Barry Smith - Learning about Learning

Having just returned from another excellent 3 taught days on the SQH I have, increasingly, been considering the apparent dichotomy between what schools and school leaders are being asked to deliver and the reality of the world in which we live. 

We are currently in the midst of very exciting times with A Curriculum for Excellence and the changes it will bring to Scottish Education.  The focus seems to be shifting, quite rightly in my opinion, away from an emphasis on summative outcomes and more towards a process, connectedness, deep, ‘rich’ and skills driven view of education and learning.

Furthermore, as professionals, teachers are being asked to embody the essence of lifelong learning, constantly improving and innovating with practice, engaging in debate and generating,  evaluating and reflecting upon data in relation to ’what works’ and why.

At the same time, the message to school leaders it seems to me is that any changes made have to be lasting, long term and embedded within the curriculum.  I am thinking that this creates a tension.  If we live in a world that is constantly changing, as it seems clear that we do, then how do we define long term and lasting change?  In fact, the very question of what constitues ‘long term’ and ‘lasting’ I believe is something which we need to explore.  Certainly in terms of the way now organise our working lives, long term is no longer thought of in decades.  People no longer expect to be in the same job for 10, 20 or 30 years. 

So how does this translate to education?  I believe that there is still a view in some quarters of education that, in fact, people ’should’ remain in the same place for 5, 10, 15 years or more to ensure that they can make ‘a real difference’, and somehow not to do so shows either a lack of commitment or flightiness in attitude.   However, if we are preparing our young people for a world in which change is taken as the norm, both in terms of the development of technology, the way in which we work and the way in which we live, how can the teaching profession regard itself as in any way separate or different?  It seems to me that we will have to come to terms with a higher turnover of staff in the future as people make choices about where they live and work and how they organise their time and make their path through life.

Therefore, there may be more instances of people taking a job on for 2, 3 or 4 years before taking the next step in their career path.  This then throws up the question of how effective teachers are with their time in each post.  I have no doubt that a motivated, talented and committed teacher can make a difference to a school in one year, never mind 5 years. The big question for schools is how, if that is the only time you get from a member of staff(we are already seeing this with probationers), can we ensure that the ‘good bits’ are left behind as a legacy and employed by the new staff member who comes in. This is the long term and lasting change part.

On of the possible solutions must surely be a much more open view of classrooms, in order to share good practice.  Peer observation needs to be the norm, not the exception for one day a year or some other tokenistic gesture by school leaders to tick the HGIOS/HMIe box.  For the new generation of teachers coming through peer observation should hopefully be second nature.  We must ensure that we keep observation, team teaching and sharing good practice with high quality ‘in-house’ CPD at the forefront of our priorities in developing staff. To return to the days of closing your door and ‘getting on with it’ would be a disaster at this crucial time.

We had an interesting session on Thursday afternoon from Margaret Alcorn, CPD co-ordinator for Scotland.  While I did not agree with all she espoused in relation to the future direction of school leadership and CPD, she did make an interesting point about Chartered teachers.  She talked about our expert Chartered teachers as being the drivers of school based CPD, sharing good practice and developing others in the school community.  I believe that this is a particularly important point.  The potential of those involved in the Chartered Teacher programme to develop others is tremendous.

A final note, I heard an interesting statistic this week.  Over the next ten years, the Scottish executive will have to employ on average one head teacher per working day to replace those who will reach retirement age during that time, some 2000 new headteachers.  They will be times of perpetual change indeed.  It remains to be seen if and how we define and deliver lasting change.