What do you think are the benefits and challenges to offering students more flexible learning opportunities?
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.
- A greater role for parents (1, 2, 3)
- Increased student motivation and ownership over their learning (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
- Accommodation of different learning styles (1, 2)
- Practical skill development and a greater connection with the community (1, 2, 3)
- More flexibility around schedules (the “when” of learning) (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
- Students don’t have the maturity or foresight to make good choices about what to learn (1, 2, 3)
- If given too much choice, kids will pick the easiest route (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
- Concerns about inadequate curriculum coverage and de-emphasis of basic skills (1, 2, 3)
- Concerns about assessment (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
- Overreliance on technology (1, 2, 3, 4)
- More work for already burdened educators (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
- Worsening of existing inequalities (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
- Overcoming teacher resistance and/or lack of understanding (1, 2)
Please leave a comment below if you’d like to contribute to this topic.
Flexible learning has a lot to offer students and more interested / engaged teachers alike. RSS in Rossland began a blended learning program this past year. It has been warmly embraced by students , teachers and parents. Unfortunately we belong to a closed minded, “traditional” school district where this kind of innovation is frowned upon and we now find RSS slated for closure.
It appears the current school district system works against this kind of progress. It’s often smaller and less populated schools that can be the leaders in effecting change. But under the current system with budget constraints they are often the schools that are closed. The result is overcrowding of the schools that remain open and all of the challenges that entails for school staff and admin. There becomes no time or energy for positive innovation.
A better solution for rural school districts would be to allow municipalities that are wiling to take on education for their citizens to form separate smaller municipal school districts so that they can manage th education resource at a local level, keep unique education delivery options open and available to students who want to continue to learn in the communities in which their families have chosen to live.
The difficulty is that existing school districts are staffed by well paid individuals who often don’t want to see their power and control eroded and / or their jobs put at risk. They promote decisions, including closure decisions, that are motivated by a desire to keep their jobs secure rather than to provide the best possible education for students in the district.
Flexible learning opportunities should help increase student success, however, it also presents a danger of students being inadequately versed in certain topics due to a lack of interest individuals may have in some subjects.
I think it is a win/win for student and teacher. Too often we as teachers believe that the job is pontiifficating our knowledge rather than actually listening to the student or students for what is really needed next. In our project based learning model we use, it is student based in coming up with ideas for projects to demonstrate learning outcomes and guess what, often their ideas are better than ours. We get to learn too. How novel. Allowing flexibility in learning allows me to use what resources I have to their greatest potential as well as plug into the community and most importantly to listen for student needs and respond. Isn’t that why we do this? To respond to student learning needs? Give me flexibility because it gives me freedom to create and be innovative in my classroom with my students.
There are definitely some clear benefits in the new proposed plan including giving students more choice in how, when and where they learn. By keeping the students involved and engaged in their own learning should mean a decrease in the drop-out levels in our schools. In addition, I also like the idea of acknowledging learning that takes place outside of the classroom instead of just within the classroom. I believe that this is important because so much more learning happens outside.
I would just like to know what this all would look like. How can there be more change and flexibility in a school when there is classes that are at their max for space? What does it mean when the district has more flexibility in the school calendar? Where does this funding come from? As a beginning teacher coming fresh out of University, does this mean that there will be more job opportunities available to accommodate “this change”? I sure hope so!
Hi KE, as a new teacher you bring a unique perspective to the discussion. This forum is to enable people to envision/formulate/imagine what this plan could look like, as well as to discuss practical implementation strategies. So, what do you think?
THE MONEY SHOULD FOLLOW THE CHILD – why should my child’s money go to public schools when they do a substandard job and when they can’t keep them safe from bullying? If you take away the monopoly then public schools will scramble to do a better job so they won’t loose their customers (funding) We as parents are sic to death of our children not being safe there is a ‘duty of care’ to be provided and if public schools are failing at this then we as taxpayers should have the chose as to where our kids go to school! Look at Alberta #1 in Canada because THE MONEY FOLLOWS THE CHILD (voucher system for over 10 years) it is time we take some power back – the unions are more powerful than the employer – lock out the whole works of teachers and hire back the ones that want to work – if you complain about wages go work in the territories or alberta – sic pathetic not to do report cards saying that we are for the children – bull, the teachers are for themselves and always have been – no accountability and they know it! I want my childs share of money to go to the school and education that best suits my family and child! EDUCATION REFORM AND MOVE TO VOUCHERS!!!!
