Schools without Borders, Students without Limits

Taking off from where we left off the last time – The Carrot and The Stick – I would like to now talk about the opposite end of the coin. Remember that the core issues discussed last time were Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose – and how current education systems are ignoring what science knows and has proven.

Next big proposal - Would any rational government consider letting schools run completely on their own without a time table or a fixed schedule? No bells ringing even! What!? Am I crazy!? That would demolish life as we know it. Yet, this is precisely what is needed. In fact a former Director General of the Ministry of Education, Tan Sri Dato’ Dr Wan Mohd Zahid, implemented this concept in Sekolah Menengah Jalan Bayam in Kelantan. This was pilot tested in the mid nineteen nineties and the school quickly rose to become one of the top schools in Malaysia. Unfortunately, once the Headmaster who was the champion of the project left, the school reverted to its old ways.

The earth is made up of countries. Countries are built upon society, which in turn is built upon communities and which in the end, starts with a single individual. Our students and young people are individuals and the last thing they need is an education system that lumps everyone into a single herd of animals, taught in one way and at the same pace, and too bad if you get left behind. We are forced into a linear education system at a time when non- linear thinking is valued and wanted. Again, what we know society demands is not what we supply to our students. What science knows is what we ignore, and even instead apply opposite principles.

So, what is education?

School systems are obsessed with rigid timetables, for starters. We actually support a school system where everything is divided into 40 minute sessions and students must also start and stop accordingly. Never mind the thoughts and the paths a student might be on, stop all brain processes and throw the switch that moves him to a new subject. Follow the herd! Let the blind lead the blind and never anyone mind!

We have to eliminate this existing perception that a hierarchy exists among subjects. Elevating some disciplines over others only reinforces assumptions that made sense in the industrial age and offends the principle of multidisciplinary diversity. The arts, sciences, maths, humanities, physical education, languages, dance and drama all have equal and central contributions to make to a student's education and development
Eleven years on and things have only got worse. A former professor of arts education at the University of Warwick in the UK, Sir Ken Robinson, argues this case in his new book, The Element. Our approaches to education are "stifling some of the most important capacities that young people now need to make their way in the increasingly demanding world of the 21st century - the powers of creative thinking", he says.
"All children start their school careers with sparkling imaginations, fertile minds, and a willingness to take risks with what they think," he says. "Most students never get to explore the full range of their abilities and interests ... Education is the system that's supposed to develop our natural abilities and enable us to make our way in the world. Instead, it is stifling the individual talents and abilities of too many students and killing their motivation to learn."
Robinson, who now earns his living as a speaker on creativity, does not blame the teachers. "It's the system - it's too linear," he says. Schools are obsessed with rigid timetables, for starters. "If you live in a world where every lesson is 40 minutes, you immediately interrupt the flow of creativity," he says. "We need to eliminate the existing hierarchy of subjects. Elevating some disciplines over others only reinforces outmoded assumptions of industrialism and offends the principle of diversity. The arts, sciences, humanities, physical education, languages and maths all have equal and central contributions to make to a student's education."
Let’s make a case for this

Multidisciplinary approach
Today’s Learning Spaces are centered on the development and exchange of knowledge and information, and Learners who are successful are those who are fluent in several disciplines and comfortable moving among them. Creativity, adaptability, critical reasoning, and collaboration are highly valued skills. When it comes to fostering those skills in the classroom, interdisciplinary study is an extremely effective approach, helping students develop multifaceted expertise and grasp the important role that collaboration and teamwork can play in the real world.
Interdisciplinary studies bring together diverse disciplines in a comprehensive manner, enabling students to develop a meaningful understanding of the complex associations and influences within a topic. As a result of this approach, which is often driven by project and research skills, schools become more interesting and productive for learners.
"The Logic of Interdisciplinary Studies," a 1997 research report by Rosenstock, found broad consensus as to what the report called "positive educational outcomes" for students in a multidisciplinary studies program:
• Understanding and application of general concepts.
• Development of multiple perspectives as well as a global values system.
• Increased motivation, confidence and tenacity to work at problem solving processes
• Ethical Decision making through critical and creative thinking, and creating new knowledge.
• Ability to identify, assess, and solve novel problems.
To ensure ongoing progress and monitor quality, a constructive feedback system is critical for any multidisciplinary program based on real world learning. It's essential, Rosenstock emphasizes, that a learner’s work is evaluated by fellow students, teachers and community, as well as industry professionals. That way, he says, "you build into the school a system, a cycle of improvement."
After all, our daily life and work are not stratified into "the math part, the science part, the history part, and the English part," Rosenstock points out. "Kids don't experience the world that way. We all live in environments that are a product of multidisciplinary processes coming together to present a whole.
Creativity in the classroom
Despite all the money, initiatives and trendsetting, the concept of creativity is still not filtering down into the classroom, says Teresa Cremin, professor of education at the Open University UK, and an expert on creativity in primary schools.
She believes many teachers still think being creative means they have to be flamboyant and extrovert. While many schools are creative, many others pay lip service to the creativity agenda, she argues.
This might mean a day off the curriculum to do "the arts" after pupils have sat for tests. It's a myth to call this creative learning, she says. Creativity must be embedded into everyday teaching and learning. "Many schools haven't got a handle on the language of creativity and are reticent about teaching more creatively," she says. "They are worried they won't achieve standards in other things."
She agrees with much of Ken Robinson's argument. "If you have a school system which rewards conformity and avoids risk-taking, then youngsters will be unable to cope with the 21st century world unfolding before them."
Anna Craft, a professor of education at the University of Exeter and a government adviser on creativity, says: "There is an enormous willingness to embrace creativity in the classroom, but an increasing lethargy in the system too." Robinson is right, she says; it's not that we need to "tweak the recipe - we need a NEW recipe".
Bringing this about might take a mass protest of pupils walking out of school because it's just too irrelevant, she says. But in the end change has got to happen and, she says, Robinson's book can "do nothing but good in getting the debate loud and clear".

