The Open Classroom 2005: Learning Equity, Innovation

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The Open Classroom 2005 Learning Equity,
Innovation Quality for the 21st century
SchoolCarl Holmberg and Nikitas Kastis

• Open Classroom Conference V
• Teachers Professional Development eLearning,
  Innovation Quality in Schooling
• CNED, Poitiers, October 2005

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Alexander born June 2, 2005
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The Open Classroom 2005 Learning Equity,
Innovation Quality for the 21st century
SchoolCNED, Poitiers, October 2005

• Open Classroom
• Open to differences between students
• Open to innovations
• Open to society

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The Open Classroom 2005 Learning Equity,
Innovation Quality for the 21st century
SchoolCNED, Poitiers, October 2005

• Open to
• differences between students
• flexible learning, organisational changes
• innovations
• evolving theories on learning, technology
  enhanced learning
• society
• societal relevant learning, European dimensions,
  world of work

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The Open Classroom 2005 Learning Equity,
Innovation Quality for the 21st century
SchoolCNED, Poitiers, October 2005

• Learning at school - evolutionary trends
• Shift in emphasis from learning as a process of
  reproduction to one of transformative learning
• Linking education with other key policy agendas
  like employment, health and the environment -
  joined-up government

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The Open Classroom 2005 Learning Equity,
Innovation Quality for the 21st century
SchoolCNED, Poitiers, October 2005

• Impressive increase of school education since
  1950s, secondary education graduation rates
  jumped from 50 to 72-97 (those born in 1950
  1972, OECD, Education at a Glance, 2005).
• Primary education admission at the age of 5-6
  yrs, compulsory education lasts 9-10 yrs and
  average school expectancy is 17 yrs.
• Apart from foreign languages, ICT religion,
  Primary Education curriculum present strong
  similarities, the same holds for Secondary
  Education, with an even stronger structure of
  teaching time allocation between subjects.

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The Open Classroom 2005 Learning Equity,
Innovation Quality for the 21st century
SchoolCNED, Poitiers, October 2005

• Financial Human Resources in School Education
• Spending on Education increases reaching 6.1
  of GDP, OECD average -, with expenditure on staff
  corresponding to biggest budget heading. Thus,
  expenditure per student is largely influenced by
  teachers salaries!
• Increase of expenditure per student of more than
  20 between 1995 and 2002, in non-tertiary
  education (tertiary education prevailing pattern
  of change differs, due to relative expansion).
• Expenditure per student rises with the education
  level, with secondary 1.3 times primary
  expenditure and tertiary reaching over 4.5 times
  primary, representative of the established
  life-cycle (long) learning paradigm.

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The Open Classroom 2005 Learning Equity,
Innovation Quality for the 21st century
SchoolCNED, Poitiers, October 2005

• Financial Human Resources in School Education
• OECD countries average 92 of total spending
  (in non-tertiary education) on current
  expenditure (only 8 on capital).
• On average, only 5 of total spending on the same
  education level goes to subsidies for ancillary
  services (services to students, procurement of
  materials and other types of outsourcing).
• Teaching Staff in general, the higher the
  education level the longer and more specialized
  teachers education (professional training
  accounts for a rather small proportion of total
  teacher education). Teaching profession with
  women in its majority, with most of teachers
  over 40 yrs old.

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The Open Classroom 2005 Learning Equity,
Innovation Quality for the 21st century
SchoolCNED, Poitiers, October 2005

• Financial Human Resources in School Education
• Teachers in-service training considered
  compulsory/necessary for career advancement
  and/or salary increase, but no relationship
  established between compulsory or optional type
  and teacher participation (de-)motivation?.
  Special support for new teachers not a prevailed
  practice yet!
• In only 12 countries, school heads have to take
  special courses on teaching, administration,
  financial and HR management.
• Trend towards increasing schools autonomy, with
  decisions about timetable, curriculum and
  teaching methods, textbooks other learning
  resources, even recruiting taken by schools
  themselves.

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The Open Classroom 2005 Learning Equity,
Innovation Quality for the 21st century
SchoolCNED, Poitiers, October 2005

• Measuring Results Assessing Impact
• Some (OECD) countries considered laggards
  15-year-olds mathematical proficiency (over 25
  below threshold) problem-solving proficiency
  (60 incapable of reaching threshold, only 30
  for the protagonists).
• The group of protagonists (Finland, Korea,
  Canada, Japan, Sweden,) present an interesting
  school cohesion factor, with school-results
  differences accountable to 5-17 of students
  mathematics performance variation (for laggards
  over 30).
• Not any relationship established between
  expenditure per student and learning performance.
  Results suggest that spending on education is a
  prerequisite of high-quality learning, but not
  sufficient to achieve high level outcomes.
  Education systems processes play a strong part
  in learning effectiveness.

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The Open Classroom 2005 Learning Equity,
Innovation Quality for the 21st century
SchoolCNED, Poitiers, October 2005

• Measuring Results Assessing Impact
• In most OECD countries, males employability is
  affected by the lack of upper secondary education
  (factor for social cohesion).
• Sound evidence relating economic output (GDP
  growth) to yrs spent in education (3-6 increase
  corresponding to one-year increase in education).
  Impact on health and social cohesion remain
  anecdotal without reliable assessment.
• Finally, learning outside classroom is (a)
  increasing (from 2000 to 2003) and (b) varying in
  both time allocated and type quality yet not
  measurable impact on learning outcomes.