I don’t know what flexible means in this context – it is very broad. Flexibility for the teacher to assess the student’s need both individually or as a class or flexibility for students to choose. In the younger years in particular, flexibility or choice can narrow the scope of opportunity and exposure to a broad spectrum of experiences. So if you mean flexibility as a call for schools to broaden the array of learning experiences, I whole-heartedly support that. For teachers, the ability to have flexibility to allow young people to grow and develop recognizing that children are not all on the same timeline and come with a multitude of intelligences. Flexibility for parents to choose a school for their children public or independent.
As parents of two young children that are just entering into the school system, and living in a Northern Community, flexible learning opportunities for us not only includes flexibility in the day to day, week to week activities, but also the flexibility to allow us as parents to find a school that best suits the learning needs of our children. By having access to different independent schools in our community as well as several public schools, we have the flexibility to find the best source of education for our children. To us, having funded independent schools in our small community is a vital key to diversity and awareness of different cultures and beliefs that are present in Canada and Worldwide.
There are many benefits to promote flexibility, as flexibility in many areas of business (for example) and education have shown positive results, but they all need funding and until the provincial government and the population as a whole commits to funding education, the big plans and expected results will not be realized as hoped. The system is clearly not functioning as it was supposed to; too many students, school systems and teachers are failing in a rigid system that allows little room for maneuvering in untenable situations.
A tech approach would engage a large percentage of students; they are quite interested and motivated to engage if there is a monitor, keyboard, program (software), interaction, challenge, and overall things “flying around the screen”. Information they might have otherwise received through a lecture, book, or other traditional method will definitely make them take notice.
This brings up several challenges: cost of hardware, software, training, delivery and consistency of Internet connection, etc. The ministry does not (or so they say) have funds to pay teachers. How will they fund this huge expenditure?
Teachers and even parents are skeptical about putting this in the classroom for several reasons. 1) They don’t know how to use it; either academically or technically 2) what if the students don’t respond as teachers and admin expects thus affecting learning outcomes, meeting PLO’s? 3) Test results could be skewed or inaccurate, at least initially 4) Parental acceptance could show resistance to this new delivery of education 5) Should the system experience consistent technical failure, what would the steps cost to rectify the problems and, 6) worst case scenario, if this doesn’t work like the grand plan says, would we be able to go back to what we had before? Hopefully, these are questions that will be discussed.
Hi David, you have posed some good questions, and this forum is one place to have those discussions about implementation and working together around shared goals that benefit student learning and achievement. Let’s keep the discussion going!
In our cultural mosaic that is Canada, it seems essential to have a plan that offers choice and diversity. This aspect of the plan should be applauded. To those who say only public schools should be funded they must ask themselves if they truly support diversity. Or do they believe that a government that supports diversity should turn around and tell people that they will only support one way of thinking?
We will be able to teach our children in a flexible and diverse learning environment that supports a worldwide view in the values we believe in.
Benefit: Flexible learning opportunities might allow students to work with their natural energy levels.
Challenge: Interests are developed through exposure to a variety of topics. People providing the exposure include parents, interest groups that students may be involved in, and the classroom. Children who come from wealthy families have a distinct advantage in going different places with parents, increasing their background knowledge, and helping them to develop interests. For teachers, we need to provide opportunities for children who’ve not had them, and simultaneously extend the knowledge of children who have had them.
If we are to tend to children’s needs and interests individually (which I know I would love to do), we would need to work with far fewer children to do so in the best manner possible. Fewer children in a class increases costs considerably – not something that our district can afford to do, and not something that our provincial government is prepared to do.
I can appreciate the benefits to flexible learning opportunities: using the best mode of education that fits the child; that is why I think it is very important to have independent schools.
Not all children know what is best for them and therefore it is important that the basics are not sacrificed for the sake of flexibility.
I put my children in an independent school and with the special caring that was provided by the staff they were able to not only achive academically but also learn important life skills.
