Obstacles to Overcome!
Teachers are being asked a.) to provide educational experiences which will raise test scores and b.) to ensure their students develop 21st century skills such as creativity, entrepreneurship, collaboration, critical thinking, and so on. However, teachers are also being confronted with many obstacles in achieving this mission.
Of course, this is not a comprehensive list of all the obstacles teachers face. Some of the obstacles listed below are specific, usually the result of distinct policies and practices. Others are in the form of overarching paradigms and beliefs. All of them serve as obstacles to a 21st century model of education, and all of them can be overcome.
Some problems are within the Circle of Control [i] of the teacher, while others exist outside the Circle of Control but are within the Circle of Influence. Within this series we will identify actions which can be taken from within each circle. We need to bear in mind the philosophy that obstacles can be overcome by using them as stepping stones to success.
Of course, this is not a comprehensive list of all the obstacles teachers face. Some of the obstacles listed below are specific, usually the result of distinct policies and practices. Others are in the form of overarching paradigms and beliefs. All of them serve as obstacles to a 21st century model of education, and all of them can be overcome.
Some problems are within the Circle of Control [i] of the teacher, while others exist outside the Circle of Control but are within the Circle of Influence. Within this series we will identify actions which can be taken from within each circle. We need to bear in mind the philosophy that obstacles can be overcome by using them as stepping stones to success.
1. The Daily Bell Schedule - the majority of teachers work within a daily bell schedule, teaching six or more classes per day, each class averaging about 45 minutes. This short period of time, combined with an enormous list of specific content standards and skills to teach, results in teachers feeling pressured to rush through these standards as quickly as possible.
This type of schedule can be found all the way down into kindergarten. A new fad in some school districts is known as "platooning". Children as young as kindergarten are changing classes to spend time with subject matter specialist teachers. They don their backpacks and literally march from one subject to the next!
This type of schedule can be found all the way down into kindergarten. A new fad in some school districts is known as "platooning". Children as young as kindergarten are changing classes to spend time with subject matter specialist teachers. They don their backpacks and literally march from one subject to the next!
2. Mandated Curriculum Pacing Guides - i.e., Marching Orders
These are district mandates which dictate specifically what you are to teach and when. They are organized by grading periods, usually quarterly or every six weeks. They can sometimes be more specific, mandating what content standards, activities and assignments teachers will teach and implement on a weekly or even a daily basis. Some even go so far as to give teachers an actual script which dictates specifically what to say word for word- and exactly how to say it; they include a schedule to which the teacher must adhere - to the minute!
These are district mandates which dictate specifically what you are to teach and when. They are organized by grading periods, usually quarterly or every six weeks. They can sometimes be more specific, mandating what content standards, activities and assignments teachers will teach and implement on a weekly or even a daily basis. Some even go so far as to give teachers an actual script which dictates specifically what to say word for word- and exactly how to say it; they include a schedule to which the teacher must adhere - to the minute!
3. Lack of Planning Time
Teachers need plenty of individual planning time as well as collaborative planning time with other teachers. Many teachers have one class period per day for planning, some do not have that much. I have actually met teachers who have only 45 minutes per week of planning time. However, this time is also used for administrative duties, grading papers, meeting with parents, etc. It is insufficient.
Planning high quality curriculum is not something that can be done "on the fly". It takes time, thought, research and thorough planning. There are ways to create this time for teachers!
Teachers need plenty of individual planning time as well as collaborative planning time with other teachers. Many teachers have one class period per day for planning, some do not have that much. I have actually met teachers who have only 45 minutes per week of planning time. However, this time is also used for administrative duties, grading papers, meeting with parents, etc. It is insufficient.
Planning high quality curriculum is not something that can be done "on the fly". It takes time, thought, research and thorough planning. There are ways to create this time for teachers!
4. Lack of Support in terms of Professional Development.
Teachers need knowledge and support if they are to begin designing and implementing a 21st century model curriculum and instruction. First, they need a personalized professional development plan. Then, they need to attend conferences and workshops, receive instructional coaching, have time and access to excellent online resources and time to reflect and plan. Some districts provide nothing more than ONE DAY per school year, labeling it as professional development. Much of that day is devoted to topics other than curriculum and instruction. Even the two to four days per school year set aside for professional development in most school districts are inadequate for effective professional development. We must provide educators with effective professional development.
