THE SCHOOL AND THE TEACHER IN THE PERIOD OF CHANGE by Oficyna Wydawnicza "Impuls"

THE SCHOOL AND THE TEACHER IN THE PERIOD OF CHANGE

Jolanta Szempruch

THE SCHOOL AND THE TEACHER IN THE PERIOD OF CHANGE

Krak贸w 2010

Reviewer: prof. zw. dr hab. Andrzej Radziewicz-Winnicki

Proofread: Elżbieta Możdżeń

Cover design: Ewa Beniak-Haremska

Translated by: Joanna Śliż

Financed by: Wyższa Szkoła Ekonomii i Innowacji in Lublin

ISBN 978-83-7587-390-0

Oficyna Wydawnicza „Impuls” 30-619 Kraków, ul. Turniejowa 59/5 tel. (12) 422-41-80, fax (12) 422-59-47 www.impulsoficyna.com.pl, e-mail: impuls@impulsoficyna.com.pl Wydanie I, Kraków 2010

Contents Preface ..............................................................................................

Part 1 Social and educational changes vs. school functioning 1. Knowledge and education in shaping the learning society ...................... 2. The role of education in developing key competences with regard to entrepreneurship .............................................................. 3. The operation of a school undergoing reform, the assessment of the school and its restructuring eďŹ&#x20AC;orts ................................................ 4. Polish school in the face of challenges posed by the knowledge-based society .............................................................. 5. Nurture vs. the challenges of the present day and the future ................... 6. The school development program in the context of the goals and tasks of education ..........................................................

13 21 31 43 55 63

Part 2 The teacher in a school undergoing reform 1. Competences vs. professional development of a teacher .......................... 2. The directions for model solutions in teacher education .......................... 3. Subjectivity of a teacher, students and parents as an instrument of school improvement and remodeling .................................................. 4. Innovative activities of the teacher as a prerequisite for school improvement and development ............................................... 5. Axiological and ethical dilemmas of a teacher faced with the threats of the contemporary world ............................................ 6. ReďŹ&#x201A;ections on the professionalism of a teacher .......................................

75 85 95 107 119 129

Bibliography ..................................................................................... 139

Preface We are living in a time of perpetual and profound change that compels us to set and achieve new goals, acquire new competences and overcome new obstacles. Changeability that creates the image of the contemporary world encompasses all aspects of social life. The ways that determine our future – communicating, learning, living, working and entertainment – are undergoing changes. And in order to cope with these changes society must be prepared to solve both individual and society-wide problems. School is to be a contributing factor in this preparation as it constitutes the main element of the educational change and is an important environment for maturing children and youth. It is also an educational and culture-making community for parents and the local community. In the current social situation it is both school roles and the means of educational operation that are subject to change. School generates internal changes and reacts to transformations in various fields outside. It should foster the development of an individual, his/her attitudes and skills that constitute conceptual, critical and creative thinking as well as his/her ability to manage own development and the choice of life path. It is to introduce values into the world, pass on and popularize the achievements of science and disseminate cultural wealth. In the school practice and model several aspects should dominate: multifaceted activity, subjectivity, individualization of the teaching process, collaboration between all the subjects, self-management and equality of opportunity. School is becoming a strategic institution for the society that is informational, knowledge-based and engaged in lifelong learning. The core of its existence lies not only in knowledge transfer, but most importantly in teaching the skill of living in a world of multiplicity and informational contradictions as well as in a world of conflict of values and interests. Finding a place in the new educational reality is a challenge also for the teacher, who is expected to be independent, demonstrate a high degree of pedagogical and psychological knowledge and exhibit creativity in organizational, executive and evaluative competences. In the new educational context the teacher is assigned the role of a creator and executor of changes in the educational process. It is the teacher’s educational background, personal qualifications and motivation to act that determine the effects of the didactic and educational work of school.