The benefits of this it that it will be more motivating and more meaningful for students to be able to direct their own learning. This should mean less drop outs and more engagement.
The concerns are administrative. How does a school organize this? What does it look like on a daily basis? How does one assess this? How do we use our current physical spaces to provide that kind of flexibility, especially in a big school?
Flexibility and choice are essential for student engagement. One size does not fit all.
I like the idea of having more choice and flexibility when it comes to learning and the idea of incorporating more technology. However, these things cost money. Where is the money coming from? The teachers are currently trying to renegotiate their contract with no success because the government says there is no money. Also, when are the teachers going to have time to do the extra planning and prep-work that goes along with all of this differentiated instruction? I’m not saying teachers don’t want to do this, but teachers already spend a huge amount of time outside of school time prepping and planning for the next day or week. It would take far more time to provide individualized learning and assessment for each student. I think teachers would be willing to do this, since it would greatly help student achievement and success, but I just don’t think there are enough hours in the day to make this realistic.
Benefit-obvious… Designed specifically for a type of student. Meets specific needs and Hopefully allows that type of student to meet their potential.
Challenge-designed for one type of student means other types are excluded. Forcing “flexibility” on students means they have limited options if the resources at their disposal(ie-money) don’t let them fill gaps that the flexible system creates.
We moved our daughter from the public system to an independent school for grade 6 (she’s now in grade 9) because the public system was failing her. She was not getting the attention she required and, in spite of not mastering skills, was being advanced year to year. Much of the teaching seemed to fall on our shoulders, as parents, and it was creating a great deal of tension at home.
She’s now in an IB school and performing well… and thriving! Many of the concepts outlined in this new “plan” are what attracted us to the independent school. The province would do well to examine what these schools are doing to apply to the public system. I am sure much of what’s going on there would translate to the public system and it doesn’t just apply to university prep. I know my daughter is acquiring skills in HOW to learn that will serve her whether she attends university or not (or in a future career) – and she’s now excited about learning.
It hasn’t been easy to afford this education for her, but it’s proving to be worthwhile. I also encourage the gov’t to equally support independent schools in their per student funding. My husband and I pay full school taxes (and more) to ensure our daughter’s learning needs are met and that she is prepared for the future. Independent schools are growing at a time when the public system is contracting and many, if not most, of the families involved are struggling to provide this opportunity for their children. A good educational foundation is critical and we couldn’t afford to wait for that to happen in the public system.
ISLANDER – you are SOOO right – my boys are homeschooled and are thriving – had to pull them from public school because so substandard and there was no anti-bullying policies in place like 75% of school districts in this province – I have to hire tutors out of my own money when I pay full taxes to public schools – time we have a choice!
I think its what kids need… a chance to tailor their education according to their life plans; whether going to university or getting a job after school. Not everyone sees the value in trigonometry.
I also acknowledge that that we are in a formative place in time in how this Education Plan plays out and that the Min of Ed is trying very hard to create a program that will not only please everyone (teachers, parents, unions, politicians, and the kids themselves), but will help create a world of learners who will gain life skills they can take with them for the rest of their lives.
The one thought I have is that when I look at the rest of the world, BC is right on track in how other countries are modernizing their education system. Around the world everyone is saying the same thing: Education has to change the way we educate.
The times, they ARE a-chnaging and I’m just very happy BC is not ignoring that need for change.
Thank you very much.
I’m all for families having the ability to choose the type of educational system that best suits their child. What I would like to see is the government put their money where their mouth is and fund each student equally, regardless of whether they attend a public or independent school. Other provinces give their citizens the right to direct their school taxes to the educational system of their choice so why can’t BC? It’s shameful that the BC government pays only a percentage 50% or less in per student funding to independent schools who are evaluated and monitored much closer and more often than public schools to ensure they’re delivering the BC curriculum yet expects the parents to pay 100% of their share of school taxes.
The big challenge we face is the adequate funding of education in British Columbia. My great fear is that by offering parents “choice” the decision will be made to cut back of the resources (money) given to schools. I don’t believe that the BC government is adequately funding education, especially special education adequately at the point. A change in the education plan MUST include adequate funding.
