Book review
The Shape of Things to Come: personalised learning
through collaboration
Published by Department of Education and Skills
Innovation Unit and National College of School Leadership
Author: Charles Leadbeater
Reviewed by John Harris, Education Director,
Epic
Personalisation has been a buzzword in education
for quite a while now. When Epic held a dinner discussion on the
subject last year, we challenged a representative of the DfES Innovation
Unit to come up with a definition. He was unable to oblige but said
he would put the question to the Minister. A year later, we have
this paper written by left-leaning Demos think tank consultant Charles
Leadbetter. This paper makes a case for personalisation as an all-embracing
approach to the future of school-age education in UK. As such, it
will be of interest to any one with an interest in the future of
our schools.
So, what it personalisation? It is clearly not one thing but rather
an umbrella term for a whole host of ideas and strategies which
aim to encourage children to see themselves as co-investors with
the state in their own education. Leadbetter writes that “many
children feel education is something done to them, a period they
must endure.” Well, I think most of us have felt like that
about our schooling. The point, he argues, is to engage children
in designing, producing and creating learning. This challenges the
traditional role of the teacher in the classroom, as children need
to draw on resources from the home, the workplace and cultural spaces.
The teacher starts to become a designer of learning rather than,
well, a “teacher” (in the traditional sense of the word).
Personalisation will seek to address three causes of what Leadbetter
calles “personal under-investment in education”: children
and parents who do not think education is for them; children and
parents who disengage from education at some point; and children
who drop out of the system too early. This is a major challenge
and one that is not helped by the inflexibility of the current state-dictated
schooling system, the lack of collaboration between schools, family,
business and community, and the fact that schools are out of step
with the lean, flexible organisations in which many of us work.
Does understanding the issues that personalisation seeks to address
and the barriers to personalisation tell us what personalisation
is? Well, no. Instead Leadbetter talks about the conditions that
will bring about personalised learning: strong leadership; a more
flexible workforce that brings in parties from outside school (parent
employers etc.) to contribute to the child’s learning experience;
more flexible places and spaces in which to learn; a less rigid
approach to timetabling (e.g. every lesson currently being a 50
minute block); and, the exploitation of technology in formal learning,
reflecting the fact that, at home, children learn from television,
the computer, peers and games consoles.
Those familiar with the changes the DfES are currently implementing
will recognise themes such as Workforce Reform, Building Schools
for the Future, the New Relationship with Schools and the DfES e-Strategy.
The DfES Innovation Unit’s Leading Edge Partnership programme
actively encourages collaboration, innovation and risk taking in
these key areas.
This paper presents a commendable vision of the future of education
that draws together the various strands of the government’s
strategy into a coherent whole. The challenge is ensuring the vision
is realised in the all too numerous “bog standard” comprehensives.
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