storyline in iceland 2012 the 5th international storyline conference – storyline a key to...

Storyline in Iceland 2012

The 5th INTERNATIONAL STORYLINE CONFERENCE – STORYLINE a KEY to EFFECTIVE LEARNING and TEACHING

Reykjavík9th-11th August 2012

Jón Torfi Jónasson School of Education University of Iceland

[email protected] http://www3.hi.is/~jtj/

Jón Torfi Jónasson Storyline August 2012 Reykjavík

Stories about educationHow we tie together the past, the present and the future

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mailto:[email protected]

Storyline, an inspiration

Jón Torfi Jónasson Storyline August 2012 Reykjavík 2


Our past

Our present

Our future

Two perspectives ― two stories

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Educational history

Education now

The future and education

The story about the development of education; how we learn from the past, attend to the present and envisage the future methods and tasks of education.

The story about the current implementation of education; how we respect the past, understand the present and prepare for the future.

A preamble ― a personal interest I

I am concerned about the future and education from two perspectives

a) How we deal with the future in our current education?b) What will the future of our education be like?

Combined in one overriding concern: How is the future a part of our educational thinking. Thus two stories merge partly into one, even though I am principally only telling one of them here.


A preamble ― a personal interest II

We should consider

• How new educational ideas are born and develop

• How we conduct our current education and decide on its ingredients

• How we gauge the future and act on our observations


Reflection on

• The past

• The present

• The future

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The past


Learning from the past

• We can and we should learn from the history of education

• Reform of educational practice,

in Western educational thought

• The history of education tells us about a great number of new educational ideas and attempted reforms, perhaps most notably in the 19th and 20th centuries.



• A hypothesis or a suggestion

That most of these ideas are characterised by essentially one basic idea, i.e. that of transferring the performance or the work during the learning process from the teacher to the learner, most often emphasising the interaction between the two.

• This is exemplified by the criticism of the Sophists (as told by Plato), and the emphasis on the dialogue between the pupil and the teacher as explained in the Meno.



• Educational ideas, examples

– Socrates, St Augustine, Montaigne, Rousseau, Key, Montessori, Decroly, Dewey, Steiner, Freinet, Freire, …

– The Catechism, used by many Christian denominations – Project learning, learning by discovery, constructivist approaches,

activity theories, …– Storyline

See Unesco, 50 educational thinkers, http://www.ibe.unesco.org/en/services/online-materials/publications/thinkers-on-education.html


http://www.ibe.unesco.org/en/services/online-materials/publications/thinkers-on-education.html


• Some lessons– Activity by the learner, interaction, engagement, construction - but it is

not clear what kind of action or engagement is critical– The “Rousseau dilemma” – the role of the teacher

Young teacher, I am setting before you a difficult task, the artof controlling without precepts, and doing everything without doinganything at all. Book II. http://www.online-literature.com/rousseau/emile/

– Dewey´s discontent, Experience and education ... progressive schools ... must be directed by ideas which, ... form a philosophy of education (p. 29). Here again, the problem for the progressive educator is more difficult than for the teacher in the traditional school (p. 76).

– The story of educational reform – e.g. by Tyack and Cuban (1995). Tinkering toward Utopia. A Century of Public School Reform

– The survival of the “traditional method”


http://www.online-literature.com/rousseau/emile/

The present


Education at the beginning of the 21st century

• Education at the present; we should observe– there is a lot of it! graph


The system(s) of education – where is the focus of the discourse?Is it possibly completely outdated; a 1950s discourse?


5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75

1900

5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75

1950

5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75

2000

5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75

2050

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• Education at the present; we should observe– there is a lot of it! graph– if we are attending to the present?


The past

The present

The future

Where are we now? On balance?


How is the school system addressing the past, the present and the future?

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• Education at the present; we should observe– there is a lot of it! graph– if we are attending to the present?– the drivers of education and where education is going both in

terms of method and content• money (or rather lack of it), steadily faster changes in the environment at all

levels,• thus we have trends like those exhibited in GERM


GERM “Global Educational Reform Movement,” Pasi Sahlberg in 2012 http://www.booz.com/media/uploads/BoozCo_Transformation-Leadership-in-Education.pdf

• “GERM includes curriculum development, student assessment, teacher development, technology-assisted teaching and learning, and proficiency in basic competencies (i.e., reading, mathematical, and scientific literacy).”

• Positive influences, but enhanced emphasis on competition, standardized testing and test-based accountability (in stead of collaboration, customized learning and trust based responsibility), are a cause for a serious concern.

