Leading view papers – Days 1 to 7

Duck diving or frog hopping?

 

So much – too much – about educational expectation is shallowly focused. Testing, measurement, assessment and accountability are all about educators and the systems for which they work, justifying their existence on the basis of outcomes that are verified by the formal accountability, which is systemic assessment.

From time to time, we talk about deep learning but do we really know what that is and do we really want it?

Duck diving is all about diving deep into the waters and retrieving from the depths of the learning pool. We can’t see the duck in the depths and don’t know what it has in its beak until it comes to the surface.

Frog hopping is all about jumping from one fashionable and highly visible learning pad that floats atop the water, to the next. Frog hopping is about following innovations, trends, or the latest educational fashion. This, to me, is the show business side of education and it doesn’t necessarily wash.

A huge amount of what happens in education is all about gurus who shape fashions and set trends.  Systems, and those within them, tend to follow them because it is fashionable to do so. They want to be seen to be ‘in sync’ with the latest trend.

Gurus lead, systems follow and teachers, along with students, are in the surface vanguard. Frog hopping, that is, following the trends, may be a little like being lead by the nose.

Trends need to be set and changes need to be made.  However, change and innovation for change’s sake may not be wise. I worry that there are a plague of frogs and a dearth of ducks.

Denying the chance to be deep

Learning needs to be academic. Children (and my frame of reference is education for primary school children) need to be provided for in cognitive terms. Academic learning must do more than ‘skim the surface’ in terms of opportunities offered, meaning that exploration and delving into the ‘what’s, why’s and wherefore’s’ is important. I think, at times, that learning opportunities are superficial, without children being offered the chance for in-depth understanding.

Part of that comes from the fact that curriculum is wide ranging and hugely extensive in terms of the demands placed on teachers about what needs to be covered.  Teachers constantly talk of the fact they don’t have the time to adequately cover all the curriculum requirements and that tends to promote learning that ‘surface skims’ or frog hops. There is just no time to go into things in depth.  While correlation and integration mean that strands of learning can be linked, that methodology, too, has its limitations.

Another reason for teachers and educators believing that learning can’t be more than conceptually skin deep, is based on the fact that demands are made on schools about what needs to be taught. Schools and their teachers are constantly bombarded with mandates that countless initiatives are incorporated into the school curriculum; with teachers being the implementers of the inputs and outcomes that will supposedly derive from their offer (by teachers) and absorption (by students). When schools and staff are seen not to be jumping in response to these demands, they cop major media shellacking. The blame for so many ills and shortfalls is laid squarely at the school door, and at teachers in classrooms.

Too many ideas emanating from ivory towers are thrown down at schools with little or no thought given to the long-term consequences. Demands made descend like sheets of torrential rain. As a school principal, I sometimes feel myself to be an umbrella, trying to shield and protect my school community from the innovative torrents that rains down with scarce thought and even less establishment research having been undertaken. Gurus often don’t think things through before unloading their ideas onto schools. Schools teachers and students bear the consequences. I am not against carefully pre-thought ideas, but too much seems to be poured into schools with scant regard for the consequences. So it is that learning becomes disjointed, superficial and with little time to provide for deep learning.  Teachers and staff members become frustrated, while children wonder at the logic and the consequence of the material being presented.

The proliferation of short-term and rapidly offered initiatives, together the lack of opportunity for deep learning, leads me to believe (maybe unfairly and certainly somewhat anecdotally) that schools being on the receiving end of initiatives  comes about because  of doctoral studies and other tertiary initiatives that need testing fields.  If that is the case, then we in school become, or can become, like so many guinea pigs.

It so often seems to me that schools and teachers do not have the time and the resources to focus on deep learning.  One of the conditions required if deep learning is to take place is a support structure that limits downloading and encourages schools to dig into the substructure of learning. In agricultural terms, topsoil is dependent for its very existence and replenishment on the subsoil and what come to the surface from below. If the sub-soil is insufficient, then the topsoil is eventually lost through non-replacement and a barren landscape is the consequence. In the same way, if in-depth learning is denied and children are not able to develop full cognitive capacity, they, too, can become deprived learners.

More than academics needed

Deep seated, rather than shallowly focused, academic learning needs are, in my opinion, a necessity. But there is more. A worry to me is that deep learning must go beyond and outside the academic boundaries. Holistic education is an absolute necessity and is so often overlooked.

Beyond academics, there is a need for the social, emotional and moral/spiritual development of children and young people. That doesn’t necessarily mean an ‘add on’ to learning. These characteristics are more attitudinal and need to underpin the characteristic of the relationship between teachers and students. As a principal, my perception of dealing with young people is best offered if I am aware of the whole person. Education is about dealing with people and human development. It is more than an exercise in knowledge imparting and outcomes measurement.

A number of years ago, I worked with a student who had what it takes academically but who hugely lacked in terms of personal development. In particular, this young man would never engage in eye contact. I worked with him to overcome eye evasion and to establish within him the confidence to look people in the eye as he spoke with them. His capacity to engage in terms of social and conversational discourse developed. Many years later, at the age of 25, he came up and reintroduced himself to me at a function. We conversed and he thanked me for taking the time to help him develop his capacity to make, and retain, meaningful eye contact. That, he said, had helped him in realising his ambition to become an aeronautical engineer.

The sadness I have is that so often these days, we either don’t have, or can’t take, the time needed to develop with children, those human elements that are so important to us as social creatures. Curriculum may be wide ranging and ‘out of sight’ in terms of stretching its perimeters and boundaries but, at the same time, it denies deep learning. We don’t have the time to consider the personalities, characteristics and traits of the children with whom we are working. Rather than being ‘people’ they become ‘objects’, about whom we have a subjective disposition. This is a case of pouring in curriculum requirements rather than taking the time to work with children in a developmental sense.

Deep seated learning is caring education

In this paper I am not trying to offer contradictions but rather to focus on the establishment of priorities. On one hand, the academic side of things needs deep seated learning in order for skills and understanding appeal to be developed in an appropriated layered manner. Cognition, the implicit understanding of why we do what we do, is important. I know a young lady who once did extremely well with her year 11 studies. She passed everything with flying colours. However, at the end of the year, she expressed a desire to repeat the year. When asked, she said that despite passing, and passing well, she didn’t understand why she had succeeded. Deep understanding was what she desired. She repeated year 11 and achieved a grasp on learning in a deep seated manner. From there, she matriculated and went on to complete two degree courses at university.

The other critically important need is to develop children in a holistic manner. There is more to life and academics, superficial and deep seated.

There is a whole vista of personality needs that should be recognised and met if our young people are to grow into confident, competent, caring and empathetic adults. Deep-seated learning that takes into account the development of people with a strong sense of group will realise a synergy that will help enrich tomorrow’s women and men.

I wonder whether that will come to pass or whether we will continue to grow balkanised individuals who put self before others. That’s superficial and shallow and doesn’t belong in the realm of deep education.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mr Henry Gray commenced his teaching career in 1970, having entered training college as a mature-age student. He taught in remote, town and urban schools in both Western Australia and the Northern Territory. His principalship in WA and NT schools encompasses the past 35 years. He holds several degrees. Mr Gray is a member of various relevant professional associations and was president of the Northern Territory Principals’ Association from 1992 until 1996. He has undertaken research into the role of school-based police and completed a major study (1997) on the subject of ‘Student Councils Organisations Empowering Primary School Students as Decision Makers’. His concern is that the human side of education must always remain at the forefront of teaching and learning. Schools should always be for children and students.

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