Teachers need knowledge and support if they are to begin designing and implementing a 21st century model curriculum and instruction. First, they need a personalized professional development plan. Then, they need to attend conferences and workshops, receive instructional coaching, have time and access to excellent online resources and time to reflect and plan. Some districts provide nothing more than ONE DAY per school year, labeling it as professional development. Much of that day is devoted to topics other than curriculum and instruction. Even the two to four days per school year set aside for professional development in most school districts are inadequate for effective professional development. We must provide educators with effective professional development.
5. Standardized Testing
Another robber of time is all the test prep and testing taking place. This situation has caused teachers to abandon creative, high level, meaningful curriculum as they take students on a forced march through the standards. Research indicates that students in 2013 were spending 20 to 50 hours per year taking tests, and up to 60 to 110 hours per year prepping for tests. [ii] Stress levels among students, teachers and parents as a result of this practice are high. A growing anti-testing movement is gaining momentum. Parents, students and teachers are taking action and are saying no to the eradication of learning as schools have been forcibly transformed into test-prep centers. [iii]
Another robber of time is all the test prep and testing taking place. This situation has caused teachers to abandon creative, high level, meaningful curriculum as they take students on a forced march through the standards. Research indicates that students in 2013 were spending 20 to 50 hours per year taking tests, and up to 60 to 110 hours per year prepping for tests. [ii] Stress levels among students, teachers and parents as a result of this practice are high. A growing anti-testing movement is gaining momentum. Parents, students and teachers are taking action and are saying no to the eradication of learning as schools have been forcibly transformed into test-prep centers. [iii]
6. Organizational Structure of the School - the "Cells and Bells" problem
The current structures of schools, from the physical facilities to the curriculum, create and sustain a fragmented educational experience. What is needed is a holistic curricular experience, which has gone through cycles of acceptance and rejection for many decades. At this time, nearly 20% into the 21st century, education is going through a maximum level of fragmentation. This is largely the result of NCLB, and it has been amplified through the efforts of the political and commercial interests.
The current structures of schools, from the physical facilities to the curriculum, create and sustain a fragmented educational experience. What is needed is a holistic curricular experience, which has gone through cycles of acceptance and rejection for many decades. At this time, nearly 20% into the 21st century, education is going through a maximum level of fragmentation. This is largely the result of NCLB, and it has been amplified through the efforts of the political and commercial interests.
7. Excessive Administrative Duties
Teachers have too many forms to complete and reports to file - teachers spend an inordinate amount of time on these tasks.
Teachers have too many forms to complete and reports to file - teachers spend an inordinate amount of time on these tasks.
8. Fear of Failure
As the years have gone by since the inception of NCLB in 2002, I have observed a growing number of teachers who want to implement creative, relevant, project-based learning but feel they cannot do so. The very real threat to their job security as a result of the increasing pressure for higher test scores causes many teachers to literally be afraid of what they perceive to be "taking a chance".
As the years have gone by since the inception of NCLB in 2002, I have observed a growing number of teachers who want to implement creative, relevant, project-based learning but feel they cannot do so. The very real threat to their job security as a result of the increasing pressure for higher test scores causes many teachers to literally be afraid of what they perceive to be "taking a chance".
9. Outdated Teacher Evaluation Practices
The result of long-time marketing campaigns by educational organizations selling products and services for teacher evaluation is a predominant belief that using certain frameworks for evaluating teachers are considered "best practice".
These frameworks, however, are not in the best interest of teachers, teaching, students or learning. They are in the best interests of the companies marketing these products - and that's all. These predominant frameworks are actually a major contributor to the problem in education today.
The result of long-time marketing campaigns by educational organizations selling products and services for teacher evaluation is a predominant belief that using certain frameworks for evaluating teachers are considered "best practice".
These frameworks, however, are not in the best interest of teachers, teaching, students or learning. They are in the best interests of the companies marketing these products - and that's all. These predominant frameworks are actually a major contributor to the problem in education today.
10. The Enduring Factory Model Paradigm of Teaching and Learning
Almost everything about the way schools are run today is actually a continuation of the factory model paradigm. This paradigm not only affects the daily schedules and other structures of schooling, it carries with it an obsolete view of "learning" and "teaching".