Flexibility in learning opportunities is important. There are many ways that learning takes place and the traditional classroom is not suited for all types of students and learners. In addition, entire schools that offer differing learning environments are an extremely important consideration. Independent schools offer choice and provide flexibility in learning opportunities. As such, they are essential in helping to ensure that choice and flexibility are recognized and supported by the government. The flexibility provided by independent schools is beneficial to students and families because the choices they provide help to create a diverse array of educational options.
There are those in Canada who advocate applying a business model to the education system, and that means offering more choice, making schools compete and enticing teachers with merit pay (Alberta). On the other hand – a similar move in the US has pushed students right off the table.
In US President Obama’s recent State of the Nation address, he asked Americans to “imagine” a USA “that leads the world in educating its people”. That would be a stretch. According to the OECD results of worldwide school rankings, the US has roughly a 14th place average overall; they’re 17th in science, and below average at 25th in math.
Interest in Math, Science, Grammar and Composition could be cultivated in BC schools with effective marketing efforts like televised competitions similar to a Spelling Bee or school visits by professionals like Statisticians or Proofreaders.
The benefits to more flexible learning means that my children can get through the system more quickly and get their dogwood. There are so many options and there is only so much money in the system. Courses for Gr 10-12 have only so much money/credit allotted to it (or something that works out to much the same). My point being it has to fit within the government allotted monies or I’ll be shelling out.
I want my children to come out with a diploma that makes sense to who they are and where they are going. I can see how one can graduate today and still not have a clue where one is going to do, especially now that there are so many online options and one could do a little of everything plus the core subjects and graduate.
Who is going to make sure (besides the parents) that the student’s choices are the best for where they want to go when they take 2 at the high school and 2 at 2 different online high school sites?
While we would like to think that students are able to make rational choices about their learning experiences, the truth of the matter is that they are often influenced by what their friends are doing, what they think will be easier or what will be the most fun. Many students do not have the life experiences or are not at the developmental stage to make appropriate choices and consider the consequences. Having taken on-line and correspondence courses myself, I doubt that many elementary or high school students will have the work ethics and perserverance to complete distributed learning courses.
As a teacher who works with high school students who only have the option of taking Distributed Learning courses if they want to live in their home community, I can say that it takes a very motivated student who has a lot of parent support to complete an online course. It is not something I have seen much success with.
The benefit of more flexible learning opportunities is that parents will be able to have more choice to select proven, researched, structured forms of education such as Montessori as opposed to the outdated educational model that is now available in the school system. The challenge is if is not a well researched newly available option but just a fresh, unique idea students may be drawn to itsmnovelty for that reason but will likely end up with no better an education.
The challenges will be finding a government that cares. Until we vote in a government that is willing to keep good teachers in this province by paying them accordingly, providing them with proper medical and dental (on par with other positions) and giving them proper working conditions – fat chance putting this plan in place. This plan will provide you with a bunch of unintelligent workers for low paid service industry jobs. They wealthy families will send their students to private art school for a real education and the disparity between classes will widen. I already no families pulling their kids. It’s just a plan hiding the fact you’re cutting costs even further on a system that’s already dry. The school districts are in severe debt, these students and teachers are dying emotionally. How much more life can you suck out of them? teaching is high stress, early death, huge drop off over time due to the risk factors. These are the people shaping the children of the future. Is there no human decency, or have we all succumbed to consumerism in North America?
The benefits of providing flexible learning opportunities is in the recognition that the primary responsibility for educating children lies with the parents. Flexibility allows parents to make informed choices about the priorities and value systems the education they are choosing is based on. All educators and educational institutions operate from some value system. Providing flexibility forces those to be explicitly stated and held accountable to, so parents can make informed choices.
The challenges lie in providing valid choices that are meaningful within the broader community. All educational institutions, both public and independent must recognize their place in and responsibility to the broader community. This challenge can also be an opportunity for schools to closely examine and refine what they are about and how they meet the needs of the broader community.
