to overemphasize academic performance and the success in entrance examination for senior high school and to narrow down the scope and value of learning and schooling into those achievements.
(d) Some political and business leaders as well as some social scientists continue to suggest that school choice plan should be expanded throughout the country, in spite that there is partial but significant evidence that “choice and competition” is not necessary at all for improving school effectiveness and enhancing its quality and that there are many voices in the localities adopted it that school choice plan damage “solidarity” and local collaboration and accordingly should be abolished.
(e) The structure of educational opportunity and the mechanism of educational and social attainment seem to have been partially changing. Family strategy for their children’s education, including the abilities to collect the school-related information and to give various advices to their children as well as social and cultural capitals, has now become more important than before, and a tendency of “parentocracy” (Brown 1992) has been expanded especially since the 2000s.
(f) The reforms have emphasized the importance of “devolution, deregulation, and site-based management” and implemented several measures. But ironically, both administrative and market- type control has been expanded and strengthened especially for last one decade. Under these circumstances, the foundations of such features of the collaborative culture of teaching, distributed and collaborative leadership in school management, and organizational learning at schools.
In the context mentioned above, two major theoretical issues seem to be important: One is about the relationship among education policy, changing roles and conditions of family, and educational opportunity; and the other is about the organizing principle of education, economy and society. Japan now stands at a critical crossroad over these two issues or aspects. Which direction should we choose to go? It shall be discussed in my presentation, based on the following Table 5 and Figure 1.
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[Figure 5] Types of Society, Social Selection/Allocation Principles and Mechanism of Educational Differentiation and Reproduction Source: Paper presented distributed at the Symposium of Family Problems Research Association, 24 July 2010, Waseda University, Tokyo
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介入・パターナリズム 共通性 制制・ 組組の 公公多・ 開開 intervention / paternalism 多 積極的自由・平等 commonality positive liberty/ 調調調・ 誘誘調誘制
共同体主義 第３の道（調整型福祉国家）
行政・教師の支配による 開かれた参加型の学校づくり 画一的・硬直的な学校教育 誘導型市場経済 集合的閉鎖性 開放性・包摂性
collective enclosure
市場原理主義 リバタリアニズム（≒ネ オ・リベラリズム） market fundamentalism 任意的閉鎖性 消極的自由・効率 voluntalistic enclosure/ 自由放任・個人主義・任意主義
図１ 経済・社会・教育の編成原理（概念図） 多多様 diversity [Figure 1] Organizing Principles of Education, Economy and Society Source: Fujita, H. (2010). “School Reform, Introduction.” H. Fujita and T. Oomomo, eds. (2010) School Reform. Tokyo: Nihon-Tosho Center, pp. 3-37. (藤田英典・大桃敏行編『学校改革』 （『リーディングス日本の教育と社会』11巻）日本図書センター、2010年2月)
References
Fujita, H. (1999). “Choice, Quality and Democracy in Education : A Comparison of Current Education Reforms in the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan” Hitoshi Abe et. Al. eds., The Public and the Private in the United States. JCAS Symposium Series 12, The Japan Center for Area Studies (JCAS), National Museum of Ethnology. Osaka, Japan, pp.248-272. Fujita, H. (2000). “Innovation in Teacher Education : Cases of the University of Tokyo and other Japanese Universities” Innovation in Teacher Education : Roles of Schools of Education in a Borderless World, Faculty of Education Chulalonkorn University Printing House, 332
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March 2000, pp. Fujita, H. (2000). “Crossroads in Japanese Education.” In JAPAN QUARTERLY, Vol.47, No.1. Asahi Shimbun Publishing CO., January-March 2000, pp.49-55. Fujita, H. (2000). “Education Reform and Education Politics in Japan.” The American Sociologist, Fall 2000, pp.42-57. Fujita, H. (2003).“The Reform of the Japanese Education System as an Answer to Delinquency,” Juvenile Delinquency in Japan: Reconsidering the ‘Crisis’, ed. Gesine Foljanty-Jost, Leiden, Brill, pp. 143-172. 