It is a belief system in which education is all about consuming content knowledge and acquiring basic skills which are easily measured. In this system creativity, independence, thinking and collaboration are discouraged. This paradigm also sustains the obsolete notion of the "siloed" curriculum - keeping each discipline separate from the others.
The skills we talk about today - the "21st century skills" - are not new to the new millennium. People have always had the capacity, if not the opportunity, to utilize skills such as creativity, collaboration, innovation, entrepreneurship, problem-solving and critical thinking, and so forth. However, these skills were strongly discouraged in schools and in factory jobs. Since we are long past the Industrial Age, past the Knowledge Era and are well into the Age of Innovation, our education paradigms and practices must change with the times!
Almost everything about the way schools are run today is actually a continuation of the factory model paradigm. This paradigm not only affects the daily schedules and other structures of schooling, it carries with it an obsolete view of "learning" and "teaching".
It is a belief system in which education is all about consuming content knowledge and acquiring basic skills which are easily measured. In this system creativity, independence, thinking and collaboration are discouraged. This paradigm also sustains the obsolete notion of the "siloed" curriculum - keeping each discipline separate from the others.
The skills we talk about today - the "21st century skills" - are not new to the new millennium. People have always had the capacity, if not the opportunity, to utilize skills such as creativity, collaboration, innovation, entrepreneurship, problem-solving and critical thinking, and so forth. However, these skills were strongly discouraged in schools and in factory jobs. Since we are long past the Industrial Age, past the Knowledge Era and are well into the Age of Innovation, our education paradigms and practices must change with the times!
11. Lack of Meaningful Integration of Technologies
We live in a time of unprecedented possibilities due to the availability of incredible technologies. While there are individual educators, and even entire campuses and networks of schools, implementing technologies in powerful ways, supporting higher levels of learning, for the most part technologies are being deployed in a way that amounts to nothing more than the digitization of low level worksheets. The result is that the tools/technologies are driving the curriculum, when in fact the technologies should be supporting the curriculum. The curriculum should be the driver.
Fortunately, there is a better way, and it is easy! Teachers need knowledge, strategies and support in implementing them. Once they know how, they can deploy these seemingly miraculous tools in a way that supports incredibly high levels of learning.
We live in a time of unprecedented possibilities due to the availability of incredible technologies. While there are individual educators, and even entire campuses and networks of schools, implementing technologies in powerful ways, supporting higher levels of learning, for the most part technologies are being deployed in a way that amounts to nothing more than the digitization of low level worksheets. The result is that the tools/technologies are driving the curriculum, when in fact the technologies should be supporting the curriculum. The curriculum should be the driver.
Fortunately, there is a better way, and it is easy! Teachers need knowledge, strategies and support in implementing them. Once they know how, they can deploy these seemingly miraculous tools in a way that supports incredibly high levels of learning.
12. Micro-Analysis of Everything!
From teacher evaluation frameworks with dozens of sub-skills to the content standards broken down into multiple sub-standards, to the micro-analysis and documentation of reading and math skills, it has become a situation of "Analyzing everything that moves!"
Albert Einstein said that genius is defined by taking the complex and making it simple. So why in education is the opposite being forced upon teachers - taking the simple and making it complex?
If you have a beautiful painting and then you dice it into a thousand pieces, what do you now have? Confetti! The whole painting and the pile of confetti are not the same thing.
From teacher evaluation frameworks with dozens of sub-skills to the content standards broken down into multiple sub-standards, to the micro-analysis and documentation of reading and math skills, it has become a situation of "Analyzing everything that moves!"
Albert Einstein said that genius is defined by taking the complex and making it simple. So why in education is the opposite being forced upon teachers - taking the simple and making it complex?
If you have a beautiful painting and then you dice it into a thousand pieces, what do you now have? Confetti! The whole painting and the pile of confetti are not the same thing.
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Lev Vygotsky [iv] used a similar analogy in warning us against the use of atomistic or reductionist approaches to education. He said:
This mode of analysis can be compared with a chemical analysis of water in which water is decomposed into hydrogen and oxygen. The essential feature of this form of analysis is that its products are of a different nature than the whole from which they are derived. The elements lack the characteristics inherent in the whole, and they possess properties that it did not possess. When one approaches the problem of thinking . . . by decomposing it into its elements, one adopts the strategy of the man who resorts to the decomposition of water into hydrogen and oxygen in his search for a scientific explanation of the characteristics of water, its capacity to extinguish fire . . . This man will discover, to his chagrin, that hydrogen burns and oxygen sustains combustion. He will never succeed in explaining the characteristics of the whole by analyzing the characteristics of its elements [v].
