Why do we need competence-based education?
Europeans
should be more interested in the future of Europe if they want benefits for the
youth in their own countries. Those experiencing a high rate of youth
unemployment must urgently adopt different measures, otherwise violence, youth
unemployment, lack of interest in school, anxiety about the future and lack of
confidence will increase among youngsters.
Knowledge is not enough if we want to engage ourselves
for more democracy and more equity at school and if we want to prepare our
youth for lifelong learning.
To develop a competence-based education - including training and assessment
of teachers and students, it is necessary to implement following steps:
1. Self-evaluation
of schools :
Involvement of
students,
teachers, parents and school leaders in a collegial work.
As you know, one of the successful practices in Finland
is based on this method, while most of the countries still have inspection
bodies.
At the end of
the Nineties, a European project was launched in several European countries by
the European Commission. This pilot project was called “evaluating quality in
school education”. One of the tools was a practical guide to self-evaluation.
I had the opportunity to use the “self-evaluation profile” and to put the proposed
self-evaluation questionnaire into practice in my school three times. On the next slide you can read all the aspects of
school life that were examined by all the partners. Each time about 50
representatives/delegates of students, parents, and teachers and 5 members of
the leadership team had to answer all questions. Then we evaluated the
weaknesses and strengths together and prepared the school development plan for
the following 3 years. (More information on the self-evaluation profile here.)
If we want to
give students and parents new roles and responsibilities, the first step is to
involve them in the internal evaluation of the school.
2. Distributed
school leadership and
autonomy are required to enable individualised
learning
To change
learning methods at my school and to remind my teachers of this fact, I posted
this statement on the door of the teacher’s room in our school: (Joyce, B.R. & Showers, B) :
·
5% of learners will transfer a new skill into their
practice as a result of theory.
·
10% will transfer a new skill into their practice as a
result of theory and demonstration.
·
20% will transfer a new skill into their practice as a
result of theory, demonstration and practice.
·
25% will transfer a new skill into their practice as a
result of theory, demonstration, practice and feedback.
·
90% will transfer a new skill into their practice as a
result of theory, demonstration, practice, feedback and coaching.
Competence-based
learning, integrating initiative and responsibility for the learner and for all
the partners working inside and outside the school means that we no longer have a “command and control policy” from the centre, no longer a vertical
hierarchy.
Instead of one huge institution (in France 1,5 Mio employees in the same
ministry), we need to implement a
“school-based innovation”, allowing personalized learning with :
·
not on “age” but “stage”
approach
·
“bottom up” instead of
“top-down”
·
"empowerment
", allowing teachers and school heads
to have expanded responsibilities.
·
3 long terms replaced by 5 or 6 terms
·
flexible time management in the school : variable
blocks of time are a flexible resource for teachers
·
a new design for buildings and learning spaces,
·
flexible student groups
If we want to change the internal structure of the schools respecting
these new rules, some experiments – like
Slash 21 in
the Netherlands - show us that 13 years old students are able to choose what
they want to learn, able to decide when and how, able to know why, connecting
learning with their own future...
If we keep our rigid organization based on classes, where teaching is
the same for all, we will still have thousands of students dropping out each
year.
3. Teacher recruitment
:
Access to studies leading to become a teacher must be
selective because this profession requires personal and social skills. The choice
of candidates should not only be based on purely intellectual criteria, but
including "soft skills".
Among the
six "soft skills",
which are usually required by employers, five are developed through involvement
in youth organizations: communication,
teamwork, decision-making, organizational skills and self-confidence.
The influence of "Informal
Education": long-term and frequent involvement in youth work
involves high "soft skills" development.
Training abroad includes acquiring higher language skills but also
intercultural and leadership skills.
.
We have to take these skills learnt
informally or non-formally into account, because 4 of the 8 key competences are transversal and teachers must have these key
competences, to be able to collaborate with others and to work with
and within society
Teacher training must prepare for life
and work in a "learning community".
A school needs teachers with professional skills and personal
commitment, who are professionals, but also facilitators, team
members, researchers, lifelong learners, reflective practitioners ...
Future teachers have to get an approach to teaching
that goes beyond traditional subject boundaries. They also have to be trained as “leaders” in
management and finance because they will have to organize external
partnerships.
Teachers will have to recognize that “co-construction” is at the basis
of knowledge and to be aware of the necessity to integrate the influence of
non-formal and informal education.
4. Competence-based
training and assessment of teachers and school heads :
A “European” initial and in-service training will
connect the future teachers and school leaders with European institutions,
research institutes, universities, science centres, companies and associations
involved in science, arts, finance, education, etc. They will learn to work
with external partners of the school.
Collaborative
practices enable teachers and students in some European countries to develop
transversal skills mentioned among the “8 European key competences”, including science education, entrepreneurship
education, financial education.
“Science
education” is a good example. We all have to promote science education and to
motivate children and school students for science and technology because this
means more jobs and less unemployment for the young generations. I was involved in different European projects such
as “Hands on, Brains on” covering 8 European countries (among them Hungary, not
France) led by Hannu Salmi, a researcher from Finland. The project was based on
partnerships for schools particularly with science centres.
Formal,
non-formal and informal education have to converge and to shape a new
educational model and a long-term work. If we consider that a majority of the
European students spend just 200 days at school in a year and about 165 days
outside of school, we are easily convinced that not only teaching is important,
but informal learning through activities carried on by parents, cities,
associations, science centres, Universities and other partners are just as much.