2003. Fujita, H. (2003). “Quasi-Market Models of Education System: Their Features and Problems.” Kyoiku-shakaigaku Kenkyu/ The Journal of Educational Sociology, 2003, 72. May, pp. 73- 94. Sociological Abstracts database from CSA（2007） Metzger, C., H. Fujita, S-S. Law, R. Zemsky, J-E. Berset, and M. Iannozzi (2004). “Vocational Training and Education.” In Noel. F, McGinn, ed., Learning through Collaborative Research. NY & London: Routledge-Falmer, 2004, pp. 91-145. Fujita, H. (2005). “Kyosei: A vision for education and society in the 21st century.” In Y. Murakami, N. Kawashima, S. Chiba (eds.), Toward a Peaceful Future: Redefining Peace, Security, and Kyosei from a Multidisciplinary Perspective. Pullman, WA: Washington State University Press/The Foley Institute, pp. 53-65. Lieberman, A., S. M. Johnson, H. Fujita, and R. Starratt (2006), “Where Teachers can Lead.” ILern (The International Leadership in Education Research Network) ed., Positive Leadership. NCSL (National College for School Leadership), Nottingham, UK. www.ncsl.org.uk/publications Fujita, H. (2006). “BCQ: Change or Reform?” Journal of Educational Change (Springer), Vol. 7, pp. 101-102. Fujita, H. (2007). “The qualifications of the teaching force in Japan.” In R. Ingersoll ed., A Comparative Study of Teacher Preparation and Qualifications in Six Nations. CPRE: Consortium for Policy Research in Education, 41-54. Fujita, H. (2009). ”La réforme de l’enseignement en question: le service public, l’égalité des chances et la formation des capacités d’apprentissage au centre de la problématiwque.” In J. F. Sabouret and D. Sonoyama, eds., Liberté, inégalité, individualité: La France et le Japon au miroir l’ education. Paris: CNRS ÉDITIONS, 2008, pp.9-29. Fujita, H. (2009). “How Craft Knowledge is Generated and Disseminated in Japan.” J. D. Bransford, et al. (eds.), The Role of Research in Educational Improvement. MA, Cambridge: Harvard Education Press, pp. 189-207. Fujita, H. (2009). “Wither Japanese Schooling? Educational Reforms and Their Impact on Ability Formation and Educational Opportunity.” J. Gordon, Fujita, H., T. Kariya, and G. LeTendre, eds. (2009), Challenges to Japanese Education, Economics, Reform, and Human Rights. NY: Teachers College Press, 2009, pp. 17-53. Fujita, H. (2009). “Wither Japanese Schooling? Educational Reforms and Their Impact on Ability Formation and Educational Opportunity.” J. Gordon, Fujita, H., T. Kariya, and G. LeTendre, eds. (2009), Challenges to Japanese Education, Economics, Reform, and Human Rights. NY: Teachers College Press, 2009, pp. 17-53. Fujita, H. (2010). “School Reform, Introduction.” H. Fujita and T. Oomomo, eds. (2010) School Reform. Tokyo: Nihon-Tosho Center, pp. 3-37.
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Session 20 [WERA Symposium] High-Impact Innovation that Change the Ways of Schooling in the World
1. The Role of Knowledge and Evidence in Policy Formation Across Europe
Eric Mangez (Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium)
2. Post-bureaucratic Governance of Schooling: How to Research Its Processes and Effects? Herbert Altrichter (University of Linz, Austria)
3. Accessing Powerful Ideas through Digital Technologies: Foretelling Education in an Emerging Country Luis Moreno-Armella (Cinvestav, Mexico)
The Educational Innovation for 21st Century: Sharing Visions and Experiences
The Role of Knowledge and Evidence in Policy Formation Across Europe
Eric Mangez Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium
The world of education (policy) is a world where policy ideas and innovations are supposed to circulate quickly across boundaries. It is also a world where actors (nations, groups, schools, individuals,…) look at each other, compare themselves to one another and are continuously being compared to others. In a situation where every actor is looking for new ideas and comparing itself to others as well as being compared, what kind of “comparison” should researchers make? Should they compare? Or should they rather understand the process through which actors compare themselves to others and are being compared to others, and ultimately redefine / re-invent who they are...
We tackle the issue of innovation from the perspective of a sociology of knowledge. An innovation necessarily draws on a form of knowledge, a way of knowing and a representation of the relationship between knowledge and action. While exploring the knowledge question from a sociological perspective, a first difficulty relates to its relationship with the “social”. How does knowledge relate to the social, the contextual? How does it relate to the community and the context of its elaboration? Sociologists tend to see most of the phenomena they study as “social constructs”. By this they usually mean that the phenomena in question are marked and shaped by the social processes and conditions of their construction. We draw on a view of knowledge as socially embedded / constructed, in opposition to “the ‘traditional’ view of knowledge as a set of disembodied, neutral, reified facts about the world” (Hellstrom and Raman, 2001, 139). But what does it really mean for knowledge to be a “social construct”? And if it is socially constructed, can it be globally meaningful?
