Inspiration
Andreas Schleicher on how to educate “youth for their future, not our past” at this week’s Education Innovation Conference
The OECD’s Director of Education and Skills shared his thoughts on how to educate “youth for their future, not our past” at this week’s Education Innovation Conference in London, UK. Here were just some of his invaluable data driven lessons on how schools can improve learning outcomes.
The OECD’s Director of Education and Skills shared his thoughts on how to educate “youth for their future, not our past” at this week’s Education Innovation Conference in London, UK. Here were just some of his invaluable data driven lessons on how schools can improve learning outcomes.
1
We need to use data to build better schools. Truth and fact are losing currency in decision making and democratic choices. Education needs data to improve, without it you are just another person with an opinion.
2
Schools need to build their capacity for collaborative learning rather than broadcast knowledge. The deepest innovation is created from collaboration but the culture is not there yet.
3
Professional development among teachers and teaching collaboration is important. When it comes to informal exchange and coordination, teachers are very active. However, deep collaboration is rare. OECD research shows that teachers get higher levels of job satisfaction when they teach jointly as a team and take part in collaborative professional learning. Only one in five teachers pursues team teaching. In countries such as Japan, Denmark or Italy it is more common, but not as frequent as it should be.
4
ICT use has effectively erased the first digital divide between those who had access to computers and those who did not in most OECD countries but a second digital divide has emerged between individuals and institutions who embrace a technology-rich world and those who do not.
5
A higher percentage of advantaged students use ICT outside school for reading news (70%) or obtaining practical information (74%) in comparison to disadvantaged students (55 and 56% respectively).
6
What teachers say and what teachers do are often different. The problem is that the belief and intentions of teachers don’t always translate into classroom practice. For example, UK teachers regard themselves as having a constructivist approach rather than a focus on memorisation strategies, so you would expect the UK at the bottom of the list when it comes to rote learning. Instead, that place is already taken by Switzerland. Another contradiction, is that China is often held up us being dominant on rote learning but research shows Shanghai makes just moderate use of memorisation strategies, and the same is true for most East Asian countries. While English teachers who say they don’t use memorisation come out on top on this very same comparison.
7
Currently, OECD data shows that technology in the classroom does more harm than good. There are good individual results but not any one country has cracked its benefits to any scale. The most promising use of ed tech so far? Teacher focused technology, that both assists them, connects them to teaching resources and helps them develop an effective professional community where teachers can learn from each other to improve student learning.
8
We spend far more on health research than we do on education research.
9
There is potential to improve 21st century life at school, through personalising teaching and learning, tailored maths exercises provided by intelligent tutoring systems or traveling to the moon thanks to virtual reality. Engaging with people living miles away. Using tools to work together provided by cloud computing technologies or even discussions guided by an AI-run interlocutor and digitalised behavioural interventions such as a classroom management software sending an SMS to parents when their kid misses a class. But, technology use must be supported by data to realise its effectiveness. Ed tech needs a lot more research – the opportunity costs are still very high.
10
Only one tenth of 450 reviewed education reforms in 34 OECD countries between 2008-2014 attempted to measure the impact of their reforms.
About the author:
Ledetta Asfa-Wossen is a business journalist and editor who writes on science, education and related subjects.