What do you think is important for our education system in the future?
Summary to date:
Here’s a summary of what you’ve said so far. Click on the links beside each theme to read supporting examples.
- Change is necessary (1, 2, 3)
- Change is already happening (1, 2)
- System is fine as is (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
- Stick to the basics (1, 2)
- Resources (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
- Technology (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
- Parental involvement (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
- Class size and composition (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
- Concerns about inequity (1, 2, 3, 4)
- BC Ed Plan lacks substance (1, 2, 3)
- Online portfolios (1, 2)
- Teacher training (1, 2)
- Online learning (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
- Modified calendar (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
- Independent schools (1, 2, 3)
- Curriculum (1, 2, 3)
Please leave a comment below if you’d like to contribute to this topic.
My thoughts are as follows.
Context
We have left the ‘Commercial Computing Revolution’ era and are at the beginning of the ‘Social:Mobility Computing Revolution’ era.
Generally speaking, the commercial computing era changed industry and commerce and had a trickle down impact on society. The social:mobility computing era will change society and have a trickle down impact on commerce and industry.
The rate of change in the new era will be bigger and faster than the previous era. The market size is far bigger. For example GM intends to hire 10,000 systems people to develop new software and hardware for their vehicles. They are only a very small fragment of the mobility market!
Brain plasticity research has given scientific evidence that under the right conditions the brain never stops learning and that new neural pathways can result in behavior change. Of the seven factors related to brain plasticity getting the brain to pay attention is BY FAR the most important factor in the brain’s learning process.
While at a grammar school in England I was told two things that shaped my life. First they said ‘what we teach you is important. The way we teach you how to think is more important. Second they said that as an individual I was responsible for making my own way in the world.
I became a ‘computer commissioning engineer’ on the world’s first commercial mainframe in 1959. This gave me an in-depth understanding of both hardware and software system engineering. In 1963 I studied operations research at the University of Toronto. This showed me how to apply the new knowledge I gained to solve current problems. It was a mind-expanding. I made a successful living during the whole commercial computing revolution era by reinventing myself several times.
Powell River is the only city in Canada with two people who worked on England’s first commercial computer mainframe and on the one and only mainframe ever designed and built in Canada, the FP600.We offered VIU to give a talk on ‘half a century of computing- its triggers and consequences’. It was cancelled because only one person signed up. It seems that Powell River is full of technology luddites! It must produce graduates who can drive, or as a minimum participate in, the new Social:Mobility Revolution era.
The Way to the Future
As a subset of teaching students how to think SD47, must focus on how to make their brain pay attention. This now appears to be the most important life time skill a student can be taught. Many have known this was important. We now know just how important it is. Interestingly computers play an important drill and practice role. It seems that interactive applications can be designed, that have no relationship to the subject matter to be learned, that end up with the brain learning how to pay attention and crate new neural pathways.
Based on my own life experiences, and change will be faster and bigger in the future, I think increased emphasis needs to put on how to think and the process to use to apply known learned knowledge to solve as yet unknown problems.
A de-emphasis is required on the thrust to create people who are physically, mentally and emotionally balanced beings. When I came back to BC after a 25 year absence I observed a widespread belief of an overdeveloped sense of self entitlement and little understanding of the need to make their own way in the world as an individual.
Finally SD47 must turn out more engineers and technicians for the new era. I am particularly disappointed that girls who make fantastic programmers and system analysts have not surpassed the number of boys graduating in these disciplines. This change in attitude needs to start in elementary schools.
Canada now has 500,000 IT jobs resulting from the Commercial Computer Revolution. It will most likely create more that this in the new era.
To evolve. Have each student have a tablet that can upload/be connected to the teachers/school computer. This tablet will have the tests on it, text books, assignments, work, journal/communication/planner, etc… This would eliminate the need for all the paper we are required to purchase for our children. It is expensive and needless in a time that is thriving/craving for a technological change in our school environment. The children when doing an assignment could get instant feedback on tests, assignments and have direct comments/support for continued/further development/academic growth. It would drastically reduce the consumption of school supplies, and so much needless purchases. Instead of us purchasing backpacks for students who cannot afford it instead the tablets would be used/puchased/donated by the government, parents (in the community like the backpack purchasing idea), or better yet the contract the government would get from a computer company who we would be buying bulk computers from (which could donate a percentage of the computer tablets to those in need). An idea for our new age, reduce the waste we footprint and also debt ratio that we incur as parents each year. Also why do we even need textbooks anymore…e-books are common and more user friendly….and eco-friendly. Train our teachers and our government to push this forward….we are ready!!!
