Reinventing schools for contemporary education systems

¶ … schools we have today, would we create the schools we have today?" By Thomas G. Carroll addresses a very important issue in education today, which is change. Almost all thinkers in the educational field agree that change is necessary. However, there is little consensus on what form this change should take. Carroll suggests that the main form of such change should be a move towards collaborative learning. The author, however, emphasizes that the role of the teacher should not be as a sideline observer or facilitator. Instead, the teacher should act as "expert learner." Although Carroll's ideas appear viable on the surface, the resistance to change challenge is a significant one. The education system, like its administrators, is stubborn and unlikely to respond to appeals and mandates with much speed. At heart, however, few would argue that the school and education system as a whole indeed does need to change.

One of the first points that Carroll makes is that today's schools do not meet the demands of learners or the demands imposed by the changes technology has brought. Significantly, the author compares the education system with the medical profession, where the latter has made significant change according to technological and biological advances. This comparison highlights the need of the education system to make changes.

When considering the type of changes that are needed, the author emphasizes that schools will remain necessary, not because of the type of education they currently provide, but because of the nature of children. He refutes the opinion that computer technology has made schools obsolete. The nature of the economy makes schools necessary for their nature as a safe, secure environment for children in households where both parents more often than not work away from the home. The school as such an environment for children is therefore not contested. It is the way in which the environment is used that, the author feels, no longer promotes learning effectively or in a way that is relevant to the world where young people are expected to function today.

The basis of Carroll's suggestion is networked learning communities. This means that the current model, of teachers in isolation, who present information in isolated classrooms, should be replaced by an integrated model, where learners and teachers collaborate to arrive at solutions to problems. Carroll refers to classrooms as "nodes" in a network that collaborates to bring knowledge to learners, rather than learners to knowledge. Learning is then a common goal among teachers and learners.

Another interesting feature of the article is that Carroll discards both older and newer models of the teacher; where the former is the "teacher as sage" and the latter the "teacher on the side." Both separate the teacher from the learning effort and material. Instead, teachers should become part of the process by becoming learners themselves.

The main challenge is that there should be a change in thinking about learning and teaching. This is the biggest challenge, since there is an inherent resistance to change, even at as fundamental level as thinking. The many policy and rulership issues involved make a uniform shift in thinking difficult. Unlike the medical profession, education is not directly related to the world it affects. The medical profession has developed according to the immediate necessity of healing the sick and providing remedies for the broken. The teaching profession has stagnated in response to those rulers who would not engage in critical thinking or indeed relinquish their position of power.

However, authors like Carroll provide a thread of hope for a future where the education system modifies itself to become closer to the needs of the learner in a world that has become ruled by technology.

Carroll also notes that efforts have been made to include technology in schools. However, a sad dichotomy has been created as a result. Instead of creating a platform for the new paradigms of integrated, student-centered learning, I found it surprising that technology has been enforcing the older paradigms. Student isolation and teacher autonomy have been perpetuated, where there is a basic lack of collaboration in the learning process.

Although student collaboration in the teaching process is not necessarily a novel idea, integrating teachers in this process is. In all learning and teaching models, the role of the teacher has always been one of superiority in terms of knowledge. Students are regarded as subordinate, deferring to the teacher for their learning process. In Carroll's model, teachers truly become collaborators with students, working together to gain new knowledge, making an enriching experience for everyone involved. Central to this model is the sense of community.

On major challenge here is that Carroll's proposed model is so radically different from all education models developed thus far, that it is likely to meet significant resistance in educational circles. At the heart of this resistance is not necessarily only the pride of leaders and policy makers, but also the status quo and comfort zones of teachers themselves. Years and decades of habit cannot be expected to yield to one good idea by one author, regardless of how viable it appears on published, peer-reviewed paper.

The reality is also, however, that change is necessary. An increasing number of authors promote the ideal of change. One of these is Patricia Kokinos, who promotes a move away from the concept of schools as businesses, which respond to numbers and figures as their primary function. Instead, the author notes that schools much more closely resemble families than factories. This echoes Carroll's view, that integrated partnership and learning is the way forward for education in general. Specifically, Kokinos suggests that the human brain is designed to synthesize multi-factored webs of meaning, rather than a linear model of learning, which is generally promoted by the school system today. Like Carroll, the author promotes collaboration to accomplish this. Only when collaboration is complete can technology fully benefit the education process. Indeed, Kokinos suggests that schools follow a pattern that is similar to the World Wide Web, where schools, teachers, and students form an integrated whole.

Caine and Caine come to the heart of the issue when they mention that education and development today are at odds because there is no body of research to suggest what form education should take to best meet the needs of generations today and in the future. There is general uncertainty about how to integrate technology in schools. There is also uncertainty about how to fund the integration and changes required to best serve the needs of today's students. All these uncertainties culminate in suggestions such as those by Kokinos and Carroll; that a complete overhaul of the education system is required.