Real World Learning
Research based learning, is a dynamic approach to teaching in which learners explore meaningful problems and challenges, simultaneously developing multi disciplinary skills while needing to solve problems in a collaborative and inclusive manner
Research based learning is engaged learning. It inspires learners to obtain a deep and comprehensive knowledge of the problem they re researching. Multiple Intelligence research also indicates that learners are more likely to retain knowledge gained through this approach far more readily than through traditional textbook-centered learning. In addition, learners develop independence, confidence and self-motivation and direction as they move through team based research work.
In research based evaluations, learners are evaluated on the basis of their projects, rather than on a meaningless grade defined by exams, essays, and written reports. This gives their work meaning and purpose. Learners quickly see how academic work can connect to real-life, often global, challenges - and quickly find direction and paths suited to their talents and skills
Research based learning is also an effective way to integrate technology into the curriculum. A typical project can easily accommodate technology and the Internet, in the form of Virtual Worlds and Experimentation, Collaborative Internet Platforms (COHERE), Interactive Whiteboards (fats becoming obsolete themselves), global-positioning-system (GPS) devices, digital and video cameras, PDAs and associated software.


Teamwork and Living Skills Development
It's not enough to simply fill learners' brains with facts. A sustainable education demands that character development is emphasised as well. Social and emotional skills are a result of character development. This is essential in helping learners to manage their emotions, resolve conflict nonviolently and make responsible decisions.
Research shows that high levels of social and emotional skills lead to lowered levels of aggression among children and high academic achievements. Learners who demonstrate respect for people in their schooling environments and accept globally held beliefs and religions as a matter of global diversity are more likely to continue to demonstrate such behavior.
Educators must lay the groundwork for successful development of social skills and talents by establishing an environment of trust and respect in the classroom. Empathy is key. Before learners can be expected to unite to achieve academic goals, they must be taught what teamwork means and how it is applied in the real world. This experience provides them with strategies and tools for cooperative learning and working in their personal futures.
Dynamic curriculum
In fact, the entire notion of "subjects" needs to be questioned, Sir Ken Robinson says. "The idea of separate subjects that have nothing in common offends the principle of dynamism. School systems should base their curriculum not on the idea of separate subjects, but on the much more fertile idea of disciplines ... which makes possible a fluid and dynamic curriculum that is interdisciplinary."
In December, the UK Rose review, the biggest inquiry into primary schooling in a generation, also recommended moving away from the idea of subjects. Sir Jim Rose said a "bloated" curriculum was leaving children with shallow knowledge and understanding. The review proposed half a dozen cross-curricular themes instead: understanding the global language, communication and languages; mathematical understanding; science and technological understanding; human, social and environmental understanding; understanding physical education and wellbeing; and understanding the arts and design.
Robinson believes the curriculum should be much more personalised. "Learning happens in the minds and souls, not in the databases of multiple-choice tests." Why are we so fixated by age groups, he asks? Let a 10-year-old learn with their younger and older peers. Let’s organise classrooms according to ability.
We put too high a premium on knowing the "single right answer", Robinson claims. But he says he is not in principle opposed to standardised tests, such as The SATs. Used in the right way, they can provide essential data to support and improve education. The problem comes when these tests become more than simply a tool of education and turn into the focus of it, he argues.
All of this prevents the next generation finding its "element". School is "the place where the things you love to do and the things you are good at come together". This "element" is essential to our wellbeing, our ultimate success and the effectiveness of our education system.
Robinson suggests the education system needs to be not just reformed, but transformed - and urgently. In times of economic crisis, we need to think more creatively than ever, he says. "Just about everywhere, the problems are getting worse."
Should we stay as we are, making minute changes as we move along, our education system will quickly become irrelevant. Internet 1.0 took us by surprise, and we are languishing in Internet 2.0 and are now allowing Internet 3.0 to take us by “surprise”, albeit a fully informed surprise where we all know the potentials and possibilities that will materialise now and in the very near future.
Do we have the courage and the political will, the tenacity and enough foresight and concern for the relevance of Malaysia in the now and the future, to develop a brand new education system that will ensure our sustainability?
Champions who believe in this cause - step forward and be seen, be heard and be counted; for nothing short of a rebellious, unflinching, apolitical 1 School in 1 Session, 21st century system is needed to carry Malaysia forward!