{"id":1011,"date":"2020-11-29T00:00:11","date_gmt":"2020-11-29T00:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.breslinpublicpolicy.com\/?p=1011"},"modified":"2020-11-29T00:00:11","modified_gmt":"2020-11-29T00:00:11","slug":"schools-as-the-creators-of-lifelong-life-wide-learners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.breslinpublicpolicy.com\/uncategorized\/schools-as-the-creators-of-lifelong-life-wide-learners\/","title":{"rendered":"Schools as the creators of lifelong, life wide learners"},"content":{"rendered":"

As part of the annual Festival of Learning, I recently had the opportunity to contribute, as a panelist, to an excellent Workers’ Educational Association webinar involving over 300 participants, drawn mainly from the spheres of adult and community learning, vocational training, lifelong learning and Further Education and entitled The Ages of Learning<\/em>. <\/p>\n

Each of us offered a perspective on the challenges of building, post pandemic, a wider culture of learning, and I offered the first reflection – on how schools might play a role in building such a culture. Here are the twelve observations that I offered in my seven minute time slot:<\/p>\n

1. Those entering Reception Class this year will find their careers in industries that don\u2019t yet exist, producing goods and services not yet invented, serving needs we don\u2019t (yet) know we have<\/p>\n

2. Schooling is a part of our lifelong learning journey, not a pre-cursor to it<\/p>\n

3. If the social and community functions of schooling are downplayed, learning suffers<\/p>\n

4.Good grades are important but wholly insufficient<\/p>\n

5. Ten GCSEs amounts to ten variations on a theme, not educational breadth<\/p>\n

6. The curriculum is a statement of what we believe is sufficiently important to pass on to the next generation<\/p>\n

7. The obsession with \u201ccoverage and catch-up\u201d can inhibit the development of a culture of learning and the proper concern for wellbeing<\/p>\n

8. Developing a love of learning and the capacity to learn, unlearn and relearn is vital<\/p>\n

9. Learning in adulthood has to build on schooling, not simply act as a corrective to it<\/p>\n

10. The education-employment \u201cwork hard and get on\u201d contract must be urgently revisited<\/p>\n

11. Our schools are descended from industrial models of organisation, rather than grown from bespoke learner needs; what kind of system might we create if we started with learner need?<\/p>\n

12. We need to shift our focus from \u2018attainment-first\u2019 to \u2018inclusion-first\u2019, if we are to widen participation and engage all learners for the long term<\/p>\n

Feedback welcome, both from those concerned with education during the statutory school years and those who focus on working with adult learners, of various ages, needs and motivations, in a variety of settings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently participated, as a panelist, in a webinar convened by the Workers’ Educational Association as part of the Festival of Learning. 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Previously, he has served as Chair of the awarding organization, Industry Qualifications, the public speaking social enterprise, Speakers Bank, and the educational charities and membership associations, Human Scale Education and the Association for the Teaching of the Social Sciences. A former Local Authority School Improvement Adviser, a Chief Examiner at GCSE and a Principal Examiner at A level, he is best known for his work as CEO at the Citizenship Foundation (2001-2010), the influential education and participation charity, where he developed the concept of the Citizenship-Rich School, and his work in the governance arena, where his recent engagement as a Consultant Trainer at Herts for Learning was, prior to COVID-19, taking him into primary, secondary and special schools on a weekly basis. 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