There is a first important statement that needs to be made about the contextuality of knowledge. Understanding knowledge as a social construct means that it is constructed by social groups who can themselves be located in a context marked by its own past and by its positions vis-à-vis other actors and contexts. The same holds for knowledge about knowledge, that is: for our understanding of what knowledge is.
Emphasizing the contextuality of knowledge thus does not mean that the possibility of its circulation should be denied, but it does direct our attention to the conditions and difficulties of its circulation and communication. It forbids conceiving knowledge transfer as a non-problematic process. The process of ‘translation’ (Freeman, 2009) - or the capacity to standardize or synthesize knowledge across these divisions and various contexts - is a complex process. It forces us to wonder whether there are types and forms of knowledge which are more amenable to transfer than 337
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others.
The notion of contextuality also means that knowledge is not only about “what you know”; it is also about “who you are”, as a community (be it a transnational community) or as an individual (be it an international expert). There is something ‘personal’ and historical (Lawn et al. 2010) about knowledge. Interactions among people with various backgrounds and ‘knowledges’ are therefore likely to affect not only what they know but also who they are. Thus in order to understand how a community relates to knowledge, one needs to develop a profound genuine understanding of the community in question, comprehending who they are and where they come from, as well as how they relate to others and evolve through interactions. Even longstanding neighbours such as Belgians and French relate to knowledge in highly distinct and specific ways. Similarly, there are differences in the way knowledge is deployed and thought of in different policy sectors such as education and health, or between different communities, such a community of users or a professional group.
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‘Post-bureaucratic’ Governance of Schooling : How to Research its Processes and Effects?
Herbert Altrichter Johannes Kepler University of Linz, Austria
1. What do we mean by “governance”?
There is no word such as “governance” or an equivalent to it in German everyday language. However, since the late 1980s “governance” is used as a technical term in political and social sciences for conceptualising phenomena which have been called “regieren” (to govern) or “steuern” (to steer) before (see Benz 2004, pp. 15). Just as the concept of New Public Management which emerged at the same time, the Governance Perspective reflects “the rise of a profound scepticism about the possibilities of hierarchical control of complex social systems” (de Boer, Enders & Schimank 2007, p. 137). However, New Public Management is “a normative program for practical policy-making”, while the Governance Perspective aspires to remain “analytically open” (ibid.) and to offer an analytic tool for analysing states of governance and their transformation.
“The governance perspective provides a general analytical framework for studying all kinds of coordination problems among actors” (de Boer, Enders & Schimank 2007, p. 138). The regulation of systems and the production of system specific performance are conceived as arising from the coordination of the independent actions of social actors (see Benz 2004, p. 17). This seemingly abstract definition – “coordination of actors” – invites us to spell out what exactly is happening when we consider social processes to be “governed”, “regulated”, or “steered”.
During the last five years the concept of “governance” has also been introduced into educational research in order to study the changes in the regulation of school systems which German speaking countries (Germany, Austria, German speaking cantons of Switzerland, Liechtenstein) have seen since the beginning of the 1990s (see Altrichter, Brüsemeister & Wissinger 2007). Under the name of “Governance Perspective”, “Governance Research” or “Governance Studies” a body of work has evolved which aims to understand these changes by concentrating on the question how regulation and performance of school systems is achieved, sustained and transformed under the perspective of coordination of action between various social actors in complex multi-level systems (see Schimank 2007; Altrichter & Heinrich 2007; Kussau & Brüsemeister 2007). Most important categories which characterize the analytical approach are explained in Altrichter (2010).
2. Governance Studies as a Research Programme
How to research these complex phenomena called “governance”? There is a recent and ongoing 339
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debate about research strategies and methods for this type of studies. Some fairly shared claims for governance research (see Altrichter & Maag Merki 2010, pp 27, for a more detailed account):
(1) Governance Studies do not aim to arrive at a single unified theory, but understand themselves as a “perspective” which is open for various theories of social science. Just as Ball (1997b), German governance researchers argued that the complexity of governance phenomena discourages explanations which are based exclusively on a single theory: “What we need in policy analysis is a toolbox of diverse concepts and theories” (op. cit., p. 43).
