in the classroom
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“ What will your students do if you are not around to look over their shoulder ?” I knew the answer , but COVID confirmed it .
As an educator , to see students enjoying their learning – not engaged , but inspired- is the equivalent of educational nirvana . Creating this love of learning is the reason people become teachers , and it is this type of environment that attracts the best to the profession .
Students with intrinsic motivation are the real difference between the school of the industrial revolution and the 21st-century school .
The skills required to create this have been all but ignored in Australia ’ s command and control model of education , and our results have declined accordingly .
This is the side-effect of intrinsic motivation . Educators often speak about real-world skills . There is no more important skill than taking responsibility for one ’ s own actions , and this is not done with endless rules and strict discipline .
It is done by removing all of these , as happens when the student is in the real world .
Equity When Jason Clare said the education panel ’ s goal was to “ inform a better and fairer education system ”, I interpret the second part as referring to an equitable system .
One of the key reasons the Finns have done well in international rankings is that the distance between their best and worst students is less than that of other countries .
OECD ’ s ( 2018 ) analysis has revealed that when a disadvantaged student attends a school where the majority of students are not disadvantaged , by the age of 15 that student will be , educationally speaking , approximately 2.5 years ahead of students who attend schools where the majority of students are disadvantaged .
There are only four other OECD countries where a larger proportion of disadvantaged students are studying in schools where the majority of students are disadvantaged .
In Australia , based on OECD data , that figure is 52 per cent . The four other countries are Mexico , Chile , Hungary , and Brazil .
Education authors Tom Greenwell and Chris Bonnor also say too many disadvantaged students are being concentrated into communities of disadvantage .
This results in ‘ unacceptable gaps in learning [ that ] separate disadvantaged students from their more privileged peers … we are stacking the odds against the children who have the least luck in terms of the circumstances they are born into .’
Greenwell and Bonner propose a framework for Australian schools to increase parental choice ( including for religious-based schools ) and improve the inequity that afflicts the system .
They want to fully fund school entitlements under the so-called “ Gonski model ”. They propose full public funding for all non-government schools , within a commonly agreed regulatory framework .
This means non-government schools would be fully funded by the taxpayer . But they would not be able to charge their own fees .
If non-government schools don ’ t want to do this , they don ’ t have to , but there ’ s a catch .
Schools that “ continue to charge fees or reject inclusive enrolment obligations would no longer receive any public funding ”.
How will Professor Sahlberg react to this suggestion ?
Finland has no private schools . The secret to the success of Finland ’ s system is not so much the absence of private schools , but the equity in the system .
When I asked about how the school I was visiting compared to other schools , the answer was always : “ In Finland , all schools are good schools .”
As a student and teacher who spent most of his school years in the Catholic system , I was always conscious that the bible contains some 2,003 references to the poor and , aside from personal redemption , concern for the poor is the dominant motif in the whole book .
This will no doubt be in the minds of private schools as they look at this proposal .
What about the workload of Australian teachers ? The Finnish teacher rarely has more teaching hours than non-teaching .
We are paying a terrible price for our backwardslooking education system .
In a recent opinion piece , Professor Sahlberg was quick to point to the lack of correlation between the number of hours of instruction and how well students learn .
Australian children spend longer hours in primary school than their peers in any other country .
In Finland , for example , that time is 6,384 hours over 9 years of schooling . Australian students have a total of 11 years of primary and lower secondary education which equals to 11,060 instruction hours ( OECD , 2021 ).
That is more than in any other OECD country .
Professor Sahlberg suggests that we should allow children at least an hour of playtime at school ( Finnish students have a 15-minute break every 45 minutes , which ), which will not only improve learning but also help student well-being and mental health .
The Finnish student does not commence schooling ‘ till 7 years of age , they have a shorter school day and by the age of 15 , they are up to 3 years ahead of our students according to international testing .
Our penchant for national testing sends the message that we can ’ t trust the teachers .
Imagine if the government ran surveys on patients after they had seen doctors , and then ranked surgeries and hospitals on their success ( or death ?) rates .
If we want to attract the best young people to teaching , we need to ensure that teachers are seen as trusted .
Professional autonomy and trust are key to maintaining teacher numbers and quality . Why would anybody want to be a part of a profession which is not trusted and has almost zero autonomy ?
When we create a system that values and trusts teachers , the best young people will be attracted to the profession , and their professional autonomy will ensure that Australian education is always innovative , creative , student-centred and successful for all in future . ■
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