• In contrast with such standardized approaches, alternative education policies focus on fostering creativity and inventiveness among students. Unlike GERM they do not aim for a single line. Rather they include a multitude of approaches that can be applied based on local needs, priorities, and capabilities (p. 11).


http://www.booz.com/media/uploads/BoozCo_Transformation-Leadership-in-Education.pdf


• Education at the present; we should observe– there is a lot of it! graph– if we are attending to the present?– the drivers of education– where education is going, both in method and content

• The net result of these observations is that there is now time to – rethink education, in particular

– the aims of education


Education, the present ingredients

• Education– aims of education, the role of enlightenment – i.e. what should be taught?

• The very first sentences in Plato´s MenoMeno. Can you tell me, Socrates, whether virtue is acquired by teaching or by practice; or if neither by teaching nor practice, then whether it comes to man by nature, or in what other way? (prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude)

• Erasmus of Rotterdam, – suggested that teaching might be based on “kindness, praise, judicious recreation, play and

games, teaching by stories, fables, jokes and graphic devices of all kinds.” http://www.schillerinstitute.org/fid_91-96/952_erasmus.html

– He also suggested that ‘A man is not born a man, but becomes one’, and thus distinguishes humankind from all other creatures, … education will achieve this on the condition that it is ‘liberal’, which means based on free will (which even children possess), and that the tutor has the wisdom and skill to use persuasion and gentleness, rather than brutally imposing precepts and dogmas. (http://www.ibe.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_upload/archive/publications/ThinkersPdf/erasmuse.PDF )


http://www.schillerinstitute.org/fid_91-96/952_erasmus.html

http://www.ibe.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_upload/archive/publications/ThinkersPdf/erasmuse.PDF

Education, the present ingredients

• Education– aims of education, the role of enlightenment – i.e. changing ideas about

what should be taught?

• The contradictory influences of the enlightenment– Originally the emphasis was on reason, access to information and

freedom of thought and communication ― on reading, writing, speaking ― in general the emphasis was on the enlightened mind and partly ― and only partly ― on the enlightened society.

– But gradually the focus was narrowed, being confined to ensuring an informed, learned, disciplined population; we were encouraged to become the information society. Viz. e.g. the international tests.


The future


The future, four issues: first - how do we talk about the future?

• How do we relate our speculation about the future and our ideas about education?

• It is not clear at all.



2010

2015

2020

2025

2030

2035

2040

2045

2050

2055

2060

2065

2070

2075

Age 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 90

25 years10 years

Age 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 90

Age 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 90

Skólamyndir

When we talk about the future, are we talking about 5-10 years or 20-30 years? And for whom?

The future, four issues: second - can we predict or envisage the future?

The simple answer is yes, in very important respects we can and we should be dramatically more preoccupied with it than we are now.

We must rid ourselves of the laissez-fair myth that the future cannot be predicted and therefore we should not think very seriously about it; it is not only both silly and wrong, it is also harmful. But it has been very powerful.

But of course the insistence that we can predict a lot, does not imply that we can predict most things, or even most important developments.


Staðan tekin


The future, four issues: third - the qualitative areas we should think

about?

• Climate changes• Using of resources• Sustainability issues, various grand challenges• Changes in technology, e.g. the tools we will use during the next 10-30 years• Research advances in all fields• Changes in the world of work (both in type of work, and how often we

change)• The forming of the global society• The demand for social responsibility and justice

Also the changes in our values, in our self-images, in the ways we communicate, in the ways we create


The future, four issues: fourth - how do we respond to these changes?

How do we move from the present into the future?

• by rethinking our education, the aims (merging both content and method), determine what is it for ― during the 21st century? But noting in the process

– the inertia of the system in terms of content and methods– the changing context in terms of time given to education– the context in terms of culture– the context in term of local and global changes

• by creating a new culture of learning and construction


Variations on a storyline

• How do we talk about education,

– our systems, – our practices, – our aims?



Our past

Our present

Our future


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Educational history

Education now

The future and education

The story about the development of education; how we learn from the past, attend to the present and envisage the future methods and tasks of education.

The story about the current implementation of education; how we respect the past, understand the present and prepare for the future.



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Past Present Future

Storyline as a method combining the PPF

Storyline as an idea

I hope stories presented from each perspective will be both rich and inspiring

Thank you very muchKærar þakkir


storyline in iceland 2012 the 5th international storyline conference – storyline a key to...

Documents

current education

educational history

tasks of education

development of education

past educational ideas

reykjavk stories

future methods

teaching reykjavk