5 minute read
The current educational landscape
Jonathan Walter
Principal
Through COVID-19, we have had a glimpse of an alternative future for education: one which embraces technology and the flexibility it affords us, and which has the potential to meet the individual learning needs of each child.
An education system which genuinely caters to individuals is something I’ve thought a lot about during my 28 years as an educator. For some time, I’ve felt that Australia’s current system is not meeting the needs of our students as well as it could.
Across the country, nearly a third of students are chronically absent from secondary school and one in five students don’t complete Year 12. Additionally, a 2019 study by O’Connell, Milligan and Bentley showed that one in four young people at the age of 24 are still not fully participating in education or employment. It is clear that not all students are connecting with our current schooling system. Our system ranks children against their peers and doesn’t place enough value on the skills and pathways beyond school that reflect the needs of society or the interests of the individual students. It is outdated and needs to evolve.
What are the skills our students need?
There is increasing acknowledgement from a growing number of educational professionals, leading educational researchers and writers, as well as authorities like the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, that the current model of education has limitations when it comes to preparing our students for the future. The current emphasis is on high-stakes testing, which reveals achievements and progress in only a narrow set of skills, particularly those that lend themselves to the recall of information under time constraints. The existing assessment tools do not provide scope to acknowledge the broader range of strengths a student has or wishes to develop, and, in many cases, supresses an individual’s creativity and imagination.
Students must develop capabilities that go beyond literacy, numeracy and the use of information technology. This requires authentic, challenging learning tasks that are relevant and engaging for the student and develop broader social skills of communication, collaboration and ethical behaviour.
If the pandemic has shown us anything, it is that the capacity to be creative, caring and empathetic are important skills that society needs. Students need to have the ability to solve problems, think critically and find creative solutions to previously unseen problems, and they must learn to do this in a genuinely collaborative way. All students have varying skills, strengths, perspectives and experiences to bring to the table which are all important, all have a place in society and all need to be valued.
By rethinking our approach, we have the ability to redefine excellence – to have all students strive to be the best they can be in their area of passion, that space where they will find their own sense of purpose and belonging and be able to make a positive difference in the world.
The way forward
At Carey, we are fortunate to be in a position to support the development of multiple pathways for students that are equally valued for the contribution they will make to society. One of our greatest strengths is the breadth and diversity of experiences we offer, alongside our great ability to support each student to reach their potential and strive for excellence. It is this that we need to honour with any change we make moving forward.
Every student should be able to start their learning journey in the place that suits them, where they can progress at their own rate and experience a sense of success, even – and especially – in areas where they need more support and those where they naturally thrive. We can provide a suitable education for each student without compromising the achievements of the more academically minded students, but in doing so, we will need to redefine the set of desired outcomes for our students that are embedded in our current programs. Our students’ goals should be based on the needs of the world of tomorrow, rather than priorities we have set in the past.
I believe that the true purpose of education is to support the development of well-rounded, independently thinking young people who have a strong sense of self. Our focus must remain on striving for excellence; however, an ATAR is a limited summation of an individual’s abilities and fails to help many students understand their strengths and what pathways they should follow. If students are to leave school with recognition and understanding of their true value, we have to consider a different approach which accommodates all students.
To support all Carey students now and into the future, we must further develop the extent to which we personalise and individualise the instruction for our students; our priority must be to ensure that all students experience excellence in instruction and coaching and we must further embrace the experiential, real-world components of our program to ensure that, wherever possible, students are having the experience of actually doing and applying, making and creating, rather than just theorising and practising.
A reimagining of the way we deliver education will require flexible thinking, a change in perspective and a willingness to let go of some of the ways we have done things in the past.
As we move forward, it is important that we seek input from our community to begin a journey of improvement and ensure we are meeting the needs of our students. As such, in 2021, we will be engaging the community in a conversation to create a shared vision for Carey’s future. More information on this process will be available soon.
An education at Carey should be a journey of ever-expanding opportunities; one that opens up multiple pathways and supports our students to find and develop their independence, strengths and value as a member of society.
It will be an exciting journey for us all as we unearth the passions and strengths within each individual in our community.