The BC Ministry of Education publishes financial info for every school district in BC.
Why doesn’t each school district publish the same financial info for each individual school/site that is part of that school district?
Since the financial info for any school district already includes the financial info for ALL schools and sites within that district, obviously each school district already collects all the necessary info.
Why couldn’t the same standard accounting templates that are currently used for each entire school district ALSO be used for each individual school & site inside the school district, such that the sum of all the individual school/site accounting templates equals the accounting template for the entire school district?
This way the accounting templates for School 1, School 2, School 3…School N and the District Office could be automatically combined to produce the financial info for the entire school district.
Using the same standard templates for each individual school/site as are already used for each individual school district and provincial summaries would allow us to compare financial info between individual schools in addition to the comparisons we already do between school districts.
This kind of school-to-school financial comparison would enable more accurate analysis of equity, efficiency, etc across the province.
I suppose it might also be useful to extend this idea further such that, for example, a Grade 5 teacher at one particular school in one particular school district could compare the funding they receive for textbooks, computers, consumables, field trips, etc to that which other Grade 5 teachers in BC receive. Ditto for every other grade, course, etc.
Small class sizes are key to a prosperous future education system.
While BC’s Ministry of Education wants to pack more students into classrooms, packing upwards of 30 students into many classes, and oddly contradicting their goal of more opportunities for personalized learning, Ontario’s Ministry of Education recently pledged to ensure class sizes for grades 9-12 would average just 22! Ontario seems to be far ahead of where our province of BC is heading with the future of education.
See the following info from Ontario’s Ministry of Education:
http://news.ontario.ca/edu/en/2012/06/protecting-smaller-class-sizes.html
McGuinty Government Ensuring Student Success, Protecting 20,000 Jobs
Ontario is taking further steps to protect the gains made in education – and to protect 20,000 teaching and support jobs – by ensuring smaller class sizes.
Under the Education Act, a new regulation will set maximum average class sizes for students from kindergarten to Grade 12. They include:
■a board average of 26 students per two instructors for full-day kindergarten
■a cap of 23 students for junior kindergarten (in schools where FDK has not yet been rolled out) through to Grade 3, with 90 per cent of classes at 20 or fewer students
■a board average of 24.5 students for Grades 4 to 8, with differences for some boards consistent with previous commitments to class size reductions
■a board average of 22 students for Grades 9 to 12.
Students in smaller classes get more one-on-one time with their teachers, do better in school and are more likely to succeed in high school and beyond. Ontario’s decision to protect small class sizes will support continued student success and preserve teacher jobs that would otherwise be lost if class sizes increased.
Maintaining smaller class sizes is just one of several steps the McGuinty government is taking to protect the gains made in education since 2003. Others include continuing to roll-out full-day kindergarten, reducing administrative costs and preserving 20,000 teacher and support staff jobs.
Teach kids to study independently. It is shocking to see kids entering college with no idea on how to study by themselves. They want to get everything pre-digested by the teachers. They don’t know how to underline/highlight, prepare summaries, etc. They should start getting those tools already in Elementary School, and by High School they should be able to apply them with ease.
My other comment is: do NOT destroy public education! Public education and public health are the pillars on any society. Give people good health and education and let them flourish. Private education creates silos. Basic education should be the same for all, no matter how much money your parents have.
I think this a great site. Anyone can join in, and I see that there are responses to comments from the moderator.
As far as the goal of the site, I do think we have wonderful ministry prescribed learning outcomes, and plenty of vision for future.
There is only one thing holding us back:
We are still stuck with an elementary school structure where one teacher (a generalist) teaches all the subjects.
This means that whilst every elementary school age child in BC may well have a generalist classroom teacher who brings a positive relationship and a rich background in educational pedagogy, they will also certainly be lacking in any kind of quality education relative to subject area expertise.