I will not
reflect today on the European projects eTwinning, ELOS (Europe as a Learning
Environment) and ELICIT, for I am aware of the considerable involvement of
AEDE-Hungary in these projects aiming at developing key competences for the
future European citizen. Erasmus+ will also enable European teachers and other
staff to enhance project-based and
problem-based learning, answering trans-disciplinary questions.
Just a reminder : The Elos
Network uses the "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages "
from the Council of Europe (2000) and the “Common Framework for Europe
Competence “ providing indicators for students aged 12-19. It is based on
the" European key competences" and intends to build a concrete bridge between the core
competences and practice in schools.
The ELICIT Framework aims at
providing the conceptual framework which teacher trainers and lecturers could
refer to when designing a course curriculum for initial or in-service teacher training
= enhance European Citizenship Literacy Education by developing Competences in
7 areas: curriculum design, European culture, intercultural education,
motivation and personal development, use of ICT, school ethos and evaluation.
These forms of "European" teacher training and, concerning school leadership, the European project ESLN - European School
Leadership Network – which I was part of the steering group (in 2004-05-06)
and now the EPNoSL - European Policy Network on School Leadership – ending with the
final Conference next September, should allow our schools to implement a
“competence-based education”.
5. Cross collaborative activities between business and education world :
Self-commitment, personal development, innovation
driven by ICT - companies and schools have a lot in common and much to share. To
let students develop awareness, autonomy, the ability to make choices and take
responsibility, discover their own motivations and potential, we have to
involve companies in the daily life of the schools, to influence the design of
student learning methods and/or of school buildings, adapted to the 21st
century, enabling teachers to work with assistants, external partners,
practicing teamwork.
Benchmarking
:
We
should consider the company as "a
developer of talent”, take the European recommendations and some successful and
inspiring practices in Europe into account, mostly introduced by a
public-private partnership -- Foundation - initiating change at school:
·
“MODUS 21” school experimentation led both by the
Bavarian Ministry, companies and organizations in partnership and shared
responsibility : http://bildungspakt-bayern.de/
·
Jetnet http://www.jet-net.nl/english Jet-Net, Youth
and Technology Network Netherlands, is a joint initiative of leading Dutch
technology companies and secondary (pre-college) schools. Together they provide
students with practical content for the science curriculum, with a great
variety of activities and also allow students to gain a better understanding of
their future career prospects in industry and technology.,
·
Science
in schools : a project aiming at changing or developing science
education in schools of 11 European Countries. concerning cross collaborative
activities between Business and Education world, led by the IBM Foundation, the
European Commission, European Schoolnet,
CSR Europe, diverse European companies. I represented AEDE in the steering
group.
·
In Germany, the publishing company Universum offers teachers of economics
but also teachers of other disciplines contents in finance and social sciences
from both companies and government within the framework of the Jugend und Bildung Foundation training:
On the website “Lehrer on line” teachers find online courses, projects,
educational materials for teaching economics and finance, but also on all
social issues: :
http://www.jugend-und-bildung.de http://www.lehrer-online.de/
·
The
"Entrepreneurial Skills Pass” proposed by the Austrian Chamber of Commerce
of Vienna, WKÖ in Austria http://www.unternehmerfuehrerschein.at/Content.Node/index.en.html recognized
by the European Commission as a key device for developing all
"entrepreneurial" skills but also "intrapreneurship", that
is to say not only essential to the creative future business but also one that
will work in a company where you will also need the same skills: organization,
animation, decision making, teamwork, self-confidence, etc.
·
Developing financial literacy through private-public
partnerships, training teachers and students : CYFI Child and Youth Finance International is an NGO, working
worldwide http://childfinanceinternational.org
/to make it possible that every child can have access to financial
inclusion. By the collaborative work with a lot of partners (private and
public), they could elaborate a Learning Framework and Curriculum Certification
for financial education.
It is urgent
to develop cross-collaborative activities between the business and the education
worlds : companies should be allowed to provide training content; they also
need to be more involved in the assessment of skills when training periods are
set up.
It is urgent
to develop cross collaborative activities between business and education world:
companies should be allowed to provide training content; they also need to be
more involved in the assessment of skills when training periods are set up.
Youth unemployment is one of the main
challenges Europe is facing. To address the jobs crisis the EU’s 15-24 year
olds are facing, the European Investment
Bank has launched the “Skills and Jobs – Investing for Youth” programme, to enhance employability via “Investment in Skills”. “Without
urgent action to develop our young jobseekers into a skilled and experienced
workforce, Europe’s viability as an innovative and competitive market is at
risk. Such an exceptional problem requires a coherent and coordinated response.
The Bank’s programme is envisaged to complement … the multiple national and
regional schemes initiated by the Member
States.”
To conclude, we have reasons for hope in Europe. Other
continents envy us for the know-how we have in innovation and creativity, but if
these changes don't happen, we will fall behind.
(I was a leader of 6 different schools for 22 years, 4
in France, one in Berlin and one in Switzerland : a kindergarten, primary
schools, lower and upper secondary schools and a vocational school among them.
I have also been involved in the Executive Board of
European associations of school heads and teachers for 15 years, such as ESHA,
aand AEDE-France as well as a Council Member of the ICP, the International
Confederation of Principals. I’m also working in cooperation with the European
Parents Association (EPA) since 2000.)
Nelly Guet has recently published an e-book on the topic in French entitled: Virage européen ou mirage républicain? Quel avenir voulons-nous?
Nelly Guet has recently published an e-book on the topic in French entitled: Virage européen ou mirage républicain? Quel avenir voulons-nous?
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