The benefits of allowing flexibility to student learning have proven to be huge at our school. Not only has it kept student interest high in school but has produced a 99 percent graduation rate for uses well as seeing mediocre students try harder and active higher l;evils in both their GPA as well as graduating with 10 to 20 more credits than required. They have been able to examine areas of interest and find career paths that they are both enjoying and doing well at today. Our BAA courses are far more attractive as electives than standardized elective courses amongst our student body. We always have been a school of choice teaching students that everything they do in life is a choice and making choices to fulfill their dreams sets them on a path to success. They have proven to us they can make the choices in curriculum (with parental input) that can make a difference in their education. They need to have more choices in more grades, we believe. As well we use a great number of community experts as tutors and mentors which brings reality to the courses for students. We would like the flexibility inn the very near future to do more of that on a consistent basis and again in more grades.
Coming from a small community, I believe that the only way that our students will have a greater choice in course selection will be through distributed learning. Distributed learning courses have a very low rate of completion or graduation. On-line courses do not provide our students with flexibility or better learning environments. It is interesting that you mention community experts. I notice that some of the literature about 21st Century speaks to using experts. My question is who ensures that the topics addressed by the expert are relevant to the students and meets the course learning outcomes. Teachers are regulated to ensure that they have the knowledge and skills necessary to support student learning. Who will be regulating the community experts?
Instead of so much discussion around “flexibility”, I’d like to see more discussion around “accountability” as well as around creating a teaching environment that encourages and rewards excellence. Outstanding teachers make a huge difference to children’s attitudes towards learning. I see fantastic teachers who work hard, go above and beyond and inspire their students on a daily basis. I also see teachers who go through the motions, refuse to participate in enrichment activities like intramural sports or clubs, take lots of “personal days” and show up unprepared. I’ve had teachers tell my kids that they “took a day off to go golfing”, “don’t do field trips because its too much paperwork”, or are taking away the privilege of gym time because the class is too talkative. Why doesn’t the province do more to reward and recognize the stars and help, coach and evaluate all teachers? In other professions, we receive performance evaluations and merit pay. We celebrate success and we address under-performance. Why not in teaching? Why do parents and students never get asked to give constructive feedback on the class year?
Do you know how badly teachers are paid? Come on now? They would earn more working at a liquor store full time and get better benefits plus not have to deal with the medical effects of large amounts of stress. Let’s stop blaming them and look at the actual cause of the problem.
No question that it is hard for teachers starting out, like all professions.
But unless I am misinformed, an experienced teacher (cat 5-6) makes around $75K and up to $81K/year with 2 months off each summer + sick days as necessary and a pension – so, it seems like teachers are paid “reasonably”
Yes, it is a demanding profession but why does this make it right not to have performance management and rewards? Don’t we want to reward the stars and help those that need coaching?
Teachers are supposed to receive performance evaluations. I have spoken with many teachers who have requested evaluations yet have not received them from their school’s principal. Teacher contracts also state that new teachers should receive evaluations during a probationary period. (At least my teaching contract states this) If this was actually occuring across districts then maybe there would be less teachers out there who shouldn’t be teaching. Maybe superintendants need to demonstrate more accountability by ensuring principals are doing evaluations when teachers are new to the profession.
Tara, I think there are some truths and myths in your statements. It’s true that other professions have evaluations, but it’s also true that they are not always done. As well, many of these evaluations are not taken seriously, are seen as merely fulfilling a company requirement, there is little to no follow up, and basically have no consequence. Ask some nurse friends, friends that work in engineering companies, lawyers, etc. Many professions and professionals are rewarded for how much money they bring in, not necessarily on how well they perform for their clients.
Merit pay for professionals is often in the form of year-end bonuses based around concrete goals. I have yet hear anyone say how a teacher could be fairly and objectively evaluated for merit. This includes hearing interviews with Peter Cowley from the Fraser Institute, where I believe his best response is that merit pay is better than nothing at all, even if the evaluations have problems associated with them. Aside from costing the taxpayers more money in handing out bonuses, I’m not sure that merit pay will result in better education.
BC already has a lot of flexibility in its education system with Charter Schools. Between Mar 2002 and Mar 2004 I was on contract to a BC First Nation. They had a Charter School in the village. It was a large modern building in which 350 – 400 Grade 1 to Grade 12 students were taught. I toured the school and it appeared to be well equipped.
