GORTT ACCREDITATION COUNCIL CONFERENCE

Seamless Education – Facilitating Lifelong Personal and Career Success for the Learner

Dr. Gwendoline Williams

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Focus of Presentation

The Changing Environmental Context for Education and Learning Globally

Definition of Seamless Education Making the Case for Seamless Education -

Development Impacts for the Learner; for the Society Critical Success Factors Practical Application – Walking the Learner Through

a Seamless Education Experience; The School in Pursuit of Delivering Seamless Education

The Way Forward -- Recommendations Conclusion2

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• Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it.

Marian Wright Edelman, President & Founder of the Children’s Defense Fund

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• Education is the single most important investment we can make for our children, our state, our economy and our future.

– State of Washington, USA 2006 – Learner Focused, Seamless Education]

The Changing Environmental Context for Education and Learning

The world our children inhabit is different, radically so, than the one that we inherited.

An increasingly open global economy requires – absolutely requires – that all of us be better educated, more skilled, more adaptable and more capable of working collaboratively.

These economic considerations alone mean that we must change the way we teach and learn…[Education provisions must be seamless… must allow for uninterrupted continuity] (Robert H. McCabe, 2001)5

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The Changing Environmental Context for Education and Learning

Globalization and the cross border new economy -- a software designer in

the UK is as likely to compete with a worker in Bangladesh as with one in

Silicon Valley.

Technology -- A grocery store stocker in Trinidad and Tobago can be linked to a

complex global supply chain where information and transactions can update in

less than a second.

Social Media – Facebook; Twitter etc.

The new economy is based on knowledge, and knowledge is

based on education, the delivery system for which must be

nimble, flexible, cost effective, open to all abilities and need of

learners.

[State of Washington, USA, 2006 – Learner Focused, Seamless Education]

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‘We will personalize learning so that every student has the opportunity to succeed – The delivery of education will be seamless’

[State of Washington, USA 2006 – Learner Focused, Seamless Education]

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Defining Seamless Education

Inclusive Education -- The openness and responsiveness of the various sectors/levels of education and training to individuals from a range of educational backgrounds and abilities in ways that facilitate personal and career development.

Mindset of Lifelong Learning – The goal is to inculcate the lifelong learning in terms of continuing education for acquiring life skills and inventiveness to the ever changing job market and wealth creating opportunities.

Openness: -- each sector, while maintaining its distinctive purposes, has multiple points of entry and exit made possible by policies, procedures and legal frameworks which facilitate movement across and between the various levels and types of education and training provision and which facilitates lifelong education.

Defining Seamless Education

Note: Absolute seamlessness is not possible.

Rather the aim is to smooth or flatten the seams in the dividing lines between the different sectors/levels of the education and training system… a shift from uniform linear progression (‘one size fits all’) to multiple, complementary entries, pathways and exits.

[NIHERST Position Paper on Seamless Education – 2004,p. 6]

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Public Policy Intent

The accent is on creating the conditions that facilitate an inclusive approach to human resource development that takes cognizance of special needs, talents, different learning styles, and socioeconomic circumstances in a context in which high standards are set for all students.

Due cognizance is given to ‘multiple intelligences’ of the learner and the special needs of differently abled from pre-primary to post secondary/tertiary levels of education

[NIHERST, 2004 – Design of a Seamless System of Education and Training in Trinidad and Tobago]

Major Goals of Seamlessness

Smoothing student transitions from one level of learning to the next within and between levels of the education system, ‘from the cradle to the grave’.

Closing the achievement gap between differing groups of learners – boys and girls in the middle primary etc.

Strengthening relationships between families, schools and communities in sharing responsibility for effective learning.

Creating the widest possible range of learning experiences and opportunities for whatever the abilities, needs and interests, especially at points of exits and entry to succeeding levels of the education system – improving readiness for post secondary, vocational and tertiary education (Noeth & Wimberly, 2008)

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Major Goals of Seamlessness

The goal is to develop:

‘…. educational pathways for continuous learning from early childhood through primary, secondary, tertiary levels and beyond’.

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Vision for Effective Schooling and Education through Seamlessness in Education Delivery

“Promoting appropriate attitudes and skills to develop a healthy, learning and innovative society with the capacities to utilize modem technologies and knowledge, to work cooperatively to optimize the nation's resources, and diversify the economy in a socially responsible and sustainable manner: and to be regionally and globally competitive in a wide range of areas”.

Making the Case for Seamless Education – Sustainable National Development Impacts

Quality education -- optimum development of the learner ensuring the highest quality of life for economic wellbeing and responsible citizenship.

Human capital development -- highest economic return on the country’s investment in education and training.

Social development – good social relations especially in situations of demographic and social diversity.

Adaptability – in the face of an ever changing global

environment. Innovation – allowing for inventiveness and creativity of the

human spirit Cultural Heritage – promotion of multiculturalism

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GORTT National Model for Education

The Ministry of Education has been charged with the key responsibility for developing innovative people, and this is evidenced in terms of “a highly skilled, well-educated people aspiring to a local culture of excellence that is driven by equal access to learning opportunities.”

