Guardian. Intellectual guru seeks ‘system redesign’ of secondary education.

Peter Wilby The Guardian, Tuesday 22 September 2009 http://tiny.cc/iv2Zz

David Hargreaves has recently finished his work on the curriculum and, if he has his way, secondary schooling could be transformed

Whatever happened to personalised learning? In 2004, it was supposed to be the next big thing in education. Tony Blair and David Miliband, then the education secretary, promised that it would “transform” education. In this new world, Miliband said, schools would focus on “individual learning styles, motivations and needs”. The belief that “one size fits all” was on its way out.

Five years on, many parents, teachers and pupils may be forgiven for thinking the earth hasn’t yet moved for them. When the Commons select committee on children inquired about the fate of personalised learning, it turned to Professor David Hargreaves, the intellectual guru behind much of New Labour’s educational thinking, once a member of the standards task force, adviser to Estelle Morris when she was education secretary and, briefly, chief executive of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.

Hargreaves, the committee understood, had spent the last four years trying to make a reality of the government’s aspirations and had put out a stream of pamphlets on the subject. But he seemed to say he didn’t believe in personalised learning any more. The exasperated committee chairman, Barry Sheerman, confessed himself “totally confused” and complained that, as Hargreaves and other witnesses spoke, “a fog seems to come up”.

Which is perhaps just as well. If the mist cleared and politicians and newspaper editors fully understood what Hargreaves was up to, all hell would break loose.

Take any aspect of secondary schooling as we understand it – lessons, classrooms, subjects, tests, year groups, the role of heads, the authority of teachers – and he challenges it. Hargreaves – who, at 70, recently finished his work on the curriculum for the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT) – has been involved in something far more wide-ranging, and more dangerous, than the government could have envisaged.

He calls it “system redesign” and says “it’s more exciting than anything I’ve done in my career before”. In his vision of 21st-century schooling, pupils help make the curriculum, tell the school how to use information technology, set standards and learning objectives, assess their own and one another’s work, spend half or whole days on collaborative projects, sometimes work at home. Teachers are mentors or coaches who comment on students’ work rather than grading it. Subjects become “essential learnings”, such as communication, thinking or social responsibility; or “competencies”, such as managing information or relating to people. Schools become part of networks, working with other schools or colleges, sometimes outsourcing even the work of whole departments…. read the whole article http://tiny.cc/iv2Zz

Well its good to see that radicalism can come back with age but despite the fact David may be thinking the heretical from where schools currently lie he doesn’t yet appear to have made the full shift into really transformational and radical thinking. At the end of the day David schools are past there sell by date! The only true course of action is to recycle them into invitational, all-age community learning centres. The learner needs to be in the driving seat and self directed learning with the support of others the norm. Lets stop putting our youngsters into ‘day prison boxes’ on the basis of  past custom and practice. Let’s really meet their needs, their lives and put some fresh, principled thinking into developing happy, healthy, fulfilled communities and a sustainable living. Let’s stop kidding ourselves that schools can do this! By the way David thanks for reminding everyone that the goverment’s perception of Personalised Education has in actual fact very little to do with it – it remains a tailoring / massaging the current tired and unsuccessful offer.