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Ms Aine Maher & Dr David Warner ELTHAM College of Education Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
This school in Melbourne has created an innovative curriculum and its pedagogy to deliberately facilitate the development of self-managed learning for students at all year levels.
What are the primary purposes of schooling? According to the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA), the three interwoven purposes of schooling aim for students to graduate with the capacity to:
Contrast this with a recent newspaper article written by Margaret Cook, which looked at the fate of first-year university students. ' After the regulated environment of school, university is a different ball game for students ' , she said. Students who experience most success are those with good self-management and organisational skills; those who understand that the demands of independent learning require them to seek support and assistance and not just struggle on by themselves. Students with the skills to engage in social networks and learning communities, both formal and informal, and collaborate in powerful ways are far more likely to experience success.
Giving young people the knowledge and skills for adulthood is considered to be the most important thing schools should be doing, according to one in two adults, as published in a recent Newspoll survey of Australian adults prepared by the Dusseldorp Skills Forum. Nearly one-quarter of the survey respondents said that preparing young people for work was the most important task for schools.
Research studies completed by Warner and Christie (2000) in the late 1990s indicate poor levels of readiness for, and disposition, to self-directed learning, with high levels of belief that ongoing learning will continue to be classroom-based and teacher-directed. This is not, of course, consistent with the learning in, and for, the workplace or for post-school study. There seems to be little argument that the skills necessary for a successful transition to post-school destinations should be amongst the outcomes of schooling.
The world of work has changed considerably. Gone are the days where we were assured of a secure workplace. The nature of work has changed, too. The qualities once valued included reliability, punctuality and loyalty, and employees were divided into those who could manage others and those who needed to be managed. Success in the modern workplace requires risk-taking and innovation. The new industries of service and knowledge demand higher order skills and individual responsibility for decision making. Today ' s successful workers are predisposed to continuous learning and adaptability. They are lifelong learners, with a strong capacity for self-management. Alan Reid, Professor of Education (2003), says:
' They need to be multi-skilled, they have to have the capacity to analyse, problem-solve and recognise they will not have a single career path. It ' s very different from the industrial economy, where you prepared some students for manufacturing jobs, and others for the professions, and so schools split the curriculum into academic and vocational. Today ' s workers need to be multi-skilled, and I think schools are grappling with that complexity. '
It follows that schools and their structures need to offer the flexibility and student-centeredness to provide opportunities for each student to learn the skills, attitudes and behaviours to self-manage, not only in their post-school lives but in their school lives, too. This represents quite a challenge for schools, where structures are established in traditional (and remarkably similar) ways, based on adult authority and control. Students often experience marvellous teaching and rich co-curricular programs but they also learn about the importance of compliance and conformity. They are taught subject knowledge and skills, but they are managed and controlled, resulting in dependency. Independence and self-management are often the stuff of school mission statements but rarely the practice!
Much of the focus at ELTHAM College of Education is about helping students to become self-directed learners, within a context that each person is capable of aspects of self-management, self-monitoring and self-modifying from the youngest age. Each student manages some aspects better than others, and that is to be expected. What matters is the belief that each of us is capable of being self-directed, and that all of our teachers work to highlight and extend our capabilities in these areas. Let us tell some stories from ELTHAM to illustrate our philosophy in action.
Six-year-old learners participate regularly in goal setting. Monday each week starts with a weekly goal-setting activity. Students work with their teachers to nominate a target for that week. It may be home-based, such as making their bed but, as the year progresses, it will focus on a school-based goal, such as a learning goal, e.g. active listening, or a social goal, e.g. playground behaviour.
Students write their goals and display them on a designated notice board for the week. On Friday they participate in a formal reflection period. The teacher works to create a safe and secure environment within which the reflection occurs and the students are encouraged to be honest. Thinking hats are a learning tool in the classroom, and the teacher asks: ' How do you feel about it? ' or ' How might you have improved further? '
Longer-term goal setting is also a feature of the classroom, with each student nominating three learning goals for each term. Their reflections become part of their Growth Portfolios, which form the basis of their twice-yearly Parent-Teacher-Student Conferences. Students present their work to their parents, choosing entries that show learning of which they are particularly proud. Reflections may be colouring in faces (happy, neutral or sad) or based on sentence starters such as: ' I have discovered… ' or ' I have found out… ' or ' I have learned… ' depending on the student ' s individual skill set.
All major learning tasks include some form of self and peer assessment, as well as teacher assessment. Students know the assessment criteria beforehand. Sometimes these are negotiated, e.g. ' what makes a really effective brochure ' .
At other times, they are teacher-nominated. In their Expert Planetary Investigations, students were required to present a PowerPoint Presentation, addressing criteria under the broad headings of content, presentation and specific ICT skills. Their self-assessment component saw them complete the same assessment sheet as their teacher. They are often a little hard on themselves, though more realistic with peers.
To be able to recognise good work and give oneself credit for a good job is quite challenging at this age. Peer assessment happens when the students present their work to the class, but it is an active assessment, as each student is required to complete a Profiling the Planets data chart, relying only on the information presented by their peers.
