Globalisation & Education: remaking schools in new times

1. Globalisation & Education:remaking schools in new times Presented by Professor Allan Luke Nanyang University, Singapore Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

2. the educational issues • social cohesion/collectivism and individual competitiveness • rote reproduction/autonomous, independent thought • respect for authority, teachers, traditions/critical thinking • risk aversion/risk taking • exam/test/product – knowledge in and for itself • excellence at the top/improvement for all • technical knowledge/aesthetics, beauty

3. themes • globalisation – ‘new times’ • basic policy responses • queensland ‘new basics’/singapore pedagogy • pedagogy as the core business • issues of teacher capacity: policy/practice • remaking teacher education

4. globalisation = new eduscapes flows of capital, bodies, information – local push/pull effects: ‘macdonalisation’ vs vernacularisation • world kids: hybridity, linguistic/cultural diversity, youth cultures • new forms of work and leisure • new disciplinary/transdisciplinary fields and growth of knowledge • new technologies – multiliteracies for learning • new life pathways, life trajectories • fundamentalist response: haven, security, moral anchors CHALLENGES: new learning styles, linguistic and technological media of instruction, new knowledge, skills, world teachers

5. normative agenda for 21st century literacy • Multimodal/Multiliteracies: that involve problem solving, analysis and repertoires of practice using print and visual, digital and face-to-face media in combinations that can be applied to new civic, media, and workplace contexts

6. western policy response • deregulate schools: localisation, flexibility, clients and business management models • steer via ‘performance indicators’: testing • tyler rationale: add more curriculum outcomes • more add on/‘pull out’ remediation of diversity/difference • teacher proofing via multinational textbook market • teacher as consumer and ‘scripted’ product user • research as product/market research: the ‘gold standard’ of field experiment • privitisation/outsourcing of teacher education

7. Terminologies/definitions • CRITICAL LITERACIES: That involve second guessing, criticising, reconstructing and arguing with a range of texts, discourses and designs – and understanding their sources, production and power relations

8. Terminologies/definitions • PROBLEM SOLVING/COLLABORATIVE WORK: that entails collaborative reading, writing and decision making in literacy events within and across a broad range of community, civic and workplace contexts

9. Terminologies/definitions • INTERCULTURAL AND TRANSCULTURAL COMMUNICATIONS: that involve negotiating and solving problems across cultures and languages, and engaging in residual and emergent traditions within traditional, popular, mass and institutional cultures

10. Terminologies/definitions • GLOBAL/LOCAL ANALYSES: involve the application of technical/scientific and moral/ethical understandings in relation to economies, cultures and histories near and far, diversities of knowledge interests and their conflicting analyses and interests

11. Queensland new basics • What about new economies, cultures and technologies? • How do we develop assessment to achieve authentic educational, social and cultural outcomes? • Who is the new worker/citizen? And what are the new life pathways? • What might a ‘futures’ school look like?

12. principles of new basics • Less is more: teachers need to do fewer things with more depth • Higher intellectual demand plus basics • ‘Connectedness to world’: relevance of practice for ‘at risk’ youth • Alignment: the message systems of curriculum, assessment and pedagogy need to ‘fit’ • Pedagogy: the core business, not testing or curriculum reform

13. Pedagogy as core business

14. alignment of the message systems Pedagogy assessment curriculum

15. 4 new curriculum organisers • life pathways and social futures: who am I and where am I going? • multiliteracies and communications: how do I make sense of and communicate with the world? • active citizenship: what are my rights and responsibilities in communities, cultures and economies? • environments and technologies: how do I describe, analyse and shape the world around me?

16. Rich tasks • Year 3, 6, 9 – 8 ‘rich tasks’ – system wide projects required of all students: • Intellectually demanding • Multidisciplinary • Of community/cultural/economic relevance • Co-curricular planning by teachers across year levels • Assessment panels of teachers, community members

17. sample year 4 tasks • Design a personal webpage • Presenting a story in music, dance, writing • Creation of a craft, toy, artwork for public display • Multimedia presentation on endangered plant or animal

18. Year 7 rich tasks • Design a personal health plan • Design a travel itinerary for a visitor • Record and present an oral history • Design and display a product • Develop and organise a community cultural performance • Develop a model of the solar system

19. Year 9 tasks • Plan a strategy for an export commodity • Design a building • Analyse and adapt the shape of man-made object • Personal career development plan • Video documentary on national identity • Community development action plan

20. Pedagogy: creating school-based professional learning communities • Teachers encouraged to plan units across years together • Teachers trained in ‘productive pedagogies’ – model for co-teaching, coding, observing each other • Teachers formed panels to meet, judge, assess rich tasks • Muliteracies pedagogy: immersion, study of designs, redesign

21. Results in 36 schools • Student motivation and engagement increased • ‘Middle years’ higher order slump in achievement was stopped • Rich tasks pushed intellectual/demand, higher order, depth work above mean levels • Project oriented work does not lead to fall offs in basic skills • Community accountability and engagement enhanced • Overall improved educational effects in indigenous and socioeconomically at risk schools • Teacher development around pedagogy can mobilise schools • Collateral effects: renewal of school-based curriculum development and assessment expertise within system