No one can be an expert in all the subjects.
I recently had a conversation with the administrator of my child’s school about this, and was given the age-old argument that “any teacher can teach any subject”.
I was assured that my child would be able to learn math from someone who themselves has no great love for the subject, and who has only had a minimum academic background in the area.
I fully respect the work and dedication of the teacher, but would any adult take a course on auto repair from a plumber?
That is what is happening to our children.
It is time to move beyond the “little one room school house” of olde tyme. Many other countries have systems in place that allow children to have contact with more than one teacher, and ones with area knowledge.
That one change would accomplish more for our children in BC than anything else.
I am a grade one teacher in a public school with 25 years of teaching experience. I absolutely welcome anyone to come to my classroom and get a close up view of what happens in today’s classrooms and how heavily the classroom materials are purchased by the teachers and by the PAC groups, not the Minister of Education. Every book my class reads with their daily home reading program has been purchased by me. Every toy, every math manipulative, much of the furniture was paid for by me. Every set of dolch words was printed, laminated and cut out at home by me. The children are taught how to read, write and perform mathematical operations; as well as how to be good future citizens in Canada. Isn’t this good education?
When I attended public school we were taught by the method of memorization. Be it English, Social studies, Mathematics, you name it…using outdated books or dealing with historical details of other countries.
The only brain function taught was for memorization.
How useless is that?
No education was placed on “thinking for yourself”. We end up with a bunch of followers and NO Leaders.
When teachers read out of a book – – the information is already there. Why recite it?
Real Life is not a recital. For every student it is going to be different.
I see a “Serious flaw” in the methodology here.
Heck, we would still be passing the “fire” around because no one “tried something else with it”, like cook meat or make the cave warm,etc because they were not taught how to think for themselves.
As a student you just want to get out of there
SO: call this “HINDSIGHT”
March 2012
BC’s Education Plan
I studied BC’s Education Plan hoping my confidence in BC’s education system would be restored. The plan contains some positives including:
• The commitment to “increase transparency and accountability” of educators
• The goal to “raise the stature of the teaching profession and increase public confidence in the profession’s disciplinary processes”.
• Having principals conduct performance evaluations of teachers.
• Ensuring “teachers get regular, meaningful feedback to inform how they teach”.
• Continuing “choice and opportunity to decide which school” to attend.
The plan puts significant emphasis on flexibility, choice and personalized approach to learning. (In the Plan the word flexibility appears 13 times; the word flexible 4 times; the word choice 7 times and the word personalized 8 times.) Implementing this will be, I believe, a significant challenge given the constraints within the system. I am concerned about:
• The time educators will spend making this a reality will be more than the system can bear.
• The ability to monitor students’ progress through “rigorous province-wide assessments” when each student has a personalized learning plan.
• A backlash from students and parents when the system cannot effectively deliver the promised flexibility and personalization.
The plan does not, in my opinion, adequately address what I believe is a prevalent problem in the system. I believe many schools do not have an effective environment for learning. A school with an effective learning environment will be a school where a large majority of students achieve the specified learning outcomes, a school which has the support of the community it serves, and a school with motivated educators. The following are, I believe, contributing to development of ineffective learning environments in the current system:
• Lack of effective methods of dealing with discipline issues. This is resulting in the continuation of disruptive behaviours which consume the valuable time of educators and students.
• Widely divergent skills in a class. Students who have not mastered the prerequisite skills and knowledge for the class consume undue teacher resources, tend to hold back the progress of other members of the class and dampen the motivation of high achievers.
• Expecting teachers to take on tasks and responsibilities which are not directly related to teaching students.
• Unskilled, underperforming and/or unmotivated teachers.
• Principals that fail to create an environment for learning.
• Superintendents who set the bar too low as it relates to school and educator performance.
I believe the most important factors affecting quality of education of students are:
1. The quality and motivation of superintendents
2. The quality and motivation of principals
3. The quality and motivation of teachers
These, I believe, are significantly more important than the location of the school, the “quality” of the students, the level and quality of participation of parents, availability and use of technology or any other factor.
