The Open Classroom 2005: Learning Equity, Innovation & Quality for the 21 st century School Carl Holmberg and Nikit

1. 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

3. Alexander born June 2, 2005

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. The Open Classroom 2005: Learning Equity, Innovation & Quality for the 21st century SchoolCNED, Poitiers, October 2005 • Impressive increase of school education since 1950’s, 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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!

15. 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.

16. 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!

17. 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’?

18. 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?

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

20. 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

21. 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

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

23. 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