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The Open Classroom 2005 Learning Equity,
Innovation Quality for the 21st century
SchoolCNED, Poitiers, October 2005

• Expansion of education/learning borders sharing
  cost and benefits equitably!
• Relation between educational provision,
  performance and social inclusion is extremely
  complex.
• Learning outcomes are associated with variables
  like motivation, self-belief and learning
  strategies, therefore likely to be linked to
  levels of social cohesion, quality and relevance
  of learning environment, the relationship with
  life chances!
• Seems that cognitive cultural factors shape how
  poverty and exclusion relate to identity and
  learning some thinkers talking about chronic,
  inherited poverty and exclusion inheritance,
  passed over to generations, through education!

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The Open Classroom 2005 Learning Equity,
Innovation Quality for the 21st century
SchoolCNED, Poitiers, October 2005

• Expansion of education/learning borders sharing
  cost and benefits equitably!
• These considerations give rise to ideas about
  emerging knowledge building patterns, with
  exclusion being defined as lack of access to
  opportunities to realise creativity and
  potential the process of knowledge formation
  using weblogs and other forms of digital
  communications - to some extent re-directing
  control of knowledge from experts and more
  towards ordinary people
• The dominant learning paradigm resembles to a
  clockwork model, with school curriculum shaped
  by notions of time-bounded chunks of learning
  (St. Marshall). Learning in the post-modern
  society should respond to calls for alternative
  societal pedagogic models that can accommodate
  the reflexivity of the Knowledge Society.

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The Open Classroom 2005 Learning Equity,
Innovation Quality for the 21st century
SchoolCNED, Poitiers, October 2005

• Expansion of education/learning borders sharing
  cost and benefits equitably!
• It follows that Lifelong(-cycle) Learning and by
  extension e-learning seen as the learning in
  the 21st century - should be conceived of as an
  adaptive system rather than a clockwork
  mechanism.
• Facing the prevailing differences between ethnic,
  linguistic/cultural groups and regions as well as
  the increasing new type of exclusion risk, we
  need to pose the question as to which extent the
  emerging technical infrastructure is about to
  facilitate a positive impact on education
  outcomes, as measured in terms of both growth and
  social cohesion or, perhaps, increase
  differences!

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The Open Classroom 2005 Learning Equity,
Innovation Quality for the 21st century
SchoolCNED, Poitiers, October 2005

• Borderless inclusive learning and Technical
  Coding
• What are the typical aspects of technical
  coding in the beginning of the century
• A limitless potential of on-line applications
  serving content creation, sharing, reusability
  and thus knowledge formation (from weblogging to
  web tagging/mashing etc.)
• Set of maturing communication protocols, that
  could cater with interoperabilities between
  communication networks and seamless global
  coverage of regions.
• Is this technical coding leading to equitable
  development of education offer knowledge or
  they can increase risks of exclusion and
  fragmentation?

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The Open Classroom 2005 Learning Equity,
Innovation Quality for the 21st century
SchoolCNED, Poitiers, October 2005

• Challenges in order to facilitate the evolution
  of the Open Classroom?
• How can we
• change learning at school?
• change school organization?
• support the School Teacher?

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• What our children need to learn in order to
  aspire to these emerging societal paradigms?

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The Open Classroom 2005 Learning Equity,
Innovation Quality for the 21st century
SchoolCNED, Poitiers, October 2005

• Dare to give some answers
• Start with Primary Ed, decentralize, establish
  new Literacy paradigms, sharing of learning
  resources and knowledge formation mechanism
• Provide with adequate initial training,
  competence development and career planning for
  teachers
• Build collaborative European Teacher
• Occupation Profiles

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The Open Classroom 2005 Learning Equity,
Innovation Quality for the 21st century
SchoolCNED, Poitiers, October 2005

• The School Teacher of the 21st Century
• Digitally literate assimilated in the digital
  word
• Collaborative worker
• Adaptive to varying learning profiles/patterns
• Knowledge builder communicator
• Animator School-based researcher
• Motivated with career perspectives

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The Open Classroom 2005 Learning Equity,
Innovation Quality for the 21st century
SchoolCNED, Poitiers, October 2005
All times Classic!
Harnessing our Foresight to Education
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The Open Classroom 2005 Learning Equity,
Innovation Quality for the 21st century
SchoolCNED, Poitiers, October 2005

• Quality Equity served by Innovation the Open
  Classroom Agenda
• Research piloting towards
• New Literacies not only digital literacy but
  life skills are more significant
• Flexible competency-based skills classification
  systems, linked to learning supply and teachers
  training policies
• First Chance schools making the school system
  less reactive and more pro-active in providing
  education for all
• Development of affordable technologies for
  Learning
• New forms of Knowledge building and sharing
• Learning patrimonies and their effects on the
  production of cultural and scientific knowledge
• Strengthening Education Research Innovation, in
  order to harness our Foresight to Education
  Systems Changes