Preface

Creative and engaged in the transformation processes, the teacher is becoming the pillar of modern school and faces new tasks meant to make school more attractive and equip students with tools necessary to understand the learning society. The process of educational changes and school improvement demands from the teacher the capability of self-reflection. It also requires self-evaluation of the effectiveness of undertaken activities in the past and is the basis for planning further professional development. It is expected that the teacher should become a student adviser and partner in searching values, gaining knowledge and developing skills and competences. The high level of pedagogical culture, organizational culture and professional competence should have a positive impact on developing interests and aptitudes of students and facilitate communication with other teachers, students, their parents and the local community. Forming transparent social bonds that would give individuals a sense of security, belonging and purpose and empowering individuals to function well in new circumstances are indispensable. Understanding the world – managing self is the motto of contemporary education. It encompasses a wide range of rights and obligations of all subjects of education. Understanding this and the willingness to collaborate will define the image of the Polish school of the 21st century. The modern teacher should facilitate exploration of the realistic world and present its complexity and its complicated ways of functioning. Through promoting innovative learning, which to a large degree is replacing adaptive education, it is possible to exert influence on this world. This publication is divided into two parts. The first part depicts the transformations that determine the operation of contemporary school and education. The problems presented magnify the issues of social and educational changes that take place in the contemporary school. It reveals the challenges that a school faces and describes the transformations of its model which facilitate completion of new tasks. The second part depicts matters that pertain to changes and challenges associated with professional activity of a teacher. He/she should organize the didactic-educational process according to the modern principles of education policy and practice as well as effectively fulfill the roles and tasks that lead to creative participation in social life. The teacher should also show young individuals the way to independence and responsibility in seeking and understanding their own place in the world. The articles presented here have been previously published in Polish journals and collective works. They have been elaborated and modified to consider the changing educational realities. The need to compile these papers so that the presented reflections may be synthesized and may encourage continuous exploration and the necessity to improve school operation and teacher activity are beyond dispute.

Preface

The publication is addressed to all those who are interested in school and teacher activity in a time marked by dynamic social changes. Therefore, the readership is likely to include those who are professionally associated with education â&#x20AC;&#x201C; teachers, school principals, subject instructors, research workers, members of the school supervisory body and educational administrators as well as current and prospective students in teacher training institutions. Due to the social importance of the issues discussed here, the publication may become a source of inspiration to all Readers who are interested in school improvement and pedagogical progress and independently seek innovative solutions in this matter.

Part

Social and educational changes vs. school functioning

1 Knowledge and education in shaping the learning society Education is not only a social expenditure but an economic and political investment. UNESCO Report. Learning. The treasure within.

The civilization breakthrough of the 20th and 21st century not only raises hopes but also increases fears. According to the report by the Council of the Club of Rome entitled The first global revolution. How to survive1, the breakthrough, with respect to the scope, radicalism and depth, resembles the critical shift from agricultural to industrial societies, yet it is far more violent. It involves a great acceleration of social, cultural and economic changes and numerous processes, of which the following are gaining particular significance: 1) globalization of life and internationalization of problems to be solved; 2) shift towards the information society – based on knowledge; 3) shift towards the long-term, anticipatory and innovative thinking; 4) disturbances in the technological and scientific progress. Education faces many challenges that will determine its developmental directions. They involve: overcoming the lack and asymmetry of information, improving the information transmission process, acknowledging new problems that emerge in nation states, eliminating social exclusion, developing the civil society and welfare, and mitigating market failure by state interventions that are conducive to development of markets and competition2. Global problems are the source of uncertainty, anxiety and new educational tasks. They involve issues such as protection of peace and domestic and international security, an increase in world population and its migration, a low impact of values and social attitudes on lifestyle and the course of events in the world, 1 2

A. King, B. Schneider, The ﬁrst global revolution. How to survive, London 1991. A. Łukaszewicz, Punkty zwrotne w rozwoju współczesnej gospodarki światowej, Przyszłość, Świat – Europa – Polska 2006, No. 1, p. 48.