One of the first things I noticed was that several dozen children left the village every morning to go to school a non-native school several miles away that was run by the BC Ministry of education. During the first summer, the Vancouver Sun published their school ranking. The village school was ranked 249th in the Province. I began to talk to the people I worked with about the school.
Most said that if they had a choice, they would not send their children there, but there were a limited number of places in the non-native school several miles away. Others said that many families moved out of the village to Campbell River, Nanaimo or Victoria so that they could get their children into better schools.
During my second year, I started to get through to the Senior Citizens who lived in the village. A number of the men said that they had gone to residential schools and they were of the opinion that they had received a better education than was being given in the village school. One elderly gentleman said, “I got a real Grade 12 Certificate from residential school. It got me into a trade school and I became a 1st Class Diesel Mechanic. These kids can’t even get into Community College with their village Grade 12 and if by chance they do get accepted, they flunk out at Christmas.”
We don’t actually have Charter Schools in BC. The school you worked at was likely a federal Band School. Your experiences are interesting. Alberta and some States in the USA have them. What do others think of Charter Schools?
Jamie, are you sure that 500,000 people move in and out of Ontario each year? Do you have a reference?
Oops, Richard, is your comment above in the wrong thread? I don’t see any reference to Ontario migration in Jamie’s comment.
I see it now. Richard meant to reply to one of Jamie’s other comments. Scan down the page a bit to see where this should go if you’re interested in this conversation.
While at university I did a term paper on the French education system. That country had an extensive debate on flexible curriculums in schools. It resulted in the creation of two streams in high school called, “professional” and” non-professional”.
The professional stream did not put emphasis on Math, Grammar and Composition, while the non-professional did. At the end of Grade 8 students and parents would chose a stream. This was the flexible part. After Grade 12, students from the professional stream were only equipped to go to trade school or work. Graduates from the non-professional stream were equipped to go to university.
A number of social analysts looked at what the flexible system had become during the nineteen sixties. Their books were used as source documentation for the term paper.
The social analysts found that a large number of schools didn’t offer the two streams because, it was too expensive. Schools offering only the professional stream tended to be located in inner city immigrant slums, adjacent to industrial parks and in substance farming areas. Where only the non-professional stream was offered, these schools tended to be located in areas of cities that had under gone extensive urban renewal, in the new above average income suburbs and in agricultural areas that specialized in cash crops.
The system we have here is similar. I would say the public schools would be the professional and the private would be the non- professional. Public school students in other parts of the province don’t go on to University and private do. Except it’s the opposite, here where only the private schools can afford things like art, music, drama, extracurricular programs, libraries and computers. I haven’t seen any schools outside of the lower mainland have any of the resources the Vancouver schools and outlying districts have.
The OECD provides an interesting comparison of education systems in the developed nations and this volume describes in detail differences in the structure of the institutions and the approach to learning. http://www.oecd.org/document/13/0,3343,en_2649_35845621_46538637_1_1_1_1,00.html
This is one of the best references I have come across that can be downloaded free of charge.
While the French education is not described in the same detail, a lot of information is presented on various countries including Canada, USA, Finland, Germany etc. The surprising performance of Finnish 15 year olds on the international PISA testing in reading, math and science has many countries focusing on the Finnish system, including surprised Finns themselves. Also, it notes education advances in Asia (Shanghai,Singapore in addition to the the usual stars like Korea and Japan) who are top performers. What I found interesting is the description of Germany’s education system with its early (age 11) streaming compared to Finland where a trades/technical education choice is delayed to age 16. German investment in education is actually below the OECD average which is surprising given their economic powerhouse status. Perhaps some of this can be explained by the dual system where carrier students learn on the job with a potential employer while also going to school. Choice has a different meaning when students can choose if they want to get a university or trades or business education. By the time a German trades student graduates he/she has usually already apprenticed with the firm and has good possibilities of being hired permanently. In the Finnish education system it is still possible for a student in the trades stream to cross over to the academic (university entrance stream) by completing the requisite courses like additional languages, higher level math and writing etc. For a detailed comparison of French and German education click on this link: http://bibliothek.wz-berlin.de/pdf/2009/i09-506.pdf
While one can learn from the example of a first nation elder seeing some value in the old residential school training helping to obtain an eventual job in Diesel engine maintenance, a dual streaming education like what is offered to students in Finland would go a long way to helping First Nations to achieve greater success if it can be combined with their highly regarded arts and crafts. The Finns value the arts a music as much as math/science education and try to promote both.
