RSA Edge Lecture with Sir Ken Robinson - Changing Paradigms
16th Jun 2008; 18:00
Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson will ask how do we make change happen in education and how do we make it last?Each of the preceding debates in this series identified areas for change but implementing real change and making it sustainable requires us to tackle strong existing paradigms. Sir Ken argues that unless we address underlying cultures and attitudes, change is likely to be superficial and temporary, but to do this we need to engage with organisational dynamics and with the aspirations and motivations of the individuals who work within those organisations.
This is the final in a series of five lectures with Edge and the RSA exploring the various ways of developing the full potential of every pupil, regardless of ability.
Sir Ken Robinson will be awarded the RSA Benjamin Franklin Medal on Monday 16 June.
The Benjamin Franklin Medal was first awarded in 1956 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Franklin's birth and the 200th anniversary of his membership of the RSA. It is awarded to a global 'big thinker', someone who has shifted public debate in an innovative way and has contributed to furthering public discourse about human progress, as well as enhancing Anglo-American understanding in areas closely linked to the RSA's agenda.
We would like to hear your views on some of the issues discussed in this lecture series.
- What are the practical steps required to really change cultures and attitudes around learning for the better?
- Who are the most important stakeholders in the effort to change culture and attitudes around learning? Is it parents, young people, teachers, government or all?
- Are you seeing any best practice campaigns/efforts (taking place around the world) that are effectively working to evolve perceptions of vocational learning/practical education?
Download full lecture and Q&A session (MP3)
Download the lecture transcript (PDF, 211KB)
Catherine Claire McCall - 09 Jun 2008 12:08pm
As a Fellow I have just received my e-mail invitation to join the on-line discussion on 'Developing the potential of every pupil'. Following the link I don't see a discussion, so my apologies if my comments appear 'out of sync' with any other contributions. For 30 years my career has been devoted to developing the potential of pupils, parents, senior citizens, business directors, artists et al - in short every sector of society - through teaching people of all ages and backgrounds, literate and non literate, privileged and deprived, how to reason philosophically about issues which are important to them, to their communities and to society. This practise of eliciting philosophical reasoning from groups of people aged 5 to 95 completely transforms the lives of participants. In schools empirical research has shown that academic results rise, antisocial behaviour diminishes and pupils' confidence increases, where pupils are involved in sustained philosophical reasoning over a year or more, guided by a philosopher. Pupils learn to think for themselves both critically and creatively, they are able to generate alternatives , make better judgements, and this leads to responsible behaviour. But perhaps even more important than the benefits for individual pupils is the transformation of schools which takes place when schools and teachers also embrace the ethos of academic freedom, rigour and honesty that philosophical reasoning induces, coupled with the creation of genuine communities within the schools. So why has this practise not been taken up more widely? Because to achieve the results outlined above teachers have to be trained at postgraduate level in philosophy and logic as well as the specific methodology that equips them to elicit group philosophical reasoning, and this is seen as too expensive! As a result small numbers of dedicated teachers have funded themselves though postgraduate training. We have the solution, but it requires the political will to fund the training. Dr. Catherine C McCall President of SOPHIA: The European Foundation for Doing Philosophy with Children http://sophia.eu.org/ Director: Strathclyde University Certificate of Professional Development in Community of Philosophical Inquiry http://www.cll.strath.ac.uk/cpd/cpdcopi.htm
j.p.oversby@reading.ac.uk - 10 Jun 2008 10:10pm
For institutional change, we must move from the present narrow target setting culture, focussing on the easily measurable, to a more professional approach that considers the valuable, such as those espoused by Catherine McCall and many others. The role of the teacher is vital, and professional development is essential but to require separate postgraduate training to do this is equivalent to erecting an unattainable barrier for most teachers. I am working on a more modest solution, with 9 colleagues in 7 other countries, developing and researching new resources for History and Philosophy of Science (the HIPST project, EU funded) As part of this study, we are investigating those aspects that support teachers changing through Action Research. John Oversby, Reading University, j.p.oversby@reading.ac.uk
mmmullen@gmail.com - 11 Jun 2008 2:00pm
I am surprised at how many communication problems there are in the world and yet how little effort is made in teaching people how communication should work between individuals and within an organization. It is a basic principal of parenting and management that telling people what they should do and rewarding and praising them for doing it works better than telling them what not to do and punishing them if they do it. Almost all young children have arguments with siblings and classmates but there is so little time spent showing techniques to work through those disputes. So so many managers have no idea how to visualize and implement effective communication within their organizations. We worry about this, have learned a lot about how to do it right but for some reason it is not normally directly addressed. It would be interesting to list cases where it is.
Ian McGimpsey - 13 Jun 2008 2:57pm
The traditional boundaries of the schools - the relationships between school and local community; the roles pupils and teachers occupy; high stakes testing and fostering other forms of learning are all barriers to the kinds of culture Sir Ken Robinson argues for. I am slightly cautious on two levels. The first that I don't believe there is any one solution to this problem - diversity of approach is part of what we need. I think there is real power when creative professionals are thinking through how they can break through these barriers, and create change in their locality. Second, radical change is important, but I would be keen to say we need to build on the progress made in regards to standards in the past 10 years, rather that abandon it.