We must not atomize, or over-analyze by slicing and dicing the curriculum or the concepts and practices related to authentic teaching and learning. Teaching and learning are holistic.
Creating an Oasis in the Desert!
Specific Steps Teachers Can Take
Although some of the obstacles cited above are out of the hands of teachers to change, there are some things teachers can do right now.
For those obstacles created by district policies and mandates teachers can take a creative and proactive approach to cause change.
Some teachers are fortunate to work in districts or schools that are more forward-thinking and flexible, and are already well on the path to a 21st century model of education. Those are the rare exceptions, the randomly occurring nuggets of gold.
Then there are districts which are open to suggestions supported by research on what is really working as well as what we know about child development, learning theory and curriculum theory. These are the districts and schools which provide us with opportunities to create model 21st century schools. These are the educators who will lead the revolution.
Go to Creating an Oasis in the Desert for suggestions for what teachers can do for each of the obstacles listed above.
Please share your comments below the References! What other obstacles are there to creating 21st century schools?
Specific Steps Teachers Can Take
Although some of the obstacles cited above are out of the hands of teachers to change, there are some things teachers can do right now.
For those obstacles created by district policies and mandates teachers can take a creative and proactive approach to cause change.
Some teachers are fortunate to work in districts or schools that are more forward-thinking and flexible, and are already well on the path to a 21st century model of education. Those are the rare exceptions, the randomly occurring nuggets of gold.
Then there are districts which are open to suggestions supported by research on what is really working as well as what we know about child development, learning theory and curriculum theory. These are the districts and schools which provide us with opportunities to create model 21st century schools. These are the educators who will lead the revolution.
Go to Creating an Oasis in the Desert for suggestions for what teachers can do for each of the obstacles listed above.
Please share your comments below the References! What other obstacles are there to creating 21st century schools?
References
[i] Adapted from the work of Stephen F. Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, 25th anniversary edition published November 2013.
[ii] Nelson, Howard. Testing More, Teaching Less – What America’s Obsession with Student Testing Costs in Money and Less Instructional Time, American Federation of Teachers, AFT (2013)
[iii] In the Spring of 2015 the Texas Legislature, as a direct result of pressure from parents, scaled back the number of tests students were required to take each year. In other states parents are “opting out” their children from these tests. In the Spring of 2015 the percentage of opt-outs in New York State quadrupled over the number from 2014, with 20% of students not participating in the testing. In other states entire faculties have refused to administer the tests, and some school experienced walk-outs of the entire student body.
[iv] Moll, Luis C., Vygotsky and Education: Instructional Implications and Applications of Sociohistorical Psychology, Cambridge University Press, 1990, page 6.
[v] Lev Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist, developed the theory of the ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development) in education.
[ii] Nelson, Howard. Testing More, Teaching Less – What America’s Obsession with Student Testing Costs in Money and Less Instructional Time, American Federation of Teachers, AFT (2013)
[iii] In the Spring of 2015 the Texas Legislature, as a direct result of pressure from parents, scaled back the number of tests students were required to take each year. In other states parents are “opting out” their children from these tests. In the Spring of 2015 the percentage of opt-outs in New York State quadrupled over the number from 2014, with 20% of students not participating in the testing. In other states entire faculties have refused to administer the tests, and some school experienced walk-outs of the entire student body.
[iv] Moll, Luis C., Vygotsky and Education: Instructional Implications and Applications of Sociohistorical Psychology, Cambridge University Press, 1990, page 6.
[v] Lev Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist, developed the theory of the ZPD (Zone of Proximal Development) in education.
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In the meantime, please see our Products and Services!
Are you ready to re-imagine and totally transform your campus or district into one that is truly 21st century, but you aren't sure how?
21st Century Schools is ready and willing to support you in that mission! Contact Anne Shaw, Director at 21st Century Schools, to find out how we can help you!
In the meantime, please see our Products and Services!