This allows them to make really useful judgments about the effectiveness of each other ' s work. Discussion with the teacher allows the students to focus on their learning and to set goals for the next learning task. In addition, they record their skill development on a Skills Checklist, where progress indicators range from: ' I ' ve never heard of it ' to ' Evidence of this in my work ' . In this way, students are constantly updating their résumé of skills.
In 1996, ELTHAM launched its City Campus. Year 9 students, aged fourteen and ready for independence, new stimulus and challenge, spent one-third of their year in the heart of Melbourne ' s Central Business District. Combining collaborative teamwork (e.g. group projects) with independent research, the students responded, through a thematic approach to the curriculum, to the city ' s colourful past, present and future.
The themes investigated Melbourne as a visionary city liveable city. The City Campus program quickly became a highlight of their time in Middle School. Once there, the students are purposefully engaged in producing work of a very high standard. They work collaboratively in small teams, negotiating their learning tasks. They regularly choose to work through lunch-breaks, and those with a reputation of ' being difficult ' seem to thrive. Parents comment on their child ' s newfound independence and, for the first time in years, hear about what has happened at school that day. Teachers in the program quickly learned to move beyond the traditional transmission of information. They scaffold the students ' learning experiences; they respond to the changing world of the city on a daily basis; they facilitate effective group work and they answer questions with more questions.
In 2002, a whole-year program was developed, incorporating an innovative Environmental Program at our main campus, which complements perfectly the urban environment of the city. This rural campus comprises 20 hectares of environmental reserve, an established vineyard and a local area that is rich in indigenous history and the arts. The same principles of facilitating student learning continued, but the students are challenged by an entirely different environment and context.
The Family Project addresses the importance of belonging (safety, growth, creativity, support, and confidence) to a variety of communities, the most immediate one being the family. Students form co-operative working groups to create a fictitious family and the dice is rolled to determine the family income and number of children. Within these parameters, students are then given the job of working out how the family can sustain itself for one year. This includes budgeting for all family needs, including dealing with tax and insurance. Students are encouraged to use all of the resources at their disposal, including asking for advice from their own families and making phone calls to appropriate organisations. The findings are presented in a dossier format, incorporating the rationale, budgeting strategies, calculations and bibliography. The family is thrown into disarray by taking on a surprise element and has to create strategies to overcome the situation. This offers the opportunity to discuss such community issues as alcoholism, drugs, violence, gambling, illness and unwanted pregnancy. Students are encouraged to analyse the situation and look at various solutions to the problems that arise, including learning about the various support networks that exist in the community. The groups rehearse and express their solution through role-play, accompanied by a written report and bibliography.
At all stages of their learning, students are aware of the learning outcomes and the assessment criteria. The precise nature of their work is not pre-determined; it develops as the team of students engages with the task, draws on a wide variety of resources and discusses their learning with their teacher. The final outcome is negotiated along the way. Exercising choice and allowing for personal experience and interests ensures commitment and engagement for the duration of the project.
Senior students who choose Multimedia work towards a dual credential by successfully completing their studies. In addition to contributing to the Equivalent National Tertiary Entrance Rank (ENTER) used by tertiary institutions as part of their selection for higher education, the successful student develops work-related competencies and skills and receives a nationally recognised Certificate III in Multimedia. Students provide evidence of their competency in a variety of nominated skills by completing a series of assessment tasks. For his ' Write, Content and Copy ' unit of competency requiring him to write for multimedia within a design focus, David worked with a ' client ' (a staff member with responsibility for the Care Program in the senior years) to develop a Care website. The process involved an initial interview with the client, a response by David to the brief that was confirmed by the client, then a series of mock-ups in his visual diary, as he worked towards the finished product that can be seen at: www.elthammultimedia.com. This competency has a notional time allocation of 50 hours. Although David ' s timetable shows Multimedia as one of his subjects, he is not required to be ' in class ' at that time. He may be meeting with his client; he may be working elsewhere in the school; he might even be doing French. He works in a self-paced environment, where he manages his time and the available resources to get the work done.
His Multimedia classroom operates as a ' drop-in studio ' , where he has access not only to the hardware and software needed to complete the task, but to qualified staff with whom he can consult. They may offer extended hours as the deadline for competencies approaches. David owns his work; he accepts accountability for managing himself. He knows, however, that he can access any amount of support from his teachers and other critical adults in his world. He knows that there is a ' safety net ' , should he make mistakes or poor decisions. His issues will not be solved for him but his teachers and mentors will work with him to identify the problems, scope a range of strategies to address these problems and set up an action plan to implement the best strategy. Life after school will require him to have these skills, whether he enters the workforce or further study.