(2) Governance Studies must attend to both the level of political proclamation and legitimation and to the level of action and its results, and it must relate these levels. Both talk and action (see Brunsson 1989) are relevant objects of analysis in the field of governance studies.
(3) Governance Studies must not choose too narrow a focus, but must study policies in their context (see Ball 1997a, p. 19). They must build on a sense of time and history. Even if a study focuses on present political changes, these are rooted in a pre-history which in itself was not uniform, but influenced by various internal dynamics. And Governance Studies need some sense of place: Innovation is situated in specific local conditions, however, there are more often than not relevant relationships to other systems (see Ozga & Jones 2006).
(4) Governance Studies do not aim to promote a specific governance model, e.g. some variation of New Public Management. Contrary to that, Governance Studies as a primarily analytic enterprise (see Benz 2004, pp. 25) aims to understand and explain the logics, the workings and the effects of various governance constellations. However, questions of value and development are not excluded. On the one hand, it is a task of Governance Studies to unpack the “normative packages” which governance models usually are in order to clarify both proclaimed and implicit values, to compare them with various competing social goals and to evaluate their effects with respect to their goals. Such a critique of ideology, implementation and effect is part of the task of Governance Studies. On the other hand, Governance Studies aspire to produce enough knowledge about societal processes of coordination and formation to allow justified proposals for further system development (see Schimank 2007, p. 29). However, it is not expected that such proposals will be concisely organized around a few “mega factors” the manipulation of which will profoundly change systems and their performance. Rather, the aspiration is to distinguish more promising from less promising governance “configurations” in specific cultural contexts (e.g. Schümer & Weiss 2008, p. 22).
(5) Governance Studies aim at an empirically founded multi-perspective understanding of the formation and the performance of schooling. It follows from the range of objects and perspectives that different research strategies and methods are necessary. Analyses of political and law texts, historical and cultural accounts, interviews with participants, observation of processes and measurement of effects, quantitative and qualitative approaches, all of them seem to have value for the further development of Governance Studies.
(6) As was indicated above, many characteristics of this research endeavour closely resemble typical features of “policy studies” in the Anglophone world. And this is exactly my argument: 340
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With the programme of “Governance Studies” a type of policy studies eventually emerges which by now did not have much of a tradition in German educational research.
The aspiration to capture and analyse complex multi-level processes of social regulation is quite demanding as is the list of proposed features of Governance Studies. However, it would be an unhealthy demand on oneself or on others to fulfil all these criteria in a single study. In my view, these demands are not to be met by each and every individual study. Rather, it is the task of a broader governance discourse to build relationships between different approaches and studies. Theoretical and methodological work is necessary to explicate central concepts which may be used as “bridge concepts” by the help of which these relationships may be established.
3. Evidence on Changes in Governance
School systems in German speaking countries – as in many other continental European states (see Maroy 2009, pp. 72) – were traditionally characterized by a characteristic “dual regulation” (Brüsemeister 2004): On the one hand regulation is based on a state-led administrative hierarchy with general bureaucratic rules; on the other hand there is considerable individual and group- related autonomy for the teaching profession when it comes to implementing these rules. Since the first half of the 1990s we see increased reform activities coming from school administration. The first of these successive waves of “modernization” (Brüsemeister & Eubel 2003) promised to give more “autonomy” to individual schools which should help them to be more responsive to the needs of their constituencies and to use local knowledge and resources to work towards enhanced school quality.