I believe an effective education plan must:
• Firstly deal with attracting and motivating top quality principals and secondly attracting and motivating top quality teachers. I believe this to be so critical that if sufficient numbers of quality people cannot be found that alternatives to classroom education should be employed rather than put students in classes run by poor quality educators.
• Enable effective evaluation firstly of principals and secondly of teachers. It must enable quick remedial action including removal of underperforming educators. Students should not be harmed by inadequate or underperforming educators.
• Encourage recognition and reward of top performing educators.
• Require that students demonstrate mastery of subjects before being given the right to move on to the next level/grade. A teacher should not be burdened with the extra load caused by students who have not mastered previous material.
• Make the creation of an “environment for learning” the number one responsibility of principals and give them the authority to carry out that responsibility. That responsibility and authority must require the principal to deal effectively with discipline issues and attract, develop and motivate top quality teachers.
Unless steps are taken to empower and enable quality educators I believe:
• The percentage of students in public education will decline.
• Quality educators will leave the system.
• Support of the public will erode.
• Tax payers will more rigorously protest that value for money is not being received.
• Governments, educators, our economy, our society and especially the students will pay a very high price.
One thing that’s important for our education system in the future is to improve upon this BC Education plan website.
To help with that, here are links to several related threads regarding problems and suggestions that have been posted elsewhere on this website. Each link connects to only the first comment in the thread; you must scroll down to read the rest of the comments.
1. Indented Format of Comments Inhibits Discussion
2. Forums Closed to Commenting
3. Page Number Links Removed
4. Search Function Broken
5. Examples of Internal & External Search Failures
6. Decision-makers Should Read Original Citizen Comments
7. Citizen Comments Not Reflected In Summaries
8. Not Following Through / Poor Communication
9. Summary Forums Closed to Commenting
10. Some Suggestions for BC Ed Plan Website Improvement
11. Partisan/Biased TV Ads for BC Ed Plan Website
12. Suggestions for Online Comm & Collab System
Click “Reply” to add additional suggestions, comments & links.
(List continued from above)
13. Lack of School District Support
14. Continued Lack of School District Support
(List continued from above)
15. Original Comments from Citizens VS Summaries
BC Ed Plan recently created a separate forum for this topic, so you may be interested in reading related comments, and contributing, there.
I think it is the parents and teachers who must make education relevant to students. Technology should become an inclusive tool. Where all are able to have access to hardware and applicationsif needed.Laptops, iPads, and netbook computers — paid for with the help of state dollars — are becoming an increasingly common sight in classrooms.
I think that more integrated, project based, hands on approach is what is needed in schools. Studying units rather than subjects. In the real world, our lives are an integrated whole. Everything is not divided into specific subject areas. Unit studies offer more overlap and integration of subjects. A lot of what my kids are doing this year is paper shuffling. Like my 7 year old daughter says, “the only ‘hands-on’ stuff we do is, ‘hands-on the pencil’”.
Previous posts said that this forum would be open until Christmas and perhaps even longer. However, I just read a notice that said it is closing in 15 min (at 4pm on Fri 18 Nov 2011). What’s with that? Advertise the commenting period from the beginning, please, and stick to it. I wonder how many comments will be lost due to this abrupt closing?
Hi Richard – yes it will be open – we’re simply changing the questions as we move to a new theme devoted specifically to personalized learning. Look for these new questions in the next hour or so, plus a wrap-up of what we’ve heard from this first phase of the conversation.
And further to your comment, nothing will be lost. We’re archiving the entire conversation so far on the website. You’ll be able to read it any time you like.
teachers should set good examples for students to follow.
I think all students with special needs and without have exercise and learning about healthy eating weekly!
have a breakfast program in all public schools! and train special educators better in pro-d days.
A special needs school MUST be set up in each school district to assist families with their children that are unable to reach government standards. My daughter is in grade 8 and unable to read. When in the mainstream system she is crushed by the everyday knowledge that she is different than her peers. We want to move back to BC but don’t because here in Edmonton Alberta she is in a school (L.Y. Cairns) where she is one of many students who have a special need. There she can safely ask questions without the whole classroom rolling their eyes at her because she doesn’t understand something.