A critical role of the teacher is that of modelling the skills and dispositions of a self-directed worker. To do this, says Warner (2004), the teacher has to see her/his role somewhat differently to the traditional model. Within this model, teachers needed the skills of planning (long-term and lesson-by-lesson), group management, explaining, questioning, lecturing, designing student activities, as well as assessing and report writing. The most important skill for the traditional teacher became classroom management - being able to control the group and have them behave. Students today see right through this, of course. As Sophie, aged 13 years, says:
' At some schools they [teachers] have forgotten what their job is. They keep making rules, thinking they will make their school and their students perfect but it doesn ' t work that way at all. Not only is a controlled school harder for the teacher, it also stifles student learning. No one likes it or benefits. '
Students and teachers have to learn to work together, without the traditional domination of control and the knowledge authority of the school and its teachers. Their skills are complementary: students can access a world of information far better than most of their teachers, but their teachers can guide them in its use, in creating knowledge from it and in helping them to deal with the wide range of ethical questions that arise. The new skills of teaching are sophisticated and stand in sharp contrast to those valued in some other schools:
They are, of course, very evident in many classrooms, particularly in those where the world in which our young people live is recognised and affirmed. Teachers who are themselves lifelong learners, who model self-management and self-direction, and who facilitate the learning of their students, demonstrate many of the new skills of teaching on a daily basis.
Ask parents or employers the question: ' Do you want young people to finish school wanting to be learners, to successfully manage their own learning throughout life and to have strong life-work skills and knowledge? ' The answer is invariably ' Yes ' . This poses a significant challenge for schools because, without the opportunity to explore, risk-take, innovate and assume responsibility for oneself, there is every chance that the school graduate ' s capacity to successfully manage in her/his post-school environment will be in spite of schooling and not because of it.
Let us conclude by sharing some findings of independent research studies conducted over two years with our families at ELTHAM, showing parents ' understanding of our educational philosophy, their capacity to recognise knowledge era outcomes and their support for all aspects of their young people ' s learning.
In 2004, the independent research targeted families with students in Years 7 and 8. The response rate was 54% of 263 distributed surveys. There were no significant differences between families with boys and girls or between those with students in Years 7 or 8. Overall, key findings of this report strongly support the idea that knowledge era culture is taking hold among the parent body at ELTHAM. Some examples of relevant findings include:
Parents were asked very specific questions about aspects of their child ' s behaviour that demonstrate some of the skills necessary to enable self-directed learning. Two-thirds to three-quarters of parents reported their children as being able ' to reflect upon and describe what they had learned ' . A further one-quarter of parents reported the ability to self-reflect on learning to be ' somewhat true ' of their child. Parents reported that their children are ' using a variety of methods ' to gather information for learning with internet-based resources, i.e. online research carried out at home and school. Mean parent ratings indicated that, overall, children are communicating ' a very positive attitude towards learning ' with anticipation of certain subjects with interest and ' showing enthusiasm about working with peers ' being perceived by parents as occurring roughly most of the time or more.
There is no dissent. Young people, their parents and future employers share a unanimous voice about the desired outcomes of schooling. Can schools continue to ignore this? Schools that have shifted their paradigm to knowledge era thinking are experiencing considerable success. It is time for everyone to pay attention to their stories.
Cook, Margaret (2004). ' Finding First Gear is Tough ' . In the Age (4/10/04).
Costa, Art (2004). ' Habits of Mind ' , Active Brains, Active Minds Conference.
Costa, A. & Kallick, B. (2004). ' Launching Self-Directed Learners ' . In Educational Leadership. September 2004. ASCD.
Drucker (2000). ' Managing Knowledge Means Managing Oneself ' . In Leader to Leader, Vol. 8: 2000.
Maher, A. (2004). The Self-Managed Student. Paper presented at the 12 th Specialist Schools Trust National Conference for Affiliated Schools Birmingham. 2004.
' Opportunities for Youth ' (2004). Prepared by Dusseldorp Skills Forum.
Reid, A. (2003). ' Educating for Wisdom ' . In Occasional Paper Series No. 3. Australian College of Educators.
VCAA Essential Learning Framework . See: www.vcaa.vic.edu.au.
Warner, D. (2004). Parents Changing Schools - Transforming Schools for the 21 st Knowledge Era. Unpublished manuscript.
Warner, D. & Christie, G. (2000). How effective is school in developing skills for self-directed learning, including the use of technology? Education 2000 Conference: Priorities for the New Millennium.
Warner, D. & Maher, A. (2002). Leading to Empower Teachers and Students: An Australian context. Paper presented at the NMSA Middle Years Conference, Portland Oregon, USA.
Ms Aine Maher is Executive Director - Learning Programs at ELTHAM College of Education, an independent coeducational school in Melbourne Australia. As a member of the school ' s senior management team, she develops policies and action plans to implement a knowledge era paradigm across the school. Ms Maher has presented papers about knowledge era schooling at national and international conferences.
Dr David Warner is an education and change leader and has held senior appointments in Australia and overseas. He is Principal/CEO at ELTHAM College of Education and has led its transformation to a knowledge era school. Dr Warner has a research background in education and labour markets and has presented papers and been published internationally.
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