Part 1. Social and educational changes vs. school functioning

degradation of natural environment, the growing social inequalities on the national and international level, health menace, increase of modern-age disease and social dysfunctions, and the rise in unemployment. There are new aspects of changes arising in Poland which are connected with the transformation of the political system, the process of its formation, achievements and difficulties with implementation. In international reports and documents, education is presented as a means of overcoming tensions and discrepancies between the global and the local, the universal and the individual, the material and the spiritual, the traditional and the modern, the temporary and the long-term. In the report The world ahead. Our future in the making, F. Mayor emphasizes that strategies of human development giving priority to education facilitate the noticeable betterment of life; therefore, lifelong learning for all will be one of the basic guidelines of culture contract. It is a great challenge that needs to change into a great agenda of the 21st century [...] of civic education and true equality of opportunity for all3. Education, which is interpreted as a means of establishing both the spiritual and the material realm, should protect an individual from many anti-values, negative occurrences and threats of human existence. In modern days, the detachment between the increasing complexity of the world and our ability to cope with it is becoming more apparent. The advance in our abilities can not keep pace with the intensification of man-inspired entanglements4. The magnitude and pace of transformations as well as the build-up of information and knowledge lead to tiredness and confusion. They often result in the inability to comprehend and assess situations, cognitive, ethical and aesthetic relativism, and losing the footholds in learning and estimating. This confusion of the modern individual reaffirms the need to build a knowledge-based society. The primary determining agent of the rising society is access to data and information as well as competences related to processing information into knowledge, effective distribution and practical application5. The notion of a knowledge-based society is connected with the criticism of modernism as the notion of the world created by the industrial revolution. It became a strategy that has enabled both individuals and social groups to better cope with the threats of the contemporary world. In a publication by the Komitet Prognoz Polska 2000 Plus przy Prezydium PAN entitled Droga Polski do roku 2025 “it is suggested that over the next twenty years the primary goal of development is to usher Poland into an era of information civilization, in other words, to build an information-based society [...] the 3 4 5

F. Mayor, The world ahead. Our future in the making, Paris 2001. J. W. Botkin, M. Elmandjra, M. Malitza, No limits to learning. Bridging the human gap? A Report to the Club of Rome, Oxford 1979. A. Toﬄer, Powershift, New York 1990.

1. Knowledge and education in shaping the learning society

main priority for strategic endeavors should be establishing a knowledge-based economy”6. Creating a knowledge-based learning society magnifies the complexity of educational problems. The questions that arise are: Can education define the new role of school in building and serving the knowledge-based society? Would that lead to the marginalization of the role of education? What educational innovations must be introduced in order for the expectations of the learning society to be satisfied? The education system has a key role in creating the learning society and knowledge-based economy. Its fundamental aspect is formal education and gaining knowledge as part of an everyday economic activity. The economic prosperity of particular regions and organizations is becoming the result of their ability to mobilize numerous institutions to actions that promote learning. The mutual interaction of the “everyday” and formal education is the key to solving some central problems of the learning economy. Consequently, the acquisition of abilities can be the result of formal training in schools and universities, learning by fulfilling duties as well as a combination of these methods. The ability to learn is of fundamental importance. It is projected that in the future its breakdown will determine the economic destiny of individuals, regions and organizations. This has far-reaching implications for the education and training system. In order to face these challenges, one must combine these new pedagogical methods with the detailed analysis of the socio-economic changes and organization theory. Creating a knowledge-based society requires promoting new and basic skills and attitudes, ensuring a better access to education, in particular to lifelong learning, and using protective social strategies. This society emerges from the merging of four independent factors: (1) “producing” knowledge, or scientific achievements, which are the result of scientific research; (2) conveying knowledge using educational and training systems; (3) popularizing knowledge using innovative information and communication technologies; (4) applying knowledge for innovation and technological advancement7. Thanks to changes occurring in the world due the dissemination of information and network technology throughout societies and economies, new opportunities for generating, obtaining, storing, and conveying information and knowledge arise. There is a new paradigm of thinking based on systems and networks that emphasizes the connections, linkages and the complexity of relations in the net. Creating new knowledge using new methods is a challenge for science, economy and education8.