When mainstream teachers have to spend so much time with kids like my daughter and her delays NO ONE wins. There are those who are miles ahead and so we have the “IB” program. But what about those who are behind? There is always gang waiting for those kids who don`t feel as though they fit in the mainstream. GIVE THEM HOPE AND GIVE THEM AN EDUCATION TOO!
There is currently a lot of justified angst regarding school closings in the Province of B C. Flexibility in school funding is seriously lacking and short sited. A case can be made for a much better, more democratic approach to the provision of education that is far more equitable than is currently the case. The idea is a school voucher system. It is an approach to funding schooling which has proven to be very successful in such differing jurisdictions around the world as Sweden, Denmark, New Zealand and parts of the United States.
In case you are unfamiliar with the concept, it involves the provincial government (PG) funding of education by issuing a voucher for each child eligible for provincial education funding, in the amount that the PG allocates per student at their particular level of education. These vouchers can then be ‘spent’ at the school of choice by each student’s parents or guardian. This would be for all students whether they attend a private or public school, and so the system is more equitable by being inclusive for all. As it is now, those wishing or needing private school education for their children must themselves pay the fees, while still paying education taxes to the local school board. Gifted children, problem children, those wishing more specialized training or language immersion would all benefit without negatively affecting the public school system. Many schools which are now being closed due to declining enrollment might well be converted to private or non-profit institutions to the greater benefit of the local community.
These schools would still be required to satisfy the PG basic education requirements, but would also be allowed to specialize in areas which best satisfy the community’s needs, allowing a greater degree of innovation and flexibility than is likely now the case. While it is true that it might require a lot of hard work on the part of parents, teachers, and others to achieve these ends, the ends would more likely than not turn out to be very rewarding for all concerned, while improving the quality of education for our young people. Objections will likely come from people too lazy to make the effort, or from those who find no joy in the challenge of innovation.
Studies indicate that on average, private schools provide their students with a better education in particular, and under a general voucher system, actually improve the quality of public school education through competition. That is, all schools must then compete for the students and their vouchers – a market system in education ( a very scary concept for some ). Private schools have long been used to help ‘problem’ learners to very positive affect in most cases. The voucher system should be considered in BC, if the welfare of our students is considered paramount and improved educational opportunities is the goal.
Below is a web reference to one of the FI publications on the subject. I just did a ‘School Voucher’ search at that site and came up with about 86 articles on the subject.
http://www.fraserinstitute.ca/shared/readmore.asp?sNav=pb&id=215
Myb understanding of the current system is that funding already follows a student. For example, if a student decides to go to a public school, that school receives the funding for that child. I believe it is $6,784 for a full time student in a mainstream public school for one school year. If the child decides to go to a private school, a percentage of the funding follows the student, going to the overall tuition costs for that student. I think it’s 35% to 50% depending on the type of school. This creates a competitive business model: a school attracts more students, they get more money which allows them to offer more programs which attracts more students. However, schools in areas young families can’t afford to live near will often have declining enrollment for that reason which leads to less funding, etc.
So my question is, how would a voucher system differ from the current system of funding? Are you thinking of allowing the full amount per student to follow each child into the private system or something more complex?
I think the school board should go digital when it comes to textbooks. You are spending how much a year on textbooks? When you could just buy one and make it a pdf? Or just buy the ebook online?
Also when it comes to English the textbooks seriously need to be updated so that they are available in audiobooks as well as pdf/textbooks for dyslexic kids or blind kids… My boyfriend is dyslexic and he had to hire a tutor to help him through the books instead of just being able to listen to them.
IF education ministers around the Commonwealth had any vision and understanding of the complexity of learning English, they would call a conference (online would be much cheaper) during which they would lay the bold new steps to start to simplify (modernize/make more logical) the spelling of the English language. Do they know that countries such as Italy, Germany, and Sweden have about HALF of the illiteracy rates that English countries have? Compared to Italian, a highly phonetic and regular language, your chance of being dyslexic (learning disabled) is DOUBLE, if you are an English-speaker? Do they know that English-speaking children take up to TWO years more to learn reading than do children in TWELVE other European countries? (http://www.spellingsociety.org/) I doubt any other steps could improve literacy more than reforming English spelling. Oh! And, for the people who cannot handle change (;), dinosaurs like me (and you) would not be expected to learn this new system. In effect, for a generation or so, there would be TWO spelling systems living side by side, which is and will be made easier to live with now that our world is more and more a digital world! Think about it! 2 MORE YEARS learning SOMETHING else than reading! By the way, many of the above languages stated above have had RECENT reforms. English? The last time spelling of words was specified was about 400 years ago! They did not even have typewriter then! DO you know anything that has not been improved in the last 400 years? Of course, we are expecting our children to … improve all the time! Ironic, isn’t it!