I am concerned that with increased choice students will elect for courses that are not their best interest in the long term.
After reading some of the other posts here I have some additional thoughts. Firstly, Flexibility means that students have the ability to access courses in many ways. That is, they may take a course in a structured timetabled classroom, they may take a course online and they may take a distance paper based course. Our district offers the first two options and a fourth alternative, We also offer courses which are hybrid online and face to face. The challenge for the courses I teach are being able to teach students who are not ready for the course material, I have prepared Unit Zero activities to help students. I advise students who don’t have the skills to master my Unit Zero activities to take a preparatory course. However, the ministry does not provide funding for those courses.
Randolph, can you tell us more about your Unit Zero activities? What are these, exactly?
I should have said in my posts that I that I am a teacher working at School District 40. My students take online courses through virtualschoolbc.ca and accessnewwest.ca. My students are adults and students under 19.
I teach Math and Physics. Many of my adult math students are taking courses because they did not choose the math courses that needed to pursue their goals. They chose math courses which would give them graduation. Many say that they wish they knew what the outcome of their choices were when they were in high school.
They say that now, in hindsight, but if you had told that to them back then when they were younger and still in high school, they might not have taken you seriously. If they had taken the ‘correct’ math, because they were supposed to, would they take it seriously and passed, or failed, or done just enough to get a passing grade? Might they have ended up having to restudy their high school math anyway, because they didn’t do it very well when in high school?
Now they study math by their own choice, and they are still very young. ‘Now’ is their time to learn. What is so tragic about that?
Standardization in education should not be automatically viewed as evil. It allows students to develop their identity by being with their peers in spite of transfers and moves within school districts, from one district to another and between provinces and countries. That in itself is a lot of flexibility.
Each year over 500,000 people move in and out of Ontario. Many of them are school aged children. Once Ontario had 13 years of school and the other nine provinces had 12 years. This caused enormous problems for school children.
Many developed acute inferiority complexes because they had to go back a year when moving to Ontario. It caused many students to be rejected by their new environment, because they went ahead a year when arriving from Ontario. That province has now standardized its curriculum to fit into 12 years and this has had many beneficial effects.
Before the BC Ministry of education embarks on a program of increased flexibility an effort should be made to bring all schools in BC up to a standard level. Many times I’ve seen the Vancouver Sun publish rankings for schools around the Province and it is amazing to see the low level of quality in many places. One can’t help but think how are individuals from those schools going to be able to compete for places in post-secondary institutions?
I agree. So many classrooms cannot read. Despite being in grade 3,4,5,6. The teachers can’t teach them, they have 7 or so special needs students and always a few severe behavior students. When you have a student in the back of your room throwing tables you’re not about to start reading groups! That is in no way an exaggeration, and for some teachers a daily reality.
I lived through that reality!
I’m concerned that “flexibility” is just another word for choice. Choice in education, especially school choice, leads to charter schools, vouchers and other marketization of education schemes. Flexibility used in this manner means that those who can afford “choice”, that is, can afford to be “flexible” will be able to afford the resources to be successful. Flexibility within a dynamic, fully funded and resourced public education system will positively define BC’s school system–flexibility that encourages the establishment of independent schools or requires children to have the latest and greatest gadgets so that they can “learn” will further cement a class based society with far more losers than winners.
If flexible learning opportunities means that schools are open for 12-16 hours a day and weekends, offer complete wrap around child care and meal programs, provide opportunities for “night school” and use of the physical resources [labs, workshops, kitchens etc] so that learners can access educational programs at any time then I’m all for it.
If flexible learning opportunities means more online, distributed e-learning initiatives replacing highly qualified teachers who establish caring relationships and design learning activities and programs that meet the needs of learners then no, we don’t need more flexibility.
In my view, flexible learning opportunities requires an assurance that one on one healthy learning oriented teacher-student relationships are created to meet the needs of all learners.