6 7 8

Droga Polski do roku 2025, Komitet Prognoz Polska 2000 Plus, Warszawa 2005, p. 84. A. Karpiński, Przyszłość gospodarki opartej na wiedzy w Polsce a rynek pracy, Biuletyn Polska 2000 Plus 2004, No. 1, pp. 20–21. L. Zacher, Przyszłość myślenia strategicznego w społeczeństwie opartym na wiedzy, Przyszłość. Świat – Europa – Polska 2005, No. 12, pp. 55–56.

Part 1. Social and educational changes vs. school functioning

Strategic thinking and strategic intelligence, which may be ascribed not only to individuals but also to groups and organizations, are the prerequisites for building the knowledge society. “The knowledge worker”, a new category of worker, emerges in the labor market. His/her attributes include: (1) high qualifications, which usually translate into higher education, (2) a high degree of specialization (3) a capacity for independent work and creativity9. In view of the diverse educational challenges, questions regarding the future of the excluded population arise. An important challenge of improving development in the world is the betterment of life for all those whose lives are marked not only by a lack of success but also a lack of hope that this success will ever be enjoyed. Therefore, what should be addressed is the need for raising the educational level of society, adapting the qualifications to the needs of the information civilization, provoking the education system to respond to the rise of new occupations and specializations, and retraining both employed and unemployed adults. Equally important is the growing need for expanding the role, tasks and quality of extracurricular activities that constitute parallel learning. Still, the portion of GDP allocated to education is insufficient. What must be achieved in Poland is the complete integration of education system and the contemporary labor market. Innovative learning and actions, which comprise such essential elements as participation in social and productive life as well as anticipation of the upcoming changes, are a necessary response to the occurring changes. When considering the role of knowledge and education in shaping the learning society, one must stress the fact that just because information reaches a person in the form of diverse content and messages of variable quality, it is does not necessarily constitute knowledge in and of itself. The messages may, however, point to a path that leads to knowledge, and they may also animate its vision as well as shape its image and foundation. Therefore, developing the skill to critically select information and process it into knowledge as well as narrowing the gap between the amount of information received and the ability to comprehend and evaluate are an important educational task. Of equal priority in education is preserving the essential axiological themes; otherwise, the outcome may create a heartless and insensitive individual, who is deprived of a sense of morality and human nature yet possesses a number of abilities and skills10. Moving from information to knowledge it is worth mentioning that the primary distinguishing mark of empirical scientific knowledge is the high degree

9 10

A. Karpiński, Przyszłość gospodarki..., op. cit., pp. 20–21. U. Ostrowska, Wiedza i mądrość jako wartość edukacji akademickiej [in:] Wiedza i mądrość w edukacji akademickiej, Szczecin 2007, pp. 22–24.