What are “school autonomy”-reforms really made of, how are they pursued, and what effects are to be expected? In a longer version of this paper (see Altrichter 2010) I have discussed some examples of research dealing with these questions which has to be omitted here due space restrictions. In my summary, a sketchy image unfolded which may be used as hypothesis for further research:
(1) The policy of school autonomy gave some leeway to individual schools which many schools (see Bachmann et al. 1996) used for developing special educational profiles. These changes aimed to satisfy anticipated parents’ and students’ needs, but were usually not directly negotiated with them. (2) These changes resulted in processes of differentiation and hierarchization (see Maroy & van Zanten 2009) between and within schools, e.g. in “profile schools/classes” and “normal schools/classes” which cater for student groups with distinctly different features. As a result, social selectivity increases. (3) Thereby, an element of competition between schools is established the primary orientation of which is increasing numbers of “good students”, not necessarily enhancing educational quality. If Rürup’s (2007) analysis that legislators did not promote “competition”-oriented reforms, at least until 2004 this is also true for Austria (as we assume), then this finding points to another case of a reform producing “transintentional results”. (4) While most schools seem to be subjected to increased competition and react with efforts to
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make their offers more attractive, there are still different strategies and logics of action how this is done in practice. While some schools concentrate on developing educational processes, others include new and “attractive” subjects in their “profile”, and still others improve equipment and extra-curricular services. Maroy & van Zanten (2009, pp. e72) found e.g. strategies of conquest, profiting from the status quo, diversification, and adaption in the face of an increasingly competitive school context. (5) While it is true that there is more coordination through competition than before, the traditional “bureaucratic-professional model” of school governance has not been fully replaced. Rather, post- bureaucratic school governance is characterized by hybrid models in which different logics of action, norms, and practices exist side by side (see Maroy 2009, p. 78). It is “a composite in which several forms of co-ordination occur, none of which is sufficiently powerful to determine in a meaningful and lasting way the overall orientation of action in the school context.” (Dupriez & Maroy 2003, p. 386)
With respect to methodology of governance research strategies my conclusion is: Governance reforms are so complex that one cannot hope to cope with all relevant aspects of the topic in an individual study. Thus, the most important element in a strategy of Governance Studies is the discourse in the community of researchers which relates and assembles different lines of arguments in order to – hopefully – arrive step by step at a broader image of these changes in the governance of school systems we find ourselves in at the moment in German speaking countries and elsewhere.
References
Altrichter, H. (2010): Theory and Evidence on Governance: conceptual and empirical strategies of research on governance in education. European Educational Research Journal 9, 2, pp. 147-158. Altrichter, H. & Heinrich, M. (2007) Kategorien der Governance-Analyse und Transformationen der Systemsteuerung in Österreich, in H. Altrichter, T. Brüsemeister & J. Wissinger (Eds) Educational Governance – Handlungskoordination und Steuerung im Bildungssystem. Wiesbaden: VS, 55-103. Altrichter, H. & Maag Merki, K. (2010) Steuerung der Entwicklung des Schulwesens, in H. Altrichter & K. Maag Merki (Eds) Handbuch Neue Steuerung im Schulwesen. Wiesbaden: VS, 15-39. Altrichter, H., Brüsemeister, T. & Wissinger, J. (Eds) (2007) Educational Governance. Wiesbaden: VS. Bachmann, H., Iby, E., Kern, A., Osinger, D., Radnitzky, E., & Specht, W. (1996) Auf dem Weg zu einer besseren Schule. Evaluation der Schulautonomie in Österreich. Innsbruck: StudienVerlag. Ball, S.J. (1997a/2006) Policy Sociology and Critical Social Research, in S.J. Ball (Ed) Education Policy and Social Class. London: Routledge, 9-25. Ball, S.J. (1997b/2006) What is Policy? Texts, Trajectories and Toolboxes, in S.J. Ball (Ed) Education Policy and Social Class. London: Routledge, 43-53. 342
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Benz, A. (2004) Einleitung: Governance – Modebegriff oder nützliches sozialwissenschaftliches Konzept? in A. Benz (Ed) Governance – Regieren in komplexen Regelsystemen. Wiesbaden: VS, 11-28. Brunsson, N. (1989) The Organization of Hypocrisy: Talk, Decisions and Actions in Organizations. Chichester: Wiley. Brüsemeister, T. (2004) Das andere Lehrerleben. Lehrerbiographien und Schulmodernisierung in Deutschland und in der Schweiz. Bern: Haupt. Brüsemeister, T. & Eubel, K.