Because technological change happens so quickly, it is difficult to make decisions and purchases which won’t look outdated in just a few years. It’s especially hard in education, where money always seems hard to come by.
It’s all well and good to have more technology in the classroom, but if it’s going to be a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) system, I think there needs to be a system set up for lower-income families to rent/borrow/lease old tablets/laptops/phones etc. I thought I remembered reading about some European countries that do this, but I could be wrong. (I’m also sure it’s been mentioned in the 325 comments already!)
But perhaps even more important than just having technology in the classroom is that we consider how we’re actually using it. I think more emphasis needs to be placed on how things work (and the effects they have upon us), rather than just how we use them.
I get the sense that many students think that things like smartphones, tablet computers, high-definition TV, increasingly realistic video games, and the Internet just kind of work somehow, like magic. I think that by focusing on removing the mystery of our gadgets by exploring their histories, inventors and designs, we might encourage more students to become interested in the math and science courses which are necessary pre-requisites for those who want to be engineers, inventors, designers, and scientists.
Lastly,I’ve seen what students (in middle schools, high schools, and on university campuses) use their phones, tablets, and computers for, and for the most part, it’s all about entertainment. I think that we face the very real risk of, as Neil Postman put it in ‘The Disappearance of Childhood’ (1982), “allowing the bulk of a semiliterate population to entertain itself with the magic of visual computer games, to use and be used by computers without understanding.”
STOP using the term SPECIAL for every single spot and dot in the system! NO ONE is more or less special! PUT all the education dollars in one bucket! (like Aboriginal money and Foreign Students etc etc…..there is NOT enough room on this page to list all the Special interest groups!) Start treating ALL the kids the same! STOP TELLING our kids what they should EAT or HOW they should PERSONALLY FEEL about GAY RIGHTS or any other NON-EDUCATIONAL BASIC SCHOOL subject! STOP creating SPECIAL SCHOOLS for punks so they can come and go as they please and call ‘teachers’ by their first names(you know the schools I mean). Get their parents involved – LET their parents get them to regular school and let their PARENTS deal with the fallout if they do not go. STOP making ALL OF US – PAY for the shortfalls of some of the sloppy and lazy participants and their ‘caregivers’. Save money – Give them a tent and wish them luck now! Give the families that want to be there a chance. We all have a choice! But how many chances we abuse is another thing.
The plan talks about “schools focus on student-centered learning, ensuring the needs, strengths and interests of each student is a priority”. What would you suggest would be a good way to deal with individuals with unique needs?
There you go again…… We are all unique and special- aren’t we? How does the world treat these special coddled and cooed special children in the REAL WORLD! Will they always be treated with kid gloves and get MORE MONEY and SPECIAL SERVICES! and HOW many SPECIAL CATAGORIES can we possible have! WHEN did bad beahaviour and uninvolved parental units get to be labled SPECIAL and get SPECIAL treatment! TOO MANY LABLES!!! We are ALL suppose to be in this together! Teachers need to be skilled and capable enought to teach to ALL learning styles as required! (I am not referring to students with REAL special needs – which are the only ones that should be in special needs schools- with special needs teachers)
“A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.” Mahatma Ghandi
TO HELP COMBAT THE GROWING PROBLEM OF BULLYING:
Upbeat songs featuring positive messages for young students would be a good way to start.
I think that this plan is all well and good, but the BC government will need to infuse CASH to make this work properly. I would like to see the government put their money where their mouth is so to speak. To have 21st century technology infusing 21st century learning and individual student learning is not cheap and it should not be done half heartedly or half hazardly. Otherwise the plan looks interesting, but definitely needs a great deal more detail on this would work for my children.