1. Knowledge and education in shaping the learning society

of informational content, which implies the possibility of testing knowledge, including its falsifiability, that is, negative testing11. Even though the term knowledge has been used for thousands of years, there is no universally acknowledged system of its description or classification. The traditional definition of knowledge states that it is a high-quality, justifiable and judgment-based conviction, and in a wider sense, it is a source of information, news, ideas, beliefs, and personal convictions which are of cognitive and/or practical value. Economic models perceive knowledge as: (1) gathering and processing information necessary to make economic decisions, (2) an element of assets which contributes to production through innovation and developing abilities. In an OECD report entitled Knowledge management in the learning society, knowledge is divided into four categories: 1) know-what refers to knowledge about facts and it is close to what is considered information; it may transmitted via data and bits; 2) know-why refers to knowledge about principles and laws of nature, both in the human mind and society; 3) know-how refers to skill or ability to do something. It pertains to worker skills but it also plays a part in the higher level of managing and generating knowledge by scientists; 4) know-who refers to those who have knowledge and it depicts that knowledge. It also refers to social relationships and communication with outside experts12. Knowledge leads to wisdom, which is one of the dianoethic virtues highlighted by Aristotle in his grouping of intellectual virtues. Expert knowledge plays an important role in wisdom, which may be pronounced if it meets at least several criteria, i.e., its scope encompasses considerable declarative knowledge, ample procedural knowledge, contextualizm in problem consideration, relativism which does not exclude acknowledging certain values as universal, and the awareness of uncertainty and deficiency of knowledge13. Beginning from the age of Aristotle, a clear distinction between two types of wisdom is made: theoretical-physiological wisdom, which is revealed thorough thinking, especially when considering general matters, and practical wisdom, which is combined with experience. The principal issue here is that the essence of wisdom lies not in the assumption that an individual has possessed all the necessary knowledge of that which should be known, but in fact that he/she has a rather explorative approach to the world, which is ceaselessly being discovered and is aware of the limitations of knowledge in view of the Socratic belief I know that I know nothing. 11 12 13

K. Popper, The logic of scientiﬁc discovery, New York 1959. Knowledge management in the learning society, Paris 2000. Z. Pietrasiński, Człowiek dorosły jako przedmiot i podmiot współczesnych przemian [in:] Wprowadzenie do andragogiki, ed. T. Wujek, Warszawa 1996, pp. 33–34.

Part 1. Social and educational changes vs. school functioning

Wisdom, therefore, is conditioned by knowledge of the unknown. In that sense conscious ignorance is the way to achieve wisdom. The essence of wisdom does not lie in the wealth of possessed knowledge as even Heraclitus himself noted that to know much is not enough to be a wise man. Wisdom includes possessing knowledge and enormous intellectual capabilities, but it is not defined by them. Rather, wisdom is an attribute which an individual may attain en route to his/her own personal development. Thus, another important educational task is to instill independent, critical and creative thinking in an individual. This would enable him/her to pose problem solutions, learn and explore reality from multiple perspectives, and foster independent and critical thinking. The individual is expected to be capable of appreciating the achievements of others, not succumbing to suggestions, rejecting unauthentic role models, predicting the consequences of own actions, as well as engaging in constructive introspection. Therefore, it may be stated that the core of wisdom is the acquired and the constantly verified general learning culture as well as noticing the importance of issues and understanding their context14. In the learning society it has been accepted that technology facilitates the spread of certain types of knowledge; however, the networks of interpersonal relationships constitute the primary factor determining access to information and theoretical knowledge, since that which is published electronically may not necessarily lead to the immediate understanding of knowledge on the part of the receiver15. The access may be limited by absorption capabilities as well as the lack or imperfections of information technology. In psychological theories of learning, it is the learning by an individual that is considerably emphasized; in the changing society, however, it is collaborative learning and team skills that are underlined16. According to the notion of “a learning organization”, the factors that influence the pace of learning include: internal procedures, structural organization, the implementation of adequate structures and coexistence of five elements, i.e., personal excellence, modes of thinking, building a shared vision of the future, team learning and systematic thinking. It is becoming increasingly common to classify schools as knowledge organizations, in which knowledge is heavily used, and the individual members possess a large resource of knowledge. Thus, it is worth to distinguish two not mutually exclusive areas in which knowledge production takes place, i.e., (1) universities, institutions of higher learning, research institutes, technical institutes, and research departments in companies;

14 15 16

U. Ostrowska, Wiedza i mądrość..., op. cit., pp. 27–28; Z. Pietrasiński, Mądrość czyli świetne wyposażenie umysłu, Warszawa 2001. Knowledge management..., op. cit. P. Senge, The ﬁfth discipline. The art and practice of the learning organization, New York 1990.