Reconceptualizing Secondary Schools

How do we restructure or reconceptualize public secondary schooling so that it is as effective as possible in the year 2025?  The idea of the local brick and mortar public high school is going to change dramatically in the decade.  While the structure(s) will remain and be used during that time frame the students who attend “classes” at that location can and will be spread more distantly than any time that I can recall.  Technology improvements and eventual cost reductions are going to make it possible for distant school districts to be linked to afford all students a varied and challenging curriculum regardless of where they are located.

Accompanying the technological advancements will be changes in the curriculum itself.  There will be a movement away from standards based education to afford deeper and therefore more meaningful exploration of educational material.  Not all standards shall be cast aside rather the overarching standards developed and published by INTASC and NCSS will supplant the individual lesson standards that are en vogue on the state and local levels in our country.

Locked in step with the change in curriculum and structure teacher pedagogy will also adapt to the new educational environment.  Teachers will be more flexible and accepting of new technology because they will come to understand that standing in front of a class showing overheads is no longer effective.  Along with the acceptance of technology teachers will also (have to) be much more culturally sensitive because of changing demographics in most of the nations school districts.  These changes are influenced by family planning and immigration and will shape how teachers work with students and their nuclear families to create a challenging and successful classroom environment.

The move away from strict standards based education is going to be both good and bad in the short term.  From a positive standpoint, teachers are going to be able to design lessons that deal with important facts, trends, events, etc. more deeply allowing students the freedom to explore subject matter instead of grazing the surface to meet arbitrary testing guidelines. The negative side to that change is that instructors are going to be required to do more planning as an individual and as a cohort to cover the material effectively and to vary assessment methods.  That being said the long-term advantage far outweigh the negatives.

Again technology is the catalyst for moving away from standards based education.  The fact that most handheld devices (cellphones, Ipods, netbook computers, etc.) can provide just about any “historical fact” via wireless wi-fi/wimax networks almost instantaneously; the need for strict recall of facts and figures is marginalized.  Rather the skills required to interpret those facts and figures as well as working with team members with differing skills and abilities to complete assignments and projects are going to be much more valuable.  The ability to work effectively with partners and groups will be valued by higher education as well as future employers regardless of where they reside on the globe.

Instructional changes away from the lecture based, fill-in-the-blank worksheet note taking will also be a positive change in the classroom.  As instructors and instructional teams across discipline areas build the new curriculum those brain numbing worksheets will be cast aside in favor of student constructed knowledge.  Teachers will provide baseline knowledge and instruction allowing student partners/teams to work together to build their understanding of a subject/problem working to build not only a consensus but also become subject matter experts that they will in turn teach to their fellow students.  This project based, multidiscipline instruction model will equip and prepare the students of 2025 to excel not only in higher education but also in the real world corporate or public work sectors.

Building this “new” school of the future is going to require vast amounts of resources not typically found in a traditional secondary level textbook.  Technology, there is that word again, is going to provide a bridge or is it a barge of data and information for students and instructors to use and consume.  Tablet style PCs’ or netbooks will become cost effective means to provide multiple textbooks and data for use in the classroom.  Partnering with the portable computer is a wired classroom/community which allows for multiple options to provide classroom instruction but also student work product submission and presentation.  The use of blogs, wikis, RSS, webcasting/webcamming and other web based applications will allow students to work almost anywhere at any time.

This change should sound familiar to many in the corporate world as many companies and local governments have embraced telecommuting for their workers over the past decade.  Similarly, as technology and networking via wi-fi/wimax become more affordable to schools and communities students will have the freedom to work at their own pace while meeting individual and team deadlines (sound familiar corporate world) just like their adult counterparts.

The object in reconceptualizing secondary education (both public and private) is to create students who are prepared to meet the challenges of their current and future environments.  The changes and their associated benefits listed above are only a small glimpse of the potential improvements that can and will be made in our educational systems.  Each of the points made above point to educators and educational systems that are flexible enough to meet changing environments and times but also to meet the needs of their student body and community which is what they are there for in the first place.

Role/Responsibility of Schooling in 2025 and Engagement

A new question has been posed regarding the role and responsibility of schooling in 2025 as well as the methods/experiences that teachers can use to engage all students in learning.  On the surface, these two are very different questions that require exploration separately.  But as we delve deeper into the role and responsibility of schooling and the fact that we as educators are tasked primarily with teaching our charges the two become inextricably linked.