David Morgan Straker - 13 Jun 2008 10:32pm
There's a good video on ted.com (search on 'sir ken') which is why I'll be there on Monday. (aside: interesting that discussion has started before the event. No bad thing, I guess)
Iain Mac Labhrainn - 14 Jun 2008 2:22pm
Pity I will miss this, but thank goodness for the web! Stephen Heppell spoke last year on some aspects of the 'industrial model' of education at a conference I organised with colleagues and although he focused on the potential of technologies, he did touch on many of the aspects of what it is that we think the large class, exams-focused is good for! I'm not sure I'm as optimistic as he that the technology will be sufficiently disruptive to the system to lead to a more enlightened approach, but perhaps combined with philosophy and some decent 'slow time' there's something in there. If you want to hear what he had to say, by all means visit http://videostream.nuigalway.ie/stheppell
Janet Major - 20 Jun 2008 3:17pm
I was sorry not to be able to attend Sir Ken Robinson's on Monday evening - one of the draw backs from living in Cheshire. I have now listened to the recording of it and found it to be very inspiring and I empathise with the content. It was brilliantly put over. I had written the following before and these comments still seem to be in context, I have just added another anecdote at the end. To put my comments in context, I would just like to explain where I am coming from! Like a previous Fellow I have a career of over 30 years devoted to developing the potential of others, from pupils to adults and in all walks of life. I taught for many years in a range of schools, rural to inner city, advantaged to challenging. I was also fortunate to have been a part of the standards task force and experienced at first hand excellent teaching and learning across all phases of education. I also carried out research for the National College of School Leadership where we focused on why some Middle Leaders ( in challenging secondary schools) were much more successful than others in similar circumstances. I have now shifted my focus slightly and work as an image consultant, often discussing with others just why confidence is low - yes so much of this goes back to days at school. I believe that currently learning has a much higher profile than it had in the past, but the view is that some learners (pupils more disillusioned with it than they were in the past. I would like to reinforce what another contributor has said, we need to build on the real progress that has been made in standards and not abandon it. By this I mean the real high standards that are genuinely being achieved by many and not the 'bending of the rules' by the few that make headline news. There are many pupils who have benefitted from standards being applied that have made teaching and learning more consistent within an institution. To answer the questions : Practical steps: There is no one easy solution, however, the methodology that we undertook at the NCSL has much to recommend it. I, and others, went into challenging schools and looked at what was good, what was working, what it was achieving and we thought about how this could be disseminated and then built on in other similar schools. This approach has much to offer and can mean that change is achievable in a relatively short time with the right mind set of the recipients. What we saw was not rocket science, but included high expectations, consistency, a whole raft of communication skills, respect, a real passion for learning and for enabling others to learn, to list just some. These 'behaviours' are not easy to teach but I believe it is these that are essential for the pupils themselves to learn. These need to be at the core of education if pupils are to be good citizens and make a difference to their own lives and those of others. Pupils need to develop self esteem and personal responsibility. Other areas have been mentioned by others, which I wholeheartedly support - communication skills, philosophical thought ,an ability to think for oneself etc. I could add many more, my list is growing daily as I meet more clients. 2 anecdotes which stick in my mind. I visited an infant school where if the pupils wished to go to the toilet , they quietly got up, went to the door , turned over one of two hanging labels which said 'gone to the toilet' as they came back they turned the label over and went back and got on with their work. A secondary pupil in most schools ( all?) would be unlikely to get to the door without being spoken to by the teacher and certainly would be unlikely to leave the room without a reaction. Why are we treating pupils like this when they older and 'more' responsible? I used to start my course of A level lessons with pupils writing and discussing what an ideal student was like- ie what behaviours they had. This always provoked a lot of discussion as they had never thought about it before � unless I had taught them previously. Many thought I was mad, not just getting on with the subject. Most important stakeholders: All who meet the learners! Joined up thinking is required. Parents have an important part, the pupils / learners are in school for so little of the time. Seeing the best practice: I believe it is out there ( see suggestions above), often within an institution there is good practice - sadly the mechanisms do not seem to be in place to recognise it, disseminate it and really work on it so that it becomes 'natural' practice to improve education and attitudes to learning. It is very powerful if actual practitioners are involved in 'spreading the word'. Added after Sir Ken's lecture: For relaxation (!!) I belong to a Guild of Weavers, Spinners & Dyers. At school I was always interested in the creative aspects but taken on one side in my small Girl's Grammar School and told 'my dear, you have a brain this is what you do for a hobby not for a career'. Thus the majority of my career has been teaching science! I meet a lot of people through spinning etc and there are a large number of people, who like me were 'persuaded' to do science or maths or something academic, who as our families have grown up and we have more time are returning to our passion! Perhaps it's a good job Ritalin was not available earlier or I might have been diagnosed with ADHT.
david john ramsay - 09 Jul 2008 12:31pm
I watched Sir Ken Robinson's lecture via online video and connected with his views in several ways. Firstly my own education, I now see, radically affected my outlook on life by narrowing down my perception of what subjects were "useful" and what were not. Luckily, an inspiring art teacher encouraged my creative talents but not to the degree that I could overcome my learned perceptions.This fundamentally affected my initial career path. Secondly, the education of my two sons is a reflection of the system Sir Ken criticises. The eldest has just finished his degree but did not, in any meaningful way, enjoy the experience being disillusioned by the course content and, as he sees it, its irrelevance to the world he lives in. My youngest son struggled at school, being a typical example of a "non-academic" pupil. He saw himself as a failure. He subsequently went to a local college to do a diploma in art and design and, through the encouragement and focus he received for his creative talents, he passed with distinction. He is a new person. Lastly, having been in the business world for over 30 years, I see the desperate need for new thinking and creativity in business to cope with the 21st century and the lack of people educated to think creatively and accept new ideas as a matter of course. The current education system does not provide them. There is much rhetoric about moving from an industrial age to a creative one but mixed evidence that it is happening effectively. We have a long way to go and a rebalanced education system has to be a crucial building block.