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National Model for Education

To ensure that the education system produces citizens with a sense of the vital importance of democracy; respect for the rights of others and elders; and with the ability to contribute meaningfully to the social and economic development of the country.

Seamlessness and MOE Secondary Modernization Programme

The Secondary Modernization Programme provides the justification for seamlessness as a tool of educational transformation to further current initiatives to: Increase equity and quality of educational services

Improve quality and relevance for primary education

Strengthen sector management, and

Enable the use of social marketing for disseminating information and winning society wide support for this education innovation

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Dimensions of Seamlessness --

A®DDIE CURRICULUM CYCLE

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Dimensions of Seamlessness

Assessed needs of the learner across all levels of the education system – formal, non formal, informal – from pre school to tertiary

Curricula, co-curricula, extra curricula – domains of learning

Instructional design, delivery and assessment Teacher development – the HRM/HRD Imperatives Quality assurance, quality control and accounting for

learning outcomes and educational impacts Management and Administration Governance and public accountability

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Critical Success Factors in Delivering Seamless Education

Strategic Focus/Assessed Needs – vision and critical path for education that “Creates Success for All”

Visualization: Can our policy makers, educational planners, school leader/managers, classroom learning facilitators hold an image of the learner as educated, life skill competent, emotionally intelligent and nimbly competitive in the economic market place.

Multiple Forms of Achievement and Pace of Attainment – Issue of criteria assessment and equivalence, for example, for special learners

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o GEMBA – The learner as central in the respective domains of learning, for example, the primary school classroom.

o Agreement on the links between ‘effective schools’ and ‘effective schooling’.

Education Information Systems and Databases -- Mechanisms to document, recognize and validate prior learning in order to facilitate student mobility and to enable education providers to recognize achievement in its many forms – standardization of system of credits; when these can be used; and when.

Critical Success Factors

Stakeholder involvement and shared accountability for student learning

Quality Assurance -- fit for purpose curriculum design to meet the needs of respective students – desizing secondary schools.

Quality Assurance ‘Best fit’ instruction given Gardner’s ‘multiple intelligences’

School facilities and use Monitoring and evaluation – ‘reflexive’ formative and

summative quality control (use of education success metrics reflective of seamlessness)

HRM imperatives – teacher recruitment; terms and conditions of service; reward and recognition

Political Accountability – resource commitment etc.22

Practical Application

Case Example – Narrative – Seamlessness in a Secondary School (slides 19 -21

Desizing Differentiating curriculum offerings and instruction Timetable scheduling and teacher allocation Stakeholder partnering – parent: teacher relations Resource planning – use of facilities; materials development Links with external partners – MOE; trade union relations Teacher development Leadership/management Monitoring and Evaluation – MBWA Links with vocational centres; universities23

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The Way Forward – Recommendations

Need for an Seamless Education Transition Plan Core Priorities of the Plan

Curriculum – inclusive and therefore reflective of the ‘multiple intelligences’ and life skills/worklife needs of all learners. -- the transfer from ECCE to Primary should be made seamless, not only with the Curriculum but in Teaching methods.

Instruction: learner centred and making use of team-based, cooperative learning.

Assessment: ‘best fit’, purpose driven, allowing for smooth entry and exit within and between levels of the education system

 

The Way Forward – Recommendations

Mindset Change – paradigm shift in thinking for example, on effective schools and effective schooling. Parity of status to all learners wherever as they move in and out and around in the system

Stakeholder Partnering – Pre-primary to Tertiary Institutions – focus on ‘in sync’ curriculum programming, instruction, assessment and evaluation based on the national development goals and objectives of the MOE as related to the Government’s 7 Pillar for Sustainable National Development.

Inter-sectoral linkage with other Government Ministries, public

agencies, civil society, and international bodies. Partnership with key community stakeholders, for example,

parents is vital.25

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The Way Forward – Recommendations

Teacher Development -. Legal Regulatory Framework Teachers should also be afforded the privilege of moving in a seamless manner at the various levels of the system if they so desire.

For example, a teacher should be free to teach at the level of secondary or at the ECCE level if they so wish, once they have the required skills and competencies.

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The Way Forward – Recommendations

Human Resource Management – Need to develop a Competency Profile for all personnel involved in policy development, programme planning and delivery of seamless education.

Rewriting of the job position descriptions to reflect results based skills set, especially the attitudinal.

Ongoing training and coaching; job enlargement through the opportunities to work and move around all levels of the education system.

Suitable working conditions, reward/recognition and compensation and career pathing

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The Way Forward – Recommendations

Social Marketing – Social Marketing to include all the stakeholders and obtain ‘buy in’ and commitment to managing the transition to educational seamlessness. Sector Management – Quality Assurance/Quality control -- Collaborative interface between and among managers/administrators using the planning and communication tools of project management, value chain/responsibility charting (RASIC), as well monitoring and evaluation. 

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The Way Forward – Recommendations

Resource Planning and Effective Management -- focus on ‘value for money analysis’ using both financial and social development metrics. 

Conclusion

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