As stated in my introduction, the primary role of schools in 2025 will be to teach their students not only base knowledge of the proscribed content areas but also to teach students how to work together and produce appropriate (in the sense of both quality and relevant to the current educational and professional environments) work product(s).  The ability to work collaboratively with many coworkers who may be far flung will be vital to a student’s future professional success.

The secondary role of schooling will be to provide a safe and respectful community that actually promotes learning by all not a privileged or segmented few.  The term “safe” can refer to both a brick and mortar building in which individuals can roam freely without fear of physical or mental assault but also online where students do not use technology to bully or isolate one another with text messages, blogs, social media posts, etc.  I firmly believe that an institution that expects and demands all participants respect one another while maintaining an individualistic focus will be a safe and inclusive environment.

The tertiary role of schooling will be to cultivate intellectual skills and ability (think of Gardner’s Disciplined, Synthesizing, and Creative Minds) that empower students to be productive members of society.  Gardner presents a solid, if not slanted case, for educators focus on cultivating these abilities that dwell in the cognitive spectrum” (p. 4).  The three minds listed above will develop a student to be productive and an asset to their chosen profession but also society as a whole.

The last role of schooling to be discussed is that of role model or stated a different way imparting appropriate values and morals to serve as compass for future decisions and behavioral choices.  The role models that I refer to and provided by the institution are adults and peers modeling professional behavior as well as ethical and respectful behavior.  Both aspects will help mold students of the future to use their cognitive abilities and skills for the betterment of their society and world.

To clarify, I do not espouse that we should be teaching religion in the schools as a vehicle to impart ethical and respectful norms, rather as an extension of Gardner’s assertion that as “other institutions fail, responsibility for moral education reverts to the school”.  What Gardner does not say explicitly is that the secular world that he espouses freely in 5 Minds for the Future plays a part in this transformation.  We as educators will have to balance to need to provide a moral compass in many of our students with the opinions and interests of external (families, administrators, special interest groups, etc.) entities which seek to have a voice in the design of the classroom of the future.

Now that I have explored the role of schooling, it is time to take a closer look at how we as educators can engage and motivate all students to excel in the classroom.  I will start this discussion by putting forth a very broad generalization that I intend to be a starting point for teacher (both currently and in the future).  That generalization is that we need to be able to “read” a room so that we can design instruction to meet each student’s needs and desires (intellectual and motivational).  We as future educators will not be blessed with a classroom filled with internally motivated students, empty vessels itching to be filled with knowledge.

After divining the needs of the students the easiest method to engage and motivate students is to differentiate instruction methods.  We cannot utilize only one method or even philosophy in the classroom and be sucessful.  The most effective teachers in the future are going to employ numerous techniques and activities, even during the same class period.  The use of different methods keeps students engaged because they are not being expected to do one thing for an extended time period.  Any change in the classroom also projects to students that the instructor is paying attention to (cares for and about) them and is not just a figurehead at the front or back of the class.  A similar effect, the Hawthorne Effect, has been documented in the industrial setting.

Elton Mayo and his associates documented (1927 – 1932) the phenomenon of increased productivity in workers if the lighting was increased or decreased.  The workers in the Western Electric Hawthorne plant perceived the interest in their work by management and this motivated them to increase productivity.  I am not espousing that classrooms should be treated as a production line rather that I believe the Hawthorne Effect could be present in a classroom where an instructor differentiates practices regularly.

Along with the differentiation in method comes differentiation in materials.  The textbooks of the current and past have been, at times, woefully inadequate in exploring subject matter thoroughly.  To fill in the gaps factually and provide alternate interpretations, an effective teacher will utilize other sources in the classroom.  These different sources can be tailored to be inclusive of minority groups represented in the classroom but not addressed in the prescribed textbook(s).  This simple inclusion can do wonders in reaching those groups who have traditionally underperformed because of historical bias or language barriers.

Lastly, differentiation of assessment vehicles and work product will also assist in the engagement and motivation of all students.  As stated above changing any aspect of the normal routine, either real or perceived by the student, can capture their attention and engage them in an activity or assignment.  It is our goal as educators to reach those students and do our best to engage and motivate them toward success in the classroom.  With that success in current students we can influence future students by creating an atmosphere of expected success of all not the assumed failure of some.