-D. (Eds) (2003) Zur Modernisierung der Schule. Bielefeld: transcript. de Boer, H., Enders, J. & Schimank, U. (2007) On the way towards New Public Management? The Governance of University Systems in England, the Netherlands, Austria, and Germany, in D. Jansen (Ed) New Forms of Governance in Research Organisations. Dordrecht: Springer, 137-152. Dupriez, V. & Maroy, C. (2003) Regulation in school systems: A theoretical analysis of the structural frame work of the school system in French-speaking Belgium, Journal of. Education Policy, 18(4), 375-392. Kussau, J. & Brüsemeister, T. (2007) Educational Governance: Zur Analyse der Handlungskoordination im Mehrebenensystem der Schule, in H. Altrichter, T. Brüsemeister & J. Wissinger (Eds) Educational Governance – Handlungskoordination und Steuerung im Bildungssystem. Wiesbaden: VS, 15-54. Maroy, C. (2009) Convergences and hybridisation of educational policies around “post- bureaucratic” models of regulation, Compare, 39(1), 71-84. Maroy, C. & van Zanten, A. (2009) Regulation and competition among schools in six European localities, Sociologie du travail, 51(S1), e67-e79. Ozga, J. & Jones, R. (2006) Travelling and Embedded Policy: The Case of Knowledge Transfer, Journal of Education Policy, 21, 1-17. Rürup, M. (2007) Innovationswege im deutschen Bildungssystem. Wiesbaden: VS. Schimank, U. (2007) Die Governance-Perspektive: Analytisches Potenzial und anstehende konzeptionelle Fragen, in H. Altrichter, T. Brüsemeister & J. Wissinger (Eds) Educational Governance. Wiesbaden: VS, 231-260. (quoted after the manuscript) Schümer, G. & Weiss, M. (2008) Bildungsökonomie und Qualität der Schulbildung. Frankfurt a. M.: Gewerkschaft Erziehung und Wissenschaft.
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Accessing Powerful Ideas though Digital Technologies : Foretelling Education in an Emergent Country
Luis Moreno-Armella Cinvestav, México.
Entering the second decade of the new century the need to contribute a profound transformation in education is widely felt; almost all national states are taking actions to face the future with education and the education of the future as sustaining foundations of what has been called the century of information and knowledge.
It is tangible that Educational Systems will have to incorporate the immense scientific and technological developments of the past decades--which are, in part, responsible for our expectations for the new century. But how? Is the big question. Research, in the past decades, has shown that scientific knowledge undergoes ostensible transformations before entering the classrooms. This transposition of knowledge creates a tension between social and economics expectations, on one side, and what any educational system can truly deliver. Education has, clearly, a political dimension. The aforementioned tension finds a way out when society understands that education is a process to address the immediate social needs, but also is a mediational instrument to face the unknown and the unexpected.
We run the risk that educational perspectives narrow their goals and become just another low level investment. This has happened frequently, and consequently, the need to reformulate what is taught, as well as how and why it is taught is an urgent call. This call includes, centrally for us, an answer to this question: What is the role of mathematics education and digital technologies in society? Or better: What is the new role of education in contemporary societies? Particularly in societies with emergent economies. Access to knowledge cannot be considered as a politically neutral issue because, apart from the reasons already described, there is an obvious problem of exclusion for those who are on the margins of the educational process at any of its levels.
One has to take into account the degree of development of the societies under consideration but the pervasive presence and power of transformation of digital technologies remind us that these technologies will rock our worlds in unexpected ways. It is unavoidable.
It has to be clearly said that an educational systems is an open system, a complex system, with a diversity of local interacting dynamics that continuously change the global structure. Emergent phenomena, sometimes extraordinary phenomena, result from these dynamics that flow into a global, crystallized, structure. I expect that the mathematics of change and variations, through their digital embodiments, become a powerful dynamic that transforms present and future curricula. I 344
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foresee important transformations in the field of curricular design and development, as well as in the application of new learning tools. Of course, all this happens and will happen, in education, under the permanent influence of the social and cultural environments.
School mathematics is a fundamental gatekeeper for the future of many students, especially those envisioning a career in the sciences. Effective mathematics education is still an unfulfilled objective as is evident in many national surveys.
At this point, we begin elucidating the notion of access to powerful mathematical ideas, which should reflect a tangible gain in conceptual understanding and computational fluency.
The classroom is the central nervous system of most educational projects. Therein, it is possible and feasible to cultivate powerful ideas that generate different levels of mathematical thinking. I suggest some strategies and perspectives that can be implemented in order to incorporate contemporary educational research into curricular design, with digital technologies as mediational instruments. Presence of digital tools generates conflicts of validation when introduced in the teaching of mathematics. These conflicts come at least from two sides. One, the presence of these technologies in the classroom will eventually erode former curricular lines. The new epistemic dimension of educational projects is the second reality to be taken into consideration. In the following, due to the nature of this text, I will concentrate in the epistemic and cognitive dimension of mathematics education whilst losing sight of the social and cultural shore where these former dimensions evolve.
