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A Challenge to the Secondary Sector? (Page 2 of 3) |
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Facilitators of learning
I know that some schools have already gone further than this in breaking out of the straitjacket of working in lockstep in classrooms and reacting to bells.
For most, though, a major change in the mindset of administrators and teachers, and perhaps governors and parents too, needs to take place. Teachers need to become facilitators of learning, rather than teachers. Materials need to be rewritten or rethought with more individualised learning in mind.
The vast experience of correspondence colleges and other distance learning providers would be invaluable here, and advice and accreditation from the ODLQC would reassure teachers.
Different systems would have to be devised to monitor the whereabouts of pupils throughout the day. Indeed the physical shape of the space known as school would change.
An alternative to school?
Although total 'deschooling' has in the past been advocated by a few, I do not consider the abolition of schools to be the way forward.
Young people need to be inspired, motivated, encouraged, monitored and supervised in their learning, and we have not yet discovered an alternative to a school for the majority of young people. In addition for all too many, conditions at home are not conducive to learning. And a centre we choose to call school is probably as suitable as any other for social interaction and regular physical exercise.
Preposterous?
I really do not think that these suggestions are as preposterous as they might seem. They, after all, have started to happen with the increased use of technology, both at home and in schools.
Moreover despite the considerable amounts of money being offered to teachers, more and more managers and teachers are demonstrating by their actions that the present system is unworkable.
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Promoting Quality in Open and Distance Learning