I mentioned conceptual understanding and technological fluency. Now let me make explicit two principles that embody these ideas:
Cognitive Principle: Human cognition is dependent upon tools and artifacts to gain knowledge. It is frequent to find studies on human cognition that downplay the presence of tools in cognition. Today, however, it is possible to assert that human experience is always tool-mediated and embodied.
Epistemological Principle: The tools and artifacts that mediate human cognition are not epistemologically neutral.
There is no pure knowledge. The kind of knowledge that human activities produce is inextricably linked to the artifacts mediating those activities. These principles are important, indeed, to advance our understanding of the human mind and its ability to produce knowledge. But we need to go from principles to conceptual growth and technological, digital, fluency in the classrooms.
The tension between the static way of mathematical thinking nurtured by traditional teaching and the new, dynamic, ways suggested by the digital armamentarium, has to meet a clever resolution. I propose, in this direction, the systematic use and exploration of what I call border objects. These are mathematical objects we can explore within the static (paper and pencil) environment as well as within the digital instantiations of the objects. This idea belongs to didactics of mathematics not 345
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to mathematics per se as practiced by professional mathematicians. The goal, instead, is to develop a transitional way of thinking more in agreement with the needs of our students today. Let me give an example pertaining to a typical geometry class but approached as a border situation.
P moving upright Area
3.50 cm
height
The point P travels along the vector perpendicular to the basis of the triangle. In this fashion we generate a (continuous) sequence of triangles all with the same basis. As the point P travels upright, the increase of area is reflected in the Cartesian graph shown in the right hand side. It must be said that dynamic geometry (Cabri-Geomètre, for instance) enables the student to see the graph developing as she/he drags the point P. This is very important because her/his action is blended with the production of the graph. The phenomenon of change is closer to the intuition of the student; the Cartesian graph " invites" the student's intuitive understanding to be represented as the corresponding graph. This is similar to what is found when one is reading about inflation (that is, about "increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money" according to my computer's dictionary) in the newspaper. Usually one finds a graphical representation of inflation in fact a model of the behavior of the purchasing value of money as time flows. Time is the independent variable in this example. In the former one, the independent variable is the height of the triangle. Thus, the notion of independent variable appears as a basic component of modeling activities. The goal of these activities is the appropriation of a notion of function as a model. And it is through the mediation of the dynamic environment that we discover certain features of the phenomenon. This example enables us to discuss in the classroom the idea of function as a modeling artifact. The graph is an infrastructural piece of the dynamic environment from which the student receives feedback. So, the genesis of the graph goes from something personal —student actions–– to environmental in terms of feedback.
Notice that we are not using formulas explicitly but just establishing a link between phenomena of change and variation and their Cartesian modeling. Eventually this activity has to incorporate algebraic representations but then students own resources to cognitively blend the new representational system (the algebraic) with what they have already studied.
The polysemy of the graph can be a formidable difficulty to overcome but, at the same time, it is an opportunity, a window, into generality and symbolization that I regard as being at the heart of a mathematical way of thinking. Mathematical cognition can be understood in terms of the emergence of successive and evolving representational systems. The example discussed above can be seen as a partial answer to the educational call to address this fundamental problem. School cultures require the gradual re-orientation of its practices to gain access to new habits of mind. 346
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New environments provide new expressivity. This will help students to feel and develop proximity between their actions and the mathematics involved. Doing mathematics would be understood then, as a way of being in the world.
References
Moreno-Armella, L., Hegedus, S & Kaput, J. (2008). From Static to Dynamic Mathematics: Historical and Representational Perspectives. Educ. Studies in Mathematics, 68, pp. 99- 111. Moreno-Armella, L & hegedus, S. (2009). Co-action with digital technologies. ZDM mathematics Education 41, pp. 505-519. Hegedus, S & Moreno-Armella, L. (2010). Accomodating the Instrumental Genesis Framework within Dynamic Technological Environments. For The Learning of Mathematics 30 (1), pp. 26-31.
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Printed October 29, 2010 Published October 29, 2010 Published by KERA President Byong-Sun Kwak Korean Educational Research Association(KERA) 92-6 Umyeondong Seochogu Seoul, 137-791, Korea TEL (+82-2) 572-4696 (+82-2) 3460-0451 FAX (+82-2) 571-7065
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